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Humans Don't Hibernate [Part 114/?]
🕑 Added 2024-10-01 18:52:02 +0000 UTC101 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. Signal Station. Administration Wing. Bunker HQ.
Evina
I flinched at that statement, as our conversation finally veered into a space I’d hoped to not venture into.
There was a part of me that had honestly hoped that the clone situation would’ve already been resolved.
That part of me, of course, simply wanted to completely ignore the existence of this… being. This living, breathing, disturbing reminder of the truth behind Eslan’s origins, and the messed up truths that had apparently underpinned the reality I thought I once knew.
But I knew that was merely a childish and immature desire. In fact, it was antithetical to what I stood for, to what I’d explicitly taught Eslan to not fall into — willful ignorance, for the sake of denial.
It was a trap I wouldn’t fall into.
I needed to face this head on.
Even if it was an uncomfortable issue to tackle.
“We can’t let him stay here.” I stated bluntly. “As much as Addie might be willing to take care of him, it’s just not right to leave him with a potentially unstable AI, let alone leaving him in what is effectively his prison.” I continued, much to the apparent approval of Lysara who nodded in response.
“Those were my thoughts exactly, Evina.” The alien responded confidently.
“More than that, considering he’s effectively a baseline Eslan, it’ll be useful to get some medical scans from him using modern scanning and testing equipment. Whilst the data I extracted from the databanks will be useful in directly facilitating Eslan’s recovery, having a baseline anatomical and physiological reference that’s up to scuff to modern standards would help tremendously in gauging his recovery.” Vir chimed in with a digital chirp.
“A benchmark of sorts?”
“Exactly, Lysara.”
Both Lysara and I nodded affirmatively at that. “Yeah, actually, that’s a very good idea.” I spoke, before quickly adding. “Provided, of course, he’s willing to agree to scans and whatnot. I… don’t wanna objectify him in the same way as the cyberbeast did.”
Part of me felt… guilty for immediately seeing the practical gains from someone so broken, rather than considering his plight first and foremost.
But perhaps… It was just desperation — the culmination of years of seeing Eslan’s deterioration — talking.
It was that feeling of helplessness, forcing me to grasp onto any potential opportunity to secure a dear friend’s life.
Whatever it was, our decision seemed unanimous enough.
“Noted, Evina.” Both Vir and Lysara responded at about the same time.
“But we do have to plan for what happens to him after we take him aboard.” Lysara quickly added. “I… do not believe it would be in his best interests to remain with us for our journey ahead. There’s a greater likelihood he would be harmed somewhere along our mission, and I would prefer not to subject someone to the sort of fate we’d set forth for ourselves.”
“I get that.” I responded. “But it’s not like we have much in the way of social services to help take care of him. Though… if we can bootstrap Addie’s road to recovery, and induct a few settlements into our little reconstruction scheme, there just might be a place for him if we push hard enough for it.”
“We’ll see what his decision is too.” Vir quickly added. “He might not be the best at making decisions right now given his… limited life experiences, but we should give him an opportunity to voice his opinions as well.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it then.” Lysara concluded, before quickly shifting gears. “A human expression, one that Vir tends to use quite often, meaning—”
“It’s quite self explanatory, Lysara.” I interjected with a small huff. “In any case, with the clone situation sorted, I assume we’re done here?”
“Yes.” Lysara nodded. “Unless there’s anything else you have in mind?”
I paused for a moment, a thought entering my head, prompting me to turn towards one of Vir’s robots. “Vir, have you had a chance to scan any of the reconstruction plans we found in the offices we searched earlier?”
“Yup! Way ahead of you there. I’ve taken the liberty of nabbing all of them, digitized and saved for posterity.” The AI paused, taking a moment to tap a finger against the robot’s head in the process. “I assume you intend on doing some light reading when we’re back on the ship?”
“Yeah, something like that.” I offered with an eager smile. “I can’t say I'm much of a leader, so I personally won’t be able to get the reconstruction efforts underway. However, I know a fair few people who just might fit that description. These plans, provided they’re actually legit, might actually be key to allowing a few of the dreamers amongst us to finally actualize those ambitions.”
“Duly noted, Evina.” Vir responded.
It was on that note, with both an underlying sense of unease, but a rekindled flame of optimism, that we finally left the facility.
I knew of course, that we’d need to meticulously study and examine the plans set forth by the old world, especially when considering exactly who had been behind them. However, the waster in me understood that there was value in anything capable of being scavenged. Because even in things designed with the most malicious of intentions in mind, there would always still be some objective practicality buried within.
After all, even evil needed to keep the lights on. What’s to say good couldn’t repurpose it for their ends?
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102 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. UNAFS Perseverance (HSR) - Shuttlecraft - 01. En Route from the New Lorisa Forests LZ to Orbit.
Lysara
A decision had been made to allow Evina to enter the cockpit first, in order to avoid making direct contact with Eslan-secondary.
