Prelude

August 2010

Dr David Jarvis gripped the telephone so hard his fingers were almost transparent.
“Are you absolutely sure?” he waited for the reply already knowing what it would be.
“Yes sir, we have checked the readings five times, believe me I wouldn’t have called had I not been sure”
“So it begins” Jarvis closed his eyes, “Jenkins”
“Yes sir”
“Not one word to anybody, are we clear on this?”
“Absolutely, shall I arrange a meeting with the minister sir?”
“Yes please Jenkins, make it tomorrow morning I have to put some estimations together”.
Jarvis put down the phone and sat back in his chair, his mind wandered back to the fateful day in 1993 when the first observations had started coming in from astronomers all over the World. Of course they sat on the information, it was shared at only the highest levels of government, but all those in the know agreed whatever was coming this way was not good!

Betelgeuse is the star the sits as the right shoulder of the constellation of Orion. Betelgeuse is what scientists call a super giant, to put that into some sort of perspective, try to imagine for a moment. A star that is larger than the size of Jupiter's orbit around the Sun and it is the 9th largest one known. Each of the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and Jupiter would be in the belly of this goliath star if its centre were where our Sun is. Things would be very hot on Saturn, Neptune, Uranus and Pluto. The solar winds would be so fierce that Saturn, Neptune and Uranus would not have rings around them. In 1993 astronomers started getting some very unusual readings from this star; it appeared to have shrunk by almost 15%!
Just in shrinking 15%, Betelgeuse had shrunk by about the size of the orbit of Venus around our Sun. The orbit of Venus is a big circle at about 1.44 AU or roughly 133,920,000 miles across.
Betelgeuse is both super massive and is a super giant, the necessary ingredients for a very large Type II Supernova. The only remaining ingredients are an iron core and a split second of super-critical state and then it becomes a colossal thermonuclear explosion, with the blast wave reaching out up to 1000 light years and devastating anything and everything in it's path.
Neutrinos are inert and will pass through all solid matter, they are also a fairly reliable indicator that a star has indeed gone super nova.
The telephone call Dr David Jarvis had just taken from his assistant Brian Jenkins was to inform him that neutrino readings from Betelgeuse taken five hours previously had gone off the scale and were still rising exponentially. The really frustrating thing about astronomy is that all we are seeing in the heavens occurred many, in some cases billions of years previously, Betelgeuse however was, from the latest calculations only about 320 light years distant from Earth. This in astronomical terms was nothing; imagine a shotgun about two feet from an apple! The last known super nova occurred in the Crab Nebula this happened in 1054 AD but that Supernova is about 6,500 light years from Earth. Imagine that. 23 days visible during the day from 6,500 light years away! The Chinese historians referred to it as The Guest Star. Dr Jarvis had made the Betelgeuse project his own, and had been promoted to project leader in 2003. Nobody knew what the Earth was in for, in the history of the Solar System as far as they could tell nothing of this magnitude had ever occurred before.

They knew extinctions had occurred in the past, but this event had the capability to erase all life forever! Some earnest voices were raised early on, full of hope and optimism. They called for an ark to be built, to house seeds, animals and a few lucky people. It was known as the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the public were told it was built to house seeds for future posterity and of course nobody batted an eyelid. The public if nothing else were reliable dupes.
In late 2005 Dr Jarvis had made a startling discovery, firstly Betelgeuse was only about 10 million years old and secondly has developed the multiple layers and an iron core, this put the giant firmly in the Type 3 super nova class, it also meant nobody had a clue as to the damage it could cause. At least it would be quick, one minister had quipped nervously, I’m afraid that is not the case sir, Dr Jarvis smiled as he recalled the ministers startled look which dissolved into a look of horror as he explained that the large burst of muon radiation which would accompany the initial blast wave, would in fact turn the Earths atmosphere into one enormous microwave cooker.
Dr Jarvis arrived at the ministry at 8; 30am and was immediately shown into the conference room; he recognised the British members of the committee and also noted the attendance of several ambassadors.
“Good morning gentlemen, I will as they say cut to the chase” he took a deep breath and began to announce the sentence of death on planet earth and all of humanity.    

Chapter One

The Beginning, October 28th 2011

Somewhere in England

Mike Harding was twenty-three and very elated, his girlfriend Sarah had just given birth to their daughter. Chloe, he smiled as he pictured her tiny hands and feet. First stop Mothercare and then the florist, lost in thought he didn’t notice the four hoodies standing outside W H Smiths bookstore. As he got level, the tallest, a big black guy, stuck his shoulder out. Mike bounced off the guy as if he was a brick wall.
“Hey man, what the fuck”
Mike was 5. 11, but this guy was at least a head taller, “listen mate, I don’t want any trouble” It was then that he noticed the five inch blade in the guys right hand, the other gang members had now crowded around him blocking any chance of running, how could this be happening, all he wanted to do was to buy his new daughter and girlfriend a present.
Omar Kesango, known to his friends as Ozzy stood over the guy, his eyes were black and cold “You just dis’d me man” he revelled in these situations and loved the feeling of power it gave him, almost orgasmic.
Mike Harding was on his knees now looking up at the black guy, he saw his right arm move back and then arc around, the five inch blade aimed at his neck, none of the public walking by could see the murderous act that was about to take place and leave yet another innocent victim lying in a pool of blood and another family bereft of a loved one.
Then the World changed!
The knife welded by Omar Kesango, was aimed in such a way that it would have sliced through not only Mike Harding’s jugular vein but also partially severed his spinal column, absolutely fatal, Mike felt a slight bump and closed his eyes waiting for the agony to start, everything seemed to have slowed down for those last few moments, two seconds, three, and still no pain, Mike opened his eyes, his head was still angled up looking towards Omar Kesango, what he saw just wouldn’t register, Omar Kesango’s head was hanging down, blood pouring from a viscous knife wound to the side of his neck, his cold eyes were quickly glazing over. Then he fell over backwards and people started screaming. 

Somewhere in Palestine

Yousef was twelve years old, a handsome young man with dark eyes and a gentle way. He had been searching the dump since first light as he had been doing for the last six weeks, up at dawn
He made the short walk from the hovel in which he and his Grandmother lived, both his parents and siblings had been killed three months earlier by an  Israeli  mortar shell whilst they were sleeping, Yousef had survived because he had been staying with his Grandmother at the time. But life goes on, Yousef raised himself from his crouched position unaware that five hundred yards away Avraham stared through the telescopic sight of his American made sniper rifle,

Avraham still burned with rage and hatred, six years earlier his Mother, Father and Sister had been in a restaurant when a car bomb exploded ten yards from where they sat. Avraham lined up his shot, this Palestinian scum would be his eighteenth score, Avraham’s motto was if they kept living he would keep killing them. He watched the young Palestinian stand up and stretch, Avraham squeezed the trigger and felt the familiar snap as the bolt jumped forward to strike the bullet that in less than half a second would take the boys head completely off his shoulders.

