It is 2474 A.D, Bret Powers and Willa Darling are cruising some between the orbit of Earth and Mars in their spaceship, The Starfire,They were enjoying the unobstructed view of the starry heavens.
Suddenly the control room was lit up by a sputtering electrical charge. The artificial gravity plates ceased to function. They found themselves,floating helplessly about the cabin, their ship spinning out of control.
“Bret! It’s the automatic self tranzing framis! It’s gone haywire!”
“Be patient, Willa, the backup will cut in soon.”
Sure enough it did. Artificial gravity restored, the ship righted itself. Doc Hewer rushed in,”Heh! Thank goodness you are all right! But, say, we aren’t out of the woods yet.”
“What do you mean, Doc? The ship seems to be functioning normally.”
“Yes, but look at the stars, they’re not right somehow. Look there in the viziscope! Enlarge the image!
” We’re back in the solar system, between the orbits of Earth and Mars.”
Then they heard the clang, clang, clang of the warning system indicating they were dangerously close to something. A great, nearly black planet loomed before them. Skillfully manipulating the controls, Bret managed to bring the Starfire into an orbit around this planet.
Doc Hewer stood there, his brilliant mind analyzing the situation. “I’ve got it, we’ve gone through some sort of spacewarp. Heh! Not only that, a timewarp as well. Below us lies a planet where the date is 2096 A.D. – unknown to science as well as scholarship.” This planet is exactly opposite our Earth, a sort of counter Earth!”
“Gee, Doc! That’s wonderful! A new world to explore! exclaimed Willa.
“What do you think Doc? It has a breathable atmosphere and nearly normal Earth gravity.”
“Heh! I think we should proceed with caution, Bret. Something about it doesn’t seem quite right.”
They spent the next 24 hours orbiting the planet, filming it, evaluating data. It was inhabited by humans. there were middling size cities, unusually ugly public buildings, dreary residential areas and dingy looking factories. Bicycles outnumbered autos twenty to one and buses and commuter trains abounded. Vast areas were desert and there were huge forests. 75% of this planet was apparently uninhabited. Strangely, the land masses looked much like Earth.
They attempted to establish contact, first by visigraph, the by radio. The inhabitants spoke a form of English reminiscent of George Orwell’s newspeak. They approached the city of Nork, population100,000, situated on the edge of an ocean. Visual approach was difficult because Aeryland was a planet of swirling mists and fogs. There was no precise reason it should be this way or why it didn’t interfere with plant growth, but there it was.
Aeryland was governed by the United States of Aeryland which included every country on the planet. The Aeryites boasted of their freedom and tolerance. The head of Aeryland was called the Grand Liberator. Nork was the capitol.
Finally contacting the government and after the usual “we come in peace” rhetoric, the three adventurers had to deal with all kinds of bureaucratic bungling. At last it was arranged for them to land their four seater scoutship at Nork’s major airport. They were surprised to see it differed little from airports of the 1990’s on Earth.
Bringing their little scoutship onto the runway, they were greeted by a somber government official named O’Bryan amidst a lot o press and a throng of curiosity seekers. They drove away in a rather conventional limousine and taken to a government building. There they were brusquely informed that they must surrender their weapons and their flying belts. Such things were illegal.
“Gee, Bret, maybe we shouldn’t.”
It’s okay, Willa.”
“Heh yes, Bret, we’re here to explore.”
They were treated politely and turned over to a woman official who was to have charge of them, Shalo Soused Khenni, Arbiter of Education. “Welcome to the United States of Aeryland. We are proud of our accomplishments. We have achieved world peace with freedom and prosperity for all, tolerance of all religions and an end to bigotry. We have achieved a great deal of our program through education employing great works of literature such as Leo Tolstoi’s Peace and More Peace, and such later authors as Margaret Asswill, The Hogwash Story, and Babbling Kinslobber, The Poison Pen Epistle”
“Yes, indeed, we three would appreciate a guided tour,” Doc Hewer said.
They were shown factories, residential areas, government buildings, including the United States of Aeryland headquarters,(USOA). Nork was surrounded by huge forest tracts and many abandoned towns and cities. USOA’s greatest achievement was reducing the world population from over seven billion to one billion. “Alas” Khenni opined, 500 million is our goal. But we shall persevere. Truly in wilderness is preservation of the world.”
Back in their rooms, Bret, Doc and Willa discussed the day’s events.
“Gee, Bret, did you notice how dull and drab everything was, so little color, even the big government buildings?”
“Yes, Willa, and the architecture is so pompous and pretentious, like the old Soviet Empire stuff.”
