“Chill, Betts!” said Adam
“We’re lost,” said Da’Cince. “I expected some questions and emotions but not this. This religion you talk of at first sounded like someone or something that could provide hope and then you all started arguing and almost fighting.”
Jane said, “On Earth, there are many religions and gods. One is Christianity, the religion that believes in the Garden of Eden. Through history we’ve been crappy to each other on Earth. People from the same religion have fought as they each had different interpretations of what they believed and people from different religions have fought because they believed their way was the one true way.”
“What do you mean, ‘crappy’?” Asked Illary.
“Not good, cruel, nasty,” said Jane
“All for religions?” Asked Cunac.
“Yes, unfortunately. That was one of the things that attracted most of us to the traveller and hippy community. It was a new philosophy that was more about being good to each other and embracing new life experiences, opening our minds.”
Betts had been listening and said “That’s why I joined. I’d been force fed religion all my life. I wanted to expand my experiences and mind. Being with you all allowed that. I was looking for truth.”
“So following the gods that the people of WaytaPata have believed in since the Punku closed has led to many people fighting…”
“Wars.” Jane interrupted Cunac.
“Wars, yes, another new term. Are they like battles?”
“Yes, but really big battles. Often between many countries. Sometimes for hundreds of years.”
“That’s awful!” said Ma’Kusi
“Yes,” said all five Hippies together.
“Some have killed hundreds of thousands or even millions of people!” said Jane sadly. “Most recently world war II. That only began to end when the Americans dropped a massive atomic bomb that killed so many people. It shocked the whole world. It was like a slap across the face of the world that made many people stop. Stop and think twice. Unfortunately, it has not stopped people fighting. It has not stopped war.”
“How has this level of violence come about? I cannot comprehend such devastation,” said Da’Cince, in shock at the first-hand account. The Pachamamans had seen images of a massive explosion from the emissions and were imagining the scene but hearing it from the Others was so much more real and upsetting. Yet imagining the reality was so far outside of a DiPachan paradigm that they could not grasp it. There were small fights in DiPacha, occasional battles but rarely loss of life due to fighting. People still had arguments but few had reserves enough not to farm or grow food for long enough to wage war. The loss of the mythical WaytaPata had left DiPacha void of reserves and comfort.
“So there are no listeners in WaytaPata who help guide people to peace and living together, sharing?” Asked Cunac looking a bit confused and upset.
“No,” said Adam who had spent more time with Cunac and knew a bit more about the Listener Guild than the others. “There are people we call, priest, father or rabbi. I think other religions have other names for similar leaders. They are supposed to do similar things to Listeners and I think that most do, especially the normal ones, I mean the ones looking after the people they live with in their local communities. It’s the few who start the arguments and that are extreme in their beliefs. Willing to kill or die for their beliefs.”
“How is that good?” Asked Da’Cince.
“The extreme ones aren’t!” stated Betts with authority. “But those that listen to teachings like the ‘Good Samaritan’ and the ‘10 Commandments’ and restrict themselves to caring for their communities they, they, can do good work!”
“But there are extreme ones. From what you have said if these religious leaders of WaytaPata found out about us they could, or maybe would, do all sorts of unpredictable things that could endanger us all here and all Pachans across the realms,” said Da'Cince.
“On that, Da’Cince, I think we can all agree,” said Dan.
“Agreed,” said Betts and Tracey. Jane and Adam nodded.
“Then we all need to agree here and now is that until such time as we deem it safe, we never let the people of WaytaPata know about our DiPacha realms. We could be destroyed. The Garden must stay closed.” Decreed Da’Cince
“When do you think it would be safe?” Asked Ma’Kusi.
“Not in our lifetime!” said Da’Cince.
“So how are we going to introduce our guests to Pachamama if they can’t go home?” Asked Cauca. “They cannot stay hidden forever.”
“No Thanks!” said Dan and Jane quickly. They were really missing the outside and freedom to roam around.
