28

'What are we doing here, Xvie? My father's going to be really mad if he finds out we were snooping around here!' said Kenji, as he reluctantly followed his friend into the restricted room that they had often seen the commander go in.

'If you need answers, this is the only way!' said Xvie, pulling him inside.

Kenji nodded. 'Fine, but let's just go through why we're here one more time so that I can get rid of the guilt I'm feeling right now...'

'So, you told me all about your adventures on Planet Earth, and then about your father's hostility,' said Xvie. 'Then, I recalled how he was able to persuade you rather easily the last time you tried to convince him to abort the mission.'

'And then I remembered that I started feeling unnaturally cooled down after I drank the water he offered me,' said Kenji. 'And even you said something about my eyes at the time...'

'Yes,' said Xvie. 'And after you said this,  you and I decided to experiment by not drinking the water from our homes, but from a nearby stream instead. And the results are clear, Xiennan; we looked and felt different. Yesterday, we drank our own water again and our passion dulled out, just like you felt when you were sent back to Earth a second time.'

'But... this can't be...' said Kenji. 'Maybe, Xvie, we're just getting paranoid and desperate! The whole thing sounds ridiculous! How can the water affect us? And how can my father possibly know about all this?'

'That's what we're here for! Come on, we haven't got long!' said Xvie. 'Let's look through these files and see what our commander is really up to...'

'All right,' nodded Kenji. 'I'll check this section, and you check that one. Just be careful nothing falls out or anything...'

The two of them looked through stacks of files, many of the things in them quite beyond their understanding. After about an hour, when they were about to give up, Kenji exclaimed and gestured to Xvie, his eyes shining and his skin more greenish than ever.

'What is it?' said Xvie, looking at the file, before his eyes widened in horror.

Kenji read aloud in a disbelieving whisper. '"Zero-Emotion Experiment Project"; there's so many people involved in this... scientists, military officers... I don't even know who they are... let's see... Operation Chief: Zhoxli — that can't be my father! It's got to be someone else with the same name!'

'Read on,' said Xvie, disturbed.

'An initiative to eliminate all emotions from the Xeljari race to ensure social harmony and submissive cohesiveness. Status: Successful. By administering the Klxsin drug into the state's water distribution system, its effects are seamlessly integrated into mainstream society without any individual noticing the difference. Proven benefits by the duration of the first fourteen years of this project include absolute obedience, apathy, and next-to-none chances of rebellion of any sort. It is highly recommended to renew production of this drug and continue its administration over the next fourteen years, as well as to introduce it upon colonisation of Planet Earth to ensure sustained domination over humans — what in Saturn's name is all this?!' said Kenji, throwing down the file with trembling fingers and looking at Xvie in shock.

'I don't know!' said Xvie, his ears quivering up and down like they always did when he was nervous.

'Look at you, look at me!' said Kenji musingly. 'We have emotions, Xvie — they were always there! My father always disapproved of how jumpy you are, he always disapproved of how shocking my reactions are... our eyes, our ears, our skin... they change when we feel anything! When we feel! How could we have believed a blatant lie all our lives?!'

'I don't know...' said Xvie, eyes flickering as he stared at his friend, still in disbelief. 'But, we have always been told that Xeljari do not have emotions — that emotions are a human trait!'

'We've been told wrong!' exclaimed Kenji in disgust, frowning as he thought of his father's taunts over the years. 'He's been lying to me all this time! My father has been lying to me, his own son!'

'Calm down, Xiennan!' said Xvie anxiously.

'No,' said Kenji firmly. 'I've remained calm enough all my life — too calm. Now, it's time to break this calm. I'm going to confront my father about this!'

'Xiennan, please be careful right now! You're too... emotional right now!'

'We need more of that around here, Xvie!'

'Yes, I know, but you might say something you regret — a restless speech is worse than tsunami!'

'Then we need a tsunami!!'

Xvie blinked and looked at him, before smiling slightly. 'You've always had this wild side to you, and now I'm really seeing it!'

Kenji smiled back. 'You're going to see a lot of it from now on! I refuse to go on being an experiment, a pawn in my father's evil motives — and I won't let our people suffer anymore, either — or the humans, for that matter!'

'I'm with you, Xiennan,' said Xvie. 'Should I go with you?'

'No, I'll do this alone,' said Kenji, and he walked out determinedly and made his way back home.

As he walked, he thought of Earth again, and of the evil commander and colonel he had seen on the television. What was the difference between them and his own father? The very thought pierced his heart. And the people... what was the difference between the people on Earth and the ones on his own planet? If, Heaven forbid, there ended up being a war, he felt certain that neither were Xeljari responsible, nor were humans. Both were at the mercy of evil leaders' whims, and were blameless in the grand order of things.

He felt more anxious than ever to reach his father and try one more time to convince him to stop his evil plans; because he just realised that he was the only person on this planet who could do anything whatsoever about the upcoming war.

The odds were against him, and he knew it. He opened the door of his house and walked in.

'Have dinner with me, Xiennan,' greeted his father.

Kenji started. He hadn't expected his father to be home. 'I'll drink some water first,' he said.

'There's water at the table,' said his father. 'Sit down, my son.'

Kenji drew his chair and sat down nervously. Perhaps his father sensed his feeling, because he immediately handed him a glass of water.

'Drink, my son.'

Kenji took it and drank the entire glass. Now that he was aware of it, he could feel how his sharp wits and passion quickly turned dull and blunted.

What was the point of talking to his father? He wouldn't listen to him, anyway. There was no point to anything. In the heat of the moment, he had thought he could stop his father, stop a war, but in reality, now that he was thinking with cold logic, it was obviously pointless and impossible to pursue such an unrealisable goal. A dream and nothing more.

He began to eat slowly.

'The day humans forget how to feel, they would cease to be human anymore!'

He stopped short as he remembered something Airi had once said. If Xeljari were like humans after all, then Xeljari without feelings were not... Xeljari anymore.

He looked up at his father. Surely he ought to speak! Even if everything was against him, if his heart was in the right place...

The heart is what is key to being human.

She'd said that, hadn't she?

He cleared his throat, and took another sip of water. He knew he was going to fail for sure.

Even to fail for the right cause is worth it!

'Father!'

'What is it?'

'What was Mother like?'