COMMUNICATION FROM ARKAY OF KORENDOR
Date of reception: 2 November 1988
Love and light, my Terran friends. We have arrived at my last message in this first series of communications. I shall attempt to keep this briefer than several of the previous offerings, but I give no guarantees, inasmuch as these things tend to develop a life of their own as I progress.
The topic for this evening is what Earth (and the Alliance) will gain from your world's membership in our group. Of course, the Confederation also wants you, but surely you don't want to be associated with THEM, do you?
Seriously, the UWA offers to its members benefits that are far and away superior to anything provided by other organizations. I'll outline a few of them here, but first let me digress to explain the procedure by which a planet affiliates with the Alliance.
There are three steps to becoming a full member of the UWA. The first level is known as "Protectorate". The planet is only a prospective member. That status is in force until the world meets several criteria for advancement.
These include certain sociological conditions, adoption of the Universal Economics system, and unison of all the world's people into a single planetary "super-government" (we do not require eliminating nation-states, only that they all answer to one central power).
The Protectorate has the full use to our technologies, but control of them remains with the Alliance. This is to say that although, for example, you would be given access to space, there would be no spacecrafts or portals under Terran jurisdiction, nor would technical data be given for them.
This policy is a "safety net" in the event that the world decides after a time (as some few have) to reject a membership in the UWA. We would then withdraw and the world would go on its own course with no permanent change to its society because of our presence.
Once the world meets the criteria for elevation, the second plateau is "Associate" member. At this point, the planet has removed any question of its intention to continue with us.
This level is equivalent in all respects to full membership, with the following exceptions:
• The world does not have voting privileges or a voice in the Alliance governing process;
• The world is not represented in our courts except by appointed agents from Alliance member worlds, who act on their behalf;
• The training process for the creation of Masters is not provided;
• "Implant" communication is not provided except to planetary officials approved by the governing Council;
• Access to Alliance data banks is restricted.
These might seem rather severe limitations, but given the other things that Associate status offers, these few exceptions are seldom a source of hard feelings. In any case, except for the 150 Founding Worlds, every one of the 740,000 Alliance members went through the same procedure.
Associate Membership is usually a brief stop, while several enhancements are made to the central governing body of the world. How long that stop lasts depends entirely on how quickly the refinements are adopted and put into operation. Since they involve the transfer of certain matters of control to the Alliance, the usual impediment is the resistance of the people to giving the Alliance a say in the world government.
These requirements are limited in scope, but often the reaction is, "stay out of our business", because a world accustomed to absolute autonomy balks at outside influence.
For example, a frequent complaint is that the Alliance does not permit a planet to maintain its own military force (not to be confused with civilian police agencies). It takes us some time to convince them that there is just no conceivable need for it under Alliance affiliation, but then, logic often succumbs to tradition.
Another stumbling block is the transfer of final control of the world economy to the Alliance's "Universal Economics System". This objection fades once the resources available to them via the UnEcSys links are elucidated.
In short, planetary pride and stubbornness are the typical reasons for staying a while as an Associate. However, since membership in the UWA is understood to require a world to become a selfless, active partner to every other world, the planet must learn to shed its societal childhood and mature into the Alliance way.
The last step is, of course, full membership with all its privileges and its responsibilities. The world that reaches this honored status has just cause to be proud of its achievements.
Although it is one of over 740,000 members, each planet is a vital and indispensable component of the vast machine that is the Alliance. We do not offer membership lightly. If we thought that a world had nothing to contribute to the UWA, we would simply bypass it.
For that reason, you may look upon yourselves with considerable pride. The Alliance is not prone to becoming so involved with non-members unless they present some qualities or capabilities that we find very important to future needs. Given the vast problems that you face from within and without, you may rest assured that the Council of Elder Masters has some extremely good motives for permitting us to commit our great resources and manpower to your world.
With that preliminary information taken care of, the remainder of this text will provide an overview of a few of the advantages to being a UWA world.
The most important aspect of being a UWA affiliate is that Earth will be under the aegis of the Alliance. It may seem a trivial matter, but if you have read the preceding messages in depth, you are aware that there are a number of "dark forces" in operation that make a pastime of annexing those worlds that cannot defend themselves, or will not.
In the UWA, the full force of our vast resources of defense are available to any member world faced with a threat that it cannot repel on its own.
Unfortunately, because you are not as yet in our fold, we are unable to oppose the Omegans as effectively as we might desire. This forces us to work by stealth and "underground" activities, rather than by open confrontation, as would be the case were you one of us.
We will do our best here, but the Omegans know that in dealing with them, as you say, "our hands are tied". We are forced by our laws to work covertly within Terran society, and to assure that your people will not be directly involved in our programs. You must not obtain material proof of our presence. We may communicate, but landing a carrier in Central Park is a definite "no-no".
The second benefit that we offer is the full and immediate access to the realms of space. From your first moment as an Alliance Protectorate, we will provide the means for you to travel to anywhere in the Alliance. As I noted, we will control these means, but your use of them will be at your pleasure, without hesitation or limitation.
As well, we will provide any sort of technical assistance in developing your own space program that does not involve concepts new to your science. We will offer aid in refining rocket propulsion, and provide new chemical fuels, but until (or if?) you advance to Alliance Associate, nothing such as gravitic drive can be supplied. Once you attain that second level, we will of course then transfer the knowledge required for you to manufacture and maintain our transportation methods.
Although I said IF you achieve the Associate status, I personally do not doubt it for an instant. I am certain that the awesome thrill of being able to travel at will throughout the galaxy will prove so irresistible to you that you would do anything, even make peace amongst yourselves, to preserve it.
