by Vincent Pet
***
Uric had failed. For the first time ever he was in shock. He sent his fragmented report to the council. They decided to send one of their high ranking members to meet with him. Uric knew that he could be relieved of his mission. Could it end his career? Here? In this insignificant part of the galaxy? It could very well be.
In a society where intelligence and organization was everything, a failure such as his was inexcusable. When an organizer worked there could be no deviant to the process of order. There had to be a constant progression. Under Uric’s supervision, the species had not eliminated their chaotic and destructive traits.
Uric was beginning to suspect there was a major genetic disorder that had become the norm through evolution. How though, had intelligence ever evolved under these conditions? It was a paradox. No laws or theories that he knew could explain such a model. It was impossible for a self-destructive species to develop self-awareness. Yet, man was aware of itself as a species and aware of what it meant to kill one another. It was like a cancer which was spreading through time and crippling the race. Uric’s only salvation, and that of the race, was to convince the council member that he was operating under very unusual circumstances.
Uric was summoned to the council member’s office as soon as he arrived on the ship. The council member, a segmented multi-eyed being that slithered on the ground, was waiting for him as he entered the room. The telepathic being showed up a few seconds later. They wasted no time as the council member made his opening statement on behalf of the council.
“By decision of the council, we are relieving you of all active duty on the planet. You will remain as an observer and continue communicating with us. In due time, we will implement a plan of action which we expect you to carry out to the detail. Of course, this will affect your organizational ranking, but we expect you to continue providing us the standard of work you have accustomed us too. As a consequence your pay has been reduced by thirty percent and your bonus revoked for the next one thousand years. Do you have any comments?”
Uric paused for a second before replying, still digesting his pay cut. He expected to be reproached, but the council’s decision was not a logical way to proceed. It seemed to him that they were as confused as he was and were simply taking time to better assess their options while blaming him directly for all that happened.
“I will not, of course, question the wisdom of the council’s decision. I do want to point out that there is no other organizer that has accomplished what I have. There is no other organizer who knows the rules and all their nuances as well as I do. This is a fact and not an opinion.”
The council member agreed. “Until this moment, you were, after all, the Great Organizer.”
Uric felt some satisfaction in that statement, even if the past tense stung him.
“If I have been unable to make satisfactory progress and if the council needs more time to understand which course of action to implement,” Uric tried to reason, “then it must be that we have encountered some very unusual and particular conditions with this species.”
The council member somewhat agreed with Uric’s analysis and replied by further elaborating the council’s thought.
“In fact, that is the reason we are not relieving you completely from duty. You have been of great service in the past and we still have confidence in your abilities. We also recognize that the situation we have encountered on this planet is unique. We have come to realize that maybe one organizer is not sufficient in this case. That is why we will take our time to elaborate a solid plan of action. In the meantime, we still need your valuable input. You have spent over one hundred thousand of their years living among them and seeing them evolve. You understand them better than any other being in the universe and it shall be your task to bring this project to completion. For the moment though, we do not want you to participate in their history. In fact, there is a hypothesis circulating among the members that we might have erred in giving this race the status of intelligent life even if they do comply with every parameter of Article Eight. It is an issue that the council will have to debate in the near future. If it is deemed that they are not intelligent, your reinstatement to Great Organizer will be readdressed.”
There was not much more to say. Uric remained far from the major cities and traveled the back roads of the world. He never settled much in one place and distanced himself as much as he could from the inhabitants in order to not influence them. He crossed the next thousand years by visiting all the major cultures, but nothing tangible emerged from this period. The world seemed possessed by deeply religious movements which caused various wars throughout the land. No culture remained stable for very long periods as they fought internally or with other cultures over ideals and land.
It was early in the thirteenth century when Uric received his first orders from the council. The council concluded that the species was too violent to ever evolve in one stable, enduring society. They had linked this overly aggressive nature to various genes. They could not remove them all, since other traits were dependent on these genes, but they could remove one from the population, the most aggressive. This gene was especially present in the continent called Europe and they decided to concentrate their efforts there. As far as Uric could remember, the council had never biologically interfered with the progression of a species. This would be their first time.
They delivered the clear solution to Uric who went from town to town, spreading the solution through the streets. The solution needed an incubation period, a host for the first three days and the rats were chosen as the prime targets since they were in close contact with humans. Eventually, only the people who carried the specific gene would be infected. The Black Plague swept Europe in 1348 and Uric estimated it killed more than a quarter of the population. The council was not overly concerned with any other genetic trait which might be lost. They presumed that there would be enough individuals left to continue the biological diversity and thought that the benefits would outweigh any negative impact.
Uric was not too convinced nor did he think that the species aggression could be explained that easily or eradicated that quickly. He found ironic that one of the bloodiest and the longest war in human history, the Hundred Years’ War between France and England from 1337 to 1453, happened at about the same time and lasted long after this supposedly super aggressive gene was eliminated.
