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Manifest DestinyText Copyright © 2011by Val Edward Simone.

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*******Manifest Destiny is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s

imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to local persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

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About the AuthorVal Edward Simone was born in Seattle, Washington, and has been writing since 1980. His works include novels, screenplays, plays,

poetry, short stories, and children’s picture books. Mr. Simone has published two adult-themed action/adventure novels; a historical novel; a collection of thoughts, musings, and observations; and seven children’s picture books. He continues to work on twelve other novels.

He is also a strong advocate of early childhood reading and continues to work with schools, local libraries, and directly with children through parent-assisted workshops, helping children to discover their own creativity through reading, writing, and drawing.

The printed children’s books are available through his website: www.ekidslandpublishing.com.The adult-themed books are available through his other website: www.morningsidepublishing.com.He currently lives and works in Lakewood, Colorado.

*******My thanks to Rita, my E.Q. (Edit Queen)

MANIFEST DESTINY*******

The bar of green fluorescent light sweeping around the radar’s LCD screen discovered the fleet’s approach at 0021 barums.“Sir!” the young radar operator yelled to his commanding officer. “I’ve got bogeys.”Commander Rison Aresh, a twenty-four-yarum veteran of some of the most hellish war ever unleashed upon any civilization, sipped his

caffeinate nonchalantly. “From what direction?”Sir! You don’t understand. I have thousands of bogeys. My gods! Tens of thousands!”The steaming cup of caffeinate dropped from Commander Aresh’s hand, crashing to the floor.“Say again?!”“Tens of thousands, sir.”“My gods! It’s the Western Alliance!”His hand dropped instantly to a box mounted on the right side of his command chair. Nimble fingers quickly found the protective cover and

lifted it, exposing a bright red button. Just as he was about to press it, the radar operator sang out once more.“No, sir! It’s not the Western Alliance. These signals are coming from deep space!”His words stayed the commander’s thumb from pushing the button that would have sounded the alliance-wide alarm and brought every

fighting unit to highest alert in preparation for imminent all-out war.“That’s ridiculous,” growled the commander.“No, sir. Definitely from deep space.”“It’s impossible! Check your equipment for malfunction.”“I already did, sir. I’m telling you, I’ve got thousands of them coming from space.”“Where?”“Near Agilon, sir.”“Near Agilon? How is that possible? Who might they be?”“Sorry, sir, they’re not talking to me. They’re just silently heading this way.”“What’s their ETA?”“Thirty-one barums, sir.”“Thirty-one? They’re only one dalum out?”“At their current velocity and trajectory, yes, sir. They’re approaching at sub-light speed.”“This has to be some kind of Western Alliance ruse,” said the commander as he reached for a telephone attached to the left side of his

chair. He placed the receiver to his ear and waited. This action automatically began the pre-programmed dialing sequence. A moment later a calm voice answered. “Yes?”

“This is Commander Aresh from Strategic Warning Control Operations. I need to speak with the general. … Of course I know what time it is. … Then wake him! This is an Alpha Priority One call.”

The commander was placed on hold for what felt like an eternity. Finally, a groggy voice broke the silence in his ear. “What is it, Commander Aresh?”

“Sir, we have tens of thousands of bogeys heading straight for us from deep space. Their ETA is just under thirty-one barums.”There was no immediate response from the general. Time passed agonizingly slowly for Commander Aresh before the general responded.

“From space? You’re positive about that, Commander?”“Yes, sir.”“Secure the computers and lock them all down. Go Alpha Black until further notice.”“Alpha Black, sir?”“Do it!” the general ordered, then abruptly disconnected.Commander Aresh returned the phone to its cradle and stood up from his chair.“Alpha Black!” he bellowed. “Lock it all down. Now! This is not a drill.”The room became an instant frenzy of activity as the crew began a checklist of procedures they had trained to perform every week for

several yarums. Their motions were mechanical as they went about their individually assigned tasks with blazing speed and absolute precision.Within barumites, the Strategic Warning Control Operations (SWCOPS) facility was locked down, and the system computers, while

continuing to record everything coming in, cut off all outgoing communications. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, the facility had ceased to exist.

