My main objection was to visit a planet I had not seen, and I liked the Black Galaxy, it is where SSARG was, the Pale Planet, and Toso was. And now I had heard of a planet called Life, I was in my 184th year of life, and I didnt expect to live beyond another five or so. This was or could be a good place to live, retire on. I had heard about it, the legend that is, that no one died on this planet, that Death had killed Death. That the people lived in peace, slept well, ate well, and had all they wanted, nothing more was necessary; all the basic needs were met.
Having filled my spacecraft, and now taken a seat in the cockpit of my ship, I fastened my belt around my midsection, and upper chest, and directed my spacecraft to increased in speed rapidly, as I had directed the commuters to head toward this spot in the middle of the galaxycalled Life.
I landed on a plateau surface of the planet, it was midday, and as I flung open the door and walked about, I found it was inhabited. Semyle, king of this part of the planet, and his sever; wives met me a distance away from my vessel. When they asked me my name they grew frantic. Said the king to me, as he showed me about his large city, That you may understand me, Tangor, and as you can see I am in shock somewhat, I must convey to you why. Several thousand years ago, we preyed hard and long to our great God of the Universe, and perhaps we anger him, for we got our wish. He sent death down to us, so we could see him in humanoid form. And he stood by me, intuitive he was, warn out he looked and I was given a knife to cut his throat, to rip out his heart, and I did just that. And we buried him in the abyss outside of our city, sealed the top of the abyss, there his remains remain in solitude. But there are ghouls there that guard him, and we fear they know each and every one of us too well.
The king then showed me around his city of twenty-five million inhabitants, said to me now, We have two hundred cities on this small planet, and each city has twenty-five million people, and 70% are in need of constant medical care. We try to perfect uniformity from hospital to hospital, for most of our kinds are in hospitals, between 1000-to 7000-years old. We do not any longer, allow our citizens to give birth to children; we cannot afford to feed them. It sounds to me like death is perhaps your brother, or a relation; its name is Congor that is why I was surprised when you told me your name. I am betwixt.
I did not dispute his unhappiness with what his planet had tired to do, and in the process created misery for it, but I did not want to go down into the twenty-five mile abyss into its planets material crust. Lest I never see daylight again, and be buried alive for a thousand years; but I was not given much choice, it was either do that, or theyd destroy my ship. The thinking of retiring here had just faded into oblivion. One might say I had a perfe ct indifference, but then seeing all the sickness death preserved, it was not pleasurable, a novelty indeed, something I had never seen before, nor expected to see.
As I was lowered into the Abyss by way of an open-ended, simple square box, I descended, mile after mile. Air was thin, but the abyss above was open, and the kings men were pumping air into the lower sections of the abyss, by way of tubes. As I looked up, scarce was daylight: meditating the next few miles, it bothered me that these ungrateful people were using me so, thinking I had some kind of mixed blood with this creature they called The Death Giver.
During several humid hours down in the tunnels of this planet, looking for the right path, tracking the course they gave me, written on the back of an animal skin, I found myself, my body in a horrid fatigue. The walls were cool, wet and mocking, that is to say, my imagination was getting the best of me I think, and sensations of my bodys fatigue weak ened me, along with mental exhaustion.
There, there lay a man in a pyre, his heart in his hands, and his throat cut. I hesitated for a moment, swung around he pyre several times, it was reeking with death, shadows tried to accost me, as if death wanted to rest, or sleep forever. Then I got thinking, death cheated this planet, and offered it life, and give itself death in its place, impetuous it was to get the job done quickly before they put two and two together. And these shadows, ghosts, were guarding it.
One ugly looking ghoul gripped me by the hand, with a vicious punch on the nose, I fell backwards, it had iron fists, and my teeth splintered under its impact. I yelled, but it hung on to me, romping all over me, trying to chain me to the pyre. My scalp had an open wound on it, I got hit by a second shape with something, and deluged me with blood, blinded me, as I stumbled; their black eyes found satisfaction in my bloody nose, they started to laugh knowi ng I suppose Id bleed to death down here, only to wakeup chained to the pyre, and bleed to death a thousand times more. But as they were holding their bellies and laughing, I picked myself up, grabbed the fresh looking heart, and placed it back into the mans chest cavity, I heard a voice from the Ghoul, Keep off him! But he was rising, and heard them all snarl. I stepped back; I did not want to touch him.
How long has it been? said Death, to me?
I think several thousand years. I said painfully, almost wordlessly.
When I come to myself again, I will be up there looking for many, and then he started taking the bandages off his wrists and ankles, as I rushed back to the box to take me back up.
When I arrived at the top, I explained to the king all that took place, he was most grateful to me, and I was allowed to go that very day, should I wish to, and I did wish to, my ears spilt, nose broken, I figured once Congor got up to the surface of this planet , there was going to be double dying going on.
So my ship took off, I saw Congor standing by the king, as they both waved to me, and then Congor touched the king, and as the king looked to his side to see who had touched him, I saw the king trying to push the man away: he didnt recognize Congor, yet discernment told him who he was.
See Dennis' web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com
Author:: Dennis Siluk
Keywords:: Short Story
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