Planet Ersh


     Another day here in the institution, I feel like the
walls are closing in. Every day same routine, same people,
same nurses, same orderlies. All I can do is write. It comes
to me while I lie awake at bed, and says: “All you can do is
write something”. I answer: “Who would listen to an insane
person?”, but silence fallowes. Well here it is then a story
of an assignment that changed my life and that consequently
got me in to this mess when I can not leave the four walls
that surround me day in and day out.
     Right after university I went in to Human Emergencies
agency, I did not want to deal with criminals all my life
but settling people’s disputes with the state and offering
help to those who need it was what I was dreaming about. The
nature of my education kept me out of the crime unit and
left me a cozy job doing paperwork for the Important Person
who settled disputes between state and localities and also
investigated new once before they where presumed legal. For
those who don’t remember their history, right after the
world united under the same government localities where what
before where countries, but things did not stay that simple
for long, now every village could become a locality that
answered only to the central world government without any
involvement from the former country it used to be in. Some
say that this made a united world more divided, but with
common currency and voting based on the number of people
independent of their locality basically all it gave the
people who organized those small localities was the sense of
the self identity separate from the big whole. World has
become so identical from one place to another in the past
150 years of World Unity that the politicians thought it was
needed.
     “Look at me, talking about history like nothing has
happened, I bet if I recounted that to the doctors when they
brought me in to this place, they might have let me go”
But that was my life, after 9 years of pushing paper around
and occasionally going on trips I replaced the
Important Person. The real story begins when I accepted my
first independent assignment to assess the claim for one
village to become a locality on the grounds of religious
following. Also religion was not a state affair in most
places of our planet for at lest 400 years, government
viewed a separate religious following as one of the valid
bases for instating a separate locality. Especially since
localities like that never did anything illegal like faking
census or not paying taxes. Organizing local armies was a
whole different issue and it was my job to see that this
among other things is not going to happen if this village
indeed becomes a locality.
     Nothing seemed strange about this place, it was however
one of the smallest places to want to be somewhat
independent of the huge locality Amrika near which I was
living in at the time, which for most part stayed within the
same boundaries ever since it was a country Amrika 150 years
ago, the only big localities that use to be within it and
now where separate was a huge territory Klifornia in the
south and a smaller piece on the north-eastern side of the
continent near a city called Bokton where I was living.
There were also about 12 other independent cities and
numerous other really small localities.  And now this small
village that used to be part of Amrika and was very close to
Bokton although not part of it’s locality wanted to be
independent of Amrika and answer only to world government.
As I wrote I found myself going in circles recounting the
facts from life that I might never get to see again, getting
hang on details that might never again matter, but this
arrangement of places and people was my life for the past 9
years recurring in constant papers and messages on my
computer. Which was all that filled my head when I went
there.  To live for a week and talk to people in the village
of East Upper Falls, with my duties being to make a single
signature in the end assuring the state that I found the
place safe for localization.
When I left Bokton the storm that plagued the city for the
whole day was finally breaking up sun was setting amidst the
turn patches of clouds above the high way. I have put my car
on automatic, I had still some work to do so I switched the
windshield to a computer screen and was spending my time
answering and writing e-mails. That was my 9th hour of
sitting like this in front of my car computer because the
lighting has shut down the power in my house in the morning
when the storm started so I had to work from here. I could
not concentrate, the regular bureaucratic mail that I got
seemed even more meaningless then usual. So in a short while
I decided to take a nap and switched to a see-through again.
As soon I closed my eyes the music started, it has been
happening to me for weeks now, when I left my mind wonder
different music usually something I have heard on the radio
just popped up in my had. That was probably why I had
trouble sleeping. Work –related stress, they told me later,
but at the time unaware of the fact that my condition might
have a name, I just lied with my eyes closed and listened to
a music that was playing between my ears trying to fall
asleep.  Falling asleep was hard because I probably drank 14
cups of coffee earlier today. Sometimes when I heard, or
thought I heard especially high note my thumb twitched
minutely.
Was I taking it too seriously? My first independent
assignment. Did I not spend enough time near the previous
Important Person to know what it was all about? A pure
formality. Thoughts where racing in my head again, but at
least the music stopped. I read in some journal once that to
fall asleep all you need to do was tune out, kill the stray
thoughts, stop the music and tune out, was my interpretation
of it, and that’s what I was trying to do. After an hour of
dutifully thinking about nothing dreams came and for the
millions time it seems I saw waterfalls and stars, I was
lying under the waterfall with the girl that I have met last
weekend and we where watching stars. It went by so fast, she
turned around to me and told me only one thing:”Wake up, we
have arrived at your destination”.  “You have arrived at
your destination switching to manual” –pronounced the
computer and I awoke



                    First day.




“You... You ... YOU ... Have ARIVVVVED at...” bellowed the
computer leaving my years ringing. What was wrong with the
thing? Of course it has been my computer for past 6 years
switching cars with me, and I was pretty sure that besides
sudden urges to prioritize my e-mail by sender it did not
have any quirks, since I knew perfectly well that my boss
was responsible for that; my immediate thought was that of
some evil high school kid who was responsible for that
infernal yell. After considering twice the trouble one has
to go trough to even approach the network my computer was on
from the outside of the Net, my thoughts divided in too a
vision of the malicious co-worker and a horrible nightmare
about a real pro Net Explorer who has made this village his
hide out and plans to sabotage some government network, with
the additional computer rights once this place is localized.
Work paranoia kicked in, I needed to do something about it
right now, I blinked the screen on and said:”Hey Johnson, my
computer just yelled at me loudly either some one needs to
look at it right now, and don’t let them blink me with
screens here while their at it, or someone just got to our
network and is playing with us, consult a Computer Division
in any case. Oh and if it is one of your jokes please don’t
send me anymore while I am in the field.” The though that I
had an assistant, even whom I had yet to see in person
pacified me, without waiting for a reply which I was sure
would come and remembering that the work day will not start
for another 30 minutes I walked out of the car to take a
first look at the village .As I was walking the parking lot,
I was remembering what I saw about the village on the
computer. Unlike most places that called themselves villages
nowadays it was not a 15 house complex in the middle of big
city, in fact the nearest closest place where people lived
was 30 miles from here. It must not have been that old
because the main street I was on only had Human Emergencies
building and some stores, no signs of ancient town halls or
court houses. There were about 20 houses and farms total
near a river and a highway.
First order of business was to find lodging for the night.
     “There a great rooms in the motel just south of here at
the end of Main Street” a sudden high-pitched voice rang out
behind me. I turned around and saw a girl that might have
been called beautiful if not for the annoyed and suspicious
expression on her face. As she approached me however she
became all smiles, turning truly stunning as the warm orange
glow of friendliness and hospitality seemed to come over
her.

