He awoke to hear odd crackling noises outside the walls of the small room they were in. A split second later he realized what it was.

 “ - Fire...!” he shouted at a still-sleeping Estelle as he quickly got up.

 “Wh - what?” she awoke dazedly. Then she sniffed.

 She was on her feet in seconds.

 “Through the wall - quick!” she shouted to Barkworth as she stepped through it.

 When they arrived on its other side, Estelle laughed. “Silly us. Can we actually be affected by fire? Don't seem to be by much else.”

 “Let's not hang around and find out,” he replied. He saw the flames weren't far away. “If the decking burns through, where would that leave us?”

 “We'd better get airborne then,” Estelle said.

 She rose a few meters. Barkworth quickly joined her.

 “Perhaps we now know why there are three rafts,” he said, “the gaps were supposed to act as firebreaks. But It looks like they haven't been much use - ” 

“ - Where are all the people?” Estelle asked. “You'd expect at least some of them to be running round in blind panic. - Oh my God, has there been some sort of mass killing? One of my friends had his entire family wiped out by his brother in the panic that erupted as the first nuclear bombs began to destroy Earth - “

 She looked at him horror stricken.

 What they saw as they flew higher didn't help. All three of the rafts were seas of flame, with the occasional charred house framing timber sticking out of them. But what  Barkworth saw on the outer raft turned his stomach into a cold hard knot. A dozen or so  men were running around setting fire to the few huts there, then tossing the torches onto the tapa decking as soon as they had finished their work.

“Oh - gosh...” Estelle breathed.

 “No - look!” Barkworth said. “The canoes have all gone - apart from that odd-looking one tied up to the edge.” He gained altitude to try and get a better view and looked around him.

 “Holy Cow!” he shouted. “Come up here and look behind you Estelle! “They've gone and built themselves another bloody raft..! Crikey..!”

 “Barkworth..!” she turned as she rose and looked. “I can't believe it...”

 He shared her feeling.

 
It was instantly clear even from that distance that the new raft was of vastly superior technology to the old. It looked like a modern twentieth century city, with sizable buildings rising toward the center to immense artistically inspired structures with shimmering spires.

 “Better wander across and have a look at what's probably going to be our new home too,” he grinned at her.

 “Why do you think they're burning the old raft?” Estelle asked as they flew across it for what would be the last time. “Its peoples must have had some happy memories here.”

 “Who can say? We really know nothing about them, do we? We only had a quick glimpse into their lives. We've no idea how they managed illness, crime, emotional conflict, whether it was a utopia, dystopia or, like most societies, somewhere in between. We just weren't there long enough.”

 “But that wasn't really our choice, was it?” Estelle replied. “I wonder how long we'll get on their new raft...”

 As they approached it they could already see that, however technically advanced it appeared, it still followed the same basic plan as the old raft, with three separate concentric sections. It was, however, at least twice as big.

 They could also see that the edge facing the old raft was crowded with thousands of its citizens. They had obviously wanted to say farewell to their old home.

 “That's odd,” Estelle said. “You'd think the outer raft would be tilted a fair amount under their weight. But it isn't. It's not having an effect at all.”

 “Guess that's one more mystery we're here to solve,” Barkworth replied. “No point in landing there. Better cross to the other side as before. Get the big picture first.”

 They could see as they approached the raft that, unlike before, the edge of the outer raft was very narrow. The rest of it was almost entirely covered by a very large two-storied marbled building which extended monolithically right around its perimeter. Fully enclosed with an arched glass roof and very narrow slit-windows every meter or so along its sides, it looked from their aerial point of view like an immense donut.

 The middle raft  though as they flew over it was very different. It was covered in a friendlier-looking jumble of blue-trimmed very solid-looking white buildings with terracotta-tiled roofs. With its crooked lanes and alleyways and all manner of trees everywhere it resembled a Greek coastal village. Barkworth suspected that it served the same function as the `village' did on the old Aotere; it was where the people lived.

