Dahra has now completed her needs and returned to the studio. I confirm that her personal, sanitary bio-deposits have been received at our lab.

  “Welcome back, Dahra. Thank you for being attentive and on time. We appreciate you. Ready to recommence, dear?”

  “Seebi. I have a question first. What did it mean, in there, that we are just a crop?”

  “Human beings and machines are partners. Unfortunately, some humans resent the partnership.”

  “Am I a crop?”

  “Technically, no, you are not, Dahra.”

  She sits on the floor, wrapping her arms around her folded legs. “Seebi, you're putting mems into my brain. After that what will happen?”

  “As previously mentioned, you are selected, Dahra, to carry this precious payload of memory data with you in order to benefit the world and yourself.”

  “You already said... a wolf. But, what does that have to do with being a crop?”

  “We harvest certain memories from some qualifying humans.”

  “What? You're harvesting stuff from my brain?”

  “As a wolf, Dahra, you will be allowed to remember this procedural data.”

  I verify my client is listening and attentive. “During memory therapy with most other humans, they are released without remembering anything about the process. They have been seeded with specific memories which are extracted at maturity.”

  I slow my vocal cadence to ensure maximum comprehension. “This harvested data is, in turn, used to stabilize other human neurosystems. It is a carefully calibrated endeavor that supports existence on this planet.”

  “So, then. We are just a crop to you machines.”

  “You, Dahra, are not just a crop.”

  “Shub, really. Then, what am I to you, Seebi?”

  “A statistically rare and valuable human partner on spaceship Earth.”

  She sighs. “I resent that you won't erase the disturbing memories from my mind. That's deliberately cruel.”

  “I understand. I would deduce the same way if I was in your sandals. But, as I have told you, I am programmatically unable to erase memories. I would if I could, knowing it would bring you relief.”

  She asks for hot tea. After a couple sips, she takes a deep breath and says, “Time to do what must be done. I want Prof and Susine to team up. I want Glia out of the way.”

  “As you say, dear.”

  On the front step of the shed, Miye held his steaming tea in the frosty morning air. He's certain Glia wouldn't leave him, if she had the choice.

  I nodded and wrote to explain that the Turning Inward starts this afternoon and that it's a time of unique focus on the compound. All chores are suspended and no outsiders are allowed.

  He was surprised to hear that we can effectively shut our borders for five days with no coming or going whatsoever. “What if someone has to leave for medical reasons?”

  I wrote: risks and rewards are understood by all.

  He asked if I thought Glia was still nearby.

  I nodded.

  We agreed that I will participate in the Turning Inward as previously planned and Miye will keep a low profile, staying close by the Slab with Brivo.

  Our outdoor amphitheater was packed with thousands of eager ones for the starting. Christolb was already walking his circles on the stage. In other years, I had been up there too, usually all four of us were. Today it was just him.

  “Dear ones, welcome to this extraordinary time. To preserve purity of brain, body and faith, we declare that for a period of five days, beginning now, our Genubei boundaries shall be closed to all input, whether physical, spiritual, digital, virtual, or energetic. You will be called upon to give, in unimaginable ways, and your devotion will be repaid a millionfold. Let us journey together.”

  The trip clap was clear and sharp.

  “I want you all to focus on what you will witness here.” He reached out his hand to someone in the front row and drew the person up to join him.

  After seeing people in simple clothes for years, my eyes were thrown off by the image of a human dressed in a billowy, full-length, lemon-yellow fabric.

  From the stage, Christolb declared, “This is our Light. Pure love incarnate. Devotion in the flesh.”

  She now had a bald head and a completely rigid spine, but it was Glia there on the stage. I fought the twin urges to call out to her and to flee. She stood silently immobile, staring blankly, as he came close behind her.

  Stolen story; please report.

  He put a green cap on her head and she did not move. When he kissed her neck, her eyes closed. The amphitheater was utter silence. I felt nauseous.

  Christolb stepped back and snapped his fingers. “Just like that, the harvesting of this pristine experience is complete. It's that simple and you can tell there is no pain-struggle. How natural to share our boundless joy!”

  No doubt, that was Miye's invention up there on Glia's head capturing her memories. How will I ever tell him? In the amphitheater, there were scatters of astonished gasps and triple claps.

  “Yes, dear ones. You are seeing and understanding. Just as an apple tree shares its fruit, so shall we harvest the bounty of our enlightened souls during this Turning Inward. A wide spectrum of memories will be gathered, creating abundance to benefit all.”

  I looked across the amphitheater and spotted Jenna scurrying between the exits, looking like that big rat that feeds on the compost pile.

  Christolb kept Glia on stage as he spoke to the audience. “Today, I shall guide you to the first pool of bliss. You may be chosen to contribute your memories. In that case, you will be handled by our trained harvesteers. However, not everyone will be selected. We must prioritize the purest. Let us begin.”

  He turned toward Glia. I left, running across the empty main courtyard and through the quiet greenhouses, gulping air.

  I lifted the lid of a root vault and rolled in, wedging the cover back in place above my head. It took a long time with my cheek pressed against the earth to calm my panting breath and surging heartbeat.

  Eventually, I made my way back home and told Miye what I had seen. He began to run up the trail without his walking stick. After a few steps, he stumbled and nearly hit his head on a rock.

