Sara was a
20 year old university student. She was generally considered smart and pretty
with a lighthearted and friendly personality. Her hair was brown and her tall
stature (1,87m) ensured that she gained attention quickly if she wanted it. Friendships
were stable and her grades were impressive, in short: things couldn’t be any
better at the moment. Additionally it was summer, her favorite season. Today
Sara decided to go for a walk in the park to enjoy the warmth of the sun. She
dressed herself in a basic red top, shorts and her favorite flat strappy
sandals.
The streets
were more busy than usual. Many people were outside due to the particularly
nice weather. When Sara arrived at the park she breathed deeply and felt the
clean air filling her lungs. After an hour she began to look for a little more
remote location to lay down and tan herself a little. This proofed to be more
difficult than Sara first thought, because the onslaught by the masses was
larger than expected. Despite this obstacle Sara knew a place that was
generally left alone, probably because the path was rarely cleared. Thus it
didn’t look obvious at first glance when one didn’t know that it existed.
When she got to the place it was still empty. Gratefully Sara entered it
and looked for a nice place with sunlight when she noticed something unusual.
Several small things that looked like air bubbles, about 2 centimeters in
diameter on the ground in the middle of the place. Curiously Sara walked
towards them and picked one of them up. It was very fragile and felt hollow
inside. Carefully Sarah held it close to her face and tried to examine it. The
little sphere seemed to have a metallic structure that was interrupted by a
myriad of little light sources. When Sara was about to put it down again she
saw something strange. The metallic spheres disappeared on by one into thin
air. Surprised Sara looked back at the sphere in her hand. She asked herself if
it would disappear as well. But to Sara’s shock the world around her began to
fade into black instead. The crew of the explorer fleet ships reported that
they found a secure location and that they could commence the operation. Their
short term goals were to study the native population and to establish a
permanent outpost on the planet. Long term goals were to collect enough data to
determine whether the dominant species could be safely contacted or not. The
specific location was chosen because it allowed to stay close enough to the
humans to study them, while being safe enough to be protected from harm. The
outpost was planned to be buried deeply underground in case someone would
stumble upon them by chance. Then sophisticated sensors would take over,
accompanied by research teams that were small enough to evade the mind
boggingly large humans. This was the most dangerous part of the operation.
Several ships, carrying mining equipment and prefabricated bases, teleported
two days ago and began to set up the construction side. Progress was still
miniscule. The crew was still amazed by the look of the humans. They looked
almost exactly like them. The only thing that differentiated them, besides the
size difference, was their skin color. The crew had a light blue colored skin like
all members of their species.
Suddenly
the ground began to shake violently. The first ones to notice it were the hundreds
of engineers who worked at the construction site. The ship crews were allowed
to stay in their false sense of security a little longer due to the shock absorbers
of the landing gear. When they noticed the tremors their hearts stopped. It was
the worst case scenario. A female human approached the construction side. And
she noticed the ships! Panic spread. The stations had to be manned as quickly
as possible. But wait! What about the hundreds of personnel who were still
outside? Before they were able to make a decision they witnessed horrified how
the construction side was wiped out by one of Sara’s sandals. The mile long
sole was so large that any attempt to escape was futile. No one made it out.
Now they had to save themselves. The NAV
computers were notoriously slow to boot up and it took even longer for them to calculate
the coordinates for a jump. So they just immediately jumped with the
preselected coordinates, home. The human took one of the ships into her hand
and began to examine it. The crew was thrown out of their seats. In a frenzy of
fear they tried to reorient themselves so that they could execute the jump, but
they would be the last. The second the NAV computer booted up someone pushed
the button to execute the jump.
The light
returned. Sara was scared, but at least the thing didn’t seem to have hurt her.
To her surprise she found herself in a completely different place. The park just
... vanished. Instead Sara found herself in completely flat area. She could see
till the horizon in any direction. Then Sara began to examine the ground. The
terrain was mostly light green with very little heaves and sinks. It was
interrupted by patches of yellow and patches of moss in between. In the
distance were more patches, but some of them looked gray with strange little
spikes that were a little larger than the moss. Closer to her were tinier
patches of grey that didn’t have spikes and that were roughly as tall as the
patches of moss. At a second glance Sara spotted very small streams of water
that stretched till the horizon.
