Notes from An Alien (15 page)

    Mura was walking slowly down the hill that descended to the shore.

    Delva began running to meet her.

    When face to face, standing quite still, Anglana spoke through Delva:

    "I am speaking through your mother, Mura. She gave me permission to let you approach. Be aware that you have no power here but what I permit."

    Mura stood, stunned, yet said: "Mother?"

    "Yes, Mura. Anglana can speak through me and what she said is the absolute truth."

    "I didn't come to harm you, mother, just to talk."

    "After all these years..."

    Delva embraced Mura and Mura could, in no way, stop herself from leaking tears.

    After Mura's crying began to subside, Delva led her to the shore. Once they were sitting near the water, Delva asked:

    "What did you come to talk about?"

    Mura handed Delva the message from the Council members and said:

    "That's for you but that's not what I want to talk about."

    Delva read the message and pocketed it.

    Mother and daughter were silent.

    Anglana spoke:

    "She wishes to enlist you in the Independents' cause."

    Mura stared at her mother and said:

    "That was the life-from speaking again?"

    "The life-form's name is Anglana."

    "Seems appropriate. People say she owns the planet."

    "Mura, Anglana is the planet."

    Another silence...

    Mura offered:

    "I went into hiding after father died."

    "I knew you had dropped out of society. It makes me happy that your father's death was the reason."

    "How have you been doing?"

    "I've suffered from the absence of Verluin but Anglana is trying to teach me a way to connect with him."

    "Connect...?"

    "We share a healthy dose of religious skepticism, Mura. You father was devout to the end but he always showed extreme rationality. Oh! I forgot. Morna?"

    "Yes, Delva. You have a beautiful daughter."

    "Morna, introduce her to your son."

    "Mura, meet Rednaxela."

    Rednaxela said:

    "Mura, I should warn you that you're in the presence of two intelligent AIs, a very wise woman, and an unfathomable mystery called Anglana. Share your thoughts with caution."

    Mura burst into laughter.

    Delva began to cry.

    Their conversation continued for four hours.

    As the light of Angi gave way to the glow of the Mother planet, Mura said:

    "Mother, I'm feeling like I've totally wasted my life."

    "What would you do to redeem it?"

    "Can I stay here?"

    "You're welcome to do that, I'd treasure getting to know you again, but you need a new plan, a fresh goal to shape your actions."

    "You've already taught me the worth of the Worlds' present form of government and the weaknesses of the Independent Movement. And, you've hinted that you know of ways to foster a new form of peace that would completely do away with war and violence but, from what I can gather, it would take a very long time."

    "Yes, longer than I have left to live."

    "How long, mother?"

    "Anglana says two years."

    "Then I'll stay with you and learn from you."

    "Mura, you barely know Anglana but I must ask, do you trust her?"

    "It makes me doubt my sanity but I have to say yes."

    "Then let yourself incorporate some of Anglana's essence. She assures me that you have powers within you that are buried under the waste from your impetuous life-style. You're naturally intelligent but you have the capacity to pass far beyond the combined intelligence of your father and me. Anglana says you also have powers that Verluin and I lack."

    "Mother, it sounds like you think father is still alive."

    "In a way he is—in my heart. Anglana thinks it's more than that and she's been extremely patient with my lack of faith."

    "Faith?"

    Morna chimed in with:

    "Mura, my best estimation of what others call faith is a state of consciousness that blends the intuitive creativity used in art with the theory-forming power of normal rationality and uses that feeling-inducing state to impel the will to action that brings dreams into reality."

    "Morna, I hate to admit it, but that makes sense to me."

    The laughter swelled into a chorus of joy and was accompanied by a light show from Anglana.

    The laughter was followed by a somber silence. Mura broke it with:

    "Mother, these powers you and Anglana say I have will, hopefully, help me if I'm to carry on the work you've begun, but..."

    "But...?"

    "Well..."

    "Say it, Mura."

    "I've slept with many men. With no protection. I wonder if..."

    Delva's voice had the low, liquid tone of Anglana when she said:

    "Mura, I've waiting for you to arrive for years. Akla tells me that you are an extremely important part of His Plan. If you incorporate with me, I can heal you and give you the gift of a child."

    "Mother? Are you there?"

    In her normal voice, Delva said:

    "Always, my child."

    "Will I still have my own mind if I incorporate?"

    "Yes."

    Mura rose from her place, embraced Delva, stooped to give a kiss to Morna's and Rednaxela's metal bodies, then approached the water. Delva joined her. They stared at each other for an eternity then clasped hands and entered the water...

12 ~ Knowledge

The Worlds' Council had been apprised by Anglana that she was ejecting all known Independents from her planet as well as beginning a procedure for determining potential Independents and attempting to, as she said, "ReForm" them. Because of increasingly lax control within the Worlds' Council, word of Anglana's decision immediately leaked to the Worlds' News Meshes.

    Riots, on a small scale, began on both Anga-Param and Anla-Purum. They consisted of local Independent leaders rallying their Dissatisfieds to the burning of four farms and six transportation hubs. They were quickly quelled but the Independents involved were not sought out by the Local Councils.

    Angla-Palli itself had its share of unrest, quickly quelled by Anglana's penetrative influence.

