While I was usurping the rest of the known universe and assisting one of the most magnificent species I had ever seen down the path to extinction, my beautiful wife was at home in our palace keeping the home fires burning. Keesha is not only a wonderful wife but a tireless philanthropist and diplomat. She and Kindra kept the diplomatic relations strong, by talking to the leaders of my Empire and reassuring them of their safety. They were very frightened by what they saw at that breathtaking little planet at the edge of our territory. It took a lot of talking to convince them they were safe, but Keesha and Kindra were more than up to the task.
They had no idea how powerful the Junock were. If they had known, they (through their fear) would have had to convince themselves of the Empire’s safety before they could have ever convinced the masses. While Keesha was performing her diplomatic duties she also took time out to attend two charity functions, giving a short speech through an interpreter at each function. She also visited Emperor Sonkei reassuring him of my pending victory and also visiting his wives and children. I wished I had her philanthropic energy.
The expansion of my Empire took a little over 2 ½ days and left me with the unquestioned rule of 88 percent of the Milky Way Galaxy. I wasn’t satisfied communicating my requirements of the Zeelok through a third party, so I decided to visit their homeworld. I instructed the Zeelok warrior that was with me on the Commerce planet, of the now-extinct Junock Empire, to take my hand. She held my hand and I pulled her close to me, and she gasped. Without warning, I folded space and appeared in the ruling chamber of the capitol building of her homeworld, the planet Mok. She clutched my arm in a moment of fear. I smiled mischievously at her and she immediately released my arm in embarrassment.
The council was not in session, so I asked the girl to go and inform them that I wanted an audience with them immediately, and I wanted Commander Draco to attend. “Yes, My King,” she said obediently and then hurried off. That was the first time I took a passenger along for the ride as I folded space. I’m glad it worked.
While I was waiting for her to return with the Zeelok council I mentally projected a three-dimensional image of myself home. It was the evening and Keesha was just entering our bedchamber to prepare for bed. I appeared a few feet behind her and said softly, “Hi, precious.” She turned smiling but then gasped, cupped her hands over her mouth briefly and with her eyes wide open, and quickly sat down on the edge of the bed. “David, are you alright? She said with concern. “Yes sweetheart, of course, I am.” Eyes still wide and filled with concern, “but you’re covered with blood, and your clothes are shredded.” “Oh, I’m sorry precious.
I’ve been cover in blood for so long I forgot about it. Don’t worry though, it’s not my blood and I can get rid of it quickly.” I engulfed myself in my force shield starting right at the upper layers of my epidermis and pushed those first few cells of my epidermis and everything attached to them out through my tattered clothes. I was almost instantly clean and as my shield reached about a foot from me I vaporizer the blood and gore that had been clinging to my skin, hair, and cloths. “Is this better?” “Much,” she said relieved.
I quickly explained what had happened and confided in her about my regret, sorrow, and despair about what had happened. As usual, she was very supportive and grieved for the Junock with me. As I found the occurrence unbelievable, so did she. “How could they do something like that?” She said, and continued. “All of their men, women, and children, they even killed their own children, I feel so sorry for them.” I replied, “So do I, what a waste, but from what the Zeelok say, it was inevitable. They would never have accepted another Empire coexisting with theirs. They felt it was their right as the mightiest to rule with impunity and felt it was their manifest destiny to rule the galaxy.
I think the Zeelok were right when they said that this ending was inevitable, but I really hate the way they used me. If I’d have known about the devices the Junock’s heads maybe I could have done something about them. On the other hand, if the devices were hard-wired into their brains or brain chemistry, removing or deactivating them may have had the same deadly effect. I just don’t know.” Keesha reassured me that I did my best with the information I had been given, and expressed her relief that I was okay. I thanked her, said my goodbyes and told her that I would be home in the morning, and then ended my transmission.
