The Symbiotic Travelers Ch 04

The symbiotic Travelers

The American Expansion

BADSAM

It is late Thursday afternoon, January 12, 1815, Zlatex and Yaphet arrived in Alexandria just as the sun was setting on an inflamed reddened sky. They immediately rented a two room studio apartment with a fireplace in a rooming house with an attached combination restaurant and tavern. While they were carrying the wooden chest which contained SAM up the stairs, one of the handles broke off. The trunk tumbled down the stairs and broke open, spilling the bulky Simplified Automatic Mainframe computer processor, its battery pack, the electrical cable which connects them and some blankets and a few articles of their clothing onto the floor.

Upon seeing SAM and the battery, the owner of the establishment asked them what the two black metal boxes were; he had never before seen anything like that.

The quick thinking Julia answered him, "That's just a metal box containing some of my personal things, some jewelry, a journal that I keep of our travels and things like that." She then immediately covered the supercomputer with a blanket and proceeded to carry the large device up the stairs. James picked up the battery pack and electrical wire and followed her up the steps.

When James and Julia went back downstairs to pick up the rest of their clothing and their other trunk, they met the elderly owner coming up the stairs carrying the other smaller chest with their spilled clothing draped over it.

Although the owner said that he was only trying to be helpful, it was obvious that he was more interested in getting a second look at the oversized black metal boxes. One of them had hundreds of tiny holes in one of its sides and several small slots and apertures that looked to him like openings for plug-ins of some kind, obviously for that strange looking cord he saw. He asked James, "The holes I seen in that strongbox, what are the holes for and what's that rope for?"

"They are there to allow the air to filter in and keep our clothing fresh," he answered the inquisitive old man. He then gave Julia a questioning, hopeful glance.

She shrugged her shoulders and added, "It's a new idea we read about in a newspaper we picked up in New Orleans. Some scientist said he did a study and came to the conclusion that if a person airs their clothing, it will keep them smelling fresh and they won't wear out as fast. So, James and I are trying it out. Who knows, maybe he's right and I won't have to buy new dresses nearly as often."

The old man sneered questioningly and handed the chest to James and then went back downstairs.

The next morning, the first thing that the two syngeneic aliens did was to purchase another chest for SAM and lock their computer in it. Finding a trunk that was large enough to hold SAM, the battery pack for it and some of their clothing and blankets took up most of their morning. When they returned to their room, they caught the owner of the rooming house examining and trying to "open" the large black metal box with all the little holes in it.

He told them that he had brought them a cord of firewood and was just looking at the black box. He asked Julia why it didn't have any way to open it, so she could get her jewelry out. She answered him, "You have to have three special kinds of keys to do that. You put them into the three apertures there on the side of the processor... on the side of the box. Then the front slides open."

"What's a processor?" he suspiciously asked her.

"I started to say process, meaning that you have to go through a process to open the box." She looked hopefully at Zlatex. He just shrugged his shoulders. He then said to the old man, "It is very rude and insulting to open another person's luggage without their permission. If you don't mind, I would like to have a little privacy with my wife."

The old man quickly left her room.

When they finally got SAM, the battery box and its cable and some blankets locked away in another chest, they bought a newspaper in order to ascertain if 1815 Alexandria or any other part of Louisiana was preparing for war with any other nation. They were tired of ending up in somebody else's war.

Zlatex is sitting at the table in the apartment they have rented. "I don't see anything in the newspaper that indicates whether or not Louisiana is preparing for war with anybody," he says to Yaphet as she hands him a plate of fried ham slices, baked potato wedges and stewed carrots for his lunch.

"I hope not," Yaphet answers her syngeneic consort. "I don't want you to get shot again. Why can't these Earthlings learn to get along with each other? Herthians learned a long time ago that it is easier and more economical to build a nation than it is to destroy one in war."

