Chapter 3.20: The President

<-- Previous Chapter

From Leo's diary

Claire took some time before giving her answer. Meanwhile, she also questioned Orion and Silas about the details that new secret and crazy plan they had been (evidently) involved with.


Claire: Do you want to tell me you've been working on it since before the TV broadcast interruption, when Mr M. said for the first time that he wanted to send us here?
Silas: To be precise, Celine had started devising the plan around the time we left Sixam. We just started to put it in place for real after that TV announcement.
Orion: We renamed it plan C., we had to work hard to get everything ready on time.

Claire silently listened to their explanation, trying not to let her exasperation come out. How many times did she tell them not to be so reckless? 

Silas: We'veve never really considered the idea of putting plan C in place, it would have been too difficult to bring everyone here under normal conditions, but now ...
Orion: ... but now that idiot of Mr M. decided to kindly organise the mass transfer for us, we just couldn't waste such an opportunity!
Claire: And this also explains why you didn't protest for what was happening to us, it was simply convenient for your plan...

The work they had done was evident to everyone, they had used the matter recomposer at full regime to make all the buildings and infrastructures that would have been indispensable for everyone's life on our arrival. They were right, technically it was possible to set up an autonomous and functioning Country. But at which price?


Claire: Do you realize that if we proclaimed our independence, many other Nations would be too afraid of us to keep any diplomatic channel open? It would backfire, it would mean cutting all the connections with the humans!
Orion: That's the point!
Claire: But...
Silas: (Bitter) Considering how humans were treating us, cutting our connections with them is not necessarily a bad thing. We are perfectly capable of getting by on our own, even better than they do. And I'm sure many other sixamians would agree with me.
Orion: And what could humans do to stop us, declarea war? They should be at least intelligent enough to realize they have no chance of winning! Thinking about this, we've just started working on laser rifles the Ministry of Defence doesn't know anything about that...
Claire: We cannot point a gun at anyone trying to get close, it would be unacceptable!
Orion: Why, what Mr M. is doing segregating us in a desert is acceptable instead?
Claire: No, but we cannot lower ourselves to their level either! We will have to work to put together a country where everyone can feel accepted, after all this is what we lacked before, isn't it?


Silas: You stopped using the conditional, does it mean that you have decided to accept?
Claire: ... maybe. I mean, of course I want to help other sixamians, both if vote in favour of independence and if the referendum didn't pass. But, if this new Country was ever a thing, I think it would be fairer to let them choose who will govern them with another election. I don't want to become the "New Sixam's dictator", you know?



It was less than a month after our arrival in the Strangerville region when, without even trying to hide it from Mr M., our televisions began broadcasting information regarding the new referendum on the foundation of New Sixam and the election of the possible President.

Postman: Horray for New Sixam!

In some ways it is strange to live surrounded by other aliens only, but we also feel more united than we ever did. The more time passes, the more the outcome of the referendum seems obvious. And Mr M. knows it too.


Just the day before the elections, we celebrated Claire's birthday. 



She is a bit worried, she claims to feel a bit like a granny at this point (and she also admitted with me that she's a bit afraid that people will prefer a younger candidate instead of her). We all reminded her she hasn't anything to worry about, surely everyone will remember all her past efforts, but she can't avoid feel a bit nervous about the incoming election. 

So we all sat together on the sofa again, watching together the referendum and election results unfolding before our eyes on TV.
The referendum for the creation of New Sixam was won by stratospheric margins, no one seemed to want to be a small province within a Country that hated us. Claire instead won the presidential elections with 63.5% of the votes, as predicted everyone still remembered all the commitment she had shown in previous years and many had decided to trust her.

Mr M. appeared in trouble as never before at the time of the declaration of independence of New Sixam, but he was too afraid of our possible adverse reaction to do anything. Among us the first day of New Sixam was therefore generally remembered as a great celebration, full of confidence and hope for a better future.


Claire: (to herself) Surely life is strange sometimes, until a few months ago I would have never imagined making such a speech...
Cameramen: (wispering) Live in 5, 4, 3, 2 ...


Claire: Good evening to you all, citizens of New Sixam! Thank you for the trust you have placed in me, I promise to give my best to lead this Country!

