He used to stand there for hours. Knives, I mean. Staring at those sleep capsules as though they were the most captivating sight he'd ever seen; maybe they were.
When we were kids, there wasn't a whole lot to do on the ship other than talk and play simple sorts of games: chess and so on. So when Knives first invented the new game, we'd play it non-stop. We'd stand outside the glass barrier leading to the cold sleep room and pick a person in one of the capsules. Didn't really matter who. And we'd invent a little story about them, who they were back on Earth, who their friends and family were, and what they did. It was the greatest game, and sometimes we didn't need to be together to play it. I'd catch Knives wandering off to the glass barrier to stare and play alone in his mind. We never got tired of that game.
There was one girl in particular that Knives preferred to watch, a young girl who looked about our age. Well, she obviously wasn't our age, instead much older, but that didn't change things in our eyes. Knives made up all kinds of little stories about her, how she loved chess and tea and the smell of grass when the sun was high in the afternoon sky. She was an only child, and very lonely, so naturally she'd love to play with us when she woke up.
If you'd known Knives then, you'd understand why I want to save him. Why I need to. He wasn't born hating, and he doesn't need to die hating either. There was a time in our distant pasts when he loved humanity with more honest, innocent compassion than even I could comprehend. I worried if that girl could ever accept us when she woke, and I worried that she might hate us for what we were. But not Knives, ever. He knew that deep down we were all the same.
And it doesn't have to be like it has been for the past decades, Knives. I know you've closed your heart to them, and I know you think we could never live in peace. But you used to understand so well, and I know that if you just give them a chance you'll see that we're not so different at all. You were right, Knives. We really are all the same.
