“But we’d never get away with killing the President.”

“Actually, that’s the easy part—the getting away with it. All we need is a guy with some Russian connection in his past. We promise to pay him big money, he does the job, we arrest him, but promise to let him escape. Then we tell some other guy that the first guy’s been seeing his woman, and he takes care of him. Then we get some government commission appointed to study the whole case, and of course pay them to conclude what we want them to. Yeah, that’s the easy part”.

“Then what’s the hard part?”

“Making sure that the job gets done in the first place. But it’d be easy enough to pay off a few Rangers, so that if our guy misses someone on the motorcade can finish the job. Or, better yet, just have a Ranger do it in the first place, and just have our hired gun be there thinking he’s gonna do it, and arrest him there. Either way the job gets done.”

“But why does it need to be done at all? Do you really think people would believe the President if he told them all those fantastic stories? All we’ve gotta do is dig up some more dirt on him and threaten to make it public, right?”

“We’ve tried that, and it doesn’t work with this guy. He just says to put it all out there, that the American people will like him all the more for being so human. And he really does seem intent on atoning for the crimes of his father—that is, crimes as he sees them. He just doesn’t see that such is the nature of the rule of law.”

“So why hasn’t he blabbed to the papers so far?”

“We had to finally resort to the ultimate threat, since he wouldn’t listen to reason.”

“But we wouldn’t really harm innocent children, would we?”

“Of course we’d prefer not to. And, of course, the President doesn’t know if we’re serious or not. But he assumes we’ll stop at nothing. And I think in the long run he would sacrifice his own children in the interests of Truth and Justice for the American people. But we’ve convinced him to at least hold off ‘til the State of the Union address. So that gives us time”.

“But just what is it that he would tell the people anyway?”

“You sure you wanna know? If I tell you anything that can bring you to the same conclusions as the President, you’ll be put under constant surveillance. And if you make any wrong moves or approach any of the wrong people, your life and the lives of your loved ones will be in jeopardy, too.”

“So it really is a question of National Security?”

“Hah! We’ve sure done a good job promoting that meaningless phrase, if even you believe it. The big boys pulling the strings know that the security or insecurity of one or even dozens of nations is meaningless in the long run. But as long as each country’s citizens can be kept believing it’s important, then the idea is worth continued promotion. But what’s at stake here is the actual power structure of the whole world. If any of these ideas begins to be widely discussed or considered, people will begin to realize that they’ve been lied to for many, many generations. And if that happened, the stability of the whole world would be threatened.”

“You mean, of course, the stability of our version of our world.”

“Well, of course—and what else matters? Surely not the dreams and aspirations of a bunch of slaves?”

“No, of course not. But back to my question—just what is it that the President is threatening to tell?”

“For starters he’ll simply say that he was ill-informed when he made the commitment for the U.S. to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. He’s not some mid-western bumpkin with years of military training. He knows people at Harvard and MIT, and some of them knew Einstein, and they’re telling him the simple facts.”

“Such as?”

“For starters the simple fact that once a rocket gets totally above the atmosphere, it is completely beyond control by any possible propulsion system. It’ll just go on in a straight line forever, just as Newton’s First Law of Motion explains. Unless, of course, it is captured by the gravity of another body, like the Moon—then it’ll spiral down to a very nasty crash on the surface of that body.”

“But it’ll slow down, right, like the capsules we and the Russians have put in orbit?”

“No, because there’s no air around the Moon to resist it. It’s thought that it may just be possible to impart a little spin to the capsule, and thus get it oriented with its thrusters facing down towards the Moon’s surface. But then the problem is trying to carry enough fuel to counter the high velocity it would have once it’s close enough to the surface that the blast from the thrusters could reach the surface.”

“High velocity? But I thought the Moon was only about one one-hundredth the mass of the earth, with a surface gravity quite a bit less than Earth’s.”

“Of course we can never be sure unless we send a probe there, but according to Newton, the surface gravity of small bodies is greater than of larger. He never really said why. But now that we know about black holes, where a tablespoonful of matter is supposed to weigh many thousands of tons—or is it millions?—it’s quite plain how such could be the case with the Earth and other planets. They all have cores of super-dense matter; essentially nothing but neutrons, all compressed as tightly as is physically possible; In the case of the earth, as much as 99 percent of the mass may thus be contained in a core just hundreds of miles in diameter. The rest—all the rocks and water that we think of as being so massive—is rather insignificant in proportion.”

“But what about the molten iron core that we’ve all learned about in school?”

“Yes, a rather brilliant invention, wasn’t it? And do you know why it was invented? Merely to counteract the belief of many Pacific islanders that the earth is really a big ball of ice. The British explorers were amazed and confounded by that notion. They thought that those people couldn’t possibly have any conception of ice—but they forgot the snow and ice on the tops of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea.”

“But so what? What would it matter if we did believe that the earth was a ball of ice?”

“What would it matter? Listen to yourself, man! If the British had admitted that these ignorant savages knew the slightest bit more than they did about the nature of the earth, and perhaps the Solar System as well, then it would be impossible to keep them in subjection. Again, the whole structure of world society would be changed forever.”

“And what would be so bad about that?”

“Again, listen to what you’re saying! Do you want to be on an equal footing with naked savages? Do you want to admit that we’ve been exploiting them for over 400 years now? Do you think they would go easy on us if they found out the truth?”

“Yeah, I see your point. I guess it’s for the good of everybody to keep things the way they are. But eventually the truth will come out, won’t it?”

“Of course it will, just as it always has in the past during each Dark Age. But this time it won’t be hit and miss as to who survives. This time the right people will survive, and with our technology we’ll be set to get things going again much more quickly than at any previous time.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, those Pacific Islanders not only spoke of the earth being a ball of ice. They also told of a time when they lived in total darkness for several years, and essentially rode floating blocks of ice up from a lower level of the earth’s surface.”

“But that’s crazy! How could they possibly sense that they were rising?”

“Of course they couldn’t sense that. But they said that when the light returned and they could see again, the stars looked closer, and there were more of them, so they knew they had gotten closer to the firmament.”

“Firmament? Now you’re really starting to sound crazy? That’s a word out of Genesis, isn’t it? What’s it got to do with anything?”

“That gets us back to the President, and the story he got from the Russians. It seems that in some sense or other the first few verses of Genesis are literally true. They describe in the simplest way possible what went on at earth’s creation—and probably at the creation of every other heavenly body as well.”

“Oh, this should be good! I’m all ears!”

“OK. We’ve all heard of the Russian cosmonauts who were found dead in their capsule upon return to earth.”

“Sure. Their capsule de-pressurized, and they suffocated. Very sad.”

“Uh-huh. But the President says he got a very different story from the Russian leader. It seems that at a certain height above the earth the cosmonauts saw a bright flash, and then everything appeared bright gold for awhile. Then the curvature of the golden light could be seen, so that it was clearly a shell of some sort around the earth. Then it began to flicker and fade a bit, and the stars began disappearing.”

“Yeah, sure. And how much vodka had those guys had?”

“Come on, you know as well as I do that there’s no alcohol allowed on board. Those guys were in tip-top physical condition, as are all our guys. All military men are well trained in observation and description. There can be little doubt as to what they saw.”

“So what’s the big deal? Surely our scientists can come up with an explanation.”

“Of course they can, and so can the Russians. But that’s the whole problem—it’s that very explanation that the President wants to tell the American people. But I’m still not done with the story. It seems that the higher they got, more and more stars disappeared, until finally the gold globe began to flicker, and then it, too, disappeared.”

“Good. Then they could see back down to the earth, right?”

“No. There was nothing there but the black of space. They assumed they were on the opposite side of the earth from the moon, which was why they couldn’t see it. But then all of a sudden it flickered in and out and then was there, and about ten times bigger than any moon they’d ever seen. Then, in just a matter of minutes, it began to flicker, and then it was gone.”

“Come on, you can’t possibly believe that.”

“Well, the President sure does. But it gets worse. The Russian scientists on the ground had no explanation at all for what the cosmonauts had seen. Still, they were able to calm them down a bit. And when the Moon flickered back into view again they were fairly calm, and began to talk of measuring its relative size in each succeeding orbit. But instead, when they spoke of it beginning to flicker again, the radio suddenly went dead, and they were heard from no more.”

“So, a power failure, and they suffocated up there, right?”

“No. From what they could tell when the capsule returned to earth, there was no loss of oxygen, and the power was back on, or at least had been for a time. But apparently it was totally dark for long enough that they both snapped and tried to claw their way out of the capsule. I guess the inside of the capsule looked as if two lions had fought it out. Not a pretty sight at all. The Russians say they will be sending no more men up that high. They’re planning to send some un-manned missions to try to determine just what is going on up there.”

“Oh, come on! Don’t you think they’re just trying to throw us off, and make us not want to go? Then they can push ahead and be first on the Moon.”

“Well, we should know soon enough. The President has ordered an unmanned mission be sent up as soon as possible, with the latest cameras and measuring devices. He wants to know for sure what we’re up against. And he is still Commander in Chief, and this is strictly speaking a military operation, so we’re bound to obey. He did say that if our probe shows that we can go, and then he will expose the Russian hoax. Otherwise he plans to tell the American people that he spoke too soon, and that instead he and the Russians are planning to work together to provide decent living conditions for all people around the world.”

“That sounds like a worthy objective.”

“Worthy objective! What are you thinking? There must always be about a fourth of the world’s population living in abject poverty. Then we can go rescue a few million of them from starvation, and they will willingly be our slaves for many years. When they get tired of it and start to rebel, we let them slip back into poverty, and go rescue the next batch from starvation. Hitler and Stalin made the mistake of working their slaves to death, thinking they were saving money on food and clothing. But we’ve learned from their mistakes.”

“And this President will be in your way, won’t he? No matter the outcome of this space probe?”

“Afraid so. And I think that little brother of his will be even worse. But he won’t be in a position to know anything unless he, too, can get himself elected some day.”

“And we’ll be sure to prevent that from happening.”

“You’ve got it.”

****************************************

“So the Russians weren’t lying?”

“No, they weren’t. Their guys were, as I said years ago, well trained in observing and reporting those observations. And our probes confirmed all those observations. And it gives a very simple explanation to the age-old question: why is the sky blue? Thin gold leaf reflects gold light, but transmits blue. The higher you get, the thinner the gold layer, and the sky appears black.”

“And so what happened to all those guys who saw the results of those probes? How can you keep them quiet?”

