Collecting Resources

Collecting Resources

A Short Story

Written By

SpaceFaction

     Juanin and Noorva watch the large Image Monitor in front of them as a huge metal structure above a tall and wide opening into a mountain behind this structure when it explodes, sending pieces of this structure everywhere. The bottom half of it falls to cover this opening mostly. Except for a few small holes around the top of it.

     “About a thousand were there when this happened. How many Kassims got out of there alive and how many are still in this Resources Collectors Sites?” Juanin asked.

     “Around two hundred Kassims ran out before the explosion happened. About six hundred are still in there,” answered Noorva. “After what just happened, we shouldn’t have any problems taking control of this planet too.”

     Juanin looks at Noorva and smiles. She never has taken her eyes off this Image Monitor. “Contact the other Resources Collectors. I want to know who to blame for what has happened here.”

     “I told you destroying one of our Resources Collectors Sites would get us control of this planet too. All we need to do is blame the other Resource Collectors and they will blame each other.”

##

     “We now have seven planets under our control,” says Noorva after she walks into a large room with several hovering desks there. She goes to the desk opposite Juanin. “That means we have three more in our Group of Planets left to control.”

     Juanin turns away from his Data Monitor on his desk to look at Noorva. “These three planets aren’t inhabited. We will need to populate these planets before we can start the Resource Collecting. And we can do that right now.”

     “Of course, we don’t know about our seventh planet. We won’t know that for several more months. But we know we have been having problems with the other six planets we already control constantly.”

     “Speaking of our six other planets, what are the latest problems they are having?” Juanin asks.

     Noorva taps a few buttons on the desk's indented control panel. She looks up at her Data Monitor. “We have a few minor problems on all six planets. But nothing we will have any problems dealing with.

     “I hope you’re right,” says Juanin. “We have had a lot of failures lately and we can’t have anymore.”

##

     “Who is responsible for destroying one of our Resource Collection Sites?” Noorva asks. Juanin and Noorva sat next to each other in front of the large Image Monitor with four small monitors on both sides of the large one.

     On each monitor, a male or female representative appears on it. When they speak, their image moves to the large monitor. The image of the planet they represent moves to the small monitor they are on. On the large monitor, there is an Ovvin representative on it right now.

     “I am representing all six of the planets you control,” says the Ovvin. “We know who is responsible for destroying your Resource Collecting Site on the planet Kassim. It is you. You are the one who destroyed it yourself. We also know why you have done it.”

     “You are blaming us so that we would fight among us. Weaking or killing us so you could get control of this planet too. It hasn’t worked. We figure out what you are doing fairly quickly. All eight of us know we have about an equal share of Kassim too.”

     Noorva whispers so only Juanin can hear her. “Another failure. Only this one was a global failure.”

##

     “What is happening on Bayvoon?” Juanin asks. “You are responsible for keeping the other inhabitants of Bayvoon in line. Why haven’t you been doing this?”

     “I have been keeping them in line,” answers the Bayvoon Yenona on the large Image Monitor Juanin and Noorva are staring at. “But I have been having some problems getting Bayvoons to help us get these resources.”

     Juanin and Noorva look at each other before they return to staring at Yenona. “What kind of problems have you been having?” Noorva asks.

     “The usual problems: getting the Bayvoons to help us get these resources, getting the ones who are helping us help us more, things like that.”

     “You need to get the help you need yourself,” says Juanin. “But I think we can help you. Give us the names of the Bayvoons who aren’t helping us more. We will either convince them to do more to help us or we will make room for other Bayvoons to help us.”

     Yenona looks at someone nearby that Juanin and Noorva can’t see. She looks back at them. “What does that mean? Are you going to do what I think you will do with these Bayvoons?”

##

     “We may have a deadly problem on the planet Rovime that may affect the rest of the planets we control,” says Noorva after looking at her Data Monitor. “A sickness has broken out on Rovime. And it has been killing the Rovimes who have been helping us with our Resource Collecting on Rovime.

     “How many deaths have there been and why it’s happening to our Rovimes?” Juanin asks.

     Noorva looks back at her Data Monitor. She keeps her eyes on her monitor while she answers Juanin’s questions. “About three hundred Rovimes have died so far. We still don’t know what sickness is or how it’s spread. But we do know it has something to do with our Resources Collecting.”

     “Is it just with our help or have others on Rovime been dying because of this sickness too?” Juanin asks.

     “Most of these deaths have been from our help. But there have been a lot that are dying outside of our Resources Collection site. And it’s spreading further away from this site.”

     Juanin starts looking at his Data Monitor. “Is it just this site or has this sickness been killing Rovimes from our other sites? What about the other eight Collecting Resources? Do their sites have this sickness too?”

