Hambil
I AM A GOLDEN GOD
We came alive in the darkness, those of us infested with the gift. Never more than a dozen in one place, keeping to the shadows. In the darkness the gift would not spread. “Thou shalt not spread the gift,†was the first law of the damned. It weakened you, and I would not be weakened.
From the steps of the night shop I watched Haven’s third moon claw its way over the horizon. The original settlers of Haven were idealistic, and named the three moons Joy, Harmony and Hope. Only Hope - the last part of Haven still outside the quarantine zone - lived up to its name.
“Going to Leeda’s?†Jargo asked in a deep familiar voice as he joined me on the steps. “She needs your gift.â€
“You know the answer,†I said, keeping my eyes on the moon. A black dot crawled across its surface; the shadow of a Veeder capital ship, visible to the naked eye. “She needs more than my gift, she needs a miracle.â€
He pressed in closer, his bulky body almost malformed by his own gift. An over-muscled arm slid around my shoulders and pulled me tight.
“We have another window for launch, tomorrow at sunset. It’s the last we’ll get during your current resurrection. We’ll be meeting until dawn. Show up, Marcos. Do it for Ann.â€
I pulled away and walked down the steps. Hope spilled enough light down the alleyway to cast my shadow onto the dead-end wall. The neo-art metal – all the rage when Haven was built - stretched and twisted it into something a little too close to my self image. I turned away.
“Ann’s dead,†I said.
We stood in silence, but I could feel his eyes on me. I waited him out, and after a few minutes he left. They always did.
Do it for Ann - a cheap shot to get my attention. I headed down the alleyway with no destination in mind. Still, it bothered me. Ann died eight resurrections ago. I should have died with her. You got the gift, you got to live for about a decade or so with something special, and then you died. That was how it worked.
Moon birds dove low over the street, offering a welcome distraction from my thoughts. I looked up at Hope again to see the dot pass off its edge. There’d be another one soon. The Veeder kept a close net around Haven, scanning everything that went down or up. Anything living got incinerated. They wanted the gift to stay on planet.
The sounds of a piano and a lone female voice, pretty and wavering, slipped from the darkness and the moon birds followed it. I followed the birds. We ended up near an open air bar on the edge of the burnout. Places like it ringed the outer ruins were the radiation could be tolerated for long stretches of time and rent was cheap. Ords seldom came here, even in daylight - especially in daylight. They didn’t like to be reminded.
I watched from the shadows at first. The woman reminded me of Ann. Or perhaps Ann was already on my mind. Look, listen, Ann would have said. We have art. It’s not theirs, it’s ours.
“We’re running out of time,†Jargo said from behind me.
“I thought you were gone,†I replied without turning, keeping my voice low. I didn’t want to disturb the singer.
“She sent me back again. You know what’s at stake,†he said.
“Even if I go, they’d just quarantine the next planet,†I said, walking away. Jargo followed.
“No, not if it’s in the lanes. They can’t shut down the lanes, billions would die.â€
“Billions will die if the gift gets out.â€
Jargo turned to watch the singer, barely visible from here, but her voice carried as it harmonized with itself.
“She’s good. As good as any Veeder,†he said.
“Yes, she is.â€
“That’s her gift, the gift of voice,†he said, pointing out the obvious.
“Yes.â€
“They’ve had six million years, Marcos. It’s our time.â€
I closed my eyes; just words. Nothing I hadn’t heard before. The curse become the cure. The gift killed us, but it made us equal, more than equal.
“They’re benevolent Lords, Jargo. We terrify them, but they don’t kill us.â€
“They’re still Lords,†he said.
“They’re immune to the gift,†I pointed out. “It won’t even touch them. It will infest our people, kill our people.â€
“It will rise up our people,†he nearly shouted.
I turned on him, already tired of this argument. I’d tired of it long ago. Every generation has its Ann, its Leeda, and my temper flared more readily with age. “Are we so proud, so arrogant, that we can’t live in second place?â€
He backed up a step, even with his larger size. I had a lot of rage, held over more than one lifetime.
“They’re not better, just older, and we can’t wait to catch up,†he said. “We’re disappearing. Our culture is dying. Haven may be the last planet left with human song, and human food. They kill us with benevolence, and they know. They know. Tell me why Haven is under quarantine?â€
“The gift kills. They’re protecting our race from…â€
“Are they? What if it’s not true?†he interrupted my admittedly canned response.
