As we pulled up to our base at the Space Gate, ESU Command relayed word that Larimak had gotten clapped at Temura; our favorite feathery critters lived to fight another day. The prince wasn’t getting past us, and word that we’d saved the Derandi caused both Jetti and Vanare to warm up. The good news of this all was that Vanare was much more willing to cook, now that he didn’t have to worry about inconveniences like his whole family dying while he was here. The bad news was that I was no longer the only human to use precognition in battle, which hurt my manhood. Life was hard.

  With our feathered guests settling in on the base for the time being, my thoughts were on a certain other alien currently enjoying humanity’s hospitality. The last thing I’d done before I was summoned to Temura was freak out over Capal. The history student conscript had done nothing to me, and I’d told myself I’d face him for an apology once we returned. This was Mikri’s friend, the first hope for peace between the Vascar and their creators. With a guilty conscience chewing me out ever since, I’d asked the tin can to take me with him to visit Capal. I had to find a way to handle myself.

  After everything the “creators” did to our android friends, Mikri kept his head just fine. I can’t just be an animal subject to my chemical whims. I want to conquer my stupid monkey brain.

  “Preston, are you certain that this is a good idea? I fear that Capal will trigger another stress response. He agreed that he was the cause of the previous shutdown of your systems,” Mikri said.

  I bit my lip. “I want to get past that stress response. Tell me, why did you fill in the ‘it’s okay to be broken’ hole as soon as we got back?”

  “Hirri. It needed to be fixed. I do not want organics habitating inside my chassis! I am not a Derandi nest!”

  “You’re right; you’re a big, metal burrito. But there’s my point: it needed to be fixed. This needs to be fixed too, and I know you wanted to figure out how to correct my…faulty wiring. Plus, Capal is a person too, who deserves respect and a damn apology.”

  “We are both here to support you, if these are your wishes.”

  Sofia cleared her throat. “It was my idea for Mikri to meet with Capal. I’m here to encourage you both, and to pick the man’s brain. As soon as I heard he loved drafting theories, I had to—”

  “Jump his bones,” I finished.

  The scientist narrowed her eyes. “Compare thoughts. A good mystery about the unknown… it beckons to me.”

  “Whatever you say. But honestly, I think Capal’s skillset is a wonderful mystery too.”

  “Then it sounds like you’re the one who wants him alone.”

  “No, I would never steal Mikri’s man. Never ever. This silicon burrito already exhibited stalking behaviors with the Derandi and gets very attached to his prizes, so you’d be crazy to get in the way of him and his true love. I for one do not want to wind up as the murder victim on a true crime podcast.”

  “I would never kill you, Preston. I want to keep you alive forever,” Mikri protested. “And I’m sure I’ll find a way.”

  “That’s not reassuring. You scare me sometimes.”

  “You will come around to my thinking. No good friend would permit your death without a fight. It will be appealing once I acquire a solution.”

  “Any medical advancements will be helpful, and I’m sure we’d consider anything that doesn’t distort the most important parts of ourselves,” Sofia placated. “It’s not like we want to die. Quality of life is just a higher consideration.”

  “Capal already told me that any upgrades that alter your identity are not acceptable. I would not change you any more than is necessary. Do not worry. I love you.”

  The notion of Mikri upgrading me was a bit of a nightmare scenario, though if he meant upgrades as in more superpowers, I’d take those. Super strength and precognition were nice; it was just that teleportation, flying, and laser eyes were all way cooler. Wait, I couldn’t have laser eyes, but what was stopping Mikri from becoming Superroomba? We could upgrade him and replace his parts with weapons! He already had technokinesis, with that fucky-wucky stuff he did to the doors on that abandoned base and the effortless database hacking.

  If the tin can was going for a supervillain arc, we had to help him do it right. I was going to be supportive of his transition to an evil AI, embracing the mantle of HAL-9000. Sowing chaos for cute robots sounded epic, and if this meeting with Capal failed, that was my Plan B. I smiled at the idea, summoning courage from my off-the-walls humor. We’d reached the door to Capal’s cell, and I wouldn’t take this final chance to back out. I hadn’t even spoken a word or told him my name last time.

  Just think about Mikri in spandex and a cape. It’ll be fine. You can do the decent thing, and not see Larimak in an entirely separate person who’s on our side. You know better.

