Black Star

The boy fell in exhaustion. His breath came to him in ragged gasps. His sides ached with

pain of more running than he had ever done in his life.

The sound of dogs baying sent a wave a fear through him. He hadn't lost them at the stream and

they were on his trail once again.

He had to force his body to stand and move forward though his muscles protested every

movement. He had to move though if he stayed put he was dead.

His body though was uncooperative. And he could only stagger ahead at first. He had become

lost in the Alabama wood. If he could find a road or a house he might find someone who would

help him. He had never been this way or this far from home and if there weren't people of color

he would get no help.

Any white living this far in the country might even shoot him themselves or hold him for the

lynch mob that followed.

Eventually he got his feet to move faster until he was racing through the woods as fast as he

could.

Not for the first time had he thought this wasn't happening. He had been hunting rabbits with a

sling on the property of a white man a clansmen.

He and his friends though had given up on hunting raccoon and had though it more fun and a

fitting punishment to hunt the Negro boy who had seen no sign that he had wandered onto

private property.

That young man's father had fought in the war against the Nazi's for the country that didn't
allow men of color to drink from the same water fountain as a white man.

As had other Negro men who answered the call and volunteered. Yet their lot in life and the

lives of their people had improved little.

His older brother now fought against the Communists in Korea. And though he served along

with white men his brothers letters home told that bigotry had not been eliminated by

integration.

But the young man refused to just lay down and die. Anger more than fear was now motivating

his legs to put one foot in front of the other.

Anger at the white officer who had abandoned his father's platoon in the war. Who then took

credit for the victory his father led his men to. Anger that his father had died in the war

believing it would change America and bring their people closer to equality.

Anger at the army who had accepted the white officers word over all the colored men in the

platoon and labeled his father a coward and denied his family survivors benefits.

Anger towards his brother for leaving home to serve his country like their father believing it

would improve things.

Anger at the Clan and white men everywhere who believed the Negro people were no better

than dogs and they could treat them so whenever they wanted.

Anger to all the whites and people of color who were to cowardly to stand up and change

things.

Most of all he was angry that he was going to die in these woods and it would be just another

senseless murder of a Negro that would never see justice. If his body was ever found that was,

if anyone ever knew what happened to him.

So he ran on promising himself he wouldn't make it easy on them he would run until his heart
gave out.

The dogs tore at his pants as he climbed into the tree. The anger had been ebbed away by

exhaustion as he ran for his life. Fear now threatened to consume him.

The stamina of the dogs had been greater they had eventually chased him down, across a

clearing and up a tree.

The Clansmen had taken some pop shots at him from long range. Their shots missed but the

sound of gunfire had quelled any fight the young Negro Man had left in him.

And now he was treed and they were closing in.

He started to cry after seeing the first white men gather at the other side of the clearing. He

cursed them, he cursed God, he cursed his father for dying and he cursed himself for thinking

he was up for the task of taking of being the man of the house.

In his despair he didn't even see the ball of fire streaking through the sky until it grew close

enough that the white themselves finally took note and cried out in alarm.

Then their was a great loud long roar. In his letters during the war his father had described

bombs going off. And when their was a deafening boom and the tree rocked from the sudden

explosion that was all he could imagine. That someone had dropped a great bomb.

As the oak tree shook, it violently cracked and the top of the tree was thrown off.

He clung desperately to the oak tree he had scurried into terrified it would shake itself apart.

But he was unable get get his clenched arms and legs to release the trunk and branch which

they had locked a death grip on.

Then after what seemed like an eternity the trembling tree went still once more.

The dogs had vanished deeper into the woods and the young man warily climbed down from

the tree. Part of his mind told him to run. But that voice was was hushed as he stepped around

the tree to view the clearing.

The fireball from the sky had descended upon the the Clansmen who were gathering at

the base off the small hill just beyond the edge of the clearing.

The hill in question looked like a mound of sand that had been angrily kicked. The trees were

all lain down flat and few of them were on fire.

The fireball a meteor he thought they were called had smashed into the ground and pushed up

earth and dirt as it plowed into the clearing. Only a couple dozen feet away from the tree the

dogs ran him into was the lip of a huge lopsided bowl dug into the ground.

Elation replaced the terror and despair he had felt just moments before as he realized the

Clansmen were dead.

Retribution from heaven had literally rained to smite hood wearing, cross burning, bigots.