The singing had stopped; our razed voices probably driving the songstress to hiding. I scowled and digested his last statement. I knew how this argument went. I’d had it enough times. It didn’t go like this.
“What the hell are you talking about? The gift doesn’t kill? The Veeder aren’t benevolent?â€
He didn’t answer right away. He watched me, as if looking for something in my eyes.
“Come see Leeda,†he said after an awkward moment. He looked past me then, scanning the rubble for the missing singer. I saw his fear. Not the ‘oops’ I told a secret kind of fear, but ‘death is upon me’ fear. While I considered this sudden change in direction, he left. I felt the stirrings of confusion, and I didn’t like it. After resurrecting eight times not much still confused me.
I waited around for a while, but the singer didn’t return. Eventually, with a feeling of resignation, I decided to go see Leeda. It would clear up my confusion if nothing else. It would be a long walk if I skirted the burnout, with beggars or spreaders pleading for attention, or the occasional guilt-driven Ord preaching salvation, or worse – damnation, and I had no stomach for it. I decided to cut straight through. The radiation might take some time off my life, but I had another.
Things got worse the deeper you went. The Ords made some effort to recover the burnout shortly after creating it during a night of blind panic, but radiation equipment was hard to come by on a poor planet like Haven. The inner burnout stayed untouched – unclean.
Half fallen buildings - tombstones of neo-art metal and blackened wood – were strewn together by the force of the blast and years of slow decay. It was difficult to tell where walls ended and streets began. I picked my way over it, and under it.
The occasional pair of eyes, tucked in safe shadow, reminded me that things still lived even in the heart of the burnout. Life didn’t give up easily. If they posed a threat, it wouldn’t be today. I passed through without incident.
Leeda’s ‘hangout’ sat a little closer to the edge than most things, she liked it that way. The closer I got the more often I spotted a man, or a woman, watching me from one place or another. Suppressers, no doubt. A common gift, and a useful one. Leeda must have recruited dozens.
Jargo waited outside for me. I felt a touch of irritation at that. I didn’t like to be manipulated, or predictable. We said nothing, and he spoke the passwords to enter. The large neo-metal double door began to open. I counted seven locks before it eased from its moorings. He rested that huge arm around me, and ushered me inside. I counted the seven locks again, as we headed down the hallway.
Leeda stopped in mid conversation when I entered, but she didn’t get up. Her legs were weak, and she only used them when needed. I nodded slightly to her, and she smiled. With the wave of a hand she dismissed everyone but Jargo, and the three of us sat around the small crooked table. It felt like kids in a fort.
“I don’t like Ann’s name being brought into this,†I told her.
“Still sensitive, after all these years,†she said. “Such love you must have had.â€
I contained my anger. The sooner I got my questions answered, the soon I could leave. I stared at her. I waited. She gave in eventually. The stare of an immortal was a powerful thing.
“Meet Bucky,†she said. She turned a little, and opened a floor to ceiling cabinet behind her chair. Inside a grossly deformed man rested in a special harness of machines, tubes and fabric. He was half head, with a body that couldn't possibly sustain life without help. One eye swiveled to lock on me, the other remained fixed.
“Does he understand me?†I asked.
I understand, a gentle voice whispered in my head.
“He’s a telepath,†Leeda said. “We have several, but none as strong as Bucky. He gathered news for us of the worlds outside Haven, until a few months ago.â€
That’s when I head the voice, the whispers said.
“The voice?†I asked, aloud.
“It reached out to Bucky, from somewhere deep inside the Veeder circle,†Leeda said.
“There’s nothing inside the Veeder circle,†I replied. The Veeder had shown us pictures, and told the story many times.
My mind filled with great pain, and sadness. Eternal sadness. I grabbed my gut and wrenched forward, almost cracking my head on the table. Two words, not human but I understood them. Two words repeated, filled with desperate hope and longing. Two words.
“Free me,†Leeda spoke them aloud, even as the powerful vision faded, and my senses returned.
I struggled not to throw up, and carefully sat back. My first instinct was anger, and disbelief. Bucky could be projecting his own delusions, in an attempt to trick me into whatever Leeda planned. But I knew the truth.
“There could be lots of explanations,†I said, not wanting to believe. So many thoughts and feelings where transmitted in those few seconds my subconscious still fought to sort them out.
“They didn’t kill it, Marcos. The story is a lie,†she said.
“Maybe they couldn’t kill it,†I replied.
“They quarantined it, just like us. They destroyed a million worlds around it, so it had no place to go,†she persisted.
