The Beaded Tapestry

Dear sister,

Finally a moment to myself after two long days of presenting, listening and collaborating. My journal is full of notes from the other presentations and it will take weeks to sort through what is relevant to our work. The use of music and sound as a neurological healing tool dominated the conference. My mind is still buzzing from all the new ideas and horizons that can be explored in regards to our own agenda. I will create a thorough overview of what I consider relevant to share with you upon my arrival in our new home. There will be many static evenings after my research day is done on the Phycodurus 8, to shift through this additional information. We can compare notes on how this new progressive process can be utilized in our final product. For now, I will place it on the back burner as its use will cause additional complication to an already Byzantine project. Before I arrive, you will already be a year into our original process and I do not want to jeopardize any progress by introducing another element.

There are many small hideaways in Paris and I have found one to quiet my thoughts and compose a letter to you. I wished to do this yesterday evening, but the conference ran well into the night and I was exhausted by the time I returned to my room. The variety of speakers this year was overwhelming and I have to choose which to attend since many were presented simultaneously in different halls. My own talk was well attended and there was much interest in future collaborations. Although the first day was restricted to Louvre fellows due to the secrecy of our work, the second day was open to all researchers in the neurological community.

The introduction of our subject as an intelligent being, capable and adept at manipulation of its environment and the inhabitants around it, was received by my contemporaries with the expected response. First the hall was completely still after I read the statement of our new theory, without even a cough to break the shocked silence. The room then broke into a buzz of whispered dialog as the idea propagated through the hall. I guess it was a shock to hear from my own mouth words that I myself thought never to utter. The once abdicate for the neutrality of the Anomaly, now speaking of manipulation and favoritism.

I concluded with the new data recorded near the Flynn Foundation satellite and a hint of the corresponding signals recorded in other concentrated areas of traumatic illness and neurological disease. I showed in parallel the correlated patterns emitted by the Anomaly in reference to the events. This of course was pure improvisation on my part since I just became aware of this ability of the creature myself, but I could not resist sharing this new found knowledge with my audience.

I return to Oxford tomorrow. The next six months will move slowly for me, since this trip will be my last divergent activity before I board the transport to the research station. It will be difficult to leave Earth and all its familiar comforts, but I relish in the thought of what I will discover when I am in close proximity to the creature. What will our instruments have recorded by the time I step into the new lab? What will you have created in the year since your arrival? I will miss Paris and London, but the thought of these new experiences are causing my heart to pound with anticipation.

I think I will order one more glass of ale before I return to the hotel to pack. I feel sleep will not come easy tonight.

Love,
Annalis

The motion of the ship sooths my emotions and creates a window into the calm condition my mind needs to occupy. Gulls chase our sails as the wind rushes us around the point, separating the island from the mainland. We are nowhere that I recognize. All the land masses give no recollection of where we are and the sea is a blue I have never experienced. Salt tangs the air as our ship slips through the strait, giving a wide berth to the rocky shore along the starboard side. Your form is posed on the deck of the ship, grasping the mass with your right hand and caressing the wind with your left. The breeze catches your hair and lifts it in a halo around your body. The weather conditions are ideal for a daily sail and I pull and extend the lines, creating the perfect dance to slip through the obstacle course ahead. Sunlight beats down from a flawless sky. Only the creature shares the sky with us today. It dominates the space in front of us, stretching across the horizon. It does not block the light, but dances with it. Intermingling it’s molecules perfectly in order to blend with the incredible day.

Colors combine and mix in the heat waves traversing across the surface of the water. Bubbles rises to the surface, churned by the bow of the ship, creating small reflections of the creature above in their spherical surface. You laugh as I swing the craft past the point, making you grasp the mast with both hands. The gulls follow, blocking out the sky above with their shadows. An incredible calm engulfs me as I open the window fully into this experience. Allowing my mind to experience it in total. We are together once more. I do not know where and I do not know when, but It gives me an overwhelming feeling. I close my eyes to the salty mist kicked up from the waves and when I open them again I am in darkness. Rain patters on panes and the wind buffets the building making the windows rattle in their frames.

