The Ultimate Ritual
Page 2Aliath did not see nor hear anything. He was in nothingness.
He hesitated but then he decided to take another step and stepped out of the portal.
He was back in the temple ruins.
His immediate conception was that nothing had changed. It made him feel strange and disappointed, but as he moved he noticed that there was a big layer of dust covering every surface.
Aliath started to go down the hill of the ruins and everything just seemed to be the same. Empty as usual, no people, the trees the same… Suddenly he realized that there was no wind . It had always been windy here since the beginning of time.
While walking on the path, he saw a red object. When he came close, it lighted up.
It stood up and Aliath prepared himself for defence.
Then it spoke with strange English, “Master Aliath, you are welcome.”
“Who are you?” asked Aliath.
“I am a robot here to serve you. ID Number 7263497, X series, from prototype 38Z - but you can call me any name you whish.”
Aliath looked at it; he had never in his whole existence seen something similar. Then he asked it, “Is this the future?”
“Yes sir, for you could be said to be so but not for me.”
“What year is it?” asked Aliath.
“151, Sir.”
“151, but that is much less than before. Was the counting restarted?”
“Yes, Sir. We started new counting when Earth exploded.”
“What! Is this not Earth then?”
“No, Sir. This is a small peace of Earth that secretly got salvaged in order for you to return. We are inside a secret space-shuttle.”
Aliath thought about what was said before asking, “Why is it a secret?”
“It is secret because it belongs to a rebel force. Let me fully explain to you Master Aliath. You are the leader of this secret rebel force and I have been waiting here for your return for a little more than 200 years. The purpose of the rebel force is to unite mankind again before it dies out totally. The problem is that there exist more than 50 political parties of man which has brought war since thousands of years. The current scene is that there exists 25,000 different space ships, more than 2,000 space platforms, a couple of trillions of robots with their 43 robot civilizations across 13 planets, but only less than 800 humans are remaining; spread over the whole galaxy. This ship is camouflaged. Only you and me are what remained of the rebel force. Others were discovered and terminated. There are also no other humans on this ship but you, only about 2,100 robots. The enemies are using organic life detectors and your existence will be discovered in exactly 28 minutes and 15 seconds. Then they will launch their atomic missile which will wipe this ship out in exactly 4674 seconds …. Sir, I need to know your strategic plan.”
Aliath was very disappointed that man was still fighting against each other and said, “Robot, I am sorry but I want to go back to my own time. It was better there.”
“But sir, then I would have to stop you. If you leave, mankind would die.”
Aliath realized that he should have confronted the situation earlier and done something about it. To wait later and see is not a solution.