Lama Thongwa Yeshe was leading a meditation session when the Lemurians attacked. It took everyone completely by surprise. In previous battles, the invaders had been strategic, targeting population centers, military bases, or food-production facilities; anything that the humans could use against them. Attacking a Tibetan monastery seemed completely arbitrary. With no means of defending themselves, the monks could only do their best to evacuate and not die. With the indiscriminate bloodlust of the Lemurians, there was only so much they could do.
Thongwa Yeshe found himself in a rather peculiar situation. Being the responsible teacher that he was, he had stayed behind to help the junior monks escape. Before he had the chance to save himself, the Lemurians had destroyed and sealed up the escape route, leaving him to face the squad that was now bursting through the doors, moving swiftly without a superfluous step. Realizing he hadn't long to live, he sat back down on his cushion and began meditating. The Lemurians, however, did not fire their plasma blasters, or raise their scythe-like cutters at him. Instead, they all stood to the side as two larger individuals entered the room, walking towards the senior monk with a leviathan's pace.
Thongwa Yeshe saw everything that was happening and was confused by this new development. However, he continued to sit and meditate, determined not to break his concentration. The two larger Lemurians stood before him, the eyes on their torso twitching as they studied him and deliberated their next move. They then briefly turned to face each other, their giant mouths morphing between shapes with differentiated beats like code. One of them raised its cutters. Thongwa Yeshe readied himself for the end, but to his surprise, the cutter came down on its partner. His face and robes were splashed with the yellow ooze that sputtered from the victim's head. Unaware of possession capabilities, he had no idea what was coming next.
It started with a piercing pain in his throat like an invisible claw had gripped onto his larynx. Then came the pull, like his gullet was being ripped out. A normal person would have been screaming and writhing, but Thongwa Yeshe, through his decades of meditation practice, had learned to work with the pain. Instead of struggling and fighting, he accepted the pain as part of his experience. It was a matter of stepping back mentally and observing as a detached observer. Of course, if he had known what was really happening, he might have not been as serene. In this case, ignorance really was bliss.
Then came the strangeness. A new voice entered his consciousness, speaking in tongues no person could comprehend. Even so, it was pretty obvious that this foreign mind intended to harm. It began smashing away at memories, leaving behind only a select few. Thongwa Yeshe realized this mind wanted to take over his own, and that the memories it was sparing had mostly to do with his knowledge of reincarnation and the process of death. It was a unique experience, and he decided to welcome it. Just as with the pain, he embraced it, looked into it, integrated himself with it. He saw that the mind was taken by surprise. It had expected resistance, terror, but instead, it only felt compassion and understanding. Its attacks slowed and soon became docile. Thongwa Yeshe felt this new entity becoming one with him, both their identities dissolving and flowing into each other, like the meeting of two puddles of water. At this point, his soul had already been destroyed, but lacking the technology and understanding of the Lemurians, he had no way of knowing that. Instead, he focused on the dance of the minds, and soon, both he and the mind were no more. Somebody else now resided in his body.
The new person broke out of his meditation and saw the other Lemurians watching him in anticipation. He knew what he was expected to do, and he knew that they didn't know what had really happened. They wanted information from a body possessed by an angry Lemurian, but this person was anything but angry. He had a newfound purpose, and he needed to act on it fast. But first, he had to make them think they had succeeded.
Grabbing a piece of paper and pen from a nearby table, he began writing in their language. It comprised sounds that were impossible to make with human speech, so this was the only way he knew how to communicate.
'The humans know more about reincarnation than we do, but they have no means of controlling it.'
That wasn't the whole truth of course. By 'knowing more', he really meant that they had more stories and myths surrounding it, not the science that the Lemurians had come to understand. He then told his supposed comrades that the monk's memories of reincarnation were vast, and he needed a human sleep cycle to process it. That all sounded reasonable to them. Believing their plan had worked, they loaded the new person onto a transport craft for delivery to a base nearby.
***
The frown on Andrew's face only grew deeper and more furrowed as he read the report. He shook his head several times, letting out small, irritated breaths as he did so. Maya watched him from the opposite couch. She had brought out a box of pastries from Sino's cafe to share, but she was the only one eating, taking nibbles off the crust as she trained her eyes on his face.
"So then he stabbed the pilot of the craft, took control of it and eventually piloted it to Terran? We're not that close to Tibet!"
"Did you gloss over an entire paragraph? He first took refuge at a Chinese resistance base before being sent our way. It was in danger of being overrun and they figured he would be more useful in Terran anyway. Even at that time, we were the most successful resistance unit, and had already made some headway in understanding reincarnation. His arrival saved us at least two years, and who knows how many lives."
Andrew placed the report back in the folder and handed it back to Maya. He grabbed a cupcake as he did so, but remembered that Priya was still waiting for him back in his apartment.
"I find a lot of it hard to believe," he said, putting the cupcake back down. "I've been to some meditation sessions when I was a graduate student, and they don't teach you how to deal with an excrutiating amount of pain."
