Untitled Science Fiction Story

Introduction

I am writing this on board of the alien ship out of Earth. They put me in a cell, although it doesn’t look like what we are used to call cells on Earth. They let me write; for what, I don’t know. I don’t think anyone will read this and they have no interest on me telling anyone what I know. I don’t think I’ll see another human being again. Still, I write, if only to keep myself busy and sane, to hear my own voice as I read what I’ve just written and to know that my story is told no matter who will read it or not.
My cell is filled with books, classics, I think; and music, a television, some old movies. There is a chair and a table where I am now writing. They’ve left me some food and water. It just looks like a normal living room, with a bathroom in one corner, and I believe it is so because they wanted me to feel comfortable with the things I like: this cell looks a lot like my own house down on Earth. I call it a cell because for now I can’t leave and because I am alone. The door just disappeared after they closed it and through my window I can see my room is on an exterior wall of the ship. I can still see Earth from here despite the fact that we left two days ago. I think we are still in orbit.
I don’t know how I should start to tell what happened to me. I don’t know what is important and what is a meaningless detail. I have read many books but I am not a writer, I don’t know anything about structure or pace. Besides, it is all very fresh and recent so despite the fact that I remember the things that happened vividly, I did not have the time to structure it into any conclusions. It will just be a story that actually happened, no polish, no style attached.

The Arrival

I believe we can say that it all started on their arrival. Before that, humans lived their lives peacefully. Our History was our own, exclusive to the humans. The other planets we had found and ventured to didn’t have any advanced form of inhabitants, any civilization or culture, they just had bugs and trees. And a kind of oil that could be used in industrial production on Earth. A single drop of that oil was the equivalent to some hundred barrels of Earth oil. It was highly profitable and journeys to the newly-found solar system started about a decade ago. We were now at the stage when we were preparing to move entire construction sites to the three planets of that system in only a few months so that we could start extraction right way.
The aliens came about two years ago. It wasn’t like the Hollywood movies where they land at some important American landsite. They landed in Kazakhstan. They could speak any language they wanted to and they assumed human forms and names. They were nice as much as they had to, being, as they were, the visitors. They didn’t look much warm at first or either capable of expressing complex forms of joy or contentment, sadness or distress. Later we learned that they didn’t because they had no need for it. They wanted to communicate and make their point but they didn’t want to connect with us.
The very first reaction of the very first human beings that saw them as they came out of the odd spaceship that had landed on Earth was to think that it was a time capsule. The humans saw five ordinary men and women coming out of a ship that was built with a technology that was by then unknown to any human scientist. They were three males and two women, two of them blonde, one brunette, one read headed and one black. Their bodies were carefully chosen to be representative although they couldn’t physically send five humans that were representative of ALL the human ethnics and according to all possible physical appearances on Earth. In the weeks that followed the official announcement, some opinion groups argued that it was inconsiderate, for instance, to send only one black or that the women were outnumbered or that there were no Asians on board. Back then I thought it was a very poor welcome to the aliens, accusing them of racism straight away but then again it was useful for them to learn from the beginning that they can’t please every human being on this planet. At least not at once.
As they opened the door of their small spaceship and came out into this world, their hands stretched forward or up to the skies as if to say “we come in peace”, their first words were, in Kazakh, something like: “Good morning, we are pleased to have arrived safely. Nice meeting you.”
Some weeks of physical and psychological tests followed – again it wasn’t, in my opinion, the best way to welcome them but they seemed to be expecting all of that – and about one month and a half later, the official announcement was made live on every television and internet channel on Earth. Theories, rumors and conspiracies were already surfacing from “day one” – as we called it later – but they were very much underground, recipes for nut jobs and fruitcakes. But it was true, after all. Nut jobs and fruitcakes were very proud that they were right in the first place but slightly disarmed for the fact they were right for – officially – the first time in History. Now everyone believed them; they became ordinary journalists reporting a fact or were invited to join panels of scientists and specialists on television so they lost their aura. Only political conspiracy buffs maintained their underground influence.
Although speculation arose everywhere in the media conspiracy theories didn’t get much air time because this was not like the movies; this time we could just ask the aliens why they were here. And they were very honest and straightforward: they were here to tell us to stay where we were.

