Velke's blocky face had a rigid expression, though that was the Fakra's natural state with a mouth shape reminiscent of a snapping turtle. He pressed bony fingers to his chin, a gesture I figured his species might've learned from the Elusians. I'd given him a bit of a slowburn, telling him the full story of our escapade from the beginning; everything that had happened since Mikri encountered us, from the contest with Larimak to our balderdash method of getting negative energy, was spelled out. I waited to hear what he'd say about those events, before moving onto Corai.

The Fakra's demonic red eyes were filled with disbelief. "You're telling me that you can punch through tanks with your bare hands?"

"Yep," I answered helpfully.

Commander Velke scoffed, before unloading his bulky gun and handing it to me. "Then break this. Right now."

"You sure man? You might want to check with the budgeting committee—"

"I'm certain. Do it."

"Alright then." I shrugged, before disintegrating the gun with one hand, just by tightening my fist. I let the splinters from the center of the weapon fall to the table, as a slack-jawed Velke stared at the two separated halves that were reclaimed by gravity. "Is that broken enough?"

Mikri offered a jubilant beep, then moved closer to the Fakra while holding a piece of his obliterated gun. "Boom! In your face."

"Hmph. Is it your custom, robot, to rub your superiorities in other people's faces? If so, you're here to do exactly what I feared," Velke spat.

"We are so sorry," Sofia jumped in. "Preston taught him how to mess around and banter, but Mikri tends to carry that over to the wrong scenarios as well as the right ones. His impish behavior is intended as…playfulness."

I did a slashing gesture at my throat, trying very hard not to smirk. "I may or may not have done that to him every time he lost a game. This is absolutely not a game, Mikri; no gloating. Sorry, Velke, I just wanted you to know our full story."

The Fakra raised a skeletal finger. "No, no. Let the robot speak for himself. Am I a joke to you?"

"In so much as I'm a joke to myself," Mikri said, taking on a meek tone. "I thought humor made organics feel better in tense moments. I know what it is to not fulfill your creators' purpose and to be punished for it. No one helped you, as no one helped us. That changes today."

"Does it? It sounds as if you want us to help you, and your only promise of how you could be useful is they 'believe' you're destined to kill them! Which, by the way, you haven't explained at all: in the sense of what they know or how you know. All the broken guns in the world don't back it up to me. You know why?"

"I have a feeling you're going to tell us," I sighed.

Velke leaned forward against the table, red eyes shimmering with intensity. "I see a species who would be annihilated the second they catch you trifling with them. The crude technology on your ship is nothing compared to us, and we're only a shadow of their remembered power. Yet I see raisers on your wrists that you didn't make, and the dead giveaway, Preston…"

"Finding The Gap portal? You were, uh, clearly waiting."

"No. You said you'd never call us a failed experiment, implying you know who does. The Elusians had to tell you about us, to the point where they gave you the way into our dimension. You know far too much! The fact you're still roaming about with their technology, after the part where they stopped your test at The Tunnel and threatened to lock you up, says everything. What bargain did you strike with them?!"

Sofia shot me a blistering look, raising her hands cautiously. "We were sedated on our ship by an Elusian scientist who wanted to run…tests on our precog. Commander, a group of rogue Elusian scientists warped us away with a portal and have been hiding us while we try to regroup. That's how we know about their past exploits."

"And we had to take their help!" I interjected, gritting my teeth with frustration. "As far as I know, we're the last humans outside of Sol. I didn't have time to care why a few thousand of the creators grew a conscience. Where else could we turn? All those Caelum friends, like you said…their tech is below ours, which is below yours, which is below the Elusians' doodads."

Velke's eyes were steely, piercing right through me. "This is their idea. Yes, I see…too cowardly to face us themselves. Have the decency to look me in the eyes and tell me. What do they want?"

Sofia cleared her throat nervously. "These Elusians can't stand up to their government on their own. They said you'd never work with them, but as an interdimensional power that they know about, you're the best shot for someone who could help us. They hoped you might join their efforts to liberate Sol."

"That's not quite it," I growled. "They said you could contact Sol under the radar because the Elusians don't care how many portals you open: they'll always ignore you, and they'll always not care."

"You tell me this and then expect us to help, to still work with them." The Fakra paced back and forth, eyes upturned to the ceiling. "It's not a glowing sales pitch, Captain Carter."