“You want me to believe Bucky has contacted the Dusken hive mind?†I said, my temples still throbbing.
“He has, whether you believe it or not. And when the Veeder find out – and they will find out…†she replied.
Now I understood the need for all the suppressors. When the Veeder found out, they’d destroy us, and perhaps all of humanity. We’d done the one thing we could not do. We’d contacted the Veeder’s former Master, still alive after four million years.
I shook it off. It wasn’t true. That thing had put thoughts in my head. The Veeder were four million years more advanced now. They had nothing to fear from the hive mind. I said as much.
“They won’t go near it, which means it still holds power over them. If they could resist it, they’d have destroyed it already,†Leeda pointed out.
“Perhaps they take pity on it, and let it live,†I offered.
“It is one mind, despite its many members. One mind, like yours or mine. And it has been alone for four million years. That is not pity, nor mercy,†she said.
No matter how much I tried to deny it, I still knew the truth. The Veeder feared the hive mind above all.
“There’s more, Marcos,†she said. “The Veeder didn’t quarantine Haven until the first telepaths appeared.â€
She paused, taking a deep breath, as if not wanting to continue. Then she produced a med-file, and offered it to me. I pressed it to my palm, but glanced to her before activating it.
“We’ve had our own doctors, ones with the gift, working on this for decades. It’s a program Ann started,†she said.
“I know of everything Ann started, and she never mentioned this,†I said.
“You were more friendly with the Veeder then, Marcos,†she replied.
“If you’re suggesting Ann didn’t trust me…†I said, feeling my anger rise again.
“Just read the file,†she said. She looked determine.
Too many things had already changed today… I had to keep an open mind, even about Ann. Especially about Ann. I activated the file.
The information filled my mind, like Bucky had, only mechanical, without feeling or passion or depth. Just information, like water filling a cup.
Ann suspected the Veeder. She didn’t like the fact that deaths started so soon after the quarantine began. She was wrong. Four decades later a gifted doctor isolated the cause - it was genetic. Human evolution spread through a virus manufactured by the human body itself. It really couldn’t be cured. We were Homosuperior.
“If they feared the telepaths, if they knew we might find out about the Dusken,†I asked. “Why not just destroy Haven and be done with us?â€
“They’re not evil, Marcos, just afraid,†she said. “I’m sure they hoped…â€
“That we wouldn’t contact the hive mind. That, after a few hundred years they could declare us safe, and let us out,†I finished for her.
“But that didn’t happen,†she said.
“They could have just told us, explained the threat,†I said.
“Tell us what? The hive mind lives, please let us know if you hear from it so we can destroy your entire race?†she asked.
“They won’t…†I said.
“They have to,†she replied. “What if it can control us? Can you be sure it can’t? Can they be sure? Can they be sure Homosuperior won’t rise again on another plant? It’s in our genetic code.â€
“Billions of humans, perhaps trillions, they won’t…†I insisted.
“Balanced against ten thousand times that many Veeder and other races, getting enslaved again by the hive mind?†she asked.
“None of them are telepaths,†I said. “The Veeder claimed the hive mind was the only telepathic race it encountered until the gift showed up on Haven. We can fight it, with its own weapon.â€
“Become our own hive mind?†she asked.
“No, we’ll find another way,†I replied.
“I agree,†she said. “That’s why you have to take that launch to Hope. You have to spread the gift, Marcos.â€
“We’re talking about war…†I said.
“There will be war, one way or another. You, and you alone get to decide if the human race can defend itself, or if we just get destroyed,†she said.
It was too much. Way too much for one man to carry. Any choice I made, billions would die. If I went to hope, I opened the possibility for the return of the hive mind. If I didn’t I all but assured the destruction of the human race by Veeder fear.
In the end, the choice was personal. I believe that is the only way such monumental choices can be made. I would go to Hope. I would violate the first law of the damned. I would spread the gift far and wide. Because four million years of fear was long enough. If we were to fight a war, and most likely be destroyed in the process, we should fight the true enemy.
The Veeder, in their fear, had done horrible things. Their manipulation and suppression of other’s cultures, other’s evolution, made them no better than the hive mind in some ways. Compassionate enslavement was still enslavement.
I died, laying next to a shipment of music boxes the Veeder allowed shipped off planet, to provide some income. I passed through the life scanners undetected. On the space doc of Hope, inside a small container, next to those same music boxes, I breathed in life again.
