When the Gods Aren't Gods: Book Two of The Theogony (37 page)

“
I’d be happy to,
” said Calvin. “
Platoon, execute ‘Olympos Has Fallen.’
”

“
I’d be happy to sir,
” replied Night, outside of Arges’ stateroom door.

“
Aye aye, sir,
” replied Top, from his position two tables over from where Brontes was eating.

“Solomon, is Steropes still on the bridge?” Calvin asked.

“Yes, he is,” replied the AI.

“Let’s go get him,” he said to
Bullseye and the two soldiers.

“
It is important for you to remember that the Psiclopes do not use the implant communications network, so I cannot stop their communications,” added Solomon.  “Although I cannot prove it, I find it likely that they are functional telepaths.”

“Shit!” said Calvin. “
I forgot about that. We better hurry, then.”

Bridge
, TSS
Vella Gulf
, WASP-18 System, August 31, 2020

“I see you have come for me, too,” said Steropes as Calvin’s group entered the bridge. “I figured that we would come to this at some point
; I just wish it had happened later.”

“Yes, we have,” agreed Calvin. All four of the soldiers held laser pistols
, even though none of them were pointed at Steropes. “Are you going to come along with us peacefully?”

“I will,” replied Steropes.

“Thank you,” said Calvin. “However, I’ve seen you fight up close, so I think the following is just a good precaution.” He paused before saying, “Solomon, if Steropes makes any move that could be considered an attack on any of the Terrans onboard the ship, at any time from now on, please use the transporter to transport him one mile in a random direction from the ship.”

“A
n excellent precaution,” noted Steropes, “although I really was going to come along peacefully.”

Calvin shrugged. “I just didn’t want you to get any ideas,” he said. He motioned toward the door with his pistol
. “Let’s go.”

* * * * *

CO’s Conference Room, TSS
Vella Gulf
, WASP-18 System, August 31, 2020

“I’d just like to know why you did it,” said
Commander Sheppard. The acting commanding officer was a large African American man, who was as comfortable directing the operations of the starship as he had been at directing the Naval Academy’s football team as its quarterback.

“Why we did what?” asked Arges.

“Oh, I don’t know,” replied Calvin. “Why did the Psiclopes take down the Alliance of Civilizations? Why were you on our planet? Why are we running around the galaxy? Are there really any Drakuls near Earth? I’d love to know the answers to all of those questions. Feel free to pick any one of those questions and just get started on answering all of them.”

“The fact that we are having this conversation indicates that the Mrowry have already told you some of the answers to those questions,” replied Arges, “and the fact that we no longer have control of the ship is indicative that you believe them.”

“Now that we have come to this,” said Steropes. “Does it really matter if they know?”

Arges sighed. “No, I guess it does not,” he replied. “Those questions
are not related, so I will attempt to answer them one at a time. As to why we ‘took down’ the Alliance of Civilizations, immortality required it.” He said it as if the response made perfect sense, but from the looks on everyone else’s faces, it was obvious that it did not.

Calvin was the first to answer. “What does that mean?” he asked.

“It all has to do with the rush to immortality,” replied Brontes, who had been quiet the whole time since their capture. “When the process was developed for us to extend our lives, everyone rushed to get it, without thinking of the consequences. I know I did. Barring some sort of violent death, if we got the treatment, we would live forever, or at least a period so long as to not make a difference.”

“I take it immortality didn’t suit you?” asked
Commander Sheppard.

“No,” replied Brontes, “it was a big mistake. You have to remember that our religion is based on karma. The good or evil that you do in your life affects where and how you are reborn into your next life. We seek to do good deeds, so that we can continue to be reborn higher and higher on the Wheel of Life, until that point at which we ultimately reach Nirvana. After the treatment, Nirvana was lost to us.”

“I see,” said Calvin. “Since you no longer died, you were never reborn, so you lost the opportunity to move up on the Wheel. By becoming immortal, you lost the ability to go to your version of heaven.”