His feet moved forward without him thinking to look down into the crater. He hoped to see a

pile of Clansmen bodies but instead what looked like a shiny metal casket.

But it wasn't chrome it was a darker almost onyx metal that had a mirror like surface and

shimmered in the sunlight.

Once again he was moving into the earthen bowl before he thought about as if something
compelled him. Until he began to feel heat through his shoes. He told himself to keep moving

like the time he went to visit relatives on the coast. It was like hot sand if he moved across it

quickly it wouldn't burn him.

The metal oval was much longer than any man he had ever met and it was a wide as two men

standing shoulder to shoulder with one another.

If it was a casket it must have been made to bury a giant. But the idea that it was a casket was

fighting with several others. It could be a Russian bomb they had split the atom just five years

ago. Maybe it was a UFO like the one that had crashed at Roswell.

A curiosity like he had never felt urged him towards the metal object.

Something like heat that came off a fire but felt more like a sound he could almost touch and

made him feel dizzy the closer he stood next to the large metallic oval. Made the young man

keep at least an arms length between him and the dark metallic object.

His foot stepped on something that felt softer than the rest of the ground. The young man

looked down and saw the burnt twisted lump amidst the dirt and dust. It took him a moment to

realize just what he was looking at was what remained of a a man's head part of it at least.

A howl of fear and surprise escaped his mouth as he jumped away from the half a head that had

a recognizable nose and partial eye when one looked at the lump closely.

“Eugene that you” a voice called out from beyond the crater. The instincts of the hunted kicked

in and the young man knew the only other people in the wood were the Clansmen who had

been planning to murder him for sport. He quickly looked around and didn't like his chances of

climbing out of the bowl dug into the ground.

So he did the only thing he could think of he hid behind the large dark metallic oval getting

much closer than before knowing if they spotted him he was likely dead.
Through the dizziness his mind desperately tried to think of a plan to escape.

Maybe there would be only one of them and he would leave to go get help.

“Eugene” the voice bellowed again louder and closer.

“Jeff you find anyone” another voice called out from further away.

The young Negro man cursed to himself for being stupid enough to climb into the hole. He

cursed God for not killing them all. Anger boiled in him once again fighting back the fear and

dizziness. He would just have to run for it.

Suddenly their was a clicking and hissing sound that made him jump. And his head came

right up and he locked eyes with the Clansmen that stood at the lip of the crater.

Time seemed to freeze as they stared at one another then something grabbed his ankle drawing

the young Negro's eyes down.

A monster man leaned out of the giant metal oval and it's metal gloved hand had latched onto

his ankle.

It was almost twice the size of a man a mixture of fur and scant sprinkling of scales covered it's

earless feline looking head. All but the face of the creature was covered in a layered metal

armor made out of the same material as the dark metal oval.

The young man suddenly forgot the the white monster above him and let loose a hysterical

scream as he frantically tried to get away from the creature that held onto his ankle.

But the hand held tight and would not release him no matter how hard he jerked. The a voice
spoke to him. It was deep and rich and sounded almost like a cats growl. The voice spoke in a

language that he didn't understand but knew what the words meant.

It told him he was about to die.

The vaguely feline head of the creature stared at him with two sets of eyes but he saw no

malice he could discern on that creatures face. As it spoke the young man realized it's mouth

wasn't moving and yet he was speaking to it. And for a moment he thought of his mammy.

“The nigger is still alive he's down there” the Clansman from above called out.

The creature told him he would die. No he was asking him if he wanted to die. “No” the young

Negro told the monster with fear creeping into his voice and tears forming in his eyes.

Then he felt a surge of white hot anger run through him. It took a half a heartbeat to realize the

anger he felt was not his own. Though the monster had no human features there was anger

tipping towards hateful rage that filled it's four eyes.

“Never...again” it spoke without speaking. This time he better understood what the monster was

saying. As it's words sounded more like English than it's own. It released it's grip then raised it's

hand slowly towards the young man.

“Join me...live” it spoke.

“Come on out from behind there boy” a voice called down. “Join...me” the creature said again

extending it's hand just a little further.

The young man reached out and accepted the hand which clamped down tight upon his wrist.

The dizziness he had felt since he got withing several feet of the dark metallic oval suddenly

vanished.

