<USS Avalon> Day Five: Instant Revolution...Just Add Dissenters

Day Five: Instant Revolution...Just Add Dissenters

Dodge Thomas

 

Roiling blackness. Distant night-stars of plasmoid terror. Vast spaces 
immeasurable. False concepts of life and death. The living dark came, a 
loathsomeness of long licorice tentacles and soul draining fangs.

It groped for him in the emptiness, reaching, twisting. He ran faster and 
faster on a sea of gurgling tar, an oil-sky overhead. The ocean grabbed and 
tugged at him. Down he looked and saw in horror that it wasn?t a sea at all. He 
was running on the back of an amorphous amoeba that humped and shook and 
laughed.

He tried to jump, but now fat greasy pseudopods held him firm. All about the 
nightmare, shapes flowed up and around. In the middle of each, the faces of 
things not human chuckled and puckered at him.

Black fronds clutched tighter, enveloping, suffocating. He tried to scream and 
one of the inky ropes dove down his throat, choking him. They crawled over his 
eyes, under his ears, into his nostrils. Cilia brushed and tickled obscenely. 

He couldn?t breath. He coughed, gagged. The thing in his throat was curling 
into his belly, swelling, filling him with gravid blackness?

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?The interior of the cell was dark, too. But it was a comforting, familiar, 
prosaic dark--not sticky, not malevolent, not full of nightmare shapes. Despite 
the cold, Dodge was sweating profusely and heaving like he?d just finished a 
marathon.

He sat up in the dark and nearly broke his nose.

?Whaddija do that for?? The surprised voice of Carson Fuller rang out clear.

?What happened? Where are we??..What on earth were you doing??

?The Admirals saw fit to have us imprisoned. Apparently, from what I?ve 
overheard the guards say, we represent a different deity which only wishes to 
destroy the Vann.

?Dodge? You have awoken??

?Rhonth? Is that you??

?Yes. I am afraid that several of my sympathizers and I have also been 
imprisoned. You see, some of us do not trust these so-called gods. To even 
speak of such distrust is treason. ?

Dodge squinted, trying to see faces among the shadowy shapes moving in the 
darkness. There had to be sixty or seventy in their single cell. ?Why don?t you 
believe??


?Any god who must enforce his reality through absolute power and fear tactics 
is either insecure, cruel, or false. Any of which I cannot tolerate. For months 
now, nay, since their first miraculous appearance, there have been those of us 
who did not believe. My father, for one. May his soul bask in the warmth of 
heaven forever.?

?They killed him??

?It was an accident.? Rhonth spat. ?That is what they say.?

?So what do you propose to do?? Dodge inquired.

?We wait for the time of redemption.?


?What??


A familiar female voice answered. ?Our furry friends here have been building a 
resistance force for some time now. Just as our arrival signified confirmation 
of the so-called power of the gods to the other Vann, it signifies a good omen 
to the resistors. Either way, we?ve provided fuel to the fires of both.?


?There are many who don?t believe, as I said earlier, and many more who are 
simply behaving appropriately out of fear for their lives and those of their 
mates and cubs. It would not do a man good to speak his mind and find his 
family laid open on stakes with their hearts torn out, now would it??


?I can see your point. So what are we waiting for??

?My squire, Bax-Der-Faund. She will arrive at any minute now to aid in our 
escape.?

?She?? 

?Yes. Do not the women of your species fight alongside the men??


?Well, yes, but it?s not typical for a race as?well??

?Primitive??

?Not exactly, but well, I was going to say unadvanced?but anyway, it?s not 
typical for a race in your stage of development to have women playing such 
important rolls. That was how it was with my species, much to their detriment.?

?Women play a vital part in our military. They cooperate more readily, are not 
as territorial as the males are, and their rage has no comparison. Given the 
choice between twenty men in peak condition and ten women in a bad mood, I 
would pick the women. It is a simple choice.?

Leila Criswell snorted appreciatively. ?I think I hear something.?

There was a yelp in the darkness, followed by the heavy thud of a body hitting 
the floor. Several seconds later, the grinning face of Bax-Der-Faund appeared, 
a bloody knife clutched in her hands. ?Are we ready to go then, brothers and 
sisters.?


?Bax! We never doubted your abilities, but you took far less time than we could 
ever have hoped for.?


She smiled again, showing sharp canine teeth. ?My pleasure. Let us go now!?

?Where are we going?? Dodge asked as the lock to their cell was unceremoniously 
shattered.

?To our stronghold, the castle Vestooth. It is a distance from the castle 
Vangard, and we should be safe there.?

?Sympathizers to our resistance have been gathering for weeks now.? 
Bax-Der-Faund readily volunteered. The battle will be glorious!?


?Wait a minute,? Dodge had lost a bit of momentum with her last comment. 
?Battle??

?Ah yes! We shall soak our hands in the life-blood of our enemies! Our swords 
shall be stained to the hilt with red. Their entrails shall adorn our mantles 
for a day and a month!? Rhonth rattled on enthusiastically for several minutes, 
describing various body parts and their gruesome participation in the victory 
celebration. There was, of course, a catch. Should they be defeated, the enemy 
would partake in the same grotesque celebration?as would their innards.



Personally, Dodge liked his insides on the inside.



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