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Jager stood at the observation deck, staring out at the shiny blue pearl before him. Even from the edge of the system, he could make out little green bits scattered across the surface. It reminded him of how his own planet looked from space, now that constant rainfall had subsided. The only major difference was that there wasn’t an ever-growing blight of metal growing across its surface. It looked nice, but despite that, he wouldn’t be here for long; once this delivery was completed, the ship would depart and return home.
And what an odd delivery this was. Rather than the normal pearls or even small packages that Jager’s creator normally sent him to deliver, this time he was to oversee the delivery of over one thousand slugcats to this planet. Unlike every other delivery, where he would be constantly moving and making adjustments to his route, this ship was automated, making its own way to the destination. With navigation handled by some computer, and the policing of the slugcats was handled by somewhat spider-like machines.
In truth, there wasn’t much for Jager to do during this delivery. The robots had everything important handled, and even the minor tasks that a slugcat like him could be expected to do were handled by the machines. That meant there wasn’t anything meaningful for the pink-furred messenger to do. Why did No Significant Harassment send him on this mission again?
Letting out a dissatisfied sigh, Jager picked up a light green pearl from a nearby table and idly moved it around in his paw. It had been given to him by his creator with orders to only read after the ship landed on the planet using one of the dull, emotionless computers on the ship, something that Jager disliked.
When bringing pearls to No Significant Harassment, the iterator was able to give his own thoughts and opinions on the information the pearl contained. Often giving not only more information about the world, but also about the iterator himself. The few pearls that Jager had used the computers to read just didn’t live up to that standard.
Holding the pearl in his paw, Jager did feel the temptation to read it early. It had already been about a year since the start of the mission, and there was still about a month left before reaching the planet. What difference would it make if he were to access the contents of the pearl now? Such temptation was quickly pushed out of his mind, however. He was a purposed organism, and he wouldn’t fall to such temptation so easily… unless.
An unexpected tap on his shoulder caused Jager to jump in surprise. The lack of audible footsteps informed him that the culprit was none other than Tabellas, the other messenger on board the ship. Lacking a mouth to speak, Tabellas was nonetheless an even better killer than Jager, who had been created by another iterator, Seven Red Suns. It made it even stranger that he would also be sent on this mission.
After taking in the view for another second, Jager turned to face the purple messenger.
“When did we exit FTL?” Asked Tabellas immediately upon establishing eye contact, clearly annoyed.
“About an hour ago.” Jager responded. Tabellas’ eyes narrowed in frustration.
For reasons Jager didn’t understand, Tabellas always made sure to be on the observation deck when the ship exited FTL. If it was for the view, then it would still be there for about a month, maybe more, as the ship still needed to approach the planet.
“Why didn’t you inform me?”
“I didn’t want to interrupt your time with your friend.” Said ‘friend’ was a pink slugcat that Tebellas would read with in the library. Apparently, she enjoyed spending time with him and was even making progress on understanding the sign language that both messengers used.
Speaking from personal experience, Jager believed that spending time with some of the other slugcats was much more fulfilling than the view of space. He often spent time with a yellow slugcat that he had met while exploring the truly gigantic insides of the ship, and who had followed him back to where the two messengers resided within it. She occupied a lot of the time that he would’ve spent sitting in silence, and he was quite grateful for her presence. However, he had avoided giving her a name, as she would soon be leaving when the ship inevitably landed.
Tabellas raised his paws as if he was about to sign something, then paused before raising his paws again and signing. “Just tell me next time… please.”
Jager was about to raise the point that they would simply be revisiting systems that they had already been to but stopped himself. There was no reason to bring it up, as both messengers looked back out the window to the planet in the distance.
A question soon came to Jager’s mind as they stood there. Turning to the other messenger, he tapped him on the shoulder before signing.
“Don’t you think it's weird that they sent us on this mission?” The answer was obvious, at least to Jager. He just wanted Tabellas’ own thoughts on the matter.
Tabellas’ eyes narrowed as he leaned forward threateningly.
“Are you questioning our creators’ messenger?”
Jager should’ve known that was how the older messenger would respond. Damn rat quite literally worshiped his own creator. Any question that he perceived as an insult to Suns’ plans or intelligence always triggered a violent response, no matter how small.
“No, I just wish to know their reasoning for sending us on this mission.” Jager responded, still pushing the purple slugcat towards answering him.
Tabellas stopped putting his paw to his chin, as if deep in thought before signing, “Reasons will reveal themselves in time. Have faith in our creators.”
Jager simply nodded his head in affirmation, though he considered the answer to be rather unsatisfying. There was simply no benefit to continued questioning about the topic, especially if Tabellas responded violently. Leaving the other messenger on the observation deck, Jager slowly began to go towards his room, his mind not at ease. And, upon reaching the door to his room, went past it and further into the ship, towards the library, where the pearl reader was located.
