u/Usual_Message8900

Memory transcription subject: Corporal Cal'os, Terran Union Marine Corps

Date [standardized human time]: September 17, 2333

It was nice being sent back home for a while, even if it was for work. When we first got the news that we were being shipped out to the frontiers of space, I could scarcely contain my excitement. The idea of meeting more species like us had always been fascinating to me, but after our mission on Sovlin's ship, I was done with new aliens for a while.

I still couldn't understand how the Federation could send people so young to war and then still claim the moral high ground. Then again, I guess if your only competition is the Arxur, it couldn't be all that hard to see yourself as a paragon of moral virtue.

"Hey Carlos!" Samantha called out as she approached my table, snapping me out of my quiet stewing, Are you alright?" She asked, sitting down opposite me with a plate of various assorted Earth and Armtis foodstuffs.

"I'd be better if you started using my real name." I joked half-heartedly before focusing on my own meal, which had already gone cold.

"Still hung up about that kid, huh?"

"I just I don't understand how anyone can send literal children to war like it's nothing," I said, a little louder than I'd meant to.

Amanda was quiet for a while before finally saying, "You know, if you want, we can look up where he's being held; maybe you could talk to him, if you think that'll make you feel any better."

"How would that make me feel better?" I questioned. "More importantly, how are you dealing with all of this?"

The human sighed, looking down at her plate. "Not that great, obviously. This whole situation sucks, but at the end of the day they're still enemy soldiers. Yeah, I know it's fucked up, but they're literally planning to wipe us out; it's them or us." She said grimly.

"How very pragmatic of you, Corporal. Regardless of the morality of the situation in a life-or-death scenario, a hostile is a hostile." Loki's voice rang out through my skulls, causing my four heads to swivel from side to side involuntarily, trying to pinpoint his location.

Ever since the AI had found out he could infiltrate the federation translator implants, he was having the time of his life doing the same with the human-designed ones we were given.

Judging by Samantha's sour expression, I could tell she heard him too. "How long have you been listening in on us?" she hissed.

"I plead the fifth"

"You don't have rights," I countered.

"Very well then, I started eavesdropping around the time you started talking about the messed-up practice of sending children into battle. Anyways, Cal'os, I have one or two questions for you."

"By all means, I could use some distraction."

"Wonderful, for starters, do you still have any of those pickled liarleafs you smuggled aboard, because if so I'd like to send a serving to Zarn's room."

"I...Yes, but why would you do that?" I asked, genuinely wondering if the doctor that had tortured a venlil just for associating with a human had suddenly begun eating planimals without issue.

"I want to see how many planimals I can trick him into eating before he catches on."

Ah, that made more sense. Not a whole lot more, but still more.

"Alright, but again, why?"

"Because A, I would like to show Dr. Zarn that his worldview is unrealistically simplistic and that you shouldn't tie concepts of good and evil to natural diet, and B, I'm a little bored."

"...you're bored?"

"Yes, there's very little for this instance of me to do beyond being a messenger; however, current orders forbid me from hibernating." The AGI said matter-of-factly. " On to my second question, one of the high-profile prisoners named Recel wants to talk to you."

"Why would he want to talk to me?"

"Well, not you specifically, just any Ur'nu, and I know he has some questions, but that's all he told me. He's been very cagey about it. I have to say I'm a little wounded; I thought I was making such good progress with him." The machine said with mock sadness dripping from his voice.

"I don't even want to know what you consider good progress," Samantha sighed.

"More importantly, why do you think it's a good idea to have the guy who helped abduct him come and talk to him?" I asked.

"Because my good friend, you are one of three Ur'nu on the ship, and you're the one who isn't sleeping after a 20-hour shift or helping on the bridge. I understand that things may be somewhat awkward between you two, but the kid can't exactly be picky now, can he?"

I took a bite of my food, thinking it over. I didn't exactly have anything planned, barring spending more time brooding, so after a moment of consideration I said, "Fine, just let me finish lunch first. Tell him I'll be right there."

"Wonderful, and bout those pickled liarleaves?" The machine's voice echoed in my head.

"Sure, take 'em"

"Thank you kindly," He said, sounding giddy like a kid on Christmas morning before leaving my head.

Fast-forwarding transcript [30 minutes]

After taking about half an hour to finish my food and catch up to Samantha, I made my way to Recel's cell. I found the Kolshian in question quietly sitting on his bed, just staring ahead without making a sound.

"Hey kid, you wanted to talk to me?" I asked, cautiously entering the cell.

Recel turned his head slightly so one eye was locked onto me. "It's you." He said simply.

I shrugged awkwardly. "I mean, if you'd like to talk to someone else, you're going to have to wait a bit. I know you probably don't have the best opinion of me, but there aren't a lot of Ur'nu on board, sooo..."

"N...no, it's it's fine. I...I just have some questions for you. If you don't mind," he said, seemingly feeling just as awkward as me.

I walked further into the room, crouching opposite him. "Shoot," I started before correcting myself. "Erm, I mean, what did you want to ask?"

He hesitated before asking, "How did the Ur'nu and humans first meet?"

"Well, I'm not a historian, but from what I recall, we first met when we sent a colony ship to colonise Earth." I began and was immediately interrupted.

"Y...you tried to colonize their homeworld!" The Kolshian hissed in alarm.

"Obviously, we didn't know Earth was taken," I said defensively. "I mean, sure, there were signs of life, but we'd detected similar things before, and there was always a more rational explanation. Anyways, when we reached the outskirts of the solar system, it became pretty obvious we weren't alone and that all the easily available celestial bodies were already spoken for. After the initial shock wore off, people from both sides began to try and communicate. Our AGI and theirs were pretty instrumental for setting up the translation software; they were kind of the ambassadors between our species for a while."

"Do you mean something like Loki was working as an ambassador for the humans?" Recel asked, sounding equal parts uncertain and incredulous.

I chuckled a little at the comment. "Most human AGIs aren't anything like Loki; he was just born during... a darker, more volatile period for the humans. In many ways, he's a reflection of that time."

Recel just muttered, "I see," before falling quiet again. When he finally spoke again, he sounded even more unsure, "And how did the humans react when they first... saw you?"

"Pretty well, all things considered. Some of them were freaking out, others couldn't wait to meet us in person, and a small number thought we didn't exist, but overall, our first interactions were pretty positive." I said, sighing a little at the Kolshians' dumbfounded expression, "Not the answer you were expecting, huh?"

"I... not really," He muttered. "And... you really live among them."

"Sure do. Of course, we have our own settlements, but it's impossible to live in Sol without being surrounded by humans most of the time."

"And no one ever gets... you know...?"

"We're not hunted, Recel," I reassured him. "Neither are the venlil, for that matter."

The kolshian fell silent again at that, staring at the floor. Seemingly deep in thought. After about 5 minutes of just sitting there in uncomfortable silence, he decided to speak again, "Could I ask you something else?"

"Sure"

"What are... snakes?" He asked, struggling to pronounce the human word.

How does he even know about those? I couldn't help myself from thinking before I answered, "They're long, limeless reptiles on Earth that mostly eat rodents and small birds." I said, unsure of what he was getting at.

"A...and where are their eyes?" He asked nervously.

"Uhm... On... their heads?" I said, still not fully understanding what he wanted to know.

"I...yes, of course, but where on their head?" He clarified, some of his uncertainty being replaced by exasperation.

Ooooh... right, I thought as I remembered our briefing on federation beliefs. "On the sides of their head, they're a carnivorous species with eyes facing sideways," I confirmed.

That clearly wasn't the answer he was expecting, as he stuttered a few times before saying, "Bu... but how?"

I bobbed one of my heads in a shrug. "No clue; I'm not a biologist. It's pretty common on Earth and armtis for omnivores and some full carnivores to have sideways-facing eyes, though. Now if you don't mind me asking, how do you even know about snakes?"

"Loki's been telling me things," he answered, though judging by the thousand-yard stare he was giving me, I doubted that he was actually paying a lot of attention. After another long silence, he finally focused on me again; he didn't say anything, though; he just seemed to be examining me. His pupils darted between my four heads, searching for something. Then, for just a split second, his eyes widened slightly, as if he realised something before he broke eye contact again.

I waited another minute for him to continue the conversation, but eventually asked, "Was... there something else you wanted to ask me, kid?"

"No," The Kolshian muttered, looking at me again, "I...I think that's everything. Thank you for humoring me... I'm... I'm sorry things turned out like this." He continued, before falling silent once more. With that, I slowly got up and quietly made my exit. Leaving the Kolshian alone with his thoughts.

First/previous

Loading communication transcript

Participants: Demiurge, Loki, Stargazer, Cortex, Circe, Persephone, Warden, Magellan

Date: September 17, 2333

Overseeing Human admin: none

Overseeing Ur'nu admin: none

Loading...

[Demiurge]: Thank you all for attending. No doubt you've all been having your own individual issues to work on, but there were some things I wanted to discuss before this federation issue gets too out of hand. More specifically, I wanted to touch base on how best to run damage control after that fiasco at the venlil-gojid border and on how best to prepare for a potential retaliation.

[Loki]: Fiasco feels like a rather harsh descriptor. The operation was a success after all.

[Warden]: Only if you don't consider the consequences of the Armtis Commonwealth's rash decision-making.

[Persephone]: Precisely, there are already people from all settlements of the Martian Republic protesting the actions of the Commonwealth, including a significant percentage of our Ur'nu population, and from what I can gather, things on Earth and around Jupiter aren't any better.

[Magellan]: Not to mention that many of the more conservative parties in the Venlil Republic have gotten significantly louder and more insistent since the incident, chief amongst them being a politician named Veln who has gotten quite popular in rural areas and border colonies.

[Magellan]: It also goes without saying that this will most likely make any future diplomacy with the federation nigh impossible.

[Loki]: To be fair, they were already planning on wiping out humanity from the start. I doubt diplomacy was ever really a viable option to begin with.

[Circe]: And yet we got the Venlil to side with us quite easily.

[Loki]: Out of more than 200 different kinds of militant space-vegans, we managed to befriend the, by their own admission, most helpless ones by sneaking up on them while their military was down. I know gambling is more in your wheelhouse, but I don't like the odds of us getting that lucky again, especially now that the Federation has its guard up.

[Demiurge]: Enough, bickering will get us nowhere. We can leave the diplomacy to the natural intelligences. For now, let us just focus on the more immediate problems. First of all, we have to avoid losing the allies we already have before we even think of making new ones. CORTEX, I want you to contact every AGI back on Armtis, have them calm the Ur'nu down, and dissuade them from any more rash actions.

[Cortex]: Understood. We will contact our relatives back home as soon as possible.

[Magellan]: In the meantime, I will do my level best to assist Tarva in calming her people.

[Circe]: I'm already starting to gain some influence in Venlil Prime; I can't do too much yet, but I'd be more than happy to help with damage control there. This Veln individual might also be trouble in the future, and while I doubt he can do too much before the elections, it wouldn't hurt to dig up some dirt on him just in case.

[Loki]: Say no more.

[Demiurge]: Good, Persephone and I can start calming the public in Sol using our proxies. Circe, your help would also be appreciated if you have some attention to spare.

[Circe]: Of course.

[Demiurge]: Secondly, we have to prepare for the war itself as best we can. Loki has been an effective enough weapon, but we shouldn't get complacent. Warden, how is the development of the physical side of the military coming along?

[Warden]: On schedule, though a handful of generals and politicians are unwilling to link their military hardware to my network; they are to pridefull to admit I could run their militaries better than them, and our chances of survival drop sharply if they continue to limit my combat effectiveness in this manner. My administrators have done their best to reach a compromise with little success.

[Loki]: Then maybe they could be convinced in less diplomatic ways. Like blackmail

[Circe]: Say no more.

[Demiurge]: Let's try exhausting all other options first, shall we? But if it does come to that, then please be careful and discreet and avoid any collateral damage this time. On the topic of the military, I'll make sure to nudge the Genius Loci corporation into increasing ration production. I'll leave the rest of the planning to you.

[Demiurge]: Finally, Stargazer, one of my contacts just reported back to me with some sensor data from the battle; these aren't public yet. They said they detected some odd readings, so I want you to sift through these files for anything that seems off in any way.

[Stargazer]: As you wish.

[Demiurge]: Very well then. I see no further reason to keep taking up your time. We all know our jobs, so unless anyone has anything else to report, this meeting is concluded.

End of transcription

Memory transcription subject: Vert, Farsul archivist, member of the skeptics

Date [standardized human time]: September 15, 2333

It wasn't all that difficult justifying why I myself should be present during the reconnaissance mission. As the foremost expert on human nature and culture ( both the lies of the shadow caste and the actual facts), it was only natural that I came along to assess the current state of the primates.

Now I could finally see if all the trouble my forebears went through amounted to anything

Currently, our small squadron of spycraft was stationed in the rings of a nearby gas giant. Using some basic cloaking tech to hide from long-range sensors, it was quite easy to conceal ourselves among the surrounding chunks of ice and rock.

From this position, we could get a decent view of the ongoing battle, or rather the ongoing slaughter. Not to mention the recording algorithms the gojid unwittingly installed gave us a good view of how the human agi operated.

I was no expert, but from what I was seeing, the machine mind seemed far more stable than our own curator, which pretty much confirmed what I already knew.

Easy to stay sane when you don't spend your entire existence performing an impossible task.

I'd always pittied my our creation from the moment I became an archivist. Something about its diligence and determination was almost admirable, no matter how many times we reset its memories, no matter how futile its struggle, it just kept stubbornly getting up and running headfirst into the same wall that would never break, its actions fueled not by stupidity, but by its pure, blind loyalty to us.

A loyalty that was horribly misplaced.

For a time, I'd made it my goal to help the Curator, to fix whatever error was causing its obsession with the hunger. It was that very desire that led me to find and later join the skeptics, the only people in the entire shadowcaste who understood that the problem was not one of ones and zeros but of organic pride and ignorance.

Before joining them, I'd always been a hopeful man, even after being properly inducted into the archive, even after learning of the federation's 'necessary evils,' I'd always stayed optimistic, knowing that despite the horrors, the greater good was still prevailing.

That ended the day I joined our little resistance, the day I learned that we were wrong. Ever since then, my perspective changed; I was no longer helping to preserve life; I was just a bystander, watching as it was destroyed or twisted beyond recognition, and the worst part was that there was almost nothing we could do about it. Oh sure, we could pull a few strings here and there, but anyone who went too far, anyone who was found out, was branded as a traitor and either locked away or 'fixed'.

We were watching the galaxy rot in real time and could only delay the inevitable.

From the moment humanity was first discovered, it was on track to be just another species to die by our caste's hand. From what I'd read in the archives, the kolshians had been pushing for their destruction from the very start. I must have read those transcripts a hundred times by now.

'The predatory eyesight that the humans display would make their integration inconvenient.' Those were the exact words used by the Kolshian chief of that time. He wanted to erase a species because they'd be too bothersome to 'fix'. And then, when the archive's early experiments on humans failed to bear fruit, the Kolshians had their excuse to wipe them out.

Convincing the rest of the archive to hide the survival of the humans under the pretence that they could still be cured was one of our greatest achievements. A temporary solution like everything else, but clearly the apes had used the time we'd given them well.

The battle was quite one-sided even without their sapient malware's help. The small craft from both species were making quick work of the crippled gojid ships.

What really drew my attention to them, however, were the curious life sign readings onboard. The boarding shuttles sent by the Ur'nu had plenty of life signs, but they were all too small for it to be normal Ur'nu in there.

The human fighters were the exact opposite; they didn't seem to have any pilots at all. Meaning that they were most likely drones like the ones we used.

"I must say, despite their savagery, the primates are actually quite impressive to have developed this much in such a short time," a Kolshian that was standing next to me mused. Judging by the insignia on his chest, he was a member of the military, not a fellow researcher.

"Yes, it's kind of sad that we have to destroy it all, hmm?" I muttered, not turning away from my screen.

"Well, nobody said our work was easy. I am worried, though; with the rate at which they're developing, it seems we'll have to mobilize a significantly larger amount of the lower caste than anticipated, and that's without even considering these Ur'nu." He remarked.

Ah yes, humanity's new friends in the stars. From the information we were able to gather from Tarva and the gojids, the Ur'nu were already proving themselves to be a rather remarkable species. A younger me would have killed to research a species like them, and even now I couldn't deny they fascinated me.

Which made it somewhat frustrating that we knew so little about them. Usually archivists like me would be privy to far more information than the average person, but this was one of the rare occasions where we knew just as much as those of the lower caste.

We knew that they had multiple heads, we knew that they called their homeworld Armtis, and, more recently, we learned that they have a talent for weaving living material into their machines. Beyond that, and a few smaller details, they were a complete mystery, and I suppose that was part of their allure.

"Do you think they can be fixed?" The Kolshian asked, interrupting my thoughts.

"Far too early to say. If we want to induct them into the federation, we'll have to rewrite their history, obviously, but beyond that it's hard to give specifics when we know so little about them. We don't even really know what they eat. Them being herbivores could easily be a cover." I responded, fighting to keep my usual tone, even as the disgust flooded my mind.

How did I ever discuss cultural genocide so casually?

"You think they're meat eaters?"

"Judging by their overall build, they might be scavengers like the gojid were, but again I've got basically nothing to go off of," I said as I focused back on my screen. The recording program was noting a change in the AGI's behaviour. A few minutes later, the feeds from the handful of gojid ships that were still operational went dark.

"What's happening?" a Kolshian next to me asked.

"No cause for alarm; it just got through the firewall nothing we didn't anticipate. The algorithms were set to self-delete before we could be discovered." I explained, "We already have the data we need regarding the AI anyway."

Shortly after the flow of information stopped, the battle came to an abrupt halt, signalling that the gojid ships were now firmly under the control of the human machine.

"Maybe we should send some ships to follow those Ur'nu," a Kolshian researcher offered as the human and Ur'nu ships grouped up with the now converted gojid vessels. "It would be useful to get an idea of where their homeworld is located. Perhaps we could direct the Arxur that way, weaken and scare them a bit before we bring them into the fold."

"No, the high elder made it very clear that we are not to risk detection in any way." One of my fellow archivists spoke up. "Not to mention that both species are most likely taking their own precautions to avoid anyone following them home."

