Star Matters

by David John West

  “Rafaello is taking the Zarnha away in three of his ships,” Joe explained to Charlotte, Daniel, the spirit Duncan and the gaping Christopher. “He will take them somewhere safe where they can look after themselves until we negotiate terms for their release.” The other Gayans were aware that this broke the terms of the Epsilon treaty, but understood Joe was taking personal action in the light of Kyra’s long incarceration in Braganza. Also this was a much lesser offence than the chronic abduction and abuse of peoples across the Spargar empire by the Zarnha side.

  “So that just leaves our plan of how to move forward on Earth and specifically here in Cambridge,” Joe continued. Christopher started to feel nervous now. No doubt the good side had won, whatever just happened, but he did not understand the good side either anymore and what the implications were for him and Professor Kitteridge’s group.

  Joe turned to Christopher, “I know this is really wild, Chris, and no way we would have chosen this as the way to introduce you to our plans, but what’s done is done and we must carry on from here. We never expected you to just show up as you did. We have to appreciate your efforts but you were definitely getting in over your head. Incidentally, how did you find us and arrive in the midst of it all at such a crucial moment?”

  Christopher thought briefly then explained Stephen had brought them both as they were worried about what was going on in the group. “Stephen must still be hiding in the trees,” he said. “He was overwhelmed, like me, but I just had to run out to see if I could help.”

  Joe could not see the trees and scrub at the periphery of the old flint mine meadows from the base of the crater and decided that was for the best. “Let’s leave Stephen where he is until later. We have enough to deal with here already without another complication. The key thing now is that this is all about you, Chris.”

  “Me! I don’t see how any of this is about me!” Christopher protested.

  “But I think you do,” Joe replied. “I think pretty much all your life you have known something out of the ordinary is going on around you, and the fact that you arrived here just now and did what you did shows that you are keen to find out what it is.” Christopher nodded slowly at Joe’s remarks.

  Joe continued, “We have kind of been preparing you for the truth for very many years. That’s not to say we have been hiding it from you for no reason. We have a great deal of experience about preparing people for what we call Enlightenment, and the process needs to be done carefully if it’s going to be effective. For you that is. We have literally hundreds of years’ experience. Thousands in fact. I can tell you that the moment we call Revelation is the critical time when we explain who we are and what is really going on around you. It challenges everything you have believed in to that moment and changes your life from that point onwards, hopefully for good but can go the other way if you are not ready or react against it.”

  Joe paused to let this sink in and Charlotte recognised she needed to cut in here to explain again and reinforce Joe’s message in a more sensitive way. “Joe is right there, Chris. Normally when we reveal who we are then there is a lot of faith in us required. The story that we have to tell is pretty incredible unless the subject is very well prepared. Like Professor Kitteridge, for example. I have been working with him in recent weeks in exactly this way. In your case though we agreed you were ready, especially after all the years we have been together, and now these events today bring everything to a head. You have seen events that are extraordinary even for us played out in front of your own eyes. What we offer now is an explanation of what this all means. You don’t have to take things on faith and trust like Professor Kitteridge. You have seen the actual proof of who we are and what we are up against. How are you feeling about all of this, Chris?”

  Christopher blinked at the friends he thought he knew so well, now unsure he ever knew them at all. “I guess I am as ready as I ever will be. No turning back the clock now.”

  “Right then,” Charlotte was ready. “Let’s plunge in. We three are from the planet Gaya and we are here to help you here on Earth to grow your knowledge and culture such that you can soon join the other human races across the galaxy that are more advanced than you are today.”

  “But we grew up together, Charlotte. You, me and Joe. We are from Earth,” Christopher protested.

  “Yes and no, Chris. People are two parts; body and soul. We sort of all know that but don’t ever consider what it really means. What actually happens is that a soul animates a newborn infant body with soulfire. The two parts then grow together in childhood. Your soul is from Earth, ours are from planet Gaya, four hundred or so light years away in the Pleiades constellation. We each joined with a newborn at about the same time and then we grew up together.”

  “And then we went to university together,” Christopher continued. “And that explains why you and Joe have been so different all along, and why you are helping Professor Kitteridge.”

  “Yes, and you as well, Chris.”

  “So why are you helping me?”

  “Because we are reaching the climax of many generations of work here on Earth, Chris. The Dark Matter Fusion work with Professor Kitteridge is critical. It is what powers these ships you see here and allows us to travel by warping space rather than travelling for hundreds of years at close to light speed. Professor Kitteridge is close to that breakthrough theory with a little help from us, which will show people here on Earth that it’s possible to travel around the heavens at speeds that make space travel practical.”

  “That would change everything,” agreed Christopher. “We could travel around the universe like we are thinking of getting around our solar system at the moment.”

  “It’s not quite that simple, Chris,” said Joe. “The distances are still huge but it works well for travelling in our galactic neighbourhood. The piece we need you to work on is the way our souls, and our messages, travel from Gaya to here because they don’t need a DMF drive. As there is no physical matter to cater for then we send a warpwave that also warps space but requires hardly any energy. If you on Earth were to discover that then you could communicate with Gaya and we could respond back as a result. Then you would not need to invent DMF drive technology, which would take quite a while.”

