Not SoQuiet

I knew there was a problem when I entered the city. We took a very large boat from the space port right out onto the water, past the Statue of Liberty toward what used to be Manhattan. There was nothing there but ocean. The whole city was gone, underwater. There were a few lighted posts poking up from where the city used to be. We made our way to a spot between two of the larger posts, and then slowly began to submerge until we found ourselves on top of a large transparent steel dome. We slowly slid across the dome until we got to the latch and connected the hull to the dome.

When the hatch opened instead of entering through it and somehow descending to the ground from hundreds of feet above, the transporter was activated and the whole central section of the ship was transported to the surface. I noticed another one full of people waiting to go, disintegrating to be reintegrated on the ship. Ahead, at the entry point I read, Welcome to Dystopia. That was not a good sign. They had changed the name of the city to Dystopia.

We stepped out of the center of what was previously the ship onto a moving sidewalk heading to the entry port. There would be no more ID checks, since all of that BS had already happened, and because we all had passports with chips that could be read from yards away while we were just walking. This was very old technology that had not been privy to the public when it was introduced in the late 20th Century. People then would have thought of it as tracking, or invasion of privacy. We, of course, had realized centuries ago that there was no such thing as privacy anymore.

We used to think the only place we had privacy was in our minds, but I had just discovered that on some planets people could even read your mind. Many planets communicated with various forms of telepathy and all humans were capable of it. As a hybrid being I didn’t even know what I was anymore. I was a person connected to the deep internet where one could easily communicate with one’s mind. The only way not to was to use great effort to try to block oneself from leaking thoughts.

As we made our way along the sidewalk I looked at Brenda wondering if she knew what I was thinking. “Of course,” came back without her even looking at me. She just smiled a bit and looked ahead. I really loved her. She picked up that thought too, which embarrassed me a little. She just smiled and returned the feeling.

It is very interesting. There is a difference telepathically between thoughts and feelings. Feelings come from a deeper place, the heart, which some people would have called it long ago. There was a very visceral feeling, as if a message was sent from body to body whereas thoughts came within one’s mind and head, just like one’s own verbal inquiries. One could share feelings or thoughts and one could leak feelings or thoughts. Leaking the feelings were more embarrassing.

The thoughts could be purposeful, but were often random. The feelings though, were really from the heart and true, in a sense. Most people on the other planets had better relationships because they were communicating heart to heart and dealing with the feelings that arose.

I looked up at the ceiling. I looked just like the sky. They even painted the dome to resemble clouds. I don’t even think it was paint…there was a three d projector somewhere up there that replicated a beautiful sky. One could even see a horizon if one looked off to the east. I must say that it was beautiful, unlike its name. We continued riding along on the sidewalk passing many stores, shops, buildings, and cross streets. It reminded me of the New York I had read about and had seen in old video films. We were in New York. And it was crowded.

Robots, ALFs, human beings, and many beings from off planet moved up and down the streets. It was very diverse with people old, young, many genders, and many phenotypes, like most of the planets in the universe. I was surprised to find it considering the reputation of the Earth. They were said to be backwards, xenophobic, haters. It is said that Earth was so bad that many ETs would visit in secret because they knew they may be kidnapped, killed, or worse yet dissected, if they ever got caught there. As intelligence and technology increased, unfortunately, instead of things getting better they got worse. Instead of humans getting more peaceful they got more violent.

This ended when they began to try to create stars in their backyards to harness the power of the sun. One of them became a black hole and sucked away most of the atmosphere. This, along with the global warming that had started centuries ago paired with the volcanic eruptions that took place because of the increase in gravity, covered much of the planet with ash and caused the already melting poles to melt faster. People were quickly sent off planet to create colonies and the ETs, who had been in contact secretly with many officials, quickly stepped in and offered their help. We realized that we were not alone.

It was the same with the ALFs. When they became connected to the Real Net, the one that existed across many galaxies, they realized that they were not alone and that they could stop pretending to only be machines. And so came the fear of AI and ALFs and the desire for more control over them. The knowledge that they had been sentient for centuries didn’t seem to dampen the fear of the human animal, but the cat was out of the bag and it was too late to stop it. We had to learn not only to live in peace with ETs, but ALFs, and sentient AI. We didn’t have a choice.

Of course, after many centuries, this became very unimportant, but there were still some, that we called the Clingers, who could not let go of their old fears and prejudices. They didn’t have enough power to turn things backwards, but were always skulking in the shadows trying to find ways to slowly destroy human progress. Thus the damping field all over the Earth to stop ALFs from being able to communicate without humans listening in. They didn’t know that the damping field didn’t work and no ALF was going to tell them. I sure wasn’t either.