Buried two thousand fectars below the surface, in the center of a pure granite mountain, the facility would be their home until the general said otherwise. If anything happened to him before his authorization to revive them, so to speak, was received and verified, this was where they would die. This would be their eternal gravesite, their ultimate sacrifice to the standing order of the command. Before that devout obedience to the letter of the order, however, Commander Aresh, under a very specific set of conditions, and considering that if no word was received from above, that all was lost, would initiate the doomsday device, scorching the planet’s surface and reducing the once beautiful, enriching landscape to a dust-coated lump of charcoal, thus eliminating any specter of victory hoped for by the Western Alliance. The hate harbored for the enemy was stronger than the desire to stay the hand of destruction for all. This was the way it was. And all present within the facility knew it and subscribed to the dictum: If victory not for us, then so not for our enemy.

On this dalum, however, that definitive forfeit of life was not required.Two barums after its initiation, Alpha Black was canceled. Words flashed on Commander Aresh’s computer screen in response to the

challenges of the SWCOPS computer. One by one, each challenge was answered correctly. The final sequence automatically opened the huge, impenetrable crash doors, allowing the general and his entourage access to the highly classified facility.

Commander Aresh, standing at perfect attention, greeted the general with a smart salute. The general returned his salute with equal zest.“Outstanding job, Commander! Bring the update to the ready room and fill me in.”“Yes, sir!” Commander Aresh, the elite-trained commander, responded resolutely.“And caffeinate, Commander,” the general added in his usual arrogant tone as he passed. “I need lots of hot black caffeinate.”“Right away, sir.”Commander Aresh then turned to Captain Tarimus. “You heard the general, Captain.”“Yes, sir. Coming right up, sir.”

And so it went, each officer passing the general’s order downward to the next officer under his command until it reached the enlisted ranks. Finally, the lowest-ranked enlisted man was informed that the general had ordered caffeinate. Cadet Marson performed the task admirably.

Commander Aresh joined the general and his entourage in the ready room and inserted a flash drive–like device into a socket at the head of the table. A video began playing on the large wall-mounted LCD screen.

The group watched as the massive fleet of unknown spacecraft moved hauntingly closer with each passing barumite. Every jaw dropped in awe.

“Spacecraft?” the general blurted out finally. “It’s impossible. It cannot be possible.”“If not spacecraft, sir, then what are they?” asked Commander Aresh.“If they are spacecraft, then the next question chills my blood,” said Professor Hinten, the country’s leading aeronautical expert and head

of the fledgling Aeronautics and Astronautics Department, a recently formed division of the Department of War. “If they are spacecraft, they must be intelligently controlled. If they are intelligently controlled, who controls them?”

Every eye turned toward the professor.“They must necessarily be mechanical, Professor,” said the general. “Everyone knows that nothing biological can survive in the void of

space. Isn’t that right?”The professor remained silent.The general turned his head toward the professor. “You do agree, don’t you, Professor? The beings controlling the spacecraft must be

mechanical, yes?”Professor Hinten remained silent as he stared contemplatively at the video screen.“Professor?”“I don’t know, General. But if they’re mechanical, that raises another question even more frightening. Who built them?”Every throat swallowed hard.“A machine cannot come to life on its own,” the professor continued. “That means that if mechanical beings are controlling the spacecraft,

a biological entity had to have built them.”“That’s even more astonishing, Professor. It would mean that other life is out there somewhere. How can that be?”“Again, General, I have no answer to your question. But if life is out there, then every fact we thought we knew about space has just been

rendered obsolete.”“I can’t accept that. We are the only intelligent life in the universe. Everyone knows this to be a certainty. We are special, the only beings

endowed with powers of reason and understanding. We are unique in all the cosmos. Our books and tablets tell us this. All our historical records are quite clear on this fact. We are the masters of the universe. If we are not alone, then our ancestors have deceived us. And I will not believe that. Not for one barumite will I believe that.”

“But what if all that we know is wrong? What if history as we know it was manufactured by the ancestors to hide our real past from us—to hide the truth?”

