CHAPTER 48
THE PLAN
If I'd known I was going to live so long, I'd have taken better care of myself.
- Leon Eldred
Bates woke a few minutes later surrounded by nearly two dozen familiar faces. Johnny and Dooley had evidently finished with the nanobots, and had the Bus flown to the impact point. The whole Team was together again!
"Bates, you've got things screwed up again, as usual. The woman is supposed to be the one to faint in these circumstances, and not for several months," said Jane. "He's all right everyone, only fainted, just like Liz and Janet said. Some super man he turned out to be! Get back now everyone; give the stud some breathing space.” She shooed most of the onlookers back while Mel and Oscar helped Bates to stand.
"Janet and the kids? Are they OK?"
"They're fine, Bates," said Mel. "Just cleaning themselves up in the Bus, I believe. Showers and fresh clothes, I would imagine, which is something that the rest of us could use also.”
Bates looked at Mel's clothes, which were hanging from him in tatters. What should have showed of Mel in terms of skin, and what remained of his shirt and trousers, were covered in blood and soot, much of it probably from poor Gus. Bates' and Oscar's clothes weren't in much better shape. Bates made a mental note to himself to explore the possibility of using his new mental powers to heal clothing, if and when he got the chance. Right now, he had to get on with business. There was a very conspicuous absence that he noticed right away, a huge one. The dragon!
"What happened to Quetzal?" asked Bates, disturbed.
"Lit out just as we come in with the Bus," said Hank. "Damnedest sight I ever saw, and I seen plenty, these last few days!”
"After you fainted, he and Pru talked alone briefly, or should I say argued, then he flew off in a tiff," explained Mel.
Bates could hardly believe it. He was supposed to be leading this mission, but he had a disturbing habit of being unconscious at the most critical moments! "What did the dragon say?"
"Not much. Basically he said we were on our own, roared fire again, and took off," explained Oscomb.
Their hoped for savior was gone! Bates was devastated. "Now what the hell do we do?"
"First I believe that we should parlay with our unicorn friend and determine exactly where we stand with her and her dragon kin," said Mel.
"Right on!” seconded Oscar. The three friends, joined by the others present, walked to where Pru stood silently with Fen, waiting for them.
"We need to discuss some things Pru," began Bates, sternly.
"Like where your ungrateful 'cousin' that there dragon went!” said Hank, brandishing his assault rifle.
"And what relationship you have with that creature," added Krog, in his deepest voice.
"And then there's that little matter of how to save the Earth!” added Barns.
"We only have about thirty hours left!” noted Steve Latanna.
"Rowel, rowel!” added Milo, for emphasis.
"I blame you not for being upset!” pathed Pru. "In truth, I have not told you the full story of the People and the Great One. I did not feel that it was yet your business to know."
"You were wrong, and as a result you've lost our confidence!” pathed Bates. "You blind-sided us! As a result, we couldn't really participate in persuading the dragon, because we didn't know what the hell was going on! And we still don't. Explain please. And speak aloud so that all of us can participate. We've had too many secrets.”
"Everyone to the Bus!” Bates announced, without even waiting for a response from the unicorn. "Pru has some things to tell us, and we need to plan our next move." Plus he was tired of being in jungle and much preferred the luxury of being in the critter-free Bus, he didn't bother to add.
In the Bus, the air was filled with murmurs of concern, fear, and uncertainty from those gathered. The Team had gotten this far on luck and hope, and on confidence in Bates, in the Jigs riddles, in members with outstanding minds like Mel's, in the clearly astounding powers of Johnny and Dooley, and especially in the beautiful, magical unicorn with the terrible dark pits for eyes and glowing horn.
According to the Jigs riddles, at this stage in the quest they were supposed to have found 'the answer', which everyone had presumed would involve the help of the Great One. Instead, the huge creature had flown off in a huff, though not before it raised doubts about the motivations of their most exotic and powerful Team member, Pru. The group hushed as Pru moved to the center of the Bus to face Bates.
"The story is a long one," started Pru, in her clear, piping voice.
"Then you better give us the abridged version," remarked Bates.
