Planetopia
Created | Updated Aug 19, 2003
Chiquita looked around.
The dim room seemed oddly empty for a control room, no bristling display of flashing lights. No three dimensional holographic display with stars and clusters and planets seeming to hover in the room's space.
"How did you get in here?" the man asked.
"I'm sorry, sir. I was, well, I was trying to find some relief from the heat you know and the door was ajar," Chiquita answered.
"Ajar, eh? Well, the automatic lock must have failed, like most everything else on board."
The man seemed preoccupied, yet stranglely focused at the same time. Chiquita couldn't quite make out his face in the gloom.
"Why is it so dark in here?" she asked.
"Dark? Dark you say?"
The man seemed to be chuckling to himself.
"Darkness is a relative term. Actually it's quite bright in here compared to where you came from with only the illumination provided by the stars."
"Yes, I know," she replied. "It's very beautiful though. The sky seen through the ports is spangled with stars and often you can see the sun too for brief moments as the ship rotates."
"Beautiful, well yes, I suppose it is. No ports in here though. No need."
"Why is that?"
"Well, why indeed? Because my dear little wench, there's no reason to see anything. None. The ship is guided automatically."
"Why does it have a control room then? Isn't that what I saw stenciled on the door?"
"Ah, you can read. Very good, very good indeed. Well, how shall I put this? There's a few pieces of instrumentation in here used when the ship is first launched out of orbit to monitor the thrusters. After they've been jettisoned.. you do know what thrusters are don't you?"
"Yes, they propel the ship right?"
"Ah, a veritable genius has found me. Yes, they propel ship out of orbit and then having served their purpose they are discarded to be reused again."
"Is there nothing to monitor the environment inside the ship?"
"No, actually nothing. Why do you ask?"
"Well, I thought that someone would know why it's so hot inside this thing."
"I know why it's so hot, my dear. I don't need instruments to know that and neither do you really."
"I don't understand."
"Well now, of course, why would you?"
The man seemed to be staring at nothing. Chiquita could barely make out his features. They seemed strangely distorted.
"Are you okay, sir?"
"Okay? Of course I'm okay. Why do you ask?"
"I don't know. Nevermind. It's just that.. "
"Yes, it certainly is just that. You don't need instruments you see? You don't need them at all. In fact it will make you dispair. Do you understand that?"
"I'm afraid I don't. Sorry."
"Heh heh.. sorry? Yes, we're all very very sorry to inform you that even if you knew why it wouldn't matter a wit. Because there's absolutely nothing you can do about it."
"Do about what, sir? Aren't we going to reach the new world, Planetopia? There's something wrong with the ship isn't there?"
"Wrong? Rubbish!! The ship is functioning perfectly!"
The man seemed overly agitated and very adamant. Chiquita began to feel a little queezy in her stomach.
"I didn't mean to offend you, sir, but it's getting very hot and you said you didn't have any instruments here so how would you know if it's working perfectly or not?"
"I know, my precious innocent little ditz! I know. I know as God knows. And you don't. That is a blessing believe or not, a blessing which I bestow upon you in my munificent mercy."
Chiquita started to retrace her steps.
"Wait! Where are you going?" the man asked with an edge of annoyance in his voice.
"I'm sorry I bothered you. Please continue with whatever it is you're doing here. I know I wasn't supposed to be in this area anyways but I'm going now so please don't fret okay?"
"No!"
His voice echoed so intensely that Chiquita froze almost in midstride.
"No, you shall not go anywhere now. No one is going anywhere. Do you understand? The seal is broken. These quarters were off limits but you violated that restriction and must now pay the price."
"Please, I didn't mean to."
"I know you didn't. I know, as God knows. But now, you must stay with me, my pretty little ditz until the end."
"The end? There is something wrong. I knew it."
Chiquita could barely contain the panic in her voice. But the man was now blocking her escape with his massive bulk.
"Sit! SIT DOWN!!" he commanded.
Almost without thinking Chiquita complied. The man seemed less agitated.
"There no use disturbing the other passengers. This needn't be cruel, at least not excessively so. You do appreciate that don't you? What's your name?"
"Chiquita, sir, and I'm still not understanding you. I'm sorry."
"Chiquita eh? One of the lovely little brown ones. I can see, yes, I can see that now. Pleased to meet you, Chiquita. I'm Derrick, commander of this vessel."
"You're the captain? I, uh, I'm honored."
"As indeed you should be. I'm the person who is taking you and all your little brown family and friends to the promised land after all."
"Yes, we've heard it's very beautiful there, clean air and water, and green plants, animals, all the good things that once lived on the earth. It seems almost too good to be true. Have you actually seen this Planetopia?"
"Yes, my little brown one. I've seen it.. in my dreams which are just as vivid as yours even though I'm not nearly as brown."
