Visitation - Reality (book 1 of 2)

"Now do you realise why you’re here,” the Doctor startled me with his query.

“Doesn’t the book tell you something now?”

I had not heard him come in or obtain an easy chair, similar to the one I was sitting in, but there he was, however, a few feet away and smiling again.

It seemed I was becoming immune to this sort of surprise, and managed to smile back.

The ending of the book had caught me by surprise; what was it saying? The whole ethos of the book seemed to be pointing in different directions and yet, there was a commonality to it that seemed to have significance. Had I really written this? My smile lingered by itself and I almost felt a little foolish.

“You still don’t understand, do you?” he continued to query in a sort of rhetorical way. “I can sense that you’re still confused, a little perhaps.”

He was doing his mind reading tricks again.

“They are not tricks, Ian; you are more open to this technique now than you were when you first joined us. And it may not be much longer before you switch on to a level of ability way beyond mine, try to believe that.”

For some reason I did believe him.

Nothing had seemed real when I first woke up, although the memories that had returned had just about confirmed I was still alive. This was actually happening. I had seen my family enjoying themselves in the sun, or whatever it was, and as I read more and more, reality seemed to become increasingly ‘real’.

In the last few moments, I had developed a feeling that there was a focus of sorts coming towards me at some great speed. I was aware of but could not define it, not yet awhile. It gave me the sort of feeling that was somewhere between déjà vu and of those times when searching mentally for a word that eludes its discovery; it was there but just out of reach, somewhere below the surface, not quite ready to pop into the conscious mind. That is, not unless I relaxed and diverted my attention to something else.

I was still a little confused. I had now read the book, an interesting and adventurous story I had to admit and with a certain ring of truth about it. It bore my name and I must have authored it, presumably.

“Come on Ian,” I thought but also spoke out quietly to myself, “of course you did, you recognise the words, you can remember being sat at the PC typing this up, of course it’s your book.”

I was trying hard to convince myself.

The last few sentences had brought an unexpected internal glow, which I also could not explain. I had reached the point of a euphoric realisation, like that experienced when solving a difficult puzzle, but I did not know what I had solved.

I tried to understand and continued speaking to myself, or was I thinking the words.

“To be honest, there is something about this book,” I thought I had spoken out loud but there was a sensation telling me it was something else. “More towards the end,” I continued. “It is ringing some bells somewhere, but I do not understand why or even where. As for providing a reason for my presence here, I seem to be touching on something, something that’s familiar, but it’s not coming to me.”

“Please relax, Ian; you are almost about to start panicking,” interrupted the Doctor verbally having heard my communication however it was being delivered. ”You appear to have the ability to jump ahead of yourself in thought, so to speak, like thinking several steps ahead of the words of something you’re saying. An ability often found in many intellectuals, perhaps you also, although now Ian I think it’s something different.”

“You are becoming aware, a feeling perhaps, that the solution to a question is coming to your conscious mind before it actually arrives. Cherish that, it is going to come in very useful before too long.”

I was unsure what he was talking about, but the feeling was certainly real.

“I think I need to offer some further explanation,” he offered, “which may assist you in finding the answer that is bubbling just below the surface. This may be something akin to someone providing you with the answer to a crossword clue while you are still considering the problem, usually quite annoying, but it just may be the little boost you need; a part of the treatment, so to speak.”

“Let’s start at the beginning,” he started, prompting a silly laugh from me.

“I don’t expect you to laugh for a while,” his tone changed rapidly to serious.

“That may sound corny but I have to start somewhere, whereas your start was many years ago; mine is right now.”

“I want you to consider the stories within the book you have just read, the ones you wrote as their author. Except for a few detailed errors here and there and a time-line that is not altogether consistent, it has to be considered a remarkable history, not a work of fiction.”

“History, come on, I've written a good story, that's all,” I thought and this time I knew it was thinking, not speaking.

“While you’re here I will show you, not right now but eventually if the time is right, our detailed records, most of them in an audio-visual format you will be able to cope with. These go back many hundreds of thousands of years, but you will recognise much, if not all, of the main elements within your book.”

He drew a long breath, looked straight at me with a firm eye contact and started his explanations.