Dear sister,

Such a lovely dream! I awoke in tears, missing your presence more than ever this morning. I so enjoy these dreams when we are once again together, but waking up is always so painful. It has given me the calmness I need for my conference today, so I am grateful for that. The hotel they have placed me in is near the Louvre, so I only have a short walk this morning before arriving at the conference entrance.

Yesterday went well. I introduced a few eye openers to the attendees and also received a few myself. I regret that we did not focus earlier on the musical influence of the Anomaly. There are so many neurological implications in relation to this aspect of the creature that I feel the need to adjust our research for this neglected point. I wish I could relay a message to you at this stage of your journey. I would like to adjust some of our visual wavelengths to those frequencies within the range presented in one particular lecture yesterday. It seems from the study the talk was based on, that there are dominant bandwidths that amplify the influence of the creature on certain neurological diseases. Specifically autistic individuals and stroke victims. Although I have emphasized this particular use of the Anomaly’s effect, I did not specifically narrow to a particular range of wavelengths that were more effective than another. I will concentrate on some of this new knowledge to finalize my test program before boarding the ship in November. I cannot believe it is only seven months away. I am now almost at the halfway point of my long year of delay and recovery.

I so miss your laughter.  It was incredible to hear it in my dream last night.  I look forward to maybe sailing with you on our new world.

Love always, your sister

Annalis

Dear Victoria,

Everywhere I look there are people. Travelers, residents, business individuals and scientist such as myself fill the public spaces. It was so long ago that I was last here that my mind had forgotten the sheer number of bodies that occupy this city. Paris in all its glory! I had hoped that since the symposium was scheduled for late winter that the crowds would be less. That it seems is not the case. I have been so lulled by the sparse population in England and New Zealand that my first few moments upon arrival were a bit of a shock. Although it did take a moment for my mind to adjust, I am now dodging the passing civilians and weaving through the myriads of traffic like a pro. The years we spent living here, quickly coming back as a guide.

I went directly to the Louvre from the train station, not even stopping to drop off my luggage at the hotel. The excitement of once again entering our old stomping ground was too great to resist. The afternoon has been spent visiting our old haunts and making contact with key people before the symposium starts; A last engagement with the Louvre before my departure for another solar system and the start of the next chapter of my life.

One of my first stops after handing over my impediments to the concierge, was to our old friend the bone knight. How many hours did we spend trying to decipher his shield? Why were we so fascinated with this erroneous figure, tucked away in a side hallway between exhibit halls? It has never been identified and only mystery surrounds the purpose of this eerie piece. What the strange lettering on the shield means, not even the Rosetta stone has given a clue to the symbols.

As I stood there yesterday evening, it reminded me of something I should have mentioned to you before your departure. (Maybe I should say I should have asked you before your departure) When the equipment was returned to Oxford after its unfortunate adventure in New Zealand, several units required significant repairs before they were operational. During these restorations it was necessary to completely disassemble the pressurized inner compartments of a few units. Inside two of them I found replicas of symbols found around the edge of the shield held by the knight. Was this you’re doing? From what I remember, you completed the final potentiometer adjustment on these particular instruments before they were pressurized with nitrogen and sealed. It seemed a strange thing for you to do and also not to mention it to me, but I cannot imagine any other source for these ambiguous markings. Maybe as we once discussed, you feel they have magical powers, giving additional influence to the researcher for the success of their scientific endeavor. The idea that if a researcher included these mystical symbols in their calculation and setup, then there was an increased chance of a successful outcome. I know we jokingly spoke of this, referring to our childhood superstitions, but maybe you’re decided to put it into practice just to see the results.

I guess I will have to wait and ask you when I arrive at the end of my upcoming journey.  I never had the chance in the chaos before you left.

I must close for now.  The symposium on the neurology of music will be starting in an hour and I still must make my way from the hotel to the Louvre science center. My presentation is second on the docket.  Wish me luck. First I will be revealing the initial results from New Zealand. Then I will present an overview of your timeline on New London and my planned agenda on the Phycodurus 8.  It will be nice to speak openly of our current work.  This will most likely be the last time I can do this before my arrival in the Alpha Centauri system.

