The Long Road to Gaia (3 page)

Twelve and I stood at the rear of a typical
1960's living room. In front of us, a family of four were watching a black and
white television set. Mum and Dad seemed to be in their thirties, while the boy
appeared to be ten, and the girl, seven. The boy had a Siamese cat in his lap,
and was idly stroking it while he was totally engrossed with what was happening
on the television.

The grainy, not particularly distinct
picture, was of two spacesuits bouncing around in the dirt, with a strange
looking vehicle in the background.

I turned to twelve.

"1969?" I asked. Twelve nodded.
"The first moon landing then." Another nod.

The picture ended, and returned to a news
desk. The man rose, and turned the television off.

"One day," said the boy,
"I'm going into space. And I'm taking my whole family with me!"

"That's nice dear," said his Mum.

"I don’t want to go into space,"
complained his sister.

"You don’t have to if you don’t want
to honey," said her father.

"Nobody's going into space," said
her mother. "At least not in my lifetime. Bed young lady, now."

Her protests fell on deaf ears, as her
mother gently bundled her out of the room. Her brother continued to sit where
he was, still stroking the cat.

"You believe me Dad, don’t you?"
he asked his father.

"Sure son. Anything is possible in
your lifetime. If they can reach the moon today, it's only a matter of time
before they reach the other planets as well. Maybe even other stars. But son,
not everyone is going to be able to go. Only the best will be picked."

"I'll be the best, I know I
will."

"We'll help you son. But the work is
up to you. You need to get good grades at school for a start."

"I know Dad. Don’t I get good grades
now?"

"Sure you do. But you saw those two
men on the moon just now?"

"Yes?"

"They are the best of the best. Men
have been looking at the moon and wanting to go there, since man first looked
up and saw it. But in the end, only two of them got there. Others will follow,
but of all those who want to go, only the best of the best will achieve their
dreams."

"I'll be the best Dad, but I'm not
going to the moon."

"Where then?"

"The stars Dad. I'm going to our
closest stars."

"Dream big son."

"I already am. I know I won't be young
when it happens, but I know it will happen."

"Hold that thought. Bed soon."

"Yes Dad. I want to sit here with Max
for a while first."

"Sure. But not too long."

The father left the room, leaving his son
looking out the window at the moon.

I felt the need to test this family, to see
if they were different to my expectations. The father had been oddly
supportive, and I hadn't expected it.

I allowed the cat to sense my presence. It
immediately rose to its feet, arched its back, and its fur stood on end. Its
claws came out, and sank into the boy's leg.

"Ouch! What's wrong with you Max? That
hurt."

The cat was looking right at me. It spat in
my direction. I stopped letting it sense me, and watched to see what the boy
would do.

The boy cuddled the cat, talking to it as
if it was a person. He stroked it, and soothed it, until it sat down again. Boy
and cat resumed communion. Stroking resulted in a loud purr.

I hadn't expected this reaction. The boy
obviously loved the cat, and even though it had hurt him, he hadn't lashed out
in anger. Instead, he'd been genuinely concerned about the cat's reaction.
Mystifying.

I left the room and found the mother
reading a story to her daughter. It was uplifting and positive, with no fear or
negativity of any kind. The story ended, mother kissed daughter, turned the
light off, and left, leaving the door a little ajar.

I followed her back into the living room,
where the cat had jumped off the boy's lap.

"I'm going Mum," he said.

She nodded and smiled at him.

As the boy went past a display case near
the door, I pushed against him, and he stumbled into it. A large vase on the
top crashed to the floor and broke.

"I'm sorry Mum," he cried.
"I didn’t mean to do that."

"Careful of the sharp pieces dear. I
know you didn’t mean to. If I didn’t know better, I swear you were
pushed."

"I can't explain it Mum. Something
spooked Max as well. He dug his claws into me."

"Come into your room and show me. We
better check if he hurt you or not."

I watched them leave, broken pottery left
on the floor. No anger. Again I was surprised at the reaction.

I looked at Twelve. The human face was
grinning.

"What's going on here Twelve? Who are
these people?"

