Harvest Part II

Trapped on the alien home world, nightfall quickly approaches, as so the aliens. Luckily, the three (Gill the synth, Dr. Mayakovsky, and Julian) have a special device that releases an alien pheromone to stay “invisible” to the aliens. This device was tested on Mac, the dog, earlier and worked. The problem is it only last for three hours. Gill request for rescue, but with the military ship Lancelot in orbit the help will not arrive in time. Therefore, Dr. Mayakovsky suggests going straight through the hive to find Norbert, the robotic alien, and follow his trail to the abandoned ship he cleared out. And so they run through, all the while Dr. Mayakovsky fighting the urge to take the Royal Jelly of his to enter his traced state of bliss, but he refuses in order that he can stay with Julian. They device works, the alien walk right beside the team but do nothing to them. Finally Dr. Mayakovsky finds Norbert, who is badly beaten up but still slightly functional.  And the discover was at a good moment, for the devices soon run out and the aliens begin to swarm. Norbert once again sacrifices himself to stop the majority while the team runs to the abandoned ship just outside. They make it but at grave cost: Gill loses an arm (but being a syth it is not much a problem), Julian is burned by the acid blood, and the Lancelot is landing.  Dr. Mayakovsky has a plan. Fighting his own urge, he gives a small amount of Royal Jelly to Julian to ease her pain, and then he reprograms Gills. The Captain Potter of the Lancelot demands that the team surrender the ship to him. Not wanting to start a fight yet, Dr. Mayakovsky plays innocent and request medical aid. The military men march towards the ship, but the alien horde stops the advance. Now Captain Potter is furious and Dr. Mayakovsky has the advantage. He sends Gill, since he is a syth programmed to not harm humans, to negotiate. The aliens do not attack for Gill is infused with Royal Jelly now making him smell like one of their own. Captain Potter refused to make a negation, all he wants is the Royal Jelly stored on board the their ship. With no further talk to be made, Dr. Mayakovsky commands Gill to execute his final orders. Within Gills wrist is a trigger for a bomb stored inside him. His explosion breaches the haul and the perimeter force field. Without a second delay the aliens take advantage and swarm in. But hope has not yet arrived. The aliens have also begun to breach Dr. Mayakovsky’s ship and Julian is still injured. He takes Julian in his arms and promises to escape his world together with her this time. Together embrace and drink the Royal Jelly, sending them to the state of bliss. All the while the aliens bust in and take their life. But alien do not always kill right away, some they keep alive for breeding host. And so all the while they are in their trace, a baby alien comes to live inside them.

Analysis:

From the beginning, Dr. Mayakovsky sought the Royal Jelly escape the world into a moment of bliss. But in the end, what he really wanted was to be in the embrace of the woman he loved and to be with her. He was no longer afraid of death. In addition, in his reprogramming of Gill, Gill awakes to some minor human emotions as well, such as love. Gill’s sacrifice was his own decision, not a forced command, in order to protect Julian.  The tricked work so well because Captain Potter believed that human emotions could only be found in humans, not machines, nor that they could have free will. Technology and science claim to understand the world, but consistently new things are being discovered.  First, the alien robot could not match the scent of the alien hive, even though all science said it would. Second, Gill “awoke” to emotions and free will (syth are not permitted to let a human come to harm). While these are sci-fi, they reflect the reality of the world. Science is always changing and trying to prove or disprove things. What do you believe in when everything you thought you knew is now a lie?

Another point you can see from this story is the personification of Consequentialist, Perfectionist, and Deontological viewpoints of ethics.  Gill can be seen as the Consequentialist, at least in the beginning. For a syth, he is governed by the three rules of robotics: do not harm a human or allow a human to become harmed, it must obey all commands unless in conflict with first, it must protect its existence unless conflict with previous laws. Because of this, a syth looks for the best for the most good. If anyone has to die, Gill wants to least death. When Dr. Mayakovsky plans to go into the hive, Gill follows only because the storm and potential of waiting in the open is slimmer than going through the hive. His plans are rational and goal-oriented: save and protect his human master. Dr. Mayakovsky plays the role of the Deontological view. His focus is inter-personal relationships. He reprograms Gil to be free from the laws and have free will because everyone should be free to choice. His goals were universal; he wanted to live and be happy (which he did thanks to the Royal Jelly) and wished this upon his robotic creations which he considered his own family. Julian can be seen as the Perfectionist. Her original mission in coming to Dr. Mayakovsky was to find a reliable source of obtaining Royal Jelly. She trained herself daily in avoiding and escaping from Norbert, which also dueled as allowing him to learn the nature of the aliens.  This can be evidence of her strife to perfect herself to the best that she could be, and to be a hero in the world by returning with Royal Jelly. Her goal in this world is a worthy cause, the plagues of mankind have grown stronger and the Royal Jelly can help people be happy, or save lives, or other various uses when applied to science. In the end, no theory is better than the other, as seen that each person dies in his or her own noble way. Gill dies saving the most important people to him, and Dr. Mayakovsky and Julian die in a loving embrace in bliss.