Congratulations !
You have been awarded points.
Thank you for !
- Story Listed as: Fiction For Teens
- Theme: Fairy Tales & Fantasy
- Subject: Fairy Tale / Folk Tale
- Published: 01/13/2023
The Narrative of John the Conqueror
Adult, F, from Los Angeles, United StatesThe Narrative of John the Conqueror written by Dai’Quiriya S. Martinez
—Prologue
Our story began about 10,000 BCE. That was when the highly advanced Dndurians brought the first one hundred settlers to the rocky green planet and disbursed them towards the four corners of the Earth, in order to spread knowledge to the primitive human beings, who were no more than glorified animals in their eyes. In the beginning, the scientists and geneticists observed the settlers and their descendants regularly, yet as time passed they lost total interest in them.
Thousands of years later, during the Earth year 1999, a strange disease began to slowly spread across the planet, Dndura. By the year 2020, one out of five Dndurians was suffering from the illness. At their wits’ end, they finally looked at old data relating to the study of one the oldest races of Earthlings on the planet; The melanated people. For some reason, they were mainly interested in the descendants of African slaves.
Out of all of groups that make up the African diaspora, African-Americans, were chosen by the melanated space visitors. Black-Americans were considered unique, because their genetic profile displayed a mixture of DNA from every part of the world. This was due to the fact that every single group, including those from the most remotest parts of the planet, migrated to the United States and intermarried with Black Americans at some point in time. Due to cultural traditions within the Black community, and a strict definition by the White authorities of what made a person Black, intermarriage had not depopulated the Black community, but instead increased it. In fact, there was another secret admixture to the the story. The Black American community also carried a high percentage of Dndurian DNA, inherited from the first one hundred settlers on the planet. This unique mixture had created a gene pool like no other which the Dndurians needed in order to cure themselves of something that they called, the affliction. “The affliction”, was a condition which caused individuals to become weak, fall ill, prematurely age, and in many cases, cause death.
The Dndurians appeared by way of seven massive airships and when the world saw that they were Black, there was a silence so thick, not even a machete could cut through it. Everyone was in awe until a tawny complexioned, unhoused, elderly man danced around and yelled out, “I told y’all …they done come back…..They’re here and I am ready to go home to the promised land…woooohooo! Here I come…yippee, hootie-hoo….Ezekiel, let me ride…swang on down! One nation under a groove, y’all…hippie-dip…get on the good foot and ride the mothership!”
The strange visitors from Dndura met with world leaders to discuss their situation. They explained that because there had been some continuous intra-marriage over generations, their bloodlines were affected and they needed volunteers from the Black community to help save their race. Black-Americans had something in them called in-kr, which was unknown to the backward scientists on Earth, who termed it, unassigned and/or “junk dna”.
The United States government, strangely enough, gave a flat out, emphatic, “No! You can’t just come here and demand to take African-Americans away with you!” The response caused shock amongst other ethnicities and world governments, considering the treatment that Black Americans received in the U.S. Then one day, out of the blue, all airwaves were jammed by an unknown signal;The Dndurians would have their moment. They broadcasted proof that they were the progenitors of the dark races by matching the mysterious traces of unassigned DNA of Black Americans to their own lineages.
—A new beginning……
A new life was promised for Black Americans. No more racism, a place where everyone is melanated, advanced technology, ancient wisdom, free education, and your own land to farm and build on. It was, “forty acres and a mule”, coming full circle from the stars.
Most Blacks were thrilled at the idea, while others were skeptical. Leaders met with the community to discuss the possibility of voluntary space migration. Almost eighty percent of African-Americans voted to exit the planet, ten percent were undecided, while another ten percent were totally against it and suspicious of the entire matter.
The Dndurians were straightforward and said that in exchange for a non-fatal extraction of “in-kr”, Black Americans would be given plots of land, housing, education, and access to Dndurian culture and society; a whole new way of life. The environment was clean, healthy, and sustainable. Dndura was home and the so-called motherland of Africa was not; it was just a stopping point on the evolutionary road to the genesis of Black-Americans.
No one was forced. They just left. A few small groups remained behind, skeptical and fearful for those who made the greatest Black migration in world history.
They were able to keep in touch with relatives, through “message waves”, although it took five to six days for one message to reach the satellites and then the cell phone towers to make a connection. Fifty years later, the technology wasn’t renewed for the descendants of the last Blacks in America, now known as Melano-Americans. As the term Black fell out of usage, Melano was created from the term “melanated” to signify the original heritage of the mulatto/mestizo descendants of the Black-Americans. The use of the root word melanated served as a connection to the “Black Royalty”, who exited the planet so long ago. While some Melanos married in with other ethnicities, the majority united and formed a few small autonomous communities. It was from one of those communities that a member of an almost vanished lineage would take a chance.
—Present Day
Location: Dndura -South side of the Milky Way Galaxy
Year: Over 150 years A.M. (after migration)
———Around one hundred and fifty years after the mass exodus of Black Americans from planet Earth, the “Earthmigrants”, as they are called, face adversity on the all-melanated planet, Dndura.
—The story thus far….