"Just an ordinary Australian family,
Thirteen."

"Why is there no anger here?"

"These are spiritual people, evolved
out of the hostilities of the previous decades. The spiritual movements have
begun on the other side of the world, although not yet reached here. But this
family already practice what in the future will become much more commonplace.
As spiritual becomes more mainstream in the next few decades, they will forge a
place in the movements, without giving up on their dreams."

"Is the boy really going to the
stars?"

"Oh yes. But not quite how he expects."

"How so?"

"It will be his son taking him, not
him taking his family. The whole family will go though. At least, those alive
at the time."

Twelve looked at me directly.

"Seen enough?"

I shook my head, and shifted.

The room faded.

I followed the boy to school several days
later, and watched the way humans were interacting with each other.

Here I found what I was expecting, in both
the children and adults.

Anger, greed, selfishness, arrogance, fear.
All the negative emotions were here.

But so too were all the positive ones. The
mix was intriguing. I found it hard to believe so few years could change the
world so much.

I expanded my awareness to cover the whole
world. Ah. Things varied from place to place. Here was mainly a peaceful society
with few guns evident. There was a society in which guns were obvious and
frequently used by ordinary people. The rich dominated some places, poverty
dominated others. And then there was politics, causing all sorts of conflict.

Where was the warfare I expected? Ah, yes,
there it was. Strangely isolated to a small area called South East Asia,
centered on Vietnam. I willed myself there. I followed groups of troops from
all sides of the conflict, watching how they conducted themselves. Brutality
and senseless acts there were, but not on the scale of the 1940's.

I followed the war back to its beginning,
and kept going back looking for the one before it. Korea, a small place, also
in Asia, with a small conflict which never really resolved anything.

I kept going back until I hit the end of
the Second World War. This is where I'd left the last time I’d been here,
vowing not to return. I revisited the atomic bomb blasts which ended this war.

Strange. Lots of little brushfires since
then, but only two wars, neither of which could be called major. Perhaps the
nuclear threat had changed the planet, instead of being its obvious
destruction?

I wound time forward slowly, seeking out
the key events.

Hmmm, something they were calling a 'cold
war', where belief systems worked against each other without actual warfare. I
followed the witch-hunt with the catch cry of 'reds under the beds'. Evil had
found a new outlet with this one, but it came to an end without the level of
bloodshed I was expecting from it.

I arrived back at 1969, and let the
beginning of that year unfold. An event caught my eye, and I followed a
newspaper man forty five years into the future, observing the rise of the mass
media and the way it perverted the truth to achieve mass control of beliefs,
particularly in regard to politics and elections.

I watched the rise of serious global
pollution, and the way the media gave politicians and rich people the reasons
for denial of the real problems, whilst suppressing and ridiculing the truth.
On a whim, I shot three hundred years into the future and found a lifeless
planet. It wasn’t radiation which killed it, just stupidity. I grinned to
myself. Then felt sad for the cats. On the way back, I took note of the space
ships heading out, and noted the cat population had gone with them.

I stopped to watch an event in 2001,
fascinated by the 'disaster junkie' syndrome which had gripped much of the
world. The media preached the bad news, and the disaster junkies demanded more
and more. I watched in sheer amazement as paranoia and fear based politicians
made things worse instead of better. But not all was doom and gloom, as the
fledgling computer networks allowed people to collectively reject the
negativity.

Back in 1969, I examined the various forms
of democracy, communism, socialism, and sundry religious and despot regimes.

The true evil of the 1930's and 40's was
gone, replaced by pockets of petty evil. I looked for the cause and effect, and
found most of the evil causing positives, as good flourished from each incident
of bad.

Money caught my attention. The lack
mentality of the 20's and 30's, displaced by the war, had turned into
prosperity thinking. I followed it forward, observing the Feng Shui energy
changes as an obsession with gold changed to an obsession with electronic
money, as big metal changed to small metal in 1984, and the rise of the
computer changed societies and the way finance was handled. I followed huge
sums of money directed into corrupting politics, and electing incompetent and
foolish people to office.

