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It was as stunning a sunset as had ever come to pass in that faraway place called Noosa. The high cirrus lit up in radiant fire in a huge semicircle that faded into a spectrum of pinks, blues and purples towards the eastern horizon. This infinite palate of colours turned the firmament into a deiform psychedelic reverie.
It was the evening of Tuesday, October 12, 2123, the day the longtime-germinating, Rama dream crystallised out of that place where all such dreams dwell, the incomprehensible place imagined by many and known only as the mystic singularity.
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The day had been a hive of activity. Everyone was still busy settling in. The Americans set up their camp similar to the Pinecrest layout. Melvin and Carla set their tent by the river, about thirty yards upriver from the main camp.
‘I like my space,’ Melvin explained.
Griffin, Tip and Fin were given a comfortable tent of their own, which they set up on the upstream edge of the main camp, on a grassy knoll just above the sand, closest to Melvin and Carla. Tip and Fin found kindred spirits in Carla and her sisters. They loved just being kids around each other.
The container was conveniently located at the back of the Americans’ camp on the edge of the bush.
All the latrines were dug about fifty yards over the back, in the bush, in a spot that was chosen so as to eliminate the possibility of any underground seepage getting into the surrounding aquifers.
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The Mecca crew, after spending the previous night on board, busied themselves shuttling their things to shore in the dingy and setting up their three tents. They chose a nice spot about half way between the dom and the American camp. The night before, Snake tipped them off about the best way to go about excavating a latrine. With borrowed shovels, Lloyd and Alex set about digging with gusto. They managed to finish the task mid-way through the afternoon. The girls gave them an extra juicy kiss as a reward, after which they all enjoyed a cool swim in the river.
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‘How much would our spot have been worth a hundred years ago, Lloydie?’ Eva asked as she wallowed in the water.
‘Millions, my precious, millions.’
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Noah and Griffin set off early that day, in the big transporter ship, looking for fillies.
The wild horses of Australia are called brumbies. About fifteen miles inland from the settlement, in the lush Mary Valley, they found a healthy herd of fourteen fillies and one spirited stallion. Noah decided that the stallion wasn’t going to mind sacrificing half of his harem, so he picked out seven of the youngest ladies and levitated them up into the air and into the hull through the open panels in the undersurface of the ship. They chuckled as the stallion protested by bucking, shaking his head and kicking at the sky.
Noah telepathically calmed the fillies for the return journey to Noosa. He closed three of the four triangular panels in the undersurface, then retrieved a carrot from a metal basket, attached to the interior of the hull, and cut a slit in it using a small knife. He placed a grain of Mana in the slit and said, ‘That stallion deserves a thank you treat. I’ll just fly down and give it to him while you mind the princesses.’ He then pulled the hood of his levitation suit over his head and jumped through the triangular opening.
Griffin marvelled as he watched Noah float into the green meadow a hundred feet below.
As soon as Noah landed, he began telepathically calming the stallion. He made his suit a natural green and quietly walked up to the horse.
‘Soooo … you be the mighty brumby then,’ he said softly, looking the wild horse directly in the eye. ‘Fourteen fillies, eh? Well, I just wish to apologise for pinching seven of them, however you may rest assured that it is all in a good cause.’ He held his hand out with the carrot in it. The horse pricked up his ears and stepped over. He sniffed Noah’s hand, then took the carrot.
‘Live long, mighty brumby,’ Noah whispered as he patted the horse. He noted that the brumby and all his fillies had been time chipped.
It was pretty much the middle of the day when they returned to the settlement.
Noah brought the big ship in low over the river and silently parked it at the edge of the water. A ramp opened on the undersurface and lowered itself down onto the beach, almost, but not quite, touching the sand.
‘Would you mind calling Fury over, Griffin?’ Noah requested.
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‘Sure,’ Griffin replied. He hopped down the ramp and, surprising even himself, called out to Fury telepathically.
The curious black stallion came galloping down the beach from further up the river.
He came up to Griffin and muzzled his shoulder.
‘What’s up?’ he heard the horse say in his mind. He responded by turning to face the ship. Fury looked over and immediately snapped his tail a few times and whinnied as he spotted the brumby fillies.
As the fillies exited the ship, they all looked around for their stallion. Noah had, by this time, released his telepathic tether of them. They kicked around and then suddenly took off for the bush. Seeing this, Fury reared up as high as he could, whinnied a couple more times and took off after them.
Noah came over and quipped, ‘Long time between drinks for that Romeo, I suspect.’
The quip went right over Griffin’s head. He was still a virgin, but not for long as it soon turned out. Noah continued,
‘He has to stop them trying to find the old brumby stallion and pull them into line.
It is what being a stallion is all about I imagine.’
‘They look pretty feisty,’ Griffin observed.
‘I expect he will get a kick out of that,’ Noah replied.
