Into The Great Darkness

George H. Y. Watson

Into The Great Darkness

ISBN: 9780463906248

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Table of contents

THE JELLIES

Birth Of Empire.

The Alien Smile.

Breakout.

The Pirates.

The Seeding.

All The Condemned.

THE MOON RINGS

LETTERS FROM THE GREAT DARKNESS

THE OWC’s RETURN

Thank You.

About The Author.

Other Books By The Author.

From AgriPrime 1, the home planet of the Agri race the twelve Honourable Growers ran every aspect of their citizen’s lives throughout the immense Agri Empire.

The Empire had developed rapidly for close to a thousand years, successfully driven by the twin beliefs;

One, that long ago in ancient times ‘The Great Maker’ had decreed that the Agris had the supreme right to expand throughout the Great Darkness of the galaxy!

Two, that they were the only intelligent beings in existence. True, it could not be denied that lesser life forms existed but they were no more than ‘Infestations’ that at most hindered the seeding of the farming worlds that produced food to feed the clamouring trillions of the Agri Empire.

Eventually, far out near the rim the Agris discovered a blue planet, only marginally useful for planting because it was mostly covered in water. Nevertheless, destroying the primitive culture on the world during seeding would make the Agris question their very existence and long held convictions...

THE JELLIES

Birth Of Empire.

Agri Home Planet.

The PrimeAgri hovered over the upraised dais, looked over the assembled courtiers and inwardly sighed. He stole a glimpse through the palace windows to see the light brown disk of the sister planet, AgriMinor, hanging above the substantial palace walls that in turn kept the teeming populace at bay. And that was the seemingly insoluble problem to be looked at urgently, today. The very populace that fed voraciously and bred continuously because they believed it was their divine duty from The Great Maker.

Inwardly PrimeAgri was despondent. What could be done? Nothing! Nothing until there was yet another feeding frenzy where the people lost all reason and turned to cannibalism until the survivors were sated and the madness abated. This had happened many times in the dark history of the Agri race and PrimeAgri knew it was the reason for the poor technological and cultural progress of their society. Indeed the Agris were only one or two feeding frenzies from total extinction.

PrimeAgri had just received a population report from Quizar III, a brilliant scientist but a crude unkempt individual whom the majority of the courtiers disliked with a vengeance because he was nothing but an upstart and not even from a reputable nest! Indeed several times PrimeAgri had to stop assassination plots to end him.

But reading the brilliantly researched report that stated the obvious, concluding that population density had reached the point where crop yields could not keep up etc. Soon there would be starvation with the accompanying food riots and feeding frenzies that had on some occasions in Agri history, turned to cannibalism, etc.

‘What can we do before we relapse yet again into savagery?’ he thought. What Indeed?

To find a solution The PrimeAgri closed his eyestrip to inputs and silently prayed to The Great Maker for guidance. In the darkness of his brain stimulated by his twin nervous systems the thought came unbidden, ‘Open your eyestrip and look.’

The Agri race were truly fortunate in their physical makeup; they had an eyestrip that encircled their head-globe that could receive from the Never Ending Universe every type of electromagnetic radiation possible, from below basic radio waves to the barely discernible radiation sectors after gamma rays.

PrimeAgri began to rotate his head globe and hence his eyestrip to sample all wavelengths while also focusing on the assembled Agris below who noticed and became quiet. Quickly he located the ones who were timewasters, who would not present any hope but just waffle on, trying to sound important to elevate their courtly position.

Next he came to those who actually believed they had a solution to the population problem. There were only a genuine few.

There was Brindle IV, a dark soul who the PrimeAgri sensed, if allowed, would create and release capture squads and their infernal machinery to collect and deliberately kill millions of Agris in a part-genocide that the PrimeAgri could see would only serve to destroy the noble Agri soul forever. PrimeAgri made a mental note to have him ended.

Next was Kinta V with his prototype craft that he boasted could travel sunwards to the very planet that could be seen through the palace windows, Agri Minor. But what could be the use of that? The planet was known from telescopic observations to possess some free water and local plant life but had a low pressure atmosphere that Agris could not live in comfortably.

As if sensing the PrimeAgri’s scrutiny, Kinta V rushed to the front of the crowd and sprayed his fronds in the age old gesture that said he wished to address the PrimeAgri direct.

Given permission, Kinta V spoke excitedly and in an unfortunately high squeaking voice, much to the amusement of everyone present, My lord, I am hoping that my prototype vehicle could carry four Agri to Agri Minor and back.

But to what purpose? the PrimeAgri asked, tiredly.

To sow crops my Lord!

The assembled crowd roared with laughter and shouted many sarcastic insults at the stricken Kinta V.

The PrimeAgri also thought that the outlandish concept was absurd and could already see several of those assembled were amused and were trying to contain their vindictive contempt for someone they regarded as a fool.

PrimeAgri tried to be as accommodating as possible and addressed Kinta V with respect that helped to quieten the baying crowd, Everyone knows that our native plants require a relatively high atmospheric pressure to grow. Jeda II, our head crop analyst has many times proved this.

