Seven Sides of Self

by Nancy Joie Wilkie

  “I look forward to it,” responded Jarka. “Until then?” Jarka waited for an instant to see whether either of the Directors had any additional remarks. Sensing their business concluded, he bowed slightly again and turned to find his way back to the lightship.

  The next morning an escort met Jarka on the tarmac and transported him to a rather spacious room at the Institute. It would serve as Jarka’s home away from home. He would conduct all of his interviews there. Many large tables filled the room. Jarka selected one of them for his desk. No sooner did Jarka unpack his portable computer interface and a recording device from a lightweight metallic briefcase than his first interviewee arrived, escorted by one of Matan’s many subordinates.

  “Good morning. My name is Jarka Moosha of Planet Earth. I will be asking you some questions and you simply respond by speaking into the electro-phone,” he said, pointing in the direction of the small metallic cylinder at the end of a flex arm.

  “Could you please state your name?”

  “Sarillion.”

  “Okay. Thank you, Sarillion. You know, I am very curious about the fact that everyone in your society is evidently identical—except, of course, for the difference in Color. I wonder if you could tell me a little bit about how this originated.”

  “Certainly. Several thousand cycles ago, we did not have the Colors. We were a people divided by our many differences. These differences caused us to harbor great jealousy of one another. Our jealousy gave birth to anger, and our anger caused us to wage war and kill one another. After a thousand cycles of killing, there were few of our people left.

  “It was then that a very brave Aurillian priest went to our world’s most sacred temple. He fasted and prayed for twenty-seven rotations. On the night of the twenty-seventh rotation, two faces appeared in the midst of the burning incense.

  “‘We are the Supreme Sree,’ said the faces in unison. ‘We hear your summons.’

  “The young priest was a bit confused. You see, up until that time in our history, our Deity was thought to be a single entity. For there to be two faces was quite a shock.

  “The priest then verbalized his prayers. ‘Your Holinesses, our people have fought and killed one another almost to the point of extinction. I come seeking a better way of life for us. I ask that you remove all of our differences and, therefore, our incentive to fight and to kill.’

  “‘We hear your prayer and will grant your request. Listen closely, for you must bear our message to your people,’ said the Sree.

  “The rest of the night was spent with the Supreme Deities dictating to the priest all he must do. The priest faithfully wrote down everything, stopping the Sree only to question points unclear to him.

  “As the first rays of morning light entered the Sacred Place, the mists faded along with the faces of the Supreme Sree. The priest returned to his people and began to explain to them everything they must do.

  “The priest first taught the people about the eglanti, the shapes you see on our foreheads today. He instructed them how to make the icons by adding certain extracts from Aurillian flowers and plants to various minerals in just the right proportions to produce the powerful talismans of change. You see, each eglanti removes all desire to be different once it touches the forehead of a newborn Aurillian. He also made certain they understood they were always to make an equal number of green and gold eglanti, as half of the people would wear the Green Triangle and half would wear the Gold Circle.

  “The priest then introduced the tholcon to the people—the gown you see us wear—and explained that half of them would dress in Green and half would dress in Gold, to match their eglanti. These differences in garments and Colors would serve as a reminder of our shameful past, full of war and hatred, and of how the Supreme Sree brought peace to our planet.

  “Next, he explained the concept of the sree and how individuals would pair off—one Of The Green with one Of The Gold. This joining of One Color with the Other Color would prevent this last remaining difference in our world from being a spark for more war and killing. The Supreme Deities—through the introduction of the eglanti, the tholcon, and the sree—removed all anger from our planet. The priest emphasized repeatedly the need to honor the sanctity of the eglanti, the tholcon, and the sree—and how any deviation from these practices would bring swift and certain death.

  “Lastly, the priest made all the people understand that in doing these things, they would be following the example of their Supreme Power. It was then he revealed to them the true nature of their Deity—that they, too, wore the Green and the Gold.

  “The people were so tired of killing and war that they accepted everything the priest taught them. Our entire society transformed, our people multiplied, and our world rebuilt.”

  “And your world has lasted as such since then?” inquired Jarka.

  “Yes.”

  “The sanctity of the eglanti, the tholcon, and the sree has been maintained?”

  “To the best of my knowledge,” replied Sarillion.

  “Thank you for that,” said Jarka. He flipped through his notepad, searching for the next set of questions.

  Later that same day, Jarka spoke with Larinda, a prominent scientist. Jarka asked questions ranging from the level of technological advances and its effect on society to the moral and ethical dilemmas created by such breakthroughs—not the least of which being contact with Earth. Jarka wound up the second session discussing rank and privilege on Aurillia.

  “Do all individuals in Aurillian society have the same rights and privileges, regardless of Color?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do all have equal access to education?”

  “Yes.”

  Jarka wanted something more than the short polite responses given by Larinda. Politeness and properness are all well and good, he thought, but they don’t fill blank pages of academic journals. He switched tactics and began asking open-ended questions. Jarka made a mental note to enroll in a class on interview techniques when he returned to Earth.

