Charlie Boone

by Geron Kees

Life Is Like A New Suit of Clothes, Charlie Boone! - Chapter 7

"It was in the time of our first expansion to the stars," First Captain Anon began. "In the earliest days, in fact. Our technology was primitive by today's standards, and our experience equally limited. Early attempts at starflight did not come with the technologies we have today. The first star systems my people colonized were reached with sublight vehicles that relied on relativistic speeds to get colonists to new worlds in acceptable periods of time for those aboard ship. As a prelude to this period of expansion, we had sent out interstellar probes to the nearest dozen star systems around our own, where three worlds were found among them that were close enough to our own homeworld in size and position around their stars to be candidates for suitable homes for our colonists. One world was quite close to our own in habitability, but the two others were borderline, and needed to be nudged."

"Nudged?" Browbeat asked. "You mean changed? As in planetforming?"

"Yes." Anon squinted at them. "The probes had been designed to search first for any life, and to reject worlds that showed even the slightest sign of being inhabited by any form of intelligence. The first world -- the one closest in nature to our own -- displayed animal life in great abundance, but none that even remotely qualified as sentient and sapient life according to the specifications the probe had been given. Still, it was determined that colonists dispatched to this world would need to make a final determination upon arrival as to the habitability of the planet, because our probes simply were not intelligent enough on their own at that time to make a final determination."

"But the problem was not with that world at all," Chi Baradee said. "It proved to have no intelligent life, and was a perfect colony world."

The first captain nodded. "Yes. The other two worlds were of the right mass and the correct distance from their suns, but their atmospheres were not friendly to our sort of life, at all. The probe investigating the first of these worlds reported very little land above a worldwide ocean, and it was deemed unsuitable for a first colonization attempt. That left the third world, which was too warm for our people, and which had far too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But otherwise, it was the correct mass and the correct distance from its sun. And, there seemed to be no life above the cellular level on this world at all. The lack of high-order life meant that we could employ our technology to change the world into something more agreeable to our kind. That project was approved."

"Sounds perfect," Browbeat said. "What was the catch?"

Baradee shook her head at them. "Until that time, no one had any notion of fourth-order or fifth-order life forms. Until you actually encounter them, you simply cannot imagine they might exist."

Charlie saw the light then. "This third world was inhabited."

"Yes." Anon looked decidedly unhappy. "The probe simply was not equipped to understand them, and recorded their presence as unexplained static discharges between the atmosphere and the ground. Our limited experience with alien atmospheres at that time offered no warnings that this might be anything other than some odd natural phenomena. So, while thought unusual at the time, no one at home had any notion that these might actually be living beings. A group of planetforming machines was dispatched to the system to reshape this world into something more friendly before the colonists were sent. The atmosphere reconditioning was a violent process, by any standard, and it needed to be completed well before the colonists arrived, in order to have time to settle into its new patterns."

Kippy frowned and shook his head. "That sounds bad for anyone living there."

All four Loturi winced. "Obviously," Chi Baradee said quietly.

"Fortunately, the Kawisp were able to leave the surface of their world for the safety of orbital heights, but the trappings of their civilization on the planet's surface were erased altogether. These beings have art and science and literature just as we do, but absolutely none of it appears to us as anything but elements of nature sometimes arranged into startling combinations. Nothing in our experience had geared us to recognize such an alien species, or their works."

"Horace says he understands that," Adrian sent to them. "He says Gretchen produces works of her own, but they mostly appear to us as parts of nature perhaps run a little wild. Her ability to reform things is amazing. He says that fourth-order beings must share some of this same ability to blend with nature and create with it."

"So...what happened?" Kippy asked. "Your people eventually got there and found...?"

Anon nodded. "The Kawisp had resettled their changed world after the planetformers had completed their operations, and had no trouble living there. One atmosphere is as good as another to them, within certain bounds. But the elements of their civilization had been totally destroyed, and they were not happy about it."

