anteria

Day ?

I woke up.

The last thing I remember was being attacked, but by what?

I looked around. I was lying on what appeared to be a lip in the wall, only this one wrapped
around the entire room, and the room was round!  What was this place?

“Father, father?.” No answer.

There was a table in the middle of the room. On it there were various objects, some recognizable, others completely alien. I realized this must be an alien hospital.

What they have done to me didn't seem to bother me, I didn't see any malicious devices, and I was in good health. Besides I needed to find my father.
         
I walked down an embankment on the other side of the room, and found a hatch-like round door. I began to twist the latch, but it was stuck.
         
There was a buzzing noise and a red light flashed above my head.
         
I was locked in. I felt the cold hand of finality grip my heart: I am a prisoner. Then I heard a faint crackle and a voice emanated from a flat disk of rubber attached to the wall.

“Don't worry son I'll be there soon.” It  was father.

“Father, father?”

Click, he was gone.

My heart was pounding. I realized what was happening.  This strange world we have reached not only supported life, but advanced life, from the look of the lights, speakers and other technologies around me.

I was looking more closely at the medical equipment when I heard the door quickly slammed shut. 
It was my father. I have seen creatures from other world but never like this one. Standing Beside my dad was a humanoid about eight feet tall with a large skull/head and knees that bent backward. It also had a ghostly translucence to it's skin.
         
“Son,” he said with a calming smile “, this is a Minican. He's our translator.”

“But”

“wait I have one more thing to show you.”He faced the creature.”J'hre.”

It opened the door and I noticed a blue light shimmering through, like at the bottom of a pool. Then I looked closer and my mouth dropped open. 
         
I saw water, but it was.. there was.. I can only describe it as an air pocket in the middle of an ocean of water, only it followed the path as if it was deliberately shaped.

This didn't seem to faze me as much as the creature did. Not only was I getting used to father's theatrical surprises but I also knew exactly what was going on.

In 2051 on earth at the height of the 'energy crises' scientist feverishly worked on room temperature superconductors for fission reactors. One group stumbled on a mono-poled ceramic magnet. It only had one magnetic pole so it either attracted or repelled metals, but there was one more curious property. When placed near water with ions in it, it actually repels water.

I laughed, if only the pseudo-science kooks on earth knew about this.
In the early 2020's many people claimed to have the healing powers of a mono poled magnet

So a mono-poled magnet I presume! But what's dissolved in the water.  The creature said “Jebi.”

“What?”

“Jebi” father said.

“Means  it magneto.. fish”

“No,  'it means magnetofish'”

I stared as father informed the creature on sentence structure.

Then it occurred to me, “how long was I out?.”

“Out?” The creature tilted it's head.

“Asleep”

“O.k. About 20 Anterian.. uh...doos.

“days.”

“O.k. That about ..”

then I noticed him counting on his fingers, all 8 of them!

Father saw the teaching opportunity. “ Son as you can see they have four fingers on each hand, consequently they have a number system based on four.  What he's doing is counting one digit on one hand and the next digit on the other.

“But that only gets to 16.”

“That's when they move to the 3rd digit...”he pulled out my journal and began to write down symbols and showed me how their four based system worked. I would have been more amazed with how such a simple change can create such  a confusing mess, but the cool water shimmered around me.

Through the water I could see other structures, and the will to explore welled up inside me.          Seeing my curiosity father turned to me and simply asked, “What do you want to know?”

“Uh yeah.. but where do I start?.. Oh yeah how long have I been unconscious?” Father handed over the sheet with calculations on it.

“120 earth day.” I was shocked.

“ Why?”

“You were pretty injured, a falling rock had cracked your skull.”

“No, why did they”, I pointed toward the creature not caring if I hurt its feelings, “attack us? Why did they attack us, and now they're nice to us.  It doesn't make sense!”

“You were sinions, we thought.” Said the creature.

“Sinions,” I said, softening my tone as I yawned.

“We'll show you tomorrow.”

“Rest” the minican said.

It finally occurred to me that this creature actually cared for me.

