Public Domain Science Fiction Writer Arico Chronicles contents Wai Z contents

When work ended he realised where the pain was, and sought refuge on his own. He began moving from city to town to village, and in the village he moved higher. He learned resilience, resilience the Path gave him but people ate into his strength. He was alone, they were afraid of that. They derided that alone but it was fear that derided. For some the fear turned to jealousy and seeing him alone brought out envy. But it was never an envy that could be admitted as people lived in their towns and cities surrounded by noise and chatter and escapism. He could never escape people even in the village. He was an outsider, always an outsider. He was an outsider even when he had lived places a long time. Because he was outside the traps they subscribed to, this was their envy, his Path. So their fear drove them to attack and he was often hurt. Sometimes hurt in small ways, sometimes in ways that had more venom. These gave him downs. Health was big on this. After work he had learnt that health and food were inextricably linked. Work had taken its toll on his health and the stress had made his body heavy. Once detoxed his body became lighter, was not a burden. But there were years of ill health inside and it sometimes hit him. It hit his strength quite naturally. And when the body was weak he let the meditation suffer, and that made matters worse. Without the meditation he was out of tune and the disharmony brought with it separation and vulnerability. He knew he needed meditation but illness brought with it a weaker mind, and the excuses start. You’re ill, you don’t need to meditate today. It will be OK you’ve done it before, it will come back. And vulnerability sneaks in. And once vulnerable there came the downs, good meditation no downs; but of course life isn’t as straight as that – unless you’re Vulcan. So as he got older he became more independent even though it was physically harder. And he sought the peace of the mountains. Until eventually he found his home. Out walking he found the crag that opened a new world. He had walked past a number of times, but never seen it. Then one time he rested, and as he rested it was like a vision. He stared at the rock, focussed in his thought, and concentrated on where the rocks joined. But then they didn’t. He moved to his left, and there was light. No light wasn’t right, there was space a depth. He went to inspect and there was enough width to squeeze through. And through that crack was the pathway to his new world, his home - with peace – the peace of alone. Squeezing through the gap gave way to more space, a space that opened to a cavern. The first time that was enough for him, he felt that was enough. Who would find him here? But of course there was the space, but there was not the sustenance. The cavern moved deep into the mountain. It would open wide, and then there would be a narrow passage. He pursued. It took him several attempts but he found that his crack that led to space eventually brought him out onto the other side of the mountain. He looked up and around, and all he saw were mountains rising high above him. But there was green below, he sought it. This green became his food, and he built shelter by his sustenance. And the peace was there – mostly. It was only him, now they could do nothing – they could not create downs in him. But as his death was coming he knew he had to go back. What took him back he didn’t know, all he knew was that it took him back. Back to where Carjo found him near death. Was Carjo the one who would dwell in his home? Complete the chronicles. Chaos reigned but few knew. They sensed something was wrong but adaptability was the byword. Warnings, there were always warnings. He gave them, others gave them. But it was too hard. You had to be completely committed to fight them, they made it that way. War, that was it – war. War had always been. To begin with it was heathen, hand-to-hand. So-called dark ages. People would grow, and then others would come and steal. You argued, you died – heathen. So they got together to help, but the thieves were always bigger and stronger. They got together more, and soon there would emerge leaders with armies. So they were protected but at what price? Primitive accumulation. And these leaders took titles and controlled the land, and people grew but gave to the titled – more or less depending on how lucky they were with the leader. But leaders were always greedy, wanting more people under them wanting more land. Their armies became bigger as their land grew. So their armies travelled further afield as the lenders heard of global riches, the leaders and lenders forming alliance. There was accumulation of mutual interest. It became habit to accumulate, the lenders money, the leaders land. And as there was more accumulation the people got less and less until the armies brought wealth from overseas. The people didn’t see much of this wealth but they saw some, and the leaders and lenders found they could accumulate through rampaging armies, offer crumbs to the people and develop kingdoms of great power. The leaders and lenders accumulated as their fortunes and lands amassed. Armies travelled further bringing back wealth and other treasures. Their weaponry improved and soon they became invincible plundering whatever they wanted. And the lenders increased their profits whilst the leaders consolidated their land. But it could not stay simple like this and people in far-off lands did not feel like sending goods back to their leaders, and eventually they cut ties forming their own leaders who accumulated their own lands and developing their own lending-class. Across the globe there developed powerful leaders, and as these leaders came into conflict there would be war, armies fighting armies so the leaders and lenders could accumulate money and power. Some leaders weren’t into all this expansion but they were then under threat often having land seized. Soon the lenders realised that it was not only food and land that they could profit from. Investing in industrialisation and then marketing the produce also brought them great profits, so the leaders built factories made goods and took them to far-off lands to engender profits. Soon they