When the Gods Aren't Gods: Book Two of The Theogony

by Chris Kennedy

  “Flying snakes and pyramids,” Calvin said. “Coatls. Do you mean coatls like Quetzalcoatl? Wasn’t that like the god of the Incans or something like that?”

  “Quetzalcoatl was actually worshiped by the Mayan Indians,” answered Steropes, “and somewhat also by the Aztecs. Unfortunately, that is exactly what I mean. Coatls are biological parasites that live off of other species. A nest of them made it to your planet during the Mayan era. If you remember seeing pictures of priests cutting out victims’ still-beating hearts on top of Central American pyramids, that was their inspiration. They were big believers in human sacrifice; not only did they like the taste of human flesh, but they also liked the psychic rush they got from inspiring fear in others.”

  “Wait,” said Captain Griffin, “those things really exist?”

  “Yes,” answered Steropes, “they really exist, and they love to infest pre-technic humanoid civilizations. They use their advanced technology and proclaim themselves to be gods, especially of learning and knowledge. They do give the civilization knowledge, but it comes at a tremendous cost in blood. If there is an infestation here, we have to get rid of it.”

  “Are there other people living down there?” asked Calvin.

  “I haven’t actually seen any of the coatls on the island,” replied Steropes, “but there is definitely a civilization down there. It is impossible to tell with complete certainty from orbit, but the inhabitants seem to be humanoid in appearance, although possibly a bit smaller and darker in complexion than you are.”

  “How sure are you that there are coatls here with this civilization?” asked the ambassador. “It would seem to me that if they are sacrificing members of that society, they may be grateful if we could get rid of the coatls.”

  “I am positive that there are coatls there,” replied Steropes. He changed the view on the camera so that the whole town could be seen. All of the structures were pyramids. They were also all painted blood red in color, giving the scene a very ominous feel. “This layout is like the pyramid complexes the coatls had the Mayans build on Earth; in fact, it is nearly identical to the complex at Chacchoben in present-day Mexico.” He used a laser pointer to indicate a cluster of buildings on the southern end of the city. “There is a large pyramid here that is probably used as the palace and administration structure. It is surrounded by a group of smaller pyramids. These are residential structures where the nobles and priests live.”

  “I thought the pyramids were made of stones,” said Calvin. “The surfaces of these pyramids all look smooth.”

  “They are made of stones,” said Arges. “They just have plaster on them to make them look flat and smooth. The ones on Earth were completed similarly, but the plaster rotted over time so that all you see now is just the stones.”

  “North of this cluster of buildings is a large courtyard with a ball court on one side of it,” continued Steropes. “The ball court is this long narrow playing alley that has sloping walls on both sides of it.” Like the pyramids, its walls were plastered and painted bright red. “The playing alley has closed end zones,” noted Steropes, “giving the structure an I-shape. The largest playing field on Earth was the Great Ball Court at Chichen Itza, which was 96.5 meters long; this one measures 105 meters.”

  “Wow,” said Calvin, “that’s a big field.”

  “Indeed,” replied Steropes. “North of the courtyard and ball court is the main temple.”

  “Where?” asked the ambassador. “On the other side of that hill?”

  “No,” said Steropes, “that hill is the temple.”

  “Damn,” muttered Calvin in awe. “That thing is huge.”

  “Yes, it is,” agreed Steropes. “I estimate that the pyramid is about a 1,350’ square that stands nearly 350’ high. The temple sits on a 2,000’ square man-made plateau that is about 40’ higher than the rest of the area. There is one staircase that goes up to the temple level at the top of the pyramid. It is on the side that faces the rest of the city.”

  “The plateau is 40’ high and 2,000’ on a side?” asked Captain Griffin. “How did they do that? I thought you said they were pre-technic. Do they have excavation equipment?”

  Steropes shook his head. “No,” he said. “No power equipment was used to make the plateau. If it was formed the same way as the ones on Earth; it was built by the city’s inhabitants, moving dirt by hand.”

  Several swear words and expressions of disbelief filled the bridge.

  “The antimatter power source is located in this temple,” said Steropes. “It is the only sign of civilization on the planet. There is no way that the inhabitants of this city developed an antimatter plant. None. The coatls are here, and they are in this temple. And they must be destroyed!”

  “Wow,” said Captain Griffin. “It sounds like you feel strongly about that.”

  “They are an affront to everything that I believe in,” replied Steropes. “I’m normally against killing, but I make an exception for coatls. They must be destroyed.”

  “OK,” said Captain Griffin. “I get it. You’re not big on them.”

  “Wait a minute,” interrupted the ambassador. “We’re supposed to make new friends, not commit genocide on the new civilizations we find. How does that make us any better than the Drakuls or the lizards you faced on your first mission?”

  “I didn’t say to destroy the whole civilization,” said Steropes. “I said that the coatls must be destroyed. We need to go to the surface of the planet and throw off the yoke that the coatls have on these people. If we do that, you would have access to the resources on the planet.”

  “How powerful are the coatls?” Calvin asked. “Can we beat them with the weapons we have?”

  “Absolutely,” Steropes said. “With your suits and lasers, you will make short work of them. They are not that strong, but they are poisonous if you let them get in close. I have never heard of them using weapons; they normally use less advanced societies to do their dirty work. They also don’t have hands, which makes it hard for them to hold most weapons.”

  “Well, if the things I remember about Mayan human sacrifice are true,” Captain Griffin said, “and the coatls are behind it, then we need to do something about them. We could also use the resources here, which will require going to the planet.” She paused, considering, then turned to Calvin. “Why don’t you take a squad down there and make contact with the locals. Once you’ve established relations with them, we will send down the ambassador to talk to the leaders of their civilization.”

  Calvin nodded. “Yes, ma’am,” he said.

  “Our mission isn’t to commit genocide or participate in the affairs of other civilizations, though,” she reminded him. “If you find any coatls, take them prisoner if at all possible. Try to use the minimum amount of force necessary to control the situation, but keep our people safe.”

  Calvin nodded again. Turning to Steropes, he asked, “Is there a good place to land?”

  “Yes,” Steropes replied. “Although they built their cities away from the water, there is a good spot to land right here on this beach.” He pointed at the map. “There is some sort of structure just inland of the landing point, and then there is what looks like a road that goes through the jungle to the main city. I would be happy to join the team going to the surface of the planet and show you myself.”

  “Really?” Captain Griffin asked. “I didn’t think that your race believed in fighting.”

  “Normally, it does not,” Steropes replied. “However, I am an anomaly among my people. I have been trained for combat.”

  “No shit?” Night asked, who had been quiet to this point. “You’re a warrior?”

  “I used to be,” Steropes answered. “Up until the destruction of Atlantis, when my pride got the better of me.”

  “What do you mean, ‘the destruction of Atlantis’?” Captain Griffin asked. “You’ve hinted at this many times, but never told us the whole story. Maybe it’s time we heard it.”

  “It probably is,” S
teropes replied, “although the story is hard to tell.” He paused, and the Terrans could see he was struggling with it. “It was a long time ago,” he finally said, “back when we first arrived on your planet. Not too long after we landed, the Drakuls fleeing the final battle with the Eldive came to Earth in a stolen Eldive warship.” He paused, a glazed look coming over his eyes as he remembered. “I can see it just like it was yesterday. We were awakened from our sleep on a beautiful summer day. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, just a wisp of smoke coming from the volcano in the center of the island. Temperatures were pleasant...there was a light breeze blowing...it was another beautiful day in the south Pacific.”

  He looked at Calvin, and Calvin could see his eyes tearing up. “But the Drakuls had come to the planet. When the humans woke us up and told us about them, we knew that they were Drakuls.” He laughed sadly. “We were so young and stupid,” he continued. “We thought if we just upgraded some of the humans, we would be able to take care of the Drakuls without calling for additional help.”

  “Who is we?” Captain Griffin asked.

  “Myself and my wife, Parvati,” Steropes replied. “We assaulted the Drakul encampment with over 1,000 implanted humans. But the Drakuls knew we were coming; I don’t know how. As we ran screaming into their camp, they hit us from behind from where they had been hiding.” A tear rolled down his left cheek. “One of them grabbed Parvati, and I saw it tear off her arm and begin eating it. There were two Drakuls between us...there was nothing I could do. I don’t remember how, but I killed both of them, and somehow I made it to the one that killed Parvati.”

  A tear rolled down his right cheek, and he looked back down as he continued, “I shot the Drakul. And shot it. And shot it. I shot it until it came apart from being shot so many times. Then I shot the biggest pieces that were left...I fired until the battery in the rifle went dead.” Calvin knew that the rifle batteries were usually good for over 500 shots before they had to be replaced. Even if Steropes had fired the rifle in the early phase of the battle, that was still a lot of shots.

  “That day I swore I would never fight again. One of the Drakuls escaped our attack, and he set off the bomb that destroyed Atlantis. If I hadn’t fallen into despair, I could have stopped him. There were enough humans left, and we had enough firepower...but I was bereft of my senses. In my grief, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think. All I could do was sit there with Parvati’s head in my lap. I picked her up assuming she was dead, but she wasn’t dead yet. She still lived, and I watched the life go out of her eyes.”

  Steropes shook his head. “I never even got to bury her,” he added. “The human leaders finally brought me to my senses, and we tracked the Drakul back to its lair in a nearby cave. Arges and Brontes had recovered the Eldive ship while we were fighting the Drakuls, and they met us at the cave with it so that we could get new batteries for our weapons. We went into the cave and killed the Drakul. It was only after it died that we found the bomb that it had armed. It was a big one...nearly big enough to crack the planet to its core, which was probably the Drakul’s intention. We only had 60 seconds before detonation. We ran back to the ship with all of the humans that we had brought and took off. We watched as the island blew up, with the body of my wife still on it. She was so brave.” He paused.

  “I wasn’t functional anymore,” he said when he continued. “After the tidal wave caused by the explosion had diminished, Arges made the decision to drop off the humans in what is modern day Greece. He thought that he had brought the ship in unseen, but some of the locals saw the humans getting off it. The locals believed that the humans were gods, since they had descended from the skies. Most of them had been modified by us, so compared to the locals, they were gods. They were faster, stronger and could communicate via their implants, which gave them tremendous advantages over the locals. Arges was unable to disarm the Terrans that still had weapons. Poseidon still had his trident, others had their laser rifles. That was my fault too. I could have taken them, but in my grief I just didn’t care. Every single one of them was already more powerful than 100 of the locals, even without these weapons. Thinking that we were leaving their planet, the humans decided that they would be gods...and they were. The Olympians were actually a family of 12, who were led by three brothers, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades.”

  Steropes smiled wryly. “The irony of it all was that Parvati and I had been sent to Earth because we were too warlike. It was not seemly in our society to enjoy battles, fighting and war. The fact that we did made us outcasts. We wanted to go to the final battle with the Drakuls. Because we wanted to, our leadership not only didn’t send us, they sent us here for a 5,000 year tour of duty with Arges and Brontes, who they thought would pacify us. If we hadn’t wanted to fight so much, we wouldn’t have been here to actually have to do battle with the Drakuls. Funny how things work out, eh?”

  “Umm...I’m sorry but I’m not sure that’s funny at all,” said Calvin. “Why do you want to go down and fight here if you swore you would never fight again?”

  “Want to?” asked Steropes. “You misunderstand. I don’t want to. The loss of Parvati and the destruction of Atlantis cured me of ever wanting to go to war ever again. I don’t want to fight. However, I have fought the coatls before, and I know what to expect, much more than you do. They usually build their pyramids in the same way, and I am familiar with their layout. It’s simple; I know where the secret passages are, and you do not. I will save lives by being there and will be a tremendous resource if you let me come. I don’t want to come; I need to come.”

  “If you think you’re up to it,” replied Calvin, “We would love to take advantage of your experience. You are welcome to join us.” He looked at Night. “I’m going to go down on this one with the Space Force. You’ll have the Ground Force in backup.”

  “Why the Space Force?” asked Night. “It would seem like this is the perfect spot for the Ground Force. The planet is Earth-like, with similar temperatures and gravity. The force will be landing on the ground. What’s up?”

  “I don’t know,” replied Calvin. “Something just tells me that we’ll need the Space Force on this one.”

  Squadron CO’s Office, TSS Vella Gulf, In Orbit Around Keppler-22 ‘b,’ August 12, 2020

  “Can I come in?” asked Father John Zuhlsdorf, the Gulf’s chaplain.

  Calvin looked up from his desk, where he was trying to get a few last minute administrative things completed prior to the assault on the planet. Calvin had long ago decided that the only thing besides cockroaches that would survive a nuclear holocaust was paperwork. “Sure,” he said. “What can I do for you?”

  “I feel that I am being called to go on your upcoming mission to the planet,” replied Father Zuhlsdorf. “As a priest, it is my mission and duty to spread the word of God.” He smiled. “I’m betting that these locals here have never heard it.”

  “Um, I’m not sure that is such a great idea, Father,” replied Calvin. “I’m expecting that we’ll be in combat this time. Not only that, it might be close combat if we have to go inside of the pyramid, probably even hand-to-hand. Despite your skills, I’m not sure you’re ready for that.” He thought for a moment, remembering his first experience with looking up the wrong end of a Chinese assault rifle. “Being in a position of ‘kill or be killed’ is pretty...intense.”

  “I understand that,” the chaplain replied, “however, I think I showed your Master Chief that I am fairly skilled in the hand-to-hand arena. He did promise me a trip to the surface if I beat him.”

  “I know that he did,” Calvin said, “however, you have to realize that he didn’t have the authority to promise you that.”

  “I know that,” Father Zuhlsdorf said. “However, I feel that I am being called to go on this mission. If you didn’t intend to bring me along to a planet, why did you allow me to get modified for combat or to get a combat suit?”

  “Hmmm...” Calvin said, thinking out loud. “I forgot I told Night to do that. Having those things d
oes increase your survivability in combat...”

  “Without a doubt,” agreed the chaplain. “I have also been practicing with the platoon to get back into my old fighting shape.”

  “If I say ‘yes,’” Calvin said, “and that is still a big ‘if,’ what sort of gear do you have? I mean, I don’t have anyone that I can detail to watch over you. You’ll have to be able to take care of yourself. Can you do that?”

  “I’m glad you asked,” Father Zuhlsdorf said with a smile. He stepped back out of the office and reached over to pick something up from the deck. Stepping back into the office, Calvin could see that he had a handful of weapons and armor.

  Calvin laughed. “You’re nothing if not prepared, it seems.” He laughed again. “All right, what have you got there?”

  Father Zuhlsdorf set down the gear carefully and picked up a small sword that was just over two feet in length. The blade was slightly curved at about the midpoint, almost looking like the khukri of an Indian ghurka soldier, but a lot bigger. “This is a Greek falcata sword,” he said. “It was a devastating sword used by the Spanish against the soldiers of the Roman Empire. It was captured in the Second Punic War and brought back to Rome. Although it hits like an axe, it still maintains the blade of a sword.”

  He picked up a larger sword and helmet, treating them as if they were very special. “These are holy relics,” he said. “They are the blessed sword and hat of Heinrich Walpot von Bassenheim, the first Grandmaster of the Order of Brothers of the German house of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, also known as the Teutonic Order. Blessed swords and hats were gifts given to leaders by the pope, in recognition of their defense of Christendom. Each pair was blessed by a pope on Christmas Eve in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Although the practice is believed to have originated with Pope Paul I’s gift to King Pepin the Short of the Franks in 758, this is the oldest surviving pair.” He looked at the pair lovingly.