The Unreasoning Mask (31 page)

The being called Wopolsa, the one in the well or the house or both, may
have come from such a planet, if her native place was a planet and not
just space or a Saturnian ring around a planet or a blazing gas cloud or
perhaps some "continuum" between the walls of two universes. She should
not be on any planet of a G0-type star. But, sometime in the past eons,
she had managed to break through or had been pulled through -- by Shiyai
and Grrindah? -- and now existed on the planet Grrymguurda.

 

 

Or did she live, somehow, in more than one "channel" and maybe in more than
one universe at the same time?

 

 

Whatever the truth, Ramstan was scared of her. Looking into the shimmering
and the eyes of the thing in the well, and into the eyes of the being in
the house, he had felt that he was falling swiftly, weightless except
for terror, into unending space. He would be, and this was his most
overpowering reaction, alone. Alone as no one had ever been.

 

 

What then had made him defy her in spite of this?

 

 

There was in all humans, that is, all sentients Terran or non-Terran,
a spark of contrariness. Some had much more than others, and Ramstan
had been endowed with a full, perhaps overflowing, measure. That may
have been why the glyfa and the Vwoordha chose him. Yet they must have
realized that the very quality for which they picked him might make him
rebel against them.

 

 

There was also the attraction, existing side by side with the repulsion,
towards the horrible fate implied by the eyes of Wopolsa. In the twentieth
century it had been called a drive toward self-destruction, but now it was
defined as a response to the challenge of the unknown.

 

 

Ramstan had it; it was part of his bipolar psyche and larger and more intense
than most people's.

 

 

"No matter what we tell you, you won't let us have the sigils?"
Shiyai had said.

 

 

"I've paid the price. The hell which you and the glyfa have put me in."

 

 

"That is up to us to determine."

 

 

There had been a pause. During this, the three had said nothing, but he
was not sure that they were not communicating by other means.

 

 

Finally, Shiyai said, "Very well but not so well. We, who have so much
time, don't have time now to dicker. We tried, and we failed, which we
had thought we would. But forecasting is not yet a science. It's an art.
As artists, we were not good enough."

 

 

"You have to use the paint, the wood, the stone, the metal, the plastic,
the light available," Grrindah said, and she laughed.

 

 

"And the darkness," Wopolsa said.

 

 

"Or that which is between or among," Grrindah said.

 

 

"Or that which is none of these but yet is all," Shiyai said.

 

 

"Or that which is all of those but none or only part," Wopolsa said.

 

 

"We need you but would as soon do without you," Shiyai said.

 

 

"Do not think of yourself as unique," Wopolsa said.

 

 

"Yet, in a sense, he is," Grrindah said.

 

 

"In that sense, all are," Shiyai said. "But does that have any significance?"

 

 

"It depends on the situation," Grrindah said. "This is it."

 

 

"Or those," Wopolsa said.

 

 

"There is a limit to patience," Shiyai said.

 

 

"To everything except eternity," Grrindah said.

 

 

"Perhaps even to that," Wopolsa said. "After that, what?"

 

 

"Not knowing
what
may make it worthwhile waiting for it," Shiyai said.

 

 

"What?" Grrindah said.

 

 

The three burst into taloned laughing again. Shiyai sounded like the
kookaburrah of the Australian Department; Grrindah, like a South-American-
Department parrot; Wopolsa, like a North-American-Department hoot owl.
Their cachinnations were not quite like these, but he, being human,
had to make analogies.

 

 

Ramstan waited until it was quiet. He said, "Laugh. But what is your
decision?"

 

 

"Listen," Shiyai said. "Ask questions after we have told you what is what,
within the limits of what."

 

 

 

 

 

 

... 26 ...

 

 

"There is not just one universe," Ramstan said. "There are many. Perhaps
trillions, though there is no way of counting them. I say trillions because
the human body is composed of trillions of cells. All these universes
are the cells of a Pluriversal being. An entity. A living being.

 

 

"Everything within the
walls
of a universe composes a cell. And the
cells form organs, though neither the anatomy nor physiology of this
largest of all creatures is well known. In fact, almost nothing is known.
Except that it does exist."

 

 

The faces on the screens had dried into plaster masks. They were set in
disbelief or wonderment.

 

 

"I said, 'largest of all creatures.' Creatures may be the wrong word,
probably is. A creature is a living thing which has been created by someone.
But the Vwoordha do not think that the Pluriverse was created by anyone.
It may be God. Or some thing which by definition is the nearest approach
to God possible.

 

 

"If it is God, it Is not like the God postulated by sentients. It probably
does not know that sentients exist, probably does not even know that life
exists. But the Vwoordha are not sure of this.

 

 

"It was born when all of the universe, its cells, had grown from the
initial big bang of each to the point where the universes, the cells,
were contiguous. Where the
walls
met and so began to form a single
organism. Don't ask me what was between each universe or cell while they
were expanding, what was between them during the billions of years that
each went from the explosion of the primal fiery ball of matter through
the stages of star and planet formation, ever expanding, ever rushing
towards that point where their boundaries met those of neighboring
universes or cells. Or, more likely, continued expanding even after the
outer space-matter came to that area in which walls were formed. The
walls themselves may be trillions of light-years thick, that is, the
area between the walls may be that wide."

 

 

His lips felt as dry as the faces on the screens. He drank more water.

 

 

"I'm using analogies, of course, not giving you a literal description
or definition.

