Green Island Book I
Greenways
PEI map silhouette



some excerpts from Greenways
by
Dave Patterson

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Chapter 3: Elsewhere, elsewhen, elsewhy I (EEE 1) (excerpt)


first page chapter 1 We must be the change we wish to see in the world.
- Ghandi
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It is better to light a single candle than curse the darkness.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
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A small, well not actually small, more of a medium size, girl tossed in her sleep. The night was dark, the hour late, the moon dim behind high clouds flowing along in the cold jetstream winds like thoughts whirling around in a dusty old bottle. A somewhat milder breeze from the nearby bay caused the branches of the big old maple outside the window of the small but much loved bedroom of the girl to scratch at the windows a bit; this happened often, usually she slept through such small disturbances without even being aware of them, tonight she was restless. In a dream she heard a barking dog in the distance, a familiar barking dog, but in her dream she did not recognize the animal, only that the barking was angry, warning, one, two, three times, and then stopped, suddenly. She almost woke then, eyelids fluttering, but was too close to the deep REM sleep and not close enough to the end of the dream, and soon she was deep asleep again, flying in the dark like a disincorporated angel spirit searching for the dog somewhere in a black night in a place she did not know, because she knew the dog was her friend and if the dog was trying to warn her of trouble she must go to it. It was all confused as dreams are, but there was also a message swirling around somewhere in the air of the dark night and she sensed it was an important message if she could only get to it.

And soon another sound came ever so dimly into her dreams, the scraping sound of an old window no longer well-fitted being slowly lifted. Another familiar sound, but at a wrong time, causing her to turn once and then back again in her small bed. Some seconds after the first window sound there was a muffled sort of thudding sound, and the sound of another voice, a human voice this time, a somewhat uncontrolled but whispered exclamatory angry grunting sound like a frustrated stupid animal might make, a pig trying to get to some food and finding the way blocked or something, and this time the girl did wake up, her eyes snapping open, turning immediately as they always did to the one place there might be a source of dim light from a moon or from one of the yard lights that were usually on all night to get her bearings. But there was something blocking the window, a shape, the shape moved as she looked and then stopped, she saw it was a human shape, and then it moved again, covering the short distance from the window to her bed in two quick silent steps, evidently seeing the reflection of the yard light in her open eyes as she saw the same reflection in the eyes of the figure as it looked towards her shape in the bed. She had time to take a quick deep breath to scream for her mother, but not time to let the scream out before a heavy black-gloved hand covered her mouth. The hand held a cloth with a funny, sweetish sort of smell, a very strong smell, and it was no more than a few short seconds before the girl's eyes blinked rapidly a few times, then closed once again and she dreamed no more and knew no more.
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"Otro mundo es possible."
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We have all become an artificial product of corporately 'administrated' modern life.
- Joe Bageant
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But I could have told you Vincent
this world was never meant for one
as beautiful as you.
- Don MacLean
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Either we take democracy into our own hands, or others will take democracy from us.
- Bill Moyers
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NEWS RELEASE: March 21 20XX

NUNS (Nordic Union News Service) - The long-awaited event finally arrived today, as Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Lapland, Greenland, Iceland and, somewhat unexpectedly, Scotland and the Outer Hebrides, formally announced their economic and political union. The various states will still retain considerable autonomy, but a Nordic Parliament has also been established, through which they will act on many matters in cooperation and speak with one voice at World Councils.

"There are two primary objectives here," said Ms Aleth Groland, Swedish Prime Minister and first Interim President of the new union, "First, we were unhappy with many of the newer economic objectives of the EU, which seemed to be going in the same direction as the US and Canada, countries like that under the primary influence of American capitalists, using rather invalid (if I might be polite) economic excuses to take power away from the people and making business profits the official purpose of government, with many added detrimental effects on the security and wellbeing of the citizens overall. Here in these countries of northern Europe we feel, have always felt, quite differently. Here we believe that our governments should be of the 'one citizen one vote' kind, rather than the capitalist system of one million dollars one vote.

