The World Beyond [Gladis&Hideki](Private)

December 27, 2017

Identification Number: 997-361-899-976-7-XY – Asher

Gender: Male

Age: 33 years

Height: 1,88m

Hair colour: platinum

Breeding category: C – Warrior Type

Blood type: A+

Home planet: Xenon

Sexual orientation: unknown

Occupation: Colonel; Imperial Space force

Biography:

As every human on Xenon Number 997-361-899-976-7-XY - simplified identification code: Asher - was breed in one of the artificial wombs in the government laboratory that is commonly referred to as vita since all human life on the planet comes from it. He got produced out of the sperm from bucket 2569166872076373 and the egg with the number 7835674310754288 that got matched by the system of vita as a perfect genetic match that - with a little help and control from the scientists - would produce a splendid warrior type.

Reproduction is controlled by the government and uncontrolled breeding outside of the vita project a crime that is punished with high sentences. Women who break the law and become pregnant will be forced to abort the child regardless of which month they are in. If they birth the unwanted children in secret and the child will be found later it will be eliminated.

Sexual acts between people are frowned upon and deemed primitive, to satisfy their libido they use a computer system that interacts with the brain and makes them orgasm. This is seen as a medical procedure to keep them healthy mentally and physically. Xenon has free medical care for everyone and the health care system and health research is highly funded and encouraged because healthy citizens are able to work and fight better for the greater good and the planet.

After his birth he got matched with a government approved “couple” consisting of 752-018-142-851-7-XX (Trixi) and 379-665-314-477-0-XY (Werner), both C types, whose psyches were deemed fitting each other’s and that of the baby by project vita and the government agency for reproduction and the control over the national corpus short (GAfRCNCP). His assigned adults were government trained and had raised him in their interest.

When he turned six his education and nurturing had fallen into the hands of the local educational establishment, a residential school where he got sorted into a class with only C types and that was adjusted to their personality type and the purpose that their types had been bread for (being soldiers, policemen, spies, fire fighters, in the ambulance corps etc.).

After his degree Asher went straight into the army and stayed there. He ranked up fast and it seemed like the genetic engineering had worked perfectly fine in his case as he was the born warrior. The combat pilot soon stepped up in rank and not only that he started to dominate the ranking list that would make that pilot number one who had killed the most enemies. His advance before the second place on the ranking list grew with everyday and the man soon became a living legend who got admired by the people of Xenon who generally thought of being a soldier as the most honourable and best one could be and every C type child dreamed of following in his footsteps one day.

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The temperature inside of the small cockpit was constantly on the rise and the lights of the machines and the screen of the board computer system called J.O.S.H. that was the same he had installed into his combat suit, were blinking and flickering completely uncoordinated. The combat pilot inside of the battle space ship was pressing that button for the last time until he gave up and calmly put his hand back and rested it onto his leg his gaze straight ahead out of the front window where he could see a blue and green planet that he was getting closer to with each second that passed. That was the end of number 997-361-899-976-7-XY, he would soon die!

How had it come to that? It sure had come unexpected to the platinum haired soldier who had been the best combat pilot on entire Xenon. Feared by the enemies, admired and idolised by his people!

That one man who had killed as many enemies as no one else had before him had been certain that this battle would have been another huge success for him. And it actually had been at the start. The mission had been going as planned and Asher had shot one after the other down until his comrades had been chased away from him and he had found himself flying straight into a trap. It had not been something the male would have lost his head over and he had thought about strategies to eliminated them and get out of there instead and it had almost been a success. The enemy’s battle space ships had crashed back onto their home planets like a meteorite shower but he had not seen one man in a tiny apparently newly invented battle space ship. He had tried to fly a clever manoeuvre and play that guy out but the other had not let himself be fooled and he had gotten Ash regardless. Not only that, he had completely thrown him off the course and now Asher was lost in space and since not even J.O.S.H. was working anymore he had no idea where he was.

And now he sat there and looked out of the window where he could see the flames that were consuming his battle space ship were continuously growing. If he didn’t die from the coalition with the other planet that was lying ahead he would burn or melt together with this ship, he was certain. Sweat was running all over his face and his body that was completely covered by the heavy combat suit and he felt the urge to take it off but he didn’t. This combat suit was the only small chance of survival he had and he had to keep it on even though he was boiling inside of it. Aside from that the suit was the only thing that kept his skin from catching fire and being grilled like chicken in there in the first place.

Asher had tried everything to make the systems work again and to gain back the control over his beloved machine but it had been no use. The man had tried to repair it but no chance. He would crash onto that weird little planet just like he had sent his enemies onto their home planets or onto other random planets. He knew it. He had known this for a while now. And he had been certain that he had accepted this fate and had remained cool headed and completely calm. The man was a soldier after all and dying in battle was the most honourable death one could die; dying for the good of the planet and the great people of Xenon as a true hero was something to be proud of, a privilege so to speak. Ash would be a legend; he would go down in history. There would be a huge funeral procession even though there was no corpse, the emperor himself would be there giving a speech and people would sing songs and write stories about him for decades or even centuries to come, maybe he would even get his own monument, he was one of the greatest combat pilots of the imperial space force in Xenon’s history after all and he had helped conquering more than just one planet.

Yet he was starting to feel something now that the flames were bashing onto the windows and he was falling faster and faster and faster into the direction of that planet he wasn’t able to identify and the first blisters were appearing under his fingernails regardless of the suit.

But what he was feeling there had nothing to do with pride or honour, the man behind the mask of the combat suit was scared, possibly even terrified and in physical pain.

Despite the glory, the songs, the stories, the emperor and even the monument of himself, there was something in him that didn’t want to die, that was terrorised by the thought of losing his life. There was an instinct appearing within him and even though he had been taught all his life that instincts were for the primitive and not needed for such highly-evolved human beings like them he couldn’t shut it down and he felt his muscles tense and how his heart started racing like crazy and he wanted to run from this.

Suddenly there was a man’s voice sounding through the cockpit and it was his own voice that was mechanically contorted through the suit and this voice, his voice, sang!

Asher sang Xenon’s anthem and he was singing it not well but loudly. The song told the story of their people, how the human’s had resided on a planet called earth but that they had become impure and had been dominated by their low instincts and decadence, that they had lost all control and that their downfall had been inevitable and how they had destroyed themselves and the planet. But that there had been some people amongst them that had been better, the people of Xenon, who had left all that scum as well as their idiocy and dumb believe systems behind and had went out to find a new planet and evolve to something better something pure and higher, to rule their planet smart and with logic and to never give away control because losing control was the downfall. It then went on to tell what greatness their people and their land had become and how they had been standing proud and tall above everything and everyone else and that they would never vanish and were the born rulers of the universe. It was a long arse song and the hilarious thing about it was that their enemy’s anthems were quite similar in what message they wanted to transport into their citizens brains.

The man was starting all over again when he had come to an end with the song one time while he hectically programmed his suit that was his only hope to survive. Sure there was only about a 5% chance that he would not die anyway but he still did it. Five percent weren’t zero after all.

His eyes grew wider and wider the closer he got to the collision, he felt his heart beat everywhere in his body and somehow he also felt sick, as if he needed to throw up. Asher had vomited once in his life when he had gotten sick and it had been humiliating, undignified and gross but he somehow doubted that he had caught an infect again. The soldier’s voice was getting louder and sounded more like screaming than singing with a gurgling noise in between as he felt he was choked but he clung onto those words, that song and kept on singing.

Abruptly his voice ebbed away though and it didn’t matter how hard he tried to focus on the song he couldn’t even remember the words anymore. The same words he had sung a second earlier, the same words he had sung everyday at 9AM and 9PM with his hand on his heart from the day he had been able to speak.

It was washed away, all gone; the anthem of his glorious planet didn’t seem to exits on his mind anymore.

Ash’s fingers were digging deep inside of the leather seat, his eyes were so wide behind the mask that he feared they would jump out of his head and he felt as if he wasn’t able to breathe anymore when his skin burned and blistered and he could see how close that planet was by now.

He asked himself whether it would be better to crash onto the blue or the green stuff and then he realised that it didn’t even matter because he had no control anymore and was heading straight for the green stuff anyway.

His mind was bringing up images from the past now, important moments like the one he had realised that he had made it to first place on the ranking list, or when he had been invited into the emperor’s office for a coffee after he had been given the highest medal one could get. He relived those experiences in his head for a moment before he found and heard his voice again as he screamed in pain and fear and then everything went pitch-black!

January 3, 2018

Name:

Calum

Nickname:

Cal

Age:

23

Gender:

Male

Height:

171 cm

Hair Colour:

Dark Brown

Eye Colour:

Green

Home Planet:

Earth

Sexual Orientation:

Bisexual

Biography:

Calum was born in Myre, the last populated village near the outskirts of The Great Waste – a land said to have been forsaken by the gods. Crawling with monsters more horrifying than your worst nightmares, only the bravest of seekers in their quest for relics dare set foot within its borders. Calum’s father, he would be eager to tell you, used to be one of these legendary seekers. Although the times he saw the man in person were few and far between, Calum was raised on the stories of his heroic endeavours, eagerly drinking in every word spoken about his father to treasure in his heart. It was what got him to keep working hard, even when things got difficult.

After all, life at the Myre is never easy. With the threats from The Great Waste constantly lurking to the east and a land that while not exactly barren, is far from what would be considered fruitful, maintaining their way of life a constant struggle. Yet many refuse to leave, for it is the Myre they call their home. The people are surprisingly warm and caring. Despite the many hardships they face, the community is close knit and life there is fairly peaceful.

Having lost their mother at a young age and their fathers eventual disappearance, Calum and his older brother Sasha were for the most part raised by their grandmother. Everything considered their childhoods were good and their lives have hardly been anything out of the ordinary. Like most children of the Myre, they both dreamt of one day following in their father's footsteps and becoming seekers themselves. Already having lost two of her children to the waste, their grandmother has always been less keen on the idea. As such, Sasha eventually gave up on the idea and settled with his wife in the village.

Calum, on the other hand, never gave up on his dream. He longs for the freedom and adventure the life of a seeker promises. Though he holds the village dear, there is a part of him that desires to leave the monotony of the life in Myre behind. A part of him that desires to see the world and discover the secrets hidden about civilizations past.

”How’s he doing?”

”Still out like a light. It’s better now but he’s still got a fever, too.”

”And his burns?”

”Better since we applied nan’s salve. They’re still gonna hurt pretty badly when he wakes up, though.”

As he spoke, Calum dipped the towel into the bucket filled with water, wringing it out before folding it up and gently placing it on the unconscious man’s forehead. Two days had passed since they’d found him. Calum and his friend Jack had been on guard duty, when suddenly a strange glowing object had appeared on the dark night sky. At first they had believed it to be a falling star. Yet as the object grew closer and closer, heading towards them at an ever quicker pace it became evident that it had to be something else.

It crashed only a small distance from the Myre, sending the ground into a quiver that woke the entire village. Before long a small party was sent out to investigate. They’d expected to find a creature of the Waste or a Caravan out to cause trouble. What they hadn’t expected to find was a metal cocoon harbouring a man. A man who should have died in the impact, yet somehow miraculously survived. What could it be, other than the will of the gods? And so it was decided that this man under all circumstances needed to be saved. Due to his grandmother's medical prowess, Calum’s family was given the honour

”I sure wonder how he got here…” Anya commented as she moved the bucket of water so that she could sit with her uncle beside the makeshift bed of pillows and blankets.

”I told you, didn’t I?” He raised his finger to point at the ceiling. ”He fell from the sky.”

”Like an angel?”

Calum’s lips curled into a smile as he reached out to gently ruffle the eight year old’s messy brown hair. ”I hardly think an angel would come to earth in a heap of junk.”

”Or wear a funny suit.” She agreed.

”Though he was lucky that he did. It must have been what saved him, don’t you think?” Green eyes shifted back to the sleeping man who’s torso was covered in bandages. It had been difficult to get him out of his suit, but eventually they’d managed to find a way. They had to. Otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to treat his burns. At least Calum’s brother had been kind enough to lend the man some clothes he’d be able to wear once he woke up. ”Besides, it wasn’t that strange. Kind of reminds of the protective gear seekers wear on raids.”

Anya didn’t seem entirely convinced, which she made known by pouting. ”Old nan says he’s got the blessing of the gods and that is was what saved him.”

”Yes, but old nan also says fairies are real.”

”With the kinds of beasts that exist out there, they might as well be.”

Calum paused. He couldn’t really argue with that logic. Sighing softly, he ran his fingers through his messy brown hair.

”Well, he’s hardly going to get better by us just sitting around here talking. Come on, let’s go get firewood. We’re starting to run out.” He got up from where he’d been sitting cross legged on the floor. Anya followed suit and the two left the room to go about their allocated tasks – leaving the still unconscious stranger on his own.

January 3, 2018

There was a giant feast; he was standing on a huge stage that was floating in the air while they were cheering for him. Every citizen was out there to praise him and his work as if he was on the same step as the emperor as he stood there in the white dress uniform of the imperial space force bathing in the glory that he deserved. He had made it, he had been the reason why they now reigned over the entire universe and they had achieved the final victory over their enemies.