-How exactly did you know what I was looking for? - I asked.
-Leaving out here all your life it is easy to spot an
outsider, what else would you be looking for? She said and
smiled with her eyes only.

Is that a question? I thought. Was she flirting with me?
Then I relaxed knowing from long experience that with some
people every sentence has two different meanings, knowing
that the second meaning is never discussed openly I decided
to ignore it.

-Yes I am flirting with you, I am flirting with you to get
you to stay at my father’s motel at the end of the road, and
by the way you will find manners here to be a lot different
then in the city, you see we don’t hide things anymore.

-Alright then, my name is Nate Okun and I am a localization
authority officer, you probably know why I am here if you
keep up with your town’s events. And you are probably Lizy
Baker daughter of Benjamin Baker who holds a motel here.  –I
decided to impress her with what I got from my computer
about places in the village I was sure to visit. Some
showing off was in order because that’s how I always reacted
when people seemed to know exactly what I was thinking, and
that happened a lot in the city.



-Stop showing off and hurry up, she said suddenly in old
man’s voice. That did get me agitated a little bit
and I said:

-If you are flirting with me changing voices is not helping
you much. Just then I realized that I have been walking very
fast after her all the time during our conversation and we
where already approaching a building of the motel where a
moderately old man set on the front porch.

“Welcome to Rose Motel “ –I heard a voice in my head say.
“Welcome to the Second Rose Motel” said Lizy.
-So what happened to the First Rose Motel, got burned down?
I replied
-Yes by a bunch of looters, but that was long time ago and
in a different place. She said and smiled again making me
think that what’s past is past and at least they have a
chance for a better life here.

Some how I felt uneasy, like I had to do something right
away.

-May I be shown to my room now? I have to unpack and make a
phone call? -I said to the old man, but got no reply.
-Pa, is mute, always has been, said Lizy handing me a key
with a room number on a key chain.
My unease grew; I snatched the key from the girl’s hands and
run up to my room. There without touching the terminal near
the wall, I took out a portable out of my pocket and yelled
at it:”Curator, curator I have a confirmed case of AT in the
hotel here “. Portable actually answered in my curator’s
voice:”It is as suspected, continue ignoring it “. Not for
the first time in my life I realized that I did not
understand completely not only what was the instruction I
received, but also the report that I have made myself.
What was that mysterious AT ? Why did I get a sudden urge to
blurt it out to my curator? Those questions bothered me for
couple of minutes but then I decided to ignore it just as my
curator suggested and took a nap.
     There where no waterfalls this time when I fell asleep
but as almost always dreams came:
I saw my curator lying on the bed in the dimly lighted room,
at least I assumed it was her since I never saw her in
person either, but the face looked similar to what I saw on
computer. Her voice said:
     -Acknowledged Telepathy, they are not even hiding it,
how is Nate gonna take it?
     -It is about time he became completely awakened.
Someone replayed.
     -Weren’t we keeping him under the blanket for a while?
     -He already received full training for the first level;
it is time he knows about it.
     -Do you think he is stable enough to keep working under
orders if he knows how we control him?
     -Hey it’s his job, in fact he will quickly learn to
     appreciate the group effort that is put in to his every
     thought.
     -Well he better, anyway it is already too late since I
     have included him in his dream in our conversation and
     set the mood to take the conversation seriously.
     -Do you think it will be enough to break the mental
     block.
     -How many times I have to remind you that mental block
     is mostly a persons own creation that helps him live
     his life easier, once he’ll stop ignoring the obvious
     the memory of the things he already knows how to do
     will come.
Then this scene drifted off and I saw Lizy. “Hey I heard
your bosses conversation, happy awakening “ she said and
clapped her hands. I awoke. Couple of hours has passed since
I have fallen asleep; the sun was at its highest point. I
wondered why I had fallen asleep during the day and this
time I knew the reason. It was too complex to be put in
words, but I was sure that I knew a lot of things about this
world now that I was unaware of 2 hours ago or thought I
knew.
It was definitely time to do something, meet the towns
people and so fourth. Just when I thought that there was a
knock on the door, it was Lizy.
Did you wake up at last? Who sleeps in the middle of the
day? Definitely not such a busy man as you should be if you
are who you say you are.
I am who I am and I got the papers to prove it, I said
immediately taking out my Human Emergencies card and
flashing it in the air. Well come, she said smiling
wickedly, Come and let me show you around. You don’t even
have to stay here a week, the whole matter can be settled in
a day if you would only wake up.
Well I am awake now, I said recreating in detail her wicked
smile.
-Good then.
 She turned around walking out of the room, gesturing me
with her little finger to fallow.
Looking from behind when she walked her whole body wiggled.
A voice spoke in my head “Want me, big boy?”. I hurried up,
ignoring it. Walking the Main Street with Lizy, I felt
glances of people from the houses, well that what it was to
be an outsider in the village. Soon we approached a big
building that looked like a church complete with a cross on
top.
     -Well here we are. Liz said. Here you can meet all the
people of East Upper Falls who care in the slightest about
that localization thing, mainly the members of our
localization committee, and since I am not one of them I am
leaving you.
As she was walking off the sound of the ancient pop song
filled my head, but I ignored the message knowing that she
is not “Leaving me behind”, and this is not our final Bye-
Bye.
After short hesitation I entered trough the big doors of the
building in to the room that did look very much like a
church hall, there where about 20 people sitting on the rows
of benches all looking at me when I walked in, as soon as
they turned away seemingly satisfied with what they saw the
old man behind the pulpit who had a little boy next to him
spoke:
     Welcome, our new initiate I hope you will have no
troubles adjusting to our few simple rules and will find
peace and love in your understanding of Water.