In the beginning, life on Dndura was fascinating; everyone was Black and beautiful. Good life….good health. All Earthmigrants between the ages of 7 to 75 had to attend classes on history, government, philosophy, agriculture, animal husbandry, music, mathematics, science, and folklore. After class, the adult “newcomers”, as they were called (at first), had to report to “vocation stations”, for work in the technology and skilled trades sector. Every nine days, Earthmigrant donors would have to report to health services for “in-kr” extraction, until the wise healers had enough to create a serum that would provide a cure for the affliction.
It took about twenty-five years for the final version of the serum to take effect. A generation of Earthmigrants were now Dndurians, or so they thought. And although they were becoming Dndurian, the Earthmigrants still held on to their Earth heritage. At one time, sending message waves home to Earth was a huge pastime of theirs, along with gathering on a large patch of grass and spreading food out on a cloth and eating. Dndurians looked down on them for sitting on the ground like animals or worse, like the savage Bntui tribes who lived on the edge of the forest lands.
Another 25 years passed and as the Earthmigrant’s grandchildren came of age they forgot about their Earth cousins, as communication with the third planet from the Sun ceased. The native Dndurians began to resent the migrants because, no matter how much they fit in, something about them was still “Earthie”. Some natives intermarried with them to ensure that the catastrophe which they had previously faced would never happen again. While others felt that their population had grown too quickly in the half century since they had arrived. There were also some who were envious of them, because their one of a kind lineage possessed the ability to save the Dndurians; somehow that made them more Dndurian than the natives. Envy turned to loathing, which led to the formation of several groups with anti-Earthmigrant sentiments. After a while, most of these groups had disappeared, a few did reappear later in some other incarnation, like the Native Club, which was a Dndurian only “social” club. Members of these clubs only associated with Dndurians and even formed Dndurian only living sectors in some of the rural areas of the planet.
—Time marches on
Despite the bigotry, over a hundred years after their arrival, the Earthmigrants had done very well for themselves. Some gained positions of austerity, while others formed collectives and held lands in common. Earthmigrant children had also done well in the academic realm. Everything the Earthmigrants were taught was absorbed, changed and reinterpreted. The “Earthies”, as they were called, had taken the somber chants of the esoteric elders and the rhythmic music of the spiritual sages and created a new style of music called “star slop”. To irk the native Dndurians even further, the Earthies had the nerve to teach their own history. Beginning with the story of how the Dndurians had first seeded the Earth with advanced melanated beings, along with a strong emphasis on the African-American Exodus, they crafted their own narrative.
While all of this was unfolding, natives who disparaged the Earthies, joined the newest group who held anti-Earthmigrant sentiments. Within five years, The Group, had gained power. The Earthies who were still in positions of authority were demoted. Privately owned lands were confiscated. Luckily, some of the common lands were given to the Earthmigrant people, as a unit. Earthie children were prohibited from attending the “Great Temple”, after their junior and senior academic years were completed. Dndurians who spoke out against the mistreatment of the Earthies, were either silenced or banished to the “savage lands” for up to one year. Earthies who caused trouble were placed in private custody indeterminately; they were kept around just in case their in-kr was needed. For some Dndurians the serum had to be administered at regular intervals for life; this was the only reason that they didn’t physically harm the Earthies. The Group had other methods of punishment, such as placing an individual in the “Sarcophagus of Sakma’ti”, the legendary giantess who ruled the planet in ancient times. It was said that her spirit dwelled inside of the contraption where it lives with lesser entities who torment the temporary inhabitant with illusions and various images. This time period of Earthmigrant oppression was called the “Great Degeneration”.
—The post-Great Degeneration period
The Earthie community had degenerated slightly due to discrimination and oppression, yet it somehow survived and continued to thrive. One day, years after the “Great Degeneration”, a medium sized rusty metal obelisk on a farm vibrated and made a sound akin to an air transport vehicle. A few members of a collective community known as Earth Mother’s Home, gathered around as the object made the sound again and again. An elder female stepped from the crowd and laughed, “Well…well…well, a call from home. I never thought I would live to see this. My grandmother said they used to talk to Earth all of the time through one of these. We lost contact with Earth over 100 years ago.” Someone from the crowd cried out, “ Knock it down….we have enough trouble, already!”
The council of collective elders and community representatives called a meeting to decide what should be done about the message wave and how it might affect them. They voted to cover the device up and ignore it. After the meeting, a few younger, progressive members voted to find a way to reactivate the communication device. A man named Ak-Ben, who had been allowed to attend the Great Temple because of his half native Dndurian lineage, was secretly hired to find a way to fix the communicator. They worked day and night while the council made preparations to enclose the device. Three hours before the closure, Ak-Ben had done it. Old parts from an audioputer, attached to a very large quartz crystal would serve as an incoming message recorder conduit. A young man held the quartz-adioputer wand and pointed toward the message wave obelisk, and then spoke into it.
“Hello, is anyone out there? We are the descendants of the Black Exodus. Have you heard of us? Why did you lose contact with us? Please….is anyone there?”
After ten minutes, they gave up until Ak-Ben explained that old devices such as the message wave took almost six days to send and receive messages from Earth. They were defeated, or so they thought. As they turned away, the message wave hummed again. And this time a voice could be heard.
“ Yes, we know of you. We have been awaiting your return for generations. The legends of the Black Kings and Queens of Earth are well known. Earth is a new place….rebuilding itself and we need the superior knowledge you’ve gained to help us. We need you. We want you to come home.”
