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As Madeline strode purposely down the streets of Maltrice, she made a point to walk with pride, to outwardly show that she was not ashamed of herself, even though all of the onlookers who stopped whatever they were doing to stare with disdain at the malcontent outcast, the one who had the audacity to defy the order of their perfect society, thought she should be. She made a point to drink in all of her surroundings, to remember the faces of all of those who hated and feared her, for it would keep her mind occupied on the long days of solitude that was her life.
She was allowed three short visits to a city per a year for supplies, usually she just stopped by whatever city was closest, but this time she was specifically contacted by someone associated with Premier Joxston, the leader of the entire world of Europa, and requested to go to Maltrice, the capitol city. The message had surprised her to say the least, even though upon her expulsion from society she was given a communications device, she had never been contacted in her thirteen years of exile.
Her short supply visits were always the same, docking at a harbor and not being allowed to leave her boat while supplies were loaded on, and of course, there was always someone there trying to convince her to return to society. “All you have to do is the take the pills,” someone would say. The pills, everyone on Europa had a variety of pills to take every day, which were different for each individual. Some enhanced vision, some raised intelligence, and others increased physical strength, there was a cure for everything. No one suffered in this perfect society, except for Madeline, because she refused to take the medication. Mainly for one pill in particular, a pill intended to correct a “disease”, but Madeline didn’t consider it a disease.
Years ago humans identified the DNA that caused homosexuality, those DNA were found within Madeline. The pills would suppress this and cause her to become heterosexual, or how the people of Europa called it: normal. Because she refused to become normal she was exiled; forced to wander the vast oceans of Europa alone on her sail boat. The irony wasn’t lost on her that she had chosen to be the only homosexual on the entire world, making a life of loneliness a certainty regardless of her exile. At first her hope was that others would follow her lead and celebrate their uniqueness, but no, everybody wanted to be normal, and why not? Europaeon society was perfect, no one was ever hostile to one another, and there were never any disputes, let alone crimes. Europa was well known as the ‘perfect society of peace’.
The Europaeons were incapable of causing Madeline physical harm or incarcerating her, but they couldn’t comprehend why she would defy the ways of their society. She was exiled, not as a form of punishment, but so that she wouldn’t tarnish their perfect world with her presence. They could always force the medication on her, but that wouldn’t be very peaceful.
Madeline had moments of weakness when she thought about giving in, about taking the pills, after all what good was being a lesbian doing her when she had no one to share it with, but those moments always passed. Her determination was the main thing that kept her going through all the hopeless and lonely nights.
Europa was a moon of Jupiter’s that had been terraformed several centuries ago to have an atmosphere and biosphere capable of sustaining human life. The massive water ice that had once covered the moon had been melted to create one vast ocean that was now littered with large artificial man made monstrosities of cities. Madeline was out of her element on these large metallic metropolises, it didn’t sway beneath her feet as she was accustomed to; it was just mind numbingly stationary.
Madeline was being escorted through the city by a man who had been radiating his contempt for her the whole time. Although contempt was a trait found in few Europaeons, they were usually the type of people sent to deal with Madeline; hence she was accustomed to such behavior, even though most people were not. She was sure that their objective was to intimidate her, but they didn’t seem to notice or care that Madeline was incapable of being intimidated. She couldn’t care less what their reaction was to her and she certainly didn’t fear them, there was very little if anything at all that Madeline feared, including death, for at least it would be a sweet release from her permanent state of exile.
She followed the burly escort into a large overly decorated room, there they sat and waited. The woman behind the desk blathered something about Joxston being with them in a minute, but Madeline knew it would actually be much longer. She knew how people like Joxston functioned. They liked to stroke their ego as much as possible and making people wait a long time for them was just one of the many ways they made themselves feel more important than they really were.
While they were waiting Madeline could sense the escort’s disdainful gaze drift her way and she became more agitated by the way this minion thought he could contain or control her. She met his gaze with a hard cold glare, gathering up all the hatred she had accumulated for everyone on this misguided and naîve world and directed it all at this stuck up simpleton. Only after a few seconds under the heat of her glare did he shiver up and turn away in fear like the coward she knew he really was. She allowed herself a small smile of triumph, it was just more proof to her that she was right and everyone else in the world was wrong.