“That’s a theory as old as time itself. I’ve heard it all before. No, Professor. It can’t be all a lie. It just can’t be.”“Then please explain the radar images to me, General, for I cannot interpret what I see any other way.”“I can’t, Professor. I admit that much, but to say that it was all a lie, no. There has to be another reason. Commander Aresh, you have

confirmed that this isn’t some decoy signal from the Western Alliance?”“Yes, sir. We’ve checked, checked again, and triple-checked. It’s not a signal from the Western Alliance. What you’re seeing, sir, is

coming from deep space. Something or someone is heading straight for us, and by the gods, their numbers are staggering.”“Face it, General,” said the professor. “It has all changed. It’s finally and forever changed. We are not alone in the cosmos.”“But our history, Professor. Every bit of our history was written by the gods themselves, and they tell us that we were created by them and

are the only sentient life in the universe. Would you have me now believe that both our ancestors and even the gods themselves are liars?”“I say only this, General: look at the screen in front of you. There’s the proof you seek. There is other sentient life living among the stars

and we’ll be meeting them very soon. Who they are I cannot say, but introductions are going to take place one way or another.”“The gods would not lie, Professor!”“General, I am simply stating that as a man trained in observation, I see radar images of thousands of blips moving toward us. That

training, along with my power of reasoning and yarums of experience, tells me that they cannot be natural objects such as asteroids or comets. And if they’re not natural, then they’re either artificial or another race of living beings. If they’re artificial, then some living entity somewhere out in the vastness of the cosmos has built them and sent them toward us. Nothing else can be the reason. Either way, this proves that we are not alone, General, and everything we have ever known is now torn asunder. Our long recorded history is cast upon the rubbish heap and a new history is about to be written.”

“Sir,” interjected Lieutenant Pra’ming, a young officer in the general’s entourage, “what do you think they want with us?”The question was like a spear through every heart in the room. An audible gasp came from every mouth. Every eye opened wide in shock.“Dear gods above,” uttered the general. “What would they want with us?”“Was this armada built for invasion or for simple exploration?” asked Lieutenant Pra’ming.“Out of the mouths of babes,” murmured the professor. “An excellent question, Lieutenant. And one which will be answered with certainty,

no doubt, with the rise of the new dalum sun.”“Sir,” Lieutenant Pra’ming continued, “if the gods created us, as it is written, could they be the gods returning for a visit?”“A better question, Lieutenant,” said the professor, “would be if they are the gods, why would they need spaceships?”“Sir,” Captain Tarimus said, “pardon the question, but gods or not, if they prove to be a hostile force, how are we to defend against them?

We have nothing that can reach into space.”“I know, Captain,” replied the general. “I was just contemplating that myself. I agree with the professor. If they are the gods who created

us, I don’t believe they would need spacecraft. So whoever travels in those ships cannot be the gods. And if they are not the gods, then I must assume them to be of hostile intent. One ship would visit; that number of ships can be for one purpose only—invasion. Regardless of who they turn out to be, we must make plans to destroy them. If they do come in peace, then fine, we can stand down our forces, but if they come to make war, gentlemen, then we must be prepared.”

“I agree, General,” said the professor, “but as Captain Tarimus pointed out, we have no defense against a fleet like that. And any race that possesses the knowledge to travel the great distances between the stars must surely also possess the ability not only to defend itself but also to make war on a planetary scale from orbit. We would be as insects to them as they swatted us out of existence with ease, I should think.”

“Not helpful, Professor,” said the general. “Not at all helpful. We must be prepared for any contingency regardless of what weapons they may possess.”

“General, if they are an invasion force, then it is clear that they have the ability to stay above the planet. From there they can pummel us without reservation or fear of retaliation, for we possess no technology to deliver any payload of armaments up to them. We would be annihilated—crushed into oblivion if that be their wish.”

“Again, Professor, not helpful. You state the obvious. I’m tasked with the defense of our great alliance. I will not cower from my responsibilities simply because we do not yet have a way to defend ourselves. If necessary, we shall invent a way. And I believe I have.”

