Even though that moment took place three thousand years ago, it's as fresh in my mind as if it had happened five minutes ago.   The tableau we all formed seems now in retrospect to have remained frozen in time forever.   The father was standing and leaning over the mother and child as if he would protect them with his body somehow, while at the same time giving me looks of wonder that rivaled the looks his wife was giving me.   And the child, with her face buried in her's mother's breast, wasn't looking at me at all.   It obvious, even without travate, and even without the child's insistent murmurs what they were all thinking.   "Who is this strange woman and what did she just do to us and HOW did she do it?" And I -- I was standing there with my hands raised in a benedictory gesture and with a benevolent smile on my face.

   Finally I broke the silence (it was now completely silent since the girl child had ceased even murmuring) and made THE fatal mistake, the one that doomed them in the end.   There's no way I can justify what I did.   All I can say is that it seemed like a very good idea at the time.   I got the idea partly from what the child had been saying and partly from the way they were reacting to me.   I said, "I know your thoughts!   Fear not!   I am an angel sent by God to rescue you, Charianna, and Jevstan and Frika from this calamity!"   Because of my travatic ability I had also learned their names.

   The woman, Charianna who was a little taller than me, about five nine, blonde, slim and who had a very pretty, almost square face, replied first -- after what seemed like an eternity in which no one was going to say anything at all.   Standing up, she said, "If God sent you as an angel of redemption why then did he not send an army of angels to rescue all my people?"   She she stared at me defiantly, although with a tremble to her lips that gave away her fear and belied her brave defiance.

   The man, Jevstan, about six feet tall, dark haired, muscular, and with a thin, but good looking, strong face, spoke before I could answer Charianna's query.   He said, "Are we especially beloved by God, then?"   Had I not been able to travate, I would have thought he was being sarcastic.   Because I am able to travate, though, I knew he was not speaking in any such manner.

   I paused a moment to increase the drama and then said in a very grave tone, "You see God has has sent me to you so that I might guide you in creating a new people, a new dynasty and a new order of service to Him.   Now, I will help you defeat your enemies.   But first you must have faith in me and then you MUST follow my plan."

   Charianna gave me an incredulous look. "What?   You mean you are not going to crush them now?   If we, my family and me, are going to be the progenitors of this new dynasty then what better way to show your power and ours by crushing these heathens here before they have a chance to escape?   Surely our fame and power will spread much faster that way?"

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   "Wait a minute!" I broke in, not able to contain myself.   "What kind of stupid -- er, ill advised thing was that to say?   I mean, I would have had the same reaction myself and wondered why you weren't granting revenge right away!" Right in front of us was the tableau that Perki had just been describing.   I felt that I could have stepped right up to them and joined them at any second.   But of course I couldn't.   So I had to settle for waiting for Perki's answer.

   Weslee had -- somehow! -- once again managed to change his T shirt.   This one was bright pink and in black letters it said: "The Uncertainty Principle is, like, all, you know, Uncertain!"   He was dividing his attention between avidly waiting for Perki's answer and idly poking his paw through the ghostly tableau in front of us.   "Stop that, Weslee!   It's too gross!"   He gave me a look of defiance, but did desist. I turned back to Perki, still waiting to see how she would justify herself.

   "I know what you're trying to say, Doc.   If I was them I would have had serious doubts too, after a statement like that.   But see, I had a twofold idea.   On the one hand, I wanted to increase the mystery so that they would be more likely to follow me -- if only for the curiosity factor -- rather than go off on a vendetta of their own.   And secondly, I didn't ever want to see that kind of slaughter again.   You'll notice, perhaps that I didn't say HOW I was going to defeat their ememies, DIDN'T concur with Charianna's crush statement?   I had a better plan, one that I was sure was going to work.   If only it hadn't worked so good!   However, Doc, if I am going to tell this -- as you insisted! -- then I need to tell this my own way and without so many interruptions.   I mean the action is going to be taking place right in front of you so unless you're really lost then --" She gave me a forgiving grin.

   I had to concede that she had a point. "All right," I grinned back, "go on."

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   "Yes!   This will be a glorious dynasty that will one day span this world!   And your offspring -- for generations to come -- will praise and revere your name.   But you MUST have faith in me and all my words or else you will fail!   And you will fade into history -- never to be heard of or thought of again!   Will you believe in me, obey me and trust me?   Will you?"

   Charianna and Jevstan stood there and looked at each other for a few moments while the sounds of triumphant yelling rose from the direction of the stockade.   I could tell from the expressions on their face that they were suffering from delayed shock.   It wasn't fair of me, I now realize, that I took advantage of them when they weren't able to think clearly, but I was so full of myself that I didn' even consider that then.   Instead I just stood there smug and full of myself and kept gazing at them like I was some kind of benevolent, all wise creature who knew their needs better than they did.

