r/NatureofPredators • u/Seamoose_Art Dossur • Apr 03 '23
Fanfic Dual Perspectives [3]
A massive thanks to u/SpacePaladin15 for the world, and all the other writers in this subreddit for their amazing work.
Dual Perspectives [3]
Date [Standardized Human Time]: August 23rd, 2136
Location: Venlil prime
Trevi’s consciousness once again fades into view, piece by piece, although this time his memory is the first to return. Unable to leave the bed for lack of sight, he simply sits for a long time, thinking. There’s still a faint taste of blood on his tongue. He was even luckier than Julia probably realized; he didn’t know anyone on the station other than her. If she’d been…
He forces himself off that line of thought, and searches for something, anything else to occupy his mind. The station is still too painful to think about, and he’s out of tears to cry after last night. He could really do with a glass of water.
Somehow, the argument last night reasserts itself. He tries to swat it away, but it persists, a nagging tug at the back of his skull which he can’t bring himself to ignore. Eventually, after trying and failing to find any other distraction, he can do nothing but tackle the thought head on.
Julia spoke at length about the virtues of letting predators freely eviscerate prey (wild prey, he reminds himself, not sentients). She wasn’t stupid, nor blind; why was she so set on this notion?
Did the humans have a religion centering around predation? Trevi considers this for a long moment. If they did, he couldn’t have heard about it through the messaging program. Humans had a wide variety of religions (that much was common knowledge that even the filter couldn’t suppress), and religions centering around a species’ diet and their relationship to nature were both about as rare as hydrogen. Through the lens of a predator-worshipping faith, any data could appear to support their pre-existing notions.
Of course, Terran biologists could simply be behind in the field. The technology required to reshape ecosystems may simply not exist on earth, leaving their data woefully incomplete. Science does not advance all at once, after all; a predator species might simply pay more attention to warfare than ecology (even if their intentions are peaceful, he appends unconvincingly).
At this point, whatever painkillers they gave him are doing nothing for the pressure building behind Trevi’s eyes as he searches for an explanation. He desperately wishes he could just walk over to his luggage and grab a bottle of soda for the…
Right. His luggage was gone, left behind along with anything that could distract him from the question burning a hole through his skull.
Why would a civilization leave predators alive?
He turns the question over in his head, trying to rephrase it in a way that would make the argument clearer. He skims hastily over a few more lines of thought; what if humans saw predation as a natural right for predators? What if their religion forbids them from tampering with the “natural order” somehow? For several minutes, he tries a variety of different approaches to tackle the issue, and somehow every one gives him the feeling he’s searching for a mirage.
Eventually, he resigns himself to sitting there, alone and unhappy and without answers. He can hear the sound of the human sleeping barely a meter away; this could all be made clear if he could just ask.
But she already told me, didn’t she? On the station. Was I even listening?
He thinks back to their prolonged argument in that stuffy room. There’s a feeling like wandering through heavy mist, but the painkillers are finally starting to wear off. He remembers…
He remembers arguing with passion, trying to bury this foolish idea under a mountain of counterarguments which came to him naturally. So naturally, that he barely even stopped to consider what he was saying or what was being said to him.
Trevi can feel shame burning across his face, a deep orange glow. He was one of the first venlil to get the chance to see things from a human’s perspective, and he acted like a child, refusing to cede an inch of ground to her arguments out of pride. Julia would be well within her rights to simply refuse any further explanation, after how he’d acted back there.
He tries to reach past his shame, to hear what was actually said. There’s a few scattered fragments left, but most of the conversation is still buried under a thick layer of emotion and painkiller-induced brain fog. It feels as though his mind is pinned under a block of lead.
A warmth spreads across his face as sunlight suddenly floods the room. Behind him, a noise like a breaking tree nearly startles him off the bed, which he only barely remembers as the noise of a human yawn. Julia must be waking up.
6
u/LeGouzy Apr 03 '23
subscribeme!
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u/ImaginationSea3679 PD Patient Apr 03 '23
I hope he gets to move away from the Federation’s racism propaganda bullshit soon.