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Chrysalids: Flash Fiction #2 - Michaels encounter

Michael’s Encounter

Michael was just chopping wood on the farm, when he heard a faint thought shout. He paused in his work and concentrated. He heard it again, only it was louder this time. He looked around to see if anybody was around, but could see nobody. I hope that this isn’t like Petra, he thought to himself. We nearly got caught that time.

The last time that they had heard a thought shout like this was when David’s younger sister Petra discovered her ability. They all had the compulsion to run toward her to help, and people were very suspicious about how they all knew about it. He decided to contact the others. Is anybody hearing that? he said. Usually when he sent out messages, he got at least one or two replies in the first few seconds. This time, there were no replies. He waited a bit longer, and tried again.

This happened for the next few minutes, and Michael tired of trying to reach them. He was a little frightened that they had all died, but he knew that the probability of that happening all at once was very slim. He then heard the thought scream again, this time a keening scream. He ran in the direction of it, but before he had gone 10 steps, he was stopped in his place. It was as if time had stopped. He couldn’t move a muscle. He then heard a voice saying, “Stop the simulation!”.

The landscape around him started to dissolve, and everything became a murky grey, until he realized that he was in a grey room. The walls were made of some kind of grey stone.

“Hello?” He called.

A thought voice came into his head, and said, You don’t need to use that crude method of communication. It had a curious lilting way of speaking, and a rhetoracle manor that was a little overwhelming. We just had to make sure that you were one of us before we brought you in to our civilization.

As Michael got more and more used to the language, it started to take the form of normal talking.

“Come out the door,” said the same voice. Outside the door, there was a small reception party. “Hello Michael,” one woman thought to him. “My name is Sylvie. I am the leader of this division,”. Michael didn’t know what ‘this division’ was, and was confused. “What’s a division?” he asked. This seemed to be the most pertinent question, but as he would soon find out, it was the least important. “We are going to give you that information shortly,” Sylvie said. “Just hold still while we calibrate the computer,”. Michael had not heard many of these words before, and was quite overwhelmed. He opened his mouth to speak, but Sylvie held up a hand. “Your questions will all be answered in three... two... o--”

Right that instant, he saw a map of the world, as he now knew it was, and on it was gigabytes of information. He had never heard the word gigabytes, but he now knew what it meant. He now knew a lot of things. He knew about the tribulation, and how it happened. Apparently, there was a large scale war between all the countries. Nuclear weapons damaged the human genome, and that was why everything was mutated.

At the end of it all, it seemed as if his brain had expanded tenfold. He came sharply back to reality. “--ne,” said Sylvie. She smiled. “Do you understand now?” She asked. “Yes, I understand.” He replied. “I understand a lot of things now,” “Lets hope so,” she said “Tell me, where are we right now?” I recalled the information instantly. “Right now, we are in Sealand, formerly known as New Zealand. You used a hallucinogenic drug to make me think that I am still in Waknuk, which is in Labrador, Canada. That was merely to test how strong my psychic abilities are. From what I could see of the test, I have mid range abilities by your standards. My other telepathic companions from Waknuk are currently in other test chamber undergoing similar te--” Michael was interrupted by Sylvie. “Yes, very good, Michael. We all get the point. You can see your friends now. They are in the room just beyond the door.” Michael hurried through the door to find most of the surviving telepaths. There was David, Rosalind, Sally, and the others, but Petra wasn’t there. “Where’s Petra?” Michael asked. David replied, “She had to have a longer test.” “I see,” replied Michael. Rosalind asked, “Did they give you all of the memories too?” “Yeah they did,” said Michael. “It is pretty cool, right?”

The information also included a thought dictionary, which could be access instantly as if they had known the words for their whole lives. This instantly enlarged their vocabulary and improved their grammar.

“Yeah it’s pretty awesome,” said Nicholas.

They started talking and devolved into the normal social groups that they had. Rosalind, Michael, David and Petra would be in one, and the rest of them were in another group. Petra finally came out of a door about fifteen minutes later.

“Your sister is very powerful,” said an official. “Keep her safe.” “We will,” Assured David. As soon as Petra walked over, she asked, “Have you tried going on Internet 2.0 yet?” “No what’s that?” Rosalind asked. “It’s awesome, it has all the information that the Sealanders have, and all you have to do it touch the floor and open your minds,” They all bent down, and they instantly could see every statistic, fact, figure, show, and video ever put on record. They could even add their own thought shapes to the mass of information.

“This is like the old internet,” said David, “Only with thoughts, right?”

“Yeah,” replied Michael. “I can’t wait to see this city.”

“Me too.” said Petra.

TO BE CONTINUED

Chrysalids: Flash Fiction #1 - The final days

The Final Days

We had just finished breakfast on a relaxing sunday morning. My son jumped up from the table, and I knew that something was wrong. He said that he was going to help Uncle Axel with a steam engine, but I knew that something was different. He kept avoiding my eyes, and so I made a plan. After he went out, I followed him from a distance. He kept looking around him, as if suspicious that I was following him. Fortunately he didn’t see me. He was angling toward the river, where he liked to play. If there was one thing for sure, it would be that he would be getting a beating for this. I should be respected, since I own the town, I rationalized. Just as we were reaching the river, he called out.

“Sophie?” he queries. “Sophie, are you here yet?”

When I first heard this, I thought that he had simply agreed to meet a friend here. Then I thought about it. I had never heard of a child named Sophie before, and Waknuk was a very small village. Everybody knew everybody. This made me all the more suspicious.

