Nothing and Something – Forward 2 - novel
Nothing and Something
The Magic of Faith
Forward 2
J.R.R. Tolkien wrote,
Three Rings for the Elven-kings
under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf -lords
in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed
to die,
One for the Dark Lord
on his throne
The Lord of the Rings: Book One
**J.R.R. Tolkien, Page 49 **
Second Edition pub. 1991
HarperCollinsPublishers
original ©1954, 1965, 1966, 1982
1994
Forward 2
See Forward to explain the naming convention if you have not read it. The link is below.
The Meeting
We know sometimes the past is dark,
Lord shine a little light upon our way,
Give us a mind to know we are alone,
What met us in the void not hidden lay?
To forever, tempt our free thoughts,
To create all catastrophe and disaster,
For this evil considers consequences not,
We entered the darkness to find beyond,
What would someday give us all hope?
Into the vastness we came upon nothing,
Set us free from it and let us go home,
Here us Shzar, most brilliant, listen to-
“The Last Prayer and Communication from the Explorer Class Ship, Venture,” Ariel said to the One, the Most Humble of Litters who sat at the great meeting table opposite Ariel and his litter in the room of private communication within the Temple of Shzar. The room was a very plain room with pure ascetic minimalist light gray ceiling, floor, and walls with the furniture colored white.
“This is devastating indeed,” the One responded. “The Loss of an Explorer class ship and its crew is a loss of irreplaceable persons. They were very intelligent people. We shall mourn them. This is not why we requested the meeting. Did you see our Sun dim for a bit earlier?”
“Yes our sun dims with greater frequency.” Ariel said concerned, “We know this is a problem for far more than here in our solar system.”
“Yes it is,” the One agreed and continued, “But do you know how prevalent the dimming of suns is within our universe and that we consume a tremendous amount of suns each year to power our spacecraft, all the enlightened planets, and all we possess in space?”
“No, is there a pending problem?” Ariel asked.
“The problem is great enough that we wish to secretly undo the safety stops on the three projects, Two of Exploration and what is now called quanta-2.”
“I consulted Shzar yesterday and do not understand what he said about the exploration of the spirit world/subspace or quanta-2. Except, Shzar said he will not allow a physical presence in heaven.
‘As to the exploration of the void, his answer was sent to you as soon as it was revealed. Never enter it. Never interact with what is in the void.”
“Before we received that communication,” the One reported, “Someone other than us sent artificially intelligent probes to assist the Venture. They are without crew and –“.
“Shzar gave permission the crew of the Venture be destroyed, even destroy themselves immediately!” Ariel respectfully emphasized to the One. “Never enter the void. Never interact with what is in there. Never!”
“Are you saying High Priest that we should destroy all our probes and assistance ships? We cannot determine who sent them into the void! An investigation is underway.”
“Can we determine what is there and how to avoid it?” Ariel asked the One.
The One fingered his ring, which is the ring that floated around his head. The ring looked like a thick golden halo. The ring connected husbands and wives, as well as siblings of a litter, especially siblings like the One and Ariel. He laid the ring upon the table and all his brothers did the same. Ariel and his brothers did the same. Now the meeting was truly private no one except those in the room would know what transpired.
“After this meeting,” the One said, “This is not the first time we have entered the void. The mission by Lord 4444217633339999, commander of the Venture, had no authority to enter the void. Either he undertook the mission to start across the void on his own or there is something afoot because there is no trace of who gave permission. Moreover, the last time this happened was 1,003 years, 427 days, 16 minutes ago. Shzar responded the same when questioned then as now. Never enter the void. Never interact with what is in there –“
Everyone in the room except the One, the first of his litter, gasped.
The One continued, “All of you gasped because I searched the entire time we talked and turned off the ring before the results were sent to my siblings. Is there any other place in the entire universe where a meeting can occur without the rings being worn?”
“No,” the litter of Ariel replied, “Nowhere in the entire universe.”
“What about in the void?” the One asked.
“Unknown but we did have contact with the crewmembers of the Venture from inside the observation room, numerous times and for long periods of time,” Ariel answered and looked at his siblings.
Aariell, the second spoke, “I will verify that I received their last transmission from the void near the end of my observation period.”