invested more and more in research, what could they make that they could sell. These scientists became a great source of profit for the lenders, and as the science and factories developed there was less and less reliance on the land. Gradually leaders as landowners were replaced by leaders of business, and the leaders and lenders allied through business. But this had risks for the people were attached to the land and saw it as their land to fight for. But business had no interest in country, they only wanted profits. But they needed the people to work to make those profits, and they needed them to buy the produce as well. So the business leaders and lenders introduced puppets. These puppets would pretend to have the interests of the people at heart, and would ostensibly make policies that they argued helped the people. But soon it was apparent that these governments only worked for the business leaders and lenders. As the scientists developed more so transport and communication improved. Very soon far-off lands became easily accessible. At the same time people became more aware of how the leaders and lenders worked. This awareness was a problem so they developed a process of lying. These lies pitted one set of puppets against another, and these puppets sent troops to fight primarily to increase the profits that came from war. But even with the lies people rejected these wars so the scientists developed machines that would fight these wars. So the leaders of business were happy as they could make war machines for profit. At the same time there were people who worked for the lenders. These people discovered all kinds of methods of lending what they hadn’t got. Instead of just lending to the leaders, which was how it started, they began to lend to ordinary people. People let these lenders look after their money so the lenders lent more and more. Soon they lent far more than they had, and everyone knew, but what could they do? If everybody accepted the reality it would all collapse so the governments were tasked to maintain the illusion that everything was OK and people went along with this. At the time Arico was born, this was much the way it was, and he hated it – so unfair. But he was born at the time when the dark ages began. War was exported to other parts of the globe. Businesses involved in the waging of war returned massive profits, and whilst the ruai got richer sufficient got down to the people. The media industry boomed as war profits were ploughed into the media to maintain the delusions that war was being fought for wholesome reasons. Where the wars were being fought the people became angry as their skies were filled with machines that were killing them. In order to maintain trade with the wealthy nations their governments were forced to accept that these killing machines were only killing terrorists, but on the ground the people knew different because their families were being slaughtered. They were forced to look for means to fight back because this was not conventional war. Soon there started global reprisals, called blowback. The ruai countries described this blowback as terrorism, and increased security. Lives in the richer countries became more and more state-controlled because of this fear but the media industry boomed out its messages of self-congratulation. The dark ages had begun, wars for profits, media delusion, fear-based security fighting blowback, and the ruai got richer amidst all this horror – the horror of the dark ages. When Arico was born people were free to speak out because the media were able to control it – develop their spin. But increasingly the words of the dissenters fell on the ears of the people who then began to listen. With the increased security apparatus they knew who said what, and slowly but surely dissenting voices disappeared as the dissenters died in road accidents, police detention accidents, hospital fatalities, etc. It was not difficult to kill people “accidentally” especially when the rewards were so high for the security assassins. But the dissent had two voices, the first was the voice of dissent that was trying to change the societies of the rich, but there was another side – the side that presented the ruai countries in a good light. Once these dissenting voices were silenced no-one believed the governments of the rich, and the blowback increased. The ruai fortified themselves employing huge private armies to protect their families but soon life for them became the life of a wealthy prisoner. The social structure deteriorated as the efforts of the police became more and more focussed on protecting the ruai and quelling the dissent. Life was dark as Arico grew up. The changes that took place were hard to see especially as most people didn’t want to see. In these ruai countries even the poor had some wealth, and the media showed them how the poor were living elsewhere – in war-torn countries where the drones of the ruai destroyed ways of life. So when the ruai media spouted spin of democracy and freedom the poor listened – thankful those drones were not targeting them. Other countries stayed quiet as the drones landed as they feared the drones would be turned on them. And meanwhile the dissenters died – not publicly, not in large numbers; but they died. At first they put them in prison but soon the prisons became overcrowded and cost much. The ruai didn’t mind this because they privatised the prisons – in other words they made more profit from the misery they were causing. More and more the powerful conducted their business behind closed doors whilst the media followed the puppets and the people listened because they wanted to. They didn’t want to with their whole being, most never learned what they wanted. Everyone agreed they had to survive, earn money to survive, so when they could earn some money they accepted because that is what was agreed. All echelons of society began to lose money – except the super-rich who printed more when they wanted it. It was a gradual process, and people just accepted it. More accidental deaths, more dubious prisoners, less dissent. Gradual. But what happened to the people who saw what was happening? They saw but couldn’t speak, they knew but couldn’t say, but Nature, human or otherwise. is to do; Nature is the only hope.