(LSWC) Elevation

As we zoom in on planet earth of the year 2235 we find vast greenscapes sparsely populated by 2 Million people, only a few thousand per village. Each village typically features a few white and bright round, spiral and cone skyscrapers made of a luminiscent, malleable glas-like material. Each building is connected through escalator-like transport but the people also use hoverboards to travel from place to place. The technology used is clean and silent.

This is the utopia the elite had dreamed of. But it is an utopia built on blood. Billions were wiped out in a mass-genocide-plot carried out a century ago and this new world of prosperity, peace and creativity arose from its ashes. I don't want to go back there to those horrible events so we will zoom in on one of the planets main governmental buildings. A window on the top floor, inside it a penthouse-like area and there I am sitting on a lounge cushion meditating.

I am a butler or assistant and my master is the one who people call The Lord. So that this most beautiful planet may continue to prosper I have to keep a dark secret. I don't even know to which extent The Lord is aware that I´m aware...aware of his foul play.

“Why do you need people to worship you?” I once asked over a cup of liquid.

“I don't need it. They do. They need a sense of orientation and guidance. They need to think that someone in this vast, stone-cold, empty universe knows the way, knows what to do. Without me, they are lost.”

“But you don't know any more than they do. You just make things up” I insist.

“For their own good. They look up to me. If they realize I don't have a clue, they´ll go crazy with disillusionment and finally break down in face of the pointlessness of it all”.

Those were the small secrets he let me in on. There were bigger secrets he did not show but I knew them anyway. And even bigger ones I didn't know. Keeping things to himself protected his power.

But who am I to protest? The people are happy as can be. Being zapped - the equivalent of a phone-call - broke my meditation. It was Sara inviting me to a cave party. Even in a society in which everything is perfect and happy, humans are always up to no good because perpetual peace just isn't that much fun. Cave parties were the antithesis to the shiny-clean, orderly, polite ways of the villages. There the wild beast within man would awaken for fighting-sports, games, dance and consumption of a drug called “elevation”.

I stepped on my hoverboard and glided out of the open window, sweeping out of the mini-city over the endless green. The wind, the smell, the sunset, the trees below, filled me with a rush of excitement. I hadn't been out in awhile. I traveled 200 miles of untouched, uninhabited land before reaching this months cave. The party was in full swing. I wouldn't participate in any of the fights since representing The Lord in public not only meant not having any bruises when appearing on global broadcast but also not looking like a fool to the general populace. They all held me in awe as a superstar, something which greatly embarrassed me. Faces would turn as I walked through the cave. People wouldn't talk straight with me because of who I was.

Instead of fighting or dancing I head straight to the chambers of elevation. Sara is an untamed beauty, her dark eyes beckon me to share the ritual of elevation with her and I do. We sit across from each other, the liquid dripping down from above our heads, onto our heads and as we hold our heads up, into our nostrils and mouth. Oh the delicious sweetness of it. A rush of elevation through my being. The fire of infinity burning me. These drug-sessions require me to take a sip and then stare into the eyes of my opposite, for the eyes of another human provide a gateway to the universe. Some of the liquid is still dripping from the side of her mouth as I get lost in her eyes and she in mine. And then it happens like it always does. I'm gone. Wide-open, intense, oscillating vastness.
The Lords words echo through my memory: “A vast, stone-cold, empty universe”. A deep level tone from the distance, coming closer, closing in. This sound indicates a shift in universe. The tone becomes a wave at as it slows down. Colorful gaseous and luminous geometry circle around me. Blissfully awestruck I loose all control as I am sucked through wormhole after wormhole. I am at a place beyond sanity, beyond madness and yet blissful and hyperaware. For every human that has ever died there is one star in the sky. And each star is a portal to another universe. Enter that star, pop out on the other side in a brand new universe populated with trillions of other stars/portals. And so I travel and experience change. And after some while....I randomize. Randomizing is the users term for stopping at any random solar-system and zooming in on any random planet to experience it. This is fun because it's always a surprise.