"The planetforming machines simply remained in orbit after their missions were complete," Rorna spoke up then. "The Kawisp had time to examine them, and learn some things about them. Unlike us, these people had already made limited trips among the stars on their own, and they understood about third-order life forms such as we. So, they recognized the planetformers as the work of a third-order species. When the colonizer arrived with our people, the Kawisp instantly recognized the vessel as being the work of the same technology that had destroyed their civilization. They, uh, rose in great numbers to encircle the vessel."

"It was a very tense meeting," Chi Baradee told them. "There was no technology available then for interpreting the mental talents, and the probes lacked any ability to recognize the Kawisp by their mental emissions. But the people among the colonists that were sensitives immediately understood that these were intelligent beings. The full realization of what had happened to the Kawisp came upon them quite rapidly."

"I don't suppose it was easy to talk to them, either," Robin mused.

"No," Anon agreed. "One it was realized that the Kawisp communicated within the same part of the electromagnetic band as our communicators work, it became a matter of learning their language. It was still a number of years before we could properly understand each other, though."

"What happened to the colonists?" Kippy asked.

"A support base was needed for the communication project with the Kawisp. The colonizer vessel was, unfortunately, required to remain on site for some years while this project was completed."

"They wanted to stay," Chi Baradee explained. "The colonizer was equipped to support them for much longer than their trip to the new world had taken. Had they arrived and found the planet still unsuitable for colonization for some reason, they would still have had to have the ability to go elsewhere. So, they remained for some years, because they felt they needed to do that much, at least."

"It was, coincidentally, around the point of real communication being established with the Kawisp that darkspace interstellar travel was perfected," Anon picked up the tale. "Negotiators were sent from home, and reparations were offered to the Kawisp.The new drive was installed on the colonizer, and the colonists were sent to the world we had already colonized. Some time passed as negotiations with the Kawisp continued, and most of their people seemed to accept the idea that we had made an honest if terrible mistake. But there was always one faction--"

"The chelpee." Chi Baradee injected, shaking her head sadly.

Anon nodded. "Yes. That faction of the Kawisp population never accepted what was done to them as anything but purposeful, and they have been a problem for our people on and off for the last eight centuries or so."

"That's a long time to hold a grudge," Robin said, his eyes moving to settle on Charlie. "Unless it's all one lifetime, that is."

Obviously, the man was thinking that that period of time was his own age on earth. A lifetime for him, but many lifetimes for others.

"That's the problem," Anon agreed, " The chelpee that harass us today are the same ones that were wronged by us all those years ago. No one is sure how long the Kawisp live, but it's not a number that seems will relax the chelpee hatred for us anytime soon."

Charlie tapped is fingertips together gently, gazing at Anon over the tops of them. "The information they have stolen? May I ask just what danger if poses for your people should the Abask obtain it?"

Anon was silent a moment, gazing at them. "I am actually not at liberty to divulge details on that at this time." He held up a hand. "We and the Abask are not at war, nor even openly hostile to each other. Yet each of our peoples strives to stay one step ahead of the other, especially in this area of our empires where we are directly competing for new territory. Every advantage must be exploited, every advance kept hidden from the other side. Projects in the works could be endangered should their presence and purpose become known. The people involved in these projects could be subject to injury, or even killed."

"Both sides are fairly aggressive in this," Chi Baradee pointed out. "Those of our people that perform these projects in secrecy understand that their Abask counterparts perform in much the same way. While no open war exists, there are skirmishes behind the scenes that occasionally lead to fatalities. We wish to avoid any loss of life on either side, actually."

Charlie turned to look at the planet, which view had been restored in every display. "The way these Kawisp manage star travel? You could catch them if they left the planet?"

The first captain smiled. "When they enter darkspace for travel, something in their makeup is triggered that causes them to emit in a wide range of the spectrum. They are quite easy to follow anywhere they go, as they are the single most electromagnetically radiant object within darkspace."

"I'm assuming he means the Cooee, when he refers to darkspace," Rick sent. "We know from our own experiences with the Beltracians that ways exist to follow other vessels in that realm. It's probably even easier to tail something that lights up sensors like a beacon."

