Synth

“Just go! Take off!” TO said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, “We’re already off Arkane and the engines are ready, so-“

“We would already be gone if that was an option.” Flit said. They stood before the screen, hands behind their back, their wings resting stiffly over their shoulders. “You can’t see it on the screen, but there are several combat ships around us.”

“We have weapons systems.” TO said, “A whole defensive system!”

“We had to take them down.” DH said, their ears flicking down, “We packed the weapons bay with civilians, many of them children. We had to shut it down to keep someone from firing off something accidentally, and we also had to redirect the energy from the main weapons to the filtration systems so we could keep up with the added demand of everyone in here.”

TO frowned, their ears flicking, “Why are they even stopping us? This is a synth ship!” They frowned at the screen, “I’ll tell them that-“ They reached for their chip, but frowned when they remember that it was gone. “Tell them we’re departing on urgent business and don’t have time for them to board.” TO stopped, their ears flicking down, “Wait… that won’t work. If we had urgent business, or if we had contacted any of our superior officers, then the fleet would already know.”

“Exactly.” Flit said, sighing, “They won’t have any record of orders being given to you to leave the planet, and every second we delay, they grow more suspicious.”

“We can stop them, can’t we?” GiDi said. “If we can’t escape, we can power up the weapons systems and fire at the Terraformer.” They looked from Flit to TO. “That would work, wouldn’t it?”

“...I wouldn’t try to destroy the Terraformer.” TO said, “That orb in the center is an artificial sun, controlled by the rings circling it. If we damaged the ship, the sun might grow unstable and cause massive amounts of damage.”

“And even if that was a possibility, the moment we did that, the rest of the combat and defensive ships would swarm us and destroy the ship.“ Flit said. “Everyone on board would die and it’s extremely unlikely that we’d actually destroy the Terraformer.” they huffed, “Even if we did, King Decon could send another. It would take time, but he could send another.”

TO stared at the screen as though there was a chance they’d see something, some hint that would help them escape. The more they thought about it, the more fruitless it seemed. They were outnumbered, outgunned, and had no ideas on how to escape.

DH’s communicator beeped. They checked their chip and projected a screen before them which showed a written message: You have five minutes to reply, and to permit and facilitate boarding. Failure to comply will identify you as a hostile element.

“Can you talk to them?” TO asked Flit, “Can you show them you’re a synth, and maybe that’ll convince them to let us go?”

“They’ll want to talk to us via video message.” Flit said, “And if we do that, they will question by whose orders we’re departing the planet. Also, I’d have to identify myself, and I’m supposed to be dead.” They looked to DH. “Even if you did it, you’d have to lie directly to them.”

“We could say their superior officer ordered them to leave??” GiDi said hopefully, “I mean, technically, TO is DH’s superior officer, so that would be right, and they wouldn’t be lying-“

“Even so, they’d check that.” Flit said, “If we only had to convince an individual, maybe we could get away with it… but this is an entire fleet, albeit a small one.” They shook their head, “No, that won’t work. The Communications officer would ask for names, then check for confirmation.” They looked over at TO, an apologetic tilt to their ears, “Especially where you have a history.”

“A history?” TO’s ears flicked with concern, “What do you mean-“

“You were discovered, right? You and DH?”

TO’s ears burned as they dipped down, “Right.” They said, looking down at the blanket draped over their mangled leg, “Yes… Kei saw it, and then reported us-“

“And then you were missing for over a week.” Flit said, ‘If you suddenly came back, they wouldn’t just let you go. They’d want to take you into custody and examine you. And honestly, it doesn’t matter if you could pass that examination because once they board the ship and see all the civilians, the insurgents, and three synths who are supposed to be dead after simply disappearing, well, we’d all be executed, likely within the hour.”

“What about the civilians on the ship?” Tham asked, “Not just me: everyone else. The kids, the -“

“If King Decon is going to kill every living being on the planet to save face, why do you think he’d worry about a ship full of less than one hundred civilians?”

If they complied, they’d die. If they resisted, they’d die. If they tried to escape, they’d die. The twisted maze had no solution, just dead ends and recursive corridors. They growled, slamming a fist against the bed and crying out in pain as the sudden movement caused their knee to hurt. DH wrapped their arms and wing around TO, holding them tightly and making soothing noises as TO rode out the pain.

“All this just because Decon wants to save face.” TO said.

