The True Story of Domodossola
On The Way Down: 300,000 Meters Below
As I have said somewhere else, I was in a rush to get to Rome in order to participate in a seminar that my job had organized. I had everything planned and packed until I tried to check into my flight online.
I found out a few more than twenty-four hours prior that my flight was cancelled and acted fast by purchasing a one-way train ticket from my home in Frankfurt, Germany to Rome, Italy. In total, the trip would take just over twelve hours, driving through Switzerland into Italy by way of the Swiss Alps. I was excited about the trip although I dreaded the long trip on a train.
It was my birthday week, and as per the usual I bought myself a gift. Two days before my birthday, I decided to revert to analogue which I sometimes do. I have a mantra that goes “Turn off the signal to find signal”. By that I mean, less internet, less gadgets, and more analogue things that do one thing and do it well. This birthday I decided on an analogue watch with a Greenwhich Mean Time “GMT” hand that allowed me to tell time in three different time zones simultaneously. The watch didn’t have or need a battery. It basically works from the movement of your arm while wearing it on your wrist.
After hour number seven or so I finally crossed the border from Switzerland into Italy. The first stop crossing into Italy was the town of Domodossola. The train stopped and the conductor announced that we would be held here for thirty minutes for a border check which I also found strange as I was under the impression that all EU countries had no border checks. I asked the passenger in the aisle next to me, a slender gentleman that had boarded the train with me in Switzerland why this was the case. He told me that Switzerland is not a Schengen country so that’s probably why there was a requirement to cheek the passengers. I accepted the answer and started looking around my carry-on bag near me for my passport.
I hadn’t pulled out my cell phone during the entire trip and used my new watch to check the time here and there. My hands found the cell phone in the bag while I was searching around for my passport and I decided to pull it out and get some information on this town, Domodossola. It was dead when I pulled it out. I found it strange initially because at the beginning of the trip it was fully charged. I hadn’t used it. It could only mean that the flashlight function was on while stashed in the bag, draining the battery. I would have to sit there and wait on the two border patrolmen and the one “Polizia” that accompanied them. I could see them walking down the single aisle of the train skipping the entire car and finally ending at me. I glanced down at my watch to check the time only to find that neither of the three arms were moving. What had happened here? I could only guess my new Seiko watch I paid five hundred euro for a was a “dud”. I thought about returning it when I got back during that moment. I didn’t know at the time that this was about to be the least of my problems.
I told you, the reader, earlier that I had written about the small-town Domodossola on a blog post, but I promised the Third Race that I would tell the full story. It is, afterall, more than interesting. In fact, it’s a very intriguing and maybe scary story that transcends what I could understand at the time and even more so today. So here we start. This story starts with the words “Passport please” and ends with the words “Au Revoir”.
#
“Passport please” said the border control officers skipping over everyone in the entire car to me. “Why” I thought to myself. Why in hell did they skip literally everyone in the car and arrive at me for a check? I was sitting in the back of the car and thought I would have time to retrieve my passport from my bag which I was mistaken. Apparently, I wasn’t moving fast enough and was asked to leave with them with my carry on onto the platform. I did as I was told. Took my bag and jumped off the train. “Don’t worry” one of them said to me. “The train won’t leave without you no matter how much time we take.” I didn’t believe a word of it but the last thing I wanted was to be locked up abroad, so the best thing I could do was comply without question.
Finally, I grab my passport and give it to the three gentlemen in front of me in which they spent almost three minutes looking over it. They finally said to me that we were going to have to drive a few blocks and have it scanned as was the custom for all non-EU residents. I was taken aback from the words. I couldn’t believe how incredibly unprepared they were. I started to say “no” until I glanced over and saw what seemed to be five or six Asian people who were also getting into jeeps and rolling out somewhere. “Ok, let’s do this” I said reluctantly and walked with the three gentlemen over to an unmarked van, silver in color. I got into the back of the van and was surprised to see that there were no seats in the van for passengers, only for the driver and the passenger in the front. “Just grab on to the handles and hold on” one of them said to me “It doesn’t take long to get there”. This was getting fishy. Against my better judgement I did what they said to do. The van began to pull out of the parking area, and we were off.