“Heh! Yes, indeed, Bret, and I can’t shake the feeling that there are many things hidden below the surface.”
“Yes, Doc, I didn’t mind surrendering our weapons and our flying belts as long as we could keep our non-recoil energy beams.”
“You bet, they may come in very handy!” said Willa.
The next day, they were up at six and after a good breakfast out in an electric minivan of sorts. Standing before a huge statue of a rather oriental looking person, Khenni said: “The Two Tea Owe Roodee, monument. Emancipation of the mind begun by Jon Schroohee was carried forward by that towering intellect Two Tea Owe Roodee, founder of the Two Dragon University. His vision went beyond the contraints of mere logic and troublesome facts. He freed the mind yo soar into the empyrean, to dream the impossible dreams and through collective meditation to bring into being the perfect state which all citizens can and must believe in so as to achieve the goal of happiness for all.”
After that they visited a huge reservoir under construction, the largest ever built. It had sleight engineering problem of not holding water but it was a marvel of scientific progress!
This day’s tour was cut short because of Doc Hewer’s complaint of being over tired.Back in their quarter’s he took a long nap before supper.That evening he managed to tap into the Aeryian’s database.
“I learned many things!” commented Hewer. Although capital punishment was abolished, the principle of abortion was greatly expanded.When a baby is born, the State decides whether to let it live or not. All sorts of dissidents and elderly people have been aborted.”
“Is that how they reduced the population, Doc?”
“That and birth control and enforced sterilization of all undesirables, Bret.”
“In other words, while they don’t have wars, millions, I guess billions and billions have died under their regime.”
“Yes Willa, but there is something else. There is complete religious freedom as long as religion is conceived as myth and ritual. Certain native religions involving human sacrifice have been revived.There are no restrictions as long as people don’t believe their religion is true and its principles normative. Millions have been aborted for actually believing in their religious principles.”
“In other words, we need to get out of here!”
“Yes, Bret, tonight!”
“Well Doc, any ideas?” Willa said.
Yes. indeed! Something else I learned is that there is an old abandoned subway which runs right under here. We can follow its tunnels to where our weapons are stored. Were lucky the Aeryians mistook our non-recoil energy beams for flashlights!”
“That’s great, Doc!” shouted Willa.
“Lets go for it!They think were trapped in here. We can cut a shaft to the tunnel with our energy beams!”
“Yes Bret, they may not discover we’re gone til morning!” Willa said.
An hour later they entered the tunnel and began to walk. Luckily, they had not gone far when they discovered a small track inspection car. Its motor was completely shot but the rest was intact, and when they got it on the rails, they were able to propel it with their energy beams.
Unfortunately, Shallo Soused Kennedy was conferring with the Education Council. “I’m sure of it! The visitors from space have a serious case of FAGOA! Here is the psychiatric report to prove it. Failure to appreciate the genius of Aeryland is a serious offense! This aberration can only be dealt with by abortion!”
“yes I’m sure it is. We must act now!”
After an hour of discussion the papers were signed and the Pacifiers were sent armed with electro guns. When they entered the quarters of the three adventurers they were greatly puzzled. It took over an hour to discover their means of escape. They had blasted their way through the bottom of a little used utlity closet.
Meanwhile, Bret, Doc and Willa recovered their weapons and gear. Soaring over the city with their flying belts they were safe from detection. The hanger where their scoutship was impounded was surrounded by guards. The swirling mists of Aeryland helped to conceal their landing on the roof.
“Their electro guns are no match for our disintegrators, but I still don’t want a shootout. Doc, let’s go through the roof..”
Having gained their ship with no opposition they made use of its antigrav to float toward the roof then they blasted the hanger door with the ships disintegrator and dropped blackout bombs as they exited, higher from the ground than was expected. Two fighter jets showed up to pursue them and were blown out of the sky. They looked very much like F86 Sabre jets.
As they regained their orbiting spaceship, ascending high enough up to preclude pursuit, they noticed something totally amazing. The always swirling mists if Aeryland were more turbulent than ever. Beneath the roiling clouds they could make out great upheavals in the surface. Aeryland, which had unaccountably about the same gravity as earth had only a fraction of its mass. the whole planet was imploding, collapsing inward upon itself. They beheld a scene as awesome as the destruction of the planet Krypton.
Once again, chaos reigned in the control room. For a moment they floated helplessly. Then all the systems went back to normal. Doc hurriedly checked the navigation instruments.
“Thank heavens! We’re back! Back between the orbits of Earth and Mars. Back to the real world..”
“And Aeryland, Doc?”
“It’s gone Bret. Whatever it was, wherever it was, gone!”