Doomsday Warrior 18 - American Dream Machine (21 page)

When the poles were in place and their great sail ship creaked down into their cradling arms, they all climbed down the ropes and then the Glowers lowered the cocoon that contained their desperately sick friend, Rockson.

The stretcher bearers took him from the stasis cocoon and carried him, as directed, into the largest of the domes.

As they were led inside the dome, the mountain man and his companions were again admonished not to touch their hosts. The bearers were ordered to lay Rockson on a sand painting of lightning bolts near the center of the twenty-foot-wide dome’s floor. Then they were told by Turquoise to sit on small rocks that were set in a circle near the walls of the structure. Turquoise and four other Glowers, as they came into the lodge, each picked up a circular shields about two feet wide. As they too sat, they placed the small, intricately decorated shields before them, so their bodies were mostly covered by them.

That made them look less weird to Archer. The shield hid all those pumping organs that made Archer feel so uncomfortable when he looked at them.

“BUT THAT IS NOT THE PURPOSE OF THE SHIELDS,” Turquoise Spectrum said in his mind. “EACH SHIELD PATTERN SHOWS THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF OUR BEING, WHERE WE ARE ON THE PATH TO COMPLETION.” He sent Archer a burst of symbols. Archer grasped, someplace deep inside him, a pure
understanding:
an understanding that each person is a wheel, as the universe is a wheel; an understanding that we are born with only one part of the great wheel’s nature . . . male or female, active or passive, yang or yin, we are incomplete. In order to be whole, to pass on to a higher plane of existence, to progress toward its ultimate destiny—union and completion in the universe—a being must travel around that wheel, integrating all the energies of the mind and body.

Archer groaned, holding his head. Never had he had such a profound thought.

“WE HAVE BEEN ON THIS LAND A LONG TIME, AND HAVE COME TO FEEL RELATED TO THE INDIANS WHO ONCE LIVED IN THIS LAND,” Turquoise Spectrum said, in Archer’s mind. “THEIR SPIRITS—THEIR MOST POWERFUL MEDICINE MEN—STILL ROAM HERE. WE HAVE INTEGRATED THOSE SPIRITS INTO OURS, AND HAVE LEARNED MUCH.”

“That is all well and good,” Zydeco’s voice flared up, “but how can this discussion help our gravely ill friend, who, as we discuss these abstract things, breathes with great labor? Can you not do something?”

“WE HAVE ALREADY ANALYZED THE PROBLEM. THERE IS NO PHYSICAL MEDICINE THAT CAN CURE HIM, OR IT WOULD HAVE ALREADY BEEN DONE. ROCKSON HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THIS REALITY. HIS DREAM WAS SO REAL TO HIM THAT . . .” Turquoise Spectrum looked up at the pale sun which could be seen right through the dome’s transparent material, obscured by fast-moving bands of red clouds. “ROCKSON IS NOT REALLY HERE. HIS CELLS THEMSELVES ARE TIED TO ANOTHER UNIVERSE THAT COLLAPSED WHEN THE DREAM MACHINE BROKE. AND HE IS NO MORE.”

“Then there is no hope? Are we going to just sit and talk philosophy and watch him die?” Zydeco was much alarmed.

“NO. WE WILL DO THE MEDICINE WHEEL PRACTICE OF REINTEGRATION. WITH THE CYCLE OF THE GREAT MEDICINE WHEEL, THERE IS A CHANCE. YOU ALL MUST PARTICIPATE. IF IT WERE JUST ROCKSON AND WE GLOWERS, WE COULD NOT RELATE TO HIM ENOUGH. ARCHER, ESPECIALLY, IS TUNED TO THE WAY ROCKSON USED TO BE. AND YOU SEVEN SMALL MEN, YOU TECHNO-SURVIVORS, HAVE GREAT MIND POWER, THOUGH YOUR BODIES ARE FRAIL. IN ORDER TO REINTEGRATE ROCKSON, IF IT CAN BE DONE, ALL OF US COMBINED MUST DO THE MEDICINE WHEEL RITUAL. TRY TO BRING HIM BACK INTO FOCUS IN THIS UNIVERSE.

“I SENSE YOUR IMPATIENCE, HUMANS,” Turquoise Spectrum said. “YOU FEAR FOR THE LIFE OF YOUR DYING FRIEND, AND THAT IS GOOD. BUT WE MUST BECOME WHOLE SO THAT WE CAN GIVE ROCKSON THAT WHOLENESS. HE WILL BE THE RECIPIENT OF THAT WHOLENESS, AND THUS, PERHAPS, RESTORED.”

