Earth Space Union's Alien Asset Files: #1 - Private Capal

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The mind-numbing hours of work, testing negative energy weapon concepts right alongside Mikri's network, blended together as a few weeks passed since my arrival on Earth. The war on Suam had rapidly deteriorated, with Preston's visions featuring the Fakra being swarmed by the Elusians; the Empire had technology that was leagues above the most radical inventions Velke had at his disposal. I tried to look for answers in replicating what I saw them dig out of storage, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. It was no wonder nobody trifled with the Elusians—those who did weren't long for this world.

Not even literal machines can crack the codes of the Elusian weaponry, let alone improve on it into…something that can kill them all across thousands of portals and multiple dimensions. The scale of that operation: assuming I had magic kill dust to sprinkle on their heads, I don't know how we have the manpower to deploy it.

Mikri placed an empathetic paw on my back, as I reviewed his simulations of a negative energy coil and its potential interactions with organic matter. "You are working yourself too hard, Capal. You will produce suboptimal results in this state. I know that this is a great pressure to have placed upon you, and I hope that you can trust my people to share the burden. You are not alone in this fight."

"How can you be so calm and rational about this?" I snapped. "Do you understand what happens to Preston and Sofia if we don't figure this out?"

The android went very quiet, before tilting his head downward toward the floor. "Yes, and I will blame myself with every cycle of my processor for as long as I live, if I fail them. I know they would not wish for that, and that it is an illogical conclusion, but I feel responsible for their safety. I have always worried about their organic fragility. However, I will not fall into hopelessness while they are still here and relying on me. The future does not matter yet."

"I'm sorry. I…shouldn't have brought that up, buddy. Look, they have precog of things that haven't happened yet, so…no need to panic yet. There must still be time, somehow, if we figure it out. Give me whatever the network's got."

"We are looking into the gamma-ray lasers, or grasers, that are the humans' frontrunner for something to add to their ships. These are highly fatal to organic matter due to their radiation and DNA damage, so this is the best proposition that I can offer at the moment. Its lethality…could take down Elusians, but…"

"They'd be absorbed by any dense materials, Mikri! And it doesn't wipe them all out in one fell swoop. We can't be everywhere."

The android beeped in agreement. "The obvious solution is to target their nanobots, since those are everywhere. However, those are far beyond my incredible hacking abilities. The Elusians are not foolish; they've taken so many precautions against any kind of cyberattack, that it is inconceivable with our capabilities. The network has ruled out the notion, even if you organics poke around at it."

"Do the Derandi and the Girret have…any kind of out-of-the-box thinking?"

"They both have suggested biological weapons, but getting those to circumvent nanobots' immune functions seems unlikely. I am afraid none of us could arrive at a passable solution. Perhaps we should get Corai to help."

"Corai isn't going to help us render her entire species extinct. That's not a suggestion."

"Perhaps we should make her help. We need insight that we do not have."

I gawked at the machine. "After seeing what Larimak did to Preston, you'd torture the woman he loves for information, just like your people always have with prisoners of war? You can't hate her for being his girlfriend that much! We're more civilized than that, or your memory wipe suggestion for Ficrae."

"Capal, I would not hurt Corai. I am suggesting that we utilize the memorywalk technology to convince her that she is elsewhere, if that is possible, and to procure information in a scenario where she is tricked into providing it. She is protecting our enemies—the cruel creators—over Preston and Sofia, which overrides any ethical constraints I may have considered."

"Ethics have to be applied to everyone, not with justified exceptions. Corai hasn't done anything to deserve that."

"Her and Preston spend lots of time alone and engage in vigorous activities, without me. I cannot even inquire about the details. He will not talk to me about the part of his life that is with Corai, walling off that side of himself even from observation."

"Mikri!" I screamed, glowering at the robot. "Are you fucking daft? First off, I don't want to know, and secondly, that's not a subject that all organics wish to discuss at leisure—in fact, it's not socially acceptable to get into the play-by-play. Stop being nosy and learn to respect boundaries. You don't have to know everything he does, because he's not some Servitor that's obligated to tell you whatever you want."