Probably reading my astonished reaction from my face he
turned and looked at the boy disapprovingly then faced me
again.
     What I meant to say is, welcome Nate the localization
officer to this meeting that will hopefully give this little
village it’s own semi-independent status in this big world.
My name is Reverend, they all call me Reverend and here is
my assistant B. he is completely deaf and mute, but he is
great help to me.
The other people you should know is Svee, our future
governor if all goes well. William is our only real computer
specialist. And young Daniel who is the representative of
East Upper Falls youth.
     As he was speaking three people got up and came close
enough to shake hands with me, first one named Svee Pikus
presumably was the person who submitted the request for
localization, he was a tall man approximately 50 years of
age, his face held a tremendous amount of pride and self
assurance, he reminded me of one of my city bosses, but I
could not remember which one, maybe all of them even. Right
from the start I understood that he will be an easy man to
deal with, I seem to have an instant understanding with him
when I looked in to his eyes as long as things went his way
he will always help rather then interfere and if anything
went wrong he will be held in awe by a couple of names of
officials that I could throw at him who I have actually
represented. He was the man that held authority, represented
authority and respected authority.  Or at least he hoped to
represent authority again soon enough when the place became
a locality. His file said that he held a very respectable
position somewhere on the West Coast before he moved here.
The second person William I did not know that much about
since I did not think I will be dealing with him, he
presented himself as the man with a lot on his mind, there
was a spark of intellect in his eyes, he was a man in his
40s a bit fat and while Svee was dressed in the business
suit William was wearing sweater and a tee-shirt with the
sign “If only computers could drink “ on it. Young man gave
me more trouble, he was absolutely impossible to read, his
eyes simply did not have an expression when I stared at him
for a short while, while I was shaking his hand I felt as if
something laughed at me and kissed me on the chick.
     As soon as we where done greeting each other Svee took
the initiative: “As you know our claim for locality is on
the religious bases, what I have planned for you is to see
our service, so that you might find that there is nothing
wrong with our believes in relation to the law, we don’t
make sacrifices, we don’t preach the change of the political
order and we are not trying to raise our own army.”
-That all might be as you are saying but I have to make sure
of it for myself that is why I might be staying with you for
a while.
-Do as you must then.
-Gentlemen the special service is starting please take your
places. Spoke Reverend loudly.
-This service is dedicated to our friend Nate Okun, who has
come from afar to question and asses the safety of our
religious practices and therefor we will go over the most
basic principles of our religion. As we all know we worship
Water, because water is Life, it is the most basic substance
that unites all living beings. We know that it is
intelligent. Super intelligent even. Intelligence exists not
only in humans but in everything that is living, it is
distributed throughout all of them. That supreme
intelligence guides us and shows us how to do things we
could not have done without being aware of it. It teaches us
to love one another and to treat each other with respect. It
teaches us how to be a part of the big whole that is Life.
Thank you for your attention, good night.

