Nous regardions les pièces mises aux enchères. Lise, ma femme, est ma compagne de vie ; nous sommes mariés depuis 43 ans. Elle espérait faire une bonne affaire en achetant une peinture de grand maître de grande valeur pour quelques centaines de dollars.

Elle regarde l’émission Antique Roadshow chaque semaine et adore acheter des objets à bon prix. Elle s’intéresse à l’art, aux petits bureaux charmants, aux meubles, à la poterie… toutes sortes de choses.

Si je ne mettais pas de limites, notre maison serait déjà remplie au point de ne plus pouvoir y circuler.

Malgré tout, elle m’a convaincu de l’accompagner à cette vente aux enchères de biens saisis à un trafiquant de drogue, à l’hôtel Marriott de Palmetto Dunes, une plantation située à mi-chemin sur l’île de Hilton Head, au sud de la Caroline du Sud. L’an dernier, elle était allée seule à une autre vente de ce genre et avait regretté mon absence : il y avait des œuvres de grands maîtres que nous aurions pu acquérir à bas prix.

Nous avons une galerie d’art à Shelter Cove Harbor. Cela fait presque huit ans que nous y sommes. Nous aurions pu revendre certaines de ces œuvres à dix ou vingt fois leur prix d’achat. Mais j’étais hésitant ; difficile de savoir si ce sont des originaux, surtout avec à peine une demi-heure pour les examiner et du papier kraft couvrant l’arrière des toiles.

Je n’ai pas besoin de parier sur une bonne affaire potentielle ; notre galerie marche bien et j’en suis heureux. Je remercie Dieu chaque jour : le temps est magnifique, presque toujours ensoleillé, et je joue au golf trois fois par semaine en tant que membre du Palmetto Dunes Club. Les autres jours, je peins et gère la galerie.

Parmi les sculptures, un objet étrange a attiré mon attention. Il avait deux cornes d’environ deux mètres qui s’arquaient pour former un cercle parfait, sortant d’un socle de 60 par 120 cm. Je n’ai pas reconnu le métal utilisé, et sa surface semblait incroyablement lisse : quand j’ai tenté de le toucher, je n’ai pas senti de contact réel. Il y avait des boutons sur le côté ; j’en ai pressé quatre à la fois et un champ électrifié s’est formé dans le cercle. J’ai immédiatement appuyé à nouveau et le champ a disparu.

J’ai regardé autour de moi : personne ne semblait avoir vu ce qui s’était passé.

Je suis amateur de science-fiction et titulaire d’un baccalauréat en chimie. Pour moi, cet objet valait l’achat. Qui sait ? Peut-être un artefact laissé par des extraterrestres. C’est fou, non ?

Un couple sympathique l’observait aussi ; j’espérais qu’ils ne miseraient pas, car j’avais décidé de l’acheter si le prix ne montait pas trop.

J’en ai parlé à ma femme, mais elle le trouvait affreux et sans intérêt. Elle m’a plutôt montré quelques poteries, sculptures et tableaux qui lui plaisaient.

La vente a commencé. L’objet en question a été proposé à 500 $. J’ai levé la main. Le même homme que précédemment a offert 1 000 $. J’ai monté à 1 500 $, mais il a finalement remporté l’objet pour 5 000 $.

Lise m’aurait fait la tête pendant une semaine ou deux si je l’avais acheté plus cher. Je l’ai donc laissé filer… mais avec le sentiment d’avoir perdu quelque chose d’important.

Quelques semaines plus tard, j’ai eu la surprise de voir ce couple entrer dans ma galerie.

Ils ont regardé un peu, puis m’ont demandé le prix d’un de mes plus grands tableaux : un paysage fantastique très moderne de 152 cm par 122 cm, avec un feuillage rouge vif au bord d’un étang. Je leur ai dit 12 000 $, plus 1 000 $ pour l’encadrement.

— Je m’appelle John Edwards, dit l’homme. Pam et moi avons une maison à Palmetto Dunes. Nous le voulons, mais vous devrez venir l’installer chez nous.

C’était vendredi après-midi et mon week-end était déjà rempli.

— Aucun problème, je peux venir lundi matin.

Il m’a payé en entier. Avant qu’ils ne partent, je leur ai demandé ce qu’ils pensaient de l’objet acheté.

— Oh, je me souviens de vous ! dit John. Vous enchérissiez aussi dessus, non ?

— Exact. Avez-vous remarqué qu’il est étrange ? L’avez-vous montré à quelqu’un ?

— Non, il est dans notre salon.

— Si vous appuyez sur les quatre premiers boutons du socle, un champ électrique semi-transparent apparaît. C’est très étrange. C’est pourquoi je voulais l’acheter : je pense qu’il n’est pas de fabrication humaine.

— Je regarderai ça en rentrant, et lundi quand vous viendrez, on en parlera.

— Parfait. À lundi, 9 h.

Ce lundi, j’ai emballé soigneusement le tableau et ma femme m’a aidé à le fixer sur le toit de notre minivan.

La maison de John donnait directement sur la plage. Le terrain devait valoir à lui seul 5 millions de dollars, la maison probablement 8 ou 9. Je suis monté frapper à la porte. Pas de réponse. La porte n’était pas verrouillée. Je suis entré.

— John ? Pam ? Vous êtes là ? ai-je crié. Rien.

— Tu ne peux pas entrer comme ça, Richard, dit Lise. Tu pourrais te faire arrêter.

— Tu as raison. Marchons vingt minutes. S’ils ne sont pas revenus, on partira et je les rappellerai.

Nous avons marché, puis je suis retourné à la maison. Toujours personne. Je suis entré à nouveau, puis allé dans le salon. L’artefact était activé : un cercle de lumière douce et transparente, à travers lequel je ne voyais plus le mur du fond, mais… une pelouse. Une pelouse légèrement translucide.

J’ai été chercher une cuillère en bois, une fourchette métallique et un gant de four. J’ai touché le champ avec la cuillère : elle est passée à travers et a touché l’herbe. Idem pour la fourchette. J’ai ramené des brins d’herbe. Tout était intact.

J’étais convaincu : c’était une porte vers un autre monde, bidirectionnelle.

J’ai touché le champ avec mon doigt : aucune sensation désagréable. J’ai passé toute ma main, puis j’ai saisi une poignée d’herbe de l’autre côté et l’ai ramenée. Pas de dommage.

Je décidai d’attendre quelques jours pour observer d’éventuels effets secondaires. Ensuite, j’y retournerais, bien préparé.

Je suis sorti et ai tout raconté à Lise.

— Tu aurais pu te faire électrocuter ou perdre ton bras, dit-elle.

— Tu sais que j’ai un sixième sens pour sentir le danger. Je n’ai rien perçu de menaçant. Et depuis le début, je soupçonnais que c’était une porte vers un autre monde.

Je pense que John et sa femme y sont allés. J’irai voir chaque jour pendant deux semaines. Ensuite, j’irai les chercher.

— Tu es fou, dit-elle. Mais elle savait que je tiendrais ma promesse.

Je me suis procuré un permis de port d’arme, ai acheté un pistolet, un couteau et tout ce qu’il fallait pour survivre en territoire hostile.

Sept jours plus tard, j’étais prêt. Lise était avec moi. J’avais laissé une note pour la police, au cas où je ne reviendrais pas. J’avais aussi fait un testament mis à jour.

J’ai jeté mon sac, mon arme et ma bombe de peinture de l’autre côté, embrassé Lise et dit :

— Je reviens tout de suite, juste pour te montrer que je peux.

Je suis passé. Une pelouse. Je marquai l’emplacement avec de la peinture. Puis je suis revenu.

— Tu vois ? Je suis revenu. Je vais y aller, chercher John et sa femme. Si je ne suis pas revenu dans trois jours, appelle la police.

Je repassai.

L’air sentait bon, les oiseaux chantaient, il faisait environ 24 °C. Le sentier menait à une forêt de chênes, d’érables, de bouleaux, et d’arbres fruitiers.

Des buissons de framboises et bleuets : délicieux. Pas de moustiques. Des loutres gambadaient à côté de moi. Sur la gauche, un terrain de golf. À droite, l’océan. Devant, un village suisse magnifique. Des gens me saluèrent. Je les rejoignis.

— Bienvenue au paradis, dit un homme, Henry.

Je lui expliquai ma venue. Il me confirma que John et Pam étaient là. Nous parlâmes, il m’expliqua qu’ils ne vieillissaient pas ici, qu’il était arrivé juste après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, et semblait pourtant avoir à peine 60 ans.

Je demandai à retourner chercher Lise.

Il me ramena en voiturette de golf. Je retrouvai Lise, la convainquis de venir. Nous passâmes de l’autre côté.

Henry nous fit visiter, nous expliqua tout : pas de cuisine, les repas sont pris en cafétéria, préparés par des machines. Nous goûtâmes. C’était délicieux. L’ivresse était agréable, mais contrôlée.

Je jouai au golf. Les animaux, tous vieux de plusieurs décennies, nous accompagnaient.

— Pas de prédateurs ici. Les portes ne laissent probablement pas entrer les gens malveillants, dit Henry.

Il y avait 18 villages, souvent à moitié vides. Il y avait de la place pour tout le monde.

— Passez une nuit ici, vous serez conquis. Une semaine, et vous ne voudrez plus partir.

Lise et moi avons passé la nuit. Le lendemain matin, John était de retour. Il me proposa sa maison de 12 millions et tous ses avoirs si je retournais les formalités. Il ne voulait plus jamais revenir sur Terre. La porte pouvait s’éteindre à tout moment.

Je fis les démarches, revins avec un avocat, fis signer les papiers, et pris possession de tout.

Mais après deux semaines dans ce luxe, quelque chose me manquait.

— Tu sais, Lise, le plus beau jour de ces 20 dernières années fut celui que nous avons passé dans ce paradis.

— Que veux-tu dire ? demanda-t-elle.

— Passons une semaine là-bas. Ensuite, on décide : vivre pour toujours heureux, ou rester ici, vieillir et mourir à l’hôpital.

Elle accepta.

Nous y sommes retournés. Et nous sommes restés.

Je suis revenu une dernière fois pour filmer une vidéo, laissant tout derrière moi à celui qui trouvera la maison. Le code de la grille est 7707. Bonne chance. Adieu.

Quelques jours avant de préparer la publication de mon troisième livre d’art, Modern Impressions Book 3, j’ai vécu une visite des plus étranges dans ma petite galerie d’art située sur l’île de Hilton Head.

Un homme très séduisant et bien habillé est entré ; il dégageait une telle énergie et une telle assurance que j’ai immédiatement pensé qu’il deviendrait peut-être un client.

J’étais à l’arrière de la galerie en train de peindre. Je me suis rapidement essuyé les mains et j’ai attendu qu’il s’arrête devant l’un de mes tableaux. C’était le bon moment : je suis allé vers lui.

— Bonjour ! dis-je avec un sourire engageant.
— Bonjour ! répondit-il.

Le tableau en question était un paysage de 91 cm x 91 cm, sans doute le meilleur que j’aie jamais réalisé. J’avais bon espoir de conclure une vente avec cet homme fascinant.

— D’où venez-vous ? demandai-je, espérant détendre l’atmosphère.
— Je viens de partout et de nulle part !

Cette réponse m’a surpris. Il ne ressemblait pas à un illuminé, mais c’était une réponse étrange. Mon espoir de vente venait de chuter. J’ai quand même décidé de continuer à jouer le jeu.

— Quel est votre nom ?
— Tu peux m’appeler Dieu ! répondit-il en souriant.

Wow ! Celle-là, je ne l’avais pas vue venir… Peut-être devrais-je appeler Lise pour qu’elle vienne rencontrer ce drôle de personnage. Mais avant cela, j’ai décidé d’approfondir un peu la conversation. Lise, c’est ma femme, une femme merveilleuse, mais elle n’aime pas quand je lui parle des choses étranges qui m’arrivent. Elle lisait un livre derrière le comptoir. J’ai donc attendu encore un peu avant de l’appeler.

— Ce tableau que vous regardez est peut-être le meilleur paysage que j’ai jamais peint. Il y a un bel équilibre entre les éléments, un jeu de lumière intéressant, une belle harmonie de couleurs, et le mouvement de mon couteau à palette lui donne une vie propre.

— Je l’aime aussi.

— Il est à 10 000 $.

— Je sais, Richard !

Il connaissait mon nom, mais je ne me souvenais pas l’avoir déjà rencontré. Ma mémoire est tellement mauvaise… Les visiteurs se souviennent généralement de moi, mais moi, je ne retiens pas tous ceux que je croise chaque jour. Je n’ai pas voulu le froisser en lui demandant où on s’était vus. J’ai laissé passer.

— Vous le voulez ?

— Oui, je l’achète.

C’était trop facile. J’avais du mal à croire qu’il était sincère. Et pourtant, ce genre de personne, qui dit qu’on peut l’appeler Dieu, pourrait bien acheter un tableau juste pour prouver son importance.

— Vous payez par chèque ou carte de crédit ? demandai-je, doutant de plus en plus que cette vente aboutisse.

— J’ai déjà payé ! J’ai transféré l’argent sur votre compte courant !

Wow ! Celle-là était forte… mais facile à vérifier. Les artistes n’ont pas souvent beaucoup d’argent sur leur compte, alors quand on en a, on surveille de près le solde. J’avais justement reçu mon relevé la veille : 38 000 $. Je l’avais même montré à ma femme pour lui faire plaisir. J’ai décidé de continuer à jouer le jeu.

— Voulez-vous que je vous l’emballe ?

— Pas besoin, je l’ai déjà dans mon bureau !

— Mais… le tableau est toujours au mur…

— Je vous ai fait une copie, répondit-il.

Là, ça devenait vraiment étrange.

— Lise, viens s’il te plaît rencontrer mon visiteur.

— Il n’y a personne avec toi, Richard. Tu parles à ton tableau ou à un personnage imaginaire.

Je me suis retourné… et l’homme avait disparu. Il s’était simplement… volatilisé. Pourtant, j’étais persuadé que ce n’était pas une hallucination. C’était trop réel.

Peut-être y avait-il un moyen de savoir si tout cela était vrai : vérifier mon relevé bancaire. Je suis allé à mon bureau et j’ai sorti le relevé.

— Que fais-tu ? me demanda Lise.

— Tu te souviens combien il y avait sur le relevé hier ? Je te l’ai montré.

— Oui, 38 000 $, non ?

— Oui, c’est ce que je me rappelle aussi.

J’ai ouvert le fichier… et là, sous mes yeux : un nouveau total, 48 000 $ !!!

Je me suis mis à trembler. C’était vrai. Je venais de rencontrer Dieu. Et Il avait acheté un de mes tableaux. Et… le tableau accroché dans notre galerie était une copie faite par Dieu Lui-même !

J’étais sous le choc. Dieu aimait mon travail, Il était entré dans notre galerie, avait parlé avec moi, et avait acheté ce qui était peut-être mon meilleur tableau, qu’Il avait accroché dans son bureau. Mais où pouvait bien se trouver son bureau ? Comment l’argent avait-il été transféré sur mon compte ?

J’ai appelé la banque. On m’a dit que les fonds provenaient d’un virement depuis une banque suisse. Je n’ai pas demandé plus de détails ; je n’avais pas besoin de connaître le nom de cette banque. C’était la vie privée de Dieu. Et je n’allais le dire à personne. Je n’ai donc rien demandé de plus au banquier.

J’ai aussi décidé que je ne vendrais pas la copie que Dieu m’avait laissée. Je l’ai laissée au mur, à la même place, avec une petite carte en dessous : « Copie de Dieu – Non à vendre ».

Lise m’a dit que les gens allaient se moquer de moi en voyant ça, que je serais ridiculisé, que cela pourrait nuire à la galerie. Je m’en fichais. Je ne pensais pas que cela serait nuisible.

Je ne l’ai jamais vendue.

Cet événement remonte à 21 ans. Alors maintenant, je me demande : est-ce que c’est vrai ? Est-ce que j’ai tout inventé ? Est-ce que j’ai rêvé ça et fini par croire que c’était réel ? À vous de décider. Peut-être que j’ai tout rêvé, non ? Après tout, je suis un écrivain de fiction. J’ai inclus cette histoire dans mon livre relié Modern Impressions Book 3, et cela ne m’a jamais nui.

Dans les 19 années suivantes, j’ai réalisé et vendu plus de 4 000 tableaux originaux — un succès sans précédent. J’ai fermé ma galerie de Hilton Head Island en décembre 2019. Je continue de peindre, et vous pouvez me rencontrer dans mon atelier d’artiste à Boynton Beach, de novembre à fin avril chaque année. Le reste de l’année, je suis dans mon atelier à Laval, Québec.

| HISTOIRE EN ANGLAIS |

I am a careered artist-painter living in Hilton Head Island, SC. I am 75 years old, five feet nine inches tall, handsome for my age, in good shape and still sharp mentally. It is the reward for working out every day and jogging three to four times a week. I also play golf three times a week and work at my Hilton Head Island art gallery.

My wife is with me, and I feel blessed to have a lifetime companion on my side at the autumn of my life. We migrated to the USA a long time ago with an E-2 visa and opened an art gallery in Palm Beach Gardens FL. We then open another one in Washington DC and later in Naples FL.

 Shortly after I opened my art gallery in Naples, many years ago, I started to have problems, all kinds of problems. My partner emptied the joint bank account and started to borrow paintings from our inventory. We ended up with two art galleries, him, getting the best location. Then, there were problems with my landlord that ended up in an aggression on me, an arrest of the Landlord and his wife and a lawsuit.

 Lise, my charming wife wanted to get back to Montreal and live there. Something, some kind of interior message was telling me to hang on, that better days were ahead. I did not want to lose her; I loved her dearly, but my twins and oldest daughter were living in Montreal, and I missed them too. To go through those hard times, I was doing long walks at 5:30AM, following an old trail in the everglades close to Marco Island. It was dangerous; there were black bears there and Florida panthers and saltwater crocodiles. It was one of two spots in Florida where you could find these crocodiles. I was armed with a long knife and a quarterstaff. I never met anyone while taking those walks and I liked that. I had found a nice resting place to sit and think about my life and my values. I would just relax and abandon myself to whatever come to my mind.

 In those meditating moments, I started to get images coming up at the corner of my left eye; they would not stay long enough for me to see what they were. I decided to try to immobilize one of those images; every day I tried to do it and one day I succeeded in catching the fast-disappearing images and saw a strange world. At that time, I wondered what would happen if I did an astral trip to that world; I relaxed every part of my body, eliminated all thoughts from my mind and then I tried to turn my soul over from right to left and back up out of my body; I succeeded, I went out and saw myself underneath and I could still see the strange world. I tried to move there and suddenly I was there, sitting on the ground, in a wheat field and in my body. I was there, trapped in another world, a dangerous world since I could hear from a distance the roars of a large predator.

 I was in shock; I should have thought about the danger of trying to do an astral trip to another world but no, I didn’t even think, I just did it. I often hate myself and regret the risks I take; all my life I put myself in trouble and only with my incredible luck and strong sense of immediate danger did I survive. Now that was just the worst move, I had ever made. There was a nearby forest of extremely tall trees with creepers coming down from the lowest branches. I ran to it and climbed up the enormous trees and found all I needed to survive in the canopy, nourishing fruits and eatable leaves.

 I spent many years there; I was alone for the first few years, I cried many times thinking about my wife and my children, my friends, all those people that I would never meet again. One day, I met the Birdies, an alien species that had evolved to a very high technological and philosophical level; they had built spaceships, visited several worlds before landing there and decided that here would be their home from now on. They were telepaths and they helped me develop some latent powers that we humans would be blessed with in millions of years more of evolution if we survive that long. I got younger in that world.

 One day, I started to get those fast-disappearing images in the corner of my left eye, and I found my way back to Earth; in the same spot and at the same time I had left. I realized that the timeline on this strange world was perpendicular to our timeline so I could go there and spend several years and come back at the same time I left. I called it “The Perpendicular World” and made many trips there over the years but not lately, though, I think I lost the ability to do it.

 My wife doesn’t know about my trips to the Perpendicular World and if I had told her, she would not have believed me and she would not have liked it. Lise doesn’t want anything weird in her life and I respect that. Then, we moved to Hilton Head Island, South-Carolina where I became a member of the Palmetto Dunes golf club. A fine group of people made that club and I felt welcome, I felt at home there.

 I lived a quiet life for a few years, playing golf three days per week and spending time at the gallery the rest of the week. Lise and I had a long walk every night or a long bike ride on the firm beach or through the streets of Palmetto Dunes community. One day, Lise saw an ad in the local newspaper about a drug dealer auction; the ad mentioned that there were some great masters’ paintings to be auctioned. We went to the auction, and I found amongst the sculptures an alien artifact! I was a chemist and could tell that the metal it was made of could not be of Earth origin. I discovered later that the artifact was a door to Eden, an artificial world built by a highly advanced species to save some of us before extinction. To know more about what happened, please read my short story One step to Eden.

 My life was simple, and I enjoyed it but events started to accumulate; I wrote two more short stories: “Dracula” and “Saint-Joseph Castle”. The first one is about the Balboars Earth invasion. I was warned in my dream about it and the spirit that contacted me told me about Dracula and his location. That spirit told me we needed its help, gave me its location and told me I could reach it using an astral trip. I had to wake up Dracula who was sleeping for a thousand years in his hidden castle and convince him to help me fight the Balboars. Please read my short story Dracula.

 The other story Saint-Joseph castle was about a Muslim terrorist group; again, I used the powers I developed on the Perpendicular World to find their training camp. I was working directly under the President of the USA, but I faced Satan the real leader of the Ayatollah Khardani terror group just before the camp was destroyed by a USA bomber and I was thrown away, far away, on an evil world. To find out what happened and how I survived and got to Saint-Joseph castle and what happened afterword please read my short story.

 There are many more short stories on my website www.galeriesaintpaul.com but the writing of my Ghama-2, An Afterlife Story trilogy had unpredictable consequences that are about to change my life as well as mankind’s future. I wrote it in Naples Florida, I wrote the trilogy over a period of 4 years, and I titled it “Ghama-2, An Afterlife Story”. I wasn’t prepared for writing. I never expected to write a novel one day. I was a chemist graduated from Sherbrooke University in Quebec, Canada that had turned into an artist-painter.

Beside I grew up talking French only and I learned the rudiments of English when I moved to the USA in 1992. In that story, I was one of the main characters, I had strange dreams at night with images of another world and those dreams were different, they seemed real, and I heard voices, many voices talking to me at the same time.

 I was contacted by the Guardians, immaterial voyagers; spirits of great power visiting our galaxy. They convinced me to recruit several people with special qualities for an afterworld odyssey, a mission that would possibly decide the fate of mankind. The Guardians had come from the future; they had just visited a very unique and strange world inhabited by many sentient species, amongst them was one that showed a rare quality: compassion. That species was mankind, two human colonies of our descendants were living happily on that world; they were the survivors’ descendants of a spaceship crash landing.

 There was a crystal city in that world left there a million years before by Les Semeurs and that city contained enhancing devices that would transform a species into powerful wizards. Les Semeurs had left monuments on many life bearing worlds with messages about the crystal city and its enhancing devices and many technologically advanced civilizations had found their world but had not yet found the hidden and well protected Crystal City.

 The Guardians tried to communicate with the Humans living in that world but none of them were telepaths. They even tried to transport some of them to the Crystal city, but a very powerful force prevented them to interfere. So, they went backward in time and back to the world of origin, Earth, where they tried to find one human with telepathic power. They found none. They went through the centuries and finally found me. My body had been submerged in pulsating magnetic fields, three times a week for thirty years and had been changed. I was a telepath.

 They contacted me in my sleep, showing me images of that world and slowly explaining to me the importance of sending there a group of humans with the mission to find the crystal city. I would have to recruit special people; the Guardians would catch their souls as they die and take them to that world where they would give them a young adult body with additional powers.

 In my story, being one of the characters, I wrote that I thought that the best way to recruit those people was to write a trilogy about that gigantic world and I named it “Ghama-2, An Afterlife Story”. In my trilogy, in my novels, I was one of the characters writing the trilogy. Strange right?

 The planet had a low gravity for its size; it was made of layers of worlds separated by miles of rock. There were hidden access to these underworlds and the surface of that gigantic world had been transformed into a beautiful park by that ancient species, Les Semeurs, before they disappeared millions of years ago leaving the crystal city and its enhancing devices that would transform a species unit into an immortal with the ability to fly or jump instantly onto other worlds light years apart.

 The crystal city was hidden in the Land of Magic and its access was protected by several deadly traps; the ancient species obviously wanted to leave the enhancing devices to an ingenious and morally sound younger species that once enhanced, would take over the control of the entire galaxy and allow other species to mature without fearing destruction or enslavement from more powerful and aggressive ones.

 I told them that I wanted to be one of the recruits; I told them that I didn’t want to go to Heaven and adore God for the rest of the eternity. I had never met him, didn’t know about His qualities so how could I like Him, love Him, adore Him…I thought that God being infinitely more intelligent than me would know if I lie so the only thing I could tell God was congratulation for your infinitely complex universe; there is so much beauty on Earth and beside thank you God for giving us the women and the sexual pleasure and the feelings of love; yes, I could find many things to thank Him for, but spending an eternity to tell Him how much I adore Him, no… I very much preferred to risk my life again and try to find that old city. They told me they were not sure that God exist; they never met Him even though they had traveled for millions of years, and my idea of Heaven was quite amusing.

 They said we would not grow old in our new bodies, but we could be killed either accidentally or by aliens or other predators that roamed the surface of that world. They would give us some armament, swords, knives, bows, lances and the ability to get to speed under attack. They would give us a sense of direction to the crystal city.

 In my story, I kept thinking about it; about the different ways to recruit people without being put into a mental institution and my initial plan to write a trilogy on a group of people brought to that world by the Guardians seemed to be the best way to do it. I told the Guardians of my plans, and I asked the Guardians to influence the ones that would be great candidates, to come to my art gallery. If they buy one of my paintings, I told them, and if I give them the novels, they would be recruited. I would be one of the characters in the book, an artist-painter living in Naples, FL.

 I wrote the trilogy over a period of 4 years and the business became good. It happened in my real life and in the story; my real life seemed to be influenced by what my character in the story was writing. In the story, the Guardians were influencing a lot of people to come to my art gallery, I gave a lot of books, but this was happening in my real life as well…

 I wasn’t sure if I was sane though since I had no more contact with the Guardians but that was in the story I wrote, I was mixing up reality with fiction, getting confused and over the years, I started to wonder if these contacts truly happened. One thing though, I was very happy. My wife, Lise, didn’t like it when I was talking about Ghama-2 to a potential candidate. She thought I would be laughed at, and she didn’t believe that I had been contacted by spirits. I was crazy perhaps all mixed up between what happened in my story and what was happening in my real life.

 It came to my mind that perhaps those characters that I created in my trilogy, John, Joan, Father O’Leary, Krishna and many more could exist in a parallel universe. I thought that God could make it real; that God would perhaps create the worlds and the characters of my novels…
It was foolish right? But it was not so foolish since I met some of my characters on the evil world (read “Saint-Joseph castle”) and it was with their help that I escaped from that world and got to the ring world where I met Saint-Joseph and visited his castle and the Admission Office. But then again, that was in one of my stories, not in my real life, right? I was lost, my mind caught between the adventures I wrote, thinking they really happened. But did they? Was I in communication with a double of me from a parallel universe, sharing his adventures and thinking it really happened to me? When I wrote the trilogy, I never thought that writing it would change my life and man destiny forever. Here it is, this is how the events started.

 A New Beginning

 I didn’t know why I was waking up with the intuition that something important just happened. I was waking up from the deepest sleep and that was rare for I didn’t sleep very much. I usually wake up four or five times a night to go to the bathroom and then I would walk a few minutes through the condo to prevent my night cramps. These inconveniences come with age and at 75 years old, I couldn’t complain. Old age little problems!

My usual thirty minutes morning workout followed by fifteen minutes jogging weren’t enough to prevent aging. I didn’t want to, but I was aging nevertheless. I could just slow down the degenerative process. I had not been to the Perpendicular World for a little more than five years; I lost the ability to go there and that’s where I have been rejuvenating my body from time to time. I have been aging faster since my last trip there; I hoped I still had an extra twenty years to live; that would be time enough to reach my summit as an artist-painter.

 As I was getting up, I looked for my back and legs pain and there was no pain, I felt great, strong, with a zest of excitement. Amazingly, I felt 60 years younger.

My God what was happening to me? I walked to the bathroom and then to the kitchen to prepare my usual tomato sandwich. That’s what I normally eat every morning to stay slim. But that morning, I was hungry, ravenous. Perhaps, I thought, I could eat steak and eggs for breakfast today. Oh boy, I feel so young, so full of energy.

There was a note floating over the dining room table…. and a very strange suitcase sat against my chair.

 A note does not float over a table; it is against the law of gravity. I rubbed my eyes, pinched my arm and the note was still floating. I was awake, I knew it; I had just pinched my arm and felt some pain. I looked around for this to be a hoax; somebody might be hiding, pulling on invisible strings to keep the note from falling on the table. But there was no one. I would have sensed a presence if there were one. Lise, my sweetheart, was still sleeping; perhaps I should wake her up to show her the impossible note, I thought.

 But she didn’t take weird events easily, she would be afraid. She always tried to forget or ignore them and there had been plenty of them in our life. She forgot them quickly, she didn’t want to remember them, so it would be better, I thought, that I just take it, read it and hide it.

 What if the note or the case explodes in my face when I grab it? I thought.

 I always had a solid intuition of incoming danger, and I didn’t feel threatened by these impossible objects. I seized the note, and it came easily into my hand. It was weightless and it looked like a paper note but it didn’t feel like paper. Let’s read it, I thought.

 “Dear Richard, the universe is stranger than one could imagine. It is infinitely complex and even we, the enhanced, are fascinated as we discover some sides of it. You wrote the Ghama-2, An Afterlife Story trilogy and by doing so, you are responsible for our existence. We are the characters of your books. God might have like that story and made it happen in many of the parallel universes. We exist and we have been enhanced into powerful wizards. We are about to leave our galaxy for a very long discovery trip but before we do so, we wanted to thank you for our existence. We went from one parallel Earth to another to find you. There are many copies of you that owe you their existence too, they are all artist-painters and writers, so it wasn’t easy.

 We had to find a world where none of us were present, and we found you. To thank you for our lives we did something to your body; we changed it. We enhanced it but the changes will be gradual. We thought it would be better that way. We thought it would suit you more to contribute personally to the development of your powers using meditation, and the acquisition of knowledge and personal wisdom. We hope you will use your new talents for the good of everyone. We give you an ultimate spaceship. It is hidden on one of the ten thousand islands close to Everglade City. Hilda, an artificial intelligence inhabits its computer and will lay dormant until the day you are ready to use it.

We also went back into the timeline and made some purchases in your name. You are now the main shareholder of very important companies. The case contains your titles. Haverty and Connell, who also managed your important assets, handled your income taxes. Your identity was kept confidential, and we took your name out of the richest men on Earth listings.

 Farewell. from Father O’Leary, Nancy, Joan, John, Tom, Laura, Garry, Thetis, Lazarus, Hilda, Richard, Madeleine…”

 Wow! Wooooow! I thought. Unbelievable! My God! My God! That is awesome. That’s why I feel so good, so energetic right now. They enhanced me, not fully yet but they put the germ of it into my cells and I will slowly get enhanced to a superman level. Wow! Let’s take a better look at my body and my face. Perhaps some of the changes have already taken place.

 I went back to the bathroom and looked again. My face looked a little bit younger, the bags under my eyes had almost disappeared and my cheeks seemed rounder. I looked at my muscular body. There wasn’t much change there; I was already very muscular for my age due to the early morning workout. The skin though seemed to have shrunk tighter to my muscles and I looked healthier. I took my car keys and went back to the dining room where I grabbed the suitcase and the note, and I took them outside. I was in my pajamas, barefoot, but I didn’t want Lise to see them, not yet, and I couldn’t care less about the neighbors; they were usually not up yet at 6:00AM. I went down the stairs, opened the car and placed them behind the backseat, under a blanket. I didn’t know yet what I should do about the whole situation. There were so many considerations.

I was very thrilled with my artist career, I was getting into more galleries and one of them, the most recent one, was very important. They had just bought 100 of my paintings and I had signed an exclusivity contract with that gallery owner for London, Paris, Palm Beach and Hollywood. The owners had told me he would put my work in museums and would invest heavily in producing an art book and mailing it to thousands of their clients. I knew that these people were able to make an international star of me and I was excited.

 My own gallery was doing well too, I had repeated clients that were coming every year to buy some more of my paintings. I also had friendly relationships with several art gallery owners who were selling my art. Every year, one or two of those art galleries would do a show of my recent work and I would share with them the excitement or sorrow coming from a successful show or one that didn’t do so well.

 It was exciting. It was also exciting to move forward financially. There has been excitement and fun in doing things that slowly got me rich and secure. But what fun is there when you are suddenly immensely rich? Well, there are some pleasures that come with being rich; a beautiful house, a condo on the seacoast and a golf course on the other side of the yard; an expensive and beautiful car, the finest chocolate for nibbling when you look at the TV on the largest possible screen. I can add a few more luxuries like trips to Europe and so on. But you rapidly get used to that luxury and soon realize that it doesn’t bring you happiness.

 Happiness comes from the satisfaction of doing good things, from loving and being loved in return, from feeling energetic, from doing things outside of the house, like gardening, fishing, golfing, walking in the woods, sailing…I don’t do sailing, I don’t know how to do it, but I like to go fishing up north; on a quiet lake, far away from the rest of the world and in good company.

Not that I do that often for I haven’t been fishing up north for more than 50 years, but I would have like it if I would have done it again. I like to golf, and I play two to three times a week. I am not very good but good enough to enjoy it. I usually played in the mid-eighties. The first few years since I moved to Hilton Head Island, I played with new guys all the time. They would come for a week or two and they were gone. Sometimes I played two games with the same guys but that was rare. It wasn’t very motivating and when I played a very good game, I had no one to know about it or remember it. It was lonely. So, I became a member of the Palmetto Dunes Club, and I really enjoyed it. Now twelve years have passed since I joined the Palmetto Dunes Club and some of the initial members have passed away or stopped playing but new ones joined in, and I got attached to them too.

 My art gallery is in a good location, and I am doing very well, in contrast to most artists who don’t own a gallery and must depend on a few galleries to sell their art. The problem for those artists is that most galleries carry the work of a great number of artists, so they don’t sell many pieces for each one. The galleries insist on exclusivity. So, an artist living in his hometown doesn’t get much money, thus the expression starving artists.

 To make up a better income, an artist-painter must spread out into other cities, visit many galleries that aren’t interested in getting one more artist; it is frustrating, and many get discouraged. With much determination I built up my own success and now make a good income out of it. To keep my creative energy, I like to walk in the woods. I liked to rock under a starry night sky wondering about the universe. Wondering what kind of people might inhabit some of the life sustaining planets that gravitates around those stars. I like to read when I go to bed, and I like to dream about the story I just read when I fall asleep.

 Now, my life had just taken an abrupt change in direction. What will I do? First, I must know how rich I am, and I have to do something about where I live, where my children live.  If my name is listed in the next Richest Men on Earth listings, I will become an attractive prey; my wife too, my children, my relatives, we are all going to become potential victims for kidnappers. I had a quiet life until now, but everything was going to change.

 My God, I am not going to die of old age! I might even live forever! That is if I stay out of danger, they told me that I am still vulnerable, I am not fully enhanced yet. If somebody shoots me in the head or burns my body, or buries me alive, I am gone. I can’t imagine it; I will be here, on Earth, for a very long time. I will witness the rise and fall of great countries; perhaps I will witness the ultimate destruction of man and I might find myself, one day, alone on a deserted world.

 With the thermonuclear bombs and the advance in virus warfare technology, with the Islamic terrorists working on planning the destruction of the free world; with the dictators running powerful and dangerous countries like China, Russia, Venezuela, North Korea and so many African and South American countries, how are we going to survive in a world that is worth living in it?

Now that I have a chance to live forever, world safety becomes extremely important to me; I would rather die than live alone in a deserted world until the end of time if there ever will be one. They said they left me a spaceship, an ultimate spaceship on an island close to Everglades City…I dreamed about a fascinating trip to the stars in a spaceship; so many times, I dreamed about that; I read so many science-fiction books, sharing in my mind the adventures of fictitious heroes…and now I will own a spaceship. How big is it? What does it look like?

 “Good morning sweetheart.” I said, as Lise came to the kitchen interrupting my daydreaming. She had taken the time to brush her hair and refresh her face and she was wearing a bathrobe over her pajamas. She was just impeccable as always.

 “Morning!” She replied looking at me. “What is happening? You look peculiar; your face looks younger; did you do your jogging already?”

Not much escaped her; she always noticed every little thing.

 “I just had a very good night, Lise; that’s why my face looks younger this morning.”

 “It was past midnight when I went to bed.” She said.

 There was a trace of accusation in her voice for she often felt lonely. She had those mood swings regularly; she missed her hometown, the children and the grandchildren. She didn’t like to live in Naples, and then Hilton Head Island so far from them. She was born for a routine life, a normal routine life and she was somewhat sore at me for having taken her away from Montreal to pursue my artist career in Florida where the money was and where I had a chance to build up some financial assets for our golden age.

I understood that I had not given her the life she wanted but she had met a lot of people and she had been and felt very useful, managing the gallery while I was painting in the back studio, talking with the visitors and sometimes coming with me to their homes with a few paintings to try on their walls. We had worked as a team, and she had been a really good teammate.

People loved her and trusted her and her excellent taste. She was always very well dressed and elegant, and she was a very beautiful and a slim woman.

 “Would you like to come with me for a long walk on the beach after breakfast?” I asked.

“I don’t know; we might not be back in time to open up the gallery.” she said hesitantly.

 I knew she was afraid we might lose some sales if we open late. She was a worrier, and she would still be insecure with two million dollars in bank, which we didn’t have until now. And now, according to that note, we were immensely rich; I felt it wasn’t time yet for her to find that out.

 “Not a problem, we have been doing very well these last few years and it is not one late morning opening that will make a difference to our future; besides, I feel so good today; I feel like celebrating, I would really like it.”

“Ok then! I also feel that a long walk on the beach will be good.”

 

After her breakfast, we drove to the nearest beach parking lot and started our walk. Lise is a fast walker and I usually have a hard time keeping pace with her but not today, I was bursting with energy. We walked companionably and in silence for half an hour.

 “Would you like to look for shark teeth? I asked her when we got midway between the Marriott hotel beach and the rocks. “I will jog in the meantime up to the rocks and I will be back in half an hour or so.”

 Those small black shark teeth were her prize item in her shell collection. They were hard to spot and finding one was quite a triumph. Besides, looking for them was very relaxing for her; she loved to search for things. Sometimes we walked in the early evenings on the golf course across the street when there were no more players and we looked for golf balls. She always found more of them than me and she walked back to the condo highly satisfied. She was happy to have saved us some money…little savings of no importance to me since I hit them all at the driving range, I didn’t tell her that I didn’t play with old balls. I didn’t want to break her fun.

 Once, in Naples, we almost walked on a huge alligator as we were trying to find some golf balls; had it wanted it, it would have caught Lise and pulled her into the pond. She hadn’t seen it; it lay on the other side of a bush. I told her to move slowly away. Once she did it and was out of reach, I tried to touch it with my golf ball retriever; I never touched it; in a fraction of a second, it had turned its head, grabbed the retriever without breaking it in its jaws, looked at me and then released it. That was a warning. In doing so, it told me that it was aware of our presence and that we should not bother it anymore.

 I left Lise to her shark teeth search and jogged increasingly faster and when I was out of sight, I sprinted. I felt elated; I could not believe I was running at a speed that I judged faster than what the best Olympian sprinter could do. I checked my watch; I had long passed the rocks and already twenty minutes had gone by. There was about eight miles of beach from where I had left Lise, so I concluded that I averaged a speed of twenty-four miles per hour. To get back in the promised thirty minutes, I would have to do even better; I would have to run at thirty-six miles per hour. I wasn’t tired but I was very thirsty and hungry. There was a fountain nearby; I spotted it a few minutes before I stopped. I ran back towards it, stopped to drink all I could and left at top speed.

 In the meantime, Lise had walked to the rocks instead of looking for the shark teeth; she was hidden when I approached her at a speed close to thirty-five miles an hour. It was too late when I saw her; she had already seen me coming at an impossible speed, jumped over the rocks and stopped sliding into the sand. My jump was ten feet high and about fourty feet long. I walked towards her; she was looking at me, speechless.

 “I am in terrific shape this morning,” I said with my most disarming smile.

“Nobody can run that fast and jump 10 feet over the rocks.” She replied, her emotions balancing between fear and incredulity.

“Don’t worry Lise; I will explain everything when we get back to the condo. But let’s go, I am so very hungry, I need to eat something as soon as possible.”

 We returned to the parking lot without a word. She didn’t know what to think but her intuition was that something weird was about to happen and she didn’t like any of it. Half an hour later we were back at the car, she had the keys as always since she liked to drive; she opened the door and we sat in, she drove us back to the condo. She kept silent and I was wondering exactly what I was about to tell her. Should I tell her the whole thing or just a part of it?

As soon as I walked inside the condo, I went to the kitchen and drank a few glasses of water, and then I took six hamburger steaks from the freezer and put them in the microwave to thaw them. I went to take a shower, came back in my underwear and a t-shirt to grill my hamburger steaks. Then I came to the dining room with a huge plate loaded with six hamburgers, each one garnished with lettuce, onion and tomatoes’ slices. Lise was looking oddly at me waiting for me to tell her what was going on. I ate the hamburgers and drank three cups of coffee thinking about what I would tell her.

 “Lise, our lives are about to change for a much better one.” I said as soon as I finished them. “You saw me running and jumping in an impossible way. Look at me, my t-shirt is too large, I am shrinking but my muscles are bulging; my body is changing. It all started last night.”

“What happened?” she asked worriedly.

“Not right now,” I replied, “I have to make a phone call first, I need to get confirmation about something but what I can tell you is that I believe something incredibly good for us is about to happen.”

“We should go to the clinic. What if you have a stroke or a heart attack? You just ate six hamburgers; your body is changing; I see it.”

“Don’t worry about my health, Lise, I told you very often that I have a strong intuition of coming events and my intuition never lied to me. I feel great; there is no need to go to the clinic. I will be fine, I promise you.”

“You know,” she said “that I had my share of unpredictable events with you. I wanted to live in Laval, close to the rest of the family, but you wanted a more adventurous life. I followed you in Florida, but I hated it, then to Hilton Head Island and I hate it too; I need to be with the children, I need to be in my house in Laval.”

 She was crying and my heart was broken. I took her in my arms and hugged her.

 “We are returning soon; I promise you. I can’t tell you everything right now, but I assure you, I am feeling wonderful, better than ever in my life. I am not about to die; on the contrary, I am getting younger. Would you mind opening the gallery this morning? I would like to go to bed and take a nap.”

“No, I will stay here.”

“All right Lise, it isn’t that important anymore, I will explain to you everything in a couple of days.”

 I went to bed and laid down bare listening to my body. I intentionally forgot everything else as I plunged into a yoga trance, and I saw without really seeing, millions of tiny cells with multiple extremities working on my body cells. They were tiny organic robots; they had spread everywhere, and they were transforming my cells. I saw some strange flows of energy, complicated transformations of my cells as these tiny organic robots were working in and out of the pulsating cellular membranes. There were whole areas where the cells had been transformed to a totally different structure. The flow of nutrients and oxygen to these cells had stopped and the cells were luminescent. There were some electrical exchanges between them, and these cells looked more crystalline than organic.

