Alldegallo made some protest while packing his things to leave the shelter of the Sanctuary. The accusation had been that his parents were criminals, and they were influencing Alldegallo from the dead to continue their crimes. Alldegallo had been declared a dangerous influence to be cast away like the ghosts of his parents. Many of the children of the Sanctuary sought help to be cleansed of any residue of Alldegallo’s influence after Alldegallo left. Alldegallo had now become a thought criminal.
The scene of the crypt that morning had not been without other spectators. Chad had been there watching from the grave of the rich orphan kid’s parents where he helped the child see the dead. The young rich boy, his assistant, Chad, and lots of terrified ghosts watched the industrial cruelty unleashed on the defenseless graves of Alldegallo’s parents. It had been one of the new forms of oppression that were becoming a part of the new established monotheism.
The young kid spoke up. “Tis the same cruelty of Ei that did murder my parents for worshiping the goddess Teyoo with song.”
The ghost of his father replied, and the rich kid now could hear them. “Speak not so bold child of mine. In secret do silently express such things.” Chad just pretended he didn’t hear any of that.
Chad knew this had been about their forbidden conversation the day before in Alldegallo’s room. How did the High Priest find out about that? Chad wondered what would be done to him. Nobody had confronted him or the others at all about anything who were in that room following the expulsion of Alldegallo, but they all got the message loud and clear that they were in trouble and being watched. Chad and the other offenders all would for their own good eventually seek help to be cleansed of Alldegallo’s influence no matter how they really felt about the whole thing.
*
The High Priest sat back finally relieved of the dreaming nuisance that Alldegallo had become to him. Then he got the call from his own High Priest.
The voice on the communication device sounded very angry. “What for doth thou make spectacle of this exhuming and excommunication to disturb spirits of both living and dead?”
The High Priest knew he now was in trouble. “Oh do not torment me so. The old gods are put to rest from the revival that the living one did muster. Tis one message of example that is thus to be delivered clearly for all.”
The voice coming across the listening device he held to his ear still sounded angry. “Now that the living one hast come forth from the midst of the Sanctuary he doth no longer yield to our power. He has even become liberated from the power of this place. Thou has also put upon you the folly of sending the spirits of his ancestors to the dark oblivion without. That assuredly should resurrect as anger upon you through the living one that you have control of no more.”
The High Priest did not offer any defense against the reprimand from his own superiors. The problem that now soured the usually sour mood of the High Priest had been that his superiors were correct. Alldegallo still had been a problem, and he had relinquished himself of any control over that problem.
*
Alldegallo left the Sanctuary with a couple overstuffed bags, and a memory filled with scary stories about the real world outside. He had become a spectacle to behold, dragging his bags onto the sidewalk of the city called Trolluer from a loud bus pulled by five gergos. The Sanctuary mercifully left him with some precious metal pieces that looked like a lot to him at first. Now however, after a meal at a Trolluer café he started to realize how miniscule the Sanctuary severance really had been.
Alldegallo spent all day looking for places to live, which all were way more in price than he could afford. As the first day in the real world came to an end he realized that the best value of his measly severance to be found would be at the local intoxicating beverage establishment. It seems that most planets that are inhabited by intelligent beings are sure to have various products on display for sale somewhere that are made from fermented vegetable matter in order to intoxicate.
Alldegallo had actually never drank alcohol before, but he now had been excommunicated and would be free to do whatever he chose. Alldegallo sat drinking his alcohol and watching the others there doing the same thing while talking amongst themselves. He finally began to enjoy himself and really talk with other people from outside the stiff loyalty to dogma that had been the Sanctuary. Alldegallo still did not notice the shadowy figure that had been following him since he first got to Trolluer. The Doldorian that followed him just sat deep in obscuring shadow at a booth of the place where Alldegallo had chosen to get drunk.