That was It? I thought. The whole service? He did not say
anything specific. Just some bullshit about water and life.
Seeing the cross on the building earlier on I thought that
this religion would have a lot to do with the Common
Religion. But he did not mention the Savior, he did not even
mention God .I was completely unsatisfied. Meanwhile people
where starting to wonder off.
-Our Reverend is not much for words when you meet him in
person. Said William coming up to me.
Visit me at my house and I will try to explain things a bit
better.
-Ok, I said, if you are willing to answer some of my
questions I’ll gladly go with you.
As we where walking outside the sun was setting down, I felt
that I have lost more then a couple of extra hours and I
could not explain when. I could not have been in the church
for more then an hour and yet my watch and the sun showed me
that it was evening. We where walking to his house in
silence and I had a chance to remember that all the while
the service was going on I had visions, of waterfalls, of
planets joined by some cosmic river, I remembered having at
one time a sense of a unity with all living beings. The
strange thing about it is that I only realized it now, as if
something prevented me from concentrating on my visions
while I was still in the church.
     William lived in the medium size two stories house 20
minutes away from the church. Immediately when we set down
in his living room he started talking. He sounded very
agitated as if he was trying to convince me of something,
and indeed he was.
     -It’s not Water, he just used that term to summarize
it, if you read sci-fi when you where young. (I nodded) then
you will find the term biosphere more appropriate.
Intelligent biosphere. It can do almost anything its powers
are close to omnipotent especially comparing to ours.
     -What can do almost anything, water?
     -Water, plants, animals, humans you see it is all part
of a whole, anything that you consider organic is really a
part of one huge intelligent organism that is Life.
     -So there is your God, combination of all living
things, right?
     -You got it.
     -Let me ask you a more practical question now. How
often do you congregate?
     -That was the first time.
     -What do you mean the first time?
     -Well we usually discuss our believes in private when
we feel like it. And also every night there is a session of
talking to IT.
     -So the whole thing was staged for me only?
     -Yeah we felt that you would not be happy if we
explained everything to you telepathically.
     -Explained to me HOW?
-Oh, come on now I know you had orders to ignore it but only
a fool can ignore the obvious.
     -How do you know what orders did I get? Have you been
     spying on me? You are a computer specialist aren’t you?
     It would not take much for a true Explorer to tap my
     calls and make my computer scream out things. If you
     want to explain something to me, first explain this.
     -Ok If you require an explanation here is one that you
     might not like but it is the truth: You are a strong
     telepathic receiver and that means that even now you
     probably hold more then one human presence, there are
     always people watching trough your eyes, thinking
     together with you, guiding your every thought as long
     as what you do is interesting to someone else, and your
     current mission surly rises an interest.
     -I do not believe in fairy tales, I do not believe in
     telepathy any more then I believe in your fucked up
     religion of Water! –I shouted.
     -Stop lying to me, we know that you have been trained
     never to admit it because that was the first
     law: if you use it never say that it works because if
     you do you will not be able to prove it.
     -Ok, let’s presume that it is so still it does not
     explain the weird noises my computer was making.
     -Well ask Daniel about that, I am more of a research
     computer scientist, he is more of a hands on guy. If
     anyone did anything it must be him, but probably as a
     joke.
     -It is getting late and there’s been too much
     excitement today for me, so I’m about to go back to the
     motel.
     -Wait, I have not even started to explain to you the
     real meaning of what we believe in, the real beauty of
     it.
     -It would have to be next time then; I will see you
     again tomorrow.
          I said and edged my way towards a door.
     -Sure come by anytime.
          He said with a big smile that made me think that
     no matter what we talked about we
have parted our way today as friends. I smiled back with a
grin that said that his company brought me pleasure and
finally walked out of his house. When I was walking back I
barely saw the ground, thoughts where racing trough me like
speeding cars on the racetrack, Why does he talk about it?
I remembered now that all my life I have been trying to keep
something on the back of my consciousness, never completely
admitting to it, being afraid that it might go away in a
second if I said something wrong. And now I met a guy that
talked about it out loud. Telepathy. The main reason why
psychiatric corp of Human Emergencies was assembled. Back
100 years ago there where millions of cases, all of a sudden
of people hearing voices, there where many men who thought
they could communicate telepathically. Some people claimed
to have proven it’s existence empirically but none explained
how it worked scientifically. Then in space of 4 years
police and psychiatry merged under one roof, soon publics
general opinion changed to strong disbelief once again, and
it appeared that Human Emergencies was there to keep it that
way. So technically I already had enough evidence not only
to disallow localization but also to put these people in
serious trouble with authorities if they all believed what
William did. The strange thing was that the local Human
Emergencies office did nothing about it, did they not know?
I needed a quite place to talk to my superiors. Walking up
to my room I noticed Pa looking at the TV screen in the dark
main lobby. I looked at him and thought “Hi” he did not
bother to respond in full only blinked his right eyelid.
Looking at my bed I felt a strong urge to sleep or at least
to lay down and think for a second, but instead I took out
my portable and said:”Hey, is there anybody out there?” The
screen came up with a whole 3 smiling faces of people that I
worked with. That meant that somebody wanted to hear me.
That somebody was my assistant Johnson, a guy from computer
division and my Curator Lora who was a big woman with a
serious face.
          -Hey there. Spoke Lora.
     Screen blinked, little green circle that meant
     “PlayBack” appeared and Johnson’s voice said “Hello
     boss”
          -Can you please turn off the conversation
     synchronizer, I can take people talking simultaneously.
     -Sorry Nate , said the computer guy, this is an
     official business it is getting recorded and we can’t
     have people talking simuntaniously on the disk in that
     recording.
     -Ok, let’s all take turns here is my report: First of
     all the religion claim might be invalid because I have
     information that those people don’t even congregate,
     they got together once to show it to me. Although one
     of them was not afraid to admit that and he also said
     that they practice their religion in different ways, by
     meeting privately and in their thoughts. Second of all
     there is at least one person who claims to use
     telepathy I know that it was not part of my current
     investigation but I will be breaking the rules if I did
     not tell you about it.
          -Why all the official talk Nate , said Lora, did
     something you  have heard freaked you
     out ? Some conversation? Voices maybe?
          -Come on don’t scare him like that you know better
     then I do that “burning times” are over. Why do they
     call them “burning times” I wonder, nobody got burned
     or anything.
          -It’s alright Johnson, he knows it’s only a joke.
     Said Lora and coughed. Now to a more serious matter,
     one of those villagers did get in to your computer this
     morning; we traced him right after your tip. Since he
     could not or did not want to get out on to our network
