Button in the Fabric of Time (17 page)

My hope of being safe was shattered when I
looked up and saw where the reptiles had run to. They, too, had
sought shelter from the Lōōg in the banyan tree and were now
closing in on me again. With my machete in my right hand and my
knife in my left, I slashed away at the encroaching reptiles.
Somewhere in the din, I heard a familiar sound that I had only
heard once before. It took me a moment to remember where. It was
the audible signal on the ring that Roc-2 had given me. Someone was
trying to contact me, but who? Roc-2 would have no way to know of
my predicament.

It was difficult to think about the ring
while I was fighting for my life. Jan-3 would know, and she and the
others in the keri were watching my struggle, but Mordo and his
cameramen would prevent them from coming to my aid. Ulto could read
our thoughts, but he would allow no interference in the game. Then
I remembered the haze-like cloak around Jan-3 when we were riding
to the jungle.

I severed the head of a giant reptile just
before it engulfed me in its cavernous mouth. Behind the reptile
was a centipede, more than four feet long, and its feelers were
searching for me. My situation was rapidly becoming hopeless. The
added gravity of planet Ergo was sapping my strength, and the
overwhelming number of creatures attacking me was not letting up. I
sheathed my knife to free my left hand and pushed the switch on the
ring.

Jan-3’s voice sounded frantic. “Gus! Gus!”
she yelled. “Turn on the switch to activate your stun
protector!”

“I’d sure like to do that, but I can’t find
it!”

“It’s on the inside of your belt by your
right hand. The switch is in a hole near the center of the belt. It
was put there to prevent you from turning it on accidentally. The
grasps on your knife and machete are insulated to protect you.
After you turn on the switch, the blades of your weapons will
render any animal you touch unconscious.”

I couldn’t spare the use of my right hand
long enough to reach for the switch, so I searched with my left
hand while I defended myself from the centipede with my right. I
found the hole and pressed the lever inside, then touched the
horrible giant insect—it rolled into a ball at my feet. Sparks flew
and steam rose from every animal I touched. Things were looking up!
For the first time in what seemed like hours, I breathed a sigh of
relief. But my problems weren’t over. The Lōōg was crouched outside
my cage.

I had to go near the edge of the tangled
roots to reach the Lōōg. If I got too close, it could reach me, and
one sweep with its claws would end my struggle. His halitosis alone
was enough to render a person unconscious. I judged my distance
right and when it reached for me, I touched him with my machete. He
quivered and dropped like a stone. I heard my friends in the keri
cheering and clapping. Mordo, hoping I would be eaten, was
sulking.

I called for Jan-3 to send me more empty
bags. I wanted to take extra tubers back to the Ergons to rub a bit
of salt in Mordo’s wounds. While filling the bags, I had to touch a
few other animals with my machete or knife, but everything went
smoothly.

As I was getting into the pneumatic tube to
ascend into the keri, Ulto’s excited voice boomed into my head:
“Gus, I knew you could do it!”
He was very pleased.

I was glad
someone
knew I could do it. There was a time there when I wasn’t so sure.
As I crawled out of the tube, Jan-3 stood waiting, her cheeks wet
with happy tears. Her hug was almost as tight as the hug I had
received from the giant snake. The Earth people wanted to praise
me. I had never felt so admired and appreciated!

If the Ergons want appreciation, getting the
tubers is the way to earn it. This game might work after all! A
flood of Ergons met us when we exited the keri. They were clamoring
for an opportunity to be the ones selected for the first game.

I told Domer, “Let’s make sure they know how
to activate the switch.”

I found out how Jan-3 slipped her thoughts
past Ulto when she instructed me how to activate the switch. Domer
and his engineers had made a plasma hood that shielded her thoughts
from Ulto. She couldn’t tell me about the switch before I descended
into the jungle because Ulto could read my thoughts. When she and
the engineers saw the difficulty I was having, they realized that
they hadn’t explained the safety switch to me. If I had turned it
on before I left the keri, someone might have touched me, and would
have been shocked unconscious. I knew about safety switches on
firearms, so I understood. But my lack of information could have
been a disaster for humanity; Jan-3’s foresightedness saved the
day.

