Wayfinder

[keltic07]

Hey guys! Uh, so this is my first time posting on here, but I've read Helmling's Civilization and I got really inspired to write a story of my own based on the game. Specifically, I was really inspired by the idea of an immortal who's essentially leading a Civilization in the game, and some of the in-story mythology that explains the game mechanics.

But, instead of tested, competent, progressive immortal leaders, like in Helmling's story, I wonder what an incompetent everyman in the vein of Arthur Dent or Fry from Futurama would do in the same situation. Also, the entire idea sort of just strikes me like a fictionalized version of the ancient astronaut theory, where ancient civilizations where supposed to have been helped by advanced alien stranded on the planet

Sooooo, in other words, I think it could be a great sci-fi premise which Helmling didn't fully cover, so I'm going to try my hand at it.

Hope it doesn't suck!

 

[keltic07]

EXT. SPACE

A banged up, dirty space shuttle hurls through space.

INT. SPACESHUTTLE

Inside, KAM, a tan, built 20-something in a white spacesuit frantically floats around a cramped place filled with papers, tools, pens, gadgets, a bed and a floating plant in the middle of the spacecraft.

KAM is desperately looking for something, rummaging through all the stuff in the shuttle.

.

KAM floats to another room.

INT. PILOT AREA

Even smaller, the cockpit is filled with debris.

There’s 20% oxygen right now.

KAM picks up a communication device.

KAM
Houston? Houston?! Do you read me?​

What if there is no Houston anymore? , Jill…

EXT. SPACE

The space shuttle picks up speed, as if pulled by gravity. The stars speed past it, soon becoming an orchestra of lights.

INT. PILOT AREA

Something’s happening.

KAM
, , , right, okay...​

KAM takes a deep breath.

KAM​

LOG 242: My name is Kam, uh, Kam Swift. I was part, of an international space mission that included civilians with skillsets deemed necessary to….​

The whole spacecraft begins to shake.

KAM
… colonize planets, in the Alpha Centauri system. A year into our mission, the Indian government plunged the world into nu…​

A strange buzzing sound invades the whole ship.

EXT. SPACE

The space shuttle picks up ever more speed, and everything around it looks stranger and stranger, and constantly changing.

A star close by explodes.

Every part of my body burns….

INT. WHITE VICTORIAN ROOM

The spacecraft is inside a heavily decorated room with golden corners on the walls, and a bed with golden sheets in the middle. KAM shakes uncontrollably.

The spacecraft disappears, living KAM alone standing. He walks around slowly, into another room.

INT. VICTORIAN BATHROOM

KAM looks into a mirror. He’s older somehow. He goes back into the main room.

INT. WHITE VICTORIAN ROOM

KAM looks on at an elderly copy of KAM, who lies bedridden. The younger KAM disappears.

I feel I’m about to die. And… I start remembering things. Things that didn’t happen to me. Like, I remember crawling out into land with my four feet. Hunting, near the mountain. Feeling the ocean breeze, and catching fish. Then, in another memory I’m crying like crazy, on the same beach, the salt from my tears and the salt from the ocean mixing. Today, or I guess that day, I’m sending both my son and husband off to war…

Am I, becoming enlightened? Remembering all my past lives like some sort of Buddha? Or is this what heaven’s like? Maybe it’s the other place…. Huh? Is that… Leonard Nimoy?

EXT. TROPICAL BEACH- DAY

Suddenly I’m wearing an orange robe, cape and hat, and I’m taller. Long ships are docked on the pristine beach. The ocean breeze… it’s exactly like it was in my memories, gentle but constant. The ocean and the sky too, it looks just like then, huge. And the sand’s white and hot on my bare feet. Leonard Nimoy meanwhile, just silently stares at me. I go to say something, but then waves his hands around and…

LEONARD NIMOY
Greetings and blessings be upon you, Kamehameha the Great, chosen by the heavens to unite your scattered peoples. Oh mighty King, you were the first to bring the Big Island of Hawai’I under one solitary rule in 17…​

After he gives this whole spiel, Leonard Nimoy comes up to me, raises his Vulcan eyebrows and asks something like “Shall we begin your journey?” I mumble something to him and then all the sand at my feet gives way and I’m falling and burning up.

 

[Heerlo]

Subbed.

Good start, and welcome to the stories forum!

 

[keltic07]

Thanks Heerlo!

Also I just want to make sure everyone knows, I liked Leonard Nimoy's voice overs a lot in Civ IV and was kind of bummed out when he didn't voice for Civ V, so I thought putting him in here might be interesting. Plus, his Star Trek connection would make this perfect for some of the sci-fi elements I wanted to add in.

 

[keltic07]

I wake up, tired, hungry lonely, and profoundly confused. Am I on earth? There’s smoke everywhere, parts of the space shuttle here and there. I’m on a beach of sorts here too, but it’s damn cold, nothing like that paradise in that… was it a dream? Oh man. And, well, if it was a dream, when did reality end and the dream begin? God, it’s like I’m taking Intro to Eastern Philosophy all over again.

