Khal got them first class seats on the plane to D.C. Rene considered protesting, but what was the point. Khal was worth the combined wealth of of several countries, and could just as easily have gotten them there on a private plane. Hell, he could have made a caravan of people carry him there on their backs if he wanted. At least he was being somewhat environmentally conscious by keeping the flight relatively simple, insomuch as he was capable of really caring about the planet.
First class was nice. Rene didn’t particularly care for planes, but riding in seats with actual legroom seemed to help ease the stress of the trip.
Of leaving Emory behind.
Of going before leaders of the world, and forcing them to do what Khal and Rene wanted them to do.
Of putting his life and his families lives on the line to save the planet.
As much as he had wanted to ignore the idea all these years as a concerned father, the planet that Rene was leaving behind for his daughter, for any children that she might have, was going to be a steaming pile of shit.
The world was a trash heap, the oceans gasping their last breaths as they choked to death on plastics. Entire species were perishing every day. Super storms were becoming a weekly event, and forget about the infrastructure to keep up with these changes in violent inclement weather. Humans weren’t prepared for what was coming. What was truly on the way down the pipe. Rene knew this from every science book he picked up. He knew that the same backwards ideals keeping women subjugated in a pointlessly male dominated society, the ideals keeping minorities under the thumb of a homogenized leadership of old white men, even when true equality would benefit everyone, were the ideals turning a blind eye to the horrors of trash and pollution poisoning the water and earth.
Money.
Power.
An addiction more harmful than any drug known to man.
And what would it get them in the end? Dull little lives living down in their luxury bunkers while the rest of the world burned?
But here they were, Rene and Khal, with the tools, with the ability to create change, to make the planet a happy little utopia to celebrate their goddess’ gifts.
Rene looked at Khal, and confusion swept over him as it often did now. A waterfall of memories had been pouring into his mind since his last seizure two months ago. He now remembered everything, every single moment he had known Khalid in his past lives. Every intimate detail of their many lives together.
It was a conflicting cascade of emotions. He saw now beside him the very first man he had ever loved. The man with whom he had run away from home, stumbled blindly into the desert, and been saved by the grace of their merciful goddess. The man he had adored so strongly that would have done anything in the world to protect him. He still felt the butterflies he’d had back in his first life when he looked at Khal now, but it wasn’t quite the same. It was like a ghost of his former emotions.
He remembered the way that Khalid had watched him as he fished as young Lestari. The look in Khalid’s eyes as though he was always in awe of him. As though he feared if he looked away too long, Lestari might disappear forever.
Rene remembered Khalid’s attempt to save him, or rather her, on the slave ship. How she had looked into those beautiful kind eyes as young Sim, and begged him to save the others, even as life was leaving her body.
He recalled being Charun, and every sweet kiss, every delicious meal Khalid had prepared him. Every tender touch.
It was hard to revel in those sweet moments when he could also see the look on Khalid’s face when he’d been caught after killing young Colin, and sweet Ashlin.
Rene knew the horrors that Khal was capable of. The cruelty that he had effected on innocent lives, like Frank, and Jeff Aquino, and all the other victims.
And…
The itch in the back of Rene’s mind was threatening to grow as he scratched it briefly. The truth, perhaps. A thought, waiting to spill out and hold him by the throat.
He knew what Khal was capable of.
It was his job now to make sure Khal made the world a better place, and that all of his victims had not died in vain.
*****
Getting into the Capitol was a breeze. They had considered using Khal’s wealth to help them receive a warm welcome, but Khal had insisted on stealth instead. He didn’t want anyone to look into him before they had a chance to arrive and take control. So now, Rene watched in awe as Khal made eye contact with everyone they met, and everyone that passed by, and in no time had all of them under his control.
He gave an exaggerated shiver as they walked down the hallway. Many who had been about to leave were now following him back to the chambers where they could hear Congress in session, ready to vote on a new bill regarding sending aid to Ukraine and Israel.
“The minds here are like the sludge in the bottom of a dumpster.” Khal said. “You wouldn’t believe how little some of these folks are willing to sell their souls for. A few hundred dollars, and suddenly it’s a-okay to poison an entire town with a new oil refinery. And why would they care? They’ll never have to meet the poor suckers whose children are dying of cancer.”
“That’s why we’re here to do something about it.” Said Rene. He gave Khal a grin, a warm smile that he hoped would bolster him as he did what he had to do next.
“We’re going to clean it up. All of it.” Said Khal.
Rene nodded.
They entered the chambers where hundreds of people were chattering. Some turned to look at them, and Khal immediately caught their eyes. Rene walked with him as they slowly made their way around the chamber, looking from person to person. Khal was quick to catch the news crews and make sure they weren’t filming him. Rene kept a lookout for anyone else who might be filming, tapping Khal’s shoulder when he caught in intern turning her phone toward them. With one look from Khal, she stopped filming, and even looked to be deleting the video.
It took about twenty minutes to cover the entire room, with Rene checking the doors to see if anyone was coming or going. His heart was thrumming as they walked along, Khal dropping pebbles into mind after mind. Rene was half exhilarated, and half terrified. Khal now had access to some of the most influential minds in the world, and Rene had to hope that he would do the right thing in this situation. The room was full of governors, lobbyists, interns, news crews, and likely a number of folks with very deep pockets and a great deal of influence.
There was no turning back now.
Rene watched as more and more people grew quiet, until finally Khal had looked into every single set of eyes in the room.
Khal took his hand suddenly and squeezed it, “Hey, you’re with me on this, right?”
