The Experiment

by Costanza, Christopher

  He looked at Kayin.

  Kayin rolled his eyes. “As long as none of them act like you, I’ll be fine…”

  He paused and looked up at the sun. “Once they’re more comfortable around you we’ll start teaching them not to cower anymore… As in you actually make them stand up when they do it… But for now just follow my lead and do exactly as I say… So do you understand?”

  We all said yes and let him lead the way…

  When we got to mine 3 walked up to the edge and yelled out something in their language. I clearly heard “Anu-Naki” somewhere in the sentence so I knew he was talking about us.

  The whole mine came to a standstill and almost all of them dropped to their knees. Some even put their faces to the ground as they did when the soldiers were randomly shooting them.

  When he was done he walked back over. “I told them you’re ready to meet them, and not to be afraid… Remember their language is still extremely limited… It will probably take me the rest of my life to add another few hundred words to it for them… I plan to make a hybrid of both our languages.”

  Kayin said “So what do we do?”

  Sara said “Should I even be going? I’m not one of the leaders…”

  “Like I said, just stay quiet and wait for my direction… It will also be good for them to see me communicating with you. It will make them think I’m special as well… And as for you Sara, since you’re a female they’ll view you as a “mother” of sorts. They do understand what it takes to procreate. You’ll most likely be worshipped as well.”

  She grimaced and said “Great… Well if I can help somehow, I’ll do whatever you say.”

  I didn’t have any questions… I just felt horrible and couldn’t stop thinking about Horus… I wondered if he was going to haunt my thoughts forever…

  When we started making our way down into the mine I could see how frail and weak they all looked. They had injuries on their hands and their lips were blistered from thirst.

  There were natives that had collapsed everywhere… The smell reminded me of those storage rooms…As soon as we were done here I’d have Kayin order the mass distribution of water and food to all the sites.

  It took some time to make it to the bottom… None of them moved or made a sound. They stayed down, faces buried in the dirt. Every now and then one would peek out at us and if we made eye contact they’d clearly become frightened.

  Right before we made it to the bottom, 3 said. “When we get down there make your way to the center, stand tall and confidently. They can pick up on it.”

  Kayin started to say something and 3 quickly stopped him. “No… talking.”

  We did as he said and walked to the center of the mine. We lined up side by side, Kayin and I crossed our arms and had Sara stand between us.

  3 stood in front of us and said “Atlas, when I signal you, step forward and yell “ai-man”, it means rise… Just keep saying it until they do.”

  He yelled out “Anu-Naki” and threw his hands up in the air. The entire mine began to echo with the chanting of the natives… Repeatedly yelling “Anu-Naki!”

  3 turned back and nodded so I stepped forward, took a deep breath, and yelled “ai-man!” as loud as I could.

  The chanting immediately stopped but none of them rose to their feet.

  3 signaled me to do it again...

  I yelled it as loud as I could five more times, then I turned to 3 and said “This isn’t working.”

  I could tell he was thinking…

  “Oh, I know! Kayin do you have a gun?”

  I said “I thought you said no guns?”

  “I know… Well special circumstances... So?”

  Kayin produced a guilt-filled smile… “Yeah I brought one anyway… How did you know?”

  “Part of being a genius… Just hurry and give to Atlas. Atlas fire it once and say it again.”

  I said “What!? This goes against everything you said earlier.”

  “Things have changed, just do it! They’ll think you can control thunder or something… My original plan isn’t working!”

  I said “fine” and fired the gun up into the air. They all got scared and started huddling together. I took another deep breath and yelled it again…

  3 was right, they slowly began to stand up. So I yelled it a few more times until almost all of them were on their feet.

  It was strange to be at the bottom of this giant crater with some many people staring at me… Thinking I’m something special… Meanwhile, where I come from I’m a nobody…

  3 walked over to me and gave me an entire sentence to say to them.

  I said “Whoa, what if I mess it up and they go crazy?”

  He sighed and sarcastically replied “Well just don’t and nothing bad will happen.”

  “What does it mean anyway.”

  “You are our people, we are the same… Loosely.”

  I repeated exactly what he said and they all just continued to stare… Some had even gone back to their knees.

  I looked at 3 and he said. “Like I said, this is going to take some work… I have one more thing for you to say… That you will take part in their struggle.”

  He said the sentence a few times and had me repeat it until I got it right. When I finally yelled it out, I could tell all the natives were confused… Hopefully it was because they understood what I meant and didn’t know why their all-powerful creators would join their struggle.

  After that, 3 decided it was enough contact for the day and we went back up to the surface… They started chanting again as we made our way up.

  He said “I think that went well.”

  Kayin responded “How could you tell? We didn’t even do anything…”

  3 shook his finger at Kayin “I’d say the fact that you got them off their knees and they actually stopped being afraid long enough to listen to you speak is progress… Trust me… Tomorrow, as we work I’ll have all three of you really start to interact with them.”

