by E J Randolph
I flopped into my chair. “You’re right. This isn’t a matter of my career. This is my life. No, all our lives... and the lives of everyone on this planet.”
He groaned.
“We can wait until the rest of the crew gets back and maybe together we can come up with some ideas.”
“Yeah, sure.”
~ ~ ~
The front hatch opened and we shot to our feet. The guys entered the commons.
John leaned against a bulkhead and folded his arms over his chest. “I hate to be a killjoy, but the aliens have left Bellasport, and we’re supposed to take care of them. I wager they’re coming here.”
Ricardo frowned. “Don't be such a pessimist.”
Nick shook his head. “It’s not possible for them to track us.”
John kicked off from the bulkhead. “We’ve already been over this. Your fun may come to a screeching halt.”
Dan rubbed his chin. “They haven’t come yet, but that may be because as telepaths, they’re more sensitive to flicker fever. The next few days will tell.”
Ricardo squinted his eyes. “Does that mean I have two days to wrap up my affairs?”
John gave him a long look. “I’m sorry, Ricardo.”
“You’re serious, aren't you?”
“Yes.”
No one said anything for several seconds. Ricardo rubbed his neck. “I’d better look up the ritual for ending the dating.”
Dan grabbed a screen and pulled up the roster of rituals. “Divorce? No. Regretfully Have To Leave? No. Respectfully Decline? Getting closer.”
I looked over his shoulder. “Look under the heading Dating.”
He punched in entries. “There’s only Dating, not Dating Ending. Wait, here’s The End of Something Lovely.”
I clapped my hands. “Let’s watch it.”
Dan played the holo. “It looks doable.”
I nodded. “That along with an explanation to the girl's friends ought to do it.”
Dan grimaced. “Great. That still leaves the dirty work to Nick and me. Thanks.”
I shrugged. “I think something needs to be said.”
Nick walked over. “She’s right. Otherwise the girl will be mystified.”
Dan set his screen down. “We’ll have to do it tomorrow evening when we meet at the park.”
John looked at the overhead. “Miss A, set the large screen in here to duplicate the one in the control room.” He ran various scans of the skies. Nothing new had entered the skies above Lotusandra.
We stared at the final screen in silence, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Ricardo slammed a fist on his side table. “What do we do while we wait for the aliens to appear – if they do? Just sit around Miss A?”
I straightened. “We can go to some of the events and places of interest. I intend to listen to another master lecture at the Soul's Journey Institute. Anyone want to come with me? I’ll try to talk to this one as well.”
Dan looked at me. “I’ll come. I’m interested.”
“And there’s the big time history museum.”
John’s head popped up. “If we’re going to get any cooperation from these people and their mental sciences, it’ll because of something in their past. Something we can use. A lever we can pull. If we can’t find one, these lotus eaters will meditate themselves and maybe us into oblivion.”
Ricardo pumped his fist. “That’s my man! Mission First Halloway, dour daredevil of the space ways.”
“And his faithful companion, Tonto Hernandez.”
Ricardo sank down with a sour chuckle.
Nick shrugged. “I’ll stay onboard Miss A. You know me. There have to be machines to get me interested.”
That night I woke in the middle of the night, covered with sweat and screaming. The spindlies dream again! I shivered and lay awake for a long time.
The next morning I woke early and did my usual stumble to the commons for tea and breakfast. Shebang leaned against my leg and gazed at me. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out as if she were too weak from hunger to make a sound.
“Shebang. I’m so sorry. I forgot. I’ll get you something.” I punched up fish and chips and put the greasy plate on the deck.
Shebang shook off her lethargy and ate with gusto, making little growls in case I wanted to take the plate of food away.
I went to my chair, drank my tea, and ate my cinnamon roll. The guys trickled in and ordered their normal, healthy meals, and soon, the smell of eggs, sausage, toast, and orange juice permeated the room.
But there was something extra in the mix of smells. I sniffed the air and scrunched my nose. Nick’s mouth was wide open, and he shoveled a big bite in. I sprang upright. Was that white stuff with bits of green and red in it salad dressing? And was that chunky tan stuff peanut butter? On top of over-easy eggs? My stomach heaved.
We finished eating and John stood. “I suggest an outing to the museum. I have a robotaxi waiting. Anyone want to keep the ol' skipper company?”
Dan, Ricardo, and I trundled down the gangway after John and walked to the waiting robotaxi.
I flashed a glance at the sky. No spindlies. The sun was out, the air was clear, and only a few, thin clouds hovered on the horizon. It was a beautiful day, and we were on a deadly mission with one goal – find out how to combat the aliens.
~ ~ ~
The sign over the door of the museum read From Darkness to Light, A History of a Nation. Maybe some new understanding would allow us to go from darkness to light. I could hope.
Inside the door, large, glassed-in displays housed beautiful vases and jewelry of superb craftsmanship brought from Old Earth. None of them led to any understanding of the people on this planet.
The main part of the building was devoted to a holographic recreation of the life on the generation ship that brought the original settlers. The next show started in five minutes. I tugged on John's sleeve and pointed.
