“She recommended me for a job once. I had to escape attention because certain people didn't like a decision I'd made. Mr.— I mean, Taliv, I'm hiding from the Independents.”
“Whew...”
“Yes, I was, well, in an influential position and the Independents were counting on me to make certain things possible for them. I realized that, if I did, my entire holdings would be wiped out. In fact, a large portion of the Worlds' wealth would have been obliterated. Before I left my job, I gave the authorities the names of key individuals, people since arrested and under constant supervision. Still, those people have many friends...”
“There used to be a Council member named Alunur, but his last name wasn't Pelv.”
“Taliv, I'm who you think I am.”
“My, my... You poor soul.”
Taliv told Alunur he would make very private inquiries about a possible resolution of the situation. He assured him that, if things worked out, he might be able to live a less restrictive life. He didn't tell him that the inquiries were about how to communicate with Mura.
~~~
Mura and Verta were slowly approaching Aklana. They had been summoned by the Aklan Council of Justice but were instructed to visit certain localities on their way.
Their visits over the last three years had brought deep satisfaction to Mura. She could see that people, even those with no interest in an organized religion, were willing to discuss moral issues and were extremely open to the need for a general awareness in the citizenry of the Onenesss of all people. They readily saw that without such an awareness, without a general sense of unity, their lives were always subject to the intrusions of those who thrived on dissent and force.
She estimated that ninety percent of the people she'd conversed with were in favor of regular courses in schools about Oneness and its utterly practical benefits. Her example, her ability to influence others, were a great aid in her mission but she knew that one person, no matter how influential, couldn't convince people of something unless they somehow had a propensity for it within their own natures. She found herself often saying a silent prayer of gratitude to Akla.
Verta found the traveling and greeting and talking triggering processes in her mind and heart that she'd been told would appear. But she'd never guessed how wonderful they could be. She had the best tutor for how to handle her blossoming qualities in her own mother.
Within the last month, she'd noticed what she suspected was her reception of thoughts and feelings from people who were in no way near her. She'd done some experimenting, checking with those around her, and could account for the alien impressions in no other way than that she could, in fact, engage in plasma communication at a distance.
When she told her mother, their travel plans were immediately changed. They set out for a visit to Anglana.
~~~
While they were on Angla-Palli, Anglana had told Mura about Taliv's intercession for Alunur. Mura was intrigued but decided she would do nothing to hasten any connection between Alunur and Verta.
~~~
Verta was set to the task of attempting distance communication with people on Anglana's planet who were thousands of miles away. In every case where she sent a request for their presence, the bewildered individual showed up. Anglana asked Verta to attempt a communication with someone on the agricultural Created World. No one showed up.
As far as Verta's learning how to keep the nearly constant reception of other's thoughts and feelings from overmastering her own consciousness, she, in her own nature, had a head start. Her own sense of justice, her incessant self-demand that she think for herself and process her feelings at depth was a critical advantage. Still, the increasing volume of receptions would have overwhelmed her if Anglana hadn't insisted, a number of times, that Verta submit to an infusion of Anglana's living substance into her bloodstream. This was repeated daily for nine days. Verta then spent two full days sleeping. When she woke, her first words were:
“Mother, there's a man who needs me to meet him.”
“Who, Verta?”
“His name is Alunur. He's been calling my name in his dreams.”
~~~
As Mura and Verta traveled to the Territory of Aklana on Anla-Purum for their audience with the Aklan Council of Justice, they had deep consultations about how to present their experience of teaching Akla's Faith. They also consulted about what Verta's ability with plasma communication meant in both their lives.
Verta seemed to have forgotten about Alunur but her mother had trouble keeping her mind away from the impending meeting.
~~~
When they arrived in Oaur, the seat of the Council of Justice, they discovered that the Council had granted permission for a News Mesh team to be present at their meeting. The only word directly from the Council was that they considered the coverage to be critical for increased awareness of the necessity for Worlds'-wide recognition of the Oneness of all Angians.
~~~
Alunur was sitting in his favorite chair, under the tree by the pond in the Besul's backyard, when he heard a voice in his mind:
I've heard you calling and I'm very near now.
He stopped his sketching and, with trembling fingers, set aside his pad and pencil. He tried to stand up but found his legs unwilling to support him. In his mind he, with a feeling of ridiculousness, said: Who are you?
The answer was immediate: My name is Verta and you should be standing outside the building that houses the Council of Justice, two days from now, two hours past midday.
Alunur passed out in his chair. He was discovered “sleeping” by the children. When they couldn't rouse him, their mother was called. When she couldn't rouse him, a doctor was called. Three hours later, when he regained consciousness in the hospital, he began murmuring: “Verta, Verta, Verta...”