Yousef sensed that he was being watched all around him other people were searching the rubbish tip as he was, but none of them seemed to have sensed anything, he stared towards the wall built five years earlier by the Israelis.

Avraham saw the boy’s head turn towards him, as if he could sense his impending demise, Avraham stared down the sight as the bullet left the muzzle, Yousef had less than half a second to live, and then,
Avraham’s head exploded!
Yousef heard the crack of the rifle, as did those around him, all threw themselves to the ground fearing the worst and searching desperately for loved ones, this was the price they paid for being Palestinian. Avraham’s body slid to the floor of the sniper position built into the wall, he wasn’t the last sniper to die that day.

Chapter Two

Dr David Jarvis, re-read the report for the third time, no question about it, the blast wave would enter the Solar System thirteen months from today and would reach Earth exactly one month after that on the twenty first December 2012, good god how fucking ironic was that, he thought, so those crazy bastards were right all along about the Mayan calendar. Oh if only they knew what he knew, they would be crowing all over the place. But no one would know, it had been deemed unwise and unfair from the very beginning to mention anything to the general public, no let them spend what little time they had left in blissful ignorance, far kinder.
David Jarvis had never married and had only ever had a couple of girlfriends; oh there were plenty of offers, even from some of the faculty wives. But his work had always come first and now…
He mentally shrugged his shoulders and carried on writing his last ever paper….Or so he thought.

Scotland Yard, London, October 28th 2011

“Sergeant”
“Yes sir”
“What the hell is this?”  Detective inspector Robert Gittins exclaimed. Sergeant Stevens took a deep breath and walked into the D.I’s office “It’s PC Collinwood’s report sir”
“Yes sergeant, I know that, what’s it bloody mean. I can’t make head nor tail of it!”
Sergeant Stevens knew exactly what the detective inspector meant; he couldn’t make any sense of it either. When PC Collinwood arrived at the scene the paramedics were all ready treating the victim, to no avail, he died two minutes after they arrived. God, and what a bloody mess it was to, blood everywhere, the ambulance crew said the knife had severed his juggler, hence the lake of claret six feet around the body.
“Any witnesses sergeant?”
“Only the Harding lad at the moment sir, but we know some of the other lads that were there, shouldn’t take long to round em up”
“And what’s this Harding lad saying happened”
“Well that’s just it sir, he’s saying that it was him that was stabbed, but he hasn’t got a mark on him!”

Somewhere in East London

Sinhar Saheed locked her car and walked to the canal path, she had arranged to meet Jamaal at two thirty, and she was late. As she turned the corner she could see Jamaal under the bridge, two men had him pinned up against the wall, and the bigger of the two held a large brown bottle. As they struggled some of the liquid spilled from the bottle on to the tow path, to her horror Sinhar realised that it was acid they were trying to pour down Jamaal’s throat, she took two steps towards the struggling men, at the same time Jamaal caught sight of her “Run Sinhar RUN” horrified by the scene she was witnessing, Sinhar hesitated, tears rolled down her cheek, why wouldn’t they leave us alone she thought, we just want to be together. At that moment a large hand clamped around her mouth, another around her waist and she was lifted off her feet, she tried to scream, but the hand cut it short. Sinhar passed out.
When she regained her senses, she realised that she and Jamaal were tied together back to back, two of the men, both wearing ski masks stood over her, she heard the third, behind her and standing over Jamaal say “Okay lets do this” She struggled and screamed out for help, but there was no one around.
“Please” she begged “Please don’t do this “
“You have dishonoured us and the family” the taller of the two men spoke, he stepped forward still holding the large bottle of sulphuric acid in a gloved hand “And for this you must both pay” he bent forward and nodded to the man behind her, he grasped her chin and forced her mouth open, his hands were large and powerful, she felt Jamaal struggling, the sense of hopelessness was overwhelming, she closed her eyes as her head was forced back and the glass neck of the bottle was pushed between her teeth, just before the liquid started to splash into her throat, she thought she heard Jamaal cry “I love you”
Sinhar could hear screaming, never before had she heard such sounds, they filled her with horror and for the briefest of moments thought that the sounds were coming from her own mouth, the screams turned to a slushy gurgling sound, she opened her eyes and was horrified and amazed to see the tall man clutching at his stomach and throat smoke was pouring from his mouth, she heard a splash behind her as if someone had jumped into the canal, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the tall man, he slowly sank to his knees both hands now clutching his stomach, as if trying to hold it in place, to no avail, suddenly he held his hands out towards her as if appealing for her help or forgiveness, they were smoking, she stared as if hypnotized as the clothing over his lower abdomen turned red, then smoke rose from the material and she watched as the entire contents of his stomach emptied themselves onto the canal towpath. Sinhar started to scream.