After Sara
found her orientation again she realized that she still held the sphere in her
hand. But not only that, the other spheres were right at her feet standing in
two rows on a grey square. Unsure what to do Sara put the sphere back on the
ground to the others. But it began to roll, knocking over two other spheres as
well. Sara kneeled down and took a closer look. The other spheres had protruding
spikes that stabilized their position. The one’s of the sphere that Sara held
in her hand must have broken off when she took it.
Sara
decided walked away from the spheres. Maybe they were dangerous, perhaps they
would teleport her again when she stayed close to them for too long. She had
still no idea where she was. Because there was nothing better to do Sara began
to examine the surrounding area. The green and yellow plain sunk in beneath her
sandals, the ground was completely flat with a clearly visible print of her
sole where she stepped. The moss felt soft and gave easily in. Curious she
stepped on one of the grey areas with the box shaped stings. It cracked beneath
her sandal like a thin layer of plaster. Since there was nothing that could
hurt her Sara removed her sandals and carried them in one of her hands. She began
to walk towards the horizon, hoping to find someone who might help her. In the
meantime she enjoyed the feeling of the different patches she trod upon. Sara
tried to guess what kind of patch she stepped without looking down. The easiest
ones to guess were the grey patches because the cracked so nicely beneath her
bare soles. A black little thing, it moved to fast to be identified, began to
buzz around Sara. Probably an insect. Annoyed Sara swatted it out of the sky.
But what was that? Was that a trail of smoke? Probably not, who knows what kind
of bug that was, Sara didn’t study biology. Right now it was more important to
find out where she was.
A quarter
of an hour passed without any trace of civilization in sight. Sara approached
one of the larger grey patches, it was as big as a garage, interested what it
might be. Her toes covered some of the outer area. It didn’t hurt. Encouraged
by that Sara stepped right into the grey patch. It felt way better than the
small ones. The textures were larger and they tickled her toes nicely when they
gave in. When she put more pressure on them the ground beneath them cracked as
it did when she stepped on the smaller ones. Sara looked down and smiled. She
couldn’t possibly imagine what the tiny aliens felt when they saw the beautiful
face of the woman that already massacred tens of thousands of them looking down
directly upon them with an expression of lighthearted innocence.
Another fly
began to buzz around her, again Sara tried to swat it but she wasn’t fast
enough. It flew directly in front of her ear. Before Sara could grab the thing
and squish it she heard a faint voice.
“Stop! Immediately!”
“What is
going on? Where are you?”
“We are in
the ship at your ear. We already sent one to contact you, but you destroyed it.
You are not on earth. You are on the planet Mykonia. You have already destroyed
several villages, fields, forests and three of our explorer ships and killed
more than 90.000 mykonians. We can’t allow you to proceed to destroy this city
further. Please stand still and wait.”
It hit her
like a rock. Did she really kill that many of them? But she didn’t do anything,
walking can’t be a crime. Oh god, hopefully this was all just a bad dream.
Carefully Sara squatted down and examined the environment. It was true. She
didn’t notice it until now. Beneath her were skyscrapers, streets, almost untraceable
cars and myriads of other structures and buildings. Why didn’t she examine the
grey patches earlier? She should have raised her eyebrows when she saw that
trail of smoke after she swatted the ship. Sara felt bad for what she did,
especially because it felt so good while she was crushing tens of thousands of
mykonians with her feet. She rose up again and looked behind herself guiltily.
She saw her footprints were buildings once stood. And people lived.
“How did I
get here? Why is this happening?”
“You were
transported here by one of the ships. We don’t know how or why. Sadly we can’t
ask the crew because you killed them together with the crews of two other
ships. We are still questioning the other crews, but they are still in shock.”
“Can you
bring me back home?”
“Unclear. We
are still trying to figure out how you were transported in the first place. It
shouldn’t have happened.”