He saw his emperor walking towards him, he had made a new medal and had invented a title just for him, as he was better than any soldier before had ever been and then he saw the short man who was their ruler smile for once and he opened his arms and wrapped them around number 997-361-899-979-7-XY holding him close to his heart and the people cheered more singing their anthem and Asher felt pure happiness since he had achieved his goal, he had done his duty, he had made his emperor proud. This happiness was wiped away and his eyes went wide when a slimy, black claw of a beast reached out to him and grabbed him as if he was an action figure, violently pulling him out of the emperors arms and down into the endless darkness where he was burning, he was on fire, he felt pain, he was hurting, there was no new rank, no medal and no love from the emperor. He could just see the man looking at him with a disappointing face as he failed him and fell and he reached a burning hand out but the emperor was turning away from him, he was leaving him and that was when Asher awoke, his heart racing, his body hot and sweaty.

There was a strange smell that he had never smelled entering his nose and he could hear some foreign sounds around himself as well and all that was left from his nightmare was the pain and the burning and he remembered that he had been about to crash onto that planet. Did he though or had someone of their people managed to rescue him? But if they had rescued him why was he in pain then? And why hadn’t they put him into the capsule of life to repair and regenerate his body so that none of the damage would be to see or feel anymore? He blinked and then opened his blue eyes and what he saw there made him twitch what caused his burned and fevering body more pain. That was not Xenon. That was disgusting. It was completely primitive but it indicated that there was life on that planet and it was probably humanoid as it looked like. His eyes moved around quickly taking the small room in and then he made the mistake to look at his hand and he felt a little sick as he saw it and imagined how he would look like now without the capsule, this would leave burn scars without adequate medical treatment that he was obviously not receiving. Why had they taken him anyway? Were they enemies? No their enemies weren’t that primitive. Did they want his technology? The suit that had apparently saved him from dying?

It struck him like a hit on the head with a hammer, his suit, it was gone. He looked around in the room again and it was nowhere to see. They had stolen his suit. Asher looked down on himself another time and realised that he was dressed in something that somehow resembled clothes. This was no good, he needed his suit, he needed J.O.S.H. to figure out what this planet was and what resources he could use there to get back home. There was no way he could stay there. Xenon needed him to win the war, his emperor needed him. He was their best pilot after all and he could never disappoint the emperor, it would hurt him deeply if that man would ever feel he had not done everything for him and Xenon. While interhuman relationships were not seen as important and for other than pragmatic, collectivist and efficient reasons were completely frowned upon they got the emperor which was the person they were supposed to love and they were allowed to love with all their hearts and the more they loved him the better. Loving and admiring him was encouraged and a way for the government to also control people’s feelings as control was everything.

To him it had been one of his greatest days when the emperor had invited him for a coffee personally and during their meeting Asher had found everything about the man perfect. In reality the emperor was a relic of the early days. He had been on the spaceship that had discovered Xenon as a young boy and he had invented most of their rules and ways of life later, had written tons of books and had started to built the nation of Xenon. And as one of the early settlers he had not been genetically engineered. He had a bad health, was not physically strong, was way too short for a male – vita would never breed men under 1,80m and only up to 1,95m and women had to be in the range of 1,70m-1,75m- and he had a hell of a lot personality disorders beside that he shouldn’t even have lived anymore because a human didn’t get that old.

Their emperor was the 15th or 16th one, vita always copied the data from his brain before he died and uploaded it into a clone of the emperor whose original body was rotting somewhere since centuries. Some scientists argued that they should improve the emperor rid him of his health conditions, make him taller, physically stronger and without personality disorders but others said that changing the emperor could change Xenon and any change could lead to chaos and losing control and this was to be prevented at all costs. Hence they recreated the same guy every time before he died so that no one would even realise that he had died except for his memories and that the planet was always ruled in the same way.

The man whose idea it had been to genetically engineer the perfect superhumans had been highly imperfect and the perfect superhumans didn’t even notice just like Asher didn’t notice, even sitting right next to him seeing his bad health condition because his mind wouldn’t have been able to comprehend this. The soldier got his torso up and he felt dizzy and sharp pain was running through his entire body. There was something in him that wanted to lie back again and to not get up but the urge to find his suit, do his duty and return to Xenon to fight for the emperor and the planet was stronger than that. He had been designed to fight to the last, to not let pain hold him back, to care for the mission and duty above anything else. So he got up even though it made him scream in pain and the pain was so strong that he felt he couldn’t breathe and it made his mind go blank. Standing up he walked towards what looked like a pair of shoes. He was slow, his legs were disgustingly weak and wobbly and every step made pain shoot up into his brain and he couldn’t even locate it as he was feeling different kinds of pain in his entire body.

Screwing up his nose he looked at the shoes, even the shoes were primitively made. They wouldn’t adjust to his feet when he stepped in, they didn’t have air condition and heater, there was no jet propulsion and the sole of the shoe didn’t change according to which ground one walked onto. In short, those shoes were complete garbage. The man stepped in anyway and not only were they too small for his feet his feet were also blistered and burned and as soon as he had pressed them in he howled in pain as his sight went black and sweat was running all over the in his eyes ugly imperfect burned body of his and he leaned himself onto the wall and clawed his fingers into the wood but that hurt him as well as his fingers didn’t look any better than his feet and he screamed in pain another time, stumbled back and gagged until he forced his breath to become calm again and made his mind fight the pain. He needed to get away from here, he needed to find the suit and the battleship and not leave his people and emperor hanging.

Stumbling towards the door fighting against passing out from the pain the door was just opening in the moment that he was about to reach it and while two people stood in the door he fell forward and managed to catch himself by supporting himself with the door frame. However the platinum haired male thought that he had still made it so that it looked as if he had thrown himself forward like that deliberately to intimidate those two but he really hadn’t, he just looked like a half dead man in pain with too small shoes. “Where. Is. My. Combat. Suit.” He pressed out the words together with a pained groan and showed a stern demanding face but the sweat running over it made it much less impressive. His blue eyes wandered over the two people and they looked as primitive as the house they lived in. One was obviously a man, even though he was too short to be one – here he realised it, with the emperor he had overlooked it – and Asher deemed him as someone in the early twenties. The other one was a female but was tiny but not tiny enough to be hanging around in a house, she was actually supposed to be in the government’s educational establishment fulltime at her age. While he was standing there his wobbling legs got weaker and he shivered and the piercing pain was making him feel as if he was about to pass out every minute.

January 3, 2018

The home of Calum and his grandmother was a small and humble. It had two rooms in addition to the main area, one of which Calum and Sasha had shared growing up but the younger of the two now had to himself. The other room served as his grandmothers ’clinic’ and was where she stored all of her medical equipment (if it could be called that) and took care of her patients. Nan herself slept in the main room, which also contained a corner dedicated to cooking and a small seating area near the fireplace to keep the house heated during winter. When it got really cold however, Calum would usually move to sleep in the main area as well. That spot was now occupied by their wounded stranger. Or at least, they believed it was.

Calum and Anya were headed towards the small shed outside, where the family stored their firewood. Barely had he opened it and Anya slipped inside, starting to fill up the baskets. Calum set down his lantering on one of the steadier piles, the flame flickering within as it cast their spooky shadows onto the wall.

”You’re kind of getting low on wood.” Anya noted as she stacked a last piece of wood onto the rest in the already very full basket.

”I guess I’ll have to ask Jack if he feels like doing a trip to the woods tomorrow.” Calum agreed, beginning to fill a basket of his own. Moments later Calum emerged from the shed with one heavy looking basket in each hand and Anya quickly followed with a considerably less filled basket of her own, and the lantern to light the way.

”What will we have for dinner?” Anya asked as they stopped by the house door, giving her uncle a quizzical glance.

”Nan said something about-” Calum was never allowed to finish his sentence. The moment he opened the door, something lunged at him. He stumbled backwards in surprise, nearly dropping the firewood in the process. Then he realized that this something was their guest and that he hadn’t been lunging at him at all, but instead falling – and catching himself in the doorframe. He looked understandably angry? Upset? Confused? Perhaps all of the aforementioned, not to mention that he very much seemed to be in pain.

”What’s he saying?” Anya inquired from where she’d hidden behind Calum, clearly intimidated by the man. But of course, his words were just as lost on Calum as they had been on his niece.

”I don’t know Anya, I don’t speak angel. Go get nan.”

”But isn’t she-”

”I don’t care, go get her.” She nodded her head, set down her basket and ran off with the lantern.

Meanwhile Calum was stuck with figuring out what to do. They couldn’t keep standing around there. The man was clearly in pain. So Calum did the only reasonable thing he could think of at the moment, and attempted to usher the man back inside by gesturing with his hands and moving forwards.

”Go back inside. You shouldn’t be walking around yet.” He reached out, gently grabbing hold of the man’s bandaged arm as he guided him back to his bed. The man was considerably taller than Calum, and he looked stronger too, so the youth could only hope he wasn’t going to misunderstand.

”Sit down. I’ll get you something for the pain.” Though his heart was pounding hard in his chest, and he was clearly nervous, he kept his voice firm.

January 5, 2018

By examining the two people in front of him sceptically when they ignored him and talked to each other in a language Asher didn’t know, he realised that those two probably didn’t understand him and he wished he had J.O.S.H. as the system could analyse and identify all types of languages that were tied to any human language that had ever existed. With J.O.S.H. the soldier wouldn’t only be able to understand those primitive people but he could also upload their language into his brain by connecting J.O.S.H. and the suit to his body through the port that every citizen of Xenon had so that their bodies could interact with technology easier. But this only made him getting to know the whereabouts of his suit an even greater priority and in addition to the crippling pain that had overtaken all his senses and was strong enough to blind his vision from time to time he was starting to get frustrated because he was not understood and he couldn’t understand those two but more about them not understanding the language of Xenon. Xenon’s language had evolved out of different old human languages, its roots were English, all the Germanic languages and French as the settlers to Xenon had all come from the western world and mainly countries with those languages.

“Where is my combat suit!” he repeated not less demanding and in a way louder tone, nearly yelling at them now regardless of the volume of his voice not making them understand what he said any better.

The child that had looked incredibly intimidated and scared of Ash – he deemed it on the ugliness of his wounds and body as he had come to the conclusion that he was so obviously destroyed that he wasn’t a real threat in this condition and hence he thought it was irrational to be scared of a severely wounded man like him, he would not have feared himself in the slightest – ran away and his blue eyes narrowed and he clenched his impressively white and straight teeth that looked like premium porcelain. His brain was going through different scenarios, the first one was she was so terrified of his sight or thought he was a monster so that she had run away, the second one that came to his mind was that she would go to get backup troupes or their boss to defeat him or torture him to achieve their end whatever it was that they had planned with him and the third one was that she got someone he could communicate with. The last one he deemed most unlikely out of the three scenarios and he was awaiting a fight for his life what led to him checking the ground where the battle would take place trying to work out possibilities how to fight back and escape.

Preparing himself and his body, that only stood because he was supporting it with his blistered hands what caused him so much pain that he wanted to scream again, for a possible fight the gestures of the other man only confused him. Was he trying to tell him that he should leave or else? Was it some weird war dance or an aggressive gesture? Was it some kind of insult? What the hell was the little savage doing there waving his arms like that? He now checked the younger male as he had checked the environment before and his eyes were wandering over every centimetre of the other’s body especially checking for signs of him hiding weapons or other objects on, in or under his clothes and from another person’s perspective it looked as if he was staring at the brunette inappropriately . With J.O.S.H. he would have known right away. The program constantly gave him all the information about his surroundings and it wrote all the data of an object or a person next to it or them.

Asher noticed the arm of the other man starting to move and he knew immediately where the other would strike, at his arm, hence he made himself ready to counter attack grab him before he could land the hit and then throw him over his shoulder turn around, kick him in the back and break his spine. It never came to that since when the arm moved, it didn’t move the way the soldier had expected it to. Sure, it reached out for his arm but when Ash had grabbed the other’s wrist to counter he felt no strength, no power behind the supposed attack only gentle fingers that touched the skin of his burned arm so that he wouldn’t hurt him too much. The blue eyes looked into green and even though he wasn’t good with facial expressions he could see that the short man didn’t actually attack him and he let go of his wrist what lead to the other man’s hand getting a hold of his arm. If the younger male wouldn’t start to fight him, he wouldn’t either as he knew that he wasn’t in a condition where he should fight for no reason.

Xenon’s best combat pilot let himself be guided back inside by the stranger who was now talking to him but of course Ash still didn’t understand. Being brought back to the bed he sat down on it rather reluctantly but his unsteady legs were thankful for not having to carry his body anymore. His feet hurt like hell, they were burning as if still on fire and the bend toes and cooped up feet in the too small shoes didn’t make anything better. The man pulled his feet out of the shoes again and he howled while he did so and when he looked down at them he saw how the blisters had bursted and how his burns had become more bloody and wet again from what he had done.

