Disclaimer: These characters belong to me and only to me. I created them; they came from my own imagination, and if anyone steals them, those individuals will have the CREATIVE WRITING POLICE to deal with. Then you deal with ME.

There were times in my past when I would have looked at any extra-terrestrial and want to kill it... excuse me, him or her. I used to be sooooo prejudiced against any being that was not from the planet Earth. I had this attitude well before the Earth Conference took place. I would look at an alien... by the way, that word is strictly prohibited now. It would be like calling someone from the early twentieth century a nigger or a spik. As a matter of fact, there were times in Earth’s past when anyone who spoke those names would be badly beaten or even killed in racial wars; but I’m going off on many tangents.

As I was saying, I had this attitude that if I saw an extra-terrestrial I would want to remove my Corinthian Dagger and run him through until his green, or purple, or black, or whatever the hell the color his blood was, would splatter onto the pavement and run like a river into the drainage system beneath the city. Or I would want to behead the individual using the ancient scimitar that had been passed down to the males in my family from generation to generation. Oh, the many fantasies that I would have about that! The cold metal penetrating the alien flesh, whether it be scales, or leather, or feathers. The sharpness cutting through tendons and bones. Oh, such fantasies!

But as I said, my attitude changed because of the Earth Conference.

What was the Earth Conference? It was a time and a place when representatives from the nine planets met on the Earth at a secured location to discuss intergalactic peace. There were so many men and women opposed to such an alliance because of economics. People... beings... had always been greedy; greedy for money, greedy for power, greedy for love... all life was inherently greedy. So on each planet, individual peoples had their own prejudices about other peoples, and who could blame them? What would happen to commerce? What currency would be used to trade with? Everyone was so closed-minded. Each society worked out its difficulties in their histories, but it seemed as though no one had learned anything because of the fact that the same close-mindedness returned when they encountered species so very different from their own. The same racial prejudices found in each culture were reborn.

I had the absolute pleasure of being one of the representatives from Earth important enough to take part in the conference. As a matter of fact, I had the immense pleasure of being the main spokesperson for the entire conference. I use the world pleasure with great distaste because I had no desire to spend my free time, much as it was, with a group of extra-terrestrials whom I had no intention of liking. My duty, as one of Earth’s representatives, was to treat each delegate from each world with respect and listen with an open mind to his or her pleas, problems, or whatever it was that he or she wanted to say. Some beings had come with open minds, and others, like myself, sat stone-faced at the conference for many days, which was to last for one Earth week.

The day that changed my life happened shortly before the close of the conference. Speeches had been delayed or argued about so vehemently that nothing was accomplished, so I, being the chief representative, struck my gavel against the table I was sitting behind, and called for a half an hour recess. I could tell that tempers were rising and people were getting tired. My mission was to delegate peace between the planets, not war. I made a good move. No one could clear the room fast enough, such was everyone’s haste to get away from everyone else. I was the last one to leave the room. Before I left, I turned around in my chair and stared out at the world from the huge picture window taking up the back wall.

"What is the galaxy coming to?" I asked myself quietly. My long, black hair was slightly ruffled due to the fact that I had continuously run my fingers through it as patience grew thin in the atmosphere of the room before I had called the recess. I had always liked to wear it lose and about my shoulders, my last rebellious attempt not to conform before I was sucked into the swirling void of politics.

The Earth Representative cape was draped over one of my shoulders, its plant-like greens, its ocean-like blues, and it’s earth-like browns seeming to swirl about in my mind like a vortex pulling me into its chaotic patterns. One of the crazy advisors that I had spoken with, before the date had been set for the conference, told me that it would be a good idea if all the representatives wore the colors of their planet. I remember laughing in the man’s face and telling him that was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. The other members of the committee agreed with him.

As I thought about where the conference was going (nowhere), I absentmindedly twisted a corner of the cape between my thumb and forefinger. Its silky material ran through my fingers like the barest wisp of wind, touching me, yet not touching me. I always seemed to play with articles of my clothing when I was deep in thought and had no idea what I wanted to do. Sighing to myself, I stood up and walked closer to the window. The prevailing blue hues of the sky met my tired gaze, massaging my pupils. Birds flitted across my line of sight, performing a mating dance before alighting in a tree. I turned my head slightly to look at the shimmering ocean. It seemed to shimmer with tiny droplets of diamonds as the bright sun danced across the horizon. There was no doubt in my mind: the city was beautiful. There were so many trees around... trees that probably would not have survived if we, as a species, hadn’t finally gotten it through our heads that these ancient relics were an important element in the equation for the Earth’s survival. Once again, I sighed before making my way from the conference room, out of the building, and into the bustling street.