“How’s that?” asked the professor.“Every invasion, to be completely successful, must eventually put boots on the ground. We might have to employ guerrilla tactics against

them. If they live, then they can die. If they are mechanical, then they can be destroyed. It’s just a matter of how.”“Well spoken, General. Ever the optimist, I see,” mocked the professor. “Think quickly, though, for by tomorrow, your plans might well

have to be put to the test.”At that instant the red telephone rang, the only direct communication telephone between the alliances. Everyone’s eyes expressed shock; it

had been many yarums since the red phone had rung.“The Western Alliance? Now? That’s all I need,” said the general. The phone rang several more times before he picked up the receiver and

put it to his ear.“General Rankin, I presume. And what can I do for you?”The general listened carefully.“Yes. We see them also. … We’re assessing that at this very moment ourselves.”He continued to listen intently and without expression.“I don’t think that would be possible, General Rankin. Simply stated, I don’t trust you.”The general’s eyes opened wide as he continued to listen.“Here? You would be willing to come here? I’m sure you would, General—at the head of your invading army.”The general then smirked. “Alone. You’ll come here alone.”His expression became one of mocking disbelief.“You would? Without your guard. To what end, General? Please. Do you consider me a complete imbecile? You’re willing to come here

alone and unprotected just to talk? Surely you must believe me a fool. What would make you think that I would allow you entry into our most sensitive area? Your body is absent your mind, General.”

The two generals continued their discussion for some time until the general was seemingly convinced of General Rankin’s sincerity.The war between the Eastern and Western alliances, now in the midst of its second millenrum, had stagnated centrums before, descending

into what were now simple firefights with small weapons, continuing nearly dalyrum somewhere in the world.The resources necessary for development of any larger weapons systems had long ago been exhausted and no longer existed.With both economies driven solely by the needs of the military-industrial complex and its support services, there seemed little reason to

seek peace. Every remaining natural resource was either put directly or indirectly to use in support of the war effort.Untold generations of the globe’s inhabitants had been born and died under the ever-present threats and actions of war. One rarely found it

possible to use the words hope, victory, or peace without the word ‘war’ in the same sentence.So it was understandable that the general’s response to General Rankin’s offer to come to him unarmed and unprotected was one well

rooted in both disbelief and suspicion.The general’s initial thought was to assassinate his counterpart the instant they met, but he quickly dismissed that idea; there was always

another general waiting in the wings who was more than capable of taking over command. Killing General Rankin would serve no purpose. Besides, the general was more than a little curious about what was on Rankin’s mind. It actually delighted him to think of playing a mental game with his adversary: who could outmaneuver whom in a game of strategy and cunning?

No, he would allow General Rankin to enter his facility, but only after a sufficiently thorough examination of both the exterior and interior of his body. For all the general knew, General Rankin’s body could be stuffed with enough explosives to damage the SWCOPS facility, effectively blinding them from any advance the enemy might wish to make against them during their down time. It is fair to say that trust was not an easily exchanged commodity between the two generals.

*******Three barums passed. General Rankin, blindfolded and bound, was dragged into the ready room and made to sit down. When his blindfold

was removed, he found himself staring for the very first time into the eyes of his most hated enemy.“General,” said Rankin, inclining his head. “It is good that we finally meet face to face after so many yarums.”“If what you have to say to me proves false or wastes my time, I assure you, General, mine will be the last face you ever see.”“Surely your people have already found my record chip.”“We have.”“Then I encourage you to plug it in and watch the video. I assure you, General, you will find it most enlightening and, dare I say, sobering.”The general looked up at his comptech, First Lieutenant Ragmar Ca’litz, standing silently nearby. “Well, Lieutenant? Anything to worry

about before I plug it into my computer?”“No, sir,” said Ca’litz. “I checked it out personally. It’s clean.”The general nodded and then pushed the device into the port. A video began to play. It was full of images from what appeared to be long,

long ago, in an age purported to be before recorded time. The general pressed the button to pause the video.“What’s this drivel, Rankin?”“They are images from our past, General. Our true past—a distant past, hidden from us by our ancestors.”“What past? The Western Alliance’s past?”“No. Our planet’s past. A time when the alliances had only newly formed and the Great War had just begun. Fifteen hundred yarums ago.”“Don’t be ridiculous, General,” scoffed the general. “This is farcical. There are no available images from that time. Video recording was

invented only three decums ago. This is common knowledge. What are you trying to pull?”“General, as hard to believe as this may seem, these are true images from our distant past. A time long ago, just after the war began. These

images prove that all our ‘established and verified’ history is false. Everything taught to us as children has been based upon a lie. Our ancestors rewrote our entire history long ago, either to hide the truth from us or to protect us from the awful reality. Please, general, watch the video. You shall understand it all soon enough.”

