Lives Of The Unknown Book 1: The Legend of Andrew Lockeford (19 page)

“I should’ve done this sooner.”
Voriaku pulled out a syringe and injected Andrew with a
sedative.

“AAA
AAGGGgghhhh……”

“Too bad you won’t feel as much pain
from now on, but at least you won’t overreact again. And just for
the record, that hupac is still in the meat locker.”

Andrew hung from the wall in
disappointment. He was still upset about Voriaku treating him and
the hupac as meat, but instead of acting out in a fit of rage, he
hanged motionless in a daze of depression and sorrow—not quite
enough to make him cry, however.

“We’ve got another hour together, so
we should get started with some Q&A. However, I cannot keep you
alive for much longer than that, because otherwise I would be
wasting the commander’s time, and well….let’s just say I wouldn’t
be lieutenant anymore.”

Andrew focused his eyes onto
Voriaku’s, not in much of a daze now, but still unwilling to rebel
again.

“So let the changes commence. And remember this, now
and for eternity: it’s not the end, it’s just the beginning.”

Chapter 19

“Why is control such a big key for
being intelligent?” inquired Andrew.

“Because,” Voriaku replied, “the more
intelligence people have, the more likely they are to use that
intelligence towards what they want. Nobody wants to be cold and
hungry with no shelter to stay in—not even animals. But unlike wild
animals, who just have to deal with it, intel-beings can use their
intelligence and their hands—or whatever they use to pick up
tools—to their advantage. When we have control of our hunger and
our immediate environment, we are able to satisfy our basic needs.
But once that is satisfied, we want more. We ultimately want
everything for ourselves, and the best way to achieve that is
through controlling what we desire.

“We seek out what pleases us, and we
want to eliminate anything that does the opposite. We want to keep
people that we like, and we want to get rid of those that we
disapprove of. We want to stay well fed, safe, comfortable, and
most of all, in control; we want the power to make our lives easy
and satisfactory. But what we want more is to not have that taken
away once we have it. Once we have power, we want to keep it, and
we forget what it’s like to live without it. We fear that something
terrible will happen to us if we are deprived of power and control,
and that we can never be so comfortable and satisfied again. So now
we have to use our power in a way so that we don’t lose it. We must
fully control what we already have so that it never escapes our
grasp. People that will never think differently, a constant means
of food and water, a government that never falls out of power,
etcetera, etcetera. Now that’s a strange loop: using power to keep
power.”

“What about free will? You know, the
freedom to do what you want?”

“That’s another thing achieved with
power and control. With the right amount of power, we can do
anything we want.”

“But that’s only for
those
with
control! What about the intel-beings who have to do your
bidding?”

“Huh? Oh, the public? We control them
out of their own accord—they want us to have the power. You see,
with great power comes great responsibility—everybody knows that.
The public doesn’t want to bear that much responsibility, so they
let us officials keep our positions, as long as they’re
satisfied.”

“So would that make the ‘regular’
people savages and not intel-beings?”

“Oh, no, although I do know where
you’re coming from. The people within society do not have much
control individually, but if they were all to become unhappy about
something that we do, then they would have the capacity to
overpower us. Like trying to control a giant dragon—it’s best to
understand its behavior and control it accordingly rather than
simply forcing it into a cage. There’s always the chance that it
could escape the cage.”

How did Voriaku know what a dragon
was? Was there an alien planet on which dragons actually existed?
Or did he just study human folklore enough to realize the
idea?

Dragons aside, Andrew said, “Let me
get this straight—you are a species that uses a totalitarian
government to control everything, including people, so that nothing
goes out of your favor?”

“I never actually mentioned
totalitarianism, although that sounds about right. The Selentors
are a species ruled by High Leader Rolpjym, and I personally enjoy
everything that he does. Sometimes he asks the people what they
want, then he gives it to them as long as his power does not
diminish as a result.”

“Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of
having absolute control as a ruler? Isn’t there some minority who’s
bound to be dissatisfied with what your ‘high leader’ does? As
though they would try to do something to drive you out of
power?”

“Oh, please. A few
people aren’t going to make a difference. The people are either too
ignorant or comfortable to do anything, or even if they did feel
dissatisfied, they would be too intimidated to take us on. I know
so because the dictatorship of the High Leader has remained strong
for
millions
of
years. How long have you said humans had government? Thousands of
years?”

Andrew remained silent.

“Ooh, and now that I think about it,
it’s time to take off another limb.” And so, Voriaku pushed himself
out of the beam, activated his plasma blade, and sliced off
Andrew’s left calve; he had once again screamed for a few seconds
while the pain endured for several minutes. The tractor beam that
was once holding Andrew’s left calve to the wall had moved up to
his thigh; if his entire leg was removed, then the beam would
altogether disappear—at least until the leg grew back.

Voriaku force-fed Andrew another
quick-regeneration liquid that spawned the calve and foot once
more. The tractor beam moved back down to the ankle, and the
Selentor moved back into his beam.

“By the way, I won’t risk cutting your
arms off—that would increase your chances of coming off of the wall
and escaping. Anyway, I believe you said that humans had government
for thousands of years. What kind of government does your planet
have now?”

Andrew kept his mouth shut, not
wanting to say anything that might lead to another limb being taken
off. Even if he wanted to speak, he would have a hard time doing
so, being distracted by the pain in his leg.