The Negotiations

Apparently the planets we had found ten years ago were supposed to be off-limits. There was an “intergalactic” non-written convention that said that. The planets were rich not only in the oil we knew and wanted to extract but also in very basic forms of life that were developing at a rapid stage (rapid as to the average speed of these things; as we know on Earth it took us millions of years; so to be able to observe changes in entire species in a matter of centuries is a magnificent breakthrough). Were we to go there and extract their vital energy off their soil we could risk their development and the future of an entire species.
It was not easy to convince the humans that we needed to stay away from those planets. Environmentalists were right on board. Scientists wanted to help at analyzing and processing the information from the planet and hoped the aliens would share their knowledge base with us. Engineers, economists and politicians were outraged. Their investments – that were in the area of trillions, all combined – were now at a very serious risk.
The aliens did what we would call the right thing. They had a huge database of knowledge about the humans, from social interactions to language skills, political relations and governments. They knew they needed an international forum in order to make their point. They went to the UN.
It took them only a few months to reach the right people, which was very fast considering the usual time it takes for someone to address the General Assembly. But they did it. Countries that were not members of the UN were invited to join the Assembly on “special reasons that concerned all of mankind” and humanity was astonishingly united to hear what these beings had to say. After that, whether we were to cooperate with them or not, that was an entirely different story. By then, we were just listening and we couldn’t promise anything else.
They chose one of them to be their representative and their speaker. They chose the blonde male, Vincent, who spoke with a pristine British accent that gave him a certain aura of confidence and just the right dose of arrogance that was needed to talk to the representatives of mankind as a whole. I was working as head of security at the UN at that point so I had the pleasure of meeting him. He was a remarkable character. He was nice but distant. It was the natural arrogance and superiority of someone who is at a development stage that is light-years ahead of ours. But he also had the personality of an elementary school teacher: he wanted to inform us; he wanted to let us know.
I met him at the security briefing. They were all there. We had received several threats on their lives and safety – as usual – but they didn’t seem to worry. Most of them didn’t listen to me at all. Vincent was attentive the whole time, smiling at me and encouraging me to go on. He thanked me afterwards while all the other aliens were talking to each other in a corner of the room. He came to me and said in that magnificent accent of his:
“John, that is your name right? I hope you don’t mind me calling you just John… I feel I need to honestly thank you for everything you’ve been doing for us – for our safety – in the last few days.”
I didn’t know what to answer. I was glad he was recognizing my cares and worries. But I thought I’d better be professional about it:
“Yes, Mr. Vincent, it is my job. I am only doing my job.”
He smiled. He had the most cryptic smile I had ever seen. It seemed very honest and sympathetic but it showed that, deep down, his mind was racing. He reminded me of the Terminator movies where the machine has a set of possibilities of dialogue. It was as if his smile was simply hiding the fact that he was thinking: “Option 1: answer politely. Option 2: terminate.” Or maybe I just watched too many movies…

The Speech

“Ladies and gentlemen. Members of the General Assembly. Madam Chairwoman. Misters and Madam Presidents. Your Royal Highnesses. Madam Empress.
I am honored to be here at this important stage of your planet’s History as I believe it is fair to say that I and my colleagues are now, most humbly, a part of it. My people have a tendency to be short and concise. Our message is clear. Your exploration of what you call “New Earths” is a danger to the survival of several species on those planets. It was explained in accurate details to the scientists of your several nations and countries, I am sure they passed the message along to your governments. And it is my understanding, if only by my coming here, that you are willing to listen.
You could say we are simply on a mission to protect species and entities that are less developed than us yet most promisingly developing rapidly into new stages of natural evolution. It is easy to appeal to scientific minds: we presented them the opportunity of studying those species and those planets and we told them that their survival is of deep importance to the very tissue of the universe – since we can never know what developed and conscious minds will they evolve into. Now, politicians and economists are harder to convince. We cannot offer you an alternative site to explore. We cannot pay you to stay away from those planets.
So we appeal to what we know is probably your best feature as humans: your consciousness. I believe you pride yourself on taking decisions not only rationally but also taking into account your emotions and feelings. It is not at all difficult for us to understand that, though it is impossible for us to share them. And that is why we appeal to it. Because we know how much those feelings mean to you, to your identity as humans, as people.
You are now faced with the opportunity to make a decision that will most likely have an effect in the development – that is not only physical but potentially psychological – of entire new species. You have to ask yourselves: are you willing to destroy other beings’ evolutions solely to guarantee your own survival? Can you, as human beings, live with that? I hope you do ask yourselves that as I hope you consider our message wisely and unselfishly.
That is all. Thank you very much. Have a nice day.”