Everywhere I turned, there were delegates and representatives and body guards for the representatives walking around. Frowning to myself, I continued my way through the street, my black, military-style boots making an echoing click-clack-click on the ground as I placed one foot in front of the other against the pavement. Why couldn’t these beings just go back to wherever the hell they’d come from? Why couldn’t the Earth continue to live as though it were the center of the universe? Sighing once again, I already knew the answer to that. It was the fifty-first century, a time for galactic peace. Many humans were afraid of the huge leaps and bounds that Earth itself, as well as the other planets in the Milky Way Galaxy, had made in laser weapons; and not to mention the fact that there was always the threat of interstellar war with other galaxies. People thought it would be a good idea if the galaxy united under one voice so that we would become this imposing force that no one would want to mess with. Knowing this did not put me in any better of a mood than I was in while the conference room was jam-packed with representatives from the nine planets.

There were the human-like Mercutians from Mercury. Nobody really knew much about them except for the fact that they had some really wild hair. Depending on which individual a person was looking at, the hair ranged from electric white, to jet black, with varying shades of red, orange, yellow, and sometimes blue in between. Other than that, they looked so very human. There were the Venutians from Venus. The entire community was made up of women, with only a handful of men to propagate the species. Their society was based primarily on magic and mysticism, things no Earthling believed in any more. The women had pale blue skin and creamy white hair. Their eyes were as black as midnight, and their lips were blood-red. Each woman stood to be approximately six-feet tall and they were very skinny. All in all, they were beautiful. The men were shorter, but looked very similar to the women.

The Martians, as everyone knew, were just little green men -- ugly little fellows with telekinetic and telepathic powers. Their society was based on finding out as much as they could about other cultures and seeing if they could make it any better on their own world. The people from Jupiter, the Scholorians, were well over twelve-feet tall, had ice-blue eyes, and high, sloping foreheads. Their fingers were about the size of my forearm, and the full length of their arms had to be at least six feet. The bizarre thing about their race was that they spoke without moving their lips. Their society was based on philosophy and scholarly work. It was a very good thing that the ceiling of the conference center were high enough to accommodate them. Saturn was a world full of reptilian creatures called the Anochondians. Contrary to popular belief, their society was not based on blood lust and the consumption of any animal life they encountered. It was based on biology and all of the creations of nature. They were a very peaceful race.

The Uranians, from Uranus, had a society based on architecture. Some of the best architecture in the galaxy was based on models from that planet. Their thought processes followed a very mathematical and logical format, meaning that they were as boring as hell. The beings from the planet Neptune, whose name I could never pronounce, had a society based on aquatics. I could never really define what it was that they did so I won’t even try. The Plutonians were a bird-like race the color of ice beneath a blue moon. The only thing colorful about them was their red tongues. Avionics was what their cultural base was. The simple fact remained, however, that none of them were from this planet, so they did not deserve any respect, by me or anyone. At least, that was what I used to think.

I placed my hands in my pockets with all of these thoughts revolving around in my dazed mind. All of the underlying hatreds of the different representatives were still flying around in my head. The noises and other sounds within the city -- peoples’ voices, birds calling, or vehicles zooming past -- were drowned out as I walked alone with my thoughts. Why did these people have to be here? What was galactic peace anyway? These thoughts and more surfaced and dived within the depths of my brain, and with them, my hatred and prejudice increased and began to swirl around me like a fog. I began to analyze why I had such a hatred for extra-terrestrials as I walked. I guess it stemmed from the war that one of my ancestors had been a part of. It was a war between Earth and Mars for space travel rights. So many Earthlings had died in that war, including one of my ancestors. Well, the wife of this ancient family member hated all extra-terrestrials after that and she passed this hatred along the rest of the lines.

