IMAGINATION'S PLACE
FICTION
JOURNEY TO THE LIGHT
By; Speaker Gerald Polley
All rights reserved.
Chapter 30
Some time went by and things were quiet. Carol
came home one afternoon and Knuckle immediately took her aside.
"There's a problem!" she announced. "Somehow the children got
talking about Mr. Solidad and some of them are upset that he said those
in The Afterlife held nothing against him when he got There. I
simply don't know how to get into the conversation and speak to them
about it, or even if I should."
"Oooh!" Carol moaned, "That is a hot one! It's
something they should understand. I'd better talk to them."
She went into the playroom, went to her usual chair
and sat down. Instantly the children were gathered around
her. "Well!" Carol began, "I hear we're having quite a
conversation today and some people are upset because others have an
opinion about something they don't share. So let's talk about
it. You were talking about Mr. Solidad. Can somebody tell
me who he was?"
One of the girls piped right up. "I can!
He was a Marine Corps officer, highly decorated. Everyone thought
he was a really great man, could not understand why he went so
wrong, why he said it was justified."
"Can anyone tell me," Carol asked, "what happened
that made him so upset?"
"Yes!" one of the boys snapped. "His son saw some
bad people do something, members of some kind of gang. He
testified against them in court and they were convicted. He was
upset because the criminals plea bargained and the most any one of them
got was fifteen years."
"Right!" Carol praised. "What happened next?"
Little Tin raised his hand. "Yes?" Carol asked.
"The gang leader was upset," he answered, "because
Mr. Solidad's son snitched on him and put him in prison. He sent a
message from the prison to his friends to kill Mr. Solidad's son.
They did, not just his son but his whole family including his mother
who was visiting that day. Mr. Solidad became very upset."
"Right!" Carol put in. "However, snitch is a
bad people's word. Good people do not use it. It signifies that a
person that testifies against people doing bad things is doing
something improper, which is not so. Good people do not use the
word snitch. Nor, do the children of good people. They
always emphasize that it is the person's duty and responsibility to
testify against those doing wrong."
"Yes, ma'am!" Little Tin answered. "My
apologies for using that word. I will not in the future."
"Now," Carol continued, "I think I'll explain what
happened after that. Mr. Solidad gathered some people, very efficient
soldiers that performed very special missions during the wars that also
had grievances with the gangs. They went into the prisons where
the gang leader was held and killed all the gang members, not just of
the gang that had killed Mr. Solidad's family, but of any gang like
them. There were over 2,000 in that facility, and they did not
stop there. Before they were finally convinced to surrender they
raided sixteen prisons. Some countries would not even reveal how
many people they killed in their facilities. It was a lot!
As a condition of their surrender they were required to spend the rest
of their lives on a military base called Guantanamo in a place called
Cuba. Many people were upset about that. But the leaders of every
nation where they had acted insisted upon it. They couldn't
possibly be held at any regular prison. When Mr. Solidad finally
died he told the world that he had been welcomed to The Afterlife and
no one had made any grievance against him. All felt his actions
were justified, that those he killed had no souls left and were, in
reality already dead. This upset many people who thought Mr.
Solidad would be destroyed forever.
Now, I fully understand how some may think that what he
did was wrong. But we mustn't criticize those who do not.
These were very terrible times. There were people that just
didn't value life, had no respect for other people, whatsoever, and
killed without rhyme or reason, anyone that got in their way, anyone
that resisted them they killed them. If it was profitable to them
they killed. Sometimes the law can't deal with such people, and those
who have been hurt by them must act. None will argue that it
isn't right, that no one should have to do such things. There
should be other ways. But sometimes when you're dealing with
people that have no respect for anyone or, anything, all that you can
do is make sure that they go to a place where they cannot hurt people
again, when the system just doesn't work. It's a very hard thing, but
sometimes there has to be those that will do very hard things for the
sake of everyone. We can never call it right, there should've
been other ways. But neither can we condemn those that sometimes
have to do hard things. He couldn't, no matter how much people
didn't like it, he could not tell them that someone that avenged his
children, that avenged other people's children, those who had no
respect for anyone or anything, were the enemies of all.
Now gang members aren't allowed to communicate with each
other in prison, they're not allowed to send messages outside of the
prisons. People complain about it. But now there are very
few innocent people that are murdered because they stand up to the
gangs. This is Mr. Solidad's legacy. And now there are no
plea bargains. The law has set rules as to what a person can
receive if they cooperate. If a person is under threat of death the
least they can be offered is life imprisonment for cooperation.