“Indeed we did,” replied Bronte
s, “and we had no way to fix it. Our religion holds that we cannot kill a living being, so we couldn’t kill ourselves to break out of the position that we had put ourselves in. We were no longer able to move on. We were stuck in everlasting nothingness.”

“So you engineered a galaxy-wide war to get yourselves killed?”
Calvin asked, aghast.

“When you say it that way,” said Steropes, “it doesn’t sound like such a wise plan. It was, however, the only thing that our leaders could come up with. So yes, they engineered a galaxy-wide war so that we could break out of the hold that we had put on our spirits. By doing so,
our leaders allowed people to be killed, so they will be reborn lower on the Wheel in their next lives, but not as far as if they had actually done the killing themselves.”

“That has got to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” said Night. “How many civilizations will be destroyed so that you
can undo your mistake? That’s ludicrous!”

“
As your culture says, ‘it is what it is,’” replied Arges. “Our leaders had to do something, but couldn’t actively be involved in our own deaths. If you think about it, it was really a rather elegant solution to the problem.”

“
It was not!
” yelled Night. “Wiping out entire civilizations is not the answer. You should have come to me; I’d have killed you all myself.”

“We couldn’t do that,” said Steropes. “That would be participating in our own deaths, which would have been forbidden. It had to be something we had no control over. And getting mad at us is unnecessary. We had nothing to do with it.”

“That’s just insane,” muttered Commander Sheppard, still unable to come to terms with the fact that the Psiclopes had caused an interstellar war in order to get themselves killed.

“So let me guess,” said Calvin. “You three never gave us all of the things you were capable of, not because of some need to have a planet-wide government, but because you didn’t want us to succeed. You want a hostile civilization to come and wipe us out, so that you can end your miserable lives.”

“No,” replied Steropes, “those prohibitions really do exist, and we have to follow them.”

“I, for one, have no desire to be terminated,” said Brontes. “Nor does my husband, Arges.” From the looks around the table, most of the Terrans hadn’t realized that they were married. “I have tried to help you where I was legally able to, and I hope that you do succeed against the
Drakuls. To answer one of your questions, yes, the Drakuls are near your home world. If they find it, they will kill you all. Even if I wanted to die more than anything else in the galaxy, I would not want to be killed by them. Everything that I have ever said about them is true.”

“As the Mrowry ma
y have told you,” said Steropes, “we believe in the acquisition of knowledge. Sometimes it is valuable monetarily; other times, it is valuable spiritually. One of the reasons we were on your planet was to study hero spirits and how they are reborn. It is our life’s work. We have tried to follow certain spirits, watching them to see how the deeds they do in their lives affect what position they are reborn to in their next lives.”

“Even if I believed in being reborn,” replied
Commander Sheppard, “which I don’t, how do you track spirits being reborn on a planet of seven billion people?”

“It has become more difficult as the population
has grown,” said Steropes. “It was certainly easier when all of you were confined to one island.”

“As you are aware,” said Arges, “we are tele
paths. Sometimes I can find minds that have the same feeling as minds that I have touched before. I cannot prove whether they are the same spirit, but I believe they are. We have tried to track certain ones over time. I believe the spirit that inhabits Calvin’s body is the same spirit that was in Zeus’ body several thousands of years ago.”

“What?” asked Calvin, hearing it for the first time although several others around the table had previously
been told that by the Psiclopes.

“Having found one of these spirits,” continued Arges, “we then try to put them in positions where they will be required to exhibit their talents, so that we can watch and see what happens.”

“So that’s why you told the president I had to come?” asked Calvin. “So that you can watch and see what happens if I succeed?”

“What happens if you fail is just a
s important,” remarked Steropes; “however, due to the nature of warfare in space, it is highly unlikely that we will still be around to observe if you fail. Warfare on Earth was much better.”

“So this is all a big game to put me into bad situations to see what I’ll do?” asked Calvin.

“You need pressure to make a diamond,” answered Arges. “It is a similar process with you, although sometimes the material cracks and is destroyed. Either way, the outcome has meaning to us.”

“Wait a minute,” interjected Night. “You said that warfare on Earth was better. Did you have something to do with the Chinese war?”