He wiped away the sweat from his face with the skinless burned hand before he tried it again, this time with pointing on the clothes trying to make the man understand what he was trying to ask him. “Where is my combat suit!? The thing I was wearing before you stripped me naked and dressed me into this bad excuse for clothes. Where?”his deep voice sounded . “I need my combat suit. I need J.O.S.H. because I must get home as the emperor needs me!” the platinum haired added while trying to swallow his irritation down for the greater good.

Sitting there in those weird clothes he looked at the bandages that covered parts of his body and this really was prove that he would only be given some primitive medical treatment and would not regenerate completely as he would always see the signs of this on his body. Even though he found the treatment ancient he would have hoped that they had also wrapped those bandages around his hands and feet as this would have spared him the sight. He found himself ugly, he was imperfect now regardless of how heroic he was. Something within him wanted to make himself feel better about this and he remembered that the emperor himself, the short man with the smart green eyes, the freckles and the red ponytail, had a scar on his face that was running over his mouth. But a simple scar on the face and a body that was burned like his was a major difference; he didn’t want to make himself any illusions there and a deep sigh escaped him while his eyes were still on the younger male native to that primitive green and blue planet he had crashed onto.

January 6, 2018

The very moment the silver haired male grabbed hold of Calum’s wrist, he thought he was done for. The blistered skin felt rough and the grib was firm. Time almost seemed to slow to an unbearable crawl, his heart dropped into his boots. Any moment, any moment now and Calum would be on the floor – or worse. And yet, he knew he had to remain calm. He had to show that he didn’t intend to harm him. That on the contrary, all they wanted was to help. All he could do at this point was to raise his head and meet the others gaze head on.

And what a gaze it was. Never before had Calum seen eyes so piercingly blue. It was a cold shade of blue, like the sky on a clear January afternoon. Yet they were also intense, like the fire in the furnace.

They were beautiful.

For a split second, Calum’s concerns were completely pushed aside, replaced by a sense of awe. Then that second passed, and much to Calum’s surprise (and relief) the man let go of his wrist.

”It’s okay. You’re going to be okay.” Despite knowing full and well that the other didn’t understand a word he was saying, he still made an effort to speak in a gentle and soothing manner. Yet barely had he managed to sit him down, and the man went into another rant in the foreign language Calum was completely unable to comprehend. Or was he? As he listened carefully to what the other had to say, for a moment he actually thought he’d caught a word he recognized. The pronunciation was way different but…

”Suit?” He asked, his eyebrows knitting into a frown as he attempted to mimic the silver haired male’s pronunciation as he pointed to his own clothes. Then it hit him, like the strike of a lightning bolt. ”You mean suit?” This time around he was using the native pronunciation, moving his hands over his head as though he were putting on an invisible helmet. Calum couldn’t help but feel puzzled. Why did the man want his suit? The piece of protective gear bad been badly damaged by the impact and even more so by their attempts to free them man from it. Like the metal cocoon he had arrived in, it was virtually junk. Still, if it was going to ease his worries, there wasn’t any reason for Calum to keep its whereabouts hidden. So he raised his hand and pointed to the corner where they’d left it in pieces.

Just about then voices could be heard from outside. The door swung open and a fairly large dog with black fur came barging in. It was headed straight towards Calum and the stranger, tail wagging with excitement as it greeted them with a cheerful bark.

January 6, 2018

Asher had buried his face in his damaged blistered hands and he was about to lay his exhausted, hurting body down again when he finally heard the other repeat one of the words he had said before. The platinum haired male got his head up and looked at the younger one again before he nodded. “Yes, my combat suit!” he agreed a hopeful look in his blue eyes at the chance that the other knew where his combat suit was and when the young man pretended to put on an invisible helmet the pilot knew that the brunette had understood. “Exactly!” he nodded again, getting a little restless and impatient and his gaze followed the hand and the finger of the other that was pointing onto something in a corner.

His inner cheer had come too soon though as he stared at the pieces of his combat suit in a deflated way. The whole things was destroyed worse than he had believed. However it was still there and he had to repair it and make it work again somehow. With this on his mind he stood up from the bed way too fast for his condition which he had regardless of the pain forgotten for a second. He got dizzy immediately; he swayed and felt sick what made him gag again.

This whole situation was undignified and he felt grossly weak but he had not once thought about giving up, giving up was a concept that didn’t exist within him. When he had been able to pull himself together again he wanted to head towards the suit or what was left of it but he startled for a moment when the door went open without a warning. Instantly a strong smell that he had never smelled before reached his nose and he saw some fury creature on four legs. The soldier went two steps back when the being was entering the room and walked towards them waving its tail and making weird noises. What was it and why was it there? He asked himself staring at the fury creature screwing his nose at the smell of it. Was that an animal? Asher had never seen an actual living animal. On Xenon there only were a few kinds of animals and those only existed within the breeding halls of the meat industry and those animals looked completely different – he couldn’t say whether they smelled better though because he had only seen the food animals on pictures.

When he looked at the animal closer it resembled R#773 type 2 a little, at least from how it was built and how it walked. Type R#773 was an assistant and concomitant robot that had been inspired by an animal humans had held back in ancient times on earth. But R#773 type 2 didn’t stink, it was mostly made out of metal and it could actually communicate and didn’t only make weird sounds.

The creature was heading straight towards him and the soldier was already making himself ready to fight off an attack as he didn’t really understand the beings intent but when it was close, wiggled with its tail and looked at him with huge eyes and a friendly demeanour he doubted that it would attack him. It made him sneeze a few times in a row though but the animal was still sitting there staring at him as if it was waiting for him to do something and acknowledge it. Clenching his teeth because of the extreme pain he bent over a little and hesitantly reached out his hand patting the animal’s huge head, it reacted positively and seemed to like this so he patted it a little longer. The soldier’s hand hurt even more badly because of it and he also couldn’t decide whether he found stroking the fur soothing or just plain weird.

When the animal decided to greet its owner after that Asher went straight towards the pile with the pieces from his suit and kneeling down next to it made the pain so intense that he groaned deeply and nearly fell over again. With his face twisted in pain he searched through the different pieces of the suit. To actually repair the whole thing would take him quite some time if it was even possible on such a primitive planet. And when his suit already was like this how would his battleship look like? He didn’t even want to think about it especially not since he was not sure whether this planet had the resources he needed to repair both suit and battleship and he felt frustration grow within him when he took the control panel and some cables out of the pile and carried them with a pained face and sweat running down his forehead towards the bed where he sat himself down and couldn’t repress another howl in pain when he took the control panel and started to make it work again. After a while it blinked and he was able to activate it, maybe he would at least get J.O.S.H. to work.

January 6, 2018

”Ah-ah! No, don’t get up. You’ll only make it wo-”

Calum watched in dismay as the man stood up from his bed. Of course he was. Now that he knew where the suit was, he wanted it. Though surely it would have been better to let Calum fetch it for him instead of getting back up to get it himself. Oh, his grandmother was going to be angry for sure.

”Come right back here you disobedient cur!” He could hear his grandmother yell as she hurried after. But by then it was already too late. The dog had reached the silver haired man before anyone could stop him. At least, Calum thought, he seemed to react well to the dog. The interaction between them was enough to make him smile.

His grandmother was less pleased, impatiently tapping her foot against the wooden floor. ”Hermis, come back here. Sit. Now.” The dog, surprisingly obayed, taking his paws off Calum’s thighs before trudging back to the short, elderly woman.

”Anya! I told you not to let him inside.”

”Sorry dad…”

Anya and a tall man with the same shade of brown hair as Calum were the next ones to enter, closing the door in their wake. Sasha was considerably taller than Calum, and more muscular too. His eyes were dark brown like his daughters and he was sporting a short beard, that Calum had always thought made him look older than he really was. He was carrying the wood Calum had left outside. Setting it down, he turned his gaze to the silver haired man who was now rummaging around the pile of junk. ”Looks like our mysterious stranger has finally come to, huh?”

”Nevermind that!” His grandmother exclaimed in exasperation as she started making her way towards the silver haired man. ”Calum, for god's sake, why is this man doing up and about?!” She only stopped in her confident stride once she was standing right next to the man who next to her, looked like a giant. Reaching out her small, wrinkled hand she gave his shoulder a light tap. ”I will make one thing very clear, young man. No patient of mine is going to overexert themselves on my watch. Now you get right back there and–”

She cut herself off mid sentence once she realized that he’d already moved, sitting himself back down on the bed with a strange device in his blistered hands. The room was completely silent and everyone’s eyes were on him. Sasha’s posture had become considerably stiffer, his hand reaching into his pocket for what Calum could only assume was his gun. No one really knew what to make of his new development. The elderly woman let out a heavy sigh. She was the first person to break the silence.

”Anya dear, get the poor man something to drink, will you?”

The girl nodded her head, quickly scurrying off to the kitchen corner where they kept another bucket filled with water.

Calum’s grandmother turned towards the younger of her two grandsons. ”You know where I keep my medecine. Don’t just stand around and look, get me something to dull the pain.” Barely had she made the request and he was already on his way to carry it out.

”And you, Sasha-”

”What is he doing?” Sasha, his hand still in his pocket, never took his eyes off the silver haired man, his eyes narrowing as the device began to blink. It was clear that he was weary of the man. And perhaps rightfully so. Really, none of them knew what they were dealing with right then. As such, he looked less than happy when his daughter returned, balancing a cup filled to the brim with water in her small hands as she approached the stranger.

”Anya…” Her father warned, but she paid him no heed. The man hadn’t hurt them yet, so it was unlikely that he was going to do it now. And perhaps she was also just a little curious about what he was doing. With that in mind she extended the cup to him, smiling softly.

”Go ahead. It’s just water. Nan says it’s important to drink a looot when you sick.”

January 7, 2018

By the time Asher had placed himself back onto the bed and was concerned with getting the device running again the relatively small room had filled with other people. The kid was back and she had brought an elderly lady and a man with an antagonistic attitude with her. The man looked somewhat similar to the short male who had shown him the way to his combat suit but he was taller and somewhat more muscular. It wasn’t something that stuck out to the soldier though. Being from planet Xenon and on top of that a C-type most other men looked more like himself in terms of height and muscle mass. What bugged him though was seeing from the corner of his eyes that the guy had his hands in the pocket and that there was obviously an object in this pocket and from the hostile aura this man had towards Ash he concluded that this was a weapon and his brain started to come up with a strategy as this would definitely come to a fight where he had to defend himself.

J.O.S.H. worked and Asher attached the device to his arm, stuck the cable inside of it and connected the control panel and the system with his body by sticking the other end of the cable into the port on his wrist, not letting the suspicious individual out of his sight, not even for a second. Asher let J.O.S.H. analyse the language in which the people were talking to each other and it didn’t take long and the system had found the language and translated what was said in the room to the combat pilot who made the device install the language into his own brain so that he would be able to speak and understand it without paying attention to the translation. While the language was uploaded into his brain the man made J.O.S.H. giving him the data of the planet and when the device told him this was earth he thought that the thing had been damaged a lot more than he had thought at first. This could not be earth. Earth had been completely destroyed by the primitives and all human life on that planet had died, this shithole couldn’t be earth, it was impossible and yet the system gave him all it had in its database about earth.

That the man who was obviously holding a weapon and was planning something was getting increasingly nervous and antagonistic wasn’t a good sign and Asher knew he had to do something about him before he would do whatever his intentions were and he knew that those weren’t any intentions that would be to his advantage. He turned his head towards that man, his eyes narrow and mistrusting and now aside from the data about the male (age, height, weight, health status, heart rate etc.) J.O.S.H. showed him what object he had in his pocket too and now the soldier knew that he had definitely been right, it was a gun. His face went sterner and his own heart rate went up and his damaged body was releasing adrenaline.

He wanted to go with his strategy when the kid came back with something to drink. The soldier thought this was a manoeuvre to distract him from the ambush this one man was planning and he didn’t turn his head away from the direction in which he stood. The kid talked to him and J.O.S.H. told Ash that the girl had said it was only water. But after knowing that at least one of those people definitely had an ill intent he wouldn’t just trust her and he let J.O.S.H. analyse the substance. “Chemical compound: H2O; Checking for toxins: No toxins found!” J.O.S.H.’s mechanical computer voice sounded and Asher nodded towards the girl, drank the water in one gulp and put the mug back onto the plate. “Thank you!” he said in his language as the upload wasn’t complete yet.

Then everything had to go quickly and he was thankful that more and more adrenaline was rushing through his body making him feel less of the pain and enabling him to move better again, even though he would get the bill for this as soon as the adrenaline would be out of his system again. In mere seconds and without a warning he took the bed and threw it into the direction of the man with the gun as a distraction. In an incredible speed he managed to get behind the man, he kicked his food into his back, grabbed his hair with one hand and pulled his head back while the other hand was making him pull out the gun and was then twisting the arm with the gun forcing the man to let the weapon fall onto the ground. Everything within him seemed to be programmed to fight for his life and for victory, he was acting more like a combat machine than a person and he was not taking the condition of his body into consideration at all. With two fingers he pressed a nerve on the hostile man’s body and the body of the stranger who had held the gun before sank onto the ground unconscious and unable to move. The C-type students on Xenon studied everything about human anatomy but unlike doctors not to heal but to destroy. They were told all weak spots and tricks and whenever they learned something new about the human anatomy they were encouraged to think how they could use that to eliminate or to immobilise the enemy. Asher was not only breed to be the perfect soldier he had been taught to be one and think like one at all times as well. This little trick with the nerve however only worked when the person he wanted to knock out wasn’t wearing a combat suit like his own, what this guy hadn’t. “Upload completed; installation successful.” J.O.S.H.’s voice sounded again then.