It's a totally different world now from the one Mr. Solidad lived
in."
"And a lot of people don't like it!" Carol's oldest
snapped.
"Absolutely right!" Carol agreed. "But a lot
of people do. Now, I gotta go feed your brother."
The children all grinned. Carol performed her
motherly duties which were her absolute joy and was about to return to
her telescopes when a messenger from the bridge came in.
"Ma'am," he snapped, "the captain would like to see
you! We've got a problem!"
Carol didn't like the way the young man said that.
"I'm coming!" she snapped.
In a few minutes she was on the bridge. The captain was
holding a piece of paper. "I can't explain this," he moaned "I
don't believe it! I need your advice on what action to take."
Carol took the paper he was holding out and read
it. "From Operations Command Earth," it began, "Commanding
General Broadstreet. Be advised. Have decided alien too
dangerous to deal with, and that Martian plants propose a threat to our
claims on Mars. Therefore I am ordering you to seize the alien
spaceship, kill its commander, and destroy all the plants. Then
proceed to exterminate all plants on the surface. To assist you I
am sending a sleeper ship with a contingent of Air, Land, And
Sea. As soon as they are recovered from the transport I want you
to begin operations. We must act quickly before public sympathy
for those who threaten us can be risen. The first we want the
public to hear of it is when they're told the plants and this alien
attacked us and we had to act accordingly. This communique is
classified, not to be released to the public. Carry out your
orders as quickly as possible. Commanding General, Earth Forces."
Carol looked at the paper in total
bewilderment. "They're nuts!" she screamed, "They're insane! I
doubt if we had a whole division of troops we could take the asteroid
ship. And I'm NOT going to attack the plants! They've done
absolutely nothing! This is insanity!"
"My thoughts exactly!" the ship's commander snapped.
"Of course there's no way we're going to carry out these orders.
My personnel would absolutely refuse them! But we've already
picked up the sleeper ship. This message must've been timed so
we'd receive it just before it would be arriving. What do we do
about them?"
"How long before they get here?" Carol asked.
"About eight hours," the commander answered.
"That big a ship would have to dock with us.
They could only come on board a few at a time," Carol snapped.
"Let's make sure they have an appropriate welcome when they get here,
disarm them, put them in one of the big storage bays. Then I'll
have a talk with them. This does not sound like the kind of
mission these troops would embark upon."
"No ma'am, it doesn't!" the ship's commander
agreed.
Carol got busy. Everyone on the ship knew something
was going on. She gathered all her department heads and asked what she
should do. "I think we should get ahold of somebody on Earth,"
they suggested. "Tell them what this idiot wants us to do and
tell them that we're not gonna do it!"
"Agreed!" Carol snapped. "I'm going to get
ahold of Twenty Ponies. I think he's the best one. Now if
you'll excuse me, I'm going to talk to the asteroid's commander and
warn him of these people's intent."
Everyone agreed. A few minutes later Carol sat
in silence waiting for the asteroid's commander to reply. "This
person," he finally managed, "is obviously deranged but appears to have
those that will follow him, an extremely dangerous individual!"
"Agreed!" Carol answered. "Didn't you tell me
that you could give us instant communications with Earth in
emergencies?"
"Yes!" the asteroid's commander snapped. "I would
consider this an emergency. I can patch you into any of their
communications systems."
"Good!" Carol praised. "Here's a phone
number. See if you can get through to an individual named Twenty
Ponies. When you're ready let me know. I'll talk to him."
"Stand by!" her friend answered. "It won't
take long."
Carol waited. After a few minutes Twenty
Ponies' voice came on the speaker. "Carol?" he managed. "Was that
really the commander of the alien ship that was just speaking to me?"
"It certainly was!" Carol assured. "We've got
a problem." She explained what was going on. When she was done
there was a deep silence on the other end of the connection. Finally
Twenty Ponies managed "I see! Yes! I've heard of this
general. There have been problems with him before. I
believe he's a member of the Earth For Earth Society. I'll get to
work on this immediately! Don't be surprised if you get messages
from some very important people. Son of a bitch! God damned
son of a bitch!"
The connection went blank. Carol thanked her
friend on the asteroid. "My thanks to you!" he praised.
"Though I would've known if these individuals were approaching me with
hostile intent, having that information before hand would enable me to
prepare my defenses, the greatest being I simply wouldn't let them on
the ship!"
Carol smiled. Now all she could do was
wait. She imagined very quickly things were going to get very hot
on Earth! Things were going to get VERY hot there, especially for
a general and his staff! It was going to get VERY hot for
them!