“He needs to.” Flit said, “The ’important’ people, the planetary government and leaders, need to believe that he’s a fair, benevolent king. And again, even if we got the word out, they’d just say its insurgent lies.”

“If only we could show them.” TO hissed, tears pricking at their eyes. “If only-“

It was like the world shifted. The maze suddenly opened up, the solid walls parting and forming a direct path to the exit. Maybe they could make it, maybe they wouldn’t, but the path that opened up so suddenly before them was the only option they had. TO looked up at DH, eyes big, ears up and alert, “I have a plan.” They said. They turned to Vik, “Go get Noss and Pholi.”

“What about the fleet?” Flit asked.

“They gave us five minutes.” TO said, “That’s all we need.”

======

The next three minutes was a rush of activity, with TO directing things from where they sat on the bed, propped up by pillows and doing their best to ignore the throbbing in their knee. Before long, DH sat before the screen, which showed the scene outside, with Pholi at their side while Vik and Noss worked at something at the computer.

“TO, are you sure you can’t do this?” DH asked, their ears flicking down, “I mean… You’d be better at this, you’d know what to say-“

“No, it’s fine.” TO said, “Just be yourself and tell the truth. Follow the plan.”

“… But what if I mess it up?” DH asked as their ears lowered further, giving off a sudden, anxious twitch, “This is… This is too big!”

“I can’t do it.” TO said, “I don’t have my chip, so I can’t move in my armor.”

“What about Flit!” They turned and looked at the Retiree, who sat on DH’s bed, watching. “Flit, you’re good with words, you can-“

“I don’t have armor.” Flit said simply. “Neither does GiDi nor Snout.”

“You’ll be fine!” GiDi said, and while their ears didn’t show any kind of lie, they did possess a nervous twitch.

“If I mess up, they’re going to kill us,” DH said softly.

“If I messed up with this plan, they’ll kill us.” TO said, “If this idea doesn’t work, they’ll kill us. If we let them board our ship, they’ll kill us. If they take us in for examination, they’ll kill us.” TO looked at DH, “This is….” They paused, frowning. “This is a last resort. I don’t know if it’s going to work, but it’s better than doing nothing.”

“Even if it’s doomed to fail, it’s a slap in Decon’s face.” Flit said, “I’m happy to go down fighting in this.”

“Get ready.” Vik said as a warning flashed on their screen, “We got ten seconds.”

DH nodded, and turned to TO. Quick kisses and hugs and proclamations of love had already been exchanged between them in a rushed flurry, but even so DH now gazed at TO, their ears perking up slightly, flushing and twitching in that way that showed nothing but their pure desire and affection for TO.

“I love you.” TO said, “No matter what.”

DH nodded, their eyes brimming with tears. “I love you too,” DH whispered before activating their armor. The shiny black armor spread over their body, covering their face and ears, the black spreading over their wings as they sat rigid in the chair, looking towards the camera they had hastily set up.

“Alright.” Noss said as he rushed to the camera and checked some settings once more. “Ready? Mic’s hot in three… two… one…”

======

+++ Second Quadrant of the Decan Galaxy. Solar System: Flamber. Planet: Cristaux. Human colony of Foyer +++

Etiennette didn’t want to sit in the parlour and watch the screen with her parents. Ever since she had been old enough to walk on her own two feet, she had sat and watched evening sitcoms with her parentals, and it had become a type of bonding moment between them and her three siblings. Today, though, she wanted nothing more than to go to her room and be alone. Their progress reports had come today, and hers hadn’t been good. She wasn’t as smart as her older sister, Marie, who consistently came home with perfect marks and wept when she wasn’t in the top three of all her classes. Her elder sibling, Gateaux, didn’t have great grades, but they were working part time in the school programming lab and already had a promise of a job when they finished school. Antoine, her younger brother, was only in level 2, and did about as well as any other kid in his grade, but he was already showing artistic skill and was very popular among his peeps.

Etiennette was never popular, never had a lot of friends, and never got good grades, even in the younger levels. Right now, she was failing half her subjects and showed no actual skill for much of anything! Well, that wasn’t true; she showed no actual skill for anything useful.

