AN EARTHLY EXPERIENCE

Submitted into Contest #156 in response to: Write a story where a character is experiencing parallel realities.... view prompt

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Science Fiction Adventure Fiction

I hear the humans say I’m in a coma. That is only partly true…this human vessel I’ve entered is lying on a bed, hooked up to beeping machines and devices I do not recognise. Fear grips me and I don’t want to be here. I need to return to my planet, Zoron. I fell into this world they call Earth, purely by accident. We were heading to another galaxy, on a mission to rescue one of our planet’s from an encroaching battle – when suddenly we took an unexpected turn, a disruption in the system sending us spiralling and pitching, and we ended up diverting through the Milky Way’s Asteroid Belt, crashing into Earth’s atmosphere, obliterating the craft. When finally I landed, my essence was absorbed by this vessel I am now in. For our voyages, we leave our bodies attached to an apparatus called a Simpod, so only our essence travels, making it easier to pass through other realms, dimensions and planetary systems. Something unusual is going on inside this body, I can’t explain. I assess it has something to do with human emotions. Zoronians don’t feel emotions, so I recognize these are coming from somewhere deep within this human being I am stuck inside. A liquid sporadically drips from their eyes. The humans are communicating…

“Doctor, his heartbeat is regular, and I’ve also seen some tears. Other than that there still hasn’t been any movement. Have the police found out who he is yet?”

“No, they are looking into missing persons cases, thus far they haven’t got back to me.”

“Do you think he will wake soon?”

“Hmmm…It’s hard to say, his vitals are good, his brain seems to be functioning. Give it a bit more time. I’ll go and check if the police have returned my call.”

I hear a door close, it’s loud. Sensing finally I am alone, we open our eyes, but close them tight again because the light is too bright – it hurts this body. Pain; I’ve heard the humans communicating about it. I have gathered by their words, that pain is something humans feel. Hurt and pain are bad for this species, but it is necessary for them; this is how they distinguish if there is something wrong with them. Zoronians don’t feel pain or hurt, so this is enigma about humans that we do not comprehend. When one of them said they were about to prick me with something sharp, to see if I could feel this pain they are talking about, they said I felt, nothing. Nothing: is another concept I do not understand. Pain can be something, or it can be nothing. Pain is hurt…very strange indeed.

When finally my eyes adjust to the light, I can see functionally. I assess the environment. The light I thought was a source inside this little box they call a room, is actually coming through some sort of shield to the outside world – it must be their sun. We learned about this planet Earth, back home on Zoron. They teach us about other galaxies and planetary systems, for knowledge and to gain vital information. Earth is on a lower echelon, and it is one of many recycling planets. When humans die, their energy or spirit is born into another vessel; they call it reincarnation, we call it recycling. Due to humans being unaware, distracted – they will never know this about themselves, nor their real purpose for existing.

Humans believe they are alone in the Universe, and that other species like ours don’t exist. Though they are getting very close the discovering the truth, they never will. Unless, we are ordered to save this planet from total annihilation, we will not venture here. Though we are not under any obligation to intervene, when the moment comes, and humans need our help, a decision will be made by the Universal Councils. Humans have weapons that can destroy themselves instantaneously. Much the same way other recycling planets have perished, due to their inability to work out their internal conflicts.

Travellers have been ordered to stay away from Earth; it is strictly prohibited. If humans were to realise our existence on this planet, they would imprison and experiment on us. They would destroy our planet. Worse than that, they could find a way to use our travel crafts and our technology, giving them the ability to cross over into other realms – if that were to happen, it would be a disaster. We know that humans are capable of creating, but they also have the destruction gene to destroy. I want to go home, back to Zoron. There is too much noise here. Fortunately, I am able to understand the human language, most probably because of the vessel I’m immersed in. The humans return to the room, and I close my eyes again.

“…yes we are certain it is him, doctor. His name is James Hill. He’s been missing for one week, and his wife is on her way in now to see him.”

“Super. That ends that mystery. Good news all around. His brainwaves suggest he might wake any moment, but definitely within a day or two. Then you can take a statement from him. But as you can see he is in no fit condition to answer any questions just yet.”

