Chapter Nine: Cultural Integration

"So, you're telling me you travel space with your minds?" Jonathan asked.
"Not just that."
"Quite a bit more."
"Our society rather depends on the fact that the social intereactions are the only part of it that is real."
"Alright - if you know that the world doesn't exist, so absolutely, why do you exist in the world at all?" Jonathan was not a philosopher, but he had noted a few fundamentals that were bothering him. This was the big one.
"Tell us Jonathan, if we removed ourself from the realm of perceptions, what would we have left?" The elders asked in return.
"I don't know..." Jonathan said non-commitally, figuring there was some sort of right answer.
"The simple truth is, there are members of our society that Introspect; that is, go entierly into themselves and ignor perceptions. What they are left with is their thoughts, which are limited by the perceptions that they have already had. They exist in a realm of perfect memory, but accuire no new memories. Many people that go into that state do not stay long. In fact, a large number of people try, despite best advice not to. Everyone who tries goes with the hope of deriving some sort of absolute truth. they go with the hopes of making a development like Warren Jones'."
"But, nobody has ever made a development like Warren Jones."
"Jonathan - we must give you a peice of bad news before you can leave us."
"You will undoubtledly find it unfair, but you must understand that we have our reason for this."
"Jonathan, we are afraid that you cannot leave out society and return to your own."
"What?" Jonathan said, taken aback. "Why not?"
"We cannot tell you, not yet at any rate."
"There is too much at stake right now..."
"Hush, Farhad."
"Perhaps you will understand in time. For now, I believe that you will find that Captain Fortworth's ship is short one crew-man."
"We have consulted with the Spacing Commision," this statement seemed somewhat odd to Jonathan because the elders had not talked to anyone but him since his arrival, but he was quickly learning that nothing on the world of Port Orpheus was what he would consider normal. "They have accepted that you need to be integrated into our society, and they have assigned Captain Fortworth to be your advisor."
"Begging your pardon, elders" Captian Fortworth interjected, "but would this job not be better suited for a social worker?"
"I'm afriad that you are already a familiar face to the man, Ignus," Lucas said with a fatherly smile. "Normally, we might assign a social worker to a case like this one, but as is, with the... conflict, they are all busy."
"Conflict, sir?" Captain Fortworth asked,
"It's nothing, for now, Captain Fortwoth. Do not worry about it."
"Furthermore," Lucas continued "I'm afriad all the social workers do not have the same sort of skills you do. This man does not need the help of a social worker -- he need the help of a friend. And right now, Captain Fortworth, you are the closest thing to a friends the man has on this world."
"Please, we have many matters to discuss today. We deemed this visit important over all else, but with current situations, we have to carry on with other business."
"Captain Fortworth, if you would kindly take initiate Brooke to the local offices of the Spacing Commision..."
With that, the two men were dismissed from the audience hall of the elders. The gaurds stayed behind this time.
"Captain - " Jonatha began.
Captain Fortworth quickly cut him off. "Please, don't call me that. I never liked the title. Call me Ignus."
"Ignus," Jonathan tried, "I understand that you probably don't want to look after me. I am a mature adult. I can probably find my own way around this city."
"Jonathan, quite frankly, I don't know you. Right now, you're just like a new recruit to my ship, except that you lack a certain skill set that is usually equated with an initiate. I have no doubt that you will be an asset on my vessel once you learn what your job is, but until you become more familiar with this place you are living, I don't think it very intellegent to set you out on your own.
"Quite simply, I can tell by your actions and some of the things that you said to the elders that you are unfamiliar with our society. It would not be intellegent, or fair, to cut you loose in this city. There is one simple reason why." Captain Fortworth talked as he and Jonathan walked side by side out of the building by the space port. their eyes met a city unlike any other in the Galaxy. The Orpheus family was arguably the most powerful and certainly the richest. The city was an opulent utiopia. There was no mistaking it as a city; vihicles hummed over roads and pedestrians when about their myriad and sundry tasks without seeming to notice one another, but the architecture was an incredible mixture of styles that Jonathan, for one, could not recognise. There were a considerable amount of trees and other vegetaion to be found by the roads of the city. It was all lit by the strange double red suns up in the sky. The view was unlike anything jonathan had ever seen. There was no doubt in Jonathan's mind that the utalitarian structures of earth lacked the beauty of the buildings here; if not the functionality.