Then what felt like a lightning bolt ran up his arm. He screamed in pain and tried to get away

but the monster would not release him once again. As the young man thrashed trying to get free
the electricity shot up his arm and spread throughout his body in a heartbeat. When the searing

pain reached his brain it seemed to magnify ten times.

He screamed in agony and then a whole new pain began to envelop him. It began at his wrist

where the monster held on. What must have been molten lead was poured onto his arm the

liquid fire then began flowing up and down and across as it coated his entire body.

Anger flooded into his mind pushing back the torment.

“No...resist...pain...temporary...not...die” the monster said to him. The voice was clearer now

but the monster itself was in as much pain as he was. No it was dying. It had been dying when

it had grabbed onto his ankle.

The fire in his brain receded but the molten liquid coating him continued to climb up his body.

The anger that he had felt was ebbing as well along with the pain buffer it provided.

Before it vanished he looked up to see the black metal armor or the body of the monster liquefy

and transfer to his.

The buffer vanished and his mind was once again consumed by ravenous pain and the hand of

the monster suddenly slackened and he rolled away still and continued thrashing in pain.

“Dear Lord Jesus” a voice screamed but it wasn't his own.

A gunshot rang out and their was a pinging sound from somewhere nearby.

But the terror and agony of the liquid metal finally consuming his head made the young man

barely aware.

Then suddenly it was over. The agony at least blackness covered his face and for a brief

moment he couldn't breath or see.

Then there was a whirring sound and he sucked in a deep breath.

“I tell no death” the monster spoke. His vision returned but it was tinted my an opaque face
plate. His body from head to toe was covered in the dark metal with a mirror like surface. And

their was a cloak that draped over the armor. He didn't remember seeing one on the monster

which now lay their lifeless.

“My body dead” the deep voice confirmed to the young man sounding more human with each

word it spoke.

Another gunshot rang out as a handful of somethings struck the face plate of the armor.

Which made the young man throw his hands up and stepping backwards. But the metal that he

looked through like tinted glass wasn't even scratched.

The voice of the monster laughed.

“Dear Lord” the man that had called out earlier stared down at him through the sights of his

shotgun.

Two more Clansmen appeared at the top of the crater. As the man who just shot down at what

he believed an unarmed Negro just moments before hastily reloaded.

Anger welled up in the young man as the other men aimed their weapons at him. He was afraid

but he would not show it.

“No fear. Raise hands we show power” the Monster instructed. The young man obeyed

reluctantly. “Like weapon” the voice commanded as the young Negro raised his in surrender.

He moved them in front of him arms straight out hands balled into fists as the first Clansmen

opened fire and the two that had joined him at the lip if the crater followed suit.

The bullets bounced harmlessly off the metal armor. His vision changed and the three men were

surrounded by red light and their were symbols near them that he didn't understand.

“Use anger think kill” the voice instructed. And the young man who wanted those men dead let

the anger he felt and his desire to see them boil inside of him until his muscles clenched. There
was a whirring sound and a warmth in this hands. An orange beam shot forth from each hand

and consumed the men. In a flash they were standing there were burning corpses on the ground.

The young Negro man stood their shocked.

“Guilt” the voice asked after a moment? “Justice” the young man replied with disbelief in what

just happened clear in his voice.

“Collect my ship then leave” the voice instructed. The young man thought no one one would

ever believe him when he got back home.

“No home must learn to use armor” the voice instructed. “I chose you to help me but I help you

first. Help get what you most want” the voice continued before the young man could respond.

A better house for his family a car for his mother and Shawna passed through his mind at the

last of the monsters words.

“No I get you what you most want” the voice corrected. The young Negro felt dizzy and what

he saw before his eyes changed.

When the new image before him unblurred he immediately recognized what he was looking at.

A lynching at a Clan rally. He had seen one such lynching when he was a boy while his father

was fighting in Europe to defend his freedom from the Nazis.

His sight blurred again and it quickly unblurred again when it did he was standing in the midst

of the clan rally not just watching it from afar.

He watched the Negro man hanged while the clan members walked around a burning cross and

sang.

“Justice” that monster asked?

“No” the young man replied viscously and angrily.

His arms lifted of their own accord his fists aimed at the burning cross and the clansmen that
encircled it.

