Overlap ~ The Other Side

Chapter 011: We Only Get One

Chapter Theme Music: Wintery Night ~ Derek Fiechter (Mists of Ice)

<02/28/149,565 {Avion 148} - 15:45 | Corral Position, Genosis, Altiri Sector Space>
<Karnak to ACS414 Date Equivalent: 02/28/2009>

"I beg of you, Lumina. Please do not drag out our collective failures with your insane jokes." Derria spoke to us directly, as she and a few others had teleported into my ship to discuss what we already knew by now.

"And I beg of you, to not take the words I say to you as lightly as one would in a jest." Part of what she said was not arguable, even to me. We all spent a few years scanning all places of the south, and while we surely did not study more than two percent of the entire local zone populations, it was spread out enough and long enough to get a basic picture to the question I presented long ago. I've already let everyone know I ceased giving the mission significance a while ago, though here we are circling the same issue.

So I began again, certain as I was to do what I had to do. "This very situation is unlike anything we've faced before. I know what I'm asking from all of us, what it would mean... You must understand that I cannot turn a blind eye to someone so innocent, suffering in heart too much to bear." My target, my person of interest who I had been watching grow up passively for years was still the center of my mind, the center of my focus. I've watched him long enough to know that his entire future is soon to be doomed, if nobody intervenes in his life and helps him turn it around.

Fionne was here with us as well, speaking her voice while everyone on their respective ships listened with their minds. "This is by far the most unlike you I've ever witnessed Lumina. Nothing you say is making any sense. I understand the situation you present to represent for this one human, but it is a situation that happens far more often than most are led to believe."

"Fionne is right," Sherika assisted. "Most of the humans we do see are so messed up or broken, that those who truly are innocent on that world wind up the same or in a worse position. Sad as it may be, we have seen this happen before directly, more times than I care to count. Why now would this one human be any different?"

I wanted to thank Fionne and Sherika for understanding at the very least that the aspects of this one human's uniqueness had little to do with the obvious and more alerting factor, but Hurma was not so understanding, and she interrupted all of us in person to remind us of this one fact. "All of you are forgetting the bigger picture in this problem. Costs for all of us aside, this Reed you have become fond of is nothing more than a putrid, disgusting heathen! His age matters not! All who are male in that world will turn out to become a heathen; it is bred into their genetics."

Standing my ground cautiously, I had to nod my head in front of Hurma, forgiving her overwhelming anger and hatred for any and all men which we all share. "It should be obvious to you by now that I have judged him to be totally free of all heathenism influences. However, I'm afraid that if something about his situation is not changed soon, all of that outside influence will eventually affect him."

"Then how can he of all people be any different to the billions of heathens already there? He is no exception. All heathens are the same! There is no such thing as an innocent male."

I knew this wasn't going to be easy. Half of everyone didn't even take my presentation or plea seriously at first. What I'm asking everyone to help me with is more than tough; it's practically impossible! There is only one way I can think of to help Reed out of his dire situation, to prevent him from becoming someone he we will later regret. If I'm ever to talk to him or befriend this unique soul, the only way I can do that is to deliver him a purge, activating his Cora sector and giving him the power of limited telepathy, between his world and ours. "You're wrong about this time Hurma. I've paid close and careful attention to his character. I'm sure I've never met a soul like his before. His own self-awareness and insightfulness to the world around him shields him from many toxic influences that society trades around."