“Lanai.” Seo-yun responded.
They remained silent for a while, both looking at the flowers. Eventually Lanai Sumia broke the silence, “These are beautiful. I have never seen anything like them. Sadly, my people put little stock in things that have no purpose, we have nothing like this ‘garden’ of yours.”
“It does have a purpose, it soothes the mind. For some at least.” Seo-yun said, “And it looks nice.” She added.
“That it does.” Sumia agreed.
“They are from Earth, our home world.” Seo-yun said.
“Really? Your world must be a beautiful place.” Sumia said.
“It is, it can be. Sadly, my people have abused it much. We don’t value it as much as we should.” Seo-yun said.
“How so?”
“We’ve given little regard to what our actions were doing to our world. We’ve polluted our atmosphere, poisoned our ground. It took a war to make us see what we almost did to our world, and to ourselves.” Seo-yun shook her head.
“War… I still struggle to understand that. How someone can kill so many of their own kind. It is hard to understand.” Sumia said.
“It’s not so hard to understand. It is in our nature. We fought over small differences, and we fought for resources, we fought because of greed and power, and we fought because we simply could. And we fought for freedom, we fought to change things for the better.” Seo-yun said.
“I have read some of your history. You have always been divided into… Countries, I believe you call them, it is a hard concept to grasp, my people have always been one.” Sumia said.
“How did you settle your differences? You must have had them.”
“We did, but one wasn’t supposed to harm another of their own. It did happen from time to time, and it was harshly punished. But never on a scale of your wars. Disputes would be settled with Lus – a game, or talking to one another.” Sumia said.
“But what about other kind of differences, of belief. There must have been some who opposed the way things were in your society?” Seo-yun asked.
“It was understood that the way things were was unchangeable, no one would dare try and use force to change anything, not since the …” Sumia started, and then paused.
“Since what?” Seo-yun asked,
Sumia turned to look at Seo-yun for a moment, and then back at the flowers.
“Since the Order of Truth.” Sumia said slowly.
“What was that?”
“The darkest point in our history.” Sumia answered, “It might not seem like that to you, with your history, but to us it was something to never be spoken about out loud, but also never forgotten. It is the reason why no one tried to change anything with force. The Order of Truth was a religious movement in our past. It preached about a God that created Nel, and how our true home wasn’t on Nelus but in the heavens. They tried to force their belief of equality on others. They started a war, that ultimately led to a genocide, people of those times were forced to kill them all. That is how fanatical the Order was in their beliefs. That event made my people into what we are now. It united us, and also made us complacent with the way things were. Over time as we learned and grew things changed slowly, but still some had more power than others, and no one dared change anything. Then when we formed the Consortium equality became a reality. But only out in the colonies, Nelus stayed the same. Soon all those who believed in the old ways were on Nelus while the rest left for the colonies. Then at the end of the Consortium, all those people died, and Nelus remained.” Sumia said.
“I can’t understand that. War is a terrible thing I agree. But there are some things worth fighting for, worth dying for.” Seo-yun said.
“Yes, there are. But while my people would almost never dare to go to war with their own, you are perhaps all too willing. That is the greatest difference between us.” Sumia said. After that, they sat there in silence for a few minutes before Lanai Sumia spoke again.
“There was one more thing that the Order preached.” Sumia said hesitantly.
“What?” Seo-yun asked.
“They said that their God didn’t put Nel solely on Nelus, but on a two other worlds as well. And that someday we would be reunited in the heavens.” Sumia said.
“Oh?”
“When we first met and saw the similarities between us, it was a shock. But most thought nothing of it. But now that you have found scientific evidence that clearly shows that we are related, albeit distantly, it has sparked talk amongst my people, here and back on Nuva.” Sumia said.
“What kind of talk?” Seo-yun asked.
“That perhaps Order was right. These talks are dangerous for my people. Every Nel is taught from a young age about the Order, and they are taught about what we did to them. It is the thing we are most ashamed of as a people. If they start believing that what the Order believed was in fact the truth, well that could pose a great many problems.” Sumia said.
“And you want to lie to them? Tell them that we are not related at all?” Seo-yun asked.
“I… Yes – No. I don’t know. I don’t know how to proceed, I am now responsible for millions of people.”
“In my experience, secrets have a way of doing more harm than good. Not that there aren’t some things that are best left untold. But it is your responsibility. You must find the right balance between trusting your people with the truth, and keeping secrets for their benefit. That is what it means to be a leader.” Seo-yun said.
Sumia sighed, and moved her palm sideways and back agreeing, “You are right. I think that I will tell them. What the Order spoke of is most likely just coincidence, and we still know very little about the connection between us.”
Seo-yun smiled. “Your choice.”
Sumia turned to look Seo-yun in the eyes, “You are very wise for one so young.” She said.
Seo-yun looked at her confused for a moment. She studied Sumia, and saw few faint lines around her eyes and brow. Because of her skin tone it was hard to see them on the first glance, and Seo-yun never really paid much attention. If she was looking at a human that hadn’t gone through life extension treatments she would say that Sumia was about forty years old. And then it occurred to her. She coughed uncomfortably, “Ah… How old do you think I am?” Seo-yun asked.
“I would say somewhere around twenty cycles.” Sumia said. Seo-yun quickly had her implant do the conversion. Twenty Nel cycles equaled twenty eight human years.
“I’m afraid you are wrong. I am technically one hundred and seventy years old, close to one hundred and twenty of your cycles.” Seo-yun said.
Sumia blinked, “But you look so young. It is rare for a Nel to reach that age. How long do humans live?”
Seo-yun grimaced, she thought that Tomas already told her. Or that they realized it on their own. But then again how could they? “Humans don’t really have a life span, technically we live forever.”
Sumia’s eyes widened and she looked at Seo-yun in shock. “But, that is impossible.”
Before Sumia could say anything else Seo-yun continued. “It is a recent development. We used to live about one hundred years at the most. Then we found a way to prolong our life a bit more. And finally we found a way to make our bodies live forever.”
Sumia stood up and looked down on Seo-yun. “Yo-you changed yourselves?” She asked incredulously.
“Yes.” Seo-yun said simply.
Sumia looked at Seo-yun for another moment, and then sat back down on the bench. “Well, that explains everything. I believed that you were all just young, it made sense. If one was to colonize another part of space, it would be preferable to send young people. What age is the oldest person here?” She asked.