There is an alien among us! He’s been with us for some time, and as one might expect, he has found that he’s become more human than he ever thought…
I am short of breath just walking to the café. Sometimes, the pulse in my wrist is so weak, my fingers can barely feel it. Clearly, it is time for me to upload my core through the ansible. But, with the greatest respect to Homeworld and fervent salutations to the honored collegium of science, this member is doubtful about accepting reintegration into the hive.
I regret that as the brief window of time opens in which the ansible can send my report, this member stands, as humans say, ‘on a knife edge,’ knowing this decision could go either way.
Fortunately, if I remain here, there is no danger in a remote Maine village of an autopsy that might reveal anomalies. As even further protection, this member has avoided the local medical system while frequently mentioning ‘heart problems’ to neighbors.
Although no one on Earth is more inquisitive or better able to see through a person’s charade to their real character than residents of a small town, this member must stress that my disguise as someone ‘from away’ has been sufficient. In the thirty years since purchasing a run-down house, everyone has known this member simply as “Belle,” a cranky, often acerbic writer. To them, the ‘human’ you created is ‘alien’ only in so far as Belle’s rumored origin in Portland is from the suspect area south of the Penobscot River.
This member imagines your polite accusatory hum, ‘How can you consider abandoning research before completing your contribution to answer the Great Question: ‘Why do species of aggregate individuals rarely survive to enter the galaxy?’
Again, with huge respect and humble intent, this member must remind the esteemed hive that since moving here, your creation has continued to gather data while being treated no better nor worse than any human who did not grow up in the village. That is to say, with some humor and a little pity.
As related in previous reports, what this member has observed is the characteristic recklessness of those who are unsupported by the warmth of a collective. Individuals (please attempt to overcome your disgust at this concept) hide what they perceive as their unworthiness through overconsumption of drugs, driving dangerously fast, and unwise sexual pairings.
These people are similar to the ones this member has described for two Earth centuries from previous locations. In most instances, your creation finds them no less intelligent nor more aggressive than collective species like ours. However, they do seem to lack an ability to turn aside from the possible. If they can do a thing, some will dare, however perilous and imprudent it is. Individual humans may venture into the galaxy. The odds are high against many of their species doing so.
This member now comes to the most painful part of the report. “I” must assert that in its research design the honored collegium made an error. No voice was raised to warn that “I” (given the appearance of a human body) might evolve into a danger to the hive. Surely, the collegium should have foreseen that an entity created to look human could become irretrievably isolate, carrying seeds of the bizarre behavior under investigation?
For two centuries, this member has been alone, making only those connections to other beings that are available to a separate mind, a lonely (for you, perhaps, an inconceivably lonely) existence. It has been impossible for this member to replace the nurturing associations within the hive. Even so, “I” have avoided the most characteristically reckless human behaviors. But … alarmingly … I am beginning to feel individual. More and more, I think of some acquaintances as ‘friends,’ not as research subjects.
Surely, you must join me in perceiving a danger to the hive if the being this member has become, who cherishes these human links, attempts reintegration? It will demonstrate to you how far I have drifted from harmony that in the time I have been writing my report, I have reached a decision.
I plan to walk to the café where I can enjoy the light in the proprietor’s eyes as she leans across the counter toward me, relating the inevitable consequences of some folly by one of our neighbors.
I (the last time I will alarm you with that dangerous human pronoun) will set the ansible to destroy itself. End report.
END