The thought transference went on: “THE GREATEST SECRET OF THE INDIANS WAS THE MEDICINE WHEEL. BUT IT WAS AN OPEN SECRET. THERE WERE SIX MILLION MEDICINE WHEELS IN THE AMERICAS. SETTLERS FOUND THEM EVERYWHERE, FROM MAINE TO CALIFORNIA. REMNANTS EXIST TODAY, BUT MOSTLY IN THE DESERTS. FOR IN EVERY WESTERN FOREST, IN EVERY WESTERN PLAIN AND PRAIRIE LAND, THERE WERE SUCH CIRCLES. THEY ARE ALIGNED TO THE BRIGHT STARS, SO THE WHITES THOUGHT THE WHEELS HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH CALENDARS, OR CROP PLANTING, OR ASTRONOMY. THAT IS TRUE, BUT IT IS NOT THE HEART OF THE INDIAN WAY! THAT, THE WHITES DID NOT UNDERSTAND! IT IS THE WAY OF COMPLETION, THE ROUNDING OF THE CIRCLE. EVERY PERSON IS BORN WITH CERTAIN POWERS. THIS POWER IS THE BEGINNING OF THE WHEEL.

“NOW LET US BEGIN!”

Twenty-Eight

A
side from Rockson, there were twelve in all: Archer, seven Techno-survivors, and four Glowers. They sat in the wide circle, each on a whitewashed medicine rock. Turquoise used his deep oral voice, not his mind voice, to explain to them gently the nature of the medicine wheel. “The Indians that were here before the Europeans had millions of these circles in North America. They recognized that a healing, a reentering the circle of nature, of the universe, was vital to health and sanity. So they gathered at certain times of year to share—wholeness. The men of today, the technical, logical men and women of today, have forgotten this need to interconnect. They have surrendered wholeness to material power. But we have relearned the power way of the original Americans. We Glowers teach you now as the Indians once taught their children.

“There are four great directional powers in the world and thus in this medicine wheel: to the north, where I sit, is wisdom. Wisdom’s color is white, like snow. And the medicine animal of the north is the elk. But wisdom needs other things: compassion, otherness, to be complete.

“In the south of the great circle of life, where Archer sits, is the power of innocence and devotion to others: the heart nature. Its color is green. And its animal is the mouse.

“To the east is the eagle. He can see keenly and is cruelly aware—that is science today, and medicine of the technical nature. Its color is golden brown.

“The west is the wolf, which gathers all the information it needs for the brood to survive. The man of the west—such as Rockson—looks inward and outward, but is always the leader of the pack. Its color is red.

“These are the four basic symbols. The in-between directions are represented by the animals called bear, buffalo, hawk, pheasant, otter, beaver, squirrel, deer. They are the little brothers of the primary animals. The shields also have black arrows pointing toward the center or outward. Inward-pointing arrows denote introspection, outward-pointing arrows denote panoramic awareness. Thus, when we see a being’s shield, we know his starting point on the great wheel.”

Turquoise Spectrum made a sweeping gesture with his right hand and materialized a rawhide shield in front of each of the humans sitting with him. And all of them were amazed. “Look at your symbols now,” Turquoise Spectrum said, “and learn about yourselves.”

Archer quickly turned his shield. The huge mountain man expected an elk, or something big and strong. He was disappointed. Archer’s shield was rather humbling for a big man. It contained a small and very plain green mouse, which was surrounded by tiny arrows pointing inward.
“So,”
he fumed inwardly, “so I am a nearsighted mouse that sees everything nearby well, but doesn’t think of other things!” Archer grumbled and shifted uncomfortably, mumbling into his massive tangle of beard. He wanted to have the elk! He wanted to be
large,
not small. He would be
intelligent, sharp.
And instantly, he realized he
could
be those things,
if
he could do as Turquoise instructed. So Archer got very serious.

Surgeon Escadrille turned his shield and bent his head to see that his shield contained the golden brown hawk, brother animal to the eagle of the east. Hawks see both at a distance and closely. His black arrows pointed outward, thus symbolizing his strength of panoramic awareness, most suitable for a scientist or doctor. The hawk, he intuited, symbolized the power of intelligence a doctor needs. He looked around, catching glimpses of other shields, knowing the nature of the others, knowing what he lacked. And he wanted to be complete.

Zydeco studied his own shield, and the shields of all the other Techno-survivors. Except for the surgeon’s, they all were identical. Zydeco had in common with his friends the golden brown eagle of the east, the exact opposite of Archer. Eagle people had panoramic awareness but would never feel close to things, be touched by the heart. Zydeco’s shield had arrows pointing outward at the borders, indicating, perhaps, a potential for great achievement. He had to admit that the symbols were good summaries of pyschological-philosophical dispositions, at least in the strange Glower terminology. But
how
a symbol could help
cure
someone—well, he was much more than skeptical. Still, he kept an open mind. The Glowers were amazing beings!

Turquoise spoke: “We beings are very disparate in strengths and weaknesses. We have different capacities, different needs. Throw aside skepticism and all vainglory; be of open heart and mind!” Now the Glower leader used his mind force. He thought-spoke to all of them: “THE GREAT WHEEL RITUAL WILL BEGIN. THOUGH YOU WILL FEEL AS IF YOU ARE LOSING YOURSELVES, DO NOT WORRY. YOU WILL REGAIN YOURSELVES, FEELING MUCH RICHER IN POWER. NOW, COME AND WE WILL EXPLORE THE POLLEN PATH AS WE LINK OUR MINDS. LET US BE QUICK. YOUR FRIEND, ROCKSON, HAS BEEN WANING. HE HAS LESS THAN A HALF HOUR. I CAN TELL YOU WITH ASSURANCE THAT HE WILL NOT REVIVE UNLESS WE CAN GIVE HIM THE POWER OF ALL THE SHIELDS! THE MEDICINE WHEEL MUST SPIN!”

