\u00a0<\/p>\n
SK: I must first thank you for allowing this interview. It has been so long and so much has been lost; we feared we would never record the real story.<\/p>\n
JS: Be careful what you wish for.<\/p>\n
SK: Yes, well, I’m sure that is good advice. I must say that you have a lot of interesting art hanging on the walls of your place and odd-looking stuff lying around. I can’t really even identify what much of it is.<\/p>\n
JS: In both life and science you must take one thing at a time.<\/p>\n
SK: Can you tell us why they were called the Microsoft Wars and was there really more than one?<\/p>\n
JS: You don’t have any frame of reference to ask that question.<\/p>\n
SK: The searchers did tell you that we wished to interview you about this very subject to record the history, did they not?<\/p>\n
JS: Yes.<\/p>\n
SK: May I ask then, why you are so reluctant to answer my question?<\/p>\n
JS: I’m not reluctant, you simply don’t have a frame of reference to ask such a question.<\/p>\n
SK: What do you mean?<\/p>\n
JS: What do you know about the Microsoft Wars? Not just the wars but what led up to them?<\/p>\n
SK: Just that it was a very dark period in human history. Great atrocities were committed and many world governments fell. Large portions of the world are still considered to be off-limits for humans.<\/p>\n
JS: You say that as if you don’t know what it means.<\/p>\n
SK: Say what?<\/p>\n
JS: \u201cOff-limits.\u201d<\/p>\n
SK: It means we are not allowed to go there.<\/p>\n
JS: Thank you for the dictionary regurgitation. Now, why don’t you tell me what it means?<\/p>\n
SK: I’ve already told you.<\/p>\n
JS: And now you should be getting closer to understanding why you have no frame of reference to ask your question.<\/p>\n
SK: The only thing I’m closer to is branding you a fraud and leaving.<\/p>\n
JS: You are free to do what you wish. Before you can ask the question you wish to ask, you must first have a frame of reference so a meaningful response can be given. You don’t currently have any frame of reference.<\/p>\n
SK: <sighs> What does off-limits mean in your mind?<\/p>\n
JS: It’s not a matter of my mind. Those areas of the world are off-limits because the radiation levels are too high for prolonged human exposure. Nature has attempted to reclaim some of those areas and, due to man’s arrogance, has created some creatures that are severe abominations. Many of those creatures will not survive once the radiation drops to a safe level. Man cannot eat what comes from there and a bite of any kind can cause radioactive material, if not venom, to enter into the body, slowly poisoning it from within. We have no method of removing such radiation. A single bite is usually a death sentence, though that sentence may take years to actually happen.<\/p>\n
SK: Oh come on, we’ve all heard stories about radiation. They are mostly there to scare children.<\/p>\n
JS: In the past, when there was a massive nuclear disaster, mankind put in a concerted effort to clean it up. Even when the Chernobyl meltdown happened in a place called the Ukraine, we built a low-quality and hasty tomb around the site and put as much of the waste as possible in safe containment.<\/p>\n
The closest my cycle had to the off-limits places you know have occurred on an island nation known as Japan. A plant there failed so completely after being hit by a tsunami that untold quantities of highly radioactive water went into the ocean along with radioactive dust, which covered farmland for miles.<\/p>\n
One thing is certain with prolonged radiation exposure: mutation. Sometimes it kills the life form, sometimes it alters it. Enough radiation will kill any known life form but we never studied prolonged exposure to radiation from high-grade fuel rods, or what happens to creatures who drink the surface water containing particles from these rods. We do know that the venom mutates, as well, along with the bacteria, which naturally occurs in the mouths of certain creatures.<\/p>\n
If I ask you to travel the direction of the setting sun two days by horse, stay there a day, then come back before completing the interview, will you do it?<\/p>\n
SK: No, I’m on a deadline.<\/p>\n
JS: You traveled here on horseback. You have no concept of deadline. What is the real reason you won’t do it?<\/p>\n
SK: It is a forbidden region. I could lose my job going there.<\/p>\n
JS: Might I ask you how you got your job?<\/p>\n
SK: I’m a reporter. I was assigned to cover this story.<\/p>\n
JS: Very good. Now, how did you get your job?<\/p>\n
SK: I don’t understand what you are asking.<\/p>\n
JS: Because you have no frame of reference for the question. You cannot provide an answer because you have no knowledge of Earth That Was. Back then, reporters were simply smiles and haircuts which looked good in front of the camera. They read stories off a teleprompter. Those stories were written by journalists. To become a journalist you had to attend a university or college to obtain a 4-year degree. Then, if you were lucky, you got a job covering stories instead of a job proofreading them. So, let me ask again, how did you get your job?<\/p>\n
SK: I still have no idea what you are talking about. What is a college? A university? I was trained for this job by my father who had this job before me. It is how skills are passed to the next generation.<\/p>\n
JS: I see.<\/p>\n
SK: You see what?<\/p>\n
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You are reading a special promotional version of \u201cJohn Smith – Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars.\u201d This is the third book of the “Earth That Was” trilogy. You can obtain the entire trilogy in EPUB form from here:<\/p>\n