Battlefield Mine

This story is non-erotic.

Lokai had hoped... prayed that Mr. Spock's estimation of the planet surface was exaggerated, that the destruction wasn't as bad as reported by the ship's sensors. But upon seeing it for himself, the assessment was correct.

He started running, knowing who would be coming after him soon.

As he ran through the rubble of what was once his home, Lokai tried to understand what had happened to his world. He had left behind his band of followers in order to escape persecution, leaving them to continue the fight for freedom and equality on a world that had seen nothing but class division, overbearing dominance, and slavery since the beginning of their history.

The planet Cheron was under the control of the Mol Drak (birth black) who was quite advanced in almost all aspects of life, while Lokai's people, the Mol Bloc (birth white), had been considered 'savage' by comparison, although they were in reality just simple folk who thrived on simple means. When they realized that their way of life needed to be enhanced and brought into more modern times, all the Mol Bloc wanted was to be recognized as equal representatives of their world, and reap the benefits as the Mol Drak did. In turn, the Mol Drak needed the Mol Bloc for their laboring and farming expertise which was far more efficient and productive than their own. Both would benefit from a union of their two species, and a new age would dawn on Cheron.

The Mol Drak welcomed their cousins into their homes and lives, gave them education and the freedom to dictate how to advance their lives and purposes, but only a certain extent. They knew that a peaceful and cooperative union of their two races would need time to take hold, and the Mol Bloc's education and freedom only served to keep them in their place as it were, allowing only certain rights and privileges to be exercised. For thousands of years the Mol Drak continued this practice, slowly leaving behind the backwards thinking of slavery and oppression and trying to raise both of their cultures to new and better heights and leave their arrogant, prejudicial ways in the past where it belonged. In the last few thousand years, they almost succeeded.

Lokai never knew of the strides that his people and the Mol Drak had accomplished; he had left at the time of a great power struggle between the two diametrically opposing cultures. The Mol Drak, trying to preserve their heritage and advanced knowledge, fought against the Mol Bloc, who considered themselves 'freedom fighters' in a cause to break the chains of oppression.

To escape from certain execution for the crime of treason, Lokai traveled the galaxy in whatever he could find in order to elude capture by Bele, Cheron's High Commissioner of the Bureau for Political Traitors. Hiding in the cargo bays of vessels, stowing away aboard liners, and appropriating various utility craft, Lokai managed to stay just one step ahead of Bele for almost fifty thousand years... until the Enterprise intervened.

On course to the Federation space port planet Arrianus to assist in decontaminating its bacteria ridden atmosphere, The U.S.S. Enterprise intercepted a Starbase shuttlecraft that was reported stolen. Captain Kirk and crew found Lokai inside and treated him for his injuries resulting from exhaustion, Commissioner Bele arriving on board to claim his 'political prisoner' a short time later in a modified scout ship.

Kirk and his officers listened to both sides of the Cheronians' arguments; Lokai defiantly claiming to be part of a vast army of fighters determined to free their people from the persecution and laborious misery forced upon them by their oppressors, Bele charging him with dissention and treachery, claiming that Lokai's kind were given the chance to prove themselves worthy of respect and equality but squandered it. Lokai demanded that his (and his kind's) rights be acknowledged and their lives allowed to improve. Bele, coming from a culture of patience and long term thinking, countered with the fact that time was needed to bring their peoples together in equality and cooperation, knowing that Utopia could not be built in a day.

Bele was determined to take his captive back to Cheron to the point of taking over control of the Enterprise, using his 'mind push' ability. This technique, one of many his (and Lokai's) people possessed, allowed him to take direct control of navigation and set the ship's course to Cheron. But Captain Kirk persuaded him to relinquish control by threatening to destroy the Enterprise with the auto-destruct sequence if his orders were not obeyed.

Bele relented, but not for long.

Once the mission to Arrianus was complete, Bele shorted out the directional controls and the destruct program with the electrostatic shield he and Lokai were able to project; an instinctive trait that automatically activated to protect them from harm, including phaser fire. He gained satisfaction in the notion that he would finally bring his prisoner to justice, despite Lokai's attempts to persuade the crew of the Enterprise to help him.

