But we are political in a different way than the previous inhabitants of our small little planet: WE HATE POLITICS.

In 1968, WE (the eternal twentysomethings) demanded to be given the opportunity to grow up quicker. We were, then, sick and tired of being driven around by our elders, and taught all that unnecessary crap in different schools till our late thirties. We, then, wanted to start our life earlier. Oh, haven't we been so much hopeful of the lives of the grown-ups?!

So, we got what we asked for (and behaved equally irresponsible as the numerous generations before us).

Now, we are not sick and tired of you as the grown-ups, we are sick and tired of US as the grown-ups. WE, the twentysomethings of today, not only do not want to become YOU as soon as possible, we want it never to happen. We are sick of the world, we are tired of the race. Now, when schools teach us reality (metal detectors on the doors for the beginning) much earlier, we despise it. We, when we were the twentysomethings of the sixties, wanted that our dreams become YOUR reality, not that your reality become OUR reality. Now, as the twentysomethings of today, we reject change, we refuse the revolution: WE DON'T WANT TO CHANGE YOU. We don't desire to change your world, your silly everyday habits how do you conduct your pitiful lives... ...just leave US alone. Leave us our dreams. Leave those dreams to become our reality. Do not spoil them with your world. That could make us REALLY angry.

This is a story of two grungy looking twentysomethings of the desperate nineties in America who successfully hi-jacked the Space Shuttle and had the encounter with the non-earthlings which were, let's say, living double lives.

Well, after Space Shuttle Ginger took of, they came out from the hiding. One of them had a revolver. (popular 9mm model) The S.S. crew was quite surprised with the appearance. One lady from the crew mentioned how she earlier suggested that Shuttle's weight was strangely increased. The macho-guy from the crew warned the youth not to discharge, because they might blow a whole in the Shuttle, and then all will die. YES. So, what? WE don't mind! Do you?

Infamous twosome explained in short the reasons why they did it and what were their demands. Rather difficult ones, recognized by the bald small crew member. They wanted the Shuttle to leave the earth's orbit and take a direction to the nearest inhabitable planet. ARE YOU JOKING? No, we are very serious. This is EXACTLY what we want. Even, if it takes forever to find it.

Also, they advised the crew members to call the earth and say Good Bye! WHAT DO YOU MEAN? Good Bye, is what we mean.

Somewhere before the Mars, after few very boring days (and smelly: the brand new costly toilet began to malfunction just a day after they left the orbit: spitting the feces around), everybody in the Shuttle was prompted by the discovery of the crew astronomer, the older guy with the beer belly, who usually enjoyed smoking pot with the two: Mars has three moons. After hours of research, it was certain that the third object, that the astronomer named Kairos, is not Mars's moon like Phobos and Demos are - it moved faster, and it was obvious it was not captured by the Mars's orbit. Actually, it was just leaving the proximity of Mars. An asteroid? Computers showed that the object is self-propelled and shaped as the perfect pyramid with the circle at its base. A SPACESHIP?

Who the hell is messing with OUR space? Russians have no money to build such a huge spacecraft. They built that solar mirror despite the economic difficulties, but this is something different. And how could anybody put it near Mars, without us seeing that? So, it has to be ALIEN.

News that the alien space ship will pass 20 miles away of the Space Shuttle were received with different kind of excitement by different people, but the 9mm was very convincing argument to get closer to the ship, possibly even "land" on the ship. TRY TO OPEN IT. It looked as a can anyway.

After "landing," the two heroes jumped out of the shuttle (they did dress the space suit before). They knocked on some part of the alien's ship surface that looked kind of like doors. They knocked for the while, and the doors opened. They quickly disappeared in the ship's interior. Shuttle crew had mixed feelings. To leave or to wait. It was to late to lead. Finally, the fear, that best friend of humans, convinced them to leave. AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. But, the Shuttle didn't have enough trust power any more to leave the gravity field of the giant alien ship. They were GLUED.

More enterprising members of the crew, then, went to search for the twosome. However, the doors were already closed, and the crew didn't know how to open it: ultrasound didn't work, high pressure plasma didn't work, laser beam didn't work, high velocity electrons didn't work. Even, the 0.1 KT nuclear blast didn't work. The surface of the ship was damaged at the few places but it quickly repaired and regrew itself. Lab-tests showed that the surface is made of titanium and some other metal particles interfaced to some unknown protein polymer. The ship was ALIVE.