She’d gone through enough as it is, and coming into contact what was effectively a perfect likeness of her closest friend, with all of the baggage of the facility attached, was not going to do her any favors.
Surprisingly, ‘first contact’ between myself and Eslan-secondary had gone reasonably well. Though Vir was quick to inform me that his rather agreeable attitude could’ve been attributed to a combination of factors. Ranging from the lack of any discernible alien features as a result of my suit, to his state of relative shock at having been thrust out of his prison.
Whatever the case was, we soon had him safely tucked away in one of the few comfortable rooms on the shuttle.
From there, we lifted off, leaving a small contingent of Vir’s forces to occupy the bunker; to both monitor Addie and ensure its compliance.
Finding myself in the cockpit once more, I found it… difficult to remain silent, even if Evina seemed to wish to retreat into herself after the events of the facility.
“Evina, if there’s anything you wish to address, I will be more than happy to—”
“There is, actually, something.” The felinor interrupted. “I get the whole deal about being the ‘chosen one’. I get that it’s just a whole farce meant to stroke the egos of whoever manages to get to the facility from the intervention group of this grand experiment. Making sure that they blindly follow whatever Addie’s pre-programmed protocols dictated them to do, by means of just filling them up with all sorts of delusions of grandeur. I get that rebuilding was the goal, and that as Addie had hinted at, this was probably just some grand plan to put us back on track to meeting the interloper again or something. Heck, the whole thing could possibly even be a long con, with the aim of tricking us into providing it aid, given how it wanted us to rebuild our capabilities.”
A hesitant pause punctuated Evina’s preamble, as she took a moment just to stare out as we breached the atmosphere and entered orbit. “But what I struggle to understand, what I can’t really wrap my head around, is exactly why the experiment had to take place in the first place?” Evina questioned emphatically. “What exactly was the goal here?” She continued, before craning her head to face my own, removing her helmet in the process. “You mentioned, quite vividly, how this whole experiment is about inheritance. You mentioned something about the long term viability of this… ‘novel neurological phenomenon, in a real world setting’. I didn’t want to address it at the time, or maybe I wasn’t clear about it before… but I wanted to ask you now, bluntly — what were you implying with that statement? Because the way it was worded, and the way Addie responded, it honestly sounds like this fundamental aspect of my biology isn’t really as fundamental or natural as I had thought it to be.”
The look in Evina’s eyes, that sense of existential loss that pierced straight into my soul, sent me back to the very first few days and weeks following the revelation of my Vuark and the artificiality of my existence.
I felt sympathy, empathy, and everything else in between as I met Evina’s eyes at that moment.
“I’m sorry.” Were the first words that left my mouth at that point. “I… I’d managed to piece it together within the facility as reality came crumbling around us, but I'd neglected to inform you of it in the heat of the moment. Granted, this is just a hypothesis, but it’s close to what is probably the truth of the matter.” I offered gently, garnering nothing but an impatient glare from the alien. This prompted me to move quicker, cutting right to the chase. “The interloper had mentioned how this planet was to be its solution to the problems plaguing the universe and the current status quo. Or, at least, that’s what it felt like it was implying at the time. It was difficult to tell given its enigmatic manner of speech. However, given it was a rogue interloper, and given just how far it had intervened in your people’s development, when coupled with the discovery of the unique biological trait that is inheritance — I’d had my suspicions as to whether or not it was all connected. I got my answer soon enough in the facility, in the form of the intervention group, the control group, and the two AI entities designed to monitor and catalog data all revolving around the viability of inheritance. Simply put, Evina… it was the facility that allowed me to put the final pieces of the puzzle together, one that for better or for worse, tentatively proves my hypothesis true.”
“That inheritance, my very being, was a grand experiment for some megalomaniacal sack of alien meat sitting idly by on the moon.” Evina surmised, finishing off my explanations for me, prompting me to nod warily in response.
“That’s the conclusion I came to, yes.” I acknowledged. “But with that said… please know that this is just a hypothesis, Evina. There’s still the matter of confirming this by performing our second interrogation with the interloper as well as—”
“It’s not a hypothesis.” Evina interjected once more. “Let’s… let’s just be clear about that. This is… this is so blatantly obvious now that you laid it all out.” She huffed out with a frustrated breath. “We have a fricking megalomaniacal alien that’s convinced it’s a god, living deep beneath our moon. We have facilities prepared for the apocalypse engineered by those it managed to indoctrinate and influence, buried beneath our world. And on that note, we also have evidence that those in the highest positions of power, were in on the grand conspiracy as well. There was even a major climactic battle within our moon base if your investigation is to be believed… and what’s more, we’re in the middle of some intergalactic space opera crap, smack dab in some deep eternal war. This… this hypothesis of yours… I’d be surprised if it wasn’t true.” The felinor continued at a breakneck pace, her eyes filled with an existential panic that only continued to grow until it reached a fever pitch.
“What’s… what’s even real anymore, Lysara?”
Comments
Willow Arkan
yay, existential crisis