Tomorrow I will give you a thorough overview of the day’s events.  Hopefully there will be some additional revelations for me also; something to create a paradigm shift in my grey matter.

Love Always,

Annalis

I am always looking for interesting places to find inspiration. This week I visited a new coffee cafe ~ The Coffee Lab ~ It sits across from Nijmegen central train station so great for people watching. It also turned out to be inspirational. Another letter from Oxford down on paper!

Dear sister,

First I need to assure you that all is well with me. I am not certain what type of information mother is providing in parallel with my letters, but I want to affirm that I am fine and have no lasting effects from my little experiment. If you are reading our messages according to  the time stamp after you arrive in New London, I assume you have already read mother’s version of the events from the last week.  I apologize in advance if this is the case since I know how worried she and dad have been and her recent letters must be full of disaster and ill news.

I will start from the beginning so you will realize why I did what I did and also the success of the final outcome.

The second week after my lecture circuit came to an end,  I found myself in an endless cycle with the data from New Zealand and the comparisons to  the Anomaly’s frequency patterns. Around and around I went, comparing my brain emissions with the music of our subject, trying to find a cause and effect between the two. Was my emotional response mimicking the patterns I received from the creature, was the Anomaly responding to my terror or was it influencing my response?  This circle of questions plagued me for weeks, leading me in an infinite loop with no way out.  I admit now that the decision I took was one of desperation and recklessness!

I packed up my essential equipment, borrowed a flitter from the college and headed out to the rugged mountains on the northern extremes of the Scottish highlands. This area is still sparsely populated after the continental submergence in the 23rd century and the emission levels in the atmosphere are still low enough to create a dead zone for my research.  It is not as good as New Zealand, but for my current purpose it was suitable enough.

I set up a temporary camp for a few days of study and sat down on a flat rock overlooking the rugged valley below to draw up a plan. Recreating the terror of my New Zealand encounter was a bit risky, but I knew I could minimize the dangers if I had an adequate plan. Mother asked my later why I had not included a research assistant in my plan.  I knew this would taint the data since my brain would know the risks were minimal, with help so near at hand, so I decided to do this alone.

Once I had mapped out the process,  I bedded down for the night, preparing myself for the ordeal the following day. Early the following morning, before the sun cleared the horizon,  I set up the scenario.  I had programmed both sets of data into my simulator, creating a mock-up of the events in New Zealand. I set up the playback using the parallel distribution process to trick my brain into reliving the occurrence. Using this method from the 21st century to simulator actual neuron functions, seemed to me the way forward in releasing me from my research conundrum. I surmised that if I could relive these events in parallel with the view from the Anomaly and the reaction from my own brain response, then I could determine what was leading.

The next step was where my miscalculation occurred.  I set the simulator on repeat, thinking it would take several replays of the program before my brain could sort out the truth behind the events.  After connecting the simulator to my receptors, I made myself comfortable within the confines of the environmentally controlled research tent.  I then pressed the controls to start the program.

There I was, back at my camp in New Zealand, the sun rising once more over the distant hills and the heat increasing to meet the day.  The smell of the distant New Zealand soil permeated my olfactory sensors, just as if I was actually back in that place.  The thrill of my research was there along with the impatience for the day to start. Then the terror of the storm bearing down on my position enter me thoughts and the pain of the instruments bombarding my body in the torrent of mud and water. The quiet calm as my mind paused along with the simulator while it stopped at the end of the data, resetting itself to restart again.  Then there I was again, at the start of the day, watching the sun rise once again above the hill, planning out my day ahead.

It was then I realized my miscalculation in the plan. I had not set up a panic button to stop the playback or a limit on the parameter for the length of the simulation program. With this realization the terror became tenfold as this added factor in parallel with the terror from the Anomaly data,  plus the response from my own data intermixed with the reading from my own time brain.

I am not sure how many loops I experienced before the replay abruptly ended just as I was viewing the first signs of lightening illuminating the violence of the storm bearing down on me.  Hands were gently lifting my head to offer liquid to my arid throat and I gulped down the much needed moisture until the offered container was empty.

