The Pole Shift

Ebba

The dream like journey was spent asleep, and yet they seemed to be aware of themselves through the eyes of the woman clad in red. She tended their malnourishment, cleaned their bodies. She birthed Lett's twins and held them up not in celebration but in examination. All the while they flowed downwards cradled by a flexible substance, an orange womb, that acted as a vehicle. Their awareness was fickle, sometimes trailing behind the Orb, at other times rushing ahead, each time they would be pulled back sharply as if they were tied by ribbons controlled by the lady. The woman would whisper  in their minds:

                "Don't wander, you don't belong here." They both tried to ask questions, but could not think how to ask. They were only dimly aware of each other's minds, and then as two other entities joined them, the twins. They travelled like DNA strands and as they did their minds altered.

                Time passed. They arrived at an enormous fissure, and stretching out before them an Inner Ocean. Distantly colour bloomed like a very distant dawn. Their minds returned to their bodies, and they woke.

                "What is this place? Is it death?" Macka's eyes were wide, his naked body healed and pulsing blood strongly. Lett was also naked, yet she still griped Clarky's scrapbook as she clutched her newborns. They suckled her breasts as the strange woman looked on silently as if they were pets she were trying to train. Macka at last recognized her. "You, one of the Masters?" Ebba spoke:

                                "Ebba, yes. We are, were, your Masters.  Guides more so, for thousands of years. We don't love you, yet we wish you enlightenment. " She paused, gathering words. " Our race faced the same dilemma as yours. The Pole Shift, we faced many. We learned of the Inner Ocean two hundred thousand years ago. We are an ancient peoples. Cave painters, cave thinkers.  We are Cro Magnon . We didn't build civilizations, but we watched others build empires based on technology.  We know technology, but only other peoples. We are all but gone. Your race must endure, be it we are different, our ancient mothers and fathers are the same."

                 Ebba talked at length about Perez's meddling. How it was the intention of the Masters to leave humanity to come to terms with the Pole Shift in their way - apart from choosing some individuals, on whim, in worship of fate. It was part vanity Ebba conceded yet the Masters believed in luck from universe to molecule. Sean, Mnem, Jimmy and Lett were all throws of the dice. If the Elites failed, perhaps one of those chosen would find a way?

                Macka tried to peer into the glowing Inner Ocean it was like starting at a mirage of colours. He could not comprehend what was being said. He dimly knew that the Cro Magnon were early Europeans. They stood with the Neanderthals. The Cro Magnon painted the caves in France, they were tall, robust but ultimately they were Homo Sapiens, like himself.

                "What happened to the Neanderthals?" Was all he could ask.

                "They went the same way as the Cave Bear. Their finger print may return, their template. They like it cold, it gets cold after a Pole Shift. Genes turn on and off, we become the environment. You have much to learn, and this is my gift to you. The ability to learn. The twins stay in the Inner Ocean, and you go, in Orbs to observe this world. Do not interfere with Perez, I have created a Goddess, she will play her part, as will Sean, the Elites, Perez himself and Jimmy, a Lord. He has a peoples already." Lett spoke:

                "A game?"

                "If you like, the ultimate game, humans must endure. Must grow. Your civilization are space farers, one of only three. There is much hope." With that Ebba made motions, tiny suns bloomed in the form of Orange Orbs. She took the twins and with another motion Macka and Lett eased away into their own Orbs. Without delay they floated into the fissure and away.

                Ebba cradled the twins, their secret would be hard to keep. She steered away from the Fissure and to the glowing kelp forests. Her Orb bobbed and swayed with many others. Was she noticed? Were any other Orbs abroad? No matter, the sleep now. In a thousand years she would awake. The twins adult but innocent. Adam and Eve, she thought and grimaced, fearing past mistakes.