Welcome to Sram

Welcome to Sram

A New and Bette4 World

That is the first thing I remeber seeing in front of me when I woke up from a rather sleepless dream.

I seemed to be in a white sterile room which smelled of rubbing alcohol and antiseptic.  There was a fresh cool air coming through a vent above me, and the purest white paint on the walls I had ever seen.

As I continued looking around the room, I noted the scarcity of furniture.  There was a single chair, a hook on the wall, with the clothes that I remembered wearing before I fell asleep, and a sink and tub.

The sound of a door suddenly opening to my right, brought me back from my revery.

"Good morning" said a male voice. "I am an alien-in-training and have been assigned to help in your transition to Sram.  I hope you are quite comfortable here."

I looked at him in stunned silence.  He certainly did not look like an alien.  His eyes did not bulge from his face, he had no tentacles extending from his body and he spoke in perfect English.

As he watched my reaction to his statements he responded quite humorously that he was once an earthling himself.  "I came here to Sram two years before".

Earth was a disaster waiting to happen.  The severe hurricanes had torn through the southern states, leaving hundreds of thousands of people searching for a safe place to stay. The hurricanes not only wiped out homes and cars in its path, but also destroyed the food crops.

I started treking west, hoping to settle in the middle of the country, where there was no threat of those severethe  storms.  When I finally arrived in Minnesota, my life was shattered again, but this time by snow storms that dumped as much as 19 feet at a time.  I found myself barricaded from outside world for sometimes as long as a month and with little food or heat.

One last time, I traveled to sunny California where I could enjoy the coolness of the evenings and the warmth of the daylight's sun.  Jobs could easily be obtained, and life was good agajn.

One morning I woke up to feel the walls of my apartment vibrating, practically being ejected from my bed to the floor.  I knew right away that it was an Earthquake that had caused the St Andreas fault to split open like a cracked egg.  

News reports indicated that the quake had registered 9.9 points on the richter scale.  Thousands of people literally fell to their deaths.  I was one of the lucky inhabitants to survive.

A few weeks after the earthquake hit, I read that NASA had discovered a far away star in the galaxy that had similar characteristics with earth and could potentially offer a safe place to find shelter if the world were to end.

The scientists were looking to hire students with a background in science and anthropology.   These fields of study would  enable the successful transition to life on the new star.

At the time of discovery, the world was still in the grip of a series of pandemics, the original pandemic that started in the spring of 2020.  They never did find a vaccine to erradicate the virus.

I was born in the same year, and my immune system was able to fight f off the virus because my own parents had survived.the virus.  I never had to wear a mask when I went out so I was able to qualify for entrace into the study.  My field of study happened to be a major in anthropology and a minor in Sociology.

Once the scientists had determined the chemical and biological issues that were crucial sustaining life, it was up to my group to fashion modern life that would be comfortable and familiar.

"As you look around this room, you will notice that this room is quite simple and offers everything you need on a personal kevel".

"Well this is okay if I am required to stay locked up in a room all day, but I need to be doing things to keep from loosing my mind".

"You will not be staying in this room all day, and we would never want you to be idle.  You were specifically chosen to teach young children about the planet Earth and fill their minds with history. 

"I have read your file quite thoroughly and see that you were an American History teacher on earth".  I assure you that you will be paid very well for your assignment here on Sram".  The money you receive will be posted to the Knab of Sram.  There is no requirement to receive actual monetary pieces, because everything is oosted to your personal account".

"Now if you are ready, I will take you on a tour of Sram".

We walked down a corridor, surrounded by yellow tiled walls, and shiny black linoleum floors.  We entered the room through sliding doors that opened into a classroom with no more than ten desk for the children, a white dry board and a map of the world.  There were no books in the classroom, but each desk had a type of computer device that I had never seen before.

My host's eyes lit up when he saw the expression of surprise on my face and assured me that I would be well trained on this new technology.

We made our way out of the classroom. and walked down the same corridor to a door on the right.  This door lead to a huge dining area, where food was laid out buffet style.  The aroma of food that hit my senses reminded me that I was hungry.

We continued our tour through the building, visiting the Knab of Sram, an SVC drug store and even a few of earths' popular clothing stores.

The most fascinating part of the tour was getting on an elevator that neither went up or down,  To get to where you wanted to go, you merely typed in a three button combination and in seconds you were there.

I thought to myself what a wonderful world I had become a part of.  It was indeed a "bette4" world.  To this day I have no memory of how I got here.  The Alien-in-training was promoted to full trainer, and pokes his head into my class every once in a while to say "hi".

While I an quite content living on Sram,  i tend to be a little nostalgic and wonder what happened to earth because when I look up in the sky I no longer see the twinkling of that star to the north of this galaxy.