Only Human (Themis Files, #3)

by Sylvain Neuvel

is Central. The Chairman of the Council of Deputies of Libya has requested technical and advisory assistance from the United States. Job well done. Just sit tight. Navy is bringing in troops. ETA twenty minutes. Return to base when they arrive. Navigation will send your get-home numbers in a minute.] Roger that, Central. Over and out. One more for the good guys. Spreading freedom, one city at a time. —I’m fairly certain they had freedom before. —Well, now they have more.

—I’m sorry, sir. —Sorry for what? Are you apologizing to me because you can’t cure cancer? Or because you can’t make the world the way I want it to be? Either way, never be sorry about things you have no control over. You’ll just give yourself ulcers. Never half-ass anything. Drink plenty of wine.

—Apples and pies? —You know. You have two apples and eleven friends. What does each friend get? —Nothing. They get squat. I haven’t had an apple in five years. I’d shoot the eleven kids if I had to.

I got news for you, son, this ain’t home. There’s nothing normal about it. —I just want— —I know what you want! You’re not getting it. Maybe it’s time you start wanting something else.

They have me in a bunk next to this guy, Bilal. He’s just a year older than me. He—this is nuts—he studied plant biology in Helsinki. He worked in a bar to pay for school. There’s nothing special about him. Not his DNA. He’s not even Muslim. He’s a Hindu, but he was born in Pakistan, so…It’s pathetic. These people can’t even do racist right.

Bilal isnt a Hindu name though? Not believable unless his parents named him that to fit in...

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.

People here are just too stupid to realize they hate people who are exactly like them. Maybe that’s what bugs me. Stupidity. I hate it more than I hate evil.

I wanted to see Ekim, but I won’t. I won’t see any of it, any of them ever again. It’s…linear. It moves in one direction, and all of this is behind. What’s ahead…I don’t know what’s ahead, but it’s never gonna be like before.

“They’re not dead until they’re warm and dead.”

Jeff hugged his baby girl, gave her a big kiss, and threw her off the rock, right in the path of the bottom feeder. The moral of the story is— —Wait! Wait! What happened? What happened to Lisa? —The carp ate her, of course. She was just a baby! You didn’t really think she was gonna make it, did you? —I…Yes, I did… —You want to know the moral of the story. —I do! —The moral of the story is…Jeff is a moron. A baby axolotl can’t fight a fish! You can’t expect babies to do the things adults do. You can’t expect anyone to do things they can’t do. If you ask me to lift five hundred pounds, I can’t. It doesn’t matter how much I want to, how much conviction I put into it. It’s just not something I can do. Maybe if I’d been training all my life, but not now, not tomorrow.

“redefine alterity and you can erase boundaries.” I believe that’s true, only somewhere along the way we’ve made our own people the “other” and started hating ourselves.

Alex? ALEX! [Vincent?] I think Alex is unconscious. [Fuck. Can you fight Lapetus without him?] Fight La—You mean kick them? I can kick them. Oh, wait. I can’t even do that. Themis is out of power. [Can you get out of there?] What part of “out of power” was unclear? Out, power, or of?

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.

Alex, are you ready for this? —No. —Good. Overconfidence is bad. —Then I’m doing great.

—Do you mind if I tell you a story? I’ve heard many of yours, now I feel it’s my turn. It’s a true story. —Oh, I’d love to hear it. —There’s a homeless man. I met him before we went to Esat Ekt. I’d see him around here from time to time. I think he went to the men’s shelter down on Thirtieth. We talked…maybe twice. Nothing more. Anyway, I saw him again yesterday on my way here. He was sitting on the stairs in the little park across the street. I wouldn’t have recognized him, but he recognized me. He said he was looking for a friend. He was worried the aliens might have hurt her. He told me they met there every Tuesday around lunchtime. She bought him chai tea. You should have heard him describe the tea, as if it were the rarest thing on the planet. She lent him a new book each week, and they’d discuss it at the park over chai. He hadn’t seen her in a few weeks. I told him maybe I could help find her. Her name’s Sarah, he said. He didn’t know much more than that, but he mentioned she wore a scarf on her head. I told him I’d do what I could. I had a hunch she might have worked at the UN. Sure enough. Sarah Smith, born Sara Dhanial in Karachi, Pakistan. She is—she was—an interpreter at the UN. Diplomats and their staff weren’t rounded up like the rest of the population, but Sara lost her job and they sent her to a camp in Connecticut. I went back to the park and told him what I knew. He was sad, obviously. I offered to buy him some food. He said no, but he asked if I could sp...

Fair enough. I’d say you’ve earned it. We’ll miss you, Rose. And let’s face it, if we’re ever in real trouble, we’ll get you whether you like it or not. I mean, we had this giant machine that could destroy entire cities, but we’ve never really done anything with it. It was always you, Rose. Just you. This is your movie. The rest of us are just extras in it.

So when you’re my age, and he still treats you like you’re ten, when he turns the entire world upside down to make sure you’re OK, when he does something incredibly stupid because he’s worried about you, let him. Don’t change who you are. Don’t become something you’re not, but let him have his moments. Be his little girl from time to time. He’ll need that. He’ll need you more than you can understand. He’s been waiting for you his whole life.