by Ken Webster
SILENCE BEFORE THE STORM, FIRST SILENCE …
I only had to remember 15 May and the havoc which erupted then: I dared not resist any more. So much for resolve. But I still wrote to 2109 unwillingly and with contempt.
2109
FORGET THE 4TH FORM GLOOM AND DOOM AND EXPLAIN WHAT YOU WANT AS YOU ARE PREVENTING US COMMUNICATING WITH OUR FRIEND. OF WHAT HARM IS THAT? WE LOVE THE FELLOW AND HE US. IF YOU WISH TO HELP PLEASE GIVE YOUR ANALYSIS OF POLTERGEIST PHENOMENA. BEINGS OF YOUR ABILITY SHOULD BE LESS MOODY WHEN CONFRONTED WITH US SIMPLE TYPES. A LITTLE OPEN COMMUNICATION GOES A LONG WAY WHEN COOPERATION IS THE ISSUE. DIG? KEN AND DEB
LUKAS GOODLY FELAWE PREYE YOU WRYTE TO MYNESELVE AS TO YOWR THENKYNG AT THYS TYME
KEN
A half-hour walk and the reply was there. The sly bastards even echoed my deliberate use of the sixties expression ‘dig’.
DIG!. YOU ARE MISTAKEN, WE DO NOT SPEAK ANY GLOOM AND DOOM, BUT POSSIBLEY YOU REFER TO THE FORCES THAT YOU YOURSELF HAVE UNLEASHED. – AGAINST OUR BETTER JUDGMENT!. IT IS CORRECT FOR YOU TO ASSUME THAT THE POLTERGEIST PHENOMENA IS PRESENT IN THE COMMUNICATIONS, BUT WE CAN SAY VERY LITTLE ABOUT THIS SUBJECT AS ONLY WHAT YOU WILL KNOW ALREADY. FOR REASONS SURELY EVIDENT TO YOU THREE! POLTERGEIST PHENOMENA AS FOLLOW: -
SURPLUS KENETIC ENERGY PROJECTED BY EITHER ONE OR MORE INDIVIDUALS OR BY STORAGE CHANNELS HELD WITHIN BUILDINGS AND PLACES WHERE STRONG EMOTIONS, SUCH AS FRUSTRATION, HAVE BEEN FELT
MOST COMMON
ENERGY CENTERED AROUND AN INDEVIDUAL. RELEASED FOR MANY
REASONS. USUALLY CHILDREN OF THE AGES BETWEEN 12–19. 87.9% GIRLS.
IN ALL BUT THREE RECORDED CASE NO INJURIES INFLICTED BY THE SOURCE – LAST CASES OF INJURIE SUSTAINED BY A FALLING BEEM RECORDED IN 2006. THE FORCE IS USUALLY AN EXTREMELY FOUL ENTITIE WHICH SEEMS TO THRIVE ON STRONGE ADVERSE EMOTIONS MAKING LITTLE SENSE IN ITS COMMUNICATION. IT SEEMS TO PLAY ON AN INDIVIDUALS
FEER. DISLIKES LACK OF ATTENTION – HAS BEEN THOUGHT AT ONE STAGE THAT THIS IS THE INDIVIDUAL/S CRY TO BE NOTICED.
THERE IS MORE SAID ABOUT THIS PHENOMENA BUT IT WOULD NOT BE OF INTREST TO YOU. WE HAVE STOPED COMMUNICATION BETWEEN LUKAS AND YOURSELFS UNTIL THINGS ‘COOL DOWN’. THEN YOU MAY CONTINUE AS BEFORE, LUKASES TIME WILL STAND STILL RELATIVE TO YOUR TIME SO THAT YOU MAY START WHERE YOU LEFT OFF 2109
An interesting and suitable treatment. Upon reflection it seemed to be an exercise in psychology, rather than an exercise in knowledge and application, e.g. the statistics, the hint at the future (‘2006’), the suggestion that they were in control. If it developed anything, this communication helped fix our attention on 2109. They said they were blocking Lukas but it wasn’t true for long because after a couple of days he was there writing on paper. And as for slowing his time … well! I rang Dave Welch, it seemed appropriate, and asked him if he wanted to write to 2109. He said he wanted to be able to ask them a series of questions if possible. The last word from 2109 on that had been at the beginning of the holidays: one set of questions only. Dave repeated his opinion that one set was useless, it couldn’t prove a thing, especially since 2109 talked in riddles at the best of times. Dave was nevertheless interested to hear that I was in touch. I told him that it was against my better judgement.