“I can tell you’re afraid to speak. It
won’t matter whether you speak your mind or not—I have to inflict
pain on you periodically for the sake of the Commander. So
talk!”

Andrew hesitated for a few seconds,
then said, “….The Earth doesn’t have just a single government…. We
have several that take control of each piece of the planet….and
each piece is known as a ‘country.’”

Voriaku groaned. “You humans don’t
even have a unified planet? There’s another thing! You savages have
neither the power nor the will yet to connect your species as a
whole!”

“What are you talking about? We could
if we wanted to, but we just….choose to accept our differences. We
don’t need to overpower each other!”

“You’re
wrong,
again
.
Deep inside the hearts of every being is the desire for power and
control. Inevitably, someone is going to take the opportunity and
make themselves the dominant world power. It could take fifty
years, or a million, but it
will
happen! It always has, for every species in the
universe. Every single intelligent species in this universe had
unified their own selves as one!”

Andrew suddenly thought about the
AOIB; he didn’t know what exactly their government was, but since
there were those representatives at the meetings, each a different
species, and the fact that there was a President and
Vice-President, he had to guess that it was a Republic. Just like
the United States of America. “So, what about the AOIB?” he asked.
“Are they totalitarian?”

“Well, of course they are! But that
doesn’t mean that they’re the same as us Selentors. They’ve been
going against so many of our pursuits, and we’ve been trying to get
an edge on them for too long!”

“They never treated me like a slave,
though, or even as an inferior.”

“They were just hiding the truth until
a later time. Tell me, has anyone from that group called you an
intel-being?”

Andrew was tempted to say “Yes” right
away, but then a series of doubts entered his mind. Juvir never did
call him an intel-being, although he had often used the term for
himself and every other alien in that place. He had even remembered
what Anzem was just about to say before he was shot in the head.
When Andrew yelled at Anzem about whether he, the human, had rights
or not, it had suddenly occurred to him that Anzem was just about
to say “No.”

“Do you realize,” said Voriaku, “that
perhaps the reason why they seemed so great to you was because
their opinions happened to seem similar to yours? If you were to
suddenly disagree with something they had decided, they would
surely not let you keep that opinion. They may be different, but
ultimately they are not that different from us.”

Andrew’s spirit began to diminish some
more. His hope, the organization of aliens that seemed to advocate
freedom and peace in the universe, was now discovered to be more
like the power-driven Selentors than he thought.

“You know, this pleases me in a way—to
know that our enemies are just as much intel-beings as we
are!”

“So….why are you enemies with
them?”

“One, because they
deny the fact that they
are
totalitarian, that they call themselves a
“democracy,” even though martial law is heavily prevalent on their
planets.” This struck Andrew’s interest. Is that what would have
awaited him if he took the technical training? He had never seen
much of Ku-an Doel outside of the AOIB headquarters, after all.
That, and outside of the giant shield volcano. Why did they let him
choose to train at the volcano, ultimately? Did they think he was
just going to die?

“Two, because they don’t want us to go
anywhere near Earth, or any of the other ‘forbidden planets.’ They
made us sign a treaty that said, ‘any contact with underdeveloped
species would lead to corruption for such species.’ Getting savages
to know the real universe isn’t going to corrupt them.

“Three, because of a
fucking religion! Do you know that they still believe in a
supernatural being outside of the universe? They call it “Yhn,” and
they act as though they should be good while they’re alive, because
somehow they will be rewarded by this guy when they’re dead. You
know what reward
you’re
getting for being good? Eaten by us intel-beings
as a gourmet dish.”

Andrew winced in first response to
these words, but then he realized something. “Hey, didn’t you say
that when people die stupid, then they are forever
stupid?”

“Your point?”

“Well, aren’t you’re essentially
saying that people do live on, in a way, after death?”

“No, I never said that, nor did I mean
that!”

“Yes! Yes you did! You’re a
hypocrite!”

“No I’m not!”

“You know what else you’ve been
contradictory about? You said earlier that the point of torturing
me was to change me into an intel-being, and yet you also said that
you were going to eat me once I’m dead! You would be eating an
intel-being, which is against your beliefs!”

“SHUT UP!!! You’re
too cocky!
”

Voriaku lurched out
of the beam, drew out the plasma blade, and instead of taking off a
limb, he struck the weapon several times onto Andrew’s chest. He
ended up with a torso covered in blood, both fresh and dried, and
torn all the way down to his ribs. Andrew could feel
everything
there.
Voriaku then drove his fingers through Andrew’s ribs and touched
his heart. The human could feel this, and he was about to faint
from what seemed to be something out of a horror
movie.

“I can kill you instantly by piercing
my fingers into your heart. You ought to not be so defiant next
time.” He then took out his fingers and force-fed Andrew another
bottle of the dark purple liquid. Andrew’s flesh and blood had
regenerated back onto his torso, but he was starting to feel very
weak. One human only has so much energy to endure such rapid
regeneration for so long.

Andrew dared not speak for as long as
he could.

“Hey, are you still
listening to me? Say
something
,
already.”

The human dangling from the wall
closed his eyes and shook his head slightly, still bound at the
neck by a tractor beam.

Voriaku responded to this with a
smirk. He then took out another syringe, this time with a clear
liquid, and injected it into Andrew’s neck. He suddenly found
himself saying, “I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna speak!” even
though he meant to keep it to himself.