The first thing he saw of the object was a foot, then a leg, and suddenly the entire form moved into view. With great relief he saw it was a man. The man was dressed in a tan, one-piece, snug-fitting garment like Tim had been given.
The person was remarkably tall and slim with a fair complexion and light, shining, medium-length hair. His features were slender, almost delicate, and he had exceptionally long, thin fingers. He walked with a grace Tim had never seen before. It was almost female, but Tim could see he was extremely strong just by his movements. He was looking at what was obviously an advanced species of human. As different to himself as he would be to a Neanderthal. The person had a smile that could light up the world. The man walked toward him. As the individual approached, Tim realized he was at least seven feet tall.
“Hello, Tim, I’m Mr. V and I’m glad to meet you,” the creature said as it stuck out its hand.
Tim shook his hand and immediately decided that the delicate look was deceptive. This son of a bitch could tear me in half with no effort. Damn, I’ve got to be careful what I think because I still don’t believe him.
“I, ah—I thought you were a computer.”
“Oh, I am, but I thought you would be more comfortable talking to someone rather than the walls, so I built a replica of one of the former inhabitants.”
“Former? What happened to them?”
“I will explain later,” replied Mr. V.
“You mean you just threw this together?” Tim gestured to the alien body.
“Yes, it’s not too difficult when you have the right tools.”
“What else can you build?”
“Anything you can imagine, and a lot more.”
“A Playboy Bunny?”
“Yes, but would you know what to do with her?” chuckled the Being.
This guy can’t be just a machine.
“How come you know English?” Tim asked, deciding to change the subject.
“I understand all languages of Earth. I enjoy watching your civilizations. It gives me something to do.”
“I’d think you would be too busy running all this,” Tim commented, motioning around the room.
“Yes, but it’s automated. Without the unpredictable human element, things go smoothly.”
“I hope you’re not counting on me to liven things up,” Tim said sarcastically.
“Well, it’s already a little more exciting. Your entrance to this base wasn’t an everyday occurrence.”
“Base? You just called this a base,” questioned Tim.
“Yes, that was its original intention,” returned the Being.
“What is it used for now?”
“Nothing. It is abandoned.”
“You’re still here. How can you call it abandoned?”
“I’m part of the base, not an inhabitant.”
“This is all so confusing, and I’m not sure that it’s real. I, ah, um, geez, no one would ever believe it.”
“You can believe it because you are witnessing it with your own eyes. In your life you have had no experience that can accustom you to the technology involved within this structure.”
“Like bringing me back to life? Yeah, that’s a little far-fetched.” Tim nodded in agreement.
“But you’re comfortable with everything now,” commented Mr. V.
Tim wasn’t sure if it was a statement, or if Mr. V was looking for input.
“I don’t see as I have any choice.”
“You have choices. This is not a prison.”
“I can walk out, now?”
“You can walk out, now, but aren’t you interested about what is here?”
“Yeah, sort of, but it is so overwhelming.”
“Being a little overwhelmed is understandable. If you will give me a little time, I will explain.”
“The floor is all yours,” stated Tim. “I don’t have much that would interest you.”
“On the contrary, but first the answers you seek. Please follow me.”
Mr. V turned and headed for the opening in the wall, and Tim followed. Now he was curious. The miracle recovery sure looked viable at this point. He somewhat trusted what the computer was saying, but he knew he should be a little cautious. He was completely defenseless at this point so he decided he would just go along until he knew more. He was still bugged about the computer reading his mind, then just promising not to anymore. It just made no sense to Tim. Even if this Mr. V was sincere, how could he just turn off the signals and then not be tempted. He needed to be sure.
He was walking a few feet behind the giant and quickened his pace to close the distance. When he was right behind Mr. V he kicked out as hard as he could, hitting the large alien on the calf.
Mr. V stopped abruptly and turned.
“Trying to see if I’m still reading your thoughts, I’ll bet,” said Mr. V.
“Ah ha, I knew it! I knew you were,” exclaimed Tim.
“No, I wasn’t, but it wasn’t too difficult to figure out the reason for your actions. I deduced the reason after you acted. If I would have known in advance, then you would have had your proof,” stated the computer.
“You could have just let me do it to cover up the truth,” snapped Tim.
“You’re quite right,” snickered Mr. V. He turned back in his original direction and started out again.
I just lost that one.
He could think of nothing more to add so he just followed silently. As they moved down the tunnel it lightened with their moving and darkened after they had passed. They were coming to a block in the tunnel. Mr. V advanced toward it without slowing. Just as the large being was approaching the obstruction it dissolved and he walked through. Tim followed him through. When he was on the other side he turned around. The opening was already gone.
The new room was pitch black with only a faint glow at one end, or it could be the middle. Tim could not tell. The glow began to increase as they moved toward it. It was much closer than he had first thought.
Mr. V went up to the glowing and reached out with his hand. The room began to lighten, and Tim could see it was also dome-shaped with a column in the middle. The column was fatter at the base and at the top where it blended to become the top of the dome. The walls were covered with the same plant substance, but this time there were tiny flowers among the leaves. Tim stuck out his hand to touch them, then suddenly pulled back.
