Metamorphosis

by Sesh Heri

  “But what can I do,” I asked, “even on the astral plane? I encountered NYMZA there in 1915 and I had no power over them.”

  “That is why we must do this astral work here in the cavern,” Djudhi said. “We will float over the caldera, focus our concentration and will, and then project to the astral plane. Once there, we will ascend directly through the ceiling of rock above us to that stone tower on the surface. We will fly directly up through that tower and then out across astral space to the astral counterpart of the Bell.”

  “Not the Bell itself?” I asked.

  “Not the physical Bell,” Djudhi said. “It is its astral counterpart which is important to NYMZA— and to us. You must approach the astral Bell and remove the astral counterpart of the rod of crystals fashioned by Nikola Tesla and his assistant.”

  “How do I remove it?” I asked.

  “You reach for it with your hands and grasp it,” Djudhi said, “just as you would do in your physical body. But what you are doing is not a physical act, but an act of intention. On the astral plane everything is intention. You must approach the Bell with the intention of disrupting its function. NYMZA have modified the astral counterpart of that crystal rod so that it has now become part of the Bell’s functioning parts. Now in removing the crystal rod,

  you will disrupt the Bell’s function. But that alone is not enough. You must also send NYMZA back into its astral prison, back to the unknowable point of space and time. To do this, you must encounter the King of NYMZA face to face on the astral plane.”

  “I must confront that fish-monster,” I said.

  “You and he will confront the other,” Djudhi said. “But you must take the crystalline astral rod and thrust it out toward him, and drive it into his brow wheel. You must do it with the undivided intention of driving him back into his point of imprisonment. You must not falter in your concentration one moment.”

  “And if I pierce the monster’s brow wheel,” I asked, “what will happen then? Will it force him back into that point of nothingness?”

  “Yes,” Djudhi said, “it will force him and all of NYMZA back into nothingness. Now we must begin.”

  The long cylinder of the U.S.S. Cypher sat in the grassy clearing one hundred yards from the Martian airship. Mr. Tesla stood at the door of the airship with the Martian impersonator who was held by two sailors.

  “Take off his handcuffs,” Mr. Tesla said.

  One of the sailors brought out a ring of keys and unlocked the handcuffs binding the Martian’s hands behind his back.

  “That wasn’t smart, Tesla,” the Martian said, bringing his hands around in front of him and rubbing his wrists.

  Mr. Tesla looked over at the Martian whose face was still covered in a flesh tone up to his hairline.

  “I’m going to kill you,” the Martian said.

  “Too late,” Mr. Tesla said.

  “No, it’s early,” the Martian said.

  The door of the ship slid open. Far away, across the grassy clearing, the Martian airship sat— a long, black cylinder.

  A sailor peered out of the door with a pair of binoculars.

  “The door of their ship has opened,” the sailor said. “I see a woman and an old man— both of ‘em earth people, looks like.”

  “All right,” Mr. Tesla said to the Martian, “Move.”

  The Martian stood, staring at Mr. Tesla.

  “Move him out,” Mr. Tesla ordered.

  A sailor shoved the Martian through the door and down the steps of the airship and Mr. Tesla went out behind him.

  Out in the clearing Charmian and Dellshau walked side by side with TAR-A-GAL behind them. They all kept walking through the high grass under a sky of pink and green.

  In the pilot’s cabin Jack turned to Mr. Czito.

  “May I speak with you alone for a moment?” Jack asked Mr. Czito. “Down in the corridor?”

  Mr. Czito looked out of the pilot’s window. He could see Mr. Tesla and the Martian as two small dark figures moving through a sea of grass toward the black cylinder of the Martian airship.

  “Only a moment,” Mr. Czito said.

  Jack and Mr. Czito went out of the pilot’s cabin, crossed the control room, and went out into the main corridor of the ship.

  “I want to go out with the men down below,” Jack said.

  “I can’t let you do that,” Mr. Czito said.

  “Why not?” Jack asked. “She’s my wife.”

  “I understand,” Mr. Czito said. “But your life is my responsibility.”

  “My life is my responsibility,” Jack said. “Give me a weapon and let me go out with the men.”