The next four hundred years or so were a spectacle to Uric. During this period he spent much of his time in Italy and England. The Reformation offered an intellectual liberation from the stifle rule of a strict and obsessive religion, while the Renaissance brought a renewal of creativity and appreciation of the human condition and the world they inhabited. The species finally started to think of themselves as a race, as man.
It was also an age of great exploration, of world colonization and of the start of an industrial economy in England. It was also the victory of the common people in 1789 as the French revolted and abolished the social classes. Although the means were sometimes crude and the violence still excessive, Uric was nevertheless impressed by the species will to take control of their surroundings. Was there promise?
There was a nation, though, which was rising and would greatly influence the world. Away from Europe and the old societies, this new society in America strove to show the world that they could do things bigger and better. In many ways, it reminded Uric of the Roman Empire. He came to America in the late nineteenth century. He did not know it at the time, but his wandering was coming to an end. Other than a brief stay in another country, it would be his final destination on this world.
In no time at all, the Americans rose to become leaders of the industrial world. The continent was isolated from the European mainland and this attracted people who wanted to change the static social order of the deeply rooted societies from the old world. The distance permitted the society to break away from the traditional European standards and create a new one, distinct from the rest of the
world. It was a competitive society, set to prove its worth to the world. It was a land of opportunity, where social status was dictated not by where you came from but by what you did. This enthusiasm where nothing seemed impossible eventually developed a confident society where even the most poor could dream. No other society had been able to promise so much or to create such an illusion simultaneously.
Even with better conditions and increasing economic growth, humanity was not able to abandon that instinct to kill. When they were at peace with themselves, they proceeded to kill off some of the other species, hunting them into extinction. Their technological growth did not even take in consideration the impact this would have on their habitat. Furthermore, not all cultures shared in this technological growth as only a few countries had this privilege. Those that did kept it away from the others and it was only shared if an economic, political or tactical advantage could be gained. Uric noted that as humanity grew, so did their problems. The wars became bigger, the pollution more widespread, and the violent deaths, greater. Other than this, Uric saw no differences between the past and present.
The council was still debating on the atrocities committed during the first two world wars when the Soviet Union launched their first man in space. Uric had never known the council to come to such a rapid decision as they decided that he should infiltrate the Soviet society and stop at all cost the progression of man into space.
Man was not ready yet to take to the stars, not in this form. The events of the last century had shown them that although humanity had made technological leaps through the decades, they hadn’t evolved socially through their history. Humanity grouped into societies only to advance the individual personal interest and remained in that society if the majority of individuals composing that society benefited from the arrangement. Fundamentally man was not a social creature, but a solitary entity forced to group together and compromise to survive. What was surprising was that man himself did not recognize this inherent trait and went about treating people who shunned away from acceptable social standards as being abnormal.
Uric had his reservations when the council decided that his destination was Russia. It was clear to him that it was not the Soviet Union which represented the greatest threat to conquer space, but the Americans. The Soviet Union was a society based on fear, and the fear to fail when punishment was severe did not allow for spontaneity. Uric had noticed it was spontaneity which fueled creativity. The human race did not react well when organized in a stiff social structure. That was why, Uric mused, he was having so much difficulty uniting this race towards one common goal. He still didn’t understand the balance required between creativity and structure for the race to evolve.
Nevertheless, Uric obeyed and infiltrated the Soviet space program. His orders were to take whichever means he judged necessary. He had no time to waste and proceeded to eliminate a top General in order to take his place. That he did so with little conscience made him realize that he had lived too long with that race. That it was approved by the council made him think that there was great turmoil back home on the status of this species. Uric knew then that he was living an unprecedented moment in the history of the council and perhaps of the whole interstellar society. Many years later, Uric would reflect on this and be struck by how a simple race, unbeknown to them, shook the very foundations of universal order.
The decisions Uric made in the coming months, and the influence he yielded throughout the political hierarchy quickly derailed the Soviet program. As he had originally thought, though, the real threat came from the Americans as they concentrated their efforts to go to the moon. Clearly confused, the council sent him back to America. What had worked with the Soviet Union did not work here. The Americans were independent and questioned every decision that seemed contrary to achieving their goals. Given the tense situation with the Soviet Union, they were also highly suspicious of being infiltrated by the enemy. Their command structure was full of checks and counter checks, of meetings and discussions.
Whoever did not agree was free to offer an opposing opinion, but one had to convince the others in order for the idea to go forward. Uric tried and failed through various characters. Once he was fired, another time he was demoted, still another he was arrested for spying. Man finally set foot on the moon in the year 1969. To Uric’s relief, the Apollo mission, as it was called, died a few years later as the Soviet Union was incapable of sustaining the race. Uric understood better than the council that it was not that humanity had become so much more interested in the stars that spurred them forward, but that it had been that selfish pride of wanting to be first that drove them to the moon. The space program was not intended to show what humankind could accomplish, but how one nation could triumph over others.
