FICTION: MetaOvoid, and the Propitious Conjunctions

MetaOvoid

and the Propitious Conjunctions

The tale of Jaime’s unusual ayllu then came to Venus, who inherited the corona when her mother passed away. But her sister Oranus, and her Chinese husband, made haste to transfer their residence to Mars Hall; and there they established a Jeddai dojo. One of her messages, designed for school children, stated:

“With core components from Earth, and on Mars bases in PhD orbit, and on the surface at Mars Hall, various team sites have assembled the modules of the craft which will launch the first ion/solar driven interstellar craft to a nearby red dwarf star -but still very far for HOWRD. He was selected, enhanced, trained, and who agreed to go, at one tenth light speed for over forty years.The companies have a hundred years of experience in successful launches and recognizance. Several robotic probes have also been sent to the likeliest systems. These robotic missions have been launched on speeds humans cannot endure. Everything in the data cores of these robotic missions is relayed back to earth and human space at laser speed.One has reported a dual planet within the “goldilocks zone.” We have learned from the data core of the scout ship what the most appropriate behaviors should be for future missions that continue for centuries.Some of my eggs were donated to the development of optimum astronauts, to go to this dual planet.”End of Message.

This was the genesis of HOWRD.

In the back of her mind was the bothersome question: What had happened to Strangeman Rastus? He had not responded to transmissions, and had not arrived at Mars as planned. She knew he  didn’t believe in much besides his own self; and wondered if this pertained.

She watched the apts pair off and engage each other. Some were tentative; another was defending against blows as rapid as a kangaroos. She wanted to see fearlessness, readiness to meet any threat, and intense concentration.

Oranus knew how strange it was for a people like hers to become ascendant. It was a constant reminder for her to be humble. Just as Sensei Bunji taught the basics of martial arts, to the most receptive, in Jedda, -she taught the Bahá'í philosophical approach. Academic studies were also to be pursued with zeal by those who wanted to be one of the protectores. In one of her classes, in an underground chamber of the red planet, she went over basic principles with a group of new initiates.She explained them by citing source Verses, and allowed discussion:

A young man asked “About the divine virtues? How do we get those?”

Oranus considered for a moment and said calmly “It is all a balance. There is the infallible Balance established by the Divine Manifestations. They demonstrate the balance between detachment from the world, and devotion to its health and preservation.You can see how important it is for all these points to be inter-connected and inter-reliant, like the fingers of both hands. How can you refrain from striking an aggressive person, and how can you know when their aggression poses a danger to others if you yourself are not controlled? How can you extract a victim of slavery without doing excessive damage to others? I realize there is no slavery among the space colonies, but you may find yourself in a place at sometime which has it and tries to conceal it. You must be alert in every group you join, seeking the most vulnerable, and the least prepared to fight. With one eye you will perceive them, and with another those who seek to harm them.”

“We are not even to harm an ant!” someone expostulated.

 “If possible” she agreed. “We aught not even consider anyone an enemy, let alone strike them. And yet, if you were a protectore, and a "wild Arab" burst in, or you needed to defend a battered wife, or an enslaved child, or a hysterical victim that is on the run, or a host of people who might be debilitated by opium, a force must be employed commensurate with the need.”

“Why is there need for a god or higher power?” another asked. Oranus paused before answering.

“Do you think you are the highest power in existence?”

“Well, I dunno.”

“Such uncertainty is not found among the lovers of truth. We rely on our convictions in the written Teachings. And Teachings can only be understood by regular reading.

The expostulator had to ask, as if something was calling from inside him: “How can you be sure of the authority of your “Central Figures?”

“This is the evidence of the anomaly, and our devotion to it: The unprecedented genesis of it, the instantaneous and unhesitating manner in which the inspired Word was dictated to the amanuensis, without formal education, in masterful Arabic, as well as His native Persian, without constraint, without correction or editing. And we have the original Texts. The seeker must insist on learning what was involved, and its effect in all nations. To know a thing, you have to study and understand it inside and out. And yet everything has an impenetrable mystery attached to it. We are looking for the dedicated, who want to become more dedicated.”

After the group had read and discussed the passage, the questioner again expressed doubt about the idea of a ‘perfect power.’ And without a trace of consternation Oranus re-emphasized the spiritual life over the physical as the Jeddai way.