  “Why?” Jarka looked at his interviewee with a very satisfied grin. He let several moments of silence pass.

  “If there were some advantage to being Of One Color or another, then our society would fall apart. There must be equal numbers of the Colors to assure the survival of both Of The Colors.”

  Okay, Jarka said to himself. If it worked once, maybe it will work again.

  “Why?”

  “A very delicate balance is maintained between the Colors. It is absolutely essential for our society. The designation of one’s Color has been left to our Higher Powers, not those raising our young.”

  The following afternoon, Jarka interviewed Valirra—an administrative assistant in a government records office. The session began with routine questions about government but soon turned to other areas of interest.

  “Valirra? What sort of name might that be?” Jarka had not been able to discern any clue within the Aurillian pool of names he could use as a tool in guessing whether a particular name belonged to someone Of The Green or someone Of The Gold. On Earth, most languages assigned certain types of words as being masculine or feminine. Earth names were likewise predisposed to one gender or the other, allowing one to guess with a high degree of certainty that a name belonged to a man or a woman.

  “From the name alone I can’t be certain whether one would be Of The Green or Of The Gold,” he continued. “Perhaps you might explain to me if there is any connection.”

  “There is no connection,” observed Valirra. “Although, I am sometimes taken to be Of The Gold by those who have never met me.”

  “Why would they think that?” said Jarka, pondering how these strange folks could derive any association between “Color” and name.

  “Judging from my name, they are justified. I’m told Valirra is a popular name for individuals Of The Gold in outlying provinces.”

  “I’ve not encountered the name in my reading. Not that I’m any great expert on Aurillian names.”


  “That’s because you have not traveled much on Aurillia.”

  “So there is no relationship between your name and your Color?”

  “Precisely.”

  “How do you choose a name for a young Aurillian?” inquired Jarka.

  Valirra began to recite the lengthy process for choosing a name, quoting verses from some ancient Aurillian text. Jarka could not have been happier as he scribbled furiously on his notepad and fed more blank cartridges into the tape machine.

  After a short break, Dedra entered the room shyly, almost on tiptoe, wearing a soft velvety green tholcon, uniquely decorated by a subtle pattern of fine dark emerald webbing. The tholcon was not entirely unattractive, but it was certainly efficient at covering up any noticeable physical differences between the Colors. Dedra’s belt was wider than Valirra’s and was a slightly different shade of green. Aurillians did manage to decorate themselves even within their rather minimal fashion parameters. Jarka hoped he could learn more about the tholcon as Dedra was the owner of a small shop in the city—reportedly makers of the finest garments on all of Aurillia.

  “Are there any differences in the clothes worn by those Of The Green and those Of The Gold?” began Jarka.

  “The tholcons worn by all of those Of The Gold are nearly identical with the tholcons worn by all of those Of The Green—except the Color, of course. There are slight variations depending on region and personal tastes. But they are subtle and may not be noticeable to the untrained eye.” Dedra seemed to point to certain parts of the tholcon. Jarka looked at the tholcon from across the table without being blatant about it and could see hints of shapes in the weave.

  “And what about underneath the tholcon? What do you wear under your tholcons?” continued Jarka.

  “We wear additional garments underneath our tholcons,” answered Dedra.

  “Are these undergarments colored? Do they match the Color of the outer garment?”

  “Yes.”

  Jarka decided to push his luck with one more question about this potentially embarrassing subject matter. “Are there any differences between the undergarments of one Color and the other?”

  Dedra’s face took on what Jarka believed to be a puzzled look. Dedra responded slowly by simply stating, “No.”

  Jarka looked forward to his time with Mallara. Mallara performed a function Jarka understood to be roughly equivalent to that of a nurse. When he met Mallara, he somehow expected Mallara to be wearing a white uniform with a red cross prominently displayed somewhere on the front left pocket. But this being Aurillia, Mallara’s golden tholcon was all there was.

  “Is a sree always made up of one individual Of The Green and one individual Of The Gold?”

  “Yes.”

  “And never two individuals Of The Green or two individuals Of The Gold,” Jarka continued.

  “No. Such things simply do not occur,” stated Mallara with an almost anxious look.

  While Jarka was curious about the mating rituals of Aurillia, he was even more eager to know how the Aurillians reproduced. Since he had not been directed by any official to stay away from certain subjects, he thought it would be safe to inquire about this topic.

  “How do the people of Aurillia reproduce?” Jarka asked Mallara. “Do individuals who are Of The Green interact in some manner or another with individuals Of The Gold to produce an offspring?”

  “Yes,” answered Mallara. “One member of the sree serves as One Who Carries and the other member of the sree serves as One Who Does Not Carry. The One Who Does Not Carry transfers genetic material to the One Who Carries and the gestation period begins.”

  Jarka scratched his head for a minute. So there is another differentiation in their society? Those Who Carry and Those Who Do Not Carry, he thought. He went back to questioning Mallara.

  “Tell me, is there any relationship between individuals Of The Gold and Those Who Carry or Those Who Do Not Carry?”

