Morality in Question
Story by the HamsterofDeath
Chapter 2
A/N: Hey guys. Thank you for all your wonderful reviews on the first chapter. Many of you have regretted the very abrupt ending, so here in an alternate version where the last scene never happened. Overall, expect 2 or 3 more chapters.
Critiques are very welcome.
Enjoy :)
Meryl drew the short straw, again, as if her own body wasn't short enough already.
While she dutifully prepared Knives' breakfast, she started to think about her current situation. She had asked him if he could be reasoned with. It had felt like the right thing to say at that time, but she realized a bit later that she had no idea how to convince him. It was painfully obvious that Knives was an intellectually superior being, if nothing else. He outsmarted her and would probably forever have the upper hand in any argument. But talking to him made her realize something else. Vash, the goofy, silly perverted idiot was also supposed to be very smart, even though he went out of his way to hide everything about himself for the sole sake of mingling with humans.
The only person who stood a chance at making Knives see reason was Vash. So she tried to get him to help the day before.
"Vash! Why don't you go and talk to your brother? You brought him here, but you're not even trying to change his mind!"
The humanoid typhoon sighed. "There is no need for me to do that. The two of us have been having this conversation for over a hundred years. There is nothing I can say that hasn't been said before."
"But..."
"Meryl, you shouldn't be talking to him, he will just try to confuse you."
That last statement made her pause and rethink everything.
Vash was right.
She shouldn't have listened to Knives in the first place. He had started to play games with her. Mind games. He asked weird questions, probably to display dominance even in his pitiful state. He challenged her, and she just hated him for asking questions that she couldn't answer properly.
He seemed to have a plan, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't find out what it was.
She mentally prepared to face the bedridden plant. This time, she wouldn't let her guard down.
She entered his room, holding the tray of food and found him sitting on his bed, staring out the window. He looked completely engrossed in his contemplation. As she approached and settled on the chair next to his bed, she wondered what he could find so fascinating about the endless sand and glaring suns.
"Do you want to know how I see the world?"
"Will you shut up if I am not interested after hearing it?"
He turned his head towards her, and his piercing blue eyes locked on her.
"Of course."
"Fine, tell me how you see the world."
And so, he began his hypnotizing explanation.
"No matter where I look, I see patterns. The world is made out of interconnected patterns emerging from basic rules. I can understand what they lead to. Did you ever look at ants working? None of them knows what it is doing. They follow a few simple rules, and yet, they create a balanced self-sustaining system. I see that everywhere. Simple rules, complex results. And I find no mistake in the basics. The universe is perfect. No engineer could create something like this; not without taking millions of tries. At the very core, there is an elegance embedded in that system that is ignored by almost every single human. Ants have an excuse, they cannot understand it. Humans do not have an excuse: they could understand, but they want to be blind. And if you ask me, that is a crime."
He gave her dozens of examples. The golden ratio, Pi, the similarities between solar systems and atoms, the event horizon of black holes and the event horizon of the observable universe. He told her about how her body was made out of tiny little ants called cells that had each no idea what they were doing, and yet worked together to create the being that was her.
She listened, mesmerized. She had never imagined that the dead wastelands, the harsh suns, and even the corpses told any story apart from a violent one. And yet, he was describing such incredible beauty to her.
The world, seen from his eyes, was unexpectedly appealing. She wanted to know more.
Over the next days, Knives' behavior changed. He stopped being frustrated. He gradually became friendlier towards her. His questions, that started as a way to show off his superiority, changed to explanations.
She found herself waiting expectantly for the next chance to talk to him. After four days, Meryl skipped the rigged straw game and directly went to Knives for all his meals.
At some point, she even forgot the food and realized she just came for the entertainment.
That's when realization hit her.
Her hate was gone, it was as if she had forgotten what he did. Who he was.
And it frightened her.
What was he doing to her? Did he brainwash her?
She became extremely angry at herself and ashamed of the fact that she fell into his trap yet again.
She couldn't face Knives anymore, and so, she angrily declared to her stupefied companions that from now on, they were on their own!
Two days later, Meryl felt bad for exposing poor Milly to this manipulative monster! What would he do to her? The same thing? What if Milly wasn't up to defend herself against him? What if he tried to trick her too?
She needed to take matters into her own hands again, she was the only one who could deal with him. But first, she needed to check something.
"Milly, did Knives ask you any weird questions?"
The big girl gave her a perplexed look. "No. We just played chess a few times and talked a bit about how to best cook soup, and he gave me some amazing tips!"
Weird.
"Let me take over again on the next meal. I can't have you do all the work."
"Of course. You probably missed your friendly chit chat."
"W-What?! No! Where do you even get these crazy ideas from, Milly?!"
After Meryl had managed to regain her composure, she decided she wouldn't lose it again.
"Knives. I know you're planning something." She walked into his room with a plate of soup as an alibi.
"Indeed I am." He smiled. That smile looked so 'all knowing' and condescending that she had to fight the urge to slap it off his perfect face.
"Meryl Stryfe, you must admit, you enjoyed it once you stopped thinking about my past, did you not?"
