Chapter 3 “The Situation”
Following Joe down a long narrow corridor it reminded Dr. Becker of an old subway station. She reached out and touched the damp concrete wall quickly pulling away. It did not feel like they were on a space ship, it felt old with a musty smell. She imagined it would be as clean as an operating room, but the humid stuffy air made her feel slightly sick. It reminded her of an old parking lot in Louisiana during the summer time.
The group entered a room where the environment changed so quickly, it felt like a slap in the face. One second they were walking through damp jungle humidity to fresh dry t-shirt weather, it took a second for them to adjust.
Joe motioned for them to sit down at the table where water and some fruits sat out of place in the center. The group slowly sat down looking at each other, still dumbfounded at the climate change.
“If you want anything please just ask and I will see what we can do.” Joe politely waited for the group to sit before sitting himself.
“Are we going to finally meet some other people?” Dr. Becker inquired.
“Where’s the trust?” Joe opened his arms up pretending to look disappointed.
“No, no not at all it was just.”
Joe waved his hand as he got up from the table. “I was just kidding” Joe walked to another door at the opposite side of the room and leaned it.
“Onney, come on man.” Joe stepped back and a thin frail guy walked in. He had very short hair, slightly grey. He looked so frightened that Steve though he might run out of the room at any second.
“I can’t stay long.” Onney barked angrily at Joe.
“Relax, man, they just want to say hello.” Joe said with a forced slight laugh.
“You know I don’t think this is a good Idea.” Onney glared at Joe never looking at the others. “You know we are going to get in big trouble for this.” He turned and left the room in a bug hurry.
Dr. Becker, Tom and Steve were shocked. They all looked at Joe intently.
“Don’t worry about him, he’s paranoid. He is not used to you people.” Joe tried to blow it off shrugging his shoulders.
“You people? What the hell does that mean?” Dr. Becker snapped back.
Joe stood there running his hands through his hair and around his face.
“Look. Okay, I guess that requires an explanation.” Joe sat back down and thought for a second.
“They are scared of you, they fear you.” Joe looked up at everyone. The room was silent.
“Who are they, and why do they fear us?” Steve asked.
“Well, you see, I mean it goes like this,” Joe was looking for the words. He stopped and looked down and then shook his head.
“You know I actually practiced this speech” Joe shook his head with a slight laugh.
“Let me start from the beginning and hopefully it will make some sense.” Joe stood up and started to walk around the table.
He began his speech. “The human animal, the greatest creature ever created, yes I said created.” Joe paused looking around the room grasping his hands behind his back. “I, just like you, are what we call freeformed humans. That means our emotional centers have been allowed to freely form. For most humans this is not the case. The emotional centers have been dampened.” Joe continued to walk around the room.
“The emotional centers are dampened because if allowed to freely form, it is believed that these types of humans will be basically out of control. Anger, fear, hate, greed, envy, all these things will drive these types of humans to destroy themselves. They, the dampened humans are terrified of you. They think you will eat them alive. Only a few freeformed humans are even allowed on the homeworlds, as we are tightly monitored. You see, for reasons that are not entirely understood, when a human has the emotional centered dampened, it also has a negative effect on the intelligence center.” Joe leaned into the table and almost whispered.
“They are not that bright, the average IQ is around 70.” Joe said with a slight grin.
“Who’s doing this and why?” Dr. Becker inquired.
“Well, there’s much to be revealed but first things first, let me go back to the beginning. As I said, we were created and we don’t actually know who did it, or why. We do know that it was a race of beings that no longer exists. We don’t even really know what they looked like and what their true intentions were.” Joe paused for a moment. “Were we their slaves? Their soldiers? We don’t really know.” He said shaking his head.
“Our understanding of that period is very limited since the planets that they lived on are now gone. We only know of a few asteroids where it seems they had built these structures. We once thought that we were these soldier or slaves that rose up against their masters and won their freedom. But it turns out that we don’t really know and recent evidence suggests that’s probably not the case. As it turns out the most likely reason we were created was for pleasure. All kinds of pleasure.”
“We humans are full of pleasure receptors for sex, food, drugs, touch, feel, joy and even pain. All these feeling can be experienced, we were built that way. Perhaps we were created so these creatures could somehow download into us and experience these things.” Joe shrugged his shoulders. “We simply don’t know.”
Joe walked over to his seat and touched a small control panel. Out of the center of the table a holographic image appeared. Two naked figures materialized a man and a woman. Both were what would be considered very attractive.
Steve and Tom stared intently at the female figure, she was perfect. Young, smooth and voluptuous, absolutely perfect. It has been a while for Steve, he didn’t get out much. He could feel a chubby starting to grow in his pants. He tried to make an adjustment without being too obvious.
Tom sat there almost hypnotized by this image, it had been many years since he had seen another naked woman this close. Wow, he thought. I’ll be thinking of her the next time I make love to my wife.
Dr. Becker had a boyfriend, looks were not the top priority in another person but damn that guy looked good. She wondered what he would be like in the sack.
“Hey, I’m over here.” Joe waved his hands. Dr. Becker and Tom both collected themselves and turned to Joe. Steve continued to stare intently at the female figure. He’d never had a woman that good looking and he couldn’t take his eyes off her. Joe touched the control panel and both figures disappeared. Steve embarrassingly looked over at Joe.
“Pleasure is hard to control, it’s hard to stop. Some freeformed humans can’t control it and the pleasure overrides all logic. Drugs, alcohol, sex, and gluttony dominate their lives. Many of these people die in the seeking of pleasure. So you can see why over time this was engineered out. It was believed that pleasure and desire would eventually destroy humanity.” Joe leaned forward on the table. “Of course, this meant people would be a bunch of morons. These people cannot even fix or understand the machines that they depend on for their very lives.” Joe stood there scratching the back of his neck. “The homeworlds need Earths help. That’s why Earth humans were allowed to freely form.”
