“I remember you planned to keep our seniors, uh, the Brigade, together to operate the same way as your own cocooned army,” Mersky commented. “But in this display, they seem to be separated and spread out.”
“Yes.” Amos’s thin silvery lips turned a pale pink; much like an Earth-human might blush. The tint spread across his pale, Modigliani like, almond-shaped face. His skin glistened. “That was the original concept,” he conceded. “But we did not know that much about your kind.” Bright bowed deferentially.
“The old folks adapted beautifully to deep-space travel, just as I am sure you will.”
“Well, I feel no after-effects, only stronger and uh, younger.”
“Precisely. To our surprise, the Brigade people were readily accepted by most beings along our trade routes. Even the Parmans quickly took an immediate liking to them. You see, it’s quite rare that humanoids and crystallites relate so well. It became apparent that it would be counter-productive to pursue any plan of keeping them together as a cohesive unit, the way our own cocooned Antarean army had been used.”
“Why do you think the Parmans accepted us, uh...them, so readily?” Mersky asked, as he gazed at the hologram.
“Earth-humans were the first non-crystalline contact for the Parmans,” Amos explained, “other than Antareans, of course. They observed how your seniors worked so hard to save our cocooned army on our last trip to Earth. Of course, you saw that for yourself. It was that sensitivity, kindness and personal sacrifice that impressed the Parmans.”
Amos was referring to the time, fifteen years ago, when the Antareans and certain members of the Geriatric Brigade returned to Earth to remove and rescue the cocooned Antarean army. The mission also brought several pregnant Earth-human women, and one pregnant female Penditan, to give birth on home-planet Earth. The result was the Earth-human children, and one Penditan child, secretly left behind on Earth. Three babies from mixed-mating had been taken to their father’s planet where their chances of their survival were deemed better.
“Yes. They were certainly a great help,” Mersky agreed.
“As they had been when we first returned for the cocoons, five years earlier,” Bright added.
“I heard about that from Jack Fischer. You know, now that I’m sixty-eight, I see how foolish and wasteful it is for society to shun old age. The Brigade members were called ‘seniors’ and ‘retired folks,’ and encouraged to disengage from productive society.
“Forced by societal protocol, I’m told,” Amos replied. “But they had so much energy, wisdom and knowledge to share. Discarding them was our great gain.” Amos smiled inside, to himself.
“So I see,” Mersky replied, as he turned back to study the Brigade display again.
“And now that gain, Gideon Mersky, belongs to the Universe. They travel with us. And in their own right, they are leaders!” Mersky’s curiosity was tweaked. Had the Geriatric Brigade, his fellow Earth-humans, become that important to the Antareans? “You know my last Earth trip was the first time we successfully used Parmans to guide a Mothership,” Amos continued. “That success was a great leap. We then saw that inter-galactic travel was within our grasp. And the bond the Brigade forged with the Parmans made it... well, convenient for them to crew on other intra-galactic missions while our new deep-space craft were being engineered and built.” Mersky again sensed something more than just praise in Bright’s tone of voice. “No,” Bright added, “it was more than convenient. It was the inscrutable work of The Master.”
Amos Bright’s words left no doubt that the Brigade had become extremely valuable to the Antareans. Yet Mersky sensed that the powers and abilities the Brigade had were not completely understood by the Antareans, and so they were attributed to The Master. How far had the Antareans really disengaged from their ancient mystical beliefs?
“They are a valuable addition to the crews that are now are attempting our first inter-galactic travel.”
“With the Parmans as guides,” Mersky said.
“Yes. They will help deliver the speed required to travel these great distances. The Parmans are a crystalline race who nourish on the ultraviolet end of the spectrum. They extract energy they require from starlight, no matter how distant.”
Amos Bright explained to Mersky that this unique ability, coupled with Antarean navigation, engineering and space travel skills had supplied the momentum for the new era of Antarean space travel — inter-galactic exploration. As long as there was an ultra-violet light source, no matter how faint, Parmans could locate its origin and absorb it. The brighter the star, nebula or galaxy, the more energy the Parmans could gather. Thus, as they absorbed cosmic ultra-violet light, they pulled Antarean spacecraft across the Universe.
Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity was sometimes explained using the example of a light on a train’s locomotive. The train was running at 100 miles per hour. No matter how fast the train goes, Einstein maintained, that light still only traveled at 186,000 miles per second, not 186,000 miles per second, plus the 100 miles per hour the train was making. That theory of light speed was thought to be a universal absolute. Nothing was faster. But his theory was based on light emanating from a source, not a source being absorbed and converted to energy. And because the Parmans were absorbing ultraviolet light that existed in the past, the closer they moved toward the source of that light, the more real-time and intense it became. This phenomenon, named by the Antarean engineers as ‘Low-end, spectrum/electron, pull-mechanics’, enabled Antarean space craft to accelerate toward the selected source until its speed equaled the atomic speed of the ultraviolet electrons the Parman Guides were absorbing. That speed of absorption eventually approached actual time/space displacement. But once the use of Parman Guides was a reality, it became clear that the existing Antarean spacecraft were not designed to withstand such forces of acceleration. New craft had to be developed.
With Parman Guides on board, all other Antarean deep-space propulsion became obsolete. Intra-galactic time arcs were no longer a constraint. Searches for theoretical time-warp wormholes, and the experimental use of black-hole accelerators, were abandoned. Low-end, spectrum/electron, pull-mechanics enabled the Antareans to possess the ability to jump stars, and it was theorized, other galaxies, all in what might be close to real-time.
Moving at such enormous speed required those travelers, other than crystal-based or hard-carbon based beings, to physically adjust their circulation, pressure/stress capacities and metabolisms accordingly. As the Antareans experimented with Parman Guides within the Milky Way Galaxy, they learned how to control the effects of the new speeds and stresses.
Remarkably, the processing that the Geriatric Brigade had undergone to make them ideal inter-galactic travelers—had also given them the unique ability for intra-galactic travel as well. So they were indeed very important to the Antareans.
“Now there is a new theory our engineers are exploring,” Bright told Mersky. “If the Parmans are able to somehow increase their rate of absorption, they might leap across the space-time continuum and thus return to the past.”
“Time travel?” Mersky was awed.
“Yes. But it’s still just a theory...sort of a secret one at that.”
Gideon Mersky had some secrets of his own. After being contacted to fulfill Bright’s promise, Mersky had first gone to personal friends — Directors on the Boards of three multi-national corporations. There he revealed what he knew about the Antareans, the Geriatric Brigade, and their children.
“I don’t imagine the seniors would want to return home,” he had told his corporate partners. “But the children are another matter. The abilities they displayed as infants would be of great use to us. A few drops of their blood could provide the base from which we could build life- extending serums, granting immunity to almost all known disease. And with control over their telepathic and mind-reading capabilities...just imagine?
His proposal garnered the interest and greed of his audience as they pictured reading minds in merg
er talks, or whispering into the malleable brains of politicians. “And look at all the payoffs and kickbacks we’d save,” Mersky added. The potential profits were enormous. In the end, he had made a deal. Now his partners were counting on him to deliver. That meant bringing the children back to Earth. But Mersky knew he would have to be patient for his mission to be successful. At the moment, he had no idea where the children were. Amos Bright, and even Annabella Costa, seemed reluctant to talk about them. Had something gone wrong? Had deep-space travel injured them? Or worse, had they perished? Perhaps later this evening, Mersky thought, I might get a clue from Brigade members who were now gathering for their reunion.
“There’s more to see, Secretary Mersky,” Bright announced, “and time is fleeting. We’d better shake a leg.” Bright moved away from the Earth exhibit. “There’s something I want you to see over here.” Mersky followed the lanky, graceful Antarean to the next display, a translucent dome that contained a pale blue, gaseous atmosphere. “We’ll have to use these,” Amos told Mersky, pointing to bulky environmental coveralls and breathing aids hanging outside the display.