“The reason that others made attempts on your life, the same one for which we removed you and your family to this place of safety, is the content of that book; the stories you put into words. You have written a précis of the sequence of events that occurred, from us leaving our home planet to our arrival and subsequent work here on this planet, right up to the present day.”

“Even the names you employ are correct, or could be considered close approximations. In one particular instance, you were so accurate that we had to remove two people and their family to this place, in a similar manner to yourself and for the same reason, their safety. I will try to arrange a meeting for you with them, very shortly.”

“You were not brought here simply for safety reasons, as you know, and you are now feeling the changes that we made to you starting to take effect.”

I did realise that as this conversation was progressing, there was something happening to me that I couldn’t quite put a name to, a change in the way I thought or was it the way I felt, changing as the words moved on.

“Quite correct Ian,” the doctor confirmed, “you are physically and mentally changing even as we speak. You reached a tipping point as the words of the book came to an end. The genetic alterations we made are now functioning as a computer program might as a key input had been detected.”

“You will feel odd, different, even perhaps confused, as these adjustments, additions to your genetic material, race away in conjunction with the historical alterations of thousands of years ago that have been simmering, coming to the boil even, in the DNA profile you inherited from your parents, your grandparents and all your ancestors before them.”

“As the new program in each and every cell of your body comes into play, you will find your thinking and, to some lesser extent, your physical characteristics, being adjusted.”

“You showed abilities others on this world have also developed, although they had not developed as far as yourself nor do they possess the levels of skill or talent for obtaining the fine details of events as yourself.”

“You had the ability to see things with great clarity, unsurpassed by any other, but not with the full potential of the DNA residing latently within you. We have changed small parts of those areas of your DNA incorrectly labelled currently as ‘Junk’ to be a fully functioning part of the whole program. This is still adjusting your body and very specifically your mental abilities during the reading of your book. I was told by those that know, the reading of it would be the tipping point to whole new processes being turned on; that is happening now as you are confirming to me.”

“You may feel a little strange for a while, understand things differently, ‘see’ what others do not, but this strangeness will soon pass and all will feel very normal. Others may see you as a little strange perhaps but do not worry about that; we all see each other differently, do we not?”

This was a lengthy explanation that I had not at all expected. Where was the juice, I needed a drink of that magic stuff. Picking up my full glass it was soon emptied and what a calming effect it had on me, much more than anything previously.

“Have some more,” the Doctor insisted as he filled the glass again and its aroma drifted in my direction. I had not really noticed it before but now it was pronounced and had something about it which I had not noticed before; it was almost enticing me to drink it.

The Doctor decided to continue.

“You might find it interesting to know that the majority of these other people in this world with specific talents of a similar nature to yourself are also of the rhesus negative blood grouping, as yourself. You and they are particularly special being of the ‘O’ negative group as this is a direct result, down the ages, from our original genetic manipulation of the indigenous hominids from which you are, of course, descended. The negative marker is an identifier of one who definitely carries the genetic alterations we made but by differing amounts, of course.”

“Of those we identified as being inclusive of this blood marker or had exhibited the traits associated with it, we knew them to be similarly descended and selected quite a few, not all of course, to be brought here as you were. They didn’t write a particular or, indeed, any type of book and it was not for their safety but for an overall plan of ours which will become clearer in time.”

I listened quietly and with some expectation, this was itself another story and it was developing nicely. Why was it that I found myself attracted to such tales, of truth or not? What was it about certain subjects that had always taken my attention like no others?

“This is not a tale or a story Ian, it’s simple truth; please keep that in mind and listen.”

It was in my mind, as he had obviously detected, but I focused and listened attentively.

“There are a lot of creative people in this world, mostly from among the grouping I have just described, who will tell you that very often they seem to find themselves writing words, painting pictures, etc., that others somewhere and somehow seem to be guiding them to. It is those sorts that we have being focussing on for some years now.”

“There are, of course many with great talent, often more so than yourself but not of the correct grouping that we have been seeking. We did not find you Ian, you showed yourself to us by the writing of that book; something very special.”