     there was no serious damage done; in fact we believe he
     did not do anything besides produce a sound effect. Yet
     the capability of the locality to be
      for computer terrorism is a serious matter, serious
     enough for you to investigate further. We have alredy
     switched his citizen computer account to a lower status
     so that he has only access to public sites no matter
     what his passwords are. Talk to him see how he takes it
     , gather the reasons for his illegal computer use. His
     name is Daniel Rose. He is also the youngest
     of the localization activists in the village.
          -Wow, aren’t you taking this a bit too seriously,
     I used to do stunts like that when I was young , and
     nobody cared. Came the noise from the computer guy’s
     corner of the screen .
          -Considering the circumstances we cannot take this
     seriously enough. In fact computer terrorism is one of
     the signs of a gathering army, and that we should watch
     out for according to law. Replied Lora.
          -So do they still have a chance at localization,
     or should I abort my mission as soon as I have talked
     to him?
          -As long as you think that it is an unrelated to
     their future policy incident and not the beginning of
     the operation that is meant to influence other
     localities and maybe even the world government. If it
     was just an innocent prank as our computer guys
     suggested then we could ignore it.
     It is up to you to decide. Oh and Nate , I have been
     your Curator for some time now and I am pleased that
     you are showing great competence in this first
     independent assignment. Keep up the good work.
          -Thank you, Lora I will try. Johnson can you find
     out by tomorrow what exactly did William Okra did
     before coming to this village.
          -Will do boss. Talk to you in the morning or a bit
     later. Bye.
Two other Bye’s played one by one being synchronized by the
computer and the screen turned black again.
It was time to sleep. I curled up comfortably in my bed and
tried to tune out. It was not easy. Thoughts about previous
conversation filled my mind, was I to destroy the villagers
chance for independence?
As half-asleep state was coming up I repeated to
myself:”Everything will work out as long as I believe I am
doing the right thing. I am doing the right thing. I am
always doing the right thing.” Those phrases were fallowed
by the face of smiling Lora, but then as the dream got
deeper that face became Lizzy. I was suddenly in the garden;
Lizzy came up to me and kissed me on the chick.
     -Answer me honestly do you love me she said, making the
motion as if to undress.
     -How could I love you, I don’t even know you and
besides I am 32 and you are 20 what can you see in an old
man like me?
     -Oh come on you are not that old, she said and I felt
like warmth came over my shoulders.
She swung her hand around my neck leaned closer to me and
whispered in my ear: You did tell them about us, but it’s
all right they know anyway. We have been calling out to them
for long time now. It is all set; there will be no trouble.
     -How do you know that bitch? suddenly rang out a voice
in my head and I saw Lora enter the garden.
Then they stared at each other for what seemed like eternity
and a vision of many people looking, trying to recognize
each other and themselves, discussing current situation with
feelings and memories that went by too quick for me to
comprehend, filled my mind. When it was over there was me
and Lizzy again and she said:” You know, you could just come
up to my room and we can play around “. But since I was 32
years old and had heard similar offer in the dream at least
once from every girl I ever liked, I knew enough to ignore
it and not run up to her in the middle of the night
screaming insanities. Seeing that understanding in me she
smiled and disappeared. I was left alone for a while but
just when I was about to truly fall asleep, I felt the
presence of Reverend and his kid, he was joined also with
what seemed to be many people, probably most of the
villagers but their presences where unrecognizable, I just
felt that he was being many people right now. His or theirs
amplified voice rang out in me and I could not pretend
anymore that I was asleep. I just lay there with my eyes
closed and let Reverend’s thoughts fill my head. It was not
exactly a speech that I have heard but none of the telepathy
is it was as if my mind suddenly had new thoughts in them
that I knew where not my own, I let him join myself to their
group by concentrating on his “speech”, and my own
interpretation of his thoughts started to form in to words
and sentences of what he was saying.
     “The only point of our exercise today as every day is
to remember how to join with One. Let me remind you all
first that one should not let the group be his only vehicle.
No matter how large the group is, it is always infinitely
smaller then the unity of all Life. That unity should be
your only vehicle, and that unity should be your only group
that you belong to. Gently now feel the presence of all the
living things combined, if you forgot where to start picture
a waterfall which carries in it the essence of all living
things. “. As he was thinking those words I felt the group
expand. His voice grew even stronger. At that same time some
other voice shouted: Can you stop the concert already? Why
do you have to do that every morning? But everyone was
oblivious to that voice, because the presence of something
bigger then that group of people have entered. For just a
second, just a short glimpse the presence of the magnificent
whole infused the people in the ritual. Then it was over,
but Nate still could not sleep. What was it he wondered? Who
or what did he feel? Was this the presence of their God,
that mysterious unity of all living things? He called out in
his thought with a song he remembered and to the sound of
the music Lizzy and William appeared.
     -You can’t go to sleep yet silly boy – said Lizzy from
a small orange cloud in his mind
     -Yeah, you have seen everything, you have witnessed
     it’s presence – added William joining in that orange
     cloud.
     -So is that what you do every night, chant until the
     presence comes and then fall asleep? What exactly did
     you do to summon it?
     -It does not need to be summoned, it is always there in
     your thoughts, in fact you would not be able to think
     without its existence.
     -You mean that I can talk to it whenever I want too and
     it will hear?
     -Yes it will always hear no matter what you say no
     matter who you talk too because you are completely a
     part of it at all times, everything that passes trough
     your head is also it’s thoughts. The trick is to get it
     to reply and for that you must think about something
     that matters to it.
     -Like what?
     -One can never guess what things matter to it unless it
     tells you.
     -But this is some kind of vicious circle. It would not
     talk to you until it cares about the subject but only
     it can tell you what subject it cares about.
     -It’s not all that bad; you know what it cares about if
     you read the Book.
     -What Book? The Common Church Book?
     -More then that Book, every book, every song also even
     every sign that stands by the side of the highway,
     every graffiti you see on the city wall every article
     you read in the newspaper, every minute of every
     channel of your TV. That is the Book, the whole bulk of
     all information ever produced by our environment and
     us, if you read it right you will hear IT’s words in
     it.
     -This is a really hard way to talk to someone if you
     need to decode messages all your life just to get to
     say hello.
     -Well sometimes you will talk to it and it will answer
     if you just believe in what you’re doing strong enough.
     -Often ?
     -No not very often, but you can always feel it being
     there if you believe in it, this is what we did today,
     we did not talk to it we just felt it be.
     –Last question William, do you call it God?
     -Most of us do, but no matter what you call it, nothing
     exists that is more godly then it.

