“Line up.”
“You don’t have to do this.”
“…Line up.”
“Please, please, don’t send me there!”
The man in the yellow jumpsuit fell to the floor.
“Listen.”
The Officer got to the man in yellow, and held his shoulders, getting face to face with his interlocutor.
“Listen,” he continued, looking the other man right in the eyes, his voice calm but firm. “I’ve been there.”
“What?! In—”
“Yes,” he responded. “Right there,” pointing his finger towards the valley, right outside the outpost where they were. “Do I look different now? Am I a monster now? Am I a cosmic horror, or whatever? No, I’m just a human being, like you.”
He paused and looked around. His men were watching. Good. He took his breath, waited a moment, and returned to his speech.
“I am a ‘mere’ mortal human being. And I still go forward. I still march on. Hell! I still do this shitty job that I’ve been doing for thirty years now. Ordering people, losing people, sometimes. Why do you think I keep going, even after that?”
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No answer. The man in yellow was either confused or dismayed. Or both.
“I keep going on because it’s for the greater good. I’m doing my part. Now, now it’s your turn to do your part,” continued the Officer.
He turned around, raising his voice.
“It’s your turn for all of you here. Remember why we’re doing this. This isn’t about your lives or mine. It’s about humanity as a whole. It’s about your families, your wives, your husbands, and your children. So now, line the fuck up!”
The people in yellow, lined up and surrounded by armed soldiers, straightened up a bit.
“Remember! You do this for the greater good of mankind! Remember!”
He paused, and took a look around, watching the whole scene. The outpost looked like a small village made of prefabricated buildings, containers serving as barracks, armories, power plants, labs, cafeterias… Everything was enough to handle his division. Supplies were coming regularly. Transportation was automated—a blessing from a god called Science, that had helped them countless times during Rotations. And now they could finally go back to experiments.
The Officer lifted up the man and said to him, his voice lowered, “You’re gonna do it. Remember. The greater good. It is for the greater good.” He then released it, letting him join his pairs.
He nodded at his lieutenant, a Hispanic woman—the only person in the outpost that had survived long enough to understand all his orders without words. Without any comment, she gestured to the soldiers to take position right behind the crowd of lined people.
The Officer turned to the scientists and his armed subordinates.
“Begin the procedure.”
And with that, the men and women in yellow jumpsuits were pushed toward their destiny. Towards the Sphere. Towards the unknown. And the Officer watched them go, knowing that most will die and the rest…
For the greater good, he thought. It’s all for the greater good.