The computer was not set up again until 14 September, the following Saturday. I wasn’t going to rush around for them nor was I going to be serious with them unless I was forced to. I adopted a ‘Captain Kirk’ approach and wrote:
THANKS. AM I TO BELIEVE THAT P. GEISTS ARE WANDERING ENTITIES WHO SEIZE UPON STRAY ENERGIES? PLEASE COMPLETE YOUR OBSERVATIONS UPON THEM SINCE YOU HAVE STARTED. HAVE TIMES COLLIDED AT THIS PLACE? WHERE WAS THE LAST COINCIDENCE? MANY THANKS KEN
They replied:
NO, THESE ENTITIES HAVEN’T A CONSCIOUS AS SUCH. IT IS THE ENERGY THAT IS FORMED INTO A CHARICTOR. IT IS SUGGESTED THAT AFTER SEVERAL SMALL P.G. INCIDENTS THE INDIVIDUAL/ S ATOMATICALLY IMAGINE THE WORK OF A GHOST WHICH MOST PEOPLE ASSUME TO RESEMBLE HUMAN FORM-THERFORE-AN IMAGE IS CREATED BY THE PERSON/S CONCERED WHICH STRANGELY ENOUGH INFLUENCES THE FORCES
INVOLVED. AGAIN, IT SEEMS THAT THERE IS A STRONGE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE ENTETIE/S AND THE PERSON AS A NUCLIUS SOMETIMES IT IS CONSIDERED THAT TO STUDY THE PERSON/S CONCERNED IS AS INFORMATIVE AS THE PHENOMINA ITSELF LAST COINCIDENCE 1941 2109
More tantalizing propositions: that this sort of communication across time had last occurred in similar circumstances in 1941. It was well judged to stimulate interest, but a damned inconvenience that in 1941 there was a war on – it must have obscured reporting, rather. And there were no computers.
Next day, however, 2109 were much less pleasant:
KEN DEB PETER
WE HAVE REASON TO BELIEVE YOU HAVE LUKAS WAINMANS TRUE NAME. IF THIS IS CORRECT YOU MUST SAY SO SO THAT WE MAY RECTIFY THE PROBLEM IMMEDIATELY BEFORE IT IS EXCEPTED. YOU MAY NOW CONTINUE TO WRITE TO LUKAS TO ESTABLISH YOUR RESPONSABILITY TO OUR EXPERIMENTS AND TOWARDS A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF TIME AND ITS FORCES 2109
I did not let 2109 know I was in any way grateful. I wrote:
2109
I HOPE LUKAS WILL BE ALLOWED TO WRITE FREELY FOR IF YOU STUDY TIME I CANNOT SEE WHAT PROBLEM THER IS OVER NAMES WE WOULD USE SUCH INFORMATION WITH THE GREATEST TACT. HOW MANY MESSAGES HAVE YOU EDITED AGAIN I ASK PLEASE EXPLAIN YOUR ‘PROBLEM’ I WISH TO KNOW MORE OF TIME AS WELL.
ONCE LUKAS IS CLEARLY WITH US AGAIN I SHALL BE HAPPY TO COOPERATE FULLY. PLEASE DONT FAKE A MESSAGE FROM HIM
KEN
2109 went crackers at this:
fake a message?!
please, you must understand that we are not here to play games. THE PROBLEM is greater than we can explain – what with your lack of knowledge. What is a greater problem than placing an unbalanced card on a card tower and watch it collaps with devastating consequences, even though you may save the ace you will have lost the pack, what use is a single card for the game?