“We cannot let people here know we’re from WaytaPata,” said Betts. “You’ve already said how people here would react. If Pachans made it through the Punku and the news of Eden got out all hell could break loose.”
“I think in your own way Betts you’ve just summed it up,” said Da’Cince. “Basically no one on either side of the Punku or outside this guild can ever know, or at least not in my lifetime. WaytaPata has become too corrupted to re-join DiPacha. The consequences are too great to risk it!” stated Da’Cince.
The five agreed. It would cause too much strife and the five liked a quiet untroubled life. They were used to not conforming and being outcasts. That was the hippy lifestyle back on Earth but mostly they liked being left alone or even avoided. If the truth came out now, that would be their opposite reality. Cauca came up with the solution. All Pachans knew of the wild communities in different Pacha. The five could easily be five Pachans looking to re-join DiPachan society after generations of exile. That would explain their language, habits and some strange stories they may tell if they drank too much shrouple. The five agreed to become the Hippy Guild that had arrived seeking asylum from Chinchona Pacha which was well known as having the most independent tribes outside the neural-net. It was also one of the lushist Pacha realms having more resources than most. The Uma of the Chinchona Pacha held little influence over his realm and refugees from here were not unheard of.
The next day the five were introduced to the city and the neural-net. Everyone who wanted to know, knew of them. Best hide in plain sight. Everyone was told the refugees from Chinchona Pacha were peaceful and wanted only to enter the society of the neural-net and have a new start. Soon they would be given the neural implant and trained to use it by teachers on Pachamama.
The five were now learning to survive by participating, listening: sharing to benefit. Da’Cince arranged two homes for them near the river and they had two small plots with access to the river. There they would be responsible for feeding themselves and were each assigned duties in line with the skills they could offer. They could join this community. They had little choice!
Some of the five were beginning to make close friends, Adam just wanted to work with Illary to find a way home and brewing shrouple was not a true assignment according to Da’Cince. Cunac disagreed.
Adam had studied physics and astronomy on Earth and had skills Illary could use. He, with Illary and her team, started to work closely together. The revelations of the cosmos were of such astounding bewilderment to the Pachans that they could not comprehend half of what Adam was telling them. However, it helped explain why the night lights or stars Adam called them were in different patterns in the skies of each Pacha realm. Adam felt this meant that each was in a different part of space. He speculated the Punku were links across what he called ‘Space/time’ that allowed instantaneous travel across unimagined distances. How this worked he could not guess though.
Adam often told stories to his new friends to entertain them, and amuse himself. Dreams of hitching a ride on a ship to visit the stars and travel the distances between them. Until now this was the only way Adam had ever imagined of travelling between planets and stars. Illary was not sure exactly what hitching or a ship was but she understood the idea of visiting the stars. What Illary had seen and heard over the past cyc
le had taken her thoughts and imaginings to places she had never dreamed of in her strangest dreams.
The day came when Cauca and Cunac were to depart for HuñuyPacha. They were to gather at the Great Table. The centre of DiPacha realms. It was for the Great Seating that was held every second cycle. All Uma or their principals attended. Instant communication may be possible across all realms thanks to the neural-net and telelink but some things were always best done face to face.
Pachamama may have held the most important Punku to The Garden in ancient long forgotten times but in today’s DiPacha everything centred on the city of Hatun-Llaqta in the HuñuyPacha realm. At the centre of the city was the Great Circle which was made up of 15 Punku, one leading to each of the Pacha realms and the only place where Pachans were sure an ancient Punku to WaytaPata existed. Where the path to WaytaPata should have been there was now a void in the circle.
No one knew how or why but there were fifteen Punku in a near perfect circle. It was one of the enduring mysteries of the Punku pathways.
