Lives Of The Unknown Book 1: The Legend of Andrew Lockeford (11 page)

“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 of 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.