This was the bumpiest ride I have ever been on, more so than a rollercoaster ride. I was trying to hold it together looking at the other Italian gentlemen in the vehicle they didn’t seem to be phased at all. I was trying to look out of the front window as we bounced around in the back and noticed that we seemed to be driving right into a large lake. We were indeed headed right for one. I felt the splash that one might feel entering a large body of water in a vehicle not meant to be in water and they and I watched as the vehicle began to fill with water. I panicked.
“What are you doing?! HELP” I yelled at the top of my lungs. It was to no avail. Ran for the rear door latch and grabbed it trying to pry it open. Slipping and falling, the water filling faster into the vehicle, now up to my waist. The two Italian gentlemen who were in the back with me didn’t move from their positions also holding onto the latches lining the rear of the vehicle. Their uniforms soaking up the water. They remained calm. “Hold on to the latch” one of them said, seemingly unphased and totally collected. It was too late. By this time the vehicle was completely full of water, and we continued to sink. The only thing I know to do when you are under water and continue to sink is to hold your breath if you can, and I did so. I had my eyes closed and could not see if the Italians were still doing ok. I was beyond panicking and beyond all hope. There was nothing left that I could do but wait to die. So, I did so. I grabbed the handles, opened my mouth and eyes and felt the water fill up my lungs. I couldn’t talk or hear anything. I wasn’t breathing, but I wasn’t dying either. Maybe I was already dead, I thought to myself.
By this time my eyes were open and to my surprise I could see just a little. It was almost as if there was a small candle on the bottom of the vehicle and all three of the Italians were in the rear of the van. It wasn’t lit enough to make out the Italians, but it was enough for me to realize that they weren’t there in the same form that they were when I entered the vehicle. They seemed to be much taller and crammed inside of the van which was already curiously tall for any van that I had ever seen. I couldn’t make out a face on anyone of them in fact, all three of them looked as though they were somehow, strangely entangled into one large bizarre being. I was more curious than terrified. My curiosity piqued when one of them, or all of them began to talk to me. It wasn’t as though they were using their voices though. It was more like a telepathy.
“What we are about to tell you I will only say three times” said the fleshy combination via telepathy. “Try to understand what I am saying, dream about it, think about it, imagine it as true, because it is true” it said. “Lastly, promise us that you will tell this story to as many that will listen” it said. I promised and the thing began to communicate with me, and this is what it said:
The “Great Days”
Three million light years away existed a small planet with three moons that orbit it. There are no stars around these four bodies for at least two hundred thousand light years and there is no need for any. These four bodies do not exist in any kind of solar system. The planet only exists as a result of the three moons that were at some point one large moon but broke into three large pieces. It is for this reason that the moons are not perfect spheres but rather rigid and large bodies that orbit the planet.
The first moon is called “Do” and was named so by the first humanoid race that existed on the planet. Do is a smaller moon than the other two but emits strong radioactive waves to the planet that are not dangerous for the life on the planet but rather makes it more fruitful. Do is a very bright moon that emits a very dim light not unlike the moon for earth but brighter. It is the densest of all the other moons.
The second moon is called “MoDo” and was also named by the first humanoid race on the planet. It is a two-part name according to the race, the first part “Mo” means to us earthlings larger or larger than. The second part “Do” gives reference to the smaller and more powerful radioactivity wave sending counterpart previously mentioned. MoDo is also responsible for creating the strong solar winds that spin the planet on its axis much like Earth and it is for this reason that the planet can receive the healthy radioactive waves from Do more effectively.
The last moon is the largest moon of them all and is situated farther away than the other two. It emits a high level of radioactivity but not as much as Do and Modo combined. It is responsible for creating the solar winds that push the other two moons around the planet which benefits from these moons. The name of this powerful moon is “Ssola” and was given to it by the first humanoid race on the planet. Combining the names of the moons, the first humanoid race arrived at the name “Domodossolla” for the planet that the moons orbit around and there home.
Not unlike the planet Earth, there exists water and earth on the planet Domodossola. It has dense vegetation everywhere and, like planet Earth, has more water than earth. When the radioactivity from the moons interacts with the particles in the water, the life on the planet is “hyper fruitful” meaning that multiple races of the humanoid population can exists at the same time and not wait for one to phase out for the other as we are taught here on the planet Earth.