Chapter Three

Dr David Jarvis arrived at the ministry at 9am and was shown straight up to the minister’s office.
“Good morning sir”
Jarvis was surprised to see two other men already in attendance, the minister glanced up from the sheath of papers he was reading and acknowledged the astrophysicist.
“Good morning David, thank you for attending at such short notice, I know you have a lot on your plate at the moment”
The minister was of course referring to Project Omega, the name given to the end of the World, not a particularly fitting name, but in the event of a leak, not a very revealing one either.
The minister set aside the papers and took off his glasses, he looked directly at David.
“Bit of quandary old chap”
He pursed his lips and turned to the man sitting in the seat next to David.
“Allow me to introduce DI Robert Gittins from the yard and deputy commissioner Phelps”
David turned and acknowledged both men with a nod of his head. The minister continued.
“Not sure what to make of this, so we thought science might get a better handle on the thing”
David squirmed; the last bloody thing he needed at this moment in time was some silly bloody police investigation. The minister must have noticed David’s change in expression but pressed ahead regardless
“I know the work you have in hand is top priority, but I ran this by the PM earlier and he agreed that you were the man we needed”
David stood, how could anything be more important than the end of the bloody World, he really was getting sick of these politicians, of course most of them thought they were safe as they all had places in the ark, he had given up trying to tell them that a Type 3 super nova only 320 light years away would more than likely disintegrate the planet anyway. So unless any of them were on first name terms with an alien race with a spare star ship they might as well stand on the highest mountain when the blast front arrived. They all had there own experts telling them the odds of survival were good in the ark, of course these experts also wanted there place in the safe haven so told the politicians more or less what they wanted to hear.
“I’m sorry sir” said David “but I fail to see what an astrophysicist can offer to a police investigation”
The minister sighed “Please David, just hear the Detective Inspector out, then you can leave” 
David stood for a moment as if undecided and then sat down,
“Please DI Gittins carry on”
Robert Gittins was extremely uncomfortable, after meeting with the commissioner of police, he had then been sent to the ministry accompanied by the deputy commissioner. The minister broke into his thoughts.
“The decision was taken not to involve the military at this time until we can reach some sort of conclusion”
He looked directly at Robert
“Please DI Gittins, continue”
David looked at Gittins, and felt sorry for the man, at thirty five Gittins rise through the ranks had been nothing short of meteoric, 5.7” neatly cut brown hair, he looked every inch a policeman if only he knew what lay in store for all of them in fourteen months time, Gittins started to talk and as he did David’s expression went from perplexed to amazed.
Gittins related the cases in the order they had occurred, a couple of them had occurred simultaneously albeit in different parts of the country.
“We have all of these “victims” in custody” said Gittins “But it wasn’t until the honour attack with acid that we really knew we had something... Eh”
Gittins looked puzzled for a second,
“Well strange, I suppose I should say, you see the couple were actually tied up, and we have a third member of the party which tried to kill them, and he corroborates their story word for word”
David sat still for a moment absorbing the information “So let me get this straight, these eh victims were attacked, but it was their attackers that died”
Robert looked at David, “yes sir, exactly that, the witness swears that he saw his accomplice pour the acid into the woman” Gittins looked down at his notes “eh Sinhar Saheed’s mouth after forcing the bottle between her teeth, he says he saw the bottle tipped up and the contents, which was sulphuric acid, start to empty into her throat, he said she appeared to lose consciousness at that point, that was the moment Amed Singh, the guy pouring the acid into the woman, cried out. The witness says he stood up dropped the bottle then clutched at his throat and stomach”
Robert stepped forward and handed David some photographs, as he looked he felt the bile rise up, what an extraordinarily horrible way to die. David looked up “so how many of these cases do you have at the moment?”
“I have nine with me but I was informed just before you arrived, in this area alone another fifty, country wide about six hundred”
“Good God man! Six hundred, it’s a bloody pandemic, what are the other cases, type of people etc is there a pattern?”
Robert glanced at his notes.
“None to speak of at this moment, we have a man stabbed his wife in the eye with a carving knife during a violent row, he died of massive brain damage, a girl pushed her boyfriend of a cliff in Cornwall after she found out he was being unfaithful, he walked away after falling five hundred feet, she was found at the top with every bone in her body broken! A young mother tried to smother her baby; he’s fine she’s dead from asphyxiation”
David stood and looked towards the minister, “Do you want me to lead this investigation?”
“Do you want to?” The minister looked at David.
“Yes sir, I think I do”

Chapter Four

Washington DC 2nd November 2011
Kevin Johnson waited nervously for his meeting with the President; at 6.4” he presented an impressive figure, broad shouldered and at 35 he was at the peak of physical fitness, strangers automatically assumed he was a US marine or Special Forces. He was in fact a professor of Quantum Physics, one of the top men in his field. His grandfather had been one of the first black soldiers ashore at Iwo Jima and had gone on to win the Silver Star, after saving three comrades pinned down by a Japanese machine gun nest.
He turned as the door was opened by a marine, a young woman; he guessed about 25, was ushered into the waiting room. She saw Kevin and with a dazzling smile and hand outstretched she introduced herself.
“Hi, my name is Catherine Spelling”
Kevin turned toward her and half bowed he held his hand out to receive hers.
“Kevin Johnson, pleased to make your acquaintance, are you here for the meeting as well” Catherine acquiesced by inclining her head slightly, she was, he noticed a very beautiful woman. At that moment the door to the inner sanctum opened and the secretary of state walked in “Dr Johnson, Miss Spelling, it was good of you to agree to this meeting, he glanced fleetingly at both of them. Kevin shifted his stance and turned to face the s.o.s, well sir, I didn’t have much of an option, two secret service men can be pretty persuasive, he arched a cynical eyebrow and the s.o.s inclined his head and smiled. Please lady, gentleman, follow me and all will be explained. 
Kevin was surprised to see that the oval office was quite crowded, but the only face he recognised was that of the President himself, although he looked much older than the pictures he had seen of him, in a few minutes Kevin would find out why. 
The President, patiently waited until everyone was seated, Kevin glanced around the room and noted that branches of all the military were represented, he guessed, correctly, that anyone that was anyone in the government was in that room, wow, he thought this must be important. The president stood to address those present.
“Ladies and gentlemen thank you for attending this meeting at such short notice, but certain events have led us to convene this meeting, we have some very hard decisions to make today” he nodded to the s.o.s and sat down. The secretary of state stood and looked directly at Kevin and Catherine and started to speak.
“There are only two people in this room who do not know about project Omega, I feel it only right and proper that they should be told the full story, and after speaking to the project director Dr David Jarvis, I have to say that I agree with his appraisal in that the two, eh, events are in fact connected in some way as yet unknown to us”. As the s.o.s spoke Kevin felt his heart turn to ice, he glanced briefly at Catherine and noticed the she had gone white as the import of what was being said sunk in. The s.o.s continued.
“And therefore we feel it appropriate that you and Dr Johnson should be offered a place in the ark, this offer also includes any immediate family members as well”. Kevin was stunned, appalled, how could this be happening, his head was spinning, he raised his hand.
“Yes Dr Johnson” the s.o.s nodded towards him.
“What is the…..a” he swallowed “final date”. The s.o.s glanced around the room.
“It’s 11:28 GMT on the 21st December 2012, we have thirteen months left” he paused “but there is something else which has started to happen, and that has all of us, including the best minds in the World, completely stumped”, “on the 28th October, we started to see many crimes that were committed have a……how can I put this…..a……reverse affect, as it were”. Kevin raised his hand, the look of puzzlement on his face, the s.o.s continued “please Dr Johnson, let me give you some examples, a man named Thomas Ingram ran a children’s home in Delaware, unknown to his staff and of course, the authorities he was a child molester and serial killer, they found many unmarked graves in the grounds of the home when this came to light, on the night in question, Mr Ingram took it upon himself to rape and murder a young girl named Hilary Edmond, new to the home and with no other relatives she, like all of his other victims would not be missed, and he would simply say that she was yet another runaway. Apparently the cellar had been converted with a secret room, and this was where his hideous crimes were committed over many years, the FBI, believe this had gone on for about fifteen years” Kevin was fascinated and horrified by this sordid tale, the s.o.s continued, “he had strapped her to the bed, and raped her once, in her statement she said that after he committed the first sexual attack, he seemed to change his demeanour, he became…a….cowed, her words, the final act in this awful scene was her murder, he first attempted to strangle her, she said she felt his hands tighten around her neck and closed her eyes, but after a couple of minutes of no other sensation, she opened her eyes again,  she said he was almost blue in the face and at that point he fell back as if exhausted. She said he stood and looked really puzzled…and….frightened, by this time Hilary, who is fourteen had resigned herself, she was strapped to the bed and gagged, when she saw him pick up the axe from the nearby workbench she became, as you can imagine, hysterical, she said she watched him walk towards her and raise the axe above his head, his idea was to cleave her skull in two, as he brought the axe down she closed her eyes for the final time she thought, she heard the crunch of smashed bone, then the axe falling to the floor, a minute later she opened her eyes and there was no sign of  Thomas Ingram, in fact he had fallen out of her view at the side of the bed. The next day after suspicions were raised by the staff the police were called and a search made of the house and grounds, it took almost the whole day before the secret room and the horror of what occurred was discovered. Of course investigators were completely perplexed as to how a fourteen year old girl strapped to a bed could have cleaved a fully grown mans skull in two, forensics checked and double checked but there was no sign of any other person or persons in the room. And then came other crimes of a similar nature, one man mugged by three guys, after taking his wallet they all shot him, for sport, three shots from three separate weapons, all the muggers died instantly of head trauma, the victim ran screaming to the police, forensics matched the bullets to the muggers guns”.
The secretary of state looked up and saw puzzlement mixed with astonishment on the faces of those gathered in the room. “the Brits have already put a team together, a couple of things gave them the heads up before us, so we have decided to pool our recourses  due to the….a…..timing constraints as it were”. He paused and looked at Johnson and Spelling “And we would like you to join that team, what do you say?”
Without waiting for their reply, the secretary went on, “this….a….problem now has a national security aspect, we have learned over the last couple of days or so that some of our soldiers have died whilst carrying out their duties, by that I mean in the course of killing an enemy combatant, it was they themselves that died instead! As you can imagine, this situation is intolerable, and we have troops refusing to fight, or at least kill anyone. We also know that the enemy are suffering in the same way, oh and the press seem to have got hold of this phenomenon, although we are segregating the….a…victims, the news seems to have leaked. I suppose this does us a favour in some ways, as it takes the pressure off of the Omega project, well that’s all ladies and gentlemen”, He looked over at Kevin and Catherine, “Jack Walker will drive you home to pack your things and then to the airfield, we have laid on a jet to fly you to England. Kevin looked over at the security chief and nodded “Well it looks as though we have been press ganged” He said to Catherine. Catherine was studying some of the others in the room, including the President, “Their frightened she thought” all at once they had been forced to face their collective mortality, time was ticking away, each and everyone of them knew the exact date of their death, she turned to Kevin “okay lets see what we can do to help” with that she turned and followed Jack Walker out of the room.

