APROPOS EARTHLING

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= Chapter 3 = 
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Drago spent some time knocking on the doors of houses that all proved empty, Stephanie sitting in the car the whole time.

“Do you need me to get out?” Stephanie stuck her head out of the car passenger window.

“Oh! No. You stay there, it will only take a moment. I just need to—-you
know—–” Drago performed a split-finger salute, grinning.

Stephanie rolled her eyes and shook her head, but could not help from laughing. Drago turned a street corner and disappeared from sight.

After some moments, he returned from around the street corner, looking very serious, pacing somewhat quickly, in his old faded jeans in the beautiful penetrating Perth summer sunlight. He gave Stephanie a quick forced grin and a slight thumbs up in the distance, and got back in the car driver's seat.

“You did it, didn't you.”

“Yes I did.”

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, I'm fine, the missions is actually completed now, but I saw some things that nobody should ever have to see.”

“I bet—-if you read his mind and all.”

“Yes. That man is a murderer. He has committed many war crimes both with his own hands, and through his instructions to others.”

“I'm so sorry Drago.”

“It is to be expected, really—-many of our rulers are doing the same thing at the moment, we also developed a state apparatus with a military some centuries ago.

“Do you want to go home now, or would you like to come complete the next phase of the operating with me in the colony?”

“Are you asking me to come to the next dimension with you?”

“Well you are not really leaving the third dimension, you're just leaving the natural one, and entering the one we have simulated. But you are surely leaving Earth.”

“Will I still be in no danger?”

“Oh yes of course, none of our weapons or methods of violence would affect you. The only danger would be that we run out of time for the results of the mission we just completed to bear fruit. We need to carry out the revolution necessary for my people to survive. It has to happen before my colony's corridor in space and time collapses.”

“A revolution you say—-what would happen then?”

“Oh, well, you would fall out of the broom cupboard which is the entry to the colony. You'd be safe, and would be returned back to Earth, but my people would be destroyed.”

Drago looked especially morose.

“How long should it take to know how fast the ... results of your mission will present themselves?”

“Oh, if I have sufficiently manipulated the core beliefs of your SAS Commander, then we should be seeing some changes in a day or two, but if he is especially unintelligent, or strong willed, it may take some weeks, or even a month or so.”

“Could you tell anything by looking into his mind? Could you make a prediction?”

“Well, these things are never certain, but he is a man of alarmingly weak will, so my attempt to plant an idea in his mind took the form of an order, or a very strong suggestion from someone with authority over him. He many even feel fearful if he does not do what I suggested to him.”

“What did you suggest to him?”

“Oh, he is going to make a pathetic attempt at a coup d'etat in Perth tomorrow. Maybe even this afternoon. What time is it?” Drago leaned over to look at his mobile phone inside the car dashboard. “Gosh, it's midday. It might happen today.”

Stephanie was, again, lost for words.

“Why did you convince him to do that? I thought you were communists, you space people! Peaceful people!”

“Oh it will surely fail. The WA masses will rise up and will begin to establish a communist society. That is the point of the mission.” Drago started the car, and started driving inland. “The point of my time here on Earth was to attempt to raise the consciousness of humanity to a higher level, to raise the amount of residual transcendental apperceptive power of the human race, so that my people will be able to draw on it and health the sickness and rejuvenate the strength of our own masses so we may draw upon it, and use it to inspire ourselves to overthrow our own oppressor class.”

“Are you saying a revolution is due to kick off in Perth sometime today?”

“Hopefully.” Drago grinned a little.

“Well I'm not sure if I want to stay on Earth, or go with you to your simulated
dimension! Id' like to see both things unfold!”

“You can easily do both. If all goes well, our revolution should be completed much more quickly than humanity's, and you will be able to either see the spectacular destruction of an extra-dimensional civilisation, or both Earth and my people's ascension toa much more natural and civilised mode of being.

“Well, if you say so.”

“It's your choice—–” Drago leaned over and looked a little sheepishly at
Stephanie.

“No no! I want to go! Besides, you clearly need my help. You know some things about the third dimension, but quite often you are completely clueless about how to exist and move about 3D space and time.”

Drago grew a broad smile. “I was hoping you would say that.”

“The red Toyota entered onto Stirling Highway and, after some time, the enormous clock tower of the University of Western Australia edged steadily into clear view. Stephanie caught Drago peering through the car's windscreen looking for it, as though he wasn't sure about where he was going. When it peered over the highway, between some trees in the distance, he became very visibily more relaxed.

“Ah! There's the university.”

“Is the entrance to the colony inside UWA?”

“Yes.”

“Oh wow—-where?”