I said we had his name. They wrote back within the hour. The tempo was picking up.
OH, IF ONLY YOU HAD LISTEND. AT PRESENT YOU HAVE TWO LUKASES RUNNING AROUND YOUR HOUSE, IF AT ANY TIME THE TWO ARE TO MEET WE CANNOT EXPLAIN THE DEVASTATION THAT WILL ERRUPT WITHIN THE TIME CONTINUM. WE MUST STOP COMMUNICATION WITH LUKAS ONE, BUT WE CANNOT INTERFERE WITH THE OTHER, WHILE WE DECIDE WHAT CAN BE DONE TO RECTERFY THE PROBLEM. YOU MUST HELP BE GIVING US EVERY WORD UTTERED BY THOMAS HAWARDINE FROM THE SECOND YOU RECEIVED HIS TRUE NAME. YOU MUST ALSO STATE HOW MUCH INFORMATION YOU HAVE ON THIS MAN – EVERYTHING!,WORD FOR WORD.
AVOID ANY OTHER COMMUNICATION YOU MAY HAVE WITH HIM.
DESPERATION. BE QUICK!
2109
This did cause a minor panic. Even though I could not understand all they said I thought I knew enough not to take chances. I rang Peter, explained and arranged to pick up the little we had on Tomas Harden from Trueman’s Way. Meanwhile, 2109 had moved us up a gear by suggesting that major disruption could occur if we did not comply. Rather tartly I reminded them not to instruct but to explain and wrote: ‘This could still be a con trick to fill in your missing knowledge …’
I dashed off in the car to Hawarden and back, put down some information and then left the house alone overnight. They asked for more information about this character ‘one’ Lukas was chattering about. I fumed and just told them that he glowed green and was impolite, then I suggested that they ask Lukas. Accompanying this rather tedious missive – full of talk of fundamental particles yet to be discovered and the monitoring of particles using magnetic fields – was a chalk message written down the brick pillar in angular capitals.
WHAT
ARE YOU
SCARED OF
KEN DEB PETER?
‘Who the hell wrote that?’
‘Me perhaps?’
‘Bloody “one” eh?? Or 2109, or the poltergeist, or the man next door or …’ I was just angry.
‘The stacking is very good though!’ Debbie said, defusing the situation and pointing to the obvious – an almost impossible tower of catfood tins and kitchen rolls. W
ell, it was good and once more we could laugh. One more exchange took place before lunch.
I wrote:
CANT YOU GET THESE POLTERGEISTS OUT OF THE PLACE? IDIOT THINGS. I HOPE YOU CAN PUT US BACK IN TOUCH WITH LUKAS SO THAT WE CAN TALK FREELY?
KEN.
And got this in reply:
YES, WE SHALL HOLD BACK AS BEST WE CAN ON THE PG. SORRY YOU FIND US SO FREINDLY!?. ASK THE MAN DAVID WHAT HE THINKS OF CONJECTURAL TACHYONS AND WHAT ARE HIS THEORIES OF CAUSALITY, WHAT ANSEWER DOES HE HAVE FOR ITS PARADOX?.
CHEERS 2109
It was, I realized, a cue to wake the ‘psychobillies’ from their armchairs.
31
15 September
Extraordinarily enough Dave Welch was very interested in tachyons – which he explained were particles whose existence could only be guessed at (hence the term ‘conjectural’), and which move at above the speed of light and thus through time. He had been talking about tachyons to his sixth-form class that very morning. I was mildly impressed by 2109’s apparent awareness of Dave’s predilection and their sense of timing.
2109 wrote in the evening saying that if we would say who ‘one’ was they would give us proof. This was an extraordinary deal. I said I would telephone David. (I had already done so! I had this urge to lie to 2109 or to deceive them wherever possible out of distaste for their interference.) The rest of my message was thinly veiled anger.
