Memory Transcription Subject: Chiri, Gojid Refugee
Date [standardized human time]: November 1, 2136
David sighed, frustrated by my line of questioning, as we approached the boat together to start carrying groceries in. Toki was so thrilled by the chance to finally get some fresh air that the normally empathetic little creature wasn’t paying attention to the tension. “You know… it’s still technically illegal to tell you about most of these things,” David groused.
I snorted. “The Federal Agent didn’t seem to care.”
“The Federal Agent didn’t know who you were,” David pointed out. “But fine. Okay. Alright.” David had brought a portable wheeled cart out from his storeroom, but there wasn’t really a clear path through the rubble to roll it cleanly. “Alright, I showed you the Olympics before? Big sport event, fitness competitions? In addition to soccer, there’s this other sport called Fencing. It’s, uh, swordfighting.”
I was confused why David was getting cagey about predatory stuff all of a sudden. “That sounds fucking awesome,” I said aloud. “Am I missing something? They have, like, safety precautions and stuff in place, right?” I was definitely getting the vibe that, despite what the Federation said, humans didn’t actually dismember each other for funsies.
“Oh! Yeah, no worries, it’s almost completely safe. Once in a blue moon, someone’s equipment breaks, or two idiots get drunk and think it’d be funny to have a go at it without their protective padding on, but I don’t think the sport’s had so much as a serious injury at the professional level in like a century or so.”
I shrugged. Most of that would have been a major no-no back on the Cradle, but that all sounded pretty normal for Earth so far. “Okay, and the other one? What’s a back-alley knife fight?”
David sighed as he set a large sack of dried beans onto the cart. “I mean… it’s an altercation. Using bladed weapons. The location isn’t actually super important, but I guess it sets a tone.”
I still wasn’t sure I was getting it. “And this is… what, another sport with protective gear? Some manner of waging war between nation-states? What am I missing?”
“No,” said David, visibly agonizing over how to word this. “Look, Chiri… Sometimes humans have a disagreement, and one human decides that it would be best resolved by removing several pints of the other human’s blood. Using a knife.”
I think I got it, but surely I still misunderstood. “What… like, civilians? Just normal human people do this?”
“It’s not normal, it’s considered monstrous, and it’s very illegal, but…” David’s face fell. “Yeah, I guess that’s what I’m saying.”
My jaw dropped. “I thought you said this planet was safe!”
David looked at me, confused. “I don’t think I ever said that.”
“I thought you said humans weren’t dangerous!”
“Oh I definitely never said that,” said David, shaking his head.
“You-- But-- What?!” I was too shocked to form sentences.
“I think the most I ever said was that humans don’t generally kill and eat people whenever they get hungry,” he pointed out.
“So instead you just kill people and leave them there?!” I shouted.
Does that make it better or worse? the odd voice mused. It seems wasteful?
David blinked at me, uncomprehendingly. “Okay… do you just, like, not have violent crime in the Federation?”
“Not really, no!” I shouted. The groceries were wholly forgotten for the moment. “Anybody with that much aggression usually fails a Predator Disease screening sometime back during grade school. It never gets to the point of nutjobs going around knifing people!”
David’s eyes went wide. “I’m sorry, what was that middle bit?” he said, his voice suddenly going cold. “About Predator Disease screenings?”
I held my paws over my face and screamed quietly. “How did you people make it to space without figuring these things out?!”
“Tech isn’t linear. I hear the Yotuls figured out steam engines before the printing press. And this sounds like you’re comparing rocketry to some development in medicine.” David was staring at me again, and I didn’t know why. “What are Predator Disease screenings?”
Wait, point of order! the critical voice interjected. I’d already had my mouth open to talk, so I had to awkwardly close it without saying anything. Do we want to tell David about Predator Disease?
I rubbed my temples and tried to will my blood pressure to go down. David is a predator, I thought back at her. Why wouldn’t I tell him?
Because regardless of the current state of your self-image, you legally aren’t a predator? the critical voice pointed out. You’ve been enthusiastically engaging in behavior that would get you arrested on literally any other planet in known space.
What about an Arxur-controlled planet? asked the odd voice, unhelpfully.
Okay, fine, arrested or worse. One of the surviving Gojid colonies might even demand extradition over this.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad.
You ate the closest thing to animal flesh you could get your paws on, and the only reason you didn’t go further is because you were reasonably sure it would kill you.
I… that’s not… I mean, I just wanted to…
You threatened to rip a woman’s skin off.
She had it coming!
Gee, that sounds like the sort of thing a knife-crazed human in an alley would say!
Wait, hang on, that’s not fair, which point were you--
There was a loud and insistent clicking noise nearby, and I was jolted out of my inner dialogue by my instinctive desire to figure out what it was. David was doing something with his hand. The fuck? It was like clicking his claws together, but louder, and despite not having claws.
“Chiri. What is Predator Disease.”
I squinted at him. “Why do… why do I get the sense that you already know?”
David looked away, abruptly. “Rumors. Whispers on social media. Chatter leaking out from the Exchange Programs. Nothing’s confirmed. Please, just tell me plainly.” He looked back up at me. “Is it as bad as I’ve heard?”
