Abyss (Songs of Megiddo) Read Free Page B

proven, on numerous occasions, what a Human mind was capable of when it came to repurposing the technology of peace for the needs of war. Her reputation was known. That the Riin turned a blind eye to her actions when it mattered...was known. And, most importantly, her world of origin – the tiny, pre-interstellar civilisation of Earth – was known . She had made no secret of it. She had never needed to. Janissary couldn’t fathom the stupidity; the hubris of it. How could they not have known how it would end?
    The attempt had been almost amusing, in a way. Almost. And her response was as predictable and appropriate as a response to such an act of aggression could have been. She had followed them to Earth; she had ascertained that there was no mistaking their destination; she’d waited to see if their purpose was hostile – though, with the Pho’ain, it had been a foregone conclusion that it would be – and then she had prepared to respond with force. In any other place...at any other time, it would have been nothing more than a good deed set to the spectacle of a grand light show.
    But somehow ...this was different. She knew her species. She knew them, ironically, better than she knew herself. She could see the chain reaction that her decision to assert control of the situation could provoke. What she’d neglected to mention to Myadir about Human stupidity had been the species-wide propensity for responding to the unknown with extreme, reflexive hostility. An explanation not forthcoming, she feared...they would turn on one another, as they had done so very many times before. But what was she to do? What could any one Human do, when confronted with her choice, while wielding her power?
    She found herself recalling that most haunting quotation ...voiced by a man – a Human, like herself – who, knowing not what he risked, had been part of an unprecedented scientific instrumentation. Unprecedented, that is, in the context of the blue-green planet around which they currently maintained a cautious, geo-stationary orbit. And it troubled her...genuinely so...to consider how close her species had come to the brink, without even realising it. The series of experiments collectively known as the ‘Manhattan Project’ had...for a single, terrifying moment...brought the all-seeing eyes of the Elder Species squarely into focus over her former home. Never before had such a young species been so overweening. Never before had such a young species been – and been so obviously – a monstrosity in the making.
    Perhaps that was why the words resonated with her as they did. She could still remember the first time that she’d seen them in their original context. They had crawled into the heart of her...gnawing away at her peace of mind...her resolve...and her ethical self-estimations. They had – with a slowly building efficacy – sown toxic distrust that connived and corrupted, pushing her focus inwards and onto her own motivations and ambitions. She could recite the passage from memory:
    ‘If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once in the sky ...that would be like the splendour of the mighty one.’
    “Now I am be come death”, Janissary murmured...baleful and – for the first time in as long as she could remember – unsure of what, good or bad, was to come: “The Destroyer of Worlds.”

I – Pueblo
    ~ Kayla ~
    23/11/2023
    I usually don’t tell people this part of the story. Even with friends – close friends – I tend to just...swerve around it on my way to somewhere else. It makes sense, though: I’m in a very different place now. I’m a very different person. And, living exclusively with and around people who went through damn near the exact same thing that I did, it’s not remotely surprising to me that no one asks about it. The topic doesn’t really come up. We all just sort of...skip over it.
    And that’s for the best, honestly. It really, really is. W hen you already know the ending... when