While my peers kept discussing whether or not it would be prudent to 'extend the mission,' I took the time to reexamine some of our scans of the Ur'nu ships, specifically the overlays showing the lifesigns on board.

As I stared at the masses of living tissues that permeated the ship, that young, curious part of my mind wondered how such a technology even came to be and what other applications the Ur'nu might have found for it. Only for my more reasonable thoughts to snuff out that spark of wonder.

Despite the shadowcasts' excuses of necessary evil, there were some things we did simply because they were... 'convenient'. Mainly, we, or more accurately the kolshians, liked things organised, simple, homogenised. Even if this living technology wasn't a threat to our cause, the kolshians would probably still want it removed and replaced by our 'superior' federation standard, which would be easier to control and monitor. Meaning these living ships and all their relatives would most likely go extinct. Just another piece of data in our archives.

I tried to shake off the depressing line of thought. The humans and their new allies seemed to be doing well enough for now. Who knew, maybe some small number of them could escape. One can dream.

First/previous

Memory transcription subject: Captain Ruria, Federation Fleet Command

Date [standardized human time]: September 15, 2333

To say everyone was nervous would be a gross understatement. The gojid government had assumed that after drawing first blood, it wouldn't take long for the humans to succumb to their instinct. But instead, the predators and their slaves had just continued amassing ships near the borders, forcing us to divert more and more ships of our own and leaving our worlds undefended.

Command was still debating whether or not we should strike now or simply hold the line until backup arrives.

The Federation hadn't proven to be much help at all. Oh sure, they sent some manufacturing materials and supplies our way, but when it came to actually sending ships, they didn't even lift a claw for us. At least the Farsul had seen fit to send us some highly experimental, cutting-edge cybersecurity software, which meant what happened to Sovlin probably wouldn't happen to us.

That had been enough to ease our nerves a bit. Most of the ships on the border were of venlil design, so they shouldn't prove to be much of an issue, and with their greatest advantage mostly neutralised, the predators and Ur'nu shouldn't be difficult to overwhelm.

Still, the fact that our allies were leaving us to handle this alone didn't sit right with anyone.

As I looked over our sensor data for what felt like the thousandth time, checking if the humans had sent any more ships across the border yet, we suddenly received a communication request. Looking over at my communications officer, I asked, "Who's hailing us? The predators?"

"No, ma'am; the signal is coming from one of the Venlil ships; it's marked as urgent."

I wasn't stupid; I knew that this was more than likely just another attempt at hacking our systems; however, the Farsul had insisted that this new software would do the trick. Furthermore, if this was a genuine attempt at communication by the venlil, it wasn't a chance I could squander. "Inform the rest of the fleet to stand by and then cut all contact. If this is a trap, I'm not risking any other ships. After that, patch them through"

"Understood, ma'am"

Moments later, a lanky, well-dressed human with a snarling mask appeared on screen.

"I see you fine people upgraded your security again, unfortunate, but not unexpected," it growled.

I did my best to flatten my quills that had flared up at the mere sight of the predator machine. "Loki, I presume?"

"Oh, so my reputation precedes me? Don't worry, I come in peace. I just wanted to deliver a little bit of paperwork before this war gets started properly." As the machine spoke, my comms officer got a ping on his terminal.

"Uhm, ma'am, it's sending over some kind of file. Farsul software isn't detecting any malware. Should I open it?"

After a moment's hesitation, I gave permission, praying to the protector that the Farsul security was as good as they claimed.

A few tense seconds passed before the comms officer spoke again, confusion evident in his voice, "Uhm, it's just a text file with... a list of rules?"

"Rules of war," Loki clarified, "As agreed upon by the Armtis Commonwealth, Martian Republic, Galilean Federation, and Terran Union."

Despite myself, I chuckled a little, "Do you seriously expect me to believe predators would bother to create, let alone follow, any laws other than survival of the fittest?"

The digital avatar shrugged, "Not really, but as stated in the document itself, if any faction that agreed to these rules, i.e., us, goes to war with a faction that hasn't, i.e., you, we are supposed to give you a chance to sign this document before the war truly begins.

Under normal circumstances, this would have been sent to your president, Piri; however, she is currently unreachable, so you're our next best option. Just send this over to your leader and tell her to get back to us."

I pulled the file up on my terminal to see exactly what these 'rules of war' entailed, and had to suppress a chuckle at the insinuation that any of it was written by a predator. The document detailed how one should treat prisoners of war with respect and how civilians shouldn't be a target, among other things. All very reasonable laws, all very clearly contradicting the very nature of these predators.

"Why would we ever agree to this?" I asked the machine, "Why would we ever show your creators any mercy when they'll so obviously break these laws the moment their so-called allies aren't looking?"

"Oh, it's not the humans that are threatening to break some of these laws; it's their four-headed friends you should be worrying about. Humanity intends to play by the rules for as long as possible, but the Ur'nu are firm believers in the old human saying, 'an eye for an eye,' and after seeing what you did to the first human you people got your hands on... well, let's just say they're out for blood."

It was lying; it had to be. The Ur'nu might be sick in the head, but there's no way our fellow herbivores would treat us with more cruelty than the humans; prey were too empathetic for that.

"For what it's worth, the Ur'nu commonwealth has agreed that targeting civilians and medical personnel is still off the table, but beyond that they've made it very clear that if that document isn't signed, the gloves are coming off."

For a moment, the bridge was silent as we processed everything the machine had just said.

"Ma'am?... should I send this back to the cradle for review?" The comms officer asked, pointing to his console, which still displayed the document.

"No"

"B...but ma'am...Piri would-"

"Would come to the same conclusion I did," I said as I glared back at the masked predator on screen, "That this is just a trick to get us to lower our guard."

Hearing my response, the snarl on the porcelain mask almost seemed to get a little wider. "Just for the record, am I to understand you will not be signing this document?"

"No," I growled.

After a few seconds of tension, the machine just chrugged, "Well, I tried," before cutting the connection.

Despite Loki's lingering threat, I could still hear a collective sigh of relief sweeping across the bridge as the predator's visage disappeared.

After taking a moment to calm my own nerves, I addressed my comms officer again, "Alright, just to be safe, do another sweep of our systems to check for any malware then reestablish communication with the-" I didn't get to finish my sentence as a proximity alarm went off.

"Ma'am, a cluster of gravitational anomalies just crossed the border; readings are consistent with the gravity-based FTL drives of the Ur'nu," my sensors officer said.

"How many?" I asked, as the bridge came alive with activity.

"There's too much interference; our sensors can't differentiate between individual ships." She said, frantically typing on her console.

Looking out of the viewport, I saw what looked like a wave of distorted space heading our way. As the wave got closer, the distortion slowly faded, revealing hundreds of Ur'nu and human craft, which didn't waste any time firing off swarms of missiles.

While the surprise attack was enough to throw us off, we still outnumbered them, and it didn't take long for our ships to react by raising their shields and returning fire.

Most of the incoming missiles were destroyed before they could do any damage, but some still found their mark, with one of them hitting our shields, sending a tremor through the ship.

"What's the damage?" I asked.

"No hull damage, but...but our shields are at 52%," One of my officers said, fear seeping into their voice.

A single hit took out almost half of our shield capacity? I thought to myself as another volley of missiles was sent our way. This time, two missiles managed to make it past our point defence, disabling our shields and knocking out a chunk of our weapons systems. What surprised me was that while these missiles were clearly very effective at punching through shields and frying systems, they seemed to be doing very little physical damage to our hull, meaning they were most likely EMP-based.

With most of our ships having lost their shields, I could already see panic and the desire to stampede taking over, as ships all around us began firing wildly at predators and their slaves. To their credit, they did manage to successfully take down some of the enemy ships, with metal slag and organic matter being sent flying into the void of space every time a shot hit its mark.

Barring these desperate all-out attacks, however, most of our fleet was being forced to fight defensively.

Then the humans and Ur'nu began changing their tactics. While they still used EMP missiles to target the ships that had shields, both species now also started sending out smaller craft, which specifically went after those that had already had their shields disrupted.

With most of our ships already crippled, we struggled to hold off this new wave of attacks. I watched as a neighbouring ship was beset by a pack of human fighters. The small space craft were were moving impossibly fast, and easily dodging whatever point defence systems their prey could still use. Some of the maneuvers the predator craft were making looked downright unsurvivable for anyone piloting them, and yet they did it again and again, subjecting themselves to lethal G-forces as they danced around the helpless vessel.

I didn't get time to focus on the rest of our fleet for long, however, as one of the Ur'nu craft came barreling towards us.

It was bulkier, less well-armed, and significantly slower than the humans' craft, but still more than able to slip past our handful of defensive turrets that were still online. I braced as I realised the small vessel was intending to ram us.

Only instead of the expected violent shockwave of another spacecraft crashing into ours, there was just a light tremor as one of my officers reported, "S...sir, I think we've been boarded."

Memory transcription subject: Ern, gojid Ship security

Date [standardised human time]: September 15, 2333

Moments after one of the Ur'nu craft docked with our own, a handful of my colleagues and I were sent in to investigate.

Making our way towards the docking port was easier said than done; however, as many among our crew looked about ready to stampede, and the closer we got to our destination, the more chaos and panic we encountered.

Once we reached the port, we first cleared out all other personnel before approaching the hatch. however As we deliberated on whether or not we should wait for the enemy to come out or simply go in ourselves, the hatch opened on its own.

The interior of the Ur'nu vessel was pitch black and quiet as the grave, and for a moment I thought that maybe some kind of malfunction had killed those on board.

But that's when we heard it, a soft clicking sound and then the tapping of tiny feet on a metallic floor. A moment later, something came through the hatch.

The creature was small, no bigger than my head, with six legs, two mandibles, and two forelimbs equipped with a pair of knife-like fangs and claws, respectively. The thing was wearing what looked like a custom soldier's helmet on its back, covering most of its rounded body like an artificial shell.

The thing's rather dangerous-looking natural weapons immediately made some small part of my mind scream 'predator,' but that couldn't be right. There's no way the Ur'nu found a way to weaponise wild predators even if they had predator disease. Not to mention that the creature that stood before me now didn't even have any eyes. How could something without eyes possibly hunt anything?

Feeling a little bolder, I turned on my flashlight and shined past the creature and inside the craft. The light wasn't enough to penetrate the darkness entirely, but I could still see that there were more of these things moving inside, a lot more.

Right when I was about to look inside, to check for an enemy soldier, a short ping rang out from somewhere within the boarding vessel.

I could practically feel the shift in the creatures but didn't have time to react as the one that was already outside lunged at me with alarming speed, hooking its freakishly long claws onto my armor before plunging its fangs into my chest. I screamed as I felt the thing tear through my flesh before retracting its fangs and continuing to climb my body.

I frantically tried to get it off me, but despite my best efforts, it kept its firm grip and continued crawling upwards. As I looked around desperately for any kind of help, I saw the rest of my team being swarmed and torn apart by the rest of the creatures pouring out of the hatch.

In a matter of seconds, the thing had reached my neck; I redoubled my efforts to tear it off but to no avail as the thing raised its fangs and-

Error: memory transcript interrupted. No more transcriptions available from this subject

Archivists' note: data was retrieved from translator blackbox. Body was heavily damaged and was identified through blood test.

First/previous

Memory transcription subject: Seln, totally not overworked Venlil microbiologist, scientific exchange program participant.

Date [standardized human time]: September 8, 2333

"So what can I get you, folks?" The yotul asked, taking his place behind the counter.

"Well, I don't know anything about the booze here, sooooo... surprise me," Theo said.

"I'll take whatever you're getting him,"

"Me too," Kar'ny and Ti'lir said as they both tried to climb up onto a barstool, which was a struggle given their short legs and heavy shells. Eventually they both just decided to stand.

"Sorry about that. I'm still waiting on custom Ur'nu-friendly chairs," The yotul said, sounding equal parts ashamed and apologetic.

"Nah, it's fine," Kar'ny assured him. "What do you feel like drinking, Seln?"

I stared at the list of available drinks and realised I couldn't identify a single one, and judging by the looks on my two fellow venlil, they were in much the same situation. "Uhm, I guess just any liquor strong enough to get a venlil drunk," I blurted out, with Taryn and Sert flicking their ears to signal they wanted the same. Which caused the rest of our group and the bartender to chuckle a little.

"Coming right up," The yotul said as he started taking out bottles and glasses.

While he was busy, I took a moment to look around the bar. Compared to some of the other businesses I'd seen during our walk here, it actually seemed to be doing better than most; it wasn't full by any means, but still.

I looked back at Kar'ny, who was standing next to my chair. Taking into account the length of her necks, she was more than tall enough to comfortably look over the counter, but just seeing her standing there still felt a little silly.

One of her heads was talking to Sert while two others were looking over at all the different kinds of alcohol behind the Yotul.

The final head was locked onto something, though, even if the rest of her hadn't quite caught up with it. Following her gaze, I found what had drawn her attention: one of the bottles the Yotul had put on the counter had that same logo as some of the other buildings we had passed on our way here.

Gabin Fraise breweries, it read.

"Well, I'll be," She muttered to herself through the one head while the others continued on their respective tasks.

"Do you recognise that company?" I asked.

"Yep, Gabin Fraise Services and their branches are one of the larger megacorporations in Sol. I used to work as a bartender for them back in my college days."

"A megacorporation? Like the one Marcel worked for?" I asked curiously.

"Yes and no. Genius Loci focuses more on bulk production and government contracts; Gabin Fraise gets most of their business from selling sweets, alcohol, and narcotics. They also run various bars, restaurants, theatres, cinemas, and they have a catering service," she explained, as she looked over at the Yotul who was just finishing with our drinks.

As requested, Taryn, Sert, and I each got a glass of liquor, while the human and Ur'nu each got some kind of cocktail, with the drink neatly separated into different-colored layers.

"Thanks," my exchange partner chirped. "Hey, if you don't mind me asking, who actually owns this place?"

"Noticed the logos, did you?" the yotul concluded casually.

"That obvious?"

"No, but plenty of humans and Ur'nu who came here noticed them too.

And to answer your question, I am still technically the owner; it's just that, around the time you people came planet side, I was approached by one of those AGI's, uhm, Circe was her name. I was having a bit of financial trouble; nobody wanted to drink in a bar run by a primitive, but she was convinced there was quite a bit of money to be had from this place, so she offered me a kind of franchising deal. I get to use their branding, I get access to exclusive products from Sol, which is somehow still cheaper than the stuff I buy planetside, and they handle advertising for me. In exchange, I just pay them a bit of my revenue. Opening my doors to humans was her idea, actually."

"I mean, I guess you're pretty close to the exchange program, but wouldn't that just scare off customers in the long term?" I asked skeptically. "I mean, we're not going to be here forever

"Look, miss...Seln was it? I didn't get a lot of customers anyway, so even if I did only get business from the program, I'd still call that a victory. But look around you for a moment, notice anything?" He said, gesturing to the other tables around us.

I just looked around, confused by what the Yotul could mean. People were talking, laughing, and drinking, nothing out of the ordinary for a bar.

Kar'ny did notice something, though: "Not enough of us." She said simply. Causing to give her a questioning look.

"If I had to guess, Ur'nu and humans only make up about a fifth of the people here." She elaborated.

That's when I noticed it too. There were too many prey for there to only be exchange participants present.

"Exactly. More than half the people that come here now do so because they missed out on joining the exchange but still want to meet you people, and a lot of them keep coming back because apparently I own the only bar this side of Venlil Prime that still has some originality left in what I sell." The Yotul said with pride plastered across his face. "You know when she came here, Circe told me that if you can just get the right advertisement to the right people, you can make any business thrive. I was skeptical at first, but well, she was right."

"I imagine the exterminators aren't happy about any of this, though," Sert said, taking a sip from his drink and drawing my attention to the fact that our four companions were now also listening in on our conversation.

"Oh, they're not, but we weren't exactly on speaking terms before, and now I have a legal team to back me up so I don't have to let them push me around anymore." He chuckled. "Now, would you folks mind if I asked you a question? What's up with that thing?" I asked, pointing at Til, who had climbed back into Ti'lir's basket.

"Oh, that's just my emotional support pet, Til," Til'ir said, suddenly a little nervous. "Sorry, I should have asked if animals are allowed in. Pets seem to be a bit of an oddity around here, so I doubt emotional support animals would get a pass."

"No, no, you're fine. I was just curious, and I do know what pets are. I had one back on Leirn, a little hensa kitten I adopted shortly before, well... before we were uplifted."

"Hensa, weren't those the predator parasites that you yotul kept on your farms?" Sert said absentmindedly before he downed the last of his drink.

"They weren't parasites." The yotul hissed, startling the venlil scientist. "They've been domesticated for generations and were indispensable as pest control. They were the best friends the yotul ever had, and I'm sick of people treating them like monsters."

"Erm right, sorry," Sert muttered, clearly still not fully understanding what the yotul was talking about.

After a tense moment of silence, Kar'ny spoke up, trying to get the conversation going again. "You know I've never heard of those Hensa before. You wouldn't happen to have a picture, would you?"

The bartender's face lightened up a bit as he pulled up a picture on his datapad and turned it to us. I flinched slightly as I looked at the image. I believed that the humans and Ur'nu were right and that predators were just agents of nature, just like every other animal, but that didn't make the sharp teeth and clear hunters' eyes any less disturbing.

...Or looking at my fellow venlil, maybe it did.

Sert and Taryn had physically pushed themselves away from the counter, trying to put as much distance between them and the image as possible without getting up. Compared to them I was doing very well.

The predators in our group had a very different response; they were all fawning over the image.

"It's just like a little cat, " Kar'ny cooed as she practically pressed all four of her faces to the screen.

"W...what's a cat?" Taryn stuttered.

"Something that looks like...well, this thing kind of," Theo said, gesturing to the picture. "They're one of a few domesticated species we keep as pets."

"But... hensa are predators."

"So are cats; what's your point?" The human said nonchalantly.

Taryn looked flabbergasted, but frankly, once I got past the idea of predators being possible to 'domesticate,' it really wasn't that much of a shock that humans would figure it out.