  Sofia’s hand joined mine, as I slowly pressed down on the door handle. “I believe in you, Preston. This can’t be easy, but you’re showing a great deal of inner strength to face this head on.”

  My heartbeat was elevated, electrifying my veins; anxiety churned my guts. “Don’t need a pep talk. Let’s get this over with.”

  I pushed the door open, and studied the inside of Capal’s cell with caution. The Asscar had dozens of notes pinned to the wall, connecting threads between them like some wild conspiracy theorist; it looked like a madman’s work, with some clippings posted together. He was circling words and adding observations on one paper right now! I half-expected the prisoner to whip around, and start talking about the hidden messages he found in defunct newspapers. Thankfully, the alien didn’t turn around from his notes yet, not spotting me.

  “Oh, hello! Only one being’s joints make those noises. Mikri, please tell me that the Derandi sent food back with you.” Capal’s voice rose with hope, but deflated after the android responded in the negative. “That’s a shame. You’ve come at quite the time. I’m working on a project, to map out all potential precognition episodes. It could be useful in understanding the abilities once they come to pass, or even give us some info now!”

  Sofia crept forward, squinting at the Asscar’s work. “That’s fascinating. What have you discovered?”

  Capal whipped around at the sound of her voice, and gawked as he spotted me. “I’m terribly sorry. I didn't realize Mikri wasn’t alone, but I should’ve turned myself around. Too…focused on the work, and too keen to trade theories. Um, Preston, I deeply regret any role I had in causing you distress, and for my bumbling words bringing up…you know.”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “No, stop,” I forced out. “You have nothing to apologize for. I came here to apologize to you for my freakout at the mere sight of you. That’s so unspeakably horrible and offensive. It’s not what I wanted to do, I swear.”

  “I know. I wish it would help to hug you and say it’s all okay, that I understand. I watched my friends get torn apart by humans with your bare hands. I believe you were justified and I support you wholeheartedly, of course, but I’m lucky that the worst of my problems is seeing those horrific images and shuddering. They were my brothers. Good news is my brain didn’t connect it to your people, and I can mostly forget through intellectual stimulation. You weren’t so lucky.”

  “Yeah. It’s not fair though. I know you’re not Larimak, and you’ve seemed like a good guy from what I heard from Mikri.”

  Mikri beeped in agreement. “Capal’s explanations are helpful and well thought out, whether he is helping me or delving into academia. I very much respect him. I like complaining about books to him.”

  The Asscar laughed, eerily similar to Larimak’s low chuckle at my screams. “This fool shredded Lord of the Rings because he felt bad for Gollum.”

  “I understand obsession, and what it is to want something precious back, no matter what has to be done! Like I would’ve given anything to save Preston.”

  I slapped my forehead. “The ring corrupted Gollum and fed off his worst desires, you dunce. You need a new cap.”

  “You corrupted me. This is not a valid argument. The book is bad.”

  “Mikri, I believe it’s your reading comprehension that needs work,” Capal chuckled. “Preston and Sofia, I understand you are no strangers to its literary takes.”

  Sofia rolled her eyes. “If anything, they’ve gotten better. Caring about character motivations at all, and not making the fact the book is fantasy the reason for its horribleness, is a start. We should encourage that. Plus, Gollum is supposed to be a pitiable creature.”

  “Good job, Mikri!” I cheered. “You’re less bad now! Be happy!”

  “Go easy on him. You have wild ideas about positive reinforcement.”

  The alien prisoner’s nose twitched with amusement. “Nevertheless, I’d welcome both of your support in the book club meetings. I feel a little outnumbered when Mikri starts bringing the network in to support its arguments.”

  “Yeah, that’s definitely cheating. I’ve got your back, Capal,” I said with a grin, feeling my chest loosen up a bit. This is fine. I’m fine.

  Sofia winked at me. “I’m happy to join too. Gotta babysit Preston. Now forgive my eagerness, but any chance we can move on to an explanation of your precog findings?”

  “Gladly! Let me just finish organizing this one note,” Capal replied.

  The alien adjusted his blue flannel jacket and added the last scribbles to his note. He gestured to his handiwork with a “Ta-Da!” gesture, and I noticed that he’d added personnel pictures alongside any information. The brass must’ve been letting Capal just wander around interviewing every last human on this base; was this project sanctioned? It was a damn fine idea, and I couldn’t imagine General Takahashi turning down the idea of obtaining useful info ahead of time. I’d like to know about any threats we could foresee, more than two seconds before they happened.

