Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11
Absolute darkness made room for ominous twilight. It was the most light Svoex would get for the next 30 hours, but it didn’t bother him much. He could barely remember a time when it hadn’t been this way, and his body had gotten used to it. In fact, more light would have likely been harmful to his species; they had emerged from the oceans after all. The bright, piercing sunlight back on Earth was less than ideal.
It filled him with sadness when he thought about Earth. Too many Cephs were still stuck there, suffering under the human rule. But the planet was too small to house all of them, and the humans wouldn’t let them resettle. As much as they had needed to push the royal Cephs out and away from their colonies, they still wanted to keep an eye on the remaining population. Svoex knew, that the humans feared that one day, the Cephs would rise up against them.
This scenario was incredibly unlikely, at least in the current political climate. Most of the royal Cephs didn’t want any violent conflicts with the humans. They urged for peace and understanding whenever the discussion came up. Only a minority advocated for war against the humans. To eliminate them, once and for all. Take back Earth as the Ceph home planet, take over the colonies. Live the life Cephs were meant to live.
Svoex was one of those, who wanted change. Badly. He was so sick of how humans treated Cephs and even sicker of how those who were supposed the leaders didn’t move an arm to help the abused. Something needed to change. Soon.
Slowly, the planet’s inhabitants were waking up and began to leave their homes. Several passed Svoex and greeted him. None of them treated him as if he was something special – they were all royalty here. It was something Svoex really missed. The admiration from his kind. He was genetically superior to 98% of the Cephs, but on a planet with only the 2%, he was nothing special. Even worse, with his young age of 301, he was even looked down upon by some. They would never openly say it, but in secret, they laughed about his lack of life experience. @suesa
But he’d prove them wrong. He’d prove them so wrong.
His colors changed to a dark violet when he couldn’t hide his malicious anticipation any longer. It brought him some weird looks, but nobody questioned it. They knew he was an odd one and didn’t care enough to be worried. Their mistake.
Svoex reached his destination, a modest looking building among houses that tried to outperform each other in their extravagance. The Ceph he was about to visit never cared much about the pomp so many of the older ones regarded so highly. He was even younger than Svoex, barely over 200 years. A whole different generation.
He reached out with one arm and rang the doorbell. It didn’t take long for the owner to open.
”Svoex! Good to see you!”, he said, flashing a warm orange.
”I can only say the same, Pekok”, Svoex replied and adjusted his color to Pekok’s. He didn’t want to give off the wrong impression. After all, Pekok was his ally.
”Come in, come in, the others are already here.” Pekok moved to the side to let Svoex enter. Together, they entered a room where already four other Cephs, three females, and one male, were already sitting there. ”We were only waiting for you”, Pekok pointed out.
Svoex was aware of that. He had intended to be late. Being the last one saved him the indignity of waiting, and he was way too important to wait for anyone, and they knew that. He was the oldest, he was the one who had brought all of them together. He was the one who’d lead them into the new, brighter future.
”My friends”, he greeted them. ”I am glad to see you all here. It’s our last meeting before the big plan will be set into action later today. Is everything prepared?” They nodded eagerly.
”I brought the humans”, Pekok said, proud to have some importance. ”They are in the room next door, waiting for your instructions.”
”Very good, I will talk to them immediately.”
Svoex didn’t like that they had to use humans to complete their plan, but there hadn’t been any other suitable solution. Over several years, Pekok had persuaded military personnel to join their cause. It had been a lot easier than Svoex had first expected. Humans were an incredibly violent species.
The humans waiting for him in the room were all dressed in uniforms, the markings sewn onto them indicated a high rank. Perfect. Pekok hadn’t promised too much.
”The warship and the escape pods are ready?” He asked, after greeting them.
”Just waiting for your signal, Sir!” One of them replied and saluted, as humans did it to show respect. It looked ridiculous.
”Then we will begin the operation in exactly 5 hours. Be prepared.”
Five hours went by fast. Svoex discussed the last details with his small group of rebels, made some last preparations and then headed for the agreed upon meetup place. The escape pods were neatly lined up, just waiting for their precious cargo. One by one, the Cephs boarded the metal capsules.
Right after Svoex’ own capsule was closed, he pressed the button to trigger the takeoff.
Nothing happened.
He pressed it again, then looked out of the small window. None of the other capsules moved either. And up above in the sky, he could see the human warships enter orbit.
”FUCK!” He shouted and kept hitting the button as if that would fix the problem. It didn’t. the humans had manipulated their escape pods. These treacherous …
Pekok’s escape pod left the ground and headed for the sky, as Svoex followed him with his eyes. For a short moment, he saw Pekok’s color change through the window. It wasn’t fear or confusion he displayed. It was satisfaction.
The bombs began to rain down on the planet’s surface.
When Pekok boarded the warship that had been waiting for him, he could barely contain his excitement. It had worked! He had successfully tricked Svoex and the others into believing he was on their side when in reality, he had been on his own side all along. Why would he want to be subordinate to Svoex for the rest of his life? If he was to eradicate the Ceph royalty, he had wanted to eradicate them all to be the only one left. And that had been a huge success.
A human approached him.
”Sir, did everything go according to how you wanted it?” He asked.
”Absolutely”, Pekok said. ”You did well, Felix.”
Just catching up on this... Why does everyone have a hidden agenda when it comes to power or controlling others? I swear I didn't this coming. So Felix works for Pekok? The whole 'he's been keeping me safe' was just plain talk? facepalm, sigh.
Note: these events happened about 300 years before Nora-Ceph meets Pekok... And Felix.
Damn. Had to reread :)
Right, then; that settles it. I don't feel sorry for those guys anymore. :)
D: Svoex! nooo!
I've deliberately skipped the 3 episodes so I can read them all at once.
It makes me think how would our personality form if we would be able to live 300-500 years and experience all technological and sociological changes. Would there be any sociological changes or those are measured by our lifespan...
The idea of high-quality monarchs.
I don't know what was the situation in your country, but in my nation(s) only the first generation was worth something. After that, the decay was exponentional.
Human royals generally became too inbred too fast. But the thing about Ceph royalty is that their genome is extremely stable and "clean", which makes them royalty. Not birth but genetics.
But the implications of living this long are truly interesting. What does it do to a mind?
The way humans are today, in interaction with some alien intelligent species, I am sure those "Cephs" would see us as violent as we are! So low aware! Sadly.
I like, somehow, Svoex, he has consciousness of compassion that is shown in just one sentence, even if he cannot express that feeling because of necessity of following what needs to be done...at least that seed of compassion will grow, I hope :) and who knows what kind of turn over can happen. All depends on writer. Excited to find out.
Namaste.
My dear friend @suese 😃 ,Writing the story is wonderful, we humans disagree with our dealings, but I like Svoex way of trying to change , good luck my dear 👍
A scene from the past, you finally made one without a nora-ceph, I liked it very much ;)
Even I get sick of my characters at one point
Moon meetings with the sun