There were other little things that increased my hatred. There were the taxes on extra-terrestrial goods, and the lack of patriotism the younger generation of our planet was showing. All the young people listened to now-a-days was the music of some off-worlder. Thinking about that began to infuriate me again so I began to walk with a little more swiftness. Scanning the area around me only briefly, I caught sight of one of the representatives from Mercury. He was a young-looking man of about twenty-five Earth years. He wore the red and purple representative cape of Mercury, as well as black, leather pants and a matching blazer. His hair was what caught my attention though.

Hanging longer than my own hair, the wild mane flowed around his shoulders like a halo. I saw streaks of electric white, a white so bright that if I looked at it long enough I felt as though my eyes were burning from its sheer intensity. In contrast, there were streaks of black so deep and dark that I felt as though I were being pulled into a black hole. The rest of the colors streaked throughout his hair were so vibrant and rich, it looked as though his head were on fire with every different colored flame known to man: blue, purple, yellow, red, orange, with white being the hottest, and black being the coldest.

I stopped in my tracks as my hatred of all extra-terrestrials came shooting through my veins like a poison. I could feel my brows furrowing, and I could feel my lips curling in contempt. I knew exactly what I was going to do, I was going to walk over to that alien bastard and kick the holy hell out of him! With that purpose in my mind, I stalked over to him. When I had stopped to stare openly at him, the Mercutian had stopped walking and stared at me as if he were bored. That only infuriated me more. I felt as though my blood were on fire and the only thing that would cool it off was shedding someone else’s, namely the Mercutian who was standing stoically by the side of the road. The pedestrian crowd had thinned out somewhat, so I knew that I would not have too many witnesses to what I was about to do. After all, how would it look if one of the Earth’s representatives picked a fight with one of the Mercutian representatives? I grinned to myself with evil delight and anticipation.

As I began to cross the road, this strange feeling began to settle over me. I began to feel as though something outside of me were forcing all of my anger from me along with all of my strength. I stopped walking for a moment to collect myself. When I shook my head and looked at the Mercutian again, I felt my temper begin to boil again, and with new determination, I continued on my quest to shed a little bit of blood that day. Strangely enough, the next step that I took seemed harder than the previous step that I took, and each step after that became harder than the one before it. I began to break out in a cold sweat and my limbs began to shake. I could feel my throat beginning to constrict and my vision begin to blur. The only thing that I could see was the Mercutian and he seemed to get more and more colorful and vibrant as the colors began to pale and fade around me into varying shades of gray. I was gasping for air, and there didn’t seem to be anything I could do to save myself! I knew that I was at the mercy of this being.

I dropped to my knees on the pavement beneath me, or at least I thought it was pavement. When I looked down, all I saw was blackness. There were no stars, and there was no light. It seemed like a vacuum. When I looked up and around me, I saw the same things, but when I looked at the young Mercutian, I saw him. I rubbed my eyes with heavy hands; my arms felt like lead weights. I thought that I was seeing things because it actually looked as though the hair of the being was dancing and waving like the flames of a conflagration. His eyes, which I was sure were black opals before, glowed with white fire and the intense glare was directed at me! Then I heard a voice. It wasn’t a loud, booming voice of anger or contempt, or even a soft whispering voice of pity or sympathy. It was a musical voice full of beauty and emotion.

"You have been blinded and deafened by things in your past that you had no control over," the voice said to me. "It is killing you inside to be this way and the hatred is not allowing you to live." I stared, mouth gaping at the extra-terrestrial. His mouth wasn’t moving, but I could hear him as clearly as if he were talking in my ear. "Change your ways, Earthling, or feel the boiling hatred eat you up inside until the flames consume your soul and the very essence of your being."

With those words, I could feel my blood beginning to boil as it had before when I saw the Mercutian wandering along the sidewalk, and I wanted to knock the holy hell out of him. But this time the boiling was different. It was a painful boiling, and as I looked down at my skin, I suddenly saw the flesh begin to blister and burn. I watched in horror and in pain as my flesh began to drop off of my body in flaming rivulets of melted wax. The blood began to poor from my gaping wounds and it disappeared somewhere beneath me. I tried to scream, but no words would leave my mouth. I could feel my body burning up from the inside out.

"I am not inflicting this pain on you, Earthling. You are inflicting this pain on yourself." I tried to look at him as the pain threatened to steal my consciousness. "Open your heart and your mind to new things and new ideas, for if you close your mind, it is the same as sealing not only your doom, but the doom of the entire Human Race." With those words I began to hear the terrified and pain-filled screams of human beings rising up into the heavens. I tried to cover my burning ears with my hands, but as I did, all of the flesh dropped off of my body and I came face to face with my own skeleton-hand. I screamed.

