Notes from An Alien (8 page)

    Her last thought as she died was the echo of a Lordly voice: “I forgive you for that now."

    The Leadership Council on Anga-Param issued a threat to the Council on Anla-Purum and Anla-Purum sent ShipFour back to Anga-Param. It halted its flight just out of range of weapons, on land or in orbit, and delivered four deadly plasma blasts to the Leadership Council's building, then retreated to Anla-Purum.

~~~

The ecology of Anga-Param continued to deteriorate, everyday people and Corporate workers dying in the millions.

    Zena became the adviser to the newly-formed Settlers' Leadership Council and Velu became advisory to the Religious Leadership Council.

    Citizens on Anga-Param, those who had particularly strong physical and mental constitutions, organized themselves into a Planetary Leadership Council. The Corporate Leadership Council had become just a name.

    Members of the various Leadership Councils began to visit each other. All were ready to find some way to end the divisions, to find the path toward unification—to try, beyond hope, to stop the death and destruction.

5 ~ Light

Exploratory talks between members of the various Leadership Councils continued. Face-to-face meetings became the norm because a smaller LightSail craft was rapidly developed and nine were initially built, on Anla-Purum. The deteriorated conditions on the corporate World of Anga-Param made any construction of spaceships a non-priority when just keeping the basic infrastructure intact was the only task possible; and, even that was severely hampered by the wild swings in weather conditions and the virtual non-existence of a government. Everyone was willing to do whatever was necessary. Angan life was stark and utterly confused.

    Anlan life, however, was ripe and evolving. Not having had an ecological disaster to deal with was a distinct advantage. Having four different religious groups to unify was a supreme challenge. The settlers, as a group, were the most eager to work toward unifying the two Worlds.

~~~

Velu and Zena were back in the Unholy Lands, after much traveling between Worlds, to be with Akla as he prepared to die. They were the only two permitted to attend to Akla's final physical needs. Akla was comforting them as they did what little they could to make this passing peaceful and easy. They could do small things like fetch a drink or open a door for a breeze but Akla poured out such blessing on them that the three would often share laughter at the ironic nature of the normally dire and dismal event.

    After Akla's last physical breath, Velu and Zena prepared the body for burial, as specified by Akla in the Aklan Book of Laws. After the body was secure in its elemental rest, they lingered at the site. Zena, after many long minutes of silence, said:

    "He died."

    "His body died, Zena."

    "His spirit will live on in the Book and writings left to us."

    "His spirit is very active in the Eternal World, Zena."

    "We have long ago agreed to disagree."

    "Yes, my love."

~~~

Velu was attending another meeting of the Religious Leadership Council on Anla-Purum. Her plasma-communication talents had grown much stronger since Akla's passing and she was much more careful to use them with discipline and compassion. The representative of the Lord's Army, the priest, Urnun, was finishing his report:

    "Our numbers seem to have stabilized. Our births are infrequent and God has demanded few Gifts. Also, our position on accepting the decrees of Akla have not changed."

    Velu sent Urnun a compelling burst of acceptance and he continued with:

    "We... still... do not see... how we can reconcile Akla's words with our beliefs."

    Velu sent Urnun more feelings of acceptance and said:

    "You are at least clear about what you cannot accept."

    "Yes, Velu, we have made specific mention of which words trouble us."

    "Yes, Urnun, and you have also said that most of Akla's moral or ethical sayings are completely acceptable, right?"

    "That is true but coming to an awareness that the Lord's Army or the Faith of Eternity or the Disciples of Faith can agree on simple moral laws does not bring us to an agreement with the Aklans that all our religions are one Faith."

    "How many Gods are there?"

    "Velu, do not play with me."

    "How many?"

    "There is but one God."

    "Why would one God want various religious groups to disagree about the means of providing for a safe and secure life on this planet?"

    "The rules of life, as opposed to the rules of spirituality, are determined by priests."

    "Who determines who is a priest?"

    "Velu, we are going around in circles. We have been down this path before and now you want me to travel it again?"

    The priest from the Faith of Eternity, Vaozur, spoke up:

    "Urnun, you know as well as I do that Velu wants you to become an Aklan, to throw away your priesthood and align yourself with what she determines to be the correct path for surviving in the physical realm."

    Velu sent a burst of acceptance to Vaozur and said:

    "There are large numbers of people on this planet who abide by no formula of religious rites yet accept the Words of Akla about the most equitable manner of organizing our physical lives."

    "Settlers..."

    "Yes, settlers who have freely shared their knowledge of many of the secrets of material existence and made all our lives more comfortable, even yours, Vaozur, and yours, Urnun. You can enjoy the fruits of their physical prowess and they can accept Akla's injunctions for physical security yet you want what? That they agree with rules of living that, even if they once met the needs of your followers, are now increasingly being left behind by those same followers?"

    "Sin is a condition that is inherent in our lives."

    Velu sent all present a huge burst of love and said:

    "Sin is not doing what is necessary to get along with other children of God, no matter what rites or practices they feel are correct."

    She walked, in turn, to each of the representatives—Lord's Army, Faith of Eternity, Disciples of Faith, and Aklan—hugged them, and, as she began the walk to her tent, Morna, who was always with Velu though usually quite silent, said:

    "Patience is our weapon of choice."

