Spoiler:
Chapter 6: Across Worlds
Days after the Human/Xilien War
“You are approaching Planet X. We detect no abnormalities, do you?”
“No sir.” Replied Glenn, his chiseled face locked in concentration. “They aren’t dumb enough to try anything other than listening.” Almost subconsciously, he felt the small device in his space suit’s pocket, a circular machine that would emit a high-pitched whine when activated. If the Xiliens did not listen, he would force them to.
“Then we leave it to you two. Good luck, Glenn and Fuji.” The radio cut off, leaving the friends of different nationalities to only talk to each other in the cramped cockpit of the spaceship P-1.
The silence of a few moments was heavier than tungsten.
“Are you sure we should do this? Force them to turn off their computer?” Fuji Kazuo asked his fellow astronaut, trepidation coating his words.
Humanity had just come off the heels of a battle with another species, the brutal assault of Planet X being weathered and countered by human ingenuity. A species controlled by electronic signals released from a supercomputer, seeking water even if it meant shedding blood. But the computer was not all they were. At some point, they had locked themselves in those chains. Glenn knew this, for a simple reason.
“Yes. It’s the only way they’ll be able to live, be able to cohabitate with us.”
Fuji was not fully convinced. “But, think of the consequences! They’ve lived their whole lives under this, you can’t just cut them free and expect everything to go well!”
“They already can feel emotion! Think for themselves. I saw it, and they killed her for it. All we’re doing is freeing them.” Glenn spoke, with more resolve behind his words than he’d ever held before.
“Glenn…” Fuji was never one who was able to handle the more volatile aspects of the human emotional spectrum. He wished his sister was here, this was something much more in her wheelhouse than his. The astronaut, thinking it over, realized that she was always better at reading people than he had been. Her boyfriend, who he had brushed off as a failure, had been a key part of saving humanity.
“Namikawa was one Xilien. This is an entire species. You can’t be sure that they all feel the same way she did, you can’t be sure-“
“I am not leaving this planet until that damned computer is shut down.” Glenn had not shouted or even particularly raised his voice, but there was a coldness and venom to that sentence that carried more power than any fist slamming onto a table.
That silence returned, their blue barren destination drawing ever closer.
Glenn knew the Xiliens were more than the computer because it had been revealed to him. Through that overwhelming force, transcendent of all boundaries, even the ones between worlds.
“You loved her, didn’t you? Truly?”
Glenn let out a sigh, one filled with pain that came from the depths of the heart. “More than I’ll ever love again.”
***
The Xilien across the sleek desk shrunk under Glenn’s gaze. In their base, their metallic underground sanctuary, he was supposed to be in complete control. But the truth was far from that. Not when his race’s army had been vanquished by the world that was now making demands of him. Not when the Controller had been slain, and he could only desperately try to pick up the pieces.
“Look, be glad about this. Humanity being willing to extend an olive branch after the shit you pulled? Rare for us.” The blonde-haired emissary spoke. “You should see what we did to the Mysterians.”
Fuji took note of how the new Controller recoiled. The cold confidence of the former was lost despite the nearly identical appearance, and he had a feeling it was not quite just from the recent events. “So, explain briefly, just so we’re all on the same page.” He began, in order to break the tension. “Why have you in particular been made the new leader?”
“As the former Controller’s younger sibling, I have also been given the requisite teachings and programming in order to lead.” He replied without emotion.
“So you’ve got a fancy supercomputer and it just makes you pull the same succession shit we’ve been doing for centuries?” Glenn replied with a raised eyebrow.
“What do you want? Is it not enough to deprive our people of your water despite our demands?”
“Your demands that we become your slaves?!” Glenn shot up to his feet.
“That you follow our orders and be welcomed into our superior culture.” Despite the lack of change in his tone, Fuji was keenly aware of the Xilien’s face scrunching up in anger.
“Well we have demands of our own, and you will gain access to Earth’s water if you follow them.” The calmer of the two astronauts cut in, trying to ensure things did not escalate. “Are you willing to listen?”
“Continue.”
“First. The people of Planet X are to accept and accommodate numerous human visitors, and allow them complete access to all your facilities and data in order to ensure complete transparency.” No reply, which Fuji took as a signal to keep speaking. “Second. The Xiliens will share all of their technological advances with humanity.”
“We were not being truthful when we spoke of a cure to all diseases.” The Controller replied. “Our bodies are partially mechanized, and the landscape is too barren to produce bacteria and viruses regardless. We have no reason to create cures.”
