Explication of the Inexplicable
Posted on Thu 2nd Aug, 2018 @ 3:35am by Purulence Addams
Edited on on Thu 2nd Aug, 2018 @ 3:31pm
1,302 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Oblivion
Location: Addams Parlor, Queen Anne Villas, Deck 1554
"Thank you, dear heart," Great-Grandmother Addams said to Purulence, accepting the cup of tea she was offered. She nodded to another chair nearby. "Do sit down, please." She took a deep sniff of the tea and closed her eyes in pleasure.
Ischemia sat patiently, knowing that Great Grandmama couldn't be hurried. Everything must be done at her pace, and getting impatient and anxious didn't change that one bit. Perhaps that would come to her with age, too, a sense that there was no need to hurry, that everything would happen in its appointed time. She doubted it, but perhaps. As she waited, she speculated about the old woman across the ancient and intricately carved heart-of-oak table, which family legend said came from a tree in the Garden of Eden. Great Grandmother Addams was not that old, but she certainly had many years behind her, enough so that, when she sat as still as this, it looked as if she and the table could have been carved from the same tree.
Glancing at her sister, she saw that she was also waiting. The barest whisper of expectation hung in the room. Did each of them have the same expectation? Unlikely. Purulence thinks of nothing but this missing man who daily becomes more precious to her in his absence. I'd just like to know the purpose behind this visit. Nothing is ever pointless with an Addams.
Purulence sipped at her tea; she wasn't about to let real spiced chai with all the fixings get cool before she drank it. Just as she liked all the colors, she also liked all the spices. The flavor and scent of each spice she tasted and smelled in the chai had its own corresponding color--the orange and white tang of ginger, the burning black and red of cinnamon, the burgundy of cloves, and the dusky shade that was cardamom. If I were into abstract art, she thought, I would paint what chai feels like to me. Heck, maybe I will paint it, anyway. No reason I can't branch out. It was heavenly perfume, and she warred within herself between wanting to drink it all before it got cold and wanting to savor the cup forever. At some point, she figured, Great-Gramdmama would say what was on her mind. Until then, Purulence let her thoughts wander, immersing herself in Now.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Ischemia, than are written of in encyclopedias," the eldest Addams said at last. "You accused me, when last we spoke, of being cryptic; of hiding my meaning behind mumbo-jumbo. But there are things... many things... which can only be understood by allegory and indirection. The nature of the Things who follow along with our family. The nature of our family. The nature of nature."
Purulence's attention immediately flicked to her great-grandmother once the elderly woman began speaking. "Do you mean like the Stone of Folly representing insanity itself rather than the brain tumor that was probably the source of the idea?"
Here we go, Ischemia thought. An evening of philosophy that answers nothing. Maybe I'm just too dense to be an Addams, but I like the concrete in life.
"Look at where Massys and van Hemessen placed the stone," the hag answered, "and you will have your answer. But it is another allegory I wish to discuss this evening." She took another sip of tea, and began a list. "The Anunnaki; the Aesir; the Echo; the Osirians; the Q; the Thasians; Trelane and his parents; the Talosians; the Travelers; the Vanir; the Watchers... there are more, but I think those examples should suffice."
"Massys and van Hemessen placed it at the third eye, and Bosch didn't," Purulence said. She glanced at Great-Grandmama. "I get that you're talking about very powerful beings and maybe the third eye and the powers that come from it that...seem like madness? But I'm not quite making the connection."
"You have arrived at the beginning of the path," her Great-Grandmother said, with pride in her voice. "Now close your eyes... both eyes, Ischemia! Close your eyes and imagine a vast and powerful civilization; not the Federation. People without rules against interfering with native species. People without ethics telling them to leave others be. And within that civilization, imagine a mining company. Perhaps they're looking for dilithium, or for latinum, or for some other commodity for which people have bled and killed and died across time for the right to say, however briefly, 'that is mine.'"
"So us, pre-Federation, then," Ischemia said, wryly. "Doesn't take much imagination to envision a vast civilization with no moral compass and a desire to have everything someone else has."
The hag made a sound of agreement but went on with her tale, "These miners find a planet rich with this Unobtanium. They send a crew to extract it. The crew, as they work, find a sort of brute creature on the world; lice-ridden, barely able to bang rocks together to make tools. Perhaps in another million years or two, they will master the deliberate use of fire. But the miners are tired, and bored, and they think, 'hey, why don't we get these things to do the hard work of mining for us?'"
"Uh, oh, slavery, here we come," Ischemia muttered.
"I can think of quite a few reasons not to put animals to work mining," Purulence said dryly, "even proto homo sapiens. But I'll suppose these miners do train them and put them to work. And possibly they spur the creatures' mental development by teaching them to work," she continued. "The creatures learn to connect action and consequence."
"Oh, they went beyond that, dear ones. The miners' doctor dabbled in genetics. She created a virus that would make the locals smarter, more able to handle the miners' tools. She released it among the local population, and the children born of infected individuals were... different. The miners called them 'mud-men,' and made of them slaves in the mines, in the fields, in their homes."
Great-Grandmother Addams waved a hand, as if brushing away cobwebs. "Time passed. The Doctor spent time among her mud-men, studying the results of the virus, learning how the children had evolved. She committed folly, fell in love with her own creation. Nothing should have come of it. Different species are incompatible. And yet... sometimes, the descendants of the Forerunners defy logic. A spark passes, a life begins, and by some miracle, is a new thing on its own, not a mule."
Purulence gave Ischemia an alarmed look as it abruptly occurred to her that Great-Grandmama was describing something real.
Ischemia took her cue and asked, "And just who were these imaginary descendants of mud men and ... what did you call them? Forerunners? A species we know, perhaps?" She had a thought but rejected it as preposterous.
"Hmm? No, no. The Forerunners are someone else.1" The old woman frowned. "No; I'm talking about Iconians2 -- remembered on Earth as the Anunnaki, among other mythical identifications. In their language, "mud-men" was Ad'dam, which the race they created remembered as Adam. The valley where the Doctor, Li'ith, set up her community to study the Ad'dam was called Ch'kra-la, remembered as Shangri La... and Eden."
Now it was Ischemia who threw a startled glance at Purulence. "Ad'dam?" she asked, making an uncomfortable mental leap. "Addams family?"
The hag smiled sadly. "Lilith was my mother; I was the first child of the Sky Gods and the mud-men. The first of the Nephilim."
1) http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Chase_(episode)
2) http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Iconian
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