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Chapter 3: A Master Speaks

19 August 1961

The date was August 19. The time - 1 minute to 2 AM. The occasion, the third contact with the Korendian scientists.

I watched as the sweep-second hand on the clock made its swing past the three. Abruptly the silence was interrupted by voices obviously not intended for me. "Alliance Craft RK-11 on Channel 15. Your signal is weak. Transmit for tuning purposes." The frequency was then occupied by a high-pitched whining sound that lasted 15 seconds. [Note: the sound was digital data, unknown to the author at the time. The English language was provided by the computer feeding the transmitter that they used to communicate with me.] "On channel, Korendor. Stand by. RK-11."

The band was again silent except for the hissing noise of space and the universe. I awaited the hum that would indicate the signal to me from the Korendians. As it came nearer to 2 AM, I wondered where the signal was. Had they been delayed? Or weren't they going to contact?

At 2 AM precisely, the speaker burst with sound. "In Peace, greetings, Bob. We are testing a new transmitter requiring no sync period. How's our signal strength, quality, etcetera?" I replied, "You're doing fine. Nothing to worry about."

"Excellent. We should not want you to miss tonight's messages. You will be speaking through our relay to one of our most revered masters tonight. He is in his office on Korendor, and is anxious to begin. We are using S-function transmission, so there will be approximately 7-second delays between your transmission and that from Korendor. We now turn you over to Kalen-Li, Universal Master."

Seven seconds later a voice began to speak. It was a deep voice, one that sounded as though it was echoing between the walls of infinity. It impressed me immensely.

"In Peace, Kalo, brother. This is not the last time that we shall speak together, nor am I the only master with whom you shall converse. You will in time be privileged to listen to masters far wiser than I, but I fear that for now you will have to be content with me.

"I should like to speak at this time of your people, your world, and your destiny.

"I have, through our stereoscreen system, seen your planet. I am awed by its beauty, by its enchantingly small and personal dimensions. Unlike this great globe on which I now reside, yours is a world with a touch of nostalgic remembrance for me. I was born on a planet like yours, called Krystalina. It too was small and comfortable. Its people were wonderful and friendly.

"Unfortunately, it too had leaders such as your planet has that were constantly bickering over trivial matters. We too had an armaments race raging between nations. In our case three countries, each opposed to the other two, were in the thick of it.

"Like your world, the brothers from the nearby planets came often to try to teach our people a sane, peaceful way of life. Like yours, my people did not listen. And, as is the case now, the mandates against direct interference prevented our brothers from interceding for us, or from in any way forcing themselves upon us.

[Note: the Non-Interference Directive has long been a source of controversy within the various interstellar organizations. Founded on good intentions, it has repeatedly been shown to result in negative and sometimes catastrophic consequences. The Alliance has since drastically limited their adherence to it, to the dismay of and despite the vigorous protests of the Confederation, which still abides by it despite its many failings. It was in force in the Alliance at the time of these writings.]

"The conditions on Krystalina grew steadily more tense and explosive. Wise men pleaded with our governments to stop this insane race for annihilation, but our leaders were stubborn. None would concede lest the other two would pounce upon and destroy his country.

"This condition lasted for one hundred years of your time. During that time, I was to them a 'contactee', as so many of your people are now. Such was their line of thought like yours that we contactees were also ridiculed. We were called names. We were derided and scorned. Although by a minority group, this mistreatment was very harmful to our cause, and moved the public, although they would have liked to believe in us, to be wary of our claims.

"I was one of the contactees with fantastic claims of rides in space crafts to other worlds. I too contacted masters and was given the golden light of universal love. And I too was met with the same skeptical caution that your contactees now face.

"Our planet finally came to its moment of truth. All the contactees were assembled in the main city of Krystalina, Denekkcol. To the awe and astonishment of our fellow men, we were taken aboard a spacecraft, witnessed by half a million people, and spirited away to outer space. Many who had not believed fell to their knees and begged forgiveness, while others who had believed stood about in a rapturous moment of wonder.

"Ten minutes after we were removed from Krystalina, war broke out. Thirty minutes later, Krystalina had been turned to cosmic dust. This was a result of the explosion simultaneously of ten true hydrogen bombs, and. the final desperate act by my own country of activating an antimatter device.

"This so stunned the contactees and brothers aboard the ship that we were silent during the entire trip to Korendor. Some wept within themselves, others openly, and a few simply sat quietly contemplating the horrible fate of Krystalina's three billion people. We all knew in our hearts the terrible price of failure.

"So, my brother, you can now see that I take personal interest in your world and its future.

"Your world is to me a reincarnation of Krystalina. And it too is driving itself to the same fate that befell Krystalina. Thus I have chosen to speak through you to your brothers across your Earth concerning this race for self-destruction.

"You, my friend, are a highly intelligent race. None of us have any doubts about that. You have advanced scientifically with leaps and bounds. However, your advancement socially and ethically has not kept pace. You now have weapons capable of rendering your planet Earth lifeless, and to your disadvantage you have not found any suitable substitute for war, which would inevitably lead to their use.

"This one-sided progress never works to the benefit of a race. You must therefore improve yourselves mentally and morally as well as scientifically. You must face the cold reality that unless your people do a turnabout, your Earth will duplicate Krystalina right to its final moments.

"We of Korendor, as well as the beings from other planets in the Confederation, have taken it upon ourselves to bring you to an awareness of your peril, and to spread among you the words of peace and brotherhood that are the essence of life throughout the rest of the galaxy.

"We live by a code of complete love for all things that can leave no room for antipathy of any creature of the Infinite One. It would be impossible for us to harm you in any way or to interfere with you to the point of altering your course of actions forcibly.