A brief applause from the crowd followed her opening words, but silence settled again quickly. Everyone seemed to be eager to hear what their new President had to say, so Claire took her notes and started saying:

Claire: The move to Nuova Sixam was a difficult step for us all. We were forced to leave our homes behind, as well as many people who were important to us, to come here altogether. However, despite everything, I see so a lot of hope in the eyes of those around me, the hope of a better future. Future for which we need the commitment of all of you, a commitment that you are now demonstrating with your extraordinary daily efforts in building this new Country!

No one spoke, nor among the small crowd in front of her nor at home. Everyone noticed Claire's expression turning serious and, the same way I did when following to her rehearsal last night, listened even more carefully to what she was about to say.

Claire: .... however, besides this, there is also more that I see in the streets. There is distrust of humans, even hatred for them. But indiscriminate hatred cannot be one of the pillars on which we can build New Sixam.

A general murmur went through the crowd, but Claire didn't expect anything different and just ignored it. Instead she took another piece of paper, and then resumed her speech.


Claire: I am sure many of you could feel perplexed by hearing me saying so, which is why I have brought here a short essay on the subject to explain my point. It was written a few days ago by my son when, at the university, he was asked: how do you think relationships with human beings could evolve in the future?

The general perplexity grew more and more, but Claire seemed to know what she was doing.

Claire: Maybe not all of you know, but before we reached planet Earth our species was very different from how we are now. No one had two arms, two legs and a head. All our ancestors knew was to think aseptically and rationally, to the point they considered it ethical to conquer and raid planets following only their necessities. It was by introducing human genome into ours and by living on this Planet that we became what we are today. Humans taught us what now appears normal to us: from them we learnt what friendship, family and even love mean.

Now the audience followed her in silence and so we did, captivated. 

Claire: However, we have learnt so much from the humans that we also assimilate some of their flaws, such as the fear of what is different, or of the unknown. Which, down deep, are the real reasons that led us to this situation.


Claire: (on TV) We Sixamians have lived for generations scattered in very different places, losing contact with the traditions and history of our ancestors who lived before our arrival on Earth. We are people without traditions and without history, but now we have the opportunity to write our own, our history. And we are also given a chance to ensure that future generations will be proud of the choices we will make!

Lyra: What a difficult speech ...
Luke: (stunned) Did she really read my anthropology essay during her inaugural speech!?


Leo: Your mom was going crazy writing her speech, but then she found your essay lying around the house. After she read it she said that it was just what she was trying to say.
Luke: But why not tell me?
Leo: Partly because she didn't have the time to, partly for surprise effect.


And this is how our lives in New Sixam began. As the President's family, on top of that.

Claire is definitively busy with very important matters right now, while the rest of us are continuing to deal with our much more ordinary life.
For starters, I'm now working at the local police station.


This place reminds me of something my mom told me when, immediately after we moved to Windenburg, she commented in amazement that all the hospitals in the country looked absolutely identical to each other. At this moment I have the impression that the same could also be said of police stations as well.

In any case, for the moment the situation seems to be relatively calm. Above all, we are mostly dealing with minor troubles and skirmishes that resulted from people struggling with the stressful situation we were obliged to pass through. 


Lyra, on the other hand, is still a student at the local high school and continues to spend time with the group of local cheerleaders. Her two best friends, Ariana and Misty, also attend the same school and entered the local cheerleaders' team as well. Compared to the rest of us, she may be the one who lost the least by coming here.

Luke, on the other hand...


.... Luke continues to study at the local university, he's approaching the end of the first semester. His essay Claire read during her speech was not an exception, he is working hard and the results are evident to everyone. But we can't avoid being worried about him, apart from meals and his mom's public talks on TV he's always locked into his room and refuses to talk with us.
 He seems so lonely and sad...

We all know about Serena and how they decided to break up just before we moved here. He strongly denies it, but at this point it seems clear to everyone that he is continuing to think about her.
We often try to knock at his door, proposing to spend some time together or to try to cheer him up a bit, but he never answers us. Probably his wound is still too fresh for him to ignore it and just go on. I know it will take time for him to feel better, but I can't wait to see him recovering either, it's so heartbreaking to us being unable to help him as it is now...

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§HermioneSims§ corner:

I'm writing this here because I feel like I'm interrupting these chapters too often to talk about the cats, but I have to share with you the sad news of Freddy's demise.


I've shamefully ignored him during his last few days, which is also why I decided to stop keeping replacing cats at the pace I've followed up to now.

It was a very sad moment, but at least the Reaper seems to have enjoyed his meeting with the cheerleaders... I suspect he wanted to participate too, what do you think?



