INTO THE VOID

CHAPTER 3: THE VOID

“Agent X. It is good to finally meet you in real-time. I am Zero”. The man said with his arm stretched out for a handshake. Xaviere took the hand reluctantly. The man’s palm felt stiff and strong. The hand of a hard worker his father would say. He has heard his father boast about the texture of his hands’ surface attributing it to the rigorous farm work he did growing up in the heart of Nigeria.

Xaviere looked at the man’s clothes. He was prim and proper and clad all in black. The turtle neck, the Louis Vuitton suit, the Church’s Burwood Oxford brogues; all black. Even the cufflings and socks he wore were black. He had a grim appearance. Not like the attendees of a burial but more like an assassin from one of those movies about the modern feudal clans of Japan; he did not look like one to pay condolences but looked liked the reason condolences would be paid. The black leather glove he wore on his left hand that stopped at the wrist did not aid Xaviere’s apprehension either.

Who was this man with the upper class British accent? His demeanour was like that of those accomplished Englishmen, the Kind that had university degrees from Cambridge and Edinburgh; having knowledge of snobbery and elegance, the kind who used forks and knives at their dinner tables at home; those who understood the language of cutlery and would set their eating apparatus down a certain way to connote a certain meaning. The kind Xaviere knew too well; those were the men many of his high school classmates were going to become.

Zero let go of Xaviere’s hand after a brief enthusiastic shake in the manner of classmates at a reunion; he shook him as though he knew him.

“It is always strange for agents immediately after activation.” Zero said after noticing the obvious shock on Xaviere’s face.

“I know who you are but I don’t know how I know that. This place feels familiar but at the same time it’s strange.”

Xaviere looked around like a child in a palaeontology museum observing the marvels of dinosaur fossils. The floor of the room was covered with blue tiles. At the centre of the floor a symbol was inscribed; a large white square with a centrally placed black circle within it. The same symbol was on the wall facing the entrance of the large rectangular room.

“Welcome to The Core; the operational headquarters of all VOID activities including agent recruitment, training, activation, monitoring and surveillance. The only reason you feel like you know this place is because you have in fact been here; every day since you were ten I should add. The energy signature of this room is registered in your soul.

“What? Wait; hold up for a second, soul? What do you mean by since I was ten years old?”

“Did Desertwind not brief you?”

Petrichor who have been walking behind the two men said, “Well Sir, he didn’t really give me the chance to do that. The first thing he did after his third eye was opened was geographic translocation. He brought us here.”

“Well, that’s quite impressive.”

“I can get him up to speed in a few minutes.”

“Don’t worry about that. I will take care of it. You can take your leave now.”

“Ok sir. I will be on standby if you need me.” As Petrichor walked away, she looked over her shoulder and gave Xaviere a smile. She reached the wall that was opposite the logo and suddenly the bricks seemed to disappear. As she passed through, the wall returned to its original form.

“What happens when we die?” At the sound of those words, Xaviere who had been inspecting the wall Petrichor just seemingly passed through turned around and fixed his eyes on Zero.

“What?”

“I mean, you went to a seminary for 6 years or didn’t you now?”

“Oh yes I did. How exactly do you know this?

“Oh Xaviere ol’ boy, we have been watching you for quite a while now. I must say it has been quite an experience watching you grow. I will explain it all after you answer my question. What happens when you die? What did the theologians tell you?”

“Dust you are and to dust you shall you return”. Xaviere repeated the words he had heard so many times on many ash Wednesdays. He had been a mass servant for many years and was familiar with many catholic maxims.

“When we die, our bodies are buried, cremated or used for medical purposes depending on the faith of the deceased or his relatives. Then our spirits leave our bodies, while we wait for The Day of Judgement.”

“What then happen to the soul? Correct me if I am wrong but I have heard them say Spirit, Soul and Body. What then happens to the soul when we die? Or better still, what is the soul?” Zero asked.

