14, 1982 ’

‘ I'm a Pookie. Rookies are neither Sures nor Pures, altl'ough they have friends in both camps. Pookies tend to be very hairy and often try to be even Purer than the Pores. But above all, we're Aliens. Just ask Dark Raider.

Somewhere on the road to 1984 (which on INSULA had long been anticipated and planned for: it was to be the year of the ultimate miracle) Mil-7E1 blew up. Or at least I think it blew up. It's kind of hard to remember now. Oh yea, I recall something about Principals and Principles, and committees and comments, but when you've been recuper— ating from severe head wounds for as long as I have, you tend to lose track-of detail. I do recall we were charting our course toward something very Sure and very Heavenly, and definitely very Technological. .

Maybe if I fill you in on a little history, it will help me get my own memories straight. As the" Sure's, of the Pures, used to say, "under— standing is the key to understanding the future." (If there such a thing as a future: the 'Sures were often pretty vague about that. But the Pures sure weren‘t. And as for the m, who was a really Elan, he was so dedicated to THE FUTURE he could hardly keep track of the , present and he had ccmpletely forgotten the past: That was some big man, the Emilio - so

m:

Once a farmer had a snall grove of trees.. It-was verj pleasant to stroll in, the trees many sizes and shapes, nulti—coloured in the fall, green with pmnise in the spring. ,One tree the farmer loved best of all. It was a tall and slender beech that had grown up very in the centre of the grove. The beech h’adrinore leaves than any of his other“ trees.

The farmer loved his grove of trees, but he _ was alm"~Very'poor. He needed firewbod and he could not afford to buy it. Then one’dav he had

an idea. cut

SCAR NAPS or; ‘IHE W's LAMEN'I‘

An Allegory of Principals and Principles ' BooktheFirst -ABookofOrigins

.big everyore just called him

Themck-bothtohi's faceand behind his back. It didn't matter - he liked the name. used to run around saying, "Just call me Rock. " Even the Sures,’ who were pretty dubious about his hangma, found sametlfing very comforting about a man called Rock. Must have something to do with history, because the Sures were right devoted to history. However, I digress.)

INSULA was a space station. It tried to remain stable so that returning Insulars would always be able to find it. Former Insulars used to pay pretty good money to cane home and stay a few weeks on good old DBUIA. It was a small, snug space station, with an undercoat of red paint and a rich coat of green on the surface. The Sures used to run around ensuring that the coat of green was perennially renewed, for they didn't want anyone to think the place might be red underneath. "

quEI was the nerve centre of II-ISULA - at least everyone who worked there thought so. quEI was a large training

He

module which Was anchored on

the after-deck of It had sane mighty big pretensions, asyoicanjudgebyitsname. Spelled out, the nane was "worldly universal Pure Empire of IQSUIA". But everyone just called it quEI. On bad days people would wake up, look out the window and shout vaEIeoh!

‘ ' "A ‘Fable

still have one full tree, with leaves that are

On good days, and especially on play days, people yelled quEI— yay. That's how it was around that place: qu’EI—oh! muFtEI— yay! Headed for the last roundup with the Sacred Cow - but, I digress! We'll get to the Four Horsemen later.

quEI wasn't the first training module to be located on INSUIA. There used to be two of them,in fact. They I had sane fairly big pretensions too. There was Sure Divine Universe, which had been anchored up on the afterdeck right where quEI is now located. But one day old Sure Divine Universe (which some also called Saintly Distant Universe, and others called by other names) dis— appeared. No one is really positive that it's gone. On dark nights and even on dark days (quEI-oh!) the Insulars claim to see it hovering in the heavens, waiting to land again on IDBUIA) .

Slightly to the right of SureDivine Universe was a smaller, but eoually pre- tentiously-named nodule —

Pure Worldly Cosmos. Pure Worldly; Cosmos also disappeared. Most people are sure it will never cane back. People called it other names too. But... I digress.

VT'zl'CEI has survivors from both the Universe and the Gos— mos. But there are also a lot of us Rookies. As, I said before, we Rookies tend to be Aliens rather than Insulars.

like the other trees. When the farmer woke up

But a lot of the Pures are Aliens too. Even some of the Sures were Aliens especially just before THE END. Most of the Alien Pures left just

after quEI landed.

I was talking ear— lier about principles. The values of the old Universe were, of course, rooted in the cardinal principle of Universality. The old Cosmos tried to exude Coenipolitanism with its pretension to be an Empire, but the latter tended. to contradict the fewer.

To be Continued . . . .

Who is the Dark Raider? Who are the Four Horsemen?

Who was that Masked Man, anym y?

What is- the Rock's cardinal principle? What is the Sacred Cow?

Will the future really be Sure and Heavenly?

Tune in next week,

Love and Peace, . The Rookie

the tops off all his trees, leaving the rest to growl again. he said, "I will. still have my beautiful grove, but I will have firewood too." Quickly he took his saw and began to . - out. But his excite- ment he forgot to leave any branches with leaVes on than, that could grow upuinto new trees.

The farmer did not notice.

Yet he decided to leave one tree alone. "I will

Spa-re my favourite, the tall beech," ’the femur said, "That way I

,\

"That way"

multi-coloured in the ’ fall and green with pranise in the spring." So saying,

next morning and looked out his window, he' saw that his beautiful grove

he cut up the tops of the other trees into firewood and brought them to his house.

That night, as the farmer lay asleep in his warm house, a great wind sprang up, as was common at thistime of year. The tall and slender beech now had no protec— tion from the‘other trees. The wind buffeted it, and bcwed it, and finally, with a crack, the beech tree broke off at the top,

of trees was, in reality, nothing rx‘wv but black trunks, bare and grim in the wind- swept davm. The farmer

wept for what he had done, but he was a practical man. That morning he went out

and cut up all the

trunks for firewood. The firewood lasted one winter and a half. the farmer had neither heat nor trees, nylti—coloured in the fall green with promise in the spring.

After that,