"You're not much of a charmer yourself either, Greeny," Frank called out. Horace chose to ignore the outburst.
"By that I mean to say yours is a most successful race, strong, intelligent, fertile, most successful indeed. It was the way that you obtained that success that was so frightening. You are killers."
"Survival," Frank said firmly. "We had no other choice. Eat or be eaten, kill or be killed. Survival of the fittest."
"I'll not argue with that. There is of course only one way for any race to survive and I appreciate the point. It's what a race does after it has taken over a world that interests me. Ours became the dominant race on our planet many aeons ago. Since then we have preserved the other species, the rule of peace and law has prevailed. Whilst your people, while wiping out the other species, were still not satisfied and continued to kill one another as well. I found it most depressing?"
"No one asked your opinion," Frank said.
"Of course. But I still know what I observed and it not only depressed me, but made me worried as well. My planet is not that distant; astronomically speaking; and it was within reason that you might find us one day. And if you did you would probably try to kill us as well."
"I don't think there is much chance of that now.” Gwenn said, dropping into the swing and looking unhappy once again.
"Yes, it may be a theoretical point now, but it must be considered nevertheless. So there was I, an intelligent and peaceful individual, a vegetarian who would never consider harming as much as a fly, there was I worrying about the possible destruction of my world. It was a moral dilemma as you can see.”
"No I can't," Frank said, shaking his head. Then he snapped his head up. "Say — did you have anything to do with what happened to the world?"
"I'll get to that in a moment."
"A simple yes or no now will do."
"Nothing is ever that simple. Please hear me out. It was most dramatic you see, for there I was firmly mounted on the horns of this dilemma. And no one to help me decide. The voyage home is quite a long one and by the time I would have made it and consulted with my superiors and they had made their minds up, well you people might very well have made your own starships and have been on the way to visit us. No, I had to make my mind up right there and then. If I did nothing you would build your ships and come and destroy us. There I was, a creature of peace, thinking the unthinkable."
"You did blow up the world!" Frank said, striding forward.
"Please! No violence!" Horace said, raising his hands and shying away. "I can't stand violence.” Frank stopped, wanting to hear the rest, yet his fists were still clenched. "Thank you, Frank. As I was saying I was thinking the unthinkable. I could not resort to violence to make peace — or could I? If I did nothing my people would be destroyed. So it came down to a choice between which race was to survive. Yours or mine. So of course when it was phrased that way the answer was clear. Mine. Since we are far older and more intelligent, generally more interesting and attractive than you are. And peaceful."
"So you blew up our world," Frank said in a low voice.
"That wasn't very peaceful," Gwenn said.
"No I suppose that it wasn't. But it was just an isolated case, really. After a great many centuries of peace in the past, and of course many more to come in the future."
"Why are you here?" Frank asked. "Why are you telling us this?"
"Why — to apologize of course. I'm very sorry it had to work out like this."
"Not half as sorry as we are, you bright green son of a bitch."
"Well if I thought you weren't going to be gentlemanly about it I wouldn't have come."
Frank lunged forward, but Gwenn came between them stopping him.
"Frank, please," she begged. "I can't bear the thought of any more violence. I shall scream. And you did this all by yourself, Mr. Horace?"
"Horace, a forename, if you please. Yes I did. I take all of the responsibility."
"What about the others aboard your ship?" she asked.
"I am alone. Very automated you know. It took me a while to work out the formula, I don't think there has ever been a planet-buster bomb before, but I did it in the end. It wasn't easy, but I did it. For the sake of peace."
"That has a familiar ring to it," Frank said.
"I am quoting one of your generals in a war a few years ago. 'I killed them in order to save them.' But I'm not that hypocritical. I killed your planet in order to save mine. Just playing by your rules, you see."
"I see," Frank said, very calmly. "But you said you were alone. How about the other green man climbing over the ledge, there behind you?"
"Impossible, I assure you."
When he turned to look, Frank stepped forward and struck him a mighty blow on the jaw. The alien folded nicely and Frank sat on him and choked him until the body was still. Gwenn looked on and nodded approvingly.
"I'll take the feet," Frank said.
Without another word they carried the body to the edge of the cliff and slung it over, watching as it spiraled out among the rest of the space debris.
"We have to find his ship," Frank said.
"No, kiss me first. Hard."
"Yum," Frank said long moments later when he emerged from the embrace breathless and happy. "That was pretty good. Might I ask what brought it on?"
"I want to get used to your kisses, your embraces. We will have to raise a large family if we intend to repopulate the entire world."
"I couldn't agree more. Could I also ask you what made you change your mind?"
"Him, that creature. He can't get away with it."
"You'retlamn right! Revenge! Raise the family, teach them to fly, build bombs, go out and find those alien bastards and blow them out of space. Prove that he was right after all. We'll get our revenge."
"I certainly hope so. He can't kill my Robert and get away with it."
"Robert! Is that why you're doing this? What about everyone else? The billions, the rest of the world?"
"I didn't know anyone else in Minneapolis."
"If Horace had known about Robert I'll bet you he would have thought twice about blowing up the world."
"Well, he didn't and that was his mistake. Shall we go now?"
"Do you want to bring the sheep?"
Gwenn looked at it and frowned in thought. "No," she finally said. "It looks so nice there. And it will give us something to come home to."
"Right. Out for revenge. Make plans. Build bombs, raise children for revenge. Destroy."
"It doesn't sound so nice when you say it that way."
Frank rubbed his jaw. "Now that you mention it, it doesn't. But we really have no choice."
"Don't we? Just because that horrible little green man blew up a whole world, it doesn't mean that we have to act the same way."
"Of course it doesn't. But there is justice! An eye for an eye, you know the sort of thing."
"I do. I am well read in the Old Testament. But just because this was done and we learned to do it, that doesn't mean that it's right, does it?"
"I find your syntax difficult but your thought simple. What are you trying to say is that our world is gone. We can't restore it by blowing up another world. If the aliens are as peaceful as Horace said, then it would be a crime to destroy them as well. After all — they didn't blow up the world."
"It makes you pause to think."
"It sure does — and I'm sorry that I did. There was something nice and clear-cut about blowing up their planet because they blew up ours."
"I know. But still, it's a bad habit to get into."