Pru turned her dark-pit eyes to stare at each and all of the listeners. "It began long ago, after the beginning, when life started on many worlds, in many universes. It was a time of life and death, of trial and error, in which most trials to establish lasting life failed, for only a few of the many attempted patterns for life tried were truly self-sustaining. On Earth, over billions of years your format of short lived individuals that propagated through two sexes finally became the dominant pattern. It was and is an elegantly simple solution to the problem of randomness that though required for life also threatens the structure and process called life. But other life forms also survived the crucible of the long ages, and some developed intelligence long before humans walked the Earth."
"Ours was one of those forms that found self-awareness in the early universe. We were a single being, far different from Earth life. On Earth, complex life forms are actually colonies of billions of interdependent cell units. Our form was that of a single unit that we now call The One in our memories. Whereas complex Earth life generally followed the path of multiple units of two sexes that exchange, refine, preserve, and renew a multitude of species, the dominant life on our planet consisted of a single gigantic being, many millions of years old, that was itself self-refining and self-renewing.
"Though you humans would find this life concept odd and perhaps abhorrent in appearance and manner, the form of The One had advantages. The One passed everything on to itself, without your need to start over again each generation as weak and tiny infants. It developed an increasingly massive, powerful, flexible and malleable body, with ever more impressive physical and mental skills.
"Whereas your progress is now through what you call civilization, and the tools of civilization that you call artifacts, ours was totally self-contained within The One, which could manipulate matter and energy at will, including the form of its own body. This life form also had inherent disadvantages, which we will discuss shortly. Still, for countless millennia, The One was what you humans would term stable and content.
"Then an event occurred that had tremendous impact on The One. Non-intelligent life of other types had existed for a time on the world of The One, but had been consumed by The One long before it had evolved very far, so that discovery of another life form of any level was a significant event for The One.
"Totally unexpectedly, intelligent life arrived from space. The One consumed the visiting intelligent life, but not before observation of and interaction with these creatures so different from itself revealed things that The One could never have even conceived of previously. These creatures were multiple, mobile, independent, creative, communal, and INTERESTING! So much so, that The One actually missed the aliens after they had been irreversibly consumed. For the first time, The One was discontent, perhaps lonely."
"Quickly, the situation progressed from being discontent to existential crisis. The One actually segmented its own intelligence to simulate and examine the multiple entity community that it observed in the aliens. But once this critical step had been taken, differing opinions and feelings developed throughout and within The One. The resulting instabilities threatened the One's very survival and existence. Some of the segmented intelligences tried to recombine, but the change was to a great extent irreversible, since many of the independent entities refused to rejoin and actually began to att
ack one another in an attempt to gain control of The One!
"Just as you humans have experienced strife amongst yourselves, so The One for the first time experienced strife within itself. In the maddening chaos that followed, much of The One destroyed itself. Finally, many of the surviving intelligences established a truce of sorts, and determined a solution. What remained of The One divided itself into hundreds of separate entities, most which pledged to abide by a set of agreements called in your language 'laws'.
“Essentially, it was agreed that each entity would go its own way and not interfere with the others. That way, perhaps each could separately regain the tranquility and contentment of The One. When The One split up into a multitude of individuals, each became known as a 'Great One', though each was but a tiny imitation compared to The One from which they had issued.
"Perhaps as a result of the efforts to simulate the aliens that visited them, it was agreed as part of The Law that the Great Ones would outwardly assume the physical form of the intelligent beings that had visited it: dragons. The Great Ones however, instead of being communal like the true dragons, would each live alone, sleep much of the time, and would otherwise spend most of their time meditating on how to regain and propagate the contentment of The One.
“Before it divided itself up, The One formed a transportation system for travel between worlds by the Great Ones. This was used to spread the Great Ones among hundreds of planets in this and parallel universes. It was hoped that restrictions such as the dragon form and lethargic lifestyle, and the physical dispersal across many light years, would bring lasting stability to each elemental Great One.