Time was 3am, it was either a cup of coffee and another all-
nighter of thinking or an immediate tune out.  I lay in my
bed and thought about nothing, presence of Lora or someone
else swirled at the back of my mind but it was time to
ignore it. Only an hour has passed until I stopped feeling
things and finally fell asleep. Dreams did not come; only
before awakening I heard the sound of the rain falling.

                         Second day.

The music was playing on the portable, it was pretty loud
too, at least it was soft. Who was it? I did not remember,
it was time to wake up. The day was incredibly sunny. Why
did they put the bed near a window? The sun was shining
right at it annoying me tremendously. “Kill that light”, I
screamed, but nothing happened, probably the hotel was too
old or they just bought a crappy control system. I had to
get up anyway so I put my close on and went outside, it was
definatly time for a coffee. I went to the hall of the motel
and got my free cup.
     -How did you sleep last night? Asked Lizzy from behind
a counter.
     -Like a baby, thank you I said yawning and sipping the
coffee.
She smiled and said.
     -Well I guess today you would want to meet the rest of
the localization committee in private.
     -You mean they would not gather in the old church for
my convenience like they did yesterday?
     -Only if you ask them too.
     -Very well tell me then where does Daniel Rose live, I
think he is the next person I want to visit.
     -He lives close to the river on the North side of the
     village. 174 River Street you should find it easy.
Thanking her I went out the door, it was pointless to go to
the car especially since unlike most of the village folk I
would have trouble getting it there on manual I did not
think that a house-to-house map of this place was in the
computer. That parking lot and which turn to take of the
highway, was probably all that my car knew about this place.
Because of the sun the walk was annoyingly long, it took me
more then 30 minutes to get to the place where I could see
the river, thankfully the street I was walking on led me
directly to a crossing with River street and 174 was the
first one on the right.  Daniel Rose lived in the two
stories one that was directly in between the road and the
river, it was so close to the river that there was no
backyard to speak off the back of the house was directly
above the water. I ringed the bell, after a second of
silence the door opened and Daniel Rose wearing nothing but
torn jeans appeared. He had a small cigarette in his hands
and a look of slight annoyance and hidden pride. However
when our eyes met it changed to the expression of lovable
innocence with which somebody usually asks a girl for a kiss
on the first date.
     -Hello officer Nate. I am so glad you could come; we
need to discuss one thing. It had me worried for the last 24
hours and you are the only person that can help to resolve
it.

He said and made a face of a man pleading for his life.
     -Sure, I’ll discuss anything with you. I said as we
came in to the house. There where a lot of actual paper
books in the shelves in the living room, which made me think
that Daniel’s parents where rich.
     -Are your parent’s home? I asked the boy
     -Not for the past 4 years they aren’t, they have
accepted a job somewhere on another continent and only visit
once a year on vacation.
     -You must be pretty responsible for them to give you
such freedom at your age.
     -Well, I might not be all that responsible after all,
considering the very stupid thing that I have done.
     -What did you do?
     -Officer please tell me that you know the situation
then at least I will have hope that you can help me.
     -First of all not many people called me officer during
my life since it is custom to only call that the crime unit
of Human Emergencies, you probably have not lived in the
city much?
     -What’s the difference the closest club is 15 minutes
from my house. Not that I often go there.
     But never mind that, did they tell you that they have
     dropped my account down a few. I can’t get to my remote
     classes anymore. And I have to attend them; I took an
     out of school credit.
     -Studying what?
     -Never mind, I thought you knew, but I guess I would
have to talk to the local HE.
          -Don’t call us that it stands for Human
     Emergencies.  Actually I do know about your problem and
     have come to ask about it. Did you do it, or did
     someone break in to your account you think?
     -I did it, but come on; it was just a stupid prank.
     I still have my two strikes left don’t I?
     -Ok, let me help you in this matter I will talk to
     someone at computer division on your behalf. Let me
     just ask you couple of more questions:
     -Do you have any capability for computer terrorism?
     -Anyone who has a terminal has theoretical capability.
     -Are you planing to influance goverment or private
     bussness with computer exploits?
     -No I do not plan any such thing.
     -Do you agree to have your account monitored at all
     times by our computer devision?
     -Do I have a choice in that matter?
     -Only with you current account level, in your
     situation. If you want to have your previous access
     rights you would have to agree to the monitoring.
     -Ok then I agree.
     -Good.
     -What’s your name?
     -Tom Flaherty, Ooops I mean Nate my name is Nate Okun,
     how long did you live in the city you say?
     -Well from the 50 years ago point of view I am living
     in the city right now. City of Spraifelt to be exact.
     But by modern standards I have only lived in the city
     for 4 years with my grandmother.
     Now you have come to talk to me about something else
     too didn’t you.
     -Oh yeah, I did now that you mention it.
     You are on the localization committee, the claim for
     your localization is religion based how could it be if
     you don’t even congregate?
     -Our religion is religion of a thought only, you
     understand that all life is unified within one super
     intelligence. The water that unites us.
     -How can you say it’s the water when water is not
     really living?
     -Well Reverend and his kid where the once who started
     calling it Water. Being a computer scientist I don’t
     see why this intelligence cannot also reside in
     inanimate objects, such as rocks, stars, etc... It only
     matters that structure of the object be complex enough,
     every pattern represents some set of information it
     does not matter how random the pattern is.
     -Are you now talking about computer science or
     religion?
     -Look it’s got nothing to do with computer science, if
     there is a science in it, it should be called
     information science or intelligence science or
     something. For me it is the thing I believe in,
     everything has life because everything has brains.
     -But not everything has brains, rocks don’t have
     brains.
     -Ok a rock does not have a brain but it has a number of
     smaller parts arranged in to a patter so it carries
     some information, and every bit of information can be a
     part of information system or intelligence, as a memory
     or some function.
     -How come everyone here believes that it’s only the
     living things and you believe that everything is a part
     of it? Don’t you have a common agreement on your
     believes?
     -Agreement is that we believe in everything that works,
     they told me that whenever I will make the rock sing
     they will agree with me. Until then they will only
     acknowledge the things they can feel as the part of
     Life, to be Life.
     -But they can feel water to be part of Life? Seems like
     a contradiction.
     -Life is built on them, until you know the truth.
     -What truth?
     -Well which one would you like? All truths are part of
     the big truth and that one cannot be put in words
     exactly.
     -Well try it anyway.
     -Ok, all is God, God is all. Everything is Intelligent.
     -Did you ever read any religious books, thought?
     -Ohh yeah, most of them as a matter of fact, all the
     major ones at least.
     -You realize that most of them say the same thing about
     the matter, so what’s new about your view?
     -Well I am trying to do things with it, understand the
     world around me for what it is, a part of the One, and
     actually influence what is going on trough the
     communication with it and my own actions.
     -Did you ever succeed?
     -Well you are here aren’t you?
     -What does it have to do with it; I am here because I
     am doing my job.
     -Precisely.
     -Since we talk about my job anyway, does your religious
     believe tell you to do anything that might endanger a
     human or animal life? Like make sacrifices and such.
     -I never intentionally hurt anyone in my life. Nor
     would I want too. My religion does not prescribe me to
     do anything besides trying to understand how reality
     works and helping others to it.

