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The Observation

The drone was moved to another town. The Butterfly was moving the drone in a manner that looked like an old man. But captain Probir wanted to visit the planet by himself. It was still difficult for him to land because it was dangerous.

Probir ordered the drone to move to a quiet place, out of the town and decided that he, himself would land. He took a shuttle and landed right beside the waiting drone.

Probir, although a very capable starship captain, lacked the personality of being a captain, a showy personality with a very high level of charisma. He only cared about his next mission, and by doing that, he distanced himself from the others. Even his first officer couldn't predict his next move, not because the captain wanted not to predict, but because he was not like clockwork, like the other captains.

He always thought of himself as an observer, observing everything without interfering. The reason was, from his childhood, he was an observer, always keeping to himself and observing. Once he went into trouble with the school authority who thought he was a "quiet kid" type of student, but in reality, he was deeply philosophical and very unpopular among his classmates.

Most of the time in the class, he spent doodling and colouring out nebulas and spaceships. While some of his classmates tried to understand him, many ignored him. After all, the school was insanely difficult.

Captain Probir spoke to the drone which in reality spoke to the Butterfly. The captain started walking toward a small village while the drone was following him. It was nearing sunrise. They were following a small river to the town and suddenly the Butterfly told through the drone, "Captain, there is something wrong with the civilization."

 “What is it?” asked the captain.

“Captain, I’ve seen many organics, recorded many languages and scanned many planets. The one most important thing I’ve seen is, that they tend to diversify. An example would be your own civilization. Before reunification, there were more than 3000 languages and still to this day, your own civilization has more than 5000 languages, including interstellar languages. You had different cultural and artistic expressions. But this civilization felt awfully like civilization with a manufactured fantasy. Culture seems to be very homogenous and there is a single language. The development phase looks like a culture that could be your early 22nd century of earth.”

The captain noticed that a long time ago and wanted to talk to the people. After reaching a small village, the captain and the drone sat beside a church-like structure. There were several statues and some symbols around the place. The butterfly said, “Captain, why do the organics need spirituality?”

The captain thought for a bit and started,

“See, spirituality is like a blanket.”

“I don’t understand,” said the butterfly.

“See, for the organics, we tend to find things that are strangely familiar, yet feel so desperately unknown,” continued the captain, “See, we love to imagine. Our imagination is the thing that carries us forwards. However, imagination can be of many types.”

“Please continue,” said the Butterfly.

“See, one can imagine a very comforting place, in a very beautiful village, like this one, and other can imagine something of a very far away place where there is no constrain of the laws of physics. You can also imagine a higher power,” said the captain.

“But we don’t know if a higher power exists or not,” said the Butterfly.

“Exactly, I cannot define spirituality. I can only tell what other people define it,” said the captain, “You see, humans are emotional and it’s very common for an emotional animal to believe in things like that.”

“But are you a spiritual person?” asked the Butterfly.

“No. I don’t see any reasons behind spirituality. You might think of me as a person of logic. I aspire to be a person without emotions; therefore, I reject things like spirituality,” replied the captain.

“So, is this the reason why you show little to no emotions on the bridge?” asked the Butterfly.

“Well, not exactly, I have other reasons,” the captain replied. He was looking at the horizon, the lazy sunrise and how the entire horizon was bloodshot red, suddenly, it reminded him of his hometown which is located by the side of the Ganges River. He felt something very home about that place, the “wet” scent of the riverside soils, the landscape scenery, almost everything.

Looking at the horizon, he started singing,

“I’ve never ever seen him in all my days –

There’s a mystical village near my home

Where a certain neighbour lives

Beyond deep waters, lies this neighbour’s dwelling

There are no banks,

No boats for the crossing –

Tell me then, how am I supposed to go there?

What can I tell you about this neighbour?

He has no body, head, hands, or feet

One moment he soars through the air

The next he skims the water

If this neighbour even touched me once

I’d be able to shake off my mortal fears

Yet he and Lalon live in the same place

Still, there is a gap of a thousand miles!”

The Butterfly was staring at the captain. He was trying to understand the meaning of the song.

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