Free Interzeit: A Space Opera by Samuel Eddy Page B

again, yet all were in denial about this event. That it could be undone, that its undoing was not only possible, but inevitable. The truth is that it couldn’t and Nol now realized it should not be undone. Humanity could never return to the garden, they would die a thousand deaths as cattle before this could happen.
    When one mentions humanity it’s a slippery concept. A general thing, it is usually applied to everyone, and is therefore of limited use in a positive sense.
    It was a bludgeon, a negative, humanity was a threat. You were human until your humanity was withdrawn from you by humanity.
    Nol for these reasons withdrew humanity from all humanity, ostracizing everyone but in practical terms this meant only he was ostracized.
    After the first few appearances a pattern emerged to Nol, albeit a small one. There was one lone Kuipterra n at every event, watching and observing. There were others of Kuipterra n origin certainly, and indeed around capital due to their hegemony , they were quite abundant. These were an easy tell from a true Kuipterra n however, these executor Kuipterra ns were something else.
    Having spent enough time on Earth, they were heavier , more like the average person. Their skin was often artificially darkened and ha d more color. Most obviously however , was how they dressed and their general way of carrying themselves. In this sense they were terrestrials, cultural immigrants into Earth, who embraced the styles of dress and attitudes with enthusiasm.
    This one person, this lone true Kuipterra n , was different then them by far, and it made Nol realize how little exposure he had had to them. He was tall and thin. The skin on him was so translucent that exposure to the sun turned it bright purple. He wore some kind of outfit that resembled a bulk y black and white space suit . It covered him completely aside from his head .
    He was never a speaker at any event despite this indication of high status, never cried, never did anything, that is … except observe. At large crowd events he was there, hidden amongst the masses. At cloistered events if he was not present, then Nol always saw him nearby. Hanging around the outskirts, watching from a distance, sometimes lounging right outside the private chamber Nol was testifying at.
    This became so frequent and reliable that Nol suspected just as he suspected he was truly dead, that the Kuipterra n was a figment of his imagination, a sure sign of his madness and slow coping with death.
    One day he expected him to appear in his room and whisper softly,
    “ Its time to stop playing, and accept the truth. You are dead, stopped holding on and die.” With those releasing words Nol would vanish into darkness instantly. A vanquished spirit, snubbed just the same as flicking a light switch.
    Nol sat in a wheelchair beside several other lamed survivors one day. It started as the typical shpeal from the speakers. Momentum had been building towards an official Earth army made up of w ar m echs. The popularity of this idea was great, but there was much conflict over it at meetings and behind closed doors. Nol knew of th is, because as a designated pawn , he had been to many of both .
    The struggle was not so much over if there should be a Mech army built to defend Earth, but rather to whose authority should they answer to, and how should it be financed. This cut right into a deeper, yet still unsettled matter of who officially controlled the cabinet.
    Slowly two distinct groups were convalescing against one another. The non-terrestrials ( whose opposition had slowly bega n to work in language like Alien, and Spacers to describe them) were in favor of a temporary suspension of the games, with the cabinet being retained by the current Executor, Maxelus Calatian the Third.
    This would give time to stabilize things as everyone focused on securing the Earth, instead of competing with each other. Or so the cabinet ministers promised.
    The other group was a coalition of Earth