As I recall all of the details I had learned in the past, I press the plasma gun that I had smuggled in from another planet against my cephalon intending to end my life. As I pressed the trigger, everything around me went black.

Slowly, a faint light filled my vision as I slowly opened my eyes. How was I not dead? I could see that I was sitting in a device I hadn’t seen before and there were a lot of wires connected to my body including my cephalon.

“Subject has regained her consciousness. Is a little bit confused and disarrayed but will stabilize soon.” A Human wearing a white coat was briefing some information to a dignified looking person, probably his employer.

Wait a minute! How am I here? Where is this place? Why are there Humans with me? I don’t understand a thing. I was supposed to be dead. I was supposed to kill my memories for the sake of my species, for the greater good. Did I mess it up? Will I be known as the one who doomed the Frumel race in the future? I guess I don’t have to worry about the last part as no one will be alive to remember me.

“Subject is getting stressed. Heart rate is above normal. Administer sedatives stat.” That was the last thing I heard as my consciousness faded.

When I stirred back to consciousness, there was a Human doctor by my side. I still couldn’t understand what was going on.

“Please calm down mam. We mean you no harm. You are perfectly safe in our facility.” He poured a glass of liquid methanol for me to drink. “Here, have a drink. You’re probably thirsty.”

I was thirsty indeed. I gulped down the whole glass of Methanol within a single breath.

“Why am I here? What do you want with me?” I asked after I calmed down.

“You know that the United Planets of Humanity declared that we will establish an Embassy on your home planet for diplomatic reasons. As soon as that declaration was made public, the suicide rate in your planet spiked from 0% to over 20% of your total population. That is the entire elderly population of your planet.”

I couldn’t read the expression of other species that well but I’m pretty sure that the Human in front of me was sad. Why would he be sad about the death of my brethren?

“Since the mass suicide was triggered by the news of our embassy being established, we had to investigate what was going on. So we sent a special force to secure as many elderly Frumel as possible. But you were the last one alive.”

I was always scared of dying. Due to my old age, I would have died in a couple of years anyway. But still I couldn’t bring myself to commit suicide. Why was I such a coward? Will my incompetence cost my entire species their lives?

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“We put you in a simulation where you would kill yourself. But it took a dozen redo for you to talk about why you were committing suicide. We had to erase your memories of killing yourself so you wouldn’t suspect anything.” The doctor was still explaining my situation.

“So what now? You know about all the atrocities my species committed against your’s. Will you take revenge for it?” Even though I was asking the questions in my mind, I dreaded the answers.

“Sorry mam. I am not qualified to answer those questions. But I’ll convey your questions to the Ambassador. He’ll be with you shortly. I’m sure he will answer all your questions.” As expected. The doctor doesn’t know much. I guess my questions will have to wait.

“If you are feeling any discomfort or uneasiness, feel free to tell me.” He was being courteous as demanded by his profession.

“My bad joints have been giving me trouble lately.” I said with a chuckle.

“In that case, we’ll make sure to treat your joints fully after we deal with all the affairs. If there aren’t any more problems, I’ll take my leave.” The doctor left the room I was in.

It felt like an eternity before the door slid open, revealing the earlier dignified looking person. He came and sat by my bed.

“Hello mam. I’m Jason Miller. I’m the ambassador for MI-245 from UPH. The doctor told me that you had some queries. Feel free to ask anything you would want to know.” He spoke in a dignified manner befitting his position. “But before that I would like to apologize to you for any inconvenience we might have caused.”

“It seems that you have learned about the reason why my people committed a mass suicide. What will become of my species now that you know the truth about how my species suppressed your’s from progressing for centuries?” I was eager to hear the bitter truth. I had even prepared myself for the worst possible outcome.

“Hmm. What your species did was certainly wrong. But the harm you did was not that significant. Sure we lost some of our early geniuses and our space exploration was delayed by a few centuries but that did us more benefit than harm.” He was calm, without any hint of aggression. I might not be able to read his expressions but I surely could feel the emotion in his voice.

“You gave us time to develop our other technology to a certain level such that we could stand our own ground when we were suddenly facing the whole Galactic Federation and its politics. If not for you we would have been flung into conflict without any means to defend ourselves. For that we are ever grateful.” His words gave me a ray of hope.

“You aren’t going to persecute us? We had wronged you and you are forgiving us. Why?” I still couldn’t believe what was happening. No one had thought of this development.

“Why would we even commit a genocide just for a few of our scientists being killed centuries ago? Most of our people don’t even remember any of them. Hell! Even I don’t know any of them other than Einstein and Stephen Hawking.” He was making a joke to lighten the mood. But his words made me burst into tears.

“So you’re telling me that so many of my people died for no reason? Though they had just a couple of years left, some even had over a decade to live, all those years of life were wasted? If we had known that you were this forgiving they could have lived. Why did this have to happen??” I couldn’t stop myself from crying. The world really is cruel.

“What happened was certainly a tragedy. Whatever was lost can’t be brought back. But what I can assure you is that the resolve your people showed to protect your future generations have moved our hearts. From now on, MI-245 will be an important ally of UPH and will have top priority for any aid. As we are partially responsible for this tragedy, this is the least we can do.” The sincerity of this human was conveyed to me. Even though we are separated by species, we were united by our feeling of respect for one another.

“I thank you on behalf of all my dead friends. You forgave us of our past and chose a future of peace. We are grateful to you.” I could only give him my gratitude. As an old lady it was the most I could do.

“I’ll take my leave for now. I have to go visit your Rulers for some diplomatic discussions. Please don’t worry about the future and get some rest. I’ll visit you again when I have the time.” He said as he stood up to leave.

I couldn’t utter a single word because my heart was overwhelmed by both sorrow and euphoria. I could just smile.