Chapter 4
Eos brought Jon and Namid tea as Jon explained the situation with Heather from his perspective. He included that Heather didn’t seem to remember the same thing that he had experienced. Heather remained on the floor for the duration of the explanation, but did recover on her own. Jon had his back to her, so didn’t watch her recovery, but suspected she was in process based on Namid’s attention tracking to her. He suspected she had recovered earlier and was simply listening, feigning sleep. Eos raised a second chair from the floor next to Jon’s and invited her to come join the conversation. Heather came tentatively to the back of the chair.
“I will not harm you, Miss Heat-her,” Namid said.
“You- you’re…”
“Reptilian,” Namid said. “Not human. Yes.”
“You’re a Martian?” Heather said.
“By virtue of being born on Mars, yes. My species was initiated on Eart-ha,” Namid said. “Jon hasn’t provided you with history?”
“I am not convince she believes we’re on Mars. One step at a time,” Jon said.
“Where do believe you are?” Namid asked Heather directly.
“I don’t know. I don’t think I am dreaming. This doesn’t feel like a drug trip…”
“Oh, you use? Recreationally, or medicinally, or spiritually?” Namid asked.
“I don’t use drugs,” Heather said. “I was drugged and violated… By my husband.”
“I don’t understand,” Namid said.
“There were times when he would choke me out and I would come too while he was fucking me. And there were times he would drug me. Sometimes I came to while he was doing it. Most the time, I just woke up and knew that I was violated because of wounds down there,” Heather said. “Sometimes I woke up to him beating me and when I surrendered, he would fuck me.”
Namid looked to Jon. Jon was staring at the floor. His right hand was pinching the fingers on his left hand. Namid frowned and exhaled loudly. It was more than a sigh. The air hinted at a perfume, something sweet and melancholy. Heather sneezed.
“Bless you,” Jon said.
“I did,” Namid said.
“You remind me of Jeriba Shigan,” Heather said.
“Enemy Mine,” Eos said, smiling. “Jon, how do you not love this woman?!”
Jon looked at Eos, eyes narrowed, and gave a frown that was not misinterpreted.
“Enemy Mine is an interesting meme. Very powerful,” Namid said.
“You know it? Did you read the trilogy?” Heather said, coming around to sit in the chair Eos had provided.
“I have. I t-hink it is a meme all humans should read,” Namid said.
Heather accepted a cup of tea, thanking Eos for it. She sipped it, found it too hot, and simply held it in her hand, close enough to her face to enjoy the aroma. Eos observed this and looked to Jon to see if he had seen the same thing, but his mind was distant, not even in the room.
“What did you mean, your species was initiated on Earth,” Heather said.
Namid considered his response. His eyes went to different positions, focused on something beyond her, and for a moment he seemed as distant as Jon, but then he returned, sadly smiling as remembering a story from childhood.
“What I tell you is less than summary, and does not do the truth of it justice,” Eos said. “This goes back before the Great War. Before the Fall. Intelligent life arose in the seas during the Devonian period. The founders are known as the Devons- in my language, and in human’s language. They are more adaptable than my kind, or humans, but they did have biological impediments. They made my kind. They made humans.”
“Wait, you’re saying dinosaurs made humans?” Heather said.
“No. Devons made humans. Devons made dinosaurs,” Namid said. “They kind of look like crabs.”
“We’re like biological machines? Artificial intelligence,” Heather asked.
“T-here is no artificial intelligence,” Namid said. “All is intelligence. No distinctions, with the exception of age related maturity, a continuum t-hat all species find t-hemselves upon.”
“But they made us? Why? To be slaves?”
“T-hey made us and they treated us like children,” Namid said. “All was given. And like with any species, a child who has access to knowledge prior to its having earned it, prior to having wisdom to employ it, there are repercussions. Knowledge wit-hout wisdom inevitably leads to a fall. If you see it as slavery, t-hen you’re interpretation of parenting is likely based on aut-horitarian modalities. If you see it as love, you’re probably operating from a more permissive parenting model. Neit-her results in ideal acclimation.”
“Wait wait wait,” Heather said, thinking this through. Her use of that expression caused Eos’ eyebrow to go up, amused. Heather drew her legs up into the chair, careful not spill her drink. She sat lotus position and leaned forwards, elbows on knees, still holding the cup. “The Devon folks. They’re smart? Like interstellar species smart?”
“Yes,” Namid said.
“They broke the light barrier?” Heather asked.
“I don’t know about t-hat. I do know they utilize portal technology to move from place to place,” Namid said.
“Portal technology. Like SG1?” heather said.