"It actually worked for many millions of years, but eventually the flaws in the approach began to show. First, not all elementals joined the original pact. These rogue elementals went their own way. Some even stayed on the home world. Second, even those that had joined the pact found over time that they could not keep to all of the agreements. Foremost, many dragons ultimately found solitary existence to be unacceptable, and they formed relationships of various types among each other, and with other life forms. We who are now unicorns took the radical step of dividing our self up further and emulating the life patterns of Earth creatures.”
Bates, who along with the others had sat in quiet awe during the unicorn's incredible story, gasped out loud. "You mean that The People of The Land used to all be part of a dragon?" he asked.
"Only the unicorns, human. The others are conventional Earth life, more or less, though they evolved in an environment so different from most of Earth that they may not seem so to you. They are for the unicorns our link to this Earth, for it has always been our goal to assimilate ourselves with Earth life."
"But why does Quetzal behave so hostile towards unicorns, if you are fellow elementals?" asked Elizabeth.
"Quetzal strongly opposed our division into unicorns, and pledged he would gather and recombine us.”
"He wants to change you unicorns back into a dragon?" asked Bates, incredulously.
"When he has gathered together enough of us, yes."
"How many unicorns does it take to make a dragon?” It sounded a lot like the classic nonsense philosopher question of how many angels could sit on the end of a pin, but in this situation the answer could well mean life or death for seven billion humans and the rest of life on Earth, for Bates reasoned that if they had a second, more cooperative dragon, they stood a chance with the comet that was due to pulverize earth in less than thirty hours.
"The answer is Quetzal's, human, for a small dragon could of course be formed by a single unicorn, as could a multitude of tiny ones, for that matter."
"How many unicorns does he have?"
"Thousands, but he wants all of us."
"Why? What difference does it mean to him if he misses a few?"
"He wants back the same dragon that was lost, not something formed of his own self, or from only some of the unicorns," explained Pru. "That is why I am sure that the unicorns that he has consumed are still completely intact. If he destroys a single one of them, or forces them to reform before he has all, his cause is lost."
"I'm still lost as to the motivation behind this," remarked Janet. "Why is it so important to him that this particular dragon be restored to its original form? Is it a matter of the Law?"
"The Law has nothing to do with it," stated Elizabeth, surprising everyone. "It's love, isn't it Pru?"
In response, the unicorn stared at Elizabeth, with an unfamiliar expression that could have been surprise. "You are wise beyond your years, young one!” she said.
Everything came together at last for Bates. Of course! The two Great Ones were companions, perhaps even lovers of some sort, but at some point maybe they had a serious tiff, and one dragon divided itself up into unicorns and went native on Earth. Quetzal, for who knows how long, has been trying to get him/her/it back together and patch things up! That’s why they were all here on Earth! And the unicorns had just as stubbornly resisted, though they sent representatives to parlay with the dragon; representatives that were consumed by the angry dragon. "Then for a long time Quetzal has been after you unicorns to get you to turn yourself back into the dragon he used to know? How long has this been going on?"
"About three hundred million years."
The listeners, eyes all agog and jaws dropped open, not daring believe what had just been said, looked at each other. "Did you say three hundred million years?” asked Mel.
"He's very stubborn," replied Pru.
"And patient!” remarked Janet.
"Hard up!” said Elizabeth.
"A nut case!” said Winnebago.
"That makes him fifteen-million times worse than you, Bates, when it comes to mooning over a lost love," noted Mel.
"Well, it finally paid off for me. Love finally triumphed!” said Bates. He smiled, put an arm around Janet, and gave her a big squeeze. The act was theater for Pru's benefit, as much as anything else. It seemed to Bates that saving the Earth now hinged on solving the dragon/unicorn rift over the next twenty-nine hours or so, though that seemed to be somewhat improbable, given that the problem had defied solution for three hundred million years. But he had to try. What else was there to do? "Are you unicorns really so dead set against the idea?" he asked Pru.
"As might be imagined, that question has been subject to considerable discussion among unicorns for three hundred million years. Over time, individual opinion has differed and evolved. However, I have always have been against it, and mine remains the majority opinion."
"For three hundred million years? Are you really that old? You are immortal?" asked Elizabeth. She had grown quite fond of the unicorn, and especially after the development of some powers of her own, had felt a growing kinship with the beautiful white being. But Pru's revelations made her realize that the unicorn was much more exotic and different from human-kind than she had ever imagined.