Everyone in the American camp witnessed and savoured the moment. Fury’s obvious joy gave them all a shot of heart for the challenges ahead.
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A number of new ships arrived through the day. Max and Ada flew over from Rama to attend the big celebration. Their son, Albion, who went by the name of Scott during his Earthly adventures, back in the late 1960s, also flew in with his twin wives, Evka and Lara, who looked positively stunning with their blond hair cascading half way down their backs. Accompanying them were their four children who arrived in their own individual ships.
Albion sired twin sons and twin daughters. The sons were Evka’s and were named Jimi and Hendrix. They were the older twins, both eighty years old but looking more like fifteen. The daughters were Lara’s and were named Stevie and Nix, Nixie to everyone that knew her. The girls were fifty years old but looked more like twelve. It goes without saying that their father was a big devotee of Earth music.
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Max and Ada invited Rion, the trader who was a frequent guest in their home, to come to the gathering. He turned up in his intergalactic cruiser accompanied by his lovely wife, Sattva. Rion always liked a party. ‘It pays to mingle,’ he often said. Initially, Rion’s main business with Max was trading skins for Fish. As time went on, he expanded his trading portfolio when Max engaged him as an agent trading the valuable Fish for a variety of goods with a clientele spread across many star systems.
All the visitors brought their own wams. It was quite a sight, for the Earthlings, as the folded-up wams levitated from the cargo area of the ships. They unfurled in mid-air, supported solely by levitation rings. They then lowered themselves to the ground, in a predetermined spot, where they were pegged into place.
‘We gotta get a few of those,’ said Snake mighty impressed.
‘Me personally,’ said Ace, marvelling at the alien technology, ‘I got my eye on one of them upside down Frisbees.’
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As twilight descended, the wams began to fluoresce in soft pastel colours. Everyone converged on the dom. All the parked ships, which were scattered up and down the river, formed a large semi-circle over the water. They glowed softly in warm colours, like Chinese lanterns. The fire of the ancestors was lit in front of the west-facing wam of the setting sun, which was the largest in the dom and was used by everyone. The large west-facing flaps were pulled back, opening up the wam to the sunset and central fire.
The dom was arranged in a half-circle from point west, curving around through point south, to point east. On the northern side was the river with its semicircle of glowing spaceships levitating just above it. From above, the spaceships and wams made a perfect circle.
In the afterglow of the sunset, Iapetus rose to speak.
‘We honour the One who is the source of all.’
All the Rama repeated, ‘We honour the One.’
Iapetus continued, ‘It gladdens my heart to be here now with all of you.’ He paused, then carried on, ‘Let us have our moment of remembrance.’
One by one, the Rama called out the names of friends and relatives who had passed on. The Earthlings quickly picked up on the custom. When it came to Adam’s turn, he called out the names of his parents and his sister. He also remembered Nancy, Doyle, and
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a hang-glider pilot called Ken. Griffin, Fin and Tip called out the names of their parents.
Melvin couldn’t think of anyone.
‘What about me?’ Carla whispered.
‘You ain’t dead,’ he whispered back.
When everyone was done remembering, Iapetus spoke some more.
‘Not everyone in this humble gathering knows why we chose this place. Primarily, and without a doubt, we came for the waves, the magnificent waves of Noosa.’
Melvin, the cameraman who worked in Hollywood for a substantial amount of time, turned to Jonesy, who sat next to him, and said,
‘I’m big time into surfin, you know, Jonesy. I hung out all my spare time out at The Bu.’
Iapetus continued, ‘That is what attracted us here in the beginning. Be that as it may, I would especially like to welcome our new friends from America and Sydney.’ Everyone clapped. Iapetus, who was not fond of public speaking, rounded things out with, ‘Each journey begins with the first step and mine is to yield to the next speaker.’
And so, the rest of the night was given to chance. Perhaps someone was going to speak, perhaps not. Everyone mingled and chatted in small groups. It was becoming a party. Lloyd brought the last three bottles of Grange and since no one else wanted to drink wine the Mecca crew had all the ‘booze’ for themselves, which suited them just fine.
Jonesy brought some of Mexico’s finest.
After a while, Noah stood up to speak. Everyone silenced.
‘I would like to honour a special group tonight,’ he began. ‘As we are all aware, you are all here due to either being time chipped or being physically connected to someone who has been time chipped. All except three, that is.’
There were a couple of gasps heard around the gathering. Noah continued,
‘Imagine knowing that the comet was going to hit. The government knew and put into action a well-organised, survival plan, which plucked preselected individuals out of the population and took them one mile underground into a huge, self-sufficient, survival base. When the comet hit, the subsequent earthquakes caved in a portion of the base, the portion that offered the only way out via three lifts, causing the people inside to become entombed forever with no hope for escape. They accepted their fate and continued to live in the technologically advanced base, er, for that time. As the decades passed, they had children, and their children had children, and so on. Gradually, knowledge of the surface
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was forgotten. This erasure of reality was choreographed by the military that ran the base. By the fourth generation, all knowledge of any other reality, other than the base, was gone. The base became the whole universe for them.’