Planet Domodossola stays extremely warm because it has a large inner core not unlike planet Earth. The core of Domodossola is ten times larger and warmer than the Earth’s core. It is for this reason that the planet is ridden with active volcanoes that damage the planet both in and out of water.
The third humanoid race from planet Domodossola observed about two million years ago the frequent occurrence of volcanic activity on the planet. With each activity being more powerful and lasting longer than the other, they predicted that over some hundreds of thousands of years that the volcanoes would eventually destroy the entire planet. That race named this occurrence “The Great Days”.
The Third Humanoid Race of Planet Domodossola
By this time, I was unsure why the thing was telling me this older than ancient history about the planet Domodossola. I was intrigued by the story and wanted to know more. I wanted to know if the thing was indeed from the planet. More importantly I wanted to know how I fit into the story and why it had chosen me to tell it to.
“My race used to think that the first race was the most primitive of them all” it said to me suddenly as if he knew what I was thinking. “It wasn’t until we realized that YOUR race is the most primitive” “I don’t understand” I said. “You will never understand” it said. “But that is our great Domodossola’s burden to bear, not mine” it responded. And then he went on telling me about the humanoid races that once lived on the planet.
You see, every 500,000 years or so a new race is born on the planet Domodossola. The first race was born from particles that clashed together in the water. That race was the most amphibious and did not have the ability to walk on dry land. The second race was more of the same. And the third race is the race that I am from. We have the ability to walk on land and water. We much prefer the water since the radioactivity from the moons could reach us better. We differ from the first two races on those biological traits and philosophically we believe that things happen in threes like our beloved three moons. That’s why in our mathematical education, we believe that three equals one. Additionally, all other races after us cannot live in the water as we can.
I felt like the concept of three things always equaling one was over my realm of understanding and was about to ask a follow-on question until the thing interrupted me “You can’t understand it because you are number eight” it said. “Yes, your race is the last race of the planet Domodossola.” “And to think, you’ve been walking around this planet thinking that you were made from a God.”
“I know you are asking yourself what we are called” it said. Well, some call us aliens, others call us giants. Some call us “the Nomos” but we refer to ourselves as simply what you would call “number three” or “The Third Race” paying homage to our beloved three moons.
“What happened to the other four races between your race and mine” I asked. “Your race killed them all some years after we arrived on this planet.” It spoke. After my race was born the aptitude and intelligence of the humanoid races got smaller and smaller due to volcanoes repelling the amount of radioactivity from the three moons. Every race after ours sought to devour and take from all the other races. When we arrived here on this planet, your race killed the other four races prior to it because they occupied different areas on the planet due to their vegetation and access to fresh water. You killed them and took the land instead of working together to share it. You introduced the idea of borders and ownership when nothing like that ever existed. We, “the Third Race”, have no concept of ownership the way you do and that is why we were able to work together to leave the planet Domodossola before the Great Days.
“But your sense of ownership doesn’t stop there” it said. After you had killed the other races of humanoids before you, except for us because we live in the abyss of the waters, you created differences within your own race, to the point that you saw subtle differences within your race as grounds to create new races. The idea that because a person has a different skin tone or is from another part of this planet that they are of another race, is to us, idiotic. It spoke. You are all one race, but the idea of ownership has caused you to implode from intellectual deficit.
I knew that it was right. Everything at least up to the idea of ownership he was spot on about. Even the idea of kings and queens which were concepts as old as anyone walking planet Earth could remember was about ownership, owning land, owning property etc. and not necessarily about working together. Who in hell gave it to them to own in the first place? I knew then that the idea of race based on skin tone and location was really a stupid one because we are all one race. I also knew that if I told this to anyone that they would have a hard time understanding at the very best. At the worst, I could be cursed out, made a mockery of.
“It was our race that built vessels that could move through air and water over millions of light years that was able to get six races out of the planet before the Great Days.” it continued. The first two races perished. It explained. No other planets within millions of light years can produce the amount of radioactivity needed to power the vessels to come back to planet Domodossola after they had landed there, only enough to allow them to message back using the vessels powerful communication systems. So, over the course of 300,000 years we sent vessels filled with our race to planets to scout them out and send word back. At least 10,000 planets were found each with thousands of people from our race and none of the planets were found to be good enough to sustain the Domodossolaians for longer than one hundred years. So those comrades all died out on those planets, and we bid them farewell.