The general removed his revolver from its holster and aimed it at General Rankin’s head, pulling back the hammer. “You are trying to make a fool of me. Everyone knows there was no history before the gods created us. What are you doing, General? Is it your wish to die right here?”

“General, It is my wish neither to die nor to make a fool of you. These images are real. My forces discovered them in a cave deep beneath the planet’s surface early last yarum. I assure you, I was as shocked as you are. It seems our history is not as complete as we were led to believe. And now, with the advancing armada out there less than a dalum away, I think it is time for us to come together as one people and prepare for our end with some measure of dignity. If any dignity still exists.”

“What are you babbling about, man? How do you know they come to harm us? They could just as easily be coming in friendship and peace.”

“Hear yourself speak, General. Are you not trained to first consider the possibility of hostility?”“I am, as I suspect you are also.”“I am. And so I tell you that they are coming not to make peaceful contact but to destroy us.”The general returned his pistol to its holster. “And what, pray tell, brings you to that conclusion?”“Continue the video, General. It will explain everything.”“This is it? This is what was so urgent that you needed to come here unarmed and unprotected? You think this simple farce was worth your

life?”“I urge you to finish the video, General. Our end draws near. We should take this time to bury all ill will, finish this war once and for all, or

it will become the second-to-last war ever fought on this planet.”The general scoffed. “So melodramatic, General Rankin. You should be on stage acting out your final speech with wild gesticulating and

exaggerated expressions of woe.”“I tell you, General, what is coming is no act of theater. They mean to destroy us so completely that we shall never see the rise of a single

soul. Our history is about to be completely rewritten.”“Again with the melodrama. I see blips on a radar screen, General, nothing more. But if they are an invading force, they will meet

resistance that will overwhelm them. I was trained to deploy my troops and equipment in such a way as to never wonder about the outcome of any battle. Despite your attempted ruse, I do not intend to abandon that training now. And if history is to be rewritten, let the new history be written by the Eastern Alliance.”

“Watch the video, General. That is all I ask. If you can view it to its conclusion with an unchanged heart and mind, then I shall stand by your side and put myself and all my troops under your personal command.”

“As I see it, General, you are at this moment under my command.”“That may be true, but your command will be terminated very soon. In less than twenty-seven barums, the truth of all that I say now will be

made manifest into a new history for our race—a history with no one left to record it.”“And there you have it, General Rankin. Manifest destiny in a nutshell. It is manifest destiny for our race to rule the stars forever. We are

the chosen ones, the ones created directly by the gods. The stars are ours to control. And soon enough we shall venture out among those stars and spread our seed to other planets, creating new creatures in our own image, a new race of beings to rule over. A new race that will serve us and our needs. To them, we shall ourselves be as gods.

“It is our destiny to rule over every race that will ever exist throughout the cosmos. You will witness this truth—from the other side, of course—when this invading armada is put down hard. To conqueror us, General Rankin, they will have to fight us on the surface, in our own land, under our terms of battle. It may take some time, we may lose many, but in the end it is we who shall be victorious. It is we who shall put our mark upon their foreheads, not theirs upon ours.”

“You’re arrogant, General,” said Rankin. “We are an arrogant race, the lot of us. It has always been our greatest weakness. And it is for that arrogance that all are now condemned. It is for such that those spacecraft come to our planet with the intention of destroying us. How could we not know, General? How could we so deceive ourselves for these many, many yarums? How could we not understand that our arrogance would eventually lead us to this end?

“And you, General, shall bear full witness to it all. You shall see the end come, and very near to it you shall finally come to understand our true destiny. And we deserve it all. We, alone, set the stage for our own destruction. Of that there will be little doubt left. The destiny of all tyrants is a pool of blood surrounding the body. That is a truth that you shall know all too well within the next dalum.”