While the others stood in shock, Ak-Ben inquired about the technology and found that Earth’s technology had become quite advanced despite the fact that America had been on the brink of total savagery before the Black-Americans left.
Before the voice faded away, it said, “Seek out John….John the Conqueror.”
A young woman named Nefertiani asked, “ Do any of you know who John the Conqueror is?” No one answered.
The secret progressive group members began to call themselves “Conquerites” in honor of this mysterious John who was the subject of their search. “Infoputers” and ancient books were consulted. One member located information on two different Earth plants called John the Conqueror, but couldn’t find an individual with that name. It was at this time that the Conquerites realized how ignorant they truly were about their own origins. In their generation, the history that they knew spoke little of the actual culture of Black America and played up the migration and success narrative more than anything, and everything else after that was all Dndurian. Learning everything they could about Earth, they set out to ask a select few trusted elders to give them any historical information that was passed down to their families. There was nothing about John the Conqueror, nor of his miraculous return.
After searching through more than a dozen old books, Nefertiani spoke, “Maybe it’s a religion or something…we might be searching in the wrong place.” The Conquerites searched religious texts and about an hour later, Ak-Ben found mention of the John the Conqueror root again, but this time in reference to an old Earth belief system called, Hudu. This was a pivotal moment for the Conquerites, because the information led them to discover that the name of the root was connected to a legendary figure from the era of African-American slavery. Now that they knew who he was, they couldn’t see how a legend could help them, unless he was real.
The following day, a decree came out stating that, The Group, would no longer allow Earthies to attend junior and senior academics with Dndurians. They made claims that Earthie students were given an unfair advantage and status due to their origins and that it hurt the self-esteem of native, ethnic Dndurian children. Earthmigrant community leaders met with The Group to compromise.
The Conquerites realized that they needed a plan before things got worse. Under the cover of the moon-lit sky, a group of Conquerites broke down the massage wave enclosure and turned on the communication wand.
“Hello…anyone there?” Nefertiani repeated, but there was no response. She and her comrades waited and tried again. They did this every ten minutes until the message wave buzzed. Again, a voice spoke to them and said, “Spread the word and John the Conqueror will be found. That’s all you have to do is spread the word and he will be found. He is among you. Just look….”
—The Search for a hero
Three more months had passed while the Conquerites were leading a growing movement. Meetings were held in secret and all members were expected to spread the word and search for the mysterious John. At the same time, a group of former Dndurian space patrol guards of Earthmigrant ancestry led a huge protest against the mistreatment of the Earthies. They formed their own movement as did other Earthies; some peaceful, others boisterous. The Group offered to compromise, after seeing half of the native Dndurian Space Patrol stand in solidarity with the Earthies. The Group didn’t want to upset the patrol because they were key to the safety of Dndura. Without the patrol, there would be chaos on the planet and the savage tribes would run wild, and ravage the cities, towns, and villages. So, The Group agreed to allow Earthie children back into the educational academies. This was a step in the right direction, albeit a small one. The Earthie community was divided between those who wanted to stay and fight to regain their position and those who wanted to return to Earth and regain their lost heritage.
The Conquerites spread the word, which led to a “Back to Earth Ways” movement to shun Dndurian culture and recapture lost Earth culture and history.
On Earth, a Melano-American named Ludivico Johnson continued to send messages to Dndura. He was one of the few Melano-Americans left in what was once the USA, now called, The Union of North American States. It was time for the “kings and queens” to return and replenish the Earth again. A lot had changed since the Black space travelers had departed. The loss of the bulk of Black culture and society had taken a toll on America. Innovations in the arts lagged, spirituality floundered, and science and medicine were at a dead end, because there weren’t any Black-Americans to contribute their knowledge to research. Not to mention that new inventions by human beings also fell behind due to the fact that Black-Americans had created many useful machines, instruments, tools, and devices which helped to build the old United States and the world at large. Thus, the entire planet suffered in different ways because of the lack of the Black American presence.
Ludovico hoped that the Black-American Dndurians would understand what to look for. His great grandfather had left a diary which he had studied extensively. His ancestor had been a great scientist whose twin brother was an engineer. They devised a way for the Black-Americans to return to Earth-an escape plan just in case they needed to return home. Those two brothers knew that someday the travelers would no longer be welcome on the melanated planet. They predicted that Black-Americans would affect the advanced space culture in ways that had never been expected, and that Dndurian resentment would drive the travelers to remember their origins and return home. John the Conqueror would bring them home. The only fear that Ludovico had, was that there might not be anyone of the Johnson bloodline left on Dndura to complete the puzzle. The thought that he might have distant space cousins on Dndura was intriguing to him.
—Getting closer to their destiny
A year after contact with Earth, the Conquerites travelled to a collective in one of the distant Earthmigrant villages. They found an individual named Dr. Johnson Xango-Atun who at one time taught science, technology, and the spiritual arts at one of the best of the Great Temple schools, before the repression of the Earthies. Not only was he a scientist, but he was very well versed in Earth history, because his family maintained a small library of “Earthbooks”, that had been long forgotten by most.
