In The Beginning

by Derek White

  In spite of all the planning and good intentions it took just one day to make the first mistake.

  DAY ONE

  Lexus and his family ran a mixed farm on the lower slopes of Mount Olympus. They kept goats mainly for milk, and grew various crops to barter in the local market.

  He awoke with the dawn as was his habit, went outside, and immediately rushed back to wake the family to see what he had.

  The higher slopes of the mountain, beyond where he farmed, had been transformed in just one night and, as he commented to his wife, without making a sound to wake them.

  The whole of the near side, and he later found the other as well, were now covered with structures made of stone, the roofs being held up by columns with fluted sides with triangular decorations on top. He had never seen anything like it. His idea of a strong building was one made by piling stones and sticking them together with mud or a mixture of straw and goat dung. He could also see a fountain higher up the mountain; it was a beautiful creation with large animals apparently pouring water from their mouths into a pool.

  The size of the doors was another surprise. Just then the nearest door opened and he realised just why they were so big.

  A man came out to look around, but – what a man. He was a head taller than the largest man Lexus had ever met and had almost white hair that he had never seen before. He looked immensely strong.

  Hermes, for that was who it was, came down the slope to introduce himself only to find the entire family bowing down towards him in worship.

  Hera joined him but that did little to help as she was soon to be known by the local population as the most beautiful of The Olympians.

  “Perhaps, Darling, things will be better when we know their language,” she commented. “I’m used to male appreciation, but not like this!”

  DAY THIRTY

  Lexus and all the other local humans had grown used to the presence of the Olympians and thanks to the eidetic memories of all of the Godhe they could now converse with them. It had, however, proved impossible to convince the locals that they were not Gods so this was made use of. Obviously studying this world was going to be a long-term project so Zeus explained to the locals that they would find sometimes that the temples, as they were now called, would often appear empty but that the humans must never enter them. It was a simple matter to arrange ‘frightener’ booby traps to ensure compliance with this rule.

  Events in Norway had been very similar except that Thor and his party had hollowed out several mountains for accommodation and had had to learn a different language.

  Thus arose the legends of Greek and Norse Gods.

  YEAR 5932

  MOUNT OLYMPUS, TELLUS III

  To reinforce the idea that the Godhe were Gods each group visiting the world had to first, learn the local language and second assume the same names as the earlier visitors. After all, Gods would be immortal.

  Zeus called a meeting of both the Valhallan group and his own

  “It’s been five hundred years now since we started using this world as a combination study centre and vacation resort to fund it,” he started by saying.

  “My own feeling is that we have begun to affect directly the development of the natives, something that our ancestors promised themselves they would never do. I suggest that we continue the use for now, but are very careful what we let them learn.

  “I also want to discuss the unusual creatures they have on this world; the dragons, shape-changers and most of all the unicorns.

  “They are, I believe, unique; and to have three different but interesting species on one world is sufficient to cause our scientists to pay a fortune for a licence to study them.

  “You wish to say something, Hera?”

  “I do! Only yesterday I found a dragon carcase. It had been slaughtered, yet we know them to be gentle creatures.”

  There was a babble of other comments, the gist of which was that the local inhabitants, those most like the Godhe but smaller, were killing unicorns, dragons, and what they referred to as Weres which is what they call the shape-shifters.

  Zeus called for order and said, “I propose we ask the council of Old Ones to authorise a search for a suitable world on which we can establish colonies of the three groups. That way, if it is nearer Centrallis than this world then a side benefit is that study will be easier and cheaper: they will also survive and will not become extinct which, frankly, is a possibility!”

  “I second that!” said Thor.

  The vote was unanimous, so Zeus promised to see the council himself.

  A suitable world was soon found, the fourth planet circling the sun Langala, less than half the distance from Centrallis that Tellus was.

  YEAR 6430

  MOUNT OLYMPUS, TELLUS III

  Almost a further five hundred years had passed, and Langala IV was well established.

  Valhalla was in decline and nobody was on this occasion present from that world. This time the meeting had been called by Apollo and there were only twelve visitors including himself from Centrallis.

  No longer did they let the locals see them, but used invisibility shields when amongst them and when arriving or leaving in their saucer shaped craft.

  “I called this meeting,” he announced, “to see how many of you have observed the new mutation in the humans on this world.

  “Those affected appear able to cause matter to move just by thinking about it. Telekinesis describes it, but does in no way explain it.”

  “Can you give an example?” asked Hades.

