The Scalian Legacy

Jack was curled up in his oversized bed. As the shock slowly wore off and the anger subsided, all he felt was loneliness. He thought he had felt alone after Ellen passed away, but he now realized the difference between deciding to be alone and truly being alone. The thought that there was no one he could talk to was surreal to him. Even though he had ignored most of his friends and family for the past few months, he knew they were just a call, email or text away. Now, there was no one to call. There were no workmates chatting him up or old friends reaching out to him. There was no familiar song to play, show to watch or game to enjoy. It was all gone. Was this what getting old was like? Everything Jack had lived with simply vanishing around him.

Jack’s thoughts drifted to his friend, Chris, and a lesson he learned at M.I.T. with him. It was the first day of the fall term, and they were headed to a mandatory ethics class. Chris had been complaining about what a waste of time this class was going to be. “It’s all common sense. Plus, we’re engineers, why do we have to know anything about ethics?” Jack remembered laughing at that comment. Chris seemed to whine for minutes until the class finally started.

As the class began the professor told them he was going to show a video and then wanted to get their reaction. The video portrayed a father and his small son. The boy must have been about nine years old. The father was forcing the boy to lie down on a couch with a pillow and a blanket as the child cried, “No, Daddy, please. I’m scared to be alone out here. Please let me stay with you and Mom.” The father appeared completely unmoved and sternly told the boy to lie down on the couch or suffer a beating. The boy finally relented. He covered himself completely in the blanket while shivering with fear. The father then sighed and walked away.

The professor then stopped the video and asked the class what they thought. Chris was one of the first to chime in. “The dad’s an uncaring jerk!” Others chimed in similarly, while some, like Jack, held back their judgment. The professor then said he was going to show what led up to this scene. He started the video once more.

The video now showed the father explaining to the son that he had to sleep in their room tonight because their grandmother was hurt and had to use his room. The boy understood and even appeared excited to spend the night in his parents’ bedroom. The father went on to explain that he needed the boy to go to sleep—or at least remain quiet—because they needed to wake up early the next day, and the father had a very important meeting. The son promised to behave.

Then the video showed the boy lying in the dark on an inflatable bed in his parents’ room. He whispered to himself, playing with the dresser drawer handles, causing them to clang, and even moving a chair around, creating a fair amount of noise. The mother and father took turns first gently asking the boy to stop, then slowly raising their voices—and then finally screaming at him. However, each time after stopping for about a minute, the boy resumed. This continued for nearly two hours, exasperating even those viewing the video as they watched the time-lapse timings. Finally, after one more clang, the father got up, took the boy’s blanket and pillow away, and told the boy to come out of the room with him.

The professor stopped the video and asked for reactions. Chris answered: “That boy is lucky he’s alive! I’d kill him if he were mine.”

The others sounded off in the same way.

The professor then asked what lesson this taught everyone? The class answered that they didn’t know the whole story after the first video, but once they knew the whole story they could properly judge the situation. However, the professor challenged this line of thought and asked a question that hit home for Jack. “How do you ever know that you have all the information? How do you ever know that you aren’t just seeing half the story? In many ways, you are always joining the scene somewhere in the middle, and you should always keep that in mind.”

After the class Jack remembered Chris saying, “This should be an interesting class. I don’t know why you thought it would suck. You know, Jack, you need to keep an open mind about these things.” Jack remembered giving Chris an incredulous look, and Chris smirking and moving on.

Jack uncurled himself and sat up on the bed with a slight smile on his face as he remembered his good friend. It was the first time he had smiled in quite a while. Chris always seemed to counter-balance Jack’s reserved demeanor perfectly. They were a good team.

Jack could only imagine the comments Chris would have been spewing if he were here: “Yeah, these new human/aliens are ugly as hell, but they would dominate on the basketball court!” This thought brought a chuckle from Jack. Chris could make him laugh even when he wasn’t with him.

Of course, this memory made Jack realize he wasn’t missing just half the story on his current adventure—he was missing the whole story. He needed to stop reacting to the situation and learn more about what was going on in order to see if there was a way to help Robbie and Marcelo.

Just then, the door swooshed open once more.

The first thing through the door was - the familiar elder alien with wrinkles who had sat at the other end of the table during his meeting with the admiral. The tall alien came up to him and reached out his hand. “I don’t think we had the opportunity to meet properly back there. My name is Doctor Lawrence Simon, and I’ve been your physician since you arrived.” Jack shook the alien’s hand as he continued. “I hope you’re feeling well, at least physically.” He smiled.

“Yes,” Jack started hesitantly, as he was still not sure what to think of these giant humans. “Thank you for fixing me up. You did a good job.”