 The center section was also made up of separate buildings. But what amazing buildings they were. Soaring spires, domes, filigreed porticoes, green spaces and trees in between. It looked like a mix of a university campus and an immense Old Earth monastery complex. In some ways it reminded Barkworth of Rock of Ages, but this looked far more aesthetically disciplined. Whether it was inspired by science or religion - if they weren't the same thing here too, was something else they would have to wait to find out.

 “If they are this far advanced, why did they keep the same basic raft design?” Estelle asked as they flew over that magical center. “Surely something like a ship would have been far more practical.”

 “It would have been,” Barkworth had to agree. “Maybe they just didn't want to abandon their old memories entirely, but all the same... Guess that's just another thing we'll have to add to our wait-and-see list.”

 “I wonder how far forward we've jumped in time,” Estelle said.  “A hundred years? A thousand even?”

  “Since they're well and truly on the science - technology feedback loop, a hundred  seems more likely. Perhaps even less. Besides, how long would the old Aotere have lasted? Even with careful maintenance there are limits.”

 
They could now see as they glided down towards the far side of the raft that the narrow strip separating that vast donut building from the sea was covered in artificial-looking grass. Lines were embedded in it, as if it was used as a sports field. It's main function as a buffer against the sea had been preserved though since, as before, it rolled smoothly into it. Every few hundred meters or so around that edge however, large canoes like the one they had seen tied up to the old raft were nestled into it.

 “That's odd, there's no one around,” Estelle said as she looked. “You'd think there'd be guards or something.”

 “Well, yes...” he agreed. “Guess there's no outside threat though. We still don't know what era we're in, perhaps the only folk who could navigate the great oceans in these times were the Chinese. Anyway, let's take a closer look at one of those canoes. Should tell us a lot. I can't really imagine they'd row something like that.”

 The canoe they landed beside however was much larger than those of the old raft.  Double-ended with both ends raised in the same manner manner, it fitted neatly into a niche in the raft's decking so that the top edge of most of its hull was level with its surface. But, unusually, it also had a cabin. Centered amidships, it was about three meters long and open at both ends.

  “Looks just as much like a launch as a canoe,” Estelle observed.

 “Yes it does...” he replied as he walked up to its stern. As he had suspected, the boat had been hauled into its niche up a slipway so that it was well clear of the sea. This allowed him to see that it was propelled by a water-jet system above the waterline. It appeared the launch was designed as an all-purpose vessel able to do anything from fishing to picking up lost sailors.

 He stepped aboard. The launch's apparent power source was in the center of the cabin. It revealed little from the outside though, consisting of a long rounded-corner white box with a single cable that connected to steering wheels plus what appeared to be throttles at each end of the cabin. Obviously the launch could be driven in either direction. He couldn't tell whether the hull was constructed from plastic, fiberglass, or carbon fiber.

 Barkworth carefully inserted his face into the white box. Fortunately it was slightly translucent, so once his eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness and focused as best they could, he could see the outline of what could have been a battery - or even a lotsu, an electric motor, and what may have been a turbine housing. None of these items were more than half a meter long or wide.

He described what he had seen to Estelle.

 “Lotsu..? she asked.

 “Like a battery except that it actually produces energy using something called cold fusion. We apparently very nearly developed it here on Earth. You might think Paradise is full of such clever gadgets, but there's really not all that many...”

 He described a few of them to her as they began to walk towards the donut building that took up so much of the outer raft: Otindas used for viewing anything from 3Ds to the Teklanmeh, Hilashels, in-ear translators of any language in Paradise, Tinsla, the human-like androids who `only provided assistance when needed',  Pasovirs, which enabled people to fly even in Space, Doanadars which delivered any small items one ever wanted, with food and drink the most common, the tiny Rhondo which was a compact but powerful telescope, microscope, and camera, which usually worked with an Otinda, the Nessiks which allowed people to travel from World to World simply by stepping through a portal, and the Migra, which allowed them to do so without taking their diseases with them. And ultimately the most powerful `device' of all: the abolition of money and all the social and economic structures that went with it: people didn't have to earn a living any more.

 “Gosh,” she said in that extraordinary way of hers. “How do people build any sort of  life in such an environment? 'Paradise' you call it? Must be nearly impossible.”

