Educating Mork

Part Two

Mork awoke to a familiar and discomforting sensation, his body numb and immobile, his eyes and mouth frozen shut. Surrounded by a limitless, vast expanse of darkness, he knew he was confined to the deep recesses of his mind.

"Oh no, I'm in stasis again," he said, his disembodied voice echoing through the cavernous, black abyss.

Ayada appeared behind him as a ghostly apparition, her mind merging with his. He materialized into his own form to face her, glaring at her.

"You lied to me," he said. He crossed his arms and turned away from her.

"I'm sorry, Mork," she said. "There was no other way. I wanted you back with me on Ork. I wanted it the way it used to be between us, before I lost you."

"So you had me sent back to prison?" He asked.

"This isn't prison."

"Well, you could have fooled me. I am in stasis, aren't I? I'm trapped inside my mind, unless we're on some unusual planet I haven't visited before."

"Yes, you are in stasis, but you're not in prison. It's for your protection. You see, you're in my superior's laboratory."

"Why?"

Ayada looked down. "I have to admit that bringing you back to Ork with me is not just a selfish desire of mine, although there is of course some of that," she said. "Actually, I was on orders to return you by my superior."

"I don't understand. What does he want with me?"

Ayada smiled hopefully, giving her a girlish innocence. "Oh Mork, it's incredible," she said. "You won't believe it! He has come up with a procedure to help you and other Defectives like you. It will eradicate all emotions from your mind permanently, so you can live a normal life on Ork again. Wouldn't that be fantastic?"

Mork said nothing, his arms still crossed, his back to her. He clenched his imaginary jaws, working them silently.

"Talk to me, Mork," Ayada said. "Please, tell me what you're thinking. I know you're angry with me, but please don't shut me out like this."

Mork turned to face her. "Don't you understand?" He asked. "If you allow him to do this to me, then I won't be able to love you the way you want me to anymore. Everything you love about me will be destroyed, gone forever."

"But at least you'll be free," she said. "Don't you want to live on Ork again without the fear of having your emotions monitored? Without the fear of imprisonment for those emotions?"

"I'm already imprisoned," he said bitterly, looking around the darkness that surrounded them.

"But you won't be for long. This is only temporary, to keep you safe. In order for the procedure to work, your body has to be completely still. Once it is done, I promise you that you will be able to function as a normal member of Orkan society again. You'll be free, and most importantly—you'll be with me."

Mork felt in his neck where the implant was, threatening to alert the other superiors of his emotional offenses. It was this implant that prevented him from returning to Ork, even for a visit. The risk that his emotions would be elevated was far too great for him to take that chance.

"I admit it would be nice to come back," he said, "and I know you have only the best intentions in mind for me because you still love me, but you don't know what this would mean. My emotions make me who I am. They're the reason you fell in love with me in the first place. Without them, you won't recognize me anymore. You won't like me that way. I'll be just another bland, unexciting Orkan."

"I have strength enough to feel for both of us," Ayada said, "and I can keep it private. I'm not a Defective like you. I can control my emotions."

"I love Mindy," Mork said. "What do you expect me to do? Leave her and the new life I've built on Earth for you after years of not seeing you? People change, Ayada. Life moves on." He reached out and gently touched her chin.

"I'll always have fond memories of our time together, you know that," he said, smiling. "But I can't just drop everything I know and start over with you, and I won't have my personality changed just so I can stay here. I've got more integrity than that, and so do you. If you truly loved me, you would realize that. You wouldn't let your superior destroy who I am. I know you think you're doing it for me out of love, finding a way to grant me liberty on Ork and handing it to me as some special gift out of your devotion to me, but what you're actually proposing—what your superior is proposing—it's actually cruel. What right has he to change who I am? I'm asking you—begging you—to reconsider your position before it's too late and you regret what you've done. If you truly loved me, you wouldn't want to see me harmed in this way. You would let me go, and return me to my new life. I'm happy there. Don't you wish me happiness in my new life instead of the misery and suffering you know I would endure here if this were to happen to me?"

Ayada looked down, her resolve softening. "You don't know how lonely I've been without you," she said, tears welling in her eyes. "I just thought…this would be the perfect solution. I thought we could recapture what we'd lost, that we could live together again. What am I supposed to do?"

Mork hugged her. "I don't know," he said, "and I am truly sorry for you." He stroked her hair. "I still think about you too, you know, and I will always love you. But I can't stay here. You know that. You have to let me go. You have to convince your superior to reconsider, if you can."

They released each other. Ayada looked at him.

"I can't," she said. "Rian is stubborn. He is a compassionate and caring man who only wants to help Defectives like you lead fuller, more productive lives on Ork."

Mork's eyes widened. "Wait—Rian is your superior?" He asked.

"Yes."

"Oh no," he said, pacing, suddenly becoming alarmed. "I've heard some disturbing rumors about him. Orson told me. He was kicked out of their hierarchy because there was some scandal involving him—I can't remember what it was now—but he's a dangerous man, Ayada, a radical."

"They say that about him because he's misunderstood, as all great geniuses ahead of their time are," Ayada said. "He's actually quite brilliant. His theories could advance Ork light years beyond where we are now."

"I should have known," Mork said. "Only Rian could come up with something as drastic as a procedure to completely alter someone's personality." He looked desperately at Ayada, his eyes pleading. "Please, you have to revive me from stasis and get me out of here and back home on Earth to Mindy as soon as possible. I'm begging you—if you love me, don't let him do this to me. Don't let this happen. Please, Ayada. I'm asking you for the last time."

Ayada couldn't bear looking at Mork's sorrowful eyes or his terrified, anguished expression. On some level, she knew he was right. If Rian managed to destroy the passionate, dashing, and romantic man she fell in love with, she would never forgive herself, forever living with the knowledge that she was complicit in his destruction. Tears filled her eyes.

