After the Wilderness
By Gordon Kearns
212
Chapter 17
Ten naked people circled a campfire in the middle of the Irish Wilderness area of the Mark Twain National Forest in southeast Missouri. Two month old Eileen had fallen asleep suckling at her mother's breast. Rachel gently lifted the child and laid her in Chuck's nested arms. To Chuck's right, Denise and then Jeffrey sat next, affectionately holding hands, as usual. Marianne, her knees drawn up in front of her, sat neatly between Patrick's legs, leaning back into his chest. His arms were wrapped around her shoulders so that his hands softly kneaded her breasts. Her hands rested on his forearms. Patty was next, holding her sleeping little brother Robert in her lap. Robert had been weaned in his fourth month, and was being exposed to nutritious solid foods of the environment as well as the best of processed foods. Phil Wagonner sat to Patty's right, completing the circle.
This was the same clearing from which in the dark, early morning hours of November 8, 1987, what was thought to be the last nine children of the race, accompanied by a sensitive human schoolteacher, had taken off for a new world. Gone were the sleeping bag, blankets, rusting coffee pot, and every trace of that night. Searchers had come upon the campsite shortly after Patty's last visit and cleared away all those items --obviously the property of the missing teacher, whose car was finally found where it had been abandoned at the head of the trail. The recorder that Robert used for his account of those last hours, along with the plastic bag of cassettes, lay in front of Patty. On that last visit of hers, she had hidden them in a clump of underbrush well away from the clearing. These tapes represented an important journal, which could be used sometime in the future to teach a significant part of the race's history to the newest members of the tribe, Robert and Eileen, when they were old enough. The irony of the situation was all too apparent. Patrick and his little bunch of naked children in the forest could never take the material along with them in their wave. It would have to be transported the human way: automobiles and airplanes. Marianne, Chuck, and Phil volunteered to see to the complicated task. It was generally agreed that the tapes should be kept permanently at Bollinger's.
It was a logical decision. The resort by its nature as a nudist facility was an ideal headquarters for this unique group; and the fact that its co-managers were members didn't hurt. So now they had a place to return to for messages and important bits of news. It was agreed that all members would check by Bollinger's at least twice a week. A breath of new life had forestalled the extinction of a unique species.
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The modest campfire crackled properly, and emitted just enough smoke to occasionally tickle the tear ducts. Patty was speaking in a voice loud enough to be heard around the circle, but calculated not to waken the child she held. "We're going to work it out --universe organism travel, I mean --I'm sure now. Janet Crespy is a brilliant mathematician." She laughed. "I sneak us into their brains; she knows what to take out. We have to screen through a lot. Scientists have the same disjointed thoughts as anybody else. Actually, we already have a pretty good line on New Wilderness, where the pilot Eileen took Robert and the kids. Using the information Denise, Jeffrey, and my dad could give us on the location of our alien ancestors' planet Athryd, and the direction the three of them agreed Eileen pointed when she indicated her destination --and the date and time she did it; and using the distances between Earth, Athryd, and New Wilderness we gleaned from Robert's tapes, we came up with a very broad, roughly defined triangle: Earth to New Wilderness, 1900 light years; Earth to Athryd, 1000 light years; and Athryd to New wilderness, 1500 light years ...all very approximate figures. However, utilizing Mount Palomar, we found that particular area of the sky sparsely populated by stars, but including a couple good possibilities; however, we're pretty sure we have New Wilderness's location pinpointed. It's going to take a lot more work verifying that choice.
"But the real problem is determining the universe organism travel formula itself. You three," she giggled, "old timers here were very helpful with this. Though they didn't know the way it worked themselves, they had been in on enough discussions from early on in their lives that Janet and I were able to discover what we think is a vital key. From there on it's still an uphill struggle, but the answer is in sight. I figure if we keep at it the way we've been, in maybe two more years or less Janet and I might even be able to lead a universe organism trip to visit Robert, Eileen, and the kids on their New Wilderness. Don't know if we'd want to stay there; after all, this is our home --even if they do want to burn us at the stake here."
Denise: "If you don't think you'll want use the universe organism except for a visit, why get so wrapped up in it?"
Patty: "Because it sounds ...interesting. And it might be ...fun to visit our people way up there."
Denise, laughing: "I guess that's all the reason us guys need for doing anything."
It was late in the evening at Bollinger's Resort. The dining room was empty except for the eight naked humans seated at the large round table in the corner. Spacing themselves evenly around the table were Ernie Bergen, the Crespys, the Schulmans, the MacCleans, and Jack Bollinger.
Phil MacClean was speaking: "So the 'magic people auxiliary' meets again."
Bart Crespy: "There's lots more out there besides us. Sister Daniella, for one."
Doris MacClean: "And those two policemen."
Jack: "Harry Waterman and Lindsey Martin, yeah, they're members all right."
Janet Crespy to Jack: "And your co-father Kevin Quinn and his family."
Marnie Schulman: "And the girl from Atlanta, Dawna Chapman."