This had all happened in an incredibly short amount of time and the soldier took the gun up from the ground, it was already unlocked and loaded ready to shoot a bullet into Asher’s head. His eyes narrowed and he looked at the man on the ground with a dismissive look in his blue eyes. Maybe this was earth after all. He had heard that the primitive earthlings had been malicious, scheming and backstabbing, that they had been driven by low instincts and that they had no control over themselves or anything. He had heard that earth had been a crime infested vile place and that the people had been false and unpredictable and even murdering for fun and getting a kick or for their insane religious believes. Apparently this was true.

His blue eyes glared sceptically and angrily towards the other people in the room and J.O.S.H. was showing him that they had no weapons on their bodies at this time. “A loaded gun huh?” he hissed, now in their language, his body still full with adrenaline. “Does anyone else here hold the intention of maliciously murdering me when I am distracted? Is this how it goes on your planet?” he asked clearly pissed off. “Let me tell you that I have no intention of dying here and letting myself be killed off by any of you or for whatever reason this man had for wanting to kill me!”

January 7, 2018

Sasha wasn’t even given the time to react. One moment the silver haired man was sitting on the floor, accepting the water from his daughter – the next he was on his feet, flinging the blankets and pillows they’d so carefully arranged right at him. He was completely caught of guard, and that was his mistake. Before he knew it he felt something slam against his back with enough force to knock the breath out of his lungs. His head was violently pulled back by his hair and his hand twisted around. Despite his best efforts to hold on to the gun, he found himself completely outclassed. The weapon fell clattering to the floor.

And everyone, including Calum who’d just emerged from the clinic, watched in stunned silence as Sasha’s body collapsed onto the ground. Lifelessly, like a ragdoll – his eyes wide in a display of complete and utter shock.

A moment later, all hell seemed to break loose.

Anya was the first to react, her large brown eyes filled with fear and despair as she tried to comprehend the situation. ”Dad? Daddy?” Her voice quivered as she took a step towards her father, and the man silver haired man. ”Dad, are you okay? What’s going on. D-dad, what did he-” she was stopped in her tracks when a hand suddenly grabbed hold of her shoulders. Turning her head, she was met by an emerald gaze.

”Don’t go any closer!” He hissed.

”Cal?” She asked carefully, her voice growing higher in pitch. ”W-what are you doing Cal? Daddy – he’s – I need to– he’s!” And the tears were flowing. She was understandably scared but Calum knew there was little he could do to comfort her. Not right then. He needed to get her away from that man. It was the only thing that mattered at the moment. Even if he had haul her kicking and screaming into her great grandmother's arms. He had another problem on his hands.

Hermis had gotten up from where he’d previously been resting peacefully by the elderly ladies feet, his ears flattened against his skull and fangs showing as he made himself ready to pounce. It was only Calum’s quick thinking as he grabbed hold of the dogs collar that prevented him from attacking the man.

”Hermis, down!” Calum’s voice was firm and authoritative as he uttered the command. The dog obayed, laying down by his masters feet as he let out a pathetic, unhappy howl.

The brown haired youth could still hear Anya crying and yelling in the background, but he paid it no heed. Instead he turned his gaze towards the man with the gun pointed straight at him, balling his hands into fists as he attempted to stop them from shaking. In fact, it felt like entire body was quivering. Not in fear. No, far from it. Calum wasn’t just upset, he was furious. How dare this man lay his hands on his brother after everything they’d done for him? It was understandable that he was scared – confused even, but that didn’t warrant violence. His brother may have held a gun in his hands, but Calum knew for a fact that his intentions had not been to kill the silver haired man. His brother was not a murderer. He’d just been cautious, and it seemed rightfully so.

”Oh, so you can understand us now? Great! Because you should be ashamed. If you’re really thinking anyone here was trying to kill you, you’ve got to be a fucking moron!” It was as though in that very moment, all the exhaustion, his own feelings of helplessness and anger over the situation came together in an explosion of emotions he didn’t quite know how to handle. ”Why would we have gone through all of this trouble to save you – working our asses off to keep you alive, only to kill you once you wake up?! Does that make any fucking sense to you?!” Realizing that he was almost yelling at that point, he cut himself off and took a deep breath. When he spoke again, his voice was considerably calmer. ”I’ve barely slept these last two days because I was taking care of you. And this is how you thank us.” Calum gestured to his brother on the floor. After a brief pause that was long enough to make the other think, but too short to give him room to speak, Calum extended his hand towards the stranger.

”Now for fucks sake, hand me the bloody gun and sit your sorry arse down. You’re only making your injuries worse, and we can’t treat you whilst you keep waving it around like a deranged psycho.”

January 7, 2018

The soldier was standing there without moving a centimetre and without his facial expression changing in the slightest, the only thing moving were his piercing blue eyes as he examined the people in the room closely. A screeching in an incredibly unpleasant high-pitched tone of voice came from the girl and she was showing a reaction that confused Asher. There was water running out of her eyes, maybe something had gotten into her eyes, and at the same time she was repeating one word again and again and was trying to run to the defeated man on the ground. Even though he now knew their language he didn’t know what the word “Daddy” meant. There was no equivalent in the Xenon language and her behaviour was just off to him. She seemed out of control to him too and losing control was never good.

The animal suddenly made a sound and expression that showed hostility, Asher checked the data and he read that this was a dog and that it showed signs that it was about to attack. Hence he pointed the gun he was holding into its direction since its answer to his question who wanted to try and murder him as well was understood by the pilot but the dog got held back by the young male and Asher lowered the gun again, just holding it.

As his gaze met the brunette he was surprised in what way he spoke to him. Asher laid his head to the side questioningly and as if he studied a really interesting specimen there. The man was calling him a moron and the platinum haired really couldn’t see what this would gain him and he just watched and listened to what he would do and say next interestedly as this human was losing his composure and control too. They didn’t seem to be on a high step of evolution to him considering how impulsive and emotional they reacted to this situation and that they couldn’t remain calm and cool headed.

He raised his eyebrows a little at the questions he was asked and didn’t seem impressed in the slightest. “You tell me why you have gone out of your way to take me out of my battleship and wrap me into those bandages here as I don’t know your intentions. Maybe you want my technology, maybe it’s military secrets you’re after, maybe you want to enslave me or gain profit with me. Those are the possible options that came to my mind.” He started his voice monotonous and without emotion before he snorted. “Your comrades body had shown all physicals signs of someone who was about to attack. And not only the data said so, his hostile expression, him being focussed on me and the fact that he had unlocked and loaded his gun were all indicators that identified him as a possible threat to my life. Every instructor, scholar or textbook will tell you that such a threat in such a situation has be either eliminated or immobilised immediately.” Ash explained, face still imperturbable. “As for you saying that you wrapping me in fabric and him trying to kill me was contradictory: Even though you’re one division you don’t own one brain. Your comrade has apparently decided to go against the groups plans and follow his own intentions, you should punish him later. It appears to me that you people seem to be rather unpredictable and are quick to lose control over yourself and your feelings. J.O.S.H. seems to be right; this must be earth after all. No wonder you people have destroyed your own planet.” He ended his answer still standing where he had stood before, still didn’t move.

When the short male told him to hand him the gun his facial expression finally changed though since he was looking at the other as if he was completely crazy. “No!” he refused. “Doing this would be foolish keeping in mind how unpredictable and easily angered you are. Especially since you have showed open aggression and dislike towards me right now. Handing you this gun would be stupid and for you to suggest that is ridiculous.” He said and put the gun into his pocket now. “Besides, I wasn’t waving around with the gun I was holding it still. Plus, I can’t act like a deranged individual or like a psycho. I have no mental illnesses. Vita doesn’t breed mentally ill people and if a mistake happens in the system it’s eliminated right away. Mentally ill people don’t exist where I am from other than on this rotten planet.”

January 8, 2018

Calum gazed at the man incredulously, as though he had a hard time believing what he was hearing. Who did he think he was? Divisions? Battleships? Vita? What was the man even going on about? He wasn’t just confused by the others arguments – he was outright baffled. Half of the things he said didn’t make sense and the rest was just infuriating. What the hell was he even supposed to make of this? He didn’t know and it scared him. There was a part of him that wanted to tell the man he should just leave. If he was so distrustful of their intentions and didn’t like it there, no one was forcing him to stay. On the contrary, Calum would be grateful if he no longer had to take care of him.

Yet he was also well aware that telling the injured man to leave the village in his current state, was the same as sending him to his death. No matter how skilled a fighter he was, he wasn’t going to make it very far in his current state. Yet he also didn’t know how to defuse this situation. Anya’s crying in the background was hardly of any help, though his grandmother seemed to have been able to calm her down at least a little.

Taking his eyes off the silver haired stranger for a moment, his gaze dropped down to his brother who was still lying there limbly on the floor. He seemed to be in pain – a notion that brought a look of genuine concern to Calum’s features. Biting down on his lower lip, he closed his eyes for a briefly before taking a deep breath. When he opened them again, his gaze was once again locked on the stranger.

”When we found you inside the metal cocoon, you were on the brink of death. I don’t know how it is wherever you’re from, but here even a single human life is considered too precious to waste. Life here at the Myre is harsh, and our resources are scarce, but that just makes it all the more important we help each other when in need. That, and only that was our sole reason for bringing you back to our village.”

Calum’s grandmother nodded her head in agreement to his words. ”Please, you must understand,” she said, gently rubbing Anya’s back as she held her tightly against her chest, ”My grandson, though he may have come off as hostile, never had any intentions of harming you. Just as you know nothing about us and our intentions, we know nothing about you. He was merely taking precautions in case you would turn out to be a danger. He may not be the most level headed of men, but I can assure you that he’s no killer.”

”We only wish to help, but if you don’t want it no one is going to stop you from leaving.” Calum concluded, never once taking his green eyes off the silver haired man as he spoke. Although a part of him was still angry, he had calmed down completely. No matter how much he felt like the man deserved it, pulling punches would hardly solve anything. On the contrary, it would just turn the entire conflict into a bigger mess. So really, all he could do was try to reason with the man – maintaining the hope that he would somehow understand.

January 8, 2018

Number 997-361-899-976-7-XY was feeling mild annoyance at the sounds the kid that was held by the elderly lady was still making. He didn’t know what the girl wanted to achieve by doing that and he also hadn’t heard a human making such sounds while their face looked all swollen up and water was running down their cheeks before but he definitely didn’t like it and found it obtrusive and hard to ignore after a while and he wished someone would shove a gag into the kids mouth to make it stop. No one did though, quite the contrary, the kid was receiving gentle attention and affection from the elderly lady for her poor behaviour and losing control. If he would have behaved like that in the house of his assigned adults or in the government educational establishment as a child he would have been put in his place and punished for such obnoxious and undignified behaviour. However he couldn’t think of a reason why anyone would act that way anyway.

When he felt the eyes of the male on him again he turned his head away from the child and intense blue met green again. He listened to the words, he understood the words but he wasn’t able to comprehend what the other said. It didn’t make much sense to him and he tried to filter a logical, rational reason for saving his life out of those words. Those people must have thought about some kind of advantage for themselves when they had saved him, if not saving him appeared as a waste of time to him and he couldn’t see why they should have done it then. There was obvious confusion written in his face and he scratched his chin with his burned, blistered hand where even part of his fingernails had been burned or ripped off, it looked as painful as it was.

Those humans lived in a community where they were dependant on human resources. They valued every human life because an additional person could contribute to their society and would be another work force. Hence when he had collided with their planet and they had seen him, they had seen another human that if they repaired him and made his body function again could be integrated into their society and be an efficient work force that contributed to their community. This was how Asher could make sense out of this and explain the man’s words to himself.

“I understand. You saved me to make me a part of your society so that I can contribute to your work force and be of use. That’s reasonable.” He acknowledged, looking at the man who still was extremely short in Ash’s eyes.

“However I have to disappoint you though. I know that I was probably on the brink of death, the chances that I would survive only were at 5% in the first place and I actually thought that I was going to die from the collision. And even if you got me out of my battleship and tried to repair me as good as it’s possible for you, I can’t stay with you. I have to repair my combat suit and my battleship and go back to my home planet, my people need me and I have to win a war for my emperor, who needs me too.” Asher explained with a proud face as he spoke of the emperor needing him and winning the war for that man. The platinum haired soldier wanted to believe that the emperor was devastated at the information that he was probably dead and that the red haired man with the ponytail was mourning the loss of his best soldier. [in reality the emperor had freaked out, thrown a tantrum and had then screamed at the scientists of vita that they had to immediately design him a new soldier that was as good as number 997-361-899-976-7-XY . This put them under immense pressure because even if they used the same resources there was no guarantee that the soldier they would design would be as good again and the emperor wanted to punish them if they failed. The man also had yelled at his generals for several hours that they should search for an instant replacement. Some of the scientist argued that the next version of the emperor should finally be improved now, others still disagreed.]