“Poets sometimes find that a work is given, as it were, and all they have to do is write down the words provided. I have seen, where you have written on occasion, that a particular piece of poetry found you; this is what I am talking about.”

He had knowledge of my other writing and yes, he was aware that I sometimes found the words simply coming to me from somewhere outside of my thoughts.

“Writers will tell you their muse is either with them or not,” he continued, “and if the latter they are uncreative or dry. This is also what I mean.”

“They will tell you that their creativity is driven in some part or at some times the direct result of their muse being active. I’m telling you that this is the result of the DNA changes enacted upon a section of the hominids by our people many thousands of years ago, now coming to maturity.”

“That is not to say that the current world’s population did not benefit from some genetic improvements from us, but that selected individuals have become modified a little more over time from the programming built in to the DNA and the serendipitous coming together of some of them. Sequences are starting to switch on. The negative blood marker is the indicator for where this switching-on process may be occurring.”

“The process of change is correctly described as natural selection; the same process that applies to all living things. Ancient modifications to the DNA are, however, also aiding these changes, in some cases as yours right now, rather rapidly.”

“Natural selection is not the whole story. We have interjected at specific times; of course right at the beginning of our arrival here at a time often referred to in the fossil record as the ‘Missing Link’ where fossils are not to be found.

“Over the aeons, the subsequent development of humankind with the directed influence, but not always, of the additionally genetically modified strain has led to where we are now. Serendipity is a good word because that describes exactly the fortuitous but necessary position we are finding ourselves in at this precise moment in time. I or others will provide more reasons for what I have just said, but later, not at this moment.”

“Specific dominant or recessive gene strands, within the developing DNA of the world's populations, has sometimes produced great individual minds. In general this has not been the case but it is normal in the majority of cases, for those fortuitously availed of a predominant sense of creativity, ability or appreciation. Those people who seem to stand out from the average, with a greater intellect, curiosity or an artistic ability are benefiting from the genetic changes coming to fruition.”

“This was not the prime reason for tampering with, or rather adding to, the original DNA sequences; that was two-fold. We needed to ensure the continuation of our species and pass on our stage of development to others who could best take advantage of it at the appropriate time.”

“We had no ambition to create a master and slave arrangement, as you correctly identified and as once occurred with the other visitors who came here. We simply aimed to provide a step along on the evolutionary path, a path by which we had travelled so long ago.”

“That path is still being followed but it is in danger now of being destroyed in the very near future.”

That last comment caught my attention. All of it was a lot to take in but it echoed everything I had written.

“You should find it much easier to take in than most Ian, because of the particular way in which you think, especially now. I am only confirming what you have speculated on throughout your life and written down in your book. Before I continue however, more refreshment.”

With that, he got out of his seat and went for the pitcher of fruit juice. Having filled his own glass, he then refilled mine. The empty pitcher having only just been placed back on the cabinet, in walked another nurse to replace it with another full one.

I still found the smell of that juice as something strangely appealing each time a new supply showed itself; I could not explain this, perhaps I shouldn’t try.

“There is a natural process of development in your human species, indeed in all species, which generally travels in one direction only. Here on the ‘Earth’ that development has sometimes stuttered, even going in the wrong direction occasionally and at the present it seems to be bouncing this way and that.”

“Among the whole population overall, however, there is a trend being maintained by individuals that often sets them apart from the crowd, sometimes to their demise. The overall effect is one still of dominant DNA sequences being passed on to the benefit of mankind as a whole, although it may not appear so at times.”

“A breakthrough seems to be occurring right now, just at the same time as the survival of the entire human race may be in jeopardy. If we can prevent the loss of an entire species, who are in reality our cousins, then we have decided, without having to consider this too much, that we shall do so.”

The conversation had now changed direction from a series of explanations to something entirely different.

The Doctor went on, sensing my realisation of the change but without any change of expression.

“Our numbers are low, in the thousands, but we have a great deal at our disposal to ensure the survival of our two species, if we move carefully. That is why you and your family, and many others are here, under the noses of those who would destroy you. The rest of the population will have to stay uninformed until it becomes too late.”

I was now a little stunned by what he had just announced. The survival of our two species, the human race in jeopardy; where was this going?

