Dooda and Loola informing the elders ••• ••••
Dooda and Loola made a beeline to their research station, with one of them carrying the poster. They were shocked at what they had experienced in the past few hours. They knew they had a very heavy responsibility to inform the elders in Daaadi City about this immediately. Their curiosity to study the poster was however much more urgent to them than of informing the elders of the incidents of the day. Their patience ran out, both Dooda and Loola decided to quickly examine the poster. It took some time but little by little they could understand the message in it. They did not waste time on investigating their familiar “dot” and “dash” signal patterns outlined in the pictures. They now knew that there was some kind of equipment stationed above the place at which they saw the second red light signal. They also guessed that the same equipment had drilled through the surface to insert the rod that held the second red light source. They further knew that the poster was dropped through the drilled hole by the same equipment on top. After seeing the picture of Collie, Dooda and Loola concluded that there must be another piece of equipment on the moon’s surface above. They recognized the sun but could not understand the picture of the solar system to make sense of it and thought they should ask one of their astronomers. The picture of the earth was a familiar one to many people on the moon including Dooda and Loola. This was the place they believed to be heaven. Dooda and Loola understood immediately that the signals and the pieces of equipment at the top all had something to do with the heaven. The events and the poster were greatly exciting to both of them. They were highly thrilled and could not believe what had taken place. The news spread to all the people working in the research facility in double quick time. Dooda and Loola ran back to see the probe once more before going to inform the elders of all they saw and experienced that day. More colleagues of Dooda and Loola joined them at the place directly below where the probe was located. They could not see very much of the probe. The colleagues spent more time there after Dooda and Loola hurried to summon the elders. The SETI-NASA team observed all that was happening but kept the probe motionless and inactive.
Within about two hours, Dooda managed to collect five highly respected elders who had helped him in the past to carry on with the light signal transmission. Dooda and Loola explained everything that had happened. The explanation was made whilst standing under the probe. Apart from the elders, there were more scientists from the research facility. The people carried in additional bright lights to illuminate the area better. Dooda showed them the probe which was inactive at that time. Dooda and Loola showed the elders the poster including the picture of heaven. Both of them told the elders that the pieces of equipment in the pictures had some connection to heaven according to the depiction. The quality of the poster and the clarity of the pictures were more than adequate to convince the elders that the poster had a connection to heaven, as they had never seen a quality print or material of the type the poster was made of ever in their lives before. All of them touched the poster and looked at the pictures on both sides very many times. It was not very clear what they all finally made of it or if they understood it much! The elders were invited to be present for the next signal exchange session.
As unknown to the moon people, the camera was still on; the SETI-NASA team saw everything that took place. As the elders were assisted by others to negotiate the steps and walk around, the SETI-NASA team understood that the five persons addressed by Dooda and Loola were elderly persons. They wore the same uniform-like clothes. The SETI-NASA team was not sure what type of bright light the moon people used to boost the luminosity in the cave. It appeared that one type was of very shiny and crystalline appearance and was about the size and shape of a large avocado pear. The thermal imaging camera captured the body heat images of all the people who were there but not of any heat emanated by the light source. This fact puzzled the scientists of SETI-NASA. “It is very strange!” thought the experts.
Dooda and Loola could not sleep that day due to the excitement caused by the thoughts whirling in their heads. Dooda was impatiently awaiting the next signal exchange occasion and hoped it would come sooner. Every passing minute felt like ten minutes to him. This impatience was equally felt by many of the scientists in the SETI-NASA team, though the two groups were separated by hundreds of thousands of miles. Dooda was so impatient, once he asked Loola if he would like to go with him to send a wake up signal ahead of the scheduled signal time. Loola pointed out that they needed to wait for the elders.
Loola, the five elders, several colleagues from the research facility and Dooda assembled at the signal spot several minutes before the scheduled signal time. Some sat close to Dooda and Loola at the signaling spot and others were seated on the floor close to the probe head while yet others were scattered around. Altogether there were twenty three persons. The gathering looked like one in a men’s club as there were no women. A few minutes before the scheduled time, Dooda directed towards the probe, a wakeup call with Loola’s light apparatus. The probe replied with a LASER signal immediately. Thereafter they got on with their normal signal exchange process. Though most of the elders had seen the former LASER signal, they were excited. They were expecting more posters to drop, from the probe but had to put up with disappointment as no new posters appeared.
After about 5 minutes, the SETI-NASA team decided to get on with the new moves they had planned. The SETI-NASA team sent commands to Master to lower the probe by five feet. It was still out of reach of the moon people to be open to damage. The usual signal exchange was continued from this new position. The moon people who were there saw the probe coming down. They were mesmerized and excited to see this extraordinary gadgetry. Dooda was wondering whether he should re-target his light signal at the probe, as it was below the original level. But immediately he realized that action was not necessary as the red signal was still responding properly. Dooda could not understand how the probe was doing that. After 5 minutes the probe was completely retracted by Master. The moon people expected a poster drop and wondered what was next? All eyes were sharply focused at the spot where the probe had been. The telescopic rod came back with another attachment. Bit by bit this attachment which was in folded form began to open out. When it opened out completely, it formed into a 12in x 21in television screen. A picture took shape and appeared on the screen. This picture was identical to the first page of the poster delivered to the moon people the previous day. The screen looked outstandingly bright and clear against the dim background in the cave. All who were present were eager to come closer to have a better look but they were also somewhat hesitant and undecided. It took nearly 20 minutes for the people who were initially stunned to get over their apprehension and finally settle down to congregate in front of the TV screen. The SETI-NASA team did not change the static picture for up to 25 minutes. During this period, the SETI-NASA team observed an initial silence and then gradual chatting that turned in a very short time into loud jabbering by the moon people,. The picture on the screen was then replaced by the picture on the reverse side of the poster. The moon people were surprised at how it changed so quickly. Thereafter in one minute intervals the picture was flipped from front side to reverse alternatively. Dooda, Loola and some of the elders had facial expressions that were very difficult to interpret, as they either carried elements of excitement or caution or both. The moon people really enjoyed what they saw as none of them had ever seen anything like this before. Ten minutes later, the SETI-NASA team made the live video stream that they were capturing from the cave, to appear on the screen in a “picture in a picture” format. The moon people immediately realized that it was they who were now on the screen. They started expressing their joy in various ways including using loud words. After a little while the SETI-NASA team turned on the speakers on the probe and the moon people realized that they could hear their own voices too from the probe when they talked loud. They found it a greatly amusing and unique experience to be able to play with the sound an
d videos.
When the SETI-NASA team zoomed the lens on Dooda, his face appeared large and clear on the screen. All those gathered immediately looked at him. The SETI-NASA team repeated this procedure with each and every person who was there for strategic purposes and everyone had the opportunity to enjoy seeing their picture appearing on the screen. As these events were taking place, more and more people gathered to see the strange events taking place in the cave.
The SETI-NASA team next placed a picture of the moon in the background with the moon people in the foreground, to indicate that they were from the moon; but the team was not sure whether the moon people would understood the message that they were trying to convey. As the moon people had never seen the moon from outer space it was not to be expected that they would identify the picture of the moon as being of their world. Then one after another, a few pictures of the earth taken from various satellites were projected. As mentioned before, the moon people identified the earth as heaven. Most of the moon people who were at this gathering had physically seen this “Earth Heaven”. The SETI-NASA team kept on projecting faces of men and woman from various cultures on the earth to emphasize that these were the mix of people living on earth. The moon people wondered why these people were of different color and also very different from them in complexion. Finally the SETI-NASA team played a video of an infant and the stages of a human’s growth; the growth process from infant to child to adult and then ageing. The pictures included men and women in static and dynamic media formats. The moon people keenly watched this presentation and thought that all these people must be from a different world. They presumed that they could certainly not be inhabitants of the heaven that they believed in. If they were from heaven the moon people expected them to be all young, happy looking, beautiful and of single color.
