Read The Slug Invasion Page 11


  Chapter 10 - Life over freedom

  The Slug

  "Slugs". "The Slug-Cyborg War".

  Two simple labels for the Cyborg Archives, seemingly insignificant in terms of the formation of the words. But, in every other way, utterly important, consequentially vital. And unobtainable.

  Looking at Ethan's thoughtful face, I knew this. As much as I wanted to go and see this information, I valued my life and the lives of my friends over learning it. I valued life over many things.

  'How many Cyborgs is Slob coming with?' asked Frank.

  'Impossible to know for certain', Phill replied. 'The only reason I am aware of him at all is because he told me.'

  'He told you he was coming?' asked Ethan, startled. 'What for?'

  Boy said thoughtfully, 'Perhaps he wishes to avoid a fight, and hopes that we will be gone by the time he gets here?'

  Good luck with that. If I had my way, Slob would be unable to avoid this fight, and he'd be unable to survive it as well.

  'I am not sure', Phill replied as he detached himself from the computer and began to reattach the plating on his head. 'Whatever the case, we need to decide now what our course of action will be, either towards this new store of information or back to our scout ship. Based on the information I extracted from the Archives, which records all ship landings on PDN's surface, I know which direction our ship is in. It will take some time to get there, and much more time should we make such a detour.'

  'Will we be going through the tunnels, or over the surface?' asked Ethan.

  Phill replied, 'I recommend over the surface, as we are better able to control our direction of movement there, and are less likely to get ambushed.'

  'And there is a great supply of water up there', Carmen added.

  'Not much for food though', Ethan grumbled. 'I'm getting kind of hungry.'

  'I thought you used to survive on one meal a day', Boy asked him suspiciously. Well, it was a big meal; the breakfast servers back at the school all knew him and made sure to give him plenty of food.

  'Yeah', the Human protested, 'but I was never expending so much energy back in those days. All I did was walk, which wasn't much.'

  'And what are you doing here?' asked Frank.

  Ethan didn't respond to this, but shot the Slug a bad look. Luckily, he didn't really shoot a look; I didn't want Frank to get hurt. Although, I wasn't entirely sure if getting shot by a look would actually hurt, or even if one could load it into a gun. It must be difficult.

  'We are yet to come to a decision as to our course', Phill reminded us.

  'Yeah, yeah', I complained. 'Stop being so pushy, we're thinking.' Well, IIII IIIwasn't; I'd already made up my mind, but I had a great incentive to stall for time.

  'Need I remind you that Slob is coming over with an unknown amount of Cyborgs?' Phill said.

  'Yes', I replied.

  He looked at me for a second, then said, 'Slob is coming over with an unknown amount of Cyborgs.'

  'Thank you for reminding me', I smiled.

  Even as he smiled back, Boy said, 'Really though, I think that our decision is obvious. We'll go for the ship now, but make sure that the place with that information isn't damaged when we bombard the planet. Agreed?'

  'Yes', Phill told him. 'I do not know its exact location, but if we leave a wide enough area unscathed, it should be fine.'

  'The information isn't dependent on some other vital information, where if we destroy one, the others get destroyed, is it?' asked Ethan.

  'Doubtful', Phill replied. 'Were that the case, a problem in one station could compromise the entire Archives.'

  'Which would've made our job much easier', I sighed.

  'Well, we should get moving then', Frank said after a pause.

  'Don't you want a better look around this place first?' I asked hopefully.

  'Not really', Ethan told me. 'I'd rather not be caught in a fight where I can't chill back in complete safety while providing you with my moral support.'

  Boy laughed softly. 'Nor would I.' He started to move towards the entrance where we came in from. 'Let's go.'

  Just as I was thinking about how I could stall them a bit longer, and coming up with some brilliant ideas too, I heard yet another "boom". This time, because we were underground, it sounded kind of muffled, but the walls seemed to slightly shake due to it.

  'Yeah, I guess it is time to go', I conceded, and followed Boy out.

  As we left the room, rather than thinking about what those noises were like I should be thinking about, I kept wondering where Slob could possibly be, and what was taking him so long. If he wanted to fight me and die, then he'd better hurry up about it.

  We walked for a while in silence as we travelled back up through the tunnel, and back into the building that we'd entered before, with nothing eventful occurring. Apart from our walking, and breathing, and thinking. Lots of eventful things, basically, but nothing worth mentioning. Even though I just mentioned it.

  Once at the surface, we stopped for another drink. And I had to admit, so far there had been no ill-effects on Ethan from drinking the alien water, at least that I could tell. Perhaps it was even nutritional.

  After we'd drank our fill - and, like Ethan, I was beginning to get hungry as well, although I obviously felt hunger differently than he did - we turned back towards the radio tower.

  'There's that tower again', Ethan said.

  'Did you expect it to move?' asked Carmen.

  'You never know', he replied wistfully.

  'Actually, I do', Phill told him.

  I chuckled to myself as we walked towards the structure. Even though this was meant to be a serious situation, sometimes I couldn't help myself. Couldn't help myself to stop chuckling to myself, that is.

  'How far away was Slob when he discovered where we were?' Ethan asked Phill.

  'As I said before, I cannot know', the Cyborg answered. 'I am only aware that he knew of our presence and was travelling to find us, and only because he allowed me to know.'

  'Couldn't you, like, put a virus into the Archives to cover your digital fingerprint?'

  'You Humans have digital fingerprints as well!?' flustered Boy. 'The concept of a unique physical identifier on each of your extremities is strange enough; how you could possibly be expected to closely inspect each person's fingertips in order to discover who they are is baffling, especially since the formation of their face provides a much easier way to do this. But how do you leave such an oil residue inside computers?'

  'Wow', Ethan said, half to himself. 'I think my brain just imploded.'

  'I would say', Phill told him, 'that if that happened, you would surely be dead.'

  We were now straight underneath the tower, but important things such as how to get off this planet alive didn't seem to weigh heavily on my companions' minds. But this played in with my plans, so I did nothing. My plans liked playing in with it as well; I think they got along quite well. They should do it again sometime.

  'What I mean', Ethan clarified, 'was that that question was very strange, and kind of humorous at the same time.'

  'That doesn't answer the question', Boy said.

  The Human sighed. 'What I meant was, leave a virus to remove all traces of Phill being in there.'

  Phill answered, 'No. Cyborgs do not have viruses - or perhaps he meant virus' - 'and as such I could not implant one into the Archives. In addition, Slob was aware of me simply because of the request I made for the data I required; without that request I would not have gotten the information I did.'

  'Alrighty then', Ethan said after a bit of thinking about this.

  'I see someone', Frank told us urgently.

  Looking over to where he was looking, I saw another Cyborg building. This one was facing away from the tower, so its tunnel must've led to other areas of PDN, not down to the Archives beneath us. Which meant that these Cyborgs had come to us from another area of the planet, not from anywhere nearby. Perhaps I had succeeded; perhaps Slob was here.


  "Boom" went the "booming" noise, which sounded a lot like a "boom". Because it went "boom".

  Rather than comment on it, however, we had other important matters to attend to. And some matters, like these matters, could get rather upset if they weren't attended to right away; they were jealous things, these kinds of matters.

  'Here they are', Ethan said softly.

  As we watched, we could see the figures emerge from the building. At least, IIII IIIcould see them; I didn't know about the others, and I wasn't in contact with any other Slug.

  After a bit of watching them emerge and then begin to come towards us, Boy asked, 'Are they serious?'

  I wasn't so sure. Because the group of them that looked like they were itching for a fight - not really, I doubted that Cyborgs got itchy - numbered four in total. Four. As in, the middle number of three, four, five. Four.

  'I don't think they are entirely serious', I said. 'They ought to definitely know that we were able to defeat a much larger number of them before, yet they send only this.' I sighed, thinking. 'Terry and Kerry, you stay with Ethan', I ordered. I don't care how much Cyborgs there were, he wasn't going to be unguarded.

  Luckily I wasn't in contact with them, because they most likely would have unintentionally sent me great feelings of disappointment and unfairness at having to sit out the fight. I wasn't going to let anybody die under such a small assault, though, and since I was the oldest Slug here, what I said happened. Assuming that younger Slugs actually do what I say, that is. Which they always do.

  'And so another fight begins', Ethan said philosophically.

  I agreed, hoping it would be yet another fight in the long list of fights ahead of the Slug Empire. 'And so another fight begins.'

  The Cyborg

  Leaving Ethan and his 2 defenders, Terry and Kerry, behind, the rest of us moved forward to meet the Cyborgs' advance. "No sense waiting for them to come to us", Matthew had suggested.

  As the 5 of us moved - Matthew, Boy, Carmen, Frank, and myself - I contemplated how this was going to end.