"Are you seriously comparing your meditation experience with that of Tibetan monks? Well whatever... Now you know his backstory, what do you want to do next?"
Andrew leaned back on his couch and stared down at the blue folder, hoping some inspiration would manifest.
"Is there anything to do next?" he asked. "Hooke already said they won't approve of this idea."
"Hooke can be convinced," said Maya. "We just need to spin it into a matter of terrestrial security. I don't know about this whole summoning God thing, but if we know how to create souls we might be able to destroy them too."
Andrew dropped the blue folder next to the box of treats, repulsion in his every limb and neuron.
"You're so convinced the Lemurians will return? You want to re-invent their most terrible weapons and allow them to fall into the hands of politicians? A soul-destroying weapon is way scarier than nukes. What kind of world would we be rebuilding with this specter in the foreground?"
Maya turned away from Andrew, slightly ashamed of her careless words. She got up from the couch and began pacing around the living room, something she always did when emotions got too close.
"We don't have a choice, Andrew! We are funded by the CMC. We're only in the Sacred Circle because we help disrupt the enemy's tactical advantage. And as you yourself know, the victory you helped us achieve came a little too easily! There's no reason for the Lemurians not to return, so the sooner we're prepared, the better."
Andrew felt a thousand thoughts hanging off his mind. Did his immortality depend on the creation of a weapon that can erase immortality? There was also no guarantee that the 'God-summoning' bit would go well. It might very well turn out to be a lose-lose situation.
"I'm going home," said Andrew, hastily getting up from the couch. "Priya's waiting."
"Andrew," said Maya. "Do think about it. I promised to help you and I do want to help you. I hope you can give me an answer soon."
Maya rarely showed this side of herself to anyone, and it only served to increase Andrew's discomfort. Giving her a small nod, he walked out the door and into the carefully constructed twilight.
***
Priya had not checked her texts. Her phone was almost always on silent, a habit formed after being wakened by her family's inane quips, ignoring or forgetting the concept of time zones. She had her hands full with bags of vegetables when she arrived at Andrew's apartment, and thus struggled to ring the door bell. She grumbled when no one answered and fumbled about in her pockets for the spare key. A bag of chickpeas fell and spilled, and she let out some choice words reserved for absent company.
The lights in the apartment were off, the smell of the Sri Lankan beans still lingered and intruded. A pamphlet from the One Life Society had been slipped under the door. It was only then that she pulled her phone out and saw Andrew's text. The CRS again, an institution that she still couldn't believe exist, an institution that the man she was dating was an integral part of. Andrew was not a romantic person, nor did he seek to better himself in the field of love. He had told her that he would do anything for her, but that had never really been tested.
The vegetables sat on the table, Priya's enthusiasm for them diminishing by the second. She had wanted to spend some of her meat rations, but had decided it was best to pace the flavors of life. She was not prepared for this pacing though. What was supposed to be a relaxing week with her boyfriend was now looking to be one where he pursued the immaterial, and she had a nagging feeling it was only going to get worse. She looked at the slip of paper she had kept in her pocket, the colors and symbols nothing but meaningless blobs to her. She wanted to show it to him, to tell him that she was ready to pay more attention. As she thought of the chickpeas outside the door, her convictions began to waver.
"Why are there chickpeas all over the place?" Andrew's voice through the door snapped Priya back to focus. She stuffed the paper back into her pocket and went to answer it.
"Hi Andy," she said nonchalantly as she opened the door. "Sorry, I spilled that while trying to get the door open. I was about to clean it up."
"Hey... Sorry... Did you get my text?"
"I did. Is everything ok?"
Priya could tell when Andrew was in distress. Aside from the aroma in the apartment, his eyes appeared to be looking into the distance, where there were only thoughts. She knew he had rushed out of the apartment, and she knew it had something to do with whatever happened that morning.
"I'm fine, just tired," he said. "Let me help you clean this up, before we get reported for food wastage."
Despite Andrew's protestations, Priya insisted on doing the cooking herself. He had been relegated to the dining table with his thoughts on the day's events, unable to think of much else. He thought of the abruptness of the morning meeting, and the unsurprising yet shocking amorality revealed in the evening's. He was unable to appreciate the richness of the vegetable stew bubbling on the stove, being distracted by the very stubborn coffee smell. It only served to remind him of the strangeness of his world, the strangeness of his life.
"Hey Andy, do you remember when we first met?" asked Priya as she emerged from the kitchen. She had set the stove to a low heat, letting the stew sit a little longer.
"This is sudden," Andrew snapped out of his semi-trance. "What about it?"
"Just answer the question, please?"
Priya had only made brief eye-contact with Andrew that evening. She looked a little past him as she took her spot at the table.
"Why... yes. It was at that mixer last year."
"Yes, do you remember our conversation?"
"I remember the part where you first told me that you didn't quite believe in reincarnation, and I laughed. Are you still mad about that?"
"No, you have apologized for that. I mean what you said when we decided to start seeing each other."
Andrew was now confused by what she was trying to get at. He forced his eyes upward, trying to peek around at his brain.