"You have been told before that we can only give you our messages, and that from that point the future of your world is your own doing.

"First and foremost, you must stop fostering hatred for your brothers under the self-righteous pretext of being better than he, or of believing that one's creed is right and others are therefore automatically wrong. Every man believes what is to him the right thing. Since no two men are alike, then obviously no two men can be expected to hold the same opinions.

"There are of course absolutes that exist beyond the imperfect beliefs of man, but about these there is seldom any discord. By far the major source of conflict is what man himself has added to or subtracted from the absolute truths. This seems to be a universal human flaw. Distrust, hatred and war have arisen because man seemingly cannot overlook the human beliefs and embrace the eternal truths that bind us all."

[Note: of the last two paragraphs, Master Kalen-Li amended the first one and added the second while he and the author were proofreading the 1960s texts.]

"Your struggle now is with communism. While we agree that in its present state is tyrannical, we nevertheless see no alternative to peaceful coexistence with it until such time as it collapses of its own accord. It will do that, have no questions. But until such time, you must tolerate it. Being antagonistic is contrary to sanity, and invariably leads to warfare.

"It is best that you tend to solving the problems right within your own country before attempting to find answers to those of others. As the Master Christ, said, 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.'

"That philosophy has created a bond of love and respect among the people of the Alliance that is unbreakable. There is no force in the universe that can destroy the brotherhood that links each and all of us, from the tiniest of infants to the wisest of elder masters.

"We are all hoping that we can one day extend to you of Earth this same warm bond of undying brotherhood and friendship. It is our hope that you will one day find yourselves members in good standing of the Alliance of Worlds, and will share in the truth and wisdom of time itself that we now know.

"I now turn to you for questions that you no doubt have."

I keyed the transmitter switch and spoke into the mike. "I have heard of many masters from our contactees. How do you attain that honored status?"

Seven seconds later came his reply. "My brother, you have just asked the eternal question -- what makes a master? To simplify it perhaps a bit too much, one becomes a master by service to humanity. Christ was a Master, for be brought the message of the brothers directly to the people of your world. Tesla is a master for his service to the enrichment of your planet's knowledge. I have to my credit the salvation of four races. [Note: this is not "salvation" in the spiritual or religious sense, but rather refers to saving the races from suicidally disastrous cultural trends.]

"Actually, to become a master, one usually lives to be a ripe old age, and masterhood and old-fogey-hood are coincident." There was a sound of suppressed laughter, and from that I realized that he was not alone as I had thought.

"Returning to serious topics, I am hoping beyond hope that this message, when revealed to your people, will help to enlighten them, and to bring them from the funeral procession in which they are now blindly walking to the road to light that leads to complete brotherhood with all of us, here on Korendor, on Yanella, on Arcturia, and on a thousand other worlds. Your peaceful future is our preoccupation.

"We are going to do all we can short of intervening to bring about peace on your world. At this time a council meeting is being held on Mars [Note: Mars has an underground facility used for such purposes.] in your system to decide the limit to the action that we will take. I shall report our plans to you at a future date.

"My associates and myself now wish you the best of conditions in your quest for peace on your Earth, and eagerly await further talks with you. Attending this transmission are five other masters, whom you no doubt heard a short time ago finding it amusing that they are indeed stodgy old fogies like me." They laughed aloud at his comment.

"These five masters and I will talk to you at the next contact with you. For the moment, however, my time is cut short. Our nurse informs us that we are due for our daily repast of warm milk and broth." One of the other masters said to me from where he was seated, "Kalen speaks only for himself, brother Bob. Isn't that so, my OLD friend?" with a strong emphasis on "old". The comment evoked hearty laughs from all of them.

It astonished me to hear men so wise and great joking about each other with so much carefree camaraderie. Could our leaders meet and throw such banter about and not develop an international incident? I think not.

"Now brother, we must bid you farewell. This is the superannuated Master Kalen-Li, signing out for my equally superannuated associates. Va i luce." The Masters were merrily laughing, and just before the transmission was cut, I heard one of them say, "Well done, old man. Now back to bed."

I'd have given the extremity of their choice to be there with them. It left me completely stunned. I had always pictured masters as great men full of full of solemnity and meditation. Instead I found great men having what is known here as a bull session. Here were six men, each one probably individually knowing as much as all of Earth's people put together, and they were able to joke like that. Awesome!

Compare this to all the pomp and circumstance and formality attending meetings of Earth's great men. Perhaps it is because the masters are so wise in the ways of life that they can be so typically human.

I was especially moved by the cordial way that he spoke to me, amazed that such a tremendous person as he could find the time to speak to me at all, let alone in the informal manner in which the communication was conducted. Truly they are a wonderful people.

My meditation was interrupted by Lin-Erri, who had obviously thoroughly enjoyed the interplay. She spoke with all the joy of living that was so characteristic of her. "Well, that was certainly, as your people say, one for the books. I have a new appreciation for the goodness and wisdom of our masters.

"Our masters will again communicate with you, in the fifth contact next month at the third week. We must go now. During the contact, a matter arose which demands our immediate attention. We hope you will pardon us. In Peace, Lin-Erri, from Korendian Research Craft RK-11, of the Alliance of Planets, is clearing this channel for two weeks. Good Morning, Bob."

I switched off my equipment and stretched out on my couch, tired but not really wanting to sleep. I now knew these kind, loving and peaceful people in a new and more intimate way. There was much to think about before the new day began.


Text proofread and edited for typographical errors and improved wording 20080906.



© 2008 Robert P. Renaud -- all rights reserved