by Tom Ball.
We all lived for the daylight except for a few people who spent their time living only in the night. On our Moon, Artemis, in Hendrix’s Star System, there were 40-hour days and there were two Suns so there was usually about 32 hours of light each day. Most of us got up at sunrise and took some naps in the afternoon and slept at night. Our reason for living was to emulate the Goddess of the Daylight. The Goddess wanted us to wear elaborate disguises and have a voice changing device implanted which could be altered at any time. So, we didn’t know who anyone was, and there were 2,800 clever people here. We used our disguises to try and find love. Many disguises were kinky and sexually appealing. If one made love, they kept their mask on but revealed their naked bodies, and we were all great actors so we figured we kept loving the same people but actually had no idea. Most people’s bodies were classically proportioned and looked much alike for their sex. So, females had a classic voluptuous female body, and males had a well-developed muscular body. And they took eternal youth drugs to keep them beautiful.
On this particular night I was dressed as a frog and hopped around. Few females showed interest in a mere frog. But one woman who was dressed as a humble ant engaged me in dialogue. She said, “Most people are too proud here.” I said, “The Goddess is full of hubris and so too are most of the people here. I remember loving a humble woman a few months ago. She wore a bee’s costume. Was that you?” She said, “It’s all fashion to not reveal one’s identity. I’ll neither confirm nor deny whether it was me.” I said, “I’d like to rip off your mask and love you hard.” She said, “You know it’s against the rules. The Goddess would not approve.” I told her, “For all I know, you might be the Goddess yourself. “She replied, “The Goddess moves in mysterious ways.” Anyway, it was pretty much free love on our Moon, so I took her to a hotel. We all lived in hotels and kept changing our hotels or at least our rooms. Robots did the cleaning and my hotel had a full drug bar. We decided to both take blissful stimulants and felt very
relaxed in one another’s company. Her love was brilliant and I asked her, “Are you indeed the Goddess?” But like most women here, she refused to say her true identity. We both got naked but kept our masks on. And I asked her, “What is your philosophy?” She said, “Just let me say, I believe in the light of enlightenment and truth and imagination.” I asked her, “What sort of things do you imagine?” She said, “I imagine a World in which people mingle their visionary Worlds with one another creating hybrid Worlds of many authors. Like I imagine a World in which the people never disagree with one another. Or a World in which people use MRT (Mind Reading Technology) and are all naked. To heck with the disguises.” I said, “But the Goddess insists we all wear disguises and don’t reveal our secrets. And arguments are desirable to her. Maybe you are not the Goddess after all!”
And she added, “Don’t be so sure of who the Goddess really is. After all, to most people she is an enigma. And is on record saying all sorts of fantastic things… Like I’ve heard she says, she can make everyone here into geniuses, especially her lovers. But of course, no one is sure of anything and the Goddess is a master of disguises. You can’t honestly say I’m not the Goddess. No one is sure what she looks like and what she is thinking at any particular moment. Indeed, perhaps she doesn’t exist in reality, but rather is just some kind of phantom dream.” I said, “But someone had to build our World around the nucleus of 2,800 people who had all come here from Sol’s Star System seeking an intellectual life. Many of the first colonists were geniuses and it is known that the Goddess was one of the first settlers, but of course she was the greatest genius or so most believe. And the Goddess has apparently said, “We need to increase our population slowly using great human minds,” I believe. She said, “It’s a brain drain on Earth. And some say we are wasting our genius playing at disguises and playing mind games with one another.” Such people say we are selfishly indulging ourselves on this Moon. Of course, our Moon was Earth-like and some said it was Paradise. Certainly, we export films of our lives here and many on Earth are curious. They think life here is mysterious and interesting.” I said, “Life is interesting here but love dominates all our actions.”
She said, “But some of us have done great art in their movies. Like we all enjoyed Jesusette, which was full of parables about the Goddess. Like the parable of the Goddess who had “All the Marbles,” and she selflessly shared some of her wisdom to anyone who wanted it saying one had to be open-minded above all. And she said, “One had to work on dreams of impossible people who were uncannily good looking who people could adopt as their new bodies and faces. This was despite the fact that no one here ever showed their faces, even sleeping in their costumes. The parable was about how one could let their minds go wild regarding one’s lovers and place images of beautiful people in one another’s head whilst you were making love. It was complex, but everyone here agreed life was but a dream.”
And we both relived the parable which was the story of “The Goddess and the Lion.” In the story the Goddess tames the lion masked man who says he is King of the colony. He verbally attacks people who doubt he’s the King, but the Goddess convinces him to tolerate other views as a prerequisite to being the true King. Of course, as King he had strong beliefs, like he figured, he was just as clever as the Goddess. But after the two of them had mind love, she made him realize she was a better thinker. And so, he swallowed his pride.