“They’re either sent to Vietnam or threatened with being sent there. That’s sure a convenient little mess to have been involved in. These guys all know people who’ve been there, and how screwed-up they are when they get back. Most of them, that is. Of course, it’s so easy to lace their drinks with LSD, and then blame their symptoms on malaria or some other jungle ailment. Amazing how the last great President’s desire to defend those people from what truly was Communist aggression has played right into our hands.”

“And nobody seemed the least suspicious that the Vice President just happened to be from the state where the President was shot. Nor of the fact many of his cronies are poised to make vast fortunes in the industries, which will be needed to supply all the chemicals for the future of the exploration of space. But I’m curious—just where are all those chemicals going?”

“And that’s a good question—but one which you won’t get an answer for, because I myself don’t know. But I’m developing some educated guesses.”

“And you really don’t think there’s a danger of another President like him coming along in the future?”

“Not likely. We’ve got a weeding-out process firmly in place. As soon as any local politician becomes well-enough known and liked to be capable of delivering a certain amount of money to the party coffers, then we dig into his past. And guess what? Everyone has at one time or other done things that he’d rather that people didn’t know about.”

“True enough. But just then I thought you were going to say that when a guy could deliver a certain number of votes then it was time to approach him.”

“Hah! Votes! That has turned out to be the most incredible phenomena that the Founding Fathers could never have imagined. For them it truly was a big deal to be able to vote, since previously only the land-owning aristocracy could vote. Never mind that votes were routinely bought, and that many people have voted many times after their deaths. Still, the American people really believed that they were in control. And with Ike’s bemoaning the industrial-military complex, and then with Prince Charming being elected, they almost were. I guess we had gotten complacent after the Communist witch hunts. We really thought we had scared them all away, anybody who truly believed in equality and fair play. But now we’re back on track. And it looks like in the future we will have carte blanche to go all over the world and insist that people be given the right to vote. And most people are too stupid to ever realize that the choices they have are really no choices at all. I mean, really—could it possibly matter what the guy’s name is who is picking your pocket?”

“Yeah, that is rich. And you know what would be good, too? Start a campaign of ads to the effect that people have no right to complain if they didn’t vote. The ones who believe that and go along with it will effectively silence all those who know what a load of crap it is.”

“Wow, that’s a good idea. You’re coming along, you know.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that just a few years ago, you sounded like you were more interested in truth than in being part of the ruling class. I thought for awhile there that Prince Charming had charmed you and that you would be shipped off to Vietnam.”

“Really? Well, it was tempting. But when I looked back through history at what was done to all the greatest thinkers—Socrates, Jesus, Galileo, Newton, Einstein—I realized that I had a chance to be greater than they ever hoped to be, as long as I played the game.”

“That’s the spirit! And as long as we’ve got people believing that they are living better than kings of old, they will continue to support us.”

“So true! And it’s amazing, isn’t it, that the ancient bread and circuses routine of the Romans continues to work in the twentieth century. People think because they have a greater variety of bread and cake to choose from, and a wider variety of entertainment, that they are truly living better than kings. But they never pause to consider that the kings of old had many thousands or tens of thousands of subjects—virtual slaves—whose lives were totally controlled by those kings. Not very many people can say the same of themselves today, and certainly not any of the petty American politicians who may last eight years, or occasionally in the House or Senate as many as thirty years. But their power is mostly illusion. We who control and manipulate the economies of the world have the real power.”

“And it’s so humorous to watch the pathetic little lawmakers pass laws to protect their constituents from the greed of the big corporations. So one big corporation gets broken up into pieces, or disappears altogether. But someone or something always steps in to fill the void. And we are always there to get our piece of the action.”

“But back to space and the probes. What did they find out?”

“Nothing much that wasn’t already known from the Russians’ reports. But they had time to develop a couple of possible theories to explain it all. Most of all, of course, they had time to work with Hollywood to get the sets built for doing the actual Moon landing shots.”

“And they really believe they can pull it off?”

“Of course. You yourself just explained it—bread and circuses. This will be the ultimate circus. There’s also a huge element of national pride.”

“Yeah, and I’ve wondered about that. What about the Russian’s national pride?”

“Oh, they’re not too concerned. They’re going to go ahead with low-orbit experiments, nothing above the illusion layer, as they’ve taken to calling it. They believe that they can do some very high quality manufacturing in low-orbit. And they continually remind us that when Khrushchev said he would bury us that it had nothing to do with the space race or the arms race or any sort of race at all. He merely meant that Russian civilization has lasted over 1000 years, and will likely last 1000 more.”

“And of course we’ll have to work to prove them wrong.”

“Of course.”

“What are the two theories as to what is going on above the illusion layer?”

“The first is that the entire universe, in essence, is self-contained within the earth’s own gravity well. This doesn’t leave out the possibility of there being other bodies in space—just that we’ll never see them. Remember I mentioned the black hole theory years ago? Well, it seems that in some sense earth is that black hole. Light starts out at the surface of the black hole at the core of the earth at what seems to be to us a speed of 186,000 miles per second. And, indeed, our instruments actually measure that speed as such. But those instruments rely on light itself to give the results…So, one possible part of this theory is that once light leaves the surface of the earth, it can only travel a few hundred miles up.”

“And what’s the other possibility?”

“That the firmament—essentially an aluminum sphere surrounding the earth—reflects all the light back to us.”

“But if our spacecraft went higher than that firmament, how come it was never detected?”

“It’s really a very diffuse, gaseous sphere. But think of it. From just a few miles away, how close do objects that are really several yards from each other appear?”

“They appear to be right next to each other.”

“Exactly. And so this theory holds that the reflective sphere surrounding the earth is really quite diffuse—but from our perspective several hundred miles away the molecules appear very close together.”

“But just what is it that that layer reflects back to us?”

“Well, remember I mentioned the black hole in the core of the earth? According to this theory, its still somewhat active—not completely a black hole yet. It’s still pumping out many small particles, and some larger ones, too. Meteors, volcanoes, and so on—all come up through the various layers in pipes, such as the ones that brought the diamonds to the surface, and such as cause the tar to bubble up in Los Angeles with the ancient bones still intact.”

“And so what are the sun, moon, and stars?”

“The sun is claimed to be essentially a hologram of the core of the earth. It is seen to move for the very real reason that the earth is rotating on its axis every day. The reflective aluminum sphere, however, is tilted at 23 and a half degrees, which results in our seasons. The Moon—that’s the hard one to explain, just as it always has been. It would seem to be also a hologram of some sort, yet in some sense also a flash photograph of sorts, etched on the silver sphere. How a hologram can show phases has not been adequately explained. Another theory is that it is a photograph, so to speak, of the underside of Australia, and that the inner camera, as it were, only illuminates part of that underside as it turns around. The stars, then, are also images on the silver sphere—some claim they are images of metals on the surface of the earth, others that they are images of all the people who have ever lived on the earth. But of course we have our trace metals inside each of us, and so it could amount to the same thing. But the problem with the Moon, and also with the motions of the planets—including the thousands of asteroids—has most of our scientists leaning towards the other theory, one which Einstein was on the verge of coming to; in fact, he may have come to it, but it may have been suppressed.”

“What, you mean you don’t even know for sure what has been suppressed in the past?”

“Of course not. None of the succeeding ruling generations ever do. That’s part of what makes it all so effective. We all fade into the background after we die, leaving the next generation to build on our foundation. Or so they think. For really, each new generation is only using what the earth or sun is pouring out at the given time. Our power has increased exponentially in the past two generations, and there are those who believe it can continue to do so indefinitely. But increasingly, there are those who believe that a limit is being approached. And, regardless of the mathematical fact that the limit is never really reached, nevertheless as time passes, we will find ourselves in a radically different place, proceeding in a radically different direction, yet still really on the same course. Or, put another way, we will have come full circle.”

“That’s all very fascinating, I’m sure. But what about this other theory? And what does the current President think of these theories?”

“He doesn’t really care for theories—just for power and fame. Our policy of weeding out the good guys from politics are working quite well. As I started to explain before, we just dig up the dirt and threaten to expose it. The kinds of guys we want in power hire their investigators to dig up dirt on us and then threaten us with exposure. And then it deteriorates into threats of lawsuits and who can hire the best expert witnesses and so on. But the good guys—the ones who would upset the whole scheme of things—essentially give up after the first threat. Some, sadly, have actually gone insane from those threats, and have gone out and murdered innocent people and their families.”

“Really? Or is that just another convenient way to get rid of certain people that want gotten rid of?”

“Well, it is true that with the American people genuinely united against Vietnam, that way to get rid of undesirables will need to be replaced with something else. We’re thinking harsh drug laws should do the trick. Then we can pick and choose who gets put away. Politicians’ kids might skate for a while—but then they will be in our pockets. But no—truly a lot of those good people we threaten do go insane. It just shows how truly unstable they are, and that the world is really a better place without them in it.”

“OK…but back to that other theory, the one Einstein may have come up with.”

“Right. And the reason I think so is that what was put forward instead was a lot of unclear gibberish. It’s pretty easy to see, looking back in time, what the most brilliant minds thought of, and what was instead put forward by some of the ruling class as their thoughts or writings. The brilliant minds were clear, simple, and easily understood. They may have had some off-the-wall thoughts and ideas, but they rarely uttered them or committed them to paper. They truly were concerned with Truth with a capital T, more than with anything else. The ruling class has always taken what would suit their purposes—but then, not satisfied with that, they always felt a need to add to it. And, sadly, few people can tell the difference.”

“Why should that be the case? Why do people not insist on using their own brains to figure out what is true?”

“Mostly nowadays thanks to our control of the educational system. But much of our success can be traced to what the Greeks did to Socrates. If his ways of thinking had spread—and they very easily could have—the democracy, which the Greeks invented, could truly have meant something. Socrates insisted that nothing, absolutely nothing, should be taken on faith. He insisted that every belief a man had should be continually put to the tests of experience and ultimate reality, and if a belief showed its falsehood in any way, it should be adjusted or discarded. This would have meant instability, but oh the progress that could have been made! And perhaps there is a way to control a spaceship in a vacuum, and a way to get beyond our earthbound illusions—but one which would only be given to us if we were truly searching for Truth, instead of trying to consolidate our power.”

“Whoa! Slow down. Now you’re starting to sound like I did a few years back. And besides, as high-minded as all that sounds, in the end you just want to pursue Truth in order to attain even more power.”

