Tomorrow's Paradise World: Colonize (4 page)

Something else that amazed Victor greatly, was the morality of the people. For example, their customs regarding courtship and marriage were completely foreign to him. When courting the couple would always have a chaperone. This chaperone was not too young, usually female and always married. Although in charge, she consulted with the couple as to where they would like to go or what they would do while courting. This, kept them out of a lot of trouble. Victor noticed that there were no children without parents in the village at all. They all had both parents to care for them. There were many young single people that were not courting at all. Only when they found someone that they mutually felt serious about, would they start courting. They only courted with the intention of marriage as the ultimate goal. Most courtships made it to that final goal. Those that did not were very few and they ended up among the single again looking for another potential mate. This was markedly different from the daily life among Victor’s people. Among the
Kastat
people there was almost no morality whatsoever. Life here felt more –right to Victor.

The wedding ceremonies were very simple and delightful occasions. In the early evening there was a feast that the whole village attended. It started off with a member of the village council giving a short happy speech. Then there was the signing of some sort of legal documents. Only three people signed them: The council member, the wife to be and the husband to be. All of this was done in about a half an hour. Then they had their feast. Following this there was some music and lively dancing. The feast ended before the sun went down. As the sun was setting the groom would walk to his house and stand in his doorway. His bride would go to her house and stand in her doorway. They waited for a loud signal from the musicians at the concluded feast. Everyone would stand on both sides of the road in between both their houses. When they finally heard the signal, the bride and groom would leave their doorways. They walked towards their new mate’s house. They met each other halfway, took each other’s hand and walked to their new house already prepared for them by both families. All the while, the people were following them to their new doorway. When they arrived they simply went inside and that was it. Everyone knew that they were married. Their marriage was respected by others in the village. The union was very serious and permanent for their entire life. There were no separations. Victor was very impressed with these customs and could see the advantage of many of them. This place truly had a way of life that was also paradisaic.

Victor, never knew his biological parents. His earliest memories were of the nursery, but they were very vague. His more vivid memories were of life in the academy. He always felt something intrinsic was missing from his early life, something essential that was never present. He felt great sadness inside, when he contemplated his early life in view of his circumstances of late. Here, it was easy to see that a complete family was that missing ingredient in the early part of his life. Without it a person was incomplete.

He was starting to feel like he belonged with these people. Every day, he was getting more and more attached to them and the wisdom of their traditions. Each tradition was understood by everyone. There were no observances celebrated without a reason. The reasons for them were not lost in the obscurities of time. They were not blindly doing things they did not understand. Truth and honesty were very important qualities to these people. No one lied. At least he had never heard anyone lie about anything to anyone. There was no need to. The people here were very happy, content and peaceable. It was truly paradise in so many ways. He was slowly learning how to be like them too. Although, these people had no real technology, they made up for it by being the wisest people Victor had ever known. They were boundlessly wise about life.

Victor recalled the conversation with Taerg when he first arrived in the village. He had said to Taerg, “Your people are very peaceful.”

Correcting him, Taerg said, “The word peaceful is an inadequate word to describe our people. To be peaceful is easy. Even the dead are very peaceful. Victor, our people are much more than merely peaceful. They are peaceable. They go out of their way to promote peace. They are peacemakers.” Such deep wisdom about life. Victor had never before even considered these things. Yet, here they were commonly known by everyone.

Although he was eager to resume his research somehow, he really wanted to learn more from these people. He knew the effort to do so, would make him a better person. These little nuggets of wisdom that he gathered here and there could possibly help him with his research.

Even the young ones had this wisdom. It was taught to them once a week during the regular town meeting. He always attended these meetings. He found them very informative and they helped him refine his knowledge of their language. He was learning how to write their language on the paper that they used, made from the fibres of some plant. It was very durable. The children were helping him with his writing, but he found the writing more challenging to learn than verbal communication. He was not accustomed to writing things down on paper, especially in a foreign language.

The livestock in the village were cared for by community effort. There were eggs and meat supplied by various animals. Some were large, some small. One animal had long fine hair and it was used to make most of their clothing. They also used animal skins for many various things including footwear and some of the more rugged clothing. A certain kind of large insect with many long legs wove a web to catch small animals. There were many of these insects outside the village. For some reason there were none inside the village. The villagers would use their web to make ropes that were very strong and could even be used to pull large tree stumps out of the ground.

The people themselves, were very powerful physically. Victor watched them perform feats of strength that his people would never be able to accomplish. Even the children were very strong for their size. He felt like a pitiful weakling next to these people.