“You’ve had a big day,” Jan-3 said, “and
you’ve earned your reward. I, too, have had a big day, and I want
some time alone with you.”

Domer said, “Gus, you and Jan-3 get something
to eat and get some rest. My men and I will get the Ergons started
building the purification chambers. If their willingness to work is
matched by their enthusiasm for the game, we’ll have the job done
in no time and be able to go home. My wife is going to start
worrying about me if I don’t show up soon.”

Jan-3 and I retired behind the plasma
curtain. Ulto and even Murdo seemed to approve.

* * *

The work progressed rapidly, and the Ergons
were selected that would make up the team of twelve who would
compete in the first game. Other Ergons were eager to be selected
for the next game. The entire Ergon population watched the games on
their view screens, and the winners became national heroes. The
game became a weekly affair, and everyone was content because the
food they most desired was plentiful.

The Ergons were pleased to be rid of their
diseases, but they decided not to use earthling DNA to alter their
mutations. Their religious leaders told them that their deformities
were the will of God, and that it would be wrong to interfere. With
their bodily functions working unfettered, they would multiply
profusely, and in no time overpopulate planet Ergo. Hopefully, they
would be able to work out their problems before they destroyed
themselves.

The Antons were eager to recover their
bodies, have them purified, and go back to planet Duos. To the
sorrow of the Anton women, and because the Ergons wouldn’t correct
their mutations, the descendants of their children would not be
acceptable on planet Duos, so they would have to remain on Ergo.
Domer and his engineers returned to Earth and to their
families.

The Anton women pleaded with Gus and Jan-3 to
help them. To appease the Anton women, Ulto asked Jan-3 and me to
remain behind and do what we could to help the Ergons. Jan-3 asked
Ulto and Mordo to arrange a meeting so that she and I could talk to
their people.

* * * * *

Chapter 22

Jan-3 began. “We are here to determine if it
will be possible for you to govern yourselves, I can’t tell you
what to do, but as a historian, I can tell you of the struggle
earthlings had to go through to attain that purpose. As long as
history has been recorded, earthlings have tried to find a way to
live in peace. Anthropological artifacts indicate that men have
been seeking a way to live in peace for thousands, perhaps
millions, of years. Civilizations have risen and fallen because a
person or a group of persons tried to force their will upon
others.”

“Earthlings sought the help of a creator.”
Jan-3 continued. “Some worshiped the sun, moon, and stars—even
Earth itself. People discussed the possibility of a Divine Creator.
In ancient Greece, this practice became so prominent that it was
called the Age of Reason.

“Moses said he talked to God, and God gave
him the Ten Commandments. Billions of people live by those rules
even today. Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, telling people
how to live together. Humans have written and signed documents such
as the Magna Charta, the Declaration of Independence, the
Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Wars have been fought to
defend and uphold those rules. The problems most difficult to
overcome have been greed and fanatical religion. More people have
died defending God, than for all other causes combined. If God is
truly God, then that God needs no defending.”

Impatiently, Mordo interrupted in a loud,
irritating voice: “Did you have those rules when you nearly
destroyed your planet with nuclear weapons?”

“Yes,” Jan-3 replied, but . . .”

Mordo cut her off and said, “Then your rules
didn’t work, did they?”

“Most of the rules were good,” I responded.
“It was our rulers who caused the problems. Our political and
religious leaders, obsessed with a lust for power and wealth,
maintained that power by inducing fear into the hearts and minds of
the uninformed. The
leaders
lived in lavish splendor, while
those they governed lived in poverty and despair. If the plight of
the poor was brought to the attention of the leaders, they excused
their extravagances with remarks like: ‘They live that way because
they
want
to live that way . . . they’re too lazy to do
anything for themselves.’ Arrogance blinded the wealthy to the
service of those whose labor made their pampered lives possible.
The wealthy did not have hands calloused by hard work.”