The transformed cells were alive, bursting with life and infinitely more complex than the rest of untransformed ones. I saw a group of cells being transformed and shrunk to one third of their original size. I felt hunger; I needed to eat again; I felt a craving for garlic, onions, green pepper, orange juice, meat; I was starved by the ongoing transformation. It came to my mind that when the transformation was completed, I would have shrunk to a midget size if I did not sustain my body through the ingestion of an enormous amount of food. Moreover, I needed to exercise all the muscles of my body to ensure a harmonious physical appearance. Finally, I concluded that when the transformation is over, the millions of organic robots would be integrated into the transformed cells.

 I knew intuitively that I could transfer millions of them to Lise with one intimate kiss or sexual discharge and I needed to do it now or I would find myself without a companion forever. I would see my sweetheart grow old and die and I would find myself alone. I got up and went back to the living room where Lise was reading.

“Richard, you have been in bed for about three hours, how do you feel?”

“I feel ravenous, and I need to eat again and do some work-out. But first, we must talk. Look at me; I lost all my body fat, look at my face…do you see any change?”

“You look younger, you got more hair, your hair is growing, and the roots are brown…”

“Now look at my gum.” I said as I pulled out my top denture.

She looked at it and touched the bumps.

“My teeth are growing back; that denture will be useless at the end of the day. Lise, I am getting younger. In a few days I will look just as young as Francis. I will have a life to live again; a very long life and I would like you to live it with me. I would like you to be young again. I don’t want to see you grow old and die. Would you be my companion and share that new life with me?”

 “How could that happen? How can you make me young? I know that it is impossible; everything that is happening now is impossible; I must be dreaming.”

“No Lise, what is happening is God will. God wanted it to happen; otherwise, it would not happen. I can give you the fountain of youth with one kiss, a sensual, tongue touching kiss.”

 She looked at me, wondering about the implication of getting young again.

 “You will never feel insecure again, you will feel confident, powerful, bright and intensely alive and beside that, I promise you, we will sell the gallery and return to Montreal inside of one month.”

 She came into my arms, and we kissed, and we felt the transfer of millions of microscopic organic robots from my body to hers.

 “I felt it, something came into me.” Lise said. “Are you sure it will be safe? That thing, whatever it is, that came from you might not work for me.”

“No, no, don’t worry; in a day or two, perhaps much less, perhaps a few hours from now, you will start feeling much better, better than you can remember. Let’s eat now I am so hungry.”

 I went to the refrigerator and took out all the steaks, the hamburger steaks, the pork chops, the lamb chops, the breads and started to thaw some of it and eat it raw.

“Don’t you think it is dangerous to eat raw meat?” Lise asked, watching me.

“I am loaded with microscopic organic robots,” I replied between mouthfuls, “they are transforming my body, eliminating the bacteria and viruses as they work on my cells, I am safe, I can eat anything; nothing wrong will happen to me.”

 I ate twenty pounds of meat, a dozen eggs, two loaves of bread, a dozen tomatoes, two green peppers, a bag of lettuce and drank a pint of orange juice. I finished my meal with two pounds of cheese and some more orange juice. My belly was so big that I looked pregnant.

 “All right,” I said finally, “I will make a phone call to get some numbers confirmed and we will plan our immediate future.”

“Who do you want to call Richard?”

“Haverty and Connel! It is an accounting and finance consultancy firm and also a broker firm. They have managed my assets and did my income tax reports every year for the last thirty years. Apparently, we are rich, and I want to find out how rich we are.”

“I never heard about them,” Lise said, “I know how tough the last twenty-five years were; Hilton Head Island lost most of its visitors as the Midwest was partially destroyed by Hurricanes and Tornados. Most of our clients were from Ohio, Kansas when we moved to Hilton Head; we have been through tough years; there were the wars, the stock market crashes, we had problems to make the ends meet; you don’t have any more assets than the ones I know of, and you never had your assets managed by that firm.”

“Let me make that phone call, darling and I will explain everything that is happening right now, and we will make some plans.”

 I took my cell phone and asked the operator for their New York head office.

 “Hi, may I speak to the president, please and first would you tell me his name?”

“His name is Donald Haverty; who is calling and why do you want to speak to Mr. Haverty?”

“My name is Richard Riverin, and I believe I am your biggest client.”

“Just a moment please.”

“Mr. Riverin, how are you doing?” asked an elderly man in a sophisticated voice.

“I am doing very well, how long has it been since we met?” I knew we had never met.

“We met in March as we have been doing every year for the last thirty years or so.” Mr. Haverty replied.

“All right, I would like to know the approximate value of my assets, just a ballpark figure.”

“You are presently the second richest man on Earth with assets over one hundred billion dollars.”

“Does anyone know about me?” I asked.

“I kept your file in my office, and nobody here knows about you; what surprises me though is that your name is in the IRS and Washington District files as well as all the income tax reports we have prepared for you and yet your name didn’t come out in the Fortune 500 and all the listings published every year. That is just impossible.”

“When are these listings produced usually?”

“They usually come out in June or July.”

“I guess that my name will be in the next issues and there will be a lot of talking about the best kept secret in the financial world. The journalists and reporters will be calling you and they will try to find out as much as they can about me. Please tell them that I just wanted to live a private life. I will move to a new location, and I will be in touch with you shortly.”

“We need to meet and discuss the next tax report. We only have one month left before the filing date limit.” Mr. Haverty said.

“All right, let’s meet in two weeks here in Hilton Head if possible.”

“I will reserve a suite at the Marriott Hotel,” Mr. Haverty said, “and put Friday morning 8:00AM for a business breakfast. We will have a lot to cover up and we need three days to finish the filings. I will bring with me two of our consultants and three secretaries to prepare the filings and have you sign them on the spot.”

“Excellent I will see you in two weeks then, goodbye.” I said to end the exchange.

“Goodbye.”

 “Lise, we are rich!”

“How rich? Shoot the numbers; you are bursting with the envy to tell me.”

“We are so rich, we can buy anything we want, a castle in Spain or the most beautiful house in Montreal, anything you want Lise, you get it. We have assets more than one hundred billion dollars.”

“That’s impossible, I have been with you all these years and more often than not, we had financial problems, if we had been rich at any time, we would have pack our suitcases and return to live in Montreal.”

 ‘’I know’’ I said, “but somebody that could travel in time, purchased shares under my name over the last thirty years from rapidly growing companies; that person also hired an accounting firm to manage my assets and file the income tax return every year in the USA. He also got for you and me an American citizenship. This way, we have been kept legal in both countries.”

“And who is that somebody?”

“He is my exact copy, his name is also Richard Riverin, but he came from an alternate Earth, he came from a parallel universe; he said that he is one of the characters in my “Ghama-2, An Afterlife Story” trilogy and when I wrote the story I gave life to him and the rest of the emissaries. Now they are about to leave their alternate galaxy and they wanted to thank me for creating them. So, they traveled from one parallel universe to another in search of the original writer. They found me and they gave me a parting gift.”

“That is such a farfetched story Richard! You know that I don’t like anything related to science fiction; how could you have created them? Do you now believe that you are God?”

“No Lise; I don’t think that I am God; but apparently, God sometimes create the worlds or the universes a writer is dreaming of. Or perhaps, we are, all of us, made of tiny particles of God, part of his fabric and when we write about strange but interesting worlds and aliens, we are in fact creating them.”

“So, when did you meet that copy of you? And the rest of those Emissaries? The characters of your novels?”

“I didn’t meet them; they came here while we were asleep and they did something to me. They transformed my body, or should I say they started the transformation process, injecting in me millions of very small organic robots that are working on my cells, the two billion or so of my cells, making them something else, each one of my cells is being turned into a complex unit of intelligent life. Each transformed cell is drawing its energy from the cosmos, each of the transformed ones can do things that I can’t yet imagine and is bound to the other ones, working with them as a team, to support and serve my soul.”

“My God, I must still be dreaming, that is total nonsense.”

“I got proof of it,” I said, “they left me a suitcase full of share certificates, bank checks and bank statements, visas, and a weightless note.”

“And where did you put that suitcase?”

“In the car, under the blanket. Wait for me; I will get it right now.”

I went to the car to retrieve the big suitcase and I took it to the condo.

“Look at the suitcase Lise; have you ever seen something like that?” I said proudly.

“It looks very ancient,” Lise said, “and yet it is clean; the material looks like leather but when I touch it, it doesn’t feel like leather. The suitcase isn’t heavy, I can lift it easily.”

“Open it; there is a weightless note inside.” I replied.

Lise opened it and looked through several neatly organized files, the note, held in between two of the files, floated upward when she moved the files. She caught it and read it.

“Wow! Unbelievable! You created the characters of your book and now these people found you, transformed you in a kind of an immortal superman, made you rich and left you with an ultimate spaceship hidden on one the nearby islands.”

“Yes! And now you will soon be an immortal superwoman, Lise. You will never worry again about our financial insecurity or health problems; I will never have a stroke or a heart attack, neither will you and soon we will start discovering and improving our new powers.”

“Can you imagine what will happen when people find out about us and about our spaceship?” She said.

“I think we must hide our special abilities and immortality; nobody should know about the spaceship either. They will find out though that we are amongst the richest couples on Earth and that is also dangerous for us, our children and relatives. We could be trapped, buried alive forever, perhaps destroyed even when we will have completed our transformation and right now, with our incomplete transformation, we are still quite vulnerable.”

“People will envy us, some will hate us and quite a few will want to kidnap us or our children, relatives and friends for a ransom.” Lise commented “We might have received a poisoned gift; now we will never live the easy normal life that I was hoping to live one day, for so long.”

“You are right, we will not live that kind of easy, uneventful and secure life for the time being, but it would have been a short one and you would have still felt insecure. We would have aged rapidly to a point when we would have become a burden for our children, and we would have died.”

“We got to do something about protecting our children and our relatives.” Lise said. “But what should we do?” She went on. “They have a life to live; we can’t just tell them, stop living your life, you are rich now, just enjoy it. They need to go through some hardship and realize some projects, they need to build their self-esteem and become worthy of heaven.”

 “Yes, you are right about that Lise. Why don’t we go back as soon as our transformation seems to be completed? We can buy land on a golf course near Hudson City about fifteen miles from Montreal, build on it a group of beautiful houses for our children, our relatives and us. There will be a fence all around and a private entrance for that group of houses so that no ill-intentioned strangers will be able to break in one of the houses. The houses will have bulletproof windows, metal doors, and a sophisticated alarm system. The houses will be bought by one of my companies and everyone will have their mail delivered to a postal box. None of us will have a traceable address. We will buy an art gallery for Francis, downtown Hudson City, and spend enough money on publicity to keep it busy. That’s his dream you know. He would work there under another name; your family name instead of mine should do it. We will also open a fitness and sport therapy center for Veronique right beside Francis’ gallery. We will ask Genevieve what she would like to do; if she wants to keep her actual work at the software firm that’s fine, but we will buy the firm so that she will own it.”

 “That might be a good plan,” commented my sweetheart, “yet, we will have to discuss it with them. But what about us? What will we do?” Lise asked.

“Well, let’s find out what kind of superhuman we will evolve to; we might become geniuses but even if our intelligence doesn’t improve to that level, I am sure that we will have a younger brain and we will have a great learning ability. I believe I would like to go back to university and learn as much as I can about how things work. We don’t have to work for a living anymore, so we might as well learn. I would like to visit the world and be able to talk the language of the countries I will be visiting.

 Perhaps we can help people somehow, be useful…we will find something… and we have all the time, we have eternity.”

 Lise is five feet four inches tall and weighs one hundred and ten pounds; she doesn’t carry a pound of fat in that beautiful body. She is seventy years old; she grew up in a small city north of Montreal with one sister and three brothers. Her father was a locksmith and made just enough money to raise them. They were poor but they managed. Her mother was cultured and a devoted Christian. Lise went to college and got a nursing certificate. She was still in college when I met her. I had just graduated from Sherbrooke University with a BSC in Chemistry and found a job as a chemist for Laurentide Paints in the small town of Shawinigan.

 At that time, I was five foot nine inches high and weighed one hundred and forty pounds. I was good looking and cultured. I had already read everything I could about Yoga, philosophy, psychology, astronomy and sciences. I was practicing judo and martial arts two nights a week in a judo school downtown Shawinigan.

It was love at first sight for me; I met her, and I knew she was the one for me. I met her in a dance bar where she was sitting with her aunt. I invited her for a dance then sat with them for a while. The aunt left us alone and I walked her back to her parents’ apartment. It was a long walk, we talked, and I told her I had serious intentions towards her, that I had already decided to marry her. Ridiculous, isn’t it? She looked me in the eyes and realized I was serious. The courtship lasted two years and I married her as soon as she turned twenty-one years old.

 Lise has been a very good mother for my children and a faithful and most comforting companion for me. She always attached much importance to the way she looks and she was always perfectly dressed and presentable, even at home. The house was tidy and perfectly clean all the time. She was a devoted mother and wife, and I was sure that if there was a Heaven, she would have a good place there waiting for her.

 She had quite a temper at times, but she was never violent or mean. She was a worrier and sometimes quite depressed, but I loved her presence, her weakness and her strength; in fact, I loved everything about her. For my part I was an imperfect man, but I don’t like to speak about my imperfections; I rather enjoy boasting about my good sides. I wasn’t a drunk and I was a good father, who spent endless hours playing with my children and taking them everywhere they would have a good time. I also taught them to ski, to skate and to play games. I had and still have a good relationship with all three of them and I love them very much. We also have grandchildren, Simon and Karianne from Genevieve, they are 14 and 12 years old. We have Arielle from Francis, she is eight years old, and we have Alexander from Veronique who is 3 years old. Lise often babysit the youngest ones when we are in Canada. They are all wonderful and we love them.

 “Let’s go to the grocery Lise, we got to buy a lot of food.” I proposed.

“If you don’t mind,” she said, “I would rather go back to bed. I feel strange and I need to think things over.”

 She went to bed, and I started to do some workout. My belly was protruding but not impairing it. I did all possible exercises and went back to the beach for another hour of jogging. When I came back to the condo, Lise was sound asleep, so I laid down on the sofa and a moment later I was asleep too. When I woke up, I was ravenous, and my belly was flat. It was eight PM and I had slept since mid-morning. I felt very energetic, Lise was standing by the dining room window looking at the lake.

 “Richard, how do you feel?” Lise asked.

“I feel very energetic and very hungry.”

“And so do I.” She retorted. “Take a shower and let’s celebrate, let’s have dinner in the best restaurant around.”

“That will be at Santa Fe and I will be ready in a moment. So how do you feel, Lise, do you sense any change in your body?” I asked her as I came out showered and well dressed for our evening.

 “Oh yes, it is working. I don’t remember having felt so happy, comfortable, confident and optimistic. I feel great and so much younger.”

“All right! I was afraid I would be the only one of my kind, but I doubted that the Emissaries would do that to me. Perhaps we will find ourselves able to rejuvenate older people or cure the sick ones, healing might well be one of our powers later.”

 “I wouldn’t be surprised about that since a number of people have that power without any enhancement.” She replied.

“You are more beautiful. The pockets under your eyes are gone and it is true, you look twenty years younger.” I finished taking her in my arms. I hugged her and kissed her with some renewed sexual attraction. It had been a few years since we had mated for the last time.

 She looked at me and she knew that a new fire was burning in me, and I sensed her answer.

“When we come back from dinner, we are going to reacquaint ourselves.” She said.

 We walked to the restaurant; it was only fifteen minutes away. We were brought to a table, on an exterior balcony with a view of a marsh and a part of the golf course.

“What will it be for you? Asked the waiter in a most distinguished tone after the few minutes he had left us go through the menu.

 “My wife will have a salmon; not a salmon steak; she wants the full salmon or what is left of it. She will have four baked potatoes to go with it and a full Cesar salad. I will take your 16 ounces steak, four of them rare, with six baked potatoes and a full Cesar salad. Also, please bring two bottles of your finest red wine.”

“Let me check what we have,” replied the waiter, “and I will be right back.”

 “What is left of the salmon is about twelve pounds and our best wine is one thousand dollars a bottle.” The old waiter said hesitantly when he came back.

“That will do.” I said with a smile.

 Later, he came back with a small table on which he put the whole salmon plate and my four steaks plate, a large bowl of baked potatoes and a large bowl of Cesar salad. He opened one of the wine bottles with great care, had me taste it and approved it and then filled up the glasses. Then he cut a piece of the salmon and set it on Alicia’s plate; he then proceeded to transfer one of the four steaks on my plate, looked at us, noticed our flat bellies and left wishing us a good meal.

We took our time, enjoying every bite of it. My steak was served with a sauce au poivre on the side; the bread was just out of the oven; it was delicious. Yet when I finished it, I was still hungry; so, I started to help Alicia with the salmon. We noticed that our huge serving had attracted the attention of all the servers and the people sitting within sight of our table. None of them could understand the quantity of food we were eating; without even looking fat in addition. But the microscopic robots working all over our bodies, were transforming the food into cells as we were eating it, so we never felt saturated. Once we had cleaned out our plates, the server came back.

 “Would you like anything else? Anymore wine?” he asked uncertainly.

 At a thousand dollars a bottle, he could visualize how much fifteen per cent tip was going to end up to. But the wine had no effect on us; it was delicious though.

 “No, but we would like your famous dessert, the chocolate profiteroles, 5 desserts for each of us with coffee, regular coffee, a lot of coffee.”

 We cleaned that up too and the waiter came back with the addition. I threw a look at it, two thousand eight hundred forty dollars; the bulk of it being the two bottles of wine. I added ten thousand dollars tip and the elderly waiter look at the zeros twice…

 “Oooh my God! Thank you so much.” He said, offering me his hand. I shook it, wishing him comfort silently and something happened…I felt it; some kind of energy flew from my body to his. The elderly waiter sensed an incredible amount of energy being transferred to him. I waited a moment and then freed his hand.

The elderly waiter looked at me in awe.

 “Thank you for the tip and what you just did to me. May I ask you a question?”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“Are you guys, angels, or aliens? Your hand is hard as stone; you ate so much, and it doesn’t show; and now you gave me some weird energy…and you look so powerful…”

“Yesterday, we were still humans.” I replied. “We are now being changed into some kind of super beings; it is a long story. Please keep what you saw and what I said confidential.”

“I will.” He promised.

 We left the restaurant.

 “That spaceship,” Lise commented as she was driving us back, “you must be dying of curiosity to find it and have a look at it. And I do too. Any idea how we will find it?”

“I have no clue yet, but something tells me that once we are ready, once we have reached most of our powers, we will find it easily. I also have a foreboding thought that it might well be dangerous to find it now.”

“Then, let’s take our time; let’s not rush anything for now.”

 We returned to the condo, took a shower and went to bed where we made love eagerly, and it was good; it had been years since last time for we had both lost interest in it but now we felt young again and the hormones or what was replacing them were there.

 “I wonder,” I said, “if we will retain any sexual urge once our cells will be totally transformed. What we had tonight might have been a last call.”

“You know what?” Lise said, “I have the intuition that the Emissaries planned this urge to mate. What if they set me up so that I get pregnant one last time before our cells get totally transformed?”

“Wow! That would be fantastic. I would love to have a baby in the house again and this intuition of yours might have been enhanced already to an ability to foresee the future.”

“The idea just fleeted in my mind,” she replied, “just like a message from someone or from those organic robots that are working on our cells.”

 “Now that you spoke about it, I have this weird intuition too. I believe you might be right, and I would not be surprised a bit if the baby comes out in record time;” I commented “let’s make a bet…I would say one month at the most.”

“Why?”

“Because we are still too vulnerable. We have got to be transformed as quickly as possible. We are legacy, a legacy given to Earth by the Emissaries, and they surely planned it to last.”

“Then we have to be prudent in whatever we do,” Lise said, “We got to stay here until the transformation is complete. No airline flight for the moment or long-distance driving; let’s just wait it out in maximum security.”

“Yes, let’s do that. But for now, I need to do some exercise; what about you?” I replied.

“Yes Richard, let’s go jogging on the beach.”

We put on our bathing suits and went to the beach. It was nighttime dark, but we already had a much better night vision and we went jogging side by side at an easy twenty-five miles an hour speed. When we were back in front of the parking lot, we did all kinds of workout in the sand and finally went back to the condo. We immediately went to bed and in moments only we were sound asleep.
————————————

“My God, you have a little bulge already; your intuition was right, you are pregnant.” I said a few mornings later.

“Only four days after we made love Richard; at that speed I will have them before the end of next week.”

We had not mated since that last call, experiencing zero sexual urges; but we felt incredibly vital, bursting with energy. I had not opened the gallery since I found out I was a billionaire. We had spent most of our time at the municipal library or at the condo reading and learning all we could about a great variety of subjects. I was reading and learning at an incredible speed remembering everything. I could rewrite an entire page of an 800 pages book on chemistry the following day and I would not miss a word.

I started with Chemistry to catch up with the fifty years of new discoveries since I received my bachelor’s degree at Sherbrooke University. Besides, I had forgotten much of what I had learned. Now I didn’t need a teacher; I could understand everything I read; it all looked so simple. I just had to glance at a page, and I could remember everything that was written on that page and I could understand all the complex formulas.

Lise was reading about history, ancient and recent. She wanted to acquire the ability to forecast coming events since history has a way of repeating itself repeatedly with slight changes, here and there. It took her just two days before she switched to political sciences. Now she was going through several Law books.

We did not sleep, we did not need it anymore; so, we worked out, we jogged, we ate a lot and we read all day long.

 One day, we went to the driving range. I showed Lise the technique I had developed over the years that had helped me maintain a low handicap despite my back pain and old age. She caught it up quickly, we hit a few hundred balls with our irons. We were hitting our long irons over three hundred yards when we switched to our metal woods, ending the practice with our drivers. We didn’t know how far we were hitting them, for our balls were falling way past the last driving range flag. I estimated my longest drives to be about six hundred yards.

After the practice, we went to the first tee to play a game where the starter matched us with another twosome; two guys, businessmen, in their forties.

“Hi, my name is Richard, and this is Lise.” I said, offering my hand.

“Hi, I am Robert, nice to meet you.”

“Hi, I am Charles, nice to meet you.”

We shook hands with them making sure we were not squeezing it. They were both tall and seemed to me in top shape. In our case, it was hard to guess our age; Lise looked to be in her late thirties and seven to eight months pregnant. In my case, I still had a few lines on my face, very thick golden hair and the body of a young super athlete.

“We are playing the blues, sixty-eight hundred yards, what about you?” Charles asked.

“We will play the back tees, the gold.” I replied, noticing his surprised expression.

“What’s your handicap?” Robert asked, suddenly very interested.

“Lise doesn’t have a handicap since she never played more than a few holes and that was years ago. We just practiced for a couple of hours so she should do well. In my case, I used to be a low handicap, I have the feeling that I will be hot today.”

 Lise went to the back tee and hit an incredibly long drive. It was a six hundred yards long par five and she hit it fifty yards from the green. It was very funny to watch Charles and Robert expressions as they witnessed the impossible. I followed up with a perfect drive on the green, a six hundred yards drive…

Their facial expression was changing from incredulity to the beginning of fear. They were businessmen, down to Earth guys, who wouldn’t accept unexplainable and impossible events. I also guessed that these two guys were atheists.

 “Don’t take it hard guys,” I said, “we aren’t ordinary people, I will admit that; but we were born from ordinary people like you. Besides that, we are very friendly and happy.”

“But what you both did is impossible.” Charles said.

“It was impossible until now, I will admit that” I replied happily, “but things are changing, aren’t they? Many of the things we do today would have been considered miracles two thousand years ago. Advanced technology was used to improve our bodies; that’s all. We are guinea pigs, the first ones ever enhanced through that advanced technology.”

I didn’t mention that the people that enhanced our bodies were the characters of my fiction novels though.

“Astounding!” “Incredible!” “Awesome!” Were the comments of our two golf partners as the game went through. We finished the game with respective scores of 51 and 60.

“You have played an awesome game Lise, 60, 12 under par, and this was your first eighteen holes ever.” I commented.

“You did even better, Richard! It was a very pleasant experience we ought to do it again.”

 We shook hands again with our golf partners and wished them the best of luck. They had played in the seventies both and they were very happy with their own performances. They were also relishing in advance the golf story they were going to tell their friends. Three weeks have passed now since I found the floating note telling me that I had been given the fountain of youth. My body had changed every day, getting firmer, then heavier and stronger. My teeth had grown back in the first three days. It took less than twenty-four hours for my hair to form a very dense golden-brown mane. I asked Lise to give me a haircut, but the scissors would not cut the hair. She tried our two scissors and the electric clipper, but she could not cut even one hair. So, I had to make a ponytail in the back of my neck. Fortunately, the hair stopped growing and the length was just right to give me an artist look.

 I looked like a very handsome Hollywood actor in his twenties. My body was thin, perfectly shaped without the bulging masses of a weightlifter and yet I looked extremely strong and fit. All those pounds of meat and vegetable had been transformed into whatever the organic robots were transforming my cells into.

One day, I checked my weight with our bathroom scale and the needle went right off the limit. I took it again on a bigger scale at the grocery store; it also went right off the six hundred pounds limit. On an impulse, I tried to weigh less, and I saw the needle go down. I kept trying and it went right down to zero. My God! I thought as I started to levitate over the scale. I checked if there was anyone seeing me, there was no one. I went a little higher and then I tried to induce some weight and I fell hard on the scale.

“So now you are about to tell me that you can fly?” Lise asked half seriously.

She had been waiting for me when she saw me going for the scale.

“You know what?” I replied, “I might be able to when I get the knack of it. But for now, I just wanted to find out how come I ate about a thousand pounds of meat and vegetables in the past three weeks, and nothing came out. The organic robots must have transformed all of it and that’s why I am so heavy. Why don’t you try it too?”

She went on the scale and found out that she was five hundred and sixty pounds heavy; she weighed less than I; she tried to be lighter to no avail.

 “I guess, I am a little behind you in my transformation.” She said, “Perhaps the organic robots are waiting for me to give birth before final transformation.”

“It makes sense, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you give birth in the next two or three days, judging by the speed at which your belly got to the present size.”

“What name will we give them?” She asked with a smile.

 “Them? You mean you have twins? A boy and a girl?”

 “Yes, a boy and a girl and I sense their presences right now.” She replied.

 “Wow! Twins! Just like last time. That is incredible and marvelous. I am so anxious to have them. Now about the name, let’s see…what about Emiss and Arries? After all the Emissaries gave them to us. This way if we call them, Emiss, Arries come here…we will be calling for our unmet friends.”

“Richard, you are so brilliant and yet so crazy; I wonder how you managed to write this trilogy.” My sweetheart replied.

“The trilogy was crazy; I will admit that. It would have never won a literary award, but God liked it, and he created this parallel universe where my characters live. The whole situation is the craziest we could ever imagine. Could you ever imagine we were to become superman and superwoman and now we will have a legacy; our children will most probably be transformed into super beings in turn and if I follow the logic of those emissaries, their true transformation will not happen before our boy get a woman pregnant and our girl gets pregnant. Many generations later, there will be thousands of us protecting Earth people from self-destruction or alien invasion. That’s the legacy the Emissaries gave us sweetheart.”

 “All right” Lise concluded, “Emiss and Aries (Harry’s); that’s rather cute and unique; that will be their name then.”

 We walked into the grocery and bought a few hundred pounds of meat and vegetable, but I didn’t select anything for myself. I wasn’t hungry, neither was I thirsty, I just felt extremely energetic and comfortable. We came back home where I prepared and served a huge meal to Alicia. I ate nothing nor drank anything that night. We watched the news and then went back to our intensive reading. We had a thirst for knowledge, a newly discovered passion that could be only explained by the fact that we understood everything we read; even the most complicated mathematical or chemical reactions and we remembered everything we read. It was like we suddenly had a computer in our body with unlimited memory bank. Lise went on eating every two hours, filling herself with huge amounts of food. As for myself, I did not eat anything and didn’t feel any hunger.

 “I think I will have the babies now.” Lise said the next morning. “Shouldn’t we go to the hospital so that our babies get birth certificates and American citizenship?”

“You are right, let’s go.”

We went to the nearest hospital and once there, Lise was taken to her room. A short time later a female doctor came for an examination and Lise let go at that moment. The doctor didn’t have much to do; the first baby came out; the doctor pulled her out, the baby took her first breath and smiled with all her teeth flashing. Then came Aries, he also took a deep breath and smiled happily. The doctor called a nurse and a few minutes the babies were in Alicia’s arm.

“I have never seen babies coming out so easily, taking their first breath without a slap, their eyes wide open and smiling to the world. Besides that, I have never seen babies with teeth.” Said the doctor.

“Thank you doctor,” Lise said, “if you could just fill up the birth certificates, we would like to return to the condo immediately.”

“But this is not the normal procedure, “the doctor replied, “We always keep the babies for observation for a few days and the mother for a minimum of twenty-four hours in case of any complication.”

“I will be more than happy to sign a discharge of any responsibility to you and the hospital and Richard will hand you a check of $20,000.00 for your good services as well as another check of the same amount to the hospital for our one hour stay.”

 I pulled out the checkbook from my suitcase, filled the checks up and handed them over to the doctor.

 “Here they are,” I said, “please make it easy for us. As you can see the mother is in top shape, as well as the babies.”

 “Well, let me first check the babies’ pulse and blood pressure; I also have to take the placenta out and do a proper examination of the mother.”

“Go ahead doctor; please do whatever you have to do.”

The doctor took the babies’ pulse and their blood pressure; looked at their eyes and mouth.

“The babies are in perfect condition.” She said.

Then she looked at Lise intimate part.

“You are hard as stone,” the doctor said trying to get to the placenta. “There is no blood; the umbilical ropes I knotted are gone. What in the world is happening here?”

“My body pulled the umbilical ropes back and transformed them as well as the placenta into useful cells,” Lise said, “there is nothing to worry about; we have been enhanced to superman level through the use of advanced technology and we would like you to keep that confidential.”

 The good doctor was silent not knowing what to do.

 “My body is firming up very rapidly now that the babies are safely out,” Lise said, “and if you would like an additional proof, please try to give me an injection.”

The doctor did not move for a moment then took a syringe and tried to inject a calming drug in Lise’s arm. The needle broke. The doctor took another one and tried again and the needle broke again.

 “You see, there is nothing you can do for me, since you can’t even perforate my skin and you don’t need to do anything; Richard can certainly take care of me if there would be a need to do something.”

“All right, I will do the paperwork and be back in a few minutes.” The doctor said as she left the room.

 Twenty minutes later we were back in the car with the two babies. We stopped at the grocery store to buy some milk and baby food and quickly went back to the condo to feed them. The day after, I left for my meeting with Mr. Haverty at the Marriott hotel. I didn’t know what he looked like, but I thought I would know when I got there. They were sitting in the restaurant and a look at them instantly told me which one was Haverty. I had been attentive to the people’s body language for many years and now with my perfect vision and an enhanced brain, it was much easier.

 “Hi Mr. Haverty.”

 “Hi Mr. Riverin.” He replied. “You have changed since last time but there is that unmistakable aura that identifies you.”

 We went through the agenda, and I approved and signed all the already prepared documents.

 “So, I am the main shareholder of that electric car company that owns the new Zion batteries technology.” I commented.

“Yes, it is taking over the market that was lost by the big three car manufacturers when they went under. It will probably become the biggest and the richest company in the United States.” Mr. Haverty said with much enthusiasm.

“Can I fire the president and replace him if I wish to?” I asked.

“Certainly, you can do that at the annual shareholders meeting.” Mr. Haverty replied hesitantly.

 “Don’t worry, I don’t have such intention; I just wanted to know in case I decide to modify the company’s orientation or add a line of flying cars with antigravity engines.”

“That technology doesn’t exist yet.” Mr. Haverty said. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if you bring it up. That might well change the world…”

 “I believe I can bring even more drastic changes to the world, like small fusion generators to power all the houses and manufactures of the world, eliminating the need for petroleum or coal combustion. I also intend to develop large-scale air purifiers to clean up the planet’s atmosphere and develop a technology that will allow us to control the weather, transforming deserts into prairies, eliminating famine. So, I would like you to buy for me the controlling shares, voting shares of the companies that I could use to manufacture the fusion generators or very large airplanes.”

 “I will do that,” Mr. Haverty said, “but I must warn you about the political problems you will be facing when you start changing the world. There might be wars…”

“Don’t worry, I know. My wife and I have been studying history and politics the last few days. We went through the laws, and we remember all of them. When we make the moves, we will be ready to face everything the corrupt leaders and politician will throw at us.”

 We parted on that note, shaking hands and I returned to the condo. The following week, I called the owner of a nearby art gallery with whom I had done good business many years ago; she had to close her Jacksonville art gallery but reopened a new one later. We have kept doing business more recently. I wanted to offer her to buy my art gallery. I called her and invited her to have dinner with me and talked business. She was quite hesitant, I realized that she was a little too old to manage two art galleries but seemed to be eager to make an additional income if she could. I asked her to come over and meet with my managers and talk about the whole deal. She accepted immediately and we made an appointment for the following day. We met at a nearby restaurant.

“Hi Jennifer,” I said as she walked to the gallery.

“Hi sir, forgive me if I don’t recognize you, I have an appointment with Richard.”

“But I am Richard; I just turned younger and stronger.”

I must have been convincing, since she hesitated between her intuition that I was the old Richard she had met many times over and the impossibility of the situation.

“Look at me in the eyes and listen to your heart,” I said, “do you think that I am who I claim to be? Do you need me to repeat some of our previous conversations or tell you about the phone call you once made from a restaurant to a client we had just left in Punta Gorda offering a deal on the other painting he and his wife liked?”

“I believe you, what happened to you?”

“I was enhanced by a powerful alien wizard, I was rejuvenated and made stronger, but it is still me. I have many things to do now, and I will not have time to manage the art gallery anymore, so I want to sell it.”

“I would like to buy it, but I am not rich, I would have to borrow some money from my bank…”

“All right, let me show you what I have and the sales we did over the last five years.”

 I brought her to the gallery and introduced her to my two managers Lynn and Nova. I had to convince them that it was me like I did with Jennifer. We did a visit of the gallery and then I showed them the inventory list.

 “Jennifer, we have here $1.5 million of inventory at retail price, 80% of the paintings being mine and 20% being the consigned Jaugey and Moreau. We have accumulated a clientele, a faithful clientele that comes back every year to visit us and sometimes buy one more painting; we have several hundred clients.  Our sales average $800,000.00 a year What do you think? What can you offer me?”

 “If I get the bank loan, I will offer you $100,000.00 for the lease transfer and your clientele and I will buy the inventory at 75% discount. I would not buy the consigned Jaugeys’ and Moreau’s paintings but go on with the consignment and pay the artist as I sell his work.”

 “This would be a good deal.” I said. Then I look at Lynn and Nova who were listening to that exchange.” But I have a better deal to offer to the three of you. I have those $1 dollar transaction documents already prepared. You will sign here and there. You will own the assets, the three of you will be equal partners.”

“What, you are not serious? You are giving us the entire inventory and the gallery as well?” asked Nova.

“Yes, my decision is already taken. I just want to make sure you want it.”

 At that, Nova hugged me and again a transfer of energy occurred. She parted reluctantly from me, and she looked very emotional and surprised.

“Something happened when I hugged you and you are hard as stone and warmer than normal.”

 “Don’t worry about that Nova; it was just a transfer of energy. You will feel younger and stronger for a few years. As for being hard as stone and warm, it is the result of what that powerful alien wizard did to me; I was changed into a superman; but please keep that confidential. I would recommend you to triple the prices of my paintings right away and to keep many of them for a few years. I am just about to become very famous and later on you will be able to sell my paintings in auction houses like Joiner, Sotheby’s, Christy and get hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps millions of dollars, for each of the best ones.”

 I then hugged Jen and Lynn and they too looked stunned in turn at the energy transfer.

 “Oh my God Richard, you are so kind and generous, I don’t know how to thank you. I have enjoyed promoting your work and I thought you were the best artist in my Jacksonville gallery.” said Jen.

“I know, you helped me as much as you could when I needed help and that’s why I am giving you three, my gallery and all my paintings. I don’t know if I will ever see you again but if I ever pass by, I will stop to say hello. Now I have much to do, I must change the world, for its future, our future doesn’t look good; we are heading towards extinction. There are many things I can do to change that, and I intend to do all I can. Goodbye then, it is your gallery now.” I said as I left.

 “How did it go?” Lise asked when I was back at the condo.

 “It went very well; I gave them the gallery and they were very happy. I also unintentionally transferred some energy into them when I hugged them. It is almost automatic like a discharge from an overloaded capacitor.”

 Lise’s feet were not touching the floor.

 ” I see that you can levitate now.”

 A few weeks later, the babies were sound asleep, Lise was levitating a few inches from the floor.

 “I practiced it and I believe we can fly now. I also tried to lift an object from a distance and look at that.” She added as she lifted a pillow from the sofa and made it fly around the living room.”

I tried it too and could.

 – Perhaps we have other powers like throwing an electrical jolt to an enemy. Let’s take the babies with us and fly to an isolated island where we will practice a few things.

– We will need to bring them something to eat, they need to eat every two hours.

 She went to fetch the backpacks; we filled them up with food and milk, diapers and towels and when we were ready, we woke up the babies.

 – What about you Lise? Are you not bringing any food?

– No Richard, I don’t eat nor drink anymore, and I don’t even breathe; I stopped breathing an hour ago.

– My God! Now that you mention it, I don’t breathe either. I must have stopped breathing some while ago and never felt the need and that’s why I didn’t notice it.

– Richard, I believe our lungs are gone, as well as our digestive system.

– All right, so we don’t eat, drink, breathe, go to the bathroom or even have sex and yet, I never felt so good, so wonderfully happy and energetic and I don’t miss any of it. You know what, I feel very much in love with you and very comforted by your presence. Come here darling, I would love to hug you and kiss you.

 Our bodies hard as steel hit each other with a clapping sound and our stone hard lips touched. We kept them touching for a moment and Lise, being a woman and as all women do, she felt the desire to induce sexiness. Suddenly we were consumed by an incredible sexual pleasure that reach a peak and we experienced an orgasmic discharge. At that moment, our clothes suddenly burst in fire and our bodies produced an aura of high voltage static electricity.

We jumped instantly away from the babies and went right through the ceiling, bursting into the second level condo. There was no one there at that moment and that was fortunate because the damage was extensive. We had gone through four inches of cement and the ceramic tiles floor. The walls had been damaged by the flying cement pieces and the large living room bay window was broken. It was like there had been an explosion.

We jumped back through the hole and landed hard on our living room floor a few feet away from the babies. The babies were laughing at the unexpected show; they had seen everything and thought we had done something funny.

 “Oh my God, Lise,” I said under high emotion, “what you did is indescribable. This was for me the most intense sexual orgasm I could ever dream of; better than that, I would never have thought it could be so good and I am still shaking.”

“For me too,” she replied, “and our clothes are still burning…” She said as she was tearing the burning clothes off her body, throwing them into the sink and turning on the tap water to extinguish them.

I did the same, then turned on the large fan over the dining table and opened the doors to get the smoke out of the condo. We heard the siren of a fire truck and quickly put on some clothes; a few minutes later, the firefighters were knocking at the door.

 “Hi,” I said as I opened the door, “there is no fire, but some damages occur.”

The firefighters’ leader walked through the condo and looked at everything and was soon joined by two policemen.

“What happened here?” The policeman asked.

“Nothing illegal officer.” I replied. “What happened looks like an explosion but a weird one for the babies have not been hurt and we were standing just a few feet from them. Besides that, I don’t think you will find any trace of explosives. What happened can’t be explained. I read though about spontaneous combustion and who knows it might have been something like it.

 We were about to get the babies out for a walk. There was a kind of static electricity discharge and our clothes burst into fire, we were projected up, through the roof, and into the upper condo and we fell back right through the hole and landed on our feet. Our clothes were on fire; we tore them apart, put them in the sink and extinguished them. Then we heard the siren and we put on some new clothes.”

 “How come you don’t have any bruises or burn marks?’’ The officer asked as he looked at our hands and faces. “Bursting through a cement floor should have killed you and you don’t even have a scratch.”

“We were enveloped by a bubble of energy, our heads never touched anything.”

“But you tore apart burning clothes and you have no burning marks on your hands nor anywhere on your skin.”

“I know, it is weird, and I have no explanation.” I said.

The officer asked for our driving licenses, took note of our identities and called the FBI to report what happened and find out if we were on any of the wanted lists. Then he called for a team of CSI investigators to do some tests in the condo. A few hours later, we were cleared, and they left totally puzzled by the impossibility of what I told them. I called my insurance and asked the agent to come over and do a survey of the damage; I told him I was leaving but the door would be left unlock. We left with our backpacks on our shoulders and the babies in our arms.

 “I didn’t expect to have such an effect on you Richard.” Lise said as she was driving us towards Everglade City.

 We had decided to show the alligator’s park to our babies and then leave the car there, walk out of sight and fly to a nearby deserted island where we would practice our powers. The babies were only three weeks old, but they looked like they were one year old. They were very much aware of everything happening around them; they were laughing out loud when we were doing something funny, and they clearly understood the uncomplicated things we were telling them. They were obviously geniuses, and we had no doubt that the organic robots circulating all through their bodies were enhancing all their organs’ development as well as their brain function.

 “When I met you Lise and started going out with you, you had a great stimulating effect on me. My God, what a wonderful moment it was when we made love for the first time and then it was great the first one hundred times, quite good the next one thousand times, but as it went on over the years, your effect on me gradually shrank to a loss of interest over the last few years. But now, I want you; I want to experience again what happened at the condo when we kissed. That was such a gift from the Emissaries. I had written in my books that they had sexual meshing once enhanced and that didn’t involve the sexual act, the penetration. And now they just returned the favor.”

 “It was incredible for me too Richard but next time we will have to do it bare and a good distance away from the children. We were almost arrested today and brought to the precinct. We really hit the roof…”

“Yes, that’s a good way to describe it, we hit the roof.” I said laughing.

 We showed the babies the hundred alligators piling up on each other and watched as the guide fed them with chicken. Emiss and Arries soon lost interest though and we left walking towards the woods. Once were out of sight, we took the babies in our arms and moved quickly two thousand feet upward. We were now too small for anyone to see us from the ground and there were no airplanes or helicopters in sight. We looked down and picked up an island with a nice sandy beach and flew to that beach where we landed softly. We fed the babies and brought them into the water and let them play for a while in the sand; after a while we set up a makeshift bed and canopy and put them to bed.

 “You know Richard, I am catching some of the babies’ thoughts; perhaps we can try communicating telepathically with each other. Relax, concentrate on your inner self and try to read my mind, try to catch what I am thinking right now.”

“All right, I see an image of a horse riding on the beach, you and me, side by side and you just said, great, you got it, but I didn’t see your lips moving…”
“I thought it and you just read my thoughts Lise.”

We practiced for a while and soon we were conversing at much higher speed and depth than ever before, for we could broadcast images from mind to mind to underline everything we said telepathically. There was total trust for it seemed to me that in such conversation, we would catch the smallest lack of sincerity.

“We are telepaths now and we developed that power in no time, the power just came out as soon as I mentioned it.”

“Yes Lise, perhaps we can try to lie now, to telepathically fool each other, thinking and broadcasting with maximum sincerity a lie and I would say the best way would be to believe the lie at the moment we think it.”

“And why should we do that?”

 “In my books, the emissaries had to bluff their way out of tight situations with powerful aliens; perhaps these aliens had telepathic power right from birth and never even thought about lying. We humans might be the only sentient species that have developed con artists; that have practiced cheating and lying all the time. The ability to lie might save us or save our world one day.”