Longevity, was another impressive consideration here. People in this village lived unusually long lives. No one ever got sick until they were very old and about to die.

Recently, Victor noted that he was feeling much healthier. More than what he considered normal, for his people. He no longer needed his walking stick. One evening he threw it on the fire and watched it burn with satisfaction.

At night around the fire many villagers enthusiastically told stories. Many of them humorous, although some of them were about an adventure. These escapades usually occurred when they travelled from one village to the next. Most often, the subject of their exploits were when they met up with one of the dangerous predators. Usually, th
e
rishtok’
s
left the villagers alone, but every once in a while they caused trouble. It was a very rare occurrence when someone died because of being attacked. Sometimes a villager was wounded but almost never killed. These exciting tales made life even more enjoyable for the villagers. Those who were relating the account would overemphasize their facial expressions to amplify their feelings that they had during their encounter. Victor would chuckle as he followed their story. Although his chuckle would turn into louder laughter when he observed the wide-eyed children that were allowed to stay up that late. It was not long before the villagers wanted to hear about Victor’s adventure. In spite of the hindrance of language he managed to entertain them with a simplified version of what happened. The next time he was asked to tell his experience, he had Taerg join in and relate the occurrence from his perspective. Of course, they left out the more graphic parts. Their combined portrayal of the events was much more fascinating.

This village had no large body of water nearby. Only ponds and small lakes. Victor learned through the night stories told around the fire that many villages were situated on the coast of the oceans. He noted that in the ocean, there were some larger predators in the deeper waters capable of killing with ease. They knew this, because sometimes their frightening carcasses washed up on the beaches. For this reason, the people were not really too interested in swimming. Although some of the fishermen knew how. They had some small boats, but they never ventured too far from the shore. There really was no need to. All the fish that they would ever need lived close to shore. They fished these mostly using nets that could be thrown from boats or even from the shore in some spots. If they caught more than they needed, they threw the excess back in the water.

There was no electricity in the villages. In the evening there were a couple of people that lighted oil burning torches along the main roads. They also had candles and oil lamps for their homes. Although they were very primitive from a
Kastat
point of view, they had tools and other instruments made of various types of metal. These rudimentary mechanical devices helped them to accomplish the tasks of their daily lives in the villages.

Victor was happily learning all of this. Things were going well until one day a young boy pointed into the sky at a scout ship passing above at high altitude. “They must be looking for me,” said Victor. At the moment, he did not want to be found. He knew they needed him, but they could wait. He turned to his friend Taerg and said, “I think we should take the trip to your grand council of elders as soon as possible.”

“We will travel tomorrow. I will make sure that we are prepared for our trip.”

Chapter Three: Grand Council of Elders

It took two and a half weeks to travel to Taerg’s home. He had not even arrived at his house when his children heard of his approach. They found him and rushed into his arms. He had three children. Two girls and one boy. Taerg had happy tears in his eyes when he embraced them. When he appeared at the front gate, his wife came out and they too embraced. He introduced Victor his new friend to them all. They immediately accepted him as more than a friend of their father’s. They were calling him uncle. Taerg also had many relatives here in the surrounding villages. Victor was very surprised to meet Taerg’s great, great, great, great grandmother. It was remarkable, she walked up to him and greeted him with a warm smile. Victor had the impression that she still had a lot of years left to live. Taerg told him that it was not so unusual. There were others that were older.

During dinner the children were asking their father numerous questions, so he said that he would read part of his log writings to them before they went to sleep. They asked if uncle could be present too. Taerg agreed. Victor watched as Taerg was reading in an animated fashion the description of his crashing ship plummeting through the sky. His children were absolutely mesmerized. Every so often, they would glance at Victor but not for long, their father had their undivided attention. Taerg wisely avoided the graphic parts of the crashing space ship story. He had to simply explain what a space ship was. It was not long before they started to get sleepy and Taerg hugged them good night. They each gave Victor a hug and said, “Good night uncle.”

The next day, Taerg said he and Victor had important news for the grand council and that they must spend most of the day there. He hugged them again and they both started walking toward the grand council building. When they arrived they did not have to wait long. There were not many matters that the elders had to address. Before long they received audience with them. There was a large table, and the elders, males and a female were gathered on one side of it. Chairs of equal quality were positioned on all sides of the table and they were motioned to have a seat. They complied.

Victor looked at each of the elder’s faces. They did not seem to have a haughty air about them at all. They were older looking than the elders of the village town council. They smiled at Victor politely and then focused their attention on Taerg as he calmly began to tell them the details of their story. They did not act as if they did not understand one word. This seemed strange to Victor because Taerg told them about the space ships and the present efforts taking place to colonize their moon.

