Original Design

by William Latoria

  Blackshade watched the two teams of five Omegas fly down the court, the Omega dribbling the ball was keeping it just outside its defender’s reach. When the Omega went to shoot the ball, three opposing Omegas jumped up to block the shot, sending the ball out of bounds. Grins and compliments were given to all involved, before one of them retrieved the ball, and they repeated the process. They were good in his opinion, and he wondered what basketball fans would think if they could see what he was seeing.

  Tremendous joined him at the side of the court, “You are a good teacher, Blackshade. I think this is a historic moment for our race.”

  Blackshade, thinking Tremendous was joking with him, decided to play along, “Oh yeah? Is that because of the record time it took for your people to master a game that humans spend a life time to achieve?”

  Tremendous looked at him, startled, “No. Not at all.” it answered, almost sadly, “It is historic, because this is the first time an Omega creation has taught us anything. Who knew that competing against each other like this would be so engaging?”

  Blackshade made a mental note to not use sarcasm with the Omegas anymore. It was always lost on them. Before he could continue the conversation, however, Notes entered the room.

  “Tremendous, I am here, as you requested.” the scrawny Omega announced as it joined them.

  Tremendous turned its head to look at Notes. The Omega leader acknowledged the researcher with a nod, “Good. Excellent timing. I take it you have been following our conversation?”

  Notes nodded, Blackshade wasn’t sure, but he thought Notes looked nervous, “Of course. As a lead researcher on the human conundrum, it is my business to pay attention to all things relating to them.” it explained. Notes looked down at him and shot him a winning smile. The Omega’s feminine facial features made the gesture look motherly, but there was something missing about the expression that made it feel almost, fake. Although, he didn’t believe for a moment that Notes had anything but the purest of intentions toward humanity, there was something…off… about its gesture.

  “Good afternoon, Blackshade!” Notes said, still smiling brightly, “Am I saying that right? Good afternoon? That is a proper greeting amongst friends, correct?”

  Blackshade couldn’t have stopped the smile from spreading across his face if he had wanted to, “Yes, provided that it is actually the afternoon, that is a perfectly proper greeting amongst friends.” he answered.

  Notes’ smile dimmed a little, “Your preferred greeting changes dependent on the time of day?”

  Now Blackshade laughed, “Well, it depends how formal, or informal you want to be with your greeting. ‘Hello’ is usually the neutral and most used greeting, both formally and informally. As for ‘good afternoon’, well, that’s only appropriate for the part of the day we classify as the afternoon. Typically, that’s between the hours of 1200 and 1800. Between the hours of 1800 and 0600, people typically greet each other with, ‘good evening’, and between the hours of 0600 and 1200, we greet each other with a simple, ‘good morning’.” he explained as best he could, “Again, it’s all dependent on how formal or informal you wish to be.”

  Notes’ tapped at a wall and pulled a disc from it that resembled the one he had seen in its possession the first time they met. As Notes held the disc in one hand, its other hand frantically tapped at the surface of the disc. Blackshade assumed Notes was taking, well…. notes, and did not interrupt. He did not have to wait long.

  “Thank you for that information, Blackshade, I will add all of it to my findings.” the Omega researcher said gratefully. It put the disc against the wall, giving Blackshade a great view of it melting back into it.

  “I have a theory on why humans are competitive with each other in most aspects of their lives, but it is only a theory. I will have my team study my notion in order to give it credence.” Notes said.

  “What is your theory?” Tremendous asked, interested. The Omega leader was still intently watching the basketball game, if Blackshade didn’t know any better, he would have thought that Tremendous wanted to join them on the court.

  “When humans were first created, they were simple machines, used to gather useful resources from conquered planets. We would leave thousands of them on these harvest worlds for dozens of cycles so that they could complete their tasks. It was discovered that, as desirable resources became more and more scarce on the planet they were scavenging, the humans would occasionally steal from each other’s caches and add them to their own. There was also an anomaly discovered that showed that the humans that had the largest cache of resources were innately deferred to when we returned to the planet to collect what they had harvested.” Notes explained. As the scrawny Omega got deeper into its explanation, it’s story seemed to take on a life of its own, “The humans would present their collections to the arriving Omegas in order, from the greatest cache, to the most minimal accumulation. This was intentional, as the largest concentrations of resources were gathered by us first, in case we had to leave the planet quickly due to an attack or an unforeseen circumstance.” Notes explained. It gave a meaningful look toward Tremendous, “You will recall the incident on Okcollatovineus.”

  Tremendous’ face darkened as it clearly became angry, “I do. I understand your meaning.”

  Notes was silent as both of the Omegas suddenly seemed to be battling with their own inner demons. Notes looked upset, while Tremendous looked close to fury. After what felt an awkwardly long time, Blackshade spoke up.

  “I don’t mean to be insensitive, but what happened on Okcollatovineus?” he asked.

  Notes looked alarmed at the question and shot Tremendous a worried look, but it seemed to be unwarranted because when Tremendous spoke, it did so calmly, albeit with a heavily controlled tone to its voice.

