Sky Explosions

                      Sky Explosions


     A single hand uses its thumb and middle finger to cause
a small fire between them after they are clicked. That fire
remains on the tip of the finger as it touches the bottom of
that Sky Explosion. Only a little bit of that fire remains
on it. Then it circles it until it reaches the bottom of
that Sky Explosion. A flame comes out the bottom of it to
shoot it up toward the ceiling there.

     As that arrow soars toward that ceiling, small sparks
come out of those flames to land on the other Sky Explosives
below it. As the first one hits the ceiling to explode into
multicolored light sparks, the other Sky Explosives start
heading toward it too. Within only a few seconds the whole
building is flaming with one explosion after another.

     Using the thumb once again, the finger flame is put
out. Then the owner of that hand starts running. Their hand
movement and the sounds coming from their feet say that is
what they are doing. Just outside that building, those feet
and hands stop. In the distance, a loud wailing sound can be
heard getting closer to them. Those feet start to run again.
Only now they are doing it in the opposite direction of that
wailing sound.

                             ##

     Law Enforcer Nonic watches as the explosions continue
within the building in front of him as flames shoot out
through broken glass windows, the roof of it, and through
new holes on the sides of it. “This is the worse series of
explosions yet,” says Nonic.

     Just then Nonic hears footsteps behind him and turns
toward Law Enforcer Violinna. After seeing her, Nonic looks
up at a large flat square metal object as it goes past them
to stop over the flames below it. Once there, water starts
coming out from beneath it in small clear balls to quickly
get rid of all the flames there.

     “How many Sky Explosions were in that building?” Nonic
asks Violinna.

     “About a million of them,” answers Violinna. “We won’t
know for sure until after we check it out.”

     Nonic takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “Why
didn’t Water Protection stop this from happening too?”

     “We don’t know that yet,” answers Violinna. “But it’s
most likely for the same reason it has been happening all
over Monuth for the last couple of months. Someone or a
group of Monuths are causing it to happen.”

                             ##

     Suddenly, Nonic stops walking down a thin walking area
in front of several rows of small monitors with another Law
Enforcer sitting behind them. “We have a very big problem.
Over the last two Monuths, Sky Explosions Creation buildings
all over Monuth have been attacked. And almost every one of
their Sky Explosions has been destroyed.”

     “With only a few days left before our Celebration of
Life, there is a very good chance that we won’t be able to
celebrate our victory over our other human-alien invaders
almost one hundred years ago this year,” says Nonic. “At
least not the Sky Explosions part of it.”

     Nonic takes a deep breath and lets it out very, very
slowly. “There have been sixty-four Sky Explosions creation
buildings destroyed within these two months. And we still
don’t know who or why they are doing them, or where they are
going to do it next.”

     “The only good thing about these explosions is that no
one has gotten hurt or worse because of them,” says Nonic.
“And I want to stop them before anyone does.”

                             ##

     After putting his hands into fists, Nonic points his
thumbs at the large monitor behind him. At the sixty-four
small black dots on it flashing numbers in sequence: twelve,
thirteen, fourteen, etc. Only those numbers are all over the
image that’s on that monitor.

     “Look at those numbers,” says Nonic. “Tell me what they
have in common other than the explosions.”

     “They don’t have anything else in common,” says Law
Enforcer Coyia. Sitting low behind a monitor toward the back
of that room. So, low that Nonic can’t see her. “And those
numbers are popping up all over the image of Monuth.”

     Nonic smiles as he tries to see who has spoken to him.
“You are correct. But why are they doing that?”

     “To stop anyone from finding out who they are,” says
Law Enforcer Pleu. Pleu is sitting behind a small monitor
almost right in front of Nonic. “If we can’t find them, then
we can’t stop them.”

     “Why are we still doing this?” Violinna asks. “We have
been doing this for almost six hours.”

     Nonic looks at Violinna. “Because Pleu is also right.
We can’t stop them if we don’t know where they are going to
attack next.”

                             ##

     A clothed head peeks around the edge of a window to see
what is inside that building. What he sees are a lot of
Monuths. “There are about a thousand of them working in
there,” says the head. A few seconds after that the head
continues. “I agree with you. We do need to start killing
some Monuths.”

     The window starts getting smaller as the head steps
away from it. Then the head stops. A single Sky Explosion is
pointed at that window. The click of a thumb with the middle
finger creates a flame that is used on the Sky Explosion.
When the flame gets to the bottom of that Sky Explosion it
is used against that building.

     An explosion happens just after that Sky Explosion
enters that building. Followed by several other explosions a
few seconds later. Screams can be heard. Now flames are
shooting out from some broken windows, the sidewalls that
the head can see, and the roof.

     Within a minute that building is one big flame. There
are no more Sky Explosions come from inside of it. And there
isn’t any screaming either. The clothed head starts to walk
away. Then they start running when there are sounds of some
Monuths heading toward them in the opposite direction.