“It wasn’t until very recently, only 600,000 years ago, that we found this planet which we now call planet Earth.” It explained. “We arrived here after this planet had experienced a large flood that wiped out a lot of dangerous and very large reptiles” it said. “The planet’s Sun produces very small rays of radioactivity that we can use to power the engines on our ancient vessels. We see the very primitive attempts you eights make to fly in the air and sail on and in the seas. Sometimes we allow you to see us as well in hopes that it may bring you all together as one group. It never does though. Anyway, we can’t return to the mother planet, but we can survey the waters and the skies much better than your race can in our attempt to forecast other Great Days that could occur here and harm the planet. But you number eights make it hard for us with your silly businesses and corporations that pollute the oceans and destroy the ozone layer that protect the planet from the sun.
“But why here” I asked. “Why this little place in northern Italy?” “We exist everywhere in the oceans and great lakes” it said. “We aren’t just here.” You can find us mostly where there are large mountains. We have strategically placed special and precious metals in the mountain tops that help channel the radioactivity from the sun to us to power our ancient vessels like I said. In places where there are no mountains, we helped your race build Pyramids and Obelisks with these precious metals on the top of them. Over time you have all managed to take the metals off and use them to barter for food, water, labor and other things. Again, a concept that doesn’t make sense to us when there is enough food, water and sustenance for everyone who walks the planet Earth. So, we make do with what we can do for ourselves. Some few hundreds of years ago I explained this to another eight. He named the town you are in after our home planet, Domodossola. He died shortly after from alcohol poisoning trying to forget this experience. Your race just think it means something else. They don’t know, and don’t care.” It said.
“I care” I said back. I want to know about this ancient history and what I can do to be more like you number threes. I know there is no way that I can possess your more superior knowledge, but at the very least I can help my race do better for us all.” I said. “Let us start with your name” I said. “What are you called?”. “There you go with these silly ideas again” it said. “We, number threes, do not respect social constructs like you do. We use “I” and “We” interchangeably” It said. “In my race there is no such thing as a name for an individual in a race because we are not individuals like you see yourselves as.” “There is but one name for the race which I have told you already.” “Aside from telling the story of Domodossola three times, I will tell you one last thing and you will know that I have left you. and it is now time for you to do as you have promised by telling this story to all that will listen” I was eager to hear what this would be. “What is it” I asked. “You will know when you hear it” it said. “Just remember, we are an amphibious race but can also walk on land. We have heard the things you say and the way you speak”.
#
Onward and Upward from Domodossola
The thing spoke this exact same story verbatim another two times to me before I could feel the vehicle begin to start floating upward from the abyss that we had sunk to earlier. It wasn’t like a total reverse of what had happened entering the lake. I found myself in the vehicle alone having washed up on an empty beach side. The sun was almost down now, and I knew without having to reference a watch that I had been underwater for at least eight hours with no oxygen.
The rear door flung open, and I was able to swim out some few meters to the shoreline and head in the direction where we had driven from in the first place on our way to the “station” to have my passport checked. I walked another hour and a half and was able to find the train still there having not moved. A group of three gentlemen stood next to it and had my brown carry-on bag which they gave me when I approached them. “I told you the train wouldn’t leave until everyone is back on” one of them said to me but was not one of the three Italians that escorted me to the tall, unmarked van in the first place.
I took the bag without saying a word and got on the train. The train announced that they would be departing Domodossola enroute to Milan where all connections could be made on time. My cell phone was still plugged into the socket where my first-class seat was, and my Seiko coincidently was working again. I had a look outside of the window and saw three Polizia escorting an older Asian woman back onto the car behind the one I was sitting in. Right as the conductor made his final call over the train’s loudspeaker, one of the three Polizia stuck his head into my car and screamed while looking at me “Au Revoir”!
I chuckled, and thought about how a race so advanced couldn’t bother to learn the word “Ciao”.
Artwork by Sissy Prints at Sissprint.com