by David Kempf
“Oh,” said Christopher.
“You’ll see when we show you,” David said.
“Good.”
“That includes looking down on your family a bit,” said David.
“I know.”
“No. You don’t know. At first it’s harder than you think. You want to feel this great sense of gratitude for all they’ve done for you. Then you finally see them for what they are. Typical human fools.”
“Are we talking about mine or yours?” asked Christopher.
“Both. You know that I used to admire my family to a fault. I especially admired my father. I thought he was a great man in his own way. Then I got in deeper and deeper with my new masters. My mentor and those we serve showed me another way to look at life. It’s a different perspective that brings with it a critical eye towards man’s folly.”
“That’s a lot to think about, David.”
His mentor looked at him and laughed. It was almost as if he was sizing him up. David was trying to tell if Christopher could really handle all of this. A new life awaited him. The potential for great rewards but also for receiving the wrath of the cruelest things time had ever seen or ever would.
“Yes,” said David.
“I’m ready,” said Christopher.
“No. You’re not yet.”
“Soon, right?”
“Yes,” nodded David.
“I think you will enjoy the story that I wrote. It’s about very cruel rulers in a futuristic setting. I can’t wait until you read it. It says quite a bit about human nature and features a reign of terror from beyond the stars.”
“Sounds interesting, Christopher.”
“I think you’ll like it,” Christopher said eagerly.
“Knowing you and your great talent for horror stories, I know I will,” David smiled.
“I’m very glad to hear you say that,” Christopher returned the smile.
David said, “I know.”
“These things I’ve created in my story don’t even come close to the real terrors about to come. I know that. My creatures can be killed; they are mortal.”
“Yes.”
“I still believe it makes for a good tale. It’s a cautionary tale about the evil of those who take power by force. It’s very relevant, I think,” Christopher said hopefully.
“It is and it isn’t,” said David.
“Oh?” Christopher was surprised.
“The masters enjoy the joke. Humanity has made countless vain attempts to control the world. They try and succeed for a little while. Then everything falls to pieces; it goes straight to hell! It happens all the time. It’s an unavoidable historic truth and the joke is that mankind never learns from the mistakes of their ancestors. The fall of every great empire and society is a constant possibility. People are never careful enough and they are far too distrusting of one another to work together. Divide and conquer as a means to enslave might be a cliché but it’s also true,” explained David.
“It is?” Christopher asked.
“Yes.”
The young man never had an overtly idealistic notion of what the human race was. David’s descriptions were too bleak for him to accept at this point. He just wasn’t ready. Even he had his limits about how bad and stupid he would believe his fellow humans beings were.
“It’s hard, even for me, to be a complete cynic while I remain in this form,” Christopher said.
“I know it is. When your eyes are truly opened, you’ll find that it was never in the cards for people to be free. They were predestined to be controlled.”
“Well, David. I guess I still can’t believe that.”
“You will in time, I promise. I am curious to see how you view terrible, demanding creatures that enslave humanity. You might tell a different tale someday when you are in the presence of the real thing.”
“I don’t doubt you. The story is still pretty good.”
“Well,” said David laughing. “I’m sure that it is.”
Secret societies and political conspiracy theories always made great fiction, particularly as background to mystery and horror stories. If humanity only knew of the reality of the conspiracies that actually awaited them, they would freeze in their tracks. It would be a widespread panic that had never been seen before. It was a quiet secret held by a very select few and Christopher was about to become a guardian of the secret. He was honored and horrified at the same time. These creatures did not compromise at all on anything. The irony of how stupid human beings were was beginning to finally make its anticipated appearance. It would be a different set of circumstances if invaders from space came and took over Earth. The creatures could have superior brute force and technology light years beyond human understanding. This wasn’t the case. The real creatures preyed upon the stupidity and greed of humans. In many ways, they also preyed upon the noblest aspects of mankind. Most notably, they preyed upon the basic sense, held by many humans, of fair play. The idea that others were playing by the same rules as one was held sacred by humans all over the world with little else in common.
“The end is going to be something unexpected for them. Isn’t it, David?”
“Yes.”
“I thought as much.”
“I’m impressed,” said David.
“Why?”
“You refereed to humans as them and didn’t include yourself in the equation. That’s most impressive considering that for the time being you are definitely still a human being.”
“I am but I now know what’s coming. They still perceive the world as a place where they can ask for more and more. It’s their greed that is going to do them in. Isn’t it, David?”
“That’s hard to say.”
“Why?” Christopher asked.
“You know as well as I do that men are full of flaws and inevitably make mistakes daily.”
“Yes.”
“I can’t just limit their downfall to simple greed. Hell, it could be anything. They have so many stupid flaws,” said David.
“Yes, David, it’s true.”