“Use anger think kill the” monster instructed. The sudden anger the monster from the metallic

oval had provoked hadn't abated. And he used it he used all of it. His grandmother dieing

because they had no car to take her to the hospital. His father dying in the war and being

marked a coward while innocent men where lynched for no other reason than the color of their

skin.

The whirring this time was ear piercing and the heat he felt in his hands was like he had pressed

them on a hot stove. The beams that shot out of his hands his time were blue. They blew apart

the burning cross. He swept his hands across the field incinerating clansmen as they reacted in

fear and ran for their lives. The beams suddenly vanished but the young man's rage had not yet

been sated.

“This you want most” the voice asked?

“Yes” the young Negro breathed heavily.

His vision blurred again and when it unblurred he was standing back in the crater. The front of

the crater where the Clansmen stood had been blown away like a giant shovel had had just

scooped away the top of it

“What happened” the young man asked staring at the devastation.

“You anger” the voice responded.

“We weren't” the young man asked unsure what just happened?

“No you see you memory” the voice responded.

“What are you” the Negro asked?

His vision blurred again when it blurred again his breath was taken away.

He was looking down on a giant blue orbs with what looked like a map of the world wrapped
around it.

“Your world my memory” the alien told the young man.

He watch through the alien's eyes as it moved wounded through his destroyed ship to the the

metallic oval he crash landed in.

“I fugitive stole armor to bring justice on my world like you want most. Those on my world

like Clansmen on your world hunt me down. I fake death use life ship to find one who mind

can bind with” the alien explained before the young man asked what was happening.

“Bind with” the young Negro man asked?

“You like Mammy. You feel things, you dream things. Ability primitive in your people but you

have” The alien answered.

His grandmother had been a fortune teller and she knew things she shouldn't have been able to

know. When he was little they could talk almost without speaking and she had told him after he

dreamed of his father dying that he had inherited the gift.

Four days later they got the telegram his father had died in combat on that very night.

The young man grew scared, how much did this creature know about him and how did he

know?

“You pull away. No need we are one I can no hurt you” the alien spoke but his voice was more

distant now.

“One what do you mean one” he asked the alien no longer speaking but thinking.

“My body dead I now live in you. We one” The alien responded it's voice still sounding far

away.

“Close eyes I let you walk mind. You see” the alien told him.

“Close eyes” it instructed and he obeyed. “Think of me as alive. Think of me stand beside
you.” the alien instructed.

It wasn't hard he couldn't get the image out of the monster out of his head if he wanted to. Then

suddenly the over eight foot tall cross between an ape and cat's body speckled with lizard scales

was standing next to him in the darkness.

No it wasn't dark he still had his eyes closed. “Our minds one” the alien said speaking with it's

mouth. Touch my head” it said leaning forward.

He did so reluctantly and braced himself for, he wasn't sure what but he wasn't expecting it to

be pleasant.

“Open eyes” the alien instructed and he did so. They were no longer standing in a black void or

in the crater but on a ship. It took him a few moments but he realized it was the ship the alien

had been on when he saw it climbing into. Or at least he thought it was that ship.

“Yes that ship before attacked. You insight good” the alien confirmed. “How” he asked? “We

share mind. I stronger in gift. But you learn soon” the alien reassured him.

He was looking through the alien's eyes at the strange controls. “They attack” the alien said as

two floating green shapes appears on what might have been glass in what he thought was the

cockpit. The alien pressed a button with strange writing on it and the the clear window became

solid and the color of the walls. The two almost birdlike shapes remained on the wall though.

Minutes passes with the alien doing things he didn't understand. “You feel me with mind you

feel what I think in memory” the alien finally instructed. He tried but he had no idea of how to

feel a persons mind let alone feel the mind of a memory.

“No despair you will learn” the alien said. “Try more watch attack to learn” the alien instructed

again after a few moments passed.

More time went by it was hard to say the green shapes would go larger symbols would appear
on the wall in front of him and the alien would touch the controls of the ship which were more

like piano keys on a school desk. But the keys were oddly shaped, different colors and some

with symbols on them others glowed or blinked with lights.

Eventually though the two bird like ships got larger and larger and the ship started to rock.

What he understood came what he observed and he guessed by this point the two chasing ships

had caught him. The next several minutes was the alien trying to run or fight back. It was hard

to tell with his only source of information being the objects and symbols that were project onto

the wall from somewhere.

Then the ship started to take heavy damage and an explosion inside the ship wounded the alien

as he moved to put on the armor.

