The Other War of the Worlds

The Other War of the Worlds
by zedki luzici
� 2010

Being part of a crowd of 500 thousand is not the easiest thing to do, but; people are in a good mood. There is a spirit of excitement in the air. An expectant air. Soon the First Speaker Of the People Of the World will speak to this huge crowd. She has never been to our little corner on the world before and everyone is anxious to see her.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, may I have your attention please?" booms the announcing system. "Your attention please... It gives me, your Mayor, Harashi P. Chiznowski, quite extreme pleasure to introduce, The First Speaker of People of the World, Dorus R Bonnewitz!"

A huge burst of applause, shouting, laughter and whistling shakes the crowd. She puts her hands up, waving her hands and then pats the air in front of her, asking the crowd to quiet down.

"Please, dear people... Please, enough..." she says in a quiet voice. Please enough... We are not here to aggrandize me... (laughter) We are here to celebrate our past, our future, and learn of a terrible lesson."

More applause.

"Dear friends," she whispers, "We are here today, October 31st. 1273 (After the New Beginning), to celebrate our freedom, to live in peace, in love, and in cooperation, with liberty and justice for all the people... by the people!"

Another huge blast of enthusiasm from the crowd.

"As you know, our people have surveyed all of the major bodies of our star system. We have bases on the Moon and mining on Creb and T'an and in the Astero Belt. What is not generally known is that, some strange things have been found on Creb and in the Astero Belt."

A hush now flows across the crowd.

"We have sent scientist and archaeologists to investigate." Dorus takes a deep breath before rushing on. "We have found signs of habitation on Creb and in the Astero Belt. The archaeologists have found some things they call mem cubes. Apparently, these cubes are storage devices of some kind. I have one of them here," she says as she holds up a crystal box about 3 cm. on a side.

"These mem cubes can be played surprisingly enough by some of our older computer technology. I want you to hear what is on this cube," Dorus says as she hands the cube to an assistant. "First we will hear this mem cube and, then later, there is a second one to be heard."

"This, briefly is what we have found out so far... There was another planet beyond Creb. Rep was the name of that fifth planet, the one that is now the Astero Belt. Creb was called Crat'as. Crat'as developed an energy beam to "fling" large masses of rock at Rep. Eventually, their weapon became so powerful that they "flung" the Vermel's 2nd. moon at Rep causing the planet to break up becoming the Astero belt. That was a surprise. No one ever suspected the Vermel might have had two moons."

"The people of Rep developed and bombarded Cart'as with light bombs that vaporize everything leaving only fused soil which over time disintegrates to sand."

"Now, this is what really startled me. Both worlds had colonies here on the Vermel. They were destroyed too." There is another long pause before Dorus continues. "The colonies were where the deserts are now. The Reps bombed the Crat'as colonies. The Crat'as captured a Rep ship and bombed the Rep colonies. The final battle was in north Brica. Both sides managed to almost completely annihilate each other. There were not enough members of either group left to make a viable colony. But, rather than join together, one group went east to what was to become 'The near south' and the other went north, to Denpa. There, to keep from dying out, they mated with the indigenous P'nderthal. The rest is history as we know it."

"This mem cube is only partially playable. It was recovered from the surface of Crat'as. This one was found in an ordinary home on the outskirts of a city."

"All right, Bobby..."

There was a quiet pause.

"It is a bright and stormy night" began a male voice. "The Rep are bombarding us from orbit with their "light bombs," that release giga-ergs of energy. They don't want our world to colonize. They want to destroy it and everything on it. No ship has been allowed to lift off. They are blasted before reaching the orbital velocity."

Pause. "It wasn't always like this," a female voice from the past continued. "It has been several thousand revolutions of the primary since we arrived here from what is now commonly called 'The Pri'n Neb'la.' At that time we were one people. Not divided as we are now. We were one people! After we surveyed the inner planets, we decided for one reason or another that the other worlds were either too hot or too primitive, and that we should settled on the fifth planet. It was beautiful green world with six continents. About half of the world was ocean. We called our new home Cart'as. It was an easy planet to colonize, rich in minerals and non intelligent plant and animal life. We were very fortunate to find it when we did because, the main engines on the starship probably would not have carried us to the next star system."

"And now, gods protect us, our beautiful green Cart'as is being destroyed. They claimed we began the war by throwing large chunks of our now destroyed moon at them. How ridiculous! Sure we had the technology, but; we would never use it to destroy them. Well, maybe we did throw some small chunks at them. After all, they destroyed our moon in a show of power, causing fragments to fall back on us, killing thousands."

"It was our 'display' of our power. We thought that they would cease and desist after a demonstration. But, no! They sent their fleet, bent on utterly destroying our entire civilization and world. They don't want our world. They just want to destroy us! I just don't understand why. For the last thousand revolutions they have been at our throats. Why? I wish I knew. It probably wouldn't make me feel any better, but; I want to know!"

The male voice began again, "Our scientists are at this moment, developing a way to quadruple the power of the "Flinger." Why right now, we have a massive array of power thrusters on the six large continents, spanning the planet. We will be able to "Fling" multiple large fragments of our moon at them. If we can throw enough at them fast enough, they may have to stop attacking us." (very large explosion) ...

It was so quiet. I could not believe that a crowd this large could be so quiet.