PLEASE GIVE TIME TILL EXPERIMENT SHUTDOWN. WILL WE HAVE ‘TIME’ TO COMMUNICATE WITH LUKAS ONCE MORE? WILL TELEPHONE DAVID TONIGHT. REMEMBER TELEPHONES? … … DID YOU USED TO PUNCTUATE LW’S EARLY MESSAGES? PLAY THE GAME INFORMATION FOR ALL? KEN
The reply:
ha, you have left the caps off once more – such a simple
mistake!!. WE ARE ALL CAPERBLE OF MAKING
MISTAKES, ARN’T WE. YES, TELEPHONES … THE THINGS THAT YOU MAY CONSIDER ADVANCED COMMUNICATION – IF ONLY YOU COULD SEE WHAT IS TO COME!.WE, IN YOUR BETTER INTRESTS MADE SLIGHT ‘ADJUSTMENT’ TO YOUR CONVERSATIONS ( – BUT PLEASE LET US CALL HIM BY HIS TRUE NAME)WITH THOMAS. WE ARE NOT ENTIRELY IN COMAND OF THIS EXPERIMENT, SO WE CAN ONLY SAY THAT COMUNICATIONS WILL CEASE NO EARLYER THAN NOVEMBER (NOT NESSESERALY WITH THOMAS),AH, WE SEE, YOU WANT SOME PROOF FOR YOUR LITTLE COMIC!,WELL WE THINK YOU SHOULD FIRST TRY TO REVISE ON WHAT HAS ALREADY BEEN SAID. IF YOU TELL US WHO IS ‘ONE’ THEN WE SHALL GIVE YOU 100% EVIDENCE FOR THE PEOPLE DIRECTLY INVESTIGATING YOUR PHENOMENA.
2109
So they made ‘adjustments’ in OUR interests, did they? Rubbish! They did it in their own interests.
I wrote first to our little numbers and my contempt showed quite clearly:
IF YOU WERE TO COUGH UP THE APPROPRIATE EVIDENCE THEN I’M SURE WE WOULD ALL BE MOST GRATEFUL TO YOU. I DO HOPE YOU LIKE THE GENTLE ENGLISH UNDERSTATEMENT. ‘ONE’ IS/WAS ASSUMED TO BE ONE OF YOUR CHAPS ON A RECCE TO CHIVY THAT CHAP LUKAS INTO PLAYING WITH A STRAIGHT BAT SEEMS NOT EH? DASHED IF I KNOW WHO THE FELLOW IS OTHER THAN THAT HE HAS FRIGHTFUL MANNERS AND THE GREEN GLOW ALL YOU CHAPS GET TRAVERSING TIME. LUKAS ASKED HIM IF HE WAS GOING TO TAKE AWAY THE SCREEN YOU(?) LEFT HIM. HE WAS RATHER TERSE ON THIS POINT AND SAID ‘ITS NOT YOURS TO GIVE’ LUKAS RECKONS ITS ONE OF OUR 1985 BODS BUT I DO THINK THIS IS UNLIKELY DON’T YOU? ‘ONE’ WON’T LEAVE WHEN THE ODD HEAVY HINT IS DROPPED AND HAS A GENERAL HUMANOID ASPECT BUT THEN AGAIN HAS A CAPE THAT’S THE LOT ON ‘ONE’ AND ITS NOT MUCH MORE THAN YOU HAVE ALREADY.
ANYWAY LESS OF THE ‘COMIC’ BIT. YOU SAID THAT ALL THIS WOULD BE MODERATELY INTERESTING TO US PRIMITIVES. WHAT REVISION HAVE YOU IN MIND? CHEERIO FOR NOW KEN AND DEB.
PS I HAVE BEEN IN ALL DAY AND YOU DIDNT WRITE TILL DEBBIE WAS ALONE. WHAT A CRASHING BORE.
