DAY 25: Dis-entanglement

"Could I have everybody's attention?"  Ferdinand stood up on his desk, so everyone in their cubicles could see him.  "I know how everybody here likes to gossip - I'm looking at you, Gladys - and I just want to say my peace while I have the chance, before things get all crazy...

"We - and I should say, I in particular - have been watching you humans for quite some time.  For all your talk of community, togetherness and brotherhood, you seem like a schizophrenic people; chaotic and self-destructive.  The only things that unite you people are your fears.  And when your common fears are gone, you fear each other.  Top to bottom, that's every one of you people!"

"What do you mean, you people?" 

Ferdinand directed his invective in the direction of his heckler.  "I mean, Marlene, that before I go, I want to give you humans a little piece of mind.  A little piece of MY mind, you could say.  What you see standing here is just a vessel - we're sitting here on another star so far away, you haven't built a telescope big enough to see it!  And in case you're worried about invasion, don't.  Even if we had the technology to make the trip, you, me, and everybody else in reach would be long dissipated from existence.  It's easier and safer to make contact this way, before we decide to waste our time.

"So, to recap:  Are you alone in the universe? No.  Are you getting invaded?  Not interested.  Go back to destroying yourselves."

He hopped off the desk just as his manager reached him.  "Time to go; get your stuff."

Ferdinand walked the aisles, a step ahead of any hands that would grab him.  "I don't want them - Open season, people! - I got nowhere to take them. But you might want to take a step back.  Lynn, I got your stapler on my desk, be sure to grab-"

Ferdinand's form collapsed as his skeleton liquefied.  Shock gave way to puzzlement, as the remnants of their former cubiclemate shrank in its clothes into the size and consistency of a discarded candy wrapper.


inspired by Discover Magazine article, "A Leap in Quantum Computing"