//------------------------------// // The Answers // Story: Three More Things! // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// Jade struggled desperately to hold onto herself as the massive mental contact threatened to overwhelm her awareness, clinging desperately to the sense of Hsi's mind through the link to keep from losing awareness of herself. After a time - how long, she had no idea - the overwhelming mental force began to draw back, and she was able to grasp herself more firmly...though her awareness of anything outside herself remained gone. Child It wasn't a word, exactly, or even a thought that seemed to echo in her consciousness from the contact. It was more a sense of certainty that a message had been passed, and that what she'd understood was simply the closest her mind could grasp to what had been offered. The mental contact reduced, and she became aware of her body again...but the world around her was still swallowed by the overwhelming power of the mind she was in contact with. Call? She felt a thought form representing the energy that had come from Stonehenge. Apparently, it was a beacon of some sort, and this being - or possibly beings, she wasn't certain - had come in response to it. The idea that it had taken such massive amounts of energy just to, in essence, make a phone call was rather mind boggling. She tried to speak, to explain about not knowing what Stonehenge was for, about the group that thought it was a weapon, the group that had used the first group to determine its real purpose, her connection- Children The message cut through her attempts at speaking, and her thoughts of how she'd arrange the explanation. It also carried with it a sense of tolerant amusement, not unlike how Jackie acted about her and the Crusaders' odd adventurous streak. It was...it was like a parent idly shaking their head over the antics of a particularly frustrating but precocious child- Her mind reeled in realization. That was it! That's what Stonehenge was for, and why a Chosen One was connected to it! This race, whoever they were, somehow knew where life would develop and had placed communication arrays that acted to balance planetary and magical energies to help life there grow and to allow communication in times of dire need or when the race had reached a point where they were ready to be at this race's level, and the Chosen One was linked to the array over time to grow with life - thus the reincarnation cycle, rather than an immortal - so that there was one who was attuned to communication if the entire race wasn't ready! And the mental contact...they could hear her thoughts as she tried to explain things, because communication was entirely telepathic! Clever Child Again was the sense that she hadn't gotten the entire meaning of the message, but she felt the emotional sensation of amused pride, very much like a parent with a particularly precocious child. She didn't know if that meant this race somehow seeded life in the places they left the arrays or simply had some way of knowing where it would develop and - being so much more advanced - had taken a parental interest in watching over its development. The fact that it took so much energy to establish contact and yet it appeared so quickly suggested they didn't actually exist in this level of reality- Very Clever Child Jade chuckled as she heard that, surprised that she was actually aware of her physical reaction. The mental contact was still all but overwhelming, but her awareness of the world around her was increasing. She didn't know if that was because the contact was withdrawing to ease the strain on her or if she was simply adapting to it- Impressive Child ...well, that answered that. She idly wondered how these beings viewed the other races of the galaxy that the MIB apparently had contact with- Teenagers Well, that paternal frustration certainly answered that. Though she couldn't help but- She stopped her thoughts. Whatever she thought about, these beings were aware of and answered, so if she wanted answers she should phrase her thoughts accordingly. She decided images would work best, and so she visualized the timeline of the Sphynx's riddle. Polite Child Before she could place the concepts she intended to explain her question, she found Earth placed in her mind between the four and two leg stage, her own imaginings of 'space aliens' placed in the same area but closer to the two-legged stage, and her memories of Star Trek and the alliance of races placed firmly at the two-legged stage. The three-legged stage shot off in one direction...and another branched off to lead to her brief vision of the ship that was directly above her. I see, she thought, both to herself and to try and make her conclusions clear. We are children until we learn to play together on good terms, at which point we are adults...but then we have two paths before us. One leads to eventual decay, decline, and fading from history...and the other leads to being something like you. Simplified. Accurate. So she was on the right track, but didn't grasp the entire thing. But there was one important question she had to ask. What causes us to go one way or the other? Unknown. Curious. Watch. ...it wasn't just parental interest that had this race - no these races - watching over the development of life. They wanted to know what caused some life to reach their level and others not to! Despite how far they'd evolved and grown, they didn't know all the answers yet. They were searching for answers to questions Jade herself couldn't even imagine yet- Was that it? Was the difference between the beings that faded and the ones that reached this state that...they never stopped growing, questioning, learning? That they knew there was no true limit to knowledge to obtain, only the never ending quest that was its own purpose and goal? ...Bemused. Jade couldn't help but laugh. For all they'd advanced, they'd never considered that possibility as part of the explanation? Kids say the darndest things, she observed playfully in her mind. Truth. She became more aware of the world around her as she learned how to handle the contact. She had to admit, it made a lot of sense. Only the young, certain in invulnerability, tried the insane things. That's where the answers could be found to questions no adult would think to ask. Though some adults never lost that sense but grew responsible with it, and were exceptions. Who else would think to take an idea from another timeline and use it to bargain with gods for forgiveness for playing games with time? ...Intrigued. Smiling to herself, she offered - as best as she could conceive of it - contact information for Valmont. Gratitude. Felicitations. Farewells. The link slowly faded and Jade was once again alone in her mind. She slumped back into Hsi's arms as the disc in the sky flew off. Agent K glanced down at her in concern. "Are you stable enough to answer questions?" he asked hopefully. "With the strength of the mental contact you were undergoing, it's likely some of it might fade if we wait too long." "Big Brother's there to help," Jade responded firmly, gesturing from the stones around them to where the disc had been. "Or...Big Sister...or maybe Uncle, I don't know...words don't..." The words didn't do it justice, and the struggle to shape them after the purity of direct mental communication where what was meant was more important than the shaping... "Rest now, Mistress," Hsi whispered gently as he cradled her in his arms. "...not your Mistress..." she managed to mumble before slumping into unconsciousness.