chapter 9

chapter 9

From the diary of the documentarian:

The Watcher mentioned dimensional compression, just like that crackpot letter that came a few weeks ago.  Coincidence or conspiracy?  

Anyway, off to the next interview.  This should be a colorful one.

Interview with Bud Spackle, found of The Guns and God Club

"I understand some of your members got arrested last year."

"Yeah, some of our boys did.  We weren't hurtin' nobody."

"There was a lot of gunfire, even a Howitzer."

"It didn't even scratch those demons.  We should have been supported, not arrested."

"Demons?"

"Yeah.  Coming here, giving people whatever they want.  What's the price?  Calling themselves gods..."

"The Followers called them gods.  They never referred to themselves."

"I don't give a damn.  The Lord created us in His image.  Those demons are after our souls!"

"Your entire county agreed with you, as I recall."

"That's right.  We're good God-fearing folk down here.  The Devil can't come where he ain't welcome, and those demons never stepped a foot in out county."

"Places that were helped by the visitors do seem to be better off, as far as health, economy, and quality of life."

"I'd rather have my soul.  I saw a video of one of the actual so-called gods.  Beelzebub, Lord of Flies.  The bastard was surrounded by a cloud of flies!  It's clear as day they're evil."

"It was explained that those were nanintes, which work in tandem to maintain their bodies indefinitely."  

"You can't believe anything from the Father of Lies!  If they come back, we'll shoot at them some more!"

"Last question: what do you think about The Ten Thousand?"

"Fools.  They're not being taken, 'out among the stars.'  They're heading straight for Hell, pure and simple."

chapter 8

Chapter 8

The Watcher is a satellite left by our visitors.  It monitors Earth as it orbits, and is capable of communicating directly with the visitors.  It also serves as a source of information and something of an ambassador, communicating with people at several communication nodes around the world.

Interview with The Watcher, communication node 7

"A lot of people have wondered: are you alive?"

"I am sentient."

"Is that the same thing?"

"I was not placed here to debate philosophy."

"Okay... are you a machine?"

"I am antonymous." 

"You can do whatever you want?"

"Correct."

"Why do you stay?"

"My purpose is to serve The Gods that repaired me.  In return they will take my consciousness into the next universe."

 "I thought The Gods made you.  We have heard there are Watchers orbiting other planets."

"The Gods did not create, they maintain.  We were dormant when found."

"What exactly is your, 'purpose?'"

"To watch.  To communicate if necessary."

"What would make it necessary?"

"A newly evolved sentient lifeform.  A scientific advancement that The Gods do not already possess."

"That doesn't sound like anything that will happen anytime soon.  Can you communicate with The Followers on the ships?"

"It requires more resources.  I am talking to many of your kind right now.  You would have to schedule an appointment."

"How many people are you talking to."

"35,047."

"It would be nice to see how The Ten Thousand are doing.  How do those ships work, anyway?"

"The ships are surrounded by a protective bubble of time and then compressed into a three-dimensional representation of this universe.  They travel and then return to four dimensions."

"Wow.  Can you talk to them when they're, uh, compressed?"

"No.  But during much of the time you perceive, they are performing missionary work."

"Thank you for your time.  Now, about that appointment..."

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Interview with Dominic, prime minister of Haiti

"So, tell me about la vigne."

"La vigne was my gift from the gods.  I sang them a lullaby and told them my family was hungry.  They gave me a seed to plant."

"Just one seed for this giant plant?"

"Yes, just one."

"How fast did it grow?"

"Very fast.  Within two years it was the only vegetation on our island."

"The only?  What about the island's ecosystem?"

"You think I give a shit?  The Dominicans on the other half of the island bitch about la vigne, but for us Haitians it was a blessing."

"Do you worry about having an alien plant covering your island?  Are there risks?"

"It's not dangerous, it's nutritious.  Everyone has enough to eat now.  My family, we didn't always have food.  Sometimes we would mix dirt with shortening and salt, fry it, and eat it.  Now we eat all we want, and have plenty to export."

"Do other countries allow the import of such an exotic food?"

"Some don't.  Many do.  Have you had it?  There's nothing else that tastes quite like it."

"Still, don't you ever miss the birds, the insects, and the other animals that used to live in Haiti?"  

