The Fate of Nations Book II The Harvest (23 page)

“Do you understand, Sarah?” Sarah nodded her head, “I think so Mikel, I just don't understand why the Grays are being allowed to kill humans to begin with, I mean, why do they have to eat people Mikel?” Mikel thought for a moment, looking out into the vastness of space through the window of his ship, his long fingers poised on the brightly lit control panel before him, and began to relay the long history of the Grays.

“The Grays”, he began, “are members of a

complex hierarchy of beings. They are a subset, an offshoot of a great culture of Grays that was once a very different race of beings. They once lived in the same light they now detest. As their Sun dimmed, so did their culture, their beliefs and their society. It was evolution in reverse for their great civilization. A gradual disintegration of knowledge, beauty and grace, as gradual as the death of their Sun.”

“They forgot,” Mikel continued, “that their planet once thrived with life, food to feed the billions, water and clean air. They gradually adjusted their diets to offset their lack of nutrients.”

“Humans became their new food source. The

merchants who visited their world became the first victims. Starving and desperate for sustenance, the Grays began killing them for food. After it became known that the Grays were consuming humans, few would venture there, increasing the difficulties of the Grays in obtaining food. This in turn began the Harvest.”

“Using the ships that were left by the unfortunate merchants, they began to venture out into the vastness of space in an attempt to colonize other planets but found that their bodies had degenerated to the point where sustaining life was impossible for them on any other planet except the large, dark, dead planet that was their home. They could survive for a year, two at the most before they were crippled by the lack of metals their bodies had become dependent on in the air of their dusty gray planet.”

“These metals were indigenous to their home world and although they tried frantically to replicate them, they were unable to reproduce these essential metals found swirling in the suspended gray dust of their world. They were forced to abandon their colonization efforts and focus on acquiring food as they returned to the welcomed darkness of their bereft world.”

“There were tens of thousands of planets that supported human life in the Universe. The Grays began the systematic Harvest of these planets, forgetting all that they knew about producing their own food. They found that they liked the meat of Humans, and in fact became addicted to the natural chemicals that the Human body produces.”

“Most addictive to them is bile, secreted by the human liver to help in digestion, this substance gives them a euphoric rush, and then a feeling of warm security, comfort, and well being. They must consume it now, without it, they suffer through what humans would term withdrawals, but these withdrawals will kill them.

Once they have sampled the liver and the sacred green wine, they are forever addicted.”

“It was not always this way among them Sarah”, Mikel continued sadly, “their Great Civilization degenerated, their former knowledge was no longer passed down for the next generations. This became their lives, and their means to sustain.” “This was now their method of food production, and The Ritual began. The Ritual was first performed to thank their Highest for giving them the knowledge to survive, it was written from their despair, to celebrate the abundance they had been given. The Ritual is as old as time itself for these Grays, these offshoots of a once great and wondrous civilization.”

“Why did that Gray screech at you when you wouldn't take the liver Mikel?”, Sarah asked. She had been dieing to ask Mikel what all that screeching was about. “I insulted him by not accepting his sacred gift,”

Mikel replied, a shudder of revulsion gripping his small frame.

“In their culture, Sarah, to share the liver means to share the gift of their Highest.” “It symbolizes the gift of life that they were given, of the vast supply of food that their Highest supplied for them when they were starving and on the very edge of extinction.”

“Well, what did you say to him? How did you get him to calm down Mikel?” Sarah asked, remembering the way the Gray had turned calmly around to face Mikel, and the reverent way he placed the liver back on the neatly stacked pile. “I told him that we didn't consume meat.”

Mikel didn't eat meat. None of his race did. Mikel thought that was common knowledge among all beings.

The Grays, however, didn't concern themselves with other cultures or races of beings. They cared only for their own kind, their machines, The Harvest and The Ritual. There was very little of their ancient ancestor's traits remaining in these modern day Grays.

