aaron_the fall of america_chapter_19

Chapter 19

My new friend permitted me to take a blood sample from her before she left me alone in my ship for the night. I had the disadvantage of not knowing much about biology but had the advantage of the computer knowing almost everything there was to know concerning humans. I tested her blood to see if the computer would find anything wrong. The computer diagnosed the blood as healthy. It was a back-wards test. I wanted to know if the DNA and chromosomes were the same. It didn't say they weren't and I'm certain that if something were different the computer would understand this as a heath problem since it had not been informed of anything other than the human standard. Maybe I was stretching a theory but I tentatively concluded that we were much the same species.

This raised a question of probability that even the computer might have had trouble with. I sloughed it off as a likely probability with the support of a good example that life tended toward a general direction with distinct parameters. Particular numbers of chromosomes were likely to generate similar species. It seemed to hold true for most mammals. I had a little trouble working out the exactness of DNA and environmental conditions mixed into randomness of evolution but I decided not to trouble over questions that the answers tended to remain hypothetical.

I wasn't even resolved on what life was; that confused my study even more.

Sleep finally saved me from my pondering. Sleep of comfortable oblivion ascended with the carefree chaotic exactness of dreams. In one of my dreams, I was given the answer. Although far fetched and motivated only by the grandeur of fantasy, I had to accept it as one possibility.

Billions of years ago there was one lone planet with intelligent life. On the planet were two large continents. The people of the planet thrived for millions of years with only infrequent fighting or famine. They developed into technological and biological geniuses. Near the end of the great empires, overpopulation of one continent proved to be a threat to the other continent. While the over populated continent's people developed war technology, the second continent's people developed a programme that could be described as shooting the sperm of life into the womb of space. They launched countless millions of small crafts that had all the enzymes, viruses, bacteria and the other chemicals needed to start life. The formula was exact enough that given the right conditions, life similar to theirs would evolve on hundreds, possibly thousands, of planets. Some would start millions, even billions of years after another, depending on when the life capsule finally found a home. Some life would thrive and become extinct before some crafts would even find their distant stars. Some would be extinct before intelligent life evolved. Some might even poison or destroy the life already evolving on a planet. Some might create passive life forms while others created hostile life forms.

Although the formula was exact enough to suggest a practically perfect path, there were many variables, such as planet conditions, and therefore there could only be a small hope that life would one day mirror their own achievements.

When I awoke, the dream stayed with me. I couldn't decide if I even liked the notion that a race would choose such a megalomaniac solution to a personal extinction problem.

Too many bloody questions to be answered if you need to have answers for everything. It would be simpler to concede that 'God only knows’, although it doesn't change much and helps even less.

Although some of the people on my new planet know some of the grunts of my language, they usually have no call to talk to me. It might be because communicating on my level isn't too rewarding for a species that seems to be a few million years ahead. They think differently. They appear to avoid symbolism and seldom relate one thing to another. They don't order their observations. They don't have to figure anything out; either they already know all there is to know or they don't care. I can't be sure which it is. Nothing happens in their village. I hope I'm missing something.

I've heard or seen no children. Seldom do I hear anything. Not one excited movement of even one muscle have I witnessed. I can't imagine what caused them to evolve. Whatever it was is long past. I've not been in their company long and it already weighs heavy on me.

I kept to myself all morning, walking around the village wondering if anyone would notice me. I wanted to go to a cafe for breakfast but there wasn't such a thing. There wasn't anything: no streets, no cars, no cats, no dogs, no street lamps, so signs, no shopping centres, no little kiosks, no anything but humble dwellings loosely scattered around the hill sides. Each had a small vegetable garden that looked well kept but I suspected weeds didn't bother to grow in such a tired land.

I returned to my spacecraft for a freeze-dried American breakfast before setting to work in front of the computer. I wanted something to distract me from my job but I would likely have to wait until the next spaceship came looking for me. Just to reassure myself, I checked that all systems of the craft were in operation. All was in order. With the reassurance, I started to calculate where in space I was. It was amusing that my assumption of relevance of reference points somehow affected the assumption that I existed in a particular place in space and time.

