An Assembly had been made. A single human representative had been requested to answer a distress call regarding their specieâs nature. Many creatures gathered to watch and register every single moment of such encounter, curious, not knowing how destructive said encounter would be for the very understanding of human nature.
The Assemblyâs caller quickly arrived, showing holograms around. Then, she asked:
âThisâ, she responded, pointing to an hologram. âThis place you humans call âHeavenâ. Where is it?â
The human went silent for a second. They looked at the bigger alien, floating, and stared at her eyes. âHeaven isnât a physical place. Itâs⌠A belief some humans haveâ.
âI know how your human religions work. All I want is to know if thereâs any indication of a physical place for itâ.
âHeaven cannot be entered through this⌠Plane of existence. There isnât a portal, or an area you take to access itâ.
âThen how do you go to it after death?â
âWe donât âgo to itâ. Those who believe it might enter it, if they were good while aliveâ.
She wasnât understanding. She shook her head, lifted herself up, pointed at the holograms, all of her findings, showed the human the images and the notes she had so carefully put together. âWhat do you mean?â
âSome humans believe they will go to a good place â Heaven â if, during life, they are good people. Kind, compassionate, always trying their best. Otherwise, they will go to a bad place â Hellâ.
âNo, no! What do you mean you donât know how to go in there?â
âWe know exactly how â by deathâ.
âYou got it all wrong! Thereâs a moment in which you stop, in which you change. After this change you go somewhere else! How do you find that place?! Where is it?!â
âAre you talking about death?!â
âDeath, termination, the end, who cares about your fancy names?! You change! YouâŚâ
âWe donât âchangeâ, we die!â
âYou change! Y-you change, your physical manifestations cease function, but what is after it?! How do you go to that place, how does it work?!â
âWe donât change, we die! Itâs the end of our lives, our existence! We donât actually know, scientifically, how does it work post-death! Some religions speculate of an afterlife, of a place where our souls go to, but thatâs religion, itâs a belief, not something concrete!â
âWhat do you mean you donât know?!â
The human flinched. The alien, with a trembling form more equal to water than something of flesh and bones, wept as she threw holograms and books around, pointing at the evidence, the feelings becoming too much.
âI-I donât know!â, the humans responded. âEverything just stops!â
âYour minds, your beings, everything just stops existing?! Y-you canât be real! Iâve seen it, Iâve felt it!â
She pointed at the human.
âYou are all liars! You donât want us to know about your changes! You donât want us to know anything! Iâve felt it, Iâve seen your forms become one within the Other Planes as your bodies stopped moving for your deathworld to consume! The physical became bones and dust as your souls ascended!â
âW-what do you mean?!â
âYou ascend! Your conscience, your mind, it all changes! A-and all I want is to know where and how to get to it! She isnât following me anymore, she isnât here and she hasnât come back ever since that change! I do not care about what you humans want in exchange for this information, I will do everything to provide what you want! Justâ please, I need to know where VerĂ´nica went!â
The room grew quiet. The intelligent species eyed each other as the human representative widened their eyes.
âIâm sorryâ, they whispered. âYour friend is dead. She⌠She will not come backâ.
âLiar. I know stories of yours, where the death came back, where your minds âhauntedâ the ones who are âaliveâ. I know about your books, about your interviews and conversations with them! They do come back!â
âItâs not scientifically proven. These books can all be falseâ.
âYou are a liarâ, the alien growled. âI saw VerĂ´nica go. I saw her body change and release her. I saw it prepare itself for the change. It grew old. It slowly stopped working as before, it grew wrinkles, it grew pale hair, it grew to be beautiful and then it grew to release herâ.
The human looked at an hologram, reading a small paragraph of text, informing themselves of a crucial detail before they sighed.
âVerĂ´nica died of old age, didnât she?â
âThatâs what our human colleagues called itâ.
âWe do not grow old and fragile. We keep on existing until the end of it allâ.
âWe have been together for more than seventy years. I am sure she would want to stay with me, even with all of this time. Y-you humans have a reputation for being heartbreakers, but her love was genuine. She never left me. She refused to, many times. Iâm sure⌠Iâm sure she wouldnât leave me this timeâ.
âI knowâ, the human agreed. âIâm sorry. I donât think she can come back, even if she wanted toâ.
The alien wept as the human hugged her, the water-like body shaping itself and becoming red and purple and green with pain for never experiencing such grief before. She cried, and she screamed, and she raged against human nature.
The Human Manual had to be updated shortly after.
