Victory May Mean Death to Us All

Winning a war with an alien race has consequences. Is this one of these consequences?

Victory May Mean Death to Us All

A Short Story

Written By

SpaceFaction

     A red, glowing Energy Cylinder about an inch long comes out of a thin barrel that can barely be seen sticking out of a fabric entrance. This Energy Cylinder heads for Gellee. It hits her in the forehead. She is dead before she falls to the floor of the room they are in, next to Paician.

     Paician is the leader of the planet Rumon. He is in that room with his Gellee, a group of Alien Representatives, and the Press covering the Agreement between Rumon and their human invaders. Everyone starts diving for any cover that they can find, except for Paician. He’s panicking too, but he’s more concerned about what has happened to Gellee.

     While everyone else panics in that room, Paician covers Gellee with his body, just in case any more Energy Cylinders come her way. No other threats head for them. Bosona and Keleim run past the barrel that this Energy Cylinder came out of just as it disappears behind the fabric entrance.

     Bosona and Keleim use the walls in this room to protect themselves as they head for Paician and Gellee, constantly looking all around them as they get to them. “What just happened?” Bosona asks.

#

     Paician slightly leaned over a decorative extension at several hundred thousand Rumonians among the buildings, residences, and Open Areas below him. These Rumonians aren’t celebrating their win against their human invaders anymore. Almost everyone there is looking up at Paician. “A little party never killed nobody.”

     “Of course, this isn’t a little party. It never has been. Almost everyone on Rumon has been celebrating our victory over our invaders. At least they have been until they saw what happened to my Love, Gellee.”

     “I’m here to tell you that we have already started to find out who is responsible for what has happened to Gellee and why they have done it.” Paician continues talking to the other Rumonians there. His voice comes out of his mouth as normal, but it's extremely loud as it gets to the Rumonians below him.

     Paician raises his hands above his shoulders to calm down the Rumonians he’s talking to. After all, some of them are asking him questions loudly or are making comments about what’s going on. “I want you to continue your celebration of our victory against our invaders. We will let you know when we find out what happened to Gellee.”

#

     Bosona and Keleim tear one side of the fabric entrance away from this entrance so that Bosona can cover Gellee's body while Keleim tries to stop the others in that room from getting too close to Gellee. “Don’t panic,” says Keleim. “Everything is going to be okay.”

     The others there, including Paician now, start moving closer to where Gellee is. Some of them keep looking all around them while they do this. “I know you are scared the killer may still be here, but there’s no reason to panic. We don’t think they are here anymore,” continues Keleim.

     Suddenly, one of the others there stops walking toward them. The others also stop walking. “What’s that?” asks the one who stopped first.

     Everyone starts looking at where this alien invader is pointing. It’s a Long Weapon laying on the floor just behind what is left of the fabric entrance. Bosona and Keleim walk over to where this weapon is. They squat to look at it, but neither tries to pick it up.

     “It looks like we have found what has killed Gellee,” says Bosona after they look at each other. “Now all we have to do is find out who used it to kill her.”

#

     “Well, that isn’t exactly true,” says Keleim. Everyone is on the other side of this room, where Gellee’s body is, including Bosona and Keleim. “I told you a few minutes ago that we didn’t think her killer was still here.”

     Bosona slowly looks at the others there, especially the alien invaders. “Now, we think that they still are here. We also think that someone in this room is responsible for what has happened here today.”

     “That’s why we have taken over this Agreement Process,” says Keleim. “No one is leaving there until we know who is responsible for what has happened to Gellee, and why they have done it.”

     “Isn’t it obvious who is responsible and why they have done this?” shouts one of the Rumonians there. Everyone looks at this Rumonian. “It’s one of our alien invaders.”

     All the Rumonians there start looking at their alien invaders. The alien invaders return the gesture by looking at each other, then the Rumonians. “I don’t know who is responsible for the death of Gellee, but I do know that we aren’t the ones who have done this to Gellee,” says the Leader of these Alien Representatives.

#

     Keleim takes the other Rumonians to the other side of that room after both sides start arguing with each other. Fists and feet start hitting both sides in a frantic brawl. Bosona stays with the alien invaders, trying to calm them down. “Calm down. We aren’t going to solve any of our problems until everyone calms down.”

     “We aren’t the ones who need to calm down,” says the Leader of these humans. “It’s you Rumonians who need to calm down. After all, we didn’t start the fight here; they have.”

     “That’s what Keleim is trying to do right now,” says Bosona. “He’s also trying to calm them down.”

     Bosona changes the subject. “Almost twenty years ago you tried to destroy us. First with a chemical mist that only killed us Rumonians. Leaving the rest of Rumon intact. Then you started killing us with your weapons after we found a cure for your chemical mist.”

