Synth

TO and DH were later than normal in getting to Flit and Snout’s room for lunch, and they fully expected to see the two older Chilacians there with Avery. Their surprise when they saw Flit, Snout, and four meals waiting for them but no Avery.

“Avery brought the food earlier, but then said they had to go back to the kitchens.” Snout said when they saw TO’s confused expression. “I wanted them to stay with us, but-”

“We should go see them.” TO said, already turning around to leave and head to the kitchens.

“They said they were busy, and they weren’t lying.” Flit said. “I mean, we do only have a single day left. Any food that they don’t have prepped today won’t be able to go with us.”

“As for you two… Sit.” Snout said, gesturing to the table. “Avery is spending their time in a kitchen, surrounded by food and drinks. The two of you aren’t, so I want to make sure you’re both eating properly.”

“You don’t have to worry about that with me.” DH said as they pulled TO away from the door and brought them to the table.

“I’ve been eating just fine since I got here!” TO insisted. Still, they allowed their mate to pull them to a chair. They sighed as they sat and opened up the small contained before them; Cocopods again, obviously. This time, Lake had wrapped the bugs up in a sheet that looked oddly like the same material they made the edible plates with back in training. “Did you come up with any other ideas?” TO asked, “We have Noss now, so maybe he opens some additional avenues?”

“We hoped so.” Flit said as they looked over their files on the tablet. “And if we left Arkane before Gyrini showed up, maybe his defection would help us.”

“But… It doesn't now that she’s here?” TO asked.

“It helps us get off the planet, maybe.” Flit said, “Which is good, yes, but it doesn’t help much with stopping an attack. With the Minister of Security for this quadrant of the galaxy on the planet, Noss’ position becomes mostly ceremonial.” They sighed. “It’s a shame. I had hoped that he’d have something to buy us more time to get away from the planet.”

“What do you mean?” TO asked, “The synths will be here tomorrow, so we can’t stay!”

Flit shook their head, “That’s not what I meant.” They said, “I want more time to get out of the planet's orbit. If we could take things more slowly, we might tether Avery’s ship and split up all the passengers between the two.”

TO felt their ears flatten as Flit mentioned that. If they could tether the ship and tow it, moving people between the two would solve a lot of problems with overcrowding. Even the meal cubes in Avery’s ship would be useful. “If I had thought of that earlier, maybe we could have figured something out.” TO muttered.

“You don’t have to think of everything yourself.” Flit said, “You, DH, Avery, you’ve all been busy, and all had a lot going on. It’s ok to let us think of things.”

“Also,” Snout added, “We thought of Avery’s ship a while ago, but couldn’t think of a way to grab it without opening us up to attack. If we could ensure that our ship was safe for longer in Arkane’s airspace we could try it.”

“Landing the thing would have worked, but with the lockdown in place we can’t even do that.” Flit said. They made an irritated sound in the back of their throat, a mix between a growl and a series of clicks, “If I had thought of that before the lockdown-”

Snout sighed and shook their head before looking at DH, “It’s good to know that TO does that too.” They said.

“What do I do?” TO asked, looking up from the wrap. It was a little big, and they were trying to figure out how to eat it without dismantling it.

“The thing where you act like everything is your responsibility.” DH said, not even looking up from their own meal, “And you beat yourself up when you can’t do everything.”

Flit gave an irritated growl in response, while TO only focused more intently on their food. After a moment, TO cleared their voice. “So… Noss can’t help us with stopping a likely attack, right?”

“Not that I can tell.” Flit said, “He has limited access now. He can send out Galactic alerts, and he has some insight that will ensure we get off the planet, but not much else.”

“Wait, what Galactic alerts?” DH asked.

“Just what it sounds like; an alert that sounds to the whole galaxy..” Snout said, “with an extermination level event, or when it’s clear that the planet is under a threat it cannot survive, certain higher-level members of government can send out a Galactic Alert. The person gives their identity, the name of the planet, and whatever information they can about the disaster that’s happening.”

“I’ve never seen one of those before.” DH said, “Are they common?”

“Only one has been triggered in the last hundred Galactic years.” TO said, “An unstable stellar black hole consumed a planet, and they could get an alert out fast enough and provided enough information that we, i mean, the synths, could stabilize it.” TO said, “It’s interesting, really. It was too small to use for wormhole creation, but even today they’re studying it and trying to learn how to turn it into an alternative source of energy.”