“True enough. But the fact remains that since the time of the relatively free and independent Greek city-states, it’s been a downward spiral for mankind. Of course, much of the Greek’s prosperity was based on slavery, unlike that in India and China. So really, there must be a fusion there somehow which could work. But anyway, Jesus’ true words as recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke are quite clear and profound, while those forged words found in John have been used first by the Catholics for 1200 years, and then by the so-called Protestant reformers in the last 500 years, to control men’s thinking. Of course, we owe them a huge debt, as they paved the way for us. Stalin was really a spiritual descendant of some of the early Popes, and Hitler of Luther.”

“Right. But I’m still waiting to hear about Einstein’s theory.”

“And I’m just about there. Galileo and his telescopes revolutionized the way most everyone since then has viewed man and his place in the Universe. But Galileo was also a good Catholic, and so didn’t dare to go too far in his pronouncements. A hundred years later Newton had no such bar to his speculations concerning the way the earth was formed and how the various metals came to be deposited where they were found. Yet even in Newton’s time the Church of England was still quite powerful, as was the royal line. And they were able to divert Newton into working for them at the Mint—what threats they may have made concerning Newton’s family are anyone’s guess. But what is certain is that most of Newton’s best ideas have not been published, even 250 years after his death. Yet Newton would never have claimed to have had all the answers, and didn’t. He believed quite strongly that the grip of the Church would be lessened as time went on, and that eventually someone would figure it all out.”

“Yet isn’t it thanks in large part to the strengthening of Britain’s financial base that the big money men have been able to gain more and more power in the past two hundred years?”

“Oh, absolutely! Yet it is true, too, that because of the money system, people would be able to have more leisure time to ponder the universe, if they wanted to. But most don’t, of course—mostly thanks to that great discovery television. A discovery, by the way, to which Einstein himself contributed much. The part of his theory dealing with the curvature of space-time is essentially what would explain the second way of looking at the illusion layer which apparently exists a few hundred miles above the surface of the earth.”

“Ah, at last, that second theory. I suppose it states that we can travel forwards and backwards in time.”

“No, not really. But it states quite clearly that there are no straight lines visible or measurable in the universe. All is curves. Our Solar System began as a spiral-arm system, which either spun off the planets before all the matter reached the center, or, alternately, spit them back out after all had reached the center. And it may be continually in the process of spitting out new planets. And whereas the Self-Contained Universe Theory is all about an ice planet, this Continual Curved-Path Theory is more about a build-up of successive hot layers in the formation of planets. And perhaps the two are somehow related. A relatively cool blob of elemental hydrogen could be spit out from the sun. By the time it reaches Mercury’s distance from the Sun, it has formed a Helium gas layer, surrounded by a very stable Lithium Fluoride layer. Further out, at the distance of Venus, after the formation of all the elements Neon through Chloride, a very stable Sodium Chloride (salt) layer forms. So with Mercury and Venus we are either truly seeing earth’s past, or else, in a sense, earth’s future—perhaps another chance to get it right.”

“There you go again, sounding like the former me.”

“I know. I just can’t help it sometimes. Seeing the beauty in the heavens and the perfection of the earth just does that to me. Between the position of Venus and our distance the earth adds successive layers, and water is continually pumped out of the core, as Hydrogen and Oxygen combine. Within each layer there is heavier and heavier water, showing the varying states of Hydrogen. But Oxygen remains pure and unchangeable. At various times silver, glass, ice, gold, and aluminum spheres surround the planet at various distances. Then there’s the stable Potassium Bromide layer, the Rubidium Iodide layer, the Cesium Astatide layer, and eventually a Francium combination somewhere in the future. This will be radioactive and may block all further reception of energy from the sun.”

“That’s all very interesting, but what does it have to do with there being nothing to see in space? I thought you said that Mercury and Venus did exist.”

“They do. But the sun, with its rapid spinning on its own axis, flings its light out in curves to each planet. Possibly gravity is suspended for a time at each pause for the spitting out of a new planet, and so then each planet then has its own orbit with its own gravity path dragging along in a curve, essentially pulling the planet around on that curve. The light is then flung out on the front part of that curve, and arrives at each planet in a contrary direction to where the sun really is situated. Reflected light from each planet may be reflected straight, although with each planet’s surface being curved, such is not likely. The paths which lights from the various stars take to reach us is also curved in various ways. And light is affected by gravity, coming off the sun very fast—perhaps three or more times as fast as it travels here on earth—and gradually slowing down as it gets further from the sun.”

“And so Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation is incorrect?”

“No, not so much incorrect as needing a redefinition of straight line. Gravity and light follow curved paths dictated by the interplay amongst heavenly bodies. In fact, light may actually be a component of gravity or vice versa, and each may well be impossible without the other. The earth-moon system may not be so much a question of the moon orbiting the earth or, as it is now explained, both orbiting around their common center of gravity, as each following the other’s gravitational curve.”

“And speaking of the Moon—just what exactly is it presumed to be under this theory?”

“Again according to the old Pacific Islanders, who claimed that their ancestors had seen it happen, it is a ball of ice which the earth squeezed out of the Pacific Ocean and popped out like a marble. It’s been collecting dust and other elements from the sun, and may itself reach a critical mass someday and begin to glow. Those Pacific Islanders also claim at various times to have been able to look straight down into the ocean and see the glowing core of the earth—generally near the Bikini Atoll.”

“How clever of the Americans to detonate H-Bombs there, effectively silting over that window to the Earth’s core, as well as making it unsafe for anyone to live there for many generations.”

“Even more clever as far as a huge future diversion was the British partition of India and the American establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. Funny how nobody dared to compare what they were doing to what they had just fought to end in Europe. And now the time is coming for the big test—to see if Hollywood is up to the challenge of documenting the supposed lunar landings and beaming that out to the world.”

“Are they not the least bit concerned that someone might intercept the signals and figure out where they are really coming from?”

“No, that’s the beauty of the communications satellites they’ve put into orbit. Unless an actual person was riding on that satellite, once it bounces off there is no way to ever figure out where it originated. It’s a top-secret military operation, and all the technicians working on the ground will assume that the signals come from the direction they seem to.”

“Wait. I thought you had said that orbits were essentially impossible.”

“True, but they call them orbits anyway. Outside the illusion layer they would be theoretically possible, but then the illusion layer itself might interfere with the transmission of signals. Which gets me to thinking—maybe all the signals are just being bounced off the various layers: some off the silver, some off the gold, and others off the aluminum. Maybe the satellites aren’t necessary at all. In any case, for whatever reason they’re being put there, it’s true that they’re really in a long, slow glide back to earth. Those big solar panels that are used to power the electronics also act as big wings which can be flapped occasionally to prolong the glide.”

“And still nobody is the least suspicious that all that money is pouring into the home state of Prince Charming’s Vice President?”

“No, and why should they be? Plenty is also pouring into the launch state’s coffers.”

“And still I wonder—where is all the hydrogen and oxygen really going?”

“It’ll become clear as the next few decades unfold as Newton and Einstein figured that they would.”

**********************************

“What a stroke of genius to engineer that big political scandal in America!”

“I wish we could take the credit for it. But the guy was really that unstable and paranoid. His own polls showed that he was about to win by the biggest landslide in history, but he thought that somehow his opponent had manipulated the poll, and really had some dirt on him that would be flung at the last minute. So he ordered that burglary to find the dirt…and of course, we don’t know for sure that they didn’t really find it and save the election for him. It’s hard to know whether we are just deteriorating as a species into untrusting, paranoid people, or whether the illusion layer is perhaps drawing closer to the surface. But for now everything is proceeding according to plan.”

“So it was part of the plan to have him appointed a Vice President who would then take over as President and then turn right around and issue a pardon?”

“No. Again, that was his own doing. Which makes us suspect that he really did have something which he was afraid of being uncovered.”

“Nothing connected with our control, I hope.”

“Again, we can’t be totally sure. We tried to stay with him every minute when he was in China. But the man was, and is, very clever. And he apparently studied Mandarin on the sly and was able to have some quick, private conversations with a few officials when nobody was looking. He may have even passed some notes in a few bathrooms, for God’s sake!”

“Any guesses as to the gist of any of those notes or conversations?”

“Apparently there’s an ancient, buried pyramid somewhere in the interior of China, under which is supposedly buried an accurate depiction of the structure of the Solar System. We’re not sure if the President was maybe warning them about what they might find, and that they’d better use the peoples’ superstitions to keep them away. Officials could then explore it in secret—and perhaps even alter it to fit with our model of the Solar System.”

“So he really was on our side, even if he was a bit out of control?”

“We’re sure hoping so. Because there is another possibility—that he dropped some hints as to what might be found under that pyramid, and told them to document it very carefully, and keep the information closely guarded, to be eventually used to truly benefit all mankind. We’re concerned, too, that he may have given them some hints as to how they could eventually bankrupt us.”

“But then why is he still alive?”

“Because we’re hoping that he’ll slip up and try to make some contacts with somebody before he dies. The American people hope, of course, that he’ll be forthcoming with some details about the big burglary. And we’re glad that that’s as far as their interest goes. The whole mess has also presented us with a whole new source of fake conflict for the next generation, between the media and the government.”

“Clever. But I thought that the government already controlled the media, with licensing requirements for radio and TV, and the threats of labor disputes or IRS investigations for newspapers and magazines?”

“Ah, but you forget who really controls everything. We let it look like the government is in control. But now everyone will always believe that the power of the press toppled a President, when really it was nothing but his own paranoia which did. But most of the politicians will believe it, too, and so will work in very subtle ways to control the power of the press. And they will just naturally turn more and more control over to us.”

“But I thought we had total control of the newspapers long ago. Look at the huge fortune amassed by Hearst and others.”

“True—but we almost lost that. The socialist and labor movements really set us back a few decades. They were on the verge of exposing part of the truth about what goes on behind the scenes, which is just the same old story. Power can only continue to be concentrated when there are hundreds of millions of slaves subsisting on near-starvation rations. The American people refused to continue in that role, and have thus unwittingly added to our power. Stalin did us such a great service by working his own people to death—of course, they weren’t really his own people, mostly, he being a Georgian. But still, he made conditions there so terrible that it made it easy for us to convince the rest of the world that it was the fault of the socialist and communist ideologies. The seemingly logical conclusion which the Americans and Europeans reached was that capitalism and democracy are what has given them their wonderful standards of living.”

“And aren’t they?”