“If you are not comfortable with this philosophy, you are free to go.” And he did.

To those who remained, she said “Jeddai protectores, or bloodguards, willbecome numerous and spread throughout human occupied space. Our task, fortunately, is charged with angelic power. We will consciously guard the blood of others, prevent mischief and promote the safety of all life-forms as best we can, and we will  employ robotics which will scrutinize everything for aberrant programs that could be dangerous to people. Piracy is not common, but it exists. We intend to interdict it.”

HOWRD and Planet Gome

HOWRD was headed for the dual planets whichinhabited the “Goldilocks” zone of a nearby system. By the locals, one was called Gost (which rhymed with bossed, cost, and lost for good reason).Gost was thought to have been blasted in some unimaginable war; but a small community survived and emerged from The Crack, a steep ravine from which crude tunnels led to inadequate habitations.

Gome was significantly different, yet also employed subterranean tunnels. Instead of the pitiable salt seas and marshes of Gost, Gome was a genuine sister planet Gaia Earth, or Terra Earth as some preferred. It was mostly ocean. On Gome, there were three continents. (See Map 1of3) “Great Bear”, -greater than Eurasia, with tremendous mountains running north and south in the western part, and a great fertile conjunction of rivers called the Bogs, flowing on eastward  into the planetary ocean.

(See Map 2of3) “The Bow” -an enormous range of mountains, with extensive beaches running thousands of kilometers north and south. Two clusters of islands were off the west coast.

(See Map 3of3) “The Shoe” -another island continent resembling an inverted Australia in shape, and in the southern hemisphere, east of “Great Bear” and south of “The Bow”. Oceanic shipping was established from the mouth of the great river on Great Bear to a port on the northern coast of Shoe. Only much later did men row to the Bow with ocean going vessels.

The Bog-Imps unwittingly spent their time working and lounging before the lander from Earth, digging away from their own air and sunlight and space. They were neither a sea-going people, nor a surface-going people, if they could avoid it. They were not a space-faring people; but they would become so. They were unaware what would soon happen to them, or that they would initially be branded robbers for stealing a crate of items. There was no humanpromise not to transgress any Prime Directive. The Imps could not oppose continuing settlement.

But the chief Laboratory that enabled HOWRD were a bunch of experienced note-takers in a think tank. Here is a list of the things they asked themselves:

“What if certain characteristics in the animal world were made common in the human world?

What if we had bio-luminescence like fireflies?

What if we could hibernate like bears or the toads that wait out the drought in their little chambers underground?

What if we could regenerate limbs like lizards, or have gills like Aquaman?

What if we encourage the midget characteristic?

Instead of jet packs and platforms, what if we could have a skeletal system that permitted us to fly over the cities at night and perch in lonely mountain chasms that had never been visited? Would our civilizations be better if we could do those things?

HOWRD had extraordinary education and mechanical skills, acquired and intuitive knowledge, and a personable conversationalist, when pressed. When he was 20 years old HOWRD wrote: It is obvious that the animal world surpasses us in physical properties. Cheetahs can run faster; hawks can fly and see better; dogs can smell and hear better, elephants and whales are much bigger and stronger. I am small but I think a lot too, and operate machines built for me. I’m just human. But what is it that has made us special, as a species? What do the animals care about Faith? Can they hold an abstract question in their minds and pursue it relentlessly for a lifetime, like we do? Sure, they can become accustomed to habit, and return to where they got food before, and remember signals that indicate certain things will happen; but do they look beyond their sensorium to consider the purpose of the Eternal in regenerating All Things? They do not.

It fell to HOWRD to teach the Imps and the people back on Earth what he learned in the maturity of the mission. He stressed in everything how every human had to overcome ego and work for the good of society, which was now Earth and the Gome-Gost system. These scientists seemed obsessively concerned about their precious HOWRD than they were about adequate drive for the forty year journey. The engines failed in route.

MetaOvoid was aware that something was developing of great importance, and it intercepted HOWRD’s craft and put a protective field around it, and sped it on its way, so that it arrived at Gome, instead of perishing in space.