Chapter Five

Dr David Jarvis was there to welcome them to the facility which had been set up to try and find the reason for the phenomenon. The press had been covering the story for days now and for some obscure reason the victims now had a nickname, “The Meek” is what the papers and TV were calling them, and in a funny sort of way Catherine thought it was perfect.
“Welcome” David said “to project Meek” he walked with them into the main building which had once been a pharmaceutical research lab, “I’ll get Jenkins to show you to your quarters, I’ll introduce you to the rest of the team at dinner, 7:30 if that’s okay” They both nodded in agreement and followed Jenkins as he cheerfully babbled on about what was on offer by way of after hours entertainment, David smiled as he watched them disappear around the corner to the lifts. Every bit of help was welcome he thought, time was ticking away and so far none of the tests had shown any difference in the physiology of any of the vic…..Meek. Such a cheesy name he thought typical, bloody stupid press.
The mess hall was full, individual conversations drowned out by the overall babble. Catherine had waited for Kevin whilst he had phoned his wife and spoken to his children, she felt much better after the shower and realised that she was quite hungry. As she and Kevin entered the mess hall she spotted David Jarvis at a table with two other women, he saw them and waved them over.
“Hi” he said, “are the rooms okay?”
“Fine” said Catherine
“This is Dr’s Jameson and Welch” David half turned to his seated companions, they both stood and the taller of the two introduced herself as Kitty Jameson, the other Tina Welch, both were microbiologists.
“Kevin, you will be working with Kitty and Tina” Kevin stepped forward, “I’m very pleased to meet you” he said “I’m…” ”Oh we know who you are Dr Johnson” said Kitty “your reputation precedes you” she shook his hand and re-seated herself at the table. After dinner David introduced them to the rest of the team, there were twenty eight scientists including them, they represented all branches of science from biology to quantum physics, they were all searching for answers, and David was beginning to believe that there wasn’t one, at least not one they could understand with their present level of science. It was all quite congenial, up until the moment Jenkins rushed into the mess hall, shouting “turn on the TV, quick turn it on” All eyes turned to the TV screen where a reporter was standing on a hill, what lay in the distance behind him brought gasps of amazement and disbelief from the scientists gathered around.

Chapter Six

6th July 2011

Jed Wallace was breathless as he reached the top of Silbury Hill, the largest manmade hill in England, Jed shrugged off his backpack, and took out his flask and sandwiches.  He sat and gazed out into the shimmering distance. The day was fantastic, warm and sunny, not a cloud in the sky, he could see for miles over the Wiltshire downs, yellows, ochre’s and beige’s, it was beautiful. As he stared he noticed about two miles away the hazy shimmering giving way to a more pulsating, rhythmic shimmer, his sandwich dropped to the ground, mouth open he sat in disbelief as the gigantic ship took shape and floated just above the gently swaying corn.

Staff sergeant Dan Foster stared through the windshield of the Cherokee Jeep, the heat shimmered off into the distance. He and Private Davis were into the last leg of their patrol around the enormous perimeter of what everyone now called Area 51. The Groom Lake testing facility had grown over the years as the military had bought more and more of the land surrounding the base, primarily to keep the prying eyes of the public at bay. Foster let the jeep roll to a stop as he stared ahead “What the fuck is that” He heard Davis give a sharp gasp. About two miles ahead at the very edge of the base a shape had started to materialise, he thought at first it was a mirage, quite common in the desert, but as the men both watched the shimmering it began to take the shape of a gigantic silver ship, it was at least two miles long and seemed to rest just above the desert floor. Foster grabbed the radio mike and started screaming “Code 5 Red, Code 5 Red” 