The Zeelok warrior returned with one of the council members. “My Lord, is there a problem?” “No,” I said in a melancholy tone. “I simply want to discuss your world’s place in my Empire a little more thoroughly.” “Yes, my Lord, I will summon the council and Commander Draco at once. I will have clothes and refreshments delivered while you wait,” she said. “Thank you, I appreciate that. I could use something new to wear,” I replied. “I will have a table, bench, food, and drink sent in right away.” She then scurried off with the girl in tow and I sat in one of the council member’s chairs as I waited.
No more than two minutes later the table and an actual chair arrived. I was expecting a bench, but I guess that after she left, she realized that I was a King and deserved a chair instead of the customary benches used by the masses. Only the aristocracy was worthy of comfort. I’m glad she or one of her minions remembered my standing in society. The chair was very comfortable.
A cloak was provided and some slipper-like leather shoes, but no shirt or pants. Oh well, I didn’t like the style of their clothes anyway. The food arrived about ten minutes later, and greatly to my relief, it was a meal fit for a king. The ruling council ate much better than their military. Just thinking about the refreshments served aboard their fleet command ship made me relish this meal. I had no idea what I was eating, but all of it was good and very satisfying.
As I completed my meal, the council members began to arrive. It took several minutes for all of them to assemble and as they assembled, they didn’t speak to me but did converse with each other. Dia (Commander Draco) arrived while the council was still arriving. She walked over to me, stopped about four feet from me, dropped to her knees, arms folded across her chest and greeted me.
“Welcome King David, how may I be of service?” “All in good time Dia. I need to address the council first. In the meantime, please bring in a bench and sit beside me.” “As you wish my King,” she turned and briefly stepped outside of the council chamber retrieving a bench and sat it down beside me. Then stood waiting for me to ask her to sit. “Please sit, Dia.” “Thank you.” As she sat the final member of the council arrived.
I leaned forward in my chair and addressed the council. “I may have been able to save and rehabilitate the Junock if all the information about them had been revealed to me. I’m very disappointed in this council,” I said with a bit of irritation in my voice, just short of anger. Fear sweep through the council. “I will not take vengeance for your omission of information this time, but if it happens again you will dread ever deceiving me.” The council members in turn and occasionally in unison tendered their excuses and asked for forgiveness. I hate excuses, but I allowed them to carry on because I wanted to learn more about them, how they thought, how they stood morally and ethically.
As I listened in silence, allowing them to feel that more had to be said, they spoke on. They were very much like humans in every way. They looked human, acted human and thought like humans, other than the gender role reversal, with the women in charge. Their warrior-like nature was cultivated and perpetuated by the Junock, in order to encourage them to do the Junock’s dirty work for them. This freed the Junock up to guard Junoval, their cluster of homeworlds and allowed them to project power by proxy. Relatively small numbers of personnel were ruling vast numbers of beings. They were doing it all through fear. Clever, but it was not to my liking. The council continued their apologetic rhetoric.
I stood and interrupted the leader of the council. “That’s enough.” She stood in anger, then realizing her place quickly sat and apologized. “Our people are much alike, not above deception, lies, and flattery to get what they want and full of excuses and apologies when they’re caught in a lie or deception. This is not an insult to this council or your people. It is simply a psychosocial observation. I am angry, but I’ll get over it. You will need to earn my trust, and I’m more than willing to make you work to earn that trust.
The Zeelok will be my “police” in this region of the galaxy. You will welcome space flight capable sapient life forms into my Terreus Empire; you will keep watch over this portion of my Empire looking for interstellar and interplanetary conflict, and you will contact me immediately without interfering with the conflicting parties; from now on you will also serve my Empire as explorers.
I will expect periodic reports concerning all these matters. All the reports will be passed to me via your world’s emissary. Dia, I would like you to represent your planet as its emissary, and please don’t say no. You’re the only person on this planet that I currently trust,” I said. She smiled and said, “As you wish King David.” “Are there any objections from the council?” I asked with a gruff demanding voice. There was not even an utterance of dissension, and they unanimously agreed to my choice.
