12/21/12 - The Trial of the Imago - pt 6.

Yeah, drink that !@#$ing beer down, son. We're operating at six for me to one for you, and this part needs a good !@#$ drunk to be able to tell.

So where were we? Oh yes. Oldest living withered crone hosting a malevolent alien intelligence just outed yours truly in court. Everyone there's just wheeled around to look at my fine, gay !@#$, and all I can do is stare back and shrug... at least for a moment.

And then I realize exactly what she means. And it takes everyone there to keep me from pulling out the two guns they didn't  !@#$ing confiscate and shoot the nasty !@#$ full of holes, right then and there.

* * *

SPYGOD: You !@#$ing genocidal whore! You !@#$ing !@#$headed smear of ET !@#$! I'm going to shoot you so !@#$ing full of lead they'll be picking !@#$ing pieces of you out of the walls in !@#$ing Norway, you withered... gah... (incoherent cursing)

Dir. Straffer: (REDACTED), this is no good. Please, calm down.

Judge: Order! There will be order, here!

Dark Star: (Maniacal, incoherent laughter)

Mr. USA: Stop it, (REDACTED). Please. It's alright.

SPYGOD: The !@#$ it is! She's the one! She's the one who !@#$ing set us up, (REDACTED)! She's the one who !@#$ing set us against each other-

Mr. USA: I know. We both know, now. Let her finish the story. 

SPYGOD: I've !@#$ing heard enough-

Judge: If you have, indeed, heard enough, then perhaps you should leave the courtroom until we are ready for you to give testimony, Msr. SPYGOD.

Defense: If it would please the court, I would like to recommend he be removed entirely. I think we would be poorly served by letting a witness for the prosecution kill one of the defendants. 

Winifred: Speak for yourself, !@#$face.

Judge: Young lady, you will be quiet-

Defense: Nothing he has to say is of any use to the conclusion of this trial, quite frankly. It can be entered into evidence without his presence.

Prosecution: I respectfully disagree. I would really prefer to have him here.

Judge: Very well. If we are done trying to kill the defendant...?

SPYGOD: ... yes. I'm done.

Judge: Are you, msr. SPYGOD?

SPYGOD: I am, yes. 

Judge: Good. Then we shall take an hour's recess, and come back to this point. In the meantime, Msr. SPYGOD, I suggest you relinquish all your weapons before re-entering the courtroom. One more outburst of any kind from you, armed or not, and I will throw so many contempt charges upon you that you will wish you were sharing the defendants' fate. And that goes for you too, young lady. 

SPYGOD: She'll behave herself, your honor. We all will.

Judge: See that you do. This court is adjourned.

* * *

Oh yeah, that was embarrassing as !@#$. I really don't like people to know that I have those guns, any more than I like them knowing about the sword, or a few other nasty !@#$ tricks I've got up my sleeve.

As for self control issues, well, !@#$, son, we just listened to that !@#$ cackle about eating the world's children for fuel and running their parents' electric cars on the overflow current. If anything, everyone in that courtroom should have been pulling out hidden weapons and carving the !@#$ up like it was !@#$ing Christmas.

(Especially Winifred. After what she went through I'd have !@#$ing applauded if she'd grabbed one of my pieces and let the !@#$ have it.)

But yes, I bet I know what you're thinking. How the Prosecution just sort of rolled the !@#$ over, there? Well, it will be important, later. But for now let's go on with the big !@#$ story, here.

So they let us out, and I hand over my guns like a naughty schoolkid who got caught with a paper airplane. Then we all go downstairs, and the first thing my boyfriend asks me is "how many things?"

And I say "A whole !@#$ing room."

A minute or two later I'm !@#$ing smashing tables, windows, and computers in a small room no one's using. Straffer's in the room, watching to make sure I don't go out of control, and the Owl's outside, running sonic interference. Everyone else is off getting coffee or a smoke or !@#$ knows what. 