She almost dropped the plate.
The nerve of this guy! Even if it was true, she would rather die than admit it. Instead she kept her mouth tightly shut and waited for him to continue.
"So, what if I never did any of that?"
"What?!"
Surely, he wouldn't try to play innocent now!
"Milly's moral concept is oversimplified. She wouldn't understand. But you are different. I tested you. You will help me."
Help you?! Not in a million years.
"There is a way to correct the mistake I made. There is a way to undo the damage. Even turn it into something good. At least, there could be, if I had your assistance."
She frowned. How could that possibly be true?
"But first, I will need to get back into shape. The way I am now, I can do nothing. So please, keep taking care of me."
He could have asked that of Milly. Why did he ask her instead?
"Tell me more." Sheer curiosity made these words escape her lips.
She hated the fact that she was giving in again. Does he have some sick psycho-power?
"We are going to uplift humanity. We will erase its flaws. We will turn it into something better."
He just doesn't know when to give up, does he? Did he go even more insane than he already was?
"Uplift?" she said in a bored tone.
"Yes! That is what must be done! Every species that evolves far enough will eventually reach a point where its potential will allow it to become destructive. Imagine a group of babies, and a few of them start to learn how to wield weapons. If even one of them has a mindset not capable of understanding its power, it will cause massacre. That is what happened. Humanity gained knowledge, but not wisdom. They are infants with guns. They shot into all directions, being unaware of the consequences. They destroyed their own home planet."
"And your great plan is?"
She crossed her arms, careful not to spill the plate's content, and mentally prepared for the weird evil genius nonsense that was to come.
"I tried to cleanse the world of humanity in its current state. And I was right to want that."
She sighed. He went insane again. I have to poison him or something.
"Humanity as it is now is beyond repair. It is on a self enforcing path to its own end. A downward spiral. I saw that, and I tried to remove all that which is bad. I failed, and lying here forced me to rethink my view."
So, are you finally going to spill it?
"Just say it already. You can skip the theater part."
Knives sent her an annoyed look before resuming. "I considered other possibilities. I analyzed the history. Everything I remember. And then I saw the solution. A way out. A perfect, clean move I could make that would change everything." An evil smile appeared on his face.
Meryl was about to lose her patience. "What are you going to do? Tell me or your next meal is air."
"First, get better."
"Do you prefer air soup or air bread?"
"We will have to find, or build, a spaceship."
"Oh, and then?"
Wait. What?
"A spaceship?!"
"Yes. When I sent the command to crash all the ships, a hundred spaceships didn't comply and there was at least one that ignored the order completely. It should still be somewhere in space. We need to go there."
"Oh that's awesome! My patience just hit its limit."
Meryl turned around and walked away. No matter what Knives had to say, he should have just said it. She wouldn't allow him to play games with her. Not again. On her way out, she bumped into Milly.
"I don't want to see this guy again! ... for the next few days, at least," she mumbled the last part.
"But his idea seemed really nice to me."
Meryl gaped. He told her! He told her everything and is playing games with me!
Meryl's skin wasn't think enough to hide her change in blood pressure.
"Would you... be so kind and tell me what his idea is?"
Her hands were trembling, and she almost broke the plate.
Oh. I am still carrying it. Serves him right! That jerk can starve for all I care!
"He wants to go to a space ship that is somewhere in the solar system and use its quantum entanglement device to send a message back in time to his younger self, telling him what to do. He wants to teach humanity how to behave one by one, create a more advanced society and then gradually wake up humans and integrate them into his Utopia. He wants to create a new civilization that is better than what is on this planet."
"He told me you wouldn't understand."
"Yes, I must have misunderstood him. When I told him his idea is evil he sent me away."
Evil? I mean, yes of course, he must be plotting something, but that didn't sound evil at all.
"Why did you say it's evil?"
"Meryl?" Milly waved her hand in front of Meryl's face. "It's obvious! If he goes back in time, everybody who lives now will die!"
Is that what he meant? Milly would consider time travel as killing everyone who is alive now. Knives would only see the numbers.
"I see... yes..." She turned away, needing to think about what she heard.
The next chance she got to see Vash was the day after. He came back from some 'important mission', carrying a strange cactus like plant that Meryl had never seen before. She was told to take care of it, and that it was super important to keep this plant's soil wet all the time. He really took her for his servant, didn't he?
But she couldn't say no. Not when he pulled his best puppy eyes on her. She now officially hated both brothers.
After Vash rummaged through their kitchen drawers and stuffed his face with donuts, he tried to disappear before the supposedly obligatory Who-feeds-the-bad-guy lottery. But Meryl didn't let him.
"Not so fast, Mister! First, tell me everything you know about quantum time travel."
Vash adjusted his glasses, as if they were connected to his ears and malfunctioning.
"So he finally told you..."
I have been the last! The last! He told everyone else. "I will kill him!" she seethed.
Vash's expression turned into shock. "No, you can't! He's my brother! I know he did some terrible things but..."