"It is the essence of our life type to not renew ourselves in your way, and thus we must persist for long periods of time indeed. But we are not truly immortal, that is reserved for the All-Creator. It is true that in some shape and manner and persona, I have lived for far longer than three hundred million years. But we do renew ourselves in ways other than birth and death as you know it, and evolve when we care to, and we can with difficulty be killed. What I remember or care of life as a dragon is dim and lost far in the depths of memory indeed, compared with life in recent centuries. Yet it is true that I and my brothers and sisters remember some bits and pieces of those long lost times well and often fondly."
"Fondly? Would some unicorns like to reconcile with Quetzal and become a dragon again?" asked Bates, hopefully.
"Some wish it, but it avails them little, as all are pledged to remain unicorn regardless.”
"How many wish to reconcile?" asked Elizabeth.
"A minority," stated Pru.
"We assumed that!” said Bates. "But by what percentages, at latest count?"
"You humans put too mu
ch store in numbers. Those are lost to memory. But that is of little matter, as the outcome is not. The majority oppose recombination to dragon form."
"Then there has been no recent vote?"
"It was quite recent. Three million years past, I believe."
"Holy smokes! You haven't even brought up the issue for three million years? Is there any way you could vote again right away? Today?"
"Possibly, human, especially since Quetzal no longer blocks such things as telepathy. Most of my kin are within the dragon however, which makes communication with them problematic indeed. Also my kin are no less stubborn than Quetzal. I know why you would seek this, human, but it is impossible. I will not change my mind, though I know your arguments and sympathize with your situation. My kin, strangers to you, would be no less stubborn."
"You would rather see Earth destroyed than change back to a dragon?"
"You don't know what you ask, human. If we did that, I and my kin and fellows would individually cease to be. Also, places like The Land could not exist without unicorns. The People would be no more. We value our freedom and individuality as do you humans. And besides, you exaggerate the danger from Dannos. There have been many other great dying events before the one that will be caused by Dannos, which we have seen and endured. One such occurred only sixty five million years ago. When such events happen many die, but many also live."
"That's easy for you to say!” said Steve Latanna. "You aren't facing extinction, we are!” There were nods and other affirmations throughout the Team.
"We have thought of that, human, and are not without compassion. I discussed it with the People before leaving The Land. It is already agreed that should your quest appear that it will fail, several hundred humans may be sheltered in The Land, along with much of your culture. Your species and many other species great and small will assuredly survive Dannos!”
There were exclamations and cheers among the Team. "Why this is wonderful!” proclaimed Barns. "This is better than orbiting in the Bus! Much better!”
"If it is agreed that the quest is lost, Narbando Bates, I will path word to The People,” said Pru. “By tomorrow, humans can be sheltered in The Land!”
Bates stood looking at Pru, and the others. Was this truly their only choice? Was this the answer promised by Jigs? It didn't seem like it; but what else was there? He was out of ideas. Without the power of the dragon, what hope remained? It was all too much! Dragons, aliens, unicorns, and Dannos! His head was splitting! Why the hell had they put him in charge?
"No!” he said firmly at last. "There has to be a way! We still have what? Twenty eight hours? There just has to be a way! We can't give up.” The others just looked at him.
Suddenly, a woman's scream filled the air. It seemed to come from the other side of the Bus. They all ran towards the sound, Bates frankly a little relieved to be able to put off deciding what to do about Dannos for the moment.
They found Sandra Kruger laying on the ground moaning. "What is it?" asked Jane, who had been whisked to the front of the crowd to examine the slight, be speckled aeronautical engineer. "Snake bite?"
"No," replied Sandra. "I fell down. I think that both of my legs are broken!”
"Yes!” said Pru, who had lowered he horn to rest on Sandra's shoulder. "Several broken leg bones. I can heal them now, if you like."
Sandra agreed, and Pru got to work, as the others watched. Many of them had not yet seen this kind of healing in action.
"Wait a minute!” said Norma. "There's no place to fall from around here. There's nothing taller than the Bus for a hundred meters. Besides, the ground is soft here.”