  I considered;

  It was obvious that this small group did not stand much of a chance to defeat us. Given that we were on the Cyborg Archives, my race's exemplary monument of information collection and storage, they could not possibly not understand our capabilities. They would have surely seen, or at least been told, of the much larger groups of Cyborgs that we had previously defeated with 0 casualties, a feat so rare in Slug-Cyborg encounters that it was near unheard of.

  The average Cyborg can defeat the average Slug in battle, yet we had suffered no deaths. Surely they knew this, and therefore inferred that our group was not comprised of ordinary Slugs.

  So why send only 4? I could formulate several hypotheses to attempt to explain this matter:

  Perhaps they were being so utterly defeated in the space encounter above the planet that this was the only force they could spare to confront us with. This would indicate that the intention of this party was not to defeat us, but merely to stall us. The Cyborgs marching to their deaths would understand; both Slugs and Cyborgs understood that their lives were insignificant compared to the overall society, and that they do what they must for the good of all.

  However, I rejected this option based on what I would have done. If they were so losing the battle above PDN, then there would be no need to stall us as they had already lost. There was no sense wasting 4 Cyborg lives and materials in slowing down such a small fragment of an invading force. Were the battle so truly lost, I would gather up all Cyborgs I could and either flee or hide.

  While perhaps I was not in a position to speak for what the Cyborgs ought to do, I knew enough about them and efficiency to know that, were this scenario the case, that is what Slob would most likely do.

  My 2nd theory was that there had been such a catastrophic breakdown of information dissemination, diffusion and sharing on the planet, that these Cyborgs - and, by extension, Slob - simply did not know that we were a force to be reckoned with. It could be that these 4 actually believed that they could beat us in a fight, and came here to attempt just that. Based on my experience, they could not even defeat Matthew were he alone, but this notion suggested that they did not know this.

  However, given the nature of PDN, and Slob's apparent widespread knowledge based on Rabadootime's experiences on Earth, I also rejected this. Even if the Cyborgs did not fully understand what they were facing, to send such a small force would be ludicrous; they would send a much larger contingent, in order to ensure that we did not vastly exceed their expectations.

  This left me with one remaining theory, that by the 'process of elimination' - a concept given great detail in Human literature - must be true. This postulates that this small group of Cyborgs is merely the beginning of the assault, a distraction utilised to keep us busy while the real force travels. Likely Slob noticed our leaving this area, and, realising that the main group of Cyborgs were yet to arrive, quickly arranged for these 4 to slow us down. Were this the case, we should be wary of an extra assault coming towards us.

  This seemed to be the most likely scenario, although it left one unexplained occurrence: why had Slob told me that he was on his way? Were this a true ambush, he most certainly would not have informed me of his coming. Perhaps he wished for us to leave that apparently sensitive room, so he could engage us in the open without risk of damaging any vital equipment?

  Whatever the reason for that last discrepancy, I warned the Slugs, "Be warned of another force of Cyborgs showing up. This may be just the first party, designed to stall us while the main force gets here."

  "Well then", Matt grinned at me, "I guess we'll just have to kill 'em fast then, eh?"

  "I guess so", I agreed, although I was unsure to what we were guessing about. It was pretty obvious, should my theory be true, that we would have to kill them fast, and did not need to guess this requirement. It must be another Human saying he'd picked up that did not quite make sense.

  Soon, we came to a stop. The Cyborgs were not quite at us yet, so they continued to travel towards us. We were all looking at Matthew as he spoke, giving a plan which lacked detail, conciseness, and perhaps even foresight.

  "Here's the plan", he said with an indecipherable expression on his face. "I'll go for the middle one. You guys can take the other 3." No one commented on the fact that with a group of 4, there was no 'middle one'. I also neglected to point this out.

  "That's hardly a plan", Frank complained.

  "You got a better one?" Matt challenged him.

  "I don't think we really need a plan to beat these Cyborgs", Boy put forward.

  "Probably", Matt replied. Far from blindly accepting his thoughts, however, I resolved to keep some of my processes dedicated to watching for unexpected events.

  As I was viewing Matthew's face, I saw as his look changed to one of grim determination. This is assuming, of course, that his facial patterns followed precisely that of a Human's, and that I was reading the Human expression correctly.

  Abandoning this line of thought, as I deemed it irrelevant, I turned to look at our attackers. They stood within attacking distance, but were yet to make a move. As I frantically tried to process them before the fighting began, I realised that the 3rd Cyborg - or the 2nd last, depending on the arbitrarily chosen point of reference - was Slob.

  Slob, the Cyborg that I needed to save, lest this ruinous war continue. Without him, only Rabadootime remained to facilitate a peace between the Cyborgs and Slugs, and therefore, the chances of this ceasefire occurring would be drastically reduced. Slob needed to live; but based on the look on Matthew's face, he did not intend the same fate for the leader of PDN. Did he not see that with Slob dead, a peace would be much more difficult to achieve?

  I reduced the processes I had dedicated earlier to staying alert for unseen dangers; this matter was imperative not only to the survival of my species, but to the liberation of the Slug mind. It was fortunate for me that the two were positively linked; I did not wis
h to be put into a position whereby I would have to choose one over the other.

  The two groups stared at each other for a period of approximately 2.3 seconds before Slob opened his mouth. I greatly desired to learn what he would have said. Did he share my thoughts that his life was necessary for any possibility of peace? Did he plan to ask us to surrender? Was he about to surrender to us? Alas, I did not find out.

  Before Slob could say a single word, utter a single syllable, Matthew launched himself at the Cyborg. Although he tried to defend himself, the force and the ferocity of the Slug's lunge threw the leader backwards, nearly causing him to topple to the ground.

  In a split second, every other Slug in the group had engaged the remaining 3 Cyborgs. I, however, remained still. Matt's sudden attack was so unexpected, that my processes scrambled trying to make sense of it. The only conclusion I could draw was that he must not understand Slob's importance in the future alliance between our races.

  Quickly, I ran forward to assist Slob. We needed to incapacitate him, that was certain. However, I couldn't allow him to die. Surely once we had him in a harmless state, I could explain this to Matthew, and he would understand and agree? Why would be possibly not wish for an end to this pointless war?

  As I reached Slob, I saw Matthew was stretched around his midsection. The Slug's legs were wrapped around his front, while his body twisted sideways and crawled around to the Cyborg's back. I had no time to consider the effectiveness of such a position, although I did register that it was completely absurd.

  Slob was stumbling, the combination of Matthew's unnatural weight and his own violent struggles to dislodge the Slug constantly shifting his centre of gravity and balance. It appeared that perhaps it was effective then, if Slob was struggling to remain upright. Unfortunately, Slob losing was not what I wished for right now.

  A loud boom was heard once again, but I was so focused that I didn't divert any processes to the noise, not even to ascertain which direction it come from.

  Frantically, I reached forward to assist the Cyborg, hoping that Matt would forgive me later, which he surely would once he understood what I was trying to achieve. I would also have to be careful not to injure my friend.

  Before I could do anything, however, I heard a loud yell coming down from the tower's location behind me. It was Ethan's voice, and he had called, "Help! We're in trouble!"

  Now I was faced with a difficult decision, one which I did not know the correct answer to:

  Which should I assist: the possible facilitator of a Slug-Cyborg peace, or Ethan?

  The Human

  Everything was going so fine as well. But then... Bam. Something went wrong.

  There I was, standing underneath the tower (which was on a slight rise, so I had a good view), looking down at Phill and the Slugs as they intercepted the four Cyborgs. It was a much better view than the abysmal clouds, which were still as wispy and sickly as ever, I can assure you. Terry and Kerry were with me, but they didn't say anything, so I might as well have been on my own.

  I wanted to call out things like 'You can do it!' and 'I believe in you!' to my friends, but I had a feeling that that would be counterproductive. And somewhat annoying.

  Anyway, from what I could see, the five of our group were standing right in front of the four of their group. It seemed like alright odds, but I had a feeling that none of those random Cyborgs were worth as much in a battle as Matthew. Unless Slob was there - only one Cyborg had hair, but I couldn't make out if that was him from here. And would Slob be any stronger than an ordinary Cyborg? I didn't recall Rabadootime being too tough - although, he did have those arm-blade things that I hadn't seen on any other Cyborg.

  After a second of doing nothing, one of ours charged their haired one - I had a good feeling that this reckless behaviour was Matt's doing. Soon, everyone was fighting, except one person from our group who looked like Phill. He was probably waiting for the Slugs to get a good idea of who the enemy Cyborgs were before he joined in, in case he gets mistaken as one of them. Seemed legit to me.

  Eventually, he too joined the fray, and the battle went full scale. Well, the same scale as it was before, plus one Cyborg on the Slugs' side. Since Matthew seemed to be handling one Cyborg all on his own, assuming he was the one to jump in first, that left only three Cyborgs having to deal with three Slugs and a Cyborg. It was looking good for us.