I felt as if something slapped me on the chick at the same
time I felt a smile. Annoyed by that I imagined and believed
for a second that my hand is slapping him on the chick also.
He immediately blinked so I knew or had a hope at least that
mine worked as well.

     -You do play with things, working in Human Emergencies
I think it is impossible not too.
     -Well most of the time things play with me.
     -Wow, aren’t you supposed to never open up?
     -Well if I am in the village of crazy people, it does
not matter if I behave a bit crazy.
     -So this is your conclusion then, this is what you are
     going to carry to them about us, that we are all crazy?
     -Well you all have a very strange set of believes
     comparing to the normal people.
     -No we are just not afraid to hide what we know, most
     of the people have guessed as much without us, after
     the Dog came.
     -Who is the Dog?
     -Oh just a piece of folklore that has been in my family
     for couple of generations. Too bad he only spoke in
     people’s minds and not many have heard him right.
     -Does it mean that your believes have a heritage?
     -Well mine do, my father and mother taught it to me. I
     don’t know about other people in the village thought.
     -What was the name of the thing they taught you?
     -They never gave it a name, they just told me stories
     about life in the past. From what their parents told
     them. About a guy who nobody has seen that preached
     something like our religion in people’s minds directly.
     -How did they know that he existed then?
     -Well there where signs in films and songs and also
     many people heard him when he sang, at least that’s
     what they told me.
     -He sang?
     -Only telepathically of course, but he knew a lot of
     modern songs and he sang them very well, sometimes he
     would sing along with the radio, sometimes he would
     join musicians to play songs with him.
     -What do you mean join?
     -Well he would start a tune the musician who sings a
     particular tune would hear it and pick it up. Most of
     them could thing as well as he could telepathically
     only not as loud.
     He had a dream, he wanted to see something more then
     Telepathy working here and some say that he found the
     people who could do more.  Too bad he never spoke about
     it with his mouth or the world could have been a
     different place right now.
     -What happened to him?
     -Well according to the legend he got killed by the
     people protecting him, or maybe not killed just
     silenced, but according to another legend he was bit by
     a rattlesnake.
     -An actual rattlesnake?
     -Well I have a hunch that it is a metaphor for a person
     who can do things with frequencies, like stop your
     heartbeat. Or if you are not very susceptible just
     scare you half to death.
     -I don’t know of any such people, I have never even
     heard anything about them.
     -Well there are things out there besides Water.
     Rattlesnakes how some call them or Train People how
     others call them because their main tune that they play
     in their heads to get together sounds somewhat close to
     a what a train sounds like when it goes. They use it to
     communicate easily and to get in to groups and also to
     influence people. Their main problem is that most of
     them believe that their abilities comes from the group,
     a huge group of people that they represent, and some of
     them also believe that the nature, humans mostly they
     don’t care about the rest of the nature, responds to
     some set of sounds and frequencies that they can
     readily produce in their head.
     -Does it?
     -As long as there are enough of them believe it. God
     allows it to be. Some of the most powerful of them
     spend their whole lives believing that it is exactly as
     IT intended. Or maybe it works by association; it does
     not matter why you believe a person will feel a pinch
     when you want him too
     as long as you believe it enough the other person will
     probably feel something. So their sounds is complete
     BS.
     -Are there some other things out there?
     -There is the Coyote, have you ever read Karlos
     Costaless? “The teaching of don Matus, Journey to
     Ixlan”
     -No, what is it about?
     -You have to read it to know what it’s about, or not
     know, but the bottom line of it is that it is for the
     people who have nowhere else to turn; it will only put
     some food on your table. It’s like saying:”God, I do
     not know, what to do to get by in life. Please Help.”.
     It’s also like sitting in front of the game table and
     believing that something good will happen. Not doing
     anything about it just hoping.  Nothing really good
     ever happens but some people live by it.  The only
     positive thing about it is that it works, but who wants
     to be a hunter in modern times.
     I called it the Coyote because, the best of the
     initiates see it walk by ones in their lives, in spirit
     of course.
     Do not thing thought that it is stupid to fallow it,
     because the point is that we really don’t know the
     whole story and we can not either. It is too big for
     our little minds, the main difference is that we here
     in the village believe that we can see a part of God’s
     plan, while they are holding on to the truth that we
     can’t know more then a tiny part of it so why bother at
     all. At least they all believe in something, which most
     of them call Spirit, it also God thought.
     
     -Are there more of them?
     -Every awakened has some version of the reality which
     hopefully changes with his understanding of it, there
     are many houses of thought and believe. But of the
     major ones there are only three left.
     -Which ones?
     -Well first of all there is the White Rabbit, their are
     close to us because they spend their time looking for
     what to do to follow God’s plan and doing it to the
     best of their abilities and understanding, same as we
     do. They chase the White Rabbit; too bad they rarely
     catch it. But at least they can see his footprints in
     the sand. Majority of the people belong to them, they
     are responsible for most of the things that is actually
     done in this world. Their major flow is that they don’t
     know very often what they are doing consciously and
     they are too afraid to look for God’s message
     themselves, it usually takes someone with better
     understanding to show them the way.
     They are also the ones very reluctant in their work to
     use something that does not exist at least in
     majority’s opinion.  They had a very simple yet
     grandiose job, make this world physically comfortable
     for many humans to live in.  Well the drawback was that
     it took many thousands of years and in that time most
     of them has come to believe in only one thing, the
     hammer they where holding in their hands. The wonderful
     and needed science that has made the world a better
     place in their hands.
     
     -Are you sure that this is all they really believe in?
     Maybe some of them are still looking for answers
     themselves and use whatever works to better our
     reality?