  “I can do better than that. I’ve been keeping a sort of vid diary of interesting events. They watched as the wall of the room became a screen that showed a family in their home, viewed through the hole which served as a window. The family sat down at a bare table which, as they watched, had first a sort of combination knife/spoon/fork appear near each of them closely followed by a plate of food. When they had all eaten the observers saw the mother concentrate on the dirty dishes and they first became clean, then rose to put themselves in a cupboard, closely followed by the eating utensils.

  “Notice that they all, even the young children, take what you saw as normal: keep watching!”

  The scene changed to a farm, and one of the workers appeared to have had some sort of accident. He had been using some sort of ground preparation tool with sharp prongs on it being dragged behind a horse. It looked as though he had fallen and deep scratches could be seen on his chest. The image paused as Apollo said, “What worried me when I saw it was the presence of dirt and manure in the scratches. I was considering intervening to avoid him dying from the obvious infection that would occur when - watch carefully!”

  The vid resumed, and they saw all present looking towards the farmhouse as a middle aged woman came out led by a youth who had obviously been to get her. She took the injured man’s hand and they saw from the expression that he was now no longer in pain. The woman continued to hold him, looking intently at the injuries and even on the vid they could see that the dirt was disappearing. Then as they watched the worst of the wounds closed itself and the redness surrounding it reduced. The woman, obviously exhausted announced, “He’ll be alright now. I’ve done as much as I can today! I need to rest.”

  “Any ideas on how that was done?” asked Hades.

  “I can only speculate. If we assume that they’ve developed the ability of telekinesis, then if you reduce that to a molecular scale, healing would be possible. Frankly I just don’t know, but it’s certainly of interest is it not? Keep watching!”

  The scene changed again, this time showing a market place. A young man, no more than twenty, had a crowd around him as he gave throwing knives to three members of the audience and lined them up facing him at about twelve feet.

  “A young woman, either girl-friend or wife stepped forward. “I’ll give fifty dinars to any one of you who can hit him with their knife,” she announced.<
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  One by one they tried, but each of the blades veered off to the side before reaching their target.

  “Now,” announced the woman, “you all think they were part of the act.

  “I will sell you a knife for forty dinars and you may try yourself. Fifty for a hit, two hundred if you wound him, five hundred if you can kill him!”

  They watched in awe as about a dozen people tried, missing in every case just as had the earlier ones. They all started to suggest ways of performing the trick, but Apollo stopped them. “Keep watching!” he ordered.

  The young man help up a hand and suddenly there was a pitcher in it, which he raised and drank from.

  “That was what I wanted you to see, and I’m certain it’s no trick. I’ve been studying that family for a few weeks and the woman is if anything more powerful than the man. I saw someone attack her, unfortunately when I did not have my camera handy, and she threw him across the square, apparently with one hand but I believe she really did it with her mind.

  “Now, I’ve shown you three examples but I have documented and recorded twenty instances of similar power. Those two are the only ones to find a way of making money using it, but in this area alone I have seen twelve people who appear to be able to ‘call’ things to their hands. That’s out of a population of four hundred.

  “I’ve also heard mutterings about witchcraft and burning them! - - - Ideas, Anyone?”

  “Does anyone not agree that these people must be kept alive, if only for research?” asked Zeus. “I suggest we collect a group of them and establish a colony of them on Langala IV just as our ancestors did with the dragons, unicorns and shape-shifters.

  “Maybe I’m a cynic, but I feel that resentment is building, and it’s only going to get worse. People are always afraid of what they don’t understand: I’m a little worried myself.”

  This suggestion was put to the next meeting of the council of Old Ones and they decreed that whilst they would honour the original promise not to interfere; a promise that had been written into the Charter signed by all members of the Federation of Sentient Planets, then anyone showing the new power whose life was in danger could, together with their family members, be taken to Langala IV.

  It was left to the scientists who wished to study them to come up with a way of moving them without telling them of the Godhe’s existence.

  That they were successful in this task is obvious to anyone interested enough to be reading this account.

  The initial research into the ability of the mutants was done on Centrallis, moving to a new facility on Langala IV in 22,132. In 23,449 they abandoned that research when the scientists were called back to their home world as male teenagers were developing muscle atrophy in the legs and arms.

  The rescue operations continued with ‘witches’ from Earth, or Tellus III as they called it being taken together with any family members to Langala IV.

  Over 5,000 years later events took place as described in the Unicorn Witch Trilogy.