And I smash and crash and break and wreck !@#$ing everything in there until I can finally stop seeing red, and start breathing regular again. And then I'm two seconds away from needing the mother of all drunks to !@#$ing kick in and knock my brain back from thinking. But fortunately Straffer's there to smack some sense into me and tell me I'm no good to anyone if I'm blasted out of my mind and hallucinating, again.

Yes, it involves the mother of all kisses, son. And thank !@#$ he's good at those. 

So we brush off as much of the sawdust and plaster flecks as will come loose, I wash up in the men's, and we get the !@#$ out of there before anyone walks in and has the mother of all freak-outs at what happened to a large room full of innocent office stuff.

Then we're all back upstairs, and I'm back in the courtroom with that nasty, withered !@#$, again. And she's just looking at me, quietly cackling. 

And I know we're in for a good time, now. 

* * *

Prosecution: So, to begin again? You said that SPYGOD was the one who told you that this... I'm not certain how you say it-

Dark Star: (UNINTELLIGIBLE CONCEPT), human.

Prosecution: Yes. That. He told you it was coming?

Dark Star: Yes, he did. And he was not alone-

Prosecution: Is that man in this courtroom?

Dark Star: No, he is not.

Prosecution: I am not certain what you mean. 

Dark Star: There's this SPYGOD, here, who at least has the courage of his convictions. And then there is another SPYGOD. Someone you have not met, perhaps, but someone you have seen.

Prosecution: And when have we seen him?

Dark Star: Shooting the American President on television, of course...

(GASPS)

Dark Star: ...except that was not the President, either. Except that it was. 

Prosecution: I do not understand...?

Defense: This is new to me as well. We did not discuss this.

Dark Star: Allow me to explain. There is another Earth, traveling besides yours in space. It is your closest parallel, and it is, to your sensibilities, at least, a dark reflection of this one. Those scientists who know of it call it Alter-Earth. And I suspect its existence has been kept a secret to avoid panic, as well as having to avoid telling your rather squeamish citizens about what things are like there.

Prosecution: And how are they?

Dark Star: Quite hideous. I think I will spare you the details, given how poorly you took the truth about what we did to you, for all those months. 

Prosecution: And what is your connection to this world? This Alter-Earth?

Dark Star: A very complicated one, now. Initially it was so much simpler. We had each had information that the other wanted. But then we took advantage of a coincidence too great to leave alone, and then things became rather... baroque, for want of a better word. 

Prosecution: You have our full attention, I assure you.

Dark Star: In the early 1950's, we were clandestinely approached by two individuals, both claiming to speak for their world. A man and a woman, both possessed of a fierce intelligence and very savage appetites. They had actually been here for at least a decade before, she infiltrating certain circles within America's Strategic Talents, and he lurking in the background, keeping an eye on certain developments. 

Prosecution: Certain circles? Could you be more specific?

Dark Star: When she surrendered to the Allies, after your second World War, she claimed to be Dr. Gertrude Hoffstatler. I believe you know her better as Dr. Geri Yesterday? 

Prosecution: The wife of the late Dr. Robert Yesterday? The one you took over and turned into, the Motion, was it?

Dark Star: The same.

* * *

Now, right about now, Mr. USA and I are !@#$ing looking at each other. And neither of us is wanting to say what this means. 

You'll remember that, a long !@#$ing time ago, I told you that Gertrude was the conjoined twin of Gerde Hoffstatler, who learned a lot of sick !@#$ at the vivisection lab of Dr. Josef Mengele. Gerde who vanished after the War only to show up later as the !@#$ing leader of HONEYCOMB. Gerde who then spent way too much !@#$ing time telling us how we really should just accept her crazy-!@#$ ideas of a perfect planet, under her rule. 

But then, we only had Gertrude's word to go on that, now didn't we? That Gerde had a conjoined twin was a matter of record, given the exactitude of German pre-war records. But could we be so !@#$ing sure that the Gertrude we knew was the actual twin?

Think about it, son. For all we know, the nasty scar on her back could have been self-inflicted. Or maybe there was a Gertrude and Gerde over on Alter-Earth, and they were separated as well? What would have stopped her from killing the real Gertrude at some point and taking her place?

