The Time Wanderers Part 2

From the events that led to the pa.s.sage of the Amendment to the Law on Mandatory Bioblockade in February 85, I have determined: 1. In the century and a half of global f.u.kamization, not a single case is known to cause any damage. Therefore, it was not surprising that until the spring of 61 very few mothers refused f.u.kamization. The overwhelming majority of physicians with whom I consulted had not heard of any such cases before that year. But statements against f.u.kamization, theoretical and propagandistic, had appeared frequently. Here is a typical one for our age: Pumivur, K. "Rider: Rights and Responsibilities." Bangkok, 15.

The author, vice president of the World a.s.sociation of Reeders, is an adherent and propagandizer of maximally active partic.i.p.ation of reeders in the activities of mankind. He argues against f.u.kamization, basing his argument an the data of personal statistics. He maintains that f.u.kamization is allegedly harmful for the appearance of reeder potential in man, and even though the relative number of reeders in the era of f.u.kamization did not decrease, during that time there were no reeders of the power comparable to those active in the late twenty-first and early twenty-second centuries. He calls for the abolition of the mandatory nature of f.u.kamization -- at first, at least for the children and grandchildren of reeders. (All the materials of the books are hopelessly out of date: in the Thirties a brilliant constellation of reeders of incredible power appeared -- Alexander Solemba, Peter Dzomny, et al.) Debuque, Charles. "To Build Man?" Lyon, 32.

A posthumous edition of the major (and now forgotten) antieugenicist.

The second half of the book is devoted wholly to the criticism of f.u.kamization as a "shamelessly subversive invasion into the natural state of the human organism." He stresses the irreversible character of the changes made by f.u.kamization ("... no one has ever been able to slow down an unbridled hypothalamus..."), but the main thrust of his argument is the fact that this is a typical eugenic procedure, imbued with the authority of world law, and which for many years has served as a bad and tempting precedent for new eugenic experiments.

Skesis, August. "The Stumbling Stone." Athens, 37.

The famous theoretician and preacher of neophilism devoted his brochure to harsh criticism of f.u.kamization, but to a poetic criticism rather than a rational one. Within the framework of the concepts of neophilism, like a vulgarization of the theory of Yakovits, the universe is the location of the neocosm, in which the mental and emotional code of a human personality flows after his death. Judging by everything, Skesis knows absolutely nothing about f.u.kamization, indeed imagines it to be something like an appendectomy, and pa.s.sionately calls on people to reject such a crude procedure, which mutilates and distorts the mental and emotional code. (According to BVI statistics, after the pa.s.sage of the Amendment, not a single member of the congregation of neophiles agreed to the f.u.kamization of his children.) Toseville, G. "Insolent Man." Birmingham, 51.

This monograph is a typical example of a whole library of books and brochures devoted to the propaganda of putting an end to technological progress. All these books are characterized by an apologia for stuck civilizations like the Tagorian or the biocivilization of Leonida. Earth's technological progress is declared to be done with. Man's expansion into the cosmos is depicted as a kind of social extravagance, which v ill bring a cruel disillusionment. Rational Man turns into Insolent Man, who in his striving for quant.i.ty of traditional and emotional information loses in its quality. (The a.s.sumption is that information on the psychocosmos is of immeasurably higher quality than information about the external cosmos in the broadest meaning of the word.) f.u.kamization does humanity a bad service precisely because it furthers the transformation of Rational Man into Insolent Man, broadening and in fact stimulating his expansionist potential.

He proposes a first stage of refusing the unbreaking of the hypothalamus.

Oxovu, K "Movement Along a Vertical." Calcutta, 61.