But when they arrived in orbit above Cheron, Kirk and his crew found a world that had destroyed itself... and the reason why.

The people of Cheron were humanoid, with their internal organs shuffled slightly and some extra ones that channeled energy from any power source directly into their bodies giving them extraordinary abilities. The only other thing setting them apart from the average humanoid was their skin pigmentation, an unusual combination of two colors: off-white and charcoal black. Their bodies were bifurcated right down the middle; Lokai's people, the Mol Bloc, white on the right side, black on the left, while Bele's people, the Mol Drak, the exact opposite.

For centuries, the Mol Drak trained and educated the Mol Bloc to be subservient, but came to the realization that there was no real significant difference between the two cultures and strived to rid themselves from the stigma of bigotry and hate, based on mere appearance. And in the end... they failed.

The Enterprise's sensors revealed a world that had torn itself apart, its cities left in ruin, its lands scorched and trying to heal themselves with new vegetation that started to encroach upon the abandoned metropolises. Animals of all sorts freely roamed the streets and traffic ways... and absolutely no sentient life forms registering on the surface, the only evidence of which were numerous corpses piled up around the sprawling cities and technological centers.

The people of Cheron had annihilated each other completely. Over eight billion beings, dead; the only reason: hate.

Shocked at the sight of their world reduced to a corpse, lifeless as the bodies that littered its surface, Lokai and Bele attacked one another on the bridge, activating their electrostatic power in an attempt to further reduce Cheron's native population from two to zero, and almost taking the Enterprise with them.

Kirk tried to convince the pair that their struggle was over, that there was no longer any reason to fight and invited them to join the Federation in order to learn what 'peace and mutual cooperation' really meant.

But neither of them would listen as they continued to assault each other, their minds clouded in dark whorls of pure hate. Lokai blaming Bele and the Mol Drak for its continued persecution of so-called 'inferior beings' and Bele accusing Lokai and his 'freedom fighters' of starting an all out war, determined to destroy the 'master race'.

Lokai left the bridge, spewing hatred towards the Mol Drak and the Enterprise crew for not helping him, and ran to the transporter room with Bele right behind him, hot on his heels and knowing where he was going. Visions of their world, her cities aflame and crumbling and their people battling and dying, ran unchecked through their minds as they charged through the ship's corridors.

Finding the room he needed and activating the console controls, Lokai disappeared into the sparkling array of the transporter beam; Bele following him down to the planet surface a few moments later.

Kirk and the Enterprise simply broke orbit and left the dead world, still wondering how beings such as the Cheronians, after centuries of advancement, could still be driven and ruled by outdated and useless thinking such as racial hate and bigotry.

The tingling of the transporter beam on his skin faded and Lokai, once he got his bearings, found himself in the middle of Hell.

All around him as far as he could see, the once sprawling topography of glass and steel towers and spires, with the greens and browns of the countryside beyond, was now a landscape of destruction. Plants of various types grew wild among the crumbled buildings and structures, and animals scurried about in the underbrush trying to forage for food. Streamers of smoke were still puffing from extinguished fires as the remaining rubble smoldered, the result of their races' powerful abilities.

And scattered everywhere in the streets, the parks, the lots of abandoned ground vehicles, the lands and hills of the outer countryside... corpses, too many to count in even Lokai's lifetime, which was considerable.

Only a few of the many dead bodies that surrounded him were starting to show signs of decay, for one of the 'special' organs they possessed constantly regenerated their cell structure and gave them an extended life span, as long as there was a power source close by to energize it. Since Cheron's sun was now blotted out of the sky by the multitude of black clouds and ash in the atmosphere, their regeneration organs were now drawing power from the abundant geothermal energy the planet produced. Even after death, their cells were being regenerated, but at a much slower rate (the Cheronians would cremate a loved one to finally lay them to rest), and eventually those organs would cease functioning and allow the corpses to finally disintegrate.

