Only Human (Themis Files, #3)(79)
—Thank you, Rose Frankyin. Do you have what you promised us?
—Yes. I do.
FILE NO. 2200
INTERVIEW BETWEEN DR. ROSE FRANKLIN AND VINCENT COUTURE
Location: United Nations Headquarters, New York, New York —What the hell just happened, Rose? One minute, I’m with Eva in North Korea, then some giant robot appears right next to us. Next thing I know, Themis and Lapetus are in the parking lot in front of the old EDC hangar. Now Enatast is here? I just heard his speech on TV.
—It’s a long story, Vincent.
—Then you better start talking. Did he say: “Resistance is futile”?
—No, he did not.
—Sure sounded like it. His English is getting good, though.
—I helped with his speech a little.
—You did? Did you do this? Did you get the Ekt to come here?
—I didn’t know what else to do, Vincent.
—What did you do?
—I…called them?
—With what?
—The…I don’t know what it’s called. The thing they used on me, to bring me back after I died. It’s also used for communication. I sent them a message about two weeks ago. I didn’t know if they received it. I guess they did.
—What was the message? Please invade us?
—Not in so many words. I told them we—our people—were hurting, and hurting each other. I told them we had lost sight of our identity and we were…terrified, and lost. That discovering we were related to them robbed us of our past and destroyed our future. That we were killing each other trying to cling to an outdated notion of humanity. I told them it was their fault. All of it. Whether they want to admit it or not, they are responsible. They came here thousands of years ago, and they changed us. They made us into something different. They tried to fix it and killed millions of us instead, scared us into insanity. They did that. I told them they couldn’t simply wash their hands of it.
—Are you…? Rose! Your alien friend, didn’t he tell you—maybe it wasn’t you, our nameless friend, whatever—that the Ekt would just…wipe us out? Isn’t that what he said? They’d send us into oblivion and let us evolve from scratch all over again if they thought…
—He was wrong.
—Oh, well, if he was wrong. Sorry I even mentioned it. There I was thinking we risked total annihilation.
—Think about it, Vincent. They killed a few million of us, and that sent their world into a civil war. Their people—half of them anyway—see us as…I don’t know…cousins. We’re related to them. What do you think would happen if they killed all of us? Anyway, they didn’t.
—You didn’t care.
—I thought it was worth…Look. We needed help. We…It was their mistake. We couldn’t fix this. We don’t have what it takes. We just don’t. They could do it. They could make things right.
—By force?
—I try to convince myself it’s something else. Supervision? We’re children, Vincent. We’re all children. We were thrown into a grown-up world before our time. I thought…I thought we needed some adults to show us right from wrong.
—Yeah, that makes sense, maybe. It sounded a bit like bullshit when you said it, though.
—What do you want me to say, Vincent? That I believe in the human spirit? In our innate ability to face even the most insurmountable odds? I wish that were true, Vincent. I wish.
—We could have done more.
—Who? You and I? Eva? We’re not superheroes, Vincent. We got lucky a few times, but we can’t control the entire world. You thought you could help with Themis. Eva thought the same thing. Where did that get us? We had two of these insanely powerful weapons on Earth, and you and your daughter were each in control of one of them. What did you do? You pounded each other to the brink of death. We’re not…We’re not heroes. No one is. Every movie we watch, every book we read, we see people who can solve every problem, face every danger all on their own. But in real life, Vincent, we just call the cops. That’s what I did.
—I don’t know, Rose, I—
—They were executing people!
—It’s not the first time. Probably not the last.
—It’s the first time we did it everywhere. It’s the first time there isn’t anyone to say: Hey! Stop this. This is wrong. We’ve lost our collective mind. If that had happened to me, you’d have appointed a guardian. If I had gone insane, put my own life in danger, you— —Stop. Stop. I understand why you did it, Rose. I’m not sure I agree, but I understand. What I don’t get is how you got the Ekt to agree. They…This goes against everything they believe in. You just said, their world was sent into chaos the last time they came here, and now they’re…We just surrendered to them, Rose! The whole planet surrendered to them! Interference doesn’t even begin to…From what I know of them, the Ekt would want absolutely no part in this. They’d want the opposite of this.
—You’re right. They wouldn’t have come. They wouldn’t have considered it. We had to give them something. How did he put it? We had to offer them something they wanted more.
—And what’s that?
—What they came for the last time they were here.