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Chapter Nine
Inspiring The
Crew
The notion of exterminating a species on a planet chosen for
colonization was considered an abhorrent solution for men and women exploring a
new world. It was always thought by
liberal minds, especially those in the scientific community, that explorers
should be able to tame the environment of a new planet. After all, it was reasoned, it was up them
to learn about alien life forms and deal with them without violence. Somehow they must make friends with advanced
creatures and be able to control lesser intelligent beasts in a compassionate
manner without extreme measures, such as the ones humans and androids now had
in mind. The fact was, the entire ship,
even Ingrid, who thought Kepler 186f’s fauna were God’s creatures, agreed with
Captain Drexel when he said, “It’s either them or us!” Hostile aliens, who couldn’t be tamed, must
be destroyed.
The spinners, as Carla labeled them because of their spinning heads,
were, in fact, mindless monsters intent on killing. Because they were too stupid to be reasoned with, they had to be
eradicated. It was likely, Skip suggested,
that there were other such threats in this sector of the planet. The forest, they had not yet explored in
order to discover its bounty, might very well include such mindless killers as
the spinners or even more intelligent creatures predisposed against aliens,
which, in fact, they were on this planet.
“We’re the extraterrestrials, not them!” Carla reminded them. “Consider how ignorant Neanderthal or
Cro-Magnon man would treat invaders from a distant world if they landed on
Earth. They would likely kill them if
they had the chance. Those spinners
have no way of knowing how harmless we are.
You can’t communicate with dumb creatures, particularly ones without
apparent brains.” “It’s us or them!” she repeated Abe’s words.
“That’s right!” The captain nodded with approval.
“We have no choice!” Said socked his fist
Comparing cave men versus aliens to earthlings versus brainless
monsters seemed simplistic to Ingrid and Mbuto. As Ingrid pointed out and Mbuto agreed, the mindset of civilized
beings toward invaders was quite different than creatures with apparently no
minds at all. And yet the example given
by Carla underscored Abe’s proposal: the spinners had to go!
Ingrid, who was forced to reassess her sympathy for other life forms,
put on her own spin to the argument with an example from the ship’s Bible.
“There is a biblical reason for the deed!” She looked dramatically
around at the group.
“Oh, what is that?” Carla sneered. “I can’t wait.” She clasped her
hands. “This is gonna be good!”
“Let her speak!” Abe raised an eyebrow.
Opening the Bible which she had retrieved earlier from her quarters,
Ingrid pointed to a page.
“According to scriptures.” She tapped the page. “God ordered the
Israelites to destroy the Canaanites in order to take their land. It’s all here in Joshua 6:21. One verse reads, ‘They utterly destroyed all
that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox, sheep, and donkey
with the edge of the sword!”
“Whoa!” Sheila’s mouth dropped. “That’s was a bit harsh!”
“Yes, Ingrid.” Mbuto shook his head. “That was bloody awful!”
“That’s the reason I don’t read the Bible,” snapped Carla. “That was
barbaric, Ingrid. You think that was
all right?”
“Of course not,” Ingrid waved impatiently, “but I’m not God. The point I’m trying to make is, you don’t
have to go back the Ice Age for an example.
There’s a divine precedent for this in the Old Testament. If it was all right for God to wipe out an
entire people, it should be all right for us wipe out monsters on this world.”
“I agree. Ingrid said it best.”
Mbuto gave her a nod.
“Me too!” seconded Max. “This isn’t the land of Oz. We have to make our own rules.”
“I’m not arguing that fact!” Carla seemed to blush. “I believe in drastic measures, too. I just can’t believe God wouldn’t do
something like that. For Christ’s
sake—every man, woman, and child—even the poor animals. What was the purpose in that?”
“Did he really do that?” Nicole shook her head in dismay.
“That was the Old Testament.” Sheila informed her naïvely.
“Jesus was in the New Testament.
He was the new god. Ingrid told
me he was a man of peace!”
“Oh that’s nothing, Nicole.” Said laughed. “The biblical flood was much
worse. Like the Israelites, my people
wiped out whole cities for not bowing down to God.”
“And you believe that?” Carla looked at him in disbelief.
