Saturday, 02 May 2009

• Moral Relativity: Chapter Five Of The Great Xanga Round Story

  If you have no idea what the xanga book is all about go HERE

  If you missed the previous chapter go HERE

  If you'd like to see the table of contents Go HERE

  If you'd like to get on with the story read below

   

  Moral Relativity: Chapter five of the xanga round story

   

       Gregory awoke on the chilled floor of his cement cell. It had been his home for the better part of a month now, if his calculations were correct, but then again he couldn’t be sure. The days had begun to mesh together and he could no longer remember if it was a month or a few days, he had been here. The last thing he remembered was having breakfast with that woman…what was her name? Had she told him? He was beginning to forget more and more. She had given him some form of sleep drug, slipping it either into his drink or food. The only reasons she would have drugged him would be to give him some form of truth serum. He wondered how much he had told of his formula. It was a dangerous piece of knowledge to possess. In the wrong hands the Lumo Transfiguration Theory could be used for almost anything from robbing a bank to assassinating the president. The possibilities seemed endless.

   

       For some reason in his countless hours of work on the formula and endless late nights with only coffee to keep him awake, he had never given much thought to the morality of the theory. He had always thought of it for a positive use, but what about the negative. Sure passing through walls at the speed of light would have its perks, for instance in a war situation or being late for work, but was there more evil to be done with it than good? What effect would releasing such a formula to the public have on society? How would the world react to such a ground breaking discovery? It may have been a bit late for him to be considering such things now, as the enemy was soon to, if not already, have their hands on it. One could rule the world with such a discovery at their fingertips.

   

       The door suddenly swung open, blinding him with the shaft of light that struck his eyes. A silhouette was in the door and Gregory assumed it was Susanna…that was her name! “You are quite a chatterbox, once you get going,” she stated, with a smirk on her face, as Gregory sat on the floor in silence. “Finally after all this time we have acquired most of the formula from you! There are only a few pieces missing and that would be where you come in.”

   

       “And what makes you think I’ll cooperate?” he asked. With the power that formula possessed he made the decision right then and there that he would never willingly tell them what they wanted to know. In the few words they were asking him to tell them, he would be committing a sin as great as Adam eating that fruit. He would be dooming the whole human race to eventual destruction.

   

       “I know what you’re thinking; you think why would I give this mad woman and her organization the knowledge to rule the world? No? Well let me tell you, evil and mad are very relative terms. In general the world itself is relative. Everything is in the eye of the beholder. You may think we are going to destroy the world, while I think we will be giving the world, the life it deserves. Who’s to say what’s evil and what’s good? Are we gods to decide? All we have to lean on is our own reason and intuition to guide us.”

   

       “So I now am left with the decision to let you conquer the world, or kill me; one man for the rest of the world, or the world for one man?”

   

        “Oh please!” Said Susanna rolling her eyes “Don’t be so melodramatic, World domination is so overrated. Our plans are much less childish.”

   

       After a long silence Susanna finally realized that Gregory was waiting for their plan to be revealed to him so he could make an informed decision. “What? You think I’m going to monologue for you and reveal our deeply layered plan so you can escape and expose us to the world? Reality is much less glamorous I’m afraid. You have one hour to reveal the end formula or we torture it out of you. Believe me the latter will not be pleasant.” With that she turned and left the room, plunging it into complete darkness once again.

   

       Gregory knew he had a vital decision to make. It seemed everything came down to morals. Was she right? Were good and evil relative? In some ways he understood that logic, but in others it made no sense. There had to be some standard for good and evil. It had all come down to his life or the world. What horrors would he live with if he gave them ultimate power? In childhood fantasies it was no question whether one would give their life for the world, but when it came to reality, it was a much more difficult decision. Would he give his life in torture and death to save the rest of the world? What had the world ever given him but a few PhDs and a job teaching ungrateful college students? His family had abandoned him long ago and it seemed he had only himself to care about, why not give them the formula? Would his conscience allow him to? It all seemed to come back to morals. 

   

       As he sat there in deep thought, he suddenly heard a scraping noise near the bottom of the door. Unable to see anything he slid over to where he thought the door was. His hand suddenly passed over a rectangular shape, which felt like a card. Could it be the card to his cell door? Why would someone pass it under the door for him? Feeling carefully, with his shaking hands, he finally ran across the thin slot where he had seen Susanna slide her card through many times. As he slid the card in, a small green light came on and he heard the clunk of a bolt being retracted. Gregory was unsure of what was on the other side of this door, but two things were for sure. He had found a third option and Susanna had a mole in her organization.    

         

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