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Chapter 3.19: New Sixam

 <-- Previous Chapter

From Leo's Diary

Driven by Mr M.'s overwhelming victory, his supporters are becoming increasingly hostile towards us aliens. They even left unfriendly graffiti on our house wall last night...


But the real problem is the speed with which Mr M.'s new anti-alien laws have been processed, laws against which the opposition in parliament cannot do anything.


Mr M.: (on TV) "... living with aliens has never worked, we are too different. The crime stats are self-explanatory, how can you control individuals who are able to change their appearance at will?  Not to talk about their sabotage of our transmission just a few weeks ago, that episode alone showed us their true attitude more than a thousand words could. Isn't their hostility towards us glaring, at this point? To group all the aliens into a single province dedicated to them is the best solution, for everyone. This is why we are doing out best to ensure that the law is approved as soon as possible..."

Claire: (angry) How can he call this "the best solution"? This bullshit didn't make any sense when it was my father the one saying them, it's so unfair!

Claire is obviously the angriest and most frustrated about the situation, and she's feeling guilty too. If only she had managed to convince people to trust her, she could have been at his place right now, that's probably how she feels.

And of course it's not just us, also our kids are negatively affected by the most recent news.


Even Lyra, who usually gets carried away without caring about the "boring adult stuff", can't remain indifferent to the situation. And, probably, it is better not to quote here the exacts words she used to address the latest speech by Mr M.

While Luke...


Luke: (shaking his head) I'm heading to my room, it's useless to keep listening to this nonsense...

... Luke instead locked himself into his room for days, reasoning about the situation. We can only imagine what passed through his mind, but now he seems to be completely resigned to his unfair destiny. 

We tried to cheer him up, somehow, but what could we tell him? "As long as we stay together, it will settle somehow"? Or "It's not the end of the world, you're still so young"? 
He's a smart guy, and he definitively can understand the meaning and the consequences of what is about to happen by himself. This is probably he's always dismissing any of our attempts to console him a bit as useless empty words.

This could probably be the hardest part for me, seeing all my family suffer and being unable to help them in any way.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Luke's diary

I've just graduated from high school, hardly anyone was surprised when I confirmed to be one of the best students of my year. I had also received an acceptance letter from a good college, I applied to it before I could suspect any of those mad ideas were about to flood our news. 
I was planning to study history and anthropology, to learn more about the populations who have coexisted throughout the history of this planet.

Then I was supposed to celebrate my birthday. My family did their best to organize it, but was there really something to celebrate?


I had projects, so many that I struggle to list them now. I think it's normal at my age. But now we are about to lose everything, to start a new life full of question marks somewhere else...


I'm keeping seeing Serena as much as I did before. She seems as shaken as I am by this absurd situation, but she too seems to still be able to analyze it with a clarity that surprises even me. She is really good at this kind of thing, the more time passes the clearer it gets.


Luke: (resigned) The situation is getting worse and worse. So many sixamians are so sick of being treated this way that they are the first who want to go live on their own.
Serena:  It was inevitable, hatred can only create more hatred. 

I feel so sad and helpless right now...


I feel a strong connection for her, and he says it's the same for her. 
And I refuse to believe that we are the exception, I strongly believe that sixamians and humans would have so much to give to each other, if our interactions weren't poisoned by this widespread prejudice.

We would just like to forget about everything else and live in our bubble, but now more than ever we should be talking about what's awaiting for us in the next few months instead.

We sixamians are destined to be crammed into what is now a nearly deserted province. We have little time to build housing and infrastructure for everyone, as well as to set up the administration and services that we will need to continue to lead a normal life. Although Mr M. insists on repeating the opposite, confusion and insecurity will reign for a long time. And all this will only increase the hatred of humans.

I can't ask her to come with us, it wouldn't make sense. And she must think the same, because she has never mentioned the opposite.

Sooner or later we will have to face the subject, but neither of us has the courage to do so...

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From Leo's diary

Weeks have passed by, and Claire continues to do her best in trying to lead the opposition to Mr M. in the Parliament, in a desperate attempt to at least limit the damage.




Claire: (embittered) We did our best, but we only managed to have the clauses on hybrids retracted. Since you can't disguise or use telepathy, you won't be forced to leave.
Roberta: Anyway we can't let Aster and Ariana go alone. Nor the rest of you.