####

     Noorva and Juanin pace in opposite directions in front of their large Image Monitor. When they meet in the middle, they stop pacing and look at their monitor, which has a Unicoma Controller on it. “Tell us again what is happening on Unicoma,” says Noorva.

     “It’s not a big problem yet,” says Soddan. “Several thousand Unicomans don’t like how they have been treated at their Resources Collecting Sites. What they want are better conditions. And they will do whatever it takes to get them.”

     “What does that mean?” Juanin asks.

     Soddan looks at her small Data Monitor in his hand. “It means all of our sites have had some Unicomans walk off their helping and some haven’t come in to do their helping.”

     “They haven’t talked about what they will do next. But I have heard they are going to come together as a group at all our sites at the same time.”

     “We know what has been happening on Unicoma,” says Juanin. “But we didn’t know it was this bad. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. We know what we to do to stop this togetherness from happening.”

##

     The large Image Monitor shows a Hagove putting a gem in his lower mouth. He gulps to swallow it. On the small Monitors, the other Hagoveians are doing similar things with gems. “It looks like we have another problem,” says Noorva.

     “No wonder we haven’t been getting as many gems as we should be getting from this planet,” says Juanin as he and Juanin watch what is happening on Hagove on their Monitors.
“How long has this been going on? Who is responsible for this happening?”

     “We don’t know who is responsible for this,” answers Noorva. “But we know someone is responsible. It’s too well done for it to be a group of individuals. They must be giving these gems to someone.”

     Juanin looks at all nine Image Monitors individually for several seconds. “Do we know who may be responsible for this problem?”

     “Unfortunately, we don’t know who it is yet. But we are watching several Hagoveians. After all, they have the Credits to give to these individuals.”

     “Why do they want these gems?” Juanin asks. “They already have all the Credits they need. There must be another reason why they want them. And I want to know what that reason is.”

##

     Juanin points at their large Monitor and the group of Gorvons in a large room. They appear to be about to start a meeting, and the look on his face says Juanin doesn’t like this meeting. “I was afraid something like this would happen again. We need to stop this gathering before it’s too late.”

     “It looks like we're already too late,” says Noorva, looking at where Juanin is pointing. “They are about to start their gathering.”

     “The operative word is ‘about.’ They haven’t started yet,” says Juanin. “We still may be able to stop it.”

     Noorva looks at Juanin. “How can we stop them?”

     “You weren’t with me a few Group of Planets ago,” says Juanin, who is smiling at Noorva now. “There is only one way to stop this gathering before it’s too late. All we need to do is eliminate this gathering.”

     “What does ‘eliminate’ mean?” Noorva asks.

     Juanin is still smiling when he starts looking at the gathering. “It means what it sounds like it means. We need to eliminate them before they are a threat to Gorvon and the rest of the planets we control. And I’m not talking about all the Group of Planets we control.”

##

     “We only have one more planet we need to look at this time period. And I don’t think they have any problems that we need to solve.” Noorva taps some buttons on her desk controls. “They seldom have any problems.”

     “Why are you telling me this?” Juanin asks.

     Noorva looks at Juanin instead of her Data Monitor. “I think we need to start thinking about the other uninhabited planets in this Group of Planets. We must start populating these planets before the other eight Resource Collectors start doing it.”

     “I agree we need to do this now.” Juanin brings up the first uninhabited planet on the large Image Monitor. The six planets they control and the other two uninhabited planets are on the small monitors. “But how are we going to do this? Which three planets will we populate these planets with?”

     “Why do we need to decide on just one planet? I have been thinking about this. And I think we need to select these individuals from all six of the planets we control to populate these planets. It’s the best way for us to get control of these three planets too.”

##

     Noorva looks at the large Image Monitor as an explosion happens on it. “It looks like I was wrong about our last planet we need to look at having any problems.” Several more explosions start happening all over Waldim.

     “We have a deadly problem happening on Waldim right now. A planet-wide conflict has started there. There have been several thousand deaths all around Waldim already. It hasn’t affected our Resources Collecting Sites yet. But it’s only a matter of how long it will take before it does.”

     “How long do we have before it affects us? And what can we do to stop it from happening?” Juanin asks.

     Several more explosions happen on Waldim. Juanin and Noorva can hear all the deaths happening there. “I don’t know how long it will be before it affects us. But from the sound of it, it probably won’t be too long before it does.”

     “As for how we can stop it, I don’t think we can do it. It’s up to the Waldims to stop it. And the sooner they stop it the better. It could spread to the other planets we control if they don’t stop it. If that happens, Not only will these planets be destroyed, but we will be too.”

Word Count =1,985