“That looks heavy-duty protective,” Mersky commented.
“The Subax atmosphere is extremely caustic.”
“Subax? Isn’t that where Ruth Charnofsky lives?” Mersky asked.
“Yes. In fact, Commander Charnofsky and her mate, Panatoy, arrived on Antares a short while ago. You’ll see them later at the reunion.” Mersky was pleased. As the Brigade’s Chief Commander, Ruth Charnofsky would certainly have information about the children. Mersky was also interested to know how her own offspring, fathered by the Subaxian, Panatoy, was faring. Perhaps the children of mixed-mating might have different potential uses on Earth.
As they donned their coveralls, it dawned on Mersky that there had been no mention of the children in the Brigade exhibit. Not a picture. Not a word. As he pondered why, his fears of failing to deliver the children to his corporate partners on Earth deepened.
CHAPTER TWO - LEFT BEHIND
Butterfly House was a refurbished resort hotel set atop a cliff above a remote cove on Cayman Brac, the smallest and least inhabited of the Cayman Islands. Its neatly shuttered white stucco buildings had faded red, Spanish-style, tile roofs. Four wide verandas, tastefully landscaped, surrounded the main house. The entire compound was concealed from above by tall Date and Coconut Palms, and hidden from the road by thick groves of Mimosa, Banyan trees and Hibiscus hedges.
Few of the ninety, full-time inhabitants of the island, concerned themselves with the Miami banker who had purchased the old hotel for his “clients,” about sixteen years ago. They were told it had been bought for a strict Calvinist group who would use it as an exclusive school for the children of wealthy Americans. Caymanians are polite and respectful people. If the occupants of Butterfly House wanted privacy and seclusion, so be it. The natives’ silence assured that tourists were kept unaware of its existence.
The facts regarding the residents of Butterfly House were quite different from their cover story. For more than fifteen years, it had been the home, school and secret haven for a group of very special children, their guardians and teachers.
The oldest of the children, Melody Messina, had been born in deep-space, aboard an Antarean Mothership as it sped toward Earth. Seven minutes after her birth, the Erhardt twins, Joshua and Eric, arrived in the Universe. The rest of the twenty-two children, now in residence, had been born in top-secret Building Eleven at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas. Although they were now chronologically nearly sixteen Earth-years old, physically the children appeared to be more like twenty. They were taller than average — six feet or more. Their bodies were fully developed, and there was no Earthly measurement capable of accurately judging their intellectual capacity.
When these twenty-two children had been secreted in Butterfly House as infants, three of their peers had been taken into space, because they genetically favored their off-planet fathers.
All of the Butterfly House children were the progeny of parents who had once lived in South Florida as “senior citizens,” and had chosen to leave the planet with Antareans. What they chose was a long and useful life traveling, teaching and serving as diplomats. Known as the Geriatric Brigade, they had traveled to stars, planets, moons and asteroids in all Quadrants, or Quads, of the galaxy. Now, they were about to begin crewing new Antarean spacecraft designed to explore other galaxies.
The children were protected, nurtured, educated and raised by the few who knew their origins. But now, as they reached maturity, even their guardians did not fully understand all of the powers they possessed.
Individually, and collectively, the children understood their special talents and gifts. They could read the thoughts of others, and thus potentially influence actions and behavior. They communicated verbally and telepathically with one another, and with some species on Earth — mostly marine mammals and simians. They were also able to gather, process and assimilate huge amounts of data instantly. All were aware that these powers came from an inborn genetic ability buried deep within their central nervous systems and brains. As they aged, they discovered that aside from their parents in the Brigade, this ability was highly developed and functioning in many extra-terrestrial species. During the past several years, children of Butterfly House had developed and honed these powers, reaching out across the galaxy telepathically, in a language whose base was a mixture of pure thought and emotion. If the powers lay dormant in a species, they were capable of being activated by the children. All but three of the children had Earth-humanoid parents now off-planet serving in the Brigade. Those three were children born to Peter Martindale, a retired steel worker/union official, and his wife, Tern, a Penditan huntress whose home was a lush, tropical, oxygen-water planet called Turmoline — the fifth planet orbiting the star Spica in the constellation Virgo, located in Quad-one of Earth’s galaxy.