Mordo started to interject another gripe when
Ulto said:
“Mordo, shut up and listen. You might learn
something, but you cannot learn anything if you are doing all the
talking.”
Mordo pulled his three legs under him, sat down, and
sulked, his bulging eyes rotating.

Jan-3 continued, “After Earth was nearly
destroyed, the people, just like you on planet Ergo, realized that
something had to be done. They had nowhere else to go, so they had
to clean it up. To do that, they needed the hands and minds of
every human. Those who had technical knowledge devised ways to
remove the radiation, while others used their hands to build the
necessary tools. Everybody benefited equally. We realized that
people must be motivated by a desire to achieve, and that there
could be no privileged class. We found that we did not need to
institute new laws because we already had too many laws, so we
eliminated laws that advantaged only the wealthy and encouraged
people to live by laws that benefited everyone. By the time we had
expelled the harmful radiation, we had reduced our laws to only
ten.”

“
And what were those ten?”
Ulto asked
in a serious voice.

Jan-3 had their attention now, and continued.
“They were, essentially, the Ten Commandments, clarified and
combined with the ideas in the Bill of Rights. For instance, the
command ‘Thou shall not kill’ needed clarifying. Kill what? We know
that you cannot take a step, eat a bite of food, or take a breath
without killing something.

“After many long meetings, we decided that
the laws could be reduced to a few basic rules of conduct. We
continued simplifying the laws until we had only one law: DO NO
HARM. We interpret that law to mean, do nothing that will cause
someone to be diminished mentally, physically, emotionally,
physiologically, or economically. We concluded that knowingly
deceiving another for personal advantage was doing harm. That law
brought religious fanaticism under control and prevented people
from making fraudulent claims for the purpose of political, social,
and economic gain.”

“
What happens if a mistake is made?”
Ulto asked.

“There is always the possibility of error,”
Jan-3 continued, “and that is taken into consideration when a
complaint is made. We also allow for fictional expression. Fiction
and art keep our sense of adventure alive. We encourage people to
engage in physical and mental games for pleasure and to stimulate
them to improve both their bodies and minds.”

“
If people are not allowed to enjoy the
advantages of financial gain, how do you motivate them to
excel?”

“No one is denied the right to use
accumulated wealth, but they cannot use their wealth to the
disadvantage of others. There are many ways that people can receive
advantages without involving money. I, for instance, receive no
pay, yet I have advantages, and nothing is denied me. If I do well,
I am praised; if I should fail, I would be asked to explain my
failings. If my failings persist, I would lose some of my
advantages. Many of our brightest minds work very hard to find ways
to improve our way of life and our knowledge. We move forward as a
group because of our individual efforts. We have no problem in
finding ways to motivate ourselves.”

Mordo was beginning to settle down and
listen. “Would you—with the aid of Ulto—write in our language what
you have told us, so we Ergons can study it and, hopefully, make a
better life for ourselves?”

Ulto declared,
“It will be done.”

“I will be glad to write it,” Jan-3
replied.

“How long,” Mordo asked, “will it take to
establish the form of government you described?”

“There are a few preliminaries you must first
accomplish, but after those have been achieved, the rest will come
quickly,” Jan-3 said.

With doubt and mistrust now entering his
voice, Mordo asked in a snide manner, “And what are those
preliminaries?”

“You must learn to care. You must learn to
treat others the way you would want them to treat you. Then you
must learn to be clean and orderly. You cannot develop a healthy
society in a filthy place.”

Convinced now, and as excited as a child,
Mordo decided, “Then we will begin right now.”

Ulto said,
“There is no need to write
anything for us. We have read your minds and know everything you
know. To show our appreciation, we, therefore, will record
everything we know into the minds of both you and Gus.”