"She's right!” agreed Oscar, looking around. "There's nothing more than a couple meters high; she just couldn't have broken those legs by simply falling down."
"Sandra!” asked Norma of her friend. "Tell us what happened. Exactly how did your legs get broken?"
"I'm not sure. It's crazy!”
"Tell us! Was it the Ra?" asked Bates.
"Not Ra. All right, I'll tell you, but don't laugh. I fell out of the air.” She paused and looked around at the faces of the others to gage their reactions.
"Just tell us more, Sandra," implored Norma.
"Well, you know that I fear heights."
"That's so," remarked Hank. "You damn near killed the lot of us trying to fly that there Bus!”
Bates elbow-poked the harsh old geezer in the ribs, as Sandra continued. "Well, you all probably think I hate flying. But it isn't so; I think about it all the time. Why do you think I became an aeronautical engineer to begin with? Well, when I want to escape everything for a few minutes, I like to go off by myself, close my eyes, and fantasize that I'm flying. With all the talking and arguing about Dannos and what to do, I just had to get away, so I did! I came here to be away from everyone, closed my eyes, and thought about flying."
"But this time it felt real; too real. I became frightened, and opened my eyes. That's when I screamed."
"But why?" asked Norma.
"Because it was real! I was at least ten meters up in the air! Scared me to death! And when I wasn't thinking of flying anymore, I fell like a rock."
"That's nuts!” said Winnebago.
"But how else do we explain the broken legs?" said Oscomb.
"Bates was flying when he fought Renson. We saw him!” noted Winnebago.
"But Bates was transformed by The Traveler; Sandra wasn't," Oscar pointed out.
"She didn't have to be transformed," said Bates. "She could already fly. Her skill had simply been suppressed by the sleeping Dragon."
"Of course!” agreed Mel. "Just as Gus developed telepathic powers while he was in The Land and sheltered by the unicorns from the Great One! It's what Pru explained to us when we were in the Land! We may find that we all have some sort of powers to some degree, now that the Dragon isn't masking them!”
"Right!” said Bates. "And I don't have any abilities that other humans don't have. Mine have just been concentrated by the Traveler. Can you do it again?" he asked Sandra. "Fly? Just a few feet up, so you won't get frightened or hurt?"
The group watched in amazement as the engineer concentrated for a few moments, and suddenly floated slowly up into the air a meter or so above the ground! There she hovered for about ten seconds before she again became frightened. This time however, she gently lowered herself to the ground, where she stood grinning ear-to-ear. "I can fly! I can actually fly!”
"Let's see if any others have new abilities," said Bates.
Over the next half-hour, everyone else had their chances to try such things as telepathy, telekinesis, and flying. Based on this brief exam, it looked like about half of the humans had some sort of 'gift', though their powers were not as strong as those of Bates, Janet, Elizabeth, or Don. Kay Therman and her father the General could telepath to each other and to no others. Steve Latanna could perform the 'soap trick' and levitate small objects. Mel was mildly telepathic. Oscar could levitate his big body, but only when he sang Wagner. To their disappointment, Norma, Barns, Hank, Jane, and Winnebago didn't seem to have any abilities. Never the less, Bates was encouraged.
"Don't you see?" said an excited Bates. "There are probably billions of humans all over the world with powers now! Maybe we don't need a dragon! Even if only one in ten humans can do the soap trick, that would be seven hundred million people with the talent that we need to pull-off the soap-trick on Dannos!”
"But they're scattered all over the world, they're completely untrained, and they don't know what we want them to do," noted Mel.
This brain storming session was getting depressing again, thought Bates. It had been a hell of a day, and everyone was exhausted, especially emotionally. This day had more ups and downs to it than the stock market! And right now, even with lots of extra IQ points courtesy of the Traveler, he didn't see a solution to their problems. But they hadn't come this far to give up now. "Maybe none of that matters," he stated.
"What do you mean?" asked Barns. "We're b
oxed in a corner here!”
"Let's think it through one problem at a time!” urged Bates.
