The Watch On Venus
(Part Eight)
Back on what used to be the
Mothership,
I don't know whether to laugh
or cry.
That the Song would have failed,
there is no doubt,
But with a whole planet at stake,
still I felt
selfishly undermined when the
Guardians stepped in.
Pride. What a weakness it is.
If I had Sung,
I would have effectively sealed
the Venusians' fate.
We had no relationship with these
people, and certainly
no time in which to build one.
When I think about it,
I was about to play Prima Donna
to an audience which
had only just stopped trying
to kill us.
--------------------------------------------------------
Scoutships are landing all
over the South, distributing
communicators, allocating living
quarters, answering
the inevitable questions about
pets, and drawing up timetables.
The Iesu in the North are
doing all that for us. We've sent
a few co-ordinators in to keep
our side of things
in one piece, but they're doing
the lion's share.
---------------------------------------------------------
Our engineers are beaming,
they have new toys, and they'll
be using them in a few short
years. The Guardians reckon
It'll be no more than ten years
before a very large piece
of what used to be the Earthers'
home planet impacts on Venus.
Apparently, the Guardians
have a new system for us. They're
seeding planets for the Eathers
and the Venusians, who are
both more fussy about what sustains
their lives
than the Martians, or us Greys.
It appears we're to be next
door neighbours to the Sirians,
who have been similarly relocated.
It's the next step up,
the Guardians say, a neighbourhood
where nobody needs to
watch, because we've all been
there before...
-----------------------------------------------------------
I'll never know why that old
Earther called the Guardians,
all that time ago, or even how
he did it. Given that it took
them hundreds of years to get
here, the timing was nothing short
of miraculous! I'm tempted to
think some greater power was at work here...
------------------------------------------------------------
I feel better now, much better.
I just had a small chat with
a Guardian, asking him why they
intervened, why they spoiled
what was to be my Moment of Glory,
and just how the hell they
managed to get both sides to
work together! He told me:
"Simple. We banged their
stupid heads together. They weren't
about to listen to reason, so
we flexed our muscles, told them
either they do what we say, or
we beat them up!"
And he grinned a grin. A beautiful
grin.
(C) Copyright 1999
DRAGGIE
All Rights Reserved
