I had resolved to wear the helmet during every meditation, which were now guided by the headpiece’s melodic theta frequencies. It replaced my mentor as the only compass required to navigate multiversal space-time. And ever resonating at om—the tone of our Universe—the helmet connected me to everything. It was my lens on the Akashic Record.

The Akashic—a little about this ethereal omniscience: the Akashic Record held all things that have happened, are happening and will happen in a given universe. My helmet was entangled with them all, via the Akashic. I decided to focus only on the Earth that sat on yonder beyond its LaGrange point, where we had nestled the Cheshire in Her orbit. It couldn’t have been random that the Cheshire and her crew were relegated to this solar system and version of Earth. My helmet provided fluid narration, as I surfed through the seemingly infinite data.

“The Akashic of Earth…” the helmet’s zen voice both calmed and informed me, “… holds fundamental Truths that even its most advanced species—the humans—have long since forgotten. For one, ancient and advanced civilizations once roamed the Earth’s lands and seas. And they built massive, megalithic structures by mastering sound levitation.

“Even more sacred still is the Earth Herself. When tripled with Her satellite Moon and the parent star Sun, the three form one of this world’s most powerful spaceships…”

At this, I quickly removed the helmet. The Earth is a planet, I thought. Curiosity had me don the hat once again. I had to hear where the helmet was going with this.

“… It all has to do with the Moon. It’s abnormally large for a satellite that orbits so close to its parent planet. Its rotation is also so precise that Earth’s inhabitants only ever see the same Moon face, no matter where it is in orbit. Its specific size and distance from Earth allow the Moon to perfectly cover the Sun during a solar eclipse. Yes, Earth’s Moon is very special indeed. You see, what’s not so obvious as the above Moon facts are the further Truth that the Moon is hollow, and at its epicenter resides a very small black hole. The Moon’s outer, metallic shell lies just outside the event horizon of this black hole so that the Moon can’t collapse in on itself.

“The Moon was, in fact, placed here in perfect orbit about this Earth by energetic beings of a higher consciousness. And then, as the eons aged our blue planet, its inhabitants forgot the true purpose of our sacred Sun, Earth, Moon alignment. But the Akashic never forgot, which is why I can divulge its true nature to you today, Bill…”

As I hung on every word from the helmet narrator, its viewfinder projected a visual of the Sun, Earth and Moon aligning. It was as if they were all one.

“… Those ancient and advanced civilizations not only could wield the weight of megalithic stones; they held the True Power of the entire Earth, as only a proper Type 1 civilization can (incidentally, today’s humans are still stuck at Type 0). The first multiversal surfers dropped into the Earth’s giant electromagnetic field, achieving orbital velocities far past light speed. The Earth’s current intelligent species, the humans, are used to a much slower revolving Earth, but these ancients sped Her up to unheard of revolutions so that the light emitting in these hyper states resembled more of the Sun, than the green and blue that they’re used to. The Sun was actually the Earth’s engine, as the ancients elevated Her into superposition…”

The viewfinder now displayed a white-hot Earth orbiting the Sun at impossible revolutions.

“… At this volatile level, the ancients would then focus their Earth’s engine upon the black hole at the center of the Moon. They found this very LaGrange point, where your own mothership currently sits, and afixed it to this black hole nucleus, like standing in the eye of a storm. To try and keep up with a hyperbolic Earth was impossible. But if they were standing still, by the Moon’s black hole, it was everything else that flew in ludicrous velocity…”

My viewfinder became impossibly bright. ‘What were we building to?’ I thought, squinting.

“… They’d release the Earth back into Her wave function, so that they could then delve into the Moon’s black hole…”

Suddenly, the white orb that was Earth flipped into an outer white ring, where the surface was facing inward, and the Moon’s black hole sat at the center of this ensemble. The ancient pilots hovered just by the still and quiet black hole too, until they thrust past its event horizon, with the outer ring earth as their protective Alcubierre bubble. The screen went black. Then, torrents of the movierain—all encompassing, fat droplets flying from some unknown origin and descending into oblivion—downpoured all over these ancient pilots surfing on the white light Earth bubble. The viewfinder zoomed out to reveal that the rain resembled a torus pattern, with waves of droplets flooding down the center pole, flaring out the bottom and round up the top, only to descend again. In an infinite donut, the limitless versions of Earth (the droplets) flowed and resonated, as a breathing organ, and reverberated gravity waves outwardly, like a radio tower broadcasting some important message.

“… The Moon is a portal. And the Earth provides our pilot’s vehicle to carry them through the volatile movierain on the other side, as a well engineered Alcubierre drive. The present-day humans, with all their metal, silicon and computer software fancy themselves the greatest race to walk this planet. Little do they know that they’re merely the children of one of this universe’s most elite spacecraft—the Earth Herself.

