How To Destroy The Universe

Being a human

Five more minutes passed and nothing happened. We were standing in the following order: the omnipotent alien named Kendara by the computers. Then me, the struggling twenty-something journalist and sci-fi fanatic, in the middle of the room. And a world-famous scientist, about to destroy the Universe, peering down at the passing cars, trying to spot cows on the mountains, or something.

Suddenly, the light broke through the overcast day, and a stream of warm light came into the room, oblivious to what was about to happen. It was soon to be evening. The sun was setting low and I knew that in this region, it became dark quickly because of the surrounding mountains.

'Isn't it fascinating? How light at different wavelengths produces different colours? Perhaps this is why sunsets are so amazing. You get shades of the shortest wavelength – violet, and you get red, which is the longest wavelength. Fascinating. What a day...'

'Sir–' I interrupted, even though I had nothing particular to say, but Doyle kept on rambling.

'No, truly. Light is just electromagnetic radiation. And yet, we, humans, find it fascinating. Of course, it's the only type of electromagnetic radiation we see. The rest is hidden from the cone-shaped cells in the human eye that act as receivers. Did you know, Jack, that there are parts of the spectrum with wavelengths too large or too small and energetic for the biological limitations of our perception? Fascinating. Truly fascinating.'

The clouds covered the sun once again and the light was gone from the room. It suddenly felt as if someone had sucked all the energy from the room.

'You know, I do know that you want to kill me. This is what you came for here, isn't it?'

'Sir, this is not how it looks. You see, there is–'

'Oh no, young man, I know, I know. Don't bother explaining. This was a long time coming. Why do you think I went to so much trouble rushing? I always knew this day would come. I always knew they were watching me. And now, I am here. It's truly fascinating.'

'Sir, what is fascinating about getting killed?' I asked.

I peeked back at Kendara. He was watching us, silently, not moving a muscle.

'Dying is also part of life. Well, not of all life, of course, but definitely a part of human life. You see, I always wanted to be human. I was too fascinated with the human existence. It was so fragile, so pointless, so meaningful and meaningless at once, that I wanted to experience it. They were against it, of course. They wanted me to destroy progress on this planet. But I wanted to advance it. I wanted to matter. Where I come from, there is no pain, no progress, no identity, nothing. And here, I got to enjoy giving interviews to young and ambitious reporters like yourself. I enjoyed watching ambition in your people like yourself. It's so meaningless in the grand scheme of things, ambition I mean. But so meaningful to the ambitious one. Like yourself. It's so sad that there are species in this Universe that want to control other species. It's so sad that I couldn't do anything. God knows – and yes, that's me speaking like a human which I am for the past twenty or so years – I tried. Where I come from, they have this stupid saying: 'Human with technology is like a monkey with a bomb. Both funny and scary' and I used to laugh at it, then I used to despise it, and now I am coming to terms with it. Perhaps it is true. Perhaps I was just corrupted. Perhaps I wanted to matter so much that I almost did something terrible. Something I can't foresee because my mental faculties are not what they used to be. Either way, I am sure you're doing the right thing coming here. This is how it's supposed to be...'

'Mr. Doyle, are you saying that you are not human?'

'Me?' Stanley suddenly turned around and looked at me with his crazy, wide eyes. 'I am one now. But I wasn't always like this. I come from far-far away. The Helix galaxy. Where this lives,' he pointed towards the alien in black standing behind me. 'I used to be a Makian. Well, technically, not a Makian, but just Makian. Because we're one. We don't have identities. That's why we don't have social media, fame, names, and chocolate chip cookies.'

Kendara nodded.

'Do you have the same powers as Kendara?'

'Who?'

'Him,' I said, pointing to Kendara.

'Oh, him. No. I've been a human for too long. I used to have these powers. But if you stay in this form for too long, you lose them. Your body adapts to not needing them and gets rid of them. Its a nasty process too.'

I thought for a moment, trying to absorb all of this.

'Wait a minute,' I yelled, turning back to Kendara. 'You lied to me! You said Mr. Doyle was dangerous because he would destroy Earth!'

'And I said the truth,' replied Kendara. 'Ask him yourself.'

'Is this the truth? Were you about to destroy Earth?'

Doyle hesitated for a moment. Then he scratched his head and made a grimace. 'Well, technically, I wasn't trying to. But I guess, given my research interests in developing a micro-black hole inside a CERN facility by accelerating and breaking particles, this might be the case. So yes, perhaps your friend there is right. I am sorry.'

'But you said you can't kill a human! Is this true?'

'Oh no, Jack, we can kill a human. I killed many when I came to Earth for the first time.'

'What?!'

'But that was in the sixties. Who cares about it now. Remember Kennedy? That was me.'

'What?!'

'Seriously, it's not a big deal.'

I looked at Kendara with anger. 'You son of a bitch! I trusted you! I have no idea why but I trusted you! You can't kill Doyle because he is one of your kind, isn't it?'

'Yup,' replied Kendara and walked a step closer. 'We're not allowed to do so. Even though he is technically not one of our kind anymore. He has become like you. Human.'

'Don't you come close! Son a bitch. I am not going to help you!' I was yelling now.

'Oh yes you will,' said Kendara, making another step in my direction.

'No, I won't,' I replied, angrily. 'You lied to me on purpose. All this bullshit about me being the chosen one. All this crap that I have to save my planet. This is your business. Why should I do it? Who knows if you're not lying now.'

'You will help me,' said Kendara, making yet another step, now being really close to me. I felt myself backing down to Doyle, now being trapped between two aliens. I tried to smell them both but couldn't. Either my nose wasn't reacting to the smells in the room anymore or both of them had no smell. 'You will help me kill that virus, that parasite that calls himself a scientist. Because if you don't, I will kill you.'

The words echoed in my mind. The shives ran down my spine.

I knew I really had no choice but to oblige.

So I walked to the wall with the fire hatchet.