The Start of it all

The Start of It All
by M. A. Desautelle

The research Scientist was very tired. The ship had been in this area of space for sometime now and he and his fellow scientists had been working long hours under the command of the military's head of weapon development. The war with the hated furmens was stuck in a stalemate centering around their last stronghold. A planet where this version of furmens had evolved so many eons ago, and which the furmens defended with a ferocity which had kept the alliance at bay for a great many years. These years of fighting had been at great expense and it was only the innate hatred of Furmens by the common citizen of the Alliance of the Egg laying Peoples which had allowed the war to last as long as it had. Support at home was beginning to wane and a quick and final victory was needed soon.
"How much longer," demanded the overbearing General as he stood looking down at the meek looking chief scientist.
The sound of the general's voice jerked the scientist out of his musing and caused him to look up at the general who towered over him. The Scientist blinked against the glare reflecting off the chest full of ribbons and medals that seemed to be a required part of every ranking military officer. Lowering his eyes to his console the scientist said, "The programming is almost done now. Before we can do the final programming we will need for the Mark IV to be completely charged and all mechanical components to be tested as well. But more importantly a target must be chosen."
"Don't you bother worrying about a choice of target," growled the general, "That will be decided when the rest of the war council arrives tomorrow to go over the Mark IV's Spec.'s and to look it over prior to the actual testing.
The Scientist considered pressing the general for more details concerning the choice of a target, but he was tired and his thoughts kept drifting to that new lab tech whom he had left lounging in the new mud bed which he had installed in his quarters with the first bonus he had got for finishing the design of the Mark IV. This thought soon drove all other thoughts from his mind and the Chief scientist went off to his quarters to see if his lab tech friend had saved him any of the wonderful brew she had brought with her when she came aboard with the last supply ship last week.
It was late when the chief scientist finally eased his tired bulk into the soft grass pit of his sleeping pit and though he was very tired he was still unable to sleep. The work was almost complete on the new weapon and testing would soon begin. The testing stage is where the scientist expected the trouble would to begin. The cause of the conflict would be the third planet of the system in which they were now hiding in order to work on the weapon. This system was far from the area of space in which the rest of the civilized world usually traveled. This isolation was needed to preserve the secrecy a project this importance required.
Even though the scientist and his fellow workers were kept busy they did have some leisure time and as scientists tended to spend it studying the area in which they were presently stationed. This system consisted of ten planets of various sizes and types, most of which were uninhabited and not capable of sustaining life. The fourth planet showed signs of having once been inhabited, canals and what looked like areas that had once held settlements, though they were now just ruins and dried up ditches. It looked is if there had been a planetary war at some point in its recent past since much of the surface of the planet had been pitted by weapons of destruction and its atmosphere was slowly leaking into space. What little air that was left to the planet was incapable of sustaining life and though it might have at one time contained life the planet was at this time devoid of life.
The third planet from the system star was a different story. This planet had been nicknamed the Green planet due to it being in an early stage of development and was teeming with plant and other organic life. Much of the planet's surface was covered with liquid which was filled with organic life of varying complexity and size. The dominant species were large and reptile like and equipped to feed off the other life forms which shared it's liquid home. The land masses also were ruled by creatures which seemed to be the land cousins of the creatures which ruled the seas. These creatures were studied intensely not just because they were the apparent heirs to the planet but because they were remarkably similar in biological makeup to the scientists themselves. Studies that his people had done on their on origins showed that they would have once been much as these creatures were now. The planet also had other smaller forms of life on it's surface including warm blooded, hair covered beings who bore their young love instead of hatching them from an egg as any respectable species would do. Thoughts of the warm blooded creatures brought to the scientist thoughts of violence and a sincere wish that such creatures had never developed into a space faring species. This was accompanied by a strong desire to step on any such creatures he might encounter. Though strict pest control had eliminated these fast spreading creatures from the scientists home system, as well as any close neighboring systems, these furmens, called such because they often were either partly or completely covered with hair, had a bad habit of re-evolving in unexplored systems. When his people found this happening they would act quickly to destroy the developing species before they evolved to the point where they became capable of space travel. This had been done many times before and though he new how necessary this was the scientist in him disliked destroying life. The fact that it was apparent, baring the unlikely occurrence of a planet wide natural disaster, that his distant cousins on this world would evolve to become the dominant species on both the land and sea made him glad to see that no such action would be needed here. This made it more imperative that he prevent that fool general from using this planet as a target for his new weapon.
The general wanted two planet sized targets for targets. The tenth planet in this system had already been chosen and since it was mostly frozen rock with no life on it he had no problem with it being used. Unfortunately the third planet was the same general size and mass of the home world of the last surviving group of furmans in their known galaxy. His people had spent much time and credits in exterminating the furmans and confining them to this last system, but the furmans were a tough and resourceful species and defended this last stronghold with a ferocity that prevented his people from completing there mission of exterminating this entire species once and for all. When this grand mission was accomplished then finally developing worlds such as this one would be able to develop with out fear of being one day attacked by these treacherous hairy, warm blooded, live young bearing furmans. The scientist had a feeling that the general was going to use the third planet for the final test of the Mark IV's ability to destroy a planet and all the life on it. The scientist, aside from furmens considered developing life to be sacred and could not stand by and watch the general destroy the species of egg layers which were developing on the third planet in this system. He had a plan but it was desperate and would mean the end of his career and possibly his life. But for scientist the chance to study a developing species, particularly one who so closely paralleled his own races development, seldom if ever occurred and he could not let the general destroy the chance that someday other scientists could come back and study these magnificent creatures at a later stage in their development when real intelligence had emerged.