Dr. Becker immediately spoke up. “Wait a minute, if they are a bunch of morons how could they have created Earth?”
“They did not create this system, it was already here. They just simply let this colony grow naturally.” Joe replied.
“But, if free formed humans end up destroying themselves, how did we survive?” Steve inquired.
“Well, you had help.” Joe looked down and sighed. “A lot of help.”
“Help? What the hell does that mean?” Steve snapped back.
“It’s complicated. Look, you will be filled in on the details later. Please understand that we are not keeping anything from you, it’s just going to take a lot of explaining.” Joe sat back down.
“You still have not explained why you are here.” Dr. Becker raised her eyebrows looking at Joe. He could sense the frustration in her voice.
“Well, like I said, they need your help.” Joe
leaned back in his chair.
“How in the hell could they need our help?” Dr. Becker shook her head in disbelief. “They are more technologically advanced than us. I can’t believe that they would need our help.”
“They need your help more than you can possibly imagine.” Joe flatly replied.
“Where exactly are you from?” Dr. Becker put her elbows on the table and leaned forward.
“I am human just like you, think of me as a kind of ambassador if you will.”
“I mean are you from this galaxy or another one?” Dr. Becker demanded with great frustration.
“Like I said before, there is a three planetary system which we call the homeworlds. It is very much like this solar system meaning that the size of the sun and the distribution of the planets are the same. Branching out from the homeworlds are numerous human colonies that are closely monitored, including Earth.” Joe leaned forward on the table scratching his chin. “We have the ability to tap into a planets gravity creating energy, so it is almost completely free. This is how we are able to manipulate a system so planets capable of sustaining human life can be maintained.”
“Sounds pretty intricate for a bunch of morons!” Dr. Becker replied sarcastically.
“It is easier than you think.” Joe snapped back.
“Didn’t you say that Earth was already here?” Steve interjected.
“I said we maintain this system. Look, we can get into the details later.”
The door opened up and Onney stuck his head in, “He really wants to talk to you and he sounds upset.” He quickly left not waiting for Joe’s reply. Joe stood there with a forced smile.
“Excuse me a moment, I will be right back.” Joe left the room in a hurry. Everyone sitting at the table looked at each other suspiciously, something just did not seem right. Before they could say anything Joe burst back into the room.
“Sorry about that, communication is sporadic sometimes.” Joe paused and looked at the group. “Look, it is important that we build a relationship and trust each other. I know you must feel that this is being forced upon you, but rest assured all your questions will be answered. I wish we had some more time right now but I really have to go. I will return you to Earth and in a couple of days we will go to the Outpost.” Joe hurriedly headed out the room and motioned them to follow him.
“What’s the hurry?” Tom sat there not moving as if demanding an explanation.
Joe stopped and looked at him. He fought for the right words. “Umm, it’s hard to explain. I just need to get back to the Outpost.” Joe turned around and faced the group he seemed nervous. “Look, I know you have a million questions but I am out of time. In a few days we will meet again, please follow me.” Joe turned around and headed back to the car. Joe did not want to bombard them with too much information. He also knew he could not reveal the entire truth, at least not yet.
Steve got into the same car with reservations, he hated being sick. He had the feeling you get when you are at the start of a roller coaster ride slowly climbing to the top, knowing you were going to plunge into a chaotic ride. The sensation of floating hit him as flickering light appeared as if a swarm of fire fly engulfed him. Everything seemed to stretch and bent as a tunnel materialized before them. He began to fade out as he felt the car lurch forward.
They woke up back on Earth. Steve felt worse than before. He looked at Joe suspiciously.
“Why in the hell do we have to be unconscious?” Steve complained clutching his stomach.
“Traveling through a wormhole requires a tremendous amount of energy. The fabric of space warps making it a nauseating experience for anyone conscience, if you were awake you would feel a lot worse.” Joe replied as he shook off the wormholes effect. “Don’t worry, it’s completely safe. Trust me.” Joe looked back at Dr. Becker.
Trust me Dr. Becker thought shifting in her seat. Joe seemed sincere but something just did not feel right. They need us more than we need them, yea. I bet that is what the Spanish Conquistors said to the Incas before they destroyed their world.
The group did not say much on the way back to the White House. Joe dropped them off a few blocks away. They wanted to get some fresh air and talk about what they were going to report.
The President sat there looking off into the distance. Dr. Becker had finished her briefing. The awkward silence made Steve nervous. He thought no one believed them. The President stood up and crossed his arms, digesting what Dr. Becker had just said. Finally he looked at her.
“Pleasure? We were made for pleasure?” The President frowned unconvinced.
“That’s what he said sir.” Tom sighed.
Steve could tell they weren’t buying it, the look on their faces said it all. The room exploded in question directed at the trio. Some staff members were paranoid, even terrified. The President quickly stood up and held out his arms until the room fell silent.
“I know we are scared but now is not the time to turn on each other. Everything we understood about our universe has just changed. Everything.” The President paused as he slowly walked around the room.
“I grew up believing that we were made in Gods image, and that heaven awaited me. These recent events have shaken my beliefs to the core. Everybody wonders what’s the meaning of life, why are we here, what’s our purpose. True happiness is the hardest thing to find, not pleasure.” The President stopped with a disgusted and disappointed look on his face. “Humans were made for nothing but pleasure? We need more information, go to the Outpost and get more details. Find out exactly what they are after.”