Chapter 29 28:
She had done much in the past, she could not allow this nato to end up in the same puddle. Korr-add had a future, but his own psychological abnormality was severely harming him.
At this rate he would be incapable of continuing to protect him from execution.
"are you still thinking about that?", she asked, but upon seeing the nato's silence, she added. "you have permission to give your opinion as an equal".
Korr took a moment to respond, but he did.
"I... I do not know what to think, I was never conscious of what happened. I lost consciousness and", his words cut off for an instant, before adding. "I am... I am a murderer, instructor vexa".
For several seconds, only the distant buzzing of the imperial aerial routes could be heard.
Several instructors passed by their sides, some greeting, others only frowning. But there was no doubt that the interest of the entire dorymathos was on a single nato of interest.
Korr, a future berserker for the empire. There were very few natos with the abilities demonstrated by korr-add.
Vexa said nothing more, until she decided to share part of herself with the nato.
"My mother was an imperial supervisor". she suddenly said, drawing korr's attention. "she was class 25, low class in short words. She provided services in one of the border imperial sectors". She smiled upon remembering her, before proceeding to explain.
"you know the policy of the viltrumite Convergence right? Although we have not delved much into that subject, when you complete your first orbit you will know in more detail. The Empire classifies species according to their resemblance to the viltrumite physiological archetype. Only convergent forms gain access to more rights and possible integration into secondary class society. Divergent ones are reduced to resources or eliminated, and she was in charge of well, the entire elimination process".
Korr found that event incredible and horrifying, but did not dare say anything about it.
"When I was a nato, they brought her back after a campaign. She had eliminated a priority target. He had been an insurgent leader of a now extinct lesser species that resisted integration. I still remembered him. He seemed to be a race that strengthened themselves with the light of a yellow sun, obtaining qualities similar to ours, considered an equivalent of class 50 or similar".
Korr swallowed saliva at that detail.
"one of the insurgent's sons managed to free himself and attacked me by surprise, with the intention of avenging his father by killing me in retaliation against my progenitor. She did not step in to help me, no one did. I fought for my life against that creature that looked so much like us. It was like seeing a reflection of our own race, we never saw anything like it again".
Vexa seemed to stare into nothingness for a few moments, before showing korr a slight smile.
"I collapsed his chest with my own hands and ripped both laser eyes from their sockets, in fact, he burned my hands in the process. But I ended his life, and with that, the codex itself of his entire race hidden inside him, or something like that they told me, I never gave it importance".
Silence became present between them. The annihilation of an entire race, the hope of a new tomorrow, destroyed by a single viltrumite, nato to top it off, left much to think about.
"and... what happened afterward? How did you feel for taking someone's life?". Korr's words seemed to amuse vexa.
"what things are you saying, korr-add". She let out a laugh. "why should I have felt something, taking the life of a silorian? It was only... another race, nothing more".
"another race, nothing more", korr thought, surprised. He related vexa's response to that of a person killing an animal. Why should she feel something for killing a chicken, a cat, a silorian? He thought and understood that, in this viltrumite's eyes, all of them were nothing more than mere animals, they were not one of them.
"I, understand, instructor vexa". Korr nodded, but vexa shook her head.
"no, you do not understand, korr-add". She said, before explaining. "you feel bad for having killed a hunting dog. You must eliminate that irrational thought. We are only viltrumites, the rest are only that, the rest".
After having said this, she continued visiting her memories.
"in fact, when I killed him, they congratulated me. My mother took me by the shoulder, hugged me and told me she was proud of me. I was the first nato in the entire empire to be decorated, with the opportunity to participate in a position in the empire's high council. I even earned the right to engender once I complete my three life orbits".
"I want you to understand something, korr-add". She said, before continuing, this time with more seriousness.
She opened her mouth, but stopped herself. She looked downward for a moment, before nodding seriously. Then vexa looked at him for a long instant, her steel gray eyes scanning every microexpression on the bald and pink face of the nato.
"Listen to me carefully, Korr-add", she finally said, this time although softer, with a quieter voice, deeper, slower. Korr knew she was about to tell him something heavy, uncomfortable, but necessary.
He needed this, because otherwise he would not know how to face his current situation.
"What you feel right now, that thing twisting in your chest, that little voice that keeps asking if what you did was right or wrong... that is only part of our weakness, the only one that unfortunately, we are incapable of erasing regardless of the time and advances in all of viltrum's history. Nothing more and nothing less. Maybe it is something you perhaps do not want to hear, but you need to understand this if you want to stay alive for more than one orbit in the empire. My mother taught it to me, all natos learn it, and those who forget it, there is only death. My mother forgot what I am going to tell you, and since then, from time to time I visit her grave".
Korr wanted to speak at that revelation. To tell her I am sorry, to try to put himself in her shoes, but. What did he have to tell her, how could he help her? He was nothing more than another murderer within a genocidal empire.
For a moment, just an instant, he found some courage, he wanted to tell her something about it, but she raised one hand, barely making a gesture, closing his mouth.
"Killing is killing, end of debate". Vexa continued, looking forward. "What you feel now, that discomfort in your chest, that recurring doubt about whether what you did was right or wrong... is nothing more than a conflict of normative frameworks. Nothing more. Moral judgment over the act of killing is not intrinsic to the act itself, it is only a contextual product, a dependent variable of the normative structures of the social system in which you were socialized. What one civilization codifies as condemnable homicide, another codifies as patriotic duty. There is no universal truth regarding it, only local rules with different degrees of coercion".