“In our next lesson, I’m going to teach you how to wield Her awesome power to traverse dimensions.”

I doffed the helmet, once again, this time in excitement. If what the narrator was saying was true, I could finally free myself from this Cheshire brig.

***

The next day I awoke a half hour earlier than usual. I finally had a reason to get out of bed: dimensional leaping out of this shit brig.

After one of the crew slid my breakfast under the door, I quickly ate, returned the empty tray from whence it came, and descended into my secret Drop. The helmet lay their beside my zen pillow, as it had for many mornings now. I donned it to hear what it had to teach me.

“Okay, in the last session,” the helmet’s narrator picked up right where he had left off, “we examined how the three—the Sun, the Earth and the Moon—are one spacecraft when in alignment… and piloted by a savvy driver. Today, we’re going to explore how to turn on the ignition of this celestial ship and where to first navigate.”

My palms sweat with anticipation. The narrator continued to instruct.

“Now you’ll need to be sitting down for this—haha, sorry, a little meditation humor there. In a deep, meditative state, you’re going to focus on the Moon, and the black hole that resides at her center. Remember how you focused electromagnetism down between your ankles when learning to surf? Well, you’re going to perform a similar mental maneuver, except at a planetary scale…”

I envisioned the Moon as the center of my reality.

“… Concentrate on the Moon and forget that she orbits the Earth, orbiting the Sun. The Moon is still! Now imagine how much faster that would speed up the Earth’s movements, to compensate for a standstill Moon…”

The Earth began to blur about a stationary Moon, splattering blue-green and then igniting to cream orange and ultimately white.

The narrator continued along his guided meditation, “The Sun flies even faster still, behind the white-lined Earth. It’s the engine from which the Earth draws Her impossible velocities ascending into superposition…”

I could feel my body elevating above the pillow, hovering a few inches in mid air at this notion of the Earth vehicle.

“… Focus all of this magnificent gravity down upon the Moon and imagine flying through the pupil of its black hole.”

I supplanted the idea of a black hole center Moon with the brilliant white light of the Sun and Earth. In a blink, I was suddenly outside of the Drop… or more like my Drop had become the Sun-powered Earth in waveform and was guiding Her through the Moon’s black hole portal. I stood on a fine point of ball lightning between my ankles. A sphere, 20 or so feet in diameter, enveloped my immediate space, Its walls also lined in glowing white energy. And somehow I knew that the small ball between my feet and the large orb protecting me through this movierain plummet into a black hole were the very same. I wasn’t just surfing space-time; I was surfing the Multiverse on the Earth’s drop. Luckily, I still wore my helmet to guide me.

“Okay,” the helmet made multiversal surfing seem like putting together Ikea furniture, “you’ve broken through space-time, leveraging the Earth’s energy and Moon’s focal point. You’re probably wondering where to go. That’s simple: you go where any new Thunderbird in training must attend first. You may have even been there before. Let’s leap to the Equipment Room.”

He was right. I had been there before, on that fateful rescue of Sully. Except this time I wasn’t frantic in my flight. Months of quieting meditation and my instructing helmet calmed my nerves and steadied my feet riding the electromagnetivity toward our desired destination.

“If you need help locating this place, just picture a giant, vaulted gate, made of beautiful white marble.”

I knew this door well and upon picturing it in my mind’s eye, suddenly a droplet in the movierain flew in from obscurity to inches in front of me. I concentrated on this fine drop until it expanded large enough for me to drop down into its world. And just like I had plummeted through the Moon’s black hole to surf Multiverse in the first place, I executed a similar move to enter the Equipment Room’s drop.

Just as suddenly as I had entered the movierain, I was just as abruptly spat from it, back into a more physical space—the front, megalithic entrance to the Thunderbird Order’s Equipment Room. Before, when I had arrived, I was the only one, having perhaps visited after hours or something. This time, the place teemed with activity. Thunderbirds entered and exited the giant gate and others hovered outside the walls, congregating, perhaps exchanging tales from their far-flung excursions. This was only my second time ever arriving here, and yet it still felt somehow like home.

I had so many questions… and so many items to take back to my Drop.

***

NEXT UP: The Crew are substantially more skilled than Bill, in the beginning. That’s why, among other reasons, he finds it so daunting to keep up. They’ve also established quite the rapport on their many missions together.

Bill’s self discovery (on walkabout so to speak) becomes all the more important, then, when he reconvenes as the more seasoned and wise Thunderbird in training. He’s able to chime in on their quick ping pong dialogue. He’s expedited his privilege to be accepted by them, because he now has their back too, just as they’ve covered for each other. He holds up the ultimate 6 position.

***