You could hear a pin drop. Noah continued,
‘Now imagine one of the first generation secretly writing a journal full of wisdom and stories of a place called the surface. For five generations this journal was passed from father to son in complete secrecy, particularly from the military. It was read to the children at night and it was, in general, thought of as myth. However, there was one young man, whose name was Griffin, who believed that the stories in the journal were real and true. He confided in his neighbour, whose name was Rip. Because Rip was a working mechanic in the base, he had full knowledge of the life-sustaining machinery within it.
From the journal he knew about the caved-in section and the three lift wells that connected the base with the surface. He did not know the extent of the cave-in nor whether the lift shafts were intact, but he got the idea into his head that there could be a tiny chance for escape. So, because he felt that he was too old and set in his ways to do it himself, he trained his daughters, Tip and Fin, and their best friend, Griffin, his neighbour’s son, in the skills that would be required to make an effective escape.’ Noah paused, smiled, shook his head and sighed, ‘I know … it’s quite a story.’
‘My God!’ whispered Lucy.
Noah continued,
‘Rip prepared them well. He dressed them in well-designed overalls and masks, which protected their sensitive skins from the surface environment. As well, he supplied them with food and water, and an array of useful equipment.
‘It should be noted at this point that the base was on its way out. The machinery was wearing out and the filters were failing. Rip knew that the base was dying and that the time for the escape attempt had come. He set the kids up, wished them good luck and sent them on their way.
‘They set off digging through the cave-in. They did not know how far they would have to dig, they just started digging.’ Noah had an emotional pause. Gathering himself he went on, ‘Anyway, I’ll cut the story short, they can tell you the details, but they dug their way through and found an undamaged lift-shaft. They then climbed one mile up the shaft to the surface.
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‘The important thing is to understand what these three heroes represent. They represent what is left of eight billion people, not counting the time shifters. They are the last three left. Their line passed through the extinction and, furthermore, survived for a century like a dormant seed buried one mile underground waiting for the right moment to germinate.
‘Tonight we honour the unbroken line of the valiant, Earth-human species by honouring Griffin, Tip and Fin, who fortuitously dwell with us now. We also honour Rip, the architect of the escape, and we do not wish to forget RG3, the last president of the Unites States and the author of a journal full of mythical tales of a place called the surface.
‘Also, I feel that the designers of the base, the visionaries, deserve to be honoured by us as well, because they succeeded in making that base last a hundred years and ultimately produce three survivors. So, we recognise the planners who, regrettably, are all long time departed from this realm.
‘One final true hero of this story is a horse, a great stallion named Fury, without whose courageous intervention our noble trio might have been eaten by a pack of coyotes. I do believe that Fury is not here tonight though …’
Everyone turned suddenly as they heard a loud whinny from the back of the dom.
There was Fury, with his seven fillies by his side, letting everyone know that he was part of this gathering as well.
Griffin, Fin and Tip were becoming a trifle embarrassed by now. They weren’t used to so much attention. Noah looked in their direction, gestured and said,
‘I think it is time.’
All the Rama moved to the centre of the dom. The Americans and the Mecca crew caught onto what was going on and joined the Rama in forming two parallel lines.
Everyone put their hands up forming an arched tunnel, of sorts, then invited the trio, and Fury, to pass through.
An ‘honouring’ was an ancient tradition amongst the Rama. Mostly it was done to children for their outstanding achievements. The main part of it, which they called ‘the passing through’, included a powerful telepathic element of ‘centring’. Mentally speaking, it was not unlike tuning a seven-string guitar.
As Griffin, Fin and Tip entered the tunnel, the Rama broke into a harmonic chant.
Fury followed them through. Each one experienced a blissful balancing of their being as they passed each singing Rama.
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The Americans, the Mecca crew, as well as Adam and Zeke, who were all non-telepathic, patted them on the back as they passed by and said things like,
‘Well done’ and ‘good show’.
As was the custom, each of the Rama came to Griffin throughout the night and gave him a gift. Ambriel gave him an intricately-carved gold box full of Mana. Adam gave him a pipe to smoke it with.
Max and Ada’s gift was a levitating disc, which was big enough for three people and a little cargo. Unfortunately, it was telepathically controlled so Griffin would have to learn how to fly it. As it turned out, he became the first American to receive a disc, and none of the others could fly it.
Such were the bounties of an honouring.