“I will also state, that I was not the one who authorized the launch of probes and assist ships into the void to redeem the Venture. And then he asked his siblings, did any of you because I have no record of authorization and when the report by Lord 4444217633339999 came to me through you, a warning flashed with all the data on the last mission that failed? Never enter the void.”
The litter of the One reported none of them granted authority for the mission. They were also aware of the warning against entering the void.
“You are the only ones, who can open this room, are you not?” the one asked the Ariel litter.
“Why yes,” Ariel replied, “but this is the first meeting in this room in more than twenty years.”
“What about meetings between you five?” the One asked.
“We have not held a meeting amongst ourselves ever. With the ring, there is no need.” In order, each member of the litter of Ariel firmly stated.
“This is what we know; the Venture was in the void for 31 standard days before Lord 4444217633339999 made his report of contact. In addition, the last ship over a thousand years ago, turned around and entered our universe from the void only, no one was on the ship alive. Shortly thereafter, our Suns began to –“
“Dim and accelerate toward failure at an exponential rate,” AAArielll stated.
“Yes,” the One replied, “precisely.”
“Is it possible one or more of the intelligences in the nothing entered our universe?” Ariel asked.
“That whatever it is that is in the void, a tremendous distance from our universe, somehow entered and began to change our universe somehow?” The One asked and without waiting for an answer said, “What if the nothing intelligence were able to make it to this planet and manipulated everything so the Venture entered the void?”
“There would be no way to tell I suppose,” Ariel stated. “Is the Venture still within the void, is it destroyed?”
“What if this nothing intelligence could operate the rings or the chairs without our knowledge?” The OOOneee interrupted.
“Unknown,” the One stated and then continued, ”Is there any reason to halt quanta-2 research if it could aid us in the identification of whatever is in the void, or somehow protect us from what is there? Two when you ask Shzar, does he ever state there are threats against us we do not understand? Has he revealed more about the nothing in the void? Four is there any reason to continue a secret meeting.” The One looked at everyone around the table individually.
Ariel said, “I was the one who asked the three questions of Shzar and did not understand what he replied concerning travel in the spirit world/subspace, or quanta-2. I sent the answers immediately to all science facilities considered relevant and all religious servants for evaluation. We could put a priority on those?”
“We need to discover if our citizens may be the cause of these actions.” AAriell said.
“Would you have not observed if our citizens were the cause of granting the authorities for the Venture already?” the One asked.
“In theory,” AAAAArielllll answered, “but what bothers me is the strange coincidence that five of the members of the secondary rings of observation Ariel called for at the notification by the Venture of problems with a possible attack by an unknown, undetectable species reported they felt compromised and were disconnected and replaced. There were five of them and five of us. Was that a coincidence?”
“Unknown,” The One said, “After we agree there is no more need to extend the secrecy of this meeting, who has the turn of questioning Shzar?”
“I do,” AAAAriellll answered.
“Perhaps you should ask him all the questions we have asked in here during the meeting. Should the secrecy continue?” The One asked and looked at each one of the persons in the room individually and waited for the response. All answered,
“End the secrecy.” Except AAAAriellll who said, he would ask Shzar every question asked during the meeting.
The One looked at AAAAriellll, “Please go ask Shzar our questions while we wait and we will discuss other matters until your return.”
“Perhaps we should announce the holiday before we continue. A holiday would cover what we do in the event there must be more meetings in person. We could get something to eat and then reconvene if the answers of Shzar require more secrecy,” the OOnee said.
All agreed their rings needed to be accessed, records reviewed while AAAAriellll enquired of Shzar.
The rings were a device that enabled communications between individuals and groups without speaking, access to information, and linked to the mind Ariel felt somewhat alone and helpless without the halo of the ring. For one thing, he missed his connection with his wife.
Acting together as one, Ariel with the rest of litter sealed the doors to the meeting room with the rings. Then as they all walked Ariel sent, “Wait, the rings are off at the altar of questions. Shzar does not talk with us when we wear them. The nothing in the void only communicates when the crewmembers were resting…”
“When the ring moves away from the head,” the One replied, “When the connection to the body is very minimal.”
Nothing and Something Previous:
Preface Link
Introduction Link
Forward Link
Forward 2 Link
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Original work written for Steemit based on a Facebook published outline. Nothing and Something Copyrighted ©2020 Jeff Kubitz – All Rights Reserved and may not be republished without direct written permission.