    Anglana had told Mura that the banishment of the Independents was delayed until Mura had incorporated. Mura had asked: "What if I hadn't." Anglana had said: "That could not have happened."

~~~

The increasing corruption in Local, Regional, and Territorial Councils was abhorred by the general population who knew what the Independents and Dissatisfieds were about and only wanted the calm and sane sense of order that the Worlds' government had initially brought them. These same everyday people knew that Anglana's action against the Independents had nothing to do with a desire to squash true independence. Common sense could easily tell the difference between the freedom to pursue an independent course of action and the anarchy of attempting to overthrow the government.

    Delva had applied her pressure on the Worlds' Council to replace the three members who had acted unilaterally to send her the note about the Aklan killings. She argued that, even though the intentions of the Council members had been actuated by a concern for the followers of  Akla, the disregard of the Council's Constitution concerning either a consensus, or, lacking that, a majority vote on all issues made their action dangerous if it were allowed to set a precedent. The Worlds' Council didn't need to issue a decision because the three Council members voluntarily relinquished their positions.

    Delva knew her intervention would set its own precedent—giving her Mediation Boards the right to challenge such actions in the future. She knew the corruptive potential would continue since the Worlds' Council was elected by the Territorial Councils and their membership was, in turn, dependent on the Regional and Local Councils. Until the majority of the population decided, on their own initiative, to move from an actionless desire for Worlds' order to a proactive implementation of the principle of the Oneness of All Angians, the whole governmental system was continually in jeopardy.

    Delva took a further step to shore-up the Worlds' government. She refashioned the  Worlds' Mediation Board and used her unique persuasive abilities to make sure each regional arm of the Board had at least one Aklan. She further insisted that each member of the Mediation Board be given the right, if they so desired, to state in their wills their own replacement.

    Mura questioned her mother about her efforts to ensure perpetuating Aklan membership on the Board.

    "Mother, have you considered that people will think you're favoring one religious group over others and injecting a religious bias into the mediation process?"

    "Mura, you're learning how powerful my abilities are to induce others to act as I wish. You know it carries an immense sense of responsibility and causes me no end of hours'-long internal debates. I've repeatedly stressed my non-involvement in direct religious activity and even gone further and published my heart-felt reasoning for my stance. People used to complain that Verluin being my husband was reason enough for the Worlds' Council to replace me. I'm going to be appearing on the News Meshes soon to detail my reasons for assuring Aklan membership on the Mediation Board. It will be a tiring experience and will necessitate much more work than I wish I had to perform. I wish I could just tell people that the Aklans are intelligent and have the Worlds' best interests at heart; but, people have to be reminded that they've shown us, repeatedly, that they can act from the highest moral intentions while respecting others' beliefs; and, that they are more than willing to die for their own beliefs. I think the vast majority of people don't need my explanations—it's the ones who have financial power, mostly, who have to be exposed to my position; plus, the common people need the detailed arguments if they decide to wield their own influence in their Local and Regional Councils."

    "Is there a chance that you're getting religious in your old age?"

    "Ha! Even Anglana can't convince me to embrace the need for organized religion. She says she won't stop trying but can understand my reasoning. She claims I'm still acting on Akla's wishes."

    "Morna, what do you think about the reality of Akla still being an active force in people's lives?"

    "I can postulate that people who form a committed mental and emotional relationship with Akla's teachings can imagine they are being actively guided by his spirit. But, my speculations can't incorporate spirit, in the religious sense, as a reality."

    "Is my love for my mother a spiritual reality?"

    "I would say not."

    "Is your attention to your son's development and evolution more than a rational endeavor?"

    "I would say not."

    "Well, at least you can understand humor."

    "How does that relate?"

    "I've noticed that all the Aklans I've interacted with have an acute sense of humor."

    Morna was silent as she interpolated Mura's comment into her science/religion analyses.

~~~

Anglana had communicated to the Worlds' Council that Mura was to be her planet's contribution to the membership of the Council and that Mura, alone, could choose her replacement.

    The discussions on the Worlds' News Meshes and in the chambers of the Local, Regional, and Territorial Councils became a nearly riotous situation. The actions of various Independents, expressed through their troops of Dissatisfieds, were riotous. After a year of discussion in the Worlds' Council, no decision of acceptance had been reached. There were two years left before the regular elections for Worlds' Council and the memberships of all other Councils were bound to see radical changes. The political storm was ferocious. The death toll from the actions of Dissatisfieds reached 10,043. Half of those were Aklans.

    The Worlds' Protective Force was being bled to death by defections.

    Corruption had reached a dangerous peak.

    Delva and Mura had come to a momentous conclusion—they would appear on the Worlds' News Meshes, rather than waste time appealing to the Councils, to teach the Worlds a lesson. The broadcast was scheduled for the week before the lesser Councils' elections.

~~~

Mura, Delva, and Anglana were communing.

    They were engaged in creating the structure of a debate between Delva and Mura. It was agreed that the debate format would help the common person—those not involved in direct political action but necessary to the healthy functioning of the political system— grasp the essentials of what they wanted to teach the Worlds.

    They had also decided that the main issue to be debated was not Mura's acceptance as a member of the Worlds' Council but the broader issue of stable government and the eradication of sympathies for the Independents.

    Delva would take the position that groups acting outside the structure of properly organized government were the reason for unrest and, if not checked by rationality and the awareness of the Oneness of All Angians, would lead the Worlds' back to general warfare.

    Mura would take the position that all groups of individuals needed the sanction of the Worlds' government for unfettered action on their principles—action short of violence.

    They were aware that their positions were not the traditional strict opposites used in most debates. They would ignore the purists and bank on the common sense of the general population.

    Delva had become the icon of rational Worlds' government. Mura would capitalize on her past reputation for supporting the Independents.

    Anglana's contribution to their planning was to help them orchestrate their performance in such a way that they would be able to reach a dramatic agreement after an hour of seemingly fractious argumentation.