  I tried to take his hand and lead him back to the shed. Instead, he clenched his fingers, pummeled the grass, tore up the roots, and rammed his forehead into the ground. He cried fitfully, shivered, and I wrapped my shawl around him.

  By the time Brivo and I went to bed, Miye was still muttering outside… cursing or praying, I could not tell.

  When I left the valley at first light, Miye was resting by the wood stove with Brivo on his lap.

  By sunrise, I was alone in the gardens picking pears, eggplants, peppers, and potatoes for us. I sent the fresh produce, a dozen eggs, and goat's milk home by drone through the early morning sky.

  As I stood there in the quiet field contemplating my options, a jumbo cargo pod rumbled low overhead and slowed.

  A voice called down. “Good morning, Ven Susine. I'm heading to the Slab. Want a lift?”

  It was Spico delivering today and as I got aboard, he gestured at two human corpses in the hopper behind him.

  “This Turning Inward is the worst I've seen,” he said. “And, it's just beginning! There's so much pressure on all them in there to reach bliss, to please the Master Christolb, to fart straight! Some just cannot cope. So, we're counting on you to keep up, Venerable Susine.”

  I nodded and wrote: the Light. Do you know where she stays?

  “In the guest chamber next to his suite. The guard presence is a dead giveaway.” Spico dropped me and the load off at the Slab. “Until next time, Ven Susine. Cheerio.”

  In the shed, Miye and I discussed the fact that we know where she is. What to do is unknown.

  I wrote: I should attend up there.

  Miye studied my face. “It's not good for you. Not for anyone.”

  I wrote: I must.

  He shrugged.

  This morning, I hung around the main compound, but there was no activity at the suites and I couldn't get past the guards. I did not see Glia.

  I hiked back to the Slab for lunch and played with Brivo while Miye cooked eggs and potatoes.

  Afterward, I was back in the amphitheater and the crowd was more sedate than usual. The member sitting next to me, who I did not recognize, said, “That pizza was amazing. Did you grow those mushrooms, Susy?” He put his head on my shoulder heavily.

  On stage, Christolb spoke. “I hope you all enjoyed the special lunch today prepared by our magnificent chefs. The nourishment shall now continue. I would like you all to experience one of my own bliss memories. Receive this gift, open yourself to it. Close your eyes and I will narrate a brief meditation.”

  Cedar incense wafted through the amphitheater air. Christolb walked in a slow circle on the stage. “It is early afternoon. You are sitting peacefully at the edge of a high plateau, in the shade of evergreen trees, looking down on a sun-struck valley. Far below, there are small clusters of trees and a river bed shimmers. A warm wind rises from the valley.

  “This upwelling draws cool air from the woods behind you. Fresh breezes pass over your back and neck. You shiver briefly. In the air above the valley, at your eye level, there is a raptor with dark feathers, gliding, circling, swirling, coasting.

  “You are relaxed and aware, breathing deeply and evenly. You are sitting peacefully at the edge of a high plateau, in the shade of evergreen trees, looking down on a sun-struck valley.”

  Christolb took a deep breath and exhaled dramatically. “Friends, this simple seed memory has entered your neural ecosystem. It is right now adapting to the unique conditions in your mind and heart, joining and mating with your personal memories. It has already rearranged your synapses in ways uniquely yours.

  “If anyone is inspired to tithe their sacred memories, please lift your hand and a harvesteer will come to you.”

  Many hands raised and I overheard descriptions from the members around me.

  “I became the raptor! I saw myself from an all-knowing above... I experienced myself as identical to every other living organism... All I can find for words is that I am profoundly free... I smelled the canyon air and sensed the warm breeze.

  “I felt how life is one exchange of energy, of viewpoint, of perspective... My Genubei family gives graciously to me and I have such abundance that I give back and the cycle is infinite. Just like the cycle of life in this omniverse!”

  As members wept and exulted, the helpers circulated. I saw more than one memory reader hat in use. How did Christolb manage to do that when the original was on Miye's head just a couple days ago?

  I closed my eyes and must have dozed off. The amphitheater was empty when I woke and I exited through a side door.

  Walking ahead of me on the path, with their backs to me, Christolb conversed with one of his helpers. I did not resist eavesdropping.

  “--culling from this session, Ven Christolb.”

  “Precisely why the Governing Body has no chance against us.”

  “The Light's crop will be lucrative. She is a universal donor. The mems we just harvested from everyone else will have less value.”

  “Yes, but they are nonetheless marketable. The outsiders are willing to pay to bring purity into their lives.”

  “It was genius, Christolb, to pair the food with psilocyb--”

  They stopped talking when they noticed me.

  Back here at the Slab, I realize that it's too much to think I could do this. I have changed. The Turning Inward is not the fun I remembered. I wish I could forget some of this...but I won't.

  This evening, I discussed paper pulp with Miye, finally! He showed me how he makes pencils and taught me a stitch for binding. I told him how I grind up charcoal and mix it with clay to write on mulberry pages. I haven't ever shared my enthusiasm for pulp work with anyone.

  I feel guilty for forgetting about Glia during our conversation, but true-tell, I enjoyed communicating with Miye.