The general again pulled out his pistol, drew back the hammer, and pointed it again at the head of General Rankin.“Perhaps so, but it’s a truth you shall learn well before me, General Rankin.”“Your pistol does not frighten me. I came fully prepared for my death, General. I came expecting never to see my home or my loved ones

again. I came to warn you, not to defeat or deceive you. I came in the hope of discovering enough common ground that we might find some degree and manner of reconciliation before it was too late.”

“To what end, General Rankin? Why now? What good would it do?”“Those spacecraft are coming to destroy us. All of us. Perhaps we could stop the devastation before it begins. If we greet them as a united

people, living in peace, perhaps they would spare us.”“What makes you think that?”“Finish the video and you will understand.”“It’s too late, General. They have only to scan our planet to see our true nature. The destruction will speak for itself.”“I can see that, General. It’s plain enough. But why not at least give it a try? Could it be any worse?”“It’s a waste of time. They’ll be upon us in less than a dalum. We should be preparing to fight them. Not greet them. They come uninvited

and I do believe this much of what you say. They come to invade us. And, General Rankin, be clear on this, it will not be the sniveling, fainthearted soldiers of the Western Alliance that confronts them first, but the proud and bold warriors of the Eastern Alliance that shall meet them head on. It shall be we also who brings them down.”

“Then it was for a fool’s errand I came, my reach outward wasted,” said Rankin. “I was hoping we could die brothers instead of enemies.”“Then for a fool’s errand your own history shall be written,” the general spat out. “Your mission has failed miserably. Those ships, they

frighten you and I see only cowardice in your eyes. You have already surrendered. I don’t even see a man before me. I see a whimpering waste of enemy flesh who comes begging for me to give him his own cowardly end rather than face the difficulties that lie ahead. Oh, there will be a battle, General Rankin. Of that there is no doubt. But it is we who shall prevail, not whoever travels in those approaching craft. As I said, it is we who shall burn our mark into their foreheads. It’s not arrogance that speaks. It’s the truth that leaps from my mouth. It’s faith in our destiny, given to us by the gods themselves, that burns in my heart. This coming event is but a test for the truly righteous among us. You, general, have been found sorely wanting in that regard. I despise you, sir.

“This is why the fate of rule has always lain with the Eastern Alliance. It is why the gods first settled on the eastern shores and created our race in their likeness. It is our fate to rule over all creatures. We have been created in the gods’ image for the express purpose, now and forever, to be the masters of the universe. Our future seed, planted elsewhere throughout the cosmos, will do the same after we’re gone. They will rule over all that they behold. There is no one mightier than we. And the Eastern Alliance shall reign over them all.”

“I weep for you, General,” Rankin said. “My heart breaks for you. You are blinded by hate, and for hate’s sake there will be only darkness in your eyes from this dalum forward unless you finish the video and understand what is about to drop upon your head. This coming battle cannot be our destiny. There must be a better way. There has to be.”

“I need not finish your hoax to see what you intended all along. You practice to deceive, General. You came to weaken us. But it is with eyes open wide that I see through your scheme. You’re the Great Deceiver himself. But see now your destiny. See it in the blackness of my pistol’s bore. Look deep, man, for it is a blackness that shall surely be with you forever.”

The general squeezed the trigger. The bullet shattered General Rankin’s skull, sending brain, blood, and bone against the nearest wall. The other officers jolted back in their chairs as one with the sudden explosion of the general’s pistol.

Replacing the gun into its holster, the general ordered that Rankin’s body be removed at once.“And clean this mess off my walls. I won’t have this facility tainted with the Western Alliance’s cowardly leavings,” he said to no one in

particular.He rose from his chair and barked orders to assemble the troops and make ready their guerrilla tactics.“Move quickly, men. Move all rations, ammo, and equipment to the underground complexes. That is where this war will be fought. That is

where our victory shall be won.”The general left the room, followed by all his officers except Lieutenant Pra’ming, who chose instead to move to the front chair and watch

the rest of the video. He pressed the pause button and the video began playing again.*******

The general sat in his command chair high on the command podium, above all the other officers and crew in the room. From this seat he could survey all that was his to command.