  “So if I were to discover this warpwave then I could communicate with Gaya?” Chris queried.

  “Yes, in fact I plan to return to Gaya after relocating our Zarnha friends and will await your message. First objective is to maroon them on an Earth-like planet where they can’t get up to any mischief and they won’t be found until we are ready to collect them.”

  “But, how can I do all this without your help?” said Christopher.

  “Because you will be working alongside Professor Kitteridge still and on top of that my own daughter will be here with you the whole time to make sure you get it right, and she is as good as me in every way,” Joe said.

  Christopher remained conflicted, reluctant to lose the protection he always wanted from Joe. “How long will it take her to get here?” Christopher asked, understandably concerned in the aftermath of the battle and his own clear vulnerability in that situation.

  “But my friend, she already is here!” declared Joe, and Charlotte waved at Christopher beguilingly.

  “You! But I thought… ” Christopher tailed off, but his words did not need saying outright. Even Joe smiled in understanding Christopher’s long-held envy of his relationship with Charlotte.

  “Joe, or Keeran on Gaya, is my soul father,” Charlotte confirmed. “Souls, like bodies, can reproduce to keep the numbers of both in rough balance, only souls are produced much less often than babies are produced as they can be reused. Keeran and my Gayan mother, Kyra, soul birthed me many generations ago and now I work with them in our group tasked with Enlightenment on this world.”

  “Right, so Charlotte stays here with me. Joe leaves for Gaya. And you, Daniel?” Christopher asked. />
  “I stay here to help out with the whole group centred on Professor Kitteridge,” said Daniel. “Oh, and get my medical degree of course.”

  “And who are all these other people?” asked Christopher waving at the Cavallos who were ushering the crushed Zarnha agents into the holds of the Gayan craft.

  “Well, the warrior monks belong to us. They are Cavallos of Dawn, our security force when we need to call in additional help. You seldom see them in a force as large as this though. They are pretty impressive in these kind of numbers!” said Joe. “The others that look like real aliens are our main opposition in the galaxy, Zarnha agents from the planet Spargan. They are the ones responsible for all the alien abduction and unidentified flying object stories you hear so much about. They want to turn your planet Earth into a vassal planet within the Spargan empire. Our job is to stop them and connect you to the much more enlightened cultures out there in space allied to our race Dawn of Gaya. We are about to take this lot away to exile, which should just about give you and Professor Kitteridge time to complete the warpwave communication to Gaya, with our help and protection of course.”

  Joe turned to Charlotte and Daniel and said his au revoirs. They hugged in turn. Duncan would stay also for the time being to provide extra air cover to the group based around Professor Kitteridge’s astrophysics laboratory, which was critically developing the theories behind DMF drive and warpwave technologies. Joe strode up the side of the crater now emptied of Zarnha and Cavallos into the Gayan ships at the crater’s rim. There he joined Rafaello and Umberto waiting by the Maria. He turned and waved, the Cavallos doing the same with their Vorarms in the air.

  Stephen continued to watch from the safety of the scrubby shrubs at the perimeter of the forest. The light was seriously failing now despite being that time of year when evenings lasted forever around the summer solstice. He could see past the squat shallow shape of the Maria half emerged from the ground to give access to the loading bay. Maria was nearest his position with the other three craft spaced evenly around the central crater. He had heard the unnerving sounds of battle but not seen anything beyond the dust clouds when the Gayan craft emerged. In the aftermath he had seen brown-robed figures leading stick-like black aliens into the other three craft. Then he thought he recognised Joe standing and waving down with two of the brown-robed warriors before entering into the raised dock of the craft nearest himself.

  Moments passed then the ground rumbled as the four buried ships rotated up and out of the ground completely so that from Stephen’s viewpoint the platforms that were the loading bays become the long edge of one of the four standing Gayan ships pointing at the sky. The remaining earth and dust slid off their unwettable mirrored metallic surfaces so that Stephen and the group in the central crater could scarcely see that they were hanging above the ground. In the crater bottom itself Christopher saw the four gleaming craft emerge as towering monuments raised into the sky on all sides. As he watched they turned so their broadest sides vertically faced the central crater like standing stones. The spacecraft were showing the identification lights of Gaya but otherwise their skins were rounded and mirrored metal lozenges. There was no need for subterfuge now; the Spargar UFO that had offloaded the Zarnha had recorded events and in any case the Gayans wanted Spargar to know what had happened here and that they had captured an Omeyn. Onboard his ship Maria, Rafaello was planning their departure once they were all strapped in.

  “Corinth City landing lights for all and let’s play the music!” Umberto announced. All four ships sported the light display of their capital city and played the anthem of their home planet as they began to thrust vertically upwards.