Day 161
That night we all slept in the hospital “pod.”
I slept on the side nearest the door. A location I strategically picked. When everyone was asleep I slowly pulled my covers off and crept toward the hatch. As I placed my hands on the cold latch I feared waking the others but the lure of exploration flowed in my mind. I spun the latch until a heavy thunk resounded through the chamber.  I looked around, no one woke. I pushed open the hatch and smiled at the vista before me. I realized how little light reached these depths filtered both by rock and water.  A few sparkles of light filled the water with a glowing haze. I quietly closed the hatch and walked down the path. I passed my hand through the water as every passing wave billowed around me. It was quite a humbling experience.  I didn't have any plans as to where to go I simply followed the path in front of me. But as soon as I got away from the hospital I saw my destination. The main city of anteria glowed like a distant beacon.  I quickly arrived at the end of a spoke of a vast radial design. I quickly ran around it and exited the spoke toward the city.  As I ran I came acros many new structures all constructed in the same spherical shape,  until I came across a vast structure about 200-400 meters wide. I assumed it to be a building but its purpuse was completely unknown. I quickly got onto the path that led to the bubble but about halfway there I realized it was a dead-end the didn't reach all the way.  Or did it?  The path clearly continued it was just covered in water and just to the left of the path was a control panel of sorts. It contained the 5 numbers in their number system. On a whim I began punching in numbers I began calculating the odds 5^8+5^7+5^6...
On the last click of a button a deep hum emanated from the bottom of the path and suddenly as an mono-poled electromagnet switched on the water parted in a rush. I felt air being sucked in from behind into the vacuum created I waited about 5 minutes in total disbelief as the water settled.
“Jesus, its like the red sea just parted!” I said to myself.
I should have left. I should have gone “home” But I continued inside.

I realized it was a farm the moment I entered there was vegetation everywhere. I looked down, and a  red spongy material caught the dim light.  I  picked some and it was good. I heard a sound and I looked over. I saw a bin of creatures, livestock I realized.
“Hello,” I said in a calming voice “,how are you?”
It shook. It was a fuzzy primate creature with a large head and large eyes. 
“It's okay.” I noticed jars of milk on the wall. It seemed so intelligent and I was saddened such a smart creature was being used for its milk.

I reached in to pet it. Thats when it screamed, and I panicked and ran.
I heard screaming behind me, then something whizzed by my head. It moved so fast it was instant and total destruction. He was shooting at me! I ran so hard my legs hurt, but I ran faster. another passed by, missing me by inches. It burned the air and obliterating the ground ahead of me. I leaped over the hole and kept the exit in sight. But as I got half way there, the path collapsed into a frothy chaos. But it didn't stop me. I dived into the wall of water and swam toward the other side. Something fast was shooting, piercing, through the water and exploding dangerously close to me. I fell out of the water and onto the path with a thud. I blasted to my feet only to slip again. I heard the water rush open yet again, he was after me! I got up to take off again when one of the projectiles shot straight through my leg. I screamed and fell to the ground writhing in place.  A shadow came over me
“Hey 'alien'”, it spoke “You have guns on your planet?”
“Ye … ye … yeah “
“Not like this one!”
He pointed it at my head “It could shoot a small bead of glass at 400 times the speed of sound  straight  into your skull, where it would slow down, releasing its energy into one gruesome explosion.”
“Why?” I shuddered
“Because 'alien' you were brought down here all fixed up while my wife dies from starvation.

"But now your Anteria's new prime boy, it's how do you say …  celebrity!
“See I knew El'i would bring us together, I knew I would share my mind."
It became apparent that he wouldn't kill me or at least not until his speech was finished. 
"Who's Ehli?"
"It's my God! You don't know a fraction of our culture."  He raised the gun toward me, then suddenly he collapsed and made a horrible sound that bellowed from his chest.  He's crying.
“I just want her back!” He mumbled a prayer. I felt remorse for him and finally saw the humanity in these people.
         
I left him there and walked back “home”. The will to explore utterly extinguished.

As I reached my hospital pod it was morning.  Many of the lights were switching on as Minincans woke. Had the farm wife's death been justified? Surly not, but it wasn't my fault this government is corrupt. 
I walked into the pod only to be mortified.
Father was bound by rope and he was surrounded.  “Son, tell me you weren't by creatures at a farm last night. “But I was”
“No.” he exhaled more then spoke. I saw his eyes hit the floor as all hope escaped him.
“That's all the evidence we need.”Said the Minicans

We were headed for minican prison. 

Day 171

This horrible place finally gave me my journal back.  At least they've repaired the hole in my leg. There's nothing to do in this prison but write. The irony doesn't elude me. We traveled here to explore only to be trapped here in these creature's sad idea of a prison.  If we had a wormhole we could just escape back to earth. And our plan was to stay 2 years and explore, so back on earth they wont know we're missing for a long time.

Day 174

They expect me to learn Minicin!  They placed a pamphlet under the door today.  It had all the Anterian letters and the English equivalent.  I know the minicans learned English this way, but I'll be damned if I have to learn theirs this way. I tore it to shreds, and was going to pass it under the door when I noticed something.                     
                                       
Sinion- a small but mischievous primate that regularly  attack Anteria.
         