It seems I’m on… tundra. Across this body of water, like a lake or something there’s snow. The fact that I don’t see any animals makes me think I might be on Chiron. I never thought there would be snow on Chiron.

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The next couple of days, I concentrate on surviving, and trying to get the communicator to work. I spend most of the time digging, planting and everything else that goes with farming. The whole reason I was allowed on the Ark program to begin with was because of my horticulture knowledge, to grow food on a strange planet for us to eat. Luckily for me now, the researchers on the ship had developed a special species of plant, which, the nerds that they were, they called “Mana”.

The plant is, unnatural. It’s bright green, and even in this hellish tundra environment, grows to be as big as a pumpkin at the state fair. Eating only this for so long, I start to forget how anything else tasted. Goddamn nukes. What if this is Earth? What if this is all that’s left?

I guess I should start “rebuilding civilization” then. Ha! Civilization was never that good anyway. What’ve we done that’s really so good? We’re just animals, pack animals, loafing off on the progress and comfort won by our ancestors. And they were just ignorant, ignorant and violent and all that ignorance and violence destroyed our home.

I’m glad I’m alone. Sometimes I think I’m like Liam Neeson in “The Grey”. Only a lot less wolves.

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Goddamn it, maybe there are wolves. Or maybe I’m just getting paranoid and this is just what happens when you spend too much time by yourself? Out there, past the crash site there are forests, and I swear, I hear something. There are birds, and things, and I think they’re… watching me.

The Mana sucks, and all around me I’m basically just surrondend by this tundra desert. I remind myself that the Mongols, the Mongols of Genghis Khan, were the toughest fighting force in the world, and they came from tundra. Maybe that’s what this place will do to me. Toughen me up. Make me into Kam the Barbarian, destroyer of worlds!

What’s the point though? I miss everyone. I miss Hawaii. I miss TV and toilet paper and drinking from a cup. People, living things, I miss them too. Even if something came and tried to kill me, I think I’d cry from joy.

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Something’s trying to kill me.,,, Something’s trying to kill me! I wake up and something’s beating me up with clubs. They’re human! Another clunk on the head and they leave me unconscious.

I wake up tied up around a pole at dawn. In the middle of the forest ten fearsome warriors surround me, painted with these intricate black tattoos around their bodies. They look like the New Zealand rugby team and stare at me with suspicion. And I don’t know what to say. I’m scared shitless but also relieved not to be the only human being alive.

Would they understand English? They look like f*cking Maori warriors… The kind tourists take photos with to show back home, so, maybe? But I don’t think we’re anywhere near the pacific. This place is more like Siberia. Maybe they’re just these really hardcore LARPers? But , Earth’s been destroyed, who the cares about playing games anymore?

“Do you guys speak English?” I say.

One of them punches me square on the jaw.

I think I might be in “Taken” now.

Someone approaches the group and looks at me. He looks like an Old Testament prophet, with a long beard, a dirty robe and a long wooden walking stick. I’d say he’s Moses but he has these blue eyes that look like gems. His long grey hair has some white streaks. He smells like death.

Kind of shocked me when he spoke Hawaiian-

“He he makutu koutou?”

“Are you a witch?” he asks. Is this some kind of a cult?

I say- “No, my name is Kam Swift. I was a passenger on the mission Ark to Alpha Centauri. I'm a farmer essentially. I know this might be a crazy question, but am I on Earth?” in Hawaiin. I haven’t been home in a while, so maybe it’s rusty, but they still look at me like, well, like a witch.

“What is this?” they ask and show me a piece of Manna. So I reply just that, so in turn, they ask, “You make Mana?” I say, "it’s a kind of fruit."

“Manna isn’t fruit.” Moses tells me. “Well this is” I reply.

There’s a long silence. They huddle up. A crow screams for the rest of his murder. I stare at the ground. Maybe I was in the cryogenic bed for longer than I expected and they managed to colonize Chiron? And these are the colonizers bastard grandchildren?

Finally, one of the warriors takes his spear and walks up to me. He’s breathing pretty heavily. He screams and says, “We’ll show you what we do with witches!” I cry no and he plunges the spear into my heart and then down my throat.

What a welcome party.

I’m bleeding everywhere. Panting. It hurts. I’ve been in so much pain. They laugh as I squirm. But then… yeah then something strange happens. Flesh fills the holes, and skin grows around the wound. Just like the ing Wolverine.

I’m as scared as anyone else. Okay, well maybe not as scared but it’s creepy.

They try to kill me in a dozen ways. Drowning, choking, attempted beheading. None of it works. Every time, the dark warriors and Moses watch me regenerate like Kenny on South Park.

I have no idea where I am, who these people are and what the hell I am.

“Ko koe a atua” Moses says. You are a god. Finally, finally they stop. I go back to farming. I go back to trying to get the communicator to work. No more of this Lazarus . I’m not even afraid of the pain they give me anymore. It’s just frustrating. Like everything.

