Amy Thomson - Through Alien Eyes

Slowly, Ukatonen eased him forward in time, until his face began to change. Then he took Tomas back, embedding him in that moment of terror and anger, and plunged into the link.

It was like being tumbled into a rapid at flood time. Ukatonen was caught in a maelstrom of powerful emotions that was much more dangerous than anything intentional that Tomas could have thrown at him. He struggled to maintain his equilibrium in the midst of the turmoil. He was powerless to do anything to calm Tomas. Finally he struggled out of the link.

He sat for a moment, stunned. Then, pulling himself out of his daze, he looked at Eerin and Moki.

I need your help,” he said, holding out his arms, deep [[-r~: wn]] with shame. “He’s too strong for me. I can’t calm.

“Rest and eat, en,” Eerin said. “I found some bees; here’s honey and honeycomb.”

“A moment only,” Ukatonen told her. “He is in pain, [[r!‹d ]]we must stop it.”

“After all he and his men have done to us, en, I don’t rally care,” Eerin declared.

Ukatonen was shocked. “But, Eerin— ” Ukatonen, we’ve been sitting here for eight days while you mess around with him.” She gestured contemptuously it Tomas. “My family’s got to be worried sick. I want to £0 home!”

Ukatonen laid a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Eerin. I’ve been so absorbed with Tomas that I didn’t think about that. We’ll leave first thing tomorrow. I promise.”

“And him?” she asked, gesturing again at Tomas.

“He will come with us. But you must set aside your anger now, and help me end his pain. Unless we do that we cannot bring him into harmony with us.”

Eerin looked down. “I’m not sure that I can, en. I’m too angry about all of the things he has done to us.”

Ukatonen touched her shoulder and she looked back up at him. “I did not say that you must forget what he has done, or how angry it has made you, but for now, you must let it go for long enough to help him. Moki and I can help you shed your anger if you will let us.”

Eerin was silent for a long moment; then she nodded and held out her arms. “All right, en.”

They linked. Moki helped Ukatonen smooth away Eerin’s anger. Then they turned to Tomas.

The emotional storm had exhausted Tomas, and they were able to slow the raging turmoil. Ukatonen pulled partway out of the link, and talked Tomas through his pain, monitoring and quietly reinforcing calmness, happiness, peace, and a sense of forgiveness. Tomas slid into a sweet, peaceful dream state. Then Ukatonen reached into Tomas’s brain and smoothed away the pathways that led to that anger and violence.

Tomas woke about an hour later. He stretched, and there was a relaxed, almost sweet smile on his face. He opened his eyes, and tensed in fear. It saddened Ukatonen to see the lines reappear in the man’s face.

“Good morning,” Eerin said. “Or rather, good afternoon.”

He looked around. “Where am I?”

“In the middle of the jungle,” Eerin told him. “We’re not exactly sure which jungle, though. Are you hungry?”

Tomas nodded. “What did you do to me?” he asked. “How long have I been asleep?”

“About eight days,” Ukatonen replied. “How do you feel?”

“Different,” he said. “Better. What happened?”

“We escaped, and took you with us,” Ukatonen told him. “I needed to understand you. Your cancer is almost gone, by the way.”

“I see. And my men? My wife and family? Where are they?”

“I don’t know,” Ukatonen replied. “We put everyone to sleep in the building you were in. Unless something else happened, they should be all right.”

Tomas hung his head in silence for a few moments, his brow furrowed as though he was puzzled.

“I should be angry with you. No, wait, I am angry with you, but it”—he hesitated—“it’s different somehow. What did you do to me?”

“We helped you forget how to be angry,” Ukatonen explained.

He sat silent for a few moments, looking inward. “Yes, you have. But it was my anger— Who gave you the right to take it away?” His voice was mild, despite his words.

“Who gave you the right to kidnap us?” Eerin asked.

He shook his head. “You don’t understand.”

“None of us do,” Ukatonen said. “Even after all the work I have done on you, I still don’t understand why you have killed so many people.”

“I believe that it’s wrong to tell me how many children I can have.”

“But if we keep having children, humanity itself will die,” Eerin told him.

“And if the state had decided that you couldn’t have your daughter. What then?” Tomas shot back.

“I don’t know,” Eerin admitted. “It would have been terrible. I can’t imagine life without Mariam now.”

“And how is that different from us?” he asked. “We love children. We want to have a lot of them.”

“I would have given up having a child,” Eerin explained. “But your argument doesn’t apply. I was buying a child-right that someone wished to sell. I am not exceeding the population goals. Yes, we restrict the right to have a child, but it is restricted equally for everyone.”

“And what about this place?” Ukatonen asked. “Would you have so many children that this forest would be destroyed to feed them? Is it worth the death of a beautiful, living planet to have as many children as you wish?”

“The government has no right to tell us how many children to have,” Tomas argued.

“You’re right. It isn’t fair, but it’s necessary. But you have a choice. You can emigrate to Mars, if you want to have more children,” Eerin pointed out.

“It’s sterile and cold. You have to pay to breathe there.”

“At least you have a choice, even if it’s a hard one. Someday we’ll have Terra Nova, and room to expand.”

“In two hundred years’ time. What good is that to me? Or to my children and grandchildren and their children?”

“None,” Eerin allowed. “But it’s possible that the Tendu could help us shorten the terraforming. Or give us the ability to adapt to a living world. You have no idea of what humanity risked losing when you kidnapped us. It was stupid, short-term thinking.”

Ukatonen held up his hands. “That’s enough,” he said. “We will not achieve harmony by arguing.”

“Then how will we achieve it?” Moki asked.

“By understanding,” Ukatonen told him.

“We understand each other,” Tomas said. “We understand each other quite well. But we believe very different things. The two beliefs are diametrically opposed to each other. They do not harmonize. It is impossible.”

Ukatonen sat up straight, ears wide, amazed by Tomas’s rigidity.

“How can you not want to reach harmony?” he asked. “Is it not the goal of all things to want to reach equilibrium with the world around them?”

“I don’t want to accept what is,” Tomas said. “I’m fighting to make the world into what I want it to be.”

“How can you deny the nature of the world?” Ukatonen asked.

“Perhaps the nature of the world is not as you think it is,” Tomas replied. “Perhaps the world you see is an illusion built of your own beliefs. Perhaps belief can alter the nature of the world.”

Ukatonen listened in astonishment. “How can you believe this?” he questioned.

“Because humans have always changed the world,” Tomas said. “It’s what we do.”

Ukatonen looked at Eerin, who nodded.

“We have changed our world,” Eerin admitted, “but not always wisely or well. Usually we changed the world in response to short-term interests. Greed, if you will. But sometimes we have done so for a greater purpose. We did it to save lives, or to further a religious belief. Many people sacrificed their lives for causes that they believed in. Many others were killed because they would not believe what others wanted them to. Sometimes the attempt worked, lives were saved, wars averted, but just as often people died, or became slaves of one sort or another.”