Her inner musings were interrupted by the woman behind the desk who intrusively announced, “Mr. Joxston will see you now.” Madeline’s first reaction was to sarcastically reply ‘oh what an honor’, but she decided to hold her tongue, instead she followed the burly simpleton through a pair of elegant doors into an large room where a smug, ugly, and pathetic man who couldn’t have been anyone other than Premier Joxston sat behind an oversized desk.
And of course, as Madeline could have predicted, he didn’t look up from what he was reading as he began to talk. After giving some sort of insincere greetings he talked about how pleased he was that Madeline took the time out to meet with him, as if she had anything better to do. When he finally decided to look up at them, his gaze fell upon her escort. “Robert, would you mind leaving us alone for a couple of minutes?” The man stood still, not wanting to move, he shot Joxston a look that said ‘are you sure you want me to leave you alone with her?’ Madeline almost laughed out loud at the fear these people felt for her, she had never done anything to indicate she would cause harm to anyone, yet everyone feared her none the less.
Joxston signaled Robert to leave and said, “Its okay Robert, we’ll be quite alright.” He nodded before reluctantly leaving. Again, Madeline had to suppress the urge to laugh, thinking that Joxston’s little display was meant to impress her, that he showed no fear. He then proceeded to stand directly in front of her and blather on endlessly about the affairs and interests of the people of Europa, in other words things Madeline couldn’t care less about. He spoke in such a casual and friendly manner that an outside observer who didn’t know any better might think that the two of them were old friends, but then again Madeline’s stone cold composure, her dead silence and icy stare of hatred was a dead giveaway that they were not. Madeline’s adversarial position didn’t deter Joxston in the least. Indeed he seemed to take no notice of it as he continued speaking to Madeline.
”—and I’m sure you must be wondering why I asked you here.” Joxston was saying, and then finally he was silent. It took Madeline a few moments to realize that Joxston was waiting for her to respond. He just stood there patiently, showing no sign of irritation. At last, Madeline lifted her eyes to stare directly at him in the same manner she had to the burly escort but he did not back down, he stared directly back at her, though there was no hate in his eyes. One might think that look he was giving was one of kindness and friendship, but Madeline knew better, it was a smug look of superiority. He had the power and he knew it. She couldn’t help it, she turned away, and she felt a little ashamed and defeated, so she didn’t respond to him.
”A couple of days ago our worldwide sensor grid detected a small space ship entering the atmosphere and descending towards the surface.” He paused to let the weight of his words sink in. Madeline couldn’t help but let a look of shock slip past her mask. What he was saying couldn’t be possible. Europa was an isolationist world completely separated and cut off from the rest of humanity. To further that goal there was an impenetrable energy barrier that completely surrounded Europa which matter could not pass through. It has been said that no other world would use such a barrier for they would be trapped within, however since Europa contained the perfect society no one would ever want to leave. The barrier had been erect for over a century in which time no one had ever left or entered Europa. It was common belief amongst the people of Europa that the rest of the solar system was violent and chaotic and if Europa had any contact with the outside world it would ruin their perfect society, so a statement that offworlders were going to set foot on Europa was a surprise indeed.
After the brief shock wore off her first thought was that he must be lying, her second thought she voiced, “Why tell me?”
”Because these off world visitors are not invited—” Madeline inwardly sighed at that statement, of course they weren’t invited given Europa’s fear of outsiders, “and because we need your help to deal with them.”
That statement was even more shocking than the first; in fact it was the last thing she expected anyone, especially the leader of the world, to say to her. Her disdainful surprise broke through her icy exterior as she blurted out, “You want me to help you?!” The whole idea of it had to be the most ludicrous thing she ever fathomed.
Joxston’s friendly fa&ccdil;ade suddenly disappeared as he finally showed anger “These people are impure, they come from worlds full of sin, lust, greed, and wraith. They are a disease that would infect our perfect society and would wipe out our civilization more effectively than any virus.” Just as quickly as it faded his friendly nature returned, “We need you to take care of them for us.”