"I'm sorry if I've offended you in some way, sir."
"Call me Derrick. All my friends do or would if I had any friends."
"Uh, okay Derrick. But what are you saying? You've really seen the planet?"
"No one has, my fairly dark Chiquita, no one has ever seen Planetopia. Oh, mind you, that doesn't shake my faith in its existence whatsoever. It is more real than you or I or anyone sojourning to it. You must have faith in that. You simply must."
"Why, Derrick? What's faith got to do with it?"
"Everything, little Chiquita, everything in your world now depends on that faith. Without it, life becomes unbearably cruel."
Chiquita began to fight back her tears. She wasn't sure why the man's words were making her cry.
"There there little Chiquita. Don't cry. You understand now don't you? You understand that the sun gets bigger every time the ship revolves around it and the ports rotate it into view, ever so subtly bigger, hardly noticible, but you've noticed. Your human sense of scale has detected it ever so slightly at the very edge of your powers of perception. And your supple flesh detects the proximity too, your pathetic sweat glands tell you the sunlight is getting ever so slightly hotter. You can tell, can't you?"
Chiquita began to feel faint. She seemed to be gasping far more than usual, more than being on top of the sacred mountain from where she and her village had come to board the spaceshuttle with opulant promises of a better life free from poverty and disease and the polluted mines below. It had seemed at the time too good to be true but dispair made a mockery of doubt.
"I want to go back," she said quietly.
"What's that?" asked Derrick, a note of sympathy maybe playing in his voice. "You want to go back where you came from? Well, don't we all? Back to nature, back to mother, back to the eternal womb, but there's no going back.
The ship is functioning perfectly, precisely following the course set at launch. Only a freak of nature, a collision with space rubble or whatnot could possibly cause it to deviate from the predicted course by more than a few fractions of a minute of an arc.
That's the beauty of universal law. It hardly ever deviates making this entire enterprise feasible. For much less than it would cost to construct concentration camps, gas chambers, ovens, all those primitive instruments of mayhem, we can accomplish the same thing relatively humanely, don't you think?"
"This is a death machine then?"
"No, my dearest Chiquita. It is a new life machine as you were told. For death is but a new beginning. Surely you've heard that and long before the ship becomes a sweltering hell the leaks in the hull will have rendered the internal atmosphere unbreathable. All you little brown people will have peacefully gone to sleep never to awaken again, blissful oblivion."
"You're crazy!"
"Crazy?!! I think not. I'm merely doomed just like you. I was doomed by the latest mutation of the simian virus long before you ever entered this vessel. That's why I'm here, to help, to comfort, to console, to do all those human things human beings like to think we are capable of doing in our finest hour. What better way is there to end a pathetic life than in heroic triumph? And for this consummate sacrifice, I get my pick of the litter. That would be you I think."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Isn't it obvious? God or the gods have sent you. It was fate was it not? How else can it be explained? Now, you will spend your last few paltry hours of life serving in the house of the gods, this dark and beautiful palace of pleasure, a virgin of the sun. You remember those don't you? Virgins of the sun, sacrificial maidens destined for immortality?"
"You're no Inca, Derrick."
"Ah, but I could be, couldn't I? I could be anything we choose, you and I, anything at all. Just as there could be a Planetopia after all, but no one's ever returned to tell the tale. Pity that."
"You're much bigger and stronger than me so I guess you can do what you want, but that doesn't make it right."
Chiquita's voice was quivering. She wasn't sure if it was from hypoxia or fear, but suddenly she felt strangely transquil as if she had put down a great burden and could rest awhile.
"It's not so bad. You needn't worry about infection," Derrick continued. "Besides, no one ever got out of life alive and the precise moment of our deaths is known to within seven significant figures. Unfortunately the clock stopped working some time ago, I don't remember when now, but there's always the stars, the clock of ancients. But why bother after all?"
"Yes, I see your point. Did you know then? Did you know this would happen before we left?"
"Yes, of course I did."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"Would it have made things any easier?"
"No, maybe not, but it would have been the truth."
"The truth? What is truth? One man's truth is another man's lie, which is yet another's opportunity. I could have perished with you on earth where there are far too many mouths to feed. I could have done that couldn't I? But then I would have never seen outer space, the glories of the universe unfolding without the smudged obstruction of the atmosphere."
"But you said there aren't ports in here. How have you seen outer space?"
"In my dreams, my sweet Chiquita, in my dreams, as I have seen you. Come! Life is far too short to ponder."
Chiquita began to retch as he drew near. The decaying flesh under his garments exuded the scent of death she knew from her childhood, a childhood scarred by vain insurrections and forced containments, pacifications, food lines, muddy refugee camps.
It all came swirling back into her consciousness and she collapsed, maybe to dream of Planetopia and then again maybe not. In her restive slumber she pondered her rape by the god of death with detachment, for that is all she had left, detachment.
