Of shoes—and ships—and sealing wax—

Of cabbages—and kings—

And why the sea is boiling hot—

And whether pigs have wings.’

“You have questions. Ask.”

“Was it all real?”

“It was simply one potential multiverse. Your participation has made it real.”

“And if I hadn’t participated?”

“That would be another multiverse.”

“You know what I mean. Did life on Earth begin from a primordial soup delivered by an extraterrestrial species?”

“If it did, wouldn’t that make the E.T.s a homogenous species? Or, at the very least, a parent species? And like all good parents, they seek only what’s best for their children.”

“Who are you?”

“What does your gut tell you?”

“At the very least, my guardian angel. Guardian, because you’ve kept me alive through some harrowing times. Angel, because the person who I suspect you to be died long ago.”

“And who was that?” he asked.

“You’re Avi Socha. At least you’re his consciousness. That’s how we’re able to communicate, through the shared energy of our soul.”

My mentor smiled. As I watched, his appearance changed, morphing into the Gray I had conversed with earlier.

“No, Zachary. The being you conversed with during the zero-point energy transfer was the consciousness of Avi Socha as it existed 3.75411 billion years ago. I speak with you now as an Avatar, a servant of the Light, the effect of the cause.”

“What happened to you after you returned to Charon?”

“The information you transferred to me gave our ships the ability to escape the caldera eruption. From there we left the solar system but were denied interdimensional travel for another four generations until every last child of the Miketz had passed on, including myself. Only then were the tribes of Charon of a high enough morality to be allowed to access the Upper Worlds. This was our punishment for allowing our enemies to die.”

“Wow. That seems pretty harsh. How can a people who were tortured to death be expected to save their abusers?”

“Zachary, stop thinking like a physical being and think like our Creator. If you desire mercy, you need to show mercy. There is neither hatred nor judgment in the Upper Worlds, no greed or violence—just love. And this is why humanity should never fear their E.T. brethren, because we could never have been permitted access to traverse the universe through the higher dimensions without exemplifying this morality, a morality that refuses to consider vengeance upon a hostile military regime that downs our vessels and kills our kind.

“There is a plan in effect, Zachary Wallace, and all multiverses lead to it. The question is how much pain and suffering we must endure from incarnation to reincarnation before we realize the simple truth of existence—that we are all children of the Light, the sparks from one unified soul, communicating through one universal consciousness.”