th<\/sup>, after the failed nuclear attack in New Delhi. The slabs generated waves of massive EMP bursts that destroyed electronics and the power grids worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThat night, roughly four billion city dwellers saw the night sky as it had not been seen in a century. The Milky Way splashed against the stars, broken only by the shape of the slabs. And still, the slabs were silent, while the cities beneath them emptied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Susan walked north out of the suburbs, amid the dead cars on the freeway, following the scattered crowd. Her aunt had refused to leave her house, instead outfitting Susan with a pack of clothes, a pack of food, a box of ammo, and a pistol which Susan kept tucked into a side pocket of her pack where it was safely hidden and easily retrieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As she got closer to the crowds, her hand stayed hidden in the pocket of her pack, gripping the pistol. Some dug through cars, looking for anything useful; others chose to sleep in the cars; and still others, like herself, continued to walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When dawn broke over the hills, Susan sat down by the side of the road to take a break. She shrugged out of the packs and moved the pistol to her lap, under the edge of her sweater. In the food pack she found breakfast bars and pulled one out. A woman stood looking at her, a question clear on her sunken face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAre you hungry?\u201d Susan asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The woman nodded, and Susan pulled out another breakfast bar and offered it to the woman. \u201cThank you,\u201d she said, her voice soft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Susan was still working on her own breakfast bar when she realized the other woman had already wolfed hers down. \u201cStill hungry?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The woman nodded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou can have more, if you tell me your name,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m Susan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAura,\u201d she answered, slightly rolling the r.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Susan handed her another bar. \u201cWhen was the last time you ate?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThree or four days.\u201d Aura took her time with the second bar. She took a breath as if to speak but remained silent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat is it, Aura? You can tell me.\u201d Susan had finished her bar and wished she\u2019d brought more water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI came for my cousin, he\u2019s a migrant worker,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the fields?\u201d Susan asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou haven\u2019t eaten in three or four days?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo. We ran out before the border, and the coyote put us in a van that dropped us in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019re welcome to travel with me,\u201d Susan said. \u201cI can use the company.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aura\u2019s eyes pooled with tears. \u201cThank you. I\u2019ve been so scared. Some men tried to\u2014,\u201d she faltered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI can imagine.\u201d Susan showed her a small flash of the pistol in her lap. \u201cWe\u2019ll keep each other safe, yes?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes. I\u2019ll carry this one.\u201d Aura stood and lifted the heavier food pack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAre you sure?\u201d Susan asked. \u201cIt\u2019s heavier than the other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes, but it\u2019ll get lighter as we eat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019re a smart cookie,\u201d Susan said. \u201cWhat did you do before you came to the US?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFactory secretary,\u201d she said. \u201cAll I needed was a little English, and to smile at the gringo bosses.\u201d Aura smiled a crooked smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYour English sounds perfect to me,\u201d Susan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was going to say your Spanish sounds perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They looked at each other for a moment, trying to decide if one of them was deluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Susan gave up on the question. \u201cAnd your cousin is here somewhere?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLast he said, he was in the vineyards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo, northeast of here, in the valley. Then that\u2019s where we\u2019re headed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Susan tucked the pistol in her pants pocket and shrugged on her pack. They were ready to get back on the road when a low rumble from the south got their attention. The slab was doing something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A thin cylinder, the size of a skyscraper, extended from the bottom of the slab. It detached from the ship and slowly moved down. As the bottom of the cylinder disappeared behind the buildings, a roiling cloud of dust and ash rose around it. When it stopped moving down, the top expanded to a sphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sound rolled across them, like an extended explosion, the leveling of skyscrapers in a crushing destruction. Susan felt a moment of relief, knowing that it was downtown, and not in the suburbs of her aunt\u2019s place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The slab started to move, for the first time since it had shown up, gliding north. Susan and Aura watched it glide overhead, large enough to be a city in its own right. Neither moved, transfixed by the spectacle, and frozen by indecision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The slab stopped less than a mile ahead. There it sank until it seemed to be on the ground. It stayed there for more than an hour. The illusion was broken when it finally did set down completely, dust rolling out from all sides as it sunk tens of meters into the earth, crushing any buildings, vehicles or heaven forbid, people unfortunate enough to still be under it. The sound of rumbling, felt through the ground itself, lasted for several minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opening like a flower, the former top of the slab stood as four triangular sides, perpendicular to the ground. Slowly, those sides folded out at ground level, studded with unfamiliar buildings and landscape. When it had finished, a new city lay directly ahead of them, straddling