The WAR... yeah, that's what we called it.
It had been going on longer than anyone could remember, heck, we didn't even remember WHY we were fighting. What made 'THEM' different than 'US'??? I mean , no; not the little things like what was His name, or how 'Their' rules to behave were different than ours. Was there more than one of Him? It had to be something much older... much deeper than those silly differences. Were there actually more than one of Him? And where was He now? Or 'They', as the case may be.
What's even crazier, is that despite slaughtering each other for millennia, there were now three times as many living souls on this rock than had ever lived before, ever. And while this WAR seems to have bolstered our species, in terms of population, technology, conquering the very biology of the planet, we fail to see how one by one our companions who make up our sustainability, are disappearing one by one... How our insanity has changed the very climate around us, making it harder and harder for Anything to live ….
Forgive me, I haven't properly introduced myself. I was SSGT Wilkinson, member of the Ameritech Military, covert operations division, returning to base after a very 'successful' operation, destroying a manufacturing plant in the Toykiasaki Corporate territory. We had been told that they had developed a new weapons tech that we simply could not allow to be deployed.
We found no such tech in our searching, so had fallen back on the plan B alternative of 'flat, black, glass, and glow in the dark', detonating a tactical nuke to ensure the place was gone. At least we didn't have to worry much about fallout landing in the Eurocratic Conglomerate or the Isriarabic Energy Affiliates.
Our skyshuttle had nearly returned to Ameritech air space when a lucky shot struck us, instantly vaporizing the cockpit, the pilots, and the front two thirds of the craft. What was left, was going down fast. I had been talking facing towards the rear of the craft when it was hit, so the force of the blast caught the back of my helmet, and in that split second, I saw my friends faces melt away.
Just then, the skyshuttle impacted the water, just off the east coast, north of New Boston, sliding under the ice that stretched out from shore for several miles. I had heard that at one time, there had been no ice...that they had what was called 'beaches', but that was long, long ago.
The frigid water pressed in against me, forcing the air from my lungs. As the world turned black I remember thinking, “who will watch the kids now?”; and then there was nothing.
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I heard something softly sighing, and my first thought was 'that's strange'. My eyes popped open and I could see a softly glowing bluish dome about eight feet above me. I could feel my body, but despite my efforts, it seemed I couldn't move any part of me. There was a pleasant sensation, and a soft musical tinkling to my left, which was not within my very limited view.
The dome grew somewhat brighter; and I could hear movement all around me. Like a half dozen or so individuals moving about the space around me. Then I heard a soft voice, but there was no sound. In my head I heard, 'Be at peace. You are safe.' Then, like a switch being thrown, the world returned to black ....
This very bizarre scene repeated itself many times, and I had no means to track time; but each time it would end with those words. Then finally, instead of hearing 'You are safe' I heard, 'you will soon have your form back.' I'm sure you can imagine just how strange and confusing that would sound! As if, I had no form now? I hadn't had a form since I woke? The dome dimmed and the sounds grew softer, but I don't recall blacking out this time. It seemed to be, simultaneously forever and in and very brief moment of time, that I felt a totally disorienting 'shift'.
A 'traveling' in an undefinable direction at a speed too fast to calculate and too slow to feel. When suddenly I was 'there' I could feel my eyelids flutter, I could feel texture under my body, I could feel my chest move with my breathing! I tried raising my head and I could! It was only a couple inches, but in that most brief of glances I was stunned...outside the window, was Earth. The Big Blue Marble, hanging in the sky surrounded by stars. Again, the overload turned my world black.
How long it was that I remained unconscious this time I still had no way to gauge, but instead of being suddenly awake, this time it was slow. Gentle awakening, becoming aware that there were presences surrounding me, and a wash of concern and caring emotion cascaded over me. My eyes opened slowly trying to avoid the sudden bright flash that had greeted my waking previously, but the lights were very low. I could see figures moving in the shadows; small, slender, draped in some sort of gown that did nothing to hide the breasts each sported. Some had long hair some seemed to be closed shaved, and the voice in my head told me, ”You are safe. You live again. Be calm, there is no danger here.”
Gradually the lights came up, and I could see that I was indeed surrounded by nearly a dozen of these creatures. They did not look to be human. Each had dusky redish olive toned skin, dark nearly black hair (for the ones that had hair). Their eyes were huge! With violet iris, elliptic pupils, and what seemed an extra, protective membrane beneath their eyelids. Their faces were virtually identical, with only minor subtle variations. And they were all looking at me.
I sat up slowly, and as I did, the covering over me slid down, revealing that now I too had breasts. I barely kept consciousness, and in a higher pitched voice than was mine I hissed 'What have you done to me?!'
The answer came to me, in my head 'Be calm. You are safe. Your genome was damaged and needed repair so we could bring you back.'
I am sure you can picture the flurry of questions I spewed, demanding explanations of who, what, where, and when; and most importantly why.
It turned out that these were not aliens. It seems 'The WAR' had continued to escalate, each corpolitical union striving for dominance over the planet below us, until eventually the few surviving population had to abandon our home. Over time the races merged, as did gender. There were no men or women, all are now born both. Humanities mental ability grew to the point where verbal communication was no longer normal, direct mind to mind transmission of idea and thought had been achieved; and voices were only used for creating music. Lies and deceptions were no longer possible, ulterior motives shone through like neon lights. Even emotion was now transparent to all.
They had conquered matter energy conversion, and had discovered ways to use the energy of the sun in ways I found incomprehensible. Money was no longer needed, the accumulation of 'things' now outdated, a true democracy. People worked at what they had a passion for, or did little as they chose, simply as their own choices dictated. Over the past several centuries the Earth had been reborn. Creatures long extinct now roamed freely, the cities of mankind removed. Even now they were working to stabilize the tectonic plates. The toxins of man were gone. Above the world were dozens of stations, cities in space, much like the one I was on. Each were filled with like minded people. One was a geology world where folk studied minerals and how they worked. Another was a music world, where all manner of instruments were created and music composed. And so it went, each of the cities had a focus, all orbiting high above 'Home'; and each person was free to travel to any they chose, to do whatever they chose.
For several weeks, they took me around the cities. By now I was far more comfortable in my new form, but still could not speak mind to mind as they did. It seemed a paradise. As many questions as I had about them, they had about me as well. What had Earth been like? Why were we fighting so much? Why could we not seem to agree on anything? And how could we not see that the path we were on would end in destruction?
I tried to give answers that made sense, but often I could not. Eventually I gathered up enough nerve to ask the one question I had been wary of: 'Why did you bring me back to life?' Not that I minded all that much, I kinda enjoy breathing, if you get my drift.
They did not answer me right away, that in itself was worrisome. They had been so open about everything else. I suppose they had to decide what to tell me, how to tell me, who should tell me. It took three days for consensus.
One of their cities was devoted to exploration of the galaxy. They had encountered a species that had nearly reached the same technological level, but had not achieved the same communal caring as humans had. They still thirsted for conquest, power, superiority. The exploration vessel had been destroyed, but not before a signal could be sent in warning.
It had taken eleven years for the earth explorer to make contact with this race, and six years for the signal to reach Earth. The aliens could be here as soon as five years from now, and they needed someone, ME, to teach then about how to defend themselves, about WAR, something that no Earth person had experienced in over three thousand years.
