Don't Mess With Earth (3 page)

Meanwhile, in China, the Terrans found a
slightly more advanced civilization. The Chinese were building a
massive wall across their territory to keep barbarians out, and
they also had a trade route from their capital of Peking, across
China, all the way to Baghdad in Persia, which was thousands of
miles long. Chinese also invented gunpowder, but they only seemed
to use it for celebrations; hardly any widespread use in their
army. One enterprising general had tried to use primitive cannons
against barbarian hordes, but the cannons had a tendency to explode
more than they worked, so the idea was abandoned for a time while
the bugs were worked out. The Terrans saw some promise for the
Chinese, at least more so than the incredibly war-like Romans.

In orbit, once all the expedition teams
returned from Earth, the Terrans discussed what they might do to
help the humans of Earth progress faster than they were currently.
The idea was put forth to let scientists from the Terran homeworld
come to Earth and pose as Earths’ own scientists, philosophers, and
other thinkers to push the humans further in their advancement,
because the Ragnor needed to be stopped. The Terran captain of the
explorer ship radioed Terra about the idea, and the leadership of
Terra vaguely approved of it. The one problem was that Terrans
lived for hundreds of years, so whomever was sent to live on Earth
would have to leave fifty or sixty years later. The base on Mars
would be where all the teams sent to Earth would stay, and quite
possibly, the same person could return to the planet centuries
later, posing as someone else.

Eight months later, the Terran base on Mars
was complete and operational, while the temporary outpost orbiting
Earth was taken apart and the remains sent to be used on Mars.
Archeologists from Terra were sent to study Earth history of the
past two thousand years; they were going to study the rise and fall
of past civilizations. There would also be Terrans who monitored
the situation on Earth, to see which direction city-states like
Rome or countries like China, would head in the future. There were
also teams that visited any place on Earth that had any amount of
human civilization. In the western hemisphere, Terrans found three
large groups, the Maya, Aztec, and the Inca, all of whom were at
war with each other, practiced human sacrifice, and so they were
observed from afar. All three had pyramid-like structures similar
to the Pyramids in Egypt, making the Terrans wonder how, if all the
continents were separate, did these civilizations get here? Finding
out that question was the Terran geologists’ job, which they would
gladly figure out, especially since they weren’t sure where the
original Terran homeland was when Earth had one massive continent.
They also found various tribes and small nations in the northern
continent, most of whom were nomads, following the animals they
used for food and clothing. Of those, less than a dozen seemed
hostile and war-like.

A few years later, Mark Antony and Cleopatra
were overthrown and a battle ensued off of the coast of Egypt and
on Egyptian land. A naval battle, called the Battle of Atrium, led
to their defeat when the main Roman fleet sank their fleet,
consisting of a rag tag mixture of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian
ships. Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide instead of face the
punishment of the new leader of the Roman Empire. Progressively
worse leaders led the Empire, until the Empire collapsed under its
own weight. Germanic tribes and other barbarians took the
opportunity of the mostly defenseless frontiers and invaded,
eventually sacking the city of Rome. The capital was moved to
Constantinople and Emperor Constantine made an eastern version of
the Roman Empire, while Europe was left to whoever took the
opportunity to lead the now leaderless clans and tribes who had
depended on Rome. Around this period, two Terran adventurers were
visiting Britannia just as the Roman legions were recalled to
defend the city of Rome. These two Terrans decided to organize one
of the Brit tribes to defend against the Vikings and others who had
previously only conducted raids on the island in the past. The
kingdom was called Camelot, led by the Terran whose name was
Arthur, and his cohort was named Merlin. Merlin was considered an
eccentric inventor; other Terrans thought he was more than a little
insane, while the humans around him thought that Merlin was a great
and mightily powerful magician.

Merlin cooked up a scheme to get these
primitive humans to accept Arthur as their leader, so he told
Arthur of an idea he had, “I have a brainstorm, Arthur; tell me if
you like it. These Brits have a legend about a sword in a stone and
if a man of great virtue pulls it out of the stone, he will become
the undisputed leader of the people. I propose to use our advanced
technology to convince these people to believe you’re destined to
be the king. What do you think?”