K. Oxovu is the pseudonym for a scientist or a group of scientists who formulated and disseminated the unknown idea of so-called vertical progress of humanity. I was unable to learn the real name of the author. I have reason to suspect that K. Oxovu is either G. Komov, Chairman of COMCON-1, or someone from the Academy of Social Prognosis who shares his views. The present edition is the first monograph of the "verticalists." The sixth chapter is devoted to a detailed examination of all aspects of f.u.kamization -- biological, social, and ethical -- from the point of view of the precepts of vertical progress. The basic danger of f.u.kamization is seen to be the possibility of uncontrolled influence of genetics. To support this idea, they give data (for the first time, as far as I can determine) on the many incidents of pa.s.sing along to children the qualities of f.u.kamization. There are over one hundred such cases where the mechanism of the fetus while still in the mother's womb began developing antibodies, characteristic of the action of UNBLAF serum, and over two hundred cases of newborns with an unbraked hypothalamus. Moreover, over thirty cases have been reported of pa.s.sing these qualities on to the third generation. They stress that while these phenomena pose no threat to the overwhelming majority of people, they are an eloquent ill.u.s.tration of the fact that f.u.kamization has not been as thoroughly studied as its adepts claim.

I must say that the material has been selected with extraordinary thoroughness and presented very effectively. For instance: several striking paragraphs are devoted to so-called G-allergics, for whom an unbraked hypothalamus is contradicted G-allergy is an extremely rare condition of the organism, easily detected in the fetus while still in utero and posing no danger to anyone; an infant like that simply does not have the second stage of f.u.kamization. However, if an unbraked hypothalamus is pa.s.sed on to a G-allergic by heredity, medicine will be powerless, and an incurably sick person will be born. K. Oxovu managed to find one such case, and he does not hold back on color in his description.

The author paints on even more apocalyptic picture in depicting the world of the future, in which humanity, under the influence of f.u.kamization, is split into two genotypes. This monograph has been reprinted many rimes, and played a not unimportant role in the discussion of the Amendment. It is interesting to note that the last edition of this book (Los Angeles, 99) does not contain a single word about f.u.kamization; we are to understand that the author is completely satisfied with the amendment, and the fate of 99.9 percent of the population, who continue to subject their children to f.u.kamization, does not worry him.

Note: In concluding this section, I feel it necessary to stress the fact that the selection and annotation of the materials was done on the principle of their lack of triviality from my personal point of view. I apologize in advance if the low level of my erudition causes dissatisfaction.

2. Apparently, the first refusal to be f.u.kamized, which began a whole epidemic of refusals, was recorded in the maternity home of the village of K'Sava (Equatorial Africa). On 17/4/81, all three women who entered the home that day, independently of one another and in differing forms, categorically forbid the personnel to perform the procedure of f.u.kamization. Mother 1 (first child) motivated her refusal on her husband's wishes, and the slightest attempts to change her mind made her go into hysterics. Mother 2 (first child) did not even try to give a motivation for her refusal. "I don't want to, and that's that!" she kept repeating. Mother 3 (third child, first protest) was very reasonable and calm, and explained her refusal by not wanting to decide her child's fate without his knowledge and consent "When he grows up, he'll decide," she announced.

(I cite the motivations because they are very typical. With slight variations, the "refuser" used them in 99 percent of the cases. The literature uses three cla.s.sifications. Refusal type A: totally rational, but in principle unverifiable, motivation; 25 percent. Refusal type B: pure phobia, hysterical, irrational behavior; 60 percent. Refusal type C: ethical considerations; 10 percent. Refusal type R (rate): references extremely varied in form and content: religious circ.u.mstances, adherence to exotic philosophical systems, and so on; e. 5 percent).

On April 18, in the same hospital, there were two more refusals, and new refuses were registered in maternity homes in the region. By the end of the month, refusals numbered in the hundreds, registered in all regions of the globe, and on May 5 came the first report of a refuse outside Earth (Mars, the Big Syrt). The epidemic of refusals, waxing and waning, continued right up to the year 85, so that by the time the Amendment was pa.s.sed, there were almost fifty-thousand refusers (0.1 percent of all mothers).