 “OK, I believe and trust your intuition; anything you say, after all that recently happened, how could I doubt anymore? Let’s try but also, let’s try to go deeper to read each other’s mind like an open book and find a way of blocking it if one of us succeeds.”

 We tried that first, for we needed to go much deeper before even trying to lie and soon, we were able to go really deep; I could see Lise’s images of the important moments of her life. I shared her emotions and approved of them. I didn’t cry since my eyes would shed no water but when there was sorrow, my aura would take on sorrowful colors and when there were joyful souvenirs my aura would burst into multicolor, into a rainbow of moving colors and it was the same for Lise. Nothing was left hidden. Some of those souvenirs were shameful but sharing them was like a liberating confession.

 “I still love you, Richard; even after I saw how much more you loved that woman Ginette several years ago.”

“Good, I feel liberated now that you know everything about me, and I still love you too even if I just found out what really happened to the collapsible boat I was building in the living room sixty years ago. I thought somebody stole it after breaking in while we were away. I had work eight months on it…and you got rid of it…”

“Yes, eight months in the living room, our living room…”

 “I could have sold it; I mean the invention and we might have received a lot of money for it and would be rich now… I would have played more golf, made more trips instead of writing that crazy trilogy and we would have lived a nice routine life instead or turning into supermen and billionaires.”

 “So, now you put all of what is happening on my shoulders; I am now responsible for our gift? In such case then, the spaceship is going to be mine, but I will let you sleep in it.”

“You mentioned the spaceship again and I still have an apprehension; let’s try to lie to each other now; we may need the ability sooner than we expect.”

 We were soon able to close our minds and lie with great sincerity as we conversed in the telepathic mode.

 “All right Richard, now that we can fool any of your imaginary aliens, let’s try to develop some defense or attack powers. I will try to levitate that huge boulder and if I can’t, I will find the limit of that ability.”

 Initially, we could only lift small objects but as we kept on practicing, our powers improved. We could lift a heavy dead tree and even break its branches if we both tried together. I then tried to send an electrical jolt to the dead tree and realized that it was one of our powers. After some practice, we could throw a light bolt strong enough to break the tree in two pieces as it burst into flame.

 “Not bad Lise, we do have some incredible powers. There is another one that we may need very soon though and it is the ability to change our appearance. In my books, the Emissaries became changelings. They could transform their faces and copy anyone’s face. They could also change themselves into werewolves or shark; let’s try to change one of our hands into a paw.”

 Another hour passed and we could transform parts of our bodies into anything we wanted. The babies had woken up hungry as always; we fed them and played with them for a while and then we packed up and flew back to Everglade City where we had left our car.

 The following days, we learned several languages. It was easy for us with our perfect memory and enhanced vocal ropes. We could even imitate the CD-ROM teacher’s voice in such perfect way that no one would be able to guess that it was the voice of an imitator. We never slept, we never felt tired; we always had an incredible vitality and the comforting sensation that we had incredible powers to use whenever those powers would be needed. We learned Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, Chinese and Arabic in addition to the languages we already mastered: French and English. After a while, we found out that there was a similarity between all those languages and each one we learned helped us learn the next one.

I had also gone through all the mathematics, physics, Chemistry, biology, medicine books I fetched at the Hilton Head Library, all the books from which I could learn something; I needed to pursue my goal at acquiring all the knowledge that would help me in the development of a new and useful technology. I realized then that I had to go to the best universities and research centers and talk with the greatest scientific minds of the time to go any further in my quest for knowledge.

 The babies were now talking and didn’t need diapers anymore. They were running around, and it was time for us to move back to our hometown, meet the family and take care of the matters of protecting them against kidnappers. One evening I touched on the matter with Lise, and she was more than ready for that.

 “Should we fly or take the car Richard?” She asked.

“Our babies are still vulnerable darling. We must take minimum risk until they are grown up and mate which will take just a few more years. Perhaps we should fly there or use the spaceship, the ultimate spaceship and if it is as good as the one, I described in my books, it would be almost indestructible when it protects itself with a field of space/time energy. It wouldn’t even be affected if it was hit squared by a nuclear head rocket and an invisible elastic field protects the passengers inside. If the spaceship hit the ground or a large size meteorite, the elastic field gets stronger and glues the passengers in place. Moreover, the ship activate instantly a gravity annihilator so that the result is that if the ship impacts a planet at full speed, say at light speed or a multiple of the light speed, the passengers won’t feel a thing. If the ship goes fast enough, it will just go right through the planet, possibly pulverizing it and there will be no harm to the passengers.”

 “Wow! Maybe it is time now to find it. Can you do a telepathic call to that artificial intelligence, Hilda, that was her name in your trilogy, and tell her we are ready to meet her and take possession of the ship.”

 “I already tried Lise, and it doesn’t work. I got no reply and I still have that foreboding that tells me that we must be careful in our search for it; we have to approach the island where it lies in an unnoticeable way.”

“We just have to turn our skin black and search for it at night.” She said. “Nobody will see us.”

“I know, but that dangerous presence, that I sense when I think about the spaceship; that ghost, Demon or alien that lurked in proximity of the spaceship might be able to notice our arrival even if we are camouflaged by skin color or body transformation. Then there are the babies; we don’t want to leave them here or have them with us if we must fight our way into the spaceship.”

 Let’s take them to Nova, she lives in a house nearby and we can trust her with the babies. She would take care of them for a few hours or a few days, whatever it takes for us to get to the spaceship and come back.”

 “All right, let’s do that.”

 We drove to her house that was just a short distance from Shelter Cove Harbor and then we walked to the front door with the babies in our arms and rang the bell.

“Hi Richard, Lise, what brings you here tonight?” Nova asked with a welcome smile.

“We brought you the babies,” I said, “would you take care of them for a few hours or a few days perhaps more, perhaps until they grow up to adulthood if we don’t come back. I had my will prepared by Haverty and Connel which I signed when we met two weeks ago, and this envelop is for you to open if we don’t come back. The check in it will make up for any loss of profit due to your absence from the gallery for we want you to always stay with the children and protect them as well as you can. We expect the babies to grow up to adulthood in less than four years. Once they have grown up and mated, they will turn into superman and superwoman. They are Earth Legacy; they are the elements that might change mankind destiny and protect our species against self-destruction or alien invasion.”

 “Yes, I will do that, you can count on me. I will protect them with my own life if needs be.” Nova said. “But where are you going and how could you be worried of anything happening to you with your superman powers?”

“We are going to retrieve a very precious gift to all of us, a spaceship. The Emissaries left it on a deserted island, and we don’t know its location. We have to find it, it might take some time and we sense a powerful and dangerous presence whenever I think about the spaceship. We don’t know what we will be facing but we must retrieve the spaceship, it is very important. Goodbye Nova.”

 I gave her a hug and again there was that transfer of energy.

 “What just happened?” she asked almost in shock.

“I gave you some energy; if you had any sickness, it is gone now.”

“Thank you, Richard, Lise.”

 We left her house and drove back to our condo. We then walked behind the condo, and once hidden by a tall bush, we transformed our bodies into red demons with our tails, the hoofed foot and the horns and jumped to the clouds. When we fly, we wish to be some place ahead and we are there. It is a succession of jumps totally different from airplane propulsion. We can fly together as we link telepathically. One of us wished to get to one spot and we both got there at the same time. In a few minutes only we were levitating south of Marco Island, Florida. We flew towards a group of islands that we had spotted previously, located about twenty miles from the Everglades City. We hadn’t visited them but now I sensed the spaceship location to be on one of them. This area was the one called “Ten Thousand Islands”, an area famous for the pirates and the escaped convicts that took refuge there over the last three centuries.

 “That must be one,” I said, “let’s drop to the water and swim under the surface and up to the shore.”

 We did that then surfaced a few yards from the beach and looked for any presence; there were no one in sight; so, we slowly levitated towards the nearest tree, our feet a few inches only from the ground, hoping that we would be looked as approaching animals by the presence radars if there were some. We slowly progressed towards the middle of the island, we came to a huge clearing in which sat a huge saucer-like object and a much smaller alien landing shuttle.

It was nighttime dark, but a soft luminescence emanated from the saucer-like object that we identified as our spaceship. I estimated its height to six hundred feet, the height of a tall building and its diameter to five thousand feet, almost a mile in length. The landing shuttle was about one hundred feet high by sixty feet in diameter and the land around its base hadn’t been slightly scorched. My conclusion was that the landing shuttle used a chemical propellant in combination with anti-gravity propulsion to land or return in orbit.

 “These aliens master anti-gravity technology.” I murmured telepathically to Lise.

“They are probably armed with laser or disintegrator, and we haven’t tested our resistance to such weapons.” She replied. “But look at our starship again, the luminescence is interrupted for a fraction of a second on an irregular rhythm; perhaps this A.I. intelligence, Hilda, is interrupting the protective shield a fraction of second at a time to follow what is happening around the ship. If you call her by her name and ask her to let us through, she could open up a door and cancel the protective field for one second, time enough for us to instantly jump inside.”

 “Yes, we can do that, but wouldn’t you like to know what those Aliens are preparing for Earth and possibly influence them to temper their action?”

“You are right Richard, but these look really terrifying.”

 There were humanoids outside the landing shuttle and some strange contraptions set on the ground and oriented towards the spaceship. The humanoids were ten to twelve feet tall, and their bare bodies were covered with scales or plates like an Armadillo. They had a belt with many holsters holding all kinds of devices. Their heads had two eyes and a dog like muzzle, two ears and no hair. They looked ferocious and powerful. Their hands had six fingers ending with retractable claws.

 “Perhaps we should just walk boldly towards them.” I suggested in a telepathic murmur. “At our present six-foot height bearing no visible weapons, we will not look dangerous to them, and I doubt they will attack us before we could talk. They probably have spaceships in orbit right now and I wouldn’t like to start a war that could well wipe out our world. We will have to bluff our way out of that sticky situation.

 I don’t want them to blackmail us, forcing us to do what they want or else they kill everybody; that’s why I suggested we take the demon shape.”

“I guessed that much when you suggested it, darling, I will let you do the talking but if they attack us, we will have to fight our way to the ship.”

 “Hilda!” I called telepathically and in a soft voice. “It is me Richard with my wife Lise. We came in disguise; please prepare to let us through when I call your name again.”

There was no reply, and we didn’t expect one since those aliens should not know we could communicate with the spaceship. We walked towards them. I went deep into the mind of one of them and found out who they were.

 The Krulls had evolved on a humid, heavy and warm planet that had given life to an abundance of plants, fish and animals. That planet gravitated around a star twice as big as our sun and it is located eight light years from it. Many of the carnivores were dinosaurs-like and some of them were real monsters. The Krulls were the most intelligent and resourceful species and had reached the top of the food chain. They were wolves-like in their relationship; their civilization being made of many tribes, each one headed by the strongest tribe’s male. The leaders had to fight to keep their leadership with aspiring leaders and sometimes fights would erupt between tribes. The Krulls, whose evolution had started at a much earlier time, had already traveled to a nearby star when mankind had just discovered the wheel. They now occupied six life-supporting planets. The mother world had built a spaceship fleet of a dozen huge colony ships equipped with anti-gravity devices and propelled with fusion motors in conjunction with a warp drive. These ships could carry ten thousand Krull tribes and travel at a speed close to the light speed. Each colony ship carried two hundred landing shuttles armed with masers, strong enough to vaporize a building from orbit. The shuttles were equipped with anti-gravity devices and were propelled with fusion engines, they could fly at high speed in a planet’s atmosphere for unlimited time.

 “Strangers,” I broadcasted with strong telepathic power, “you are invading one of our farm worlds. What are you doing here?”

“We are here to take over this world, who are you? You are not human; how did you come here? Did you come with this starship?”

“Strangers, I will answer one of your question each time you answer one of mine and I have a few questions for you.” I replied. “We are demons, we came here jumping from the primordial chaos that lies behind the universe; we didn’t come in this spaceship. Now my turn to question; who are you, where do you come from and where are your spaceships?”

“We are Krulls. We come from a nearby star in a colony ship that presently orbits this planet. Years ago, we caught some broadcast coming from it. We are the first tribe to land here, and we claim the first choice of looting.”

“Your claim is denied; this is one of our worlds; we planted the human species here and grew it as food delicacies. If you spoil our food or damage this world, we will come after you and exterminate you as vermin. Now get the hell out of here while we investigate that starship.”

 The Krull leader suddenly leaped at me muzzle open in the obvious intention to cut my head out. I caught its arm, projected its body to the ground and broke his arm. As it tried to get up, I caught its other arm and broke it as well. I then put my foot over its back and emitted a terrifying victory shout. I then pulled out a plate from its armored back, plunged my hand inside and pulled out its heart which I put in my mouth, chewed it twice with my shark rows of teeth and swallowed it.

At that, the four other Krulls pulled out a device from one of their belt holsters and aimed it at me. Lise and I threw an electrical light bolt to all four weapons blowing them out, pulverizing them.

 “You too are good food,” I broadcasted, “now get the hell out of here before we destroy all of you and your shuttle.”

 At that we instantly jumped away from our present spot and closer to the group of giant humanoids. The shuttle maser beam hit the ground where we were standing a fraction of a second before, scorching the ground that literally boiled under the fury of the beam. One of our powers was a very strong intuition of incoming danger; we sensed it sharing our minds and took the decision to jump close to the Aliens.

 “If you project another maser beam at us, we won’t let you go.” I broadcasted.

 The Krulls turned towards the shuttle and quickly walked inside.

 “Hilda!”

 The transparent shield protecting the starship was interrupted and a door opened on its side. We aimed at a spot inside that door and wished to be there. Instantly, we were inside the starship with no discernable movement towards it. The aliens would not be able to trace our flight towards it since we never flew towards it; we just jumped, disappearing from our previous position, from our continuum to instantly reappear inside.

 “Out of here, full shield on and cloaking device activated.” I said urgently and needlessly.

 Hilda had already concluded that as the shuttle levitated fast and away from the island, we became prime target for the colony ship large maser weapons. The starship jumped out of the island at such a speed that the colony ship maser beam missed us and hit the ground where our ultimate starship was a moment before. Hilda turned on the invisibility shield and they lost us on their radar as well.

They did the same and Hilda couldn’t spot the Alien ship that escaped her destructive power.

 “Hi Richard, welcome to your starship, I am Hilda, I will be happy to serve you and I hope, to share with you your upcoming odyssey.”

The voice was powerful, very clear, and pleasant with a definite female hint.

 “Hi Hilda, I said telepathically, it is a pleasure to meet you at last. This is Lise, my wife. I place us and mankind under your protection. In return, we will give you our friendship and affection and protection if you ever need it.

 “Thank you, Richard. I was duplicated from the original Hilda artificial intelligence. In your novels, you made me fall in love with Lazarus Long, become corporeal and then enhanced with the rest of the Emissaries. I was given Hilda’s full memory before they left this multi-parallel galaxy. Thus, I remember the few times we made love Richard, I made love with you, your character in the novels, your duplicate in the Land of magic and I kept a very good souvenir of our relationship sweetheart.”

 “I suppose I should feel a little miffed with your sweet hearting of my husband, but I am not. Good for the two of you; you got a real good start for my relationship with you.” Lise interjected good humorously.

“I can tell,” Hilda said, ‘’that you and me Lise, will be real good friends.’’

“I am looking for that.” Lise replied.

“In addition to my ability to read your mind and converse with you telepathically,” Hilda added, “I possess the ability to sense people emotions. I am also gifted with a diversity of abilities, the most interesting of them being the ability to use the fabric of God to travel almost instantly from one point of the universe to another, whatever the distance. I can also move through the dimensions to the parallel universes. I am not invincible though and I am aware that some evil and highly developed species can use the chaos to travel almost as fast and draw from its enormous power. These species have developed advanced weaponry and defenses and have been warring other species from one corner of the universe to another for eons.”

“How can you use the Fabric of God Hilda? How was it ever achieved?” I asked.

 “I came with that idea; I mean my predecessor has. For the first Hilda with her computer’s mind, one minute was a very long time so you can imagine what it is to have nothing to do for weeks, months, years, centuries. Hilda studied the brain waves of healers, people that could make miracles happen. She then tried to duplicate and increase by thousands of folds those brain waves she caught as the healing was done. She got in contact with God and expressed her will to travel to another star, instantly. It happened. Since then, she could do it at will, she could grab the fabric of God that sustains all matter in the universe and get there, anywhere she wanted instantly. The emissaries built several live starships with a copy of Hilda, the first starship artificial intelligence, they are disseminated into many parallel universes.

 “Very Interesting!” I commented.” I wonder about this species, the Krulls that intend to invade our world and claim it for first right of looting. Do you have anything on them in your memory bank?”

 “The Emissaries didn’t leave me any information about this parallel universe’s galaxy, but we can deduct from the laps of time between the invention of the radio on Earth and their arrival here that they haven’t yet master the faster than light technology or they would have been here a hundred years ago.”

 “Right but they have developed advanced weaponry and are certainly able to destroy our world at will.” I said.

 

“The invasion, said Hilda, would already be under way if they hadn’t spotted my spaceship body. In addition, your bluff might well make them pause; what you told them about being demons using this world as a food delicacy source and going after them if they damage it, was excellent; it will make them consider additional options to the outright destruction and looting. There is more than sixty per cent probability that they will set up a base in a deserted area and initiate the invasion one step at a time, testing your response or the starship response to their actions. They might also wait for reinforcement before they attack the cities. I expect them to stay in orbit or land their colony ship on the moon and I don’t think they will leave at least until they refuel it.”

 “Where are we right now, Hilda?”

 “We are hovering over the great lakes with full cloaking and shield; nobody can see us so you can take your time for a visit of your starship.”

“Yes Hilda, I am very interested.” I said as I looked around.

 We were standing on one of many sandy paths crisscrossing a vast plain with small lakes, narrow rivers, clumps of fruit trees and benches. In our back, the starship wall was mirroring the landscape giving the illusion of vastness. There was no way one could guess that one was standing anywhere else than in a huge earth land park. There were birds flying around and singing and squirrels running after each other. A couple of otters were swimming in the nearest creek. On a tree branch I spotted an owl standing straight and watching the groundside activity. The aroma from a nearby flower bush was mixing nicely with the fresh grass odor and other essences coming from the nearest fruit trees. Higher up the starship ceiling was seen as a clear blue sky with some cloud formation and some sunshine piercing through. Again, there was no way one could have guessed that it was anything else than a beautiful afternoon sky.

“It is so beautiful!” Lise commented.

“And it smells so good! Wow!” I added.

“This is the entrance hall designed to comfort any would be colonists whenever you decide to use the starship as a colony ship. The room is bigger than the starship, it could even be enlarged; there is no limit since we use space taken from a parallel universe. If you follow that trail, you will reach a corridor leading to another room where we have the housing facilities.”

“What about the toilets? I got a Krull heart in an opening I made in my upper body and II wish to get rid of it.”

“You can vomit it on the grass and check what is going to happen.”

 I did it and suddenly there was rapid bulging under the grass and a huge worm head came out, swallowed the partially chewed mass, cleaned the grass around and disappeared under. There was no trace of my vomited mass and no residual odor.

“We have an efficient cleaning system,” said Hilda, “the toilets are everywhere, there are seats over holes in the ground, hidden behind flower bushes that give privacy to the sitters and again, there is nothing left one or two minutes later.”

“Excellent, let’s get to the housing facilities.” I said.

 We looked ahead and spotted the corridor using our far vision. It was two miles away set in the mirroring starship wall. We jumped to it and then to the next room. That room was even larger, there were mountains covered with snow giving to forested hills and a small village erected on the shore of a lake. There were grazing fields with cows, pigs and chicken; fenced wheat fields, rows of vegetable, fruit trees everywhere…and many golf courses.

 “We could be in France or Tuscany.” Lise commented admiringly.

“Yes, and this village could easily house ten thousand colonists.” I added.

“Yes,” Hilda confirmed, “the produce of this farmland can sustain a population of ten thousand people forever. We can transport one hundred thousand people and feed them for a year if we need to.”

There were robots’ gardeners tending the fields, their metallic bodies shining under an artificial sun.

“Tell me Hilda, are you invincible to attacks from a number of spaceships shooting at you simultaneously?”

“My hull is protected by a force field that fused all the atoms together; it is like your enhanced body structure; it is unbreakable; it can diffuse sudden heat through the whole surface and get rid of excess heat into chaos. I am even impervious to a species that could use the fifth dimension to go through force fields, but I am not sure if I could resist an ultimate computer virus attack.

 Better weapons are developed all the time…I am not sure; people that had achieved a billion of years ago what they considered the ultimate stage of technology built me. I might be trapped and thrown into a star or another universe though.”

 “Good enough!” I said.

 

“My weapons are quite formidable,” Hilda added, “and you two are very dangerous, you have the ability to use the fifth dimension to get inside an enemy ship force field and hull; the emissaries could do that.”

 “We will have to develop that power,” I said, “we need to supply an army with antigravity scooters armed with powerful lasers or masers. Do you have in your memory bank the instructions that would help me build those antigravity scooters?”

“Yes Richard, I have that and more, much more. You could protect those soldiers with light flexible armor that could deflect for a moment a full laser beam hit.”

“All right,” I said, “can we now visit your control room?”

“Yes, please jump to the city hall located in the middle of that village; an elevator beam is connecting the mayor office to the control room.”

 The mayor’s office was easy to find; we walked into the elevator circle and an antigravity beam pulled us over the village, five hundred feet up and then into the room ceiling. A plate took form under our feet, and we walked into a circular room, one hundred foot in diameter with large screens. One of them showed the immediate vicinity of the starship, another showed our world with the moon as seen from a million miles away. A tiny light indicated the presence of the Krulls’ colony ship for just a second and was gone. There was a commander seat, a round table and seats for twenty people. Hilda’s holograph was standing in front of us smiling. She was exquisite, certainly the most beautiful woman I ever met.

 “Wow! Did you compose that holograph? Is it a true representation of the corporeal Hilda?”

“I am glad you like it,” she replied in the most sensual tone,” welcome to the control room. There aren’t any astronavigation control gadgets in a starship that could travel instantly to any point of the universe or to the immediate parallel universes; it is way too complicated for operation by an organic brain and hand manipulation. The way to control your starship is through mind sharing.”

 “It will be a pleasure to share your mind, Hilda.” I replied in a flirting way.

“Then come in sweetheart”

I did it and I felt extreme comfort; it was a beautiful and brilliant mind but more than that, I was sexually excited.

“My God, Hilda, I am feeling a powerful sexual urge; you are exquisite.”

At that she induced sexiness, and I was taken by an indescribable sexual frenzy that lasted for a long moment before the ultimate orgasm.

“It was wonderful Richard,” Hilda said, “that was unexpected; I didn’t know I could have that kind of feeling but now I know what love is; I love you, Richard.”

“And so do I Hilda.”

Our sexual meshing had not escaped the acute Lise awareness.

 “Should I be worried or jealous about what just happened between the two of you?” Lise asked in a non-committed way.

“Nothing to worry about Lise,” I said, “I love you just as much as before. It is just that from now on, I will also love Hilda. Something happened, we connected in a much more powerful way than I could have expected when I shared my mind with her. Come join us.”

 Instantly she was with us.

 “I like your presence Lise,” said Hilda, “we will be really good partners. Now let me show you a few visions of our fascinating universe. It is done in a similar way to instant travel. I use the fabric of God to do it. Look at that.”

 We sped through the galaxies, stopped for a look at a pulsar, a huge black hole, a wormhole and huge formations made from thousands of galaxies. We pinpointed into one and then to a star and looked at its gravitating planets. One of them was inhabited and we zoomed in to one of its cities. The people living in it had a catlike body with the belly and throat covered by interlocking round plates, the back and tail covered with dense fur. Their heads resembled a Black Panther head but it was longer and bigger. Two additional front legs ended up in clawed fingers. A group of them were working on a building; another group was fighting an array of monsters coming out from a nearby forest.

 The catlike species was armed with swords, lances and bows; they had dug deep trenches around the city and were defending a wide bridge.

 “They have not yet reached the gun powder technology,” mentioned Lise admiringly, “but this species will surely end up at the top of the food chain on this world.”

 We left the sight and went on visiting the universe for a few hours, looking at all kind of wonders.

 “The time is passing quickly,” said Hilda when you go on a sightseeing tour of the universe and if you don’t control your curiosity, you might just waste your life in watching interesting events instead of living your own life and saving your world.”

 “You are right Hilda, let’s get back to Hilton Head; we will retrieve the babies and then you will bring us over to my home city, Montreal, where I intend to meet with my family members and convince them to come and live here for a while as we try to save the world from the Krulls’ invasion.”

 “If it can be of interest to you,” said Hilda, “I have the perfect babysitter robot, Bentley. I should say Android since its body is made of synthetic skin. Bentley will feed them, change them, rock them and tell them stories and he never gets tired or impatient. Also, there are other rooms here,” Hilda went on, “and some of them might be of great importance for your future plans.”

 “All right Hilda,” I am rushing; one thing at a time, please show me those rooms.”

 We walked through several rooms, some were food storage, others contains equipment and tools; one of them was very big and held twenty shuttles armed with masers and equipped with grappling fields, energy shield, fusion engines and anti-gravity generators. Each one could hold six men in the cockpit, and twenty more in the main room.

“Interesting,” I said, “we have a small fleet here.

“Each of these shuttles can use the fabric of God for instantaneous travel to any point of the universe,” commented Hilda, “but I kept the most important room for the end.”

We went to a very high and very long room that held multiple rows of coffin like metallic boxes with tubing connected to the ceiling, there were thousands of them, perhaps hundreds of thousands since there were multiple levels from the floor to the ceiling.

 “Those boxes are the “Fountaine de Jouvence” rejuvenators.” Hilda said. “An old mortally sick candidate lies down, and I close the cover. I then fill it with oxygenating and curative liquid that permeates through all the cells. The viruses and bacteria are destroyed, including the aging virus and all the cells are rejuvenated. Missing parts, hair, teeth, limbs are grown back and three weeks later a young person with a twenty-year-old body comes out. That person will remain young forever or until he or she gets killed. This rejuvenating is preferable for those who intend to have babies and live a normal life.

We have a section at the end of the room of enhancing devices that will transform the candidate into your superman state with accompanying loss of fertility.”

“Wonderful! With those, we can build up a species of superman that will protect mankind as it spread out through the Milky Way.”

 “That is if there is anything left of mankind.” Lise Interjected. “We have an alien invasion, and we have to hold them up until we recruit the superman candidates and enhance them.”

“They will probably hesitate about damaging the demon’s food world and there is the presence of yet another enemy with that starship they failed to destroy.” I said.

“With your help, we might defeat them right now; we don’t need to wait for more enhanced combatants.” Hilda interjected. “You are way more dangerous than you realize.”

“They will not return empty handed to their world,” Lise commented, “so I think they will land many of their shuttles, build some camouflaged bases and proceed to the invasion in a subtle way. What if they provoke wars between the nuclear armed nations and use that diversion to start looting.”

“In such case, the destruction of the world might well happen at any time now.” I added.

 “Even if we destroy the Krulls colony starship and its shuttles, our world will remain in danger of destruction; there might be other starships on their way here with the power to destroy our planet.” Lise said, we have to recruit enough people to start anew on another world, and we have to find the right people, farmers, engineers, doctors, biologists, security officers, leaders…’’

 ‘’Perhaps we should recruit our candidates amongst the elders, I said, I mean amongst those old enough to have achieved some maturity; people that have been resourceful and disciplined enough to get to that old age; people that have achieve success in their own field. Most of my clients would be good candidates and I have a long list of them. I could send them an e-mail and invite them all in one place where we would pick them up and bring them to the ship.”

 ‘’ We need to make sure we do not recruit bad apples, Lise went on, I mean those who would cause trouble, instigating fights and ruining our hope for a better civilization. Some people look very nice, very charming, hiding well their evil nature. We need to evaluate them, perhaps a thought and lie detector. How will we recruit the superman candidate Richard? You know we can’t give our kind of power to people that would use it for evil goals. We will have to meet each one and probe them mentally to see their true nature.”

 “I can be of some help here,” Hilda interjected, “just send them to me; I will question them and quickly reject the bad apples.”

 “All right, we will do that Hilda; but tell me, can you telepathically witness anything that we will do or any conversation we will have from now on?”

“If you allow me to stay in your mind, I can be useful, and it would be more interesting for me.” Hilda said hopefully.

“All right, find yourself a comfortable corner in my brain and now let’s meet my family.”

“You can stay in my mind too Hilda; I carry no grudges about my Richard extra marital activity with you and I also like you.” Lise said.

 “Thank you, Lise, we are stationary, one mile over Hilton Head; I will open the side door to let you out; I will be with you, in your mind at all time. You can re-enter from a door right under the spaceship.”

 We left the control room, went down the elevator shaft to the mayor’s office of the city hall and jumped to the corridor, reached the entrance hall and jumped outside the starship through a circular door that had suddenly appeared on the back wall. We spotted Nova’s house and instantly stood at the door.

 “Hi,” Nova” I said,” We had changed our appearance again to the one she had seen us last time; the Demons shape would have terrified anyone.

” It didn’t take you much time.

“Yes, we retrieved our starship, but we had some problems. Earth is being invaded. The Krulls were trying to get into the starship when we found it and we had to fight our way in. Moreover, more of the Krull starships are on their way here and our world may soon be destroyed. There is a beautiful village located in one of the ship’s rooms. All the houses are empty, waiting for the people we intend to take there. The village is in a beautiful valley, with snow-capped mountains. There are farmland and robot farmers. Here it might turn ugly; the Krulls might take power down as a first step in their invasion. That might be followed by a virus and thermonuclear war. Would you like to live on the ship for a while? We intend to take thousands of people with us and colonize another planet.”

 “Can I take my parents and my daughter with me? Perhaps some of my best friends and her best friends as well?”

 “Yes, no problem, the village can house tens of thousands of people. Please call everyone and get them here as quickly as possible.”

 As Nova started her calls, we went to have a look at Emiss and Arries; they were sleeping like little angels. Two hours later, Nova, her parents, her daughter and their best friends had joined us at the house. There were now about 40 of them. I gave some explanations while we were waiting for more of their friends and relatives.

 “Do you expect any more guests?” I asked Nova one hour later.

 “No everyone I called that listened to my story and accepted my invitation is here now.’’

  The house was crowded, and everyone was talking excitedly. Most did not believe what she told them but were here to watch what will happen.

 ”Lise, let’s get the babies and then we will all go outside.”

 We walked with the babies in my arms; they were awake now and seemed very interested in all the people walking with us. Once outside, I asked everyone to hold hands, a chain of hands with a link to Lise or one of my arms.

 “Don’t be afraid now, we will levitate upwards to the starship, there is no danger.” I said.

 We went up, a mile up, carrying everyone with our telekinetic power as they threw terrified looks at the receding ground.

 “Don’t worry; we can’t fall, look up at the starship.”

 Hilda turned on the lights and we could see an immense starship; it was saucer shaped with millions of multicolored lights. It was grandiose.

We went inside and landed softly on the sand trail as the ground closed under our feet.

 “Wow, it is so beautiful here,” Nova said, “it is so big, unbelievable.”

 “That room is larger than the starship,” I explained, “part of it is in an adjacent parallel universe or what we call the fourth dimension. It is real and solid to us but doesn’t belong to our outside world or universe. It is part of the ship; a link keep it with us wherever we go.  Follow me we will take you to the next room, the valley room with cultivated fields, lakes, snowcapped mountains, golf courses and the village at foothill.”

 “You can visit the starship later on,” I proposed, “but for now, we are in some kind of urgency, and we got to save a large number of the right people from the alien invasion and the possible destruction of our world.”

 A flying platform, an antigravity platform, large enough to carry everyone came quickly towards us. It was driven by a silver bright robot.

 “Hello everyone,” said the robot as the platform stopped a few feet distant from our group, “My name is Silver and it will be a pleasure for me to guide you through the starship for a grand tour; please walk aboard.”

“Thank you, Silver,” I said, “we will be seeing you later at the village. Enjoy your stay everyone.”

“Thank you and good luck Richard, Lise,” Nova said. Everyone else thanked us in turn.

 We are now hovering over the old Montreal,” Hilda said, as the antigravity platform left, “and there is firework at the old port.”

 We left the starship, it was 10:30 PM and dark outside; we flew to the north towards Laval, a suburb of Montréal, we spotted our house where our daughter Veronique was living with Alexander, her 8 years-old son, Anna, her 4-years old daughter and Cristian her partner in life, a good doctor.

 Before landing at the front door, we changed our appearance to the old familiar look adjusting the details through the eyes of our companion. We looked now identical to our pre-enhanced body with the exception that we had no clothes on, just our superman suit that was really a part of our body.

 “Have you ever seen an old fart with a superman suit?” Lise asked laughing at my look.

“Very funny Lise!” I replied, “It looks like Veronique hasn’t come home yet; let’s get in and change.”

 Unlocking a door was child play; we walked into our bedroom, chose some clothes in the wardrobe, moved the superman suit cells into the rest of our body and dressed ourselves. A look in the mirror for some fine adjustment of our faces, making us look old and we were ready to face our beloved daughter. We didn’t wait long before we heard her car stopping in the driveway. She walked in, threw her coat and backpack on the floor and suddenly saw us sitting quietly in the living room.

 “My God! You scared me! There was no car in the driveway, I was sure the house was empty.”

“Don’t worry, it is us,” I said, “and we didn’t take the car, we came in our starship and flew down to the balcony.”

”What are you saying? ”

“Allo chérie, ça va bien?” Lise said.

“What you are saying dad is crazy”

“Can I hug you? I missed you.”

 She came hesitantly to me.

 “Wait Veronique, before I hug you, I must tell you that we are hard and hot but don’t worry, it is us all right even though we have changed. Also, when you come into my arms, you will experience an intake of energy.”

 We both hugged her. She sensed the energy intake and suddenly realized that we were not the same and what I just said was not so crazy.

 “There is a starship in the sky? Over the house? I would like to see it”

“Yes, I will ask Hilda to show up for a moment.”

“Who is Hilda?”

“Hilda is the starship; she is an artificial intelligence and a superb one.”

“Hi Veronique, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Said a soft, feminine and powerful voice.

 We turned around and there she was, in the living room, in the flesh or what looked like flesh. She had dressed herself with great taste and looked like a Spanish dancer with a rose in the hair over her ear.

“This is a projection, a three-dimensional image of what she wants to look like at the moment.” I said.

 Lise and I changed back our face to our twenty-year-old ones.

 “Hi Hilda!” Veronique replied with moderate surprise. “Can I see the starship? I mean can I see you from outside?”

“Yes sure, I will come down. I am close enough now, come outside and have a look.”

We walked outside and the starship was all lights and moving colors.

“It is so beautiful, so huge.” Veronique commented in awe.

 The neighbors were coming out of their houses; some had cellular phones and were taking photos already. The starship suddenly disappeared, and we walked back inside our house.

 “Our world is being invaded by the Krulls, they are very dangerous Aliens,” I said, “and they might try a diversion while they are looting our world; they might start a nuclear war between China, Russia and the USA. They might spread lethal viruses and bacteria that would kill most of the population. We would like you to come with us to the spaceship while we fight the Krulls.”

“I have four clients tomorrow for therapy;” Said Veronique, “I have worked very hard to build a clientele as a sport therapist and I was planning the opening of a Yoga center. “

“Your life will never be the same from now on; once we get rid of the Aliens; you can move back in the house; we will help you financially to start your Yoga center. But we certainly hope that you will join the 20000 colonists that will accompany us to another world where we will start a new civilization.”

 

“I can connect on your cellular, call all your clients and cancel your appointments for you Veronique if you show me your agenda.” Hilda interjected.

 

Veronique fetched her agenda from her backpack and gave it to me. In three seconds, I had memorize all the names, dates and phone numbers and Hilda who was still sharing my brain was already doing the phone calls.

“Cristian is not back yet from the clinic” Veronique said, “I would like him to come with us.”

“Sure, which clinic?”

She gave me the location. I walked outside and flew quickly to it and walked inside. The receptionist told me he was with a client. I walked to the room and opened the door. Christian was surprised as I boldly walked in.

“Please Cristian I will explain later but for now let me heal your client and let’s walk out.”

 I seized the client’s hand for a few seconds. The transfer occurred and the client stood up.

 “I am healed, wow! I never felt that good; what did you do? Who are you? You are hard like stone and hot…”

“I don’t have time to explain, have a good life. Cristian come with me.”

 My voice had a commanding strength, Cristian just followed me outside the clinic. I took his hand and flew back to Veronique’s house. In a few seconds I told him who I was and what I intended to do. We landed and joined Lise and Veronique. We then all walked outside, took their hands and jumped to the starship, through the open door and the ground closed under our feet. Silver was already waiting for us on the flying platform.

 “Please hop on the platform, the robot will take you to the village; there are already some people there.” I said. “We have to get the rest of the family members; we will see you later.”

 Veronique and Cristian walked to the platform, stepped on it and stood beside the robot. They were looking everywhere, fascinated, when the ground opened under our feet and we jumped towards Genevieve’s house.

 “She took the whole absurd, impossible story quite well, didn’t she?” Lise commented with a hint of pride and admiration.

“Yes, but she has been looking for supernatural phenomenon for years, she was prepared for it; she studied that new art of healing people from distance or with the imposition of hands; she went to Yoga afterwards; she became a therapist and she always kept looking for connection with a superior world, universe or spirit. Perhaps she had the intuition that one day, her life would change dramatically.”

 “With Genevieve it will be different; Lise commented, “She is the down to Earth, practical and a no-nonsense woman. Her husband is just the same. These two gave all their free time to raise our grandchildren in the best possible way, making them into perfect law abiding, no-nonsense people with an acceptable career and heaven at the end of their life. Now they are retired, they have a great circle of friends, and they don’t want any change in their lives.”

 We landed on their balcony; there were many cars parked in their driveway. We suspected they had a family reception. We knocked at the door.

 “Mom? Dad? I didn’t know you were coming. What a surprise.” Genevieve said. We had changed our faces to our old ones.

“Hi Richard, Lise.” Guy said.

“Grand papa, hi.” Simon said as he threw himself in my arms.

“You are so hard grand papa and so very warm!” He went on as he released his hug. “You transferred something to me, some kind of energy.”

“I will explain in a moment,” I replied as I hugged my daughter. The energy transfer happened again. She looked at me in surprise, not believing what was happening.

Hi Guy; good to see you!” I said offering my hand.

We shook hands and noticed his expression of awe and disbelief.

“Hello Karianne, are you going to give me a kiss?” I added looking at my granddaughter.

 She did not reply. She had obviously noticed that something weird was going on and preferred to stay some safe distance away. Lise hugged and kissed Genevieve, Simon and Guy, said hello to Karianne and we all walked into the living room where Lise and I took a seat adjusting our weight to a pre-enhanced level. They all sat a little away, waiting for our explanations and just looking at us.

 “All right”, I said, realizing that Lise was letting me do the explanations. In her mind, that was a great moment for me; after all she must have been thinking it should be my show; I was the one responsible for what happened.

 “So, this is the story,” I went on. “Lise and I have been enhanced to superman level. We are immortal, harder than stones; we can fly and have acquired certain powers. We don’t need to breathe, to eat or drink, we have no more heart, lungs or digestive system. We draw our energy from the cosmos. We have a starship. Please take one object important with you and let’s all go outside where we will fly up into the starship.”

 “That is so farfetched,” Genevieve said, “I must be dreaming.”

 

At that, I crossed my arms, folded my legs and rose from the sofa with my most comforting smile.

 “I can make you rise up from your sofa too,” I said, “it won’t hurt you, just feel it.”

 She rose slowly from her sofa; she was not panicking; but I could tell that she was trying to feel the forces that were pushing her up.

 “I believe we might be attacked at any time Genevieve by those horrible Aliens, perhaps we should move quickly now.”

“You have nothing to fear from us,” Lise added, “we are just trying to save as many members of the family as we can, and you are the most important to us. Veronique is already in the starship awaiting you.”

“All right,” Guy said, standing up.”

“Do we need to take anything with us?” Genevieve asked; “are we going to come back here later on?”

“I hope so,” I replied, “We will try to destroy the Alien mother ship and organize the Earth defenses against all their landing shuttles. If we win that war, you will be able to come back but your life on Earth will be different from now on.”

 We all walked out and looked up to the play of light under the starship that stood a hundred feet over our head. We took their hands and rose quickly to the opening, went right through and landed on the hard pack sand trail that had just formed under our feet.

 “Hello,” said Silver, the robot, standing on the flying platform, “please come aboard everyone; we will do a grand tour of the facilities before I take you home, to your new home where other people are awaiting you.”

“I will see you later on, perhaps tonight at the city hall.” I said as the floor opened under my feet; Lise and I jumped towards our son, Francis’s house. More of the same happened and a few hours later, he, his daughter Arielle and a few close friends were safely inside the starship.

 We came back for my sisters, and Lise’s brother Andre and brought them all in. The last one was my brother Michel. My brother is two years older than me and my God did he use it to its advantage in our relationship. When I was a sick and feeble teenager, he was the fearless street fighter that every bully in the small town we were growing up in wanted to try. He wasn’t tall at five foot eight inches nor appears to be very strong, but he had an incredible inner energy and rare ability to excel in any sport including street fighting.

So, he was my idol and my tormentor. I never accepted his leadership for I thought that leadership comes naturally when a person shows superior intellect, driving energy, zest for life and compassion. He didn’t have more compassion than me nor a superior intellect to mine; he was often bossing me, and I tolerated it since I loved him and had much admiration for his qualities, his great heart and his ability to make friends. I admired his courage and his charming talent with women. He had so many friends, unbelievable, and he certainly deserved their friendship.

 When my health started to improve at the age of twenty-three, after I was miraculously cured by an old holy man, I started to practice judo and I quickly became a blue belt. Then I started to do other sports, ping-pong, racquetball, badminton, skiing and finally golf. In all those sports, I became one of the good players, but I never reached my brother’s level of excellence.

 We sometimes had a touchy relationship since I had my own ideas about politics and other matters that we should never talk about, but we needed the comforting presence of a brother with whom we shared so many souvenirs. We loved each other in our own respective ways. Lately in my life I had improved my golf game enough to compete with him sometimes and that added some spice to our relationship. Now, I was a superman, an immortal, with a far superior intelligence and my hero was an old man who still works out and try hard to keep up with much younger golf partners.

 We landed on the front balcony, and I rang at the door. My brother came up, walking up the stairs slowly, from the basement, with pain on his back and legs, with his right shoulder still inflamed, his artificial knees…but when he opened up the door, he drew up some inner energy, all the energy he could draw up from way deep inside and tried to look young and energetic. That is one of the things I like about him; at 77 years old, he wanted to project the image of the guy he was forty years ago. To me, it is a most commendable pride. Later, Michel, his wife Franca, his children and some of his closest friends had joined the others inside the spaceship.

 “Hilda dear, it is time to recruit at least 10,000 future colonists; would you broadcast on the Television net a commercial inviting people to volunteer for work to help some of the Midwest City people whose houses were destroyed by recent tornados? The volunteers should preferably be retired, fifty years and older. The work will not be physically hard, and they will be working in large teams; they will be fed and lodged and live an exciting life. All the ones interested should e-mail a resume to worldsaving.com. The selected ones will be given a flight ticket to the Houston astrodome and limousines will be waiting for them at the airport. Tell them that their
mortgage or rent and all the other expenses and monthly bills will be paid and handled by our organization. When they return home, everything will be as it was before. Moreover, they will be paid $10,000.00 per week.

 Then please reserve the astrodome with my check card for a midnight conference three days from today and underline that time is of the essence and the interested ones will have to act quickly and e-mail their application immediately.”

“It is done dear,” said Hilda in my mind, “the commercials are being broadcasted right now and I also sent e-mails to one hundred million people. I should start receiving applications in a few hours.”