Lokai kept running, the tear glistening in contrast against the black side of his face, knowing Bele would continue to come after him. He was still fit enough to avoid capture and, if he had to, fight...

"I doubt the same could be said for many of his followers" Spock had said on the bridge before Lokai beamed down. The words rolled passed his eyes over and over, taunting him into shame.

He just kept running.

***

Bele was almost thrown into shock once the transporter beam released him. The readings from the Enterprise's sensors were true; Cheron was dead.

Dropping to his knees in the middle of what was left of the mighty city where he lived, Bele pressed his arms against his head, trying to shut out the horrific sight of destruction, and cried out in rage.

Composing himself, he looked around him at the remains of tall buildings and powerful centers of knowledge and technology that were nothing more than skeletal spires and burning rubble now. He let his tears flow freely down his dual colored cheeks as he gazed upon the thousands of dead bodies piled up and littering the lots and open areas of the city.

All of his people, all of the Mol Drak, dead because of...

Anger fired up in his tear filled eyes as Bele rose from the ground and reached out with his mind and mind-searched the area for the only remaining person that could possibly answer for the crimes that were committed, the evidence of which was clearly all around him.

Lokai planted the seed of insurrection and it bloomed in the form of the Mol Bloc and their revolutionaries. They were responsible... the traitor was responsible for their world's death; he was sure of it.

Bele picked a direction and started walking.

***

Lokai ran for almost an hour before he finally had to stop and rest.

For weeks... months, he traveled the lands in search of food and water and, hoping beyond all hope, survivors. In every town he came across, the destruction was the same to one degree or another and the bodies of the dead would litter them as grim reminders of battles and defeat for both warring sides.

Lokai would find a place to eat and rest for a short while, and then move out quickly knowing that Bele was still pursuing him in his unrelenting, but utterly useless, endeavor to bring him to justice. This last time, Bele almost succeeded in cornering him, catching him off guard while he rested, but he managed to distract him long enough to escape and was once again on the run.

He was tired of running, tired of fighting, and... just plain tired, and idly wondered if Bele felt the same. He put the notion out of his head, knowing the kind of mindset that drove him into this unproductive pursuit of justice that had no meaning anymore, and moved on.

After three more days of evading Bele the last time they met, he found himself on the outskirts of a small area designated for use by the Mol Bloc; a district neighborhood used for distributing food to larger cities. He slowly made his way towards it, feeling hunger welling up inside him.

The town itself was not in as bad of shape as the cities he left far behind him; the buildings and homes basically still intact. The streets and lawns were still covered in bodies, but most were stacked up like cord wood and ready for cremation.

But how is that possible, Lokai thought; there's no one left to dispose of them. Who did this?

"Stop!"

Lokai turned in fright at the sound of the warning, and saw... another Mol Bloc, his face white on the right side and his tunic ripped and smeared with dirt and soot.

"Do you have your shield activated?"

Lokai was still staring at his countrymen and still not believing that there was someone left alive.

"If not, activate it now; there is residual radiation from the destruction of our power plants and it may pose a danger to you."

Lokai carefully crept up to his fellow Mol Bloc and asked, "How can you be alive? The Enterprise didn't detect any humanoid life forms."

"'Enterprise'?"

"A Federation starship that brought me back here; its sensors couldn't detect anyone alive down here."

The man looked puzzled for a moment, "'Federation'? Yes, I think I remember that. Our listening posts in orbit used to pick up some transmissions referring to a 'Federation'. Who are you?"

"I am Lokai."

The man's face twisted in shock and he sputtered, "THE Lokai? The one that escaped from the main city's detention area to start the 'Revolution'?"

Lokai smirked a little, "Yes, I suppose I did that... a long time ago."

"A very long time ago by our records, or rather what's left of them. We used to study your exploits in school," he stepped closer and extended his hand, "I am Malak, the leader of our district."

"'Our'? You mean there are more people still alive?"

"Not many I'm afraid; a few hundred or so. Come with me; I will show you."

