The Accord Are... Gone

This just in: as the world listened in rapt, stunned, silence to the message from The Others -- a message that simultaneously played from every radio, television, computer, portable music player, and loudspeaker on earth in a multitude of national and regional languages -- we have received word that every human being in the Accord nations has disappeared.

Christian theologians are calling this the Rapture, the simultaneous physical disappearance of "the saved" who have, they claim, been called to heaven. Citing the multi-lingual message, religious experts assert that what the secular world is now The Others, exhibited the "gift of tongues" bestowed by the Holy Spirit, a member of the Christian triune God.

When asked to explain the geographical specificity of the disappearances, as well as the seemingly sacred content of The Others' message, leading religious figures had no response.
In what appears to be a related phenomenon, psychologists, hospitals, and prisons around the world are reporting widepread claims of unexplained psychological effects. Anna Lindeloff, noted Austian psychiatrist, characterized the effects as "pacification on a global scale." Formerly violent individuals now show, according to Dr. Lindeloff, "no sign of their previous inclinations. We have no explanation for this at present."

Mexico City burns.

Vancouver on fire.

Satellite imagery shows widespread devastation in formerly-occupied Accord cities as fires burn out of control and with no one to stop them. We can see wreckages tangling roads as uncontrolled, driverless vehicles slammed into each other, into buildings, and off bridges and overpasses. The wreckage of countless airplanes can also be seen via satellite.


As Toronto, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro burn, we are left wondering where our sense of horror, of outrage, has gone.

For anyone who missed The Others' message, we have an audio recording and transcription.



TRANSCRIPTION OF MESSAGE FROM THE OTHERS:

THE TEST IS A SIMPLE ONE: CRISIS AND OBSERVATION. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, LIFE DEVELOPS IN ENDLESS VARIATIONS YET WITH A SINGLE PURPOSE: TO SURVIVE. WHAT WILL LIFE DO TO ENSURE ITS SURVIVAL? THIS IS OUR TEST. ALL LIFE, WHEN FACED WITH OUR TEST, RESPOND WITH FEAR. THIS IS AS IT SHOULD BE. WILL LIFE CONQUER ITS FEAR AND ACKNOWLEDGE ITS INFERIORITY AMONG ITS BETTERS, OR WILL LIFE EMBRACE FOOLISH PRIDE AND TRUST IN ITS PUNY WEAPONS TO MAINTAIN ITS ILLUSION OF SUPERIORITY? CRISIS. AND OBSERVATION. THIS IS OUR TEST.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN YOUR RESPONSE TO THE TEST. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, AND BEYOND, LIFE EXISTS IN INFINITE VARIETY. THE PATTERN IS CLEAR. WHEN LIFE REACHES ITS ZOK'CHI/D, ITS TURNING POINT, THE PATTERN REACHES ONE OF TWO ENDINGS: IT DEVELOPS MATURITY AND GROWS, OR REJECTS THE DEMANDS OF MATURITY AND EMBRACES DESTRUCTION. WHEN LIFE DIVIDES AGAINST ITSELF, PASSING AND FAILING ITS ZOK'CHI/D, THE PATTERN IS CLEAR. THE LIFE DEVELOPS, BUT IN A BROKEN, TWISTED WAY. LIFE BECOMES A TERRIBLE THREAT TO OTHERS EVEN AS IT INEVITABLY DESTROYS ITSELF. THIS RISK CANNOT BE ALLOWED. THEREFORE, THE TEST. THE PATTERN IS CLEAR: HUMANITY MUST EXCISE THE TUMOR WITHIN IT. IT CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO HARM OTHER LIFE. AS HUMANITY RECEIVES THIS MESSAGE, THE SEVERING IS COMPLETE.

YOU REFUSED TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR HUMANITY'S FUTURE. THE KREN'GU/N -- WHAT YOU CALL THE MACHINE -- WOULD HAVE GIVEN YOU THE ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE WITH LIFE ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, AND BEYOND. UNLOCKING THIS CAPABILITY WOULD HAVE BEEN NEITHER EASY NOR QUICKLY ACCOMPLISHED. YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN WELCOMED INTO THE COMMUNITY OF LIFE ACROSS THE UNIVERSE AND BEYOND, WELCOMED NOT AS THE CHILDREN YOU ARE NOW, BUT AS THE ADULTS YOU WOULD HAVE BECOME. YOU HAVE FAILED YOUR ZOK'CHI/D, YOUR LIFE TURNING POINT. THE PATTERN IS CLEAR. YOU CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO CONTAMINATE THE UNIVERSE.

THE SEVERING IS COMPLETE. RESISTORS WILL NEVER THREATEN HUMANITY AGAIN, FOR THE RESISTORS ARE NOW SEVERED FROM ACCORD SPACE. WITHOUT GUIDANCE, WITHOUT SUPERVISION, WITHOUT CONTROL, HUMANITY-AS-IT-HAS-BEEN WILL END ITSELF, AND OTHER LIFE. INSTEAD, WE WILL PROVIDE THIS GUIDANCE. WE WILL PROVIDE THIS SUPERVISION. WE WILL PROVIDE THIS CONTROL. THE AGE OF HUMANITY-AS-IT-HAS-BEEN IS ENDED. THE PATTERN IS CLEAR. WITH TIME, YOUR LIFE WILL DEVELOP USEFULNESS. SOME LIFE BECOME GIFTED SERVANTS. SOME LIFE BECOME TERRIBLE WEAPONS. SOME LIFE PROVIDES NOURISHMENT TO THE UNIVERSE, AND WHAT LIES BEYOND. THE PATTERN IS CLEAR. YOUR LIFE WILL BE PRESERVED. WILL BE PROCESSED. WILL BE WHAT IT WAS ALWAYS MEANT TO BE. OURS.