7
The night was warm. Many were barefoot. They wore casual summer clothes, shorts and T-shirts. Cowboy and Melvin wore their jeans. Some of the Rama women were dressed in very elegant, silk garments of many subtle shades, which accentuated their flowing movements. Griffin, Tip and Fin wore their black shorts and T-shirts, which they usually wore under their overalls.
Rion was immediately drawn to Mecca seeing as he had a boat of his own back on Rama. He admired its lines and sought out its owner. He approached Lloyd unassumingly and commented,
‘Nice boat.’
‘Oh, thanks,’ Lloyd replied knowing that he was talking to a Rama he had never met before. ‘Built her myself.’
‘I have about a forty-five-foot cat,’ said Rion.
‘Mecca’s only 28,’ said Lloyd, ‘but she swings a big bat for a small sheila.’
‘Timber,’ observed Rion.
‘A variety of them,’ Lloyd replied.
They shared a long conversation describing each other’s boats to each other, as well as their sailing grounds. A friendship, destined to last for centuries, began that night. After hearing of the types of speeds the catamarans did, Lloyd all of a sudden got the urge to build one sometime in the future when things settled down.
‘I know a master boatbuilder who would get a big kick out of coming to Earth and building a big cat with you,’ said Rion. ‘His name is Powter and he lives on his own island,
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called Engadine. The island is a fantastic place to visit in a boat. He makes beautiful catamarans out of timber. There is a story about his grandfather. It says that he came to Earth and taught the Vikings how to build their longboats. While he lived amongst them, he is said to have fathered many children with many wives. His sons became the great Viking explorer kings who made themselves wealthy beyond measure.’
‘I have often wondered where they came from,’ said Lloyd.
‘Where who came from, darling?’ said Eva butting in.
‘The Viking kings, my precious. Have you met Rion? He is also a sailor, although on another planet.’
‘Wonderful pastime, enriching,’ she said rather cheerfully.
Lloyd realised that she was mildly under the weather. He enquired, ‘By the way, my sweet, have you seen Alex and Sophia?’
‘Oh, you know Alex and Sophia,’ she replied frivolously, ‘they’re miiingling somewhere.’
Alex and Sophia were mainly hanging around people they knew. Alex swapped stories with Adam, Ben and Zeke, while Sophia engaged Ambriel in a conversation about shoes.
The most popular question for Zeke that night was regarding the progress of his manually-controlled, levitating disc. He said that his disc wasn’t round like the telepathic ones. It was triangular with three sets of opposing gravity sails set into each point of the triangle. The trick was to balance the three vectors of lift, and do it manually with a joy stick and cables. Manual control, via cables, had always been Zeke’s style.
When asked how fast his triangular disc would go, he replied,
‘Not as fast as the telepathic ones. They do two hundred. Mine’ll do about half that.
I thought about makin her go faster but I decided against it. She’s plenty fast enough.’
Zeke hadn’t seen Lucy for a hundred years and they clung to each other like Siamese twins. She really loved the designer side of him.
In another part of the gathering, Snake, Jonesy and Melvin tossed around the best way to hunt kangaroos. Melvin thought that a crossbow would give them a sporting chance, however Snake and Jonesy were far more practical.
‘You wanna put a .44 right through his brain,’ said Snake. ‘Shootin em with an arrow would just make em suffer.’
‘I’m with Snake on this one, Melv,’ said Jonesy, ‘an I’d want a good scope as well.’
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‘Well,’ said Melvin, ‘at least the crossbow is silent.’
‘I got silencers,’ said Snake.
Jonesy asked, ‘Feel like a smoke?’
Melvin replied, ‘Don’t mind if I do.’
Some of the women of the American camp were gathered together, whispering and giggling, comparing notes about their men. It seemed to them like the old codgers had developed a little more ‘spark’ since they started smoking that Mana, although none of the women complained.
Ace picked Zeke’s brain about lev-packs and his new triangular disc. He told him that he was a helicopter pilot and that he was having a ‘real hankering’ to get back in the air. That was when Zeke blew everyone away by springing his surprise. He brought out two, shiny, brand new, lev-packs.
‘I bought you a couple of gifts,’ he said. ‘One’s for the Americans and one’s for the Mecca crew.’ He handed one to Snake and the other to Lloyd.
Everyone was over the moon all of a sudden. The men all shook his hand and the women all hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. They all left it up to Snake to express their undying gratitude in a speech.
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The Rama were very aware of potential psychological problems that could have developed with the transplanted, Earth humans. They particularly kept a telepathic eye on the Americans and the Mecca crew, and watched for signs of panic or depression. In terms of the Earthlings’ psychological health, Zeke’s gift of the two lev-packs was the perfect medicine. Learning to fly the contraptions distracted them from negative thoughts and gave them hope for the future. The Rama always knew that the shift would be challenging for the Earthlings and they planned a continuing, sustained support until they completely adjusted to the new reality.
…….
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