The Beaded Tapestry

Dear sister,

The summer is drawing to a close and I realize I have not written to you for many months. The days of sunshine have flown by with the realization that my claim on time is loosely held. Since all the preparations are now complete, I only bid my time until the date of my departure.

Father has come and gone. Our parting was agonizing since it felt like saying farewell forever. I catch myself misting up every time his face bubbles up from my memory. I suppose that is why I have not written to you for so long. It only brings back the emotions of fathers visit and the pain of separation. I may cry even now as I record these words to you, but I will continue the correspondence in the hopes it will purge the sorrow from my system. Or at the least tamp it down sufficiently to allow me to function for the next few months.

Father left all the relevant paperwork for my trip with me, including some additional safeguards against the ever tightening regulations against exodus. It seems ironic that the mindset has changed so drastically over the past century when it comes to immigration! It used to be every government tried to keep immigrants out of their lands. Now they are desperately attempting to keep everyone in. What an odd change of fate. I just hope the regulations are not further strengthened before November. Father says he has done everything possible to avoid these complications; ensuring all the T’s are crossed and the periods are in their proper place, but I still feel a little whisper in the back of my mind warning of trouble to come. It is always the same for me before a trip, but this is an exceptional situation.

The waiting is crippling and I know this is where the additional stress is coming from. The summer has flown by, but the days still seem to drag by as if I am trapped in amber. The fact that my brain has little or nothing to keep it occupied does not help. I have tried to do some additional research into the evolutionary theory of the Anomaly, but it is not enough to relieve the tedium. At lease my daily runs are there to break the monotony of the hours and dissipate a portion of the stress. I gave up on my response to Lizbeth. She will just have to stand on her own when it comes to her dissertation. I sent her a short response informing her of a conflict with my confidential clause and that I would no longer be able to assist her. Let us hope this is sufficient and she can move forward on her own.

I thought I would spend this last summer visiting old haunts around Oxford before taking my journey, but I find it only brings my melancholy into focus. I stopped my daily wanderings shortly after father’s departure. Visiting my favorite spots seemed at the time to be a good diversion, but I realized it was emphasizing my dark thoughts. I now rely only on my runs to break up me daily routine and will skip the walks down memory lane for now. I see why I have not written to you lately. I am full of self-pity and depression and it is leaking into my message to you. I will stop for now and see if I can fix my attitude before I write to you again. I believe you will need more positive messages from me than I need to spill out my heart.

Please forgive me,

Annalis

Dear Victoria,

Well… I am now down to the bare minimum of possessions here in Oxford. Mother has returned to London with all my favorite things and I am left with a taste of what is to come. Several times I have caught myself digging through empty cabinets searching for some lost trinket that is no longer there. I miss my tea cups the most I think, having now resorted to an old mug with the college logo stenciled on it.

My meeting with the professor went well with no difficulties or surprises. I now possess a lengthy set of instructions on my role in the removal of the creatures to their new home. It has relieved some of my apprehension about the process and cleared up a few of my more pressing concerns. My role will be limited to pick up and delivery, both at the space station orbiting Earth and at my final destination. A third of the now dormant population will be destined for life on the research station near the Anomaly, while the remaining will be transferred to a waiting host on New London. I only need to move these planet bound containers from the stasis chamber on the deep space transport to the transfer pod before I leave the ship. The creatures will complete the remainder of their journey confined there. I was not given any further information on this final leg to the planet surface since this was something I did not need to know. For security reasons it seems only a few individuals know the entire transfer specifics. This will help with the success of the project and the safety of the cargo and those involved. I have the name of the entomologist on the Phycodurus 8 who will take possession of my sleeping ship mates, but other than Professor Simona he is the only collaborator I know of by name.

My departure is still month away but my excitement and apprehension is growing. I catch myself daily dreaming of my first site of the Anomaly. I have only seen images of the creature, but I feel its presence as if I grew up bathed in its aura. It must have some type of influence on me even from this great a distance, but it will be nothing compared to what is to come. My curiosity about the affects you will have in the coming year is at the top of my inquisitive scale. It has been reported that individuals who have been privileged to live their entire lives under the influence of the Anomaly experience molecular changes. Not really a mutation so to speak, but electrical signal enhancements on how the brain processes messages. I cannot wait to have access to these types of studies. Once I am at the research facility these should become available. The scientific community within the Alpha Centauri system has been very close mouthed about this data, but I was guaranteed access once I am established within their guild. We will have to see how this agreement of disclosure holds up. Oh course I will also be obliged to share my own secrets. But fair is fair!!

