A light glimmered and flickered somewhat dully in a galaxy far from Earth. In one of the Pegasus galaxy star systems, all was not well. The fifth planet was becoming as unstable as had the other four: the sun of that solar system was really almost extinct. Scientists of the afflicted planet had been trying to find a way to stabilize the sun and planet but had been unsuccessful.

The planet was quite similar to Earth, and the people looked the same as well, except that people there were psychic or at least telepathic. They could speak, but they had no need to speak since they were accustomed to be mind read by others. It was their way of life from birth to death, though death did not come for a very long time. Most adults lived for 500 years.

Besides trying to stabilize their planet, these people had been busy looking for another planet to populate. One suitable planet had been found, and several people had been picked from the many volunteers to seek refuge on Earth.

Only a few thousand of their population would be able to make Earth their home however, since they were not about to try to take over a populated planet. They were not warriors but lovers. Their planet was called *#@_!* or in English it would be pronounced Schmoosh. It was the year **#**# or 6969.

The planet Schmoosh was very old, and there was a superstition that if the planet’s age was numbered with more that four digits, something terrible would happen. This was the hundredth time that their planet had come to such a number.

Someone had developed a calendar with the new age on it, and people were starting to accept it when the scientists had realized that their sun was dying. All calendars went back to four digits, but the sun was still dying.

The language of Schmoosh was based only on consonants, and their numerical system was based on their aleph bet. For instance the number **# or 69 was also the word for life. **#**#**# was the word for blood, blood being the essence of life. **#**# was the word for water. The word for life was also the word for spirit, breath, and wind.

Children of Schmoosh were highly intellectual and knew how to do calculus and the chaos therapy by the time they were in their third school year. By the time they were 16, most had a doctorate and were situated in their careers.

The inhabitants were completely honest because they had the gift of telepathy and could read each other's minds. They were always kind and happy and cared for each other. Life for them was always literally living the golden rule “to do unto others as you wish others to do unto you” or Jesus' commandment to love thy neighbor as thyself.

Oh yes, there were personal unions or the equivalent to marriage, but those kind of commitments were more the rarity than the norm. Only 20 % of the population followed through with a ceremony as they would have long ago when people needed to protect each other to propagate many times in order to have offspring that survived or to have enough people to do enough work to survive.

Families became tribes. To populate the world was the dictum, but many children were not needed to be certain that several survived. No one died in childbirth. Birth defects did not develop and had long since disappeared from human genes, due to the survival of the fittest genetic agenda of evolution, and not from scientific research. Even the infirm or different were loved on this planet. There never was anything resembling racism or hate.

Food was abundant, and people had sex with more than one woman or man for that matter. All people were bisexual and loved it. Those that seemed to need marriage sometimes acted straight. It was a way to make sure that they would always have a partner. Fear was the basis of their need for marriage, not love.

“Love” was not a word in the romantic vocabulary of Shmoosh. Attraction, lust, desire, need, and want were words of romance, but not love. Strong attraction was equated with the word “love” once they began to live on their new planet. On Earth they felt love, but they had no distinct word for it in their own language.

By personal preference, people chose to live lesbian, gay or straight, although most seemed to prefer same sex relationships. They only got together with the opposite sex for making babies or when they just craved a little variety. People were polyamorous. They accepted their natural inclinations toward many partners and their natural need to procreate.

All could still procreate until they reached approximately 350 years of age when the women stopped being able to carry a viable fetus. Men could still actively procreate and donate sperm until nearing death at about 500 years of age. The women, once they were finished with procreation, were elevated in status. They had done their species proud.

Women and men were equals in all things on this planet except one, childbirth, which the men could not achieve. They could donate sperm, but they were denied the beauty and social stature that being with child meant in their society. No man could be an obstetric/gynecological doctor. Only women understood women, and could therefore be counted as perfect for these positions. Life was great with no crime, poverty, or homelessness. Everyone had a place, and everyone could have any desire met.

When it came to sexual desires, wants, and needs, every sensual practice was approved if it gave the participants pleasure. Work was not stressful, you could always change positions or careers when the work you did no longer seemed to please you.

Most knew what they were meant to be as early as age three or four, and they were put into study tracks that would best suit their development. Pleasure was their goal for life.

Even the government did not lie or “spin” anything. All citizens knew that their world was dying and would not survive their sun's death. Their government planned to send 5000 families or tribes to the planet Earth to be dispersed throughout the nations, where they would use their psychic abilities to be certain of acceptance.

The immigrants could make their new neighbors feel good, Shmooshian smiles seemed to radiate warmth in many ways. They were not a people who forced other peoples to their ways. They could open non-telepaths to telepathy, but only if the non-telepath wanted it. They had decided to avoid this on Earth, however, because of the fear the Earth people had of psychics.

Shmooshians were a peaceful, passive people who lived to enjoy the beauties of the world around them. In many ways people of earth might consider the Shmooshian lifestyle hedonistic, but it was more than that, it was a lifestyle of love.

The families or tribes that had volunteered to immigrate to Earth totaled nearly 250,000 individuals. The ships were made ready, each with a different destination on Earth. As they were reaching their new planet, they listened to broadcasts and learned Earth languages, which they were able to absorb easily.

After they learned what was needed to be able to assimilate, each individual chose his own name and was given an ID and a comfortable history before being stealthily transported down to Earth. Assimilation would be easy.