Her reply was instant and vicious, “why should I help you?” She couldn’t believe that he would have the audacity to ask for help after forcing a life of loneliness and misery on her.
His smile only seemed to grow, “Those outsiders are the biggest threat our world has ever faced, they pose a much greater danger than you ever could. If you help us with this problem we will welcome you back into our society; your exile will be over, we will not even ask you to take any medication. You can live wherever you wish, do whatever you wish.” His tone changed to one of deep sympathy, “You don’t have to be alone anymore.”
Only in her wildest fantasies had she ever thought anyone would ever utter those words to her. On some of the worst nights when she would cry herself to sleep, she often thought about what life would be like if she were allowed to return, and about how she would discreetly try to change things, try to work up descent, to get people to embrace their differences, instead of being ashamed of them. But more than that, despite her icy exterior, she couldn’t stand to be alone any more. It was tearing her up inside. Indeed she often wondered how much longer she would last. The nights where, in desperation she would put her self made shot gun to her head and seriously consider pulling the trigger were getting more frequent. She was sure that sooner or later she would pull the trigger. So at this point she would do just about anything short of giving in to their demands to end her life of loneliness, but she remained skeptical, “How will people tolerate having a freak and malcontent in their presence?”
”People will adjust to it. I’ll speak to them personally. Once they learn of the great service you did for them they’ll all be too grateful to worry about petty differences.” His voice changed to become more soothing, almost enticing, “Think about it, you could do whatever you want, and be whatever you want. You could improve your talent for the arts,” he gave a small laugh with a friendly smile, “I’m sure people will really appreciate the beauty you can create. I know you don’t want to be alone anymore. This is your chance.” He glanced down at her arm. Madeline cursed herself for leaving her arm exposed. She had scars that ran the length of her left arm where she had cut herself with her knife. She should have covered them before meeting with Joxston. They openly showed how desperate and miserable she was.
He knew that he had her, no posturing or insults could change that. Madeline could see it on his face. “What do you want me to do?” she said in a dead monotone voice, revealing neither the feeling of defeat nor excitement that she felt.
”You know how the people of our society are. They detest violence in any form. You however have not been part of our society for many years, and I happen to know that in your exile you crafted and created a projectile weapon.” Madeline’s rage surged, how could he know about the shotgun she made? As usual her outrage didn’t deter Joxston at all, “One that you often use to shot down seagulls.” He then shook his head and waged his finger at her. “You may not be aware that it is the only projectile weapon in existence on Europa, and you are the only person on Europa capable of using it or any other form of violence. So you must find these vermin that invaded our world, hunt them down and eliminate them.”
”Wait, you want me to kill them?” She was suddenly repulsed, “I’m no murderer.” She knew that they had a low opinion of her, but that they thought of her as a murderer made her blood boil.
”You’re more capable of it than anyone else.” He retorted, then smiled, “Besides, it’s not murder, it would be self defense. Indeed, you would be defending all of Europa.”
”What makes you so sure these ‘invaders’ are so dangerous?”
”Because they’ve already landed on Europa in the city of Cosmoton.” He walked behind his desk to manipulate his personnel computer while still standing. “We have pictures of what Cosmoton looks like now, would you care to see?”
Madeline cautiously approached his desk. He swiveled the computer around so she could see. What was being displayed on it was more gruesome a sight than Madeline ever expected to see; a vast array of dead bodies spread out, lying in the open streets. The bodies were mutilated; slashed in the most horrific ways. The streets were covered in large puddles of blood. Every few seconds the picture on the viewer would change to show another part of the city, but each scene was the same; mutilated bodies with blank expressions on them, sprawled throughout the streets. Finally Madeline started to feel sick. Unable to take anymore she turned away and muttered, “That’s enough.”
”Of course.” He replied with the same egotistical grin. “Don’t feel bad, you managed to stomach those images much longer than any of my associates.” She noticed that he said ‘my associates’ which didn’t necessarily include him, and something about the way he said it made her think that he could stomach the images, which would really set him apart from the typical Europaeon.
