A Matter of Evolution

[Cmdr Ayers 0]

I'll tell you one thing. If the primates we came from had known

that one day politicians would come out of the gene pool, they'd have stayed

up in the trees and written off evolution as a bad idea."

--Babylon 5, ""The Long Dark"

 

 

Nick mutters under his breath as he moves the light around to try and get a better view of the damaged wires that usually fed the display panel on his console on the Control Tower. The repair of the display panel is low priority...which is why he was fixing it and not one of the engineers. They were needed for more important things.

 

The cold leaching through the thin carpet against his back combined with the difficulty of completing what should have been a relative simple repair was doing nothing to assuage Nick's foul mood. What was really bothering him though was the decision of the Cardassian government to not inform their people about what was probably going to happen.

 

The functionary that had informed the Captain and Nick of the government's decision had tried couching it as a way to prevent mass-panic and the riots that they led to. Admittedly, part of Nick even agreed with that decision. It took a few minutes for Nick to decide that was the human side of him agreeing and that was only partially. The El Aurian side saw it in a completely different light. The idea that the leaders of a people would be willing to let their people march off to oblivion while completely ignorant and oblivious to it is repugnant to Nick. Treating them as children who needed to be protected from the "bogeyman" was inhumane. They have a right to know what was most likely going to happen to them, if only so they can prepare for what lies beyond.

 

Though personally Nick was pretty certain there was no beyond. The idea of there being a beyond implied that there was some cosmic plan, that something or someone was out there waiting. Which wasn't really what Nick objected to, it was the idea that the supposed being was beneficent that bothered Nick. There was simply too much evil in the Universe for it to be explained as the idea of some supposed cosmic and celestial being that only wanted what was best for everyone. Somewhere along the Beta and Delta Quadrant border there was a lifeless husk of a planet that was all the proof that Nick needed to know there was no "beyond" and certainly no cosmic being waiting.