Without even consulting his fellow elders one of the elders said, “The colonization of our moon cannot be permitted to happen. This is contrary to the directives of the ancients. He turned to Victor and said you must inform them of our decision in this matter.”

“I have no way of communicating with my people, my shuttle was destroyed leaving me isolated from them here on your planet.”

“The colonization, said another one of the elders, “must not take place under any circumstances.”

“How will you,” said Victor, “stop this, from taking place? You have no way of communicating with them as well.”

The elders were silent. So was Taerg.

Victor resumed his reply, “I would like to learn more concerning the directives of your ancients. Where can these records be found?”

Still another elder said, “They are very ancient, fragile writings of the founders of our present way of life. The documents are stored in the
Cavern of Lights
, where only grand council members are permitted to enter. The general populace cannot have access to these writings, so an outsider like yourself is certainly not allowed to enter.”

“I understand why you would have such rules for the protection of your records, but the people now above on your moon will not stop until they have colonized your moon. Perhaps there is something in these records that we could show them to convince them to reconsider their actions. Just the fact that you know their efforts should according to our laws, make an impression on them.”

“You, cannot be allowed to enter, we will re-examine them for such information. However, even if we do find something resembling what you mention, how will you relay that information to them? You claim to have no way of communicating with them.”

“I might be able to acquire their attention. They have scout ships searching for me right now.”

At hearing this the elders were visibly dismayed. “The people are seeing these ships?”

Taerg nodded.

“We will review these matters and then reconvene with you at a later time. Please stay here in the city until we call you.”

That was it. The meeting was shorter than they thought it would be. They left and went to Taerg’s house to await the grand council’s eventual call. In the meantime, he enjoyed life in the city with Taerg’s Family. It was very similar to the village, except much bigger. In fact, the entire populated area might be described as a city of villages. It was sectioned off into villages with their own healers and council of elders for each one. People were not crammed in like little fish in a package of Homeworld rations. It was very pleasant in the city. There was no pollution that he could see whatsoever. Each house was self-sufficient. They all had a garden with a variety of vegetables and their favorite fruit trees. Every day it was the children’s duty to fetch water from their section well, located near the center of each village. If they were old enough to carry a small bucket from the well, then they were allowed to participate. When they arrived home, it was used to water the garden, for drinking and baths. It took about two hours for this to be accomplished. The children from different families helped each other out in this task. After that they could play with the other children in the village. The ones who were old enough could receive training on different aspects of village life, sometimes by their parents and occasionally by others. They were taught how to read and write at home each night before they went to bed and at the weekly village meetings.

A week later they were called to meet with the elders of the grand council once again. However, prior to this, something unusual occurred in the city. There was a lightning storm. Though lightning storms are very uncommon on their paradise world, nevertheless now and then they take place. Victor noticed that the people were very afraid, especially the children. He understood why, when he witnessed the lightning strikes. They were very devastating when they struck. Whether it was a tree or a building it suffered terrible damage. He was watching out the window with Taerg’s children when he saw a powerful lightning strike. This time it struck a large house not too far away. It sounded like an explosion. The roof of the house immediately ignited. Victor was acquainted with the occupants of that house. A large family lived there. They had eight children, four of them were under ten years old. As Victor opened the door, he yelled for Taerg to join him, but did not wait to hear a reply. He ran outside into the storm towards the neighbor’s house. When he arrived he tried to get in through the front door, but the fire was spreading so fast that it was already consuming the front door near where the lightning struck. In exasperation, he hit his shoulder against it and a small piece of the thatched roof fell on the back part of his shoulder catching his shirt on fire. The searing pain almost made him cry out in his anguish. He quickly took the shirt off, but his shoulder near his shoulder guard was burned. His personal video mission recorder was on his other shoulder. He did not know how bad the burn was, he did not have time to check. He rapidly disconnected his shoulder guard, hung it from a tree branch and threw the shirt on the walkway where it would not catch anything else on fire. He sprinted to the rear entrance of the house. The door opened easily. He went inside and yelled out some of the names he could recall. The father and mother showed up, each with a young child in their arms. Victor asked them where the other children were. They said that they were trapped upstairs. They ran outside with their children to get the gathering neighbors to look after them while they went back for more of their children. Meanwhile, Victor noticed that it was impossible to go upstairs, as the fire was devouring the stairwell. He ran outside met Taerg, he asked Taerg to give him a boost up to the second floor window. Taerg quickly put his hands together and Victor put his foot into them. Taerg lifted him up and easily lifted his hands over his head supporting him just underneath the window. Victor never realized that Taerg was so strong. However, the lower part of the window was still not in reach, it was about six inches away. Shifting his weight so it was mostly on his good leg he jumped as hard as he could. Both of his hands grabbed the window ledge. He pulled himself up and entered the bedroom beyond.

