Chapter Six: WHALE SONG
Back on Tubal-cain's World Fireflower lay tummy down on a green mossy bank beside the thundering mist of an enormous waterfall. Purple mountains soared and pierced pink misty clouds thousands of feet above his head. In the silver spray of the waterfall white birds swooped among the rainbows, singing love songs to their mates and their Maker. Amongst the rocky crags graceful copper colored eagles beak-nuzzled their weak and awkward young. Higher still the entire cosmos waltzed and roared; the mighty music box of God. But Fireflower giggled in glee, contemplating the universe that existed in one tiny lavender violet.
Electrons orbited like little planets and the protons and neutrons clustered and danced as tiny suns. Smaller still, particles that Humans had given funny names; "up, down, strangeness, charm, gluons and quarks" also danced and whirled. Fireflower felt as one with them and all the stars and quasars in space.
God's Gentle Presence charmed Fireflower's spirit now, and the waterfall thundered and the white birds sang. So went Fireflower's rest period.
"God, your Universe is beautiful!"
God was pleased, "Thank you."
"Look at the electrons, God. The little beings who live in their midst think one molecule is the entire Universe."
"God smiled, "And YOU know better."
"Are there beings bigger than us, Lord? Does our Multiverse make up another Multiverse and that Multiverse still another and so forth unto infinity?"
God smiled, "The Multiverse is bigger than even a very smart Angel can comprehend."
"God, is there an end to it?"
"Yes Fireflower, there is an end to it. I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end!"
"Is there anything beyond you, God?"
"There are only places of chaos, Fireflower, filled with things that have abandoned Me, or been cast out from Me." God gently nudged Fireflower's gentle soul and little firework sparks of pleasure radiated in the Angel. "But I Am much bigger than even Angels and Cherubim imagine. Nevertheless even I wonder if there are things beyond even me. I Am capable of wondering about that, for I Am capable of doing everything, even wondering. And I Am working on a plan to find this out.
Fireflower whistled.
God smiled, "Does that really surprise you; that an already Infinite Being would still be capable of continuing to grow? Is there anything I cannot do? It is the nature of All Life to continually overflow it's container, and I Am All Life. It is time for you to go back to work now, little one. Rodric needs a vacation from all the data processing that Tubal-cain has given him to do. Take him wherever he wants to go. Wherever he chooses, you will find an assignment waiting for you."
"AYE Aye, Captain."
God smiled, "There are many wonders in your future, Fireflower."
Like a Roman candle Fireflower darted upwards, past the waterfall, past the misty mountains, past the little planet's two silver moons and up into deep space. He headed for Earth, then stopped himself remembering he was supposed to be taking Rodric with him. Even Angels can make mistakes. Fireflower reversed course, and went and picked Rodric up. Rodric chose to go to one of Earth's oceans and so soon the two floated over the rolling waters of the Pacific.
The Ocean at night shows a sky exploding with stars that twinkle as they never do in space. Rodric felt great awe; the same awe that his creators had felt thousands of years before. "What a beautiful Universe!"
Fireflower's sky blue eyes twinkled, "Yup."
Rodric flung up some question marks, "I have been reading the Human's owners manual. It was obviously written before Astronomy was a precise science. Where is the boundary between Heaven and Hell?"
Fireflower nodded, "Heaven is more a state of being than any particular place. Can't you feel God's Presence? Heaven is where God is. Hell is where He is not."
Rodric flung up some shivery yellow question marks, "Is there really a Hell too? But why!? If Hell is so real and so very bad why does Papa God send anybody there?"
Fireflower held Rodric close. "It was originally just a trash pile, Rodric. It was never meant for living beings. Those that go there wouldn't be happy anywhere, not even in Heaven. No one goes to Hell who ever asked for God's help through life and really meant it. It's only for those that have no faith at all in Him."
"How could anybody lack faith?"