“We go back now” the alien said and his vision blurred. When his vision unblurred he was

standing in the crater with his eyes closed.

“Must hurry destroy body. Et ship and leave” the alien said after he opened his eyes in the

crater once more.\

“I'm Carl the young man finally said out loud. “Who are you, what do I call you” he asked the

alien?

He felt slightly dizzy again and when it unblurred he was looking at a comic.

One he was very familiar with. Galaxy Stars. Who were like space Texas Rangers. They were

also of various colors. Green, blue, red and pink. Each had fins or antenna sticking of their

heads are arms. And of course a white human. Each one was from a world that was made

mostly of water, desert, mountain or jungles. Green Star was Carl's favorite he had facial

features what were most different from a white man. The comic had only ran a couple short

years before they stopped making it. All the Stars were equally regardless of color or gender.
Pink Star did more than cook and clean and while some stars were better with pistols or hand to

hand fighting they were all smart and could work a space ship.

Perhaps the editors had finally caught on to the real message of equality the comic was

teaching kids and that's why they stopped making it.

The alien made a cat light sound that was a mixture of growl and a purr, then explained. “That

my name but you can no speak my tongue. You call me..call we Black Star.”

***************

Carl Jones slept soundly or at least his consciousness did. His body though was awake.

The Dread Emperor as he was called in hushed whispers across the galaxy was exhausted but

he couldn't rest and he would get little rest for some time.

As he suppressed the human's subconscious he analyzed the altered memory once again of how

he and the boy came to meet and how he obtained the suit.

He spotted anomalies and fixed them. Like the way he had learned so quickly about the boy's

grandmother. When he remembered those events when he woke he will have told the alien

more about his grandmother and how he dreamed things that came true. But not to much he

also wanted to keep the boy thinking he could reach into the farthest corners of his mind as

will.

When he came to the memory of the prison guard he killed possessed his body and absorbed
his mind. He made sure he restored the view of the little dirt ball drenched in water before the

damage to his ship forced him to jettison in the life pod. It was more awing to the boy to see his

home world from orbit so he let that stay.

He could have easily have absorbed the boy's consciousness like he had with the guard. But he

might need that consciousness to hide behind when his enemies came looking for him.

His loyal followers who had discovered the prison transfer and helped him escape as well as

smuggle him his armor had made sure that it would be difficult to determine if he had even

survived the battle.

His enemies wouldn't give up so easy though and they would scour the star system and this

planet for him.

He would have to remain isolated while he recovered and built a beacon he could send to his

followers but wouldn't alert his enemies.

His incarceration had greatly weakened him and until he recovered his own mental abilities he

would need to rely more on his armor.

While the boy's mental powers were pathetic compared to the Emperors he did have a spark

which might be kindled into a flame. A process which would help him regain his own mental

powers quicker when he finally absorbed the boys mind.

He reviewed the memories that were altered and corrected what he could. But in the end it was

up to what the boy wanted to believe. Would he really want to forget why he had been on the

Clansman's property and what he had done which had been the reason they had attempted to

lynch him.

He thought the boy would his mind like his species was primitive. The boy desperately to

believe that his father had died a hero despite things he had learned to the contrary. He wanted
to believe his brother joined the military to fight for ideals rather than to try and escape the

poverty and place he had been raised in.

So the Emperor had twisted facts using the boy's own fears and anger against him. And he used

the very real intolerance and bigotry in his society to direct him own a path where he would

want to use the armor.

And for a while he might actually indulge the boy in the retribution he had promised him. He

so did enjoy creating chaos. And since he might be here a few years he would need some

distraction to help pass the time.

Who knew he might start a racial war or reshape the society of this little world in the most

distant region of the galaxy.

Over the centuries he had developed many personae before he usurped the Quar' Lin imperial

throne and began conquering large regions of the galaxy.

Maybe if he went undiscovered he might stay a while longer and let the primitive people of this

world come to worship him as a god. Or maybe he would wipe the surface of this remote world

clean of life before he returned to his game of galactic conquest.

First he needed to condition the boy to allow him the illusion he had some measure of control.

As well as teach him to use the armor so when the day came that he had to fight Mentalists in

this body he could devote his mental energies to the battle while the boy controlled the armor.

Soon everyone would come to know his new persona and this world will tremble at the mere

mention of the name Black Star.