“Well… I, I actually don’t know. I thought they were the same thing.” Xaviere answered looking puzzled. It has been quite a while since he had said those words; “I don’t know”. He knew a lot of things, he may have not said a lot but he definitely knew a lot or at least had a clue. But for Xaviere James Williams, valedictorian St Matthew Catholic School, highest scorer in the history of The Canada States Scholarship Examination to admit not to know; that was a rare sight. But in his defence, he just watched his reading partner for Introduction to Psychology walk through a wall. What exactly could he claim to know anymore?

“Your third eye is open Xaviere. It is now time for you to see with it.” Zero said. He folded his fingers and made a fist with his gloved hand. He then opened the clenched palm and spread out his fingers. The hand glowed; a bright blue. Zero walked towards the symbol on the wall and placed the illuminate hand in the black circle. The illumination spread quickly in all direction of the wall and in an instant the room was gone. The two men looked suspended in a thick darkness. The floor was still there but was see through. Zero turned around with his hands in his trouser pockets and looked upwards.

“She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” Zero asked.

In all of his study of space, in all the images of astronomy he has seen, in all of pictures on the NASA website never has Xaviere beheld something so marvellous.

“Is this some sort of hologram?” Xaviere asked adjusting his glasses as he watched this wonder.

“Not at all, this is the edge of our galaxy. You may know her as the Milkyway.”

“I can’t believe this. This is incredible.” Xaviere said as he looked at the beautiful stars and numerous planets. He looked at a humongous red structure that had numerous craters. Beside this giant object, the two men looked like pebbles beside the Burj Khalifa.

“It’s sulphur. That’s what makes this moon red.” Zero said.

“This is a moon? This thing must be twice the size of Jupiter.” Xaviere remarked.

“Three times actually and it is just a giant ball of sulphur held together by cohesive forces. If you look just over there you will see the planet it orbits; BX 3-Alpha. It rains diamonds there.” Xaviere strained his eyes and looked and then realized that there were actually standing in the shadow of the planet casted on the moon.

“Why aren’t we affected by its gravity? This planet is easily bigger than the sun.”

“Very good X, you are paying attention.” Zero said.

“Magic, science, sorcery; these are all man’s attempt at understanding the universe. They are studies of fractions of a very big whole; one that even we here at the VOID have not fully understood. There is The Physical Realm; the tangible reality we live in. The place you are when you open your eyes every morning. It is the realm of the body.

Then there is the Soulish Realm; the space where all human thought and ideas are manifested. It is a realm of cognition. When you imagine something, what you picture in your mind actually comes to life but in the Soulish Realm. The soul of a person is the part of you that has all the memory of life, human relationships, and the part that host the emotions.” Zero took the gloved hand out of his pocket and waved it once like a conductor coordinating an orchestra. The two men appeared in a white void. It looked like the rectangular room they had previously been in but here everything was white. There was nothing here, no logos or doors; just a white room.

“X, watch out.” Zero said pushing Xaviere out of the way of a freight train that suddenly appeared.

“What in the world was that?” Xaviere exclaimed.

“Well I thought about a train and a train appeared. That’s because we are standing in The Soulish Realm. Look over there.” Zero said pointing to something behind Xaviere. What seemed to be a burning flame of different colours was suspended behind Xaviere. The colour of the fire was a blend of yellow and indigo making bronze-like flames.

“That is the manifestation of your emotions. You felt afraid and surprised and The Flame of Feelings burned a corresponding indigo and yellow. The Flame burns different colours depending on the emotion we feel at the moment; Black for hatred, White for indifference, Red for anger, orange happiness, Yellow surprise, Green disgust, Blue love and Indigo and violet fear and sadness respectively. Since we almost never actually feel one absolute emotion at a moment in time, The Flames never burn a single colour”. Zero explained. He then waved his gloved hand again.

Now the two men were standing in what seemed to be deep space; everywhere was pitch-black.