"I said 'Sure, why not?'" he felt his heart beating again, worried about what was coming next.
"You did say that. There was also something else."
Andrew's eyes continued to stay up in its sockets, trying to hide away from Priya's uncanny stare.
"I said that you meant the world to me, the normal world, where everyone was mortal, where things were less crazy."
"Yes, that you felt safe around me, because of my beliefs. Andy, I want to know. Is this still true?"
The fragrance of the stew was wafting through the room. Unlike the Chicken Masala from the night before, the smell from that night's dinner was tamer, less of a punch. Andrew wondered if this had been intentional, if Priya had not wanted the dinner to derail their conversation.
"Is this about me coming home late? I'm sorry but there was something that had to be taken care of!"
"It's not just about tonight," Priya said. Her expression soon began to betray her feelings, and Andrew was shocked to see tears forming in her eyes.
"For the past few months, you seem to be constantly distracted whenever we're together, like you're always looking into space when we're not conversing. Do you remember the movie we watched two weeks ago?"
"Bambi?"
"The Lion King! And don't tell me they both have talking animals. You see, it's things like this. Last night, you even tried to explain reincarnation to me, hoping that I would start to believe. You've never done that before!"
Andrew regretted not having a snack when he was at Maya's. The stew's aroma seemed to be stirring his stomach, thoroughly confusing his mind and heart. He didn't want to have another uncomfortable conversation that day, and he thought about calling the whole thing off and going to bed. He thought of crawling under the table, as a compromise, but Priya's presence seemed to stick him on his chair.
"I don't know what to say," he spoke eventually. "It's work. Things have been happening lately. I know I promised not to talk about it with you, but I think if we're going to move forward, I will have to."
Priya grabbed a napkin to dry her tears. She forced a smile and took out the piece of paper from her pocket. She knew there was no other way.
"I went to take my soul signature today," she said, pushing the paper towards him. "It's rather pretty."
Andrew took the paper and examined all the blobs, colors and symbols. For the first time that day, he felt the beginnings of a smile on his face.
"I guess maybe this can still work," he said. He felt his eyes turn moist with shame and silliness. "I'm sorry, I've been such an idiot. I should have known better."
Priya pulled her chair closer to Andrew, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Well, maybe once you're done telling me everything, we can compare soul signatures!"
Andrew's expression changed just as the stew began boiling over. He looked at Priya, frightened at the realization of what he had to tell her. Priya sensed that too, and the two looked at each other for several tense seconds, the rattling of the pot an incidental refrain.
"Babe. There's something you need to know about me."
***
Maya began dusting the crumbs off the couch, contemplating skipping dinner as she did so. Ever since her family died, she never had strict meal habits. It was too regimented, pointless drivel in a world where chaos was the rule of the day. She would make meals and leave them in the refrigerator, pulling them out only when they were too bad to eat. She felt like she was back in college again, where the only thing that mattered to her were the books on her table.
"Scarier than nukes? Seriously?" she muttered to herself, flummoxed at Andrew's earlier declaration. She found it hard to believe that someone who knew the extent of the Lemurians' terror would be closed to the idea of unapologetic retaliation. Her husband had fallen, and when he was up again, he tried to strangle her. She knew that all the praying and all the burning of incense were pointless, since he was no longer of any plane. But his family had insisted, and when they were killed, she simply walked away.
Maya was soon at her dining table, but the only food she had was another one of Sino's famous tarts. She scrolled through her list of inventions, the ones she had masterminded after Rinpoche's arrival. The possession guards, the dimensional deflector, the spacetime net; she was shocked by how passive they were. They were reverse-engineered from weapons, why were they only designed to protect? She knew part of it was because of the time she was given, but turning them into actual weapons should have been a simple matter of extrapolation. Why had she not done this years after the war was over?
A small splash on the table startled her, and she found that the tart was no longer in her hand. Deep in thought, she had loosened her grip and dropped it, a fate undeserving of a miracle of confectionery. The jam-filled corpse made her think of all the lives lost, and many of their returns in a different physical form. She thought of the interviews she had asked Andrew to do, the locations her team had scouted.
The Theory of Reincarnation Agency...
She closed her laptop and picked up the tart, scarfing down its mangled remains. She got up and began pacing around the table, scratching her chin. A laptop was pointless in this situation, no amount of coding or calculations would answer the questions in her head.
What if it wasn't the souls that decided where they were going to be born next?
Maya was a little more open to the idea of God and Gods than Andrew, but she did not believe them to be benevolent. If they were, why did they allow the Lemurians to invade and kill so many that she cared about? If the story Rinpoche had told was true, then this God or Gods isn't one to be trifled with, and if they were the missing link in reincarnation science, then can it still be called a science? What if their fates, their destinies had already been decided by an uncaring force, that served only its own fancies and whims. If this were true, then what did the old Lemurian cults do to have this God bend to their wills?
Now that, is scarier than nukes.
***
Next: Of Humans and Robots. Scheduled for Saturday, August 29th, before 12 noon Singapore time.