Brighter Days

Re-Creation isn’t hard to do. Sometimes, it can turn into a disaster, though.

What you are about to read is true. That's not all, though. After all, this has already been translated into a language that we all know and understand - English (German, French, Italian, Russian, etc.).

Brighter Days

A Short Story

Written By

SpaceFaction

     A male and a female stand on the surface of what is left of a planet. They are looking up at what is in orbit around this part of the planet they are standing on. It’s a small spaceship. Four other smaller spaceships are somewhat behind this small spaceship. They continue looking up at these spaceships as they speak.

     “As you can see, we have found a planet that you can call Wexom Two,” says the male named ‘Omin. “This should solve your overpopulation problems.”

     “It doesn’t look like Wexom Two right now,” says the female named ‘Hovona. “But give us one hundred and fifty days, and Wexom Two will look like this.” ‘Omin and ‘Hovona click their fingers once.

     Suddenly, what is left of the planet, everywhere anyone can see that ‘Omin and ‘Hovona are standing on, disappears. Only to be replaced a few seconds later with a beautiful living planet full of grass, trees, and clouds above them.

     “We still need to do a few things before we can start the Re-Creation Process,” says ‘Omin. “One of those things is to get your approval so that we can start this process. Do we have this approval?”

#

     ‘Omin and ‘Hovona aren’t the only ones standing on the beautiful surface of Wexom Two. Ten others are standing in a group in front of them. “Have you decided if you want us to proceed with the Re-Creation of Wexom?” ‘Hovona asks.

     A male and a female step in front of the other eight Wexoms there. “That’s why we are here,” says a male named JumTic. “We are the Representatives who represent the ten regions on Wexom, and it’s our decision whether you proceed with this Wexom Two Re-Creation.”

     “We have been talking about this among ourselves and the other Wexoms from Wexom, and we have made our decision.” GoiRine is the female standing next to JumTic.

     “What is that decision?” ‘Omin asks. “Are we moving forward with this planet, or do you want us to start looking for another planet for you?”

     JumTic and GoiRine look at each other, but it’s JumTic who answers ‘Omin’s question. “We would like you to find another planet for us to call Wexom Two, but our problem with overpopulation on Wexom tells us that we can’t do that anymore. We have no choice but to approve this planet.”

#

     Five Space Shuttles take off from the surface of the future Wexom Two. Four of these Space Shuttles head for the smaller spaceships in orbit around this planet. The fifth one heads for the small spaceship, aka Brighter Days, up there. Both ‘Omin and ‘Hovona are on this Space Shuttle.

     'Hovona pushes a button a the Control Panel under a large Monitor in front of her and ‘Omin. An image of several others from Brighter Days appears on this Monitor. “We have an approval,” says ‘Omin. You can start the Re-Creation of Wexom Two whenever you are ready to do it.”

     “We may have a problem with the Re-Creation of Wexom Two,” says a male named Commander ‘Venorm. He is in front of a group of the other Re-Creationists on the Monitor in front of ‘Omin and ‘Hovona, and he is in control of Brighter Days. “I don’t think we can Re-Create Wexom Two after all.”

     “What does that mean?” ‘Hovona asks.

     ‘Venorm looks at someone next to him. He nods once before he turns back to look at ‘Omin and ‘Hovona. “We don’t know if there are still inhabitants on this planet yet, but there used to be some.”

#

     "Why didn’t we know about these inhabitants until now?” ‘Omin asks a large group of others in a large open chamber on Brighter Days.

     A female named ‘Brinde steps into view of ‘Omin and ‘Hovona to stand next to ‘Venorm. “It’s because when we checked out this planet for any present or past lives, we didn’t find any indication that there have been any in the present or the past.”

     “Then what changed your mind about this possibility now?” ‘Hovona asks.

     “As usual, we didn’t only check out the surface of this planet,” answers ‘Brinde. “We also checked out the hills and mountains on this planet, and we didn’t find any openings into these hills or mountains to indicate there may be a civilization underground or one in their past.”

     ‘Hovona looks at ‘Omin before she turns back toward ‘Venorm and ‘Brinde. “Once again, I ask what changed your mind about this possibility?”

     “A few hours ago, while we were looking around this planet one more time, something happened to one of our Hover Viewers. It crashed into the side of a large mountain. When it did that, it opened an opening into it.”

#

     ‘Omin and ‘Hovona are standing in front of a large Monitor in the Control Chamber on Brighter Days with several other Re-Creationists. They are looking at what is left of the planet below them, which no longer looks like Wexom Two. “What are we going to do about this problem?” ‘Omin asks.

     “There are only two things that we can do about this possible problem,” answers ‘Hovona. “We either continue to Re-Create Wexom Two for the Wexoms, or we start looking for another planet we can Re-Create for them.

     “We can’t continue with the Re-Creation of Wexom Two. If there is still a civilization on this planet, we will be killing everyone here with our Re-Creation of Wexom Two.”

