Dark Knowledge

Dark Knowledge

By Mordecai J Banda



“Damn it for the last time tell me where the hell I am!”

The computerized female voice thought aloud: “It seems there has been a major glitch in your CAMs… There is no evident way of retrieving them…”

The man punched the alien looking console in anger, “And what the hell is my CAM? What are you? Is this some sort of sick joke, guys?”

He looked around. Only more questions sprung to mind. There were four people - two males and females – reclining, unconscious in two black swivel chairs surrounded by the blue glow of more alien looking consoles. They wore dark blue jumpsuits.

“If you were referring to your mischievous brothers, they died four thousand years ago.”

The man’s head was already pounding and he found that he couldn’t shout at the insistent console anymore. He sat down and grasped his aching skull. He couldn’t make sense of what was happening, but there were some infinitesimal moments whereby something seeped through his confusion and gave him overwhelming senses of nostalgia and some deep sadness… and strong purpose.

"Whilst your birth name was Ralph Smith, your current name is Raythorn. Master of The Mind Light, this ship. You are currently on your four thousandth year of your galactic cruise in search of ultimate knowledge, and are currently experiencing an unforeseen glitch within your Cybernetically Aided Memories."

Raythorn looked up at the console for a brief moment, but immediately reverted back to being the amnesiastic Ralph Smith. He was dumfounded.

"This is... a starship? Are you kidding me?"

He felt disbelief, yet there was the strange knowledge that this could not be a complete lie. He didn’t know about four thousand years nor aided memories. But he sure as hell had amnesia.

Ralph suddenly noted that he also wore navy-blue jumpsuit. He looked over to them and was startled to see that one of the women: African in appearance, was sitting up and looking at him with wide eyes,

"What the hell is happening? Where the hell am I?"

The computer replied, "Your name is Alicia Majoris, you are a fellow Master of The Mind Light in search of universal knowledge and are currently on your four thousandth year of a galactic cruise in search of ultimate knowledge.”

She blinked. Utterly flabbergasted and disoriented. She suddenly grasped her skull and let out a groan.

“You too, huh?” Ralph muttered, grabbing his own skull and almost gasping in surprise as he felt something beneath move with a mute whirr.

“What the-?” Both Ralph and the woman said at the same time. He glanced up at her and saw that she was looking directly above his head. Ralph followed her line of sight and noticed for the first time a wide view screen into what was undeniably the inky speckled vacuum that was space.

However the stars did not grab much attention as much as what was happening in the centre of the screen. Ralph stood up and walked over to the screen.

A positively gigantic sphere billowed silent flame. It split into pieces in a slow deadly dance. Ralph blinked as he spotted some dark blue and green on it.

“Hey… what’s that?” Ralph asked the disembodied voice with a dry mouth.

The computer sighed, “I thought that you might at least recognize this. This was Sol, just before this unfortunate malfunction in your CAMs, you just succeeded in destroying it.”

Ralph felt weak in his knees.

“Earth?”

Alicia whispered from beside him, staring out at the sight. “Why the hell do I believe that?”

Ralph felt the same. He placed his hand on the smooth, delicate looking glass.

He croaked, “Why would I… We… do this?”

The computer hesitated, then spoke, “After gathering vast knowledge from eleven sentient civilizations you decided to revisit your imperfect planet to educate them with the knowledge of the worlds to eradicate every single problem that made life problematic there.

“They rejected it, and almost immediately used your knowledge for personal gain and development of weapons. After a calculated test you determined that only ten were worthy of survival, extracted them and destroyed the planet.”

“That’s a lie… It must be…” Ralph looked through the screen. The mass of rock was spinning away, and a beautiful yellow fire leaked out of the massive crust of the sphere, like yolk from a shattered egg.

“Warning: Significant threat to nearby celestial bodies detected.”

Ralph looked up at the computer, “Why the hell would I murder 6 billion humans?”

“8.1 Billion, actually.”

Ralph stared with dead eyes. Tears streamed down Alicia’s eyes. She seemed to remember more than he did.

“Is this the result of my godly knowledge? The destruction of my own race?” He croaked.

“Sorry Raythorn, for now I have to deal with this threat to the Solar System’s sacred celestial bodies. I shall confer with you later.”

There were more groans from behind Alicia and Ralph as the others gained consciousness. Alicia and Ralph simply stared at their dead world, wondering what scale to compare the catastrophe to.