Red the First (18 page)

Devices were held up to both men’s
mouths. Nate spit on the one offered to him, but Red replied with a
question of his own.

“
How can you condemn us for
killing two of your kind when you wiped out billions of my kind?
And for that matter, who are you to decide that only Celeruns are
worthy of life?”

“
You misunderstand our
intentions. Our sole purpose is to spread our genetics throughout
the cosmos,” she said. “Killing is not our objective. It is only a
means to our goals of peace and prosperity.”

“
Screw you and your goals,”
Nate said bitterly, “bitch.”

“
From our perspective,” the
alien said, “the Earth is more peaceful and productive than it has
ever been.”

“
You talk of peace?” Red
was still trying to wrap his mind around that one. “What do you
call killing ninety-nine percent of the human race?”

“
A good start in realizing
our goals.”

Nate took a swing at the nearest
alien. “I hate you!”

A heavy alien foot against his chest
knocked the young man to the ground. Red heard Nate wheezing.
Surely, he had sustained a broken rib, but he struggled with his
bindings like a wild banshee. “This is our planet! And we’re gonna
take it back. Do you hear ME?”

The aliens were unmoved.

“
Your statement is absurd
and your anger serves no purpose,” said their leader. “Our mother
ship is landing in Iowa at this very moment, but the resettlement
started weeks ago. Many of our children have already been planted.
This is our home now. Humans have no place here.”

All the sinews and muscles in Red’s
body tightened. Thinking about the mother ship landing, even though
it was two states away, made bile rise up in his throat. He glanced
over at Nate, who had stopped fighting. His skin had taken on a
strange bluish pallor.

“
I hate you,” Nate muttered
under his breath.

“
Hate has no part in what
we do,” the Celerun continued. “Our purpose is to plant our seeds
throughout the universe. Earth is conducive to our needs. The death
of humanity is merely a secondary cause of seeking the optimal
good.”

“
Spin it however you want,”
Red said. “From my perspective there is nothing good about what you
do. You killed my children so you could raise your own. In my eyes,
you’re lower than a snake’s ass.” The Celeruns fiddled with their
tablets. Their translators were on and he heard them discussing the
phrase
snake’s ass
. His little metaphor had thrown them for
a loop. He rolled his eyes. “It means you’re evil.”

“
Our children are our sole
purpose.”

“
Why can’t you reproduce on
your own damn world?”

“
We do, but it is not
enough. Our children need fresh air, soil and sunlight to grow
strong.”

“
So did ours,” Red
responded bitterly, voice catching in his throat. “You had no right
to take it from them.”

The Celeruns were quiet a moment. A
few of them even looked away as if his response had shamed them.
Then again, perhaps he was misreading their expressions; it was
difficult to know with aliens.

“
We have visited thousands
of habitable planets. Earth is one of the richest we have found and
you were ruining it,” the lead alien broke the uncomfortable
silence that had fallen over her group. “Fresh water falls from the
skies. Nourishing soil lies on its surface. The central star is of
optimal size and distance from this planet, and at the correct
stage in its evolution to produce ideal temperatures. Humans do not
appreciate what they have. Their industry was destroying this
paradise, making even their own children sick with cancers and
other diseases. This planet needed our intervention. Our offspring
are beginning to flourish here beyond all expectations. This world
was meant for us—not you.”

Red listened, appalled by the
Celeruns’ sense of entitlement.

“
You are not peaceful,” Red
said. “You are warmongers.”

“
Incorrect. We are not the
warmongers. We cured the world of what ailed it.”

“
And what ailed
it?”

“
Humanity. You are the
warmongers. In all our travels, there has never been a species with
so much potential and so few accomplishments. It took us many years
to understand why an intelligent and industrious species like
yourselves advanced so slowly, if at all, but eventually the reason
became clear.”

“
Enlighten us,” Nate said.
“Oh, great ones.”

Sarcasm was lost on the Celeruns, but
Nate hadn’t figured it out yet.

“
We attribute humanity’s
lack of progress to the War Effect. Travel the entire universe and
you’ll find only a handful of sentient species that kill their own
kind. Even rarer is the sentient species that kill their own
children. Yet, it’s common practice here.”

“
It’s not so common.” Red
felt the need to defend his people, even though part of him knew
the aliens were right. “Most humans never take another life,
especially a child’s.”

“
Celeruns value every seed,
every sprout, every child. Before we made the decision to send the
plague, we saw human children die from lack of food while others
had more than enough. If humans are unwilling to share their food
with children of their own species, what hope did Celeruns have to
convince them to share their land? We learned that humans destroy
their own seeds without any thought. We saw armies of men hack
infants apart with big knives…”

“
Okay, okay, some humans
are pretty bad, that is true. But most of us would die for our
children. I think you refused to acknowledge this fact because it
was easier to judge all of humanity based on the actions of a few
bad examples. This was the reason you were looking for to justify
stealing the Earth for yourselves. You Celeruns are hypocrites and
murderers who kill without remorse because it’s conducive to your
needs. And that makes you more like us humans than you dare
admit.”

Again, the aliens exchanged
uncomfortable glances.

“
Do not engage these
prisoners,” a second, older-looking, alien said, her voice
unintentionally picked up on the translator. “Some of us have seen
this one’s face in the unfurling.” She pointed at Red. “He’s
dangerous.”

“
Who can tell one human
from the other?” the leader said. “Do not forget yourself. I’m in
charge here.”

The second alien bowed and stepped
back two paces.

