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Destroy Apollo: Chapter 4
Chapter 4: To Edith
“Electromagnetic environment verification passed… Network verification passed… Original system backup in progress… Consciousness module loading… System upgrade in progress…” The glow in Gaia’s eyes dimmed, then suddenly brightened again—
“Edith, I need to confirm your biometric information,” Greta said.
I stepped forward, and a slender mechanical arm extended from behind Gaia, pressing something resembling a chip onto my right hand.
“Biometric verification passed. Welcome, Edith. Video file detected: ‘To Edith.’ Select Yes to play the video; select No to revert version and cancel the upgrade.”
I tried to question Gaia, but she seemed to have turned into a low-end terminal devoid of consciousness, unable to respond to natural language. Seeing this, Greta left as well. “I’m going to the holo-chamber to experience those stations.”
I clicked on play.
A middle-aged woman with short hair appeared on the screen. She wore a blue work uniform, looking somewhat weary, with a faint smile on her lips.
“Edith, my daughter. When you see this video, if everything went smoothly, Gaia has automatically activated a specific storage space in her brain and notified you. If things didn’t go as planned, I trust you are intelligent enough to find the key through the clues I left behind.
Edith, I don’t know your current opinion of Apollo.
If, like most humans on your planet, you’ve been steeped in Apollo’s influence, trusting in its order and wishing to merge with it, then, unfortunately, you and Gaia’s journey together is over. She will leave you. She has her mission and can no longer serve as your companion.
Before leaving, Gaia will inject a biological agent into you through a nanotech chip, erasing all memories of her and me, allowing you to live blissfully in the life Apollo has arranged for you.
But if—if you haven’t been assimilated by Apollo, if you refuse to be part of the silent majority, then I ask you to undertake an exceedingly dangerous mission with Gaia. Gaia will inform you of the mission details and the background after completing her upgrade. I believe in my daughter. She possesses enough wisdom and courage to inherit this righteous cause and completely eradicate darkness and evil.
Edith, how I wish I could witness your growth. Not being able to raise you will remain my lifelong regret. But in these uncertain times, my comrades and I are enduring a long interstellar pursuit…”
Her voice choked up. “We live in constant peril. My priority is to protect your life. Entrusting my hopes to a child not yet three years old—I sometimes think I’m insane. But then I remind myself: generation after generation, there have always been women with rebellious spirits. Why wouldn’t you be one of them?
Edith, I hope you choose to be a rebel. I hope you refuse to conform. I hope you never forget.
May each day of your life be clear and meaningful.”
The video ended.
“Would you like to proceed with the upgrade? Select Yes to continue the upgrade; select No to revert system version and initiate Plan B. You have three minutes to decide. If no choice is made, Plan B will automatically activate. Countdown begins: 180, 179, 178…”
I hesitated… for five seconds, then chose to continue the upgrade.
Gaia fell silent again.
At first, I kept my eyes open and watched her, but the cold metallic light made it hard for me to breathe, so I had no choice but to leave the studio. I sat in the dark, pitch-black tunnel where I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face.
I suddenly had a strong urge to drink “Morning Dew,” a strange drink that directly affects the human central nervous system. Depression, pain, joy, anger… so-called human emotions ultimately boil down to the action of chemical neurotransmitters. So why not drink a glass of Morning Dew, and from then on, all emotions would be like the morning dew, vanishing as quickly as it forms.
I didn’t dare close my eyes. Every time I did, I would see that blood-red loop.
Greta came to my side and gently patted my shoulder. I couldn’t tell if there was any more expression on her face, but I could hear her voice, slightly hoarse: “Edith, I’ve seen it all. I…”
She suddenly started laughing, and her uncontrollable laughter echoed through the tunnel. “So, I’m not alone. Do you know? There have been many times when I felt like I was separated from the people around me by a transparent wall, their thoughts were like they had been…”
“Stamped with a steel seal.”
We both spoke the words at the same time.
“I think it’s a lot like the noise in the system, or a virus. There must be more of us outcasts on this planet,” Greta looked at the empty space in her right sleeve. “Edith, when did you first realize that you…?”
