by G. L. Argain
“God, it really sounds like a tongue-twister.”
Juvir gave him a look as though he had said something strange. Was it because “tongue-twister” was just an humanly expression? Or….
“Um, well….Yhn, I mean….oh, it’s the same person! Give me a break!”
“Did you know about Yhn from the Selentors?”
Andrew gave him a couple seconds of silence before answering. He realized that neither one of them had mentioned anything about God or Yhn just yet.
“Yeah….they told me that their enemies, and I would assume they meant you guys—no offense—believed in an all-powerful thing known as ‘Yhn.’ Us humans on Earth feel the same way, only we call him ‘God.’”
“So Earthlings do believe in Yhn, just like so many others do. Do you believe that Yhn exists?”
Andrew had always said that he was an atheist, but that wasn’t entirely true during the past couple of years. “Well, I don’t really know for sure, but I just have the feeling that he deals with our deaths. You know, if you die, then your soul—your spirit—is released into the afterlife, and God determines where we go. We stay in a place of pure bliss known as heaven if we’re good, and if we’re bad, then we go to a place of pure misery known as hell. There could be something more to that, but I just don’t think there’s any way of knowing for sure until we die.”
This time, Juvir stayed silent for a few moments before responding. “That sounds roughly the same, although the heaven and hell part sounds rather new to me. The most popular beliefs say that once we die, our souls may either be recycled into a parallel universe, are sent into the void between universes, or stick to a place within the universe while, in an unknown way, connecting to the void. That void is known as the ‘Impossible Realm,’ where absolutely anything can happen regardless of reason. Could you say more about the heaven and hell that you were talking about?”
“Umm….well, heaven is thought to be above Earth, and hell is known to be below Earth. God and his son Jesus Christ watch over heaven and the Earth, while Satan controls the people in hell. God and Jesus look just like humans in white robes, while Satan looks like a red, upright demon with horns on his head.” Andrew had paused for a moment, trying to figure out all that he could say. “This is all according to one major religion, by the way. There’s plenty of other religions that exist on Earth.”
Juvir nodded his head. “Go on.”
“God had created the universe and everything in it. Humans started out as two children of God, named Adam and Eve. They gave birth to….I think seven children, and they mated with each other and so on down the road, thus forming the human race.”
“Do most humans believe that?”
“Well, not as much anymore, but plenty of people still do.”
Juvir rubbed his forehead using his thumb and the side of his index finger. “There’s plenty of scientific proof that refutes a lot of that.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m not saying I thought humans started out that way, or even that Jesus was the Son of God. But if I heard that God created the start of the universe, and that the universe took care of itself from there, then I would go along with that.”
“There’s nothing wrong with what you believe, just as long as it doesn’t contradict with proven facts. At that point, people will think you’re stupid.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that even though your species has proven evolution as a fact—I would presume they have,” said Juvir. Andrew nodded his head. Juvir continued, “There are some that still cling on to their religion like it is fact.”
If some human other than Andrew came in contact with these aliens, and this same conversation was happening, chances are good that the person would think otherwise—perhaps even react violently.
“Let me put it this way—there are an infinite amount of things to know about the universe and everything in it. Since that amount is infinite, there will always be something about the universe that we can’t prove with science, some kind of evidential gap. Religion fills in that gap by providing theories that make sense, but don’t have concrete evidence. Religion should always be revised whenever new evidence comes up, since there could either be a gap again, or religion ends up overlapping fact and needs to be reduced.
“The main religion for many planets nowadays says that Yhn, the body-less, shapeless creator of this universe and possibly any other universes, does not control our lives as we live. Only before and after life, only when we are in the Impossible Realm, does Yhn connect with us. All of this is pure theory—there is no way to prove it scientifically. However, it makes sense when it is placed among the scientific facts that we already have. That is acceptable religion.”
Andrew didn’t want to hear anymore of this. Yet, at the same time, he enjoyed listening to it. He, who had been so unsure of what to believe all this time, found something that fully made sense. It was broad, but it fit so well with what Andrew already knew while explaining what he didn’t know for sure. He just wanted to stop listening because he felt that one should only take so much religious discussion in one day.
“Well, that was….” Andrew said, “a lot to think about. I think I’ve had enough for one day.”
“Enough of what?”
“Enough of all this—aliens, technology, genes, and now ideas about life and religion and what not. I think I should just….go sleep.” It had been less than three hours since Andrew had woken up to the sight of this place, but it was all so intense for his mind and body. A nap would do some good.
“You slept a lot when you first came here, and now you want to sleep some more? How much—”
“Please, just….no more. Let me sleep.”
And so, Andrew fell asleep on the operating table.
“Should we tell him when he wakes up? Or should we just do it now?”
“Patience, Zepentiro. We don’t even know if it’s the best choice. We will wait until he wakes up; he will decide for himself.”
