We walked up to the leaders and I yelled “Un – Tu!” which appears to mean stop to them. I went over to both the leaders and took away the sticks they were using the dig with. All the natives came to a stop and stared at me in confusion. I set the sticks down and repeated “Un – Tu!” several more times.
They all started to drop their tools and began to chant again... Which didn’t mean anything because that’s the word we use to make them stop every day. I could only hope they would understand it was permanent when we never returned. I yelled “Un - Tu!” one last time, as loud as I possibly could.
On the way back up to the Sirius, Kayin was completely silent, I could tell he was still upset. I walked over to him and said “It’s ok Kayin. What’s done is done… We tried our best and one day they’ll understand, even if my plan doesn’t work… it’ll just take a lot longer that way.”
He looked up – “Yeah I know… I just have a bad feeling they’re going to go right back to mining in the morning. We’ve caused them to have an obsession with gold, all because they think it’s important to us… They could spend hundreds or even thousands of years slaving away instead of actually progressing… I don’t think things are going to turn out well for them…”
I sighed – “Yeah well we can’t think like Kayin. If it wasn’t for us who knows what would be going on right now. Cyrus obviously wasn’t done with his experiments and you remember my theory about the ACI seizing power on Aeris… There’s a lot more to this than we think… We’ve freed the natives and done our best to send them down the right path… Because of us they can easily make fire and already know about the wheel and metalworking… I’d like to think in some ways they may be better off…” Kayin never answered me back; I guess he just needed time to think.
We sat on the observation deck for hours, looking out at the stars and X-451 while we waited for word that everyone was back on board. We didn’t talk much, I think Kayin was still trying to think of something to do before we left. I understood why he was upset, so I just left him alone… I on the other hand, truly believed they would be just fine. Hopefully it wasn’t just wishful thinking…
Eventually Sara came up and told us it was time to leave. Kayin said “I’m going to stay here for a while… need some time to think.” I walked over and patted him on the back – “Ok, we aren’t going into to stasis for a few days so we’ll be right back up… want to get a look at the other planets before we leave. The Captain told me there’s one that’s particularly amazing.” Kayin nodded and continued to gaze out into space.
When we got to the flight deck it was confirmed that everyone was on board and the techs were readying the stasis capsules. I thanked the flight crew for all of their help and gave the order to head home.
On the way back up to the observation deck I turned to Sara and said “Try and talk to Kayin… He’s really upset about the natives refusing to stop worshipping us… He thinks they’re going to keep mining too.”
Sara said “He’s probably right… you have to understand what an impression we made on them… they watched us come out of the sky in metal boxes Atlas. They’re still terrified and amazed. Try to imagine how you would feel as a primitive man witnessing that… I’d have to agree with Kayin. There’s no doubt in my mind all this has done a lot more harm than we might think… but like you say we did everything we could do… I’ll try and cheer him up anyway. At least we’re able to go home and help everyone on Aeris, even after everything that’s happened.”
Sara went over to Kayin, sat down and put her arm around him. I stayed back to give them privacy so I couldn’t hear what she said but whatever it was worked. He stood up and joined us to look out at X-451 for the last time.
For a moment I wished we weren’t leaving… - “All that for some soft yellowish metal that’s probably on plenty of other planets… I wonder if the ACI specifically chose this one because of the natives?” Kayin looked over at me – “We’ll find out when we back to Aeris… I’ll make sure of it. Everyone’s going to know exactly what happened on this mission and I won’t rest until everyone involved is brought to justice.” We locked eyes and I said “I’m with you Kayin.” Sara took my hand and leaned up against my shoulder.
As the Sirius began to leave the solar system we all became awestruck when it came upon the 3rd planet from X-451… They called it X-454, but it was deserving of a much better name as it was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. Even though it was uninhabitable, the fire and chrysos colored rings were nothing short of hypnotizing. I almost had a hard time believing it was real… It was one of those moments that would change my life forever.
I knew Kayin and Sara were standing there still feeling like they had failed… but I realize that if it weren’t for people like them, none of this would ever have happened. The natives would still be on operating tables and packed into testing rooms… To me, they’re returning home as the saviors of two worlds… I can only hope the rest of Aeris will feel the same way.
The Sirius Chronicles Page 9