Another parable was the story of “The Goddess and the Banker,” which was about one of the elite financial wizards of the colony. He made the colony hum. But the banker wanted everyone to run small computer software businesses. The Goddess remonstrated with him saying, “We already have all we need here and greed is anathema. Greed is a thing of the past.” He said, “But everyone here seems greedy for love and greedy for comfort for their mind.” The Goddess told him, “That’s not how I would define greed. One can never get too much altruistic love. And many people here are kind, unlike Earth which you seem to adore.” The banker said, “Greed is a good instinct and has driven all human progress.” The Goddess replied, “Today everyone on Earth lives in luxury already and don’t need any more business except for new Space developments. We can’t get enough entrepreneurs in Space. And as the human diaspora spreads out into Space, greed will be muted in settled colonies as they mature.” The banker replied, “Yes we will bring progress to Space.” The lesson of the story was everything in its right place at the right time.
Another parable was “The Tale of the Iceman.” It was about a man who was as cold as ice. He ruled Moon Miranda which was cold. And true love was banned, but sex was a big part of the reality here. Anyone who proclaimed that they were in love were imprisoned indefinitely. So, they had to hide their love for one another. Most people had come here for a promised better life. But it turned out to be quite miserable for most who were denied having feelings, and no one was allowed to leave or communicate with Earth. Rulers on Earth were too busy to take an interest in the few thousand stuck on Miranda. The moral of the story was to make sure you thoroughly research places before you go there lest you become one of the les Misérables…
And there were numerous other parables here…
And the mysterious ant woman and myself finally decided to take off our masks and all of our clothes and loved each other intensely. She was really good-looking and I told her, “It was a shame you hid such beauty.” She replied, “You are quite good-looking yourself.”
And she said, “OK, I admit I’m the Goddess. Few people know me, but I really like you. And this is not the first time we’ve encountered and loved one another. Remember when we both wore wolf masks, and the time we both wore cardinal bird masks for example.” I said, “Let’s get rid of masks altogether.” She said, “Most people take their masks off while loving even though it is forbidden. It makes them soar to new highs, this forbidden fruit. But most like the idea of being a mysterious persona.” I said, “I guess rules are made to be broken. And I would like to be a God!” She replied, “You already are Superhuman material. I am in love with your mind.” I said, “I want to be known in the light of day and make statues of myself showing my true face and the same for you. But we could still keep our masks on, I guess, if you insist, at least when we first meet a new potential lover.”
She opined, “We are all mysteries to ourselves. And we are constantly surprised by the things we say and think. But I think everyone here has great potential. And people here like playing the role of the persona or animal that their masks allow. Everyone here has good acting skill.” I said, “It’s just like prehistoric totems. I feel that it’s good to see the spirit of animals is alive and well here.” She said, “There aren’t many wildlife parks left on Earth. As the prime founder of the colony, I wanted to get at our primal roots, as if we were all a group of shamans.” I said, “And shamans knew how to do hypnosis and I feel like your natural voice is hypnotic.” She asked me, “Do you want me to hypnotise you to do your very best?” I said, “Sure, I trust you!”
And she did so, afterwards I felt like I loved the Goddess more! And I didn’t want to let her down. So, I challenged her to try and identify me in a party scheduled for the next day. I dressed like an eagle with mock wings, but she came right up to me dressed as a vulture. And she said, after our talk about shamans I guessed you would dress as a far-seeing bird of prey. I exclaimed, “You amaze me!” She said, “I am familiar with the habits and idiosyncrasies and indeed thought processes of all the people here. I have a brain like a Supercomputer. And I am particularly interested in you!”
I opined, “I’d like to really leave a lasting mark on this Moon. What do you think I should do?” She said, “Why don’t you and I create a new colony? We could call it the “Goddess’ World of Animal Humans,” and all would be animal humans, no birds, fish or insects!” I added, “And we could settle it with animal humans to debate the future. We could posit a future in which everyone could become animal humans. And they would be free to change form at any time!” She said, “And the animal humans could all be multi-sexual. It will be all messed up!” I added, “No need of disguises, and people here will all act like the true spirit of the animal they represent. We’ll alter their brain accordingly, no need for actors and actresses.” She said, “Yes, I thought of brain alteration many times but never got around to it. We could make people full of animal instincts, yet even more clever than they were previously! But they will not be violent, though aggression is OK. And they will be designed to breed with all others. They will have animal heads with part human and part animal brains and human bodies…”
And so, we did it. Many people here could see themselves in such a future. But we built the colony on the other side of this Moon. And many didn’t want to change…And we proposed that the Goddess would continue to lead behind the scenes…
And us together, her and I, we built a hospital to change people with genetic therapy into true animal men. We encouraged skilled scientists to come here and develop the appropriate animal man genetic therapy. Perhaps they could be changed in less than a day and be immediately ready to live as an animal human. The scientists considered it to be an interesting challenge. And told us science was running out of things to create with many saying it had all been done. We all had eternal youth and could travel extremely rapidly in Space and could improve peoples’ minds and all diseases were cured and Dreamworlds had been created all over Earth and Space and mind reading was possible…
It was truly an enlightening reality here on our Moon. And many on Earth thought of us as a place of light. And everyone here wanted to save the light we had created. The animal humans even dressed in clothes of light which showed off their sexy bodies…But the Goddess and I kept our true faces and now the Goddess stepped into the limelight and everyone knew her well…
Of course, some said it was a freak show, but we all had new instincts to love animal headed people and the Goddess and I loved the animal humans, too!