HOWRD (Human Other World Research & Development) was not quite 3 feet tall. His fertilized egg had been donated by OranusRumiñawi at Mars Hall. His genetics were developed and monitored from infancy, in the laboratories, and his training had always been to be a highly versatile space technician. He had the smallest adult body in the known system. His miniaturization was semi-artificial. A tendency for midget size was enhanced. His cranium was slightly larger, with greater brain size; and he was trained to maintain brain health and effectiveness. He was well-suited to zero G.He had epicanthic eyelids from his father and mother both. HOWRD was fully aware that Oranus was his mother; because she followed the procedures with attention and affection. He was of the clan of Jaime King of Ecuador. The story of his rise and success encouraged otherfederated dwarf and midget clans to build their own small halls and miniaturized habitats, in other parts of human space.His module was built to suit. His size proved itself economically. HOWRD, the first human to visit Gome,essentially considered himself to be a pioneer from the World Centre in Arz-i-Há. To what extent would there be a dialogue about Faith between the people of different planets? HOWRD arrived hibernating in the chrono-container, in the core of the lander, initially unaware of the incident that had occurred in transit.

The craft came into orbit and the large lander separated and slowly came down. The dust settled and drifted away. First human presence on an earth-like planet. Silence.

The A.I. “RoBOTNick” was a humanoid robot, built with no effort to make it appear human, other than its basic form. It was metal and plastic; andcharged with protecting and activating HOWRD. RoBOTNickdid protect, but neither revivednor releasedlittle HOWRD. There was a fault in a significant relay important enough to initiate paralysis, but maintain main systems.

Trees grew up around the craft containing RoBOTNick and HOWRD in stasis. How hard his time was then only HOWRD knows. This is important because the extra sleep time caused HOWRD to have powerful and repeated visions, includingwhat would come to be known later as Manx and the MetaOvoid. Ever after, in his mind HOWRD recalled the image of Manx, with his tail, agitated under the long coat, standing beside the obsidian oval shape of Meta-Ovoid, and the strong sense that something important had to be accomplished.

Eventually, a band of pesky roustabout Imps appeared, who were too young to work like the best diggers. Some were sons of the Midnight Team leadership, and were able to spend their time how they pleased.

Of all the teams of diggers, the princely Midnight Team gained in status by carving caverns, straight down, with smooth walls tapering to a vanishing point, branching off of which hallways were carved in relief. Down thesetunnels the gnomish people of Gome could find protection. To returndownhome, after duty on the surface, to the redondels and rooms below, was greatly cherished and celebrated. Imps loved to roam their rooms that had been reamed into the crust of Gome. The left-overs from the excavation mounded up in a hummocky surface, overgrown with vegetation. 

Their first tools were very rudimentary, and those tunnels were the oldest, near the surface. The three youth emerged on the surface confident that the law against it was hollow husks.

Two of these were brothers Berber and Bilch, and the third was their tagalong companion. Berber was intelligent and inventive; Bilch mischievous, the one who would swipe things from the settlers. These three, diminutive andingenious gnomes of Gome managed to awaken RoBOTNick.  They lived and thought like moles, with darkish brown skins, that were ritually oily. They had great, luminous eyes, but wiry, leathery bodies suited to underground living. No one of them had any memory of living any other way.

Once RoBOTNick’s sensors registered the movements of the Imps, it remembered its primary purpose, and began to move about. Then the Imps heard and saw RoBOTNick, among the trees around the Lander, packed with tools, other machines, devices and vehicles. Straightaway it turned to HOWRD and opened the inner seal of the Chrono-container. HOWRD’s body was given new fluids. He took his time recovering and emerging.

When HOWRD emerged, with RoBOTNick, he was seated on a tiny softly-hissing levatating chair. The three little natives were watching; the minds of two worlds began to mingle. HOWRD’s eyes moved over the three hunched figures and he waved at them and acknowledged them. Both peoples were glad to see that smiling was something they had in common. Although HOWRD emerged and interacted with the Imps, still, his mind was mesmerized by the image of Meta-Ovoid.

In this was twined the fate of millions who would inhabit the city ships, hollowed out and made habitable by the Bog Imps, who, as a people, excelled in excavations. By giving the Bog-Imps the tools to refine their excavations, humanity uplifted the people, swiftly and effectively. Most important were the laser powered cutters that made systematic removal of buildable metal/stone blocks, taken from the hallways cut into the metallic and stony meteor. Such wealth of metals and minerals! Oxides and ices, purified into water. Multiple chemical storage. LOX and other fuels.