Slowly opening my sandy eyes, I blinked until the figures at my prone side came into focus.  A young man in uniform knelt by my cot holding the now empty mug. Another man stood just inside the broken seal of my tent.  They were members of the Scottish park service.  It seems they had seen my camp over the past few days and seeing no visible activity, had decided to investigate.  I had been in a simulation loop for four days! The rangers sent for a medical team and I spent the next week in the medical unit in Oban.  It was lucky the older of the two rangers had enough technical knowledge to disengage the simulator from my receptors without any lasting effects.  That can be a tricky process.  It was finally determined by the medical staff in Oban that I had no lasting damage to my system and I was allow to travel back to Oxford.

So that is the bad news.  The good news is that my experiment was a success.  I now know that the Anomaly was the leading data from the accident.  It was the source of the music within my mind during the events.  The frequencies of comfort, the music of the calming and support came from out Black Swan! Only you could appreciate the significance of this outcome.

Now I only have to convince mother that I am actually in control of my life.

Love,

Annalis

Dear Victoria,

At last the lecture circuit has come to an end and I left the audience with a final portrayal of the Anomaly.  Using words, I depicted a vibrant, functional automaton and not the crafty manipulating creature that has emerged from our current work.  I hope their overall view leaves them with no doubt that any type of intelligence hides behind its glamorous facade. I did not realize when I agreed to this assignment how difficult a task this would be. It is now done, and I can turn my full attention to the actual nature of our subject.  My mind is no longer split between analogies, but can be solidified on the central conclusion of our findings; an intelligent being with premeditated intent guiding its actions.  Only one final encounter has left a shade on my intellect.  Yesterday at the end of my last lecture,  I received a visitor.

I was sitting in my campus office, completing the final rooster from the day.  A quiet knock preceded the entry of a young woman.  When I looked up from my work, I found myself confronted with the same student who had mesmerized me several months ago during my first lecture.  She had that same expression on her face that so reminded me of you. At once I was looking at you again and not a stranger. We had not had contact since that initial conversation and I cannot recall seeing her face in the audience in the lectures that followed.

After she had taken the seat that I indicated, an elaborate story spilled from her over the next half hour.  The bulk of her tale described her journey toward the decision to study the Anomaly.  She kept referring to her difficulty with this decision in reference to what had occurred during one of the lecture she attended. She kept referring to the strange question asked at the end of the session and the need to have clarification before she returned to her studies. I vaguely remember that particular occurrence since I related it to you in one of my letters. I had been daydreaming as I viewed the periodic table depicted in a tapestry hanging across the doorway with the lecture hall.  Someone had asked a question and the entire assembly became quiet in anticipation of my response.  I had forgotten about this event and had never gone back to the recordings to review what the young man had asked. I was not even sure if the question had been captured by the lecture records since only the lecture material is captured for the archives.

The young woman (she identified herself as Lisbeth) needed clarification on why I had not responded to his question.  It seems her final thesis has been based on the finding of my passed work. Her conclusions were in direct conflict with the argument made by the man’s question during my lecture.  The discord would place her final project in jeopardy. 

I listened to her patiently knowing I would be unable to respond without first reviewing the lecture recordings.  I admonished myself once again. First for letting my mind wonder during the lecture and second for not following up with my gut feeling that the question would return to haunt me. Lisbeth seemed to think that my refusal to answer was an indication that I either disagreed with the nature of the man’s question or was avoiding the subject.  I guess I should have explained to her the real reason I did not respond, but something warned me not to. I quickly assured her I would provide information to her as soon as possible, but I needed time to assemble the research material to support my response.  She was not accepting of my answer and I could see she knew I was being elusive.  We remained staring at each other across my cluttered desk, waiting for the other to blink. When I continued to sit silent and did not give an indication of continuing the conversation, she nodded and left the office.