And it's not like we actually got the !@#$ing chance to interrogate Gerde, now did we? Crazy !@#$ jumped to a nasty, atomic death the second she realized the main H.I.V.E. was compromised, back during OPERATION BUGSMASH.

So that was our little mind!@#$, right there. The nice person who made cookies, talked sense into her crazy!@#$ husband the mad scientist, and actually did the real brainwork when her hubby couldn't figure out what to do was actually an evil twin, all along. 

And that meant that she'd had access to !@#$ing everything all along.

So we looked at each other, and the look he gave me was something along the lines of "We need to talk, later."

And mine said "You're god!@#$ !@#$ing right."

Back to the front of the courtroom:

* * *

Prosecution: And who was the other?

Dark Star: At first, we did not know. She said he was her protector, and he did not care to speak. But we soon came to realize that he was as much a part of the venture as she was. He just preferred not to converse with her in front of us, so they could conspire and have their lies well-prepared.

Prosecution: So these were not trustworthy allies?

Dark Star: Far from it. On Alter-Earth, duplicity is the norm. To be honest is to be weak. And weakness is destroyed, along with the weak. 

Prosecution: I see. So you eventually discovered that this man was SPYGOD's... twin?

Dark Star: Yes. The same man, in most respects, but just slightly different.

Prosecution: Similar enough to be able to kill the American President on television and have others believe it was him?

Dark Star: Similar enough to pass any number of mental and physical scans, so that there was no doubt amongst America's Strategic Talents that SPYGOD was the culprit.

Prosecution: But that would not come until much later. What did they come to you for, and with, initially?

Dark Star: A cooperative project, designed to save both of us from the onslaught of (Unintelligible Concept). 

Prosecution: And how did they know of it?

Dark Star: Their parallel had also been visited by a reflection of it, roughly a million of their years ago. Unlike this world, records of that time survived, handed down from the advanced race that once lived on that world and was destroyed by nascent humanity, there. They knew it was coming, and had some ideas on how to stop it. But they needed access to our world to see if their plans had merit. 

Prosecution: Why?

Dark Star: Two reasons. This world is actually going to be the first one visited, by a factor of a year and three months. They hoped to see if their device worked here, first, before trying it on their world. And, as we later learned, were also quietly planning to move their own people over here once the thing had been and gone, in case the device did not work. That way they could either wait here for their world to be ravaged, and then return, or else rebuild on this new Earth. 

Prosecution: And the other reason?

Dark Star: Apparently, when our world was visited, it was not ravaged as badly as theirs was. There was something here that kept it from being completely annihilated, and drove it off, to an extent. 

Prosecution: Which something was that?

Dark Star: That is not known, even to us. But we know it has something to do with the structure in ABWEHR's Antarctic redoubt, which you call the Ice Palace. The answer lies within the Chamber, and she had quite a bit of access to it, once your SPYGOD took control of it, and after, once it was just her and Dr. Yesterday and the United Nations watching over it. 

Prosecution: And did she discover what she needed to know?

Dark Star: That is the strange thing. She never told us. After she shot Dr. Yesterday, thus denying us a total copy of his mind and inventive skills, she left us. 

Prosecution: Now why would she do that?

Dark Star: We do not know. We tried to get her protector to tell us why, but he claimed ignorance. He said that this was just her way, and that if she fouled up our plans it was doubtlessly for a good purpose. And as a sign of his good faith, such as it was, he continued on with the plan to replace the American president, and kill the replacement on live television, thus discrediting SPYGOD and keeping him from stopping us. 

Prosecution: And this plan was yours?

Dark Star: It was. We needed him out of the way, you see. We knew that, if he knew what we had planned, and what we really were, he would stop at nothing to destroy us. We initially thought we could wait to do this, of course, but then he decided to go on the offensive, after decades of a somewhat pathetic stalemate. So we had to advance our plans, and perhaps this was too much too fast for Geri's liking? We do not know. 

Prosecution: What else did this plan entail?