War is brutal and barbaric; it's inhumane. It kills innocent people, children and babies. Those who it does not kill, it destroys their lives. It uproots families and tears them apart. It makes orphans of children. It devastates cities and obliterates businesses. It turns green meadowlands, verdant forests and flourishing gardens into desolate wastelands.

It leaves misery and despair in its aftermath. Corruption and garbage are its descendants. Lies and misconception are its children. And each war is more destructive, more atrocious and more repulsive than the preceding war. Nothing good has ever been accomplished through war that mediation and diplomacy couldn't solve without bloodshed.

Those who choose war and violence over negotiation to settle disputes are no better than barbarians and their actions are Neanderthalic. The only true, correct and lasting way to settle disagreements is through calm, peaceful dialogues with those who hold different opinions. Hopefully mankind can see this and act upon it in the future. If mankind does not, if mankind continues to choose violence as a course of action, then it is only a matter of time before mankind brings upon themselves "the power to annihilate all nations," and then does just that.

Looking back upon the history of man, for the past ten thousand years, a person can only wonder if this is where God, the Holy Spirit as been slowly guiding mankind to see this. After reading about the many wars that man has brought against his neighbor, it is astonishing that mankind has yet to understand that peaceful discussion is the only way to end all the corruption on earth.

As he takes a sip of tea, Zlatex says, "There's also an article in here about the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, I was reading. Its author says that the Americans seem to want to control the whole of the North American continent."

"That was twelve years ago. What's he doing mentioning it now?" Yaphet answers her counterpart as she sits down at the table with her own plate of food.

President Thomas Jefferson was eager to gain control of the important Mississippi River port of New Orleans. Although Jefferson considered

La Nouvelle-Orléans

a swampland incapable of residency by civilized people, he knew that the fledging United States needed that port if the new nation was ever going to prosper. No other city in America can say that about itself, no other city can claim that the new government of the United States would not survive without it. Thus, making New Orleans the "Queen of the South."

The main issue for the Americans was ease and unrestricted use of the Mississippi River out to the Gulf of Mexico. Jefferson asked James Monroe and Robert Livingston to go to France and purchase the Isle of Orleans. The two men instead bought the entire Mississippi River's drainage basin, 530,000,000 acres for fifteen million dollars, nearly doubling the size of the thirteen original states.

However, France actually only regulated a small portion of the land, the port of Orleans and the surrounding coastal lands. The vast majority of the acreage was inhabited and controlled by Native American Indians. What the United States actually bought was the right to obtain Indian lands by conquest or treaty, to the exclusion of other European powers.

New Orleans was founded by the French explorer Jean Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville in 1718. France controlled the Louisiana territory from 1682 until it ceded the land to Spain, in the Treaty of Fontainebleau on November 3, 1762.

On October 1, 1800, the Spanish government then yielded the territory back to France when it signed the Treaty of San Ildefonso with Napoleon Bonaparte. This was an effort by Napoleon as part of a broader effort to re-establish French colonial rule in North America.

But New Orleans, i.e., the Isle of Orleans and all of Louisiana ostensibly remained under Spanish control, until 1803. On November 30, 1803, the Spanish governor of Louisiana, Manuel de Salcedo, officially transferred the Louisiana territory to the French representative, Pierre Clément de Laussat. Next, three days after the formal cession of the territory to France on December 17th, in flag raising ceremony in front of the Cabildo on December 20, 1803, in the Place d'Armes, France relinquished the land to William C.C. Claiborne and General James Wilkinson, representing the United States. Hence,

La Nouvelle-Orléans

and all of Louisiana was under three different flags in three days, extending United States sovereignty to both sides of the Mississippi River.

Zlatex continues, "The author of this article says that the Americans are quickly moving into the territory and colonizing it. They are expanding their towns all the way to both sides of the Mississippi River using flatbed ferries, building roads and bridges, communities and settlements. There is nothing that appears to want to stop the growth of their new nation."

"Well, I believe that is good," Yaphet answers her lover. "Maybe by buying the land and colonizing it they won't have to resort to war in order to get it."

