System Lords

  Chapter 3

  Shattered World

  Gina’s vision floated around the dim room, unable to focus on much of anything. She could breathe, and she could hear words in some otherworldly language, but that was about all she could do. Her muscles flexed to move her arms and legs, but they didn’t respond. Her limbs retained their natural mode, and she wasn’t even sure how she traveled this far on foot. The air was thick and heavy, or maybe that was just her lungs.

  “I am going to remove your inhibitor,” someone said.

  The voice was nearby, and the words carried a strong accent from a country she didn’t recognize. A pair of hands gripped her neck and pulled something off with a click. Moments later, a rush of intense thought processes shot through her head and ran down to her limbs. Her eyes began to focus again, and she flexed her arms and legs, ecstatic at regaining her motor skills.

  Gina jumped into the air and shouted, “I’m free again!”

  However, as her concentration returned, Gina’s perception focused on her unnatural surroundings, and the tall slender figures who populated this chamber. Their skin was pale blue with tiny splotches of mixed color, and their eyes looked like speckled black pans pushed into their faces. One humanoid stood beside her while others sat a few meters away, up top on an elevated platform.

  “Where am I?” she said, looking up at the one nearest. “Who are you?”

  “My name is At’rif,” he said. “You are far from your home world.”

  One of the more slender figures added to the conversation.

  “We call ourselves the Visaari, alien life forms from outside your solar system.”

  “Aliens?” Gina said, clutching her sides. “I’m dreaming.”

  “You are not,” At’rif said.

  Strange to think about it. How did they learn to speak common so quickly? Have they visited earth before? Maybe, though there wasn’t much to visit, admittedly. Gina brushed back her hair, and her mind filled up with dozens of lingering questions, though one or two stood out from the rest.

  “You have a lot to answer for,” she shouted. “You stood by and did nothing!”

  “Blesch! Li’la human hav’se otom!” a seated Visaari said.

  “Do not mask your tongue,” At’rif said.

  Gina looked around at the Visaari. The seating reminded her of a hearing. She couldn’t discern emotions from their faces, but the tone and setting left enough clues for her to work with. That one who spoke in gibberish seemed to have slunk back in his seat.

  “Earth is in ruins, and you could have done something to stop the devastation.”

  “That is why we are here,” At’rif said.

  The slender Visaari added, “Your people are self-destructive. Your world would have been destroyed countless times over if not for our intervention.”

  “Liars!”

  At’rif placed a hand on her shoulder.

  “Visaari protect fledgling civilizations from their own destructive power upon harnessing the atom. We do so for a time until …”

  He paused.

  “Until what?”

  “At some point, we must make a judgment,” the slender Visaari said. “Are they worth protecting? Would your people destroy themselves eventually, no matter how many bombs we diffused or conflicts we dissolved?”

  Gina stared up at the Visaari lords. Whatever they were, human wasn’t one of them. The compassion to spare a planet’s destruction only so many times before they left for good. Was humanity really that inept at keeping itself afloat?

  A dozen eyes swarmed around her as if she held some kind of power, but she knew she didn’t. Gina didn’t want to go back to face a ruined world one short generation away from extinction. Radiation poisoned the masses and wreaked havoc on their minds and bodies. For the rest, the inhospitable nature of the world and man kept life uncertain at best.

  “If you’re leaving,” she said, “then take me with you.”