Twinks in Space: Fantastic Voyage - Part Two - 28. Chapter 28 - Alihte

Stawren lowered Lyoth’s dagger and looked the woman up and down. “You’re not all zoned out like the other Children.”

The woman shook her head. “I want to get away from the Entry of Ecstasy and these people. Following Mama goddess out here was a mistake.” Her eyes began to well with tears.

“Help me get him back to our ship,” Stawren commanded, indicating Lyoth. She added, “I’m Stawren,” as they each grabbed him under an arm and began dragging him.

“Alihte,” the woman replied.

“Alihte? What a lovely name.”

Alihte did not reply to the compliment but said, “Your ship is being guarded.”

“Godsdammit,” Stawren growled, “you mean not all the Children are spaced out right now? I thought escaping was going to be easy.”

“Why did you two even come here?” Alihte asked.

Stawren nodded at a pile of stones to the side of the path they were following that led back to the clearing and the Galaxy Surfer. “We need some granitewood.” She paused and added, “It’s for an experiment.”

“I’ll help you collect some,” Alihte replied, “but will you take me with you?”

Stawren looked down at Lyoth and then at the woman next to her. “Yes, you can come with us.”

Alihte was relieved and informed Stawren, “We’re getting close to the clearing. The guards are stationed at the main entrance to your ship.”

“Maybe we should leave the path and approach through the trees,” Stawren recommended.

The darkness hid them well.

When the two women could see the guards, they left Lyoth on the ground. Stawren held up her palm to Alihte, indicating she was to stay with the inebriated man. There was a small hand blaster in a holster at Lyoth’s belt, and Stawren drew it. She snuck toward the edge of the clearing.

I don’t want to kill these idiots. The Children aren’t doing anything wrong, as far as I can tell. She saw they were both armed. Dammit, okay, here we go.

Stawren took aim with the blaster and fired.

One of the guard’s guns exploded in his hands. He cried out in pain and collapsed to the dirt as his companion rushed to his side. The other man did not understand what had happened to the weapon, but the injured guard managed to say through his teeth before falling into unconsciousness, “It came from over there!” and he nodded toward where Stawren was hiding.

The guard shined his light at the trees, and its beam illuminated the foliage, but he could not see Stawren. He pointed his blaster and opened fire.

Stawren flattened herself against the forest floor as the bolts exploded all around her. She clenched her jaw and tried not to make a sound. Then it was over and silent again. Stawren was uninjured, but the guard was now heading straight for her hiding place.

Her eyes focused on a dark mound just to one side of where the guard was walking, and she pointed her weapon at it. A single blast was all it took to incapacitate that second guard. Stawren shot a pile of granitewood, which exploded in a spray of rocky shrapnel that pummeled the man and knocked him unconscious.

Stawren rushed back to Alihte and Lyoth and whispered, “Let’s get out of here!”

“But what about the granitewood you need?” Alihte asked.

“Isn’t it everywhere?” she grunted as they continued to drag Lyoth toward the Galaxy Surfer. “Let’s just fly somewhere else on this planet where a bunch of lunatics aren’t going to try and convince us to join their group.” Stawren looked over at Alihte. “Sorry, no offense intended.”

Alihte shook her head and said, “I’ve been wanting to leave Mama goddess and the Children, but we’re so isolated. I stopped taking the pills that drug us a while ago, but I didn’t know how I was supposed to get away from her cruelty. I have no one.”

Stawren did not understand. “What do you mean? Don’t you have family or friends back at one of the numbered villages near either of the spaceports? Sorry,” Stawren repeated, “I can’t remember the cities’ names.”

“Carthal and Togoa,” Alihte reminded her, “and yes, I do, but the path of us Children with Mama goddess was a difficult one, and she taught that we should only align ourselves with others who are on the same path.”

“So you cut off everyone when you left?”

Alihte did not reply.

Stawren and Alihte made it with Lyoth past the two fallen guards, and they entered the Galaxy Surfer. Alihte stayed with Lyoth in the back as Stawren rushed to the cockpit and launched the starship. Once they were safely away from the clearing and the bizarre community, Stawren set the computer to move the vessel into orbit above Jitha, and she headed into the back.

The two women got Lyoth onto a bed and left him to sleep off the chemicals that were swirling through his body.

Stawren started cups of tea for herself and Alihte and asked, “What happened with your family?”

Alihte sighed. “It’s not that we weren’t allowed to have family, but Mama goddess constantly drilled into us about how sinners on the third dimension would drag us down to their level. She said we needed to always be in communion and fellowship with others in the fifth dimension. Three-dimensional beings keep us from ascending to the fifth dimension.”

“Two things,” Stawren interjected, “first, maybe you should stop calling her Mama goddess and also try to stop thinking of her that way. And two…”

Alihte was appalled. “But Mama goddess is the mother of all creation and the healer of the universe!”

“But didn’t you hear her?” Stawren replied. “She doesn’t even believe in herself. She questioned herself mid-tirade!”

Alihte responded with rhetoric. “Mama goddess needs the support of her Children most in those moments when she questions, and she is not questioning herself; she is questioning if we lowly people are worth the pain and suffering she endures. Bearing all our sins is a burden.”