*
The city of Trolluer existed in a semi-tropical area of the planet Doldoria. Therefore the population enjoyed mostly comfortable temperatures. It did however also mostly rain every night. Alldegallo had been in a drunken stupor at the time, and would have only vague memories of staggering about in the rain looking for a dry place to drag his bags into, and get some sleep. The figure that had been following him this whole time however, would probably never forget the amusing drunken spectacle that staggered through the rain, which had been Alldegallo’s first night spent in the real world.
*
Alldegallo eventually did find a dry place to sleep amongst his belongings, which consisted of one large and one medium size bag. A blanket from the large bag had been dug out while the medium sized bag served as a pillow.
Alldegallo’s Rude Awakening in the Gergo Barn
It had been barely sunrise when sleep got jabbed out of his eyes that opened to an angry property owner jabbing him with a gergo prod. “Thou drunken vagrant who doth devour thy reason with strong beverages will make thee no home wracked upon my estate free of mortgage or lease! Up from thy slumber and be gone.”
Alldegallo quickly rose to his feet and raised his arms in defense against an angry old Doldorian swinging a gergo prod. “Please please good sir who hath blessed me already with generous means. Please not another blow from the rod of chastisement that you hold. I am but a student of Ei excommunicated from my previous place of the Sanctuary beyond the majesty of Trolluer.”
“I think thou has thus been evicted for thou art a drunkard, and a sloth, and thus a villain, or perhaps even a wicked spirit doth possess thee!”
“Oh no sir. Thou has just come upon me where the bruises of life have left me no recourse. My life before you to master I would be thus your loyal subject, and wait upon thy needs with no waning of enthusiasm.”
For a moment the old man considered Alldegallo’s offer. Alldegallo looked over at his bags that were too far away to grab and run away with. The man seemed about to refuse Alldegallo’s plea for work so he decided to forget the bags and just run for it. He turned around to suddenly become face to face with a gigantic six-legged gergo just inches away. That ended up causing Alldegallo to flee in the direction of the old Doldorian’s gergo prod.
The old gergo trainer laughed at the confused drunk that he now found stumbling around like a leaf fluttering in a breeze that morning in his gergo barn. “‘Tis here where we train the beasts that pull our chariots. Priests of Ei did fatten you with death and the spirits of the dead. Now you hath no skills to live as a resident of reality with the living. Would that thou could acquire skills to live here in exchange for lodging away from the rains of night. I agree this contract with you now till noon’s high luminescence. Then nourishment I will provide, as our contractual agreement will establish. Do not eat of the gergo food for within it is synthesized the stuff of popalli.”
Doldorians feed the gergos a mild sedative called Popalli, which makes these mighty six-legged creatures stupid, but also cooperative and trainable. Gergos are the main form of transportation on Doldoria, and on a diet of Popalli they are as cooperative as well-trained horses for riding or pulling wagons, trailers and chariots. Gergos that run free in the wild are actually dangerous, and best kept at a safe distance.
The gergo trainer who went by the name Simeonalli worked Alldegallo like Alldegallo had never been worked before. Alldegallo fed the gergos,
cleaned hooves, and kept his hangover afflicted eyes open for lecture after lecture by Simeonalli about mounting, riding, and all the different kinds of saddles and harnesses involved with this business. There were fifteen gergos living in the barn at the time along with Alldegallo who had remained tired, hungry, hung over, and also determined all the way through till the noon lunch and then beyond.
Thus Alldegallo began enthusiastically acquiring his first real world trade in life. He setup a makeshift encampment in the gergo barn along with the gergos, and Simeonalli provided food and a meager allowance of precious metal pieces. Alldegallo remained grateful knowing the skills he had been learning were much more valuable than the precious metal pieces he received for his trouble. Occasionally, while Alldegallo worked and learned new skills in training the gergos, a mysterious figure would still show up inconspicuously to check up on Alldegallo, and observe his progress from a distance for a while.