“Of course not. It’s still the same old thing: slavery. But now the slaves are somewhere else. They’re our impoverished millions of the moment, saved from starvation by good-paying jobs provided by our wonderful capitalist system. Of course, a good-paying job is a totally relative concept. From making nothing to making a dollar a day is a big step up. Then great American and European businessmen can buy these slave-made products cheap and turn around and sell them for big profits at home. Stock prices rise, and everyone is happy.”

“Sounds too good to be true. But how long can it last? And how does the continued exploration of space fit into the picture?”

“You mean, of course, the supposed continuing exploration of space. It’s all to do with the continued accumulation of hydrogen and oxygen. Some hints have been dropped as to where it’s all going. But future disasters are planned in blast-offs. This will give the government a plausible reason to scale back. And it will continue the illusion of corporate-government antagonism.”

“Hold it a minute. That mention of future catastrophes gets me to thinking about past catastrophes. Were they all orchestrated, and were the people who died seen as possible threats to exposure?”

“As always, much is still speculative. But it does seem that there were a few who began to figure things out, a few for whom the effects of the drugs were unpredictable.”

“Drugs? What drugs?”

“The memory implant drugs. You mean we’ve never discussed this? From the start it was debated whether to let the astronauts in on the scheme. There were a few from the start who were deemed trustworthy and loyal enough to be told the truth. And it was actually a couple of them who had the better idea—or so it seemed at the time—of using various drugs to make the later astronauts merely think they had been places and done things. It all begins in the simulated weightlessness on the airplanes. It’s a well-known fact that people pass out from the stress of the G-forces. Well, when they come to they are naturally quite disoriented. And so it’s no problem at all to get them to believe that what they are experiencing is the real thing. However, since they are in such great physical shape, they are quick to pick up on the smallest clues that something is not quite right. And it’s been their ongoing comments and suggestions which have enabled us to fine-tune the whole process.”

“Brilliant!”

“Yeah, we think so, too. And it’s working quite well.”

“So what about the current and future Presidents? How will they be kept in line?”

“From now on their every waking minute will be full of official duties, all their speeches will be written for them, and all their briefings will be carefully screened.”

“You mean…”

“Exactly. They will probably actually know less about what is going on in the world than the man on the street. Yet they will still believe the fiction that they are the most powerful men in the world. And they will also believe that when push comes to shove that they will be allowed to enter the underground bunkers—really, whole underground cities.”

“So that’s where all the oxygen and hydrogen is going. But where on earth are these places located?”

“That’s still an unknown for most of us. Because remember, it doesn’t matter which individuals survive, just that it’s our kind of people.”

“But I’ve heard rumors that according to the Ice Ball theory of the earth, that no underground area is necessarily safe. Unless we know where the ice is underground, we won’t know what will be left floating during the next Dark Period.”

“True. Which is why I think the location is probably Antarctica. There’s two miles of ice there. Plus the bunkers themselves are probably being made essentially sea-worthy.”

“Sounds good. But I’ve heard rumors, too, that perhaps in each Dark Period many chemical bonds are loosened—and perhaps gravity itself—so that maybe none of these preparations will do any good.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard those rumors, too. We’ll just have to hope that our scientists know what they’re talking about. Yet I wonder—without the most basic piece of the puzzle, is there any way they can possibly understand any of the rest of it?”

********************************

“So where do things stand currently?”

“Well, the Americans have had their most moral President so far, a truly good man. But an ineffective President, they’ll always believe. Yet they don’t pause for even one second to consider what that says about their whole system. And of course, how can they pause. We’ve got them all so worried about their future financial security and moving all around the country changing jobs that they have no time to consider much of anything.”

“And nobody is questioning why, with the advances in computing power, plans are not being made to go back to the moon.”

“No. OSHA and the related safety agencies have done their jobs well. And the legal system is all set to pounce on anyone who dares to do anything that is the slightest bit unsafe. Meanwhile the hydrogen and oxygen continues to be stored for the future.”

“Yes, but what kind of a future will it possibly be? When the most advanced nation in earth’s history elects a total phony—an actor, for God’s sake, and not once, but twice—what sort of hope can we have for mankind’s future?”

“Which is all the more reason for us to continue with our plans.”

“And those plans seem to include the bankrupting of the Soviet Union and the continued suffering of millions of their people yet again.”

“Yes, it’s been amazing that they’ve been so agreeable to that part of the plan. Some of us have begun to wonder if perhaps they know something we don’t.”

“You mean about the permafrost?”

“Yeah. It’s looking like maybe all our plans may have gone astray.”

“Why do you say that?”

“The Russian move into Afghanistan was supposed to be about continuing to track down anybody who might have known anything about what their space program was all about. In fact, that’s what the Americans’ whole spy thing was about, too—tracking down anybody who knew anything.”

“But for years we’ve controlled the media—they could never have gotten the information out to the public.”

“True enough. But it was mostly just a matter of tying up loose ends.”

“So what’s the problem with Afghanistan?”

“We’re not sure. But there was a flourishing culture there when Alexander the Great passed through. And the Chinese wrote about their great cities, too. In fact, there may be some connection between that Chinese pyramid we talked about before and the Afghan culture. They may know much more than they’re letting on.”

“So the Russians are just finishing the job the British started.”

“That would seem to be their intent. But whereas the British take their arrogance with them everywhere they go, and then wonder why people always rebel, the Russians seem to be able to weed out the garbage and adopt only those bits of information which will help them. The Russians are still trying to make sense of the Tunguska Event.”

“As is the rest of the world.”

“Yes, but I think the Russians sense that the real truth will be of greater benefit in the long run.”

“So you don’t think they really believe the meteor theory?”

“Probably not. There are many who claim that the Tunguska Event was the earth sending out a vast amount of electrons from its core—so great an amount that it essentially formed the Van Allen Belts, which weren’t discovered until much later, after the proper instruments were made which could measure the energy in those radiation belts. Instruments which, however, depended on that very radiation for their proper functioning.”

“And what does that have to do with the Russians and Afghanistan?”

“Well, there is speculation that what brought on the development of both the Russian and American space programs was nothing more than a visible light in those Van Allen Belts—a light which convinced both that the other had put a missile in orbit. The Russians were intrigued, thinking the Americans were pursuing Truth, while the paranoid Americans assumed that the Russians were getting set to launch nuclear missiles and take over the world. Vive la difference! For it’s been those two opposing attitudes, which has enabled us to benefit from just about every financial transaction, made in the world. Loss, gain, buy, sell, inflation, contraction, it’s all the same to us.”

“And much of that profit is put into the separation and stockpiling of hydrogen and oxygen.”

“Right. Just think of the simplicity of it. Electricity is used to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. Those will provide the necessary heat and light during the next Dark Period. It’s believed that they can also be recombined into water if necessary, and that such a process will give off electricity, although it has yet to be done in the laboratory. It’s so obviously the process in nature that it’s incredible that people still believe the whole water cycle theory. Yes, the sun evaporates great quantities of water from the surface of the oceans. But once up in the atmosphere high enough the gaseous water molecules separate into oxygen and hydrogen. Then, cooling and falling back towards the surface, under the right conditions they recombine into ice crystals. That process gives off electricity that is visible as lightning in the clouds. The flashes that come to the ground are excess hydrogen being burnt off. That flash burning produces the ozone, which floats back up to form that layer which protects us, supposedly, from solar radiation.”

“And of course that solar radiation may be coming from far away, or may be a reflection from deep within the earth.”

“Right—but the results are the same.”

“And what about the recently detected holes in the ozone layer over Antarctica?”

“Yes, I’ve asked that question many times myself, and have never gotten a definite answer. It’s either that the Americans have gotten greedy at the South Pole and have felt the need to stockpile extra oxygen, or else it’s just a natural process. Nobody knows. Since ozone itself wasn’t discovered until 1840, we don’t know if it wasn’t there before, or if people just weren’t looking. And really, such is the case with so many of our discoveries and so-called inventions. But the timing of the discoveries or so-called synthesis of many of the radioactive elements has most of us thinking that most of what is going on are natural processes beyond our control. So the greedy Americans seem to be off the hook for that one.”

“I’ll be interested to see what new elements are discovered in the next decade.”

“As will be all of us. The question that remains is: are we approaching a limit, or will there be yet another row in the periodic table of elements?”

*******************************

“So where did this guy come from?”

“That’s a good question. Actually, he’s just a guy who sort of slipped through the cracks and past the radar, so to speak. He knew quite a bit of the whole Prince Charming story—nobody really knows whether he was involved in any of the planning, or whether he just sort of overheard some of the planning and then was allowed to be included. But he has been loyal and kept his mouth shut. Yet it seems he’s conceived of himself as some big-time spy just because he was appointed to head one of the big spy agencies. He hasn’t figured out yet—as most of them haven’t—that very rarely do any of their appointments have anything to do with any of the few, small talents they may have.”

“OK. That explains where he came from. But what function does he serve now?”

“Oh, none in particular. He actually started making noises about telling some of what he knows to what he figured would be the right people. Well, it would have been so easy to get rid of him—but we figured hey, why not string him along. And by seeing who he brought in as his administration, we’ll have a good idea of who to look out for and exclude when it’s time to start going into the underground cities.”

“But couldn’t that have been determined some other way?”

“Probably. But this seemed more fun. He made some mild threats, and when we appeared to give in to them, he insisted that we make sure one of his kids got the same treatment in a few years. So we said sure, why not? So he takes over and starts off with a real popular military campaign, then we manipulate the economy, the people blame him, and he’s out—a one-termer. And his kid will get the same treatment—but even worse, since things will be getting very close to the next Dark Period.”

“But if you’re so sure of that, how come none of the scientists ever figured it out?”

“Because of the educational system we have in place. Everything is so specialized and complex. If a kid shows any aptitude in school for math or science we stroke him and steer him into a high-paying career. With the debts he accumulates getting through college, he must work long and hard to get it paid off. But then we promote him and move him around the country, which just gets him further in debt. And all the while, what is his work all about? Maybe the spin of one electron in one shell of one atom; or perhaps how to optimize one part of a reaction in the manufacture of one insignificant bit of plastic for use in a variety of applications. In short, they’re all so busy studying one leaf of one tree that it’s basically impossible that they will ever see the forest, and even if they did they wouldn’t have a clue what they were looking at.”

“Great. So what is really happening? What really is the forest?”

“Well, it’s all about the winding down of either the core of the earth or of the sun itself, whichever of the two possibilities turns out to be true—Self-Contained Ice Ball or Curved-Line Gravity Well.”