”In a mere five days these four outsiders have managed to kill the entire population of Cosmoton; over two thousand men, women, and children. So we want you to kill four people before they can kill thousands more. You were right to be upset when you assumed I thought you were a murderer, because I do know you’re better than that, that despite your anger towards us that you really do care about us, and that’s why we’re willing to let you back into society. But first you must save us. Will you please save us?”
The manipulative prick, not only was he appealing to her sense of decency but to her ego as well. If she didn’t act thousands could die, and if she did act all her hopes and dreams could finally come to pass. “Okay” was all she said.
”Good,” he said while using his computer. “There are four invaders, two men and two women all around your age—” he paused to give Madeline an analyzing look, “well actually slightly younger.” A holographic projection appeared in front of his computer, “These are the four invaders you have to dispose of.”
”Gee, I wonder how many euphemisms you’re going to use for cold blooded murder.” Madeline analyzed his face for any signs that her snide comment had any impact on him but as expected he just sat there wearing the same idiotic grin.
Madeline examined the projections of the four offworlders. One thing that jumped out at her was that one of the women had some sort of art on her left shoulder that seemed to be imprinted on her skin. Madeline vaguely recalled reading about this sort of thing in one of the few books still around that described societies before Europa; she believed they were referred to as tattoos. This particular tattoo was a bright red flower with a long green stem that wrapped around the woman’s arm down to her elbow. Madeline couldn’t help but be struck by how beautiful it was, how serene it made her feel, but that feeling quickly passed as she recalled who these people were and what they have done and that feeling was replaced with hatred, fear, and sorrow.
”When you’re ready,” Joxston said, “We’ll have someone escort you to Jackson’s Harbor where we have a powerboat waiting for you—”
”No.” Madeline interrupted curtly.
”No?” Joxston blurted in surprise, and showing a bit of anger.
Madeline smirked, certain that that was a word Joxston rarely heard. “No, I’m not using one of those technological monstrosities that destroy the harmonies of the water. I’m using my sailboat.”
”My dear,” Madeline’s first instinct upon being called that was to slap him, but she restrained herself, “as much as I appreciate your quaint fascination with antique vehicles, a powerboat would be considerably faster and time is of the essence.” For emphasis he clicked back to the pictures of Cosmoton.
Madeline ignored her gut reaction to flinch and held firm. “No. I’m using my sailboat or you can forget the whole deal.” Madeline stared directly at Joxston who stared back. They each held their stern gaze for a long cold minute, neither backing down. Madeline could see that he was trying to determine if she was really willing to throw away her only chance to end her exile over a small detail, and at the same time he was trying to intimidate her. She knew she was not going to back down on this, even if it meant that her life of loneliness and misery would continue. Some might say that she was a fool to risk so much for so little but she was sick of being told what to do and would rather die than let herself be pushed around by this spineless weasel.
”Fine.” He finally said in the same flat monotone voice she had been using. “Keep your communications channel open at all times. We’ll send you all the information you need to complete your task.”
Madeline took that as her dismissal so she turned to leave, but stopped abruptly as a thought occurred to her. “How do I know those pictures you showed me are genuine? How do I know all those people in Cosmoton were really murdered?” Having lived the first fourteen years of her life in Europaeon society she knew that all Europaeons were incapable of dishonesty, especially to this extreme, yet she couldn’t bring herself to completely trust him.
His smile seemed slightly more insidious this time, “Last report we received stated that the invaders were headed towards Balbula, Cosmoton is between here and there so why don’t you stop by there and see it for yourself?”
Thump, thump, thump. Madeline felt the familiar sting as her fists impacted with the punching bag. She felt a bit more comfortable being back on her boat, headed for Balbula. She had just come from Cosmoton, thump. Joxston wasn’t lying about it. Thump. The scene of all those bodies sprawled out, slashed in the most horrific ways was still fresh in her mind, thump, haunting her every thought, thump. Seeing it in person was much worse than seeing pictures of it, thump. The face of a little girl who couldn’t have been more than eight years old popped in her mind, blood dripped down from the slash on her neck, thump, along with the long cuts on her arms, thump. A man and a woman, presumably her parents lay next to her, their throats cut as well, thump. She had seen hundreds more bodies mutilated just like that, thump. And everyone of them was dead, thump, murdered.