The first thing I did was track down the recordings of my lectures.  Luckily the audio/visual engineer is an acquaintance of mine and this search was quickly achieved. The rest of the day was spent scanning through the October data trying to retrieve the offending lecture.  After several fruitless hours I finally found the occurrence.  There I was, my silent form positioned at the lecture podium with a blank stare, lost somewhere within the colorful tapestry hanging across the hall. A tall thin man had risen from his seat, indicating that he had an inquiry for me.  When I did not acknowledge him after a few moment,  he proceeded with his question.

“Why, when all our research has focused on the functional capacity of the Anomaly, there has not been a deviation from the present focused research?  Why has your team been so adamant about including no references to the possibilities of an intelligent component in reference to the Anomaly? Why has the intelligence and purpose of the subject been ignored as an explanation for some observations? Why has no emphases been placed on the mounting evidence that the Anomaly has shown preference over some communities and not others?”

There it was! The thing I had been dreading.  A direct question I could not answer without lying straight out.  Although he did not mention the Flynn Foundation explicitly, the insinuation was there. I guess it was lucky that I did not acknowledge this question, lost somewhere between Earth and New London. It would have been difficult to respond without giving away the true nature of our current project. I believe even if I had tried to direct his question away as having no consequence to our current view of the subject,  it would have done more harm than my lack of response. Looking at the reaction of the young man on the recording,  I could see only confusion when I closed my lecture without even glancing his way.  And yes, there sitting several rows behind him was Lisbeth, but she did not have a confused look.  Her look was more deflation.  As if her whole world was collapsing and it all balanced on my lack of retort.

Now I will need to derive an answer for Lisbeth. If her thesis depends on the true nature of the Anomaly, and she needs an argument to pursue her conclusion that the Anomaly is a static object,  this question is indeed paramount.  Of course, in the end her thesis will be proved wrong by our current research,  but for now I need to keep her off that track.

I knew somehow this decision to conduct lectures would turn out to be a disaster.  I just need to do some damage control now.  Then I can move on to more fruitful endeavors.  One more lie and I hope to be done with the subterfuge. 

Love

Annalis

Turquoise water surrounds the solitary figure. Ripples propagate out in geometric designs, creating a mosaic of white and blue, intermingling with the natural oscillations produced by the wind. The figure rotates in the water, sending additional interference through the waves. Artificial meeting natural, creating patterns that propagate across the surface.

Suspended above the planet, the being watches the lone figure producing its artwork. The spectacle sends new concepts through the thought process of the watcher. New frequencies and new combinations emerge from deep vaults buried within its network. A new composition emerges, building off the initial activity below its position. A haunting melody echoes across space as the emissions are released. These new patterns mix with the waveforms already loosed from a previous song of the improviser. The universe vibrates to the patterns, mimicking the creation of the composer.

Dear Victoria,

Such a strange dream! I woke this morning and at once transcribed the vision into words. It was not possible to capture in meer characters the intense emotion this reverie evoked, let alone a description of the plethora of colors and sounds that were present. Rarely do I dream in such brilliance, but this time was one of those exceptions. My thoughts keep returning to you, wishing that when I turned, you would be there, treading water next to me in the aqua sea and pointing out the enormous ocean turtles as they glide below us. The dream was exquisite and I woke refreshed as has not occurred for many months. Rising from my bed, full of creative serum, ready to tackle the most difficult issues our work could throw at me.

After recording my nightly adventure, I spent the day diving into the final projections needed for the recording equipment adjustments. You will be preparing these units on the Phycodurus 8 once you arrive, but they will need to be balanced again when I arrive. These delicate adjustments will ensure that optimal output will be produced from our final stage of the project. This last compensation will have to be made to the sensors since they will have been operating already over a year in space observing the Anomaly. I now have the last piece of our puzzle and will be able to implement it when I reach the end of my impending journey. Feelings of intense calm accompany this accomplishment and with it the certainty that success of the final product is covenant.

I only hope the momentum continues to carry me through this last leg of my time on Earth. The clock seems to be slowing along with my recovery. I definitely was in need of this messenger last night. Let us hope it returns.

Love always,

Annalis

Completed project 25. The natural stone beads have a calming effect. Lava, snowflake quartz, malachite and smoky quartz beads.