His face turned from the younger male to the elderly lady that was still holding the child and the soldier just stood there and carefully listened to her as well. There was one weird word in there again that had no equivalent in the language of Xenon either, “grandson”. It didn’t make it less confusing that the lady had put the word “my” in front of it.

Asher thought about it for a while and he came to think that “daddy” and “grandson” might be ranks in those peoples society. And maybe “grandson” was a really high rank and that was why the old woman was calling him “my grandson” to honour him, the same way in which Ash said “my emperor”, maybe the man he had knocked out was their leader but why would the old woman dare to criticise his temper then? No one on Xenon would dare to openly speak ill of the emperor. And who was “daddy” then as the platinum haired had been under the impression that the sobbing girl had referred as that to the same man. The foreign soldier shoved that topic aside and decided to ask about their hierarchy and ranks later on.

Nodding shortly into the direction of the old woman he spoke again. “I don’t see why anyone would think that I could be a threat unarmed and in such a disgustingly, pathetically weak condition but maybe he misjudged the situation.” He gave the brunette male he had immobilised the benefit of the doubt. “And misjudging a situation can lead to unwanted incidents and consequences; let’s hope he learns from it.”he stated before he turned to the short male again.

“If you still want to offer your help even though I can’t stay to contribute to your society and have to get back home, I will gladly accept it.” He let him know and since there didn’t seem to be concrete danger anymore his body stopped pumping itself full with adrenaline what meant that when the level of adrenaline in his body would sink low enough he would feel the complete and intense pain again. However Ash still didn’t pay his wounds any mind when he went to the bed and put it back at its place again, orderly arranging the pillows and the blanket. “I apologise for throwing your bed, I had to improvise. But I have good news: There is no damage on the bed.” He reported eyes checking the bed that had not taken any damage from the harsh treatment.

Asher went back over to the pieces of the combat suit and collected the parts that once had been his helmet and carried them with him to the bed where he sat down and started to try to repair the helmet as well and it worked at first but when the adrenaline was sinking too low the pieces he tried to put together slipped out of his hands and he felt how his body burned and hurt again and he also realised the sweat that still had been running out of his sweat glands the whole time. At least the pain wasn’t back at its heights just yet and his eyes looked around in the room again, from the man to the elder lady and from the elderly lady to the child and from the child to the unconscious man. This was a really weird constellation of people and he couldn’t think of a purpose one had put this group together for and what they were working on. “I have to say that I have never seen such an odd workgroup like you people. What is your purpose and task? What kind of workgroup are you exactly? And what are those ranks like ‘daddy’ about?”he wanted to know and looked genuinely curious.

January 8, 2018

”...” Calum felt that the man was completely missing the point of what he’d just tried to explain, though he couldn’t deny that there was some amount of truth to his statement. When put into perspective, it could be argued that they helped him because they hoped that the goodwill they’d shown would be reciprocated. Yet there was also a humanitarian aspect to it that the man simply seemed overlook. Helping people wasn’t just about scratching each others backs. it was the right thing to do – a sentiment every child in the village was raised on. As an integrated part of their culture, it couldn’t wholly be explained by logic, and it certainly wasn’t something Calum had ever considered in the past.

The brown haired youth continued to listen to the other man in silence as he explained his reason for not being able to stay. Just like the rest of the man, he couldn’t make much sense of it. He did understand that he desperately wanted to get back home however, which was understandable and Calum could hardly fault him for.

”Of course,” he said with a small nod of his head, ”We never expected you to stay forever in the first place.” That was true. They’d saved him without even knowing who or what he was. As such, their decision had been far from as calculative and thought out as the other seemed the think. It was a bit silly, really, and Calum could feel a small, albeit tired smile tug at the corners of his lips. ”However, whilst you’re here you have to promise that there won’t be a repeat of this.” Again he gestured to his unconscious brother. ”Furthermore, once you’re better, you’ll be expected to help out around the village. In exchange we will do everything in our power to help you return home. Alright?” Perhaps they were going to come to an understanding after all.

By then his grandmother had managed to completely Calm down Anya, who now was watching the stranger with large, uncertain eyes. It was as though she wasn’t quite sure what to make of him, or the situation as a whole. The initial shock had settled, and left was only exhaustion, concern and confusion.

”Will daddy be okay?” She asked in a small voice.

The elderly woman nodded her head, smiling reassuringly. ”He’ll be just fine, sweetie. So don’t you worry your little head about it, alright?” She leaned over to give the girl a gentle kiss on the forehead. Then she let go of her, standing back up before turning her attention towards her younger grandson.

”Calum, would you be a dear and please take your brother to your room?”

Calum nodded his head, heading over to where his brother still laid on the floor. Hooking his arms under and around his shoulders, and not entirely without difficulty, the youth started pulling him across the wooden floor until he reached his room. His brother felt like a huge, heavy sack of potatoes. It wasn’t something he couldn’t handle, however. Although Calum was neither as tall nor as strong as his older brother, he wasn’t exactly weak either. A large part of his daily routines consisted of physically demanding tasks, so he’d done his fair share of heavy lifting. As he worked on lifting his brother onto his bed, he could hear Anya speak up on the other room.

”Daddy is not a rank!” She informed calmly but firmly, ”Daddy is daddy!”

”I have to admit, I’m also not entirely sure what you mean.” His grandmother agreed.

Upon entering the main area, Calum realized that the man had moved again. He was sitting by the heap of junk that was his suit, yet really he looked too exhausted to do anything with it. Calum’s grandmother on the other hand was in the process of filling another cup with water, this time around pouring a few drops from a little flask into it. Calum recognized it as the pain numbing medicine he’d been asked to get earlier.

”I don’t think ’workgroup’ would be the right word to describe us…” She continued, ”The man you attacked is her father. ’Daddy’ is just a more affectionate term for the same thing. Just like my grandchildren and great grandchildren refer to me as their ’nan’.” Heading over to the silver haired man before extending the cup to him. ”Here. It doesn’t taste very good, but it will help against the pain.”

”We’re family.” Calum said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, folding his arms as he leaned against the wall.

January 8, 2018

It surprised him a little that they hadn’t expected to make him a full member of their society and workforce long term and apparently had thought about it as a temporary arrangement, much like a guest-worker. To Ash they wouldn’t get as much out of it as they could especially since they would have to get out of their way to show him how things worked on their planet if he should be of help to them what would take some time and then they were willing to let him go again. But to the soldier himself this was pretty convenient and the deal sounded acceptable. “Agreed.” He said and offered the young male his terribly burned hand – because he had forgotten how it looked now again and hadn’t thought about that the other might not want to touch a hand that looked like his and that was wet from the wounds.

While he rearranged the bed he overheard a conversation between the elderly lady and the girl and apparently the kid was concerned for the life of her comrade whom Asher had knocked out a little too much. She would probably be the weak spot of every unit; she definitely wasn’t a C-type that much was clear to him. He sighed because the girl was eying him that weirdly again and then his deep roaring voice sounded again. “I have not permanently damaged your comrade’s body. Think of it as if I had sent him to sleep if you will. He’ll wake up and be as good as new again even though it’ll take a while.” The foreigner spoke and shrugged it off as if it was not even worth mentioning.

After he had taken the pieces of his helmet and had settled down on the bed again and his hands didn’t really do as he wanted them to he had gone over from trying to repair the helmet to asking the people in the room some questions. The answer he received from the girl was as good as no answer at all. Well, she claimed it wasn’t a rank at least but that a “daddy” was a “daddy” didn’t really explain anything. “Trying to explain a word to someone who doesn’t know its meaning by using the exact same word won’t make the person understand the word and won’t lead to any progress.” The platinum haired commented almost starting to think that asking the earthlings questions would be a waste of time.

That the elderly lady told him she didn’t even understand what he meant wasn’t exactly making him come to a different conclusion but after the brunette male had returned she spoke some more and she did give him an explanation but he didn’t quite understand any of it other than the word “daddy” was an affectionate term for another term he couldn’t gasp the meaning of. But for what rank or status did people use affectionate term and why was an affectionate term even necessary? There were no affectionate terms on Xenon. “Father? Grandchildren? ‘Nan?” he repeated with a questioning face. “What are all those concepts? If they aren’t ranks are they honorifics, titles, some status?” he asked. “And what are affectionate terms good for? Seems useless to me.” The male added seemingly more confused than before.

When the old lady handed him a glass with some gross smelling and weird looking liquid he let J.O.S.H. check it again and the system couldn’t find any poison in it and Asher took it and swallowed it down. The taste was disgusting and it burned in his throat. He gagged and coughed and his face started to feel even hotter. “What in the name of the emperor is this? It’s gross!” he gasped and stuck out his tongue to see if it was still there and hadn’t been burned away by the liquid.

The voice of the green eyed man distracted him from the bad taste he still had in his mouth and he looked as if the other was talking in riddles. “What is a family? What kind of group from what work field is family describing? What is it’s propose and task in society and who put you together in this constellation and why?” the man wanted to know from the short guy now.

January 9, 2018

Was this man even for real? How could he not understand the concept of family or even parents? From what planet in outer space did he hail? The formation of familial units is such an essential part of the human species that Calum found it hard to imagine a world where it didn’t exist at all. It wasn’t just humans, either. Even plants and animals are known to form familial units of sorts. How could the very concept be so alien to the silver haired man? If he hadn’t known better, Calum would almost have thought he was messing with them.

His grandmother and Anya didn’t seem any less baffled by his question, and the trio gazed at him as though he’d completely lost his marbles.

”You don’t know what a family is?” With a frown Calum straightened up from where he’d been leaning against the wall, taking a few steps until he stood directly in front of the stranger. Then he crouched down so that their eyes were more or less on the same level. ”When a man,” first he raised his left index finger, ”and a woman,” the left soon followed, ”have a child,” he put them together, ”they automatically form the unit commonly referred to family. The man in this unit is usually referred to as the father – or dad, as Anya calls hers. The woman is the mother and the child, depending on their gender is the son or daughter. This, of course, is only the most basic definition of the word. In actuality, it’s far more complicated than that…” He trailed off, stroking his chin as he considered how to elaborate on the matter.

”In the example I just provided you, the mother, father and child – or children, in plural, are all related. That doesn’t always have to be the case. I have a close friend who lost his real parents – mother and father – at a very young age. He was raised by two women he now considers his mothers. Though not related by blood, they too are a family…” he paused briefly to check if the stranger was still following along. ”Do you understand what I mean? No one ”puts” families together, really. You’re just kind of born into one and then you have to live with it. Unless you’re adopted like the friend I mentioned.” Technically it could be argued that families were put together by the couples that created them, but Calum already found the topic convoluted enough as it was.

”My old nan over there,” he gestured to the elderly woman with a smile, ”is the mother of my father. So in other words, she’s my grandmother. The man you knocked out has the same parentage as I, so he would be considered my sibling – or brother, as he’s male.”

”I have two siblings!” Anya announced proudly, holding up two of her fingers for everyone to see. ”My little brother Tommen and the baby in mum’s tummy!”

”Yes, that’s true,” Calum agreed with a soft chuckle, reaching out to gently ruffle his niece’s hair.

”As for the purpose of families…” he frowned. Where to even begin explaining that? It is an abstract concept that in and of itself is difficult to define, because it can have so many different meanings ascribed to it. Yet to Calum and most likely the rest of mankind of earth, it seemed like an absolutely vital part of life. It was an essential part of what it meant to be human. But then, would a person who didn’t have a family not be considered human? No, that didn’t sound right. In fact, it didn’t even sound possible. Life doesn’t just come from nothing. So regardless of whether you know your real parents or not, they must have still existed. And regardless of whether you considered them your family or not, they are still your ancestors. As such, on a biological level if nothing else, they are your family. But then there was the definition of the word that was about more than just blood relations. Just because your birth parents brought you into the world, doesn’t mean you have to consider them to be your family. A family is just as much about emotional ties, if not more.

But what was their actual purpose? No matter how hard Calum thought about it, he couldn’t seem to find a suitable answer. Just trying was enough to give him a headache. His grandmother however, seemed to have an answer.

”It is in the human nature to form groups, to live in societies. We, not unlike many other species, are herd animals. Perhaps a family should be looked at from a similiar perspective. A family can be formed both through natural and artifical means, but in the end the implications remain the same. I believe that in ancient times it must have aided us in providing food and shelter. To ward against dangers and in a sense, promote progress, procreation, security and support. In many ways, it still does. The human is weak on her own, but together we stand strong. Family I believe, beyond just a term to describe our ancestry, is the core manifestation of that.”

Listening to his grandmother speak, Calum nodded his head in agreement. ”There has to be something like it where you’re from, right?”

January 9, 2018

Suddenly Asher felt the gazes of three pair of eyes on him and they all stared at him unbelieving as if he had asked or said something completely baffling. “This question is unnecessary as I wouldn’t have asked what a family was if I knew what it was, would I?” he said raising one eyebrow looking at the male who seemed to think that he was not normal even though it was them who clearly were the abnormal ones.