After Nerfertiani told Johnson the story of the message wave and the search for John the Conqueror, Ak-Ben said, “We noticed that your first name is Johnson, are you called John for short?” Johnson laughed and said, “ I’m not who you are looking for, but I may know how to find him.”
The Conquerites were shocked by the idea that such a person could still be alive after all this time. They heard that some of their kind lived to almost two hundred, because of the pure environment of Dndura. They talked amongst themselves and concluded that old John the Conqueror must have been alive all this time, guarding some ancient secret that would help them return to Earth.
—John is found
Weeks passed without any word from Johnson, until one day out of nowhere, he appeared at a Conquerite meeting. He had found John the Conqueror. The lead members agreed to meet him at his family’s old roundhouse that was located in the woods behind his home. Roundhouses were semi-large circular dwellings which were given to the Earthmigrants when they first arrived on Dndura. Johnson Xango-Atun’s roundhouse was well preserved. The structure, still standing after generations had come and gone, served his family as a weekend learning center, laboratory, entertainment space, and storage area.
Johnson led the Conquerites inside. Nefertiani noticed two message waves with lines attached leading to an old-fashioned audioputer and inquired about the technology. John explained that generations after the arrival on Dndura, his family, whose surname was at one time Johnson, had secretly kept in touch with their distant Earth cousins by way of salvaging message waves and whatever technology they could get their hands on. This went on for generations until the last person who had maintained the surname Johnson, before it was changed to a Dndurian one, had passed into the next realm at 120 years of age. However, before his passing over, he had made sure to add one last entry to his family diary; the location of John, who would lead them back to Earth.
Johnson handed the diary to Nefertiani who read the last entry. “John is below. Waiting to take us home. He is old and antiquated, yet will come to the rescue when the time presents itself. My ancestors always knew that one day we might need an escape route. John will lead the way.”
The Conquerites were puzzled. How could an ancient one….an elder live below for so long? Was he a prisoner…..a powerful wise man or a fantasy created by a wishful thinker?
Johnson moved across the room and placed his palm over a rectangle made up of rounded clear crystals. A hidden trapdoor in the roundhouse floor slowly opened up. He beckoned to the Conquerites who followed as he proceeded down a set of stairs which led to a room below. Walking over to a large square box he pressed his thumb over an indentation in a rectangular device set with multicolored crystals. The box sprang open and in it sat a metallic oval object. Fear overcame the Conquerites who thought it might be a cellular explosive of some sort.
Ak-Ben was the first to speak, “We don’t want to blow up the planet! We just want to leave….that’s all. I knew this would end badly…I knew it was too good to be true!”
Nefertiani shook her head and asked, “So John the Conqueror is a bomb?”
Johnson didn’t respond.
Nefertiani’s lips tightened as she gritted her teeth and reiterated, “ Is this a bomb…or not!?”.
Johnson shook his head and laughed, “Don’t you see? John the Conqueror isn’t a bomb…..it’s a space transport accelerator device that can be attached to any vessel and has the capability to turn said vessel into a superior high velocity astrocraft. It’s named John the Conqueror after the legendary ancient Black-American hero who freed slaves under the cover of night. It’s a shame that you don’t know the old Earth stories. But, I digress. John the Conqueror will return us to Earth.”
The Conquerites pondered on where to locate a vessel that would hold all of the Earthies who wanted to leave. There were at least four to five thousand Earthies who wanted to migrate back to Earth, especially after they found out how Earth had suffered without them. Although the Earthmigrants prospered on Dndura, they suffered a loss of identity; were they Earthmigrants, or true Dndurians returned home or a little of both ? Either way, the proponents of “the Back to Earth” movement, renamed it “the Black to Earth Movement”.
A Dndurian academic who was an ally to the Earthmigrants suggested that they look at the Great Temple Archive and Museum for their vessel. The museum housed one of the first ships that bought the Earthies to Dndura. The accelerators had been removed, but everything else, such as navigation devices, were still intact.
The Earthmigrants bided their time, kept quite and waited patiently, yet anxiously. Two weeks later, while all Dndurians went to the Temple of Fire Mountain to celebrate the Festival of the Sun, the Conquerites and thousands of Earthmigrant descendants gathered to board the ship, now called “the Return”, with the John the Conqueror device firmly attached below.
Nefertiani, Ak-Ben, Johnson and the others turned to look at the Dndurian landscape which had been their temporary home for generations one more time and then boarded the ship.
Ak-Ben and Johnson entered the coordinates, while Nefertiani spoke the commands to John the Conqueror. The ship hovered above ground and spun around. As it did so, an unknown piece of music began playing. A robotic voice emerged through the music and said, “ I…am…John….the Conqueror…..here…to…free you…..from….the confines….of this…world. Bob your heads….enjoy….the ride….and let me….introduce…you…to funk music….
….it’s…your heritage….the soul…of Black folks….now….hold on….and…away….we go!”
The Earthmigrants listened to the music and danced for joy to something that they had never heard before, yet felt familiar to them. They landed approximately one year later. America was very happy to see them; Earth was happy to see them. And the Dndurian Black Americans, once known as Earthmigrants brought new knowledge with them and a new lineage to include in the story of Black Americans, because now they had a new dose of Dndurian ancestry to add to their long list of ethnic ingredients that made them who they are. Never again would the Black-Americans forget where they came from, whether it was Africa, America, or the stars- all was one.