“Please keep paying attention Ian; I am coming to the serious stuff here.”

“The serious stuff, what on earth had I been listening to; that was serious enough surely?”

“Ian, stop your mind wandering for a short while longer I can appreciate how difficult that may be at present especially as your genetic changes are in operation right now as we speak, but please maintain your concentration; come on, keep focussed.”

“We cannot save everybody, the entire human race,” he continued, “nor would we wish to; it is essential that we are selective. The process of choosing who is to be included in this selection is well advanced, possibly complete as I speak.”

“The total number involved is not so great that their absence will be noticed until we have already actioned the difficult bit; leaving.”

“We came here to Earth only some twenty thousand strong and your development has been the result. We are no longer twenty thousand strong but with our cousins, those properly selected from amongst your kind, we will be again.”

“I think I can see where you are going,” I attempted, “but you started with my writing of a book, can you backtrack a little first, explain that a bit more please.”

The Doctor sighed. He was aware that the speed and change of direction was losing me a little, perhaps a lot, so he paused and took a long intake of breath. Then off he went again.

“Your creativity is the end result of the genetic manipulation way back at the start of our improvement to your species, a short while after we settled here. You know about that, you wrote it down. The creativity of your species can still be seen from the period when the changes took serious effect; have you seen the cave paintings, particularly those of the many hands?”

“Yes,” I replied realising that everything I was saying was not in spoken words but in mental communication; it was happening quite naturally and I had no wish to stop it.

“I have, but only in illustrations, and the animals, the bison, the horses, and so on.”

“This was the time that the genetic changes really kicked in, but this aptitude for creativity was only the visible part of the changes made. If you wish, you could call it a side effect of the real changes concerning brain development with enhancement of curiosity, problem solving, use of tools; the list goes on.”

“You were different to us and we were relatively few settling here as a result of the annihilation on our own planet. Therefore, we did what any living species has done in the past when travelling the universe. We passed on what parts of our DNA we could to the local indigenous peoples thus ensuring our mutual survival. This is how much of life in the universe has always developed and spread, as far as we are aware.”

“Who knows where it started, that is too far back for even our records. We were about to come to an understanding our ancestral origins, just before our great disaster that created what is now our desolate, home planet. You mentioned this in your book and quite accurately, did you not?”

I nodded in affirmation, sat quietly and listened without saying anything more.

“You and many others like you are on the cusp of a great development that would really set you apart from the general population. You have developed the ability to connect to what we call the Great Universal Consciousness, often and still considered erroneously by many, as a religious experience.”

Religion was something I had discarded from my rationale many years ago. I had continued to read up on and consider various religious beliefs for the sole purpose of understanding other people’s points of view, but I was a devout atheist (if that was not an oxymoron).

“As your mind-set Ian, forget any idea of religion. What you see in your world now, is the hijacking of a few individuals’ great revelations, considered by themselves at the time as a religious event or communication with one or the only God, but, of course, nothing of the sort.”

“Sometimes, of course, it was as a direct result of contact with ourselves and the view, understandably that we were Gods of some sort, and something we did not dissuade at the time.”

“For personal grandification, power and the creation of institutions that perpetrated their views, or simply being delusional, they persisted with the only course of action that made sense to them. Some of their peers or successor, more often than not, actually believed the myths created, in what I would personally describe as superstitious nonsense, and as result, you now still have the great institutions of religion whose heads often know of the myths but continue with the charade.”

“I’m sorry Ian, I’m starting to rant. This is a pet hate of mine and having provided you with the best explanation I can of why you are here and what we have do to you, I’ve gone off-topic a little,” he apologised.

I smiled. “Fine by me,” I replied, “I’m with you most of the way and I agree entirely with what you have just said concerning religion; keep talking.”

“Back to the reason you’re here and the explanation I was well in to,” he continued. “You are one of those people that without any effort and realisation of what you were doing and without religious overtones, tapped into the Great Universal Consciousness. Don’t ask me to explain what it is, I don’t know and no-one so far has ever provided a satisfactory explanation, just accept that it exists, please.”

“Ok,” I said, “I’ll buy that. It seems a reasonable name to use.”

