When we arrived at their home, they were all happily watching the gladiators fighting on TV, which I learned every family purchased even if it had money for nothing else. They were pathetically proud of their dyed‑brown skin, their brown religion, and their brown language, their brown state, which had the bravest and strongest gladiators in the world‑according to them.
Once again we got the bit about God creating four races and being disappointed, so he created the brown race to show all the others how to live loyal, courageous, and God‑fearing lives. They believed it, and were pathetically happy that they had had the great good fortune to be born as God’s chosen people.
Instead of being scornful of Carol, this family were genuinely sorry for her great misfortune at having been born into the Macro society. They honestly pitied this beautiful and healthy young girl.
When I asked them if they weren’t unhappy with their poverty, the father said, “We pity the rich, for they no longer have the glorious hope of obtaining riches. We have the exciting incentive of gaining wealth, and soon when our sons enter the games the money will begin rolling in. You see, we have every reason to be happy with our lives.”
Carol and I left on that note feeling again depressed but no longer surprised that Elgon would want us to visit as many people as possible. It was becoming obvious that he was showing off the results of the most successful propaganda machine ever created.
Later as we were flying to the Black State I asked Elgon if he had any idea what the average life‑span was on Micro Island.
“Yes,” he replied. “Men live on the average of about 53 years and women about 52. Of course, you think that’s terrible, but, again, let me remind you, Jon Ten, that it is not how long you live, or how much comfort and security you have that really counts. No, in the long run, it’s how much pride you can take in your life and how much excitement you’ve had along the way.”
“I don’t deny,” I said, “that you’ve been successful at persuading your people into believing what you are saying. My wonder is that even a hundred a year leave your island.”
“Those are the older ones,” Elgon explained, “who haven’t had the advantages of all the improvements that Sela Nine, I, and our thousand controllers have instituted in the past 30 years. I spent the first 40 years here just getting things organized, but now our micro society is more exciting and interesting for everyone.”
“You mean it’s taken you 70 years to set up an almost perfect propaganda machine that persuades everyone to think as you want them to think,” I observed.
Elgon merely smiled his imperious smile and suggested that I visit with more of his people. This we did, but the next two families, one black and one white, gave us the same old story. They were proud of their skin color, their religion, their language, their family, and their glorious state. Naturally they were happy to be God’s chosen people and they were out to produce as many of their race as possible. The black family had 18 children, while the white family, due to multiple births, was the recordholder with 53 children.
The incredibly prolific white mother mentioned the growing problem with outlaws who refused to accept the wisdom of Elgon Ten and entertained the blasphemous ideas of the Macro society. She said it was the other states that had the biggest problem with this (naturally).
I began to suspect that Elgon had landed us close to “safe” communities in which he knew the inhabitants were brainwashed. I was happy to hear that people who were seeking out the ideas of the Macro society were a big problem.
I did, however, learn some interesting things from the black family. Since the father was a lawyer he explained that next to being a gladiator, being a lawyer was the most prestigious and best‑paying job on Micro Island. This, he said, was because of the masses of conflicting laws. He admitted that there were so many laws covering so many life areas that everyone broke at least two or three laws every day. Of course, if one had a clever lawyer there was no problem. However, since each state had different laws, it was extremely dangerous to travel in another state. Lawyers couldn’t practice in any other state, and you were sure to break some of the other state’s laws. Then your different skin color would put you at a tremendous disadvantage.
I was fascinated to hear this lawyer defend their legal system in which the rich could hire lawyers to give them virtual immunity from the law, while the poor were constantly suffering from lack of legal representation. As he spoke I realized that their legal system was not much different from that of 1976, where the poor were a hundred times more likely to go to jail than the rich and were the only ones ever to suffer from capital punishment.
He explained that since the rich were obviously more valuable to the state than the poor, it was only natural that they would be able to buy greater justice. However, he carefully pointed out that the law had no favorites-it was strictly a matter of hiring a good attorney and, thus, staying in good with the government. I realized that the micro government of 2150 would applaud the actions of my government back in 1976 which fought inflation by creating‑ unemployment among the poor and allowed a third of its people to live in poverty while it spent billions to support corrupt governments thousands of miles from its shores. But, then, like attracts like, and corrupt governments have always tended to support other corrupt governments.
After having visited all five states, Elgon said we were ready to visit the capital city in the center of the island where all the states came together. During our flight there I asked Elgon about the island’s school system. He replied that for almost 90 percent of the children formal education started at five and ended at twelve. Full‑time work in the fields, factories, and stores began at this age along with the universal obligation to marry and start having children. It was possible to continue formal education in the gladiatorial, law, or medical schools if sufficient tests were passed. Since these schools were open at night, young people who passed the tests could work during the day and study at night. The wealthy had no problems, for they could hire teachers to guarantee successful passing of all the tests except those of the gladiators.