“Of course, Doctor White. I understand. The wife, Maddison Hill, she’s been frantic with worry. When he didn’t return from jogging, she called it in, and filed a missing person’s report. The first seventy-two hours are the most vital stages to finding a missing person, any time after that is like searching for the proverbial needle in the haystack. It’s very fortunate they found him when they did.”

“Yes, he was quite a mess when they brought him in. Someone found him near death in the scrub around a golf course. But the good news is he didn’t suffer any long-term effects from the hypothermia, other than this temporary coma; he was unconscious when the paramedics brought him in.”

I wasn’t in a coma – James was. The impact from me colliding into him, affected his body to where we were unable to move. We lay out there in the cold. I could sense his vessel was dying…would I die a human death too? What would happen to my essence if this vessel were to die – would I be stuck here for an eternity, waiting to be saved? My mind is a racing mess; my thoughts, scrambled. James is waking slowly inside his mind; I hear is thoughts, he is trying to comprehend what has happened. They say his wife is on her way in. I don’t know what to do. I’ll have to wait and see if the Zoronians come for me. Our eyes are heavy…James drifts off to sleep. His body is still unwell.

“You found him! Where was he? My God, this is amazing, I thought that something terrible had happened to James when he didn’t return from his run. He didn’t take any identification with him, and he’d left his cell phone at home.”

We are startled awake by a loud voice. Our eyes spring open without my consent. James is responding to his wife’s voice. I feel the touch of her skin, and it shoots shockwaves through us I cannot explain. It’s almost like the way us Zoronians communicate. We have a sacred symbol called a Zoroglyph above our eyes that we use to greet one another. By merely touching each other’s Glyphs, we are able to communicate our thoughts, ideas, and personal information. With our eyes fully open, their lips touch; it momentarily stops our breath! I’ve never felt anything like it. The liquid that was falling from our eyes before, is flooding down the side of our face.

 “This is brilliant progress! He’s responding to you, and look you woke him up, like sleeping beauty, you certainly have a strong bond. We’ll keep him in for a couple of days to assess and monitor him. Then you can take him home, I bet your kids will be excited to see him?”

“We have all missed him dreadfully! We’ve been beside ourselves with worry.”

A few days later, and now we are traveling in a vehicle slower than I am used to. This is a strange concept. On Zoron, our vehicles fly, and don’t travel so low to the ground. Apparently, we are heading home to the family. I guess home is the place they live in, and family is James’s wife and children. Maddison is driving, we pass huge buildings, houses where humans live, and other unrecognisable structures. There are long vehicles called trains – Maddison mentions that James rides it to go to work, and that a storm damaged some of the tracks. I learned about this perception of work humans do, to make money to survive, because they need to eat. The source, the one who made Earth, gave humans that desire inside them, it is what gets them to do the things they do; it keeps them productive. If they didn’t have this pre-programmed into them, they would die off. Which of course is inevitable, with recycling planets. One day, their sun will be their ending.

Each planet has been programmed for one thing or another. On Zoron, we are programmed to protect, defend and rescue. Due to the fact humans are lower beings, their consciousness hasn’t adapted, developed or enlightened to their higher selves. They use only a small percentage of their brain capacity, and they will never reach full comprehension, until the fifth-dimension merges with their third. The idea that their fourth-dimension is in the centre of their Earth, without human knowledge, will never be realised. Not by humans. It’s the dimension only a few enlightened humans have ever reached. There are creatures there that were once banished from Earth; they made the fourth-dimension to save themselves from extinction.

Finally, the vehicle stops at the house they call a home; we follow Maddison inside. I hear something loud to our ears, it shocks me, but it propels James forward. I cover our ears from the overwhelming shrieks and screams; I can sense Maddison looking at us strangely, so I remove our hands from our ears. When we enter a room, two children come running and it scares me; we back away. There are no children on Zoron, we have no need for these beings. Something is happening inside us, I feel this surge of warmth, it’s a comforting feeling when they wrap themselves around our legs. James scoops them up and holds them to us; warm, salty, liquid streams from our eyes.

James seems to have taken over, which is good and unexpected. I can sense our mergence into one another is getting stronger the longer I am in James’s body. I am becoming James, but I am also Orwinozon. We are named after the place we are from; Zoron. Part of my name is in honour of our God, Zorwin, who rules over our galaxy. Back home I am what humans call a doctor. I use magic and technology to ensure all Zoronians are operating properly. We have capsule mods that can sense any problems, and the machine fixes the defects.