Three years ago, the children of the Geriatric Brigade began to express a desire to leave Cayman Brac and visit other parts of Earth. Although everything they needed for their education was available at Butterfly House, and they understood the need for absolute secrecy regarding their existence, they yearned for interaction with people beyond their secret enclave.
“We are human beings. This is our planet. And yet we have never met anyone in person besides our guardians and teachers. We have read about places and peoples. Now we want to see them. We want to know them.” The children were adamant. When their guardians resisted, the children responded by cutting off telepathic access to their thoughts. Even Bernie and Rose Lewis, the two Brigade members who had remained behind with the children, were unable to enter their sealed minds. Bernie Lewis, a Brigade Commander with highly developed telepathic powers, marveled at the abilities the children possessed, which were beyond his own. He relented.
Under the guise of furthering the children’s education, birth certificates, high school transcripts, SAT scores and extra curricular records were created. Applications were made to colleges and universities in several countries. All the children were accepted. So, as the Third Christian millennium was underway, the children spread out across the world to explore and learn. Alone, or in twos and threes, they traveled their home planet. Among the common people of the world they discovered a deep yearning for peace, harmony and freedom. They saw the evil of corruption, fascism, dictatorship, greed and fanatical religious fervor that caused human misery. Most people wanted a better world for their children. With their abilities, the children of Butterfly House might have played a part in aiding a behavioral turn-around of mankind. But they did not interfere; at least not at this point in time.
When they returned to Butterfly House, the children no longer allowed their self-knowledge, thought processes, or intellectual capacity to be measured. Most of their days were spent sequestered as a group. At night, secluded and apart from their guardians and teachers, their activities were a mystery. No one, including Rose and Bernie Lewis, knew why th
ey were behaving this way. Rose feared that the children, offspring of genetically changed parents, might be somehow damaged or ill. Bernie Lewis felt otherwise. His concern was with what the children might be secretly planning.
CHAPTER THREE - THE SLOOR OF KLANE
The daylight on Klane was a deep red hue—the result of the rising of its sun, a Red-Giant that was the huge planet’s primary energy source. Daytime lasted the duration of five and one half Earth days and nights. To be exact, 132 hours, 27 minutes, 44 seconds. Klane’s orbit was circular.
Every planet that the Antareans had discovered and explored had its own unique size, gravitational pull, density, magnetic field, atmosphere, energy source, core, orbit, rotation and tilt. The Antareans calculated and recorded light and dark periods — the day/night cycles of a planet. They then converted them into Antarean-time. But in the early days of Brigade travel, Earth-time was also calculated as a comfort tool for the Earth-humans. That practice had been abandoned after a few years, as the Brigade became seasoned space travelers.
As Klane’s sun, bearing the Antarean label, Big Red-1104-Quad 7, disappeared below the planet’s featureless horizon, an inky black veil, set with a glittering array of celestial bodies and cosmic dust, illuminated the sky. The topography of the planet where the Antareans and Brigade were working was flat, consisting of porous rock dappled with a seemingly endless variety of lichens. A vast milky-gray ocean surrounded them. The liquid was an oily substance that, depending on subterranean volcanic activity, varied from sixty to seventy-three percent ammonium hydroxide and potassium fluoride, suspended in equal parts of water and hydrogen peroxide. To the visitors, it was a very salty, poisonous substance. The ocean, which covered more than half the planet’s surface, was nutrient-rich with thousands of yet unclassified photo-plankton and zooplankton species ranging in size from microscopic to over a foot in length. Several sections of this hemisphere had been charted by the orbiting Mothership. In some places it recorded ocean depths of more than two miles. There were other aquatic pelagic species, but very few as yet classified land animals, all of which were reptilian. So far, no mammalian life, humanoid or other, had been discovered.
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