“And two,” Stawren repeated, “what’s all this third dimension and fifth dimension talk?”

Alihte was confused. “What do you mean? Three dimensions,” she stated, waving her hands at the universe at large, and she concluded, “versus the fifth dimension,” as if that clarified everything.

Stawren decided to focus on her first point. “Do you know Mama’s real name? I mean, the name she was given at birth, or at least whatever name people called her before you all started calling her Mama goddess.”

“Her name is literally the mother of all creation.”

Stawren replied flatly. “No it isn’t. She’s not a god or goddess. She’s just a woman, who seems to be delusional. Maybe someone said something to her early in her life that set her on this crazy path.” Stawren took Alihte’s hand. “You don’t have to follow her anymore.”

“But Mama goddess is going to cleanse us all.”

Stawren squeezed Alihte’s fingers. “Why do you believe that?”

Alihte was puzzled by Stawren’s train of thought. “Because it’s true.”

“How do you know it to be true?”

Alihte paused before answering. Away from the group for the first time, their repeated words felt strange in her head. “Because…” she said hesitantly, “well, because Mama goddess told me that was her purpose.”

“And you just took her at her word?”

Alihte drew her hand back and examined her palm, as if she was searching for the answer. “I don’t know,” she replied, looking up at Stawren. “I was seeking truth and meaning. I wanted to know the purpose of it all, and it felt like Mama goddess…” Alihte paused and altered her statement. “It felt like she had all the answers. Being with her, I didn’t have to think about my doubts or worries because I knew she was the answer to every riddle.”

Stawren scrunched up her face in disbelief. “Some random woman?”

“She was able to tell me the things I was thinking,” Alihte stated. “How can you explain that?”

“I can explain it,” groaned Lyoth, stepping into the doorframe. He looked half-asleep, but the chemicals in his system were finally wearing off. “People who think of themselves as seekers believe they’re on a path of self-discovery, and it’s very easy for corrupt individuals to manipulate those ideas. The meaning behind the universe, the reason why anything exists at all is very simple, but most seekers don’t possess the capacity to be satisfied with the realities of nature. Seekers believe they’re special, particularly in regard to their intelligence and superiority over others.”

Alihte was offended by Lyoth’s words; she had always thought of herself as a seeker. “I don’t think I’m more special than anyone else, and I certainly don’t view myself as superior or smarter!”

Lyoth smiled. “Do you think your life has some important purpose? Like your existence matters in the grand scheme of the universe?”

Alihte scoffed. “Everyone is important! Everyone matters! And what is this explanation for the universal meaning that you claim I won’t be able to accept? You think you know the purpose behind it all?”

“If you really are a seeker,” Lyoth replied, “you’re not gonna like the answer.” He brought a palm to his forehead and groaned. “What did you people give me?”

“Oh, that’s the dehydrated goutria blood capsules,” Alihte explained. “They’re pretty heady. They help broaden our vision and expand our minds.”

“Ugh, well they make you feel terrible,” Lyoth declared.

“And what blood?” Stawren asked.

“Goutria,” Alihte repeated, “they are a sacrament. Goutria are a species of pygmy pig. Consuming their blood is part of our spiritual practice.”

Stawren was confused. “But the Children don’t eat meat?”

“The blood is the most important part of goutria.”

Lyoth and Stawren did not understand some of Alihte’s responses.

“Also,” Alihte added, “you act like there’s something wrong with believing that there’s more to the universe than just this physical world. What’s wrong with believing in something more than myself? Most sentient species believe in some form of divinity. Why are you two so cynical?”

Stawren chuckled. “It’s not cynicism.”

Lyoth smiled and continued. “I recognize that most seekers think of themselves as highly spiritual or elevated because they are on a self-imposed quest for truth, but most seekers end up falling for charlatans and con artists. Maybe your leader, Mama, truly believes that she’s divine,” Lyoth added, “but believing doesn’t make her belief true. She may have told you the exact things you were hoping to hear, and in so doing, she hooked you.” Lyoth reached out and gently placed his hand on Alihte’s arm. “But you don’t need to feel guilty at being duped by someone who was actively trying to take advantage of people, who themselves are genuinely trying to make sense of everything.”

“Yeah,” Stawren added, “walking away from them is probably one of the most difficult, and one of the strongest things you’ve ever done in your life. Escaping a group like that is similar to getting out of an abusive relationship. Did you know,” Stawren continued, “there were these messed up unethical experiments done to animals on the planet Tuldriath, in which the animals were locked in cages and subjected to electroshock treatment while imprisoned, but then when the scientists opened the pens, the animals did not leave the cages? It was determined they would rather stay with the pain and fear that they were familiar with, rather than leave the situation they knew, with the chance that things on the outside might be even worse.”

Neither Alihte nor Lyoth had ever heard of the experiments, but they sounded cruel.

Alihte turned to Lyoth with a serious expression. “Okay so what is it?” she asked again. “What is the meaning behind everything?”

Lyoth finally answered, “The point of living is to live.”