The benefits of joining the UWA are not limited to space. Most of the improvements will be on Earth itself. As an Associate, you will receive our fusion power technology, to free you forever from the limitations of fossil fuel and fission energy. We will also make available the ability to create anti-matter for M-E power systems in the spacecrafts that you will no doubt prefer to build for your own use.
We are well aware of your passion for "doing it yourself", and you are a remarkably creative and versatile race when it comes to inventing and adapting things to meet your needs. We of the Alliance find this a valuable trait in people, and even if you had no other saving graces, for this reason alone you would be welcomed into our numbers.
In the medical field, we can offer advances in treatment that would render surgery all but obsolete, and in those few instances where it is unavoidable, our surgical procedures quite frankly render your best techniques little better than medieval blood-letting.
Major diseases are unknown to us, and our physiology is considerably different from yours. We therefore have no immediate cures for your "killer" diseases. However, by working with your research professionals, and providing the necessary computer programming, we can easily give you the capacity to cure and to prevent these diseases.
We would like nothing more than to give your people the means to achieve perfect health. As an Associate of the Alliance, you will have it.
Speaking of computers, although you have made spectacular advances in this science, there are fundamental principles that you have yet to learn. We will teach them. To list just a few:
• "Neurosynaptic logic" that duplicates the thinking and reasoning processes of the human brain;
• Molecular-level integration made possible by "room temperature" super-conductors, offering computing speed increases by a factor of at least ten thousand over your best existing technologies;
• True "parallel processing" that your computer science is beginning to explore, but which is still decades in your future at your present rate of progress.
In the communications field:
• A planet-wide implant network that allows interface with a vast array of information resources, and instant, free contact with any other person;
• Link-up with every Alliance visiscreen system, providing a window into the universe on almost a million "channels", and the ability to study the cultures of people very much like yourselves, and others entirely alien to you;
• Access to the prodigious UWA "data-bases" that store the combined knowledge of the entire Alliance, often reaching back many thousands of years.
You may believe that you have very good communications, but you have only "scratched the surface". Let us show you all that you have been missing.
In the artistic and cultural pursuits, we will share our concepts of beauty and expression with you, and of course your own artists will be welcome to join in this exchange. We have art enough to occupy one for a thousand lifetimes, and we would be privileged to add your world's efforts to that great diversity.
There are so many more areas of interest that I could discuss that it would be no effort to extend this well beyond the limits of the computer that Bob Renaud uses to convert it to your technology. Let me therefore conclude by indicating what we expect of our member planets in return for the many benefits we provide.
Our principal requirement is that an Alliance world must contribute to the good of the whole. Each planet has qualities and capabilities that make it an invaluable member of the UWA.
However, we do not expect a world to sacrifice in order to meet the needs of the Alliance. We require no gifts. Rather, we operate on the ancient and honorable system of free commerce, of economic incentive, of profit (a "dirty word" in the lexicon of some of Earth's politically extreme viewpoints, but an eminently effective motivation).
We of the UWA believe that a world that provides a service or a product should be fairly recompensed. Earth has much of great value to us, and we will make it well worth your while to become an active partner in Alliance business.
One trait of your people that we find especially important is your inate capacity for leadership and instinctive decision-making. Over the years, we have many times witnessed this ability in action. You are, in your own words, "born leaders". Our many centuries of peace have rendered us quite frankly unprepared for the military way of life that has been forced upon us within the last thirty years by Kalran and Omegan initiatives against the Alliance.
Yes, we have our military people, and they do they very best, which is quite good, but we would far prefer to enlist your aid as leaders and planners and tacticians. You seem to be uniquely adept at these tasks, and applied to Alliance needs instead of against each other, your talents would be a highly prized addition to our capabilities.
Beyond this, as I stated earlier, your inventiveness and ingenuity would certainly be enormous assets to us. We are constantly amazed at the rate of progress that you have maintained in this century, far beyond our wildest anticipations.
Sadly, however, your morality and spiritual life have not only failed to keep pace with your scientific and materialistic progress, but indeed have suffered to the point of stagnation, if not of imminent collapse.
This is in part due to the "dark forces", but much of it is directly attributable to your misguided concept that in becoming scientifically astute, you have eliminated your need for God and his eternal word.
I have discussed this previously, and will not dwell on it here. However, to become a member of the UWA, you must acknowledge that your greatness is due to the benificence of God, and not to your own labors without his guidance.
You have many talents, many things to offer the Alliance, and we in turn will provide much of inestimable value to you. We would be honored to count you amongst our member worlds, but we hold that in the end, all of our mighty works, all of our blessings, everything that we cherish, we owe to our loving and providing Infinite One, our God.
If you cannot bring yourselves to return to that faith of your forebears, then sadly we must leave you to your own inevitable moral self-destruction.
In this, we can only watch and pray that God grants you the wisdom to see the folly of your ways before you can no longer turn back. You are at a bridge in humanity's life, my friends. If you cross it, naught lies ahead but moral desolation, without end or hope.
We will erect the warning signs at that bridge, but you alone can read and heed them, and in enlightenment turn back toward the road that leads you to a world of love and spirituality, of living by God's laws.
When you make that choice, there you will see the open arms of God, eagerly waiting to embrace you, his "prodigal sons", his lost children coming home once more. Behind him, you will see us, offering you a way of life to fulfill your dreams of destiny.
With these words, I bring to a close this first series of messages to you, my brothers and sisters of Earth. I hope that in these nine discourses, I have given you perhaps a smile, perhaps a tear. More than that, however, I hope that I have given you pause to think of yourself, your people and your world as vitally important in the vastness of God's wonderful universe.
If I have done this, then I am well satisfied.
Va i luce eno nol si unir. Go in light until next we meet.
I am Arkay. May peace be yours.
© 2008 Robert P. Renaud -- all rights reserved