It was at this point that I thought about a sequel or a spinoff of the story. After all, the story promised to explain how, after hundreds of thousands of years of roaming aimlessly over the planet, humans established several wide-ranging civilizations springing up at relatively the same time. One such civilization was what has been referred to as the Hindu culture found in the Indus River Valley of India. I pose in the book that the intelligent progenitors of this society migrated down to India’s Indus River Valley from the great Tibetan plateau - between five and six thousand years ago – the original leader, Ndu.
Plateau Lakes Outpost was now the new Western terminus of humex society. It was located about fifty miles north of the headwaters lake that was the mother of the four thousand mile river that the humex had been following for over twenty-five years. Runoff snow melt had been feeding this lake for uncounted thousands of years. The snow melt also fed the reservoir that the humex had constructed to quench the thirst and provide fresh water for the agricultural fields of the new outpost. Plateau Lake outpost was situated on the banks of a lake also fed by this snowmelt. However when the snow melt reached the lake, it turned quickly into saline. The great plateau was sprinkled with many such lakes whose water was equally undrinkable. Something in the hardpan that made up most of the plateau caused these lakes to be impotable.
The humex soon realized that the water from Plateau Lake and the other lakes caused hallucinations in those that ingested the poisonous liquid. A law was quickly put on the humex rule books that this water was not to be drunk. For non-pure humex, the hallucinations were random and physically detrimental. But for the few pure-humex who drank these waters, their memories of Xra came flowing back, although the memories could be dangerous to the humex. The dreams would add a significant variant in an otherwise tight humex ship already under-managed. There were twenty or so humex who had refused to stop drinking the waters and dream strange but compelling dreams. The humex leaders felt they had only two alternatives to deal with this unlawful behavior – either execute the abusers, or expel them from the humex society right there and right then. After long and heated discussions, both parties agreed to the exile of the twenty.
Ndu was the leader of this group. The humex supplied the exiles with food and water, oxen and wagons, and other supplies. In exchange, Ndu and his tribe could never have contact again with the humex. Ndu left traveling south toward the long high range of mountains that had been the constant companion of the wagoneers. There he would find a valley in which to settle down with his flock and practice his new religion while he and his people lived out their lives in peace and hallucination. The group would eventually name their society after their first leader. Thus was born the culture of Hindu.
A sequel to this book contemplates following this culture as it rises to society status – then to civilization status, as the group makes its way down the mountains into the lush Indus Valley of today’s India.