She screamed as loud as she could when she tackled the punching bag to the floor. It made a loud snapping noise as it was ripped from it hinges under her weight. She screamed as she threw the punching bag against her desk. It crashed against the surface, scattering all the items that were on it to the floor. She screamed as she picked up the table and flung it to the far wall. She screamed as she punched the wooden wall with her bare fist, over and over. With each hit her scream grew louder and her punch harder until finally her fist went through the wall. She slowly pulled her hand back, blood was splattered all over the wall and her hand throbbed with pain, but she didn’t care, the pain she felt was nothing compared to the pain the victims of Cosmoton must have felt.
The abhorrence she had for Europaeons didn’t matter, no one deserved to be brutally murdered like that, certainly not children. Being in Cosmoton reminded her of her childhood, how happy it was. She imagined herself being brutally murdered at that age, it just enflamed her horror and rage. She studied the faces of the murderers on the pad Joxston had given her that contained three dimensional pictures and physical descriptions of them. She was certain that when she killed them she would not feel regret. Over the next couple of hours it took her to get to Balbula she bandaged her hand and cleaned the mess she had made. The rest of the time she spent loading and unloading her shotgun, it had a certain calming effect, and she grew satisfied in knowing what she was going to use it for.
When she arrived in Balbula she stepped off her boat expecting to see her usual greeting party of people trying to save or intimidate her, but instead she was greeted by hundreds of people crowded around her boat. When she appeared the people cheered, and called out things like “Our savior is here.” It was a very strange feeling for her, she didn’t know how to react, she never expected to be treated like some sort of hero. The crowds were clustered behind ropes that blocked off a part of the street, which created a clear path. Two people, whom she could identify as people of power approached her from the clear path, trailed by three escorts.
A woman introduced herself as Karidia Maltrim, the speaker of the people of Balbula and the man with her as Luther Lonsberg, the representative of Balbula who reported directly to Joxston. As Madeline followed them into the city she tried in vain to ignore the people that surrounded her who would call out pleas for help, or sentiments of gratitude. Maltrim didn’t seem phased by it at all as she welcomed her to the city, talking at length about Balbula. She seemed friendly and open, Madeline warmed to her a bit but said very little. But she was weary of Lonsberg who walked silently beside her, glaring at her. He had the same smug, superior way about him as Joxston, which caused her to dislike him instantly.
Maltrim stopped, and looked directly at her, “Thank you so much for coming, I can’t tell you how grateful all of Balbula is to you for coming.”
“How many?” Madeline asked simply. Upon seeing Maltrim’s puzzled expression she thought she should clarify. “How many people have been killed here?”
“Oh,” she nodded in understanding, “thankfully none yet, you arrived just in time.”
“Has anyone seen the invaders?”
Maltrim shook her head. “No, but they’re being tracked. They’re in that part of the city.” She pointed to a place that was completely empty. It felt eerie to her to see a part of a city so barren. “That part of the city has been evacuated, in fact a lot have fled Balbula all together, but those who have stayed have hope that you will save us.”
“Well, I’d better go get this done.” She untucked her shotgun from under her arm and made a show of cocking it loudly. Maltrim was shocked by this display, but Lonsberg was unphased. She double checked that she had all her gear before she headed off to hunt the invaders.
Madeline’s nerves were high as she searched the empty village for the invaders. She tried to move as stealthfully as she could, but was afraid she wasn’t doing a good enough job. She never had to do anything like this before, and couldn’t even guess at what skills the offworlders possessed. But she did know that they managed to kill thousands of people within a few days. When she was a child she heard stories of the technological monstrosities offworlders had and the horrors they would use them for, but she never thought she would see first hand what they could do.