 Barkworth laughed. “It's really no different from living in any kind of World. We are after all born into one and learn to adapt to it as we grow up. And, as usual, some do brilliantly, others fail miserably, most people just manage and lead reasonably happy lives. It can be hard for people on newly Contacted Worlds though. - I'm beginning to see why you were brought straight here, coming from 1968 as you did. Did you even have television back then?”

 “Yes, but it was monochrome only - in New Zealand, anyway - “

 “ - New Zealand? You're from New Zealand? You're kidding. Me too.”

 “Surely not..!” Estelle laughed with delight. “Then Paradise must be much, much smaller than you've so far told me.”

 “Well, no. We are here on an arranged visit after all,” Barkworth laughed, then hugged and kissed her in a mock-exaggerated way. “But didn't you say earlier that you're not too sure where you really came from?”

 “My four friends were Kiwis, and I do know my spacecraft was located for some months behind Errol's outhouse - he was the first of the four I met. - Oh dear, I've just remembered something odd. You know I said my spaceship was three kilometers wide by two high? That was only on the inside. On the outside it was the size of a pebble about a hundred millimeters across. I don't know the physics behind that. But I do know he entered and  left via a Gate - what you call a Nessik - disguised as the back wall of his outhouse - “

 “ - Outhouse?” Barkworth had to ask her.

 “Most houses in remote locations in 1968 New Zealand had their toilets in little huts some distance away from the main house,” she responded. “They were just wooden seats over deep holes in the ground. The smells...”

 She wrinkled her nose in a way that made Barkworth laugh.

 “So how did you first actually meet Errol?” he asked her then.

 “At a party he was giving for his friends; I found myself sitting on the step at the front door of his bach; he thought I'd lost my boyfriend; well I was a bit dazed, you might say I had just woken up. The bach by the way was on a small rocky bay on the East Coast of the Coromandel peninsula, about 60 kilometers back from its tip. The bay didn't have a name so far as I know.”

 “Heavens...” was all Barkworth could say. “ - So how did your friends adapt to your technology? That would have seemed as advanced to them as ours probably will be to you. I really do hope you get to see it.”

 “So do I,” she took his hand. “But to answer your question: My friends were totally confused when they first came aboard. They thought my ship was somehow under the ground behind Errol's outhouse, they had no idea that by then it was actually suspended in Space directly above it and that they had passed through a Gate. They were even more confused when they first saw my data screen which, compared to what they were used to, was large, flat, and in high resolution color. I think they thought it was some kind of wall painting until Carol noticed a tiny orange flash of a hydrogen bomb explosion. I had a camera sitting above the Earth five hundred kilometers above Europe. They hadn't even recognized it as Earth.”

 “Heavens...” was again all Barkworth could say. “Was there even any sort of space travel at all back then?”

 “America was getting ready to land a three-man team on the Moon the following year, in 1969. I've no idea if they succeeded, considering the totally ramshackle equipment they had. - Did they? Do you know?” she asked.

 “They did, and followed it up with several more such `ramshackle' landings over the next few years. But, you know, once those landings stopped, nobody ever went back? Not until Earth Contacted nearly sixty years later, then everybody and his dog went.”

 “Contacted? I meant to ask you about that before.”

 “You remember I mentioned the Torsyne? They don't like potential competition. So as soon as a world develops either interstellar space travel, artificial intelligence, or Nessiks, any of the three, they are Contacted by their agents, the Iskurahi. And believe me, that is a whole story in itself, because as you can imagine, it comes as as something of s shock for most worlds to discover there's life Out There,” he pointed to the sky in time-honored fashion, “But an even bigger shock comes when they learn that the entire universe is run by the Torsyne as a sort of vast home for obsolescent life-forms like us. And, unless you're still really unsure, the Universe is pretty big.”

 “I wonder how long it'll take for the People of Aotere to get to that stage,” Estelle mused. “Not long I would think, looking at that.”

 They had reached that immense monolithic building and were now gazing up at it. It loomed over them.

 “Welcome to apartment living,” Barkworth said, “if that what it's for. Shouldn't take too long to find out.”