The large screen on the wall continued its display of the approaching blips, now so numerous that the top of the screen was almost a solid fluorescent green.

“My gods, they are many,” he mumbled to himself. “And we’ll have to kill them all.”He pressed a button on the arm of his chair. “General Adir.”“Yes, sir, General,” came the quick response.“I want status reports every barum on the barum. Do you understand?”“Yes, sir. Understood.”The general pressed the button again to end the connection and then sat back in his chair, studying the approaching armada.

*******Thirty barumites passed in complete silence. Suddenly, a scream echoed through the command center.The general leapt from his chair and raced to the ready room, where he found Lieutenant Pra’ming slumped in a chair and sobbing

uncontrollably.“What is it, Lieutenant?” the general barked.The young officer found it impossible to speak. He just pointed at the screen and sobbed even harder.The general glanced up at the screen with a perplexed look.“What is it, Lieutenant? What’s all this about?”The lieutenant could not respond coherently. He continued to point at the screen and shake his head as his tears flowed unabated.“By the gods, Lieutenant, stop that blubbering and report, blast you!”The lieutenant tried to regain his composure, with no success.The general continued shouting at him until he finally opened his mouth.“The armada, sir. The armada.”“The armada. Yes. What about it? Gather yourself, man. Act like an officer, for the gods’ sake.”“The video, sir. I finished it, as General Rankin wanted. It explains the armada.”“Nonsense! It’s a hoax, Lieutenant. An elaborate hoax on the part of the Western Alliance to put us off guard.”“No, sir,” sobbed the lieutenant. “It’s recorded history. You need to watch it.”“I don’t have time to watch this nonsense, Lieutenant. Report back to your station.”“Sir!” shouted the officer. “You don’t need to watch it all. Just watch the last few minutes.” The lieutenant composed himself and rewound

the video to the image of a former general sitting at a desk, looking glum.His interest piqued, the general sat down as the lieutenant began the playback.“My name is General Is’ak, I am the current supreme commander of the Eastern Alliance. I make this recording in an effort to prepare

future generations for what I believe will most surely come. I only pray to the gods that you find this in time and make all the necessary preparations that you can.

“I don’t really know where to begin, except to say this. Our people were once a mighty race. Having amassed great knowledge, our scientists were unsurpassed. We even came to surprise ourselves with the depth and breadth of our knowledge and supposed wisdom.

“So great a society had we created, we believed all things were possible for us. In hindsight, however, we came to understand that all of it, everything that we were, was heaped upon us through our own arrogance.

“We had even come to think of ourselves as gods. We believed that it was our manifest destiny to spread our seed into the farthest reaches of our galaxy and beyond, for we believed that the universe was created solely for our pleasure and conquest.

“Through our unabated arrogance we stretched forth our hand and made all civilizations we came across bend to our will and might. If they resisted in the slightest manner, we destroyed them completely, without mercy or afterthought.

“We planted our DNA into the populations that survived, thinking to remake them in our image.“In one small sector of our galaxy we did just that, but on a scale that dwarfed every previous effort. This one particular race was easy to

control. To our every whim they capitulated. To our every desire they came on bended knee, so very eager to please us, so very willing to learn all that we could teach them.

“And teach them we did. We taught them as we had never taught any conquered civilization before them. We taught them to be just like us, and soon, in thought and deed, they were our mirror image.

“We stood proudly over them, so full of hubris over our accomplishment that we failed to notice the small uprising taking place in the farthest reaches of that beautiful blue planet. The rebellion grew until the entire race had become hostile, filled with determination to throw off their masters.

“In the midst of our conceit, we found ourselves unprepared for their attack on us. They slaughtered us. They destroyed our global control units without mercy or hesitation.

“Only a few members of our monitoring team escaped the rampage and made it home. Still deluded by our deeply embedded egotism, we believed that the race from the blue planet would never reach out into the stars. Even if they did reach the stars, they were primitive and ignorant compared to us and lacked sufficient knowledge of the physics necessary to travel the galaxy. We believed that without our guidance they would never get out into the depths of space to threaten us.

