A Child's View (part 7)

Tum finally decided to get up and leave his room. He didn't have school this day, which was fine because he didn't know if he was ever going back to school, now that his chip was disabled. That was another problem. He would be scanned for his chip at school. He was wondering more and more if disabling his chip was a good idea.

He decided for the first time he could remember to go out and walk around the town. There was a certain danger in this. He would have to avoid the cameras, which seemed ubiquitous, and most of all, the drones. A feeling of terror went through him as he imagined being vaporized by a drone. He started out, being careful to avoid any main route, especially ones that would take him to the main public transports. He cut across and around corners. He felt driven to keep moving on. It being the hot season, the sun shined through the hazy red sky. Tum actually felt hot, which was unusual for his species, being used to warm temperatures and averse to cold. In fact, if one of Tum's species were exposed to cold below what on earth would be 0 degrees Celsius, he or she would slow down, and eventually shut down.

He didn't really know where he was going, but he seemed to be drawn in the direction of the natural place. He knew he couldn't enter the natural place itself, because that would be too dangerous. There was too much monitoring going on there. It would take a long time to get near the natural place, especially since he had to take such a circuitous route.

He finally came to the edge of the natural place. He sat down in a secluded area. What was to be done now?

A Child's View (part 6)

 Meanwhile on a tiny blue planet 1,000,000 miles away,  Joe drinking morning coffee and listening to the radio, had a conversation.  "What do you make of reports of UFO's as they've come to call them again?"  This Joe asked his wife.  "It sounds like tabloid stuff from 100 years ago," she replied.  "Well, the President of China is about to give an address they've  been talking about for weeks,"  Joe responded.  "Do you think it could have something to do with the UFO sightings?"

A Child's View (part 5)

Chapter 3




Tum had two goals upon waking that morning. One was to disable his chip. The other was to find the girl he met in the natural place. He also wanted to meet her friends and find out what the small group was about. He knew he could no longer trust the public transport, and without the chip he could travel about more freely. But he also knew without the chip he would be without credits for food, and the strange security, one of almost captivity, that the chip provided. He would have to travel on foot, and he would have to be cautious not to give himself away.


        The first task, disabling the chip, would be difficult enough. Why didn’t the girl give more information? He knew it wasn’t impossible, as he had met the girl, and the small band existed without chips. Even without their chips, it was amazing the group was able to escape detection. The people were under surveillance in many different ways.


        There were the blimps as an English speaker might understand them, flying high above barely seen by the people.  There were the small automated craft that appeared and disappeared,  getting various sections of the planet. Some of them came equipped with weapons, just in case there are any dangerous rogues to be dealt with. Of course, there were also simple camera like devices, in various locations, keeping watch over the public. Tum often wondered why all this is necessary when the people are already under the induced haze of the "sousx."


         As he sat in his tree house, it started the dawn on him how to disable his chip, it must be done through mind processes. He couldn't quite pin down just how to begin. If only to girl had told him.


 For hours he would begin, come to a dead end, and start over again.  It had to have something to do with affecting the nerves where the chip was.  But how?  He experimented with different ideas, first making an attempt thinking of energy, or perhaps making the neurons overload right on the spot, on what an earthling might call his neck, which is where the chip is located.


He could feel the nerve start to tingle.  No matter what he did, the chip was still active. He couldn't quite understand how he knew that, he just did. It was part of the greater awareness he was developing.  He just couldn't get past a certain point in the procedure.


         He came at from different directions trying to affect different nerve groups or paths. Not being a neurosurgeon he understood what he was doing intuitively.


          It was starting to get very late but he kept at it.  He could feel a tingling sensation.  Then he felt something, but all at once the pain stopped.  He then knew the chip was deactivated.  He became very frightened by this.  There were many dangers involved. The danger of not being able to have food. The danger of putting his family in trouble. The state would surely know he wasn't using his credits. Even if he just left,  the security services might still visit his parents. It being very late Tum decide to go to sleep for the night.


         The next morning he considered this problem for a very long time.  There had to be a way to keep his family out of it.

A Child's View (part 4)

She then got up and walked beyond the edge of the natural place, as though she had the freedom to go wherever she wished, whenever she wished. Tum thought long and hard about what the girl told him. He found himself being self-conscious about his thoughts, as he wondered how in “xact” he could both think things through, and disguise his thoughts. And how would he live if he did disable the chip. All of his credits were tied into the chip. No chip meant no food, no clothing, no ride on the transport, and nothing material he might want or need. As he considered her words, he slowly realized the transport meant nothing to him. In fact, the thing was a constraint on his ability to travel, as the girl and her group proved by moving beyond security perimeters at will. Was it simply the chip that restricted movement? Or, were there other factors? As he considered the problem of the chip, he figured out that if he held some other idea in his head, like the latest game or fashion, this would probably camouflage what he was really interested in thinking about.


