Don't Label Me! (17 page)

Arion laughed. “Sort of, but I wouldn’t go
that far. We’re all as much individuals as we are a community. Both
one and many at the same time, if you know what I mean.”

She wasn’t sure she did but it sounded
interesting. “So everything supplied. Wouldn’t there be fringe
benefits tax or something on that. I don’t want to end up with some
great lump of a bill to pay the government at the end of the
financial year.”

“
Well that’s the trick really isn’t
it? Since we’ve been cut off by the council we thought we’d go the
whole way and go it alone. Not sure whether that will be as a
separate country or as an autonomous territory. We still have to
work out the details but suffice to say we intend to make our own
rules and run things our way.”

Ang nodded in understanding. She’d been
aghast when her boss had told her to stop the part of her weekly
collection that went to Boswell. “I’ll think about it. Anything
else I should know?”

“
Not really. We’re working on the fly
at the moment. But since you seem to be on a day off I was
wondering if you’d be interested in meeting one of our allies. Your
coastal Portuguese ancestors having an affinity with the sea and
all.”

“
Another group of humans you’re
aligned to?”

“
No, definitely not human.”

She frowned at that but said nothing. He was
probably joking or being sarcastic. “Today? The nearest coast is a
good two hour return trip from here.”

“
It’s actually only a few seconds away
if I can teach you a skill you might be ready to try. You’ve had a
while now since you had the retrovirus.”

Which meant what? “I thought that was some
experimental vaccine against a nasty flu virus that was doing the
rounds. Jnarn didn’t say anything about any super powers.”

Arion winced. He’d have to have a long
discussion with Jnarn about informed consent. “Well he was right
about it’s experimental nature but it’s not for fighting off the
flu. It actually unlocks some of your DNA that was made inactive by
a particularly nasty virus that was unleashed on your distant
ancestors. The extra DNA means you will have better regeneration.
In techno speak: your telomeres won’t shorten a bit each time your
cells divide.”

Ang had noticed her occasional cuts and
scrapes from doing the rubbish collection were healing a lot
faster. She hadn’t even had any become infected, which was common
in her job, even when you were super careful. “So in plain English
that means?”

“
You won’t die except from unnatural
causes like having your head chopped off but you can be immobilised
indefinitely by being turned into stone. Very hard
stone.”

“
Oh my! Bloody hell! I’m
immortal?”

“
Only until you’re ready to ascend to
a higher dimension.”

The ramifications of that hit her and they
weren’t all good. “But the world’s a friggin mess. The climate’s
out of control. The economy is designed to only benefit a tiny few
at the expense of the rest of us. Costs and regulations are out of
control, as is pollution. If I’m immortal I’m also stuck with all
that.” She looked at him in horror.

“
Not if you become part of the
solution.”

“
Talk about being backed into a
corner. Look I’m grateful for the better health and anti-aging but
you guys really should have asked first.”

“
I agree and I’ll make sure it doesn’t
get brushed over again. In our defence I would say it has also
given you protection from coming under the influence of those who
control the planet. Although it also makes you a target they’d
probably like to study or dispose of if they caught wind of you.
You need to keep a low profile when it comes to your new
abilities.”

Ang had sudden visions of morphing into a
fly, her worst nightmare since watching a few too many horror
movies a few years back.

Arion caught the thought and laughed.
“Nothing like that. Only Meta beings can shapeshift. Most just get
your run of the mill telepathy, teleportation etc. Some get healing
powers. To be honest we don’t know the full extent of what each
human might gain from the treatment. It rather depends on their
unique DNA and what latent powers might be hidden in that.”

“
Sort of like my existing ability to
see things like dimensional portals and faires?”

“
Which will only get stronger. Our
local Wiccan priestess Melissa says she sees the world in a greater
array of color shades than she did before. She gets a lot of
information from that, information that’s hidden to many of the
rest of us. Jnarn, who gave you the retrovirus, says it's a
combination of polychromatic vision and tetrachromacy. Something to
do with extra sensors in your retina, four instead of the normal
two sets. Most mammals once had it but it got switched off in
humans. You may have been one of those few women who had it to some
degree but now it would be more acute.”

That would explain a lot of what she’d been
seeing of late. “I’d have to say the world’s a more beautiful place
with it, although it can almost overload me with info at
times.”

“
Your brain will gradually rewire
itself to adapt to it. It will get easier to live with over time.
You’ll come to take it for granted.”

“
So I’m not set in concrete now I’m
immortal.”

“
Not at all. The immortality just
gives you more time to work on evolving. The short life spans of
humans, up until now, has been a major impediment to personal
development. You guys would just start sorting your lives out and
then poof, do over.”

Ang could relate to that. It was why she’d
put off settling down. She’d really wanted to know who and what she
was before she tried a long term relationship or having kids. Her
adopted parents had been great but obviously her real ones hadn’t
been ready for her. If, and that was a big if, she ever decided to
have a child she wanted to be certain, at least as much as it was
possible to be, that she could do a good job as a parent. But it
wasn’t being a supermum that intrigued her right now but those
other powers he’d mentioned. “So, you mentioned telepathy and
teleportation as if they were the norm.”

“
They are but they usually take a
little time to emerge. You’ll probably first experience the
telepathy with someone you’re close to, like your adopted parents
or a lover perhaps. The teleportation we can work on now. We tend
to call it non-local travel because it involves moving from where
you are at into a place we called the non-local where there is no
time or location, then from there to somewhere else. You just need
to have a clear intent about where you want to go.”

“
So if there is no time in the
non-local what’s to stop you time travelling?”