Meanwhile inside the ship, Rob and Ron (let's finally give the names to our heroes) discovered plenty of empty rooms, corridors, halls, bare walls, a lot of white nothingness. Yeah, there were lights, and some dark sound, and the air was nice, but nothing else were there to explore.

Suddenly (prepare yourself! after the "suddenly" always shit happens!) in one empty hall they were met by three airy looking individuals. They looked like the comic book heroes, just the quite more realistic. The aliens prompted Rob and Ron in understandable, although heavily accented english, whether they want to stay with them or go back to their people in the Shuttle. WAIT THE MINUTE. HOLD IT RIGHT THERE. EASY. HOW ABOUT A SMOKE?

What's in your world for us? Where is your world, at all? Shouldn't we know something about it before we decide? Although we would change our world for almost any other livable world. And it seems the alien bastards got the idea. BIG IDEA.

Then aliens start to speak in our minds, and they didn't only speak but showed pictures as well. So, we made decision to STAY. Forever.

back

How did this world look like? It didn't have only one reality. It had as many realities as you could dream of. At least in its physical appearance. But you spent your life most of the time in the cyber-world, without the appearance, without getting old, without the fear of death or sickness: reduced to the information about yourself.

Those guys mastered matter to energy and energy to matter conversion. After your birth you are 'recorded' for the first time. The computer gets the scan of exact position of each sub-atomic particle in your body, the sequence of your genom, the measures of your physiological functions, and the recordings of your entire memory until that date. Those records are then stored on a 1000 TerraBytes crystals, and filed in two copies in two different archives on the Main Planet. (for technologically illiterate: 1 T-Byte contains 1 million Mega-Bytes.) Whenever something happens to your physical self, you can be 'retrieved' from the file in the same condition as you were when you stored yourself, although with the memories you acquired in the meantime. Computer tracks simultaneously all individuals across the universe, and records their new experiences to be automatically appended to the memories of their stored cyber-being. The appended experiences are later remembered in their dispassionate objectiveness: like they were told by the third person. So, you don't remember the pain or depression associated with the sickness or death. Also, you are as young as you have been when you stored yourself last time.

As you grow up in your physical life you usually decide to store yourself again and again till you are completely satisfied with your physical perfection. With age you acquire knowledge necessary to edit your genom files in an effort to make yourself more perfect. Only yourself is allowed to change your genom files. You can't mess with somebody else's genom either. To be allowed to edit your genom files you have to pass certain tests on cyber knowledge. Eventually, when you are satisfied with your appearance you will decide not to store yourself anymore, in order to remain the same perfect age forever. You can also make a duplicate of yourself and send it to live somewhere else. Or you can design and engineer an artificial being for your pleasure or as a gift to somebody. The laws are clear: the artificial entities and the duplicates are treated as things, although the information stored about the artificial entity is treated legally as a person. However you are not allowed to kill another living person even if he/she has him/herself stored on disk. That's considered invasion on somebodies privacy.

The fact that you can't die (because when you do, you are instantly restored by the computer, and all the memories are simply appended), and that you can improve you natural self and be always of perfect age and in the greatest physical and mental shape, made this world the world of the wildest possible games: these people, particularly in their earlier age, explore the different worlds created to be REAL, where they often get killed in the fierce fighting games. Later as they grow more experienced, they visit the worlds of "dungeons and dragons" not as often; rather they spend their time and credits on finding the mate and having a natural child of their own. (There is an option in creating that child, however. It can be done on a biological or on electronic level.)

Did I say credits? Do those creatures ever WORK, GET PAID? Through the thousand centuries of their existence, they concluded that their energy needs and the garbage disposal space needs would eventually overcome their ability to cope with them, with the ever growing population, IF they keep their physical lives all the time. LIVING in the cyber-world is hundreds of times less energy consuming, produces no litter, requires almost no maintenance. So, after you store your final version of self, you usually start working, and living in the cyber-space. There is no actual physical work to do any more. Decades ago biotechnology constructed artificial beings that do all mechanic work with higher efficiency than real people. Still, people have to control them, they have to maintain the system; occasionally, they have to solve complicated hardware problems or braingrinding software puzzles of their giant computers. As the life of the entire species depends on the proper maintenance of those machines this is taken damned seriously (like a simple memory allocation error may result in a genocide larger than holocaust).