The HuñuyPachans had built towers for each realm and at the centre of the circle they had built the tallest in all DiPacha, suspended above the ground on a spiders web of black rock that radiated from the fifteen Punku towers. It was an awesome sight that unnerved all visitors. Walking under a tower suspended on thin strands of rock tested all but the bravest.
Some believed the perfect circle of fifteen Punku were evidence that everything was part of a bigger plan. This was the belief of the Guild of Listeners. They believed that the ancient HuñuyPachans had not listened to warnings when they tried to control the Punku to WaytaPata. Warnings that WaytaPata was sacred and there for the benefit of all, not for some to control. The Listener history told of a Gardener who cared for all and wanted to share the bounty of his garden with all across DiPacha. But as some tried to take more for themselves and deny others so he closed the Punku saying ‘Until such time as the bounty of my garden can be shared for the benefit of all I close these Punku to you. I will listen through the generations for a time when you have learned to share. Only then will I open my sacred garden to you. Until that wise generation comes my Gardener Apprentices will tend and care for the bounty within.’
Since that day the Listener Guild had been trying to guide Pachans of all realms to wisdom and back to the Garden.
It now appeared that the Apprentices that the Listeners had believed were minding the sacred Garden, for generations beyond measure, had forgotten their sacred duty. How could the Great Gardener now open the Punku and return WaytaPata to DiPacha? Rather than sharing the bounty of the Garden, the Guild of The Punku had decided that the realms of DiPacha would be overrun if the Others could travel freely into DiPacha. Even the five agreed. They did not trust their own kin. They had to keep the Punku closed for the safety of all DiPacha. For it seemed that the guardians of the sacred garden had spoiled its beauty and bounty beyond all recognition from the legends that had survived. They certainly did not appear to live with, or for, their realm.
All DiPachans of the fifteen known realms understood that the resources they had were finite. Resources in WaytaPata were understood to be have been so bountiful. Now it appeared that the guardians had forgotten that resources could be finite and had happily plundered the Garden with no thought to the consequences.
Cunac, the chief Listener of Pachamama, was lost, angry and confused. All his beliefs had been shaken and turned upside down. Were the Listeners now the Gardeners? Was it his duty to ensure the Listeners controlled all realms, including WaytaPata to ensure peace across all the inhabited worlds? To ensure the bounty of WaytaPata could be shared, could be saved?
Cunac was meditating on this early in the morning as the cool sun rose. The revelations had provoked so many questions. He had started imbibing more shrouple than normal to help him reach a deeper meditative state and he often drank so much it was hard to wake him afterwards. Cunac was retreating into the Listener temple and his thoughts more and more.
It was during one of these dark meditations realisation struck Cunac. For all the generations since the Punku had closed to WaytaPata the Listener Guild had existed alongside the Uma’s that had served DiPacha with one aim. To prepare all Pachans for the return of WaytaPata. Why should that change now? It was only the challenge that had changed. The route that was lost was found. Now the challenge was people. Cunac knew people.
During their generations of service the Listener Guild had built up a massive wealth of trust. The Listener Guild did not have to farm, build or toil. Their gift to all other Pachans had been guidance. The Listeners were the true leaders of the Pachans, not the Uma. No one ever said ‘No’ to the Listener Guild. Especially the Senior Wilaq, the most-high Listener.
Cunac knew the current Senior Wilaq was ancient. Very soon a new leader would be needed within the Listener Guild. This person would be chosen from the fifteen Chief Listeners of the Pacha realms. He, Cunac, could control the Listeners and guide them to glorious freedom. The freedom to guide all Pachans, show them the true path.
He realised to achieve this, for the good of all, he would need his own apprentices. He would need loyal acolytes to help him on the path to his New Garden, his WaytaPata.
Cunac was resolved. From the ashes of his beliefs he had found enlightenment to a new path. He got up, his head still hurting from the shrouple, but he had purpose now! He went to meet Cauca for the journey to the Punku to HuñuyPacha.