On Earth, the animals love to play, and help each other. They excel the people in every way but one: we can entertain certitudes about invisibles. Then, with loquacious speech and manipulative hands, humans tended to be mound builders. The mounds become cities and the cities moved into space, lumps of metallic meteoric rock, with halls hollowed out inside them by the Human/Imp consortiums, constantly monitoring and improving the multi-directional steering rockets, and the BiOHAB inside.

The Bog Imp interface with RoBOTNick and HOWRD continued to increase in Bog of Big Bear and in orbit above

Big Bear was similar to Eurasia, with many localized eco-systems. Bog of Big Bear was the dense maze of channels at the nexus of the rivers in the eastern plains of Big Bear, the enormous bear-shaped continent of Gome. There were vast rice paddies, and algae processing ponds. There were untouched wilder lands, and plans for roads. There was a twelve-hour day with a strange sun.

To the west of the bog lands arose the forested wall of mountains called the Polloria. It was true, the best pollo could be found there; but that is probably not the source of the name. In the mild climate of those valleys, great and gorgeous fowl flourished, and were available. In the steamy rice patties of eastern Big Bear, there was cultivation of the land. Those who knew how to balance relations between mountain people and plains people could enjoyarroz con pollofrequently.

HOWRD took up residence in the great natural cavern, which was continuous with their own. He had freedom to do anything to the arena-sized room.

Between active explorations on the surface, and downtime downtown, in the Imp cavern, HOWRD passed his time until the second mission arrived a decade later.

Finally, the new team arranged a fenced compound around HOWRD’s lander, with Quonset huts inside, and gear stacked around the lot. Because the locals managed to make off with a bit of it, they became known as “Bog-Imps”.

The new human team began trying to talk to Imps themselves. HOWRD came up from down under, on his portable chair. He explained how he had been taken down into the hardened underground realm of the indigenous hominid species on Gome, the earth-like extra-solar planet.In addition, there were mutual calculations transpiring between human men and gnome-men. No one could blame HOWRD for allowing the chiefs of the Bog-Imps to compel him to go down a particularly large tunnel, into a very large underground cavern. This was as close as the two species could meet. Having known HOWRD as the only example of Earthmen, the Bog Imps became startled at the tall walking humans, and became more curious and more wary of Earthmen.

Through the RoBOTNick-HOWRD interface, the Bog Imps were informed of Earth, and gradually given pictures of structures on the surface and people at the coasts in boats and in the skies with aircraft. HOWRD, like his royal ancestors, continued the tradition of starting a school. Continuous schooling was offered to eager students and interaction was improved for groups of Imps to visit human installations.

It was fortuitous that HOWRD chose to take advantage of transport and go up for a meeting with The Considerer. They were taken with each other. Both were less than three feet tall. Both had large craniums. The eyes which were naturally large and black in The Considerer, were small and protected behind HOWRD’s amplified opaque lenses. The Considerer’s skin tone was a greyish lead color, that of HOWRD a mixture of Kichwa, Persian and Chinese, that was dark honey-colored.

To begin, they initiated dialogue through the ships A.I., but HOWRD caught on quickly to the ships symbology, and together they apprehended more and could progress in the organization of Kommon vocabulary with Bog Imp, which HOWRD had learned from ten years with them.

It was the intention of The Considerer to arrive at Earth, when he was intercepted by MetaOvoid. It was again his intention to go there, once everything was clear. It was kind of The Considerer to offer Rastus a more secure transit. Now HOWRD thought he would return to Earth with Rastus and The Considerer.

In time, the Bog Imps became master-builders of the city ships, scattered throughout several local star systems. The Bog Imps cannot deny that they are from the Bog of Big Bear, and that the Impish way was always their way. Imp became a name they grew proud of. Imp was like gypsy, which came from Egyptian, which was what western kings thought of the Romani people. Or like Indians who lived nowhere near the Indus. Stealth is the way of the digging people. Their work gangs, of a dozen or so diggers, were miniature governments. It was what enabled them to continue engaging RoBOTNick, until he opened the chrono-container.