Phil: "And, naturally, Marianne, Chuck, and Phil: all of us who've found ourselves drawn into their magic."
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Bart: "Drawn into ...maybe; but not unhappily." Touching his wife's knee affectionately. "Janet's really been involved lately, and I don't think she's a bit unhappy about it."
Phil: "That universe organism project, you mean."
Janet: "Right." A beat. "Patty and I have made some good breakthroughs. Should have it worked out within a couple years --maybe sooner, if we get a few breaks."
Jerry Schulman: "Has something to do with star travel, doesn't it?"
Janet: "At least. Really a fantastic and fascinating idea. If you know the system, you can travel anywhere in the universe instantaneously. You vanish from here, and at the same moment in time you materialize there."
Jerry: "Like their wave."
Janet: "Only in the idea of disappearing and disappearing ...and traveling. But the wave was pretty much limited to our solar system. With this universe organism business," she chuckled, "the sky's the limit. And anybody who knows the formula can travel via the universe organism. You don't have to be able to wave --or even have the genes of their race. Anybody here at this table could do it. And one person can take any number of others along, as long as they're touching --holding hands in a line would do it -- the same way as one of them can take us along in the wave. However, the universe organism isn't as versatile as the wave. You could go from here to there, but to go from there back to here, or to anyplace else, would require a whole new set of equations. Oh, and you have to be nude for either one.
Phil: "I bet the government would love to know how to use universe organism travel; they could move whole armies across the ocean."
Jerry: "And the private sector, too. This would be worth ...billions to them."
Janet: "Keep in mind, each universe organism trip is an extraordinarily complex thing to compute and chart."
Phil: "But they way technology advances --like your super-conductors and all --once they had their hands on it they'd get it tamed to practical use."
Jerry: "Invisible, instantaneous, limitless individual or mass mobility. If a regular human being did get hold of the universe organism business, he could call his shots financially ...more, he could have at his command a raw power of unimaginable potential. The only thing that ever kept our magic friends from controlling the world was their refusal to use their wave or universe organism travel as a source of power."
Doris: "That's because our magic friends aren't violent ...and they don't seek power ...they don't try to achieve anything ..."
Marnie: "Except the practice of their free spirit."
Phil: "But in the hands of a human ..."
There was a pause in the conversation. In the stillness of the dining room, you could hear the sound of dance music drifting all the way from the gymnasium.
It was Jack who finally broke the spell. "But it will be in the hands of a human." He looked to the woman on the opposite side of the table from him. "Janet --I mean this as a compliment ...really --You are probably the most powerhouse of a woman I've ever met. Dynamic, driving, ambitious. Going by what you've told us yourself, you meet the guys in your business head to head, and never back off an inch."
Janet smiled: "More than that, Jack. I've all my life wanted to feel... power. I thought I had the way because of my knowledge of numbers."
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Phil, picking up the thread: "Looks like you'll be able to have the whole world at your feet once you unlock the universe organism. So ...what do you think it's going to be for you?"
Janet, still smiling: "Patty thinks I'll handle the knowledge ...wisely --because of all we've learned from the brainy physicists whose minds we've waved. She thinks I've developed a philosophy about it all from that experience." A slight chuckle. "I admit, it's been the greatest education I could have imagined. And I have developed a philosophy ...but not from the minds of all those learned scientists. The real education, the one that affected me the most was the one that came to me traveling so many places in Patty's wave --sharing Patty's mind; Patty's soul." She moved her head slowly from side to side. "Boy, do I ever like the feel of Patty's free spirit." A beat. "Whenever I've gone back to the office after spending the weekend working --and flying --with Patty, or when we've been working out a problem in my office, and then she leaves, I've found myself having to revert to my old bywords, don't take nothin' from nobody ...dog eat dog, and all that. But it's not fun any more; it's not my life any more." A beat. "Patty's free spirit is my life. Look, don't worry about me. I'm not going to betray Patty's trust. If we break through on this, it will only be for Patty and the magic people."
Jerry: "It's going to be hard to hold that attitude back in your dog eat dog world. If a person has the wherewithal --the guns ..."
Ernie Bergen: "No problem ...Okay if I tell, Janet?"
Janet: "Sure; might as well."
Ernie: "Janet's given her notice to Walker and Associates. She's coming over to Three Springs. Special appointment, tenure and everything. When you know the boss, things happen. Anyway, with her knowledge of math, we're the benefactors. We have our own dog eat dog world at the school, but only if you want to get caught up in it. Janet can lose herself in teaching and research if she'd rather, and forget about the others."
Janet: "You see, guys, I'm a convert, so to speak. I can't wave, but Patty's blessed me with her bloody free spirit. I may not be magic, but I'm one of the magic people now. I'm one of THEM. When we figure out universe organism travel, the secret will stay with ...us."
Chapters: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18
To Homepage and Table of Contents: The Universe in 700 Words or so
After the Wilderness - Copyright 1990 by Gordon Kearns