~~~

Zena was on Anga-Param thinking that to call this the Corporate World was completely inaccurate. He made a mental note to begin a personal campaign to end the too-common practice. Seeing people struggling to keep the fruits of high technology working, in spite of horrendous weather and disabled infrastructure, was heartening but the reality was that Anga-Param was a World that was very sick and needed a completely new form of government. His imminent meeting with the current head of the Planetary Leadership Council was going to be the beginning of his attempt to change the words people used to refer to this planet. The Corporate Leadership Council still demanded negotiation time and considered themselves the voice of the planet but the representatives were the saddest and most confused people on the planet—
prone to emotional outbursts and irrational displays of incoherent demands. Zena was most pleased that they were so incompetent, mostly because they had no effectual means left to continue the endocrine alterations of the citizens. He hoped the scientific and technical people who were still capable of rational action would swiftly alter the nature of the simulated recreation available to the populace. Having been acclimated to emotional swings that necessitated the simulated recreation didn't mean that the average person could cope with only simulated recreation—they had also become addicted to the emotional swings. An improved simulated recreation would aid stability.

    The Planetary Leadership Council representative had arrived. It was always a guess as to who would show up for the meetings since each member of the Council was critically needed for the seemingly never-ending tasks of keeping the planet alive. Zena was happy to see that it was Keloz, a former scientist with the Corporation's meteorological department.

    "Keloz! How badly are you doing?"

    Keloz deeply appreciated Zena's constant focus on reality and decided to give him a back-handed compliment.

    "Worse than you, my friend, but, considering the fine line you always have to tread, what with you acting like the Worlds' peace ambassador, I may be in a better position when this state of emergency is over and you begin to unravel into a normal person again."

    "Ha! I will never be normal, Keloz, but unraveling sounds like a wonderful occupation... Give me the latest."

    "Well, the Corporate Leader—"

    "Wait, Keloz, I have a new campaign to get rid of the word corporate in discussions of governmental reorganization."

    "Bravo! I will tell those who think you have influence that this is your wish."

    The men shared a welcome round of raucous laughter.

    "O.K., Zena, the latest. That group of imbeciles that used to run the government are getting so desperate they tried to forcibly take over the Science Institute, by themselves, of course, since no one listens to what they say. We gave them a lesson in plasma stunning and set them up in a secluded area where they can use our newest version of the simulated recreation options—perfect test subjects."

    "I agree. Even though they didn't let themselves have their emotions altered artificially, they did a great job of bringing on endocrine imbalance all by themselves. Do let me see your reports on how they get along. We just may be able to save them from themselves. What else?"

    "We think we have the beginnings of a plan to moderate the swings in weather. It means transporting people and playing with the plasma fields of the planet in ways we haven't yet risked but the consensus is almost there for giving it a go."

    "What's the worst that can happen?"

    "We all die a little faster."

    "Alright, what else?"

    "We need more food from Anla, uh, Purum."

    "How much more?"

    "At least half a pound of basics per day per person. Do the math."

    "I'll get to work on it. I think I can get an agreement to add three of the smaller LightSails for permanent duty."

    "Also, we'd like to have more meetings with the Settler's Leadership Council. There are a growing number of people who want to go to Anla-Purum."

    "I've heard some comments that could mean two-way citizen traffic. I'll radio more after I consult with Velu."

    "How is your wife?"

    "Extremely pregnant and ridiculously happy!"

~~~

The Aklans on Anla-Purum continued to minister to the needs of whoever they could reach. They were still being killed by outraged priests of the Lord's Army and the Faith of Eternity but their selfless actions and utter lack of fear had its effect on the followers of the two religious groups—a growing number of them simply left their territories and settled with the Disciples of Faith. The Unholy Lands still raised superstitious fears.

    The settlers were constantly busy improving the standard of living for all groups. It was hoped that better sanitation and basic labor-saving devices would help the most tradition-bound religionists become more reality-oriented as well as speed a population increase.

    The Lord's Army claimed 30,000 members. The Faith of Eternity, 13,000. The Disciples of Faith had nearly one million avowed believers and the Aklans were impossible to count due to their deaths and the unwillingness of anyone, except Velu and Zena, to venture into the Unholy Lands. One thing was certain: their martyrdoms seemed to have no appreciable effect on how many were being of service, except that the faces kept changing.

    The settlers claimed some 1,087,000 people.

    Exact numbers for any group were also suspect because members of one group became members of another group with no predictability.

    Anla-Purum was, to say the least, in flux.

    Anga-Param, on the other hand, still had the technology to keep painstaking track of its citizens. However, since the former Corporate government had evaporated, the tallying of citizens had become an indicator, daily, of the remaining population's will to survive. The planet had, at last count, 21,344 people.

    War is, truly, hell...

~~~

Velu was sitting up during one of the resting spells between her bouts of exhausting labor. Zena stood near. They were in their home, not far from where Akla's body was laid to rest. Three Aklan women were in constant attendance and thousands of Aklans were outside, ranging up and down the mountain valley. Every major turn of event in Velu's birth process was communicated, mouth-to-mouth, through the valley and down to the low lands, then on to the rest of the Unholy Lands' residents.

    Akla had hinted at a very special birth and the time to expect it. The character of Velu and Zena had focused the hint on this birth.

    Twenty-six hours since the beginning of Velu's travail and each hour had seen more visible activity in the plasma streams in the atmosphere above their home—red and green and purple waves and ribbons of color, giving a completely festive feeling to the birth process.

    Zena handed Velu a warm drink and she said:

    "Our child will rename this territory."

    Knowing his wife was seeing what she said, he asked:

    "What will she call it?"

    "She?" Velu cocked an eyebrow and a small smile.

    "Velu, you know I know."

    "Your powers are resurging."

    "Yes. I've needed raw, stark rationality to deal with the Worlds' situation but our child's energy is calling my powers out."