"There's No Fate But What We Make For Ourselves"

[McFly 0]

McFly stands at a distance watching the Oppoian people. He’s yet to talk with them but it’s become apparent that his team has become familiar with at least one of them. The one called Connor seems to have an answer for everything. Perhaps he can answer what exactly happened here. Hmm, interesting name, Connor, at least for an alien species.

 

McFly starts walking up to Connor but he seems jumpy, jittery. “Look I’ve had enough of you people! It’s quite fine if you don’t want to listen to me, you seem very capable of figuring out how to kill yourselves all on your own.”

 

McFly stops short of reaching Connor. “Yeah I admit, desperation and suicide look very similar in certain situations. Can we talk for a minute? Just you and me.”

 

Connor hesitates, thinking it over. One of them has already hit him what’s this one going to do? But against his better judgment he gets up and joins McFly.

 

The two of them walk over to a private area. Let’s just say it smells worse than the rest of the camp. McFly breaks the awkward silence and extends his hand, “I never got your name.”

 

“Connor, John Connor.” He says completely ignoring McFly’s hand.

 

McFly thinks; Really? “Alright, well first let me just apologize for my officers’ behavior-”

 

“Save it,” He interrupts, “I’ve already heard it from him. Some apology too.”

 

“Yeah don’t put too much thought into it, he’s just… confused.”

 

“About what?”

 

“Uh, you know… life, the universe, everything.”

 

Connor folds his arms, cocks his head to one side and stares down McFly.

 

“Alright forget about all that. I just want some answers about what happened here.”

 

“Fine,” Said Connor. “Tell me who you people are.”

 

“But… but I asked you first.”

 

“I don’t care.”

 

“Look we came here to help you.”

 

“And you’re doing a wonderful job of it. But first I want to know who you people are and where you came from. It’s obvious you’re not from this planet so if you don’t mind I just want a little indulgence.”

 

McFly thinks it over. “And how do I know I can trust you?”

 

“You don’t.” Replied Connor. “But if you want me to trust you, you’re going to have to be the first to talk.”

 

McFly still hesitates. After all, how does he know the machines aren’t listening or that Connor isn’t an informant of some sort? The risk is high but right now it’s more important to gain the trust of someone who knows what’s going on. Besides their only current options are die now or die later, telling them a little something isn’t going to change their fate all that much.

 

McFly sighs, “Alright, my name is Matt McFly. I’m from the USS Manticore, a Federation starship sent to investigate the disappearance of life on this planet.”

 

Connor digests the information for a minute. “A starship… are you the captain?”

 

“Oh god no!” McFly replies quickly.

 

Connor nods. “So you’ve been spying on us.”

 

Caught off guard he stammers, “Wel- no- um… no-not perpetually.”

 

“But basically you’ve been watching us.”

 

“Uh… yeah.”

 

“…Then why the frul didn’t you do anything to help us!”

 

McFly thinks; Frul? “We’re not allowed to interfere with civilizations that haven’t achieved light speed travel.”

 

“You’re here now, what does that say?!”

 

“Look, I don’t know what happened here, no one does. We didn’t even know there were people on this planet.”

 

“Well there are, and we’ve just been to frul and back warring with these metallic demons! Imagine how it must feel to have your people nearly annihilated off the face of the planet only to find that a seemingly more advanced species has been watching over you the entire time and did nothing to help!”

 

“Uh, I’m sorry.” McFly says sheepishly.

 

“Yeah you bet you are.”

 

“Look this isn’t my fault.”

 

“It might as well be.” Connor snaps back.

 

The two stand in silence. Connor fuming, McFly not sure what to feel. What was he to do? He only knows what the Admiral lets him know and even he didn’t know what happened.

 

McFly looks back up at him meeting his eyes. “Honestly, no one knows what happened here. One minute life signs are being seen on scanners and the next the planet is completely barren. Tell me what happened here. Maybe we can work together to find a way out of this mess.”

 

Connor sighs feeling better after venting. “It all started ten years ago. My species is highly advanced. That’s not bragging it’s a fact. We choose not to travel through space. Not haven’t learned to, choose to, despite your inane reason for not helping us. Anyway we made incredible advances in A.I.-”

 

“Artificial intelligence.” McFly interjects.

 

“Wow, the spaceman knows what I’m talking about. Guess I don’t have to bore you with my primitive explanation of artificial intelligence then.”

 

McFly rolls his eyes, “Continue.”

 

“Thank you.” Connor scoffs. “Not only did we advance in AI but robotics as well. Initially they were used as helpers. Everyone was too involved in their work. People made new discoveries everyday so the robots were mainly used to perform the mundane tasks that no one else had time for. Eventually, as A.I. advanced further, the robots were programmed with personalities. Soon they became more like colleagues and helped in research.”

 

“Couldn’t they have done that before?”