"Change your ways, Earthling, or this pain will become even more real and terrifying than you could ever imagine."

Then he was gone, and so were my surroundings. I was no longer standing in a void where I could not move, or breath, or even speak. I was standing in the same spot on the street where I had stopped when the vision had suddenly come to me. There were humans and extra-terrestrials staring at me as if I had lost my mind. Apparently, the scream had not been a vision or a figment of my imagination at all. It had actually left my throat, and I was kneeling in the street, holding my own hand in a death grip. I looked down at my hand and noticed that the flesh was still there, that there was blood still coursing through my veins and arteries. I touched my face, my arms, and my legs, making sure that the flesh there was still intact. In stupefied amazement, I shook my head. Quickly, I stood up because more and more people were stopping and staring at me, and looked around. The Mercutian had disappeared! The most amazing thing about it was the fact that where he had stood, all that remained were a pair of footprints scorched into the pavement, the smoke still rising up from the ground.

My heart was beating fast as the reality, or surreality of what had just happened to me sunk into my dazed mind. The being had informed me that I needed to change my ways or the pain that I thought had been real could turn into something all too real for me. Looking at my watch, I noticed that it was almost time to reconvene the conference. With my hands in my pockets, and many thoughts revolving around in my head, I made my way back to the conference center. I paid no heed to those that stared at me. My conscious was laying a tremendous guilt trip on me, and I needed to fully analyze my thoughts. I didn’t care who was staring at me as I walked.

Ten minutes later, I found myself back in the conference center, holding the gavel in my hand. With a few powerful raps against the table, I shouted, "This meeting will come to order!" All of the delegates hurried to their seats. As the room finally settled down into a strained silence, I searched the room for the Mercutian that I had seen on the street. I saw him sitting at the far corner of the room, and he was not even looking at me. I shook my head slowly so no one would notice, and I began to wonder if the whole thing had been an awful nightmare. But the time had passed for reflection because it was time to get the proverbial ball rolling.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the Earth Conference," I began in a very authoritative voice. "For many days now, you and I have been haggling back and forth about the peace between the nine planets and the unity of our people. For many days I have talked, listened, and looked at what has been going on in this room, and I have to admit that I am deeply ashamed of myself and of each and every one of you." One could hear a pin-dropping, that’s how silent the room had gotten. I looked around the room and made eye contact with everyone there.

Standing up, I clasped my hands behind my back in a reflective manner before I continued. "I know that in each civilization in this galaxy, each of us has gone through a history where people have been prejudiced toward someone who was different from the norm, and I say this word lightly." The sarcasm, when I said the word ‘norm’ dripped like honey off of my tongue. "As time moved on and beings became more and more enlightened, and intelligent, we realized that it accomplished nothing to hold contempt for someone because he or she was different, or to belittle and degrade someone because he or she was different. We thought we had learned something." I sat back down in my chair and picked up my gavel again.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are ALL guilty of this crime today!" I slammed my gavel down on the table and noticed that a few beings jumped. "I know that not all of you hold prejudices, but I must say that you are guilty because you let it happen." I gently laid my gavel down and placed my hands face down on the table.

"Today, it is a new day. It is time to get it through our heads that the crimes of our ancestors should not be our crimes. We are supposed to have been more intelligent than they, and here we’ve been acting like children for most of the week!"

I stood up again and held everyone’s eyes. "Today you must ask yourselves: Am I willing to cause the destruction of whole civilizations by killing the spirit of unity, or can I bring about a change that will go down in history as the time when the galaxy united?" I paused for emphasis. "It’s up to you."

I sat down again and picked up my gavel. "I will leave you all to think about it." I paused before I brought my gavel down with enough force to cause electric sparks to fly off of the table. "MEETING ADJOURNED!"

When I was alone in the conference room again, I rested my face in my hands and began to wonder if the speech that I had given was going to be enough to change many centuries of galactic prejudice. And as I sat there wondering this, I suddenly heard that musical voice again, but this time, the room did not blacken around me nor did the air leave my lungs. Looking up quickly, I saw the young Mercutian standing in the doorway.

"Now it is up to time," he said to me, his lips actually moving, before he suddenly disappeared.

Now it was up to time...