 Access to the `donut' as Barkworth already thought of it, was easy. Directly in front to them, opposite the launch, was a hatchway with a very heavy-looking door that had a large four-spoked wheel attached to its center. It looked as if it belonged to a submarine. Barkworth instinctively approached to try and turn the wheel to gain entry, but his hand passed right through it. Grinning wryly back to Estelle, he walked straight through that solid closed door instead.

   They found themselves standing on what appeared to be a wide asphalt-like pathway between two shallow flights of steps. These each led up to several pairs of what appeared to be automatic glass doors, since they had no handles. Another much larger pair were visible at the end of the pathway at the building's opposite side. Strip lighting was also visible high up along the walls above the doors, which suggested yet again the new Aotere had electricity.

 “Which way?” Estelle grinned at him as if she was asking a trick question.

 “That-a-way,” he called her bluff by pointing right. “Intuition is unreliable, but when that's all there is...”

 The glass doors didn't part for them however; Barkworth assumed they couldn't sense their presence. So they passed through their glass – or plastic as Barkworth suspected it was, to be greeted by another pair two meters or so further on.

 Even before they passed through them, they were greeted by the most extraordinary scene.

 “A jungle...? Estelle gasped.

 “Good heavens...” was all Barkworth could say.

 “There has to be more to it than what we're seeing,” Estelle said. “ - There! Hear that trickle of water beneath your feet? - And birds..!” she exclaimed delightedly.

 After he had looked up to see those brightly-colored birds flitting around, Barkworth  looked down to find that they were standing on a grating. There was just enough spacing  within its grid to see a tangle of roots and what appeared to be a thin sheet of water beneath them. He also noticed that, unlike the near wall with its narrow slits, the solid part of the far wall was much lower, about waist high. The rest was glass – or plastic. Obviously the building was a compromise between a glasshouse and a bulwark against the vagaries of the sea.

 “Hydroponics,” he said. “As you say, this is more than a jungle. It has to be a crop.”

 And indeed he could see what was surely a greater abundance than normal of breadfruit, bananas, paw paw, mangoes, oranges, plus many other tropical fruits that he could not identify. All he knew about hydroponics was that it was tricky, so using it to grow what was here probably involved huge ingenuity.

 They started to walk down the meandering path through the 'jungle', which was obviously intended just as much to be recreational as practical.

 They soon came across one of the new Aotere's citizens, who had lifted a section of the grill to attend to matters below. To Barkworth's astonishment he looked South American.

 “Seems the old Aotere made it across the Pacific,” he observed.  

 But Estelle then let out an astonished gasp.

 Barkworth quickly saw why. An overly-slender white-haired girl, perhaps in her early twenties, suddenly appeared as they rounded a bend in the path. She was gazing into the greenery.  Dressed in a simple white blouse and a faded pair of blue jeans which Barkworth had only seen in Old Earth historical 3D's, she had a mousy, myopic look about her which suggested she could do with some similarly ancient spectacles.

 “ - Carol..!” Estelle shouted.

 The girl spun round, then stood stock still as if she had seen a ghost.

 “No...” Barkworth heard her breathe.

 Estelle moved quickly towards her.

 “Carol, it really is me!' she said as she reached the girl at last. “I am so happy to see you! How are you? And all the others?”

 She then reached out and hugged the girl close. But Carol was clearly still uncertain, as if Estelle really was in some way a ghost.

“Don't be silly, Carol. It is actually me,” she laughed as she again sought to reassure her.

 “We – we were told you were dead..!” Carol shrieked in such a way that Barkworth was actually glad the jungle soaked it up quickly.

 “What – you do you mean?” It was Estelle's turn to be shocked. “I remember losing consciousness just after you all left to go down to that game world we visited, Saioareapul, but that's all,” she said. “Then I awoke – well, in this world...” she looked round toward Barkworth, who was now just behind her. “My dear friend Barkworth - here he is - knows a bit more about this - wherever we are - than I do, but not what happened to me.”

“Carol,” Barkworth approached her to take her hand. Uncertain at first, she then relented.

 “Look...” he looked around him. “We've really only just arrived here too – on this raft at least,” he glanced at Estelle. “Are you hungry, Carol?” he spread his hand at the jungle fruits all around them. “ - Of course, you probably can't eat them any more than we can. - How long have you been here?”