     “You have killed several billion of us Rumonians since you started your invasion,” continues Bosona. “Of course, we think that you killed Gellee. We just don’t know which one of you is responsible for doing it or why you have done it.”

###

     “I don’t think that any of you is responsible for the death of Gellee,” says Keleim. “I’m also sure it’s one of our alien invaders.”

     Keleim sits among the other Rumonians. “We have to question everyone here about what has happened. If we don’t, our alien invaders will claim we haven’t been treating them fairly. They may not want to continue with our agreement process if they think that.”

     “Who cares what they think,” says one of the other Rumonians there. “For all we know, that may be why they have killed Gellee. So that they have a reason why they won’t continue with this agreement process.”

     “You may be right about that,” says Keleim after he looks at him. “That’s why we have to make it look like we are questioning you about what happened to Gellee.”

     Keleim slowly looks at the other Rumonians there. “Do you know why Bosona and I were the first ones to try to solve what happened to Gellee? It’s because we were supposed to be protecting everyone during this agreement process. We have failed to do that. That’s why we want to find out what has happened here.”

#

     “Especially if Gellee wasn’t the one who was supposed to be killed,” says Keleim. Keleim and Bosona are the only ones sitting next to Gellee right now. The other Rumonians and their alien invaders are in two separate groups on the other side of this room. “That is what I told the other Rumonians before I started questioning them about this.”

     “What did they tell you about what happened a few hours ago?” Bosona asks. “Does it look like any one of them may be the one responsible for what happened today?”

     Keleim looks over at the other Rumonians, who are still agitated by what is happening there. They keep constantly looking at their alien invaders or at them. “They told me what I already knew. I never thought any one of them was responsible for what happened to Gellee, and I still don’t.”

     “It’s your turn,” continues Keleim. “What did our alien invaders tell you? Did any one of them admit to doing this?”

     Bosona smiled sheepishly. “Of course, they did. They all admitted to doing it. It was a group decision. Of course, none of them admitted to anything. I didn’t expect them to admit to it.”

#

     Bosona and Keleim are now in a small room next to the one they have been in. Keleim and Bosona can still see the other Rumonians and their alien invaders, but they can’t see them, even though most of both groups are trying to see what they are doing and what they are seeing.

     They are looking at each other’s questioning and the answering session they have had with the other Rumonians and their Alien Representatives. Bosona is watching one of the large Image Monitors in that room, and Keleim is looking at another one. “It was a good idea to have the Press follow us around while we did these sessions,” says Bosona.

     “Since neither one of us found out who is responsible for what happened to Gellee, I thought the Press could help us see something we missed. That’s why I suggested asking them,” says Keleim.

     “Wanting them to help us see something wasn’t the only reason why I asked them to do it,” continues Keleim. “I also want everyone else on Rumon to know what has happened here and what we are doing to find out who has done it and why.”

#

     Suddenly, Keleim and Bosona stop walking around that residence when Bosona stops first. “I think that I heard something.” Bosona points at a closed entrance. “I’m not sure, but I think it came from inside that room.”

     “I think it may have also come from there,” says Keleim as he starts walking toward this entrance, with a small hand weapon pointing at it in front of him. “It was probably a good idea that we found our killer first.”

     “We have been handling this all wrong,” says Bosona after catching up to him. “I think that once we know who our killer is, we will know who is responsible for helping him to kill Gellee.”

     Keleim passes his left palm over a square frame next to that entrance. That entrance slips open. First, Keleim walks through this fabric entrance, but Bosona is right behind him. They stop to slowly look all around another large room after they enter it. Suddenly, Bosona stops looking. “We know you are here.”

     “It would be best if you came out of hiding,” continues Keleim. “I’m not going to hurt you. We know that you left your weapons behind after you killed Gellee.”

#

     “Do you know that what you have done may start our war all over again,” says Bosona. “Billions more Rumonians will probably die before this war is finally over, if it ever is over. After what you have done, this war may never be over.”

     Bosona and Keleim aren’t at the fabric entrance to that room anymore. They are walking around that room while they continue talking to whoever is in there, and they have done this for about an hour when the killer of Gellee finally shows themselves. It’s a male Rumonian.

     “I can’t believe it was one of us who killed Gellee,” continues Keleim. “Why did you kill Gellee? Did you do it so that we would blame our alien invaders?”

     “That isn’t why I killed Gellee,” answers this male Rumonian. “I didn’t even mean to kill Gellee. Paician is the one that I wanted to kill.”

     This Rumonian has his fingers clasped on top of his head as he slowly walks toward Bosona and Keleim. “When I killed Gellee instead of Paician, I panicked and dropped my weapon. I tried to get away from here before you found out it was me who did it, but I couldn’t.”

Word Count = 1,982