Peter decided to be rather more circumspect and spent some time preparing a detailed response. He invited me to send this:
IN ORDER TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOU WE REALLY HAVE TO KNOW WHAT KIND OF THINGS WE ARE DEALING WITH. I SUSPECTED THAT QUANTUM PHYSICS, A CONSTRUCT AND CONCEPTION OF OUR SCIENTISTS, WOULD BE OLD HAT TO YOU SINCE WE THINK OF YOU AS FUTURE – AND FUTURE IN OUR TERMS YOU MUST BE. IS 2109 YOUR DATE BY OUR RECKONING?IF SO THEN IT IS A DATE ALSO BY YOUR RECKONING SO THAT LINEAR TIME IS AN INESCAPABLE CONCEPT IN ONE FUNDAMENTAL SENSE. NOW DO YOU INTEND US TO BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN ALTER OUR PAST – ALL OUR PASTS, YOUR OWN AS WELL?KEN ASKED IF THE LACUNA IN THE PUBLIC RECORDS IS YOUR DOING. A STRAIGHT ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION WOULD HELP US. I ACCEPT THAT YOUR WORLD IS MORE COMPLEX, MORE DIMENSIONAL, THAN OURS AND DO NOT ASK BY WHAT STAGES YOU HAVE REACHED IT NOR WHETHER YOU ARE IMMORTAL. SUCH MATTERS WE CAN ENVISAGE BY IMAGINATION IF NOT QUITE BY COHERENT LOGIC. WE ARE PERHAPS A PART OF SOME EXPERIMENT YOU ARE CONDUCTING, BUT YOU MUST COMMUNICATE WITHIN OUR TERMS FOR NOW. FROM OUR POINT OF VIEW LUKAS IS APERSON OF APPRECIABLE CHARACTER TALKING WITH US IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE 16th CENTURY. I AM ENGAGED IN STUDYING THAT LANGUAGE AND TAKING HIS SPEECHES AS VALUABLE EVIDENCE OF ITS FORMS. I WOULD HOPE THAT IF WE CAN GET THE AUTHENTICITY OF THIS STRANGE EXPERIENCE IN WHICH WE ARE ENGAGED VALIDATED BY OWR OWN CONTEMPORARIES THEN THESE SCRIPTS FROM THE 16thCENTURY WILL BE ACCEPTED AS PROVIDING IMPORTANT EVIDENCE OF THE STATE OF THE LANGUAGE OF DEMOTIC SPEECH WHICH IS OTHERWISE A GREAT GAP IN MODERN LINGUISTIC STUDIES. CAN YOU CONFIRM THAT HIS LANGUAGE IS GENUINE AND CAN YOU PERHAPS HELP TO ESTABLISH THE CREDIBILITY OF THAT FACT?FOR THE REST GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR OWN RESEARCHES. PETER
I couldn’t agree with the idea that they were either superior or necessarily in the future, nor with Peter’s comment to me as he handed the message over to be typed: that 2109 might best be described as ‘angels’ – messengers from the gods – without ‘O’ level English?
As expected, 2109 took to Peter’s words rather better than they took to mine:
PETER
YOU ARE, WITHOUT ANY EXAGERATION, A CLEVER AND CAUSIOUS MAN WHOM HAVE THOUGHT WITH GREAT CARE YOUR WORDS. THE USE OF THE WORD ‘DIMENSIONAL’ HAS MORE RELEVANCE THAN YOU ARE GIVEN TO BELIEVE – BUT WE CAN SEE YOU CARE NOT FOR ‘BEATING ABOUT THE BUSH’, YOU WANT TO KNOW ONLY FACTS, WE CAN UNDERSTAND YOAR FEAR THAT COMMUNICATIONS WITH US MAY JEOPARDIZE YOUR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS PHENOMENA AND CONSEQUENTLY THE LANGUAGE OF THOMAS HAWARDEN, – BUT YOU STILL MUST HAVE SOME FACTS!. UNDERSTANDABLE!