The laws of epidemics have been studied phenomenologically very well and with a high degree of veracity. Yet, they did nor result in convincing explanations.

For instance, it was noted that the epidemic had two geographic centers of distribution: one in equatorial Africa, the other In northeastern Siberia. An a.n.a.logy with the probable distribution centers of humanity comes to mind, but this a.n.a.logy, of course, explains nothing.

A second example. The refusals were always individual; however, within each maternity home, each refusal seemed to continue the previous one. Hence the term "chain of refusals of X number of links." The number X could be quite large: in the maternity home in the Howekai Gyneclinic, the "chain of refusals" began on 11/09/83 and extended until 21/09/83, pulling all the mothers who came into the home, so that the length of the "chain" contained nineteen mothers.

In some hospitals, the epidemics of refusals arose and died down several times. For instance, the epidemic was repeated twelve times in the Berne Palace of the Child.

For all this, the overwhelming majority of maternity homes on earth never heard about the epidemics of refusals. Just as most extraterrestrial settlements did not hear of the refusals. However, in places where the epidemics broke out (Big Syrt, Saula base, Resort), they developed according to the laws typical for Earth.

3. A large body of literature is devoted to the causes of f.u.kamiphobia.

I familiarized myself with the most solid works in the field, recommended to me by Professor Derouide of the Lhasa Psychology Center. I am insufficiently prepared to make a competent summary of these works, but I have formed the opinion that there is no generally accepted theory of f.u.kamiphobia.

Therefore, I will limit myself here to a verbatim fragment from my conversation with Professor Derouide.

QUESTION: Do you think it possible for the phobia to arise in a healthy and happy person?

ANSWER: Strictly speaking, that is impossible. In a healthy person, a phobia always arises as a consequence of excessive physical or psychological overload. You could hardly call such a person happy. But often, especially in our turbulent times, a person does not always realize that he has been overstrained... Subjectively, he might consider himself happy and even satisfied, and then the appearance of a phobia in him, from the point of view of a dilettante, may seem an inexplicable phenomenon...

QUESTION: And does this apply to f.u.kamiphobia?

ANSWER: You know, even today, from a certain point of view, pregnancy remains a mystery... It is enough to say that we only recently understood that the mind of a pregnant woman is the psyche of the binary, the result of a devilishly complicated interaction of the fully formed psyche of a grown person and the antenatal psyche of the fetus, the laws of which are practically unknown to us... And if you add to this the inevitable physical stress, the inevitable neurotic behavior... All that, in general, creates a rich soil for phobias. However, it would be rash to draw a conclusion from this, to think that this sort of discussion has in any way explained anything at all in this amazing business. Very rash... and not serious.

QUESTION: Are their any differences between the "refusers" and ordinary mothers? Physiological, psychological... Have there been studies?

ANSWER: Many. But nothing concrete has been established. I personally always felt, and still do, that f.u.kamiphobia is a universal phobia, like, for instance, a phobia for zero-transportation. But zero-T-phobia is a very wide-spread phenomenon. Almost every human being experiences fear before his first zero-T-transfer, no matter what s.e.x or profession, and then that fear disappears without a trace... while f.u.kamiphobia is, luckily, a rare manifestation. I say luckily because we have not learned how to treat f.u.kamiphobia.

QUESTION: Have I understood you correctly, professor, that there is not a single concrete cause known for f.u.kamiphobia?

ANSWER: Not verifiably, no. But there have been many theories, dozens.

QUESTION: For instance?

ANSWER: For instance -- propaganda by opponents of f.u.kamization. An impressionable personality, especially in the state of pregnancy, could easily be influenced by such propaganda. Or, say, hypertrophy of the maternal instinct, the instinctive need co protect her child from any external actions, even beneficial ones... Are you planning to argue? Don't.

