Time to Time: Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective (Ashton Ford Series) (16 page)

Chapter Twenty-nine:
 
Future Perfect

There were saucers of
every size and description parked in the big vehicle bay or flight deck or
whatever, several as large as fifty feet in diameter—which Donovan identified
as "star craft"—and others no larger than a garbage can cover. I
asked him about the tiny ones and he told me that they were "sensor
scouts." He did not elaborate and it did not seem appropriate to question
further because we'd reached the far end of the catwalk and he was guiding me
into this other large chamber.

In
there, the lighting was soft like twilight and there was a hum in the air, not
like machinery but like hundreds of voices doing a one-note mantra. Pictures
were flickering on the walls in about fifty different patches and there seemed
to be a hundred or so people intently engrossed at a variety of consolelike
devices.

"Operations
Control," Donovan explained as we crossed overhead.

"You
run a tight ship," I observed.

"Oh
we must," he assured me.

Then
we went up a circular stairway and into paradise. I know no other word fitting to
describe this place. It was like a beautiful park with low rolling hills, grass
and trees and flowers, streams and small waterfalls. We'd come up almost into
the center of it, yet it was difficult to see to the end of it in any
direction. Obviously it took up one entire level of this floating city. And it
was not a static scene. People were scattered throughout—playing, talking,
reading, whatever people do anywhere to relax, and I saw children too. The
formfitting bodysuit seemed to be standard but there were many different colors
and even some in multicolors.

I
said to Donovan, "This is very nice."

"The
swimming pools are over there," he said, pointing. "There are game
courts at the peripheries." He smiled at me. "We have concerts under
the stars in the evenings. They are very popular. Of course there are other
diversions possible in the private quarters but we do encourage community to
every practical extent."

I
was looking about, soaking up the delightful atmosphere, as I commented,
"This could be any beautiful spot on earth."

He
said, "Or on any earth. Environments are very important, Ashton.
Especially on long sojourns. And we cannot encourage our people to sample alien
habitats."

"Meaning
no shore leave," I said.

"Nothing
is forbidden," he corrected me.

"You've
come a long way, baby," I told him.

"To
live in harmony is the greatest joy," he told me, the only platitude he
ever gave me, and this one came not as a platitude but as an explanation.

The Maserati was on a
little revolving platform and a group of people were standing around admiring
it, like in an automobile showroom, while another guy opened and closed the
doors, the hood, and the engine compartment. He also honked the horn a couple
of times and started the engine, shifted forward and reverse and crept along
for a few inches in each direction, operated the headlights and the windshield
wipers. During all this, the other people are smiling and nodding their heads
and making comments back and forth.

I
asked Donovan, "Would you please ask the guy to be careful with the
Maserati? She is my greatest treasure and truest love."

He
chuckled and replied, "Don't worry about your car, Ashton. It is in the
very best of hands. But you really should examine your attitudes there, my
friend. A machine is not worthy of love and it is the most perishable of
treasures."

'Well
that one is worthy of my love," I argued, "and I'm going to be buried
in it, so we'll perish together."

Donovan
just laughed.

But
I noticed that his people were really digging the car.

We
were standing at the oval window and I saw two dolphins fly by. They looked
unconscious to me. I asked Donovan, "Are they okay?"

"They're
fine," he assured me. "They'll be home before they know it and they
won't remember a thing."

"Just
how intelligent are these dolphins?" I asked him.

He
said, "Depends on where you're measuring from. Also there are differences
between individuals, the same as any species. These fellows will never build
star cruisers. But they'll never need to do so, either. The dolphins, Ashton,
should be your teachers when it comes to the art of loving relationships."

I
asked him, "What are you doing with them? What's this all about?"

“We
are discharging a debt, Ashton."

"What
kind of debt?"

"Well,
we stole their planet, didn't we."

I
said, "Did we?'

"Of
course. They were the soul of the planet, my brother. We nudged them aside and
substituted our own. In ignorance, of course, but... ah, well. This will
help."

"What
will help?"

"Well,
you—we corrupted their environment. Looted and pillaged it, didn't we. The
ecology of the entire planet has been altered. These fellows were not designed
to cope with the environmental side effects of rampant technology. They would
never survive it, just as we would not if confined to a single planet."

"I've
seen those fellows on another planet," I reminded him.

"Oh
that wasn't a planet," Donovan replied.

"Then
what was it? You told me it was real."

"Real
enough, yes. And entirely real for them. It is a world they built for
themselves, Ashton."

I
caught my breath in a sudden insight. "Built by their minds!"

"Yes.
So what is technology, eh?"

I
couldn't let it go that easy, though. I said, "Some Indian tribes have a
happy hunting ground, a reverie land and what have you, which they believe they
can visit. The dolphins...?”