The dim room seemed oddly empty for a control room, no bristling display of flashing lights. No three dimensional holographic display with stars and clusters and planets seeming to hover in the room's space.
"How did you get in here?" the man asked.
"I'm sorry, sir. I was, well, I was trying to find some relief from the heat you know and the door was ajar," Chiquita answered.
"Ajar, eh? Well, the automatic lock must have failed, like most everything else on board."
The man seemed preoccupied, yet stranglely focused at the same time. Chiquita couldn't quite make out his face in the gloom.
"Why is it so dark in here?" she asked.
"Dark? Dark you say?"
The man seemed to be chuckling to himself.
"Darkness is a relative term. Actually it's quite bright in here compared to where you came from with only the illumination provided by the stars."
"Yes, I know," she replied. "It's very beautiful though. The sky seen through the ports is spangled with stars and often you can see the sun too for brief moments as the ship rotates."
"Beautiful, well yes, I suppose it is. No ports in here though. No need."
"Why is that?"
"Well, why indeed? Because my dear little wench, there's no reason to see anything. None. The ship is guided automatically."
"Why does it have a control room then? Isn't that what I saw stenciled on the door?"
"Ah, you can read. Very good, very good indeed. Well, how shall I put this? There's a few pieces of instrumentation in here used when the ship is first launched out of orbit to monitor the thrusters. After they've been jettisoned.. you do know what thrusters are don't you?"
"Yes, they propel the ship right?"
"Ah, a veritable genius has found me. Yes, they propel ship out of orbit and then having served their purpose they are discarded to be reused again."
"Is there nothing to monitor the environment inside the ship?"
"No, actually nothing. Why do you ask?"
"Well, I thought that someone would know why it's so hot inside this thing."
"I know why it's so hot, my dear. I don't need instruments to know that and neither do you really."
"I don't understand."
"Well now, of course, why would you?"
The man seemed to be staring at nothing. Chiquita could barely make out his features. They seemed strangely distorted.
"Are you okay, sir?"
"Okay? Of course I'm okay. Why do you ask?"
"I don't know. Nevermind. It's just that.. "
"Yes, it certainly is just that. You don't need instruments you see? You don't need them at all. In fact it will make you dispair. Do you understand that?"
"I'm afraid I don't. Sorry."
"Heh heh.. sorry? Yes, we're all very very sorry to inform you that even if you knew why it wouldn't matter a wit. Because there's absolutely nothing you can do about it."
"Do about what, sir? Aren't we going to reach the new world, Planetopia? There's something wrong with the ship isn't there?"
"Wrong? Rubbish!! The ship is functioning perfectly!"
The man seemed overly agitated and very adamant. Chiquita began to feel a little queezy in her stomach.
"I didn't mean to offend you, sir, but it's getting very hot and you said you didn't have any instruments here so how would you know if it's working perfectly or not?"
"I know, my precious innocent little ditz! I know. I know as God knows. And you don't. That is a blessing believe or not, a blessing which I bestow upon you in my munificent mercy."
Chiquita started to retrace her steps.
"Wait! Where are you going?" the man asked with an edge of annoyance in his voice.
"I'm sorry I bothered you. Please continue with whatever it is you're doing here. I know I wasn't supposed to be in this area anyways but I'm going now so please don't fret okay?"
"No!"
His voice echoed so intensely that Chiquita froze almost in midstride.
"No, you shall not go anywhere now. No one is going anywhere. Do you understand? The seal is broken. These quarters were off limits but you violated that restriction and must now pay the price."
"Please, I didn't mean to."
"I know you didn't. I know, as God knows. But now, you must stay with me, my pretty little ditz until the end."
"The end? There is something wrong. I knew it."
Chiquita could barely contain the panic in her voice. But the man was now blocking her escape with his massive bulk.
"Sit! SIT DOWN!!" he commanded.
Almost without thinking Chiquita complied. The man seemed less agitated.
"There no use disturbing the other passengers. This needn't be cruel, at least not excessively so. You do appreciate that don't you? What's your name?"
"Chiquita, sir, and I'm still not understanding you. I'm sorry."
"Chiquita eh? One of the lovely little brown ones. I can see, yes, I can see that now. Pleased to meet you, Chiquita. I'm Derrick, commander of this vessel."
"You're the captain? I, uh, I'm honored."
"As indeed you should be. I'm the person who is taking you and all your little brown family and friends to the promised land after all."
"Yes, we've heard it's very beautiful there, clean air and water, and green plants, animals, all the good things that once lived on the earth. It seems almost too good to be true. Have you actually seen this Planetopia?"
"Yes, my little brown one. I've seen it.. in my dreams which are just as vivid as yours even though I'm not nearly as brown."
"I'm sorry if I've offended you in some way, sir."