He nodded. “Wait here.” He searched for Dan and Ricardo and returned with them.
The doors opened, and we found seats near the front. The stage lights came on, and the Killbot War on Earth was recreated in vivid detail – the blood, the gore, the mindless killing. After the war, people on Earth pledged peace and cooperation. One of their agreements was to fund a generation ship with settlers from India and China along with Buddhists from Japan and Indochina.
The intended goal of the one hundred twenty-five year trip was peaceful cooperation, but frictions between groups of people soon developed. Violent episodes led to more violent episodes. A low level but quite lethal war erupted lasting for years. The number of deaths on a daily basis was low, but over time the war claimed the lives of one third of the ship's population, and the ways in which the people were killed was in some ways more disturbing than the mindless mass murder committed by the killbots. In reaction to the violence, the Buddhists formed a harmony party and established elaborate rituals as the means for avoiding the tensions that could lead to violence.
The lights came on. John’s face looked like it had been set in stone.
I leaned toward him. “What do you think?”
“I understand the dynamic at work here. If the violence of war is extreme, the result is a general revulsion. It happened before in Old Earth history. After the devastation of the Thirty Year's War, for the next one hundred fifty years, warfare was conducted in a limited, ceremonial way. To paraphrase an old king of that time, it was such that the farmer in his field had no idea there was a war going on.”
Ricardo sat forward. “What about World War I and World War II? Everyone knows how those two world wars eventually led to world government.”
John nodded. “They were so devastating that Europe formed the first pan-national associations that became the blueprint for world government after the Killbot War.”
Ricardo raised his hand. “Wait a minute. Does that dynamic apply here? Is it correct? On this generation ship, people got creative with assassinations. It was not so much
battles as the knife in the back, the garrote in the dark. No large groups of combatants, but individuals killing individuals. Seems quite different to me.”
Dan spread his hands. “But the result was the same. A revulsion against violence. In this instance the avoidance of violence was accomplished not with large organizations, but with individual ritual. Individual violence and death was avoided by individual ritual. Makes sense to me.” He cocked his head. “Has a certain symmetry.”
A thought hit me with the force of a large ocean wave slapping my whole body. “That’s why all those rituals in their society today. Now it makes sense. I thought the rituals were merely the accumulation of years of habit, a time-wasting hassle, a putting on of airs.”
Ricardo laughed. “Me, too. I’m glad to know I wasn’t the only philistine.”
I laid my hands in my lap and looked at them. “Now I know they derive from the need to avoid any frictions that could lead to killing and death.” I frowned. But hadn’t the Lotusandrans taken things to the extreme? Couldn’t the locals have made do with only a few rituals?
People streamed in and sat.
John stood. “Let’s go before the next showing starts.”
I stood. “Sure thing. That was so disturbing I’m not sure I could take a second viewing, at least not right away.”
We caught a robotaxi to Miss A and gathered in the commons for snacks.
I sipped my tea and mulled over the show we’d seen at the museum. “We went to find something we could use as a lever on the Lotusandrans. Does anyone think we found one?”
Dan shook his head. “No, but I understand the people here much better than I did before we went.”
“Yeah, me too. I don’t think they’ll do anything without a ritual, and they have good reasons for this.”
John's voice rang out. “That’s our context, our reality on the ground. Any response they’ll be willing to make will be in the form of a ritual.”
Ricardo rolled his eyes. “How do we come up with something they’ll do?”
John smiled. “Why not let them come up with one. They have centuries on us for that.”
I pursed my lips. “That reminds me. I’m going to see another master at the Soul's Journey Institute tonight. I will ask him to come up with a ritual.”
~ ~ ~
That evening the guys went to Ricardo's short and final date. Later Dan and I set out for the Soul's Journey Institute. We chose pillows near the door so we could get out fast. Tonight’s crowd appeared similar in composition to the night before.
The lights dimmed, and a small man glided in wearing a black robe. He wore an oversized hood over his head, leaving his face in elusive shadow. He climbed onto the speaker's mound. “How many of us are there within?” He spoke in a deep, resonate voice. “And on how many planes of existence? How many frequency levels are inhabited by the community which lives inside each of us? What do we have to teach each other within the community which resides within not our bodies but our souls?”
He had well and truly lost me, and he had just started.
He fell silent, drew his hood back, and scanned the audience with a penetrating, almost frightening gaze. His gaze stopped at me, and I suppressed a shiver.
“It’s easy to learn from those on the higher planes of existence. More joyful. But those who live in our inner depths have much more to teach us if we have the courage and resolve and the dedication to encounter our preachers of the depths and all the fear. Yes, the fear that meeting our lower selves provokes. To meet our lives, we must live through our deaths and all the deaths of all our lives that exist within the living graveyard of the soul.”
This was too weird!
“A peaceful life awaits, but only after the fears within have been met and conquered. That is the lesson of our lower depths.” He fell silent and lowered his head. A few seconds later he pulled his hood over his head and left. The audience let out what sounded like a sigh.
I grabbed Dan’s arm. “Let’s get out now.”