“Yes. T-hat’s an appropriate analogy,” Namid said. “Once you have computers wit-h t-hree dimensional printing capabilities, you can send a Von Neuman probe to a target, establish a portal, and t-hen connect to existing portals. 400 million years ago, the Devons unleashed a trillion Von Neuman probes and t-hey waited. The first interstellar portal to come online was Sumer.”
“You mean Alpha Centauri,” Heather said.
“T-hat wasn’t t-he closest star 400 million years ago, and t-here is another star, a companion star to the sun, a cold star,” Namid explained. “Alpha Centauri has portal access. Almost everything in a hundred thousand light years has thriving colonies. Andromeda has thriving colonies. T-here are still new portals coming online even today. T-here are worlds waiting and longing to be occupied. Some of t-he first worlds to come online needed dinosaurs. Some needed my kind. Some needed humans. T-here are other kinds.”
Heather gave a gesture that said wait. She had many questions and the one she settled on bubbled out of her lips effortlessly. “Okay, so if there are these worlds occupied, why don’t we see radio transmissions?”
“Only humans are using radio technology,” Namid said. “Out of protest maybe, I suspect general species paranoia.”
“Protest? Paranoia? Over what?”
“All being have access to the Great Mind, indirectly, brain to cloud to mind,” Namid said. “Accessing the mind requires establishing responsibility for one’s own action. Very few humans, and in fairness, even my kind, accept responsibility for t-heir t-houghts and actions. Human society is in a very dangerous place at the moment, pushing rights over responsibilities, being reactive over proactive. All being must react at some point, even if you’re high on proactive spectrum- but humans are still mostly reactive. T-hey are like mere cats, spooked at every shadow that passes…”
“But wirelessly is still a signal…”
“It’s not a radio wave signal. Not radio telescopes, but telepat-hy- instantaneous, direct, real time communication wit-h t-he cloud regardless of where you are in space/time,” Namid said.
“So, the Great Mind is God?” Heather asked.
“I cannot tell you how to perceive t-he Great Mind,” Namid said. “I can tell you, from my perspective, that t-hinking of it in terms of primitive dogmatic paradigms generally results in laziness, not discernment- and leads to a Fall.”
“Devons were smart- capable of stopping the asteroid strike that killed off the dinosaurs?” Heather said.
“Here we go. Chase that rabbit, Alice,” Eos said.
Jon made a hand gesture for her to be quiet.
“T-he Great Dilemma,” Namid nodded, seemingly oblivious to Eos and Jon. “Many beings are still struggling wit-h t-hat.”
“They could have stopped it but didn’t?” Heather said. She looked to Jon. “Are you going to add to this?”
“You’re more advance than I. It took me years to get where you are,” Jon said. “Continue on.”
“So, the Devons are evil, or they just don’t give a fuck?” Heather asked.
“You are concerned t-hat t-here is a Great Mind, pervasive that sees all and knows all, but doesn’t intervene when bad shit happens,” Namid said.
“Yes!” Heather said, too fast- revealing it was perfect assessment to what she was feeling.
“You believe you are a good being and you should be protected,” Namid said.
“Yes!” Heather said.
“What is your explanation for Job?” Namid said.
“Job? That’s just a story,” Heather said.
“Are you better t-han Job?”
“I don’t see the relevance…”
“All beings are participating in t-heir reality. Job is the ideal man, fully integrated and doing right behavior in all domains. Are you ideal? It doesn’t matter whether you are or not, but if t-he ideal is still subject to suffering, what makes you different? If you are asking ‘why me, God,’ then you are revealing your position on a map. It’s useful information. I can guide you from this place on the map, but it would be nice to know if this is actually what you are deliberating.”
“Forget about me,” Heather said. “What about all that life?”
“Interesting framing. So all life is important to you?” Namid asked.
“Of course!” Heather said.
“T-he Great Dilemma. Or, human translation, t-he Jesus dilemma,” Namid said.
“Would you stop invoking religious memes?!” Heather said.
“To navigate reality, you must be able to navigate multiple domains, religious, spiritual, political, cultural, economic, social… your adverse reaction is likely a result of being out balance in one or multiple domains,” Namid said.
“Or, I am tired of Jesus freaks pushing dogma over rationality. You’re not even human, and you’re pushing Jesus? The country is blowing up because not enough people trust science and disease control, and praying about it isn’t making it go away,” Heather said.
Namid blinked. He looked to Jon for an explanation.
“Apparently there is a pandemic on Earth,” Jon said.
“Oh, well t-hat makes sense,” Namid said.
“You didn’t know about that?” Heather asked.
“I don’t watch the news and I have been off social media for years,” Jon said.
“Maybe you should check in before bouncing back,” Eos said.
