Dr. Shaaka iMaru was so advanced and yet ancient as an Uppaaimarn survivor of the stellar change that had made the Uppaaimar homeworld uninhabitable that one never imagined him having regular humanoid life things … like, a house in San Francisco on Waller Street, by Duboce Park, and him sitting up in that park on a Friday afternoon, in an unhappy and EXTREMELY long-distance conversation.
“I keep telling you – we are not the Most High, so nothing in the whole purposes of the redemption and renewal of the universe revolves around us! Beside that, it has not yet occurred to you that there is a reason that things need to be renewed and redeemed? … no, it has to do with the fact that if there was no intrusion of problems from the Curse we can't solve, we would keep on worshiping ourselves and our pet vices and never think that both judgment and salvation are necessary, and that impression would be across the universe. It isn't just us at stake, you know!”
A long pause, and a deep sigh.
“Well of course you don't believe it. You would have to move off of that imaginary throne that you share with the Deceiving Destroyer and stop pretending like he pretends at godhood to acknowledge that.”
Another pause.
“Yes, you heard what I said. I dare you to deny it.”
The conversation ended abruptly, and the Uppaaimarn prince heaved a deep sigh … and then brightened to a smile as he saw me approaching.
“Captain Rufus Dixon – well met, my friend and Key Bearer of the Uppaaimar!” he said.
“Sounds like you might want a little reinforcement out of the Looking community of us humans, on a day like today.”
“The Looking,” as it happens, was the name for those sentient beings Looking for the Redeemer and His redemption to be completed in the Universe outside the human branch of those also looking, but with much more complete information.
Dr. iMaru sighed, his violet-black eyes and skin suddenly dull with sadness.
“My father told me a long time ago what I am going to share with you, a young human man who also is Key Bearer of the Uppaaimar: the only thing worse than finding out a friend is a reprobate is finding out after you have wasted years trying to do what will not be done. For the Uppaaimar in exile, some of us have wasted centuries. I am a bad example for you not to follow.”
“I'm sorry,” I said. “It is hard to let people go when you know … .”
Dr. iMaru sighed.
“Every being with a choice has a right to their choice,” he said. “That is the most dangerous aspect of being sentient. You can be in the face of truth, and choose to ignore it, and be left in your decisions for a lifetime – and life is eternal.”
“Yes, sir, it is, just a question of where the spirit will reside for the longer portion of that.”
“My former friend there, in the course of the last conversation we shall ever have, threw at me the jab that all the ancient iMaru ever did was stargazing and prevented none of the tragedies of our people from happening, and neither did the Redeemer we spent all that time looking for. This is an lie so large that it was not worth disputing – the star charting had a time and it was finished, and during that time and certainly after we did many other things.”
Dr. iMaru looked up at the tree we were sitting under.
“I donated this tree to this park,” he said. “On the Uppaaimar homeworld it was called the Tree of Justice – it was much, much larger there under the nourishment of two stars instead of one, but they do adapt well to other climates. Wherever you see it, anywhere in the galaxy, you can be sure that some Uppaaimar are sojourning there, and there is a good possibility that they are part of the Looking community because of the special significance these trees came to have.
“Human and humanoid bodies have in common that in life, we secrete hormones that tell the amount of stress we are under. The body was not built to lie, so, any being sensitive to those hormones can instantly tell when we are doing that through the body's invisible language. The Tree of Justice could be called the Tree of Peace as well, for it responds to peaceful people – so when there was a serious matter to be inquired, those to be questioned were brought to a grove of these trees to be listened to, and observed. People telling the truth are more peaceful than liars.”
“Ah … so, these trees helped determine who needed further investigation,” I said.
“Precisely – and even what needed investigation in terms of death. Dying is a last flooding of invisible information – of dissolution and escape of the body's vital energies, but combining in a variety of different ways. If the death occurred justly – in the proper order – then the tree would turn a flourishing red color as it grew.”
“Impressive,” I said. “Gorgeous – the vitality of that righteous life, coursing through the tree.”
“That's not quite accurate,” Dr. iMaru said, “but you do see where we are going, on what you members of the Looking community on Earth often refer to as Good Friday.”