  "Looking pretty good, hey?" I said to Terry or Kerry or whatever.

  "Yes", one of them responded.

  "You know", I said, turning to whichever one was on my right, "you guys really should start..."

  And then I heard a noise behind us, and saw movement from the corner of my eye. I tried to continue turning around, but a couple of those stupid grasses got tangled on my ankle and I fell over. Now I had no hope of looking badass.

  Because behind us were two haired Cyborgs, and when I say 'behind us', I mean right behind us. They must've been sneaking up on us while we watched the battle. It reminded me of one of those big cat predators, stalking prey through the tall grass. Except this grass was short and fat and tripped you if you tried to turn around.

  Without hesitation, they both came straight at me. Which was pretty lame, because I was the only one who couldn't defend myself. And I was sprawled on the ground.

  I quickly got to my feet, but I didn't see how that would help my predicament. One of the Cyborgs got intercepted by Terry or Kerry or whoever the hell it was, but the other one made it and swung at me.

  As I watched the fist coming in, tensed and willing my legs to move me out of the way, I realised I couldn't decide which direction to jump in. Whatever. I dived to the left, but the Cyborg's fist still managed to deflect off my side, and while I landed roughly on my feet I was left winded and generally not in a good position to brawl with an evil death machine.

  Without even pausing to consider that maybe he'd hurt my feelings by trying to kill me, the Cyborg swung on his heel and launched another blow. A huge boom resounded, but I was kind of used to it by now. And, I was slightly preoccupied with a big steel incarnation of death charging at me.

  This time I was spared the trouble of having to dodge it again, but by something that made me wish that I had dodged it instead. Terry threw himself in front of the Cyborg, and took the blow full in his body. Why he didn't just knock the enemy over or attack it from behind, I didn't know, but if he was intending to save me, it worked.

  Before anyone else could get injured, and without even looking behind me to the others, I called, "Help!" Thinking that that maybe wasn't enough, I added, "We're in trouble!"

  I couldn't see Kerry from here, but Terry - the Slug who'd saved me - looked to be pretty badly injured. He was struggling to stay upright (which shouldn't even be difficult, since his contact with the ground was a thick base of slime) and fend off the Cyborg's attacks at the same time. It seemed that that first hit he'd taken had really incapacitated him.

  Unlike every other fight I'd seen, where Matthew was always winning, Terry here was losing. Looking around the Cyborg, it seemed that Kerry was also getting beaten. Suddenly it didn't look so good anymore.

  The enemy in front of me landed a great blow on Terry that the poor Slug failed to block, which sent it flying back and toppling to the side. Could he roll over and get back up, or was he like a turtle that was stuck on the ground there now? I hoped he wasn't a turtle, for more than one reason.

  The Cyborg turned to me, and barely looked at me before charging in. I was reminded of just before Rabadootime had chased me, back when we were defending Earth. He had looked at me for a second first, as if giving me the chance to come to terms with my impending death. As harsh as it was, at least it was something, I suppose.

  This guy gave me nothing. No decency at all, he just came straight at me and tried to extinguish my life. Where had all the civility gone?

  I wasn't too sure about being able to dodge another attack, and was desperately trying to decide which direction to dodge in this time. Righ
t this time, or would it anticipate that I'd go the opposite way from last time? Then I should go left again - but what if it anticipated that I would anticipate its anticipation, and try to outmanoeuvre my trick? I had no idea.

  Luckily, I was spared from having to make this life-changing decision when someone from behind me bolted in and absorbed the Cyborg's blow that was aimed at me, and then vigorously attacked it. Take that.

  Of course, it was Matthew; I didn't really expect anyone else to save me. Did that mean I took him for granted? I hoped not.

  Anyway, it wasn't long before that Cyborg was dead (its CPU was in its lower back - of course Matthew had no trouble fighting the Cyborg while he searched for it) and Matt turned on the other. Kerry seemed to have held her own for a while, so she didn't seem overly dead like Terry, who was still lying on his side. It looked like the purpose of these two Slugs was just to hold the Cyborgs off until Matt gets here to actually save us.

  With both of them quickly dispatched, Matthew looked back down to the others. I looked at him for a second first, and noted that he showed absolutely no sign of injury. Unlike Kerry who - even though she wasn't in a human form - was obviously injured from the way she moved. Following Matt's gaze, I saw that the others off in the other battle appeared to be fine. The only bodies lying on the ground I could tell were Cyborgs, and I could distinctly see Phill standing over another Cyborg's body. Sweet.

  "That was lucky", I said in relief. "You made it just in time."

  "To save you, perhaps", he said in a rejected voice, turning to look at Terry. He knelt by his side, and placed his palms over the base of the other Slug's slime. After a minute or two of silence (his eyes were also closed), he said softly, almost to himself, "He's dead."

  What? I didn't get it. Terry was dead. Dead? Sure he'd taken a couple of big hits, but when Matthew had charged in to my rescue, he'd sustained a huge blow to his midsection as well. And there he was, completely unharmed.

  Kerry struggled up to Matt's side and touched both him and the prone form, but my friend said nothing to me.

  "Dead?" I stuttered. "How?"

  "By a Cyborg", he replied in a sour voice. "Let's talk about it later. Not right now. Later." He looked down at the rest of our group, out at the site of the main battlefield. "We have other important things to discuss right now."

  The Slug

  Ethan was safe. He seemed to be breathing harder than usual, and he was rubbing his side, but he was safe. Excellent. I could see Phill hesitate when he heard the Human's cry for help, obviously reluctant to leave any chance of Slob surviving. I had no such dilemma, however, and left the Cyborg in Phill and the other Slugs' capable hands.

  I made it in time to save Ethan. It was close though. Much too close for my liking.

  But now that he was fine, I had to turn my attention to other matters. Such as the way that one of his protectors had behaved. The unforgivable way.

  Ethan sighed in relief, 'That was lucky. You made it just in time.'

  Indeed I had, but only in some regards. In others, I was much too late.

  'To save you, perhaps', I told him as I went to attend to the assumed Terry. He was lying on the ground, nearly sideways, and while it was clear that he was in bad shape, it was also clear that the majority of his injuries could perhaps have been prevented.

  I got into contact with the Slug, hoping that he wasn't dead. And ended up wishing that he was.

  Through the connection, Terry sent me weak signals of his injuries, of his defeat, of his dying; of his soon-to-be-attained Honour. I sensed no signals that he did not wish to send to me, no sign of his betrayal. He fully believed that he had done his best, had achieved the single greatest desire of his life. He fully believed that his fate was assured, and for this he was glad beyond comprehension.

  I knew better.

  Judging by his injuries, I could tell that his brain had in fact been damaged. But not enough to have killed him. Not enough. Terry's state was certainly survivable; Rosetta had been in a worse state back on Earth, and yet she had survived. There was no doubt that such a harm wouldn't end my life. No doubt at all.

  But Terry; he could survive this, with enough willpower. With enough determination to live, and to continue to serve the Empire and his allies. But he didn't want to. Not consciously, of course; Slugs were so indoctrinated that they actually couldn't betray themselves and their concept of Honour.

  But the aware part of our minds didn't need to do this. If a Slug truly, in their inner core, believed - as Terry obviously believed - that they had done everything they could to save themselves, there was no argument they would die. To earn Honour. Of course, Slugs were predisposed to believe that they had tried their best, even if they actually hadn't. And I was expected to understand this, to feel it myself. To congratulate him for failing to sustain his life.

  This, here, this was the single biggest problem in the Slug Empire. And the single biggest reason why this war must go on.

  Another stream of signals came into me; Kerry had made contact. He expressed gratitude and good feelings for Terry - presumably sending the same to the dying Slugs - even as his signals spluttered out and ceased. Even as he died right there in front of us. It was truly disgusting, that Kerry could be happy that one of our number had died. Truly disgusting. Truly.

  'Dead?' asked Ethan, unsure what was going on, although I had no idea how he knew that Terry had died. I sympathised with his plight; the more I thought about this... "Honour", the more I was unsure as to how such a debilitating system could possibly arise in a society. 'How?' Ethan continued.

  By our flawed societal system. By the inability of our race to rise above its constraints. By the sickening way in which Slugs think and behave.

  But I answered, 'By a Cyborg. Let's talk about it later. Not right now. Later.' As I started to walk down to Boy and the others, Slugs that I could stand to be around, I added, 'We have other important things to discuss right now.'

  I went down the hill, abandoning Terry's body where it fell. I didn't want to look at such a thing right now. Kerry followed just behind me, but I knew that he had other reasons for being so indifferent to Terry's fate. The Slug had fought, had died, had achieved Honour, and that was it. Hopefully Kerry would follow soon afterward.

