Dying Star Arc
9th May
It's all happening again. The same as ten years ago. Well, no. I suppose it isn't quite the same as it was then.
"Your telling me the truth?" I ask my visitor.
Kyle Matthews, the now former Governor of Ceres, sits across from me. A look of deep concern on his face. Though his concern isn't directed at me, but rather what he has been talking to me about.
The moonchild, Akira Scuderi. The child of Frank Scuderi had taken Mr Matthews' place as the Governor of Ceres the day of his arrival. News of this hadn't spread throughout the colony before the Jaeger left on its' expedition. Upon our return, however, it had taken less than twelve hours before Mr Matthews came to see me. His demotion to Deputy Governor wasn't the only change in the last few weeks. The entire Legislative Council has had quite a shake-up apparently, though none of that is what Mr Matthews came to talk to me about.
What he came to talk to me about is Governor Scuderi's plan for the future.
The new governor came to Ceres, with one task in mind. To revitalise the colony. Of course, no one outside the council knows how he intends to do that, but Mr Matthews being Deputy Governor knows all about it. Apparently, the answer to the colony's problems is convicts. The Governor has devised a plan in which convicted convicts from Earth will be brought to Ceres. These convicts will be the worst of the worst: those whose lives are forfeit by their home nations, and as far as the Governor is concerned, that's enough to rob them of their human rights. Mr Matthews just finished explaining to me that the convicts will in time replace the Palestinians, taking over their work as the miners.
"Your telling me the truth?" I asked, when he finished explaining.
"Of course."
It didn't make sense to me. Why would they replace the Palestinians? Where will they take us if we're being replaced? Surely it would be too much effort to send us back to the moon.
"What are they going to do with us then?"
"I don't think you want to know the answer to that."
He's right, I probably don't. But for Mr Matthews to have come here, there must be something that he does want to tell me. There must be… something that he wants me to do. Once again, this all feels quite familiar. As if something is being repeated. A sense of déjà vu.
"Why are you telling me all this?"
Mr Matthews looks toward me, "there's something I have to ask you to do."
That was exactly what I was expecting him to say to me. I almost could've mouthed the words along with him. Though what it is he's going to ask of me… I don't know. I just get the feeling that I'm not going to like it, whatever it is.
Mr Matthews pulled something out of his pocket. Its' wrapped in a cloth, so that I can't see what it is. He holds it delicately at one end, being careful handling it. He pulls back the cloth, so that I can see what's underneath. The sharp metallic glint of a blade reveals itself to me.
"I assume you understand what I want you to do with this?"
"No. No, no, no. There's no way that I can do this. What… why would I accept this?"
"Sorry, but I need you to do this. I can't ask anyone else."
"Why not?"
"It needs to make sense. It needs to fit properly."
"What does that mean?" I don't understand. What does he mean by it has to fit properly? That doesn't make sense to me.
"If this is going to happen, it needs to be believable. As in, whoever does it, needs to have a motive. After this happens, we need to expose the Governor's plan. We need to explain… why you did what you're going to do. That this had to happen to stop the Governor from carrying out his plan – his plan which would decimate the Palestinians. For all that to happen… it needs to be one of the Palestinians who does this."
"Because I killed Seine?"
"That's right. Because you killed Seine. Her life was more important than many other lives. If she had survived, you can only imagine how much might've been achieved. To make up for robbing the world of someone like her, you need to do this. To save your people, you need to do this. You're the only one I can ask this of."
Mr Matthews' words make some sense to me, yet in other ways they feel completely wrong, and empty. As if something is slightly off about them. I don't know about killing a person to atone for killing another, but I understand what he means when he says that killing Seine robbed the world of someone special. She was… incredible. Seine was an amazing person, and I understand that had she survived, she may yet have done incredible things that would've propelled the world forward. Me taking her life… robbed the world of many things. Her life was certainly more important than that of others, and I took it through my selfish actions.
"Sayyad… what you did was wrong. You need to make up for it."
I get it. I understand what he's saying, and yet something about it feels wrong. It twists and pulls at my heart, and I understand there's something wrong about it. But… I can't shake off the feeling that maybe he's right. I need to atone, and perhaps this is the way to atone. Perhaps this is the only way to atone. Repaying the taking of a life, with the taking of another life. Perhaps this is right, perhaps it is wrong. I can't say for certain.
What is for certain, however, is that I do want to stop the Palestinians from being killed. Mr Matthews says that their going to kill us all. Genocide, to make room for these convicts. And who will stop them? There's no one else out here that can stop them. It's entirely possible no one will know of our fate. Out here, it would be quite easy for them to cover up killing a few hundred people. The rest of the world would never need to know. That, I definitely need to stop. Whether it will help me atone for my sin, or not.
"How am I going to do this? Considering he's the new Governor, he must be quite heavily defended."
"No, he doesn't actually like having much security with him," Mr Matthews explained, with a look of relief on his face, "before I knew of his plan, I insisted that he take one solider with him when he went down into the tunnels. But when he's in the settlement itself, he's unguarded."
He went down into the tunnels? All but by himself? That seems quite strange to me. Did he want to meet the people he was condemning before he actually put them to death?
"Later today, the Proserpina will be leaving for the moon. As the Governor, he will be attending no matter what, I'm sure. I don't know what he intends to do before or after that, so perhaps the best thing to do would be to follow him from that event, until you find a good chance."
Follow him… he makes it sound so easy, but wouldn't that be quite difficult? I don't have any experience trying to follow people like that, without being noticed, and I will stick out in the settlement, where only the foreigners live. I'm not entirely sure that this plan will work.
"You'll do it, won't you?" I sense some worry in Mr Matthews' voice. I assume he must be concerned what will happen to him if the Governor finds out about this meeting.
"Of course, I will. I'll protect my people, no matter what."
No matter what. I can't let this Governor… this genocidal maniac, kill my people. I won't let it happen, even if I have to bloody my own hands to do it.