BEYOND THE PALE: ( The Outlander ) Read online

  This had been an important conversation that had taken place. For River, it was like an immense weight had been taken off his shoulders. For Nathan, he was actually pleased that his young friend wanted to stay on. He was most welcome, and the family would be happy to see his return. They had covered some distance whilst they were talking, and now the ruins of the old city lay behind them, so Major Carlson stopped the vehicle and insisted that River tried his hand at driving.

  They swapped over seats and Nathan quickly gave River a breakdown on the operational prerequisites of driving a Rough Rider. They both pulled down the restraints to protect them just in case they rolled, and River eased the throttle back and was soon picking up forward momentum in a jerking motion. As the name implied, they were not a smooth ride. They provided very quick acceleration but a low top speed. They was not really that complicated to drive, the skill applied when you reduced the magnetic repel of the catalyst drive to a level which just kept the vehicle less than a foot off the ground. This made you feel ever contour and the skill was to hug the terrain without crashing into any obstacle. As Nathan slowly adjusted the magnetic repel lower, River began to realise the difficulty of maintaining control of the steering. The rougher the terrain and the vehicle and the steering were getting thrown about. The contents of your stomach could easily end up in your throat, but the play factor was really exciting and fun. With practice, River got better and better at handling the vehicle at faster speeds. A few times Nathan felt like grabbing control of the steering yoke when it seemed that they were inbound for a collision with some boulder, but River displayed lightening reactions which gave Nathan much confidence in his driving.

  When they reached the foothills to the flat iron rocky peaks, Nathan swapped seats again and took the controls. He raised the magnetic repel to maximum to climb the steep hills, because the Rough Rider was not designed for such hill climbs. The flat irons were aptly named because their line of peaks really did resemble a bunch of up ended flat irons sticking up at an acute angle. From the distance they appeared to rise as a small mountainous range. However once you had climbed the foothills, the rocky cliffs were not really that high. However the highest ridges appeared like large shattered splinters of rock. They provided Nathan’s favourite location for practising natural terrain free running.

  They took a break first and had a brew and a couple of energy snacks before they tackled the rocky outcrop which they had selected. They clambered up the rock face easily. It was not even climbing as the outcrop rose out of the earth at angle that was more diagonal than vertical. Nathan mapped out a small circuit that did not contain that many taxing jumps and completed it at first on his own to demonstrate the different style of jumps that would be required. He had switched off all enhanced abilities to his prosthetic limbs so that River would be able to try and match his abilities. He then walked River around the small circuit covering each jump one at a time. The ledges, foot and hand holds they targeted were easily assessable, but Nathan demonstrated to him how with a bit of ongoing momentum, one could reach target holds much further apart and swing forward from unsteady hand holds to sure footed ones. River was soon picking up the skills and increasing both his speed and the length of his jumps as got better with practice.

  Nathan was really in his element. This was usually a solitary sports activity for him. There was no one that he knew who was both interested in it and eligible to leave the citadel. Not only this, but River was a natural. In a short span of time he had picked it up like a natural, to become a quite competent jumper. Without the aid of any optical overlays and computer ‘App’ calculations, he was able to work out achievable distances to jump or drop at different speeds.

  After an afternoon of natural free running, they went down into a hillside meadow at the base of the peaks in order to make camp. River let Nathan build camp by setting up two tents with a tarpaulin covered adjoining area. River’s contribution was to collect wood and start a fire. Nathan had packed sleeping bags, inflatable mattresses and foil heat insulators in the Rough Rider. He had brought a selection of pre prepared meals which actually heated themselves through some unknown chemistry and a bottle of red wine for himself, and fresh water and fruit juices for River.

  As they feasted and drank beside the camp fire River mused, “If a brother from my community could see me camping in such comfort, I think he might disown me.”

  Nathan was amused but replied sarcastically, “I suppose you eat snakes and lizards, and sleep using rocks for pillows.”

  “We do actually, sandstone makes a good neck support,” River was learning to appreciate sarcasm.

  However Nathan expressed a genuine belief, “There is nothing wrong with applying a little technology to make life a little more comfortable.”

  “So Nathan, does that argument explain why you alter your genes and integrate computers and machinery within your bodies.”

  “A terrorist’s bomb would have left me in a wheelchair for the sake of some bionic implants. Genetic profiling has given us smarter kids who can keep up with exponential advance of technology. Any citizen can now access and display a goldmine of information on any subject he needs within reason, and you and me get to have self inflating mattresses, self heating dinners, and nano-fibre fabrics that can keep us warm in blizzards and cool in a desert … So why do you dislike the gift of technology so much?”

  “Because the more you rely on it, the further it takes you from where you need to go,” River said with implied conviction.

  “Explain that point!” challenged Nathan who felt that River had side stepped his whole premise of the discussion.

  “You are human like me, but you cannot do everything that I can do. Our bodies are beginning to evolve differently, but we are meant to be as one. Our DNA is a gift from the creator and has unbelievable potential for change stored within it. Yet your scientists try to reverse engineer it. You think that by pulling it apart and changing some genes you can fix anything, and one day make a human into a god. But you do not realise that we were once part of God, but have been made separate.”

