With the city back to its orginal glory, we turned our attention to Earth. It will not happen again, not as long as I have a life to live. They must pay for the chaos they had caused.
Back on Earth...
"I can't believe I'm hearing this. You told me that they wouldn't survive! Your head is going to roll without its body!"
"Forgive me, sir. We had no idea that they would have help from one of our own. Take a look at the photos we recieved from one of the survived pilots. It points out a ship that one of our own has built. His name is..."
"Chester, I can't believe that you are risking this. You simply can't go without us! We're a team!"
"I know, but they will kill you as well as me if we're seen together. I can't risk you lives on this journey.
"But what happens if they decide to take another chance to destroy the planet?" Ryan asks.
"I leaving you with enough firepower to take out any opponent! I have faith that if they do come; you'll be able to defeat them without my help. Hopefully, they won't try again, not after what we did to them the first time. And if they were going to, they would have done it while we were clear up the rubble. I'll return as soon as I could."
The ship took off and started its long journey back to Earth. The ship was built and lisenced there so I shouldn't have any trouble getting in. As the ship past the asteroid belt, I went to the holding bay and got my watch out of the limo. I don't need it, but I want to have it - just in case.
As I past Mars, the Earth Patrolers, as they called themselves, asked for my identification and registration. When they got them, they arrested me for being a traitor to the planet.
Sitting in a cold cell, I saw some people from Clone-Earth or maybe they were from Earth. It's hard to tell; the citizens on the moon Io did orginiate from Earth. I whispered to a few of them; they were from Io. Captives, arrested for being part animal. It was hard for me to understand the situation from this perspective.
"So, this is the traitor!" a man said as he approached my cell. "Cleaver of you to return to Earth to save you animen friends."
"I didn't come here to do that. I was wondering why you would attack a community that hasn't posed a threat to you or this planet. They're not even considering retailiation for your actions. Now I see that it is more than that; you're now taking hosteges."
"They're not hosteges; they came here, just like you. But they came so that they could be human. But that's not going to happen; in a couple of days, they will be sent to the firing squad. And shortly, you'll be joining them. I can't believe that they will actually give you a trail." The man left the cell and exiting the room.
"At least time is on my side." I said hopelessly. "I should have brung them; at least I would have a slim chance of escaping with my life."
"Is that you?" a person rang out. I searched around and found the person that was talking to me. "It's been awhile. We all heard of the attack and managed to escape, but not without being captured. We know what they're planning to do to us. They believe that we're just animals. Too bad that they will never know that we are as smart as them."
"That's the problem. They don't want a species that is equal to them. They'll destroy you and me to be sure that they remain the smartest beings in the universe." I looked up and looked though the hole in the cell. It was Tor! He manged to survive the attack on the Space Base. "I brung Lion's Paw with me. If we could get out, we might make a clean get-away."
"It's no use, I know I've tried. The bars are electified. Even with super strength, the bars will always win."
"I have a way to eliminate that problem long enough to get away. Stand away from the bars, it could blow-up!" A shot fired from the watch and struck the bars. The bars blew out - all the electrified bars.
The resulting explosion triggered the alarms, panic broke out. Tor instructed them to follow me; I had the only way off the planet. The guards blocked an exit, a pair of lions attacked the guards; the guards and a lion were killed in the confrontation.
Outside, the ship was in view. An excited group made a daring run to the ship; a trio of cheetah cubs, a thin tiger, and a pegenate panther were the only survivors or that group but they weren't in the clear. The guards in the towers were still firing their rifles at them. A series of explosions from some unknown source took them out.
The door to the ship open, and everyone quickly ran up the ramp, including the female panther. Inside, the answer to my question was answer, Tim stole away. The explosions were time detentinated bombs. Including the five from the first group, there was a total of seven survivors; I didn't include Tor, Tim, or myself.
Even inside the safety of the ship, we were still in danger. If we don't eliminate them soon; they will! Because it was a vacant building; no one but the ones inside would be killed when the place goes up.
Weapons were locked onto the target, awaiting my command. I couldn't do it; they didn't deserve it - in my opinion. I learned that to kill isn't the only way to avenge others. I let them live for now; if they captured any one from Clone-Earth ever again, I wouldn't be so merciful.
I got a lot of stares from my decision. It was like I was going to; I told them that it shouldn't happen again. If it does, the building will crumple to the ground.
Returning to Clone-Earth, I begun to look into the history of the Animen and Clone-Earth. I was curious on how they were created and to find out why that there is a conflict with mankind and animalkind.
Clone-Earth was created around the same time that I recieved my morphing ability. No one, except for an elected few knew of the change. Clone-Earth was either created to aid human expansion or to prove that it takes Earth-like conditions to support life. In this demension, both theories seemed possible; they had the power to venture out of the solar system.
The animen, on the otherhand, were created in a lab in Western Kenya. They were the product of splicing human and animal DNA to form one being. The area where the lab was stationed gave me the creeps; it was too close to the lands I preserved many years ago.
The sole purpose of the animen were to be the first line of defense against war. Life strong enough to take out human life in a second, without the aid of weapons. But twenty years into development, the program was canceled due to world wide peace. The animen couldn't get jobs because of their appearance. A humans ability to stand upright and verbal speech, but the animals appearance and superior strength. I guess humans were afraid of being replaced by an animal counterpart.
Ten years later, the animen were forced into rockets and were sent to Clone-Earth by Anti-Animen Groups. They may have been anti but they wanted to help the animen from a life of poverty. The plan worked. Living on Clone-Earth, the animen population grew to be half of Earth's - 3 billion people.
Some of the technology onboard the rockets helped them build their bases and their NASA prgram; they changed it GASA - replaced "National" with "Galactic". The two space programs shared ideas and were able to explore the outer reaches of the Milky Way - and eventually the known universe.
After reading the history, the main conflict was still a mystery; it was probably jealousy. Jealous of being far superior to humans. Or it could be out of uselessness. Once war and conflict no longer existed, the animen had no place amoung human society. A new idea came to mind: and increase of population. Animen could have many children at once; like their animal counterparts. The area needed to grow food for the animen would be triple of that of human needs. Only the labs in Western Kenya would hold those answers. I would need to go their to find out - first hand.
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