“
Actually that has happened at least
once we know of but usually we avoid it for the obvious reason: it
gets confusing as hell and there’s that whole danger of messing
with history in ways you never intended. What we call the
all-spirit or the cosmic consciousness, which resides everywhere
but seems to have its roots in the non-local, usually somehow
intervenes to stop that from happening. So you don’t have to worry
about it. Try this as a first attempt. Just thinking about moving
to the other side of this room.”

Ang tried but nothing happened. She pursed
her lips and gave Arion her best amused look. “Maybe there’s more
to it than that.”

“
No, it really is that easy. Try this.
Close your eyes for a moment. Get a clear picture of yourself. Now
visualise you are surrounded by that non-local I described. A vast
empty silent space. It’s warm and light. Pretend your mind is in it
looking back at you. Be the non-local. Now look at where you want
to go.” He almost held his breath so as not to interrupt her train
of thought but he gave a quick plea to the all-spirit to help her.
At that she vanished. “Um! Ang?”

“
I’m here.” She re-entered the room
from the doorway opposite. “I just wondered if I could go into the
other room.”

Arion beamed at his student. “Well done!
I’ve seen others try for weeks without success.” Including Tyra,
who’d been a particularly hard nut to crack.

“
Really!” Ang wasn’t used to excelling
at much. “So where are we going?”

“
Well, one more practice to be sure I
think and then I thought we’d head to The Cove. Although I’ve got
to warn you, they’re not always the friendliest bunch.

They found The Cove. Protected from the sea
breeze by the high cliffs that nearly circled it it wasn’t too
cold. She’d politely turned her back while Arion stripped. He’d
laughed. Having heard his dive into the surf she turned again to
face the ocean. The sun overhead warmed her enough that she decide
to strip off her shoes and socks and have a paddle. It was rare she
came to the beach. When she’d been a child her adoptive parents had
brought her often, at least until they had seen that damned shark
movie. She had fond memories of sifting through the flotsam for
shells, wave worn cuttlefish bones and empty shark egg casings, of
trying not to step on the squishy jellyfish that washed up with the
other detritus. Her bedroom windowsill had been covered with her
best finds. Now as she stood here she realised the child in her was
still there, still fascinated by the seashore, the sound of
pounding waves and squawking seagulls overhead, the smell of the
salt laden air and composting seaweed, the cold wet of the sea
edge, of waves tickling her toes.

Before Arion had dived in he’d explained
what he would do. Once immersed in the ocean he would allow his
vibratory rate to rise. No longer solid but instead a frequency of
sound and light he would send out a call to what he called
Delphines, the angelic beings of the world of dolphins and whales.
Apparently the delphines would hear that call wherever they were in
the ocean, time and distance meaning as little to them as it did to
Arion.

Honestly, she felt kind of jealous of the
man’s ability to explore the ocean so intimately, without the need
of scuba gear or snorkel. She couldn’t begin to imagine how
different the world of the ocean must be. What would it look like
if she could explore it with her enhanced vision. She imagined it
would have a beauty beyond anything she’d ever seen on the big
screen.

Curiosity got the better of her. She
stripped off her clothes and piled them up on top of a nearby
tussock, away from the reach of the incoming tide, all except for
her underpants which she left on. If Arion did happen to resurface
at least she’d feel better if that bit of herself was covered. She
could always go commando later if they were too wet to wear.

Back at the water’s edge she steeled
herself. Okay, it wasn’t going to be that cold. Was it? Mind over
matter! Yeah, right! Oh well, here goes. She refrained from issuing
forth a child like squeal when a slightly bigger wave played its
fun on her, getting her wetter and colder faster than she’d
anticipated. Oh what the hell! If the ocean was going to be like
that there was nothing for it. Wading out a little deeper, until
the water reached that excruciating halfway mark, her waist, half
cold and half warm she counted to three, took a deep breath and
dove under. Okay, now could she open her eyes? She’d heard some
people could without goggles but she’d always wondered how. Peaking
open, there was a momentary sting as the salt of the sea met the
delicate surface of her eyeballs. Not that her eyes would water
underwater and no one would see if they did. Ang willed it to work.
She wanted it to work, desperately. And there it was. Eyes fully
open she could see the sandy bottom. A swirl of sand and dust rose
from the area where her feet had touched down. A white and
tangerine pink crab scuttled away. Tiny, stripy shelled sea snails
slowly ambled away from the disturbance her presence had made.
Damn, she needed to breathe. Popping up for a moment she took a
good lungful and then swam, head down exploring the world beneath
her. She found she merely had to turn her head to the side
occasionally to grab her next bit of air. There was definitely an
art to this but it was no harder than snorkeling now she had the
hang of it.

Her body aclimatised to the temperature of
the water. She lost track of time and nearly died of shock when a
finger tapped her shoulder. Arion. At least it wasn’t a shark.

“
There’s someone who’d like to meet
you. Let’s swim over to those rocks over there and you can warm
yourself in the sun while we talk.”

Warmth suddenly sounded damned good. The
skin on her fingers was wrinkling and a shiver of goosebumps dotted
her arms. Yeah time to get out. Maybe now she knew how to non-local
travel she could make her own trips here when the summer got going
full force.

“
Why limit yourself to here when you
can go anywhere. The water in the Caribbean is pretty warm all year
round. Tyra and I could show you some of our favorite
spots.”

“
I’d like that. What about Thex and
Simon?”

“
Oh sometimes they come and sit on the
beach and watch us but neither of them have that much of an
affinity for getting wet. Now give Thex a bush campfire and he’ll
sit by it for hours, staring into its flames. As for Simon, he’d
just rather meditate and merge with the all-spirit, anytime, any
place. Even his cooking is a way to ‘be in the moment’.”

“
Earth, air, fire and water.” She
understood the magic in that. They complemented each other
beautifully. “Let me guess, Tyra’s earth. She spends a lot of her
spare time with her hands in the dirt of the garden.”