Ripped Apart: Quantum Twins – Adventures On Two Worlds (26 page)

The group clapped their hands as they smiled and nodded.

Towering over them, Tullia felt as if she was receiving the audience’s appreciation. She smiled with happiness that, once again, she had managed to say the right thing. Without thinking, she inclined her head as if on stage.

A sigh went around all the Meera, not only had they had felt the power in her imaging, unknowingly, they had absorbed it. Seeing her on fire again, this time they had realised that it was not threatening but a display of her natural power. Now, seeing the smile splitting her face from ear to ear and feeling her happiness, they knew beyond any doubt that she was the young daughter of the Sun Goddess. The gracious inclination of her head had shown that she had accepted her due and was dismissing them.

Why she was lost was a puzzle. And that was for their Shaman to solve, if and when the Goddess so wished. They rose, picked up their blankets, and moved off in different directions.

Tullia felt immense relief. She had played her part, the part they required of an Extra Terrestrial, the audience had applauded, and left. It was to be some time before she discovered that the applause had not been for any performance, but was the Meera’s way of showing that she had touched their hearts.

With her head pounding, Tullia needed to be by herself and in the open. She walked out of the village and into the bush, noting the position of the sun.

It was some time before she saw the tops of very different trees, and made her way to them. The three Mongongos towered high up into the sky. She wrapped her arms as far as possible around the trunk of the largest tree.

‘I must learn their language quickly and explain who I really am,’ she said. ‘Please help me find peace, or my head is going to burst wide open.’

At the foot of their rich, grey trunks was a small area bathed in sunshine and clear of spiky bushes. She settled down to meditate.

The clearing and especially what she thought of as Mother Tree was to become her favourite place for being by herself.

Tullia awoke feeling relaxed and surprised. She never fell asleep when meditating! She got up, brushed sand off herself and her clothes, and rested her forehead against Mother Tree.
Thank you,
she thoughtsent. Although it was a windless day she heard the rustle of its leafless branches.

Checking the height and angle of the sun, she headed back to the village. As she entered the small gate by her hut, Tsetsana approached.

‘You gone long time. I was worried, Great Kehsa,’ was what Tullia heard.

‘I sleep with big trees,’ Tullia replied with a smile.

‘How did you find your way back here?’ Tsetsana asked, in a surprised tone of voice.

‘The sun,’ Tullia replied, gesturing to it. And wondered why Tsetsana went bright red and her aura flared with embarrassment. Not realising that the girl was cursing herself for her stupidity and, at the same time, Tullia was confirming the tribe’s belief in who she was. Naturally, the daughter of the Sun Goddess had asked the sun.

Tullia walked on to the Shaman’s hut. Xameb was sitting outside on a blanket. He rose, gestured, and they sat down together.

He had spoken with Tsetsana about her morning with Tullia. Influenced in particular by what Tsetsana said had been Tullia’s horror at seeing the flame-like markings all over her body, he felt he understood Tullia’s mixture. She was a powerful Goddess who responded as such when approached formally. Yet, in her world she was a young woman and wanted the Meera to see her like that. He would approach her as it appeared she wanted, but carefully.

‘Will you tell me how I may help you find your twin, or…’ he gestured around them. ‘As you are here, will you walk the path of my people?’

Relief flooded through Tullia. For once in her life she wanted someone else to take charge and tell her what to do. And she liked his energy field. He was not afraid of her, although she saw a strong measure of respect.

The more they talked, the more Tullia’s excitement increased. As Gumma had explained, the compiler was reading her thoughts and memory recalls and associating them with Xameb’s words. She hoped it was doing that correctly as she explained that her people had no knowledge of gods or goddesses, instead, they relied on quantum science and the sometimes almost human manner in which it operated.

‘It seems to me the deep ways of our two worlds are very similar. We are only using different words to describe the same things,’ Xameb said.

‘I was thinking the same.’

‘Please explore the Tsodilo Hills. If you open to a deep connection with energies of this land, you will have a strong base from which to reach out to your twin. You understand?’

‘Oh yes. That is like at home. Anything to connect with Kaigii.’

‘Good. I will speak with Xashee. He takes tourists there, knows the paths well and our history.’

‘May Tsetsana come?’ Tullia asked.

Xameb smiled and nodded.

The sun was setting as Tullia returned to her hut. She saw Tsetsana coming towards her, bursting with curiosity, but reluctant to come too close.

‘Not now, Tsetsana, I’m tired.’
Neutrinos! I didn’t mean to sound so sharp
.

Tsetsana immediately looked down on the ground. ‘I am sorry. I did not mean to upset the Sun Goddess.’