She pauses. Then adds, "As I understand, the only thing these Americans want is to be left alone, to have the freedom to speak their mind, publish their own opinions and worship their own God."

"That's why their ancestors came to the New World, Yaphet. They wanted to escape the religious and political persecutions that their parents and grandparents endured."

"Yes, I know Zlatex. They worship same God that we Hertians do, only differently. Our Hertian God was murdered by the Remans three thousand years ago. While he was on Herth and teaching his philosophy to his disciples, they arrested him for teaching blasphemy and sedition against the empire. They flogged him, wrapped metal barbs around his face and head, bound him to an X shaped cross and then took turns shooting at him with their ballistae, aiming for his heart."

"Tell me again, Yaphet. What is a ballista? I know we studied it in theology class together on Herth. I just don't remember."

"It's similar to a handheld crossbow. Just like their God Jesus Christ, our God Iesus Messiah rose from the dead too. Thus, proving that what he taught was the only way to find true peace and happiness."

"You're correct, Yaphet. God is a logical being and obviously utilizes the scientific method. Let me ask you a question. With all the different religions and churches, do you think that God is trying to see how different living beings worship him? Do you believe that God has his one control religious group that teaches his beliefs and several experimental religious groups that teach a different version of his beliefs?"

"Yes, I do Zlatex. But don't forget that many individuals say and do things in the name of God, when in reality they are not inspired by the Holy Spirit. They are guided by ignorance, arrogance, greed and hate. Also, if God does something that we do not understand, then it's because he is so far above us intellectually."

"So, tell me Yaphet, you're a female. How do you explain the virgin birth?"

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

"Well, Zlatex, I believe that God the Father created the universe, gave life to the universe and then his Son "took a swan dive" into the womb of an impeccably pure virgin and impregnated her through sheer willpower, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He did it on Herth three thousand years ago and again on Earth two thousand years ago. On both worlds, God the Son grew up, began teaching his beliefs, was murdered by the reigning politicians and then rose from the dead, proving that only by following his teachings can true peace be established."

"Is that all?"

"No, Zlatex. You know that the universe is going to continue to expand into the nothingness from which God created it, right?"

"Yes, Earthlings haven't discovered that yet. I'm sure they will someday. But go on, Yaphet. Don't stop now, you're on a roll."

"A future astronomer or astrophysicist here on Earth will discover that someday. Just like Georges Lemaîtra and his counterpart proposed it centuries ago in the year 2427 on Herth and then Edwin Hubbla and his equivalent confirmed it a few years later when they proved that the recessional velocity of a galaxy increases with farther distance away from us."

"That's right, Yaphet. I remember studying that in our science class when we were in high school on Herth."

"Anyway, it seems to me that once this universe becomes void eons from now, God is going to do it all again. I believe that God is going to create another universe. In fact, God may have already done it numerous other times, and the present universe is just one of many universes that God has created, given life to it and then lived among the beings there, teaching his beliefs."

"Yaphet, do you believe that God actually created and then later fertilized a perfectly spotless virgin on each of the worlds he created and then rose from the dead on each of them?"

"Yes, I do Zlatex. Do you believe it, and do you believe God created other universes?"

"Of course, Yaphet. I'm not so arrogant and self-centered to believe that we are the only beings that God has created."

"Thank you, Zlatex. But do you believe God made an impeccably unblemished virgin - Christians call her Mary - and then impregnated her?"

"Now that you've explained it, yes, I do. But tell me, Yaphet, what makes Mary so special?"

"I'm not sure, Zlatex. I will explain it this way. We are all made of trillions of cells, right?"

"Yes, that's something else Earthlings have yet to discover. But go on."

"Well, if you were to make a collage of all the children of God, it would be composed of trillions of pictures, with each pic being a different person. But if you were to make a collage of the Virgin Mary, each picture would be of her. Now do you understand?"