The Reactions

Vincent had struck a chord. They knew what they were doing; they were appealing to what we treasured the most: our consciousness. Despite the initial reactions against his message, people were puzzled and it got them thinking. For about a year and a half politicians continued on stating that the human race needed that oil. Economists continued to emphasize on the financial importance of such discovery, saying that the advantages of extracting the oil would be equally shared by all human kind. But then, public opinion stepped in and made their part. People everywhere started demanding that politicians and people in power would reconsider. It took a while and it took Vincent many trips around the globe but finally they made it. A declaration was made and signed by every government on Earth: we solemnly swore to abandon the project.
During those eighteen moths the aliens stayed in a hotel in New York. Well, not all the aliens. Vincent, their speaker and the one that was more social oriented, he stayed in my apartment in NYC. We started talking more often with all his visits to the UN, with me being the chief responsible for coordinating their security, and we became friends. Good friends, I may say. He stayed with me while he was in NY, while he wasn’t away in his mission all over the world. He travelled every single country in the world for over a year. He was the typical tourist: he visited the countries, he spoke with the people, he took pictures, he ate the food, learned a bit of the language and he brought souvenirs. He brought them back to my apartment - which became like a museum dedicated to ethnology – and it became the place he learned to call his base on this planet, his home away from home.
He was in fact one of the most interesting fellows I had ever met in my entire life. He was eager and interested in learning our ways, our different cultures, our music, our food, our technology, our History, our systems of communications between peoples and between nations but mostly between common people in their everyday life. He told me very few things about his planet and his Home but he told me many other things about other planets he had visited. Far-off places in the galaxy, odd species, odd solar systems. I knew very little about astronomy but I learned much with him while he stayed at my place. I bought him a map of the sky, like those ones that come in astronomy books, and a set of markers of different colors that he used to draw a circle around the places he’d been, connecting them as they were railways on a map. I could see he was the typical tourist only on an intergalactic scale. Every time I asked him about his home though, he would say that it wasn’t very interesting and that he couldn’t explain in ways I could fully understand so he always changed the subject to some other planet he had seen somewhere else or he would simply change the subject by asking something about Earth and the humans.