There was a small picture, a picture that matched the creature I saw in the farm bin that horrible night. I don't know how it got there but I knew that intelligent creature didn't deserve to be there. It was imprisoned just like me by these horrible people.

Day 178

Somebody came to my door today. He opened the latch and spoke, “Hearing you have, today for an execution.”

“Execution, Execution,” I screamed! “I didn't do anything. I don't deserve it”

“Chamber decide that. Now come.”

He opened the door and three muscular minicans forced me to the ground. There was a struggle, but it was no use. They tied my arms and hauled me away.

When they forced me to the hall outside I saw father and was horrified. “They plan on executing you too?”

“Son, don't hate these people, they're not all bad.”

When we entered the large chamber a huge uproar commenced. There were many mincans mostly hissing, but to my surprise a few seemed to be cheering.

“It's like a three ring circus and we're center stage.” They literally had us in the vast center area surrounded by spectators.

They untied us, and forced us into chairs.

Erh'h.

“what?”

“He said sit.”

“But we can't,” I exclaimed, surprised dad learned Minican. “Their chairs are built for their backward legs.”

“We'll have to straddle them.”  As we sat the lights dimmed and a hushed audience stood from their seats. We went to stand too, but were forced back down by a Minican's strong hand on our shoulders.

“I don't like this place,” I whispered to dad.

“Quiet.” said the head minican at a table with for others, who I suspected were judges.

“Ter' bing nu... wait, you don't speak minican do you?”

“No,” I said.          

“Why?”

“Because I destroyed my pamphlet.”

“Is it true you don't want to learn our culture?”

“No, I would love to learn....”

“Do you hate us?”

A creature stood on the other side “Let's stick to the problem at hand.”
         
“Can I have a lawyer?”

There was a chuckle from the audience.

`“We don't have lawyers in our justice system.”

“Let me tell you how our system works.  Like all of the  Anterian government our justice system is based on balance. The same number of people are on each conflicting side, but as the evidence is presented, they may change their position. In the end it is up to a vote.”
         
“So lets start..”          

A woman stood from the main judge's left

“I'm Toh. Against the charges.  Could you explain what happened the night in question?
         
I explained exactly what happened from exploring the farm to being chased by the madman with a weapon.

Another stood.

“Saou. For charges. So you did interact with the livestock!?”

“What, with the sinion?” everyone looked puzzled, a few gasped and,  a few even laughed.

“Sinions are evil creatures that no farmer would ever want on his farm.”

“Didn't you go in to his farm? Didn't you take evidence and see them there?”

“Benal, for charges. No, there were no creatures there, you burned 'em all.”

“What?”

“yeah, you burned all his live stock.” I was horrified and saddened. “Don't you see? He didn't want anyone to know he was milking the poor creatures.” I realized my mistake the moment I made it.

“You sympathize with those.. those 'things'? ” There was silence through the chamber.

“But..”

“They invade our cities, they attack our children, they steal food, and you Think they're 'poor creatures'?  You're lucky you're not on trial for sympathizing with the enemy.”
         
“I'm telling you they were sinions. Take a D.N.A. Test it'll come up...”

A look of confusion was displayed on their faces, so I explained what DNA was and how it could be used to solve crimes. They hung on every world of my explanation. When I was done, they each silently apologized.
“We claimed that you knew nothing about us, but then you told us something we didn't even know about ourselves.                    

He seemed very humbled as he took final tally on votes.

Two against and two for. O.k. In this situation it is up to the prosecutor himself  to decide.

“Bor Eal'n, please stand up and give your decision. A male minican ,no, the minican whose farm I stumbled onto, the mincan who burned his sinions to cover his butt and blame it all on me, stood.

I turned to dad “We're dead he's going to have us killed.”

“I wouldn't be so sure”, he said pointing.          

The farmer said through sobs. “put them in the anti-sinion force put them in the army.”

Whether that was meant to be good or bad I'll never know.

Day 179

The next day we were placed in what a amounts to a less secure part of the prison. Father and I were allowed to roam within certain limits, which to our delightful surprise included a library of sorts. Of coarse I needed father with me to translate the literature.  We traveled first to the 'true' section and pulled out a stack of papers bound together by metal loops. It had a symbol burned into its surface ,which  was a circle with line inside. 
         
“That symbol means home ,or Anteria.”

Father unclipped the papers and pulled them apart. The first section section referred to Anteria as a planet

“It makes 15 rotations to one revolution around the sun. That tells us nothing. Their time is divided into four sections of each year. Then the day is divided also into four which is then divided again by four. which makes sense because they have four fingers. Anteria has one large moon named Menar and many tiny unnamed ones.”