“The philosophy department, very definitely. Well, inside the cleaner's locker room in the philosophy department. I rather like the offices there. They will become an excellent community centre for learning after the revolution.”

“Is there really a cleaner's room in the philosophy department?”

“Well it is a cupboard of some sort,” Drago laughed. “There is a mop in there, but perhaps you are right, the cleaner works out of someplace else.”

---

Stephanie awoke on a bed lying on a hard dirt floor. Her vision was blurry, and after some seconds, luckily, the tunnel-vision she experienced at first receded, and she once again had a full field of vision. Light poured into the room where she lay through a window adjacent to her bed. A slight breeze not dissimilar to the one being carried through the University of Western Australia passed over her, and after yet another few moments, she leaned over, and realised there was no glass in the window at all.

The sky outside was a wonderous blue, cloudless picture, and she was certain she could hear some voices speaking outside, somewhere in the distance. By now, the migrane was gone, and she sat up. The room she was in was made from mud bricks—-she spied them through some of the flaking whitewash rendering on the walls. By her feet were some cut vegetables, some bread, and what looked like an enamelled clay jusg of wine with a matching cup.

“Oh, good. You're awake.” Drago stood leaning against the doorway on the opposite side of the room, in true, unmistakable confirmation that the person Stephanie could in fact see was Drago.

“Drago...” Stephanie croaked. “We're in the colony now aren't we.”

“Yes.” Drago smiled, and drank from an earthenware cup in his hand matching the one by Stephanie's bed. He looked very healthy. Not older, not younger, but somehow as if he had been on a long holiday that had refreshed him greatly. Either that or a three day long sleep or some such.

“So we're really here. I can't remember anything... I was expecting to see incredible lights, or an incredible star field, why is it that I do not remember arriving here?”

“I suppressed your memory of the transit, but I can release the hold on it in a
little while. Come. Let us go for a walk, and I will show you around the colony
and introduce you to my friends and comrades.”

All of a sudden, Stephanie's lethargy lifted, and she felt completely
invigorated.

“Alright.” She looked a little closer at Drago, now, and could see he was not wearing anything she could recognise as clothes someone would wear in Perth at all. “Drago?”

“Yes?” Drago had spun on his feet and left the room momentarily.

“What are you wearing?”

“Oh. Yes. You're probably wanting to change clothes too.” He returned with some very lightly dyed cloth. “I am wearing what Earth people in a particular period of your history awould refer to as a 'chiton'. We were rather enthralled by some parts of Earth history and decided to model our three dimensional appearance on the ancient Hellenistic world you would know from history books of the Mediterranean. But we do not possess a political system like those people. There are also many differences so do not be fooled into thinking you have actually travelled back in time!”

“I have one suggestion before you leave the house, however.”

“Sure, what's that?” Stephanie found herself after moving into Drago's kitchen, eating the plate of vegetables left for her later consciousness quite ravenously.

“Try not to look up at much of the sky, yet. You may become quite
disorientated.”

“I suppose I shouldn't ask.”

“Oh, I'll tell you now. Earthlings live on the outside of a sphere, but we live on the inside of one. We walk on the surface of a sphere with the sky above us, like humans do, but the sky and atmosphere are suspended in the middle of the world, unlike on Earth. When you look up, you will undoubtedly be looking at people and buildings that are on the otherside of our rather titanic concave planet, and, to be quite honest, I am sure you will find it very jarring.”

Stephanie had a small conception of what Drago was talking about.

“I think I experienced something similar while swimming underwater once.”

Drago paused for a second. “Ah, yes. Well, feel free to look up if you feel. It will be quite an odd experience, much the same as living on Earth was for me. I had no conception of living on the surface of a planet. It wook me quite a while to adjust.”

Stephanie dropped a small cloth onto the dirt floor. “The gravity seems the
same.”

“Yes, yes, it is. Come now, I am excited to introduce you to my comrades.”

Stephanie put on her Hellenistic robes and stepped out into an olive garden. There was running water nearby, and the people she heard talking were in fact the comrades to whom Drago had been referring.

“Ah! Rayan! There you are. That must be Stephanie!”

Drago and Stephanie travelled some short distance over to a group of three people sitting in a small grove at the end of the yard. By their feet was a small white dog, which was the first to greet the Earthling. When the two presented themselves to the three, Drago turned to Stephanie rather seriously, and said, with great gravity: “I have something to tell you.”

“Oh, it is about your name isn't it.”

“How did you know!”

“Drago, please, I knew you had taken on a pseudonym on Earth, please!”

The three lounging on cushions in the grove laughed raucously, and one erupted into a shout: “See? I told you Rayan, you were fooling nobody!”

