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“He was fine. There were a few bruises on his face, but he was fine. That’s why we were surprised. You see? The tail of the plane was falling very slowly.”
There were rustles and questions in the hall. Many people were looking at Monsieur Bajolet, discussing something. Others asked questions to the captain, but it all turned into unrelated chatter. The head of ESA took the situation into his own hands.
“Gentlemen, please be quiet!” he looked at the screen. “Please, what happened next? Why don’t we see the scientists and the rescued passengers with you?”
Captain Shah continued:
“The woman was in serious condition, and we decided to return to the helicopter. By then a strong wind had risen, and we had constructed a stretcher. The weather was rapidly worsening. The civilians took the girl, and we moved forward with Dr Capri. Then… I don’t know how we lost sight of him; we tried to go back, but visibility was zero. Snow and wind everywhere. We couldn’t find them. Half an hour later, we found our helicopter and co-pilot. We decided to wait for the wind to calm down, but it only got stronger.”
The Indian general, who was sitting behind a desk at the European Space Agency building, came into the conversation:
“After a couple of hours, we found them near the helicopter. After that, a rescue team went out with the Nepalese military to look for civilians, but all we found was an inverted tail section. The team split into two groups. One took the captain’s team back to our base, and the other stayed in the quad to search for survivors. We have no more news so far,” the general finished.
“Is there still bad weather in the area?” someone from the hall clarified.
“Yes, the weather is constantly changing, but in total the conditions are bad. We hope that the civilians found some shelter nearby. There’s a big storm out there.”
Several people ran into the ESA room. One of them immediately ran up to Jean-Jacques Dordain. Two others to Charles Bolden. The audience froze.
“Just a second,” said the Indian general.
The man was explaining something emotionally to the head of the European Space Agency, then he started pointing at the other two and his laptop screen. Jean-Jacques Dordain silently asked, “are you sure?”, and the man nodded briefly.
Monsieur Dordain looked around the room, remembered the video conference call, and, indicating with his hand to the panting man that he should wait a second, began:
“Gentlemen, you might have more questions, but we need to interrupt the videoconference urgently. New information has come up.”
The head of ESA looked at the scientist standing next to him, then at the head of NASA. Between them there was a short discussion without words. Charles Bolden nodded to share the bad news with colleagues. Jean-Jacques Dordain gathered air into his lungs:
“Okay,” he made sure the video was off. “Gentlemen, we’ve received reports from our probes that the Sun’s activity is dropping dramatically. We’re trying to figure out what happened, but the brightness of the Sun…” Jean-Jacques couldn’t find the words. “I think it would be better if Dr Pierre Edo explain what we are observing now.”
A gray-haired but very young man sat down next to the head of the ESA and turned on his microphone. He calmly began to explain:
“We are observing a decrease of solar activity right now. This is represented by a decrease in brightness, but in the near future, climatic anomalies await us. The normal brightness or absolute stellar magnitude of the Sun is 4.7. An hour ago, this value fell to 4.2. The dynamic of the decline is very fast. We assume that by the end of the day, the value will be 2.”
The people in the room didn’t know how to react to this. They whispered, but did not decide to ask a question.
The doctor waited a second and asked himself:
“What does this mean for us? A drop in the Sun’s luminosity, and therefore in heat output, by more than half would create a new ice age on Earth.”
The audience erupted in shouts. Questions poured in from all sides about how the data had been obtained, who had confirmed it, and what it might be related to.
The doctor turned to someone at the table and said nonchalantly.
“Exactly,” he waited until everyone at the table had calmed down. “What has it to do with?” he repeated. “We got a signal from Voyager, then we found out it malfunctioned, and now the Sun is fading. My opinion,” he looked at the head of ESA. “We must find the connection between all these events as soon as possible.”
Part 3 – Chapter 30
“We thought it was the way out of the cave: we were blinded by the light, it felt like there was a storm around,” David told Van the story of their journey while the little creature floated through the air beside him.
“Yes, yes,” Van squeaked expertly, “you changed bodies.”
“What?” said Dr Capri, looking at his hand.
“Changed bodies,” Van repeated. “In new planets, you have to change bodies in order to get there. And how did you think it would work?”
“We didn’t think anything,” Jean-Pierre grinned. “We didn’t really expect that there are little…” he thought for a second, “little men walking around on the Sun.”
“I’m not a man,” Van hissed grudgingly. “I’m Valikhilya,” he shook his little head in a sign of utter despair.
He sped up to get away from Jean-Pierre. Debby, noticing how offended Van was, grinned and indicated with her eyes that Jean-Pierre should apologize. Jean-Pierre declined without a word.
They were all walking through a vast valley that shimmered yellow, orange, and red under their feet. Somewhere in the distance, high flames were erupting and flying off the surface into the blackening sky like huge glowing ribbons.
“Wow,” Jean-Pierre said, impressed by the sight. “And what is that?”
Van remained silent and pointed away from the travelers, indicating that he only accompanied them and did not want to join in the conversation.
“Van,” David called out to him.
Silence. Dr Capri turned to Jean-Pierre. So did all the other earthlings.