When I asked about the state and local governments I discovered that only lawyers could hold government positions‑sometimes as many as four or five of them at a time. As for Elgon’s national island government, all 10,000 positions were appointed by Elgon or Sela and the most important of these‑over 1,000‑positions were filled with ex‑members of the Macro society. I commented on this, saying, “You obviously value the Macro society environment in that it produced your best and most trusted leaders. Doesn’t this contradict what you are saying about Micro Island? After all, if life was so good here it ought to produce your best leaders.”
Elgon laughed at this and said, “As long as the Macro society develops individuals with Macro powers who later‑‑get so bored and fed up with life there that they want to join me here, then I won’t have to worry about setting up tutoring systems here to develop those powers.”
“But obviously you don’t get people with highly developed Macro powers or you wouldn’t consider me at the tenth level when I am really only at the second level,” I observed.
Elgon merely changed the subject by pointing ahead to his capital city of Elgonia.
“Take a look at it,” he said, “and realize it’s the only large city in the world, because the Macro society refuses to allow its members the joys of city living.”
I looked down and saw a very small city compared with 1976 standards, for it had only 30,000 inhabitants, and a quarter of these worked for Elgon’s government. Over 100,000 people worked in Elgonia, but since the presidential territory, of approximately ten miles in diameter, was stateless, most workers preferred to live in their states and commute. There were many government buildings in the center of the city surrounding the magnificent presidential palace that looked somewhat like the Taj Mahal of India.
Elgon Ten was obviously very proud of his capital city and talked at some length on the
importance of his strong central government. He rattled off a long list of governmental agencies such as an agency of agriculture, commerce, labor, games, law, education, and intelligence, to name a few. I was particularly interested in the fact that Elgon had nine different intelligence agencies for gathering information about his people. When I questioned him about their functions, however, he replied that intelligence agencies functioned best when their operations were completely secret and, therefore, he couldn’t talk about them, even to me. Then he surprised me by saying, “However, Jon Ten, as soon as you join our government I’ll make you a Vice President and tell you all about our intelligence operations.”
“Thank you, Elgon Ten,” I said, declining his invitation, “but I plan to remain in the Macro society.”
He laughed a big booming laugh and said, ‘You still think that someone who grew up in the micro society of the 20th century can live happily in the Macro society. Believe me, Jon Ten, if I who spent my first 50 years in the Macro society couldn’t stand it, you won’t be able to, either!”
“It was your pride and desire for personal power that made you dislike the Macro society,” Carol said to Elgon. “Jon doesn’t want personal power, so your offer of high position in your government doesn’t interest him.”
Elgon’s face tightened its granite hardness, and I became aware of a heightened redness in his aura. However, he replied calmly that Carol was too young to understand the delights of micro existence.
Our transair landed in the beautiful courtyard of the presidential palace, where Elgon insisted on giving us a personally guided tour of his glittering domain.
As we walked through his gardens my enjoyment of their beauty was marred by my memory of the faces of the dozens of poorly fed children we had seen during the day. Finally I interrupted Elgon to ask how the people managed to produce such huge families. He explained that people could buy fertility pills that would insure multiple births. Large families were not only a source of great pride and a religious and state duty, but also an economic advantage, since children of twelve or over could earn money by becoming gladiators or prostitutes.
An hour later I had seen enough of the lavishly appointed rooms, hallways, and courtyards filled with rare and precious possessions that Elgon and Sela doted on. Elgon recognized my growing restlessness and escorted us to a sumptuous suite of rooms which he said I could occupy as long as I wished. Then he and Sela left us alone with a reminder that they would see us at dinner:
Once we were alone I threw myself onto the giant canopied bed and said, “I’m tired of Micro Island already, and I’m especially tired of Elgon Ten and Sela Nine. Let’s take a quick nap so I can get through the evening.”
Carol didn’t reply immediately and I saw that she was standing pensively chewing on her lower lip. For the first time I saw the sparkling pink in her aura give way to the red of anxiety. I reached out to establish mind contact and discovered her mental struggle with some sort of doubt that she kept trying to hide from me.
“Please, Carol,” I pleaded, “tell me what’s bothering you. I’ve never known you to try to hide your thoughts from me.”
She shook her head slowly and finally, with a sigh of resignation, said, “It’s going to start sooner than Rana thought.” Then she looked away from me.
“Ok, Carol, don’t keep me in suspense,” I implored. “What’s going to happen sooner than Rana thought?”
“I’m not sure,” she answered, taking my hand. “Rana thought they would wait two or three days before putting heavy pressure on you. But I have a strong premonition that something. unpleasant is going to happen very soon.”