The SETI-NASA team then screened the video stream taken by Collie. It showed how Master was stationed on top of the moon surface. Collie’s camera console was made to rotate 360 degrees at slow speed to give a good panoramic view of the moon surface and the dark gaps of space. Dooda and Loola being naturally very intelligent readily understood what it was they were watching. They had to explain to the others what they were seeing as none of them had seen the moon surface in that fashion. Collie’s camera was focused on the signal spot. The SETI-NASA team activated a LASER beam from “Hi!” which immediately penetrated into the cave through the original signal spot. Collie’s video capture showed how the red signal penetrated the transparent moon surface. Upon seeing the LASER beam inside the cave at that moment, Dooda and Loola quickly to grasped the cause of the whole chain of events happening around them during the past several months. But they still could not grasp as to where the original red beam was coming from, though they saw the picture of the satellite in the poster. However now they understood what was what; basically the probe, Master, Collie and the other interactive things that they had seen so far. Dooda and Loola saw the surface of the signal spot area when Collie focused the camera on it. They identified the clear glass like surface area and the dust filled areas. When Collie started roving around, the moon people were amazed again, as anything motorized was a great novelty for them. They wondered how Collie could move around the moon surface without anybody in it. Let us hope they will get to know all these eventually!
The moon people were glued to the screen and were already in a dream world. They saw an animated video next, demonstrating how the Delta III rocket brought “Hi!” to the moon orbit and how it was firing the LASER beam at the signal spot. Dooda and Loola had no difficulty at all to follow and understand the whole story very well. They understood that the original red beam that they received was emitted by an object parked far away in space. At this stage Dooda and Loola were interested in trying to understand how Master and Collie came to the moon. Intuitively, the next animated video planned by the SETI-NASA team, delivered exactly what Dooda and Loola wanted to know. It demonstrated how Master and Collie were ensconced in the Delta 3 rocket, the rocket launch, exiting from earth orbit descending of Master onto the moon surface, soft landing, Collie leaving Master’s belly and roving around, Master performing the drilling work, telescopic rod movement, activating the 2nd LASER beam and finally unfolding of the TV screen.
As will be easy to now understand, technically the SETI-NASA team could even transmit CNN news over the screen. However the primary and all important aim was for the SETI-NASA team to get the two scientists to interact with them over the audio and video interfaces in the system. The advantage of the audio video system was that they could send any audiovisual material to suit the particular situation. All these were a preplanned set of strategies designed to handle a number of potential scenarios that they envisaged.
Dooda and Loola pretty much understood that they were dealing with people from another world. They also understood that these people were technologically very advanced. The video they saw on the rocket and the spacecraft were the evidence. At this stage Dooda and Loola did not have a steady mind set as to what to do or not do and simply keep on observing the screen.
As a next stage in the interaction, the SETI-NASA team projected the still pictures of Seth Sagan and Max Glenn, side by side on the screen. From the inception, Seth Sagan headed the SETI branch of the project and Max Glenn headed the NASA branch of the project as joint executive officers. All SETI-NASA team project staff came under the combined umbrella of command of Seth and Max. Below their pictures on the screen the “Hello!” sign was shown in red and it was blinking with long pauses to indicate “Hello!” For Dooda and Loola the sign was still a wakeup call not a conventional “Hello!”. Then Seth and Max appeared live. First Seth and then Max said Hello!, to the moon crowd. The audio effects were on. This was done several times with traditional Japanese style repeated bows. Seth and Max had observed in the past video recordings that the moon people after bowing to each other as an act of courtesy also touched each other’s shoulder at the same time with their right hands. Seth and Max shock hands with each other and then touched the shoulders of each other. After that both of them bent over and extended their right hands towards the camera to indicate that they would like to do the same with the moon people.
The video stream relayed to earth by the probe, showed that all the moon people in the cave were gathered around the five elders who were together at one spot. First, the elders were seen discussing amongst themselves and then they appeared to be directing questions at Dooda and Loola. Their body language indicated this clearly. On the screen, the pictures of Seth and Max were placed still and silent as the team knew that the elders were yet discussing something important with Dooda and Loola. The “Picture in picture” also showed the live picture of the discussion that was taking place. The picture from the cave was made larger than the picture of Seth and Max. At one time Dooda and Loola took prominent roles in the discussion as they seemed to be explaining matters to the elders. Their hands and body gestures indicated they were stressing some important issues. Their conversation was clearly heard by the SETI-NASA team. The voices were useful for the sub-team on earth who were working hard to learn the moon language.
At the end of the long discussion all five elders walked more close to the camera, and then they bent over a bit and raised their right hands towards the probe. Seth and Max reciprocated immediately by bowing and raising their hands to shoulder touching height, to indicate they were with them, though they were physically very far apart. This was the “Peace Pipe” moment that they were waiting for, thought the entire SETI-NASA team. Dooda and Loola repeated the elders’ act. Seth and Max reciprocated immediately with wide smiles on their faces. Then all the moon people gathered there raised their hands. Seth and Max reciprocated again. Then Seth and Max saw the moon people greeting each other by touching each other’s shoulders with their right hands. Seth and Max did the shoulder touching greeting between the two of them. Everyone’s eyes were still on the screen. When the moon people saw Seth and Max greeting each other, e
mulating their culture, the silence in the cave broke to the sound of laughter, joy and cheering. Seth and Max shook hands and kept holding hands. The moon people started shaking hands between themselves, doubling the laughter and the fun they were enjoying. The SETI-NASA team realized that earth bound humans had thus introduced a change in the social customs of the moon people. This was Seth’s small step following on Neil Armstrong’s “Small step….Giant leap” legacy.
Seth appeared again. He pointed at himself with his forefinger and said “Seth”. Max did the same and said “Max”. After Seth repeated this action three times Dooda explained to the others that those words could be the names of the earth people. From Dooda’s reaction the SETI-NASA team understood that Dooda probably understood the message. As such they projected the zoomed picture of Dooda on the screen. Dooda pointed his forefinger to himself and said “Dooda”. Seth and Max clapped to convey their appreciation. The people in the cave too clapped and made joyful sounds. Loola’s picture was zoomed and screened next. He said “Loola”. This procedure was kept going on. There were some camera shy people too. “The tone of every one’s voices was the same”, thought the SETI-NASA team.
At the end of the introductory session, pictures of Seth and Dooda were put on the screen. Seth said “Dooda” by pointing his finger towards Dooda’s picture. Seth had a background crew holding placards etc., showing the names of moon people, to help him. So he did not have to memorize all the names. Dooda did not catch his name, when Seth said it first. The linguistic experts in the team corrected Seth and advised him to try with a dragging accent. This time when Seth said “Dooooda”, Dooda responded with a bow. Seth bowed too. Seth said “Seth” by pointing his finger to himself. After Seth repeated his name a few times, Dooda correctly said “Seth”. Seth smiled, bowed down and clapped. This was repeated with Loola, the 2nd scientist in the moon. He pronounced Seth’s name in one go. This whole exercise was repeated with everybody who introduced themselves by bowing at them. Max took over from Seth and repeated the exercise to introduce him. From time to time the background crew came close Max and exchanged a few words with him. At the end of the session Seth and Max introduced “Yesha” the female member of the team. Moon people realized she was female. Dooda, Loola and a few others pronounced her name properly. Dooda did not have any females within the crowd to introduce.
In the earlier instances the signal session did not go on for so long. This was a special day. About 13 hours had already elapsed from the time the elders came to the scene. Though nobody was tired or short of enthusiasm, the SETI-NASA team thought that it was high time to call it off for the day. Just before ending the session Seth brought to the screen view about 20 of his male and female staff to show that there were more than Seth, Max and Yesha. The Bye! Bye! Signal followed. This time it was not by the LASER beam but by the flashing signal on the screen and words by Seth and the whole team. Dooda and Loola rushed back to their light beam and responded with a Bye! Bye! Signal. Others waved at the probe. The SETI-NASA team observed that the elders were congregating again with Dooda and Loola. Other moon people were talking among themselves. They kept on looking at the screen though nothing appeared on it. All were there for over an hour after the Bye! Bye! Signal, then they started walking back in the direction they came from. It was not clear what sort of instructions the elders conveyed to Dooda and Loola, though the SETI-NASA team recorded all the conversations between them.
