Suddenly, a brief and total darkness enveloped the scene. Slowly, the daylight began to return and revealed Mura standing in the water with a baby girl in her arms.
14 ~ Speech
The Independent Reformed Disciples of Faith were on the move. They were attacking only farms. Farms were relatively isolated and ripe for undefended attack. Plus, the rising Worlds' economy had lured most farmers out of their fields to the towns and cities. Hence, most farmers were Aklans because they had no fear of death and the Aklan Scriptures gave primacy to agriculture as a profession. Until the Created World for agriculture was fully functional, attacking a farm was a strong economic statement. The Independents and their recent religious cohorts were making it what they called a moral issue—if the Worlds' Council wouldn't take action on their demands for more freedom in their commercial interests, it was only fair that they attack the most basic industry. The Council was forcing them to conduct business in a way they deemed unfair and force would be used against force.
The Independent Reformed Disciples of Faith, who carried out most of the attacks, added their own spin: Aklans worshiped a false prophet and deserved chastisement.
The Local and Regional Councils were still corrupt enough to defer protective action to the Territorial Councils. The Territorial Councils, mostly due to Delva's unremitting efforts, were a bit better but only sent their Protective Forces long after the violence had occurred. The Worlds' Council was in nearly constant consultation about how to increase the membership of the Worlds' Protective Force.
It took a number of years to bring the situation under control. The new recruits to the Worlds' Protective Force were not as well trained when committed to protective actions and more than a few atrocities happened. Slowly, the Territorial Councils' elected memberships showed fewer Independent sympathizers. Some traced this to the Aklan members of the Mediation Board. In their work with Regional and Local Councils, they made sure any surviving Aklan farmers were present. Those farmers characteristically asked for the pardon of the instigators of violence.
~~~
Mura took Verta wherever she went, including sessions with the Worlds' Council. This presented a bit of discomfort for a few of the Council members but her being Delva's daughter as well as the sole member representing Anglana's World made the Council adapt to the unusual situation. When she was still quite young,Verta's lack of distractive habits made things even easier.
As she grew older she still kept her peace. She was vitally interested in what these people were saying. Her abilities with plasma communication grew extremely strong during the years she attended the Council's sessions though there were moments when her intense concentration on a discussion caused temporary confusion in the participants. Verta thought they were just getting old. Mura knew what was happening but decided the education her daughter was receiving far outweighed a Council member's momentary confusion.
~~~
As Verta approached her adolescence, Mura became acutely troubled. Even though the corruption in the Worlds' government had decreased slightly, the actions of the Independents and their religious storm troopers weren't stopping. There was still a significant portion of the general population who could be swayed by the idea that there should be no restraints in trade and commerce. Mura's mother, Delva, had instituted the Angi Oneness Curriculum but there were few teaching it. Mura, as a mother, was now completely focused on the future and she knew that, whether more people embraced the Aklan Faith or not, more people had to accept the concept of the Oneness of all Angians.
If people could continue to believe they were so different and special that their ideas could be supported by force, Mura could only see a dismal future for her daughter. No matter that the Worlds' governmental structure had brought Angians from near extinction to an expanding and prosperous family of Worlds. There was still far too much potential for corruption and violence. That was unacceptable to Mura.
She prayed and consulted Akla's Writings. She consulted with Verta. She ran it by Morna and Rednaxela. Then, she made her decision.
~~~
Anglana welcomed Mura and Verta. Verta went off with Morna and Rednaxela and Mura spent an hour or so in abstract communion until Anglana requested Mura reveal the purpose of her visit.
“Anglana, I've spent years serving the Worlds as a Council member and I've seen some improvement in conditions. Some improvement but not enough. I feel I should relinquish my membership and travel the Worlds to teach Akla's Cause.”
“Dear Mura, this is a joyous decision but you would need to select your replacement.”
“I have no idea who should replace me.”
“Would you consider a recommendation from me?”
“Certainly, Anglana.”
“Alunur Cessin.”
“He's a known Independent sympathizer!”
“This is true. What is also true is that he has a mind that is always searching and that has led him to becoming immune to blindly accepting another's opinion.”
“Then, how could he sympathize with the Independents?”
“He's still relative young, twenty and four years, and he has spent those years acquiring a vast reservoir of Worlds' knowledge. His involvement with the Independents began last year and he is already a thorn in their side. His parents were rich enough to have left him a sizable fortune and he still feels a sense of entitlement—a longing to maintain his independence without paying any dues to the culture that surrounds him. He will, eventually, leave the Independents. He will tire of their ways.”
“Isn't there someone else, with no connection to the Independents?”
“Yes, but Akla has given me a plan.”
“Please, do tell me what use Akla would have for an Independent.”
“It is not primarily as a sympathizer of the Independents that he is valuable, though his being a Council Member and a known sympathizer do have their benefits. One is that it will embolden the Independents to take more severe action. This will do two things. One is to hasten their downfall. Another is to give Alunur a harsh lesson in the Oneness of all Angians.”
