Wild Flowers

Wild Flowers

     “They are beautiful, aren’t they?” Jaccie leaned forward in her command chair staring up at a large monitor. On that monitor, an image of wild flowers filled it. Except for a couple of thin walkways, there was nothing but flowers.

     Jaccie looked over at Broandon. “They are the only things living on this planet?”

     “Yes, they are. And we don’t know why. Up until five years ago, this was a forbidden planet. Death to all the alien races in this sector.”

     “It obviously isn’t now. What happened? Did one of the races claim it? Was it whoever lived here before it became uninhabitable?”

     “That’s why we are here. From what we have learned so far, the flowers just suddenly appeared all over Zillov. There have been numerous visitors to this planet. But no one has stepped forward with the reasons behind it. It’s our turn to try.”

     “Why are we here? What happened to Zillov?”

     Broandon shrugged. “We are here because this could be a threat if what happened here is some kind of a planet transformation process. If it is every planet in this sector, maybe even the galaxy or universe, could be in danger.”

     “That’s ridiculous. No wonder they only told you about this mission, and not me. They knew I wouldn’t do it.”

     “That isn’t the reason we are here. They didn’t tell me to do anything. I volunteered us for this mission. I’ve been wondering about this planet ever since the wild flowers appeared.”

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     The image of wild flowers no longer appeared on the monitor. Now an image of a multicolored planet appeared there. Jaccie glanced around at the others in The Control Room. Everyone remained at their posts doing their duties. The only one that wasn’t there was Broandon.

     Jaccie tapped a button on her chair’s armrest. “Broandon, your daily report is overdue. Have you found anything yet? Are you ready to give up this stupid discovery mission? If you haven’t found anything by now, you probably aren’t going to.”

     Broandon suddenly appeared on the large monitor with Zillov behind him. “The report is the same as it has been for the last fifteen days. That’s because we haven’t even started studying these flowers yet. We are just starting to do that. Up until now, all we have done is categorized them.”

     “It has taken you almost two weeks to categorized them! Why did it take you so long just to do that?”

     “This planet isn’t as small as it looks. There are only fifty of us to study this whole planet. We need to collect samples of these flower from all over Zillov if we hope to discover what’s going on here.”

     “How many samples do you need? And how long is this going to take to get them?”

     Broandon opened his mouth to respond when Pactim swiveled around in his chair toward Jaccie. “Commander, an Orbital has just appeared next to us. It’s powering up something. I think it’s going to attack us.”

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     Jaccie looked at Pactim in shock. “You think what? Why do you think it’s a weapon?”

     “Because there is power all within that Orbital. But more power is being directed toward one part of it. That part is exterior, and it’s pointed directly at us.”

     “Give me an image of that thing. I want to see what we are dealing with here.”

     A second later a large Orbital about three times their size appeared on the monitor with them next to it. Jaccie tilted her head back toward Arnika. “Keep our Protection at full power. And prepare our weapons for battle.”

     Arnika didn’t look up from her control panel as her fingers tapped away at those control buttons. “I have already started doing both, Commander.”

     “Has anyone tried to contact us?” Jaccie looked over at Monnic. “Have you tried to contact them?”

     Monnic also didn’t take his eyes off the mini monitor in front of him. “I have been trying, Commander. But so far I haven’t gotten anything back.”

     Just then a booming voice echoed throughout The Control Room. First, everyone covered their ears as the unknown language continue bouncing all around them. Then they started looking at each other. Some shrugged. Others shook their heads negatively. A few seconds later they all looked at Jaccie.

     Jaccie opened her mouth to speak when that unknown language became known to them. “Why have you gone down to my planet to kill my children?” A female sounding voice asked.

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     “Who are you? What is your name?”

     “I do not have a name. But if you want to call me something, you can call me Wild Flower.”

     A few seconds later Wild Flower continued. “Why are you killing my children? How many of them have you killed?”

     Jaccie looked confused. “We haven’t killed anyone. There isn’t anyone on Zillov except for the research team we send down there.”

     Wild Flower didn’t respond for about a minute. “Your research team are the ones doing the killing.”

     Suddenly screaming could be heard echoing through The Control Room. “Those are my children you are hearing dying. How many are you are on your ship?”

     “Why do you want to know that?” Jaccie asked.

     “You are not the first ship that has been killing my children. Everyone who has come here has been doing it. I am going to deal with you the same way I dealt with them. For every one of my children you killed, I will kill one of you.”

     Jaccie looked at Arnika. “Fire every weapon that we have at them. I want it destroyed before it destroys us.”

     “I don’t think we can do that, Commander. I’ve been scanning them. And we don’t have enough weapons to destroy it. We don’t even have enough to destroy their weapon.”

     Suddenly the image on the monitor changed from Broandon to a large colorful flower. Its leaves and branches acted as hands and arms as Wild Flower moved in front of them.

Word Count = 997