“Science shows us that morality and karma are not measurable cosmic forces. You can prove this with a simple experiment. All one must do is determine the sentence of a guilty and an innocent man through the measurement of a cosmically random force, such as the position of an electron in the orbital of an atom. You can run this experiment as many times as you like, and each repetition will only increase the certainty of its result. One’s actions, good or evil, does not influence the forces of nature. So then, if this is an immutable fact, why does society tow the line of moral and karmic expectation?”
“Because people are illogical?”
“Hah. No, Yeva. I suppose I am to blame for that particular conclusion. That’s just your daddy complaining, my little galaxy, not the solution to this quandary. The reason is, however, just as simple. You see, society is not governed by cosmic forces, the laws of nature, or really anything predicted by the natural sciences. Society is governed by people, not individuals, but a collection of over fifty billion minds, and unlike all of these other concepts, people can make their own laws and judgements. Take the societal taboo against eating meat, for example. Once, it was normal for people to regularly eat meat, but when the world’s population grew past twenty billion, society was faced with a challenge. People were starving and there just wasn’t enough farmland to feed them all.
Now this all happened during a confluence of several societal shifts. Breakthroughs in affordable medicine saw populations explosively rise in the course of a single generation. This hit the Aztec Empire particularly hard, as their culture had many ritualistic traditions centered around the consumption of meat. To understand why this was an issue, first you must understand the logistical problems with meat production. Cattle - animals raised for the express purpose of slaughtering for meat - are incredibly inefficient, consuming up to twenty five times the calories that their meat actually produces. And when an empire spanning a third of the Americas starts to starve and refuses to change its traditions, it does what all empires do. It went to war.
Over fishing in the oceans and lakes around the world also saw a projected total collapse of aquatic ecosystems within the next few decades. Add to this the fact that many of the world’s most powerful religions already shunned the consumption of meat. And several breakthroughs in plant based meat alternatives made the transition far easier for the masses.
When the Aztec Empire collapsed in the aftermath, forming the Democratic Republic of America, it sealed the coffin on the acceptance of meat consumption in the public eye. Of course, meat was still available, but reduced supply - as governments forced farmers to focus more on crops fit for human consumption - meant it slowly faded from the norm.
Nowadays, nearly three hundred years later, meat consumption has become a societal taboo, in some places even considered a crime, and is only performed by esoteric and wealthy thrill seekers. This has gotten to the point where perfectly good meat, even sourced ethically, is considered a byproduct and discarded. So, what does this tell us about morality and karma's function in society?”
“Uhm, is it that things are only wrong if people say they're wrong. And what people think, even when stupid, can shape how the world works?”
“So then, why was it bad to call Jean Japoux an ignoramus for saying you would get bad karma if you didn't feed the ducks?”
“Because even if karma is ‘fake nonsense’, it can still have a real effect on society because people believe in it.”
“So, what should you do now?”
“Apologize to Jean?”
***
I crouched behind a long electric transport bus with wheels a meter high. Emblazoned on the side was an art deco mural of Professor Vacuus Nergal, CEO and founder of Clearlight, done in many shades of white, gray, green, and orange. Just on the other side was a field full of crows, cawing happily as they… murdered about, or whatever crows did. All hopping around and pecking at the ground and stuff. They were so… alive and not being eaten.
My stomach growled and twinged with pain. I tried chewing on my lip, only to find I didn't have those anymore. Damn, this sucked. I'd tried envisioning the birds as warp beasts, but it just wasn't the same. Maybe if I had a gun it would be easier. I could point and shoot, but the idea of grabbing one and breaking its soft, innocent bird neck with my freaky warped finger just made me queasy.
I could do this. It was just a stupid bird. It's not like they have souls or anything. People used to eat other animals all the time. I crept ever so slowly around the bus, easing my way towards the closest crow. It was a big bird, glistening black feathers ruffled slightly in the chilly breeze. I just had to get a little closer and… it saw me. I froze. Its big, glossy black eye fixed on me with a piercingly intelligent gaze. My own reflection looked back at me from that glassy orb; crouched like an animal in mismatched clothes, the faintest hint of reflected light illuminating my eight yellow eyes behind Melony's shades.