We dashed out the door. Dan lengthened his stride, and I broke into a run. We caught up with the diminutive master in the clear space behind the building. He had his hood up hiding his face and his arms crossed in front of him, his hands inserted into the sleeves of the opposite arms like a munchkin. We approached and he turned toward us.
Dan bowed. “Sir, we’re from the crew of the Federation courier ship, Miss Appropriation. We came from Bellasport where hostile aliens attempted to get human subjects in order to inject them with a parasite that would take over their nervous systems. Sir, the reason we’re talking to you is that the aliens are telepathic. They have lasers with awesome destructive powers, and they can harvest and use human emotions. To combat them, all humans need the wisdom of Lotusandrans.”
The master nodded. “I understand. The circle of masters will have to consider the matter. We will meet tomorrow evening in the Masters Hall. Come and present the problem.” He turned and continued on his way.
I looked at Dan. “You did it.”
“Naw, just laid out the problem. You say the last master didn’t talk to you?”
“That’s right.”
“For all you know he spoke a different language and had no idea what you were saying.”
“That’s kind of you to say. But maybe you’re right. He never spoke so my translator would have used the local language by default to translate my speech. That may have not been right. By the way, where is this Masters Hall?”
Dan scratched his head. “Don't know. Sounded so natural I didn’t think to ask. Hopefully Nick has it somewhere.”
“If not, the robotaxis will know.”
We returned to the street, hailed a robotaxi, and returned to Miss A. Yes, Nick had a Masters Hall on one of his maps.
John, Ricardo, and Nick watched the holo recording we made of the lecture we attended. The second go around, I still got nothing useful out of it.
John nodded at the end. “I like it. This guy understands fear is both destructive and life giving. Unrestrained fear can eat you alive, but fear understood and restrained can prevent carelessness, keep you alert to danger, and once controlled, give an emotional boost to energy.”
I grimaced. “All I know is I don’t enjoy being afraid.”
Ricardo pointed at me. “I’m with you. Yes, a little fear keeps you alert, but I don’t want to freeze up.”
John spread his arms. “That’s what this guy is talking about – defeating fear. Be aware of your fears, learn from them, conquer them.”
I bit my lower lip. “I wonder what kind of ideas he might have to combat the spindlies.”
That night I woke gasping, my heart pounding. The spindlies again. I lay panting. What was this about controlling fear? No way. The spindlies were going to come and get me again. I couldn’t conquer this fear. Two hours later I went through the same heart-pounding experience again. This time I tossed and turned knocking Shebang off my bunk. I couldn’t go back to sleep.
~ ~ ~
Morning arrived and I stopped my futile effort to sleep. A quick glance in the mirror was enough to tell me what I already knew. I had pronounced circles under my eyes. Tea would help.
Shebang paraded in front of me to the commons and marched to the food fabricator, leaving me in no doubt what she expected. I complied and punched up sardines. I put the plate on the deck, got a cup of tea and curled in my chair.
Dan and John walked in.
Dan stopped. “Kate, I hate to say this, but you look terrible. I’d better check you out.”
“It’s nothing. I couldn’t sleep.”
John drew himself up in his I-am-the-captain way. “We need to keep alert and ready to act.”
“I keep dreaming about the spindlies.”
Dan nodded. “Tonight I’ll give you something to help you sleep.”
“I can’t stop the nightmares. I’m scared.”
“Quite understandable.” Dan used his best bedside manner. “Maybe we can talk about it.”
The intercom buzzed. “I have an announcement.” Miss A’s voice was in neutral mode.
John and Dan froze.
I slammed my cup down splashing hot tea on my fingers. My heart pounded. Surely it was so loud everyone could hear it. Miss A made announcements only under preprogrammed conditions. I forced myself to breathe.
“Three ships of the exact configuration as the alien ships at Bellasport popped out of flicker space.”
I clutched my armrests.
“Screen.” John’s voice cracked with tension.
Miss A filled the large common's screen with three alternative views. “They have set up a hundred twenty degree separation.”
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. My heart stopped beating. Everything went white.
“Kate.”
Was that John calling my name? He sounded so far away.
“Kate.” He repeated himself, a little louder this time. “Kate.”
I stirred. “Yes?”
He put his hands on my armrests. “We must tell the ambassador and inform whatever passes for a government here.”
“Huh? I don’t know.” I shook my head. “Wait! The circle of masters. Dan and I are going to talk to them tonight.”
“That may be too late.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say. “I don’t think there’s a local government. And there’s no one stupid enough to go up and find out what they want.”
John straightened. “I wonder how they’ll communicate.”
The intercom buzzed. “I’m receiving a message in machine code.” Miss A remained in neutral mode. “I translate as follows. We want five hundred life units for our experiments, and we want the life unit that got away from us.”
I hyperventilated.
Dan walked over, pulled one of his pocket-sized wands from his upper pocket, and pointed it at me. My breathing slowed, and my heart beat followed soon after.
John turned to me. “You have to talk to the ambassador. It’s possible the embassy staff already knows about the ships.”
My arms wouldn’t move.
“Kate?”
I lifted my right hand and opened my wrist communicator. I commo’d Ms Lee.