10 hours later I relax back into the caves chamber. Sara is fast asleep. The party-goers are either gone or also lying around. Fire burns dimly here and there. I want to move and rid myself of the grogginess that makes my eyes loose focus. Stepping around sleeping or battered bodies. Lots of blood from the fights. A guy sprawled out on the floor, his jaw disjointed. Stepping out of the cave into fresh air I see sunrise is near. This mysterious and beautiful planet earth. I love hoverboarding at sunrise. As I approach my village the early morning sunrays reflect on the glass-like buildings.

The force of habit would have it that I fly right back into my window and get some sleep. Habit means comfort and breaking a habit means overcoming inertia. Not that there´s any reason to break this habit of flying right back home. But I am curious. What if...

What if I instead for once, do the only thing that is forbidden? What if I visit The Lords (blessed be his name) private mansion and witness what he is up to? I know some of his foul secrets. I know that he keeps the planets population at 2 Million artificially by killing excess bodies. I know that he thinks he needs to drink the blood of the humans he abducts in order to continue his rule. But what else is there that I don't know? The Lord told me that humans are programmed to want to discover more than whats known. He must be counting on me wanting to find out more about him?

My Hoverboard doesn't quite reach the village but takes a sharp turn. I have a vague idea where The Lord resides. Isn't it pathetic? I'm second in command for the whole planet and don't even know exactly where the Boss lives! But I have a notion based upon the direction The Lord usually goes when leaving the village and based on the strategic maps laid out in my offices. And so it goes, over hills, ponds and rivers. Birds chirp as the only animal life existing on the planet. In the distance another hoverboard flies. A bit unusual at this early hour and considering that this months cave-party is in the opposite direction. You see, the citizenry are mostly habitual and most people would now only be hovering within the village. A slight tinge of fear as I begin to realize that the other Hoverboarder is coming straight at me, coming for ME. Is it The Lord? No it's not. It's a womans wavy long hair. In fact...it's Sara.

“Hey stranger” she smiles as she approaches.

“Hey...” I lamely say. I immediately understand that something is amiss. Why? Because Sara was fast asleep just awhile ago, 200 miles in the opposite direction. In order to be here this quickly she must have only been feigning sleep. But I play along.

“What are you doing out here?” I add.

“Oh, just taking a ride”

“Right. So...me too.”

The situation is awkward. We´re supposed to be close friends and not keeping secrets from each other, but the odds of meeting here by chance are small.

“Care for some bed and breakfast?” she says, trying to break the spell of embarassment.

“I´d really love to, but...” it spills out of me. “I´d rather just fly around alone. I have some things to think about and mental preparations to make for The Lords appearance next week.

“Yeah?” she quizzes. Now I notice how she is actually blocking my path with her hoverboard.

“Yeah...so...see you around, right? Maybe I can drop by tonight.”

In an attempt to fly straight on a make a loop around her. She catches up to me and horror washes through me as she says: “Uh, uh. No you´re not. You´re not going anywhere near The Lords house, kid”. Her voice and eyes have darkened. In the way she expresses herself I quickly realize that this is not actually the girlfriend I know...or thought I knew.

“What the f...” Her foot strikes my face, catching me off guard as I fall from my hoverboard. Throughout the conversation I hadnt noticed that we had been lowering our height from several hundred feet to only ten feet. Which is why I survived the fall suffering a slight concussion. Her board was speeding towards me intent to ram my forehead into the ground. On impulse I turned to the side, causing her to ram her board right into the earth, her fragile body tumbling into the grass.

I had to follow my instincts, no time for reminiscing. I ran straight towards the new enemy, thrusting myself on her, beating her in every way possible. She grabbed hold of my hair, ripping out a chunk, having me scream in agony. We fought like animals, albeit clumsily. You see, our civilization does not use weapons and neither are we well trained in fighting...except for the rebellious who train their skills in the cave-parties. My head was hurting and my sight blurred from the heavy fall. But I managed to force her into a position in which she couldn't move. Heavily panting looking at her hate-filled eyes I gasped: “What...is...this?”

She wouldn't answer, busy struggling to release herself from my grip, spitting in my face. “I thought I was second in command!” I finally yelled.

Her laugh wicked as if I didn't have the faintest clue of how life works.

