Planet B-17: The Beginnings

Chapter 23 - The Crater: Part 13

"It is not that we desire you two not to be an active part of our quest," Sakna-Sa said as she approached, "but we do not wish to force initiative upon you, nor our own resort to what seems right to us. Acceptable?"

"I – I guess," Umbe replied. "But you won't leave me behind?"

"How can we?" asked Menior. "We are a team, and as Gre said, we need to integrate reason and emotion."

"That seems tricky," Umbe replied.

"Not quite; no," said Menior. "If we are adjustable enough – all of us – then I am sure that we could greatly benefit from your input. Imagine that emotions are like a distinct pair of eyes. Reason has its ability to see what is within its reach, and so does emotion. Who's to say that, by working together, reason and emotion aren't precisely what it takes to get us out of here?"

The Boors looked around at the benevolent faces of reason, action and higher senses. Meknáni himself seemed greatly at ease.

"Alright," Maýla-i said. "How can we fit together?"

"It remains to be seen," said Sakna-Sa, and all went quiet for a moment.

"Let us return to frequency and vibration, now that we're clear on who's what," proposed Meknáni.

"What do you suggest?" asked Menior.

"I say this: a type of reasoning has a specific vibration, right?" Meknáni asked.

"I suppose it does," assented Menior.

"We all use logic to some degree, thus emitting different tones – it's easier to think of it in terms of music, and adapt to our individual lines of song – the sum of which sounds a certain way. So, too, should emotions. Let me explain. You've mentioned fear. That is a vibration. It forms part of the mix."

"The emotion-level general line of song," intervened Sla.

"Exactly," said Meknáni. "It can't be just one emotion. It's a mix. So chin up, Umbe! Who knows what else is in your reserves? The subconscious mind, Gre mentioned. We might need your intuitive abilities to figure this out, Gre, but we will."

"Count on me," said Gre.

The Boors were starting to feel better.

"So," Meknáni continued, "we're not leaving you behind!"

Umbe laughed.

"Fear's not dangerous," Gre interposed. "It's what you let it do to you."

"How you act," agreed Meknáni. "Now, to admit you're scared, that's one thing. But that's not the whole picture. There's more in you, just like there's more in me and in anyone else. If we were all the same, we'd be overwhelmingly useless in the face of diversity. But to return. One base-frequency of reason and another base-frequency of emotion – that's what we're aiming for."

"Base?" asked Sla. "Root? You mean we should work our way from the obvious to the fundamental?"

"Could be so," Meknáni inclined his head. "But I was referring to a base-frequency as in a general one, one that contains all."

"A general reason-line of song and a general emotion-line as well," pondered Menior; "however, didn't you say that there's more than one emotion-signature, and more than one reason-signature? That they fluctuate?"

"They may do so," Meknáni agreed. "So here's the question: how do we steady our minds and our emotions to reach that base-signature of both?"

Another long moment of silence.

"Gre?" Meknáni asked.

"Don't look at me, brother," Gre retorted, amused. "You're the one with the frequency logic."

They all laughed at Gre's words, which had hit their target: Umbe was laughing as well.

"The place feels lighter," Uiio said. "Do our moods affect the density of this place?"

"What if this whole place's a vibration?" Meknáni asked, and by his tone, he was pondering, turning within to as if ask himself.

Instant silence.

"Continue," Menior was heard say.

"A vibration," Meknáni went on. "A main crater-frequency that comprises different lines of song, each crater-line of song a distinct dimension, and by reaching that, we access our door. So it's a matter of expanding our awareness in a group-line of song that matches a specific vibration-code of access into a dimension."

We've agreed on that, the others appeared to say, but somehow, no one spoke, no one disrupted his line of song.

"So if a line of song is a dimension," Meknáni continued, "how do all dimensions sound? How do all dimensions look?"

"All amassed?" said Menior.

"All amassed," nodded Meknáni.

"Where are you getting at?" asked Menior.

Meknáni turned. "Look. Listen to hear. It's all here, it's got to be."

"All here, what?" asked Sla.

"We're meeting Íma halfway," said Meknáni. "We've neglected the other side of the coin, so to speak. Íma reaches out as well. It's offering us the closest vibration we can match, isn't it?"

"Intriguing," pondered Menior. "So you're saying the crater is leading us towards our dimension-door?"

"Yes."

"How?"

Meknáni pointed to their surroundings. "Mé paid attention," he reminded them. "First she felt the mildness and the immensity of this place."

"Then she spotted the city," added Sakna-Sa.

"Exactly," said Meknáni. "We've been so busy trying to make sense of this place that sense eluded us because we were trying to impose rigid patterns on this unfamiliar type of physicality. Being fluid, it responds to us. Being sentient, it knows. Being part of M'alala, it guides. So let's observe. How has Íma been adjusting to us?"

"Are you implying that Íma would automatically do that?" asked Sakna-Sa.

"It would seem logical," said Arít. "It is a process of learning that we've embarked on, and Íma is part of that process. It is potentially the only unchanged factor in all such learning processes, regardless of who comes in. Its effectiveness would be faultless, or at least superior to that of whoever ventures in."

Assenting nods all around.

Menior turned to Meknáni. "Let me get this right. You're saying that while we were harmonizing as lines of song, even without knowing that we were, Íma was already responding?"

"It's been responding all along," Meknáni suggested. "Instantly adjusting. Otherwise, how would we or anyone else reach a specific vibration-door?"

"Sounds logical," said Menior.

"So"–and Meknáni turned to the Boors as well–"Íma has been responding to reason and emotion. Let's all think and feel and use all of our senses to read into Íma our closest dimension-line of song."

"Discover our group-line of song based on clues from Íma's dimension-line of song?" asked Sla. "Witty. That'd tell us more about how to reach a unitary group vibration." 

How do you like the story so far? We're a few chapters from the end of volume 1.