  If my body was physically capable of retching, it felt like it would be doing it now.

  It was some time before Ethan eventually joined my side, jogging to catch up. He seemed to be breathing normally again. Thankfully, he didn't try to talk to me about Terry.

  Terry. A symbol for a fundamentally flawed Empire, one which I could barely stand to be a part of. If it wasn't for Boy, whom I'd been friends with for so long, and the others, I would have denounced the entire race. Humanity had its own share of problems, to be sure, but none could come close to this. And yet, it was entirely necessary. Such a saddening realisation. Such a depressing realisation.

  We eventually reached the others. All of the Cyborgs seemed to be dead on the ground. Looking around, however, I saw that this was not entirely accurate. All of the Cyborgs were dead on the ground, except for one.

  I approached the group, who were surrounding the prone form of Slob. An alive Slob. An alive and speaking Slob, who was capable of transferring his knowledge of the Human language to all Cyborgs. This one Cyborg held the key to the Slugs' destruction. And they'd left him alive. Instantly, Terry was wiped from my mind.

  'What's going on here?' I asked, trying to hide my total desire to kill the enemy. There must be some reason why he continued to live.

  'This is Slob', Phill told me.

  'I'm aware of that', I replied tersely. 'Why is he still alive?'

  Slob looked at me silently, no hint of feeling or emotion in his utterly passive expression. It was less Human than a dog's face.

  Boy spoke up. 'Phill says that we may be able to extract some information from him. And that afterwards, if he proves valuable, we may even let him go. It would send a message to all Cyborgs that we now h
ave power over them, and that if they wish to survive, they'd better cooperate and do as we wish.'

  'It seems the optimal course of action', Phill tried to justify this.

  Let him go. Send a message. Cooperate.

  Let him go. Send a message. Cooperate.

  Not acceptable. Not at all acceptable. Unacceptable!

  This couldn't be, they couldn't seriously think such a course of action to be "optimal"! Phill I could understand; as much as he was one of us, almost more organic than machine, he was still a Cyborg. I did not fault him to trying to protect his race if he believed it didn't disadvantage ours; of course, he didn't understand that such a thing would disadvantage ours to the point of disintegration.

  But Boy! He should know better, he should know what this would mean! Let Slob go! Send a message! Cooperate! Unacceptable!

  'Sounds good to me', came the traitorous words from Ethan. He, too, simply lacked understanding. Lacked the knowledge that I did not, the realisation of what this would do to my race. As much as I hated what they had become, as much as I hated the lack of freedom that Honour exerted, at least they were alive! I chose life over freedom long ago, I chose it every day for twenty years, and I would always continue to choose it. It didn't matter what form it took; life was always preferable to no life. There was very little exceptions to this. Very little.

  Ethan groaned for some reason, but I didn't know why. Now wasn't the time.

  'What information do you wish to extract', came the dull voice from Slob, its lack of questioning tone adding greater fuel to my desire to end his existence.

  Phill was the first to speak. 'Why did you warn me that you were coming to attack us?' he asked.

  Slob looked at him. 'I wished to arrange a temporary truce between us. Rabadootime's information indicated that your group contained an influential Slug, similar in substance to our designations. Taking both this and the current state of the planet into account, I determined that a short-term respite would be beneficial. You engaged us before I could relay this decision.'

  Just like that, the whole world crashed down, nearly landing right on top of my head, crashing right in front of me. The force of it caused me to stagger and almost topple to my knees.

  He had wanted a truce. Already. I had anticipated that such an outcome was inevitable, but not so soon! So soon, not so soon! Already - he already wished to arrange a temporary alliance. Already. Already.

  With the divide in our communications finally filled, there was no longer any reason for us to remain at war. No reason at all. No need to wait, no need to delay. No reason. Slob had wasted no time, already wished for our friendship. Already!

  The English language, a Human construct, had already begun its work, a work as inevitable as erosion or the formation of stars or the bonding of chemical substances. Like weeds or a virus, it had crept into both Slug and Cyborg societies, our wishes unheeded, our requirements uncatered-for. It had already begun to bridge our races together, despite an unwillingness on both sides. And in doing so, it had already begun to unravel the Empire, to destroy what the Slugs are. Already!

  Looking aghast at Boy, I saw an undisguised look of happiness on his face. He was happy. Happy. Happy, he was. Of course. Thanks to the Human technology I had inadvertently given to the Slugs, we had a major advantage over the Cyborgs. If I'd known what such an advantage would mean at the time, that we could possibly win this war due to it, I'd have never arranged those trades. The trades which had probably continued in our absence between the two homeworlds.

  It seemed to be too much to ask. It seemed to be too much. I didn't want to win the war. I didn't want to lose the war. I didn't want an end to the war. All that I wanted - all that the Slugs needed - was a perpetual war that would never end. That was the only way for the Slugs to continue on living. Any other outcome would result in our destruction.

  The war was a crutch; take it away and the Empire will fall, swiftly and fatally. As bad and hindering as this crutch was, like the real Human device, as much as it may lower the quality of life for the Slugs and turn us into a lesser form of organic being - it kept us alive. And life was always preferable to freedom.

  It appeared that our Cyborg had come to the same conclusion regarding Slob's statement as I had, although he interpreted in an entirely wrong manner. As I watched, as I physically watched, Phill looked up at me and had the nerve to say, with a slight smile on his flexible robotic lips, 'See now? There is still hope. The need for our war has thus been negated.'

  The Cyborg

  Fortunately, I was not required to make a difficult decision. Chance - and the character of others - had been on my side thus far when it came to sparing me from having to choose between conflicting yet fundamental parts of myself. That was good. However, an important, unanswerable question remained: how long would it last?

  In this case, I was yet to decide whether to go to assist Ethan or stay to assist Slob when Matthew made my choice for me.

  Without a moment's hesitation, without even seeming to consider that any other alternative may be viable, he leaped off Slob's back and half ran, half stumbled to where Ethan was, his body already having begun to reshift back to its normal Human shape. I noted that the previous position he had placed himself in had not damaged any of his clothing, and was left wondering if this was purposeful on his part.

  I was also left astounded by his total conviction in his arrangement of priorities. Judging by his recent action, Ethan's safety was preferable to whatever else had been going on. Perhaps even his mission on PDN. I found that I envied him his utter prearrangement of what was most important, and the speed by which he could come to whichever course of conflicting actions was preferable.

  Regardless, I knew that Ethan was in the best of care. It was time to do my part. With a backwards strike, I hit a Cyborg from behind that seemed to be gaining an advantage against Frank, and then moved against Slob.

  Still slightly disorientated from Matthew's attack, as a Slug wrapping itself around any form of sentient being would be enough to confound it, Slob was unable to effectively prohibit me from shoving him to the ground. Although I was careful not to overly damage him, he crashed down, his struggles to get back up thwarted by my restraining assault.

  Due to my assistance, Frank was able to sufficiently incapacitate his foe, and soon moved to help Carmen with hers. As an older Slug, Boy was less likely to require the aid that Carmen would need.

  Soon, all 3 of the other Cyborgs were down, and the Slugs were moving to surround me and Slob. I moved out to form a ring around him as he rolled over and, seeing his predicament immediately, neglected to get up. Perhaps he wished to reduce the amount of apparent threat he posed? Far from a Cyborg concept, but Slob knew that he was dealing with irrational organics.

  "What are we doing?" asked Frank.

  I explained, "We should keep him alive for the time being. As the Cyborg leader of PDN, he likely has valuable information that we would benefit from learning. Perhaps, should he prove helpful, we may let him live. This would serve as a reminder to all Cyborgs that not only were you now capable of launching an invasion on the Cyborg Archives, but to cooperate with you would equate with life." I didn't include that Slob's life was necessary for a peace to eventuate; but they would come to understand this without my aid. With time, of course.

  After a short period of waiting, Matthew, Terry, and Ethan joined us. I surmised that Kerry - assuming that it was Terry that was here - had remained near the tower to keep watch on the surrounding area.

  As he saw the debilitated Slob in our midst, Matthew asked, "What's going on here?"

  "This is Slob", I informed him.

  "I'm aware of that. Why is he still alive?"

  Boy told him a modified version of the reasons I had given.

  Once he was done, I added, "It seems the optimal course of action."

  There was a short silence before Ethan said, "Sounds good to me." This would help my cause greatly; with Ethan's approval, Matthew
was far more likely to agree. With Matthew's approval, the Slugs were far more likely to agree.

  For the 2nd time, a double-boom resonated throughout the area. Ethan groaned after its noise had subsided, but I didn't know why it should cause him such discomfort; the rest of us were as unsure about its origin as he was. If PDN's leader had any idea what the sound represented, he gave no sign of it.