I was becoming used to this mental communication stuff and the more it happened, the more natural it felt; the Doctor seemed fine with it even though he was doing the real talking or so I believed.

“Very good Ian, you’re catching on nicely. Please do not stop what you are doing, the more you practice, the more natural it really will become.”

“If I might continue.”

“Of course,” I replied with an increasing smile on my face.

"The ideas you came up with for your book are probably the product of this connection and also the many years of reading and knowledge gained to which you were most certainly directed, and I do mean ‘directed’.”

“Something special happened in the process, which we can’t properly explain, that resulted in you receiving and recording our history from a period just before we left our planet to come here, right up to the present day, including many events of which your world’s population are simply not aware of.”

“The events and information you accurately describe in the book has led to some wishing to see you dead.”

“If your book becomes general knowledge, if only as a good story, this would corroborate much of what has genuinely been discovered, often by dangerous detective work, on the part of many others; their views can be regularly seen and listened to on television or read about in their work.”

“Where they are different from you, is that much of what they say is a mixture of a few facts and a lot of conjecture, often in the right direction, but not of any great concern to those, shall we say, ‘on the inside’.”

“Your stories are so accurate that we became aware that moves were under-way to locate and eliminate both yourself and the book before it could properly be distributed. Many people, some very famous, even as high as to the leadership of great countries, have uncovered significant snippets of the 'truth' only to be killed as a result. You were simply to be next in the long line of names.”

“Luckily, for you, one of our kin living amongst you obtained an early copy of your book, read it, and very quickly realised the significance of what was before them in black and white. We were notified and took action immediately.”

“Because of that recognition and some swift communication, we managed to get to you just as the first attempt was about to be made for your ‘removal’. Remember the interview and the silent explosion. I’m sure you do. We contacted you via your mobile phone just in time before it became the tool of an assassination attempt. After that, our intelligence people made all the right moves, keeping just one step ahead of those others, to get you away to safety; here.”

“This is more than a place of safety,” I offered. “I’ve been asleep, receiving treatment, genetic modification or whatever, in what is clearly a hospital of sorts,” I added in the hope of further explanation, if that were possible.

What I had been told so far was not swamping me nor was it any longer of great surprise; things were falling into place. Many dreams and thoughts had now been clarified and I was pleased to meet someone with whose ideas my own at last resonated.

The Doctor nodded gently and smiled in his knowing manner as he detected my thought patterns.

“Yes Ian, this is a hospital and you’re here not because you have been unwell or because you passed out on our craft coming here. Putting you to sleep en-route panicked your wife at first but she was soon reassured, we have our ways, and when you both arrived here you were brought straight to this room and your wife to some accommodation and a briefing.”

“We needed to undertake some additional work on you, Ian, to examine your DNA profile, identify the genetic sequences that were responsible for the natural ability you exhibited and to locate where our ancient restructuring was absent or recessive but needed to be included or made dominant.”

“The reason that you were able to describe the events in the manner that you did was due to a limited number of the changes being dominant and others not so or missing. We decided that we should locate and make dominant some of those changes and provide you with as many as possible of the improvements originally intended. Human scientists have not yet reached a stage where they can conceive making alterations to the body’s entire cell structure; we have possessed that technology for a very long time but never found a need for its full re-employment until recently.”

“Don’t yawn,” he announced with a degree of sharpness in his voice with a manner similar to that, possibly, of a school teacher; I wasn't aware that I had. “Drink more of the juice, you need to stay attentive.”

I sat up straight on his command as though being disciplined, and drank the remainder of my juice. How this could refresh me in the way that it did even to the smell each successive time I drank it, continued to surprise

“Your turn,” he said as he held out his drained glass. I got to my feet with a certain, though unexpected, light spring and did the honours.

Waiting until I had sat back down and taken a further welcome refreshing draught, he then continued.

“Some of the latter sections of your book described events of which we were not aware but only suspected. We have not been able to get very close to the inner circle at the space agency and the one who attempted to do so has not been heard of since. You appeared to know exactly what is going on and what they’re up to, if the accurate information of the preceding chapters was anything to go by.”