I stayed for several hours discussing Dia’s duties and responsibilities. She then invited me to her quarters to continue the discussion. She was very bright and eager to get started. Our conversation continued into the late evening and while we spoke accommodations were prepared for me. As the conversation waned, Dia drew close to me. “You could stay here with me if you like. I would enjoy pleasuring you.” I sighed deeply and broke a half-smile, “Dia, you’re beautiful, and I’m sure you could easily satisfy me, but I must stay true to my wife. She will always be the light of my day, and the precious treasure of my heart. I can appreciate and admire you, I can even care deeply for you, but I must be true to Keesha. I hope you understand.”
Unconscious in the hospital, Bob thought: “Adultery is always wrong. I’m so glad David did the right thing.”
She smiled and nodded gently. We said our goodbyes and I was escorted by a young man to my accommodations. I reclined sleepless for about an hour thinking of how wonderful it would have been to accept Dia’s offer, then I drifted off to sleep with a smile on my face. In the morning, I briefly stopped at Dia’s quarters to bid her farewell.
I arrived home early in the morning. Keesha was not awake yet, so I removed the tattered rags that were once my clothes and gently slipped into bed. I cuddled up close, kissed her on the neck and said, “Good morning Precious.” She uttered a gentle coo and smiled as she pulled my arm over her like a blanket. “Good morning. Is everything okay?” I chuckled and said, “All is right with the galaxy.” She smiled. I began to kiss her on the neck and cheek and then gently pulled her onto her back. “David, let me brush my teeth first.” “Oh, how romantic,” I said playfully.
She laughed, jumped out of bed and walked straight into the bathroom. I followed to reciprocate the gesture and we brushed our teeth together. Then we both retired to bed and shared several minutes of tender intimacy. It felt wonderful to be back in her arms. She has been and for as long as she lives, will always be my precious wife, lover, and best friend. A few minutes later, Keesha decided to call her mom and tell her that I was home safe.
I had her private line to Earth set up with a cell phone as a communicator to make her more comfortable with the technology. As I puttered around the room getting dressed, I noticed that Keesha was redialing several times. She was getting visibly worried. “What’s wrong precious?” I said. She explained that she often had to dial more than one phone number in order to get in touch with her mother, but this time there was no answer at any number and all of the numbers to friends and family were busy or out of service.
“David, something’s wrong. I’m scared. Let’s go home and see what’s happening.” “No Keesha, if something’s wrong I better go alone.” “Okay, but hurry back,” she said. I kissed her, and as I looked into her eyes, I thought to myself, “Great…if it isn’t one thing it’s another…I need a vacation.” As if she were reading my mind, she slapped my chest and said, “Quit that and go, I think something bad has happened.” I smiled, “Okay sweetheart, I’m out of here.” I hugged her and gave her a gentle kiss, and then I vanished and appeared on Earth.
I appeared outside her mother’s house. It was engulfed in an early morning mist and I perceived the presence of nuclear fallout. I burst into her house finding her on the couch in the living room dying. I threw up a force shield around myself and then expanded it, passed it through her body filtering out all harmful byproducts of environmental exposure to radiation and cellular metabolism. She was clean but still very sick and weak. I lifted her up in my arms and vanished from Earth transporting her to a hospital in the capital city of Tetra, instructed them to give supportive care only.
By now I had become more comfortable transporting people with me when I folded space, so I popped in on Keesha and popped both of us back over to the hospital. Without a word of explanation, I vanished, reappearing about a mile above the Earth’s atmosphere in order to survey the damage. It was devastating; the eastern coast of Florida was decimated. The entire Eastern seaboard was in shambles. Only a few fortunate pockets of the United States were not affected. I quickly rescued my family members in Florida and North Carolina, and transported them to the same hospital, this time briefly reminding Keesha that my family knew nothing about other worlds and aliens. “Break it to them gently if they happen to wake up while I’m gone,” then I vanished again.
