A Space Story 84

            Vanz Kerrigan looked down at Janessa Kepshawn’s serene sleeping face.  He looked at the others.  They too looked peaceful in their slumber.

            “What did you do to them?” asked Kerrigan.

            “They are in the mind trap,” said High.

            “The mind trap will show them what they desire most,” said Deep.

            “It was hard for us to understand the human mind,” said High.

            “It is such a lonely isolated thing,” said Deep.

            “Now they all dream together,” said High.

            “Even if their minds make their dreams separate,” said Deep.

            “Even if they see the falsehood of the dream they can not escape because the others that still dream will draw them back in,” said High.

            “A new dream will form to take the place of the old one soon after it is perceived,” said Deep.

            “Come now there is work to be done,” said High.

            “We must signal the fleet that it is safe to approach,” said Deep.

            The aliens skittered out of the common hall and Kerrigan followed.  On the way out he asked them a question.

            “The Veggs Morv’tika,” he said, “When you showed me them, in my mind… I could see them in your mind.  It was like… You see them as gods?”

            High and Deep stopped and looked back at Kerrigan.

            “Gods,” said High, “beings that exist on a level far above you and are worshiped for their power to cause either fortune or destruction.”

            “Yes,” said Deep, “the Veggs Morv’tika are like gods to us.”

            “But they are not unseen ethereal creatures,” said High.

            “They are physical beings with an observable effect on the universe,” said Deep.

            “We can only aspire to one day know the perfection they have achieved,” said High.

            “In the meantime we serve them so that we may be closer to their greatness,” said Deep.

            “That reminds me of something a girl said to me yesterday,” said Kerrigan, “was it yesterday?  It already feels like such a long time ago.  I always thought of her as young and naïve.  But it turns out she knows me better than anyone.  I never believed in god you know.  When I was a boy I thought, how could god exist in this world?  When I got older I thought if there is a god he is too busy doing godly things to give a damn about any of us.”

            “We hypothesize that it is possible the universe was created by an intelligent force,” said High, “but it is most likely no longer actively present in this universe.”

            “That is the closest thing we have to your concept of spirituality,” said Deep.

            “We are scientists Mr. Kerrigan,” said High.

            “So before we return to our ship and begin preparation for management procedures we would like go somewhere,” said Deep.

            “Please take us to the kite fighter bay,” said High.

            “We would like to take a closer look at some of this wonderful Raath weapons technology,” said Deep.

A Space Story 83

            Janessa Kepshawn was on her way to class.  She was walking there with her best friend Tania Zed.  It was a sunny day at the academy campus.

            “I hope I do well on this test,” said Janessa.

            “You’ll do fine,” said Tania, “It’s not like you have to worry.  You are already at the top of the class and graduation is just a few weeks away.  Everything will be fine.”

            Duron Ardiniero came up to them.  He and Janessa shared a small kiss.

            “I hope everything does all right this weekend,” said Duron.

            “Are you still nervous about our parents meeting each other?” said Janessa, “Don’t worry.  I’m sure they will get along just fine.”

            There was no war.  There was no discrimination.  All was right in the world.

A Space Story 82

            There were two of them.  They walked on six insect like legs.  Their bodies were a large fat white mass.  They had a pair of long skinny insect like arms with three fingered hands.  Their heads appeared to just sit between their shoulders without a neck.  Their heads were large bulbous things.  There was a single orifice in their faces.  It was a round wet pulsing thing.  They each had one large multifaceted blue eye.  Kerrigan was following behind them.  The aliens entered the common hall.  They stopped a few feet in front of everyone.

            “Greetings,” they heard a voice echo around them, “we are the species you call the Spectral Horde.”

            “We would like to begin negotiations.”

            The one on the right had a deep dark voice.  The one on the left had a high pitched voice.

            “I am Commander Duron Ardiniero.  We are ready to negotiate terms to end hostilities between out two worlds.  What shall I call you?”

            “Oh of course,” said the one with the high voice, “you humans are always naming things are you not.  We do not have need for such things.”

            “I have an idea,” said the one with he deep voice, “they perceive my voice as being deep and your voice as being high.  How about that?  You may call me Deep.”

            “And you may call me High.”

            “Very well then I am pleased to meet you Deep and High.”

            “Splendid,” said High.

            “What is Kerrigan doing here?” asked Junitha.

            “The man with you is supposed to be confined,” said Duron, “he has violated our laws and must be held accountable for his crimes.  We know things may be different on your world but we can’t allow him to roam free.”

            “We understand the situation,” said High.

            “We thought Mr. Kerrigan could help make the negotiation go smoother,” said Deep.

            “That is very thoughtful of you,” said Duron, “but he is not in a position to aid in negotiations right now.”

            “We disagree,” said High.