“Believe it yes,” Said shrugged his shoulders. “Approve of it no! Until I began listening to Ingrid, I
didn’t know what I believed.”
“God and Jesus were the same person,” Ingrid explained patiently to
Sheila. “They weren’t two different gods.”
“Our age has strayed so far.” She sighed. “Believe in Jesus,” Ingrid stared at Carla. “Forget the Old
Testament God.” Studying her adversary a moment, after she mumbled “Bull
shit!”, she again quoted scripture, this time from the book of Acts, “Paul, why
do you persecute me? It is hard for you
to kick against the goads?”
“What the hell is a goad?” Carla grumbled.
“Oh, I know that one.” Mbuto raised his hand. “Once, long ago, my people used goads—spiked sticks to drive
cattle. They were nothing but thorns—”
“But in this case, “Ingrid interrupted, “it was truth poking at someone
who ignored the goad, though it was staring them in the face.”
“Bull shit—all of it!” Carla insisted.
Unfazed by Carla’s response, Ingrid drew from her memory this time, not
from the Bible, but from literature. “Have you read Shakespeare?” she asked
with a smile.
“Never heard of him,” Carla murmured.
“Tsk-tsk.” Ingrid gave her a sad look. “Before I became a hardnosed
scientist, I read his entire works. I
noticed there was no such book in the ship’s library. How sad…. Do you know what Hamlet said to his mother when she was
in denial?”
“Me thinks the woman doth protest too loudly!” She twirled her fingers, as if casting a spell.
“You’re stubborn, Carla. You feel
threatened by the truth, so you lash out.
Like Hamlet’s mother, you’re in denial!”
“How ridiculous.” Carla made a face, “Now you’re quoting
Shakespeare. I’m not protesting
anything, Ingrid. My minds not slammed shut,
and I’m not in denial. I just don’t
believe that crap!”
From the bridge as Rusty, Sandra, and Woody looked on patiently, Skip
had been listening with great interest to this discussion. A comment they would not have expected from
an android brought immediate silence to the room.
“Why do you call it crap?” he called out, walking toward them. “If it
helps stellarnauts cope in this life, what harm is it?”
Ingrid grinned. Carla, as
everyone else, was speechless. A
cold-thinking automation, with artificial intelligence, not a human, had asked
that question….and it was to very true!
That settled, he changed the subject. “What to do with problematic life
forms is the most important issue,” he glanced around the table. “We all agree
on that. It is my opinion that you must
act now before you continue exploration.
Your retreat from the sector I chose for you shouldn’t be an abandonment
of this location, but only a temporary move.
You ran away from trouble on Gliese and where did it get you. I’m familiar with the Bible and the
Koran.” “I also have the entire works
of Shakespeare in my database.” He looked over at Ingrid.
Ingrid scurried over and hugged Skip, bubbling, “Thank, thank you,
thank you!” Returning to the theme,
Skip sounded the marching orders for the humans.
“You are not merely explorers,” he exclaimed dramatically. “Sometimes
humans must come as conquerors and, if necessary, tame a new world with
force. Think of yourselves as the New
Israelites and the land below us as the New Eden. As Said put it, you must therefore wipe out those who don’t bow
to your will. This is your world
now. Long ago, right or wrong, men put
other people to the sword. The
Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Goths, Huns, Mongols, and European
settlers in the New World, and, yes, the Children of God, destroyed other
people—villages, cities, and whole cultures.
You are merely eradicating dangerous creatures. Did not the earthlings exterminate rats,
cockroaches, and other pests. What I
propose it that you act preventively and proactively, but not rashly. Using the rover, explorer this world; when
you run into those horrid creatures that are obvious threats destroy them. Only then.
You must, as the Israelites, conquer land before you colonize it. Gradually, you’ll tame the rest of this
planet. Your blasters and cutters are
you swords. I will give you more
weapons, equipment intended for building habitats, to assist you in this task!”
Enthusiastic, as they had never been before, the humans, now deemed
conquerors, stood up, cheered, and clapped their hands, Ingrid scurrying over
again to give Skip another hug.
Everyone, from the timid Nicole to Captain Drexel were moved by the
androids short speech.