   Finally Charianna knelt before me.   After a moment Jevstan followed her lead. Only Frika remained standing, looking lost and confused.   But she was so short that even standing she was hardly taller than her parent's kneeling forms.   Huge flames rose from the direction of the stockade while the sounds of drunken revelry were carried to us on the freshening breeze.   Against that backdrop of wicked flames Charianna spoke, "It seems that you are the best hope that we have.   Yes!   We will follow you and obey you and trust you!"   Then she looked up, looked over her shoulder at the destruction of her world going on behind her and after a long agonized moment, turned back to look at me.   "But -- BUT my people WILL be avenged!"

   Her meaning was clear, VERY clear.   But.   I would deal with it later.   I gestured to them that they should follow me.   They rose to their feet.   After a few last, reluctant, sorrowful looks back at their vanishing world, they did follow me.   I led the way towards Edgar.

   There wasn't much semi-arid land on Fremala, but there was enough.   That was where we were headed.   I knew from experience and from travating that the invaders had invaded because they wanted the land that Charianna's people were living on.   Population pressure had demanded that.   And since the invaders were technologically advanced it was a foregone conclusion that they were going to be able to take over the land.   It was a concept that was foreign to my people, the Tuatha, since we are not confined to a single planet and since we live virtually forever and therefore have virtually no population pressure.   But I could easily understand how it was a reality here.   That was why we were headed for the semi-arid lands.   To the invaders, the semi-arid lands would be a matter of last choice.   With all the better land around it would be a long time before the invaders would even think about migrating there.   That length of time would give Charianna and her husband time to become a nation again.   And I certainly knew how to help them learn to live successfully there.   That way they would not fall even further back than they were, which they would do if they had to learn by desperate trial and error how to live in a more inhospitable environment than they were used to.

   That just left one consideration.   The gene pool.   Charianna and Jevstan could not create a dynasty all by themselves -- not in the time frame available.   That way would lead to inbreeding and degeneracy.   Therefore, we had to stop at a few of the villages of her people that lay beyond the invaders current grasp.   All I needed to do was to inform them of this and get Charianna's input on whom she wanted along.   Of course I had the wherewithal on Edgar to check the gene dissimilarity and compatibility, but none of that was going to be any good if the people chosen by this method were not suitable and acceptable to Charianna and Jevstan.   Once we were aboard Edgar, and Charianna and her family had gotten over most of their fear of Edgar, I broached the subject of potential candidates for the gene pool.   (Of course I didn't explain it to them in those terms.   Not yet.   I didn't need to overload them with too much future shock all at once -- obviously!)

   Like the Iroquois, Charianna's people were divided into Clans and tribes.   And like the League of Iroquois Nations they did not compete for the land.   The Suskani, which is what Charianna's people were called, had a central, democratic, co-operating government.   Charianna's tribe was called Pulani and her clan was named Boshi -- it was named that after a cat-like animal indigenous to Fremala.   Charianna's Tribe was one of the major tribes of the Suskeen and her clan had been the ruling clan of that tribe. And Charianna herself had been one of the Major Matrons.

     The invaders, a nation called the Buhroots, had with one fell swoop decimated a big portion of the Leaders of the Suskani Nation since a lot of them had been at Charianna's village to witness the Red Mother Moon Rite, the Rite (the Rite was named after one of the moons, the moon named Red Mother Moon -- this moon was supposed to be the goddess of fertile ideas) the villagers had been engaging in when the Buhroots had atacked.   It was unfortunate that things had turned out as they had for the Suskani, but it was something that had been coming for a long time -- even if the Suskani had been in denial.   Now they could longer avoid the truth.   That meant -- I hoped! -- that people in other tribes would now be a bit more receptive to my plan to relocate those Charianna designated.

   And we would have time to do this.   I know I already mentioned one reason: the fact that the Buhroots would not move into the semi-arid until they needed too -- and that would be a long time, as I've already indicated.   But there was another factor in our favor.   The Buhroots had, in classic invader fashion, spared a few of the villagers, conveniently letting them escape.   This meant that the spared villagers would spread the word of the attack.   From the Buhroots point of view this was convenient.   It meant that the other Tribes would be demoralized -- to a certain extent -- and this would serve to soften the opposition some.   But that spreading of the word was a two edged sword.   It would also stiffen the resolve of a few.   That stiffened resolve would buy us an extra amount of time.   It was a calculated risk on the part of the Buhroots since it would grant them some of what they wanted.   But in the long run it would just quicken the planned conquest only a bit.   That was OK with the Buhroots, I was sure, since they would take whatever tactical advantage this provided and I was sure they were confident of success in the end.   However, my intervention was going to pay off in ways they had never imagined -- even if it was going to be a ways down the road.