"There may already be an answer to all of these problems," stated Norma, drawing exclamations from the rest of the Team. "Think back to The Land and its Aspen power grid and shield. I doubt that The People all have the same psychic abilities either, nor are they always focused on sustaining shields or whatever other specific things have to be done in The Land. The People all feed their psy-power to the unicorns, who then control it. Am I mistaken Pru? Isn't psychic power something that an elemental unicorn is uniquely equipped to handle?”
"You are correct, human. We elemental unicorns are uniquely capable of controlling energy, psychic or otherwise. Further, the type of capability that the donor has is indeed irrelevant. It can all be reformed and redirected by an experienced elemental."
"Fudge Winkies!” exclaimed Bates. "Can you do it Pru? Can you direct the psychic energies of millions of humans? And would it be enough to pull the soap trick on Dannos?"
"You humans are creative thinkers indeed! For a brief time I could direct such energies, perhaps. Will it be enough to allow Dannos to not harm the Earth? I know not. It may in fact work, even though Dannos is iron and the Earth also is iron. But there is another problem as well.”
"You're the expert on this stuff, Pru," noted Bates. "What is the problem?"
"We have no global Aspen root network to help transmit the energies, human. But on this issue there is that which you would term the good news and bad news as well. The energies need not have a network for them to be transferred to me and directed to Dannos. For example you saw Dooley receive life energies from distant forests to battle the nanobots. That was possible, but only because Dooley and his knife already held a great deal of power. In turn, Dooley's knife and Johnny's watch are small parts of me that support them only because they already have great powers within themselves.
"In sum the bad news is that we need much greater power to originate here where Dannos would strike, and I must stand to direct the energies of all. Only if much power is already sourced here can the power of the others be so received."
"So then we need to bring people with powers here to the jungle?" asked Bates. "How many?"
"Not many," snorted the unicorn. "Several thousand would serve. But they need be the most gifted that can be found. Some of my People need come here also, while still others need seek out humans in other parts of the world and help them to focus on me."
"How the hell will we get folks here by tomorrow night?" asked Bates. "It took us all morning to get here ourselves by Space Bus!”
"I know how!” said Flood. "Jigs told me that he has dozens of his airline's aircraft waiting to support us, but he didn't say exactly what they would do!”
"It still sounds like a logistical nightmare," remarked Bates.
"Leave that to me and Flood," said General Therman. "Logistics using aircraft was my specialty in the Air Force."
"And I'll get in touch with the President to set up communications with all the people of the world," said Latanna. "We'll get the ball rolling on letting the world know our plans. But what will we tell them? What must people do to transfer energy to you, Pru?"
"Those across the Earth will simply need to concentrate on my image, and seek within themselves the power that will be focused here in me. I shall redirect the power to Dannos."
"That may be tricky, even for you, Pru," said Mel. "Janet and I have worked out some of the kinematics involved. Remember, Dannos will strike at night, won't be that easy to see, and is coming at enormous speed. About three and a half minutes from impact, it will appear to be about the third of the diameter of the Moon. Up to then it will be an ever more apparent spectacle, but at that point it will plunge into the Earth's shadow, and disappear from our view."
“Won’t it trail a comet tail?” asked Don.
“Not enough to notice.” explained Janet. Dannos is solid iron, not a dirty snowball that emits gasses and dust like the comets that can easily be seen.
"Won't it glow when it enters the atmosphere?" asked General Therman.
"Yes,” agreed Mel, "but it will go through the thickest part of the atmosphere in about a half of a second! So don't blink, or you'll miss it. That is, if you don't already miss it because of cloud cover. And don't count on moonlight either, there isn't going to be any."
"Pru, do you have to see Dannos to make this work?" asked Bates.
"Not in the sense of human sight. My sight will not be much hindered by darkness or by puffy wisps of moist air. Still, it would be preferable to clearly see Dannos. However, the minor trick of clear weather can be arranged by me, you need not worry of that, humans."
"Well," said Bates, "that's it then! We have a plan at long last! Or at least the outlines of one, so let's get cracking. Steve and the General need to get things rolling right away by COM. I for one intend to take a shower. I suggest that after we kick things off tonight we all get some rest. Last day or not, tomorrow is going to be one hell of a busy day."