The Sleep

" The storm is coming".
"What, hello, hello", i hung up when i realised the line had gone dead.
The voice on the other end of the line hadn't sounded human, it had had that tinny computerised tone to it.
Prescience awoke within my mind.
Thirty seven years waiting for the call and then when it comes i feel stunned, unable to believe that it is finally upon me. Thirty seven years of living and working with people i despise, pretending to like them, wanting to vomit when they touch me.
Its slowly driven me mad i know, bottling up all this hate and rage, putting on a show day in and day out.
But now i've been awakened from my deep sleep, at last. Time to prepare.

" Hey Bill, have you heard the news ", my neighbour George yelled over the fence as i walked towards my crappy little toyota, " SETI are saying they've received a signal from space, its on the morning news now ".
" Really ", i yelled back as i opened the door and hopped in, fumbling to get the key in the ignition. Last thing i wanted right now was to get stuck talking to George. The way i felt now, euphoric after my awakening, i might just let him have it right here and now.
At the second attempt the car sputtered to life and i threw it in reverse and catapulted out into the street, nearly cleaning up a delivery van cruising down my street. The driver leant on his horn as he swerved around me. Any other day i would have thrown him the bird, but not today. Too much to do. I must prepare.

An hour later and i was out of the city and heading north. I figured i had about twenty four hours to get where i needed to be. 'Determined' was playing on the radio, perfect.

I'd been travelling down the old abandoned dirt road for a couple of hours now when it just came to a dead end, the middle of nowhere.
I'd only stopped twice for petrol and to take a leak the whole way here. Luckily there was plenty of light from the moon and this far from civilisation the stars glittered across the night sky like so many diamonds. I grabbed my pack from the car, took my bearings from the compass and headed off into the night.
The first part of my trek was across fairly flat ground and i made good time but soon enough i'd reached the beginnings of the line of rocky hills that had only been a vague shadow from back at the car.
Hours later i reached the summit of the largest of the hills and looked down into a shrouded basin, this is the valley, i felt it like a prickle at the base of my neck.
Slowly i made my way down the shale covered slope, there seemed to be some brightening to the sky on the horizon and it suddenly dawned on me how long it had been since i'd last slept.
At last i reached the hidden valley floor just as the sun bloomed over the ridge and started its ascension into the sky. I was standing in the cusp of two ranges of rocky hills, and before me was a circle of stone monoliths, unknown to modern man. Only some very few aboriginal elders knew of this places existence.
As i stood there in awe i grew aware of a strange sensation in the air, as if an electrical charge were flowing all about, it even seemed audible as a buzzing low pitched whine. I raised my eye's and saw, in jubilation, the craft descending. It landed without a sound, only stirring some dust and leaves with its presence.
I stood there for what seemed hours but must have only been a few minutes and then gathering my courage strode towards my legacy. My predecessor, my doppelganger, had hoped that it would arrive during his lifetime but it had fallen to me.
Ahhh what joy.
As i neared the craft it's surface glowed and a section of the hull irised open, a dark void beckoned to me.

The hull closed behind me as i moved into the interior and i stood in a large room, panels and lights surrounded me on all sides, all of unimaginably intricate and alien design.
In the centre of the room was a pool of light on the floor, whirls and eddy's flowed in, around and through the light.
Something registered in my mind and i knew what to do, i stood in the light. I nearly screamed in exultation as knowledge burst forth in my brain, a millenia of lore not of this world assailed my every thought.
I felt luminous, godlike.

George Patterson whistled to himself as he attempted to start his lawnmower for the umpteenth time. " Damn this ", he thought " come monday i am going to go and buy a new one ".
Just then, as the rickety old thing burst into voice, a shadow fell across George and his immaculate yard.
He looked skyward and was skewered by a savage bolt of blue lightning from the circular craft that had just appeared above his sunny little suburb.
George Patterson became a wisp of dust and was blown away on the breeze.
The sky grew dark as a swarm of craft descended from the vacuum of space, blotting out the sun.

Twelve thousand years ago a bright orb hurtled out of the night sky and came to rest in the cleavage of a neat little valley in the middle of this land.
After a while from within this orb emerged a man. His race had been defeated in this latest battle and he was stranded on this ball of dirt that the two antagonistic races had been fighting over for ages, but he had the technology and the will at his disposal to survive where others of a different biology could not.
Before the orb collapsed and destroyed itself he managed to send a message, a message that would not reach those it was intended for, for thousands of years. But it would reach them.
Now all he had to do was wait. A deep sleep was all that was required, a term his people used for a type of hibernation they were able to undertake, a living, breathing sleep. They could live for many lifetimes. Then as the body reached its limits he would merely slough off his skin, like a snake, the organs would regenerate and he would begin anew. But he must forget what he knew during this time, for a millenia of thoughts and knowledge would drive him insane.
And when he woke, well then his vengeance would be swift and without mercy.
For his enemy's thought themselves safe, here on this ball of dirt, they thought, light years from their tormentors. Not knowing there was a sleeper in their midst.

