Chapter 17: The Portal

"If these sessions are going to be an hour each, then we have about half an hour to go," Caleb observed, after he had everyone's attention. "Al is smart, capable, and he has a lot of information. That doesn't mean that he's the only smart one around; he just has more information to work with. I want to try something, as long as we're all sitting here."

"Don't we need to pay attention to what they're doing right now?" JJ asked.

"Not really," Caleb answered, thinking about how to explain it. "Think of an area of town with a lot of traffic lights, but they aren't a big problem because they're synchronized. Then, the computer gets hacked and they're not synchronized any longer. Suddenly, driving through town is a real pain. If it continues, businesses begin closing, and the neighborhood dies out. The Companions are making an upgrade to the computer controlling the traffic lights. Remember what I told you. They can only enhance capabilities that are already there."

"So, they're just telling Uncle Bran's body that the cancer is dangerous and how to identify it?" Blake asked.

"Essentially, yes," Caleb said.

"Then, why do we have to do it three or four times a day for two or three days?" Kim asked.

"To reaffirm the change in the program, and to speed the rate of healing," Caleb explained with a shrug. "There's a little bit of risk with that, but not a lot, if we're careful."

"What kind of risk," JJ asked sharply.

"His immune system normally functions to guard his entire body," Caleb answered. "Quicker healing requires redirecting a lot of his resources to targeted areas, leaving him open to infection from other sources. We just have to be careful."

"What do you want to try?" Collette asked.

"Going on the assumption that two heads are better than one, I would like all of us to focus on this 'portal' problem," Caleb answered. "I think it's pretty important."

Caleb snorted before anyone could respond, saying, "I haven't even asked you, Bill, or Bran, what you thought about all this. I just waltz in, propose to your daughter, have dinner, and, before dessert, mention that I have an alien living in my head. Then, just to top off the whole mess, I drop the bombshell that I've caused your daughter and grandkids to have aliens living in their heads too. What do you think of all this?"

"All three of them are fascinated by the idea of having a Companion," Al broke in caustically. "All three of them hope we solve the portal problem, so they can get a Companion, too. I can hear their thoughts, remember? Besides, who wouldn't want a Companion?"

Caleb raised his hand.

"Can we go back to that 'not the only smart one around' statement?" Al asked icily. "What did you mean by that?"

"I didn't mean anything," Caleb protested. Aloud, even though they could all hear his thoughts while in rapport, he continued, "I meant just what I said. Two heads are better than one. There's eleven of us here, and three of us have first hand, recent experience with the portal. Why the hell wouldn't we get everyone available to look at the problem."

"But none of you have any experience," Al objected.

"Three of us have more experience than you do," Caleb shot back.

"But they're new," Al complained.

"Maybe he thinks it takes a billion years to learn manners like he has," Amy contributed drily.

"I think the problem is his ego," Aaron remarked in the link. "It would take at least a billion years to grow that large. I'm surprised he even fits in one of these lowly human's head."

"It's a good thing that Caleb's head is so much larger than Kim's," Alice added to the 'let's roast Al' diatribe. "He wouldn't have fit if there was any less room."

"Do you know what I think?" Caleb asked sorrowfully. "I think I got a defective alien."

Caleb had to laugh out loud at the feel of Al sputtering in his mind. It felt good, for some reason.

"Al," Caleb said, after his Companion felt like he was in control again. "Would you show all of us the portal as it opened last night, and if possible, slow it down even more. We'll need you to show us what the related emotions were doing to the portal."

"That's an awful lot of things to do, for a defective alien," Al replied, maybe getting the hang of sarcasm.

"Please, Al," Caleb asked, "And if Bran doesn't mind, maybe we should start with his memories and work forward."

"Collette's memories of the same events are more detailed," Al observed sullenly.

"I'll bet that Al is talking about all those tent revivals we used to take momma to," Bran said to Collette.

"You're probably right," Collette agreed. "If I remember right, we took her to one when JJ was a baby, after papa died."

"Yeah. Those things always made me nervous," Bran admitted. "I could never understand how a group of people could lose control so completely."

"I don't think it was losing control," Collette mused. "It was more a case of surrendering to what they considered a higher power."

"Maybe," Bran conceded doubtfully. "The memories that Al is talking about can only be memories of faith healing. We know it worked sometimes, because old man Hawkins was healed. His leg was so black and swollen, they had to cut his pants leg to get his pants on. He went down to the alter on crutches, and walked back thirty minutes later."

