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Architecture -- Chapter 9
1.
"We're about to go through the portal that gets us inside the
Balipiton," the tour guide said, "Is there anyone who did NOT get
implanted before we proceed?" The implant would protect visitors
from the automated security system
inside the Big Ball. Those not implanted would be taking an
unacceptable risk.
2.
"You might feel a little disoriented as we pass through: Remember
from the ground -- there was nothing visible where we're at right
now. I'm going to go first and I want you to follow me to the
other side in an orderly fashion."
3. From
the ground, the group was near the top of one of three cylindrical
spires that formed a triangular cradle. Nestled within the spires
was a giant metallic
ball approximately 1 mile in diameter. From the ground, where the
ball should have been linked to a spire, there was unobstructed
airspace. That made the ball appear to be suspended, which led to
the next question: How do you get in? This is precisely
what the tour group was doing.
4.
The feeling was surreal and began the moment one entered the portal
because the Ball interior was an independent gravitational environment,
drawn toward it's own core. The portal consisted of a tubular
gangplank that made a gradual 90-degree bend. The duct
architecture looked alien and had a dream-like haze. One might
easily interpret that the portal was a docking collar to an
alien spaceship. "The air molecules convect where the two
magnetic fields collide," the tour guide commented, "and that's where
the haze comes from. It's an interesting effect, isn't
it?"
5.
Once
inside the ball, a shellan's body was perpendicular to Vejhon's
surface, but
drawn toward the center of the ball, "The brain adjusts to what it
believes to be real," the guide said. It was amusing for visitors
on the
ground to see birds walking on the Ball's underside, unaffected by
Vejhon's
natural gravity "I don't think my brain wants to accept it," one
guest said, looking out a skylight. "Just assume that the windows
are monitors," the guide suggested, "and you'll be OK."
6.
Everyone anxiously waited to experience weightlessness in the central
auditorium. "Is this designed to be a spacefaring vessle?" a kid
asked, "the anchor points don't even look real." That was true,
the magnetic linkage gave the illusion of unobstructed air where the
ball connected to the spires. "The light bends around the anchor
points," the guide said, "which gives the illusion that nothing is
there, but... " she added with a smile, "we just walked through the
connection point. And yes, if we knew how to get the ball into
orbit -- it could withstand a zero environment."
7.
There was a 6’ thick teutonic induction
plate near the core of the Ball. It was toward this induction
plate
that all loose and free-standing objects were drawn. The building
engineers’ referred to it as the ‘G-shell.’
8.
Within the core of the G-shell was a zero-gravity
environment that had been converted into a Dyson sphere theater – the
only
one of its kind, probably anywhere. "Pulp fiction
claims that
Dyson was an extraterrestrial who visited Vejhon, engineered the
theatre and vanished," the guide narrated, "His
existence is prema facie since the evidence is all around us, but his
whereabouts are unknown." "Probably a Corlos operative," the kid
suggested. The crowd giggled at his allegory.
9.
"The original plans designated the zero-G interior as a biocybergenics
laboratory," the guide continued. An older guest interrupted,
"Blue Funnel
bribed our local media to put a negative spin on biocybergenics --
that's what happened." The guide politely smiled to accept the
guest's comment.
10.
"And then the Psionic Guard kicked their asses!" the kid said, "no Blue Funnel on this shell!" The older
shellan patted the kid on the back and the rest of the group laughed
out loud. The guide took a breath and kept her serene composure,
"And so it was remodeled into the theatre you see today."
11. Since
most shells are
apsionic, Blue
Funnel can manipulate their financial infrastructures virtually
uninhibited. Not so on Vejhon. Blue Funnel's effort to manipulate
Vejhon's financial infrastructure compelled the Psionic
Guard to watch Blue Funnel activities until the objective of their
dystopian agenda was exposed. Blue Funnel was banished from
Vejhon except for their tolerated presence in the commerce
quarter.
12. Pulp fiction also believes that the Big Ball will become a
gigantic flotation device should the
water shell ever collapse, but a collapse contingency was not
considered survivable. Realistically, the Balipition would remain
anchored to the new sea floor until the modified surface conditions
could be assessed.
VICAR WEXLI
13.
Wexli drifted down to a deserted street with two and three story
buildings on either side. The first oddity was the width of the
street -- it was unnatural. Then he noticed the lack of detail in
the darkened windows; just dull black rectangles -- the utilitarian
purpose of light was questionable.