Terry Flip and BlackWorld

Terry Flip had three counts of theft against him by the time he was sixteen. That got him a long probation, and eventually an Ident brand on the forehead, which could not be removed. It resembled a circle with a slash within it meaning NO, or Forbidden. This seemed to lock in his character; and he blamed his later crimes on this. But that was meant to mislead, and it was his faults and hates which led to political terrorism, resulting in the deaths caused by his arson.

BlackWorld, was the 8 ball, only about ten kilometers in diameter. It was an ultra-dense, pitch-black sphere, able to hold breathable air, and generate various protective magnetic fields. It seemed artificial; but this black worldlet generated at least one extra-ordinary off-spring, known ever since as MetaOvoid. This became common human knowledge. Word had got out.

On the periphery of the system, BlackWorld became known to humans, and a small base with a couple of units was placed on the surface. An intelligent but convicted arsonist, Terry Flip was now given the choice of execution or exile to BlackWorld, with the duty to collect, transmit and convey whatever could be learned from it. He chosethe anomalousworldlet,  BlackWorld.

During one wake-work cycle, Terry Flip detected activity on the surface and filmed the emergence of the MetaOvoid, which paid no attention to him, and departed hastily.Highly sensitive, MetaOvoid first moved into the inner system, toward Mars and Earth. It detected Manx’s mental conundrums and alerted him with visions in a state of hypnosis. Every bit of data concerning the event was transmitted to Earth.

After having witnessed the emergence of MetaOvoid, many “years” passed. Terry Flip spent them alone. But near the end of his effective life, he witnessed the emergence of what came to be known as the Dense Men. He was the one human to see BlackWorld open another fissure and mechanically emit row after row of small men, eighteen to twenty-four inches high, made of the same tremendously dense structural material as MetaOvoid and BlackWorld itself. Soon, masses of them were hovering, buzzing, in their orderly clouds, conveying a sense of awe to Terry Flip and everyone who witnessed the video. They were perceived as a threat; and they would become a threat to certain elements in the galactic sector; but now, they behaved mildly.

They resembled black ants that could hover without wings. (See illustration). The three pairs of limbs, however, were not like ants, but like energetic spikes. The bulbous, graceful heads had two large luminous eyes that quickly looked in all directions, and were rarely at rest. They arranged themselves in groups of three to three hundred.

Suddenly, MetaOvoid appeared and began loading them into itself. More than forty feet long, MetaOvoid could hold many of the small black entities. With movements of increasing intensity and agitated fervency, MetaOvoid jerkily jumped from point to point in the space above the surface of BlackWorld, vanish, re-appear, load more Dense Men, and vanish again.

Terry Flip could only gape aghast. He stumbled into his HAB bunk and took out the hidden hooch, and proceeded to get drunk. When he looked at the video later, MetaOvoid was gone, but some Dense Men were still waiting for MetaOvoid. In the command center, which monitored the HAB, LAB, and landing SLAB, Terry Flip considered sending drones but refused, and retreated to emerge again on the surface himself. He no longer had a moral reason to continue the monitoring duties. Terry Flip faded away alone, having consumed the garden greens and neglected to plant more, morose that the alcohol had run out. He was terrified and certain the Dense Men would soon destroy him. But this they did not do.

From his account: “…a moment ago, I glanced to my right, as I sat in the HAB; and I swear I saw something move. There was a small man or large ant, black as obsidian. Then it was gone. Pretty soon, it returned with others”. Although they would become the scourge of evil, they behaved towards Terry Flip with modesty, and showed no hostility, and even sent a group of nine to fix things, protect and provide for Terry Flip, and ameliorate his final angry, anguished throws.

Manx and the MetaOvoid.

Manx was one out of a billion babies with a tail. This happened in the Caribbean and his mother did not want to deal with people who wanted to amputate the boy’s tail; so she moved to a small island with no one else on it. They had plenty of birds, chickens and wild species, fruit, fish and coconuts. But she died and left him to fend for himself, which he managed to do, until the land was sold to the ultra-rich entrepreneur and developer Strangeman“Jack” Rastus. Not only did Manx have a tail, but his precognitive skills and language was unique to human experience. He had his own rudimentary language which he used to talk to his own spirit. Only gradually did he learn to speak to others at all. His strengths were intuitive and psychic. He sensed that other people and life-changing events were coming to the island.

