Aberrant: Phoenix Rising - Book 2: Chapter 4: The Division Bell

[SalmonMax]

"What war crimes?!" Ash demands. "That the taint thing killed so many baselines is an argument AGAINST their involvement! We have no idea what happened!"

[Courier]

Talking about KB hit a nerve, if Doug had been almost amused by Anna, to Ash his voice was cold and flat. He said, "Committing mass murder doesn't make you an asshole, committing mass murder makes you a mass murderer."

"But let's just talk about your assumptions and back-building. The ONLY reason you call those people 'innocent' is because you don't want to kill them. That's why you want to hand wave the rock away and focus on what we don't know about the taint bomb."

Doug leaned forward and looked Ash square in the eye, "Face reality coward. Your wishful thinking doesn't change things. We're at war."

[SalmonMax]

"Committing mass murder is exactly what you're contemplating," Ash retorts. "I call them innocent because most of them ARE. Even if, IF, the leaders of that world took some kind of action against us, you're talking about -wiping everyone out-. Young and old, sick and strong. Everyone!"

"And the rock is bogus, and you know it. They lied, okay. But unless your magic power can tell us what the truth is, we still don't know why they lied. That's a great reason not to trust them. It's NOT a great reason to destroy them."

She shakes her head. "I know you feel like you failed her, Doug. And now you feel like it's your fault, and you have to redeem yourself. Now you have to be the big hero. But there's nothing heroic about what you want to do! Take a deep breath and calm down and think about this rationally!"

[Joani]

"He won't, Ashley. It's too late for that...", Anna said sadly. She had lost all hope of setting this peacefully. If Ash wouldn't stop KB would attack them. Anna concentrated on her command over the Earth and prepared to engulf Ashley in a protective shell of stone and rock in case KB would unleash her fury on her.

[Courier]

Doug said coldly, "OK, let's think about this rationally. That means, NOT ignoring evidence because you don't want to commit mass murder."

"Answer this: How is it they know it wasn't an aberrant who moved the rock? Given it wasn't an aberrant, who else could have? And finally, if they didn't do it, why bother lying about who did?"

"The only explaination I can come up with is they moved the rock themselves. But I'm willing to listen to other ideas, can you think of ANY 'innocent' explanation?"

"And after you do that, please explain how standing back and letting tens of millions of people die is 'innocent'."

[SalmonMax]

"Doug, none of that is EVIDENCE! Questions are never evidence! Explanations you 'think up' aren't evidence!"

Ash rubbed her temples and forced herself to calm down.

"Those are good questions. We should look into answering them. But just because there's questions doesn't mean you have a case. And no, I'm not on defense here, Doug. I don't have to 'explain' anything to you. YOU'RE the one proposing an idea, lets see you defend it. Explain to me what they DID to deserve annihilation. Explain to me why their babies should die. Why the moms and dads who had nothing to do with any decisions that their leadership made. Who aren't in their military, who aren't doing anything but living their lives as best they can. Explain to me why you think they should all die. What did they do to deserve that?"

[Gregory]

Gregory tied his best to keep up with the conversation. Despite the fact that they were using so many words and unfamiliar concepts, Gregory knew what it was about.

"We had someone who was going to tell us who it was and what happened and..." Gregory's fingers pointed at KB. "..she killed him."

Gregory knew that people killed other people when they tried to hid something or were crazy. Maybe KB was both.

"Why did KB kill him, Doug?" Gregory tried to sound as innocent as possible. "What she hiding from us?"

[Courier]

Doug heard Ash out and then said, "So lets just be clear, just like me, you can't think of ANY explanation other than they did it, Correct?"

"As for further investigation, what do you suggest? I know, we could send up a team to talk to them... oh, wait, we tried that already didn't we? That's how we found out they consider us to be diseased animals, and just for sadistic joy they moved us forward in time so our families would think we're dead."

"You're setting the burden for proof so high that it can't be met Ash. This is the world we live in, this is the evidence we have."

"As for babies? What, doesn't West Point have any children? They're the ones running around murdering babies, your proposed course of action is to let them continue running around killing babies. That's what I think and if you were facing reality you'd agree with me."

"I'm good with more investigation, but I'm not good with just standing around with my head up my ass waiting for them to kill us. I'm done treating them like innocent lambs who deserve the benefit of the doubt, they've done and said enough that even you agree the only explanation is that they did it."

"We need to think of them as dangerous people hostile to our existence."

Originally Posted By: Gregory

"Why did KB kill him, Doug?" Gregory tried to sound as innocent as possible. "What she hiding from us?"

Doug replied, "Because he knifed me. If your best friend gets into a fight, you get into a fight."

