16

'No!' said Kenji in indignation. 'Did you hear nothing I said? All humans are not bad!'

The commander laughed coldly, and it sounded hollow and jarring to Kenji's ears, which twitched uncomfortably as he waited for his father to speak.

'So, that's your conclusion? That humans are not bad?' said his father mockingly.

'I have found that in some matters, they are far worse than us; they can be cruel and selfish and cowardly. But when they are good, they can be far better than us; they can be kind and friendly and brave,' said Kenji vehemently.

'You feel very strongly about it, don't you?' said his father in a softer tone.

'Yes,' nodded Kenji. 'I feel that—'

'And that's the problem,' said his father with a sigh. 'You are feeling!'

'What's so wrong with feeling?' exclaimed Kenji.

'Calm down, my son,' said his father, and he brought a glass of water and pressed it in his son's hand. 'Drink this and then we'll talk!'

Kenji drank the water hurriedly and felt calmer almost instantly.

'This Airi,' said his father softly, 'is she a nice girl?'

'Yes!' said Kenji, but not so hotly as he had said it before.

'And has she seen who you actually are?'

'What?'

'Has she seen you in your true form?'

Kenji gulped. 'No.'

'Then how can you know that she is nice? She is only nice to you because she thinks you are a human! Do you know how humans treat other humans who are different from them?'

Kenji stared at his father silently as he scanned through various images until he enlarged one.

'Look at this! A witch hunt! And this! Black people being killed by white people! An ongoing war in another place while you were there on Earth! Do you see this? Humans against humans! If they cannot live in unity amonst themselves, how can they ever accept another race? They'll lynch you, kill you, and worse! You're here telling me all about Airi and defending her and her kind, but can she do the same for you? Look at these pictures? Can she or any human ever do the same?! Tell me!'

Kenji felt his heated emotions cool down and evaporate, and a chilly, heavy calm replaced them. Of course. How could he have even entertained any sympathy for humans, who were in fact treacherous and cruel and low? These pictures were shocking but true. Airi was just an exception in a flawed race; but even her... he remembered the day she had defended him in front of their classfellows.

He is not a freak, he is a human being, she had said. Did that mean that the day she found out that he was not a human, she, too, would think he was a freak? Don't turn him into some sort of alien, she had said, little knowing that that is exactly what he was!

'Well?' said his father, almost hypnotically. 'Tell me, Xiennan!'

'No,' said Kenji dejectedly. 'You are right, Father. Humans are beyond saving.'

'Airi too?'

Kenji hesitated.

'Xiennan, you remember the reason why humans are the way they are, don't you?'

Kenji looked away.

'Because of their emotions and feelings, just like the ones you displayed a while ago!'

'But...'

'You must understand this, Xiennan!' said his father urgently. 'All their cruelty, all their vices, stem from their feelings. The less emotions you possess, the less you feel, the more blessed you are. It is our way that is the right way, Xiennan. Only our way!'

Kenji sighed, the last strand of hope coming undone as recognised the bitter intensity and unfortunate truth of his father's words. Hope? Friendship? Love? These things had no meaning to him anymore; feelings meant nothing to him anymore. He had returned to the person he was before he had set foot on Earth, and that was the way it had to be.

'Yes, Father.'

'Well done, my son. Now, you will return to Earth, and continue to act out your role. Shen-ja will be the insurgent in the human military, and you will be the insurgent on the civilian side. You can continue to act out all those dramatic emotions to keep up a good facade while you are there, but you will not fall prey to them yourself!'

'Yes, Father.'

'If Airi distracts you from your purpose, use the Force and prevent her from affecting you. Do you understand?'

'Yes, Father.'

'You will return tomorrow. Rest now.'

His father left and only Kenji and Xvie were left behind in the room.

'He didn't miss me at all, did he?' mused Kenji, and his ears went down.

Xvie looked at him apologetically. 'He is just passionate about achieving milestones beyond anything our people have ever achieved, Xiennan.'

'Passionate? I thought that feelings were something beneath us...' said Kenji coldly.

'Well, it's just a word... and besides, it's for our collective benefit, not for himself,' said Xvie.

Kenji nodded and sat in silence.

'Xiennan?' said Xvie suddenly.

'What?'

'Your eyes...'

'What about them?'

'When you returned, they shone quite brightly. As you argued with your father the commander, the red in them increased and shone with an intensity I had never seen before.'

'Did they?' said Kenji, puzzled.

'Yes, they did. It surprised me very much. But then, when you drank that water, they dimmed completely! And they're still the same... could it be...'

'Xvie!' called out the commander. 'Come here and stop babbling with my son! There's work to do!'

Xvie hurriedly got up and left the room, and Kenji stared after him, wondering what he had been trying to say.