“We needed to check you out and, if you will excuse the phrase, assist what was going on in your head. While you have been ‘asleep’, we have identified everything we set out to but, more importantly to us, made those few enhancements to specific sequences in your DNA chain by, turning some on by what we call biological catalysts, or splicing others in where they were absent but considered to be of specific importance. Human scientists can now achieve some of this in the laboratory, we are able to do this with living people and indeed, this is what we did to you. ”

“You must have noticed by now, I hope you have, that our conversation has taken a slight change of direction and I don’t mean in respect of the words.”

I was a little puzzled.

“You shouldn’t be,” he said, “look at my lips as I speak.”

So I did.

“Well,” he went on, “what do make of this now?”

His lips had not moved when he spoke those words; I could not be imagining this.

“No you’re not,” he said again and without moving his mouth. “Come on, what are you and I doing right now, tell me?”

“I’m not sure,” I responded, “talking to each other but you are not speaking, yet I hear you.”

“And I you also,” he interjected. “As you are aware, I have been in conversation with you for some time now but it has appeared that I was doing the verbalising and you the mental communication.”

I thought about that and focussed hard and came out with, “Can you hear me?” but only in thought keeping my mouth firmly closed.

This seemed silly considering the events of the last hour but I had to try it.

“It’s not silly at all, Ian, and I wish you wouldn’t shout; please be gentle. At that volume, there must be dozens here who heard you. Keep it low and gentle and that way it remains local and personal.”

“I appreciate that you have just become aware of your ability although it has been ticking along intermittently all the time we have been talking by the normal means; you have just come to that realisation.”

“For the last ten minutes or so, on and off, we have been using our minds to speak to each other but you didn’t fully recognise it; it was occurring naturally. This is what we had hoped for, explanations in due course. Don’t try too hard to communicate like this, just do it as natural as though you were speaking. You will still need to speak verbally to those who do not have this ability, of course. That includes many of our sorts, particularly those who have spent their lives amongst you. With those of our species who have developed this ‘gift’, you will find it most useful and very natural.”

I didn't know whether or not to be shocked or just accept the feeling of all my birthdays coming at once, or perhaps both; the sensation was something to be welcomed and to submerge myself in. I was ecstatic and, to my own surprise, easily accepting of this without the need to leap to my feet and whoop.

“Most of the staff in this hospital is so gifted,” he continued, “particularly those designated to care both for your species and those of our own that have developed this gift. This place is to provide you and the others, in the appropriate environment to both recuperate and develop in the best possible way.”

“As a species many of our sorts had this gift before we left home to travel to settle here, so I have been advised. It became lost or diluted eventually, especially as we mixed genetically with yourselves but thankfully, only after we had already made the genetic changes to your ancestors. We did not believe in invoking, within ourselves, the manipulation you have just experienced, preferring to leave the natural selection process to take its course.”

“While we could only add to or modify the human genome, there were sections that were identified for providing robust constitutions and physical attributes that we wished to see enter into our genetic structure.”

“The re-combination of the DNA sequences over numerous generations eventually started the return of what had been diluted and effectively lost but also, in many cases, reinforced. This process is now coming to fruition with a degree of significance just as we are all threatened with sublimation by other alien visitors and their foolish conspirators.”

This was the first time I had heard mention of other alien visitors from anyone else except TV program presenters. They appeared in my book but that was purely fictional, although in coming to an acceptance of what I had been told, it was clear that I should also be reconsidering my approach. I was being told that I had written history, not fiction, and I was being easily led to believe it.

“You are to become a part of a planned move to rescue what is left of ourselves on this planet and others of your sort who are ready or have taken their place amongst us; your families are also included of course.”

“Before I explain further and before I insist that you rest for a while, I have given you plenty to think about and consider, there are two people who have asked to meet you, who are stood outside right now and who wish to thank you for saving their lives.”

I had no idea what he meant or to whom he was referring but as the door opened and in walked an elderly couple, introductions were not needed but were made non-the less.

“Ian, I would like you to meet John and Sue from Manchester,” he announced, most verbally, “I think you know them already.”

I did.

It all made sense now, the Doctor was right; I had to seriously consider his words and my new found ‘gift’.