We weren't surprised by this answer. Thinking about it, most of the hybrids had aliens among their close relatives and had grown up in the alien part of the community. It was therefore likely that the majority of them would have decided to follow us anyway.


Leo: (resigned) So we are all going to Strangerville. The last time I was there, there were just a few houses, how do you think to handle it?
Orion: The matter recomposer is running at full capacity, by using the rocks of the area it is not difficult to produce low-cost concrete houses.
Silas: The government has already begun to transfer the few human families that were still in the area after the accident, the town is practically empty right now.

Sadness and frustration reigned among us. Neither of us wanted to leave, but what else could we do? Not even Orion and Silas were proposing crazy plans anymore, apparently the possible alternatives sounded excessive even to them. 


---------------------------------------------------------------------

From Luke's diary


Inexorably, the law came to its approval within a few months. The TV frontmen seemed so disgustingly relieved by it that we stopped to watch TV altogether. 

All of us sixamians should have moved to the Strangerville province upon reception of an official notification letter, anyone who refused would have been forcibly moved there.
The province would have been in all respects an integral part of the Country, and therefore subject to the same laws and taxes, but also equipped with the same types of services and infrastructures. Everyone would also be given a house and the opportunity to work on the most suited tasks to them, but our movements to the rest of the Country would have been strictly monitored.

Much of the province's research activity would have focused on developing technologies from Sixam. After all, not even Mr M. could deny that Sixam's teleportation, matter recomposer or super-advanced medicine were strategic technologies of national interest. Thinking about it, that was most likely the main reason why he wanted to keep the Strangerville province under the central government control, instead of just kicking us out of the Country altogether.


As on time as only bad news can be, our transfer notice letter arrived a few days later.


And Serena and I could no longer postpone the conversation we had avoided for all those months...


Serena: (sad) So you're all leaving.
Luke: so it seems.
Serena: ...
Luke: ...

Serena: So this is a farewell.
Luke: Uhm.

It was the best solution, we both knew that. But it didn't make it any less painful.

Luke: Good luck, for everything. You're smart, you'll be fine.
Serena: You too.

She had said it with a hint of a smile, she wanted to sound encouraging but the sadness in her eyes said otherwise.


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From Leo's diary

I left in winter, in the snow, and I find myself living in a desert again.

We ended up in a large house a few steps from Orion's place. I never thought we could ever become neighbours.

We have been assigned such a house, instead of the small prefabricated buildings most of the other people were given, mainly thanks to Claire's position. Despite everything, the alien community recognized all her efforts in trying to help them.




Mr M. has kept his promises, here we can lead a life very similar to what we did before. I still work at a police station, Claire will represent this province in Parliament and Lyra is attending a new high school. Luke, on the other hand, is doing all the paperwork to enrol to the local college.



Despite the similarity in our lifestyles, we couldn't avoid feeling bitter about the situation. Sometimes we made some attempts to cheer each others up, but that new huge house was sadly silent for most of the time.


Claire: (Trying to cheer him up) It's your birthday, don't you even want a cake?
Leo: There's not much to celebrate, don't you think?




Leo: At least this tavern still looks the same.
Silas: Just the management has changed, of course.

Orion: Seriously Leo, you're looking so old today!
Leo: Have you looked in the mirror lately? I remind you that we are twins!


Claire: Didn't we come here to talk about serious things?
Leo: Indeed. What did you want to talk to us about, Celine?

Celine is one of the very few humans who moved to Strangerville. Considering that she was one of the leaders of the rebels who went to live on Sixam and that most of her family is made up of aliens, no one was surprised to see her there with us though.


Celine: (serious) We have a proposal for you, Claire.
Claire: Should I worry? No offence, but most of the proposals coming from you guys were quite crazy...

Celine replied with a half smile, she seemed almost flattered by the insinuation. Claire said those words ironically, pretending to be completely calm, but also I could notice the expressions in Celine, Orion and Silas's faces at that point. They were plotting something. 
As to confirm our suspects, Celine started saying:


Celine: We are about to propose a referendum to all the inhabitants of the region.
Claire: (perplexed) A referendum? About what?
Celine: The work in the laboratories is much more advanced than what the reports we wrote to the Ministry of Defence, the way they've always tried to exploit our work is just horrible. 
Claire: ...

Claire didn't say anything, but I could tell from her expression she felt conflicted. Why were the rebels keeping to hide data from the government? And what did they plan to do now with that information?