As it was almost dark, he decided he had better hurry to the transport. As he was walking that way, another problem presented itself to him. He became worried for his family. He certainly didn’t want any of them to be endangered because of his actions.


Tum went through the usual security steps, was in the tube, but suddenly the transport seemed to take off at the usual incredible speed, then with an alarming jolt, stop. Tum fell against the wall of the tube, but apparently was not badly hurt. He felt a slight pain across his shoulders, and his wrists hurt some in two of his limbs because he instinctively tried to catch himself from falling. The English translations for “xact” anatomy are far from perfect, so perhaps one might say it was a slight injury of the neck, and his ankles hurt. He could hear a voice coming from somewhere demanding he stay where he was. This seemed rather obvious to Tum. A moment later, he was completely immobilized. He was standing in the middle of the tube, and could not move in the slightest even within the tube. In fact, no matter how much he willed it, he could move no part of his body. Then, mysteriously, he couldn’t see, as there seemed to be an opaque black hood, or perhaps bag, that covered first his head, and then his whole body. This was very frightening to him, but the fear only lasted a few short moments, as within  an instant, the transport had taken him somewhere he had never been before. He was still unable to move, but the black covering was removed, how he wouldn’t remember, and he could see again. However, the room he was in was very dark. It was a rather small room. Tum’s intuition told him thast the room was designed to make him uncomfortable, and even afraid. Oddly at this point, he had developed a come what may attitude, and was totally unafraid. He may have felt a bit numb. The lights would slowly brighten and dim. Tum came to understand that this was also a form of conditioning. Perhaps, it was meant to be a subtle technique of torture.


Tum didn’t understand how, but from behind a barrier, like a wall or thick glass, he could hear a man’s voice. “But sir, this one has the chip.” “I don’t care. You get out there and get me some answers about that kid,” came the reply. Tum was certain he wasn’t intended to hear any of this. At that instant, the lights came on, full and bright in Tum’s eyes. He was momentarily blinded, but then could see the man in a security uniform standing in front of him. “You think an awful lot about politics,” the man stated as though this in itself were some crime. “And you don’t fit the types provided through the ‘sousx’ for that.” Tum didn’t speak. He simply stared into the distance. An earthling creature, at least one who was aware of the planet’s philosophical ideas, might have labeled Tum’s current state as stoic. “How are you hiding your thoughts so well?” Tum didn’t answer. “Are you aware of anybody within ‘xact’ who doesn’t have the chip?” The man continued to ask what seemed like banal and pointless questions.


        Tum continued to look beyond the man, off into the distance.  At times, the questions were directly about Tum, his beliefs, and even his abilities.




        This last part the man seemed particularly interested in. Finally, the man captured Tum’s attention. “If you could bring us to any citizen that is without a chip, you and your family might find a lot of credits appear for your use.” Tum  ruled this idea out as soon as he considered it. However, it might serve his temporary interests to act intrigued by the offer. Of course, his main interest at the moment was gaining his freedom. “How would I do that?” Tum said.


        The man was shocked that he finally got a question out of Tum. “We believe you already know how to do it. We know you tried to crawl beyond the safety of the square during the incident the other day. Of course, this was a very minor annoyance to us, and if anything, serves our purposes of bringing justice to rogues. It has really made it easier for us to be less subtle in our work. We also suspect you weren’t alone in the natural space.”


        Tum was silent for a moment.  He concentrated his brain waves around the concept as he spoke. “I thought I saw something, maybe some people, outside the square. I tried to go over there, but as you are aware, that seems quite impossible to do. Other than that, I can’t really tell you anything. Yes, I suppose I like to sit and think. That’s why I was in the natural place. However, as to rogues, I have no opinion what -so -ever about them.”


        He stopped there and waited to see if the man was concerned. He seemed to be. Tum was getting good at guarding his thoughts.


