By Zathras (Architect of The Great Machine)
Date 2005-07-03 09:10
A flash of light and burning heat. A Prometheus passes as the vismetal starts cracking.
"Oh no", Zathras remembers thinking, and then nothing.
When he came to himself, badly injured from the blast, he couldn't remember his name.
He was in a Serco military hospital, the prison wing.
Slowly some memories come back.
A Valkyre passing at top speed, rockets barely missing the ship.
The incredable feeling of lonelyness that can only come from smuggling. The smell of an old EC-class ship.
Further back. Childhood. History channel on holovision.
What was the name of that programme again? He dosn't remember anymore.
It was a collection of old files from Earth One that someone had collected from the data storage of an old archival computer.
Hidden in there, along with the history of the Earth, between how bravely Napolion of the French fought off Hitler of the Germans and the Chineese invation of Atlantis, was a historic record of a war long past.
As the young man lie there, recovering from being cought between a Valk and a Prom hammering eachother, he had nothing to do but reconstruct theese memories from childhood.
The story was something about a man named Sinclair that went back through time to save the world from a war long gone, and to save it again from a new war. It was all rather confusing.
Only one thing remained clear.
That man. That odd little man, and his allmost identical brothers.
How would one tell them apart? The human tongue and the human ear cannot speak and hear the difference between their names. They are one, yet separate.
They live to Serve the Great Machine.
It's hard to tell if it was the coctail of drugs the Serco kept in his system, the loss of memory, or the serious injury, but slowly the young man started to identify with theese silent heros of the past.
"Zathras just does as he is told" he whispered to himself in the dark.
"Nobody listens to Zathras" he muttered when the Serco nurse/guard broght him what was supposedly food.
When his condition got stable enough for an interregation the Serco wanted his name, rank and serial number in the Itani Warmachine.
"Zathras dosn't know. Zathras was just cought in the crossfire. Zathras was out transporting goods, but no longer remembers what. Zathras is confused and tired."
The Serco Officer looked at him like he was some kind of animal.
"Do you remember what happened?"
Zathras twitched.
"A rocket cracked Zathras' vismetal plating and the pressure of the cabin blew out the viewport."
Zathras shook his head and uttered some sort of clicking noise while rubbing his hands together.
The Serco looked like he hated his job at this point.
"What rocket? Where did it come from? ANSWER! NOW!"
Zathras was startled. He shook his head and said:
"No no no. Nobody listens to Zathras. Zathras says he does not remember, but nobody listens."
"You look like you're UIT", the Serco Officer told him, "No implants like a proper human should have and certainly not Itani scum either."
Zathras looked at his hands. Nope. No scum visible.
"Where did you come from? Why were you even there?" The Serco Officer looked like Zathras was about to become lunch.
"Zathras does not remember. Zathras was just flying around in his old ship. Zathras was not doing anything to damage the Serco Dominion!"
This went on every day for weeks, pressuring the young man further and further into the delution that he was Zathras, from another paralell universe, that had become unstuck in time and space and had come here, to this time and space, completely by accident.
All he could remember from the blast was the flight computer saying "YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF AN AVALON TORPEDO", which did not make sense to the Serco, since there is no such weapon.
The Serco grew tired of his apparent lack of intellegence and let him loose.
He got a pass that said "Imbicile. Of no intrest to the war effort. Free passage to UIT space." It was signed by the Serco Officer.
What does Zathras do when he is no longer a Serco prisoner?
Zathras shook his head and went over to the loading docks.
"Hello cargo loader man there", he said, "Zathras wants to go to UIT space. Zathras is tired of this Serco and Itani conflict and being cought in the middle. Zathras wants to be a trader and mind his own business."
The Serco dockworker looked at him like he was some kind of animal.
"Eh?", he said, "Who the hell is this Zathras character anyway?"
Zathras shook his head.
"This is Zathras", he said, poiting to himself. "Nobody listens to Zathras."
By Anonymous
Date 2006-07-21 02:53
Seven degrees of Zathras... I don't belong to the guild, I don't even play the game. I did fall in love with the TGFT live 365 station though... I was especially interested in the Zathras radio spot, so I googled the name and ended up here.. I hope there's more to the story, this is great stuff! Keep up the great work, I hope to hear more Zathras on the radio as well. Well, back to work.
By Zathras (Architect of The Great Machine)
Date 2006-07-21 06:10
Don't. Point them out to me instead, since your editing won't teach me any english.
I am, afterall, Norwegian.