The God Complex: The Book Of Alan, Destroyer Of Worlds

Chapter Twenty

"BREAKING 'S NEWS' ALERT: Humanities hero and Supreme Leader: President Abaddon, today announced his candidacy as President of the New Earth: 'We must ensure everything is in place for when we land to prosper and survive. I look forward to starting this democratic process and a fair fight from my fellow candidates.' As yet, no other candidates have entered the race.

Gabe sauntered in that next morning, feeling like the worst of his ordeal was behind him - he'd achieved something he didn't think possible: he'd survived Cain and made it to the Pilot Simulator. To Gabe, It was a new dawn, even though the sun was only just setting; It had been setting now for almost four days.

Continuing his saunter past the huge poster of Supreme Leader Abaddon, bathed in glorious sunset, he followed his nose and let the scent of bacon guide him.

Pulling up a plastic canteen chair, he awaited the inevitable arrival of the others by allowing himself a rare moment of reflection as he chewed. He couldn't help but feel a small sense of accomplishment, but most of all, a creeping sense of hope returned - a stranger long-thought dead.

He made his way to class as the rest slowly trickled in and looked up at the giant black unit of the Simulator that loomed menacingly over him - it still intimidated him, even now, there was something about a structure that big and featureless that sent shivers straight through him.

Training Commander Cain burst through the door, clipboard in hand. He seemed even more prickly than usual.

'Okay listen up,' his voice echoed around Gabe's skull. ' There are some of you here because you excelled in another module and now must finish the course - I get that, so you will be processed through your simulations first thing where you will fail and fail quickly. This is because laughably, there are still some amongst you here that believe you genuinely have a shot of piloting the Mothership: SS YAMA Pharmaceutical Corporate Shuttle. Let me tell you now - you don't. None of you will be good enough, you are all wasting your time. The only reason I bothered turning up today is because the fleet will need as many capable pilots as it can muster, ferrying civilians to the Mothership in your EX's. That is the best any of you idiots can hope for.'

He threw his clipboard onto the desk in frustration.

'That said, EDEN requires us to be prepared for every eventuality, including something happening to YAMA's actual pilot. Therefore I am required, for the good of mankind, to train you all, so that in the unfortunate event we find ourselves with one of you retards behind the stick, then you will have had the adequate training to get you through the following scenarios without killing us all: Taking off in Earth's atmosphere; taking off and landing in various atmospheres; docking in both shuttles; landing the Mothership on an Earth like atmosphere; failure of the Mainframe computer; evasive action and finally hostile attacks.'

He sat down in his chair and rubbed his temples. 'But you're probably not going to make that far because you'll quickly realise that your pathetic dream of flying around space is never going to happen and you'll quit halfway through, again making this a colossal waste of everyone's time.'

He studied the eyes of everyone before him. 'So, consider this your one and only friendly warning. I wouldn't trust any one of you to open a can of beans that was already open, so do yourselves a favour, pick yourselves up, walk out of that door and slope off back to where you came from, otherwise prepare yourselves for a seven-day beasting the likes of which you pansies have never seen.'

He stood up and focussed in on a balding man in his fifties who immediately looked panicked.

'If I even get one whiff that you're wasting my time here, I swear to God as my witness I'm going to tear your weak, tubby limbs from your body and use them to beat you to death. Do you understand me, you pathetic sack of meat? Do you?'