I am John the Conqueror….signing off…..”One Nation under a Groove……”
The End ?
The Narrative of John the Conqueror(D.S. Martinez)
The Narrative of John the Conqueror written by Dai’Quiriya S. Martinez
—Prologue
Our story began about 10,000 BCE. That was when the highly advanced Dndurians brought the first one hundred settlers to the rocky green planet and disbursed them towards the four corners of the Earth, in order to spread knowledge to the primitive human beings, who were no more than glorified animals in their eyes. In the beginning, the scientists and geneticists observed the settlers and their descendants regularly, yet as time passed they lost total interest in them.
Thousands of years later, during the Earth year 1999, a strange disease began to slowly spread across the planet, Dndura. By the year 2020, one out of five Dndurians was suffering from the illness. At their wits’ end, they finally looked at old data relating to the study of one the oldest races of Earthlings on the planet; The melanated people. For some reason, they were mainly interested in the descendants of African slaves.
Out of all of groups that make up the African diaspora, African-Americans, were chosen by the melanated space visitors. Black-Americans were considered unique, because their genetic profile displayed a mixture of DNA from every part of the world. This was due to the fact that every single group, including those from the most remotest parts of the planet, migrated to the United States and intermarried with Black Americans at some point in time. Due to cultural traditions within the Black community, and a strict definition by the White authorities of what made a person Black, intermarriage had not depopulated the Black community, but instead increased it. In fact, there was another secret admixture to the the story. The Black American community also carried a high percentage of Dndurian DNA, inherited from the first one hundred settlers on the planet. This unique mixture had created a gene pool like no other which the Dndurians needed in order to cure themselves of something that they called, the affliction. “The affliction”, was a condition which caused individuals to become weak, fall ill, prematurely age, and in many cases, cause death.
The Dndurians appeared by way of seven massive airships and when the world saw that they were Black, there was a silence so thick, not even a machete could cut through it. Everyone was in awe until a tawny complexioned, unhoused, elderly man danced around and yelled out, “I told y’all …they done come back…..They’re here and I am ready to go home to the promised land…woooohooo! Here I come…yippee, hootie-hoo….Ezekiel, let me ride…swang on down! One nation under a groove, y’all…hippie-dip…get on the good foot and ride the mothership!”
The strange visitors from Dndura met with world leaders to discuss their situation. They explained that because there had been some continuous intra-marriage over generations, their bloodlines were affected and they needed volunteers from the Black community to help save their race. Black-Americans had something in them called in-kr, which was unknown to the backward scientists on Earth, who termed it, unassigned and/or “junk dna”.
The United States government, strangely enough, gave a flat out, emphatic, “No! You can’t just come here and demand to take African-Americans away with you!” The response caused shock amongst other ethnicities and world governments, considering the treatment that Black Americans received in the U.S. Then one day, out of the blue, all airwaves were jammed by an unknown signal;The Dndurians would have their moment. They broadcasted proof that they were the progenitors of the dark races by matching the mysterious traces of unassigned DNA of Black Americans to their own lineages.
—A new beginning……
A new life was promised for Black Americans. No more racism, a place where everyone is melanated, advanced technology, ancient wisdom, free education, and your own land to farm and build on. It was, “forty acres and a mule”, coming full circle from the stars.
Most Blacks were thrilled at the idea, while others were skeptical. Leaders met with the community to discuss the possibility of voluntary space migration. Almost eighty percent of African-Americans voted to exit the planet, ten percent were undecided, while another ten percent were totally against it and suspicious of the entire matter.
The Dndurians were straightforward and said that in exchange for a non-fatal extraction of “in-kr”, Black Americans would be given plots of land, housing, education, and access to Dndurian culture and society; a whole new way of life. The environment was clean, healthy, and sustainable. Dndura was home and the so-called motherland of Africa was not; it was just a stopping point on the evolutionary road to the genesis of Black-Americans.
No one was forced. They just left. A few small groups remained behind, skeptical and fearful for those who made the greatest Black migration in world history.
They were able to keep in touch with relatives, through “message waves”, although it took five to six days for one message to reach the satellites and then the cell phone towers to make a connection. Fifty years later, the technology wasn’t renewed for the descendants of the last Blacks in America, now known as Melano-Americans. As the term Black fell out of usage, Melano was created from the term “melanated” to signify the original heritage of the mulatto/mestizo descendants of the Black-Americans. The use of the root word melanated served as a connection to the “Black Royalty”, who exited the planet so long ago. While some Melanos married in with other ethnicities, the majority united and formed a few small autonomous communities. It was from one of those communities that a member of an almost vanished lineage would take a chance.
—Present Day
Location: Dndura -South side of the Milky Way Galaxy
Year: Over 150 years A.M. (after migration)
———Around one hundred and fifty years after the mass exodus of Black Americans from planet Earth, the “Earthmigrants”, as they are called, face adversity on the all-melanated planet, Dndura.
—The story thus far….
In the beginning, life on Dndura was fascinating; everyone was Black and beautiful. Good life….good health. All Earthmigrants between the ages of 7 to 75 had to attend classes on history, government, philosophy, agriculture, animal husbandry, music, mathematics, science, and folklore. After class, the adult “newcomers”, as they were called (at first), had to report to “vocation stations”, for work in the technology and skilled trades sector. Every nine days, Earthmigrant donors would have to report to health services for “in-kr” extraction, until the wise healers had enough to create a serum that would provide a cure for the affliction.