“It’s like a holy crusade,” Ingrid exclaimed, “We rid our land of
spinners and anyone else who gets in our way!”
“No,” Said cried, pumping his fist in the air, “it’s a Jihad. If the don’t bow down, we’ll cut off their
heads.”
“Death to the spinners and all creepy crawly critters!” Mbuto called
through cupped hands.
“We’ll smash them, stomp on them, squish them into the ground!” Nicole
did a little jig.
Sheila joined her in her war dance, as did Max, who laughed heartily at
this display.
Coming to his senses that moment, recalling his role as captain of the
ship, Abe stood back, filled with mixed emotions. “I like seeing the crew animated,” he confessed to Skip, “but
what have we unleashed?”
“You heard Ingrid and Said.” Skip appeared to be amused. “What’s wrong
with a little exaggeration? We now have
eight brave stellarnauts, raring to go—jihadists and crusaders, on a mission to
make Kepler 186—the New Earth and the New Eden—safe for colonization, purged of
menace, tamed, and transformed into a livable world!”
Though Abe wanted the same thing, Skip’s bellicose words, which incited
his crew, disturbed him. He was also
disturbed by his animation. All doubts
about the androids ability to show emotion had been swept away by his speech
and the look now on Skip’s face. The
other three androids, who had clapped enthusiastically after his speech, had
also shown emotion. Despite his doubts,
which he couldn’t put a name to, he was the only one now who wondered if the
androids had too much control. When
they were safely set up on the new world, with a habitat and in a pacified
environment, would Skip and his crew still be in control, directing their every
move?
******
The night came finally when Kepler 186f had rotated enough to hide the
great sun. By then, worn out by today’s
traumatic events and surfeited after a feast (by android standards) that
included alcohol from the ship’s stores, most of the humans, showered, brushed
their teeth, and with visions of the great adventure swimming in their heads,
fell quickly asleep. Still dumbfounded
by the combative spirit of his crew, however, Captain was kept awake for awhile
as he pondered this fact. Never had he
seen such unanimity and zeal among this diverse group. He should be happy that they embraced their
roles as explorers, but Skip had implanted a crusading zeal in them. He didn’t want them to become trigger happy
and kill everything that seemed like a threat nor antagonize potentially
dangerous creatures that just wanted to be left alone. Not all of the planet’s monsters were an
imminent threat. He tried sloughing off
his worries about the androids, as he thought about Skip’s inspiring
words. He was, as androids go, a
no-nonsense fellow, and yet he heard emotion in Skip’s voice and saw it in his
face. Not only had he inspired the
humans, he had inspired his own crew. Abe was certain he saw animation in Rusty’s, Sandra’s, and even
Woody’s shiny face, too…. Skip and the other androids were remarkable
creations. It was becoming more and
more difficult to think of them as robot automations, at all. How could you not consider them in human
terms after what Skip had said in defense of faith. What’s more, Abe marveled as he gradually fell asleep, the
android meant it. If anyone had earned
having souls it was their caretakers, especially the android captain of their
ship.
It had been an stirring evening for his crew. It occurred to him, however, that the killer instinct implanted
in them by Skip might backfire, much like stirring a hornets nest. They knew nothing about the threats of
Kepler 186f except for what they encountered today. Also troubling was the motto that had once been ingrained in
stellarnaut’s during training, which had been wiped away by the attack of the
spinners and Skip’s words: learn about the aliens, avoid conflict with them,
and use only preventative measures if communication breaks down. This motto had been written for an idyllic
world, where the threat level was low and it was assumed that explorers could
actually manage alien life, and yet naïve as it was, it was, like the
physician’s motto, ‘Do no harm,” still fixed in his mind—a moral imperative
difficult to ignore. As captain, he was
supposed to set an example and follow the guidelines inherent in this
role. If they went about exterminating
various life forms that they thought were a menace, they would be no better
than European settlers wiping out Indian tribes or safari hunters of the
twentieth century murdering game.
Abe’s last moment of wakefulness found him questioning the
stellarnaut’s motto. It was not written
with Kepler 186f in mind. Confronted
with intransigent creatures such as the spinner, it seemed only logical to at
least wipe this species out. It was, he
reminded himself, us or them!