 

“Sure but this time people actually wanted them around. So the most significant part of this is when the global network was built. See people got to the point where they wanted everything now. They wanted to know about the latest scientific achievement exactly as it happened. Note this wasn’t so they could praise the creditor, it was for more selfish reasons… But no need to get into that.”

 

McFly looks back thinking; Sure let’s not shed light on your mistakes, no time for that.

 

“So this network connected everyone in the world. People could even work together on opposite sides of the globe. It was one of the biggest achievements in our society. And then… the network became sentient. It started pitting people against each other. It created tension, animosity and rivalries between people that had been friends since childhood. Then it took over everything with a computer.”

 

“What does it want?”

 

Connor shakes his head, “No one knows. First we thought it wanted knowledge but it was the entire global network, it had all the knowledge in the world. Then we thought that maybe we did something to it that turned it this way. But we’ve talked extensively about it and no one really knows how or why it became… I suppose evil is the only word.”

 

McFly takes a minute to compute everything he’s been told. An evil computer with no objective or goal? There must be more to it but what it is he may never know. Regardless, a way out is the priority. “You mentioned were warring with the machines.”

 

“Oh yeah, that lasted for all of a few months.”

 

McFly looks at him confused. “I don’t get it, if you’re so advanced why didn’t you have the technology to defeat your own creation?”

 

“Look, Matt is it? We’re not a violent people. Literally everyone spent their entire time studying and researching to even have time to figure out a weapon. It’s not that we didn’t have our problems, or even crime. But everything was on an academic level. People stole designs and research and revenge was met in kind. Really, true violence had been all but foreign to us, except in the arts, until the network decided the populace should be destroyed. We barely had the ability to fight back, let alone battle against a full out attack.”

 

“So why are you still here?”

 

“You mean why are there still people on this planet? The network learned that there was one thing that technology still couldn’t compete with…” He taps his head, “The brain. It conceived a way to connect directly into the memory center and processing abilities of the brain. It can’t read anything created by the host but it can read everything it itself has dumped in.”

 

“How do you know this? Were you connected?”

 

“No but the fact that it’s asked so many questions and took so long to find every last one of us made it quite simple to figure out. The fact is it uses those with the most complex brain structure and storage capacity as part of its network infrastructure. The rest of us are used as caretakers. Cleaning, feeding, and the only part bearable, breeding.”

 

McFly listens to his words realizing where the other half of the team is. “When we arrived at this facility there were four other members of my team that were told to go through door number one.”

 

“I hope you didn’t say anything to them you regret cause you’re never going to talk to them again.”

 

“…Is there any way to get them out of there?”

 

“Depends on how you view death.”

 

McFly snaps his head up to Connor, “What?!”

 

“No one has ever been disconnected and lived.”

 

“Are you sure, have you even tried to get anyone out of there?!”

 

“No this is just a hypothesis we came up with after sucking on the trough over there.”

 

“Well you know you’re supposed to be the super advanced race that created the apocalyptic network.”

 

“Listen to me, my wife and son are connected to that damned thing. Do you really think I wouldn’t claw my way in there if I wasn’t absolutely sure they’d die?”

 

Surly there’s others that think exactly like him, McFly thinks. He feels defeated, maybe this is hopeless after all. McFly looks up at Connor, “Wouldn’t death be better than what they’re going through?”

 

“I’ve asked myself that same question, but they don’t feel anything. The network uses a surgical technique designed to numb a person’s entire body. They’re barely conscious and only the most basic bodily functions are active. It’s a procedure designed to, ironically enough, experiment and learn more about a brain while it’s alive and active.”

 

McFly stares down at the dirt. “So what about escaping this prison?”

 

“If you found a way out that we overlooked please let us know.”

 

McFly turns around, cracks a few joints and hopes he doesn’t cry. He turns back to Connor, “So new topic, how is it you speak English?”

 

“English?” Connor asks.

 

“Yes, you know the language we’re speaking now?”

 

“You mean Cresh?”

 

“Uh… I suppose.”

 

“Cresh is the dialect my race speaks. There’s about three hundred dialects across the globe.”

 

“What are the odds of two species from completely different worlds speaking the same language?”

 

“I’d have to do the math but I’m sure it’s rather great. I have a question for you though. It seems your team is made up of different species. What are all of you?”

 

“Well, me and the really, really pretty one over there are Human. The angry reptilian looking one with the wide neck that hit you is Cardassian. And the one over there sleeping that looks like he’s in a lot of pain, both physically and emotionally, is Klingon. We’re part of a multi-species federation whose goal is to explore and learn about the universe.”

 

Connor seems impressed with how much there really is outside his planet. Maybe they should have taken the time to look into the galaxy and see what’s really out there. “Well I’m sorry you have to be stuck here with us. But since you are you should learn how to farm.” He walks over to the farming area that Kansas and Faldek so readily destroyed. “Why don’t you tell me more about this federation while we’re working.”