[SalmonMax]

"It doesn't matter what we THINK the explanation is! And, for the record, I don't think they did it," Ash flares back at Doug. "I don't accept, based on your flawed conjectures, that they're killing babies or anyone else. And since ALL of your logic depends on that acceptance, maybe you can see why I'm not agreeing with you."

"Again, I don't have to come up with an explanation. My position is, and always has been, lets find out what happened. Without assumption. Without bias."

"The burden of proof IS high, and for good reason. What you're contemplating is a crime against humanity, and the burden of proof required to do something like that HAS to be high. VERY high."

[Gregory]

"Before KB killed him he said that abbie woman said 'You are an 'nfection that needs to be ster'lized,' and she started killing people." Gregory wanted KB to approach him. He had some questions for her.

"He not a threat to you. Just a normal man who ascared." Once again, Gregory pointed at KB. "She could make him stab you. James can make people do stuff like that. KB could be the one who killed those people and des'roy town." Gregory was becoming more and more agitated. "I want to ask her questions?"

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: SalmonMax

"The burden of proof IS high, and for good reason. What you're contemplating is a crime against humanity, and the burden of proof required to do something like that HAS to be high. VERY high."

Doug replied, "Sure, it's not like we have a group of god-like people committing war crimes who think we're diseased animals..."

"Ash, to get your perfect proof, we're going to have to go back to the moon and talk to them again. I'm good with going back. Are you good with us bringing along my solution? You know, just in case the obvious explanation is the correct explanation?"

Originally Posted By: Gregory

"Before KB killed him he said that abbie woman said 'You are an 'nfection that needs to be ster'lized,' and she started killing people." Gregory wanted KB to approach him. He had some questions for her.

"He not a threat to you. Just a normal man who ascared." Once again, Gregory pointed at KB. "She could make him stab you. James can make people do stuff like that. KB could be the one who killed those people and des'roy town." Gregory was becoming more and more agitated. "I want to ask her questions?"

Doug looked at KB flying around and said, "Gregory, ignore that KB wasn't here when the place was torched, and that if she had been here she would have died. Ignore that the guy's family and friends were killed by a nova and he hated us. Ignore that he shot me in the head before we started questioning."

"What worries me about calling her down here is if you ask a question that annoys her I think she'll kill you."

[SalmonMax]

"Ash, to get your perfect proof, we're going to have to go back to the moon and talk to them again. I'm good with going back. Are you good with us bringing along my solution? You know, just in case the obvious explanation is the correct explanation?"

"Alright first, I don't agree that going to them is the only possible avenue left," Ash said. "There's this city for one. Second, bringing a weapon to the moon when we go would be stupid even if it does turn out that they're behind it all. You don't think they'd know it was there? They can reach out and grab passing meteors, they can induce second eruptions all over the planet, but they can't figure out when someone brings a radiological device into their home?"

"I think the next logical step is to check out this city. It seems like whatever happened, happened worse there. Maybe it's the origin point."

[Courier]

Doug replied, "There was the same as here, one nova killed everyone else. But yeah, I'd like to take a look around this city too."

[SalmonMax]

"Well, no...remember his description of the event? He said people were changing before his eyes. Not just novas, but everyone. That sounds a lot more intense than what happened at, say, Newborough."

[Courier]

Doug frowned and went back to the 'e-book' and looked up the exact passage. Doug said, "It's not clear. Some were changing into X, others were changing into Y. That might mean everyone was changing or it might mean 'of the people who were changing'. And this is a translation of someone who might not have been very rational." Doug mentally added, *Like KB.*

Doug said, "Doesn't really matter though, ground zero or no, we should look into it."

[SalmonMax]

"Agreed. If nothing else, it seems like there may be evidence there that's undisturbed, since there was just that one guy there for so long."

[Joani]

Anna slowly relaxed - it seemed as if the immediate danger of a fight was averted and deep inside she was very glad about that.

She nodded at Doug and Ashley and took a step closer to Ash showing her affiliation.

"Agreed.", she quietly added.

[Mr Fox]

Raider had listened to the heated exchange and finally spoke, "Doug, there is another explanation for moving us forward in time. Maybe in their own way they were trying to be kind and saving us from the taint bomb. That is also entirely possible. But if so it would still mean that they knew it would happen and allowed it to occur so it still wouldn't make them very nice people. That line of reasoning would suggest one of two possiblilities, three actually, but I think the third is highly unlikely."

"First, they indeed were the cause of the bomb. If so then they knowingly attempted to cleanse the earth of the 'diseased animals' that are novas. That doesn't mesh with saving us from the bomb however, so on that grounds I think it's pretty unlikely."

