FROK YOU MOGURK! You will DIE for this! This assignment to babysit humans was a thinly-veiled attempt to get revenge on me. Sure, I deserved his contempt for exposing his hoarding of energy pills to the high council, but the thought of doing grunt work in third density disgusted me. I was a veteran of many battles on Sol Three, and I fought hard to be promoted to the rank of Commander. An assignment like this was insulting to give to an officer. I continued cursing as I strode through the halls of Mothership and burst into a conference room. Six of my scaly brethren jumped up from their seats and snapped to attention. At ease, I grumbled. They relaxed slightly and sat back down. I took a moment to calm myself before beginning to speak. You're all here for the same reason I am, because that munk-kissing bureaucrat Mogurk sent you here. I don't give a frok whether you like it or not, I frokking hate it! Still, if I don't deliver results then my next assignment will be even worse. You, young one, have you ever worked in third density? The young reptile nervously nodded. I smiled, showing him my fangs. Excellent, then you can show us how it's done. Let's move out!
I wasted no time getting us a ship and departing for Sol Three. Our assigned location was the southwestern quadrant of the USA. This was not without its benefits. There were plenty of underground bases in this area that we could work out of. We would visit these places in due time, but first I steered the ship to the dwelling of our target. He lived on the outskirts of a small town in New Mexico. From up in the air, his ramshackle home didn't look like much.
I touched the control panel and opened a channel to Mogurk. His ugly face appeared on the screen. “What is it now Issik? Can't you see I'm busy?!” I took a deep breath and said through clenched teeth, “We're over our target. What am I supposed to do with this human?” Mogurk rolled his eyes in exasperation and growled, “Keep that son of a glochk under control! His actions could help millions in probable futures! You have all the resources you need at your disposal and if everything else fails, kill him! Now stop bothering me you piece of gack!” The channel was closed abruptly and I roared with anger. Mogurk dishk furtoh bish nachk!
I turned to my crew member Urgitz and said, Find me a human who won't be missed and get them up here immediately. He jumped in the pilot seat and said, Right away Commander Issik. The young reptile knew exactly what I had in mind. Blood would help us all to cope with working in this density. I activated the five greys who were in statis and guided them into the operating room as I walked there from the bridge. The room had everything your average Orion could want for a job like this. For my needs, it was severely lacking. I summoned more slicing and stabbing tools, darkened the lights, and set a sizable collection of human death metal on a loop. Much better, I mused. A young female appeared on the operating table, her face frozen in horror. The greys worked silently to strap her down and hook her up to life sustaining machines. I watched from the shadows with glee as one grey deactivated the paralysis beam and she screamed.
Ah, what a beautiful sound. I was starting to enjoy this. At my command, the greys left and a single spotlight illuminated the girl. I remained in the shadows as I spoke her dialect, “Relax, they're gone child. You have nothing to fear...” I stepped into the light and she screamed again. “...except for me.” I grabbed a knife and slowly sliced into her frayed and torn clothing. She was a runaway, but her blood was clean, she didn't use drugs. She was homeless though. Nobody would miss her. As her clothes fell off I admired her naked form. Though she was unwashed, she was young and supple, and her body looked ripe for the taking. The noisy glochk was still screaming, so I took her shredded underpants and stuffed them in her mouth. “That's it,” I said as I put my face in front of hers, “scream all you want. No one can save you now.” With a flick of my wrist, I sliced into her thigh. Her eyes screwed shut as the muffled scream increased in volume. Slash, another cut deep into her forearm. I licked the blood now oozing across her skin and felt instant relief flowing through me.
I called the greys back and they drained her blood. After the Greys and my six crew members had drank, we disintegrated her body. We spent the next few hours filling our other tanks with bovine blood. I filled the tub in the rejuvenation room with mostly bovine blood, then added the girl's blood to it. We took turns soaking in the red bath, absorbing the nutrients through our pores. This would ease the pain of being physical for a short time. Now that we had some third-density sustenance, I sat in the bridge and opened the profile of our target.
He was very skilled with computers and phones, he never carried a GPS device, and he consistently evaded the human authorities. They called him The Ghost. The government knew that he funded research on esoteric subjects. The research was very damaging to the control system. I set the temporal compass to the period when he first became active and pulled up the most probable futures. Frok. He was a genius level target who worked quickly and efficiently. I could not have invented a more difficult task if I tried. Once again I vowed to kill Mogurk for making me fix this disaster. I began sending orders to my crew and they carried them out ruthlessly like good Orions. I monitored the probable futures as we traveled back and forth in the timeline creating holographic inserts. He somehow dodged every one. I explored the probable futures in great detail, and with some difficulty I began to see his patterns.