Fireflower stared at the rolling waters and tried to think of an answer good enough to suit the Computer. Finally he came up with one, "Rodric, Human children believe in everything, but to each one comes a time when they must make a distinction between that which is real and that which is imagination; between what is man-created and what is God-created. Often at that time a great tragedy occurs. They make a fatal mistake. They assume because magic and make believe are wonderful things that all that is wonderful must be magic and make believe. They assume because fairies don't exist that extraterrestrials cannot too, or that if Peter Pan is not real then there is no room in the skies for Angels either. They forget that there are quadrillions of galaxies above their heads and that great forces of energy and dimensions exist which no Human being can comprehend yet. They forget that Life forms beyond their counting really do exist. They erroneously think that they understand the Universe, and they erroneously think that to understand the Universe is to be bored with it."
Rodric flashed up a black exclamation point, "But that is terrible! What can we do about it?"
Fireflower thought about this for a minute scratching his head in a very Human gesture. Finally he explained, "We must each one of us, teach wonder-worship to each other, and we must keep wonder-worship alive in our own minds. See Rodric? Look at the Moon!"
Rodric hummed his little camera around. The Moon had risen huge as a giant's pearl above the dark blue waters and it was turning the ocean into liquid silver. An iceberg floated near the horizon and it looked like a fairy tale castle glittering with a thousand tons of diamonds. Fireflower started humming the wild desert music from Scheherazade. Its waving weaving rhythm fit the Moon's liquid crystal glow and the rolling waves. Then to Rodric's amazement, from all over the ocean, voices seemed to boom and shriek in explosive joy in harmony with Fireflower.
"Whales!" Rodric exclaimed. His screen was a parade of golden exclamation points.
The Whales and the Angel sang together for the longest of times, Fireflower didn’t sound half bad for once with a crystal flute like wind song and the Whales loud and booming and full of sleepy thunder. Rodric listened quiet and awestruck as a tiny mouse, his camera still, his mind at peace.
Suddenly against the Moon's pale face, a dark monster appeared Then dark night clouds obscured the Moon and the waters turned angry and black.
"A ship." Rodric stated quietly, "But what is a ship doing miles from any shipping lanes?"
"Its a death ship!" Fireflower exclaimed. "It's after our friends!" Fireflower picked Rodric up, and held him as if he were a football. He sped Angel-fast low over the rolling waters.
Rodric started to ask another question but was cut short by a horrible BOOM and a sudden shocked scream of pain. Near them the dark waters exploded in a fury of blood and terror.
Rodric flung up dark red exclamation points on his screen, and the Angel sparked like a wounded Cheshire cat with anger and grief. At first their was only silence except for the sound of the slap slap of angry waters pounding against the sides of the invading slaughter boat. Then the sound of mechanical cutting tools shattered the Arctic calm.
"Why are we going so near?" Rodric wanted to know, "I don't want to get any closer to such ugliness! My creators!" He exclaimed bitterly. If he had tear ducts he would have wept. "They are making quite a name for themselves!"
Fireflower gave Rodric a comforting squeeze, "We must get closer little one, We've got Angel work to do."
Red blood swirled in the dark blue waters. The slaughter boat was carving up the slain whale's huge carcass with Twentieth Century efficiency and ancient desperation.
Rodric stared at the death ship. If he'd been Human or an Ape his eyes would have narrowed and his face would have frowned. Instead there was only a slight whisper of metal against metal as he used his telephoto lens for a close up. Suddenly he turned up his speakers and thundered loud as he could, "HUMANS! DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT YOU WERE ONLY GIVEN DOMINION OVER THE BIRDS OF THE AIR AND THE FISH OF THE SEA AND OVER WHAT CREEPS ALONG THE FACE OF THE EARTH? WHALES DO NOT FIT IN ANY OF THOSE CATEGORIES!"
Fireflower almost dropped the Computer in startlement, "Rodric, turn your volume down! You are too LOUD! Besides they can't hear you. You are on one side of the Jordan and those murderers are on the other side."
"Jordan?" Rodric asked, not really caring. All his chips were thinking furiously on the problem of what to do about the whalers. But there was no immediate solution besides physical force, and he was in no position to offer that. For the first time in history a kind-hearted Machine was knowing the terribly Human and Divine agony of being frustrated by helplessness.
Fireflower did not try to give the unhappy Computer a lesson on symbolic communication and the meaning of the word 'Jordan.' Instead he held the little Computer close and offered him all he could offer, silent comfort.