The SETI-NASA team realized that they had built up a good social foundation to build on in the future. They were eager to take it to the next level of being able to have a proper dialogue with them to explore further into their life styles, living environment and many other areas almost without end. The linguistic experts who were in the SETI-NASA team compiled a list of words and probable meanings by repeated reviewing of the video clips. They had over 200 words in the list, picked from over 13 hours of video recordings. “balaaan” to look, “ vadeeen” to greet/bow, “vadee” to sit, “hitteer” to stand, “enderr” to come in, “yanderr” to go, “seeyaa” for elder, “kathaaa” to speak, “nangeee” for woman, “buncheee” for friend, these were some of the words they picked up. The SETI-NASA team wanted to expand the list with the least possible delay. Seth and Max had some tutorial sessions to memorize these words and improve the pronunciations. The SETI-NASA team realized that understanding the moon people’s language would be far easier than trying to make the moon people understand English. They had all the facilities to capture the words and compile a vocabulary as they had the help of complex computer backed instruments to evaluate many aspects pertaining to speech. In fact NASA even analyzed whether Seth and Max could correctly pronounce the words in moon language through advanced electronic evaluation devices. If there were no words in moon people’s language for items like the “TV Screen” the team would try to introduce English words.
Dooda and Loola were given full sanction by the elders to carry on with what they were doing. However, the elders informed Dooda and Loola that they would like to bring the interactions with the aliens to the notice of the other elders in the community. The same five elders wanted to join them for the next day’s session also as they were highly motivated by the series of events of the past session. After listening to their colleagues about the extra ordinary events, more people from Dooda’s research facility wanted to join him on the next day. Dooda and Loola wanted to know more about their new friends Seth, Max and other people living in this different world. Being intelligent scientists, Dooda and Loola understood how relatively ignorant they were, for not being on par with this new technology they encountered that could produce rockets and engage in inter planetary missions. They could not come to terms with the very wide gap between their knowledge and the superior knowledge of Seth and Max as it seemed to be too vast to imagine. They hoped to be able to learn a lot form Seth and Max and hence were looking forward to collaborating with them very seriously.
The next day, after the communications session was started everybody was in very good spirits. When Seth and Max appeared on the first screen, with Dooda and Loola on “picture in picture”, Seth and Max bowed to the moon crowd and raised their right hands to indicate the extending of greetings. The moon crowd did the same, acknowledging their solidarity. Seth said “hello!” But there was no reply. After he said “Hello!” a few times Dooda and the others said “Hello!”. The language experts realized that there was no equivalent word for “Hello” in the moon language. Seth and Max got into an act of emulating a moon language learning session. Seth said to Max, “vadee” (meaning sit), Max sat on the chair. Then Seth said “enderr” to Max … and Max walked towards Seth. Immediately the moon people understood that Seth and Max were speaking and acting in their language. The “picture in picture” showed that the moon people were laughing in surprise and amazement. They kept on with the simulated lesson till they exhausted all the nearly 200 words they thought they knew of moon language. Whenever Seth and Max made a mistake all the moon people attempted to correct them thereby creating confusion. Dooda intervened and requested them all to be silent and undertook the role of correcting any language errors by Seth. In fact, later on Dooda and Loola took over the acting session to teach Seth and Max. Seth and Dooda exchanged words and carried on a very basic conversation which was seen as a great entertainment by the rest of the moon crowd.
Seth wished to ascertain whether elders are addressed in a different manner of respect such as “Mr” or “Sir” and made an enquiry on how they should be addressed after introducing the picture of an elder on the screen. But it seemed there was no practice of such nature. They were all referred to by their names only irrespective of age or gender. Dooda and Loola did not have a clue about the linguistic team working behind the scenes for Seth and Max with recordings, speech analysis and other technical back up and were amazed at how Seth and Max learnt their language so quickly. In fact the ‘language lab’ that supported communications made it very easy for the SETI-N
ASA team to learn the moon people’s language quickly. The SETI-NASA team now showed clips from the documentary film “The Planet Earth”. The idea was to show the moon people the flora and fauna on earth for them to get a better idea of living creatures and plants on the earth and also with the idea of indicating that they would also like to see the living things in the moon. Other than for the bird that pecked on the camera on the first day, the SETI-NASA team did not see any other creature at all. The moon people enjoyed the 30 minutes long program. Their deep concentration on it was evinced by their rapt silence and utter immobility during the entire program. They reacted occasionally by saying things to their neighbors when some animals and their activities were shown. Parrots, fish, primates and bats were a few of these. Some clips were played at high speed or slow motion and it is possible that the moon people might have thought that speeds they witnessed were the real speeds.
Language training sessions and various video sessions were carried out daily. Within a few weeks Seth and Max were able to have a reasonably clear conversation with Dooda and Loola. Most of the time spent in conversation was devoted to furthering of knowledge on the moon people’s language, as it was very important to both parties. Over time, Dooda and Loola began to understand the functions of various units mounted on the probe head. They could identify the camera, the LASER head, microphone and other instruments. On some days both parties continued their dialogue even while having short meals. Both parties made each other understand the type of food each ate and drank via pictures projected on the TV screen. Dooda and Loola once showed samples of the water plants from which they made food. On many occasions passing onlookers had brought with them pet birds, domestic animals and a few personal goods that the SETI-NASA had looked on at with great fascination. After the SETI-NASA team felt fully confident that their probe and screen would not be damaged by the moon people they lowered the probe head to a distance within 9 feet from the ground. As a precautionary measure however it was equipped with a built-in sensor which would activate immediate retraction, if anything were to approach within the 3ft of it. Graphically this was illustrated to Dooda and Loola and they understood. Dooda helped Seth to confirm that the sensor circuit was working properly by deliberate triggering of the sensor. When Dooda and Loola were not around, the screen retracted and set itself at a higher elevation. Seth and Max were keen to have a closer look at the illuminating device that was used in their light signals. To convey this message they used the screen to draw a sketch of the compound optical signal unit and explained to Dooda by word as well as action that it was a unit that they were very eager to see. Loola showed them the big Babaloniums crystal that provided light to their equipment. When the full cover was completely removed from the Babaloniums crystal, the entire cave was lit up. Loola covered again to prevent diffusion of light in all directions and put it back to the original state. Once again it was not captured by the thermal imaging unit as a heat producing object. The SETI-NASA team realized that this unit and the avocado sized object they brought with them to illuminate the cave on the first day must be of same material. Dooda explained to Seth the principle involved in triggering of a Babaloniums crystal. Seth could not understand half of what was said. The team decided to keep the subject suspended for another day though they were very curious about it but could not make out at all what this material was.
Though both parties were reasonably comfortable in their conversations aimed at grasping fuller details of the two worlds it was still difficult to understand certain things that were being discussed. On many occasions Seth and Max used video clips to help in their explanations. For example when Seth was explaining details of buildings, cars, trees, flowers, lightning, people etc., he used video clips to great advantage. Dooda and Loola did not have similar facilities. The moon people had a device to take pictures but it was not sufficiently developed to be used in aiding in their communications.
Dooda and Loola learnt more earth related information than Seth and Max and the SETI-NASA team learnt about the moon people. Through their dialogue the SETI-NASA team learnt from Dooda the background to the radio signal instrument he developed, how it was powered and the purpose of its operation. However, when Seth asked why there were so many people in that area on the radio signal transmission day, the explanation Dooda gave was very difficult to comprehend. Loola too tried to help in the explanations when he found that Seth could not understand Dooda, but even their joint effort was unsuccessful. The SETI-NASA team was briefed about the lakes, the tides, water plants, animals, fish and other things. Dooda and Loola touched on the research work that they were doing at their facility; about the bioluminescent organisms that they developed, the types of material they produced from the water plants, about the oil they extracted from the algae, etc. Dooda once again explained to Seth how to trigger a Babaloniums crystal. How rare these were, but how widely they were used in the caves. They said if not for the Babaloniums life in the caves would be quite uncomfortable and also hazardous.