     -Don’t flash that ace of diamonds at me; I know where
you come from and whom you work for.
     I know you guys have been catching up fast in the past
couple of hundred years when the living got easier thanks to
you of course.

     -Why do you associate me with something you are telling
     me yourself, that I have not even heard of before?
     
     -Come on stop pretending, I know I have been telling
     you ancient history about your house. White Rabbit
     awoke more then a hundred years ago. Now you only keep
     up the majority opinion that nothing has changed in the
     world for the sake of the that same science, because if
     you admit to yourself officially that it is so you
     would be obligated to prove it scientifically. And
     nobody has so far.
     
     -Something like that, Daniel. Something like that.
     But you told me of three more and that’s only one.
     
     -There is Eternal Mother, we are even closer to her
     because she always saw the God’s plan and tried to
     follow it. Otherwise she would not know what to do with
     all of us. Her children. She started this work first,
     trying to break the window of silence. But she was too
     early and her where daughters burned. What she does is
     very similar to what we do.

     And then there are us. We always tried to look at IT’s
     face directly. We do everything with Love; sincere Love
     is the most powerful technique of all.
     
     -What do you do exactly?
     
     -Well, we try to share our vision with the world, we
     strive for progress in understanding God, we make God’s
     plan our own. We each find our own road that he has
     left for us and we fallow it.
     
     -You mean for you there is destiny?
     
     -Not a preset destiny exactly, more like a highway
     where you can often stop and ask for directions to the
     next town.
     
     -And how do you ask directions of God?
     
     -Well, there is always the Book.
     
     -Like the Common Church book?
     
     -I thought you talked to William about it. The Book is
     the Book of the World, which is every peace of
     information ever assembled, every conversation that you
     have ever heard, every leaf on the tree, every sign
     besides the road every gust of air that ever blow by
     you. The only trick is to read it right, to find God’s
     words in it, and you always do if you believe you do,
     and also to always question IT, question your views on
     reality, question your thoughts, question life. Only
     when you see clearly all the roads in front of you,
     you’ll know which one is right. Only opening your eyes
     on everything that is going on you will see your own
     way.
     
     -So you don’t have to get in to telepathic circles and
     cry out: “God, come talk to me!”
     
     -No you don’t and it does not work that way anyways.
     Although sometimes it does, if God has something for
     you to hear you might hear it while doing absolutely
     anything.  Just don’t ignore it.
     
     -Of course you realize that sometime ago your views
     could have gotten you in to a lot of trouble with
     authorities.
     
     -Yeah, well, they’re my views and I’ll live by them no
     matter what.
     
     -One more thing. Did God ever told you to raise an army
     and change things by violence?
     
     -No, never heard IT say that. Never in my life. I don’t
     think God ever told anyone that, then again I would not
     know because I am not anyone. Or am I not everyone? I
     always confuse it.
     
     -I am not someone, is the right way to say it I
     believe.
     
     -Maybe.
     
     -Listen, Daniel I am going to leave you now I only ask
     you for permission to have your number in case I want
     to ask you something while I am in the city.
     
     -Sure, I’ll right you a message from my computer later.
     
I went outside, my head was spinning, it was sure an intense
conversation. I needed a coffee. It was getting late; I have
spent all day at Daniel’s place. Walking back to a hotel I
saw Svee Pikus.

     -So, how is it going?
          He said with a smile that seemed a bit fake, he
     was definitely worried.

     -It is going well, you don’t seem to harbor and
     antisocial intent nor are you trying to raise an army.
     
     Then a sudden decision has hit me and I knew it was
     right.
     
     -I’ll sign the paper now. I don’t see what more I could
     do here except learn more about your religion, and I
     have heard so much already my head is spinning.
     
     I made the portable produce a signed peace of paper.
     
     Svee Pikus’s expression changed to a happy smile.
     
     -I don’t know how to thank you for this; I hope you’ll
     come visit us someday later.
     As a favor to you I might warn you be careful what you
     say to the folks back in the city about us.
     They might take it wrong.
     
     -I am always careful.
     
I stopped for the coffee in the motel, got in my car and
left. Putting on the automatic control I turned on car’s
computer and called Lora. She appeared on the screen with a
coffee cup in her hand.

-It is good that you called, but I can’t talk to you right
now because I am busy.
It is important that you call me immediately when you get
back.

I found it strange that she did not talk to me, but went to
sleep anyway. This time sleep came easy, nobody bothered me.
All trough the night I heard rain fall in my sleep.


            Conclusion


Early in the morning, I awoke from that same music. I still
could not remember who it was. The car was already parked on
the city street near the Human Emergencies building. I
wondered why it drove here instead of my house; I did not
have an office in that building because like everyone else
in Human Emergencies besides crime unit and medical unit I
worked from home. Then I noticed that there was a message
waiting for me on my computer. It told me to go immediately
to Human Emergencies building room number 202. Finding 202
was easy when I entered the room and saw Lora and two other
people sitting there.

     -Hello Nate , said Lora in a very concerned tone of
voice.
     Let me introduce you to Mike and Jamal from the medical
division.
     -Hello gentlemen, I said wondering what was up.
     -Nate, we have reviewed all your conversations recorded
by your portable and find you in violation off ....
          Suddenly Lora broke off and turned to the left.
     Well never mind that. She said finally.
     You have neglected Human Emergencies policy not to
     voice believes in superstition or paranormal phenomena
     of any kind.
     Recordings show that you not only has admitted to using
     telepathy but also admitted to belong to some kind of a
     group.
     Our policy states that in such case a person needs to
     pass check time in Human Emergencies mental facilities,
     so if you want to keep your job, you will fallow those
     too gentleman.
     
     -Hey it’s ok man, said Mike. Sooner or later everyone
     who does what you do has to spend some time in our
     hospital, it’s only a week, so no hard feelings Ok?
     

I had nothing to say.

     
                    Written by DanB, for your enjoinment .
                         Summer 2000.
                Have questions ? e-mail me at danb1977@yahoo.com