Chapter 19

The small black spot in visible white space was motionless until it exploded to encase me. It was a sort of tunnel that reminded me of the Dream Vestibule that Ernie took me into. Whatever happened to that guy? He was fun. He also mentioned JJ. Was that the flawless shroud, or the person who made that invisible cloak? Did Ernie age out of his human skin? Was he a full Garavand now? Maybe I’d meet him later. The tunnel snapped shut around me until I was standing beside Fiona again in some virtual ‘scape of a tropical island.

“What took you so long?” she asked.

“Fear, mostly,” I replied. “Where are we?”

“A virtual realism ‘scape,” she said. “One of the few Japanese islands that is not underwater yet. They just accepted that their country will eventually sink even with the desalination nation pulling water out, and began waterproofing everything. Now they have buildings half-underwater that sway with every tsunami and can operate like ships. Smart people adapt to unforgiving nature.”

“Awesome,” I said, looking around. “So where’s Doc?” We stood on a beach with a fake sun in the sky. The data-formed waves crashed against the sand with realistic sound.

“He’d be in his ‘Castle in the Sky’,'' she said, pointing up. I followed her finger, but there was nothing there except a beautiful blue sky. “Here. That’s a special filter. Doc keeps the castle over Japan, but it’s more like a flying ship really.” Fiona held out a small black square. When I took it, a notification message popped up in my vision. It asked if I wanted to put on an: “Unidentified Filter.” I nodded and the black square expanded over my vision as a light gray coat.

Up above, where I could only see the sky before, there was a gigantic structure with a spiky top, and bottom. It looked as if space tore open into the shape of a building hovering above the island, but cast no shadow with the sun.

“Whoa,” I said. “They let him just fly over an island like that?”

“Not a chance,” Fiona replied. “But Doc’s too smart. You can only see the castle using that filter. To others, the sky is clear, not that anyone hangs around in realistic virtual-scapes anymore.”

“How come?” I asked. “You could vacation every day in places you grew up. Especially if those places are now underwater.”

“Why would people care about the realistic V-scapes if they have about a million other ones that allow so much more?” Fiona asked. “Reality is just not enough for most humans, so they escape into fantasy. Can’t say that’s productive, but that’s what the world is right now.”

“That’s just Earth though,” I countered. “Humans are living on other planets, right?” Fiona nodded, holding out an orb of what looked to be glass, but swirling as if liquid.

“The Internet is no longer just on Earth,” she said, handing over the orb just like the one she held with her other hand. “I think they call it something else now. No longer a net, more of a constellation of satellites in the solar system. Oh, yeah, Linkstellation. Link or Stella for short.

“Linkstellation,” I repeated. “That’s a mouthful.” I looked back to her, but she was gone. I found her in the sky hovering over two orbs of swirling air in her hands. I nodded to equip this “Unidentified Object” and watched as the orb of swirling air divided into two of them, hovering over my hands, while lifting me into the air. Something told me these things weren’t legal, but nobody seemed to patrol the realistic V-scapes. The controls were easy enough. Arms controlled the direction that the orb pushed, while the feet worked as if pedals for more and less intensity. It was just like driving a car.

“Follow me,” Fiona said, flexing her feet downward to ascend. I did the same, trying to keep up with her pace. We slowed down when we got closer to the dark purple structure that ventured into black. Fiona flew closer and reached out to touch the surface, vanishing from the sky entirely. I hoped that was meant to happen as I flew up to follow her example.

The shift to the inside was instant, and revealed a true castle within, opening onto a large courtyard with a staircase up to the throne room. Though the structure was grand, the place was empty. It felt deserted until a fanfare announced Fiona’s arrival.

“Arriving: Fiona and Guest!” A voice boomed into the courtyard. A few trumpets void of users played the fanfare, then an explosion drew our attention. Paired with a scream, the young Doc flew through the air of the mentioned courtyard with smoke billowing behind him. The path took him directly into one of the fanfare trumpets, where he slid down all the way to the ground. When he reached the mouthpiece, the man was a bundle of burned skin and clothes deposited onto the steps of his castle in the sky.

