Anthony DeCosmo - Fusion

Stone concluded, “I’ve read about it time and again in the history books of my people. You are no different from my world’s Hitler or Genghis Khan, or Napoleon. You think you are superior; you think that if your race wins this challenge then you will impose your will on the others.”

The Centurian echoed, “That is the way of things. The strong survive.”

Trevor pleaded again, “No! You are doing this because you have been used! You look to Voggoth and somehow, for some reason, you see something that you think is better than what you are. And so he has used that against you. He has convinced you to fight one another with the victor promised the chance to learn what oh-so-mighty Voggoth knows of the universe. ”

“Voggoth is perfect! He is immortal. He is not confined to the physical universe!”

Trevor countered the Centurian’s claim in a shout, “He is not allowed in the physical universe! Look what happened when a child of life touched it! It was banished from this place in an instant! It has no real power, only the power you give to it!”

The children shook their heads, some violently.

“Listen to me! See! For the sake of life-see!”

Alenna threw her eyes to Trevor and asked, “What do you mean, for the sake of life?”

Trevor’s anger morphed into anguish. Sadness. Pity.

He strode slowly to Alenna, knelt, and touched a hand to her cheek.

“We-you-and I-all of us-we are the living. We are life. Voggoth is-Voggoth is death. He was never like us. He did not evolve into an immortal entity, he has always been that way. It’s his prison! He is the same now as he was at his creation. Static and dead. No evolution. No reproduction. No purpose. No challenge.”

The Duass meekly answered, “He is immortal. We can-we can become immortal, too.”

The Witiko insisted, “If only we can understand ourselves. If we can find out what makes us different-who is strongest and why.”

“Immortal,” Trevor explained, “is not better. It is our very mortality that makes us special and unique. It is our mortality that makes us strive to improve ourselves. It is what makes us want more for our children; for our next generation. Yes, you are evolved and great, but you stand on the shoulders of all of us who came first. All the steps in the process. All the stages of life. You owe it to those who came before you to cherish that life given to you. To champion life, and protect it.”

The Hivvan said, “Voggoth is a being of immense power. He can manipulate life itself.”

“Is that true? Can Voggoth do that? Or is it you letting him manipulate life. Power, is never taken, it is given. What has Voggoth been able to do without you? I suggest, nothing. He could not start this war, he could only make you start it. He cannot evolve you into beings as powerful as he, but if you let him he can change you; make you into warped, lifeless reflections of yourself. He has no life. He cannot create, he can only destroy. Because of that he envies you, to the point that he wants you destroyed.”

“Voggoth is supreme,” came the voice of the Geryon.

“No, Voggoth only has what you give him. He thrives on your arrogance and pride, on your vanity. He feeds you lies and manipulates you. He awes you with his age and makes you covet what he has even though he truly has nothing at all. He is evil. Evil itself, in every way. He enjoys inflicting suffering on the living out of his envy for that life. He is shallow and empty but projects an image of power. Yet it is all an illusion.”

The Centurian objected, “Evil? We are beyond such absolutes. There is no evil, only facts and science. Only truth that waits to be discovered.”

“You are wrong,” Trevor told them. “Evil exists, as surely as good does. I know, I have seen both.”

He glanced into Alenna’s eyes and held his hands low and palms out, still pleading.

“He has convinced you of your differences. Told you that your ‘life patterns’ are distinct. He has made you wonder if one of your ways is better than the other.”

The Witiko agreed, “Yes. To grow to our full potential we must discover why we are so different and which way is best. Throughout the universes even the most basic living creatures compete for survival. From civilizations to microbes, those entities that are superior eventually win such competition.”

The Duass added, “This challenge eliminates any variables giving each race the same point of origin in an identical environment. This challenge is structured perfectly.”

“No! Your entire premise is wrong!”

The children all spoke at once, creating a chorus of indistinguishable words that translated only as anger and contempt for such a brash suggestion from a puny being.

“You are wrong!” Trevor shouted above the chorus, silencing it. “He has convinced you that strength is to be found in war? War is easy! War is a mindless struggle that reduces us to our most basic, primitive instincts. You will find no answers in how we fight, only in why we fight. I fight for survival.”

The Centurian told Trevor, “It is not your fault. You simply cannot see the big picture. You cannot comprehend.”

“I do see the big picture. I see the truth that eludes you even now-even as it stares you in the face!”

The children grew silent yet again. Trevor burned red in frustration.

“You gave me the genetic memories of my race so that I could fight like humanity’s best soldiers and fly like mankind’s pilots and have the skills needed to rally a resistance.”

“Yes,” Alenna concurred. “It seemed a reasonable balance to the surprise and force of the initial onslaught.”

Trevor’s eyes burned into the little girl’s as he asked, “Why can I fly one of the Centurian shuttles then? Why did I understand the Witiko slave device? How come your father knew how to operate a Geryon battleship? I will wager that each recipient of the genetic memories can tell similar stories.”

The Hivvan tried to reason, “We believe the answer may lay in the manner in which the memories were collected.”

The Duass did the same, “It is possible that during their creation the memories were cross-contaminated.”

Trevor dismissed their excuses.

“No. There was no error of collection, only of time. The gift of memories you gave me contains memories from the Centurians and the Witiko because those memories come-they come from the same source.”

Eyes widened. Heads shook.

Alenna spoke in a confused tone, “What do you-what do you suggest? I do not see your meaning.”

Trevor’s fatherly voice explained, “We are not all different races but the same. We have the same genetic structure-all derived from the same basic materials, scattered around the universe.”

The Witiko refused to listen, “Your suggestion is preposterous. The differences in our life patterns is evident.”

The Geryon agreed, “Our social structures and technologies; our physical attributes all point to demonstratively different life forms. I suspect your suggestion to be a jest.”

Trevor forcefully reiterated, “If we are so different, how is it that one planet-Earth-can be perfect for all races? Because we are created from some original source in your original universe and even now that source-call it nature, call it the universe, call it God if you must-but whatever the source, it has built in protections for its children; protections against Voggoth. Protections like the canines for me; and the instincts of my people’s greatest warriors.”

Trevor put his hand first on the shoulder of the Duass, then on the shoulder of the Hivvan. He told them, “You say you evolved beyond merely the physical, then why can you not see beyond it? Because we look different you assume we must be different. Where is the evolved intellect in such short-sightedness? It serves only Voggoth’s interest for you to be so blind.”