14. He saw infrequent flashes of light emanating from the windows
followed by flashes of gun fire. His instinct was to
interdict the assailants but there was a little boy wandering battered
and bruised ahead of him. The gunshots were being directed at the
boy.
15. Wexli felt an urgency to catch up to the boy, and then he
realized that he was dreaming -- he was not in the temple and this was
not reality.
16. At the end of the Street was Wexli's house. He took the
boy by the hand and led him to his home.
17. Once safe inside, he set the boy upon the kitchen table and
moistened a wash cloth to clean the boys face. As he removed the
dirt from the boys face, Wexli saw that it was him at that age.
He woke up anguished and hurt. It was a hurt that he had kept to
himself for his entire life.
18. "Wexli?" the Director said to Wexli's mind. "Yes," he
replied.
19. "Do you know what that was?" the Director asked. "I can
only suspect, but I don't really know," Wexli replied.
20. "It was you, Wexli. You in the present, helped to heal
your past self. Not many know about that past, do they?"
The director wasn't really asking -- he was observing. "No, Sir,"
Wexli answered. For it's brevity in description, the dream lasted
an hour.
21. "In all fairness," the Director said, "Let me share something
with you..."
22. The scene changed to another world -- it may not have
been Vejhon, but 'where' seemed irrelevant.
23. There was a terran-looking creature that could have easily
passed for Vejhonian or Theotian, evidently in a struggle against a
more aggressive race of Reptilians; much more warring than the
Jolvians. The Jolvians were Angelic by comparison. These
Reptilians lived in a different dimension and Universe altogether.
24. The subject terran was one among millions who had been
attacked and subdued by the Reptilian invaders. Whenever genocide
is not inflicted by an invading species, an indigenous resistance will
organize and attempt to repel the invaders.
25. At this point in time, the Reptilians had built many well
protected fortresses on the conquered world, and the resistance was in
full sway, but ineffective.
26. What the Director specifically wanted Wexli to see, was the
terran in question, entering the Reptilian fortress unchecked and
undisturbed by Reptilian sentries or by any other Reptilian in the
fortress. The fortress interior was sheik, spacious and
architecturally delightful; an appealing contrast to the Reptilian
stereotype.
27. "It's the moment of discovery..." the Director said and
paused as the scene played out, "...that moment when the terran
realizes..." the Director added as one might whisper to a friend in a
theatre, "...that he isn't what he thinks he is."
28. The terran is peering at the fortress from a prone position
on a grassy, curved embankment out of view. He starts thinking
about how he entered and exited the fortress unchecked, undisturbed,
not so much as blinked at. Unlike other terrans -- this terran
understood the Reptilian language. "How is that so?" he asks
himself.
29. The terran's face becomes fraught with realization. It
finally hits him that he doesn't need to hide in the grass because he
is the enemy, and the enemy knows it. Yet, his fellow
terrans
think that he is one of them.
30. There is an engaging dichotomy of nerves and contradictions
that he endures before he accepts the truth, like dying in one paradigm
and resurrecting in another. Why did he find the Reptilians
alluring and attractive when others were repulsed and terrified by
them? Why was he psionically keen on Reptilian aesthetics and
cultural nuances that made them seem purposeful and real! He
understood their advanced technology.
31. "Spiritual quantum entanglement?" Wexli postulated.
Anything was possible. "So how does he live with it?" Wexli asked.
32. "With music," the Director answered curiously. Wexli
rendered an astonished facial expression. Hyperbole.
Metaphor. "Psionics," the Director clarified abstractly:
He was indenting a threshold of predicate thoughts that only psionic
symbols could connect.
33. "Whole societies have been translated that we don't even know
about," the Director qualified. "If you 'think' a dimension, you
become that dimension," he added. "There is always 'that infinite
question' that every shellan wants to ask, that our limited corporeal
minds can not quantify."
34. "The question is
Chaos. The answer is Cosmos. The One...Is." And thus Spake the
Director. This must be the pedestrian explanation for why
shellans get their heads bitten off for asking a simple question.
"In the way that you thought it -- yes," the Director answered Wexli's
private thought. "Let me answer you with another question," the
Director offered: "What is a more grievous than murder?"
Wexli grinned.
35. "To be wrong," Wexli answered. The Director grinned
along with him and then drifted off to assist with other calamities,
emotional and otherwise.
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