        The man thought for a good long time after that. It seemed like an entirety. Then, he handed Tum a small metallic tag with a contact code number. “If you do learn anything, contact me.” Tum was as suspicious of the tag as was of just about everything out of officialdom. He decided to keep the tag in one drawer at home, but never carry it with him. This would make it seem as though he was keeping the tag, which he thought was probably another surveillance device. It would sit in a drawer surveilling nothing. Tum was still immobilized. The dark cloak enveloped him once again. This time he was fearless. Before he could understand what happened, he was back in the transport at the station near his home. He could see fine. He was able to move normally. By this time it was quite late, and he wondered if his parents would be worried about him. They were still up, obviously worried about him, but said nothing to him.


        Tum was exhausted from the day’s events. He went to his room and fell into a sound sleep. After school  the next day, he sat in his tree house as usual. He sat there thinking, but was developing greater awareness of his ability to cloak thoughts, using a technique of dualistic thinking. In other words, he could project one set of thoughts for the status quo, and another for himself. He sat and thought into the evening.

A Child's View (part 3)

Chapter 2


Tum decided one day to leave his tree house for an afternoon, and go down to the square closest to his home. He walked through the scanner where his microchip was processed for the proper security code, and the credits deducted from his parent’s account. He entered the portal from there, and was asked for his destination, except for the nearest square. See, the system was designed to take the traveler to the square unless otherwise directed, and some destinations required an extra fee (meaning also an extra scan), and perhaps a more thorough security check (also meaning another another extra scan). A moment later, the tube he was in moved at incredible speed, and a moment or so later than that arrived at the portal stop just in front of the square.


Tum left through the portal and was scanned once more upon entering the tunnel into the square. After a short distance, he emerged into the square. The place was crowded with people and an “akkutt” was yapping at him. A very close English translation of the word would be “small pet.” The people, of course, had a glazed look in their eyes, and were trance-like, glued to the “sousx” spilling out of the Holographic monitor. Except, there were a few people, just at the edge of the square, that didn’t seem to belong with the mass of trance-like zombies. Their eyes seemed clear, and they had a certain focus about them. At first they seemed to be spaced out away from one another, slowly converging on one point. When they finally arrived at a certain point on the outer edge of the square, they discreetly moved on, on foot, which nobody really did anymore, outside the perimeter of the square. Tum was astounded by this, as he had always been under the impression that the square was a protected security zone, and certainly it must be impossible to just up and walk right out of the square.


He began to follow them, but as he came near the edge of the square, the “sousx” became distorted, and even the monitor screens momentarily dissipated.. For a moment, there was a state of chaos among the people gathered in the square. They seemed confused, and as the bewilderment grew, the crowd became mob-like, with many of the people becoming aggressive. There was some pushing and shoving. Genuine fear could be seen in the eyes of a great number of the people assembled.


Tum continued on after the small group as they walked further from the square. When he got to the edge of the square, a queasy feeling overcame him and he became weak. He could only manage to crawl past the edge. He became too ill to barely move across the edge, and it suddenly dawned on him that this was a security precaution of the square working through his microchip. He crawled backwards, away from the edge, and as he did, he became stronger and in better health again. By the time he recovered, he could no longer see the group that somehow managed to escape beyond the edge of the square. After giving this seemingly impossible escape he had just witnessed some considerable thought, he realized the only plausible conclusion he could reach was that the entire small group of them must not be microchipped. Tum had no idea how that could be, as all the citizens, on every planet in the coalition, were microchipped at birth for reasons of inter-planetary security.


Tum sat in his tree house the next afternoon. How did the small group manage to to interupt the transmission for the entire square? Not only that, the latest “sousx” was that they were a horrible band of rogue criminals that somehow managed to distort the “sousx” throughout the entire inter-planetary “sousx” system. The leaders of Tum’s planet claimed they suspected one or two of the more eastern planets to be behind this act of sabotage.


Now, of course if the more powerful eastern planets were to be accused of sabotage, then they would simply call the accusation ridiculous, and there would be a holographic conference, which no common citizen would ever know the content of, or the deals made. Tum suspected it was to the benefit of both sides from time to time to accuse the other side of such things, whether true or not true for many reasons. He couldn’t know all the reasons for sure, but he suspected reasons could include keeping control over a planet’s population more fully, getting something one side wanted from the other, showing the ability of one side or the other to counter perceived or real threats from the offending side,  or maybe actions meant as a threat - who knows really? Another thing Tum had considered was that the leaders of his own planet we're behind this. It seems to him that the “sousx” had not been perfectly maintaining control over the people in the way that was intended, which of course meant complete and total control. Tum reasoned that it could have been done as a pretext to go after this seemingly growing number of people who have broken free from to a greater or lesser extent depending on the person from the control system. But if so many had already broken out of the control system then why would the leaders expect a stunt like this to work anyway?  Tum pondered this question for a long time but was unable come up with a good answer.  Perhaps the leaders weren't as smart as they pretended to be. Perhaps they had already lost control to such an extent that something drastic was called for. Or, could it simply be that the small group he witnessed that day at the square were independent operators who could even be part of a larger group that has managed to break the ties to the interplanetary social control grid.