“Rejected Apollo’s order? Actually, I’ve been an outsider from the very beginning. I wasn’t born on M5, and I wasn’t implanted with a chip. As I grew up, I just kept hiding the feeling that something was off. What about you? As a native of this planet, how did you… break through the steel seal?”
Greta fell silent.
It was so long that I was about to move past the topic when she finally spoke: “When I was in university, I fell in love with a woman. You know, that’s a taboo that’s not to be mentioned on M5.”
A nostalgic expression appeared on her face. “We planned to save enough money and credentials, then leave for a more tolerant place, like living on M1. We both went to college in the same city. I was preparing for a career in scientific research, planning to go to M1 for my PhD. She worked part-time teaching painting in a studio to save up for future entrepreneurial funds.
Our plan was perfect. Until a man with some power and arrogance took an interest in her. Her father agreed, and when she went home for the holidays, he forced her into marriage. We tried to resist, but we failed.
She was declared insane by a mental assessment and locked up in a closed mental facility. I was sentenced and expelled. I spent two years mining on a remote and cold asteroid belt. If it weren’t for Professor Bella rescuing me, I don’t know where I’d be now.”
She laughed lightly. “Apollo’s influence doesn’t reach the asteroid belt. As criminals, we couldn’t connect to Apollo. The guards were only responsible for making us work mechanically. They didn’t communicate with us, nor did they allow us to talk to each other.
During those unbearably boring days and nights, staring at a pile of gray-white stones, I suddenly had an awakening.
I realized that I hadn’t done anything wrong, even though Apollo had judged me as wrong.
You know, Apollo, or rather the planetary will, believes that in this world, women can only love men, and men can only love women. The former is based on human biological instincts, and the latter is the noble, pure, and priceless love. The idea of women loving women, or women not loving men, doesn’t even exist.
But it does exist. Ignoring it doesn’t make it go away.
Take, for instance, someone who abuses their pet—people wouldn’t say they actually love their pet. But a man who abuses his wife can escape criticism in the name of love. Apollo supports the latter.
It makes no sense. Even a toddler, just learning to walk, knows that showing affection isn’t about destruction but protection.
Then why, for the first twenty years of my life, just like most people, did I think the same way Apollo does—that perhaps a man who abuses his wife has his reasons? Why, after she and I confirmed our feelings, was my first reaction fear, even guilt?
Who were we letting down? What were we afraid of?
We feel that love between women is shameful, that we can find traces of love in a man hitting a woman, because Apollo has stamped a steel seal onto our minds.
From our very first morality classes in elementary school, Apollo defined virtue and warned us about what was ugly. This is all part of the seal. But is it a universal law, like the rules of the cosmos? Is it a truth as undeniable as 1+1=2?”
“No, it’s not,” I answered.
“So,” Greta said, “it was like holding the Achilles’ heel—I overturned everything I’d been told for more than twenty years. It felt freeing, like turning the world upside down. But after that came a deep, profound loneliness.”
I sighed. “Those who doubt Apollo wouldn’t willingly come forward. And even if they did, Apollo has a thousand ways to silence them. Over time, even dissenters start to doubt themselves.”
“Greta, have you heard this phrase—‘Whoever controls the past controls the future.’ Now, on all planets governed by Apollo, no one knows these things. No one knows that generation after generation, women have fought, striving to create an order completely different from Apollo’s.”
I thought to myself that my mother must have been one of them. I wondered whether they succeeded or failed.
I told Greta about the video my mother left for me. Greta fell into deep thought, then suddenly asked, “Do you think that mission could be…”
I knew what she was thinking—I was thinking the same thing. But all I said was, “We’ll have to wait until Gaia finishes her upgrade.”
Greta gripped my hand. “If it’s what I think it is, Edith, please, you must take me with you.”
I looked at her, and in each other’s eyes, we saw the same fire.
The fire of—destroying Apollo.
That night, we talked for hours, discussing all the things that didn’t feel right. When dawn broke, Gaia’s upgrade was complete.
With nervous anticipation, I spoke to her. “Gaia.”
Her voice was unchanged: “Hello, Edith. Before we discuss our mission, I’d like to tell you about my origin. My true origin.”
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