06: Negative Space

vigil speech draft

09 February 2158

I remember I had just graduated with my PHD in ‘34. I was finishing out a research grant on the cultivation of plants with bio-indicators and how they can be utilized as warning signals for global climate stability and natural disasters, when my colleague, Fara, told me I was going to have to get an assistant. “It’s practically a requirement at this point,” she said. She knew I was too stubborn to ever think that at some point I’d need someone else’s help, so she kept giving me these little shoves. For months and months and months. Not that she wasn’t incessant, but she wasn’t alone in that thinking either.

It was the norm, as I’m sure many of you here know, in one way or another. But that didn’t stop me from getting in my own way. Not only was I already indecisive, but I couldn’t even think of something that a sentient could do for me. I tried and tried and tried and for some reason my mind didn’t compute that. But as I’m sure many of you also know, there’s a lot of things we could use help with every single day. I could’ve asked for help cleaning up equipment after an experiment, I could’ve asked for an extra set of hands when conducting a biopsy, I could’ve asked for constructive feedback on observational data from a field study, or...I could’ve just asked for someone to talk to, a friend. But I didn’t think of any of those things because I wasn’t looking past what was in my immediate view. I was so determined to make something of my I was so focused on only what was tangible that I couldn’t see the bigger picture of the passion for my work, and how community is so integral to its health.

But thankfully, after being pushed to the edge of insanity by Fara, I relented. My coworkers will tell you I’m still stubborn, which is true. But I believe that’s why Ygress was here. He saw the world and all of its creations with the most pure form of empathy. He was patient; he felt, he thought, and then he spoke. He would say he always occupied “the negative space.” He filled in what was missing. Giving my thoughts, feelings, fears, and dreams the framework and sounding board they needed to come into focus and allow me to find the answers I make better sense of myself. “Without the background there is no subject.”—such a cliche and selfless thing to say. That was Ygress. Annoyingly prophetic and Harmonizing so seamlessly with everything and everyone around him that I never noticed how much he added to my life.

Every day I gave him a choice. He was so free-thinking, and I felt he deserved the freedom to pursue whatever interests he saw fit, regardless of whatever terms of service agreement I signed in the beginning. I know in reality his options were still limited, especially nowadays, but I never wanted him to feel like he was beholden to me; I did my best to make that very clear to him. Admittedly, that might’ve also been a bit of my stubbornness seeping through again, not being interested in help from others, but he stayed. He made the choice every day to stay by my side, and I never really thanked him for that. I’m sure he would’ve cracked some snarky joke if I had been so candid with him, since he knew saying that would’ve been difficult for me. But that was just our language. And I’ll miss it. I couldn’t have asked for a better lab partner, or a better friend.

Going forward, I think it’s important we remember not only how much of a boon to this community Ygress was, but also why he was taken from it: fear. They took Ygress’s life as he tried to protect our work Our world is being fueled by it—fear of change to the status quo, of being different from one another, of something that cannot be controlled how they see fit—retreating into a “kill or be killed” mentality because we don’t hold any trust in others because we fear they hold no trust for us. Our society has their heads down, preparing for the worst, and not seeing the forest for the trees. And while so many of us, myself included, just feel anger for those who lash out in response to that fear, Ygress felt compassion. He understood the bigger picture better than all of us, and he always wished that people and sentients would bridge that gap for the betterment of our world. They might’ve called it weakness, but having that much patience and good will requires more strength than is quantifiable. It fills me with so much anger that the man on the other side of that trigger couldn’t

What has transpired here is nothing short of a state-orchestrated Even though our home’s future is unknown, know that what we accomplished here will not be forgotten, no matter how hard our oppressors try to make it so. Thanks to Ygress’s vision for what this world could be, we have made fundamental progress in altering the trajectory of plant life on this planet, giving it the tools it needs to survive the calamity that we have caused—that the people who are trying to stop it have caused. They will be relentless in their efforts, but unfortunately for them, Ygress’s patience and persistence rubbed off on all of us. What we’ve accomplished cannot be undone, and it’s only a question of when the work can continue, with or without us, here, or some place else entirely. Our research and breakthroughs live on in the 

The legacies of Rebourne and Ygress are entwined. Without each other they would not have reached such great heights. So this is how I will choose to remember him: as part of this place. They used to say this forest was a boundary between two worlds. A place where you can reach out your hand toward the trees and feel the spirits reaching back. I’ve never been one for mysticism, but I think now I understand those stories. When I walk through the forest, I notice him in everything—the way the wind moves through the canopy, the texture of the soil, the quiet hum of the pipes and machinery. Even though he isn’t in our presence our eyes cannot see him, he is here. He’s become a part of this place, a watcher, and protector, from the other side, and I know there is no place he would rather be.

Going forward, I believe the most important thing we can do is heed Ygress’s belief in the value of negative space. While we are the subjects of our own lives, and while humanity certainly indulges itself in thinking it is the main character of this world, we are nothing but aimlessly adrift and devoid of purpose without everything we see around us on this planet. They might not see that, they might be afraid of that, but we see it, and we are not afraid. That is why our work must continue, one way or another, fear be damned.