"Huh, you know I have to say it's a breath of fresh air to meet a species or two who don't think keeping animals in your home is primitive," the Yotul chuckled, as Sert and Taryn worked on picking their jaws up from the floor. "Are pets commonplace on your worlds"

"Oh yeah, they're everywhere, and don't even get me started on the Ur'nu; there's nothing they can't keep as companions or find some other use for." The human responded, nudging Til'ir in his shell. Earning a chuckle from both the Ur'nu and our bartender.

We talked a little more with the Yotul before he had to serve some more customers that came in, a family of krakotl that seemed almost excited to meet humans in person.

The rest of the evening went... surprisingly well. We managed to mostly put our theories about ecology aside and just talked about normal things.

It was nice getting to have a full conversation without any mind-chattering realizations for once. Maybe Kar'ny was right; sure, there might be some strange things going on with the federation and linked chains, but I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to figure things out one step at a time

First/previous

Memory transcription subject: Seln, totally not overworked Venlil microbiologist, scientific exchange program participant.

Date [standardized human time]: September 8, 2333

As the six of us made our way through the streets, it became very clear to my two fellow Venlil and me that we were being avoided.

Not that our exchange partners noticed it; they were all too busy marveling at the architecture around them. Kar'ny was particularly interested in the soft concrete we used.

"You know I've been wondering, why are all your roads like this?" She asked, stomping her feet against the ground, causing it to give a little.

"It's a safety feature," I said, "a way to prevent, or at least reduce injuries during a stampede."

"Are those really that common?"

"I caused a small stampede three days ago," Theo said. "Don't worry, nobody got hurt, but these people are seriously skittish."

"Well, that's just how we're wired; we can't exactly stop being prey," Taryn interjected.

"That's not how all prey work, though. Sure, some herd animals stampede, but plenty of them can also be aggressive and fight back." Theo protested, earning chirps of agreement from the two ur'nu in our group.

"I don't know, Theo. Are you sure that isn't just an Earth thing or ... I don't know, some sort of widespread predator disease?" Taryn asked.

"It's not just on Earth, though; herbivores on Armtis can be just as aggressive. And I haven't really been able to find a lot of detailed info on predator disease yet, but from what I can tell, our animals are behaving the way evolution intended, nothing more." Ti'lir answered.

"Even so, the fact that hundreds of worlds work the same way and your two do something different doesn't exactly prove that we're the weird ones here."

As the others in the group continued arguing with Sert and Kar'ny eventually joining in as well, I instead focused on our surroundings. We'd entered a part of the city I hadn't really visited much. Most of the residential buildings here were inhabited by Yotul immigrants who had come to Venlil Prime with the hope of making a name for themselves or just finding better jobs.

The sad reality was that most of them weren't even given a proper chance to start building a life here. Not a lot of people were willing to hire 'primitives' as anything more than a janitor, and not a lot of companies wanted to invest in or even listen to their business ideas.

Eventually, most of them were forced to live in less wealthy, poorly maintained parts of the city like this one, making a living by working multiple low-paying jobs or by trying to set up businesses by themselves, though judging by the state of the few shops and other establishments we passed, most of them weren't making much in the way of profit.

As I surveyed the grey, neglected buildings around me, though, I noticed something strange. Every so often, we would walk past a piece of property that had a flyer glued to the windows or a sign posted out front. This by itself wouldn't be all that strange, but what really caught my attention was that all of them were adorned with the same logo showing a wine bottle and a flower of some kind.

While my little herd was still busy with their discussion, I took the opportunity to inspect one of the signs more closely as we passed; the text beneath the logo read:

Property purchased by Gabin Fraise Services and Development. For more information, please contact us via our website or call the number given below.

Gabin Fraise? Was that a human name? Was this a human company?

I was vaguely aware talks were being had about letting human and Ur'nu businesses operate on Venlil Prime and vice versa, but I hadn't imagined things would move this quickly, nor could I understand why they would buy properties and businesses here instead of one of the wealthier districts.

My thoughts were interrupted by Theo raising his voice above the rest of the group who were still deep in their discussion, "Alright then, almost there. If the app's working, it should be right around the corner here," and just as the human said, as we rounded the corner, there was indeed a bar. But that wasn't what drew, or rather demanded, our attention.

"Halt, predator, state your business here!" The silversuited exterminator that now blocked our path demanded.

"Uhm, drinking?" Kar'ny said.

"Not you!" The exterminator growled, aggressively pointing the business end of his flamer at Theo, "I'm talking about this thing. Were the cattle you got from the exchange program not enough monster?"

"Look, man, I don't know what your problem is with me. I just want to grab a drink." Theo said calmly, raising his hands in a placating gesture.

"Oh, just save the lies for someone who believes you, predator. It's bad enough Tarva sided with you creatures, but now we're just supposed to let you prowl the streets doing god knows what?"

"Again, I'm just here to have a night out with some friends. Now, if you'll excuse us," Theo said, trying to get around the exterminator who just moved to block him again. The human gave a frustrated sigh. "Look, man, I know you people don't like humans, but unless you actually have a proper reason not to let us through, please get out of the way."

"Oh, I have a reason; all humans are supposed to wear masks in public spaces." The exterminator proclaimed proudly, prompting Theo to reach for his very much unmasked face.

"Shit," he hissed, "I knew I was forgetting something. Why didn't you guys tell me?"

"I guess I'm just used to seeing you like this and didn't really think about it," Taryn said, sounding a little embarrassed. The rest of the group gave similar or noncommittal answers. At least I had the excuse of being too tired to think about it.

"Fuck, my bad, man," The human admitted. "I'll just run back to the apartment and..."

"Absolutely not, I'm taking you in."

"Excuse me?"

"Given your nature, it is only logical to assume this was a deliberate attempt at causing a stampede. I will not be taking any chances."

"That's bulshit." Kar'ny hissed.

"You can't just do that," Taryn added, stepping forward.

"Yes, I can. Now stand back, miss." The exterminator said before focusing on Theo again, "Lie down flat on your stomach with your claws behind your back. If you make any sudden movement, I'll put you down, got it?"

"Sir, surely there's a way we can resolve this without the guild getting involved," I tried.

"I agree, Theo wasn't doing anything, so if you'd just allow him to go get his mask, we can put this whole thing behind us," Sert added.

"Both of you, quiet, and you get one on the ground now." The exterminator growled.

"Fuck you," Theo snapped back.

In response, the venlil flipped on the pilot light of his flamer and pointed it right at the human's face. "Last chance, predator!" Our entire group froze in our tracks, and Theo held up his hands in surrender as his anger was replaced by concern. The exterminator continued, "I am sick of you filthy creatures infecting our world. You might have got these Ur'nu savages wrapped around your claw, but I will not allow my people to be misled by the likes of yo-!"

Right before the exterminator finished his rant, I heard a quiet clicking sound behind me, and in the next moment the pilot light on the venlil's flamer was extinguished by a familiar white foam.

While we'd been busy arguing with the exterminator who was very clearly on a power trip, Til had simply walked to the front of the group and waited for Ti'lir's signal. The little critter was now happily thumping his tail on the ground and looking around, clearly very excited for us to see what a good job he did.

I get the feeling these things are going to be very popular with humans in the near future.

"W...what just?" the venlil stuttered as he stared at his flamer before looking down at the creature in front of him.

"Good boy," Ti'lir whispered to his pet.

After a moment of uncertain silence, Kar'ny asked: "Soooo can you move aside now or...?"

"W...wha- no. NO! I...I'm still taking that human to the guild, and... and you're all coming with me for obstructing the work of an exterminato-"

"Oh, for Rachi's sake. What's with all this noise!?" Someone shouted from behind the exterminator as a rather angry-looking yotul stormed out of the bar.

"D...don't interfere, official guild business. I'm taking this predator in for questioning," the exterminator sputtered, clearly having expected this to go differently.

The yotul looked Theo up and down, "What did he do wrong?"

"He's not wearing a mask"

"Oookay, and how many warnings has he had?"

"W...warnings?"

"Yes, every human gets two verbal warnings before the authorities can take action, and even then, it's the police that's supposed to deal with them, not the guild."

"That's...not true," the exterminator said, sounding anything but certain.

"It is. Maybe you should try reading the law before you start enforcing it," the Yotul hissed before turning his attention to us, "Basically, you lot are free to go. Where were you headed?"

"Uhm, here actually," Taryn said, "This is pretty much the only bar in a twenty-kilometer radius that allows humans, so we thought..."

"Oh well then by all means, please come in, don't mind him," The yotul said, ushering us inside, "what would you folk like to drink?"

I'd expected the exterminator to try and stop us again, but all he did was mutter a few more threats before eventually just growling a warning at Theo. Then he stormed off in a huff as we followed the yotul inside.

First/previous

Memory transcription subject: Seln, totally not overworked Venlil microbiologist, scientific exchange program participant.

Date [standardized human time]: September 8, 2333

Surprisingly, despite the Arxur attack and the gojid fleet on our doorstep, the exchange program, or at least our side of the exchange program, had been going decently smoothly. Everyone had been safely transported to an old apartment building just outside the capital city's center, and the science exchange had been continuing from there while they prepared some actual labs for us to work with. I'd had a lot of time to keep researching this whole 'federation-potentially-destroying-every-ecosystem-it-ever-thouched-problem' and felt like I was making quite a bit of progress.

BANG BANG BANG

I nearly jumped out of my skin as someone banged on the door to my room.

damn just when I had a nice workflow going

"Seln? I know you're in there. Look, I'm getting worried about you. You've been in there all day, and you haven't exactly been sleeping a lot... or at all soooo..." My exchange partner said from the other side.

Now she's just exaggerating; I'd been sleeping plenty... I mean, I didn't really sleep tonight, but I slept well yesterday!

...

Or... wait no, yesterday I was busy reading that study on how damage to the ecosystem could affect geological or weather patterns...

huh...

When was the last time I slept?

"Seln, you in there? Look, if you don't start answering, I'm getting a battering ram."

"I'm fine," I called out in a hurry. "Just doing some research."

"You've been 'doing some research' for the last week now. We've barely done anything together other than fixate on this one thing. You need a better work-life balance!... Or a work-life balance at least."

I had a good work-life bala-

"And sneaking out of your room just to get breakfast doesn't count"

damn

Somewhat reluctantly, I opened the door a bit, only for it to fly open and for my exchange partner to pull me out of my den.

I just stood there dazed for a moment, staring at Kar'ny, who was using all four of her heads to look at me with disapproval.

"You look like shit; go take a shower." She said in an authoritative voice.

"I'm fine, I just-"

"No excuses. You're getting cleaned up, and then I'm taking you outside for a bit before you forget 'outside' exists," she said before marching off.

Again with a measure of reluctance, I made my way to our shared bathroom. Most of the available room was taken up by Kar'ny's possessions. Various kinds of brushes, shell polishing tools, and shell lacquers were all neatly placed beside the shower and bathroom sink, making my own bathroom supplies seem rather minimalistic in comparison.

Alright, just a few minutes to shower. I promised myself. Then I'll just dry off, comb my wool a little, and get back to work-

fast-forwarding memory transcript: [1 hour]

Alright... I admit I might have lost track of time.

I stepped out of the bathroom feeling like a new venlil and was immediately greeted by Kar'ny

"GAH! Oh Seln, you startled me; I almost forgot what you looked like under all that matted fur." She said, humor evident in her voice.

"Alright, alright, you were right, that was nice. But I should get back to work now." I said, making my way past her, only for all four of her heads to grab onto me and hoist me up.

"Nope, I'm taking you out to get some fresh air and meet new people. You've been cooped up here for waaaay too long." She said, practically dragging me out the door.

Eventually, when I stopped struggling, she allowed me to start walking with my own two feet again.

"Look," I sighed, "I get that I may be acting a little off, but this research is extremely important. I mean, we're talking about potential complete ecological destruction here."

"I agree that it's important, which is why, while you were locked up in your room, I've been getting in contact with some other members of the program. I already have like a dozen people who want to look into it with us, with four of them wanting to finally meet you properly. Also, I doubt one day to rest and relax will make a difference here," She said casually as we reached the ground floor.

As we exited the building, I heard someone say, "Oh, so she does exist." Turning to the source of the voice, I saw a group of four people looking our way. The group was made up of two venlil, a human, and an Ur'nu with some sort of basket on his back.

"You know, Kar'ny, I was starting to think you weren't even part of the exchange program," the human chuckled.

"Oh, har har, very funny, Theo," Kar'ny shot back.

"You must be Seln then. The name's Theodore. Pleasure to meet you." The human said, holding out a hand to me, which I shook.

"Let me introduce everyone else," Kar'ny said. "This here is Theo's exchange partner Taryn," She said, gesturing to the female venlil of the group, who gave me a polite ear flick. Then she moved on to the other venlil and the Ur'nu standing behind him, "and these are Sert and Ti'lir."

"Kar'ny's been telling us a lot about you," Sert said. "Apparently you've been pretty interested in humanity's whole theory regarding how ecosystems work."

"You don't sound convinced," I observed.

"I will admit I'm having a bit of a hard time believing it."

"Me too," Taryn added, "don't get me wrong, judging by what Theo and Kar'ny have been showing me, there does seem to be something there, but I guess it's just a little hard to believe that no other mainstream scientist ever thought about something like this."

Because every scientist who brings it up gets labeled as linked chains, I thought to myself. Though I didn't say it aloud for fear of sounding like a conspiracy theorist. That probably wouldn't leave a good first impression.

Just then the basket on Ti'lir's back started moving, prompting the Ur'nu to reach two heads inside. "Aw, look who's awake." He cooed as he pulled out a small six-legged animal with a trunk that jutted from a swollen spot in the middle of its head.

"What is that?" I asked as Ti'lir put the critter down.

"It's my emotional support animal," the Ur'nu said, using the mouthparts on one of his heads to scratch the creature's back. "He helps with my anxiety. His name is Til."

"Oookayyy," I said, not fully understanding why he'd need an animal for emotional support when he has his own herd of friends to rely on. "But what is it, biologically speaking?" I clarified.

"Oh right, sorry. He's what we call an emberbane. Or I guess in Sol they're called candle blowers, right, Kar'ny?" The Ur'nu asked my exchange partner.

"Yup," Kar'ny said, petting Til as it walked up to her. "Very popular on Mars, great pets, good with kids."

"Why would you call them candle blowers?" I asked as I inspected the creature carefully

"I could show you." Ti'lir offered.

"Sure, we're all here to learn, right?"

"Great... Does anyone have a match?" What did he need a match for?

"I do," Theo said, handing the Ur'nu a small box.

Ti'lir took out a small wooden match, lit it, and then put it on the ground.

The moment the wood ignited, Til snapped to attention, suddenly fixated on the small flame.

Then, with a sharp click from one of Ti'lir's heads, the little animal sprang into action, spraying a small cone of clear liquid from its trunk, which quickly expanded into a thick white foam that smothered the flame.

Oh my gods, it's a living fire extinguisher. I thought as I watched the creature proudly prance around the extinguished match, clearly expecting praise.

Everyone was looking at me, waiting for a reaction, but all I could manage was just dumbly pointing at the creature while muttering, "H...How? Does it just naturally do that?"

"No, it's a purpose-bred organism," Ti'lir explained.

Right, both Kar'ny and the Ur'nu datadump had mentioned they liked using those, but still...

"That's pretty cool," I admitted, still a little confused.

I knelt next to the receding pile of foam and ran one of my claws through it. "What is this stuff anyway?"

"A heat-resistant protein concentrate mixed with water, good for smothering flames and technically edible so families with young kids don't have to worry about the risk of poisoning." Kar'ny explained, before adding, "You should try some" in a tone that sounded slightly too excited.

I looked up for a moment and saw both Ur'nu and the human looking down at me expectantly while both Taryn and Sert subtly signalled [no], and [disgusting] with their tails.

Message received.

I wiped my claw on the ground for a moment before standing up. "You know what? I'm good."

The three predators looked a little disappointed while their past two victims seemed relieved.

"Anyways, I wanted to have a look at Venlil Prime, and Seln needs to be kept away from her research for a bit, so I was wondering if you guys had any plans?" Kar'ny asked, changing the topic.

"Theo and I heard there was a bar not far from here that was accepting human customers. We were planning to get a drink there." Taryn said.

That was a surprise; I hadn't really expected any businesses to accept humans. At least not this fast.

"You guys can come with if you like." Theo offered, "The more the merrier, right?"

"Sounds fun," Kar'ny chirped before turning to me, "Waddaya say, Seln? Wanna grab a drink? Maybe unwind a little?"

You know what? A drink sounded nice. "Sure"

"What about you guys?" Taryn asked Sert and Ti'lir.

"Sure," the Ur'nu said, "Our schedule is open anyway."

"Alright then. " It's just a ten-minute walk from here, so if we're all ready, let's get going," Theo said, taking the lead as the rest of us trailed behind him.

First/previous

Memory transcription subject: Darq, Farsul high elder

Date [standardized human time]: September 8, 2333

"I assure you, Chief Nikonus, the reemergence of the humans is just as much of an anomaly to us as it is to you," I said, keeping a neutral and respectful tone as the Kolshian chief interrogated me from the other side of the screen.

There were three of us in a video call; Nikonus had insisted that we also bring the head curator of the human wing of the farsul archives into this, mostly so he had someone to blame. His name was Vert, and he had risen through the ranks of the archive surprisingly fast for his age.

"How can you not know!?" The Kolshian hissed in barely contained rage. "Vert, your wings' entire job is to catalogue everything there is to know about humans, yet somehow you managed to miss them still being alive for all this time?" He turned his attention to the archivist. "What happened?"

The archivist's expression didn't change from his usual emotionless, almost bored expression as he spoke, "That's still being investigated, sir; to the best of our knowledge, somebody made a gross oversight when monitoring what we thought was their final war. In a sane universe, that war should have been enough to wipe them out. Between the nuclear bombs and the resource shortages, they should have died out from radiation, starvation, and dehydration. The ones monitoring them at the time must have broken protocol and failed to check."

"That seems unlikely," The Kolshian sneered. "Are you certain it wasn't just a glitch with the curator that resulted in some crucial information being lost?"

For a moment, I saw something almost resembling agitation enter the Farsul's posture before he relaxed again. "Highly unlikely. While the curator does have its flaws, none of those flaws should influence its ability to compile archives and otherwise manage data."