“I can accept whatever Akla wants but I need more information to help me understand.”
“If Alunur can withstand the lessons of being a Worlds' Council member while sympathizing with the Independents, and he does have the potential to do that, he can become a worthy mate for your daughter.”
“What?! She's only twelve!”
“It should only take, at most, four years for Alunur to learn his lessons and help to throw a glaring light on the ultimate intentions of the Independents. He will then be twenty and seven years and Verta will be sixteen.”
“Certainly, Akla doesn't demand this marriage?”
“Mura, your mothering emotions are clouding your knowledge of Akla's Writings. The man and woman must first make their own free-will choice of mate. That is then dependent on the living parents' consent.”
“Yes... But how will they ever meet if Verta and I are always traveling and Alunur is bound by his Council duties?”
“Alunur will seek her out.”
15 ~ Questions
It took Mura many months to get used to the reception she had to face as she traveled to various cities and villages. Even though the details of her daughter's birth were known to only herself, Verta, Morna, and Rednaxela, the fact that she was Delva's daughter and had no known husband had given birth to a sense of worship in the people she met. Her approach to this was to accept the devoted attention she received, avoid answering questions about her daughter's "father", and launch every meeting with a lively discussion of the people's immediate problems.
If Mura's lineage and the rumors of her birth process gave her an advantage in gaining the trust and interest of those she met, Verta's presence and speech gave her a living example of what it meant to be a spiritual youth.
It was easy enough for Mura to preach the tenets of Akla's Faith to people and, whether they embraced that Faith or just incorporated the sp
irit of the teachings in their lives, she was happy to find that most people were decent and open-minded.
It was a different situation for Verta. She deeply loved and respected her mother. She knew the importance of never discussing her "father". She knew her mother was completely devoted to Akla's Cause yet she was still a growing youth with more years to test her own burgeoning character against the whole rest of the Worlds. She was more than intelligent enough to understand the social teachings of Akla, prime among them the Oneness of all Angians, yet her soul was still wrestling with her ego and she loved a rousingly spirited discussion, about anything. If she wasn't aware of the precise details of a subject, she would ever so honestly and sweetly demand to be instructed. Then, she would sally forth into the arena and test her mental skills.
She had a way, even if she knew nothing about a particular topic, of strengthening the other person's understanding, even if they were a supposed expert.
The concerns of adults when discussing the interrelationship of faith and science became for her a reason to demonstrate faith in action—show them that faith in a concept was useless unless thrust into the experimental laboratory of living action. She was very lucky indeed to have the help of Morna and Rednaxela during some of these discussions. An example:
Mura and Verta were in the village of Certiv, near the city of Selurn, in the Territory of Kernuma, on Anga-Param. There were a group of adults discussing Akla's Faith with Mura while Verta sat and listened. Six youth of the village appeared during the course of the discussion and the one named Zalen began to interject his comments into the adults' flow of conversation. Verta began to respond to each of Zalen's remarks. He in turn began to direct his speech straight at Verta.
When he finally knew he was in over his head and the adults were starting to get restless, Verta surprised them all by saying:
"If you believe you're stronger than anyone you know, do you think that makes it right for you to demand that people do whatever you say?"
Zalen was stung by the challenge and grasped at his sense of importance by saying:
"Absolutely, but I have to prove it to some people by pounding on them a bit."
"You haven't proven it to me, Zalen. Will you now pound on me?"
"Sounds like you want me to."
"That is completely your own decision."
The adults of the village were edging toward being frightened. Zalen was known for his temper and willingness to prop up his esteem with physical bullying. Mura was calm in her understanding of her daughter's abilities and the added protection afforded by the presence of Morna and Rednaxela. Verta thought the experiment needed more heat.
"Your own decision, Zalen, to prove to me that I should respect whatever you say just because you have a strong body."
"You do want a pounding."
"You decide. But beating me up will only prove you have physical strength, not that I should respect whatever you say."
"You don't respect me?"
Verta remained silent. Zalen felt this small girl was making him look ridiculous. She just sat there and smiled at him.
"Get ready for a beating!"
As Zalen rushed at Verta, the villagers sprang into action to stop him.
There was a flash of light and he suddenly fell, flat on his face, not moving.
Verta looked at Morna and said: "You've ruined my experiment!"
"I saved your skin."
"Zalen didn't learn anything. Maybe if you'd let him bloody my nose then realize he still didn't have my respect, he could have learned something. Now, he might have to learn it under more desperate circumstances."
"I am programmed to protect you."
"Where is the part of your programming that let's me teach people a lesson."
Morna became busy with cross-correlations.
