Earth

Robith expertly landed on his feet in a place devoid of color. Looking around at his bland surroundings, he noticed an unusual smell. Old paint maybe? He actually wasn’t surprised by what he sensed, he’d done this many times before, even though it had been a long time ago. Before the Ocean Portal had been destroyed. But that was in the past and this was now. The Butterfly Portal was now complete and he and his fellow Quarkles could get to work again.

“Hey, Robith!” called a familiar voice from a corner of the small room. He turned to see that his friend was looking out a window, if that’s what it could be called, and pointing at something. Walking a few steps, he joined him and saw something that he hoped wasn’t true. Granted, it had been a long time since any of the Spark team had been on earth because of the broken portal, but it couldn’t be this bad, could it?

Gray, everywhere they looked there was a dull gray. People shuffling back and forth with seemingly no interest in their surroundings. Silence, no soul, no spark.

This was worse than Robith had imagined. If the spark had completely died, it would be much more difficult and time-consuming to do their job. After all, the mission for the Quarkopolis Spark Team was to go to Earth and spark imagination and creativity. And if there was no creativity to begin with…resigned to the situation, sighing, he turned from the window and called for his team to follow him.

Quarkopolis

Back in Quarkopolis, in one of the forbidden rooms, the Tech Team was ready to begin monitoring and guiding the activity of each member of the Earth-based team. Captain Wipoth casually bantered with some of his team in an attempt to relieve the tension in the room. He was in the middle of a bad joke when suddenly, the startling gray scene from Earth came across the main console.

As one, the team looked up to see the picture and what they saw caused them to cry out in alarm and dismay. The sound was deafening and the reaction was immediate. Scrambling frantically, light and energy flashing, they all took their positions, ready for action.

The situation had just become a level K, the highest emergency. Wipoth took charge, the epitome of command and respect, charged with contagious energy. “Open a channel to Robith,” he commanded in an authoritative voice.

And so the mission began in earnest, all joking aside.

Earth

Robith was thinking about the vibrant colors of Quarkopolis when the call came from Wipoth. “There’ll be no small talk right now,” he barked, “the situation is too urgent.”

Robith silently agreed with his superior and asked, “What did Boss tell us to do?”

“He told us to transform into our very best animated states and focus on putting a spark back into tourism.” Wipoth was skeptical of the command but trusting enough of Boss to know that it was the right move.

“Tourism?” Robith asked, “What does that have to do with putting a spark back in people?”

“I don’t know, but that’s the order and I’m confident that it will become clear to us as you go,” Wipoth replied.

Tourism? Robith had never heard anything so far-fetched. He glanced at the Butterfly Portal and decided immediately on the animation to initiate. He was inspired by the painting and wanted to use its illustrations as his animations.

He would be choosing to transform into a brilliant hummingbird and allow the others to choose whatever bird or butterfly suited their particular taste. He would become miniature to the eyes of humans whereas now he was completely invisible. He looked at his body of light and energy and knew that he would temporarily be trading a perfect zeroth-dimensional body for an imperfect 3-dimensional one. This would be a necessity in order to complete the mission.

Thinking about these things brought back memories of home, Quarkopolis, and particularly the Zeroth dimension. There was really no comparison between home and here.

Home, he just loved home. He hoped that this mission was short so he could get back soon. He hadn’t been gone long at all but he missed the indescribable colors, smells, sights. And the jewel-like atmosphere, richer than anything he’d ever experienced.

But it wasn’t only the environment of Quarkopolis, it was the Quarkles themselves that he missed. They were brilliant explosive light, constant fluid movement like a choreographed eternal dance. Beauty, perfect harmony, oneness. Smaller than microscopic to human eyes, Robith’s fellow Quarkles were abundant, constantly renewed by the sun’s rays. A never-ending stream, born by the sun as its brilliance poured out.

He thought then of the Zeroth Dimension and how it supported and sustained all life. Infinite radiant energy filling the dimension that was never full but ever complete. The Quarkles were not the only perfectly formed beings that were in this life giving dimension. There were scores of others everywhere in the universe.

Robith was constantly in a state of amazement at the beauty and wonder of the existence that he led. And as he thought about Quarkopolis and Quarkles and the Zeroth Dimension, his homesickness increased multitudinously. So with a determined visible effort, he turned back to the task at hand and put his thoughts aside. At least for the time being.

Quarkopolis

Wipoth surveyed the vast room where all the members of his team were standing ready at their stations, awaiting his command.

“Power on, let’s begin observation and reporting stage of the mission.” Wipoth’s command wasn’t as urgent as his last one, but was still authoritative enough to get the Tech Team moving and obeying immediately.

They began watching as Robith’s team transformed into miniature flying creatures and began to spread out over all the earth. Flying high enough to be invisible to the naked human eye, they were still visible to the team in Quarkopolis, of course. The Tech Team observed, reported, repeated. The earthbound Quarkles quickly began to descend to their respective assignments, some here, some there. Their orders were specific and individualized, straight from the Boss to Captain Wipoth and then to Robith. The chain of command was clear and precise.

And as the energy, light filled, animated flying creatures dove toward the earth, inspiration began to come to moms, dads, and kids all over the world. A thought here, an action there. Some were deemed crazy because they swore they saw mini hummingbirds flying around them.

But all began to make solid travel plans and the spark came back into hearts because of it. There was purpose and excitement once again. People began to wake up and get a spark inside and out.

So began a worldwide trend and people suddenly began to think along the same lines, similar thoughts began to manifest everywhere earth wide. Some wondered how this could be and some just followed the crowd oblivious to any reason behind the trend.

Was this all possible because of reawakening tourism? Unlikely, but it seemed to be working. Both Wipoth and Robith were pleasantly surprised as they watched the scene unfold. Energy flashing, lights bright, they glanced at one another telepathically and simultaneously thought, “As usual, Boss knows what he’s doing.”

This is THE END OF the chapter but not the story