“You are weak and worse yet, you do not even realize you are weak!” The Aruk named 12 hissed at a group of children as he marched them along a grueling sandy terrain.Back inside the station the Aruk leader, called 1, glared through the window as he watched the children’s progress.
“Why haven’t they given up by now?” 1 asked his 2nd in command beside him.
“They’ve only been here for just a short time sir, but we do need to figure out how to break the human species’ spirit soon if we are going to have a chance at winning the war in the future.” 2 replied, his body flickering and never gaining solid form.
1 huffed. 1 knew, being a temporal histographer, 2 could see how much longer they had if they had any hopes of changing their future.
“This species gaining our powers is NOT in our best interest. If they fight this hard now to keep going, they would have been an unstoppable foe if they had been allowed to develop to their full potential on their home planet.” 1 said, his voice dark and brooding.
Outside, the children were growing tired and thirsty. The sun high in the sky burned on their exposed skin. Still the Aruk guards shoved them on.
A young boy by the name of Nathan stumbled a little in the sand. His guard shoved him and ordered him to keep up. His mind felt like jello, his stomach churned in the heat, his muscled weak from dehydration and yet he continued on.
I won’t be the one to cause my friends pain because I failed the test, Nathan thought about the rest of his friends still back in the cells.
If only I had some water!
Spreading his arms out beside him, being careful not to disturb his fellow runners, he wished for a breeze to take away the heat.
Or maybe even some rain!
There was no rain or even the slightest breeze on this desolate planet the Aruk lived on though. Nathan’s eye was suddenly drawn to the forehead of the Aruk guard running beside them where sweat beaded on his purple skin. The guard wiped his three fingered hand across the red and black tattoo’s and flicked the sweat to the ground.
Water! Nathan’s mind reeled.
He stopped running and held his hands out toward the guard in desperation.
1 leaned closer to the window and watched in horror as the purple skin of one of his guards faded with almost instant dehydration. The guard stumbled back horrified. 1 waved his hand over the window to open it and called out to his guards.
“Dispose of him quickly!” He ordered, The children mustn't be allowed to develop those powers!
The guards circled around the children and two guards pulled the kicking and screaming boy from their midst.
“How, in the midst of all this, did he manage to develop the ability of a healer?” 1 demanded of 2 after he closed the window once more.
2 didn’t answer. His form flickered even more feverishly now as he scanned the timeline.
“Don’t dispose of him just yet,” 2 told the guards as they dragged the terrified boy past them. “Sir, the timeline has changed. If we can develop these humans’ abilities we can use them to fight FOR us in the coming war!”
This flash fiction piece takes place before the events of The Alien Mind. Just something I am working on to help me analyze my antagonists motivations and frame of mind. Bear in mind that none of this is edited or finalized- just me doing some free range writing ;)
photo credit: When nothing will do via photopin (license)
Every day (excluding sundays) I will be writing a post about something that begins with the letter for that day. Most of the time you will find a sci-fi flash fiction piece here.
For Readers: I leave you with this quote: The best weapon is your mind. Without it you are defenseless. Without it you are weak and worse yet you do not even realize you are weak.
Tell us about a time that some fast thinking got you out of trouble...