“Anteria has three zones radiating from the planet's center, literally translated as, death place, death-dark place, and dark place.”

I pondered that while we looked at a very curious diagram .

“Can you translate it for me, literally of coarse.”

“ They must believe that time is circular.”

“ But I thought they believed in eternity.

“They're one and the same my son.”

“ Oh ,I get it, its like walking in a circle. The path is finite but you can walk forever.”

He nodded his head as he flipped  to an apparently fresh piece of paper. “This is interesting.”

It says on the last day of the third section of this year, two unknown specimen were captured in their territory. While one...

A minican ran in and screamed something to father. Tather looked at me with a ghostly look. “We're under attack. We have to fight!”

When we were brought out of the holding area,  I was shocked to see so many prisoners all unlike us. Adorning full body chain-mail. Either they didn't have any that would fit us or they didn't care I'm not sure which. But I didn't care, I fell into a stupor as everyone else did. We all silently marched.

As we marched through the city I could see mothers picking up children and heading inside pods and  businesses closing shop. How could such gentle creatures as the Sinions cause so much fear and hate? This is wrong. But there is nothing I can do so I simply marched. As we marched, I could hear the collective sobs of the many prisoners. To many, a petty crime could today prove to be a death sentence. One cry sounded distinctly human.

“Son, I'm sorry I got you into this whole project. I should have known there would be dangers out there.”

“No. It's my fault. I shouldn't have been in that farm that night.”

“Tell me the truth. Did you burn that man's livestock?”

“No! They were sinions, he burnt them.” I said as tears streamed down my face”

“I don't believe you!!” The rest of the march was awkwardly silent.
         
As we got closer we could hear explosions, yelling, and crying.
The tension would have been incredible had I cared, but I didn't. I 'knew' I would die that day and I didn't care.
         
We finally reached the surface. An unspeakable scene met my eyes. Mincans lay dead all around me and Sinions far in the distance were flinging explosives with deadly accuracy. We were losing this fight.

“Don't  just stand there soldier,” said a minican obviously in charge, “Go down into the shooting chamber and take out these guys.”

I sat in a chair with a turret type gun attached to it, only this was a replica, only larger, of the weapon the farmer used on me. I thought darkly about shooting every minican in sight but my conscience quickly took over. Besides a deep hum shook me from my darkness and as the chair dipped into the water the general gave advice.

“The water is to protect you from the explosives. You can pump the trigger to shoot quick streams of slow moving bullets or hold it for extremely fast moving shots.”

I waited until I was completely submerged until I sobbed uncontrollably  ,but my feelings quickly turned to anger. I grabbed the trigger, it felt cold and solid in my hand, and then I felt rage surge up from within. I aimed for a large group of sinions. I held the trigger for an eternity and released.  A blazing white vapor trail riped open the water and boiled through the air and the very instant I released it, it hit with deadly accuracy. A concussion wave blasted outward disintegrating rock showing us with boulders and smashing sinion bodies, tearing flesh and shattering bones.

I'm sure I will later hold this moment as a sick display of violence but now it's all become one foggy blood fest. Then all was silent. What was happening? A loud humming scared me out of my state of mind. The turret was lifting out of the water, through its shimmering surface I could see any remaining Sinions running away.

We won the war.
         
Not only had we been forced  to battle, but who ever was left standing had the grotesque job of cleaning up the dead. The haze of flames matched my mental haze. I picked up dismembered arms, skull fragments, and sloppy brains. I didn't cry, in fact no one did. We were all in a state of shock, and we simply did our job. 
Then I was shocked out of my disparate state by a simple tap on the head. “Please come with me.” By his perfect pronunciation I could tell he was an official. I followed him toward the city were I met father. On the way to the central government we both cried. We saw many things that morning that we can't wish away.

Day 183
         
The past few days have been a shock and I'm sorry but I haven't felt like writing. The past few day I've spent in reflection from land in this strange world, tome being captured by minivans, to exploring the wrong places and being held captive. And...the horror of the war. I thought of all the questions left burning inside.

What would be my fate? What would be these people's fate? They are obviously destined for destruction. Unfortunately I believed both my father and these people would all face obliteration by the hand of the sinions.

I was so lost in thought I didn't hear the feet running.

“Son..son we're free!!”

“What?” I jumped from my bed.

“They did a DNA test, the animals were Sinions. That man burnt them, not you!! I always had faith in you!

“Yeah right!!”

“Come on son, let's get out of Anteria. Let's go home”

“No father, they need us here.”

“We are home.”