  As I stood there listening to 3 and looking at the sun on the horizon, I remembered the pit… There was something I had to do.

  “Hey, let’s take a break from all this for a little while, there’s something we need to do… Follow me back near the entrance. I want to address all the men… You too 3.”

  He looked confused. “Why me? I need to go back down there and continue working with them.”

  “Just come with us, it’ll only take a few hours.”

  Kayin said “What are we doing Atlas?”

  “The pit Kayin… We’re going to fill in that pit. The natives should never have to see that…”

  They all agreed and we went around telling everyone to head to the main entrance.

  When enough people gathered I walked out to the middle of the crowd.

  “There’s something else we need to do for the natives! There’s an open pit full of dead bodies… We’re going to fill it in. No questions asked!.. Understand!?”

  Some of the men upfront looked over at Kayin… He was in charge after all…

  He looked at me and said “Everyone do what he says now. Go get all the digging equipment we have!”

  We all spent the next few hours filling in the pit… 3 thanked me several times, I could tell it meant a lot to him. He even said he’d have his people make a large ceremonial stone to put at the site to honor the dead…

  Other than that no one said a word… Having to look at the countless bodies as we shoveled dirt on top of them truly displayed the inexcusable outcome of our actions.

  We barely even looked at each other… It was a hard thing to do but it was our responsibility… We needed to face it, no matter how difficult it was for us. That’s why it had to be done at every site. Everyone else needs to face it as well…

  When we were done I walked over to 3. “I’m going to have Kayin order to have this done at all the sites.”

  He didn’t say anything. He just barely nodded and we parted ways… It was too difficult even to make eye
contact… The only thing that helped was Sara coming up and having me put my arms around her. It was an emotional experience for us all…

  Chapter 17

  For the next two years we all worked, bled, and even died alongside the natives. We followed 3’s plan and did everything we could not to showcase our technology... But no matter what we did, they refused to stop mining.

  3 helped us learn their language, but it was so primitive and vague, one word could mean ten different things. And it was very easy to frighten or even offend them.

  Before long, we truly understood why 3 had such a hard time communicating and making them understand what we are… It wasn’t a language problem, but the inability to comprehend what 3 was trying to explain.

  We even tried getting angry and commanding the natives to stop working but it only promoted fear and made them go faster. It got to the point where the best we could do was treat them well, give them food, clean water, and make them take breaks.

  We did our best to develop an actual friendship so they would begin to feel comfortable around us, but they were too fearful and refused to view us as anything but some type of higher beings worthy of worship. Most of them wouldn’t even speak to us. We could only communicate through 3.

  Because of this, most of them began to view 3 as a figure to be revered as well. They even came up with a title for him, “Lo-Tar” which he claims translates to “chosen”.

  It was an extremely frustrating and heartbreaking situation… My only real comfort was Sara…

  At times we actually wished that Horus had made them all slightly more intelligent. He had given them just enough to be a danger to themselves in a situation like this. I couldn’t help but fear it would have an adverse effect on their progression… 3 was even afraid they would continue mining long after we left due to the fear that we may return and be angry...

  We had done our best to show that we were just normal people. We tried to make it known we didn’t like it when they would kneel or bow, yet the praise and worship has only escalated. They were taking our actions as being displeased instead of understanding we just wanted them to stop.

  Throughout the day they’d bring us little carvings and pieces of chrysos formed into strange symbols. Every day at noon they would all stop work to chant and give us praise. On several occasions they even tried to offer us some of their women… It was a good thing we were leaving soon; I could only imagine what it would be like after another few years.

  At first we had decided not to interfere with their natural progression any further but it couldn’t be helped. Along with 3, we taught them easier ways to create fire, and that it can be used to manipulate and even strengthen metals.

  They couldn’t help but see the wheel and be interested, so 3 showed them how to fashion proper tools and make them out of wood or stone.

  It was inevitable… The natives may be extremely primitive but they definitely show the most important trait of our species; curiosity. We had to reward them for their will to learn and want to create things themselves… Maybe after all we had done, making their journey to civilization a little easier wasn’t such a bad thing…

  For the first year, 3 went from site to site, trying to convince them to stop worshiping us and mining. He was able to convince very small groups to leave, but the rest of them just grew to distrust and dislike him. It actually started to work against us.

  Eventually he had no choice but to stop trying… The second time he was attacked for speaking out against us they almost killed him. He was beaten so badly he had to spend weeks in the medical center on the Sirius.

  According to 3, one of the other natives was about to kill him with one of the tools 3 taught him how to make… Kayin ran over and took it away just in time… It was no different than the violence that took place on Aeris due to similar beliefs long ago.

  We had no choice but to continue hiding our technology and try to show them what we were. They just couldn’t be told… Not yet.