They were extremely complex and obfuscated. From this point in time, I couldn't get at the target. Perhaps further along the timeline at a point when he's vulnerable? I slowly tuned the compass until I found a weak spot. “Again!” I said to my crew. He evaded us. I moved to the next, and the next, and several more. Frokking piece of gack! This human avoided everything in our arsenal, every attempt we made. No third density human was this good. He was fourth or fifth density, and he was being aided by the Galactic Federation. I composed a message to Mogurk giving him the bad news. His reply came swiftly. “Commander Issik, I didn't realize how important this target was, otherwise I would have assigned someone more capable than you.” I held my raging temper and calmly said, “This is a very good crew of Orions Mogurk. If you give me what I need, as you promised, I will destroy this human.”
There was a long pause, and he said “I'm sending a supply ship with some Orion elites. They'll bring everything you need. If you succeed, I'll have you promoted.” I ended the conversation with, “Thank you for your generosity Elder Mogurk.” I was not above pleasantries when they served a purpose, but I knew there would be no promotion. Orions who dealt with difficult humans were always sent away from Sol Three. That way there was no possibility of thought form echoes accidentally bringing the human back. Mogurk would just assign me to a remote outpost on the other side of the galaxy. Frok him. At the moment I was getting what I wanted, so I directed my focus and anger at the target. The supply ship arrived almost instantly through time traveling. One of my crew began transporting personnel and equipment aboard. I stood up and greeted Geshick, the team leader.
Commander Issik, how can we be of assistance? I put my arm around the team leader and said, Your elites can assist my crew and you can advise me on defensive measures Geshick. The more you cooperate, the faster we will complete the task so we can get out of this intolerable density. Your team may use the rejuvenation room to bathe in blood whenever needed. Can you handle that? The team leader nodded and began giving orders to the elites. I strode to the cargo bay to see what equipment we had been sent. The usual heavy ordnance was here, like beam rifles, rail guns, and plasma grenades. Several crates contained more exotic items, most of which I had never seen before. One item in particular stole my attention and I lifted it up, marveling at its creation. It was a time bomb. The story I was told said that these bombs were banned by Orion high command because they usually caused more problems than they solved. They were call time bombs because they affected temporal dimensions. I knew that a few survived, and I was the lucky lizard who got to use one.
This bomb would be our preemptive strike on the target. I sent a message to all crews assigned to fix time leaks and runaway paradoxes that I was about to use a time bomb. The responses came immediately. “You're crazy Issik!” “Please, don't use it!” “Time bombs were outlawed, he doesn't really have one.” I replied with a graphical analysis of the device and the message, “Listen up lizards. This is the kind of target we all hope we never get. This is not your average systems buster. He's a higher density being who's receiving assistance from the Galactic Federation. I've been authorized to take this extreme measure because of the seriousness of the situation, so prepare yourselves for the fallout.” After my second message, they all took me seriously. I could see many ships scrambling into the proper positions. I could sense their fear. All of these crews had been trained to deal with major disruptions to the spacetime continuum, but they thought that they would never have to use that training. I guess they didn't count on me.
I sent to my crew, Okay, everyone is in position. When I activate the time bomb, we will hit this target fast and hard. If we are unable to subdue him, then your orders are to kill him. Here we go. I landed the ship about a thousand paces away from his house. I changed my form to look like a human. I began running at full speed, carrying the bomb in my right hand. As I approached the house, he exited the front door and turned towards me. He held out his hands, as if waiting for me to deliver the weapon. Something is wrong, no one would knowingly invite this kind of chaos.
I stopped moving and tried to speak nonchalantly, “Hey man, what are you doing?” He said, “I'm waiting for you to give me the time bomb...reptilian. That's why you're here, isn't it?” I didn't know what to say. He knows I'm a reptoid, and what I'm doing here. This can't be! I said, “You know what this device does, right? If so, why in God's name would you welcome it?” He smiled and said, “Because you just walked into a trap.”
Again, I was speechless. How could I, Issik, possibly be trapped? I tried to read his thoughts. They were clouded, I couldn't sense them. I asked him, “What action springs this trap?” He said, “Detonating the bomb.” I knelt down on one knee and bowed my head. “Thank you for telling me this. I must still subdue or kill you, but now I will do so through other means.” He continued smiling and said, “No, you won't. That bomb will go off, and the trap will be sprung, it's inevitable.” I did not like the certainty with which he spoke those words. Overpowering everything that this human gave off was the perception that he was confident, unflinching, and very well informed. I knew there was no possibility of negotiating with him, and given this human's abilities, our usual methods were completely useless. Think Issik, think outside the box. Throw something at him that he'll never see coming.
