DREKDOM (a science fiction short story by David Charles Kramer)
Book One: They Ain't No Angels
Opening Quote
"They got their wings clipped...
...but don't worry.
They ain't no angels."
No one remembered who first said it.
Every child knew it.
Every doctor repeated it.
Every parent accepted it.
PROLOGUE
Before History
Long before aircraft.
Long before kings.
Long before maps.
There were the Dreks.
The Dreks were not human.
They looked almost human.
Almost.
They possessed enormous crimson wings supported by reinforced bone that grew directly from the spine.
Their anatomy was magnificent.
Their psychology was alien.
Human beings lived through emotion.
The Dreks did not.
Medical texts described it simply:
Different nervous system.
Where humans felt empathy...
Dreks calculated outcomes.
Where humans grieved...
Dreks analyzed loss.
Where humans panicked...
Dreks assessed probability.
Fear existed.
Love existed.
Loyalty existed.
But none of them felt the way humans described them.
Many Dreks spent years studying human expressions.
Smiles.
Tears.
Hugs.
They learned to imitate them perfectly.
Not because they enjoyed them.
Because humans expected them.
Some humans called this deception.
The Dreks called it diplomacy.
CHAPTER ONE
The Age of Wings
The Wing Council ruled the known world.
Their wings were not symbols.
They were weapons.
One careless movement could crush ribs.
A startled reflex could kill an innocent bystander.
No aircraft ever designed by mankind could safely carry a winged Drek.
The center of gravity was wrong.
The emergency harnesses shattered the wing joints.
Their biology simply wasn't compatible with human machines.
Still...
The Wing Council believed their greatest weapon wasn't their strength.
It was fear.
CHAPTER TWO
The Great Miscalculation
High Elder Kharos stood before the Council.
"The humans fear us."
"They obey us."
"They need us."
An elderly councilor quietly replied,
"No."
"They merely think you matter."
Silence.
Then came the plan.
Erase every record.
Destroy every monument.
Disappear.
Wait until mankind forgot.
Then reveal yourselves.
The revelation itself would destroy humanity's leader psychologically.
The Council celebrated.
Six hundred years later...
The doors opened.
The Supreme Chancellor entered.
Ten winged Dreks stood waiting.
"We ruled this world."
The Chancellor nodded.
"Interesting."
"We have remained hidden for six centuries."
"That explains why nobody's heard of you."
"You are not afraid?"
The Chancellor looked puzzled.
"Should I be?"
Long silence.
"I've spent this week dealing with famine, economic collapse, and a volcanic eruption."
"You are simply another problem."
The Wing Council stood motionless.
Everything they believed about humanity...
Was wrong.
History remembered that day as
The Great Miscalculation.
The Wing Empire never recovered.
CHAPTER THREE
The False Angel
One Drek refused to accept the collapse.
His name was Malachar.
He gathered thousands into the mountains.
Standing atop the cliffs, he spread his crimson wings.
"What has wings?"
"Angels."
"If we are angels..."
"...who am I?"
No one answered.
Then someone whispered,
"God."
Malachar smiled.
He never corrected them.
The cult grew rapidly.
Its followers believed winged Dreks were divine beings and Malachar was God returned in flesh.
Wars followed.
Starvation followed.
Eventually...
The cult collapsed.
Professor Solis later wrote:
"The Council mistook fear for respect.
Malachar mistook worship for truth."
CHAPTER FOUR
They Ain't No Angels
After Malachar...
Governments rewrote history.
One sentence survived.
"They got their wings clipped...
...but don't worry.
They ain't no angels."
Winged infants were clipped within hours of birth.
Not because they were evil.
Because they were dangerous.
The distinction...
Was forgotten.
CHAPTER FIVE
The Bones Remember
Chief Surgeon Elias Varek uncovered an ancient skeleton beneath the First Hospital.
No wings remained.
Only the enormous attachment sockets.
"The bones remember," he whispered.
Nearby stood Nurse Nera.
Her shoulders had always ached before storms.
She quietly realized...
Her skeleton matched the ancient one.
CHAPTER SIX
The Detective
Inspector Gideon Hale never believed myths.
He believed statistics.
While reviewing centuries of photographs from America, Europe, and Asia, he noticed something impossible.
Factories.
Wars.
Presidents.
Families.
Cities.
Not one photograph contained a Drek.
Not in the foreground.
Not in the background.
Not by accident.
He spread hundreds of photographs across his office floor.
"Where did they all go?"
Professor Solis answered:
"They didn't disappear from photographs."
"They disappeared before photography."
CHAPTER SEVEN
Rook
Then Rook appeared.
The last known adult whose wings had never been clipped.
His wings were magnificent.
And terrifying.
He couldn't enter most buildings safely.
He couldn't board an airplane.
He had spent his entire life calculating every movement to avoid hurting those around him.
Nera asked,
"How do you control them?"
Rook answered,
"I don't."
"Then how have you survived?"
"I learned."
FINAL CHAPTER
A child was born.
Crimson wings.
The clipping instruments were prepared.
The room was silent.
Dr. Varek looked at the child.
"They got their wings clipped..."
He looked at the waiting doctors.
"...but don't worry..."
He gently closed the surgical tray.
"They ain't no angels."
He smiled softly.
"But they aren't monsters either."
Outside, aircraft built by humanity crossed the sky.
Inside, a winged child opened tiny crimson wings for the first time.
For the first time in centuries...
Someone chose education over fear.
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