"Call me Derrick. All my friends do or would if I had any friends."
"Uh, okay Derrick. But what are you saying? You've really seen the planet?"
"No one has, my fairly dark Chiquita, no one has ever seen Planetopia. Oh, mind you, that doesn't shake my faith in its existence whatsoever. It is more real than you or I or anyone sojourning to it. You must have faith in that. You simply must."
"Why, Derrick? What's faith got to do with it?"
"Everything, little Chiquita, everything in your world now depends on that faith. Without it, life becomes unbearably cruel."
Chiquita began to fight back her tears. She wasn't sure why the man's words were making her cry.
"There there little Chiquita. Don't cry. You understand now don't you? You understand that the sun gets bigger every time the ship revolves around it and the ports rotate it into view, ever so subtly bigger, hardly noticible, but you've noticed. Your human sense of scale has detected it ever so slightly at the very edge of your powers of perception. And your supple flesh detects the proximity too, your pathetic sweat glands tell you the sunlight is getting ever so slightly hotter. You can tell, can't you?"
Chiquita began to feel faint. She seemed to be gasping far more than usual, more than being on top of the sacred mountain from where she and her village had come to board the spaceshuttle with opulant promises of a better life free from poverty and disease and the polluted mines below. It had seemed at the time too good to be true but dispair made a mockery of doubt.
"I want to go back," she said quietly.
"What's that?" asked Derrick, a note of sympathy maybe playing in his voice. "You want to go back where you came from? Well, don't we all? Back to nature, back to mother, back to the eternal womb, but there's no going back.
The ship is functioning perfectly, precisely following the course set at launch. Only a freak of nature, a collision with space rubble or whatnot could possibly cause it to deviate from the predicted course by more than a few fractions of a minute of an arc.
That's the beauty of universal law. It hardly ever deviates making this entire enterprise feasible. For much less than it would cost to construct concentration camps, gas chambers, ovens, all those primitive instruments of mayhem, we can accomplish the same thing relatively humanely, don't you think?"
"This is a death machine then?"
"No, my dearest Chiquita. It is a new life machine as you were told. For death is but a new beginning. Surely you've heard that and long before the ship becomes a sweltering hell the leaks in the hull will have rendered the internal atmosphere unbreathable. All you little brown people will have peacefully gone to sleep never to awaken again, blissful oblivion."
"You're crazy!"
"Crazy?!! I think not. I'm merely doomed just like you. I was doomed by the latest mutation of the simian virus long before you ever entered this vessel. That's why I'm here, to help, to comfort, to console, to do all those human things human beings like to think we are capable of doing in our finest hour. What better way is there to end a pathetic life than in heroic triumph? And for this consummate sacrifice, I get my pick of the litter. That would be you I think."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Isn't it obvious? God or the gods have sent you. It was fate was it not? How else can it be explained? Now, you will spend your last few paltry hours of life serving in the house of the gods, this dark and beautiful palace of pleasure, a virgin of the sun. You remember those don't you? Virgins of the sun, sacrificial maidens destined for immortality?"
"You're no Inca, Derrick."
"Ah, but I could be, couldn't I? I could be anything we choose, you and I, anything at all. Just as there could be a Planetopia after all, but no one's ever returned to tell the tale. Pity that."
"You're much bigger and stronger than me so I guess you can do what you want, but that doesn't make it right."
Chiquita's voice was quivering. She wasn't sure if it was from hypoxia or fear, but suddenly she felt strangely transquil as if she had put down a great burden and could rest awhile.
"It's not so bad. You needn't worry about infection," Derrick continued. "Besides, no one ever got out of life alive and the precise moment of our deaths is known to within seven significant figures. Unfortunately the clock stopped working some time ago, I don't remember when now, but there's always the stars, the clock of ancients. But why bother after all?"
"Yes, I see your point. Did you know then? Did you know this would happen before we left?"
"Yes, of course I did."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"Would it have made things any easier?"
"No, maybe not, but it would have been the truth."
"The truth? What is truth? One man's truth is another man's lie, which is yet another's opportunity. I could have perished with you on earth where there are far too many mouths to feed. I could have done that couldn't I? But then I would have never seen outer space, the glories of the universe unfolding without the smudged obstruction of the atmosphere."
"But you said there aren't ports in here. How have you seen outer space?"
"In my dreams, my sweet Chiquita, in my dreams, as I have seen you. Come! Life is far too short to ponder."
Chiquita began to retch as he drew near. The decaying flesh under his garments exuded the scent of death she knew from her childhood, a childhood scarred by vain insurrections and forced containments, pacifications, food lines, muddy refugee camps.
It all came swirling back into her consciousness and she collapsed, maybe to dream of Planetopia and then again maybe not. In her restive slumber she pondered her rape by the god of death with detachment, for that is all she had left, detachment.