Manx was informed, as if in a waking-dream, of the approaching MetaOvoid, and of little people, some like insects, and some leathery, and one in a jet-chair.

This convinced Manx to enter the orifice which MetaOvoid opened up in order to transport him to such places as it wished.

When the helicopters landed, and Jack Rastus, and his assistants encountered a naked young man with a tail and dreadlocks, it was the end of what the boy knew. Trying to express himself with his own words only made them turn away. The eccentric billionaire, wanted the media when it suited him; and this was not one of those times. He did not need a media frenzy over a mutant ignoramus. Rastus quickly loaded him aboard the helicopter and turned him over to the nearest clinic in Florida.

Thus, Manx came into the temporary care of Teresa at the med center, now much diminished in enthusiasm. There was nothing wrong with his health; but he was disturbed and unhappy at being moved. The uniqueness of him caused them to hold him longer. Teresa wrote his identification as “Man X”. Teresaand Manx were physician and friend, but also fond. Manx had a hard time talking, acquired a long trench coat, and tried unsuccessfully to explain to the nice lady about the sands talking to him by means of vibrating patterns.

“My name is Teresa” she said slowly, motioning to herself.

“Aw imeet Ah! woodikud!” he answered oddly, sadly.

But Teresa was insightful enough to work with him on the Kommon alphabet, and the lists of the most simple words of one, two, three, four or five letters, with which Manx could compose many sentences such as “to eat beef or salad.”

But Manx ran away from Teresa’s clinic andfled to the beach. Somehow MetaOvoid sympathized with Manx, who was taken from the only home he knew on the island. The sand began vibrating. Then MetaOvoid presented itself to him. The aperture opened for him. Manx stood considering. Hepreferred to be apart from other humans, and did not want to answer their interrogations. He knew MetaOvoid was benign. So he got in.

His poor socialization and abnormality also gave Manx a unique mental gift –that is, to believe and perceive that the sand spoke to him and act on it. It led him to understand MetaOvoid before he met it.Now Manx was inside MetaOvoid’s bizarre interior. It was multi-colored and organically adaptable to him, without too much space wasted.

Their first destination was Jack Rastus’ private cruiser TerraFire, which was on a course from Earth toPhobos.

One moment, everything was green on his board, and the next moment there was a thump on the bottom of TerraFire and one end of the eclipsing black MetaOvoid was visible from Jack’s seat at the board, protruding several meters forward from the prow. By the time he got to the bay, which, unlike the shuttle from NASA’s earth-orbit missions, opened on the bottom of his ship, Manx had already transferred himself into TerraFire!

Strangeman “Jack”Rastus recognized him immediately, and was both angry and amazed.He tried to speak to Manx straight forwardly.

“Can you explain what is happening?”

“Oyyumrawr di dooda”

What the hell!thoughtRastus.–but then he remembered. No one could talk to the freak. Another question arose in his mind. It had been about two years since he had acquired the island and established a shop and hanger for the craft. How could the vagrant boy from the island be inside TerraFire, what was he and what had he been doing, and what was that thing beyond an irregular looking new port?

The two of them were the most unlikely companions and had to begin from the beginning. Both had much of value to teach the other; and it was not easy for Rastus to even reconcile himself to anyone aboard a flight he had planned taking alone. Now here was the freak from the island! It took some time for Rastus to wrap his mind around what happened. Being the disciplined person that he was, Rastus created a few rules for the confused Manx to follow. Sit here. Don’t touch that, and begin to learn how to use a simple tablet that Jack Jr. had left aboard.

The Considerer and the Globe Ship.

But before much could be gained, the second transference happened, and it was much farther out. Craft 10011001, a complex globe-shaped ship, one of many commissioned long ago in a system very far away, attracted the attention of MetaOvoid. Following its own agenda, MetaOvoid attached itself to Craft 10011001, moving toward Earth with benign intent. When it was ready it opened an aperture, permitting Manx to enter.

Manxwandered throughthehalls to the CryO and ChronOsections before an encounter with ArmO, the A.I. police unit on Craft 10011001. ArmOswiftly investigated Manx and hustled him off to containment in BiO, until command from The Considerer in CommO.  Rastus was in no mood to leave TerraFire, and sat fuming about what to do.

