Chapter 6: Eromot and Morgamor
Ploabot visited his friend Hanson soon after his failed audience with the King. He didn’t need to tell Hanson the news, but felt he owed his friend an apology for the failure. “…and the audience I represented
suddenly toward me only resented.
I was chided off of my position.
It was the audience’s decision.
So here I am after I realize
to you Hanson I must apologize.”
Hanson embraced his friend. “Don’t be too hard on yourself my friend.
Faith in King persuasion I don’t pretend.
Hostility in that audience sound
says I should join the others underground.”
Veldada, who had been listening to the two friends, entered from the other room, and interrupted their conversation. “I learned after from that scene you came back
anti-Ministry minions they did pack
into the audience so they did stack
the opinions from which you came back
defeated by words that to you did smack.”
This was news to Ploabot and Hanson. Hanson inquired, “From where is the knowledge of what you say?
Exclusive public hearings in this day?”
Veldada explained. “Hanson, ever since this happened to you.
I’ve talked to those kids who smoke troopaloo,
when they get together after their schools
to share what they know calling us all fools.
They all sought to be at that audience
supporting Ploabot with their attendance,
but they were all refused from entering
for those with special passes presenting.
They say the Aungtalli gave out those keys
to Ministry haters so the King sees
no sympathy for Ploabot amongst these.”
Hanging out with troopaloo smokers was news to Hanson. “You are not smoking troopaloo with them?
A future baby could suffer from chem.
effects from smoke, which now your blood has got.
Veldada please tell me that you are not.
Veldada confessed. “I tried it when to me they did pass it
while among them I was trying to fit.
It appeared to me to be quite benign
then what the smokers had known became mine.”
Hanson said, “I don’t think I like you hanging out there.
You say you did that because you do care.
But smoking could really hurt you to do
with kids that are smoking that troopaloo.” Hanson could not be said to be a fan of the narcotic plant. Since his youth he differentiated himself from the less ambitious kids who seemed to just waste away their lives smoking that stuff.
It seemed the visit now turned into an argument about Veldada smoking troopaloo. Ploabot expressed gratitude to Veldada for the information and that he would look into the allegation. Stacking a public audience by issuing exclusive passes would be a criminal offense, and Ploabot took that seriously. At any rate he took comfort in Veldada’s revelation because he did believe it could be true. It was in fact the truth that the Aungtalli Bishop had the audience stacked in order to chirp Ploabot into silence. Unfortunately Ploabot also believed he could really do nothing about efforts organized by the Aungtalli to keep the Ministry of Science closed with its members scattered abroad to be plagued by terminally unfortunate circumstances. Ploabot departed from the House of Hanson concerned for his stubborn friend who once headed the Ministry of Science, and now evidently went on to be defiant to the bitter end of ensuing misfortune.
Youth on Urania liked to get high by smoking troopaloo, a hallucinogenic substance very much like marijuana smoked by many on Earth. The plants were remarkably similar and this was no coincidence. Variations of cannabis sativa/indicia plants have been cultivated in various places throughout the galaxy over the ages. Galactic plants have been engineered by beings like the ancient Nephapricans to encourage the complex nutrients necessary for higher evolution and sentience. The higher evolution of life requires a wide variety of nutrition from all kinds of food sources. Very few animals ever have the pallet for such a diet, and have adapted to have very exclusive limited sources of food. Plants very similar to oranges and bananas could also be found on Urania. Apples were also a galactic fruit, but nothing like that existed in Urania’s more tropical climate. Cannabis sativa plants, high in cannabinoids, contributed to this higher evolution by encouraging new more complicated neural networks to form, which over time and generations could develop to expand a cerebral cortex, resulting in much larger skulls. As the cannabinoids accumulated they blocked synaptic exchanges that might otherwise just fire directly in a straight impulsive manner. That complicated an animal’s otherwise redundant patterns of behavior. Cannabinoids forced a detour in synaptic exchanges, which caused the thought process to digress and evolve more complex neural networks for a species. Ancestors of Uranians probably ate the troopaloo leaves over many ages in the beginning of life’s evolution as the planet began recovering from its destruction by the event of the Tze nova.
Back at the House of Hanson the heated conversation continued, and evolved beyond the troopaloo debate. Veldada had learned a lot while hanging out with the crowd of rebellious kids that hung together after Uranian schools let out, smoked troopaloo, and complained about the establishment. Veldada became concerned about what might happen to her husband, and knew as well as anybody that he might be the next ex-Ministry scientist to end up dead by an ‘unfortunate accident.’ The argument heated after Hanson suggested that if anything happened to him that she should move on, and he suggested that Ploabot would always be at least a good friend. Veldada wasn’t ready to hear anything of that. The fact had been that Veldada wasn’t really married to Hanson. They had agreed to live together for years now, but on Urania the idea of marriage binding two people together could only be formalized by the birth of a child. When a female Uranian had a child she became automatically married to the father with legal obligations to be worked out. Although it had not happened yet, and they were frequently trying, Veldada very much wanted to have Hanson’s child.
Veldada gave much credibility to the criticisms of anti-establishment kids, and like Hanson, had very little love for the Aungtalli class. Veldada already had a low opinion of Aungtalli because she believed that they encouraged young women to give up their fertilized eggs so they could destroy most of them. She learned from those kids that the miscarriage rate had been grossly played down at 19.5%, but was really over 70%. She believed the Aungtalli wanted to overcome the population of regular Uranians by control of egg nurseries all over the planet.
