“You ask me about perspective?” The cosmonaut laughed, dismissing Volgin’s question with a wave of a gloved hand. “Everything you’re fighting for today will not matter in one hundred years. In five hundred years, everyone we have ever known will be dead, their bones turned to dust long ago. In one thousand years, there will be no Soviet Union, no America, no Cold War.”
He turned, and began pacing slowly, back and forth in front of Raikov’s door as he spoke.
“Instead, it will be other trivial countries, fighting pointless wars to expand imaginary boundaries or conquer other people who are, at the core, the very same. Because they are different races, or religions, or because they are some different nationality, they must be conquered.”
The Fury stopped, glaring pointedly at Volgin, though he knew the brutal honesty would be missed.
“In one million years, the human race will become extinct due to a predicted rise in global temperatures -- if we do not destroy ourselves first. In five billion years, our sun will supernova and incinerate our humble little blue planet. Your love, however noble the intentions, is terribly misguided.”
The Fury stopped, and glared at Volgin for a long moment. “I saw no God during the course of my brief flight, though space is vast and infinite; He could have been hiding anywhere. If there was a God, and He loved mankind as they say, He would not allow men like us to exist. Then again, we always destroy the things we love the most…”
In a brief flash of light, he recalled the way she had looked, pale and lifeless on the bathroom floor, blood spreading outward on the white tile in a growing pool of deep crimson; washing his hands over and over again as he gazed at his reflection in the mirror.
“Do you know why the Cobra Unit was first formed? To destroy a man who had similar ambitions as yours -- totalitarian world domination through any means necessary. In the absence of God, mankind creates heroes instead. That is a relative term as well, depending on which side you are fighting for.”
He went silent as his thoughts trailed off, taking particular interest in the bronze name plate on Ivan’s door, and giving Volgin time to reflect on the cosmonaut’s answer of perspective and God.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-11-27 01:15 am (UTC)He turned, and began pacing slowly, back and forth in front of Raikov’s door as he spoke.
“Instead, it will be other trivial countries, fighting pointless wars to expand imaginary boundaries or conquer other people who are, at the core, the very same. Because they are different races, or religions, or because they are some different nationality, they must be conquered.”
The Fury stopped, glaring pointedly at Volgin, though he knew the brutal honesty would be missed.
“In one million years, the human race will become extinct due to a predicted rise in global temperatures -- if we do not destroy ourselves first. In five billion years, our sun will supernova and incinerate our humble little blue planet. Your love, however noble the intentions, is terribly misguided.”
The Fury stopped, and glared at Volgin for a long moment. “I saw no God during the course of my brief flight, though space is vast and infinite; He could have been hiding anywhere. If there was a God, and He loved mankind as they say, He would not allow men like us to exist. Then again, we always destroy the things we love the most…”
In a brief flash of light, he recalled the way she had looked, pale and lifeless on the bathroom floor, blood spreading outward on the white tile in a growing pool of deep crimson; washing his hands over and over again as he gazed at his reflection in the mirror.
“Do you know why the Cobra Unit was first formed? To destroy a man who had similar ambitions as yours -- totalitarian world domination through any means necessary. In the absence of God, mankind creates heroes instead. That is a relative term as well, depending on which side you are fighting for.”
He went silent as his thoughts trailed off, taking particular interest in the bronze name plate on Ivan’s door, and giving Volgin time to reflect on the cosmonaut’s answer of perspective and God.