While Andrew slept, Juvir and Zepentiro, another member of the AOIB, stood talking in the hallway.
“What if what he chooses is dangerous enough to kill him?”
“Then that’s his choice.”
Chapter 12
The planet Ku-an Doel is ninety-percent inhabited by trillions of diverse intelligent life forms. They have learned to live without naturally-generated air or food, and all the water they need is recycled. Artificial, tree-like towers placed once every mile convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. Most food is stored in the form of food pills that expand in the presence of stomach fluids. Any organic food contains artificial preservatives and ingredients; it is considered a luxury for even the wealthiest of people. Cities are constructed both on land and on water, but nothing in the sky; cities built in the air pose too many hazards, even with the advanced technology to keep them up. The only thing natural that the people choose to keep is sunlight, which is needed in the ten percent of the planet that is left unhindered.
Of the ten percent of uninhabited area, 97.5% of it is ocean—a large volcano, given the name “Erlenkeymll,” occupies the 2.5%. According to the natives of the planet, this name means “Tower of the World.” This volcanic land has been made the only wildlife preserve on the planet. The volcano is nearly the size of Olympus Mons from Mars, being twelve miles high and hundreds of miles in diameter. Wildlife can only be seen on the lower third portion of it, since the atmosphere above does not contain sufficient conditions to support natural life. The slope is so smooth and minor that the actual horizon from the planet’s curvature cannot be seen from the summit. The only way to reach the summit quickly is by spacecraft; an advanced tank with its own oxygen supply could get up there, but it would literally take three days to do so. Either way, people would need to wear spacesuits at the top.
Small lava flows occur every year from the side of the volcano and start fires; however, the cap of the volcano itself has not erupted in thousands of years. There are many species o
f trees, plants and animals that live on the volcano—all of them are recorded in the AOIB database. None of the animals are technically intelligent, and if there were any, they wouldn’t have the thumbs to put their intelligence to recognizable use. All of the animals are at least smart enough to find a place that wouldn’t have lava flows nearby to set them on fire.
Every few thousand years, when the top of the volcano erupts and the whole island becomes covered in lava, several people go out to rescue all of the animals that they can and bring them back to their zoos. Once the lava has cooled and the vegetation grows up to a sustainable point, which may take decades, the animals are taken back to their homeland.
The scientists involved take some seeds along with the animals and plant as much as they can after the land has cooled. This makes the volcanic region somewhat artificial, in a way, since people, not nature, have placed some of the animals and plants there.
The only people that are allowed to permanently reside on the island are Anzem and Shul, the scientists that watch over anything that occurs on the volcano. Their laboratory lies near the coast, away from any places that small lava flows could reach. Both of them have agreed to let Andrew do his training on the volcanic island if he wanted to.
“Wait, waitwaitwaitwaitwait….WHAT???”
“It’s simply a choice, but I thought you would like it better than the usual method. After all, you’d most likely get along with the animals there.”
“Get along with the animals? They hate you people, don’t they?”
Juvir told his plan to Andrew about the physical training he would have to do. Normally, all the people build up their muscles from special machines and more genes. However, this can provide some side effects that make the person’s body function improperly. For example, a miweri similar to Juvir took this standard training course and ended up with cancer. He received several cuts throughout his body and decided to take a quick-fix chemical that would restore his muscles within seconds. Lucky people would end up with lumpy parts where some of the muscle fibers were bigger and stronger than the rest, causing stress on the tendons and making injuries even more prevalent. This specific miweri, however, had developed a mutation from the chemical and ended up with tumors the size of volleyballs boiling out from several parts of his body. He died within minutes.
The alternative path that Andrew could take would be one that many Earthlings would not typically choose: live off the land for four months, enduring the elements. There are some plants and animals that Andrew would be able to eat, but he would have to remember that he would be running away from his meat more often than chasing it. Since the island is so large and diverse, there would be different predators to worry about in each area, some stronger than others. Andrew would need to complete some conditioning before he could take down such predators.
“They do hate the intelligent population, probably because they don’t like the way that they’ve been treated by their keepers. They hold a grudge for all of the tests and alterations that we’ve done on their kind.”
“So does that mean there’s intelligent animals with that darkened-muscle gene who could easily kill me?”
“No, but most do have the regeneration gene, so killing any animals will be a bit more difficult.”
“Shit.”
“My associate Zepentiro is against this option because of these dangers, but I’m letting you decide for yourself. Well, do you want to go through with it?”
Even with a four-hour nap, Andrew’s mind wasn’t sharp enough to decide all that quickly. He really didn’t want to end up with cancer or lumps on his body from the technical training. However, he was frightened by the idea of being mauled by some alien animal, far away from civilization. After hearing that he would be doing the technical training with other intel-beings, he decided on roughing it in the outdoors. Better to be alone, he thought.
“I do believe I wanted to see something natural in this place. Might as well go to the giant volcano, then.”
“Then you’ll leave tomorrow.”
