Oh, Saints and stars. I couldn’t keep up the warrior act any longer. These weren’t my enemies. Some parts of the Superiority were, of course, but these people…they were just people. Mrs. Chamwit probably wasn’t a spy, but was instead really just a kindly housekeeper who wanted to see me fed. And Morriumur…they just wanted to be a pilot.
Morriumur just wanted to fly. Like me.
“You’re an excellent pilot,” I told them. “Really. You have picked up on all this so quickly, it’s incredible. I don’t think you should give up. You need to fly to prove to the Superiority that people like you are needed.”
“Are we, though?” Morriumur asked. “Are we really?”
I looked up, watching globes of water rise—undulating—into the air. I listened to the children of a hundred species, and their joyful noises.
“I know a lot of stories,” I said. “About warriors and soldiers from the cadamique, my people’s version of holy books.” M-Bot had been briefing me on terms from Alanik’s people that I should try to sprinkle into my conversation. “My grandmother would tell these tales to me—some of my first memories are of her voice calmly telling me about an ancient warrior standing against the odds.”
“Those days are behind us though,” Morriumur said. “In the Superiority at least. Even our training against the delvers is just a hypothetical—a plan for something that will probably never happen. All the real wars are done, so we have to plan for the maybe-halfway-implausible conflicts.”
If only they knew. I closed my eyes as water splashed down, causing children to squeal.
“Those old stories have a lot of different themes,” I said. “One, I never quite understood until I started flying. It happens in the epilogues. The stories after the stories. Warriors who have fought return home, but find they no longer belong. The battle has changed them, warped them, to the point where they are strangers. They protected the society they love, but in so doing made themselves into something that could never again belong to it.”
“That’s…depressing.”
“It is, but it isn’t, all at once. Because they may have changed, but they still won. And no matter how peaceful the society, conflict always finds it again. During those days of sorrow, it’s the aged soldier—the one who was bowed by battle—who can stand and protect the weak.
“You don’t fit in, but you’re not broken, Morriumur. You’re just different. And they’re going to need you someday. I promise it.”
I opened my eyes and looked to them, trying to give the dione version of a smile—with lips pressed tight.
“Thank you,” they said. “I hope you’re right. And yet at the same time, I hope you aren’t.”
“Welcome to the life of a soldier.” A thought struck me. A stupid one, maybe—but I had to try. “I just wish my people could help more. I’ve been invited to try out as a pilot because some parts of your government recognize that they need us. I think my people could be your people’s warriors.”
“Maybe,” Morriumur said. “I don’t know that we’d want to put that burden on your people.”
“I think we’d be fine,” I said. “All we’d really need to know is…how to hyperjump. You know, so we could properly protect the galaxy.”
“Ah, I see what you’re doing, Alanik. But there’s no use. I don’t know how it works! I have no memories from either parent explaining the secret of hyperjumps. Even we aren’t told. Otherwise, hostile aliens could just kidnap us and try to get the secret.”
“That wasn’t…I mean…” I grimaced. “I guess I was kind of obvious, wasn’t I?”
“You needn’t feel bad!” Morriumur said. “I’d be worried if you didn’t want to know the secret. Just trust me, you don’t want it. Hyperjumps are dangerous. The technology is best entrusted to those who know what they’re doing.”
“Yeah. I suppose.”
We started back, and—from my limited ability to read diones—I felt like Morriumur’s mood was far improved. I should have felt likewise, but each step I took reinforced to me the stark truth I’d finally confronted.
We humans weren’t at war with an all-powerful, terrible, nefarious force of evil. We were at war with a bunch of laughing children and millions, if not billions, of regular people. And scud, I’d just talked one of their pilots into staying on the job.
This place was doing strange things to my emotions and my sense of duty.
“I’m glad you’re in our flight, Alanik,” Morriumur told me as we stepped up to the embassy. “I think you might have the right amount of aggression. I can learn from you.”
“Don’t be so sure,” I said. “I might be more aggressive than you think. I mean, my people did live with the humans for many years.”
“Humans can’t be happy though,” Morriumur said. “They don’t understand the concept—even Brade indicates this is true, if you listen to her. Without proper training, humans are just mindless killing machines. You are so much more. You fight when you need to, but enjoy floating bursts of water when you don’t! If I prove myself to my family, it will be because I show them that I can be like you.”
I suppressed a sigh, opening the door. Doomslug sat on the ledge just inside, impatient for my return. Scud. Hopefully Morriumur wouldn’t—
“What is that?” Morriumur demanded. They were baring their teeth in a strange look of aggression and hatred.
I stepped inside. “Um…it’s my pet slug. Nothing to worry about.”
Morriumur pushed into the door in a very forward manner, making me scoop up Doomslug and cradle her, backing away. Morriumur closed the door most of the way, then peeked back out the crack. They spun on me. “Did you get permission to bring a venomous animal into Starsight? Do you have a license?”
“No…,” I said. “I mean, I didn’t ask.”
“You need to destroy the thing!” Morriumur said. “That’s a taynix. They’re deadly.”