She was also curious as to why anyone would want to kill thousands. She didn’t buy the propaganda that all offworlders were evil. She had learned through her own personal experiences that good and evil were manmade concepts that all depended on one’s point of view. They must have had some misguided motivation for doing what they did. She was puzzled though, to what it could possibly be. She had no illuisions about herself. Although she appreciated the Balbulians sentiments, she knew she was no hero. They had called upon her because they thought she was the only one in the world capable of murder so what did that say about her? She also knew that although she was doing it to save thousands, she was also personally motivated.
It was an unusual feeling of satisfaction when, after having searched for hours with no sign of the invaders she finally discovered food scraps behind a couch that had been recently moved into a corner, a sign that they may be close by. She was relieved to finally find what she was looking for. But her anxiety level increased significantly as she rounded the corner to discover an open door, an unusual sight because all the other doors she had seen had been tightly shut. Beyond the passageway were a flight of stairs leading downward. As she carefully descended she could hear voices in the distance. The steps took her to a basement, cold and dank, and as she moved forward through the long empty halls in the only direction she could go, the distant voices became more audible. They were speaking Standard but with a strange dialect and accent she had never heard.
The room was dimly lit. The only light came from an open door to a room where the voices emanated from. She could barely hear them anymore, because the sound of her heart pounding vigorously in her chest was deafening. She had to concentrate hard to silence her heavy breathing. She kept repeating one thought in her mind over and over: be quiet or die.
After what seemed like hours, she stood poised in front of the open door with her shotgun in her hands ready for action. She took one long encompassing deep breathe before plunging right in as fast as she could. The very instant she entered the room she recognized the four people she was sent to kill. At a mind numbingly speed she had her shotgun aimed at the closet invader and fired before they were even fully aware she had entered the room. The shot hit its target, striking one of the women in the chest; her limp body fell to the floor.
A man charged at her, his face filled with rage. Madeline managed to keep her cool, standing her ground. When he was close enough she brought the back end of her shotgun up and smashed him on the head with it as hard as she could. A loud sickening crack echoed off the steel walls as the man’s body fell limp to the floor. The two remaining invaders began to run away, so Madeline aimed her shotgun at them and shouted as loud as she could, “Stop!” The two of them froze in place by the shrill blood curdling warning. She didn’t know why she had shouted a warning instead of shooting them, even at that moment her finger was poised on the trigger just waiting to finish it, but for some reason she hesitated. It was then she realized that she had a growing feeling that something was not right. At first she dismissed it as her guilt, but she came to the realization that there was a lot more to it than that.
She became more uncertain by the second. The two offworlders stood still with dread awaiting her next move, but she didn’t know what to do. Her mind was overwhelmed trying to catch up with the events that had just occurred. The alarm in her mind became louder when she saw urine drip down the leg of the young man. Young man, that was it, he looked a lot younger and less menacing than the picture of him had and she noticed the same of the others, although they were definitely older than he was. “What are you going to do with us?” the woman spoke.
“Shut up!” She needed time to think. She had to think. What was going on? What was she doing? “Sit down!” she ordered. For a few moments they simply stood there shaking. “Do it!” she screamed, and the young man jumped in his skin at her command.
“We didn’t...” The woman began to protest.
“Shut up!” Madeline moved her shotgun to aim at the woman. After a few moments they carefully sat down against the wall. They sat in kneeling positions anxiously looking up at her. Madeline moved to inspect the woman she had shot and the man she had hit.
“Are they dead?” the woman asked.
“She’s dead, he’s not.” Madeline said while indicating the two. “He’s just unconscious.” She then dragged his limp body over to where the other two were while keeping her gun aimed at them.
The young man was crying uncontrollably. “What the hell kind of place is this?” he said between sobs. “Paradise? This isn’t paradise. This is hell!” That was directed at the other woman; he then turned to face Madeline, “What the hell is going on here?”
As the boy continued to cry Madeline gave the woman an analyzing look. Although she looked extremely distraught, she seemed to be calmer. “Why don’t you tell me?” In response the woman shot her a puzzled look. “Why don’t you tell me why you would come to our world just to kill thousands of people?” She then screamed, “What kind of place do you come from?”