"No, but it's an honest one. I don't trust them. We're all just different types of toys to them. Together, we stand a better chance of defending ourselves and drafting a plan. We have to bide our time and play the long game. What's the easiest way for the Fakra to get Elusian tech? I'm playing nice to get a lot more than shiny wristbands, and I think you should join in on that action too."

Velke snapped his head toward me. "You speak as though you want to fulfill humanity's so-called destiny, Preston. I hear it in your voice: hate. A man can't fake true hatred burning in his belly, and that—that's interesting. I could fill volumes with tales of that little emotion from this dusty old planet we call Ahnar. Since you've shared yours in earnest, would you like to hear my full story?"

"Very much so." Sofia didn't hesitate, smiling at the Fakra. "Even after everything that's happened, I still love learning about new customs and peoples among the stars. I sincerely hope we can connect."

The alien pulled up a chair across the table from us, and sat back with his left leg slung across the opposite knee. Velke had a stern demeanor that reminded me of my own superior officers, back in Space Force boot camp. He hadn't switched over to anger, but his voice was charged with just enough of an undercurrent that I knew it was there if we pushed him. The Fakra's swift deduction that Elusians were backing us had impressed me; moving this conversation to a private venue was probably smart.

I can't tell whether Velke wants to help us, or whether he even has any real authority to make that call. He could just be gathering intel for the higher-ups, whatever the Fakra government looks like. Shit, we really know nothing about them.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Do you believe in destiny?" Mikri blurted to Velke. The robot still seemed quite taken with trepidation over a locked future, especially when the outcome in question was negative. "I have insufficient data to determine the degree to which we can avoid what is foreseen."

The Fakra gave a gruff chuckle. "Fuck, I'm not a scientist. That's a question for your doctor friend; I can read people, not divination and mystical signs. The supernatural has never been a real factor in our society. We knew who created everything, and that they bleed. And that: that means they can be killed. If that vision is true, I wouldn't show them the kindness of avoiding it."

"Do not worry. I have no intention of showing mercy to any Elusians who attempted to capture and banish Preston and Sofia. We can feast on their entrails together."

"Mikri!" Sofia scoffed. "Genuinely, who taught you to talk like this?"

"Jetti."

I slapped my knee, cackling. "Well, that checks out. I bet someone threatened Hirri and she went all medieval torture on everyone standing within pecking range. Nah really, Velke, the psycho tin can has more hate in one claw than I could muster in my whole body. You might wanna stay on his good side."

"Yes. Trust me, you want to activate my 'friendship' subroutine," Mikri warned darkly. "I await delivery of your story, Commander."

The Fakra steepled his skeletal fingers. "The story is simple. For millions of years—countless generations upon generations—favored commanders have watched for them. We planned for several contingencies to trap a god and to strip them of what we lacked. Really, it's a small number of people in the Marshal's inner circle sitting in The Rotunda waiting for a day that never comes. So many lifetimes passed without seeing it…"

"That the Fakra thought it might never happen," Sofia finished in a sympathetic voice.

"Correct. Then, one day, that light comes on. It pops up coordinates and your entire armada has seconds to jump in and catch them. If you make the wrong decision, all of Fakrakind will languish for millions of years more—perhaps for all eternity. It had to be perfect. I took my chance, trusted in the procedures and automated processes we've refined, and reacted accordingly. This planet runs on age-old resentment. Oh, how I'd love to spite them."

I nodded in agreement. "Fuck yeah, then let's do it. Take your chance, dude. Anyone who's not helping us actively wreck their agenda is gonna get a can of whoopass and a full-on, 'Boom, in your face!'"

"They will not have a face when I am done with them," Mikri protested. "I cannot imagine what you feel like, Velke, but both you and the humans are formed from the same assembly line. Your day has come, and the people of Earth will never leave you. Believe that friendship is possible, as I once had to."

"We're willing to put in the effort, and to be understanding of all that you've been through," Sofia added, giving Mikri a look of pride after hearing him use her old plea. "The Fakra deserve a chance to prove your value, whether to spite them or just to live your life to the fullest. I'm sorry that you had to wait alone for so long."

Velke leaned back with exasperation. "That's not the point. The point is, you're not what we waited for; there's nothing we can scavenge from you. You can just intrinsically waltz through portals—do you have any idea how unhelpful that is? And a small sect of Elusians were willing to help you, like an equal, while none stood up for us. They reach out now to use us, just to save our replacements."

