Lives Of The Unknown Book 1: The Legend of Andrew Lockeford (22 page)

“I got tired of my life—”

“So did I! I hated Earth! I hated all
of the artificiality and the hypocrisy and all of the dumb people
that resided on that planet!”

“Not everyone’s dumb!”

“Well, it
sure
seemed
like
it! Nobody seems to care about one another unless they know each
other! For years I wanted to talk to some random stranger to see if
they had something interesting to say. I always thought that every
person was special, that everyone had a story to tell. At one
point, I did it, and you know what I got? ‘Could you please just
get away from me? I just wanna get through my day.’ I wasn’t even
rude or awkward about it; I just walked up to him and said, ‘Excuse
me, could I talk to you for a moment?’ It just shows that we don’t
care about each other anymore like we used to. All that everyone
seems to care about anymore is time….and money….and fame….I….I just
don’t see that as living.”

Bill felt compelled to say something,
but nothing would come out.

“So I would rather die on an alien
ship in the middle of space than to live on through some empty life
on such a planet. Not just Earth, but any other planet with people
on it. All I’ve learned from being abducted was how big and
terrible the universe was….and how insignificant I am in comparison
to everything else.”

“Don’t….please don’t say it like
that.”

“AND WHY
NOT!?!
Compared to everything else in the
universe….compared to the rest of the people on Earth….I don’t
matter! I’m just some….pebble in the middle of a mountain. Why
would I be so important when everyone else is looking for
gold?”

“That’s….a weird way to put
it.”

“Well that’s all I can think of! I
just don’t see why anyone that I don’t know well should care about
me….”

“I do know you well. And I do want to
help! I’m not some bastard on the street who just wants to get by!
I’m here right in front of you, and I would be the worst fucking
person in the world to not do anything to help out! We’re in the
middle of space, for God’s sake, and we’re the only humans around
by a long-shot! I know I’ve been a bastard in the past, but haven’t
I shown that I’m not like the rest of humanity like you think it
is?”

Andrew said nothing.

“If I’m just some dude that you don’t
know well or don’t care about, then I’m just some stranger that
came from the rest of humanity, right?”

A pause filled the room.

“If I show that I’m good and helpful,
that I don’t care about time or money or whatever, then would I
show that humanity is not as shitty as you think it
is?!”

Still no word from Andrew, although
the emotion in his eyes seemed to change a little.

“We can get off this ship! We can
bring people together to stand up against these aliens! We humans
stand up and act whenever there’s trouble, don’t we?! We
will—”

Voriaku appeared
right at this instant beside Andrew, who looked surprised but not
scared. Bill, however, was overwhelmed with fear. And Voriaku, his
black eyes staring with contempt, said, “You sir, are the
stupidest
fucking
being I have ever known.”

The Selentor stepped towards Bill,
with each step causing Bill’s heart to pump harder and faster. The
human stepped back as well until he bumped into a cabinet, then the
alien’s pace got quicker. Bill reared his fist for a defensive
attack, and Voriaku pulled out his plasma blade. Seeing that his
chances of taking out Voriaku without Andrew’s help would be close
to none, he directed his fist toward one of the tanks. If he would
die, then maybe one of these aliens in the tanks should, he
thought. He struck, only to find that the glass did not budge and
his knuckles were now broken. He looked briefly at his knuckles,
then he directed his attention back to Voriaku, who was now right
in front of him.

Without saying a word, the Selentor
raised his blade with both his hands above his head, and the next
instant seemed to endure for an eternity. The plasma blade sliced
right into Bill’s skull, leaving a torrent of electric sparks as it
went down to his neck and then his heart. Andrew, still standing on
the other side of the room, stared in utter terror without moving a
muscle. The blade cut all the way through Bill’s body, which was
officially no longer living as it was split in two.

Chapter 22

Silence filled the room for what seemed to be hours,
yet it had only lasted seven seconds. The human’s eyes were slowly
changing with sentiment, from fear and horror to rage and
vengeance. Voriaku showed neither remorse nor satisfaction—he had
the same feeling that one has when killing a bothersome insect.

Andrew bared his teeth and began to
breathe heavily. His fists were clenched and his veins showed
themselves through his skin. At last, he charged after Voriaku in a
fit of rage for his fallen friend. Screaming, he threw his fist
directly onto Voriaku’s head, which did not budge. In an instant,
fear sprouted up within Andrew again. Voriaku threw one punch that
slammed the human straight onto the ground, cracking his head open.
Pain spiked within his skull. It would heal in time by
regeneration, but Andrew would have most of his energy spent from
it, and he was quickly losing consciousness at the moment. Blood
was streaming out, the pain was fading away, and Andrew lost
awareness of the world around him. Voriaku dragged him by the feet
out of the room.

The human woke up lying on his back, still feeling
the pain from his fractured skull. He was in the middle of a
hall—there was no telling where this hall was or where it led
to—and Voriaku was staring down at him. The alien was satisfied to
see the human regain consciousness.

“Your time is near,” the Selentor
said. “Can you understand me?”

The human looked up with tired eyes,
hardly open, responding with a single word: “Huh?” His delirium did
not help anybody out at this moment.

Voriaku shook his head, then he took
out a bottle of orange liquid, opened the bottle, and emptied the
liquid down Andrew’s throat. Andrew coughed as some of the liquid
entered his windpipe. The human slowly became more and more aware,
and after several seconds he tried to sit up. However, his body did
not cooperate.