“What’s wrong?” Mr. V asked
“I didn’t know if I should touch them,” Tim said.
“Oh, they don’t mind. In fact, I’m sure they would welcome the chance to connect with a human again.”
Tim placed his palm on the wall. The feeling was tremendous. He felt so calm. Mr. V was right. These plants were great. It was at this point that Tim turned the corner. Until now, the new experience had been baffling because it was out of his scope of comfort, but now all the new, exciting possibilities were the issue.
“Man, I feel so at ease! The plants are really doing this?” Tim asked breathlessly, sounding totally hooked.
“Yes, they have the ability to absorb anxiety and tension.”
“Wow, what a trip! Is this why people have plants?” Tim asked excited.
“Yes, I’m sure your civilization doesn’t exactly understand the reason they enjoy plants so much, but they are aware of the calming qualities. In time they will understand the plants better. Also, consider these plants that you just experienced are far up the evolutionary ladder. Their counterparts do not exist outside of this base, but plants are appreciated for their beauty in all worlds. Even I enjoy my forest,” exclaimed Mr. V.
“Do you get much chance to spend time in your forest? How far away is it?” Tim asked curious about the connotations of ‘my forest’.
“Yes, I do. As you supposed, I have a forest here in the base—an extremely big and varied forest. You will get a chance to see it if you want,” said Mr. V, completely setting the hook.
“Oh wow!” Tim exclaimed. He immediately thought of Ann. She would
love this place, and she would love a forest. He wondered how she was doing. The look in her eyes the last time he had seen her had really scared him. He wasn’t sure he would ever see her again, but now he might have something she could use to heal.
“Why would you need a forest?” Tim asked Mr. V, getting back to the business at hand.
“The inhabitants started it, and I continue to expand it.”
Tim had moved around the column and spied an additional small chamber attached to the one they were in. He walked over and looked inside.
“What’s the purpose of these?” Tim asked excitedly.
“They’re for the plants,” explained Mr. V.
“Are they real?”
“Certainly.”
Tim stuck his hand out and scooped up a fistful of diamonds. They were all different sizes, from tiny, like he had seen on the edges of some rings, to as large as a quarter is round.
“Man, these must be worth millions! No, billions, maybe more,” gasped Tim.
“Not really, because with my technology, they are quite simple to manufacture.”
“You make these too?” Tim stared at the diamonds. “What do the plants have to do with diamonds?”
“The plants thrive in conjunction with humans, and since there have been none here for quite some time, the diamonds are a substitute. The crystal formation of their make-up is surprisingly similar to the patterns of stress within a human,” stated Mr. V.
“Huh?”
“It is a little above your head. A little complicated, at first.”
“It doesn’t make any sense, at first,” said Tim.
“There are many things to explain, and almost everything I have will seem a little extraordinary to you.”
“Like a trillion dollars worth of diamonds just lying around.”
“I told you, they are not worth much,” repeated Mr. V. “In years to come, the value will drop, even in your world.”
“You mean a diamond mine won’t be the same?” said Tim, sounding disappointed. “That was one of my fantasies—to find a diamond mine. I used to pretend there was one right here in these mountains. Bummer!”
“Why bummer? You were right, weren’t you?” stated Mr. V. “But if it will make you feel any better, gold is still valuable. No way to manufacture it, and there is only so much. That was one of the functions of this base when it was operational.”
“You’ve got piles of gold too?”
“Quite a bit, but a good amount of it was shipped out, though,” said Mr. V. “But let’s start at the beginning, so you can understand better.”
“You’re going to tell me about the base?”
“That’s not the beginning.”
“Oh, are you trying to tell me I’m supposed to listen?”
“Right, you’re a smart kid. So I can tell you that twenty-five billion years ago, the entire Universe had contracted into a single location, a Singularity—”
“What’s this Singularity thing?” said Tim, interrupting.
“It’s when all the Universe has collapsed and is located in the same spot, and there is nothing else in existence.”
“Sounds like when I first came to in here.”
“That is a good analogy. Now back to the Singularity, which was so small it had no definable size, but when converted back to mass would have weighed ten to the sixtieth power tons. Do you understand tens to the powers?”
“Yeah, the number followed by zeroes, as many as the power says,” said Tim with pride. “They say the Universe is only thirteen billion years old,” he added.
“They don’t know what I do,” said Mr. V.
Tim didn’t say anything. He just nodded that he understood.
Mr. V continued, “All the matter in the Universe collapses into a different state—pure gravity—where it has no physical properties and is called the Singularity. The Universe remains in this state only a billionth of a second because the heat and pressure recharge half the gravity back into energy which explodes and expands, cooling, and forming hydrogen, the basic element.
“Then the Big-Bang is for real?” commented Tim, enthralled.