"But fifth-order beings travel between the stars at sub-light, at relativistic velocities," Adrian pointed out. "What makes these fourth-order folks different?"

"Oh...wait," Rick sent. "Uh...Amtapora says that the different perspective on the passing of time causes fifth-order beings to not worry about the time element of star travel. At relativistic speeds, they get where they are going soon enough for them. Fifth-order entities also travel alone, even if more than one of them is heading for the same destination. These Kawisp seem to band together into a single container for star travel. Amtapora supposes, though, that should they wish to utilize the Cooee, the fifth-order entities certainly could do it if they applied themselves to solving the problem, something the Kawisp seem to have already done."

Kippy sighed. "This could become a headache, I think."

Charlie smiled at his boyfriend, and then turned back to the Loturi. "I'm sorry for the delay. We were consulting with others back aboard our vessel on tracking the Kawisp should they make a break for it."

Anon held a hand out to them. "But if they feel safe on this world, why would they attempt to leave with us waiting for them?"

Charlie smiled. "We need to give them an incentive to come out from behind the Ardvoon's defenses." He let the smile fade. "Or, we need a way to get to the planet below."

Anon's eyes widened as he watched them. "You have an idea on this?"

Charlie frowned briefly. "Possibly. We need to return to our vessel to discuss this." He got to his feet. "We'll keep you informed of what we decide to do."

Back aboard Investigator, Charlie called a meeting. They assembled in the command chamber, where the view of the planet, the stars, and the distant bright specks of the Loturi ships fully brought home to them where they were and what they were doing. Charlie had initially viewed this jaunt as a bit of a game, a problem to be solved, just another investigation to be brought to a conclusion. But now that he had a better idea of the history that had brought these different peoples together, and met one of the races involved...

He liked the Loturi. He was not naive enough to think that every member of this alien race was as decent as the people he had met thus far; but it did say something about them that there were at least some good people involved with pushing the empire's borders forward. The Loturi were a far cry from the cold and calculating Moth or the suspicious, hostile Braunigan. They seemed much more like people he knew at home. People he respected.

People he thought of as friends.

Kippy leaned up against him after he had expressed his feelings about Anon and his people, and gave forth a contented sigh. "You know a good thing when you see it, love."

Charlie smiled at his boyfriend. "I take that to mean you agree with my assessment of the Loturi?"

"Certainly. I knew I liked them pretty quickly. Skwish hasn't failed me yet."

Robin nodded. "Anon has an honorable streak in him, definitely. I think his co-commanding officers do as well, but they are less experienced, a little more wary, and less trusting of their gut instincts as yet." He grinned. "And Chi Baradee is one of those sweet older ladies with a tough backbone and the sort of insistence that gets things done. She's a bold one, no doubt in my mind. A little patience will need to be applied there."

Charlie laughed at that. "That was my appraisal of her, too. Curiosity, and the nerve to back it up."

"What are you thinking about as a plan, Charlie?" Rick asked. "I mean, I can't think of a single way to deal with these, um, Ardvoon, and certainly not the defense they've shrouded their planet in. My senses can't get a handle on it. It's apparently not skwish like we know it."

Charlie nodded. "We could use Keerby's experience about now. Or Max. Their knowledge of the Hernacki would be invaluable in dealing with the inhabitants of the planet below. But, we don't have either of them." He turned to grin at Horace. "So, you'll just have to fill in, my friend."

The ghost hunter gaped at him. "I don't know anything about these Ardvoon!"

Charlie gave his friend a patient nod."No, but you do know about Gretchen, and you even understood Pyewacket pretty well. You have a feel for these kind of fifth-order...well, they're people, surely."

Horace blew out a brief breath. "I don't even know where to start."

Everyone was silent a moment, watching Charlie.

"Something happened last Christmas while we were in Twombly," Charlie said slowly. "When we listened to the squirrel song. It woke up some new skwish in us, brought to life the mind-touch. I have been wrestling with the why of that ever since."

Kippy sighed gently. "I don't know why it happened. But I do remember the feel of it."

"So do I," Rick agreed. "It was like something untying inside my head. Something squiggly, opening up."

