"One day, they will find out."

A preview of my novel

“Listen, Tom,” Anders explained. “You don't want to take this path. We've been put in very responsible positions and sometimes that makes us believe we are the ones who are in control. We are not. You are not.”

“I am,” Tom argued. “We are the ones who were trained and proved to be the best qualified to make judgements about things like these. Things like the moral implications of our work. I'm tired of extracting truth from them and feeding back lies. I’m a liar and they deserve to know what is happening.”

“They are happy, Tom. They know everything that gives them comfortable, healthy, meaningful lives. Just as meaningful as ours as far as I’m...”

“Meaningful? You call living a pitiful seventy years as a lab rat meaningful?”

“Life is an experiment. They have opportunities to do wonderful things that we never imagined. That's why we gave up our lives back home and settled here, to encourage their culture and ingenuity without influencing them with what our historical paradigms dictate.”

“It is possible for us to imagine a world that is different, Anders. Why couldn't they also if they knew the truth? In fact, they would do better. And yet, they are deprived of it.”

“This is a discussion for congress, not us. I don't disagree that holding back knowledge is...”

“Unethical.”

“Uncomfortable. But it is necessary and you must remember that aside from small skirmishes there has been nothing but peace here since we began. Do you want to be the one who at once becomes their Liberator also becomes their Destroyer? That's what will happen, Tom. Our miserable world will collide with theirs and their happy, peaceful lives will end with it. Why can't you just let them be? You will, and I will make sure of it. I've had enough of this now.”

“One day, they will find out,” Tom calmly stated. “The truth always comes out. You can't just trap people on an island and not expect someone to wonder what's beyond the horizon."

“Until that day comes...”, Anders froze for a moment then turned and touched the monitor. A live surveillance video opened showing the entrance to the lab.
“Someone is upstairs.”

Reviews

[Fellow Desperate Writer]

Oooh, nice excerpt. To me it has a very smooth 1950s sci-fi story vibe to it, like you find out the guys talking are aliens observing earthlings. Of course, I am probably way off on what the overall story is really about, but it looks good all the same.

That said, the conversation flows pretty nicely. I'm getting just enough exposition through dialogue to keep up with the situation and not be so lost that I lose interest. And I can feel the emotion in it, too.

I look forward to reading more of this. You have a great knack for giving just enough and stopping where the reader really wants to see what happens next. Bravo.

[Cupofwords]

Thank you. This story is taking me a lot longer to write than I imagined. I needed to write this to help me imagine what direction the story would go in. Its still going this way.