Much of the world was in ruin, and the clouds of radioactive dust were spreading rapidly. Those idiots finally did it; they tried to kill off everything, including their enemies and friends. How stupid! Well, I can’t save all of them, so I’ll go grab a few more family members and transport them to Tetra. I proceeded to gather those members of my family across the United States who were alive and had a chance to recover. I also called in several transport vessels as I worked. Cleaning each member of my family as I did Mrs. Campbell, then suspending them in a force shield in a geosynchronous orbit above my position, and then I continued to work awaiting the arrival of the ships. The rescue ships arrived several hours into my rescue operation and began excepting the refugees immediately.
Some of the earth was, as of yet, not tainted with lethal levels of radiation. Rescuing the people in these untainted areas was my next priority. I rendered unconscious and gathered, people from Northern Europe, Asia, South Africa, the South Pacific and a few Americans from isolated areas of the States, Canada, and South America, among others. The massive nuclear attack transpired a couple of days ago in most of the industrialized nations of the world. So, untainted masses were few and far between, dwelling on isolated island groups, the far north and far south and in geographically isolated areas.
In all, I rendered unconscious and rescued a little over 1.2 million men, women and children. I transported them in groups of several thousand engulfed in a force shield. They were then packed tightly into several hundred vessels of varying sizes, shapes and configurations. They were cleansed of nuclear particles, but still in varying states of radiation sickness.
As I rescued them, I contemplated their final disposition. “What am I going to do with these goofballs?” I said aloud. Then it dawned on me. I knew exactly where my people needed to be. They need to be on that pristine little planet at what was the edge of my Empire, and that instigated the Junock War. It was a safe place now, and it would be an excellent planet to colonize. So, after completing the rescue, I contacted all the members of my Empire, explaining that the Earth and the planet I was taking my people to were now off-limits. I will populate the planet with the remnants of my people and hope that they not only flourish but learn from the horrible mistakes of their recent past.
In route to the planet, I formulated a plan to explain what had happened to them and organize temporary lodging, food, and water. The trip took several days and during this time we kept all of our passengers asleep in a stasis field. After the ships landed on the planet, I leaped up and sat on the front of one of the transport vessels with my back to the open sea. In front of me, there was an expansive open field of wildflowers with the ships of our rescue armada skirting the edges in a crescent shape touching the seashore.
It was dawn and the air was a crisp clean 67 degrees Fahrenheit, mountains loomed in the background, and in the foreground beyond the field was a vast forest. As my people awoke within the transport vessels, I made sure they were not exposed to any aliens, until after I could talk to them. The ships these people were waking up in would be enough of a shock. Some of the waking people rushed out of the ships, others filed out in a more orderly fashion. As they began to fill the field I began talking through the communications systems of the ships that surrounded them.
“Welcome to Terra. I am King David, the King of the Terreus Empire, and believe it or not, I’m a human from Earth.”
The crowd began rumbling and I paused to allow them to quiet down.
“I know all of this sounds farfetched, but it is true. I took you from Earth because Earth is now engulfed in a toxic cloud of radioactive fallout. Some of the planet will be habitable in a few short years. If you want to go back and take up residence in those isolated places, I’m willing to have my subjects return you, but for the next several years this planet will be your new home. Those of you willing to stay may have this planet. My subjects will help you build modern cities and share technology with you that would take hundreds of years to achieve on your own. I give all of this freely, requiring nothing but the perpetuation of my species. In other words, live in peace and don’t kill each other. There are many races of people here. You must live in peace, caring for each other, because the perpetuation of our species requires it and I require it.”
Unconscious in the hospital, Bob thought: “There is only one race; we are all of one blood.”
“Captain, step forward and meet my people,” I said.
A Dux Captain walked down the ramp of the ship I was sitting on. Some were afraid as they saw his pug face with rounded ears that droop at the tips and the exposed portions of his body covered with a downy-like fur, but others just gawked at him.
