By Chris Gladstone
Volim entered the Magisterial Council chamber, stepped onto the podium, and bowed. Seated at the huge bench the Chief Magisterial in scarlet robes, flanked by six council members in deep blue cloaks, three females on one side, three males on the other. As members of the Nacirema race, they towered over him. Volim, a Silearsi, four feet tall, felt distinctly intimidated.
The Chief Magisterial nodded. ‘Volim, as representative of the Silearsi you are here to justify their actions.’
Volim stared at his feet. As head of the Science Ministry, he sensed he was about to become the scapegoat for the events that had occurred. Pulling himself erect he raised his head and began.
‘Readings relayed by cloaked probes clearly showed the dominant species on the planet were wreaking havoc. Drastic measures were necessary to prevent the planet’s entire ecological system from collapsing. Global warming had escalated at an alarming rate. All biological life on the planet was under threat.’
‘We engineered a virus that would quickly and efficiently overwhelm the humans’ health system. Our plan worked. There were hundreds of thousands of deaths. Survivors were initially unaware of the consequences, the possibility of lasting, long-term damage to all their major organs, especially their brains. We had focused on provoking a drop in IQ, reasoning ability, the inducement of acute paranoia and psychotic selfishness. Wars broke out and the effect cascaded across the planet resulting in more deaths.’
‘The pace slowed when the humans, to our surprise, produced a vaccine. It prevented thousands of deaths, but it did not stop humans from catching the disease and experiencing the effects we had engineered into it. In addition, we used our machines to trigger earthquakes and extreme weather. This caused floods and wildfires which added to the ensuing chaos. More humans perished.’
Magisterial Thymik raised his hand indicating Volim be silent. ‘Did you not think of the destruction of all the other living things, Volim? Or did you regard them as merely “collateral damage” as the humans quaintly put it?’
‘Ahh, sometimes sacrifices…’
‘How dare you! We are so much better than humans. Every life matters. Is there more?’
‘Yes Magisterial,’ Volim cleared his throat. ‘We did not expect direct interference.’
‘Interference?’
‘Two humans landed on the moon as part of the Simetra space program. When exploring they stumbled upon our facility. They entered the control room and switched on one of our machines. It was a machine that was only to be used as a last resort.’
‘Are you speaking of The Doomsday Machine?’ The Magisterial shouted furiously. ‘That was never intended for actual use.’
‘How were we to know that the humans would find the machine and meddle with it? It was not our fault.’ Volim replied.
‘It is your fault that the machine was there to use,’ the Magisterial thundered. ‘Leave the room and wait outside. We will discuss your fate.’
It took some time and Volim didn’t know whether this was good or bad. The call eventually came and he re-entered the room and stood on the podium once more.
‘We have reached a decision. You had no authority to use The Doomsday Machine. The Silearsi are hereby relieved from all Emergency Control Initiative duties, effective immediately.
‘But…’ Volim stuttered, ‘We were only using our initiative.’
‘Silence!’ the Magisterial thundered. ‘You do not have the authority to make such extreme decisions. You are stripped of your duties and banished to the outer Galaxy. You are fortunate as you and everyone involved could have been charged with war crimes. The sentence for such crimes is death. You have broken trust and now we are forced to move The Doomsday Machine since you revealed its location to unauthorised parties including the Humans. Leave before we change our minds. An escort is waiting outside. Now we must decide what to do about the humans.’
***
Epilogue
Previously, on the far side of the moon, two astronauts stood in a gigantic control room and shared hours of video footage with mission control.
‘The word from POTUS is, “Go baby go –– it might be good! It could be good.” So Simetra team you are cleared to proceed.’
‘Affirmative Mission Control,’ Mike said. He muted his microphone and turned to Dave ‘So that’s it? In a control room perched above a huge complex that goes down for miles, put here by aliens to do God knows what we just turn this thing on to see what it does?’
‘You heard the president, it’s a direct order. Whatever happens we are only following orders.’
Mike shrugged, leaned forward and pressed the green button. There was a faint vibration followed by an unpleasant hum.
Over the next twenty-four hours the entire power grid on planet Earth went down. The great chaos had begun.
About the Author
I began writing in 2011 using speech recognition with my first story ‘What if’ published in 2012. I escape into writing and my stories reflect my passions namely science, nature and all things sci-fi.
‘The Humanity Trial’ is my 19th story and is my response to the mad, unpredictable, unsettling world we currently find ourselves in.
I’m a senior and live in Western Australia my husband and Tigress our cat who rules with iron claws.
My novel ‘Upload’ was published in 2018 and is available from Amazon, Lulu and Draft2Digital (formerly Smashwords). For more information check out my website https://christaleyes.com
My time at Nambucca Valley Community Radio began back in 2016 after moving into the area from Sydney.
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