I Can't Do It

"You must do the thing you think you cannot do."
-- Eleanor Roosevelt

Wavoc is a food gathering paradise. It’s mostly a Wooded Area planet. But there are several thousand opened areas where the fruit and vegetables grow freely. Within the Wooded Areas, there are about three hundred different animals. Several are small. But about half of them are big. And the other half are huge. Most of them are harmless. But there are a few that are deadly. The deadliest one of them all must be the Condra. That's because it looks like a broken tree branch. PureSciFi aka SpaceFaction sat back in his chair. But he continued looking at his laptop.¹

A few seconds later he started typing again. The Kothians appear to be human with two arms and legs. Their bodies also look human. But their skin is a light green. They have no hair on their heads. And their heads are oblong. Most of the time their one big eye is in the front of their heads. But if the close that eye they can re-open it in the back of their heads or to either side of it.¹

PureSciFi aka SpaceFaction had taken a deep breath before he continued. Three times a year the Kothians come to Wavoc to gather food for the next five months. They don’t know how the food supply is always there when they get there. And they don’t really care. All they care about is that’s it there. It all started almost five thousand years ago when a space shuttle crash landed there. The Kothians who came to rescue then were sure they wouldn’t find anyone alive. But most of them were because of the food supply there. In fact, they didn’t want to leave. The Kothians have been going there ever since then.¹

Every family, individuals or couples too that come to Wavoc brings with them a Food Storage Structure that’s almost the size of our tool shed and a Living Area that about the same as two to four bedroom apartments. They can place them anywhere on the planet. Most choose to put then next to the Wooded Area in an Opened Area. Fathor’s family chose a large treeless area in a large Wooded Area.. PureSciFi aka SpaceFaction leaned back in his chair. A few seconds later he leaned forward and started mumbling to himself for about a minute.¹

“I Can’t Do It”

A Short Story

Written By

PureSciFi aka
SpaceFaction

     The barrel of a weapon shook slightly. Mostly it shook up and down. But it also quivered on its sides. It suddenly stopped. A few seconds later it started shaking again for about a minute. Then it stopped. Suddenly, it started shaking. About a minute later it stopped again. That happened three more times.

     A small light green hand began to squeeze the handle of that weapon. But a second later it stopped. “I can’t do it, Fathor,” said Nanca shakily.

     “Yes, you can.” Fathor leaned against a fallen tree. His legs were stretched out in front of him. Both legs were in a hole of light blue liquid.

     “I know you don’t want to. But you must do it. There is no other choice.” Fathor started shaking.

     Fathor’s face started pulsating. It looked like it was breathing heavily. “I would do it if I could but I can’t. It’s against the law on Koth. You have to do it.”

     “We aren’t on Koth right now. So, you can do it. Who is going to tell them? I’m not.”

     “You don’t have to tell them. They will know when I do it. In fact, they may know before I do it and stop me.”

     The pulsating stopped, but the shaking got worse. “You are barely ten. You’re not going to be getting your Personal Identification Cube implanted in you for another five years.”

     Nanca kept her hand weapon pointed at Fathor's light green no hair head. “I know what I must do, but I still can’t do it.”

     “I don’t know how you are going to get the strength, but you need to do it. And the sooner you do, the better.”

     “I’m sorry you must do this. The one time I didn’t take Pachus and Yorlie with us.”

     “Pachus would have done it without hesitation. In fact, in his fifteen years of life, he has almost done it a few times by accident. Yorlie is a lot like you, but I think she would still do it.”

     “It’s my fault that you are about to die by my hands. It was my Day of Birth Wish for us to be going on this Food Gathering outing alone.”

     The shaking stopped. But now the pulsating head was joined by this arms and legs. “That’s true, but it’s my fault we didn’t bring any medical supplies with us.”

     “That’s my fault too. I’m the one who wanted to get to Wavoc as fast as we could.”

     “No, it’s not. This is all my fault. I should have insisted we have all our supplies, especially the medical ones before we left Koth. I’m the Adult-Parent here. You are my Miracle.”

     “It’s still my fault more than yours. I was running behind with our plans anyway. We barely made it to the space shuttle in time.”

     Suddenly, Nanca closed her eye on her face. And opened it on the back of her head. A few seconds later she closed it too. She did the same thing to her eye on both sides of her head. First one side, then the other. Each time she did it she slowly scanned that part of the Wooded Area they were in. “I thought I heard something.”

     No one said anything for several minutes. Fathor kept pulsating. And Nanca continued shaking her hand weapon at her Adult-Parent. It was Fathor who finally broke that silence. “I don’t have much time left. I’ve been trying to control the pain. And I have done that a lot. But it’s getting worse.”

     “I still have a few more days before I die. But the space shuttle isn’t going to return to pick us up until a couple of weeks.”

     The pulsating continued, but now the shaking had started up again. “It’s going to be terrible for me. But it will be even worse for you. Not only are you going to have to watch me die painfully, but you are going to have to be here all by yourself after you kill me. You will be lucky if you don’t end up dying too before they get here.”

     Fathor had been slurring his words right from the beginning. Nanca had to ask him several times to repeat himself. And a couple of times it was several times she had to do it. Not only was he slurring he was also saying them softly. She had to step closer to him to hear what he had to say.

     “I’m not going to die here. As soon as I get the strength to kill you, I'm going to look for the others here on Wavoc. There were at least fifty other families on that shuttle with us. Not to mention the others who were already here. I’m sure there are a few others in the area who can help me.”

     Nanca’s sad face suddenly turned into a smile. “Maybe I can get one of them to kill you for me.”

