The Invention

 “Your mind is broken”

“What?”

“Your test results are in. The official diagnosis is that your mind is dysfunctional, Mr….”

“Denning. What are you talking about, my brain is…”

“Your mind, Mr. Denning your mind. Your mind is dysfunctional, not your brain. You wouldn’t be here now if that was the case, now would you? But as you Doctor, Mr. Denning, I am here to help you in the name of the State of Enad.”

“There must be some kind of mistake, there’s nothing wrong with me!”

“That’s the first symptom, Mr. Denning, denial. Nurse, bring me the Thing………Thank you, you are excused…..Tell me, Mr. Denning, what is this?”

“Well, that’s my invention, it creates light through electricity….”

“And, Mr. Denning, what can electricity do?”

“Well, it can make light, but I…”

“You do not understand Mr. Denning. What did the pre-Enad humans use electricity for?”

“I…..I don’t know…but that doesn’t mean…”

“Doesn’t mean what, Mr. Denning? That it cannot be harmful? Mr. Denning, the Pre-Enad humans wiped themselves out. How do you know that this wasn’t the instrument of their destruction?”

“I don’t understand, what does this have to do with my invention?”

“I’m not at all surprised at what you cannot comprehend. Mr. Denning, are you aware that the State of Enad outlawed such things as your…invention, as you call it?”

“Yes, but there are special circumstances…”

“Mr. Denning, what will your invention be used for? As humans, we cannot simply take something as it is. We must always be improving what we have, improving our technologies and….”

“But that’s just the natural order of things! From what I can tell, the Pre-Enad humans knew this, and continually improved themselves until they were a super-advanced society…”

“And then they blew themselves up! There is nothing good about moving forward, when, by doing so, you move yourselves back to where you started from. Our ancestors on Enad had nothing when they first migrated here from the ashes of Earth, Mr. Denning. NOTHING! What you propose could move the last vestiges of humanity back into a dark age, or even worse, a war.”

“But war is impossible on Enad, there’s only one State, and besides, the bubble is nowhere near large enough for a full-scale war to take place.”

“So you say, Mr. Denning. But what will future humans think? Let’s pretend that your invention actually gets distributed to the general populace. Years will pass in relative peace, provided your electricity actually performs its intended purpose. But one day, someone will build upon the foundation you started, Mr. Denning. Your electricity will be continually studied and new uses for it will be discovered. Finally, because of basic human flaws, electricity will be developed for use as a weapon. Our innermost desires are to murder other humans. We cannot allow that to happen, Mr. Denning, we must surpres these desires.”

“You’re wrong, Doctor. You can’t honestly say you want to kill everyone around you.”

“The pre-Enad humans did.”

“Doctor…”

“Mr. Denning, do you know how the Pre-Enad humans wiped themselves out?”

“No, but…”

“We don’t either Mr. Denning.”

“Then why don’t you take your “State” and go down to Earth and find out!”

“Mr. Denning, you ask the impossible. You know very well that all the airships we have ever sent down to Earth were destroyed upon entering the atmosphere. We cannot even send radio waves down there. No, Mr. Denning, there is only Enad left. And you are a threat to it. Your ideas have the potential to destroy Enad, and cause the extinction of the human race! Mr. Denning, I don’t know what can get through to you, because it is obviously not reason!”

“….”

“Ah, you finally realize the danger you pose, Mr. Denning. Good, we can start treatment immediately…”

“No, I…there is no danger…Doctor, there must be…”

“Mr. Denning, everything I told you is the official stance of the State of Enad. By defying me, you defy the State. Do you defy the State, Mr. Denning?

“I defy people like you, Doctor. It’s people like you who keep us trapped up here, in this air bubble you call home. That’s all Enad is, Doctor, an air bubble! This is no way for humans to live! We are created to build upon the earth to make it a home. All we can do here is survive, not live. We can drink, but we cannot quench our thirst. This whole place is a poison, Doctor!”

“Then the Pre-Enad humans should have thought about that before they used their own weapons against themselves!”

“How do you know they used weapons? You said it yourself, we have no way to find out. And even if there was, how do you know what kind of weapons?”

“We know because the State of Enad, established when humans first came here, tells us so. The State does not lie to its citizens, Mr. Denning. Do you know what the official records of the State say about the Pre-Enad humans? They were a conceited, unimaginative, two-faced society that cared more for technological advances than they cared about the welfare of their fellow human beings. They were godless cannibals of the human mind, finding the easiest and least expensive methods of torture others for the sole purpose of causing harm and bringing destruction upon their own planet. They polluted it to the point where they could barely sustain themselves, but did that stop them? No, it did not, Mr. Denning! They, like you, continually found methods to harm others, even if they just set a basis for those methods to be invented in the future. That was the sole purpose of Pre-Enad human inventions, Mr. Denning; so that, someday, when technology advanced, someone else might improve upon their so-called work in order to make more weapons, more ways to hurt and kill others. That is why your mind is dysfunctional, Mr. Denning. Here on Enad, we have long since purged humanity of this way of thinking. Here on Enad, there is no need for war, there is no need for hunger, and there is no need for your ideas, Mr. Denning.”

“My mind is not dysfunctional…”

“Mr. Denning, you serve no purpose on Enad, where the sole purpose of humanity is to have a purpose! We are the remnants of a sad race, and this is the place where we wipe ourselves clean of all imperfections of humanity. Humans are naturally evil, Mr. Denning. You are evil. I am evil, at base. The State, no matter how much good it does, is evil too, if only due to it’s humanity!”

“You’re wrong….”

“Wrong, am I? Go ask the broken remnants of the human race about all the good it has ever done! Look upon the broken remnants of the old Earth! Humanity is a wasted effort, Mr. Denning! A string of broken, useless ideas! Mr. Denning, stop sobbing like an infant and look at me! LOOK AT ME! YOU’RE USELESS MR. DENNING! USELESS TO SOCIETY, USELESS TO THE STATE, USELESS TO HUMANITY! YOUR OBSELETE IDEALS WILL DESTROY US ALL! THE STATE IS THE ONLY TRUTH!”

“……Doctor……”

“WHAT?”

“….help me be human…”

“……I will, Mr. Denning. You have taken the first step. And, with therapy and medication, you might be able to regain the good in you.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Mommy, what is that!?”

“Where?”

“In the sky! What is that thing in the sky?”

“That’s Enad, honey.”

“What’s that?”

“That’s where all the bad people live.”

“There are bad people?”

“Not anymore. There used to be, but then we sent them up there to live until they get better.”

“When will they get better?”

“I don’t know, honey, I don’t know”

“Oh….Look, a pigeon!”

Reviews

[Tyler Collins]

Great read lol. Too many good stories like this go unread and forgotten. A great message and written well too. I don't read very much like this on this site.