Number 997-361-899-976-7-XY thought the other was trying to mock him when he crouched down next to him and spoke as if he was mentally challenged while explaining something to him with his fingers. His eyes narrowed a little displeased at that but he kept listening regardless and the man’s way to talk soon changed a little.

“So it basically just describes a genetic similarity and connection. This would make the sperm number 2569166872076373 and the egg with the number 7835674310754288 my father and mother and I am family with the people of whose resources I’ve been breed from. It’s a rather needless descriptor as it seems.” He shrugged as this to him appeared to be a weird and loose term to describe the genetic lineage and consistency of a person or at least that was the only thing that Asher understood from what was told.

“Wrong!” he detected a logical fallacy in what the other man was explaining to him. “When family describes the genetic lineage of people and their genetic relationship status to other people within the group it is defined by biology. If your friend’s people of whose sperm and egg he had been breed from are dead he no longer has mother or father. Those unrelated women are not his family; they can’t be his family because there is no genetic relation between them. One also cannot have two mothers this is biologically impossible. You need both sperm and egg to breed a child.” He corrected and then stated:” It’s either defined by genetic lineage or it is not, it can’t have two entirely different and contradictory meanings.”

There was something that struck him with surprise and a little disgust at the same time though and he screwed his nose. “From hearing all of that, would I be right if I concluded that you people follow your low instincts and breed human life uncontrolled and arbitrary however you please? Without checking the genetic constellations and whether they match up or not and what kind of person will come from the breeding and what genes will be passed on? Just like that? Popping out new humans who are likely to be genetically flawed?” he asked and it was obvious that he found that to be a reprehensible, egotistical and criminal act that went against the greater good.

“This is a serious crime on my planet and not without reason. Uncontrolled breeding leads to the decay and the downfall of the species and the national corpus and to impurity. Every toddler understands this. You people definitely should read ‘The Order Of Things’ you could learn a lot from our emperor.” He informed them. ‘The Order Of Things’ was a 6699 pages long book written by Eugen Rochfort, also known as - the emperor and it was filled with his theories of why the human species on earth had gone extinct and how to create the perfect, flawless society to prevent something like this from happening ever again. It was the man’s first book but by far the most popular one and every single person on Xenon owned it and had to read it as soon as they had learned how to read.

Asher listened to the people when they told him about their genetic relations towards each other but he didn’t really understand why this girl seemed so excited about the fact that there were other people who had been breed from the sperm and eggs from the same people. This was something that he didn’t get. He couldn’t see why this had any meaning at all other than genetically. There probably were quite some other C-type people on Xenon who had been designed with either the same kind of sperm or eggs or even both as Ash but he wouldn’t give a ratsass about those people because of it. The soldier also wouldn’t care if he were to meet the people whom those resources had belonged to; they had no meaning to him either.

What the old lady told him made sense to him. Human’s operated in groups within larger groups within even larger groups within giant groups. A family was that, a group. But he found that they took a dumb foundation and reason to form this group. He thought it was much smarter to put people together by analysing their compatibility, their talents, their functionality and how their psychological profiles matched up.

He raised his eyebrows sceptically when the young man told him that there had to be something alike where he was from and he didn’t know why there had to be something as arbitrary and uncontrolled like this that wasn’t even the most efficient. “No!” he shook his head.

“On Xenon all human life comes from and is controlled by project vita. Vita has registered the genetic data of all people of Xenon in their database and its resources come from all available human adults. The system calculates which sperm and which egg from humans of the same type would create the most ideal and best result and the scientist will then genetically engineer a new human with it who is breed in one of vitas artificial wombs. We are breed by machines and to be quite honest the thought of having to be in a woman nine months and being pressed out of her genitals is repulsive to me.” He started his explanation and continued. “Vita assures that there are enough human resources of every type on our planet at all times but not more than we actually need who would be dispensable and a burden then anyway. A-types are the scientist and technologists such as geneticists, chemists, engineers etc. B-types are called the rulers and they become government workers, bureaucrats, judges etc. C-types are the warriors, soldiers, policemen, firemen and so on. Then there are D-types the caretakers such as nurses, E-types are intellectuals like historians or political scientist and so on and F-types are craftsmen of all kind. There is one mix-type though, which are doctors of medicine and I don’t mean medical scientists by that. It turned out that the best doctors are created when you take an A and a D type, hence they are the AD-type.” He let the earthlings know and paused for a second before he continued.

“After we are breed project vita in cooperation with the GAfRCNCP assigns the child two government approved personal coaches, always a male and a female, of the same type - who were put together because their psychological profiles matched up and they will also function in cooperation with the specific child - whose job it is to teach and educate the child until its sixth birthday when it will be given to the governments educational establishment which takes over from thereon until adulthood. The government assigned adults will then get the next child they have to train to be ready for the educational establishment.” He ended his explanation of how raising and breeding worked on their planet.

January 9, 2018

Calum let out a heavy sigh, shifting into a sitting position as he allowed the other to finish speaking. What he had tried to point out as a logical fallacy, was simply common sense to the youth.

”I told you, didn’t I? Family is a word that has many different meanings. Blood ties are only one aspect of the whole. So while you’re correct in saying two women can’t produce a child, they can fill the same role a mother and a father normally would for their biological children. His biological family is dead, yes, but the bond he shared with his adoptive parents is just as strong as it would have been otherwise. That is another aspect of family.” He wasn’t sure that the man even knew what Calum was talking about. His understanding of interpersonal relationships seemed to be worryingly small. At the same time he also didn’t know how to explain it differently. Besides, it wasn’t as though the silver haired man made much of an effort to make sense, either.

Whereas he understood that the other was criticizing their way of reproduction, it seemed kind of idiotic considering that’s the only way of doing it. At least as far as Calum was aware. The silver haired man’s reasoning hardly made the concept sound any more appealing.

”And what’s the problem with flaws?” He asked with a frown, tilting his head to the side. ”Of course we’re flawed. We’re all flawed, but that’s part of what it means to be human. It’s part of what makes us unique. Perfection is awfully subjective, and near impossible to achieve in just about anything. What is the point of pursuing something so incredibly futile, if it means the heart and soul of a society must be sacrificed?” Living in a world where everything was calculated and controlled to a tee sounded absolutely terrifying. A nightmare worse than the monsters crawling in the rubble of the waste. He almost felt sorry for the man. How cold and unfeeling did his homeworld have to be, if he had been made to think this way?

As the silver haired man went on to explain how children were made and raised on his planet, that feeling of unease and sadness only grew. The vast majority of what the man was talking about completely went over his head, but from what he could gather the it seemed like the man was describing an incredibly bleak and depressing existence. A life of which every detail has already planned out. A road with a set beginning and an end, yet nowhere where it could diverge. It sounded like the life of a machine – not a human being. In light of that, he would choose their flawed existence in their broken world anytime. At least it was a world in which people could choose their own path in life. A world in which people could still smile and laugh and love. A world where they were still allowed to be human.

”This… vita system of yours, or whatever it was… I don’t completely understand all of what you just told me, but… it sounds very sad. What is the point of living like a cog in a machine? Where is the joy in having every aspect of your life controlled – from the moment of your creation to the day you draw your last breath? And all that – for what? This emperor you keep bringing up? I’m sorry if I have offended you, I just don’t understand. What is the point of it all?”

January 9, 2018

“But it can’t have two meanings that are contradicting each other at the same time; this doesn’t make any sense at all.” He said and he held in for a moment to think about the bond things. What bond was he talking about? Was it like an oath? An oath like the one he had had to swear on the emperor to fight for Xenon and the emperor (Eugen Rochfort was as clever as paranoid and he bound the soldiers to him so that he was the one their loyalty had to belong to by oath and honour and they couldn’t betray him without losing their honour as soldiers) ? But an oath still wouldn’t replace a missing objective biological component though. “You mean like bond as in oath or vow? But even though he swears the same oath to people who aren’t his family than he would to his family this doesn’t make them his family. The same goes for them acting like his family when they aren’t, an act is an act and reality is reality.” Ash argued.

The blue eyes of the soldier looked as if the other had completely lost his mind in its entirety when he asked what the problems with genetic flaws were. This was so obvious that he felt it was a waste of breath to explain. That was something that was put into every citizen of Xenon’s head from the begin of their life on, something everyone naturally knew. “Genetic flaws – among other things - lead to the decay and degeneration of the population; they are the downfall of the species and end in destruction. The wrong people will breed with the wrong people, the mentally inferior will breed more children than the mentally superior. Additionally good and decent people will have to suffer from painful diseases and genetically conditions that destroy their lives. Uncontrolled reproduction is a crime; it is egotistical and ruins society and goes against the greater good.” He explained and he sounded as if he was repeating something from a textbook that had been hammered into his brain.

“Even if that was true and perfection was unattainable we should improve things, make them greater, make them better every time to make progress and step closer towards it even if we couldn’t reach it in the end. That’s how we evolve further!” Asher said and that he had not read in ‘The Order Of Things’.

The man shook his head at one part of what the other was saying though, again looking as if the other was under some kind of delusion. “A society doesn’t have nor need a heart. Only biological organisms do. And such things as souls do not exist.” The foreigner just said with raised eyebrows still looking at the brunette male as if he was mental.

Asher laid his head a little to the side while he watched the man curiously and interestedly. “Sad? How is vita sad? In what way? I don’t understand?” he asked and he really didn’t understand why the man found the way they were breed sad.

“Keeping control is the most important and irreplaceable thing that keeps a society running efficiently and correctly into the right direction of progress. If control is lost and chaos breaks out the humans will return to self-destructive behaviour and low acts and instincts, crime will return and the species will go extinct again. Control is everything! Maintaining control and discipline over ourselves as well as our cognitive ability is what makes us a highly evolved species that differs from lower life forms that are led by primitive instincts and needs. That makes us different from savages and makes us civilised. Losing control will lead to extinction, suffering and death.” Ash answered his face stoic and serious sounding like a textbook again.

When he heard the other mentioning the emperor in such a way and he didn’t seem to pay the man the honour he deserved his face went cold and stern. “Our emperor is a great and wise man! He is the one who first created the foundation of our glorious society; he saved and protected our people.” He said jumping to the man’s defence as he felt that that had been criticism on the emperor and that was unacceptable. No one was allowed to talk bad about his emperor when he was around!

January 13, 2018

”No, not quite...”

Calum simply shook his head, unable to put into words what he felt at that moment. Was it impatience? Some form of dejection? Or even just frustration at the others inability to understand something Calum felt was so insanely obvious, yet found difficult to explain. They might as well have been speaking two completely different languages. Half the time it actually felt like they did, considering that he didn’t understand many of the words and terms the silver haired male tended to fall back on. Perhaps they lacked equivilent in the language of Calum’s people, or perhaps they were simply too outdated to work. He couldn’t tell for sure, but it certainly didn’t help. In the end, they both seemed to be grasping at straws. Their lack of understanding for each others circumstances prevented them from fully seeing eye to eye – something that became all the more evident as the silver haired man went on to lecture him on ”uncontrolled reproduction”.

He didn’t understand. And really, could he be expected to? The lad had lived his entire life in that small village, only leaving every one in a while to accompany his friends or family on a trip to one of the other towns or villages nearby. He’d never even been to any of the larger cities. So naturally, his knowledge of the world was already extremely limited to begin with. To try imagine a world even beyond that was almost too much for him to process. A world in which people didn’t know what family was and babies were made in machines. Put like that, it almost sounded too absurd to be true. Calum’s image of a machine was after all very different from what the silver haired man was most likely referring to. The man, he realized, had a way with words that made him sound very convincing. If he had taken his grandmothers side on claiming that fairies are real, for a moment at least, Calum might actually have believed him. Surely that was just as unlikely to be true as some of the other nonesense he’d come with. And yet Calum didn’t think he was lying. Especially since he had witnessed with his own eyes how the man fell out of the sky.

”I’m sorry sir, but I still don’t quite understand…” He lowered his head, gazing down at the floor. He felt dumb and it flustered him. It was by no means through any fault of his own. The man spoke with such conviction that Calum, without being able to fully comprehend the others arguments, felt that he was missing out on the bigger picture. It was true that certain people were born with deceases, for example, but as far as he was aware that had nothing to do with who decided to fuck whom. That it happened was just a fact of life – the natural order of things. It was unfortunate, yes, but there was little that could be done about it. Even if this so called ”controlled breeding” was the solution to the problem, it wasn’t as though he understood what it really entailed.

Perhaps sensing Calum’s dampened mood, Hermis decided to softly scratch his owner’s leg with his paw. Glancing up, his lips curled into a small as he reached out to gently pat the dogs head. Satisfied with his response, the dog settled back down, this time around resting his large head on Calum’s lap.

”Although, I do agree that one should always strive to do their best, even if perfection is unattainable.”

When asked why he found vita sad, he paused for a moment to think.