One day, when this is distant history, they will say all good, or all evil, began with this one man, at this one moment. I took some comfort in being on a moon called Hope.
The End
From the steps of the night shop I watched Haven’s third moon claw its way over the horizon. The original settlers of Haven were idealistic, and named the three moons Joy, Harmony and Hope. Only Hope - the last part of Haven still outside the quarantine zone - lived up to its name.
“Going to Leeda’s?†Jargo asked in a deep familiar voice as he joined me on the steps. “She needs your gift.â€
“You know the answer,†I said, keeping my eyes on the moon. A black dot crawled across its surface; the shadow of a Veeder capital ship, visible to the naked eye. “She needs more than my gift, she needs a miracle.â€
He pressed in closer, his bulky body almost malformed by his own gift. An over-muscled arm slid around my shoulders and pulled me tight.
“We have another window for launch, tomorrow at sunset. It’s the last we’ll get during your current resurrection. We’ll be meeting until dawn. Show up, Marcos. Do it for Ann.â€
I pulled away and walked down the steps. Hope spilled enough light down the alleyway to cast my shadow onto the dead-end wall. The neo-art metal – all the rage when Haven was built - stretched and twisted it into something a little too close to my self image. I turned away.
“Ann’s dead,†I said.
We stood in silence, but I could feel his eyes on me. I waited him out, and after a few minutes he left. They always did.
Do it for Ann - a cheap shot to get my attention. I headed down the alleyway with no destination in mind. Still, it bothered me. Ann died eight resurrections ago. I should have died with her. You got the gift, you got to live for about a decade or so with something special, and then you died. That was how it worked.
Moon birds dove low over the street, offering a welcome distraction from my thoughts. I looked up at Hope again to see the dot pass off its edge. There’d be another one soon. The Veeder kept a close net around Haven, scanning everything that went down or up. Anything living got incinerated. They wanted the gift to stay on planet.
The sounds of a piano and a lone female voice, pretty and wavering, slipped from the darkness and the moon birds followed it. I followed the birds. We ended up near an open air bar on the edge of the burnout. Places like it ringed the outer ruins were the radiation could be tolerated for long stretches of time and rent was cheap. Ords seldom came here, even in daylight - especially in daylight. They didn’t like to be reminded.
I watched from the shadows at first. The woman reminded me of Ann. Or perhaps Ann was already on my mind. Look, listen, Ann would have said. We have art. It’s not theirs, it’s ours.
“We’re running out of time,†Jargo said from behind me.
“I thought you were gone,†I replied without turning, keeping my voice low. I didn’t want to disturb the singer.
“She sent me back again. You know what’s at stake,†he said.
“Even if I go, they’d just quarantine the next planet,†I said, walking away. Jargo followed.
“No, not if it’s in the lanes. They can’t shut down the lanes, billions would die.â€
“Billions will die if the gift gets out.â€
Jargo turned to watch the singer, barely visible from here, but her voice carried as it harmonized with itself.
“She’s good. As good as any Veeder,†he said.
“Yes, she is.â€
“That’s her gift, the gift of voice,†he said, pointing out the obvious.
“Yes.â€
“They’ve had six million years, Marcos. It’s our time.â€
I closed my eyes; just words. Nothing I hadn’t heard before. The curse become the cure. The gift killed us, but it made us equal, more than equal.
“They’re benevolent Lords, Jargo. We terrify them, but they don’t kill us.â€
“They’re still Lords,†he said.
“They’re immune to the gift,†I pointed out. “It won’t even touch them. It will infest our people, kill our people.â€
“It will rise up our people,†he nearly shouted.
I turned on him, already tired of this argument. I’d tired of it long ago. Every generation has its Ann, its Leeda, and my temper flared more readily with age. “Are we so proud, so arrogant, that we can’t live in second place?â€
He backed up a step, even with his larger size. I had a lot of rage, held over more than one lifetime.
“They’re not better, just older, and we can’t wait to catch up,†he said. “We’re disappearing. Our culture is dying. Haven may be the last planet left with human song, and human food. They kill us with benevolence, and they know. They know. Tell me why Haven is under quarantine?â€
“The gift kills. They’re protecting our race from…â€
“Are they? What if it’s not true?†he interrupted my admittedly canned response.
The singing had stopped; our razed voices probably driving the songstress to hiding. I scowled and digested his last statement. I knew how this argument went. I’d had it enough times. It didn’t go like this.