“Sounds like a good plan, Merlin. How do you
plan on making it work?”

“I think I’ll build a sword with computer
components that will recognize only your handprint. I will then
stick the sword in what will appear to be a stone, except this
stone will keep the sword in place with an elaborate computer aided
locking system. Once you take hold of the sword, the system will
recognize your handprint, then it will unlock, and the sword will
be yours. You’ll have the masses begging you to be the leader,”

“Sounds like a very good idea, Merlin.
Nothing like a little technology turned into sorcery to make one a
good leader. Get to work.” ordered Arthur, who was looking forward
to this new scheme of Merlin’s.

A few weeks later, Merlin, with the help of
an experimental Terran transportation device, suddenly and without
any warning, appeared in the town square with the sword in his hand
and a stone placed next to him. He called for the townsfolk to
gather, and then he said, “Good citizens of Camelot. I have created
a test for those who wish to lead us. This sword, I will put in the
stone, and it can only be pulled out by a virtuous and good man,”
Merlin then slid the shiny, intimidating looking, sword into the
stone, “The challenge has been laid, all men throughout Camelot are
welcome to try to pull out the sword, which I have named
Excalibur.” with that, Merlin vanished into thin air the same way
he had appeared.

Merlin and Arthur watched for little over a
month as man after man attempted to pull Excalibur from the stone.
Everyone had a different way of trying to pull the sword out of the
stone, which served only to amuse the two Terrans and tick off the
human men who tried to pull out Excalibur. As Merlin expected, not
a single man could pull the sword from the stone, so Merlin
reappeared and said, “Is there no one here who is virtuous enough
to take the sword? Who among you is left that is willing to
try?”

Having not convinced the people up to this
point that he would make a good leader, Arthur boldly and with
tremendous confidence, walked into the town square. Everyone was
whispering and a few were taking bets seeing if Arthur could pull
Excalibur from the stone. Arthur confidently walked up to the
stone, put his hands on the swords’ hilt, which activated the
computer lock system, and he slowly pulled Excalibur from the
stone. The people were shocked at first, but then began cheering,
but Arthur motioned for them to calm down, and then he spoke,
“People of Camelot. I have pulled Excalibur from the stone, so I am
now your leader. What say you?”

The people chanted, “Arthur” and “Long live
the King.” Arthur was now the undisputed leader of Camelot. Merlin
spoke again, “A king needs knights that he can lead into glorious
battle against the forces of evil. Who here among you is willing to
be a Knight of the Round Table?”

Arthur had not heard this scheme from Merlin,
but thought this Knights of the Round Table thing might be a really
good idea. According to Merlin, the knights in good standing would
gather around a round table so that there would be no man who
thought they were better than the others. Many men came forward to
join the ranks of the knights, more than Merlin had expected. So
Merlin did something unusual in the eyes of these humans in this
time period, he interviewed each applicant and tested their sword
fighting skills. After doing the interviews, Merlin also worked on
Excalibur to make it appear more magical to these primitive humans,
and when he was done, he showed Arthur the sword, “I did some more
work to Excalibur. Press the green button on the hilt and see what
happens,”

Arthur took hold of the sword, and pressed
the small green button on the hilt. The sword lit up in an almost
blinding, white glow, so Arthur asked, “What is this, some sort of
glow saber kind of thing?”

“I would have to say yes and no, Arthur. It’s
supposed to strike fear in the hearts and minds of your enemies.
I’ll later add a sound effect to increase the fierceness of the
sword. Anyway, I thought it was a cool idea.”

“You do realize you ripped-off a wretchedly
bad movie idea from a hundred years ago, don’t you? Next thing
you’ll tell me, you’re some sort of ascended being with powers
you’re not supposed to use. Come back to reality, Merlin, this is
not science fiction.”

“Oh, I know that, but the townsfolk already
think I have great powers, so acting like I have telekinesis or the
ability to appear and disappear at will isn’t going to do any harm.
They won’t know about that movie, who is ever going to see it on
Earth? I know what I’m doing, believe it or not. The next thing on
your agenda though, is to meet your Knights of the Round
Table.”

