I saw a post the other day, about how humans are indestructible. How nothing can stop us.
Shot in the arms? The breast? Even in the lungs or the head? Nothing we can't recover from.
Acid in the eyes or even burning alive? We're not dead yet. Not dead soon.
We can recover from basically anything if we have the willpower to do so and even with way less resources and medical aid than you might think.
And that's what we seem to be to other species. On a spaceship it's always the human that willingly goes into danger zone, because they very probably will survive about anything that would kill other species immediately.
Except for when a human comes back alive but not quite so. Sometimes a human comes back and just a few days later is getting sick. Some are coughing blood and some are just slowly losing energy, always needing more sleep, until they never wake up again.
Sometimes humans survive the battlefield, but die slowly later on and no one knows why. They seemed fine. They didn't even have an injury. They just... Slowly withered away. Very very slowly. And most of the time very very painful.
The tale of the indestructible human was just that. A tale. A myth. But it kept getting repeated. It kept getting told. Because it was interesting, unbelievable, heroic.
But the truth? It was gruesome, hard to hear and even harder to tell. It was a horror story. And worst of all: It was even harder to believe than the myth.
But then there was this day. A spaceship, alone, no help could reach them. Not fast enough. Something needed fixing. But there was radiation coming off it and all of the protective gear was damaged and no longer useable since the ship crashed into a meteor only a few days prior. Nothing too bad happened. Just the storage. The storage and with it all the gear in it.
And now they needed it, noone would survive the radiation. Noone except for maybe...
They asked the humans, there were two of them on the ship, and they were indestructible, right? Surely they could go and fix it. They could save them all.
When they approached them with their request, one immediately nodded, while the other looked shocked.
"You can't go in there."
"Of course, I can."
"You will die!"
Everyone in the room looked taken aback. Surely they wouldn't die? Humans didn't die. That's what everyone said.
The human indeed shook their head.
"I'll be fine. And we will all die if no one goes in there."
"Oh, please, don't. Don't do this. Don't sacrifice yourself."
"I have to."
"I'll come with you!"
"You absolutely will not."
"But- but you need help!"
"I don't. And you know that as well as I do. Stay here. I'll go." The human stood up and went to leave.
"I'll go! Instead of you!"
"No!" Fast. Loud. Fierce. "It"ll be me." They went away.
Their friend tugged on their arm and tried to convince them to stay, but they just shook off their arm.
The captain was worried. Why were they arguing?
"Nothing will happen to them. Humans are indestructible, after all. Am I right?"
They just looked at the captain with tears in their eyes and stormed off, in the other direction as their crewmate.
A few hours later the brave human came back from their mission. It was successful. Everything was done. And without so much of a scratch at the humans body. They congratulated them, praised them. Even their human friend came back and hugged them, tightly, with still teary eyes.
The next days the humans spent a lot of time in their rooms, scarcely coming out, the one praised as their hero not eating well. They became weaker, day by day, while their friend stayed at their side, holding their hand and talking to them, even while they were asleep.
Of course, the crew worried, but they still believed, it was just exhaustion. After all, it was a difficult mission. And they saved all of their lives. They deserved the rest.
Until one day they heard sobbing. When they opened the door, they saw the human, laying on their friends body. Their still warm body, but without breath in their lungs and without a beat in their heart.
They were dead. Impossible.
Humans are indestructible.
"No!" The other human cried out loud, when they tried to take the body away. When they tried to touch them, when they tried to understand what happened. They were not injured. So why did they-
For a week, the other human didn't leave the room. Didn't talk to anyone. Didn't eat.
Everyone was worried. Would they lose them too? Was something happening to the humans? Maybe they were sick? A sickness even they couldn't survive?
But this human came back. Looking paler and older than before. But they came back alive.
Only then the captain dared to ask. "When you said, they'd die. You-"
"I meant it. It killed them. They went in, because you asked them. But it killed them."
"But I thought-"
"We are not. We never were. But they let you believe. Because they wanted to save us."
"Why didn't you tell us? We would have never let them go in there."
"I couldn't."
"Why not?"
"Because it was either them or me."
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