Yesterday the final instrument shipment was sent to Calais for processing. I now have only the equipment on site that is slated for the baseline measurements here on Earth to keep me occupied during this final leg. There is always a bit of anxiety when I let my instruments out of sight. Even though most of the pieces have made multiple trips around this world, they have never made an interstellar trip. I hope I have prepared them adequately. The same trepidation is there when I think of you and I. Were you sufficiently prepared for your journey and the eventual integration into a new society? I sometimes question if I am ready yet. Maybe a few more nostalgic visits around Oxford will solidify my predisposition. A last visit with our father is definitely necessary. I would feel lost without his final lecture on preparedness.

Love to you,
Annalis

Dear Victoria,

Such a lovely spring day! The sky is an indescribable color and the sun warms the bones and chases the winter frost from the marrow. If only I could capture this moment into a sphere to take out years from now and experience this day as I sit in the coldness of space. Days like this will not be a part of my life once my relocation is complete. It would be ideal to pull out this feeling and experience it whenever the confinement of my future home creeps up on me.

These random thoughts pass through me as I sit in one of the many parks that are scattered throughout Oxford. This particular one I frequent often because it has a beautiful tree lined stream flowing through it. Weeping willows dip their long fronds into the slow moving waters as tall oaks crowd in with wide roots jutting out into their midst. Ducks paddle parallel to the shore where I sit, voicing their opinion of my presence. Many have families trailing behind their V shaped trail through the water, stopping once in a while to gaze at my watching form.

My half eaten lunch sits beside me, forgotten in my fascination with the world around. It feels as if time is frozen in this moment, holding its breath so I can describe the beauty in a letter to you before the clock starts once again. There are no human creatures nearby to break the deception; only the timeless inhabitants that populate any scene such as this. Frogs and ducks, sparrows and fish, all following a repeating pattern that gives an illusion of a pause in time. A timeless scene, repeating itself throughout the history of the Earth. Whether taking place at this moment or three-hundred years in the past, there are no markers to place this occurrence in time.
I have tried to lock the moment away in my memory; capturing all aspects of this divine juncture. The color of the azure sky, the whisper of the breeze through the trees and the smell of new growth and humid air paints a mental picture that will alleviate my doldrums when the darkness comes. That would normally be during the middle of winter, but now it will be for my long stint on the research station. At lease I will have the brilliance of the Anomaly to relieve the coldness and colorless expanse of space.

In recent days I have been working on a new theory for our ever complicated subject. It all started when I tried to compose a response to my former student Lizbeth and relieve the conflict she has between her theory and the intellectual possibilities of the Anomaly. What if the evolution of our subject is so accelerated compared to our own experience that within the last decade the creature has gone from inert matter, to the intellectual being we are seeing emerging. We know so little about the origins of the creature, how can we make assumptions about the rate of its evolvement. Since its first discovery two hundred years ago it could have transmuted from a mere collection of electrical impulses into a complex calculated circuit. This idea has expanded my concept of the being to the point where I do not know where or how to place boundaries around my theory. When thinking in this direction there are so many unknowns that I do not know where to begin. I quite lost my train of thought when trying to explain this to Lizbeth that I stopped the message I was composing to her and switched to my research notes. I wanted to capture this new direction of thinking into our own study and not try and fit it into the picture I was painting for my former student. Again I have found another distraction to interfere with the wrap up of tasks I must complete before the fall. I will have to come up with another theory for Lizbeth. This one fits to well with the direction our own work must follow.

I must leave this idyllic scene now and finish my lunch on the way back to the laboratory. Mother is leaving tomorrow morning. A day earlier than planned since I need to head north the following day to meet professor Simona at her facility. Unfortunately I will not get to visit her incredible creatures during my visit this time since they are in quarantine before the trip to New London. The meeting is a few weeks earlier than expected, so I have some things to prepare today before I head out. It has been a lovely visit with mother. I will miss her clarity and straight forward advice in the years to come.

Love Annalis

A quick project to rejuvenate the creative mind. Inspired by a Bead and Button magazine article.

The amulet bag is now complete!

The pouch and the strap are now complete. Time to work on the fringe.