  Nathan was an Atheist, and any mention of a God usually would irritate him. “So if you think that there is a God and only he can change us, and make us better. Then why hasn’t he done this to us yet?”

  “I appreciate that you do not believe in any god, creation, or any religion. This is something that you feel that you instinctively know. I do not want to argue this point with you. However I too know instinctively, that this world and this reality are part of one creation which is still in the process of being created, and can not be seen as separate from the Creator. It is the holy spirit of Creator’s love which emanates through everything and manifests creatively through Creator’s eternal spirit that is within us and bound to this earth through a mortal soul. That divided spirit that lies within us remains separated from its source. It yearns for atonement. That is to be at one with the Creator.”

  “Spoken like the true son of a preacher,” Nathan referred to River’s father Eli.

  “My father’s religion is not my faith.”

  “Well there are many people in the metropolis who hold to some form of religion. In fact it bodes well for you if you can adopt the arcane and magical beliefs held by some of the elite,” -Nathan appeared to resent these people- “But to me, I see it all as superstitious hocus-pocus which serves to make the believer feel that someone has got his back, and is holding a safety net. I don’t see your pantheistic or deistic beliefs to have any more validity than theirs. Evolution brought us all here and not by design, but instead by happenstance. Human DNA hasn’t evolved, but we have the ability to change it now; enhance it. If we don’t apply and integrate new technological knowledge to ourselves, then technology will become sentient and leave us behind. If we don’t embrace artificial intelligence, then one day when it can reason for itself, it will see us as superstitious primitives that are irrelevant to it. It will see us as inferior,” Nathan could see that River was impatient
to answer this point, but his own restraining gesture requested some patience. “We can cover these points another time. I still want you to explain why you think DNA belongs to god and why he hasn’t yet improved it.”

  “My people told me that in our world all DNA evolves and changes twice in every great cycle. The great cycle lasts 26,000 years which moves through a positive and a negative half. As it progresses from each to the other, all DNA changes. We are just in the process of passing from negative to positive, and the cycle is about to renew. There brings a change in energy, which manifests changes in that which feeds of this energy. The first to change is our Star, the Sun. Then the change is passed on to the planets and to our planet Earth. This planet will then vibrate at a higher frequency which will change us and our DNA.”

  “River, that is a bunch of primitive Indian horse shit, and I am surprised that you believe in this.”

  “Nathan, I could probably prove this to you because it is tangible and you can feel it.”

  “I don’t feel it.”

  “This is the problem that afflicts those of the metropolis. You have forgotten how to feel using your chakras. Instead you pollute them with corrupt muses every day.”

  “I have no idea what you just said,” said Nathan being facetious.

  “We have seven chakras. They are like a separate and distinct set of spiritual organs which process and circulate the energy which enters our body. There are two portals in our body but only one works. There is the crown chakra in the top of the head which can process and channel cosmic energy and pass it downwards. However the path is broken between it and the next chakra situated at the pineal gland which is isolated from the others. The other portal is the base chakra which draws energy from the Earth. Energy vibrates at different frequencies. The Earth’s energy is in the process of raising its vibrational frequency. Thus when it is processed by the base chakra and passed on to be processed through the other six chakras, it should raise our own vibrational frequency. Am I boring you? Is this horse shit to you as well?”

  “No this is good stuff. Complete make-believe, but better than the average superstition. Continue please. I can see that you really believe this.”

  “Each one of the six chakras governs and is governed by emotions. Each chakra processes the energy and manipulates it in a distinctive way relating to the emotions that it governs. Some of this altered energy remains residual in each chakra and the surplus is now passed along the line to the next chakra which does the same. This altered energy cannot flow back to the Earth, nor can it find an exit through the crown chakra. Instead it is projected out of the body through the third chakra which is the solar plexus. This energy joins that which is similarly emitted by other people in a matrix of collective intention, and there it seeks to become manifested into some materialistic creation shaped in our shared mutual reality.”

  “Interesting but probably nonsense and what does any of this have to do with changing DNA.”

  “DNA can be programmed as your scientists are all too aware. They try to change it by splicing genes. That is really primitive. Instead it can be achieved when the vibrational level of a person has been raised in synch with that of the earth energy that flows through him. It is all to do with a person’s management of their chakras. If they are looked after and nourished, then kundalini can be induced. This can happen when the broken connections at the 6th chakra are mended. The result of this is an eruption of energy flowing up through the balanced chakras along two spiral paths joining and infusing with the external cosmic energy drawn in through the head’s crown chakra. This is the equivalent of an electrical circuit being made and electricity flowing through it. This is called the awakening of the serpent, or kundalini, which refers to the release of trapped energy along two intertwined pathways through the crown and beyond. This is when the real re-programming of DNA can occur. It can be achieved to a much greater effect when this rising kundalini takes place during sexual intercourse with synchronised orgasms. The effect is strongest at conception. The release of sexual energy at this time is huge and quite capable of forcing open this path of kundalini. If conception takes place, the incoming cosmic energy carries the spirit of the Creator’s manifested love which will create changes to the unborn child’s DNA. When enough of these children are born with altered DNA and a higher state of consciousness, then they will lead the others in a quest to raise the collective human vibrational level and consciousness. Then all those with a balanced chakra path will transfigure to a higher dimension together. Those with impaired and unbalanced chakras will remain behind un evolved and trapped within this present corruptible dimension.”

