6.2 Target

  Tocarris stepped into the presentation room of the spaceship she was on. They were in the course of their journey of about fifty-one light-years towards the planet ‘Earth’, which would take only several months with the advanced transportation technology that had been developed under UnIF and become common among its planets: the Stellar Teleportation Drive. Her boss, Mr. Joshi, was not on the ship, making her the highest in command among the scientists and others aboard. Now, she was instructed to watch a video on her assignment at Shitchi-One.

  Inside the room, she sat down on a cushion on the floor. The small platform beneath the cushion rose a few inches to give the one seated some elevation; chairs weren’t very popular in the galaxy because they were unhealthy. Tocarris clapped twice and the lights dimmed. A projector played a video onto the white wall. The video started with a view of Earth from space. With vast, vivid blues and fluffy clouds of white, it was breath-taking and dream-like.

  “The planet Earth is a majestic one that has caught the eyes of PVC,” the narrator voiced over the video in a stereotypical deep male voice seen on Earth wildlife documentaries. “Even a single glance of it from space gives away some of its appeals.”

  The video then shifted to videos secretly taken on the planet, of a diversity of fauna and flora and the various rich biomes. Tocarris couldn’t help but feel entranced by its beauty. It reminded her of her childhood fantasies.

  “For millennia, the planet has gone by unnoticed, undisturbed, and in tranquility. Nature prospered and persevered in its cycles of life and death, paving way for evolution. Then, they came.” The video suddenly shifted to a darker tone. “Human beings.”

  While the screen showed pictures of this species, another projector created a true scale 3-D hologram of one next to Tocarris. She observed it. It seemed quite plain to her, like a base model for creating any intelligent species in the galaxy. They had a lot of hair, especially on their head, and rubbery skin that came in an assortment of colors along the brown-ish line of hue.

  “These creatures evolved to have a violent disposition. They go to war with each other at least once a century, fighting and killing each other over resources and luxuries such as land and precious metals, despite being so-called ‘civilized’ beings.” It showed footage of humans at war over the ages. There was much bloodshed without any learning from mistakes. “Killing other humans was not enough, however. They developed technology that made their lives more convenient without any thought or care for what it would do to the planet. Even after discovering the harmful effects of the products that they were producing, they ignored them, allowing their own home planet to deteriorate over the years, despite its strong struggle to survive.”

  There was now footage of plastics littered across large tracts of land, causing animals to die from asphyxiation and health problems caused by eating them. There was footage of large chimneys producing smog and humans reacting by only wearing masks and staying indoors or in the safety of their air-tight vehicles. There was footage of oil leaks and industrial waste being dumped into water bodies. This pattern continued throughout the presentation for some time.

  Eventually: “…These events continued for hundreds of years and have recently slowed down only due to a stagnation of the world’s economy. PVC’s psychologists have determined that the species will only continue to behave in this manner, steadily destroying this gem of a planet.

  “We, at PVC, have thus decided to step in and take action!” a female voice declared. “We want to remove this malignant species and restore the planet to its former beauty so that we can then reveal and showcase it for the whole galaxy to discover and explore as an exotic and charming tourist resort! Of course, you and your families are invited too, for free!” It displayed concept images of what the finished remodeled planet would look like, with vivid nature, futuristic buildings integrated into the environment, and happy families visiting it and chatting.

  “Stunning, isn’t it? Now, for your part in making this come true:

  “Your team’s job is to sanitize the planet of these noxious humans carefully while keeping the planet’s natural beauty and other life intact. We’ll take care of the rest afterward!” the voice said cheerfully.

   So, they basically want me to kill all the humans, Tocarris thought bluntly after the video ended. What an innocent and convincing way to put it.

  Tocarris smiled and got up with determination to solve this big challenge. “Fine. I’ll find a way to kill all the humans on Earth…!”

* * *

  Bozzle drove his mag-lev truck up to the entrance of the spaceport. It was nighttime and he was delivering goods to be boarded onto a cargo spaceship and taken to who-knows-where—those in his profession weren’t respected or given much information about their work. The guard at the gate stopped him.

  “Hey there, Bozzle.”

  Since Bozzle had been doing this job frequently, he’d gotten to know the guard.

  “Hiya, Bassnap. It’s the usual delivery. No idea where it goes.”

  “I getcha, I getcha,” the guard said as he noted down the truck’s information and time of arrival. “People from other planets just don’t respect us, y’know? I mean, look at me: I stand here all day, taking notes, doing my job properly, right? And how do I get rewarded for doing all that and risking my life? This job pays next to nothin’!” After he finished writing stuff down, “Say, I’ll need you to open up the back of the truck so that I can inspect the contents—the usual check.”

  “Aw, come on, Bassnapp. Can’t you make an exception just one time? I’m a bit late and my wife wants me home early for our anniversary.”

  “You know I can’t do that, Bozzle. Sorry. I’ve got my duty to do, just’s you’s got yours.”

  Bozzle was about to try to protest again when another guard ran over. “Hey, Bassnap! The Miners just scored another goal in Prochinie! The game’s getting good!”

  “Fer real?” Bassnap’s eyes widened. He looked at his clipboard and then in the direction his friend came from. “Forget this! I’ve been working for hours, and for what? The security of my country? I ain’t never seen nobody smuggle illegal goods into this spaceport. No respect. No salary… Tell ya what, Bozzle: you go on in—I trust ya. Imma lock this gate for the next hour and enjoy myself for once, and there’s no boss around to tell me not to!”

  The guard opened the gate and let in Bozzle’s truck, locked it, and then left, grumbling about his work and trying to relieve himself.

  Bozzle’s truck went into the Sartoog Interplanetary Spaceport complex and parked itself in a dark corner close to the main building. Bozzle got out, went around, and opened the rear door leading to the supplies.

  Inside, hiding behind crates of goods, were two stowaways: Cadonif and Geenud. They were wary and prepared to surprise attack and run in case any trouble showed up.

  “Alright, you two. You’re here at Sartoog Interplanetary. We were lucky,” Bozzle said as he turned back and looked at the gate in the distance, an isolated luminance in the dark and empty freight parking lot. “I got you through the entrance’s security. The rest’s up to you.”

  “Thank you, mister,” Geenud said as the two got off the truck.

  “Ahem.” The truck driver coughed as a reminder.

  “Oh, right.”

  Cadonif fetched through his pockets and found some money. He handed it all to the driver. It was the last amount the orphanage had managed to scrape together. They had no second plan for if this one failed; they would be done for, financially.

  The driver slowly took the precious money into his hands, staring at it with a disquieting big smile as if it was worth his life. “No problem,” he said without turning. “Call me anytime you need help with stuff like this.”

  Cadonif and Geenud walked away, knowing there wouldn’t be a ‘next time’, whether they succeeded or not.

  The two found a small entrance door in the spaceport’s building for the staff. They lurked behind the staircase and when a staff member entered with their ID card, they didn’t allow the door to close completely and entered as well.

  They were now inside the building and needed to find the way to the spaceship launch-way area known as the Dock. It was time to begin their plan.