But if they should ever rise to that level, we would, by that time, be even more evolved, remaining forever vastly superior to them. If they ever launched an attack on our home world, our superior intellect and long experience would easily lay their marauding fleets to waste. We were so blindly confident.

“We had no idea, no concept at all, what we would soon do to ourselves. Our sick need for dominance infected us to the point of blindness. And in that sightlessness, we could not foresee how our conceit and rapacious behavior would turn our own people one against another in such a horrid manner, rising to the ultimate level of warfare that it did.

“Now we are utterly and completely self-destroyed. Our space fleets are decimated. Our cities have been turned to rubble. Our once proud culture is gone. We live now like rats in the open spaces, subsisting on whatever we can find available. Our technology has been all but destroyed and we find ourselves now helpless to defend against any external attack.

“I sit here before you filled with the shame of it all. But before soldiers from the Western Alliance break down these doors and slaughter me, I wanted to warn you, our woeful descendents, whenever and wherever you might be viewing this video.

“Turn from the hatred that even now must infest you. Turn from the pride. Turn from the arrogance that is now destroying us. Turn back to the compassionate and wisdom-filled ways of our own long-ago ancestors and become great once more.

“But beware. When last we had contact with the civilization on the blue planet, they had just discovered how to reach out into space and travel beyond their own solar system. If all bears out as I estimate, our demon descendents should be upon us in full rage in about fifteen hundred yarums.

“I can only pray that by that time, you will have learned to control your conceit, your pride, and your hatred. That you will have regained your sanity and will have come to understand your simple place in the universe as only one of many races born with the right to exist as they are, to grow in their own way and manner, to live in peace and without the fear of being brutalized by an arrogant race such as ours. I can only hope for you that reason will have won out over your self-importance and that you will be able to greet the invaders with some measure of kindness and understanding. That you will be able to show them the errors that we committed against them and turn them away from their intended retaliation. If not, then it seems that our race shall ultimately be destroyed by those we insisted on creating in our own image.”

The door to his room suddenly crashed open and Western Alliance soldiers rushed at him.“My end is here. I wish the best for—”Bullets riddled General Is’ak’s body and he slumped over onto the desk, his vacant eyes staring into the camera’s lens.A young soldier’s face came into view from behind General Is’ak’s body. “Something’s being recorded, sir,” he said.“Leave it, Corporal,” said a voice in the background. “Clear the next room, now!”The corporal stared into the camera for a moment and then moved out of sight. Within barumites the video stopped and the screen went

black.“My gods,” uttered the general, rising to walk back to his command chair. “What have we done?”Settling into his chair, he could only stare helplessly at the large screen on the wall, now filled with over 100,000 fluorescent radar blips. Lieutenant Pra’ming, also staring at the screen, walked up to the general. “They’re us, sir. We did this. Everything we were taught is a lie.

We created them with our own technology. And now they come as avenging deities, returning with all that technology we lost long ago. They are now supreme and we have no way to defend ourselves, sir. None at all.”

Tears formed in the general’s eyes. “My gods” was all he was able to say.*******

Note:The preceding video and audio recordings, along with the supporting written records, were found and translated by the valiant crew of the

Deep Space Galaxy 5 mission, who discovered this destroyed and dead planet on March 15, 3235.*******

Another audio record was discovered by the Galaxy 5 mission crew. The translation reads as follows:“With my tear-filled eyes I watched our world collapse under their devastating assault from orbit. They didn’t need to descend to the

surface; their armaments penetrated our deepest bunkers with ease. Lieutenant Pra’ming was correct. Our gods did return—gods that we had created—to destroy their makers. With my voice I record this log so that whoever discovers it might have some advantage over what could be your future. If any lessons can be learned from this, then I urge you to learn them from our mistakes. We did not learn from what we knew long ago. We did not turn from what we knew to be wrong. I did not believe, thus I alone am responsible for my own disreputable end. May the gods forgive me, for I cannot find reason to forgive myself. Instead, I pray now for you.”

~ Last words recorded by the general

The End