“So it has proven impossible to tell which it is? Surely there must be some differences which would manifest themselves.”

“That’s what was originally thought. But all that’s ever happened is that many dozens of more complicated scenarios have been formulated which fit the facts pretty well. But that’s always been the problem down through history—more and more complications. We figure that one of the two simplest possibilities is probably correct: or, even more likely, a synthesis of the two, which makes no sense with our current knowledge, but which hopefully will after the next Dark Period passes.”

“But who will be the slaves then? How will anything get done? If only our type of people make it through, we would all starve in a month.”

“Clones, of course.”

“Get real—that hasn’t even worked with sheep.”

“That, of course, is what we expect people to believe.”

“Oh. Well, OK, so what is happening with the formation of new elements, and how does it all fit with the idea of the earth or sun winding down.”

“Any idea when Uranium was first discovered?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Just humor me a little. The answer will no doubt surprise you, and would be the main key to unlock the puzzle, if people would just open their eyes.”

“OK. Well, probably in the ‘30s, not long before the bomb was developed. No, wait, I’ve got it. Right around the turn of the century—Madame Curie.”

“And that’s what most people would think. But Uranium was discovered in 1789. And who has always been credited with the discovery of electricity?”

“Easy. Benjamin Franklin.”

“Very good. But there had always been thunder and lightning, so we’ve always thought. But why were the witches tried at Salem. Partly for causing such frightful thunderstorms. Perhaps it was a new phenomenon. But we’ve already seen that lightning strikes are burning hydrogen. Apparently what began happening a couple hundred years ago was that as the core began to wind down, the smallest and largest bits of matter began to be spit out—either genuinely from the sun down the gravity well to our planet, or else up through the ocean and then settling back to earth. First were all the leftover electrons. Magnetism—the lodestone—had been known since ancient times. But electromagnetism was not discovered until 1819. And copper had been known also since ancient times, but apparently never contained an extra abundance of electrons. In fact it may only be the metals that truly contain electrons. At any rate, it was soon figured out that spinning magnets could induce the electrons to flow though metals. This is a natural process that could easily be available in sufficient quantity for all people on earth. But we’ve made it into a huge moneymaking operation, and rather than let everyone have it cheaply, we’ve contrived to cause so-called shortages, blackouts and brownouts. Plus we’ve used huge amounts of it to make all these other chemicals which we make lots of profits from. And we’ve used lots of electricity to produce hydrogen and oxygen from water.”

“So will the supply of electrons ever run out?”

“Nobody knows for sure if they ever disappear or if they just move around. But it seems likely that since they were formed from nuclear fusion, that when fission occurs, the electrons get used up. Think of it this way. When hydrogen becomes deuterium and then ever heavier hydrogen in the core, the electrons that were part of the original hydrogen are freed. When the super-heavy hydrogen was spit out from the core, it first appeared as Radium, in 1898. What we perceive as radiation is nothing more than elements without electrons splitting apart and absorbing electrons, in a sense.”

“So all our nuclear power plants that produce electricity are really hastening the disappearance of the electrons themselves, thus hastening the arrival of the next Dark Period?”

“Maybe, although it’s doubtful that anything Man has ever done has affected the basic processes of the earth to any noticeable degree—that’s sheer arrogance on Man’s part. No, the elements would have recombined at the same rate regardless. Because, actually, the concentration of Uranium and Plutonium into quantities large enough to produce the heat required in a nuclear power plant have reduced the surface area of those elements, and so reduced the rate at which they can re-absorb electrons. At least, that is, until the waste by-products are formed. Those may then absorb more for awhile, thus restoring the original equilibrium. All man is left with is poisons far more toxic than the coal and oil smoke which nuclear power was intended to alleviate.”

“So what was next after Radium?”

“Actinium in 1899, next Protactinium in 1917. Thorium had been known since 1828, but was not radioactive, apparently, until later. There is still some debate on those points. Some hold that even Uranium was not always radioactive, and not until sufficiently concentrated did it gain its radioactivity. And that idea has been supported by the fact that many people did live close to rather large concentrations of Uranium, but with no ill effects until much more recently. Then still others argue that it wasn’t until the atoms were supposedly split in the laboratory that poisonous radiation was produced—the alpha, beta, and gamma particles that destroy or mutate human cells. But what is most likely is that these smaller particles only came into existence with the continued deterioration of the core. They seemed to be produced by splitting atoms—but really it was only the increased strength of various metals which allowed a strong enough implosion to be produced to squeeze the atoms close enough to produce the effects seen. Remember that as recently as 1912 the quality of steel was so poor that The Titanic cracked in the cold waters of the North Atlantic. It’s a vicious circle, which Man is really only observing, and not in any significant way affecting. But again, his arrogance makes him claim to have synthesized various radioactive elements. They simply were not known previously because they didn’t exist on or near the earth’s surface previously.”

“Wow. It’s all so simple, and makes so much sense. But the scientists have complicated it beyond belief.”

“And all to our benefit, of course. The next, but probably most significant discovery, was of Francium in 1939. This is the radioactive alkali metal. All the previous alkali metals are very unstable, and even explosive or otherwise deadly in combination with oxygen or other common elements. But when the end of the row in the periodic table is reached, another deadly element is found which combines with the first to produce some harmless, or in many cases extremely useful or even essential compounds—particularly ordinary salt, Sodium Chloride. Since then most of the rest of the elements in the radioactive row have appeared, right on through the so-called synthesis of the element with atomic number 110 just this year. The rest will probably follow rather quickly, and as soon as number 117 starts appearing, it will start to combine with the Francium to form some sort of stable compound, which will likely form a layer all around the earth as did the previous combinations.”

“And what will happen then?”

“Of course nobody knows for sure, but one theory is that the electrons will be pulled up into that layer. In fact, according to that theory, at the end of each previous Age, before the formation of the new stable layer and the making of the next row of elements, there was an Electric Age. Whether or not any society ever managed to make use of the electric power that was there is a matter of debate. It seems unlikely, however. Man was so ignorant and superstitious that he made a story of Prometheus obtaining fire from the gods. And other cultures have tales of what seem to be electric effects, but the metallurgy wasn’t up to making wire to carry the electrons. But others think that perhaps there is a very simple, yet very effective way of utilizing the electrons—one which we are overlooking.”

“What about photovoltaic cells? Aren’t they powering the Space Shuttles?”

“To some extent, but not a very great one. They just aren’t very efficient or cost-effective. It’s actually cheaper to carry LP gas into space, which is about all that liquid hydrogen is. Basically they just put a little solid rocket fuel in a separate compartment, and then use it as fuel, and the oxygen for breathing, of course.”

“And still nobody wonders why, with the advances in computer speeds, that people aren’t already living on the moon.”

“Yeah, that is kind of crazy. It’s so obvious that if we could go, we would have self-sufficient domed cities there already. Of course, we just blame it on politics and safety, and everybody believes it.”

“So will the new Space Station be used as an attempt to really go?”

“Eventually that is the hope. But first we’ve got to be able to tell where the moon really is. So far no gravity-measuring device has been made. It was hoped that the Hubble telescope might give some clues as to the moon’s and stars’ actual directions, but so far nothing. It’s giving lots of pretty pictures, however.”

“Yeah, but let’s just hope that people don’t start clamoring for posters of the Lunar Landing Sites. They might be hard to fabricate.”

“No, such fabrication would actually be fairly easy. You’ve seen some of the movies being made entirely by computer. Soon high-paid actors will be a thing of the past. And there is talk of making a whole series of trips to the moon on computer, and maybe even Mars. Then some domed cities could be shown being set up. But there is, of course, the worry of involving too many people. So what is more likely is an early re-entry and burn-up of the Space Station, and then a cancellation of any more such attempts for the indefinite future.”

“Really. What do the Russians have to say to that? They seem keen on space tourism, and think it’ll be a great way to make money.”

“Which is just one more reason that the U.S. wants to scrap the whole thing. They don’t want the Russians out-doing them in the money-making department.”

*********************************

“I suppose you’re going to claim that none of us was involved in the little set-back for the Port Authority?”

“Of course we weren’t directly involved. But of course we also knew it would happen eventually. After their last attempt, it was only a matter of time. But we really thought they’d get some explosives in underground again. We had reinforced the basements so that anything short of a nuke would have been contained.”

“But such an explosion still would have gotten rid of all the documents having to do with Prince Charming’s assassination. Brilliant. They were obliterated in the fires, weren’t they?”

“Oh yeah, them and thousands of other documents and computer files relating to the Port Authority’s involvement and profiteering from the World Trade Organization. Whoever did it really did us a favor.”

“And there’s no way it could have been done by remote control, as has been speculated? Or that the tail of the plane that crashed a few days later was sliced off by some sort of sound-wave device?”

“As always, there’s no way to be absolutely sure. But the former President did such a good job of making enemies-for-life of tens, even hundreds, of millions of Muslims around the world that we’re pretty sure of keeping the military machinery humming for the next fifty years. It was so brilliant—of course, nobody gives him credit for that brilliance, but it wasn’t really his, anyway. All the talk now is of failed foreign policy and on and on. It’s amazing how totally blind they’ve all become. But we’ll probably do it again and again in Muslim areas, if they’ll go for it. That’s the only drawback, that maybe they won’t believe us ever again. But we can still put the stories out in the media about how we’ve liberated yet another Muslim enclave from oppression by their neighbors, and have helped them to declare their independence. Then we just turn our backs again while they’re slaughtered. Only some are thinking that it would be better to arm both sides so that we make even more money in the process.”

“Sounds like a good plan. So, as far as the Space Race goes, that’s a closed book, right? There’s now no way that anybody can find out anything to do with it—no documents, that is—and so what’s left in the textbooks will always be considered the truth.”

“Well, you’re right about nobody finding anything out…”

“Wait, you’re not going to tell me they made the same stupid mistake they made with the smallpox virus?”

“Mistake! That was no mistake. We knew that the day might come when such a weapon would come in handy. And we could easily blame it on theft by terrorists. No, keeping the smallpox was no mistake. And neither is this.”

“Oh no? Come on, peoples’ faith in the system has been pretty badly shaken, especially with all the accounting scandals. And there has even been speculation in the press that most of the economic growth of the past 20 years has been a sham.”

