Savages

Whenever they were entering another planet’s atmosphere, James let his eyes fall closed, his head bowed slightly, and counted each slow and steady breath that slid past his lips until the ship landed. He knew it was such a silly habit, but if they were destined to crash, he’d rather not face his own death head-on. Besides, it’s not as if he’d ever been selected for a mission because of his stellar engineering skills or piloting capabilities. In all honesty, he didn’t have any, but he was the chancellor’s son, so it was his civic duty to be his father’s eyes and ears on these sorts of expeditions. It wasn’t a job that James could say wholeheartedly that he particularly enjoyed, but then again, what choice did he have? His entire life was practically mapped out for him before he was even born. It was a burden he was forced to carry on his shoulders.

On this mission, the objective was to scout out one of their neighboring planets to see if it had the means to support their civilization. If a planet happened to have any essential assets, the plan went into motion: poison the water supply (if applicable), harvest the necessary resources, establish a colony. This cycle seemed to repeat itself over and over again in James’s head, mind-numbingly drilled in by his father’s countless lectures.

“I’m sorry, James, but I just cannot wrap my mind around why you have such a problem with this,” he’d shout every time his son suggested the missions may not be ethical. “This is the way it’s always been. These things are necessary for the survival of our people, and yet you’re fixated on squishing a few cockroaches beneath your boots. It’s ridiculous! Think about the big picture, James. They’re savages, nothing but cold-hearted, primitive savages that are only going to end up destroying their own planet anyway.”

James was an expert in biting his tongue, and for the most part, his father had been correct. Most of the planets they had explored were either deserted or inhabited by mere bacteria or fungi, but there was something distinctly different about the third planet from the sun that caused him to question everything.

>>

The house that the three of them were settled in for the duration of the mission was supposedly the typical American household, nestled in a suburban neighborhood just outside one of their major cities. While it wasn’t aesthetically unappealing, it was also nothing like what they were accustomed to. Back home on Venus, there weren’t nearly as many confines: no houses, no cities, no provinces. Society was centered around free, communal living, and to the average citizen, the planet was an absolute hedonistic paradise in which the party never seemed to have an end in sight. Unfortunately for James, ignorance was truly bliss, and he knew far too much regarding their planet’s true situation to be able to enjoy the endless bacchanalian lifestyle. All he could see was the barren wasteland that lay just beyond the border of Eden.

These sorts of missions didn’t take much time, a couple of weeks at the most, so they were making due with the bare minimum: no furniture, no real clothing aside from their uniforms, only the equipment crucial to completing the mission. Carlos and Kendall were preoccupied installing the communication control panels when the family from next door stopped by to welcome them to the neighborhood, so of course, James was the one stuck trying to interact with them.

If the rest of his crew were a little more aware, they would’ve barricaded James far away from the family of Earthlings.

“Hello there!” the blonde woman on their doorstep announced as she held out a food offering of some sort. “We just thought we’d drop by and introduce ourselves. I’m Cheryl.” She paused to smile at James before she gestured to the man at her side. “This is my husband Steve and our daughter Lucy.” Steve nodded, and James forced a polite smile in return as he shook the man’s hand.

He had to admit that he was a little taken aback by how harmless this Earth family seemed, how eager they were to welcome him, of all people, into their lives. The same young man who would play a monumental part in exterminating their entire species.

Though their gentle nature struck him as being odd, it was the daughter, Lucy, that stood out the most to him. From just a passing glance, she looked to be around the same age as him, and with her black leather jacket and combat boots, she could’ve easily passed as a member of their expedition crew. It was through Lucy that James’s suspicion of his own people began to grow. A spark of it had always been there, but it took meeting this Earth girl for him to fully realize why this planet was so different than all of the others they’d wiped clean. Though their societies seemed primitive to him, in essence, these people were very much like his own.

“I’m James,” he spoke clearly, his mind flipping through all the flash cards detailing Earth etiquette that his father had made him study before the mission. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Oh! And I made you guys a casserole!” Cheryl exclaimed, as if she’d somehow magically forgotten the heavy glass dish in her arms. “I’m a firm believer that no one should have to cook dinner on moving day.”

“Thank you, ma’am. It smells superb.”

And he hadn’t been lying. Although James had no idea what exactly a “casserole” consisted of, he still couldn’t keep his mouth from watering as the scent wafted up into his nostrils.