“I'm going to release my grip if you tell me what's going on”

But the moment I released it she lashed out at me again, apparently hell-bent on murder. Murder is quite unknown to our society, but a more ancient part of me seemed to know exactly what it felt like to be a target for killing. These soft green rolling hills contained no dangerous objects with which to hurt, no jagged rocks or pointed sticks. I had to knock her unconscious. If I just leave her lying here, in the grass, will she come after me when she wakes up? Or will she be grateful that I spared her life and team up with me? Lying in the grass beside her the horror of it crept up on me. The person you consider your best friend, the only person you fully trust, turns out not to be. But kill her I could not. Too many questions still unanswered. I returned to my Hoverboard, shakily stepped up on it and sped towards The Lords residence.

And soon enough it came into view. A black pyramid structure (in contrast to the white of the planet) encircled by a golden oval beam. These beams act as what oldtimers know as “fences”. You cannot pass them unless you´re the owner of a place or invited in. In between the golden circle and the black pyramid a garden bloomed in diverse plant life. And in that garden I could make out a female sitting, reading. As I drew closer I noticed that female was Asian. I had never seen an Asian before, except in screenshows and neither had anyone else on the planet. According to The Lord the Asian race had been eradicated back then in the mass-genocide. And here he was, playing host to an Asian himself! The middle-aged woman startled, got off her chair wide-eyed, as if she´d never seen an outsider before or as if she had never expected anyone to break that one law of not paying a visit. She quickly scurried and disappeared behind the entrance of the building.

To my surprise The Lord himself appeared at the entrance and hand-waved me to come closer. My fear had been replaced by determination to confront whatever it is I have to face about this world. And The Lord didn't seem to mind: “Come on in for a cup of liquid my friend”.

“You really don't mind?”

“It´s natural you would arrive here sooner or later. Curiosity is the driving force of the universe”.

The first thing I noticed was that his home allowed for no sunlight. The artificial light was dimmed as I walked through something reminiscent of a Temple, pillars towering to both my sides. The dominating interior color was one I had never seen used before, much less for buildings. Those who had a name for the color called it “coral” but at that time I did not have a label for it. Before reaching an altar at the end of the hall we turned right, through a door which led down a tunnel passageway and finally into something vaguely resembling living quarters.

To a cup of liquid on a fluffy piece of cushion The Lord began revealed without hesitation: “I created Sara to keep an eye out for you. Compartmentalization is important if you want to stay in power. One side knows nothing of the other.”

“What..she wasn't born?”

“I am her parent in that I genetically engineered her for the sole purpose of being attractive to you.”

A somewhat anti-climatic sobering set over me. Had my whole life been a fake set-up? I always appreciated the frank tone in which The Lord spoke and also that he always spoke with calm. However, I also knew his tactic of admitting to one layer of lies in order to conceal another. But if I were to press him for deeper truths would I leave this place alive?

“You ordered her to kill me”.

“She failed and you survived. That means you have a higher purpose” he responded matter-of-factly.

And he eventually did reveal a deeper layer of it all, one I had only been faintly suspecting. He wasn't human like we were, but vampiric. He depended upon our blood for survival. Our whole civilization was kept running for his survival (and maybe that of other vampires as well?) and personal entertainment. And it was kept happy because the blood of happy humans tasted better. He experienced no real joy like us humans did. His only moment of substitute bliss was when drinking blood. Other than that he felt nothing, hence his philosophy of a vast, stone-cold, empty and pointless universe. I had always sensed there was something wrong with that description of the cosmos, something inherently inhuman but would never have guessed that this was it.

Apart from sustaining his energy level through blood he did so on a more subtle level by the worship and attention people gave him. He was vampirically sucking the admiration of the masses which did give him a little sense of purpose. The drug “elevation” was introduced to society by him in order for humans to gradually become a bit more detached to humanness and a bit more familiar with the concept of a pointless, barren universe. With a little spark of humanity and love removed, the likelihood of a mass-rebellion was greatly reduced.

Standing in front of a crowd of 4000 people and a broadcast to 2 Million people at the monthly planetary briefing event I felt remorse and disgust at what was being done to these people. But I had no choice. I had to stand here and give my monthly report on the advances of civilization, hand out special achievement awards to some of the nominated citizens and give a forecast of projects that lie ahead. Among other things we would have to send out “fresh blood” to our Colony on Mars to avoid disadvantageous phenomena associated with interbreeding.