Humans were full of fatal flaws and Christopher had always known this.
“I haven’t been human in a long time now. That was a different age, but compared to my mentor, I changed yesterday. I can still remember how ridiculous I was when I was one of them.”
“Now you can read what a naïve mortal thinks cruel taskmasters from beyond could be like,” said Christopher.
“Yes. I wonder if your story is good practice for meeting the masters.” I can’t wait for you to let me know,” Christopher said.
Chapter 15
The Laws of the Gongorites
By Christopher Wisdom
“There are no gods but our gods.”
“There are no laws but our laws.”
“All dissent will be punished.”
“These are the laws of the Gongorites.”
Before his execution, Winston read what was on the wall. He had broken one of the laws of the Gongorites. There were thousands of laws that the human race had to learn. The Gongorites landed on Earth thirty years ago. They destroyed every existing country and every human civilization. Winston walked by one of the city guards without bowing his head low enough. The punishment for this was relatively lenient, as it was a relatively unimportant case. This alien species always showed mercy on minor infractions. Winston was going to die by hanging.
The chief executioner asked Winston if he wanted a blindfold.
“I don’t want a blindfold. You filthy things are blind to justice and everything that is good in this world. I hope you burn in hell forever!!” replied Winston.
The chief executioner grew very angry. He slouched over and twisted his arm. He began to slowly pull Winston’s finger off. The executioner asked Winston to read the writing on the wall again.
“There are no gods but our gods.”
“There are no laws but our laws.”
“All dissent will be punished.”
“These are the la
ws of the Gongorites.”
It was a very brief moment that passed before Winston felt the rope go around his neck. Winston felt ashamed that he gave in to his pain and read the writing on the wall again. He saw one of the Gongorites grab the lever with his green hand. The last thing Winston saw before he died were the long black claws pulling the lever back. He dropped down through the trap door and died instantly from the hanging.
The chief executioner looked at his cronies. They all began to laugh at the death of another earthly human. He looked at them and they could see by his expression that he didn’t share their amusement.
“We wouldn’t have to execute or torture so many…if they would only learn and obey our laws. These creatures are foolish and ignorant. Obedient humans would only have to die during sacrifices. The laws would protect rather than condemn.”
There were so many laws. There were thousands and thousands of them. The laws were difficult to memorize, easily misinterpreted and often near impossible to put into practice. That’s why two-thirds of the world’s former rulers, Homo sapiens, were now deceased. The laws produced genocide against all humanity. This alien race brought a system of religious beliefs and laws that spared no one. Humans who disobeyed paid the ultimate price.
The Gongorites landed their ships at night. They had traveled about a thousand light years or so to get to Earth. Many humans lived on many planets throughout the known universe. The Gongorites believed they had a special religious purpose for all humans. The first people who witnessed their glowing red eyes at night were terrified. The Gongorites were anywhere from eight to twelve feet tall. Their thick green skin had reptile-like scales. Their mouths were two feet wide and about a foot long, filled with razor sharp teeth closely resembling those of sharks. The people of Earth were filled with horror at the sight of these extraterrestrials.
Millions of people of all faiths believed that their arrival was some kind of sign. Some thought it was from God; others thought they were from Satan. There was nothing in the Bible or any other scriptures that described these monsters. Many college professors said it was American imperialism to blame. This failed to explain the arrival of the end of humanity.
It didn’t take long for Earth’s people to become enslaved. The Gongorites left severed heads on poles of anyone who questioned them. There were hundreds of thousands of human heads on display all over the world.
Although only about a million of these beings had landed, their strength and technology prevailed. The Gongorites had guns of a sort. They would point these small lasers and fire, which would cause people to completely disappear. Their guns were linked to a central computer. This computer would make anyone who was shot materialize wherever and whenever the aliens wanted.
The Gongorites had to perform a thousand sacrifices a year. They typically did this on the first and last days of their calendar year. They would usually sacrifice five hundred people on the first day of the year and an additional five hundred during the last day. The sacrifices were exclusively pregnant women. The Gongorites hated women of all species.
In order for the sacrifices to meet religious requirements, the victims had to be thrown into an active volcano. Even volcanoes that were previously inactive could be made active with the use of Gongorite technology. They would fly their ships over volcanoes and throw the women inside of them to please their gods. If the women were absolutely terrified (which, of course they all were) the sacrifice was considered particularly holy. The Gongorites believed that all females were born damned. They also believed that many sacrifices would bring about a wonderful afterlife for the males of their species. They would be rewarded with many planets and many slaves in their next life.