"Yes,"
Donovan replied, "and others in their family, as well. What you call the
killer whale has evolved a beautiful dreamland which they visit annually in
large groups from a small bay in Canada. But of course all the dreamlands will
be lost if the planet is lost. Earth is but a base, you see, for all the
dreamlands that arise from it. So it is much more than a mere planet in space
and time."

I
felt absolutely staggered by the concept.

I
told Donovan, "Okay. Now maybe I know who the devil is."

"It
is us," he said simply.

"We
can change it," I decided.

"We
are changing it," Donovan told me.

"What
are you doing to the dolphins?"

"Preparing
them."

"For
what?"

"To
inherit the earth."

"After?"

"After
his cousins render it unfit for their own further habitation. They will abandon
it then, as all the others. We are introducing new strains of genetic
components, Ashton. The dolphin will adapt and survive. So think of him as your
successor."

"And
what of us?" I asked quietly.

"I
assumed that was obvious," he replied. "Look at me, Ashton. I am your
future." He touched a plate on the wall, and the scene through the oval
window became a long shot of the floating city as viewed from far away.
"And look at this. It is your future home."

I
said, "I'm not sure I like it, Donovan."

"Pity,"
he said. "It has been your goal for eight hundred million years."

Chapter Thirty:
 
Time Out

Operation
Dolphin was winding down. The shuttling of saucers back and forth across the
airspace had given way to cleanup operations on the ground. Several small
saucers were moving slowly about like vacuum cleaners, sucking up all the
debris and the evidence of the night. I was seated in the lanai at the table
with Penny and Julie. We just sat there, silent, watching the cleanup. Both women
wore the characteristic silver bodysuit. I studied them for a moment,
wondering, then I felt Donovan's mind on mine. I stood up and went to the
corner of the lanai to peer up at the celestial city. Instantly then I found
myself at the opposite end, peering back at myself on the ground.

Donovan
stood beside me. He put an arm around me and squeezed me at the shoulder level.
"Thank you, Ashton. You won't forget us, will you?"

"Fat
chance," I said. "But thanks for what? I've done nothing."

"You've
done more than you realize," he assured me. "But the thanks is for
future favors as well."

I
told him, "I have no idea what you're talking about. I know nothing of
what I am supposed to do."

"As
it should be. You will recognize it when it comes."

I
asked him, "Are you taking the girls with you?"

"Oh
no. Their work is here."

"For
how long?"

"How
does one measure the length of a life? Where does it begin and where does it
end?"

I
said, "Are you telling me they're here for life?"

He
nodded. "For this life."

"I'm
confused about this," I told him. "I would have sworn that both of
those women were...different. Julie even spoke to me in some alien tongue while
she was in trance. Now you seem to be saying..."

"Of
course they are different, as each soul is unique and special. They came into
this life pledged to a specific task. You would call them specialists, and they
came to apply their specialty. At the proper time they were awakened. Granted,
the awakening is sometimes confusing and even painful, especially if a period of
retraining is deemed advisable, but—"

"You've
had them in a training program?"

"Penelope,
yes, because of the delicacy of the mission.
 
Julie...well, not retraining but...Julie had
never consolidated her role, let's put it that way. Therefore her awakening
was particularly sluggish. I am telling you this, Ashton, only because I know
you will take no offense at your role in her awakening."

I
muttered, "That's what it was, eh? You needed someone to awaken the woman
in her? Instead of what?—a dolphin?"

"I
have told you there are many worlds, Ashton. There are also various dimensions
and various stages of life. And there are harmonic realms. Now...your planet occupies
a transfer realm, a vibrant of harmonics. Therefore there is much passage here,
realm to realm. Have you not yet detected the very special dualism of qualities
here?"

I
said, "If you're talking about soul, or spirit...and that reminds me: what
is this bit with the triangle and the pyramid?"

He
smiled and again squeezed my shoulder. "Gave you something to think about,
eh? The triangle is no more than the unity, Ashton, the statement in truth. In
this your vibrant harmonic, the base leg of the triangle is beingness. The
rising legs signify the projection and the return."

"Projection
to where?"

"To
God, of course."

I
said, "Uh-huh. And the pyramid?"

"The
promise."

"Promise
of what?"

"Eternity.
Have you understood nothing from me, my brother? Have I not told you of your
many voyages upon the seas of time and of the timelessness of your quest? Why
are you confused about your sisters when you and they are one? There are no
alien languages, Ashton, there is but the projection and the return. Which role
shall you project this time?-and which role shall return to project again? Your
planet is a harmonic base, my friend, and your time here is but the base of the
triangle."

I
said, "This is confusing, Donovan. I get the feeling you are talking about
repeated lives in different bodies— and that's okay, I can think about that—but
you've also been talking to me about a physical as opposed to a spiritual
odyssey, and I'm having trouble separating the two."

"That
is because they cannot be separated," he replied. "Stop trying to
separate and begin the attempt to unify. After all, Ashton, it is
all
a single reality."