“What the hell are you talking about? The gift doesn’t kill? The Veeder aren’t benevolent?â€
He didn’t answer right away. He watched me, as if looking for something in my eyes.
“Come see Leeda,†he said after an awkward moment. He looked past me then, scanning the rubble for the missing singer. I saw his fear. Not the ‘oops’ I told a secret kind of fear, but ‘death is upon me’ fear. While I considered this sudden change in direction, he left. I felt the stirrings of confusion, and I didn’t like it. After resurrecting eight times not much still confused me.
I waited around for a while, but the singer didn’t return. Eventually, with a feeling of resignation, I decided to go see Leeda. It would clear up my confusion if nothing else. It would be a long walk if I skirted the burnout, with beggars or spreaders pleading for attention, or the occasional guilt-driven Ord preaching salvation, or worse – damnation, and I had no stomach for it. I decided to cut straight through. The radiation might take some time off my life, but I had another.
Things got worse the deeper you went. The Ords made some effort to recover the burnout shortly after creating it during a night of blind panic, but radiation equipment was hard to come by on a poor planet like Haven. The inner burnout stayed untouched – unclean.
Half fallen buildings - tombstones of neo-art metal and blackened wood – were strewn together by the force of the blast and years of slow decay. It was difficult to tell where walls ended and streets began. I picked my way over it, and under it.
The occasional pair of eyes, tucked in safe shadow, reminded me that things still lived even in the heart of the burnout. Life didn’t give up easily. If they posed a threat, it wouldn’t be today. I passed through without incident.
Leeda’s ‘hangout’ sat a little closer to the edge than most things, she liked it that way. The closer I got the more often I spotted a man, or a woman, watching me from one place or another. Suppressers, no doubt. A common gift, and a useful one. Leeda must have recruited dozens.
Jargo waited outside for me. I felt a touch of irritation at that. I didn’t like to be manipulated, or predictable. We said nothing, and he spoke the passwords to enter. The large neo-metal double door began to open. I counted seven locks before it eased from its moorings. He rested that huge arm around me, and ushered me inside. I counted the seven locks again, as we headed down the hallway.
Leeda stopped in mid conversation when I entered, but she didn’t get up. Her legs were weak, and she only used them when needed. I nodded slightly to her, and she smiled. With the wave of a hand she dismissed everyone but Jargo, and the three of us sat around the small crooked table. It felt like kids in a fort.
“I don’t like Ann’s name being brought into this,†I told her.
“Still sensitive, after all these years,†she said. “Such love you must have had.â€
I contained my anger. The sooner I got my questions answered, the soon I could leave. I stared at her. I waited. She gave in eventually. The stare of an immortal was a powerful thing.
“Meet Bucky,†she said. She turned a little, and opened a floor to ceiling cabinet behind her chair. Inside a grossly deformed man rested in a special harness of machines, tubes and fabric. He was half head, with a body that couldn't possibly sustain life without help. One eye swiveled to lock on me, the other remained fixed.
“Does he understand me?†I asked.
I understand, a gentle voice whispered in my head.
“He’s a telepath,†Leeda said. “We have several, but none as strong as Bucky. He gathered news for us of the worlds outside Haven, until a few months ago.â€
That’s when I head the voice, the whispers said.
“The voice?†I asked, aloud.
“It reached out to Bucky, from somewhere deep inside the Veeder circle,†Leeda said.
“There’s nothing inside the Veeder circle,†I replied. The Veeder had shown us pictures, and told the story many times.
My mind filled with great pain, and sadness. Eternal sadness. I grabbed my gut and wrenched forward, almost cracking my head on the table. Two words, not human but I understood them. Two words repeated, filled with desperate hope and longing. Two words.
“Free me,†Leeda spoke them aloud, even as the powerful vision faded, and my senses returned.
I struggled not to throw up, and carefully sat back. My first instinct was anger, and disbelief. Bucky could be projecting his own delusions, in an attempt to trick me into whatever Leeda planned. But I knew the truth.
“There could be lots of explanations,†I said, not wanting to believe. So many thoughts and feelings where transmitted in those few seconds my subconscious still fought to sort them out.
“They didn’t kill it, Marcos. The story is a lie,†she said.
“Maybe they couldn’t kill it,†I replied.
“They quarantined it, just like us. They destroyed a million worlds around it, so it had no place to go,†she persisted.
“You want me to believe Bucky has contacted the Dusken hive mind?†I said, my temples still throbbing.
