SKYTREK - CHAPTER 10 (standard:humor, 2998 words) [10/15] show all parts
Author: Danny Miami	Added: May 21 2010	Views/Reads: 2171/1629	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Chapter 10 - meet Stan the Prophet!!

CHAPTER TEN 

“I was sellin used mammoths for a while but the bloody market collapsed.
Then I got into property, you know, nice little cave with a panoramic 
view of the primeval forests but the commission was poor. Then I 
switched to the prophet business. Now that was a good move – my life 
really opened up when I got into that. All those lovely daughters for 
performin rituals with!” 

STAN THE PROPHET 

PART ONE 

On the other side of the corridor inside the Black Hole through which
Kharg's ship was currently travelling there was a new unexplored 
Universe. Although it existed in a different dimension from ours, this 
Universe was much the same as our own with planets and stars, suns and 
moons, days and nights. 

On one of the few inhabited planets there lived a race of semi-primitive
people. Since they weren't a very advanced species and hadn't yet got 
round to space travel, their planet didn't really have a proper name 
although it was commonly referred to as Here because that's where they 
all lived – here. 

Apart from being populated, the planet Here differed from most of the
other planets in that a giant invisible wall separated one half of it 
from the other. 

On one side of the wall it was rather pleasant with a lovely climate,
warm blue seas and sandy beaches, luxuriant forests and lots of 
different animals. 

On the other side of the wall it wasn't quite so idyllic. The climate
was poor, the scenery was rugged, the seas were cold and the only 
animals were sheep, goats, mammoths and really big five-legged things 
nobody knew the name of. 

Unfortunately for the semi-primitives they lived on the bleaker side of
the planet and understandably would have preferred to live on the other 
side but so far they hadn't worked out a way to get through the giant 
invisible wall. 

The Here-ites lived in caves, dressed in smelly furs, killed animals for
food, were killed by animals for food and worshipped things like trees. 
However there were some amongst them who reserved their allegiance for 
a higher, if not yet arrived, Deity. 

Outside Stan the Prophet's cave his fur-clad, unwashed flock were
sitting in a semi-circle patiently listening to yet another of his many 
sermons. 

“And one day, out of that great empty sky, the Burning Ball will race
across the heavens and will drop on Here,” intoned Stan, eyes ablaze 
with fake religious fervour. “And this shall be a sign for us because 
soon after that the great God himself shall come. And God shall lead 
the faithful among us into the Promised Land, which in our case is 
behind the big wall that nobody sees.” 

Sitting in the flock, Bert the Unbeliever shook his head in disgust. “Aw
piss off, Stan,” he said. “We've heard all this crap before.” 

“Yeah we're gettin a bit sick of it,” agreed Barry. 

“Tell us somethin interestin,” moaned Arthur. 

Stan pulled at his long straggly beard and looked round them. “This is
interestin,” he said. 

“To you, maybe,” sneered Bert, “but not to us – a Burnin Ball fallin out
the skies! Bloody rubbish!” 

“Yeah, bloody rubbish,” agreed Barry. “At least Eric's interestin.” 

Eric, a rival prophet, lived at the top of the next small hill. 


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