“Basically, that’s it.” Flit said, “I’ve been told it was much more common in the early days of Galactic unification, back when there was still a lot of interplanetary warfare and smaller would-be dictators seeking to overpower King Decon. Today, it’s almost a relic, but the system is still maintained just in case some cosmic disaster happens. Of course, we’re getting very good at detecting most things.”

“There’s still stuff we don’t know.” TO said. “There’s the Korolo disaster.”

It surprised TO to see everyone looking at them with blank faces. They frowned, their ears twitching forward, “What?” They’d asked, “Did I say it wrong?” Their ears warmed, “I never heard the planet’s name spoken before, so-“

“Maybe?” Flit said frowning, “What was it, the Korolo disaster?”

TO shrugged, “You know, you must. It happened over three-hundred years ago, I think. They send out a Galactic alert but the primary language on that planet was a strange one. Nobody could translate it, and afterwards all communication to the planet stopped. When people went to investigate, the planet was just gone; no debris or anything left!” They looked at Flit and Snout, waiting for some sign that they knew what TO was talking about, but they never got it. “I… I know I read it.”

“It’s an event that happened over three hundred years ago, with no military significance.” Flit said, “I wouldn’t have learned about it, and I don’t normally spend my time reading up on old history.”

A wry smile accompanied a flick of Snout’s ears, “I have a lot more intellectual curiosity than Flit does.” They said, “But… it’s mostly in the medical field, so that’s not something I’d have heard of before either.”

“It’s true though.” TO said, “I can look it up-“

“No no, we believe you.” Snout said, “We just didn’t know that one.”

“Why wasn’t the language translated?” DH asked, frowning, “Wasn’t the translation system working back then?”

“Well, it was, but it’s not applied to the emergency system.” TO said, “And the language was unique to the primary species on that planet. When the planet was destroyed, the database that held that language was also destroyed, so it was effectively wiped out from the translation system. Now every language has a backup on several other planets, so if that happens again-“

“But why wasn’t the translation applied to the emergency system?” DH asked.

“It’s a safety measure.” TO said, “Translating the information takes time, and with such a system it’s more important for the information to get out into the galaxy as soon as possible. If you have only minutes to send a message, every second counts and processing time could cost valuable seconds. If the planet is destroyed while the message is still being processed, it simply won’t go out. So, it goes out into the world untranslated, and people have to run a translation filter on it afterwards.”

“But that wouldn’t give anyone enough time to help the planet-“

“It’s not about helping the planet.” Flit said, “It’s about warning others, and hopefully stopping the threat from destroying any other planets.”

“So… Even if we used that to call for help, it wouldn’t work.” DH said.

“It wouldn’t.” Flit said, “We considered maybe using it anyway, to warn others that this could happen to them, and show what King Decon is really like… but he’d call it insurgent propaganda.”

“Well, we can still think about it.” TO insisted. “We can still think about it, and maybe I’ll think of something.” They flushed as they remembered the comment that Snout made earlier, “Or, maybe one of you will. Or Avery.I don’t know. But we still have time. When we meet for supper we can-“

“No.” Flit said suddenly. The three of them all turned to look at them.

“No?” Snout asked, “You’re giving up? That’s not like you-“

“I’m not giving up.” Flit said. “But… we have one more day. Tomorrow, we either get off this planet… or we don’t.” They looked down at their meal, their ears flushing a little “And… If we don’t get off the planet, or if something goes wrong, I don’t want to spend what little time we have beating our heads against the wall over a problem I doubt we can solve.” They fell quiet for a moment, then looked up at DH and TO. “Spend your supper together. Spend all your free time together and spend tonight with Avery. Try to relax. Try to do something fun.” Their ears flushed deeper, “Just… try to make today special. Just in case.”

It didn’t occur to TO before that maybe they weren’t the only one thinking that this may not work, that they may fail, and that these days may be their last. Somehow, hearing Flit say it made them feel better somehow, and hearing them say that they should take the time to rest, to enjoy the company of their mate and family seemed to loosen the pressure on them.

“… Alright.” They said, looking at their food. A moment later, they looked up and looked at Flit. “Then, if that’s the case, I have a question.”

“Go ahead.” Flit said.

“Before I go back to work…. Can I play a strategy game against you?”

Flit blinked, surprised, then chuckled and shook their head. “What, you think you’ll beat me?”

“I think I can, at any rate.” TO said.

Flit shook their head again before glancing at Snout, “Look at this; the arrogance of youth.” they chuckled, then nodded at TO, “Sure, and I’ll even let you choose the game.”