Charlie nodded. "That was what I remember, too. A sort of pressure, or movement, and then a sudden release. And then Kip's voice inside my head."

"I sensed what it was right away," Kip offered. "Don't ask me how I knew, though."

"I felt it like that, too," Browbeat put in. "Like a door got pushed open, is how I remember it."

"We didn't get that," Amy said, shaking her head. "Horace and I were there, but that new skwish didn't happen for us."

"And I have been wondering why, too," Charlie said.

"My Uncle Bob didn't get it, either," Rick pointed out.

"I wasn't there," Robin said. He smiled. "Much to my regret, now. Some mind-touch would certainly come in handy."

"Castor was instrumental in the squirrels learning to speak to us," Charlie said. He laid his hand on his chest, felt a brief glow of warmth in response. "I have been wondering of late what else he might have had a hand in that day."

The warmth grew, and Charlie sensed a satisfied feeling from the amulet. It said volumes, and now he nodded. "And...I may have the answer."

Kippy's eyes widened. "You think Castor is responsible for our learning the mind-touch?"

Charlie considered that a moment. "I don't always know what is intentional with Castor, and what may simply be an added gift that goes along with the things he does. But it occurs to me now that Castor is also a fifth-order life form, like Gretchen, and Pyewacket, and the hernacki. And, like Elias, and like his people on the planet below."

"I guess we're still catching up on the terminology," Rick mused. "But I did get that Castor was an immaterial being, like Pyewacket and Gretchen."

Horace frowned at that. "I should have thought this over more clearly."

Charlie smiled at the older man. "You're learning, just like us."

Amy patted her husband's arm. "Stop worrying."

"I'm not worrying. I already knew our earth was home to many forms of life, and that Gretchen was far from alone there in her category. I think I was just slow in seeing how different fifth-order life can be. Some communicate with us simply in pictures, or emotions, or impressions. Others can sit down and have tea, and talk to us about the World Series." He smiled. "I am fascinated by all of this."

"Castor is very catalytic," Charlie went on. "I am starting to believe that one of his talents is combining all the forces in play at any given time, and causing them to yield profitable results. For us, I mean."

"Why didn't he ever convey that to us?" Adrian asked.

"Maybe we had to learn about it, ourselves," Browbeat offered.

Charlie nodded. "You may be right. Learning requires thought, participation, and then more thought. Having things given to you seldom allows you to realize their full potential."

A small burst of warmth at his chest told Charlie he was on the right track.

Charlie put a hand over the amulet, and looked down at where he knew Castor resided. "You helped with the mind-touch?"

Another burst of warmth arose, gleeful, satisfied; but then a strong sense that it had been a joint effort. Charlie smiled. "The big question now is...can you assist others in birthing this talent, if they have it?"

Something very strange happened then. Charlie felt the warmth from the amulet again, but it seemed to get very large now, very suddenly, until it filled the air of the chamber around them.

Amtapora spoke to them then, through Grim. "Your associate is speaking to me, Charlie."

Charlie simply stared at Kip, this hardly being the reaction he'd expected.

But Kippy gasped. "Amtapora is a telepathic entity," he said then. "He can't mind-touch with us directly, but Castor..."

His boyfriend broke off and briefly stiffened, then relaxed, and his eyelids drooped as if he had fallen asleep. Charlie felt the same sense of torpor overcome him. But it was a physical inability to respond, not a mental one. His eyes were able to move with some effort, and he found all the others sitting just as rigidly as he was himself. Even Browbeat seemed quiet, though Charlie had to wonder how his purely technological body could be so affected.

Into this brief moment of stillness was poured an incredible whirlpool of connectivity. Charlie suddenly felt the ship around them come to life, an intense, vibrant thing, with amazing little bundles of information flowing every which way at blinding speeds. Things got done -- many things, incredible things, a billion and more things; a constant cyclone of activity, much of which he couldn't understand at all. His thoughts were pulled along with these tiny bundles of energy as they progressed in their missions, flowing first outward to the very hull of the ship, but then returning at astonishing speeds to something central, something almost brilliant in intensity; a magnificent orb of light that sparkled and glowed with life and energy.