I watched the change to earth energy in
2004, and the rise of western spirituality which followed over the next decade.

I went backwards through sporting events
until I arrived back in a school yard in 1969.

I caught up with the boy in the playground.
He was with a small group of friends, kicking a ball around.

Off to one side was a smaller group of
larger boys. I shifted my perceptions on the obvious leader, who was exhibiting
bully behavior patterns. Five earthbound spirits were attached to him, as well
as three minor demons, and an Anu. I addressed them as a group and told them to
leave the bully immediately. They refused, so I plucked them off him. They
moved away and stayed to observe, obviously hoping to be able to reattach
later. The expression on the bully's face changed from a sneer to a smile,
showing to me how much the attached entities had been affecting the way he was
feeling. I moved in close to the bully, and attached myself to him. His smile
died.

I tested my level of control over his mind
and body. He was open to suggestion, and I found I didn't need to control his
body at all, just whisper to him what I wanted of him. I focused his gaze on
the boy, and gave him anger. He started forward on his own, heading for the
ball being kicked around, and after pushing one boy over, he kicked the ball
high over a wall.

The boy rounded on him and politely asked
why he had done that. The bully seized him by the shirt with his left arm, and
thumped him with the fist of the other. A ring of boys quickly surrounded the
two combatants.

The boy showed no fear of the bully, and
pulled himself free, stepping back from the next strike. I sent rage into the
mind of the bully, and he surged forward. The boy stood his ground, ducking
under the wildly thrown fists. His own fist struck the bully solidly in the
groin, and he folded up and landed on his side, clutching himself.

The boy backed away, and stood for a
moment, looking down at the bully.

"I forgive you for attacking me,"
he said, turning away, and walking briskly toward the school building, his
friends following him.

I calmed the anger of the bully, and let
him concentrate on his pain. I left him with the impression that messing with
that particular boy in the future was a bad idea, and pain was going to be his
only reward if he did.

Detaching from him, I followed after the
boy, seeing the entities I'd pulled off the bully begin to reattach themselves.

Once in the safety of the building, the
boys found seats.

"Where did you learn to do that?"
asked one boy.

"Nowhere," said the boy. "I
figured I needed to put him down as fast as possible before he hurt me, and so
I hit him where it hurts the most while I could."

"Why didn’t you hit him again when he
was down?" asked another.

"No need. All I had to do was put him
down and walk away. Anything else is retaliation, and only makes things worse
in the long run."

"Aren't you afraid he'll come after
you again?" asked the first boy.

"Not really. He might. Or he might
not. It's really up to him. I'm hoping he'll just go find an easier target next
time."

I left them talking. I’d expected a full
scale brawl, but instead had seen wisdom in a child, who had done enough, and
only enough, to get himself out of a bad situation.

In spite of myself, I realized I liked this
kid. His world had improved a great deal since the last time I’d been there,
and although I didn’t like a lot of the near future, I had to admit that humans
seemed to have learned some things from the war, and a change had begun in
them.

Was it enough for me to care? No. Not about
humans as a species. Not yet. But this boy and his family, yes, they were worth
further study, if nothing else.

I skipped ahead again, sneaking peaks into
the boy's future. He did well at school, joined the air force, and flew fighter
jets. In 1980, his son was born. Father taught son about the stars, and the
need to be the best of the best to get there. The son also did well at school,
and joined the Navy. This seemed an odd choice to me, since the son was a much
better combat pilot than his father in the computer games they were both
playing. By 2015, when I hit a time wall preventing me following this family
any further, the son was an officer on a submarine. Now his choice made sense.
Neither father nor son were called upon to fight a war, but both had excellent
performance ratings. I'd noticed some frustration from the father at his
inability to break into the American space shuttle program, but it was
channeled into being the best officer he could be. Not yet at retirement age,
his career was still on the rise, even though he was no longer flying combat
fighters.

I pondered the time wall, and came to the
conclusion it was part of the meeting's time lock, designed to give me a taste,
but not the whole story.

I willed myself back to the meeting room.