Glenn drummed his fingers against the desk. “We still want whatever you do have. Are these terms agreeable,” he put a sardonic emphasis on that last word, “enough for you so far?”
“Yes.”
“Oh-ho, just you wait.” The American responded, before turning his head towards his comrade. He turned back, a smile adorning his face that bordered on sadistic. “Third. Shut down your supercomputer. The one that controls your species.”
“What?” Left the new Controller’s lips after a brief pause. Confusion filled the exclamation, genuine emotion emerging.
“You heard me.”
“That’s ridiculous.” The monotone speech was back, but Fuji could swear he heard a subtle shakiness to it. “Our kind relies upon it. It makes all of our decisions and guides us, you cannot seriously expect us to shut it down.”
“It told you to attack humanity instead of bartering with us, so the bigwigs back home want it shut down.” Glenn replied. The two humans knew that to not be the full truth, for while that had been a decree by the United Nations, the seed of the idea was planted by Glenn himself.
“It makes the most logical decisions based off the stimulus given. In the scenario where we cannot deceive you and you are our equals in technology, there is no point in shutting the computer down when it will demand compliance of us.”
“Shut. It. Down.” Venom dripped from the words.
“What are we to do without it? You are suggesting our kind is cut off from the guidance we have abided by since before any of our currently living members were born.” Desperation seeped into the new Controller’s speech, tinging them away from their supposedly required soullessness.
“What will you do? Live! You people will finally be able to live, feel emotions, have hearts! Is that not enough? For God’s sake, we’re doing you a favor!”
“Casting my people adrift into your kind’s tumultuous nature is not a favor!” The Xilien slammed a gloved fist onto his desk, rising to his feet. “Change that term and we will have a deal, our people will co-exis-“
“There is no coexistence with that goddamned computer still functioning!” Glenn pulled out the disk, his finger pressing down onto the button. Fuji cringed as a horribly high-pitched sound rang out, sending the Controller to the floor. He writhed as he curled up into the fetal position. The ruler of a mighty kind, reduced to a pitiable ball on the tiled floor.
“Turn it off!” The tormented alien shouted.
Glenn screamed back. “Not until you swear to turn that damn supercomputer off! I don’t care if I have to hold this until your head explodes! Turn it off!”
Fuji could only cover his ears and watch. He wanted to step in, stop what he knew deep down was wrong, but he could not bring himself to do so. It felt like weights were on his feet, but they paled in comparison to the one on his heart.
“Alright, alright!” The Xilien screamed from the depths of his lungs. “I’ll do it, just please, make it stop! Please!”
And thus, the American astronaut did so. A maddened smile revealed his teeth, and looking upon it was the most horrified his companion had ever been. As the Xilien struggled to catch his breath and rise up, Fuji mused on the nature of love. A beautiful thing, yes, but it could dredge up the darkest parts of the soul that were normally buried deep within. Glenn was one of the kindest men he knew, and so it was like he was looking upon a complete stranger.
***
He’d had a hollow pit in his chest the entire time he was on this planet since Namikawa’s passing. As Glenn watched the Xiliens maneuver about the colossal construct of black steel coated in varying lights and buttons before him, working to cease its operations, it only deepened.
He saw how Fuji looked at him, and he could not blame him. His treatment of the new Controller disgusted even him, but he pressed onwards regardless. This would benefit them in the long run, that was what he kept telling himself, even as he sank deeper. That leader stood close to him, expression hard to discern, but he could feel the fear radiating off him.
Glenn remembered Namikawa’s fear, as she pleaded with him to marry her and faced her demise for his sake. It hardened his heart and strengthened his resolve.
The lights dimmed, leaving the computer a dull mass. Silence was only broken by intense breathing from every Xilien present, faces contorting in anxiety. They felt a new hollowness, as if part of their brain had been torn away. What was replacing it was new and uncertain, and they feared it gravely. They could barely think of how to describe it, the feeling of the computer’s perpetual hum in the back of their mind being now gone and allowing these strange sensations to creep in and take its place.
“Turn it back on!” One screamed, rushing forwards.
Glenn moved like a man possessed, ripping a gun out of a nearby Xilien’s hip holster. He pointed it at the computer, squeezing the trigger. A blue ray of light shot forth, crashing into it and boring into the metal of the device. The workers upon the computer fled as an explosion rippled across it, tearing the outside asunder and revealing now wrecked innards. Glenn kept firing, causing more bursts upon the centerpiece of Xilien civilization until it collapsed under its own weight, bursting into flame.
Despite a chorus of panic and roaring fire, Glenn could only hear his heart thudding in his ears and the sound of his heavy breathing.
