“I need back-up NOW!”

The year was 1472, and the once-lovely planet known as “Earth” was smack-dab in the middle of a fifth world wide war.  The rumbles of sub-terra tunneling bombs made it hard for Qake to hear anything on his inner-ear communicator.  One of these rumbles in particular was getting stronger by the minute.

“GET OUT OF HERE,” Qake yelled to his men. “IT’S ON OUR TRAIL!”

His men scattered the area jut in time, as a little orb of light emerged from the side of the trench that they were huddling in, grew to a size of about twenty feet in diameter, then vanished, taking along anything that was caught in it’s shiny, perfect roundness to the Alternate Version, where anything caught in these sub-terra bombs went, forced to live the rest of it’s life in boredom.  There was no way out of the Alternate Version, and because of that, every soldier was given an extra gun with a single bullet.

Of course, nobody really knew for sure or not if that’s where you went, for all they knew the Alternate Version could be a non-stop party with lots of cake, as one man speculated a few years ago.  However, any good parent always taught their children that cake was a lie, so people tended to not believe this theory.  Even if that was what it really was, no one was going to risk it, because the people who had tested the sub-terra bombs had never come back; either because they couldn’t, or because they didn’t want to.

A yell warning of advancing enemies stopped Qake’s day dreaming. He peeked over the side of the trench, and saw a wall of the ugliest creatures known to… well… anybody.  Their distorted faces, mammoth appendages, and puny brains  only  stoked the fires of rage, and made Qake want to exterminate them all, so that no one had to look at something so revolting ever again.

They had come from The Flip Side, a place much unlike the place where Qake and his men were battling now.  The Flip Side was located underneath The Terra, where Qake and his kind lived.  While The Terra covered the outside of planet Earth, The Flip Side covered the inside of the Earth, which was hollowed out several hundred feet under the ground.  The orb of molten iron, also called the “core”, that was found hovering in the center of the Earth’s gravitational center, worked as a sort of heat and energy source for the residents of The Flip Side and, although it worked quite well, it was not as good as the Earth’s sun, and several battles had been fought between Qake’s kind and their enemies over the Terra side of the planet, because Qake’s enemies wanted the better side of the planet and, of course, Qake and his kind didn’t want to give up the better side of the planet.  Now the enemy was trying again, with more men, new technology, and, it seemed, more passion.

Qake was once again jolted out of day dreaming, this time because the enemy had discovered the line of hidden mines the hard way, and a huge explosion had resulted from that wonderful find.  The enemies that were not killed from this explosion retreated back to their side of the battlefield.

For the next few minutes there was complete silence.  No gunshots, no sub-terra bomb’s rumblings, not even a cricket dared make so much as a complaint that it’s home was being ruined.  Then a rock flew over the ground and landed neatly in the middle of the trenches with a thud.  Everyone was wary of it, wondering if it was some sort of new bomb, but they figured that if it was, it would have exploded by then.  Plus, there was a note attached to it.

Qake grabbed the note off the rock, opened it up, and began to decipher the enemy’s language.

“It says this,” Qake spoke loudly so his men could hear. ” ‘We have constructed a device that will replace your cities with ours, your people with ours, your customs, animals, and very lives, with ours.  When activated, our people, cities, and items, will be transported in a beam of light to your world, and will cover your world.  This is very bad for you, because your kind will be destroyed in this process.  This is the only reason we have not used our ultimate weapon yet; we wanted to give you the chance to give up, trade spots with us, and continue living, albeit in another location.  We want your answer within the hour:  surrender, or be exterminated.’ ”

Qake stopped reading the note, and looked up at his men.  Many were disbelieving, but most had a look of fright, because it was possible for these creatures to create a doomsday device such as this.

A pause consisting of more silence.

“Well? Do we surrender?”

Many people were quick to yell out ‘no!’ but some people shifted anxiously, as if they weren’t sure if they should risk it.

“Section leaders, come with me.”

The leaders of the different sections of the trenches followed Qake into a little hole in the wall that temporarily served as a meeting quarters.

“Well…  I suppose the fate of our people rests on our shoulders.  We’ll take a anonymous vote.  Since I don’t want the pressure of the decision on my shoulders, and we need an odd number of men, I shall sit out and tally the votes.”  With that he passed out several slips of paper and some spare pens that were sitting around.

Each section leader took one of both and mulled over their decision, until, one by one, each slip of paper made it’s way back to Qake.

He reached out and opened the first one.

“Fight.”

He put the card away in a separate pile and opened the next one.

“Fight.”
“Surrender.”

“Fight.”

“Surrender.”

“Surrender.”

“Fight.”

“Surrender.”

Qake paused.  This next card would determine the fate of his people.  Slowly he reached out and opened it.

He read it and put down the card.  He picked up a spare piece of paper and wrote a response on it.

He lobbed the rock with the note crumpled around it over to the enemy’s side of the trenches.

The enemy commander picked up the rock and took off the note.  His men gathered around him as he began to read.  “We acknowledge that you hold the power of our life or death…”

Qake and his men lined up in the trenches

“…but we do not give up so easily, just as we do not give up now.  We will fight to the death, no matter how soon that moment may come.”

The enemy commander looked up at his technician.  “Fire the switch.”

Qake tried not to notice the ominous humming noise growing ever louder in the background as he addressed his men.

“Men,” he said.  “We have decided to fight. We don’t know that they actually have a machine that could destroy us instantly as they state.”

A bright stream of light shot up in the sky, but Qake made an effort not to notice.

“You have fought well for your land men.  I don’t know what’s going to happen now, but I am proud of all of you and…”

The dome of a brilliant light started to quickly expand over the battlegrounds.

“…I salute you.”

With that he stood as straight as he could and saluted his men, with them following suit, and they were engulfed in the light and never seen again.

The Humans had finally won.