Hero
Chapter Five
(The Men of Collosia)
Author's Note: Several years ago I wrote a science fiction story called "The Men of Collosia." The story is posted on this website. "Hero" takes place in the present. "The Men of Collosia" takes place many millennia in the future. Nevertheless, I decided to make Collosia Ethan's home planet, before it completely evolved into the paradise described in the original story.
In the days following their return from Europe, Ethan seemed to be in a deep depression. Whenever he had a moment, he tried to listen for sounds of distress somewhere in the city. Unfortunately, there were so many calls for help, that mostly he received a cacophony of jumbled sound. When he was lucky enough to isolate someone yelling for help, he rushed to the rescue, but when it was over, he realized how many people he couldn't help. Indeed, he realized he could rescue very few people around the entire planet. He began to question the effectiveness of his super powers, and considered abandoning them altogether. Greg did all he could to raise Ethan's spirits, but to no avail.
When they had been together for about seven years, they were at a social gathering. One of the guests asked indelicately how much age difference there was between them. That opened Ethan's eyes. Greg was aging, like every one of his kind, but Ethan wasn't. He said nothing to Greg, who didn't seem to notice. If he did, he didn't say anything either. Ethan's depression became even greater.
Subconsciously, at quiet moments, he began to send psychic messages to his natural father, begging for his advice. One night, in his sleep, he heard his father tell him that the life span on Collosia was ten times, or more, longer than on earth, and depending on his degree of adaptation, Greg's life span would be very much extended on Collosia. Ethan now knew the name of the planet where he was born. More importantly, there was a way to keep Greg with him longer.
He woke with a start. He marveled at his dream, and wrote it off as being just that, a dream.
The next evening, he and Greg were having dinner, and Ethan hardly said a word. Greg feared that his depression was becoming manic. He could barely stand it. Finally, he yelled out, "Please Ethan, I beg you to get some help."
Ethan admitted to Greg that he was sending psychic messages to his birth father, asking him for advice. He didn't mention his dream of the night before.
Suddenly a puff of smoke entered the room, and started to spin like an eddy. Both men were very familiar with this phenomenon. Ethan's father was about to make an appearance as a hologram, projected over millions of miles. They both grew frightened, and held each other tightly. Before the image could even manifest, they both heard telepathically, "Do not be afraid." The spinning smoke was slowly changing and becoming a man, a naked man, just as he had appeared the first time.
"Listen to me very carefully, my sons. I don't have much time. Since I spoke to you last, there have been vast changes on Collosia. We men have learned to clone each other. Each clone is a male, of course, so we no longer need women. They have all been isolated far beyond our city. In about seven hundred earth years, the last of them will die off, and we will be an all-male planet.
"Sex is not restricted, but it must be consensual. Any man can have sex anytime with anybody. According to the new order, your brother and I have many friends that we have sex with, but we make love to each other, as well."
"But that's incest," Greg blubbered.
"I have no idea what incest is or what you mean," their father said. "There are about ten thousand of us men at this time. To preserve the balance, and the bounties of the planet, each man deposits his seed in a preservation chamber. When he dies, one of his seeds will be cloned. If the child is deemed to be healthy, the remainder of his seed will be destroyed. In that way, there will never be over population on the planet. The population will always remain the same.
"Ethan, Greg, your brother and I have petitioned the council. We gave up our right to be cloned, if they permit us to bring you both to Collosia. They agreed, but the decision must be made rather quickly. We do not wish our paradise to be disrupted, so we are discontinuing our space program. Soon nobody will be able to leave Collosia, and hopefully aliens will never visit us."
Greg could sense that Ethan was speechless. "How can we get there?" he asked.
"I will send your brother in a space craft with three suspended animation pods. He will land in an isolated area of what you call Central Park. When he is close to arrival, I will contact you and set up a rendezvous."
"This is a major decision for us, Father," Greg said. "We will need to discuss it. How much time do we have to decide on this wonderful offer?"
"Very little. You must give me your telepathic answer, Ethan, as soon as possible, before I will be prohibited from releasing a space craft to earth."
Finally, Ethan found his voice. "Before you go, please tell me your name, and my brother's name."
"My name is Valiant, and your brother's name is Viktor. We named you Valor, but you may retain the name Ethan, if you like. Viktor is your twin brother, Ethan. He is five minutes older than you, and that's why I had to save you, my younger son, from the edict that the youngest son or sons had to be killed."
The hologram began to spin, and morphed into a puff of smoke again, and then it was gone.
Ethan and Greg clung to each other, sobbing.
Greg spoke first. "If you want to go `home' without me, my love, I'll understand," Greg whispered in Ethan's ear.
"Never! I'll never leave this planet without you. You were invited too, you know, and Valiant referred to you as his son, and to Viktor as your brother."
"Ethan, I am well aware that I am beginning to age, and you aren't, at least not visibly. If you don't go to Collosia, I'll be leaving you soon enough anyhow."
"Not true," Ethan yelled, and he told Greg about his father's message the night before."
"Are you sure you aren't dangling a carrot in front of my face."
"You know better than that. We are a package deal. You stay, I stay. You go, I go. What do you say?"