Celine: ...we have a few quite fancy devices in our secret archives, by using them we would be perfectly able to obtain all the resources we need and live very comfortable lives even in this desert. According to our calculations, in a short time we may even be able to surpass the Country we come from, actually.
Claire: (worried) ... what do you have in mind, exactly?
Celine: C'mon, isn't it obvious? If aliens will agree, we want to declare our independence from Sim City and create a new Country in this province, New Sixam. And we would like you to candidate yourself as the President, Claire.


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§HermioneSims§ corner

This was a very tough chapter... I can be very evil with my characters sometimes.

Anyway, I want to close with a couple of more practical things related to the legacy:

i) I wrote the Luke enrolled to college, but when I played this part I didn't have that expansion pack yet. So it will just be a narrative license;

ii) Moving the family to Strangerville was quite chaotic, so chaotic that I completely forgot about Leo's birthday. He aged autonomously soon after they arrive in Strangerville, so now he's officially an old sim.

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Chapter 3.18: The elections

Disclaimer:

There could be some very questionable political stances in this chapter, I would even dare to say disturbing ones. Clearly, I don't agree with such statements, I mostly need this chapter to reach a certain point which will be the base for the next few generations in the legacy. 


 

<-- Previous Chapter

From Luke's diary

When I returned back home from the library, I found Lyra impatiently waiting for me in the kitchen. That's unexpected, to say the least, we usually don't have much to talk about. Not knowing what to expect, I ended up asking her, very cautiously:


Luke: Did something happen?
Lyra: That's exactly what I wanted to ask you! It's 8 PM already, did you really stay at the library with Misty and Serena for this long? I thought you would have been bored a lot sooner!
Luke: Well, it went better than expected.
Lyra: Misty wrote to me right away, she told me Serena’s been making eyes at you all afternoon!
Luke: (glowing) ... what?
Lyra: Ah ah, then you like her back!
Luke: Just stop talking nonsense!
Lyra: You don't want to confess, huh?

This is something Lyra started practising when hearing dad talking about his job, and which she refined after asking our uncles for some help. Unfortunately for me, she’s gotten really good at telepathy.


Luke: Hey, that's unfair!
Lyra: Ah ah, I see, she even gave you her number! Then she really likes you!
Luke: ...
Lyra: And you got a serious crush on her too, no doubt about it!

Instinctively I would have wanted to tell her to quit right away, but I didn't have any element to use to support my incoming rant. Actually, she was probably right.

Unlike me, she understood this stuff right away.

Lyra: What are you waiting for, call her back! I'm sure she can't wait to see you again!



Calling her back had been one of the most intimidating things I had ever done, but somehow I had managed to. We met again the next evening, in a bar not far from home.


I was more agitated than before a test, was this normal? What was I supposed to do? What if I made something embarrassing? And...


Serena: Hey, hi Luke!
Luke: Hi!

To greet me, she immediately hugged me tightly, without giving me time to think about what to do.


That was the moment when I realized Lyra was absolutely right, I liked Serena in a way I couldn't put into words. And it seemed to be the same for her too.

I don't remember exactly if I was the one kissing her, or if it was the other way round. It doesn't even seem that important, after all. What really mattered is that, without a shadow of a doubt, it was the most natural thing I could do at that moment.


And this is when we started seeing each other every day. Most of our schoolmates seemed astonished seeing a cheerleader like her dating a sixamians nerd like me, but who cares, after all?
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A week later
From Leo's diary

We all went voting yesterday, we were impatiently waiting for the announcement of the final results. Claire was the most exhausted I've ever seen her, and I can't say to be in much better shape right now.


Leo: Where's Luke? They could start the broadcast at any moment now.
Lyra: You don't know, really? He's just found a girlfriend, and it also seems to be quite serious, they've been together for all the last week! Most likely they're watching this stuff together, too.
Claire: (exhausted) Oh, I see. Well, good for them then...

Both I and Claire watched back on Lyra with astonishment, we had been caught off guard by what she had just told us and, admittently, we also felt a bit guilty for not having noticed it before. Objectively, in the last few months, we've spent so much time following Claire's job to have neglected our children a bit too much, otherwise we wouldn't have missed it. We'll have to find a way to fix it, as soon as these elections are officially over.


In the following few hours, also Orion, Silas, Aster and Roberta joined us. It was almost as if we were trying to cheer each other up.