The Conversation

Then it finally came the day when they had to leave our planet. The US government asked to move their ship to Cape Canaveral. Since our country wasn’t the one they landed on, at least it would be the last country they set foot on before leaving. The night before their departure I stayed with Vincent on his hotel room – he had asked my superiors to bring me to Florida, as a “body guard” and as a friend – and we ordered some drinks so we could have a proper goodbye party. His colleagues and fellow aliens were downstairs in some dinner party with fancy and important people. They didn’t mingle at all throughout the time they were on Earth so I could imagine them at the corner of the room drinking silently while everyone else was having their pictures taken for the magazines.
Because Vincent and I were drinking I don’t remember much of the conversation we were having until the part where I asked him:
“So, now that you’re leaving, where are you planning to go next?”
I remember he looked confuse, as if he didn’t know if he wanted to answer that, so I thought it would be top secret and told him I understood if he wasn’t allowed to tell me. He thought about it for a while, with a very serious expression on his face, the most serious I had ever seen him and then he opened the door to the corridor to make sure there wasn’t anyone listening. Then he closed the door and answered my question:
“We are going to the New Earths system.”
I didn’t understand why he had to close the door to say that so I said:
“Ok, I see… are you going to study and observe the species there?”
He got more concerned and his tone got more serious. He was still doubting if this was the right thing to do when he said:
“No, John, we are going to start drilling and extract the oil.”
I was puzzled. I didn’t understand right away what he was saying, it didn’t make any sense to me. The whole purpose of their visit was to stop us from going there because of the rare species that lived on those planets and that were in danger were we to extract the oil... and then, it hit me: “The whole purpose of their visit was to stop us from going there…”
I had so many questions. For some reason, I didn’t feel angry or mad at him only a bit betrayed and confused. He was standing in front of me within the same human form I had always known him in; he was my friend, the one I had learned to love as if he were human, as a stranger from a far off country with whom I shared so much of my culture, to whom I had shown my town, my country and my fellow citizens. And now, though it all made perfect and rational sense, I had so many questions…
He understood he was going to have to explain. He sat down and he lost all his apprehension. He became a teacher or a parent who had to explain a difficult matter to a child. He put on his sympathetic smile and he looked at me waiting, giving me the time to digest it all, and waiting for me to ask. I knew I could ask anything, but the only thing that came out was:
“Why?”
Now that I think of it, I suppose “Why?” is the most important and recurrent question humans ask. And now I had the chance to talk to a “superior being” and ask directly for the reasons of his actions. I understood the importance of it, I understood I was the only person on Earth who had access to this information, so I took a deep breath and put on my most respectful tone of voice, as if talking to a god of some sort, and asked again:
“Why?”
It was a vague question, I knew it. But he understood.
“We had to make sure you wouldn’t go there. We had to make sure you would listen. We had to reason with you in order to accomplish our mission.”
He knew I, of all people, would understand if he talked in those terms, about a “mission”. He knew I was a professional specialized in “missions”. But it didn’t make it any easier for me. My next question didn’t make much sense either:
“Please be honest with me; I think I deserve an honest answer – there isn’t any hope for us, is it?”
“Look, John, you are an extraordinary race. You are tremendously gifted and you are capable of such generous acts that sometimes you even put your own interests behind everyone else’s so …”
He was lying, I could tell.
“I asked for honesty, so please cut the bullshit!”
I was feeling my anger rise, all of the anger I knew was justifiable in someone who felt as betrayed as I did then.
But he calmly replied:
“Right. No, the answer is no. There is nothing you can do.”
I felt myself going increasingly mad. I took a deep breath and considered punching him, stabbing him, insulting him. But then I realized I should keep things inside a certain logic; I’d just go on talking reasonably with him. After all, he was answering all my questions. I couldn’t understand why he was telling me this, why he was being honest after all this time since he was leaving in the morning and he had no apparent obligation to tell me all this.
Also I could not understand why they came at this time, at this moment on this planet’s evolution, when there were times in our History where we could have used an alien “invasion” to unite us. Everything seemed pretty much out of place. Then one thing made sense to me, one thing it had been bothering me since they landed but that I could not formulate before. They were so developed, so technologically advanced and yet it was the first time they made contact.
“Why now?” I asked him. “Why didn’t you come to us sooner?”
“We’ve been watching you, you know? But before this point you did not pose a threat to us. You did not venture into outer space in search for new planets to harvest. You must understand, John, that we are highly practical and pragmatic in our actions. We think in terms of advantages and disadvantages to our own species. And before, you were none. Look, we have absolutely no problem with you dying or killing each other or killing other species on this planet. This is your planet. We have the same thing you have here; I believe you call it non-interference. Whatever is your business, it is your business. Now, when you start moving camp to a planet that is of OUR own interest, then we had to act, of course. It posed a threat to our own selfish – I admit to that - interests. You understand that, don’t you, John?”
