Relics of the past - Chapter Seven

The next day John was called into the director’s office. The director wanted to talk to John about changing his mind, literally. The director said that they could enhance whatever John was currently interested in and eliminate his ability for greed and selfishness.

John protested and John and the director got into a heated debate about what makes a person who he is. John made the same argument with the director that he made with the little alien girl and her father. If his brain was changed he would be a different person and he wanted to stay the way he was. The director agreed that he would be changed but the only way he would be different is that he wouldn’t feel like screwing over people and collecting things he didn’t need just for the sake of having them.

The director said that he had no choice if he was going to live in their society and that it was all for the better, however the director did agree to allow time for John to think the matter over and try to understand why it was important for him to have the procedure done. John agreed to think about it and returned to his room.

John had to cool himself down. It seemed like in the last few days he had been jerked around a lot and he was tired of it. No matter how he thought about it, they didn’t have the right to make him somebody else. He may be imperfect and he may have undesirable tendencies but that didn’t mean he couldn’t control himself. He needed to get some fresh air, the thing was there was no fresh air to get. He was on an outpost on some rock in the universe somewhere. He tried to leave his room but he found that it was locked. It was clear they didn’t trust him. John decided the best course of action was to take a shower and go to bed. So that’s what he did.

Mark was in an observation lounge. He could relax and stare at the stars which he always enjoyed. It didn’t matter where he was in the universe. He could always tell where he was by looking at where the stars were. It was another interest of his and he was becoming pretty good at it. He was sipping some hot chocolate and eating a meat pie. The director came in and told Mark about the conversation he had with John. Mark told the director that John was probably feeling pretty overwhelmed and that he needed time to adjust to his new surroundings. The director said that made sense and retired to her room.

Mark wasn’t in the mood to sleep. It wasn’t every day that you got to meet someone from the past. Mark became excited when he thought of the conversations he could have with this relic from the past. The things he could learn and think about were almost too much for him to express. As he was thinking about the possibilities, an alarm sounded. Mark went to see the director to find out what was going on. Alarms were rarely heard because nothing hardly ever went wrong.

Mark got to the director’s room to see the chief security officer had already gotten there. When Mark entered the director’s room, the director was lying on the floor in a pool of blood. It looked like murder. The security chief immediately ordered a lockdown and everybody had to stay in their rooms. There was only one person who could have done this, Mark thought to himself.

The Security chief was thinking the same thing, so they both went to John’s room. John was the only one who still possessed the ability to contemplate murder. It had to be him. When they got to John’s room he wasn’t there.