Author: Kenny O’Donnell

He had cured the galaxy. Disease eradicated, famine a distant memory, even death itself was no longer a concern. All his doing. And now they wanted his head.

Civilians and defected military alike stormed the temple. The siege had lasted several weeks and finally they had broken through. Only once before had he experienced fear like this. Fear for his life. It was over 200 years ago when death still had meaning. When skin was soft, organs were vital and time was little more than man’s most precious resource. When he discovered what would become humanity’s salvation. He was only an ensign then. He and his unit landed on the planet to broker peace with whatever species inhabited that rock, he didn’t care to remember, and instead found something more. They had not succumbed to war even once in thousands of years. They had unlocked the key to peace. They had cured death and harnessed time. They had become Gods.

They harnessed a sort of naturally occurring nanotechnology found in the leaves of a common plant. They lived in symbiosis with these biological nanites and gained control over every cell in their bodies. They could choose not to die.

He could feel the nanites within him quelling the cortisol and adrenaline beginning to course through his body. With a single thought he eradicated his natural human instincts. He was disgusted with himself for allowing it to happen in the first place. Though there was a sense of pride that even after so long, he was still human within. If the fear was still there, the insatiable need for adventure and victory was still entwined within his DNA. No amount of biological coercion would ever rid it from his being.

After the discovery of the bio-nanites humanity became so much more. Without death, humanity had time and with time came no reason to force rapid change. Yet, without death, came an absence of urgency. Without death came meaninglessness. At least it could have if not for him.

Humanity no longer needed to fight each other for resources. Food and water were no longer a requirements, they could live in any climate. Need itself, expunged. What does a species do when it needs nothing? It does nothing.

He couldn’t allow it. If the bio-nanites were one secret the universe was hiding from him, there would be others. If humanity would not fight each other, then they could fight everyone else. He didn’t need to do much. Suggesting that their new way of life was at risk was enough. Every able-bodied man and woman, now the entire human race of 20 billion, was now willing to wage war. And so they had war.

He commanded thousands of worlds. Resources beyond imagination. Technology even the greatest minds could never conceptualise. Instantaneous quantum communication, anti-matter weaponry and of course the near limitless adaptability of the human condition. A galaxy-wide empire.

All undone by the will of a single man. A whistle-blower who was there that day of the discovery now, after 200 years, grown a conscience. He revealed to the people of the Empire the wars they waged were based on a lies. His lie.

Now they came for him. With horrific intentions he was sure. He had cured death for them. Not a single human life perished in centuries.

He will be remembered. The Empires greatest irony if not their greatest hero.

He cured death and now, he would be the empires first.

They broke through the doors.

He chose to perish.