Banished To Earth

My trial in the Highest Court of Galdolz was short. Everyone knew I would be found guilty because of the nature of my offense. The only remaining question was how severe my punishment would be.

What led to my downfall was an illicit romance with Seluria, the 21-year old royal family member and daughter of Baron Zeg, the Supreme Justice Minister of Galdoz. You see, commoners like me are forbidden by law to have intimate relations with royals.

It didn't help matters that I was four years older than Seluria, which violated the bizarre but long-standing custom on Galdolz, applied to commoners and royals alike, to only have romantic or sexual relations with someone your own age. Seluria and I didn’t care about any of that.

Love, or whatever strong emotion it was, kept us together and fueled our reckless behavior. As was inevitable on a small planet such as Galdolz, where suspicion of everyone and everything is the norm, our affair was discovered and reported to the authorities.

Once Baron Zeg found out, he became furious and immediately sought to use the power and influence of his preeminent legal position of Supreme Justice Minister to make absolutely sure I disappeared from her life.

Despite Seluria’s repeated pleas to her father to show me mercy, he refused to do so. So the Highest Court, over whose proceedings the Supreme Justice Minister presided, swiftly carried out his wishes with a unanimous guilty verdict and the maximum sentence allowed: banishment for ten years to a planet called Earth located in the farthest reaches of the solar system.

Of course, I thought I had been treated extremely unfairly and unjustly. But what I thought mattered not at all because three days after the trial ended, two Justice Ministry guards escorted me to the Galdolz wormhole portal for transport to Earth. It all happened so fast.

My trip from Galdolz to Earth through the wormhole took only sixty seconds, but it was the most depressing and painful minute of my life, as I pondered what I was leaving behind and what the future held for me on Earth.

The wormhole would return again, they had told me, in exactly ten years, at which time the portal would stay open for just one hour. They gave me a special watch to track the time remaining until my banishment ended and the portal appeared for my return trip to Galdolz.

I brought with me a travel bag containing a week's worth of food and other sundries, as well as some clothes in the style of those worn by adult males on Earth. I also carried inside me a Universal Translator chip that had been embedded in my head to enable me to understand and communicate in any language on Earth.

Once the journey to Earth was complete, the portal opened and then quickly closed after I staggered out of it, thoroughly disoriented and apparently in the middle of nowhere.

After considerable wandering, I eventually came upon the outskirts of what appeared to be a city, the odd name of which was announced by a sign atop a pole that said ‘Truth or Consequences’ (which I later learned was called ‘T or C’ by the locals). ‘Population 6,103’ was noted under the city’s name.

I entered this rather small city and began to explore. It wasn't long before I came to the conclusion that ‘T or C’ seemed like a pleasant enough place. So I decided to stay and blend into the community as quickly as possible. Fortunately, it wasn’t long before I found a job at a printing shop.

The work itself wasn’t particularly challenging but it allowed me to read a wide variety of materials the shop printed, including the local newspaper.

This greatly sped up for me the process of learning about ‘T or C’ and the various activities of its citizens, including those of a young woman named Gloria who was featured in the newspaper as ‘Teacher of the Year’.

My life on Earth then changed forever when I met Gloria at the local library and struck up a conversation that focused on her teaching and her special award.

I told her about myself and my background growing up in an orphanage with no known family members. This story was actually true, except I didn’t tell her that it took place on Galdolz.

Gloria and I hit it off right away and started dating regularly, which went on for about a year until I proposed marriage to her, an offer she accepted but only after a long, playful pause that kept me in agonizing suspense. Ironically, Gloria and I were both 27 years old when we got married. To express my love for her, I gave her a heart-shaped locket as part of my wedding vows.

I thought I couldn’t possibly be happier than I was being married to Gloria. But then within a year and a half of our marriage, our beautiful daughter Tara was born, and my happiness soared even higher as I became a father. Over the next several years, our family grew larger as Thomas and then Mary joined the fold.

My life was as idyllic as could possibly be. That is until the plague hit Earth. The effect of the plague was quick and devastating, killing virtually everyone as it spread across the planet, ultimately reaching Truth or Consequences.

Since I was not from Earth, I was immune to the plague. Thus I helplessly watched as everyone around me died, including Gloria and my children. With their deaths, there was nothing left for me on an Earth laid to waste by the plague.

So after exactly ten years had passed, I stood at the location of the wormhole, and when the portal opened, I stepped into it and returned to Galdoz, carrying the only thing from Earth I kept--the heart-shaped locket I had given to Gloria. She insisted that I have it.

The End.

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