Mura offered: "Morna was right within her constraints. You were right within your constraints. Zalen was right within his. We all have constraints, limits to action and understanding. Even in the spiritual realm we need to learn how to overcome our constraints." She turned her attention toward the adults: "Verta wanted to free Zalen from a block in his social development. Morna wanted to fulfill her duty. Zalen wanted to prove his worth. All were constrained by their beliefs. Yet, the greatest freedom from constraints is love. Morna doesn't fully understand love, Zalen is blocking himself from it, and Verta is learning how to express it."
"Gee, mom, all I wanted to do was give the boy a lesson in living. You always have to make it a spiritual journey."
Mura was used to Verta's ways. The adults were shocked at Verta's directness. The other youth now had a new champion.
~~~
Mura and Verta continued their travels, talking to whoever would listen, filling their days with teaching—Mura in her spiritually intellectual way and Verta in her practical moral way.
There were other incidents of near violence, some by people who felt no need of religion, mostly due to extremely poor examples of it in their past, and some by various Independents, Dissatisfieds, and members of the Independent Reformed Disciples of Faith. Some were blunted by wise action on Mura's part, some by inventive displays of courage by Verta, and some by the intervention of Morna or Rednaxela. To say they were making a name for themselves was the height of understatement. They were becoming living Myths.
~~~
The Council had at first balked at the idea of accepting Mura's choice for her replacement. Mura had given her appraisal of Alunur's qualification as far as his active intellect and wide-ranging knowledge and had side-stepped his known sympathy for Independents with the always powerful leverage of Anglana's desires. In the end, the Council had had to accept him because they had accepted Mura's appointment along with the provision that she, alone, could choose her replacement.
Alunur's time with the Council had progressed from heady excitement to nearly insufferable tension. He had been careful, while in Council session, to push for a more lax approach to trade while not sounding like an Independent. In his private hours he had been spending time with select Independents.
What Anglana had predicted was coming true. The Independents had been emboldened. Farms being destroyed had been replaced by destroying agricultural ships from the Created World. The number of deaths were significantly less and the cost of using one plasma bolt on a ship was far lower than what it took to destroy a farm. It was also much harder to bring Protective Forces to bear on space-borne attacks.
Most of Alunur's fortune had been invested in the Created Worlds. Over time, the Independents began to consider attacks on not just cargo ships but directly on the Created Worlds themselves. The rapid growth of new plasma-related tools, spawned on one of the Created Worlds, were threatening the collapse of the plasma defenses of all the Created Worlds.
Alunur began to sever his ties with the Independents. The Independents didn't like that.
Alunur went into hiding.
Anglana, through Mura, appointed a well-known Aklan as Alunur's replacement.
16 ~ Honor
Alunur found a resting place on Anla-Purum in what had been called the Unholy Lands and was now Aklana. Being surrounded by Aklans wasn't as bad as he'd feared when his contact had told him where to hide next. This Territory remained in most minds as a place that was either unspeakably glorious or mind-numbingly dangerous. Either reputation sufficed for Alunur's purpose: avoid Independents.
The daily life of the family he was staying with was so normal that he wondered why people so often attributed miraculous powers to these people. They did pray in the morning before beginning their daily routine but the routine was, well, routine. The father kissed his wife and headed out to the mining facility; the mother got her children ready for school then rushed off to the university for her classes in history; the children went to school, came home and did their homework, went out to play, and returned before dark to be loved by the mother and father. Yes, they did pray again before sending the kids off to bed. But the reputation of Akl
ans being some rare form of spiritual beings wasn't apparently true. They were merely good people. Good people who took him in and made him feel welcome. Good people who without trying made him feel protected.
Alunur spent the first weeks just recuperating from the harrowing passages he'd navigated in the past two years. Staying one step ahead of dangerous Independents was easy with his financial resources. The uneasy and exhausting part had been acclimating to environments where his status as rich and educated mattered not a bit. He was humbled, confused, distraught, and witheringly tired.
The Besul family was a healing force just by their acceptance of his need to quietly sit, eat, sleep, and sketch. One day, without premeditation, he'd asked for a pad and pencil. He was surprised he had artistic ability. He'd thought his talents were studying, writing, and negotiation.
His passion about hiding his new creations was eventually penetrated by the youngest child's persistent unveiling of her own efforts in drawing. After each presentation of another of her self-proclaimed masterpieces, she would beg him to show her his sketches. He eventually did.
Mother Besul was the first to rank his work as genius. The children couldn't grasp the reason for her excitement but they did like his work. Father Besul was calmer than his wife but insistent that he be able to contact an artist of his acquaintance who could help Alunur become recognized.
“Mr. Besul, I can't become known for anything.”
“Alunur, when will you finally call me Taliv? But no matter, we accepted you here because you're a child of God in distress. We hadn't expected the testimony of Anglana to your trustworthiness but I still don't understand how a man who appears out of nowhere, who has wealth but seems a natural recluse, can receive the blessings of Anglana.”
Notes from An Alien Page 13