All those precious human beings down there, looking at me expectantly and full of goodwill. But what was I to do? One misstep and The Lord would have me eliminated, gone without a trace and a substitute easily put in place. And nobody would ask any questions because nobody questioned The Lord. Not that it was forbidden it just never occurred to all these happy people to question Him. Not even I questioned The Lord when taking on this position for my predecessor who had apparently “passed away”. They all had access to the historical archives, they all knew what a happy planet this is compared to the old days. And even if I would achieve in exposing “The Lord” for what he is...would it be for the greater good of these naïve and meek people?

To ask myself questions like this shows that my humanness has already been altered by the Elevation Drug. It may be a nice civilization but it could be even nicer if it was one based on a nurturing, loving and warm universe. “Humankind is more than food for some indifferent force!” my soul yelled from deep within.

I will find a way to make this happen. A way to rid my planet and my people from a force they don't even know about. If you don't hear anything more from me that doesn't mean I didn't succeed, it just means I died in the process.

That was good for the most part, Skyfloating. There were some dark and cryptic passages there. I gave you a star.

Originally posted by Cadbury
That was good for the most part, Skyfloating. There were some dark and cryptic passages there. I gave you a star.

Thanks. I wouldnt mind you being critical...the way I was with yours

Originally posted by Skyfloating

Originally posted by Cadbury
That was good for the most part, Skyfloating. There were some dark and cryptic passages there. I gave you a star.

Thanks. I wouldnt mind you being critical...the way I was with yours

I don't really have anything to criticise. I found the dialogue on the hover board attack a little awkward and difficult to follow, but that's probably more a problem with me than your structure. I've always had difficulty following a dialogue if it's in BB format and not print format.

Good work, anyway, Sir. I enjoyed it, and I think I can understand what you were trying to communicate earlier on in the text, there -- if you were trying to communicate anything with it at all.

Originally posted by Cadbury
I can understand what you were trying to communicate earlier on in the text, there -- if you were trying to communicate anything with it at all.

No, no hidden secret. Just fiction

Originally posted by Skyfloating


No, no hidden secret. Just fiction

You can never trust a fiction writer because you can never be sure that what they tell you off print isn't also a fiction.

Sky, we are soul connected. I am currently pulling down the first part of your story, the part you did not want to tell,,,

reply to post by antar


I figure you wrote yours (link pls?) before knowing about mine?

Fantastic story, Skyfloating.

You say there is no hidden message. But obviously, your comment is just part of the complete subtext. Yeah -- there's plenty of stuff hidden there. Lots.

If you were Philip Pullman they would be analyzing this story in graduate schools, as early as by tomorrow morning. I can see someone spending a lot of time analyzing this story.

Plus -- it was quite entertaining.

Edit: A better link to Philip Pullman is here. This link undoubtably explains why you would deny an inner meaning (which obviously exists!)

[edit on 27-6-2008 by Buck Division]

reply to post by Buck Division


I havent watched or read "The Golden Compass" yet but will soon.

Thanks for the comments. Interestingly people do analyze stuff for a long time because...

...they say the mind needs ten times longer to grasp something than the heart.

Originally posted by Skyfloating
reply to post by antar

 

I figure you wrote yours (link pls?) before knowing about mine?

********************************************************
Had not even placed my fingers on the key board first. But, I do have an idea about the days leading up to the time frame you write about.

I had looked into adding alot of information about missing past civilizations from the Etruscans of 396 BC to 2600-1800 Indus valley and the Olmec's/Mayans, Sumerian, as well as more known dissapearing societies.

I had also planned to write quite a bit about where Science really see's us in the Galactic reality of our Universe.

I just will not have time. Also I am not in the right frame of mind to write what I wanted to about the end times for this civilization, which I also was greatful you spared us in your story.

Now is the time for a more positive outlook and influence, Lord knows we need it. Your story did just that and hopefully mine did too.

Here it is, just got it done this am...'Click on link below'
www.abovetopsecret.com...

I havent gotten to reading it yet antar...but I will and then I´ll comment on it.