  “No. An individual of either Color can serve as One Who Carries.” Mallara returned to silently staring at some point on the other side of the room.

  Jarka was again thwarted in his quest to find some basis for the differentiation between the Colors. If Aurillians Who Carry equated to Earth females and Aurillians Who Do Not Carry equated to Earth males, then a model making some sense might be constructed. Likewise, if Aurillians who were Of The Green equated to Earth males and Aurillians who were Of The Gold equated to Earth females, that, too, might make sense. But so far, Jarka could not come to any such conclusion.

  He decided to take another approach. Since he assumed all Aurillians appeared the same without their tholcons on, how would new parents know whether their “newborn,” if that was the correct term, would be Of The Green or Of The Gold?

  “After a new Aurillian is born, how do you know which Color is appropriate?”

  “Ahhhh—that is one of our most sacred mysteries.”

  Jarka allowed a very long pregnant pause, hoping Mallara’s response would continue, but it did not.

  “Please describe the process, if you don’t mind, and we need not concern ourselves with the mystery part,” rephrased Jarka, “if you don’t want to, that is.”

  “Both Colors of eglanti are placed on the forehead of the newborn—first one Color, then the other. Each Color of eglanti is left on the forehead for one rotation. Once removed, the correct Color will leave an outline of its shape. That is how one’s Color is determined. Why one Color instead of another, no one knows.”

  “Fascinating,” reflected Jarka. “Completely random.”

  Jarka welcomed his first day in a week with no interviews or appointments scheduled. After spending several hours going through books and files kindly provided to him by the Sree Airia, he decided to go outside and get some “fresh” air, if one could consider the alien air with its perfume-like scents, fresh. More than the chance to get out into the open and exercise his legs, he wanted the opportunity to mingle with the native Aurillians and observe them in their own environment.

  Once outside, Jarka looked up at the sky. The clouds seemed to wear a slight pinkish tint—their shade not any more colored than clouds involved in an extraordinary sunset on Earth. But the open sky was not nearly as blue as one would see on the clearest of days back home. Light pink on light blue. It struck Jarka that the Universe might be playing some sort of ironic joke on him as he struggled to understand how the Aurillians segregated themselves in the fashion they did and the basis for it.

  He headed down the street to his left and began to inspect the skyline. Whereas on Earth, all of the buildings in older cities had a square or rectangular cross section with a flat roof, the structures here were mostly cylindrical with a hemispherical top. What truly stood out, however, were the spires decorating the buildings, reaching skyward until their pointed tops pricked the washed-out crimson clouds.

  As Jarka wandered through what roughly equated to the downtown section of the city, he noticed an open area he assumed to be a park—the area covered with a short purple ground covering, something resembling grass back on Earth. In the center of the park, a fountain shot water straight up for several meters, forming sphere-like globules, each seeming to float in midair for a moment before dropping back into the pond. The plants consisted of sculpted shrubs and willow-shaped trees, all decorated with varying shades of characteristic purple. Along the paths and around the fountain bloomed femerod, the native flowers of every pastel shade imaginable. He also noticed the drone of some very bizarre-looking insects—none of whom, fortunately, were interested in bothering anyone from Earth.

  Jarka felt pleased with himself for having found this small patch of familiarity in the midst of an increasingly alien world with all of its differences in colors, shapes, and sizes of the flora and fauna. As he leisurely strolled through the park, following the meandering paved walkways, he saw several other Aurillians taking advantage of the nice weather. He found a large round stone facing the fountain with a slight depression in its center, as though
it were made to fit the backside of an Aurillian body. Jarka decided to sit for a few minutes and observe the passersby and clear his thoughts. One individual Of The Gold walked past, looked at him briefly with a stare not characteristic of those with whom he had spoken, then sat down in another stone chair facing Jarka. The Aurillian opened up a book and started to read.

  Jarka returned to scanning the park and the adjoining street—and the Aurillian who sat on the opposite side of the fountain. After several minutes, Jarka couldn’t help but notice the Aurillian looked up at him again, this time more curiously. Jarka wasn’t certain if it was his own alien appearance attracting attention or something else. This individual’s manners seemed out of context compared to the overt politeness of the introverted interviewees selected for Jarka to question.

  Jarka watched the Aurillian as non-saliently as possible. The alien seemed to be involved in some sort of internal debate. He observed the unique oscillations between a long narrow face and a broad flat face. Jarka thought the elastic nature of Aurillian physiology to be one of the most fascinating features of the species. After several minutes, it looked as though this Aurillian wanted to speak, then seemed to think better of it, then seemed to want to speak again. Jarka waited patiently for the resolution.

  Not surprisingly, this particular Aurillian appeared the same as all of the other Aurillians—all features not covered by the tholcon completely without any distinguishing characteristics. But one way or another, Jarka became convinced there was something very different about this individual. It was the look of fear, he finally decided. This Aurillian definitely looked nervous and seemed afraid. What the source of the fear was, Jarka didn’t have a clue.