Mikri pouted. "He's not obligated, but he should want to discuss important things with his best friend. There is nothing I consider off-limits from him."

"Would you tell Preston that you wanted to use some creepy simulation shit and brainwash his girlfriend into helping you genocide her people?!"

"No."

"So there's things you don't want to talk about either."

"…because he would stop me from executing my plan, and be angry about it."

I raised my paws to throttle the machine, before dropping them back to my side. "We are not kidnapping Corai. End of discussion."

"Meanie. You suck balls, Capal."

"Yeah. I know. Thanks for the pep talk. Let's just tinker with this negative energy stuff like normal people, after we take a break. All of the time we spent looking at this doesn't help the brainstorming process, clearly."

Mikri trailed a paw across the lab counter as he walked away, knocking clipboards and measuring instruments to the floor like a petulant child. I flared my nostrils in irritation, and flopped down in a chair for a quick rest. I didn't even have the energy to walk out of the lab, just falling against a table in a haphazard manner to take a nap. My much-needed rest was ended an indiscriminate time later, as an erratic Fakra arrived making all sorts of noise and jostling my chair. I blinked my eyes open, raising my paws over my head and trying to shake off grogginess.

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How long was I…it doesn't matter. Velke's on the warpath, and I'm tired of him demanding progress reports and prodding me! I'm not cattle to be stuck with an electric rod by one person or another.

"Where the fuck is this weapon, Capal? You've gotten nothing done. We need it now!" Velke spat, as he warped in right behind me. "There's no more time for your dawdling."

I buried my claws in my mane. "All I have are ideas for negative energy weapons, but…they wouldn't do a thing against the Elusians, and that's the problem with them. You've given me zero direction, and yet you think you can rush science with threats? Are you another thug like Jakov who doesn't understand?! Even with a thousand mes and literal years to ponder this, I don't see how we can touch them!"

"I understand perfectly, but we need to do something. The Fakra have been holding the line in the name of your vain promise. Our forces can't buy you any more minutes, let alone years. I've had to order our retreat."

"I've barely had time to get set-up, Velke! If it was that simple or possible to obliterate them, the Fakra would've done it; you're way more advanced than us. You shouldn't have picked a fight with the Elusians! How did you think you were going to win?"

The Fakra's eyes narrowed to slits. "I believed in their destiny. If you can't deliver, then Takahashi's soldiers have to be ready. The humans will join us, because we need whatever edge they can give us to hold the Elusians back."

"What good will that do? You want to send us to get slaughtered! What hope do they have when you were disposed of so handily? It serves the Fakra's cause, somehow, for us to be massacred right along with you. You're just like your creators, not caring about our lives one iota."

Velke huffed with force. "I do care about your lives, but much like their General Takahashi, I care about ours and our survival first. We have to win—and must I remind you, they would've wiped out Earth?"

"Marshal, it doesn't help your survival to sentence the humans to their deaths. There's nothing that can be done; the robot told you the probability is zero, unless you factor in this prophecy that's clearly led us all astray. The ESU, my team…we have nothing that can tip the balance, and not for a lack of trying. Sending them to a lost cause won't save the Fakra from whatever rewards you reap."

"The Elusians are pooling their resources. They'll come for Ahnar and Earth. Sol will pay for returning to Caelum and a thousand other acts of defiance with or without my interference. Takahashi will send her soldiers to keep them on the defensive a little longer, and your team needs to give us a fighting chance. Anything, no matter how slim the chance of it working is!"

"I…"

"If you can't put a weapon in my hands right now, then you should be the one to pass that message along to Takahashi. Tell her we're moving out by the end of day. You might as well be of some use."

I flinched. "I'm no tool."

"No, you're not. Tools serve a function, and your 'contributions' are far too abstract for that. You really should've been a middling professor, after all."

I refused to give the Fakra the satisfaction of a reaction, standing and striding off to find Takahashi; Velke warped back to his ship to dimension hop and check on his forces. Humanity needed to receive the warning, since I didn't count on their "brothers" not to lash out if I failed to pass it along. The Marshal had gained a cruel, vindictive edge as his people stared down the abyss of defeat, knowing the Elusians didn't care about any of the lives on Ahnar. We had nothing to do with the choices he made or the impossible task he'd given to us. His trigger-happy stunt was going to spell all of our dooms…if the Elusians weren't already prepping an attack.