“Yes, I believe I understand your reasons, though they seem very inhumane.”
“Well” said Vincent “that word is of your species’ exclusivity. We really know nothing of that.”
He was right. And that was all very good and reasonable but I couldn’t understand why they lied to us so I said:
“Yes, of course. What I do not understand, though, is your coming to us with your moralistic speech about preservation and responsibility. Why would a very practical and pragmatic species like yourselves use such words to keep us away from planets where you only have financial interests?”
“That question surprises me, John, coming from you. I thought you would have understood by now… The thing is we had to use something that you would ALL understand, that you would all relate to. Consciousness, regardless of what some people might think, is still the thing that bonds you, that differentiates you from other species, is it not? Look at it this way: we considered the more opportunistic approach. But think of it, John, what could we possibly offer you in exchange? Alternative planets – that are of no interest to us anymore – are way too far, you could never reach them with your technology. Money, of course, would be impossible to convert from our currency to yours, since we don’t have a currency per se – I will not explain to you the intricacies of our financial system, it would take years and give you a massive headache, possibly a stroke – and besides, you know better than I do that things are not of the same value to different people. A goat would be of more service to a rural spirit than a Ferrari and I don’t see what service a business man in a big city could get from a goat. That came out wrong… I’m sensing that that could be interpreted as a joke but believe me; I had no intention of being less than serious in my analogy.
We thought about using you as a work force but I’m afraid slave work based on oppression is, how do you say? Out of fashion. Mind control would be great but we didn’t perfect the technology yet so using you as labor without the mindset to go with it is like having a computer without the software. Besides, we have stronger bodies than yours already in use and they’re paid. They would be very angry thinking they could be out of work, we would have a mutiny.
And there was of course the idea of a full-blown invasion. I am sorry to disappoint you, John, but contrarily to what some of your scientists infer, superior beings are not always peaceful. I’ve met such a case, it’s true, in one of my journeys through space. A very interesting race indeed, but very feeble. Their philosophy was amazing and they actually managed to hold on to it in order to stay safe from themselves for millennia, living peacefully and quietly in their so-called monasteries in a corner of the universe. They just didn’t anticipate a danger from the outside, being invaded and all. The best way to fight pacifism still is, as I found with those beings, an aggressive invasion that cuts through peoples’ wills and passions. Even the most pacifist people get confused when they are faced with a situation where they have to fight to survive, which is an exercise they never had to worry about before and obviously a contradiction in terms, as you say, because…
I am digressing, John… I’ve asked you before, do stop me when I do this, my sensor is always a bit late.” Vincent tapped himself on the side of his head, in a manner that was supposed to get his “sensor”, as he called it, working but that came out like I was in the middle of a cartoon from the 1940s’. “Well, carrying on, where was I?”
“You were considering invading us…”
“Oh yes! Some of our ‘experts’, as you would call them, did consider that. We disagreed a lot about that, there were many meetings and lobbying in order to convince people that were supporters of an early invasion. But we managed that. We decided to appeal to your softer side at first. And it worked!
I have to be honest with you John, I was a firm supporter of the ‘invade first, ask questions later’ methodology and even I had to secede. At first, we had very little expectations that we could convince you. Our practical side made us think that we would lose so much - financially speaking, that is - wasting resources on something we could not know for sure if it would work. And even I was convinced in one of my first visits to this beautiful planet of yours. Gosh, you are so gullible, aren’t you? Just a quick look at your History and anyone can see how easy it is to manipulate you, to mold you, to make you believe in something even if it is contrary to what you used to believe before. There is one thing I still do not understand about your species, John. And I don’t think you or any of your kind could explain it to me. Your contradictions, John. It is very difficult for us to rationally understand something that seems so irrational to us. For instance, how can you pride on being an individual and act as a mass? How can you brag about having one brain, one mind, one consciousness and then run towards the same emergency exit when there’s a fire? How do you explain socialization and communal coherency in a planet like yours where your very natural and animalistic ways should simply teach you that it should be “every man for himself”? And more importantly, how the hell did you manage to survive all this time?”
I didn’t know what to say. Those ideas weren’t new to me, it was like he knew me so well from our living together for so long that was reading my mind and using my own words, expressing worries I never told him about, worries I wouldn’t even share with my psychiatrist. I had no answer for him.