While there was still light Tom decided to leave the comfort of his tree house and take the transport, really the only transport allowed on his planet or even the other planets of “Xact” to
the one section of open natural space set aside for his town. Each town or larger city had such a space. An English speaker, or really any sentient creature of the tiny blue planet, might get the impression that this was the park, but that wasn't exactly the case. Although the people were allowed  to take to transport to these areas they could only travel to the area designated for the region they lived in and once there just as in the squares if one of them attempted to venture beyond the perimeter they would experience the same fate Tum did when he tried to walk beyond the square


In fact much of the land of the entirety of “Xact”had been set aside as off limits to the people, and the official reason given was that the natural environments of the planets were being made fragile by  the overuse and over exploitation of the people Tum couldn't decide whether this was true or not, but when he considered who was doing the exploiting, which to him seemed may be the powerful private conglomerates and the government they apparently controlled, the official reason caused him to be skeptical.


Momentarily and of course after all the required security scans, Tum arrived at the natural space. He really only came there because he thought this particular change of scenery might help him to think and sort things out. One central question he couldn't get out of his head - how could this group of people truly exist within the system designed by “Xact?” It seemed impossible. He was really starting to lean towards the idea that the whole thing must be some sort of inside operation carried out by exactly whom  he couldn't figure. It seemed unlikely to him that any of the more eastern planets would be able to carry out such an operation. They would first have to put the operatives at great risk of which the participants would surely be aware of because they needed to travel beyond the safety of their own radiation belts. And if any of these planets where to take care to provide protection against the radiation of space,  then the expense of such an undertaking would be astronomical, so in Tum’s mind that possibility was ruled out. Besides,at this particular time, as Tum could reason, the more eastern planets would have no motive for such an act. It seemed to him that the more powerful eastern planets were content to quietly consolidate their control over the less powerful ones using economic incentives and diplomacy not to mention the implied assurance of protection from the more odious plots and plans of the planets aligned with Tum's planet. For them it was more of a waiting game. Soon Tum's planet would no longer have the financial or military superiority to dominate the other planets. Tum knew they would operate as they had to if they felt threatened,  but generally these eastern planets wanted calm. With calm the other planets would gravitate towards them unless conditions changed drastically.


A slight digression is now in order. For it must be mentioned that there were different levels of “sousx” for the people. This seemed to depend on how much of a role the particular individual played in society, which really meant how much of a role the person believed they played a role in society. If so, there were a few variations on a theme to choose from. This was a clever diversion. These individuals might have a an intense passion about the role they selected for themselves. It also served to keep the people divided. Yet, really there was very little at issue. In fact, the divided people should have been allies attempting to change the corrupt ruling structure of “xact.” Instead, unable to break the trance, they argued and fought with each other. The individuals uninterested in such a role were provided transmissions of games and fashion to divert their attention, as well. As of late, more people were trying to find their civic role, and as Tum had discovered lately, break through the trance at some level, whether it be as Tum’s case, perfectly unaffected, or some lesser degree. Tum attributed this to the deteriorating economic conditions on his planet mainly. He reasoned it must be difficult to keep people under the “sousx” influence as the objective reality was becoming too far divorced from the “sousx.’ Also, as the more eastern planet’s influence grew, their “sousx” was starting to matter more.