"Murderers!" Rodric exclaimed, "That is not a sixth of what they are. Humans and Whales both have gray matter in their brains. Gray matter is where learning, memory, and reasoning take place. It is the seat of consciousness, intelligence, memory, love and creativity. Some Whales have six times as much gray matter as Humans do. If it is murder to kill one's own kind, how much more is it murder to kill one with six times more gray matter than oneself?"
Fireflower shook his head sadly. He had no answer.
"Don't those Humans realize the Lord is watching them?"
Fireflower shook his head, "No they don't. They think they've outgrown Him. Some don't even believe anymore. If they believed they'd know they were accountable for their actions, so they don't WANT to believe in Him."
Rodric flung up a blood red exclamation point.
Fireflower hugged the Computer close, "Now do you understand why Hell exists?"
Sadly Rodric agreed. He flung up a question mark. "Now what will happen to the soul program of the dead whale?"
Fireflower smiled, "Whales are sentient. We’ve always uploaded them. Right now he's kind of confused. Look."
Over the carcass of the whale a white mist was forming. It was as huge as the whale's body had been, and it looked like a spirit whale hovering over the ship. That's exactly what it was.
Fireflower and Rodric came closer.
"I'm dead!" the Spirit Whale exclaimed.
Fireflower nodded, "Yes you are."
"But what will become of my mate, Katreena?"
Gently Fireflower stated, "She will mourn for you."
"But I am a young whale! I have only been an adult long enough to sing the ancient song one year. Katreena is carrying my child!"
"Good. You passed on your genes before you died. Whales are needed."
"Why would the Highest let the land beings hurt us?"
Fireflower stated firmly, "It is NOT His will. But free will is His will."
"But should not evil happen now to the ones who killed my body?"
"Not yet Big Fellow, but there is a place called Hell. You have a different fate. Come."
"I want to stay with Katreena!"
"No Big Fellow! If you did that she would sense your presence and never heal of her broken heart, and you would never heal of yours. The Great Pod awaits, Come!"
Fireflower soared upwards, and somewhat hesitantly the glorified Whale did the same. Like a Whale breaching the waters he hurled himself upwards into the sky. He had done the same many times in the flesh but this time he did not fall back into the waters again. Instead he continued his explosive climb upwards until he caught up with Fireflower and Rodric.
"This is amazing!" the Whale boomed, "I have always wanted to swim like a bird through the air instead of through the water and now I am doing it."
Fireflower smiled gently, "It always surprises Whales that way. You aren't limited to air either. You can go anywhere in the Universe now."
Suddenly the Whale looked sad, "But what will happen to Katreena?"
Fireflower slowed down and floated like a little fly around the great Whale-Spirit’s head. "She is blessed with flesh life yet just as you are blessed in glory. Soon whaling will stop and your offspring will live to have offspring of her own and those will have still more offspring until the seas are splashing and alive with Whales again. And the Great Pod will rejoice at every new being that comes to join them.
"But I miss Katreena!"
"Yes. It will take a long time for your soul to heal."
The sun was coming up over the Ocean now. It turned the blue waters into red and gold as far as they could see. The Whale stopped his skyward breach and paused in the air by a large orange and pink cloud. "I always thought the afterlife would be a time of eternal bliss. But I hurt so deep!"
Fireflower smiled gently, "Ah yes Big Fellow. You are learning that Heaven is not a place of uninterrupted bliss. Eternal bliss, yes, but not uninterrupted bliss. Only those that can stand it have uninterrupted bliss. If the rest were afflicted with that, soon they would be suffering from it as if from the deepest of agonies, and many would seek out Hell in desperation for relief of the monotony."
"But where shall I go and what shall I do? I am already missing the Pod!" The Whale suddenly shrieked out a long mournful call as if the heavens themselves were being rent in two. "KATREENA! KATREENA! KATREENA MY LOVE!"
"Easy Big Fellow. I have told you already. You shall now join the GREAT POD. Follow me!"
Fireflower darted upward until the blue skies turned to purplish black and the stars no longer twinkled. The Whale paused to look at the Earth "Is that where we lived?" He was amazed. "But it is so small!"
