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The final two months of 2123 saw everyone settling into the routine of camp life.
They supplemented their survival food with seafood and wild game. Melvin was the best hunter. He chose to hunt with a crossbow. He found an almost inexhaustible supply of wild turkeys, rabbits, goannas and snakes. At first everyone was a little squeamish about eating reptile meat, however Snake changed their minds with his ‘Mojave barbeque technique’, which turned the meat into delicious, crispy strips. In the end, the reptile meat became everyone’s favourite delicacy. Also, hunting down a good percentage of the poisonous snakes around the settlement made life there a little safer for everyone.
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Within weeks of the great time shift, more Rama ships began to arrive. The first wave of ships belonged to The Masons. They were an ancient order of master stonecraftsmen whose chief task was to fine-tune Earth’s natural vibration through the repair and reconstruction of all the megalithic structures located at various strategic locations around the globe.
This tuning was primarily, but not exclusively, related to planets inhabited by telepathic beings. Uninhabited planets in the same solar system were also tuned. That is why there were pyramids on Mars, Venus and the far side of Earth’s moon. Finer tuning was achieved with smaller structures such as, for example, Stonehenge, Gobekli Tepe, the Easter Island Moai and the Phobos monolith.
A planet was tuned to harmonise on two levels. Firstly, it needed to be in harmony with the telepathic being’s vibration in order to be gemutlich. Secondly, it needed to be in sync with all other celestial bodies. This sacred consonance was known as musica universalis or music of the spheres. This tuning made no difference to sub-telepathic creatures, though, as they all naturally vibrated at a much lower frequency.
The Earth had been tuned some eleven-thousand years before, during a previous visitation of telepathic beings, however those structures had deteriorated through the millennia and needed to be refurbished. The comet strike, with its associated earthquakes and tidal waves, made a particular mess of them.
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The Masons of Rama should not be confused with a clandestine organisation that called itself the Freemasons, which existed on Earth prior to the comet strike. These people, although having a long history, were nonetheless nothing more than parodies of the true Masons. They were neither telepathic nor did they possess any of the secret knowledge, or capabilities, of the bona fides. In modern times, the Rama were indifferent to the Freemasons in the same fashion they were indifferent to all government and military personnel. They routinely gave them a wide berth.
The Masons arrived in large ships equipped with advanced tractor beams and stone-cutting tools that included the cleaving ray, which was a beam that cut through stone like a hot knife through butter.
They cut enormous blocks of stone, some weighing over a hundred tons, neutralised their mass and levitated them into position. The overall designs of their structures, and the precise shape of each stone, were stored in the computer named Crystalis, which was located on planet Rama. This computer was telepathically accessible by all the Rama from anywhere in the cosmos. Over a period of a few months, all the giant pyramids on Earth were restored to their original perfection and the planet began to sing again.
As a point of note, the flight path of Travers’ Comet and the precise moment and pinpoint location of its impact was calculated by Crystalis roughly six thousand years before it happened.
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During the time of the Masons’ presence on Earth, Ambriel and Adam, and Thebe and Slater, designed and built their houses in their chosen locations. Adam and Ambriel chose Dolphin Point for theirs, and Slater and Thebe chose Granite Point, above the break, for theirs. The houses were built out of huge, granite blocks cut from a quarry on top of an exposed volcanic core, once part of The Glasshouse Mountains, located about fifty miles southwest of Noosa. The huge blocks were levitated into position, one by one, and fitted together, without mortar, so precisely that one could not have passed a razor blade between them if one tried.
Adam and Slater’s houses were built in typical Rama style. They incorporated large garages for the parking of their space ships and flying discs, as well as those of their regular visitors.
Crystal-clear fresh water permanently flowed through the houses via incorporated viaducts and channels. The water flowed from springs, bubbling out of the ground just
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behind and above the houses, which were created by the splitting of the granite bedrock down to the water table. Natural earth pressure forced the water to the surface. This system was identical to the one the Rama originally incorporated in Machu Picchu, many, many millennia before.
From their veranda on Dolphin Point, Adam and Ambriel could monitor the surf both at Teatree and Granite. Slater and Thebe enjoyed the same luxury from their house.
They rarely missed it when it got good.
Lucy and Zeke built their house next to Slater and Thebe’s, although they spent only part of their time there. The other part was spent on Rama where their favourite activity was exploring the planet in Zeke’s newly-designed, manually-controlled, terrestrial ship.
It appeared from the outside the same as the intergalactic cruisers, however it could not safely leave the planet because true space flight and navigation required the pilot to be telepathic.