Rene nodded, forcing a smile, “Of course.”
This would be what Aset wanted.
Khal made his way up to the podium. The speaker of the house stepped aside without a word, and Khal stood front and center so that everyone would hear him. Not that he needed to be heard, as he was already a voice in their heads.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Said Khal, “I want to introduce myself. Along with my-” He paused, and looked at Rene. “Along with my partner here, I’m the man who is going to help you all change the world for the better. You are just a step along the way of course, a squabbling group of banshees and greedy imbeciles who get to govern because you won a popularity contest in your state. Not because you’re actually capable of doing the job you were voted in for, but because you had the most money thrown behind you by some looming corporate shadow whose interests were never the common person, but always the same old story of wanting more, more, more.”
Khal looked around, and Rene too was glancing at the governors, wondering how many of them were even good people. How many of them were capable of giving a shit about anything except their own pocketbook or reputation.
“Years ago, you all sat in here, shitting yourselves in terror as insurrectionists stormed the Capitol. I see in your minds now the utter terror of that day. Many of you still have nightmares, PTSD, and yet, what have you done to prevent this from happening again? What are a good deal of you doing to actively cause something like this to happen again? And for what? For votes? For fear of the death threats that will reach you and your families if you didn’t vote in the interests of a dictator wannabe, whose followers worship the very ground this malignant narcissist treads on?
It’s not just him though, is it? Nor his followers. And it’s not just megacorporations lobbying you to keep the status quo because goddammit, profits have never been higher! Board members have never been happier! The American people, and people all over the world have never quite gotten to enjoy this level of inflation suffocating the life out of them. Starving their children. Rendering them homeless. And then having the guts to declare them the disease! The problem! As they fight to find a place to live, to survive, but never get the chance because they are trapped in a system that treats them as the scapegoat when the real villain is buying yachts that are choking this planet and ravaging our seas!
No, it’s not just these billionaires, is it. Not just their megacorporations. It’s also other world leaders. Brutes, that even now are sending their soldiers to the slaughter to murder countless innocents. Families, mothers, guiltless children and babies, brutalized daily. These megalomaniacs have their hands in many pies, bouncing many tennis balls of distraction as their armies of misinformation explode out through the internet, inspiring thoughts of division and chaos with a simple click of a keyboard.
So that they can have everything. These leaders. These wealth hoarders. Something is diseased in their brain, addicted to a force beyond heroin, cocaine, meth, or even gambling. Unless you consider the gambling they are doing every single day to the planet. The gamble of how much time it will take until we are past the point of no return. Until we have wrung every last scrap of blessed life from the crust of our great planet, and the sad few left will rot away in their bunkers, begging for a time machine to undo what they’ve done.
I am here. I am that time machine. I have walked Earth for over 500 years, and I have watched the wrath of humans slowly rip everything down. The sands of my childhood have grown exponentially, and are blowing around even now, ready to turn this great globe into a fiery dustbowl. Your children will be the first to starve. Their children will only begin to know the struggle that we are all so insulated from in our electronic bubble. Your services, your phones, and computers, tablets, and smart-watches, are a wonderful distraction from the demons on the horizon. They are also being used to manipulate you. Farming your information, and shutting you off from the world with a few algorithms designed to keep you pacified.
It’s working. The world doesn’t seem so scary when we can scroll on to the next thing. But the planet will not wait for us to finish all of our tiktoks, check Facebook, open fifty tabs of porn, browse Reddit, or look up a cute sweater design on Pinterest while we load our shopping carts on Amazon. One day, she will be done with us. Bit by bit, she will destroy us to protect herself. She cannot continue to provide for us. She is tired. She is sick. We are making her sick, and in turn, killing ourselves.
So, I come here as a gift to you. To all of us. I come here to make our world a better place, and you’re going to help me do it. You’re not going to hide behind your parties anymore. We will no longer be a two party country, an us and them world. Everyone’s voice will be heard, and voices of reason will be followed. We will make every effort to truly understand what needs to change, as advised by those who have spent their lives working in those fields of knowledge.
This is no longer a popularity contest. From today on, you are not the banshees screaming for attention from 24 hour news sources beamed directly into the eyeballs of infirm voters who aren’t afforded the daily stimulation that would allow for critical thought. From today on, you are representatives of your people. The people of America, and the people of the world. Because make no mistake, our little blue dot does not see the country divides that we do. Divides that change over time regardless. What we do in this country, affects the world. What we spill in our waterways, poisons the waterways around the globe. Our air blows across the planet to China, just as theirs blows back over here.
We are only self contained on a global scale, and that is the only scale we should be working on. This is about saving the world, and the world is everything. The smallest mushroom, the largest Sequoia, the most vibrant oasis, and the deepest trench teeming with life. All of them exist here with us, and we exist with them, and if we think killing all of it is worth the profits of the short term, numbers on a computer, scribbles on a whiteboard, then we are most grievously mistaken.
Now, I’m here. Your time machine. To take you with me into an alternate future. The future you would never have accomplished with all of your infighting and division. I’m here to save you, to save all of us from the inevitable, when the world is run by those thirsty for the fountain of more. Everyone, everything is going to change. It has to. As scary, as utterly horrifying as change can be, it is the only constant of existence. It’s going to happen, regardless. You’re the lucky few who get to be there from the start.
Mark today as the day you began to act as human beings.
Mark today as the day we saved the world.”
Khal looked directly at Rene, who for the first time in a long time looked at Khal with something like reverence.
Maybe, just maybe, Khal had meant everything he had said.
Stories From Montana 