STRANGER FROM THE FUTURE
by Vip Malixi

She was brown, black haired, could be Polynesian, Asian, Hispanic. She spoke perfectly good English, but without an accent which was an accent in itself. She said she was from the Earth, from the future. She said she couldn't name what country she was from because "where" she came from, there were no more national boundaries. She said very few people remembered what country the land they lived on used to be called.

The usual response would have been to have her committed or at least examined by a mental health professional. Or, since she did not have any form of identification or proof of citizenship, contacting her embassy if they could determine she was an illegal alien. These would have been the standard operating procedures if not for the fact that they discovered her inside a burnt-out craft that dazzled so brightly and so white hot it illuminated virtually the whole night sky around Michigan when it crash-landed into one of the great lakes.

She was rescued, relatively unharmed, and, as mentioned, was not sent to a mental ward or to an embassy, but rather to the Department of Homeland Security for questioning.

Dressed in a gray sweater and jeans and tennis shoes of which she was provided, she was then subjected to questioning. Through it all, she or "Maila" as she explained was her name, was very relaxed and seemed not to mind answering questions.

FBI agent, Phoebe Mazaki conducted the interview.

Agent Mazaki: "What is your complete name, mam?"

Maila: "Maila Benx Katipunan."

Agent Mazaki: "And you are from?"

Maila: "Your future. 4225 to be exact."

Agent Mazaki: "I see. And do you have proof of this?"

Maila: "I'm not sure. My ship was severely damaged when it was pulled into a mini-black hole."

Agent Mazaki: "You are referring to the charred remains of the...the container you were found in?"

Maila: "Yes. I'm afraid it doesn't look like much since I lost all power around the protective force field. I just barely made it back to Earth."

Agent Mazaki: "How do you know you are back in the past?"

Maila: "When I was able to escape from the black hole, I thought I was going back to Earth. I contacted space control but did not get any response. When I fed the data into my ship's computer, it informed me that I had been transported back in time to the 21st century."

Agent Mazaki: "You traveled alone?"

Maila: "Yes. It was a routine package deliver around our galaxy--I'm a courier you see--but an uncharted mini-black hold just appeared out of nowhere and...here I am."

Agent Mazaki: "A courier?"

Maila: "Yes. I delivered a package to one of our colonies in Ursae Majoris and was heading back when I encountered the anomaly."

Agent Mazaki: "Can you understand our skepticism, Miss..."

Maila: "Please call me 'Maila'."

Agent Mazaki: "Maila."

Maila: "Entirely. I didn't think time travel was possible either. But here I am."

Agent Mazaki: "Oh, I would think that with such an advanced civilization that-"

Maila: "Aaah, that's they key word: 'advanced.'"

Agent Mazaki: "What do you mean?"

Maila: "Yes, we've 'advanced' scientifically somewhat, but the key change from my time and your time is more psychological."

Agent Mazaki: "What do you mean?"

Maila: "If I remember my ancient history correctly, around this time, most people thought that a sign of 'advancement' was purely with regards to technology. Well, after...hmm...I guess it's okay-"

Agent Mazaki: "Okay for what?"

Maila: "Okay to reveal to you what's going to happen in your time. I shouldn't reveal the keys to our technology because you aren't ready for that yet, but it should help you right now to learn what's going to happen--maybe you'll be able to learn from it without so much upheaval."

Agent Mazaki: "Upheaval?"

Maila: "Yes. We basically were forced to change our attitudes after wars and environmental disasters nearly wiped out the whole planet. Yes it was slow, gradual, but at least it was started and due to our difficult circumstances that made it entirely required, it was seen to all the way to fruition."

Agent Mazaki: "Difficult circumstances?"

Maila: "Yes. There was radiation poisoning everywhere. Food crops, animal stock died. The weather was ferocious and unpredictable. The ocean rise enveloped so much land. People had no choice but to evolve, evolve or become extinct."

Agent Mazaki: "And how did we evolve?"

Maila: "Scientists and the world's greatest thinkers concluded that though we had advanced technologically--values-wise, we were still in the ancient ages. And this discongruity with our values and our capabilities made for a very dangerous combination. We were still war-like, acquisitive, territorial and unenlightened, yet we controlled so much technological capability for mass destruction. It's like giving what you would call a cave man the button for launching the old nuclear weapons."

Agent Mazaki: "'The old' nuclear weapons?"

Maila: "Yes. Where I'm from, weapons are no longer manufactured. The only dangerous machines are for construction and colonization and protection of our ships from inadvertent space debris."

Agent Mazaki: "You mentioned us 'evolving'?"

Maila: "Yes. Basically, after the near-century long devastation the Earth experienced, the old world leaders who espoused factionalism and discord were finally ignored and disenfranchised and a group of the wisest leaders met to discuss how they could restart Earth's civilization. They came up with certain precepts which we still follow today: moderation in our consumption, compassion, responsibility toward each other and the planet, the wise use of technology.

"You notice I use the term 'evolve.' You see, back here in your time, man is just a toddler in terms of values. From what I've read of this historical time, man's values still revolved around cloaking individual wants in desires in the guise of deities. 'Organized religion' is what I think it's called--where man's base desires have been sugar-coated and encased in mystical and unquestioned dogma. So the caveman's base instinct of killing for food, protecting his tribe, satiating their desires, is still the main motivations--it's just that in this century, it has been dangerously hidden behind worship of a god or gods, thus leading to uncritical review of man's actions. We've since learned this to be so and have thus gone beyond it.

"If not for the disasters this ancient way of thinking brought about, we probably would not have taken the drastic but necessary step of changing. But the disasters were so great, they could no longer be brushed aside and so, the great change was started. So this was, at least from our perspective, what 'advancement' for the human race was really about and not the technological aspect of it. But at this point in time, it seems the main goal of humanity is to try to be happy even at the expense of others and to just cover up this backward way of thinking by being enthralled with gadgets.

"We've found this to be untenable. So our civilization's values changed. As I mentioned earlier, we took our enlightened precepts to heart and used it to guide all aspects of our civilization, whether it be food production, governing, education, etc. And it has brought great prosperity and joyful equanimity among all peoples on Earth. Individual conflicts no longer rise to the level of harmful collective violence. And the less stressful life has led to a happier citizenry. Technologically, we are probably not that much more advanced than this century's science, but inwardly, we are way advanced."

Agent Mazaki: "Hmm. That's all very...very interesting, but it doesn't clarify whether you do in fact come from the future."

Maila: "I'm afraid I have to remain vague in terms of what will happen in your time's immediate future as this might have grave consequences. But feel free to learn from your mistakes. You don't need to go through the upheavals to learn what we learned."

Agent Mazaki: "'Grave consequences'?"

Maila: "Yes. Since your value system is still infantile, that information could be used for spurious purposes such as destroying your so-called enemies and bringing hardship to their people."

Suddenly Agent Mazaki put her fingers to her ear as she appeared to be receiving instructions from behind the one way mirror that occupied a big part of the interrogation room's wall.

Agent Mazaki: "I'm afraid this ends today's session. You'll be brought lunch and then undergo some medical tests. Thank you for your cooperation and we'll continue this in the next few days."

Maila: "Thank you. I hope you will use what you learned here fruitfully."