"I remember him," Collette muttered darkly. "Everyone said the power of God healed him. Maybe God did heal him, but I can't imagine why. He was the most despicable degenerate that I have met in my life. If he was God's idea of a good person, then I think I'll pass. He never went to jail for those girls he molested. In those days, things like that were just swept under the rug."

"Maybe God only put the tools in place for things like healing," Bill pointed out. "That doesn't mean that a bad person couldn't pick up a tool and use it for their own purposes."

"That makes sense," Caleb said with a sense of wonder, following the conversation, and fitting their knowledge and ideas to what the group was now doing to Bran. "We're using the body's own tools to fix it now. Based on what you said though, I don't think those memories will help us. Without the emotional signatures that reached and tripped a trigger point, they are just external observations. Al, let's start with my memory, and then go to what happened last night."

His Companion sighed, and an image appeared.

Caleb was a fourteen years old, and was suffering all the normal maladies of a teenager. He was awkward. He didn't seem to fit his body any longer. It seemed like he couldn't move without falling, or knocking something over. And his mind ... Caleb didn't have the words to express how he felt. Sometime he felt like he was going crazy. Even when he tried to explain his thoughts to himself, they sounded stupid. He felt like everyone thought he was stupid, and it made him angry.

He went to a special church service with a friend of his. He was staying at the friend's house, and his friend had to go, so Caleb tagged along. The special service was called a Revival because they had a visiting preacher for the main sermon. Caleb didn't understand what was so special about the service, other than it seemed a lot louder than other church services he had attended with his friend.

Something in the words of the sermon caught Caleb's attention, towards the end of the service. This visiting preacher had included more fire and brimstone in the passionate delivery of his sermon. But he also included a promise of acceptance. No matter how awkward, or confused, or angry a person might be; acceptance was promised. Caleb went to the front of the church for the altar call.

The preacher's words had stirred Caleb's emotions. Al had placed a second image beside the first, so they could see Caleb's emotions, and what they were doing to his body and the environment around him. Caleb's hormones were running amok, as usual, before the preacher began his sermon. They could see how the words Caleb was hearing effected him, but they weren't a lot more stirring than a funny soap commercial. The emotional barrage coming through his quantum connection to other humans was what gave the words so much power. That emotional onslaught whipped Caleb's emotions, aided by his chaotic hormones, into a frenzy. Endorphins were released into his body, but in very controlled amounts. It seemed like his body was only releasing enough endorphins to prevent Caleb from going completely berserk. But his body was producing more than it was releasing. All of them could see the buildup. They could all see the endorphins accumulate, and seem to strain in their effort to flood his body.

Caleb's visual memory of the trip to the front of the church was blurred and disjointed. He was crying from his need for acceptance. His memory of when he reached the front of the church was even more incoherent, and Al needed to slow the memory even further, so they could make sense of what happened next.

Hands were touching Caleb everywhere. They were on his head, shoulders, arms, back, and they all seemed to urge him on. Just as touching enhanced Caleb's quantum connection to others, each hand touching him at the altar added another connection, through the quantum connection, to the emotional barrage. Each of them had an emotional message that, when combined, was delivered to Caleb like a tsunami. The message received via the quantum connection was loud and clear. He also recognized, with an analytical part of his mind, how a young, confused, unhappy boy, would reach for the acceptance offered. A thought occurred to him, one that he put aside for later consideration, about how the process he was remembering could be applied to the radicalization of terrorists.

The urging of so many wills focused Caleb's chaotic, hormone-confused thoughts, to focus on one thing: acceptance. His emotions soared. The endorphins continued to accumulate, until suddenly the floodgates released, and they slammed into his body and mind. A pulse of energy was sent back into Caleb's quantum connection, and a flash of otherworldly brilliance flooded Caleb's mind, for a fraction of a fraction of a heartbeat.

Al had a third image beside the other two, and they could sense the fabric of ... something ... a membrane of something, but they couldn't actually see it. A small section of the fabric thinned, and nearly broke through the veil separating realities. Light, like they had never remembered experiencing, shown through the barrier. The thinning fabric healed immediately, and became opaque again, but the effects of the light that had shown through was felt by all of them. They all felt the euphoria as that brief flicker of light flashed from the momentary thinning in the fabric of creation. The light didn't shine on them, but THROUGH them, causing a universal gasp from the seven humans. A sense of basking in something precious washed back from the Companions, and the humans felt a deep peace.

"I was walking on cloud nine for a month, after that," Caleb reminisced, remembering a time in his life when he truly felt at peace.

