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Log Entry #30: A Just Response
🕑 Added 2020-08-08 09:59:29 +0000 UTCNot everything can be fun and games, building things and going forward. Besides, there are those in this world who tend to spoil your fun by the simple act of existing.
When I saw the first satellite images of corpses inside the burned-out village in Nigeria, I was appalled (and pissed off) that in this day and age some people would still inflict such horrors upon others. There is always a way around violence if you look hard enough, and if there is not, most of the time one can walk away. That is if you are a pacifist and if your opponent has any sense. Having said that, there are those times when someone will not let you go. I hate those kinds of people, and generally wish to erase them from the face of the world. I know there is some twisted logic there, but if I start to psychoanalyze myself too much, I might really go crazy.
Now, my problem was finding those responsible for this atrocity. Oh, I know, it is not exactly unique, such things are happening all the time. (Just because your News TV station does not cover such events, it does not mean they do not occur.)
I shouldn’t allow myself to get emotionally involved… but I did. It is my human nature (and yes, I still have that one).
The moment you see something like that, there is an instinctual emotional response, and the urge to do something about it. However, most people fight that urge because it will inconvenience their lives (you don’t need to feel guilty; it is only natural), or they truly can’t do anything about it because they don’t have the skills or resources that would be even remotely helpful. I and the people closest to me don’t fall into that category.
I was monitoring Michael and the team when they discovered one lone surviving child—
Zizi. He was severely dehydrated and hungry, and that is the reason why Alice managed to get him to crawl out of this hiding space. Also, she was a woman, and all the bad things that destroyed his peaceful way of life were committed by men.
Then I listened to his tale of the attack, and how Dr. Emma Williams managed to hide him from the assailants. To see such pain in the eyes of a small child made my blood boil. (OK, I know that I don’t have blood anymore, but you know what I mean.)
It was decided that Alice would use the transporter to bring the child to the island, while Michael and the team dealt with the aftermath of the massacre. Zizi was given a minuscule dose of tranquilizer, so he would not have to witness what happened to the people of his village. It is one of the primal instincts of grownups to protect children. (I am not including in that statement all the savage beasts that should be excluded from the human genetic pool.)
I then watched the mass burial of the villagers’ bodies. They were all the men, old women and those that were deemed not worthy to be taken as slaves by Boko Haram. That anger within me turned into a cold simmering rage. One way or the other, the human herd needed to be culled.
It took me some time, but I did find them. Such a large group of people leaves a trail behind them, and the optical instruments in my satellites are far better than what NASA has. Like a bloodhound, I followed the clues left in the dirt; tire marks of heavy trucks were like breadcrumbs that pointed in one direction. Finally, I spotted their camp hidden in the Nigerian Mandara Mountains. Slave pens, and carefree terrorists that were celebrating their successful cattle-drive.
Privately, Michael talked to me about what he intended to do. Part of him felt that inescapable guilt that decent people feel when planning murder on a large scale.
Was the execution of over one thousand terrorists moral? Michael said it plainly to the team, that it was that and nothing else. To be honest, I had no second thoughts—it needed to be done. If he and the team did not, I would have found a way to do it myself; some deeds are unforgivable and need an appropriate response.
They did the deed, and it was cathartic.
Boko Haram still exists; those Michael and the team eradicated were not the entirety of the organization. The psychopath that the rest followed was dead as a dodo, but there will be many candidates to take that role, in the rat race everyone wants to be on the top. Abubakar Shekau died in a way I wouldn’t recommend, and part of me is glad that I never would be technically able anymore… a small part. To be gelded in such a way, and then to bleed out while people who killed you dismissed your cries for help… brutal but fitting. The funny fact was that he often claimed in his speeches that he “could not die except by the will of God.” I beg to differ, and Alice disputed that boast rather effectively. On the other hand, maybe God decided it was his time.
The big transporters (which carried the liberated slaves) arrived at the Island soon after, and many of our residents offered to help the distressed victims. They were confused and lost, many missing their family members that were dead and buried by Michael and the team. Despite that, the expressions on their faces when I explained that they were now free and safe from those villains were touching. Using my own version of auto-translate I managed to communicate with all of them, as they spoke several different languages. (Did I tell you that MI could be quite useful?)
There is more than enough room on the ship to accommodate them all, and they can spend some time here before we talk to them about their future. If they want to be returned to their homes, so be it, and if they wanted to stay, all the better. There were many children among the slaves, and their minds are still malleable enough to effortlessly absorb living with all this high technology and to thrive in this new environment. Teaching is easy, and I already had some candidates who we will be trying to recruit by using every incentive we have. Brainpower is brainpower, I do not care where they came from, but some of those people have so much potential, and I had all the time in the world.
The video I took of the carnage was particularly gruesome; think of the nastiest gore movie, and multiply it by a hundred. The Pacifiers were powerful weapons, and their larger flechettes did not do any favors to frail human flesh. I was not trying to sugarcoat the video in any way; my intention was to show what happens to those who chose to bring death and misery onto others. Michael was right; those images spoke very fluently to those that were in that particular line of work. The video clip ended with the still image of the Abubakar Shekau, hanging naked from the gallows with the multilingual message hanging around his neck. Maybe it was crossing some lines, not that I cared. I saw the dead in that village; I listened to the stories of the slaves and all they had to endure at the hands of those beasts. Don’t expect me to shed a single tear for those monsters.
Although that pig, Dietrich von Gürtner, died way too easily in my opinion. He bought Dr. Emma Williams from Shekau, and that was one purchase that cost him his life. He was a bad seed begotten by a Nazi bad seed. Living like a king in Namibia and doing abominable things to the young girls that he bought like livestock. The sick bastard recorded his escapades, and it was not fun watching them, but I had to capture images of girls for facial recognition. I found that he had killed eight young women for various reasons, fulfilling his sick fantasies and games.
Michael was wrong, he should have let Alice interrogate the freak, and then he would have experienced something much more painful than being used for target practice.
By looking through his records and digital personal diary, I found that the man had most of his wealth converted into diamonds that he hid in a safe underneath his bed. Pete and Al found it and packed it all in a big backpack belonging to one of the guards. I routinely cleaned his accounts out and made out like a bandit. Why do rich people need all that money if they are not really using it? I, on the other hand, need all the money I can get since I had a spaceship to build.
Even so, most of the funds appropriated during these operations will be spent helping the victims of Boko Haram and Dietrich von Gürtner. It feels right, and I think it will bring a small balance to this crazy world.
