Burn It To The Ground

Growing up on Planet X was the most beautiful and serene experience. It had a singular purple, indigo, and grey aesthetic across the entire planet. Everything was crafted to perfection. This is because it was the creation of my father Alton Milosky, a 20th century visionary. He had come up with the idea. A utopian space that if you could afford the fees then you and your descendants could effectively live-in heaven.  Everything was always manicured to perfection, climate controlled, and fully sensory controlled. Soft muted tones, pleasant smells, and ambient lighting always embraced you across the entire planet. There was a system of robots that catered to our every need, and a tribunal government of three leaders who ensured that our utopia continued seamlessly.  The tribunal leaders were called The Ultras. Any disputes were presented to them and resolved by their omnipotent authority.

                I’m Xia, Alton Milosky’s only child. Up until 3 months ago I believed that Planet X was the perfect place.  However, my world changed when my parents passed away in what appeared to be an accidental house fire.  I deeply mourn the loss of my parents. I miss them terribly and am now on a mission to avenge their murders. They made sure that their wealth was managed by my trustee so that I would never have to experience any financial hardships. Although that ensures that I am financially comfortable, it doesn’t ease my sadness and my deep seeded anger.

                After I lost my parents, I was going through emails on dad’s account, and I came across a document that was from an occurrence that my dad had initiated with the Tribunal process.  He was accusing Phillip Snide of collusion with the different governments on Earth. Snide had wanted unabridged access to human DNA on earth and had manipulated their governments to pass a law that negated an individual’s consent for access to their DNA. Snide was profiting from both engineering DNA and AI together, and from reverse Engineering DNA and subsequently cloning specific people from history.

                My dad had proven this to be the case to the Ultras, but ultimately, they decided that Earth’s shortcomings were its own problem. That no further involvement was required nor beneficial. The decision did not sit well with my father, but the tribunal had closed the issue to further scrutiny.

I discovered an additional document that was not disclosed during the hearing. It showed Snide having significant contracts with each of the Ultra’s personal companies.  This is what initially got me thinking, what if the fire wasn’t in fact accidental but a coverup? My subsequent search led me down a path of discovery, transformation, and new friendships forged from a common goal.

This mission meant that I had traveled to earth and befriended Adira who was spearheading a revolution against the earth’s governments.  This mission also meant that I had become friends with Vlad, who has his own agenda of dismantling Snide’s bio engineering projects. Together the three of us: Adira, Vlad, and myself, were going to burn this entire system to the ground.

Our mission consisted of Adira mobilizing people to revolt on earth. While Vlad and I were exposing the corruption to everyone on Planet X and simultaneously confronting Snide. Once Vlad and I had completed our operatives then we would join Adira on earth.

Prior to this mission I hadn’t really interacted with Vlad even though we both lived on Planet X. However, when he saw me wearing Adria’s heart shaped locket, he casually inquired about it. Vlad had always kept to himself and is a kind of melancholy person. The son of Phillip Snide; their relationship was more of a mutual existence than a father/son. Vlad harbours a particular hatred for his father. This is because he is the genetic clone of Vlad the Impaler. All because Snide has a lifelong and desperate fantasy of resurrecting Dracula.

That was 3 months ago, and now here I was, standing in front of Snide’s office about to burst through his doors with all the evidence Adira had given me on my trip to earth. We had everything I needed to confront him. Adira had kept the information on a microchip inside a heart shaped locket. This locket was an antique broach that had been modified into a locket. The broach was an anatomically correct heart. It was from the early 16th century and used to belong to Ilona Szilagyi. Adira said it was an heirloom that was given to her. She made me a copy of the microchip and loaned me the locket to store the information in for safekeeping until my portion of our mission was complete.

 And now, at this very moment Vlad was playing the combined evidence that Adira and I had collected on the emergency broadcasting system across every device on Planet X. 

I took a deep breath, mentally prepared to enter Snide’s office and turned on the recording device that was in Adira’s locket and being livestreamed to Earth. When I entered his office he was focused on the emergency broadcast. When he looked up and saw me, for a second disgust flashed across his face before he masked it.

“Xia” he said with false friendliness

“Phillip” I replied, with ice in my veins and steel in my voice.

“Your malevolent deeds are about to be exposed to everyone on Planet X, and subsequently on Earth too.”

“That is a lofty thing for you to attempt.” He said dismissively.