The young man immediately replied, “What?” but the woman seemed less puzzled.
“Is that why you’re doing this, because you think we killed all those people?”
In anger Madeline pressed the barrel of her gun against the woman’s cheek. “Don’t tell me you didn’t do it. I know that no one on this world is capable of doing that.”
The young man continued to cry, but the woman stared directly at her. “Not a person, no.”
Doubt and anger surged within her, “What do you mean?”
The woman shook her head, “You want to know why we came here? We came here from another world that orbits Jupiter called Ganymede where life is tough and nobody cares about anybody else, where people deceive, cheat, and murder as a way of life. We, all four of us came from troubled lives and in the few years we have been alive we had to endure more hardships than anyone should have to in an entire lifetime. We came here because we heard stories all our lives, about Europa: the forbidden world. We heard it was a paradise, a world of peace, free of trouble and worry.
But that’s not what we found. After we crash landed in that other city, people were terrified of us. We tried to reach out to them, tried to be friendly, but they ran from us. Then the machines came; three floating machines of a technology we had never seen before, shaped like a duck’s head.” Madeline wondered what a duck was. “They would flash a bright blue light at a crowd of people and— and— they would just freeze.” Her voice became high pitched riddled with anger, regret, and fear. “They would just stand there perfectly still with blank expressions on their faces, then the machines would take out some kind of knife and kill them slowly and the people, they didn’t seem to notice, they were just frozen. The machines were slow, so we tried warning the others, we screamed and shouted at them, but they wouldn’t move, they just stood still while those things killed them.
One time Dawson-” she indicated the young man next to her, “was caught in the blue flashing light, I thought it would make him freeze too, but it did nothing to him. Everyone else next to him became frozen, but he was fine, as were the rest of us when it flashed us. It tried to kill us with those knives, but they were too slow, they were easy to outrun, but the rest of the people wouldn’t run.
We tried to save them, we tried to find people who weren’t frozen, but by then there weren’t very many and the few we did find wouldn’t listen to us and eventually they became frozen as well. So we found a boat and left, we couldn’t just stand there watching people be systematically mutilated by those things. What else could we do? So we came here to hide, trying to find a space ship to take us off this insane world, but we couldn’t. We were arguing over what to do next when you came in and killed her.”
Madeline shook her head; it couldn’t be true, it just couldn’t. She wouldn’t let herself believe it. She pressed the barrel harder against the woman’s cheek. “You’re a liar!” she said through tears. “People on this world don’t lie and they don’t kill! But you’re not from this world. You’re the liar!”
The woman stared up at her, “Look at us, we have no weapons, no blood on our clothes. We’re not very strong; I mean Dawson’s only sixteen.”
The alarm in the back of her mind was screaming at her; it was true, it all added up. She looked at the woman she had killed, she had an expression of terror on her face, but all the bodies in Cosmoton had blank expressions, just like the woman said. She didn’t want it to be true because it would mean she had killed an innocent person, but she couldn’t escape the logic of it.
In denial she asked herself who would do such a thing and why? The answer came quickly to her: Joxston, this was all his doing; he was charged with ensuring Europa remained a peaceful paradise, and he proved that he considered the offworlders the biggest threat to that peace and he would do anything to end that threat, even kill thousands of his own people. People like him don’t like to do things themselves, and since no one on Europa would be capable of doing it for him he had these machines created to kill off the people of Cosmoton to make it appear the offworlders did it. This would have two desired effects, one: to make certain that everyone feared and hated them and two: to ensnarl Madeline into killing them, for the machines could not kill them, they only worked on Europaeons. She thought for a moment on why that would be, then it came to her: The pills. Of course, the blue light that had disabled the people of Cosmoton must have been triggering something put inside them through the medication. It all made perfect sense to her now. Joxston and his flunkies would have no experience with creating weapons, as he stated earlier she possessed the only weapon in existence on Europa so it’s conceivable that the weapons they created on such short notice would be ineffective save for its dependcy on the drugs, a technology the Europaeons had become very efficient at perfecting.
