Critical Path

Maria sipped her hot tea. She tried to be optimistic these days, but since they’d found the pods and now these aliens, it felt like she was right back there at day one again when she and the others first left the harvester—or generation ship as they had thought of it. That sense of panic, fear and confusion remained in the past, but essences of it started to flutter about the edges of her consciousness like the hiding of a lie. Not having any programed tasks to carry out or a schedule that she had to stick to like before bred a horrible feeling of being lost.

Layla must have seen the concern on her face. She finished packing her backpack and came around the fire to sit next to her. Khan remained on the other side, but like Maria, he leaned into the fire. Warming his hands.

Despite the bright sunshine beyond the canopy, the trees insulated the woods, keeping it cool. Without trekking through the dense growth, it seemed everyone was starting to feel the cold.

“He’ll be fine,” Layla said. “You don’t have to worry so much.”

“Oh? I’m not worried about Gregor. He’ll do whatever he wants.”

Layla shook her head. “I meant Denver.”

A heat, not from the fire, warmed her face. She’d totally forgotten about Denver. How could she forget about him?

“Sorry,” Maria said. “I was just deep in thought and misunderstood. I’m just not handling this whole situation too well. I thought—before the revelation about the pods—that things were getting settled, that we were finding our way. But now…”

Layla put her arm across Maria’s shoulder and gave her a quick hug. “We’ll still find our way, Maria. You just need to have a little faith.”

“It’s the not knowing how things will turn out that worries me.”

“There’s just, I don’t know. I’m used to things being more… linear, to use one of Mike’s words. I had tasks, and I knew what I was doing back on the harvester.”

“But you had no freedom. No choice,” Khan said. “Out here, we’ve got it all to ourselves mostly.”

“I’m not like you, Khan. I can’t just live off the land like you and be on my own. I’m too used to being with a tight-knit group of people. It just feels like our group is fracturing.”

“Evolving,” Khan added. “That’s the worst thing about humans. They’re too adaptable, always changing and evolving from one generation to the next.”

Layla screwed up her face. “What? How do you arrive at that?” she said, with a hint of incredulity to her voice. “That we evolve and adapt is the reason why we’re still here. Otherwise we would have all perished in the ice age.”

“The croatoans don’t evolve,” Khan said. “They just wait, always staying the same, remaining focused on what they’re good at. Crocodiles and sharks too. Both of those have been around since the dinosaurs and have barely changed. When you have a good design, it makes sense to stick to it.”

“What about snakes?” Layla said. “They’ve evolved to adapt to almost every climate the world over. If they didn’t evolve, they’d likely not have survived for as long as they have.”

Khan took a sip of his tea and thought about her point. “For humans,” he said, steam billowing from his mouth, “they evolved to forget who and what they were. It’s how the croatoans managed to nearly wipe us all out. We were too focused internally and not paying enough attention to the signs out there.”

“Look,” Maria said. “All this doesn’t change anything, does it? Evolve, adapt or not, it doesn’t matter. All that matters right now is that Charlie could be alive and we have a rogue community of aliens and humans to deal with. We have to manage the threat.”

“Do we?” Khan said. “This is partly what I’m talking about. Though don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to come along to help, but at some point humanity has to come to terms with the fact that it’s a flawed species, seeing wars and conflict ahead of an alternative approach.”

“And what would that be?” Layla asked. Though from her expression, Maria could see she’d heard this argument plenty of times before.

“Coexist. Live and let live.”

“You’re unreal,” Layla said. “Were you even around when the aliens first came up? They weren’t exactly bringing chocolates and sweets with them in an act of peace.”

“Maybe not,” Khan said. “But they’d spent tens of thousands of years observing us. You have to wonder what they learned about us during all that time.”

“Guys, let’s not argue. This situation is bad enough already without us bickering over stuff in the past,” Maria said. She stood and poured the tea onto the ground and walked off, wanting to get some space before tensions got any higher.

She stepped past the fire and Khan and headed for the trees. She got to a few meters before the small camp finished and the dense trees started when the sound of twig and branch displacement made her stop in her tracks.

The alien they had caught earlier came through first. Ropes and shackles around its wrists and ankles led back into the gloom—until Gregor appeared. He grinned wide when he saw Maria.

“Ah, how sweet. A welcoming committee.”