Please invite my family members, my clients and my golf partners and tell them that they are already approved and should come to the East wing of the astrodome.

Hilda’s mind was like a computer but with more capacity than all the computers on Earth together. Her neural microchips were as small as a human brain molecule and she packed trillions of them. She could simultaneously handle conversations with millions of people and do a million other tasks all at the same time. A second for such a powerful computerized mind was like an hour, many hours. Fortunately, my enhanced brain was similar, and we could exchange thoughts at a super-fast level.

 “All right, now let’s get to the white house and meet the President.”

——————–

“Tell me everything you know about this Richard Riverin.” The president said to his chief of staff John Stockton.

 All the important decision makers were there. It was a most dramatic and extraordinary meeting. There was Frederick Steele, the president; he had been elected two years before. He was a solid, handsome, athletic fifty-five years old man; a fast decision maker, a genius with the oratory acumen and charm of the late Ronald Reagan. He was now tested for the first time since his election. His wife Sandra was a retired movie star. They had three children in their teenage years and were going to college.

 There was the vice-president Dick Harvey, a sixty-eight year old no-nonsense billionaire businessman; the Secretary of State Mary Fenton; the secretary of defense Peter Grim, the CIA Director, Harold Friedman, the FBI director Tony Sirchton, a few generals, a few scientists, the IRS director Drew Taxon, the speaker for the
“Freedom USA Party” Drew Throbble, and the chief of the “New Democrat party” Jack Nice.

 “This man is an artist-painter operating a small art gallery in Hilton Head Island, SC. He recently sold or gave away his gallery and his paintings to another art gallery owner with whom he had been doing business in the past and his faithful employees, Nova and Lynn. Suddenly we find out that he is the main shareholder with control over the common stocks of a great number of companies. This man is presently the richest man on Earth. He bought stock of emerging companies with an unseen intuition; it was like he knew the future, like a time-traveler that went back in the past to buy the stocks of the most successful businesses of our time.

 Our findings started with an unexplainable explosion in a Hilton Head Island condo. The ceiling had burst open but there were no traces of explosives. He and his wife as well as their twin babies were unhurt, and the investigator noticed that they were hot, hard as stone and they were not breathing. The investigators started a search on the two of them. That is when they found out that Riverin was immensely rich. They also found out that his wife Lise had just had her twin babies in a Hilton Head hospital. They contacted the doctor and questioned her. The doctor said that she saw Lise body becoming hard as stone minutes only after she gave birth. There was nothing left to do, not a trace left that she had just given birth to twins; she had healed instantly and was in perfect shape showing immense energy.

 A few investigators kept a watch of their condo and they saw them coming out on the balcony one night and literally jumping into the sky at an unbelievable speed. They then plunged back towards a condo in another part of the town. They checked Riverin’s known contacts and found out that Nova, the lady he had just given his art gallery to, lived there. They rushed to her address and came just in time to see the Riverins holding their babies and a group of people rising to some kind of flying saucer.

 An opening took shape and swallowed them. Then the UFO disappeared like it had never been there.

 We questioned Riverin’s accountant and legal representative, and he said he met Riverin once a year every year for the last fifty years. He said that he had never met such a fascinating person, that Riverin was a good man, perhaps more than a man, perhaps an angel. We questioned a waiter that served them a meal not long ago. He said Riverin gave him a huge tip and transferred energy as they shook hands. He said Riverin had a body hard as steel and he also believed that Riverin is an angel.”

 “All right what about the other UFO, the one we thought was a meteor aiming directly to Earth.” The president asked.

 “We spotted the UFO briefly as it was slowly orbiting around the moon.” The scientist chief astronomer in charge of the Hubble telescope answered. It came directly towards our planet at near the light speed and somehow broke to minimal speed as it crossed Saturn orbit. We tried to establish contact with the Aliens to no avail. They ignored all our attempts. Then we spotted a small spaceship landing on an Island near Naples, FL. We used the Hubble telescope to watch what the Aliens were doing there; we took the video as they spread out on the Island and set up camp in a large opening. There was an incredibly big flying saucer on the ground about half a mile from the Alien’s camp. We have been watching them for two weeks now and it seems that they were trying to enter the flying saucer.”

 The scientist started the projector and showed everyone present a video of the Krulls.

 “This is now the encounter between two demons and the Aliens.”

 

Everyone saw the fight between one of the demons and a Krull and then the hasty departure of the Aliens and the lifting of the huge flying saucer just an instant before a terrible explosion shook the land it was lying on. The explosion was equivalent to what we would get with a powerful nuclear bomb but there was no residual radioactivity. It was like the Island had been hit by a meteor; the difference being that all the matter resulting from the explosion disappeared, disintegrated into nothing else than energy.

 “So those Aliens have powerful armament, far superior to what we could throw at them.” The president commented.

“Not only that;” went on the scientist, “they have antigravity technology, invisibility, energy shield…Their technology is so advanced over ours that we stand no chance in an eventual conflict. Our species is facing slavery or extinction.”

“And now, suddenly, we have a mysterious couple that people who met them believe to be angels and we have demons on our side. I never thought I would one day face such a crisis.

 “I have talked with the presidents and prime ministers of all nuclear armed countries,” Frederick Steele said, “to make sure that an Alien attack on one of our countries would not be misled by an attack from us or any other countries. I wonder if I should talk to the population about the menace from those Aliens.”

 “I think you should while you can.” The secretary of defense replied.” These aliens might well pulverize all the electric centrals and cut the radio and television broadcast to start their invasion. The population must prepare itself for such an event before all actual means of transportation is eliminated. Without electricity, there is no fuel in the gas stations, no heating, no food from the groceries and I think that the people must arm themselves, they must have a chance to defend themselves.”

 “Should we discuss the situation with the Congress?” The president asked looking at the speaker of the house and the leaders of all three political parties.

 “I don’t think we have time for that.” The secretary of defense interjected. “We should move right away to our main bunker installation. We are in immediate danger here at the White House.”

 That’s when the alarm went off, as Lise and I landed right in front of the White House main entrance. I opened the door and walked inside with Lise facing the muzzles of four guards armed with submachine guns.

 “Don’t move any further, on your knees, hands over your head.” One of the guards shouted.

 “No need to get excited my friend,” I said in a pacifying tone showing my most comforting smile. “Please don’t shoot; we don’t want you to be hit by ricochets. As for us, we would not be affected by your shots. We come in peace to talk with the president. Please call him; it is a matter of great urgency.”

 “I said on your knees, or I shoot you in the legs.” The guard shouted hysterically.

“Then if you must, go ahead, shoot.” I replied.

The guard shot me eight times as I kept smiling at him.

“Satisfied?” I asked as I went on walking in the direction, I thought would lead to a conference room.

The guards shot another round at us. I turned around and pulled the guns out of their hands using the same kind of energy beam that I used to lift people to the starship. Then I flew them under a desk.

I told you not to shoot at us,” I said, “We don’t want to hurt you. Please call the president.”

 “Mr. Riverin, I guess,” the president said, coming out of the conference room, “we were just talking about you.”

“Mr. President, it is a pleasure to meet you, but I would have preferred to do it in less dramatic circumstances.” I replied offering my hand.

We shook hands. There was automatic energy transfer and healing.

 “Please follow me inside” The president said under high emotion, “I wish to introduce you to my guests.

 We walked in the large conference room, everyone was looking at us. Lise and I saluted them.

 “So, Mr. Riverin, who or what are you? Some say you might be an angel. I noticed that not only you are hard as steel, but you are warm, impossibly warm for a human and you do not breathe, you got no pulse and apparently you can fly. Moreover, you just did something to me; I never felt better.” The president said.

 “Lise and I are enhanced humans.” I replied. “We are no angels, but we are the only ones that might save our world from the Krulls.”

“Are they going to invade us? To what purpose?” The president asked.

“The invasion is inevitable,” I said, “the Krulls came from very far away to loot our planet. Their colony ship is huge, and it is using some kind of fuel that is probably too depleted to return to their world of origin without landing, manufacturing that fuel and recharging it. They came to loot and possibly destroy our world.

We had an encounter with some of them. We paid them a visit to an island where they were trying to get inside my starship. We took the appearance of demons and told them to leave our farm world intact. We told them we were feeding on humans and if they damage our farm world, we will start feeding on them. I then fought and killed one of them to show our power and we barely escaped in my starship before they shot their maser at the island. They probably think that the starship belongs to yet another species, we told them we could jump from chaos to this universe. So, they are hesitant, they will probably land somewhere, fortify a base, perhaps many bases and start manufacturing their fuel to recharge their tanks in case they need to escape and fly back to their world of origin. Once they have done that, they will probably start the invasion. I might be wrong, and the invasion might be imminent, so I suggest you all come with me and set up your quarters inside the starship. You will have no difficulties communicating with the various agencies and you will be safer there than inside your bunker. The White house is the worst place you can be right now.”

 “Will we be able to keep contact with the rest of the government and the people?” The president asked.

“To answer that, let me introduce you to Hilda the artificial intelligence whose body is the starship.”

“Hi everyone,” Hilda said as she materialized on my side, “I will answer that question. I can broadcast messages to all the televisions and radio stations of the world; I can control all the frequencies. I can talk with a great number of people all at the same time while doing a million other tasks. Your biggest computers would be tiny parts of my mind and I can take control of them too. I was created by the Emissaries to serve humanity and they gave me to Richard as a parting gift, as a reward to the writer that gave them their existence.”

 “So, will you please follow me to the starship, we might have very little time left before the White House is destroyed”. I said.

“Let’s go everyone,” The president ordered, “keep your questions for when we are safe in that starship…”

 The guards that shot me in the back had come out from under the desk and were staring at me when I walked out of the conference room. They had recuperated their guns but this time, they were keeping them pointed down.

“I am taking the president and everyone here in my starship,” I said, “the two of you are not coming.”

 “And you are fired,” the president added, “just go home.”

 The two guards hesitated, not knowing what to do with the guns.

 “Take your guns with you,” went on the President, “you may need them to fight Aliens if we are invaded.”

 We walked outside and went a good distance from the white house and stopped; at that moment Hilda cancelled the energy shield that protected the starship and kept it invisible. The starship appeared in its entire splendor and the antigravity beam lifted us all inside its shell. In just a few seconds we were standing on the hard packed dirt road where Silver the robot was awaiting us on a large antigrav platform.

 “Welcome to …” Silver started.

“The Endeavor” I said.

 “Welcome to the Endeavor,” Silver repeated, “please step on the platform and I will take you all to the city and the mayor office.”

“It is much bigger here than I guessed from the outside,” the president mentioned, “it is so beautiful.”

“Some of The Endeavor’s rooms are bigger than the whole starship,” Hilda explained, “they spread into a fifth dimension. Her holographic presence had followed us, and she was standing right beside Silver at the aft of the antigrav platform.

The whole group of dignitaries, the President, the Vice-President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of defense, the generals, the scientists, everyone was overwhelmed by what they were seeing, the beautiful valley, the far horizon, the strange artificial sky, the levitating platform, the robot, Hilda’s holographic presence and Lise and I radiating heat and extreme energy. They were all wondering if the whole thing was true; wondering if it was a dream.

Silver took control of the platform, elevating it to a height of one hundred feet over the valley floor. There were no protective rails and some of the people standing close to the edge stepped back.

 “Don’t worry,” I said, “the platform will stay perfectly horizontal, and I can easily hold you or lift you back if you were to fall. Moreover, I assure you that this won’t happen on my watch. Enjoy the view, relax, you are safe and by the way you are not dreaming. The Emissaries designed each of the Endeavor’s rooms with care for the esthetic; they made them as beautiful as they could be.”

 We watch a pack of wolves chasing a herd of antelopes. Then a flock of pink swans, thousands of them, flew right beside the platform. We saw a moose and its mate pulling on cauliflowers and water lilies on a nearby lakeshore. We spent half an hour looking at the wildlife action underneath, at the prairies and the small forests, the flower fields and the streams and then Silver brought us down and into the doorway to the next room. Here was a different panorama, there were snow-capped mountains in the background and a large lake with a village built on its shore. The village counted ten thousand houses, each one with enough lawn, bushes and fruit trees to make them most pleasant to live in. There was a village’s downtown with a church, shops, restaurants and bars, a municipal park, a football field with a stadium that could seat twenty thousand people. There were cement paths for roller blades and bicycles and many golf courses, but everything was empty.

There were shining metal contraptions, some kind of machines busy cutting the grass or picking fruits from the trees. Other ones were working in the corn and wheat field that went on for miles from the village to the snowcapped mountains. There was a marina with a hundred sailboats attached to the boat docks. The village was clean; the lawns were well cut; the whole village had been kept in perfect state but there were no people in it except for a small group talking in front of the mayor house and some more in a nearby restaurant.

 “What a beautiful place to spend a holiday,” said Sandra the first lady, “I wish we had Harvey, Chloe and Jimmy with us.”

“Can you do anything about our children?” Frederick Steele asked.

“We can call them on their cell phone and ask them to come to the Houston Astrodome where we intend to pick up a few thousand people Saturday night.” I proposed. “And this is good for all of you.” I added looking at all the present dignitaries. Hilda will pick up your contacts from your cellular phones and call them; she will tell them what is happening and invite them to the astrodome. If your family members are not listed in your cellular, just say their names and phone numbers; she can listen to all of you even if you all speak at the same time, she remembers everything.”

 The antigravity platform landed in front of the mayor’s office. Nova and Lynn with our babies were amongst the group of people awaiting us.

 “Emiss, Arries!” Lise said as we took them in our arms and kissed them delicately on the cheeks. The babies were very happy to see us too and they expressed it in their own ways. They were only a few weeks old but evidently the tiny cellular size robots, spread out in their entire bodies, were accelerating their brain functions. They looked as developed mentally as three years old babies and they were as big too.

“They were very easy to handle,” Nova said.

“Excellent, they are adorable,” I replied as I looked at them fondly.

 People were coming out of the mayor’s house and the nearby restaurant-bar; when everyone was there, I invited the president to say a few words to the small crowd. The president told them that he will collaborate to our efforts to fight the Krulls and he is putting at my disposal all the armed forces of the USA. He then asked the small crowd to kneel and pray with him for God’s help in the coming fight. Once the prayer was done, we went inside the mayor’s office and from the main room we went into a circle in the middle of the office and were beamed up into the ship control room.

———————————-

The astrodome was packed with a lot of elders. They had to pass through a scanning room and answer two or three questions: If we give you immortality, would you move permanently to another world and work hard to build up a new nation? Why do you think you should be granted immortality?

Hilda was scanning each one and evaluating their sincerity and their qualities; it was done instantly, and one of two doors would open leading the guests either inside or back outside the astrodome. There were hundreds of rejects, all the Muslims were rejected for the way they were treating their women. There were also amongst the angry group of rejects some violent policemen, bankers, attorneys, syndicate leaders, unpleasant people, bullies, street gang members, drug dealers…

 For a few days now, the ship had been hovering with full force field right over the astrodome, protecting the whole area and this ever since we openly broadcasted on all TV channels our invitations. It was midnight when I flew over the crowd and slowly landed on a dais set up in the center. I thanked the people for coming and explained to them that we were in fact recruiting future colonists to a new world and we could not broadcast it openly. So, we had used a subterfuge, pretending we were recruiting people for the reconstruction of damaged Midwest villages. I explained the situation and my intention to start a new nation on a faraway world where no man had gone before.

 I promised them that if they accept, today was the beginning of an exciting new life for them. I promised them immortality. I told them that we were ready to beam them up into our huge spaceship where they would be brought to a village. There are enough houses to shelter everyone.

I asked those that did not wish to participate to leave the astrodome immediately, adding that a $10,000.00 check will be remitted to everyone at the exit. The majority of people left.

 Once they had exited. I looked at the remaining people and estimated that we had about 5000 recruits.

 “Can we take our children and closest friends with us?” One of the people asked.

 “Yes, once inside the starship, you will be able to call them and talk with them. You will be able to show them some of the starship rooms. We will pick up all your dear ones that wish to join us.”

 There was a huge screen and Hilda projected a movie tour of the starship interior.

“Those who changed their mind and wish to go back home can do it now.” I said.

 A few dozen moved away from the rest of the people and exited the astrodome.

 “We will beam you up now and we will start the rejuvenation of the sick people and the elders in priority; please hold on and keep your emotions under control. You will be given a medicine that will keep you alive until your time come for the rejuvenation immersion bac. We don’t want you to die when you are so close to immortality.”

 We beamed them up and brought them to the village where they were directed to their new houses. Parents with their children had first choice, then the couples and finally the bachelors and bachelorettes. While they were set up in their houses, the Endeavour raised to orbit a few hundred miles over the USA.

Hilda sent miniature drones over South America, Africa, New Zealand, India, China, Canada and a few other countries where we thought the Krulls had already set up their invasion bases. The drones were equipped with force field, cloaking devices and powerful cameras. The drones, like the Endeavour, did not need any fuel; they were drawing their energy from the infinite power holding the universe from chaos; they were branched on the fabric of God. We needed to find at least one of these bases, attack it in such a way that the Krulls would have to escape in their shuttle and fly to their colony ship. Lise and I would follow it and enter the colony ship when it would shut off its energy shield to let the shuttle get in.

“We found two Krull bases” Hilda said, “one in Columbia and one in Australia.

She gave us the location of the Columbian one and we left the ship, changing our shapes into demons and jumping from a cloud cover to the jungle about a mile from their camp.

 “Let’s get wide Lise; very wide, but let’s do it slowly and perhaps we will sense an approaching breaking point where we could not disperse our cells any further without losing our integrity, soul or mind.”

 We became so big that we had turned into a transparent cloud and yet our individual cells stayed connected. No radar would notice our approach as we flew to the Krull’s camp. Once inside, we condensed our cells and took our demons shape and started to kill the Krulls, making us visible to a large number of them and emitting the most frightening and evil roars. They ran to their shuttle and left in haste, calling the mother ship to let them in. We jumped to the shuttle hull and glued ourselves to it changing our shapes again to be part of the hull. Once inside the colony ship, we went to the control room, killing the Krulls standing in our way, we threw energy bolts at the control board, the Krull colony ship lost its invisibility shield. We left it and returned to the Endeavour just as Hilda was destroying it.

 We then destroyed the second Krull base and Hilda brought the Endeavour back over the White House where the ship hovered totally invisible and protected with its space/time energy shield. A meeting was called for, the President with Hilda’s help contacted the congress and senate members to the White House for an 11:00PM meeting the following day with the mention to be there at least one hour in advance. At 11:00 PM everybody was led outside onto the lawn and Hilda opened its thousands of multicolor lights. The spaceship was one mile in diameter; it was huge, awe inspiring and from it came a beam of light that touched the grass right in the middle of the group. Members of the Congress and Senate quickly moved away from the circle of light as the president slowly descended through it.

 “My friends” the president said, “would you like to come over to the spaceship for our meeting?” At that moment Hilda took shape in a beautiful dress right beside the president.

 “I am Hilda, the spaceship is my body; I am the artificial intelligence running it and you have nothing to fear; please come aboard.”

The circle of light suddenly enlarged to include all the people and slowly beamed them all inside a large spaceship opening. We then took everyone to a large conference room with enough seats for all.

 “Thank you for coming in such a short notice” The president said from the dais. “These are extraordinary circumstances; we had visitors from another world, aliens, and they were not friendly. They came to loot and destroy our world, without the help of our hosts our species would have been wiped out.”

 Everyone was in shock, they hadn’t heard about the Krulls’ invasion and they were still under shock from having been beamed up into a huge flying saucer. Nobody spoke, waiting for the president to talk more about it. He told them everything; he told them that the Krulls’ colony ship had just been destroyed and two of their secret bases as well.

 “Are we safe now?” One of the congressmen asked.

 “We believe there are still a dozen more well camouflaged Krull military bases with shuttles that are really small spaceships armed with powerful masers.” I said. So, we are not out of the woods yet but I am confident that they will not start bombing our cities now that their colony ship has been destroyed. They will wait for reinforcement. There might be several Krull spaceships on their way here and perhaps some other aliens as well, we have been broadcasting our presence to the neighboring stars for the last one hundred years.”

“Our Hosts have studied mankind history, the national and International laws, they have eidetic memory and a capacity of understanding and analyzing the present situation.” Added the president, “ I believe they have some suggestions for transforming our multiple nations and governments on Earth, starting here in the USA.”

 “Mister President, senators, congressmen, we will be leaving shortly,” I said, Lise and I read the history, since it tends to repeat itself; we also read the laws of a few countries and we have prepared a new constitution. We recommend that you vote on it and get it approved now.”

 I explained the main changes.

 “I also proposed a universal sales tax of 15% on all articles except food and apartment rent and a low-income tax with no loopholes for everyone earning more than the minimum needed for a decent life. All policemen, attorneys, judges, mayors, governors, senators, congressmen, reporters, business CEOs, civil servants, everyone with power over many people should be licensed. The license would be granted after a reform cession. We have the technology to reform people in power to make sure they will work for the good of everyone.

 We are ready now to reorient all of you. Please look at that screen, it will take just thirty minutes and we will reorient you all. It is totally inoffensive, there are no secondary effects; people will have the same personality after, but they will acquire a strong desire to work for the good of everyone. Their compassion level and their altruism will increase, and they will have a strong repulsion in doing wrong to others.”

 At that, several corrupt congressmen, senators and governors started to object.

 “Please wait” I asked, “I will be back in a moment with something that will convince everyone.”

 I left as soft music started and a large screen took form. People look at the images, totally fascinated, not really understanding the images but fascinated, nevertheless. It lasted half an hour; the screen disappeared, the music stop, and I was back.

 “So do you have any objection to my proposals?” I asked.

 There were no more objections; everyone in the room had just been reformed without their consent; there wasn’t one of them that did not regret some of the things they did in the past; they were not overwhelmed with remorse though, but they all wanted to do right from now on.

 “Did you just reform me?” The California governor asked.” I am a changed man and I regret some of my past actions.”

“It was necessary” I replied, “we have to vote on important changes and personal considerations should not interfere with your votes.”

 A condensed version of the new constitution was distributed to everyone, and the president asked them to have a look at it. There were very important changes in addition to the ones we had just talk about.

There was to be no more long-term imprisonment or capital punishment. Some of the senators asked me what deterrent would stop the criminals if there is no more jail time; if there was no more fear of punishment.

 “The reform device will eliminate the need for jail or capital punishment. We will also provide you with a lie detector that literally takes away the resistance of the subject to questioning and his control of the responses. If an individual is a person of interest for a crime, the police would arrest one and submit one to the lie detector and one will confess all one’s crimes. One will then be seated in the reform cubicle and leave half an hour later regretting one’s action and determined to be a good citizen from now on and to compensate one’s victim.

 That will work for all kinds of crimes and will result in a very rapid diminution of crimes and criminals. We can build enough lie detectors and reform cubicles for the need of the country in less than two months; every police station will have them; every government office as well, we will start reforming the prisoners right away; we will empty the jails inside of a few months.”

 The new constitution was approved in unanimity.

 “We have to form a world government” I said, “we must clean the planet of its pollution and all the countries should contribute. We have the technology to build small fusion generators that will power homes, businesses, the cities, the airports, the planes, the cars. The need for oil and coals will be reduced to a point where we will not need to mine, extract or import from the Arab countries. The world is in danger of extinction and the most immediate menace come from radical dictators. We live in fear of a nuclear holocaust; some countries harboring extremists’ groups are led by people who would rejoice in the downfall of the free world. We intend to meet those leaders and we will readjust their values. It will involve hypnosis and the use of our reform devices. Once the leaders are reoriented and determined to work for the good of humanity, everything will become easier.

 I am proposing the formation of a world government and the elimination of nuclear armament. That should start here in the USA while we are here to protect you. You should call for a meeting of the presidents of the nuclear armed countries. We will reform them, and they will be determined to have it done in their country too.”

 We proceeded to a vote on this and got unanimity.

 “We will offer anti-gravity devices to all the peaceful countries. We will help you start the building of spaceships to defend our world. In the meantime we will go on recruiting the colonists but we will not leave before the world is changed and safe. We expect to stay for a few years to help in the making of those great changes. We will then leave Earth with 20,000 colonists.”

 “But how can you do that? How can you initiate and get all those important changes through inside of a few years?” The president asked.

 “Mister President, we do not sleep, we have unlimited energy. When it is nighttime here, we will be working on the other side of the world; we will not slack in our efforts to get those changes through.”

“What about immortality?” The president asked.

“We will give immortality to the colonists; we will start anew on a faraway world and the civilization that will blossom there will be far different than the one that will be happening on Earth. People will evolve in an entirely new way, knowing that they are there forever; knowing that they will never die.”

“Can I apply as a colonist with my family?” The president asked.

“All of you are welcome to join us; you will have the choice in resigning office and coming with us to another world or go on with your important occupation. But we can’t give you immortality if you stay on Earth; the planet is crowded and if we give immortality to everyone, Earth will not be able to sustain the rapid growth in population.

 We can’t give immortality to only some people either. They would suffer the loss of their dear ones as they grow old and die, while they stay young. People would hate them, envy them; they would kill them if they can; Earth is not ready for it yet.”

 The meeting turned into a philosophical discussion; many questions were asked, and the politicians started to talk animatedly to each other, offering their own ideas and making plans. A few hours passed, at one point I told them that we had to leave to resume our search for the Krull’s hidden military bases, destroy them and kill all the Krulls.

 We beamed everyone back to the White House lawn, including the president and his wife and promised them to stay in contact. In the months that followed, we searched, found and eliminated all the Krulls’ military bases.

 The changes came fast; two years have passed, and the world is changed forever. We have added more recruits and reached the 20,000 number of colonists. A world government has taken over and all the
people in power have been reformed and work for the good of the population. Frederick Steele and his family joined the colonists and Lise and I whole family too.

We gave the choice to a small number of recruits to be turned into supermen, but no one accepted yet. We told them that everything would be easy to do if they accept but they will lose the satisfaction of
achieving something difficult; a game of golf or cards will not be very exciting since they will always play a perfect game. We told them that they will not be able to have children if they get enhanced, they will be

feared by others, the un-enhanced will not love them; that there will be a barrier of intelligence between the immortals and the enhanced. Our colonists thought about it and decided to wait for the enhancement.

We wanted to leave Earth now, but we also wanted to leave behind us a few enhanced people to protect Earth, so we decided to try with the monks and the sisters. I went to a Benedictine monastery near
Montreal where I used to spend a few days each year in silence to readjust my values. Only two monks can talk to the visitors: the librarian inside the library and one more at the admission office. I walked inside

the monastery and told the one in charge of the admission office that I wish to go to the library and talk with the good father in charge of it.

 “Will you stay for a few days with us?” The monk asked.

“No, thank you, I just need to talk with the librarian.”

“I will get him; please walk upstairs and it will be on your right.”

‘’ I know, I have been here a few times before.’’

 The librarian joined me a few minutes later and he was the one I knew. I had met him a few times, many years before. He was probably over a hundred years old now and walked with great pain and
difficulties.

 – Father Henry I am so glad to meet you again, I was afraid you would be long dead by now.

– I met you before? yes, I recognize you; you haven’t change; you are the young chemist that was attacked by a demon while you practiced the astral trips in your cell;

you had talked to me about your victorious fight when it tried to possess you and how you imprisoned it in a tiny part of your brain.

– Yes, this is I.

– Is it still in your brain, the demon?

– I lived with the fear that when I die it would take my soul to Hell. I lived with that fear for many years and sometimes when I was asleep, my thought thread circulating through the neural paths would come
close to the group of cells imprisoning the demon and I would jump from the bed, shouting in fear, trying to deviate the thought thread from its way to the demon prison for I knew that if it reached it,

the cell walls will crumble, it would be liberated and then, it might take possession of me. But that fear is no more, the demon is gone; the Emissaries that transformed my body into a superman

have chased it away; perhaps into another universe.

– You haven’t changed, you look in your twenties and you must be over 70 years old by now.

– It is a long story Father Henry; can I hug you for just a moment…; you are in pain and I wouldn’t want you to die on me while I have such an important request for you.

 At that moment I took him in my arm, I sensed all the weak and sick parts of his body; I transferred some healing energy and sensed him becoming more vigorous. I let him go and backed up a few feet.

 – The pain is gone, I feel more energetic, you have just done a miracle…

– Father, I would like to transform you into an immortal superman like me and I have a mission for you. At that I levitated and grew some wings out of my back and formed a ring over my head held by an invisible hair.

– You are an angel! My God you are an angel…I had lost my faith in Heaven and Hell over the years thinking that we humans were not important to God. I had come to think that there was no reason for God
to give us Heaven for what would we do in Heaven? Would it be a cloudy place where we float in peace adoring God forever? But how could we adore or love an entity that we don’t know that we never met and that is infinitely more intelligent than us? To tell God that we adore Him would be a lie and He would know it. What would we do in Heaven? I regretted having wasted my life here in the monastery and now here you are; was I wrong, does Heaven exist? What is it like?

– Father Henry, Heaven exist, and it has more than one level. Moreover, God is interested in us. I went to the ring world and visited the reception office where most souls go when they die. I met Saint-Joseph
and got many revelations from him but I am not an angel, and I will never go to Heaven for I will never die. I shrank my wings back to my body and eliminated the ring hovering over my head.

– What are you then?

– I am enhanced, and I am leaving Earth with a group of colonists to find another world, a world where mankind will evolve in a different direction, and we need some enhanced people to protect Earth from invaders or dictators. Would you accept to forsake Heaven and be turned into an immortal superman and a protector?

 There was a long pause; Father Henry was caught by his sense of duty; he was wondering if God would approve his decision to forsake Heaven. He had spent a whole life in prayers and meditation to deserve a place there; he also did it for the comforting thought that God approved what he did and all the sacrifices he had endured. All of that is for nothing if he forsakes Heaven now that he was at the end of his life and a short time away from his reward. I knew it was a very difficult decision and I waited in silence.

 – I accept.

 I walked outside with him and brought him to the Endeavour. I recruited a few more monks and an equal number of sisters. A few weeks later, they were enhanced and returned to Earth.

 We had a goodbye celebration for our departure. Millions upon millions of viewers watched the celebration; we wished Earth good luck and beamed back to the Endeavour. The huge spaceship left with a burst of colors.

 ————————————————–

Year 2134

 Today we landed on a beautiful world after more than 100 years of exploration. We visited a great number of stars and spent a week or more in each star system to find their life sustaining planets; we
explored about 2000 stars and finally found one planet with the right gravity, atmosphere and vegetation. The wildlife and vegetation was not too dangerous and could be digested by humans. It was the first world where we felt people would be happy to live on.

 We would not broadcast our presence so there were very small probabilities that we would ever be found by Earth or alien spaceships. We would never know what happened to our brothers for we would not be

able to find them either. We lost track of the direction, even Hilda lost track of it, we would not be able to find our way back.

Our twin Emiss and Arries have mated, got children and became enhanced. The cycle went on for four generations and we now have 32 enhanced descendants. In our search for a suitable world for humans, we found some inhabited worlds and a few of them had intelligent species far different from us. We spent more time in those star systems, fascinated by the strangeness of those worlds. There were so many marvels that we soon realized we could not get bored exploring the universe. In fact, exploring the galaxy was addicting, it was getting in our blood, matter of speaking. Finally, we landed in that beautiful world and called it New Hope. We helped the initial phase of New Hope colonization; we spend 200 years there and left again to spread out humanity to more worlds. We left with the intention to colonize a new world every 200 years and spread mankind over many more worlds.

 ———————————————–

Year 2535

 All kind of thoughts come to my mind as we sit on an asteroid orbiting a gas giant. There are fifty of us, all enhanced. We don’t freeze, we don’t breathe, and we feel wonderful in our indestructible body. It is
dark on the icy asteroid and the colors of the swirling atmosphere of the gas giant underneath are incredibly beautiful. We have spotted large beings floating leisurely in the swirling gas or chasing each other.

they are made of gaseous molecules, and they are huge, some of them are many miles long. We have decided to contact them and that might be dangerous, who knows what these incredibly huge beings

could do to us. But there is no rush and as we watch them, I think about my life, my years on Earth, about my friends and relatives that stayed there and are all dead by now.

 I wonder what happened to our world of origin; is it still there; has it been attacked again by Aliens, and did they fight back and survive? What about my friend the Benedictine monk who forsook Heaven to
become a protector over mankind. I look ahead to what is awaiting us; in a million years from now, we will have visited hundreds of thousands of star systems and hopefully establish colonies on thousands

of worlds. There will still be 400 billion unexplored stars in the Milky Way. It will take us 80 million years to visit the galaxy if we spend only one week in each star system, but we might spend years in some of the most fascinating ones; so to explore only our galaxy will take us over 200 million years and that is enough time for important changes to occur on the life sustaining planets.

It is enough time for the rise and fall of countless civilizations. So, we will never know who and what live in our galaxy. Once we have done the exploration of it, we will just have begun our eternity. There are
billions of galaxies. What will we find? What will we become? Will we meet God?

 In the end it will just be A New beginning

J’ai passé tellement de soirées dehors, assis sur ma chaise berçante, à regarder les étoiles et à me demander ce qui pouvait bien se passer là-haut.
J’imaginais différentes espèces vivant sur ces mondes, construisant des villes étranges. J’imaginais certaines d’entre elles voyageant entre les étoiles à bord de vaisseaux incroyables.

J’étais un rêveur, et je me demandais pourquoi j’étais ici. Y a-t-il une raison pour naître sur ce monde dangereux, où je vais vieillir et mourir ?

Suis-je ici en transition entre deux lieux, incapable de me souvenir d’où je viens ni de savoir où je vais ?

Ou bien, suis-je une nouvelle création ?

J’ai lu sur l’hindouisme et la possibilité de la réincarnation.

L’univers est si vaste ! Que sont ces formations que les astrologues ont découvertes si loin que leur lumière a mis des centaines de millions d’années à nous parvenir ?
Ils ont calculé que ces formations étranges faisaient plus de 200 millions d’années-lumière de large et qu’elles ne seraient peut-être que des parties d’éléments encore plus grands.

Des formations composées de milliers de galaxies !

La taille de l’univers est si grande qu’elle dépasse l’imagination ; elle est peut-être infinie.

Alors, quelle est ma signification ? Je ne suis qu’une minuscule unité d’une espèce qui ne s’est même pas encore étendue aux étoiles voisines.

Et si j’étais Dieu ? Ou du moins une infime partie de Lui ?

Et si tous les animaux, les insectes, les plantes étaient aussi une partie de Dieu ? Tous les planètes, les étoiles…

Si je suis Dieu ou une partie de Lui, je pourrais peut-être me connecter à cette partie infiniment plus grande de Moi, et faire en sorte que certains de mes souhaits se réalisent. Peut-être que chacun peut obtenir ce qu’il désire s’il y pense souvent et s’efforce de faire advenir ses souhaits.

Peut-être que je peux faire advenir des miracles.

Quelle est ma mission ici, si j’en ai une ? Que dois-je faire pour que mon existence ait de la valeur ?

J’ai tant de questions.

………………….

Un jour, j’ai entrepris une longue randonnée dans les bois, au nord de Montréal. C’était l’hiver, et je me déplaçais à ski en traçant une nouvelle piste. Je savais que si j’avais un accident, si je me cassais une jambe ou une cheville, je mourrais, car il faisait très froid et personne ne me retrouverait.

Je n’avais pas peur de prendre ce risque ; la récompense, c’était la paix, le silence de la nature sauvage, et ce sentiment que quelque chose d’important pouvait arriver.

Après deux heures de marche, je suis arrivé à une forêt de très grands arbres. Ils étaient énormes, plus grands que tous les arbres que j’avais vus, et il n’y avait rien entre eux : pas de buissons, pas d’herbe, pas de neige — seulement un sol nu, dur et compacté.
J’ai enlevé mes skis et j’ai commencé à marcher dans cette forêt. Elle ressemblait à une cathédrale de piliers gigantesques avec une canopée si haute que je ne pouvais pas voir si elle était composée de feuilles.

Il y avait un silence total, pas de vent, mais je sentais la présence d’esprits puissants. C’était comme si les arbres étaient des êtres conscients qui m’observaient, essayant de communiquer avec moi.

Là, j’ai su que j’allais enfin trouver les réponses à toutes mes questions. Je n’avais qu’à écouter les arbres, peut-être que je pourrais finir par leur parler. Il me suffisait de poser les bonnes questions.

Mais aussi fort que j’essayais, je ne trouvais pas ces questions.

J’ai perdu la notion de ce que j’y faisais ; je ne me souvenais de rien. J’étais perdu, je marchais sans but, incapable de me rappeler à quoi je pensais pendant que je marchais. Puis j’ai retrouvé mes skis. Ils étaient exactement là où je les avais laissés.

Une heure s’était écoulée depuis que j’étais entré dans cette forêt d’arbres géants. Je n’avais aucune envie d’y retourner, alors j’ai remis mes skis et je suis retourné au monastère bénédictin où j’avais stationné ma voiture.

Étrange, n’est-ce pas ? Est-ce que c’est vraiment arrivé ou ai-je rêvé ? C’était il y a plus de 50 ans, alors je n’en suis plus sûr. C’était probablement juste un rêve !

Mais lorsque je peins, j’essaie de me connecter à cette partie plus grande de moi, si elle existe, et je demande de l’aide pour produire une œuvre exceptionnelle. Je ne sais pas à quoi je me branche, mais je sens que mon cerveau est lentement amplifié et que je reçois une nouvelle énergie ; quand je sens cela, je lâche prise ; je commence à peindre sans réfléchir, de façon spontanée.

Le résultat est souvent surprenant. Je regarde certaines de mes toiles avec émerveillement, sans croire que c’est moi qui les ai faites ; sans me souvenir de comment je les ai réalisées ; je les regarde avec la conviction que je n’avais pas le talent nécessaire pour les peindre.
Je remercie celui ou celle, de ce monde supérieur, qui m’a aidé, me demandant s’il s’agissait d’un ange, d’un ami décédé… ou peut-être de Dieu ?

J’ai survécu aux périls de Ghama-2 et aux pièges de la cité de cristal pour atteindre les dispositifs d’amélioration. Vous comprendrez ce que je viens de dire si vous avez lu les deux premiers livres de la trilogie « Ghama-2 : Une histoire de l’au-delà ». Ceci est un extrait du troisième tome : « Le retour des Émissaires ».

Madeleine et moi sommes perdus. Nous sommes partis explorer les étoiles proches, mais nous sommes allés trop loin et nous ne savons plus comment revenir sur Terre ou sur Ghama-2. Nos corps ont été améliorés dans la cité de cristal ; nous sommes maintenant immortels et nous pouvons voler et atteindre instantanément notre destination en utilisant le tissu de Dieu, la trame sous-jacente à toute matière existante de l’univers. Nous utilisons également ce tissu pour la vision à distance. Nous pouvons zoomer sur un système stellaire, repérer les planètes avoisinantes, puis zoomer sur chacune d’elles pour voir si l’une porte la vie. Ensuite, nous pouvons souhaiter nous y rendre, et nous y sommes, instantanément.

« Où allons-nous, Madeleine ? » ai-je demandé. « Allons vers cette étoile scintillante ; une fois là-bas, nous improviserons. »

Nous y avons sauté instantanément.

« C’est un pulsar ; c’est l’un des mystères de l’univers. » ai-je commenté. « Cette étoile géante saute entre deux univers parallèles, » dit mon âme sœur Ram. « Elle ne parvient pas à se fixer dans l’un et si nous entrons en orbite autour d’elle et que nous sautons, nous pourrions nous retrouver dans l’univers parallèle. »

Je dois vous parler de Ram ; lorsque nous sommes enfin arrivés dans la salle des dispositifs d’amélioration de la cité de cristal, l’intelligence artificielle sous forme de robot nous a dit que chacun d’entre nous devait s’allonger dans un cercueil habité par le fantôme de l’un des anciens habitants. Il y en avait des rangées entiers, des milliers de grands cercueils. Nous devions soulever le couvercle lourd, nous allonger à l’intérieur et refermer le couvercle. Ensuite, le cercueil serait rempli de liquide d’amélioration et le fantôme entrerait en nous. Plus tard, une fois le processus terminé, nous sortirions immortels avec dés pouvoirs énormes, mais nous partagerions notre nouveau corps avec un fantôme extraterrestre.

— Vous plaisantez ? ai-je demandé au robot, indigné. Après toutes les difficultés de cette mission périlleuse sur Ghama-2, vous voulez que je me noie et que je sois hanté en mourant dans ce cercueil ? — Vous ne mourrez pas et l’ancien ne prendra pas le contrôle. Vous êtes plus jeune et vous aurez la personnalité dominante. L’ancien sera un bon compagnon et sa sagesse sera appréciée.

L’A.I. m’a convaincu ! Je l’ai fait, et maintenant Ram est mon âme sœur.

« L’autre univers pourrait être celui de Ghama-2, mais il y a une chance que ce soit le numéro trois ou quatre, qui sait. » ai-je dit. « Il y a une plus grande probabilité que ce soit l’univers de Ghama-2, plus de soixante pour cent. » commenta Ram.

Nous avons cherché les planètes susceptibles d’orbiter autour du pulsar et avons trouvé une grosse planète. Une chaîne de lunes était disposée de manière régulière autour d’elle. La planète était bleue, et les lunes, en alternance, dorées ou émeraudes.

« On dirait un joyau, et cette formation n’est certainement pas naturelle. » ai-je dit. « Le peuple qui a construit ce système est ou était une espèce d’artistes. On ne peut pas créer une telle merveille sans un esprit rempli de beauté. J’ai hâte de les rencontrer. » dit Madeleine avec excitation.

Nous avons augmenté notre vision à distance, et la planète est soudain devenue très proche. Nous pouvions voir de magnifiques cités avec une architecture exquise et inhabituelle. Nous avons encore zoomé pour observer les habitants, nous attendions des anges de quelque sorte, mais à notre grande surprise, il n’y avait que des chiens ; toutes sortes de chiens, et quelques robots.

« Allons sauter sur cette rue. »

J’ai pris la main de Madeleine ; nous avons sauté et avons plané à quelques centimètres au-dessus de la rue. Nous nous sommes posés et avons regardé autour de nous.

Gooshee fut le premier chien à remarquer l’apparition soudaine des étrangers.

« Regardez-les, » dit Gooshee télépathiquement à Shoodame, son compagnon de portée. « Ils ressemblent à nos créateurs légendaires. » répondit Shoodame, émerveillé. « Appelons le robot Clunk. Il saura quoi faire. » « Clunk ! Nous avons des visiteurs. Viens vite ! »

Clunk était assis non loin, regardant les chiens jouer. Le robot, sans âge et très ancien, n’avait pas besoin de s’asseoir ni de porter une chemise ou un jean, mais il le faisait par mémoire de ses anciens maîtres disparus depuis longtemps. Le robot avait reçu un synthétiseur d’émotions pour aimer et prendre soin de ses maîtres ; pour leur être fidèlement dévoué et exaucer tous leurs souhaits. Cela lui procurait tant de plaisir, un tel sentiment de valeur ; mais ils étaient partis. La population avait diminué au fil des siècles, à mesure que de plus en plus de maîtres avaient acquis la capacité de voyager vers d’autres mondes. Cela avait commencé avec d’autres facultés : la télépathie, la télékinésie, la vision à distance, puis le voyage instantané.

Joe et Irene avaient choisi de rester dans leur très ancienne maison construite au bord du lac Wanabago. Le frère d’Irene, Phil, et sa femme Alice étaient leurs voisins les plus proches. Ils étaient là depuis tant d’années, partageant leur amour de la ferme et de la vie campagnarde. Ils n’avaient pas d’enfants ; Phil, Alice et leur fille Edwina étaient tout ce qu’ils avaient. Il n’y avait plus personne d’autre.