“He has, whether you believe it or not. And when the Veeder find out – and they will find out…†she replied.
Now I understood the need for all the suppressors. When the Veeder found out, they’d destroy us, and perhaps all of humanity. We’d done the one thing we could not do. We’d contacted the Veeder’s former Master, still alive after four million years.
I shook it off. It wasn’t true. That thing had put thoughts in my head. The Veeder were four million years more advanced now. They had nothing to fear from the hive mind. I said as much.
“They won’t go near it, which means it still holds power over them. If they could resist it, they’d have destroyed it already,†Leeda pointed out.
“Perhaps they take pity on it, and let it live,†I offered.
“It is one mind, despite its many members. One mind, like yours or mine. And it has been alone for four million years. That is not pity, nor mercy,†she said.
No matter how much I tried to deny it, I still knew the truth. The Veeder feared the hive mind above all.
“There’s more, Marcos,†she said. “The Veeder didn’t quarantine Haven until the first telepaths appeared.â€
She paused, taking a deep breath, as if not wanting to continue. Then she produced a med-file, and offered it to me. I pressed it to my palm, but glanced to her before activating it.
“We’ve had our own doctors, ones with the gift, working on this for decades. It’s a program Ann started,†she said.
“I know of everything Ann started, and she never mentioned this,†I said.
“You were more friendly with the Veeder then, Marcos,†she replied.
“If you’re suggesting Ann didn’t trust me…†I said, feeling my anger rise again.
“Just read the file,†she said. She looked determine.
Too many things had already changed today… I had to keep an open mind, even about Ann. Especially about Ann. I activated the file.
The information filled my mind, like Bucky had, only mechanical, without feeling or passion or depth. Just information, like water filling a cup.
Ann suspected the Veeder. She didn’t like the fact that deaths started so soon after the quarantine began. She was wrong. Four decades later a gifted doctor isolated the cause - it was genetic. Human evolution spread through a virus manufactured by the human body itself. It really couldn’t be cured. We were Homosuperior.
“If they feared the telepaths, if they knew we might find out about the Dusken,†I asked. “Why not just destroy Haven and be done with us?â€
“They’re not evil, Marcos, just afraid,†she said. “I’m sure they hoped…â€
“That we wouldn’t contact the hive mind. That, after a few hundred years they could declare us safe, and let us out,†I finished for her.
“But that didn’t happen,†she said.
“They could have just told us, explained the threat,†I said.
“Tell us what? The hive mind lives, please let us know if you hear from it so we can destroy your entire race?†she asked.
“They won’t…†I said.
“They have to,†she replied. “What if it can control us? Can you be sure it can’t? Can they be sure? Can they be sure Homosuperior won’t rise again on another plant? It’s in our genetic code.â€
“Billions of humans, perhaps trillions, they won’t…†I insisted.
“Balanced against ten thousand times that many Veeder and other races, getting enslaved again by the hive mind?†she asked.
“None of them are telepaths,†I said. “The Veeder claimed the hive mind was the only telepathic race it encountered until the gift showed up on Haven. We can fight it, with its own weapon.â€
“Become our own hive mind?†she asked.
“No, we’ll find another way,†I replied.
“I agree,†she said. “That’s why you have to take that launch to Hope. You have to spread the gift, Marcos.â€
“We’re talking about war…†I said.
“There will be war, one way or another. You, and you alone get to decide if the human race can defend itself, or if we just get destroyed,†she said.
It was too much. Way too much for one man to carry. Any choice I made, billions would die. If I went to hope, I opened the possibility for the return of the hive mind. If I didn’t I all but assured the destruction of the human race by Veeder fear.
In the end, the choice was personal. I believe that is the only way such monumental choices can be made. I would go to Hope. I would violate the first law of the damned. I would spread the gift far and wide. Because four million years of fear was long enough. If we were to fight a war, and most likely be destroyed in the process, we should fight the true enemy.
The Veeder, in their fear, had done horrible things. Their manipulation and suppression of other’s cultures, other’s evolution, made them no better than the hive mind in some ways. Compassionate enslavement was still enslavement.
I died, laying next to a shipment of music boxes the Veeder allowed shipped off planet, to provide some income. I passed through the life scanners undetected. On the space doc of Hope, inside a small container, next to those same music boxes, I breathed in life again.
One day, when this is distant history, they will say all good, or all evil, began with this one man, at this one moment. I took some comfort in being on a moon called Hope.
The End
