Don't Label Me! (28 page)

Simon continued to prepare his carrots for
steaming. He intended to make a carrot sauce to go with the night’s
dinner. Just as a trance state caught him by surprise he grabbed
the edge of the kitchen bench in time to slow his fall. A vision
flashed through his mind that could only mean one thing. His carrot
sauce would have to wait. He called out with his mind to the
necessary parties and teleported to Boswell’s sacred grove to await
their arrival.

“
Simon?” His mother studied him with
concern when she arrived. “You felt it too?”

“
I did.”

They waited for the others to arrive and
then addressed the hastily convened meeting of their small
alliance. “I’m sorry to drag you away from whatever you were doing
but this was too important to wait.”

“
The declining geomagnetic field.”
Polemarch queried sounding very much like he’d anticipated what
Simon was about to say.

“
Yes. We’ve known for the last one
hundred and sixty years or so that the magnetic field was
weakening. The last time this happened was about 41,000 years ago.
Then the poles switched but only for about 250 years or so before
reverting. It was an aberration but one that spelled the decline of
the neanderthals and many other species. The last time the poles
properly shifted polarity was some 780,000 years ago. That sort of
time period is generally called a chron. The name is not important
but what you need to know is that when a chron comes to an end the
poles switch, pretty much until the end of the next
chron.

And a chron is 780,000 years long?”

“
More or less. That was a problem with
speculating about it. On such a scale the matter of a few centuries
or two, even a few thousand years, is unimportant. Its only a rough
measure.”

Tyra had an uneasy feel about where this was
headed. “But the fact that you’ve called us here in such a hurry
means it's coming soon.”

“
I’m afraid so. We need to prepare and
we need to warn the governments outside this dimension.”

The Shang had been around for the hiccup
41,000 years ago but they weren’t around for the last big one.
“What can we expect?” Silwa asked.

Em looked paler in the face than usual. “For
one thing it could upset our dolphins and whales’ ability to
navigate the oceans. We could have beachings on a massive scale.
Migratory birds could go towards the wrong season, thinking they
are heading north for summer when actually they are going south,
into winter.”

Simon nodded. “And we can expect the
planet’s magnetosphere to collapse. While, fortunately the collapse
will not be total it will be enough to let in a lot of solar
radiation. Enough to spell the demise of many species and birth
many new forms. Cancers and genetic mutations are likely”

“
Humans?” Eadaoin asked almost
hopefully.

“
Eadaoin!” Tyra gasped.

“
Sorry but your kind are rather a blot
on the planet, those in this fairy dimension excepted. You can’t
blame me for hoping something of this size of an event might not
return balance to the planet. Not quite of the calibre of
restarting the computer but.”

Tyra winced. “I am profusely sorry for what
my kind has done to the planet but please remember we were slaves
to an illusion. An illusion exacerbated by the Din for their own
purposes. It is Sauros Enterprises that bears the brunt of the
blame for what has happened on this planet.

“
Yes, yes, yes.” Polemarch tutted.
“Finger pointing will get us nowhere. We’re not here to judge the
dream of the relative world or its participants. We are here to
help the souls caught up in it, those who think it is all there is.
They are as helpless as people plonked down at birth in front of TV
series with infinite episodes. They’ve come to identify so strongly
with the program that they don’t realise that it is the interactive
product of their collective minds. Their experience of it is so
tangible they feel very real pain, death and suffering. Don’t get
me wrong, I’m not demeaning the worth of the physical world. It was
always meant to be. It is an infinitely variable, ever changing
expression of the unbounded, limitless, intangible, infinite. At
the very least it is a cosmic playground and a teaching tool for
reawakening souls but we need to support them until they realise
their power to turn the dream around and create something akin to a
paradise, as they did in the last golden age. What we need is a
strategy to minimize the damage this event will cause.”

Tyra’s aura suddenly flared into a myriad of
rainbow colours as if she’d fully figured something out and it had
taken her up a notch in frequency.

Eadaoin stared at her in wonder, seeming to
also ponder what Polemarch had said.

Having foreseen Tyra’s ‘aha’ moment Simon
handed Tyra a pendant with a turquoise la stone, to help anchor her
soul then sighed with relief. “Thank you Polemarch. That is indeed
the issue. So with that in mind I suggest we warn our respective
authorities. If you have scientists of any kind in your midst get
them on working out the scale of what we will face. Governments
will need to be warned so they stop plane travel as we near the
event. It may also affect satellites, GPS and the like. They should
get their people to expect to see spectacular auroras at the mid
latitudes. That will be our first real warning that we are nearing
the event horizon but there is no need to panic the masses. A
steady trickle of factual and helpful information on a needs to
know basis should help to keep everyone calm. There will be
conspiracy theorists but there is little we can do to quieten
them.”

“
I could take them out.” Polemarch
suggested. Seeing Simon’s glare he quickly amended that statement.
“I just mean lock them up for the duration.”

Simon groaned. “And here I thought you were
the voice of reason. We’re not about to victimize the most evolved
and awake of the population even if they are a little off the mark
in some of their theories. No we’ll get Tyra’s communication team;
Ally, Red’s production crew and perhaps some help from Yiannos and
Evie from the Rasselas. They can collectively manage what’s put out
on the web. Keep excessive fear mongering to a minimum. Counter any
of the more ridiculous claims.”

Boswell’s headmistress frowned. “But it is
something to fear isn’t it? And anyway, why am I here? I don’t
exactly represent any of our allies.”

“
Fear is justified yes but it will not
be the end of the world. Worldwide panic would destroy civilisation
as we know it. And you’re here, Adelaide, because I’ve nominated
you to be our ambassador to the Translavians. We need them in the
alliance before all this goes down.”