It cocked its head, worm caught in its beak. “Caw?” it croaked around the unswallowed food.
I gulped, saliva thick in my throat.
It took two sideways hops closer, staying just out of reach, and placed the wriggling worm on the gray tarmac. It watched me carefully. When I didn't move, it nudged the worm closer with its beak.
“C'caw,” it said decisively, taking five confident hops back so the offering was halfway between us.
Damn stupidly intelligent wild animals. You knew I was going to try eating you, didn't you? This is just a peace offering to make me feel bad about it, and damnit, it's working.
I slowly approached the wriggling worm and pinched it between two clawed fingers. It was cold and wet, despite its lively wriggling.
“This doesn't make us friends,” I warned the crow. I held it up and grimaced. Up close, blue veins pulsed under its translucent brown skin. I pulled down Kumiko's facemask and dropped it into my mouth, swallowing it whole so I didn't have to taste it. I shuddered as it slid down, still squirming.
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“Mmm, delicious,” I told the bird through clenched teeth.
It cawed happily and hopped off to find more worms.
I slumped to the ground and leaned against the bus's chrome bummer. I was a terrible hunter. These animals had spent generations living alongside docile herbivorous humans for enough generations that they weren't even afraid of us anymore. Maybe if I got hungry enough, I'd stop caring if they were cute, but until that day, the birds were out. The only problem was, there wasn't anything else alive out here. This was a nuclear facility with 20 meter high walls. It wasn't like I was going to find a wildebeest roaming between the cooling towers, just waiting to be gobbled up. I could go to the zoo or on a safari, but that would require talking to people and paying for admittance, two things I couldn't do at the moment. Plus, once I got there, what would I even do, hop the fence and go gazelle hunting like I was a lion? Not exactly stealth mode.
What gave crows the right to be so joyful anyways? Constantly spreading their wings and gliding into the open base of the cooling towers, only to get shot out the top, carried by the powerful updraft caused inside the curved structure. Unless it was because…
“People used to eat eggs, right? Like bird eggs.”
According to historical data, the most common form of egg consumed by humanity was that of the chicken, or hen. In fact, there are still some places in the world where people continue to eat eggs to this day, as it is a reportedly easy thing to farm, and the fact that they are not fertile allows them to argue it does not involve the killing of animals. Not fertile, ey? Leave it to Nim to remember useless stuff from history class over a decade later.
“Would those satisfy my body’s ridiculous dietary requirements?” I asked peevishly.
Calculating projected resource yield of crow eggs. In theory, it would be possible to restore basic function to your arm if you were to consume approximately 86 crow eggs. The conversion rate is rather poor because of the embryonic nature of the food. If you were able to ensure that the eggs were fertilized and at least someone developed, it would reduce the overall number of eggs required as well.
How could I possibly ensure they were fertilized? Wait, no, how could I do the opposite of that? I didn’t want to eat the crows’ unborn babies. Wait, was it murder if the egg hadn’t hatched yet? This train of thought had suddenly become far more political than I was comfortable with. I would just have to try and not eat the alive ones… somehow.
Now, how the hell did one find bird nests inside a 200 meter high nuclear cooling tower?
***
“There you are, Yeva. I've been looking everywhere for you. What are you doing out here? It’s lunch time.”
“And?”
“And I was hoping you would join us.”
“Why?”
Look, Yeva, I know yesterday was awkward, but we were all just a little caught off guard by Sergeant Rimunnabi's, uh, unique introductions. And, since then, I've given it some thought, and I wanted to apologize to you.”
“What?”
“The way that I reacted to the news was not befitting the actions of a squad captain. I should have defended you, or taken responsibility, or… something. I don't know, but I shouldn't have questioned your position on this team. Especially not after you put your faith in me as captain. I let you down, I betrayed your trust, and I'm sorry.”
