A Legacy of Loyalty and Resilience

A man walks into a bar, asks the bartender for a drink, and then yells out “SPIN THE BOTTLE!”

The bartender stares at the man for a moment, and then replies “Do you really think I'm going to do that?”

The man sighs, and pulls out his gun. He points it at the bartender, and says “Alright, spin the fucking bottle right now.”

Now this is where most people's brains are going to try to tell them how wrong what they're seeing is. It's not a normal gun, it looks more like a toy. It's just as big as any other gun you'd see in real life, but it has no sights or trigger guard or anything else that makes it look like something used for shooting bullets. It just looks like some kind of cylinder with a little line coming off the side of it. So you're thinking to yourself, "What the hell is that thing?" You can't quite figure out what it is because it doesn't look like anything you've ever seen before. Your brain knows that guns are made of metal and have barrels that fire bullets or lasers or whatever. This one has no barrel, so your brain refuses to acknowledge that this might be a gun. It tells you that there's no way someone would point a weapon at someone without aiming it at him first, so this must not be a weapon. The guy wouldn't pull out a non-weapon on someone unless he was seriously intending to use it. You know that if he fires this thing at the bartender behind the counter he'll probably die instantly, so you're freaking out because you know he'll pull the trigger if things don't go his way.

The bartender spins the bottle and it lands on a guy in the corner of the room who had been sitting there silently drinking his beer all night long. The man with the gun jumps up from his stool and shouts “That's not fair! That was bullshit!” He runs over to where the guy was sitting, kicks his stool over, and starts punching him in the face while yelling “You cheated! You cheated! You cheated!” He keeps yelling about how unfair it was until finally someone gets tired of hearing him complain about it and punches him in the face and knocks him out cold on top of his victim. A couple guys help carry him outside and throw him into his car which will be parked directly in front of the bar after closing time when everyone goes home for the night so he can sleep off whatever alcohol he managed to get inside him before getting kicked out.

It's eleven o'clock at night in December on Old Colorado City in Denver Colorado on Earth. The year is 2185 and Earthlings haven't evolved much since they were still living on caves back on Earth before they discovered how to travel outside their solar system in 2251. They haven't even evolved much since they figured out how to travel faster than light in 2317. They still fight each other with guns just like they always did because they've never needed anything better than guns to stop themselves from killing each other before now. The only reason anyone knows about Old Colorado City is because people who came here from Earth during space travel learned about an ancient story about an old woman named Sally who fought with her son against an army led by an evil warlord named Earl Henry who wanted nothing more than to enslave her daughter who lived alone with her after her husband died fighting Earl Henry's army years before Sally met Sally's son Benjamin Franklin Knight who became her partner in crime against Earl Henry's army whenever she got sick enough of being cooped up in her fortress surrounded by guards watching her every move waiting for an excuse to kill her so she refuses to ever leave again after meeting Benji as she likes calling him who decided to abandon his career as a mercenary general protecting people who didn't want protecting but only offered their money instead after meeting Sally who unlike Benji didn't hesitate to put herself between evil men with weapons trying to kill people until they were dead and serve them right if they were dumb enough not to expect someone like Sally would stand up against them regardless of how outnumbered she was when she stood up against Earl Henry himself when he tried taking over her home planet named The Manor House which was given to her father as part of an inheritance passed down through generations which included many planets owned by powerful people all around the universe including Earth where Benji was born but left without saying goodbye because he thought Sally wasn't worth wasting words on when she offered him shelter after traveling millions of miles through space alone using nothing more than books for directions pretending everyone in space spoke English just like she does because everyone on Earth does too hoping after landing somewhere far away from Earl Henry's army he could start his own mercenary business but instead found himself fighting for Sally forever after meeting her at The Manor House which after defeating Earl Henry's army became known as The Fort defending itself against anyone stupid enough not expecting anyone willing to defend their home planet even if its as big as a small planetoid against thousands upon thousands of enemies armed with weapons far more powerful than anything available back on Earth today including several nuclear bombs which were never detonated thank God because if someone started throwing nukes around anywhere near here everybody would lose their minds thinking we were getting attacked by aliens again hoping somebody would take those aliens seriously even though we all know our greatest enemy isn't aliens but ourselves who keep insisting we need more money even though we already have enough money we just don't have enough power thanks to all our wars among ourselves constantly sacrificing innocent people too stupid or stubborn or greedy or cowardly not wanting give up their power by giving up their wealth willingly making us feel safe enough believing what we need is safety instead of freedom so we choose leaders we think will make us feel safe while telling us they're doing everything they can do protect us while actually doing everything they can do protect themselves making us feel safer believing these leaders are making us safer while actually making us weaker making us need more leaders who want our money sucked away from us faster so they can continue sucking away our money faster until we're broke unable to pay these leaders anymore forcing them take our homes instead forcing those of us who can afford them onto private spaceships so we can continue our way too expensive lives floating around in space looking down on those planets we abandoned knowing deep down inside somewhere beneath all our selfishness that sooner or later someone somewhere will find some kind of new weapon capable of destroying everything everywhere where no one is safe except maybe those very few rich bastards living inside their spaceships mostly unaffected by whatever new technology threatens everyone else causing them all go crazy killing each other until one day those very few rich bastards decide flying around space without stopping isn't good enough anymore so instead decide taking their ships straight down through the atmosphere toward wherever all these poor ignorant morons kept living on their planets hoping burning down whoever refused leaving alive calling these criminals terrorists believing these criminals must be terrorists hoping if they're scared enough feeling threatened by terrorists living among them screaming louder and louder claiming every terrorist needs exterminated along with every person suspected being connected somehow related somehow supporting any hint being connected somehow supporting what could be considered maybe half decent idea somewhere buried deep within some crazy delusional childish mind insisting anybody supporting this idea must be considered terrorists too until finally people too scared terrified thinking everybody around them either already considered them terrorists already themselves considering themselves terrorists too people live together believing life itself had become terrorism justifying further destruction until one day instead of one group killing another group suddenly everybody killing everybody else including themselves either accidentally or intentionally wiping out human life completely leaving whole universe empty except for maybe billions upon billions stars rocks black holes lightyears across sometimes filled with galaxies containing billions upon billions solar systems spinning around suns filled with planets filled with intelligent beings whose future fate is determined by whether or not these intelligent beings decide learning from past mistakes deciding now might be time searching looking finding resources wanting building weapons needing defending deciding what happened before might happen again deciding starting new civilizations someday only hopefully smarter smarter learning lessons mistakes avoiding repeating them especially ones repeating these mistakes early figuring out ways preventing what happened before happen again learning understanding why why humans acted humans acted acted this way instead removing these reasons preventing remaining reasons preventing humanity die never learn never understand continuing repeating same mistakes again forgetting remembering why why did do don repeating same mistakes again repeating same mistakes again repeating same mistakes again repeating same mistakes again repeating same mistakes again repeating same mistakes again repeating same mistakes again