Few events ever touch a person’s soul. A brush with death, a traumatic event, a victory at the Olympics, or even the lost of a child will. Such needles of life send a ripple so profound in a person, no amount of logic or reason can shield from the resulting scars. These forces change a person. What had just happened, a moment which one day (if history would be given a chance to exist) would be called The First Collective Communion changed every human.

People in their homes stayed silent and immobile for several long minutes. The early prelude to the Sixth Attraction was playing like a violin’s strings within the heart and soul of every living being in every dimension. The Multiverse or Sophie had sucked dry the energy out of people and now they were being refilled by the warmth of a young girl. Humanity’s reservoir of emotion had been toyed with, like a cheap pool, emptied overnight. Whatever had just happened, humanity would never be unable to fully understand it.

Babies in their cribs were silent, eyes open at the ceiling above them. Puppies were immobile sitting next to their bowls of water. This was the jolt of energy, which served as a proverbial slap across the face humanity needed. Billions of selfish individuals had awaken to an understanding of universal consciousness. Life, as most understood it, was over. Today, on November 3, 2072, began a new era. Adolescence of mankind was over.

This made the lost of a parent, a failed suicide attempt or even an overdose a stale page in the larger book of their lives. On CNN, both of the anchors had lost their jovial smiles. The naive happiness had been replaced with maturity. Billions had, at once, snapped out of puberty and were entering a scary lonely adulthood on a blue rock called earth. Science was no longer a quirky passion of some, it was the key of survival as a species.

Upon Sophie’s arrival on mars, Marilyn had taken extreme care not challenging the girl. She had insulated the Rho wave anomaly from the normal worry of living and created a pampered nest at her Center. Everyone now knew precisely why. She was now so powerful, seeing chipping birds had sufficed to detonated the girl into a bomb of Rho waves. The waves were sufficient to create a bubble of space-time around her. Already, the young guardian's power was beyond human imagination and they were weeks from her birthday. Sophie had just shown to a species, hers, what it meant to be the Attractor. She was no longer a sweetheart or a human. Sophie was no longer a tool, a savior, or even a destructor.

On the screens, she stood silent next to Laurent, holding her plus toy under her armpit and talking to her silent companion in her head. The simplicity of the physical world around her vanished. Everyone watched Sophie with a new set of eyes. Sophie was in charge of what came next - not Marilyn.

God forbid the girl was truly upset. The word “attraction” was now starting to make sense. Things and events attracted to her. She would be the center.

This had been Sophie's third use of the strange power. The first occurred when Marilyn played music and the computer grabbed the Dot from Liam’s world. The second time Sophie smashed a memory deep inside herself and travelled to the Underworlds. She spoke with the Multiverse itself who gave her guidance. This time, to launch her power, she saw a bird which reminded her lost mother.

Family members looked at each other on a couch unable to talk. In the streets, strangers hugged each other without a word as if it could bring some comfort. Everyone was drained of mental and emotional energy, but somehow that wasn't a bad thing. Today, Marilyn was no longer a goddess, she was just the first artificial intelligence.

But there was, underneath the facts a new reality, emotions mattered. They were the fuel that powered the Multiverse; who could have guessed. Emotions had always been seen as undesirable and to be controlled. The human species had wrestled for centuries trying to understand the mind and instead settled on understanding the body. Today a lot made sense. Love, hatred, despair or even hope drove the purpose of human life in this Multiverse.

In hospitals, nurses entered rooms of dying patients grinning from ear to ear. Death and life finally made more sense. There was satisfaction in learning there was purpose to life. Disease was just a biological road bump. In churches, priests were sitting on benches having to cope with the magnitude of what they had witnessed. They also were oddly satisfied. They had known, deep inside that life was more than the sum of its parts. The teachings and saints were false but the statues overlooking the parishioners felt like guides who forecasted part of this beauty.

There was no god, but that did not matter. There was something else, something bigger and larger.

Sophie and Liam were in agreement, the Multiverse was in pain, it needed help and something was killing it. The mere notion that a young girl, however smart, could bear on her shoulders the weight of healing our world was beyond imagination.

Across the Multiverse the bell of the Sixth Attraction had rung. There was fear everywhere. Unless Sophie was successful, doom was coming.

Then, slowly, everyone was back in front of a screen. It was unclear if viewers had a new role to play in what came next, but no one cared. The game had shifted from an election tool to Marilyn's feeble attempt at managing this insane situation. The Sixth Attraction was here, life would probably end the same way Laurent was at the doorstep of death. Electoral 2072 resumed and the normalcy on the game felt refreshing.

Electoral 2072 - Round 29

-- The Door --

The colorful images flooded the airwaves. Unlike the previous rounds, the billions did not slip on the glasses or the contact lenses to be entertained; everyone felt they might have a role to play in the Sixth Attraction and there was no discussion as to everyone’s need to help. This time Marilyn’s system did not suck in the Rho waves out of the mind of the viewers, instead they were ready to be freely used. Humanity had learned one thing, the mind adapted quickly to this new power.

