by M. Modak
As he started floating down again, he sensed that his body moved even faster here, buoyed by some new force. He let his intuition guide him down toward the great tree and into a forest, on the lower far side of a hill by the lake.
He smiled as he felt his feet touching the ground and it surprised him to find the soil tickling him. It was the first time, in forever, that he had felt anything physical.
He smelled the air. It was the purest breath of fresh air he had ever taken. He was caught-up in all the simple sensations. As the wind blew, he could feel his arms and legs tingling as the atmosphere pushed against him.
The forest was dark under the thick canopy. He did not see a single animal or hear a chirping cricket. The complete silence was deafening.
He found that all the trees and plants were arranged in a pattern allowing optimal sunlight to reach each plant, and stones marked the well-worn paths. He could not get over the scale of everything living here. The smallest leaves from the mature plants were larger than he was. He could sleep on the flower petals. He wished Rana were here to see this...
Everything felt vibrantly alive. He could feel the energy of plants brightening as if welcoming him. A break between the trees allowed a wide beam of sunlight to hit the ground. It revealed a single sapling that looked like a giant bonsai tree basking restfully in the light.
He looked deeper into the forest and marveled at the verity of fruit every plant produced, even the bonsai. Every other tree was of a different species.
He was in a garden!
Instinctively he tried walking to the bonsai, but his whole body just slid over next to it and stopped. He was still moving in the same manner he had moved ever since losing his human body. He tried walking again but this time he did it by thought and will power instead of separate bodily actions.
As he continued trying various ways of locomotion, he dimly felt Drake’s consciences in the back of his mind. The connection to him had never fully severed as it did with John. He paused and concentrated, he could see Drake!
They were faintly aware of what each other was doing. He was relieved when he saw that a nurse was examining him. Drake was ok though in a state of shock. Someone or something had helped him get the Nano machines out of his body. He had not seen what happened earlier because he was too interested in this universe and world and was not paying attention to anything else. He wondered how they were still connected, but he let the mystery go as he concentrated again on how to walk.
After he had practiced a little while, and when he was able to move somewhat normally again, he looked down at his hands. They looked like white clouds of sparkling glass held in by a thin membrane of blue energy. He put his hands together and tried to clap. They passed thru each other, slowing only for a moment, as arks of static electricity leapt between them. He knew it had something to do with the deep pressure coming from all around. He waved his hands thru the air and felt something pushing against them as if they were under living water that amplified every intention with energy.
There was another, greater, pressure building up inside, coming from his core. His insides were responding to this place, opening like a flower to the sun. He let this inner pressure build just a little and his hands became heavier. He could feel his feet press a little deeper into the soil. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and concentrated on trying that again. When he opened his eyes, he tried clapping. This time his hands stopped where they met, but there was no sound. He lifted his right knee and brought his foot down hard. He had stomped a solid footprint in the soil that shook the bonsai next to him. He apologized to all the plants for disturbing them like that, so unexpectedly. The trees did nothing in response, but he could have sworn he felt them brighten in recognition of his awareness of their feelings.
He tried walking again and although he had to do some major adjusting, he managed to take a clumsy but natural stride. In a small celebration of movement, he began walking around in circles, trying hard to avoid crushing any saplings he might have missed.
After a short march thru the forest and down a pathway, he found himself in a clearing. He followed a path up the hill but stopped just as he started to crest it. He felt a wave of nausea pass over him. He wasn’t sure if becoming semisolid was a good idea anymore. As if blood was in his body and he could get it to his brain, he bent down and put his head between his legs.
As the sick feeling passed, he lifted his head and looked around. Someone was watching him. He walked the last few feet up the hill and saw a person who looked like an angel staring down at him. Joshua realized there were hundreds of thousands of these beings, male and female, and all were naked. They were standing behind him and spread down the backside of the hill and into the valley as far as the eye could see, and all were poised to fight!
He took a step back as he saw everything around him. Thousands of other creatures he had never seen before, but had heard of, stood silently next to regular animals of every kind. Even the insects were here. His eyes went wide; huge dragons of different colors were spread throughout the gathering! Their long necks stretched high over the crowd and bent toward him. Everyone was holding their collective breath. They were all in a dangerous mood, but he did not see a single weapon.
He looked back at the being he had first noticed. He could not tell his age but compared to all the others like him, he seemed to be the youngest and at the same time, he clearly was their leader.
He was a good two feet taller than Joshua was, and his naked body rippled with toned muscle. His skin sparkled in the sunlight. A long silver staff was in his hands. It looked to have been made from the silvery trunk of the giant tree looming overhead. He could see and feel power moving out of the staff and into his hand, up thru the arm that held it and into his body. Then it returned into the staff as it pulsed back and forth in a steady rhythm.
Then lightning appeared in the sky, struck Joshua and jumped to the being standing in front of him. Immediately he knew that this was another version of himself but the differences were unlike anything he could have imagined, he was not human!
