StarGaze

Fallen Angel

When Thomas woke up, he felt like his head was about to burst. His eyes were swollen shut and all he could feel was that his surroundings were ice old. He was shivering as he stood up and waved his hands around to find a wall for navigation purposes.

"I didn't want to treat you like that, Thomas. But secrecy was of the utmost urgency, and you would have blown my cover." Thomas heard a familiar voice.

"It's Dexter. You should listen to him and remain calm." Raghav said, standing in front of Raghav's eyes.

"That fucker blinded me. I will f**k him up real good. I just need to figure out how." Thomas said and ground his teeth.

"No brother, understand what I am trying to say. He didn't get rid of you in spite of the fact that he is an alien and could kill you at any time of his choosing. Think Thomas think." Raghav said, shaking Thomas' shoulders.

"I will restore your vision once I know that you will not try to harm me," Dexter said.

Thomas was trying to locate Dexter but it seemed like the voice was coming from all sides all at once. So finally after some struggle, Thomas decided to play. He sat down and sighed. That was when Dexter knew that Thomas was under control.

"I have all the answers you look for. But you must absorb the information carefully and not form opinions before I finish. Okay?" Dexter asked.

"Speak!" Thomas suddenly shouted.

He was sick of these games and stretching s**t. He just wanted answers.

"Okay, so my name is not Dexter. In truth, I have no name. Not in earth's language at least. I used to live on Mars and lived a normal life free of conflict until we came to know that Earth was about to send humans on our planet.

We had known about the appearance of an intelligent species on the blue planet since the beginning, and we had no problem with that. But as time passed and we saw what humans did to their own kind and the species inferior to them, we knew that a time would come when they would gather up the resources to conquer our planet. And as this fear started to become a realization with the humans starting to learn to construct things, we shielded our planet with an illusion.

We put up the show of a wasteland, masking our planet so that it seemed like it was nothing but a red circle of garbage with raging winds and no possible use for humans. And for a long time, this plan worked and we became comfortable. Until the day that human curiosity crossed the bounds we thought they couldn't possibly reach.

They overpopulated the planet and instead of looking for solutions to make their planet better, they started a search for a whole new planet to populate. They landed probes on our planet, but it is easy to manipulate its signal. So we were successful in hiding our planet.

But the humans shocked us once again. You have a saying that humans shine their best when the situation is at its worst. And I think we paid the price for that. We undermined you and thought that fighting among yourselves would be your demise.

But you formed a united community in light of the social issues. And the StarGaze project came into existence much earlier than we anticipated. There just wasn't enough time to find a way to stop actual humans from seeing our planet and spreading the word.

So when the first of you landed on our planet, we killed them. And we made a brutal example out of them so that you would fear us and never set foot on our land again. But unfortunately, we know humans too well to believe that.

We know that sooner or later you will try to leave the garbage you have made out of your land and attack us to take over our planet. And we couldn't let that happen. So we decided to attack you." The voice said.

"But we are still alive. So not a very good attack, was it?" Thomas said.

"No, because we had to find a passive way to exterminate you. You see, we cannot wipe you out because we are not your creators."

"You're not?" Thomas asked.

"No, you are the result of a planet reset brought about by the beings from Enceladus (Saturn's moon). They happen to be our creators too. And it is impossible for us to outmatch them. They see through time and dimensions, and hence they would eliminate us even before we plan to attack them.

So while we cannot directly attack you, we can manipulate you to kill yourselves. Which is exactly what we did. We used the specially polarized radioactive light to alter your DNA and steal your sleep. It wasn't an attack, but we know what lack of sleep does to a human.

Soon your world was in chaos, and all you could do was watch as your world burned. But we were mistaken again when the human body adapted, making the new mutants even stronger and stable than their normal versions." The omnipotent voice said.

"So you have now come to wipe us out," Thomas said gravely.

"No, on the contrary, we have come to help you...and our planet." The voice said.

"Brother, you have to choose sides in a war, or you will be an enemy to both," Raghav said and chuckled.

"Maybe that's true, but we have to do what is sensible in order for the future of the species to be secure." The voice said and Thomas was shocked.

"You...you can hear him?! the voice inside my head, you can actually hear him?" Thomas asked, astonished.

"Yes, we are inside your head. And we are open to any suggestions from Raghav." The voice said calmly.

"Man, that is f****d up. Anyway, how did you end up here?" Raghav asked.

"We broke away from the consciousness and made our way here when the decision for a passive attack was taken." The voice said.

"And who is this 'we' you talk about?" Thomas asked.

"I am the tree of life, along with a martian female and the key to stopping this war." The voice said.

"Well, now that the introductions are down, can you restore my eyes?" Thomas asked.

"Well, what is wrong with your eyes?" The voice asked indifferently.

"I can't open them if you haven't noticed," Thomas said irritatedly.

"Can't you?" The voice said suspensefully.

Thomas was about to talk some more trash, but he decided to give it a go. And much to his surprise, as soon as he tried to open his swollen eyes, they opened up. The swelling was gone, and he could now see.

There was a strange mist everywhere, and all he could see were long and sleek branches all around him. They were white and blended in with the mist, and they vibrated as the martian spoke.

"You see Thomas, only you can captivate yourself. No one else can enter your mind unless you let them." The tree said, and Thomas tried hard to spot the source of the voice.

"Yaa yaa, I know. So how do you plan to stop this war you are talking about?" Thomas asked.

"I am afraid that sooner or later our people will have to attack earth to have the advantage. Because the earth is preparing the arms and an army of mutants to wipe our planet out. We do not have weapons or a fleet of war ships because the idea of wars and weapons is only limited to earth.

So we will use whatever advantage we have and attack your planet to neutralize the threat. But that will be a very, very big mistake from our side. Enceladus will not see upon the first strike kindly and they will purge our whole species for interfering with their balance of the universe.

And if you were to attack, they will overlook it because you have earned your chance to live for another million years." The branches vibrated violently as the tree said this, showing that it was desperate.

"Why...how have we earned the chance to live for another eternity?" Thomas asked, confused.

"Because of the friend residing in your head." The voice said.

Thomas went inside his brain and looked at Raghav, who was standing in the corner and smiling.

"How did you, what?" Thomas asked.

"Okay Thomas, time for a history lesson," Raghav said sitting down in the mist.