All it takes are a few words - a short story

Hi! It's me. Here I am with another short story. A brain fart after reading and watching a lot of subjects on conflict.

"As you've said to me countless times: you're joking."

"I wish it wasn't, but it's true."

Sully suppressed a shudder as he saw Pli'irnys's dark eyes narrow. If the lounge's lights were off, the little irises in each one would glow like lava, and boy, did he know how terrifying that could be; he'd seen enough aliens running for the hills just by one look from those eyes.

"There is simply no way a species could let itself act so...wantonly!" the alien cried, his voice accusatory and sharp through the implanted translator. "Does your kind have no sense of self-control or reason?"

"Oh we do, but we shut it off real fast," he explained. "We don't choose when it happens, or we rarely do, but when we do, watch out. It gets messy real quick."

"Messier than the Karshans?"

Sully grimaced at the memories of the reptilian slavers and the brutality they inflicted on his fellow humans. When he'd first been kidnapped alongside a group of strangers, one of them got snippy at the Karshans. By the time they finished with him, that veteran barely had any blood or skin. That terrified the group to hell and back, but Sully was stubborn enough to hold on and survive until he met Pli'irnys.

"Maybe not as bloody, but just as vicious. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if there were warlords or drug barons that do that."

Pli'irnys shook his head, a gesture he'd picked up from his fellow escapee. "Even the Karshans, abominable as they are, don't go enslaving out of passion. There is always a method, a reason for each raid. And you're saying your fellow...humans...can do the same at the beat of an engine?"

"Oh yeah, all it takes is one word and bang!" he mimed a gun at his friend, who just accepted it as another human expression. "They go nuts. Especially if you touch religion, then it reaches a whole 'nother level. The wrong words can make your life a living hell."

"Religion?" Pli'irnys asked. There were many faiths in the Civ-Tree, the galactic network of civilizations, but all of them, regardless of the specifics, were used symbolically, or practiced as mementos of tradition and heritage.

"Ooh yeah. You learn how far some people go in a History major. I was researching the Crusades for an essay before I got beamed up. Trust me, I could fill up the whole trip with how wars started over remarks like this."

"I do trust you, keh-Sully, but I simply cannot believe you. It goes against the nature of sapience to act like this. Wars are only started when all facts have determined it to be the final outcome."

"Heh, so you've told. We could learn a thing or two from that." He brushed strands of red away from his eyes and settled into silence, occasionally biting his lip. Pli'irnys noted he always did that when went deep into thought, a sort of pseudo-rest his own species did when contemplating matters.

"You know...how'd you like to wager on that?"

Pli'irnys pointed a needle-like claw at his friend. "Is this another one of your insane human ideas?"

"My 'insane human ideas' got us off that ship and landed us this beauty," he replied with a grin, gesturing at their vessel.

"Maybe, but you forget it is I who actually got us out."

The human shrugged. "Point taken." He then clapped his hands and grinned. "Still, you care for a wager?"

Pli'irnys let out a chitter. He'd regret this, but his curiosity was itching at him to accept. After spending time with Sully, he'd come to the conclusion it would be the death of him - an unfortunate consequence of his species' inquisitiveness.

"What do you have in mind?"

"We're going to do a refuel after this job is done, right? I've got a little experiment we can try. I'll have to fire up the beam-dish though, so we'll have to stay in orbit."

"...fair. It might be better to do so than land planetside, I've seen too many theft reports. Again, what are you planning? And why do you need to see your world's news again?"

Sully waved at Pli'irnys. "I'll show you when it's ready. I promise it'll be worth it. How about we wager who decides the next upgrades for the ship?"

"And let you outfit our stealth-based craft with phaser cannons with enough firepower to blow up a station?" Pli'irnys deadpanned. A few seconds later, a low hiss escaped his maw. "Fine. I already regret this, but I accept. We should arrive in a few hours."

His human friend clapped his hands together and his smile had morphed into something predatory.

Oh dear. Maybe Pli'irnys should have considered this further?

