Another tale from the Further Adventures of Cara Delaggwei
by Patrick Gabriel Doyle
Communing was always tricky, even at the best of times and after the immense time-scales spent in the denseness of Urth, Cara Delaggwei was finding it very difficult to Open.
Even now, having left Urth and here, in the vastness of space, there was still only silence.
Was there anyone left?
She knew there had to be. But certainly not on Urth.
She had searched and scoured, eventually closing-down and going into a long period of just waiting …
Remembering …
She had gotten to know Urth and in a way it had gotten to know her.
From The Disruption until now, aeons of Urth time had passed. She had spent most of that time in stasis, melding with the planet in much the same way as they had done on Atlantis.
Urth felt gentle but strong; so full of life…
The Disruption of Atlantis had, however, wreaked havoc. Fall-out blasted not only Urth, but the whole System, altering conditions on many of the other planets. The Great Orange Giant now had a blemish: a storm that rages. No longer, the meditative hang-out where so many Atlantean dreams had been born and so many Atlanteans conceived!
Urth was smaller, younger, the destruction, harrowing. Cara Delaggwei had been monitoring and recording when The Disruption occurred. It struck her to the depths of her Atlantean soul. The silence in her mind had been immediate and overwhelming.
What she couldn't understand was the completeness of the silence. Where were the other Atlanteans who, like her, had been on Urth at that time?
When she'd returned to the Main Urth Compound a couple of days later it lay abandoned and silent.
When she saw Atlantis disappear from the sky she knew she had but little time to prepare before the effects shook Urth. Shockwaves would be severe enough – what else would happen she wasn't entirely sure. But she could do nothing except, perhaps, save herself.
Deep underground – yes, that was the place … unless, of course, the whole planet went BOOM!
She found a zaucer at Main Compound, zippy enough to fly to the mountains in double-quick time; nippy enough to negotiate the cave-tunnels.
She razed the whole Main Compound complex as best as she could with only the zaucer’s razerbeam: Nothing from Atlantis could remain on Urth.
She must save nothing from Urth. Preserve nothing. History would record a destruction event and it was not within her essential nature to alter the course of that history.
However, she couldn't resist a few ‘artefacts’, as she thought them, carefully chosen to take deep underground.
When the first shockwaves hit, she felt Urth shudder. Deep pangs of responsibility wounded her heart.
“I'm sorry … We are sorry” … she whispered … But why? She didn't know …
When pieces of Atlantis pummelled Urth she was deep in stasis. She did not see the planet burning – she did not see the sky churning. She did not see evolution grasping life from the jaws of extinction.
Aeons passed …
One day, she peeked out. Thick ice had covered the opening of the cave-tunnel. A blast of razerbeam melted it and now the zaucer hovered in a freezing sky.
Ice covered Urth. A bleak, moaning wind buffeted the zaucer.
Cara shivered involuntarily as she wrestled with the stabilizers.
It is not yet time – she thought.
Then, when the homuds came, she began her work.
She knew Urth like no other … This planet deserves life!
She would provide hints: potentialities to become embodied in homud evolution. She could not interfere directly: they must grow independently to survive.
The tools of serendipitous evolution would be there for discovering: Communication, Imagination, Invention, Discernment.
Sometimes she was glimpsed. It could not be avoided …
The homuds spread and as they spread, so also did tales of The Great Mother who lived in the centre of Urth and who was Urth and who could appear almost as homud, but majestic and shining in her Silver disc.
She watched them evolve …
A time came when, with much thought-over integrity, she presented herself exclusively to a male homud. He provided his sperm willingly (very willingly!!) and she was with child …
* * * * *
-CRASH-
… she was back in the present moment, zinging through space in the trusty zaucer. Zaucers were made for express, inter-planetary travel and only possessed a rudimentary quantum drive; really just a souped-up particle propulsion unit. Luxury it was not!
She ran a quick external scan of the craft and looked 360° around the transparent dome that encased her, wondering if something had struck the craft. She knew, however, that even the smallest piece of space dust would have been diverted by the phase-shield.
Then she noticed … voices … a space … in her head. She had Opened and that space was vast. There were many voices, conversing, chattering … un-alarmed … WhOOOOLLLKKK … She felt herself sucked inwards … de-enveloping … un-enfolding … convolving … blip.
* * * * *
KHAAAAZZAAAAAMMmmm …
She was still in the zaucer, but somehow hovering above the atmosphere of her homeworld, Atlantis. Tele-networks in her mind were strong. Buzzing. Active. It seemed a normal day in Atlantis.
How, how, how? – She thought.
One voice caught her attention. Tuning in, she accepted the communication invite …
‘Cara! Yey! Welcome home! How was Urth – are those saurs behaving themselves?’
“Unito!Yey! Eh … I'm fine, Urth was, um, interesting” – she pauses –
‘Are you alright, Cara? You seem a little distant … are you coming in?’
“Yes, apologies, Unito. Just tired. Keep a space in the bay for a base-zaucer.”
‘You came from Urth in a zaucer? No wonder you're tired!’
“Yes, I'll explain later … Eh, Unito, how have things been here?”
‘Good. We are blessed with existence, as always.’
“Anything of … erm … note … happened since I've been gone?”
‘Not that I know of … you've only been gone 14 days. What are you expecting?’
“No … nothing … just wondering …”
‘Mmm … are you sure you are okay Cara? Maybe you should have a net-scan, especially if you've been running around Urth without a suit. I mean, it's a lovely place but … you never know …’
“Thanks Unito. I may just do that. I think I went out of telepath range for a short while on Urth … but, then … for me … communing was always tricky.”
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