Days after the Human/Xilien War
“You are approaching Planet X. We detect no abnormalities, do you?”
“No sir.” Replied Glenn, his chiseled face locked in concentration. “They aren’t dumb enough to try anything other than listening.” Almost subconsciously, he felt the small device in his space suit’s pocket, a circular machine that would emit a high-pitched whine when activated. If the Xiliens did not listen, he would force them to.
“Then we leave it to you two. Good luck, Glenn and Fuji.” The radio cut off, leaving the friends of different nationalities to only talk to each other in the cramped cockpit of the spaceship P-1.
The silence of a few moments was heavier than tungsten.
“Are you sure we should do this? Force them to turn off their computer?” Fuji Kazuo asked his fellow astronaut, trepidation coating his words.
Humanity had just come off the heels of a battle with another species, the brutal assault of Planet X being weathered and countered by human ingenuity. A species controlled by electronic signals released from a supercomputer, seeking water even if it meant shedding blood. But the computer was not all they were. At some point, they had locked themselves in those chains. Glenn knew this, for a simple reason.
“Yes. It’s the only way they’ll be able to live, be able to cohabitate with us.”
Fuji was not fully convinced. “But, think of the consequences! They’ve lived their whole lives under this, you can’t just cut them free and expect everything to go well!”
“They already can feel emotion! Think for themselves. I saw it, and they killed her for it. All we’re doing is freeing them.” Glenn spoke, with more resolve behind his words than he’d ever held before.
“Glenn…” Fuji was never one who was able to handle the more volatile aspects of the human emotional spectrum. He wished his sister was here, this was something much more in her wheelhouse than his. The astronaut, thinking it over, realized that she was always better at reading people than he had been. Her boyfriend, who he had brushed off as a failure, had been a key part of saving humanity.
“Namikawa was one Xilien. This is an entire species. You can’t be sure that they all feel the same way she did, you can’t be sure-“
“I am not leaving this planet until that damned computer is shut down.” Glenn had not shouted or even particularly raised his voice, but there was a coldness and venom to that sentence that carried more power than any fist slamming onto a table.
That silence returned, their blue barren destination drawing ever closer.
Glenn knew the Xiliens were more than the computer because it had been revealed to him. Through that overwhelming force, transcendent of all boundaries, even the ones between worlds.
“You loved her, didn’t you? Truly?”
Glenn let out a sigh, one filled with pain that came from the depths of the heart. “More than I’ll ever love again.”
***
The Xilien across the sleek desk shrunk under Glenn’s gaze. In their base, their metallic underground sanctuary, he was supposed to be in complete control. But the truth was far from that. Not when his race’s army had been vanquished by the world that was now making demands of him. Not when the Controller had been slain, and he could only desperately try to pick up the pieces.
“Look, be glad about this. Humanity being willing to extend an olive branch after the shit you pulled? Rare for us.” The blonde-haired emissary spoke. “You should see what we did to the Mysterians.”
Fuji took note of how the new Controller recoiled. The cold confidence of the former was lost despite the nearly identical appearance, and he had a feeling it was not quite just from the recent events. “So, explain briefly, just so we’re all on the same page.” He began, in order to break the tension. “Why have you in particular been made the new leader?”
“As the former Controller’s younger sibling, I have also been given the requisite teachings and programming in order to lead.” He replied without emotion.
“So you’ve got a fancy supercomputer and it just makes you pull the same succession shit we’ve been doing for centuries?” Glenn replied with a raised eyebrow.
“What do you want? Is it not enough to deprive our people of your water despite our demands?”
“Your demands that we become your slaves?!” Glenn shot up to his feet.
“That you follow our orders and be welcomed into our superior culture.” Despite the lack of change in his tone, Fuji was keenly aware of the Xilien’s face scrunching up in anger.
“Well we have demands of our own, and you will gain access to Earth’s water if you follow them.” The calmer of the two astronauts cut in, trying to ensure things did not escalate. “Are you willing to listen?”
“Continue.”
“First. The people of Planet X are to accept and accommodate numerous human visitors, and allow them complete access to all your facilities and data in order to ensure complete transparency.” No reply, which Fuji took as a signal to keep speaking. “Second. The Xiliens will share all of their technological advances with humanity.”
“We were not being truthful when we spoke of a cure to all diseases.” The Controller replied. “Our bodies are partially mechanized, and the landscape is too barren to produce bacteria and viruses regardless. We have no reason to create cures.”
Glenn drummed his fingers against the desk. “We still want whatever you do have. Are these terms agreeable,” he put a sardonic emphasis on that last word, “enough for you so far?”