Just then, the emergency broadcast system displayed the documents proving how Snide colluded with the Earth’s governments to pass the easement law. The very law that bypassed an individual’s autonomy over their own DNA. People were starving and earth couldn’t afford to combat this issue. Snide was using their desperation as leverage to further exploit them.

Snide had set up an organization that provided food and shelter for the civilians of earth to ease the financial burden from the Earth’s governments. But would only run this organization if the easement law passed.  The cyclical exploitation was evident in the individual contracts that people had to sign in order to receive this financial assistance. Giving up their autonomy, privacy, biometric information, and geolocation. 

“Phillip, why go so far as to have all that information about the civilians of earth? What could it possibly benefit?”

“Xia, you are too young to understand this, you haven’t experienced life. You have read about it as history, but not actually experienced it.  It is important that their government, with my assistance, has knowledge of what the civilians might be planning. There is no great deception to be found here. It is merely information gathering for the purpose of understanding how to better alleviate their pain and suffering.”

“then why do they have to sign over the rights to their own DNA?” I asked

Snide’s cavalier explanation was chilling. “To everything there is a price, I have a business to run, and this agreement is now mutually beneficial to all parties.”

The emergency broadcast system was now displaying the footage from the case my father had made to the Ultras about Snide. On the video there is a moment where Snide couldn’t hide the expression of contempt on his face towards my father. During this part of the video, we had zoomed in on his face and paused the video there for 5 seconds. Holding that unabashed moment for everyone to see it in detail.  I knew the next thing to come up on the broadcast was going to be the transcript from the argument between Snide and my father. The documents showing the financial enmeshment between the Ultras and Snide, and finally the footage of Snide killing my parents.  Him planting the accelerant nearby and tampering with the igniter for the furnace. So that when the temperature dropped that night and the furnace engaged it would cause the fire that killed my parents.

Leaning into this moment, I knew I had to get him to admit that he killed my parents to cover up his bribes.

“You were friends with my parents, you came to their funerals. And yet you never really respected them, did you?  My father designed this utopia for us to all live on here on Planet X. It was his dream to have a unified society. But deep down, you really hated him, didn’t you?  Or was it envy? Or jealousy?  That he had designed this concept, that everyone loved him?  What was it Phillip, that you couldn’t stand about him?

Snide’s response was so condescending it made my blood boil.

“Xia, dear, your father was a great man. But he lacked vision.  True vision. He concocted this idea of Planet X.  But it’s not really sustainable, is it?  We are dependant on earth for everything.  And in order to be permitted to reside here, you must be able to afford it.  How do you think everyone here affords this life my dear?  We all have businesses that depend on the productivity of Earth. Including your father.  The business that you inherited. The lithium mines, they too depend on the mining of earth to extract the lithium.  You should remember that every time to use a power source here.  Making money is about profit and loss. There is no way around that. Planet X’s physical and financial existence depends on extracting things from earth.  Food, water, power, and commerce. You have always benefited from this fact just as everyone else here has. You are not exempt. It is a privilege, and a privilege that must be protected.”

The footage of Snide tampering with my parents’ furnace was playing. He watched on the monitor for a moment, then glared at me. He had dropped his façade of kindness.

“I should have killed you too.” He said with venom.

 It only took him two long and quick strides to get around his desk and then he lunged at me. Overpowering me instantly. He was too quick, to strong, too skilled.  He had me pinned on the ground face down and was placing his hands on my head in order to snap my neck. I fought back. I bucked my body as hard as I could, it was enough to maneuver to my back. I bent my knees, crossed my right ankle overtop of his leg. I dug my heels into the ground and used my hips to catapult him forward. He was still on top of me, but no longer held me down. Then I dug my left heel into the ground tilting to the right and pushed from my hips with all my might, throwing his body off me. Closing my hand into a fist I punched him in the groin as hard as I could and scrambled away while the writhed on the floor in pain.

The office door opened, and two security robots entered and apprehended Snide. Vlad rushed into the office right after Snide had been taken into custody. Glared at his father as he came to my side.

I had caught it all on the recording devise, he was going to stand trial for all of it.

We had brought his significant corruption to light, and now what was left was for the citizens of planet X had to install new representatives as the Ultra’s, the old ones had to go.  We had taken the first step of taking down the system, by exposing the corruption. Now we had to mobilize the civilians on earth in their revolution.  Earth’s revolution was going to be led my Adira, and financially backed by myself and hopefully a few others