Dialog -- You Have Stayed Too Long.txt
As I have described in my profile, some of the writing that I put up here comes from writing exercises, drafts, vignettes, and so forth. Following is a dialog, overheard illicitly, quoted here to give some tiny bit of hope to those of us who think that someone might be trying to help us after all...
"You have stayed too long."
"Another day."
"You'll be caught. You're already compromised."
"You don't understand."
"No, I certainly don't understand. You were supposed to infiltrate, making no contact of any kind, get information, and get out again. You've jeopardized everything by making contact. They know of your existence, and by extension, they know of ours. This is a warlike people, and we can't take the chance..."
"They are not all warlike."
"From all that we can gather, they are nothing but warlike. Their entire world is at war, in one way or another. Economic warfare, ideological warfare, religious warfare, ecological warfare. Even their language is violent and warlike."
"They are not all warlike."
"Explain."
"I have found many who are peaceful, who want to know what a peaceful world would be like, who want to understand rather than fear, who want to discover more than deny, who want to celebrate what is beautiful rather than ignore or destroy it."
"Was this what made you make contact?"
"Yes. My observations led me to find beings who truly are more advanced than many on this world. They are not a mutation or deviant breed; they are part of a natural progression that is being... they have a term, 'marginalized.' They are the ones whose genetic programming is overcoming the infection from so long ago."
"Then you are saying that the masses that we are observing are still infected?"
"Many are; however, I think that it is the manipulation by a few that is keeping the majority of the population feeding back upon its infected roots. The deepest infections -- greed, lust for power, the need to possess or destroy -- have been amplified in some genetic lines. It is still too easy for them to control the masses which still have the infection and haven't the strength of purpose or self to fight against it."
"What do you propose?"
"I want to give their natural processes some assistance."
"That is against our principle tenets of contact."
"So was the infection."
"That was not our doing."
"Nonetheless, that interference has caused centuries of bloodshed and waste. These beings are capable of so much more. Look at their history, despite the infection -- leaps of imagination, of intellect, of growth and discovery. The perverted uses of these discoveries is due to the infection and the infected. Remove it, or at least counterbalance it, and these people could uplift on their own."
"And how could you accomplish this in one day?"
"I cannot. I can, however, use the one day to plant and prepare the various seeds that will accomplish what is needed. I have found a small group here who can be trusted to keep the truth and the process going that will eventually eradicate the infection completely. We can return then, or perhaps even sooner if there is a sufficient majority across this planet."
"We cannot condone this officially."
"I know that, old friend."
"You could be captured before tomorrow. They would kill you."
"I think it's worth the risk."
"Be at that location at this same time tomorrow. We'll come get you."
"If I'm not here..."
"...I'll turn the planet over looking for you."
"You've got my signal."
"I do. Good luck, my old friend."
"To us all."