Trespassing in the land of the Cockroaches.

(This one actually contains some science regarding aging, of which I did no research whatsoever. But, as it is a fictional story, I can put down whatever the hell I want, and you have to accept it as fictional fact. So there.)





Trespassing in the Land of the Cockroaches

Darren had spent his entire life in the oppressive emptiness of space. 24 years
before, Darren’s parents had answered the call of NASA, the organization in charge of
sending other people and animals into the unknown purely for the sake of frivolous knowledge. In the 1960s, the then-modern world was stricken with what can only be described as childish delirium by what was known as the “international space-race.” The object of so many desires was a relatively small hunk of rock that has been running circles around our own relatively small hunk of rock for all of memory. Everything in space is relatively small. The only feasible reason for such a mostly senseless fervor was to be the first. To win. Virtually countless units of currency were wasted on this fruitless pursuit. Nearly 70 years later, Darren’s parents sold him to NASA for 4 million USD on the day of his birth. They did not do this for the sake of scientific research or out of a love of the unknown. They sold him because they were greedy and selfish, and wanted money. They ended up selling 8 children to NASA, but Darren was the only one to qualify for space exploration. The other seven were inserted into random orphanages with false names. Darren, of course, knew none of this. As he was to be raised by NASA, he was never told anything of his actual past. He was told that he was the very first biological android, created and programmed by NASA. Naturally, being a developing child, he firmly believed everything he was told without any hesitation. He came to love (or as close to love an android can come) NASA as any other child loves who they believe their creator to be, as a parent. NASA told Darren that, since they wrote his programming, not only did he have to follow their every instruction; it was physically impossible for him to ignore them. So, during his 24 years exploring the solar system, he believed himself to be a machine designed to do as he is told, so he did as he was told. Until the instructions stopped coming. During one of his years, (he was stationed in orbit of the planet Jupiter, so his year was the equivalence of twelve years on Earth. If he had been lucky enough to be ineligible for space travel, he would now be 288 years old.) the periodical transmissions he was programmed to expect stopped coming. He was unknowingly apprehensive and frightened by this lack of occurrence. Being a fake android, he did not know the names of any emotions, and had only ever felt a seldom few. This was his first experience with either fear or apprehension, which brought on yet another new, nameless feeling: worry. He subconsciously worried about the break in routine, about his personal future, and about his parent, NASA. So, in his first act of self-preservation and of emotion, Darren activated the Automated Return Trip System, and began his trek back to his first home.
From the outset of his journey, Darren felt yet another, more complicated, specific emotion: the excitement felt when doing something utterly new and unknown. The extent of his lack of knowledge concerning his home world is astounding. Not only does he not know of his real parents, he does not know what a human being looks like. The transmissions from NASA were purely audio. Also, the craft upon which he was stationed was molded to have no reflective surfaces, so Darren does not know what he looks like. This made him excited. He was anxious to see his creators for the first time in his existence (he had no notion of the term “life,” since he was not “born,” but “created”). When he finally arrived on Earth, he took everything he saw as status quo, for he did not know otherwise.
His travel craft touched down where the docking station designed specifically for his shuttle used to be, around 3 miles offshore the Florida coast. After he splashed down in an ocean unexpected, he made his way toward the only landform visible to him upon the onboard watercraft as per his programming. NASA had placed some precautions onboard should they ever want the spacecraft back on Earth, so an automated message repeated itself, informing Darren what to do to start the return sequence and where to go once he touched down. They wanted him to go straight to a building near the shoreline where he would go in, and then they would kill him. They didn’t care about him at all; they just didn’t want to lose the expensive craft. Life is cheap, material is worth something. Upon reaching what was supposed to be the destined building, Darren was confused (yet another new emotion) when there was no building there. In fact, there was nothing, just a barren landscape. This was a very crucial time for him, as this is when all of his programming ended. He did not know what he was supposed to do next. His very next movement would be his first of free will.
His first motion under no influence other than his own was also the first time he ever made a gesture that symbolized something in human culture: he scratched his head. He was utterly lost. He was afraid to move; for fear that his masters might miss him when they arrived. It was in his programming to come to this very patch of land and wait for his parent to show up to end his existence. But there was nothing here, nothing coming. He spun around, scanning the horizon for any approaching figures. When nothing appeared, he sat down on the spot to wait. He sat there stock still for 27 hours before he realized that he had not “refueled” since his arrival. He knew that he needed to give his body energy in order to continue his existence, and he did not want to end before his parent arrived, as that was not in his programming. Accordingly, his first conscious, uninfluenced decision was to search for energy, then return to the area where he was supposed to be. His journey began very slowly, as every step he took went against every fiber in his being, and he had to summon all the courage in his body in order to move at all. Courage was another concept unknown to Darren. The most courageous acts are those done of one’s own accord, while blind obedience is rife with cowardice. He continued his slow walk in a nearly straight line for five miles, which lasted around 16 hours. Eventually he experienced another new sensation: exhaustion. Eventually he collapsed out of fatigue, for he did not know his own limits. He would have died face down in the dirt if not for the last remnants of visible life on the planet.
He awoke in what appeared to be a low, underground cavern, approximately 30 yards from the entrance. The feeble rays of light seeping through the mouth of the hollow, illuminating the swirling cloud of gray dust, resulted in a pall of dim, ashen light that seemed to cling to the floor. As the sun slowly rose and more light was swallowed by the opening, Darren saw a chaotic movement coating the bottom of the cavern, a sinewy mass that seemed to have one consciousness. As more and more light shone in, he finally came face to face with what he assumed were his masters, as they were the only creatures he had ever seen. They were cockroaches, billions of cockroaches, a species that had flourished since the total nuclear holocaust that had happened on the planet 12 years before. Unhindered by other life-forms, the cockroach population had reached the octillions worldwide, feasting on any remnant of the past reality of the globe. Darren was unable to move under the weight of the cockroaches, as they had begun to swarm him, forcing themselves into every crevice of his body, filling his lungs, his stomach, his ears, his nasal cavity, his eye sockets, and his intestines. They were eating him from the inside and the out. Darren felt his last new emotion in the waning moments of his existence: ecstasy. He had fulfilled his programming, sacrificing his body to what he believed to be his creators. He felt no pain, the whole process lasting mere minutes. The roaches ate until there was no Darren.



THE END OF IT ALL.