  “Lt. Nimitz wouldn’t agree to it,” Mr. Czito said.

  “You’re the captain now,” Jack said.

  “Only for the moment,” Mr. Czito said. “Anyway, all the suits and weapons are being used. I have no weapon to give you.”

  “None at all?” Jack asked.

  “All I have is this,” Mr. Czito said, and he reached out of his pocket and pulled out an old Navy revolver.

  “This pistol went all the way with me to Mars,” Mr. Czito said.

  “Does it have any bullets?” Jack asked.

  “Five,” Mr. Czito said.

  “Loan it to me,” Jack said, “and I promise to bring it back to you— without the bullets.”

  Mr. Czito studied Jack’s eyes, and then placed the revolver in Jack’s outstretched palm.

  “You can owe me the bullets,” Mr. Czito said.

  Mr. Czito then turned and went back into the control room. He went up to a sailor and said:

  “Take Mr. London down to the lower deck door and let him go out. If anyone stops you, tell them you’re doing it on my orders as Captain of the ship.”

  “Aye, aye,” the sailor said.

  Jack gave a nod to Mr. Czito and then turned and followed the sailor out of the control room.

  “Continue breathing deeply,” Djudhi said. “Do not hold your breaths, but let the energy flow. Turn your eyes up to your brows while keeping your eyelids closed. That is correct. Now listen.”

  The drum beats began very slowly: Boom! Boom! Boom! Then men and women began to sing a strange song. I could hear the voices of a deep bass and a soprano interweave harmonically around the voices of the other singers. The tempo of the drumming increased, and then there was a metallic clash like cymbals amidst the drumming. A point of light suddenly appeared in the field of darkness under my eyelids. It grew in brightness, expanding into a star of rayed arms. The arms began to rotate.

  “You are seeing the power of your brow wheel,” Djudhi said. “Concentrate on that power. See the star turn and make it turn faster. Make it turn faster. Make it spin.”

  I willed the star to turn, to spin, and faster it did turn, faster it did spin, and as it did, I began to feel the heat on my back fade and the weight of my body decrease. My body began to fill with a surging energy. The weight of my body lessened further. I felt powerful and free.

  “Keep concentrating,” Djudhi said quietly. “Keep turning the star. Make it spin so fast that it becomes a wheel of light.”

  I willed the star to spin faster, and it did spin faster, becoming now a wheel of light. The moment it did, my feet lifted up into the air, then my back, and then I pivoted upon the crown of my head until I was balanced there upside down, then the top of my head lifted off the floor of the cavern— I was floating in mid-air upside down.

  “Do not open your eyes,” Djudhi said. “Cross your arms in front of your chest.”

  I did as Djudhi said.

  “We are all at the first level of concentrated astral power,” Djudhi said. “Now we shall commence the opening of the Third Eye. Look into the center of the wheel. Concentrate on the center of the wheel and nowhere else. Keep your glance focused there.”

  I looked at the center of the wheel and tried to keep my attention there, but in a moment, my glance drifted to the side.

  “No,” Djudhi said. “You are distracted. You canno
t allow that state into your mind. Dedicate your mind to the intention. Look into the center of the wheel and keep looking, keep looking, keep looking as if you would keep looking for all eternity.”

  Again I focused my glance upon the center of the wheel.

  “You are having difficulty,” Djudhi said, “and I now see why. Your astral body is entangled with that of another. I see he looks exactly like you. This is the work of NYMZA. Your astral body belongs in another plane of existence, another time-line, another destiny.”

  I tried to speak, but found that I could not.

  “I hear your thoughts,” Djudhi said. “I understand that you know your condition. We will work upon the entanglement. We will send our thoughts into the other plane of existence and bind ourselves with our parallel selves. We will join our forces, and in doing so, defeat NYMZA. Continue concentrating on the center of the bright wheel before you and think of your parallel self with which you are entangled doing the same thing.”

  I refocused my attention upon the circle of light spinning before me upon a field of dark gray. In a moment the field of gray became red. I thought of my parallel self concentrating upon the wheel and suddenly received a certain knowing of his action; it was my action, my intention, exactly the same— and completely different.