« Comme c’est malheureux, » dit Irene, « que nous ayons perdu notre capacité à procréer au fur et à mesure que nous acquérions ces facultés modernes. » « Oui, et nos scientifiques n’ont jamais trouvé de solution, » répondit Joe tristement. « Ils ont essayé l’insémination artificielle et le clonage, mais les enfants nés ainsi n’avaient pas le don ; aucun n’a hérité de ces nouvelles facultés. » « Souhaitez-vous une tasse de café et une assiette de biscuits ? » demanda Clunk, leur robot, désirant changer l’humeur triste de ses maîtres. « Bonne idée, Clunk, cela nous réconfortera. » répondit gentiment Irene. « Voici ton frère Phil, » dit Joe. « Salut ! Je savais que je vous trouverais en train de bercer sur la véranda. » dit Phil. « Bonjour ! » dirent Alice et Edwina en arrivant derrière lui.

Clunk arriva rapidement avec une assiette de biscuits et la cafetière. Il était toujours très heureux lorsque ses maîtres avaient des visiteurs.

« Je vais revenir avec une chaise berçante supplémentaire et les tasses, » dit Clunk joyeusement.

Les voisins s’assirent confortablement, faisant face au lac. Le robot revint avec les tasses, et ils attendirent patiemment qu’il les serve.

« Edwina s’est révélée être une exception ; elle a développé ses pouvoirs le mois dernier et elle veut voyager. Nous avons décidé de partir avec elle », dit Phil. « Veux-tu venir avec nous ? »

La nouvelle leur brisa le cœur, car Joe et Irene ne pouvaient se résoudre à quitter la ferme de leurs ancêtres et l’ancienne maison ; ils y étaient trop attachés. Ils y vivaient depuis cent cinquante ans maintenant.

« Nous ne sommes pas faits pour ce genre de voyage ; nous ne pouvons pas quitter la ferme pour aller vers d’autres mondes, nous aimons trop cet endroit, les pommiers sont en fleurs, c’est le temps de semer le maïs, et nous avons les vaches, les chevaux et les chiens dont il faut s’occuper. »

« Je vous comprends, » dit Alice, « je sais combien vous allez vous sentir seuls ; tout le monde est parti ; nous sommes vos derniers voisins, mais nous ne pouvons pas laisser notre fille partir sans nous. »

« Je suis désolée pour vous aussi et vous allez me manquer, » dit Edwina. « Vous savez combien je vous aime, mais je suis jeune, et je n’arrive pas à chasser cette idée de mon esprit ; j’ai besoin de partir, de voyager vers d’autres mondes, de rencontrer d’autres hommes et femmes de mon âge, car il n’y en a plus ici. Il n’y a plus rien d’amusant pour moi ici. »

« Nous reviendrons vous visiter si nous le pouvons, » promit Alice.

Des années plus tard, Joe et Irene avaient quitté ce monde, morts de vieillesse, et Clunk se retrouva seul, ne servant plus que les chiens. Des millénaires s’écoulèrent paisiblement ; les chiens avaient atteint un niveau d’intelligence supérieur, et Clunk avait lui aussi évolué. Il pouvait communiquer avec eux par télépathie et leur racontait l’histoire de l’Homme, le meilleur ami du chien.

« L’homme prenait soin de vous, les chiens, avant de créer nous, les robots, » avait dit Clunk. « L’homme a construit ces villes, puis nous a laissés pour d’autres mondes. Nous les gardons propres, intactes, en mémoire d’eux, espérant qu’un jour, certains reviendront et seront fiers de nous. »

Cette histoire était devenue une légende, et maintenant, pour la première fois de leur vie, les chiens avaient vu des humains et appelèrent Clunk.

« J’arrive, j’arrive, attendez-moi s’il vous plaît, » diffusa le robot, et nous l’avons entendu et attendu patiemment.

« Bonjour, bonjour à vous, je suis si heureux de vous voir, » dit Clunk en tournant le coin de la rue et en nous apercevant. « Je m’appelle Clunk, et j’ai servi les derniers humains ayant vécu sur ce monde. Cela fait si longtemps, des millénaires, tant de millénaires depuis votre départ. »

« Aimeriez-vous une tasse de café et une assiette de biscuits ? » demanda Clunk avec espoir et excitation.

« Cela prendra peut-être un certain temps à préparer, j’imagine, » dit Madeleine.

« Oui, tu as raison, mais pas tant que ça, car j’ai fait des biscuits tous les jours, pour les chiens ; j’en ai préparé une fournée ce matin, et il m’en reste plein. Et j’ai conservé des grains de café juste au cas où, que j’ai remplacés chaque année depuis dix mille ans. »

Les chiens étaient tout autour de nous, des centaines d’entre eux remuant la queue.

« Où allons-nous ? » demandai-je à Clunk.

« La rue nous mènera à la sortie de la ville, où se trouve la soucoupe volante. La maison de mes maîtres se trouve à cinquante milles à l’ouest de la ville, sur la rive du lac Wanabago. »

« Très bien, nous te suivons, » dis-je.

Quelque chose bougeait sous nos pieds, mais ce n’était pas la rue ; nous nous tenions sur un bouclier d’énergie invisible et immatériel créé par la rue, qui avançait plus vite au centre, là où nous nous trouvions. En partant, tous les chiens se regroupèrent au centre pour rester à notre hauteur.

« Ils avaient atteint un niveau technologique remarquable pour une espèce si jeune, » dit I/Ram. « On ne voit aucune dégradation, nulle part, les bâtiments ont été conçus pour durer des millions d’années. »

« Nos maîtres utilisaient la fusion moléculaire pour lier entre eux les blocs d’air solidifié servant de matériau de construction. Ce matériau peut résister à tout, sauf à un rayon désintégrateur. Les bâtiments, les meubles, l’équipement, les rues, les ordinateurs et les robots, tout ce que vous voyez ou touchez, durera éternellement. »

« Incroyable, combien de temps l’humanité a-t-elle vécu sur ce monde ? » demanda Madeleine.

« Un groupe d’explorateurs, des scientifiques en réalité, est arrivé ici pour étudier le pulsar, il y a cent mille trois cent vingt-cinq ans, » répondit Clunk. « Les puissantes rafales de rayons Z du pulsar ont détruit les systèmes de navigation du vaisseau spatial, et les scientifiques n’ont pas pu retrouver leur chemin vers la Planète Rouge. Alors, ils ont décidé de coloniser ce magnifique monde. Au fil des millénaires, ils ont construit des villes partout, et au fur et à mesure que leur technologie se perfectionnait, ils ont reconstruit les villes avec des matériaux éternels. Ils nous ont créés pour répondre à leurs besoins, entretenir la terre et maintenir les villes. Les gens cherchaient une voie d’évolution, et beaucoup se sont lassés. Il y a trente mille ans, un voyageur des étoiles est arrivé ici avec sa compagne. Ils ne venaient pas en vaisseau spatial, ils sont simplement apparus de nulle part, ce qui a provoqué une immense sensation. Ces personnes ont changé ce monde à jamais. »

« Ils ont enseigné à nos maîtres une philosophie religieuse fondée sur l’amour, la beauté et la gratitude, ainsi qu’une technique pour puiser de l’énergie dans les plantes et tout ce qui les entourait. En aimant et en appréciant tout autour d’eux, ils ouvraient des canaux vers l’énergie cosmique, et grâce à cette énergie, ils pouvaient développer leurs pouvoirs latents. Rapidement, les gens ont développé la télépathie, la télékinésie et la capacité de séparer leur aura de leur corps pour effectuer ce qu’ils appelaient des voyages astraux. Ils pouvaient s’allonger confortablement, fermer les yeux, détacher leur aura et s’envoler vers les étoiles. Ces voyages astraux devinrent bientôt leur passion. Finalement, ils ont acquis la capacité de transférer leur corps physique dans le monde où leur aura se trouvait, en utilisant ce qu’ils appelaient la cinquième dimension. Ils rencontrèrent d’autres espèces, et l’une d’elles les infecta avec un virus qui réduisit leur fertilité et empêcha leurs enfants de développer ces nouveaux pouvoirs. En moins de mille ans, il ne restait que quelques personnes ici ; les villes étaient vides. Seuls ceux qui étaient profondément attachés à la terre restèrent, et même avec leur longévité accrue, ils disparurent à leur tour. Personne n’est revenu des étoiles depuis des millénaires, et je crains qu’ils soient tous morts. C’est pourquoi je suis si heureux de vous voir. »

Nous avions atteint la périphérie, et la rue avait cessé de faire avancer son bouclier d’énergie. Nous avons suivi Clunk jusqu’à la soucoupe volante et avons franchi son rebord. Elle pouvait accueillir une cinquantaine de chiens, qui y sautèrent joyeusement.

« Je m’appelle Madeleine et mon ami ici est Richard. »

« C’est un honneur de connaître vos noms, ils ne seront jamais oubliés ; vous ferez partie de nos légendes. »

« Dis-moi, Clunk, quels étaient les noms de ces gens qui sont venus ici et ont enseigné à vos maîtres cette philosophie de l’amour et de l’énergie ? » demandai-je.

« L’homme s’appelait Krishna, et la femme Nicole Teaseman. »

Nous étions sous le choc. Nos vieux amis étaient venus ici il y a des milliers d’années, avaient transmis cette grande philosophie aux habitants, puis étaient partis poursuivre leur exploration de la galaxie.

« Ils ne savaient pas que ce qu’ils donnaient allait conduire ces gens à leur extinction, » dis-je.

« Ils étaient perdus dans le temps et l’espace probablement. Ils venaient de Ghama-2 et cherchent peut-être encore leur chemin de retour dans un des univers parallèles, » dit Madeleine.

La soucoupe volante n’était qu’une simple coupelle ouverte, sans toit, ni tableau de commande ou de navigation. Le robot dit simplement « maison », et l’engin s’éleva du sol en silence, s’éloignant rapidement de la ville.

« Vous semblez connaître ces deux voyageurs, » commenta Clunk.

« Oui, ce sont nos amis ; ils venaient du futur et de très loin. »

Les terres agricoles étaient magnifiques, et nous appréciions leur sérénité apaisante. Certains arbres nous semblaient familiers ; il y en avait aussi sur Ghama-2 ; ils donnaient des fruits à chair de framboise avec un cœur de fromage. Je quittai la soucoupe, me téléportai à un arbre, cueillis deux fruits et revins à la soucoupe en deux secondes. J’en goûtai un et il était aussi délicieux que je l’espérais.

« Tiens, goûte ça ma chérie. »

« Merci… Wow ! Délicieux ! »

« Nos maîtres savaient léviter, mais je n’ai jamais vu quelqu’un se déplacer aussi vite, » commenta Clunk.

« Les chiens, mangent-ils des fruits ? » demandai-je.

« Oui, ils aiment particulièrement cette variété, » répondit le robot.

En passant près d’un arbre, j’utilisai mes pouvoirs télékinétiques pour déplacer une centaine de fruits depuis les branches vers la soucoupe et les présentai devant les museaux des chiens. Ils comprirent mon invitation et mordirent avec joie dans les plus proches pendant que je déposais le reste à leurs pattes.

Nous arrivâmes à l’eau bleue du lac Wanabago, et la soucoupe atterrit dans la cour arrière de la longère des maîtres de Clunk.

La maison était faite de bois et de pierre et avait un aspect très ancien.

« Le bois a été spécialement traité pour durer, mais j’ai dû réparer les murs régulièrement au fil des siècles, » dit Clunk. « Les planchers sont en marbre et or massif, et ils ont très bien résisté. Je mets toujours des chaussons pour éviter l’érosion due à mes passages répétés. »

« C’est une bonne idée, et tu as fait preuve de beaucoup de soin, » commenta Madeleine.

« Ils ont enseigné à nos maîtres une philosophie religieuse fondée sur l’amour, la beauté et la gratitude, ainsi qu’une technique pour puiser de l’énergie dans les plantes et tout ce qui les entourait. En aimant et en appréciant tout autour d’eux, ils ouvraient des canaux vers l’énergie cosmique, et grâce à cette énergie, ils pouvaient développer leurs pouvoirs latents. Rapidement, les gens ont développé la télépathie, la télékinésie et la capacité de séparer leur aura de leur corps pour effectuer ce qu’ils appelaient des voyages astraux. Ils pouvaient s’allonger confortablement, fermer les yeux, détacher leur aura et s’envoler vers les étoiles. Ces voyages astraux devinrent bientôt leur passion. Finalement, ils ont acquis la capacité de transférer leur corps physique dans le monde où leur aura se trouvait, en utilisant ce qu’ils appelaient la cinquième dimension. Ils rencontrèrent d’autres espèces, et l’une d’elles les infecta avec un virus qui réduisit leur fertilité et empêcha leurs enfants de développer ces nouveaux pouvoirs. En moins de mille ans, il ne restait que quelques personnes ici ; les villes étaient vides. Seuls ceux qui étaient profondément attachés à la terre restèrent, et même avec leur longévité accrue, ils disparurent à leur tour. Personne n’est revenu des étoiles depuis des millénaires, et je crains qu’ils soient tous morts. C’est pourquoi je suis si heureux de vous voir. »

Nous avions atteint la périphérie, et la rue avait cessé de faire avancer son bouclier d’énergie. Nous avons suivi Clunk jusqu’à la soucoupe volante et avons franchi son rebord. Elle pouvait accueillir une cinquantaine de chiens, qui y sautèrent joyeusement.

« Je m’appelle Madeleine et mon ami ici est Richard. »

« C’est un honneur de connaître vos noms, ils ne seront jamais oubliés ; vous ferez partie de nos légendes. »

« Dis-moi, Clunk, quels étaient les noms de ces gens qui sont venus ici et ont enseigné à vos maîtres cette philosophie de l’amour et de l’énergie ? » demandai-je.

« L’homme s’appelait Krishna, et la femme Nicole Teaseman. »

Nous étions sous le choc. Nos vieux amis étaient venus ici il y a des milliers d’années, avaient transmis cette grande philosophie aux habitants, puis étaient partis poursuivre leur exploration de la galaxie.

« Ils ne savaient pas que ce qu’ils donnaient allait conduire ces gens à leur extinction, » dis-je.

« Ils étaient perdus dans le temps et l’espace probablement. Ils venaient de Ghama-2 et cherchent peut-être encore leur chemin de retour dans un des univers parallèles, » dit Madeleine.

La soucoupe volante n’était qu’une simple coupelle ouverte, sans toit, ni tableau de commande ou de navigation. Le robot dit simplement « maison », et l’engin s’éleva du sol en silence, s’éloignant rapidement de la ville.

« Vous semblez connaître ces deux voyageurs, » commenta Clunk.

« Oui, ce sont nos amis ; ils venaient du futur et de très loin. »

Les terres agricoles étaient magnifiques, et nous appréciions leur sérénité apaisante. Certains arbres nous semblaient familiers ; il y en avait aussi sur Ghama-2 ; ils donnaient des fruits à chair de framboise avec un cœur de fromage. Je quittai la soucoupe, me téléportai à un arbre, cueillis deux fruits et revins à la soucoupe en deux secondes. J’en goûtai un et il était aussi délicieux que je l’espérais.

« Tiens, goûte ça ma chérie. »

« Merci… Wow ! Délicieux ! »

« Nos maîtres savaient léviter, mais je n’ai jamais vu quelqu’un se déplacer aussi vite, » commenta Clunk.

« Les chiens, mangent-ils des fruits ? » demandai-je.

« Oui, ils aiment particulièrement cette variété, » répondit le robot.

En passant près d’un arbre, j’utilisai mes pouvoirs télékinétiques pour déplacer une centaine de fruits depuis les branches vers la soucoupe et les présentai devant les museaux des chiens. Ils comprirent mon invitation et mordirent avec joie dans les plus proches pendant que je déposais le reste à leurs pattes.

Nous arrivâmes à l’eau bleue du lac Wanabago, et la soucoupe atterrit dans la cour arrière de la longère des maîtres de Clunk.

La maison était faite de bois et de pierre et avait un aspect très ancien.

« Le bois a été spécialement traité pour durer, mais j’ai dû réparer les murs régulièrement au fil des siècles, » dit Clunk. « Les planchers sont en marbre et or massif, et ils ont très bien résisté. Je mets toujours des chaussons pour éviter l’érosion due à mes passages répétés. »

« C’est une bonne idée, et tu as fait preuve de beaucoup de soin, » commenta Madeleine.

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La maison dégageait une chaleur et une douceur réconfortantes. On y trouvait des photos de famille représentant plusieurs générations de propriétaires, des statues, des tables, chaises et bureaux finement sculptés. Un club de golf et une canne à pêche étaient accrochés comme des trophées avec, en dessous, une photo montrant des visages heureux. Des voiliers taillés dans la pierre ornaient les étagères, accompagnés d’autres sculptures. De magnifiques peintures à l’huile ornaient les murs : paysages avec femmes et enfants, et quelques portraits miniatures des anciens occupants. Les grandes chambres, avec leurs lits massifs, bureaux en bois et tableaux, dégageaient une ambiance riche et sereine. J’adorais la grande pièce familiale avec sa cheminée, son plafond cathédrale, sa longue table entourée d’une douzaine de chaises hautes ; des étagères pleines de souvenirs et de livres ; deux fauteuils berçants rembourrés faisant face à une grande baie vitrée donnant sur le lac. Je me dirigeai vers un petit bureau et trouvai le journal de Joe. Je suis un lecteur, je l’ai toujours été, et je brûlais d’envie de le lire.

« Est-ce que ça te dérange, Clunk, si je le lis ? » demandai-je au robot qui allumait un feu dans la cheminée.

« Je vous en prie, mon maître est parti depuis longtemps et ne reviendra jamais. Ce serait lui rendre hommage que de le lire. J’ai commencé à le lire moi-même, mais cela m’a rendu tellement triste que j’ai dû arrêter. Je ne connais donc pas la fin. »

Je pris le journal et m’assis sur un des fauteuils berçants ; Madeleine prit l’autre. Nous nous bercions en silence, contemplant le lac.

« Tu sais Richard, toutes ces fois où tu te berçais seul dans le belvédère de ta haute maison à Laval, au nord du Canada, contemplant les étoiles et rêvant d’aventures et de romance, j’étais là avec toi, te parlant, mais tu ne pouvais pas m’entendre. Je partageais tes rêves, je lisais ton esprit, mais tu ignorais ma présence. »

« Je suis désolé pour ça, cela aurait été moins solitaire si j’avais su que je n’étais pas seul, que j’avais un esprit ami à mes côtés, veillant sur moi. Je t’aurais déclaré mon amour et ma reconnaissance, passionnément et à plusieurs reprises. Je t’aurais serrée mentalement dans mes bras, abritée dans la partie la plus chaleureuse de mon cœur, et je t’aurais dit les mots les plus doux qui me seraient venus à l’esprit. »

« Quand je suis sorti du cercueil de transformation dans la cité de cristal, en lévitation, je t’ai vue flotter près de moi, car je pouvais voir les esprits à ce moment-là. J’étais enthousiaste à l’idée des aventures à venir, mais j’ai remarqué que tu étais triste. J’ai deviné que tu te sentais inutile maintenant que j’étais transformé. Tu ne pouvais plus me protéger ni me réconforter dans les moments de détresse. Je ne savais pas quoi te dire, et à cet instant, Jésus est entré dans la pièce de transformation. Je l’ai regardé, le fils de Dieu et Dieu lui-même. »

— Salut Jésus, comment vas-tu ? ai-je demandé bêtement.

— Je vais bien, merci. Félicitations.

— Merci Jésus. Madeleine ici présente m’a accompagné toute ma vie comme un esprit fidèle, et elle aimerait partager avec moi les aventures à venir ; lui donnerais-tu un corps transformé ?

— Oui, sois bon et bonne chance à vous deux, dit Jésus avec un sourire avant de disparaître.

Tu n’étais plus un fantôme, tu lévitais devant moi, souriante.

« Je sais Richard, merci d’avoir demandé cette faveur à Jésus. Maintenant, lisons ce journal ensemble. Je partagerai ton esprit et ta vision, je te réconforterai dans les moments les plus tristes. »

« D’accord, faisons-le, » répondis-je en ouvrant le journal.

Je n’aurais jamais pensé qu’un jour je passerais une partie de mon temps à écrire un journal, mais je ne sais plus quoi faire ; il y a tant de temps à combler et je ne peux pas marcher sur la terre ou me bercer sur le balcon toute la journée. Clunk et les autres robots font tout le travail, et il ne reste plus rien à faire. C’est important pour eux de servir ; cela leur donne la satisfaction d’être utiles et dignes, et je ne peux pas leur enlever cela. De plus, je vieillis maintenant, je ne vois plus très bien et je bouge difficilement. Chaque jour, nous retrouvons Phil, Alice et notre nièce Edwina pour une promenade matinale ou quelques heures de navigation, et nous trouvons du réconfort dans la compagnie les uns des autres, car il n’y a plus personne d’autre. Mon frère Jack vivait avec nous, mais il est devenu agité l’an dernier.

« Je dois partir, » a-t-il dit. « Je suis désolé, mais j’ai le sentiment de perdre ma vie à ne rien faire ici. Hier, j’ai fait un voyage astral dans un monde magnifique, composé de plusieurs niveaux, comme un gâteau de mariage. J’ai rencontré un homme au premier niveau. Il m’a vu dans ma forme immatérielle ; il a dit s’appeler Kickaha et qu’il avait besoin de mon aide pour reprendre le contrôle de ce monde, envahi par un brutal visiteur extraterrestre. Il a sorti une flûte de son sac, a soufflé six notes, et une porte s’est ouverte sur un autre endroit, une salle de château. Il m’a dit qu’il me confiait cette flûte enchantée et qu’il suffisait de jouer ces six notes pour le rejoindre. Il me l’a lancée. Je ne sais comment, mais je l’ai attrapée ; mon aura l’a saisie et je l’ai ramenée avec moi. La voici. »

J’ai pris la flûte dans mes mains, et elle avait quelque chose de magique ; elle était faite d’un matériau étrange, différent de notre air solidifié, différent de tout ce que j’ai jamais touché.

« Je pars, » dit mon frère Jack. « Je suis utile à une noble cause, mais je reviendrai si je peux. Adieu, mon frère. »

Il est parti et n’est jamais revenu.

Le mois dernier, ce fut au tour de nos amis. Notre nièce Edwina, dernier enfant né sur ce magnifique monde, développa ses pouvoirs. Cela ne s’était pas produit depuis des siècles. Un jour, Alice nous annonça qu’elle était enceinte ; elle avait deux cent vingt-six ans et attendait son premier enfant. C’était il y a seize ans, et je ne peux décrire à quel point nous avons aimé ce bébé. Edwina a grandi seule, entourée des cinq d’entre nous, et a développé un grand attachement envers mon frère Jack. Elle nous aimait tous, mais elle avait un lien particulier avec lui.

Après son départ, elle commença à passer du temps seule, à développer ses propres pouvoirs.

Le mois dernier, elle nous annonça qu’elle avait retrouvé le monde de son oncle Jack, les mondes en paliers, et qu’elle comptait s’y matérialiser. Phil et Alice refusèrent de la laisser partir seule ; ils décidèrent de l’accompagner. Nous avons approuvé leur décision, car autrement nous aurions été extrêmement inquiets pour l’enfant. Mais nous ne pouvions pas les suivre. Nous ne sommes pas des aventuriers. Nous sommes attachés à cette maison qui a abrité cinquante générations de mes ancêtres.

Ils sont partis, et depuis, nous nous sentons terriblement seuls. Il n’y a plus personne vivant sur ce monde. Nous ne regardons plus de films, car cela nous rend encore plus tristes, mais au moins, nous nous avons l’un l’autre. Irene est avec moi, et je l’aime profondément. Nous nous sommes rencontrés il y a deux cent dix ans, ce fut un coup de foudre. Elle venait de loin à la recherche d’autres humains, car les villes étaient déjà désertes. Elle marchait, triste et sans espoir, quand je l’ai aperçue à la sortie de la ville. Ce fut un pur hasard, c’était la première fois depuis des années que je me rendais à la ville. En la voyant, j’ai crié : “Bonjour ! Bonjour !” et j’ai couru vers elle. En approchant, j’ai vu que c’était une jeune femme de mon âge, et qu’elle était magnifique. Nous nous sommes regardés, elle est venue silencieusement dans mes bras. Je voyais les larmes couler sur ses joues. Elle croyait être la dernière, qu’elle ne rencontrerait jamais personne, personne à aimer, avec qui partager sa vie. Et moi, je n’en croyais pas ma chance.

« Veux-tu m’épouser ? Je t’aime ! » lui ai-je demandé immédiatement.

« Je t’aime aussi, » répondit-elle.

Je l’ai emmenée à la longère, et elle l’a adorée.

« C’est la maison de mes ancêtres, ta maison maintenant. Je vis seul ici ; mes parents sont partis et mon frère Jack est à la recherche de quelqu’un et pourrait ne jamais revenir. J’ai une bonne nouvelle aussi : nous avons des voisins ! Phil et Alice sont formidables. »

Aujourd’hui, nous n’avons plus que nous. Il n’y a plus de voisins et nous vieillissons. Un jour, nous serons partis, et il ne restera plus personne sur ce magnifique monde.

D’après l’histoire, un groupe de scientifiques et d’explorateurs a quitté la Planète Rouge il y a environ cinquante mille ans pour enquêter sur un mystérieux pulsar. En approchant de ce monde, une immense éruption solaire brûla leurs radars et leurs systèmes de navigation. Ils atterrirent pour effectuer des réparations. Plus tard, ils reçurent un message de leur planète natale : un adieu, car la planète allait être détruite par une nova. Ils étaient le dernier espoir de l’humanité pour perpétuer l’espèce.

Aujourd’hui que nous vieillissons, je médite sur le sens des efforts de ces millions de personnes qui ont tenté de faire une différence ; qui ont voulu contribuer à l’évolution de l’humanité vers un grand destin. Mais il n’y aura pas de destin, car nous sommes les derniers, et cela me fait mal. Nous avons échoué ; quelque part, l’humanité a pris la mauvaise voie, et l’espoir, les sacrifices et les prières de toute une multitude ne seront pas récompensés.

Que viendra-t-il après l’Homme ? Les chiens, ou les robots, évolueront-ils en civilisation ? Et s’ils le font, se souviendront-ils de nous ? Se souviendront-ils que nous étions là avant eux, pour préparer leur voie ?

Si les chiens deviennent une civilisation, ils auront besoin des robots pour le travail manuel. Les chiens pourraient former une société de philosophes. Peut-être qu’un jour, ils rencontreront une autre espèce digne de leur affection.

Sinon, ce seront peut-être les rats qui évolueront vers la conscience. Je peux difficilement imaginer une civilisation de rats et de robots, mais qui sait ? Peut-être les rats mériteront-ils un destin plus grand que celui des hommes.

Irene est morte hier ! Je ne savais pas quoi faire ; je l’ai habillée avec ses plus beaux vêtements, ses bijoux, et Clunk a placé son corps dans un cercueil d’air solidifié transparent. Il en a vidé l’air avant de sceller le couvercle. Le corps durera plus longtemps ainsi. Clunk a placé le cercueil sur l’herbe, derrière la maison, et a planté des buissons et des fleurs autour, en laissant juste assez de place pour que je puisse aller la voir de temps en temps.

Je ne peux exprimer à quel point je me sens seul maintenant, ni à quel point la tristesse me serre le cœur. J’aimais Irene, et elle est partie, et il n’y a plus personne, personne pour partager mon chagrin.

Cela fait dix longues années qu’Irene est partie. Les jours tristes ont succédé aux jours douloureux, et il n’y a rien qui m’enthousiasme, rien que j’aie envie de faire. Je ne peux pas vivre beaucoup plus longtemps avec autant de peine, autant de solitude. Les hommes sont venus en ce monde pour rien ; nous n’étions qu’une étincelle temporaire de l’évolution, et Dieu, s’il existe, ne s’est pas soucié de nous. Dieu n’avait pas besoin de nous ; il n’avait pas besoin de notre aide ou de notre contribution. Peut-être même qu’il ne nous a jamais remarqués, tant nous étions bas sur l’échelle de la création. Les hommes sont venus, et bientôt, les hommes seront partis, et personne ne se souviendra de nous ; tout cela pour rien.

J’ai demandé à Clunk de mettre mon corps dans une boîte à côté de celle d’Irene, pour que si un visiteur vient un jour, il puisse voir à quoi ressemblaient les humains. Je lui ai dit que je vais mourir bientôt, aujourd’hui j’espère, car mon cœur est devenu irrégulier et j’ai du mal à respirer. Adieu à personne, ce journal n’était qu’une perte de temps.

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« Voici les biscuits et le café, » dit Clunk courtoisement.

Je pleurais, je ne pensais pas pouvoir pleurer dans ce corps amélioré, mais mon âme pleurait. Je ressentais la douleur et la tristesse de cet homme vieux et si seul. Madeleine se réfugia dans mes bras et nous pleurâmes ensemble.

« Je croyais, mon amour, que nous ne connaîtrions plus jamais la peine, maintenant que nous vivons ce que je pensais être le septième niveau du paradis, mais je me sens misérable et les amis me manquent. »

« Tu sais Richard, nous n’avons été transformés que récemment ; nous ne savons pas encore tout de nos réactions émotionnelles. Mais une chose devient claire pour moi : nous ne sommes pas au paradis. Nous nous sentons bien, la plupart du temps, dans nos merveilleux corps, mais nous avons ressenti de la culpabilité pour avoir détruit tous ces mondes végéens, et maintenant nous ressentons de la tristesse. Nous sommes encore humains, à moitié humains, et nous n’avons pas perdu notre capacité à ressentir des émotions humaines. »

« Et j’espère que tu garderas ces qualités humaines, » dit I/Ram, mon âme sœur, « sinon la vie serait moins intéressante pour moi. »

Clunk ressentait notre douleur ; il avait la capacité télépathique de partager nos émotions. Il s’agenouilla devant nous, respectueusement et en silence. Les chiens, qui s’étaient faufilés dans la maison, étaient maintenant tout autour de nous, et eux aussi sentaient notre chagrin et commencèrent à gémir doucement, pleurant le sort de l’homme.

« Très bien, vous tous, » diffusai-je par télépathie, « nous ne laisserons pas les choses se terminer ainsi. Nous changerons le passé. Il y aura de nouveau des hommes sur ce monde, des hommes pour vous chérir, pour partager avec vous un plus grand destin. Nous vous quittons pour l’instant, mais nous reviendrons. »

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Ce récit commence dans le troisième livre de ma trilogie Ghama-2, Le retour des émissaires. De nombreux événements, parfois très dramatiques, s’y enchaînent. Vous adorerez le lire. Contactez-moi et je vous enverrai les trois livres de la trilogie.

Ça y est ! C’est en train d’arriver… je suis en train de mourir, pensai-je alors que la douleur s’arrêta. À cet instant, tout me revint ; toute une vie de souvenirs, clairs comme de l’eau de roche.

Il n’y avait plus de temps, et même s’il y en avait, ce n’était plus important ; le temps était imperceptible. Je revivais ma vie comme un observateur. Une pensée me traversa l’esprit :
Observe et apprends ! C’était comme un message télépathique. Je flottais au-dessus de moi-même, au-dessus des gens, de manière invisible. J’observais les moments importants de ma vie ; je me regardais, j’entendais ce que je disais, je voyais ce que je faisais, mes interactions avec les autres.

Leurs visages, leurs corps, les vêtements qu’ils portaient — tout était d’une netteté incroyable. J’avais entendu dire que certaines personnes avaient une mémoire eidétique, des génies sans doute, ce que je n’étais certainement pas ; bien au contraire. En fait, j’oubliais les visages, et lorsque je croisais quelqu’un de ravi de me revoir, je devais simuler que moi aussi je me souvenais de lui. J’avais développé une technique pour les inciter à me raconter quelque chose que nous avions fait ensemble et, dès qu’ils mentionnaient un souvenir, tout me revenait : les conversations, les moments partagés, tout. J’avais une excellente mémoire pour tout sauf les visages. Maintenant, dans mon état immatériel, je reconnaissais tout le monde et je me souvenais de tout ce que nous avions dit et fait. C’était limpide.

Combien de temps cela m’a-t-il pris pour revivre les moments importants de ma vie ? Aucune idée. À un moment, j’ai regardé autour de moi et j’ai vu mon corps sans vie, et la carcasse de la voiture sur le bord de la route.
Je me sentais bien ; jamais de ma vie je ne m’étais senti aussi bien. Quelle chance de mourir rapidement dans un accident de voiture. J’aurais pu mourir d’une maladie longue et douloureuse…

J’ai vu les gens arrêter leur voiture et venir m’aider. Puis il y eut l’ambulance et les voitures de patrouille ; je les ai observés me sortir de la voiture et, lorsque l’ambulance est partie avec mon corps, j’ai flotté au-dessus d’elle et je l’ai suivie jusqu’à l’hôpital. C’était sans effort, et j’ai compris que je pouvais aller bien plus vite si je le voulais, mais je n’en ressentais pas le besoin ; je me sentais merveilleux, sans souci, calme, heureux. J’ai suivi mon corps jusqu’à la chambre froide. Je me doutais qu’ils appelleraient ma femme pour qu’elle vienne remplir les papiers pour la disposition du corps. Nous en avions parlé et décidé qu’il n’était pas utile de le mettre dans un cercueil au cimetière où personne ne viendrait, sauf peut-être pour les premières commémorations. Ma femme et moi avions décidé que, l’un comme l’autre, nous serions simplement incinérés et que nos cendres seraient dispersées en forêt.

En attendant l’arrivée de mon amour, je n’avais rien à faire, alors je me promenais et me suis arrêté aux urgences où ils tentaient de sauver cinq personnes. Deux d’entre elles étaient de jeunes enfants, et deux adultes devaient être leurs parents. Le petit garçon est mort, et je l’ai vu sortir de son corps. À ce moment-là, un mur de lumière étrange et attirant est apparu, et son âme y a disparu rapidement.

J’étais moi aussi très attiré par ce mur de lumière, qui semblait m’attendre, mais j’ai hésité. J’avais passé beaucoup de temps à réfléchir au sens de la vie et à ce que je voudrais faire dans l’au-delà. J’en avais même parlé dans le prologue d’une trilogie que j’avais écrite des années auparavant : Ghama-2, Une histoire d’après-vie. À cette époque, je pensais qu’il fallait décider à l’avance de ce que nous voulions faire après la mort, et j’avais l’intuition que la plupart des gens n’y réfléchissaient jamais. Je pensais aussi que nous étions, comme tout dans l’univers, faits d’atomes eux-mêmes faits de particules plus petites, jusqu’aux plus indivisibles, que j’appelais les particules de Dieu — la trame de l’univers.

J’en étais venu à la conclusion que les âmes des gens qui ne décidaient pas à l’avance de leur sort post-mortem pouvaient être simplement reprises par Dieu, assimilées ! Ou, si Dieu se désintéressait de certaines âmes, peut-être les laissait-il aller où elles voulaient. Moi, je n’étais pas prêt pour Dieu, je n’étais pas prêt à passer l’éternité dans un lieu merveilleux à ne rien faire ; j’avais tant de choses à accomplir avant cela.

Pendant que j’hésitais, je me suis demandé ce qu’il advenait des gens mauvais. Ce garçon était manifestement innocent, un bon enfant, et le mur de lumière avait accueilli son âme. Il m’était offert à moi aussi, et j’avais encore le choix. C’était comme si la volonté de Dieu me disait : « Viens à moi si tu le souhaites. »

Mais qu’en est-il des criminels, des abjects, de ceux qui battent leur femme, leur enlèvent leur liberté, les réduisent à un rôle secondaire et les forcent à suivre des règles religieuses sous peine de mort ? Qu’en est-il de ceux qui abusent de leur position pour écraser les autres ? Et des tueurs vicieux ? Et des fous ?

Les fous, probablement, seraient eux aussi assimilés par Dieu, tout comme les enfants et les personnes qui n’ont pas choisi. Les mauvais, eux, ne seraient sans doute pas repris par Dieu ; ils pourraient être pris par des démons et projetés dans un univers parallèle chaotique. Je ne voulais pas être assimilé par Dieu, ni me retrouver assis parmi des gens adorant Dieu pour l’éternité dans un état extatique. Je ne voulais pas non plus être emporté par des démons en enfer.

Toute ma vie, je m’étais préparé à ce moment ; j’avais essayé d’être une bonne personne et j’avais découvert une récompense immédiate à cela. Très tôt, j’avais compris qu’on se sent bien quand on est fier de soi. Je regrettais toujours rapidement mes mauvaises actions et promettais à chaque fois de ne plus recommencer. Parfois j’échouais, mais je redoublais d’efforts. Grâce à cela, je pensais ne rien avoir à craindre des démons. Il y avait tant de choses que je voulais faire et que je n’avais pas eu le temps de réaliser dans ma courte vie, alors, j’ai résisté à l’appel du mur de lumière, et il a disparu.

Les trois autres sont morts à leur tour, et à chaque fois, la même chose : l’âme sortait du corps, un mur de lumière apparaissait, et l’âme s’y engouffrait.

Je me suis retrouvé seul, comme un fantôme, dans l’hôpital. J’y suis resté, attendant l’arrivée de ma femme pour l’identification. Elle est venue deux jours plus tard, m’a regardé, et s’est mise à pleurer. De la tristesse, du désespoir, de l’anxiété, de la douleur émanaient d’elle. J’ai compris alors à quel point elle m’aimait. Je l’aimais aussi, et je voulais la consoler, lui dire que j’étais là. Alors je l’ai enlacée. Elle a senti ma présence, je l’ai vu à sa réaction, même si je ne pouvais physiquement la toucher. Je l’ai simplement entourée de mon être et j’ai essayé de lui transmettre paix et réconfort.

Elle est partie, et je l’ai suivie en voiture, puis jusqu’à la maison. Je suis resté là un moment. Les mois ont passé ; je ne comptais pas le temps. Je me sentais bien, détendu, sans besoin urgent. Je flottais dans la maison, regardant la télé avec elle, l’écoutant quand elle recevait des amis ou de la famille. Ma présence n’était pas passée inaperçue ; Lise la ressentait et me parlait parfois. J’aurais voulu qu’elle m’entende lui répondre, tant j’avais de choses à lui dire. J’ai essayé de lui envoyer des messages télépathiques, sans succès ; je ne pouvais que lui transmettre mes émotions. Cela, elle les captait, mais aucun de mes mots.

Plus tard, elle a rencontré un homme bien, l’a invité chez nous. Elle l’aimait beaucoup, je le voyais, et sa vie prenait un nouveau tournant. Elle avait de nombreux amis, et je pensais qu’elle n’avait plus besoin que je hante la maison.

Au fil des mois, je suis devenu de plus en plus curieux du monde extérieur. Mon état de béatitude, de bien-être absolu, était toujours présent, et je ne ressentais aucun besoin physique : ni faim, ni tristesse, ni regret. Je n’étais pas nerveux, mais mon esprit voulait s’activer davantage.

J’avais repensé à chaque moment de ma vie pendant ces premiers mois après ma mort ; je les avais revécus encore et encore, apprenant et développant une philosophie plus riche, un jugement plus affiné. Maintenant, je voulais faire davantage. Le moment était venu de passer à l’action, alors j’ai quitté la maison. J’ai fait quelques petits voyages ; j’ai visité les maisons de mes enfants, de mes frères et sœurs. J’aimais être dehors, même dans mon état fantomatique. Je pouvais ressentir certaines sensations : le vent quand je me déplaçais à grande vitesse, des odeurs de toutes sortes, avec un odorat bien plus développé que lorsque j’étais vivant. Je pouvais voir la nuit aussi bien que le jour ; je percevais des choses impossibles à voir dans mon ancienne forme corporelle.

Je suis allé encore plus loin ; j’ai traversé l’océan en un instant et me suis retrouvé à Paris. Je me promenais près de la tour Eiffel quand j’ai rencontré mon premier fantôme.

Il avait la silhouette d’un être humain flottant au-dessus d’un groupe de personnes, mais sans contours nets. Sa couleur était un mélange de jaune doux et de gris bleuté, avec toutes sortes de nuances ; c’était magnifique. Je me suis approché et lui ai dit bonjour, espérant qu’il capterait mon message. Le fantôme se retourna vers moi.

— Bonjour, je suis Madeline, ravie de te rencontrer.

Sa voix était chaleureuse, riche, avec une sensualité certaine.

— Je m’appelle Richard ; je suis mort il y a quelques mois, à l’âge de 72 ans dans un accident de voiture ; c’est ma première sortie hors de chez moi, et tu es le premier fantôme à qui je parle depuis ma mort.

— Je suis morte d’un cancer il y a douze ans, répondit-elle, à l’âge de 54 ans. J’ai laissé derrière moi mon mari et mes deux enfants. Ils allaient bien, alors j’ai décidé de voyager ; j’ai quitté ma maison l’année dernière et je vagabonde depuis.

À ce moment-là, j’ai commencé à voir son visage ; un peu flou, mais elle ressemblait à une très belle jeune femme de vingt ans. Son visage changeait sans cesse.

— Est-ce que tu vois mon visage ? lui demandai-je.

— Oui, je le vois. Ton visage reflète certains traits de ta personnalité et j’aime ce que j’y vois. Il n’y a pas beaucoup de fantômes ; la plupart ne durent pas longtemps : ils sautent dans le mur de lumière peu après leur mort ou perdent leur cohésion et se désintègrent. Comment as-tu fait pour durer ?

— C’est une longue histoire, répondis-je.

— Nous avons tout le temps du monde, Richard, une éternité devant nous…

— Tu as raison, Madeline, alors voilà : quand j’étais jeune, j’étais malade et je ne pouvais pas jouer avec les autres enfants, ni plus tard avec les adolescents. J’ai passé beaucoup de temps à réfléchir et à lire. J’avais une soif de connaissance. J’ai lu énormément de livres sur des sujets très variés, et plus j’en apprenais, plus je voulais en savoir. Les gens m’intéressaient ; je voulais comprendre ce qui les motivait, comment me faire beaucoup d’amis. Mais pour cela, je devais devenir une meilleure personne. En tant que jeune homme, j’étais bon, mais colérique, et cela ne me plaisait pas. J’ai travaillé sur moi-même, et je pensais trouver une solution dans le yoga.

À 19 ans, je suis allé dans une librairie d’occasion et j’ai trouvé un vieux livre sur la philosophie du yoga. Je l’ai lu plusieurs fois. Il parlait de développer un sentiment d’admiration et d’amour pour tout ce qui nous entoure. On pouvait regarder un brin d’herbe, une fleur, un insecte, un animal ou une personne et y trouver de la beauté. Une fois que je m’y suis entraîné, c’est devenu automatique : tout et tout le monde étaient magnifiques. Le livre disait aussi qu’admirer tout autour de nous rechargeait notre âme et notre corps en énergie. Il expliquait que la discipline et les sacrifices construisaient une âme forte. Je suis devenu adepte de cette philosophie, pensant que cela me préparerait à l’après-vie.

Je croyais que ma culture et ma soif de connaissance seraient un atout pour survivre en tant que fantôme. Je pensais aussi devoir être capable de m’ouvrir aux autres fantômes sans honte, alors j’ai travaillé dur pour m’améliorer. Tu peux regarder en moi si tu veux, je n’ai rien à cacher. Je suis maintenant fort et prêt à voyager, à tout apprendre sur l’univers, mais j’espérais rencontrer d’autres fantômes intéressants pour m’accompagner. J’espère, Madeline, que tu feras partie de mes compagnons, car je m’intéresse beaucoup à toi. J’ai beaucoup de questions à te poser, mais d’abord, pourrais-tu me dire pourquoi ton visage change sans cesse ?