Lokai followed Malak to a large warehouse that used to house packages of processed foodstuffs, and was now home to war weary survivors. The first thing Lokai noticed was the dozens upon dozens of Mol Bloc living in ramshackle rooms made of sheets of whatever material they could salvage, and pallets of food containers set here and there among them. All of the Mol Bloc showed signs of weariness and abuse from the ravages of war, and none of them showed any hint of what anyone would call 'victory' in their eyes.

"This is all that's left of our people," Malak said with sadness as they walked through the makeshift hovels, "We mind-searched as far as we could, but no one else answered our call. And when we discovered the small amount of radiation starting to arise, we activated our body shields. All of us are projecting, but at a low level; our power organs aren't absorbing enough power to fully energize us."

"But how could the Enterprise miss this many... oh, your shields; of course." Lokai realized that their body shields would render them undetectable by sensor sweeps, just as they protected them against anything threatening. It was a gift from their world, one of many.

The material used to render Bele's scout ship invisible was a natural source found in Cheron's crust. That element leeched its way naturally into the soil and hence into the foods and grains they grew. As they ate that food over time and throughout the generations, the element incorporated itself into Cheronian physiology and gave them the ability to shroud themselves from any detection devices.

But Malak's words finally got through his speculation and asked, "There's no one else left alive?"

Malak shook his head, "No one that we can detect."

Lokai looked out at the ragtag group of survivors who were now coming out of their hovels, curious as to whom their new arrival was. But his face froze in an angry stare as he spied the one thing that he didn't expect to see.

A member of the Mol Drak, her white left side cheek marred with grime.

"You!" he shouted, "You half-blacks destroyed us!" Lokai felt at least a dozen hands grab him before he could reach her, his arms outstretched to put his hands around her throat. Malak, his arm around Lokai's, hauled him away from her, shocked and confused.

"What are you doing?" he bellowed.

"What is that doing here?" Lokai pointed to the Mol Drak girl.

"'She' is one of the survivors."

"Ah, a prisoner; good, we'll need her for leverage."

"What are you talking about?" Malak was genuinely confused by Lokai's attitude, "She's not a prisoner; none of them are."

"'Them'? There are more Mol Drak?"

"Yes, about the same number as the Mol Bloc," Malak released him, standing ready to grab him again if he got out of hand.

"I see now; they are our slaves, like we used to be."

"'Slaves'? There are no slaves here; we are all working together. Why are you saying such things?"

They all stared at him as if he had grown another arm out of his chest as more Mol Drak came out into the group, equally confused by Lokai's raving.

"I don't understand this!" he shouted, pointing at the collective of Mol Drak, "Why are you cooperating with the enemy?"

Malak charged up to him, anger in his eyes, "We are not enemies, not here. The Resistors were our enemies; we destroyed them... and in the process almost destroyed ourselves."

"'Resistors'?" Lokai had the look of utter defeat on his face, believing the cause he fought for was pushed to the side and forgotten.

Malak guided him over to his private place and away from the puzzled crowd, setting him down and offering him some water and food.

"You've been gone a long time, Lokai; things have changed, for the better we thought. But we were wrong."

Lokai drank the sweet water and ate the food he was given, listening as Malak explained what happened to their world, starting with a little history lesson.

A few hundred years after he escaped, tensions were mounting between the Mol Drak elite and the Mol Bloc revolutionaries, and Lokai's people were driven into action by his heroism and defiance. They were met head on by the Mol Drak forces, who were convinced that the Mol Bloc was too savage and inferior a race to be considered equals.

The struggle lasted for millennia, until the day of realization came to be, both sides realizing that their conflict was spawned by racial bigotry, fueled by superficial and unimportant differences. Over time, both sides came together in an uneasy relationship at first, then it blossomed into mutual and trusted friendship, a grand 'cooperative' which lasted for many thousands of years. With their advancements giving all the chance at a better life, they were on the verge of contacting others beyond their star system to further their endeavors to improve technology and learn new things. By chance, they picked up unusual signals from a collective of worlds that called themselves the Federation, and were ready to make contact with and possibly join them in their great alliance. Cheron thrived in a new era like no other in their history.