Arthur was introduced to his new knights the
next day; his impression of them was that they all seemed like
good, honorable men, and fierce warriors. Merlin was right about
the more powerful looking Excalibur scaring enemies, some retreated
rather than fight Arthur. The knights and Arthur fought Vikings and
Danes; Arthur himself killed a lot of the invaders, increasing his
legendary status among Saxons living near and in Camelot. Merlin
set up great adventures for the knights and Arthur to go on, giving
the knights legendary status for themselves too. Sir Lancelot was
considered the best of the Knights of the Round Table, and he
always had the ear of Arthur whenever he had some pithy thought
about another great adventure they should all go on or how Camelot
should be run. Several years later, some strangers appeared in
Camelot who turned out to be a Terran military contingent. They
were looking for Arthur and Merlin; when they were found, the
Terran commander ordered the two men to pack their bags and return
with them to a ship that would take them back to Terra. Apparently,
the Terrans had heard rumors of the kingdom that Arthur and Merlin
had set up, along with the battles with the Vikings, so Terran
leadership was not pleased to say the least.

Arthur asked to address his people and the
knights one last time, and he was given permission to do so.
“People of Camelot and Knights of the Round Table, hear me this
day. These men are from my home country and they are seeking the
Holy Grail. They wish for me to go on a long journey with them to
search for it, which will take many, many years. So, for my last
official duty as king, I place Sir Lancelot as the new king of
Camelot; follow him as you have followed me. Fare thee well
Camelot, I wish all of you good and long lives.”

Arthur and Merlin left Camelot with the
Terrans. They boarded a shuttle, which took them to a ship in
orbit, and the ship headed for Terra. The two men learned that they
were in serious trouble for interfering with human affairs, since
others wanted to follow Arthur and Merlin’s lead, especially to
push humans to advance faster instead of just observing. They were
put on trial by a new Oversight for Earth Committee for disobeying
the orders for Terrans not to mess with humans by putting
themselves in positions to be leaders of the humans. The current
leadership of Terra had reversed their decision to interfere a few
centuries earlier, saying it would probably backfire on Terra
eventually. The two men were found guilty. To make an example of
the two, the punishment was that they were put under house arrest
for the rest of their natural lives, which could be for another
three or four hundred years, they were forbidden to gain any kind
of profit from their experiences, and were watched by the
authorities, through video and in person, for a very long time.

For the next few hundred years, the Terrans
watched as the barbarian hordes destroyed the remnants of the Roman
Empire. Emperor Constantine built Constantinople and attempted to
keep the Empire going, collaborating with the Roman Church to
oppress small Christian sects who didn’t agree with the pope and
his followers. Another religion also swept the area, gaining
footholds in parts of the former provinces of Rome, such as Spain
and Gaul. They were the Muslims, who forced people to worship their
god or have their limbs cut off or even be-headed if they didn’t
comply. The Church made sure the normal everyday European was
illiterate, so they could maintain their power since nobody would
be educated enough to question the authority of the Church pope.
Europe went through a Dark Age, where no advancements happened,
while war after war, religious crusade after religious crusade tore
Europe, Africa, and the Middle East apart. It seemed to the Terrans
that Earth was descending into chaos again and even into a darker
kind of evil than before the Terrans left Earth in the first
place.

To make matters a little worse, one of the
Terran scientists accidentally introduced a previously unknown
contagion on Earth, which turned out to be quite deadly to humans
native to Earth. It first infected fleas, then rats, and then the
cats and dogs who at the rats, and eventually affected humans as
well. The Terrans didn’t know exactly where the epicenter for the
outbreak was, but knew that the disease was spreading quickly. It
started in Europe and spread along trade routes all the way to
Asia, affecting anyone and everyone who came into contact with an
infected person. People began calling it the Black Death, because
it turned the infected victims’ skin a blackish color. In order to
contain this plague, leaders in Europe told their people to stay
home and not go anywhere; those orders made matters worse, because
some traveled anyway. More people died from contact with other
infected people, causing whole villages to die off. Terran
scientists quietly worked on a cure for the plague, trying to keep
millions more from dying. A year and a half later, the Terrans
invented an antidote, and quietly put the antidote in the drinking
water and wells all the people of Earth used, taking many months to
do so.