Exit: Secrets In The Night

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Richard lay beside his brand new wife for the first time.  He was nervous, but it was not the typical nerves of the wedding night.  A conversation he should have had days ago did not take place as it should have.  Bearing in mind that the whole initiation and wedding process had gone along so quickly that neither one had been able to get to know the other as solidly as one might have liked.   Remembering the Pyorg policy on divorce, Richard felt surprisingly at ease.  Perhaps Olive would stay with him after he told her his planet shaking news.  There should be no secrets between a man and his wife.  Richard had to tell her.

Touching her lightly caused Olive to turn toward him and smile.  She moved closer.

“Before anything gets started, Olive, there’s something you should know.  You may not want to hear it, but you are my wife and I can not lie to you.”

Olive stared at him intently.  “I’m listening,” she said.

“Olive, This seems crazy, but I am not actually from Opposia.  I am from Earth.  A planet that for all I know is light years away from here.  Olive,  I am an alien!  We probably won’t be able to have children,” said Richard.

Instead of shuddering with fear, as he thought she would, Olive’s smile became even more broad.  “This actually doesn’t surprise me one bit.  Thank you for being so brave to bring this up.  However, I believe that I have the strangest part of this story.  I am actually the reason you are here on Opposia,” Olive stated.

“How do you figure that?  I open a tool box one day, and suddenly I’m here.  I don’t understand how I fit through that opening in the first place!” Richard exclaimed.

“You’ve seen the building at the center of the camp,” said Olive.

“Yes, I’ve been trying to figure out what the purpose of that building was used for,” replied Richard.

“If you go in there, legend has it, that anything you think of or wish for is possible.  The chief has the only key to unlock the door, so he has all the creative power one could ever want.  The sad thing is that his imagination does not extend much farther than enhancing the looks of eligible women chosen by men who have come of age in the tribe, or in your case, have been initiated,” said Olive.  “During one such initiation, just before yours,  I was in the room with many other women.  The chief was having the time of his life recreating the women to his desired specifications.  I moved to the back of the line, knowing they were unlikely to pick me since I’m in my thirties.  During that walk of shame I wished for a man just like you.  I didn’t think of the exact way you would be transported here or where you would come from,  I didn’t even think it would work.  I thought the chief was the only one with that kind of power.  Richard, that day on the beach was the most fantastic of my life!” Olive said.

“A room with unlimited creative potential.  This seems amazing to me!” Richard said.  “Why is your way of life so primitive?  I mean, I love it.  It’s great to be simple, but your tribe could prosper endlessly, you’d never have to hunt or work a day in your lives ever again if you could just think of what you wanted on a whim.”

“This is a good segue into secret number two of mine,” said Olive.  “Two generations ago the Pyorg tribe did not exist.  My ancestors are actually from earth, like you.  There was a small group of about forty who decided they wanted to enlist in a mission to colonize Mars.  Preparations were made, suddenly the great day was upon them.  They all went aboard the space craft with such great hope and anticipation.  Unfortunately, something went wrong with the navigation system and they ended up running out of fuel.  Unable to escape the gravitational pull of what would eventually become known as Opposia, the crew crash landed here.”

“This is incredible,” said Richard.

“Wait, I’m not done yet.  The captain of the ship was so disgusted by this.  Not seeing any red, he know they were in the wrong place.  They could not radio for help because all of their technology was destroyed in the crash.  With his authority he decided that the best course of action would be for the small group to repopulate a society here, with no technology.   Technology had gotten them into this mess, it would not destroy their lives again.  Everyone agreed and began building simple homes trying to construct simple homes and weapons with tools they could make themselves.  The captain declared himself the first chief of this new society  A generation of this worldview would pass on.  Soon it became evident that they needed to build a larger shelter to protect the women and children from animal attacks.  The man in charge of that was still a free thinker, not a yes man like all the others.  He respected the chief as much as was necessary, but he still liked to have his own thoughts.  That ideology was almost baked right into the building.  The third chief in the line of successors.  The one who rules currently, stumbled across this power several years ago and has been taking advantage of it ever since.”

“With all this power,  why doesn’t he just create a space craft large enough for everyone and head home?” Richard asked.

“He likes the lifestyle his grandfather built for him.  On earth he has no power, so there is no incentive to make a return trip.  Here, he is the main man.  He can do whatever he feels like without penalty, while the same is not true for the rest of us.  Everyone around him is a yes man or woman.  Whatever he says goes.  Apparently he can do no wrong,” said Olive.

“You and I could find the key and escape back to earth, if you wanted to see what it was like there.  All we’d have to do is think of a space craft and we could get out of here!” Richard said, he was excited.

“If you can properly think of one, be my guest!  However, we don’t know where the key is,” said Olive.

“Leave that to me,” Richard said,  “I believe I’ll have some time to look around at some point in the next few days.  If we find it, consider it our honeymoon trip.”

Olive didn’t know what a honeymoon was, but it sounded like it would be a fantastic adventure.  She smiled at Richard and got closer to him.  She whispered in his ear. “Now, about those kids you thought you wouldn’t be able to have.”

 

 

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