The Invisible Planet

Part 18: Welcome

Angeline and Shay mused about plans as they walked, theorizing how they would convince the stranded passengers to be content enough with their situation to accept a new way of living.

"Oh! What if Dekita grows a plant to brainwash them?" she suggested.

He gave her an amused look. "You want to brainwash them into being better people?"

"Yeah. Why not? Everyone wins."

"Not the people, and frankly I'm not sure Marius will count it if it's not their choice."

"He doesn't have to know. We just can undo it after he decides not to murder everyone."

"He'll probably find out the minute we decide to do it."

She groaned. "I forgot about that. Okay, what if we bribe them?"

"With what?"

"Um... not getting killed?"

"Yes, because panicked crowds make for careful, considerate citizens," he retorted.

"Okay. What about... a contest? Whoever is most environmentally friendly by the end of the year gets to go home."

"That would cause a riot — first with them demanding to go home now, and second at the end of the year when we can't deliver."

She made a face. "Okay, why don't you just scare them into it, then?"

"We're back to inciting panic."

"Oh! Could we get off on a technicality? Because technically, Kaecilians aren't human."

"Kaecilians are far more likely to live right than the rest of you. For the sake of argument, and the sake of your own skin, any talking biped who came from that ship is considered a human."

"That's racist," she teased.

"If you'd rather be pitted against them, I'm sure I could convince Marius—"

"No no no. Forget I said anything." She thought for a moment as she walked. "So, we can't threaten them with death. We can't reward them with going home. Money has no use here... there has to be something."

Shay grabbed her waist suddenly and pulled her to the other side of him. She stared at him in shock.

"TreeHugger," he explained, pointing at the tree she was about to walk past.

A single yellow eye stared at her from the bark.

He stepped toward it and clapped his hands loudly together, and a two-legged creature the size of a cat jumped off the tree and scurried into the forest. "Cowardly buggers, but still deadly. They have a very potent venom that paralyzes you when they bite. Give them a wide berth."

"Thank you." She looked down as they kept walking. "What if we just tell them the truth? But like... carefully?"

"If it goes wrong, you're all going to die."

"Fine. Then we tell them nothing, and just try to convince them to live better on merit."

"I know you're being sarcastic, but that might actually be the best plan to start with. People don't like to be forced into things, but if we pretend they have a choice and that this is the better one, maybe they'll listen. We could frame it as making their lives here easier."

"There's nothing easy about living in a derelict ship, stranded on an unfamiliar world away from everything you know."

"Right, I didn't tell you about the project."