Some of the tribes had different groupings within it. One such family was the Taylor family. Craig and Jennifer Taylor with their son Justin went to New York City. Justin had been a renowned artist on his planet and would continue to develop his art in New York. The Taylors realized that New York City was the city for their purposes, a city that never slept, a city that accepted all peoples. Justin, 25, had been gay on his planet and was not now going to be anything else. His parents had decided to play the straight role for appearances, as it was more acceptable on Earth.

Justin was immediately accepted as an artist and was making waves with his "out of this world" renditions upon canvas. After a few years, he was well liked. He had done so well that he had moved into a fabulous penthouse in a wonderful old brownstone building that had been recently renovated inside. It was huge and had everything imaginable, a fireplace, Jacuzzi, and so much more. Being the “talk of the town,” he could go anywhere and be accepted. He was a celebrity and had everything, everything that is but someone to love.

He liked that word and its meaning -- the true meaning. He wondered why more of these humans did not allow themselves to love truly. He found that many would marry out of lust instead of love. Then when the relationship was no longer as passionate, the couple would divorce. Justin wondered why people would bother with marriage if they were not willing to try to work to keep the relationship healthy. He was perplexed with these people.

He was glad he was gay and did not have to marry. He wanted to feel love. He wanted to find someone to be both his sexual and intellectual equal. He wondered if that would ever happen or if he would ever have children. It was the way of his people to have many, but how could he? He did not desire females. Although beautiful and curvy, they just did not excite him. He felt lonely, and he missed the constant contact of minds as well.

Justin needed to find the right “fit” for a partner to love. It was hard living among people who could not talk to him mind to mind. Humans talking never seemed to say what they were thinking. To Justin humans seemed shallow and full of lies. He wondered if he would ever find someone honest and true, someone who could be perfect for him.

Justin felt so innocent and naïve in this city. He wondered how people could despise people who were different? If they only knew… would they despise him? Differences should be celebrated. He was aghast at the turmoil of this world, the hate people carried -- the disdain that people showed for those less fortunate. This society did not develop help to elevate these people. He had been on Earth for only four years, but it was this disdain that made him long for his home planet even knowing that he would never live out his life there.

Justin could not believe how many charlatans there were professing to be psychics and fooling people here on this planet. No wonder scientists were always trying to scoff at psychic phenomena, and there were plenty happening here on Earth. He felt many different dimensions and many latent possibilities, and people were told that it was “only” imagination.

Earth society would not accept what every human had inside. To hide their abilities, not allowing these gifts to surface, was so wrong. Hiding his own abilities was the most difficult thing Justin tried to do each day. He had not succeeded yet and had finally decided to give up and allow his ability to shine even if others could not acknowledge it.

Justin opened himself up to others across the planet to nourish his personal sense of peace and joy. Other immigrants from Shmoosh gladly reached out to each other because all the new arrivals felt their telepathic well being was at risk.

This transition had been tough for all the families of his planet. All the families were interrelated because they were from the same soil. He kept mental contact with as many as he could. Since his parents had found their niche in their own forays of endeavor and did not live in New York anymore, Justin did not have the same access to their support as he would have liked.

He was only 25 and a young adult that had much yet to learn. He felt this loss as well. On his planet he would still be considered a youngster and mentored until he hit age 50 in Earth time. Here he was on his own. It was very strange how things had changed: blue skies instead of red, being totally responsible at this stage of his life with no “teachers” to help him.

The differences seemed insurmountable, but he would live through the adjustments living on Earth required. At least he knew English, Spanish, and several other languages so he could speak to people in their native tongue. He found that this helped with sales as he sold his paintings almost as soon as they were up. His life was good, very good, according to Earth standards.

Money seemed important here. Status too. He could not totally wrap his mind around these material things. There was no money on his planet: every citizen got what he needed through trade and barter. Everyone wanted others to be happy so community was important, which did not seem to be true on Earth. Sure there were neighborhoods, but he did not find that many really cared about their neighbors.

In New York City, however, he found there were true communities of people who seemed to bond, such as Chinatown, Little Italy, etc. There was even a gay centered area. He liked to frequent the clubs there and dance. Oh how he loved Earth’s wildly free music and its beat. His body tuned into it as if the rhythm controlled him. He could lose himself in the music. It sent him places he could not go otherwise, though it could not help him escape the severe allergies he developed as had many of his fellow immigrants from Shmoosh. He hated them.

There was something else he found in the clubs and that was a place where he could pick people to have sex with, as many as he wanted in a night. This helped him immensely. Many of his peers complained about not getting their needs met, and he was able to tell them to look for the gay clubs to get what they needed, or the swingers clubs.

The one thing he loved most about New York City was that you could get any desire fulfilled as long as you had the money. It was a very materialistic, narcissistic society.

Because of this materialism, Justin was somewhat conflicted that he was considered beautiful here. He was “beefcake,” a term he did not like. It made him feel… well… used and inconsequential. He was so much more than looks. Blonds were cherished here, and people tried very hard to be blond with dyes and such, but natural blonds were also considered dumb, and he did not like that: it made this planet seem so immature.

Then he would remember that his society was so much older than this planet, which was only a baby comparatively speaking. He and the other newcomers had voted to teach this planet how to grow up, and he would do his part with his art. For now, he would leave the dancing to the others and go home to bed… alone once again… to dream of possibilities and of finding what these earthlings called “true love.”