Jonathan was so breathtaken by the view of strange buildings that never seemed to top about four stories and were all ornately decorated with some sort of white stone that it took him a moment to reply to Captain Fortworth. "Why's that?" he finally asked.
"The plain answer, Jonathan, is that the city does not exist." The answer Captain Fortworth gave made all of the beauty of teh city very superflous, but Jonathan could still not help but gape.
On earth, after the destruction, buildings had been created out of necessitity, and they looked it. Architecture was no longer an art. It was an art that died along with most of the earth. Structures were generally uniform in appearance and served some sort of task. Thats what they were for, use. Nothing else.
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," Jonathan muttered as he walked along the streets.
"Thats a tired old statment." Captain Fortworth said. "Interesting Old Earth concept, though. Technically, everything is in the mind of the beholder... and only because it was planted there by the Mind."
"I know this may seem an amature question," Jonathan started.
"Don't worry about amature questions, Jonathan." Captain Forworth replied. "You'll never understand us if you don't ask us."
"Alright then, what is The Mind?"
Captain Fortworth did not slow his pace any, but he immediately when into a reflective state. He was about a minute before he replied. Jonathan knew it would be useless to try and coax an answer out of him faster. There was something about the ease of Captain Fortworth's manner that made him easy to get along with - and easy to let him do things his own way. "What is the mind?" he repeated. "That's a question pondered much by the Introspectives, and the intellegencia at large." Captain Fortworth pondered for a second more, carefully selecting his words carefully. "You really don't ask the easy questions first, do you? Well, the Mind, it seems, is the being that controls out perceptions of the world. It, essentially, tells all of our minds, and, presumably, all of the minds of all the universe what they are seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling. Any other senses that might exist among other beings would be controlled by The Mind."
With the mention of 'other beings', Jonathan thought of Norman. He looked over his shoulder, and around in general. he did not see the creature, but because of the camoflauge nature of his skin, that didn't mean anything. He had been so engrossed in the lectures of the Elders that he had not thought of his companion. Jonathan hoped, however, that the creature was not harmed in any way.
"The Mind controlls our perceptions, but not our actions. It does not determine fate. That is why we believe that the mind probably isn't God, merely just a higher order of existence. Probably the most interesting feature of The Mind is that it can be influenced. Because there is no space and all of our minds and the Mind Co-exists in the same spacelessnes, we can interact with it directly. All we need is our thoughts. We can, with concentration, manipulate the Mind to change the perceptions of every being in the Universe. That is to say, we can push every mind in the universe to suddenly preceive that our spaceship is no longer in Port Orpheus, but rather in Orbit around Ranch, another one of the seventeen colonies. Because everybody, including the people within the ship precieve that they they are in orbit around Ranch (or, at least, would precieve it if they could, somebody on another world could not see that far in actuality), it becomes true. That is where the Spaceship is."
"That has to be one of the most interesting ideas for space travel I've ever heard." Jonathan said. "There were many physical theories on Earth, none of which seemed to work -- except of course, one. But it didn't even work properly."
"Why not?" Captain Fortworth asked.
"That planet you found me on? I call it Norton, by the way," Jonathan added.
"A worthy name for the planet. We were waiting for the locals to name it." Captain Fortworth replied.
"Well, Norton wasn't my intended destination. I was supposed to go to Sigma. I wasn't supposed to end up at Norton. Strange that I should end up at a planet you were studying."
"Indeed, it was. It took a lot of coaxing to get the Mind to allow the perception of our ship being there. It was no small task to get there, let me tell you."
The two men fell into silence as they continued walking on towards the local offices of the Spacing Commision. Captain Fortworth seemed to know the way rather well, because on more than one occasion, he made a turn without looking up. Jonathan still craned his neck, unaware of his odd behaviour, in awe of the buildings and city at large. There was one tower that stretched far above the city. It was unlike anything Jonathan had ever seen before.
After a few more minutes of walking, them came to a building that did not match the arcitecture of all the others around it. It was built with a grey stone that gave off an eerie glint in the red suns. It was slightly squater than the other buildings and had a very offical look about it.
"The Port Orpheus Spacing Commision Offices." Catpain Fortworth announced. "Welcome to your new home, Jonathan."