The Elephants


It had been three days since Sebastian had last been let out. But he had no
need for that. He had better things to do. He had had enough of the Elephants
and wanted the people to live freely.
  In the morning, when Sebastian's parents had gone to work among the
Elephants, Sebastian decided to commence his plan. He pressed a button
concealed in the wall, and the mechanism operated. The panel underneath him
slid away and he was quickly whisked to the Storage Room. Everything was ready.

"How had all this begun?" he thought. "How long have the Elephants existed?" He
didn't know for sure. When he had been little, he had been taught that the
Elephants had always existed. All children had been taught that. But he didn't
believe in it any more.
  He believed that long ago there had been a Human World, where the humans
could live free and in peace. In the Human World everything had been lovely.
But then came the Elephants.
  Nobody knew exactly where they came from; some say they were an advanced
form of common elephants, Loxodonta Dominans, when others even refer to extra-
terrestial life. Anyway the soon conquered the humans. They command humans with
their weight of nine tonnes, and a human can't go objecting against the trunk
and tusks of an Elephant. Sebastian had been grounded in his room after he had
criticised the governing abilities of the Elephants.
  Sebastian knew all too well, that the Elephants' government was pure tyranny.
And in spite of that human children are taught that the Elephants are the best
possible rulers. Children are made ideal servants for the Elephants. Julietta
had been like that.
  Sebastian shuddered when he thought about what his beloved Julietta would
have become if he hadn't got her to her senses. At this moment Sebastian and
Julietta belonged to the human freedom front, whose mission was to recreate the
Human World.

Everything was ready now. The Bubble lay on the floor of the Storage Room in
front of Sebastian. It was one of the many Bubbles that Sebastian and his
disciples had built against the Elephants. The Bubble was a spherical vehicle,
heavily armoured and with a firearm for battles against the Elephants.
  Sebastian stepped inside the Bubble. It was about time. The Bubble left the
Storage Room and scooted to the sky. It scarcely attracted any attention, since
people were used to all sorts of airborne vessels steered by themselves and the
Elephants.
  The meeting happened at the agreed time at the agreed place. Everybody was
present. Sebastian, Julietta, Petrus, Gwendolyne, Archibald, Marian, Erasmus...
And they all sat simultaneously inside their Bubbles. Everything had proceeded
as planned. They had designed the Bubbles and agreed on a tight schedule for
their attack. They had even bribed tow Elephants, named Mop and Erol, to tell
them about the structure and weaknesses of the Supreme Governing Building of
the Elephants.
  The Bubble fleet began moving towards the Governing Building. It attracted
some attention in the people, but not many had the time to wonder a long time,
because they were in a hurry to take care of their work. The new Elephant in
charge of labour, called Suilenrok, was very strict, they had heard.

The gates of the Supreme Governing Building of the Elephants didn't last long
under fire from the Bubbles' firearms, and so the freedom front entered
quickly. The children had one primary goal: to find and kill the Elephants'
leader Rabab, who they thought to be the root of all evil. They had agreed that
before that they would only kill the Elephants who shove themselves in front of
them; bullets had to be spared for the thick hide of Rabab.
  Amazingly few Elephants appeared in front of the Bubbles. Although the
captain of guard Ruodapmop himself noticed the freedom front, he was too sure
of himself to make an alarm. The Bubbles moved quietly over Ruodapmop's
smothering corpse. Rabab's room was now close.
  The door to Rabab's room opened quickly. Rabab himself lay on his bed taking
a nap - he would be a sitting duck for the children. Everything seemed to go as
planned to the last moment.

But at the very last moment the unexpected happened. Nobody had noticed Rabab's
pet monkey Rifes, who had awaken from his nap hearing Ruodapmop's heavy body
fall in the corridor.
  Rifes had sensed danger and with a well-aimed blow with an iron bar he had
destroyed the engine of Sebastian's Bubble. The Bubble ground to a halt and
Julietta's Bubble crashed into it. When the overheated engines of the Bubbles
crashed into each other they exploded destroying all the Bubbles along with
their passengers, Rifes himself and half of the corridor leading to Rabab's
room.
  The human liberation attempt had failed. The humans hadn't the money,
intelligence or courage for a new attempt of revolution, so the despotical
government of the Elephants continued in peace.