Then their minds began a partial exchange of information, in nearly the same way as it had happened two times before. Lavar was his name, and he was right. This world existed within the compressed, high-energy environment most universes found themselves in at the last stage of the big crunch; and these creatures understood it. It would take many hundreds of thousands of years but the big crunch would soon happen. As the lightning moved through him he could feel raw power bound up in the fabric of space.
This being possessed a very alert intelligence. To Joshua he looked, and acted very much like an elf from an old Tolkien novel but he was taller, and naked. He and all those here had a nature that was as gentle as soft rain. He was much older than Joshua was by many centuries though time was hard to judge. The light pulsed and twisted their minds together, harder than ever before. Their lives converged, mixed and separated again.
The world Lavar lived in was undergoing the biggest changes in its recorded history, and that was a long time. A great battle over the future of their planet and the multi-universe was on the verge of taking place. Sapen and the Dragon Exiles wanted the Tree of Life. He was here to protect it.
Then Joshua became fully aware of the Great Tree. As the idea of it began to take full root in his mind, he looked up and truly saw it for the first time.
The Tree Of Life filled the sky.
It was not just one tree, at least not on the surface, but it was a forest nearly a mile wide, made of many thousands of tightly interconnected trunks and branches. Its greater limbs held leaves as wide as the clouds that passed beneath them. The world Lavar knew was built around the sacred protection of that Tree.
He understood why there was to be war. The Dragon Exiles had returned. They came with powerful energy weapons controlled by an intelligence that called itself Sapen. They were here to wage war against Lavar and all those who protected the Great Tree. They were here for the Tree. Th
ey wanted its secrets. They understood it had the power to extend life indefinitely, bridge the space between universes and alter gravity. But there was much more unknown.
Sapen had come before, to spy out the land. Now he brought with him a small army of Technocreatures with enhanced DNA held inside bodies reinforced by the same Nano machines that he had found in Drake. They resembled monsters of every shape imaginable with the intelligence and cunning of men.
This time the Dragon Exiles had come with them and they were all here for conquest. The Dragon Exiles were creatures, not men. They were powerful beings in human bodies. Their minds and energy had been switched with the minds and energy of the once dominant Red Dragons. Behind Lavar, standing proudly in the crowd, were the former bodies of all the Dragon Exiles except one, with thousands of other dragons who had never hurt a living creature in their long lives, but they were ready to do what they must to save the their world and all others. They were here to give their lives to save the Tree Of Life.
It was all because of Lavar. Many years ago, he had been given great power in the staff he now held. It was made from the bark of the Great Tree! It was prophesied that he would be the Tree’s last protector in this universe. Using that power, he had done many great things. He had healed the sick, raised the dead, moved mountains and with his friends, they had defeated the leader of the Red Dragons. Consequently, he had switched many of the other dragon’s minds with that of humans who had volunteered.
He did it as a desperate act of compassion. Instead of condemning those murdering dragons to death for the lives they had taken. He had settled on an action, which had no bloodshed, but he had not gone far enough. Now he regretted that choice. The bloodshed had come later.
The result of their conversion and banishment into Drakes realm, but far away from any civilized planets, had caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of the people they had encountered. In this world and in another they had used their human form to trick all humanity into doing great evil. Whole civilizations were battling for their lives because they had found a way off the barren world where he had banished them.
Now he had only one choice. It was his responsibility. He would have to become the opposite of everything he believed in and go against his very nature to save all life.
The words The Tree Of Life, echoed in Joshua’s mind. He remembered the story in the book of Genesis, that Elohim had hidden the Tree Of Life’s very existence from man since the beginning of time. Joshua wondered if this was that very same Tree.
He tried looking into the Great Tree. He wanted to see its chemical make-up, its molecular structure. However, something was blocking him; his vision wavered and returned to normal.
The bolt of light snapped out of existence. Light began to emanate from Lavar’s body in waves of energy that looked like water rising up out of a well. It started in his core but as it rose and spread throughout his body the staff in his right hand began to glow matching the intense power growing inside Lavar. The pulsing light traveled up from his body, thru the staff and into the sky in an alternating pattern of dark red and blue light. More continued up thru his head turning bright purple, yellow, and pink. A rainbow emerged from the middle of his head, chest, stomach, pubis, hands and feet pouring his thoughts and feeling into his world and beyond.
Joshua knew that anything Lavar did would change the lives in countless universes.
He felt his core glowing, resonating with Lavar’s and together their light poured out from their shared spirit and it seeped into the spaces in-between all universes. When it stopped, those who could see them had remained silent as they watched their lights cool then vanish.
Steadily, Lavar looked Joshua in the eyes and said, “Aughra must be stopped. It has opened the way for Sapen to penetrate many realms. Drake’s heritage is the key to untangling this. I cannot tell you more for Sapen has ways of knowing… Drake must discover who he is before Sapen does, if that happens then it will be too late for our four realms, and the Great Tree. He must discover the truth but not until the correct time.”