     ‘Omin looks at ‘Hovona. “There is only one thing we can do. I can’t be responsible for the deaths of a civilization. We haven’t had a problem like this numerous times before, but nothing like this. I’m not going to be responsible for another civilization being killed off because of me.”

     “I don’t want that kind of responsibility either,” says ‘Hovona. “But what else can we do to solve this problem? Sometimes we have to take a chance of destroying another civilization. This is one of those times.”

###

     The two Leaders of Brighter Days, ‘Omin and ‘Hovona, walk out of a large opening to the edge of a huge Open Area underground the planet they are on. From where they are standing, they can’t see too much at the bottom of this Open Area. “Contact Brighter Days. Tell them I want all of our GraveDiggers down here as soon as possible,” says ‘Omin.

     “I also want to know everything about this planet,” says ‘Hovona. ‘Hovona taps the small Identification Tab on her upper left shoulder. “Send down all of our GraveDiggers from Brighter Days. We want to know all there is about this planet before we decide what we are going to do next.”

     About half an hour later, sixteen GraveDiggers enter this part of the underground on this planet. As soon as they get there, they split up into groups of two and three. All except for one of them. This GraveDigger is ‘Roboni, and she is the leader of these GraveDiggers. She walks up to ‘Omin and ‘Hovona while the others start being GraveDiggers.178

     “I already know what you are going to ask me,” says ‘Roboni. “You always ask me how long this is going to take.”

#

     ‘Roboni is walking around what little is left of the underground within this planet. She is doing this with ‘Omin and ‘Hovona beside her. “I keep telling you I don’t know how long it will take to find out everything about a planet and its past. It can take a few hours, or several days, but it usually takes months, years, or a lifetime to do it.”

     “This planet is different,” says ‘Omin. “We don’t need to know everything about this planet.”

     “All we need to know right now is if there have been inhabitants living here,” continues ‘Hovona. “We also need to know what happened to them, where they are now, and if they will ever return there, but we don’t need to know all of this right now.”

     ‘Omin, ‘Hovona, and ‘Roboni stop walking when they see a male GraveDigger trying to catch up to them by running. “I don’t think we will have to wait too long to hear what you want to know about this planet,” says ‘Roboni.

     Before this male GraveDigger runs into them, ‘Roboni is asking him something. “Have you found out what I wanted you to find out about this planet?”

#

     The male GraveDigger takes ‘Omin, ‘Hovona, and ‘Roboni to what he wants to show them. “We don’t know what happened with the inhabitants of this planet, or why they have been living underground on this planet, but we know there has been a civilization living there.”

     “We haven’t found too much about this planet, but we have found out that it used to be inhabited by someone.” The male GraveDigger points at something on the surface in front of them. “So far, we don’t know what Race they are. They may have been humans like the Wexoms and us, or they may be another Race, but they were inhabitants of this planet.”

     ‘Omin, ‘Hovona, and ‘Roboni look down at a small piece of a building sticking out of the surface there, but it’s ‘Roboni who squats down to pick it up carefully. She also looks at it carefully. “This could be a piece of a structure from a human society. It could also be from another Race. It’s probably going to take us years to figure this out.”

     “Did you say years?” ‘Omin asks. “We can’t wait that long to decide what to do about this planet.”

#

     Once again, ‘Omin and ‘Hovona are standing in front of a group of others on the surface of what will be Wexom Two, if they re-create it for the Wexoms. “We have a big decision to make about this planet,” says ‘Omin.

     “This is too big a decision to make on our own,” continues ‘Hovona. “That’s why we have decided this will be a group decision. What do you think we should do? Should we continue with the Re-Creation of this planet, or should we start looking for another planet?”

     Almost everyone there starts asking questions, giving ‘Omin and ‘Hovona their opinions on what they should do, and commenting on what they should do. Most of these questions, opinions, and comments want them to start the Re-Creation process, but a lot of them think they should start looking for another planet for the Wexoms.

     “Everyone, please stop talking all at once. We want to hear everything you want to say,” almost shouts ‘Omin, so that everyone can hear him. But it’s hard for us to do it if everyone is talking to us at once.”

#

     Suddenly, an alarm starts screaming in the Control Chamber on Brighter Days. Red lights also start flashing all around everyone there. The other parts of this spaceship start contacting them. They are also experiencing the alarm and the flashing red lights. Everyone in the Control Chamber can see this.

     “Turn off these alarms.” ‘Venorm tries to shout over all these alarms.

     “What’s going on?” Brinde asks.

     As soon as the alarms and the flashing lights started, Omin ran over to one of the Monitors there and began tapping the Control Panel under that Monitor. A few seconds later, he turned to face ‘Venorm and ‘Brinde. “We may be killing off the inhabitants of this planet after all.”

     “While re-creating this planet, we also caused the underground part of it to collapse. Not only that, but we opened up another deeper part. We checked into this part as well, and there are about a billion life signs there.”

     “I don’t know if they are also humans or another race,” continues ‘Omin. “All I know is that if we don’t stop this Re-Creation right now, we will be responsible for all of their deaths.”

Word Count = 1,968