I knew that Carol’s precognitive power was much more sensitive than mine, so I said, “Are you sure you don’t have any idea what this unpleasantness is going to be?”
Carol looked at me for a long moment, then with a soft cry she buried her face in my shoulder. A moment later we were devouring each other with kisses. Soon our desire for greater oneness was more than we could resist and slipping out of our tunics we began the joyous love play that only two closely attuned souls can ever know. Suddenly with clairaudient awareness I could hear the beat of our soul notes mounting in intensity as our bodies and minds sought ever closer oneness till we attained the ecstasy of Macro immersion.
Later as we swam lazily about in the mammoth sunken pool of our bathroom I remembered that Carol had never answered my last question about her premonition. I decided that if she didn’t want to tell me I wouldn’t press her. Immediately upon making this decision I received her telepathic note of thanks.
Back in our bedroom we discovered that our aura reflecting tunics had been replaced by a beautiful golden tunic covered with flashing jewels for Carol and a gleaming white fabric one for me.
Carol seemed to have recovered her usual sunny disposition and, having quickly donned her new tunic, was complaining about its extraordinary weight when five male servants, representing each of the five races of the micro states, came to escort us to dinner.
The dining room in Elgon’s palace was large enough to easily accommodate two standard‑sized football fields placed side by side, and it was almost completely filled with men and women in stunningly handsome uniforms and beautifully lavish gowns.
We were escorted to a raised platform at one end of this room where Elgon and Sela were sitting at a small table facing the other much longer tables in this vast dining room. It had been filled with the sounds of many voices when we entered, but was now becoming quiet.
By the time Elgon and Sela had seated Carol and me between them the great room was gripped in funeral‑like silence and somehow my mind felt like it was in a giant vise that was slowly, inexorably being squeezed tighter and tighter. I became aware of Elgon making a speech of welcome in my honor, but my head felt like bands of steel were crushing it. I realized dimly that Carol, too, was suffering this mind pressure. The rest of the evening was a blur of interminable dishes of strange foods being served along with different beverages; most of which I rarely sampled. I was aware of Elgon and Sela talking to me and that I obviously gave appropriate responses, for they seemed very pleased, but I have no memory of what anyone said. The last thing I remember of that evening was following our five servant escorts back to our room, where Carol and I immediately lay down on the bed without even removing our clothes.
I found myself back in 1976 groping for the night light, which revealed that it was three o’clock in the morning. I was not able to banish the dark fear in my mind. Why was I so frightened, I wondered. Nothing had happened to either Carol or me which could account for my strange feeling of anxiety and dread.
I shook my head in an attempt to clear it and remembered the feeling of great pressure on my head during the dinner with Elgon. I wondered what had caused that excruciating sensation that had effectively blotted out most of my awareness during the dinner. As I pondered this question I felt the answer beginning to rise to consciousness from some great depth in my mind. I waited until a picture of the dining room began to form in my mind. This picture was filled with hundreds of faces which were empty except for a single eye brightly staring at me from many foreheads. It was the symbol of the telepathic mind net which Elgon had focused on me again.
But why did I still feel a crushing sense of anxiety and fear? Then I felt almost overwhelmed by a driving need to return to 2150 and discover if Carol was all right. Of course, the harder I tried to put myself asleep the more wide awake I became, until I realized that I must calm myself by balancing my mind with acceptance of what is as perfect. Failing that, I attempted Macro contact recall. A few minutes later, having succeeded in this attempt, I slipped gently into sleep and awakened back in 2150 to find myself lying alone, still dressed, in the great canopied bed.
I was on my feet instantly, running through the five huge rooms of our suite calling Carol’s name, but there was no answer. I decided to find Elgon and demand an explanation. As I plunged into the hallway I came face to fa
ce with at least 30 ex‑members of the Macro society who were easily recognizable by their great size. I asked them to tell me where I could find Elgon Ten but they made no reply‑only stared intently into my eyes. Then again I felt the great vise exert almost blinding pressure on my skull. I quickly staggered back into my room, desperately closing the door between me and those penetrating eyes.
The pressure on my mind was still increasing, and I found it difficult to maintain consciousness. I staggered back to the bed, falling full length upon it. Suddenly I realized that my mind had become disconnected from my body and realized what it must be like to suffer total paralysis. I became aware of others in the room and that I was being undressed. Then I felt myself being carried into the bathroom and hurled into the deep end of the huge sunken pool. I sank quickly below the surface and began to see how long I could hold my breath while at the same time struggling to overcome my strange paralysis. I’m not sure how long I continued this futile struggle, but eventually I began to realize that I would have to use my PK powers to float my body to the surface with my face above the water. Once I began concentrating on this effort I discovered that my paralysis was quickly leaving me. My head broke the surface of the water.
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