Round 29 would be mostly educative.

Today was cold and rainy. The white cloud cover was low. Marilyn was standing in the center of a stoned entryway of a famous Church a thousand yards above the North Sea in France. She was wearing a 12th Century Franciscan hooded Monk's robe. It covered her in full except for her red lips. Flags harboring the standing lion of the Duchy of Normandy flew on hundreds of wooden poles surrounding the large courtyard high in the air. The view was majestic. The only anachronistic touch were a handful of Electoral 2072 flags hidden amongst the flapping others.

Today's weather, like most here was cold, damp and windy. Behind the Monk stood the massive cathedral of the Mont St-Michel. The roman doorway was mostly closed with the exception of a small door at the base of this fortified wall. Instead of a wooden door commonly used in the period was a reproduction of the pitch black “Door” reported to be located at the base of the Valles Marieneris. This was where Ronaldo Corvas and his team had entered months ago to lose their lives.

Marilyn stood on the center of the large stone courtyard. The cinematography, as usual, was magical. An falcon circled high in the stormy sky and held the camera viewpoint. Below, in the city were crawling working commoners and pious gents. The North Sea had receded an hour earlier leaving the mud bed, the deadly natural protection around this magnificent mountain spiking out of the bay. In one area, between the Mont and the land, a long winding stone road held the braver horses from sinking as they pulled thick-wheeled carts. The City State was magnificent from all angles.

Once the credits and the opening song were over, the bird flew down and spiraled until it landed on the leather brace of Marilyn's extended arm. In her trademarked dramatic fashion, the camera caught one shaded eye, her lips and she lowered her hood to reveal a face was without make-up and her natural brown color.

"Welcome back to you and my sixteen players." She untied a parchment attached to the falcon's paw and handed the bird the to a waiting page. "That was, to put it mildly, sobering. Hard to return to reality after what we just experienced. I warned everyone, we are not playing for half the marbles. As you now know, I have been trying to avoid strain on Sophie for now obvious reasons. When her powers began to manifest themselves, back in the Airbus, I quickly got her to my Center away from potential situations which might accidentally set her off. As we near November 21, her powers will continue to increase. It has only been a week and weeks still remain to the final. You heard me right, I think she has just begun to connect with the Multiverse. This road will get much bumpier before it evens out. So I am asking everyone here to exercise restraint in overreaching any conclusion. Things are complicated as you can imagine."

"We are moving on our perceptive timeline to the Sixth Attraction. We now have nineteen days left and three rounds of the game. That assumes we no longer jump ahead in time as we just did collectively. Round 29 promised to be amusing. Initially, I had you tag along over the shoulder of Ronaldo Corvas, played by the remaining players past the Door in the nice Cosmos outfits we used in Round 24." She pointed behind her. "The man's body along with his team was vaporized last month. As we have now learned, Ronaldo both discovered the martians on behalf of mankind but somehow also joined them. Thanks to Sophie's gift for reuniting people, Ronaldo was transferred into Georges' mind from his earth host. Turns out their invasion plan included taking over Georges’ mind to blackmail me. The invading force receded and is now planning their next move. After the game, we will try to talk with him directly."

"The players will be playing a man named Gerard, a wonderful cook working as we speak at the Holiday Inn hotel. His vision is exceptional and without my involvement, he would have been the first to discover naturally the Door. The players, in a bit of an action intensive scenario will be discovering these rather disrespectful neighbors of mine. As each of you still slowly return to this difficult reality, some excitement may be what the doctor ordered. So please excuse our disrespect for inertia, velocity or other engineering rules which I plan to trample with great impunity to make this a fun story." She winked and read the small rolled up scroll.

"Before we begin, let me try and offer reassuring guidance as to what lies, in theory, ahead of us. There was excitement in keeping the game unknown and for me to keep the unfolding close to my.... robe. But I see most now have joined a more mature nature of being. From this point on, a degree of certainty should help everyone navigate this complex situation.

“The next round will be played by the qualifying eight remaining players, we will be going back to earth. A virologist named Takeda released a strange virus which actually utilizes the shift in our Universe's bias laws. The virus, which I named the God Virus and its effects will help all of us understand the what comes next: the Great Curvature. We will enjoy uncovering the META plot to destroy earth. Plasma and heliocorium will proverbially rain on them. Once the game ends today, the medias should start talking about strange transformations and effects perceived in some humans. Do not be alarmed by them, on November 7, thanks to Electoral's Round 30, we will understand what bias shifting means. That will be exciting, I promise."