For hours we do human things. We eat, which is new to me. On Zoron we don’t need food to sustain us, we have no need for it in our physiology. But James needs food. We help to bathe the children, and their giggles make the edges of our mouth turn up towards our eyes. There is a feeling attached to this action that makes James happy…a building pressure inside our head, I sense it might burst, but it doesn’t – so I gather that the opposite of pain is happiness? The rush of feelings leaves me momentarily stunned; humans are a complicated race. They have feelings that makes them react…this is a result of their source giving them the freedom of choice.

Eventually, we enter a room, towards a bed. James takes over again, and makes it right. We can feel Maddison’s skin against us, and it makes us tingle and swell. I can’t settle, so we lay here allowing James’s thoughts to process what is happening to him, at the same time, my mind is looking for a way home. I wonder when my crew are coming to get me? I know they will be searching for me; they need me. I ponder the differences between our species. We have bodies too, but not like humans. Zoronians are much larger and there are no differences within our species, we don’t have individual personalities like humans do. We are all the same: equal. We do not die, because there is no concept of time.

Maddison cuddles into us, and we wrap her in our arms – making James feel safe. When she starts kissing us, we are overloaded and something inside our body wants to burst apart. Gently we push her away.

“What happened to you my love? Please tell me, I need to know. You’ve been avoiding the elephant in the room. You seem, different. Almost distant…”

“I was jogging in the park that backs onto the golf course. I don’t remember much. I was struck by something, maybe a falling tree? I woke in the hospital when I heard your voice, like you were pulling me out of a trance.”

She whispers, “I love you. I was so worried, I’ve hardly slept. Will you just hold me while we fall asleep? I’m so tired – the stress has been effecting me.”

“I’m sorry,” is all I can manage to say as our eyes close.

The night is dark and thick. The Earth’s moon is up in the sky, full and white. I couldn’t sleep, so we had to get up. We wander around the house in the dark, because I can see well without the light. I feel lost. James feels lost. I am stuck inside someone else’s body, and although James is trying to close his eyes, from exhaustion, I can’t stop the thoughts pushing through my mind.

My planet Zoron is beautiful. Although Earth has some good things going for it, it is a dreadful place, there is too much chaos and noise. On Zoron, we have many moons and many suns. The land is not hilly and rough like Earth, there are no build-up of structures. There are no natural formations, like rivers or oceans, forests or farms, and animals are native to Earth. Everything on Zoron is regimental. We are given a task to do, and it stays that way for an eternity. We live in towers that reach the sky. There is no internal war, like humans have, with their weapons, destruction and devastation towards one another. We all get along because we have one purpose, and that is to function as a member of the Zoronians, in a way that ensures our survival against other planets from other galaxies. If we didn’t all work together, we would fall into the grasps of another galactic force. We are the colour of everything around us. We change to adapt to our surroundings. We blend in. In our essence state we are invisible.

We are in the room they call the kitchen, the place they make food, when suddenly there are bright lights beaming into the room. I don’t know what is happening. Suddenly, we hear a voice inside our head…saying in my language, to come outside. So we do. When we venture out, a beam of light hits us and we fall down. The grass is cold and wet beneath us, it is an unpleasant feeling. The voice is commanding I enter the travel craft, so I detach myself from James and as I am pulled into the air, into the craft, I watch as Maddison runs out of the house, she leans over James who is still lying on the ground. She freezes when she sees the craft; her eyes are wide and her mouth agape.

James sits up as we fly away; looking dazed. I am surrounded by my crew, though one is missing. Perhaps they didn’t survive the crash into Earth? Well I certainly have a story to tell the others when I get home. We zoom through the sky and up into space towards the wormhole we were supposed to have gone through initially. Earth disappears from my view, and although I hated the place, I have learned so much more than they ever taught us. Although, the human race fight and many are lost, they have something we have no concept of: love. They love as much as they destroy. I could feel that love, and I will miss it, even though I only felt it for a moment, it will stay with me forever. 

July 29, 2022 08:45

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