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Journal 35 - Story
10 years ago
General
Hey everybody, I wanted to do some fictional writing, but didn't feel like writing anything too long, so here's an excerpt from something I'm going to be working on. Note, this is *fiction* and in no way real. This is a little Sci-fi thing I've been playing over in my head and figured I'd see what you all thought.
* * *
Transmission recieved.
Unpacking...
Transmission unpacked.
Identifying sender...sender identified
From: Alyx-3144
Location: Unknown
Time: Unknown
Transmission Node: Encrypted.
Dearest Mother,
First off let me assure you that I am fine and that I am well. For my own safety I cannot tell you where I am, or even what system I'm in, all that I can do is tell you that I can survive on this planet without a suit.
I'm sure that you've been worried sick about me and for putting you through that worry I apologize. I don't know if saying I'm sorry can even begin to make amends for any hurt I might have caused you in that regard, but you and I both know that this was a long time coming.
By now I'm sure you've been made aware of my decision to defect. I don't know what the Confederation is making my defection out to be, in truth I really don't care. They probably are labeling me a traitor, deserter, or even a Gathering sympathizer. You know me well enough that I've never particularly cared about my reputation. Whatever the spin is at this time, I have my reasons and I'm going to explain them to you and only to you.
Where to begin though? Honestly Mother you're just as much the reason behind my defection as you are my reason to join the Confederation. That may come as a shock to you but it is the honest truth. If it weren't for you I'd have never left for the academy and if it wasn't for you I'd not have defected.
I suppose I'll start with the past. As you remember I was fascinated with alien species as a child. Their exotic nature is interesting to me. They drew me in. Children in the past used to be dazzled by the ancient life of the home-world, and now I have the opportunity to study entirely new worlds. There are aliens with multiple heads, multiple arms, and some that would even reproduce by sneezing. I was like a child in a candy store.
However you would not let me learn about them. You insisted I focus my studies on the Confederation and the military. You insisted I study our history and what it means to be human. Every bit of research I would do upon alien races you were always there with a firm hand to smack me down and remind me that being human is far more important than learning the history of some Alien race.
To a degree and only to a slight degree I could concur with you. It was important to remember what it meant to be human. It meant that without the intervention of the Gathering the human race would have died on the home world. They would have died a horrible death from the pollutants they put into the air and the wars they constantly set on one another. Focusing on our history helped me remember that if it wasn't for them we as a human race wouldn't realize how petty we really were.
When I came of age, I wanted to learn more about the alien races, without you sitting over my shoulder and constantly dictating what I could and could not learn. I decided to join the Confederation so I could see the systems and have the chance to get some culture in my life. In the most sad truth I did it to get away from you.
Then, I learned the truth about the confederation and it's goals, and why you support them so much. They are not truly a military organization of science, but one of conquest. They are on a quest to kill the golden goose that once saved their life in order to steal and take it's secrets all for themselves. That is deplorable.
Mother I might have been able to excuse that, but when I came to dinner that night, with the love of my life it was made all the more clear your position in the grand scheme of things. It was your unadulterated and unmitigated prejudices that made it evident that you had bought into the same propaganda my own comrades in the confederation were spouting out. You were not even willing to give the one I love a chance because you cant stand the fact the being I fell in love with is an alien.
How can I stay in both an organization and a family that desires to stifle everything that I am and that wishes to stand in the way of true love? How can I respect a military that is killing beings and destroying thousands of years of history in the name of writing our own? Well I'll tell you that quite frankly I cant, and don't think I didn't try.
I did try. I thought of family and the unity that humans have towards one another, but the fact that you are family isn't enough for me to stay. Your hatred, bigotry, and bile are poisonous and there is no environment suit that exists that can keep out those noxious substances. You made my love and I afraid for the first time in our lives and that is something no mother can ever put in a child.
That's why I'm in contact with the Gathering. They have long since learned to put their sad differences aside and work together to help one another out. They believe in things, and they still think about the consequences of their actions as it pertains to the cosmic center of our existence. They think about what it can do to everything they interact with just to exist, let alone interfere with it. Your greatest concern mother is if your actions or the Confederation's actions are legal - furthermore if those actions will net you or the rest of the Confederation a profit.
I'm not a commodity.
In time I hope that you can forgive me, as I forgive you. I forgive you for saying the things that you've said and doing the things that you've done. You are you, and you are going to do what you are going to do. I suppose I cannot realistically hold that against you. What I cannot forgive is for you to know that there is an alternative to what you do and what they do, and you -refuse- to accept it.
