The Conquering Wolves
The year was 3022 AD. William Wolf gazed through the wind screen of his latest model FTL-22 (Faster Than Light By 22 Times) indigenous space craft as he cruised off into the starry night sky. The earth disappeared in a fraction of a second to become a pin-point far away. It had been a smooth take-off from the Wolfdon Space centre. William was on the lookout for a new planet for earthlings to colonise. They had been colonising planets for centuries now.
They had now spread to remote galaxies and most of the habitable universe had been colonised. Initially the original inhabitants of the colonies had put up a stiff fight but thanks to the earthlings’ far superior weapons, all rebellions had been put down effectively and ruthlessly. The Radometer (advanced sound receiving device that can catch sound waves accelerated to speeds faster than light) crackled with static and William’s wife Wilhelmina Wolf’s voice came across two billion light years as clearly as if she was speaking from a seat next to him.
‘Hello William, how are things?’
‘Doing fine darling, how are Jacqueline and Michael?’
‘Celebrating the anniversary grandly.’ Wilhelmina replied laughing.
‘Oh! That! I am not sure why we earthlings keep up that charade going even after a thousand years of the event?’
‘Well, we need some excuse to exchange tidings of joy and to spread goodwill among ourselves!’
‘Oh! Well, I guess it is better than doing nothing!’
‘Okay dear. Keep in touch.’ Wilhelmina replied and signed off.
William kept a steady eye for any new planets that showed signs of being inhabited. Suddenly he saw that his advanced computer system for detecting microscopic movements in planets beep four times. That meant an inhabited planet. He zoomed his visualiser into the area indicated by the coordinates and was startled by what he saw.
But I thought we had wiped out all of this species in 2022 AD, thought Michael to himself. He switched on his Radometer and spoke to his boss Mathew Wolf at the command centre at Wolfdon.
‘Planet Alert! Inhabited planet detected. Near Wolfomeda galaxy 2.5 billion light years away. We wolves believe that we had gotten rid of the earth’s dominant species Homo Sapiens commonly known as human beings a thousand years ago in the year 2022 AD, right? Sorry to report this, but we were wrong. I regret to inform you that I find they are still flourishing in this new planet I have located. Get the forces ready and prepare for invasion.’
I love short stories and this is the perfect example of one – short, gripping and a twist in the tale.. not to mention it has what Tagore considered to be an essential element of short story – "like it ended but it didn't really end"
Thank you Sinjana for those words of appreciation and the praise.
Very futuristic. It would be wonderful to drive through space in a fast vehicle. Great imagination.