Only Human (Themis Files, #3)

by Sylvain Neuvel

Depends on who you ask. Pretty sure they all say they’re the real one. —That doesn’t make any sense. Anyway, who cares, right? Twenty minutes from now, it’ll be an American general running this place. —You mean advising the democratically elected government of Libya. —Yeah, that.

There are no sides. There are no good guys and bad guys here. Everyone is just trying to do the right thing. I’m trying to understand where they’re coming from. —The right thing? Have you lost your goddamn mind? They’re killers, Rose. They kill people, by the million. —So do we.

I just wish…I wish they’d make the best of whatever time we have here. We all see the same things, but I wish they could see them as I do.

Everything essential is more or less free, and you can trade for most other things. You only need money to buy things outside the system. —Communism! —Not quite. People own things. Some people own much more than others. If they produce something the government doesn’t regulate. Art, for example. Sculptors, dancers, writers, they all lived better than most if they were any good. —Sculptors? What about doctors? —Well, most people work because they want to. No one there would get up every morning to do something they don’t like just so they can get more food or clothing than everyone else.

They’re saying the system is rigged against them. I’m saying they’re not even a part of it, not in a meaningful sense anyway. They’ve been sold the illusion of democracy. And they bought it! They really bought it. They don’t want to get rid of the system. They’re asking for more representation in it. They don’t even realize that the whole thing is purposely built to keep them out. The Ekt basically renounced a whole empire, power over thousands of planets, just to get rid of all the aliens here. Half-aliens were just never part of the plan. They’re a compromise. They’re like bicycles in a city without bike paths. It wasn’t designed with them in mind.

I hate this world. People are small. They’re ignorant, and they’re happy to stay that way. They make an effort to. They’ll spend time and energy finding ways not to learn things just to feel comfortable with their beliefs.

I asked him why people complained about politics all the time but did absolutely nothing about it. I couldn’t understand why people keep voting for the very people they loathe. They’ll protest a war, but the everyday stuff, small injustices, they just let them slide. Friends making a fortune off government contracts, paying a hundred dollars for a pencil, that type of thing, people complain about it, everyone does, but they won’t do a thing. I remember how floored I was when he told me that was a good thing, how we need a certain level of cynicism for society to function properly. If people thought they had real power to change things, if they truly believed in democracy, everyone would take to the streets, advocate, militate for everything.

People are compliant because they don’t expect the system to be fair. If they did, if they thought that was even possible, we’d live in chaos, anarchy. We need apathy, he said, or we’ll end up killing each other on the streets. Did I mention my dad worked for the government? I didn’t believe him then. I’m not sure he believed it either.

If you see something wrong with the world, fix it. Fight. Resist. Don’t use cardboard.

I don’t know what else I can do. If you see something wrong with the world, fix it. But what if it’s the whole world that needs fixing?

—That doesn’t make any sense. They put people with too much alien DNA in camps because they don’t trust them. Yet they want people with even more alien genetics to pilot the robot. —Ironic, isn’t it? Too much alien DNA means you are either locked in a camp, or one of the mmmm…most powerful people in the world.

I’m a scientist. I find beauty in absolutes. I love the clarity of math, its unwavering dependability. Math will never say one thing and do another one. It will never harm you on purpose because its only purpose is truth.

There is no objectivity. Everything is perspective. What does a man’s life amount to? What does the life of a thousand, a billion? What is an ant’s life worth? I see now that the answer is irrelevant. It’s the question that matters. Should the ant let itself die, crushed under the weight of its own insignificance? Or should it live, fight giants, and build magnificent cities underground?

—You don’t like patriots? —I like the concept. It sounds good. To love the place where you’re from, nothing wrong with that, right? It’s all good. But is it love, really? Or is it pride? —I don’t understand. —Well, you can love something that’s flawed. It’s harder to be proud of it. Can you love something you’re not proud of? Much easier if you can do both. That’s where it gets messy because you need a reason. You have to have something to be proud of. Is it quality of life, education? How would you know? It has to be something much simpler. You, and people just like you. You start believing you’re better than everyone else. Other people, well, their culture is messed up, they have the wrong values, they’re not as good, not as smart, or they’re just plain evil. You can hate them or pretend you’re a good person and just be condescending. Everyone else is just as proud as you are for the exact same reasons, but they’re wrong, and you’re right. That’d be just fine—you can buy more tanks and go to war with the guy next door—but then you look around and you see those same people inside your country. More than that, they want the same rights, the same opportunities, as everyone else. Shit, they could be in charge! So you start taking things away from them, making sure they’ll stay where they belong, and let the real citizens make the decisions. You step on your own people, you keep them down, because you’re proud of your country, because you’re a patriot.

What do you think they’ll do? The Ekt aren’t perfect, but they won’t exterminate half the population. It won’t get that far, you know that. —It won’t. But at some point, they’ll consider it. Things will get bad enough they’ll actually consider genocide as an option. They’ll reject the idea right away because they’re not insane, but it’ll change everything. Every other bad option will look a whole lot better after that.

—Dr. Franklin, aliens descended upon Earth to find people like me, and they killed one hundred million men, women, and children. Least I can do is buy coffee and cinnamon rolls. —That was dark. You didn’t do anything other than being born, and you helped me when I needed it the most. If anyone is to blame, it’s me. I chose to build Themis, I’m buying coffee. —Do you really blame yourself for all of this? You weren’t even here! —I don’t. I thought we were making self-deprecating comments to decide who’s paying for breakfast. I used to. Blame myself, that is.

People are denying even the most basic scientific facts because it makes them feel better about hurting each other. Do you realize how horrifying that is? We’re talking about human beings making a conscious effort, going out of their way, to be ignorant. Willfully stupid. They’re proud of it. They take pride in idiocy. There’s not even an attempt to rationalize things anymore. Muslims are bad because they are, that’s all. Why would you need a reason? It’s one thing to let your child go blind because you read on Facebook that the measles vaccine would make him autistic, it’s another to ship him off to a work camp because he inherited his grandmother’s genes instead of Grandpa’s.

I hate the rebellion, the real one, whoever they are. For all their talk about justice and equality, they’re just as power-hungry as everyone else. They want their seat at the grown-up table. They don’t want to change the system, they want to run it.

You build a revolution on ideas. If the population doesn’t buy your ideas, it means they’re not ready, or you’re wrong. There’s this tendency for people to see any fight against the system as a fight for progress. As if the people before them couldn’t possibly have gotten anything right. If you’re using bombs instead of words, that means you’re banking on people giving you what you want out of fear instead of reason. That’s never a good sign.

Eva, it’s you I’m proud of, not your job or the uniform you wear. I’d be proud of you no matter what you do.