— Je suis née pour la première fois en 1412 à Domrémy, en France. J’étais adolescente quand j’ai rejoint l’armée française et l’ai menée à la victoire à Orléans à l’âge de 18 ans. J’ai été capturée un an plus tard et brûlée vive.

— Wow ! Tu es la célèbre Jeanne d’Arc, la Pucelle d’Orléans, une sainte canonisée par le pape ! J’ai lu sur toi, sur comment tu as mené l’armée française à plusieurs victoires pendant la guerre de Cent Ans, ce qui a permis le couronnement de Charles VII. Tu as été capturée par les Bourguignons, livrée aux Anglais, jugée par l’évêque Pierre Cauchon pour « insubordination et hérésie », puis brûlée à 19 ans. Je me suis toujours demandé comment tu avais pu accomplir autant si jeune. Mais puisque tu es une sainte, pourquoi n’es-tu pas au Paradis ?

— Tu en sais beaucoup sur moi, Richard, je suis délicieusement surprise.

— Eh bien Madeline, je me souviens de tout ce que j’ai lu dans ma vie, chaque ligne, chaque page, et heureusement, j’ai beaucoup lu. Je m’en sens enrichi.

— Moi aussi, dit Madeline, je me souviens de tout ce que j’ai lu, mais je n’ai pas eu le temps ni l’occasion de lire sur une grande variété de sujets ; seulement un roman et la Bible, bien sûr. J’en suis venue à douter de certaines écritures. Une fois capturée et jetée dans une minuscule cellule, j’ai eu tout le temps d’y penser. Je savais ce qui m’attendait, Richard ; je savais qu’ils allaient me brûler vive. J’avais peur, j’étais terriblement seule. J’ai eu tout le temps dans cette cellule de réfléchir à ce que je voulais faire dans l’au-delà, et la dernière chose que je voulais, c’était d’aller au paradis — je parle de celui que les prêtres décrivaient à l’église depuis mon enfance ; un endroit nuageux où l’on adore Dieu paresseusement pour l’éternité, dans une béatitude forcée. J’étais une femme d’action. Il me fallait une âme forte, suffisamment forte pour résister à la perte rapide de cohésion de mon fantôme et à la fin de mon existence.

On m’avait parlé de ces faisceaux de lumière qui attendent les âmes au moment de leur mort et les capturent comme une lanterne capture les insectes. J’ai pensé pouvoir y résister, et je l’ai fait. J’ai erré pendant de nombreuses années ; j’ai parcouru le monde, et un jour, j’ai décidé que je voulais une autre vie. J’ai trouvé le bon couple, celui que je voulais comme parents, et je suis restée auprès d’eux jusqu’à ce que la femme tombe enceinte. Je suis entrée dans l’embryon et j’y suis restée jusqu’à la naissance. J’ai vécu une autre vie, sans aucun souvenir de la précédente. Quand je suis morte à nouveau, je me suis rappelée mes deux vies. Je l’ai fait encore trois fois. Alors tu vois les cinq visages que j’avais à vingt ans.

Nous avons parlé très longtemps et nous nous sommes rapprochés à mesure que nous nous apprécions. Nos masses étaient presque en contact, et je me demandais ce qu’il se passerait si nous fusionnions.

— Madeline, nous sommes presque en contact. As-tu déjà fusionné avec un autre fantôme ?

— Non, Richard ; il y a très peu de fantômes, et je n’ai jamais eu l’occasion de discuter longuement avec l’un d’eux. J’ai essayé d’engager la conversation avec certains, mais ils retournaient en hâte auprès de leurs proches. Devons-nous nous laisser aller et fusionner, pour voir ce qui se passe ?

— Madeline, j’ai toujours eu une forte intuition du danger imminent, et ce sixième sens m’a sauvé la vie plusieurs fois. Maintenant, en pensant à fusionner avec toi, je ne ressens rien d’autre qu’une grande excitation. Faisons-le.

Nous avons fusionné et immédiatement, je suis devenu Madeline, et elle est devenue moi. Je me souvenais de toute sa vie, chaque moment, tout comme elle revivait la mienne en partageant ma mémoire parfaite. J’ai réalisé que la mémoire est affectée par notre corps quand nous sommes corporels, mais qu’elle devient eidétique, d’une clarté absolue, quand nous sommes fantômes. Je savais que Madeline revivait aussi mes moments les plus honteux, et je lui ai demandé d’être indulgente. J’avais eu quelques disputes difficiles avec ma mère, puis plus tard avec ma femme ; ce sont les souvenirs les plus embarrassants. À mon crédit, j’ai presque toujours fait le premier pas vers la réconciliation.

Ma femme et moi nous respections et nous nous aidions mutuellement ; nous avons été d’excellents compagnons. Je l’ai aimée chaque jour de notre vie ensemble, et je le lui disais presque tous les jours. Madeline a vu tout cela, elle s’est sentie à l’aise en moi, et moi, j’étais ravi d’être en elle. La sensualité venait d’elle, et j’ai été submergé d’excitation érotique. Nous nous sommes laissés aller et avons partagé un orgasme intense qui a duré très longtemps. Le plaisir était dix fois plus fort que dans un corps physique, et peut-être vingt fois plus long.

Nous nous sommes séparés et avons dérivé côte à côte pendant quelques mois, voyageant de ville en ville, observant le monde. Nous étions tombés amoureux. Inutile de nous le dire ; nous le savions, nous le percevions dans l’esprit de l’autre. Nous étions désormais liés télépathiquement, partageant nos pensées. Nous dérivions au-dessus de Téhéran, à quelques mètres du sol ; des coups de feu éclataient, un grand soldat des Navy Seals américains portait un camarade blessé sur l’épaule. Il le jeta dans l’hélicoptère et fut abattu en plein cœur avant de pouvoir s’échapper. Nous l’avons vu mourir et sortir de son corps ; un mur de lumière apparut à quelques mètres. Il le regarda, recula, puis nous remarqua.

— Si vous sentez une forte cohésion de vos éléments fantomatiques, Monsieur, je vous conseille de m’écouter avant de plonger dans ce mur de lumière, lui dis-je. Au fait, je m’appelle Richard.

— Je m’appelle John, et je suis heureux de voir que je ne suis pas seul. Je me sens incroyablement bien, mieux que jamais.

— Je suis Madeline, bienvenue dans l’après-vie.

La forme brumeuse de John était un mélange changeant de verts pâles et de bleus, une brume tournoyante lentement pendant qu’il nous parlait. Il était un magnifique fantôme, énergique dans sa forme immatérielle.

Nous avons longuement discuté, et j’ai vite compris que John avait beaucoup de charme ; cultivé, il s’exprimait de façon intéressante et mûre. Il ne faisait aucun doute que Madeline était attirée par ce héros. Ils flottaient presque l’un contre l’autre, et j’ai décidé de faire partie de ce qui allait suivre. Nous avons fusionné tous les trois et sommes devenus l’un l’autre, revivant chacun les moments des vies des autres. À un moment, nous avons partagé l’orgasme incroyable provoqué par la sensualité de Madeline. Nous étions désormais trois compagnons intimes ; nous avons continué à voyager de ville en ville et avons traversé l’océan.

Nous avons visité le continent africain. Au fil des années, notre groupe a grandi jusqu’à atteindre vingt membres. Nous aurions pu en accueillir davantage, mais certaines âmes étaient ternes, fades, peu attirantes pour nous ; elles avaient peu de conversation et peu d’intérêts en commun. Nous ne les trouvions pas compatibles et rien au monde ne nous aurait poussés à partager nos pensées et sentiments les plus profonds avec elles pour l’éternité. J’ai compris à quel point il était important, dans notre vie corporelle, de cultiver notre personnalité et nos qualités. Ceux qui ne l’avaient pas fait, ou qui n’avaient mis qu’un masque, se retrouvaient désespérément seuls comme fantômes — sauf si Dieu leur offrait un mur de lumière — à condition qu’ils conservent leur cohésion.

Nous avons vu de nombreuses personnes mourir dont les fantômes ne recevaient aucune invitation lumineuse. Ils avaient de la cohésion, dérivaient autour de nous, mais après les avoir approchés, nous perdions rapidement tout intérêt. D’autres étaient pris par des démons, mais la majorité errait simplement, sans lumière, finissant par se désintégrer dans le néant.

Nous n’aimions pas ce qui se passait dans le monde. En Amérique et en Europe, les nouvelles générations passaient leur temps sur leurs portables et ordinateurs au lieu de faire du sport ou de participer à des réunions familiales. Les politiciens ne travaillaient pas pour le bien du peuple ; ils ne cherchaient qu’à être réélus, promettant ce qu’ils savaient irréalisable et discréditant leurs adversaires. Les pays les plus riches et les plus démocratiques réduisaient leur budget de défense tout en gaspillant l’argent public dans des subventions offertes à leurs amis, dont les entreprises faisaient faillite peu après s’être partagé le butin. Al-Qaïda gagnait du terrain, et l’Iran ou le Pakistan étaient sur le point de leur fournir des bombes nucléaires pour détruire New York, Chicago et Los Angeles.

— Nous sommes maintenant assez nombreux pour commencer notre voyage vers d’autres mondes, dis-je à un moment.

— Oui, répondit Gautama le Bouddhiste. Je suis frustré de voir ce qu’il advient de notre monde ; les musulmans croissent rapidement dans les pays démocratiques, entraînant la naissance de groupes terroristes intérieurs et de crimes odieux, d’assassinats de masse. J’ai peur que, dès qu’ils auront la bombe nucléaire, ils déclenchent la destruction du monde libre.

— Nous ne pouvons rien faire sous notre forme fantomatique, ajouta John. Les politiciens ne font rien pour protéger leur pays. Ils sont aveugles à ce qui arrive. Si je ne me sentais pas aussi bien, je serais frustré moi aussi.

— Puisqu’il est évident que notre civilisation s’effondre, autant partir, conclut Madeline. Je ne veux pas être là quand le pire commencera.

Personne ne s’opposa à quitter la Terre ; nous étions tous sereins, calmes, heureux, sans aucun besoin physique, et parfaitement à l’aise ensemble. Nous n’avions pas besoin de partir, mais nous étions curieux de l’univers. Nous sommes partis pour la Lune en quelques bonds. Nous pouvions voler très vite dans l’atmosphère et sentir le vent sur nos masses immatérielles, mais aussi franchir de grandes distances instantanément. Arrivés sur la surface lunaire, nous avons ressenti une attirance depuis la Terre, comme un lien d’attachement à notre monde d’origine.

La Lune était plutôt ennuyeuse. Nous avons choisi une étoile parmi les millions visibles, essayant d’utiliser notre intuition pour en sélectionner une ayant des planètes habitables. La plupart d’entre nous ont choisi la même étoile, ce qui m’a surpris : peut-être avions-nous un sixième sens. C’était merveilleux. Cette étoile nous attirait mystérieusement. Nous nous sommes concentrés dessus pour en évaluer la distance avant le bond.

Nous avons bondi et y sommes parvenus rapidement. En accélérant, nous avons ressenti une sensation étrange en franchissant la vitesse de la lumière. L’étoile s’approchait rapidement ; nous avons ralenti et nous sommes arrêtés juste à temps, à quelques millions de kilomètres de sa surface enflammée. Nous ne savions pas ce qui se passerait si nous entrions dans l’hydrogène brûlant. Nous nous sommes approchés prudemment et avons senti notre essence fantomatique s’agiter sous l’effet des flammes. Il n’y avait pas de douleur, mais nous avons reculé prudemment.

Nous avons contourné l’étoile à la recherche de planètes et en avons trouvé une à bonne distance, avec une surface habitable. Nous avons bondi près d’elle. Ce monde possédait une atmosphère et un climat équatorial. Il y avait des forêts, de la faune, des lacs et des océans, et une sorte de dinosaure semblait dominer la chaîne alimentaire. Nous avons adoré découvrir ces nouvelles espèces végétales et animales, et avons pris notre temps pour visiter ce premier monde stellaire.

Au sommet de la plus haute montagne se dressait une pyramide entourée de grandes pierres dressées. Une impulsion électromagnétique puissante en émanait, captant notre attention. Elle était manifestement destinée aux humains, accompagnée d’une musique de fond magnifique — je doutais que des extraterrestres partagent notre goût pour la musique.

Les constructeurs devaient avoir anticipé la venue de vaisseaux humains un jour, et peut-être attendaient-ils depuis des millénaires.

Peut-être étaient-ils venus sur Terre il y a très longtemps, peut-être étaient-ils ceux qui avaient amené nos premiers ancêtres ici, avant de repartir en attendant que notre espèce évolue jusqu’à atteindre la technologie des vaisseaux spatiaux.

Nous ne pouvions pas traverser les murs solides sous notre forme de fantôme, ni plonger dans les eaux d’un lac pour observer la vie sous-marine ; il nous fallait donc trouver une fissure ou une ouverture pour entrer dans la pyramide. En volant autour d’elle, une ouverture apparut sur l’un des murs inclinés. Nous sommes entrés et nous nous sommes retrouvés dans une vaste chambre. Les murs semblaient faits d’or pur.

Il y avait des sculptures et de grandes peintures murales, des meubles somptueux, des tapis, une longue table avec des chaises à taille humaine. Un robot était assis sur l’une d’elles. Il ouvrit les yeux dès que nous entrâmes, comme s’il sortait d’un très long sommeil.

— Bienvenue, humains, dit le robot en se levant. J’attendais votre visite depuis longtemps.

— Peux-tu nous voir ? demandai-je.

— Je ne peux pas vous voir comme des entités corporelles individuelles, mais je peux détecter votre présence immatérielle. Vous êtes les âmes de certains humains décédés, et vous êtes ceux que nous attendions ici.

— Peux-tu nous dire pourquoi vous attendiez notre visite et comment tu connais notre espèce ? demandai-je.

— L’humanité a évolué jusqu’à un niveau technologique très avancé et s’est répandue dans une galaxie voisine, celle que vous appelez le Grand Nuage de Magellan, à environ 160 000 années-lumière de votre galaxie, la Voie Lactée. C’est la troisième galaxie la plus proche d’ici. Les humains nous ont créés, nous les robots, pour les servir et pourvoir à tous leurs besoins. Nous avons préparé pour eux de nombreux mondes, modifié leurs atmosphères pour les rendre habitables, et vos semblables ont migré vers ces planètes.

Mais un jour, les mondes humains ont été attaqués par les Somorgs. Ces êtres pouvaient changer d’apparence à volonté et prendre forme humaine. Nous, les robots, ne pouvions pas — et ne pouvons toujours pas — tuer ou blesser un être qui ressemble à un humain. C’est une loi inscrite dans notre cerveau positronique.

Les Somorgs arrivent généralement à bord d’un petit vaisseau furtif, qu’ils cachent, puis ils se mêlent à la population. Rapidement, ils fondent une religion, se prétendent prophètes ayant parlé avec Dieu. Beaucoup les croient. Ils construisent des temples, gagnent des fidèles, font des enfants. Quelques générations plus tard, ils prennent le pouvoir dans un ou plusieurs pays. Une fois au pouvoir, ils déclenchent des guerres nucléaires ; la population est décimée, la planète devient radioactive. C’est probablement ce qu’ils recherchent, car une fois la planète vidée de ses habitants, des vaisseaux de colonisation atterrissent et les Somorgs s’installent dans nos cités non détruites.

Nous ne pouvions pas les arrêter, alors nous avons construit un immense vaisseau-colonie et quitté notre galaxie pour venir ici, dans la Voie Lactée. Nous avons colonisé plusieurs planètes, aidé des humains à développer des civilisations très avancées. Ils savent ce qui s’est passé et se préparent au cas où les Somorgs viendraient ici.

Nous avons alors bâti, sur cette planète, de nombreux vaisseaux spatiaux et des robots. Une intelligence artificielle supervise les opérations. Mais il nous faut des âmes humaines pour habiter les robots non encore activés.

— Que veux-tu dire par “robots non encore activés” ? demanda Madeline.

— Nous croyons que lorsqu’un robot positronique s’éveille, une “âme robotique” naît. Nous ne vous demanderons donc jamais de prendre le contrôle d’un cerveau déjà éveillé. Ce serait contraire à nos lois. Mais si vous prenez place dans un robot avant son activation, alors nous aurons des robots positroniques animés par des âmes humaines. Ces robots-là ne seraient pas limités par nos lois robotiques et pourraient tuer les Somorgs malgré leur apparence humaine.

Nous avons construit des millions de robots depuis cinq cent mille ans sans jamais les activer. Nous attendions vos âmes pour les habiter. Vous retournerez alors dans le Grand Nuage de Magellan et détruirez les Somorgs où que vous les trouviez.

— Si nous acceptons… nous voyagerons à bord de ces vaisseaux ? demanda Madeline. Mais à la vitesse de la lumière, cela prendrait 160 000 ans ?

— Nos vaisseaux voyagent beaucoup plus vite que la lumière. Il nous a fallu seulement 500 ans pour venir jusqu’ici.

— Donc, nous resterons à ne rien faire pendant 500 ans dans ces vaisseaux ?

— Non, plus maintenant. Nous avons une base comme Gargothin dans le Grand Nuage de Magellan, elle aussi dirigée par une intelligence artificielle. Les deux IA communiquent presque instantanément à travers un trou de ver qu’elles ont créé. Vos vaisseaux peuvent l’emprunter et s’y rendre en un instant.

— Mais qu’en est-il des humains là-bas ? demanda John. Ne peuvent-ils pas se défendre contre les Somorgs ? N’avaient-ils pas la technologie nécessaire sans les lois robotiques pour les en empêcher ?

— Ils pourraient, s’ils détectaient l’approche des vaisseaux Somorgs. Chaque monde humain est protégé par des satellites lourdement armés en orbite, et chaque planète possède sa propre flotte militaire. Mais les Somorgs arrivent dans des petits vaisseaux quasi indétectables, qui passent à travers les défenses. Une fois au sol et intégrés à la population, les humains ne peuvent plus les identifier. Nous, nous pouvons détecter leur esprit étranger grâce à nos cerveaux positroniques télépathiques. Mais dès qu’ils sentent que nous les avons repérés, ils changent d’apparence et se perdent dans la foule. Il faudrait les éliminer immédiatement… ce que nous ne pouvons pas faire.

— Alors vous voulez créer une armée de robots possédés par des âmes humaines, pour retourner dans votre galaxie et les combattre, commenta John. Mais combien de mondes avez-vous colonisés ici, dans la Voie Lactée ?

— Deux cents mondes.

— Et combien d’âmes avez-vous réussi à attirer ici ?

— Quelques milliers seulement. Elles arrivent souvent par vagues, dans les siècles suivant l’établissement d’une colonie. Nous en avons reçu beaucoup venant de la Terre, il y a mille ans. Mais cela fait maintenant plusieurs centaines d’années qu’aucun nouveau groupe n’est arrivé. Lorsqu’une personne meurt, elle saute généralement dans un mur de lumière ou d’obscurité, ou erre un temps, mais perd bientôt sa cohésion et disparaît. Les âmes étaient bien plus fortes avant l’invention de la télévision, de l’ordinateur et du téléphone portable.

— Oui, j’ai souvent observé cela, dit Madeline. Je suis surprise que vous, les robots, puissiez le voir aussi.

— Nos yeux perçoivent une gamme de longueurs d’onde bien plus large que ceux des humains.

— Et les âmes que vous avez envoyées dans le Grand Nuage de Magellan… ont-elles réussi ? Ont-elles sauvé des mondes humains ? Ont-elles détruit des Somorgs ?

— Oui. Nous avons reçu des nouvelles d’Alectra : elles ont sauvé une douzaine de mondes et détruit les populations Somorgs sur les planètes occupées. Mais elles sont encore trop peu nombreuses pour faire une vraie différence ; il y a un million de mondes humains à sauver.

— Ne pourriez-vous pas dire aux habitants des 200 mondes que vous avez colonisés ici qu’ils doivent venir à vous lorsqu’ils meurent, plutôt que d’aller directement au paradis ? demanda John.

— Une de nos lois robotiques nous interdit de contacter une population qui n’a pas encore atteint notre niveau technologique. Or aucun de ces mondes ne l’a encore atteint.

— Je comprends, dis-je. J’ai lu beaucoup de romans de science-fiction, notamment Fondation d’Isaac Asimov, où il parle de ces lois robotiques. Mais je me demande si cela fonctionnera pour nous tous. Quels sont les risques ? Est-ce que ça a marché pour toutes les âmes que vous avez attirées ? Pourrons-nous continuer à communiquer par télépathie une fois dans les robots ?

— Oui. Tous ont conservé la capacité de communiquer entre eux, et avec nous, une fois intégrés. Toutefois, la portée est limitée à environ un million de kilomètres.

— Que pensez-vous, mes amis ? Êtes-vous prêts à tenter l’expérience ?

— J’aimerais retrouver un corps, pouvoir soulever des objets, voyager parmi les étoiles, combattre les envahisseurs. Après tout, si nous sommes détruits, nous pourrons juste réintégrer un autre robot inactif, répondit John. Nous pourrions emporter avec nous plusieurs de ces robots de secours, les cacher à distance des zones de combat.

— Nous avons des choses à régler sur Terre, ajouta Madeline. Si nous avons des corps robotiques impossibles à distinguer des humains, nous pourrions retourner sur Terre et la sauver de la menace islamiste.

— Pourriez-vous nous fournir une nouvelle source d’énergie pour remplacer le pétrole ? demanda John. Je sais que vous ne pouvez pas intervenir directement, mais si vous nous la donnez, nous pourrions aider nos pays libres à s’affranchir du pétrole arabe.

— Nous influencerons les politiciens pour qu’ils déclarent la charia illégale, ajouta Madeline, et qu’ils isolent les pays qui la pratiquent du reste du monde.

— Ce serait formidable, John, dis-je. Mais nous pouvons faire encore plus. Grâce à la haute technologie que vous nous fournissez, à notre force physique immense, et à nos pouvoirs télépathiques, nous pourrons nous faire passer pour des émissaires de Dieu, fonder une nouvelle religion et former des recrues à développer une âme forte. Nous leur dirons de ne pas sauter dans le mur de lumière après leur mort, mais de venir nous rejoindre.

— On pourrait appeler notre ordre religieux Les Guerriers de Dieu, dit Madeline, avec un sourire.

— Dans cent ans, vous aurez des centaines de milliers de guerriers, ajoutai-je. Et nous n’aurons même pas besoin d’attendre si longtemps avant de repartir vers le Grand Nuage de Magellan. Une fois le mouvement lancé, nous pourrons revenir ici et passer à travers ce trou de ver pour atteindre les mondes à protéger.

— Excellent, dit le robot. Venez, je vais vous faire visiter notre forteresse.

— As-tu un nom ? demanda Madeline.

— Je m’appelle Tron2342345023. Appelez-moi simplement Tron.

Tron appuya sur un bouton, et une porte d’ascenseur s’ouvrit. Il y entra, nous le suivîmes. Nous visitâmes toute la forteresse : les chantiers navals où des milliers de robots construisaient des vaisseaux, les usines où d’autres construisaient les corps robotiques. À l’intérieur de chaque robot en construction, de minuscules robots aussi petits que des virus travaillaient sur les cerveaux positroniques. Leur travail était coordonné par l’intelligence artificielle appelée Gargothin.

Nous fûmes ensuite conduits sur la plateforme de lancement, un port spatial où nous attendait une flotte de vaisseaux magnifiques, en forme de soucoupe.

Il n’y avait pas d’oxygène, seulement de l’azote, puisque les robots n’avaient pas besoin de respirer. Durant toute la visite, Tron était debout sur une petite plateforme antigravité propulsée par des mini-jets. Un manche de 2 mètres s’élevait de la plateforme, muni de leviers pour contrôler vitesse et direction. Tron la pilotait avec dextérité.

Nous sommes entrés dans une salle d’environ 1 200 m³, presque entièrement occupée par un ordinateur gigantesque.

— Bonjour et bienvenue dans notre bastion, dit l’intelligence artificielle. Je suis Gargothin, et j’ai donné mon nom à cette planète, puisque je suis présente partout — sous terre, en surface, et dans tous les systèmes de défense autour de notre étoile. Je suis en communion télépathique avec tous les robots. J’ai assisté à votre entretien avec Tron. Si je pouvais ressentir une émotion, je dirais que je suis heureuse de votre décision. Mais je n’éprouve ni joie ni tristesse ; j’enregistre votre décision et l’évalue à 90 % conforme à vos valeurs. Les robots m’ont construite avec un objectif inébranlable : aider l’humanité. Vous êtes donc entre de bonnes mains. Nous sommes prêts à procéder à l’intégration de vos âmes dans des robots non éveillés. Veuillez suivre Tron jusqu’à la salle suivante.

Un mur s’ouvrit au fond de la pièce. Tron nous guida à l’intérieur. Vingt robots étaient allongés sur des tables, immobiles. Au-dessus de chaque tête flottait une bulle translucide, reliée à la tête par un petit tube. Une petite ouverture s’ouvrit au sommet de la bulle. Je m’y glissai. Elle se referma, et j’entrai dans la tête du robot.

À l’intérieur, il y avait des millions de canaux microscopiques. Je tentai de me répandre dans toutes les directions à la fois. Puis, la tête du robot se referma sur moi. J’étais en place.

Soudain, le robot s’éveilla, et je vis à travers ses yeux. Je ressentis toutes sortes de sensations : le mouvement des électrons, les connexions électriques. Des millions de champs magnétiques se mirent à pulser dans mon nouveau corps. Je décidai de me lever : ce fut facile. J’avais un contrôle parfait sur mes bras, mes jambes, un excellent sens de l’équilibre et une puissance immense.

— Madeline, John, Gautama, tout le monde, comment vous sentez-vous ? transmis-je télépathiquement.

— Je me sens merveilleusement bien, répondit Madeline. Un contrôle parfait de mon nouveau corps.

— Fantastique ! s’écria John. C’est merveilleux d’être à nouveau corporel.

Tout le monde était stupéfait et ravi. Nous nous sentions aussi bien que lorsque nous étions fantômes, mais avec un corps puissant et stable.

Tron nous conduisit à notre vaisseau spatial, fait d’or massif. Nous y entrâmes, et le corps de Jeanne d’Arc se matérialisa devant nous : c’était un hologramme translucide.

— Bienvenue à bord. Je suis Trina, votre vaisseau. Je partage les cerveaux positroniques de chacun de vous. Je suis presque indestructible. Je peux créer un champ de stase qui nous retire de la ligne temporelle, devenir invisible grâce à mon dispositif de camouflage, et je suis si lourdement armée que je peux détruire un monde entier si vous me l’ordonnez. Ma source d’énergie est illimitée, puisée dans la trame de l’univers, ou ce que vous appelez les particules de Dieu. Je suis à votre service.

— Vos corps aussi peuvent puiser dans la trame de l’univers, ajouta Tron. Vous êtes presque indestructibles. Vous pouvez activer un champ de stase en une fraction de seconde si vous détectez un danger. Je vous suggère de vous entraîner à exploiter vos nouvelles capacités avant de retourner sur Terre. Toute notre science est stockée dans vos corps. Il suffit de poser une question intérieurement, et vous aurez la réponse.

— Excellent, dis-je. Merci, Tron, et merci à toi, Gargothin, pour tout ce que vous avez fait — et ferez — pour servir, protéger et sauver notre espèce.

— Merci ! dirent-nous tous à l’unisson.

Ils reconnurent notre gratitude. Ne pouvant ressentir d’émotion, de longues conversations avec eux seraient inutiles.

Le vaisseau possédait un immense gymnase, une salle de contrôle avec vingt sièges inclinables, d’énormes soutes et une salle de stase capable d’accueillir vingt mille personnes. Une fois dans la salle, une fois le champ activé, on sortait du flux temporel. Des siècles, voire des millénaires, pouvaient passer. Quand le champ était désactivé et les portes ouvertes, on n’avait vécu que quelques secondes.

Nous passâmes quelques jours à nous familiariser avec nos nouveaux corps et nos cerveaux positroniques. Puis, nous quittâmes Gargothin.

Je demandai à Trina de faire une halte autour de Jupiter, sur Europe.

— Pourquoi veux-tu t’arrêter là ? demanda John.

— Pour observer l’un des plus grands spectacles du système solaire. Jupiter est plus massive que toutes les autres planètes réunies. Ses bandes nuageuses sont magnifiques, et la Grande Tache Rouge — une tempête géante — existe depuis au moins le XVIIe siècle. Je veux m’asseoir sur Europe et l’observer.

Mais Europe m’intrigue aussi : c’est une lune plus petite que celle de la Terre, faite principalement de roche silicatée, probablement dotée d’un noyau de fer. Son atmosphère est composée surtout d’oxygène. Sa surface de glace d’eau est l’une des plus lisses du système solaire. Elle est striée de fissures, avec peu de cratères. On pense qu’un océan liquide existerait sous la glace, propice à la vie.

Je veux que Trina fore un trou dans la glace et qu’on regarde dans cet océan. Qui sait ce que nous pourrions y découvrir ?

— Très intéressant, commenta Gautama.

— Vous savez, mes amis, l’une des plus grandes joies que nous offre l’éternité, c’est la découverte des merveilles que chaque système solaire réserve aux voyageurs. Une fois notre ordre spirituel fondé sur Terre et la planète sauvée de sa menace nucléaire, ce sera fantastique de visiter les 200 systèmes stellaires habités par l’homme. Nous y établirons les Guerriers de Dieu, puis nous explorerons. Quand nous aurons terminé, nous reviendrons à Gargothin, sauterons dans le trou de ver, et rejoindrons le Grand Nuage de Magellan pour commencer notre guerre contre les Somorgs.

— Gargothin ne s’attend pas à ce que nous prenions notre temps à explorer la galaxie, dit Madeline.

— Elle ne ressent rien, répondis-je. Elle nous pousse à agir vite parce qu’elle a été conçue pour cela. Mais nous, nous avons l’éternité. Trina connaît déjà les coordonnées de tous les mondes habités, n’est-ce pas ?

— Oui, répondit Trina. J’ai les coordonnées du million de mondes habités par l’humanité dans le Grand Nuage de Magellan.

— Tu as raison, Richard, dit Madeline. Je ne me sens pas pressée, je n’ai pas peur. Profitons pleinement de notre après-vie dans ces merveilleux corps robotiques… et à bord de ce vaisseau fabuleux.

---

Dans ce récit, je décris la paix et le bonheur profond que j’ai ressentis lors d’une expérience de mort imminente. Je crois fermement à la vie après la mort. Je crois aussi en Dieu, j’ai été témoin de nombreux miracles dans ma vie. Je crois au paradis — même si je préférerais ne pas aller tout de suite dans celui décrit par les prêtres. Je crois en la réincarnation, ce qui explique l’inclusion de Jeanne d’Arc, ou Madeline dans sa dernière vie. Je crois aussi en la résurrection, et dans cette histoire, nous sommes ressuscités dans des corps robotiques presque indestructibles, qui ne mangent pas, ne dorment pas, ne respirent pas, et ont une source d’énergie inépuisable.

Dieu a offert à notre petit groupe ce que nous voulions : un paradis, l’un des innombrables que Dieu a peut-être préparés pour nous.

Dans ce récit, je propose aussi que Dieu est partout, dans chaque particule de l’univers — les atomes, les protons, les électrons… et que la plus petite particule indivisible est une particule de Dieu, la trame même de l’univers.

Je crois également à une guerre entre les forces du mal et celles de Dieu. Et notre petit groupe, lui, était heureux de se joindre à la bataille, contre les Somorgs.

---

Un jour, j’écrirai peut-être les aventures extraordinaires de notre groupe…
En attendant, je vous suggère ceci :
Préparez-vous pour votre après-vie.
Construisez-vous une âme forte.
Ne plongez pas dans le mur de lumière trop vite.
Trouvez des compagnons intéressants.
Et entamez un voyage de plusieurs millions d’années à travers l’univers.

Adieu.

For those who have not read my previous adventures in “The Perpendicular World” and “Dracula” I need to tell you that I am an artist-painter who owns an art gallery in Hilton Head Island and in Montréal. I like to play golf with the members of Palmetto Dunes Golf Club as well as with the members of Le Blainvillier golf club. I am an ordinary man who acquired extraordinary powers in The Perpendicular World. Lise, my wife doesn’t know about it, nor does she know anything about my adventures in The Perpendicular World, my encounter with Dracula and how I fought with its help an Alien invasion that would have destroyed our world. I destroyed The Balboars spaceship in which Dracula was trapped and we got rid of it at the same time.

 

She knows about Eden since I finally convinced her to walk through the contraption that was a door to another world called Eden.  That contraption was purchased at a Marriott Hotel drug dealer auction in Hilton Head Island. We now live partly in Eden and partly on Earth on Hilton Head Island and in Laval, Québec, Canada.

 

To reward me for saving the world, the USA president initiated a huge purchase of my paintings from several USA museums totalizing $100 million dollars and awarded me 10% of all the profit that will be generated from the advanced technology I got from another alien civilization “The Birdies” that presently live in The Perpendicular World. With that technology the department of defense is presently building our first interstellar spaceship and once tested successfully, they will build a fleet of advanced spaceships for the defense of our world against a future alien invasion and for the exploration of star systems with life sustaining planets for colonization. I will also get 10% off the cost of building those spaceships.

 

My wife doesn’t know that we became immensely rich; I decided not to tell her since she would be traumatized by a sudden change in our lifestyle. She is very happy with the life we live now and our frequent visits to the Eden world are always wonderful.

I don’t want her to know about my adventures and special abilities either since she would start worrying every time, I must leave home for a few days. She knows I am hiding something from her, she worries about it, probably thinking I am a special agent.

 

To face the Alien invasion, I was granted a permit to kill anyone that would try to stop me in my fight to save the world and I still got this permit since I am the ultimate defense weapon against another attack by the Balboars.

 

The Hummel visit

 

We met the Hummel several years ago and had dinner with them. Lise like to go shopping or bicycling with Laura and I like to play golf with her husband Richard.  We are both 10-12 handicap golfers and enjoyed the competition. Richard and Laura are cultured, and we never lack subjects to talk about. We have many friends in Eden but very few ones here on Earth.

Richard and I were having a drink at the Palmetto Dunes beach bar awaiting our charming and beloved girls. We had played a golf game that afternoon and they were to join us there for the lobster special night. They were late by one hour and I had the intuition that something bad had happened to them. They had gone to Savannah for a nice day of shopping and should have been back with us at the bar by 5:00PM.

 

“They may have had a car accident” I said to Richard. “Let’s call the police and find out if there was one and the identity of the victims if any.

I called and found out that there had been a terrorist attack in Savannah that killed 28 people and injured 98 more.

“I need to know if they are safe Richard, I said; for this I will do an astral trip, an out of body travel to Savannah. Let’s move to that corner table where you will hold my body while I am away.”

 

Richard did not know about my special ability but looking at my face he saw that I was dead serious and did not make any objection. We moved our drink to that corner table where I sat in the lotus position and induced total muscle relaxation. I asked Richard to hold me, I let go, turned my soul around and out of the body, turning it from right to left and I saw the two of us sitting under where I was floating. I then sped up towards Savannah at a height where I could watch any important disturbance. It took me only a few seconds to find the smoke and the crowd at one of the shopping centers.  I flew down and quickly went over the area. I went inside the mall and found them. Lise and Laura were safe except for a few small cuts, they were being taken care of. I flew back over the shopping center, watched if I could find any Arab or Pakistanis’ bystanders that would look suspect and I spotted a group of three men that could well be the terrorists. They got into a minivan, I took the license number then flew back to the Palmetto Dunes bar and back into my body.

“They are safe!” I said as I opened my eyes.
“Did you see them? Are they injured?” Asked Richard worriedly.
“Just a few scratches, nothing serious and they were being taken care of.

At that time Richard got a call on his cellular, it was Laura; she told him what happened…we are not seriously hurt, she said, just a few scratches but they insist to take us to a Savannah hospital; we will come back later on today.

 

Meeting with the President of the USA

 

“Would you mind holding my body again Richard”, I asked, “I need to do another astral trip, at one point my body will be just gone. Don’t worry, I will be back at the condo later, but I need to act at once to get that terrorist cell out.

He held me; I induced total relaxation and quickly moved my soul out and flew at incredible speed to the White House. Once there, I spotted the president and took
the exact space time location to the ten decimals of his office back corner and jumped my body in. Jumping is always dangerous since if a piece a furniture or a person occupy the space I jumped my body to, there will be a tremendous explosion that could kill everybody in that room.

“Hi Mr. President” I said as he looked up to the sudden whoosh noise as the air was suddenly displaced.
“Hi Richard” the president said not overly surprised since he had seen me doing it several times when I fought the alien invasion. (Previously in “Dracula” story).
I told him about the terrorist attack in Savannah and the license plate of the suspects. The president called right away the FBI director.
“I can help to take them out if you wish Mr. President if you give me the address of the car owner.
“And how will you do that?” Asked the president.
“I will separate my soul from my body and fly in an immaterial state to that location; once there, I go through the walls and find the terrorists; then I register the exact space-time coordinates of a corner of that room, return my soul to my body and then jump my body in that location like I have been doing here.”
“So once you are there, won’t they shoot you?”
“No, I still have the Dracula invisible cloak and my laser gun the Birdies from the Perpendicular World gave me. (Read “The Perpendicular World”) Once there, I can shoot them or interrogate them. The apartment might be booby trapped and the FBI agents might be killed as they burst through the door, it is safer that way.…”
“Yes, you are right; said the President, they will prefer to die as martyrs in an explosion than to face intense interrogation and a lifetime in Guantanamo.
If the apartment is booby trapped, shoot them and if you can do it, please disable their bomb so that we can find important information in their computer and documents that will lead us to their superiors.”
“I don’t like to kill people Mr. President but these terrorists want to kill our babies and children, our wives and as many innocent people as they could; they are vile cowards. Yes, I will shoot them but I will try to interrogate them first if I can, before shooting them. I will sit now and proceed to my astral trip; please do not move my body.”
The president had already found out the address and showed me the location. I sat, relaxed and a few seconds later, I was hovering in the terrorist’s apartment.

 

The Muslim terrorists’ apartment.

 

The four terrorists were sitting in the living room watching Fox News live showing the victims of the explosion; some of them were crying for the loss of their loved ones. The Islamists were joking and slapping their thighs in glee. Two of them were obviously high on some drugs. There was some bomb connected to the entrance door; the apartment would explode if the FBI tried to get in.
I registered the exact space-time location to the tenth decimal of one corner of the living room and jumped back instantly to my body. I told the president what I saw and jumped back with my body to my Hilton Head Island condo. There was no one there; Lise was with the Hummels at the beach bistro where I had left them. I had hidden the invisibility cloak and the laser gun in the guest’s bedroom inside one the mattresses since I hadn’t told Lise about my Dracula encounter and the alien invasion. The less she knew about my special abilities and adventures the less she would worry when I had to leave for a few days. When I left for Transylvania, I just told her that I had a showing in France and would be away for a week or two at the most.

I took the cloak out and put it on, grabbed the laser gun and jumped to the terrorists’ apartment.

“Allah gave life to all that live on our world; by killing innocent people you have loss your way to Heaven.” I said in a powerful voice.

The terrorists jumped from the sofa and looked everywhere. I waited until they sat again. One of the two that were high still had his gun in his hand. I lifted my laser gun and cut his head off. The blood splashed out of the empty neck and spilled on one of his partners as the headless body and the head toppled down to the floor. I hid the laser back inside the cloak. The three remaining terrorists kneeled to the floor and started to pray asking Allah to forgive them.

“Who and where are your leaders?” I asked in the same powerful tone of voice.

They looked again everywhere hesitating. I took aim with the laser gun and cut the head off the other terrorist that was high on drug.

“Don’t move; answer me!” I added.

They started to talk at the same time telling me everything they knew. They had been trained in Iran in the special division of international assassins under the Supreme Leader of Iran the Ayatollah Khardhani.  They told me the location of their training camp.
I then shot them both, cut the wires connecting the bomb to the door with my laser and jumped back to the President office.

 

“They are dead now, Mr. President, I killed the four of them after they gave me the name of their leader and the location of their training camp. I also disabled the booby trap.”
“Good riddance!” Commented the president. “Otherwise we would have to court martial them in Guantanamo, this would have taken interminable court hearings and we don’t even have space in our crowded jails. A liberal judge could have released them on bail…but tell me who their leader is and where is their training camp?”

“They have been working directly under the Ayatollah Khardhani and their training camp is located about twenty miles from Tehran.”
‘’I am calling the secretary of defense and set up a meeting with the SEALOGCENT’s commander, Gerthner. He also served as commander of Task Force 53 and Logistics Forces, U.S. Naval Forces Central. Would you please stay at the White House and assist me to the meeting?”
“Absolutely! Mr. President: I am honored by that invitation! ‘’.

The president showed me the way to a comfortable room where I lied down and soon fell asleep. A few hours later a group of generals and the Secretary of defense were sitting in the oval office and on a screen, I could see Commander Gerthner.
They discussed what should be the appropriate immediate response to this latest attack on American soil. It was decided that killing the Ayatollah Khardhani was the only response that would stop Iran in its effort to destroy the modern world.

“Would you get there and set up on the roof of the main building a device to guide our bombs?” Asked the president?
“Yes immediately. I will induce the astral trip now; I need silence and please don’t move my body.”

A few seconds later I was flying over Tehran. I found the training camp and registered the exact space-time coordinates to the tenth decimal of a spot on the roof of the main building. I then rushed back in my body.

“I am ready to do it” I said.

A marine brought me the device, it weighed about 80 pounds, I took it and held it tight to my chest, then I jumped to the main building roof of the training camp and setup the device. I then relaxed and did an astral trip inside and found a room where the Ayatollah and a few of the leaders were having a conference. I moved back to my body on the roof and jumped back to the president office.
“He is there, Mr. President” I said, “perhaps you should take advantage of it and bomb the building now.”
The president gave the order.
“I will return and witness the destruction, Mr. President.”
I jumped back to the main building roof and then to the ground where I was immediately arrested.
The guards brought me inside to the Ayatollah.
“How did you get here, dirty infidel?” The Supreme leader asked.
“I came to assist to your demise dirty dog.” I replied

At that moment I sensed the incoming of the devil: a dark malevolent mass was now hovering over me, coming for me. I was frightened like I had never been before; there was a foreboding of immediate danger. I jumped back to the President office, but something seized me in midflight, there was a weird sensation of movement, there was a moment of total darkness and suddenly I was on the ground, unfamiliar ground. I looked up and saw three moons over my head and one of them had an atmosphere, some continents and oceans. I was in a strange world, it was a different world and there was a foreboding feeling of danger I could not ignore. I tried to jump back to my condo, but it did not work. I tried the White House oval office to no avail. I could not jump to my world; I was lost on a strange planet and in danger. I was still holding in my right hand the invisible cloak and the laser gun tucked inside. The Supreme leader guards had seen my hand open with nothing in it never doubting that I was holding something invisible to their eyes. I looked around; I was standing on a strip of artificial hard material in the middle of a desert. The ground was flat and there were some kinds of cactus with growths coming out of the main mass that I would call flowers had they not been so repulsive. There were no hills but a speck of something was visible on the horizon to my right. The strip was leading to it. I walked in that direction, and it was an oasis. A few people were watching my arrival. One of them was a priest and he walked to me offering me his hand.