I looked down at Doomslug, who fluted questioningly.
“It’s not a taynix,” I promised. “Different species entirely. They just look similar. I hold her all the time, and nothing has happened to me.”
Morriumur grimaced again. Looking at me holding Doomslug protectively, however, they pushed their lips back to a line. “Just…just don’t show it to anyone else, all right? You could get into serious trouble. Even if it’s not a taynix.” They stepped back out the door. “Thank you for being a friend, Alanik. If I should end up being born with a different personality…well, I like the idea of having known you first.”
I locked the door after they left. “You shouldn’t come down here,” I scolded Doomslug. “Honestly, how did you even get down all those steps?” I carried her back up to my room, where I put her on the bed, then closed that door and locked it too—for no good reason.
“Spensa?” M-Bot said. “You’re back! What happened? What did they want?”
I shook my head and sat down by the window, looking out at all those people. I’d been so determined to see them as my enemies. It had kept me focused. For some reason though, I found the idea that they were indifferent to be even more frightening.
“Spensa?” M-Bot finally said again. “Spensa, you should see this.”
I frowned, turning toward the monitor on the wall. M-Bot switched it to a news station.
It showed an image of Detritus from space, with a caption underneath. Human scourge close to escaping its prison.
It was Detritus. The planet’s enormous metal layers spun around it slowly in the void, lit by a sun I’d rarely seen. My breath caught. The screen scrolled news feeds across the bottom, but a dione was doing a voice-over as well. My pin translated their words.
“These stunning shots were smuggled back from an anonymous worker who claims to have been stationed at the human preserve for some time now.”
The image cut to a close-up of Defiant starfighter
s engaged in a dogfight with Krell drones. Flashing destructors lit up the void near the ever-watchful defense platforms.
“This seems proof,” the reporter said, “that the human problem is not confined to the past, as once thought. Our anonymous source says that containment of the humans has been bungled by an increasingly lax Department of Protective Services. The source cites key problems as being poor oversight and a failure to properly deploy suppression tactics. As you can easily see from this footage, the human infestation has begun to overwhelm defenses.”
The screen cut to a shot of Winzik standing calmly behind a podium. The voice-over from the reporter continued, “Superiority Minister of Protective Services, Ohz Burtim Winzik, insists that the risk is overblown.”
“This strain of humans,” said Winzik, “remains fully contained. We have no evidence that they know how to escape their system, which is light-years from any other inhabited planet. The administration is working carefully to eliminate any danger these humans pose, but we assure you, the threat has been greatly exaggerated by the press.”
I walked up to the screen, stumbling over some boxes, unable to tear my eyes away from the video of another set of dogfighting ships. Was that me? Yes, from the fight I’d engaged in right before saving Alanik’s ship from crashing.
“This news has started popping up on all the channels,” M-Bot said. “It seems that one of the varvax who worked on the space station took secret videos over the last few months, then came to Starsight and leaked them.”
“Leaked them?” I said. “How does that work? Can’t the government just stop the news programs from playing this video? They suppress any mention of how hyperdrives work.”
“It gets complicated,” M-Bot said. “I believe that the government could exile the person who took this video—but they can’t legally do anything about the stations that are now showing it. At least, not without specific actions that have to pass through their senate first.”
How odd. I narrowed my eyes as Winzik came on the screen again. Cuna had told me about this. The Department of Protective Services tended to use flare-ups of human rebellion as a way of securing funds. Was that what they were doing here?
It seemed these images were making everyone question Winzik and his department though. Perhaps this leak really was an accident.
I leaned forward as the screen swapped to an image of a seated Krell with a light pink exoskeleton. M-Bot read the banner at the bottom, which named them: “Sssizme, Human Species Expert.”
“This administration has always been too lenient with dangerous species,” the expert said, waving their hands in the animated way of the Krell. “This infestation of humans is a bomb waiting to explode, and the fuse was lit the moment the Third Human War ended and human refuges were created. The government has worked hard to pretend that containment is absolute, but the truth is now leaking.”
“Excuse me if I’m wrong,” an interviewer said from off-screen, “but weren’t we forced to preserve the humans? Because of mandated conservation of cultures and societies?”
“An outdated law,” the expert said. “The need to preserve the cultures of dangerous species must be balanced against the need to protect the peaceful species of the Superiority.” The crablike Krell waved to the side, and the camera zoomed out, showing a young human man sitting at a table. He remained in place, saying nothing, as the expert continued.
“You can see here a licensed and monitored human. Though many people are frightened of their fearsome reputation, in truth humans are no more dangerous than the average lesser species. They are aggressive, yes, but not on the level of, say, a cormax drone or the wrexians.
“The danger of humans comes from their unusual mix of attributes—including the fact that their physiology creates a large number of cytonics. Normally, by the time a species has cultivated cytonics and early hyperdrive capacity, they have also found their way to a peaceful society. Humans are aggressive, industrious, and—most importantly—quick to spread, capable of surviving in extreme environments. This is a deadly combination.”