On a full moon night, Moses himself comes alone to the crash site. He lifts his arms up, saying he comes in peace, giving me a thousand apologies. He tells me to come to their camp, giving me deer meat. Huh, a Moses-looking deer hunter who speaks Hawaiian? God, I hope this is all just a bad dream.

The camp is underwhelming. I don’t even know why I came. I don’t know, above all else, I’m curious, and it’s not like they can hurt me. Well, I mean they can’t kill me. It’s all just around 6 people, half of them women, who all look just as Biblical as Moses. They have donkeys and a fire in the middle of the camp. Everyone’s afraid to look at me. I guess you don’t look a god in the eyes, do you?

Moses takes me to his side and shows me a piece of Manna.

“Oh great Kamma! Teach us how to grow these.”

It’s then that I remember that there were these myths I read about, about gods who came down from heaven to teach the people how to grow crops. So now I’ve gone from being some kind of witch to becoming some kind of hero-god of civilization?

“Did you see me crash from the heavens?” I ask. He says “Yes Kamma. Blessed Kamma”. Is he telling the truth, or simply lying to save face with the god?

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[Silverman6083]

So much subbed. By the way its extra special because I logged in for this...

 

[cpm4001]

This will be good, so subbing! (Hey, it's something in this forum that's not a video LP! Yay!)

 

[keltic07]

Oh man, thanks guys. Hope you enjoy it

 

[keltic07]

It’s been a year. A year of living with these people. I know this instinctively, and I don’t know how I know this. And I know it’s the year 4000 BC for some reason, as if the idea of “Kam the Barbarian” seems to have intensely invaded into my severely psychologically f*cked up mindset. The apocalypse, resurrection and eternal life must not be to good for your mental health I guess.

As the proud divine father figure that I am, I’ve taught them everything I know. The only thing they eat now is Manna, and we’ve made some small farms. At the same time, they’ve basically made me their leader. The chief. Which gives me all the responsibility of course.

They’re very strange. They… yeah, they don’t have sex. At least I think. One day even, I tried flirting with one of the women. She’s a raven-haired beauty with a purple cloak that simply calls herself the “Foreign Advisor”.

Anytime I tried having a conversation with her, though, she would always say- “To begin diplomatic relations, we should probably found a city so other civilizations will know where to find us if they want to talk.” over and over again, like a robot. A city? How the hell I’m I supposed to found a city? And what other civilizations?

Eventually, I find out no one even knows the word for father or mother or any kind of family member name. Maybe they’re… just as immortal as me, so they don’t reproduce? When I ask what they call a group, they simply reply “a civilization”. When I ask what they call our group, they say “the Polynesian empire.”

The warriors are out east, hunting deer. The people tell me there are forests, deer, gems in the hills up north, and salt near the water, all cool stuff, but not very useful to me now. These people know how to sail, and I think about sending the warriors to the water, to explore, to find normal, sane people for me.

As I’m thinking about this, Moses comes up to me, in the tent near the crash site, “the palace”. And I know what he’s going to say, before he says it. He’s beyond apologies. He hasn’t slept, thinking about what he’s tried to do to me. How he must have angered me. How there must be a way for him to repay for all the pain he’s caused me. How there must be a way for penance, a way to appease the god of the Polynesian people…

An angered god… What do angered gods do? They send floods right? All that Old Testament sh*t. Send plagues, destroy armies, banish people from paradise, sacrifice their sons…

I think about being murdered, one time after another. One time after another as Moses’s paranoid blue eyes saw my death and resurrection. I remind myself I hate this mother*cker.

“Send me the person you care most about” I say.

He comes back, with a young boy who looks like young Julius Caesar in a tunic. Jesus Christ, him? Honolulu?

 

[keltic07]

Okay, so right off the bat, I told him not to kill. NOT to kill.

Dead bodies lie all over the floor. Blood slowly seeps into my bare feet. Everyone dying is moaning and everyone dead stinks. A young woman screams like a cornered rat as Moses clutches onto her stomach. He tears off her skin like a bag of Doritos.

What the f*ck.

I told him to kill Honolulu, but right before he did it, right before the blade was supposed to fall on that poor little guy, I changed my mind.

I remembered what the “Foreign Advisor” had said earlier. About founding a city. Settling down.

I thought it might be a good idea. Turn this dump into some kind of a normal place. Maybe Moses could make some permanent homes for everyone. So I told him to do just that.

He takes apart the flesh on the bodies and scavenges the bones. He stretches them out as if there clay. Stretches them out so much that they become somewhat like wooden beams, and puts them in the frozen ground. He stretches their skin then all across the bone poles. It looks like a wall now. Holy he’s making homes. He’s doing exactly what I told him to do. He’s making homes. He’s making a city.


I wake up and go outside “the palace”. Moses is there standing and staring at me. Like some kind of demented cat he starts making these weird sounds as if he’s going to throw up. Green feet slowly come out of his feet.

This is never going to be a normal place.

Soon a green copy of Honolulu comes right out of Moses’s mouth and stares at me. Moses starts to vomit another kid out and the kid green Julius Caesar starts running towards the warriors in the east.

God damn it, this is just the beginning isn’t it?