Tullia frowned at being addressed as “Uddîšû.” She gave a deep sigh as she accepted that she had been given various titles, and had to learn to put them on when other people used them. It was similar to the time she had taken several small parts in an KeyPoint LiveShow.

The contrast stopped her thoughts with a jolt.
This IS ‘First Contact’. I AM an extra-terrestrial. I AM like an ambassador. If they knew about quarks, twistors, XzylStroems: and Ing! If I could tell them, they would think I’m even stranger than an Uddîšû.

She gave another deep sigh and saw Tsetsana glance at her, and almost shrink inside herself.
She thinks this is all her fault. I can’t cope with all this!
Her legs went weak. Drained of all energy she staggered and held out a hand towards the young Meera.

Tsetsana reacted instinctively and stepped forward. Being so much taller than the Meera, Tullia had to bend down to put her arm over Tsetsana’s shoulders.

Inside the hut, Tullia flopped down on the bed and made faint gestures. Tsetsana was awed at what she was doing for a goddess and at the same time puzzled. She could see she was helping a woman much taller and bigger than herself, but it felt as if she was holding someone the size of her seven-year old sister, Nthabe. Eventually, she got Tullia into her night robe and tucked her into bed.

Too much was going through Tullia’s mind to let her fall asleep. She knew the Tazian third segment structured learning cycles in a precise manner, most especially during the second era between their twelfth and twenty-fourth rebirthdays. As hormones were released in a very specific progression, so youngsters were able to access increasing inner awareness and delve deeper into the knowledge that was held in the Collective and their own third segment. Now, Qwelby and herself were in the fourth phase of their second era: exploring the wider meaning of home and roots.

She sat up, stifling a little cry with her hand. Was this it? ‘The Mystery’ as they thought of it. The reason for Quantum Twins? Was that why she was with the descendants of the Auriganii – in the third dimension – to link them with the Azurii through Qwelby? Restoring an Aurigan ‘home’ by spearheading the reunification of the two races? Tazii and Azurii. They would have to slide through dimensions. In their real bodies. And go home!

Forgetting, she reached for her twin and almost cried aloud at the fierce stab of pain through her mind. Clutching her head she fell back onto the bed and lay there looking through the open doorway, over the other huts and into the millions of stars twinkling in the night sky.

Steadily, she disciplined herself only to think about her twin and where he was as if he were a separate person. Their normal inner communication meant going to the empty corner in her mind. Too much pain. Trying to reconnect through meditation was different. That was outside their internal relationship.
If I focus first on Wrenden, then image Qwelby alongside him…
She smiled wryly at the idea of using Qwelby’s irresponsible youngerest as a helper.

The energies here are so like at home, although much weaker, and there’s a lot about their energy fields I don’t understand, but I know that Xameb does understand. I feel it. I see it in his aura. He will help.
As that knowledge steadied her and the pain in her head turned into its usual dull ache of absence, she rolled onto her side, curled up into a tight ball and fell asleep.

School holidays, late nights, lots of excitement, the children slept late. By the time they came down for breakfast on Wednesday morning, Paavo was at work on the ski slopes, leaving his wife to explain.

‘Last night all four of us agreed. We will not tell the police or anyone about Qwelby. Well, that is who you are or how you got here.’ She saw him looking puzzled. ‘And we need to find a way to explain you.’

‘Why?’ he asked.

‘No-one must know you’re an alien,’ Hannu said, taking over the conversation.

Relieved of the responsibility, Seija got up from the table, telephoned Taimi Keskinen, and got on with her morning chores.

‘But why?’ asked Qwelby. ‘You all know where I come from.’

‘They’ll want to take you away, experiment on you,’ Hannu explained.

‘They’re not all like my Dad,’ added Anita.

‘But we won’t let them,’ Hannu said firmly.

‘So, let’s plan,’ Anita added, tapping the table.

By the time that Paavo returned from work and the Keskinens arrived for lunch, the youngsters had prepared their plans. Viljo was reluctantly dragged into the planning by his daughter’s suggestion.

‘Mmh,’ Viljo grunted, turning to look at Qwelby. ‘Dr Jadrovic has just gone back to his home country. It was an opportunity that came up at the very last minute and was too good to refuse.’ He took a deep breath, blew it out. ‘Anita’s right. We could say that a holiday had been planned and, as he didn’t want to disappoint his son, you’d agreed he could stay with you.’ He looked at the Rahkamos.

‘He was planning to bring his family here’, Taimi added. ‘He’d asked me to speak with his wife and tell her what it’s like. That’s not happening now.’