Chapter Seven

January 5th 2012

David stood outside room 15 and read the notes pinned to the board outside, Emma Wade and her daughter Annie were the occupants of the room, he carried on reading, Emma had been in a bad relationship with a man called Steve Travers, he was violent and had been taken into police custody on three separate occasions for assaulting both mother and daughter. After eighteen months of abuse Emma had finally plucked up the courage to leave him and find shelter in a woman’s refuge, unbeknown to Emma, Steve had been having a relationship with Emma’s best friend Rachel. It was Rachel who had leaked the information to Steve that Emma was about to leave him. On the night of 30th October, Travers had tied Emma and Anna to the bed with rope bought from the local hardware store. What made this case so different from the others is the fact that there had been a secondary accomplice in the form of Rachel, presumably for her own selfish reasons Rachel wanted Emma and Annie out of the way, of course the full story would never be known. After tying both mother and daughter securely to the bed Travers had then poured two litres of petrol over both females and around the room, as he left the room in a statement made later Emma said she heard Travers say “Burn in Hell, Bitch” and with that he tossed a lighted Zippo lighter into the room, the room exploded into flame and beside themselves with fear both females passed out, however just before Emma had lost consciousness she stated that she thought she heard screaming from outside. The fire was very intense and had engulfed the building within five minutes, when the fire brigade arrived all they could do was play their hoses on to the flames and stop the fire spreading to other houses in the row. It took nearly three hours to put out fire, but what freaked both the brigade and the police out was the sight of Emma and Annie walking out of the smouldering building completely unscathed. It wasn’t until dawn that firemen found the charred remains of Steve Travers down an alley at the side of the flats, and two days later the remains of Rachel Birch in her flat three streets away, when they found her body she had been burnt to a crisp, but nothing else in the flat had been touched. David replaced the notes and shivered inwardly, he felt as though he had just read a passage from revelations. He opened the door and walked into the room, Emma and Annie were seated at the table playing scrabble, both looked up as he entered the room, “hello Dr Jarvis” said Annie, she was eight years old and very pretty like her mother.
“How are you both doing” David said “I have some news, you will both be going home at the end of the week, we have finished all of the tests”
Annie beamed; she had been pining for her Nan and granddad. Emma smiled shyly; David went on “I would also like to thank you for allowing us to examine you both after your traumatic experience”. He didn’t dwell on the fact that they hadn’t had much of a choice in the matter. Some of the other “Meek” had been less forgiving and had been voicing their concerns that they were in fact being held against their will, David was just a scientist, and tried to allay their worries, but even he had been surprised at the amount of military that had arrived to “secure” the lab, this was after soldiers started arriving as victims i.e. “Meek”. The latest case had been a pilot shot down by a stinger missile over Afghanistan, the pilots’ wingman had witnessed the missile strike, which had destroyed the jet, he watched as his flight leader plunged two thousand feet to the rocky desert scrubland below. The wingman made one more pass and to his amazement saw his flight leader standing waving at him. A rescue helicopter had been dispatched to pick the pilot up and a patrol of the area had later disclosed what remained of the fighter that had fired the shoulder launched missile, two fingers and a toe wedged inside a desert boot.
David left Emma and Annie’s room and headed back towards the mess hall, he was feeling hungry and had missed breakfast, as he approached the hall he could hear an excited babble, as he entered ten of his staff were gathered around the TV set, he heard someone say, “quick turn the tape on”. What he saw on the TV took a couple of seconds to register, a reporter was speaking, and the camera was panning across a street filled with screaming terrified people. David realised it was the African republic that had been filling the nightly news bulletins, it appeared or so said the off camera reporter that the local militia had beaten back the government troops and were overrunning the city, It also seemed that as usual it was the innocent that were about to pay the price, the reporter had started to babble, but what David saw spoke volumes. He watched as one of the militia stopped and fired his Kalashnikov rifle point blank into the back of a running woman, but instead of falling the woman kept running, it was the militiaman who fell with a gaping hole in his chest “As if by magic” David heard someone mutter, indeed he thought, more and more so, he carried on watching the saga unfold, here a militiaman lunged at a young boy with a machete, the blow would have taken his arm off, but no it was the militiaman’s arm which fell to the ground and he started screaming, David felt a cruel sense of delight to see this vicious bastard get just what he deserved. More and more militiamen fell victims of their own murderous lust, and slowly the people stopped running and just stood their ground. David saw one of the people pick up dead militiaman’s rifle, almost to a man the staff gasped “no”, the man aimed and fired the already cocked weapon in a long stuttering burst at three bemused militiamen standing no more than six feet in front of him, they looked even more bemused when the man’s chest suddenly ripped apart as if he had aimed the gun at himself. Suddenly it was over, all around militiamen were throwing down their weapons, the last piece of the saga unfolded as what appeared to be the leader strode into the midst of his men shouting and cursing for them to pick up their weapons and carry on the carnage, as he had been at the back, the usual place for a leader, he had not seen what was occurring when his men had first entered the town, he was brandishing a pistol in the faces of the troops and then he noticed the reporter, the camera never wavered it focused on the leader as he walked up to the reporter, then grinning at the camera, the militia leader put his gun to the reporters head and pulled the trigger, his head exploded covering the reporter with brains and blood, everyone in the mess hall cheered.

Chapter Eight
17th March 2012

The minister was beside himself,
“It’s been almost two months now what else could they be here for”
Dr David Jarvis shrugged,
“That’s just it minister, we don’t know as yet, can we please just stick to the facts, and what we know so-far, fact one, the craft are all identical, two, we have one craft on each major continent, three, each craft has a door which opened and a ramp was extended. Four, All the craft appear to be fitted out to carry one hundred and fifty thousand people, and in the….a….entrance hall, if I can call it that there appears to be a clock in a strange language which is counting down. We have the best language and code experts in the World, working around the clock to decipher what it means; we just have to be patient”
The minister sighed,
“Okay, you have two more weeks, the general consensus is that we should start picking people to board the craft, I think most of your critics have now come around to your way of thinking David, in that the blast wave could well be Earth shattering, literally. I’m afraid the decision is not ours to make, and those in power have already decided to fill the craft with the best and brightest”
David sat back, his shoulders slumped, “What you mean minister, is that those in the know, with money and connections will be aboard those craft when the blast wave arrives and sod everyone else” David stood, he felt sick to the stomach “I’m sorry minister, I’m afraid I will have to offer my resignation”
The minister had stopped pacing and was appraising David with a cold stare. “Very well Dr Jarvis, I accept your resignation, but please remember this project has the highest security, and any mention of Betelgeuse and the blast wave to anyone will result in your incarceration, oh and we have decided to also shut the “Meek” project down, so I suppose you will be out of work now” At that moment the phone started to ring, the minister picked up the phone and turned his back on David Jarvis, the meeting was over. David stood picked up his briefcase and left the room.
The minister turned as the door shut behind David, He spoke into the phone, “it was as we thought” he said “he resigned” the voice on the phone responded and the minister stood stock still for several seconds “Yes I agree, take Jarvis’s name off the list for the ship, let him take his chances with the rest of the cattle” He put the phone down and sat in his chair, deep in thought.