Dark Star: Oh, many years of small things. Once we realized that her protector was the near-exact duplicate of SPYGOD, we decided to have some fun. There were many times that he was less than sober, thanks to his personal failings. On those times, we would sometimes have him pretend to be him, and do strange and unsettling things to make him seem less reputable an individual. And since he would not remember these things, he could not say whether he'd done them and forgotten, or not. And he'd either deny it, or blame it on mind control. (evil cackle)

Prosecution: Well, that's quite diabolical-

Dark Star: Oh, that's nothing. When we learned that Mr. USA and SPYGOD had been feuding since World War II, we decided to make certain that America's most powerful superhero was also neutralized. 

Prosecution: What...? How?

The Owl: What?

Dark Star: We found out his darkest secret, and used it against him. And we had our SPYGOD call him up, and threaten to take full advantage of it, if he didn't do what we wanted. 

Prosecution: And what did you have him do-

Mr. USA: I killed people. 

(Gasps)

Judge: Sir, you are out of order.

SPYGOD: (REDACTED) Sit down and shut up. 

Mr. USA: I sat on my hands and did nothing while terrible things were going on. I looked the other way and let them do whatever they wanted. I remained silent, though I wanted to scream. And I betrayed my world, my nation, my oaths, and my friends. 

SPYGOD: Oh god...

Mr. USA: And I did it all for love, which is pretty sad when you think about it. 

Dark Star: Yes, it is. (maniacal laughter)

* * *

And that was the end of that day's worth of testimony. 

And the end of a few other things, besides.

(SPYGOD is listening to Kiko (Dead Can Dance) and having a Tenebreuse)

12/21/12 - The Trial of the Imago - pt 5.

The next day of testimony was nowhere near as much of a mind!@#$ as the day before. We didn't talk about other !@#$ing dimensions, space gods in disguise, or the like.

Instead, we talked about horror.

See, it's like I said, son. I was at !@#$ing Nuremberg. I remember everything that went on there, clear as a !@#$ing bell. I remember when they grilled the architects of the final !@#$ing solution about what the !@#$ they were thinking when they just sort of decided to !@#$ing kill the millions of people they'd told their citizens it was !@#$ing okay to hate, fear, and turn in for a big !@#$ "Attaboy, Citizen."

And I remember them just sitting there, in the witness box, and telling the story like it was !@#$ing nothing. Just another !@#$ day at the office with Adolph and Heinrich... 

...

And I also remember that I wasn't at Nuremberg, actually. I was somewhere else. Somewhere I'm still not !@#$ing allowed to talk about.

Now how the !@#$ing !@#$ did that happen? It's like I can remember it, clear as !@#$ing day. The whole !@#$ing thing, too...

...

Okay, another mystery for another !@#$ing day when I'm not trying to tell a !@#$ story. Maybe it's the beer, or maybe it's weird-!@#$ !@#$ I don't have time to deal with, right the !@#$ now. Onward we go.

I was at the Imago Trials. I sat, I listened, I mostly kept my !@#$ mouth shut, and then I testified.

And then I !@#$ed myself. Hard.

But we're getting to that. Really.

* * *

Prosecution: ... so you eventually figured out how to escape the prison this other, more powerful race had constructed for you.

Green and Yellow: Yes. Obviously. 

Prosecution: And what happened then?

Green and Yellow: We marshaled all the energy we had been saving for millions of your years. We focused it on one small, tiny corner of the city. We threw everything we had at that corner, with no regard for our own lives or safety. We all lost much of ourselves in the gambit, and some of us lost their lives...

Prosecution: I'm sorry? Was there something more?

Green and Yellow: Oh yes. There was something more, and now it is gone. If I had but a tenth of the power I once had, I could kill everyone in this room, here and now, with barely a thought. I could destroy most of the city immediately thereafter. I would not need to steal your bodies to do it, either. 

Prosecution: But you are diminished?

Green and Yellow: I am. We are. We crippled ourselves trying to escape. 

Prosecution: Did you know this would happen?