   See, like I said, I was going to avoid further violence at all costs.   That was why I had no plans to join the tribes and try to become their spiritual leader.   That way would just lead to more of the violence I was trying to avoid -- and wouldn't have the better outcome I was aiming for.   I now just needed to convince Charianna to keep following me.   I was sure that when I mentioned going to pick out members of the various tribes to join us in our trek into the wildnerness that Charianna would wonder why I didn't suggest -- instead -- becoming the leader of a stronger, better Nation. I wasn't wrong.

   "What!" Charianna shrieked when I broached the subject.   Then she caught herself, remembering who I was -- and where she was.   She looked over her shoulder, obviously checking to see if Edgar (the god in the box, as she called him) was going to strike her down for impudence and irreverence.   When Edgar just smiled at her tolerantly, she turned back to face me. "Why not lead our whole nation against these Buhroots and take from the world this infestation?"

   I remained steadfast and implaccable.   I was not going to argue tactics with her!   I was the angel her and she wasn't!   I knew better than she did what needed to be done!   Oh! If only I had backed down then and just went away!   But I didn't, of course.   Instead I stood my ground.   "Charianna," I told her with a stern look, "I asked you to trust me.   My ways are above your ways.   I know the future.   And the future you are suggesting is not the True Future.   That way will only lead to more ruin and final desolation --"

   She had the audacity to interrupt me, "But I thought you said we, Jevstan and I, were a chosen couple?   Does this not give us a certain say?"

   I am ashamed to say this, but at that point I played my evil trump card!   "Yes.   You are the chosen ones, but I can repent myself and chose others, those who might be more compliant to my will.   Would you like it if I instead delivered you into the hands of the Buhroots for lack of faith?"

   She paled as she considered the outcome of that.   Jevstan looked askance at me.   Frika just regarded me with her large eyes full of wonder!

   Before they had time to think about it and wonder why they shouldn't resent me, I extended my aura of Love.   Taking them into my arms and embracing them, more fully enfolding them in that aura, I said, "I wouldn't do any such thing, of course.   I just wanted you both to know that I could.   It was more a test of your faith than anything!   Will you love me and follow me -- despite all?"   Then I stood back, releasing them, knowing full well that their minds and hearts was filled with love for me -- even if I had put it there myself and even if it was ersatz love.   I truly wanted them to have GENUINE love and affection for me, but I realized that was something that would take time and would be something I would have to earn.   So this false love that I had implanted in them would have to be enough for now.

   Still, I had taken a chance extending that aura that way -- I might have overdone it and kissed them and that would have killed them and I certainly didn't want that.   But while they both looked dazed, they also looked completely at peace.   I breathed an inward sigh of relief, hoping I didn't have to do that again and sorry that my presence wasn't commanding enough as it was.   But now that we had that out of the way, we should be able, I thought, to get on with the selection process.   I directed Edgar to the village Charianna said we should go to.

   The selection process went better and faster than I had hoped.   When the people Charianna picked found out what was going on, who I was and what I could do most of them had no objection once they got over their fear of Edgar and me and saw that it would be better to go with us than die needlessly in a hopeless battle.   And best of all those picked by Charianna also passed Edgar's muster -- as it were.   The few that Charianna picked that raised strong objections also turned out not to be genetically compatible -- for one reason or the other -- and that was all right.   In the end we had 70 souls on board Edgar and it was not quite as crowded as you might think.   Because Edgar can reach into other dimensions we had plenty of room.   And while it was admittedly a small gene pool there were things that could be done about that.

   It was time to begin our sojourn in the wilderness.   So without further ado we left, heading for the semi-arid lands where the future of this people lay -- for now!

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   Weslee and I stood with Perki on a hilltop looking down into the valley where Charianna and her people were now about to make their home.   It was not the lush forest and grassland and waterways that their old homeland had been.   There was hardly a tree in sight -- there were more bushes than trees.   There was grassland, just enough to support local herbivores, but the grass was short and wiry -- not tall and hay like as the grass had been where they'd come from .   What water was there was spring fed ponds and shallow creeks.   There was no deep, navigable rivers and large inland seas here, but there was water enough.   It was a harsh land of mesas, stark mountains, valleys, wide open plains and tough, vegetation, but it was a beautiful land nevertheless.   It reminded me a bit of Colorado back on earth.

   In the distance we could see the past Edgar.   Getting out of Edgar was the past Perki, Charianna, Jevstan, Frika and all the rest of the people.   For some reason this exodus from Edgar reminded me of Noah and his family leaving the ark.   But there had been no flood!   Or had there?   Could one say they were refugees from the flood of history?   I thought one could.   We got back into the present Edgar and went where Perki directed us to go next.

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