Chapter Nine
14th August 2012

They were an unbelievable sight, two miles long, half a mile high and a mile in circumference. The doorway was tiny in comparison but even that was one hundred and twenty feet high and one hundred and sixty feet wide, it was situated about sixteen feet from the ground, the ramp was angled at about twenty degrees and was as wide as the doorway itself, an area of about five hundred square feet formed an entrance lobby, with open corridors left and right off of which were the cabins, the corridors were twenty feet high and as wide again, they ran from prow to stern. This was repeated throughout the six decks. At what the scientists were now calling the stern, "the craft were shaped like half of a rugby ball with the flat part down" there was another opening, this space was about one hundred times larger than the O2, and was thought to be the cargo area.
The British Prime Minister, stood in awe, his eyes wide with wonder as took in the enormity of the craft, "so what do we know so far?", he asked the defence minister.
"As far as we can ascertain Prime Minister, the craft are here to offer salvation to a lucky few humans, there is enough cabin space to accommodate up to one hundred and fifty thousand people", he glanced toward the craft, "of course the cargo area would hold considerably more, probably as many people again, but we must consider the welfare of those souls on the craft and what we would need to start over again on a new planet, I have already given orders to have our entire arsenal of atomic weapons transferred and loaded aboard, I believe the Americans are doing the same, as are the Israelis, Russians and Chinese. There is more than enough space to equip and feed a couple of hundred thousand people for three, maybe four years, this includes of course a fully armed military force and all of their ancillary equipment".
"Excellent Smith" said the Prime minister, "I have spoken with the President's of both the US, Israel and Russia, they all agree we have enough of a combined force to handle pretty much any situation whilst we establish our base on whichever planet we find ourselves on, any luck with the translation?" The Prime minister glanced back to the craft.
"No sir, but they are working twenty four hours a day on the problem, and James Mayhew, the chap in charge thinks that it's only a matter of time".
The defence minister raised his hand and wiped a trickle of sweat from his brow, it was very hot for March. The Prime minister turned and nodded to his security detail "Okay lets get this tour started, I can't wait to see our accommodation, by the way minister how are the security arrangements holding up?" The defence minister smiled, no problems at all, we have a fifteen mile exclusion zone around the craft, some people were a bit put out when the military moved them out, but nothing serious, the Meek situation has been firmly at the centre of the news broadcasts and looks like staying there for the foreseeable future, I deemed it unwise to close the project down immediately, after some reflection I thought it the best way to deflect the press.

Chapter Ten
14th August 2012

Dr David Jarvis, finished writing his report, the final declaration that he and his team could find absolutely no possible cause for the Meek event. The UK had peaked at two hundred thousand cases, Worldwide just a fraction over three and half million, this was the time it had taken the message to get through to the populace that any attempt to hurt, harm or kill another person was instantly either very painful or very fatal, in fact national statistics were saying that all crime had almost completely stopped. This, he thought was in itself a miracle, even harming someone emotionally had repercussions for the perpetrator. One case that stuck in his mind was that of a young lady who worked as a councillor, one of her clients was particularly vulnerable, so she had given her, her home phone number, the phone however was only shared by the young lady. When the client had rung in desperate need of some kind and comforting words, the landlady who owned the house in which the councillor rented her room was very unkind and deliberately lied to the client, telling her the councillor was out. So the wise words that may have saved the client where not spoken. The next day the client was waiting at the office for the councillor to arrive for work, she told her about the desperate phone call she made and how short and rude the lady she said she had spoken to on the phone had been, it was at this point that the councillor had put two and two together. Her land lady had been found dead in bed that very morning showing all the symptoms of an overdose of pills but no evidence of any drugs could be found anywhere in her house.
David signed the report and placed it in his out tray. They had, he had been informed one month to get everything in order before the project was finally closed down, most of the Meek had been sent back to there homes with clean bills of health, all of his staff were in the final throws of finishing their respective reports, there was to be a party in a couple of weeks and then they would all go their separate ways and prepare as best they could for the 21st December, all had places in the Svalbard Ark, all knew that the Ark would offer no protection at all. David also knew that the secret of the impending demise of the solar system and our beautiful planet Earth would not be kept once his staff were released from their voluntary incarceration at the lab, they would tell their families and they would want to know why the true purpose of the craft had not been announced, that was when, he knew without doubt, the real trouble would start. His phone rang, he picked it up,
"Hello, David Jarvis" he heard a shy voice on the phone asking "Dr is that you?"
"Hello Emma, how are you and Annie?" The line went quiet, and them Emma said "I think I am being followed Dr Jarvis, and I keep seeing a strange man hanging around outside our flat". He was not really surprised at Emma's revelation some of the other test subjects had called the lab complaining of similar things, in fact he was pretty certain that he himself was being followed, not surprising really when you thought about what was a stake, the powers that be must be desperate to keep news of the impending disaster as close to their chests as possible, this was getting more and more difficult as Betelgeuse was becoming brighter with every passing day, it wouldn't be to long before some clever amateur astronomer put the puzzle together. He knew his resignation a few weeks earlier had put paid to any prospects he might have had of a place on one of the craft, he wasn't convinced he would have got one anyway. and when he had heard the rumours that most of the major governments were loading their nuclear weapons stocks aboard, he was dumbstruck. How could any sane race of beings, especially ones with the technology to build the craft, possibly allow what in their eyes must be a bunch of cavemen on board with nuclear weapons, he felt sick to his stomach, he could think of thousands of good, kind smart people who deserved saving, people who he knew would make a much better job of building a new World, than some of the maniacs who had their cabins already booked on the craft. He closed his eyes as an overwhelming sadness gripped him, at that instant his office door burst open and a giant strode into the room.

Chapter Eleven

The man stood framed in the doorway for several seconds and Dr Jarvis sat transfixed as he stared at the visitor, he could see his secretary sitting at her desk and the very strange expression she wore on her face, He switched his attention back to the stranger. He stood at least seven feet tall, his head was bowed to avoid hitting the door jamb and his handsome face wore an almost beatific smile. He moved into the centre of the room and looked directly at Dr Jarvis and in a crystal clear voice said “Dr Jarvis, I am very sorry to burst in on you like this, but there isn’t much time”
Dr Jarvis sat heavily back in his seat, he had half risen as the door had burst open, he knew his mouth was hanging open and quickly closed it “I’m sorry” he said “who are you?”.
The stranger moved to the chair on the opposite side of the desk and manoeuvred his massive frame into it. “I need your help Dr, and also that of Dr’s Spelling and Johnson, I have asked them to attend this meeting as well”
Dr Jarvis stood “meeting? What meeting? And who are you? Are you from the Government?”
“Dr Johnson, please, I will explain all when the others arrive”
At that moment a knock came at the door and Dr Jarvis called “come in”
Catherine and Kevin entered the room, looking as perplexed as Dr Jarvis felt. “David” said Catherine “what’s this all about?”
Dr Jarvis swallowed and glanced at Catherine “you know as much as I do” he said, they were both now looking with some amazement at the stranger sitting at the desk.
At that moment the stranger stood and extended his hand “my name is Michael, and I am very pleased to meet you all at last, please would you all be seated and I will enlighten you as to what you need to do”
Dr Johnson stepped forward “now hang on a minute, we don’t know you and you burst in here and start ordering us around” Michael raised his hand and Dr Johnson fell into silence.
Michael gazed at each of them before replying “If you want to save humanity, then you will listen to me!”