“Fiona,” he strained out. “Can you? Please?” She rolled her eyes and threw a red orb at his face. The red smoke billowed and Doc stood up fresh and new. “Ah! Finnelgamin, my boy! How are you getting along as a star?”

“The future's looking pretty bright,” I replied. Everything stopped for a moment before Doc exploded with laughter. His hand slapped my back while motioning to come inside. Fiona stepped up to grab the man’s shoulder, but he was no longer there. His body teleported to the throne, already wearing new threads.

“Greetings,” he said, with an amplified voice. “What do you require?”

“Cut the crap, Doc,” Fiona said. “Finn’s ready for the next stage. Where’s Filigare? He needs to do it, too.” Doc shrugged.

“I think he flew out to greet the sun,” he said. “What’s your hurry, FiFi? The world’s not ending just yet.”

“Maybe not,” she said. “But we need to get Finn and Fil away from this planet before they destroy it by accident.” Doc sighed and tossed the royal scepter at the ceiling.

“Back to the lab then,” he said. He jumped into a portal created with a wave of his hand. Once he was gone, Fiona dragged me over to the throne and jumped in after him. I could only follow her. Just as quickly as we went in, we were out, though I grew curious about the millions of fantastical V-scapes Fiona mentioned earlier.

“How do you feel, Finn?” Doc asked. “Are you getting used to energy-pulsing emotions?”

“Sensing them so far,” I replied. “I’m afraid to try pulsing in case I explode instead.”

“Ah, yes, that’s a good call,” he said, with a goofy smile. He was no longer the old man who delivered my son, but the change was for the better. “Come, come. Let’s get you started on containment outside the human skin. Fil was a quick study. He can no doubt catch up. Come on.”

We walked a few minutes in the large warehouse to a row of tanks reaching about five meters tall and four meters in diameter. Without a word, Doc opened a hatch and attached a large golden ring onto the opening. I felt a strange pulling vibration from the opening, but resisted.

“Alright, now release yourself into the tank,” Doc said and looked into my eyes. “Fiona did teach you about releasing, I hope?” I nodded.

“Well, this is just like that,” he continued. “You just have to let go of the body and the ring will do the rest. Just don’t hold back at all. I need to study your energy. You know, humans have energy just like Zaxi. That’s partially why the experiment worked. Since all living things were once born thanks to a Zaxi, they carry that energy within them, coated with emotions and such. That’s mainly why Tisyros eat the hearts of your race, and why your energy is orange.”

“Does the sun have an actual star name?” I asked. Fiona had one, the long and complicated one that mashed into her human name.

“I suppose it must,” Doc said, clicking a few buttons on his console that increased the energy suction. “I don’t know it off the top of my head, but Filigare would since he just went off to greet it. Anyways, hop in. No need to stall. This will feel better than any other release you have so far felt.” I stepped closer and touched the inhaling ring, but nothing happened until I cut my skin on the sharp golden rim.

The orange light burst from the cut, but bent into the tank like a tail of light. I looked over at Doc who was flashing thumbs up with a grin. I preferred the old and grumpy Doc more. Did he even have a name? The less I resisted, the bigger the tail of light grew until I just closed my eyes and let go into a moment of connection to the whole of the universe in a pleasurable release.

Inside the tank, I no longer had eyes, but could still see, far too much in fact. As Fiona once said, I now had six “eyes” which she called “specters”, each looking in a different direction of the three-dimensional space. I could move them separately, change filters, and zoom in to a microscopic level and out to tunnel vision. In just a few moments, I got the hang of them all. Two eyes remained in the front, while four guarded the back.

“Good!” Doc called from beyond what had to be more than just glass. I zoomed in on the structure to find molecules interacting in a solid form, but had no idea what they were. “Now start forming a body! It doesn’t have to be detailed, just contain the sunburst of energy that is you! Start with a blob that doesn’t touch the sides of the tank!”