“You betrayed my trust? I didn't trust you or put my faith in you. I just didn't want the stupid job.”
“And I realize that. I do. But, Yeva, I did want this job, still do. And as squad captain, my primary responsibility is to protect my team, and I failed at that the instant I was given the command.”
“... “
“... “
“Why do you care so much, Richard? It's just school.”
“Not to me... Some kids, they want to be firefighters or policemen or politicians. You know? Well not me. It's my dream to fight the warp. To save lives and stop breaches before they can get out of control. My grandparents lived in Rome, you see, before the warp destroyed it. I didn't really know them all that well, I was too young, but my mother and sister did. They took it pretty hard. I just remember that feeling of powerlessness as we watched the news together. It's not really about revenge or anything like that, I just didn't want to let it happen again.”
“... “
“Sorry, I didn't mean to drop all that on you. Lunch. We're all going to the mess together. It'll be awkward, sure, but the others will get over it. And this time, I'll have your back. Deal?”
“Whatever.”
***
Nuclear cooling towers were so much bigger up close than they seemed from afar. The hyperboloid structure dominated the sky like another tyrannical moon. The open base of the tower looked 10 to 12 meters tall, crossed by a lattice of meter and a half wide support beams that themselves rested on a 3 meter high concrete boot topped with chainlink fence. The boot was a steeply slanted ring that ran alone the entirety of the foundation, so I got a running start and ran up the side. At the top, I only had a few centimeters to stand and had to cling to the fence.
The inside of the tower made me feel even smaller than the outside had. Past the fence was another 10 meter drop to a concrete floor that gently sloped towards the center where it ended in a massive 15 meter wide hole. All around the open chamber was a forest of support pillars holding up a latticework of pipes and walkways of various sizes. Roosting in this steel web were hundreds of crows, cawing happily and building nests from twigs. Their calls echoed monstrously in gargantuan hollow space, creating an apocalyptic cacophony of noise. A strong draft pushed at my back, as if the tower were sucking in the air. The birds feathers rustled in the sudden updraft and some of them took flight, riding the current as it carried them up and out of sight.
There had to be a way to get up there. I followed the fence around the base of the tower until I found a portion with a gate that was chained shut. A half-ladder half-staircase led up to the gate itself and just inside was a caged ladder that led up to the scaffolding above and the concrete floor below. I grasped the steel tubing door frame and prepared my footing to force the door open.
Yeva, what are you doing? Nim asked, sounding baffled.
“Uh, opening the door?”
Do I need to remind you of how low you are on stamina, or did you already forget what I said about your augmented strength? If you rip this door apart with your bare hands, you will expend what little reserves you have left.
“There’s food in there. I need to get through this door.” I rattled the padlock and chain for emphasis.
I understand that, but is this really the best way to go about it? Surely there is a more efficient method you could use.
“Nim, I’m starving here. If I had another way through, I’d use it, but every gate is going to be locked like this one. Even if I climb the fence, I’ll still be stuck outside the ladder cage, and the only other thing on that side is a big drop. I mean, if I had literally any of my equipment, maybe I could cut through this chain, but I lost my nano… blade.”
Yeah, I felt a little silly now. Nim didn't say anything, but I could feel him judging me.
“Shut up,” I said anyway. Mimicking what I'd done before I hacked up another glob of nanite acid. This time, I paid special attention to the sensation. When I squeezed my tonsils, a gland in the back of my throat squirted acid that rapidly filled my still closed mouth. The nanites were warm on my tongue and vibrated almost imperceptibly. I pulled down Kumiko's mask, ensuring it was clear of the splash zone, and carefully spit the viscus and deadly saliva onto the steel padlock. The metal hissed and smoked as the acid did its work, eating away the lock and chain in seconds. I was careful not to get any of the acid on me as I unraveled the remaining chain and swung the gate open.
It was time for an egg hunt.