“Well of course it has been. Notice that they’re just saying for the past 20 years. Thus people will accept that before that it was all real. Whereas according to the founder of economic theory, Adam Smith himself, the only real wealth is the products of the earth. By the mid-1800s we were really as wealthy as we could ever get. And it seemed that the rest of the world would catch up quick. So we had to act fast to prevent that. Because remember, it’s the disparity that we now profit from. True economic equality would have happened probably by the end of the 19th century—but luckily we were able to concentrate enough power in a few hands so that we could then devise means to keep that from ever happening.”

“Yeah, but it hasn’t all worked according to plan, has it? Still, what possible good could come from saving any documentation concerning Prince Charming?”

“We need it so if anyone gets too big for their britches that we can give him a reminder of what we are capable of. Or at least make them think that we are still capable of that. What is more likely is that while they do some checking to see if we really could have accomplished such a thing, we undermine their power base and make sure they are thoroughly discredited.”

“Again, it sounds good. But what about hackers? What makes you think the files are secure?”

“Oh, they’re secure. All right. Our experts have had other experts working for years, and they’ve not been able to get close.”

“That’s because they all think alike. Come on! If we’re capable of down-loading the entire contents of people’s computers in the time it takes them to send a few e-mails, and leave no trace, what might a good hacker be capable of?”

“True. But we’re not sending any e-mail from these databases. There are layer after layer of protection, and so many ways for us to detect anybody even trying, that it’s really as close to impossible as anything ever has been.”

“Right. But our detection devices only detect things we can imagine. And really, the technology itself is often a hindrance. Look how hard it is to track down anybody in Afghanistan. They can detect us coming miles away because of all of our fancy equipment. But all we can detect is heat, and they can easily confuse heat-sensitive equipment. Perhaps they have similar ways to get into our data bases.”

“Maybe. But nobody would believe them anyway. We’d claim it’s all just propaganda.”

“Yeah, and they claim that about us. I guess what I’ve wondered for years now is: why the deception in the first place? Why not instead try to discover the true shape of the Solar System and universe?”

“Oh, we’re still trying to figure it all out. But in the meantime, we’re just continuing a long tradition. It was understood thousands of years ago that in order to rule effectively, a ruler’s subjects had to be willing to believe whatever they were told. This wasn’t hard for quite awhile, because life was a daily struggle just to survive. Of course, if you really dig into the past, it seems that that very struggle may have been engineered to some degree by some of the rulers in some parts of the earth. With the demise of the Roman Empire and the ascendancy of the official Christian religion, religion became all-powerful. And having a Book to consult as an ultimate authority became recognized as all-important for the ruling class to have. The Jewish and Christian leaders were quite willing to complicate and obfuscate and keep their subjects from learning to read—the Christians much more so, of course. Then along came Mohammed, with his simple book that all could easily memorize, and even learn to read without too much difficulty. It was a very near thing, but they were beat back from Europe, and some of their leaders corrupted, so that they, too, understood the importance of interpreting the Book for their subjects. Jefferson and Adams came close to getting rid of us, too—but luckily they were slave owners, and so were not able to start with anything like true equality. And now, even though the Constitution is a remarkably simple document, most people believe that it needs constant interpreting.”

“That’s all very interesting, I’m sure. But what’s it got to do with the true shape of the Solar System?”

“Well, Galileo, as is well known, without intending to, seriously undermined the Church’s authority on scientific matters. And really that’s where we got our start. By combining science and business, that is, by making science into a business and business into a science, we were able in effect to create our own Book to appeal to as an authority. But most of it is changing all the time. It was felt early on that there needed to be some stability somewhere. And so the basic structure of the Solar System and Universe was accepted as Gospel. It is the ultimate authority to be consulted, or at least people think it is. If they only knew how much time and effort is spent every year to try to account for the little bits of tweaking that must take place in order for the theories to all fit together. It is understood that a more simple underlying theory could save a lot of headaches, but it would also put a lot of people out of work.”

“So it’s held onto for the same reason that the Tax Code is never simplified. Jobs and thus more tax revenue.”

“That’s pretty much it. The simple model of the Solar System is also adhered to because basically people are too stupid to understand what the real structure might be.”

“Do you really believe that, or is it just another party line to follow?”

“What do you think? Would you like to spend any time out there with Bubba and Billy Bob and listen to them discuss race cars or hunting? Or with the intellectual types who are busy discussing the cause of the day or the latest book or movie?”

“But we’ve made them that way!”

“Exactly. And we want them to stay that way.”

“But what happens during the next Dark Period—oh, that’s right: they all die, and after it’s all over, we come out and start producing clones to be our slaves. So how soon does it appear to be?”

“Well, element number 111 was discovered in 1995, number 112 in 1996, number 114 in 1999, and number 166 in 2000. And there have been reports of a fairly large ring around the sun since April. Whether the sun be really the core of the earth seen as a hologram, or a real foreign body at some undetermined distance down a curved gravity well, in either case it is truly the source of all our elements. They all apparently rain down in microscopic quantities, and some eventually become concentrated. Some, however, such as gold, generally remain quite dispersed—but we’ve been able to mine microscopic gold for quite some time now. It’s amazing that nobody has figured out how to concentrate it naturally. Anyway, some think that ring could be the beginnings of the formation of the sphere of Francium/whatever. And some of those think that as soon as it’s complete, all electrons on earth will be drawn up to it in just a matter of hours.”

“Wow! But we’ll still be able to make electricity from our stored oxygen and hydrogen in the underground cities, won’t we?”

“Theoretically, yes, although there is talk of adding some sort of shielding around as many as possible, just in case.”

“But how could the electrons just go? I thought the theory was that metals accepted them when they first came to earth. Metals wouldn’t be taken, too, would they?”

“Well, I hadn’t heard that before as part of the theory. But maybe they will, or maybe just Aluminum. Remember, copper, gold, iron, lead, mercury, silver, tin, and zinc have been known since prehistoric times, and nobody really knows who or where they were first discovered. But aluminum, even though it is the lightest metal by molecular weight, was not discovered on the earth until 1825, just six years after electromagnetism was discovered. So there may be a connection. Of course, the accepted theory has always been that the aluminum was there all along, in combination with other elements, but that primitive man just wasn’t able to separate it out. Such may be the case, but Man’s knowledge of metallurgical processes and smelting goes way back. The Chinese made steel 2000 years ago, for God’s sake! Of course, if aluminum is the main component of the reflective layer which gives us the images of sun, moon, and maybe the planets and some stars, and with aluminum being so light, it would make sense that it all floated up there long ago. Then, as the earth increased in size and got closer to the aluminum layer, for whatever reason it started to settle to earth. Makes a guy wonder where that old nursery rhyme character came from—remember, the one that went around yelling: the sky is falling! the sky is falling!”

“Yeah, it does make you wonder…But how would aluminum have given off all those electrons?”

“The theory is that it wasn’t the aluminum which gave off the electrons, but instead as the electrons came streaming to the surface through, or having bounced off of, the aluminum layer, they dislodged the aluminum molecules, which then came raining to earth, to combine with various other elements. Yet others think that such could have happened in the past, before each Dark Period. The electrons could have knocked loose part of the silver and gold layers at different times in the past. The Greeks did have oral traditions of a Bronze Age, a Silver Age, and a Gold Age. Historians have always assumed that the Gold Age had come first, and that their civilization had gone downhill from that time, but since copper is the lighter of the three metals, it would seem logical that it had come first.”

“So it’s thought that there was electricity at various times in antiquity. But that’s ridiculous!”

“Is it? Why? Just because we’ve found no old motors or wires? Remember, every conquering people melted down most all of the metals of the civilization they conquered. There’s no reason to believe that they didn’t have some sorts of generators and motors. But it seems that they only used electricity for light and heat. Nobody ever seems to have thought of making any huge electric-powered machinery, mainly, the theory goes, because they weren’t intent on attaining power over huge numbers of their fellows. That seems to have been a rather modern development. Of course there were always kings, but the number of subjects one man could possibly rule was limited. Another possible reason for there being no large electric devices in antiquity was that the electrons themselves would have been heavier.”

“Heavier electrons? What are you talking about?”

“Remember the salt layer that various people have theorized? And there’s plenty of evidence for it—all the vast underground salt mines in Europe apparently were blasted free of the layer at some point in the past and then rode the waters up as they rose through the centuries. And vast quantities of oil and natural gas have always been found either under salt domes or sitting on impermeable layers of salt. Maybe there have been several salt layers formed at different times in the past. The first was formed, so it is thought, about 2000 miles from the center of the earth. Gravity would be four times as strong at that distance from the center, which would explain very simply why the dinosaurs were built the way they were. Also the apes and what are supposed to be Man’s ancestors. They had bigger bones and were shorter and squatter to counter the force of gravity. The next major layer—the Potassium Bromide layer—is thought to have formed at about 2500 miles from the earth’s center. Gravity at that distance would be just over two and a half times what we experience today. Actually potassium bromide is used extensively in photographic processes, so quite a lot of it may have formed the firmament layer, and the initial flash of the earth’s core igniting may have etched the images of the stars on that layer. Then, too, potassium bromide is also used as a sedative, and so many of the plants which grew out of this layer may have been used by early man in various ceremonies and rituals, as well as to just relax after an exhausting day. But the solid layer may have again been one of salt.”

“So it’s theorized that all the elements from Potassium through Bromine were formed during that era. Why were so many of them not discovered until the 18th century or even later?”

“There are several possible explanations that I’ve heard. First is that the elements were here all along, but not until the Electric Age were they able to be separated. Another twist claims that most of the elements in each row—and especially the transition metals—are merely mutations of the basic metals. Notice that between Potassium and Bromine are found Iron, Copper, and Zinc. Supposedly when the electrons started bombarding those three metals in their shell around the earth, the other metals were formed. And that reminds me. I don’t think I ever answered your question about heavier electrons. Just as hydrogen—and thus water, too—is known to have been heavier at greater gravities, so it is assumed that the other elements and their components likely were, too. The heavier electrons would have quickly damaged whatever devices might have been made, especially as metallurgy was not able to produce very strong metal combinations.”

“So the Rubidium Iodide layer formed at 3000 miles from the center, and all the elements in between?”