I shifted around inside the tank. There wasn’t much space, but I felt bloated. How could I compress that? I imagined trying to suck in my gut and realized it was starting to work. No longer did I feel my body pressing up against the shell of the tank. There was no pain, just pressure to hold that compression.

“More!” Doc shouted. “Push yourself!”

He wasn’t helping, but I fought against the pressure keeping only one specter up while the others were shrouded in energy within the blob of me to focus. I compressed further until I felt fingers and legs form. It was rough to keep it there, but I had a compressed energy skin on the outside of my energy.

“Hold it for ten more seconds!” Doc said and counted down. At Zero, I let go of the pressure, re-expanding in the tank. “Good job! Let’s get you back into your body now!” Doc put a golden ring over the skin and pierced the flesh. Next, he took the golden ring that cut me off the tank to release me. I had no idea why, but the energy of me was drawn to those golden rings. I flowed back into my body in an instant.

“Good first effort, Finn,” Doc said, reaching out a hand to help me stand. “Next time, let’s have you and your son compete, eh?” I sure missed the old grumpy Doc. High energy wasn’t always the best new version.

“I can’t believe Fiona can do it that easily,” I said. “That was like trying not to explode while in space and having no air.”

“Do remember that she had two enids to practice,” Doc countered. “You’ll master it in time.”

“Wait a moment,” I said. “You said Fil went to greet the sun? Wouldn’t he just explode without this training?”

“Relax,” Doc replied. “I loaned him a portable tank to contain himself. All he needs to do is glow at the sun and come right back. It will take a few months, but he should be back soon, a few weeks.

“One lesson I can’t teach you here, is how to compress your energy to dim your light from the visible spectrum. Fiona can teach that to you once you master this first stage.”

“How many stages are there?” I asked.

“Just a few,” he replied. “Depending on how far you want to get with learning. Fi spent her first enid just learning all of this, that’s one hundred million years for earthly beings. I hate to say it, but you’re no longer one of them. They might find it hard to relate.”

“They?” I asked, feeling a flicker of the whisper in white space before I arrived in the V-scape. “Who’s they?”

“Other humans, of course,” Doc replied. “You can’t expect them to understand the woes of a brand new star, can you? Of course not! They have their own timeline to follow, and in this instance Earth is in downfall, but maybe the colonies will survive.”

“Is Ernie dead?” I interrupted. “He was a Garamant a few hundred years back. Did he die as a human, or live on as a Garavand?” Doc put a finger to his chin for a moment.

“He’s fine,” he replied. “But he didn’t age out of his human skin like Filigare, just aged. He’d be around fifty now, something to do with the Garamant aging slower than humans. He may look about fifty, but inside he’s older. You remember how I wanted to test Garamant making a baby with a Zaxient? At first it made sense to try it, but then it turned out to create a black hole. I saved Ernie from it, but Agi was inhaled whole. He’s been moping around ever since that day a few decades ago.”

“Agimalina’s dead?” I asked in disbelief. She was a star, a Zaxient, and she was done in by craving to replicate. Why did that feel so human? Humans had some of the star’s energy inside, after all, the part that Tisyros hunted for. Doc nodded.

“He’s up on the dark side of the moon with another buddy Garamant he found,” he said. “We can go visit him when Fil comes back. Meanwhile, let’s keep trying to have you contain yourself so you don’t go all supernova out there.”

“I have more questions,” I said, but Doc was still. Did he just log back into his V-scape in the middle of a conversation? That was rude. I still had the dongle on the back of my head, but did not feel like chasing after him.

I removed the plastic coin from my neck and decided to walk around, maybe find Fiona if she was still around. She had her freedom back over my sleeping period. If I was still human, I’d be long dead while she kept living as the star. That was a bit of a sad thought. All my human friends were dead, buried, or burned. There was nothing holding me to this tiny rock anymore. The universe was my new playground once I mastered my energy containment and concealment.

 

 

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