“Well, feel free to give us a call if you need any help with anything or if you just want to come visit,” the woman offered, and they all exchanged their goodbyes.

Just as she passed the threshold into her own yard, James could’ve sworn he’d seen Lucy turn back towards him and narrow her dark eyes. It was the sort of look that carried across interstellar boundaries, something inherently intuitive buried in her irises that made him suddenly aware of the fact that she was studying him.

“What did they want?” Carlos asked as soon as their neighbors were out of earshot.

“I’m not sure…” James admitted, his hazel eyes still peering through the doorway. “I think they brought us some type of food?”

“Food,” Carlos scoffed, fiddling around with knobs on the master control panel. “These people are backwards.”

“I wouldn’t eat any of that if I were you,” Kendall announced as he stepped into the den. “It could be poisoned.”

James had to fight the urge to roll his eyes at his crew commander. Oh, the irony.

Silence lapsed between the three teenage boys, and James couldn’t help but voice the conflicting thoughts that were running rampant throughout his brain. A part of him already knew what their response would be, but it was something he just had to get off his chest, and as much as he hated to admit it, there was a miniscule part of him that hoped they would end up surprising him.

“How are we going to kill these people?”

“Same as always,” Carlos was all too quick to reply as he stared at his nailbeds. “Plant the bacteria in their water supply. They’ll all be dead by morning.”

“I didn’t mean literally,” James fired back, his frustration coming through in his voice, giving an edge to each word. “I meant how can you two go through with this plan after the hospitality we just experienced? Obviously, the people on this planet aren’t all completely barbaric. You must feel some form of remorse.”

“James…” Kendall sighed, a hand pressed to his forehead in an attempt to ease some of the stress. “You of all people should know why we’re doing this. You’ve seen their newspapers and their broadcasts with your own eyes. You know how savage these life forms truly are. They wage wars against one another, withhold life’s basic necessities from others for the sake of their own personal wealth, allow members of their own species to starve while others live in exorbitance. Tell me what exactly is civilized about any of that?”

The chancellor’s son had no reasonable explanation, he just felt it in his bones that this wasn’t right. While Kendall continued to talk down to him, James was bombarded by his father’s words parroted back at him. All the while, James kept thinking of how Kendall would’ve probably fit his father’s mold of the ideal son.

>>

When nighttime fell, James found himself standing on their front lawn, stricken with a hopeless case of insomnia as he gazed up at the stars. A never-ending canvas, he found a strange source of comfort in the night sky. Maybe it was because that, no matter the planet, the stars always appeared the same: glittering, forever beautiful, and infinite.

“Hey there, neighbor.” Her voice startled him, jolting him from his muddled thoughts.

“Hey.”

Lucy hooked her thumbs into the belt loops of her jeans, stealing a glance from beneath her eyelashes as she continued. “So I’m guessing you can’t sleep either?”

His lips curved into an unexpected smile. “No, I guess not.”

There was that uncomfortable silence, the absence of words that was awkward no matter what planet you hailed from, but James couldn’t keep his olive-flecked stare from drifting back to the girl at his side. For only an instant, their eyes locked, but Lucy was quick to avert her gaze, self-consciously toying with the ends of one of her crimson-streaked pigtails.

“Look, I know we don’t really know each other that well…or at all…but I’m not one to beat around the bush, so I’ll just go ahead and ask: would you take me for a ride on your bike?” The question was softened by a nervous giggle. “I kinda have a thing for motorcycles.”

Confusion marked his features until he followed her stare to the motorcycle parked in their driveway. He’d never been allowed to drive the similar transportation vehicles on his home planet, his father claimed they were too dangerous, but maybe this was his chance to find his own way in this fucked-up excuse for a universe, to shred apart his father’s intricate plan for his life once and for all.

So as an act of rebellion, he agreed. It probably wasn’t his brightest or most rational idea, maybe it was this primitive society rubbing off on him, but there was something about the way Lucy gazed at him that edged him on, made him far too eager to please her. It was a desire he’d never really experienced before.

“So…where are you from?” she asked, her almond-shaped eyes glazing over him. It was almost as if she was studying him again, struggling to soak him in and make some sort of sense out of the other-worldly being that stood before her.

James was no stranger to the feeling. He was certainly having difficulty processing his own intrigue, but there were more important matters at hand. “Why do you ask?”

“No reason.” Another nervous chuckle spilled over her lips. “You just don’t seem like you’re from around here.”