After hours of calculations, I decided that Earth had passed through four years, two months, thirteen days and forty-three minutes from the time I left Cape Canaveral five weeks, two days and six hours ago, my time. The calculations aren't verifiable until I check with the radio, which will take a few million years at best and more calculations. Or I get back to Earth. My paranoia keeps telling me that I lost thousands of years, but based on the calculations of the position of the stars plus the changing of my vantage point in time by skipping light years of space, my position is out exactly as it should be after adding the four years. They are tricky calculations because it's hard to determine position when theoretically I jumped back in time by jumping ahead of the light that was on it's way from Earth and ahead in time by jumping around the light on it's way to Earth. It's only numbers. I will figure out where Earth is by cross-referencing star charts. It is tedious but it is better to have it done right away in case I decide I must leave. And return home.

I was far enough away that if I had a powerful enough telescope, I could watch my grandparents fighting the dinosaurs when they were children. I had jumped over seventy-eight light years in what calculates to be instantaneous. If the jump could be achieved with less time approaching light speed, Americans could put their flags all over the universe without having to see their friends age while they were out.

"May I come in.?"

If I could decide on a way to get toward light speed quicker when I returned, I might be able to stay older than my brother. It was unlikely that I could cut the time in half but I wanted to find a way to steal a few months. There sun was almost ten times the size of out sun. I might be able to use that.

"May I come in, Aaron?"

"What?"

"May I watch what you are doing?"

"Oh. Hello. Come in, certainly. I was just trying to calculate where I am."

"You are here."

"This I'm starting to believe, but I need to know where it is in relation to where I'm from so that when it's time to go, I have the exact direction. Even a small error in angle adds up over light years. I want to make one jump put me there or I'll miss too much Earth time."

"I think I understand," she said. "How is my blood?"

"Very strange."

"Why; what is wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong. I believe your blood differs from mine only in that you have a better immune system. I couldn't test it much with my limited knowledge but I think we are the same species."

"That is a bold conclusion."

"It's crazy. I don't know if there are probabilities to verify it's remote likeliness. I have two theories. One, I'm reluctant to tell you for fear it may be true, the second is we are part of the same lost history."

"What history is that?"

"The history of a time when space travel was part of life and humans populated every available planet. On some planets, maybe they even started life. Designed evolution. Our recorded history is so short that it makes this notion absurd, but a history of a few million years might make it inevitable. We always thought, in our short history, that we were the centre of the universe. We were the reason everything was. It would be difficult for us to believe we were just a little forgotten planet and not very unique at all."

"I do not believe our history has space travel."

"Maybe space travel stalled twenty thousand of fifty thousand years ago for any kind of reason. Maybe a large war. Maybe it hasn't ended. Maybe it goes on somewhere else and we, on the fringes, have been forgotten. Maybe humans lost the war and were stripped of their technology but permitted to live on planets the other life didn't care about or was out of their preferred area of space."

"You do not believe our independent evolution would design us so similarly."

"I couldn't imagine it. We have quite a variety of humans on my home planet just from environmental differences. Some people are dark black, some are bright white. There is much variation in between and we are all one species. Some speculate our ancestry back to an area in Africa. They calculate the evolution of languages and our genes. Six billion of us spread over the planet are more closely related than a thousand apes that still live on one mountain area. We are practically all unhealthy, inbred cousins and yet we differ from land to land. To see the people here so similar makes it hard to believe I'm not still on Earth."

"You elaborated on that thought extensively. Was that so I forgot about your first thought?"

"Excuse me."

"You said you had two idea."

"I have too many ideas."

"If you do not want to tell me, we can talk of something else."

"Well, the first idea I've mostly given up on, especially after looking at the stars."

"What did the stars tell you?"

"That I'm not on Earth."

"I would have told you that, had you asked."

"You may think you're funny but you have to work on it some more."

"Humour is foreign to us."

"I'll tell you of my first idea if you promise not to think me warped."

I explained to her my paranoia about the trip being a fake and that it was a big scam to suck money from the government to use in a way that would probably frighten most people into insane panic. I explained how governments were corrupt and secretive and how that organised crime was the world's biggest power. I told her we were ruled by fear of death and torture. Generally, I painted an unflattering plain portrait of the people back home.

Karna watched me closely trying to understand. She could read me better than understand my language. Most of what I told her had little meaning because they were so foreign. She remained silent some time while I pushed keys on my computer.

"Why are you so determined to work endlessly on your computer?"

"I kind of like it. Humans can be funny that way, they enjoy work. Arbeit macht frei. Sometimes it keeps them from starting another ridiculous religion or simply going mad."

"What is mad?"

"You can quote me on this one."

"Do what?"

"I was about to be funny. Don't interrupt."

"Excuse me."

