The Last Obstacle

Author’s Note: I kind of tweaked the prompt a little here because I had an idea that was pretty similar. It is pretty short, but I hope you enjoy it!

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“We are so close to finding it,” the wrinkled creature states, “The key to everything.”

Her skin is weathered and rough to the touch. Like an emerald-colored elephant. She is average size, not too big and not too small. Her wide blue eyes bulge out of her face, like two reflective serving bowls, shimmering with ambition.

“When the project is finally completed, we will have all the power in the universe. Power over even fate itself.”

“What is the setback then, Celestra? What is still standing in our way?” 

The voice comes from a second creature sitting behind illuminated screens. The light shines on his face, turning it an icy blue. Thousands of lines of equations, formulas, and commands are being processed by the computer, while every being in the room waits for the outputs.

“Why does this program work, Mildit?” 

“It compiles information such as how a certain species acts, what their motives are, and what has happened in the past and predicts outcomes of certain scenarios. Once completed, it will grant us the ability to see into the future.”

“Precisely,” Celestra continues, “The program operates on things that are predictable. The last obstacle standing in our way is anything but predictable. Humans.”

“They have the unfortunate habit of throwing all logic, reason, and common sense out the window if something is important enough to them. We haven’t yet found a formula to foresee how they will act when given even the smallest of choices.”

“How will we fix the program, Celestra? If humans do not work like other species in this galaxy, how do we include them in the equation?” Mildit asks. He is tired of putting limitless effort into the project when it seems to be going nowhere.

“We need to understand the deep complexities of the human mind.”

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Subject 12849, Adrienne 

Location: Planet Earth

“What is so special about this human, Celestra?” Mildit inquires. To him, she looks just like the rest of the specimens, with their monotonous appearances and narrow minds. Nothing about her looks worthy of his precious attention.

Celestra glances at the screen in her hand, then back at Mildit.

“After her city was hit by an earthquake, her son was buried under the rubble. She lifted an amount of rock and brick equivalent to a 30 story building in a span less than one week.” She states, her eyes skimming through reports of major events occurring on Earth as we speak.

“But that is impossible.” Mildit tells her, assuming that she misspoke, “The human body simply isn’t capable of that.” He was quite proud to be able to confidently tell his coworkers he knew everything there was to know on the subject of humans.

“Exactly,” Celestra says, simply, “What is impossible does not matter to them, not one bit. They don’t confine themselves to any set of rules. To them, everything is achievable. They do not all march in time with one drum, they each live life to the tune of a different song.”

At these words, Mildit glances at a particular graph on his screen. He created it to organize formulas for every species in the galaxy. Not another alien could even begin to decipher it, its thousands of axes made it extremely difficult to read. 

His finger falls upon a certain point on the graph. A point completely separate from the rest. While every other dot sitts huddled in a clump, this dot stands on the outside. Daring any other point to come any closer.

“Which species is that?” Celestra asks, waiting for Mildit to translate. 

“Humans, the outlier.”

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Mildit requests a private meeting with Celestra that afternoon, and she replies by asking him to come down to her section of the ship.

Being one of the most talented and influential scientists on the ship, she has a quite luxurious office. The walls are covered floor to ceiling with displays playing footage of major events on every planet in the galaxy.

“How is the project coming along?” She asks him as he sits down in his chair. She was never one for small talk, always preferring to get straight to the point. 

Mildit takes a deep breath preparing himself to tell her what he came here to say, “I believe it is a dead end.”

“What?” Celestra asks, confused by his change in spirit. Ever since they began, the project seemed to mean the world to him. He seemed willing to do anything as long as it would result in their kind being able to peek into the future.

“They are not something made to be controlled. We will gain much more power observing them and learning about their way of life. There truly isn’t anything else like them in the galaxy.” 

Celestra considers his suggestion for a minute, the gears visibly turning inside her head. Her face then straightens and hardens making it apparent she has come to a conclusion.

“Well, Mildit, in the case that our species ever comes in contact with theirs, I would like to understand them better. From now on, I am appointing you head of human studies.” Celestra pronounces, dismissing the other alien with a wave of her hand.

Her wisdom has accumulated over the years, and she knows that anything unique is powerful.

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Mildit sits down at his computer screen, his mind weary from trying to solve the puzzle called humans. He opens up a file on the screen where he has put every last miniscule detail about their species, everything he has learned the lifetime he spent watching them.

He scrolls to the bottom of the text and positions his hands daintily in front of the keyboard, ready to type out the information consuming his thoughts.

He decides to format it as a list, practical and straight to the point. He prefers everything to be organized from his words to his thoughts.

Humans:

1- They are as unpredictable as the weather on their planet.

2- Impossible is not a word in their vocabulary.

3- Determination and desire are their strengths.

4- Their unpredictability makes them uncontrollable.

5- They are extra ordinary, and at the same time, extraordinary.