Chapter Twelve

Time, Space, History and the Meaning of Life

Michael looked intently at each of them “what I am about to relate to you will shock all of you beyond belief, but before I begin we have one more person to join us”
With that once again a knock came at the door, Dr Jarvis once again called out “come in” all eyes turned to the door, it opened and through it walked Sally Johnson, Kevin Johnson jumped forward and gathered his wife into his arms “Sally, what? How? I mean…you’re here! And I only spoke to you this morning” Kevin took a breath “how on earth did you get here from the US in less than three hours? And where are the children?” Sally leaned back and looked into her husband’s eyes “I think you had better listen to Michael”

Michael walked to the centre of the room “I feel we need a more…..private place, and there are things I want you to see…to help illustrate what I am about to tell you, I am going to give you a history lesson, and let me tell you, only fifty people in all of earths history have seen and heard what you are all about to experience, now Kevin and Sally take my left hand and David and Catherine take my right”
To say that David felt apprehensive would have been an understatement, with a deep breath he took Catherine’s hand and reached for Michaels, Michael spoke “there are certain unavoidable repercussions, which is why Sally Johnson is here, nothing to be worried about I hasten to add, all will become clear, now take my hands”
David grasped Michaels hand and was immediately overwhelmed, the feeling of love, lightness and optimism took his breath away, glancing at Catherine he could see she was also experiencing the same sensations, accompanying these feelings was also an overpowering feeling of love for Catherine. Now he knew why Sally had to be with Kevin, he also knew his life had just changed in an instant.

In the blink of an eye, was a saying often used by many people in everyday life, expressing something that had occurred or changed very quickly, but David had never believed he would ever experience the literal “in the blink of an eye” but he just had, one millisecond before he was standing in his office holding hands with a very strange man, and now he was still holding the mans hand but now standing in a beautiful pasture which overlooked an Island that could only be dreamed of, he turned and looked behind him and the sight left him breathless a single mountain towered majestically behind them at least as high as Mount Everest.
“Welcome” said Michael “to Atlantis”

Kevin Johnson broke the spell by saying “Man, what planet are we on?” Michael had detached himself and walked a few paces down the gently sloping pasture, he turned and faced the four bemused humans and smiled “this” he said, “is Earth, Atlantis to be exact, thirty seven thousand years before your time, and twenty five thousand years before it’s total destruction, it is the perfect place to start my story, so let me begin”.
“You all have a good grounding in science, including Sally who has a degree in Physics from UCLA, and believe me you will need every ounce of your knowledge to understand what I am about to tell you, it is vital that you understand for the sake of Earth and Humanity, you four have become an integral part of a story that stretches back some forty billion years, to the beginning in fact of this particular incarnation of the Universe”.
And so Michael began to tell the story of the birth of the Universe.
“The Universe was born, as are all Universe’s, it’s mother and father were/are, another Universe in a another dimension”. Michael paused, and stared briefly at the ground at his feet, looking up he said “let me give you an analogy which I hope will go some way in helping you to understand the vastness of what you inhabit, everyone knows what a molecule is? Yes? Good, imagine you are a molecule, a molecule which is part of the structure of Mount Everest. You as that molecule could have no conception of the structure, beauty and majesty of the Mountain that you are part of, I on the other hand, am the person standing at the foot of that Mountain and admiring it’s grandeur. I mean no disrespect to you or your fellow humans, I am merely pointing out the perspective I have in relation to your position in the scheme of things”.
David raised his hand, he genuinely felt like a small schoolboy, Michael smiled and held up his hand, “I know” he said “millions of questions, but allow me to continue and I will address your questions and………doubts in due course. Now where was I, ah yes, the universe was born; and I will use your, that is to say Earth’s time frame for all measurement; forty billion years ago, you scientists however are only partly right when you describe the “Big Bang” and it was a big bang, all births are amazing, but the birth of a universe is spectacular.

Chapter Thirteen

David and the others had settled themselves and sat in a semicircle around Michael, It was, David thought, a very surreal experience. His world view had been radically altered over the last few years. Starting with the initial discovery of Betelgeuse and the impending super nova, the depressions he had suffered, being one of the very few people to actually know the date of the end of the World was quite traumatic. And then the incidence with the Meek and the fact that science could find no rational explanation was the final crack in the paradigm. In plain language his World had started to fall apart, he glanced at Catherine, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Although he couldn’t remember feeling this way when they had first been introduced, looking at her he felt his heart begin to pound and sweat popped onto his brow. At that moment she turned her head and he knew in that instant that she felt exactly the same way about him, she reached out and took his hand, and a frisson of electricity seemed to course through his body. David glanced up at Michael, and saw the Angel looking at them intently “Go with the flow David” he said, as if reading David’s mind, and then as clear as crystal he heard Michael say in his head “yes, I can read your mind, you can’t be an Angel without some divine powers” David’s mouth fell open in awe, Michael just smiled and continued with his narrative.
Michael continued. “A Universe is a sentient being, and I know that’s hard to accept and understand. But just remember there are many people on planet Earth that intuitively knew that the Earth was alive and had a spirit, so why should it be different for the Universe itself. It is in fact, where all spirit or souls originate. For ease of description let’s call it the Source. The Universe is born with its Source, half of which resides in this dimension and half in a higher dimension, and I hasten to add, that is all we…Guides know, we have no concept of what this higher dimension looks like or how it functions. We presume that eventually in some distant time, our Universe will itself give birth to yet another, and so the cycle will continue”.
All four of the humans stared in rapt attention, their minds whirling at the concepts being thrown at them. In their minds pictures of the Universe were swirling around like pieces of a jigsaw, and not all of the pictures were from their own imaginations they realised.
Michael had paused, and it took several seconds for them to realise this, they all looked up at him as one. Michael smiled “I think it’s time for a break don’t you? Have something to eat and then feel free to roam for a while; we will recommence the lesson in a few hours”.
David was still staring up at Michael when he heard Catherine gasp; he turned and was amazed to see that at their feet had appeared a most delicious picnic.
Michael leaned forward and pointed to a white powder like substance on a small dish “Please, try this, on Earth it’s now known as ORME, but in times gone by it was known as Manna, it’s actually the food of the Source, and makes up a large part of our diet, it can be found in almost all things in the Universe and has some very special properties, it also seems to reside in two places at once! Like the source itself half in this dimension and half in the higher dimension.

