Bad Moon Rising

“You still don't know what you're dealing with, do you? Perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility...I admire its purity, a survivor, unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusion of morality.” --Ash, Alien

Oh there you are. So glad that you’ve come back. Here, have a seat beside me. Lovely view, isn’t it? Pardon? What am I doing here? Simple. I’m waiting for sunset. There’s something I wanted to show you, and I can’t until after the sun sets. What do I want to show you? Hush. Just wait and see.

Look! Behind us the sun sinks into the Sea of Mist, setting it ablaze in reds and oranges. Before us, Night casts its dark cloak across the sky. Soon, it will be time.

I love sitting here at night, just watching the stars. Truth be told, I often prefer this little fantasy world that I’ve dreamed into existence to the ugly one of iron and stone where we actually live. Take a look at the sky! When was the last time that you saw the stars this clearly? It’s as though God Himself scattered diamonds on the black velvet of the night sky. Certainly, the constellations are different from Earth’s. We are on a different planet after all. Why are you so full of questions? Be still, and the answers will become clear. Let the silence of the night surround you. Hear the soft wind passing over the grass and rustling in the trees. It’s so peaceful now. It’s a pity that this moment must pass.

There! Rising over the horizon. Do you see it? The Weeping Moon is rising over Alyria. It’s an offense against the sky, don’t you think? Its lurid light drenches the landscape in bloody shadows. But it’s so much more than just an eyesore. It’s an omen of doom. It is the harbinger of the end of all things. It is the sign that the Outsiders have found this place at last.

From the very beginning of Alyria, there were the Outsiders. I knew about them from the very beginning. They were responsible for the exodus from the homeworld of Earth. The fear of them led the colonists to establish their colony on an apparently uninhabitable gas giant, rather than risk the smaller, safer inner planets. The shadow of their terror lies over all the precautions that those first men of Alyria took. Ironic that they were so busy looking upwards that they did not look down, and the dragons took them unawares.

But on the other hand, I find that I know almost nothing about the Outsiders. Sure, they are responsible for the Weeping Moon that hangs there like a wound in the sky. But I did not know why for such a long time. The blood-red Weeping Moon seemed like a fitting omen of their coming. After all, isn’t the moon being turned into blood such an apocalyptic symbol? But what did the Outsiders do to cause it? Even more basic, what did the Outsiders do that caused such fear? I had no idea.

However, I knew that the Outsiders are not evil, at least not in a conscious sense. Oh, certainly they are the enemies of humanity, but not in the same way that the dragons oppose humanity. The dragons are in the service of evil and incite their followers to do the same. The Outsiders just have alien needs that bring them into conflict with humanity. Just consider the Alien in the movie Alien. Was it evil? Of course not. It was just an animal, following its life cycle. The fact that this life cycle brought it into conflict with the protagonists was coincidental. It was definitely not a moral choice being made by the Alien, any more than Jaws made a moral choice to eat his victims.

I also knew something else about the Outsiders. They inspire horror. Now, I should explain myself a little bit. Horror is more than fear. A thousand-foot drop might inspire fear, but it will never inspire horror. Horror is more than disgust. A particularly messy death might inspire disgust or even fear, but it will not inspire horror. Horror is more than these. Horror is about invasion, about violation. Horror is being restrained while the tentacle slithers down your back. Horror is being implanted with an alien life form that grows and matures within your body. Horror is being assimilated, losing your identity, as you are absorbed into to a collective machine entity. Horror is the experience of a fate worse than death. This is what the Outsiders do to their enemies. The fate that awaits them will make them wish not only for death but also for oblivion.

There is only one problem with this. For the longest time, I had no idea what this fate was or why the Outsiders did it to people. While Alyria grew and matured around me, the Outsiders remained a cosmic question mark. I despaired of ever finding something that would be suitably apocalyptic and horrific. All the while, the Blood Moon hung overhead, taunting my efforts, as if to say, “You will never understand me. I am above you. I am beyond you.”

But now&. Now I know what the Outsiders are. I know what they do. I know why the moon has turned to blood. I know the fate that befell so many other worlds and why the end is at hand for Alyria. And this is thanks to you, my faithful companions, especially John Wick and M.J.Young. John, you challenged me to come up with something completely original. This is not completely original, but I hope that it fits the bill. M.J., you offered some timely advice on the creation of a truly alien race. It was greatly appreciated and very helpful.

Did you see that? All too often the Weeping Moon rains down upon Alyria, just like tonight. Do you see the blood rain that it spreads across the land? Look closely, for those are the Outsiders.

The individual Outsider is not all that impressive. Barely larger than a mite, the blood-red organism is almost devoid of intelligence or ability, driven by mere instinct to feed. However, there is more to these creatures than meets the eye. For each individual mite is part of the greater whole, and each can act as a cell in a greater organism, a communal entity, with each individual cell contributing strength and intelligence to the whole. Usually the macro-organism is content to lay idle in a form that is similar to a viscous liquid. However, when the need arises, it can extrude tentacles, limbs, eyes, and more. It can even form an entire body, molded to its desires. It can be anything it needs to be.

However, it is limited by its color. Always the Outsiders are red. They can do many things, but they cannot change the color of their skin. Disguise seems to be out of the question&or is it? There are some who breathe rumors of men, drained of blood and internal organs, animated by an Outsider macro-organism. The “blood” coursing through its veins was nothing more than thousands and thousands of tiny Outsider mites. Just imagine. Your lost loved one comes stumbling out of the woods, cut and bleeding. You reach out to steady him and he looks up at you with soulless eyes as the blood begins to crawl up your arm and into your body&. Now that is horror.

By now you have probably guessed why the Weeping Moon is blood red. Its surface is covered with these tiny Outsider mites. Every so often a colony achieves sufficient mass to disconnect from the moon and fall down onto Alyria as a fine blood rain. So far, Alyria has not fallen simply because it is so big. The inhabited area of the planet is a small island compared to the enormous vastness of the Sea of Mist. Still, all too often droplets from the Weeping Moon patter down in the inhabited lands. It’s only a matter of time. How can they be stopped? I have no idea.

It is with a heavy heart that I watch the Weeping Moon trace a path across the sky. It is disheartening to think that my world could still be torn down around me, piece by piece. What is worse is another thought that has just slid into my brain like a living droplet from the Weeping Moon. As I consider Alyria, it is becoming fairly clear that the forces most responsible for shaping it are those hostile to humanity. Just think. Alyria was settled in the first place because of refugees fleeing the Outsiders. The devastation of the Rape, which was caused by the dragons, changed the face of Alyria forever, producing the current shape of the different Alyrian civilizations. And now&. From the inside the dragons slowly rot away the core of civilization, slowly eating away at all that is good and right, and from without, the Outsiders begin the complete destruction of all that is. I find it vaguely troubling that it is the forces of evil and destruction that are giving form to my world. After all, I dreamed all of this into existence. Can it be that I am given over to these forces? What haunts my psyche to produce such desperate thoughts? Or is it something else, a universal truth perhaps, that I have discovered? Surely Love and Peace must prevail. So why does it always seem that Darkness, Anger, and Destruction hold sway over the world? What has gone wrong?

These are troubling questions for me, and no answers present themselves. Turmoil stirs within me as I lie back on the grass and watch the Weeping Moon pass overhead. Tonight the sky holds no answers for me. Tonight all I can see is the harbinger of doom hanging over my world, its blood-red light casting shadows within my soul.