  “It is in your programming to be curious, Blackshade, so I take no offense to your question.” it responded. The Omega leader closed its eyes and sighed heavily before continuing, “You have been honest with us, so it is only fair that we are honest with you. Okcollatovineus was the designation of a planet we conquered eons ago. It was one of many planets we had dispatched humanity to, in order to harvest resources during that time. Your kind had been on the planet for many cycles, but it was a smaller planet so it did not take long for your people to gather everything of value. We received your retrieval signal and a fleet was dispatched to collect you and the resources from the planet. It took us a few cycles to reach Okcollatovineus, but when we did, everything was as it should have been. Mountains of resources had been collected and awaited us in proper order on the planet’s surface. Back then, we had no protocol for collection, so our ships descended onto the planet in order to allow for the humans to bring their yields on board. Everything was going as efficiently as could be expected, and we were close to completion, when the first super volcano erupted on the planet. Geological anomalies were uncommon, but not a concern for us at the time, so it went largely ignored by the leaders of the ships.” Tremendous paused here as a spasm of anger appeared to wash over it. Blackshade said nothing, too intrigued to hazard a guess at what happened next, and too scared to pose a question. He waited patiently for Tremendous to continue.

  “The treacherous, disgusting, elf-like race that had inhabited the planet were allies of the Kritchet. We found their colony during a routine sweep of the system and engaged them in accordance with our war regulations. We wiped them off the planet, allowing only those that surrendered to flee. What we didn’t know or expect was that they would set a trap for us using the planet.” Tremendous told him, its anger now seeping into its words, “Those Fuinless, elf worshipers had set a bomb in the planet’s core. They knew of our human machines and knew that they would be deployed to the planet after we had conquered it. They also knew of the beacon the machines would send out in order to let us know the resources were ready to be picked up. So they set their bomb to arm when your signal was sent, and they set it to detonate once a specific amount of resources had been remove
d from the planet. The elf worshippers knew that our ships would be slower due to the density of the collected resources and that by the time we realized what was happening, it would be too late.” Tremendous paused here again, its anger overwhelming it. It closed its eyes and squeezed its hands into fists. This time, Blackshade did back up a few steps.

  He looked at Notes for a clue on what to do, but when he saw the look on the researcher’s face, he knew there would be no help from that end. Its face was contorted in a parody of both grief and hatred. It seemed this was a difficult subject for the Omegas, and he was beginning to regret asking about it. He was toying with saying as much when Tremendous began talking again.

  “The super volcano’s eruption was the first sign that something was wrong, but we ignored it, due to our confidence in our technology. When the third and fourth eruption presented themselves, we performed an active scan, which detonated the bomb. Evacuation was ordered immediately, but it was far too late. My ship and three others rode the blast wave off the planet, and although our ships were heavily damaged, we survived. Four other ships that were there were not as skilled, or as lucky, and were destroyed with the planet. Thousands of Omegas lost their lives, and the loss of so many ships and resources hurt us for decades.”

  Blackshade stayed silent after Tremendous finished its explanation. He had never experienced a loss like that, and wondered if Tremendous was in charge at the time or not. Also, he was very confused by Tremendous’ comparison to the aliens that had tricked them as, ‘elf-like’ and ‘elf worshippers’. What did it mean by that? Clearly, it was some sort of insult, possibly even a racial slur, but to refer to a race negatively as elves confused him completely. Elves were, as far as he knew, fictional beings created by some ancient story teller centuries ago. Was Tremendous saying that elves were in fact, real!? Could that be possible? He had no idea, but judging by the demeanor of the Omega leader, and the obvious hatred it harbored for elves, he decided it was not the right time to broach the subject. There was another long pause as Tremendous wrestled with whatever demons that were currently plaguing it, and Blackshade wasn’t sure if he should say something or not. Thankfully, Notes broke the silence by picking up where it’s leader had left off.

  “Yes, and because of that incident, we implemented new protocols to ensure we collected the highest concentrations of gathered resources from the humans. We also implemented new protocols to scan the planets we had conquered to ensure no further treachery could happen to us.” Notes explained. Blackshade could tell the researcher was upset, but was impressed by how it continued with the explanation, even though it clearly didn’t want to. The Omega’s sense of duty was very impressive.

  “So, we implemented new protocols and when it came time to upload the gathered resources and humans into our ships, the humans that collected the most were always the first ones to board and had their choice of cases to return to. The newest and best cases always went to the humans that had collected the most, and the smaller, or older cases always went to the humans that collected the least. Thanks to the humans’ adaptability protocols and other such programming, many theorized that we had inadvertently given the humans a hierarchy structure that gave them a sort of leadership amongst each other, as well as an unexpected motivation. At the time, there were plans to study this phenomenon, but due to the war, and various other circumstances, the studies never occurred. Then humans were deemed obsolete and deposited here for biodegradation.” Notes finished apologetically, “I am sorry, Blackshade, but, it is a possibility that your competitive nature is an unforeseen side effect for our need to be efficient. What your species experiences now, is the evolved sense of duty to collect as much as you can in order to be the first ones processed by us. It is intriguing how this protocol has changed with your metamorphosis into the species you are now, but I do not think it is anything to be concerned about.”