“So,” the interviewer said, “how do you think this infestation should be dealt with?”
“Exterminate it,” the expert said.
The camera cut to a shot of the interviewer, a dione who—best I could judge—looked utterly horrified by the idea. “Barbaric!” they exclaimed, standing up. “How could you even suggest such a thing?”
“It would be barbaric,” the expert said calmly, “if we were talking about a race of intelligent beings. But the humans of this particular planet…they’re more insects than people. It is obvious that the Detritus refuge has failed in its purpose, and for the good of all the galaxy, it must be cleansed.”
The expert gestured to the human beside him. “Besides, this man is proof that the human species will not end if we destroy one rogue planet. Humans can coexist with the Superiority, but they must not be allowed to self-govern. It was foolish to attempt to keep Detritus.
“And for the record, I don’t accept the excuses that the administration gives for why the humans were allowed access to technology in the first place. This talk of keeping them focused by providing space battles to engage them? Nonsense. The administration is making excuses to cover up an uncontrolled explosion of human aggression that began some ten years ago. High Minister Ved should have listened to the advice of experts such as myself, and dealt with the humans more harshly.”
I sank down into the seat as the report returned to playing the recorded dogfights. I’d lived my entire life knowing that the Krell were trying to exterminate us, but to hear someone speak of us this way…so dispassionately…At my request, M-Bot changed the station to another, which had a panel of experts talking. Another channel showed the same footage.
The more I watched, the more small I felt. The way these newspeople spoke…stole something precious from me. It reduced my entire people—our heroism, our deaths, our struggles—to an outbreak of pests. I walked to the window again.
No chaos in the streets. People streaming in and out of their shops, going about their lives. Oddly, even as I found it difficult to summon my hatred for them, I did feel a growing hatred for the government that ruled them. The government hadn’t just killed my father; now they made him out to be some insect to be swatted.
Tiny, a part of me thought, looking out at the people flowing on those streets. All so tiny.
The Superiority thought they were so grand? They too were just insects. Biting bugs. An itching noise that needed to be silenced. Why were these pests snapping at me? It would take barely a thought to smother them all, and…
And what was I thinking? I lurched back from the window, feeling sick. I felt the eyes watching me all around, and somehow understood them. Those thoughts about insects were their thoughts.
I…Something was happening to me. Something related to the delvers, the nowhere, and my abilities. M-Bot worried he was the shadow. But he had no idea.
I looked at the desk where I’d been working. There sat the casing, perhaps as large as a human head, where I’d attached the three components I’d taken out of M-Bot. I seized it and stomped out of my room, leaving Doomslug to trill questioningly after me.
I climbed onto the roof, then crawled under the tarp that hid M-Bot. The drone lay where I’d left it, sitting on my seat in his cockpit, attached to the console by wires.
“How much longer?” I asked him. “Until you’re done programming it?”
“I’m finished,” M-Bot said. “I was done not long after you left the house with Morriumur. I would like a day to run it through diagnostic tests.”
“No time,” I said. “Show me how to hook this piece I built onto the bottom.”
He popped a set of instructions up on his monitor, and I worked quietly, affixing wires and screwing my makeshift sensor bundle onto the bottom of the reprogrammed drone.
“I am monitoring eighty different Superiority channels,” M-Bot noted. “Many of them are talking about Detritus.”
I kept working.
“Most of the people talking on these shows are angry, Spensa,” he said. “They’re making an outcry for stronger measures to be used against your people.”
“What stronger measures could they make than parking a fleet of battleships on our doorstep?” I asked.
“I’m running simulations, and none of the outcomes are good.” M-Bot paused. “Your people need hyperdrives. The only way to escape such an overwhelming force is to run.”
I held up the drone, then activated it. The two small acclivity rings began to glow with a deep blue color underneath the wings, holding the thing in the air somewhat precariously, with the large sensor module attached to the bottom.
“Drone?” I asked. “Are you awake?”
“Integrated AI install successful,” the drone said in a monotone voice.
“How are you feeling?”
“I do not understand how to answer that question,” it said.
“It’s not alive,” M-Bot said. “Or…well, it’s not whatever…I am.”
“Drone,” I said. “Engage active camouflage.”
It vanished—projecting a hologram onto its exterior that made it look like I was seeing through it. That, plus the sensor scrambler, should hide it from all but the most dedicated scan.
“Active camouflage has weaknesses,” M-Bot noted. “It’s impossible to properly make something invisible from all angles using this kind of technology. Look at it from the side, then have it move.”
I twisted around, and he was right. From the side, the invisibility wasn’t nearly as convincing—there was a ripple in the air marking where the drone was. When it moved, the ripple was more noticeable.
“Our best chance of having it remain unseen is for it to hover up high where nobody will accidentally run into it,” M-Bot said. “Then we have it move slowly, with orders to freeze if anyone looks directly at it. If only one person is glancing at it, the drone can adapt to their perspective and remain hidden. The more people looking at it from different angles, the worse it will stand out.”
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