Chapter 1 – Living in the Past in the Future
Deep space has always fascinated me.
It goes on endlessly with worlds filled with beauties unlike what is found in
the known universe. As a member of Saint Christopher’s Carriers, it is my job to
carry the Church to the furthest reaches of space to spread the Gospel to those
who haven’t or have yet to hear it. The recent events of the pope’s Infinitus
Anathema decree has made it harder to convert people, but since we own most of
the known universe, we are slowly diverting resources from the army to
research, exploration, and education. Some people call us “live bait” since the
unknown regions are such a dangerous area. I’ve come across my fair share of
danger, however, it’s all worth it to do the Will of God and convert souls for
Him.
When traveling the unknown regions,
I like to get my feet on the ground, breathe in the air, and adventure through the
world myself. Most places I’ve been to are too dangerous while others are livable
but have to be expunged from the remnants of enemy empires or mined for
valuable resources. I’m not able to enjoy a planet for long until I have to leave
almost as soon as I arrive. Thankfully, it seems like I’ve been blessed by
coming across a planet that has a similar atmosphere to earth. The drones that
I’ve sent down to check out the area also seem to have come across a small
civilization. Let’s see if they’re friendly or not.
“This is Carrier Abdiel, ID 1515, investigating
a promising habitable world with signs of life on it. From what I can tell,
they can possibly be a group of people that have been stranded in the unknown
regions for generations since they have buildings, technology, and clothing similar
to that of the middle ages. I’ll be making contact soon and will then give a
follow-up report,” I say to conclude my audio log.
These audio logs are kept on the ship
in a nearly indestructible box in the event a carrier like me disappears. I
land my ship a fair distance away from the town I find and scale a cliff to get
a bird’s eye view of the people. Using the scope on my rifle, I see that they
appear to be a peaceful town. If it weren’t for the black sun and golden moon
that are common in the galaxies of the unknown regions, I’d say this was a place
ripped out of the past. The guards in the town don’t appear to be heavily
armored and even if their armor is made out of something that can deflect my
shots, they have simple swords, shields, and bows that probably won’t be able to
scratch my second layer of light armor.
Following the passive rules of
approaching a settlement, I transform my gun into a sword and leave it in its
holder and hold a cross to my chest with my other hand out as I say to the
townsfolk, “In the name of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, I come in peace bearing His
Gospel. The good news that is life giving and frees slaves from the bondage of
sin.”
People bow their heads as I pass
while some gather as I approach a church.
“Where do you come from, stranger?”
a woman asks.
“The stars under the control of the
Ecclesia Aeternam better known as the Holy Catholic Church,” I answer.
“Catholic? What’s that? You hold
the Holy Cross and say that you come in the name of Jesus. Do you mean
Christian?”
“Of course as Catholics are the only
true Christians.”
“True Christians? What are you
talking about?”
I then talk to them about Christian
denominations and a short history of the Church over dinner. They then tell me
their history and how their ancestors told stories of their origins from the stars
and how they managed to live on this planet through generations. In terms of
other people on the planet, there are no others at least none that this town of
people have seen. My drones haven’t come across any other signs of civilization
either. Their story is a rather simple tale, but interesting nonetheless. I relay
what I hear and say back to my ship with my recorder and also note that my
theory that animals from other planets taste like chicken and steak still seems
to be mostly true.
Since these people seem fine, I
decide to stay for the day and sleep in one of their many inns. I want to
experience the middle ages. This age is romanticized by some in the Church as
one of the grandest eras of the Church. I see the appeal in honest hard labor
as I go from doing farm work in the morning to helping in the town in the
afternoon, but I’m glad to live in the future where this hard labor is much
easier to do. I’m sure that if the people who love this era so much actually
live through it then they’d change their mind.
In addition to working, I also go
to daily mass. The way they conduct mass is very much Catholic and from what I
hear, they seem to be Catholics. We haven’t gone further than the surface of
our beliefs so I may need to question them on that to see if I need to send a conversion
squad here to teach them the fullness of the truth that only the Church has. For
now, I send my drones out to further scan the area to see if there’s anything special
about the nature of this planet. The scans that I’m reading are strange as it
seems that the soil has biomaterial in it that is similar to that of people.