~~~
He was standing outside the Council's building, at the front of a large crowd, at the appointed time. Suddenly, a gaggle of Mesh reporters rushed out of the building and set themselves in front of a podium at the bottom of the steps. The next thing he saw was a woman and a young girl walking down the steps. The woman began addressing the reporters and the young girl began to stare at him.
A man jostled past him and stopped a few feet away.
The man screamed: “In the name of God!”
A bolt of plasma shot from the man's chest.
It hit a metal box the woman was carrying.
The box seemed to emit a stream of plasma that engulfed Alunur, swiftly followed by a bolt that killed the man and sent Alunur sprawling.
The woman collapsed.
All was silence but for a voice coming from the box: “I have failed in my mission.”
The young girl was testing the woman's pulse.
She stood and said: “She's dead.”
Then, she walked to Alunur, who was groggily getting to his feet, and said, “She died for your sake. Now, I will live for your sake.”
Alunur said: “Are you Verta?”
“Yes...”
“Is that your mother?”
“No. That's the body my mother was borrowing. She's a part of me now.”
The crowd was still standing in shocked silence.
The metal box could be heard murmuring: “In the name of God, In the name of God, In the name of God...”
17 ~ Sovereignty
This is Sena again. I promised I'd return to continue the story of my people when the history reached my birth. That happened not so long after my grandmother died. Mura had just been in a meeting with the Aklan Council of Justice. Her daughter, Verta, my mother, was with her and my father, Alunur, watched the scene as a religious radical tried to kill Mura.
I say tried to kill because Morna's task was to make such a thing impossible.
As you've just read, my mother said to my father: “She died for your sake. Now, I will live for your sake.”
Verta knew Alunur would be there. My grandmother knew, too, though she knew much more about Alunur than Ver
ta did, primarily through information Anglana had given her. Grandma, deep in her heart, knew Alunur needed a powerful demonstration of love to galvanize his being, help him prepare for a life with Verta.
Mura, without conscious thought, had redirected the plasma shield Morna had created to protect her on to Alunur. She died for the sake of my father—demonstrated sacrificial love—because she knew my mother would marry him and, through Anglana, knew that Alunur was critical to the evolution of the Aklan Faith.
Mom and Dad got married only one month after Grandma's death. They had me after the nominal period necessary to grow a new child.
The situation in the Worlds at my birth could be summed up by saying that the Worlds' government was about fifty-six percent trustworthy, the state of trade and commerce was growing at a rate of ten percent per year, and the Aklan Faith comprised around thirty-four percent of the population.
Religion again...
No matter my personal beliefs, the Aklans as a group are the most industrious, most trustworthy, most giving people of the Angian star system. Whether that came from their adherence to the dictates of Akla or was just some chance result of the Angian evolutionary path has little practical importance for the folks who benefit from having people like this around. I think the Teachings of Akla are brilliant. He covers everything from how to maintain mental hygiene to how a government can best serve its citizens. Was He a Prophet Who spoke for God?
You decide.
I have more of the story to tell.
After my father had exposed the leaders of the Independents their force in our society quickly dwindled. Their henchmen, the Disciples, went on a brief rampage and killed thousands but the Worlds Protective Force had already been strengthened and if there are any Disciples of Faith left, even the nicer ones, they don't dare bother anyone.
Mom and Dad teamed up to carry on the teaching work that Mura had been pursuing—the work that my ancestor, Delva, had first championed, even though she didn't cling to organized religion.
I, naturally, went wherever my parents went until I reached my thirteenth birthday. That's when I went to stay with Anglana.
That dear, sweet Consciousness completely convinced me that our Worlds were well on their way to an enduring peace. She also gave me my life's work.
Mother could use plasma communication out to about 3,000 miles. Anglana and I discovered that I could use it at a much greater distance. I was able to reach out to other star systems!
This was a complete surprise to me and, without Anglana to translate and explain, I would have thought that the extremely strange things I was receiving were only some very disturbed Angians.
I spent the next twenty years, mostly emerged in Anglana's liquid embrace, experimenting with receiving and translating information from five nearby Worlds. Three were in one star system and the other two each in its own system. Still, the three from the same system were very, even radically, different. Nothing like the amazing similarities we of Angi's Worlds enjoyed. Even Anglana's difference of form was not as strange as the differences all five of these other Worlds displayed.
So, here I was, a woman of thirty-three, whose best friend was a widely distributed Consciousness, when I happened to meet a man...