I shook my head in confusion. “Huh? It’s not bad at all. People with aggressive or otherwise predatory tendencies get locked away before they can hurt anyone, and doctors medicate them until it’s safe to reintroduce them into society.”
David blanched. “Define predatory tendencies,” David said coldly.
I made a placating gesture. “David, come on. They make exceptions for humans. You don’t have to worry--”
“Not what I asked,” he said.
I looked around helplessly. “Look, I don’t have a medical degree. I’m not qualified to--”
“Couple examples from common knowledge would be fine.”
“Uhh…” I wracked my brain for one. “Aggression?”
“You mentioned that one.”
My mind drifted to events from earlier today. “Treating the Arxur like people?”
David looked astonished. “They are people. Massively dickish people, as a matter of public policy, but people nonetheless.”
This conversation was getting wildly outside of topics I knew well. “Yeah, but… like… I think the thinking is that Arxur will prey on your sympathies to gain an advantage, so you mustn’t be tempted to engage with them.”
David shook his head. “I don’t think there’s an Arxur alive with the emotional depth necessary to manipulate anyone.”
“Well, we didn’t know that!” I growled. This was inching towards personal for me. “The Gojidi Union was the military backbone of this sector. When the Arxur came, it was my people whose asses were on the line. We had to be constantly on guard. You know? Present a unified front. When there were that many lives at stake, anybody doubting how the Federation did things was somebody who was endangering us all!”
David looked horrified. “The Federation considers political dissidence to be a type of mental illness?!”
In spite of it all, most of that translated. “You don’t know what it’s like, David!” I yelled. My voice was starting to crack. “I know Earth’s had a rough couple of fucking months, but you don’t know what it’s like, spending your entire life in the shadow of impending doom!”
David shook his head, an expression mixed with disgust and concern on his face. “I know we don’t lock people up for maybes. The rights of individuals matter too much to us to strip them away just for asking questions.”
Gods, you thought he was so dangerously dashing when he fought that Peacekeeper with his sharpened words, the odd voice pointed out. It’s a little less attractive, isn’t it, now that his knives are pointed at you.
“Well, it turns out we’re safer for it!” I shouted. “I’ve never once heard of a Gojid getting into a fight in a back alley with knives or claws!”
David stared at me like I’d lost my mind, and not the other way around. “That’s a terrible trade, though! If all you care about is safety, why stop there, then? If the crime rate goes down after you lock up anybody who questions authority, how about locking up everyone who isn’t enthusiastic enough in their support for the Federation? How about mandatory military service, and lock up anyone who drags their feet about doing their part to push back the Arxur?” He growled under his breath, and his voice dripped with bitter sarcasm. “Hell, if you really wanna drop the crime rate to zero, why not lock everyone up and then nuke the fucking planet?! I’m sure there’s some dipshit Kolshian bureaucrat out there who’s thrilled that the Cradle is finally Predator Disease free!”
I shook my head hollowly as I backed away from him. I couldn’t even see him anymore. Just the mangled bodies in the streets outside the university, broken, trampled by other students and faculty desperate to escape. I tried not to look at them, but even in the empty places, there were dark blue pawprints on the pavement from bootless Gojids fleeing the campus right on through the puddles of blood. Running until my breath ran ragged, running until my lungs burned. I had my holopad out, trying to contact my family, trying to figure out where the bomb shelters or the evacuation points were, anything. I stumbled over a body, pricked myself bloody on a dead student’s quills, and kept running before I’d even noticed that I’d lost my grip on my device in the chaos. And all the while, I heard the sounds of screaming all around me while impossibly bright lights flashed on the horizon.
“You are such an asshole,” I said hollowly, and I ran.
David’s face fell as I turned away, and he called out after me. “Wait, Chiri, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”
Running now felt so much easier. Nothing was chasing me this time. I wasn’t in danger. I could see just fine where I was going. The crumbled buildings of Coney Island didn’t bleed when I stepped on their broken pieces.
Back through the amusement park, back to the beach. I collapsed in the sand, my lungs ragged. Just a moment. Just needed to catch my breath. It was late afternoon, the warmest part of a cold day. The sea seemed so tranquil in the fading light.
Okay, so now what? asked the critical voice. We’re quite literally right back where we started. The sun’s going down. We need food and shelter.
I walked here from the refugee center in the dark, in the middle of the night. I can easily walk back when there’s still daylight. I’m well-rested, I had tea and cookies a few hours ago, and as long as I don’t jump in the fucking water again like an idiot, I’ve got no chance of freezing to death.
Again, and then what? We have no money, and we just called our only job prospect an asshole. The critical voice sounded annoyed with me, as usual. Just head back. What other choice do we have?
I shook my head. I always had a choice. I got to pick the direction my life went. Me. Nobody else.
I pulled my debatably-stolen holopad out of the pocket of my indefinitely-borrowed coat. “Tell me about the nearest ten distilleries,” I said to the little helper AI. “Highlight which ones are hiring.”