“Well, nowadays it’s more about making sure the automated systems don’t mess you up than actually doing much yourself. It’s not all that exciting, usually, but with you I had to do some serious calibrations— you had those systems confused for a while. Now, that was fun!” He smiled broadly. “Well, I wanted to introduce you to an old friend of mine—emphasis on ‘old.’” He laughed out loud and almost snorted.

Jack didn’t know what to think of this eccentric-sounding doctor, but at least he seemed genuine. The doctor stepped aside to let another slightly over eight-foot-tall male alien enter. However, this alien was dressed very differently and appeared to be much older. He wore a colorful, mostly red long-sleeve pullover shirt with some picture and logo in the front as well as what appeared to be human-like khaki slacks. His skin seemed darker than the others. His face not only had wrinkles, it also had a few of what seemed to be age freckles on it. He grinned a wide grin as he saw Jack and extended his hand for a shake as well.

The doctor started up again. “This is Doctor Horace Greenfield, but he’s not a real doctor, so don’t take any medical advice from him.” Doctor Simon winked as Horace sighed, seemingly exasperated with his friend. “Well, he is here to speak with you because they won’t let me talk to you, and he has more time on his hands, anyway. I’m told that he’s allowed to answer whatever questions you may have and only asks that you share some of your experiences with him in return.”

“Okay. Sounds like a deal.” Jack forced a smile. These two seemed pleasant enough, but he was still adjusting to his incomprehensible situation. Dr. Simon bowed slightly to Jack and exited. Horace, meanwhile, brought a chair in from outside, sat down and offered that Jack sit on his bed.

“I hope they are treating you well,” the giant began with a gentle voice as Jack sat on his bed. “So, where would you like to start, young man?”

‘Young’ man? Jack thought to himself. I’m a lot older than you, old man. “How about who you are,” Jack said, “and why you are the one talking to me?”

“Sounds like as good a place to start as any.” The old alien smiled. “I have a PhD in history and am a retired professor. While I can only conjecture, I believe that I was asked to speak with you because I have no knowledge of any military secrets, or probably any secrets of any kind, and my background allows me a unique perspective in terms of relating to you. I also requested this when I found out you were here.”

“Okay, fair enough. That actually makes sense.” Jack nodded. Very little had made sense to him recently. Then a thought came to mind. “So, if you’re retired, why are you here and not on Earth? Are we close to Earth?”

“Good questions. No, we are not close to Earth, and missions to regions far from Earth keep people away for a long time. It could be months or even years. So, I decided I would rather spend my time here with my grandson and his growing family instead of alone back on Earth. They’re good about allowing for such things.”

There was a kind and patient demeanor to this old alien that Jack could not seem to help find endearing. Still, he was an alien, not a friend, Jack reminded himself. “Got it. So, how many more like me still exist?”

To this question Horace seemed to hesitate. He grimaced and leaned towards Jack. “I am sorry to say that you are likely the only ‘original’ in existence today. The last of the originals died off about 400 years ago.”

“Originals?”

“Sorry, yes, that is our name for those that were not genetically altered. However, your kind still lives in us. We are simply a slightly modified version of what you are.”

Jack stood up angrily. “I’m as much in you as a dinosaur is in a bird!” Jack walked around a little and tried to control his emotions once more. “We’re extinct,” he finally said, softly and mostly to himself. Horace did not react or reply, but simply looked on Jack sympathetically and remained silent. Jack returned to the edge of his bed and sat down once more. “So, how did this happen? How did we become extinct?”

Horace nodded as if expecting the question. “Now that’s a long story, but I shall try to do it justice.”

Horace explained that over the years, the Earth’s climate became harsher and harsher. For many years, humanity tried to adjust by protecting itself from the elements, but eventually this was not enough. The genetic modifications were modest in the beginning. The first things to change were mostly unnoticeable and targeting humanity’s susceptibility to some of the harshest conditions. It wasn’t long before aesthetic changes including height and strength were being made as well.

Throughout these adjustments, some humans refused to allow their offspring to be genetically modified. Over time, these humans became known as ‘originals’. As the conditions on Earth continued to deteriorate, however, the population of originals continued to shrink while those that had already been modified continued to evolve in order to adapt.

“Eventually, the genetic modifications had to begin to include significant changes to our skin to allow for prolonged exposures to the severe conditions.” Horace began to wrap up his explanation. “As for originals, we believe the last of them died off about 400 years ago. Obviously, I’ve skipped over many details of the conflicts and challenges throughout the centuries, but you get the general idea.” Horace completed his story and continued to look at Jack compassionately.

“Thank you,” Jack said softly.

Jack wasn’t sure what to ask next, but he didn’t feel quite interested in history any longer. It just seemed like one long, depressing road that he’d just as soon not get into any further. “So, what about these Scalians? Do you know much about them?”

Horace took a deep breath and leaned back. “That’s probably just as long a story, but I can’t talk about Scalians without talking about Drumans and Pendorans.”