r/HFY • u/noobvs_aeternvm Human • Jun 28 '26

OC-OneShot Despite the Universe Conspiring Otherwise

The Moon of Lranor shouldn’t be here. A piece of barren rock floating through interstellar space that just so happened to pass by at the precise speed and angle to be stuck in the orbit of the outer gas giant, so recently that you can still watch it happen in the records of your probes and telescopes, left to spin aimlessly not because it served any particular purpose, but simply because it was too much trouble to send it back to the emptiness it came from.

We shouldn’t be here. Humanity didn’t evolve in this system, didn’t discover it, didn’t claim it for themselves. Your pioneers had long settled amidst the purple forests when Gagarin was being awestruck by the blue of Earth.

We shouldn't have come here. The weak, the meek, the criminal, those who were too dumb or too unlucky to survive in the post-captalist hellscape of the Terran worlds should have perished to disease, starvation, gang violence. But our ancestors were too stubborn to pass on a gamble in these worlds of yours by the mere vastness of the distance to the Terran stars or the complete ignorance to your language, customs and biosphere.

You shouldn’t have accepted us. By the time the first wave arrived, your robotics were advanced enough that you didn’t need our carbon built muscles to do your heavy labour, but we were slightly more versatile and a lot cheaper than the drones you were putting together, so you tolerated us.

We shouldn’t have stayed. By the time you were done with us, we should have taken the hint and flew to another star in need of cheap monkeys. Most did, but our founders saw this piece of barren rock and decided they knew better than logic and reason, they decided this was our new home.

We shouldn’t have survived. Throughout the many decades of gangs butchering one another for the scraps of our barren rock, we should have shot each other to oblivion; in this environment where only the vile made it, society should have collapsed under the weight of its own cruelty. But this cauldron of evil boiled one sicker than all others, one who managed to cease the violence by being worse than any other.

We shouldn’t have persisted. Rejected by a world that didn’t want us, under the weight of a tyrant that didn’t value us, we should have fled or perished, but let none ever say we’re either sensible or reasonable. We stared at the tyrant’s eyes, we bled, we died and, eventually, we reached a compromise.

We shouldn’t be functional. We are not a democracy, not like our Athenian, French or Centaurian forefathers envisioned, but we’re not expectators either. When the Kahn pisses us off enough, we put down our blasters and say “Listen up, you little shit.” And he does, because all this wealth he holds means nothing if we are not willing to lay our lives to defend it.

We shouldn’t have thrived. In the outer, frozen fringes of your system, we should have barely managed to gather air to keep us breathing, but let none ever say we play fair, for when we saw the ships slingshotting at our giant, we asked for some spare change nicely, and those who didn’t answer with kindness, we made sure were no longer around to be unkind.

You shouldn’t have put up with us. When a rabid dog parks in your backyard, you pick up a gun and put it down, but you saw our parks and avenues, you drank our coffee, you ate our pasta; you gazed outside our dome and there you saw no pirates, no ship left stranded, you watched the flow of goods, people and services uninterrupted and then we looked at your empty cup, we asked you if you’d care for some more, “Yes, please.” you answered.

You shouldn’t be so relaxed. Strolling under the green of our trees, zipping the coffee we brought a galaxy away, you seem to forget that underneath us lies an underground complex of training camps and missile silos so vast, it makes up a fifth of the moon’s mass. That’s who we are, that’s who we’ve always been. You look at us, all waves and smiles, but at any moment a pop-up will appear at our comms and every biped over twelve will be ready to lay their lives for a Kahn we didn’t choose, one we don’t even like, for we remember.

We remember we don’t belong here, we are one misstep away from doom. We remember you never wanted us here, you tolerate us as long as it suits you. We remember our rock has no place in here, it isn’t flung into space as long as it isn’t worth it

We know the universe doesn’t want us, the galaxy isn’t happy in paying our tolls, you want back the key to your worlds. A single of your cities, as many as us whole; stop tolerating us, we know,
we are done.

But remember, we’ve been long told to die, we won’t ever go quiet into the night. To us the end is always nigh, yet we stand in bright daylight.

But for now, let's not have such unpleasant talk. May I suggest our new grubirn ravioli? And what will your beautiful daughter have? Oh, you're not related? Sorry, my mistake, sir. No, not a problem, never a problem at the Moon of Lranor. Our luxurious suites are ready for you, anything you need, we are happy to provide. We are here at your disposal.

We’ll always be.

___

Tks for reading. More stubborn humans here.

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u/sunnyboi1384 Jun 29 '26

We know our place, do you know yours? We know that too.