"I can understand why," JJ said in a hushed voice.

"It looked like home," Amy said a bit wistfully.

"Yeah, it did," Aaron agreed, his voice sounding wistful too, "But we didn't have a purpose there. I don't remember very much about being there, and maybe we're not supposed to remember much about the other side of the veil. I remember that we didn't have a purpose, though. We have one here, and it's a good purpose. We're helping good people."

Blake sat a little straighter, and his shoulders were back a little farther, at his Companion's words. He was proud of his Companion's sentiments.

Bill smiled at his grandson, and ruffled his hair with one hand before saying, "If we get this portal thing figured out, maybe we can all have a Companion."

"Sounds good to me," Bran agreed.

"So, what are we waiting for?" Collette asked.

"Us NEW aliens are waiting for Caleb's grouchy OLD alien to get the show on the road," Alice said, and somehow her thoughts carried the feeling of a teen girl being frustrated by the slow actions of a crotchety, decrepit, old man.

"Shame on you," Amy said to Alice reprovingly. "You should know better than to make fun of the elderly, and possibly infirm, among us."

"I have a few things to do beside displaying pictures for everyone entertainment," Al replied angrily. "Don't forget who is teaching who, in addition to healing Bran, AND sorting through memories and managing the display of them."

"He's right," Aaron said soothingly. "We shouldn't make fun of our elders when the burden of leadership slows them down a little. We should support him, so he doesn't collapse completely under the strain."

"I'm ... I ... I'm..." Al sputtered in Caleb's mind.

"Alright, you three," Caleb said sternly, wishing he could hide his grin from Al. "Quit picking on my Companion. One of these days, you might be billions of years old, and run into a new Companion. Wouldn't you want the new Companion to treat you re ... re ... respectfully?" he sputtered, trying, and nearly failing, not to lose his composure.

"Yes, Caleb," the three new Companions said in unison, not sounding contrite at all.

"Al, would you start the second part of the show?" Caleb requested. "Who was supposed to bring the popcorn?" he complained.

JJ sniggered.

"You two deserve each other," Collette muttered.

"Did you mean me and Caleb, or Al and Caleb," JJ asked.

"Yes," Collette answered.

"If I don't get this thing started, they'll pick on me all afternoon," Al grumbled, just before the images began in all of their minds.

This time, there were no visual distractions from the display, at JJ's request, or order. Al was still worried about JJ and her spoon. He was pretty sure that JJ couldn't figure out a way to carry out her threat, but Al wasn't taking any chances. That little woman scared him. But Al still included a graphic representation of both of their hormone reactions, ensuring that everyone knew what they were seeing in the various images. That was embarrassing enough.

There was also an emotional representation for both Caleb and JJ, and a view of both of their quantum interfaces. The way the emotions were heightened, and bolstered, by what was given and received through the interface was interesting, The power of the emotions being shared between the two seemed to be amplified each time it passed from one to the other. Caleb thought they were still missing something.

"Al," Caleb said. "Back up a little, and include your emotional signature. I think we need to see how you're effected by human emotions too.

The revelation was stunning.

A Companion enhances natural ability.

The common sharing of 'love' between two people normally creates an amplified feeling of connection with another human being. Any person that has been in love, and 'made love' to that partner, has felt that close connection with another human. For just a moment in time, that loneliness, and isolation, that every one of us lives with for most of our lives, was lifted because we weren't alone.

Adding the Companion's influence was like adding a megawatt amplifier to a flashlight circuit.

They watched the pair's hormone levels spike, and a massive flood of endorphins began collecting in their minds. But even that deluge couldn't keep pace with their emotions. The seven humans gasped as one when they were carried, on a primordial flood, to heights they had never dreamed they could reach.

The Companions experienced the memory differently from their human hosts. Each of them was stunned by the hammer blow of emotions. They were unable to react to, or slow, the oscillating emotions that were being amplified towards a crescendo.

Somehow, Al continued controlling the replay of the memory, slowing it to thousands of frames per heartbeat. Humans and aliens continued to rise higher, and higher, on hormones and emotions ... on the power of Love.

In the previous memory, they could feel the presence of the fabric of creation. The power and intensity had now grown so much that they could literally SEE the fabric of creation in this memory. A vast glowing black wall rushed towards them, filling everything in their vision.

In a flash of power, the endorphins released in the two humans, and the resulting discharge tore a hole in the fabric of creation. Light washed over, around, and through the seven humans. Three ... entities ... darted through the tear, and immediately disappeared.