The AOIB members came together once more before Andrew went to sleep for the night. He wasn’t tired, so he asked to go as well. It wasn’t a formal meeting like before—everyone just came to chat.
Zepentiro said to Andrew, “Are you really going to do this? Think of the risks! There’s no technology, no hot water, not even a ready-made house to take shelter in!”
“Isn’t that called ‘camping?’” replied Andrew.
“What’s camping?”
Andrew let out a sigh before continuing with, “It’s where you spend more than a day out in the wilderness without much technology.”
“Sounds rough and uncomfortable.”
“I sure wouldn’t risk it,” said a random member from across the room.
Andrew said no more, although he did ask everyone to stop raising him questions. There was more bullshit on this planet than there ever was on Earth. Two aliens were talking about some celebrity news that happened an hour ago. Apparently, some guy named Nidu tried tackling another guy nearby a swimming pool and bounced right off of his torso. The other guy simply rubbed his belly and laughed as Nidu ended up falling into the pool. It was a little funny, but not enough for him to become world-famous and have his own reality broadcast series with merchandise to go along with it. Which had happened. Andrew was beginning to think that Earth wasn’t far off from turning into a place like this.
I’m really glad I’m going to that island, Andrew thought.
After the meeting, Andrew went into a corridor where many large bubbles, to the looks of them, were lying around all over. They were beds, according to the aliens. Andrew lied down on one that fit his size—he was getting more coordinated now—and found out that this bubble was the most comfortable thing he had ever laid his body on in his entire life. He thought, Why didn’t they use these for operating tables? Maybe the material that these beds were made out of were more expensive and less practical than hard surfaces when it came to medical use. And yet with this comfortable bubble bed, it took him close to an hour to fall asleep. He had a lot going through his mind, he had slept plenty already, and the day-night cycle at his position on the planet differed from his biological clock.
Andrew had another odd dream that night. He saw several people, some human and others alien, that he believed he knew, but he had never seen them before in his life. They seemed to have a personality like his own, and he got along great with them, made friends with whomever he talked to. Suddenly, a flash gave him a color-negative image for a fraction of a second, and all of Andrew’s friends developed a look of fright and terror in their eyes. They backed away slowly before turning around and running away into the horizon, which was turning red at this point. The sky had become black, the ground was a dark orange, and several blurs of white flashed past him in all directions. His senses in the dream faded down to the point where there was nothing, that he thought the dream had ended, then a lightning bolt struck him and he woke up.
He was almost as scared as he was after the last dream he had, letting out a big moan to show he was not pleased. He then realized that somebody was right beside him, looking down with something held in its hand. Andrew thought about ignoring the guy, but he wanted to know if maybe he had something to do with that dream.
“Okay, what the hell….what’re you doing screwing with my dreams? I’m guessing that’s what you’re doing.”
“I didn’t alter your dream at all—I was just monitoring it. Looks like you’ve got something coming to you in your future….something huge.”
“What—what d’you mean? It was just a dream, it couldn’t be much more than that.” In reality, Andrew was convinced that the guy knew what he was talking about.
“I heard you were the newcomer to this place, so I decided to see what kind of dreams you would have.” Aliens can be creepy enough without being seen, but this guy had the nerve to tell what the human was dreaming about. “Vivid, yet abstract….sounds like somebod
y has a deep connection to the Realm.”
“What….the fuck.…are you talking about? And could you at least show me your face so I’m not creeped out as much?!”
The guy turned on a light that detailed his face. He looked like a crossbreed between a human and a bald squirrel while having the eyes of a cat. It was freaky, and it just changed the eeriness to a different form. Andrew looked disgusted, and the alien could tell.
“Hey, I was just as amazed to see you, especially with all that hair.”
“I’m not that hairy!” Andrew whined.
The guy held out a piece of glass, to the looks of it, and a lighted reflection appeared. The human saw his face and realized he did have a bit of a mustache and a beard going, but he didn’t think that he was as hairy as a monkey.
“I know you’re not as hairy as some animals can be, but you still look a lot like one, especially with the hair on your head.”
“Well, some of my people actually like to have hair.”
The guy said nothing, returning to a screen by his side.
“So what are you doing with my dreams, anyway?”
“I told you, I’m just monitoring them to determine your personality and your connection to the Realm.”
“What realm?”
“The Impossible Realm. I’m part of a group devoted to studies towards dreams and their connection to our unknown world.”
“Um, last time I heard, it was impossible to prove anything about the Impossible Realm—hence the name.”
“Maybe not possible to absolutely prove, but we’ve found plenty of bits and pieces that back up our theories.” Sounds like string theory. “We believe that whenever we have dreams, we see a part of the Realm and a hint of our lives in our own universe.”
In a way, this made sense to Andrew. And yet, at the same time, it just sounded like a crackpot theory. Looks like cults aren’t limited to Earth, after all.