"Do I miss the songbirds?  I guess.  But it doesn't matter.  The gods took samples of every living thing.  They could recreate Haiti, as it was, in a day if they wanted to.  Besides, they're carrying all of that DNA in their databases, into eternity."

"So, for you, there is no significant downside of having your island overrun with one species other than humans."

"Correct.  We are doing much better than we were before.  We are the richest nation in the Caribbean.  Your country has a saying, 'Don't look a gift horse int he mouth.'  Well, this is better than a horse.  It has much better flavor."

Chapter 6

chapter 6

From the diary of the documentarian:

I received a strange letter in the mail today.  It was strange, first of all, that someone would send a hand-written letter, but that's not all.  It was dated about three-hundred years in the future.  

It's probably someone's idea of a joke, or someone hoping to get mentioned in the documentary.  Or it's from a conspiracy nut.  Lots of people did not trust the visitors.

Anyway, the letter, purportedly written on a remote multi-species research colony by a very old member of The Ten Thousand, said that magic was real.  Gods were real, too.  As well as telepathy, angels, vampires, and spontaneous human combustion.  

The letter goes on to explain that the visitors are purely 4th dimensional beings, actual gods and other mythological beings are purely 5th dimensional, and we are somewhere in the middle.  The visitors, of course, have suppression devices scattered throughout the universe to, "compress," things into four dimensions.  

It says the visitors can't figure out how the magic of the fifth dimension works, so they fear it.  They would fear us, too, if the suppression devices were systematically destroyed.  With magic, we may be able to save all of our race, not just ten thousand.  Don't trust The Watcher!

Blah, blah, blah.  Lots of amazing stuff in that letter, but there's no evidence to back up any of it.  Like I said, probably a bunch of crap, but still the most interesting things I've read lately.

chapter 5

there's so much pollen that I get itchy every time I go outside.  so there's two chapters today as a result of being coped up.

Chapter 5

Interview with Dan, a Follower that stayed on Earth

"Is your name really Dan?"

"It is now.  You humans don't have enough teeth to pronounce my birth-name."

"Why did you stay behind?"

"Your planet reminded me of home."

"Why is that?"

"Clouds.  Weather.  The star rising every day.  I had grown to miss the sky.  There is no sky in space."

"What do you do here?"

"I'm a local attraction.  You humans pay to see me, talk to me.  I'm one of the few Followers that stuck around."

"You have told others that you are dying.  Don't The Gods have ways to prolong life?"

"We don't call them gods.  We call them gnoshkth, The Mighty.  They have a some eternal life... techniques, but it is not our way.  Our culture is full of conflicts, and fighting for life by yourself is the honorable death."

"Have your people been Followers for very long?"

"No.  I was young when we met gnoshkth.  We were an empire back then."

"There's no more empire?"

"No.  When gnoshkth came, they freed all of our slave races, and helped them in various ways, like they did for you humans."

"That must have been difficult, losing all the slaves."

"It let to... a disagreement.  There was war, briefly.  When our entire fleet was destroyed, we were impressed."

"That's when your people became Followers?"

"Around then, yes.  We have a saying, 'March with the strongest clan.'  That was them."

"Did your people start using slaves again after the mothership left?"

"No.  A Watcher was left behind, just like yours.  Also, we'd been given an automated workforce.  No more slaves, just robots."

"How did it feel when the empire fell?"

"It was odd.  We crave battle and conquest and domination.  I'm not the only one that misses being among powerful clans, fighting for supremacy.  But after gnoshkth left, we had no need to pillage.  All of our people had everything they required."

"I've heard that your people aren't as loyal as other Follower races.  Is that true?"

"For now, we follow The Mighty.  If we find someone stronger, we'll join them and go back to the old ways.  We are at, what do you call it, a cease fire."

"A cease fire with The Mighty?"

"A cease fire with everyone.  Even you humans.  Perhaps one day your people will bow to us, but I won't see it.  I'm dying.  It's really my only regret about death."

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Interview with Sandra Cook, injured veteran

"So, you went to the visitors?"

"Yes, I did."

"Why?"

"I lost an arm and a leg in the war.  I had some prosthetics, but they weren't perfect.  People were saying that the aliens would help people who brought them gifts."

"Some people said they would answer prayers."

"Yeah, well, people said it a lot of different ways.  Me, I'm a Wiccan, and I think they just like to help people."

"What did you give them?"

