Leading With The Arrow

Leading With The Arrow Straight To The Heart

John W. Gilmore

“He sighed because there was nothing else to do,” Tom said. She only gave him a glance and then turned back to the viewscreen. Radha lifted the corners of her mouth.

“Another good one,” She said. “Where do you come up with these stories?”

“What do you mean come up with? I’ve lived these stories over several lifetimes.” She pursed her lips.

“Well you shouldn’t be surprised that you need to check the shield generators then. We’re coming through a patch with a lot of dust and small micro meteors.” She leaned back in her captain's seat, swiveled and watched Tom, waiting. They were a good team. She was Captain of The Arrow, one of the leading recon ships in This Nation’s Navy. Tom was her Navigator. The fact that they were both alive attested to how well they worked together in and out of combat. It was a fast ship that took a lot of quick thinking and concentration to pilot when someone was on your tail.

Tom was an interesting man. It was said that he was from a planet circling the Pleiades somewhere. Radha was just from Earth. Yet again, to someone in the Pleiades, just being from Earth would have seemed as exotic also. The thing about Tom was that nobody really knew where he was from. He was constantly telling about all of his great adventures in moving, vibrant, amazing stories. Radha loved to hear them. She wondered if some of them were true.

He went to the back, looked at the panels, and hit a few buttons. “We should be set for anything, even rocket fire for a while, he said.” He moved back into his seat.

“Rocket fire,” she repeated back. She spun around facing forward in her seat again.

“Yeah. Rocket fire."

"What is rocket fire?”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Just slipping. You don’t remember how it was before they had energy weapons in space. They would fire small rockets at each other.”

“I’ve heard about it Tom, but that was almost 50 years ago. Nobody uses rockets anymore. Nobody we’ll be running into anyway. They were a joke after everybody got shield technology.”

“I know, but we all used them for a while. I was there. I served on the Exodus, the last Alliance ship to catch a rocket in its tailpipe.” She looked at him skeptically. “Check the records, you’ll find it. I was a shipman back then. Actually I was a woman from Carola. Check for a Vandra Beckwith. First shipmate.

She shook her head.

“Go ahead.,” he cajoled. She began to tap the computer.

“She was 37. Joined the force at 17 and worked with the merchants until she put in for a transfer with the Navy,” Tom said. “It was really stupid, but I wanted adventure. I had a break up with my fiance. I was on the rebound, didn’t know what to do with my life, so I went on one of the front line ships. I must have been on the thing for 12 or 15 years, had many battles, but we weren’t lucky one day.”

The missile breached our hull on the lower deck and we soon found ourselves sucked out into the iceneess of space. Nothing like dying in a cold vacuum. It was just a terrible feeling, but my body was so numb and I was in so much shock that I don’t know if it really hurt at all. I thought it was over when some type of energy beam hit me and I was transported to a Centurion ship from close to the center of the galaxy. That was the first time we ever had contact with them. They were so advanced they made us look like chimpanzees.”

“Hold on Tom, I’m typing,” She said. “Hm. I have actually found that ship.” She glanced at him. "I’m going to look for that woman. What’s her name?”

“Vandra…”

“Ok. I have her. Let me see. I can’t believe this,” she said, scanning the screen. “You are so accurate, but I don’t see anything about her after that battle.” She looked at him, “There really was a battle in space, but according to this the ship was attacked and no one was found. No bodies, but a wreck of the ship was found. How could that be?”

“We weren’t aware of the Centurions yet and they wanted no contact whatsoever with such a backward race.” She sat there dumbfounded. “So we had a choice, a mind wipe, or to be taken back to live with them and go through their expansion program. I went through the expansion program, I don’t know what happened to the others, or where they were sent.”

“What is this expansion program thingy?”

“It is simply expanding your awareness. They had a theory that the mind didn’t exist in the body, but all over the universe; not only all over the universe, but in several, parallel universes and across all timelines. They basically understand us all to be part of this one, infinite being. They knew we weren’t aware of it, so they had been working to help some of the beings, very few around the Outer Edge, as they called it, become aware of reality. The idea was to expand our awareness until we remembered, with the hope that it would reduce our tendency toward violence. That's what they put me through.”

Now I remember every life. Past, present, future, other dimensions, everything, but it gets hard sometimes. It’s like you have so much knowledge in your head that your head is about to explode. When you relax and remember that it isn’t in your head though.” He snapped his fingers. “There you are, back to life with no pain or tension, just smooth sailing.”

“So you’re trying to tell me all of those stories you have are real then, and they are from several different lives?" She grinned. Tom did too.

“What do you think, Radha? Do they seem real to you? Ask your heart.” He sat waiting for her answer with an intensity on his face she had never noticed before.

“I have to have something more tangible than that,” she said, looking at the screen again. She looked up at him. “They are fascinating, yes, but… you can’t just believe something based on what you feel about it. Suppose my heart is wrong?”

“I don’t know. How often has your heart been wrong?”

“I don’t know...” She said, “How do I know if I am ever really listening to my heart, or my head pretending it’s my heart?” He laughed a little.

“You’ve got me there. But do I seem crazy?”

“A little,” she said. “No, strange, but not crazy.”

“Do I seem like a liar?”

“No.” He spread his hands. “Well I must be telling the truth. What does your heart say about that?” She crossed her arms.

“Let’s change the subject,” she said. “When’s the last time you were on leave?”

“Ah. You want to change the subject?” She grinned and so did he. “I would say about 1 year ago.”

The End

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