“What?!” replied Jean-Pierre in a mute rebuke. “All right.”
He took a few wide steps to get closer to the flying Valikhilya ahead of him.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to offend you.”
“Van cannot be offended,” the little creature replied without looking, “but,” he paused meaningfully, “you can’t call one living being by another. I’m Valikhilya, and I’m proud of it.”
“I see it,” Jean-Pierre smiled.
Van shook his head, inviting everyone to move on.
“So there are no people here?” David asked.
“People are a form of body. In order to travel to other planets, you have to adapt to life on them. If your body is not suitable, you have to change it.”
“I don’t understand,” said Yulia.
“A human being is,” Van tried to find a word, “one way to live on the Earth. To live on another planet, you need another way.”
“We use spacesuits for that,” David said.
“I know,” Van replied, expressing some level of distaste. “I don’t imagine how that’s possible.”
David looked at the doctor and smiled.
“Don’t you have such technology?”
“Technology?” Van grinned. “It’s a real punishment, isn’t it? To be trapped in a cocoon that you can’t get out of, and to think you’re in another world. You can’t even see the world for what it is.”
“So we changed bodies?” David clarified.
“Bodies?” Van laughed. “Took the suits off. You must feel very well now without your bodies.”
Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. Yulia shook her head, not wanting to hear these words.
“But I can see my own body and theirs,” she said in confusion.
“Everyone has a body, but they’re different. For example, in your world, the basis is water. In our world, it’s fire. Each world has a different ratio of elements. We have bodies, too, but they are different,” he thought of how to phrase it differently. “My body is finer than yours on the Earth, so you think that no one lives on the Sun. When a resident of a grosser world goes to a finer world, he leaves his old body behind in the world he came from.”
“But why can’t I see the difference? I am the exact same,” David wondered.
Van smiled and pointed his finger at him:
“Everyone has his sound.”
“Sound?”
“The way he sounds, and you can’t change it. Or rather, it’s hard to change. The body forms itself around that inner sound. Here and there You are the same, though the bodies are different.”
“You mean soul?” Debby smiled.
Van looked at her with an affectionate look and nodded.
“Soul. But it’s not just the soul that creates the body, a lot of things are involved.”
“Past actions, desires,” Dr Capri continued Van’s thought.
Valikhilya nodded:
“We call it sound.”
Dr Capri smirked at something and continued to follow the soaring Van.
“By the way,” David remembered something, “do you all speak English here?”
Van grimaced to show that he didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Language,” said Yulia. “You understand us, and we understand you.”
“Ah,” Van brushed her off. “That’s right, you have different languages there. It’s not like that here. When you change bodies, you have already acquired the ability to speak and understand the language of the Sun. Only on Earth are so many languages. It’s stupidity that prevents your life,” he shook his head.
“So we all speak the sun’s language now?” David wondered. “I feel like I’m speaking English.”
Yulia listened to herself:
“And I’m in Russian.”
Van only smirked.
“Tell me about your world. What is it like?” looking ahead, Dr Capri asked.
“It’s the most beautiful world there can be. Everyone here is happy, and we all help our king, Ra.”
“I thought you said his name was…” Jean-Pierre couldn’t remember the name.
“Vivasvan,” the doctor helped him.
“What?” said Van in surprise.
He looked at Jean-Pierre and after a second laughed in his ringing voice.
“Ha-ha,” he laughed. “I had completely forgotten that in the lower worlds you have only one name. It’s not like that here. The king has many names. His name depends on what the one who addresses him wants to say. Ra is the same as Vivasvan. But Vivasvan is a personal reference or remembrance of the king. The name Ra is used when you see the king in the distance or his palace.”
“Palace? Where is it?” David asked, looking around.
“There it is,” Van pointed to an approaching cloud of light on the horizon.
This cloud looked like the sun, but it was moving quickly right toward them. A huge fire column was erupting from this cloud onto the surface of the Star.
“What was that stream?” Dr Capri asked, squinting.
Van raised his small hands above his head and smiled.
“It is the shadow of our emperor.”
Everyone looked at each other with undisguised excitement.
“Are you leading us to him?” Jean-Pierre asked.
“To Him? No,” Van frowned. “We are going to Dandin’s.”
“Is he,” Jean-Pierre grimaced, “wak-ha-nilla too?”
Van looked at him with contempt:
“Valikhilya. No. He is an aide to the emperor.”
While they were talking, the flying castle approached. It could be seen hovering high above the surface. If one squinted, one could see its yellow color and a glow of such power that one’s eyes could not stand it for long. The castle was rushing right at them.
“How are we going to get up there? Will you lift us up? Or will someone throw down the ladder?” Jean-Pierre asked Van, looking at Debby and Yulia.
Both of them were walking with their eyes wide open in amazement. They pointed at the castle and stared at it in fascination. The palace itself glistened as the walls let in the strong light that was hidden inside. David and Dr Capri, too, opened their mouths and turned their heads, gazing at the clump of mountain above them. The noise grew, and the giant approached closer. Van raised his hands in the air and then lay down on the ground, bowing.
“What are you doing?” Jean-Pierre inquired.