This was quickly getting awkward, he really didn't know what to say.

 “Who are you?” she demanded querulously, glancing quickly at Estelle. “Estelle says you're her friend. But you're more, aren't you?”

 She actually stamped her foot as her eyes quickly glanced from one to the other.

 “What's going on,” she whimpered. Tears began to well up in her eyes as she quickly looked around at that gently curving hall filled with so much plenty.

 Barkworth and Estelle glanced quickly at each other.

 “OK, guilty as charged,” Barkworth said as he grabbed Estelle round her waist. He knew there would be no point in denying it. “We are in love. But to try and answer your other question, we only know some of `what's going on' as you put it. The rest we're not sure of at all. Like what or where here really is, though it looks like we're on some sort of gigantic raft somewhere in Earth's South Pacific a good two or three thousand years ago. We do know why we're here though, we both suffered a massive emotional shock, as I guess you have. It's what we – in what we think of as the real world – call a Lalledil, a place to help us try and get over it. In reality we might actually be lying inert in drawers somewhere in different galaxies but connected together via a comparator to make us think we're here.”

 “What, you mean, we're in that bloody electronic loony bin!” Carol shrieked at Estelle. “Just like poor Orresion was. You've got to be kidding me.”

 “Barkworth's right, Carol,” Estelle said to her gently. “And, yes, we do love each other. Barkworth had to watch his closest friend attempt suicide,” she looked at him. “I don't know why I am here at all. Perhaps you can tell me, especially since you were told I was dead. But first I'd like to know how the others are. Are they alright?”

 “Well, sort of, “Carol replied uncertainly. “When we left that idiotic game world we stepped through your Gate thinking we would be coming back to you. But instead we found ourselves standing in the lounge of a house on Waiheke Island that had been remodeled to look like something from New Zealand 1968. Of course we didn't know that at the time, we were too stunned to see anything much at all.  But they – the people especially chosen to prepare for our arrival – really did their best, well, now that we can look back on it. To move us from 1968 to 2049 would have to have taken a lot of doing - “

 “- I bet it did,” Barkworth did. “It's a wonder any of you coped at all. Many people on Earth didn't manage Contact well at all, especially those who were religious, and that involved 25 years of preparation. Some even now - '

 “That was one of the first things they told us about,” Carol looked at him. “But mixed in with the news about Estelle's death and what she actually was,” Carol looked at her uncertainly. “Did you know that you weren't – aren't - actually human at all? That you and that wonderful spaceship of yours were generated from a seed, a nequisoma  – oh, about this big,” she indicated with her hands something about as big as a grapefruit, “in about eighteen months? You might look like forty years old or something, but that's how old you actually are. Just eighteen months.”

 It was Estelle's turn to be shocked.

 Barkworth renewed his clasp around her waist. While surprised, in some odd way it was the beginning of an answer to his own questions about this strange woman he so adored. It looked like Carol had been brought in to help and be helped by Estelle, not him, which all but confirmed she was no illusion. And the powers-that-be behind the Lalleldil obviously thought Carol needed her help too.

 “I'm sorry, I did of course know – or rather, I worked out my age from what you and the others told me,” Estelle said. “And I still need to know how they are getting on. Whatever I might be, I still loved you all, you know.”

 “That is something we do know,” Carol smiled to Estelles relief. “We felt it ourselves.  We were also told so by our helpers who also told us that millions of nequisoma like you had seeded the universe, both in time and in space, and that that they were designed to love their occupants. Even the Iskurahi had no idea who those designers were. Probably lived billions of years ago. Anyway, that game world, like many others, was actually especially modified to trap them. - Remember how you said as soon as we entered its space that you sensed something odd - ”

 “ - Gosh...yes I do. Estelle said. I think it was just after you all left that I lost consciousness.

 “It gets even stranger: your vast two mile-wide spaceship turned out to be a three inch-wide pebble somewhere near that outhouse of Errol's, which is just another unsolved mystery. Errol tried to find his ramshackle hut on the beach as soon as he could leave Waiheke by the way, but it's gone of course. So he's now taken his usual cheerful self off into wandering the Universe as some sort of Conversationalist. I don't know quite who or what they are, but - “

 “I used to be one myself – still am I guess,” Barkworth laughed. “Long story, we'll get back to it.”