“Yes.”
“Oh-ho, just you wait.” The American responded, before turning his head towards his comrade. He turned back, a smile adorning his face that bordered on sadistic. “Third. Shut down your supercomputer. The one that controls your species.”
“What?” Left the new Controller’s lips after a brief pause. Confusion filled the exclamation, genuine emotion emerging.
“You heard me.”
“That’s ridiculous.” The monotone speech was back, but Fuji could swear he heard a subtle shakiness to it. “Our kind relies upon it. It makes all of our decisions and guides us, you cannot seriously expect us to shut it down.”
“It told you to attack humanity instead of bartering with us, so the bigwigs back home want it shut down.” Glenn replied. The two humans knew that to not be the full truth, for while that had been a decree by the United Nations, the seed of the idea was planted by Glenn himself.
“It makes the most logical decisions based off the stimulus given. In the scenario where we cannot deceive you and you are our equals in technology, there is no point in shutting the computer down when it will demand compliance of us.”
“Shut. It. Down.” Venom dripped from the words.
“What are we to do without it? You are suggesting our kind is cut off from the guidance we have abided by since before any of our currently living members were born.” Desperation seeped into the new Controller’s speech, tinging them away from their supposedly required soullessness.
“What will you do? Live! You people will finally be able to live, feel emotions, have hearts! Is that not enough? For God’s sake, we’re doing you a favor!”
“Casting my people adrift into your kind’s tumultuous nature is not a favor!” The Xilien slammed a gloved fist onto his desk, rising to his feet. “Change that term and we will have a deal, our people will co-exis-“
“There is no coexistence with that goddamned computer still functioning!” Glenn pulled out the disk, his finger pressing down onto the button. Fuji cringed as a horribly high-pitched sound rang out, sending the Controller to the floor. He writhed as he curled up into the fetal position. The ruler of a mighty kind, reduced to a pitiable ball on the tiled floor.
“Turn it off!” The tormented alien shouted.
Glenn screamed back. “Not until you swear to turn that damn supercomputer off! I don’t care if I have to hold this until your head explodes! Turn it off!”
Fuji could only cover his ears and watch. He wanted to step in, stop what he knew deep down was wrong, but he could not bring himself to do so. It felt like weights were on his feet, but they paled in comparison to the one on his heart.
“Alright, alright!” The Xilien screamed from the depths of his lungs. “I’ll do it, just please, make it stop! Please!”
And thus, the American astronaut did so. A maddened smile revealed his teeth, and looking upon it was the most horrified his companion had ever been. As the Xilien struggled to catch his breath and rise up, Fuji mused on the nature of love. A beautiful thing, yes, but it could dredge up the darkest parts of the soul that were normally buried deep within. Glenn was one of the kindest men he knew, and so it was like he was looking upon a complete stranger.
***
He’d had a hollow pit in his chest the entire time he was on this planet since Namikawa’s passing. As Glenn watched the Xiliens maneuver about the colossal construct of black steel coated in varying lights and buttons before him, working to cease its operations, it only deepened.
He saw how Fuji looked at him, and he could not blame him. His treatment of the new Controller disgusted even him, but he pressed onwards regardless. This would benefit them in the long run, that was what he kept telling himself, even as he sank deeper. That leader stood close to him, expression hard to discern, but he could feel the fear radiating off him.
Glenn remembered Namikawa’s fear, as she pleaded with him to marry her and faced her demise for his sake. It hardened his heart and strengthened his resolve.
The lights dimmed, leaving the computer a dull mass. Silence was only broken by intense breathing from every Xilien present, faces contorting in anxiety. They felt a new hollowness, as if part of their brain had been torn away. What was replacing it was new and uncertain, and they feared it gravely. They could barely think of how to describe it, the feeling of the computer’s perpetual hum in the back of their mind being now gone and allowing these strange sensations to creep in and take its place.
“Turn it back on!” One screamed, rushing forwards.
Glenn moved like a man possessed, ripping a gun out of a nearby Xilien’s hip holster. He pointed it at the computer, squeezing the trigger. A blue ray of light shot forth, crashing into it and boring into the metal of the device. The workers upon the computer fled as an explosion rippled across it, tearing the outside asunder and revealing now wrecked innards. Glenn kept firing, causing more bursts upon the centerpiece of Xilien civilization until it collapsed under its own weight, bursting into flame.
Despite a chorus of panic and roaring fire, Glenn could only hear his heart thudding in his ears and the sound of his heavy breathing.