"I've never been mad to my knowledge so I don't know exactly what it is but in case I wouldn't like it, and I've heard it can be very distracting, I try to avoid it."

"How do you avoid it if you don't know what it is?"

"By being a little crazy."

"That is not such a serious condition?"

"No. Not at all. And it is very necessary. And now that I think of it, I'm not sure of the definition of sanity. I'm not even sure if it can be applied to humans. That's something I've got to remember to study and figure out when I get home. I'm going to be busy. Which is ironic after so long not doing anything."

"Does there have to be something you are working on, or can you just occupy yourself to avoid madness?"

"Mostly, anything will do. At least for a time. Work, job, sports, religion, entertainment, worries, education, missions, adventures, sex."

"You are a strange being."

"That's not so true."

"You have caused so much commotion since you came here. No one is settled on your significance. Some people are even getting a little excited."

"If this is excitement, I'd hate to see it when it was quiet."

"We don't express excitement in such a way for you to notice and this of course is a quiet village. You must also consider that there has been little excitement for countless generations."

"Why is that?"

"I am not certain how it happened. My father studies that sort of thing. He might have some answers for you."

"I'd like to know some of your history."

"He might like to know yours."

"Why do I get the feeling that I've landed in a retirement village."

"I am not certain of your question."

"Why isn't there any children?"

"I am a child."

"Not as far as I can tell."

"I am eleven years."

"Eleven of your years is almost twice as long as eleven of our years."

"Oh. That is something I missed."

"I see no babies or children. I think that is very strange."

"Not many people have babies. There are a few in the next village."

"Why don't people have babies?"

"I am not certain. Maybe they do not want to prolong the cycle anymore."

"They just want to stop living?"

"It is difficult for you to understand because you still have the mad hunger for what will come. For us it has already past."

"You have lost the struggle to survive."

"Our biggest struggle is to raise from bed each day."

"Are your people not concerned that you may be in danger being alone with me."

"What do you mean?"

"That I may adversely influence you, or take advantage of your innocence."

"We do not know what it is to tell others what to do. We make our own decisions even regarding the new alien. I am aware of the potential danger in a being like you but I'm not defenceless. I am much more aware of your intentions and desires than you might believe."

"Does that mean you trust me."

"I am not certain of you but I do not fear you."

"I don't think you would have any reason to worry about me."

"I am curious about you."

"It surprises me that no one else seems to be. Nothing seems to happen here."

"We have a visitor from another planet, that is something."

"True enough but other than that, what is going on?"

"Little now?"

"What used to happen?"

"I have heard that it was very different. There was a great population that was busy discovering, developing and doing everything. I have heard that it came to a point where the doing was so extreme that we were hardly part of our own lives anymore. It drained the spirit out of our people until we became disinterested in all the goings on. People didn't even bother having children any more. Everything had been done and everything was used up. The great city has become a wasteland and now we just wait."

"Wait for what?"

"Most do not know. Maybe the end, perhaps a different beginning. It has been as it is now for so long that even the stories are fading."


"You said the great city."

"Yes."

"There was just one city?"

"Yes, but it is very large."

"Is it still there?"

"It will be there as long as our planet is here."

"How can that be? Won't it eventually fall apart? Won't weather wear it away?"

"It was built to last and operate indefinitely."

"But no one is there to make it run."

"It operates on its own. There is no decay."

"How big is this city?"

"I am not certain of your dimensions but at one time twelve billion people lived inside of it."

"Twelve billion?"

"That was near its end."

"We have half that on our entire planet and we're racing toward our end."

"I do not think you are."

"You know something I don't."

"A few things."

"Will you take me to the city?"

"I can."

"After I finish my calculations, I'd like to see it before I go."

"Are you going soon?"

"Yes, I think I should."

"Then you can see only a little of the city."

"I guess a twelve billion people city is quite large."

"Yes."

I saved my calculation on the computer before turning it off. When I stood up I was directly in front of Karna. I wondered how long I could keep from touching her. It was crazy to think it was possible to love someone from another world but I could already see when I looked in her soft greenish blue eyes that I wanted her love. I would not be able to control my emotions even though I suspected I was being a fool.

I had to have contact. I reached out only to touch her hair. That would be all. I would not attempt anything beyond one short touch.

I was slipping. I started imagining the fabric of reality breaking down. Events were animated random absurdities. There were no connections.

The damp dark cell and my hole flashed back to me. I feared I would wake with a little monster sucking on my head, not being able to see, not being able to remember. Just a vacancy.

