2034
The Commander has become much more human-looking and has learned much about humanity. He has even allowed himself to age in the past four years. Still, there are many things that he doesn’t know about humans. In this scene, Annelise is crying in her room after finding out that her mother, her last living parent, succumbed to her cancer. The Commander enters and tries to comfort Annelise.
Commander: What has made you upset, Annelise?
Annelise looks up at him and is afraid.
Annelise: You shouldn’t become too human, Beyond. There are many things that you would have to endure.
Commander: What is an example?
Annelise: Illness, injury, death…
Commander: What is death?
Annelise:*pauses* Death is when your bodily functions cease. You’re only a shell of yourself.
Commander: Can humans recover from death?
Annelise: No, they never come back. It’s permanent.
The Commander is stricken from hearing this.
Annelise: Death is why you shouldn’t become so human, as you have been for the past three years. I worry…What if you become so human that you inherit death?
Commander*pauses*: How does death feel?
Annelise: I don’t know. It depends on how you die. Getting a fatal gunshot wound would be quicker than death from old age, but it could be more painful. I think that it feels horrible no matter how you die. And your family members are pierced with grief at the idea that they will never see you again. They’ll never see your smile, your eyes, hear your laugh…It’s all gone.
The Commander nods gravely in understanding.
Commander: A gunshot wound? Why would someone die from a gunshot wound?
Annelise: Sometimes…humans choose evil. Many people die from mass shootings. They use guns to kill people that they don’t like.
Stolen novel; please report.
A tear rolls down the Commander’s face as he realizes what humans are capable of.
The Commander struggles emotionally for the rest of the evening. The next scene takes place in the Commander’s dream. He is standing in an office-like room. Annelise is lying on the floor, wearing strange, somewhat regal clothes, still, her eyes wide in horror.
Commander: Annelise…
He gets onto the floor and tries to shake her awake.
He then feels intense anger and sees that Annelise is in much agony before collapsing onto the floor, dead. Cory rushes to Annelise’s side, crying “What have you done?!!!” The Commander knows that his intense, complicated anger, overwhelmed Annelise’s human body, causing her death. He feels intense grief and turmoil.
He stays by Annelise’s side, holding her body against his chest in a hug. Tears flow out of his eyes and onto Annelise’s clothes.
Suddenly, the dream stops. Annelise has shaken him awake.
Annelise: C’mon, Beyond. Wake up. The funeral’s this morning. It’s how we honor the dead.
The Commander gets out of bed immediately and hugs Annelise tightly.
Commander: I love you, Annelise. I understand love, but I don’t fully understand the type of love that I feel. It’s different than the love between you and Cory. It’s also different from the love shared between your friends.
Annelise*hugging him back*: It’s called familial love. Because you are a part of our family.
A tear rolls down the Commander’s face.
Commander: Your mother just died. Did you love her with that same type of love?
Annelise*tearing up*: Yes, I did.
(The three arrive at the funeral home and a service is held for Annelise’s mom. The Commander debates whether he should tell Annelise about his dream later or not. He decides to. As they leave the graveyard, the Commander tells Annelise and Cory about his dream)
Commander: I have had a vision in my sleep for the first time.
Cory: You mean a dream?
Commander:*nods*
Cory: What did you dream about?
The Commander describes the dream in vivid detail. Cory is taken aback by it, but Annelise is concerned.
Annelise: Are your dreams…different from ours?
Commander: Yes, they show real events that could happen in the future.
Annelise: Did you kill me intentionally with your anger? Did you murder me?
Cory steps in front of Annelise defensively, though he knows in his heart that the Commander is a good person. Many tears roll down the Commander’s face.
Commander: No, I didn’t take my anger out on you! I cannot imagine doing that! It may be hard for you to understand, but in the future, you can feel what I feel. That is what killed you. Now, I know how to change that.
Cory: It can be changed?
Commander:*nods* It can be changed and it will be.