Pure and Simple

Anne Arturo-Siddhe's Diaries
[These are excerpts from her upcoming book Helping the Next World.]

I saw them arrive. Hard to believe it was only four months ago. A swirling
hole of light and color opened in the middle of the sky. I'll never forget
my seventeenth birthday. One by one the four of them crashed into my
reality. One woman and three men. One of them quite handsome. They saw me
before I could run away.  They didn't seem too thrilled to be seen.

Wade was quite appalled with our way of life. Apparently they had been to
"low tech" worlds before, but she couldn't understand our ways. You should
have seen their faces when I showed them the history texts. Oh Creator,
you would've thought I'd killed the Kingmaker's myself. She was stunned by
the fact we'd colonized several worlds within our system and beyond. And
then we left it all...

Rem went crazy over the folk music from the Colonial times. I've never
heard "Amazing Grace" sung before. I'd only ever seen the words. I thought
it was just a poem. But his voice made it a miracle to hear. I even got
him to write down the notes. I had Sarah play it after they left. It was
starry on the synth.

I guess the ones that really jump-started our sense of purpose were Ryan
and the Professor, or Max as he asked me to call him. Max looked at our
family vault and he said that our old tech could free worlds. He showed me
the diagrams and equations abandoned by my ancestors. His timer was the
product of that tech, had they followed through.

Imagine for a minute, whole worlds enslaved. Why would anybody enslave a
world? That just goes against the grain. After it's why Colonialism ended.
We couldn't do that. But the question is: can I convince my people to help
these others? Can we rediscover our roots?

***

Wow. It's been two months since I had a chance to get back to this. I'd
wanted to explain these offworlders. Wade was this strange mixture of iron
strength and complete misery. She'd been through some bad stuff. She told
this dream she'd lived a few worlds back. I could still feel the agony.
The man of her dreams had come back to her, he'd shown her the world and
then she said things had changed. It had all gone dark. He'd become cold
and distant, leaving her alone and afraid. Apparently, Rem had been great
about keeping her spirits up.

Talk about a contrast, Rem and Max. One was their leader and inspiration
while the other was the logical choice for those roles. Black and white to
the core  they were a study in duality. Yet, what they've done for my
world is--well, the words just won't come.

Ryan is the one who jump-started me. His talk of all these other worlds.
And his obvious pain at those who had been left behind. Not members of
their "family" but those still imprisoned. He met his father, his dead
father. I guess, Ryan had never forgiven his father for dying and for the
sin of living. It shook him, to the core. Things since then hadn't been
easy on Ryan, but his passion about the prisoners and slaves shattered my
complacency. How could I not show my people the way.

***

We opened the first portal today. Our first step to a new frontier. Dr.
Jessa Mallory-Wells has the distinction of being the first of Earth Zeta
to slide. We've logged and cataloged the world. She brought back a list of
essential items for the teams we'll be sending out. We've decided to start
with twelve hour intervals. Soon we should find these enemies--these
Kromaggs.

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