Orion: In the last polls, how many points did you have?
Claire: 23%, if it were confirmed we would be the first opposition party.
Roberta: Well, that would be better than nothing, isn't it?


City after city, all electoral districts transmitted their results. The numbers kept being summed for hours, until the final results were finally announced.

TV: ... and these are the final results: Mr M. wins the presidency with 51.6% of the votes. At a large distance, follows Mrs S. at 22.5%, Mr G. at...

Claire: (Frustrated) C'mon, really? With the number of parliament sits his party got, it will be hard even to do any opposition in Parliament! 


Claire thought she was defeated all along the line, and none of us found anything positive to say about it. At that point we were in the hands of Mr M., and a lot of possible horrible scenarios suddenly became more plausible than ever.


-----------------------------------------------------

Mr M. proposed his first law on TV a month later, with the confidence of someone who is aware to have the support of the large majority of the Parliament, and thus will be able to see all his proposed laws passed in a short time.


Aster's home


Mr M.: (on TV) since when I got elected, the protests in the Spice Market District are getting worse and worse, and many aliens were already arrested for their despicable actions. At this point it is evident that keeping waiting for the settlement of peaceful coexistence is just a waste of time. This situation is only posing a concrete danger to our public safety, no one can deny it!  The situation is getting out of hand, and we are urged to take drastic measures to solve the problem...

Roberta: (worried) I have a very bad feeling about this...
Aster: Me too...


Orion's home


Orion: All this noise for a bunch of exasperated aliens who set on fire a few rubbish bins? What a crybaby...
Silas: Look at his face, it's not a game anymore.
Orion: ...
Silas: (resigned) I guess that soon we will have to put plan B in action and go back to Sixam, you know?

Mr M.: (on TV) ... we therefore intend to propose a mass displacement of all individuals with alien ancestry in a province designated for them, in this position. Over there they will be allowed to do whatever they want, but they will no longer be able to interfere with the rest of us in any way.

By saying this, he indicated an area in the middle of the desert on a map behind him. Looking closely, it seemed to be the area surrounding the town of Strangerville.

Orion: What nonsense is he talking about?

The moment of general bewilderment was interrupted by his cell phone, which suddenly began to ring insistently.


Orion: What do you want, Celine? I don't know if you're watching the TV, but we're in quite big troub... (puzzled) What, do you need the frequencies of the first channel?
Silas: 482 MHz, if I'm not mistaken.

Orion reported the value to Celine, listened to the last part of her message and then closed the call by saying:

Orion: She says to prepare us for plan C.
Silas: (surprised) Oh. I see...

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We followed the whole announcement in total astonishment, no one expected such a move from Mr M.

Claire: he can't do it, it's just unethical!
Luke: ...

We didn't have time to fully process the message and its consequences, when the normal audio of the transmission was replaced by a loud electrical buzz, which quickly turned into a completely different voice. We did not know who was sending it, but the voice was unmistakably that of an alien.

TV: We didn't want to reach this point, but you forced us to. We have tried in every way to build a peaceful coexistence in recent decades, but you humans did nothing but work against us and seek hatred. We therefore turn to all the aliens who are listening tonight: they can kick us out of our homes and towns, but we must remain united! It may be hard at first, but together we will be able to overcome any difficulty. Brace yourselves, because a new Sixam is about to rise again!

The message was closed with an insult to Mr M., and only at that point the control over the TV program was handled back to the original broadcasters. 

The shocked expression of Mr M. and of the TV frontmen was priceless, but we weren't any less shocked than them. We didn't have the time to metabolize what Mr M. new law would have meant for our future, when we had already to worry about who interrupted the program, and what their intentions could have been.



Within half an hour, our life was completely turned upside down again, and we could not do anything to avoid it. What should we do now?
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Chapter 3.17: Humans vs aliens

<-- Previous Chapter

From Leo's diary

Lyra didn't waste any time, she began high school just a few months ago and now she has already passed the selections for the cheerleaders' team.


In any other moment, Claire and I would have at least tried to negotiate a little about our daughter's new style choices, the bright pink hair look a bit too extreme. Apparently, she also settled to grow hair only on 2/3 of her head, she said she's struggling to use a disguise on the remaining part. I heard it by many aliens already, partial disguising oneself just for growing hair is much less instinctive than a full disguise, thus more difficult.

However, back to the important topics, elections are getting closer and closer and the candidates' electoral campaigns are harshening day after day. Willing or not, we adults have other problems on our minds.