‘That’s perfect,’ Anita said. ‘That’ll explain why Qwelby’s been learning Finnish. Ready to go to school here.’

‘As he’s on holiday, we’ll have to take him round and show him all sorts of things,’ Hannu added with excitement. ‘Qwelby, you did say you’ve skied and skated on Vertazia?’

‘Oh, yes. I like both.’

‘Hold on a moment,’ interjected Viljo. ‘There’s one thing you need to understand. All three of you. Whatever country you’ve come from, Qwelby, you are already speaking Finnish well. And with a perfect accent. If I understand what is happening, you will be speaking it better as each day passes?’

Qwelby nodded. ‘Yes. I am already starting to understand Finnish.’

‘You?’ Hannu queried. ‘I thought your translator…’

‘No. It doesn’t work like that. It just stores the words and the way of using them in my brain. A mixture of a dictionary and a grammar.’

‘Think simply!’ exclaimed Anita.

Qwelby looked at her. ‘Ah, you mean like a young child?’

‘Exactly!’ Hannu said.

‘All the time?’ Qwelby looked unhappy.

‘No,’ Viljo said. ‘With all of us here you can speak normally. But with everyone else. Speak simply.’

‘Why?’ Qwelby was very puzzled.

‘We can’t learn a language as quickly as you. There are many people here on Earth who will want to take you away and experiment on you to discover the truth about you.’ Unaware of it, Viljo was reinforcing Qwelby’s fear of ‘The Authorities’.

‘Okay, Viljo, it looks as though you have to fill Qwelby in with his background,’ Paavo said.

‘Dr Jadrovitch is Czech,’ Viljo replied. ‘I don’t remember if he told me where he grew up.’

‘That doesn’t matter, Dr Keskinen,’ Hannu said, seizing the initiative. ‘We find a small village in a far corner of the Czech Republic. Search on the internet for some basic information. Qwelby talks about his home as if it was that village. The important thing is that Qwelby speaks so little Finnish he cannot say much.’

‘All that I can understand,’ said Seija with a smile. ‘But Qwelby doesn’t sound like a Czech name.’

‘He can have ‘Newman’ for his family name,’ proffered Anita. ‘Obvious really, isn’t it?’

Qwelby chuckled. ‘I like it. At least that is true, in a way.’

‘I know ‘new man’ is chelovek novy in Russian. But what in Czech?’ asked Hannu.

‘Chelovĕknový,’ was Anita’s swift response. ‘And Kopecký for his first name. It is a real name. It means Hill and he arrived here on a hill.’

Qwelby looked upset. ‘But my name is Qwelby.’

‘That’s okay,’ explained Anita. ‘We can say that Qwelby is your nick-name. You’ve chosen it because you don’t like being called “A hill”.’

‘You’ve got it all planned, haven’t you,’ Taimi said in admiration.

Anita smiled and nodded. ‘Yes. I was thinking all last night.’

‘Okay,’ said Paavo bringing the attention of the three children back to him. ‘You understand what Dr Keskinen has said. You, Qwelby, must be very careful how you speak to other people. And you two must remember he is Czech…’

‘Right, Dad. Got it. Can we go skiing now?’ Hannu interrupted.

Paavo looked at his watch. ‘There’s less than two hours of daylight left.’ He glanced around the other adults. ‘All right. And Qwelby, remember. Try not to speak at all today. Just listen. Okay?’

Qwelby nodded, his seriousness making him look a lot older.

‘Your eyes!’ Anita exclaimed. She had been watching Qwelby, fascinated by how he changed so much, telegraphing all his feelings especially through the shading of the colours in his eyes. ‘You’ll need to keep your ski goggles on all the time,’ she explained. ‘Shame,’ she added at the thought of the almost hypnotic quality being shut away.

‘I’ve got a pair you can have,’ Paavo said. ‘They’re quite dark.’

‘And you two,’ Viljo said looking at the two Finns. ‘Remember. Speak simply to him!’

‘Yes, Dad, we understand!’ Anita confirmed.

‘Yes, Dr Keskinen,’ said Hannu, trying to look serious as he jiggled with excitement. Who knew what powers “his Alien” had!

The two fathers shared a look, turned and nodded to their children.

‘Thanks Dad,’ the youngsters cried in unison, leaping to their feet.

‘I’ve got an old pair of boots should fit you,’ Hannu announced as the two boys ran up the stairs.

‘Meet you there,’ shouted Anita as she dashed into the lobby, heading for her coat, boots and home.

Qwelby’s eyes lit up. As he followed Hannu up to his room the thought of action swept away his feeling of unhappiness at the deception, and put to the back of his mind the problem of how he could possibly talk about his home as if it were on Earth!