“
We met with Earth’s
leaders in hopes of working out peaceful co-existence. We showed
them how we could increase the productivity of their soil and we
promised to share our technology, teaching them how to create a
clean, endless supply of energy, as long as they welcomed our
Celerun settlers without resistance. There would be no loss of
life, no war, just order and increased prosperity.

“
We knew from studying your
history, that humans kill each other over tiny patches of land. We
wanted North America and Asia. When your leaders refused to
negotiate, we realized that Celeruns and Humans wouldn’t be able to
have a peaceful co-existence.”

“
Damn straight,” Red
agreed. “This is our world. Get out now or you will regret
it.”

“
Hoo-yah,” said
Nate.

“
By killing billions of
humans today, we save a billion times a billion Celeruns
tomorrow.”

Red’s nostrils flared. “You think
you’re better than humans because we kill over land? Look at
yourselves. You’ve wiped out man for the exact same
reason—land.”

The Celerun’s eyes narrowed to
slits.

“
There is more to it than
that,” the leader said. “Despite the War Effect, human beings were
on a sure course to the stars. No intelligent life wants another
intersystem war. That’s what will happen if humans go
galactic.”

“
You can’t know that,” Red
said.

Nate nudged him with an elbow,
whispering that he should flatten himself to the ground in twenty
seconds. Red tilted his head in confusion. Nate returned a firm
stare as he quietly started to count backwards from
twenty.

“
Humans are limited by
linear vision of the past and future,” said the alien.

“
And you are
not?”

“
Fifteen, fourteen,
thirteen…” Nate continued, barely audible.

“
My kind can see time
unfurling in all directions.”

The unexpected shift in conversation
gave Red a flicker of hope. Apparently, humans were still around in
the future, causing trouble. Red liked the idea of that very
much.

“
I get it,” He said. “You
saw a future where the universe was filled with human beings—not
Celeruns.”

The Celerun’s posture
stiffened.

“
Four, three,
two…”

Red fell to the side and flattened his
body to the ground. Blue lighting streaked over his nose, sizzling
the air. The Celeruns looked like frogs hit with grenades, torn and
burned and bloody. Disturbing how he’d been talking to the victims
of Nate’s electric charisma a second ago, but now they were dead.
Remorse crept into his heart for a second, but he ruthlessly
squashed it. The Celeruns had killed his family, maybe not these
particular ones, but the entire race all held the blame.

“
Ha!” Nate stood, letting
his bindings fall at his feet. “You can’t predict ten seconds into
the future, yet alone two hundred years!”

Nate’s stunt didn’t spare the Celeruns
rooting in the field either. Where there were a dozen invaders
standing a moment ago, now there were none. A sweet repugnant
floral-like scent tinged with the smell of freshly mowed grass
filled the air. As an added bonus, Nate’s bindings were shredded. A
couple of the Celeruns moaned weakly, but most of them were
dead.

“
What did you do?” Red
gasped, still on his side, looking at the younger man as if he was
more frightening than the aliens.

“
I sent a power surge
through the air.”

“
Why didn’t it kill us,
too?”

“
It went through their
gadgets, making them explode like bombs. I must say it worked even
better than I had expected.”

“
You
are
amazing.”

“
Thank you very
much.”

Red went over to stand over the alien
who had so enjoyed blasting them with the heat gun. She was still
alive, but mortally wounded. Yellow goo poured from her injuries.
“If you see time unfurling in all directions…” Many of the wispy
white hairs with the almond-like roots had fallen from her head.
She frantically tried to pick them up in her gooey hands. “Why
didn’t you see that coming?”

When she didn’t answer, Red kicked her
in the side. In response, she moaned pitifully and tried to move
away, but Nate joined in and delivered another kick. When she tried
to reach for the almonds, Nate stomped on them.

The frantic ear-splitting screams that
followed echoed over the fields. She struggled to stand, but
couldn’t, so she crawled to the remaining almonds, risking Nate’s
fury. Gathering the seeds into her arms, she held them protectively
against her chest as if they were precious gems. Too weak to rise,
she curled into a protective ball around the almonds. Nate poured
years of hatred, frustration, and grief into a shower of kicks and
blows against the dying Celerun. Red held back, but fully
understood the younger man’s rage, thinking that she deserved it.
Odd how she seemed more concerned about protecting the almonds than
her own body.

“
Holy shit!” It finally
dawned on Red. “The Celeruns’ hair! Those almond things are
seedpods…like little uteruses or something! She’s trying to protect
her babies!”

That sent Nate into a new level of
hatred. Now he aimed his wrath directly against her
head.

Listening to her whimpers, watching
her put her children’s safety ahead of her own, took the joy out of
the revenge.

“
Stop it,” he told Nate
evenly. “That’s enough.”

The kid refused to listen.

“
Stop it!” he said louder.
Nate paused, but only for a moment. Red’s hands were still bound,
so rising was difficult. He managed though, and shouldered a very
surprised Nate out of the way, knocking him to the
ground.

“
What did you do that for!”
Nate was sprawled out on his back.

“
I said let her
be!”

“
But she killed my parents,
my little brothers and sisters, all my friends!”

“
Did you bomb Nagasaki and
Hiroshima, Nate?” Nate looked at him blankly. “You know, the bombs
the United States dropped on Japan.”

“
No; I couldn’t have, and
you know that! I wasn’t even alive back then.”

“
But you’re American, and
America dropped the bomb, so you must be responsible.”

“
It doesn’t mean that I had
anything to do with it…oh.”

He could almost see the light bulb go
on in Nate’s head.

“
This particular Celerun
didn’t drop the plague on earth. Odds are she’s a good little
soldier who does whatever she’s told. Let her be.”