The Scalian Legacy

A reenergized Rivas entered the tech room and was promptly assaulted by Jack.

“I need to talk to you.”

“Okay.” Rivas sensed the tension in Jack. He tried to convey the good news before Jack confronted him: “They liked your idea about disabling the repulsion systems and they think we have an outside chance of succeeding with it.... What’s wrong?”

“I want to know how you get your intel on Scalians?”

“Through as many means as possible,” Rivas said. “May I sit? I haven’t slept much in the last couple of days and it’s catching up with me.”

Jack followed Rivas to the table, and they each took a seat.

“Does that include torturing them to get information?” Jack said. “Do you have some onboard this ship?”

Rivas stiffened. It was brief, but it was all Jack needed to see he had touched a nerve with this iceberg of a human. “No,” Rivas said flatly. “Now, we need you to focus on our…”

“You’re lying!” Jack said. “You’re not as easy to read as Henry, but you gave yourself away, nonetheless.” Jack asserted his confidence to shake Rivas’s assurance. It was a ploy he learned from his father. Talk as if you already know the truth, and the truth will often be revealed to you. “We’re all about to disappear from existence and I’m about to sacrifice my life to try to avoid it. I want to know the truth before I die—and I think I deserve it. I need to know.”

“Why?” Rivas asked plainly.

“Because I need to know what I’m sacrificing it all to save. I need to know that I’m doing the right thing.” Jack was unwavering.

“I’m not at liberty to share anything more with you.” Maybe it was due to his exhaustion, but Rivas seemed to be caving in.

“Who is at liberty to tell me?” Jack persisted.

“Jack, what does it matter? It will not change anything. We are in the same predicament, regardless.” Rivas was not denying anything, but instead trying to reason with Jack. “We all need you to focus on the problem at hand or we will all be lost.”

“I need to know. I can’t focus and will not do anything unless I know.” Jack held firm. Under almost any other circumstances, he knew he would be blown off, but he held the upper hand. Without him, it was over. He could demand just about anything…and the truth was what he wanted.

“Fine. Let’s go see the admiral.” Rivas was too tired to fight with this despondent little human any longer.

A few minutes later, Jack was waiting outside the main conference room as Rivas spoke with the admiral. Then, the doors swooshed open, and Jack was summoned inside.

All the monitors were off and Captain Malarde and Admiral Alterman looked even more exhausted than Rivas. They appeared to be running on fumes; the mission wasn’t far from kicking off. Jack almost felt guilty about what he was doing, but he had to know. How could they have been getting all of this information from such a committed species?

The admiral asked Jack to sit down. “I hear you want to know if we torture Scalians to get information out of them and if we have any on The Explorer. Well, we don’t try to torture them, but the most direct answer to both questions is ‘Yes.’ Is there anything else you need to know?”

Jack was shocked at the admiral’s bluntness. He wasn’t putting up a fight at all, but then again why would he at this point? Jack was not likely to tell anyone and was also unlikely to make it out of this alive any way. “How do you get information from them?” he asked.

“They are placed in a permanent vegetative state and we, in essence, hack into their cognitive functions with a variety of drugs and electrical signal retrievals called neural interpreters. The idea is that once we have it well calibrated, we can pretty much use them as an information system. We ask them whatever we wish and they answer truthfully. The technology we developed learning to communicate with the Drumans came in very handy in this endeavor.” The admiral was so cold with his answers…as if there was nothing wrong with what they were doing to these captured Scalians.

Jack was more shocked at the admiral’s blasé attitude than at the facts he was divulging. “But, you’ve been at peace with them for almost two years. How long have you had these Scalians?”

“Some of the Scalians have been with us for as much as a couple of years, but we have abducted some here and there since the truce, just in case. Their bodies can’t take the treatments for much more than a couple of years, and any knowledge they would have would be rather stale after that, anyway, so an occasional refresh is necessary.”

This was just getting worse! The admiral wasn’t holding anything back, and his coldness was beginning to shake Jack to the core. He was talking about sentient beings as if they were equipment. What kind of humans were these? Did they not have any idea of what humane treatment was anymore?

“How could you…” Jack started, but was quickly interrupted.

“Before you start to judge, Jack, remember what we are dealing with.” The admiral, who had been calm throughout all of their conversations until now, was suddenly speaking in a stern and highly aggressive voice. The change of tone had its intended impact on Jack as he listened intently and held off judgment. “This species tried to eradicate our species and wiped out almost a billion humans before they were stopped. Now, they are trying to essentially erase us from existence…and by the way, that includes everyone that you knew back on old Earth. Excuse me, but I will do everything in my power to stop this and I only sleep well at night if I do just that. If that means that some Scalians are tortured for a few months or years until they die, then so be it. Also, remember, once we’ve captured them, they are essentially dead already.”

Jack was speechless. The admiral was quite brilliant. By sharing it all bluntly and then defending it with the gravity of the situation, he left it difficult for Jack to continue the discussion, and that was his intent. He needed to get past this unnecessary distraction and get everyone back to work on the most important mission in human history.

“Do you have any other questions?” the admiral asked impatiently.

Jack was going to say no, but then a thought came to mind that he just couldn’t let go by. “I’d like to see them,” he announced.

The admiral became visibly upset, but he quickly composed himself. “Will you still participate in this mission?” he asked directly.

“I don’t see that I have a choice, but I want to see them,” Jack said.

“Why? We are fine with carrying this burden for humanity. Very few of us are involved with this on purpose. It’s not a pleasant operation. It’s as ugly as it gets, but we are willing to sacrifice our humanity for the sake of everyone else. There’s no need for you to go through this. You know they are here and what we are doing with them. Let it go.” The admiral was more concerned with Jack’s psyche than anything else, and Jack realized this now.

“Please, Jack,” The captain chimed in, “It’s very ugly. You don’t need to see this.”

“I understand, and I’ll be fine on the mission, but I need to see them.” Jack wasn’t sure why he felt the need to see them. Maybe it was for closure. It certainly wasn’t for the morbidity of it. Maybe he just needed to see what these humans were capable of, even if driven by self-preservation. At what point is something simply unjustifiable, regardless of the consequences? he asked himself.

“Fine,” the admiral said. He looked at Rivas. “Take him, but make it quick. Time is running out.”