But The Considerer was in AstrO, not CommO. When The Considerer witnessed the video and audio of ArmO with an intruder in CommO, he decided to foregoremote sensors and get up and go see the “intruder” for himself. Making his way to CommO, The Considerer tried to calm the emotional tension within himself. His great grey cranium arose above a small leathery frame clothed in a loose garment. His eyes resembled black, obsidian ovals. Like two copies of MetaOvoid.

He wasn’t called Considerer for nothing. He entered CommO and saw Armo restraining a thing. Manx astonished The Consider, and Manx was astonished by The Considerer. Their mutual sensitivity began interacting at once, and both were assured that all would be well even though there had been unscheduled entry. Before long, ArmO discovered Rastus, who wet his pants, and was chased out of TerraFire into the rooms of Craft 10011001. Losing much of his bravado and realizing that there would be more freakishness, Rastus became somewhat cooperative. They all stood stunned by the reality of MetaOvoid, doing what it had done.

Now, by means of manipulating the mind of the ship and the awareness of The Considerer, MetaOvoid compelled the Considerer to witnessits interactions with the guidance systems of Craft 10011001. New coordinates were placed into astrogation, and the Gome-Gost system became the new destination. Then destiny prepared very strange events.

There being nothing else he could do, The Considerer, Rastus, Manx, and the MetaOvoid arrived after the second mission from Earth to Gomewas fully deployed, and whose effectiveness in building infrastructure was impressively demonstrated.

Upon arrival in orbit around Gost, consultation was required in CommO, between Manx, Rastus, and The Considerer. MetaOvoid listened in subtly. The Considerer could easily see that Manx and Rastus had serious communication problems, and recommended the language translator, after a study was made of data inTerraFire. This required seven hours of processing.

MetaOvoid then impressed upon Manx the importance of Rastus allowing the use of TerraFire to go down to certain coordinates on the surface of Gost, to determine the status of a lone colony of people. Manx was able to indicate this to the A.I. language program which in turn informed Rastusand Manx in Kommon English and The Considerer, in his symbology. Rastus was resistant.  But MetaOvoid was persistent and begantalking at high rates of speed with the A.I. systems of The Considerer.

The Considerer maneuvered himself into a proper conversation position with Jack Rastus, in a smooth white spacein CommO. Rastus, who was still embarrassed because of wetting himself, was emblematic of his American people who wanted to becertain that they could do everything best. Now it was put before him to do it. Through the language program, poor Jack was made to understand that he would not have to pilot a landing by himself, but that the A.I. mind of the globe ship would slave the controls of TerraFire to itself.

Rastus did not feel particularly cozy to that idea. The globe ship had its own landers, but MetaOvoid insisted that TerraFire be used.

For some reason, Manx knew he needed to go down and take part in this effort to “help others” –witless as he was about who or where they were. MetaOvoid detached itself from the globe ship and released TerraFire, which began its descent.Manx said to Rastus:

“We must go down.” Something about the way he said it disarmed Rastus.

The coordinates had been preset for a steep canyon near the most mountainous region, which were mere hills, eroded for countless millennia. Considerer arrived first and erected a temporary domo. TerraFire endured  the atmospheric buffeting during the descent well, and neatly negotiated the cloudy weather, landing on its triple landing gear, near the domo. Simple Kommon English bits of data were transmitted to Rastus,from The Considerer, which he felt irked to think of as commands.

Wearing designated breathers only, Manx and Rastus looked skeptically at each other, and emerged onto the surface of Gost. The air was dry and still, although whispy colored clouds few overhead. They set off toward the nearby cliffs where they would presumably find access to subterranean tunnels. Sure enough there were well built stairways, but they were very narrow, only about eighteen inches wide. With equal amounts of trepidation and curiosity, Rastus led Manx down the many switchbacks of stairs, until they came to a rugged door way. Here they passed through from the bright light of day into a shadowy tunnel, and were instantly set upon by the strange faces and forms of the three of the inhabitants.

Finding the two humans to be non-belligerent, they made them stay still until a runner went for instructions. Obviously, they had no electronic communications. The language program needed to hear as much of their language as possible to build up a large enough data base. This would take time. But Manx was not in a hurry at all and emoted with every Gostian person he met.