I also agree that some amount of order is nessecary for everything to run smoothly. I mean, our village is run by the chief and the council. Yet there’s definitely a limit to how much of your life should be controlled. The freedom to think for yourself and act accordingly is important. Our emotions, too, are part of us. To have desires, to love, to make mistakes, to feel joy and sadness, even to suffer – they’re all parts of what make us human. If we can’t even have that for the sake of maintaining control, what is it that sets us apart from the relics of civilizations past?” Calum was referring to the machienes he was familiar with. Some of them could think and speak, yet they seemed to lack human emotion. They lacked a soul – the very thing the silver haired man had, in Calum’s mind, wrongfully denied the existence of.

It seemed that by bring up the emperor he had somehow offended the man, because he instantly became defensive about the matter. As a result, Calum hesitated before speaking again.

”I’m... sorry. I had no intentions of upsetting you...” He trailed off, gently continuing to comb through Hermis black furr. ”I was just trying to understand. Though… perhaps it’s okay that I don’t. Just like you don’t understand family and the like. Some things are simply better understood through means of observation than explaination. Perhaps in time, we will be able to see eye to eye.” Calum paused, tilting his head a little to the side as a came to a realization.

”Oh, I’m so sorry. How rude! We never got around to ask... What is your name?”

January 13, 2018

The platinum haired looked at the younger male with one eyebrow raised up and a questioning, awaiting expression sine “No, not quite...” was not exactly a good explanation and didn’t tell him what it was if it wasn’t an oath or a vow and Asher had no idea what else he could have meant. But the brunette apparently didn’t continue talking hence he figured he’d ask since he found it a little unfair to be told that he was wrong about something and then not explained how he was wrong. “If it’s not that, not an oath, what are you talking about then?” he wanted to know the blue eyes still on the short male.

Asher had thought his explanation had been rather good and plausible; hence it was a surprise that the man didn’t seem to fully understand what he had just explained. “What is there not to understand?” he asked not unfriendly though. “It’s genetics.” The man said. “To simplify, not all genes are equally good and bad genes can cause different unwanted outcomes, such as metal illness, retardation or a genetically inherited disease that ruins the life of the person who was born with it and causes said person pain and suffering, even though this person has never done anything to deserve something as horrible as this to happen to them because they are a decent individual. Such things can be prevented through controlling exactly which genes are passed on, which genes are mixed and by engineering them to the most ideal outcome. Clear?” he tried again hoping that the other would now get it.”By controlling the breeding process the society will progress and the people will evolve faster and higher. Uncontrolled breeding has the opposite effect; it will ruin society and make people decay.” He said as this was the stand of Xenon on the subject matter and what he had been taught all his life.

The soldier saw the animal move and was almost about to grab the gun again as the creature, that was a dog as J.O.S.H. had taught him, had wanted to attack him earlier on. He wouldn’t trust this dog anytime soon again, it seemed unstable and deceitful. At first it had played nice and then it had wanted to rip out his throat. With the young man it had decided to be peaceful now though and it even seemed that it somehow cared about the man in an odd way. Ash couldn’t even explain to himself why looking at the scene made him think that this animal seemed to care about the human as this was impossible. This was not how the food animals they breed for the industry had been described to him.

The answer as to why the other found vita was sad was partially a riddle to him again. He had no clue what freedom was supposed to mean, this word had been banned in Xenon for a few centuries already. Asher had no idea about freedom or what being free meant and even if he would read a definition of the word he would probably not be able to gasp its actual meaning because he had never been free in anyway. There was no freedom or self-determination on his planet. Who they were , what they were, how they lived, where they lived, what they ate and drank all of that was determined by the government in cooperation with project vita who calculated the most ideal scenario in which the person would be the most useful and efficient to Xenon, society and the greater good.

He snorted as the man was trying to paint inherently negative things such as human’s desires as positive things.

“Desire, love, mistakes, sadness, emotions those are all things that make people become destructive and dysfunctional, they are cancer to society and humankind, they eat them alive and make them become vain, egotistical vermin and turn society into a decadent cesspool where the low instincts and primitive needs rule over reason and intelligence and where humans are degraded to thoughtless beings who commit despicable acts in the name of their desires, wants, demands, believes and feelings. Those things are incredibly dangerous; they lead to crime, to murder, to insanity and if you let them rule uncontrolled, everything will go to shit.” Asher commented a little baffled at how someone could even have the idea that something like this would be good and worthwhile. Xenon had as good as no crime, it was an incredibly secure and safe planet and those criminals they had were mostly those who had dared to criticise the government or have committed a crime like uncontrolled breeding. In most cases those people hadn’t even attempted to break the law and breed a child but it had accidentally happened as they had given in to their instincts and had had sex with each other instead of using the device the health care system provided for them. For mere sex alone without reproducing no one was arrested though, they just had to pay a fine for being impure and deemed a health and hygiene threat now. If the government found out about their sexual activity they were locked away in quarantine until it really was proven that they had no sexually transmitted diseases they could infect others with. If they had, they would not let them out of quarantine ever again.

The blue eyes were still locked on the green ones of the younger male. “However, what does freedom mean and what ancient relics are you even talking about?” he wanted to know.

When he was asked his name he needed a while until he understood that by name they meant his identification number and code. “I am number 997-361-899-976-7-XY, simplified identification code: Asher!” he introduced himself. “And what is your identification number and code?” he asked the man in return since the other had said it had been rude to not ask him his identification code, Ash concluded that the man might find it rude from Asher then if he didn’t ask him his in return.

January 15, 2018

Calum shook his head once more. ”I’m sorry, I don’t know how else to explain it. I don’t know… have you ever… felt that you care for another person so deeply, you’d want to protect them with everything you’ve got? Or simply felt a really strong, special connection to that person? That being around them makes you feel safe and happy? Obviously not everyone enjoys this kind of relationship with their biological parents and siblings, but it’s usually the sort of thing associated with familial bonds. Though the gods dictate that one should not speak ill of the people who brought them into this world, I believe that bond is far more important than blood ties. Which is why Jack and his mothers can still be considered a family. Does that make more sense to you?” Had he known what Asher would say about feelings only a shortly thereafter, perhaps he would have chosen his words differently. Or perhaps he would just have been too perplexed to even answer his question at all.

As the man made yet another attempt at explaining and justifying the way of his planet, Calum listened in silence. After thinking about it for a while, he felt that at least some aspects of it made sense.

”Oh,” he said, ”I think I sort of get it. We kind of do something similar when breeding cattle. Choosing the male and female according to what traits we want to see passed down to the offspring, I mean. Dogs, too. Hermis here is a herding animal, so he’s really good at working with sheep.” He announced proudly, gently patting the dogs head. Yet then the implications of it all began to sink in and his smile faded. It sounded awful, if not worse than what he had already imagined. Why would anyone want to live like that? It felt that the people in this man’s world were treated more like objects than actual human beings. So incredibly cold and sterile. ”What I don’t understand is how this controlled breeding is meant to prevent sickness. Even if the parents are perfectly healthy, not always will the offspring be born without problems. There’s no way to know that sort of thing in advance.” After all, the kind of technology the other man was referring to was far beyond Calum’s scope of understanding. Just as the youth wasn’t quite able to grasp some of the terminology the older male insisted on using.

”...” The others counter arguments came down like a shower of bullets, every word that followed hitting harder than the former. Listening to him, it almost felt like he was insulting their very way of living. There was a good chance he didn’t really mean it as such, but he still came off as outlandish, rude and a bit hypocritical. If the man had not displayed any emotions at all, perhaps Calum would have been able to see where he was coming from. That wasn’t the case. He had shown dismay in response to some of Calum’s suggestions. Even more so in reaction to his brother. In fact, if it wasn’t fear that had caused the man to attack earlier – then what was it? Surely not logic, because in that case he would have been able to see both sides of the argument. He had also displayed some form of affection when he spoke about the emperor, and anger when he felt that Calum had insulted the man. So clearly he was hardly different from any other human being. Perhaps he was confusing the word ’emotion’ with something else? That was the only viable explanation Calum could think of.

”But… it’s not like we can choose whether to have emotions or not, right? What we feel is out of our controle. It is true that we can try to ignore our emotions, we can suppress them for some time – that too is part of being human… but it’s almost never the healthiest option. Of course you shouldn’t let your feelings dictate your every action – that would be dumb. But you also shouldn’t just ignore them. If anything, that runs a even higher risk of leading to madness. It sure as heck won’t lead to happiness…” he trailed off, pausing for a brief moment to think. ”It’s not like you’re an exception, either. You seem to feel plenty. You show it, too, whether you intend to or not. And sure, having emotions can lead to negativity. Yet it can also lead to happiness of equal measure. You can’t really appreciate one without understanding the other. It’s all about maintaining a certain balance. Logic and emotions. Sadness and happiness. In a way you could say that life is like walking a tightrope.”

By now, Calum should have expected to be asked about the meaning of freedom, and yet when the question came he still felt a little baffled. Of course he didn’t understand freedom. The world he came from seemed to have none of it. It was a difficult question to answer, but Calum still decided to give it a try.

”Freedom is… crossly speaking, the ability to act, think and speak as you want. It is the ability to take your life in your own hands, and make decisions independently from anything or anyone else. In a way it can be equally frightening as it can be empowering. Freedom without responsibility is dangerous. But just as it is with everything else, it is all about maintaining a balance. Do you understand?”

Calum paused, clearly thrown off by the others reply. His name was very long and… strange. He didn’t know how else to put it and he certainly wouldn’t be able to memorize it, either.

”That’s… a mouthful. I think I’ll just have to call you Asher.” Then he frowned, clearly confused. ”What is an identification number?”

January 16, 2018

The foreigner looked deeply reflective when he was asked whether he had felt all those things for a person and there was nothing that came up at first but when he dug deeper and didn’t take it too literately he realised that some of that he felt in some way for the emperor and their planet, their planet was not a person though so he focussed on the emperor. He would fight for him and protect him against everything and with his own life, he admired him and whenever he had seen him giving a speech he had felt safe and taken care of by their leader and when he had gotten the personal invitation by that man his heart rate had risen, he had felt funny and he had been incredibly proud, honoured, happy and nervous at the same time. Being acknowledged by him and making him proud was what he wanted to do but Ash was sure that this was how everybody on their planet felt about the emperor. Was it that the other was talking about? “I would give my life for my emperor and our glorious planet and keep our people safe, as does every soldier of Xenon! However I don’t give a ratsass about the resources I was produced from. Is it that what you mean? But I don’t understand how that could make the emperor and my countrymen my family as I wasn’t produced from their resources. How can this, bond you call it, be seen as an equivalent and be called the same thing as a genetic relation because those are two separate things. You said it yourself; the genetic connection that determines the family line doesn’t always provide those bonds, so there should be separate terms, one for those bonds and one for the genetic linage. Otherwise it’s just confusing two separate things.” The man still had his troubles understanding this as he was used to very clear-cut, mostly scientific or technological definitions of terminology that could not mean one or the other but only meant one thing.

When Asher heard him say that the so called “gods” would dictate them something the alarm in his head was activated immediately and he sat up straight, his face stern, his eyes narrowed as he was getting both physical and mental distance between him and that man or should he rather call him a savage repellent time bomb! “There are no gods! Having the audacity to lie in such a disgusting way to manifest gross barbaric morale codes into people’s minds and to oppress and slaughter those who don’t believe in this delusion is true evil. Religious ideologies and indoctrinations are pure poison to humanity, the beginning of the end. Religion gives birth to atrocities and humans infected by it are no longer normal thinking humans and have become a danger to all human life and civilisation. There is nothing more reprehensible, dangerous and subhuman than religious ideologies and their fanatic brainwashed believers!” he spit out and it was clear how much he despised religion and religious people. Religious ideologies had been eliminated on Xenon and getting or holding religious ideas was the most severe crime always punished by death. Defending religion, religious people or saying that it was anything else but pure evil and poison without being a religious person oneself got one a life sentence in solitary confinement.

There was pure hatred in the soldier for religious ideologies even though he was lucky enough to have never witnessed or been in contact with religious lunatics before but he sure knew all about it there was to know from ‘The Hordes Of Evil’ written by Eugen Rochfort. Other than ‘The Order Of Things’ their emperor’s book ‘The Hordes Of Evil’ solely surrounded the subject of religion and religious people and was much more personal as it contained his memories and personal experiences from earth. There was nothing Eugen Rochfort hated more than religions and religious people, no matter which religion, and the man had a reason to do so considering the atrocities described in the book that also contained horrible imagery of the crimes and doings of foreign religious hordes that had overtaken Rochfort’s home country. There also was a chapter that described how they had murdered the man’s parents and brutally raped his sister for being infidels while the youngest, him, had managed to escape. This book was read to the children of Xenon even before they were able to read themselves, it was mandatory and the emperor stressed that topic a lot, he wanted every citizen of their nation to truly despise religion, he wanted them to hate it so that something like this would never exist and destroy Xenon as it had destroyed his homeland on earth. And the people’s hate was successfully directed onto religious ideologies, Asher’s was too.

The platinum haired was now definitely more sceptical and distant but when he heard the other saying that he didn’t understand how this could prevent sickness Asher looked as if the other wanted to fool him again. “Through genetic engineering, I already said that.” He just answered shortly and in a colder tone than he had spoken before. The “god” thing truly bugged him. What if Ash would end up getting burned alive here like those Christian people had done it to people in the middle ages? He had already been burned and had survive he didn’t want to burn to death now.