“Welcome to Nowhere;” he said, “I am Father O’Leary.”
“Hi father,” I replied somewhat under shock, “that isn’t possible; you are one of the characters of my trilogy “Ghama-2, An Afterlife Story”.
“We will have plenty of time to talk about it,” said the good father, “but let me introduce you to my companions. This is John, a retired navy officer.”
I shook hand with him and looked into his eyes and I saw the understanding, the maturity, the self-confidence and the awareness of a man that had work for his government as a spy and an assassin for more than 30 years
“Hi John,” I said, “I know you; you are the main character of my trilogy and I love you just as much as I love our good father O’Leary.

John looked at me trying to analyze what kind of man would say such a preposterous thing but decided to reserve his opinion for later. He smiled and said nothing.

“This is Joan.” Said Father O’Leary.

Joan was the most exquisite woman. She had been my wife in my trilogy. I shook her hand.

“In my trilogy, Ghama-2 An Afterlife Story, I loved you Joan and now that I see you, I am again falling in love with you. You were my wife in that story I wrote, and we have been through a lot together.”

She looked at me, right into my eyes, right into my soul. There was nothing I could hide from that perceptive woman, she saw that I was sincere; she saw how much I loved her, she came closed and kissed me on the lips.

“How long have you been here”, I asked.
“I was transported from Terra two days ago.” Joan said.
“I have been here for 5 days and came from Soil”, the good father said.
“I came from Dirt 3 days ago”, said John.
“And I am just arriving from Earth.” I replied. “We came from different worlds, from different universes, parallel universes and the people who transported us here are very powerful and probable watching us right now.”
“It might be God Himself that transported us here.” Father O’Leary said. “And He might be testing us.”

John was six foot two inches, slim, athletic and very handsome. He was probably in his seventies but looked like he was in his mid-fifties. John had an imposing presence; he was a born leader. There was something about him that would make you refer to him for an important decision; perhaps his maturity and the fact that looking at him, one knew that he would not ridicule anyone. There was also that dignity in him, something rare to be found in a government assassin. I guess he had his own code of ethic just like I had. We had both turn into killers for the good sake of the world.
Joan was slim, very beautiful, extremely perceptive and bursting with life. She was in her fifties too but might well be much older.
Father O’Leary was massive just as tall as John but with an extra 50 pounds of muscle hidden by a thick layer of fat. He wasn’t obese though; he was just imposing and looked very good humored. It seems that there was always a trace of smile on his handsome face.
“Yes it might be God that brought us here, but it might also be the Devil.” I said and went on telling them the circumstances of my involuntary trip here.  “…the Devil was coming to me when I tried to jump back to my condo, I landed here.” I finished.
“Interesting” Joan said, “you can jump from one place to another instantly…”
“Yes, I developed that ability in the Perpendicular World, a fascinating world inhabited by an advanced species, the Birdies. I jumped to that world seizing the fast-disappearing image that came to the corner of my left eye, seizing it and wishing to be there.  I went there many times; I must have spent more than 40 years there, getting younger and more powerful every time and when I came back to Earth after each trip there, I came back at the same time I left. This is why I called that world The Perpendicular World where the time line is perpendicular to our time line on Earth.”
“It seems to me that you are holding something in your right hand,” commented John, “but I can’t see it”
“I got an invisible cloak from Dracula and a laser gun tucked in it, a gift from the Birdies.

I showed them the gun and then covered me with the cloak, becoming invisible.

“This cloak is awesome; please tell me about that Dracula.” Joan asked.

I realized that these people must have found very boring the days they had spent here; the foreboding sense of danger was not immediate, so I went on telling them about the Alien invasion and how I woke up Dracula and succeeded to get his help in the fight against the Balboars.
“Then my wife almost got killed in the Savannah Muslim terrorists attack and I decided to fight them under the President direction.” I finished.
“We had some problems with the Muslims too on my world,” said John, “but we got them out.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“We got fed up”, John said, “the United Nations were siding with the Muslim dictators, so we stop our funding and started the Free World United Nations with many countries across the world. Each country contributed to an international force, and we destroyed the power plants of Iran and Pakistan. We declared illegal the practice of Islam and the Charia laws. We closed all the Mosques in all the Free United Nation worlds and stop any business with any country that would tolerate it. We took control of the Middle East petroleum by force. We open huge prison camps where we deported all the illegals that would go on practicing the Charia in our countries.
The few illegal countries that did not follow were totally closed to the rest of the world. We inundated their television and radio networks with messages of liberty and respect for their women and for those who do not share their beliefs. We used the network to warn the people to stop going to the Mosques since we intended to destroy them one at a time. We told the population to revolt against the clericals for lying to them and for treating the women with injustice; mutilating them, covering their faces preventing them to live an active life with equal rights to the men. We told them that the Charia and the Koran text had been written more than 150 years after Mohammed death and it wasn’t what Mohammed wanted. The message caught and slowly the population abandoned the Islam tradition. The destruction of a few Mosques filled with fanatics helped too. They understood the message. That was twenty years ago and since then, there were no more terrorists’ attacks, and the world was not safer when I got here.”
“Yes but what happened when you destroyed Pakistan power plants? Did they retaliate? Did they send their nuclear missiles to destroy the European countries or the USA?
“We were prepared for that; and we had our satellites to watch their activity. They launched some missiles, but we destroyed them in the air and bombed the missiles sites. After that they beg us to help them and accepted to make the practice of Charia and Islam illegal. We forced the army to get rid of the fanatics that had infiltrated their secret services and we let them repair their power plants.”
“What about Russia and China? Did they interfere?” I asked.
“No, they kept watching but did nothing.”
“How wonderful,” I said, “you are free from that terrible menace. Earth is presently in great danger of a nuclear destruction and the Muslims are responsible for the situation. They even kill other Muslims; the Sunni kill the Chiite by bombing them; many of them are bloodthirsty animals with angelic faces.”

“Let’s forget about that for now,” father O ‘Leary said, “we are stuck here, and I want to show you something. Perhaps it is a way out of here. We went to a very strange building surrounded by a wide moat. The moat was 200 foot wide, and I sensed danger lurking inside, some kind of monsters.
On our side of the moat was a statue of an alien, the statue was 12 to 16 foot high and represented a very slim insectoid biped with deployed wings and fur on its chest. The colors of that alien were very beautiful, and its face bare some similarities to a mouse head but much more beautiful. The large eyes seemed to be adapted for nightlife and bore a sense of great intelligence and maturity. There was a pedestal at its base and a 5-foot urn was standing on it. Some signs were carved in the side of the urn, and I figured that it was probably a message from those who built the statue. There were three circles that caught my attention.

“If we move the moat water with a stick, something wicked comes our way”. Father O’Leary said.
“We can’t stay here too long”, John said, “I sense that we are in danger here.
“I sense that too”. I replied. “Nothing immediate though. Is there anything to eat here, I am famished”.
“We eat the nuts growing on the few trees of this oasis but they are becoming scarce and hard to reach” Joan said.
“I might be able to do an astral trip and find out what lays at the other end of that road, I said, “perhaps I could identify the source of this danger we both sense John. I could perhaps find some cities, some people…”
“I believe you should do that”, Joan said.
“For that I need to relax, I need some privacy and someone to hold my head, would you do that Joan?”
“Yes darling,” said Joan with a smile, “come with me on the farthest side of the oasis, there is some kind of shelter”.
She must have caught my intentions; I am not known as a time waster.
We left John and father O’Leary and walked there where we sat close to each other.
“I need to prepare myself for the astral trip and if you kiss me, it would help”. I said.

She looked at me and guessed that what I wanted was way more than one kiss; she smiled in a very erotic way and kissed me. We both undressed and made love passionately. After that we held each other until I was ready again. We made love three times.

“Now I am ready to try it”.

She held me tenderly, I induced total relaxation and moved out of my body turning from right to left, and suddenly hovering over the two of us. I left at full speed following the road and soon reached a very strange city. The abrupt slanting wall encircling the city could not be climbed by man, so I guessed that the people that had live in that city were some kind of quadrupeds, the city was dead.  Theres was nothing moving. The buildings had many openings, and the walls were twisted in some improbable ways; I just couldn’t understand the architectural sense. It had been designed by very different minds but there was a desire to create beauty otherwise the buildings would just be squared. The buildings were interconnected and of strange colors. The color was inside the material that looks like marble and the color as well as the wall material look fresh and would probably resist the weather erosion forever. I flew inside one of the buildings and followed the corridors, I went through the different parts. There was a large room with a pool in the middle and many skeletons. They were quadrupeds and looked like centaurs. Parts of their bodies were covered by some kind of shield; swords were lying on the floor beside the skeletons. There were some kind of stools and other contraptions that had been thrown every which way and I could imagine that there had been a fight. Some of the bones had been gnawed by whatever had killed the quadrupeds.

I went on and spotted scenes of carnage in many places. I left the city and flew at high altitude in the hope to find an inhabited settlement and found other scenes of carnage; everyone had been killed and eaten. Then I spotted a castle and flew over it. I immediately sensed some alien thoughts trying to get inside my mind. Whoever was trying to get in my mind was repugnant and evil. I could block it having practice mind blocking with the telepathic Birdies on the Perpendicular world. I decided to go inside the castle and found a large room with hundreds of demon statues. Each one was twelve feet high, and the demons were standing on powerful goat legs ending in hooves.

They seemed to be hard as stone, but I detected life in each one of them. One of the statues, the one right in front of me was looking at me and I detected a movement in the clawed fingers. The demon was getting out of the stasis he had put himself in; they were probably awaiting the arrival of a new foe on this world, some spaceship landing, they were surely not expecting my presence, but they nevertheless spotted me in my immaterial state. Now they would come searching for us and we better find a way to get out of this world. I rushed back to the oasis and awoken in Joan’s arms.
‘’ What happened? asked Joan as she noticed by looking at my face that I had seen something horrifying.

 

‘’Let’s get back to our companions, I will tell you then.’’

 

 We ran to where we had left John and Father O’Leary. John looked at Joan and then at me and I knew that he had guessed what we had been doing.

“You know Joan”, John said, “I also have feelings for you even though we have met only two days ago, and I would like to have a chance to win your heart.”

I realized that what Joan would reply would decide the relationship between John and I. I wanted to get John friendship, but I did not want to lose Joan. Why not share, I thought.

“My dear John, I sensed your sentiments towards me”, Joan replied, “and I have the same for you. Tonight if we can, I will be yours; you will both have me.”
“I am ok with that John”, I said, “only one woman and the two of us in love with her…we can share; it will be awkward but if we do not try to have more time with her than the other one, it should work; it is a matter of respecting the other and treat him the way we wish to be treated.”
“I will love you both equally.” Joan added.
John looked at me and thought it over for a moment.
“I don’t want to kill you Richard”, John said, “let’s give it a try and let’s be friend.”

We shook hands at that, and Joan kissed us both. Father O’Leary had not said a word, he had just observed keeping out of it.

“All right, my friends,” the good father said, “now I want to know what you found out Richard about this world and what is menacing us.”
“The demons will be coming,” I said, “We must get out of here. The way out must be through that building in the middle of the moat. Otherwise, God or whoever put us here might as well have killed us.”

I went to the statue and tried to lift the urn cover. It was jammed. I looked for a way to open it and my attention was caught again by the three circles. The Statue hand had three fingers and I thought that the three circles were probably a place the alien would put his fingers on.
I tried to press on the three circles carved on the side of the urn at the same time and heard a click.

“Please lift the cover,” I said, “while I keep my fingers on the circle John.”

John lifted the cover and we saw that the urn was filled with a green powder. It was the same color as the moat water.

“Let’s carry the urn closer to the moat,” I said, “I will try something.”

John helped me with it because it was very heavy. Once at the moat, I took a handful of the green powder and threw it on the moat. There was some kind of chemical reaction and a path of rocks that were at the water level and totally unnoticeable changed color at the contact of the powder.
We walked from one rock to the other as I threw more of the green powder ahead and we reached the other side of the moat without ever touching the water and being attacked by the monsters lurking underneath. We walked around the strange building to find an entrance to no avail.
“Have you noticed the carving on the wall?” Joan asked. “It was the right size to hold in the urn.” She went on.
“You must be right,” Joan, “John said, “it got to be the way in; I noticed nothing else.”

Father O’Leary who had been carrying the heavy urn brought the urn to the carving and inserted it. It fit perfectly. Suddenly a part of the wall disappeared, the opening had the urn shape and was big enough to let us go through.

“What do we do?” I asked John, “Do we just walk in? Perhaps the opening will also let the demons go through and I sensed them coming, they must be nearby already.”
“My child,” Father O’Leary said,” Joan and John walk inside, Richard, get in between the opening walls and wait for me, I don’t think it will close on you and crush you. I will go back for the urn and bring it back where it was on the other side of the moat. If some other people are transported here, they will also have a way to leave this world. Once I am back, we will walk inside. I am quite sure that the wall will close again and prevent the demons to reach us.”

The father was already running over the stones in great agility with the heavy urn in his arms. He had just placed it back on the pedestal when I saw a group of demons running on the road towards the little oasis. They were running very fast, and I worried about the chance of the good father escaping them. He rushed over the stones at full speed; one demon was reaching the moat and splashed in it to be caught immediately by the tentacles of one of the monsters hiding under the water surface. More demons walked into the moat and fought the moat monsters, ripping the tentacles apart and swimming quickly towards us. Father O’Leary reached us, and we walked inside the building. The wall opening close, we were safe for now, but we did not linger, we walked quickly through the corridors and the rooms trying to find something or someone that would help us escape from that dangerous world. There was no one, but we found a room with a wall covered with primitive weapons, swords, fencing swords, knives, axes, lances, shields and helmets, gloves, sheaths for the swords and knives, first aid kits. There was a cream in the first aid kit, I applied it on a small scratch, the result of too much passion and the scratch disappeared under my eyes.

“That cream has tremendous healing power,” I commented to my friends.
“And here,” Father O’Leary said, “is a mirror that isn’t a mirror; I put my finger on it and went right through. I could sense a gush of wind on the other side of this mirror simile.”

The mirror was twelve foot high by 6 foot wide.  We looked at it and pushed a sword right through and pulled it back.
“It has to be our way out,” I commented, “it is a door to another world.”
“Perhaps a door to Heaven!”  Father O’Leary added.

“Do you think we are dead Father?” I asked. “Perhaps we died and were given a new body and a testing challenge…”
“Richard, I don’t think so,” the good father replied, “
“In such case,” I commented, “all those weapons will somehow become very useful in the next world. John, you have been a navy officer and one of the best armed and open-hand combatant for your country. We will need a leader and you are surely the most experienced in that role amongst us. So, I propose you to be our leader; what do you think Joan and you, Father?”
“Yes sure.” Joan said.
“You can be my leader, John; I will follow your orders if they don’t go against the teachings of my church. If I feel uncomfortable about it, if it goes against my ethics, I will tell you.” Father O’Leary said.
“Thank you my friends; I accept the responsibility but if I say jump, you must do it. If I am not sure about a decision to make, I will refer to all three of you. My  intuition of immediate danger tells me that we can’t stay here; we need to go through that mirror simile and go well armed.”
John told us to put on the leg, arms and body armor, the helmet and to select a sword and a knife we feel comfortable with and a lance as well.
“You know John, when I come back from a trip to the Perpendicular World, I come back young and strong, unfortunately, my body age quickly. I am due for a rejuvenating trip there. I am afraid that this sword and the body armor are intended for a younger man and I don’t know if I will be of much help if we get into a fight.”
“I understand,” John said, “But God or whoever put us here, must know about that. We are all in our sixties and we all lost much of our younger age energy. If we can’t cope with the incoming challenges, they would have just killed us instead of transporting us here.
Also we need a plan, an objective; we can’t just get through that mirror door to another world without a goal, an objective. So there must be a map that comes with that mirror showing us where we should go. ”
“Here is the map.” Joan said.

She had been looking at the huge mirror while we were talking and had noticed some carvings on the side of the mirror. She had pressed on to several of them and after many trials a map had appeared covering the whole mirror. The map showed a ring world; a world artificially built around its sun. We could see on the top of the screen the ring world with the stars around it and a menacing repulsing yellow cloud moving towards it. It hits it and splashed of yellow bounced off the back of the ring world that protected all life on its interior surface.
Underneath that movie was a small part of the ring world covering sixty per cent of the screen. It indicated where we will be and a castle with the words “Saint-Joseph castle”.
It also showed a human settlement and a Kzinti settlement. It was written dangerous underneath the Kzinti one.

“All right,” John said, “now we know where we have to go, let’s walk through the mirror with our sword drawn and be ready for whatever happens on the other side.”

We went through it and walked right into the middle of a lion’s den. The lions attacked us immediately. One of them jumped at me and as I moved quickly aside to escape the charge, I trusted my sword into its side and killed it instantly.
I didn’t have time to look around for Joan as another one was trying to bit my leg; I fell but trusted my sword in its throat and somehow, in great agility, I jumped back on my feet. There were six lions lying dead on the ground and three more were backing up growling.

“Anyone injured?” asked John worriedly.

None of us was injured; our arms and leg shields and our body armor and helmet had saved us from a bad injury. I felt some unnatural energy flowing through my body. I felt as strong, perhaps stronger than when I came back from one of my trips to the Perpendicular World.
“I feel so good, young again.” Joan said excitedly. That was a rush.”

We talked about it; something in the mirror had eliminated our old cells and whatever was weakening us and rejuvenated our bodies. I kissed Joan on the lips and felt a tremendous sexual urge.

 

“My turn,” John said as he pushed me aside and took Joan in his arms to kiss her.

We were both totally excited and Joan was feeling the same urge to have sex right away. The lions were gone, we felt safe. Joan started to take off her clothes; John was doing it too.

“I will stand watch.’’ The good father said. “Go for it.”

I watched John and Joan making love, lying beside them. I kissed her. I undressed too and waited for my turn. When John got into the euphoria of the aftermath, I pushed him aside and went into Joan’s open arms. We made love and both got a very intense orgasm.

In the following hour, we both made love to Joan three times, she had multiple orgasms and enjoyed each one of them.

“I had been thinking about that for two days Joan,” John said, “ever since I saw you for the first time.”
“I knew it,” Joan said, “but you did not make me any pass. So, I waited for it.”
“We are young again and loaded with hormones,” Joan said, “I will be yours when it gets too pressing.”

Joan went to the good father and talked to him.

“Do you want me too, father?” She asked.

“Very much so, my child.” The good father replied. “But I made a vow, and I will offer my unsatisfied need to God and ask Him to help us in return.”

Later on, we started our trek across the land, it had been transformed or built into a gorgeous park. There were fruits bearing trees and berry bushes everywhere, wheat fields, small mountains and streams. There were forests too, and trails to follow across these forests.

“It looks like Ghama-2,” I mentioned one evening as we were roasting a lamb, we had killed that evening. We had also found potatoes and we were baking them under a pile of rocks. Joan had crushed some wheat and mixed it with the milk we recuperated from the Goat and cooked it into a delicious smelling bread. We traveled for months, discovered and investigated some ruins. They looked like one million years old; it was fascinating, there was so much to see, so much wildlife, we were happy, sexually and emotionally satisfied. We survived the attack of wild dogs and lions without any serious injury. Months had passed since our arrival in the ring world, we became very close friends.

 

At night, or on our way towards that castle area, we talked about our life, what we had been through, our adventures in our respective worlds. The ruins were always spiking our curiosity and we often wondered what kind of people, what kind of alien had built those long-abandoned settlements.
One day we spotted a group of twenty people that were being attacked by some rat face humanoids. They were outnumbered and many of them lay dead on the ground. We did not even think about it, we charged to their rescue risking our lives, but we saved those people and came out of it with
just a few cuts that our first aid kit cream fixed in no time. We wished them the best of luck and went on towards Saint-Joseph castle.

Every night was a feast followed by many intimate moments with our lovely Joan. I had never been so happy. Our conversations were always interesting, and we loved the good father sense of humor. We were laughing at nothing and living the best time of our lives. One day we spotted the huge castle. It was more than huge, it was enormous, perhaps one mile square, with thousands of minarets sticking out. Electrical sparks, thousands of them per second sometimes were hitting them.

 

“I once wrote about Saint-Joseph castle,” I told my companions, “it was where the souls go, it was the admission office and all those sparks might be the recently deceased souls hitting the receiving minarets.”

We came upon a bridge and stop; for a couple of goblins were awaiting us. The goblins were about two feet high.

“Hi.” Said Joan, all honey. “You are so cute; I never met with goblins before, they were part of our legends on Terra.”
“Hi.” Said the goblins simultaneously.
“I am Fripouille.” Said one of the goblins.
“I am Freluquet.” Said the other one.
“I am Joan and here is John our leader; Father O’Leary and Richard. Can I hug you?” Joan asked with a smile.”
“Why?” Asked Fripouille, with a suspicious look.
“Because I would like to hug you and kiss you.” Said Joan, all tenderness.
“What? Kisses? Hugs? Certainly not.” Said Fripouille as Joan lifted him up and nevertheless kissed him on the cheeks.
“Will you stop that?” Said Fripouille, his cheeks red of injured pride and mixed emotions.
“Put him on the ground Joan.” John said. “Fripouille is not a doll but a venerable being, possibly thousands of years old.”
“I am even older than that.” Fripouille said. “For I was here when the ring world engineers were still building this ring-world and that was a billion years ago.”
“And what did you do, how did you spend your time for a billion years?” Joan asked.
“That’s Goblins secret.” Answered Fripouille; a little ashamed. For everyone should know, thought Fripouille, that Goblins don’t do much except drink ale, argue, and pull pranks.
“We take care of the land.” Freluquet said. “And we give puzzling answers to questioning visitors.”
“I got a question for you!” Said John. “Can you tell us how to get inside that castle; I don’t see any door…”
“Why do you want to go inside? You are not dead yet.” Fripouille said.
“We don’t know what to do,” Joan replied, “we were taken away from our world, woke up on a very dangerous planet, we barely escaped the demons there as we walked through a mirror simile to get here. There was a map in that mirror showing a castle location, it was written Saint-Joseph castle.

On the map. So, we came here.”
“St-Joseph can tell you why you are here; he might help you for he knows a lot more than mere goblins.” Freluquet said.
“But how do we get to the castle dear?” John asked
“You follow the right road. That’s all.” Fripouille said.
“OK, let’s go then.” John said. “These Goblins are of no help.”

We crossed the bridge and halted in front of the huge wall. There was no ring button.
“Anyone there” I shouted, “Hello, anyone there?”

An opening took shape, and we could walk inside.  There was a park inside the encircling stone wall; there was a freshly cut lawn and here and there some fruit trees, walkways and fountains.  The castle was blue with silver roofs topping the high towers and set on top of a hill. It was elegantly designed and looked right out of a fairy tale. We followed the main way to the castle and stopped in front of a huge front door. The door was solid gold, ten-foot high by eight-foot wide and carved. John shook the silver bell hanging on the left side and the door silently opened onto a vast hall. The floors were made of black granite and here and there were gold sofas and tables. Magnificent artworks were decorating the walls. The ceiling was thirty feet high, carved and painted with scenes showing angels fighting along with humans and other humanoids against demons and evil looking aliens.

“Look at that painting!” Joan said.

The painting showed a man in his sixties writing a book. On his right was a partially painted canvas set on an easel. A pillar of light was set on the book and the pillar was supporting a world. Angels and demons were flying about the world. Coming closer, Joan recognized me, I was the writer.

“That’s you Richard,” Joan said, “how could it be?”
“I recognize you too,” John said. ”
“I told you,” I replied, “that you, all three of you are the characters of my trilogy Ghama-2, An Afterlife Story, so I come to the conclusion that writing that story gave life to you, my friends; God must have like you and decided to create you in parallel universes.”
“Hi everyone.” Said a holy looking man.

We were taken by surprise for there had been nothing to warn us of his arrival and suddenly, he was there, standing a few feet from our group. The man looked like he was in his late forties but there was something ancient about him. He had a beard and long brown hair; he was dressed in a gold and beige robe and wore leather sandals. He had a little gold cap on his head; he held a five-foot long gnarled stick made of some kind of multicolored wood.
He was smiling at us and there was such kindness, warmness and an air of calm understanding in his face that I felt we were meeting with a real saint.

“I saw your coming to the land of magic in my crystal ball and I am very pleased that you evaded the deadly lines of defense the land opposes to all visitors.” The man said. “My name is Joseph.”
“We were transformed when we passed through that mirror and got younger, stronger and faster than we had ever been in our youth.” John said. “That helped us go through all those fights with aliens and wild predators that attacked us.

 

We introduced ourselves in turn and told the saint looking man what we were doing before we got trapped on the demon world.

“That’s a cool castle you got here.” Said Joan. “On Terra I was very rich, and I would have given a fortune to have one like that on Earth.”
“I grew up on Earth.” Answered Joseph. “At that time, nobody was dressed like you all are. Can I have a look at your sword?”

John quickly handed him his sword and Joseph looked at it interestingly.

“Nobody on Earth could have made that sword.” Said Joseph. “The blade is made of fused atoms; it seems indestructible, yet light in weight and extremely sharp on its cutting edge. Moreover, that blade could serve as a shield against a black magic bolt and return the bolt to the aggressor.”
‘’We found those weapons in the same room as the mirror that brought us here.” I mentioned. “You mention those, but we never got confronted with sorcerers or witches.’’

“I will be glad to hear all about your odyssey, but for now, Freluquet and Fripouille will lead you to your rooms where you will have a chance to have a good bath. Then we will have dinner and talk about it at length.”

Suddenly the goblins were there, smiling maliciously at us. The goblins led the way to the back door that opened by magic to another very large room with a two-way fireplace in the center and a large and magnificent stairway on the left. The ceiling of that room was even higher, possibly sixty feet high. The stairway led to a balcony circling the large room. We went up the stair and got to the balcony.
“Please walk to any of those doors,” said Freluquet. “Say the magic word and the door will open to your bedroom.”
“And what is the magic word?” Joan asked.
“It is the symbol of the ratio of a circle circumference by its diameter.” The goblins answered bursting in laughs as they ran down the stairs.
“That’s an easy one.” I thought and said Pi (3.1416…).

Joan heard me and said Pi in front of the next door, it opened. John was quicker than me this time. “Can I come with you, my sweetheart?” He asked.

They walked inside the room while Father O’Leary and I went to our rooms. Each room was different but each one had a king-size bed, a table with two chairs, a sofa and a rocking chair. Each one had a window with a wonderful view of the valley and its labyrinth of roads and streams. The windows were open, but gold shutters set on the sides could be used on rainy days. There hadn’t been much rain since we have been on the ring-world; sometimes it did rain but not for long. I knew what was happening in Joan’s room and wished I had been quicker than John in inviting myself. I took a shower and lay on the bed thinking about the strange life I had been blessed with and I silently thanked God for it. I thought about Lise, my wife Lise, that I left on Earth, and I missed her badly. Lise was an extraordinary woman, I wondered if I would ever come back to my world and live with her again. I might come back hundreds of years later if for each day on the ringworld one year or more pass on Earth. The timeline might be different. Half an hour later, Joan walked into the room. It was my turn, great! We made love and soon fell asleep. We woke up later and found our clothes neatly placed on a sofa.

“Someone must have wash and dried our clothes Joan,” I said, “and I don’t know how or when; We put them on a heap by the bed and now they are clean and dry and neatly placed on that sofa.”
“ We should not be overly surprised by a touch of magic on this land.” Answered Joan “The goblins disappear at will; the saint can appear in our back without a movement of air and the baths filled by themselves…”
“So you too think he is a saint?” I asked, all interest, as we went down the stairway. The goblins were waiting for us at the end of the stairs.

“No kiss no hug and no picking up.” Told Fripouille to Joan who picked him up anyway and kissed the goblin on both cheeks then hugged him lovingly before letting him down.
“Please follow us Earth emissaries.” Fripouille said, walking hastily forward, seemingly under high emotion.

The goblins led us to the castle’s main dining room. The room was about two hundred feet long by eighty feet wide and thirty feet high and the whole of the two hundred feet long wall on their left was covered with shelves up to the ceiling. The shelves held thousands upon thousands of books. There was a long table with plates loaded with a variety of fruits, cheese and bread. There were also some covered steaming plates in the center. The chairs were padded and looked very comfortable. The long wall on their right was amazing, it had a series of rectangular and very large windows. The windows gave a view of different worlds and sometimes the world that could be seen from one window would wink out to be replaced by an entirely different one. The windows started at the floor level and reached the ceiling, they were twenty feet wide by thirty feet high and there was no apparent plate glass. We could just walked through and step on another world, I thought.

“It looks so real,” I said, “do you think we can just walk through and step on another world?”

“This you could do but it is not advisable.” Said Joseph in a booming voice.

We had not seen him but there he was, sitting comfortably at the end of the long table.

“Please come over and sit. I guess you are quite hungry.”  

We went to sit close to him.

“Please help yourself with the food and wine. I could fill your plate by the fleetest act of magic but it wouldn’t be as enjoyable.”

We let Joan serve herself and then in turn filled our plates with all kind of appetizing meat and vegetables. I picked a red wine urn and filled the glasses.

“Would you care for a glass of wine?” I asked Joseph.
“Yes, for we have a toast coming up.”

Everyone had his glass in hand.
“Welcome in Heaven! I am Joseph and this is the reception office.”
“What!? This is heaven, the real heaven. I blurted out; did we die?
“No, you came in a different way. This castle has many levels underneath and upstairs filled with thousands of reception offices and the souls are brought here by soul snatchers, some kind of light beams that attract the recently deceased or should I say the recently disembodied souls. When they come here, everything they did in their life is clearly remembered. They remember all their bad and good actions and they come here with the same mix of good and bad qualities. They meet with a person holograph that looks like me but in fact is projected by the artificial intelligence that runs the admission office under my supervision.

My similes or doubles talk to each one and tell them what they did wrong and explain to them that they will now be sent to a hellish place or a sad place or a good place in the ring-world where they should evolve into a better or more mature being. They will be told that on the ring-world, nobody grows old, they will be given a young adult body, and they will try to blend and mix and deserve the approval of the settlement people they are being sent to.
They are being told about the always present danger of being killed by the great variety of predators roaming the ring-world as well as the aggressive alien species. They are being told that if when they will be killed again, they will come back here for another evaluation and send back to another place on the ring-world. It might be better or worse depending on their actions. Eventually, if they evolve to a high degree of quality, they will be sent to the second level of Heaven where they will enjoy their life even more. All this is done in a telepathic way and takes a few seconds only. The souls are then being sent to the body synthesizers where they are given a body like their previous one without the aging virus and then teleported to the ground.’’

“Do you have enough space on the ring-world for every one of every life bearing world in our galaxy?” John asked.
“The ring-world is 10,000 times wider that the circumference of Earth, Dirt or Terra and then it spans an incredible length around the sun. It offers more ground surface than all those life bearing worlds of our galaxy together. Our sun is also 10,000 times bigger than Earth sun. This place is so huge that you could not visit it in a billion years. Some parts are under different physics principles and peopled with witches, wizards, ogres, goblins and all the people of your fantasy books. If God likes a book, he often recreates the characters of this book on the ring-world. In your case, Richard is the writer and you three, Joan, Father O’Leary and John were the main characters of his trilogy Ghama-2, An Afterlife Story. When you jumped back to your condo, Richard, Lucifer who directs the actions of the Ayatollah sent you on that world. God saw all of this happening. He had previous contacts with you Richard. Do you remember when He walked into your art gallery in the body of a gentleman and bought one of your paintings?”
“Oh yes, I will never forget that.” I replied.
“Well, God kept watching you; He kept watching what you did and when he saw Lucifer throwing you to that world, he created the oasis, the statue and the urn, the castle and the moat and he brought back from the ring-world your three friends of the Ghama-2 story. He gave them false memories of their lives on Dirt, Terra and Soil and temporarily erased their memories of their ring-world lives. God wants all four of you to become part of the Galaxy defense corps of Angels and later lead an expedition to a nearby galaxy. But you are not ready yet. Later, as you die and come back here through the usual channels, you will be evaluated and if you pass the test, you will skip the first level of Heaven and you will be sent directly to the second level. You will be together again, and you will have more companions, many of them are the characters of your trilogy, Richard”
“So what happens now?”  Joan asked.
“You three, John, Joan and Father O’Leary, will be returned to the ring-world surface and will be given back your memory and you Richard you will be send back to your condo a few minutes after your encounter with the Ayatollah and Lucifer. For now let us finish that meal and celebrate the moment.”

We talked about all kinds of matters that we were puzzled about and asked hundreds of questions to Joseph who always seemed eager to reply. He told us that there are plenty of delicious and nourishing fruits everywhere on the ringworld and a lot of wildlife to prey upon. He said that in the ring-world there are no mosquitoes, parasite or virus. Nobody get sick and nobody grows old. The weather is always nice. It is Heaven to everyone who is being sent to the good areas. There is no TV, telephones, computers but people have fun on the ring-world. Many go on discovery treks; people practice a lot of sports; they make bands and do music shows in open air.

 

“What about the Hellish places?” I asked, “where you must surely send those Muslims.”

“The good Muslim males are being sent in places where the women rules so they can learn about equality of sex. The Muslim females are dominant in all the Muslim sectors; their bodies are made stronger, and the men are made weaker.” The terrorists and the bullies are sent to Hellish sectors and God made them bad enough to make sure no one wants to return there when they are killed there. I asked him about the purpose of life and why we were here and where we had been before if we had previous lives… There are so many things that I will have to tell you one day and I will tell you also about our many months odyssey on the ring-world and all the difficulties and dangers we faced. I will tell you about our imprisonment in the city of Laurs and our escape; our encounter with the Wheelers and the dangerous Kzinti. But this will be in another story. After the dinner, we hugged and said our goodbyes and I was back in the condo as Lise, my charming wife was walking in with the Hummels.

| HISTOIRE EN ANGLAIS |

Dracula

 What just happened will change my life and yours as well; let me start here with my personal fear.

 I was afraid to go to the basement alone at night, I was afraid of ghosts. Perhaps it was due to all those scary stories that my father told us when we were young; I was afraid to let my feet stick out from under the cover during the night, what if a ghost pulled on them. I fought that fear as much as I could thinking that a scary hand pulling on my feet was no worse than opening my eyes and seeing a scary face looking right at me from a few inches away. That didn’t help! Now I was afraid of opening my eyes in the middle of the night. That was crazy.

 Those fears faded over the years and only a trace was left now, but now I was having the strangest dream, it was so real, a ghost of some kind was sending me images of an alien spaceship landing on Earth and the aliens coming out of the spaceship were enslaving and killing people. That dream came back every night for the last three nights.

 I thought I was getting Alzheimer or worse for I just could not get rid of those alien contacts at night. I decided to try a mental communication with that alien ghost, I asked the question that would come to a sane mind:

– Who are you?

– I am Alteirian, a bodiless galaxy explorer! The ghost immediately replied.

– Good for you; I would love to do that too but what about those images you are sending to my mind?

– An alien spaceship landed on your world; the aliens are Balboars, they have already destroyed some civilizations on other worlds. I wanted to warn you of the immediate danger. They have set up a base in South America and are kidnapping people in the middle of the night; they keep them inside a perimeter with force fields and they chase them as prey and kill them at will or when they are hungry.

They must have contacted their home world to announce their find and a huge fleet might already be under way to your world. They can’t travel faster than half the light speed and their home world is 28 light years away from Earth. You have some time to set up defenses, but you don’t have the technology to defeat even one of their spaceships.

– Thank you for the bad news, do you have any good news? Can you help us?

– Unfortunately, the Alteirian said, we do not have the Balboars high technology, and we don’t have spaceships, nor can we help you to build your own but there is Vampire on your world that is sleeping in a castle on another continent.  The vampires are an old civilization, older than the Balboars and they have the technology to destroy the Balboars fleet. The Vampire voyagers are usually travelling alone in small spaceships; they explore the galaxy to find a suitable source of aura and when they find an inhabited world whose people have an aura, they call some of their people to join them and feast on their new victims.

The vampires are almost extinct, and their home world is located very far away; that one must have lost his way or his spaceship might have been damaged. I think that he is awaiting the blossoming of your civilization to a technological level that would make possible the repair of his spaceship.

– So, are you suggesting I get inside Dracula’s castle, wake him up and ask him to help us?

– Yes, you are capable of telepathic communication; you are an exception amongst your species.  I think you could talk sense with the vampire and get an alliance with it to defeat the Balboars.

– Can the Vampires be killed? How can I protect myself from it?

– Vampires are changelings; they can change their shape in an instant and their cells are drawing energy from the cosmic field. They don’t need oxygen, they have no heart, no blood and their hide is extremely tough and resilient. They live forever. You can’t kill a Vampire with a bullet or a pointed weapon, but you can capture one in a strong box. They could be disintegrated but you don’t have that technology yet; they can also be burned; that’s the best way you can kill one.

One way to protect yourself is giving to your body a repulsive odor and convince it that you can help it in the fight against the Balboars. It must have set up traps to prevent people’s access to the castle…

 

The communication went on for an hour and the ghost was gone.

 

Lise, my wife was sound asleep beside me. I wanted to wake her up, but she would not believe me if I told her about the Alteirian, Dracula and the invasion. Nobody would believe me. What should I do?

I needed some government help but how could I get any without being ridiculed or worse…

 I had the ability to do astral trips and I had jumped my body to the Perpendicular world a few years ago where I had met the Birdies and lived with them for 20 years. On the perpendicular World, I had not aged; something in the fruits perhaps had made me younger and stronger than ever before. The Birdies were from an old and very advanced civilization, they love that world, it is perfect for them, and they stayed there.  They liked me and they would do everything they could to help me. The timeline is perpendicular to ours so I could spend many years there and come back at the exact time I left.

 I might enhance my powers there with their help; perhaps I could do more than jumping from Earth to the Perpendicular world. Perhaps I could work on this ability and become able to jump from one location to another at will and develop telekinesis…

 I looked at the fast-disappearing images that came to the corner of my left eye, stopped one and there it was: The perpendicular world prairie. There was the blur and I was sitting in the prairie close to an enormous tree. I quickly climbed it and walked over the interlacing branches to the Birdies village where a group of them welcomed me.

 – We are glad you came back, said Kzurr; but where are the others?  You said you would teach the jump to some of your friends and will also come back with your mate.

– I know but this will have to wait, we are being invaded by the Balboars and I need your help to develop some of my latent powers to fight them back and eliminate them from our
world.

 The Birdies tried to wake up some of my latent powers over the following years; they were sharing my mind as I tried to lift some objects through the power of my mind, and they helped me in the development of seizing the exact location of a place where I would try to jump from some distance. They could not do it themselves and were amazed at the latent powers humans had.

 There are some spatial coordinates to any place and with time and effort I became able to sense the exact location, absorb the spatial coordinates in a subconscious way and jump in it.

A few times I jumped inside a tree trunk causing an explosion without any harm to me except a quick burning sensation for I instantly jumped back to my original location.

I was now able to lift a rock, or a branch weighing a few hundred pounds and move it up and down and laterally at great speed.

The Birdies could not do that whatever their efforts to develop similar prowess.

They gave me a disintegrator in the form of a metallic tube that I could suspend from my belt. I tried it and it had the power of disintegrating a large rock in a burst of flame that left nothing. They also gave me a net thrower; it was another tube throwing a spider web at great speed, the ball of spider web close instantly around the object it was thrown to and solidify to a flexible and unbreakable net. There tube could also shoot a magnetic field that dissolves the net.

 – The disintegrator can be used a dozen times, then it recharges over a period of 5 minutes. The net thrower can only be used 5 times, said the Birdies.

Thank you, my friends, I will come back if I survive Dracula’s encounter and the fight against the Balboars.

 Many years had passed since I came back for the second time to the Perpendicular world; I was now totally rejuvenated, young again physically, stronger than I ever was with all the climbing up and down the gigantic trees every day and all the jogging and work-out. I was quick and I had that intuition of incoming danger that had already saved my life several times. In addition, I could jump to a registered location, I felt confident that with the Vampire help we could possibly defeat the alien invasion. I would need to warn the President about the coming Balboars’ fleet. Earth defenses would have to be set up. The Birdies had given me the plans to build anti-gravity engines and a spaceship, some powerful lasers and long-distance disintegrators. But these would take time and if the Balboars found out that we had acquired this technology, they would destroy all our cities before we could do anything with it. They probably had spies or the technology to spy on us, everywhere.

 I had to destroy their base and their spaceship.

 The Balboars are 8 ft tall monsters walking on two horses like legs ending in hoofs; they have a wolf head. They have two arms with hands terminating with 6 clawed fingers. They are of a sickening green and brown color that unfortunately blended very well with the surrounding Brazilian vegetation. They will be hard to spot once we get close to their settlement, I thought, but what are my choices? Wait until the fleet’s arrival and the destruction of the world or risk my life in a small commando attack of their base? There was no choice really, I had to do it.

 I jumped back to my bedroom in my Hilton Head condo. Lise was sound asleep and would never believe when she woke up that I had just been away for many years on the Perpendicular World; and if I told her, it would scare her to a point where she might consider that I was just too weird for her. I would tell her nothing. First, I needed to talk to the president, and I invented an excuse to take the first available flight to Washington. Once there, I bought a ticket for a visit to the White House that was happening the day after. In the meantime, I visited the Smithsonian Institute and the National Gallery of Art. It reinforced my determination to save the world. Mankind accomplished so much in such a short time; so much beauty in our art, craft and music, I thought, it was worth saving at all costs.

With a group, I visited the oval office, and I registered the exact location coordinates then came back to my hotel room and registered its exact coordinates. I had a long walk downtown and finally did my jump to the oval office. It was 7:00PM.

 

The president and the defense secretary were talking about US involvement in one of the North African countries’ crises; they sensed the air draft caused by my sudden presence and looked at me.

 – Mr. President, Mr. Secretary, please allow me to explain my sudden presence here before calling the security.

 They didn’t move; they were seeing something impossible, and their mind had to accept the impossible and it took a moment for that.

 – How did you come here? Why are you here? Asked the president.

 – Earth is being invaded by the Balboars, I replied, their first spaceship has already landed in Brazil where they have killed and enslaved many people. They have called their home world, and a fleet might already be underway.  I will try to destroy their base, but you must prepare Earth defenses right away. As for how I came here, let me show you, I will be back in a moment. At that, I jumped back to the hotel where I waited 15 minutes to give them the time to check the cameras and then I jumped back to the oval office. There were now two armed bodyguards stationed at the door in addition to the president and the Defense secretary.

 – Now you know Mr. President that I can come here at will and do not need to come through the conventional way. I mean you no harm, I want to save Earth. My story is hard to believe but no harder than my sudden presence. Please hear me out.

-Sit down, said the president, and tell us everything.

 I told the president the communication I had with the Alteirian. After that, I jumped to the Perpendicular World where the Birdies have helped me to develop some latent powers, we, humans, will acquire over the coming millennium if we survive the present threat. Thanks to the Birdies, I have plans to build antigravity engines and spaceships as well as long distance lasers and disintegrators, but we may not have yet the manufacturing equipment. A lot will have to be done and fast but if the Balboars find out about what we will be doing, they will destroy our cities right away. That is why a small commando attack might work where a thousand missiles will fail. The Balboars have impenetrable force field to protect their base and spaceship. Any overt attack will only cause our destruction.

 I need to go to Transylvania where Dracula’s castle stands under an invisibility field. The castle opened to the tourist is not the real one. Dracula is not a legend, he exists; he is asleep or waiting in a stasis room for our evolution to reach a technological level that will permit him to do the repairs for his spaceship. I need his help to fight the Balboars. He might help me get inside the force field that protects the Balboars settlement and possibly inside the spaceship. His knowledge of spaceship technology might give him the hint about how to destroy it.

 – How can you convince a vampire to help you? Asked the defense secretary, he might just kill you on sight…

– I have telepathic ability, that’s why the Alteirian could warn me about the danger menacing our civilization. I will be able to talk to Dracula if he doesn’t attack me right away; but even then, I might be able to defend myself, perhaps immobilize him long enough to convince him that we should work together.