Those people liked Manx. He was sensitive and had heart and it served him well. Unable to speak substantially, he croaked and uttered his squeals and semi-random vocalizations, yet modified them to express his feelings for the hosts people. Slowly the group made their way through narrow rough tunnels that were often damp and dangerous, until they entered into a more finished chamber with a number of others. The tension in between the groups was profound because no other such delegation had arrived before; yet Manx did not find any of it extraordinary.

Interactions continued to be studied by the cameras and microphones until the A.I. was able to correlate the speech of Gost to the other idioms. At that moment, MetaOvoid impressed upon Manx’s mind that two or three representatives come back up to the globe ship in the TerraFire taxi. This took some explaining, which was not too hard, because the dire situation of the people was apparent and they detected from Manx that help had arrived.

After a visit to orbit, where they learned of advanced life outside their Crack, the three convinced all their people to come. In the end, seventy-two people from Gost were ferried up to the globe ship, some sick and wounded. The Considerer assured their leaders that each person would be treated and housed in the groups they preferred, with everything necessary. One option was to send them back to their homes with supplies to make life easier; and another was to take some or all to Gome. They believed they should all go to Gome. Many centuries had passed.

An ancient war had occurred which had left Gost with the worst of it. The remaining survivors had banded together in their best place for them. The unfinished ravines caused by rivulets in the Crack. They were stunned by the possibility of reuniting with the “Bog Imp” gnomes of Gome.

Then, there were the challenging Bog-Imps themselves.The intention of the second mission morphed after its initial goals were fulfilled. Someone conceived the idea of training the Bog Imps to carve out city-ships from asteroids, for themselves and others. Meetings with Bog Imp leaders were held in their own underground halls, which were much more refined and decorated. The drink had to be Impish juice. The Considerer agreed to facilitate the mining plan if it included re-supply of his own. Now with their toast and agreement, the asteroid endeavor was set to become a full-blown project with many mega-trans-national companies in consortium.

When he learned of the new developments, HOWRD came to the surface to meet the other odd men from Earth. As soon as his eyes fixed on Manx and the MetaOvoid, he realized the situation was the fulfillment of the vision that persisted during his long hibernation; and he advocated for the people of Gost and Gome to become one people. Because of his exemplary behavior, his suggestion was easily accepted.

Small HOWRD had by now learned the language of the Bog Imps quite well; and had told them everything he could about human civilization, including stories about the persecuted Prophets, and Bahá'u’lláh. They in turn had tried to tell him about their own past, but it was sketchy.

He regularly busied himself with machinery, his robotic mover, or he operated a waldo, or accessed vents that no one else could, as he had been trained, with ease and assurance.He could pilot an assortment of vehicles on land and in the air, He was quite the public speaker as well. But his thin little voice needed amplification.

He was invited to come up to Craft 10011001. When the HOWRD entity met The Considerer there was immediate rapport, and languages were further correlated between human Kommon, Impish and the refugees from Gost, the Considerer’s symbology, and MetaOvoid, whenever it wished to communicate.

It so happened that a small, glossy Bahá'í book, with pictures of the holy places in Israel, disappeared from where he kept it, in his quarters in the Bog Imp caverns. It was discovered missing, and found in the possession of two older Imps. The tense exchange was ameliorated by RoBOTNick, with better data from orbit.

Manx was pretty much the pet of MetaOvoid now, and independent of anyone else.

Had it not been for the roles played by Manx, the MetaOvoid, Rastus and TerraFire, and The Considerer and his globe ship,Craft 10011001, the advancement of developed space would not have gotten underway as swiftly. More and more city-ships would be built; and the alliance between the worlds could not have been formed. Now, ships were crafted from mountainous space rocks, by the Bog Imp-Human cooperation, and sent to many systems.

All the nations of Earth had been welded together. China had made it possible for the entire planet Earth to achieve its heritage. Thus the human spirit,in aggregate, was plugged into the spirit of Faith, and, receiving inspiration, became prepared for encounters with alien races. The conjunctions had to be carried out. The intention of MetaOvoid was the early alliance of the two star systems.

All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization. (Baha’u’llah, GWB CIX)