"Yes, but why do you think God creates universes, gives life to them and then goes among them to teach his beliefs?"

"I believe that God creates life because he wants to share his joy with that life. But can we change the subject? What are you going to do about work?"

"I don't know. Do you think the old man might want some help managing the restaurant and bar downstairs?" Zlatex answers his counterpart.

"Sure, and he might let me sing like I've done before. Why don't you ask him?"

The owner and manager didn't hire Julia to sing, but he did employ James to help out in the kitchen. But after three weeks, James found easier work at a higher pay as a printer's apprentice and typesetter of the Alexandria local newspaper. The managing editor of the Wednesday, Friday, Sunday paper met James while eating at the bistro. While talking to James, he discovered that he could fluently read and write English, French, Spanish and some Latin. He told James that he could use someone as fluent as James because many of his readers could read Spanish and others English.

He told the editor that his parents were French and Julia's were Spanish, but they grew up in colonial America, speaking and learning English. James didn't tell him that he acquired this ability living among the colonists since 1766, almost half a century ago. Both he and Yaphet still looked as though they were twenty-three years old. Nor did he tell him at that time that his symbiotic equivalent was also able to read, write and speak three of the languages; they didn't speak Latin except what they learned going to mass on Sundays. He did this because, as he and his consort have learned, many wives at this time were subject to their husbands. Zlatex didn't want the editor to know that the two of them only practiced this type of relationship in public. But when they were alone, they considered themselves to be equal to each other and treated each other as equals.

Once he started working as an apprentice typesetter, as an afterthought, he told the editor that his wife could also speak the three languages but was only partially able to read or write them. As an extraterrestrial traveler coming from a scientifically advanced, technologically developed planet, living among early 19th century Earthlings, he didn't want to give the newspaper manager too much insight into their superior knowledge. The two syngeneic beings continued to maintain their anonymity because they still didn't know how Earthlings would react to discovering an alien living among themselves.

He not only taught James how to set type for printing, but he also gave him his own column to write. He just had to write it in English and Spanish. Further, he frequently told James what to write. James didn't mind that. He was happy to learn how to set typography and operate a newspaper printing press. The experience would help him get other, better jobs in the future.

Yaphet was overjoyed that he got a job for the newspaper. Meanwhile, she started a garden of potatoes, carrots, green beans and tomatoes. Together, they also raised a few chickens. What they didn't eat themselves, Julia would sell in the local market.

One morning, while in the marketplace selling some of her vegetables, she met an elderly lady selling wicker baskets she had woven. Julia asked her to teach her how to do it; for payment, she gave the woman some potatoes, carrots and green beans. The old woman was happy to teach her how to make the rattan baskets. She said that she was getting older and was looking for someone to help her make and sell them in the market. Besides, she was contemplating moving to Saint Augustine to live with her daughter and grandchildren. Julia could take her spot in the local market once she learned how to make the handbaskets.

After that, for several months Yaphet made different types of wicker baskets and sold them in the market along with any vegetables she had. Then the secretary of the newspaper quit. She got married and her new husband didn't want her working outside their home. James reminded his boss that his wife could read and write English and Spanish. The editor asked Julia to come in for an interview and to give him a sample of her reading and writing talents. He then hired her too.

It is February 26, 1819, James and Julia have been working at the newspaper for four years. James has just learned about the Spanish Cession of 1819, whereby Spain ceded East and West Florida. Also known as the Adam-Onís Treaty, the agreement solidified American control over the southeastern portion of the country and certified peaceful relations with Spain. But most important, it paved the way for westward expansion of the growing nation. However, Spain retained sovereignty over its remaining territories in the Americas, including New Mexico, California, and the rest of the western lands.

Spain's foothold in Florida was weak in the years following the American independence, and there were numerous boundary disputes between the two nations. After years of negotiations, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams achieved a diplomatic triumph with the signing of the Florida Purchase Treaty on February 22, 1819, which officially made Florida an American territory.