You have no idea, he thought to himself, but he wasn’t quite sure how to respond to her comment, so he simply remained tight-lipped as they neared the vehicle. At first glance, the controls didn’t appear to be complicated, just a simple clutch, throttle, brake, and gas, and James was able to start the bike with no qualms.

Lucy slid onto the leather seat behind him, her cheek pressed against his back and her arms woven effortlessly around his torso, and he was utterly amazed by her blind trust. As much as he tried not to notice it, there was a warmth present from the way her body was pressed against his, and James found comfort in it because it was a warmth he’d never received from his parents.

“I’m ready when you are,” she called in his ear, her voice flooded with excitement and her grip around his waist tightening.

And with that, the two of them were careening out of the driveway, racing through the cul-de-sac at break-neck speed. With the wind raking through his chestnut-colored locks and adrenaline coursing through his veins, for the first time in his life, James finally felt free. Free from the responsibility of having a powerful father, free from that pressure to be a soldier, just…free.

But there was that one nagging thing that his mind just couldn’t let go of: the mission.

As they took a moonlight tour around the city, with Lucy pointing out the sites most important to her, James found himself becoming more and more fascinated with every little thing about her: that gleam in her soulful brown eyes as she showed him her favorite diner, the reluctant nostalgia that swept across her lips when they passed her elementary school, the hot tickle of her breath against the nape of his neck. The feeling was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.

>>

“You’re not like all the others, are you?” he asked her. The two of them were lying flat on their backs in his front yard, two pairs of eyes turned upwards toward the heavens. James felt a smile form across his own lips as he glanced over at her.

“Well,” she began, taking a deep breath. “I’d like to think that I’m at least a little special, even if I’m really not.”

“Trust me, you are.” He’d tried his hand at a joke, and from the soft sound of her laughter, he assumed she’d enjoyed it.

“Well you’re not so bad yourself, Jamie.”

Her fingers clasped around his in the dark, her thumb slowly stroking circles into his palm, and James felt like he couldn’t quite catch his breath. It was an emotion he’d never experienced firsthand before, this quickening of his pulse and the way his hands were growing clammy against hers, and although the physicality of it was pesky, mentally, he’d never felt more centered. There was one more thing he had the urge to try, if only to see what it would be like, so he turned on his side to face her, gingerly brushed a stray lock of dark hair from her cheek, and cautiously let his lips meet hers.

“I’m terribly sorry,” he mumbled as he backed away, his eyes focused on the damp blades of grass between them. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

Even in the dark, he caught the slightest hint of color spread across her cheeks. Lucy quickly tucked her hair behind her ear. “It’s okay…I wanted you to.”

James had lost his focus, his mind and body abuzz with a cocktail of endorphins and other hormones, so he was quick to return to the task at hand: garnering information from her.

“Do you enjoy living here?” he asked innocently. His gaze was narrowed at the stars as he tried to pick apart the constellations his mother had taught him as a child, anything that would help distract him from just how good the kiss had felt.

“In the neighborhood? Yeah, I guess it’s not too bad.”

He propped himself up onto his forearms, his eyes immediately darting to her. “But is your planet not filled with war, hunger, and disease?”

Now Lucy was the one to sit up. “What do you mean my planet? Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure it’s everyone’s planet, unless you’re the type that believes in Roswell and little green men and all that jazz.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“About all the wars going on? I mean, I feel bad about it, but it’s not really something that affects my day-to-day life. It’s tragic that people have to risk their lives over something so trivial, but that’s just the way it goes, I guess.”

Without so much as an explanation, James leapt from his spot on the grass and crashed through the front door of their house, his chest heaving and his face flushed red.

“We can’t do this!” he exclaimed, a ferocity setting his hazel eyes ablaze as they darted between his two crew members. “I won’t allow it! These people aren’t savages! They’re no different than we are!”

“James, James, James,” Kendall mumbled, a soothing quality to his voice as he eased closer to the chancellor’s son. It was the same way one would approach a caged animal just before they moved in for the kill. “Even if we wanted to put a stop to our own operation, it wouldn’t make any difference. There are mission crews in cities all over this country, each one with the same orders that we have, each one waiting for the signal from the chancellor to release the bacteria. One way or another, this planet is going to be exterminated, and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it.”

The last thing James felt was Carlos grab ahold of his wrists just as the needle plunged into his spine.