So, the stored version of your and other selves is performing endless checks on the system and subroutines and peripherals all the time. It is never bored. The cyber-self cannot get bored. Your memories, when stored, are divided in executive files, each containing all experiences you had with a particular general feeling/application. The executive file that contains the application of "being bored" is never opened while you conduct yourself in the cyber-world. As you are stored as a child for the first time - you get an amount of time-credits (number of days, months, years you can live in the different physical worlds of your choice) that is thought to be enough for your education, growing up, having fun, exploring the unknown. After you store your last self (Save As), you have to start repaying those credits. As more you learned you'd be faster in doing your job and repaying and getting MORE credits, what means more time in physical worlds. MORE EXCITEMENT.

You can be at the same time both in the cyber- and in the one of the physical worlds. Your cyber-self is deprived of personality during that time. It functions instead as an artificial intelligence. Your physical self might have problems solving logical problems or doing more complex math, at that time. If the computer has problems with the overpopulation in any of the physical worlds it will cancel physical existences of those with the largest amount of unpaid credits. However, computer cannot terminate their existence (invasion of privacy amendment), it simply refuses to restore them if they are damaged or destroyed in the game (the real world are very mean, violent, cruel and vicious, but, definitely, not boring). The overpopulation signal appears when the certain real world starts requiring more sustenance energy than it is assigned to. The energy to matter conversions are extremely energy consuming, and there is a limit of total available energy in universe at any particular time. So, not all the time can everybody be real.

There are no problems with being an earthling: computers will read the atomic structure of the genom, and the memory recordings; it will establish the protocol how to read it in accordance with the recognizable patterns in the structure. The nature is full of patterns.

The downside: those who are unable to repay their credits for a large portion of time are banned trips to the real worlds, and, if there is no necessity for their cyber presence their crystals are logged off, and put in liquid helium (dormant mode). They may be called back from the dormant mode if there is a need for their specific experience, or if there is a large damage on a lot of other crystals (so there is a need for cyber people), or the time-credit limit is raised above the limit that they couldn't meet.

So, they decided to stay. To try some of the crazy X-men worlds first, and, then to return their improved selves back to earth, where they planned to live the rest of their immortality. They would add the earth to the list of other real worlds. That will be fun! To see the faces of humans after you are 'restored', like Jesus. Until the credit expires.

To substantially increase your credit rating you have to offer an energy source. The alien space ship is actually in search of energy sources. They use stars. Small stars. They cage the star in the large ball made of totally energy-reflective field. Reflected energy ages the star quickly, and star collapses and implodes in a small black whole, that by its force of gravity attracts more matter and energy than it can accept by the area of its surface, therefore creating heat that can be used as an energy source for the next few million years. Around the black whole the heat to energy converting shield is then built. On outside of the heat to energy converting shield they build energy to matter converters and the huge energy storage facilities. No, your sun is too big. SORRY FOLKS.

Afterwards, the aliens admitted the Shuttle crew in. Everybody in the crew decided to forget the whole nightmare and returned to earth with the pleasant feeling that "our sun was too big." MEDIOCRE.

Something stinks here. Aliens and their computers are, obviously, able to track down every single atom in the universe from their distant observatories, right? Why the hell they needed then to send the spaceship to explore the mass of our sun? THEY WEREN'T AFTER OUR SUN. What then they were after? Hmmm. What did they get?

They got us.

Why they didn't simply "teleport" us? Well, it doesn't work as easy as in the Star Trek. We had to be recorded first, in order to be teleportable. Why us? Why not the shuttle crew? Because, we accepted, fool. If we stayed home, instead of hijacking the shuttle, would they take the crew? Let's ask them.

Stranger's thoughts moved hesitantly through our brains. No, they wouldn't take anybody who explicitly refuses. It makes bad boot sector on the crystal [when they record an individual against its will].

