Just Over Two Hundred Years Ago

Just Over Two Hundred Years Ago

     An explosion almost destroys a large building. Sending pieces of it in all directions. Some are not much bigger than a pebble. But a lot of them are quite a bit larger. Most of the larger ones are headed for the group of humans that live not too far from it. And they are reacting to it by panicking and running around screaming. Trying to find protection anywhere they can find it.

     A thin flat red beam comes out of a huge spaceship that’s hovering very high above the humans living below it. That beam hits another building not too far from the other one. The same thing happens to it. A few seconds later an explosion almost destroys it too.

     The blue head with small red spots all over it suddenly appears above the humans there. “You are lucky that I only destroyed your ability to take more of Madion from us,” says the head. “We could have destroyed all of you. But we didn’t want to destroy any more of Madion than you have destroyed.”

     “Some of us left here just beyond two hundred years ago to find a new planet for our overpopulating one. Now we have returned to tell the other Madions we have found one. But instead of telling them anything, we return to an almost destroyed planet that has been invaded by humans.”

     “It doesn’t matter which planet you come from you think that you can take over any planet that you want. If we don’t let you, do it you do whatever you need to do to get it. That includes destroying it as you have with Madion.”

     The head suddenly begins to get even bigger until it’s twice as big as before. To cover all the humans below it. “We have returned. And we aren’t going to let you destroy any more of Madion than you already have. If that means killing all of you, we will do it.”

##

     “We had nothing to do with what happened here,” says Yanimn as he looks around a large room with several hundred Madions are. “This planet, Madion I believe you called it, was like this when we were sent here.”

     “That is why we ask to talk to you,” continues Yanimn. “To try to explain to you that we aren’t the ones who have destroyed your planet.”

     Yanimn turns his head to face the seven other humans sitting in chairs behind him. Then he faces the Madions again who are sitting in rows in front of him. All except for the head that appeared above them. She sits between Yanimn and the other Madions alone.

     Shahnu stands up. “You wouldn’t be here if we didn’t want to listen. We are a peaceful race. The only reason we have weapons is to protect ourselves in a hostile universe.”

     “We don’t want to kill you,” Continues Shahnu. “But we will if we have to do it. All we want is for you to leave Madion. And the sooner you do that the better.”

     “Yes, we know that there are about a million of you scattered all over Madion. But this is one of the biggest ones. If we need to kill you first, the others will be more likely to leave before they are killed too.”

     Yanimn leans over a podium he’s standing behind to get a better look at Shahnu and the other Madions. “That’s another reason why we are here. We can’t leave here even if we wanted to do it.”

     “Sixty years ago we were sent here by our home planet,” continues Yanimn. “They probably didn’t expect us to live more than a year here. We haven’t lived here too well as you can see. But we have been doing it. And we aren’t leaving. If we can’t find a way to live together, then I guess you will have to kill us.”

##

     Shahnu sits at one end of a long oblong table. At the other end sits Yanimn. The other seven humans with Yanimn are sitting across from seven Madions along the sides of it. Shahnu stands up and leans forward with her blue hands with red spots on them too on the table. “How do we know you have not done this to Madions?”

     “We were curious about what happened to this planet when we got here,” answers Yanimn. “So, we tried to find out what happened.”

     “It wasn’t easy to do considering all the destruction,” continues Yanimn. “But we finally did find out that about a hundred and fifty of your years ago, a very large SpaceRock hit this planet hard.”

     Yanimn swings around in his chair to face a large monitor in front of him. The others turn to face it too. All except for Shahnu who is already looking at it. Suddenly, moving images appear on it that show a huge SpaceRock heading toward them. It also shows it hitting Madion. And what starts to happen after it does.

     “Over our years here, we have found other images like this one. But they aren’t very good,” says Yanimn. “This is the best. If you want to see them, we can show them to you.”

     Shahnu and the other Madions there can’t stop staring at what has happened to their planet with their light blue eyes almost popping out of their slightly oval heads and their jaws dropping. Suddenly, Shahnu shakes his head vigorously to stop herself from staring.

     “Does any of these moving images show what happened to the Madions?” Shahnu asks. “Did they die quickly or were they in a lot of pain and suffering when it happened?”

     Yanimn turns to face Shahnu. The others start looking at him too. “We haven’t seen anyone on any of them.”

     Shahnu smiles. “If that’s true, then the other Madions way still be alive. They may have found a way to leave here before it happened.”

