Dear Earthlings... Letter From a Dying Race

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Those in Saturn never knew what it meant to embark on intergalactic travels, they never understood it. But they had just made a very important breakthrough in their research on space travel, and circumstances necessitated that they put it to test. Not with animals as test subjects this time, but with Saturites, real blooded Saturites.

Dear Earthlings,
My name is Miko, and this is the story that only I could tell you...

First, I must say that it was I who found the key to travelling at light speed; I Miko, I did so myself. Now however, I wish I hadn't, and I'll tell you why.

Saturn had been rocked by three civil wars in the past eight years, and from each one Saturites had emerged even more united than before. The last war however, did not only affect the lives of fellow blooded Saturites, it also did something to Saturn itself, something which triggered a regretful series of events.

Southern Saturn had learnt from experience the advantage of using science in warfare; this was a lesson meted out to them by North Saturn in the two earlier civil wars. So during the third, South Saturn had turned to science, and they had created the weapon that would not only win them the war, but also render our planet inhabitable. This weapon was the talking cats.

It was smart, It was deceptive, but it was science at its best. In the few months that preceded the war, news had been making the rounds that scientists were working hard at an invention that would enable animals talk. It was said at the time, that such an invention would enable Saturites understand their domestic pets better. The first success the news told, was recorded with cats, only that this success wasn't at all related to any sort of understanding between Saturite and pet, it was far deadlier. But the Northerners didn't know that, not until the war came...

The war was swift, less brutal, but at the same time it was stomach churning. The Southerners had had themselves immunized against the deadly virus of the cats, and without doing any proper fighting, they had won the war. All it had taken were the words of the talking cats, a large number of talking cats, and game over. But that was just the beginning, the real war only began when the civil war ended, and even the Southerners didn't see this one coming.

As more cats continued to speak, the virus continued to spread, and though it didn't initially affect the southerners, It started affecting Saturn itself. Crops died, large areas of fertile land turned deadly, and most of the animals began to die off. It was slow, but it was constant. And in the last one year alone, more southerners have died from starvation than northerners did from warfare. Plus the immune we took had now become powerless to the virus.

It became a war between Saturites and cats; virus releasing talking cats. And this war we couldn't win. The cats proliferated with surprising ease, and it almost seemed like the ability to speak gave them a mind of their own. It was at best an experiment gone wrong, and at worse, we'd just created our own hangman and gave him the go ahead to execute us. We needed to do something, and quickly.

The authorities ordered us to work. By us, I mean the scientists of Saturn. We were given a special headquarters, and we worked non-stop all day of the week, taking shifts as we did so. For three months we worked as hard as we could, and while more Saturites fell, and the cats increased, we made little to no progress at all. And that was when I found it...

It was as accidental as accidental comes. While searching through the archives for a clue, any clue that could help us out, I stumbled upon an unfinished research work on light speed travelling. I know not why it was I who found the research, but I found it and that was it. It took me no more than fifteen minutes of skimming through the papers to realize that my A17 thesis on molecular energy coupled with this research would make space travelling a reality...

...

It was a no brainer, it was our last hope. We had to leave Saturn, and we had to leave now. We had only just concluded the construction of the space shuttle, but there was no time for a test run. So the order was given, and all three hundred and fifty of us went aboard. We were the survivors; those who managed to see through both wars against fellow Saturites and against talking cats. We secured the shuttle, and off we went into space, three weeks ago.

We headed for earth, for obvious reasons. From all research ever done on Saturn, earth was the only planet we ever suspected to possess life. Still we weren't sure, and this added to our fear of boarding a shuttle never taken for a test run. But we all held our breaths and travelled through space, hoping for lady luck to smile on us, and help preserve the Saturite race. But then they came, the space pirates...

When the ship shook, we thought we were going down, that our little test run made real had hit a snag. We all gathered in the hull to see what was wrong, or perhaps die together. Then as we all huddled in confusion, suddenly the slider on the roof of the ship opened, and the most ridiculous looking creature I have ever seen walked in.

I do not know if it was a "he" or a "she", but I assumed the latter. He had a face like an overgrown mouse, hair all over the upper part of his body, and he was wearing baby pink long johns. He was accompanied by about twelve other similar looking creatures. They had in their hands some sort of metal object, which we all rightly presumed to be weapons.

They all walked in and pored over us like we were some sort of stain on their valuables. They gathered us to one side, and then proceeded to ransack the ship. As they turned over boxes and opened up storage rooms, we simply sat and watched, partly in amusement, and partly in fear. They literally held the ship, but their reign would be short lived.

No one could have known, no one could have guessed, but an infected cat had followed us aboard, hidden away in a corner of one of the storage rooms. And all the while we travelled, she had proliferated in mass number.

As the pirates gathered the loot room by room, they chanced upon her nest, and all hell broke loose. Saturites, cats and space pirates scrammed in all directions. Gruesome scenes followed, and as I write you from the gas room where I am hidden, more Saturites and space pirates fall.

I have to hurry, as I hear a sound approaching from outside. Please earthlings, help us, do not let the Saturite race die out. Find in the ship's database, the file titled "Ju...

"Hello"

THE END

#SladenSpeaks

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