He spent the next few months wandering alone in the city when he wasn’t on assignment, seeking to discover some semblance of who he used to be. Sadly, the old Roen didn’t exist anymore, and whoever Roen was now didn’t belong in the ordinary slow-paced world. All that was left of his life was influenced by the Quasing, and there was no way he could escape it.
At first, Roen thought if he just pretended Tao didn’t exist anymore, he could blend back into society. Even that was impossible. The things he knew now – and the ignorance that everyone else had regarding the world – followed him everywhere he went. Every event, accident, or military coup Roen saw on the news made him wonder which faction was involved. Every new technology introduced or regime change made him suspect Quasing conspiracy.
Jill was the lone bright spot in his life and he cherished her more than anything else in the world. She was the only thing he could think of that made sense, and when he was with her Roen felt as if he still had some purpose. She was worth fighting for. He was painfully aware that she could not understand the depth of what was bothering him and that eventually, left unchecked, it would push her away.
So Roen was grateful that she still traveled frequently and didn’t see him wallow in this sad state. He tried to put up a happy front when they were together, but Jill saw through him and did more than he ever could have expected to support him. She patiently hung around when he putzed around listlessly in his apartment and nurtured him even when he was insufferable, and he loved her the more for it.
Roen retreated deeper and deeper into himself and became a recluse. His days blurred together and soon, he stopped caring altogether what happened outside of his apartment, leaving only to work out or shop for food. He watched copious amounts of television. So much so that Antonio joked that he worked for Nielsen. It was ironic though, that in his absence to the outside world, Roen learned more about the world than at any other time in his life.
He was strangely glued to world events as if subconsciously he was keeping tabs on the war. Occasionally, he logged into the network to correlate his conspiracy theories with the events of the day. Slowly, he began to see the broader picture of how the Quasing affected the world.
The Prophus kept a detailed database to record all their activities and aggregated them to create a visualization of events that affected the planet. Situations as small as a lumber shortage in Idaho could be traced to the degradation of the Amazon rain forest, and could again be traced to the pirates off the Somali coast. Roen was starting to realize what a complex web the world was, and how the pull of even a single thread could cause ripples on the other side of the planet.
For instance, the Prophus had developed a new form of processing oil that resulted in greater energy output with less environmental pollution. It was their hope that this process would help stem the world’s thirst for oil. It was also very profitable.
The Genjix stalled approval of the process through Congress and lowered the price of coal from their subsidiaries while ordering OPEC to raise oil prices. The Prophus had no choice but to increase oil production from their offshore oil platforms. The Genjix responded by sabotaging the platforms to cause a spill while crying foul on the environmental consequences, simultaneously increasing all their orders of oil in China to offset the surplus. The Prophus retaliated by canceling business contracts and exports to China in order to undercut the demand.
Usually, these tit-for-tat maneuvers went on back and forth a dozen times until eventually armed conflict broke out. It was a cycle that occurred over and over again. As he delved deeper, Roen began to recognize this same pattern as he peeled through the many layers of Quasing history. Cause and effect. The Prophus and Genjix were knee-deep in controlling specific outcomes of human history.
“How many of these were you responsible for, Tao?” Roen murmured to himself as he pored over the numbers for all of history’s pandemics.
Do you really want to know?
“I wasn’t being serious. Wait, were you responsible for any of these?”
The Italian plague of 1629. I had a hand in it.
Hearing that made Roen even more depressed. The Prophus was just as bad as the Genjix. “And you wonder why I’m so disillusioned.”
Do not judge me in hindsight. The Italian city-states, under the control of the Genjix, were about to join in the Thirty Years War. If that had happened, we would be calling it the Fifty Years War today. It was the only way at the time to prevent Europe from being ripped apart. There is more to a tree than what is above ground. Look past the surface.
Roen felt a little embarrassed. Obviously, there was much more to these things than he realized. Still, was it justifiable to kill hundreds of thousands of people to prevent a war? To him, it seemed like both sides had committed unforgivable atrocities. “You both have a pretty high tally, Tao. I’m sure both factions aren’t getting gifts from Santa for the next million years. The end doesn’t always justify the means.”
You are partially correct and completely wrong. It is not the action you have to consider; it is the intent. The Thirty Years War killed an estimated seven to twelve million people. No war can last thirty years unless new nations are brought in every few years to stoke the fires. The Genjix did just that. They had two objectives: to maintain Catholic control over Europe and to advance the uses of the gunpowder. They did not care who won as long as they achieved their objectives.
If we had not prevented the Italian city-states from joining the war, I believe it could have lasted at least another fifteen years, with the casualties numbering in the tens of millions. We had to do what we did to save lives and to preserve human society. Look past the what and see the why. Then you might understand.
Roen was still dubious about that line of logic. But he had never thought about the reasons for people’s actions until now. “Can you explain to me how you know the things you do will save lives?”
Unfortunately, we do not know for certain. We just have to believe it will. We know our enemy, and we know what they are capable of. Did I ever tell you about the bubonic plague?
Roen nodded.
And the Spanish Inquisition? And the Thirty Years War? And both world wars?
Roen nodded each time.
They were all products of Genjix plans, part of their doctrine about conflict and human evolution. What we strive for is to stop the Genjix from starting the next world war or the next pandemic outbreak. You are unhappy with the things we make you do. Be angry if you like, but I will not apologize for who we are and what our mission is on behalf of your species.
You think you are doing us a favor? Let me clarify something. The Prophus are outcasts because we defended you. Our lives would have been easier if we simply said nothing. I sympathize with you for the loss of the innocent, but I have seen more evil done on behalf of our return than you can ever imagine. Grief is a luxury I cannot afford.
“How do you know the Genjix aren’t right? I mean, we’re a pretty dumb bunch. Look at the race to the moon. I read that the Genjix goaded both the US and USSR toward the Cold War and the space race. If there wasn’t that conflict, would there have been a race at all?”
It is true the Cold War was a milestone in human space travel and brought us much closer to returning home, but who is to say that the progress might not have been faster if both nations had put aside their differences and worked together toward that common goal?
“I never thought of it that way.”
It is a lot to take in. Conflict does breed innovation, but so does diversity and cultural development. Bringing people together to share ideas is just as powerful a catalyst.