Why do you need people from other planets? Now much clearer answer: more different worlds, more new realities, spells more fun, more new games, more excitement. Other peoples, those who desire, are welcome to share our dream. However, they have to come to us. We can't abduct them. We are, already, a mixture of few dozens of different intelligences from different realms of universe. There is no visible difference between our cyber-selves. Ultimately, more and more races would accept the simplicity of our way of life.

Sounds kind of new world order, ain't it?

Well, our indestructibility, once we return to the Earth, would definitely convince earthlings of the superior quality of that way of life.

We've just been advised that our first recording was successfully registered. We are now free to chose between thousands of worlds. We get to feel previews in our heads. COOL.

Then the trouble began.

The spaceship dissolved in the middle of the dark matter. No oxygen. Are we going to experience our first dying? Nope. Like a blizzard in my head. In seconds we found ourselves in the middle of some fierce fighting. Primitive weaponry. Sounds like regular shotguns. Feels like it, too. Ron is wounded in leg. Lightly. A kind creature emerges behind us waving with one of its eight tentacles asking us to follow him (later we found out it was her; wasn't curvy at all). Hovering fast above the disgusting swamp we are hearing the distant shots and inhuman screams. Red mountains behind us explode. We cover our heads. Big chunks of melting stones are falling around us. Our vehicle is skillfully maneuvering between. Obviously the vehicle has ability to scan for falling stones. No signs of civilization. Just thick dark fog. Very dirty. Ron screams in pain. The mountain is just ahead of us. I don't see no passage. The vehicle continues its pursuit with the same breath-taking speed. The mountain is closer and closer. I calm myself down: we shalt be restored. Enhanced maybe, too. But mountain dissolved right in a moment we were about to crash, and in the same way the spaceship had dissolved once before. Sudden darkness. No blizzard, though. We are still on the same vehicle. Now levitating slowly in a dark, damp cave, bats flapping above us, cold water running fast below. No exit from the cave. Our multilimbed guide finally speaks. English, naturally. Good, that all of them universe learned it. The entire mountain is actually a hollo-projection, says she in a perfect CNN female anchor molded language. Then, she disappears, of course. The Vehicle lands on a solid ground. We are surrounded with the crowd under hoods with candles. They talk to us.

They say that the spaceship was just a means to get to us, and that beings in the spaceship were not real. They, certainly, are real. Real, physical beings. NOT copies from the cyber-selves. Now removing the hoods. Old, very, extremely, indubitably old sunken leprous heads looked upon us. Nobody would ever store itself in that shape. What do they want? From us?

They claim to be the members of the Back to Reality movement that wants to restore the universe of living in the real worlds instead of living in the dream worlds created from the cyber-space. In order to do they have to destroy the Archives of Crystals on the Main Planet terminating the existence of billions of beings. Well, they would first materialize the physical copy, then destroy the cyber original. However, they, as anybody else in their universe, although as old - they are old because at some point they refrained themselves from the games, so they lived to the age, are just physical appearances - copies of their cyber-selves. So, they can be revoked immediately if they try to break the law. Destroying of Crystals is considered felony. Something like killing a person on Earth. Anybody who tries such a thing would be instantly terminated in his/hers physical existence. The only people who may enter the Archives and destroy the Crystals are US TWO. We still live in our original physical beings although we are already recorded as cyber beings. So, we both have access to the Main Planet and cannot be revoked and terminated. We are the only people in the present universe who can do it.

A nice change from being a short order clerk, lifeguard, truck driver, bike messenger, waiter, construction worker, intern, receptionist, or whatever odd jobs we've worked on our ungrateful planet. AND WHAT ARE WE GETTING IN RETURN, HUH?

Whatever you want.

Now, we know what would we want on Earth. With all this knew possibilities we are a little confused. Surfing is, for example, boring in comparison with the comet riding.

Ron's wound was healed in the meantime. Not his paranoia, though. He got that weird idea that maybe those dried old people are a hoax. Why should we believe any of that crap? Or, if such a perfect system exists, why should it be good to destroy it? Or, if such a system exists, who can tell the real from not-real any more at all? Why should they believe that any of those creatures are real? What if they are caught in a game? What if they are not so important at all? What if in this world they are just a sort of what The Mario Brothers are in the world they came from? Bounced between two players that can switch them off (i.e. return them to Earth) whenever they please.