 

 

"In any event, the Pluriverse or God, this entity composed of all the
universes, this organism, grows. Not in size. The Vwoordha think that
Its growth is mental. That It develops or evolves from a baby, a cosmic
infant, into an adult. What the adult form would be . . . the Vwoordha
don't know. They hope that It will become self-conscious and eventually
find out about sentient life, which, in some ways, is a reflection,
a mental reflection, perhaps emotional reflection, of Itself. And then
It will communicate with sentients."

 

 

He licked his lips.

 

 

"Who knows what might happen then?"

 

 

He stopped speaking for a moment, and, unexpectedly even to himself,
crashed his fist on a table. He saw some of the crew flinch. Al-Buraq
quivered like a dog which does not understand why its master is angry
but is afraid that the anger might be, for some reason, directed at it.

 

 

"The Vwoordha . . . and the glyfa . . . don't know what'll happen then
because the Pluriverse has never reached adulthood. Twice, twice, It has
died . . . been killed . . . before It could grow from infancy into . . .
what? . . . a child? . . . a juvenile?"

 

 

He scanned the faces on the screens. They had not changed expression,
but some were exchanging glances. Did these subtly indicate that the
captain had indeed jettisoned his sanity?

 

 

"While the . . . Pluriverse is developing or evolving, while It's growing
from infancy towards childhood, life originates on the planets of the stars
in each cell. And that life evolves into sentiency. And many sentients
eventually discover the alaraf drive. Having done so, they use the drive,
of course.

 

 

"But their ships travel through the walls of the universes. According to
the Vwoordha, they are able to do so because of 'weak' areas in the cells.
Vulnerable spots. When the wall of a universe is penetrated, it starts
to collapse.

 

 

"The process thereafter is analogous to cancer. The alaraf-drive vessels
are carcinogens. They cause the beginning of an irreversible collapse.
The matter in each cancerous universe ceases to expand outwards, and it
starts to rush back towards the center of origin. Towards the eventual
primal ball of matter.

 

 

"Now, you and I know that the astrophysicists have been disputing about
whether the universe is a continually expanding or an oscillating world.
At various times, the evidence seemed to indicate that oscillation was
inevitable. At other times, for instance, the late twentieth century, the
evidence pointed to an ever-expanding universe. Then the astrophysicists
changed their minds in the early twenty-first century. But for a hundred
years now no one has advocated the oscillation process.

 

 

"Perhaps the universe would be always expanding -- if there wasn't an
interfering agent."

 

 

He stopped and lifted a finger as if he were trying to signal the world
to stop.

 

 

"But sentient life interferes. It invents and uses the alaraf drive.
The infant Pluriverse . . . God, perhaps . . . sickens and dies. Its
cells collapse, and the matter in each rushes towards the point of
origin, drawing space after it. Then the primal balls explode again,
and eventually the great organism is formed anew, and It grows towards
maturity. But . . . oh, God! . . . this has happened twice, God is
cheated of life by Life.

 

 

"However, this living thing has living processes analogous to ours.
To combat this cancer, it develops an antibody. This antibody sets about
destroying the sources of the cancers. I don't know if the process is
unconscious or conscious. The Vwoordha think that it's as unconscious
on Its part as the origin of antibodies in our flesh is."

 

 

He stopped again. His lips trembled.

 

 

"This antibody is the bolg!"

 

 

Would they believe that? They must.

 

 

"The Vwoordha tell me that there is not one bolg for every cell-universe.
There is but one for the entire body. But it can travel through the walls
without injury or carcinogenic incident, just as Shiyai the Vwoordha can
travel from universe to universe, though she uses a different method
and doesn't really travel bodily. The method of the bolg is analogous
to osmosis.

 

 

"True," the glyfa said in the voice of Ramstan's mother.

 

 

"Those universe-cells in which sentients have not yet developed and the
walls of which have not been pierced by the drive of sentients from other
universes do not collapse. They are left free-floating, as it were. But if
too many universe-cells become cancerous, then the Pluriversal organism
is destroyed as an organism. It dies. This is what has happened in the
two eons past. Twice has God been born and twice killed.

 

 

"The free-floating cell-universes apparently continue expanding, but the
new cells born of the primal fireballs catch up with them. What function
these larger cells have in the new Pluriversal infant, I don't know.

 

 

"The free-floating cell-universes would continue expanding, though it
would not be for long. The bolg, after destroying life or as much of
it as it can, then goes to the free-floating cells. And it destroys
the life there. Thus preventing that life from developing an alaraf
drive. Or at least setting the civilizations so far back that it's a
very long time before they develop new civilizations and so discover
alaraf drive. When that happens, the bolg destroys the life, but it's
too late. The free-floating universes have already begun to collapse."

 

 

"My God!" Nuoli yelled. "What hope is there, then?"

 

 

At least, she believed. But then she had been subjected to the glyfa's
blaze of revelation, and she was more receptive than the others. If she
had not been, she would not have been invited into the temple.

 

 

Ramstan said, "I'll get to that. You're all probably asking yourselves
what difference it makes, aside from the fate immediately threatening you.
It may take thousands of years before the bolg can get to Earth. As for
the universes collapsing, it will take billions of years before all
matter falls back to the point of origin. If this were a natural process,
unavoidable, it would be only a remote and philosophical concern to those
presently living and to those living a million years from now. Depressing,
yes, but not alarming except to our inconceivably distant descendants.

 

 

"But, once the universes start collapsing, they are subject to an
acceleration factor. The fall back is not the sixteen-billion-year stately
procession of outwards. It takes place within a relatively short time.
Six thousand Earth-years.

 

 

"Yes, I know that sounds incredible. But, as you know, the speed of light
is not the fastest thing in the world, nor is its speed the limit beyond
which nothing can go. That was determined sixty years ago.