Maybe I'm trapped in a coma. It's all a dream.

"You like my hair?"

I was touching her hair. I focused my time reference to see that I was in my craft with a creature from another planet. Everything seemed perfectly obvious. Why did I feel I was rapidly deteriorating? I felt a frightful instability.

"Oh, I'm sorry. What was I doing?"

"You touched my hair."

"Was that okay?"

"Yes. Are you okay?"

"No. I think I need some fresh air."

"Do you have some on your ship?"

"Yes, but I meant that I should go outside."

We left the craft and walked through the strategically, randomly placed trees of a young wood land. The air was fresh. Above was the continual canopy of clear sky. I got the impression that it was likely the same sky twenty-nine hours a day, through the five-hundred-thirty-eight days of their year.

"Are their any animals?"

"Not many."

"Why's that?"

"They are hard to make."

"I suppose they would be."

"When we were in our height of technology and biology there was no need for animals, therefore that field was never developed. It is being worked on now but progress is slow. At the far reaches of the continent, east and west, are a few small islands that still have a variety of insects and bugs and even some small animals. The reforesting was started out at the ends of the continent for that reason."

"How do the animals and insects get to the new forest on the main land?"

"An earth bridge has been build for them."

"They use a bug cause way."

"They have. Look." Karna pointed to a little speck on a tree. Upon close inspection, I saw that it was moving.

"Yes, a little bug."

"There is a bigger one."

"Why are you growing trees again if no one cares?"

"Some people care. I try to care. My father works at reforesting and the breeding of bugs and animals."

"Where does he do that?"

"Deep in the city."

"It's an odd place to study forestry, isn't it?"

"There are many more breeds of trees and plants in the city than there are outside of the city. At every level are various plants and trees, it made people more comfortable about living in the city. It also made the air very refreshing."

"That is something I could never figure out. Most everyone on our planet enjoys the comfort of house plants and a front lawn with a tree on it but the natural forests have been clear cut to make toothpicks and toilet paper and the land is used for growing hamburgers and cigarettes."

"Only two kinds of food?"

"There are others. Cigarettes aren't a food. They are a drug that half the world can't live without and die a slow horrible death from."

"We used all the land for growing food. We harvested much from the great ocean as well. We had so many people that there was little choice."

"Did you fish all the life out of the ocean as well?"

"The ocean has recovered better than the land. It is so vast that even twelve billion can take from it."

"Our oceans are vast as well and they are not doing well."

"More than ninety percent of our planet is ocean."

"I haven't seen any or heard any birds. In fact, I haven't heard much of anything."

"What is a bird?"

"I believe it's a flying descendent of the dinosaurs."

"Things do not fly here. What are dinosaurs?"

"Large prehistoric reptilian beast that owned our planet before we did. A pretty frightening place for soft mammals like us but most of the dinosaurs had been dead millions of years before our ancestors popped in."

"That sounds fantastic."

"It certainly is strange compared to what we have now. It was probably a very hostile existence.
There have been bones found of flesh eaters that would have towered twice as high as the spaceship I came here in. I wouldn't want to meet a hungry one of those."

"Are all the flesh eaters gone?"

"No. There are many. The polar bear is likely the biggest, unless you count sea creatures and some of those are most frightening."

I raved on about sharks, squids, whales, lizards, tigers, elephants, snakes, rabbits, toads, birds, black flies, mosquitoes and whatever else came to mind. I thought I might put her to sleep eventually but she asked questions about all.

"But I fear we are on a more final path than you were. Soon there will be nothing left. Governments own shares in lumber industries thus farther allowing the clear-cutting of the last few virgin forests. Money rules and nothing else matters. Poison flows freely in what used to be our rivers and lakes and oceans. The air is dangerous to breathe and nothing has been done to stop the death race."

"Maybe you want to take the path of the dinosaurs."

"We are different. The dinosaurs had no choice in there death. We have chosen it. We have evolved into the Earth's exterminator."

"Maybe it is part of the evolution of your planet."

"Better defined as a cancer or some other terminal disease."

"Maybe your planet has grown tired and has allowed such a thing to happen so that it may latter start afresh."

"Life just gives up and folds in on itself by evolving an exterminating species to wipe the slate clean."

"The slate?"

Sometimes Karna had trouble understanding what I meant if she wasn't watching my face. She was stepping out of her garment and walking into the river we had walked to. Having come from a puritan country, I was a little surprised. I could only stare at her. I couldn't think of anything to say.