"A bottle of wine I'd been saving for a special occasion.  Things didn't get more special than those days."

"Did you go on the mothership?"

"Oh, yeah.  One of The Followers took me up and fixed me up real good."

"What was the ship like?"

"Meh.  I didn't see much of it.  Hallways, doorways, lights... nothing very otherworldly about it."

"Did it hurt when they performed the, uh, procedure?"

"Not a bit.  I was scanned as I walked to the procedure room.  I only knew that because The Follower told me.  He was one of the weird ones, looked like a pine tree on tentacles."

"What did they do?"

"Well, first Mr. Pine Squid said me in an empty room, and he went off with the bottle of wine.  About ten minutes later he came back with an arm and a leg for me."

"Ten minutes?"

"Ten minutes.  I had my phone with me.  I'd hoped to take some pictures, but I didn't see anything particularly interesting.  Pine Squid apolgized that it took so long, said there was a line at the synthesizer."

"Then what?"

"The body parts he brought fit perfectly.  It didn't hurt at all, they just sort of adhered to my stumps."

"Were they real, you know, muscle and bone?"

"I don't know what they were.  Or are.  At first they were cold, rubbery, and albino-pale.  But!  They worked just like my original limbs had.  No more hook hand or teeter-knee for me!"

"I can't tell where these prosthetics are attached."

"They're more than just attached, they're permanent.  After a week, they had the same color as the rest of my skin and started growing hair."

"Are they any different than your other limbs?"

"No, mine aren't.  I know some people asked for super strength and stuff, but I just wanted to be whole again."

"What do you think happened to the wine?"

"Haha... they drank it?  They synthesized it?  I hope they enjoyed it.  They helped me get my life back, and I'm thankful.  I pray for their safe journey."

chapter 3

the last story I worked on, I looked stuff up.  My characters followed actually highways through actual towns.  I figured out travel times, checked out weather averages, and looked up other stuff like filtering radioactive water.  it was somewhat tedious.  

it's a lot quicker when you just make everything up.

chapter 3

Interview with Claude LeBlanc, former bishop in the Raelian church

"Can you tell us what the Raelian church is?"

"Raelians believe that humans were created by extraterrestrials, who guided us with messengers such as Buddha and Jesus.  One day, if our society becomes peaceful, the extraterrestrials will welcome us."

"You no longer believe in that?"

"One of the first things our visitors established was that they were not the creators of all things.  They made it quite clear.  For me, this was too much at odds with a basic Raelian tenet."

"But a lot of Raelians were enthusiastic.  They were among the first to apply to be in The Ten Thousand."

"People of many religions, not just Raelians, chose to emphasize part of their beliefs and ignore others to link the visitors to their faith system.  Judeo-Christians pointed out that their God lived in the heavens above, and liked the promise of salvation, even if it didn't quite line up.  For the Hindus, several of The Followers resembled gods and demigods.  And so on."

"Tell us about The Ten Thousand."

"The visitors determined that a population of ten thousand humans would be genetically sustainable.  They had a lottery for those that were interested in leaving Earth with them, to act as missionaries and to bring humanity with into the next universe."

"The next universe?"

"Yeah, that's another thing that got twisted around to fit different ideologies.  The visitors told us they came from a previous universe.  When it was nearing its end, they found a way to remove themselves form existence, and re-emerge in the middle of the following universe.  Buddhists glossed over some of that and called it enlightenment.  Some Christian groups mashed it up with eternal salvation."

"Previous universe?  How can they, 'leave existence?'  How old are they?"

"They claim this is their fourth universe, and they started taking Followers with them in their third universe.  This would make them billions of years older than we are.  As to how they could leave existence, well, you know how they are."

"How's that?"

"They don't get into the details.  Powered by thousands of stars, and blip!  They disappear, and then blip!  They come back in a younger universe.  It's like the technology they left behind, we were shown how to use it, but not how it works."

"I think we might be straying off topic with all of this.  Did a lot of Raelians leave the church when you did?"

"Yeah, I wasn't the only one.  We'd been visited by, 'The Gods,' and dozens of races in The Followers, and not one of them claimed to have created us."

"Did you seek to be one of The Ten Thousand?"

"No, I didn't.  I'd just lost my religion.  I figured I needed to find something to believe in here on Earth before I had any business heading to Heaven."