“Yes, Drago, Rayan—-whatever your name is—-if your name is Rayan, then I shall call you Rayan from now on—-but I assumed the whole time after you revealed to me you were an extraterrestrial that you were not telling me your real name. I supposed maybe Earth rulers or police or whoever were following you or looking for you, at least until you told me you could dupe people into doing whatever you told them.”

“Look! Look how defeated he looks!” The same one laughed.

“Yes he does look quite crestfallen.” Stephanie agreed.

“But you never learned my real name, though, did you.” Drago sought to try and exculpate himself from looking like a complete idiot.

Stephanie thought hard. “No, I don't think I ever knew your real name. Until
now at least.”

The group of three groaned very audibly. The same one, the shouting man, let out a sigh. “I suppose that bet is definitely decided them...”

“Yes.” the third one laid back down onto her cushion. “Palm-Frond wins this
one.” The second turned to the first: “It's just a little wine, for goodness
sake, Goh, I'll go get you some tomorrow.”

“Anyway.” Rayan sought to try and bring some order to the auspicious meeting. “Everyone, this is Stephanie. Stephanie, meet Palm-Frond, Goh, and Lutrin.”

Goh was a loud young man with an enormous mop of jet-black hair. He was quite tall, and smelled quite sweaty. Stephanie suspected he had been out working, or had at least not bathed properly in several days. To his immediate right was Palm-Frond. She was very jovial-looking, but somewhat reserved in demeanour at the present moment, and had been eating some grapes, and reading what looked like some parchment, and had been making notes in the margins with a writing implement that Stephanie could not recognise. Finally, there was Lutrin, a very slightly built woman with tremendously white silver hair uch the same as Rayan. She was most likely the oldest out of everyone here, at least in appearance, by human standards. But Stephanie could tell something was different about the way people appeared in the colony. There was a niggling feeling that their phsycial appearance had absolutely no connection to how old they were, or indeed how old or how long they were ever going to live.

“We have been so excited to meet you, Stephanie.” Palm-Frond grinned her way. “Rayan tells us that you were instrumental in the success of the mission we Universalists undertook. It is because of you that we are quite certain that the revolution will succeed and we will be able to prevent the extinction of our kind. Also, because of us, and Rayan we gifted humans a little kickstart into the journey into leaving the third dimension as well.” With that last sentence, Palm-Frond took a little sip of wine and gave a sly smile towards Rayan.

Rayan looked away a little sheepishly, as if he had performed an act he really
should not have. “Yes, I believe some fictional Earth multimedia refers to an
ethical code called the 'prime directive', but in our culture we do not
practice the caution or hesitation from interacting with or, as the media says,
'interfering' with other species, especially if they are sentient.

Goh piped up: “Yes, living as extradimensional beings for so long makes it very easy for us to influence the way entropy operates in the third dimension, so for our poeple to exist in a many multiplicity of modes of universal being, we move with, through, and for other objects in lower dimensions. We are, in some manner of speaking, a part of everything, the entire cosmos as any non-corporeal being only knows how.”

“Look at you all... You're confusing her. Poor thing. Shut up about this nonsense, you two. Let us have light and pleasant conversation, you idiots.” Lutrin scoffed loudly. She shook her head and put down the vegetable she had been eating.

“No, not at all, Lutrin—-Rayan and I had a long discussion about some of this while we were on the mission back on Earth. How long have I been sleeping, though? Rayan was very pessimistic about the odds of the success of the mission, he said it was just as likely as not that the mission would fail, and that Earthlings as well as your people would all be plunged into a dystopia, or worse—-complete destruction.”

Rayan sat down opposite Lutrin. He seat was a wooden chair.

“We have been very lucky. I am in fact immensely relieved about the outcome of the mission you helped me with, Stephanie. It sounds ridiculous, but because of the five people here, and obviously the with the great yearning for freedom of the masses, we have saved both humanity and our people and have ushered in a tremendous age of freedom and peace for many many sentient beings.”

“Well, the revolution has yet to be completed here in the colony.” Lutrin cautioned. “But to answer your question, Stephanie, you have been resting on and off for perhaps a month. Your consciousness has been adjusting to simulated three dimensional space and time for quite a while, but it has gone will, I would say that, as the first human to ever knowingly enter our society, and be welcomed and accepted—–”

“Invited, really,” Goh interjected.

”—-yes, invited—-you have adjusted very quickly. Unfortunately, you will never be able to remember your first month here in the colony. That is just how it works. It is like being in a fever-like sickness where you are in a delirium, that time you lost will never be experienced at all.”