As the days passed Dooda lost interest in the dust removal exercise. Seth agreed to try to help Dooda to remove the dust by deploying Collie. The SETI-NASA team would have to work out a way to adapt Collie’s capabilities to execute this task as it was not in the planned scope of tasks for Collie. Max promised to provide Dooda technical assistance to improve his equipment. Max also agreed to help Loola enhance his knowledge on telescopes and compound lenses.
People came in large numbers to see the videos on the screen when they had the 14th day functions. This was a much better wonder and fun event for them than Dooda’s moon dust removal demonstration. After Seth found out that the 14th day event was some sort of a festival day, the SETI-NASA team made a special TV broadcast on these days, with a bias towards entertainment. They nevertheless retained displays of natural things like animals, rivers, forests etc. At times the elders had to command the people to move on as they sometimes tended to spend their time glued to the video displays. As time passed, Seth was concerned about the disturbance that they were creating to the moon people’s festival day. The team wondered if they should terminate the broadcast on the specific 14th days. This matter was taken up with Dooda and Loola. Being people of very unassuming nature they did not indicate any objection at all to having it. The social scientists who provided advice to the SETI-NASA team however cautioned them on what was to be shown on the screens as they identified the moon people as extremely friendly and fun loving but also as having susceptibility to extreme sensitivity. The fact that the moon people were non meat eaters who did not have any ill words at all in their vocabulary seemed to imply this possibility.
The SETI-NASA team now decided that the time had come to commence implementing the next of their plan. The next day when Seth appeared on the screen, he had a micro video camera in his hand. Seth told, Dooda he had a similar camcorder in Master and that he would deliver it to him. Seth explained to Dooda how to operate it, by picking up a camera from his desk and demonstrating. It had only three buttons to operate. Press once to record video and sound. Pressing it again will stop the recording. The next button was to play back. The third was to go back. It had a wireless connection to the probe to transmit and receive recordings. The wireless connection would work only if the camera was in close proximity, but in any event the camera was programmed to record everything that it scanned into its own memory. Seth explained to Dooda that it had about 10 hours of battery power. The time measure in hours and minutes was well understood by Dooda and Loola, as they had acquired familiarity with the digital clock that was displayed at the right side bottom corner of the screen. When the camera ran out of power it was to be put on the special pad on the telescopic arm. When the battery was being recharged, the probe was designed to upload all the recordings in the memory chip to earth and to clear the memory for the next round of recordings. Seth demonstrated the operation of the camcorder. He did this by taking it to many places in his office and research complex and showing what was on his c
amcorder screen. Dooda was made to understand, that the pictures were coming through the small camera to their screen in the cave, when he was walking around. This was re-illustrated by various video shots taken by the SETI-NASA team to ensure Dooda understood that this was a portable camcorder. Seth told Dooda, that he was interested in seeing the other parts of the moon, close up views of trees, animals, birds, lakes, how they make food, their roads, 14th day festival, research facility of Dooda and Loola, etc. Dooda and Loola could well understand why Seth was so interested in seeing these things and they readily agreed to accommodate all of Seth’s requests.
By now, Dooda and Loola had been exposed to considerable coverage of how people on Seth’s world lived, including how people watched TV from inside their homes. They also knew about the media coverage that people on Seth’s world had on the discovery of the moon people. Though the SETI-NASA team was trying to be open as possible with Dooda and Loola, they were still cautious and selective as regards what they allowed to be shown to the moon people. This was a precautionary measure to ensure that the feelings of the moon people would never be hurt or offended by something they might see in an Earth scene.
The camera was brought down to Dooda through the inner rod of the telescopic arm. Dooda gently took it off from the seating socket in the same way he saw Seth taking it out in the video he watched before. This was the second alien item that Dooda handled after the poster. Dooda was thrilled to open the mini flap screen of the camera and press the recording button as demonstrated by Seth. To his surprise the picture was upside down. Dooda looked at the big screen. Seth corrected Dooda by making him realize that he was holding the camera upside down. Both laughed and exchanged knowing looks to share their feelings of innocent banter that words could not match. The people who were there rushed behind Dooda to see what was on the tiny camera screen. Everybody realized that the picture on the tiny screen appeared on the big screen as well. Dooda turned the camera around on the people and enjoyed the fun it caused, just like a kid playing with a toy. He played with it for some time, possibly about 20 minutes. Loola now took the camera from Dooda’s hands and played with it too. At one point he directed it towards the TV screen and to the drilled hole from where the rod was protruding down. For the first time, the SETI-NASA team had a good view of how the TV screen and the telescopic rod were set up in the cave. They came to realize by this the complex and high precision task that they had executed.
From the video clips collected during the past weeks, the SETI-NASA team gathered an enormous volume of information about the moon people, the cave system, the moon’s structure, Babaloniums, the lakes, tides, water plants, shrubs, animals, insects, birds, fish, dwellings, children, schools, etc. After seeing the state of parts of Dooda’s research facility and assessing the innovations that Dooda and Loola had made, the SETI-NASA team realized how brilliant Dooda and Loola were as scientists. It was impressive to see their advanced written language, their knowledge of math and their exceptional capability for learning and understanding things logically.
Over time Dooda, Loola, Seth, Max, the rest of the SETI-NASA team and the colleagues of Dooda’s research facility became very close. Many times, Seth and Max downloaded video clips to the camcorder so that Dooda and his colleagues could watch them when they took the camcorder back to their research center. Most clips had sound dubbed in moon language as Seth’s team already had a few experts who could talk very fluently in the moon language. The camcorder as well as the TV screen was used as tools to educate Dooda and his colleagues on the subject areas they were interested in. Loola was interested in developing a LASER beam. Some of these lessons had to be started at fundamental levels as some science concepts were not known to the moon people. The lack of knowledge of physical materials on the earth by moon people was also recognized as a constraint. This was the case especially in respect of metals. Within the last few months the notes that Dooda and his colleagues had taken from the video teaching lessons had been enormous. Surprisingly all the moon scientists were very smart at understanding most of the theoretical and practical aspects of the teaching material that the SETI-NASA team delivered. Their thirst for knowledge could not be quenched with what was fed from the earth. Dooda, Loola and all their research colleagues greatly appreciated the knowledge they shared with the earth people. They imagined that one day they would be able to develop all these novel material and gadgetry in the moon.
Since the SETI-NASA team was now in a better position to direct the new friends on the moon they focused on specific study areas. They wanted to understand more and more of the moon’s interior and the life of the people. To fulfill one of the requests of Seth, Dooda promised to video record an entire session of their 14th day celebrations. When this daylong event was finally recorded and downloaded to the SETI-NASA center, the team watched it right through without a break. The SETI-NASA team thought the day long festivities represented a characteristic feature of the moon people’s culture, their heritage and the recollections of the moon's incredible tale of an ages-old habitation. An extraordinary feature of the festival was that all the people were the performers as well as the spectators, totally immersed in both roles at the same time. During the performance it appeared as if they were under the influence of some kind of supernatural power. The behavior of the people and the harmony they displayed in various dance performances, patterns and routines, proved that they were in essence human. All the dancing events were spectacularly beautiful. It was astounding to note that all the dance moves had been orchestrated without a designated choreographer or a leader of any sort. Dreams of hope to have an everlasting happy life were cast in the music that they played. Many times over, Seth wondered by himself whether the people of the ancient Mayan culture performed similar ritualistic dances ages ago. He wondered what sort of exotic smells the burning torches would be producing when the dancers threw handfuls of powdery material at the fires. As a unnerving thought, the SETI-NASA team debated among themselves whether the secret of the moon people’s unity lay in the cocktail that they consumed at the commencement of the event. Seth joked with his group of wanting to get the recipe of the cocktail, if possible from Dooda to try out privately. Also to develop it into a lucrative “moon shine” business, because of the enormous public interest in what was going on.
One thing that surprised everybody in the SETI-NASA team was the moon people’s unity, harmony and the governance of the entire moon population without a single leader. The absence of discriminatory divisions among their people the absence of political parties, not having conflicts, not having boundaries to separate them – these were amazingly extraordinary features of their social system. No countries, nothing to kill or die for, no religions - as expressed in parts of the late John Lennon’s song “Imagine” came to their minds. “Imagine there’s no heaven” seemed to be the only contrary part in the lyrics as the moon people believed in a heaven.
