THE FLAMING LAKE by Dave George-fragment

DAVE GEORGE

THE FLAMING LAKE









- Aula, Aula where are you? – she spoke quietly, almost whispering. - Aula, for God's sake, reply me.

Zena knew she had to find Aula. The matter was urgent and she was in the Dangerous. As the souls used to tell her, she should avoid the Dangerous. She heard terrible stories from the souls of these winding ghostly red halls where Aula was hiding. She knew that the Guards could grab her any time. She knew what they would do to her. But she had to take that chance. She actually had no choice.

Aula was a Prophetess, the only one left after the Third Cycle which ended ingloriously for the human race. When the souls took over, Aula was forced to retreat to the Dangerous, ghostly red halls built by humans in the middle of the Third Cycle. Retreat and wait. Zena knew Aula was hoping to destroy the souls one day, no matter when. To tell the truth, her powers were collosal even now, but not nearly as great as the souls.

Zena remembered the First Cycle, one fine stage in the Earth's history when humanity started to envade space. Not to colonize it, but simply explore it in great detail. Then, towards the beginning of the First Cycle, with the plans of colonization of other worlds, they made computers which, as microtechnology was advancing, became more and more advanced themselves. It was the golden age of the history of humanity, indeed.

Somewhere in the middle of the Second Cycle hyperdriven ships were constructed and planet Mars was colonized. Then Venus. Then people, aware of their powers, started to leave for other Astral systems and continued their colonization. The process was inevitable for the humanity on Earth was crowded, and people lived much longer than they used to. They lived for two hundred, two hundred and fifty years and not sixty or seventy as in the beginning of the First Cycle any more. They no longer died of diseases, but of old age.

In the beginning of the First Cycle earthmen organized a systematic search for their brothers by reason. Giant ears of radio-telescope were directed towards the sky, receiving signals from immeasurable interuniversal distances and sending them over to the computer center where the data were processed. The eyes of optical telescopes could see far away and take a good look at the starry systems thousands of light years away. But nothing was found. It seemed that the space was silent. Humans dreaded that they were alone in the dark nowhere of the Universe.

And then, when there was no hope left at all, contact was made. Contact with another civilization, far more superior than the Earthly civilization. The contact with souls. This was at the end of the Third Cycle.

That period marked the end of the human reign on Earth. Now the Aliens became the masters. Now they could rule the crowds and do what they will. And their imagination was vivid. Vivid and distorted. For earthlings, of course, for in their original world what they did was quite common.

And so, instead of the human race colonizing the space and conquering new areas, it allowed itself to be conquered. Conquered in the real sense of the word.

Sometime in the middle of the Third Cycle, the scientists in the laboratories on Earth found the way to store memories of the dead from the grey mass in their skulls to crystal computer memories and in that way save life after death. But these were inconceivably expensive services, so hardly anyone could afford such pleasure.

Humans knew how to store minds, not souls. But the Aliens did.

Actually, the Aliens were the souls. Earthlings knew a lot about them. They knew that the Aliens conducted an experiment some ten thousand years ago and tried to separate spirit from the body and store it into computer memory. They knew that their first attempt was a failure. But they were persistent in their endeavors, so persistent in fact that after six hundred years they succeeded.

Their knowledge was great. They knew the structure of the matter and it was clear to them that their form prevented them in their further progress.

The Aliens once had a humanoid form. They had brain. But their brain could not think fast. At least not fast enough they thought it should. After numerous experiments they realized that the spirit is unbound and primary. And they realized that the spirit cannot exist without matter.

And so they transformed their bodies and settled in new homes, made of the indestructible material which existed on their planet.

For centuries the Aliens searched for some foreign race. Their souls wandered from one solar system to the other until they found what they were looking for. The Aliens wanted to have fun. In their own way. And their wish was granted.

Once they received reasonable signals from outer space, the Earthlings rushed to a far away sun in their hyperdriven ships...

... and they brought the Aliens to the Earth. In the beginning, the Aliens were friendly and told them everything about themselves. Or, almost everything. For example, they did not say they allowed themselves to be shipped over to the Earth just for the change of scenery. And that they had indestructible thirst for human
 
The Slave- Fragment

DAVE GEORGE

THE SLAVE







My name is Herbert. I am a slave. I didn’t used to be one. I had my own family, my home, my friends... My status changes the day They arrived. They came for me. Even today I do not know I was their random choice, without predetermined action plan. It’s possible I was, but I could not swear it was so. And it’s possible that a chain of events influenced my current status which is utterly humiliating.

There used to be wars on Earth. It was a long time ago, we studied that in school from the textbooks in the subject called history. Slaves were mostly black colored people, brought from the colonies established during wars of conquest. Former great forces, wealthy countries, strived to expand their sphere of influence. And they succeeded. The attacked countries were too weak to offer serious resistance to the conquerers. The slaves were taken to large estates of the powerful people and there they did the hardest works. They had no rights, including the basic right to live. They were like things – walking apparitions of washed brains.

That is what I am now. The difference is that they slaved in one period of the history of Earth and I in another. The ancient one, from one point of view, although it is very hard to explain. Sometimes I have a feeling that I don’t care about anything. I have the impression that I have been here for a long time, although, if I wanted to, I could calculated exactly how long I have been in this forced slavery.

And it all started like this.



It was a cold winter night, in 1998, December 12 at 02:30 local time. I was starting the night rounds of the area I knew well in the patrol police car.

- Herbi, is everything all right? – they asked me from the central police station in Vaku.

- I think so. It’s 02:20 now. Napolju je dosta hladno. Outdoor thermometer reads 5 degrees below zero – I answered.

- The important thing is that it is warm in the car – said Robert, deputy chief of police station. – Don't go out – he added with a smile.

- I wouldn't think of it – I answered. – I'm not a big fan of winter.

- That's your job – Robert reminded me. – We are not keen on winter either.

- I'm continuing the rounds towards roads 6 and 63 – I informed them.

- O.K. Call back in another ten minutes.

- Agreed – I said.

Agains all my expectations the bottom of the object opened and three humanoid apparitions headed towards me. I could watch them sliding slowly down the ploughed up field. I concluded that they were much much smaller than me, although from that distance I couldn’t tell precisely how tall they were. Their heads were unusually big, flattened at the ends of the skull. They were hairless and they had something in their hands. I panicked. I was helpless and the only thing I could do was to expect what would happen next.

Multitude of quick thoughts ran through my brain. Who are they and what are their intentions? My chances of defense, if they were enemies, were slim and the weapon I had was totally useless. If I wanted to or not, I had to surrender to faith whatever it was.

They came real close. They were about 1.40 m tall with huge skulls and black spiral eyes. They had thin openings for mouths which as far as I could tell was of no use whatsoever.

A ray of intense light came over me and I fell into complete darkness against my will.
 
astrohal,

Interesting reading. Are the excerpts from some of your writing or one of your favorite authors?
 
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