How does it look to the Justiciary, when they show up to Earth to find us working toward a mysterious weapon that they know is destined to wipe them out? Humanity could be staring down permanent consequences, as they put it at the Space Gate. Perhaps it's a good thing we hurried the multi-species Caelum colony off the ground, like an ark.

"Marshal Velke's not asking about you sending foot soldiers anymore," I interrupted a meeting, not bothering to knock or pay any attention to the guards. Preston snapped his head around, and from what I could tell, he'd been recounting the specifics of the situation on Suam. "The Fakra have to fall back, but I take it you already know."

Preston nodded, his features unusually serious. "Yep. We heard what Velke said to you—what a dick, might I add. You solved crossing portals in a cage, while the Fakra never did, so maybe throw that in his face."

"Agitating them is a horrible idea," Takahashi sighed. "Despite your insistence on doing it at every opportunity."

"What can I say? But yeah, I saw the Elusians pooling their resources for some kind of preemptive strike, so they're getting ready to go on the offensive. The Fakra haven't stood a chance, with the ones still alive on the surface getting overrun. Velke is talking about rallying a last stand at Ahnar, and using us as a distraction to split their forces. I almost feel bad for him, because even if it's smart, he'll never surrender and fall at their feet."

"Then maybe we should. They can see that we were coerced through our memories. Let's take our soldiers to Suam like Velke wants, then…try to parlay with the Elusians, behind their back. We can do it all in mental communiques, so the Fakra that'll supervise us never hear a thing."

"The Elusians blame us for their future disappearance! I'd love to rewrite destiny to…turn from this path, where everyone survives happily ever after, but is it even possible at this point? I'm not sure they think there's anything left to talk about."

I buried my head in my paws. "It's worth a shot. I don't have a better plan than begging for their mercy. They're so far beyond us, and surely, they can see that humanity didn't want this. Maybe they could freeze your planetary activity and reevaluate, or…."

"Or?"

"I don't know, Preston. They're just so far beyond us. Velke's right on one thing. If the preemptive strike got here first, there's fuck all we can do. I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Takahashi sighed. "It's not your fault that you can't kill our gods in a month, Capal. No one really expected you to—that so-called prophecy's a load of crap. More trouble than it's worth."

Preston knitted his eyebrows together. "There must be some part of it we haven't seen or figured out yet. We just need more time for it to click, or for me to have a clearer vision. Look, Velke might be rushing us, but that gives us a time to start evacuating. We can move our projects off Earth, before the Elusians get a chance to hit us, so if they don't want to parlay, they're striking at ghosts."

"That might be the only good idea you've ever had, Carter. If the Fakra get wind of our disobedience, they're going to be holding Earth at gunpoint. Maybe we sneak some civvies off-world under the guise of transporting troops, or try some open evacuations to Caelum. They won't let us get everyone, but we can't sit around waiting to die."

"I agree. I'll get the network started retrofitting your ships with the best technology we've guessed at so far. It's not the Elusian killer or anything, but hopefully, it'll let you hang around in a fight if it comes to that. Like Mikri said, there's still time."

Alarms blared before the sentence finished leaving my lips, like some cosmic joke of the universe. I jolted in alarm, hoping Preston's farsight would give him an idea of what was going on. Were the Fakra out of patience and holding Earth hostage, so that we'd send our soldiers right now? Instead of the goofball captain, it was the ESU general who pulled up a security feed; a lining of tears glossed over her eyeballs, as she recognized who the massive armada surrounding her homeworld belonged to. The silver, oblong vessels glittered against the sunlight and rearranged their disc-like surfaces.

"Is there? Oh Capal." Takahashi barked a bitter laugh, while Preston slumped in his chair, frozen with horror. "Why did you have to say that?"

My mouth opened to respond, but much like Preston, I found myself devoid of any words to say. The Elusians had come after their would-be destroyers before humanity had a chance to execute any desperate maneuver, and now, we were powerless to stop them from removing the threat from existence.

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