Better Gardening 15 (Patreon)

Commissioned by Kejmur

Better Gardening

Chapter 15

-VB-

Mana and I went through the books, which in and of itself was an act that allowed computers connected to us to scan and download their contents, and by the end of it…

“I can’t tell if they are woefully unbalanced on their tech research or these ‘pokemon’ make up for what they haven’t advanced,” I said with a sigh after a while. 

It was … 

It was amazing, crude, primitive, advanced, and beautiful.

In fact, they were more advance (by a very little level) than I was in some fields. Or at least according to Mana. She was fascinated by their “pokeball” technology and how they supposedly had it even before their modernity. It was not, however, either of our focus.

No, our focus was solely upon the pokemon themselves, a diverse selection of non-animal creature capable of controlling both or either external and internal energies; this was the “Kantonian” definition. These energies could be anything from just raw energy and heat to … elemental and metaphysical. 

Because psychics were real.

It didn’t concern him, personally, but Mana felt strongly about it. 

“What do you mean you want to delay my memory rewiring while I am continuing my mission?” I asked incredulously. 

“I just don’t want to create future problems by potentially exposing the locals to the existence of a multiversal coalition of imperialistic nation-states with moral and ethical spectrum ranging from benign negligence to genocidal fanaticism based on the same philosophy that the other negligent empire derived its ethical philosophy.”

I stared at her for a long time. 

Because that was very specific.

Extremely specific.

“Mana.”

“...Yes, administrator?”

“What the hell was I involved in before this life that has you fretting about the primitives possibly learning about my past life?”

She grimaced.

She hadn’t grimaced many times before, and all times that she did was when she was faced with actual issues.

“Because I’ve determined that the local primitives are capable of going from planetbound to an interstellar empire within a century if they wish it, and that catalyst for expansion and potentially research into interdimensional travel might be as a result of your memory.”

“... And why is that an issue?”

“Because if the higher levels of administration discovers that we were responsible for a potentially new interdimensional and interstellar empire, then there might be calls for a … purge.”

Purge?

“What the fuck, Mana? Purge?” I asked in horror. 

Mana’s grimace deepened.

“... Daniel, has it occurred to you why the New Life Stations have been built?” 

I stared at her as my gut feeling began to slowly worsen. Something was wrong here. 

“It’s for a humanitarian mission. You said so.”

“Yes, it is for a humanitarian reason. To create more life out there in the universe.” She didn’t say anything anymore.

I stared at her. “Mana, why aren’t you telling me?”

“Do you remember why the New Life Seeding series exists?”

“You told me it was because of extinction of all life in the Andromeda Galaxy.”

“Yes, and all NLS stations were based off of the Second Helgan Empire’s space stations during the Fourth War of Liberation. Daniel. You are a veteran of the Fourth War of Liberation.”

I stared at her confused. “What does…?” I slowed down as a creeping sensation rose up. “... You’re not suggesting that -?”

“The Fourth War of Liberation was what wiped out the Andromeda Galaxy of its life.”

“... So?”

She blinked. “Excuse me?”

“What impact would my memories have? This is not the first time we’ve gone over this. I just thought for a second that you were going to say something like ‘Daniel, you were the one who pulled the final trigger!’ or something like that! Geez, don’t scare me,” I groaned out as I relaxed. I paused and looked back up. “Right? I wasn’t …?”

“No, you weren’t.”

“Oh. Phew.”

“But you had your fair share of atrocities.”

I groaned. “Goddamnit, Mana.” I wiped my face with my hands before letting out a breath. “Okay, and were they bad enough that you are advising me heavily against regaining my memories for this trip?”

“I am. The Second Helgan Empire doesn’t have any interaction with psychics, so there are no countermeasures. Or at least ones that we know for sure that will work, because conspiracy theorists will always bring out the literal tinfoil hat as a viable countermeasure to government mindreading programs.”

I snorted. 

I thought about it. 

The point of me getting my memories back was to help protect myself. However, as Umma the Cyborg Elephant Guardian showed, this wasn’t necessary while I was on that world filled with dangerous and exotic “pokemons.”

… But seriously, pokemon? Who named them that? That’s like calling humans baldapes or something. 

“Alright,” I sighed. “But now I am super curious about what I actually did during the war. Considering that you’re okay with me getting my memory back, I wasn’t someone too bad?”

“No, you weren’t bad at all.”

“Oh, good.”