  “You are an interesting young man River.”

  “Thank you.”

  “But you are seriously full of shit. No offense.”

  “None taken”

  ~~~~~

  The next day they were both woken very early by an exceptional hot sun heating up their respective tents like ovens. Nathan climbed out feeling worse for wear and in need of sleep after having polished off the whole bottle of red the evening before. River on the other hand, squinted at the suns position in the sky and rebuked himself for over sleeping.

  Nathan prepared breakfast, because River still could not bring himself to handle the preparation of processed meals. His double standards had no problem eating them though. He did compensate by taking down the tents and dismantling the camp to spare Nathan the effort. So once everything had been loaded into the storage compartment of the Rough Rider, they set off for Lizard Ridge. River drove again with the familiar terrain of the rising foot hills of Rockies to his right. He headed due south at maximum speed and the catalyst drive set to minimum vibration. The journey would take less than three hours, which would get them to their rendezvous point in time for high noon. There was little conversion during the journey as both men were pre-occupied. Carlson wondered if anybody would be there, and how he might handle the situation. River wondered what reaction he might warrant once he had told Isa or whoever came along, that he intended to stay on in the citadel.

  On this occasion the Rough Rider was parked a lot closer to the cave than it was last time. Nathan wanted it parked close enough for a fast exit but still not openly in view. If anyone turned up, he could not guarantee what their intentions to him would be, and River was in full agreement with him. Nathan didn’t want to appear as an aggressor, so he locked all his weapons away in the trunk of the Rough Rider. This exception to this was his taser; He would need this to deactivate his data processor so that none of this encounter was recorded. However that solution only provided a window of about 35minutes before the processor was back up on line. The problem which he had not yet found a solution to was how to extend this window to cover longer periods. Happenstance provided the answer later on. River and Nathan had both entered the same cave where they had initially met each other, but had found it empty with no sign of visitors other than the extinct ashes from their last camp fire. Maybe no one was coming or maybe they were early. As Nathan investigated the small passage that trailed off at the rear of the cave behind the small pool, he hit his head accidentally on some soft rock. Despite hurting, he dislodged a lot of dirt and dust which landed squarely in his face. With his head hurting, and his eyes in discomfort he groped his way to the small pool and washed his face. There was still grit in his eye which compelled him to remove his contact lenses and wash his eyes more thoroughly. He couldn’t replace the lens immediately because they were dirty and required storage in a cleansing solution. So whilst his vision learnt to readjust to relying on his own pupils instead of his optical readout, it suddenly occurred to him that his visual records were to all intents and purpose off line. All he needed now to go completely under the radar was to lose his audio relay. This he could do if he could mask the receiver which was in an implant in the base of the cartilage of his right ear. River went out to the vehicle to tear off a strip of one the foil blankets. When he returned with it he wound it tightly around Nath
an’s head binding his right ear whilst leaving his left free. When he was finished he told Nathan to put his finger in his left ear to test his hearing in his right. Nathan took his finger out of his left and declared he couldn’t hear anything with the right.

  “So you are free to talk now,” River asked to be sure.

  “Yes, no need for taser now and I have a legitimate reason for the down time,” replied Nathan surprised by the actual simplicity of this solution.

  Whistling a sharp shriek, River explained to Nathan, “Well good because I met some company when I was outside at the Rough Rider. Apparently they have been here all along. They were watching us. I told them all is fine.”

  As if on call, Isa and Hassun tentatively stepped into the cave

  “River says that you are his guest, and this makes you my guest as well. I am Hassun,” said the thickset outlander demonstrating the etiquette of Ute hospitality.

  Isa demonstrated his distrust and dislike of Nathan.”Your leg has healed well, but I see that you have injured your head once again. I do not think Lizard Ridge sees you as a welcome guest.”

  River considered explaining that the head bandaging was not to an injury; but decided that long winded explanation could wait for later.

  Hassun again made an offer of hospitality. “Come with us, we have made camp a little higher up the ridge near the foothills.”

  Nathan accepted and followed the big man. Hassun slowed to let Nathan walk beside him. Isa and River led the group. Nathan could see that the two brothers were naturally comfortable in each others company. Their tactile behaviour and horse play demonstrated their mutual fondness and joy at seeing each other again. Their mutual body language juxtaposed Hassun’s and his. There was not a lot of familiarity or trust going on at back. Hassun reached deep into his carry pouch and pulled out a small metal cylinder, “This is yours I believe.” Nathan recognised the holo-messenger which he had used to leave his message for Isa. Hassun asked why he had chosen this first noon which followed the next full moon for this rendezvous. Nathan explained that he didn’t know whether Isa used a calendar or not. Hassun assumed this to mean that he considered them primitives.