The Phage

An Interview with Adam.

Adam sat in his enclosed environment.  He put in his ear phone and adjusted his microphone.  I did the same.

“Hello Dr. M,” he said with a smile.

“Hello, Adam,” I replied, also with a smile.

“You promised to tell me everything this time.”  He sounded hopeful.

“Yes.  You can ask me anything.”

“And you will be honest?  Not hide anything?”

“Yes, Adam.”

He looked down at his hands as if at notes.

“Where did I come from?”

I reached into my case and pulled out the sphere.

“Years ago we found this in a very old layer of rock.  It obviously was not a natural or human artifact.  Upon closer inspection we found engravings that showed us how to construct an extraterrestrial life form, you.  Using the instructions on this and our own genetic technology, we made you relatively human, but you are restricted to your chamber because you cannot survive in our atmosphere.  We also learned how to reproduce and upload your species’ memories into your brain so you would know who you were.  Do you remember any of those?”

“I am not sure.  Maybe.”

“So, Adam, you are an ambassador from another world,” I explained, “It really was an ingenious way of bridging the great distances of time and space.  Your people sent a seed and when we could do it, technologically, we planted it.  And here you are.”

Adam nodded slightly, “I understand.”

My Last Interview with Adam

They dragged me in and threw me at his feet.  I looked up at him.  I could see him smiling through his breathing mask.

“Hello, Dr. M.”

My voice was not much more than a croak, “Adam.”

“I understand you have been busy.”

“We will stop you!”

“No,” he said coldly, “you won’t.  You really can’t.”

“We will…”

“It’s the nature of things, Dr. M.  You were destroying your planet long before I got here.  We at least have a purpose, a reason for stripping away the Earth’s crust.”

He knelt down on one knee and showed me a sphere.

“We are now launching billions of these into space every day toward promising star systems.  We think several will have intelligent life on them, and in the thousands of years it will take for these to reach them, their civilizations will progress and our life cycle will continue there.  It is just our nature, our way.

“It is natural.  You were curious and ambitious; you had to know, you had to try.  You created me and I took over your technology and industry.  It was only natural.”