He'd been an Independent and had converted to the Aklan Faith. He'd served on four Local Councils, two Regional councils, and two Territorial Councils. When they told him he'd been elected to the Worlds' Council, a revelation performed in the glare of the News Meshes, he merely said, “I've served the Worlds enough. It's time for them to serve me.”
After all the commentators carefully explained that Neiiv hadn't meant anything like becoming some sort of ruler who was served by the people, that he only meant being “served” as in the service that any sane government performs for its citizens, I began to change my mind about him.
My days with Anglana were intense and arduous and took most of my time but I still kept up with happenings in the Worlds. And, Neiiv was a big Happening. I was immediately attracted to him but also felt afraid of him.
He was confident, capable, captivating, and cute.
I was studious and strange.
When news of his retirement from public service was released, Anglana, without my knowledge, made arrangements for him to visit me. All she said, on the day he was due to arrive, was, “A man is coming to meet you. Be very nice to him.”
I've already talked a bit about plasma communication and how it's the foundation for many of the seemingly inexplicable ways that people can communicate without words or actions. My training with Anglana had involved mostly the task of receiving communications from other star systems and we were about to embark on a few experiments with me transmitting a few messages; but, along with all that, Anglana had also drilled me in methods of controlling my communication abilities, essentially, turning them on and off. When she told me a man was coming to meet me, I turned my powers on and widened my reception to anyone thinking about me.
Neiiv almost immediately entered my consciousness. I was at first thrilled with the mental taste of him. I then, unknowingly, sent him a thought and a feeling. Immediately, I was overcome with a withering rush of consciousness and I couldn't control it, couldn't mute it, couldn't do anything but let it wash over me. I nearly swooned under its impact and, before I could recover, he appeared at the top of a nearby hill. Seeing his form gave me a small foothold from which to begin to gain control of my mind and heart. Later, I would scold Anglana harshly. Now, I was eager to meet him, get to know him, devour him...
Since this book isn't a history of me but a story of my people's rise from nearly interminable war to enduring peace, I'll jump to the time after our wedding, when we began earnest discussions about the future of our people.
Neiiv's estimation was that another fifty years would see the Aklan Faith's membership reaching about 70% of the population. He also predicted that the Teachings of Akla would be the accepted moral norm for at least 85% of our population. He also thought that we were reaching a point in our culture's evolution where we would transition from learning how to live to teaching other people how to live.
Naturally, he was deeply involved with my experiments with plasma communication with other star systems but he had focused in on becoming the organizer of a physical voyage to one of the five systems under study.
He estimated it would take us another sixty years to successfully establish comfortable enough relations with one of those peoples to permit the sending of a space vessel full of brave souls. He even predicted which of the systems would prove safest to visit.
While Neiiv set about his spacey task, I continued to reach out to other star systems.
The very next one I made contact with was yours...
18 ~ Dominion
How to describe the first mental taste of a world in another star system...
This is exactly what happens inside me—I have a distinct taste in my mind. If it's strong enough, it can spill into my mouth and become a physical taste.
That's what happened with your World. It had a very sour taste in my mouth. But, under that, like an aftertaste, was a deep sweetness.
As I pursued my exploration and narrowed my reception of various parts of your World, I realized that the sourness was coming from very few and very specific places. Most of your World's mental taste is extremely sweet, lots of it bitter sweet, but small pockets are very distasteful.
After I'd narrowed my search for those deeply interested in life beyond your World, I discovered two classes of mind:
*Those looking out trying to find another example of who they were.
*Those looking out and wide open to whatever they were graced to find.
The first group is mainstream astronomers and astrophysicists.
The second group includes artists of many kinds.
Let me add that I'm egregiously oversimplifying this separation of types of people. Some belong to both groups. Some in one group secretly believe ideas of the other group. F
ully exploring the variations of people on your World who seriously consider the cosmos would take another whole book.
I'd narrowed my search to ten individuals who seemed possible candidates for reception of a message from me. And, let me make it clear, the previous five Worlds I'd contacted had no individual consciousnesses I felt able to send a message to. All those Worlds needed many years of study before we could reveal ourselves to them.
There's something about your World that sets it apart. It has to do with the stage of evolution of your culture.
Out of the ten possible, one continued to stand out. Not because he was intelligent or particularly scholarly. Not because he had some important position in World affairs or had connections to those who did.
He was a nearly unknown man who had done some writing, had served a few years in one of your military establishments, and had been born to parents who were both ministers of an evangelical Faith. The story of his search for the balance between faith and science would take a book of its own.
He's the co-author of this book and is sitting there right now, typing these words onto the page and debating with me in his mind about all this reference to him. He's sixty-five of your years old and used to be a rather argumentative man. The various experiences of his life have taught him just a bit of humility.
Notes from An Alien Page 14
