A tall woman with a severe expression on her sharp almost hawk-like face stood next to a window overlooking a city in flames. If only that damned ship had never come and broadcasted, on an open channel no less, that their colony was in fact not alone. Years of hard work and propaganda campaigns rendered worthless in the blink of an eye. Her response being to shoot it down had been looked upon poorly by her subjects.

They just didn’t understand the bigger picture. They didn’t understand that if other people came then so would the menace that had destroyed the old trade networks. They would be safer under her rule hidden from the eyes of the galaxy at large.

Now, however, instead of the peace and cooperation, she had spent years cultivating she now had a full-fledged rebellion on her hand. Some of her military had even joined them. The audacity of it all. How dare they rise up against her. She would crush them all underfoot like the filthy insects they were.

KIPOUEN

Joseph woke up as daylight filtered into the room. His wife Callista stirred beside him and rose halfway out of the bed. Her light brown hair stood out from her head framing her face like a lions mane. He lifted himself up just enough to put his arms around her before pulling her back down into his embrace.

“Joseph, stop. We have to get up. The kids will be up soon and I have to make breakfast.” she said all this while snuggling deeper into his embrace. It was obvious to him what she’d rather do, but what she said was technically correct.

Joseph sighed, “Okay then guess we’ll just have to get up.” he said this as he rolled over to his left taking his wife with him. In doing so he managed to get her tangled in the blankets and with a malicious grin on his face let her slide to the floor as she cursed at him.

Joseph made a run for the bathroom as Callista clawed her way out of the mess of blankets. The shower started when he entered the room quickly correcting the water temperature to his preferred blistering heat. His wife slipped in after him, punching him lightly on the arm. He quickly took her into his arms and bent down to kiss her.

They took their time finishing their shower and could hear the kids beginning to stumble out of bed as they were getting dressed. Callista made her way to the kitchen as Joseph sat at the dining room table pulling up his messages on a screen. There wasn’t anything unusual, reminders, attempts to sell him things he didn’t need, and a report from the Vinyard. He opened the report and frowned slightly as he pored over the numbers.

He sighed to himself as his wife sat a plate of food in front of him. He set to eating as his kids came into the room. The older of the two, Jack had just turned ten last month and looked just like he did at that age. A strong jawline hid underneath the baby fat. He also had dark eyes and darker hair that curled tightly to the top of his head.

His daughter, three years younger than Jack, was named Rosaline and was much more like her mother. Her hair was less curly and more wavy. The color more akin to the sand of the desert than the mulch used to feed his grapes.

They both said good morning, still only half awake as they both sat down for breakfast. Callista took to the table last with her own plate of food. “Are you heading to the Vinyard today?”, she asked Joseph as she began slicing a sausage.

Joseph grimaced, “looks like I’ll have to. The soil readings are all over the place. Alex asked me to come and take a look since he can’t figure out what’s going on. Probably just a malfunction somewhere, but I’d rather know than not.” he replied.

Callista nodded, “Well since you’ll be passing by the butcher’s do you mind grabbing a few things for me?”, she asked. “I have that doctors appointment today and I’m supposed to take it easy afterwards.”

Joseph nodded, his mouth full. The butchers shop was pretty much right next to the Vinyard so it wasn’t any trouble for him to stop in on the way back. They all finished their breakfasts and Callista started getting the kids ready for school as Joseph got set to leave. He said goodbye to both of his children making them promise to behave at school before giving each of them a kiss on the cheek. He caught his wife in an embrace and kissed her goodbye before finally turning and opening up the door.

Fire was all he could see. His Vinyard burning to ashes, flashing to scenes of his home burning his children screaming. He ran and ran and ran trying to block out the screaming. He woke in a cold sweat, the room was dark. His wife, Callista wasn’t in bed. She never would be again either, not since the bomb had killed her and his children ten years ago.

That bitch Helen’s revolution and subsequent takeover of the planet had taken everything from him. His family, his home, his livelihood had all been destroyed in the span of a day. He shook the thoughts from his head and got out of his bed. The wooden floor was cold and uneven beneath his feet as he made his way through the darkness into his bathroom. The water was cold, the heating coils had blown out two days ago and he hadn’t had time to go back into town yet.

After his shower he pulled some stew from a pot in his refrigerator and heated it up on the stove. It was an old stove that he’d managed to pick up for cheap from an eviction auction. It worked fine despite its age and the numerous repairs it had required.

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The stew began to bubble and Joseph poured it into a bowl mechanically. He sat at the table he’d put together himself. Almost every surface had been carved into at this point. In his spare time he had taken to carving stories into it. Here there was a tiger stalking through the bushes, next to it the tiger now chased a boar through the woods before finally standing over it in triumph. Carving those little stories helped to keep Joseph from thinking about his own tale.

He left the house after finishing his meal and cleaning his dishes. The orange-yellow sun beat down upon his olive-colored skin as he made his way to his modest garden. It was surrounded by a small fence that kept out most of the forest’s wildlife. For the few that could get through, he had his traps one of which held a small creature that looked like a weasel. That is if a weasel had spikes protruding from the entirety of its body.

Joseph drew his knife and efficiently ended the small creatures life. He removed it from the trap swiftly going through the motions he’d been taught in childhood, and relearned as an adult. Slit the belly and remove the offal. Skin carefully starting at the neck, go with the spikes not against them.