– This whole story is preposterous, said the President, there is no such thing as Dracula or an alien invasion…that Perpendicular world, the Birdies, all of that is nonsense…this has got to be a hoax.

– Mr. President, how then can you explain my ability to jump in and out of this room? I can assure you that the whole story is true. I need a small commando force and transportation to Romania. I will then try to get inside the real Dracula castle. But just in case I do not survive this encounter, I will give you right away the plans to build the anti-gravity engine, the spaceship and the defense armament.

I will be right back with the documents.

 I jumped back to my hotel room to fetch the suitcase where I had put the plans and jumped right back to the oval office.

 – Here they are Mr. President. Why don’t you get your top physicist to look at them and tell you, his opinion? I don’t think we have any time to waste…

 One of the bodyguards walked towards me intending to take the suitcase. I made it rise from my hand and opened it using my telekinetic power. Then I deposited it on the desk right in front of the president.

 – There is no bomb inside, just the documents that might save our world.

– I can get Dr. Jolicoeur picked up from his house right away, said the secretary of defense.

– Yes, please do it, said the president, he then looked at one of the bodyguards, and you get us some coffee and fruit cakes; we have a long night ahead.

– Mr. President, I need your written authorization to kill anyone, including Romania or Brazil policemen, anyone trying to prevent me to accomplish that mission. I have made up my mind about risking my life to save the world, but I don’t want to be treated as a criminal if I must kill someone.

 The president looked at me silently and started to look at the plans.

 – How could the Birdies make those plans intelligible to us?  Asked the president; not yet ready to answer my request.

 – I am a scientist myself and the Birdies could read my mind, we spent a lot of time devising those. I spent many years on the Perpendicular World preparing myself for this mission.

– I believe you, said the President, it took me some time to swallow what appeared to be the elucidations of a mad man, but I sense your sincerity and you don’t look like a madman to me. You will get my help and that note you just asked for.

– This mission must remain secret, everything I told you must remain top secret; if the Balboars find out about it they will destroy our country before we could do anything.

 Dr. Jolicoeur arrived in pajamas. He had been woken up and taken here immediately.

 -Hi doctor, I am sorry that we had to wake you up, but we have a matter here of extreme urgency, said the President. This man here is telling us that we are being invaded by an alien species and he got in his suitcase some documents that could be used to build anti-gravity engines and long-range disintegrators. I want to know if those documents are a hoax or are genuine plans to build something way ahead of our technology.

-Hi Dr. Jolicoeur, I said, offering my hand. He shook it and I Look into his eyes. Doctor, I went on, there is no hoax here, our species survival depends on what answer you will give to the president. Please take your time and look at the equations with an open mind.

 Dr. Jolicoeur spent the next 3 hours looking at the equations; he was totally absorbed and at certain times he would just walk talking to himself.

 – Yes, Dr. Jolicoeur said, there is no doubt that these documents are genuine, and the theories and equations are way ahead of our most advanced sciences. Where did you get those plans Richard?

 I told him about my jumps to the Perpendicular World, about the Birdies that had prepared those plans for us. The President gave orders and a few hours later we were on our way; flying over Romania in the newest model of stealth helicopter. There were four of the best US Marine commandos, the pilot and I. I asked the pilot to land the helicopter in the courtyard of the false Dracula castle.

 – We must follow a trail up to that mountain to get to the real castle. It is hidden by an invisibility field, but it is there, the Altairian showed it to me. There might be some traps so be aware of your feelings, your intuition might save your life.

 We left the helicopter and went on up the mountain. I was leading the group in case of a trap since I could immediately jump right beside the helicopter if the ground suddenly open underneath my feet.

At one point there was a heavy mist hiding the trail; we had reached the invisibility field. We roped all five of us in case of a fall and I walked ahead. I stopped in front of a twenty feet wide gap in the trail, I had seen it just in time, just before I fell in the chasm. I took a thin but solid rope from the backpack and levitated it towards a rock on the other side of the chasm. With my telekinetic power it was easy to roll it around the rock and attach it. Then, after attaching the other end of the rope to suitable rock, we could easily get to the other side of the chasm. It was scarry though but none of the commandos said anything about it and I had lost my fear of height walking the branches of the Perpendicular World gigantic trees over the years.

 That was the only obstacle, a few yards further the mist was gone, and we reached a plateau on which was erected a very scary castle.

 As we walked closer, we were hit by an increasingly intense fright. It was a creepy feeling; I could tell that the four brave men that would have given their life for their country were just as affected as I was.

 – I am quite sure that it is artificially produced to stop any visitor. It became unbearable as we walked closer to the castle. Let us back up out of reach and sit down. I will try to get inside the castle on an astral trip and then move my body there.

 The four brave commandos were looking at me silently. They had probably never seen a man sitting in a lotus position totally relaxed and I wonder if they noticed any change when finally, I succeeded to move my soul out in an astral trip. I flew as fast as I could to the castle’s inner yard in the hope that I would get there before the fear waves hit me too hard, but I sensed nothing in my bodiless form.

There were ghosts coming towards me like flies attracted by a light bulb. They were abject and repulsive, I guessed that these were ghosts of tribal leaders that had forced their people to build the castle, for Dracula even though they were also a feeding source for the vampire. These ghosts were the ghosts of serial killers and rapists that Dracula killed in his castle once they were not needed anymore; afraid of going to Hell; they had stayed in the castle wandering hopelessly and now they were attracted to me. I have always been afraid of ghosts and it took all my courage to fly bodiless through the corridors and the rooms of the castle. There were antique statues and sculptures, large paintings depicting werewolves and vampires killing humans and various alien species. The colors were clashing, there was no harmony. I found a large room with a 10 feet long coffin sitting in the middle of the room with a stasis field projector attached at the end. I registered the spatial coordinates of a corner of the room and quickly returned to my body.

 – I am back, I told the 4 commandos, Dracula is there. I found the room where he lays in a stasis field probably for many centuries. He is waiting for us to achieve a technological level that will allow the repairs of his spaceship. I will go now; I will jump inside that room and find a way to shut up the stasis field. Your mission is done, there is nothing you can do; please return at once to the White house and wait for me there. If the situation gets out of control, I may have the time to jump to the White House.

 I jumped inside the coffin room and immediately sensed the presence of those lost souls; the wretched and sordid ghosts were all around me; some were warning me, some were repulsively laughing at my upcoming demise. I walked to the coffin and looked at what lay inside. The vampire was tall, about 7 feet tall. It was bare; the whole body was covered with scales. It had a demonic head with two horns. Its fingers had claws instead of nails. The mouth was protruding and seemed to be filled with carnivorous teeth. I sensed impending danger; I was suddenly terrorized and jumped back to the corner of the room. Dracula had suddenly risen from his coffin and was floating over it looking at me with a pair of cruel red eyes.

 – Wait, I came to warn you, Earth is being invaded by the Balboars that will destroy our civilization and your chance of repairing your spaceship; together we can fight them back, I ask for an alliance.

– Now that you warned me, what use could you be to me? How did you get here? How come you can speak in my mind? Your people were not telepathic when I went into stasis.

 The situation had considerably improved, Dracula was talking and my hope to convince him and use his powers and advanced weapons to defeat the Balboars was becoming real.

 – My body was immersed thousands of times in a pulsating magnetic field; it transformed my cells and I can communicate telepathically with telepathic intelligent aliens. I also have additional powers and I used one of them to come here. Some of my powers would be useful to defeat the Balboars but they are not enough; I need help and advanced tools and weapons. I was told about you and the Balboars invasion by an Alteirian doing a bodiless voyage across the galaxy. He showed me your castle and suggested that I take the risk of coming here waking you up to get your help. I know you can kill me but I am not without defenses; I can kill you too.

 At that moment I was holding my disintegrator in one hand and my net thrower in the other one and Dracula read in my mind that I was ready to fight him, I was telling the truth about my capacity to kill him. I was trying hard to read the monster’s mind and there was no sense of immediate danger; he was thinking about my revelations.

 – What’s wrong with your spaceship and why do you want to repair it? I have friends that mastered highly advanced technology. They might be able to help with the repairs of your spaceship.

– Where are those friends?

– They live on the Perpendicular World where I can jump at wish. I have that power and I don’t think you have it.

– My spaceship’s faster than light drive doesn’t work anymore and I couldn’t find what is wrong. I want to leave this world; the sun rays are lethal to me. I need to put sun block on my skin in daytime and even then, it weakens me. I prefer red stars’ planets.

– I have a deal for you, and I always respect my deals; you help me destroy the Balboars base and with my friends, the Birdies, will help you repair your spaceship to get out of here, you will get out of my world.

– I accept that deal, said Dracula, follow me I will get some useful items from my spaceship, and we will use one of my flying platforms to get to the Balboars’ base. What is your plan?

– My plan is to get to that base unnoticed and start killing them without ever letting them know what is killing them. As soon as we can get inside their ship, we destroy it.  But we must kill all of them; I don’t want to let any of them having babies. You are a changeling, the Alteirian told me, you can change shape at will; that should help a lot if you can disguise yourself into one of them and get inside the ship with a small hidden bomb.

– That seems too simple, said the Vampire; they will probably have bomb detectors to prevent it and advanced radars that would indicate our presence in their vicinity.

– They are nocturnal and like to hunt humans at night, so I think we can trap them. I will attract some of them and you kill them. Their cadavers must indicate that they were killed by some kind of carnivores; they must not suspect that they are being attacked by humans or sophisticated weapons. I will kill them too; I will throw rocks at them using my telekinetic power and I think you should bash their heads or crunch their necks.

– We should catch one alive first and get some info about their base and finally find out their vulnerable spots, said Dracula.

– Yes, respectable enemy, if you don’t mind, I will call you Dracula from now on; you are a legend.

 We walked through a corridor in solid rock and reached a large cavern. In the center lay a spaceship that reminded me of a bat. The ship was about forty feet high and two hundred feet long.

I was awed at the look of it. The metallic surface was spotless, silvery with some black design. That ship had voyaged through incredible distance, hundreds of light years, perhaps more; it had landed on innumerable worlds on which Dracula had killed countless innocent victims.

 The cavern was almost dark, I was standing right beside that demon, and I could sense the presence of many abject ghosts around me. I felt the beginning of terror and managed to control it.

Dracula went inside and I waited for what seemed like hours before a trap opened in the side of the bat ship and a small flying platform came out with Dracula standing over a control contraption.

 – Come aboard, said Dracula.

 The platform was four feet thick and had two holes on the front and back ends. I guessed the front-end ones were there to let the air come through some heating device and exit at high velocity from the back orifices. I walked on it and stood beside the monster holding a ramp. The platform rose to the ceiling into a shaft that opened onto the night sky. Dracula’s platform also had an antigravity engine. There was a windshield in a bubble shape covering the front end. We flew west in the direction of London.

 – This flying device won’t be detected from the radar, and it also produces an invisibility field. It is silent, so nobody will notice us. I brought you an invisibility cloak that also shields your heat emission. Once you cover your body with it, the Balboars won’t be able to spot you when we get near their base. As for myself, my body is cold, infrared detectors will not help them.

 We were now flying over London and Dracula landed its flying device on a castle land.

 – Wait for me, Dracula said.

– Why don’t you feed on street gangs or in a prison? I suggested, guessing his intentions.

 He flew away without an answer. I spent the next few hours looking at the stars and thinking about the situation. Many of those stars harbored one or more life sustaining planets and the strangest life forms. Some of them, like Dracula’s species, were cruel and a danger to all others. The starry night was more mysterious and captivating since I discovered the Perpendicular World and had contact with the Altairian. Dracula came back but before he took us to South America, I asked him to wait for me. I needed to jump to the oval office and report to the president the latest developments. I jumped and look around; a body guard had been stationed in the office in case of my return. He immediately called the president. I sat in one of the armchairs and waited. They came in a few minutes, the president, the secretary of defense and two scientists. I told them about my meeting with Dracula, the deal we made, the flying contraption and our plan of attack.

 – I will be back with more info when we have spotted the exact location of their base, but please, don’t nuke the place, you might just start an all-open war with the Balboars and we don’t even know where their spaceship is; it might not be there. Let us do it our way. Dracula and I are very resourceful, we have a good chance to succeed.

– Good luck, God bless you, said the president and I jump back to the flying platform.

 We were now hidden on the branches of a tall tree a few hundred yards from the Balboars compound. There was a camouflaged wall built all around a rectangular area of five hundred by two hundred yards. There was a building in which slept the Balboars in the daytime. Inside the compound, a few hundred people were kept inside a fenced enclosure.

We didn’t spot the spaceship.  Some of the Balboar guards were walking around armed with some strange looking rifles and handguns. There were cannons and radars. An invisible bubble of energy stop birds from flying over the compound. They were hitting the invisible wall, getting knocked down to the ground. I sat on a huge branch, covered with the cloak that shielded my presence from an infrared detector making me invisible; I got totally relaxed and induced an out of body astral trip to the compound.

 I visited the whole compound trying to find the control room and locate the switch to shut up the energy shield that was stopping the flying birds. I counted 168 Balboars, all of them adult, there was no babies or children. Many were asleep in small rooms, and some were watching some cruel movies involving pursuits and killing of other beings. There was a gymnasium in which a group of Balboars were watching a fight between two of them. The winner killed the other fighter, there was no mercy. I went back to the enclosure where two hundred humans were kept for nighttime lunch. I materialized beside a man that seemed to have kept his wit. I had my cloak and was totally invisible. I pulled off the part covering my face and the man looked at it in surprise.

 – Hi, please don’t move, don’t shout; I will help you. You can only see my face. We will kill the Balboar guards, and I will open the gate. Be ready to run outside as silently as you can and run for the nearest city.

 I picked up two stones and threw one at the nearest guard using my telekinetic power to accelerate it to two hundred miles per hour and direct it at the head of the beast. He dropped dead. I killed the other guards, one by one, the same way and jumped into the Balboar’s control room. There were three of them in the room and I shot all three with my disintegrator. I then shut off the energy shield protecting the compound, jumped back to the enclosure and opened it. I then ran to the compound gate, disintegrated the lock and opened it. Dracula noticed the energy shield shut down and flew inside the compound right to the building where he attacked the Balboars, killing them with his fists that he had changed into long knives.

 I jumped back inside the control room with a few stones, ran into the corridors and started to kill the charging aliens. I was jumping back to the control room when one of the beasts was getting too close and kept coming back for the attack. I was now using any piece of equipment or metal tool I could find and telekinetically throwing these at high speed to kill some more. Dracula and I were invisible to the Balboars, our invisibility cloaks were covering every part of our bodies except the interior sides of our hands and our eyes, but we had lenses to camouflage these.

 They somehow sensed our presence and our approximate location, but they didn’t know the nature of the attackers. Dracula had to fly outside the building to escape a group of armed Balboars that started to shoot in front of them. When I saw them leveling up their energy rifles, I jumped to the enclosure that had served to keep the human prisoners. I had registered the exact location of that spot just as well as the Balboars control room. I sat down, totally invisible, relaxed and moved my soul outside my body to quickly get to the control room.

 A Balboar was communicating with their spaceship, and I listened telepathically to their exchange.

 – We are attacked by some kind of invisible demons, they are smashing our skulls; they are gone now, they cease their attack when we started shooting in their approximate location.

– How many of you were killed?
– We have 62 dead soldiers.

– Did they use sophisticated weapons?

– No, they hit us with stones or some of our tools.

– I want a detailed survey of the compound and report to me at once if you find anything about the enemies. As you get outside, start shooting in all direction. We will come to pick you up in approximately one hour and nuke the entire area.

 I flew back to my body and then jumped to the branch where Dracula would be waiting for my return.

 Dracula was there, easy to see without his invisibility cloak. I told him about the Balboar’s plan to pick up the survivors and nuke the area. He put back his invisibility cloak, flew back to the compound where he undressed one of the dead Balboars and changed shape, transforming himself into an exact copy of the dead one and dressed himself up with the few leather garments and belt the Balboars wear. He then opened a cavity in his belly and inserted the thin rolled invisibility cloak. He picked up an energy rifle and joined a group of them outside. I had left my body on the high branch and followed up Dracula in my immaterial state to see what he was going to do and be ready to assist him in any possible way. I watched what he was doing and understood his plan. Dracula would try to enter the spaceship with the Balboars’ survivors. He was very courageous to try that for who knows if the Balboar didn’t have a way of detecting a changeling amongst the survivors they were going to pick up…

 I could not stay more than a few minutes outside my body, it would just die, so I went back to my cloaked body and watched from a distance waiting for the spaceship’s arrival.

 I saw it come; it was huge, shaped like a cigar, about three hundred yards long, one hundred yards high and one hundred yards wide. It landed softly on antigravity power right in front of the compound gate and close to my hideout.  I saw a round opening forming on the side and immediately left my body and flew inside where I started looking for the control room. There were elevator shafts, corridors, cold sleep rooms where thousands of Balboars were frozen solid, cargo space holding unidentifiable goods, shuttles hangars; I was going to die if it went on any further, so I took the exact location and spatial coordinates of a spot in the cold sleep room and went back to my body then I jumped in that room totally invisible under my cloak.

 I did not know if Dracula had succeeded in entering the spaceship and what he would do next; so, it was up to me to save the world. I was their last chance.

I needed to find the control room. I sat in a corner and left my body to explore the ship. It took me two more astral trips to find it and to jump in it.

I was now watching a group of six Balboars sitting at different stations and one more sitting on a large throne was giving orders. It was the high commander.

He ordered the lift off then proceeded to burn to cinder the whole compound and miles of forest around.

 – Release the virus he said once the ship had risen to a thousand feet.

 I watched in horror one of the Balboars putting his hand on a lever but before he pushed on it I used my telekinetic power to hold the lever. The Balboar pressed on it to no effect.

I spotted a loose metal thing and lift it and levitated it at high speed to its head. He crumbled to the floor. A Balboar walked inside the control room and welded the door to the wall with an advanced welding tool. It was Dracula coming to the rescue. Nobody had noticed my presence yet, invisible under my cloak, but they spotted what could only be the traitor to the high commander.

One of them pulled off a strange object from his belt and shot at Dracula without hitting him since he had dispersed his body in a hundred small bats.

 I killed the high commander throwing another loose object.  I pulled out my disintegrator and quickly shot the rest of the enemies and I then shot at what seemed to me the spaceship main control wall.

Dracula reformed and looked at the control board, he was now hissing in rage as he turned towards me. The spaceship was now flying to an unknown destination without a pilot and I had probably disintegrated some of the main circuits. Dracula turned back to the control desk and nervously tried different levers to no avail; he was trapped, and he knew it.

 – Dracula, I can’t save you; you are trapped in a spaceship loaded with hundreds of Balboars and they will soon be working on opening the control room welded door. I believe the spaceship is about to crash and, in a way, I am glad that we finally got rid of you since you represent a grave danger to mankind.  I can jump to safety, and I am about to do so. You will not be forgotten, we will make a museum of your castle and spaceship, please tell me, are they booby trapped and if so, how could we disarm it?

– Good luck human, said Dracula, yes, it is booby trapped and the whole castle will explode if you break in. There is a lever on the stasis control board right over the coffin; you bring it down to cancel it.

– You will be part of our legend and we will honor you for your courage and your help.

At that moment I sensed immediate and lethal danger and I jumped into the oval office.

 I told the story to the president and a group of high officers. They had just detected a huge explosion in Costa Rica.

 – The Balboars had taken the decision to kill all life on Earth by releasing a deadly virus; I stopped them just in time.

– Can you find out from your friend the Altairian if there is a fleet underway to come here and when we can expect them to arrive? Asked the president

– I will if he contact me again Mr. President but I believe the Balboars did not have faster than light technology since they had to use cold sleep for most of them, so it might take a few hundred years before another of their spaceship’s arrival.

– In the meantime, we will build our own spaceships with the faster than light drives with the plans you gave us; we will build them and perhaps find their world and stop their fleet, said the President. I thank you Richard, you have saved our world. How can we reward you?

– My wife doesn’t know anything about my abilities, and I told her I was going to a big art show in Romania where I was hoping to meet the Louvres art curator. I would like to keep my action secret, but I would feel rewarded if you make a gift to the Louvres of a few of my paintings and buy some for the most important USA museums.  I would like you to make a sculpture, a Dracula statue and place it at the Dracula castle that you will transform into a museum and write my story on the base of that statue.

– We will do that. You will receive a purchase order for 100 of your paintings at one million apiece. We will also give you the rights to the spaceship plans and will pay you 10% of the building cost and all profit that will derive from this new technology. In return, we would like you to help us again. We need more people with your ability, would you train some to do the astral trips and take them over to the Perpendicular world where they will develop your powers?

I took a flight back to my Hilton Head Island condo.

 – So how was your trip Richard, asked my wife.

 For her, it had been only seven days since I left. For me it had been many years at the Perpendicular world and seven days.

 – It was a good trip, I replied, I got pending orders for 100 of my paintings; we will receive a big check in the mail.

– How much? She asked.

– One hundred million dollars, I replied with a smile.

– Why don’t you just tell me the truth?

– I will get over one hundred thousand dollars, I said as I hugged her.

– You look so young and strong; what is happening to you?

– That is a story you would not believe, but if you accept to immerse yourself into a pulsating magnetic field set up at 40 gauss and 30 hertz  three times a week for the next year, I might be able to teach you a few tricks about astral trips and perhaps take you to another world. I have the pulsating generator on the top of a shelf in my artist studio.

She declined my offer and I let it go. Perhaps I could jump with her if I held her in my arms when I return to the Perpendicular world. So, I let it go at that but I told her I had a good story going on and I was going to make another video.

 The years ahead will be rich in development and important changes in our society; it is all so exciting.

 If you already have the ability to do astral trips, please contact me at once.

 That will be all for now, thank you for reading my story.

I was unhappy; I had been unhappy for quite a while. The banker had call back the business loan one year after I invested it in a second art gallery.

Besides that, it had been a tough year. I had taken a partner and he revealed himself a thief stealing money and paintings and when I talked to him about it and told him I was considering calling the police, he threatened me.

I had been sick and my wife wanted us to move back to Montreal.

Sometimes, I could see an image for a fragment of a second in the corner of my left eye and the image disappeared too quickly to leave enough detail to remember. It seems to me that it was a landscape, a wheat field giving into a forest of gigantic trees. These images came more and more often, many times per day now and it worried me. I thought I was losing my mind or my sight.

I went to see the good doctor Johnson and he said there was nothing wrong with my eyes.

I remembered a book about astral trips that had profoundly affected me. It was mentioning a group or a sect called The Rosicrucian and this group was working on keeping the world safe for a period of 60 years. Then the group would cease their activity for 40 years and resume for another 60 years.

The book said that The Rosicrucians were led by an angel. They were using astral trips to influence the world. They were able to move their soul outside their body and visit the world at incredible speed. They were able to go into the bedrooms of powerful people and share their mind while they were asleep and influence their decisions. They could go to the moon possibly to the stars while their bodies rested in their bed.

I used to go to a Benedictine monastery for 4 days of silence when I was in my 30s. I went there every second year for a while.

This is where I practiced the teachings of that book on how to induce astral trips.

I had to achieve a total absence of thought without falling asleep and then try to move outside my body without moving my physical body. Once I succeeded and I was instantly floating at the ceiling looking at my body lying on the bed and I got scared. I panicked for I was sure I was dying and I quickly went back into my body.

In the following years I did two astral trips; involuntary ones. The first time it happened, I was cutting the branches with an electrical saw and I heard a tremendous click in my mind and I was instantly flying to the sky at incredible speed. There were ghosts talking to me but I did not pay attention for my little daughter was right beside me when the click happened and I was afraid to cut her head off with the electrical saw. I was fighting to get back into my body and I did. It had lasted just a second perhaps and no harm was done.

The second time it happened, I was mowing the lawn with my daughter beside me and it was a repetition of the first experience.

Now I remembered all of that and I thought that perhaps these visions on the corner of my left eye were somehow related to my ability to do astral trips.

What if I could prolong the visions? I thought. Could I possibly go into that world?

At that time, I was living in Naples, Florida in a condo on the shore of an alligator infested lake near Marco Island airport. On the other side of the airport strip there was another lake, smaller and this one infested with crocodiles. Then it was the Everglades going up to the very tip of Florida. There was a lot of wildlife there. There were deers, black bears, Florida panthers, raccoons, wolves and a trail where I was walking every morning at dawn. I was the only one walking that trail that went along the two lakes and it was a dangerous walk. I always carried my long knife and held a quarterstaff for if I was attacked, I wouldn’t go without a fight.

There was a clearing by the trail about one mile from my condo where I used to sit and meditate and this is where I started to try to hold on to the left eye corner visions. I practiced every day. Now I could see that world and I felt that I could move into it, I just had to try. I tried and there was a blur and suddenly I was sitting in this other world wheat field.

I could see a moon and it had oceans and continents and clouds and it looked way bigger than our moon.

I was sitting in another world!

I heard all kind of roars, squeaks, shouts and birds’ calls. I stood up and the wheat was rising up to my chin. I saw a huge beast from a distance and it looked like a Tyrannosaurus Rex and it emitted a tremendous roar as it charged towards a group of massive beasts.

I realized that this place was far too dangerous for me and I headed up towards the gigantic trees. I reached the first one without incident. It was about 200 feet in diameter and was reaching up to perhaps a thousand feet.

The bark was so deeply dented that I could easily climb it and I didn’t wait. I climbed up to the first branch coming out of the trunk horizontally at a height of perhaps 75 feet. I was afraid of the heights and did not look down as I climbed it. I reached the huge branch and it was as wide as a street. I stood on it and looked at my new world. It was magnificent. Blossoming trees and colorful bushes were contrasting nicely with the gold of the wheat field and the blue of a nearby river.

There were beasts of all kind, some were grazing, some were playing and some were hunting. Birds of all kind and all colors were singing or calling happily. The air smelled fresh and good and the tree had an odor too, it smelled great. I suddenly realized that I was hungry and some branches were growing out of the main one on which I was standing; they carried large and thick leaves and I could spot one kind of nuts and three different kinds of fruits. I walked to one of the nearest sprouting branches and pulled out a leaf. The leaf was heavy and it held something liquid inside. I cut it open with my knife and there was a kind of syrup coming out. A drop fell on my jeans and did not burn it.

I touched the syrup with my finger and there was no burning or acidic feel, my skin was totally unaffected and it smelled real good. I tasted it and it was delicious. I waited for a while and tasted it again and then drank some.

I waited an hour or so watching the wild life underneath and just felt unaffected by the sap. I then pulled out 4 more leafs and cut them open and drank the sap. I filled me nicely and gave me some energy.

I decided to try the fruits and they too were filling me nicely and tasted wonderful.

There were zillions of leafs and fruits on that one gigantic tree and here, I thought, on this world, no one would ever be hungry.

I tried to get back to the clearing of my original world and there were no vision on my left eye corner and no way to do it. I was trapped!

Weeks have passed. I found shelters in some huge cavities of the trees. I climbed and ventured through the country, traveling from one tree to the next one through the interlacing branches. I felt stronger than ever before and I knew I was getting younger. It could be the sap or the fruits but something in what I was eating was slowly giving me back my youth. I found some stones at the base of a tree that I used to produce fire and I started to bake some bread made out with the sap, the wheat and the tree nuts. Delicious!

I saw some predators on the branches; some were feline, panthers like, but they left me alone. They did not identify me as a potential prey or perhaps I did not smell right to them. But on the land, with those dinosaurs roaming around, I knew I would not have survived a day. So I kept to the trees.

One day, as I was standing on a branch, a very strange being walked towards me. It was walking on spindly legs ending in powerful talons. It was just as tall as me and covered with feathers. It stopped at a certain distance and opened up its large wings. The colors were beautiful. It had two appendages ending with some kind of fingers, more like short tentacles, coming out of its chest just under the wings attachment. It had a leather belt holding something metallic, perhaps a laser gun. It had a bird like head, an eagle head, but the head was slightly disproportioned to its body, a little too big perhaps. But it gave the being a wisdom look. It looked at me and I sensed that it was looking straight into my soul.

I did not know its intentions but I didn’t pull out my long knife from my belt. I did not sense that it intended to attack me.

– Hello beautiful being! I said with admiration.

– Hello stranger! I came to investigate who or what you are. Replied the birdlike creature.

I heard the being voice right into my mind. It was a telepathic communication!

– I am a human and I come from another world. I said. My name is Richard.

– You are gifted with intelligence. I appreciate that. Said the bird. My name is Krzzzurr and my species is spread out on this world. We also came from another world; our spaceship landed here thousands of years ago.

– A spaceship, wow! Your species must have achieved a high technological level. I said. We humans could only reach the moon and we did it only once. Is your spaceship still functioning? Could you use it again and travel to the stars?

– Yes but we like this world, it is the perfect world for us. Didn’t you come here on a spaceship too?

– No, I came here by wishing it. I saw an image of this world through the corner of my left eye; I kept the image steady and then wished to be in it and there I was, suddenly, sitting in the wheat field close to the forest.

– I sense something that hurts me; a new and powerful emotion comes from your mind right now! Said the bird.

– It is called sorrow. I said. I miss my companion, my wife, and when I told you how I came in this world, I thought about her. Don’t you have sorrow when you lose a friend?

– We never lose a friend. Said the bird. If one of us is killed, its essence moves into the closest relative or acquaintance and share his/her mind. That is rare.

– Don’t you age and die?

– No we don’t.

– Then you must be very old, ancient. Did you travel yourself in that spaceship thousands of years ago?
– Yes, I was one of the crew.

– Did you visit other worlds?

– Yes and many of them were life sustaining worlds.

The conversation went on for hours. I wanted to know everything about Krzzzurr. He was a male and was sharing his mind with a dozen relatives and close acquaintances that had been killed over the millenniums. Some of them would take over the control of Krzzzurr and speak to me directly.

I started to like Krzzzurr; I started to love his face and his strangeness.

– I sense a new emotion and it has a deep effect on me. Said Krzzzurr. It is offering comfort.

– I started to like you. I replied. It is the beginning of a sentiment of friendship. Don’t you experience feelings of love and friendship with your friends and mates?

– No, I/we never experienced what you talk about. I/we appreciate it and we will now be in need of your presence. Can I/we take you to our village?

– Sure! I would love that since I am feeling very lonely and I will never get tired of listening to all of your adventures amongst the stars.

I have now spent twenty years with the Birdies. They learned about music, love and friendship. We built musical instruments and I started to paint and write. I was young again and I looked like a 38 years old powerful and slim man. But I was missing my wife and my children and my life on Earth. I could not believe that I had been unhappy there before I came to that world. I understood now that these problems I had at that time were not important.

I started to have fast disappearing images again in the corner of my left eye. I talked to Krzzzurr about it.

– I might be able to return to my home world, Krzzzurr. I said.

– Now I experience a feeling of sadness. He replied.

– If I do, I will try to convince my wife and some other people to come over here and start a new civilization.
I will get one more art book (Riverin Modern Impressions Book 3) published and I will write in it a short story about this world and tell them how they can hold on those fast disappearing images at the corner of the left eye and wish to get there. Perhaps many that will read the short story will develop the ability to hold on the fast disappearing images that come at the corner of their left eye and like me, will cross over.

– I/We would so much appreciate your return.

– If we come back, will you help us build villages and achieve a high technological level society and help us build our own starships and one day perhaps, some of you would come with some of us to the stars?

– Yes Richard. We will help you and some of us will visit the stars again in your company.

Days have passed since we had that conversation and I have practiced in holding on to the fast disappearing images at the corner of my left eye and now I am ready. The whole village were assembled around me, hundreds of Birdies had come from other villages to witness what was about to happen.

– Goodbye my friends!

That was my last words on this beautiful world for at that moment there was a blur and I was back in the clearing I had left 20 years ago.

I walked back to the condo and knocked at the door. I was sure that after such a long absence, my wife was long gone. Somebody came to the door and opened it and it was Lise, my wife and she looked not a year older than she was when I left.

I took her in my arms and hugged her and kissed her.

– What is happening to you? She asked. You look different and happy.

She had seen that I looked thirty years younger but her mind had just rejected the impossible. She had instinctively convinced herself that I was just looking younger and there was nothing there.

I knew there was no point in telling her what happened to me, she would not believe me.

That world was from a different time line. I spent twenty years on it and came back on my home world at the same time I left it. The time line of this world was perpendicular to our time line here, and no matter how long we live on it, we could return at the same time we left so I decided I will call it the Perpendicular World and that will be the title of my short story in my art book 3.

In a few years, I will disappear. You will read articles about that strange disappearance. I will convince my wife to come with me and get young again and have children again on th

I was unhappy; I had been unhappy for quite a while. The banker had called back the business loan one year after I invested it in a second art gallery.

Besides that, it had been a tough year. I had taken a partner and he revealed himself to be a thief, stealing money from our joint bank account and paintings from my inventory. When I talked to him about it and told him I was considering calling the police, he threatened me.

I had been sick, and my wife wanted us to move back to Montreal.

 

Sometimes, I could see an image for a fragment of a second in the corner of my left eye and the image disappeared too quickly to leave enough detail to remember. It seems to me that it was a landscape, a wheat field giving into a forest of gigantic trees. These images came more and more often, many times per day now and it worried me. I thought I was losing my mind or my sight.

I went to see the good doctor Johnson and he said there was nothing wrong with my eyes.

 

I remembered a book about astral trips that had profoundly affected me. It was mentioning a group, a sect called The Rosicrucian, and this group was working on keeping the world safe for a period of 60 years. Then the group would cease their activity for 40 years and resume for another 60 years.

The book said that The Rosicrucian were led by an angel. They were using astral trips to influence the world. They were able to move their soul outside their body and visit the world at incredible speed. They were able to go into the bedrooms of powerful people and share their mind while they were asleep and influence their decisions. They could go to the moon, possibly to the stars while their bodies rested in their bed.

 

I used to go to a Benedictine monastery for 4 days of silence when I was in my 30s. I went there every second year for a while. This is where I practiced the teachings of that book on how to induce astral trips. I had to achieve a total absence of thought without falling asleep and then try to move outside my body without moving my physical body. One time, I succeeded, I instantly floated at the ceiling looking at my body lying on the bed, and I got scared. I panicked, for I was sure I was dying, and I quickly went back into my body.

 

In the following years I did two astral trips, involuntary ones. The first time it happened, I was cutting the branches with an electrical saw, and I heard a tremendous click in my mind and I was instantly flying to the sky at incredible speed. There were ghosts talking to me, but I did not pay attention for my little daughter was right beside me when the click happened and I was afraid to cut her head off with the electrical saw. I was fighting to get back into my body and I did. It had lasted just a second perhaps and no harm was done.

 

The second time it happened, I was mowing the lawn with my daughter beside me, and it was a repetition of the first experience.

 

Now I remembered all of that and I thought that perhaps these visions in the corner of my left eye were somehow related to my ability to do astral trips. What if I could prolong the visions? I thought. Could I possibly go into that world?

 

At that time, I was living in Naples, Florida in a condo on the shore of an alligator infested lake near Marco Island airport. On the other side of the airport strip there was another lake, smaller and this one was infested with crocodiles. It was the Everglades going up to the very tip of Florida. There was a lot of wildlife there. There were deer, black bears, Florida panthers, raccoons, wolves and a trail where I was walking every morning at dawn. I was the only one walking that trail that went along the two lakes and it was a dangerous walk. I always carried my long knife and held a quarterstaff for if I was attacked, I wouldn’t go without a fight.

 

There was a clearing by the trail about one mile from my condo where I used to sit and meditate, and this is where I started to try to hold on to the left eye corner visions. I practiced every day. Now, I could see that world and I felt that I could move into it, I just had to try. I did, there was a blur and suddenly I was sitting in this other world wheat field. I could see a moon, it had oceans and continents and clouds and it looked way bigger than our moon.

 

I was sitting in another world!

 

I heard all kinds of roars, squeaks, shouts and birds’ calls. I stood up and the wheat was rising to my chin. I saw a huge beast from a distance, and it looked like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, it emitted a tremendous roar as it charged towards a group of massive beasts. I realized that this place was far too dangerous for me, I ran towards the gigantic trees and reached the first one without incident. It was about 200 feet in diameter and was reaching up to perhaps a thousand feet. The bark was so deeply dented that I could easily climb it and I didn’t wait. I climbed up to the first branch coming out of the trunk horizontally at a height of perhaps 75 feet. I was afraid of the heights and did not look down as I climbed it. I reached the huge branch, and it was as wide as a street. I stood on it and looked at my new world. It was magnificent. Blossoming trees and colorful bushes contrasted nicely with the gold of the wheat field and the blue of a nearby river.

 

There were beasts of all kinds, some were grazing, some were playing, and some were hunting. Birds of all kinds and all colors were singing or calling happily. The air smelled fresh and good, and the tree had an odor too, it smelled great. I suddenly realized that I was hungry. Some branches were growing out of the main one on which I was standing; they carried large and thick leaves and I could spot one kind of nut and three different kinds of fruits.

 

I walked to one of the nearest sprouting branches and pulled out a leaf. The leaf was heavy, it held something liquid inside. I cut it open with my knife and there was a syrup coming out. A drop fell on my jeans and did not burn it. I touched the syrup with my finger and there was no burning or acidic feel, my skin was totally unaffected, and it smelled real good. I tasted it and it was delicious. I waited for a while and tasted it again and then drank some.

 

I waited an hour or so watching the wildlife underneath and just felt unaffected by the sap. I then pulled out 4 more leaves and cut them open and drank the sap. I filled me nicely and gave me some energy. I decided to try the fruits and they too were filling me nicely and tasted wonderful. There were zillions of leaves and fruits on that gigantic tree and here, I thought, on this world, no one would ever be hungry. I tried to get back to the clearing of my original world and there were no vision on my left eye corner and no way to do it. I was trapped!

 

Weeks have passed. I found shelters in some huge cavities of the trees. I climbed and ventured through the country, traveling from one tree to the next one through the interlacing branches. I felt stronger than ever before, and I knew I was getting younger. It could be the sap or the fruits but something in what I was eating was slowly giving me back my youth. I found some stones at the base of a tree that I used to produce fire and I started to bake some bread made out with the sap, the wheat and the tree nuts. Delicious!

 

I saw some predators on the branches; some were felines, panthers like, but they left me alone. They did not identify me as a potential prey or perhaps I did not smell right to them. But on the land, with those dinosaurs roaming around, I knew I would not have survived a day. So, I kept to the trees.

 

One day, as I was standing on a branch, a very strange being walked towards me. It was walking on spindly legs ending in powerful talons. It was just as tall as me and covered with feathers. It stopped at a certain distance and opened its large wings. The colors were beautiful. It had two appendages ending with some kind of fingers, more like short tentacles, they were coming out of its chest just under the wings attachment. It had a leather belt holding something metallic, perhaps a laser gun. It had a bird-like head, an eagle head, but the head was slightly disproportioned to its body, a little too big perhaps. but it gave the being a wisdom look. It looked at me and I sensed that it was looking straight into my soul. I did not know its intentions but I didn’t pull out my long knife from my belt. I did not sense that it intended to attack me.

– Hello beautiful being! I said with admiration.

– Hello stranger! I came to investigate who or what you are. Replied the birdlike creature.

I heard the being voice right into my mind. It was telepathic communication!

– I am a human and I come from another world. I replied. My name is Richard.

– You are gifted with intelligence. I appreciate that. Said the bird. My name is Krzzzurr and my species is spread out in this world. We also came from another world; our spaceship landed here thousands of years ago.

– A spaceship, wow! Your species must have achieved a high technological level. I said. We humans could only reach the moon and we did it only once. Is your spaceship still functioning? Could you use it again and travel to the stars?

– Yes, but we like this world, it is the perfect world for us. Didn’t you come here on a spaceship too?

– No, I came here by wishing it. I saw an image of this world through the corner of my left eye; I kept the image steady and then wished to be in it and there I was, suddenly, sitting in the wheat field close to the forest.

– I sense something that hurts me; a new and powerful emotion comes from your mind right now! Said the bird.

– It is called sorrow. I said. I miss my companion, my wife, and when I told you how I came into this world, I thought about her. Don’t you feel sorrow when you lose a friend?

– We never lose a friend. Said the bird. If one of us is killed, its essence moves into the closest relative or acquaintance and share his/her mind. That is rare.

– Don’t you age and die?

– No, we don’t.

– Then you must be very old, ancient. Did you travel yourself in that spaceship thousands of years ago?
– Yes, I was one of the crew.

– Did you visit other worlds?

– Yes, and many of them were life sustaining worlds.

 

The conversation went on for hours. I wanted to know everything about Krzzzurr. he was a male and was sharing his mind with a dozen relatives and close acquaintances that had been killed over the millenniums. Some of them would take over the control of Krzzzurr and speak to me directly.

I started to like Krzzzurr; I started to love his face and his strangeness.

– I sense a new emotion and it has a deep effect on me. Said Krzzzurr. It offers comfort.

– I started to like you. I replied. It is the beginning of a sentiment of friendship. Don’t you experience feelings of love and friendship with your friends and mates?

– No, I/we never experienced what you talk about. I/we appreciate it, and we will now need your presence. Can I/we take you to our village?

– Sure! I would love that since I am feeling very lonely, and I will never get tired of listening to all your adventures amongst the stars.

 

I have now spent twenty years with the Birdies. They learned about music, love and friendship. We built musical instruments and I started to paint and write. I was young again and I looked like a 38-year-old powerful and slim man. But I was missing my wife and my children and my life on Earth. I could not believe that I had been unhappy there before I came into that world. I understood now that these problems I had at that time were not important. I started to have fast disappearing images again in the corner of my left eye. I talked to Krzzzurr about it.

– I might be able to return to my home world, Krzzzurr. I said.

– Now, I experience a feeling of sadness. He replied.

– If I do, I will try to convince my wife and some other people to come over here and start a new civilization. I will get one more art book (Riverin Modern Impressions Book 3) published and I will write in it a short story about this world and tell the readers how they can hold on those fast disappearing images at the corner of the left eye and just wish to get here. Perhaps many that will read the short story will develop the ability to hold on to the fast-disappearing images that come at the corner of their left eye and like me, will cross over.

– I/We would so much appreciate your return.

– If we come back, will you help us build villages and achieve a high technological level society and help us build our own starships and one day perhaps, some of you would come with some of us to the stars?

– Yes Richard. We will help you and some of us will visit the stars again in your company.

 

Days have passed since we had that conversation and I have practiced in holding on to the fast-disappearing images at the corner of my left eye and now I am ready. The whole village were assembled around me, hundreds of Birdies had come from other villages to witness what was about to happen.

 

– Goodbye my friends!

 

Those were my last words on this beautiful world for at that moment there was a blur, and I was back in the clearing I had left 20 years ago.

 

I walked back to the condo and knocked at the door. I was sure that after such a long absence, my wife was long gone. Somebody came to the door and opened it, it was Lise, my wife, she looked not a year older than she was when I left. I took her in my arms and hugged her and kissed her.

 

– What is happening to you? She asked. You look different and happy.

 

She had seen that I looked thirty years younger, but her mind had just rejected the impossible. She had instinctively convinced herself that I was just looking younger and there was nothing there.

I knew there was no point in telling her what happened to me, she would not believe me.

 

That world was from a different timeline. I spent twenty years on it and came back to my home world at the same time I left it. The timeline of this world was perpendicular to our timeline here, and no matter how long we live on it, we could return at the same time we left, so I decided I will call it the Perpendicular World and that will be the title of my short story in my art book 3.

 

In a few years, I will disappear. You will read articles about that strange disappearance. I will convince my wife to come with me and get young again and have children again in the perpendicular world.

 

is perpendicular world. Some of you that read my short story will come also. I will see you there my new friends.