Going Home

As Vincent got up on his chair I saw that the sun was rising outside the window. I looked at the clock and I saw that it as now 6 o’clock. Vincent and the other aliens had to be on their ship by 8, preparing their things to go. I didn’t know what to do next. I could think of no way of telling everyone else the truth and I could think of no good reason to do that. They were leaving in a few hours. We would stay. Their mission was accomplished and they would go on drilling wherever they felt like it. Life would go on peacefully on earth as life goes on naturally and peacefully when a visitor leaves your house. You say your goodbyes, you take them to the station or put them in a cab and you close the pull-out bed on the living room. I had a feeling that these visitors wouldn’t write after they left our home.
As I looked up after a few pensive minutes of staring at the floor, Vincent had gone to the corner of the room and was now giving me one last glass of whiskey. I sure needed it. I took it, raised it and said a much ironic “Cheers” to my good friend Vincent. I drank it all and laid back on the sofa. I fell asleep a few minutes later.
I woke up in this place, this ship, lying on a bed. It was a strange feeling because I couldn’t remember getting here. Then there was a knock on the door, it opened and Vincent was on the other side of it. He came in and closed the door behind him. I asked him where we were.
“We are on board of our ship. I hope you like your room. Our trip won’t be long, with our technology and all. We are going to the New Earths system, as I told you before. We have some bases in one of the moons there that we kept hidden from you and your telescopes and we are going to tell our colleagues there that the mission went according to plan. Then they’ll move to the planet and start drilling. And we’ll go back to our own planet.” He smiled to me and then said “See, John? Now you’ll finally meet our planet.”
I turned on the bed to face the wall. I saw no point of talking to him, I felt like a prisoner being taken against my will and without much consideration. I cooked up every sort of response in my head, like asking him to stay or demand that they would take me back to my house.
“Why the hell did you bring me along? Am I some specimen that you’re bringing back to your planet? Am I an experiment?”
“In a way, yes. We’ll study you but we won’t dissect you, don’t worry. You will be our guest as we were your guests while we were on Earth. I learned many things about you while I was there and now it’s your turn, now it’s your chance. Of course, you will also teach the inhabitants of my planet, better than I could by simply reproducing what I learned from you; but I have a feeling will be learning much, much more about us. You’ll see how we live and you’ll live like one of us. Think about it Vincent: we are so much more developed than you are! This is a blessing for you!”
I had to laugh at this, at his superiority. I was used to it, to his mild arrogance, but this was very odd, even to me. This conversation became then pretty ironic and bizarre when I asked him:
“Is this some kind of civilization voyage then? You abduct me to take me to the real center of civilization and then you teach me, you make me smarter than I ever thought I would be? And I have to thank you for that?”
“Yes, John! You got it, that’s exactly that! Oh… wait… I sense you were being ironic there…”
“Yes, I was! Of course I was! Do you have any idea how confusing this all is? To suddenly realize that I am being taken by beings that are supposedly superior to me to a different place, a whole different planet, so you can teach me? Do you realize that we humans have been repudiating and trying to forget that we did this to ourselves and to “inferior” animals throughout History? Didn’t our History teach you anything?!”
“Yes, John, I believe I understand what you’re saying. But there is nothing I can do now. Please understand that I chose you because you are the one I knew best, because you are the one I talked to more frequently. And please understand that this is the best for you.”
I knew the question I was going to ask afterwards was stupid and irrational from the moment I thought it up in my brain. But I asked it anyway:
“And all we’ve talked, all we’ve shared, didn’t it make you change your mind? The fact that we were friends… that alone… didn’t it make you…?”
“Well, John, let me tell you one thing then… and I’ll just be blunt ok? That doesn’t make any sense to me. We are practical and rational people, I told you. I took you on for “scientific” reasons, if you like. I chose you specifically because you were “closer”. It makes no sense that I would have chosen you because I’m your friend. Let’s not be hypocritical here. That would be highly sentimentalist and we both know we are not like that. I’m guessing you humans would like to see that scene playing out, as in one of those amazing movies about aliens you watch. I can see the title: The Human Who Thought the Aliens how to Feel and Love! That, my friend, is pure science-fiction. I’m sorry.”
“Yes, of course…”
I wasn’t disappointed. I had known it all along…
He started to say his goodbyes:
“John, I have to go now. Much to do, I’m afraid. The ship won’t drive itself.”
But I had one more question, one that was burning me for some reason I couldn’t explain:
“Vincent, may I ask one more thing before you go?”
“Yes, John, of course. Go ahead.”
“What happened to that peaceful people you met? Those seemed pretty interesting and advanced to me. You said you invaded them but what happened after that?”
“Oh… the same thing as with every other people we met and that were of no use too us afterwards. We destroyed them. They all died.”
I turned on my bed, away from the wall. I didn’t understand, I wanted to ask him why, why would they kill them, what threat could those peaceful beings possibly pose to these aliens? But he was leaving and I saw he was smiling, very peacefully, very honestly, as he walked out the door that was now opened.

Vincent had left me. I got up and explored the room. I looked out of the window to see Earth, from the very first time from above. It wasn’t as beautiful as they say. Maybe I wasn’t in the best conditions to appreciate its beauty since I was being taken against my will. Or maybe it was because deep down I was desolate and nothing, not even looking down on Earth with all its masses of land and water and the clouds in the skies, could make me feel better about myself or about what I had experienced in the last moments.
I saw that we were still in orbit. I saw this desk, looking over to the window, and the papers and I sat down writing. I don’t know when we’ll leave and I don’t know how long it will take. I must admit I am curious to see other planets, to get into a new skin. I realize I am being given an opportunity that no other human has ever had: I’ll get to be other thing than a human. It is somewhat ironic that, while in moments of deep depression, I asked so much to be able to disappear, be invisible, “shed my skin” or be someone other than myself. The irony is that now that I got my wish ,I don’t really know what to think of it or if I really want it after all. In a way I’m peaceful, I’m quiet though slightly anxious while anticipating my future. I’m going on an adventure no one else has gone before. I wonder if the Earth I know will change too much when I’m gone and if I’ll ever be able to come back?

The moment I asked this, I got my answer. It was as if some god had heard me. I looked out of the window and I realized we were moving away from the Earth, flying in space. I had a feeling it would be like in those science-fiction movies where ships go through a wormhole in order to travel faster through longer distances. In a way it was like that. The stars began to disappear around us and there was a moment, a fragment of time before our own ship “disappeared” and “appeared” somewhere else, at some other point of the galaxy. And the last thing, the very last thing I saw before that fragment of time when we were propelled to another place in the universe, was the Earth exploding before my eyes. For no apparent good reason, the aliens had blown it to pieces. We were just one more colored dot in Vincent’s map of the skies that had disappeared. And I, of all people, had lived to tell the story.