Ripped Apart: Quantum Twins – Adventures On Two Worlds (29 page)

The day after almost falling to her death, Tullia awoke feeling deeply disturbed.
Why?
Her Memory replayed her dreamstate.

*

She saw herself watching a figure that had to be Xashee lying on a path, blood pouring down the mountainside like a waterfall. The flow stopped, he shrivelled up and disappeared. She went skipping down the path like a happy child. At the bottom she saw her crystal. As she bent down to pick it up, it turned into a tiny heart, bleeding. Her heart!

Then she saw an enormous Goddess astride a mountain. Reaching to the ground, her hair formed a bright green robe through which golden light radiated from her body. In her hand she held a staff that reached to her shoulder. It was tipped with a facsimile of a winged rainbow-coloured Unicorn’s Horn. For a moment she wept at the beauty and power of what had to be Rrîltallâ Taminullyya.

As she took in that everywhere across the desert floor people were kneeling or prostrating themselves, she realised with a shock that she was the Goddess. She wanted to scream and deny it. She turned to the people around her and begged them to stand up.

Then she was in the sky, level with the Great Healer who faded in and out, alternating with a series of men, women and children, all radiating joy. She did not see him, yet she knew that Kaigii was amongst them.

She dropped to her knees on the mountain top, tears flowing uncontrollably, wanting to deny the image, the message, yet unable to deny Kaigii. They were one.

*

The replay finished, she swallowed and licked her lips. ‘Me?’ she said softly as understanding reached her. She had a gift, and a choice to make. The gift she knew. It was her genetic inheritance from the great Healer Heroine. The choice was clear.

Better to be seen as a remote Goddess, sharing my gift of healing with anyone who needs it, than…

She slipped off her night robe and splashed herself with cold water, wishing she had Mirror and could talk with Image.

Whistling airhead! Image-into-action!

She bent over the bowl of water and focussed. A few moments later Image appeared. She stared at the surprisingly youthful face with the ovals of its eyes entirely a vibrant purple, rimmed with silver and green highlights sparkling in its long hair.

Remember you heritage, Tullia. And be who you are,’
Image said.

Her mind whirling, Tullia gripped the bowl for support as she felt herself flying through space on the back of Trellûa, the Great Healer’s own Unicorn.

In the distance she saw the Dragon Kèhša astride Zhólérrân. Understanding reached her of the complex reasons that had made the man take the Dragon’s name as his own. And what she had done. Why was that not recorded in the Archives?

‘Yes, Rrîltallâ Trellûa Taminûllÿâ,’ Tullia solemnly replied, as the recollection of “what she had done” faded rapidly from her conscious memory. Image smiled and disappeared and Tullia was looking at her own reflection. She shivered at the power of the connection, and the promise she had made. She felt unsettled and needed to feel relaxed and able to centre for what she wanted to do. She explained her need to Tsetsana, saying she would find her young friend when she returned from her special place amongst the Mongongos.

After the day with the snowman, so happy to have found someone he could really talk with, Hannu had introduced Anita to his group of friends. One of them had mentioned the fun they had had for Hannu’s sixteenth birthday treat at the laser dome in Jyväskylä. She had mentioned it to her father. He had acquired various items of equipment and, happy to see his daughter making friends, roped the two, willing youngsters in to help him create body packs and adapt toy rifles they bought.

Ilta and Oona, the other girls in the group, had been amused when Anita had joined the boys in testing out the laser packs to make the early part of the longest night celebrations. Ilta was sixteen and going steady with Timo. Fourteen-year-old Oona liked Hannu, but he was not her idea of boyfriend material. The whole practice evening had gone well and Anita had been accepted as a member of the group. She had seemed to be more tomboy than girl.

*

Wednesday afternoon and Qwelby was again practising skiing on the slope on the edge of Kotomäki. It was getting late, his muscles were aching from adjusting to the different conditions on Earth and he was taking a rest, watching Hannu and Anita descending the slope, when his vision blurred. Thinking it was from being tired, he closed his eyes. It seemed that the very land was calling to him. The ground that lay under the snow. Before he had time to analyse what was happening he heard voices calling out. Looking up, he saw a group of teenagers in bright jackets and trousers with two wearing colourful ski suits coming in through the entrance off the road, arms waving. Panic filled him as he recalled his arrival on Earth and what he had seen from inside the snowman when a group of boys had attacked Hannu.

Moments later he heaved a sigh of relief as the newcomers slid into their skis and he saw their energy fields were full of curiosity and friendship. He guessed it was the group of friends Hannu had mentioned. He skied down to them and was introduced, with Hannu explaining that his friend needed to keep his goggles on as he had delicate eyes. When, from their blonde hair and pink cheeks. what appeared to him to be four brothers and sisters wanted to know about his unusual colouring and looks, asking if he was a Red Indian, and then to know where he came from, he could not help but massively radiate feelings of happiness and companionship and seek their friendship. Feelings which each of the new arrivals unknowingly accepted and thus reciprocated.