I agree with you completely. All these hypotheses explain only a very narrow circle of facts, at best. No one could explain the phenomenon of the "chain of refusals," nor the geographic peculiarities of the phenomenon... And no one at all understands why it all began in the spring of 81, and not only on Earth but also very far from earth...

QUESTION: And why did it end in 85? Can that be explained?

ANSWER: Just imagine -- it can. Imagine that the fact of the Amendment pa.s.sing could play a decisive role in ending the epidemic. Naturally, there is still much that is unclear here, but just details.

QUESTION: What do you think -- could the epidemic have broken out as the result of some careless experiments?

ANSWER: Theoretically, that is possible. But in our time we checked that hypothesis out. There were no experiments being carried out on earth that could have caused ma.s.s phobias. Besides, do not forget, that f.u.kamiphobia broke out beyond Earth at the same time...

QUESTION: What sort of experiments could have caused phobias?

ANSWER: Probably I did not make myself clear. I could name a series of technical methods with which I could create some phobia in you, a healthy man. Note that I said "some" phobia. For instance, if I irradiate you with a certain regimen of neutrino concentrates, you will develop a phobia. But what phobia will it be? Fear of heights? Fear of emptiness? Fear of fear? I can't predict. There can certainly be no talk of eliciting a specific phobia, like f.u.kamiphobia, the fear of f.u.kamization... Unless it were in conjunction with hypnosis. But how can you realize that combination in practice?.. No, that's not a serious consideration.

4. For all its geographical (and cosmographical) distribution, the incidence of f.u.kamiphobia remained a very rare occurrence in medical practice, and on its own it would hardly have led to any changes in the law.

However, the epidemic of f.u.kamiphobia very quickly turned from a medical problem to an event of a social character.

August 81. The first registered protest of fathers, still individualized (complaints to local and regional medical authorities, separate appeals to local officials).

October 81. The first collective pet.i.tion of 124 fathers and two obstetricians to the Commission for the Protection of Mothers and Infants under the World Council.

December 81. At the XVII World Congress of the a.s.sociation of Obstetricians: physicians and psychologists first speak out against mandatory f.u.kamization.

January 82. An initiative group, VEPI (named after the founder's initials), is formed, uniting doctors, psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, and lawyers. It was VEPI that started and brought to victory the struggle to pa.s.s the Amendment.

February 82. The first protest rally by opponents of f.u.kamization in front of the World Council building.

June 82. The formal formation of the opposition to the law within the Commission on Protection of Motherhood and Infancy.

Further chronology of events is not interesting, from my point of view.

The time (three and a half years) necessary for the World Council to study the Amendment from all sides and then pa.s.s it is sufficiently typical.

However, what does not seem typical to me is the relations.h.i.+p between the number of ma.s.s proponents of the Amendment and the numbers of the professional corps. Usually, the number of ma.s.s proponents of a new law is at a minimum ten million people, while the professional corps, qualified to represent their interests (lawyers, sociologists, specialists in the give issue) is only several dozen people. In our case, the ma.s.s proponents of the Amendment (the "refusers," their husbands and relatives, friends, sympathizers, and people who joined the movement our. of religious or philosophical considerations) were never truly a ma.s.s movement The total number of partic.i.p.ants in the movement never exceeded half a million. As for the professional corps, the VEPI group alone al the time of pa.s.sage had 536 specialists.

5. After the Amendment was pa.s.sed, the refusals did not stop, even though their number diminished noticeably. Most importantly, during the year 85, the character of the epidemic changed. Actually, the phenomenon could no longer be called an epidemic. Whatever laws it had had ("the chains of refusals," geographical concentration) disappeared. Now, the refusals were completely random, individual; and motivations A and B were no longer encountered. Now there were references to the Amendment. Apparently, that is why doctors today do not see refusals to be f.u.kamized as manifestations of f.u.kamiphobia. Amazingly, many women who had categorically refused f.u.kamization and had played an active role in the campaign for the Amendment now have lost interest completely in the question and don't even use the right granted by the Amendment when they give birth. Of the women who refused f.u.kamization during the years 81-85, only 12 percent refused a second time. A third referral is very rare: only a few cases were recorded in fifteen years.