Kinta V squeaked loudly, And that brings me back to Jeda….He has developed some hybrid crop strains that he would like to try out on our sister planet.

Kinta V could not continue as the whole assembly erupted into peals of derision and laughter at the ridiculousness of yet another stupid idea!

PrimeAgri watched as Kinta V desperately turned and beckoned someone from the rear of the crowd. At the same time the malevolent Brindle IV and his acolytes laughed loudest amongst each other.

Kinta V had beckoned a shy Jeda II who was smaller than an average adult and struggled to squeeze his way through the throng holding a large package in front of his eyestrip. As he finally got to the front, hoping to explain, a dark tentacle, no one ever found out whose, whipped out and caused him to cartwheel in the air.

The result was better than Brindle IV expected! The little fool let go of the sack and its contents exploded into the room, filling the air with purple plant spores.

PrimeAgri watched as spores settled upon everyone, himself included, to be automatically absorbed through the gelatinous head globe of the Agri body. Later the spores would be expelled naturally as waste by reverse osmosis, so it was not really that much of an inconvenience; however the room was in an uproar, the laughter dying quickly away to be replaced by outrage and annoyance beneath the spores that continued to rain down.

Kinta V slowly floated away from the crowd towards the door, beaten. PrimeAgri could sense in him his genuine despair about what he considered a major technological advance being so frivolously discarded by self regarding fools like Brindle IV.

With that perception rage exploded within the PrimeAgri and he rose and lashed out with his stingers, mortally wounding two in Brindle’s entourage. The room went quiet as the two dead Agri began to quickly degenerate.

As if the idea came from The Great Maker himself, PrimeAgri beckoned to Kinta V, Tomorrow you have my permission to fly your vessel to and land upon AgriMinor and you will take Brindle IV with you!

Kinta V trembled momentarily before regaining his composure, his spirits soaring, Yes my lord! I can also assure you of Lord Brindle’s safety!

PrimeAgri laughed darkly, No such assurance is asked for.

The gelatinous skin of the bully that was Lord Brindle went visibly green with fear, a fact that was not lost on Kinta V, Why, Lord Brindle you may sit behind Jeda II and I as an assistant crop seeder!

The following day PrimeAgri was not at the launching of the prototype ‘spaceship’, as Kinta V liked to call the machine, because other more important matters had to be attended to. There had been a food riot in one of the outlying districts and the Police Marshalls had found evidence of cannibalism. At the same time in the outskirts of the capital, starvation was once again abroad.

The cold tendrils of despair once again gripped the PrimeAgri because like the PrimeAgris before him, he could not see a solution. The basis of the Agri culture was a belief that long ago the race had been given the supreme right to feed and reproduce without impedance by The Great Maker himself when he first walked upon Agri Prime in ancient times. This was the problem and could not be changed.

If only we had more room or food, things would not be so bad, thought PrimeAgri before spiralling down into the familiar dark place of hopelessness once again. He closed his eyestrip down until no radiation from the Everlasting Universe could reach him. Time became meaningless because there was no solution to lighten the predicament the Agris found themselves in, only starvation and racial death.

Darkness, then grayness then shadows. Someone was shaking his fronds to bring him back to consciousness. PrimeAgri groaned.

It was the Chamberlain and he was shouting, PrimeAgri, Kinta V’s spaceship is back!

PrimeAgri tried to retreat into darkness again, but received further shakes, some quite violent and mumbled a despairing It’s hopeless.

No PrimeAgri, it is not! Come with me, it might be good news for a change!

He allowed himself to come back from the depths and to full awareness during his journey to Kinta V’s facility in the Official State Ground car. He dimly noticed that a sizeable portion of land had been cleared of crops to allow for the glide-in of the spaceship.

When PrimeAgri exited the ground car he was greeted by the sight of a pock-marked and no longer shining spaceship that would never fly again. The beautiful pointed body with its graceful wings was burnt into ugliness and hatches hung open where they had been urgently flung after the craft had halted. It looked like the enterprise had failed until he saw a small group of Agris joyously colliding with each other as they removed their pressure suits.

As if sensing the PrimeAgri, a blackened and slightly singed Kinta V turned and came to splay his tentacles, My Lord.

Not expecting much. PrimeAgri said, Tell me.

We skimmed the lower atmosphere of AgriMinor without landing whilst Jeda II and the late Lord Brindle began to load the prototype seeds into the ejector.

The late Lord Brindle?

Kinta V was clearly uncomfortable and anxious that he be blamed for what was nearly a genuine accident, Due to the, ah, ‘accident’ in your throne room where the seeds were released into the air, I had Jeda II remove several latent seeds that were still in our skins as we journeyed to AgriMinor. He must have missed several of Lord Brindle’s…

And?

Due to the low pressure atmosphere and sunlight the prototype seeds began rapid growth….

PrimeAgri looked into Kinta V’s mind and saw the event. Lord Brindle had died a painful and tortuous death as the