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The people of the colony gather around the rubble of the fallen temple. They are staring, shaking their heads and murmuring amongst themselves. There hasn’t been so much as an uncontrolled fire in the colony, much less a disaster of this magnitude. A silence falls over the crowd as a figure climbs to the top of the rubble. He is holding a human head with hair. In his other hand, he holds a sword that catches the light of the Sun and reflects it back into the eyes of the people.

Jordan speaks, “Citizens of Tranquility Colony, today you are free. You are free from ignorance. You are the ancestors of conspiracy. These men, our ‘Elders,’ have taken advantage of our species since the dawn of time. Their reign is over today!”

Jordan steps down a level. He is knee deep in rubble. “No longer will you be dictated and told what to do. No longer will you live in ignorance or fear of each other. No longer will you watch each other and report your neighbors. No longer will you consume chemicals that deny your humanity.”

“Our ancestors died because they fought over symbols that the ‘Elders’ gave them to fight over. No longer! If any files can be recovered from this building, let them be known to all. We must each understand the history of our species. And though I am no longer human, I am your brother. I will watch over you and protect you, but I will not be your leader. I will not dictate orders to be followed or rules to rule you.”

The people look at each other. The murmuring continually grows louder. Jordan says, “The truth will be hard to accept. The blood of our ancestors made a sea for us to sail to this world. They have sacrificed greatly and we must honor them. We must honor them by learning from their mistakes. We will not kill for any God, die for any flag, nor suffer separation between nations. We are one, a whole entity, complete and undivided. Let no man dissolve what has been assembled this day!”

Jordan steps off the rubble completely and hands the head to the man standing nearest to him. “Put this on display for all to see. May we never repeat the past again.” The man takes the head and looks at it. He looks back at Jordan, speechless.

Jordan walks to the center of town. The people turn to watch him. He thinks of his mother. He wishes she were here to see this. He misses her, but he does not grieve her death. He thinks about death. He thinks, “It’s far luckier to die than most believe.” He wipes his forehead with his palm and looks at the Earth in the sky. There is a break in the rust-red clouds, which allows him a hint at the surface. He thinks about the rivers that probably still flow on that planet. He wants to be there, to sit next to them and know the mystery of unsynthesized water.

Jordan sits down and looks up at the sky. His stomach is making noise. The people leave him alone. He thinks they fear him, as they should. He is the destroyer and the protector. He is the light at the beginning and the void at the end. Life is in between and everything else is just rumor and mystery. He is now the only God the human race knows. He looks at the sky and ponders the limits of divinity.

© 1998 by Joshua Minton

Creative Commons License photo credit: şãÐ FέëŁίήg™

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