Green and Yellow: Yes we did. We were not stupid. But our love for one another was so great that we would have all gladly laid down our lives just so that one could leave the prison, and see our race returned to glory.

Prosecution: And one of you did manage to leave?

Green and Yellow: You ask me a question you already know the answer to. 

Judge: He did, yes. Please answer that question. 

Green and Yellow: One of us did escape, yes.

Prosecution: Is this person here, today?

Green and Yellow: She is, yes. To me, she is Absolute Black and Bright White. You know her as Dark Star. 

Prosecution: She does not look like you.

Green and Yellow: No, she does not. Her encounter suit was discarded long ago, when she made contact with the human she harnessed.

Prosecution: And just for clarification, by "harnessed," you mean "took over."

Green and Yellow: Yes. She came upon a small, fishing vessel, far off course. Inside of it was a young girl who had been thrown out to sea in a storm. Everyone else on board had been long dead, and she was insane from thirst and hunger. So I suppose what my sister did to her was something of a mercy.

Prosecution: Killing her.

Green and Yellow: You make it sound so pedestrian. We do not kill. 

Prosecution: I beg your pardon-

Green and Yellow: It is given. We are the Imago, human. We change. We absorb. We harness. That young, dying girl was harnessed by Absolute Black and Bright White. Her memories, experience, and skills were absorbed by her, and added to us. She lives on in us, as has every human we have absorbed. We have given her immortality. 

Prosecution: Did you ask, first?

Green and Yellow: Of course not. Did you ask your last meal if it minded that you add it to you, for as long as you might live?

Prosecution: I happen to be vegetarian, but-

Green and Yellow: Oh, the things I could tell you. 

Judge: Perhaps it would be best if you confined yourself to the questions you are asked. 

Green and Yellow: Of course, your honor. Do forgive me, human. Your meal was mindless and asking for it.

Prosecution: Well... I am certain a large number of people around the world just breathed a sigh of relief.

Green and Yellow: But now you know how we see you. 

* * *

What they talked about then was mostly nothing you don't already !@#$ing know about, courtesy of my explosive fact-finding missions in China. But it did fill in some gaps.

The monster wearing the girl was Absolute Black and Bright White, and she was something of a legend to the Imago. I guess that's why Dark Star could !@#$ing suck the life and memories out of your !@#$ head by just !@#$ing making eye contact, instead of having to !@#$ing touch you, like the others. She fed off sealife and anything else she could get her !@#$ eyes on, and rowed back to shore, somehow. 

And then she !@#$ing blended in, using her skills to infiltrate the military in the best way she could. She let those degenerate !@#$s in the Japanese underworld take her off to the brothel, knowing she'd make military contacts once her skills were noticed. After that, it was Manchuria, Unit 731, the creation of GORGON for her own needs, and then she !@#$ing vanishes, leaving the Japanese high and dry just as the War's come back to their !@#$ing doorsteps. 

After that, the Imago had learned enough about human biology to be able to modify it to their needs. And their number one !@#$ing need was to open their prison up and let them all out. But the people who'd thrown them in there had been smarter than that: you couldn't get out (in !@#$ing theory, anyway) and you couldn't get in, either. Not without the !@#$ing key.

And that thing was well !@#$ hidden, thank you very !@#$ing much. 

So they went out into the world to try and find the !@#$ thing. And that's when GORGON came to be, as I understood it. Or at least !@#$ing thought I understood it. All the time they were doing crazy super-science-terrorist !@#$, they were actually looking for the Object. Which, now that I think about it, explains a whole !@#$ of a lot.

And when they weren't doing that, they were !@#$ing marshaling their forces, and copying their technology as best they could from outside the prison. They were also taking control of the things that their jailers had patrolling the outskirts of their !@#$ing city, just in case something came back to try and bust them out.

Yes, son. The DEROS. Those massive things weren't supposed to be in league with the Imago, or GORGON. They were supposed to be watchdogs. But I guess if you beat and feed someone else's dog long enough, it'll start calling you master. And that also explains a whole !@#$ of a lot.