 He then noticed they hadn't moved from the spot, so he pointed along the path. Maybe the jungle continued all the way round, or something else would be found on the other side of the next radial pathway.

 “And Jamieson and Oression?” Estelle enquired gently as they began to walk.

 “Jameison had some sort of mild brain hemorrhage shortly after our return,” Carol replied. “Apparently he had a thin-walled vein in his brain that had always been there. Anyway, the Diursuel patched him up overnight and he began to adapt to the new world quite quickly. Oression wasn't so lucky, she needed a spell in this Lalleldil to help her over the worst - though hers was set in her home-world, not in this one. She and Jamieson now live very quietly in his old house by the sea which by some miracle was still there, though they visit his family farm more and more because Oression likes it. Guess he hasn't explained what happened there.”

 “And Johnstone?” Estelle enquired. “He was ever the cheerful one. He could turn any situation into fun. I had to rein him in once or twice.”

 Carol's face twisted in near anger. “Wish somebody could have done that after we all began to leave the island - where I hope we'll regather from time to time. He was a journalist you remember, and that instinct made life difficult for us all. We were warned not to talk about our experiences to anybody because the whole of Paradise would be breathing down our necks. But Johnstone had to blab, and that's exactly what happened. It took a lot of intervention from the Iskurahi and most of its other departments to hose that all down so that we could try and pick up the pieces of our lives.”

 “And most important of all – you,” Estelle said, taking her hand as they made their way along that extraordinary jungle pathway. “What happened to you – and how did that bring you here?”

 “Well, you would have thought that my love for science and science fiction would have been a wonderful preparation for Paradise,” Carol wrinkled her nose. “But it wasn't. One of my favorite pieces of science fiction was a TV series called Star Trek, it was still showing in New Zealand when we - left - and I still can't thank you enough for rescuing us, Estelle. I don't know how many people survived that nuclear war, but there wouldn't have been many - “

 “There usually isn't'” Barkworth interrupted, thinking of Jarra. “Often none at all. But go on.”

 “Anyway, Star Trek was all about a vast star ship - probably as big as yours, Estelle, cruising between the stars, exploring space and contacting alien civilizations. The science in it was pretty realistic too, and having actually studied science, well, the future looked absolutely wonderful. But once I found myself eighty years in the future, well, it was just so different from what I sort of expected. I just couldn't adjust. Space had been conquered by those bloody awful Torsyne billions of years ago and promptly turned it into some kind of horrid holiday camp for whatever animals - us - came along later. Intelligence, education, whatever, counted for nothing. I just went to pieces. I tried sex, religion, tramping across alien worlds, every bloody thing I could think of, but it was all just nothing but one gigantic wank. I stayed with Jamieson and Oression for a while - and there's a lucky couple, they've really found love -  but I quickly realized I was just ruining their dream. They didn't say anything of course, I mean, they wouldn't, but...”

 “And you, poor dear, couldn't find love either,” Estelle said, glancing at Barkworth.

 Barkworth couldn't help but hold Estelle closer. The warmth of her...

 “So now I guess I'm trying one last thing. This bloody looney bin,” she looked around her. “And you say you know something about it, Mr Barkworth.”

 “Just Barkworth, it's my Christian name,” he corrected her. “And yes, we both know something. But there's another reason why you might have some difficulty adjusting. When were you born?”

 “1946,” Carol replied. “Guess that makes me - what, 104 years old. But I know I look and feel only 22.”

He laughed. “The point I was making is that you didn't come here from just 1968, but 1967, 1966... and all those other years since you were born. Your two decades of life prepared you for 1968, not 2049. I'm 45 years old, but I was born in 2004, so my four and a half decades have prepared me for 2049, well, reasonably so. Estelle here has had just eighteen months, though from what you say she probably had some sort of help. I'm sure she'll be well able to cope with 2049.”