There was a very long pause before Dorus spoke again. She almost whispered, "Well, that is the end of the recording on the mem cube. And so you see, that the Crat'as, and ordinary citizens at that, thought that they were the victims of this war that we now know, decimated two worlds and almost a third. Next we will listen to a mem cube recovered from an ancient ship wreck found out among the fragments of what was once Cart'as.

"This is what is on the mem cube found in the wreckage out in the Astero belt," said Dorus.

"Computer log October 31st. 7281, off home world. Navigation, shield, and weapons systems are off line. The ship has suffered critical damage and will soon fall into the gravity well of Rep and burn up. I want to say that I am proud to have served with every member of my crew. They have stood fast and held the line. If we survive I want each and everyone to receive the highest commendation."

"We managed to blast several large chunks of the Crat'as moon that they have flung at home world. It is a good thing that the Crat'as could not aim their missiles too well or they might well have destroyed the fleet swarming about their world and won. Instead they have been using the home world's's gravity well and their damnable 'Flinger' to destroy peace loving Rep."

"History will bear out the truth, Crat'as, ever the aggressor, destroyed and murdered the innocent and gentle people of Rep. We have had no desire for war. We do not want their world, even though that is what they accuse us of wanting. Our own world is more than enough to handle. Yet these insane people declare us the warmonger. And then attack us saying that we are planning to attack them."

Again a long silence. I suppose you could call it 'a pin drop silence.'

"And so you can see," said Dorus, "that both sides in this war that destroyed two worlds was believed to have been started by the other. This is very reminiscent of the B'lkan countries during the wars that were on again off again for over 500 years in old Denpa, well over 1200 years Before The End. Both sides blaming the other. Both sides taking the other's land for awhile, only to lose it back again. It is mine! No, it is mine! Worse than selfish children, they used religion as an excuse. Neither side willing to consider negotiated peace. It had to be complete ethnic cleansing. Complete destruction."

"Therein lies the difference," she continued. "Where the Crat'as and Reps wanted to utterly destroy each other and their world's, the B'lkan countries wanted to destroy each other and take each other's lands and resources. Towards the time when "The End" came and a real peace embraced the Vermel, the whole of Denpa was involved in this wholesale chaos. The chaos in Denpa brought economic depression to the entire world. Billions of peoples across the planet died from hunger caused by other's greed."

"Then came that fateful day. Day One of 'The End.' Day One of the new calendar that we still use today. This is why our calendar is referred to as something happening BTE or ANB (After the New beginning). Day One was a terrible day! Many people died around the world. But not as many as would have, had not Strom Vasquez taken the steps he did on that fateful day. When he and his men stormed the Austro Defense Leagues bases and took control of the nuclear missiles, re-aimed them, and fired them - the world was changed forever."

"Vasquez targeted only cities in countries that were instigating or perpetuating war. Starting in the north near Denpa and going south and eastward; D'blin, L'dun, Bel'rad, Kos'vo, Vat'can, B'dad, Capet'n, Tel'v'vn, Amin, Del'i, Krac'i, Ruscow, Hochi, T'mir, Ho'cong, Sidny, S'Palo, Col'bo, Algo'mor, Cheyanni, and Chi'go. When the 'Meris attacked Vasquez, he launched six missiles at the 'Meris capitol and wasted the cities and land about it for a thousand years. As you know, it is just now becoming habitual. "

"The last missiles finally brought about world wide peace. The Nations United was abolished and a new organization, People Of the World was formed. It is POW stressing that we are all one people, on a small blue world, in the middle of a very large sea of the Universe, that has created and maintained this peaceful and constructive society that we now have the privilege to live within. We owe all of the People Of the World, from Vasquez on, a great debt. Without their desire for peace our Vermel would surely be a dead or dying cinder just as Rep and Crat'as."

"And so now, you can see, that what we feared might happen to us and our world... What many people claimed could never happen... not only could... but did happen... right here in our own Solar system. Perhaps, there is some racial memory of these events, that people 1200 years ago remembered. Perhaps not. But we are here today. And we have something extra to celebrate today, because, we now know that the unthinkable can happen... and can be avoided."

"Our ancestors saved themselves... and us... from the fate of never having been... for this I am personally and eternally grateful... And so should all the peoples of the Vermel be grateful also. And to show our gratitude, I, Dorus R. Bonnewitz, First Speaker Of the People Of the World, hereby order all People Of the World Security Agents... where ever they may be... to cease and desist all activities... in the Southern Block... and withdraw to within our own borders!"

"Further more, I have called upon... our good neighbors... of the Southern Block... and in particular, Geroges Anasandro to... personally meet with me... in the near future... So that we... together... may guarantee peace and security... and prosperity for all of our peoples... and save our world. And, best of all, Geroges Anasandro has accepted my invitation... Tomorrow, we begin a new ending... and a new beginning."

"And so, we are here, today, to add something else to this celebration. Our deepest and profound thanksgiving. And so, I proclaim, today October 31st., Thanksgiving Day. A world holiday of celebration of the New beginning, remembrance of what has happened to the Crat'as and Rep, and thanksgiving, that we have the opportunity to learn form the past, to live today, for tomorrow."

Being part of a crowd of 500 thousand is not the easiest thing to do. Especially when everyone is going crazy. Crazy with relief. Crazy with... But oh my gods, this is so wonderful. It is hard to move. Everyone is hugging and kissing everyone else. We can go home tonight, safe in the knowledge, that there will be a tomorrow...