Lavar’s words felt like lead weights. They settled on him in a sobering manner. The Tree of Life could not be abandoned now. Lavar would go with him but he was needed here.
Joshua could not recall most of Lavar’s past; it was blocked from his remembering. He asked, “Lavar, why can’t I remember all your past?”
“I trust you and Drake. It’s no coincidence you two were chosen to repair the starweb. You will learn everything soon enough.
Drake is watching. If given the chance, Sapen will get the information out of the two of you. Drake is in enough danger. If all I know were revealed, right now, to him, he would be instantly captured and his mind dissected before he knows what to do with this knowledge.”
Joshua nodded, he did not need to say he understood and that he would return and do all he could to stop Aughra, Lavar already knew.
“Who or what is Sapen?” Joshua asked. Then, as if on cue, a trumpet sounded. The water in the lake nearby rippled as the smaller trees shook with its blast of sound. It was the sound of Death.
Lavar shifted his attention back to the world around him. He spoke to Joshua without taking his eyes off the river and sky above. He said, “Sapen has made himself a demigod. It thinks itself able to destroy all life and remake it into his image.”
“Is that even possible?” Joshua asked.
“In my past he has already succeeded at destroying many worlds in this manner. You will soon see what happened to their inhabitants. That was just a test run, a mistake. He has perfected his methods and now he controls many powerful beings.
“In this realm, his powers are greatly reduced, but he has brought the Dragon Exiles back home with him. Together they will cause great destruction, but they will fail.”
“How do you know they will fail?”
Lavar turned away from the approaching trumpet blast and gave a smile. “Because, with Elohim with us who can stand against us?”
12 Inter-Connections
In the distance, the clouds began to part above the river. The once gentle flowing current, moving away from the lake, began to rapidly fill its banks and overflow into the land around it. The gathered warriors standing behind Lavar tensed for battle.
“It’s time for you to go Joshua,” Lavar said grimly.
“I want to stay…who is coming, is it Sapen?” Joshua asked as he tried to stay put. He could see thru the clouds and down the river, something was coming.
A new thought entered his mind, compelling him to go. It felt different from when he was drawn to Drake and this world. The thought he held now was a full concept. Get to know everyone. Their knowledge will help you complete your mission. Then return and stop Aughra. It was Lavar’s thoughts! Lavar was compelling him to go.
In an instant, he found himself rising up into the sky as he shed his solid body. Looking down on the river, toward the sea, he could see the forms of thousands of men, dressed in black standing along the riverside. He saw a few men in red uniforms directing the army around the river. Many were looking back up at him. Several large ships were blocking off the river, like an artificial dam, as hundreds of more soldiers poured out and gathered on the dry bank. The first wave of men had started advancing on foot. They were all carrying weapons.
Joshua strained to see far below. He could only make out the black and red uniformed men, the glint of swords and the flash of light as plasma rifles fired into the forest to clear a path thru the thickening underbrush. Joshua thought of the small tree he had disturbed in the forest earlier and all those creatures ready to defend the Great Tree. He gave a quiet prayer for them.
The trumpet blast sounded again and again. This time it was right above him. As he passed up thru the clouds, he saw a large angular ship descending into the atmosphere just before him. It was not a trumpet he heard, but the magnified blast of the sound barrier being broken by massive starships entering this world!
He saw past the immense ship an
d into the horizon. The sky was full of tiny dots; and each one was a ship just like this one.
In the next instant, Joshua was shooting thru the atmosphere, and in a blink, he was in the space between universes. He was back at the center of the Great Wheel that was the multi-universe. He waited in silence for what was to come next.
Then he saw one light, coming from each universe all around him, flashing in rhythm, as if one great star out shined everything. He could feel them to. They were countless other lives, his lives, all existing within row upon row of other universes, and they were all connected to him.
Then, like the times before with John, Drake, and Lavar, he was being drawn to another life but this one was even more distant from his own universe. When he arrived, he found another version of himself waiting there. This one looked to be a little younger. He was a father and a famous helicopter pilot. The process of their exchanged life experience happened again, this time only slightly faster. Then just as quickly, he disappeared back into the space of the multi-universe.
Soon another life called to him. In this one, he was a kid caught in a world that had gone mad. Someone, he could only guess who, had tried to convert the whole mass of humans into quantum computers using Nano machines; but had made a terrible mistake. The tiny virus-like machines were loose, infecting the people of that world with a kind of disease that left them like mindless zombies. That version of himself was on the run, trying to save his friends. He found him locked in a high school trying to keep those around him quiet while outside half-living humanoids roamed about. However, during the exchange he left behind his and John’s lifetime of knowledge. Joshua wanted to stay and do more, but the process completed and he was pulled away.