But in those moments he came to know Investigator far more intimately than he had, and understood that the ship was almost a living thing, with a central brain that was Amtapora, and a smaller, also brilliant orb that was Grim. The starship was an enormously capable instrument, operating on a level of awareness and efficiency he had never before imagined. The builders of this ship had not merely produced a container to carry them about the stars, they had fabricated a form of life that would assist them, safeguard them, and participate in their explorations like no other vessel before it.

Charlie could sense the others around him, all his friends, close and comforting, and filled with an amazement equal to his own at what was happening. But he no sooner sensed their presence then he sensed something else closing in on his mind, something that resolved itself as Castor. The life that called the amulet home was free now, unconfined, joined in some way with the vessel around it, and the the minds that operated it. The three came closer, and once again Charlie could feel a small pressure in his mind; but this time it only briefly touched him before moving on.

To the others.

"What's happening?" Rick's mind-touch came, sounding at once amazed and baffled. "It feels like we're merging with the ship!"

"This is some big stuff!" Browbeat added, following with a mental titter that made Charlie smile in his mind. "And fun!"

"So, this is what it's like," a new voice added.

Charlie couldn't cover his surprise. "Robin?"

"The one and only."

"I seem to be here, too," Horace's thought came.

"What have we gotten into now?" Amy added.

"This is wonderful!" Kip followed with, his happiness at the experience coming across clearly. "We're bonding, somehow!"

"Something new has been added!" Adrian said, sounding delighted.

"I'm feeling some crazy big energy spikes here, Charlie!" Rick called. "I hope we don't blow a fuse or something!"

Something else touched their minds then: something sizeable, something old, and just brimming with curiosity. A series of mental pictures came to them then, but they were oddly distorted. Many of the pictures were of the interior of Investigator, but here, the corridors were walked by a tall, slender species that Charlie didn't recognize at all. Their images were blurred, and no details could really be made out. But Charlie somehow knew that these were the people that had built Investigator, so long ago.

The corridors vanished just as quickly as they had come, and now there were images of strange worlds, amazing places one could have only dreamed of, and other places less appealing, the stuff of nightmares, maybe. But there was no threat to be felt with those images; they were simply alien worlds, viewed in passing, places that had once been, and which might still be out there, but from which the tall, slender aliens had now likely vanished. The images of places came so quickly it was almost unnerving, because, even as quickly as they flashed by, Charlie got a solid glimpse of every single one of them. Enough to tell him that Investigator had once traveled far and wide within the galaxy, and had been instrumental in the operations of the people that had built and manned her. The ship had been important.

So, why had it been left alone on a barren plain, on a fragment of stone orbiting an inhospitable sun? What had happened to the people that had walked her corridors, filled her science halls, searched the stars for new experiences, new facts, new insights on the journey of life?

A thought came then, not in words, not in pictures, but in a manner that suggested both, but really weren't either. Yet the meaning came across to their minds clearly: I am alone no more!

The alien images slowed then, and faded away. For a moment Charlie felt himself back in the command chamber with the others, but not separately, not apart. They were together in mind if not in body, and the large and old and curious thing that they now felt was Amtapora was there with them, with Grim along for an exciting ride, and another presence, small, bright, and warm, that Charlie just knew had to be Castor.

But he barely had time for that to register before their group presence turned and simply moved, moved at a rate which instantly had them outside the hull of the ship and flying at tremendous velocity towards the planet nearby. The globe of the strange world grew larger with an almost terrifying speed, and Charlie was bracing for the plunge into the atmosphere when they suddenly slowed to a walking pace, and then stopped.

It...was almost like traveling in his second presence, but he knew instinctively that it wasn't the same thing. This was more like something entirely visual at a mental level, like stepping through a telescope to arrive at a place he had only been looking at from afar a moment ago. He had no sense that he could teleport here, to arrive alongside his mental viewpoint. It seemed this was all input, with no real output, no real action, possible.