  “You have contacted your parallel self,” Djudhi said. “Now the opening of your Third Eye may commence. Continue concentrating upon the center of the wheel. See the center expand. It expands and keeps expanding. There is no end to its expansion.”

  Now I was seeing the center of that spinning wheel of light expand just as Djudhi described. There was a sense of the center pushing outward in every direction, then the sense of my own self passing into the center and being engulfed in white light, and then the center point opened into a dark circle and came toward me, engulfing me. The dark circle was the view of the cavern before me, an upside down view of the people moving about, singing, beating drums.

  “You are not seeing this with your physical eyes,” Djudhi said, “but with your Third Eye. Your conscious mind has linked with the mind of your astral body and is seeing with its astral eye. Now we will commence the test of fire. Maintain your calm. Maintain your will. Maintain complete serenity of spirit. Now— will yourself to move over the surface of the molten lava.”

  I looked down to the floor of the cavern and out upon all the people. They kept moving and singing and beating the drums. I felt their presence in my body as an uncanny power. I felt the presence of my parallel self floating directly behind me, pressed upon my back and he felt my presence. He and I willed ourselves to rise in the air and move out over the molten rock— and I rose in the air and I moved, and Djudhi and the other priests moved with me.

  Up we floated toward the ceiling of the cavern, its orange glow shining beyond my feet. I could see everything with perfect clarity, and I looked down and saw the white sheet of molten lava glowing with what would have been a blinding light with my physical eyes, but now I was able to gaze down upon it steadily. This very thought suddenly gave me a start in the pit of my stomach and a feeling of power flying away from my body. I started to lower in the air.

  “Do not doubt!” Djudhi declared. “Your doubt is the belief that your limited knowledge of matter controls the unlimited powers of the universe! How little you know! How little we all know! Doubt not your powers, but use them! Use them Houdini! That was your name in this life too— Se-Shu-Teni ‘He Who Counts, Divides, and Separates’. Remember the meaning of your name in this long ago time and use the power of the name: ‘Count, Divide, and Separate’. Use your will to unravel the puzzle of your entanglement with your parallel self.”

  Something stirred within the depths of my memory. It was a very familiar feeling, a feeling of certain power, a feeling of deeply knowing a path of action.

  I suddenly bent up at the waist, then slipped forward and turned upright in the air.

  I had slipped completely out of my physical body and was looking directly at it as it hung suspended upside down in mid-air fifty feet above the surface of the white-hot molten lava. I looked over and saw Djudhi with the other priests floating beside me on either side. My upside down floating body was at the center of the group of floating men.

  “Reach around to your back,” Djudhi’s voice said to me.

  I did as he told me. I reached around and felt my parallel self just as he reached around to feel me, and in that instant we agreed to untangle our cords. Our hands went up into space and grasped our entangled cords where they stretched back to my physical body floating above the caldera.

  Mr. Tesla and the Martian who had impersonated Captain Wilson were walking forward into the clearing. They were no more than fifty feet from Charmian, Dellshau, and TAR-A-GAL who now held Charmian by her arm. TAR-A-GAL stopped, pulling Charmian to a halt. Dellshau was also pulled back, for he had been leaning heavily upon Charmian for support.

  “No further!” TAR-A-GAL barked across the clearing.

  Mr. Tesla and his Martian prisoner stopped walking.

  “Let Captain Wilson come forward,” TAR-A-GAL called.

  “Release you hold on the woman and I will,” Mr. Tesla said. “I told you this was an exchange.”

  “Mr. Dellshau can come forward,” TAR-A-GAL said. “Go on, old man! Run!”

  Mr. Dellshau started forward, his hands outstretched, shaking, trying to balance his steps.

  “Move!” TAR-A-GAL shouted. “Do not waste my time!”

  Mr. Dellshau stumbled forward another two steps.

  “Now release Mrs. London,” Mr. Tesla said.

  “Release the Captain first,” TAR-A-GAL said. “Release him or I take the woman back!”

  “Go,” Mr. Tesla said to his Martian captive.