“Right. Or at least Silver and Tin were formed. The others either were formed but not separated until the Electric Age, or they were not formed until the Electric Age. But if each pre-dark period had its own electric age, then it’s likely that they all formed. But many may have remained in a gaseous state at a certain distance from the center, and then precipitated as the earth rose up to meet it. Gravity at 3000 miles from the center would be about one and three-quarters as strong as it is now. Likely many of the dinosaurs were nearing their limits of existence. Many no doubt evolved to be able to cope with the weaker gravity, but some probably died out. They all died out by the time the next row of elements was formed—the Iridium layer shows that. Notice what is very near to Iridium in the periodic table, however: Mercury. Iridium may just be mutated Mercury. So a nice little Mercury rain likely killed all the dinosaurs. However, at 3500 miles from the center, gravity would be just over one and one-quarter what it is today. Maybe somehow Africa was spared the Mercury rain—don’t know if an Iridium layer has been found there or not—because it is there in Africa that most big-boned, thick-bodied animals are found, although there are a few in Asia, obviously.”

“And so now this final layer is about to form at 4000 miles from the center. What makes the theorists think it’ll be the final layer? Why are we so intent on moving underground at the appropriate time?”

“The radioactive decay, and all the damage that is done by cosmic radiation and even simple ultraviolet light. It is believed that anything beyond the radioactive row would be even more damaging.”

“But if it’s thought that the electrons might disappear, might they not take the radioactive garbage with them?”

“Some have thought so. But that never happened in the past. All the elements remained on the earth.”

“Unless, of course, they truly weren’t on the earth until their discoveries.”

“Yes, that is a possibility. But still, life on the surface in the dark would be no picnic, so we’re going to ride it out underground. Then we’ll come out—or at least send some robots out—and see what conditions are like.”

“Good. But what of the Space Race story. Will it be told in any form afterwards?”

“Oh sure, it’ll be told as a good example of how gullible and downright stupid most people were. It, perhaps more than any other story, will show why clones are the only way to go. They won’t need any stories to keep them in line. And that, of course, is why the whole Space Race Story has been so good. With everyone believing it, despite some clear, simple hints and reasons that it must be a fabrication, it shows that people are no longer interested in thinking for themselves. Religion had people believing opposites at the same time. From the time children are very young, they are curious and want to learn about the world. And they are harmless and blameless, just as the best minds through the ages have claimed. But in order for religions to rule, guilt was needed. And it’s been a very effective tool. But remember, by the ‘60s guilt was starting to fade away, and could possibly have been lost. Many still have it, of course, much to our benefit and those who don’t now mostly have science as their religion. They see all the great advances in computer technology, and believe it is the scientists who are causing it, whereas, as we know, it is just as always throughout history: we just use what’s available, and come up with theories that explain phenomena fairly well.”

“So will we try to actually get to the moon later on?”

“Most likely. Since clones will be cheap and have no rights, we’ll be able to just shoot them out at random. Thus we may discover just how light curves through space.”

“But what if we shoot and shoot spaceship after spaceship, and still find nothing? What if it turns out that the earth really is a total self-contained universe after all? Will it not be sad—even a bit pathetic—that we wasted so much effort to first hide the possible truth, and then wasted so many clones and so much material in trying to find what many believed was never there in the first place?”

“Don’t worry. There will be plenty of new theories put forth to explain whatever is going on.”

“I don’t doubt that. But for what purpose? If we’re all equal in the New Age, what will need to be hidden?”

“All equal? Get real! There will still have to be those who make and train the clones. And they’ll have to be kept in line somehow.”

“But aren’t you worried that if you treat them poorly, they’ll eventually enlist the aid of the clones to bring about a revolution? Then it’ll be the same old story all over again…”

“Could be. So what are you suggesting? That we admit what we’ve done and step aside?”

“No, at least not now. But maybe afterwards, if there are any of them left alive.”

******************************

“So what’s the prognosis?”

“Well, there’s definitely light out there. The instruments say it’s a bit different that the light we were used to, but that’s to be expected.”

“And what of gravity?”

“What do you mean? Don’t tell me you’ve started believing some of those crackpot theories, especially the parts about harmonics and echoes of the previous dark periods?”

“Well, it was an observed fact that during the previous five hundred years great men lived around the turns of the centuries. And even further back it was noticed that momentous events in history seemed to cluster around the center and near the thirds of the centuries—say in the ‘30s or ‘60s—and even definitely in the ’33 or ’66 years.”

“Yeah, but you can’t seriously believe that all those hippy musicians in the ‘60s were picking up echoes from the firmament and were sounding true warnings?”

“Not necessarily. But I’m just wondering what the gravitational reading is. I mean, we know for a fact that the sun refused to shine for just over three years. I’m just wondering if the mountains crumbled to the sea, and took us with them.”

“Took us…you mean, down to a previous level? Then how could there possibly be a breathable atmosphere out there?”

“You’re starting to sound like me, asking all the questions. But as for the atmosphere, have we not had an artificial atmosphere in here these past three years? What’s so hard about that? So again, I’ll ask—what about gravity?”

“Come one, you know that no gravity measuring device has ever been developed, other than a simple spring scale. If the weight of a known mass doubles, that means that the force of gravity has doubled.”

“OK. But what if as we descended, our very cells were altered, and that of the scales, too? What if we weigh the same, but are really quite different?”

“That’s the very reason that no reliable gravity-measuring device will ever be made. And it’s why nobody in the past thirty or so years ever noticed the increase in the earth’s size. Maybe people could have if they had kept some old yardsticks and used them to measure a degree of latitude. But with the official length of a meter being the length of that piece of metal in Paris, as gravity changed, so, too, would the metal. Wood and bone, while alive, will vary their growth rates according to the force of gravity. But once they’re dead, gravity seems not to affect them. But metal, being in a sense part of the living earth, varies with that living earth. So as to the gravity out there, we’ll just have to rely on our senses to tell us if it’s any different.”

“OK, so out we go. Wow! It really is a different sort of light than we were used to. And the sun seems so small and far away. And whoa! Look at the size of that Moon! I bet an eclipse will last a full hour. No wonder the most ancient records had primitive people really getting frightened during one. By our time, they were interesting, of course, but the sky only got a little dimmer.”

“Yes, it’s definitely different than we left it. But do you notice? No Mountains! Maybe you were right! Or maybe just the local range was affected, and there will be some just over the horizon. And speaking of horizons, is it my imagination, or is there a really perceptible curve to that horizon. What would that mean?”

“It would mean, of course, that we’re on—or inside—a much smaller earth.”

“No! That’s not possible! We were so sure that inside the mountains was the place to be. I mean, they were the most solid structures on the earth, right?”

“There you go, asking questions again. But you yourself told me that according to the Growing Earth theory, that the mountains were really nothing but dried out muddy ice cubes, formed under intense pressure, if course, so that their molecular structure appeared very stable. But it was also theorized that the underlying ice layer that everything was floating on had buckled during the last freeze, pushing the mountains up. Thus the remaining ice would be quite a bit thinner under most mountain ranges.”

“So what are you saying? That where the mountains were, there’s now ocean? But if it was dark for three years, shouldn’t everything have frozen again?

“On top, yes. But remember, the oceans themselves were essentially in huge bowls of ice, and were floating on the underlying water—or so the theory was.”

“Yeah, yeah—I know the damn theory! But our scientists proved over and over that there was a fifteen or so mile think mantle that floated on a semi-molten layer under that. And I know what you’re going to ask—why should we have believed our scientists? Maybe, as it’s turning out, we shouldn’t have. Well, let’s get back inside and activate some clones.”

“Right. And in the meantime we can send out some robots and station them at various positions around the surface and see what’s out there.”

************************

“The robot found a what?”

“Yeah, you heard right—it found a small building with computers inside.”

“And this is what we’ve downloaded from those computers?”

“Right.”

“OK, let’s check it out.”

************************

“Can you believe it?”

“Well, yes and no. It does make sense in light of all those crazy theories. But no—it’s impossible to believe. We were never here before—I certainly wasn’t. How could I have been?”

“But that’s definitely you talking on that disc.”

“Sure, it looks and sounds like me—but it’s impossible!”

“OK, well maybe whatever is out it there made it look like you just to get your attention.”

“Could be—but how? It had never seen me, had it?”

“True, I don’t see how it could have.”

“And to say that we will soon be joined by millions of others, and that we had best tell them the whole truth. Now that is totally impossible! Our satellites did have the capability of tracking any large shipments of any element on the whole surface of the earth—and that includes down to the bottom of the oceans, too. There’s no way any other group could have stored enough oxygen, hydrogen, and food to survive over three years underground. Impossible!”

“Nor was it possible for any nuclear or other weapons to just disappear undetected, was it?”

“Of course not. But it sure was fun to watch all the morons argue about who the Russians were selling their weapons to, and who was making them. Most of them were kept in such a panic, which worked to our benefit, of course.”

“And you—that is, the you on the computer—kept insisting that we enter the time period into it.”

“Yeah, that still makes no sense. What could it possibly matter how long it had been since we discovered Uranium, and if we had ever exploded any nuclear devices. Or again, the times from discovery to explosion, and from explosion to the beginning of the Dark. I—the me on the computer—sounded just as kooky as the Growing Earth theory boys, didn’t I?”

“You did. But since we’re here, apparently on an earth just half the size of where we started, maybe we should take you seriously?”

“OK, fine. Enter the times.”

***************************

“It said what?”

“It said we were the best yet. It said when the rest of them get here with the rest of the materials, we will be just about ready to conquer the entire earth.”

“OK. And what else did it say? We were what?”

“The best of 847.”

“And that’s supposed to mean that Man has gone through this cycle 846 times before us? 846 Einsteins, 846 Hiroshimas, 846 Three Mile Islands and Chernyobles? That’s absurd!”

“Well, of course it didn’t say that all the details were the same, but essentially yes.”

“And it said that those millions coming soon would bring the rest of the materials? Again, what the hell could it be talking about?”

“Nobody’s been able to put forth any theory that makes sense. Here it’s been months already, and there’s nobody else. And, like you’ve said over and over, we know that nobody had the materials to make another underground city.”

“Whoa! Look at that! Where did they come from? And look, there, too! And they’re popping up on every screen! It looks like they’re appearing out of thin air! Trucks, buses, cars, wagons, and thousands of people on foot. And look—now they’re stopping to check out our robot cameras. And it looks like the robots are telling them something.”

“Maybe they’re giving them directions.”

****************************

“Here they come. They look pretty worn out—they must’ve walked twenty miles or so. Their first question will probably be why we didn’t come out to meet them. What will we say?”

“Don’t worry about that. Let’s just find out who they are and how they got here.”

“Hello! Welcome to…”

“It’s you!”

“Of course it’s me…I mean, what do you mean, it’s you? We’ve never met before, I’m sure of it.”

“It was your face, and your voice, on all the video screens in the golden city in the sky.”