But then something else took his attention. Nearby, he sensed something he could not see, something that touched his senses like a wall, but one which was absolutely immaterial and crystal clear. He could see the swirling, twisting patterns of clouds far below, but knew then that if he reached out with a mental hand, he could not touch them, could never reach them, no matter how much or how long he tried.

"This must be the defense the Ardvoon put up," Rick said. "It sure doesn't seem to have any holes in it we can sneak through."

"It's alive, kind of," Adrian said then. "It's made of and by the inhabitants of this planet. It stops anything they don't want to pass through it, and allows everything they do want to come in."

"So, how do we make it want us to come in?" Robin asked.

"I very much doubt we can do that," Rick came back. "This defense seems to know everything that's allowed, and everything that's not. Those rules can only be changed by deliberate decisions on the part of the inhabitants below."

"Perhaps if we make ourselves resemble something that is allowed through?" Horace suggested.

"How do we do that?" Amy wondered. "This is all terribly new to me!"

"Not just you!" Robin returned, along with a mental chuckle. "This has the feeling of a Chinese puzzle box, but one where you need more than ten fingers to open it!"

Charlie had to agree. The alien defense was solid in a way he had never experienced solid before. He instinctively knew there would be no trick that would allow them to pass through it. What could one expect from pure energy beings who had millions of years to sit around and come up with stuff like this?

"I don't know why we're here," he told the others, "unless it's to show us there is no way through the defense."

"Maybe that's exactly why we're here," Browbeat offered. "To let us know we have to think of something other than going through this thing!"

For a moment the new crew of Investigator were silent, while the the trio of ghosts of energy that were Amtapora, Grim, and Castor hovered nearby. But Charlie sensed something then, from one or the other, or, maybe even all of the nearby entities: approval.

He laughed. "Browbeat, you certainly have a way of getting to the heart of things!"

The flier tittered in his thoughts. "I sure try!"

"Maybe turn ourselves a little, to get a better look at it?" Kippy asked.

"We can't even see it!" Rick responded.

"Huh?" Charlie's boyfriend made a confused sound. "Oh...wait. Here, share what I see..."

And just like that, something interposed itself between Charlie's eyes and the planet below. Rather than being simply invisible to their eyes, the alien defense now looked like tinted glass. It stretched away in every direction, an immense, gray, transparent globe, simply unbelievable in size. The planet now looked like it had been dunked into a fishbowl of tinted glass.

"How'd you do that?" Rick asked, his surprise clear.

"I didn't really do anything," Kippy said. "I already saw it this way when we neared it."

"A filter of some sort," Robin mused. "Something natural in Kip's mind, that the rest of us don't have." He laughed. "Or, have yet!"

"It's visible now," Browbeat said, sounding thoughtful. "But I still don't sense a way through it. I'm thinking because there isn't one."

"That's what I feel," Amy entered. "I think you were right earlier, that we have been led here to see we can't pierce this defense. But I can't see any reason we'd be brought here at all, unless there was some other way to bypass this wall."

"So, it's a guessing game?" Adrian asked. "That hardly seems fair!"

"No," Charlie decided. "It's not meant to be unfair. It's meant to be instructive. We are being given a chance to get a handle on what this thing is, and perhaps figure out what to do about it."

"You think Amtapora and Castor know how to get inside?" Amy asked.

"Actually--" Charlie paused a moment, considering that very idea. "I don't think that. I think they are assisting us with getting here to the wall, and hoping we can come up with something to do about it."

"Kip has already provided us with a look at it," Browbeat said. "That's more than we could do before. Maybe this is a problem we're all meant to work on."

"Hey, there you go," Robin sent. "Think of it as being brought to a castle you've only viewed from a great distance, and finally seeing the wall around it that wasn't visible from miles away."

"That's hardly the same," Rick answered. "A castle wall may be so thick and so strong that you can't go through it, but you can always go over it."