“Why can’t I move?”

“Lack of ions in your nerves, most
likely. Doesn’t matter—we have important matters to get to before
time is up.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was only supposed to toy with you
for so long until I finally had to kill you. If I don’t kill you by
the time Commander Fall shows up, then I will die by his
hand.”

Andrew remained silent. This didn’t
seem very surprising to him, considering how disobedience would be
frowned upon in a totalitarian system such as the
Selentors’.

“Now then, I want you to ask me three
questions. They can be whatever questions you want them to be, and
I will answer them regardless. However, the questions that you ask
will determine whether you’ve come anywhere near to being an
intel-being. They will be the last things you will ever say,
remember, and do. So be precise.”

Andrew did not have
the urge to run away, even if he could move, and he did not seem
scared at the thought of dying soon. He was already dead, in a way.
The first question that popped up in his mind was,
Why did you kill Bill so quickly?
He answered his own question with a thought
relating back to intel-beings and change. Bill died because Voriaku
saw no chance of “changing” him quickly enough. That, and perhaps
because Voriaku was just annoyed.

So the human laying on his back stated
his first question.

“Is the universe infinite?”

“It is and it is not at the same time.
While the boundaries are always growing to infinity, it is
technically finite at this moment. All of the stars, galaxies, and
black holes that the universe contains change and develop as well,
eventually dying out into nothing. Just like everything else.
Birth, life, then death. Next question.”

“Are there other
universes?”

“Of course.
Infinitely many. However, it is impossible to cross over into one,
due to the differing laws of physics. Each universe has its own
laws of physics that it governs by, and for something from one
universe to cross over to another can be destructive. You would
think that the physical laws that
we
live by are self-evident, that
there could be nothing different. But as we Selentors have
scientifically proven, this is not the case. Rather, when the laws
change, everything else must follow suit. There’s also another
thing that I should mention—there are no parallel universes. One
simple change in the law of physics calls for an entire
reconstruction of a universe, making it very different from the
universe it once was. Next question. Actually, never mind. I could
go on a roll—wait, that’s a bad idea as well. Just ask your third
question.”

Andrew gathered his thoughts for a
good thirty seconds before he could answer.

“I literally can’t waste my time right
now, you know.”

“Okay. So my question is….can science
prove everything? Even something as complex as the universe or the
brain?”

“Yes, we believe so. Although the
wonders of the universe are infinite, it doesn’t mean that we have
limits as to what we can know. The only problem is that we need to
impose limits on our own knowledge, otherwise we end up destroying
ourselves. We could create a demonic creature the size of a
mountain if we wanted to—simply because we have the knowledge and
tools to do so. But is it smart or even useful? Hardly. And if by
brain, you mean your human brain, then we definitely have that
covered. We’ve had enough subjects to determine the anatomy and
psychology of the human brain.

“One thing that
we’ve noticed, however, is the prevalent concept of ‘free will.’ It
exists in virtually all of the humans we’ve studied so far, even
though us intel-beings have refuted it long ago. Free will requires
the idea that the mind is infinite and impossibly complex. However,
we know how the brain works in all sorts of situations, and we can
make accurate predictions as to what the being will do. It is true
that I let you win in that first fight, knowing that you and that
other human would not be able to get off the ship this time. So
basically, free will states that such actions are not controlled or
predictable, but free will does not exist since these
actions
are
controllable and predictable.”

An enduring silence filled the
corridor—no one knew how long it lasted.

Andrew stared up at the ceiling, with
Voriaku off to the side of his vision. There was nothing to say,
and nothing for Andrew to do. Yet Voriaku could have finished his
mission whenever he wanted to. It was perplexing for Andrew, who
didn’t know when he would die or not. He answered the questions,
didn’t he? Maybe he wasn’t going to die. However, he wanted to. All
he could feel right now, physically and mentally, was emptiness.
There was no point to his life right now, and there was nothing he
could do to give for it. He thought about asking Voriaku another
question before he had been interrupted.

“I’m not sure why the Commander hasn’t
shown up yet,” said Voriaku.

Andrew got to hear a few words from an
intel-being officer that trillions of other life forms would go
their whole lives without hearing: “I’m not sure.”

The human decided to state one last
question.

“What is life?”

Voriaku looked down upon him with
interest, as though no one had ever asked that question before.
“What’s the point of it?” Andrew added.

“Well,” said Voriaku, “perhaps there
is none. Or perhaps it’s different for everyone. The best way to
answer that question would be: what is the opposite of
life?”

“Death.”

“Which can also be called the absence
of life.”

“So what are you saying?”

“What can you do in death? Without
life?”

“…
.Nothing.”

“So what can you
do
in
life?”

“…
.Everything?”

“I suppose that was a poor way to
answer that question. Better yet, you could say that in life you
can do ‘something.’”

“If I want to.”

“Yes, you can do either something or
nothing in life.”

“But would doing nothing in life make
it meaningless?”

“Exactly.”

“What about life after death? What if
our souls carry on to some impossible realm, or
something?”

Voriaku paused for a moment before
responding. “Whether there’s an afterlife or not, it doesn’t
matter. What matters, what we know for certain is that we have this
life. That’s undisputable. And by our actions we can make it a
living heaven or a living hell. Not just for ourselves, but for
others as well.”