“And finally there is the Realm of Energy, the Spiritual Realm if you may.” Zero said. As he spoke, his face was aglow with an illumination that seemed to come from beneath them. The appearance of Zero’s dimly lit face reminded Xaviere of the camp fire stories. The boys in poor illumination took turns telling each other ghost stories. Zero face at this moment gave Xaviere the same feeling but only that this time the stories were true; though seemingly unrealistic but true.

Xaviere look downwards and discovered the source of the light; a cloud like stream of shiny particles that seemed to flow in a particular direction. It was vast, bigger than any water body he had ever seen. He once watched a documentary on the Mississippi River and not even the course critically acclaimed longest river on the earth could match this marvel beneath him.

“This is the pool from which all life is gotten. Here at the VOID we have pretty much the best idea of how the universe work s because unlike the scientist and astrologers who observe it from within, we have the ability to observe it seemingly from without. Everything that has life has the energy of the universe flowing through it. This energy is known as The Life Force. A plant, an animal, Human beings, bacteria; whatever it is that is said to be alive has The Life Force coursing through it.”

“I don’t understand. You are saying a dog and a person are the same?” Xaviere asked.

”Well, not exactly. You see, they might both possess life but the soul of a person is more complex. While dogs are just living souls capable of showing emotions; beings with very little cognitive ability in relation to man, humans are something totally different; our existence is a marvel. Planets, like the earth that support life are also living; we refer to them as living bodies, bodies with a spirit one might say.”

“What makes humans so special?”

“One of the biggest mysteries we face; an unsolved riddle you might say is the question ‘How did the universe begin?’. After much deliberation we have concluded that it is one of two things. It is either a self aware living entity and everything we see are just compositions of it; like cells in an organisms or it is the well crafted creation of an incredibly intelligent mind. Irrespective of what the answer is, man is special because we are the only actual self aware beings in the universe at least for now. Not even the living bodies fully understand what they are. If they did, the polar ice caps on earth for example would not be melting.” Zero said with a smirk on his face. He had his fingers locked behind observing the stream below when Xaviere said,

“You mean the Earth is capable of self-healing?”

“She survived a direct impact from an asteroid for God sake. Yes it may have taken a while; some millions of years but she is alive and well compared to a lot of the others.”

“Like all living things, she too will die so what’s your point exactly?” Xaviere asked.

“Humans will die one day too, but that does not stop us from trying to prolong our lives. Shelter from harsh weather, new agricultural practices, developments in science; these are all man’s attempt in trying to forestall the inevitable.”

“So what are you saying, we shouldn’t even try?”

“On the contrary my friend, the fact that we do is what is fascinating. We evolve and adapt and create and destroy. We are self aware; like the universe itself or its progenitor. We try to control our existence, unlike these living bodies that just float around in emptiness dancing to the tune of a piper, playing out some scripts. While they exist, we actually live.”

“What makes a thing self aware? What moves a living soul or living body to the rank of self awareness?”

“Another question still left unanswered. Some believe our existence is accidental and so is the universe; a mesh of chaos and disorderliness. That self awareness exists by chance like basically every other thing according to that theory while some others believes we were meant to happen; products of a finely drawn master plan.”

“What exactly is the purpose of the VOID? What exactly is done here? Is this some kind of cult in pursuit of knowledge?”

“Cult, that’s quite an oversimplification. We protect the universe from its biggest threat; The Self Aware. The knowledge that we have today, the things I just showed you can be accessed by any human being. With the knowledge of things like this one can manipulate existence, distort reality create weapons unfathomable. All this can bring an end to everything. The VOID prevents that.”

Zero curled the fingers of the gloved fist and in an instance the room appeared around them; brick by brick taking their former spots.

“That’s it. Your activation is complete. Desertwind debrief about your mission. See you later X. Good luck and God speed.” Zero said turning around to face the symbol on the wall.

Petrichor came in the same way she had left and gestured for Xaviere to follow her but this time through another wall in the room.

What exactly was going on? The last thing he could remember was the party. They left and went to his room. Now, here he was going on some mission with Petrichor who is suddenly being called Desertwind. He did not fully understand it but he was surprisingly calm. As they walked on, he still pondered on what transpired at the party.