            “He is a most powerful man on your planet,” said Deep, “we would like him to be present.”

            Duron did not want to ruin this so he agreed, “very well then Mr. Kerrigan can stay.  Before we go on there is an obvious question that must be asked.  Why have you been trying to destroy the human race for the last fifty years?”

            “We have not been trying to destroy you,” said High.

            “That was never our goal,” said Deep.

            “Then why did you attack us?”

            “You were advancing too quickly,” said High.

            “We could not have that,” said Deep.

            “You were well on your way to becoming a powerful space faring species,” said High.

            “Our goal was to push back your progress,” said Deep, “we intended to force you back to your home planet then proceed with management procedures.”

            “But you proved to be far more formidable in your resistance than we anticipated,” said High.

            “What are management procedures?” asked Duron.

            “We would have reduced your population,” said High.

            “And destroyed all evidence of your civilization,” said Deep.

            “We would reduce you back to a pre industrial level of advancement,” said High.

            “That way you would be much more manageable,” said Deep.

            “Your intent was to conquer the Earth?” said Duron.

            “Yes,” said High.

            “For the greater glory of the empire,” said Deep.

            “Well I am glad that you have decided that peace with us is a better option,” said Duron.

            “Peace?” said High.

            “We did not come to negotiate peace,” said Deep.

            “You misunderstood our message,” said High.

            “We are here to negotiate your surrender,” said Deep.

            “Son of a bitch,” muttered Ryoko.

            “I did not let you board this ship so we could surrender,” said Duron.

            “That is unfortunate,” said High.

            “Mr. Kerrigan was more cooperative,” said Deep.

            “What have you done Kerrigan?” said Janessa.

            “They showed me,” said Kerrigan, “they showed me in my mind.  I’ve seen why they are doing this.  They showed me their masters.  We can’t win.”

            “Masters?” said Duron.

            “The empire we serve is not our own,” said High.

            “We are servants of ones far greater,” said Deep.

            “There is one among you who knows of our masters,” said High.

            “Come forth Zai, last of the Raath,” said Deep.

            Zai stepped forward and said, “What do you know of me?”

            “We know of you from our masters,” said High.

            “Whom do you serve?” asked Zai.

            “We are servants of the Veggs Morv’tika,” said Deep.

            “Isn’t that the name of the guys who like blew up Zai’s planet?” whispered Zemwell.

            “The Veggs Morv’tika came to our world long ago,” said High.

            “We chose to submit to their will and aid in the building of their empire,” said Deep.

            “These management procedures,” said Zai, “you have done this before?  Destroyed civilizations and reduced them to pre industrial advancement?”

            “We have,” said High.

            “We aid our masters by making future potential subjects easier to dominate,” said Deep.

            “You did this to the Miroff,” said Zai.

            “Yes the Miroff, we enacted management procedures on them,” said High.

            “That was long ago,” said Deep.

            “We should continue to discuss the terms of your surrender,” said High.

            “Mr. Kerrigan has been most accommodating,” said Deep.

            “What are you talking about?” said Duron, “What have you done Kerrigan?”

            “They showed me the Veggs Morv’tika,” said Kerrigan, “We can’t win against them.  This way humanity will survive.  If the Raath could be wiped out by them then we have no chance.  They showed me your people Zai, in my mind.  You were monsters.  You were unstoppable.  And the Veggs Morv’tika hunted you all down and wiped you out like rats.  We have to do this.”

            “Do what?” said Duron, “Kerrigan if they are in your mind they could be influencing you again.”

            “We do not need to influence him,” said High.

            “Although we could if we so desired,” said Deep.

            “Your minds are so different from ours,” said High.

            “It was so hard to understand you until Suchin Markjon made contact with us,” said Deep.

            “She connected to your hive mind,” said Zai.

            “We do not have a hive mind,” said High.

            “We do not all think as one,” said Deep.

            “But we do all think together,” said High.

            “We share everything,” said Deep.

            “We have no secrets from each other,” said High.

            “And now we know enough about your minds that you can not win,” said Deep.

            “What did you agree to Kerrigan?” said Duron, “What are they offering you?”

            “They are offering us survival,” said Kerrigan.

            “Mr. Kerrigan will be returned to Earth to make the transition go smoothly,” said High.

            “If you surrender now we will allow you to return to Earth as well,” said Deep.

            “And if we don’t?” said Duron.

            “Then you will not leave here at all,” said High.

            “None of you,” said Deep.

            “You can’t keep them here,” said Zai, “The Daedlus is more than powerful enough to destroy your entire fleet.  And your understanding of the human mind is not absolute.  You influence is easily resisted.”

            “True there is much we still do not understand about your minds,” said High.

            “Both human and Raath,” said Deep.

            “But this time we don’t need to understand,” said High.