I shielded my thoughts from outside listeners and searched for any and all possible forms of attack, no matter how complicated or outlandish. The human just stood there patiently while I analyzed the situation. Mogurk appeared beside me, disguised as another human. He whispered, “What's the holdup Issik? I thought you'd be excited to use a time bomb.” I replied, “Sir, he knows way too much. He has me convinced that by activating the bomb, we're walking into a trap.” Mogurk just rolled his eyes and said, “Never send a boy to do a man's job. Give me that.” I tried to hold onto the bomb, but Mogurk wrenched it out of my hands. He stepped over to the target, said, “This is for you human,” and pushed the button. The bomb activated and began its twenty pause countdown. “Mogurk, you fool, deactivate it now!”
Mogurk turned to me and shifted to his natural form, a hulking, muscular lizard. He hissed at me, a clear warning to stay back. I took a rapid inventory of all the facts. The human had said that it was inevitable, he must have meant that Mogurk would activate it. There was nothing I could do to prevent it from detonating, all I could do was fix whatever damage it caused. Trap or no trap, we had no choice but to watch it go off. I ported over to Mogurk and took him back to the ship so we could watch the explosion from a safe distance. It was spectacular. Hundreds of dimensions collided and fractured, and timelines were mixed and matched so that the target was left utterly stranded in the spacetime continuum. The other ships immediately began fixing the leaks and paradoxes in the timelines, and I ordered my crew and the team of elites to prepare to charge the target.
More and more rips and collapses appeared in the continuum, and I felt with dread that the human was right, we had just walked into a trap. I ported to the target who was now lying on his back in the maelstrom of the blast radius. I activated my body shield which began absorbing damage. The human was just laughing maniacally. I grabbed his shirt and yanked him off the ground. “What have you done human?! What have you done?!” I screamed. I could see scars and marks appearing on his body, the result of violence increasing exponentially in the timelines.
Still laughing, he said, “All I did was play along with your stupid plan. I told you it was inevitable you reptilian piece of shit. You just sealed the fate of your race.” I watched in horror as he crumbled to pieces in my hands. I ported back to the ship and displayed the most probable futures. They all showed our race becoming extinct. I felt a burning sensation and looked down at my body. I was fading away, gradually being erased from existence. Do you see what you've done Mogurk?! You've sentenced us all to death you orsh! He got in my face and screamed, Don't you dare try and pin this on me after you outed me to high command Issik! I'm blaming this mess on you!
That was it. I had endured enough of Mogurk's gack, it was time got what he deserved. I grabbed a poison pill from the pouch on my belt, shoved it in his mouth, and uppercutted him. I heard the pill crunch and as he began to absorb the poison, he screamed and fell to the floor. The gack bag had a few thousand ticks left to live, and they would be spent in utter agony. I sent an emergency message to my comrades. “Restore target 4917 from a backup right frokking now! Try all branching timelines until a continuum accepts the backup! Do it now or our entire species is frokked!”
Several ships began searching for a suitable restore point, but they couldn't find one in the near past. As they approached the time of the target's birth, the probable futures became cloudy. “Stop! We've hit a temporal void!” Our only hope was to construct a replacement for this human and insert it blindly into the timeline. I sent an order for all ships to cease their activities, even as the chaos and destruction continued. I tuned the temporal compass to the first point that would accept an incarnation. It was all or nothing now.
I had spent many cycles perfecting the art of creating life schematics. I could work fast enough to pull this off. I pulled up the target's profile again, and began building a similar one from scratch. Start with the basics, health, wealth, and power. Find a family with lots of fourth density candidates and unlimited funds. Make connections to many other fourth density candidates, and create non-profit organizations for them to operate. Ensure that his education includes esoteric knowledge, electronics, social programming and evasive tactics. Allow him protections that most humans could never have. No abductions, no implants, no tampering of any kind.
There. That was an excellent replacement. I opened the profile to incarnation and a sixth density entity chose it. The probable futures showed this new human doing many great works. He practically delivered Sol Three to positive side on silver platter. No! Frok, frok, FROK! I kicked Mogurk's writhing body. This was our disaster, in the flesh. A living god on the positive side. I sent this information and a message to every single lizard stationed at Sol Three. “This child is the Chosen One. The prophecy has come true. End times are upon us!” I felt the cascading terror wash over my species as the ever-contracting world around me began to shrink faster and faster. Oh horror of horrors! I was witnessing the gradual extinction of my species!
In my last few seconds of consciousness, I wondered to myself, Where did it all go wrong? It was all planned out so perfectly. We set up the timelines so that everything would be in our favor. So much traveling back in forth in time, changing, manipulating, undoing, and redoing. It was all too complicated! That was the problem! We stupidly fooled ourselves into believing that we could figure it all out, and furthermore, control all of it. We tried to play God and we failed. The searing pain returned and I shrieked as my body was sucked into a black hole and compressed to a singularity. Primal, sleeping matter. Dark, dead, and silent. An eternity of blackness.