"We believe that the wellbeing of the majority of the citizens who do the actual work to create and maintain our society and produce its wealth should be paramount over the business interests of the few who have been lucky enough to amass wealth in our society, wealth which in many places gives them power far beyond their natural single democratic vote. Also, we were and are all very unhappy about the so-called 'war on terrorism' that has been propagated by many countries these last few years, led of course by the United States and Great Britain, and bringing far more terror to the world than it has ever stopped. These people seem to feel that they can fight whatever terrorism there is in the world by brute force, while many others, us included, feel that such a course just increases violence and instability in the world, which may be of considerable benefit for the US and British arms industries, and others, but not so good for the majority of average citizens of the world who only suffer when people whose minds could barely conceive of a spear are given modern weapons of mass destruction such as AK-47s and planeloads of bombs and turned loose on people who desire only peace.

"Here in the NU, we feel that the roots of terrorism lie in poverty and disempowerment and power struggles among those who would be kings, and eradicating these scourges from the planet is the proper path to take."

Ms Groland had much more to say, particularly about the establishment of a small but ultra-modern NU Viking Peace Force and the beginning of a serious war on global climate change and those most responsible, and wars on unnecessary wars - see our full report tomorrow.
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.. .In the early ages of the world ... there were no kings; the consequence of which was, there were no wars...
- Thomas Paine (Common Sense)
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A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves.
- Bertrand de Juvenal
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If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
- Henry David Thoreau
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(from OGWA-SE-GETP-EPCTP 2,0XX-06-22-GMT-03:02:01++:
Witness Umbala-Shivea-*&?>)%%%%;)(<):):)
To BigPussTopDog of the Galactic Development Council (translated from LinguaGalacticaOne to local idiomatic vernacular):

Look, you guys, I know about the non-intervention policy and all that crappola, but I really think you should check this out - the proto-humanoids have put up a pretty good fight here on this planet in the face of some pretty serious resistance - there's a lot of good souls here, but the retro-reptilian strain seems to be on the verge of wiping them out (along with everything else, of course). We're running out of planets, you know, at least in this part of this universe, and I know there's been quite a bit of controversy in SOME circles at least over some of the other races we've let perish because they couldn't overcome this universal evolutionary conundrum of having a consciousness built on the pure survival proto-human-reptile instinct-based CNS that pretty much invariably precedes it as a necessary evolutionary step out of the mire etc. But these guys are SOOOOO close, and if you really want to add to the number of 'sentient' races in this galaxy, as you keep saying you do, I think just a SMALL intervention might not be out of place here, regulations or laws notwithstanding - ya gotta remember, we wrote em we can change em, eh?

I really do recommend it - the bad ones here are really bad, no argument, par for the course in these situations, and we sure as hell don't want them running around intergalactically trying to do to everyone else what they do to one another here. Howsomever, I think, speaking honestly, part of my reason for recommending this intervention is that this is surely one of the most beautiful planets we have found, even after a millennium of attack by some of these lesser-developed inhabitants, and the psychotic reptilians in their usual completely out-of-control, no-thought-for-the-future way are probably going to destroy it completely with their more modern tools of exploitation and simple destruction if we do not intervene - and the good ones, it seems to this observer, seem to have the potential to be really good, which is also part of the classic pattern, as you know, such a fine line between the Dark and the Light, the cusp in situations like this always seems to be like a spinning coin on a table, we can never tell which way it will fall.

We've lost races like this before when the GDC dicked around until the decision was made for them by the race in question, or at least the craziest individuals thereof, who managed to unleash some sort of planet-destroying holocaust, which some of the reptilian-brain-dominated rulers here appear to be capable of and close to doing rather than relinquish control to the democratic movements that are becoming ever more widespread and demanding, and I really think we ought to at least give the good ones here, who have fought so long and well, a chance to get on to the next stage and see what they can do - we can always let them go later if we have to, if the reptilian influence proves too strong. I await your instructions -

Shivea

(*Office of the Galactic Waveband Archive (OGWA), Sol+Earth+GETP (Galactic Era Time Period) LTR (Local Time Reckoning) 2,0-something (SolSavingTime)
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Men occasionally stumble across the truth. But most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.
- Winston Churchill
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As the Brits say, `Here come the Americans, all gear and no brains.'

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Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.
- RW Emerson
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The problem with corporate officialdom is that it leaves people in the hands of men who make no music and have no dreams.
- Russell Baker
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Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity... and I'm not sure about the universe.
- Albert Einstein
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(continued in the book ....)


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