By the time their initial curiosity had been satisfied, with Hannu answering most of the questions as Qwelby spoke so little Finnish, it was getting dark and time to go home. Nils pointed out that their new friend wasn’t going to enjoy a typical New Year family get-together on Friday, unable to talk with a group of people he didn’t know anyway. He suggested another night with the laser rifles. No-one questioned his assumption that Qwelby had been accepted as a member of their group.

Happy to feel included, Qwelby was even happier when Hannu and Anita said they would take him out that evening to practise with the lasers. Coming from a world where the people related as much through their energy fields as thoughtsending or speaking, and having to concentrate hard on trying to decipher what was to him the confusion within the weak Azuran energy fields, it never occurred to him how much his feelings were influencing the Azurii and reinforcing their initial reactions to him, for good or bad. And that they were completely unaware of that.

As they all headed for their various homes, Oona quietly confided to her older brother’s girlfriend: ‘He’s cute.’

Ilta smiled. “Cute” was not how she would describe him after having felt herself being sucked into his sparkling, purple eyes.

‘It is the solstice on Friday?’ Qwelby asked as the three of them walked to Anita’s house.

‘No. That was last Tuesday,’ Anita replied.

Qwelby stopped, staring, his mouth wide open. Even under the street lights the two Finns saw that he had gone very pale. Taking an arm each they guided him to Anita’s home and up into her bedroom.

The room was a perfect girl’s haven, decorated in pinks and lilacs, with posters of what he assumed were teenage idols on the walls: singers, musicians and a bare-chested man lounging over a motorbike. A total contrast to Hannu’s room. It was such an Azuran similarity to Tullia’s section of their loft suite that Qwelby was pulled two ways. Part of him feeling the pain at the reminder of his separation from Kaigii, and part of him so relaxing in the normality that he did not think of teasing Anita for being so girly.

Once settled there with his favourite hot chocolate drink, Qwelby explained. ‘Think of Vertazia as a sort of invisible shell around Earth, fixed in position. It occupies the same space. In a way like thousands of neutrinos are passing though this room, our bodies, yet we are unaware of them. The only time difference is due to levels of vibration. Our days are longer. What we call KeyPoints and you solstices and equinoxes, are the same. We left the day before the solstice. I am in the same hemisphere. So I arrived.’ He shivered as he hesitated. ‘Seven days later.’

The two Finns felt the cold as the ovals of the alien’s eyes turned completely violet. There was a long silence.

‘That helps explain why I can’t reconnect with Tullia. Not only are we millions of kilometres apart, we must be time separated.’

‘Where were you for a whole week?’ Hannu asked.

‘I don’t know. Massless particles do not experience time. That just proves what I said to Dr K. That Tullia and I were reduced to Kuznii, the fundamental particle of all existence.’ He got up from where all three were sitting on the bed. ‘I’m sorry. I need to be by myself.’ He held up a hand as the others rose. ‘Please. I know where my coat and shoes are.’

Later, as soon as he had eaten with the Rahkamos, he made his excuses, retired to his bedroom and again tried to reach Tullia. As long as he tried to mentally link with her outside of himself as he would with any of his friends, he was alright. It was only when he forgot and flicked into her corner in his mind that pain stabbed through him. As he unsuccessfully reached out, he was taken back to the impressions he had experienced on the ski slope, when the arrival of Hannu’s group of friends had cast it from his mind. On the top of the snow covered slope he had been about to ski down a massive sand dune. As he had looked up to see who was making the noise, through the snow he had caught sight of a vast array of dunes marching into the far distance. They were calling to him.

If that’s where Kaigii is, why do I not reach her?

He felt himself sucked into a funnel that turned into a spiralling tunnel. Miniature spirals were revolving on the walls interspersed with zigzag lines and strange hatchings looking like chess boards without borders. Out of a mist a pair of human feet emerged. As they walked towards him he saw it was clearly a man; then equally clearly a woman; then another shock – the head was that of a baboon. Even as he tried to decipher the image the baboon grew a long curved beak and a birds head, the name “Ibis” came into his mind, was superimposed over that of the baboon. Slowly and definitely the head shook from side to side as the sand dunes collapsed and Qwelby was left rushing down the spiralling tunnel into oblivion.

*

The following day, the three youngsters again spent the daylight hours on the slope opposite Hannu’s house. Qwelby was withdrawn. Half his mind was concentrating on accustoming all his reactions to the slowness and solidity of Earth, the other half continuing the desperate search for any clue that might be hidden in his memory of his weird experiences as to when Tullia might be.

As they were stepping out of their skis that evening Qwelby asked if he could try the laser pack before dinner, adding: ‘After dinner, will you meditate with me? Help me try to connect with Tullia?’

Anita was excited. She had learnt to meditate years ago.

‘Err. You mean we, I, just sit and… think of Tullia?’ Hannu asked.

‘Yes. As simple as that,’ Qwelby replied. Glancing at Anita he saw the glow in her aura, and grinned, aware that his eyes were twirling with anticipation.