"Yes, but once upon a time, that was very hard to do," Robin replied instantly. "At first people were stymied by the wall. Then, ladders came into use to scale walls, but defenders came up with ways to deal with those. Walls got taller and harder to scale. Attackers responded with shielded siege engines and breaching towers to get closer under defensive fire, and trebuchet to weaken the thinner tops of the walls. And, one day, cannons and gunpowder ended all but the thickest, strongest walls as a means of defense."

"I can't even imagine a siege engine that could deal with this thing," Horace offered. "Unlike a castle wall, which has length, width, and height, this defense is continuous, and all one piece."

"Yeah, a castle wall is three-dimensional," Rick agreed, "while this defense is...hmm."

"What are you thinking?" Adrian asked immediately.

"I'm wondering if this defense is also three-dimensional, just continuous. We could teleport through a three-dimensional wall, if we had been inside it first. Right?"

"We wouldn't even need that," Kippy countered. "We can teleport to any location we can see. I can see inside this thing, and I know you can, too."

Rick offered a mental huff of irritation. "I've already searched for the moment of teleport to go inside this sphere. It just doesn't come."

There was a brief pause as everyone that could teleport tried on their own to see if the all-important moment of teleport would come to them for a space inside the sphere.

"It's no good," Kip decided. "We can see beyond the gray wall, but the moment of teleport won't come. Despite being able to see the destination, something prevents us from the sense of being able to go there."

"Maybe it's because you're not really here, at the point of observation?" Amy asked. "Your bodies are still aboard Investigator."

"That shouldn't matter," Adrian said. "We should still be able to feel a moment of teleport between our bodies and what we can see, as well as an indicator as to whether it was safe to teleport there or not. We can't feel either."

"Which means that teleportation is a bit more complex a process than we have imagined," Robin supplied. "I suppose this defense really does forbid that passage of thought. Even the very subtle part of thought that provides a link to a teleport destination."

"What about your second presence, Charlie?" Rick asked. "Have you tried that yet?"

Charlie grunted. "I suppose I should try, just to make sure it won''t pass."

He concentrated, and moved his mind outward, feeling a very odd sense of deja vu, because his mind moved from within Investigator to arrive at the spot where his mental viewpoint had already been taken by Amtapora and Castor. "That was weird," he offered to the others, though now his thoughts returned to the mission at hand. He approached the gray wall in mind. As he neared it he felt a strange action at the back of his mental neck, so to speak, like a static charge causing his hair to stand up. He slowed, feeling a sudden reluctance to make contact with the odd gray surface of the defense. Somehow, it looked different close up. Less smooth, maybe, or somehow, less organized...chaotic was the word that came to mind. But, they couldn't learn anything unless he tried to go through, could they?

He reached the wall, made to plunge through it...and suddenly found himself moving away from the wall, going back the way he had come. He stopped, reversed course, and once again tried to penetrate the defense. And, again, found himself heading back towards the ship.

He dropped the link with his second presence then, and again experienced the weird sense of been there, done that that accompanied his return to the others.

"It doesn't work," he told them, feeling just a little disappointed at having to tell them that. "So much for feeling that my second presence could take me anywhere."

Robin asked him what he had experienced, and he related the tale to the others.

"I'm made to wonder at your definition of 'chaotic'," Robin said. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"I don't really know," Charlie responded. "From here, the surface looks smooth, almost polished. Glassy. But close up...it made my mental eyes hurt, somehow."

"It sounds like your second presence was reflected somehow," Amy mused.

"That's what it sounds like," Adrian replied, but sounding more than a little thoughtful. "But... somehow, I don't think that's what really happened."

"I agree," Robin immediately followed with. "I don't think you bounced off and headed back the other way."

Charlie sighed. "Then what?"

For a moment no one had anything more to offer.

And then Robin spoke up again. "Something about our earlier conversation sticks in my mind."

"What part?" Kippy asked.

"The part where we were talking about the castle wall. Rick said a castle wall has three dimensions, while this Ardvoon defense has...and he left it at that."

"I was just rambling," Rick explained.

Robin laughed in mind. "But you were rambling coherently, my friend."

"He's not often known to do that," Adrian said then, with a mental chuckle.