That was a
lie. The mykonians already knew how it happened. The process was quickly
understood and hailed as a scientific breakthrough that multiplied the
transport capabilities many times. Actually the decision was already made not to
allow Sara to return home. By now humans were considered way too dangerous to be
trusted. Their nearly unlimited power put the entire mykonian civilization at
risk. This one already killed 90.000 of them without even being aware of what she
did. What might happen if the humans decided to subjugate or destroy them? Sara
would be teleported to a moon base without an atmosphere where she would
suffocate to death so that her body could be dissected so that at least the understanding
of human biology could be expanded. Everyone in the cabinet agreed relieved.
They were under huge pressure. People were dying while they spoke and they had
to find a solution that was quick to implement while protecting mykonian
interest. A ship would distract her while an explorer sneaked up behind her and
teleported her. It sounded clean, without further casualties. The cabinet
members weren’t inherently bad people but this situation was so difficult that
no one could think of a better solution that would allow for the survival of
the human without compromising their security.
“I’m so
sorry, I will do anything to make good for the casualties I’ve caused. Just
bring me back home, please.”
“Don’t
worry, we won’t punish you. But it is of the utmost importance that you remain
still until we find a solution for the immediate situation.”
The
explorer ship finally arrived and touched Sara’s back. She saw the world around
her phasing out of existence again, being replaced by a barren wasteland. Sara
reacted quickly. She grabbed the ship, stopping the teleportation sequence in
its tracks. Mykonia phased back into existence. In order to prevent a second
attempt Sara crushed the ship in her hand and tossed it away together with her
sandals. Her guilt turned into anger. They lied to her. They knew how to bring
her back but decided instead to let her rot on a backwater planet. Not even
mentioning that the entire thing was their fault. She didn’t ask to be here,
she didn’t want to destroy their cities at first but that was enough! Sara
searched for the ship that was close to her ear. She found them quickly. They
were trying to get away. Sara grabbed the ship midflight. She took three more
steps while doing it, killing thousands more with each of them. It didn’t
matter to her. Sarah was beyond caring at this point. She held the craft to her
ear.
“What the
fuck was that. Why do you lie to me? If you know how to bring me back to earth,
you might just do so as well. What are your true intentions?”
“It wasn’t
my idea! They didn’t want you to tell anyone about us! They were scared that
your species would wipe us out! They wanted to act quickly because you killed
so many of us! You would have been save! Please don’t crush us like the others!”
This time
Sara heard that she was lied to. Most people are bad liars under pressure.
“Do you
know what a self-fulfilling prophecy is?”
Sara didn’t
wait for an answer. She slowly raised the pressure on the vessel until it began
to break. When it was completely flat she dropped it on the city. Hopefully
that swine suffered.
“Listen!
You wanted to trick me. Fine! I will squash as many of you fucking ants as I
have to, until you bring me back where I came from. I don’t care about women
and children. The decision is yours.”
That was
only partially true. Eventually Sara would stop but she would definitely teach
those bugs a lesson before she was ready to. Who do they think they are? She
would show them that she was the one calling the shots here. Without further
ado Sara began to systematically wipe out the city. Angrily she stomped town,
flattening several blocks at once. When she was done, she headed right for the
next city. On the path to it Sara stepped on every village in her path. Mayhem
dominated the city. Why us, we aren’t responsible for the faults of our
governments. Let us live, please!
Sara didn’t
consider the unfairness of the situation. She was way too angry for that. Her
foot descended upon the first victims of the city. This time she wanted to
destroy them extra slowly to make them suffer more. The buildings imploded and
tickled her toes gently. She started to enjoy her rampage. When she reached the
ground she twisted her foot to savor the texture of the debris. Why shouldn’t
Sara have some fun here, she wouldn’t see the planet ever again. Staying angry
all the way would be a waste. Her steps became more relaxed, for her it was
almost like a massage.
