another excerpt (part 2)

[Guest guest]

‘Yes, that was it,’ Thaora replied. ‘Now, move

closer, the two of you. Talk together, touch each other

if you want to - in a word, make each other’s

acquaintance.<br><br>I stood up and Arki did likewise. When he was

upright, his hands almost touch the floor. Each had five

fingers, like ours, but it had two thumbs - one in the

same position as ours and the other where our little

fingers are.[8]<br><br>We approached each other and he

held his arm out to me, the wrist forward and fist

closed. He was smiling at me, revealing a set of

straight, even teeth, just like ours, but green. I held my

hand out in return, not knowing what else to do, and

he addressed me in his own language - now perfectly

comprehensible to

me.<br><br><br>--------------------------------\

---------------<br><br>1 - Spacecraft of the planet X which travels at a

speed slightly below the speed of

light.<br><br>‘Michel, I am very pleased to meet you and would have

liked to be<br>welcoming you as a guest on my own

planet.’ I thanked him warmly, and filled with such

emotion, began the sentence in French and finished it in

English, which he, likewise, had no difficulty

understanding!<br><br>He continued. ‘At the request of the great Thaora, I

have come to Thiaoouba from planet X, a planet that

resembles yours in many ways. It is twice larger than

Earth, with 15 billion inhabitants but, like Earth and

other planets of the first category, it’s a ‘Planet of

Sorrows’. Our problems are much the same as yours: we have

had two nuclear holocausts during our existence on

our planet and we have experienced dictatorships,

crime, epidemics, cataclysms, a monetary system and all

that is associated with it, religions, cults and other

things.<br><br>‘However, eighty of our years ago (our year lasts four

hundred and two 21-hour-days) we initiated a reform. In

fact, the reform was set in motion by a group of four

people from a small village on the shores of one of our

largest oceans. This group, comprising three men and one

woman, preached peace, love and freedom of expression.

They travelled to the capital city of their country

and requested an audience with the leaders. Their

request was denied for the regime was dictatorial and

military. For six days and five nights, the four slept in

front of the palace gates, eating nothing and drinking

little water.<br><br>‘Their perseverance attracted

public attention and by the sixth day, a crowd of 2000

had gathered in front of the palace. With feeble

voices, the four preached to the crowd of uniting in love

to change the regime - until guards put an end to

their ‘sermon’ by shooting the four and threatening to

shoot members of the crowd if they did not disperse.

This they quickly did, in genuine fear of the guards.

Nevertheless, a seed had been sown in the minds of the people.

On reflection, thousands of them came to realise

that, without a peaceful understanding, they were

powerless, absolutely powerless.<br><br>‘Word was passed

around among the people - rich and poor, employer and

employee, worker and foreman, and one day, six months

later, the entire nation came to a

standstill.’<br><br>‘What do you mean by ‘came to a standstill’?’ I

asked.<br><br>‘The nuclear power stations shut down, transport

systems halted, freeways were blocked. Everything

stopped. The farmers didn’t deliver their produce; radio

and television networks ceased transmitting;

communication systems shut down. The police were helpless in

the face of such unity, for, in a matter of hours,

millions of people had joined the ‘cease work’. It seemed,

for that time, the people had forgotten their hates,

jealousies, differences of opinion as they united against

injustice and tyranny. A police force and an army comprise

human beings and these human beings had relatives and

friends among the crowd.<br><br>‘It was no longer a

question of killing four subversive individuals. Hundreds

of thousands would have had to be killed just to

‘liberate’ one po