“I might have made some suggestions to certain Chinese leaders to speed up the process,” replied Arges. He looked around the table and saw that over half of the Terrans’ jaws had dropped open. “What? They probably would have come up with those ideas on their own, eventually.”

Night’s chair hit the floor, overturned
as he stood up suddenly. Calvin and Top also stood. “I...lost...friends...in...that...war...” grated Night. “And now I find out that you started it? Commander Sheppard, you better lock them up right now, before I kill them.”

“This meeting is at an end,” agreed
Commander Sheppard. “
Security,
”
he commed. “
Come to the conference room immediately. I have three prisoners to take to the brig.
” Looking at the Psiclopes, he could tell that Arges didn’t understand the physical danger that he was in. From the looks in the soldiers’ eyes, they were all within seconds of killing the aliens. Preferably with their own bare hands. “Come with me,” he said to the Psiclopes. “It’s time to go.”

“What?” asked Arges as they walked out the door. “It was a valid experiment to determine whether Calvin had a
hero spirit...”

Bridge
, TSS
Vella Gulf
, WASP-18 System, August 31, 2020

“I have resolved the
data transmission problem with the
Emperor’s Paw
,” said Solomon. “You should now have access to the star data that you have been requesting.”

“Thanks
, Solomon,” replied Calvin with a touch of sarcasm. “It’s good to finally get it.” He looked at it for a few seconds, his smile evaporating. “Could you please mark enemy systems in red and friendly systems in green?” Calvin watched as the systems began changing color. “Oh, fuck...” he whispered. Shaking his head, he asked in a louder voice, “Comms officer, could you please get me the
Terra?
” he asked.

“Sure, sir,” said the communications officer. Within a few seconds, Captain Griffin was on the screen, sitting in her command chair. Captain Yerrow was standing next to her.

Before he could say anything, Captain Griffin spoke, “I take it you’re looking at the star map that Solomon just sent over?”

“Yes ma’am,” replied Calvin. “The Psiclopes weren’t lying about one thing. The Drakuls are on our doorstep.”

“Ah, I see what you mean,” said Captain Yerrow. “We didn’t have the data on your home system or some of the ones surrounding it. You are correct; your society has been very lucky.”

There were only two systems between the Drakul home world and Earth. One of those systems, Lalande 21185, was a nexus system. When the Drakuls started adventuring away from their
new home planet, they had a choice of three directions when they reached Lalande 21185. One stargate led to Ross 154 and then immediately to Earth. The other stargate led to Gliese 876 and then to 54 Piscium, which is where they had run into the Archons.

“
Based on information that we were sent by the Archons,” Captain Yerrow said, “the Drakuls swept into the system you have labeled as 54 Piscium and surprised the forces there. After a brief but fierce battle, the remaining Archon forces withdrew to the next system, HD 10180, where they had a colony on the planet Malak. A stalemate has ensued since then; the Archons have been unable to get back into 54 Piscium, but they are holding the Drakuls, barely, from going any further in that direction.”

“So they’ve got one of two choices as they build up their forces,” said Calvin. “They can either continue to beat their heads against the wall trying to get into HD 10180, or they can swing around the other way.”

“That is correct,” said Captain Yerrow. “The Drakuls do not always make what you and I would call rational choices, in part because they breed so quickly, but I know which way I would go.”

“Through Earth,” said Calvin and Captain Griffin at the same time.

“Unfortunately,” said Captain Yerrow, “yes, that is correct. Through Earth.”

“We’ve got to expedite what we’re doing here and get back as soon as possible,” said Captain Griffin. “I don’t know when they’re going to get there, but it’s going to be soon.”

“One more thing,” said Captain Yerrow. “The system you have labeled as 54 Piscium, we know by the name its inhabitants gave it, which is Graecium. It has two planets that are inhabited, or at least they were inhabited prior to the Drakuls getting there. One of those planets is Olympos, the home world of the Psiclopes. No matter what the Psiclopes did to us, I wouldn’t wish a Drakul invasion on even them.”

* * * * *