"Second possibility is that they have a Precog among them. One that is very very good and can see events like the Comet and the Taint Bomb before they happen. That still would make them pretty much heartless bastards and murderers for allowing so many thousands to die. It would also explain their comment about the Burn and how they didn't expect anyone to survive it, but again that would make them murderers through inaction."

Raider looked at Ash, "I'm sorry, but refusing to lift your hand to save someone you know is going to be murdered is the same thing as murder. I'll grant you that the majority of the moonies may not even know what their leaders are doing, but as a society they have from their own words allowed untold death and suffering to occur. That at least makes their leaders war criminals in my book if not their people."

"The third possibility is that they can not only manipulate the speed at which time passess, but travel backwards through it as well. I find this pretty unlikely, but it is possible and it would explain some things." He looked around the group, "This is shear speculation, but consider. We know they must have been on the moon when the burn occurred. From their words they said, 'We did not expect anyone would survive'. Two possibilities. One, they witnessed the burn then reversed time to the point that they could live thousands of years and that could have allowed for the situation we see now. Two, they witnessed the burn and immediately put themselves in superspeed mode and didn't come out until we deflected the rock."

"As I said it is far less likely that they could travel backward in time. The most likely explanation is that they witnessed the burn and instead of sticking around and trying to help the survivors which they could have done. Using their superspeed which we know they have, they could have zoomed forward hundreds of years their time preparing and then come back out almost immediately and gone down to the aid of the survivors of the burn. We know for a fact that they did not do that. Instead they plowed forward through time until we deflected the comet toward them accidentally. Only when they were directly threatened did they take any action. Now, I find it extremely hard to believe that a society that was observant enough to notice an comet coming out of the dark of space could not help but notice in their relativistic 'thousands of years' that there were survivors down here on Earth right below them. We had towns that were lit up at night, how could they not see us and still see a comet? I know you won't accept a question as proof Ash, but they allowed that comet to come toward Earth, and I don't believe they weren't aware that we were here. That means they were knowingly allowing us to die and that makes at least their leaders guilty of genocide."

"Now here's the difficult part to accept. They have incredible technological advantages over us. They have us outnumbered a thousand to one. They are only up there on the moon and in order to question then to find out more and to learn if their people as well as their leaders are guilty of genocide we have to go into their strong place, the place where they have all the advantages and we have none. Given the last visit I'd say it is a very good chance that if we go back up there they can do whatever they wish with us whether we have a weapon or not. So, as Doug says it may be impossible to get the proof you wish no matter how important that is to you. To make matters worse, whether it is their leaders alone that are guilty or all of their people, they very well may be actively seeking to end all intelligent life on Earth so that they can come down here and take the planet, a planet cleansed of the 'diseased animals' that they think we are. They flat out admitted that the comet would have cleansed the Earth of the radiation and leftovers of the burn. They wanted that, the said as much."

"So what do we have then? We have several events that all make the moonies or their leadership if it makes you feel better, look like they are out to end all life on earth, or they at least are willing to stand idly by and watch it happen. We don't have direct proof. We can surmise that the only other people that would have the ability to do these things would be powerful novas of the Pre-burn time. I say pre-burn because according to both my calculations and those of the aberrants in York, both show that the thing was moved right around the time of the burn in order to make it hit us 4 years ago. Now who would have the motivation?"

"One, an angry nova intent on revenge against the baselines for the burn. Or Two, the moonies looking to move to Earth and not wanting to be forced to put up with 'diseased animals'."

"Divis Mal or someone like him would have had the power, but if he did it then we're pretty much screwed because there is no way we could hope to either discover him or stop him. Also, if it were him or someone as powerful as him then why not wipe out the Moonies too?"

"So of the two possibilities that I can conceive, the moonies have the ability and the motive and we know that they lied about not knowing who sent the comet."

"Ok, if we're all straight on that. I completely agree we need to investigate that city first before we do anything else. For the record I do believe the Moonies sent the rock, or if they didn't then they know who did and did nothing to stop it. That makes their leadership guilty of genocide in my book. There is no evidence that they were responsible for the taint bomb although again, they did have the motive and likely the ability. Unfortunately, I can conceived of there being other possibilities. And for that reason I think we need to go there before going to the moon."

[SalmonMax]

Ashley shrugged. "I absolutely do not agree that inaction to help is the same as commission, but that's a pretty fundamental disagreement. In my mind, there's the difference between someone being a threat...someone taking action against you...and NOT being a friend...someone not taking action to help you. The moonies aren't our friends. We've yet to see if they're a threat."

"But yeah. City. Can you take us there, Raider?"