It took about twenty-five years for the final version of the serum to take effect. A generation of Earthmigrants were now Dndurians, or so they thought. And although they were becoming Dndurian, the Earthmigrants still held on to their Earth heritage. At one time, sending message waves home to Earth was a huge pastime of theirs, along with gathering on a large patch of grass and spreading food out on a cloth and eating. Dndurians looked down on them for sitting on the ground like animals or worse, like the savage Bntui tribes who lived on the edge of the forest lands.
Another 25 years passed and as the Earthmigrant’s grandchildren came of age they forgot about their Earth cousins, as communication with the third planet from the Sun ceased. The native Dndurians began to resent the migrants because, no matter how much they fit in, something about them was still “Earthie”. Some natives intermarried with them to ensure that the catastrophe which they had previously faced would never happen again. While others felt that their population had grown too quickly in the half century since they had arrived. There were also some who were envious of them, because their one of a kind lineage possessed the ability to save the Dndurians; somehow that made them more Dndurian than the natives. Envy turned to loathing, which led to the formation of several groups with anti-Earthmigrant sentiments. After a while, most of these groups had disappeared, a few did reappear later in some other incarnation, like the Native Club, which was a Dndurian only “social” club. Members of these clubs only associated with Dndurians and even formed Dndurian only living sectors in some of the rural areas of the planet.
—Time marches on
Despite the bigotry, over a hundred years after their arrival, the Earthmigrants had done very well for themselves. Some gained positions of austerity, while others formed collectives and held lands in common. Earthmigrant children had also done well in the academic realm. Everything the Earthmigrants were taught was absorbed, changed and reinterpreted. The “Earthies”, as they were called, had taken the somber chants of the esoteric elders and the rhythmic music of the spiritual sages and created a new style of music called “star slop”. To irk the native Dndurians even further, the Earthies had the nerve to teach their own history. Beginning with the story of how the Dndurians had first seeded the Earth with advanced melanated beings, along with a strong emphasis on the African-American Exodus, they crafted their own narrative.
While all of this was unfolding, natives who disparaged the Earthies, joined the newest group who held anti-Earthmigrant sentiments. Within five years, The Group, had gained power. The Earthies who were still in positions of authority were demoted. Privately owned lands were confiscated. Luckily, some of the common lands were given to the Earthmigrant people, as a unit. Earthie children were prohibited from attending the “Great Temple”, after their junior and senior academic years were completed. Dndurians who spoke out against the mistreatment of the Earthies, were either silenced or banished to the “savage lands” for up to one year. Earthies who caused trouble were placed in private custody indeterminately; they were kept around just in case their in-kr was needed. For some Dndurians the serum had to be administered at regular intervals for life; this was the only reason that they didn’t physically harm the Earthies. The Group had other methods of punishment, such as placing an individual in the “Sarcophagus of Sakma’ti”, the legendary giantess who ruled the planet in ancient times. It was said that her spirit dwelled inside of the contraption where it lives with lesser entities who torment the temporary inhabitant with illusions and various images. This time period of Earthmigrant oppression was called the “Great Degeneration”.
—The post-Great Degeneration period
The Earthie community had degenerated slightly due to discrimination and oppression, yet it somehow survived and continued to thrive. One day, years after the “Great Degeneration”, a medium sized rusty metal obelisk on a farm vibrated and made a sound akin to an air transport vehicle. A few members of a collective community known as Earth Mother’s Home, gathered around as the object made the sound again and again. An elder female stepped from the crowd and laughed, “Well…well…well, a call from home. I never thought I would live to see this. My grandmother said they used to talk to Earth all of the time through one of these. We lost contact with Earth over 100 years ago.” Someone from the crowd cried out, “ Knock it down….we have enough trouble, already!”
The council of collective elders and community representatives called a meeting to decide what should be done about the message wave and how it might affect them. They voted to cover the device up and ignore it. After the meeting, a few younger, progressive members voted to find a way to reactivate the communication device. A man named Ak-Ben, who had been allowed to attend the Great Temple because of his half native Dndurian lineage, was secretly hired to find a way to fix the communicator. They worked day and night while the council made preparations to enclose the device. Three hours before the closure, Ak-Ben had done it. Old parts from an audioputer, attached to a very large quartz crystal would serve as an incoming message recorder conduit. A young man held the quartz-adioputer wand and pointed toward the message wave obelisk, and then spoke into it.
“Hello, is anyone out there? We are the descendants of the Black Exodus. Have you heard of us? Why did you lose contact with us? Please….is anyone there?”
After ten minutes, they gave up until Ak-Ben explained that old devices such as the message wave took almost six days to send and receive messages from Earth. They were defeated, or so they thought. As they turned away, the message wave hummed again. And this time a voice could be heard.
“ Yes, we know of you. We have been awaiting your return for generations. The legends of the Black Kings and Queens of Earth are well known. Earth is a new place….rebuilding itself and we need the superior knowledge you’ve gained to help us. We need you. We want you to come home.”