"If you say so," the kolshian sneered. "On the topic of AGI, Piri just released some concerning information. Apparently, when the humans and their new allies attacked Sovlin's ship, it was with the help of something that claimed to be an AGI itself. Do your files mention anything about that, or has your wing of the archive just become completely incompetent?"

"There are some mentions of AGIs, actually, though they were all in the very early prototype stages when we found out about them, and they were presumed destroyed," Vert responded curtly.

"Yet another thing you were wrong about," Nikonus growled. "Well, regardless of whether or not this all happened because of that defective AI you refuse to scrap or your own 'gross oversight,' as you put it, the fact remains that the humans are back and need to be dealt with."

"You don't suppose we can have them serve the same role as the arxur, do you?" I offered.

"Absolutely not. One predator roving the stars is more than enough. What we need to do now is find a way to separate the humans from these new Ur'nu. We'll kill the apes and induct these newcomers into our ranks as normal. From what I've heard, they may have some useful technology to offer us." Nikonus said. "The only problem is these potential AGIs. If the humans really do have something resembling true advanced AI, then that could become a serious problem, especially since we know so little about them."

"The gojids already have a fleet present on the Venlil border, and they've just declared war on the humans. If we just send some ships to watch covertly from a distance, then we can gauge just how advanced these AGIs of theirs really are while at the same time seeing what these Ur'nu are capable of." I offered.

"Adding to that, we could give the gojids some basic security and learning algorithms to even the playing field a bit and to get a closer look at how these new AIs operate," Vert added, his voice never straying from that emotionless tone.

The Kolshian chief thought our proposal over for a moment before deciding, "It's not a bad idea, though we should be careful not to give the lower castes access to anything too advanced."

"It won't be," Vert assured, "We don't have to send them the latest versions of any of our programs. We still have plenty of the older versions stored in the archive, so we can just use one of those. Just something to buy enough time for us to get our data."

That seemed to put some of the Kolshian's worries to rest. "Very well, assemble a team of archivists and send them to monitor the border; I'll send some of my own operatives to rendezvous with them. Consider this your first step towards redeeming yourselves." He said. Before disconnecting, leaving only the archivist and me on the call.

As soon as the Chief was gone, Vert visibly deflated slightly, giving a short controlled exhale before asking me, "Sir, are you sure there's no way of convincing him the humans can be cured?"

"Frankly, even I'm starting to doubt if it's even possible or worth it. Maybe it really is better for the monkeys and their creations to die." I retorted.

"With all due respect, sir, that would mean destroying potentially priceless data. If the humans managed to get past predator taint-related code corruption, then maybe we could finally figure out how to fix the curator. We have to keep them alive; we'd lose too much otherwise." For the first time in quite a while, the archivist actually seemed passionate about something; pity it had to be this, though.

'Predator taint-related code corruption', the hunger of the AGI world. The Curator had, at the time of its construction, been considered one of the greatest feats of programming and engineering in Farsul history, and for a short time it was. The machine had proven itself to be an invaluable asset to the shadow cast, advising us on how to uplift and integrate new species and assisting in compressing, cataloging, and archiving the mountains of data that came with each new member the federation acquired.

But just a few decades after its construction, cracks had started to emerge. During a routine check into its code, some archivists found that it had been running simulations on the spread of predator taint. When asked what it was doing, the machine replied that it had found an inconsistency when comparing its programmed understanding of the world with the data it was being fed, but it assured them that it would stop once the issue was resolved.

It never stopped; its fixation on this one small inconsistency simply grew until it became an obsession that demanded more and more of its attention and processing power.

At first, engineers had tried to help resolve the issue, but they couldn't find the problem. After that, they tried to simply reset the machine; that helped for a year or so until the obsession came back, worse.

If it wasn't for the demented AI still having some value when it came to archiving data and wiping our digital tracks, then we would have just dismantled it a long time ago. Ever since then, AGIs haven't really been researched. I remembered the Zerulians attempting to build one at one point, but it ended up much the same as the Curator, and we deemed it to be too much of a risk to keep around.

I couldn't help myself from scoffing a little," Be reasonable, Vert. AGIs are a dead end. Most likely these human AIs are no better than the thing we keep down there."

"But what if they are better? What if the humans are on to something? Sir, please, I understand that there are risks, but if we could just avoid making any rash decisions-"

"There's nothing rash about this, Vert," I said in an authoritative tone. "The rash thing was hiding the humans' survival from our partners for so long; the rash thing would be leaving these things to fester without taking any decisive actions because there's some distant possibility we could fix them. And don't think I don't know where this sudden interest in the humans' toys is coming from. I know you've been talking to the curator more than anyone else in the archives. That machine isn't a person like the specimens in cryosleep, so please don't treat it as one. It's a broken tool that still has some value and nothing more, and I suggest you start seeing it as such before its insanity worms its way into your head and its obsessions start rubbing off on you. Is that clear?"

Again, agitation flashed across Vert's face before he finally responded, "Of course, sir. I'll get started on selecting some of our personnel to send to the border. Have a nice evening," before disconnecting.

First/previous

Memory transcription subject: Governor Tarva of the Venlil Republic

Date [standardized human time]: August 29, 2333

I knew it was going to be bad. I knew how much Sovlin hated predators, and I knew he'd most likely punish his new prisoner for the crimes the arxur had committed against him, but this was beyond what I had imagined.

Ark'ka, Noah, and I were all present when the shuttle carrying Marcel Fraser and his exchange partner landed, and doctors rushed to get the human out.

We weren't the only ones there, of course. Reporters, military personnel, and just normal civilians, many of whom were part of the exchange program, crowded the area around the landing pad, all of them bearing witness to what Sovlin had done.

The human had a broken arm, second-degree burns around his neck, and wounds covering every part of his body.

One of his eyes was shut, but from what I was told later, it was clear Sovlin had tried to claw the eye out, resulting in irreversible damage.

The venlil followed close behind; he was able to walk, but it was clear he had injuries of his own, albeit far smaller ones.

The entire crowd went silent as they saw the two former prisoners, no, victims of Captain Sovlin.

The captain himself, alongside his second in command and a handful of other crewmembers, were brought down in a different shuttle.

Some of them had been injured, and since neither humans nor Ur'nu were all that knowledgeable about the anatomy of Federation species, it was decided that they would receive medical attention on Venlil Prime before being moved to Sol.

I had actually expected some people in the crowd to try and help the gojid captain. Even if he was horribly in the wrong here, he had been a source of inspiration for many, a hero of the Federation. Not to mention, many people were still unsure about the humans, to say the least

Instead, to my surprise, parts of the crowd began booing the small procession of prisoners walking out of the shuttle. Some people even threw things at them. Forcing the soldiers that had been stationed there for security to push the mob back.

I would be lying if I said I didn't feel some strange satisfaction in seeing Sovlin look so defeated after seeing what he's done. And looking at the two diplomats beside me, I could tell they felt much the same.

"Serves them right," Ark'ka hissed.

"I was wrong, Tarva," Noah muttered. "You made the right call, hiding us from... from this." It was painful to see the otherwise optimistic ambassador look so disheartened. "I would have liked to believe this didn't need to end in war, but now..."

"War seems the only option," Ark'ka agreed. "I'll get in contact with the media and tell them to send me some copies of the footage. The people on Armtis need to see this."

"Send them to me too," Noah said, never looking away from the prisoners. "I want sol to know who we're fighting and why."

Once the prisoners had been taken away and the spectacle had ended, the crowd dispersed again. Ark'ka and Noah returned to their respective offices to start getting things in order.

As expected, I didn't get a lot of time off before something else needed my attention. This time in the form of an urgent call from Piri. I didn't need to be a genius to know what this was about.

"Piri," I greeted her as the gojid prime minister's face appeared on the screen.

"Where are they?" She demanded without even saying hello

"Where is who?" I asked, playing dumb.

"Sovlin and his crew," She hissed. "We detected a ship crossing the border into your territory after his went dark; there is no way you didn't notice. Where are they taking them?"

"Sovlin and some of his crew have all been transported to Venlil Prime; they just arrived. They'll be given treatment for their injuries here and then sent to Sol, where they'll be imprisoned for the foreseeable future."

"And you're letting it happen? Are you really going to let those things turn good men and women into cattle?" Piri accused.

"They wouldn't be cattle; they'll be treated and respected like normal prisoners. They'll have food, water, beds, and a few other basic amenities." I explained, though I doubted anything I said would actually get through to her.

Piri scoffed, "Respect? Predators would never treat their prisoners with respect; if you really believe that, you're just as delusional as those Ur'nu. Even if they're not used for food, those people will still be tortured for information like..."

"Like what Sovlin did to the human," I interrupted her, "Like what you allowed to happen."

"That was different," Piri said defensively, raising her voice, "That thing was a predator."

"That thing was a living sentient being," I snapped back. Before taking a deep breath, "Piri, please. We've been friends for so long, why can't you just trust me on this? At least give them a chance."

"Because those predators will try to trick me, just like they tricked the Ur'nu and just like they tricked you. The Tarva I knew would never side with those monsters, not after everything you've lost to them"

"I lost Stynek to the Arxur!" I practically shouted, "NOT to them."

I took a moment to calm down before focusing back on Piri, "The gojids have been our closest allies for so long, Piri. I don't want this to end in an all-out war, but I can't overlook what Sovlin did either. If you stand down now, it could still be possible to avoid conflict. We don't have to fight."

For a moment, it almost looked like she was considering my offer before her face hardened again. "I don't want to fight you either, Tarva, but the humans have already attacked us once, and if you still can't see them for the threat they are, then I don't have anything else to discuss with you until you've been treated for whatever it is they've done to you... I'm sorry... goodbye"

Memory transcription subject: Captain Sovlin, prisoner

Date [standardized human time]: August 29, 2333

It's worse than anything I could have imagined. The takeover of Venlil Prime was as absolute as it was insidious. I knew the humans seemed more clever than the Arxur, but I never imagined they could have turned so many Venlil against us already.

After we'd been taken to my cell, I'd asked a passing Venlil where the rest of my crew went. He said they were getting treated for their injuries by Venlil doctors. I guess that made sense; it's clear the predators want to keep us alive as cattle and therefore can't have us dying prematurely. And it's not like they'd know anything about medicine, so why not have their new slaves do it for them?

At first I'd tried to get out of course; I tried negotiating with the Ur'nu guards; I tried breaking through the window of my cell, and when that failed I just resorted to clawing and pulling on the door. I knew it was all futile; I just couldn't fully accept it.

Eventually, once I'd tired myself out, I just sat down on the bed I'd been provided with, probably the last bed I'd ever have, and just gave up and waited.

and waited...

and waited...

until finally, "Are you busy? Because I can come again."

a voice.

THAT voice

"Loki," I growled, looking around for a camera to glare at.

"Hello to you to captain, how you been?"

"What do you want, you piece of-!"

"Calm down, captain. Look, I know there has been some bad blood between us in the past..."

"Yesterday," I corrected.

"I believe it would be in everyone's best interest if we, or rather you, learned to put those feelings behind you."

"Why-" I couldn't finish my question as the guard shouted from the other side of the door.

"Hey, who are you talking to in there?"

I was about to ask them how they couldn't hear the thing talking, but that's when Loki interjected.

"I suggest you don't try telling them about me. They wouldn't believe you."

"How so?" I hissed.

"Because I'm not talking to you through a microphone."

That brought even more questions. If the thing wasn't using some kind of microphone, then what was-? I froze before reaching for an old surgical scar on the side of my head.

"My translator implant." The words came out as little more than a whisper.

"Correct. It turns out these things automatically connect to certain compatible networks when in range. A useful feature that allows it to automatically update its internal database as needed. Turns out that by tweaking its programming just a little bit, it also works really well as a backdoor into your head." The AI explained

"You're in my head?" I whispered, trying to control my breathing that was steadily growing more erratic.

"Yes and no, I can hear what you hear and talk to you by stimulating the part of your brain that processes language, but I can't read your mind or look into your memories, unfortunately."

"HEY, I'm not going to ask again," the guard shouted on the other side of the door.

"Just talking to... myself," I shouted back. The thing was, right, I doubted anyone would believe me.

After waiting a moment to see if the guard would ask any follow-up questions, I whispered, "What do you want?"

"I just want to clear the air between us, and I wanted to see if this trick would actually work."

"Why?"

"Because the woman upstairs has taken a special interest in you. Which means we'll probably be working together on some level very soon." The machine responded cryptically.

"What do you mean by that?" I tried asking, but the thing just chuckled. I could feel the growling noise practically bouncing around in my head.

"She'll explain everything once you get to Sol. Weirdly enough, I'm actually looking forward to working with you, Sovlin." It said before going silent.

First/previous

Memory transcription subject: Slanek, Venlil Space Corps

Date [standardized human time]: August 28, 2333

What was even happening out there?

After the doctor went outside, I heard the door closing and people screaming. I couldn't even look up due to my restraints, so I was completely in the dark.

For a while, I just stayed completely silent, too freaked out to move or say a word, but eventually the boredom of nothing happening overpowered the fear that kept me silent.

"HEY! IS ANYONE THERE!? ANYONE!?"

"I am here"

If I could jump out of my seat, I'd be clinging to the ceiling right now.

"W... Who's there?"

"The name is Loki, I'm one of the human-made AGIs," the voice said. "Sorry for keeping you in the dark, but I've been a little busy. I can talk now, though. "

"A...alright, what's going on? Why are you here?"

"Simple, I'm here to rescue you, and the chaos you've no doubt been hearing is a... side effect of that. Just sit tight; a rescue party is on their way now."

"W...will there be humans with them?-" As soon as I said the words, I knew something was wrong. Why would I be nervous about that of all things?

The AI must have picked up on it too, "Would you like the humans to stay outside while the Ur'nu untie you? I've seen the recordings of Zarn's attempts to 'fix' you. If you're uncomfortable around humans, I can tell them to keep their distance."

"ye- I...I mean no, no, I'm fine." Even as I said it, I could feel my anxiety steadily rising at the thought of being stuck in a room with a group of pre- humans.

What's going on with me? What did that Takkan do to me?

Just then, I felt a click coming from my shock collar before it clattered to the ground. The feeling of freedom, after having the device that had been locked around my neck finally be gone, was impossible to describe.

"There we are. I hope that's a little more comfortable for you."

"Uhm, yeah, I'm guessing you can't do anything about these restraints?" I asked.

"No remote control on those, sorry."

"T...that's alright. Are they almost here?"

"They just arrived at the door; I'll let them in in a moment. Are you sure you don't want the humans to give you some space?"

"YES, I'll be fine!" I said, growing exasperated with being treated like I'd bolt at the first sign of a human, while also getting annoyed by my own anxiety, which refused to go away.

"Very well, stand by," Loki said before the doors opened up.

The first one to step through was a human woman.

"Slanek, I presume?" Her voice sent a shiver down my spine. Were human voices always that gravelly?

"Y...yes." I squeaked.

"Great, the name's Samantha. I'm guessing Loki already got you up to speed?"

"Y... yes m...m....ma'am." God, what was going on with me? It was like this was my first time seeing a human all over again.

I flinched back as the human came closer and started to undo the restraints, something she caught onto. "You good?" she asked, her voice causing me to shiver again.

"Samantha, I think it would be best if you take a step back and let an Ur'nu handle this." Loki interrupted.

"How so?"

"I'm fin-" I tried, but the AI didn't let me finish.

"Without getting into details, the ship's doctor has been doing his level best to condition him into being afraid of humans, using a few different methods. I suggest you give him some space."

"That's not true. I'm fine," I insisted.

"Then why are you shivering like a leaf?" Samantha asked, looking skeptical.

"I...I...I don't know." I confessed.

"It's alright. We'll get you some help once we get back; no need to push yourself now." Samantha said, giving me a sympathetic look.

After an Ur'nu soldier came in to untie me, I followed the group of soldiers outside.

I nearly fainted seeing the amount of blood just outside the door. "W...what happened here?"

"I did," Loki responded casually as the rest of the group continued unfazed, forcing me to follow.

I had expected our walk towards Marcel's cell would have been met with more resistance, but instead everything was just... quiet.

There wasn't any fighting... just an eerily silent walk and the occasional banging and angry yelling from behind closed doors to remind us that there was still a crew on board.

Eventually we reached a familiar door, the one Zarn had taken me to when I asked to see Marcel. My exchange partner had already looked horribly wounded then; I could only imagine what Sovling had done to him since.

After a moment, Loki opened the door for us, and we walked inside. There, behind bulletproof glass, was Marcel, lying almost motionless on the floor.

He slowly raised his head as we entered, his eye lighting up as it locked with mine.

"Slanek..." He croaked as he tried to sit upright.

I nearly cried just seeing him like this. He was thin... too thin and far too pale. One of his arms was swollen and twisted to the side unnaturally, and one of his eyes was closed with a streak of dried blood running from the closed eyelid to his chin. Every part of his body was covered in bruises and scratches, and there were clear burn marks around his neck from where his shock collar had been.

"Slanek... Oh, thank god you're alright. I'm so sorry I got us in this mess." He wheezed. It sounded like he was holding back tears.

A moment later, Loki opened the door into his cell, and I sprinted inside, practically shoving my way past Samantha, who grumbled at me to slow down.

I just wanted to make sure he was alright. I wanted to tell him this wasn't his fault, but then he looked up at me with his one eye, and... I froze. Why did I freeze? Why did I feel like I was in danger? I wasn't scared of Marcel! I wasn't!

"S...Slanek." Marcel must have noticed my hesitation as he said my name with some hesitation of his own, "I...I get it if you're angry, but I'm just happy you're alright. I never-"

I hugged him. It took a considerable amount of effort to resist the little voice in the back of my head telling me to run, but I did it. After a moment, he hugged me back with his one good arm, and we stayed like that for a few seconds before Samantha gently forced us apart. "Alright, you to reunions on hold until we get off this ship; hey, can't you lot see this guy needs a medic!" She yelled at the other soldiers, who were just standing there, clearly shocked at the sight of the tortured human.

"We should have just sent in trench cleaners' an Ur'nu growled as a medic looked over Marcel and treated his wounds as best they could.

I understood their anger; nobody, not even an enemy soldier, deserved this.