As time passed, Dooda and the others learned about the social structures of human societies on the earth and their history. Dooda was very surprised to learn of the enormity of divisions that prevailed among the people on earth. Though he could not understand the words describing race, religion, color, tribes, castes, countries, rich, poor etc., some of the pictures and video illustration he came across conveyed to him the feelings of division and discrimination that prevailed among earth people. Due to the sensitive nature of the moon people, these feelings were unfortunately being assimilated slowly into their brains. Dooda and Loola were the most exposed. Dooda being the pioneer in making contact possible with the earth people, he carried an extra feeling of responsibility to his elders and community. Dooda discussed these issues with his colleagues and elders. In spite of having a warm relationship with the earth people so far, the findings of these discriminatory divisions among earth people disturbed their psyches tremendously. When they learnt about various historical wars and killing of people, the moon people could not fathom at all how it was possible. They wonde
red whether the earth people were partly like carnivorous animals; when they finally found also that people on earth kill animals to eat their flesh as food, they were greatly horrified and deeply upset.
Though Seth and Max were very cautious in divulging sensitive and possibly offensive information to their moon friends, filtering out what were regarded as bad was a gigantic task. It was impossible to prevent every piece of information that might be deemed sensitive to the moon people from ending up with them as enormous quantities of data was exchanged between the two teams. Moreover assessment of what was sensitive to moon people was a judgmental issue. The significant expansion of team members at Seth’s end over the past few months also added to the flow of un-scrutinized material to the moon people.
When the disturbing nature of information received from earth was discussed with the elders by Dooda on the first such occasion the elders cautioned Dooda and Loola. They were asked to ensure that any deficient behavior of the earth people that are not morally acceptable to the moon people should in no way be divulged to or discussed with the moon people. Dooda and Loola understood and agreed.
With time Seth and Max showed Dooda and Loola advanced technical devices and also achievements such as trains, aircrafts, ships, hovercrafts, rockets, international space stations, space shuttles, planetary explorations and even man’s mission to the moon. The purpose was to get them to focus on the technical advancement and the capabilities in inter terrestrial missions of the earth scientists. Seth also thought that all these exchanges would give a hint to Dooda, about a possible future manned mission by Seth to see them personally.
When Dooda and Loola learnt that people from earth already had missions to the moon, they were overwhelmed. Dooda jokingly asked Seth whether he was planning to visit him. Seth asked Dooda if he would like to have Seth as a visitor. Dooda replied yes! yes! yes! yes!. Seth said it will happen very soon. Dooda and Loola were thrilled.
Dooda and Loola thought of the enormous inputs that Seth could bring over to them if he were to journey over to the moon in a spacecraft. Of course their interest was in technical and educational inputs rather than gadgetry as their minds had not been corrupted by attachment to material excitement. Dooda’s brain went into overdrive with the excitement that arose from this news and looked forward happily to the extra knowledge that he could gain. Loola’s smile lit face indicated the same elation as was felt by Dooda. After watching the video clips of the previous moon missions they had no doubt that Seth’s proposed visit would actually take place. After seeing the protective gear that the earth people had to wear when they landed on the moon, Dooda realized how harsh the environment on the outside moon surface could be though it was only just a few feet above their heads. For a moment he thought how lucky they were to be inside the caves. Dooda wondered how Seth would gain access into the cave as the moon people had never ventured into the alleyways found here and there and which they believed to lead to the exterior or moon’s surface.
On an earlier occasion Dooda and Loola had learnt from Seth and Max the exact location of the earth in the solar system but they did not correlate this earth planet which was home to Seth and Max with the place in the sky that was known to them as heaven. However, when Dooda and Loola saw the pictures of the earth taken from the moon surface during the moon missions, they realized that their heaven was the same planet that Seth and Max referred to as their world. The video clips they watched were more than adequate to clear any doubts on this. This puzzled them very greatly.
Though Dooda and Loola were extraordinarily intelligent scientists, they had been brainwashed from their childhood to believe that the beautiful object in the sky that they could see from certain locations of the moon’s cave structure was the heaven where ultimately they would go to after death. Dooda has seen the heaven as a teenager during the short time he was traveling with the others. It was believed to be a very pleasant place full of pleasure and joy. Dooda’s mind started scrolling further “When our soul reaches there, we acquire beautiful youthful bodies ideally made for us to enjoy all the pleasures and joy available. How could this be wrong! Have I understood these things right? These psychological disturbances nagged and haunted both Dooda and Loola over and over again. Dooda and Loola openly discussed their spiritual heaven and the conflicting evidence from the earth people. If Seth really lived in the heaven that they saw, then why was there so much discrimination, wars, killings, evil, and differences in that world, contradicting all we believed argued Loola. Though Dooda was a scientist of high caliber now he had fallen into a state of severe psychological stress, worrying about what was going to happen to his soul after death. The only spiritual comfort he had enjoyed almost from birth had been permanently and irreparably shattered. The beautiful object in the sky that he had admired and gazed at a number of times in his life had now undergone a drastic change and the idea that it was heaven reduced to a mere myth. He could not reconcile himself to the new upside down situation that he discovered nor could he find a source of comfort from the psychological disaster he experienced. Though the moon people had a system of belief that was almost totally lacking in dogmatism; yet the heaven concept was a strongly conditioned seed in their psyche. As they could see this heaven outside their world there was no doubt in their minds as to whether it existed or not. Their heaven was an object clearly visible to them from certain parts of the moon unlike the heaven believed in by the people on earth who only conceived of it in their imagination.
At the usual video meeting on the next day, Seth and Max sensed keenly that Dooda and Loola were experiencing major emotional problems, but they could not figure out what might have caused it. Seth did not get any clues from Dooda when he specifically inquired about it. “Have we done anything inappropriate to these extremely sensitive people?” Seth thought for a moment. Dooda and Loola requested Seth to playback the video clips showing the pictures of earth taken from the moon surface. Seth obliged without any hesitation or asking any questions. It appeared that Dooda and Loola were watching the clips very intently. Seth thought Dooda and Loola were seeking to better understand details of Seth’s intended visit more clearly. A few times when Seth tried to explain some aspect of the moon mission, the lack of interest shown by Dooda and Loola indicated that they preferred to watch the clip than listen to him. Dooda and Loola were also whispering to each other but their voice levels were too low for the microphone to pick up.
The video clips on the past moon missions more than confirmed that the same place that they regarded as heaven was the place that Seth and Max lived in. Dooda requested Seth to download the moon mission video to the portable camera as he wanted to show it to the elders. Seth asked Dooda as to why he was making this special request. Dooda was very truthful and explained what was going on in his mind. Dooda said that he had to inform the elders of his discovery and that the video would be helpful to convey the relevant information to them. Seth remembered that he was warned not to discuss belief aspects with the moon people by an advisory group in his team in the early days of the encounter. Notwithstanding the warning advice, Seth tried to explain some aspects of the belief system in his world. Dooda found them to be a heap of mythological concepts which had not brought any good to Seth’s world as proved by the existing cruel and discriminatory nature of events in that world. “So, why is Seth trying to dump those ideologies on me?”, thought Dooda. Following close on this thought was the next thought, “Seth is an intelligent man from a technologically advanced world but he did not talk intelligently on this subject, what could be wrong with him?”. Dooda ended the session early, after saying “Bye! Bye!” to Seth. This was the worst session that they had ever had.
After meeting the group of elders later on, Dooda and Loola explained to them the purpose of the meeting. On seeing Dooda’s face the elders knew that he was in some sort of distress. Dooda either pretended that he did not hear the questions or genuinely did not grasp the questions that some of the elders asked. The elders already k
new of the strong friendship that Dooda had with Seth and the mammoth knowledge base that was freely put at the disposal of Dooda by Seth and Max’s group. Dooda informed the elders of Seth’s planned visit to the moon. The elders were jubilant and wanted to know more details of when and how Seth proposed to make the journey. The elders could not understand the cause of the depression that Dooda and Loola had. “Aren’t they happy about Seth’s intended visit? That cannot be” thought the elders.