Hanson didn’t discourage Veldada’s opinions. They both had their reasons to oppose Aungtalli meddling in regular Uranian affairs, and she preached to the choir about the miscarriage ratio. He actually already knew the rate to be above 70% from more reliable sources, but he didn’t think telling Veldada about that to be a good idea. She had become a crusader like him, which could be said to be a big reason he first fell in love with her. Neither had the will to really try to pull the other away from their cause. Uranians had a very noble heroic activist streak by nature. Devasura influence has tried to curb this characteristic by simplifying the language and vocabulary, but Uranians just seem to become more eloquent in expressing high ideals as a result.
Hanson told her, “Miscarriage rates do seem notorious
but we can’t change that, and its not for us.
Change what you can change, which is in your womb.
The child we will have could just be their doom.”
Veldada found herself enticed by the direction she saw the conversation taking. “With you I could have a child on this day.
Neweet was in eclipse as they all say.
My egg is now ready for you to play.
You could now have me your favorite way.”
Hanson responded to her hint with an embrace that led almost immediately to pecking on the shoulder, leading around her neck till he began to position himself around behind her. Pecking lightly, and biting the back is a show of intimacy for Uranians, and it usually leads to a doggy-style sexual position popular with the Uranian species. Hanson’s pecking quickly led to the bedroom. There really was no kissing amongst Uranians, which may be harder with beak-like buck-toothed teeth that were barely covered by thin lips. Light pecking is a show of intimacy that Uranian women actually found very stimulating. Hard pecking would be really seldom used except for some kinky exceptions.
Incidentally Neweet in the comment above had been the Uranian name for the gas-giant planet Tze-Doldus-1, which in this miniature white dwarf star system hung in the sky, appearing a bit bigger than Earth’s moon in our sky. Menstrual cycles of Uranian women had become synchronized to an aspect of the orbits of Neweet and Urania, which brought Neweet into a three day astronomical eclipse with the sun from Urania’s vantage point. The days were only slightly dimmed by this event since the star Tze-Doldus had been much larger than Neweet in the sky, but for 3 days a black circle slowly traversed the belly of the star. During this 3-day eclipse Uranian women with eggs became very fertile and were ready for males to fertilize them so they could be laid by the mother who then cared for them till they hatched. Either mothers could have their own babies, or they could drop these fertilized eggs off at available nurseries where they would be cared for and raised as wards of the state with no questions asked. This could also be used as a way of stopping a marriage contract if the woman didn’t want to marry someone who impregnated her. The 3-day eclipse period of extra fertility signaled by the Neweet eclipse happened every 23 Uranian days.
The House of Hanson became bathed in the solemn silence of sexual intimacy for a time. Afterwards they both laid together in bed, Hanson still embraced Veldada from behind while breathing deeply with eyes closed as if asleep. Veldada clung to Hanson’s arm with her eyes open, watching the day dim through the window. The love making felt good, and she really felt like this fertilization would take. She loved Hanson, and didn’t want to lose him, but she wouldn’t try to stop him from fighting for what he believed in. She fantasized about having a child who would accomplish that for her. A child would change everything, and they could run off to a far away land and live. Just live. Veldada felt constantly frustrated by male Uranian-kind with their constant obsessions over pointless ambitions. She wondered why they all couldn’t just relax and accept the world and reality as just fine the way it was, and already ideal.
The House of Hanson remained silent as the night began to blanket the city. Then Hanson and Veldada were both startled from the onset of slumber by a visitor’s knock on the door. The visitor turned out to be Eromot who had been told to come to the House of Hanson when he finally got ready to go underground. A lot of defunct scientists had setup a lab in the distant city of Gulfang. There they were back-engineering the most amazing artifacts that they uncovered from the ancient ruins in the Southern Desert. Eromot had become anxious to join them, but had remained behind so he could find Morgamor his run amok crazy research subject. Now he had found Morgamor, and planned on having him released from the mental facility to his custody. Hanson had remained behind to be the one who mediated for the underground scientists with government concerns in Keshdesh, and other scientists who sought refuge from assassins. He had been made to be the only one who could tell Eromot where in Gulfang he could find his other underground Ministry scientist friends. Hanson got up from bed to answer the door. He let his old friend Eromot into the House of Hanson.
Eromot knew he arrived kind of late. “I’m sorry for the too late intrusion.
I wanted darkness for some illusion.
If my apology sounds too hollow
let me remind you of those who follow.”
Hanson said, “No apology is needed old friend.
Though it appears dark here it’s not day’s end.
Please come on in and please feel free to stay
all night if you want to leave the next day.”
Eromot said, “Thank you lord Hanson for entrance to here.
It’s to the Gulfang underground I steer.
The location you know I need from you.
I found him, my research can continue.
Morgamor is still crazy. Help he needs.
I now can study transmissions he reads.”
Hanson felt more than happy to help his friend Eromot. They discussed Morgamor’s condition. He seemed to be interpreting messages that were being broadcast into his mind, but the messages were more complex and in some different dialect of the language. Morgamor liked to speak outside of the stanzas, and to a haphazard beat, but some of what he said turned out to still be understandable. Eventually Eromot thought it to be time to leave, and Hanson whispered the address of the Underground Ministry of Science into Eromot’s ear till he memorized it along with some directions. Hanson would contact them and they would be waiting at the memorized location.
As Eromot walked away from the House of Hanson to go home and pack for his escape journey the next day, another figure lurked next to the House of Hanson, and began to follow Eromot home. The figure had a large bald skull that identified him as an Aungtalli. The shadowy figure temporarily became revealed by some passing ambience to be Volock the Aungtalli agent of the Bishop. He had been on Eromot’s tail for some time. He knew Hanson told him where to find the other scientists in hiding. He knew that Eromot planned on taking custody of Morgamor tomorrow. This would lead Volock to the others somewhere outside of Keshdesh. Volock knew all he had to do would be to remain silently on Eromot’s tail, and then he would be led to all the scientists on his list of those to be killed.