  When nobody else spoke, Slob asked, with the characteristic Cyborg lack of tone and inflection, "What information do you wish to extract?"

  I decided to first pose my most pressing query. "Why did you warn me that you were coming to attack us?"

  Slob turned to look at me before giving an unusually extensive reply. "I wished to arrange a temporary truce between us. Rabadootime's information indicated that your group contained an influential Slug, similar in substance to our designations. Taking both this and the current state of the planet into account, I determined that a short-term respite would be beneficial. You engaged us before I could relay this decision."

  For a moment afterwards, I was unsure if my sense of hearing had a malfunction. Had Slob just said that he had wished to align himself with us? Even were it only temporary, this development was remarkable. The fact that a Cyborg, a Cyborg leader in fact, had already considered, and then determined as the optimal choice, an alliance with Slugs was unprecedented. This was the beginning of something greater.

  This was the proof I needed, the evidence which validated my cause. A peace was not only possible, but entirely foreseeable! Previously, to contemplate a ceasefire of any kind had been impossible; now, having just learned the means to communicate with Slugs, it had already been considered and approved. An end to the war was not only within our reach, but within our grasp!

  In addition, this firmed my resolve that Slob needed to live. I could not possibly know, nor assume, that any other Cyborg would come to the same conclusions as he. I couldn't know if Rabadootime would feel and think the same way. I couldn't know if any other leader, an influential Cyborg designation, would agree.

  Of course, the other Slugs would see why Slob simply had to live. There was no other choice, no other way to ensure that the possibility of harmony remains more than just a hopeful theory. They would understand, they would come to the same conclusions as I.

  For the first time, I longed for the ideal galaxy; one where a being could go anywhere, befriend anyone, without fear of reprimand or going against customs or allegiances. A galaxy whereby the Cyborgs, Slugs, and the Humans lived side-by-side, together, as one harmonised entity. Peace was the way life was meant to be lived, not everlasting war.

  Only through Slob's survival, the preservation of his way of thinking and his Cyborg grasp of the Human language, would this be possible.

  Excited by the prospect, I looked up at Matthew and knew that he felt the same way. Summarising both of our feelings, I said, "See now? There is still hope. The need for our war has thus been negated."

  The Human

  And then Phill, with a creepy smile on his face (seriously, it was creepy), looked up from Slob to Matt. "See now?" he said. "There is still hope. The need for our war has thus been negated."

  Through my superior, unrivalled insight, I sensed some great meaning behind those words, and the look on Matthew's face seemed to hint that he understood it too. As for me, I was left wondering if Phill had just proclaimed that because Slob had considered a tenuous, temporary alliance with a bunch of weirdos, that meant that the entire galaxy-spanning war that had been waged for like twelve thousand years was over. Seemed a bit of a lofty ideal to me.

  There was an awkward silence after Phill's words, as everyone mulled over them (or, like me, everyone came to the realisation that they didn't really understand what they meant).

  To break it up - and get something off my chest - I said, "Do you guys know about Terry?"

  Boy turned to me. "What about him?" he looked at Kerry beside me. "Isn't that him there?"

  "No, that's Kerry", I corrected him.

  "That's strange", Frank said. "They usually stay together." He came over and touched Kerry's side with the palm of his hand. After a few seconds of this he dropped it, and muttered, "Oh."

  "What?" asked Carmen, which prompted Frank to walk to her, and grasp her hand. After a few seconds of this, she then said, "Oh." She then went and touched Boy, although he didn't say anything.

  "Did Terry die?" asked Phill in an almost concerned tone, oblivious to the Slug communications.

  "Yeah", I said. I didn't really want to talk about it, but I figured that they ought to know. The Slug was one of our companions for a while.

  "We defeated one", said Slob, which caused Matthew to give him a murderous look.

  "We defeated a lot more than one", Boy reassured him. The Cyborg didn't respond, probably because it just got wrecked.

  There followed a respectful kind of silence, where nobody really said anything. I didn't even know Terry, knew nothing at all, but he had just died right in front of me. In a situation like that, you can't help feeling kind of depressed.

  Looking over at Kerry, I wondered how she felt. She had no real face so I couldn't tell, but from what I knew she would be happy for Terry now, glad that he'd met his end in an Honourable way. Surely that was better than how I felt? If I could, I'd rather feel proud of the Slug right now, rather than miserable and somewhat sick. And if such a fate would befall me (which it surely wouldn't, right?), I'd like to think that my friends weren't feeling all dejected about it.

  I suppose that, in that light at least, this Honour thing wasn't such a bad idea. I mean, with a few tweaks, it could actually turn into a workable yet not morally-reprehensible system.

  Anyway, the time for respectful silences was over. We still had an enemy planet to get off. "So, what now?" I asked to the group.

  Phill looked back towards the tower, and Terry's final resting site. "The scout ship lies to the right, using that tower as a reference point."

  "We should start moving then", said Frank as he turned in that direction. "I suggest that we take Slob with us. He may prove valuable until we leave."

  "And what then?" asked Matthew in a strangely tense voice. "What will we do with him when we are back at the ship, ready to leave?"

  "As Phill said", Boy told him, "that depends on how useful he is."

  Matt didn't reply to that, but he remained in a sour mood for no apparent reason. Well, he got like this sometimes. You just had to wait it out, and he'd be fine again.

  As we walked, all of us forming a ring around Slob except me (Matthew was keeping himself between me and him), Carmen asked the leader, "Why have you been attacking us with such small numbers? Are there truly that little Cyborgs on PDN?"

  Slob said/asked, "Verify PDN."

  "The Slug's name for this planet", Phill verified for him.

  And then Slob answered. "We sent what we could spare."

  When he didn't elaborate, I was reminded vividly of our initial times with Phill when you had to practically use tweezers to get every meaningful word out of him. In fact, you still needed to sometimes.

  "Why could you only spare such a small force?" Frank asked him.

  The enemy Cyborg replied, "The rest were busy elsewhere."

  I sighed. "Give a proper answer", Matthew told him harshly. That was a bit mean, even if he was his mortal enemy. I couldn't see what Matt's problem was with him, so I deduced that he must still be feeling the effects of Terry's death. I remembered how he'd reacted when Rosetta had nearly died.

  When Slob didn't reply to Matt's prodding - quite a justified non-response, I thought - I tried to prompt him with, "Could you please tell us what the rest of your Cyborgs were busy with?"

  "They're not his Cyborgs", Phill corrected me, "he is merely their leader."

  I couldn't see any distinction between the two, but apparently neither could Slob, because he answered me without the need for further questioning. Or maybe it was just because I asked nicely. "Slugs have been assaul
ting the planet from many locations, in much larger numbers, and with far greater destruction. This grouping was deemed a lesser threat."

  "We were a 'lesser threat'?" I asked. I had thought that Rabadootime's recommendation had meant we were a priority target or something. Although, I suppose that when your planet's getting invaded from everywhere, a small group of enemies, no matter how skillful they may be, is insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

  "The other Slugs have landed, and in force", Boy mused. "We had assumed that we were the only ones on the surface."

  "It appears that we have assumed wrongly", Phill said. "We should endeavour to meet up with these other Slugs, to improve our probability of escaping PDN with no further casualties."

  "So we're just going to take this thing's word as truth?" Matt very nearly spat at him. Could he even spit? Slugs didn't have saliva, did they?

  "I see no reason why he would lie", Boy said casually. "Nor why the other Slugs would not have landed on the planet, once the Cyborg ships were taken care of. It seems quite believable to me."

  Matthew somehow managed to not answer, but do it in an upset way. Well, he was really distressed about the whole Terry thing. Why else would he be acting this way?

  We walked for a while more in relative silence. We had a stop for another drink of the grasses, but it did little to satisfy my ever-growing hunger. Those bland nutrition bars, paste, and formulas were looking mighty tasty right about now. This was an unsung benefit of not having access to much food, you see; everything that you ate tasted like a five-star restaurant meal. Not that I'd ever been to a five-star restaurant, but I imagined that their food tasted fantastic.

  The awkward silence that followed us as we travelled was pretty ridiculous. Considering that we had the leader of the Cyborg Archives captive, and plenty of opportunity to question him, it was quite remarkable that no one did. I had a pretty good feeling that it had a lot to do with Matthew's infectious glum mood - without his usual cheerful self, the rest of us felt kind of dark and gloomy as well.

  Another boom even went off, this one far off, but no one said anything about it. That was proof of the awkwardness of the mood - otherwise I surely would've complained about it.

  Eventually though, we climbed a kind of slight rise, barely worthy of the term hill. But as most of the surrounding terrain was flat, it gave us a view of what was ahead of us that had previously been obscured.

