Free Catharsis, Legend of the Lemurians by Lada Ray Page B

towering over Catharsians like
big, sore thumbs.
    Because Catharsians were ashamed that some of them
could be so ugly, a long time ago they built a special reservation,
called Camp Ugly. The camp was equipped with a lethal voltage
electric fence and watchtowers with state-of-the-art monitoring
equipment. All the Uglies on the planet were herded into Camp Ugly,
where they lived out their drudgery generation after
generation.
    It wasn’t an act of cruelty on part of the
Catharsians, oh no! It was firmly believed in Catharsian society
that being ugly was in fact a disease. Therefore, herding all the
Uglies into the camp where they could be carefully monitored and
isolated from the rest of society was a fully justifiable
measure.
    However, it proved difficult to find guards for the
camp. Not only was it an awful strain on the eye to look at the
ugly people all day long, but what if ugliness was also contagious?
Of course, the researchers were never able to prove conclusively
that was the case, but what if it was? The camp guards were paid
double salary, but even then they wouldn’t stay for long. The
turnover among the Camp Ugly guards was simply terrible.
    Catharsians prided themselves on being fair
and just, because, well, the alternative would not be beautiful.
The truth was that once upon a time, the planet’s administration
tried to cull the population of Uglies, but the Ugly Rights Groups
were up in arms. Another time, a controversial bill was introduced
proposing that all Uglies be sterilized and denied mating rights,
but it didn’t pass the Senate. After much deliberation, the
compromise was reached according to which, when an Ugly reached a
mating age he or she would be allowed to take a mate and have one
child, but no more than that. The hope was that slowly but surely
the population of Uglies on the planet would be reduced.
    And so, Catharsians and Uglies co-existed without
much interaction, nor with much knowledge of each other.
Catharsians went on living the high life, attending beautiful
parties and having the time of their lives, while the Uglies were
left to fend for themselves behind electric fence built to prevent
their escape and the spread of the much dreaded “ugly disease.”
    Camp Ugly occupied a large wasteland
territory, just outside the capital city of Thar. It consisted of
eight sectors divided into forty villages, each populated by one to
two hundred Ugly families. The population of these villages used to
be substantially larger, but now many huts stood deserted, as each
new generation of Uglies would get smaller and smaller. It was
apparent that the one child policy, imposed on the Uglies, was
working.
    The focal point of Camp Ugly was the Gathering
Square, where the Uglies sang, danced and worshiped Goddess Mu in
their ancient Lemurian language. On the corner of the square stood
the house of the Supreme Elder, as well as what the Uglies proudly
called the Temple of Mu. In fact, it was just a large and rather
unattractive barrack.
    But the Uglies didn’t notice its outward appearance,
because inside was the most important and valuable thing the Uglies
possessed. This ultimate treasure was the famous Lemurian Mother
Crystal, which was guarded zealously day and night. The crystal was
so huge that even a hundred Uglies couldn’t lift it. It consisted
of a myriad of points growing like a gigantic flower out of the
crystal’s center, and it sparkled like a zillion stars when the
light of the torches reflected from its thousands of facets. No one
knew where the crystal came from, or how it appeared in Camp Ugly.
But according to the Lemurian legends, the crystal was the ultimate
protective shield and energy booster for the entire planet of
Catharsis. The Uglies called it the Crystalline Engine and
considered themselves its keepers.
    Truth be told, it was an incredible stroke of luck
for the Uglies that Catharsians saw no value or beauty in the
Mother Crystal. If they did, they would have taken the