Dooda was seeking to explain why he came to see the elders. He thought the information on the past manned missions to the moon would make the elders understand how Seth would come to visit them and also expected it to catch their attention as to what actually was Seth’s world. When Dooda played back the moon mission video clips on the tiny portable camcorder screen all the elders congregated to watch like a group of children. They were utterly amazed by the vast technological advancements of the earth people and probably felt small too. All the news that the elders had been watching and getting daily from earth was near magical and wholly alien to them. However, their innate level headedness kept them on at their normal life routines. When the elders saw the pictures of earth taken from the moon’s surface they immediately knew what it was. It was the familiar picture of heaven that they had seen from several Cities many times over. Dooda explained to them that it was not any other but also Seth’s world. All the people, animals, other objects and rituals and activities they had been seeing and watching all this time were from that world. The elders vehemently disagreed with Dooda. They explained that what they saw from various cities was heaven and it could not be the same as Seth’s world. Elaborating further they said “People like Seth, though technically advanced, cannot be from heaven. Heaven is not a technically advanced material world. It is a beautiful natural world, with peace and serenity. From the moment you are there you enjoy everything. There is no sorrow, only happiness and you live forever. The people on Seth’s world eat meat, they kill animals, they have wars and they are beings with divisive and discriminatory traits. So they could not be living in heaven. We warned you from the beginning not to show their socially unacceptable behavior to our people. They are not from heaven”. Loola joined Dooda to jointly explain that the elders were totally mistaken. They played back the moon mission video clips a few times and each time pointed to different portions of evidence in support of their conclusions.
Finally the elders yielded and accepted Dooda and Loola’s verdict and the entire gathering was plunged in a deeply reflective and painful moment of silence. The elders were very upset about the new position that arose. Here was a moment that dealt a very destructive blow to their psyches. A revered idea that had existed over thousands of years without threat or challenge was shattered a few seconds. More than half of those at the meeting including elders also were dumbfounded and motionless as if they had lost the power of speech and movement. The eldest of the elders broke the silence. He said “Well, this is a serious matter. We have been living in our world for thousands of years with our traditions, habits, unity, harmony, tolerance, peace, care and a trouble free and simple system that kept us content without any problems. All these years we did not have a method of comparing ourselves with any other beings elsewhere. We did not know or even imagine that there could be worlds outside our own, with life forms. But a few years ago, we accidentally encountered highly advanced beings from another world. We got much information of their life patterns from them. Some are very, very interesting while some others are brutal and even difficult to believe or understand. The time has come for us to open our eyes, learn from our observations and decide how we should fashion our path from now onwards. I was shocked when I realized that the heaven that we believed in was not what we thought it was. It is somewhat the reverse of what we imagined, with a terrible history and practices of cruelty. This will be shocking news to all our people and will generate devastating psychological shocks on the whole community resulting in irrecoverable damage to their minds. The social systems that helped us to exist in peace and harmony for millions of years will change drastically and could eventually cease to exist if we divulge this information to our brothers and sisters. As such we must now all promise each other not to divulge the new findings to anybody else. This is our duty as responsible citizens of the moon. After the twelve of us present here are dead and gone, nobody among the community will knows about this. I think this is the only way that we can contribute to our society to preserve our traditions and help prevent its destruction. I believe that this is the duty we are bound to perform and it will be our biggest contribution to our community”, he then fell silent. Everybody nodded their heads indicating their agreement. He started to talk again, “Dooda and Loola, we really appreciate the enormous work that you have done for our society. I know it is a very difficult thing for all of us, especially for you two, to agree to this. But we should immediately terminate all connections that we have with the earth people and go back to the normal life routines that existed before all these events took place. I know you will all do it for our people. Please maintain dead silence on this matter and do not discuss anything or tell anyone why we had to do this”.
Everybody looked at Dooda and Loola.
This was a shock for Dooda and Loola. Loola looked at Dooda thinking he might have something to say. Dooda tried to speak but no words would come out - he seemed to be about to have a mental breakdown.
Summoning a great deal of courage Dooda asked the leading elder whether he could speak to Seth for one last time. He said he would explain all these things to Seth and request him not to seek to communicate with them or plan any mission to the moon to meet them in the future. The leading elder looked at the other elders. All nodded their heads to indicate their agreement to his suggestion. The leading elder requested Dooda to contact Seth as soon as possible and complete the task within a day or two.
As a final statement, the leading elder requested Dooda to take action to destroy the TV screen if Seth did not remove it from their vicinity. All these measures were discussed and arrived at in a very gracious manner. However, the tone of the leading elder’s voice indicated the inherited, authority and finality of a typical elder evolved through thousands of years within a proven successful and unbroken social system.
Dooda handed over the camcorder to Loola as he did not want to hold on to it anymore, symbolizing the near end of his link with the earth people. He then started walking back to the research station very feebly. Though Loola was following him, the emotional environment they were in did not warrant conversation. Halfway down, Loola separated from Dooda and headed towards the probe location. Dooda saw Loola going towards the probe but did not ask any questions. After having a last look at the camcorder Loola put it in the special slot it was meant to be placed in. The team on earth on duty at the time wanted to speak to him but Loola walked away at a faster pace than usual. The team wondered this was done deliberately. The team members on earth wondered what was going on with Loola, as they had never seen such behavior in him before.
Dooda was a completely broken man now. He was not sure how he could convey the sad news to Seth and the group on earth and then make an abrupt termination to their warm relationship. The fact that he had to talk to Seth for the last time and cease all communications with the outside world from the very next moment, was an extremely traumatic emotional stress that his mind would not be able to cope with. Neither Dooda or Loola could sleep restfully anymore, they were both thoroughly depressed.
As the issue of faith figured as a topic in their previous discussion Seth and Max immediately sought advice from Shelton Dawkins who was an expert on human psychology. After absorbing the details of all that had happened, Shelton mentioned faith as a very emotional & delicate subject to deal with and blamed Seth for discussing it with the moon people. Shelton narrated the whole debacle as follows: “Hell, heaven, angles, ghosts and similar things that people believe are only mental projections. Proving or disproving the e
xistence of these mental objects is not possible. Assume that we people on earth see a four foot diameter moon like space object in the sky. This object is visually bigger than the moon and blue in color and shines like a gem. This object is millions of light years away from the earth, but due to sheer size, it still looks large when viewed from earth. Say, due to the vast distance from us, it is impossible for the scientists on earth to get any information on this object other than to obtain an idea of the material that it is composed of, from a light spectrograph. Thousands of years ago when we became hunter gatherers someone introduced it as or claimed that this object was heaven. As nobody could prove or disprove this idea and this concept really helped to keep our mind and body in harmony the people on earth believed that this was in fact heaven. They already had a description of heaven which was that it was a place of happiness happier than any happiness one can feel experience or imagine. People were even ready to commit suicide to protect this idea. If a scientist denied this or someone even drew a cartoon ridiculing this idea the ardent believers would become very violent and militate against such challenges. Irrespective of any strong arguments that might try to pull down this idea, the idea will survive until it is conclusively proven to be wrong. The large blue colored shining gem in the sky is our heaven and this idea symbolized by the object helped us over millions of years. When we are in trouble we go out, look at it and offer prayers seeking help from it. We get immense relief from our troubles at least psychologically every time we perform such rituals. Some practices involve animal sacrifice to obtain help from heaven to achieve favor. This builds up our faith in the object over our lifetime and we pass it on from generation to generation. People might perform paranormal acts or misinterpret natural events as miracles but somehow they attribute all these things to the blue big object in the sky as we believe in the idea which we have been brain washed to believe”.
“Say all of a sudden a satellite which was sent by man 500 years ago managed to go past this object and sent pictures and other data to the earth. The pictures show that it is a barren object just like the planet Mercury and the surface temperature is thousands of degrees and the blue color is due to ionized gas. This is proof of the ordinary nature of the object. Then what happens to faith. What happens to the psyche of the man in faith? What is the impact on society, the conglomeration of people who shared a common belief?