“The Grays were once legendary celestial

beings.” Mikel said, a note of wonder tinging his tone.

“Their great cities were renowned for their culture and their aesthetic beauty. The music of their ancient golden instruments and the singing of the masses at sunset, rose resplendent through the clear beautiful yellow sky and was so stunningly beautiful and clear, each note ringing two or more dozen times in the clear dusk.”

“Beings from every Universe visited the large planet just to hear the glorious music that reverberated through the air as they sang to the Highest, giving thanks for all they had. There was nothing that would ever compare, then or now, to the lilting perfection of their songs.”

“It was a hauntingly beautiful planet,” Mikel continued on, recalling his visit there so long ago.

“Infused with a golden yellow light, every structure in perfect harmony and balance with the natural beauty of the planet. The billions of Grays, peacefully existed in their timeless glory. They were sharing beings, incomprehensibly intelligent beings of light and wisdom. They are now the grim butchers of the Universe, abhorrent and abominable, but, nevertheless, still part of the great order of beings.”

“The atrocities they commit are not for us to interfere with. It is only for the Highest to either allow or condemn. This is the established order of the hierarchy of all beings.” Mikel gazed out of the ship's large window. He was quiet for a long time, reflecting on the Grays' and their tragic past. He was clearly saddened by the loss of such a great civilization.

Mikel loved humans, even though they weren't much more than beasts in intelligence, when compared to his race. He believed that all beings deserved to be treated with care and kindness. He abhorred what the Grays were doing to them but he couldn't interfere.
It is
the established order,
he said to himself.
But I did
interfere
, he thought to himself,
I felt compelled to help
Adam.

These compulsions did not occur among his high order without some reason, it was written in one of the precepts. His wasn't to question why, but to listen to what he was being instructed to do.

Only The Highest can end it
, he thought, but He lived beyond the infinity of space and time. For The Highest, what was merely a day, stretched into eternities for all others. The humans had brought this upon themselves, Mikel knew that, but he wanted to help them, and to help Sarah.

The systematic destruction of their gifts from The Highest was well known and lamented throughout the entire Universe. All of the human colonies were guilty of heinous acts. They ate them, beat them, starved and tormented and killed these innocent creatures, whom the Great Creator created and designed to help them, to protect them. The humans sealed their own fates. No one in the entire spectrum of beings could deny this.

The Harvest was justified. It was sanctified.

Mikel checked the small instrument panel on his left, intent on an approaching star, then turned once more to Sarah and said, “Animals, were designed to be your companions on the Earth. Placed there to protect you from evils seen and unseen, from unimaginable things that only they are uniquely equipped to face.”

“Their minds contain a sophisticated organic radar, able to track these Grays and all other worldly beings. Their minds are so accurately tuned that nothing escapes their attention.”

“Without them there as a first line of defense, humans are enormously vulnerable. The Human mind, however, with few exceptions, cannot comprehend that these inferior beings could hold such an important role in their world.”

“In ancient times, animals were appreciated for their loyalty and abilities, but so much of that ancient knowledge, from the previous Harvests has been lost or diluted down until the vast majority of mankind does not have any idea of what devastation their loss will cause. Humans forget over long periods of time.” He added, “When their civilizations were eradicated at Harvests, they rebuilt them with practically none of their former knowledge or with misleading, half-formed ideas of what they once were, much like the Grays' Civilization.”

“Now, humans are only beasts to the Grays... as you saw first hand. They see them as food, to be penned, killed and eaten.” Sarah looked at Mikel, her face stricken with terror, “It is their fate,” he said gently, in response to the forming questions in her mind. “They killed their gifts, and, Sarah, you must remember, that all fleshly beings have predators. These are the predators of humans. It is sanctified. It is justified.”

“It is the fate of all Humans. The Earth's Harvest is near.”

Mikel looked up quickly at his overhead control panel. “We have company,” he stated. “It is my Father,”

Adam called from the back of the ship.