This question had been gnawing at him for the better part of a year, and between his curiosity and frustration with the mission, he was finally at the breaking point. He knew better than to believe in the infallibility of his creator, as No Significant Harassment often made mistakes. More importantly, the gods were capable of keeping secrets, of hiding information. He had already run through all of the logical reasons that the messengers would’ve been put on this mission, and they had all fallen short. Anything the messengers could do, the robots were already doing, possibly better than the slugcats could hope to.
Jager was tired of this. Of sitting around being useless, of not knowing what his purpose for being here was. And now, he intended to find out.
The trip to the library was a relatively short one, as it was placed fairly close to the two rooms the messengers resided in. It was also a place where the slugcats that were being transported were allowed to access, and over the year, more and more began to do so. Over time, Jager suspected, the slugcats had begun to learn the written language of the iterators. How they would’ve accomplished this, he didn’t know, but it was the only reasonable explanation for the library’s rise in popularity.
Looking around the library, Jager made sure that the coast was clear before using the pearl reader. The lights on the ship simulated a day-night cycle, and currently they were simulating night. However, the lights had only recently switched to night mode, probably at the same time that Taballes went to the observation deck. There were a few slugcats still milling about in the library; it seemed that they were night owls. Though the likelihood that the slugcats would understand what he was reading was small, their presence nearly made him reconsider his choice of action.
Among the many shelves of pearls and fairly exposed pearl readers, Jager found a pearl reader that was relatively isolated from prying eyes. Hastily placing his light green pearl on the reader, he watched in silent anticipation as text slowly appeared before him.
“Hello, Jager. By the time that you’re reading this, your ship should’ve landed on planet X-04, or as I prefer to call it, Thuis. That is, of course, unless you’ve opened this message prematurely. Hmm. What am I supposed to do about this breach of your orders?"
Jager felt his body tense up as the message seemed to call him out, but he didn’t stop reading.
“I'm just messing with you, of course. I know you wouldn’t do that. You’ve never had any problems following orders before.”
The statement made him feel a pang of guilt, enough to nearly make him stop reading, but he continued onward.
“There are some things that I want to tell you. First: You’re not returning home. The terraforming processes of our world will kill all organic creatures on the planet and make it uninhabitable for any others. We’ve given your species, alongside several others, an opportunity to develop on your own terms, away from the meddling of the other creatures, myself included.”
What? He wasn’t going to go home. This entire mission was a cover to remove both messengers from the planet. To send them away to some far-off world. There was a well of conflicting emotions coursing through him, the most prominent of which was anger. Why the hell would No Significant Harassment hide something like this from him? Even if Jager had known, he still would’ve followed through with his orders. It was the secrecy surrounding it that made him mad.
There was still quite a bit more text to be read, so with some trepidation, he started reading more.
“Second, it is more of an admission from me. When creating a purposed organism, there was a distinct possibility that it would develop the rot. Without boring you with unnecessary details, you ended up with the rot. Normally, I would’ve flushed you out of my structure and destroyed any trace of the rot that would’ve remained. Instead, with you I chose to keep you around for research purposes.”
“For a while, everything was fine, but eventually my then messenger died returning to me, and I was in need of a replacement. Moon’s structure had collapsed, and in order to save her, I needed a delivery done quickly. Without the time to gestate a new messenger, I intended to use you, knowing that you would die during the mission. The only reason I didn’t was because the machines showed up and repaired her themselves.”
“I know that because I didn’t go through with my original plan, I shouldn’t feel bad for it, but I do. These last few years have really put things into perspective. I suppose I’m too much of a coward to tell you this to your face, but you were perhaps the best messenger I’ve ever created, and I nearly sentenced you to death. I’m so sorry. I wish you the best and hope that you make the most of this opportunity I’ve given you.”
“May you live the best life you possibly could.”
“Your creator,”
“No Significant Harassment”
As he finished reading the pearl, Jager felt his heart drop. There were so many things he wanted to do, so many things he wanted to tell his creator. Most of all, he just wanted to forgive his creator and thank him for giving him the life that he now lived.
“Goodbye.” He said, his voice barely audible, even to himself.
So many emotions swam through his mind, many of which he had never experienced before. For the first time in his life, he didn’t know what to do, and he didn’t really want to do anything either. There was nothing for him to do anymore, nothing objective to reach, nor anyone to return to. With nothing else to do, he grabbed the pearl from the reader and started making his way to the observation deck.
There was the slightest temptation to tell Tabellas what was going on, the truth of their mission here, but Jager decided against it. He could find that out on his own.
Upon reaching the observation deck, Jager found it devoid of life. Tabellas, it seemed, had moved to do something else. Good. Clutching the pearl tightly in his paw, he stepped towards the glass and looked at the blue pearl in the distance, the new home of all the slugcats. It seemed like the planet had gotten slightly bigger since the last time he looked at it, a perfect representation of his new, unwanted life drawing closer. He wanted to curse the planet, to blame it for all that was happening, but he knew better. This was always going to happen.
Now the only thing that he could do was look to the future and prepare accordingly. He had to, for that is what his creator had ordered him to do.