  As I got to the summit (a word which it totally didn't deserve), I could see what was ahead of us. Which was the scout ship, finally. We'd made it back at last - well, except for Terry, of course.

  From my vantage, I could also see around the ship. And although I wasn't sure how many people constituted an army, it seemed there was an entire army surrounding our only way off the planet. Well, our only way off as far as we knew. In other words, there was no way to get to our ship without going through this army.

  So you can imagine my relief when I recognised everyone of them as Slugs. Phew. That could have ended badly.

  Phill decided then to say, "This was unexpected."

  The Cyborg

  The Slug scout ship was in the midst of a large group of Slugs. Unlike the standard Slug form that Ethan and I were so accustomed to, a significant percentage of these were in a different configuration. A humanoid shape, similar to the standard Cyborg unit, seemed to serve their role in combat. Despite the additional evidence this provided, it did not account for the fact that neither Terry nor Kerry adopted that form, nor why we had seen so little Slugs utilising it.

  Regardless, the issue at hand had not altered. There was a great number of Slugs here, much more than I had previously anticipated, even after Slob's suggestion. This indicated that PDN was in much more trouble than I had thought. The chances of great Archive data loss was relatively high; the chance of Slob surviving this encounter was correspondingly low.

  I considered;

  I had to formulate a plan of action to ensure the leader's survival. Having already determined that his life was essential to my ultimate goal, it was now time to go about the actual act of preserving his life.

  Considering my friends, I judged which would most likely side with my hypothesis. Ethan I believed would; as a Human unaccustomed to the Slug-Cyborg war, he would not relish in the execution of a helpless captive. With Ethan's approval would come Matthew's approval. With Matthew's approval would come Boy's, Carmen's and Frank's approval, and with all of their approval would come the rest of the invading Slugs' approval. As high-ranking, older Slugs, Matt and Boy alone would hold be able to dictate the decisions made by the entire invading force, and they will also hold considerable weight over the judgement of the Slug king.

  Therefore, I needed to convince Ethan that Slob needed to life. His decision was the cornerstone of my strategy. Although I dared not hope that time would favour my cause, time was the very thing I needed right now.

  As we walked in silence down the slight hill towards the Slugs - and as they walked to meet us - I moved near the Human, Frank filling the space around Slob that I had vacated, and spoke to him.

  "Ethan", I began.

  "Yeah?" he replied.

  "What are your feelings on Slob?" Nearby, I saw Matt's body stiffen as he heard my words. Doubtless he too was greatly interested in Ethan's opinion, but I could not fathom why he should give such a physical indication that he was listening to us. It seemed a Human thing that he could easily avoid, and yet didn't.

  "I don't really know", Ethan replied slowly. "Slob, what are your feelings on me?"

  Without turning around to look at us, Slob answered, "You are assisting the enemy, but have not directly attacked us."

  The Human gave me a confused look at this, but the message which Slob had communicated was obvious; he was an enemy of the Cyborgs, but wouldn't be dealt with until the greater threat was neutralised. In theory, this would mean that Ethan was safe as long as the rest of us were around, but I had seen enough to know that the Cyborgs recognised him as a weak point in our group whose death would serve to demoralise us.

  Of course, they believed that only the Slugs would be demoralised; they couldn't possibly anticipate that such a thing would have a great hindering effect on me. I had known from some time ago, however, that I was no longer a normal Cyborg, and the way a normal Cyborg would behave could not be applied to me. I did not attempt to consider what my feelings would be should Ethan perish at the hands of my race.

  "Well", the Human said thoughtfully. "I suppose it's not as bad as, 'It's only a matter of time before I get free of this and kill you'."

  "What do you suggest we do with him?" asked Boy to Ethan. This greatly confused me. Why would Ethan's opinion interest Boy? Did he, like me, come to the conclusion that Matthew would try to achieve the outcome suggested by Ethan? Or was he simply interested in what his friend thought? I could not determine a satisfactory answer to this, and thus diverted my processes to listening to his response.

  "Well, if you think about it", Ethan said slowly, "Slob never actually attacked us, only in self-defence. So, we shouldn't attack him unless it's also in self-defence."

  "You forget about what happened to Terry", Matt told him. As to why the Slug would try to sway Ethan's opinion in this direction, I could not determine.

  "That occurrence was due to our premature strike", I supplied. "The Cyborgs that attacked from the other direction were likely set up as only a contingency, should an unfavourable outcome occur."

  "Is that right, Slob?" asked Ethan.

  "It is", replied the leader of PDN.

  "Say 'affirmative' ", the Human asked him eagerly.

  "Affirmative", Slob complied, obviously understanding that in order to achieve the optimal outcome for himself and PDN, he should do as his captors wish.

  Matthew wasn't finished. "He has every incentive to lie. And you also forget all the Cyborgs that attacked us while we were here. All of them were under Slob's command."

  Slob told him in a toneless voice,
"That was also in our defence."

  Matt huffed angrily. "Well you also forget... Some other thing that I've also forgotten. Okay?"

  "Not really", Ethan told him. When Matthew didn't reply to him, he continued. "As I was saying. Slob hasn't really attacked us except when he was defending himself, right? So perhaps we should the return the favour. As long as he behaves himself and does what we say, I see no reason why we need to kill him. Do you?"

  "None at all", I agreed fervently.

  By this point, our group reached the group of Slugs that were travelling towards us. I didn't allocate much of my processes to studying them, as I was too busy considering what had just transpired, and what I had discovered from it.

  1st, for an unknown reason, Matthew was opposed to allowing Slob to live. The only possible explanation for this is that he failed to recognise the major contribution that Slob would make to fostering a peace. I would have to inform him of this later.

  2nd, Ethan had effectively stated that as long as Slob 'behaves himself', he should be allowed to live. This would hold great sway over not only Matthew, but all the other Slugs in our group, whom the Human had developed strong friendships with. Boy's questioning of his thoughts was confirmation of this.

  3rd, Slob had just learned that should he do as we ask, he has a far greater chance of surviving his unfavourable situation. This will increase the chance that he will 'behave himself', and thus the chance that he will indeed survive. In addition, he would have then been exposed to the kind of decency that Slugs are capable of, furthering his initial belief that, in some circumstances, a truce would be mutually beneficial.

  These 3 points I considered deeply, and through them came to the conclusion that Slob's probability of surviving was satisfactory. It was not yet assured, as time had still yet to pass between now and the final decision and time changes all things, but the chance of it occurring was enough to give me hope.

  Hope - yet another feeling that I don't recall ever having felt before I was defeated by Matthew so long ago; and yet, it now seemed to be the very thing that could save not only my race, but my once-mortal enemies as well.

  The Human

  Slugs, Slugs, Slugs. They were everywhere. And when I say 'everywhere', I'm not just saying it to make you think there's a lot. I really mean everywhere. Not only was there a large group of them a metre or two away from us right now, but another massive army of them surrounded our scout ship. And off in the distance, I could see huge amounts of them milling around, doing whatever it is Slugs do when they've defeated a planet. Probably doing a victory dance or something.

  I also saw some damage to PDN. Nothing in the vicinity of us or our ship, but off in the distance around us. The rolling hills concealed most of the sources, but there was several places that had smoke rising up into the air. And in at least one spot I could see what looked to be a smoking crater. A big smoking crater. That must've been what all the booming was about then! I wondered if there used to be a Cyborg building there, or if the Slugs just decided to blow up a random patch of ground; perhaps that patch of ground had insulted them or something.

  Focusing on the Slugs, for some unknown reason, not all of them were in the basic form now! It was so weird, I couldn't find any reason for why they take the forms they do. If the humanoid form a lot of them were now using was actually useful on this planet, why weren't Terry and Kerry like that? Why wasn't every Slug here in that form? Must be a Slug thing. That was the answer to a lot of these alien mysteries.

  Now, as for this humanoid form. I suppose that it technically was humanoid, but it definitely didn't resemble a real human. Kind of like how a Cyborg might have two arms, two legs, a torso, a head, and even basic facial features, but you could still easily tell that they weren't actually a human. Except maybe Phill, who looked a lot more like one of us.

  Firstly, these Slugs did have two arms, two legs, a torso and a head. That was a start. They were a lot shorter than me though, and only came about up to my shoulders, or up to Matt's chest. Their feet looked normal enough, apart from being purple and having no toes of course. And they had no fingers. Always a dead giveaway that maybe you're not a homo sapien when both your arms end in a glob of flesh (in this case, slime).

  If they had a neck, I sure couldn't see it - it looked like they went straight from shoulders to head. And that takes me to the freakiest part; their head. Their head was small, and very misshapen. Instead of a normal round-ovalish type head, they were very short, and relatively very elongated to the side. It looked like a straight, sideways banana, although the proportions weren't actually that bad. And they were purple.