After the full weight of this revelation sank in, she sagged to the floor in misery. Joxston had manipulated her into killing, she thought she was smarter than him, thought she was going to use him, but she was wrong and it cost that woman her life. She crawled over to the woman’s body while tasting her bitter tears. “What was her name?”
Madeline touched her shoulder, after she recognized the tattoo she had thought was so beautiful earlier. “Rose.” As they woman answered Madeline remembered it was also the name of that flower.
“And what is your name?”
“Jennifer.”
Madeline laughed a humorless laugh as she slowly stood up to face Jennifer. “That was the name of my first and only love.” She let go of her shotgun, it made a loud sound as it dropped to the ground. She took out her knife and held it in her hand, staring at it as if it contained all the answers of the universe. “This place you come from—”
“Ganymede.” Jennifer finished
“—Ganymede. Are they any homosexuals there?”
Jennifer tilted her head at the seemingly irrelevant question, “Yes.”
“Are they considered normal?”
“They’re in the minority, but they’re considered normal, yes.”
She smiled, “are any of you—?”
“No.”
Madeline laughed this time out of joy she’d never thought she’d experience. “I am, the only one on this world. It’s just nice to know it’s considered normal somewhere.” She knelt in front of Jennifer. “It’s nice to have a moment of joy before I die.” She then raised the hilt of her knife, offering it to Jennifer. She just stood there staring at her in indecision. “I killed your friend,” tears began relentlessly streaming down her face, “and she’s beautiful.” After a few moments she added, “You all are. I don’t want or deserve to live after what I did.” Still seeing reluctance in her eyes, she added, “Do it, please.”
Jennifer gingerly took the knife. “Why were you chosen to kill us? You said no one on this world was capable of murder.” She asked finally breaking the silence. When Madeline didn’t reply, she barked, “Answer me.”
“What are you doing?” Dawson asked nervously.
Jennifer didn’t answer him; she just continued to stare at Madeline. “Because,” she finally answered, “I’m beginning to suspect that the reason no one is capable of murder is an effect of meds that everyone on this world takes, everyone except me. The few leaders of this world” she thought of Joxston and Lonsberg, “are capable and willing to do anything to maintain their perfect society that they control. When their machines failed to kill you they offered me an end to my lifelong exile if I did.”
“They used you.” Madeline didn’t like salt being rubbed in that particular wound. “You are a good person; you don’t need meds to make you so.” The clattering sound the knife made when it hit the floor echoed loudly through her body. “You don’t deserve to die anymore than Rose did. We’re new here, and I think I’d be correct in assuming there’s no way off this world.” Madeline nodded slowly. “We don’t know this place and the leaders of it want us dead, so we’re in need of help, and so are you.” She offered Madeline her hand, “Let us help each other.”
“What are you doing?!” Dawson protested loudly, “She killed you’re sister!”
“Do you think I don’t know that?” Jennifer snapped back, while more tears came to her eyes, “Do you think I’m not broken up inside and buried in grief? Well, I am, but killing her isn’t going to bring Rose back, it’s just going to make things worse. She’s not our enemy, our enemies are still out there and they won’t stop until we’re dead.” She looked to Madeline, “Am I right?”
Madeline stared at this stranger’s outstretched hand for a long time. The truth was that she wanted to die, it would be the easy way out so she wouldn’t have to live with her guilt, but she owed these people after what she did, it was her responsibility to try and correct the mistake she had made. She took her offered hand and Jennifer helped pull her to her feet. They looked deeply at each other. Jennifer nodded toward the unconscious man, “Micheal was Rose’s lover, so you might have to give him some time and space when he wakes up.”
“If he wants to kill me, he can.”
Jennifer grabbed her arm tightly, “No he can’t. We need you.”
Madeline smiled, after all those years of exile she finally found people who were different, like her. She had finally found people who could help her make a difference. Maybe that was one of the reason Joxston had pitted them against each other in the first place, because he feared that if they joined together they could threaten his power. “Europa is not a paradise, but together we can make it one.”