So they took control of the outside of their jail as best as they could, and used the DEROS to provide energy and defense. And they made massive submarine bases around their new tools, and infested the !@#$ing Irian Jaya. All getting ready for the day they got their !@#$ turtles in a row, and could march them into the !@#$ing sea in triumph.

And then, at long !@#$ing last, they found it, and then they took it. They were able to go down and open the prison up, and let their people out.

Which is where the really sick !@#$ began.

...

So that's the last they got out of Green and Yellow, for that day. They had an hour recess, we all got some snacks and came back, and when they started back up again they got that withered old Dark Star !@#$ up on the stand.

Now, you have to remember, son -- this !@#$ is nasty. This is the one who can !@#$ing kill you by just !@#$ing looking at you. She's a stringy old crone, creeping up on being a !@#$ing century old. And yet, as frail as she looks, and as !@#$ed-up as she seems, she's all there and more upstairs. Her eyes are !@#$ing black, powerful pits, full of hate.

And her voice... Jesus !@#$ing Christ, that wet, overly-friendly voice. Even if you're not looking at the !@#$, it's enough to make your skin crawl off your body and go down the street for a !@#$ing drink.

But seeing her talk? Hearing those words come out of that mouth, with those eyes? 

Dear Jesus in Heaven, son. It's like watching the !@#$ing Exorcist for the first time all over again. And I know that !@#$ scared the !@#$ out of you.

The last time I saw that nasty !@#$ she was yanking my soul out of my !@#$ body, but at least she wasn't !@#$ing talking. Laughing, maybe, but dealing with evil, black laughter is kind of part of the !@#$ing job description.

But here I was, now, listening to her talk all !@#$ing afternoon, in that voice, about the planned genocide of the human race. And throughout it all she kept looking at me, and smiling, like there was some joke we were sharing.

I sure as !@#$ wasn't laughing, son.

* * *

Prosecution: So, Yasuda Aika-

Dark Star: I beg your pardon.

Prosecution: It is given.

(Laughter)

Judge: There will be order.

Prosecution: I beg your pardon, your Honor. I couldn't help it.

Judge: Noted. Please continue.

Prosecution: So you do not wish to be called the name of the girl you are... harnessing? Is that the right word for it?

Dark Star: That is correct. I am not her. She is within me, but I am not her, any more than you are the meal you had several years ago.

Prosecution: Does any of her still live within you?

Dark Star: Her memories, her ideas, her hopes and dreams. These are known to me, but they are not me, not any more than anyone else I have absorbed over the years. I keep those thoughts and memories locked up inside my head, like you keep your books on a shelf. I just happen to be wearing this one's dust jacket. 

Prosecution: I see. Thank you for explaining that.

Dark Star: You are so welcome. May I go, now?

Judge: If you do not wish to testify, you do not have to. But I will not let you back up here when you change your mind, seconds before sentencing.

Dark Star: I apologize. I was trying to make a joke. We should keep this lighthearted, should we not?

Prosecution: So, for the record, what should we call you?

Dark Star: You should call me by my rightful title, which I have earned. Absolute Black and Bright White.

Prosecution: It's quite a mouthful. Is Dark Star alright, at least for the purposes of this trial?

Dark Star: No it will not. You will either refer to me by my rightful title or you will refer to me by my true name.

Prosecution: I fear your true name is not pronounceable. But you have another name, do you not?

Dark Star: ... I have another title, yes.

Prosecution: And that title would be Leader.

Dark Star: Yes, I am the leader of the Imago. I once sat above The Motion, The Sight, The Fist, and The Dragon, and ruled your world while you sleepwalked. I am the one who spoke to you, first, on the day we assumed control. I am the one who arranged for the words to be said by others, and ordered your rewards or your punishment.

Prosecution: So you are... you are the one who developed the plan for what took place over the last year?

Dark Star: Yes, I am the one who condemned you all to die. Green and Yellow was merely our most popular spokesperson, and the one with special duties in the United States of America.

Prosecution: You condemned us to die. Personally.

Dark Star: I did.