His father’s words from so long ago echoed in his mind, if only he’d had the chance to show Jack.. He shook his head clear of those thoughts. Thinking about those things was the path to madness, he’d already walked that road before. No, he would look to the present and what was needed in the here and now.

What Joseph really needed was to make a trip into town and get some replacement coils. He finished butchering the thorn rat and put the meat away for later use. The bones he threw into the forest. The hide on the other hand had value and he took it into a small hut separate from the house where he had already painstakingly removed the needles and properly processed the hide of several other thorn rats.

He gathered those hides as well as a single deer hide from the buck he’d killed last week. Deer were one of the earth animals that had been brought along to fill out the primitive ecosystem of the planet. For reasons unknown to Joseph the planet had produced very few creatures larger than the thorn rat and most of those lived in the water. Not that it really concerned him overly. The important thing was that the deer hide would fetch him a decent amount of credits.

After the incident ten years ago he’d been left with very little. He’d sold his property for next to rock bottom prices during the depression following the reformation and between that and his savings scraped enough together to secure land in a forest about ten kilometers out from a frontier town, far away from his former home. Doing that had strained his finances, but he’d managed. He mostly lived off the land and only spent money on the few things he couldn’t grow, hunt, or forage for.

Things like heating coils for his water heater. He loaded up the hides into the back of the truck and checked his battery levels. The truck battery had nearly a full charge with the house battery looking low. It had been pretty cloudy lately so his solar cells hadn’t been able to gather as much charge as he’d have liked. He shrugged and loaded up one of the house’s two power cells. It was nearly the length of his entire arm and twice as thick.

With that loaded up, he rolled the lid over the bed of his truck and sealed it. No sense in tempting fate and letting things bounce out of the bed. Especially with how bad the road had been since that bad rainstorm a few months ago. He’d filled the largest potholes, but there were still plenty that needed filling. Just one more thing to do on his neverending list.

The trip into town was uneventful though Joseph did put on an audio play to keep his mind focused on something. He needed something to keep his mind from wandering to unpleasant thoughts. The play was one he’d picked up on his last excursion to town. He didn’t have a connection to the global net. It was part of the reason he had chosen to move so far away.

He didn’t want the constant deluge of news from places he didn’t care about overwhelming him. He preferred to subscribe to a handful of entertainment hubs and download their content when he went into town. It worked well for him and it also gave him an excuse to ask people about the news.

He came upon the town about a quarter of the way through the play which he paused as he found a spot to park near the leather shop. He had become friends with the owner over the years if for no other reason than consistency. So when he entered the shop he was used to being greeted with a hearty welcome. What he got instead was the muffled sound of a newscast.

As Joseph went further in he saw Dirk, the owner staring at a small screen he had propped up on the counter. Dirk looked up finally noticing Joseph’s entrance and beckoned him closer and turned the screen so he could see. Joseph wasn’t terribly interested in the news, but came up and looked anyways. What he saw almost didn’t process as real for him.

Footage of the capital city on fire was being played as a commentator talked about the situation at hand. Joseph had come in near the end of the broadcast and only really caught that parts of the military had defected to the rebellion that had just started. As the broadcast ended and moved to a commercial Dirk closed it and looked at Joseph. “I suppose you wouldn’t know about what’s been going on since your always on the mountain.”, he said. His voice was low and right now Joseph found that very soothing in contrast to what he’d just seen.

Dirk sat Joseph down with a drink in the backroom as he explained what had happened. Apparently, a human scout ship had entered the system and broadcasted a greeting in a multitude of languages on almost every channel imaginable. One of those languages had been Neo-grecian, the primary language of their planet, Kaispiti. The message had also come with a fairly hefty data packet detailing the current state of humanity.

“All that being said though the real important thing is what the Prime Minister’s response to the ship was.”, Dirk said taking a sip from his own drink. “The maniac fired a volley of missiles at the ship. That combined with the revelation that we weren’t the last of humanity was the last straw for a lot of folks it seems. There’s a full-on revolution happening now, nearly a quarter of the army has defected along with plenty of angry civilians with guns and whatever they can get their hands on.” Dirk shook his head.

Joseph just sat quietly as he absorbed that information. It was ten years ago all over again. The images of his wife and children, nothing more than charred corpses inside a mangled vehicle. The city, his home, his vinyard, all in flames as the screams echoed through his mind again.

“Hey. Joseph, come on back to me man.” Dirks words pierced through Josephs’s thoughts like a well-honed blade. He was in the backroom of the leather shop, everything was ok. He just had to keep telling himself everything was ok. He looked up to see Dirks tanned face contorted with worry.

Joseph shook his head and stood up. “Thanks for catching me up friend. If you don’t mind I have some hides to sell you.”, he said with a measure of calm that those who didn’t know him wouldn’t be able to tell was forced. Dirk had known the man long enough to tell and allowed him his dignity. There were some things you just didn’t pry into.

Joseph sold his hides and went through the motions of his other chores in town. He recharged his energy cell and bought the heating coils he needed for his water heater. It burnt through a fair amount of his credits, but he still had plenty left over to buy a few staples he was low on. Satisfied that he had everything he would need for a while Joseph packed up his truck and headed out of town.

He regretted that he wasn’t making his usual stop at the pub, but he just couldn’t now. He drove back to his house in silence. The thoughts that kept him company colored his mood darker the longer the drive went on. Upon returning home he put away his purchases, leaving the heating coils for tomorrow as he sat in the rocking chair he had next to his fireplace. The dam broke in his heart as he collapsed into sobs remembering the life he once had.