"Do you trust that Valiant is telling us the truth, Ethan?"
"Without a doubt."
"I must admit that Collosia sounds like a hell of a better place to live than Earth, but I have a concern. I'm sure they need PE teachers, but there will be little need for a French teacher."
`You're a great linguist, and a better teacher. You'll learn their language quickly, and you can teach math or physics. The sciences can't be different there than they are on earth."
"You'll probably lose your super powers. Can you live with that?"
"Absolutely! It's been nothing but a curse."
"OK, Babe, Go into a trance or whatever you have to do, and tell our father that it's a go. If you have a chance, ask him how he plans to make us productive members of society. That's still my main concern."
Immediately, Ethan transmitted a telepathic message to his father. That night Valiant came to him in a dream. He informed Ethan that Viktor was to be launched in two periods. He explained that a period was equivalent to a day, but a period was slightly shorter than a day on earth, because Collosia was a little closer to their star than earth was to the sun. The flight would take approximately one earth year. Valiant said that he would contact them just before Viktor's arrival. It would be under cover of dark, and he and Greg were to be waiting at the landing site. He wanted them to begin the return flight before anyone on earth spotted them.
One year later, Ethan and Greg were awakened one night just after they fell asleep, following a steamy love session. At the foot of their bed, they saw the unmistakable sight of the spinning smoke. Valiant would appear shortly.
"Viktor will land in one half an interval just east of the ice skating rink in Central Park," he said. "It's closed for the summer, and there will be nobody around. There is no winter on Collosia. It's always warm. Dress in as little as possible, and get over to the park quickly."
The men had no idea how long an interval was, but they sensed the need for speed. They drove to Central Park, and parked in a "No Parking" zone. From there they ran to The Wollman Rink, just as Viktor was landing. It took a few minutes for Viktor to be awakened from suspended animation, and the hatch to be opened. A flexible stairway snaked its way out of the spacecraft, and Ethan's naked mirror image descended the stairs.
Viktor and Ethan both started to cry and they embraced each other.
"Quickly," Viktor said telepathically. "We have to leave at once."
The three men ran up the stairs, which were immediately retracted, and Viktor closed the door behind them. "Strip," he ordered, "and lie down in these pods." Greg and Ethan were snuggled in the pods almost immediately. Viktor closed and sealed the pods. He pushed a button and his brothers were asleep in a Nano-second. Then he entered his pod, which was a little bigger than the others. He pushed some buttons, and the space craft stood upright, and took off. As soon as he was satisfied that all was well, Viktor pushed a button in his pad, and joined his brothers in a sleep akin to death.
They landed on Collosia exactly where the instruments had instructed the landing to occur. Everything was going very smoothly and according to plan. Instruments aboard the space craft were activated, and the three brothers awoke. The first thing Greg and Ethan did was to retrieve their clothing, but Viktor laughed. "Nobody wears clothing here," he spoke in the Collosian tongue, not telepathically. Greg and Ethan were stunned. They understood every word, but they couldn't explain how.
"We will leave the ship in a few minutes," Viktor said. "Valor, Greg, my brothers, let me greet you properly." He put one arm around Valor and one around Greg, and began to kiss them. They returned the favor. But then he dropped his arms and began to fondle each of them, leaving them both speechless.
"I can't wait until we get home and make love to each other and with our father," he announced. The earthlings were even more flabbergasted, but they liked what they were hearing.
The door of the ship began to open and the staircase slid out. The three naked brothers ran out. Greg and Valor were very uncomfortable being naked, but Viktor seemed fine with it. Nearby the ship, Valor saw a series of moving sidewalks. They followed Viktor to one of the sidewalks. He stepped on it, and his brothers followed him.
"This walkway will take us to our home," he informed his brothers. "It will take about a quarter of an interval to get there." Ethan began to suspect one of the reasons why Collosians had such a long life expectancy...no pollution.
As soon as they were all aboard the moving sidewalk, Viktor embraced Valor once again. He was sobbing, but it didn't stop him from fondling Valor's cock. Valor was too astonished to say anything or to reciprocate. Greg was even more astonished. He looked around him, and saw nothing but naked men kissing each other, fondling each other, sucking each other, and some were even fucking.
"I'm going to like this place," he thought.
At last they reached Valiant's house. Their father had been waiting impatiently for them. He threw open the front door before his sons could even reach it. He put an arm around Valor, kissed him, and fondled him. Then he did the same to Greg, who promptly sprung a boner. The poor man tried to cover it up with his hands. He had nothing else he could use.
Valiant saw his discomfort and started to laugh. "Don't be self-conscious, my son," he said. Everyone on Collosia walks around with a perpetual erection.
Greg and Valor smiled at each other. This definitely beat earth, where their true love was considered filthy by many people.
"Come," Viktor said. "Let's shower off the smell of space before dinner. Our father has prepared a special feast for us."
In the shower, Viktor did things to his two brothers that they had only done to each other in the past. Suddenly, without warning, Valor began to cry. He looked at Greg, and said, "Greg, darling, I don't hear any voices. It's so peaceful here. I'm so happy."
"Yes," Greg thought, "I'm going to like it here, but it's going to take a lot of getting used to."
To be continued ...