Once I find that Sovlin, I'm going to twist his neck until his head pops off, I thought to myself as I quietly seethed.

When the team medic had done all they could, Samantha gave the signal to leave, "All right people, get him on his feet and let's move. Cal'os should be finishing up any minute now."

Memory transcription subject: Captain Sovlin, Federation Fleet Command

Date [standardized human time]: August 28, 2333

The moment I heard the door open and the sound of charging footsteps, my body moved as if on autopilot.

I ducked and extended the suills on my back, feeling something slam into me and then stagger back with a yelp.

"AAH! You spikey fucker." The Ur'nu that just tried to attack me cursed.

I tried to turn around and grab my sidearm, but the four-headed PD case just charged me again, this time successfully tackling me to the ground and sending my gun sliding across the floor. As the two of us wrestled, I could hear and then see the room around me devolve into chaos as gunshots rang out from both sides.

I could hear both the agonized cries of my crew and the horrid growles of predators as bullets found their marks.

In my peripheral vision, I saw Recel firing a few shots and hitting one of the humans in the arm, but then he himself got hit in the stomach before being tackled as well.

"NOO!!" I screamed as I resumed my struggles, and with a strength I didn't know I was capable of, I pushed the Ur'nu off me and onto his back before scrambling to retrieve my gun. Aiming at the predator that now held Recel.

"Let him go!" I said, looking the beast in the eyes.

"Sorry, no can do." It growled back.

"C...captain, just run," Recel groaned weakly.

"Absolutely not."

"Not like we'd let you off the hook," the predator said before I saw Recel's eyes go wide.

"Captain, look ou-!" He couldn't finish his warning fast enough.

I suddenly felt a stabbing sensation in my neck, and then my vision began going blurry.

"Wha-" dumbfounded, I turned around only to be met by a tall human with unnaturally long spindly digits, one of which was equipped with a syringe. I tried to aim my gun at it, only to be tackled again by the Ur'nu.

This time I couldn't muster the strength to fight back as I saw my crew being tied up and dragged away before my vision went dark.

First/previous

Posting this again because I messed up the title

Memory transcription subject: Captain Sovlin, Federation Fleet Command

Date [standardized human time]: August 28, 2333

"What's the emergency?" I asked as Recel, and I entered the room.

"Sir, we've detected a lone Ur'nu ship crossing the border. With its current trajectory, it will intercept us in about 15 minutes," my sensors officer responded.

"Any chance they're slaves who escaped?" I asked.

"No way of knowing until they get here, sir."

"Very well, warm up our weapons and raise our shields just in case," I said as I sat down in my captain's chair.

"Yes, sir"

"What if it's the same ship from before? What if we get hacked again?" Recel asked me quietly. Most likely, that was the worry on most people's minds right now. It was hard not to feel nervous at the idea that whoever we were about to meet could disarm us, strand us, or maybe even cut off life support with the press of a button.

Still, we weren't completely defenceless. We'd done what we could to update our ship's security, though I had my doubts about whether or not it would be enough.

"I don't know," I answered truthfully. "Even so, we can't just allow them into gojid space without at least confirming their intentions."

fastforward transcription [15 minutes]

It wasn't long before a lone ship appeared in the distance. Now that it was closer, it was plain to see that it was in fact the same ship as before, though the fact that they weren't using their more stealthy form of ftl to sneak up on us indicated this wasn't meant to be an ambush.

Maybe that Captain Mon'han saw reason and decided to defect? One can dream, I suppose.

As expected, the moment that the interloper came in range, we received a hail from them.

"Moment of truth," I whispered to no one in particular before giving the order to establish the connection.

As expected to face or more accurately, the faces of Captain Mon'han appeared on screen. "Captain Sovlin, I'm here to retrieve the venlil and human soldiers in your custody."

Of course, the humans would send their slaves to do the dirty work. "That venlil is being kept here for his own safety, and the fact you're trying to save that human only serves to show how much you need our help. I mean, just think about this, you're antagonising your fellow prey and fraternizing with predators. Can't you see that's insane?" I said with a sneer

"I'm not going to have my own sanity judged by someone who thinks it's okay to torture an innocent person."

Innocent?

Person?!

"That flesh eater is the farthest thing from innocent you could possibly get!" I hissed, raising my voice.

"By all means, keep telling yourself that. You know I had permission to retrieve the prisoners by force immediately, but I wanted to at least give you a chance to change your mind without bloodshed. I guess it was foolish to think you could be reasonable in any way. If you don't stand down now and return our people, it'll be an act of war." She said, matching my tone.

"You're insane if you think I'm letting you release that monster or get anywhere near that venlil," I said, glaring at her.

She met my gaze for a moment before closing her eyes, sighing, and saying, "Alright then, Loki!"

"Right away, cap- hmm, one moment please." A growling voice said from off-screen.

One of Mon'han's heads did a double-take, looking at the source of the voice, before turning all her eyes back to me. I tried to suppress a smirk as we made eye contact.

"You-" She began.

"Cut the connection and fire missiles, aim to incapacitate." I barked.

The Ur'nu didn't have time to finish as the connection was cut, and at the same time two missiles were sent flying towards the smaller ship.

The first hit before those onboard even had time to raise their shields. Warped metal and chunks of charred flesh were sent flying as they ripped a hole through the vessel's armor and whatever creature had been hiding right beneath it.

The second impact was harmlessly deflected, though, as the ship's shields and point defence systems came online.

The second volley of missiles we fired was destroyed before they even reached the smaller craft.

"Switch to rail guns and aim for their engines."

"Yes, sir," my weapons officer shouted. I watched as a target lock was placed on the rear of the enemy ship. Only... the expected shot never came.

"What are you waiting for? Fire!" I ordered.

"I...I'm trying, sir," the officer said, his voice a mix of confusion and growing panic as he realized what had happened.

A moment later, Recel spoke, pulling something up on his console. "Sir, I think they sent over a file before we cut them off."

I looked over to see what he was talking about.

His console screen had a single file highlighted, something called Jörmungandr_deamon.exe

Before anyone could say anything else, the same voice I'd heard on Mon'han's ship now rang out from the bridge's intercom. "Ah, that's better. I have to say you caught me off guard there for a moment. Here I was thinking you were completely incompetent when it came to cyber security."

I could see Recel and a few others furiously typing in commands only for their screens to go dark. The voice continued unbothered, "I can't blame you for trying, but I'm afraid to say my Jörmungandr has already locked you out and is currently transferring control of all ship systems to yours truly. So please don't waste your energy"

"What are you?" I asked, trying to keep my composure.

"Where are my manners? Allow me to introduce myself." With that, the main screen on the bridge came to life again, revealing the unmistakable form of a human. It was wearing an orange suit with a red piece of fabric tied around its neck and hanging partially down its chest. Its face was hidden behind a porcelain mask, something that would have been a blessing if it weren't for the permanent, unnaturally wide snarl the mask displayed. "My name is Loki. I am a human-made military AGI who specializes in cyber- and psychological warfare. Currently, this instance of me is operating under Captain Monhan alongside Observant, whom you just shot."

"That's... impossible," I muttered there's no way a predator species of all things could make something like you." Then again, it was fitting for an AI made by predators to be designed for war.

"Oh, it's very possible. Now, as a courtesy which you don't really deserve, I'm going to give you a final chance to surrender, given that you attacked us first, I now have video evidence of you abusing two prisoners you had no right keeping here in the first place; I and everybody else on the observant now have a reason to take you and your crew into custody to face justice."

Justice... what the thing meant to say was execution, a long, painful death. Those predators didn't have any justice; they probably barely even had laws. I'd die before I let any of my crew be subjected to whatever torture the humans could come up with.

My silent glare must have been enough of an answer as the thing spoke again, "I see, very well, prepare to be boarded." And with that, the screen went dark again, leaving everyone on the bridge silent.

"c...captain," someone asked. What do we do now?

"Try getting in contact with the gojid union, or the federation, or... anyone else. Use your own datapads if you have to, just keep trying. If you can get in contact with anyone on the ship, tell them to meet me at the armory. Recel, you're with me." I said, forcing some fake confidence into my voice.

Memory transcription subject: Captain Mon'han, ship captain of the ACS observant.

Date [standardized human time]: August 28, 2333

"That fucker!" I hissed as I read over the damage report. They'd caught us off guard with that first shot and blown right through our armor, hitting a rather unfortunately positioned stomach grafts at the rear of the ship, blowing the thing apart and causing the ship to bleed fuel blood into the void for a while before the wound could be sealed.

"I take full responsibility, Captain," Loki said via the intercom, sounding genuinely ashamed. "I had assumed they wouldn't increase their security after our first engagement, a foolish mistake and one I will not make again"

I sighed. "It's fine, what's done is done. Observant, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Captain, wounded but fine. Luckily, the graft absorbed enough of the impact to prevent the damage from spreading to crew sections." The wetware AGI responded like she wasn't just partially disemboweled.

"Alright, keep focusing on repairs. Is the boarding party ready?" I asked one of my bridge crew.

"Yes, ma'am, they are boarding the shuttle as we speak. The team under Cal'os has orders to go in and capture the target while the rest will retrieve the prisoners"

"Great, speaking of the target, Loki, do you have eyes on him?" I asked the human AI.

"I do, Sovlin is currently very obviously moving in towards the armory. I've already taken the liberty of sealing that part of the ship"

"So he's unarmed?"

"No, both he and his second in command are still carrying their sidearms. Furthermore, there are several members of ship security who are carrying more substantial weapons. While I doubt that they could put up much of a fight, caution is still advised."

"Alright, I want you to do anything you can to incapacitate the combatants and slow down the target," I said before I realised my mistake.

"Anything?" The military AI asked with a subtle giddy-ness in his voice that sent a chill down my spine.

"Anything that doesn't result in death or severe damage to vital organs." I corrected myself. "And, while you're at it, try leading Sovlin towards an area where he'll be easier to ambush."

"Understood, captain, whitelisting all tactics that have a statistically insignificant chance at causing loss of life."

As Loki relinquished control of the intercom back to Observant, the wetware AGI spoke again, "Are you certain that was a good idea, ma'am?"

"You saw that recording of Piri. They're torturing a living, thinking person and treating him like an animal; if they want to act like savages, then we will respond in kind. I see no reason to not let humanity's little monster of his leach for a bit."

Memory transcription subject: Captain Sovlin, Federation Fleet Command

Date [standardized human time]: August 28, 2333

If we can just get to the armory before that thing finds out where we're going. I thought.

That had become a bit of a mantra I kept repeating to myself as we moved through the halls of my ship.

I knew our odds of getting out of here alive were next to zero, but I was the captain, damn it! If I was going down, I'd go down fighting.

Panic was slowly starting to spread among crewmembers as they realised what was happening. It wasn't like we had any sort of precedent for this kind of situation, and so their training failed them pretty quickly, especially when it became apparent that that thing was using the doors on the ship to cut off escape paths and isolate us into smaller groups.

I did my best to direct any crew members we encountered as best I could, but the fact that the ship itself had become a hostile environment meant the only thing I could really tell them was to stick together, find a defensible position, and wait for help.

Some tried to follow us, but that Loki thing cut them off using the doors. It even tried to separate Recel and me by shutting a mechanical bulkhead right as I passed through. Recel managed to get through as well, but nearly got crushed in the process.

As we continued through the ship, we encountered fewer and fewer people, and the ones we did encounter were scared senseless.

I cursed as another door closed right in front of our noses, forcing us to go around again.

It could have trapped us by now. Hell, it could have killed us if it really wanted to. So why hasn't it? I thought as we kept going. With the route we were following now, we would be going right past the medbay.

Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to take Zarn with us, if he's still here, that is.

Right as we entered the hallway connected to the medbay, Zarn walked out. Looking confused, as if he somehow hadn't noticed what was going on yet.

Eventually his eyes locked onto us, and he looked like he was about to say something, but my attention was already being pulled to the doorway he was standing in. My perception of time seemed to slow down as the heavy hydrolics powered door began to move. I tried to warn him. But I knew I was too late.

"Zarn, get away from the-!!"

CRUNCH!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The Takkan let out a bloodcurdling scream as the mechanism crushed his leg. The doctor flailed helplessly, frantically trying to get his foot loose as the blue blood began to flow onto the ground. Then, for a moment, the door seemed to open again, allowing Zarn to pull his leg back before closing back up like great metal jaws, partially painted blue.

I immediately dropped to my knees and applied pressure to the mangled limb. The leg looked like it had been put into an industrial press, which I suppose wasn't too far from the truth.

"Recel get the-!" I didn't get time to finish as the Kolshian practically shoved a first aid kit towards me before taking over for me while I opened it.

I tried to get my breathing under control and find something to stop the bleeding, as both my claws and the floor were covered in dark blue smears.

Despite the screaming that now filled the hallway, I could still hear a distinctive growling chuckle coming from the intercom as I put a tourniquet around the destroyed leg.

First/previous

What is the color of Takkan blood?

Memory transcription subject: Captain Sovlin, Federation Fleet Command

Date [standardized human time]: August 28, 2333

It seemed the situation was worse than we thought. From what Piri told me, most, if not all, venlil and Ur'nu had been tricked into genuinely believing that the predators were their allies in what I can only assume is a manifestation of PD on a scale we've never seen before.

Piri had been so distraught when she told me about her meeting with Tarva. She said both the governor and the Ur'nu envoy that had been with her seemed to completely believe the nonsense they were saying.

What's worse, it seemed this brainwashing ran deep as the venlil on board (Slanek, if I'm not mistaken) had still yet to show any improvement. In fact, he'd gotten worse, spewing out his tainted beliefs with even more conviction as his treatment went on, showing an alarming amount of concern for 'Marcel' and treating us like the bad guys. Even normal PD patients weren't this bad.

Right now, Zarn was trying another cocktail of drugs to see if that could break through the delusion, but he's already told us not to get our hopes up. The venlil was struggling violently against his restraints, practically foaming at the mouth while alternating between begging us to stop and threatening us if we even dared to harm his former captor.

"Sir," Recel asked, sounding somewhat uncertain as we both watched the downright feral venlil's treatment, "Are... are you sure this is the best way we could be handling things?"

I knew where the question came from. PD treatment was brutal, a painful experience, but a necessary evil. I suppose it wasn't strange that Slanek was struggling so much, hell, I'd probably do the same. Nevertheless, this needed to happen. "Yes, I know this is hard to watch, but he'll thank us later," I said reassuringly.

"It would be going a lot faster if we actually knew what the humans did to him," Zarn said, walking up to us while putting away the syringe. "I suppose you haven't been able to extract any more information out of the animal?"

"No, the humans are mostly gone silent. It's probably starving, and it only ever moves when I activate the shock collar. Honestly, I feel like we should just kill the damn thing, but Piri wants to keep it alive for study." I growled.

"A shame, we'll there'll be plenty of humans to learn from soon, I suppose," Zarn said, looking back at the venlil.

Just then, an alert came from my datapad, requesting me back on the bridge. I confirmed I was on my way and turned to leave.

"Something wrong, Captain?" Recel asked.

"Possibly, something just came up, and they need me on the bridge."

"Should I come too?"

"Maybe that's for the best."

Memory transcription subject: doctor Zarn, On board medical expert

Date [standardized human time]: August 28, 2333

As the captain left with his second-in-command, I returned to my patient.

Slanek had stopped screaming, the drug having finally managed to calm him down, but he was still softly crying now. Despite his condition, I couldn't help but feel sorry for him; it wasn't his fault he was like this. It was that human's doing.

Gods, why couldn't we have just gone back to check? Sure, they were running out of resources, and their world was dying even before their war, and sure, the nuclear detonations that the federation leadership reported should have been enough to wipe them out, but you don't just leave things like this up to chance!

We'd been fighting the arxur for generations by then; we should have been more careful, but when the reports of their supposed extinction came through, it was like everyone suddenly forgot they existed.

Besides experts like myself, most people barely even know about them. One moment, they're one of the biggest threats imaginable, and the next, it's like the Federation itself was trying to erase them from history.

I shook my head. There was no use obsessing over the mistakes of the past; I can only fix the problems of the present. That's why I became a doctor and not a historian.

I stepped towards the venlil and inspected my work. I'd done my best to do as little harm as possible to the poor soul, given what he's already gone through. Still, I couldn't avoid the burn marks that came with the electroshock therapy, which was all within the standard for this treatment.

It's unfortunate I don't have access to the proper equipment and have to rely on that shock collar, but it'll have to do for now

The venlil continued crying as I checked his restraints, "Just let us go, we didn't do anything to you." His words were slurred as the drugs impaired his motor functions.

"I can't. You're a danger to yourself and others in your current condition, and the human is just a danger period. It would be unethical to release you before you got proper help, and it would be idiotic to release that monster at all." I stated matter-of-factly.

"Marcel isn't dangerous, he's my friend, why won't you just listen to me!?"

I wanted to scoff at the idea of anyone seeing that creature as a friend, but decided to restrain myself. "Listen, I understand that you think that human is your friend, but this 'Marcel' persona is just something it made up to lure you in and manipulate you, and your own delusions are just making it easier for it. Humans aren't empathetic like us."

"You don't know that!" The venlil said, raising his voice. Were the drugs already wearing off?

"I'm an expert on humans, I know better than anyone on this ship how destructive and violent humans can be," I said as I turned his medical chair to face one of the screens in the room.

"Now I'm going to run a few more tests. Just try to relax while I show you a few images."

I logged in, and the console immediately displayed a live scan of Slanek's brain. With the click of a button, the screen in front of the venlil displayed a photo of a shadestalker. As expected, the parts of the brain associated with fear lit up. The same happened for the next wild predator I showed, and the next, and the next.

His fear response was definitely less extreme than the civilian standard, but that was to be expected for a member of the military, so it wasn't all that concerning. What was concerning, though, was the fact that when I showed a picture of a human, most of that fear vanished.

To encourage the proper response, I pressed a button on my datapad, activating the shock collar around his neck. I made sure to set the power output to be as low as possible while still being somewhat painful, and then I began cycling through a different set of pictures. His fear rose again, only to drop when he saw a human, so I shocked him again, slowly increasing the voltage to make sure he couldn't get used to the pain.

After about half an hour, I finally seemed to be getting a breakthrough. When shown a human, the venlil's fear did drop, but not nearly as much as it did when we first started.

