As a hybrid Goggapod /Cockaigian, Chief Prommy was trapped in a dual awareness. The cull wasn’t working as expected. The Goggapods, who regarded themselves as The Legitimate Inheritors, were as innovative…. and devious…. as ever,- hiding in the tunnels of Plurian’s moons: shape-shifting so expertly that even with A.I. advance diagnostics they were routinely identified as unalloyed Cockaigians: using non-galactically recognised W.M.D: in short evading all efforts of obliteration. The new order was unambiguous, one word, “Annihilate.”
Comply or Defy,-.that was the dilemma. The sensation of Goggapods crawling over the proximal tendril’s communication device was a by-now familiar precursor to the resultant odour of a singeing short circuit. Of course the Goggapods were not actually crawling, but to The Cockaigne Higher-ups, and in a half-hidden corner of Prommy’s own consciousness, it confirmed the presence of doubt, possibly treason.
Those acquainted with the subtleties of Cockaigian communication would know that a repetitive flailing of pediments and proboscises, particularly when accompanied by the acrid smoke of electrical dampness, was indicative of profound uncertainty. As newly appointed Communications Technician, I had led a sheltered upbringing on The Outer Rings and was naïve to such indications.
“Commander, What are the orders?” I asked my superior in puzzled if unquestioning adoration.
“Juno, we go.”
I initialised the countdown, Augmented weapons were launched. The Goggapods were monitoring, Commander Prommy knew they would be. They responded by activating AMA, their anti- missile asset. Hostilities had commenced.
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The War to End All Doubts was,- according to the Cockaigian definition of galactic time, which as victors the Cockaigne High Command has enforced,- a long one. Goggapods are now considered extinct. Their habitats have been destroyed and filled over; it is as if they never were.
Commander Prommy was tried for Treason; the verdict of the Cockaigne Gathering, as expected, Guilty. Defence argued as mitigating factor that Prommy had been callously and cruelly created a hybrid with no regard to the sufferings his sentience would cause. Perpetuity rather than Deletion was considered both a suitable sentence and a salutary warning to others.
Between scripting I often think of my former Commander. In retrospect Prometheus is a suitable name for my boss. He himself had wondered at its assignation. In the quiet times between strikes, he often regaled the crew with the ancient yarn of his namesake who as punishment by the Gods for stealing fire and gifting it to the race known as humans in the form of technology, knowledge and civilisation, was condemned to the eternal curse of repeated disintegration, then resuscitation.
Knowledge, technology, civilisation. Perhaps it is a suitable punishment for stealing the secret of AMA from The Mount and transferring the technology to the Goggapod enemies.
It’s the civilisation I can’t help wondering about .
Juno. Communications Technician and Official Historian, signing out.