Cauca was waiting for him by the paddy fields at the northern edge of the city in the morning sun. From there the two men would walk to the TuyTuy bunkers just beyond the paddy fields to collect their TuyTuy stone for the journey to the HuñuyPachan Punku. What would normally take half a day to walk would only take a short time to ride on a TuyTuy stone.
As Cauca and Cunac approached the bunkers they could see Jez, the chief TuyTuy wrangler, was there. They knew he had just returned from TuyTuy Pacha where he had collected two new stones in exchange for rice and dried fish. Getting closer they could see someone else helping Jez return all the stones to their individual bunkers. All the stones had to stay dry and level. If they got even slightly wet and then tipped then they would move. If one bumped another it would also move and so on. For this reason each of the stones’ had their own bunker dug into the ground to about waist deep and with sheer sides, no slopes the stones could float up.
Now closer Cunac recognised Dan was the one helping Jez. When Dan had first seen the TuyTuy stones had become very excited by them. At home, he had been a surfer and when he first saw the TuyTuy stones he started jumping up and down with excitement. Immediately he had recognised how the TuyTuy stones moved. The more they were tilted the faster they would go or the tighter they would turn.
Now Dan had persuaded Jez to let him try a training stone which was about the size and shape of a single mattress. As Cauca and Cunac approached the transport bunkers they heard Jez talking to Dan.
“Here, it has handles and a waist strap so you cannot fall off. The flatter and larger the stone the more stable. We use the flattest and largest for the larger loads, only an experienced wrangler is allowed to move the large loads, most people only use the stones to move themselves or their families over long distances.”
Dan began to inspect the stone Jez had chosen for him. He had manoeuvred into an enclosure that reminded Dan of a pony school like the one he had had pony riding lessons in as a kid. The first thing he noticed was how light the stone was.
“It’s like pumice stone from home.” He commented as he ran his hand along the edge and bodily lifted the without issue. Dan checked the handles carved into the sides and smooth indents in the centre, obviously to sit in. There were two rows of smaller dents that Dan guessed were for his heels. A rope could be tied from left to right over his waist.
“Hey man, that's about twice the size of my board back home, slightly shorter maybe?”
“Board?” said Jez.
“Yeah man, what I ride surfing, on the sea,” he a
dded the last part for clarity although Jez could not picture what surfing was.
Jez sat Dan on the stone and tied on the rope. He then pulled out a flask of water.
“We’re in this enclosure,” he explained, “so you cannot get up much speed and can practise turning and most importantly stopping. When you pour on the water the stone will rise. Any tilts will turn and move the stone. I’m going the other side of that wall.” Jez pointed to a higher thicker part of the wall, handed Dan the flask and ran for it.
The enclosure was about 200 feet long and 100 feet wide. Dan adjusted his weight to what he estimated to be the balance point, grinned looking across at Jez, and poured water onto the stone. Instantly it rose to knee height. Although Dan had been told this would happen he was still shocked and lost his balance slightly his weight shifting back over the board. This made the board move tilt back and accelerate backwards with enough acceleration to throw his body weight forward over the board again. The board stopped and then moved forward.
Moving back and forward in increasingly smaller distances like a pendulum Dan fought for control of the stone until it was stationary. It was still cold that morning, but Dan was sweating and looking a little nervous.
“Whalla! Whalla!” came an excited yell from the side of the enclosure. “That was impressive, Dan. I’ve not seen anyone get control that quick for half a generation at least!” yelled Cauca who had arrived with Cunac just as Jez had vaulted over the wall. “What do you say, Jez? Do you want a new apprentice? I can reassign Dan. The Hippy Guild of Chinchona has not had permanent assignments yet.”
Jez was grinning back at Dan like a proud father who was not yet ready to dish out praise. He needed to see if this was a fluke or if the hippy had talent. “Let’s see what he can do first. That was his first ride. More water, Dan, this is for real. Go!”
Disconnected (Connected series Book 1) Page 15
