Book 5: Another Way
Episode 17
Semmy was happy with how things were going with his pet project here on Earth. Putting a bug in their ear, he managed to get Dobie, Kaylie, and Watson to Las Cruces. He wished he could have been more helpful in Missouri but had to let things play out.
“Anyway,” he continued, “your solar system used to be at the center of the galaxy – just off center, actually, where the alpha waves are at their most righteous – to use a surfing term because we’re all just surfing the waves. It was the most happening solar system where all the cool kids hung out, until it was flung into this part of the galaxy.
“Unfortunately, this section of the Milky Way was already inhabited by a particularly nasty race of beings. They are not fully corporeal but are obsessed with all things carnal, like everyone else, apparently… but we digress. It was designed as a negative counterbalance to the galaxy’s otherwise positive nature. A cosmic septic tank, if you will. That’s why it’s so hard to get anything done around here. It’s like slogging through knee-deep sewer mud! Only those with the best hip-waders make any real progress.
“No one wants to talk about it, but this force has cast its pall over your way of life. Still, despite it all, perhaps because of it, brave souls have been coming here to test their mettle. Give it a go against all odds, and all that. Others have been dumped here, incarcerated for criminal acts, or because they were irredeemably insane and Mother Earth has been identified as a very good therapy planet. Seriously, go outside sometime, barefoot, and just feel the Earth beneath your feet!
“This dark force has manifested in a variety of ways throughout your history. Anthropomorphized countless times with names like Necuratu, Beelzebub, Satan, The Dark Prince, The Adversary and, last but not least, the High Priest of Gray Areas – the scariest of them all to those insisting that everything is strictly black or white!
“Okay, that last one was a joke. It makes us laugh to think of a High Priest of anything. Our motto beyond the Pleiades is ‘Lighten up! Play it by ear!’ Bit of an inside joke, given the size of our ears… but again, we digress!