David of Crios

A large company of ships approached Mikel's small craft. There was a massive ship flanked by an assortment of smaller craft, each one of the smaller ships dwarfed Mikel's small ship. They were all shaped differently, looking like, to Sarah, some of the old pipe fittings that her father kept in his garage.

As she watched the Flotilla's approach, she saw that the ships flanking the massive center ship began to join with the center ship, interlocking to form an even larger craft. A voice came from the control panel's speaker and Mikel adjusted the control, tuning in the Flotilla's Commander. Adam stood beside of Sarah, watching the Flotilla, his face a mask of anticipation and mingled awe. The sight was awesome to see, they all felt tiny in Mikel's small ship as they saw the massive Flotilla looming ahead of them.

“Vessel approaching,” the Commander's voice called over the speaker, “keep your distance.” Mikel pressed the call button and responded, “we will remain at the safe distance.” “You have my son on board.” It was not a question, but a statement. Mikel waited. “We will come alongside and retrieve him.” the Commander's voice sounded a few minutes later. “Hold your position.” It wasn't a request. Mikel didn't need to respond. He adjusted the controls and they hovered there, in the middle of space as one of the strangely shaped craft detached itself from the main body of the Flotilla and raced towards his small ship.

The approaching vessel flashed a sequence of lights, indicating, Mikel told the observers, Sarah, Adam, and now the fifty small children gathered in the pilot area of Mike's ship who were watching the approach, that it intended to come along side. Mikel released the latching equipment as the U-shaped craft slid silently alongside.

They felt Mikel's ship lurch forward, Adam grabbed the back of Sarah's seat to steady himself, the children grabbing hold of Adam and each other to keep from being pitched forward. The Commander's ship secured itself firmly to Mikel's as he deftly performed the docking sequence on his instrument panel. The large hatch on the side of the ship slid open with the practiced precision that only Mikel could administer, and Adam's father stepped on board.

He stood tall, at seven feet. He could have been Adam's clone, the resemblance was so strong. His dark hair, his large dark eyes, and strong rugged features were identical to Adam's. There was a presence about him, though, that Adam lacked. It was an air of authority and age, of wisdom and intention. A grimness that had settled in his eyes and around the corners of his mouth that set it in a firm determined line. His faced changed as soon as he saw his son.

The grimness was replaced by a radiant smile, like the sun emerging from a storm cloud, his face lit up with joy. “Adam!” he shouted and ran to his son, his arms outstretched. “Finally, I see your face again!”

Adam rushed to his father's arms and they embraced tightly for a few precious moments, the long years between them vanishing.

“We were on our way to get you back” the

Commander told his son when he was able to speak again. “We were only able to obtain the coordinates to this star system and have been systematically checking each planet here for you. We have visited three hundred of the four thousand planets here, looking for you.” We knew you were alive,
I
knew you were still alive, he stated firmly, I felt it in my mind and in my heart.” His hard eyes teared up with relief and happiness.

“Father, I am overjoyed to see you,” Adam

replied, choking back sobs of joy. “I have much to tell you.” “I am sure that you do, my son, but first, I must thank your host for your safe delivery.”

The Commander introduced himself to Mikel. “I am David Houels, from Crios, Adam's father and Commander of the Flotilla that you see before you. I humbly thank you for your assistance in the delivery of my son to me.” David knelt down on one knee before Mikel's small frame, placing his hand on Mikel's small shoulder, engulfing it with his large hand. “Do not thank me,” Mikel replied, “Thank the Highest, I was only compelled to do this by Him.”

“He has my thanks,” David replied, “as do you.”

They stood that way, David kneeling on one knee, his hand placed on Mikel's shoulder, for a half of an hour, while they conversed telepathically, on a channel that only they could tune into in their minds. Meanwhile, Adam talked to the children and explained to them what the Flotilla was and told them they were all going to be going there to return to his home on Crios.

“We get to go to Crios?!” Cherish asked