"I…"she looked up, wiping her eyes. "I hear him outside your mind. He's calling me."

"Don't go," Mork said. "Get me out of here, please."

"Mork…"

"Ayada!"

Her image began to fade. "I'm sorry, Mork," she said.

"No, wait! Come back, please! Ayada!"

She was gone, and Mork began sobbing, afraid that he had not only lost her, but his personality as well. As he sobbed, a new image appeared, replacing Ayada's in his mind. It was a tall, distinguished, fatherly man with a full head of greying hair, his brown eyes containing an unsettling benignity. He shook his head and made a tsk sound as he calmly watched Mork's pathetic emotional display.

"Such a pity," Rian said. "I hate to see Defectives suffer from their afflictions like this. Such an intelligent Orkan, so capable…and yet so handicapped by your emotions. Now, wouldn't you like to be rid of them? Wouldn't you like to rejoin Orkan society and become a valuable contributor, a productive citizen? I've read your profile, Mork. You have so much to offer Ork. If only you didn't have those emotions hindering you, who knows what you might achieve for the good of our race? Instead, look at what has happened to you. Look at what you've been reduced to. You've become marginalized and criminalized. Your foolish, cowardly superior Orson, in a misguided attempt to help you, sent you to Earth to live among the savages. As usual, he and the other superiors were lazy. They would rather dispose of a problem than try to solve it. Such a waste of potential."

"I like living on Earth," Mork said, his sadness turning to rage. "I love Mindy. You wouldn't understand."

"That's right, I don't," Rian said. "I don't, but you really don't, either. Do you think if you were truly adjusted, that you would want to lower yourself by living with a primitive species? The truth is, you unfortunately do not know any better. But I do, Mork. I know what's best for you. I can help you. I can cure you. What you have is a disease, given to you by accident at the time of your conception. It isn't your fault, so why should you have to suffer from it and live with it when you can be rehabilitated and reintegrated into Orkan society where you belong?"

"What if it isn't an accident, as you call it, but simply a part of who I am?" Mork asked. "What if there was a reason I was designed differently? Maybe I wasn't meant to live on Ork. Did you ever consider that?"

"Nonsense," Rian said. "No Orkan would wish what you have on their worst enemy. It must be pure torture for you to have to be burdened like this, to have to endure it constantly. Look what it's done to you. It's placed you at a great disadvantage. You're shunned by your peers, banned from living here. It has to be incredibly isolating."

"It is," Mork said, "but only when I'm here and have to face the intolerance of Orkans like you. Call the earthlings whatever derogatory term you wish, but at least they're accepting of individual differences. If that makes them less advanced than we are, well…then maybe I would rather live among the 'savages', as you call them. Call Orson a coward if you want to, but at least he understood what I needed and found a place where I could live that suited me, that provided me with what I wanted."

"Oh Mork," Rian said, shaking his head. "How do you know what you want? You're blinded by your disability. You've been living a limited life, dictated by your emotions. If I were to free you of them, to show you the possibilities…let me do that for you, Mork. Let me help you. I can't bear to see someone as exceptional as you throw away your incredible talents because his emotions prohibit him from using them to their fullest. We need you here on Ork. We need you to help us continue the progress of our civilization."

Mork thought about it for a minute. "I see," he said. "This isn't really about helping me at all, is it?" He asked. "You just want another worker bee for the collective hive. You would diminish who I am, reject what I already have to offer as an Orkan with feelings—you would sacrifice me for what you call the benefit of our race. Well, I have no desire to be a part of a people so uncaring. I think I made that decision long ago when I was arrested, and I have no intention of changing my mind now, even if you force me. I would rather die."

Even though he remained relatively calm and controlled, Rian could see the passion in Mork's convictions, and it almost frightened him. Unused as he was to emotions, he almost worried that Mork was about to lose complete control of himself and physically attack him. In response to Mork's vehemence, he almost recoiled, expecting a blow.

"Very well," he said, straightening himself, clearing his throat. "Believe what you will, but it will not prevent me from taking action. You will undergo my procedure, Mork. I will remove your emotions, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. I am helping you, regardless of whether you want to believe that or not."

"I can contact Orson, tell him what you're doing to me," Mork said.

Rian shook his head. "I am afraid that is impossible," he said. "I have severed your mental connection with him. He wouldn't understand what I am trying to accomplish, anyway, that fat fool. You must submit to the procedure, Mork. There is nothing you can do. Outside of your mind, you're completely helpless, paralyzed under stasis. You cannot resist."

Mork knew he was right. Even if he attacked the figure of Rian standing calmly in front of him, he was only a figment of his imagination, a projection of his mind. He was completely at his mercy, and he realized nothing he could say would persuade him.

"The procedure is rather painless and quick, I assure you," Rian said, his image beginning to fade from Mork's mind. "When you revive from stasis, you will be a new Orkan, and you will forget all this ridiculous nonsense you used to believe. Most of all, you will forget the time you spent on Earth, wasting your abilities by spending time with a useless earthling, dallying in an absurd 'romance'."

Rian was gone, leaving Mork to rely on Ayada, hoping that she would find the courage to protest, to stop this man from ruining his life. He hoped she realized that it wasn't just his life that would be irrevocably changed—her life would change, too. Any hopes she had of them being together would be gone, and as for Mindy—he could already envision her distraught, grief-stricken expression as she realized she lost him. It was more than he could bear, and he began to sob again, anxiously waiting inside his mind for a reprieve.

"Come on, Ayada, stop him," he said, even though he knew she could no longer hear him since she was outside his mind. "I know you. You're brave and strong. You have to find to courage to stand up to him. If you love me, I know you can do it for me. Please, before it's too late…"