A few though, still persisted in their quest for the stars. The council had to set damper fields around the solar system to prevent signals of other races from reaching Earth. The Earth instruments were getting more sophisticated. Project SETI searched the skies for intelligent life. The Hubble telescope posed a serious threat and new probes were being developed to better explore the universe.
In just a few years, the technology and understanding of basic particle theories was unknowingly bringing the race closer to light speed travel. If a nation would seriously embark on reaching the planets, it would only be a matter of a century, thought Uric, before that nation would possess the ability to reach the stars. As long as they didn’t have a concentrated space program, this threat did not exist unless somebody accidentally stumbled on all the principles of interstellar space travel, which, thought Uric, was not totally improbable. This species had an ability to casually discover things with their great observational skills and curiosity – like radiation and penicillin.
Events quickly changed in the early twenty-first century when it was announced that America would set its sight on Mars in 2030. A rather lethargic effort at first, due to the economic slump, the Mars objective slowly became current again as developing countries such as China dramatically increased their involvement into exploring space.
When China reached the moon, Uric knew that the Americans would rise quickly to the challenge. Up until then, Uric had remained relatively quiet, keeping close to the national space agency and the government. He was more limited than he had ever been before. The risks of being detected were greater than at any other time. The medical technology and scanning technology were not easy for him to deceive.
Other than direct sabotage, he saw no other means of impeding man’s course to the stars. While the council debated whether it was ethical for them to actively pursue and destroy space vehicles launched from Earth, Uric was able to sabotage the thrusters that were assembled on the Mars module that would have carried the astronauts to Mars in 2033. Four crewmen were stranded in space as the thrusters malfunctioned and sent the astronauts hurtling past the red planet into the void beyond. The death, as Uric feared, only strengthened the determination to get to Mars.
More resources were allocated for the mission as research intensified. In 2035, a discovery was made that would triple the velocity of a space vehicle. At the same time, a way was found of creating and manipulating a gravity field, separating it from its mass. The stellar engine was only a few decades away. On Earth, though, the social fabric of humanity was falling apart. The gap between the rich and the poor was widening, leading to great social unrest and increasing home grown terrorism.
In 2036, three nuclear devices wiped out three major European cities while a deadly strain of the flu virus was wiping out ten percent of the population. Wheat was being attacked by a parasite which defied the scientific community. It was leading to wide spread hunger. Man was in no condition to reach the stars, but in 2040, another manned spacecraft was sent to Mars, and this time they were successful.
In response, China announced they were preparing to send a manned spacecraft to Jupiter within five years on an eight year mission to explore the moons. The following year the Americ
ans used the gravity bomb, capable of crushing and melting rocks around a one hundred kilometer zone without any radioactive contamination. It was detonated over a military run country that was feared to be close to using nuclear weapons on an ally. No one survived within the targeted zone. A mountain range over a kilometer high was crushed to ridges of a few hundred meters in height. Over two million people died. Uric sent out an urgent message.
The council risked sending one of their ships to Earth. No one in the galaxy had ever heard of such a weapon. The meeting was extremely brief. Uric found out that it was only intended to communicate a sentence and bring him back to his world. The council member’s final words to him were very clear.
“Our scientists have studied the principles behind this weapon and have theorized that with a few major modifications, the capability to create a controlled black hole with the gravity bomb is feasible even if the probability is low and will most probably result in the self-destruction of the species. The pursuit of a vision that can bring to reality such horror in our universe cannot exist within a civilized species. It is therefore the council’s conclusion that the human race is not representative of the fundamental criteria of Article 8. We have studied and tried to incorporate clauses that would give this race the right to be considered intelligent, but we have been unable to define or categorize their behavior. It is also our conclusion that they represent a serious threat to all order in this galaxy and that there is no doubt that they will use the same violent means against us to satisfy their quest for expansion. The new protocol when encountering such a species is to terminate their existence. Since they are not intelligent, the council has the right to decide for the health of the planet in question. Since the planet is a promising world for the development of other species, we will give the opportunity to another species to evolve and become intelligent by eliminating their cause of hindrance. It is the council’s executive decision, that you, Uric, organize this extermination. At its successful completion, you will regain your status as Great Organizer. You will, however, be penalized for not completing the mission in a timely fashion as well as for your initial evaluation of the planet’s biomass. Your new salary will be communicated to you in due time. As well, your bonus, as previously judged, will not be allocated during said period of time. Its reinstatement will depend on the successful completion of your next two assignments. It is not retroactive. Dismissed.”