"On November 14, a week later, we leave our solar system and complete our understanding of the strain caused by the Great Curvature, as our four semi-finalists play Sophie and the Oldest in pairs as they travel back to the world of the Oldest to understand what is the Dot, how data moves over the network located in the Underworld. The Oldest will help Sophie broaden her understanding of what he knows of Multiverse. They will help us understand non-linear time, higher dimensions, and yes his theory of consequences to cause. Round 31 will help us understand the concept of multiple worlds, and higher dimensions."

"Finally, the Sixth Attraction will happen on November 21 during or after Round 32. I have named it The Sixth Attraction because frankly nothing else made sense. Unless something very strange happens, Laurent and Emilio have scored enough points to battle it out in the finale. Both men will play. Let's wait until I reveal the content. What I can promise you is that you will enjoy this game and so will Sophie."

“Young girl,” Marilyn looked up and spoke directly at Sophie who watched her from the Center. “Let me reveal your birthday gift. Humans will now understand my initiative of trying to control your power and avoid you destroy our Solar System before the grand finale.”

On the screen was a strange scene. The musicians from the band of LO were floating in a large ship. They were having fun. As the feed switched to their camera, they began waving off the camera view until LO himself floated in view. The cute singer waved. His smile was infectious. Sophie stood up immediately. Electoral cut the feed as quickly as she had opened it. “Let’s not get too excited little girl,” said Marilyn from the church, “A private concert from your favorite singer. He actually will land minutes before the Sixth Attraction. He lands, runs over to the stage and I promised, you will enjoy your birthday.” Sophie sat back down.

People watching knew if the view of two birds was sufficient to send the girl in a loop to pinch time, a live concert from LO himself was sure to create the perfect conditions for something much more powerful. The Sixth Attraction was approaching and there was no holding back.

Marilyn unrolled the small parchment from the bird’s leg and as she turned it around for the viewers, she read, "Emilio." She took a deep breath, she obviously did not want to talk about it. The note was a reminder. "Few people understand probabilities and they are at the heart of how the Multiverse really works. They also explain what is 'Emilio' to our situation. Large numbers confuse our perception of probabilities.” Under her feet the thousands of small stones were highlighted in white.

“If I tell you a key is located behind one of these stones, and ask you to pick it to save your life but you only can guess one," she waved around, "your brain tells you odds are very slim. You see these stones, you see how many there are. But," she opened her hand. In it were five normal six-sided die. “If I instead I tell you the key is yours if you throw these five dice and roll five ones, the odds seem manageable. Fact is, both odds are the same. In this example, the dices hide the odds from sight because five joint events must happen, not a single one."

Normally, most viewers would glaze over the technical explanation but with a newfound interest in science, everyone was trying to understand the demonstration. She pointed at the paper, "Emilio sees the true odds of something hidden by numbers. It's a gift of finding the key. As a computer, I see numbers and numerical odds. In the case of the invasion by the martians, the numbers were clear, my solutions were the most effective, each had around a twelve percent chance of success. Emilio acted upon a scenario less than one percent likely to work. He felt the key was behind that rock.” She point at one below her feet, it lit with an orange color. “Liam calls him a seer. The name suggests faith or time manipulation. Emilio's brain factors in simple emotions, he feels a path must be taken and sees the residual energy of the path. To Emilio, lifting all the stones except for this one, results in deception. Lifting this one results in satisfaction. Since he feels satisfaction, he knows the one to pick. The Multiverse works pretty much the same way, it wants a consequence and orders causes."

The bird looked down and saw something wiggling between the rocks next to the key. The bird flew to the grown and started picking the dirt next to the right stone. Electoral waved her hand and the bird flew away. “Many causes,” she added. In the sky rain fell and at the same place where the bird picked, a plant started growing. Marilyn moved to the rock and as she pulled the plant out, the rock flipped out revealing the key.

She turned around. An old man was walking with a water branch, a y-shaped twig held in both hands. As the man moved over a portion of the large stone pavement, the twig pointed down and began to shake. "We will talk some more about this principle, but let me explain. Electoral is a game based on improbable scenarios. If you play the most probable path, you get 50 points, if you take a risky decision, all of you statistically will fail. Emilio always picks the improbable but right path. The other fourteen finalists were lucky out of sheer probability. Laurent, well, that's a different thing. But enough for today, let's enjoy what comes next.”

“If you recall, days ago a group of hotel workers tested the Glass Slipper. It ran into odd turbulences before coming back to the docking station. This event went mostly unnoticed because of the incidents surrounding Sophie’s arrival and Laurent’s escape to my Center. I admitted, I stimulated the turbulences to avoid humanity finding out about my new neighbors too early. Let’s see what would have happened without my interference. Enjoy.”

The monk put the hood back, slid her hands in the robe and walked slowly to the door behind her. She looked up in the sky behind her as a very distant Glider punched out of the cloud layer falling to where she stood.

She touched the sanded edge of the door as she passed it.

“For once, strangely, we both discover the scenario together as I was also caught in the Pinch and I have no recollection of what lies ahead.”

There was a long commercial pause.