All of the children were in this room, they were scared and crying. He was happy that they were still alive. The smoke was steadily increasing and they were starting to cough. He immediately grabbed the closest child and went over to the window and dropped her into Taerg’s waiting arms. When he returned with another child the father was waiting below. As he dropped the last child into a neighbor’s waiting arms below. He knew that time was running out for him. The fire was now in the room with him. He could feel the scorching heat from behind. The smoke was very thick and his eyes were watering. He waited for the neighbor to run off with the last child then he leaped through the window and landed in the arms of his friend Taerg. Coughing and with tears streaming down his face from the smoke he asked, “How could you be so strong? I’m an adult and you still caught me without dropping me.”

“How could I drop my friend? That would be impolite.”

Victor did not sleep that night. The pain from his injuries kept him awake. He was escorted to the healers the next morning. They put him in a room they had prepared. There were many small plants in pots placed on shelves. They gently laid him face down in a bed, while they treated his wounds. He thought that the plants might be to produce extra oxygen in the air for the smoke inhalation that he was still suffering from. These people knew some scientific things. How could they possibly know this?

He slept the rest of that day and night happy that everyone was saved. They told him that his burns were not overly serious. His hands were burned probably from taking off his burning shirt. The back part of his shoulder and part of his back was burned as well. They had dressings on him and he was told that he had to have them changed every day for a week. After a week he would need some fresh air on them.

The family that he had helped were immensely grateful. They had to stay at the father’s brother’s place until they could be re-established with another house on their fire damaged property. Two days later Victor and Taerg’s family were invited for a dinner at the neighbor’s brother’s house. Each child gave Victor and Taerg hugs. Even the mother and father embraced them both with tears of thanks in their eyes. Their oldest daughter Yenoh had spent the last two days making a very high quality shirt for Victor since his was burned and of no use. Victor felt guilty accepting it. This family had lost all of their possessions. Yet, he knew that he should receive it politely. A substantial fire was exceedingly difficult to put out with buckets of water from the well. Unfortunately, the whole house had burned to the ground. The only thing left standing was the stone chimney which they knocked over with long poles. Their garden was killed from the intense heat. Some of the nearby fruit trees were likewise killed. The numerous buckets of water that the neighbors threw all around the house prevented the fire from spreading to other yards and houses. It could have been a lot worse. Everyone was grateful that no one was killed from this freak lightning storm fire.

Four days later, the village had a special feast in honor of Victor, Taerg, their quick thinking bravery and heroic acts.

When they were called before the grand council of elders there was a different atmosphere in the room than when they met with them previously. A very old female spoke first this time. She warmly smiled at them both and said, “We have reviewed the directives of the ancients. We could not look at all of the directives in one week. It would take far longer than that to examine them carefully. It was unanimously agreed by all council members that our moon should not be colonized. However, we have no way of enforcing this directive.” Affectionately she continued, “Therefore, in view of the recent heroic, selfless acts performed by the both of you, we have agreed that an exception should be made in this case. You will be granted access to the
Cavern of Lights
for as long as you need to examine these directives, other historic records and items of interest. You will do so with the intention of providing a solution to our problem. You are not to reveal anything further to the general populace, not even to your closest family members. The secrets of the
Cavern of Lights
must remain secret to our people. Taerg Esidarap and Victor Marcus do you agree to these terms?”

Taerg and Victor looked at each other, nodded their heads and said in unison, “We do.”

“Then we have an agreement.”

“Taerg” she continued, “you will study these directives and other records. You will become completely familiar with them. You know our people and our wisdom very well, so you will consult with Victor and answer any questions he may have concerning those things. If you cannot answer a particular question, you may call upon a grand council member for assistance.”

“Victor, you have knowledge of your people and their ways, laws and intentions. Please use this, along with your research of the records and directives to find a way for our moon to be overlooked in the colonization efforts of your people. We understand that you may need to colonize other worlds to relieve population overcrowding of your worlds that you presently occupy. However, the moon above is specifically mentioned in the directives concerning the very scenario of colonization, in connection with our planet
Paradise
. Please do your best to find a solution that is acceptable for all.”