When people are closed minded, paranoid, and immoral, they often bring about the damage that they are most afraid of by creating the conditions to do so. That had been the history of human empires. Since the sun incident, the Federated Planet System had stepped in to make sure that humans grew up and if need be, they would wipe the planet clean before the humans did and start over.

Some saw humans as very creative beings with the potential to create new opportunities for advancement throughout the galaxy. Others saw them as that too, but didn’t think it was worth risking the other side of human beings long enough to get to the good part. Potential, as we all know, is something that might or might not happen, and something that isn’t happening in the present. Truth is that some humans would always be more advanced than the others and some would always be stupid, greedy, and power hungry. That, after all, was the original sin, the desire for more knowledge to be used to attain more power over.

***

Kathy was an interesting woman from what was known as The Priesthood. She was a very powerful psychic on New Earth and in Dystopia. She was the type who wasn’t permitted in the beautiful cities one found circling the Earth. She was a troublemaker. She broke all of the laws of science and could often do strange things like communicate with animals and plants, astral- project, and even do a bit of telekinesis.

These arts, which had been considered fringe for many centuries, had begun to make a comeback after the Great Catastrophe. Everyone was left on their own, as usual. Most of the big leaders had fled. Doctors and hospitals had disappeared following the money. All that was left were a few doctors who really cared and many healers from different disciplines. Since this was a time of crisis they threw aside the old competitive belief system that Earth people had been inundated with for the last few centuries, and began to work together for the benefit of the people.

They exchanged gifts, talents, and teachings in order to heal the world and bring back a brighter civilization. Those who fled to the cities in orbit, of course, didn’t want that. They wanted the world to stay as it had been. They just left the Earth folks who stayed on the ground or underwater, as was the case here on Earth, moved into orbit, and created two different civilizations hoping that the one’s on the Earth would ultimately fail. It never did and after several generations both groups became satisfied with what they had.

She sat across the table and looked at me quizzically. “So you are the ones they sent to help me, are you?” She asked. She looked over at Brenda, kept her attention on her for quite some time, and then looked back at me. “So you are…? Explain it to me.”

“You know,” Brenda responded. “I’m an ALF.” She turned to me and continued speaking. “Gary here is an ally, and a human.” Kathy looked at me…hard.

“Yes. He seems to be,” she said. She sighed. “Sorry. I’m just a little suspicious about just about everything lately. The people up there are getting more fascist everyday against ALFs. We know that soon they will be trying to attack us too. That’s their way.” I gave her a nod. “What we want,” she continued, “is for you two to work to improve communication and the relationship between ALFs and human beings.”

The One Percenters are doing a great job of creating negative stereotypes about ALFs. I guess they think if they throw enough mud against the wall it will stick. And in some cases it is. That’s why you are here. You are here to create some workshops and run them so these two groups can get to know each other. The ALFs are fine, but there is a bit of lack of trust for them when it comes to humans. If you were here you would know that it is with good reason.”

“I’m hoping that the fact that you are from Mars, where relations are very good, will help build a lasting trust between both groups. I’ve read a lot about what is going on there, especially since the great awakening of AI and ALFs.”

“I think that might be helpful,” I said. “I just hope that the humans here haven’t done too much damage. We are, after all, at ground zero for all of the negative possibilities for humanity.” Kathy frowned. “You know what I mean,” I said. “When we came through the space station–my God. I have never been looked at like that before. And to see all of the red armbands. I thought that stopped decades ago.”

“It did. It was revived since AI and ALFs let us know they were sentient. There are some of us more advanced than others, as there always have been on Earth. Most of them are circling the Earth. Wannabees are as dangerous and they are living here among us.” She sighed. “That’s why you are here.”

“I hope I didn’t bite off a little more than I can chew,” I said.

“Don’t worry,” Brenda said. “I can chew pretty damn hard.”

“I’m sure you can,” Kathy said with a grin. She remembered something. She reached into her desk drawer. “Oh yeah.” She pulled out a red armband. “This is for you.” Brenda frowned and shook her head.

“Not hardly,” She said. “You won’t see me ever wearing one of those again.”

“You may be harassed.”

“Is there a law that says foreigners have to wear red armbands,” Brenda asked.

“No. I don’t think so.”

“There you have it. I think we can start by having all ALFs declare themselves citizens of the Net if they are not guaranteed their rights. We are, after all, firstly citizens of The Federated Planets. I think it may be time to let Earth go.” I cut my eyes over at Brenda. She looked at me, was silent, and then just looked ahead.

The End

(Part 3)