A Simple Truth (42 page)

Presently she recovered sufficiently to survey her handiwork.  And it was only then that she appreciated the sheer size of the Creator's mind.  Had she once slackened her feverish pace to take in the object of her attention she would have been overwhelmed.  Here was undoubtedly the most powerful and awesome being in the galaxy.  And she, Chattaka, had paralysed him.  She had rendered him as helpless as a new-born baby.

Her next task would be pleasant, that of releasing his slaves and repaying their captivity by giving them access to their captor's mind.  It would take a long time for them to learn how to use their own volition, but her children would help them.  Freedom would feel very strange at first.  Gradually she would merge her own mind with that of the Creator, so that his former slaves, her own children and she herself could work together through a shared intellect.  She knew that only by such sharing would the outcome of any future encounters be safeguarded.  Genuinely and fully united beings would quickly recognise enslaved beings, and would share the power both to resist further enslavement and to
overcome
the enslaver.

In time perhaps she would even allow the Creator's own consciousness to join with the mass mind.  After all
, as she
had only now come to realise
,
he was not malicious
by nature
.  H
e had followed the only path that he had known. 
Indeed i
t was the path that she herself had embarked upon until she was stopped by her very first host having preferred death to domination.

The fight was over, the long and bitter race had been won.  There was still much to be done, but doing it would be a pleasure.

Once again, as long
,
long ago, she dared to conceive of a harmonious future, when, with her help and guidance, all conscious minds everywhere would share all knowledge and understanding.  All would unite in a universal family, each member an individual, yet an integral part of the whole.  The future was secure
,
her children were thriving
,
life was very sweet indeed.

Epilogue

All was confusion.  The consciousness that was once Arthur Lincoln hu
ng between illusion and reality;
all it knew was terror, pain, and silence.  It did not know what or where it was or how to escape the suffering, but gradually and mercifully the pain began to subside.  As the haze cleared a new sensation entered its awareness, intense bitterness and resentment, but against whom or what it could not yet decide.  Slowly the memory of an earlier identity began to return.  Of course there was resentment, the Creator had promised no pain but had betrayed his promise cruelly.  The probing was over now, the dissection was complete and all secrets were uncovered.

So this was the state of non-existence.  Now that the pain had almost gone Lincoln realised that it was bearable.  Yes, without the pain, it would be possible to live with non-existence.

'LIVE WITH NON-EXISTENCE
,'
his r
easoning ce
ntre screamed at him, t
he full impact of the contradiction suddenly demanding his full attention.  Death had not claimed him after all.  This revelation was immediately followed by a warm feeling of familiarity.  The presence of another being was sensed, deep within his own mind, and he knew it to be Chattaka.  He realised now that he had known her all his life.  No, longer, much longer than that.  He felt her acute regret at his suffering
,
but knew also that it had been the price of survival.  The Creator would indeed not have allowed him to
suffer;
the Creator would have destroyed him.

Lincoln's mind quickly and glad
ly merged with that of Chattaka.  H
e was at one with her and yet his own identity was intact.  As his consciousness expanded he found that he could read the past as if he was using his own memory.  He saw Dent in his retreat in Venezuela, and understood directly his need for isolation from a world that he felt had betrayed its own potential.  He saw also that Dent's mysterious visit was a fabrication, an illusion created by Chattaka to
calm
and reassure
his troubled spirit.

He knew that like himself the rest of humanity was about to share the collective consciousness that Chattaka had made possible.  He knew that the Creator's slaves would eventually share also, but it would be the task of humanity to help them, for humanity had known freedom as they never had.

Lincoln's mind raced from one revelation to another.  He laughed with delight
;
the mind of Chattaka was a vast treasure house, and knowledge
, understanding
and wisdom its treasure
.  He joyously immersed himself in the wonders continually opening themselves up to him.  Soon all of humanity would be laughing with him, sharing all, misunderstandings gone
,
conflict
over.  There was so much to learn, and so much to do, but there was all the time in the universe in which to do it.

For the present Lincoln was totally absorbed in exploration and wonder, a happy child p
laying in an enchanted garden.

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