the freeway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A voice carried on the wind, at once incomprehensible, and completely familiar. \u201cThe Empire claims the star Draesis and its system, as vital to the needs and desires of the people of the Empire. It is the will of the Empire that this wild system be civilized, and the natives be made full citizens. As a token of respect for the natives, the Empire has renamed the star Draesis to its native name of Sol. We offer food, shelter, medicine, education, and the technologies needed for this world to house a trillion. Armed resistance will be met with force. Those who wish to maintain their primitive life will be offered a place to do so, once we have established a safe reservation. After this world is civilized, the Empire will modify the second and fourth planets of the Sol system for habitation and open them up for all citizens of the Empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCome to the nearest outpost to join civilization and leave behind your scrabbling in the dirt. We offer the culture and teaching of thousands of worlds, over thousands of millennia. You are now citizens of the Empire, and as such, have all been inoculated against all known diseases, and given your universal translators. Long live the Empire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Susan looked at Aura. \u201cD\u2014did you understand all that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes, it was in Spanish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI thought it was in English.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUniversal translators?\u201d Aura asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMaybe the nanos? I don\u2019t know.\u201d Susan looked back at the outpost. \u201cYou\u2019re really speaking Spanish?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes. And I guess you\u2019re really speaking English.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Susan nodded and took a deep breath. \u201cWhich way, Aura? Try to go around it to find your cousin, or back to the city?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAround. The vineyards are no more than a day\u2019s walk from here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fleets of flying vehicles poured out of the outpost, heading in all directions, but the bulk of them headed south towards the city. The roar of a prop engine got their attention. A vintage fighter plane zoomed overhead, flying low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The plane zeroed in on the outpost and began to fire. Green sparks shimmered in the air above the outpost, the machine-gun fire doing nothing. Then a loud whoosh<\/em>, and the plane disappeared in a cloud of dust. The sudden silence was shocking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cArmed resistance will be met with force,\u201d the voice said. \u201cLong live the Empire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Susan and Aura turned east to move around the outpost when one of the flying vehicles landed nearby. Susan gripped her pistol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo!\u201d Aura said. \u201cThey\u2019ll turn you to dust.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nodding, she released her grip on the pistol and took her hand out of her pocket. They stood silent, waiting to see what was going to step out of the vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A short figure with wrong proportions stepped out. It had two short legs, a stout torso, two long arms that almost reached the ground, and a bald head above. A mask covered the lower half of its face, and fine, iridescent scales covered the rest. Large blue eyes with no visible sclera and a slit pupil scanned side to side in wonder. It wore a skin-tight garment in stripes of green and gold, without visible seams or joins. Apart from the head and top of the face, only the hands, covered in the same scales, were visible. It had three fingers and a thumb on each hand, with a small, vestigial nub where a fourth finger might have been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHello, native females! I\u2019m Alacurananaxin, but you can call me Nanax,\u201d it said. Its voice was strange, and whatever language it was actually speaking sounded impossible for human speech, with its clicks, pops, squeaks and hisses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m, uh, Susan, and this is Aura.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAre you male or female?\u201d Aura asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBoth and neither. My kind are hermaphroditic; we can both lay and fertilize eggs.\u201d Nanax\u2019s eyes turned a darker blue as a hint of uneasiness played around them, then returned to their bright blue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat makes for an uncomplicated dating pool,\u201d Susan said. \u201cKind of envious. How many of you are there?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the outpost? In the expedition? Or in the Empire?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are just over 50,000 citizens in the outpost, and 6,000 outposts on this planet. Over 700 trillion in the Empire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s 300 million aliens just landed on Earth,\u201d Aura said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRight! And there\u2019s another trillion lining up to colonize this system. You\u2019re lucky we discovered you before the Conglomerate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDiscovered? You discovered<\/em>?\u201d Susan was agog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cNow you know how my ancestors felt,\u201d Aura quipped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFair enough.\u201d Turning back to Nanax, Susan said, \u201cI suppose the Conglomerate are the bad guys and the Empire are the good guys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNothing so simple,\u201d Nanax said. \u201cWe have a colony at the closest star, the one you call Alpha Centauri, and the Conglomerate have been trying to expand to our borders. It\u2019s all about space to live. The Empire\u2019s not perfect, but I\u2019d rather deal with our AI Emperor and elected cabinet than the Conglomerate\u2019s autocracy. Besides, they sterilize worlds and settle. We colonize and try to incorporate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI guess it does<\/em> sound better than the alternate,\u201d Aura said. \u201cAlthough I wish you\u2019d have left us alone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nNanax ignored the comment. \u201cI\u2019m so excited to take part in this colonization,\u201d Nanax said, eyes tinged with pink. \u201cI heard you natives were tetrapods and I just jumped at the opportunity! So many hexapods and octopods and decapods in the Empire. We tetrapods only make up about twelve percent of the population. Oh, your nanos show that you\u2019re dehydrated. Would you like some water?