Seeing this new worrying gets me to
send out a drone that shows me a scan of what lies beneath the soil to investigate
this further only to find bodies and a series of tunnels beneath the ground.
What’s strange is that the bodies underground appear to come from below it
rather than be dug down into it. That explains why I didn’t notice them at all while
I was farming, but I’d rather not remember working on top of them. What kind
of place is this that does this sort of thing? Scanning further reveals people
working below and doing some kind of work with the bodies of other people.
I have to stop this, but I can’t do
it on my own. Sneaking outside, I head back to my ship only to find that
something or someone was damaging it. Hold on. I think they’re still around
here. Something is in the darkness around me that I can’t see so I turn on my night
vision to try to find it. Seeing small heat signatures, I slowly approach them
to find a small group of kids with parts from my ship. Knowing that they’re
caught, they drop what they’re holding as if they never had it in their hands.
“I know what you did, but I’m not
going to be angry. What were you doing to my ship?” I ask them.
“That’s a ship?” one asks.
“Yes.”
“We were just coming home from
playing and found it and played around with it. We didn’t know it was the ship
you came on.”
“What did you think it looked like?”
“Like a ship that you sail across the water
on.”
“Understandable considering the environment
you grow up in.”
“Are you going to tell our parents
on us?”
“Not if you give me the parts you
took and you tell me one thing that I want to know.”
The kids scramble for the parts
they took and give it back to me while one asks, “What do you want to know?”
“Why are there bodies beneath the
farms and what are they doing underneath the town?”
“Oh, um. It’s to consume God every day in everything we eat.”
“Explain more.”
“We consume objects and people that
have God’s presence in them so that we can be filled with Him even more. That
includes vegetables, bread, drinks, animals, and people.”
“Why people?!”
“Don’t worry! They willingly do it.
They prepare themselves by being sinless and don’t sacrifice themselves until
they’re ripe enough. They then bury themselves alive and become part of the soil,
drown themselves in the rivers, or are made to be part of the food we eat.”
I’m already sick thinking about eating
something that had people in it and I don’t want to think which part of it was
human.
“Are you okay?” another kid asks.
“No, and neither are you. Eating
people isn’t okay and it isn’t holy. I’m going to bring the Church here to fix
this.”
“Fix this? What are you talking
about?”
I run back to the ship with my parts
and begin repairing what was damaged as quickly as possible. I’m not sure if
what those kids were told was the truth or not so I’m going to escape while I can.
There are too many cases of people trusting native people or enemies pretending
to be natives only to be killed by them or worse and never heard from again. If
these people are misguided by whoever taught them their practices, then it
should be no problem that I’m leaving for a little while. Dang it. I was hoping
to find a good planet to relax and find interesting discoveries on only to find
this. God have mercy on me for being so selfish in my desires.
As I enter my fixed ship, I see
people in the distance walking to me. This can’t be good so I quickly take off
and send a message to the Church with a report on what I discovered.
“We’ll be there with a conversion squad
and an escort of the Knights of the Sacred Blood of Christ to aid you. Give us
around five hours to assemble and arrive. Do not continue contact with the town,”
is the message I get back.
Okay. That’s a reasonable amount of
time especially since I need to get rid of the bad taste in my mouth and see if
I need to confess to unknowingly eating human meat. The promised squad arrives
in about four hours and thirty minutes. We go down to where the town was only
to find it abandoned. It seems like they left in a way as if they knew what to
do if their secret was discovered. Investigating an area beneath the church
reveals a door to the basement where my scans picked up the people who were
buried alive. Unfortunately, there are no bodies here though there are signs
that this place was recently cleaned as the smell of blood has stained the air.
We’ve also discovered that the
tunnels go deeper beneath the planet. They didn't cover the stains of blood going down the stairs despite their thorough cleaning efforts. We’re probably going to take this planet
since it’s a livable planet with decent resources. If we find the people I came
across deeper in the planet or somewhere on it, we’ll either convert or
eradicate them. Part of me wishes that I never came across the horrors they
were doing while another part knows that it was God’s Will that I find it, so
they made be converted or punished for their actions. Why do so many horrors
have to exist out here?
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