“
The Translavians?” Adelaide
quizzed.

“
I think your kind calls them
vampires,” Eadaoin whispered in her ear. “And yes, they are as real
as me.”

“
Oh!” Adelaide gulped. And then she
blushed as her imagination played with the possibilities. She hoped
they lived closer to their image in romance novels than their
reputation in horror movies.

“
A bit of both. Some can be quite
civilized while others are egomaniac pricks,” Simon commented
directly to her as he read her mind.

“
So the big question,” Em interrupted
before they got off track. “When?”

“
Within the next few
months.”

“
Can we be more precise than that? A
lot of lives are likely to be affected.”

Simon looked to his mum hoping she knew
something more than he’d perceived.

Ma shrugged “Let me and Meta, commune with
the core of the earth. I might also get Eleni, the geologist from
the Rasselas to do the same as she has a remarkably strong affinity
with the inorganic kingdom on the planet. I’ll let you know
anything we find out. Maybe you should also question the akashic
field and contact the Malakim high council Simon. Find out what
usually happens in such events on other planets when such big flips
occur. There are those among the Malakim who are older than us. Our
keepers of wisdom should know.”

Tyra worried whatever they did might be too
little too late. “Shouldn’t we bring forward our plans to repair
the genetic glitch in the animal life on this planet. If solar
radiation getting through can cause damage we need everyone at
their fittest.”

Simon looked within. Could they achieve such
a mammoth undertaking in such a short time?

While Simon searched the akashic Em had a
bright idea. “The bottom of the food chain. You said Jnarn has an
retrovirus. Infect the krill with that and let the food chain takes
its course.”

Polemarch looked at the gray and white
delphine currently in humanoid form. He might be like a fish out of
water but the man was right. “The virus should spread
exponentially. At first it will seem like nothing is happening but
then it will take off. We will need to do some computer modelling
to check that it will get to the top predators in time.”

Simon returned from his introspection. “It
is a plan that has much merit. I’ll break the news to Jnarn so he
and Helena can get cracking on it right away. I think we’ll need a
Plan B though.”

“
If I could raise a separate matter of
import to all our kinds.” Polemarch interrupted.

“
The aura watchers who can spot us
whenever we are outside this dimension.” Simon knew what was on his
mind. Sakla might suspect Polemarch but he didn’t need being outed
as having a rainbow aura. Exceedingly bright auras marked all in
their alliance as ‘other’. “Upal has a temporary solution for us
while you seek them out Polemarch.” He handed each of the
representatives a sample of the garments Upal had made. “These have
been woven from nanotubules of carbon alloyed with rare earths.
Upal did ramble on about the details but...” He grinned, knowing
none of them wanted to spend all day going into the science of it.
“Suffice to say that they will appear to dampen the appearance of
our auras to near normal human levels. Cloaking technology Upal
called it although I don’t know if that term was his attempt at a
joke. The clothing will not harm us or the real strength of our
auras in any way. It works a bit like the way stealth bombers are
kept off the radar.” The analogy was overly simplistic but it would
do.

Polemarch unwrapped his bundle and noticed
that, unlike the ankle length hooded coats the others had received,
it looked exactly like the uniform he had on. “Thank you. As for
Plan B, I think we need to recruit these aura watchers to our side.
We are very few in number. If we can use the aura watchers to spot
those in the population who are close to ascending to our level we
might be able to intervene and give them the nudge they need.
Perhaps a selective administration of the retrovirus backed up with
some kind of amplification of their energy field. If we can’t get
the virus to everyone in time through the food chain then we go
with the hundredth monkey principle and get as much of the planet
out of the illusion before this shit goes down. Target those who
are already well on the way awakening, like environmental and
social activists, the spiritual advanced and your conspiracy
theorist pals. Maybe it will be enough to trigger a mass
awakening.”

Simon looked directly at Polemarch. “You
realize that Sakla is not going to like it when his slaves wake up
to what he’s been doing.”

Polemarch shrugged. “Times change.”

The impending planetary blip aside life had
to go on and that meant dealing with Boswell’s rubbish. Ang backed
the dump truck up as Em shifted the levers to dump their load from
the glass they had collected.

Ang looked at him concerned he still might
dehydrate.

“
I am fine my angel. Your essence and
the special skin moisturizers Jnarn made for me are working well
but I would like to teleport back to the sea soon for a dip or I
will need to spend time in the air humidifier he’s set up. What are
you going to do with this load?”

“
At the moment we are just stockpiling
it. The thinking is that if we need anything made of glass we’ll
melt it down and reform it into whatever products we
need.”

“
And the paper waste?”

“
We’ll dump that in the industrial
shredder. The waste will be mixed with a slurry of waste water and
turned into fuel bricks. We may also use it for making paper mache
compostable products.”

“
And the dreaded plastic?”

“
Well that’s a bit tougher because
there are so many types and grades. There’s lots of stuff that sets
rock hard with heat and can be never reformed into anything else.
What we want is the plastics that melt under heat, thermoplastics
Upal calls them. They’re a bit more useful for
recycling.”

“
Doesn’t look like you have that much
anyway.”

“
No, Boswell’s trying to phase out its
use, except where a product can only be made in plastic and is
necessary for maintaining our current technology. Our scientists
are working on better technologies that won’t need even that little
bit. As for the chemicals, our biggest problem is batteries.
They’re just chock-a-block full of nasties. George and Ally are
looking at alternatives that don’t need the worst chemicals like
lithium, sulfuric acid and so on. Hair chemicals come a close
second on the nasty scale but thankfully no one in Boswell needs to
dye their hair anymore to hide the gray. If they want to perm it
Simon says they should work on using their minds to create the
effect.”