Turquoise turned his thought-beam upon Archer, and the mountain man alone heard the admonition: “ARCHER, PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, STEADY YOUR MIND! YOUR FRIEND NEEDS YOU ABOVE ALL. THIS IS NOT A MATTER OF PRIDE. THERE ARE NO BETTER AND LESSER SHIELDS! BESIDES, YOU ARE A GREAT WARRIOR. YOUR GREAT GIFT IS THAT YOU ARE IN TOUCH WITH THE PRESENT, THE HERE AND NOW. THIS GROUNDING IS VITAL TO ROCKSON. YOU WILL SEE AND UNDERSTAND MANY THINGS THAT WILL ADD TO YOUR SHIELD. YOU WILL BE THE MOST NECESSARY TO HELP A FRIEND. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”

Archer nodded. He calmed down, swallowing his hurt pride. But he shot out the words, “Only to save Rock!”

“NOW WE SPIN THE WHEEL. THE GREAT MEDICINE WHEEL!”

They sat for a long time cross-legged, staring at the center, at Rockson. Finally Archer felt woozy. It wasn’t the heat, though the sunlight coming into the dome from above was getting very hot. No, it was a strange beam of light caused by the sun rays coming through an opening at the top of the dome, striking Turquoise’s mighty shield. The reflection from the shiny white elk shield shot into each of their minds. Archer, the others, felt—light. They were floating off the sand floor, as a matter of fact!

They seemed to rotate—and each of them felt a LOSS. A loss of more than weight. A loss of identity.

Zydeco gasped. He was Archer, and then he wasn’t. He didn’t know who he was in the circle of twelve. He decided he was a white elk being, the great Turquoise himself, and nearly screamed. The power of his mind! Oh my God, how could he stand it! Zydeco’s shield, across the way, instantly received a bolt from Turquoise’s all-powerful mind and changed to add the elk symbol. Then Zydeco’s consciousness passed to the next body-soul matrix. And the next.

For Archer, the experience was different. First of all, to feel light, being four hundred and ten pounds heavy, was a very odd sensation indeed. And so the flux of his ego loss came by surprise. He was released instantly from his rather defensive mental makeup. Years of holding himself inward and tight were now just—gone! He didn’t have to do that now. Archer, as the beam of light hit him from Turquoise’s great shield, understood that he was no longer in need of hiding. He understood that he had been always trying to avoid being hurt, that he had a great fear of being made fun of. He groaned. That defensiveness was a prideful thing, a thing that must be laid aside. Then a beam of light shot from Turquoise’s great shield to Archer’s shield. The mouse now shared the shield with the elk! Arrows turned out. Archer felt a shift of his very essence then, and his vision cleared. He was staring at himself from the other side of the dome.

How could this be? His panic subsided when he realized he was now looking through the calm, clear eyes of the surgeon, and feeling and thinking like the surgeon. And then a beam of light shot from his shield, the surgeon’s shield, toward Archer. Archer’s shield now also contained a hawk!

And Archer’s consciousness again blurred and he became Zydeco; and then he was another being, and another, and another!

The surgeon looked down incredulously at his massive body, his tangled beard. “God, what was this? I am actually Archer. No, think for a second? Hallucination. Has to be.” He squeezed his eyes shut, big watery things, and opened them again; still he was Archer. Turquoise said to just let it go. Surgeon Escadrille remembered, and tried. And then there was relief. It was alright to be Archer—and it was over. Now he was himself again—the little body, so frail. He had never felt so frail until he had been Archer for a moment. The surgeon smiled and realized he still felt the strength of the great bearlike man he had been. So he looked at his shield and saw the change. Another pattern had been added to his hawk shield: Archer’s inward pointing arrows and green mouse. Escadrille understood a little more of his self nature. And he had more feeling. Yes, that was the word. He was becoming whole, sharing all the directional powers.

The process of interconnection, integration, continued. Each of them in turn exchanged something—weakness for insight, compassion, strength. After a time, they were all done. Finally they were ready to aid Rockson.

The Turquoise Spectrum mind-spoke to them all: “EACH OF US HAS LEARNED. NOW WE ARE READY. WE WILL ACCOMPLISH THIS THING. RESOLVE THAT WE WILL GIVE OUR POWER TO ROCKSON, DRAG HIM OUT OF THAT NETHERWORLD OF HALF-DREAM, HALF-AWAKENING . . . RESOLVE IT, AND LET US BEGIN THE STRUGGLE FOR HIS LIFE! LET US DO IT NOW! CONCENTRATE ALL YOUR POWER UPON HIS SHIELD, SO THAT HE MIGHT RECONNECT TO THIS WORLD, SO THAT HE WILL HAVE THE POWER OF LIFE ENERGY ONCE MORE!”