The same
couldn’t be said for the people beneath her. A wife saw her husband dying
beneath Sara’s big toe. She just managed to flee from the zone of death, debris
and body parts raining upon her, only to see her husband being crushed to death
right before her eyes. The last thing she saw of him were his eyes popping out
of his skull before his body disappeared beneath the wall of flesh of the
monster. A man fell over when the sky turned dark. His last view of the world
he lived in shocked him to the core. The crushed skeletons of an entire school
class intermingled with pieces of flesh and shreds of cloth stuck to the huge
sole that seconds later crushed him to death. Scenes like that were happening
from the very beginning of Sara’s arrival. She would never learn the true
horror she unleashed upon the population of Mykonia.
Oh, it was
already over, the entire city was gone. Never mind, the next one was well
within reach. Why bother? It didn’t fare any better than the two before it. Sara
lost any sense of mercy. She was high on power, the most dangerous of drugs.
After she destroyed several more another ship approached her ear.
“STOP,
PLEASE! WE DO ANYTHING YOU WANT, BUT SPARE US.”
Sara was
about to squish the ship when the voice spoke again.
“MY FAMILY
LIVES IN THE CITY, PLEASE DON’T! PLEASE DON’T KILL THEM!”
Sara
grinned sadistically.
“Do they
live here?”
She stepped
into the city.
“NO!”
She took
another step.
“I BEG YOU!”
She wiped
her foot across the city, destroying large parts of it.
“That
should do the trick. Hey, you! Did I get them?”
No answer.
Just sobbing.
Satisfied
Sara kneaded the ship into a small ball and flicked it away. She still had a
city to destroy.
Her rampage
started to threaten the mykonian species as a whole. More than 50 of the
largest population centers were gone, untold acres of farmland rendered
useless, irreplaceable ecosystems lost. People across the whole planet watched
the news in order to get ready to flee when the monster began to come close.
Others believed that end was there and that they should accept it. Spacefaring
was too dangerous. They challenged fate and lost.
All the
while Sara had above all: fun. However, she began to notice that she walked
into cities that were already razed to the ground. She needed to spare at least
some of the mykonians, otherwise she would be stuck on this shitty rock.
“OK guys,
it was fun while it lasted, but I think that you’ve learned your lesson. You
may teleport me back to earth. But remember, no tricks. When you try something
funny I will do to you what I did to the last ones who tried that.”
Another
ship approached her. Sara took it into her hand and held it to hear ear.
“Please wait
here, we obey you. Just ... stop the killing, please! A ship will transport you
back. You might still lead more of your kind to us, sealing our fate. But that
is still preferable to imminent annihilation.”
“Shit, I
didn’t know that I killed THAT many of you. But that’s what I want to hear. And
remember, no funny stuff.”
She
remembered her sandals.
“Oh, and by
the way, send someone to collect my sandals and to send them back to earth as
well. Besides, there’s absolutely no way for humans to travel in space. At
least for a very long time. We aren’t even sure if extraterrestrial life
exists. Your whole paranoia was completely pointless. You could have sent me
back straight away and many of your friends would still be alive today.”
She
released the ship and waited until the other one arrived. To ensure that they
would keep their promise to send her sandals back, Sara put her hand into the
surface and pulled out one of the villages in its entirety. When the ship
arrived she told them:
“Look, that’s
my insurance that you send back my sandals as well. You may teleport the
village back when I see them materializing in the park as well. Now you have
permission to land in my hand.”
The ship
did as she told. Finally Sara materialized in the park where it all started.
Pleased she noticed that her sandals appeared close to her as well. She crushed
the ship in her hand and put the piece of dirt with village on it on the
ground. Casually she put on her sandals while the crew of the other ship that
transported them tried frantically to program the new coordinates into the NAV
computer. Lazily Sara rose her sandal above it and compressed it slowly into a
thin metal plate. She did that because she wanted to keep the village right
where it was. Carrying it all the way back home would be too cumbersome.
Scaring the mykonians into never setting foot upon earth again was way easier.
Maybe she would tell someone someday about this day and she needed some proof
to back her claims up. But that was enough for today for now Sara wanted to
finally get a rest.