Until you can accept that what you're doing and what they're doing is wrong, then we can no longer communicate. I will accept your reply, and I eagerly await it.
I still love you relentlessly and wish nothing but happiness for you.
Your Son,
Alyx
* * *
Transmission recieved.
Unpacking...
Transmission unpacked.
Identifying sender...sender identified
From: Alyx-3144
Location: Unknown
Time: Unknown
Transmission Node: Encrypted.
Dearest Mother,
First off let me assure you that I am fine and that I am well. For my own safety I cannot tell you where I am, or even what system I'm in, all that I can do is tell you that I can survive on this planet without a suit.
I'm sure that you've been worried sick about me and for putting you through that worry I apologize. I don't know if saying I'm sorry can even begin to make amends for any hurt I might have caused you in that regard, but you and I both know that this was a long time coming.
By now I'm sure you've been made aware of my decision to defect. I don't know what the Confederation is making my defection out to be, in truth I really don't care. They probably are labeling me a traitor, deserter, or even a Gathering sympathizer. You know me well enough that I've never particularly cared about my reputation. Whatever the spin is at this time, I have my reasons and I'm going to explain them to you and only to you.
Where to begin though? Honestly Mother you're just as much the reason behind my defection as you are my reason to join the Confederation. That may come as a shock to you but it is the honest truth. If it weren't for you I'd have never left for the academy and if it wasn't for you I'd not have defected.
I suppose I'll start with the past. As you remember I was fascinated with alien species as a child. Their exotic nature is interesting to me. They drew me in. Children in the past used to be dazzled by the ancient life of the home-world, and now I have the opportunity to study entirely new worlds. There are aliens with multiple heads, multiple arms, and some that would even reproduce by sneezing. I was like a child in a candy store.
However you would not let me learn about them. You insisted I focus my studies on the Confederation and the military. You insisted I study our history and what it means to be human. Every bit of research I would do upon alien races you were always there with a firm hand to smack me down and remind me that being human is far more important than learning the history of some Alien race.
To a degree and only to a slight degree I could concur with you. It was important to remember what it meant to be human. It meant that without the intervention of the Gathering the human race would have died on the home world. They would have died a horrible death from the pollutants they put into the air and the wars they constantly set on one another. Focusing on our history helped me remember that if it wasn't for them we as a human race wouldn't realize how petty we really were.
When I came of age, I wanted to learn more about the alien races, without you sitting over my shoulder and constantly dictating what I could and could not learn. I decided to join the Confederation so I could see the systems and have the chance to get some culture in my life. In the most sad truth I did it to get away from you.
Then, I learned the truth about the confederation and it's goals, and why you support them so much. They are not truly a military organization of science, but one of conquest. They are on a quest to kill the golden goose that once saved their life in order to steal and take it's secrets all for themselves. That is deplorable.
Mother I might have been able to excuse that, but when I came to dinner that night, with the love of my life it was made all the more clear your position in the grand scheme of things. It was your unadulterated and unmitigated prejudices that made it evident that you had bought into the same propaganda my own comrades in the confederation were spouting out. You were not even willing to give the one I love a chance because you cant stand the fact the being I fell in love with is an alien.
How can I stay in both an organization and a family that desires to stifle everything that I am and that wishes to stand in the way of true love? How can I respect a military that is killing beings and destroying thousands of years of history in the name of writing our own? Well I'll tell you that quite frankly I cant, and don't think I didn't try.
I did try. I thought of family and the unity that humans have towards one another, but the fact that you are family isn't enough for me to stay. Your hatred, bigotry, and bile are poisonous and there is no environment suit that exists that can keep out those noxious substances. You made my love and I afraid for the first time in our lives and that is something no mother can ever put in a child.
That's why I'm in contact with the Gathering. They have long since learned to put their sad differences aside and work together to help one another out. They believe in things, and they still think about the consequences of their actions as it pertains to the cosmic center of our existence. They think about what it can do to everything they interact with just to exist, let alone interfere with it. Your greatest concern mother is if your actions or the Confederation's actions are legal - furthermore if those actions will net you or the rest of the Confederation a profit.
I'm not a commodity.
In time I hope that you can forgive me, as I forgive you. I forgive you for saying the things that you've said and doing the things that you've done. You are you, and you are going to do what you are going to do. I suppose I cannot realistically hold that against you. What I cannot forgive is for you to know that there is an alternative to what you do and what they do, and you -refuse- to accept it.
Until you can accept that what you're doing and what they're doing is wrong, then we can no longer communicate. I will accept your reply, and I eagerly await it.
I still love you relentlessly and wish nothing but happiness for you.
Your Son,
Alyx