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It turned out that the Mecca crew wasn’t quite as enchanted with Noosa as they first thought they might be. For a start, they weren’t surfers. Also, they found the climate to be
‘a tad on the warm side’.
‘I miss Sydney Harbour and The Hawkesbury,’ Lloyd confessed. Everyone agreed with him.
Their discontentment was cut short however. Rion, Lloyd’s new friend, after speaking with Max, suggested that perhaps the four of them might like to visit Rama. He told them that he asked Max if he could borrow his family cruiser, to which Max agreed.
The big ship had more than enough space for everyone. Rion suggested that while on Rama they might fly out to the island of Engadine to meet Powter and check out his catamaran.
It is impossible to describe in words how excited Lloyd, Alex, Eva and Sophia were at the prospect of visiting another planet, ‘in a whole other ruddy galaxy!’
5
Griffin, Fin and Tip kept odd hours due to the sensitivity of their skins and eyes.
Each sunrise drove them into their tent where they slept through the days not waking until about an hour before sunset. As they adapted to conditions, they gradually increased their exposure to daylight.
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It turned out that both Noah and Thebe took it upon themselves to train Griffin in the telepathic arts. The various exercises were particularly fresh in Thebe’s mind as she had recently been involved with training Slater. Griffin was an excellent student who progressed with outstanding speed.
Griffin and the girls’ favourite activity, other than practising flying with the lev-pack, was riding horses. Griffin learnt much from Cowboy who could ride a horse like he was born in the saddle. Cowboy used the skill well in his chosen profession as an actor. He utilised some rope he found in the container and made up bridles in the fashion of Native Americans of old. The specific design he chose was what was known as a war bridle. This was simply a cord, usually made from hide, but in this case made from marine rope, which was looped around the lower jaw of the horse and controlled with two reins.
They rode bareback. Griffin only rode Fury while the girls rode Fury on occasion and some of the fillies the rest of the time. Cowboy only got to ride the oldest filly, but he didn’t mind.
In time, Griffin began riding Fury without a bridle and reins. He communicated with the horse mainly through telepathics, as well as light pressure with his feet. The horse and man became as one, perfectly united in the mind plane.
As Griffin’s telepathic skills improved, he began practising flying the levitating disc, which was the gift from Max and Ada. In years to come, that disc transported Griffin, Tip and Fin right around the coast of the whole Australian continent. They loaded up with tents and camping gear they borrowed from Snake and took off for long adventures searching for incredible places to stop. For obvious reasons, for them the surface was much more interesting than for everybody else.
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Jonesy’s wife, Lori, was a salt-of-the-earth, strong, Christian woman. Seeing the cohabitation of her daughter, Carla, with Melvin, as well as the twins, Fin and Tip, with Griffin, she suggested to Jonesy that perhaps he ought to organise a couple of weddings to make everything right and proper in the sight of the Lord. ‘Do it in good time, father, so you won’t be needing to break out the shotgun,’ she told him in good humour.
Jonesy, the perennial procrastinator about such things, finally asked Snake if he could do something about it, ‘seein as you’re the big honcho,’ he told him.
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They decided to have the double wedding on Christmas Day 2123. Everyone was there. The girls were dressed in beautiful white dresses, and they wore lovely flowers in their hair. Snake kept it simple.
‘Do you love each other?’ he began.
‘Yes,’ they all answered in unison.
‘Well then, on the Lord’s birthday and in His sight, I pronounce you husbands and wives.’ The husbands kissed their wives. Snake protested in jest, ‘Hey, I ain’t said that part yet.’ Everyone laughed. ‘Oh, go ahead then,’ he kidded, ‘and get on with the mooshy stuff.’
‘You want we should start throwin the rice, hon?’ asked Trixie.
‘Time’s as good as ever, cupcakes,’ he replied.
Everyone cheered and showered the happy newlyweds with rice they got from their stores in the container. The celebration was as joyous an event as had ever been. The fact that Griffin was married to inseparable twins drew him closer to Albion, the brother of Ambriel and son of Max and Ada, who was married to the twins Evka and Lara. A great friendship was forged that day, which would see Griffin and his wives spend plenty of their time on Rama as favoured guests of the Sailsmith family. During those periods they were away, Fury and his harem reverted to life in the wild. Their place of preference was the beautiful Mary Valley, where Fury’s herd grew to over a hundred horses. He chased the brumby stallion, and his mares, clear out of the valley and into the next valley where they, and their progeny, thrived for centuries to come.