"Why are you looking so?"

"I haven't seen a live naked woman for a long time and I've never seen one that looked quite like you."

"Do I look odd?"

"I don't believe that's it?"

"You find me pleasing to look at. I can see that."

"That's it."

"Are you going to swim as well?"

"Maybe I should."

"Should?" she asked.

"It might help me wake form my dream."

I hoped it wasn't one of my dreams where the woman who at first appears so beautiful and desirous turns into a hideous old witch or a demonic blood sucker; my dreams sometimes had that raw edge. Probably a learned paranoia, hopefully not based on observations of reality.

"I wish I could dream."

"You don't dream?"

"I have had a few little fantasies but dreams are unusual for us."

I wondered if it was possible that they lacked madness in their subconscious and had no cause to dream. There was nothing to sort out; there was nothing to fight for. The most they seemed to hope for was a few bugs and little animals.

I took off my clothes and walked slowly into the warm water.

"I'm going to find it hard to leave this planet."

"Your craft is not working properly?"

"My craft is good."

"You want to look at me some more."

"It's almost out of my control."

"You have strong hormones."

"Can you tell?"

"I can read it on you face."

"I can keep no secrets from you."

"You do not have someone on your home planet that is waiting for you?"

"No. Even if I did, I've been gone four years and it takes four years to get back again."

"You must fight with madness on your craft."

"It's only days for me, it's a physics problem. I'll explain some other time."

"Have you ever had someone?"

"A few very enjoyable unions but never for long. I'm not the type to instil confidence or security."

"Why is that?"

"I seldom have a job. I have no money and I don't care. I think the whole game is bullshit and it doesn't interest me."

"What is a bull?"

"Bullshit loosely translated means nonsense. A bull is a male of a, well shit, there's bull moose with big antlers. It's taller than I am, stands on four legs, is furry, straight, dark brown, coarse hair kind of fur, has a long face, eats greenery, is a little curious and somewhat confused about humans. But the bull with the famous shit is the domestic bovine. Humans use bovine as cattle for meet and milk. And of course cheese from the milk. And there are also bullfrogs, which would be in a river like this on Earth. There are also bull elephants, bull whales and walruses. But most importantly, there is a lot of bullshit, which strangely enough, come from humans," I explained. "Why are you smiling at me like that?"

"You are so excited."

She swam a little more before leaving the water and getting dressed. I realised I hadn't swam yet so I simply submerged until I ran out of air. Then I got out of the water and got dressed.

"I would like to see some of those animals."

"I wish I would have brought a picture book."

"You might want to take me with you."

"Back?"

"To your planet."

"Oh, no. That’s not a good idea. No. It's a one way trip. What if you don't like it? What if they make a spectacle out of you. They'd want to do tests. They might want to quarantine you. They might have to keep you from the public. Oh, I don't think so. I'd want you to love me and would be too jealous if you found someone else to love."

She made a sound that I didn't understand.

"It would be morally sick to kidnap one of the few children your planet has, to take her to a hostile planet that may kill her. No, and they would want to probe your brain. They would have to do medical and physicals every day. They'd want to dissect you to see how you worked. They’d put you in a cage with cocaine to see how you coped with addiction. They'd try new make up products on you. They'd take out your liver for a transplant. If there was anything left of you after the tests, they'd force you to co-host a game show and appear on beer commercials. They'd force you to watch all the American movies and music videos. You'd have to watch T.V. news until you consented to be a cheerleader for the Dallas Cowboys. They'd make you get a dozen credit cards and force you to go to shopping malls.

"You wouldn't like our planet. The people are dangerously deranged. Even when not poisoned, the environment can kill you. Sometimes it's hot enough to cook an egg on the street, sometimes it's cold enough that your spit freezes before it hits the brittle snow covered ground. It's not like here where all is safe and continually the same. There are people there who will want you, to own you, to rape you."

"Aaron."

"What?"

"If you do not want me to go, I will try to understand."

"No. Don't understand. I want you to make me take you. I want you to insist I take you and not give me a choice. I want you to tell me you would be miserable the rest of your life if I left without you. I want you to want to be with me even if it means living on an asteroid."

"What's an asteroid?"

"A barren rock that hurls through space."

"You are a little obsessed?"

"I'm sorry. I should try to contain myself."

"Not for my sake. I enjoy it."



read on. book_01 chapter_20



by Joanne B. Washington

© 2001 | the jose wombat project