Suddenly I was on the
ground again, peering up from the corner of the lanai. The floating city was
not there but a twelve-foot saucer was. It wiggled at me, then winked out.

I
muttered, "Okay," and went back to join the ladies at the table.

The
dawn was breaking. Julie showed me a self-conscious little smile and poured
coffee for me.

I
said, "Well, it's been quite a night."

Penny
told me, "You are welcome to join us for any sunrise, Ashton. It is always
a very special moment, isn't it."

I
looked at her and then at Julie and replied, "Yes, especially after a very
special night."

Penny
laughed and said, "Well I guess that's one way of looking at it. But I
always think of sunrise as the beginning of a very special day."

I
lowered my eyes to my coffee and replied, "For special people, yeah."

The
vibes there were really weird. I had the god-awful feeling that neither of
these ladies had been where I had been for the past few hours.

Almost
as though to dispute that impression, though, Penny put a hand on my arm and
said, “Thank you again, darling, for taking such good care of me last night.
And I promise I will never do such a foolish thing again. Poor Ted. I cannot
imagine how he must have felt when I bolted away from him like that." She
showed me the patented Laker smile. "Well, all's well that ends well.
Thanks to you, my love."

Now
I felt even weirder. Last night? Had she lost the entire experience?

Julie
showed me another of those embarrassed smiles and told Penny, "Ashton is
interested in our dolphin watches. He's agreed to join us at Zuma next
week."

I
had?

"Well
Ashton would be perfect for this!" Penny declared excitedly. "I'll
bet he would make an excellent channel."

Channel?
She meant medium.

I
smiled secretly and told her, "I think I might have spoken with a dolphin
once, maybe several of them."

Julie
said, "Then maybe you could channel Ambudala."

I
looked away and muttered, "Maybe I could."

"Dee
Townsend receives him, but sort of erratically."

I
was watching the sunrise as I asked, "Who is Ambudala?"

"Dee
says he is a dolphin guide and teacher, a great master."

"In
dolphin heaven," I decided.

"I
guess so."

That
is where we were when Bransen swept in, all bright-eyed and gung-ho and who
would've dreamed it was him. He grabbed my hand and wrung it out, dropped
kisses on the ladies, grabbed some coffee and walked out to look at the pool,
came back with dancing eyes. "Fabulous job!" he said to Penny.
"I wouldn't have believed they could put it in that quick! And not a clod
of dirt anywhere! Who's the contractor?"

Penny
told him, "Ashton brought him to us."

I
looked at Bransen, thought Oh well, and told him, "Guy named Donovan.
Specializes in, uh, unusual developments."

Bransen
told his wife, "Keep that in mind. Maybe we can use him again. Listen, I
bring back great news. This university down in Argentina is abandoning their
marine research program. They have this great facility on a small offshore
island with tanks, pens, the whole works in a strictly natural
environment—absolutely the best for studying marine life. They'll lease the
whole works on excellent terms. I took the liberty, Penny, of signing it on
while I was there." He withdrew a document from his coat pocket and handed
it to his wife.

I
casually inquired, "When was this, Ted?"

He
said, as though replying to the obvious, "Yesterday. You know? Buenos
Aires?"

I
said, "Oh, that yesterday."

He
laughed and punched my arm. "Listen," he told me, "you're just
the guy we need to round up the celebrities for next month's march."

I
said, "Which march is that?"

"The
nuclear protest, dummy. Nukes? Nevada? Underground tests?"

I
said, "Oh, that march."

Well,
that's the way it was going.

I
figured what the hell and sat there and listened to about twenty minutes of the
rebirth of Ted Bransen, then

Julie
walked me to the carport and kissed me tenderly and we agreed to keep in touch.

The
Maserati was sitting there cheek to jowl with Bransen's Bentley.

I
winked at Julie and she winked back as I climbed into the Maserati, wondering
if any of it had actually happened. Certainly something warm had happened with
Julie... but what?

I
eased away from there in a slow withdrawal, my gaze wandering repeatedly into
the heavens. Then as I topped the little knoll where Bransen and I had paused
earlier that morning, I spotted Grover Dalton.

He
wore Levi's and a windbreaker and binoculars, and he was seated on the roof of
his car with legs crossed and a thermos of coffee between them.

I
halted beside him and asked, "Did you see it?"

He
said, without looking at me, "Yeah, I saw it. Is it all over?"

"For
this time, yeah, I think so," I told him. "May as well pack it in and
take it home."

"Thanks,"
he said, "guess I'll give it a while longer. Got nothing else to do."

I
knew the feeling.

I
parked the Maserati and climbed up there with him. We shared the coffee and
some small talk and waited together for possibly one last look.

They
could have forgotten something.

What
the hell, they could come back.

But
of course they did not, not that time. They only come from time to time. They
are older than time, you see, and they ride time like a steed throughout the
universe.

What
is time, anyway? If time is meaningless, then both past and future are mere
abstracts, and forever is now.

And
reality is a golden triangle.