6. I feel I must stress two circ.u.mstances.a). The almost total disappearance of f.u.kamiphobia after the Amendment was pa.s.sed is usually explained by well-known psychosocial factors. Modern man accepts only those limitations and requirements that stem from moral and ethical orders of society. Any limitation or requirement based on other considerations is met with (unconscious) hostility and (instinctive) inner protest. And naturally, once they achieved freedom of choice in f.u.kamization, people lost the basis for hostility and became neutral toward f.u.kamization, as toward any other medical procedure.

Taking this consideration into account, I stress, nevertheless, the possibility of another interpretation -- one that is of interest within the framework of theme 009. To wit: the story related above of the appearance and disappearance of f.u.kamiphobia can be easily explained as the result of a concentrated, well-planned action of a certain rational will.

b). The epidemic of f.u.kamiphobia corresponds well in time with the appearance of the Penguin Syndrome. (See my report No. 011/99.) Sapieti sat, T. Glumov [End of Doc.u.ment 4.]

Now I can maintain with total a.s.surance that it was this report of Glumov's that forced the s.h.i.+ft in my consciousness that led me finally to the Big Revelation. And, funny as it may seem now, that s.h.i.+ft began with the uncontrollable irritation brought on by Toivo's crude and unambivalent hints about the alleged role of the "verticalists" in the history of the Amendment. In the original of the report, that paragraph is covered with thick marks in my hand; I remember quite well that I was planning to call Toivo on the carpet for his overactive imagination. But then I was given information on the Wizard's visit to the Inst.i.tute of Eccentrics, I finally got the point, and I had no time for calling people on the carpet.

I was in a cruel crisis, because I had no one to talk to. First of all, I had no propositions. And secondly, I did not know with whom it was safe to talk now, and with whom it wasn't. Much later, I asked my group if they found anything strange about my behavior in those horrible (for me) days of April 99. Sandra was engrossed in the Rip Van Winkle theme and was bowled over himself and noticed nothing. Grisha Serosovin maintained that I was particularly silent then and replied to all initiatives on his part with a mysterious smile. And Kikin is Kikin: even then, "everything was clear" to him. Toivo Glumov must have been driven crazy by my behavior then. And he was. However, I really did not know what to do! One by one I sent my coworkers to the Inst.i.tute of Eccentrics and waited each time to see what would happen, and nothing would happen, and I would send the next one and wait some more.

At that time, Gorbovsky died at his place in Kraslava.

At that time, Athos-Sidorov was preparing to go back into the hospital, and there was no certainty that he would return.

At that time, Danya Logovenko invited himself over for a cup of tea for the first time in many years and spent the whole evening reminiscing, chatting nonsense.

At the time, I decided nothing.

On the night of May 5, the emergency service got me out of bed. In Little Pesha (on the Pesha River, which falls into the Czech inlet of the Barents Sea), some sort of monsters had appeared, creating panic in the villagers. The emergency squad was sent out to examine the site.

According to the rules, I had to send one of my inspectors to the site.

I sent Toivo.

Unfortunately, Inspector Glumov's report on the events and on his actions in Little Pesha has apparently been lost. In any case, I have not been able to discover it... However, I would like to show how Toivo performed that study in as detailed a manner as possible, and therefore I will have to resort to a reconstruction of the events, basing it on my own memory and on conversations with partic.i.p.ants in that event.

It is not hard to see that the reconstruction being offered (and all the ones that follow) contains, besides absolutely reliable facts, some descriptions, metaphors, epithets, dialogues, and other elements of fiction.

But I need for the reader to see the living Toivo before him, the way I remember him. Doc.u.ments alone are not enough. If one cares, however, one can examine my reconstructions as a special kind of deposition.