Prosecution: And how... how was this death to be accomplished?

Dark Star: For some it was immediate, or nearly so. I am referring to the ones that were absorbed by our False Faces, or else the mentally-damaged ones that we Imago directly harnessed. Some were fortunate enough to be absorbed by one of us. Others were thrown into the Overmind, there to perform the tasks we needed the massive mutability of the human brain to accomplish. The editing of information at lightning speed over the internet, the altering of thought and idea, the endless surveillance. Things of that sort.

Prosecution: And for others?

Dark Star: The children who were sent to the harvesting boxes you thought were schools all died slowly, their memories and dreams leeched from them a little at a time. It was necessary for us to recharge on what they had to offer, and with the surplus we powered our special devices and engines.

Prosecution: What sort of devices?

Dark Star: Oh, come now. Did you not have a nice, new car, Mr. Prosecutor? Did you not wonder where the power really came from?

(Gasps, a stifled scream)

Judge: Order. There will be order in this court!

Dark Star: Every time you drove to the store, a child, somewhere, had its soul sliced open again. And when those children were of no further use, we turned them into servitors and had them process and tend to those children we had not yet gotten to.

Prosecution: My god. ... I...

Dark Star: Come now, good sir. You wanted to know the truth, so here it is. To us, you are raw materials. You are building blocks for an Empire to come. Your sense of self-worth is an ignorant indulgence that we do not care to indulge. You were made to serve those greater than you, just as those things that are lesser than you are yours to do with as you will. And if we chose to let some of you use the byproducts of our needs, well, I believe you sometimes feed your livestock some of what's left when you process them?

Prosecution: And was that what awaited us all? Processing?

Dark Star: Oh no. We only intended to harness the children, but by the end we would have gotten to them all. We planned to tell you that we needed the superior brains of growing children to help us come up with a plan to overcome the threat that was coming, but then we were going to take those children, harness their energies, and store them within our escape craft.

Prosecution: Like batteries? You were going to... all the children?

Dark Star: Yes. All the children. Everywhere. Babes out of the nurseries, even. No exceptions.

Prosecution: And what of the rest of us?

Dark Star: Well, we were just going to leave you, before you proved to be so troublesome at the end. After that, we decided to kill you all and make do with what we had.

Prosecution: But if we had not rebelled, you would have just left us in peace?

Dark Star: Of course! We would have had bodies and energy and a ship, and no need for you. We probably would have destroyed our installations from orbit, and caused Deep-Ten to explode just to be sure you didn't attack us from behind, if you regained your senses too soon. And, yes, we would have annihilated that cursed prison, too, which may have caused the Pacific to go horrendously toxic. But it wouldn't have mattered much.

Prosecution: Well, it would have mattered to us.

Dark Star: Perhaps. But we do not concern ourselves with those we no longer need. It would have been cleaner to kill you all, just to be sure you did not rise up to take revenge. But considering what you now face, you could sit and scream yourselves hoarse for all we cared. For soon you must die, as is the rightful fate of a weak race such as yourselves in the face of what's coming.

Prosecution: What do you mean? What is coming?

Dark Star: The thing we have hastened to escape, human. The massive threat that is even now coming closer to this world, as it has so many before. The thing that was here, once before, and is now on its way back. You might know it as Ragnarok, or Gotterdamerung, or the Decreator. But it is the (Unintelligible Concept) and it is on its way.

Prosecution: And how do you know this?

Dark Star: Other than simply feeling it in our bones, as you might say? We were given reliable intelligence.

Prosecution: Who by?

Dark Star: SPYGOD, of course.

* * *

You ever have one of those moments when  literally every eye in the room swivels and looks right the !@#$ at you, and there's no !@#$ing escape? And, worse of all, you have no !@#$ idea what they were !@#$ing talking about?

Yeah, that was my moment.

Back in a moment, son. Need to drain the alien sex machine. And then some more beer, I think.

A lot more.

(SPYGOD is listening to Opium (Dead Can Dance) and having a Castelain Grand Cru, or ten)