“He is of the Dux species from the planet Duxducis. His species is very advanced and the best navigators in the known galaxy. Most of the known celestial systems in this portion of the galaxy were first charted and explored by the Dux. They are very docile and kind. I have asked them to help you. They will provide temporary accommodations while they build a city large enough for all of you in a location a few miles up the coast. Treat them with kindness and respect, and don’t interfere with their work. They only have one interpreter and she can’t answer all of your questions, so save your questions for me. The Dux will also provide food, bedding, and fresh water. Please be patient. I and my wife will be by in a few days to check on you. Before I leave today I’ll walk among you for a while and answer as many questions as I can. The Dux will get to work preparing this site for temporary lodging. For those of you who have no idea what happened on Earth, well, it looks like everyone that had nuclear weapons, used them. Much of the planet is decimated. The winds are quickly spreading the contamination to every part of the Earth, some people left behind on Earth might survive, but I firmly believe that they will all die. I couldn’t save everyone, so all of you must live and thrive for them.”
As I jumped down off the ship, I landed on a large flat boulder in the field 30 feet below me and 50 feet in front of me. The crowd gasped in amazement. The ships of all the races except the Dux began leaving. The leap I just accomplished frightened the crowd just enough to detour any attacks or other violence perpetrated against me or the Dux. I walked among them, reassuring them and answering their myriad of questions.
By the time I had answered all the questions that I could, and most of the questions were being repeated over and over again, the Dux had completed the fabrication of several thousand huge green dome-shaped dwellings. Their construction was such that they stored easily in a cargo hold and popped up into fully assembled dwellings with the push of a button. Each had multiple floors with several open rooms with zippered doors, except at the front and back entrance of each dome which had motion sensing automatic doors. Each room was furnished with a small central table, two cushioned benches, two crates of food, 15 gallons of water and 8 blankets, which were delivered by subsequent cargo vessels.
As night was falling and the sky gleamed in brilliant hews of orange and crimson, I bid my farewell and returned to Tetra to check on my family members. Two of my Aunts and one Uncle were too weak to survive, but everyone else was recovering, some still critical, but recovering. I asked that they all be isolated from the truth about where they were until Keesha and I could talk to them. We had a lot of explaining to do. With the crisis and tasks of the day behind me, I hugged Keesha and said, “Let’s go home.” But, Keesha being Keesha, refused to leave her mother’s side. I gave her another big hug and said that I was going to stick around with her until later in the evening then go home for a few hours’ sleep. She agreed and we sat together for several hours amongst our family members watching them, talking and holding each other. I left the hospital at about midnight and went home for a short nap. By 6:00 am I was up and about. I quickly got ready and was at the hospital by 6:30 am. The hospital was fairly close to our Imperial Palace.
I found Keesha sound asleep on a cushioned bench. One of the Nurses had draped a blanket over her. I squatted down and gently kissed her. She groaned, “I should have gone home with you. This bench is horrible to sleep on.” “Yes, you say that now, but I bet you refuse to go home with me tonight too.” She groaned again while sitting up and said, “You’re probably right.” I laughed and handed her a little bag of toiletries which she thanked me for as she plodded over to the bathroom.
After she had freshened up, she welcomed me back properly. I stood up and gave her a big hug, and then we both sat and awaited the doctor, so we could get an update on the condition of our loved ones. The doctor was very reassuring, stating that all should recover without complications. We were both relieved but also dreaded explaining what had happened. All of our family members will have lost friends and loved ones forever. The loss of my Aunts and Uncle will be very painful to my parents and our family. It will be difficult to console them.
Unconscious in the hospital, Bob reflected: “Losing a loved one is hard, but if you know they are Heaven bound, then the loss is not nearly as painful.”
It took several days for most of them to recover and as each of them was able to hear and understand our story, we told them. Wading through the blank stares, laughter, disbelief, and fear on an almost daily basis was nerve-racking. It became tiresome. It would have been so much easier to tell them all at once. Oh well, the chores of telling all of them what had happened are over now. Each of them just had to complete the grieving process and then decide whether to remain on Tetra or follow the other rescued human beings to their newly christened home, Terra. Well, we have plenty of time for decisions. Many of them had several weeks of recovery to trudge through, but all were doing fine. They have plenty of time to decide.
