Sord in Prosperity - Hope Beyond the Apocalypse

EP. 143 - FAMOUS

DAISY COVERED HER MOUTH in surprise. "My God! Your grandmother is that Sara? Your mother is her daughter?"

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," he chastised himself. "Why the hell did I open my mouth? Why go bragging about that? It's worse than saying you're the seed of Hitler or any other evil tyrant. Did I screw the pooch?"

"You're famous, then?"

It spilled from her mouth. Automatically. She didn't mean it in a bad way. It was just that GDII was significant, relevant history to her. Near history in time, yes. The people she knew in Prosperity, every one of them, had been terribly impacted by Ron's decoupler technology. Brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, friends, pets, trees, plants, food, commerce, lifestyles, investments, society, the air itself. All were devasted, the result of one madman with a depraved vision and an unending sense of entitlement and victimhood. And here she was, sitting with the son of the daughter of someone who focused directly on pressing Ron the Oligarch's narrative forward, enabling him to exact his ultimate terror on humanity.

To Daisy, it was a harsh slap of reality, and for once her natural exuberance and zest for life were momentarily muted. She wasn't sure how to respond. "How must he feel," she wondered, "being the progeny? Living proof of its occurrence? So close to the intentional devastation of our race and planet."

"Ouch. How can that be famous?" he responded. "It's the last thing anyone would want to be, I imagine."

She kissed his lips quickly, then pulled back. "I'm sorry. It just came out that way. I can't imagine how you look at it since I have no basis for comparison."

"Well, my mom never seemed to be bothered too much. By the time they straggled their way into Prosperity, she and Sara were pretty beat-up and in tough health. You know that story since it's the same for virtually everyone."

Daisy recalled her training. Don't dwell on the positive or the negative. Analyze it. Learn from it. Apply those lessons to your everyday zeitgeist. Be in the moment. She stood up, understanding it was best to continue.

"A factoid about my dearest Sord. One that makes you a more interesting character, but one that matters little in today's discussion at hand. Shall we continue?"

"Sure," he said, relieved they were moving on from something he now wished he wouldn't have mentioned. "You indicated multiple scenarios. What are the others?"

"Why yes, of course," she said, spreading her arms wide. "The most obvious alternative is that they are here, right now, but not detectable by us. In fact, my gut, not my logic, mind you, but my gut, tells me they are already here, already observing us. If I was them, I'd think this way: 'How cutely quaint. A race of beings we were fortunate enough to catch at this stage of evolution. Look, they don't yet know how to get along with each other. Isn't that a kick? They don't yet know how to set longevity priorities for their species. In fact, they don't even understand why that's important. And they're recklessly playing with their genetic code. What interesting relics!'"

He interjected. "I agree that to any interplanetary species, we'd definitely be relics."

"'And look also. They believe in gods and super-powered prophets and angels and devils and ghosts and all kinds of paranormal artifacts from their pre-scientific days. Yet, they still cling fearfully onto those beliefs. Again, very amusing, quaint, and even predictable. Remember when we were like that? Remember when we held innate biases about what had to be fact without requiring any scientific proof behind our beliefs?'"

She took a sip of water and continued. "'Remember when we almost didn't make it, when we drove our race to the brink of extinction? Remember when we had crazy sects, many with political power, attempting to live-out their ambitious little prophesies about their glory during the End of Days, and making all suffer as a result of their idiotic fears? I wonder if this species will do the same? Or perhaps they will join the countless other species who had their moments in the sun, their very brief, volatile, and emotionally overwrought moments in the sun, before they self-perished, self-annihilated, taking the other planetary species with them in the process. Yes, how quaint; how very, very quaint.'"