Chapter Fourteen

David and Catherine had walked for ten minutes, Kevin and Sally had gone in the opposite direction, some unspoken agreement that the couples needed to be alone together, they had left Michael seated on the ground tucking into what was left of the ORME, and looking very contented with himself. David was trying really hard to contain himself and had this almost primeval urge to rip his clothes off and make mad passionate love to Catherine, and from the way Catherine was clinging to him, he thought she was of the same mind. Then they saw the cave.
They wandered back about two hours later and saw Kevin and Sally already seated on the ground, both had a dreamy look in their eyes, David immediately went red with the thought that he and Catherine must look the same way. Michael was standing and staring across the Island and turned when he heard David and Catherine settle themselves once again on the lush grass. He turned and smiled “So concentration and composure restored I hope” he said, both couples went scarlet.
“Earlier I was talking about the birth of the Universe, now I would like to turn attention tothe Source and how all of creation throughout the Universe is part of it. Every planet; and there are many; has the sole purpose of allowing souls to learn and experience. The Earth is one of the oldest of these classrooms, allow me to digress slightly. As I have intimated all souls come from the Source, picture a globule of light breaking away from a vast sea of light, this is the moment of birth for an individual soul. It is now free to find its way to a planet/classroom and inhabit any number of biological or non-biological entities, let’s stick with what you know i.e. Earth. So the soul comes to Earth and picks its host for this particular lesson, new souls are restricted to the lower order of things like plants, insects, bacteria, plankton, rocks etc. After several millennia the soul is free to move up to the next level, animals, trees etc, eventually after several thousand years, the soul can move into human form, think of it as a journey from infant school to university.
Michael paused, as if gathering his thoughts “Now for the complicated bit” his brow furrowed as he thought of the best way to convey the next incredible piece of information “Fate” he said “humans call it Fate, what it is in fact is a hugely complex system that actually allows for the existence of free will”.
He turned to Kevin “Kevin, you are one of the proponents for a Multiverse, are you not?” Kevin nodded enthusiastically “well I am pleased to tell you that you were partly correct, a Multiverse is a way of creating a branching line of consequences, for instance; and this is an extreme example; and one now impossible to conceive on Earth. Someone is faced with a decision to kill, now he or she has two choices at the moment of intent, or to put it bluntly; when the hammer falls, at that instant a Multiverse is created. In one the murder is not committed, in the other it is. Now something else happens at this point, the soul of the person splits”.
David spoke up “so what you are saying is that every choice that I make or more to the point could have made is actually made by a double of me in this Multiverse?”
Michael nodded “yes that is right, it is the only way free will can work, but this will really excite you, all of your doubles in all of their corresponding worlds share one soul!”.

Michael paused “You all know what a hologram is?”
They all nodded.
“And you all know” Michael continued “That a hologram can be broken into a million pieces and each piece contains all the information of the whole”.
David turned and looked at Kevin, it was as if a light had been switched on, Kevin gasped “But its so simple, so beautiful” Michael smiled and nodded “Yes it is, of course you all already know all of this information; every entity in the Universe knows what I am telling you, because all of us, including me and my brethren are part of this vast hologram called the Source. So to continue when the soul splits, half stays in the original universe and the other becomes an identical image of the person and universe within the newly formed Multiverse. And this occurs for all souls on all of the planets throughout the Universe…..whew, now that’s a lot of Multiverse’s! Whenever an entity/Soul makes a choice; and I don’t mean which dress or suite to wear; but something that will actually change or alter their future or their path to the future, a Multiverse is created.
“And now” Michael said “This is the point you have all been waiting for; question time!”
Kevin wasted no time and raised his hand “What about time? How does that work?”
Michael nodded sagely “Time is linear for all souls….unless you step outside”.
Kevin’s brow furrowed as he tried to grasp the implication. Michael spoke again “Okay, certain souls have the ability to step outside of the timeline and move backwards, but; not forwards, at least not in this Universe; and before you ask, none of us knows the answer to that. All we know is that time must continually move forward and the future is as yet unwritten for us all. As I said when a soul reaches a certain level, er, let’s keep this simple; its promoted or rather given an opportunity to move upwards; closer to the Source or become an Ang…Guide or; stay where it is, you see, free will in action! In fact some of the trees on Earth contain souls that are millions of years old, they keep coming back again and again, apparently the tranquillity of life as a forest tree is second to none, or so I have been told.  
David interjected; this is becoming distinctly lord of the Rings’ ish. Michael threw his head back and roared with laughter “Actually David” he said “Tolkien was merely accessing long forgotten memories; the story of the Lord of the Rings actually happened some five million years ago in another long forgotten civilisation!” Michael looked up as if studying the clouds “Magic” he said “Is as real as science, in fact from my perspective; it is science! So as you may have already guessed as a soul moves forward it gains certain powers, we guides or angels, as you like to call us have a certain job to do and the powers granted to us, allow us to move around in some rather radical ways, oh ,and stop and move outside of time; okay next question?

Chapter Fifteen

It was unexpectedly Sally that threw the curved ball with her question, “What are ghosts and demons?” Michael looked intently at her for a few seconds “You see he said, I never saw this question coming, and it sort of brings us around to the reason you are here with me. What you call a ghost is merely the soul waiting for recombination!”
“I’m sorry” Sally said “recombination?” Michael paused to gather his thoughts “When a Multiverse is created, the soul splits, over the course of one human lifetime depending on circumstances, it may split many times. Events within each of the new Multiverse shape the individual soul within it, in some cases not all of the vehicles i.e. Earthly bodies dies at the same time, so the soul or souls cannot move forward until recombined, so they wait in another area. Humans call this by several names i.e. the other side, the after life, heaven, these ghosts are free to re-visit there mortal dwellings on Earth as they wish. This gives them the opportunity to revue the lives they led and in some cases re-connect with loved ones. It also creates certain conditions in places on Earth i.e. haunted houses etc, which become in themselves places of experience for other human souls, once all the souls pass on they recombine and are free to move forward”.
“Okay” said Sally “So what about so-called Demons?”
David couldn’t be sure, but it seemed as though Michael went just a shade paler.
“Demons” said Michael “don’t exist, at least not in this universe. But something happened about two hundred and fifty thousand years ago which changed everything!”
Michael looked at the ground and shuffled his feet, looking up he said “Have you ever heard of the Annunaki?”
The others shook their heads but Catherine raised her hand “Aren’t they Sumerian Gods?” Michael nodded “Yes, eight thousand years ago the Sumerian people were visited by the Annunaki, what they didn’t know was that the Annunaki had already been on Earth for two hundred and forty two thousand years. Two hundred and fifty thousand years ago something unprecedented occurred; there was a breach between two dimensions, in forty billion years this was the first time this event had ever happened”.
David raised a hand, “sorry but what’s the difference between a Multiverse and a Dimension?” Michael folded his hands behind his back “A Multiverse is a totally natural function of the Universe, part of the scheme of things if you will. A Dimension, on the other hand is what contains this Universe and we presume many other universes, all of these dimensions overlay each other, but on slightly different vibration wavelengths, that’s the physical side anyway i.e. suns, planets, souls and the physical part of the Source. As far as we know, and this is by no means certain, but we think the higher Dimension is the same for all universes, in other words it’s shared by all others, is that clear?” Michael looked at each in turn and all nodded “It’s very important that you grasp this part, it will make it easier to understand what occurred and how bad it was for our Universe.