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As 2124 rolled around, the Americans began exploring the surrounding countryside. As Grifffin learnt to fly his levitating disc, Snake and Jonesy got him to fly them over the Mary Valley on exploratory excursions.
Every night around the campfire, Lori talked to Jonesy about a nice place to settle down. ‘A little house by a stream, with some chickens and maybe a cow or two, and a couple of hogs.’
‘Where we gonna find a cow, sweetheart?’
‘I doubt they left cows out of their plans,’ she replied, ‘and goats and geese.’
‘We got plenty of seed stock,’ said Jonesy.
Griffin, Snake and Jonesy explored the whole Mary Valley from north to south. The valley was about 25 miles long. It extended from where Gympie used to be, southwards to where Kenilworth used to be. At its widest point it was about five miles wide. The Mary
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River snaked down the middle of it the whole way and the rich, brown topsoil either side of the river was as deep and fertile as any on the planet. Running up and down either side of the valley were two ranges of green hills of about one thousand feet in height with a few reaching as high as fifteen-hundred feet. Due to its location in the subtropical zone, and its abundance of sunshine and rainfall, the Mary Valley remained in a permanent state of lushness year-round. In fact, it was so beautiful everywhere one looked, that it was easy to imagine that a little piece of heaven itself had been transplanted there.
A decision was made that after a while, when they received more help from the Rama, the Americans would settle in the Mary Valley. They adopted a lifestyle not dissimilar to the early settlers of the American west, aided by Rama technology such as gravity-powered water wheels and electricity generators. They also, in time, acquired a number of flying discs as well as personal lev-packs for each of them. But despite all these technological marvels, everyone gradually copied Griffin and began getting around on horseback.
The relationship between the humans and the horses turned out to be one of perfect symbiosis, especially during times when one of the animals required some veterinary care. Fury understood that humans had hands and horses didn’t, and thus humans could do things horses couldn’t, like repairing a cracked hoof or assisting with the delivery of a newborn foal.
The horses were also given supplements of Mana that were inserted in treats like apples and carrots. The Mana kept them very healthy and extended their lifespans tenfold.
The first Mana to be grown on Earth was grown in the Mary Valley. It was planted in various locations and quickly spread wild all over the valley. The manufacture of the brown crumble was administered by Jonesy with a substantial amount of assistance from his friend, Zeke. They used the Moroccan technique of ‘extracting the soul from the plant’.
In the years to come, the Americans traded their Mary Valley Mana far and wide, across many star systems, for things they could have never even imagined.
With the help of newly-arrived Rama families, that settled nearby, the Americans planted every type of fruit tree all over the valley. These naturally spread their seeds until the whole valley became one natural fruit orchard. If one wanted an apple, as an example, he would put on his lev-pack, fly to the apple tree and pick the apple out of the canopy, Rama style.
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The women harvested reeds from the reed beds along the river. They dried and wove the reeds into what ended up looking like Vietnamese-style conical hats that protected the wearers from the strong sun, as well as shielded them from the subtropical rains. In the end everyone wore them and the hats became a traditional style for a resident of the Mary Valley.
The women also wove linen from the Flax plants they grew from seed that was brought over in the shipping container. The standard garments they made from this linen were undyed, loose fitting, short and long-sleeved shirts, as well as short, three-quarter-length, and full-length pants with string tied waists. These proved to be durable and pleasantly cool during the hot summers.
To see a Mary Valley resident astride bareback upon their mighty steed, in the hot midday sun, dressed in his linen and Vietnam hat, was a sight indeed, not quickly forgotten by any visitor, be it from up or down the coast or from another planet.
Catherine and Connie, the youngest two of Jonesy’s girls, both married young Rama boys who migrated to Earth with their parents. Through careful telepathic midwifery, the two girls both gave birth to many children who were all fully telepathic. The non-telepathic embryos were aborted not long after conception.
All the Mary Valley women became pregnant many times over as the decades and centuries passed. Their children were non-telepathic. When one of their non-telepathic children married a full telepath, the offspring was always fully telepathic. And thus, the humans of Earth gradually all became full telepaths, just like all the humans of Rama.
The non-telepaths were never made to feel inferior by the telepaths, although they were, but were always loved and cared for, not unlike how one loves one’s pet dog or cat.
Any negative thoughts that might have crossed the non-telepathic mind were quickly erased through telepathic means. In this way it was possible for the two levels of humans to live in happy, uncomplicated harmony. The non-telepaths never had the slightest inkling of what was being done to them.
In summary, they continued to live on Earth, masters of the natural environment, in total harmony, without ever building one fence or road.
…….
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