Regrets? Doubts? Not on your life. There’s only one question in my mind: which do I hate more, Terrans or Skarsians?
Here’s my life: when I was two, my father died in the first attack, the one that blindsided us and crushed our world. Then seven years of Skarsians, seven years of Terrans, and now three years of Skarsians again.
My father died in the war, my older sister was taken in the sorting. When the Terrans gave our world back to the Skarsians, they didn’t bother to give back the children they stole. The Skarsians didn’t ask for them. Why should they? It wasn’t their children.
For most of us, hating Terrans or Skarsians isn’t much of a question. The answer is the Terrans. They didn’t see us as people. If you disobeyed, they’d shoot you. Otherwise, they ignored you. It was that simple. You knew where you stood.
Skarsians are more subtle. They are arrogant and sly. I know the history: they scammed us out of Dumati, twice. They pretended we could be allies, then attacked without warning. The commander said he wanted our planet as a wedding gift for his wife.
The Skarsians came back with their velvet coats and their velvet attitudes and their fucking javajuice. They came to civilize the natives and to buy tapestries from us. They won’t rest until they’ve ruined us, made us into inferior Skarsians. You can see it every time they have a conversation with you. They don’t ignore you; they treat you like a fool, and aren’t satisfied until they trick you out of everything: your money, your culture, your soul.
Your soul. Do I believe for a minute that I’m going to ascend into heaven with the chosen of Fennt at the dawn of the coming apocalypse? Do I look like a moron? I joined the Fenntians because they hate all the right people.
When the Terrans took my sister, I asked my mother why Earth hated us so much. Here’s what she said: “They hate us because we’re still human.”
That’s it exactly. Terrans are machines. Skarsians are monsters. Everybody saw the truth at last year’s Enlightenment Festival, with that filthy parade of aliens at the Archon’s side. Eirelantra, celebrated capital of the Domha’vei, was turned into a glorified zoo. The real question now is who will be in the cages. I’m a human. A human. I won’t be ruled over by bugs and fish and rocks and trees.
And now, this colony, a trick to take even our humanity away from us.
My mother cried when I left because now it will just be my little brother and her. I don’t think she’ll ever understand. I have to destroy the monsters. I’ve learned something in all the years of watching them. The only way to destroy the enemy is from within.