Belief and realization of truth are two facets. For example, say someone tells you that he has a gem enclosed in his fist. If we think what he says is true then the mental accord we constitute is "belief". The very moment he opens his palm and shows the gem the belief does not exist anymore and it turns into a state of "knowing". In fact that moment gives you a state of realization of the truth. As such, there is a difference between belief and actual realization or experiencing. Mental streams that are associated with belief systems always have a certain degree of doubt attached, as per above logic. Belief dangles from the thread of doubt.
I believe this is exactly what happened to Dooda. He could not accept the actuality that he realized as he was a slave to his belief system. So when you talk to him the next time, have this in mind. It will be a gigantic task for you to talk around it. I believe this is what caused him to get upset”.
Shelton is dead right! How did he explain it so accurately?
Dooda and Loola reached the signal spot the next day at the usual time, perhaps to talk to Seth’s team for the last time. Only these two were there; presumably Loola instructed the others not to accompany them without giving reasons. From the first word Hello! from Dooda; Seth, Max and the entire team who were at the earth station realized something had gone terribly wrong. With a lot of courage but with a heavy heart, Dooda started to talk.
“Dear Seth, Max and other friends… A few years ago when we received your LASER beam, we did not know what it was. We were fascinated by its glow; we touched it initially with fear thinking it might burn us. It did not, and then we played with it and enjoyed ourselves too. I blindly turned Loola’s light beam to respond to your signal. I did not know that action would lead to an inter-terrestrial friendship. It is an unforgettable experience and the warmest friendship I have had in my lifetime. I will not be able to forget it however much I might try. I know you feel the same way. We were more than thrilled to learn that there were people beyond our world. We always thought people have to live inside the caves rather than on the surface until we saw your world. We were fascinated at how technically advanced your world was. Your group learnt our language in a very short time and was able to speak to us very fluently, making us comfortable to communicate with you freely. It gave us a feeling that we had been friends for hundreds of years. You taught us a lot. We are very appreciative all what we learnt from you and we are indebted to you for forever. You gave us an exposure to your world that is still unimaginable to us. Every second that we were in touch with you, was an extremely happy and exciting moment. The pleasure we derived from those moments were even recollected in our dreams. And sometimes we felt we were in your world. When you said you will be visiting us, I was thrilled beyond words and I was looking forward to it.”
Dooda was silent for a moment and was feeling uneasy. Loola passed on to him the container of water he had. Dooda sipped from it and continued his talk. Seth and the team knew he was preparing to say something unexpected and sad, but did not interrupt.
“You might wonder what I am trying to say. I will try to explain it briefly. Though we had been conversing with each other for some time, we really did not know exactly where you were from. I might have misunderstood it, and did not consider it seriously when I saw some of the pictures of your world taken from outer space, earlier. However, when I saw the video clips of your people landing on the moon, we realized that you were from the exact same world as the beautiful gem like world we can see from some of our cities. The people in the moon call this world the “Pleasure Place” heaven. In your language it is “Heaven”. All of us in the moon believe that after our death we end up in heaven to enjoy an eternal life with nothing but joy and pleasure. Probably you may not be able to understand and I will not be able to explain how deep rooted this belief is among our people. With no disrespect to your world, when I realized my future dream world was not what I really imagined, I felt greatly tormented and took a long time to console myself. It was my duty to break this news to our elders. So, I summoned the group of elders in the city for a meeting. When I informed them about your visit, first they were very happy. After I showed your moon mission video to the group to show the possibility of your visit they were more than thrilled to understand it would soon become a reality. However, when I explained to them that you all live in the world that we believe to be heaven, all the elders had disappointments and mental agonies similar to the depression I had. You might not be able to understand the depth of that hopelessness and I will not be able to explain it in words either. We simply cannot divulge this to our fellow people. It will have an enormous impact on our social life that has been flourishing for thousands of years. All our people will be mental wrecks in no time. Look at me”.
Dooda sobbed again, looked at Loola who was looking down. Courageously he continued.
“I have got instructions to talk to you for the very last time and to end our relationship at the end of this speech. As you know I am the person whose efforts resulted in contact with your world. I have a duty to perform to our fellow citizens for their protection, welfare and harmony. I need to respect our elders and carry out their instructions. As you know our society works this way. I need to fall in line and respect the traditions we have been practicing for thousands of years. As you know we do not have written rules or a leader to report to; but this is how our system operates. The integrity of the system is more important to me than anything. It is my duty to honor the system. With utmost reluctance I am compelled to make some requests from you, Seth. Seth, I trust that you will honor my request. Please, please, do not visit us. Make sur
e that nobody from your world will ever try to find us again, or send probes or any other investigative devices. Please, never send the LASER beam to us again. If any of these things happen then all that will be attributed to my irresponsible first action. Please understand me. After my last words please remove the screen, all other implements, retract the rod from the cave and take all the equipment up there to your world. This is my last conversation with you and after this I will never be coming back to this spot at all, ever. Finally I must say that I will never forget you and the others. Our friendship is so spacious like the enormous space between the two worlds. While I am feeling it so hard to say the final word goodbye to you, it tells me how lucky I am as I understand why I feel it so hard in me. For me this is worse than death. Though we are forced to depart, we are true friends forever. Our wounds will never heal but trust will become tools to be in touch with each other silently and closely. Rather than crying, if possible I will try to smile because it happened. The foot prints that you have left in our hearts will be there forever. I am truly sorry about this abrupt end to our journey. For the kindness you extended to us I am indebted to you. I wish you happy adventures, new friendships and peace for your world. I trust you will honor my request. Thank you.”
After that he looked at Loola. Loola simply said “Thank you” and joined Dooda who was walking away from the scene. Seth and Max were stunned by all this but did not waste even a fraction of a second to respond. Seth said “Dooda, Dooda, please listen to me. I perfectly understand what your situation is, and what exactly you are requesting from us. But this should not be the way we should end our friendship. Can we talk? Can I talk to you tomorrow?”
Seth continued pleading with Dooda and Loola to stay back. He adjusted the probe’s sound volume to the maximum presuming that he could catch their attention but it did not help. He was thoroughly disappointed. Dooda’s talk was so emotional and intense, Seth could not think properly. Parts of what Dooda said kept reverberating in his mind making him more upset. It was the same emotional situation for all who were there with Seth. They could not imagine what impact this news would have on the entire population on earth as the entire population had fused in as an integral part of the whole episode.
Seth and Max contacted all the counseling bodies they could access and called for an immediate meeting to discuss possible courses of action to be followed. After briefing on the line of events of the past few hours to all the participants, Seth inquired into whether there was a way out to get his moon friends back to talk. The meeting had more silent moments than discussion periods. This was partly due to awaiting more people to join over the phone lines. Seth began to sort out his strategies and linked the meeting with many of his top notch collaborators from many parts of the world who personally supported his work. Some were UN representatives who could influence many governments in the world. The meeting which was started with about 30 people initially, gathered more participants with the spread of the bad news, and finally had over 200 participants either physically at the meeting room or through other communication media. Whoever was requested to join did not think about how busy they were, time of day or any other factors that would otherwise have kept them out. Whole hearted prompt participation was seen due to the gravity of the situation. Abrupt termination of contact with the moon people was highly unacceptable to those who participated in the meeting or for that matter, for the entire world population, as the emptiness that was created could not be taken lightly. News on the moon people and their interaction had become an ingrained part now of the lives of all people on earth after regular broadcasts had become the order of the day for the past two years. It would turn the entire world into a state of utter dejection and for how long the impact of the abrupt termination would last in peoples’ minds was a difficult question to answer.