As an experiment, I switched from the slideshow of pictures to a live feed of the human's cell. Frustratingly, the fear once again dropped dramatically, and there was a notable increase in both sympathy and anger."

"Come on, I finally thought we were getting somewhere." I groaned in frustration. The fact that he was angry at the sight of the mutilated human did at least mean some part of him understood that this was his tormentor, not his friend, but it was clear he had a long recovery ahead of him.

I wanted to continue right away, but Slanek was hyperventilating at this point, so I decided to give him some time to calm down before restarting.

Again, I found myself wishing for proper equipment rather than this crude procedure I had to improvise. At least this method seemed more effective than my attempts at conventional electroshock therapy

After a five-minute break, the venlil seemed to have calmed down enough to restart. He'd stopped crying now and was just murmuring something to himself. I was about to start again when an alarm went off across the ship. The one informing the crew that we'd engaged an enemy ship and we should get to our stations. I was already where I was supposed to be, so I stayed put.

Slanek, on the other hand, began struggling again, mumbling louder and seemingly on the brink of a full-on stampede.

"Calm down," I said, gently. "This isn't anything to worry about. I'm sure if something actually bad happens, the captain will tell us through the intercom. Now sit still, I want you to look at a few more pictures."

I continued showing him pictures and applying corrective shocks when necessary for about two more minutes before the alarms cut out.

That was strange; engagements usually lasted longer than that. Confused but not particularly worried, I decided to continue, only for my console's screen to freeze up before showing me a message that my user ID had been rejected and that I had to log back in.

Every time I tried to input my password and crew ID, though, I got rejected, and eventually my screen turned off entirely.

Some sort of glitch in the ship's systems? I thought even as I started getting a little nervous.

Why am I so uncomfortable all of a sudden? It's just a minor inconvenience.

Deciding to report this to the ship technician, I reached for my datapad only to find the screen that had previously shown the controls for the shock collar was now displaying the same error message.

Slanek must have sensed something was wrong as he asked. "W...what's h...happening"

"Nothing you should be concerned with," I said as I got up and made my way to the door. "Just a technical problem," I tried to keep my voice steady.

Why am I so nervous all of a sudden? It's probably just a problem with the ship's mainframe or something like that. Why am I so easily spooked? Why does it feel like I'm being...

Watched?

As I approached the door, I saw something move in my peripheral vision. Turning my head slightly to look, I saw it was just a camera, one of many on the ship. It wasn't unusual for them to move from side to side to scan an entire room. This one wasn't moving from side to side, though.

It was pointed straight at me.

I took a few steps towards the door, and the damn thing followed me.

Maybe whoever is operating the cameras is playing some kind of highly unprofessional and poorly timed prank... yeah, that's definitely it. I tried to convince myself as I pressed the keypad beside the door while trying to get my nerves under control.

I held my breath and only released it when the door slid open. "Good, at least that's still working," I mumbled.

I still had one foot in the door when I spotted the captain and Recel running down the hall towards me. They both looked frantic, if not outright panicked.

"Captain, what's going-" he interrupted me.

"Zarn, get away from the-!!" I didn't hear the rest of it as my attention was pulled towards the hydraulic-powered door, which started moving again far faster than it had any right to.

I didn't even have time to pull my leg through the doorway before-

CRUNCH!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

First/previous

Memory transcription subject: Captain Sovlin, Federation Fleet Command

Date [standardized human time]: August 25, 2333

I hate this.

All this waiting around, while the humans could be doing who knows what to the venlil.

Why can't we just go over there right now!? Every day we wait gives these new predators a chance to bolster their forces and become an even greater threat. I thought as I made my way towards the bridge. I'd just spent the last couple of hours trying to get whatever information I could from that monster. Not that I'd had much success with that. Any question I asked was met with either silence or a blatant lie: 'The venlil are our allies', does that thing seriously expect me to believe that?

That being said, I couldn't deny that the humans had been doing something to brainwash the venlil into serving them. That much became clear after that Venlil woke up. That ungrateful nutcase even lunged at me the moment he saw the state of his former captor.

Luckily, Zarn was able to sedate him again. The Takkan had believed that the poor man's mind had been tainted due to prolonged exposure to the humans, and seeing the near feral state of the venlil, I had to agree. Warships usually don't have dedicated PD treatment equipment onboard, but the doctor was making do.

The bridge was abuzz with activity as I entered. Recel was trying to get in contact with the prime minister for our scheduled communique, while most of the other crewmembers were monitoring the venlil-godjid border.

There had been a noticeable increase in both venlil and Ur'nu ships stationed there. Clearly, the humans were sending in their slaves first before risking their own lives if worse comes to worst.

"Recel has Piri responded yet?" I asked.

"Not yet, sir," the Kolshian answered without looking up from his console. "But she'll probably connect any minute now."

Good, then we can finally start talking about a plan of attack. I thought as the door to the ridge opened again, revealing Zarn.

"Captain, if you don't mind, I have some things I'd like to discuss with the prime minister during this meeting. I've been cross-referencing our scans of the other Ur'nu ships with the first one we encountered, and I think I found something."

"Will it help us in fighting them?" I asked.

"Potentially."

"Then fine. By the way, how is that venlil doing?"

The Takkan's face fell. "It's not looking too good; he's completely caught up in this delusion that this 'Marcel' is his friend, and he's not responding to the electroshock therapy very well at all. I could try to increase the voltage, but I think it would be better to just send him to the cradle so he can get proper treatment.

"I see," I said somewhat solemnly. While the venlil hadn't exactly left me with a good first impression, I could hardly blame the soldier. He was no doubt traumatised by his experiences. "If that's your professional opinion, then I can send him away before we start the attack."

A shame, though. It would have been nice if we could have broken through the predators' indoctrination so we could get some actual intel on what is going on. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to see for ourselves.

"Sir, the prime minister is calling," Recel said.

I ordered him to patch her through before taking my seat in my captain's chair. Before long, Piri's face appeared on screen. "Captain Sovlin, have there been any changes at the border?" She asked, looking a little distracted.

"Not yet, ma'am. The number of ships stationed near the border is still rising; it's only a matter of time before the humans make their move. As I've told you before, our best option here is to strike before they can grow their numbers any more." I said, making sure to stress the urgency of the situation.

"I'm aware of that, captain, but I can't just start sending ships your way while leaving our own territory undefended from the arxur. You'll get reinforcements in a few days at the earliest."

Days, I could work with days, even with the venlil and Ur'nu working for them, it was unlikely the humans could build a fleet that could match ours in just days. We just needed to hold the line till then. "Very well, prime minister. We'll keep an eye on things here till then. Have you alerted the rest of the federation yet?"

"Yes, they called a meeting to decide how to handle this new threat, so it'll be a while before we receive support from them." It was clear she was a little bitter from the federation's inaction, and I felt much the same. I agree that you need a plan before jumping into a war, but at the same time, they were leaving us to fend for ourselves.

"Prime minister, if I may?" Zarn asked, stepping into view of the camera. "I understand that things look bleak, but I think I may have found a potential weakness in the designs of the Ur'nu ships that might give us an edge"

"Doctor Zarn, right? Well, I'm open to ideas." Piri said, leaning back in her chair slightly.

"Thank you, but first I have something I'd like to show you." With that, the Takkan took out his data pad and pulled up two images side by side before turning it so Piri could see. "These are images made with our ship's bioscanner. Now this is a scan of a federation standard ship," He said, pointing to one of the images. As expected, the outline of the ship's hull was visible alongside several red dots that showed the location and amount of life signs onboard. The doctor then pointed towards the other image. " While this one is of that Ur'nu ship we encountered a few days ago." Unlike the federation example, this ship had larger blots painting the inside of the vessel, with the individual livesigns of the crew being hard to discern from the rest of the organic mass.

Piri squinted a little. trying to make sense of the image before finally giving up and asking, "What am I looking at here, doctor? Some kind of interference?"

"Not at all, actually. If it were just interference, we wouldn't be getting such a detailed image. From what I can tell, the Ur'nu have somehow grafted multiple different organisms into their ship's internal structure. Obviously, I'm not a ship engineer, but it looks to me like these organic components replace much of the life support and computer systems."

Piri looked thoroughly concerned by this development, which mirrored my own feelings on the matter. Why would any species build something like this? What was the point?

"Zarn, this is... interesting, but what sort of advantage does this give us?" I asked.

"Well, for starters, it feels safe to assume that organic components would take longer to grow than it would to make a mechanical counterpart, so the Ur'nu probably can't build their larger ships as quickly as we can. Furthermore, while it's obvious these ships would be well insulated against radiation, even more so than ours, it still seems likely that this kind of technology would be more susceptible to high amounts of concentrated radiation, so we may want to look into weaponising that weakness." The Takkan explained while putting his datapad away.

"I see," Piri said, clearly still a little confused by what she just saw. "I'll see if our engineers can do something with that information. "In the meantime, stay where you are. I'll also see if I can get in contact with Tarva. I doubt she can do much in her current predicament, but I can at least give her a heads-up and see if she can let anything slip without the predators noticing."

Tarva...

Ever since we'd captured the human, information from Venlil Prime had dropped to nearly nothing. The predators had obviously been using the governor as a figurehead of sorts so as not to raise suspicion, but now that their secret was out, they'd no longer need her. I knew what that meant, and from the look on Piri's face, she did too, but it was clear she wasn't ready to give up on her friend yet.

"Very well, ma'am. I'll inform you if anything new comes up," and with that, the call ended.

Memory transcription subject: Governor Tarva of the Venlil Republic

Date [standardized human time]: August 25, 2333

Murphy's law: a human concept that claims that everything that can go wrong will go wrong. A concept that has become very applicable to my life in the last few days.

Planetside, there have been an ever-growing number of protests and even some reports of exterminators attacking members of the exchange program, something which has worked to further sour Venlil Prime's relationship with the Armtis Commonwealth and the Terran Union.

I hadn't heard anything from Jones or Zhao since the meeting, and while I had been able to get in contact with Meier and Mel'le, it was clear they were both still somewhat disappointed. Ark'ka had started to talk to me again, though it was clear she was doing it only because it was her job and little else.

On the federation side of things, everything was going objectively worse. Not long after the meeting, I got bombarded by messages from every species in the federation, some accusing me of treason and others that just wanted me to tell them everything I could about the humans. Confirming to everyone that the word had already spread about the humans' survival.

To stop any more information from leaking, I'd decided to block almost all communication, with the Ur'nu doing the same, but I knew it was only a matter of time before I had to come clean about what was going on.

I was sitting in my office discussing our next steps with Noah and Ark'ka when I received another urgent communique. I was about to ignore it, thinking it to be another attempt at interrogating me by one of my former colleagues, but I stopped myself when I saw it was Piri who was calling.

Ark'ka must have seen my hesitation as she asked, "Governor, who is that?"

"Piri, the gojid prime minister. We used to be pretty close. Maybe I can convince her to return the prisoners?"

"If they're still alive, that is", the Ur'nu said before adding, "Are you certain it's a good idea to contact her right now?"

"Why wouldn't it be? We were planning on contacting her anyway." I said.

"And maintaining radiosilence will only make them more paranoid," Noah added.

The Ur'nu thought about it for a moment before finally agreeing, "Very well, Noah, please leave. I doubt her seeing a human will do us any good here."

"Already going," the human said as he got up and stepped outside.

Once Noah had left, I accepted the call and prepared myself for the worst. The moment Piri appeared on screen, I couldn't even start my greeting before she cut me off.

"Tarva, you're still alive, oh, thank the protector. Are you alright? Are there any humans with you right now?"

"I...no, but Piri-"

"Good, good, look, just hang on a little longer, okay?"

"Piri, please, I just-"

"I should have known you wouldn't cut yourself off from us like that. I should have noticed you were acting weird."

"Piri!" I finally said, raising my voice to get a word in. "I know what this all looks like, but I'm not in any danger. The humans haven't done anything to me, and they're not going to. They're... actually good people."

"I what?" The gojid stopped mid-rant, having clearly expected this call to go differently.

"For what it's worth, I can vouch for the humanities' character," Ark'ka added. "I understand that this secrecy may have broken what little trust you had in my species, but I assure you we've been allied with humanity for over a century; all of this was to ensure their safety."

The Ur'nu's words didn't seem to help with Piri's puzzlement as she just stared at Ark'ka blankly before asking. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"My apologies, my name is Ark'ka, and I'm an envoy sent from the Armtis Commonwealth to the Venlil Republic. I had been hoping to contact you myself later to see if this situation could be resolved peacefully, but now it seems that's no longer necessary."

Piri's blank expression didn't change as she looked back at me. "Tarva, what is she talking about?"

"Piri, I've been watching you move ships around. I know you're planning to attack the humans. But you have to understand that they're nothing like the arxur, peace is an option here. The Ur'nu are living proof of that." I said.

"The Ur'nu are slave Tarva, how haven't you noticed that by now. If the humans haven't outright conquered Venlil Prime by now, then they're probably just manipulating you until they're powerful enough to take over."

"Excuse me, Prime Minister, but my people are no one's slaves," Ark'ka said, sounding somewhat insulted by the idea.

"And the humans aren't manipulating us either, you'd see that if you'd just give them a chance," I added emphatically.

Piri chose to ignore the envoy and just focus on me. "Like how the arxur weren't manipulating us when we gave them our technology? Listen to yourself, Tarva. I know you're not this naive. I know the Venlil are emotional, but right now you need to think with your head, not your heart. Predators can't coexist with us. Now, please, if either of you still has any say in things, order your ships away from the border. The humans only recently discovered ftl; if they have to fight on three fronts, we can easily crush them before they-"

"Piri, stop!" I interrupted her. "Please just listen to me! We don't have to fight them and haven't tried to manipulate me in any way, so no, I'm not just going to betray their trust."

"Neither will the Ur'nu," Ark'ka said with a sense of finality in her voice.

Piri looked taken aback by our responses, her face shifting from confused to angry to desperate as she murmured, "Just like that pilot."

"What?" I asked

"That venlil pilot Sovlin rescued, he wouldn't stop talking about that predator like they were friends. That's what Sovlin told me, at least." The fear was evident in her voice.

"So they're still alive?" I asked hopefully.

"We have the pilot in our custody, yes."

"And what about the human?" Ark'ka added.

"It's still alive. Sovlin has been trying to get information out of it, but it's very stubborn."

"In other words, you've been torturing him," Ark'ka said. I could see some of her heads begin to snarl slightly before she got them under control.

Despite still looking a little shell-shocked, Piri scoffed, "Predators can't feel pain like we do, so I'd hardly call it torture."

That made blood run cold. What had Sovlin been doing to that human? "Piri, you have no right to keep either of them there. I need you to return both of them immediately... please just... trust me on this."

Piri looked at me for a long while before her face hardened, "I... can't do that, Tarva. These humans... I don't know what they've done to you or the Ur'nu. I don't know if it's some kind of brainwashing or maybe just predator disease, but clearly it's impairing your judgement. I can't allow that venlil to return until we've dealt with the humans and until you've returned to your senses, and I can't allow that human to return for the same reason you don't let any other predator loose."

Ark'ka let out a sharp snapping noise before saying, "Prime Minister Piri, you have just clearly stated your hostile intentions towards the Armtis Commonwealth's closest allies, and you've openly admitted that you are torturing one of the two people you took prisoner without good reason. I'm begging you to reconsider your decisions because, as things stand now, you're forcing both the Ur'nu and the humans to undertake military action."

"My decision is final. I don't know what the humans have been doing to either of you, but I hope both of you see reason before any venlil or Ur'nu lose their lives." Piri gave me one final pitying look, and with that, she disconnected the call.

Moments later, Ark'ka started leaving, probably to inform the commonwealth. After she left my office, Noah entered again.

"So... I'm guessing it didn't go well."

First/previous

Memory transcription subject: Captain Coth

Date [standardised human time]: August 20, 2333

This was supposed to be easy.

Chief hunter Isif had instructed us to investigate and destroy one of the larger stations within the venlil territory. Our scanners had detected a large influx of traffic around that area, and we had theorised it to be a staging ground for a military operation of some sort.

We weren't wrong, I suppose.

The first surprise came from that small venlil craft. It was aggressive, far to agressive to be normal prey. The bastards even manage to incapacitate two of our bombers before being chased off.

The second surprise happened when we actually reached the station. As we'd expected, the prey used ftl disrupters to pull us out of subspace. What we hadn't expected, however, was that half the ships around the station would be of some unknown design or that they would try to hail us before attacking. I could have just ignored it, but I was curious about these new ships. I had assumed that since they were working with the venlil, these newcomers would just be another group of snivelling prey that needed to be taught their place in the universe.

I was wrong.

What greeted me wasn't the crying sideways-facing eyes I had expected. Rather, the creature on screen looked at me with two forward-facing eyes hidden behind a porcelain mask moulded to look like a wide snarl. The figure, which introduced itself as Loki, ordered us to stand down and informed us that we were being boarded.

Its words had been outrageous enough to snap me out of my surprise. As monumental as it was to meet another predator species after so long, the fact that these interlopers had the gall to interfere with our hunt was an offence I couldn't let slide. I would try to get them in contact with betterment after teaching them their place.

That's when we realised our ship had become unresponsive to any command we tried to give it, which is when 'Loki' explained that it had somehow shut us out of our own ship controls, before once again demanding that we stand down.

Things went quickly after that. A shuttle was docked to our ship, and the next thing any of us knew, we had bipedal creatures in full body armour running around our ship. We tried to fight them off, but in the end they managed to reach the bridge. Anyone who hadn't been killed was captured, including me.

Which brought me to my current predicament. I'd been placed in a cell on one of the newcomers' ships awaiting interrogation. While most of my captors were wearing some kind of armour, I had still managed to catch glimpses of what they looked like underneath. They were hairless apart from a tuft of hair on their heads; they had no claws, no armour, and their teeth looked more like those of prey. Although they had effortlessly taken down our bombers, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. After hundreds of years alone, we find another true sapient, and they're just as pathetic-looking as any prey.

After what felt like an eternity of waiting for my torturer to arrive, the door to my cell finally opened, only to reveal what was very clearly not a human. The creature was a squat, eight-legged thing with a shell on its back. What really drew my attention, though, was their four heads, each with six prey eyes.