                            ####

     “I have just been contacted,” says Nonic. “There have
been three more attacks against our Sky Explosion creation
buildings.” Nonic is standing in front of a large monitor
again. Only this one has an image of Monuth with only about
fifty small black dots on it. And only three of them have
numbers flashing.

     “As you can see these three happened quite a bit of
distance from each other,” continues Nonic. “And since they
all happened within the same hour, we are looking for a
group who is doing this.”

     Nonic takes another deep breath before he continues. “I
also have something to tell you that I don’t want to do. But
I must. Not only were there three attacks, but this time all
three had Monuths within them. We don’t know how many there
were yet. But we do know it’s several thousand.”

     “Since we haven’t been able to stop them by finding
them or figuring out what is going to be attacked next, it
has been decided that we need to come up with another way to
stop them. Does anything have any thoughts on how we can do
that?” Nonic asks.

                             ##

     Standing behind the small monitors at the back of that
room, Nonic stares at the large one in front of them. “We
have the remaining Sky Explosions creation buildings being
monitored thirty/eight.”

     “With only a day away from our Celebration of Life,
whoever is behind these attacks may not try anymore. But if
they do, we will stop them,” continues Nonic.

     “Not only do we have every remaining Sky Explosions
creation buildings monitored, but we also have Law Enforcers
near them. Just in case whoever is behind these attacks
tries another one,” says Nonic.

     Nonic starts walking behind those small monitors. “Keep
monitoring them. As soon as you see someone who shouldn’t be
there tell us about it,”

     Almost instantly four Law Enforcers stand up and shout
that they have someone. Nonic walks to the front of that
room. He taps every button on the control panel under that
large monitor. All four Sky Explosions creation buildings
appear on that monitor.

     “I will contact the local Law Enforcers,” says Nonic.
But it looks like we are already too late to stop these
attacks, though.”

                             ##

     Nonic and twenty-four other Law Enforcers are walking
around what is left of one of the Sky Explosions creation
buildings. They are spread out to look for anything that may
help them find out who is behind these attacks. “At least no
one was here when it happened either,” says Nonic.

     “I’m not so sure about that,” says Law Enforce Kailn.
“I think I just saw something over there.” Kailn points in
that direction.

     Nonic and the others there run over to where Kailn is
pointing. At first, they don’t see anything. Then it’s
Violinna who points to a moving piece of clothing that can
barely be seen. They quickly start pulling away everything
that is covering that clothing to reveal a male there.

     “I think we may have found one of our attackers,” says
Nonic. “Is he dead?”

     Pleu checks him out. “He’s still alive. But I don’t
think that he will be for too much longer. At least not with
one of his hearts.”

     “WHAT,” shouts Nonic. “The ones who have been attacking
our Sky Explosions creation buildings have been the humans
who tried to invade us almost a hundred years ago.”

                             ##

     “Tell me who else has been helping you to destroy our
Sky Explosions creation buildings,” says Nonic angrily as he
leans over a table with his palms flat on it and his face
within an inch from the male human invader. “Why are you
destroying them?”

     Hiannum looks at him with a big smile on his face. “I’m
not going to tell you anything except my name and where I’m
from. My name is Hiannum. And I’m from the planet of Junin.”

     “We know where you are from,” says Nonic angrily. “What
we want to know now is why you have returned? And why you
are destroying our Sky Explosions creation buildings?”

     “Because you shouldn’t be celebrating anything,” says
Hiannum. “You didn’t stop us from getting what we wanted
from this planet. We got it from another one. So, we left
Monuth. Now we are back because you have something else that
we need.”

     Hiannum glances at the other Monuths in there. “When we
saw what you were about to do, we decided to stop you. That
is why we have been destroying your Sky Explosions.”

                             ##

     Nonic started laughing. “Do you know why we have been
talking to you for the last eight hours?” Nonic asks.

     “It’s because while we were talking all the rest of you
Junins were found and killed,” says Nonic smiling. “Once we
knew it was you destroying our Sky Explosions, it wasn’t too
hard to find those who were helping you.”

     Hiannum looks at Nonic with a big smile on his face.
“You think that you have stopped us again. But you haven’t.”

     “We were sent here to see how much you have advanced
since the last time we were here,” continues Hiannum. “To
see if you were a threat to us coming back.”

     “Now that we know that you aren’t a threat, we were
planning on coming back here in a few months. But when we
found out about your celebration, we decided to do it now.
Our Attack Ships should be here at any time.”

     Nonic never stopped smiling. “We know all about your
Attack Ships.”

     “You haven’t been destroying our Sky Explosions or
killing anyone,” says Nonic. “We just let you think that you
have while we created a few billion of them on our orbiting
planet. When your Attack Ships get here, they will all be
destroyed because of our Celebration of Life. After all, our
Sky Explosions aren’t just for show. They can also be used
to destroy your Attack Ships.”

                     Word Count = 1,995