TV: A new spike in criminality has been recorded in the outskirts of Sim City in the last few months, predominately among the alien communities. Violent outbreaks are getting out of control in the Spice District and Evergreen Harbour areas, requiring massive police intervention. Mr M., outraged by the disorders, immediately replied during his last public speech.  

Also in the police station those small revolts just outside of Sim City were the main topic of discussion. We were lucky to live in the calm and boring Windenburg, they said. I, on the other hand,  couldn't avoid feeling salty about this situation: as long as that group of aliens was selling illegal drugs in the north part of the Country, that had been the main argument against aliens in any Mr M. speech, but now that we have arrested them he had just shifted his focus on anything else allowing him to keep bashing on us.
Saying that it's frustrating and infuriating would be an understatement...

Mr M.: (on TV) Criminality levels are clearly on the rise in those areas where aliens decided to settle, what other evidence do we need? It is becoming unsafe to us to live next to them, and...


Orion: That's bullshit, did he see any of the neighbourhoods where mostly aliens live? They are abandoned in poverty down there, of course they're be protesting!
Silas: (seriously) Do you really think anyone would be listening to the data in such a situation? That Mr M. is taking advantage of the protests to take votes from Claire, that's all.

Claire was working overtime every day at this point, polls said her party wasn't gaining any point regardless of all her efforts. She was starting to get really exhausted, but she hadn't given up either.

--------------------------------------------------------------

A few days later I proposed to Claire and the kids to go out to dine together, we have so few chances to spend some time all together recently. Admittedly, we didn't had the time for cooking anything at home either.


Lyra: That's some very heavy rain!
Claire: Let's hurry in, come on.

The hostess didn't welcome us with a friendly expression, we are actually quite sure to have heard her muttering an "aliens!" with an annoyed tone.


They also put us in a corner of the room, as far as they could from the other customers. I don't like to suspect the worst from the others, but at that point it was quite clear we weren't welcomed in there.


Lyra: Well, at least they didn't tell us to sit outside...
Luke: Any suggestion about what to order?
Leo: I heard they are mostly good with fish, my colleague suggested to me to try the trout.
Claire: (tired) Fine for me.


Leo: Well, how are you doing at school then?
Lyra: Luke has won the title of "nerdest student in the school". Again.
Luke: Since when is there such a competition? And what's wrong with wanting to get into a decent university?
Lyra: But...
Luke: Rather, do you and your friends do anything useful aside from waving pom poms at games?
Lyra: Hey, we're not stupid empty heads, you know?
Luke: Ah ah, if you say so...

Claire: Come on, there's no need to argue also in here... Can't we just have a peaceful family dinner?

------------------------------------------------------------------------


Claire: (on TV) We are working hard to ensure integration and equal opportunities for everyone. The engineering and medical technologies recovered on Sixam are close to a real-life implementation, and will soon allow everyone to...


Leo: It sounds like a very good speech!
Claire: Uhm, well, maybe... But since that idiot started to talk so often about the protests in Sim City, our poll results are dropping... I don't have a good feeling at all.

I would love to be able to cheer you up, but we aren't in the position to do anything. Claire is in disadvantage in the polls and, no matter how hard she tries, the situation doesn't seem to be improving.


Claire: I mean, that idiot is playing dirty! He has no real data to accuse us of anything, yet all he needs to make people follow him like sheep is to blame everything on us!
Leo: ...

Claire: (resigned) At worst, in five years we will vote again... Maybe, after realizing that that idiot isn't capable of anything other than void words, the people would be more willing to listen.

Elections will be held in a few days, at this point we are all so exhausted that even Claire just wants this neverending electoral campaign to end, even if this means accepting a defeat. We are starting to surrender, that's it.

--------------------------------------------------------------
From Luke's diary


Lyra is quickly befriending her teammates in the cheerleaders' group, They are always around town together giggling about I don't know which uninteresting topic. At the moment she seems to be spending most of her time with the other two sixamians in the team, one is our cousin Ariana and the other, if I'm not mistaken, is called Misty.


They claimed they came to the library for studying but, judging what I could see, they hadn't opened a single book in hours. Actually, quite a few people in the library have turned toward them, visibly annoyed. Is it really that hard to remember that people are supposed to remain silent in a library?