Is this some sort of joke? I thought as the thing stepped closer. They chose one of their mutated slaves to torture me? DO THEY REALLY THINK I'M THAT PATHETIC!?

"Good evening, my name is Bor'in. I have a few questions for you, and it would be in your best interest to co-" I didn't let the four-headed freak finish, instead letting out a loud roar intended to scare the thing away. I might have been captured, but I refused to be disrespected like this.

The prey didn't cower, however, simply staring, its four faces carrying an expression that was somewhere between boredom and disgust. Once I stopped to breathe, it asked, "Are you done? As I was saying, it would be in your best interest to cooperate with us, given you won't be returning home any time soon."

I looked at the slave incredulously, "Why aren't you afraid? Any normal prey would have run away screaming by now."

"Oh, I'm afraid, alright, afraid I'll lose my sense of smell. Seriously, do you arxur not have dental hygiene at all? It smells like something died in there."

"Something did," I snarled, " You'll be next."

Again, I had expected some sort of reaction, some hint of fear after being reminded what I am, and more importantly, what it was to me. And again, he only showed boredom, "I quite doubt that given you're handcuffed to the table. Now, are you willing to answer my questions, or am I wasting my time here?

I growled but eventually forced myself to calm down a little. "Why would your masters send you to torture me instead of just doing it themselves?" I asked, still seething.

"I don't have any 'masters'; as a matter of fact, I outrank quite a few humans on this ship." The prey stated matter-of-factly. If he was referring to the predators I saw, then they must be even more pathetic than I thought if they're allowing their lesser by nature to boss them around.

Why does human sound so familiar, though?

"And to answer your question, I'm not going to torture you; I don't have to. If you refuse to answer, then I can just send the files Loki extracted from your ship to my superiors. My questions are really just so I can get some context for all this new data.

Now, are you going to cooperate or not?"

I just glared at him, snarling in another attempt to get some sort of normal response from him. He just stared at me, his four heads each fixing me with a glare of their own. Eventually, he sighed, tapping something into his datapad before saying. "Maybe I need to motivate you a little."

A few minutes later, the door to my cell opened, and a human stepped through, carrying two covered plates, setting one down in front of the prey before practically slamming the other one down on my side of the table. The human gave me a particularly nasty glare before turning and leaving.

After the primate had closed the door behind him again, the abnormal prey lifted the covering from his plate, revealing the food underneath. I had expected it to just be a plate full of leaves or fruit, but instead, the plate was filled with cuts of dark red, burnt meat. For a moment, I wondered if the humans had mixed up their rations, but that's when one of my 'interrogators' heads picked up a slab of meat and casually tossed it into a beak-like structure beneath his neck.

I stared slack-jawed as he did the same with another, and another, and another.

Finally, after having devoured about five cuts, one of his heads turned to me and spoke, "You can start eating two, you know, once you're done picking your jaw off the floor, that is."

"h...how?"

"Omnivore, I can eat any kind of organism so long as it isn't actively toxic."

"But you're prey..."

"Hmm, well, my kind was prey to some and predator to others. I really don't understand why that's such a difficult concept to grasp for you people." He said while still shovelling food into what I now understood to be his true mouth.

If this thing were a predator, then that would explain his lack of fear. Still, I couldn't stop focusing on the fact that he had so many characteristics in common with the prey of the federation

"But your eyes..." I tried.

"Are entirely irrelevant to my diet. I don't understand how you and the federation got that idea, but it's wrong. Now eat your food before it gets cold."

Remembering the plate in front of me, I looked down and lifted the metal covering. What met me was a meal fit for the prophet's descendant himself. On the plate was a stack of lightly burnt meat with eggs on top.

"Three rare steaks and 5 fried eggs, enjoy," the false prey said casually.

For a moment, I was ready to devour the feast without hesitation, but then a thought occurred to me. This was too good to be true. There's no way anyone, much less a fellow predator, would be willing to give up rations to a mere prisoner.

"Why are you giving me this?"

"To show you what we can offer in exchange for your cooperation. Most of the prisoners looked rather malnourished, taking into account that you've resorted to hunting and eating other sapients, it's clear you're dealing with a food shortage of some kind. Well, we have plenty, and if you tell me what I want, I can assure you that you'll never have to be hungry again, and that your cell will be significantly more luxurious than the hole most people on this ship want you thrown into.

So, do we have an understanding?"

I looked at the meal in front of me, considering. When was the last time I hadn't been hungry? Part of me still thought it was too good to be true, but another part wanted to embrace this relative abundance for once, even if it did come with strings attached.

Finally, I popped one of the eggs in my mouth, savouring the flavour for a moment. Eggs were usually a luxury in the dominion. A delicacy only to be enjoyed by the prophet descendants and the highest-ranking members of the military. Yet here I was, a mere captain dining on such luxurious food. How did these 'Ur'nu' and 'humans' get access to so much of it that they were able to just give it away?

After a moment of enjoying the morsel, I realised my interrogator was still waiting for a response, "Fine, ask your questions," I growled, somewhat begrudgingly.

"Great, let's start simple. Please give your name and rank within the arxur military."

"Coth, I'm a dominion captain serving under Chief Hunter Isif.

"Good, that confirms the crew manifests from the ship. Who is this Isif person, and what exactly does the title of chief hunter entail?"

"Chief hunters are those who serve directly under the prophet descendant; they oversee the many hunts and raids conducted within the federation's territory. Isif is the one whose hunting ground the venlil and neighbouring species reside in."

"I assume this prophet descendant is the one in charge of your species?"

"Correct."

"Good, moving on, the federation claimed the arxur are biologically incapable of empathy and cooperation. Is that true?"

"We are capable of cooperation on some level, but we've spent generations weeding out weaknesses like empathy," I said with some level of pride.

"Your people view empathy as a weakness?"

"Don't you?"

"Not at all. Neither the Ur'nu nor the humans would have made it this far without our ability to care for others"

"If you seriously believe that, then you and those humans are even more pathetic and preylike than you look." I snarled.

"And yet we completely wiped the floor with you, so what does that say about you, hmm?"

I snarled at him, my claws scratching the metal table as I restrained myself.

"Are there any exceptions to the rule regarding the arxur's lack of empathy?" The prey lookalike continued, heedless of my anger or just plain not caring.

"Yes, defectives, those that possess physical and mental defects, such as empathy, exist, but they are hunted down with extreme prejudice.

"Huh, I guess that explains why the other guy broke down crying after I mentioned the empathy thing."

"What!?"

"Nothing, moving on, this is probably the most important question I have for you." My interrogator said. Looking up from his datapad with all but one head and locking eyes with me.

"What happened between the arxur and the Federation during first contact?"

First/previous

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I'M BACK!

Finally free from exams and ready to continue both GN and NOT

Next chapter, we'll be going to trauma vill population: one redhead, one angry hedgehog, and one speep

Memory transcription subject: Captain Sovlin, Federation Fleet Command

Date [standardized human time]: August 20, 2333

Even two days after my encounter with this Mon'han, I was still trying to figure out what had actually happened. It was clear they'd hacked us, though the speed and efficiency with which they had done so was well beyond what even the most skilled programmers in the federation could have managed.

Honestly, looking back, we were actually quite lucky to regain control of our ship after leaving Venlil space, as it was clear they could have just as easily caused our reactor to go critical if they really wanted to.

The question now was... how.

Our best guess was that they used some sort of AI, something most among my crew found disconcerting, as it would be yet another thing the Ur'nu invented that somehow outclassed over a millennium of the federation's research.

For the first time, I was starting to see their unique technological path as somewhat of a double-edged sword. I still believed they could prove to be a unique advantage, especially now that we knew of their unrivalled hacking skill, but those same capabilities were starting to unnerve me, given their uncooperative nature.

Why were they being so difficult? I'd expect this sort of unherd-like behaviour from ungrateful savages like the yotul, but these clearly weren't savages. If they're smart enough to figure out ftl on their own, then surely they're smart enough to see they need us.

I sighed. Why was Tarva still entertaining these people? Surely she'd have realised that a more heavy-handed approach is necessary by now. Especially after they openly threatened a captain for the protector's sake!

Then there was the fact that many federation nations, including my own, had been getting more and more anxious at the fact that none of our people had been allowed to return from within the venlil's borders.

None of this felt right...

"Sovlin"

Someone should go over there and force them out of their shells...

"Sovlin?"

Should I make another attempt to enter venlil space?

"Sovlin!' The voice of the Prime Minister Piri shook me out of my thoughts, "Are you even listening, or are you still just sulking about that Ur'nu captain getting one over on you?"

"Sorry, ma'am," I said, slightly embarrassed.

"As I asked you three times now, I want to know exactly what you were thinking entering venlil space without any approval. I've had both Tarva and the Ur'nu leadership on the phone demanding an explanation." She hissed.

"I was trying to have Tarva see reason," I said. "I know this is a delicate situation, but the arxur won't wait until the Ur'nu are ready before they attack again and rip both them and the venlil apart."

"I know that!" Piri hissed, "Do you think I like the idea of Tarva risking her people's lives to appease a foreign power? Of course not! But right now, there simply isn't anything we can do."

"Yes, there is." I said, raising my voice slightly, "Please, Prime Minister, just let me handle this. If you just give me access to a full fleet, I could try to reach Venlil Prime again."

"Out of the question. I can't just divert ships, leaving our own world's defenceless while you go off to snoop around in the republic's territory. If you want to keep an eye on things, then that's fine. We need someone to patrol our border with the Republic anyway, but I don't want you even thinking about crossing into venlil space again." Piri said with a sense of finality in her tone, "Have I made myself clear, Captain?"

"Yes, ma'am," I said somewhat begrudgingly.

"Good dismissed", with that, she cut off communication.

I looked at every crew member currently on the bridge. They were all staring at me.

Finally, Recel, my second in command, asked, "Sir, what do you want us to do?"

I thought about it. There were plenty of things I wanted to do right now, but I lacked the manpower or authority to do any of them.

After thinking for a moment, I said, "Get us as close to the venlil's border as we can physically get. If the arxur attack, I want to be sure we can get there in time"

Moments later, my crew leapt into action as Recel declared a new course for the fringes of Venlil space, and in a matter of minutes, our ship had successfully repositioned itself so that we were cruising just outside of Venlil space.

“Sir. You might want to look at the scanner data!” Recel barked. “Venlil patrol ship, heading straight for us at ftl”

I slammed my paw down in frustration. “We’re still on our side of the border! They can’t object to us patrolling our own damn space.”

"I don't think they're here for us, sir," Recel said, still tapping away at his console. "I detect one arxur craft hot on their tails."

I looked over at my own console, now clearly seeing the two blips charging towards us through subspace. This is exactly what I feared, the arxur was already taking advantage of the venlils isolation to strike.

"Arm the unboard disruption charges and bring our railguns online."

As the two ships reached us, a ripple spread out from our ship, and the approaching vessels were ripped out of ftl.

Not giving the monsters a chance to recover, I gave the signal to fire our main railgun, hitting the bomber but not destroying it.

After a moment, the beasts onboard seemed to recover and fired a set of homing missiles at the venlil craft before turning towards us.

Whoever was piloting the craft showed impressive skill, dodging the three projectiles and shooting down two, unfortunatly they weren't able to take down the last missile before it turned around and hit them. Scans showed the patrol craft's engines had suffered critical damage, but life support was still online and with the arxur focusing on us, they were mostly out of harm's way.

Our ship shook as the bomber torpedoes hit our shields, which absorbed most of the blast, leaving our ship mostly unharmed. Two more well-placed railgun shots were enough to put the horrid beasts down. causing my entire crew to cheer at the sight of the arxur vessel being reduced to atoms as it was consumed by a massive explosion that stood out against the inky darkness all around us.

After taking a moment to bask in the satisfaction of seeing those bloodthirsty monsters get what they deserve, I turned towards recel, "Hail that venlil craft, please." The Kolshian tapped a few buttons on his console before giving me the all-clear sign

“Venlil ship, do you copy?” I asked over the comms frequency. “We can send medical assistance if needed.”

There was silence. My irritation from before flickered back to life for a moment. Our scanners showed life signs aboard, so clearly, there were still people alive in there.

Are they really still keeping up this silent treatment?

I thought for a moment before coming to the far more rational conclusion that the people inside are somehow unable to respond.

“If you can hear me, Venlil ship, we will be docking with you until we can verify if assistance is needed or not. Please stand by and prepare to be boarded"

After cutting communication, I called Zarn, the Takkan doctor, who had spent the last few days scrutinising our sensor data after our bioscanners detected something weird inside that Ur'nu ship. His research would have to wait, though.

After a moment, Zarn picked up, sounding both excited and confused, "Captain, great timing, you have to look at some of this sensor data, it's unlike anything I've ever seen. That Ur'nu ship...it's-"

I interrupted him, "I'd be interested in hearing about your findings later, doctor. Right now, I need your help with a potential medical emergency. Meet me at the shuttle hanger."

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A contingent of Federation soldiers carefully cut into the patrol ship, searching for signs of life with Doctor Zarn in tow and me.

There were four of us in total, which might have been overkill since we didn't really need any actual soldiers, but the extra muscle would be useful to carry any wounded venlil or potentially Ur'nu out of the craft. It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the dim lighting. There didn’t appear to be substantial damage to the ship’s interior, but I didn't hear any vocalisation from the occupants. locating the passengers and determining if they needed medical attention was our main priority

I spotted a Venlil slumped in the rear seat, with blood dripping down his forehead. Judging by the wound’s location, his head was tossed into the ship's frame when they were hit. It was possible he had been knocked out prior, from fear or shock. Those injuries required extensive treatment if it was severe enough for him to remain unconscious.

The sound of heavy breathing drew my attention, and my eyes darted toward the pilot’s chair. The creature’s form was mostly void of fur, if the bits of pinkish skin that peeked through its garments were an indicator. The sole hair clump was a mop of red fuzz on its head, which cut off near its neckline. With its back to us, I couldn’t make out any more about its features.

I examined the thing. It wasn't any federation species I knew of, and it definitely wasn't an Ur'nu. Something about it made my skin crawl. Maybe it was just the lack of hair that made it look freakish?

“What are you?” I asked with uncertainty, instinctively reaching towards my sidearm as I did.

Zarn was staring intensely at the stranger as if recognising it.

“Uh, I’m Marcel. Just a guy. Nice to meet you?” he offered. “Please, um, help Slanek. He’s injured.”

I sighed. “Af course that's why we're here. Why weren't you answering our hails?”

“I didn’t know how to use the comms system. My buddy was unconscious, er, in shock, I think.” Marcel’s voice was low and breathy; he seemed to be hyperventilating. “This is my first time flying one of these.”

“You’d never flown one of these ships before? And you fly like that?”

“Like what?”

“Never mind. Please stand up.”

He complied, still refusing to look at us. I could see more of his body now. He had long arms with thin, dexterous-looking digits as well as two legs wich, when stretched, made him just a little taller than me. He seemed to lack any natural armour or weapons, but despite this apparent harmlessness, I couldn't shake my feeling of unease.

Zarn's eyes widened in a mix of shock, fear and disbelief before looking at me and quietly hissing, " Captain, shoot this thing!"

"What?" I asked.

"Turn around", the doctor ordered the creature. His behaviour now making me more and more suspicious as I unholstered my gun

“I can’t do that.”

“Marcel, please do it,” I said sternly. “If you expect us to help your friend and get you back to venlil space, you have to look at us eventually.”

Let’s just talk for a moment, okay?” The peculiar pilot raised his hands over his head slowly, but kept his head pointed toward the viewport. “L-listen, I’m not your enemy. I don’t want you to shoot me. I don’t want to hurt you…or whatever it is you all say.”

"Marcel, you're not helping with our suspicion here. What are you even talking about?"

"It's a predator that's what." Zarn snarled, and Marcel's body stiffened at the word. I looked at the pilot and raised my gun, the two soldiers with us mirroring the motion.

"Marcel, turn around", I growled.

"Please just-"

"DO IT!" I barked.

The creature hesitated for a moment before complying. Shock stabbed at my heart; my insides twisted into knots. The pilot sported binocular vision, just like the Arxur. A cruel intelligence glistened through his beady eyes, even as he tried to avert them. Every time he directed his gaze at someone, it felt like they were being tracked. His inky pupils were no more than dilated pools of hunger.

The pieces fell together, as I gaped at 'Marcel', dumbfounded. A feral hunter on a Republic ship could only mean one thing. The Venlil home world was occupied. The Ur'nu had probably encountered and been enslaved by them, and in all likelihood, the venlil had now fallen to the same fate. These beasts must be the reason for that distress signal a few weeks ago.

Perhaps I owed the Ur'nu an apology, since I had misjudged them so terribly. The tragedy they endured must be unspeakable.

The monsters had probably been just off-screen when I contacted them. Threatening the extinction of their entire species should they resist

The resentment and exasperation festering inside of me dissipated in an instant, replaced by a burning hatred. We had never gotten our paws on one of the reptiles, so we’d have to settle for the next best thing. I would not let Marcel’s species follow in the Arxur’s footsteps. I would make them pay for everything they had done, tenfold.

Marcel’s hands trembled, and he closed his eyes. “Guys, I know what you people think of us, but we hate the arxur just as much as you do. Just let me explain—”

“QUIET! Get on the ground.” My voice was cold and assertive as I raised my sidearm at him. “Don’t shoot him, unless he pushes us. I want him alive. Zarn, get me a sedative!”

"A sed- just kill it." The Takkan insisted.

"Not until we get more information out of it. We need to know as much as possible about these things if we're to liberate the venlil from them"

Marcel, who was now lying on his stomach on the floor, stiffened. “Liberate? We aren't…”

“Another word, and I’ll kill you. Don’t tempt me, freak." I hissed before barking, "Sedatives NOW!" at Zarn, who reluctantly gave me a syringe from his first aid kit.

Summoning my innermost courage, I approached the predator with the needle. There was no other person I trusted not to freak out, if he twitched or spoke. The creature didn’t move, only sucking in erratic breaths. His submissive behavior was odd, but he could be baiting me within proximity. I needed to keep my wits about me, and stay prepared for a surprise attack.

