Thea Alexander - 2150 A.D.

My unspoken, question of why the pool was so large was soon answered as we were joined by the rest of our seventh triad Beta-90 more naked, laughing youths of 18, 19, or 20, who had just finished the Macro dance in their Alphas.

Again I was struck by their physical beauty, joy, and friendliness.

There was no shallow end to this pool so we all swam in the ten-foot-deep water either above or below the surface, since everyone seemed to be as at home in the water as a herd of sea lions.

Only a few minutes passed, however, before Carol told me it was time to leave. We climbed out of the pool and I suddenly realized that we were the only ones out of the water. As I turned to see if the other members of our Beta were going to join us I heard their voices shouting, "Welcome, Jon, welcome!"

A lean muscular giant with piercing dark eyes vaulted out of the water, took my hand in his, and touched my cheek firmly but gently. Immediately there was total silence. He was at least five inches taller and – seventy pounds heavier than I in spite of being six years my junior. He looked long into my eyes, but this time I did not feel uncomfortable and returned his look with confidence and a powerful feeling of contentment.

"Welcome, Jon, to our 7th triad student Beta," he said in one of the deepest voices I had ever heard. "My name is Leo and I am the Betar of our floor. I speak for all when I say we are glad you have joined us."

"Thank you," I replied. Then raising my voice so all could hear, I called, "Thank you all for this wonderful welcome. You can see with your minds how happy I am to be here. No words can express my joy."

Then the rest of my Alpha was about me. We ran back to our rooms to put on fresh tunics, then met in the dining room for dinner.

It was a leisurely meal with lots of laughing and talking, and I had an opportunity to appreciate the remarkable intelligence, broad knowledge, and varied interests of my Alpha. I also had the opportunity to try some strange new foods that I found delicious, but I didn't ask what they were made of. Everyone cooperated, seeming to sense that I would enjoy the meal more if I was not forced to consider the content of the food I was eating.

Perhaps the most satisfying experience was their understanding and reassurances concerning my fears about my sanity back in 1976. I told them of my conversations with Karl and how we had set up our test of the reality of my experiences in 2150. They were unanimous in approving of this kind of test.

It was Alan who told me that the whole Macro society was aware of my time translation and very interested in

whether or not I could learn to remain permanently in 2150.

Then Joyce, of the lovely green eyes and short auburn hair, said that while I was a world celebrity I would experience none of the invasions of privacy that 20th-century celebrities experienced. Since C.I. contained any and all information about me and the experiment of which I was a central part, anyone desiring knowledge concerning me or the experiment could simply ask C.I.

I told them that I appreciated this and added that I could get rich fast if I could offer this convenience to famous people back in 1976.

"There are dozens of questions we'd like to ask you, Jon, if you don't mind," Alan requested.

"Not at all," I replied. "And I'd like to ask all of you some questions, too."

Steve explained that while there were no taboo questions for them, they realized that in 1976 there were many subjects that people avoided because of their feelings of guilt associated with these subjects.

I thought about this for a moment and then said, "Feel free to ask me questions on any subject, no matter how uncomfortable it makes me. My reason for this is that I want to become a permanent member of your Macro society, so I'd better learn to be as aware of myself and as clear as you are."

For the next few minutes I was overwhelmed with questions about my life in the 20th century and my feelings toward my parents, my teachers, my government, and the many churches and religions. They were interested in my feelings about cultural, economic, racial, religious, language differences-all the things that divided micro man.

I felt no restraints in answering these questions and realized that, as yet, they had not asked anything that made me feel uncomfortable. Before they got around to that, David suggested that I be given a chance to ask them some questions.

I thanked him and began with general questions concerning their feelings about the Macro society. They were genuinely surprised that I should think their society over regimented and restrictive. Alan seemed to summarize their answers in this area.

"In the Macro society we have more freedom to experience ourselves and the world about us than ever before in the history of man. As for repressive over regimented societies, we have no policemen, no armed forces, and no government to pass silly laws that people want to break."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean," Alan replied, "that we don't have all those laws that almost everyone broke. Laws against alcoholic drinks, gambling, various sexual acts, and drugs, for examples. You people in 1976 had so many laws which were conflicting and confusing that your people had to hire lawyers to protect them from their own neighbors as well as from their own government. Consider the maze of laws that governed marriage, divorce, and taxes. Of course, these would not have been perpetuated if your lawyers had not had a vested interest in keeping them on the books."

"But you have to have laws or everything would be chaos." I replied.

"We have no laws, and we have no lawyers," responded Nancy, "and we don't have chaos."

"But you do have laws," I insisted. "You must have. How about stealing? What if I steal your belongings?"

They all laughed, and lovely little Diane, the smallest at six-feet one, said "Go ahead and take anything we have. All material possessions are free and we'll be glad to give you anything you want, so you can see that there is no need to steal."

"All right," I said, "but how about murder? You must have laws against that."

I thought I had them with that one, but Bonnie smiled revealing her charming facial imperfection-dimples. She said, "In your 20th century you had no laws against flying to the stars because no one believed it possible." She paused and seemed to overwhelm me with her intense blue eyes as she continued, "We in the 22nd century believe it is impossible for Macro man to murder anyone. There are no laws against it."

She so distracted me that I momentarily forgot about laws and asked whether the science of 2150 made it possible for people who were not yet level ten to visit other planets.

She explained that Macro man just used astral projection to explore the universe.

I was reminded of my astral body traveling to 2150 and then informed that some eighth and ninth levels and all tenth levels were able to use astral travel not only in our physical universe but in other dimensions beyond the fourth one of time. That was more than I could grasp, so I went back to laws.

"All right," I said, "how about your educational laws. All 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds have to live in a 7th triad student Beta, and until you reach 30 you must live in a student Gamma. How about that?"

Again they laughed, and darkly handsome Adam said, "But no one forces us to live in a student Gamma. The Macro society is set up so that our needs for companionship, love, learning, exercise, recreation, and everything else are best served this way. We are free to leave any time we want to. But we are not masochists, so we seldom go against our own best interests."

Now Alan got up from our long dining table and said, "Because the Macro society lives according to the one Macro imperative-loving acceptance-we cooperate and, thus, conflict is impossible. However, we still have micro people living on Micro Island who dedicate their lives to amnesic forgetfulness of the Macro oneness of all. Only in this way of deliberately forgetting our Macro origin can we behave in micro selfish ways that damage others and ourselves.