Universal Explorer: Leaving the Milky Way Galaxy
Albere was young, younger he ever remembered feeling before. And, he was warm and comfortable. Where was the pain of the arrow in his back? Albere thought that he must have survived the night, and that the morning sun had warmed his snowy retreat. Still, he felt himself lying on his back and strangely naked. He was never naked this season. It was always too cold. Through his still closed eyelids the light was blinding white—filtered through the snow?
Albere sat up and opened his eyes. He was startled to be surrounded by soft white light. Looking at his legs and feet, he was also surprised to see them so unscarred and muscular, covered with the blonde hair he remembered from his youth. His torso was muscled and free of the familiar scars he remembered from his hard years of fighting and hunting. So strange. And this warm place?... not a mountaintop in the sun at all, just a white expanse with no end. He was sitting on something solid, but it was softer and smoother than the softest bed of moss he'd ever made. And so warm. Even the light was warm.
To his left, Albere's eye caught a box, longer than a man and as high as his chest. It was gleaming with the colors of gold, silver, and copper, and patterned like the leaves in a forest. Albere had never seen such a beautiful thing. He swung his legs off the surface on which he had lying. He dangled his feet like from the cliff by the river and stared at the box, covered with more copper than he'd ever seen. Albere's arms felt so strong. An opening appeared in the smooth whiteness to his right. Out of the opening stepped the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen (except for his Nona). She had the whitest skin and golden hair, and was dressed in spider web so fine that he could see everything through it. His manhood responded against his will, standing at attention. It hadn't done that in many notches. Embarrassed, bewildered, and happy to see it do that, Albere covered himself w
ith his hands but still had an incredible urge to touch the beauty coming so close he could smell her before him.
The woman acknowledged his lust with a smile and spoke without speaking as she moved so close he felt her without touching. "Hi. I'm Kyla, your guide. You are in a place you do not know, but it is safe and familiar. You have not been given relief because we want to record your reactions. All will be explained in time. Are you hungry or thirsty? You can have what you want. Just imagine it and it will happen.
Albere was not hungry or thirsty. The sense of Kyla so invitingly close made him want a woman. He had not had a woman for many notches, not since the cast off woman had crawled into his bed by the fiery river. Her husband had died of the disease that befell all the copper makers, and she had no teeth. Which was good for some things, but not for others.
Kyla, sensing his need, leaned forward and kissed his virgin mouth with white, even, gleaming teeth. Albere imagined he was in that secret hollow by the waterfall in the warm spring air with Nona. Kayla was naked now, her gossamer covering floating off like dandelion seed in the wind, and they were rolling in the cool, soft moss. Albere could smell the wild blossoms, the rich earth, and the scent of her womanhood.
Albere could hear the water trickling down the mossy cliff, the birds chirping in the trees, and her cries, as she loved him. He was an animal, so young and strong, and Kayla was the mirror of his passion, Nona. The Collective was in ecstasy.
Albere awoke again in the same white room, hungry and thirsty. Kayla was by his side, smiling into his eyes. As he sat up and swung his legs out toward the enticing box again, he saw large gold, silver, and copper plates floating before him. The plates were filled with hot, cooked fallow deer meat, roast wild pig, bird's eggs, broth, berries, nuts, and seeds, all to his liking, and there was drink that favored the potion made by the white-haired people of Nona. With both hands Albere ate and drank his fill, marveling at his good fortune. Kyla and the Collective marveled at his appetite and eating habits. She joined him as he licked his fingers clean.
His basic needs met; Albere turned his curiosity to the marvelous box. "What's in the box?" He said without speaking. Kyla rose beside him, and with a wave of her hand, magically opened the box. "These are your things, found on the mountain with you. They are preserved just as they were found, for you to come back to them."
Tears welled in Albere's eyes as he saw how the mountain had treated his possessions, preserving some, obliterating others. He picked up his beloved ax, removed it from its fragile, failing hasp, and looked at it with wonder as he rubbed it once again, admiring its durability, noticing that its luster paled when compared with the box that now held it. Albere reached for the pouch. Although old and weathered, its leather was, somehow, still supple. He opened it carefully and lifted out two locks of hair. The sight of them made Albere cry openly in front of a woman. "Would you like to see them again?" Kyla had anticipated Albere's thoughts. It wasn't hard to do.
Albere, his head down, nodded, in resignation. He knew that he had arrived too late to save them. In his experience, no one ever returned from the dead.
"You will see them again. But first, there is someone I want you to meet." Kayla smiled, spread her right hand out in a wide circle and the opening appeared again. A man and woman entered.
Their clothing was similar to Kyla's. The man looked familiar, but the woman was different, strikingly different. Her skin was so dark, and something about her black hair intrigued him. He found her as attractive as Kyla.
"This is your descendant, Albert, and his wife, Esther. There are many, many more." Albere was familiar with the word. The elders had spent much time relating the history of his family's lineage and the importance of offspring to the continuation of the family. He was awe struck.
"But my family died. I burned their bodies myself. How can this be?" Albere's pain in hearing this falsehood was obvious. How could that woman with dark brown skin be related to him?
Kyla explained. "We traced Albert's DNA lineage to Nila. Nila was the mother of Tor at 22 Earth years of age. The father was a Thal. Thal blood flows in your lineage" Albere understood perfectly, but wondered how this could be? Albere thought he killed all the Thals. Perhaps that was why he had never found Nila. But a Thal? Albere was accustomed to the cruelties of nature, but he never believed that he would have welcomed a Thal to his family.
Albert spoke in his language without speaking. "I was as surprised as you are now to learn that I had descended from you."
Esther stepped in. "I, like you, have come back from the dead. I know it doesn't seem possible, but once you've had the relief, as I have, you will understand. All things are not possible. But this thing is. Forgive us, but you, like myself, are an experiment of the Collective. They want to experience your great loss, and your great pleasure, to have your loved ones back." She stepped forward and hugged him. Albere felt her tremendous energy surge through him. He couldn't help but believe her. Why were all these people so beautiful? What a wondrous place he was in. He had more questions than answers. Was he going to wake up from this dream?
"Like the people by the fiery river, we know the secret." Albert explained in Albere's terms. "I will take some of Nona, Jan, and Nila's hair and recreate them for you. You will learn the ways from me as I will learn from you. The Collective will be amused and amazed. A solace in our long journey."
"But... Nila was lost!" Albere was confused.
"Nona must have braided some of Nila's hair into her own. Nona's lock contains hair from both. You will oversee their regrowth and rebirth. We will use my DNA memory and scan yours to help them remember. The rest, they will learn from us and the relief."
And so it was that Albere and his family were restored to the sunny slopes, living their lives by the river in a bountiful paradise without cruelty or danger. Jan had his own life tree to notch. Albere sometimes dreamed of the challenge of the high mountain pass. That, too, was possible. The Collective was amused.
Albert and Esther floated into the large, weightless, chamber together. A model of a solar system was developing before them as they watched. There was a promising planet. Their mission would be fulfilled in time.
The beginning...