     “I already thought about that. But that’s not the solution either. It has to be a family member who does it.”

     Nanca glanced at the Condra with one end still twitching slightly. She shot a Laser Bullet at the other end. The twitching stopped. A few seconds later it dissolved into dust and blew away. “It’s all that Condra's fault.”

     “No, it’s not. I’m the one who thought it was a tree branch in our way.”

     “That’s because they look like one. But that’s how they kill several thousand of us Kothians a year. They wrap themselves around any visible skin and stab you with their pointed poisonous scales on the side of their skin. That’s how one killed my Birth-Adult.”

     “I know you were only five at the time. But do you remember how terrible it was for her before Yorlie had to kill her? And she was a couple of years younger than you are now.”

     Nanca didn’t say anything for several minutes. She just kept her shaking weapon on Fathor. “I remember how bad it was for them both. But I also remember it was really hard for Yorlie to get the strength to do it.”

     “That’s right, it was hard for her. But she did do it. If she can do it so can you. You must do it. And you need to do it now.”

     After about a minute without Nanca doing or saying anything, Fathor continued. “Close your eye Nanca. See me as the Condra you just killed.”

     Nanca hesitated, but after a few seconds, she closed her eye. A few seconds later she fired a Laser Bullet at Fathor. The bullet struck him in the head. His head snapped back. A few seconds later he slowly dissolved into dust and blew away.

     Two weeks later Pachus and Yorlie arrived on the shuttle. They went to the Fathor family Food Storage Structure. When they got there, Pachus stood in front of the entrance. Suddenly, his whole body started glowing a light red. A few seconds later the glowing disappeared. So, did the entrance. Pachus and Yorlie walked through that entrance and suddenly stopped.

     “What’s going on?” Pachus asked. “There’s only about a tenth of what should be here.”

     Pachus and Yorlie went to the Living Area next to the Food Storage Structure and did the same thing to gain entrance into it. “There’s no one here,” Yorlie said after she and Pachus split up and searched through the Living Area.

     Yorlie looked at Pachus in shock. “Where are Fathor and Nanca? With both structures up, and they weren’t in Food Storage, I just figured they would be here.”

     “I don’t know what’s going on here. It’s almost dark. I’m like you, I thought they were here too.”

     “There’s nothing we can do in the dark. It’s dangerous during the light. But it’s even worse after dark.”

     Pachus and Yorlie looked through both structures again. Only that time they did it together. First, they searched through the Living Area. Then they went back to Food Storage. After doing that they returned to the Living Area. “They aren’t here. And it doesn’t look like they have been here for a long time.”

     A few seconds later Pachus continued. “We can’t do anything about it in the dark. But we will start looking for them when it gets light.”

     “What do you think happened to them?” Yorlie asked.

     “There are several deadly animals living here. One of them must have killed them.”

     “That might account for one, but not both. What happened to the other one?”

     Pachus didn’t respond for about a minute. “That depends on who died first. If it was Nanca. Then Fathor could have killed himself.”

     “If the Koth government let him do it. And that’s if he was the last one to die. But what if he was the first one?”

     “I hope it didn’t happen that way. But if it did someone else must have killed Nanca. A non-family member can do that if they are already dead.”

     At first light, Pachus and Yorlie left their family Living Area. Pachus hit a small red button next to that entrance. A second later it shrunk into a small cube with a red button on the top of it. Pachus put the cube into one of his clothing holes. While Pachus did that, Yorlie did it to the Food Storage Structure.

     Pachus and Yorlie began their search with the other local families in that area. There was about fifteen of them. But the only problem was they were all the ones on their space shuttle. The families that were there the last couple of weeks left on it.

     “We may never find out what happened to Fathor and Nanca.” Yorlie squeezed Pachus’ hand as they continued walking through the Wooded Area.

     “There are three other families in the area. Maybe one or more of them can help us.”

     Pachus and Yorlie walked in silence for several minutes. Suddenly, Yorlie stopped. She looked at Pachus. The fear on her face turned into a slight smile. “I think I know how to find out what happened to them.”

     A few seconds later Yorlie continued. “We might have just missed them when the families switched places on our space shuttle. If they are alive, they are on that space shuttle heading home right now.”

     “I hope you’re right. But I don’t think you are. At least not for them both. It might explain one, especially if it’s Nanca, but not both. If they are on that space shuttle, why didn’t they take what food they gathered with them.”

     Yorlie didn’t respond for about a minute. They just started their walk. “Maybe they didn’t have the time to get it, especially if the only one still alive is Nanca, or they just didn’t think it was worth it because they didn’t get too much gathered before whatever happened to them happened.”

     Pachus and Yorlie continued walking through the Wooded Area for several minutes. It’s Pachus who broke that silence. He stopped and looked at Yorlie with a big smile. “You might be wrong about them being on that space shuttle. But it got me thinking. Maybe there isn’t anyone on Wavoc who can help us, but there are families on that space shuttles who might.”

     Suddenly, Pachus turned and started walking back the way they had come. Yorlie had to walk quickly to catch up to him. About an hour later they walked into a large opened area among the trees. Pachus took the cube out of his clothing hole and placed it on the ground. He tapped the red button once. The Living Area appeared again. Pachus and Yorlie entered after the entrance disappeared.

     It took them several tries to contact the space shuttle. Pachus and Yorlie started hooping and hollowing when they heard that Nanca was on that space shuttle. But they became sad again when Nanca told them about Fathor.

Word Count = 1,992

¹These could be entries into one or two possible Blogs that I’m thinking about starting talking about the different planets and Races there are in the universe.