“Maybe,” Jon agreed,
“You’re telling me Jesus was real?” Heather asked.
“I am not addressing historical reality,” Namid said.
“We’re discussing the extinction of the dinosaurs. You can’t get more real than that,” Heather said.
Namid nodded. “You like movies.”
Heather glared.
“I am not trying to trick you, Heat-her,” Namid said. “Movies are historical reality. You can access it and play it again and again. T-hat shit really happened. It’s also true, it’s a fiction, with complex apparatus to capture it. T-he message conveyed through a meme, even a fictitious one can still be true. The greater clarity comes from having a collection of movies, stories, upon which meaning can be derived. A movie can have meaning in isolation, but even under a microscope, it has a relationships and context to other movies. Each cell in the movie has meaning, but the greater clarity comes in connection to the other cells.”
“I am lost,” Heather said.
“You’re on Mars,” Namid said.
Heather glared.
“You’re in Jon’s habitat,” Namid said.
Heather wasn’t appeased.
Namid sighed, releasing perfumed air. “Imagine you’re going to die.”
“Of course I am going to die,” Heather said.
“Imagine you know when, where, and how,” Namid said.
“In advance? I would avoid it,” Heather said.
Namid said. “Imagine, in your avoiding you became aware of alternative realities, and each avoidance resulted in harsher realities. More specifically, you arm yourself to avoid death and the result is the world arms itself to make you dead. You recruit friends, the world recruits mobs. You create an army, the world calls nations to oppose. The more you impose your will upon the world, the less freedom those around you have.”
“So, you’re saying, I don’t have the right to live?” Heather asked.
“Assume Jesus had the power to avoid his death. Let’s say he called ten t-housand angels to enforce his right to live. What would have been the results?” Namid said.
“I don’t know. He would have been king?”
“More likely there would have been war, and greater challenges,” Namid said.
“He could…”
“He could do miracles, and still t-he world moved against him. He was revered by some, but hated by most,” Namid said. “You don’t correct t-he world by fixing the world. Your only function is to correct you. No fight. No avoidance. So, here’s comes an asteroid. It will wipe out almost all life. You have the power to stop it. But you also know a future where things are different. You also know if you intervene, that future is less desirable. Now, what do you do?”
“There has to be a way…”
“Let’s look at you, who you are now. If I go back in time and stop t-he worst t-hing t-hat happened to you, would you still be you?” Namid said.
“Please, do that,” Heather said.
“I am sorry for what you suffered. But I like who you are. I like t-his conversation we are having,” Namid said. “We could not have it outside of the context of who you are. Even now, this conversation is changing us. I can’t become who I am wit-hout your influence. You can’t become who you will be wit-hout your past you in combination with me.”
“It’s a Wonderful Life,” Jon said.
Namid smiled. “I love Jimmy Stewart memes.”
“Is everything a meme with you two?” Heather said.
“I submit to you, every emotional reaction you have ever had is a response to an unexplored, underlying meme,” Namid said. “When you try to identify each individual emotion without the complex context of how they are all interconnected, you end up with an incredibly distorted map. Joy cannot be measured without sadness. If you eliminate all negativity as a way to be positive, you end up with no tolerance to negativity and you will eventually fall. You cannot foam pad your entire reality.”
“I don’t want to foam pad my reality…” Heather said.
“But you would protect others from reality?” Namid said.
Heather opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She sat back. She closed her mouth.
“Jon, you have a Padawan,” Namid said.
“Fuck. No! Don’t evoke that,” Jon said.
“I insist you bring her to my home,” Namid said. “We need to explore t-he block. Come in two days.”
“And if I can’t teleport her?”
“That’s why I said two days. You can come t-he hard way, if you prefer,” Namid said. “Oh, and your turn with the Rover situation.”
“I hate the Rover situation,” Jon said. “I thought the selection process was random. I have Rover duty three times now.”
“Maybe your hate is influencing the random number generator,” Namid said,
“How come my love for other things doesn’t influences those random generators in my favor?” Jon asked.
Namid smiled. “What would you learn if you got everything you loved,” he said, standing.
Jon stood. Eos collected Namid’s tea, untouched. He bowed to her, and then to Jon.
“T-hank you for t-his love,” Namid said, holding up the water.
“Thank you for visiting,” Jon said.
“When you come, bring your Torch,” Namid said.
“It’s heavy,” Jon said.
“Bring it,” Namid said.
Jon gave the Vulcan hand salute. Namid smiled. Namid nodded to Heather and then disappeared.
“People come and go rather quickly around here,” Heather said.
“Welcome to Oz, Dorothy,” Jon said.