  On their face were simply two large eye holes, spaced further apart than seemed normal, and no other features. Which made sense I guess, since their heads really had no other room to fit other stuff on. Matthew had explained to me how they could see with those eye holes, but I started to wonder how they could smell and hear with no noses or ears (I knew that they had no sense of taste). Well, perhaps now wasn't the time to be asking those kinds of questions.

  As soon as the first Slug in our group came within range, Carmen quickly stepped forward and connected her slime to theirs. I knew that normal Slugs didn't talk, but it was still quite creepy when they all saw Slob surrounded by our group. Wordlessly, and without any expressive signs that I could tell, they quickly surrounded him, giving the Cyborg an extensive guard. He wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

  When we'd first landed on Slugenis, the first Slugs that saw Phill instantly attacked him. But these ones didn't attack Slob. I guessed that it was because we'd just taken over their planet, and it wasn't Slugenis that had been potentially attacked. Although from what I knew about usual Slug-Cyborg encounters, prisoners of war weren't a common occurrence.

  By this point, all of our Slugs were all in contact with one other Slug (except for Matt), who was in contact with a bunch of others around them. Which left Phill, Slob and myself to just stand around like morons, waiting for them to be done. Matthew was busy looking up at the sky morosely.

  After a few minutes of this, I'd had enough of waiting. "So, what's going on?" I asked.

  A second or two passed, before Boy replied, "We are discussing Slob's fate."

  "Ah", I answered. "Who's winning, then?"

  "We don't know yet", Boy told me, which practically meant, 'shut up while we decide'.

  I turned to Phill. "So now we wait. How long are they going to take, you reckon?"

  "Unknown", he answered. "Some amount of time." Well, obviously.

  "What are your thoughts on all of this?" I asked Slob. When he didn't reply, I prompted, "Slob?"

  He turned to me, and regarded me with a passive expression that showed no hint of emotion about his predicament. Lord knows I'd be extremely anxious right now if I was him.

  "I am also awaiting the decision of the Slugs."

  "Well, if I had any input, I would vote for your freedom", I told him, trying to create a positive impression of myself. "You seem pretty cool to me."

  He continued to look at me. "Define 'cool'." Oh no, it was Phill all over again. I shuddered, thinking about all the time I spent doing this kind of thing with him.

  "Never mind", I brushed it off. "Say, do you have any super-powers? Rabadootime had these long blades that extended down his forearms, so what have you got? Do Cyborg leaders get all the best equipment?"

  Phill answered me with, "They are not super-powers, but rather prototype technology. One of our customs is for Cyborg leaders to be the first to test new weaponry for Cyborg use. If they decide it is suitable, the technology gets passed to the next stage of the testing process."

  Cyborgs had customs? I guess that Phill was right; even though they were machines, they still had a fully-functioning society... Heh. Robots. Fully-functioning. Get it?

  "Correct", Slob said. Perhaps he was trying to answer all of our questions so that he might live. Whatever the case, he was giving me something to do while I waited, so I was grateful.
r />
  "What was so special about Rabadootime's blades, then?" I asked. They hadn't seemed anything special to me (apart from hacking off Matthew's head, of course), but whatever use they had would be here in the Archives somewhere, I supposed.

  "They were designed to be sharp enough to pierce Slug bodily metal", Slob answered.

  "Metal Slug, it's called", I supplied. He didn't reply to that, but I figured that he must have just logged it into his memory. Or some other robotic thing like that.

  "Are you currently testing a prototype technology?" asked Phill.

  "Yes", Slob told him. "I shall test another in future."

  "What is it now, and what will the future one be?" I asked eagerly. Come on, please be some kind of super-weapon.

  "The second will be using thin, powerful magnets", he said. "That is all." Didn't sound like a super-weapon, and he didn't say anything about his current one, but I gathered that to mean, 'It's a Cyborg secret, so stop asking!'

  "OK", I said. "Say, what was the deal with all of those booms that we kept hearing? What were they?"

  Slob answered, "Rephrase the first query."

  "What were those noises?"

  "They were the vibrations caused by damage from the Slugs' ships."

  Aha. So it was us doing it this whole time! "Alright then", I said.

  We just looked at each other for a bit (which was just as awkward as you're imagining) before Frank announced, "Done."

  Slob and I turned to him at the same time. "Have you reached a consensus?" asked Phill. He sounded quite invested in the decision. What did it matter to him if Slob lived or not? I guess that, no matter how much he was a part of us, he would still prefer one of his old brethren to live. Would I act any differently, if a human's life was at stake? No need to leave that as a question - of course I would do the very same thing that Phill is trying right now.

  Boy was the one who said, more loudly than the situation warranted, "We have decided, given the circumstances and his general cooperation, that Slob should be allowed to live."

  I looked over at Matthew, and saw him still staring into the sky (and its pathetic excuse for clouds), not moving, not talking to anyone. He still hadn't made contact with any Slug. Great. Now I'd have to go cheer him up or something.

  "A wise decision", Phill complimented the group of Slugs, although I was pretty sure that most of them couldn't speak english.

  "So", I said casually after a pause. "I suppose that it's now time for us to leave?"

  "We must still travel to the Cyborg Archive stations that I previously indicated", Phill objected. Oh yeah, I forgot about that!

  "Ahh, about that", Boy said slowly. "There's a problem. That's might not be possible."

  That sure didn't sound good. Not good at all. "And what might this problem be?" I asked nervously.

  Boy replied, "Those boom sounds that we heard? It turns out that they were the starcruisers bombarding the planet pretty much all over the place wherever they knew there weren't Slugs." We already knew that Boy! Weren't you listening to Slob? He went on, however, with something we didn't know. "Unfortunately, it could very well be that the Archives we were looking for have been destroyed."

  "You're kidding me", I groaned. "What were the chances of that?"

  "Pretty high", Frank told me, "considering the extent of the planetary assault. The Slugs tell us that it is unlikely that anything that was directly attacked would have remained intact."

  Great. That was just great. I was so looking forward to finding out what Phill could glean from those databases as well. Such a shame.

  The Slug

  Betrayal. That was the only coherent word I could think of for some time. Betrayal.

  Once I got control of my thoughts again, I understood that I hadn't been betrayed; as the oldest Slug here, the ultimate decision about Slob's fate rested with me. The conference we had done was just to get other opinions on the matter.

  Unfortunately, those other opinions all insisted that we should let the Cyborg go. The fact that he had been so cooperative and hadn't tried to pull anything shifty, and Phill's presence with us which served as proof that Cyborgs could become non-dangerous, convinced most of the others to agree with the our Slugs that we should indeed let Slob go.

  But as the oldest Slug here, as the oldest Slug on PDN, the final decision was mine to make. I could choose to have him killed, and no normal Slug would hold it against me. It would just be another decision made by the highest-ranking Slug.

  The problem was, I didn't care what any normal Slug thought of me. I cared what Boy thought, what Carmen thought, what Frank thought, what Phill thought, what Ethan thought. Those are the opinions that matter to me. And each of them wished for Slob's life to continue.

  So even if our conference had come up with a majority vote to kill Slob, I still would have chosen to free him. As much as it cost me. As much as it would cost the Slug Empire, in the future. It was plain to see that I had chosen my friends over my Empire. Again. And I'd probably do so again. Again.

  I tried to rationalise it, to show myself that it wasn't as bad as I thought. Rabadootime was still out there, and he understood language. Merely killing Slob wouldn't stop the entire race from learning the Human speech as well. Keeping him alive would probably hasten the process, but ending him wouldn't halt the process. When I only considered the one side of the argument, and didn't think about the other side, it almost didn't seem like such a bad idea anymore.

  'Not many clouds out here.' It was Ethan's voice, coming from beside me. We were both looking up at the sky; following his suggestion, I paid attention and saw there was indeed not many clouds, and what clouds there were seemed insubstantial. Phill had said once that this was a mostly dry planet.

  'Not much at all', I agreed.

  There was a short silence. 'You alright?' my friend asked me, concerned.

  I sighed. 'Yes. I'm just worried that at some point in the future we'll come to regret what we're doing today.' Hopefully not too soon in the future.

  'Perhaps', Ethan replied in a pondering tone. 'But if we did the opposite, it just may be that we come to regret that instead. In fact, perhaps, at this point in the future that you speak of, we'll both look back at this moment and say, "Man, we sure are lucky that we kept Slob alive. Imagine how bad things would be right now if we'd just rashly killed him!" '

  Ahh, Ethan. I'd tried my best to cheer myself up for a while, but just couldn't manage it. Now, with a meagre couple of sentences, Ethan had accomplished much more than that.

  'You just may be right', I smiled at him. 'In either case, I think that we're done here. You ready to leave this chunk of rock?'