The next morning found the scientist tired and apprehensive. He had not slept well and the time for action was almost upon him . The war council was on the bridge of the ship and the show was almost ready to begin. The target coordinates were entered and the MARK IV was charged up and ready. The chief scientist looked up from his console as the General finished his long winded speech congratulating everyone, though mostly himself, for all there help in creating such a marvelous weapon which would once and all rid the galaxy of the terrible menace posed by those evil warm-blooded furmans.
"All right," said the General, "Enough of this back slapping let's see if this weapon will do what it is supposed to do. Bring the first target up on the long range view screen and start the firing sequence. The chief scientist keyed in the proper code and sat back to watch. A bright red beam of light raced across the distance between them and almost immediately a soft glow began to spread across the targeted planet. in a matter of seconds it enveloped the entire planet and suddenly the entire planet blew up. After the dust had cleared a cheer went up on the bridge as it became apparent that planet was destroyed. There were still several rather large fragments floating about but if any life had existed on the planet it would have been destroyed.
"Wonderful!!," Exclaimed the General," You Scientist should be very proud. But we still have one more world to destroy. Feed target coordinates for the Third Planet now and recharge the Mark IV.
" I don't think so," said the chief scientist as he leaned back in his chair and removed his hands from the keys of his entry pad. I have been doing a lot of thinking and as the creator of the Mark IV I feel that it is not right to destroy a world which has a good chance of fostering more of our cousins who could one day develop into a species similar to our own."
"This is mutiny," screamed the general, "I will have your hide scraped off an inch at a time and leave you for the Kelvin birds when we get back home."
"Be that as it may. I am the only one who knows the password to allow the firing to take place and without me it would take a lot of time which you don't have to reprogram the system to accept another password.
The general looked around and could see from the looks on the rest of the science staff that he was speaking the truth. He struggled hard with the sudden impulse he had to pick the scientist up and stuff him out the airlock and after a minute or two had calmed down enough to think again. He was stuck without many choices at the moment since he was being pressured by the high command to bring a complete and tested weapon to be used against the last stronghold of the furmans immediately if not sooner. He could not afford the time it would take to finish testing without the chief scientist help and he could see that the members of the high command who were present were not satisfied with a single test of the weapon and wanted to see something else destroyed. The general was nothing if not practical and besides once it was tested he could leave for home. Then once they had achieved the objective of finally wiping the stain of the furmans out of the galaxy, he could kill the life loving scientist slowly and painfully while basking in the admiration and rewards he would get for heading the project which did away with those sick fur covered
vermin who were so sick as to bear their young live instead of hatching them form eggs like any respectable race would.
The general walked over to the scientist and said "You do realize that this action on your part could cause you much grief when this is all over."
"I know this but I feel very strongly about making sure that when we are long gone that the universe will be inherited by a race of beings similar to our own illustrious kind and not by those filthy furmans whom we are so close to clearing out of the galaxy. If I have to die at some future point in time, though I don't imagine it will be until I helped achieve the final destruction of the furman race, I will die knowing I have helped assure the future of these magnificent creatures whom populate the third planet orbiting this star and will someday develop an intelligence equal to our own.
The general was secretly pleased since he had never cared much for scientists in general and had had a strong dislike for the chief scientist in particular. Now it was quite likely that he would be able to torture the scientist to death with the blessing of the high command and would also very likely profit from disposing of thorn in the side of the present military command. Glancing around at those members present he could see that they shared his feeling and so turned his attention to the problem of a new target. Looking at the viewscreen he could see that there were still some rather large pieces of the tenth planet still floating among the dust and debris left from the first test of the MARK IV and he got an idea.
Turning to the members of the high command he said, "You have all seen what a wonderful job the MARK IV did at reducing this planet to dust and debris now it is time for a test of the precession and accuracy. We will now split one of these large chunks which you see still floating apart into two pieces to demonstrate how precisely and exactly this weapon can be fired."
The general motioned to the chief scientist to feed the coordinated of the new target into the firing console and initiate firing when it was complete.
Though the chief scientist was exalted at saving those magnificent creatures and assuring that they would one day evolve to travel the stars, he was also scared of what would surely be a most painful death at the general hand once he had helped him destroy the last stronghold of those terrible furmens. At least he could take solace in the fact that as well as finally and completely destroying the furmen race, he had saved and assured the future development of another race of egg laying people who would one day rise to rule the universe. This thought brought a smile to his face as he began to feed in the instructions which would recharge and target the piece of planet which the General had indicated they would fire upon. When he was done he looked at the general who indicated he should fire the weapon at once.
Within seconds a narrow beam of intense light lanced out form the ship and hit the large asteroid sized chunk of rock, splitting it neatly and half and sending the two pieces of rock spinning off into two different directions. One piece went spinning out into space while the other was sent careening toward the systems sun and the planets orbiting around it.
Most excellent said the General, "I think we can head home and then on to the home world of the furmens to finally finish what should have been done many ages ago. Helmsman set a course for home and engage the hyperwarp engines.
It was sometime later that a large reptilian creature raised it's blood smeared head from the carcass of the long necked creature, whom it had just killed as it feed from the bottom of a large body of water filled with lush green plants, to wonder with it small but still developing brain what the large flaming object which raced across the sky toward it final impact with the distant shores could be. But it this point in time such thoughts did not hold it's attention for long for there was still much of the warm and tasty food to eat, and besides such things could not have much affect on it's life. It was this attitude which caused it to ignore the distant rumbling which occurred a while later as well as the large dust cloud which rose in the air and blocked out the sun, because after all his kind had ruled this planet for ages and there would be plenty of time left for such thought in the future.