“Oh, believe me, I do not mind,” Stephanie felt the need to apologise a little.
“But, I do believe Rayan says I will be able to remember my transit here to
the colony.”

“Oh yes!” Goh exclaimed. “Yes, we are all going to share it together later, it is going to be an incredible show, from what Rayan told me. Apparently you two were down walking around an Earth academy, and decided to put off the transmission to the colony for some hours. So you spent some time by the river near the academy, and by the time you decided to transmit, it was very late in the evening. What a spectacular trip we are going to see!”

“I do seem to remember a little of it now, but certainly not the transit.”
Stephanie closed her eyes and touched her temple lightly.

“But yes, you must certainly be excited to hear that there has been a
successful communist revolution on Earth.”

“I haven't heard any of this...” Stephanie looked a little breathlessly at Rayan. “What do you mean by all of this?”

“Well, the coup d'etat attempted by the Australian military against the bourgeoisie of your country failed as spectacularly as we could ever have hoped.” Lutrin informed. “The masses of people who occupied Perth and the towns and the big estates of land brought a complete halt to capitalist production, and, as we hoped, the people seized control of the capitalist means of production and proceeded to organise and restart production along communist lines. Money and private property were abolished, and virtually all key sectors of the Western Australian economy were all collectivised. This is exactly what we could have hoped would happen.”

“I don't understand,” Stephanie complained. “How could all of this have happened so quickly? You said I arrived here a month ago.”

“Well, time operates differently for us in the colony when we are able to exercise the capacity for transcendental apperception with more vitality and vigor.” Lutrin again took the role for explaining to Stephanie.

“Yes, we are able to have more control over our perception of Earth's time because the incredible power the human spirit was able to gift us in augmenting and boosting our collective subjective essence. In short, we have been able to speed up time from our perspective, on Earth, and greatly multiply our ability to regenerate our idealistic essence as a result.” Palm-Frond put down her piece of writing.

“So that's why you all look like the perfect picture of repose right now!” Stephanie seemed to be understanding all of this outlandish nonsense a lot better now. Perhaps she was also being gifted some of the powers of the newly flowering human spirit that had been unleashed on Earth with the new establishment of a stateless society in Western Australia.

“Yes, I suppose it makes no sense to humans, but when we are more free and powerful, in short: more in touch with ourselves as people, both collectively and individually, we are able to control the flow of time much more carefully and accurately, as as a result are able to relax as well as getting more done. It is a bizarre kind of feedback, or snowballing effect, where our greater freedom and creative capacity amplifies more and more into even more freedom and personal autonomy.” Rayan decided to sample some of the grapes.

“It sort of makes us feel happy and blissful!” Goh looked up at the sky, and sighed. Stephanie was about to follow suit, but she caught herself and continued to look at the group quite forcefully.

“Ah-hah. The sky, you haven't seen it yet, have you.” Goh broke off a bit of bread he had been resting on his lap. “Do you think she would like to see it all yet, Lutrin? Do you think she is ready?”

Lutrin looked a little thoughtful. Then she shrugged, “it bothers me not if she falls on her behind. In fact I think that is what you are getting at, aren't you, Goh.” Her gaze at the young man was penetrating.

“Well I suppose I have to get it over and done with sooner or later.” Stephanie looked directly up. What she saw, she had never even formed the slightest conception of in her mind before. Off in the distance, the surface of the land they walked on curved upwards, until the land became so distance that it was overtaken by the sky and the clouds. The geometry of this enormous spherical space seemed truly impossible. The gravitational force that held her to the surface of the ... colony was pulling outwards and not inwards. If she was careful, through the atmosphere she could make out large, dark figures, tiny specks of what she assumed were enormous temples, probably also exhibiting impossible geometries of their own. It was truly breath-taking. Stephanie rotated about the axis of her spinal cord as she craned her neck back further and further. Eventually, she could feel herself seriously about to lose balance. Goh began to cheer. “Here we go!!”

Just as Stephanie was completely about to lose balance, Palm-Frond, who had become standing sometime during the sojourn, caught her.

“You are absolutely no fun, you know that.”

“You are a silly fool, Goh, but we love you all the same.” Lutrin sighed.

“This place is amazing.” Stephanie sat down dizzily, her head spinning. She became cross-legged and was panting a little. “Why would you ever want to leave this place?”

Rayan and Lutrin looked at each other with a knowing twinkle in both of their eyes.

“Well, Stephanie, and I mean this with all sincerity, it gets far better than this.”

“To the arrival of our friend Stephanie!” Goh exclaimed.

The three arranged arranged extra cups for Rayan and Stephanie, and they performed a toast for the arrival of their new Earthling compatriot.

• EOF