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A Story by Ben P
It was a dark day, as many of them are on Neptune. The intergalactic war has been going on for over 37 years, many humans wonder if the war will ever cease. I personally believe that as long as we have hope the war can and will end. This shining ideology of mine has brought people hope, or so I am told. I am lucky enough to be one of the few journalists given access to the holorecordings of the battles ensuing upon Neptune. I say I am lucky because the intergalactic confederacy trusts me enough to filter the horrors of these scenes for the population, and this is an honor to be held. I still remember the day humanity made it to Neptune. “It will be the first gaseous planet any civilization will ever walk on” Or so the confederacy says, once we got to Neptune we very soon realized if anything, we were the second.
That is when the Humans first met the Merklians. The Merklians were a highly intelligent race of tangible gas, they could solidify, and liquify their own biology at will, the entire society spread the word of peace and equality without any political interference. The Merklians had never once enslaved each other or had a war, they had been to space several times but chose to stay on their planet out of the wisdom they held, knowing that if they kept exploring, one day they would find war.
If you ask me, I personally believe that we as a species are jealous of the Merklians, they did everything we wanted to, without any argument or procrastination, they were near invulnerable and they were vastly intelligent, they were better than us in every conceivable way of thinking. Yet the Merklians thought we were better, that we were smarter, and stronger. My mother used to tell me “The grass is always greener on the other side” but I never fully understood it until the Merklians. I would often fall asleep and dream of being a Merklian, having a Merklian family and life, the Merklians were real-life superheroes for humanity. The Avengers of Space t hey were called. That same reason is somehow the same reason we went to war.
The Merklians began to become jealous of us and our constant tangibility, the Merklians could not always feel, and this upset them, yet we could always feel, always hurt, and this upset us as well. It started as an argument, as most wars do, and it evolved to a revolution, and then finally a battle. The Merklians did not have advanced technology when compared to us, this was due to the fact that they had built no weapons, and for the same reason, no defenses. This was seen as an opportunity for the confederacy... and they nuked Neptune. In less than a minute, 97% of all Merklian life died. Over 70% of all their different life forms and species had gone extinct.
You might be wondering what the point of this article is, since if we killed nearly everything, what battles are possibly ensuing? This reason is why this story is so horrific for me and yet all the more fascinating to write about. The Merklians went to war... with themselves, it was the first war the confederacy ever won without a single human casualty and it was because we convinced them to fight each other. After the fallout, which lasted about a year, instead of a lifetime (due to Neptune’s raging winds). The Merklians split into two factions, one which supported humanity and their decision to disarm Neptune as a threat, and another which had become violent and irritable, and began conducting rash experiments, upon their own kind, at the frantic search for permanent feeling. Ever since the big red button was pressed and a civilization was destroyed, humanity has rightfully ignored the matter, it is far too depressing and frustrating to think we won a war without any sacrifice. All it took was a shining star we sent from the heavens to destroy a planet, but humanity found peace, and there was no more war since. As for the Merklians, we cut off all communication with them long ago, but we assume they either died off, or worse, yet the more I think about it, the Merklians had to die so we could live, and thus is the way of the universe.
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