Ahh, come on now mojo! MORE! I would love to hear more of this exciting story Please. You should enter it in the MSDWC all you have to do is edit it and put MSDWC in the title header at the top of your post.

Originally posted by antar
You should enter it in the MSDWC all you have to do is edit it and put MSDWC in the title header at the top of your post.

I've put up my hand to help with the judging for the MSDWC so i'll have to give this contest a miss, but i'll be happy to add to the story if enough people are interested. Glad you like it.

mojo

Here's more just because antar asked. I dont mind criticism so let me have it.

The Sleep continued............

All around the world hundreds of thousands of ships swarmed. Human military aircraft tried to respond to the attack in vain and were turned to molten scrap almost as quickly as they took off from the ground, troops and artillery fared no better.
The craft systematically destroyed military bases, navy's, telecommunications and energy plants.
Meanwhile the general public hid or rioted, civilization came to a standstill, and still there was no communication from the beings within the craft. Soon the governments of the world, those that still could, pulled their forces back from aggresive interaction with this enemy from space. And waited.
The craft just hovered silently above the cities of the world, watching as the Humans turned their fear and anger on their own.

After turning George Patterson, that bothersome human neighbour i'd put up with for years into desicated atoms, the craft took me up beyond Earth's atmosphere.
A panel on one of the crystalline pillars in the control room showed the other craft that had descended from the sky at different sites around the world, destroying everything that was thrown against them.
Then the panel switched from a terrestrial view to one showing a massive craft that looked much like my own but a thousand times larger orbiting the Earth.
A thrill of excitement rushed through my body as i realised i would soon be face to face with another member of my own race after millenia stuck here on this ball of dirt with those savages.
A great bay door slid open and my craft entered as though returning to the womb.

I stepped from the craft and stood face to face at last with a member of my own race, i was not able to hold back the tear that slid down my face.
" Brother " he said, "welcome home"
" Thank you ", i replied shakily " i thought this day may never come."
" The message you sent 6000 years ago alerted us to the whereabouts of our enemy".
He touched my arm and led me away from the landing area, his touch sending a tremor through my body, and then he continued to outline what had happened all that long time ago.
" It seems the squadron you were in that was chasing the damn Humans was destroyed in the battle that caused your ship to crash land on this planet. None of the squadron was able to send out a homing beacon to alert our homeworld of where you were. That is until we received your last message. It has taken us many years to rebuild our forces after that war and to then travel to this system to rescue you and to take our final revenge on the Humans. We are now waiting on the Emperor to make a decision on what needs to be done next".
We took a turn down the corridor.
"Hah, " i exclaimed " the Humans don't even know who they are or how they came to be here. After i crashed on this place i saw them land and infiltrated their group, there was no more than a few thousand of them left. They were battle weary and disorganised and so took no notice of me within their midst. I went with them to the continent where they decided to live, and watched them and helped even as they started to rebuild their civilization. They called the place Atlantis and i soon became alarmed as it seemed that they had bought with them the means to rebuild their culture and technology. " i took a deep breath as i remembered that time " i knew that i had a chance to complete what we had not been able to. I decided then that if i was able to destroy their great power plant within the central palace that i could exterminate them all, once and for all, even though it would mean my own death."
Before i could continue we reached a great door covered in heiroglyphs and the seal of the royal family. My guide turned to me and said, " I will leave you now Brother, the Emperor wishes a private audience, but i would be honored if you will meet with me later and tell me the rest of your tale, no one of our race has ever been able to sleep as long as you have, you are our greatest hero and have restored our place amongst the Galactic peoples". With that he turned and strode back the way we had come.
I reached out and placed my hand on the door and it slid silently open.







[edit on 13/8/07 by mojo4sale]

[edit on 13/8/07 by mojo4sale]

Very cool story Mojo. Have you written any books? for real...

Originally posted by shearder
Very cool story Mojo. Have you written any books? for real...

Thanks shearder. I wish, i plan on submitting something that ive been working on for the past year to a publisher one day, if i can get enough courage up.