The participants did not feel the time passing as the discussion meandered into various topics and directions. Though it had already reached fourteen hours after it was started, nothing conclusive was forthcoming as a remedy. Most of the time was spent on assessing the grave situation that everyone would arise in the future, if the moon people held firmly to their decision not to ever talk to them again. NASA had to decide whether they should stop or go at a low pace on the work on the planned manned mission to the moon. Many dignitaries indicated that they could persuade their governments to comply with Dooda’s request of not contacting them again if that was the eventual decision to be adopted. No one suggested aggressive or invasive action to reach the moon to find out more about the moon people and their social structures. However some religious leaders indicated that people on earth had a duty to educate the moon people about the “truth” though nobody knew what that meant. Other than a suggestion to keep the observation activities to a minimum for a week or two and then review the situation at a later date, nothing concrete stood out as a feasible remedy at the end of the meeting. Seth and Max were not happy about the outcome of the meeting. Many times during the discussions Seth said he was obligated to Dooda to fulfill his request at any cost.
During the discussion some participants quoted references from scholarly articles published in accredited journals on this subject. According to those references, the scholars advocated complete non-interference by man to isolated human societies similar to the one found on the moon. The same policies were advocated even for small isolated human groups that have been remotely encountered in distant areas on the earth in places such as Amazon jungle. Such papers explained how modernized civilizations could influence and destroy in very short times, well established societies thriving for thousands of years. Seth and Max’s brains were full of these ideas, suggestions and assurances given by participants. The meeting was adjourned after sixteen hours. After consulting Max, Seth directed all his team not to operate anything in the cave but keep their eyes and ears open on the instruments. By any chance if any one comes back to the vicinity of the camera, Seth wanted to be summoned immediately. With these instructions Seth ended his very long and disappointing day.
Loola went to see Dooda at his room on the following day, at their usual meeting time. Dooda was fast asleep. One of his colleagues told him that Dooda was not feeling well and went to sleep early. Loola hung around to talk to Dooda as he did not have anything to do. He too did not have proper sleep either. When Dooda got up Loola realized how weak Dooda was, and attributed the cause as the previous debacle. Though Loola said hello to Dooda, Dooda was silent and was constantly staring at a wall like a lifeless statue. Loola brewed a tea like drink and both shared it hot. After Dooda’s cup was empty Loola filled it up and served his cup as well. They were not talking to each other but their body language was suggestive that they were sharing each other’s sorrow and feelings. After about 40 minutes Loola indicated that he was leaving. Dooda made a gesture to him to wait for a while, and then he pulled out the very first poster he got from the probe, the only souvenir he had from Seth, and kept it on Loola’s hand. Both looked at each other’s eyes. Loola decided to take it with him. Respectfully, he bowed down, touched the right shoulder and left Dooda. Not a single word was spoken during all this time.
Seth and Max had been very disappointed for the last six days as nobody came to the vicinity of the probe. Other than a few birds that flew by and occasionally pecked at the camera to test the strength of their beaks, nothing was detected. Many times Seth thought that he would pull out all the equipment as Dooda requested and retire from his work. He had enormous support and encouragement from his fellow staff and influential people of reputed organization from very many countries, from the inception of the project. Some of these organizations provided enormous amounts of money and continues providing huge financial assistance for the moon project. As such Seth was compelled to think broadly, not only to accommodate his aspirations but of others. He decided not to do anything foolish. But just like Dooda, Seth too was emotionally crushed after listening to Dooda’s unexpected farewell speech.
Surprisi
ng everybody, on the seventh day all of a sudden the SETI-NASA center observed someone coming towards the probe. Seth and Max rushed to the station in double quick time. It was Loola. Seth increased the brightness of the light in the probe slightly so that they could see Loola clearly. Loola appeared very excited but sad. He looked at the screen which was at the usual position. He said “Seth and Max”.
Seth jumped and said “Yes Loola, how are you. We are happy to see you. Are you OK?”
Loola said “Seth, I did not expect all these things to still be here after Dooda’s request. After I saw this from far and as we were very good friends I decided to come here and convey this news. I do not have much time. I have very sad news for you. Dooda is no more with us now. He was buried this morning. His health declined after he was here last. Please respect Dooda’s last request and take back your equipment. He trusted you so much. Please, please, please”. After saying these words Loola ran back in the direction he came from.
Seth immediately transformed into a different person as if possessed. He took control of the command center over all the satellites and the other equipment on the moon. As a first step he directed Collie to move towards a steep moon crater which was about five miles from the location it was at that time. He set the speed of it to the maximum it could achieve and ensured that it was moving. Nobody interfered or questioned his actions. Then he folded back the screen and retracted the telescopic rod back to master. He then carefully selected the coordinates of another crater. Max and the other staff realized that Seth was trying to eject “Master” and crash it into the crater. When their facial expressions indicating disapproval were noticed by Seth he took one single look at all of them that virtually made them freeze. Due to the sheer respect Seth earned during all these years no body wished to influence what he was trying to do.
On the pilot panel reserved for Collie’s controls, the radar screen lights flashed to indicate it was heading beyond the controllable distance from Master. Though there were many audio and visual warning signs to stop its movement, Seth’s attention was somewhere else. Nobody had the temerity to override Seth’s action. The sudden stop of any signals coming from Collie indicated that it would have tumbled down into the crater. As an expert space vehicle commander, Seth relayed commands to “Master” to rise from the ground. He then maneuvered Master towards the crater that he selected and made it turn around and crash onto the center of the crater. Then he commanded all the satellites to fly out of their orbits and crash on the near side of the moon. Everyone there knew the project was over. They were concerned at what harmful effect might befall Seth.
Seth cried like a baby and mumbled to Max that he was happy that he fulfilled Dooda’s request. The atmosphere at the center was quite the opposite of what it was on the day that they spoke to Dooda and Loola for the very first time. It did not take much time for the news to reach all corners of the world. People had mixed reactions on Seth’s actions.
Seth summoned a meeting with all those who joined him at the last meeting as he had to make a statement.
Many of Seth’s friends spoke to him personally over the phone commending his action but some blamed him for been hasty. The invitees to this emergency meeting did not give as much ready attention as the previous time. After he got about fifty companions for the meeting he explained fully the reasons behind his actions.
He said “As human beings we should respect each other more than anything. Now I could visualize the damage we were doing to the moon people’s society with more and more of our influence and interference. Dooda’s speech was an eye opener to me in the matter of respecting each other’s belief systems on which human societies are built. Everybody should realize the amount of influence that a belief system can have on the structure of a human society. Belief systems influence the architecture of our buildings, the food we eat, legal systems we follow, our customs, rituals we observe and how we behave”.
He continued, “When I was very young I dreamt of being able to communicate with an alien in my life time. I did exactly that. I am happy and sad about the can of worms that I opened. I will not be engaged in this line of work in the future and urge everybody to respect Dooda and honor his request. I am leaving this message to all my global friends in many countries to influence their governments to honor Dooda’s request. All human beings with good conscious should do that. I am to be blamed if anyone starts looking for moon people again. I thank all who supported me in various ways to accomplish my dream”.
Just as Seth was about to finish his farewell speech with the announcing of his retirement, he was passed a small note from his partner and friend Max.
The note read: Twenty five minutes ago a secret CIA Bulletin was issued on detection of a rocket launch from earth; Evidence so far, strongly points to it being a mission to the moon launched from a location in the Asian region. Separate evidence has also emerged of a strong worldwide interest in prospecting for “Babaloniums”. Speculation is rife that this might be one of the primary goals of the mission…….……”
“Oh, shit!” exclaimed Seth, banging his head on the desk.
"There is enough for everybody's need, but not enough for anybody's greed" - Mahatma Gandhi
~~~
Our Extraterrestrial Neighbors
Buddha Impetus to Primitive Psyche
Self – A Delusion?
Are We Being Fooled By Our Brains?
The Phone Rang in the Middle of My Shower
Thinking Explored
Our Psyche and Beliefs
DoooD
Books Written by Shelton Ranasinghe
SELF – A DELUSION?
ARE WE BEING FOOLED BY OUR BRAINS?
BUDDHA IMPETUS TO PRIMITIVE PSYCHE
THE PHONE RANG IN THE MIDDLE OF MY SHOWER
OUR EXTRATERRESTRIAL NEIGHBORS
THINKING EXPLORED
OUR PSYCHE AND BELIEFS
DoooD
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends