by M. D. Krix
I believe this mix of hopes and disappointments is what convinced all of us. If they had promised everything we ever dreamt of, some would have been wary of all this sounding too good to be true. But it was not the case. They seemed credible. What they said made sense. All questions were answered in an acceptable way.
And more than anything, humankind wanted to believe.
Did Nacer Cornelius plan all this on his own? Did such a young man manage to trick an entire world? Maybe…
But this is more likely that the Shadow in the Rocks did it. He had been observing us for centuries and knew everything about our species. And he had plenty of time to work out every detail of his strategy.
Chapter 4 — The End of The War
Was it suggested by the Dark Shadow?
Did the idea come from Nacer Cornelius?
It doesn’t matter anymore. Sergeant Greta took the decision, and there was no possibility to turn back after this. Maybe she could have claimed she had been forced to do so, and some might have believed her, but this would have been a lie. She was the Commander of Worldsend Garrison, and she was the only one with such authority.
I’m convinced, however, that she didn’t do it alone. I do not think that Nacer Cornelius was taken by surprise, and this is very unlikely that President Puhi hadn’t been informed beforehand. Should he have disagreed, he could have done something about it. He had the power to fire the Commander, and had shown already that he had no problem in exercising this right of his.
Once Sergeant Greta had made the decision official, nothing could be done, however.
She had previously stopped the maintenance of the old drones, probably in order to save some money and have more for their research in communication. After months of being left alone by the sea, they were not usable anymore and could be thrown away. Articulations were rusty, hydraulic systems had leaked, and electronic components had burnt.
All six hundred robots who had defended Worldsend Garrison for decades were sold to private collectors.
The new models had been preserved in good shape during all this time, at great cost for the fort. This is a fact that I can’t overlook when I think of Sergeant Greta. Even if she was convinced that the aliens were coming in peace, she still allocated resources for the maintenance of the defensive drones. It took important amount of money and manpower to do so, but she kept them ready to use.
The day the four hundred robots were definitely deactivated, they were in perfect shape.
***
Why did she take this decision?
What was there to gain in suppressing our best line of defense?
Looking backwards, it seems utterly bold and stupid. But, at that time, everybody was convinced that the war had ended. The discussions were about a new era of collaboration with the visitors, and priority was given to communication and technological development. Weapons were not as important as they used to be, especially when they cost so much.
Would another Commander have taken a different decision? Nothing’s less sure. It’s easy to rewrite history afterwards, but we must remember what the situation was back then. As a matter of fact, while I recall many people having doubts, none said clearly that it was a mistake.
The war had ended, we were at peace. Those drones were relics from a period of which we were ashamed, and nobody wanted to conserve a reminder of the massacres.
Why to keep those memories from a time when we were killing aliens now that they were about to bring us immortality? Mankind was feeling bad for what we had done. Rather than a gesture towards the extraterrestrial offering their help, it was a way for us to start deleting our past and forget as fast as possible.
It seems so childish, so naïve … but we all wanted to believe in a better future. We were careless. Who can refuse the opportunity for space travel and eternal life?
Chapter 5—Welcoming Our Visitors
The details about this period are a bit confused, and I apologize for this. Back then, I was not documenting anything. I didn’t see the point. Why to keep track of such data when everything is available on Virtualia?
When it started to dawn on me that I should gather as much information as possible, I didn’t especially pay attention to the weeks between the decision to demilitarize Worldsend Garrison and the arrival of the aliens on the now-famous Day of Intergalactic Friendship.
I remember that it’s been a happy time, though. People were smiling, optimism was always present. Nothing had changed yet, but the promise of what was to come had been enough. In those moments of high hopes and expectations, humanity showed its best side.
Obviously, there had been talks of open borders, debts cancellation, general amnesty for political prisoners… But governments always bring that kind of thing forward, especially during election years. Those are not really important, nor meaningful, and they never happen anyway.
Because changes don’t come from up, they start at the lowest level.
This is what made those few weeks so incredibly pleasant. If I got caught in the general vibe of happiness and hope, it’s not because the Dark Shadow had promised space travel and long life through regeneration. I was obviously curious and eager about those, but I’m a simple old man who believes a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
We listened to news concerning the lowest criminality rate recorded in history, higher productivity, lower levels of pollution, increased salaries… And it was not only TV chatter, actually. Numbers and statistics were shown, examples were given. This was really happening. I regret that I didn’t collect more details about all that before Virtualia shut down.
Now, those are only empty statements made by a lonesome man living in the mountains, and I have nothing to back up my affirmations. You’ll have to take my word for it.
However, I witnessed with my own eyes something that illustrate perfectly what I want to transmit about humankind being better during those weeks.
***
I used to dwell in the capital city of Otezalp at that moment. Not in the fancy districts close to the old palace, but neither in the popular neighborhood. My flat was in a quiet street of a middle-class residential area.
The girl next door was an illustration of everything that I loathed in our times. She was in her late twenties, and had never worked in her existence, being too busy partying, taking great care of her body, and spending the money she inherited (or got somewhere else).
This was not an issue for me. Even if I disapprove, I consider that everybody has the right to live the way he pleases, as long as he doesn’t disturb anyone. In her case, she took a malign satisfaction in creating problems to others.
Nobody would have cared about her coming back at 3 AM, if she wouldn’t have been knocking on all doors waking up half of the residents. When this was brought to her attention, her answer was a simple “It’s not my fault if you boring people don’t know how to enjoy life.” She kept on doing it.
I remember when the cat of our concierge escaped and started running wildly in the building. The poor man was so stressed to have it back, he asked for some help. I was among those chasing the animal and I had cornered it on my floor, trying to herd it towards the stairs where it would be picked up by its master.
When this lady opened her door and saw the defenseless feline, she kicked it harshly and sent it flying towards the staircase. Luckily, the animal landed on its paws and the concierge quickly took it in his arms. I was shocked and confronted the girl, who didn’t say anything and went out of our building.
I could put many examples of her selfish and mean behavior, without adding much to my point. The young lady being dead by now, I do not wish to dirty her memory more than necessary.
Well, in those weeks before the Day of Intergalactic Friendship, I watched her helping an old woman to cross a street, and then carrying her bag until what I can only suppose was her home. I was surprised, but didn’t think much of it at the moment. Maybe the elderly was her grandmother.
This is
when I saw her chatting in the entrance with the concierge while gently striking the head of the cat purring in her arms that I realized she had changed.
All her anger and frustration—or whatever else had been fanning her meanness—, had vanished. Perhaps some psychologist could explain the reasons, but the facts are that for some weeks the world was a better place to live, humankind being stripped of its individualism and focused on a brighter future.
In a way, this is the gift that the Black Monster gave us: a few weeks of happiness, a glimpse of what could be a better world. We all enjoyed it, even more so because we were all convinced that it was only the beginning.
Had we known the price to pay for a month of bliss, things would have been different.
***
The Day of Intergalactic Friendship was to be the official beginning of the collaboration between humankind and the extraterrestrial species that had been traveling through space and then had waited for centuries only to meet us.
Obviously, the ceremony was to happen in Worldsend Beach, where the aliens had been visiting us for so many years.
The place had been buzzing with activity, thousands of workers building roads and houses to accommodate the millions who were to participate at the event. Shops were needed for all the newcomers to find the necessary goods, so malls were erected. The demand for merchandise was greater than ever and some industries decided to produce closer to their clients. Factories appeared in the desert.
It took only a few weeks for the city to triple its size. Men can do unimaginable things when they collaborate towards a common goal.
This is highly probable that the number of inhabitants increased even more.
Worldsend Beach had been mainly a tourist destination with many houses and flats belonging to wealthy residents of Karabia, Otezalp or even Keeroonah. They were usually coming here to enjoy the sun during weekends and holidays. They all moved in.
I was not there and didn’t witness it myself, but TV was showing daily images with thousands of people walking along the wharf, or in the streets of the city. Worldsend Garrison was always there, somewhere in the background. This was a key feature of the region, and it was unthinkable to make a footage of Worldsend Beach without the fort appearing.
I saw the golf course that had replaced the cemetery on the northern side of the garrison.
I saw the tribunes being elevated on the stretch of sand between the fort and the shore, where so many men lost their life in the past.
Times had changed.
At the exact spot where the blood of thousands of soldiers had been spilled, the first brick of an edifice dedicated to mutual understanding, tolerance and freedom would be laid. The metaphor is not mine—it is taken from one of Puhi’s speech—, but I liked it.
It was meaningful for men and aliens to meet and start an era of peace and collaboration where they had been fighting each other for almost a millennium.
Mankind was ready to welcome our visitors.
Chapter 6 — The Day of Intergalactic Friendship
The entire world witnessed the events of that day. It was on all TV channels, everywhere on Virtualia… Not a single person on our planet dared to miss a moment that was sure to be remembered through history.
Millions were there, in Worldsend Beach. Maybe tens of millions, it’s hard to say. It was only estimations and projections back then, and after that nobody cared to do an exact count. The whole city was teeming with men, women and youngsters, all looking towards the bay.
They had settled in the desert as well. They had come with tents and campervans to be a part of that moment, so they later could tell to their grandchildren: “You know, I was there at the Day of Intergalactic Friendship.”
People showed up from the entire Great Republic, but not only. Many residents of the southern continent had been crossing the Valkyan Sea on their boat to be there. Citizens of the Free Western Territories had flown over the Great Ocean to be present.
As far as the eye could see, the tip of the Karabia Peninsula was densely crowded, and more cars could be observed on the highway traversing the desert.
The only place that was not black with people was the area on the beach in front of Worldsend Garrison, where tribunes had been installed and space kept free for the visitors to come. Wyverns were sure to appear, and rumors said that their master himself would be present.
Can the Dark Shadow fly over the water like the other aliens?
Will he be talking, or will he send transmissions for the AI to translate?
Those were the type of questions being debated at length on the forums of Virtualia and on TV sets. Everyone had an answer, even if they were only making wild guesses based on nothing other than their own personal wishes. It could be that Nacer Cornelius and those in Worldsend Garrison had more information but it never appeared in any of their daily reports.
Only the exact time when the aliens would come was known. They proved to be punctual, if not especially polite towards their host.
***
At 8 PM on the Day of Intergalactic Friendship, Wyverns appeared above the ocean. Hundreds of them hovered above the bay, slowly heading towards the shore in tight ranks. They kept on coming, reaching thousands, maybe even ten of thousands. No official count exists. It could be that the computer in Worldsend Garrison managed to number them, but it was destroyed before the information was made public.
The crowd cheered. Even if they couldn’t see anything, they knew it had started. They were part of an historic event.
I wonder how Sergeant Greta felt in those moments. Nacer Cornelius was outside, standing between President Puhi and the King of Valkya. As Head of the Institute for Alien Communication, he had been invited to the main tribune, together with the most powerful men and women of every nation in the world.
But Sergeant Greta was Commander of Worldsend Garrison and her place was in the war room, with the Shooters. They were among the few people who watched live the endless flow of wyverns coming from the rocks and approaching the shore.
How much time did the need to understand what was occurring?
Did the soldiers blame their Commander for the deactivation of the defensive drones?
Who gave the order to start shooting? Sergeant Greta or another officer who had taken control of the war room in a desperate effort to save the fort?
I know precisely how Worldsend Garrison fell because I saw it live on TV, but I will never know what exactly happened inside those walls during its final hours. I want to believe that the members of the Peace Corps fought bravely until the last moment, falling in the line of duty while defending the garrison with their own lives.
The Dark Master made his appearance in the mist above the rocks. No matter how many times he had been described and represented, it was consistently a shocking view. His five heads were no more than dark protuberances above his shapeless body. They bear no ears, eyes, nose or any specifically facial feature.
For the first time ever, I wondered why we had always been considering those were heads. I didn’t have the opportunity to think much about this, because something happened then.
The numerous articulated limbs started to move forward. Some of the final segments plunged deep in the sea, and the shapeless body left the rocks where it had been hiding for centuries and advanced towards Worldsend.
One of the many questions had eventually been answered. The Dark Shadow doesn’t fly, he walks.
Seeing the huge splashes of water in the bay, people started to cheer even more. They had no idea of what was happening, but in their mind it could only be good. The aliens were coming to save the world.
Panic spread only after the first rockets were shot and President Puhi was dead.
***
Clearly, someone inside Worldsend Garrison had sensed that something was wrong, because soldiers opened fire at the very moment the wyverns made it to the shore.
Could it be that Sergeant Greta had posted men in the guard towers as a precautio
n? Or did they take position in emergency after realizing that the Day of Intergalactic Friendship had turned out to be the Day of the Great Invasion?
The drones had been deactivated, but the fort had an impressive amount of firepower. Rocket launchers and chain guns were everywhere on the outer walls and up each tower. Their maintenance was cheap and easy: they were still perfectly usable. They confirmed their worth.
Rounds of bullets flew over the crowds and hit the first line of wyverns. The men and women stationed in Worldsend Garrison were not only skilled and trained, they also all had proven to be gifted with the capacity to See or to Know. Those handling the chain guns could spot perfectly the enemy, and they had learned a long time ago where to aim.
Dozens of wyverns died. I guess this is the moment when the first casualties happened on our side as well. Some of the gigantic flying bodies fell right on the agglomerated crowd and crushed people, causing panic.
Some tried to flee towards the beach, others left in direction of the city, and nobody went anywhere. Most of those who had managed to find a premium spot on the piers ended up being either squashed under an invisible dead alien or cut in half by the powerful claws of the wyverns.
The soldiers were still firing and the invaders were still being killed, but too many of them kept on coming. They were simply unstoppable. When one of them was shot, five would appear behind. In less than a minute, they were all over the beach. This includes the empty space left to welcome the visitors, and the tribunes where all the world leaders had been waiting for their moment of immortal glory.
***
This should be no surprise that this is the exact spot where the battle was the most intense. Worldsend Garrison did its best to protect the President, the King of Valkya, the Head of the Institute for Alien Communication and all the other important people present there. The invaders gathered their forces to destroy the enemy they had been fighting for so long.