  “So I’ve been recording any vivid dreams that seem like they might be from foresight. Isolated ones might come true, but have the least credibility,” Capal explained. “Often, these events would be of personal significance only to the ‘viewer,’ like my friend, Dawson, predicting Mikri in an apron. That oddity stood out to him, but would have little broad-scale impact. The intel isn’t of high strategic value.”

  Sofia’s eyes flashed with understanding. “Like my dream about that one conversation with Mikri.”

  “Exactly. Those day-to-day occurrences aren’t going to be notable to everyone on the base; though it does seem Mikri is important and subconsciously stands out to many people. The android should be flattered.”

  Mikri beeped happily. “I want the organics to remember me in a positive light, and to impact their day for the better.”

  “Your methods have brought success, buddy. There’s certainly a correlation between you and positive outcomes.” Oh no. Capal speaks Silicon. “So we covered Isolated Events. What we’re looking for is what I call Pivotal Events; they affect a lot of people, and will have multiple viewers. I haven’t been able to speak to most humans involved with the Battle of Temura, but even so, I found some threads. A Derandi child coming here: this has come true already. Anpero sending his gratitude—hasn’t happened yet.”

  “I bet the crew that participated in the battle had more substantive dreams,” Sofia mused. “After all, we know for a fact they tapped into precognition with…virtually every shot. It suggests we can learn to use it.”

  “As long as you recognize it; from what Preston said, we know it’s subtle. It’s hard to pinpoint which weird dreams to pay attention to, which is why we must catalog and look for patterns. And I noticed…a major problem.”

  Mikri emitted a panicked whir. “Problem? Are Sofia and Preston in danger?”

  “All of humanity is. It’s hard to make it sequential, but I’m trying. The first thread I’ve found, and where I started, is at…the end. There are numerous dreams about the Sol barrier lighting up with staggering amounts of negative energy, and receiving panicked messages from your people on the other side. Also, presumably next, it’s…”

  I narrowed my eyes with concern, as the prisoner went silent. “What?”

  “ESU command here at The Gate are all reporting that they’ll say in horror, to each other, that…Sol is destroyed. They thought it was just a nightmare, but the sheer number of people reporting this can’t be a coincidence. I suspect the Elusians are going to make a move to destroy Sol. Worst of all, I think it’s soon, and I have zero ideas for what to do.”

  I recoiled in a stupefied horror of my own, utterly despondent at what Capal had just told us. There was fuck-all humanity could do if the Elusians attacked us for our little escapade! I’d feared all the way back on Jorlen how fragile Sol was and tried to keep my comrades serious, but a built-in kill switch was just too much.

  During my torture, the only thing that kept me strong was protecting Earth; I was willing to die to safeguard our secret. That was all for nothing? We were…doomed? Mikri hugged me, and the expression on his face made it clear he didn’t want anything to happen to humanity: the organics who chose to love his kind.

  Alright, keep it together. If we know Sol is going to blow, maybe we can get people out; Caelum could be our safe haven. We can research some countermeasure with the Vascar’s help, or…

  Sofia somehow kept her composure, though her complexion had paled. “Why do you think it’s soon, Capal? What do you mean by that word?”

  “Days at absolute most, soon. I thought you had the right to know. I figured it out because I connected this,” Capal drew a line between Hirri and some kind of alarm lights, “to reports of loud alarms, because Hirri is present during that. I connected the alarms as coming before the Pivotal Event, all because one officer had the same shaving cut in the memories. I checked on CCTV and…Admiral Davis has that cut today. It’s soon.”

  “Reports of loud alarms? What alarms?” I demanded, barely resisting the urge to grab Capal by the chest and shake him.

  A shrill, blaring noise blasted over the speakers—the sound for a red alert—as a voice announced over the speakers that organic Vascar ships were spotted en route to the Space Gate. My hopes cratered, hearing my question answered right now. This had to be Prince Larimak’s last big plan; the attack on Temura was only to test our capabilities. I didn’t know if he had somehow gotten Elusian support, if it would be the events of this battle that drew their attention, or if the negative energy was actually from him getting something through The Gap at faster-than-light speeds.

  What I did know, thanks to the foresight that Capal had cursed me with, was that Sol’s destruction was in the cards for this battle.