            “This time we have the mind trap,” said Deep.

            “We had plenty of time to prepare for your arrival,” said High.

            “We will study your minds and use what we learn to make management procedures of Earth resume more efficiently,” said Deep.

            “You can not escape the mind trap,” said High.

            “As long as just one of you remains within the dream none of you can leave it,” said Deep.

            As the aliens spoke everyone in the room stopped moving.  One by one they were pulled into the mind trap and lost in the dream.

A Space Story 81

            Duron Ardiniero was in the command and control center when they entered the orbit of the alien planet.  Alongside him was the pilots of prime squad and Zai, last of the Raath.  The alien planet was the same color as the Earth.  It had green continents and blue oceans and white clouds in the sky.  The continents were smaller and more spread out than on Earth but there was still more landmass than ocean.  The planet was surrounded by Spectral Horde battle cruisers.

            “Are you sure you don’t want us to prep the kite fighters?” asked Ryoko Jeagan.

            “This has become a diplomatic mission,” said Duron, “if we can end this war without anymore killing we are going to.”

            “I can see what you were saying about maybe the horde being bugs,” said Zemwell Tickbird, “when you think about it the horde ships kind of look like cocoons don’t they.”

            “I always thought they looked more like dildos,” said Junitha Findragon.

            Everyone looked at Junitha.

            “Oh come on like the thought never crossed anyone else’s mind,” she said.

            A single Spectral Horde pod ship came towards the Daedlus.

            “Are there any sign of weapons?” said Duron.

            “We are not picking up any weapon energy signatures from any of the Spectral Horde ships sir.”

            The Spectral Horde pod docked with the Daedlus.  Therazan Sajan was waiting by the airlock with her team in full tactical gear, just in case.

            “Let’s go,” said Duron, “We will meet with them in the common hall.”

            When they reached the common hall Duron called and asked, “Ms. Sajan what is the status of our guests?”

            “I don’t know sir.”

            “What do you mean you don’t know?”

            “I don’t know where they went.”

            “You are supposed to be escorting them.”

            “I tried to but… We couldn’t.  I don’t know why.  I tried to follow them but… I just couldn’t for some reason.”

            “It seems they want to make an entrance,” said Zai as he checked his arm device, “this is odd for some reason they are in the brig.”

            Duron called the brig and asked what they had seen.

            “I don’t remember sir,” they responded, “I know the aliens came here, but I can’t remember what they did or what they looked like.”

            “They are up to something,” said Ryoko, “we should get to the kite fighter bay and be ready to launch.”

            “The other squads are on standby,” said Duron, “you will remain so as well until we are sure they are taking hostile action.  So far all they have done is walk around and confuse people.”

            “They are coming,” said Zai.

            There were two of them.  They walked on six insect like legs.  Their bodies were a large fat white mass.  They had a pair of long skinny insect like arms with three fingered hands.  Their heads appeared to just sit between their shoulders without a neck.  Their heads were large bulbous things.  There was a single orifice in their faces.  It was a round wet pulsing thing.  They each had one large multifaceted blue eye.  Kerrigan was following behind them.  The aliens entered the common hall.  They stopped a few feet in front of everyone.

            “Greetings,” they heard a voice echo around them, “we are the species you call the Spectral Horde.”

            “We would like to begin negotiations.”

A Space Story 80

            They were twelve hours away from the Spectral Horde home planet when Suchin Markjon sat up in her bed and started talking.

            “We are waiting.  We are ready to negotiate.”

            Roweth Sinclair and others tried to talk to her.  She just kept repeating.

            “We are waiting.  We are ready to negotiate.”

            She was unresponsive until Commander Duron Ardiniero came to the medical center.  She stopped and stared at him.  All other patients were moved out of the room and security guards were placed outside.

            “How are we going to proceed?” asked Therazan Sajan.

            “This is part of our mission,” said Duron, “to find out why they attacked us and if possible find a diplomatic solution.  They must know we are getting close.  Maybe we can end this without any more bloodshed.”

            Duron entered the room and talked to Suchin, “Ms. Markjon can you hear me?  Is the Spectral Horde still in your mind?  Are you in there?  Can you tell us what they want?”

            She spoke, “We are waiting.  We are ready to negotiate.”

            Duron considered this then said, “We are also ready to negotiate.”

            “When you arrive we will send our representatives to you,” she said.

            “Why must you send them to us?  Is there a neutral place we can meet?”

            “Our representatives will be unarmed.  They will have no war drones with them.”

            “How can we be sure that you are telling the truth?  How do we know this is not a trap?  How can we be sure you will keep your word that your representatives will not be carrying any hidden weapons or some kind of bomb?”

            “We are not human.”

            Suchin Markjon went back to sleep.

            “It seems we have no choice but to do this on their terms,” said Duron.