Apparently the other man didn’t want to burn him or blow him up in the name of his god though and continued to talk to him as they had done before and he managed to surprise him again so that his mind was able to let go of the religion thing at least for now and the distance he had shown him in response to the “the gods dictate” comment was replaced by confusion again. Ash raised an eyebrow and studied the man’s expression. What had the soldier to do with any of that? Why was he even throwing him into the conversation now? This was not about him after all. Did the man feel personally insulted by what the foreigner had said before? Why? It hadn’t been personal to him. The platinum blond didn’t really understand and he wasn’t exactly tactful, nor was he any good at considering other people’s perspectives and feelings. This was not an ability that he needed; he was neither a politician nor a caretaker. Actually those traits were not ideal for soldiers like Ash who were supposed to eliminate and defeat the other side and not empathise with them in anyway, that would actually be bad for his work field and it was discouraged, so the man usually just said how he saw it and was by no means soft spoken or considerate with his words.

“So? What do I have to do with anything?” he asked curiously. “I have a certain capacity of emotions that is correct. I never said I had not did I? Our scientists try to minimise both emotions and low instincts in people. To a degree this works and shows good results already but we are not as highly evolved yet that we won’t have any emotions or low instincts. It might disappoint you but I have a sex drive too. The fact that I harbour destructive potential within me doesn’t make said potential less dangerous or destructive though and is no argument against the statement I just made. You basically just said: ‘But you’re scum too’ that’s all, doesn’t prove me wrong though.” He answered to that. “However the difference is that my destructive potential had been directed and wired and is kept under strict control. Emotions are dangerous and can easily make a person dysfunctional, hence the government in cooperation with vita makes sure that people’s emotions are strictly directed so that they feel the right thing about the right topic, idea, event and person, we are trained like this from birth on so that our negative traits are used efficiently and beneficial to society instead of letting them run free and become destructive and chaotic. Whether our emotions are stable and we feel the right emotions about the right things is tested regularly to check whether we’re stable or not and who might be a threat to our planets security.” The man explained. The testing was long and it was complicated and the people’s emotions and thoughts were rated and analysed partially by machines partially by psychiatrist and scientists and all data was secured in the governments database so that they knew exactly how the people thought and felt about what, to maintain control over their emotions, which was seen as important. Loving the emperor was right for example and highly encouraged, a man like Asher who was almost in love with him got a good ranking, hating religion was also seen as ideal and right, so was being disgusted by uncontrolled breeding, whereas not loving the emperor and merely thinking he was okay, only disliking religion and being indifferent about uncontrolled breeding was already considered a risk and the person was “retrained” in a government facility.

When introduced to the concept of freedom it was as if the word “ERROR” flashed up on his mind again and again and again and for a moment from the way he looked one could have sworn the man needed a completely new hardware now. He couldn’t imagine a place where humans were allowed to do what they wanted or allowed to want something..... Humans were by nature irresponsible, if one let them make decisions on their own, let them have wants and desires they made wrong and self-destructive as well as egotistical decisions. He had heard and read about many examples of that. “This sounds terrible! Who would like to live in such a world?” he asked into the room not directed at anyone in particular the whole concept just completely baffled him and put him off.

The comment about his identification number didn’t bother him, he had no feelings about said number and he didn’t know anyone who cared about their number or code. He shrugged when the other said he was going to call him Asher. “That’s what the simplified identification code is for in the first place, to simplify communication.” The man told the other before he got a question that made his eyes widen in surprise once more. “A name is the identification number and the identification code or is it not? If it’s not I probably don’t have one. Unless a name is something genetic like a family, then maybe I have it after all.” The soldier answered clearly still confused.

January 26, 2018

Asher had a point. Even though it had seemed like such an extremely simple thing to do at first, the definition of ’family’ was very difficult to discern. It certainly didn’t help that the word could have entirely different meanings depending on who you asked or how you chose to look at it. It almost felt as though the harder he tried to explain it, the more convoluted the subject matter became.

”Perhaps,” he said, smiling sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head, ”there [ı]are[/i] seperate words for those two things. I’m just not familiar with them.” It was a viable suggestion. After all, there were plenty of things he didn’t know. Books were expensive and hard to come by, and many of villagers couldn’t read anyway so the interest in them was low. His grandmother was a priestess so she needed to be able to read – yet precisely because of that most of the scriptures in her possession were limited to information about the faith and medicine. She had made sure to teach both Sasha and Calum how to read, but Calum had to admit that it wasn’t one of his strongest skills. He kept mixing words and letters up in his head – though he was surprisingly good at memorizing things once he had gotten the hang of them.

He shook his head in response to Asher’s question.

”I’m not sure, it doesn’t seem quite the same. Perhaps they evoke similar feelings, though…”

Calum didn’t fail to notice the slight shift in the others behavior. He couldn’t really put his finger on what had caused it, but it had happened right around the time he mentioned that one shouldn’t speak ill of their parents, which to Calum hardly made any sense. Why would a man who had no concept of family get upset over something so trivial? It never occured to Calum that he might have been reacting to his mention of higher powers. At least, not until Asher opened his mouth and made his thoughts clear on the matter.

The brown haired youth was completely thrown off guard, and less than thrilled about this development. Not only because he had just denounced the existence of their gods, but also because he knew his grandmother – the priestess of Myre was listening.

Moving his gaze towards where she was standing with Anya by the stove, he realized that the two had already started to prepare dinner, both of their backs turned on them. Calum had simply been too distracted by his conversation with Asher to notice. And it seemed that his grandmother paid equally little notice to them – seemed being the key word. Though she didn’t react to Asher’s words and continued to speak quietly to her granddaughter, Calum was well aware that she’d heard every single word. She wasn’t going to be angry, he knew that for sure. Yet it still made him a bit uncomfortable. The gods were fickle and their punishments could be harsh – it was unwise to anger them, that was something everyone was taught early on.

He attempted to brush the situation over with an uncertain smile.

The amount of strange words the other kept using was really not making things easier. It wasn’t as though he was a fanatic believer or anything. Calum had always been a bit sceptic about some of the myths and tales, but he still respected them. And there was a part of him, however small, that did believe in them, They were an explanation to some of the things they couldn’t otherwise understand, and a ray of hope in a world of darkness. Having that questioned didn’t sit too well with Calum, though surprisingly, it didn’t make him angry or upset. He just stared at Asher in confusion.

”What do you mean? I don’t understand. Of course they exist…” He seemed entirely convinced of that, his expression somber and his tone serious, ”Harming other human beings goes against their teachings. And to go against their teachings is like asking for trouble.” Although admittedly, they had no rules that forbade anyone from denying their existence. To most the gods were simply such an ingrained part of their culture, that they hadn’t even consider the alternative. That was why words that belonged to the meta narrative like ”religion” and ”ideology” confused him. He’d never been taught to think about and analyze their way of living in a wider scope. It simply wasn’t necessary for survival. Perhaps the Scholars from Kalua would have understood the stranger better.

Calum was relieved to move on with the conversation, because Asher’s outburst had been rather unpleasant – uncomfortable even. Though Calum wouldn’t admit it, it also felt nice not to be the only one who was confused. This time around, they seemed to stand on equal ground.

”I don’t know.” He said, ”That’s why I asked you what an identification number is. If people mostly call you Asher, though, I’d assume that’s your name…”

January 27, 2018

Looking at the younger male he nodded when the earthling suggested that there might actually be different words for those different phenomenons he might not be aware of. This was possible and it was enough for Asher to let the topic of semantics and the meaning of the word family rest. However when he heard that what he felt for the emperor wasn’t the bond he had meant it left him curious to understand what kind of bond it was then if it wasn’t that. He knew that it would only lead to them going in circles if he asked about that more again so he left it alone as well and maybe he would come to understand what the other had meant during his time on their planet or not.

His hands clenched into fists, he snorted condescendingly and his blue eyes were narrowed to small slits that glared at the brunette dismissingly and as if he had detected and identified a mortal enemy, a monster, the dirty stain that tortured and poisoned humanity and that was sickening them and he, as a Xenonian, was the born saviour, the one to free their species from this cancer, when the other had the audacity to say that gods certainly existed. “There is no god!” he barked and it came from deep down of his lungs and his voice sounded like an earthquake. “People have invented gods and the so called rules of gods to force them into what they personally deemed as morally correct, to call themselves superior over those who are not infected by those retarded, disgusting believes and who don’t submit to a chimera create by other people to turn them into insane fools, to kill, slaughter, murder and terrorise in the name of their insanity that aims for world domination and accepts no one who doesn’t adhere to this nonsense. And of course to come up with ridiculous spurious unrealistic and false explanations to things the people of barbaric, savage, primitive, underdeveloped societies can’t understand because they don’t possess any knowledge, don’t know how to do research and have no understanding of science and scientific methods. Whenever such barbaric primitives spread and invade other nations and civilisations they will destroy said nations, destroy all progress, throw it back thousands of years and turn it into the same kind of shithole they came from.” Asher went on something that was definitely a rant but had something from a speech as well and most of this was coming from what he had learned from the ‘Hordes of Evil’ and when thinking of religion there always were those pictures from the book coming to his mind. Innocent people blown into pieces in concert halls, gangs of religious people raping women in the streets, beheadings of unbelievers and then there was what they had done with the emperors living group even though there were no pictures of that.

On Xenon Asher would now arrest and denounce that man, drag him to the division for inner security for interrogation and they would turn on the alarm and shut down everything while the troops of the division would search everything and everywhere for religious scripts and symbols, whether other people were infected so that they could arrest them too After the interrogation there would be a trial with Eugen Rochfort as the judge, that would be held publically on the huge gigantic square of their world’s capital, the emperor would give a speech and then the religious lunatic would be sentenced to death and immediately eliminated before the eyes of the public and their death would save the lives of millions of people who would have all been murdered, tortured or raped if the religion was allowed to spread.

The platinum blond soldier was expecting to get attacked, the people described in ‘Hordes of Evil’ would definitely try to take Asher’s life now for denying the existence of their god and for insulting their disgusting ideology and he expected this young man to try exactly this now but there was an odd thing going on that made him once again question whether J.O.S.H. had been severely damaged. The man’s body and data didn’t show signs of anger or aggression that was only his own body that was once again pumped full of adrenaline, ready to fight for his life.

This time his snort came out mockingly when the other did something that was described as typical for religious lunatics to do, telling that their religions forbid harming other people. It was a trick because those religions only said to not harm the followers of the religion, with other people there was clear instructions to kill and harm them and that was in no way forbidden. “As long as they do believe in the same bullshit fantasy stories that is! If they are non-believers or don’t believe in the right bullshit you shall kill them wherever you find them. I know everything about this, everything, it has been well documented, I have seen it! You won’t fool me.” He hissed looking at the young man and then on the data J.O.S.H. showed for him. He blinked, looked again, blinked again, looked again. The system still didn’t classify the man as a potential threat and it baffled him and he couldn’t understand why at all.

But somehow this calmed him down slowly and his hands opened as his body relaxed again. He couldn’t wrap his head around this, this was not how a fanatic religious person was supposed to act. Then he realised that the ones who had killed off the emperors living group had been those called Islamists and they had only had one god, just like the Christians who had burned people alive in the middle-ages had only had one god as well but this bloke had talked about more than one god. However this shouldn’t have mattered. All religion was the same and always ended up violent against those who didn’t adhere to it or wasn’t it? Of course it was.

How many people were religious and believed in such insanity at least showed whether it was a primitive nation or not. The less religious the people were the higher the chance for a progressive, scientifically and technologically advanced society. And if everyone in this place believed in gods and religion he must have landed in a true shithole here. Was every place on earth like that or had he had bad luck? Somehow he wasn’t too thrilled on going outside of the house anymore. What if it looked worse? They probably had disgusting diseases one could infect oneself with. What was if they had no proper sanitary system and it stank everywhere? His mind was coming up with a lot of horrifying scenarios for a Xenonian even though this was better than getting all angry about religion. It even made him remember this one time where he had been stationed on this planet they were supposed to conquer what they had managed to in less than a week because it had been incredibly primitive and he had asked himself the whole time what they even wanted with this useless gross place – it had been about resources he had gotten to know later - and all he had gotten from this planet had been an infect, the only infect he had ever had and it had felt so degrading, humiliating and undignified throwing up all the time, being a weak sweaty mess, shivering constantly and needing someone to take care not to mention that staying in quarantine for two whole month even though the infect itself had only taken him two weeks to fully recover from had been a pain in the arse as well. He didn’t want to have an infect ever again so this place better was not such a shithole as this planet had been.

It was much less agitating to talk about his identification number and code and it also distracted him from what was going on in his mind. “They do. So if a name is what you are called by people this is probably right. What do the people call you then?” he formulated his question differently and he felt how he was getting exhausted as his destroyed body didn’t have enough energy to rage about religion and worry about low living standards and infects.

The World Beyond [Gladis&Hideki](Private)

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