The Gods are Mad

Posted on Tue Jul 2nd, 2024 @ 6:38pm by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Lieutenant Inara Senn

Mission: The Andromeda Strain
Location: Holodeck

Inara entered the holodeck and loaded the cool-off program. She put her hands on her waist. "Computer, load Hela."

Hela appeared. She looked at Inara, "Oh, it's you again" she said with a thick layer of condescension.

"I made you so I could hurt you whenever I need to vent, how in the universe are you remotely sentient, and how are you overriding the safety protocols?"

"I wasn't created by you" the Hela hologram replied. "Thinking that you could create something as sophisticated as me for your own pleasure was yet another mistake you have made. You seem to make an inordinate number of mistakes, and usually rather large ones at that."

"Or another way the universe is fucking with me for its own amusement. I wonder... I wonder why anyone ever worshiped these so called 'gods and goddesses.' It should have been in our own best interests to ignore all of you. The Klingons did to their credit. You are all treacherous driven by your own agendas. And for centuries we worshiped you out of superstition, and what did the gods do? You held us back for centuries in an intellectual pit. Without you, the 'mortals' as you call them would have created more than the Federation, we would have made one without pointless laws like the prime directive. You and your kind are an obstacle to our ascension."

The holographic Hela laughed. "Always looking for someone or something to blame for your own failings. Refusing to take responsibility for your own actions. It is why you were punished before, and why you will likely be punished again." She began walking around Inara in a circle, staring at her. "You think your people worshipped us? Perhaps some did. Mostly you served us, a somewhat more humane form of slavery I suppose from your perspective at least. And yes, those who were on the Klingon homeworld were eliminated. They got sloppy. But you are wrong about us holding you back. We didn't hold you back, we provided you with everything you needed to survive as a species. When we left your world, you were left to your own devices. You spent centuries toiling in mediocrity and near obscurity, not because of anything we did, but because you were young, childlike, incapable to achieving greatness. You and many others have advanced greatly, but you are still primitive compared to us. Most of you will never reach ascension, but for those species that do, they will be welcomed. We largely ignore you. What does the great being care about the ants roaming beneath them?"

Hela smiled wryly, a look of contempt on her face. "You always seek to skip steps Inara. You are an impetuous child, demanding everything you feel is owed to you without any clue or desire at what is required to attain those things. Evolution takes eons to take sentient beings from single cell organisms to what you are now, to what we are eventually. The universe rarely gives you what you want, only what you need. More often than not, what you need is rebuke to put you in your place."

"And what you, and your oppressive kind need, is the jaws of the Fenrir to remove you from existence. You stole a child from my best friend, Hela, and after that barbarism, your kind has no right to judge mortality. And you will try to justify it with words from your manipulations. If I could break the Fenrir's chains, I would. You deserve nothing less than oblivion and to be forgotten. Computer end program."

Hela laughed maniacally. "I stole a child? Yet again you misrepresent the facts. I stole nothing. In fact, I returned a child that had died to life. The twins that she had, they would never have existed if not for my intervention. You claim to be a scientist, does not every action have an equal and opposite reaction. Is there not both cause and effect? Well, we will see how well you are able to decipher and cling to your scientific beliefs as you near your current destination. I assure you, for you personally, it will be either the end or the beginning of something for you, and we won't have anything to do with it, so you won't be able to blame us." As she completed her little speech she began to dissipate, like snowflakes blowing away in the wind.

As Inara watched the Hela hologram dissipate, a familiar voice whispered to her, "Two paths are before you. One leads to happiness and prosperity, the other to destruction. The choice is yours to make."

Inara suddenly had a vision, It was confused and vague, She saw things burning and death, everything burning. A world burning. Many worlds burning. She then doubled over and fell to the floor. It felt like the past.... or the future."