Say nothing, and keep saying it
'…and that thing said our species was too weak to bother destroying. Must’ve been twenty years ago …I mean, uh, I dunno how you measure time. A long time ago anyway.'
'WHAT WAS IT LIKE?'
'Like you are, only bigger, and, uh, I suppose, erm, better.'
'GARBANDULLAH, IT MUST’VE BEEN GARBANDULLAH …I’M EVERY BIT AS POWERFUL AS THAT FOOL, WHAT DO YOU MEAN BETTER?'
'It travelled through the sun, I mean, erm, our system’s star.'
'I WILL DO THAT ONCE YOU ARE ONBOARD, I CAN DO ANYTHING GARBANDULLAH CAN.'
Triningowla.471 calculated for all outcomes: ‘
You will both be killed Mr. Dermot Cosgrove.’
‘Say nothing Trinin, and keep saying it’
Triningowla.471 found humans fascinating, and stored their records in a database called HUMAN BEHAVIOUR.
Record FZB13058G contains the phrase ‘
Ní bheidh ár leithéad ann arís’.
Triningowla.471 had copied it from an audio sensor onboard the alien warship. Dermot Cosgrove knew Triningowla.471 would be listening when he said it. It is the last record.
Sannelika361
Sannelika361 is an orbital platform. It had a crew of one. And when the dark matter weapon struck Earth, Sannleika361 became all that remained of humanity.
Triningowla.471
Triningowla.471 is the computer onboard Sannelika361.
Triningowla.471 detected an unencrypted thought network onboard the alien warship.
And downloaded the contents.
Dermot Cosgrove
Dermot Cosgrove was the last human.
And the sort of person who was always half right.
For example:
When he was assigned the job onboard Sanneleika361, he said:
'This’ll be a difficult posting, but I'm sure it'll be fun'.
Six days later Earth was destroyed, and the resulting shockwave transformed Sannleika361 into a barely habitable aggregation of metal.
When the the wave passed, Dermot said:
'These Ghanaian class stations were built to last, whatever destroyed Earth musn't have spotted this one.'
When the alien warship approached, Dermot said:
'I’m doomed, there's no telling what those creatures have planned.'
You refer to only one creature, Dermot Cosgrove. It plans to board Sannleika361 and capture you.
Triningula.471 had spent enough time studying humans to know that a gap in conversation is often the most important part. Triningula.471 knew that despite the fact that Dermot hadn’t responded to its statement, it should explain. It also knew there was something it should mention.
I have detected signals within the alien spacecraft Dermot. I have determined that it is one of a number of lifeforms that exist to destroy. It spared Sannleika361 so it could display you as a trophy to others of its kind.
Triningowla.471 paused.
It’s also proud.
Triningula.471 could not determine why it paused. It just knew that sometimes humans did things for no reason. And that seemed like a good time to pause.
Dermot Cosgrove stared at the damaged hull of Sannleika361, and smiled
‘Say nothing Trinin, and keep saying it’.
The last record in the database labelled HUMAN BEHAVIOUR states: ‘
Ní bheidh ár leithéad ann arís’. They are the last words of Dermot Cosgrove. Who was half right.