They made their way to Anita’s house where all three kitted up with packs and rifles and made their way into the woods. When Qwelby had learnt the rules and mastered the equipment they returned the kit to Dr Keskinen’s laboratory and the boys went home. After dinner, Anita walked round to join them and they congregated in Qwelby’s bedroom.

Qwelby explained that all he wanted his friends to do was to sit quietly and think of Tullia, holding an image of her in their minds. ‘I will talk you into our time together,’ he explained. ‘I’ll describe Tullia a little and then leave it there. After a time, about twenty or thirty minutes, I’ll speak softly to end the meditation, and say a few words to make sure you feel back in this room.’

‘Don’t worry Hannu,’ Anita added. ‘You won’t have gone anywhere. It’s just to help your mind feel settled.’

When the meditation finished half an hour later with no contact, Qwelby declared himself happy. ‘I was not really expecting this to work on our first attempt. We need to do this several times to align our very different energies. What is good is that I felt that was happening. You were just there, Hannu. And it was easy to sense you, Anita. ’

‘You have a very strong energy field,’ Anita said, almost in awe at what she had felt. ‘It wrapped around me.’

As Anita left to go home, Qwelby again noticed shades of yellows, oranges and dark greys flickering through Hannu’s aura. They puzzled him. He couldn’t make any sense of them.

*

Qwelby having declared himself ready for more challenging skiing, on Friday the whole group skied cross-country to the resort at Muurame. There, Qwelby went down the green run and then successfully tackled the two blues. During a break for lunch, and with Hannu and Anita helping him as he had to maintain a pretence of having limited Finnish when others were present, he managed to explain that his looks were due to something unusual in his DNA.
Which is perfectly true,
he thought to himself.

That evening, New Year’s Eve, Hannu, Anita, Jarno, Nils and Qwelby gathered in Dr Keskinen’s workshop. Gone were the bright colours of skiing, now all were well wrapped up in well padded, dark jackets, trousers, hats and gloves. When the last pack had been strapped on and tested, Anita reminded them of the rules. ‘Qwelby doesn’t know the woods like we do. So he walks straight into them for two minutes. You three run home and touch your front doors. I’ll leave here in exactly two minutes.’

Seven o’clock. The sun had set long ago. A full moon threw the whole landscape into a stark contrast of black and white. They had deliberately chosen an area that included the end of the village around the doctor’s house where the street lights were well spread out. Amongst the trees it was much darker, but for a short way the players would still stand out against the snow.

On his practice night Qwelby had been able to detect Hannu and Anita at a short distance. With two more days skiing, concentrating hard on developing his energy skills, he was hoping for more. After two minutes of leaving a straight line of clear tracks, he moved sideways and settled down behind a tree. It was not long before he detected an energy field moving slowly, then one more, then all four.
Dragons Breath! This is like playing HideNSeek on ’Tazia.

For a moment, his memory drifted back to their last game of HideNSeek with Tullia’s mini-twistors in the barn at home on the chaotic day that had ended with him here, on Earth. He pulled his mind back from that train of thought. Back to the Earthly game. In spite of his sadness, he smiled. Here he was, kneeling on earth on Earth.

As he came out of his reverie, he realised he had lost the others.
Time to really play a Tazian game!

He easily slipped back into his steady breathing rhythm, focussed within himself, then opened to the energy sensations he had felt previously. There. And another. Someone was nearby on his right. He moved carefully and was rewarded a few moments later with the dark shape of one of his friends crouched behind a tree. He lifted his rifle and fired. With a grin on his face, he rolled behind the tree as he saw his target light up and an eerie screech reverberated through the trees.

That felt so good. His innate abilities were returning. Right now they were weak, but they were not lost. The first step on the path to reconnecting with Kaigii was to strengthen them.

The game moved further and further into the darkness of the forest. Although hiding became easier, there were an increasing number of flashes and screeches from successful hits on the packs.

Red LEDs had been fixed around the muzzle of each rifle. Mimicking the flash from real guns, they gave away the shooter’s position by lighting up when the rifle was fired. Not only was someone an excellent shot, successfully scoring off players who thought they were well concealed, there was no sign of the shooter’s muzzle flash.

The four Finns were fairly certain they knew roughly where each other was, but not Qwelby. He had to be the shooter. They had just started to call softly to one another seeking to agree to gang up on him when, with a shock of vibrating air shattering the silence came the unmistakable sound of a police siren. Through the trees the lights of a car travelling fast came into view, followed by the rooftop flashing lights of the police car.

A squeal of brakes and tyres as the leading car took a sharp corner. Headlights swung around in a circle followed by a sickening crash and the wailing of a car horn. More squealing brakes as the police car shuddered to a halt. Voices, cries, shouts, the sound of hammering, smashing glass, a cry of rage followed by the crashing of bodies through the trees.

Then sirens and flashing lights from another police car arriving from the opposite direction. As the siren wailed into silence a voice called from the road.

‘We’ve got your driver. Give up. You’re finished,’

A string of expletives was shouted from the edge of the forest.