####

     “It’s also possible that the other Madions may still be here,” says Shahnu as she paces around a lot of Madions sitting behind some large Data Monitors tapping away at their control panels beneath those monitors. “If that’s true, then they have probably been living within Madion.”

     Yanimn walks next to Shahnu. “We have thought about them still being here too. And we have looked everywhere they might be. Including underground. But we haven’t been able to find anything or anyone that says that they have been here.”

     “We want to help you any way that we can,” continues Yanimn. “But I don’t think we can do that because there is no one else here. That they were never here for us to find.”

     “That’s why we are here,” says Shahnu. “I thank you for all the information that you have given me on your search for them. But our Data Monitors know everything there is to know about Madion. So, if they are within Madion, we will find them.”

     Suddenly, Dainic stops tapping and turns toward Shahnu. “I think I may have found them.”

     Shahnu and Yanimn stop walking and go over to where Dainic is. “What have you found, Dainic?” Shahnu asks.

     “They are almost to the center of Madion,” answers Dainic. “That is why it has taken us so long to find them.”

     “The sun within Madion has stopped us from doing it,” continues Dainic. “Can’t see how many of us are beneath here. But there are a lot of them.”

     Shahnu smiles. “It sounds like they have been living where we used to live a long time ago.”

     “Then again, maybe not. Something like this has happened before. Only that time it was a sickness that almost killed all of us. About ten million Madions died before the living went to live within Madion.”

     “After the sickness got a cure, most of us returned to the surface. But not all did. What you may have found is those still living beneath us.”

##

     Some of the Young Ones and female Madions cowardly stand shakily behind about fifteen males holding weapons in their hands. Including a few hand weapons and long weapons. The others have whatever kind of weapon they can get their hands on rocks, metal pipes, sticks, etc. Moving them around in a threatening way.

     Dainic suddenly stops in front of about a hundred Madions. Looking mostly at the males with weapons. But also seeing the Young Ones and females behind them. Peeking around the shoulder and heads for the females or lower down for the Young Ones.

     Shahnu comes out of nowhere to step in front of Dainic. Gesturing with her hands toward the frightened Madions there. “Don’t be afraid. He is a human. His name is Dainic. And he is the leader of the humans living above you here.”

     “I’m not their leader of in this part of Madion,” replies Dainic. “We didn’t even know the name of this planet until a few months ago when Shahnu and the others returned.”

     The male in the middle of the fifteen steps forward. Still holding a long weapon angularly across his chest. “If you are not their leader, then why are you here? Why are any of you here? What do you want from us?”

     Dainic steps to the side of Shahnu. “I’m here because I’m curious about you. As for Shahnu and the others, it’s because they are Madions too.”

     “We left almost two hundred years ago to find a new planet for an overpopulating one,” says Shahnu. “After we returned, we found the humans living here. At first, we thought they killed off all of you. That we were the only Madions left.”

     “Then we realized they didn’t kill you off,” continues Shahnu. “We also realized that some Madions may still be alive. It took us a long time to find you. But we have done it. That’s why we are here.”

##

     Shahnu stands between Dainic and Hievonim. Only now Hievonim doesn’t have his long weapon. Any weapon at all as they stare out a large clear opening at what is happening below them. Both Madions and humans help each other to recreate Madion. Once a planet that looks like a wasteland that neither one can live on very well to one that both can. At least they will soon.

     “Have you decided what you are going to do?” Shahnu asks while looking at Dainic.

     “No, we haven’t. We have representatives from all over Madion talking about it,” answers Dainic. “But that decision hasn’t been made yet.”

     Shahnu returns to staring as does Dainic. “We are constantly getting words from all around Madion about how our recreating is going. It has only been six months since we started. And we are about halfway done. Soon we will have Madion looking like it used to before we were almost destroyed by overcrowding and a SpaceRock.”

     “You don’t have too much time left to decide whether you want to stay to live with us or to use this spaceship to go to the planet that we have found to move to.”

     “When returned, we had about fifty years before our overpopulation became a problem for us. That was plenty of time for us to save this planet by sending some of us to the new one.”

     Shahnu takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “The SpaceRock that almost destroyed us solved our overpopulation problem. About a billion of us died because of it.”

     “We no longer need a new planet. You can go there if you want to do it, or you can stay here with us. The choice is up to you.”

     “Once we help you to recreate Madion, we will make that choice. But it will probably be to leave here. We still have our home planet to return to briefly. Then we will go to Marion Two.”

The Word Count is 1,972