as selfish gains for themselves. And they now had many of the means and abilities to do just that.
Thousands of years before this jump-start of evolution, when The Great Creator had stopped by to make the Etans, he had bestowed the gift of life on them, and now he had done the same for this new species the Frogolinians. At least that was what the Etans held to be true about what had happened. Their Etan belief circuits were very adamant about this fact.
Additionally, The Great Creator had another special gift in mind for the Etans. Coinciding with this new super species of Frogolinians, he had adapted some of the Etans to be half Frogolinians. Coincidentally, the Etans that were changed to be half and half were predominantly those who had been caught outside fishing or camping during this electrical storm. The Etans figured this change must have been part of The Great Creator’s plan so that it would be easier for the two species to co-exist. This group of half Etan and half Frogolinians would become known as The Hybrids. Just how did The Great Creator make some of the Etans half Frogolinians?
Well, no one is bold enough to claim to know the mystical and magical ways of The Great Creator, yet he is known to be all powerful, all knowing, and certainly all creating. Thus it is safe to assume that whatever his wishes are, it is not long before they become reality. That it is only fitting for his desired changes to be overnight, just as the storm was.
The Frogolinians had advantages physically and the Etans intellectually, while The Hybrids were a perfect mix that could unite the two. Together, Hiruahians were now ready to take on anything, just as the creator had intended, or so the story goes.
This combination of all three is what has made up the citizens of Hiruaha ever since, and these Hiruahians were now Bruce’s “men.” With the most highly educated and best trained among them making up the Intergalactic Missions Agency, or the IMA. Etans are the majority in this agency due to their capabilities for higher intelligence, or at least this is the ability they so often claim to have, while in fact showing it much less frequently.
With the IMA to be the primary cog used for regaining The Beacon of Light, surely the planet of Hiruaha could sleep well.
Meanwhile, the vessel carrying two Etan IMA agents in particular and powered by Zarquon’s power source was speeding away from Earth at an alarming rate. A rate that increased every time Frank worried about why he had been the one to find the rock, and not his next-door neighbor, nasty old Mrs. Lornten.
Chapter Nine
“So they took your,” Laura said, stomaching a particularly hearty laugh before continuing, “rock, did they? And claimed they worked for the,” swallowing another laugh, “government, did they?” pestered Laura in one of her three most teasing voices. “Exactly how many did you have in you by this point?“ she quipped, no longer able to bury the laughter within her.
“Yes, that’s right they did. And none!” Frank stormed back.
Laura noticed his shirt would need to be ironed at least in the area where his arms were so forcefully folded.
“Sorry, Frank, it just doesn’t make any sense.”
“Well, it’s what happened, so it doesn’t need to make sense.”
Laura thought about that for a moment, as Frank reached down clutching and hugging his knees to his chest.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make some tea,” she said.
Laura hummed as she brought the water to a boil, warmed the teapot, and then let the water mix with the fresh tea leaves she had carefully selected. It was Saturday and she was glad to have the day off from teaching. She poured the water diligently as it was boiling and not afterwards, because as she often reminded everyone, this was a key ingredient to making the very best cup of tea possible.
Laura generally enjoyed being the fourth grade teacher at the local elementary school, but this had been an especially long week, with more than just a couple of meetings with pestering parents. A day off is just what she needed, two actually, and she would then easily be able to greet the kids with a smile on Monday. She let the tea steep an exact amount of time as the tea infused through the water. She smiled as she walked to the cupboard and took down her strainer, and began running the tea through the mesh into each of their cups before rejoining Frank in the living room, whistling as she did.
“Here we go.” She beamed, handing him his cup.
Frank took it, but didn’t speak or change his expression, while only giving Laura an appreciative nod.
They both went quiet for a while as they sipped their tea.
“Good tea.” Laura was practically gleaming as she spoke.
“Yeah, not bad,” Frank remarked.
Laura couldn’t help but shoot a shocked glance in Frank’s direction after that comment, but restrained from saying anything. After all, Frank appeared to be already a bit out of sorts today.
Soon the conversation turned to weather, local events, and old friends. The incident regarding the two policemen temporarily left Frank’s mind.
Laura turned on the local morning news, hesitating to change channels when she spotted Frank’s jaw suddenly doing push-ups as he stared at the screen.
As he regained control of his jaw, Frank yelled, “That’s them!” and began pointing repeatedly at the screen as up flashed pictures of the two men from the previous night.
“Who?” Laura asked.
“The men in my apartment last night.”
The newsman went on to explain that both are policemen and that both had gone missing only the night before.
“That must have something to do with the rock they took from me. I know it, I just know it,” Frank exclaimed.
Frank had just stormed from the apartment as Laura began questioning the plausibility of his story. In large part due to finding it a much warmer alternative than questioning the sanity of someone she had been a close friend with for years. Plus, she was a person who thought positively, at least she was now. She had been forced to become a positive thinker a couple years ago, and she couldn’t let the negative thoughts return now, especially not like they had once been. Never again would she allow that.
_________
A substantial distance away from Earth, the two Etan agents were reporting back to the head council of the Milan Galaxy Board of Directors in Borus.
Borus being where most of the central bureaucratic, administrative, and legal headquarters for the entire Milan Galaxy are located.
The two Etan agents sat in front of a massive creature with folds of skin flapping at the sides of his neck, a hard cranial shelled forehead, and one steel plated chest cavity. All of which paled in visual attention when his temper would roar, causing his forehead to bulge like a volcano seriously contemplating erupting. The extent of the bulge would vary, usually between four inches and a full foot, depending on how truly upset he was.
President of the Galaxy, Ghandy the Gargantuan was now addressing the two agents, and his forehead was still well within the regularly occurring bulge of eight inches. The President of the Galaxy can always easily be identified at any galactic gathering as the one wearing the fiery red sash, and Ghandy wore it proudly.
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