As Tum sat by a large tree near the edge of the natural place, he caught a glimpse of something a good distance away and to his right. It was a girl, probably only slightly older than himself. He couldn’t tell for sure, so he walked in her direction to get a closer look. As he approached, trying to seem as casual as possible, he became more confident he recognized her as one of the small group that pulled off the stunt in the square. She looked up at him. “You’ll never be able to travel freely about as long as you have that chip underneath your skin,” she suddenly said. Tum, of course, was breathless. She recognized him? She knew he was trying to cross beyond the square that day, and follow her group of friends? “Yes, I know you tried to crawl beyond the square the other day. Be careful not to think too hard about one thing in my presence. I, and more to the point, others - can access some of your thoughts.Don’t worry too much. Your thoughts are more private than most.” Tum was astounded. However, he also had an uncanny skill. Under pressure, he could ask the direct questions he needed to get the answers he required. “Who are you? What do you mean by others accessing my thoughts? Who? What organization are you working for? I believe you and your friends are the ones who distorted the “sousx” the other day.” The girl laughed nervously. “Well, let’s take your questions in order. Who I am is unimportant for now. What I mean is that others, some in the leadership of “Xact,” have the ability to a greater or lesser degree, to access your thoughts. In your case, however, this ability seems very limited. Just don’t think too hard about any one thing all at once. That, they can pick up on. As for myself and my friends, I won’t yet tell you anything you don’t already know. I don’t want to put you in more danger than you’re already in.” Again, Tum stunned. “What do you mean by danger?” “Think about how you’ve been able to set to set yourself apart from the control system of the ‘sousx.’ Do you believe our leaders are happy with people who have managed that? They’ve only ignored you so far because you’ve refused to act upon what you know, or even simply speak out.” “But you and I are just children really.” “On some planets, for instance the tiny blue one, we might be considered quite far into adulthood, but that is confusing because time is measured differently depending on the planet. This is a digression anyway. You know what you know. They don’t care about your age. And now you’ve tried to crawl across the security perimeter of the square. So, I would think they might be a little more interested in you. I wouldn’t get too worried yet, though.”


Tum was motionless. He thought for a moment about the implications  of what the girl was telling him. He finally spoke. “What do I do now?” “I can’t tell you what to do now. That is up to you. I will give you some advice, though. You have, whether you know it or not, the power to disable the chip inside inside you. Don’t be too obvious when you think about this. Try to disguise your thoughts. You’ll learn how. Once you disable the chip, their ability to limit your freedom will be greatly reduced, but so will your comfort and ability to survive within their system. If you are successful, we will most likely meet again.”

A Child's View (Part 2)

Chapter 1


Every Afternoon, Tum sat in his little tree-house, between arriving home from school and eating dinner. He wasn’t a lonely boy, but simply enjoyed his solitude. He would sit and think. He would wonder about the Universe, and his place in it. This was quite a lot for a young boy to think about, but Tum lived in interesting times. Every adult was captivated by the “sousx” coming through giant three dimensional holographic public address computers in the corporate run government designated squares. There were at least three in his town, but larger cities had many more.  “Sousx” can most closely be translated into late 21st Century English as “news.” However, this is far from an exact translation. It is much more complex than that. Perhaps, terms like “propaganda” or “controlled information” might be more apt, but these terms do not suffice either. The “sousx” also was transmitted directly on a frequency that allowed for the brain waves of most citizens to be affected directly. This varied from from person to person, and Tum himself seemed to be perfectly unaffected.


The people of Tum’s town seemed to be walking through their lives trance-like, but if Tum were to speak with any of them individually, he could immediately tell whether this person or that person was in a deep trance, mildly damaged, or seemingly unaffected, like himself. Tum was always surprised at the vast number of people that seemed to be, to a greater or lesser extent, unaffected. Many had been able to, at least partially, break the trance.


The latest “sousx” everybody was paying attention to was about the most recent war, some light years away, against a planet hardly anybody could find on a map of the Universe, called “earth.”  Apparently, this tiny blue planet that hardly had the capacity for space travel, was considered a grave threat by the leaders of the “Xact.” The closest English translation of the word “Xact” would be “association” or maybe “alliance” of several planets. Some of the planets were more cooperative with with the “Xact” than others, and there were rumors and “conspiracy theories” about how uncooperative planets were dealt with. These rumors included theories such as instigating fake revolutions to cause problems for the leadership of a troublesome planet, bribery of the leadership of such a planet, sabotage of the important assets of a planet, and far worse things too terrifying to mention. Each planet had its own name, but the people had gotten so used to the term “Xact” that it came to mean each individual planet, or the whole alliance. The names of the individual planets had long been forgotten, except perhaps in some scholarly circles, and even among the scholars - this seemed to be rather arcane knowledge.


Tum’s planet once reigned supreme over the whole of this confederation, but lately there had been a tacit alliance formed between a few planets to the east on the Universal map that was starting to call Tum’s planet's supremacy into question. Interstellar economists debated the financial solvency of Tum’s planet, and its ability to continue as financial center of the “Xact.” Some economists argued, however, that these concerns were being greatly exaggerated. For the moment, Tum’s planet remained master of the “sousx,” and that was the most important element in controlling the fate of the “Xact.”