While the others stood in shock, Ak-Ben inquired about the technology and found that Earth’s technology had become quite advanced despite the fact that America had been on the brink of total savagery before the Black-Americans left.
Before the voice faded away, it said, “Seek out John….John the Conqueror.”
A young woman named Nefertiani asked, “ Do any of you know who John the Conqueror is?” No one answered.
The secret progressive group members began to call themselves “Conquerites” in honor of this mysterious John who was the subject of their search. “Infoputers” and ancient books were consulted. One member located information on two different Earth plants called John the Conqueror, but couldn’t find an individual with that name. It was at this time that the Conquerites realized how ignorant they truly were about their own origins. In their generation, the history that they knew spoke little of the actual culture of Black America and played up the migration and success narrative more than anything, and everything else after that was all Dndurian. Learning everything they could about Earth, they set out to ask a select few trusted elders to give them any historical information that was passed down to their families. There was nothing about John the Conqueror, nor of his miraculous return.
After searching through more than a dozen old books, Nefertiani spoke, “Maybe it’s a religion or something…we might be searching in the wrong place.” The Conquerites searched religious texts and about an hour later, Ak-Ben found mention of the John the Conqueror root again, but this time in reference to an old Earth belief system called, Hudu. This was a pivotal moment for the Conquerites, because the information led them to discover that the name of the root was connected to a legendary figure from the era of African-American slavery. Now that they knew who he was, they couldn’t see how a legend could help them, unless he was real.
The following day, a decree came out stating that, The Group, would no longer allow Earthies to attend junior and senior academics with Dndurians. They made claims that Earthie students were given an unfair advantage and status due to their origins and that it hurt the self-esteem of native, ethnic Dndurian children. Earthmigrant community leaders met with The Group to compromise.
The Conquerites realized that they needed a plan before things got worse. Under the cover of the moon-lit sky, a group of Conquerites broke down the massage wave enclosure and turned on the communication wand.
“Hello…anyone there?” Nefertiani repeated, but there was no response. She and her comrades waited and tried again. They did this every ten minutes until the message wave buzzed. Again, a voice spoke to them and said, “Spread the word and John the Conqueror will be found. That’s all you have to do is spread the word and he will be found. He is among you. Just look….”
—The Search for a hero
Three more months had passed while the Conquerites were leading a growing movement. Meetings were held in secret and all members were expected to spread the word and search for the mysterious John. At the same time, a group of former Dndurian space patrol guards of Earthmigrant ancestry led a huge protest against the mistreatment of the Earthies. They formed their own movement as did other Earthies; some peaceful, others boisterous. The Group offered to compromise, after seeing half of the native Dndurian Space Patrol stand in solidarity with the Earthies. The Group didn’t want to upset the patrol because they were key to the safety of Dndura. Without the patrol, there would be chaos on the planet and the savage tribes would run wild, and ravage the cities, towns, and villages. So, The Group agreed to allow Earthie children back into the educational academies. This was a step in the right direction, albeit a small one. The Earthie community was divided between those who wanted to stay and fight to regain their position and those who wanted to return to Earth and regain their lost heritage.
The Conquerites spread the word, which led to a “Back to Earth Ways” movement to shun Dndurian culture and recapture lost Earth culture and history.
On Earth, a Melano-American named Ludivico Johnson continued to send messages to Dndura. He was one of the few Melano-Americans left in what was once the USA, now called, The Union of North American States. It was time for the “kings and queens” to return and replenish the Earth again. A lot had changed since the Black space travelers had departed. The loss of the bulk of Black culture and society had taken a toll on America. Innovations in the arts lagged, spirituality floundered, and science and medicine were at a dead end, because there weren’t any Black-Americans to contribute their knowledge to research. Not to mention that new inventions by human beings also fell behind due to the fact that Black-Americans had created many useful machines, instruments, tools, and devices which helped to build the old United States and the world at large. Thus, the entire planet suffered in different ways because of the lack of the Black American presence.
Ludovico hoped that the Black-American Dndurians would understand what to look for. His great grandfather had left a diary which he had studied extensively. His ancestor had been a great scientist whose twin brother was an engineer. They devised a way for the Black-Americans to return to Earth-an escape plan just in case they needed to return home. Those two brothers knew that someday the travelers would no longer be welcome on the melanated planet. They predicted that Black-Americans would affect the advanced space culture in ways that had never been expected, and that Dndurian resentment would drive the travelers to remember their origins and return home. John the Conqueror would bring them home. The only fear that Ludovico had, was that there might not be anyone of the Johnson bloodline left on Dndura to complete the puzzle. The thought that he might have distant space cousins on Dndura was intriguing to him.
—Getting closer to their destiny
A year after contact with Earth, the Conquerites travelled to a collective in one of the distant Earthmigrant villages. They found an individual named Dr. Johnson Xango-Atun who at one time taught science, technology, and the spiritual arts at one of the best of the Great Temple schools, before the repression of the Earthies. Not only was he a scientist, but he was very well versed in Earth history, because his family maintained a small library of “Earthbooks”, that had been long forgotten by most.
After Nerfertiani told Johnson the story of the message wave and the search for John the Conqueror, Ak-Ben said, “We noticed that your first name is Johnson, are you called John for short?” Johnson laughed and said, “ I’m not who you are looking for, but I may know how to find him.”