The rip in creation's wall closed, and the emotional tide receded, leaving the humans stranded on a mundane shore.

All of them were panting, as if they had run a race.

It took a moment, but Caleb finally managed to ask, "Al, what happened?"

There was no answer.

"Al, what happened? Are you okay?" Caleb demanded.

"Caleb, he's there, and I think he's okay, but I don't think he's capable of answering right now," Amy said, sounding stunned herself.

"Is everyone okay?" Caleb asked.

"I feel like I should ask for a cigarette," Bran remarked in a hoarse voice.

"You goof!" Collette said, slapping her brother's arm. "You've got cancer! You shouldn't be making jokes like that."

"Maybe not," JJ said slowly, looking at Bran's chest as if she were looking through it. "It was there a moment ago. I looked at it, just before Al started that last memory. Now I can't find it. It's gone!"

"What's gone?" Bill demanded, still shaken by the experience.

"The cancer! I can't find it!" JJ blurted in wonderment. "It's gone!" She hesitated, still looking at Bran's chest, and murmured, "Now, I'd like to have a memory of that to play in slow motion. Amazing," she breathed.

"Al?" Caleb asked, worry clear in his voice. "Are you okay?"

"I will be, Caleb," Al said in Caleb's mind. "I lost control again. No, I didn't lose control. I never had control. Who could control something like that? This time it isn't my fault though. The first time, we didn't expect something like that to happen. The first time, I was the more experienced, and accepted responsibility. You all made me do it this time. I didn't know I would lose control again, but you didn't know either, so it's not my fault this time."

"Al ... Al, it's okay," Caleb said, trying to calm his Companion, who sounded like he really was losing control. "No one's upset that you lost control. It happens, sometimes."

"You don't mean that," Al said flatly.

"Sure I do," Caleb said aloud, confidently. "Look at Bran! JJ said that whatever happened cured him. He no longer has cancer! Al, that is a very good thing," he reassured his Companion.

"So, something that was going to happen anyway, happening faster, makes up for it?" Al asked doubtfully.

"Yes, Al," Caleb said. "It's okay. Really."

"Thank you, Caleb," Al responded with a relieved feeling to his thoughts. "It really means a lot to me that you are so forgiving. I was beginning to think that you didn't like me. But your worry and concern a few moments ago, coupled with your forgiveness now ... well, it is reassuring."

There was a pause before Al sheepishly thought, "I still think I should apologize to Collette, Bill, and Bran. Just remember that I'm not completely at fault, but please forgive me for not stopping it. Not that I could have stopped it. I don't think a melding of a hundred Companions could have stopped it, much less the four we had present on this side of the veil. These other three don't know how to meld yet, so it wouldn't have been possible in the first place. It wasn't my..."

"Al, it really is..." Caleb interrupted his babbling Companion.

He reached with his mind in kind of a mental hug for his Companion, as he interrupted the gibberish. Caleb felt three extra Companions in the room. Three, that is, beyond the three extras that were already there.

"Aw ... Damn it, Al!" Caleb blurted.

There were gasps around the circle of humans, as they all realized what Caleb's outburst meant.

Kim started giggling.

Blake was grinning, and lay his head in his hands to hide his grin.

"Knock it off, Kim," JJ said. "And Blake, don't you start," she warned with an odd expression on her face.

JJ looked worried, but she looked like she was trying not to laugh at a joke of cosmic proportions, too. The joke looked like it was winning the battle, when she looked at her dad and uncle. The worry kept the mirth firmly bottled, mostly, until she looked at her mom.

"You have got to be kidding me," Collette finally said as JJ began snorting trying to hold the laughter in.

"It was an accident," Caleb asserted, sounding a lot like Al a moment before. "I'm so sorry," he added, worried about how his future mother and father in law were going to react to an extra passenger in their heads.

"I'm not going to complain," Bran said excitedly, pulling the side handle to set the easy chair back to its upright position. "This will be like having an extra research assistant, and he has super powers! JJ, are you sure the cancer's gone?"

"It's gone," Al assured Bran. "Your own Companion can make whatever adjustments are necessary to prevent any recurrence of the cancer."

"What will happen, now?" Bill asked guardedly, obviously not as excited as his brother-in-law at the prospect of an extra passenger in his mind.

Caleb sighed before saying, "It took between twelve to thirteen hours for Amy, Alice, and Aaron to be able to communicate with their hosts. That means that the three of you should expect company in your heads about five or six tomorrow morning. It took Al another 24 to 48 hours to finish his acclimation, after he first spoke to me."