  The impersonator of Captain Wilson stepped forward— and then ran across the clearing. When he reached Dellshau, he shoved the old man to the ground and kept running.

  TAR-A-GAL shouted something and from over the top of the distant Martian airship, thirty Martians flew into the air, all of them dressed in dark gray anti-gravity suits. TAR-A-GAL began dragging Charmian backwards while the impersonator of Captain Wilson ran rapidly toward the Martian airship. Mr. Tesla ran to Mr. Dellschau and knelt down beside him.

  The Martians in anti-gravity suits swooped down into the clearing and in the same instant, from the stern of the Cypher, a number of sailors in copper-hued anti-gravity suits flew into the air.

  In the next instant the sky was split with thunder and lightning from the ray guns of the Earthians and Martians. Mr. Tesla picked up Mr. Dellschau and began walking the old man back to the Cypher while all around them men in copper-hued anti-gravity suits hovered in the sky and fired their ray guns across the clearing.

  The sky exploded in white-yellow nimbuses of electrical fire, and in the midst of these explosions Earthians and Martians were instantly incinerated.

  TAR-A-GAL was still in the clearing, but was being driven away from his airship by the fire of Earthian sailors. He reached a stand of trees and vines and dragged Charmian along with him into the jungle as she kicked, screamed, and swung out at him with her arms.

  In this ray-gun battle, no one had noticed a single figure running straight across the clearing, straight past bolts of electricity striking the earth, straight through to the other side where the jungle began in a tangle of vines.

  No one had noticed Jack London.

  Down below in the caverns of Mu, I and my parallel self struggled to untangle our astral cords. As I reached out to pull the two intertwined cords apart, a deep laughter echoed all around me— it was the laughter of NYMZA— the voice of that fish-headed monster.

  “You cannot escape,” the fish-head declared. “I hold the key to your destiny. Your Time is now my Time. Too late for you, too late!”

  “The two of you must confront NYMZA intertwined,” Djudhi said. “Until you defeat NYMZA you will not be able to untangle your karmic confusion. You will not be able to return to your home univers
e.”

  “He will never return!” the fish-head roared.

  “Now is the time,” Djudhi’s voice said. “Project upwards Houdini— Se-Shu-Teni! Project upwards and count, divide, and separate NYMZA from this astral plane.”

  I turned toward the ceiling of the cavern and focused my thought at the uppermost part of that great dome.

  Now is the time, I thought.

  Jack was tearing through the vines of the jungle, slashing through a path already created by TAR-A-GAL. He suddenly emerged out of the green tangle of leaves and emerged upon a plain of black volcanic rock. Thirty feet away TAR-A-GAL stood with his left arm around Charmian’s waist, his right hand holding a ray-gun pointed at her head. Jack came charging forward, aiming for TAR-A-GAL’s head with Mr. Czito’s Navy revolver.

  “Halt!” TAR-A-GAL shouted. “Halt or she dies!”

  Jack stopped in his tracks, but did not lower the revolver. He saw that TAR-A-GAL stood at the edge of the giant circular pit from which the red metal sphere rose one hundred feet in the air. Below them the vertical wall of the pit was no more than ten feet from the outermost bulge of the sphere.

  “Drop your weapon,” TAR-A-GAL ordered.

  “Drop yours,” Jack said.

  “I’ll drop a hole through her head,” TAR-A-GAL growled.

  Jack aimed for TAR-A-GAL’s forehead.

  “I will do it, London,” TAR-A-GAL said.

  “You know my name,” Jack said.

  “He burned Wolf House,” Charmian shouted. “He’s the one.”

  TAR-A-GAL laughed insanely, drawing Charmian closer, and then said, “And now I’m going to kill your wife. Drop your weapon. Do it now!”

  Jack stood aiming the Navy revolver at TAR-A-GAL. Suddenly, he dropped the revolver and stepped to one side, holding his palms extended forward.

  “All right,” Jack said. “I’ve dropped it. Now what?”

  “Now what?” TAR-A-GAL sneered. “I’m going to allow you to watch me kill your wife and then I’m going to kill you.”