Did I just say that out loud? "Ugh, sorry, I didn't mean it. I just…," she rubbed her temples. "I'm not going to hurt him."Yet. "So, what is his genius plan?"
"He didn't tell you?"
Meryl gave Vash a short summary, leaving out all embarrassing parts. He saw no choice but to explain it all.
"Well, I don't really know. Back in the ships when we were children, Knives told me once about an experiment that was being conducted. He found a document or overheard something, I don't remember it well. We both ignored it afterwards."
"What was it about?"
"Well... I don't know. You have to ask Knives."
"Why can't you tell me? He told you his plan, didn't he?"
"He told me he wanted to send a message to the past and I refused. I don't know any details."
Great. I will lose all my dignity.
After staring at the door leading to Knives' room for over fifteen minutes and turning multiple shades of red, Meryl finally gathered her courage, opened the door, lost all her dignity and asked the question. "What is quantum time travel?"
Her sudden entrance obviously startled Knives. But his look of surprise got quickly replaced with a barely hidden smirk.
"So, you came back. Sit down, Meryl Stryfe, and listen to the miracles of science."
She sat down, not saying anything.
"Do you know what interaction means on an atomic or subatomic level?"
Yes, keep mocking me.
"No, I don't, great master, please tell me so I can bath in the glory of your knowledge," she said that in the most sarcastic voice she could produce.
His smirk widened. "Interaction means, that two particles or fields are overlapping each other in time and space. Usually, for any interaction, time is a barrier, and space is a barrier. Me talking to you is me creating molecular movements in the air. One molecule moves against the next, which forms a complex wave, which triggers a reaction inside your ear. That in turn is translated into a stream of information that your brain picks apart. It is a chain of interactions. It starts in my brain, and ends in yours."
Can you repeat that one more time?
"Everybody knows that. Tell me something new."
He looked amused by her reaction. "Then there is quantum entanglement. The smaller a particle, the easier it is to achieve. If you have two entangled particles, it means that if you interact with one, you automatically interact with the other as well. The distance in space is irrelevant."
I need to read a book about that once I am out of here...
"To the scientifically unversed, this is magic. They don't understand it and try to explain their superstitions with it. Ghosts are 'quantum beings' and other nonsense."
Meryl tried to look as if she understood everything.
"Yes."
"I am surprised you can still follow me. So, what the scientists of the fleet were doing was to solve the time-distance problem as well. What do you know about worm holes?"
Wormholes? Talk about a sudden topic switch.
"They... can be used to travel from one place to another? Though not by humans as far as I know."
"Impressive!"
Why does he look so amazed. Every child knows that.
"So, as you probably know as well, if you set up a worm hole, it will connect to that point in space and time. You set up an anchor, so to speak."
He wasn't talking about sandworms. Keep your face as it is. He must not notice.
"Interesting."
"So, what would happen if you entangled a particle before you created a worm hole, send it through it, and receive it on the other side?"
"Interesting."
"Indeed! You could change it on one side, and on the other, it would react. I didn't work out the exact details, but if we had such an entangled particle, we would be able to send messages to the past. The moment we send a message that changes the past, everything should change accordingly, meaning the current timeline never happened."
"Are you hungry?"
"... Yes."
I think it is time to switch the topic before he notices.
"I have a question. Why did you tell me last?"
"Because I knew my chances to convince you would be the highest. I used Milly for practice and Vash to see if he remembered anything useful. I optimized my strategy to get you."
"So... you never expected them to agree?"
"Not really. I would have been surprised. I was always after you. If you agree to help me, Vash will not object. Milly will play along."
I feel a bit flattered.
"So I can ruin your plan by saying no." She smiled.
"But you won't." He returned her smile.
"How do you know?"
You don't really know that, do you?
"You have morals, like I do. If you were given the chance to rid the world of all its evil, you would do it. You would feel obligated to do it. But unlike Vash and Milly, your morals are not weird and distorted. Just like you calculate the value of damage that is done, you can compare the moral value of two options."
Did he just call me a psychopath and disguised it as praise?
"Yes, I can calculate the value of damage."
Did I just accept the praise part?
"I knew we would get along. Once I can walk, we will go to the ship and get it running again."
"Wait, wait, wait. I haven't agreed yet."
"But you will. You are processing what I told you, and in the end you will agree. There is no other way. Your moral concepts do not allow another result. Think about it as long as you want, the result is predetermined. You can only refuse if your character changes. But this cannot happen, not just like that. Think about it. You will save millions. Humanity will still colonize this planet, but they will terra-form it. They will have a government that actually understands what it is doing."
Said like that, it really sounds good.
"Ok, what is your evil plan? You are plotting something, aren't you?"
"Of course. I will elegantly dispose of humanity as it is now, without hurting even a single one of them."
I need to say no. I know I have to. But I cannot refuse something so promising without a good reason. I need to find a flaw.
"I... will give you my answer tomorrow."
"Do it whenever you wish, I already know what is going to happen."
I would like to thank Athelynge for drawing some great fanart for this story (cover image and more). You can find her work on DeviantArt.