Lyra: Hey Luke, I was looking for you!
Luke: (annoyed) If it wasn't obvious enough, I have to point out I'm studying. What do you want?
Lyra: Could you help my friends? Next week they have to deliver an essay, you already did it last year and you took a super good grade!
Luke: But...
Lyra: Please!

My adorable little sister can be very insistent when it comes to her requests and thus, unfortunately, I found myself teaching to two girls I barely knew. One was Misty, my sister's other sixamians friend, while the other's name was apparently Serena.


Luke: Well, I was told you needed my help with a history project. Have you already thought about the topic, at least?
Misty: We had sort of an idea, but it is not the stuff we can easily find in books.
Serena: But your sister told us you are an expert on this subject instead!
Luke: (puzzled) Wait, what do you have in mind?
Serena: We have already studied the history of the Country dozens of times at school, we got bored of it. So we decided to focus on the story of the aliens instead!
Misty: Spaceships, invasions, laser guns... That sounds like an interesting project, doesn't it?

I didn't answer right away. From them I would have expected the usual project everyone always wrote on the llamas' war or the founders of the country, certainly not this one. Last year I tried to propose a similar project to my group mates, actually, but they laughed in my face.

After all, this task could be interesting...

Luke: It will be a lot of work, I warn you.


We had spent most of that afternoon writing up a lineup. We hardly studied anything about sixamians history at school, so for them it was all new notions. Instead, I was trying to put together all the pieces of information I had collected over the years by talking to Uncle Orion and Uncle Silas, who had given me some data pulled out from the Sixam's old archives for each of my birthdays. 

I tried many times to do the same on my computer, but some parts are so intricated that neither I managed to fully unentangle them yet. However, the clearest sections should be more than sufficient for their school project.

Luke: ... and this led to the invention of teleportation. It was at that point that they started focusing on exploring space, searching for resources, and that they discovered the existence of other life forms in the universe.
Serena: Instead, the colonization attempts started due to a lack of resources on the home planet, right?
Luke: Yes. The star Sixam orbits is fading, and this is slowly killing the planet's vegetation, making it difficult to produce food and energy.
Serena: (thoughtful) And so they ended up here on Earth, uhm ...

Misty: Well, this is all very interesting, but it's already 6 PM and and my brain is starting to fry. See you!

Without making any other comments, Misty got up and went out greeting us with one hand.


Luke: Do you plan to leave too?
Serena: No, I can remain a bit longer. But I agree with her, we've studied enough for today. Would you like to play chess for a bit, instead?

I didn't think much about it before accepting. After all, I liked chess, and it was interesting to talk with Serena. How did someone like her end in the cheerleader team, I wondered?


Serena: I was wondering about something that always seemed so strange to me...
Luke: What kind of thing?
Serena: Well, if you think about it, you aliens are very similar to us. You also have two legs, two arms, a head... Which are the chances of two such similar species evolve independently so far one from another?
Luke: My uncles calculated the odds, they were 0.0000... er,  I don't remember exactly how many zeros there were. But it was an incredibly low number.
Serena: So how did it happen?


Luke: Well, according to the archives, until about a century and a half ago our ancestors were very different from us. It was when they began targeting Earth and integrating human genetic material that they began to become more and more like humans. The writings report that the original inhabitants of Sixam have decided to create hybrids to best adapt to the climatic conditions of the new planet and maximise their survival chances. The uncles also measured that, on average, our DNA is the same as yours for more than 90%, and...

And then I suddenly stopped talking, realizing that probably I shouldn't have said that. A lot of people don't like to remember the time when sixamians secretly abducted humans to "pollinate them", after all. That was still the main reason why many humans weren't able to overcome their fear for us, actually.

To my surprise she answered with a smile instead, and said:

Serena: I see! So it makes so much more sense, you know?
Luke: May I make a question, too?
Serena: Sure.
Luke: Why are you so interested in aliens? Aren’t you afraid of us?
Serena: I'm Misty's best friend since when we were in kindergarten, how could I be afraid of aliens?
Luke: But...


Serena: I'm sorry, but you got distracted: checkmate!
Luke: What?

Serena: Well, it was amusing, we should play again sometime! See you!

That said, she greeted me with a big smile and left. I admit I was very confused at that moment. And maybe confused is not even the best term to describe the way I felt, but I just couldn't find a better one at the time.

To say that this afternoon has been unexpectedly intriguing would be an understatement, this is probably the first time I hope to see again the cheerleaders at the library as soon as possible.

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