LITTLE PESHA. 6 MAY 99. EARLY MORNING.

From above, Little Pesha looked just the way that village should look at 'three in the morning. Sleepy. Peaceful. Empty. A dozen multicolored roofs in a semicircle, a gra.s.s-covered square, several gliders standing around, the yellow club pavilion by the cliff over the river. The river seemed motionless, very cold, and uninviting; clumps of whitish fog hung over the reeds on the other side.

On the club porch, his head thrown back, a man stood watching a glider.

His face seemed familiar to Toivo, and there was nothing amazing about that: Toivo knew many emergency-squad members -- probably every other one.

He landed next to the porch and jumped out onto the damp gra.s.s. The morning here was cold. The emergency-squad man was wearing a huge, comfy jacket with numerous special packets, with nests for all their cylinders, regulators, extinguishers, igniters, and other objects for perfect emergency work.

"h.e.l.lo," said Toivo. "Basil, isn't it'!"

"h.e.l.lo, Glumov," the man responded, offering his hand. "Right. It's Basil. What took you so long?"

Toivo explained that zero-T wasn't working here in Little Pesha far some reason, that he was let out at Lower Pesha and had to take a glider there and fly over forty minutes above the river.

"I understand," Basil said, and looked back at the pavilion. "That's what I thought. You see, in their panic they mutilated their zero-T cabin..."

"You mean, no one has come back yet?"

"No one."

"And nothing else has happened?"

"Nothing. Our people finished the examination ninety minutes ago, didn't find anything substantial, and went home to do the lab work. They left me to keep everyone out, and I've spent the time repairing the zero-T cabin."

"Have you fixed it?"

"More yes than no."

The cottages of Little Pesha were ancient, built in the last century, utilitarian architecture, in toxically bright colors -- from old age. Each cottage was surrounded by impenetrable currant bushes, lilacs, strawberries.

And right beyond the semicircle of houses was the forest, the yellow trunks of gigantic airs, the crown gray-green in the fog, and above them, rather high up, the crimson disk of the sun in the northeast...

"What lab work?" Toivo asked.

"Well, there are a lot of clues... That disgusting stuff crawled out of that cottage, I guess, and spread in all directions..." Basil began pointing. "On the bushes, the gra.s.s, and on some of the verandas there's dried slime, scales, clumps at something..."

"What did you see yourself?"

"Nothing. When we got here, it was like it is now, except there was fog on the river."

'Then there are no witnesses?"

"At first, we thought everyone had run off. Then we learned that in that house there, the end one on the bank, there is a very elderly woman doing one, thank you, who never thought about running away..."

"Why not?" Toivo asked.

"No idea!" Basil replied, raising his eyebrows and spreading out his hands. "Can you imagine, total panic, everyone scattering, the door pulled off the hinges of the zero-cabin, and she doesn't give a d.a.m.n... We fly in, start up our whole battle campaign, sabers unsheathed, bayonets plugged in, and she comes out on her porch and demands severely that we be more quiet, because we're keeping her up with our noise!"

"Had there been panic?" Toivo asked.

"And how!" Basil said, palm outstretched. "There were eighteen people here when it all began. Nine ran off on their gliders. Five escaped through the zero-cabin. And three ran off into the woods, and got lost; we were lucky to find them. So don't have any doubts about it, there was panic...

There was panic, and there were monsters, and they left traces. Now, why the old lady didn't get scared, that we don't know. She's strange, that old lady. I heard her tell the commander: 'You got here too late, boys. You can't help them now. They're all dead.' "

Toivo asked: "What did she have in mind?"

"I don't know," Basil said grumpily. "I told you, she's strange."

Toivo looked at the toxic pink cottage that contained the old lady. The garden was well tended. There was a glider parked next to the cottage.

"I don't recommend disturbing her," Basil said. "Let her wake up on her own, and then you can talk --"