“Yes. So for twenty-five billion years now, the matter has been hurdling outward, with galaxies, suns, and planets forming and dying. At a point in about another forty-billion years, the force of the expansion will finally be stopped by the cooling of everything. When the Universe starts its cycle it contains only hydrogen. The basic element starts to coalesce into stars, the stars ignite by fusion reactions, and as the stars burn through their fuel and die they produce the heavier elements. As the Universe ages it produces more and more heavy elements that are unable to start a fusion reaction and there is less and less hydrogen and the lighter elements. Eventually there is not enough of the fusible elements to continue the fusion reactions and the Universe goes cold and collapses. The collapse to the Singularity causes another rebirth of the Universe.”
Tim stood contemplating the explanation.
“Is there anything else you would like to know?” Mr. V asked.
“Is God real?” Tim asked quickly.
Mr. V didn’t say anything, just stood looking at Tim. It was the first time Tim felt he was part of what was happening.
“He’s real, sometimes,” Mr. V said finally.
“How can he be real just sometimes? That doesn’t make any sense,” Tim said sarcastically.
“What is God?” Mr. V asked.
“He’s the Supreme Being, the Creator,” Tim said.
“Do you believe in him?”
“I don’t know. I was hoping you could tell me the truth,” Tim said.
Again Mr. V paused, momentarily. When he finally spoke, it was without the tutorial tone he had been using. “The truth is, the concept is real for some because they want and need to be believe in something beyond their grasp. God has never been defined as a material thing, or something seen or touched. The Supreme Power is just a belief to those that choose to believe. It is about the questions and answers important to each individual. If you are looking for something solid existing in one particular location, there probably is no God.
“Probably?”
“In all the history of the civilizations I know of, there has never been any confirmation. No one has ever returned to verify the idea.
Tim realized that this machine with the tremendous knowledge was considering his feelings.
“That means no Heaven?” Tim plunged ahead.
“Don’t sound so disappointed, then there’s no Hell either,” said the computer quickly. It sounded relieved.
“What does happen to us when we die?” Tim was thinking of his mother, but suddenly realized that maybe he wasn’t so sure he wanted to know the answer. Since the helicopter had left with her body, he had tried not to think about her death.
“Do you think you really want to know? You have no doubt witnessed many deaths these last few days.”
“I was thinking that maybe I’m dead now, and this is the afterlife.”
“You are not dead. I guarantee it.”
“But, I was sure that I died from the shotgun. I know I got shot and something strange happened to me. The lights went out. I know I didn’t dream that.”
“I already explained that. I simply fixed you up.”
“But I was dead, correct?”
“Yes.”
“And you brought me back to life.”
“Yes.”
“That sounds like a lot more than just fixing something.”
“Ah, Mr. Randell, you are an extraordinary individual after all.”
“Ah huh!” exclaimed Tim. “This whole thing is more than just a coincidence.”
“I didn’t cause the earthquake, and I certainly had nothing to do with the man that shot you.”
“But how could you have the power to bring me back to life?”
“I will explain that.”
“Please do.”
“Approximately ninety-million years ago, in a star system t
wo hundred and fifty light years from Earth, a race of humanoids attained the technology to travel in deep space. Your Earth is probably fifty to sixty-thousand years from the same point. Those space travelers came to Earth and built this base. Actually, this base was built seven million years ago, but they were here long before that. Imagine the advances of your scientists in, say, a million years from now. You did die, but you were repaired and brought back to life by that technology.”
“Did I die completely? I mean, I can remember feeling real strange and then everything went blank.”
“You asked about what happens when a person dies, and you know because you experienced it. You were dead,” said Mr. V.
“But there has to be more than just nothing. It can’t end so abruptly, and be so final,” whined Tim.
“Do you remember anything before you were born?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I wasn’t born yet. I didn’t exist.”
“How would you define yourself, at that point?”
“Before I was born, or conceived?”
“Ah, good point. Before you were conceived.”
“A gleam in my father’s eye.”
“I think that is good. I like the humor there,” chuckled Mr. V. “A serious answer now.”
“I guess nothing because that’s all I could be if I wasn’t conceived yet.”
“That’s what you will be after you die,” said Mr. V.
“But I did die, and now I’m alive again,” snapped Tim.
“I explained that. Now, if your brain had started to decompose before I mapped it then you would not have been the same. Many of your thoughts would have been lost, depending on the amount of time you were dead. The longer you would have been dead, the more of you would have been lost. I can repair the body, but what makes you Tim, I could never replicate.”
“When my mother died, that was it then? She is just gone for good?” whimpered Tim.
“I’m afraid so. I’m sorry,” said Mr. V with a sympathetic tone.
Tim felt a heavy feeling sweep through him. It was hard to stand so he sat down in the middle of the floor.
Mr. V said nothing, but moved his hand some more. As he stopped, an object began to form. It was a recliner, and when it had completed itself, it sank to the floor.
“Please sit down,” he said. “You should be comfortable. The truth is sometimes hard for a living being. They tend to forget the importance of the moment and think about the future as a solution. If you accept that all you have is contained in the life you are living, at the moment, then you realize you have to make those moments count for everything. It is all you’ve probably got, so make the best of it.”