  Fortunately this won’t last for much longer. With the addition of every free man and woman on the ship along with the natives, we’ve come within days of reaching our goal. The Sirius would even arrive home on schedule… But it would be very different than when we left. I can only imagine how much the ACI has accomplished since we’ve been gone….

  As we headed back in the transport ship after another day of intense labor, Kayin received word that the head of the mining division reported we were less than 20 tons away from our goal. This meant tomorrow would be the last day of mining and we may even head home that night.

  We were worried, but ready to get back to Aeris and tell our story. The struggle wasn’t over yet, and we may be in more danger once we get home than we ever were here.

  We were at the furthest site from the Sirius so the ride back gave me plenty of time to think. I had desperately been trying to come up with a way to convince the natives that we weren’t some type of supernatural creators.

  I was so afraid 3 was right… That they’d continue to worship us and mine long as we left. Maybe even for thousands of years... I had to come up with something before we went home…

  While I sat at the front of the transport ship, gazing out of the front as Kayin flew us back to the Sirius I realized something… We may not be able to teach them now but I could leave them things that would let them know later in their development. Things that they would have to recognize as manmade long before they discover electricity, build machinery, or make it to the computer age… I had an idea.

  I turned to Kayin and said “I think I came up with something…”

  He said “about what?”

  I hit him in the arm and said “About how to make the natives stop worshiping us!”

  Kayin put his hands up. “Alright, alright. Calm down and just tell me.”

  I stood up and started pacing around the ship with excitement.

  “I know this will work… Turn around and go back. 3 needs to hear this too…”

  He looked at me like I was crazy. “Turn the ship around!?.. What’s going on man?”

  “Just do it! I don’t wanna have to explain it twice.”

  I was exhausted and I know Kayin was too but I couldn’t wait the half hour it would take to walk from the ship to the site. I wanted as much time to prepare as possible so I took off running out of the ship the moment we landed.

  I looked back and waved to Kayin. “Come on Kayin, hurry up! We’re probably leaving tomorrow!”

  I barely heard him yell back “You want me to run!? You gotta be kidding me!”

  When I found 3 I was so out of breath I couldn’t talk. Kayin had fallen back some time ago.

  I put my hand up to let him know I needed a minute.

  He laughed and said “What’s going on? I thought you already left?”

  I took a few more deep breaths “I… came… up… with a plan.”

  “A plan?”

  “Yes, it’s long term… Really long term. But I think it will work. Just wait for Kayin to get here and I’ll get started.”

  After a few minutes he finally made it. I guess he decided to walk the rest of the way…

  He said “Man Atlas, you’re too fast for me, I had to stop. I don’t know where you got all that energy after the work we did today, I’m exhausted… So what’s this plan about?”

  “Ok look… We’ve tried everything we could think of right?”

  I paused and looked at them. “They just don’t understand… There’s nothing we can do about it right now, but we can leave things behind so that one day they’ll figure it out.”

  3 said “Unfortunately I already thought of that Atlas… It could be a thousand years before they’ll be able to understand. How will anything you leave behind survive that long?”

  “3, there are these places on Aeris called museums; they have countless artifacts, carvings, and writings that are thousands of years old… Some even tens of thousands.”

  He looked intrigued so I continued.<
br />
  “You’re still young, 20, 30 years from now you’ll have been able to advance their language quite a bit. Probably even start them on reading and writing. Wouldn’t you say?”

  He nodded. “Most likely.”

  “Write down everything that happened here… Who we are, why we came, explain our technology… everything 3… And we’ll leave behind a bunch of different items you can keep safe… Things that they’ll have to eventually recognize as human engineering.”

  “Ok… But Atlas, once I’m gone…”

  I interrupted him. “I already thought of that.”

  I paused. “You have to have children 3, more than one… Teach them everything, and the importance of protecting the information. Make it so their children are taught, and their children’s children… That’s exactly how things survived on Aeris… I know it will work 3…”

  He raised his brow and thought for about a minute… I could tell he knew I was on to something.

  Kayin said “Well, it’s worth a shot.”

  3 sighed. “Atlas, at this point I’m willing to try anything… I just want to spare them from the suffering your people endured for thousands of years. Even if it does take dozens of generations it’s worth it… At least it’ll be in place as a safeguard… There’s a chance it could just fade away once you leave… But I highly doubt it after studying your people’s history and seeing how devoted they are to you.”

  He continued. “It seems as though humans genuinely like the idea of such belief systems… It brings them comfort and takes away from the severity of life… That’s why it’s so hard for them to let go. I have no doubt it will indeed carry through the ages and evolve… Let’s do it Atlas… I’ll start looking for a suitable mate once you leave. The most intelligent female I can find, of course.”

  “Yeah I guess the sooner you have them the better…”

  He sighed “Well you never know, there could be side effects from what Horus did to me that haven’t presented themselves yet. I could drop dead from heart failure at any moment, just like so many of the others… I might not live very long but I’ll do the best with whatever time I end up having. I can promise you that.”