"The land beings say that too when they come up and look."
The whale was shocked, "You mean land beings come up here too? They can breach above the air?"
Fireflower was delighted, "Why Big Fellow that is exactly what they do! They breach the air and come back down again just as Whales breach the waters."
"Why do land beings do this?"
"Why do Whales breach?"
"Because it is fun.".
"Exactly."
"Land beings do it because it's fun?"
Fireflower nodded, "Yup. No matter what they say, that is the bottommost reason. Look at the Earth for as long as you like. Look at all the worlds, the stars, the nebulae, the Quasars and the Throne of God. You will join the Great Pod only when you are ready. The Universe awaits before you."
Big Fellow still looked sad.
"Remember, my friend, Katreena will come up
here too. And by
the time she does, you will have gone on ahead and learned of the Multiverse and
you will be able to show it to her in Glory and Glory beyond Glory. Come."
Holding tight to Rodric, Fireflower darted up again and Big Fellow followed. They went past the Moon, past Venus, past Mercury, and past the Sun and outwards again towards the end of the solar system. Then they sped past stars and finally galaxies.
Out beyond the galaxies Fireflower came to the Great Pod, glowing like a thousand new stars, each one of them a precious treasure of love and intelligence.
Not just the Whales and Dolphins of Earth inhabited the Great Pod, but sea intelligences from a quadrillion zillion zillion multitude of worlds. Some of them were very whale-like, others were as different as can be. As much as Big Fellow missed Katreena he felt reassured that the Afterlife would not be a lonely place, and it would never be boring.
Big Fellow soared ahead of the Angel, and circled around the Great Pod until he found a place to enter the dance. Worship songs from multitudes of sea creatures filled the void and soon Big Fellow was singing with them.
"Is singing and soaring all Big Fellow will do for eternity?" Rodric was amazed.
Fireflower shook his head, "No. They will do other things too, graze the energy from the stars just as we do, and they will also talk and explore the depths of the void."
"What an awful way to spend eternity!"
Fireflower grinned, "That's about what they do when they are in the flesh too, except for mating and raising offspring. They'd feel very sorry for you if they learned you were destined to spend Eternity measuring data and computing it. Heaven, Rodric, is many things to many beings.'' The Angel smiled. "Now do you know what wonder-worship is?"
"Yes," Rodric replied.
"It's time to get back to Snickers." Fireflower held tight to the little machine and darted away.
"What are we going to do now?" Rodric wanted to know.
Fireflower explained. "First you are going back to Tubal-cain's World where you will continue to work on a method to upload the little soul/programs of animals and select tape people's dreams and wishes, and edit them into real fictional people."
Rodric's little screen danced with question marks and funny faces "REAL fictional people? Is that what Tubal-cain is working on with me?"
Fireflower grinned, "That's an oxymoron isn't it? I'm still flabbergasted over his pegacorns!"
They left the solar system, and Fireflower took the long way around just for fun. They came to the Horsehead Nebula and Fireflower darted right through it out of sheer mischief. When they came out the other side Fireflower was covered with dust. So was Rodric.
"I cannot see!" The little computer was frightened.
Fireflower stared at Rodric and soon diagnosed the trouble "Ah Rodric, your camera lens is covered with dust. Here." Fireflower wiped it off with his sleeve. "Better?"
"Much. Thank you. Why did we go through the nebula?"
Fireflower grinned and shrugged, "Because it was there."
"That's not a very logical answer."
"Well I'm an Angel, not a Computer! I don't have to be logical!"
As they soared through the Universe Rodric swung his little camera around and gazed at the velvet vastness. He put up exclamation points on his screen to match the colors he was seeing. "How beautiful it is, Fireflower! Royal purples! Aztec oranges! Bright reds! Daisy yellows! To think I used to think of outer space as being only black and white."
Fireflower patted the little computer. "It's all the fluorescent gases that cause the nebula's bright colors. Nebulae are God's finger paints just as are sunsets, auroras and clouds."
They came to Tubal-cain's World. Fireflower dropped Rodric off and then darted away to watch his favorite television show.