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur nanos show?\u201d Aura asked. \u201cHow are you seeing them?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m a doctor, so I can see every citizen\u2019s health status when it\u2019s deemed necessary.\u201d Nanax reached into the vehicle and pulled out two containers. \u201cHere, drink up. Doctor\u2019s orders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Susan took one of the containers and tried to twist off the top. It didn\u2019t budge. She tried to pull it off, still nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nanax\u2019s face animated with unvarnished amusement. \u201cSilly me, I should show you how to open it.\u201d Taking another container from the ship, Nanax held it up. Pulling the mask down, Nanax blew on the top and the seal popped open with an audible hiss, after which Nanax drank down the entire container.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Susan blew on the top of the container and it popped open. The container grew cool in her hand, and she took a test sip. Water. Nothing special, just water. As she drank it down, she saw concern cross Nanax\u2019s face. \u201cWhat?\u201d she asked, before she realized the pistol was peeking out of her pocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou should dispose of that weapon before you get any closer to the outpost. The automated defense system may vaporize you for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThanks for the warning, but we\u2019re going around the outpost. We have to find her cousin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSimple enough.\u201d Nanax focused on Aura, then seemed to stare off into space. \u201cYour cousin is in a vehicle heading for the outpost. He should be there in\u2026,\u201d Nanax\u2019s eyes closed and fingers twitched, \u201cfive minutes. Sorry, had to convert from Imperial timescale to local.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow do you know it\u2019s him?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe shares the right amount of DNA to be the offspring of one of your parent\u2019s siblings.\u201d Nanax\u2019s eyes turned a pale yellow. \u201cDid I get that wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo, you didn\u2019t. We have to go to the outpost,\u201d Aura said. \u201cGet rid of the gun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Susan pulled the gun out her pocket, dropped the magazine, pulled back the slide to eject the round in the chamber, then handed the weapon and magazine to Nanax. \u201cHave a souvenir,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nanax\u2019s eyes turned bright pink. \u201cThat\u2019s\u2026 that means a lot to me. I understand how important weapons are to a warlike culture. I\u2019ll cherish this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWarlike? Fair enough,\u201d Susan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wrapping the pistol in a piece of cloth and stowing it in a box, Nanax said, \u201cIf you\u2019d like, I can give you a ride to the outpost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Susan looked at Aura, who shook her head. \u201cThat\u2019s all right, we\u2019ll walk. It\u2019s not far.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOkay, stay safe! Long live the Empire and all that!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the outpost, Aura\u2019s cousin whisked her away from Susan. Unsure of what to do, she was considering returning to the city when a tall, four-armed creature with six eyes accosted her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCitizen,\u201d it said, \u201cplease, follow me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Susan shrugged. Despite the strangeness of everything around her, there was no sense of danger. The creature led her to a small room and offered her a seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She felt something tickling her mind; eerie but not frightening. In a flash she knew the history of the Empire, all 3,731 races that inhabited it, and how their government, elections, and money worked. She knew their measurement systems, for time, mass, length, and temperature, and all the derived units based on them, energy, area, force, volume, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat history, it\u2019s just what the Empire wants to teach, right? To look good to the natives?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSecond age,\u201d the creature said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBloody. Horrific. How could they\u2026 oh.\u201d The horrors the Empire wrought in the Second Age were part of the knowledge she\u2019d been bestowed. Not the sort of thing a whitewash would leave behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou look strong for a human,\u201d the creature said. \u201cWould you prefer a manual task?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Susan thought about it. \u201cWhat about your faster-than-light travel? Can I learn that?\u201d She was certain that would be forbidden knowledge for \u201csavages\u201d like herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAstronavigation and physics. You can find accommodation near where you entered. Be back here tomorrow to begin your lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next two weeks were a blur, her mind filling with concepts she doubted any human physicist had even pondered. She knew the secret to folding space, and once learned, it seemed simple. When she finished her training, she spoke to the captain of the incoming transport ship and secured a spot on the return voyage to the Empire\u2019s center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Susan had just enough time to take a flyer to her aunt\u2019s place to say goodbye, then she\u2019d be leaving on a shuttle from the outpost. After returning from a night at her aunt\u2019s, on March 31st<\/sup>, another 6,000 outposts landed on Earth, and Susan left it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"prompt: Write a story that spans a month during which everything changes. available at Reedsy It started on March 1st. Or rather, it ended on March 1st. The world as she knew it, that is. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[208],"tags":[210,228,209],"class_list":["post-2231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trunk-stories","tag-fiction","tag-science-fiction","tag-short-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pxT7i-zZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2231"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2234,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2231\/revisions\/2234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}