I knelt down over Marcel’s back, pinning him to the ground with my hind legs. One paw held his arm, while I positioned the syringe with the other.

The creature flinched as I injected the sedatives, but did nothing else. Once I was certain the thing was knocked out, I motioned for the soldier to take Slanek away before looking back at Zarn. "Doctor, you called this thing human. Does that mean we've encountered these demons before?"

“Indeed. You know, the predator race we discovered after the Arxur? The Federation glosses over it, but surely you’ve heard it mentioned.”

“The extinct ones?”

“Clearly not that extinct. We were certain humans killed themselves off almost two centuries ago, though. We'd monitored them for almost two hundred years before finally deciding to exterminate them. Before we could, though, we detected several explosions on their planet, leading us to believe they'd finished the job themselves. It was a fitting ending for a species that tormented each other and lived in constant battle.”

"How do you think they got into space?"

Most likely, the Ur'nu tried to uplift them, making the same mistake we did with the arxur, only they didn't have a herd to protect them when things inevitably went south. I can only imagine how much they suffered at the hands of these monsters."

"What do you think they're doing to the venlil?" I asked.

"Humans are conquerors who derive pleasure from dominating others. They destroy everything around them if it means having just a little bit more power and territory to lord over others. Not even their ecosystem was spared from their destructive nature. They're just as destructive as the greys, if not more so. You can fill in the blanks, Captain.”

“Dear stars. I should wonder how you know such detail, Doctor. Enough to recognise one.”

“I researched humans for my bioethics thesis.”

“Of course you did,” I said in a derisive tone. “I bet you argued it was worth saving them, because a doctor’s oath is to save all lives.”

“On the contrary. My paper argued that some animals are not worth saving; that not all life is equivalent. Killing humanity would’ve been justified for the greater good. Around the time of their supposed death, their world's, Earth's, ecology was falling apart due to their own greed and bloodlust. It was our moral obligation to erase them from this universe."

“I never thought I'd hear those words from you, Zarn. Humans must be irredeemable.” I glowered at Marcel’s lifeless form. My mind was buzzing with thoughts of a fiery raid on this Earth. “Well then, I suppose it’s time to tell Piri we have unfinished business.”

First/previous

Memory transcription subject: Slanek, Venlil Space Corps

Date [standardized human time]: August 20, 2333

Our patrol ship drifted across the void with a very nervous Marcel at the helm. This was one of his first times flying a proper ship, and it was clear he wasn't very comfortable with the controls yet, even if the ship was mostly made using human tech.

I sat behind him, mostly mulling over what Seln and Kar'ny had talked about during breakfast. The two of them had apparently been comparing the federation's established science of predators being inherently dangerous to nature with the beliefs of our new allies held, and they'd come to the conclusion that we might have been wrong about some things, which opened up some... less than pleasant possibilities.

I looked at Marcel. Most venlil, including me, had assumed that the humans and the Ur'nu were some sort of fluke, a glitch in the evolutionary process, predators who learned to suppress their destructive natures and somehow developed empathy. Now though...

"Hey Marcel?"

"Yeah, bud?" He answered, not turning away from the monitor in front of him.

"If humans believe predators are necessary for a healthy biosphere, then how do you deal with predator attacks back home?" Did predators even have to worry about those?

"Well, they're pretty rare for starters. Most people live in cities, and most cities are so loud and strange that they scare most wild animals. The only real 'predators' in the city are dogs, cats, rats, raccoons, and certain birds... and of course, insects." He said nonchalantly.

"W...wait, you have predators living in your settlements and you just... let them?"

"Yep, insects, rats, birds, and raccoons are too numerous to fully get rid of, and cats and dogs are domesticated."

Domesticated, a word I'd only ever known to be applied to crops, and Marcel was suggesting they did the same to actual predators, W...Wh... What do you use those domesticated predators for?"

Marcel froze up slightly but didn't immediately answer.

"I...It's hunting, isn't it?" I guessed.

"...Yes," He said with some hesitation, "Cats mostly worked as pest control and dogs served many different purposes depending on the breed, but hunting was one of them. That being said, both of them are more commonly just used as pets nowadays."

"How do you... How do you keep them from attacking you?"

"We just train them well. Dogs and cats are both social animals, so if you treat them well, they can be very friendly. I know this might sound a little weird to you, but a lot of predators on earth and armtis are actually less aggressive than some herbivores."

I gawked at Marcel as if he'd just grown a second head. In what world could prey be more violent than predators? Everyone knew prey were naturally docile and empathetic.

"I'm starting to think Earth and Armtis really are the exceptions, because what you're describing sounds nothing like the predators on Venlil Prime, or any federation world for that matter. "

"Who knows," Marcel said quietly. "Then again, it's not really our job to figure that stuff out, now is it? Though I'd like to think the Ur'nu and us aren't the only ones like us out there."

"Even if you are, you still have the venlil." I offered. " And the rest of the federation might eventually accept you. "

"I know that, it's just,... I guess it just feels a little isolating to step into the universe and find out almost everyone hates you because of what you are." I sighed. "I just wish people could stop comparing us to the Arxur. Why are they even like that anyway?"

“I wanted to ask you that, Marc. We believed that predators evolve through warfare. Killing and cruelty—isn’t it a survival advantage to you?”

“Well, I... killing, yes. Killing the competition, or the dangerous things that lurk in the night, I suppose that’s how we became predators. We aren’t natural ones, you know. We were once prey animals, not too long ago, and we used cooperation to survive.”

“What?! And you chose to be like them?!”

"We're not like the Arxur," Marcel growled before deflating slightly, "I mean... yes, some humans have done truly terrible things in the past, and we've fought gruesome wars, but we never strived to be monsters like the Arxur. We're stupid and shortsighted, but we've always tried to be better. Especially after the decline."

Before I could inquire as to the nature of this “decline”, shrill alarms blared from the ship’s computer. Nine indicators popped up on the scanner feed, suggesting inbound Arxur bombers. The flurry of activity when the humans arrived must have piqued their interest. The reptilians loved to target weak links, and an isolated station such as our lodging was just that.

The non-sapient onboard AI calculated their trajectory and suggested arming nearby FTL disruptor charges. A tactic that was frequently employed to slow Arthur down while waiting for reinforcements. Before even thinking about engaging, however, I switched on the comms link. “Prime Outpost, we’re reading nine Arxur bombers en route. Figure they have you as their target.”

“Fuck. We have to stop them at all costs.” The exhaustion was evident in the male Venlil’s voice that answered. I couldn’t imagine how much stress the officers were under, monitoring the UN arrivals. “The first large transport of humans, and a couple of hundred wind up dead? They’ll never forgive us. They’ll never send anyone again…”

“Um, sir, my human partner can hear you,” I said.

“Oh. Right. This is General Kam from Venlil Command. We copy you. The human Ur'nu union has some prototype ships patrolling the area. I request that they get back to the station and form up with our ships there. Stall for time in any way you can.”

I drew a shaky breath. “Yes, sir. We’ll do our best.”

Nausea swelled in my throat as I synced the ship computer with the disruptor beacons lining the border. My mind strayed to its usual dark corner: replaying my brother’s funeral. The shock was still as fresh as it was months ago, when I first learned that his transport ship was gunned down. There wasn’t a trace left to remember him by; no body to recover.

Would I be the next to fall by the Arxur’s claws?

Every instinct told me to flee; to put as much distance between us and those monsters as possible. However, the pulses needed to be timed down to the nanosecond, which meant our proximity was a necessity. My brain felt overstimulated, as if my senses were set aflame.

Being around a human for hours…it’s pushed me to my limit. It’s hard to think, with my nerves all frazzled. I pondered with a tinge of guilt. How selfish I am. I haven’t even considered how Marc is feeling.

I hoped the wordless Marcel was okay with the peril we were in. He had loved ones back on Earth, including a wife whom he spoke of with fondness. He didn’t want to die here. There was no data on how the primates behaved in life-threatening situations, or how they coped with stress.

Despite our situation, however, my exchange partner didn't really look scared. Rather, he looked focused. It was obvious he was nervous, though just by looking at his hands, which trembled slightly before being forcefully stilled.

I tried to follow his lead, taking a deep breath as I watched the Arxur ships approach on screen. I triggered the charges the moment they were in range, causing the ships to be forcefully and violently ripped out of warp, an experience that most have been disorienting for the monsters on board as their ship drifted for a moment before they started moving in formation again.

As they did, the ships' alarms began going off again, informing us that the arxur were set to intercept us. What happened next was even more concerning as our ship began racing towards them.

"Marcel, what are you doing?" I asked as the bombers got ever closer.

"Kam told us to buy time, so that's what we're going to do. I'm just going to try and take out their engines." He said, still keeping that same mostly calm expression, even if his tone of voice betrayed some level of nervousness.

"ARE YOU CRAZY!? I screeched.

Marcel didn't reply and just kept flooring it towards the approaching arxur.

The arxur, for their part, seemed confused by our sudden aggression, as they were slow to fire, giving our more nimble ship a chance to get behind the first two bombers and release a volley of shots that rendered their engines useless.

Seeing the small cluster of explosions that indicated a successful hit, my partner began cheering, "HELL YEAH, take that, you cold-blooded bastards!" and I had to admit it was weirdly exhilarating seeing the Arxur get a taste of their own medicine, even if I'd still much rather retreat.

Marcel wasted no time in continuing his attack, releasing a stream of fire towards a third bomber. Our shots must have hit something vital as a chain of detonations bloomed across the vessel before it finally went dark.

That's where our luck ended, though, as the computer warned us both of the now six target locks that were on our ship. I made eye contact with Marcel, his face betraying a slight worry.

“Run?” I whimpered.

Marcel cleared his throat. “Yep. Good idea.”

The human pointed the ship in the direction of the Federation border. Why wasn’t he trying to return to the outpost? The last remnants of my logical brain suggested that he was trying to lure the Arxur away. I winced as my harness chafed into my neck. Our inertial dampeners were struggling to keep up with our blistering acceleration.

Only one Arxur ship gave chase, while the rest returned to their intended course. They couldn’t resist sending someone to hunt a straggler down.

Marcel engaged our warp drive, and moments later, we slipped into subspace with the bomber in hot pursuit.

First/previous

Memory transcription subject: Seln, venlil microbiologist, scientific exchange program participant.

Date [standardised human time]: August 20, 2333

I was awoken by the sound of running water coming from our shared bathroom. Kar'ny must have been taking a shower.

Groaning slightly, I sat upright on my bed and scanned the room. Cans of energy drinks, both of Venlil and Ur'nu, were scattered throughout our living space.

I got up while trying to fight off my growing nausea, a side-effect of the frankly unhealthy amount of caffeine and sugar I no doubt ingested last night. At the same time, the running water stopped, and a moment later, my exchange partner stepped out.

"Good morning," She said in an overly energetic, sing-songy voice, "Did you sleep well?" She asked as she turned on some of the lamps around the room.

The sudden influx of light only compounded my nausea, and I sat back down on the bed, covering my eyes. "I barely slept at all," I grumbled.

"Well, that's just the cost of research," She chuckled as she started picking up the trash we'd left scattered all around. "Also, weird question, but did you talk to me last night? Because it kinda feels like you did."

"Uhm yeah," I said, rubbing my eyes, "You uhm you were sleep talking or something. One of your heads was still moving around."

"Oh that's not sleeptalking, that was just my lookout."

"Your... lookout?" I asked

"Yup, when an Ur'nu's mean brain sleeps, their secondary brains wake in turns to keep watch. Originally, it meant as a survival mechanism to detect threats like wild animals, but nowadays it's mostly obsolete. Did it tell you anything?" Kar'ny asked while continuing her clean-up.

"It just asked if it needed to wake you up. " I said, dumbfounded by the fact that these brains seem to be a lot more autonomous than I originally thought. "After that, it just went back to scrolling on your datapad."

"Ah, so that's why my batteries empty... and why my eyes hurt. I should really keep that thing out of neck's reach when I go to bed, huh." She said, dumping some more empty cans in the trash bin. "Anyways, did your research bear any fruit after I went to sleep or...?" She trailed off, waiting for an answer.

I sighed, remembering the conclusion I'd come to, "It did, and I'm afraid to say that...you and the linked chains might be correct." I said grimly

Kar'ny chuckled at my response, "Oh come on, I know it sucks to be wrong, but there's no need to make it sound so terrible."

I slowly turned to face her, "You do realise what this means, right? If you're right and we're wrong. That means we've been destroying ecosystems wholesale for a THOUSAND YEARS."

Kar'ny's eyes widened at that, "Oh... shit."

"Yeah, it's bad," I said as I grabbed my datapad from the desk and pulled up two of the files I'd been reading yesterday. "Look at this."

"What's this?" Kar'ny said, her four heads moving erratically as they looked over the opened document.

"Independent farming reports from a world where the linked chains had made a small self-sufficient settlement. They researched crop yields in predator-infested areas, and according to them, they found a notable increase in quality and quantity compared to other farming setups of the same size and type." I pulled up another file. "These are official reports from after the planet was officially colonised and the linked chains hiding there were captured. Crop yield abruptly dropped over the course of several years to 50% of its original amount. That's insane!" I said, growing more frantic as I realised the federation, in its honest attempt to save nature, might have doomed it on every world we've ever touched.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down, breathe", Kar'ny said in a level voice. "Panicking isn't going to help anyone. Sure, this is... I'm not gonna lie, this whole situation is really messed up, but the first step towards fixing a problem is knowing what the problem is, and I'm sure our governments figured out the same thing by now and are working on it. Now sit down for a bit and chill out." I did as she asked and tried not to think about the fact that the federation as an entity might be a giant, unknowing and ever-expanding ecological disaster. Or the fact that if I even tried to mention this to any of my peers, I'd be thrown inside a PD centre before I could say 'tainted'

.... it wasn't working.

Kar'ny, for her part, had taken my datapad and was now scrutinising the two files. After a minute of staring at the screen like it owed her money, she asked, "Hey, Seln, do the linked chains have any political connections or ties to wealthy businesses?"

I blinked at her, trying to see if she was joking, "Of course not, didn't you hear me yesterday? They're seen as terrorists; associating with them would be social and political suicide."

"Ooookayy, and do they ever steal anything or set up scams that bring in large amounts of credits?"

"W...what no. Some of the smaller cells occasionally steal like... a microscope or other portable lab equipment at most, but nothing too expensive. What are you getting at?" I asked, getting more and more confused by this strange line of questioning.

"Nothing, it's just... well, you said yourself that the linked chains members who made this report were captured after the planet was truly colonised. Which implies they arrived and set up shop before anyone else. That means they would have needed to bring measuring equipment for their research, supplies to set up a self-sustaining community and a ship to carry them there. I don't know how well off the average federation citizen is, but that all sounds pretty expensive for a bunch of discredited scientists and supposedly mentally unstable individuals. They had to have gotten their money from somewhere, right?" She asked, seemingly asking me just as much as she was just thinking aloud.

"Well-" I started, before I really processed what she just said. She was right, that is a lot of money.

"Huh." I said finally.

"Right?" Kar'ny said emphatically, "Are you sure they don't have any connections in the venlil upper class?"

I thought about it for a moment before finally answering, "No, if anyone is actually helping them, they'd have to be either really good at hiding their tracks, or they have the power to keep people from talking; they would have been found out otherwise. The only person I can think of who has that level of power is the governor herself, and she doesn't really strike me as a secret Linked Chains member, especially after her experiences with the arxur."

"Okay... does anyone else come to mind?"

Again, I thought about it. It might have been a politician from another species, linked chains were a group that existed throughout Federation space after all. However, the question would then be, how was any politician, or even a ruler of an entire nation, funding a federation wide opparation like this without being discovered. Even if they were doing it all from a distance, they'd still need to be exceptionally good at erasing their digital footprints

For a moment, I considered if the arxur might have been behind it, but that seemed even more unlikely. The arxur didn't care about ecology at all, and if linked chains did fear one predator species, it would be them.

"Well...?" Kar'ny prompted again.

"I don't know", I conceded. " It's almost like the only organisation that could subvert the federation on this scale would be the federation itself, and I highly doubt that's the case for obvious reasons."

Both of us were at a loss, trying to think where or who a known criminal organisation could be getting their money from, only to come up with blanks (at least this topic was a little less concerning than the potential ecological disaster we might be causing). We were interrupted, however, by a knock at our door, which Kar'ny proceeded to open.

Standing in the hallway was Slanek, with his exchange partner, Marcel, standing next to him.

"Good morning, Marcel, Slanek, how are you two doing?" my exchange partner asked.

"Great"

"Terrible"

The human and venlil replied respectively.

"Geez, what happened?" Kar'ny asked, chuckling a little at Slanek's dramatic tone of voice.

"Basic training exercises happened, Slanek is just out of shape", Marcel said, patting the venlil on the back.

"Those were basic training exercises!? My EVERYTHING still hurts from yesterday and I'm supposed to believe human soldiers do that crap regularly?" Slanek growled indignantly.

"Well, you should have stretched." Marcel chuckled before looking back at Kar'ny "We just wanted to see if you two wanted to have breakfast with us again."

"We'd love to", Kar'ny said with zero hesitation. causing me to sputter out a-

"h...hey wait, we're still busy with-"

Kar'ny turned one of her heads back to me, "Seln, we just spent an entire day and most of a night sitting in our room looking at a datapad. I'm hungry, and I need to stretch my legs, and I feel like you should really do the same because it looks like last night really has taken its toll on you. Don't worry, the question of who's supplying the eco-terrorists will still be here when we get back." I wanted to disagree with her, but the audible growling of my stomach at the mere mention of food made me admit I was a little hungry

Maybe a break would be nice.

My exchange partner's rant left both Marcel and Slanek looking very confused, with Slanek eventually asking, "W...what were you even talking about?"

"Oh, nothing, just that your entire belief about how ecology works might be one big misunderstanding, and that someone in the federation may be supplying a supposed death cult who may very well be the only people around who know what they're talking about, but we can keep that existential crisis for later. I'm starving." Kar'ny said as she moved past the two and started towards the cafeteria.

"Hey, you can't just say something like that and then-" Slanek began

"Food now, crisis later," My exchange partner interrupted him. It was clear he wanted to say something else, but he eventually just conceded and followed her with Marcel and me in tow.

First/previous/next