* * *
After the Pripicans crashed their ship on the planet Caleb, Prospero interrogated the hairy humanoid prisoner who had been taken by Beatariel from the crash site wreckage. There would be no describing the depth of the torturous methods Prospero used to extract the information he wanted, but still Ferdinand remained defiantly silent about the existence of any other crewmembers.
The viscous rivalry between Nephrican and Pripican continued to express itself well into the long peaceful age that followed the time known as The Great War. The Great War actually had been more romanticized and made out to be longer to the Pripicans than it really had been from the Nephrican perspective. The war actually hyper-accelerated Nephrican technology on the not attacked planet Nephrica even though the war definitively had been lost for Nephricans where the star Poa shined.
Nephrican IQ’s, on average, were actually higher than Pripicans. Nephricans advanced their technologies faster than Pripicans since they were ambitious and competitive by nature. The Pripicans however, were a much older race, which gave them a convenient head start before the unanticipated Nephrican invasion by aliens of a star that they already had friendly radio contact with for thousands of Earth years. The war broke out between two species at basically the same technological level. Pripican culture had been virtuously agricultural based with a profound focus on sustainability and the arts. Nephrican culture, on the other hand, shot up rapidly, and became driven by selfish ambition and conceit with a disregard for sustainability. Nephrican culture had thus far successfully invented its way out of every mess they had made for themselves.
Randa watched in secret while Prospero led Ferdinand out of the interrogation room back to the room that served as his prison. Prospero held a long rod that connected to a device around Ferdinand’s neck. Ferdinand had been obedient to wherever Prospero pushed him to go, which had been assured by the tentacle Prospero kept ready on the button that would send painful electricity into Ferdinand’s neck.
This didn’t improve on Randa’s current opinion of her father at all. Prospero unhooked his rod from the device that still remained around Ferdinand’s neck. Then he secured the door, and made sure it locked behind him. Then Prospero went back to his work elsewhere.
After Prospero waddled away Randa carefully walked up to the locked door that held the prisoner. Randa had never seen another non-silicone flesh and blood being before in her life other than her father. On top of that this being looked a lot like her, except he had been covered with so much hair it qualified as fur. He looked humanoid like her with five fingers, two eyes, and only two well-balanced legs. His ears looked more pointed than her Nephrican ears like the four-legged version of the Pripican species. Unlike her however, he had been entirely covered with hair that gave her a strange feeling inside. It had been the self-conscious feeling of nakedness within her clothes that were made of her father’s skin.
She started trying to open the locked door when a voice interrupted. “You are forbidden to go in there Randa. I can not allow you to go through that door.”
Randa became startled away from the door by Beatariel’s interruption. “Beatariel me the being inside this room please let see. I never anyone else my whole life except my father you not can be seen since seen.”
“I am sorry Randa, but this being on the other side of this door is a prisoner who has sabotaged our research plans for the planet. He shall be sent to stand trail on the next cargo ship back to Holdus.”
Randa became disappointed in her friend Beatariel. “Your research plans intelligent life on this planet would have destroyed. You that this Beatariel is wrong know. If he guilty of you then he the right thing did stopping is.”
Beatariel had been just silent after this and the door remained locked. She shouted out. “You this wrong Beatariel is know.”
Still silence lingered for a while. Then one of those dysfunctional moments happened in the Beatariel program that often made Prospero think it had been defective. The door suddenly unlocked.
“You Beatariel thank. You a good friend are.
Beatariel just remained silent as Randa opened the door to the prisoner’s room.
Inside Ferdinand looked around to behold Randa walking into the room. She had been the first female humanoid form that he had ever seen in his life. There appeared to be something invitingly smooth about her porcelain gray skin. The two looked at each other in a shared moment of love at first sight.
Randa just stood next to the mostly closed door. Then Ferdinand ventured something to break the ice. “Where did you come from?” Ferdinand thought that if this had been some kind of hologram serving another of Prospero’s interrogation techniques it just might work.
