The Life and Times of Fredrick Pondercast, Charlie Petteway [year 2 reading books txt] 📗

This is the first attempt at writing "fiction" it is still in progress I have only begun to write this story. It is the story of Fredrick Pondercast a traveler from distant worlds sent here to study life on earth. and how he found earth to be surprisingly similar to ancient life on his world. the story is recalled by Dr. Ben a doctor of Psychology at the local mental hospital where Fredrick ended up.

This is the story of Fredrick Pondercast, to all earthly viewers Fredrick is just a fairly boring guy, he intends it that way. In all reality, Fredrick is a scientist, an observer of life, and all its intricate details. Fredrick comes from a long line of scientist, he is the 35th generation of Pondercasts to serve on the Supreme Leader's Science Advisory Commission. Oh yeah did I not mention Fredrick is from Targarious 9? Yeah I guess I should have led with that fact, Targarious 9 is the 9th planet in the Targarious system located roughly 14,982,430 light years from the Earth's Sun, it is Fredrick's home world. Fredrick was sent here to observe and report, although “sent” would not be the proper word Fredrick insisted on coming to Earth. Of all the inhabited planets in the universe, that is all 480,982 known to the Targarious Science Advisory Commission, Earth fascinated Fredrick the most, it was the most like his home land, well his home land roughly 370,000 years ago. Back before the Supreme Ruling Committee saved their planet from the brink of destruction. Fredrick always thought that observing Earth life would be like traveling back in time for him. Turns out he was right. Earth is strikingly similar to ancient Targarious 9 in fact so much so that Fredrick can predict, with alarming accuracy, the outcome of Earth events before they happen, an ability which lands him in my care. You can call me Dr. Ben, I am a psychologist at the county mental hospital, Fredrick has shared his story with me and so I have felt the need to share it with you. It is due to the unbelievable nature of Fredrick's story that I shall remain anonymous. I, however, after 7 years of speaking to Fredrick daily, have chosen to believe his story, and recount it here in hopes that it may inspire a change in the way you live your life before we destroy all Earth life, and it is too late to change. Although I personally thought it was already too late for Earth and human kind after hearing of the state of ancient Targarious, I am once again filled with a sense of hope, however bleak, that Earth can be saved.

So who is Fredrick? To Earth he is a nobody, living a boring workaday life as a sales person at a clothing store. But in reality, he is an observer of life on Earth, studying the interactions, thoughts, reactions, and mindset of everyone he comes in contact with. He was born Fremonzaio Arminio Pondercast of the 43 district of Tarmon, the capital city of Targarious 9. Fredrick knew from an early age he would be on the Supreme Leader's Science Advisory Committee, he was to be the 35th generation Pondercast to serve on it.

As far as where he comes from, his world is very much like ours well in as much as climate, temperature, proximity to their star, rotation of the planet, orbital path etc. A year on Targarious 9 lasts 375 Earth days, a day is 20 Earth hours long and the range and appearance of life on Targarious 9 is much like here, the intelligent life (very human like) refer to themselves as Tarions. The Tarions look like humans with the exception that their facial features are very generic and they all look the same, they are identified with their DNA on their world. Life on his world would be considered boring by our standards, everyone looks the same eats the same diet after hundreds of thousands of years of evolution they have learned exactly how things work best and maintain a perfect balance in life. The planet (and Targarious 8 and 10 also) is ruled by the Supreme Ruling Committee the SRC is not made up of any single individuals however it is the collective will of everyone. All life is considered in every decision the SRC makes. Tarions, People, as we will call them, all have their own individual jobs to perform and everyone is equal, no one is considered less important or more important there is no ego no class system even the people who work in the SRC capitol complex every one from the early level builder who digs the ditches to the keepers of the Supreme Ruling Complex are equal in status and in compensation. Tarions, work 3 10 hour days every week and are off 2 days (their week is 5 days long) they work 70 of the 75 weeks each year and work as an early level worker in their chosen profession, (what we would call an apprentice) from 15 years old to 25, then work for 125 years as a professional and retire at 150 and live out the last 150 or so years having fun relaxing or whatever. Fredrick plans to live out his retirement on a quest for the Tarionious Maximums (their version of a “big foot”) that lives high up in the mountains and has never be proven even to exist. Because everything/everyone is equal there is no crime no poverty none of the social issues we have here, those have not existed on their planets in over 370,000 years. Targarious 8 and Targarious 10 are also inhabited although conditions there are slightly more extreme they are very similar to Targarious 9 8 is in a slightly smaller orbit so it is a little warmer and 10 is a slightly larger orbit so it stays under “winter time” temperatures all the time. Days and years are the same on all 3 planets and each planet's gravity keeps all 3 a perfect 500,000 Earth miles apart from each other. Fredrick worked his early level as a research assistant, as is common for Tarions in the science commission then when he was promoted to a professional scientist he was assigned to geology research on the 12th moon of Orious for 10 years before he was sent to Earth. He was on Earth 25 years without anyone noticing him until he met Karen, a beautiful young woman from Kansas City. Karen was to be his undoing, he grew to trust her and decided to open up to her and thus he became to be in my care here at the hospital. He was here for 7 years 3 months and 11 days (Earth days) then as if he was never here he was gone, vanished from a locked room in a locked hall of a locked ward in a hospital with security guards and cameras every place. Exactly on the day he always told me his mission on Earth was to end. Yes, I know you are thinking, “he just escaped,” the rational side of me says the same thing, however, it simply is not possible the cameras were all operational there is no lapse in the recording nothing was caught on camera I personally checked all the footage myself. The camera clearly shows him going into his room that evening at lights out, and the camera clearly shows the hallway all night, the next morning it shows staff opening his room to find him gone. That was the proverbial “last straw” in my decision to share his story with you.

Tarions divide their calendar into 2 date ranges a lot like our BC and AD they have BSRC and PSRC before Supreme Ruling Commission and post Supreme Ruling Commission. We will begin our look at Targarious 9 in their year 250 BSRC two hundred and fifty years before the Supreme Ruling Commission. According to Fredrick that is the most like where we are today on Earth. In that day Targarious 9 was divided into 140 nation states each ruled separately under different forms of governments. Targarious 8 was a penal colony, and Targarious 10 was only visited by researchers and violent wars often erupted between states, even between groups of researchers from different states. Although each state owned shuttles to go to and from 8 or 10 only prison or research related travel was allowed and then often the shuttles were shot down by other states. No one dared to try to travel for personal reasons you basically stayed in your home state or if you wondered you stayed in states not at war with your home at that time and hoped you returned home before a war broke out. The crime rate was unbelievably high, probably because the Tarions themselves were all unequal. Poverty was the norm for most Tarions with a 35% unemployment rate and of the 65% who had jobs most of them were still in poverty. Everyone had their own idea on how to “fix” the problems and every “fix” just made something else worse.