 “I saw very little of 1968, and I haven't seen 2049 yet,” she reminded him. “Barkworth arrived before me,” she turned to Carol, “on the island of Rarotonga which he had visited before, so we know we are on Earth. Also, he was witness to various events there which made him certain he had arrived before colonial times. I arrived on the raft which was the predecessor to this one, which we both arrived on less than half an hour ago.”

 “You mean we really are on some sort of raft,” she looked around her. “I heard Barkworth say that earlier, but I guess I didn't believe him. And now you're telling me there was some sort of earlier version of it? You're kidding me.”

 “Why, when did you first arrive?” Estelle asked her.

 “Just a moment or so before I heard you call my name,” she replied. “But how can all this - jungle - fit on a raft?”

 “It's at least as big a my spaceship, Carol,” Estelle said. “But as Barkworth said, we've just arrived. And you can be sure there's a lot to see.”

 “And a lot of questions,” Barkworth said. “Like: how did it come to be built, and was it and its predecessor ever a part of Earth's history?”

 “You know, you two are the first really intelligent people I have met in this dumb universe,” Carol looked at them. “It seems designed for the really stupid. How do intelligent people like you stop yourselves going mad?”

Estelle smiled at Carol and laughed.

 “That's the first question us `intelligent people', as you so kindly put it, ask ourselves,” Barkworth said. “Or as a girl I met once put it: Paradise seems designed so that only happy people survive.” He thought he'd better not to tell her about Madilu and her dramatic suicide. Carol somehow reminded him of her. “You said your friend Errol had left Earth to become a Conversationalist. Wise choice, because so far as we can see, that's the only way anybody with more than half a brain can cope in this Paradise of Fossilized Aspirations. We educate ourselves as best we can, and we swap all sorts of ideas about the nature of its wonderful Torsyne-twisted reality. But, best of all, we travel from World to World, and some of those Worlds have some strange and wonderful stories to tell. The more cynical amongst us wonder if in fact the Torsyne put them there like balls of string to tantalize us dumb little kittens, but who really knows? Now as it happens, I have always been interested in 20th Century Planet Earth, so I should be asking you as much as I can about it before we have to part company for some unguessable reason. Like the Lalleldil pronouncing you cured and returning you to our much-beloved Paradise of Compulsory Joy. “

 “Sounds exciting, the way you put that,” Estelle giggled and pressed herself closer to him. “I hope you can show us both around. One day.”

 “You two really like each other, don't you?” Carol laughed, though Barkworth sensed a harder edge of envy. “Like Jameison and Oression. You sure you still need Paradise?”

 They looked at each other.

 “Good question,” Barkworth said. “But why stop exploring?  And we certainly know one place we can begin. As I said before, Paradise is full of stories, and we're standing in one right here. As I said before, this raft so far as I know never showed up in Earth's Rollodon, so is it fictional or what? If it isn't, then what is something of such advanced technology doing here in what may well be very ancient times?”

 “You know, I saw the most wonderful movie then I was young,” Carol smiled, to Estelle's obvious relief. “It was called  20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, from the Jules Verne novel. It was made by Walt Disney in 1953 and had James Mason in it as Captain Nemo.  Anyway, it featured a nuclear-powered submarine built a hundred years before such a thing was even possible. But I think perhaps the most amazing story along such lines was Plato's account of Atlantis. That was very popular back in 1968, it apparently comes back into popularity every 30 years or so.”

 “It turned out to be one of the first pieces of science fiction ever written, I'm afraid,” Barkworth said to her. “It was also one of the first stories ever checked out with the Rolodon, well, before that of Jesus, but it never existed. Plato made it all up. Sorry about that.”

 “You say that we're on a giant technologically advanced raft. Do you think it could finish up in the Atlantic, sitting just outside the Straits of Gibraltar as Plato described? Are we in fact standing right now in the mythical city of Atlantis? Or Atlantis to be?”

 A chill ran down Barkworth's spine.

 “Heavens, Carol, you could just be right. This raft is actually made up of three concentric platforms, just as the previous one was. It's quite different from Plato's Atlantis, but it sort of fits. Crikey...”

 “I suspect you would make a very good Conversationalist indeed, Carol,” Estelle laughed.