“Look!” she said, pointing to something on her progress report as the rest of them were trying to eat supper. “The teacher said I can translate faster than anyone in my level! And I’m leading the linguists club in all our competitions-“

“Great.” Gateaux said, smirking, “If my communicator ever breaks, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Gateaux…” her father said, frowning, “Being able to translate is a skill, and it’s entirely fascinating to know the origin of words, and the evolution of language.” He smiled at Etiennette when he said this, but it was a forced smile and she knew it. Her father had no interest in language, and didn’t understand her fascination for it any more than anyone else did.

“Mx. Lune says we won’t learn translation when we get to the 5th level.” Antoine said, “Because translators are so reliable.”

“Exactly.” Her mother said, “I just don’t understand it.” She looked at the progress report, sneering at the other grades. “If you can take the time to remember so much useless stuff about where words came from, why can’t you memorize chemical formulas or programming languages? You can conjugate nouns in four languages, but you can’t do basic calculus?”

Her comment that you don’t conjugate nouns, you decline nouns and conjugate verbs, was not appreciated by anyone except her older siblings who hid their sudden laughter behind their hands as her mother snapped at her for her ‘attitude.’ After supper, when Etiennette was heading to her room, her mother had stopped her and demanded that she sit with them in the parlour. “I’m not going to let you stew in your bad attitude. You’re going to spend family time with your family, not running off to translate old stories which already have a perfectly good translation!”

Her parentals didn’t understand. Nobody did expect for the others in the linguistics club. Words had meaning and nuance! The way a person translated a single sentence could change from person to person, from culture to culture, and through time itself! Some of the stories she translated did indeed seem to have much different meanings than the translated versions she already knew, and sometimes it bothered her. Sometimes, the ‘official’ translations seemed intentionally wrong, or translated with a slant that created a whole different meaning than intended. When she brought this up to the teacher supervisor, they told her that she was translating into modern parlance stuff that had been written hundreds of years ago, with a different cultural view and with different intention and meaning behind certain words. The teacher said that the translation system accounted for that, and that she should trust that the translator has the best, most accurate version of the material. Still, she liked to see the different ways that people could translate things, and try to figure out the original meaning.

She was thinking about this, about a particular poem with translations of verbs which shifted from active to passive to subjunctive, turning a vicious verbal attack into an odd, masochistic love poem, when something strange happened to the screen. First, the show they were watching froze. That happened from time to time, and was met only with brief groans from her family.

Then the screen when black.

“What happened?” Her father asked, “Is it broken?”

“No, look, the power’s on.” Her mother said, getting up to inspect the screen, “Maybe the wireless went down?”

The screen then flickered back to life, but not with the show they had been watching, but with an alert.

THIS IS A GALACTIC EMERGENCY BROADCAST - THIS IS A GALACTIC EMERGENCY BROADCAST - THIS IS A GALACTIC EMERGENCY BROADCAST.

“Awe, it’s a drill.” Antoine said, groaning, “I hope they pause the show.”

“It’s not a drill.” Gateaux said, leaning forward from where they sat on the couch, “I think this is legit.”

Everyone held their breath as the screen then flicked again to show a synth and a strange, small, a rounded creature both sitting before an image of a planet that was instantly recognizable to everyone in the room. It was Arkane, the birthplace of the Despair insurgency.

Another fun linguistic trick, Etiennette thought, musing over a translation she had come across not long ago. While the word sounded like “despair” in Galactic common, and was translated to “despair” in all other languages, in Milou, the language native to Arkane, it simply meant, “Insurgency” or “Rebel.”

The rebel insurgency, or the insurgency insurgency. She couldn’t hear it without smirking now. Was this a mistake of the system or was it done on purpose? She’d never know.

“Maybe they got the bad guys?” Antoine said, leaning forward from where he sat on the floor.

“They’d just have a new conference for that.” Her mother said as she sat back down in her seat.

They fell silent as the Synth began to speak… but there was no auto-translation! Not even any subtitles! Yes, the synth in question was speaking Galactic common, but it was a different dialect and nearly incomprehensible to her family. When the synth finished the sentence, the smaller person translated it into a version Galactic Sign Language not in use in their quadrant of the galaxy.

Etiennette could understand both the synth and the smaller person, though. The language It was the dialect common to the fourth quadrant, where Arkane was, as was the sign language.

“Damnit.” Her mother said, cursing, “Is the translation system bugged? What the heck?”

“It’s ok.” Etiennette said. Though what the synth was saying was beginning to worry her, she couldn’t help the spark of pride and spiteful joy that grew in her at this moment. “I can translate.”