  “Let’s do the quad-helix formation, people!” Rafaello proclaimed his favourite four-ship take-off manoeuvre. It was fun to be leaving visibly for once, so they would set off in a square formation as now, then twist together as they accelerated, their lights etching the quad helix into the darkening sky denoting the signature of advanced life across the galaxy. Stephen had a good view of this formation from the woods across the meadow. The group including Christopher in the crater were in the centre of the rising craft looking up to see their lights twist directly above them in a tightening spiral as they accelerated vertically away. Just as the light display coiled together to a single point high above, it turned at right angles and streaked across the skies dead north opposite and away from the bright pairing of the Hyades and the Pleiades near constellation Orion in the southern skies.

  In a farmhouse nearby the farmer’s wife heard the soaring music and looked out of the bedroom window. She saw the twisting column sporting lime and raspberry lighting trim. She listened to the strangely thrilling music as the column accelerated into the heavens and turned to her farmer husband in bed, “The neighbours must be having one of those pop music festivals, George.”

  “Just hope it doesn’t go on all night long,” he gruffed and turned over to sleep.

  All was quiet now as Charlotte, Daniel and Christopher climbed from the crater to its rim. The light was all but gone and the colours of the surrounding heath and rim of trees darkened into deep shadow. Christopher looked at the surrounding heath where the four Gayan ships had emerged from the earth but the ground appeared unchanged where the Gayan crafts had replicated the ground cover as it had been when they landed and covered. In the west the sun was below the horizon painting the bellies of the clouds there rosy red reaching out in claret and maroon shades towards them. Christopher turned towards the scrub where he knew that Stephen was concealed. Stephen was straining his eyes to discern the figures that emerged from the crater into the gloaming.

  “What do we say about all this to Stephen?” Christopher asked of Charlotte and Daniel.

  “How about, ‘Can you give us a lift home?’” Daniel replied cheekily. “Maybe not. Seriously, we will explain what has occurred here and that he needs to keep our secret, if only to maintain his credibility. He doesn’t want to join the long line of UFO witnesses consigned to ridicule by the establishment. That is our standard way of handling these kind of things and it really works.”

  “Meanwhile maybe you should call to him and say we are all right, Chris,” Charlotte added sensibly. “I hope he is still out there and not set off on his own already.”

  “OK,” confirmed Christopher and he called across towards Stephen, “STEPHEN, IT’S ME, CHRIS. I AM ALL RIGHT. I AM WITH CHARLOTTE AND DANIEL.” Charlotte switched on the torch function on her phone and held the light on the three friends. A short period later they saw Stephen do the same to show himself in the line of the trees and they headed across to meet him. The three (plus the unseen Duncan) arrived in front of Stephen. Christopher regarded him quietly. Stephen stood uncharacteristically slope-shouldered, eyes flicking between his friends and out to the heath beyond, all kinds of doubts etched into his face.

  “Hello, Stephen,” Charlotte said mildly. “Did you get a good view of all that? Impressive don’t you think?” she asked.

  “Hello, Charlotte,” Stephen replied. “Looks like Christopher was right when he said something weird was going on. Weird doesn’t even start to cover it! You all seem unbelievably calm. Can I assume from that that whatever just happened was best result – for us? And where is Joe?”

  “Joe just left with our friends in the ships you saw leaving, Stephen,” Charlotte informed him in the manner of a public service announcement. “Can I suggest we head for home and then we can talk it all through there. Are you OK to drive, Stephen?”

  “Well I haven’t been drinking if that’s what you mean. Almost wished I had been then at least I could pass the whole thing off as a hallucination!” Stephen accepted Charlotte’s suggestion by turning on his heel and setting off back through the trees to his car, the others following. Stephen discovered he was mildly surprised his car was still where he had parked it as opposed to magically developing vertical thrusters and disappearing into the night sky. He took everyday
pleasure in opening the door the old-fashioned way – with a key, swinging the door open on a creaky hinge and they all got in. Fortunately he was unaware that Duncan had also embarked and happily occupied the space between Charlotte and Daniel in the rear seats. Just after dark the roads were quiet through the forest as far as Brandon village and the bridge over the River Ouse. Leaving Brandon and the forest road behind, Stephen drove past the big airbases at Lakenheath and Mildenhall. Usually the explanation for this kind of thing would be special airplane testing from the air bases, Stephen thought to himself. How many times have I heard that explanation and then not given it a second thought? Beyond Mildenhall he joined the main road that skirted Newmarket racecourse and on into Cambridge. They decided it was best to drop Daniel at Jesus College first then cross over Magdalene Bridge to then turn down the quiet Queens’ Road to come up to Queens’ College from the west side. Stephen pulled into the college and drove round the back of Fisher Building to park in the underground car park. He emerged from the car park and looked up into the vault of stars of the early night sky. They had seemed distant and as innocuous a part of everyday life as the weather, but now some of them could reach out with superior technology and alien life and that was a totally different prospect indeed.

  The three humans (and Duncan) decamped to Stephen’s room. He turned on a couple of warming old table lamps and broke out the beer cans from his small fridge by the window. He noted the busy crowds across the River Cam spilling out from the Mill public house to drink and chat in the open area above the punt stages on Granta Place. They had lots to talk about, well lubricated by the real ales carried out from the bar inside, but these issues were local and normal, relationships and upcoming examinations mostly. Not suddenly contemplating revelations of occupying a small and vulnerable place in a much wider universe.