After dinner the three gathered in Hannu’s room and they had a long talk about deception. Between them they agreed that Qwelby was playing a game. The rules forbade him from speaking his own language; he had to tell as few outright lies as possible and being ‘economical with the truth’ as Hannu put it, was a specific requirement. Even so, Qwelby was very unhappy as it was such a big conflict with the whole of his life and Tazian values.

Failure in a game on Vertazia would have little consequence beyond an almost certain and usually embarrassing forfeit, especially if Tamina had a chance to get her own back on himself or Wrenden for all the tricks they played on her. Whilst it had been made very clear that failure in this game could have very nasty consequences, he had serious doubts that he could consistently tell untruths for very long. On top of that was the worry about making an innocent slip of the tongue. Speak like a little child made sense!

‘You must think about Tullia a lot,’ Anita said.

Qwelby shook his head.
How to explain?

His friends felt the room grow cold as Qwelby’s purple centres disappeared and the ovals of his eyes turned pale violet. The room warmed as his eyes returned to normal. But he looked old and haggard.

‘I’m only half here, on the surface of your world,’ he replied. ‘All the energy connections I’m used to. None of them are here.’ He did not mention their auras, they were so weak compared with Tazian fields and a lot of the time he had difficulty understanding them. ‘Without Tullia in my mind, I’m only half complete. So I’m only a quarter here. And that quarter is desperately trying to focus on functioning in your strange world.’ He waved his hands.

‘It’s made worse by the fact that so much of the simple, solid stuff is what we’ve seen in flikkers, and is not a lot different from what we have at home. Knives, forks, cups, skis. For a moment my mind can blur and I think I’m visiting family who work with the Shakazii. They try to live more like you.’ He sighed. There was too much to explain and without Tullia he did not have the energy.

‘Not having her in my mind is like a permanent ache. I have thought about her a couple of times. Big mistake! I flick to her corner in my mind and that ache becomes a fierce pain.’

‘Your parents. A rescue?’ Hannu asked.

Again the room went cold whilst Qwelby thought.

‘Skiing today has been totally different from at home because working with energy is not possible. I came down that simple, little hill, what you call a baby slope. My focus on what I was doing was so intense I was not aware of anything else. My vision a straight line to the bottom. Somebody could have crashed into me and I would not have known until it happened!

‘At home I would know where everyone else is and what they are doing. I would not have to judge the quality of the snow and have to think of the difference that makes to how to turn and stop. I would know!’

He stopped talking as he realised he was almost shouting in his frustration. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself.

‘My whole life here is like that. Focus on the here and now.’ He paused, looking at his friends’ faces and auras. He saw acknowledgement, if not understanding.

‘Thinking of home, parents, rescue. That’s like the other people on the ski slope. I dare not take my mind of the here and now. When we are together, then I, we, will be able to think of other things.’

Qwelby settled into bed later that night with mixed feelings. In spite of skiing being difficult, with everything so solid and unresponsive that he felt like a beginner, Hannu and Anita were becoming good friends. He could not even go to Kaigii’s corner of his mind and share his deep concern with her.
Oh, Kaigii, where are you? I miss you.
He winced as pain stabbed through his head. If he told her that she would ask what was wrong with him. He could almost hear the scorn in her voice. He would give all his remaining years of energy credits from his studying to hear it!

Leaving the light on, he rolled over to go to sleep. He wasn’t afraid of the dark itself but he didn’t want to be plunged into a nightmare by all the thoughts that he knew were waiting in the shadows. The most worrying was an opposing mixture of fear of being attacked if he left the house by himself, the thought of how to make better use of what he had learnt when he and Wrenden copied Tamina’s dance movements, and a scary sense that somehow he already knew.

Yet there was one consolation. He was aware that thoughtsending did not work like on Vertazia, but something did. As he was telling his story with passion and feeling, he had seen from the way their energy fields were responding that he was taking all his listeners with him. As he sank into himself his Intuition provided the answer. Through his voice they had received his thoughts, images and feelings. He was able to thoughtwrap Azurii!

He sat up with a jerk, wide awake. Was this it? ‘The Mystery.’ A clue to the purpose of Quantum Twins? Were they destined to live on Earth? Spearhead the reunification of the two races? Be a bridge to the Auriganii on Haven? Flying between the two planets would mean dimension shifting… and the ability to go home!

He reached for Tullia and almost cried aloud at the fierce stab of pain. Feeling sweat break out all over his body he held his head in his hands and sagged back against the pillows. A kaleidoscope of images assailed him.

Too much. Too much…