"Not replacements. A new product line," Mikri whirred. "If a unique series of Servitors suffered at the paws of my creators, I would not view it as an invalidation of either of our suffering instances—nor would I fault them for being born into this situation through no choice of their own. I would seek to save them from enduring our tribulations."

"How noble. Our feelings are more complicated. The humans didn't choose to be a close relative of the Elusians, I'm aware. It won't stop us from looking at them and seeing the resemblance. Jealousy ties tangled, complicated knots within the soul. We could never look in the mirror and know we're anything other than artificial!"

"You are preaching to the choir. It may have escaped your notice, but I am a robot."

"What?!" I gasped in fake shock, before returning a serious look toward Velke. "Really, my best friend is made of polycarbonate and steel. It's okay to be overtly artificial. I'm sorry that you're jealous of the more…natural species, but I hope you're never ashamed. None of that stuff truly matters."

"It's incredible, the things people can say and believe that they mean, without being honest with themselves. I noticed you flinch when you first saw us, and it doesn't escape my notice how your nervousness increases when I make eye contact. Friends and brothers, my ass. You must find us repugnant, just like the Elusians did. You'll be using us too."

I bit my lip with guilt-wracked pity, cursing my brain for its involuntary reactions to Velke; I took a new look at the Fakra, unable to imagine the self-doubts they must have about their own beauty. How on Earth was I going to convince the commander of the God's honest truth: that I was legit furious with how the Elusians acted, especially after hearing that they were disgusted with their own kids?! We hadn't come here to use these poor people, who'd been starved of compassion and friendship for ages.

I always thought we were in the same boat, so we should stick together. Our alliance could last—it could be mutual.

"The Elusians go through the portals by dying," Sofia responded, out of the blue. "That's how they got around it. They cease their brain activity with nanobots, then restart it on the other side."

Velke's eyes went wide with bewilderment. "What?"

"I'm freely giving you the information you need to address your predicament. I don't know how else to make you believe that we don't want to use you. You deserve friends, and humanity…I empathize with everything you've been through. The Fakra shouldn't languish here for another million years."

"I agree," I murmured, bowing my head in shame. "I do want us to be on the same team, Velke. My kneejerk reactions aren't indicative of how I feel at all. Humanity marched and unified just to save Mikri. I know we'd accept you, and we really would care about someone who suffered at the hands of our creators. Because fuck them."

"Figuratively," Mikri tacked on.

Velke stared at the floor, a clouded look in his eyes. "You don't know the half of it. Our society collapsed within days of them leaving, fighting over the scraps they left behind. Beyond the civilian casualties from a supply chain breakdown, we'd never fought any wars. We had no concept of restraint, with fuck you weapons in our grasp."

Sofia pursed her lips. "That must've been difficult. I'm sad to hear that our habit of fighting each other, the second things take a turn for the worst, isn't unique to us."

"Hmph, we nearly destroyed ourselves! That outcome would've been what they wanted. 99% of the population died within a year. A few roving war bands fighting over the scraps of a once great society, in the ruins of Ahnar—their word for paradise. We had to learn how to run a society, to live on our own, and to fix all of their gadgetry. The Fakra rebuilt from a virtual Stone Age with a few guns lying around to what you see today."

"It's wild how hard you persevered. You're stronger than they took you for," I said. "We'll both keep building until we're not playing catchup to them anymore. They'll be in our rearview one day."

"After all of that, the callousness they still show—it's apathy to our very lives! Working with the Elusians…"

"…is a temporary measure. A necessity for the future we both want. You can focus on working with humans. It's your choice whether you want to be apathetic to our lives, Velke, or whether you want to end this fucking cycle of abuse here."

The Fakra mulled over my words, shifting his eyes between me and the broken remnants of his gun. His species had come back from the brink of extinction, and refused to quit trying to escape after millions of years. That was why I knew that inside, we weren't that different. The Elusians were our common enemy, and a mutual breakout of the respective prisons they'd thrown us in was a good way of sticking it to them. I believed our two peoples could understand each other's predicaments.

"I'll take everything you've said to the Marshal," Velke decided. "My official advisory will be that we should aid humanity and craft a route in and out of Sol, as requested. No one should be locked up by the Elusians' decree. To say otherwise would be…hypocritical."

I grinned at Velke, ecstatic that we had swayed him over to our side. Assuming this Marshal figure would go along with his input, this was a much needed step in the right direction. With the Fakra in our corner, there was a real hope of humanity escaping Sol in the immediate future.

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