The Conquerites were shocked by the idea that such a person could still be alive after all this time. They heard that some of their kind lived to almost two hundred, because of the pure environment of Dndura. They talked amongst themselves and concluded that old John the Conqueror must have been alive all this time, guarding some ancient secret that would help them return to Earth.
—John is found
Weeks passed without any word from Johnson, until one day out of nowhere, he appeared at a Conquerite meeting. He had found John the Conqueror. The lead members agreed to meet him at his family’s old roundhouse that was located in the woods behind his home. Roundhouses were semi-large circular dwellings which were given to the Earthmigrants when they first arrived on Dndura. Johnson Xango-Atun’s roundhouse was well preserved. The structure, still standing after generations had come and gone, served his family as a weekend learning center, laboratory, entertainment space, and storage area.
Johnson led the Conquerites inside. Nefertiani noticed two message waves with lines attached leading to an old-fashioned audioputer and inquired about the technology. John explained that generations after the arrival on Dndura, his family, whose surname was at one time Johnson, had secretly kept in touch with their distant Earth cousins by way of salvaging message waves and whatever technology they could get their hands on. This went on for generations until the last person who had maintained the surname Johnson, before it was changed to a Dndurian one, had passed into the next realm at 120 years of age. However, before his passing over, he had made sure to add one last entry to his family diary; the location of John, who would lead them back to Earth.
Johnson handed the diary to Nefertiani who read the last entry. “John is below. Waiting to take us home. He is old and antiquated, yet will come to the rescue when the time presents itself. My ancestors always knew that one day we might need an escape route. John will lead the way.”
The Conquerites were puzzled. How could an ancient one….an elder live below for so long? Was he a prisoner…..a powerful wise man or a fantasy created by a wishful thinker?
Johnson moved across the room and placed his palm over a rectangle made up of rounded clear crystals. A hidden trapdoor in the roundhouse floor slowly opened up. He beckoned to the Conquerites who followed as he proceeded down a set of stairs which led to a room below. Walking over to a large square box he pressed his thumb over an indentation in a rectangular device set with multicolored crystals. The box sprang open and in it sat a metallic oval object. Fear overcame the Conquerites who thought it might be a cellular explosive of some sort.
Ak-Ben was the first to speak, “We don’t want to blow up the planet! We just want to leave….that’s all. I knew this would end badly…I knew it was too good to be true!”
Nefertiani shook her head and asked, “So John the Conqueror is a bomb?”
Johnson didn’t respond.
Nefertiani’s lips tightened as she gritted her teeth and reiterated, “ Is this a bomb…or not!?”.
Johnson shook his head and laughed, “Don’t you see? John the Conqueror isn’t a bomb…..it’s a space transport accelerator device that can be attached to any vessel and has the capability to turn said vessel into a superior high velocity astrocraft. It’s named John the Conqueror after the legendary ancient Black-American hero who freed slaves under the cover of night. It’s a shame that you don’t know the old Earth stories. But, I digress. John the Conqueror will return us to Earth.”
The Conquerites pondered on where to locate a vessel that would hold all of the Earthies who wanted to leave. There were at least four to five thousand Earthies who wanted to migrate back to Earth, especially after they found out how Earth had suffered without them. Although the Earthmigrants prospered on Dndura, they suffered a loss of identity; were they Earthmigrants, or true Dndurians returned home or a little of both ? Either way, the proponents of “the Back to Earth” movement, renamed it “the Black to Earth Movement”.
A Dndurian academic who was an ally to the Earthmigrants suggested that they look at the Great Temple Archive and Museum for their vessel. The museum housed one of the first ships that bought the Earthies to Dndura. The accelerators had been removed, but everything else, such as navigation devices, were still intact.
The Earthmigrants bided their time, kept quite and waited patiently, yet anxiously. Two weeks later, while all Dndurians went to the Temple of Fire Mountain to celebrate the Festival of the Sun, the Conquerites and thousands of Earthmigrant descendants gathered to board the ship, now called “the Return”, with the John the Conqueror device firmly attached below.
Nefertiani, Ak-Ben, Johnson and the others turned to look at the Dndurian landscape which had been their temporary home for generations one more time and then boarded the ship.
Ak-Ben and Johnson entered the coordinates, while Nefertiani spoke the commands to John the Conqueror. The ship hovered above ground and spun around. As it did so, an unknown piece of music began playing. A robotic voice emerged through the music and said, “ I…am…John….the Conqueror…..here…to…free you…..from….the confines….of this…world. Bob your heads….enjoy….the ride….and let me….introduce…you…to funk music….
….it’s…your heritage….the soul…of Black folks….now….hold on….and…away….we go!”
The Earthmigrants listened to the music and danced for joy to something that they had never heard before, yet felt familiar to them. They landed approximately one year later. America was very happy to see them; Earth was happy to see them. And the Dndurian Black Americans, once known as Earthmigrants brought new knowledge with them and a new lineage to include in the story of Black Americans, because now they had a new dose of Dndurian ancestry to add to their long list of ethnic ingredients that made them who they are. Never again would the Black-Americans forget where they came from, whether it was Africa, America, or the stars- all was one.
I am John the Conqueror….signing off…..”One Nation under a Groove……”
The End ?
- Share this story on
- 14
COMMENTS (0)