“Generalized: upon the portal of eternity, all pretense is left behind. Natural death, accidental death, violent death in defense, violent death in commission of a crime, violent death owing to judicial execution – all this is known, and the body has that last memory. Even over the longer term, people presumed to have been one way or another in their lives have been revealed by this tree after their death. The old saying was to never seek the company of people who do not have the Tree of Justice in their ancestors' graveyards – for there is only one reason it would be avoided.”
“Yikes,” I said.
“The ancient iMaru cultivated these trees,” Dr. iMaru said. “When I read in your Bible where the Lord says that the blood of righteous Abel cried out from the ground, I knew that is strictly true: the body knows the injustice done to it and there would be that record. This tree would have marked the spot, had it been in my world. If a matter had to be determined, we made sure the trees got where they needed to go.
“From your Bible you also know that there would be a Just Sacrificial Death – the Redeemer Himself would suffer by unjust hands to achieve the union of justice upon sin and mercy upon all those who believe in Him and His dying in their place.”
“Yes, sir, I certainly do know of the cross work of Christ,” I said, “and I believe.”
“My ancestors did not have the details that you have enjoyed all your life,” Dr. iMaru said, “but when the Redeemer's Star filled out the array of light that only it could, they knew the time was near.”
“Your Bible records that the entire universe went dark for three hours while the Redeemer suffered – this is strictly true also. The ancient iMaru recorded it, not knowing the full significance of it, but every light in the galaxy went dark. On the infrared and above ultraviolet, all stars kept producing – so, heat kept on – but they were pulled out of visible light all at the same time.”
“When light returned, Captain Dixon, every Tree of Justice on the Uppaaimar homeworld, and everywhere else that Uppaaimar lived and worked at that time, turned to that picture I showed you – a fullness of vital red never seen before, nor ever to be seen again.
“Thus we knew that the Just Sacrificial Death had occurred. The iMaru documented it. The photo and video evidence still exists, and were shared with the Looking communities all over the galaxy and now beyond, in our exile, with much other evidence having been added with it from others who also observed Creation.”
“Wow,” I said.
Dr. iMaru sighed.
“My former friend here of course lives with us far past those times … but he grew up with all the evidence the iMaru collected and also has access to a human Bible. Today I realize why the Redeemer, after his Resurrection, never appeared to or spoke to anyone who disbelieved ever again. There was no point. People who want to sit on the imaginary throne with the Deceiving Destroyer in order to play God are not getting down because they don't want to – the problem is the will, not the intellect.”
I thought about this.
“Natural Uppaaimarn lifespan is contemporaneous with a Vulcan lifespan, right?”
“A little more,” he said. “Vulcans average 250 years in human terms, but their oldest elders kept up with the Uppaaimarn average of around 300 years.”
“But Uppaaimarn death has paused because aging cannot happen under weak stars … so, when you say that you have been trying to convince this friend of yours for centuries ...”
“I have lived more than twice a natural Uppaaimarn lifespan,” he said. “Be thankful, Captain Dixon, that your planet's sun is a nice middle-of-the-road average kind of star, meaning you are granted to pass into eternity pretty much on time from practically anywhere. That is a blessing. Living for a century, watching people and societies you love become more and more confirmed as willfully blind, is very hard. Living for almost seven centuries doing the same thing is a form of suffering to be wished upon no one.”
“And yet, the hope of the Redemption, the Renewal, and the Resurrection,” I said, and watched him brighten all the way up. “I know your ancestors documented all of the signs in the heavens of the first resurrection, when it occurred!”
“Of course!” Dr. iMaru said. “The Looking among the Uppaaimarn spend time reviewing these things as much as at this time of year the Looking among humans read in their Bible and consider the matter.”
He chuckled and stood.
“It's about time for lunch,” he said. “I invite you to come dine of good food and also great wonders that you are prepared to see now,to walk through a little holiday mystery it took the Uppaaimarn in exile centuries to solve, but you will solve in one afternoon, having had the right reading materials all your life.”
These trees are pure fractals made in Apophysis 2.09, just in different palettes ... there is a third still coming, along with more art by my friends and collaborator 