“Golden city in the sky? Oh, I see—the heat and the long walk has affected you. Let’s get you some food and water.”

“Sounds good. But the walk has really done nothing but invigorate me. And we all remember your face and voice quite well. And we’ve all come to hate you quite strongly. Your lies will now cause your demise.”

“I must still insist that I haven’t got a clue what you are talking about.”

“Well, a few months after the Dark began—you know about the Dark, don’t you?”

“Sure—I mean, we’ve heard of it.”

“Right. The fact that you’re here ahead of us makes it likely that you caused the Dark somehow. Anyway, after just a few months, when people’s patience was starting to wear thin, and it looked like there would be all-out wars, the sky suddenly opened up in places and golden roads were seen to descend out of the sky. Well, naturally everyone who still had fuel in their vehicles started driving up those roads. They were very steep, yet the traction was good. And when we began to worry about running out of fuel, robot-operated gas pumps appeared by the side of the road, with food dispensing machines which gave out whatever was asked for. All very convenient.”

“And you think we somehow had something to do with all that? We’ve been underground for over three years. Imagine our surprise when we stepped out expecting to be on the old familiar earth and instead found ourselves a couple thousand miles below the surface. And you’re saying you went up—what, a couple hundred miles, on golden roads? Yes, the heat has definitely gotten to you.”

“Would you quit saying that? We’re here, aren’t we? Explain that! And, as I mentioned, the rest of us out there are not happy with you. So you’d better have a pretty good explanation, or I’d say you’ve about reached your end.”

“Well, if you’d been listening, you’d realize that I just said we had no clue how we got here either. And before you go threatening us with our end, let me tell you that we have some pretty potent weapons with us…”

“Would both of you just shut up! We need to hear the whole story of the golden city in the sky.”

“Thank you. We all got up there—that took a couple months—and we began comparing notes, and it seems that the roads only dropped down in the rich countries, in those places where there were vehicles and fuel available. Naturally there was a huge last-minute rush by some of the poorer people to get to some of those roads, but for the must part they really weren’t too excited. In fact, we received quite a few cell-phone calls saying Good Riddance. Of course, we thought they were being really stupid, and some of us even waited behind and tried to convince them to come with us, but that only made them more determined to stay behind. Anyway, as I said, after a couple months, we were all up there, and the roads all pulled up behind us. And we found ourselves in a place that was absolutely beautiful. It was not just golden, but real gold. And there were vending-looking machines everywhere that would give us whatever we wanted whenever we asked. It was wonderful—for a few weeks. But we soon realized that there was no privacy to be had, and no materials to build any houses for privacy. Sure, we had our cars and campers and trucks, and they provided some measure of privacy. And there were no animals other than the few pets we had brought along. But worst of all, there was no way to dispose of any of our waste. No way to dig latrines, and no materials to build any sort of containment buildings. But there were video screens everywhere, and we could watch all the movies we wanted, for free!”

“Sounds pretty awful.”

“It was. But worse yet was when we started looking down to the surface. Some of us had brought along some sophisticated see-through goggles, good not just for night vision, but to actually see through many surfaces. We could see that down below there were new sorts of trees and plants growing haphazardly everywhere, and that all people had to do to have something to eat was to pull a piece of fruit off a tree, or a handful of berries off a bush. There was open water just about everywhere—did you know that the mountains had vanished?—and it seemed to circulate fairly quickly, so that waste disposal was no problem. We could see into the water a ways, and it looked like some new sort of pig-looking fish was consuming most of the waste. It was all very bizarre looking, but it sure looked better than what we had. So of course some of us started complaining loudly and demanding to be let go back down. And that’s when you appeared—on the video screens, that is. You said for all who wanted to go back down to gather together in one certain area. Only a few thousand did, at least in our part of the golden city—perhaps there were many such groups. But they were a minority. Most of us still felt that we had the superior lifestyle.”

“So, how did they get back down? Did the roads open up? Did anyone down below try to come up?”

“No, there were no roads. A big hole opened under the specified area, and they all just fell down to the earth below. Of course they all burned up in the atmosphere after reaching extreme speeds after just a few miles. In our minds we said Good Riddance to them, and decided to make the best of it. And it wasn’t so bad—just extremely boring. But you made it pretty exciting in a very short time.”

“Me? How did I do that?”

“By taking over the video screens and giving us all a brief history lesson—one which made us all rather ill, I must say. You said we were the Chosen Ones—yes, you actually used that old, worn-out religious terminology—chosen to bring the materials necessary to once and for all rid the world of all scum, and make it safe for an advanced society. Apparently all our vehicles, and the fuel, too, was full of nuclear materials, which could be concentrated sufficiently to make enough weapons to totally destroy all the scum we saw down on the earth. Well, they didn’t look like scum to us, and we said as much. And those video screens up there would actually listen and respond—it really was rather incredible. Yet they were also incredibly stupid, having been made by you and people like you.”

“Hey! That’s a bit below the belt, isn’t it?”

“Not really; not when you consider that all you were attempting to do was rule the entire earth. Everything you had called evil when others supposedly did it, you were now proposing to do. Which led us to conclude that probably we had been lied to for many generations, and that nobody ever had really intended to take over the earth as you and your kind had claimed. You had manipulated situations and leaders and backed them into corners so that they would strike first, and you would then look like the good guys in stopping Evil in its tracks. All the while, of course, you were profiting from every gun and bullet sold, and from every bomb produced and dropped. And it was all so that you could develop the ultimate nuclear weapon, and then spring it on an unsuspecting people.”

“That’s ridiculous! All we wanted to do was survive the Dark, when everyone would kill each other off, and then come out and build a just society…Well, it’s true that we were going to use clones. But that way all the morons would be equal—they would no longer be fighting each other. They would be united in their desire to serve us.”

“Right. But first you’ll have to kill off those remaining on the earth. Which is what you’ve tried to do the last 846 times, all unsuccessfully.”

“What do you know about that? All our video screens here told us was that we were the best of 847—it didn’t say how or what we were supposed to do about it. It did, however, tell us to wait for you and the materials you were bringing. So what’s the deal?”

“It seems that every thousand years this same thing has repeated itself. North America being the naturally richest and most isolated place on earth, you always end up underground there. Remember, old burial sites were found by the early settlers, with metal tools in them. Funny how that was suppressed and never mentioned. Anyway, the pattern seems to be that you tell sufficient lies to convince sufficient numbers of people to want more than they have on this earth, and get them to value certain things above all else, so that given the opportunity, they will carry those valuables with them even a couple hundred miles up into the sky. Back down here, you assemble the best weapons possible from the materials they’ve brought, and then you go back to the surface. And guess where you wind up?”

“No idea—where?”

“Well, you know that all the mountains sunk back down into the sea. There’s one exception—the Himalayas. They are still there. Instead, the Indian subcontinent sunk into the sea, that is, much of it did. Some remained as islands floating between the Himalaya and a fair-sized land mass a few hundred miles off the coast. If you’ve ever seen old maps claiming to be from the fifteenth century, you’ll see that island out there in the Indian Ocean, with a water passage between it and the Himalaya. This was the true Northwest Passage from China to Africa. There was never any real need to find another—but it was a good story put forth this time by the Europeans, to spur on the development of North America. Where do you think that the so-called Barbarian Hordes came from this time around?”

“You’re saying that it was us, after riding up and crashing back into the Himalaya? That’s ridiculous!”

“It seems so, doesn’t it? But it’s worked every time. And this time you managed to get printing going on a huge scale within five hundred years. That was of utmost importance. Previously, most books got burned as fuel when the Dark began. This time there was very little of that, especially as the little secret about Uranium has been figured out.”

“Secret? What secret?”

“The fact that, as with anything—even the most deadly poisons—problems only occur when materials or power becomes concentrated. That’s why the common people have destroyed cities many times in the past. And it’s why even your puppet governments have had to give at least the appearance of breaking up very powerful corporations and restoring control to the people. But in the case of the ultimate destructive force, you’ve insisted on concentrating it, and have made sure that enough people have sickened and died so that most people are very afraid of it. But what has been the only peaceful use of nuclear power? It’s merely concentrated to produce heat to spin the turbines to induce the electrons to flow—electrons, which, of course, have mostly disappeared from the surface now. But yes, Uranium does give off heat. What do you think makes the Hot Springs of the world? And why were those hot baths deemed to be healthy by previous generations? Obviously because they truly were. And a small amount of Uranium kept in each home will provide sufficient heat to keep water hot for bathing—and connected to some metal filaments can easily be used for light and for cooking.”

“That sounds great—but there’s just not enough Uranium to go around.”

“And that’s only because of your greedy mining methods. Many miners and thinkers throughout history have recognized that metals grow in place much as vegetable matter. A sustained harvest of gold would have provide plenty of gold to make most metal implements—implements which would not tarnish or oxidize. But instead your greedy leaders wanted it all for themselves. And then they realized that with the shortages it could be considered even more valuable, although doing nothing useful. Then Adam Smith applied that theory to economics in general, and you were on your way, weren’t you? Or so you had hoped. But I think that your game is now about to end.”

“What do you mean, end? What can you possibly do to stop us?”

“Simple. Just kill you, so that you can’t go back to the surface with your bombs.”

“And what about you?”

“We’ll refine the pure Uranium out of our vehicles, and take it to the surface instead—a nice little present for Mankind.”

“You’ll die of radiation poisoning first”

“You weren’t listening just now, were you? In small amounts, especially shielded by salt, Uranium is harmless. We’ll get it back to the surface, where it can grow and be harvested only as needed. And never again will anything be concentrated in the hands of just a few people, for such concentration of power always corrupt those who hold it.”

“And what makes you think you’ll be able to figure out how to get back to the surface? What if you all die here?”

“So be it. There was still plenty of Uranium left on the surface. Besides, it appeared that people were getting along just fine without it. And maybe it all turned back to gold with the disappearance of the excess electrons. There’s just so much that we don’t know. But as long as there are no more lying, greedy, power-mad fools keeping the truth from them, they will be able to discover the truth about everything eventually. In fact, in just a few hundred years, the surface may naturally reach up to that golden layer, and then people may be able to go off and explore the Solar System. Because right before the bright flash which brought us here, we saw what appeared to be many other spheres just out of reach of our cranes and fire truck ladders. The Sun, Moon, and planets are right there, and may be stepping-stones to the stars—but only at the proper time and with the proper attitude will we ever get there. By getting rid of you, mankind will at last have a chance to truly advance.”

Rob Minteer