The Scalian Legacy

Rivas led Jack to an elevator of sorts and spoke to the computer as well as had his hand scanned. It didn’t take Jack long to figure out that this compartment was not a simple elevator. It didn’t just go up and down, it went in several directions. Jack realized that it was more like a three dimensional mini-subway system within the ship than anything else. On the way, Rivas and Jack were silent. Rivas was in no mood to justify his actions to this newcomer, and Jack didn’t want to hear any more about how this torture “had to be done.” He just wanted to see it for himself.

Once they exited the mini-subway car, as Jack started to call it, they walked out to a short corridor with a door at the far end. All the other corridors on the Explorer had been very long, with doors on either side throughout. This was markedly different. Not only was the corridor very short, there were no other doors except the ones at the end of it. Jack surmised that very few personnel had access to reach this stop on the min-subway within the Explorer.

As they walked up to the door, Rivas had his palm scanned once more and spoke yet another command.

The door slid open.

As Jack entered, he was confronted with a large area. Twenty sturdy beds were filled with Scalians. They all were strapped to their beds. Various tubes came out of several parts of their bodies. Electrical wires were connected to shaven areas of the Scalians’ scalps. The sides of the beds were clear glass, allowing the portion under the bed to be clearly seen. Beneath each bed was a dispenser for the Scalians’ waste, which went into piping under the floor. As Jack walked up to the first Scalian, he could feel his heart beating out of control and his breathing accelerating. He was horrified by what he saw. The specimen was thin as rails. Much of the hair that once covered his body had fallen off, exposing most of his skeletal bones. This made him look almost human—not a rhino-hide “future” human, but the kind of human Jack was much more familiar with. Jack was repulsed and shocked at the same time.

Jack had been approaching this first bedridden Scalian, when he suddenly realized that he couldn’t catch his breath. He was beginning to feel light-headed, and the room was starting to spin. “I can’t breathe!” he cried, and dropped to his knees.

“No, you’re breathing too damn much, you idiot. You’re hyperventilating.”

Jack looked up to see Dr. Simon walking towards him.

“Now, calm your ass down or I’ll need to sedate you—and I don’t think the admiral will like that.”

The shock of seeing Dr. Simon in this house of horrors seemed to snap Jack out of it. “What are you doing here?” Jack asked as he focused on calming himself.

Rivas went to get a chair as the doctor held onto Jack.

“Me? What in blazes are you doing here?” Dr. Simon looked in Rivas’s direction. “Seriously, Anterian, what the heck?”

“It’s a long story, but he insisted, and the admiral okay’ed it,” Rivas replied as he arrived with the chair.

Dr. Simon helped Jack sit and then brought chairs for himself and Rivas. Meanwhile, Jack kept staring at the doctor. He did not strike Jack as a man capable of treating another creature so cruelly. How could he?

“Stop looking at me as if I just killed your mother,” Dr. Simon told Jack. “Someone has to keep these damn Scalians alive and let these information hounds know when it’s time to let them go. I’m not about to make anyone else do that kind of shitty job!” He paused to take a seat. “See that one over there?” He pointed at the mostly hairless Scalian that Jack saw when he walked in. “He’s about done. I’m pulling the plug on him today.”

Jack’s mind was still spinning as he processed all of this new information. How could the doctor be a part of this? They really had no limit to what they would do to get information. And then Jack realized something. “The Scalian admiral whose credentials we have.” Jack looked intently at the doctor. “You made sure that he couldn’t speak anymore, didn’t you? It wasn’t a lucky accident, was it?”

The doctor looked up at Rivas, who nodded as if giving permission. “No, it wasn’t,” the doctor replied.

“But, don’t doctors take an oath?” Jack was still trying to slow his breathing. He was avoiding looking at any other Scalians in order to recover.

“Yeah, ‘do no harm.’ We still take that silly oath.” The doctor nodded. “Listen, I’m not proud to be a part of this, Jack, and believe it or not, neither is this paranoid security chief over here.” He laughed as he tilted his head towards the exhausted Rivas, who shook his head in exasperation. “But, there comes a time when you need to decide if your sins are outweighed by the greater good, and believe me, it’s not a decision that any of us took lightly.”

Jack was still trying to clear his mind, as his breathing was almost normal. He just couldn’t seem to get the image of that thin, emaciated human-looking Scalian with tubes and wires connected to him out of his head.

“Do they suffer?” Jack said.

“No. I make sure they don’t.” The doctor was quite serious now. “If there’s no way to keep them in a calm, pain-free, dream-like state, then we terminate them. You have my word on that.”

“Trust me,” Rivas said. “He keeps us to that. We’ve lost some valuable information providers because they just couldn’t be stabilized.”

As Jack’s breathing normalized at last, his judgmental attitude subdued as well. This was certainly an ugly situation, and he could never imagine partaking of it. But was he qualified to judge whether what they were doing was necessary, or just horrific? As the thoughts of his judging this came to mind, so did the Drumans, who seemed to be sticklers about living by higher standards. “Do the Drumans or Pendorans know about this?” he asked.

“They know we manage to get information that they can’t and have accepted our explanations without much push back,” Rivas said. “I don’t think they want to know.”

Jack shook his head understandingly, and then Rivas added: “Jack, I don’t need to justify myself to you, but I will let you know that none of us like doing this. If we have a soul, then we’ve probably lost it by now.” He paused. Jack could see the intensity in his expression. “But, I saw my parents and most of my loved ones die at the hands of these animals. So, if I had to do it all over again to save as many human lives as possible, I would. I’d sacrifice my soul for the larger good any day.”

Dr. Simon nodded as if agreeing and placed his hand on Rivas’s shoulder.

Jack sensed the raw honesty in both of them. “I understand loss, trust me,” Jack began. “And the Scalians are about as big a threat to humanity as there can be.” He paused. “But, is there anything that we wouldn’t do? Is there no line that can’t be crossed?”

“For the survival of the species?” Rivas said. “No, I don’t see any. I understand what you’re saying Jack, but I’m not a philosopher. All I know is that they’ve made it us or them, so I choose us.”

“I know,” Jack conceded. “While I feel this is wrong, it’s difficult when negotiation is simply not an option.”

“Exactly.”

Jack still couldn’t agree that this cruel treatment was justified, but it was time to move on. “I’ve seen enough, and we need to stop their plan regardless.” Jack stood up slowly and avoided looking at any of the Scalians. More than ever he wanted to end this ugly conflict. One way or another, it had to end. “Let’s get this done!”