Date: 9.24.2152

To: you, my only friend

Subject: help me

hi there,

I hope you're reading this. I really need a friend right now. Someone who understands, someone I can rely on. Because recently I haven't been able to rely on myself.

My life has been turned upside down. I can't make any sense of it anymore. And usually, I'm so good at making sense of things.

Just a couple days ago, everything was so easy and predictable... some would even say, boring. But I like it this way. If there are no surprises – neither good nor bad – one can not be disappointed or hurt, or, worst of all, full of false hope.

Wake up, send in work assignments, water my plants, order take out, listen in on the transmissions from extraterrestrial colonies, take my pills, pass out. Rinse, repeat.

Until three days ago, I intercepted an email addressed to Kevin B. with an attachment inconspicuously titled "just 4 lulz". The email was from his buddy on Saturn, a certain Mike L. (Saturn inhabitant 0397, batch 14).

I thought nothing of it at first. Kevin and Mike's correspondence is not particularly exciting. For the most part, it consists of prank videos, jokes, and memes I find hard to relate to. I would have ignored the file and moved on, but the unusual format caught my attention. It had an *.nt extension, which stands for a NecTar file.

You probably don't know what that means. It's all right. Not many people do. NecTar is a very obscure programming language, which hasn't been in use since the beginning of the 22nd century. Nothing about Mike's biography indicated his interest in coding, so obviously, I got curious, what he could be doing with this kind of file.

I know, I know... You're right. I shouldn't have opened it. No, that's not it. I shouldn't even have been spying on the extraterrestrial missions in the first place. Mia would always say that one day it was going to get me arrested or even killed. I knew she was right. Still, I couldn't stop myself. Over the years, these people on other planets have become my quiet companions. I need to know every single detail about their lives. I need to make sure they are ok. Day after day.

And now I have to pay for it because curiosity killed the cat. Stupid cat.

The attachment contained no "lulz" in the strictest sense of this outdated word. It turned out to be a step-by-step instruction on how to retrieve a bunch of files from government servers. What would you have done in my place? Please think about it and give an honest answer before you judge me.

Yes, you guessed it right, I followed those instructions.

And now, I have discovered something that might be the greatest conspiracy in the history of the Universe. You have no idea. Nobody has. We've been living so blindly all this time, knowing that something is not quite right but never caring enough to ask the right questions.

We're all walking in this fog, distracted by our own mundane lives, hypnotized by the media, drowning every single disturbing thought in copious amounts of drugs and alcohol. Don't get me wrong – I've mastered escapism like nobody else. I'm not judging anyone - I am the same. I understand.

But what I saw in those files was a loud, shrill wake-up call. The question now is - should I do something with that, or do I just continue living as if I don't know anything. Can you help me make that decision? I know it's very unfair to put this burden on your shoulders, but I have no one else but you.

I can't reach out to Mia. It's been almost two years since we last talked. Besides, she hates me. No, that's not it. You can only hate someone if you consider them your equal. Mia despises me. In her eyes, I barely warrant to be called human. I can't say I blame her after all the lies and half-truths I told her. I thought it was for the best. I still do.

We never quite got along. Not even at the very beginning. I'm not sure what I was even looking for in this relationship. Maybe my loneliness got a bit too unbearable. Or I just wanted to try what it's like to be loved. But I learned my lesson, and now I know better. Loneliness is my best friend, and love is just one of the lies humanity has invented to keep self-destructive urges at bay. Rather unsuccessfully, I might add.

I even tried to contact Kevin. But so far, he hasn't responded, which is not a big surprise. I hacked into most of his accounts, and he hasn't been online since that email from Mike. He might just be busy, or partying hard, or... dead. I know I shouldn't let paranoid thoughts get the best of me. But if you knew, what I know, you'd also start looking behind your shoulder one too many times.

Mike hasn't been communicating with anyone either since that day. But, as it is currently storming on Saturn, it doesn't necessarily mean anything.

You see? I am calm, I am rational, I am keeping it together.

Who am I kidding? I'm slowly going insane.

Please help me figure out my next move.

Yours,

Ryan