Chapter Fourteen: The Real Underground

Jonathan was in a makeshift hospital set up by the Realists. Despite the best medical help that the Realists could offer, it was Months before Jonathan was back on his feet. It was explained to him, when he asked about rehabillitation, that it would not be necessary. The medical science of the colonies was working off of the science of Pre-Destruction Earth. Although the Idealists seemingly felt no pain, as Andy seemed to prove with his abilty to walk away from the Crash with broken limbs, they still needed to mend their worldly vessels.
It was a slow recover, still. Jonathan could not believe that he was still alive. He was thankful, in fact, that he had the opportunity to go on living. Perhaps he would be able to go back to Earth, after all.
He learned that, of all the people on the ship, only he, Andy and Grinder had survived. It was disconcerting to know that Captain Fortworth was dead - he had been the man who introduced Jonathan to the strange culture. Jonathan was bothered by his death, but did not greive him as a friend would have. He simply did not have the time to develope a real friendship with the man.
During the time he spend in the Realist hospital, Jonathan developed a close friendship with Andy, who explained to him as best he could any further questions that Jonathan had about the Idealist culture. Andy also began to relate what he was learning about the Realists. Andy could not come to see their veiws himself, but he admitted that he had not been told the true philosophy of the realists - not at that time, at any rate.
Jonathan was given a clean bill of health after his long stay in the hospital, and almost immediately was taken by an armed escort through what were undoubtedly manmade caverns in the rock. They were underground.
He was led with Andy to a small chamber that looked like an office of sorts.
Behind the desk there was a woman. Jonathan immediately felt like she looked familiar, but could not place the face. Sitting in another chair was Grinder, a beard covering his face and a casted leg up on the woman's desk.
"Welcome, gentlemen," She said and motione dtowards the remaining two chairs.
Andy's jaw suddenly dropped. "Captain Grinder!" He nearly exclaimed.
"Easy lad," the man said kindly. "I don't go by that title anymore. Jonathan warned me when we first met."
"When did you meet Jon?" Andy asked. "Before he was assinged to our ship?" Jonathan quickly gathered that Andy had been kepy very much in the dark about what had been going on. Jonathan realised that, at least, for once, he was not alone.
"Please, Andrew" the woman interjected. "I think perhaps you should allow me to do that talking for a while. Perhaps a lot more will become clear when I am done speaking."
Andy nodded.
"My name is Marcelle Oberholtzer. I'm the head of this organisation. You undoubtley have already us called the Realists. We have been given a bad name by the Idealists overhead," Marcelle pointed upwards "but we really are not as terrible as we're made out to be. But, the Idealists are afraid of us."
"Scared Shitless." Grinder asserted.
Marcelle let the comment pass and continued. "There is a considerable amount of effort put forth above to deny our existence, and to make sure that we do not get our message out. However, more and more people are willing to admit our existence. We have outpost on all the colony worlds and most of the minor worlds, as well. Our main base, as you can see, is here on Vaudeveldt, a military outpost world. Not very good for anything, most of the landmass is either dessert, mountin or dry savanah, not much life out there." Again, Marcelle gestured upwards. "I don't really know what to tell you here. I feel if we had an open dialogue about what you already know, we could better inform each other."
"First and foremost" Andy said immediately "How did I get here? Last I remember we were going on a seeding mission and I was in the Mind with Helen and Captain Fortworth, changing the perceptions."
"Andrew, you do know they're dead, right?" Marcelle asked kindly.
Andrew glanced down, and frowned. He nodded with out saying anything else.
"What happened, Andrew, was an unfortunete error," Grinder said. "A colouge of mine and I highjacked your ship. My friend, she used regression hypnosis to coerce you into programming a different destination. Something went wrong. We were trying to get from Port Orpheus to Ranch. Vaudeveldt was pretty far out of our way. After the transfer occured, we found ourselves in the wrong place. The Tapert familiy doesn't like unexpected visits from the Spacing Commission. they fired a minute after our arrival in system, and a missile destroyed the bridge of your vessel. We did our best to save you and your crew, but the crash was a brutal one. I was nearly killed myself." He waved towards his leg. "I grew a beard to cover the scaring on my face."
"After the crash," Marcelle jumped in "we knew the Tapert's local police forces would be all over the place. we scrambled a squad as soon as we discovered that was an unknown ship in system. We got to the site first, recovered the living only. We were quite suprised to find Grinder there, and pleased to find him among the living. There were three people that were dead, I know one was Magdelina, one of the Realists. The other two must have been your crew, Andrew, and I am sorry for your loss."
Macelle looked the two men over. "Please, Andrew, tell me what you know of the Realists, and Jonathan, you tell me what you know of the Idealists."
Andy could not provide any new information. Basically all he knew about the Realists before encoutering them first hand was that they existed. He was only an Initiate and would not be privy to government secrets.
Jonathan was asked to repeate the story about the Destruction and how Earth survived, and repeated what the Elders had told him during his previous interview.
Somebody borught in tall glasses of water and a tray of sandwhiches part was through the interview. For this, the entire group was thanful.
When Jonathan was done, Grinder had a ghostly look on his face. "Do you know who Septimus Jones was?" He asked Jonathan.
'You mean other than a militant Fundametalist?"
"Yes."
"Not in particular, no. History was never one of my best subjects in school."
"Jonathan, this is a very important fact. Septimus Jones was Warren Jones' younger brother - the disciple he left on Earth to contact that Idealists and bring Earth into the system of colonies." Marcelle explained.
"It explains a lot" Grinder said. "Like why they never went back to Earth. They had to know, somebody had to have gone back at some time and found out what happened."
"It punches a hole in the philosophy." Marcelle said. "This might be the information we need to break into the Idealist public eye. There had to be a reason why Septimus gave up on the Idealist philosophy and resorted to the ways he did."
"But why?" Andy asked. "Look, I'm beginning to doubt things I've been told, just by Jon's stories."
"Andrew," Marcelle looked at the young man kindly. "This is your choice. I can have the realist philosophy explained to you. You need to understand, however, that you will be labeled an outlaw and will not be able to preform Idealist tricks anymore."
"Am I going to be lied to anymore?" he aksed frankly. "I hate being lied to."
"We wouldn't dream of it. We cannot prove that we are not lying, Andy, but you have to trust us." Grinder encuraged teh young man.
Andy saw that even his favourtie childhood hero had given up the ways of Idealism. "I can accept that," he said. Soon, he was led off.
"Jonathan," Marcelle said, looking at him with an intent expression. "We have to get to Earth. We need to understand your history better."
"I wish I could take you there," Jonathan said. "But I can't."
"You're right, son" Grinder said. "But that ship we crash landed can tell us how to get to your colony. And from there, we can use your ship to get back to Earth."
"He's right," Marcelle replied. "We're going to need to make a plan. First, to get computer core data from that wreck, and then to highjack a ship that will take us to where we need to go."