“Hi. My name Randa is. I the daughter of the Nephrican you that interrogated am.”
“Well I hope you are not as ruthless an interrogator. My name is Ferdinand.”
“My father included me in his affairs not does. I always here alone with him have lived.”
“Well I must say I’ve never seen another being like myself that was more beautiful.” Ferdinand just told the truth since he didn’t know any female humanoids. This interrogation worked. Randa’s gray skin reddened after hearing Ferdinand’s complement.
The two of them relaxed into friendly conversation. Ferdinand felt it strange that after such a grueling interrogation that he successfully met with firm defiance, he now just let his guard fall for this woman now before him. Evidently Prospero had tried everything except the good cop / bad cop approach. Ferdinand told Randa about the planet Pripica where he had been from. Hearing about another world not just frozen into an uninhabitable wasteland outside a window mesmerized Randa.
Ferdinand told Randa about Pripica’s rugged mountains with rocks that he used to climb even better than the four-legged Pripicans that had evolved on that planet to scale its mountainsides. Then Ferdinand did what Pripicans are notorious for doing spontaneously at times, and he sang Randa a beautiful song about love at first sight.
“The waters of this
cerebral abyss
echo with the sound
of this love where I drown.
Through many lonely days of old
there is now one whom my love is sold.
Drowning in this agony of love
while she watches me from above.
My love only for her thereof.
So I drown now in the agony called love ….”
Randa remained spellbound by this beautiful being she found herself in the presence of. Nephricans are genetically tone deaf compared to Pripicans when it comes to singing, and Randa had never heard anything in her life more beautiful than Ferdinand’s voice. She knew that she would never be able to make such song with her own voice. Meanwhile Prospero watched them on his monitor from his laboratory after he had decided to check in on the prisoner only to find Randa in the room talking to him. He fought back the anger over Randa breaking in to see the prisoner, and just sat there wishing that she would ask the right questions.
*
Gonzal, Ceres, and Antone all w
atched the crash landing, but were afraid to fly the virtual craft to intercept it. Therefore they hiked to the crash site that had probably been over twenty miles away. They were sure that even if there were survivors they would not have reached the crash site in time to save anybody. The planet really did seem to just be a baron wasteland of frozen gasses. They all had sophisticated environment suites that made the walk easier with robotic assisted leg material.
Antone had been the one who climbed the ice formation that finally revealed the ship location at the end of their journey. They all approached the crashed spacecraft only to converge instead on something next to the spacecraft. They all surrounded the dead body of Captain Swain.
Gonzal got down on all fours near the Captain. “Take your peace in the afterlife Captain Swain. You have served life admirably.” It had been obvious that Gonzal wept, and only less obvious that everyone else did also. Pripicans, unlike Nephricans, had always embraced the theory that cannot be proved, of an immortal soul that lives on after the death of the body.
Ceres spoke up. “Ferdinand must have survived and carried the body of Captain Swain from the wreckage. The Captain obviously had been killed in the crash.”
Antone spoke. “My perception of this crash site is that Ferdinand is either captured, or perhaps he has sought our landing site.”
They just didn’t know, and the captured theory seemed more likely when they found the tracks left behind by Beatariel’s vehicle that were discovered by Ceres, which were still detectable after all that wind blowing around snowy flakes of methane.
They dug a shallow grave and buried the Captain near the wreckage of his ship according to custom. Gonzal pulled himself together and helped Antone rummaged valuables from the spacecraft wreckage that were remarkably still intact thanks to the Captain’s landing. They tried to get the distress signal working, and it seemed to be sending a signal. Cargo ships routinely did pass by the star Yat every now and then.
Then they all mourned the Captain and sang songs. A makeshift monument had been erected to mark his grave under the rock hard ice. Meanwhile nearby life in the form of silicone constructs observed with curiosity the crew’s mourning of the Captain.