The Underground Lake

In 1905 in Tennessee, there was a young boy named Ben who loved to play in a local cave. One day the young boy was exploring his favorite cave when he found an opening he had never noticed before. He crawled through it but it was too dark to see inside so he began throwing balls of mud to get an idea of the depth of this new space. Instead of the sound of mud splatting against walls he heard splashing. It turns out he discovered the largest underground lake in the U.S. At this time, at least 13 acres have been discovered.

A similar underground lake is at the center of the society built by the inhabitants of the planet of Pa'Chot and has just been discovered by a handful of wayward Kevutians.

A Review

Here is a recent review by another writer friend:

Ken Langer has written a delightful tale, “THE MILLERAN CLUSTER” Book I of the “Of Eternal Light” Series. Mr. Langer offers his readers an opportunity to visit the wonderful world of Pa Kevutu, a land for all ages of readers. The land of the Kevutians is a delightful place to escape the worries and vicissitudes of our own partisan existence, reminiscent of a visit to Hobbiton while weaving in a double mystery both of murder and also the origins of the inhabitants of this fabulously imaginative world.

Mr. Langer offers us a unique glimpse into our own world by showing us one created from his imagination. “When are we truly living and when are we just marking time? The difference has to be in the fullness of our experiences and the richness of our relationships.” – From THE MILLERAN CLUSTER by Kenneth P. Langer
I highly recommend this cerebral stroll through a strange land and wonderful land.

Coming to the end

I am gradually coming to the final chapters of the second book of The Milleran Cluster so I will provide only a few details.

At this point the leader of the rebels against the Ceorans (bosses) tried to escape from Kethix but was attacked by a fleet of the Wesuran Navy.

Terrorism and Despotism

When does terrorism lead to despotism. According to some news analysts, it happens when something called "mission creep" enters into the scene. It could work something like this: In a vigilant effort to route out possible terrorists a government begins to monitor all suspicious communications and internet traffic. Not knowing which interactions are suspicious and which are not the governmental entity in charge of terrorism decides it is best to monitor all communications. One especially helpful tool is the ability to monitor all social media connections so that the connections to all possible terrorists or potential terrorists can be known. To catch even more possible baddies the government agency decides to monitor any groups is thinks might be related to terrorist activities. This eventually includes any groups that are even remotely connected to speaking or writing out against the government in any form. That is an example of mission creep. What began as limited monitoring of identified potential terrorists has expanded into collecting the data of thousands of citizens for doing anything that could be defined as potentially related to terrorist or anti-government action.

Why should a person care? After all, the average citizen does nothing wrong. Most go to work, go home, follow the rules, play nice, and so on. But with mission creep in action, more and more average citizens get caught up in the net of potentialities. If someone knows someone who is the cousin of someone that once wrote a nasty remark about the president on a chat site, all those people may become unwitting suspects.

More fear needs more action. More action needs more control. Terrorism leads to despotism.

So it is on Kevutu. The few people who have rebelled against the tyranny of the control of the ceorans (bosses) have caused panic in the government leading to martial law and their own version of despotism. The Grand Council of Ceorans, the primary governmental body for the planet, has been disbanded by a subset of the council called the Directorate. They have called for martial law and are chasing down any citizen they believe to be related to the terrorists (known as freedom fighters in their own land).

Pa'Chot

This is the map for the planetoid to be known as Pa'Chot. From Kevutu it is considered to be one of the Seven Sisters or bright stars in the night sky. Each of the gray areas is a Canton or self-sustained community. The central circle is Mount Milnak (see earlier post). The entire structure (except the top of the mountain) is underground including the water between Mount Milnak and the Cantons.

Mistaken Identity

It was a scene that could have been taken from any number of action movies. A truck with dark tinted windows is followed by the LA police department. They had received word of a recent murder and the suspect was reported to be driving just such a truck. The police surrounded the truck and forced it to pull over. Not being able to see the driver they became afraid for their lives and took up positions behind their car doors with pistols drawn. The driver was told to step out of the car slowly with hands raised. In the next moment the door of the truck opened. Immediately pistols were cocked and rifles were aimed and ready to fire. From the cab of the vehicle appeared a woman. She raised her hands and came around to the front of the truck. When she came around to the front it became obvious that she was quite pregnant and scared. All it would have taken is one itchy trigger finger or one perceived threatening move by the mother-to-be and a simple case of mistaken identity could have become a terrible tragedy.

Mistaken identity is also the theme of my current chapter. The Chotians believe that the Kevutians are on their way to have come to their planet to take them home. The Kevutians, on the other hand, think they are the only beings in the universe (know any other creatures like that?) and are, therefore, shocked when they first encounter the Chotians. They believe they are under attack by unknown beings and choose to get away without making contact. Like many cases of confused intentions the consequences of not trying to understand the other person can lead to disastrous results.

Communicating with aliens

Writing science fiction sure creates some unusual challenges not encountered in everyday life. Maybe that' why I enjoy it so much. How often are you encountered with problems like communicating with an alien race in your day-to-day job? That is the problem I face in my current chapter. Having a few Kevutians literally fall into the laps of a new race of humanoids creates many difficulties but perhaps the greatest is the need to communicate. I came upon the idea that maybe instead learning each other's languages they could use and develop sign language. Since they are both humanoid it would make sense that many of the shapes they can create with their hands might have similarities. My idea was bolstered by a rather unusual source. Keep in mind I am speaking with tongue-in-cheek about this source.

A person named W. H. Mumfrey has put himself forward as being an expert in aliens that have come to Earth and live among us. He goes out of his way to point out that these aliens do not reveal their secrets and yet he has been able to compile a complete book revealing their secrets. Ignoring this inconsistency, let's play along. He has written a book entitled The Alien Invasion Survival Handbook. This book purports to tell us all about the aliens that are planning to invade us poor humans so that we may be better prepared. On his section on language, he tells us that these aliens communicate through "airborne electrical signals." According to Mumfrey, some aliens have actually been captured and are kept in secret research facilities. Evidently they are not much different than monkeys in this case because they have been taught to do sign language in the same way that primates have. Maybe these aliens have just tapped into the Planet of the Apes series on their interstellar Netflix. In any case, the aliens have learned some basic sign language in a short period of time.

I ask you, what better confirmation of my idea could that be??