The job didn't take long, and they only had to leave the ship to meet with the client, as per their request. Freelancing paid well if one knew where to do it, and Pli'irnys's computer prowess combined with Sully's mixture of skills - a 'jack-of-all-trades' he called it - got the job done quick, and they even pilfered a bonus off it. That gave them a few solars to cool off and resupply, but instead, Sully was reclining in the seat in front of a large holoscreen with various Earth - what a dull name for a world, Pli'irnys thought - newsfeeds plastered all over. Sully kept looking at them, opening and closing articles while tapping the armrest. Eventually, he nodded. "Okay, I think I have enough. Are we secure?"

"The answer is the same as the other 13 times, keh-Sully, yes. Faster-than-light communication cannot be tracked by your planet's primitive satellites and data-facilities."

"Just making sure..." he trailed off before opening another site, different to all the previous ones, filled with pictures and names, and at the corner, a big symbol encircled in black.

"You said it's impossible for a species to start fighting over a few words? Well, let's see what happens when I write a few words." He gestured to the closed tabs. "There are all kinds of protests and issues right now on Earth. This one," he opened one of the tabs, "has to do with one of the big subjects. What I'm gonna do is, using this fake account, write one sentence. Just one. We'll take care of errands, go to sleep, and the next solar I'll open this site and see the reactions."

He then clicked the symbol and wrote out the sentence. It was in human script, courtesy of a little tinkering from Pli'irnys, and despite Sully's efforts, Pli'irnys didn't know what it said. He then pressed the button, and the message appeared on the site.

"So, you wanna eat?"

As they each ate their meals, a plate of flashcloned safe meat for the human and nectar-infused porridge for Pli'irnys, the alien swallowed a spoonful and stopped to look at Sully.

"Keh-Sully, if what you say about your kind is true, then why do this at all?"

Sully paused, closed his mouth and looked up, his brown creasing and the corners of his mouth twitching down.

"Hm...maybe I want to prove myself wrong. To show that we've managed to overcome all those bad impulses, started to think with logic and heart together rather than just with instinct and fear. I've seen humans do a lot of good, only because they wanted to help. I like to think that that compassion and kindness is who we are, like the other humans who were with me before they all got killed off."

Pli'irnys was shocked; Sully wanted to lose the bet? The wager itself meant nothing to him, true, but it was a competition. Then again...who would want to believe that one's own kind were capable of bloodlust and wantoness in an instant?

"Or maybe I just wanted to set something like this off for a while now, in my deepest fantasies."

...that was not helping his case.

They finished the meal and did the routine maintenance on the ship, checking the exodrives, the beam-dish, shields, even holding off on upgrade suggestions per their bet. A few hours later, just as Pli'irnys was about to enter his rest cycle, the ship-comms blared to life.

"Uh, Plir? You're gonna want to see this."

Pli'irnys felt his gut sink as he entered the main deck. There, on the holoscreen, were long chains of human text, filled with words and colored symbols. Feeds of videos, all muted, of humans raging and screaming, some even out on the streets holding signs. Images of more humans, clad in blue suits - peacekeepers - clashing with protestors. A drone feed of a beautiful human building showed it was surrounded by a mass of humans that was swelling with every second. News anchors of differing looks and scripts all showed similar images, and the holoscreen was getting filled by the second.

As Pli'irnys slowly turned to look at Sully, he saw the shock as plain as the star on his friend's face. If he had looked in the mirror, he wouldn't have been surprised if the same expression was plastered to his own face.

Barely any time had passed. What words did Sully post to have such an effect?

"...Plir?"

"Yes, keh-Sully?"

"You know how when you asked me why I didn't want to contact Earth after we escaped?"

"You answered that you wanted to experience something no other human in your time would."

He chuckled. "Yeah. I did.

Guess I was right on the money."

Pli'irnys recalled Sully's twofold reasoning for his wager. To see if his species has truly overcome their past instincts, to see if they can put their reason and love above mindless frenzy. And other...

"I just wanted to set something like this off for a while now..."

All because of an impulse. Now all of this has happened, all from a few words.

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