“Hullo David,” calls a voice from the woods. “I’m just wading into the river. It’s very nice and cool,”

“Hi Sophie,” David says. “Aren’t you not supposed to take your shoes?”

“Well, I can make exceptions,” she says. “We’re the only people here,”

Not for long, I think. Then, the meaning of that sinks in. What does he mean, not supposed to take off your shoes? My mind instantly went to my brother. He was a mutation, a deviation. No son of mine socializes with deviations. I present myself. As soon as my son see’s me, he shouts.

“French cameos!”. Instantly, the unseen voice is replaced with the pattering of feet.

“Who was that?” I ask. “Why couldn’t she take off her shoes?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” David replies.

I know that he is lying this time.

“ I know that you’re lying,” I state.

“Prove it.” he replies.

I have never heard such rebelliousness from him.

“What are French Cameos?” I ask again. “They must be some kind of code word,”

“What are French Cameos?” he says. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Are you feeling okay?”

I can’t fathom how he keeps denying these things. He seems to think that I am stupid. I’ll show him.

“I know that I heard you say those things,” I state.

“As I said,” said David, “Prove it,”

Then the realization hits me. I literally have no proof. I tried to find some footprints, but all I could see were the faint depressions from yesterday. David is smiling smugly in the most annoying way possible.

“Find anything?” he says sarcastically

Regretfully, I tell the truth. “No.” I say. “I didn’t.”

With this he smiles even wider.

“I’m glad he had this conversation,” he said. “Have a nice day at the farm,”

That is the first look that I had at David’s true feelings towards deviations, lying, and oddities. No wonder he was such good friends with Axel. I tried to catch him at it again, but he was always more wary. I never caught him, and it became an obsession. Now, I am on my deathbed, and I regret all the time wasted. This is my last letter to my family, and more specifically, my son.

La Fin

Power and Authority: Uses and abuses

       In the Chrysalids, the two main authority people who we actually see using authority are Mr. Strorm, and the Spidery man. In the fringes, Spiderman treats people who are not deviations the same way as Joseph treats people with deviations. They are foils to each other. Another person with power is the inspector. He denies Joseph the rights to burn the horses. He seems to be less harsh, but his chips are with the government. He primarily controls people with the excuse that the government said so. In this case, the power comes from outside of Waknuk. Joseph feels as if he can't control it, which makes him insecure. He is a complete control freak. This is made all the worse, because the inspector uses his power to antagonize Joseph. There is even an instance where Joseph challenges the inspector, which humiliates him further. In one instance, the inspector really takes his time making the form stating that Petra is not a deviation. Joseph's power only comes from the stereotypical family dynamic. The strict interpretation of the bible and the repentances are the only thing giving him power over his family. People are almost afraid of him because he is so upfront about his extreme views. It is a circular relationship between making fear, and getting power. He also has much of his power because he owns most of Waknuk because his father, Elias, had founded the village. Joseph's reputation as a pure person and a volatile person. He has a serious reputation for hating the deviations. People in Waknuk is never questioned, either. In conclusion, almost all of the authority figures in the chrysalids are corrupt.

Chrysalids: Relationship between David and Rosalyn and the larger question of what is Human.

    The genetic pool that the village of Waknuk is very small, and mutations spread through generations very fast. David and Rosalyn are half cousin, and therefore they both have a similar mutations. Their relationship is formed on the basis of the fact that they can both send the thought shapes. At an early age, Uncle Axel tells them to try to make it less noticeable. This means that in the time that they are in Waknuk, their relationship is subdued since they don't want people to see them together, otherwise they can piece together the oddness about them. They are almost forced to be together, given that their pool of available people is very small, and they were the first to contact each other. They can't be with anybody else, because it would be like married to a mute of deaf person. The relationship between David and Rosalyn is similar to the early Mormon beliefs. The beliefs in purity and incest greatly resemble very old fashion bible/ Mormon beliefs. This would be most likely because the two only manuscripts remaining were the Bible and Nicholson's repentances. There is a part in the book where Uncle Axel says that there are different tribes where there are different mutations that they follow. They all believe that their mutation is what the old people looked like. In the modern view, David and Rosalyn's relationship would be highly controversial.
        That begs the questions of what really makes you human. Materialistic and physical appearance is just one of the many aspects that makes you human. If you don't have a finger, or leg, or toe, you are still human. Many unique evolutionary steps of Homo Sapiens is crying, laughing, and the ability to communicate in unique language. The problem with these is that there are other animals who can do the same thing. Dolphins, for instance, can talk and laugh, but not cry. Elephants can experience depression after a loved one dies. There seems to be nothing really unique that makes us distinctly human, because all of these can be replicable, taken away, or not developed, like language. DNA may be the key to understanding what is human, but that is simply a blueprint that our body follows. In conclusion, we make what makes us human though our actions.

Chrysalids: Connections with the Nazis

        As you know, the Nazis were a very authoritarian and that makes them very similar to the government in the chrysalids. This is just one of the many connections. There are many other connections that I will explore in this article. The first of these is the fact that they are both trying to purify a race. The Nazi's are trying to make a pure Arian race, and the government is trying to make a pure human race. Both instances, they are very immoral. The only difference is that the Nazi's and the Chrysalids government is that the Chrysalids government usually just exile the mutants, but the Nazi's use gas chambers. This means that the Nazi's were a little more meticulous and had more advanced technology. That is the only reason that it was slightly easy for David, Rosalyn, and Petra to escape. An agricultural society cannot use the genocide weapons of the future to kill the mutants, which means that there could be more survivors. Having an agricultural society is advantageous because it allows the audience to see the extent of the mutations. In conclusion, the author took many themes from the holocaust.