  Blackshade followed Notes’ explanation perfectly and found he readily agreed with it. Humans were competitive because they had learned to be so during their origins, when obtaining the biggest haul meant getting the best living situation after they went home. In that situation, it was literally just the nicest case to be stored in. Now, it was still about being the best at something in order to have the best living situation you could attain, but the rules had become more complicated as the species evolved. Blackshade saw the irony that all of human ambition boiled down to the subconscious need to have the best case. Then something else occurred to him.

  “Wait…” he said, as the thought fully formed, “Are you saying that your people don’t compete amongst each other? Aren’t you the leader of your ship? Isn’t there a hierarchy amongst Omegas? How do you determine who is in charge? How do you determine who leads your various organizations? How did Notes become a lead researcher or Artificer become your lead engineer if not through competition?”

  Tremendous and Notes favored him with looks Blackshade assumed parents used when their not-so-bright children finally learned that fire wasn’t for eating, “It is not about competition, Blackshade.” Notes began, “It is about who is best suited for the role. This is determined by their results. Tremendous is not the leader of our ship because it strove for the position. Tremendous is our leader because over the course of our missions, Tremendous stood out amongst its fellow Omegas. It was only natural that Tremendous took a leadership role amongst us.”

  Blackshade wasn’t buying it; he looked at Tremendous, “So, at no time did you ever wish for your position. At no time did it cross your mind to try a little harder, or push yourself a little farther so that you would stand out and be considered for the position you hold?”

  Tremendous looked at him incredulously, “Absolutely not!” it retorted with real heat in its voice. Blackshade couldn’t help but take a few more steps back. He didn’t think the Omega would hurt him, but there was something very intimidating about a sixteen-foot-tall, jet black giant getting upset with you.

  Tremendous noticed his fear and sighed, “I am sorry for my outburst, but what you accused me of is very insulting to an Omega. Everything we do is for the betterment of our race. It is our prime initiative, part of our racial memory that drives us all as a whole, towards our betterment. For an Omega to think, or act in a way that would countermand that… well, it would be tantamount to you learning to fly. It is just not something we are capable of.” the Omega leader clarified.

  Blackshade believed that Tremendous was telling him the truth, but he just couldn’t accept the idea that a race that had positions of authority could not know about, or contemplate at some level, ambition. He wished that Soearth had been here. If he was, Blackshade was sure the questions his friend would have for the Omegas would be quite thought-provoking. Unfortunately, he was not as intellectual as his friend and therefore, didn’t bother to push this discussion any farther than he already had.

  Even if he could get them to concede about ambition being a part of their culture, what did it matter? It was a philosophical discussion for better people and Omegas to have. He was here for a singular purpose, and until now, he had forgotten all about it. Before he could be distracted by another subject, he changed the current one.

  “Tremendous, I almost forgot the reason I came here to speak with you.” he began, letting urgency flow into his words, “Pious told us about the moon and what it really is. It told me that it held the consciousness of deceased humans. Pious also told me that there is a chance you could make it so that humans could interact with it and make contact with those they’ve lost. Is that true? Would something like that be possible?”

  Blackshade watched as Tremendous gave the Omegas at the far end of the basketball court one more yearning glance, before shifting his full attention back onto him. “Yes, I am aware of all of that. Pious spoke with me before we transferred you here. I have already dispatched Artificer and his team to look into it, but I must warn you, Blackshade. That recorder is severely damaged. It was brought here to eventually be destroyed and pl
aced on planet to be biodegraded just like humanity. Over the eons, it has absorbed multiple celestial impacts and is covered in debris. Cleaning the outer layer of particulates from it alone will take many cycles. After that, maybe Artificer and its team will be able to restore the Recorder to a better semblance of functionality, and only then will we be able to determine if it can be modified to allow humans to interact with it. This is the best I can offer you at this time, Blackshade. I am sorry it is not a more definitive answer.”

  Blackshade felt his heart sink. He knew he should have expected this, knew that something that big, and that advanced, would require a lot of maintenance in order to get it to the point he wanted it to be at, but Tremendous hadn’t told him no, so there was still hope. “I think I can speak for all of humanity when I say thank you for even attempting it.” Blackshade told them from the bottom of his heart, “To be able to speak with those we’ve lost would be the greatest thing to happen to humanity, well, since you arrived.” he finished with a grin.

  Tremendous and Notes both laughed at this. It was a good natured laugh, Blackshade was almost sure, but the reverberating sound set his skin crawling and his teeth on edge. “Blackshade, that was a very nice thing to say.” Notes told him, a little too coddling for his taste. Then Tremendous added, “I promise you that Artificer will do everything it can to preserve and repair the Recorder. It will take some time, but if it can be used to help humanity, Artificer will find a way.”

  “Thank you. Thank you very much for this.” he replied. He could think of nothing better to say. With their discussion seemingly at an end, the three of them turned their attention back toward the ten Omegas that were still playing basketball. Blackshade saw that they were now passing the ball in order to better position themselves for a successful shot.