YES, IS A STRAIGHT ENOUGH ANSEWER, WE HAVE MISSLAYED WHAT EVIDANCE WE COULD, BUT YOU WILL COME ACROSS MORE THAN YOU HAVE ALREADY. SOME FACTS EXCEPTED IN OUR TIME: 1 IF A PERSON IS TO PHYSICALLY TRAVEL IN TYME THEN THEY MUST TAKE THE LIVING PLACE OF A PERSON AT THE POINT OF DESTINATION AND VISE VERSA=IMAGINE A SET OF SCALES, BALANCED PERFECTLY, WITH eg. PEBLES. TO REMOVE A PEBLE FROM ONE DISH TO THE OTHER AND KEEP THIS PERFECT BALANCE YOU MUST, INSTANTANIOUSLY, REMOVE A PEBLE FROM THE OTHER AND REPLACE THEM IN REVERSE ORDER. YOU MAY MOVE A COUPLE A PEBLES ALREADY IN THE DISH BUT THE VITAL BALANCE IS STILL KEPT. IF SOMEONE IS BROUUGHT IN FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION THEN AGAIN THE SAME PROCEEDURE APPLYES.
2 MATTER WILL NOT, AS WE KNOW, EVER TRAVEL IN TIME (THIS IS NOT A CONTRADICTION TO ABOVE INFO.)
3 WE ARE NOT IN CONTROL OF THIS EXPERIMENT.
4 THOMAS IS A PERSON LIVING IN THE 16th CENT.,BUT, UNKNOWN TO HIM, HE IS NOT QUITE WHAT HE SEEMS TO BE.
KEN
IS THERE A POSSABILITY THAT YOU MAY PERSUADE THOMAS TO CALL UP THIS CHAP ‘ONE’ TONIGHT AS IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT WE SPEAK TO HIM IMEDIATELY
2109
Differences of opinion between Peter and I aside the 2109 reply was, I conceded, ‘interesting’. Dave Welch, when I read it to him, was most intrigued. Perhaps he was their target, for later that week and after much patient discussion among themselves, SPR indicated that they were now willing to ask 2109 a discreet set of questions, but in circumstances which would ‘eliminate the hoax’. This was progress once more.
2109’s interest in ‘one’ continued unabated. It was embarrassing to tell Dave Welch, and I am sure that with this proliferation of characters SPR must have considered us deluded, gullible, vain or all three.
Here was the plan. Since there seemed to be difficulties in obtaining messages to order while Deb was with SPR personnel or while we were all
out (and in the Red Lion) it occurred to someone that leaving a message on the screen in the form of questions to 2109 for say forty minutes – questions, incidentally, to which those close to the phenomena were not privy – and then deleting the questions should, if the questions were answered at some future time, allow SPR to say that we were not involved. It could and should signal to SPR that we were involved in a remarkable if completely bizarre set of communications.
32
Little Lukas, the ‘doggit’ as I called him, had a restless night on Saturday 21 September and shuffled around the bedroom. We were staying at the cottage now that the upstairs was liveable. Sunday morning revealed all too plainly that he was ill. Debbie knew at once, intuitively, that it was serious, very serious.
A cloud settled over the whole of our lives that moment as little Lukas huddled sometimes quiet, sometimes restless in my old GPO coat in front of the fire. By 10.00 A.M. Debbie was in tears and I stormed out because of an argument over her reluctance to ring the vet. But the vet came out by midday and told us quite firmly that it could well be parvovirus, a very dangerous disease for dogs. Lukas seemed better after an injection and lots of special food taken in solution. Debbie loved and nursed him and tried to maintain his body fluids. The computer sat mute in the kitchen. There had been some activity – a message began on Saturday was completed – but neither of us cared very much.
The situation was emotionally draining. I had Dave Welch coming that evening and here was this fine, brave little dog fighting for its life. Poor Debbie.
Dave Lovell rang up. He invited me to take him and his family to Ruthin to catch the sunshine, saying he’d pay for the petrol. Since the Jag wasn’t sold and I was getting sadder every minute I stayed in the cottage looking at little Lukas, I agreed readily. Deb didn’t mind. She was not going to leave her dog.