"Ah, but suppose he actually hit on something this time?" Robin let a small mental sigh escape. "Suppose the object we can see, this Ardvoon defense, is not a three-dimensional object at all?"

"It looks like a normal sphere," Amy said. "What I can see of it, anyway."

"Maybe we're not seeing all of it, though," Robin suggested. "Maybe because we can't see all of it."

Charlie's own reading caught up with him then. "Are you suggesting it's some form of hypersphere?"

Robin's answering chuckle sounded pleased. "You make this easy, Charlie. But, no, I am not prepared to say that this defense is in the form of a classical hypersphere, as in a four-dimensional n-space object. What I'm suggesting is that this defense may not be a true sphere in three dimensions as it so far appears to us."

"Wouldn't it look different then?" Horace asked.

"That depends on what we're actually seeing. The surface of a hypersphere, at least, might appear to be three-dimensional to our eyes and still be embedded in a four-dimensional space. It would then be a subset of a larger space with characteristics that do not follow in our own space. For instance, what we are seeing may not be an actual representation of what's before us at all."

"We see a planet," Rick argued. "That's obvious."

"I get it," Browbeat said than. "You mean that what we see may not be what actually lies on the other side of the defense sphere!"

"Exactly," Robin went on. "We think we see the planet, but is that even true? What appears below us could be the other side of this world instead of the one facing us, or a polar view, or even an image of what this world looked like in another period of time, past or future. I suppose it could even be a view of a completely different world, as well."

Charlie frowned at that. "But a four-dimensional object -- or any other higher number of dimensions -- couldn't be viewed in our three-dimensional universe at all, could it? I remember that these things are simulated in computers, but can't exists in our real world."

"That's why I am not trying to make out this defense as a traditional four-dimensional object. I'm just trying to say that it may not in actuality be a true sphere like what were seeing before us. Fifth-order beings like hernacki can play around in the roots of the universe, and grow some astonishing things. Why not Elias' people, too?"

Charlie looked over at the gray tinted surface of the sphere he could see. "When I tried to enter the sphere in my second presence, it simply turned me around and sent me back."

"That's what it seemed like to you," Robin said. "But how do you know you didn't actually penetrate the sphere, and simply exit it again because the space between the entry point at the outer surface and the point where you might have emerged on the inner surface of the sphere were non-contiguous?

Charlie considered that. "So...you're saying that a straight line approach may not be the best way to get inside this thing," he mused.

"I'm saying that a straight line approach may make it impossible to get inside this thing."

Charlie laughed. "You surprise me, too, Robin. I had no idea you were interested in higher mathematical concepts."

"I'm not. Not really. But when you've been around as long as I have, you tend to read enough that you eventually get to the back of the library."

"Wow," Rick sent then. "I get what Robin means. But how to get around that sort of twisted geometry escapes me."

"That would seem to explain why we can't teleport inside, even though we can see beyond the sphere," Kip said. "What we think we're seeing is not actually what's there. We're not establishing the correct mental link with a true destination, because what we see is not where we think we see it."

Adrian issued a mental sigh. "My head feels like it did after my first beer."

That brought on a group chuckle.

"None of us are equipped with the math to really deal with a defense that possibly exists across more than three dimensions," Charlie offered. "That makes it a tough nut to crack."

"Maybe we don't need to visualize it," Browbeat suggested. "Maybe we just try some unconventional approaches and see what happens?"

"There's no way we can explore this thing except to do it using my second presence," Charlie said. "Going physically seems an impossible task."

"I agree," Robin replied.

"So, what are going to do?" Amy asked.

Kippy's thoughts sounded positive. "I think, before we go try to do any exploring, we each take a moment to assess this defense with our minds, and see if any of us can yield an insight we can use."

"I think that's a very good idea," Horace answered.

"So do I," Charlie agreed. "Okay, guys, that will be the plan. See what we can sense, and then go see where that leads us."

Browbeat tittered happily. "This is so much more fun than being dead!"

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Charlie Boone

by Geron Kees

Life Is Like A New Suit of Clothes, Charlie Boone! - Chapter 7