There were very few humans left who could remember anything that resembled hope. The entire world was at war when the species invaded and easily took over. Human emotions were considered very offensive to the Gongorites. Humanity as it existed now knew only one emotion. That emotion was more of an instinct for survival. In order for humans to survive, they had to know their place. There were two classes of humans just as there were two classes of Gongorites. The humans were either translators or slaves.
Ian Harris was one of the lucky ones. He was in the translator class and lived in the city of Gongortia. This was the city that used to be New York. It was the capital of the planet now and contained the tallest structure in the world – the statue of Ulam. It was considered a holy place because Ulam was the most powerful deity in the religion of the Gongorites.
Ian worked diligently at his computer, tirelessly translating from the Holy Book, the Gongorite scriptures. He knew the real reason the aliens allowed him and others to have such an honorable position in the new order. It was just another sign of how fortunate he was. Even Ian’s master, Arian, seemed not to despise him entirely.
Enter another human who also worked tirelessly for the creatures. Ian looked at him and felt immediate sorrow. They both worked for the central translator command. Only Ian was liked. He was liked as much as a man could be liked by his masters. It mattered little. His position, his life always seemed to be hanging by a thread.
“Greetings, Jack, the slave.”
“Greetings, Ian, the slave.”
Ian felt particularly sorry for Jack today. This wasn’t simply because he could die today. That would be just like any other day. He knew that Jack’s uncle George had been hanged yesterday. He also knew that he wasn’t supposed to feel emotions of a human nature. The Gongorites ruled that only their laws could enable living beings to tell right from wrong. A human conscience was out of the question.
Jack had a brief absurd thought. If Ian had heard of his uncle’s demise, did he actually feel some sort of pity for him? No. That was impossible. The creatures had eliminated all human emotions. His next thought was that it was a miracle that these things could not read minds.
The two men heard loud footsteps approaching the room from down the hall. It was their monster. It was their master. He looked displeased with them.
“I always wanted to believe my slaves were the best your wretched species had to offer. Your lack of progress makes me doubt that.”
Jack was trying very hard not to look at the metal collar around his master’s neck. It had a tiny computer chip built inside of it. The collar allowed the Gongorites to speak in any human language. It was a necessary evil to have to do this. Humans found it difficult to translate their written language and impossible to speak it.
“Look at my translator link one more time, Jack Winston. Look one more time and I’ll have your head on a stick for all Gongortia to see.”
This time Ian was terrified. He was even scared for himself now.
“Please, forgive me, my Lord. I am merely an ignorant slave who does his best to serve you. All I want is to serve you!” Jack pleaded.
Arian looked at the two humans and began to laugh. He walked around the room twice. He nodded his head up and down and then spoke again.
“Why has there been so little progress?” Arian asked.
Arian knew that he had two good slaves. He was angry because he was under pressure from his own masters. All Gongorites of his class had masters. He was a technocrat and only yielded powers over the inferior species like humans. The Gongorites belonging to the high priest class could do as they pleased. They were considered sacred, holy, and rulers of all.
“The sacred, beautiful language of your master race is very difficult for dung like us, my master,” said Ian.
Arian looked at Ian suspiciously. Was this human just telling him what he wanted to hear? If he was really so inferior, then why not just have him put to death?
“You talk nonsense, slave. You know that you were chosen from many, many of your kind. You can improve, Slave Ian. That is the truth. It’s in our holy book. Humans can be slaves but never mere pets. Would you dispute our holy book?”
“Never, master,” replied Ian.
“I will ask both of you again. Why has there been so little p
rogress?”
Jack summoned the courage necessary to speak to his master.
“The language really is too difficult, master. That’s why there hasn’t been as much progress as we would like. All we want to do is please you, our master.”
Arian stared at Jack for a moment. He was going to take a moment and decide what to do next.
“You have twelve days. If you haven’t solved these translation problems in twelve days…..”
“Yes, master?” said Ian.
“Then you will be very jealous of this blood relation of Slave Jack’s, George Winston. He will have died a more merciful death then the two of you!”
Arian walked away very fast. He turned around and glanced at Ian and Jack. Then he walked away completely.
“I don’t think we can solve these codes in twelve days,” said Jack.
“No, Slave Jack, we cannot,” agreed Ian.
Balaam sat at his throne in the center of Gongortia. He was the city ruler and perhaps the most influential scholar of the holy book. Balaam was trying to see if this planet was the one that would make the prophecies come true. All was almost as it should be. Everything but the humans was as it should be. Unfortunately, all prophetic miracles connected with them were nonexistent.
“Greetings, most exalted Balaam. I humbly approach your throne. You are both high priest and ruler of the city most sacred.”
“Arise, Arian.”
“I am very sorry to tell my master that no progress has been made.”
Balaam looked at Arian for a moment. He began to shake his head. He lifted up his scepter and shook it in the air.
“I know you must be angry, master, but……”