Each planet had its own political structure, and Tum’s, from the perspective of an earth dweller, probably seemed most like a republic of some sort, or even a parliamentary democracy. However, forms can be misleading, and in the case of Tum’s planet, the real power was in the hands of a very small elite. The selected leader of the planet, and therefore “Xact,” was a man called Sans. His politics were very amorphous, and he could appear to be anything the masses wanted him to be. If one wanted a man of peace, then one saw him as such. If one needed a firm leader, then one got that. And on it went.


The war “Xact” was currently fighting against....what was the name of the tiny blue planet?  Oh, right - “Earth.” Anyway, this planet was so backwards, Tum couldn’t understand why anyone would be interested in it at all. It certainly couldn’t be a threat to planets outside of its own solar system. The inhabitants, strange little bipedal creatures, seemed quite content to war on each other, and Tum thought it very likely that they would destroy themselves anyway. They couldn’t possibly be a match for the “Xact” intergalactic fleet.  In fact, Tum was aware of those, not being seduced by the “sousx” trance, thought these continuous interstellar wars were prolonged as another way to divert the people from all of the problems they faced on their own planets. Others went so far as to claim these wars, were in some way, a production of the “sousx.” Therefore, they would not be really occurring at all. Tum thought the truth was somewhere in between, as it seemed obvious to him that there was an objective reality “sousx” could not hide. But what seemed too painfully obvious to Tum, was the disproportionate nature of the whole thing. His people’s fleet could destroy “Earth” and the entire solar system it was in. So, why was this “Earth” made such a giant threat?


Well, there was still another theory proposed some not affected by the “sousx.” It was the same idea no matter what form it took. Either it was put as this planet alliance was some form of what an English speaker from “Earth” would call an empire, and so had to expand, or it was that the “Xact” needed the resources of other worlds to maintain a very corrupt system and social structure.


Although Tum was a child of barely 30 years old (a year, of course, can be very different, depending on how fast your planet rotates around a star, and spins from day to night), he knew he was not normal, and perhaps precocious. He also understood the level at which he was not affected by the “sousx.” Often times, even those unaffected by it had a difficult time even acknowledging what it was.


When “Xact” went to war, they didn’t send fleets filled with living breathing soldiers. No, all of these wars were automated. Pilotless craft, or warships if you will. Even an advanced technological society like “Xact” found it difficult to compensate for leaving the comfort of the shielding radiation belt. Oh sure, they had the capability to do it, but it was much easier to send pilotless ships. Besides, if they were to send soldiers, the soldiers might develop a certain abhorrence for war, not too mention the impact on society if and when those soldiers came back injured physically or otherwise.

A Child's View (Part 1)

I decided to put my never quite finished novella, A Child's View of Inter-Stellar War, here. This is part 1:



Prologue




It was a very lucky find. The Archeologists working near the ancient ruins of “Wall Street” discovered the cannister very much by happenstance, after overlooking it several times. The canister contained a document that predated the other finds. The document must have been written by a well educated person of the time, as it was a narrative account of the events leading up to the interstellar war. Our own scholars, after much debate, decided it was based on a document decades older than the one discovered.


Most scholars now agree that the document is a translation, although inexact, of the older document. The translator, as it is currently the consensus that the translation was made by one individual, was a person well-versed in the archaic English the original document was written in. This person was also aware of some alien terminology.


There have been heated debates among scholars as to details, such as grammar, spelling, and the meaning of some words. This version of the document has been rendered for the general public.


One would be remiss not to mention the great foresight of the translator. The individual was aware that technology was and is ever changing. Therefore, within the canister was every form of digital copy known at the time. a paper copy was also included, but was unreadable after becoming degraded over time. The only copy our scholars were able to make use of was the “text” file, still in use by many of the best libraries today.


The canister, along with everything found inside of it, is on view is on view in the Great Museum in Beijing.

Micro-Story: Joe and the UFO

Joe never believed in UFOs. He thought it was silly tabloid stuff. He wondered how anybody could believe such incredible stories. But then, people would believe most anything he thought. Then, one night while putting the lawn mower away, he saw a strange sight. It could have been a plane, or even some government secret project. But, being that Joe didn't know what it was, it had to fall into the category of UFO. It was one bright light flying low. It stopped out in the distance, and then descended straight down until it vanished behind the trees. In other words, it descended on a straight up and down axis, something planes couldn't do. Joe thought about it for a while. Then he went to bed. He wasn't going to call a tabloid about it.