  He looked at me seriously. 'It's actually a molten-metal core, surrounded by a mantle, surrounded by a layer of crust. Much more complicated than just a "chunk of rock".'

  He stared at me for another second before we both laughed. Yes. Much more than that.

  Ethan continued, 'I assume you heard what Boy and Frank just told us then?'

  'Yeah', I shook my head. 'Such a missed opportunity. The Slugs just had to bombard the planet before they landed, in every major spot that they knew there were no Slugs. If there is anything left of those interesting stations that Phill mentioned, they are probably in no form that we can read.'

  'Quite a shame', Ethan agreed. 'Unless they didn't get hit.'

  'Maybe they didn't', I shared his hope. 'But I doubt it. Just imagine all the things that we could've learned though! It would be pretty dumb if it turned out that, sometime way in the past, the Slugs actually created the Cyborgs, who then turned on their masters. That is way too overused these days.'

  Ethan gave a small laugh. 'It may be overused back on Earth, but I don't think that would affect whether or not it was the truth.'

  'Heh', I said. 'I highly doubt it anyway; it's too obvious to be true. Anyhow, how the war started isn't of any concern to the present. That's the philosophy of the Slugs, you see; we're all vying for our own deaths, so we tend to ver
y much live in the here and now. History and the past isn't of much use to us.'

  Now Ethan shook his head. 'Well, I can think of some teachers back at our school who would heartily disagree with that philosophy.'

  'Perhaps so', I agreed. 'Well. Let's get back to the others. We should at least see it as Slob is released to run rampant again.'

  We turned, and walked back towards the rest of the group. I took a place besides Boy, Ethan going on his other side. With a touch, I let Boy know that I was feeling much better about this whole arrangement now. He sent an acknowledgement... and, without meaning to, a feeling of great relief. He'd probably learned by now that whenever I was in a bad mood, all he had to do was sic Ethan onto me.

  We all stood in a circle around Slob, who was definitely not standing at his full height. Well. Too late to add his purposeful making himself look weak to my arguments now.

  'Slob', I said. 'We've decided that you are to be let free, on the condition that you answer all of our questions, don't hassle us at all, and don't leave the planet until we are all gone. Do you agree to these terms?'

  'Yes', he said, as if there was a possibility he'd say "No".

  'Agree with some enthusiasm!' I complained.

  'Yes', he said, slightly louder this time. I sighed. Good enough.

  'Well, then, off with you', I told him. Motioning towards Kerry, I continued, 'Follow Kerry here. He'll guide you to some other Slugs who have some more questions for you. They may even take you to recover whatever Archive information you can.' Luckily, Kerry understood enough about speech to translate what the older Slugs wanted to ask Slob. It'll do; I didn't really feel like it right now, and they were perfectly capable of doing it instead.

  ' "He"!?' Ethan burst out. 'What do you mean, "he"? Kerry is a girl!'

  'What?' I asked, astonished. 'No way. I thought he was a guy this whole time!'

  'Kerry is a girl name!' Ethan almost raged. 'I made it Terry, the guy, and Kerry, the girl!' Of course, he wasn't really serious about this, so I could joke around as well.

  'It certainly isn't!' I yelled back. 'I know plenty of guys named Kerry!'

  'Name one!'

  'Kerry!'

  We looked at each other for a second, and then just laughed again. As Slob and Kerry walked past us, the Slug seeming to not care about the discussion of his or her gender and the Cyborg looking straight at us, Phill leaned near him and said, 'Organics. What did you expect?'

  Slob didn't reply, but I could bet that he'd agree with Phill. And by "I'd bet", I mean I'd bet a lot. Because I'm pretty sure that I'm right.

  'Well then', Boy said. 'I guess it's time to go now.'

  'What, Kerry's not coming with us?' asked Ethan.

  'Nah, he's got other stuff to do', I said. 'Like torturing Slob for information. It's time for us to roll; they'll send back to Slugenis anything important they find. And besides, I've had enough of this place.'

  As the six of us started to walk back towards the very same scout ship we'd landed on the planet in, I realised that I hadn't thought about the whole Slob problem for a while. Perhaps, just perhaps, it wasn't so bad after all. Well, as Phill would say; time would tell. If only time could speak; now that would be handy. It would also make for interesting conversation.

  The Cyborg

  For once, success. My plan had been completed in a satisfactory manner; Slob survived the encounter with the Slugs. That was good.

  It was unfortunate that the majority of the Cyborg Archives had most likely been destroyed by the Slugs that had remained above the planet. In a way, however, I acknowledged this as perhaps a fortunate occurrence. As much as I wished to learn what the Archives on the Slugs contained, and as much as I would never deny my friends this knowledge, it may have held some information that would be detrimental to my cause. How likely would the Slugs be to ally themselves with the Cyborgs if they knew such fundamental things as how the war had started?

  Dismissing this as a currently irrelevant line of thought, I assisted Ethan to tie himself down inside the scout ship. We were getting ready to take off from PDN, and travel back into Slug space.

  "Well that was an exciting excursion, wasn't it?" asked the Human brightly.

  "Including what happened to Terry?" I asked him.

  His expression darkened, and he looked down and said no more. Surely I couldn't be blamed for simply reminding him of something which he evidently forgot?

  "Exciting indeed", Matthew said from some distance away. He was sitting near Boy and Frank.

  Carmen came to join Ethan and me. "So where are we going now?" she asked.

  "I'd sure like to check out Earth again at some point", Ethan pondered. It seemed that he'd forgotten about Terry again. "We need to make sure they made a statue of Pauline, right?"

  "Yes", Boy told him, "but Slugenis is much closer to PDN than Earth. Slugenis is at the back of Slug territory - "

  "Why's that?" Ethan butted in.

  Matt answered his question. "Well, we expanded to take as much space as we could in the direction of Cyborg territory. Taking a planet on the side of Slugenis facing away from Cyborg space would be pointless in terms of either attacking them or defending from them."

  This was reasonable to me; with so many planets and satellites in the relatively small section of the galaxy that the Slugs and Cyborgs occupied, there was always plenty of territory to conquer without the Slugs having to resort to those worlds behind Slugenis, where it would serve no tactical advantage.

  I deemed this to be a viable strategy owing to the high probability that the Cyborgs would never circle around Slug territory to attack Slugenis from the rear - and the Slugs would never do the same to the Cyborgs - due to the massive amounts of time and energy it would require.

  Of course, some situations warranted the long trip; my initial voyage to assess Earth's potential for mining, simply to add it to the catalogue, and Rabadootime's quest to broker an alliance had managed to slip past Slug defences.

  The Slugs would eventually begin to conquer the worlds behind it in a search for more resources; as so many things were, this occurrence was dependent only on the passage of time.

  "Ah", the Human replied.

  This prompted Boy to continue. "So, Slugenis is at the back of Slug territory, which is opposite Cyborg territory. PDN is far off in Cyborg territory. Earth is behind Slugenis. So it would save time if we went to Slugenis first."

  "Hold on a second", Ethan said thoughtfully. I attempted to wait one second, but he continued talking before that time had elapsed. "If we just flew all the way into Cyborg territory towards PDN, why didn't they attack us along the way?"

  "You forget that we were travelling at a significant proportion of the speed of light", I elected to remind him. "We were moving much too fast for them to launch any kind of attack that would be able to catch us."

  "Couldn't they have warned PDN that we were coming?" the Human continued to question.

  "You forget that we were travelling at a significant proportion of the speed of light", Matthew told him in a funny tone. I got the impression that he was simultaneously impersonating me whilst making a joke at my choice of words. I did not see the humour.

  Matt went on, "Any signal they did send wouldn't have gotten there much earlier than we did, depending on how far from PDN we were when we were 'caught'. And, of course, they couldn't really know where we were going. It's not as easy as it sounds to look at a flying, rotating ship which makes constant minor course adjustments and know where it's going to end up a dozen light years down the track. It can be done, of course, but it takes some good technology and a healthy amount of assumptions."

  "I guess so", Ethan replied. I wasn't at first sure what he was guessing about, but concluded that he had used the statement to acknowledge that he understood what Matthew was saying. It was peculiar, but I understood it. The Human language was as much about understanding the context and customs of words as about understanding the words themselves. It would never work in the C
yborg society, but perhaps it had its uses on Earth?

  "So, we're going to Slugenis first then?" asked Frank.

  "Yeah", Boy told him. "If we ever do go back to Earth, staying a week or two in Slugenis first will make no difference in terms of the large number of years we've been away."

  "It will make some difference, but it will be miniscule", I corrected him.

  "We'd better stay at least a week this time", Ethan threatened Matthew. "I don't want to go to an alien planet and only stay a day or two again. We didn't even stay a whole day on PDN!" I didn't comment on that fact that we didn't know how long a day on PDN actually lasted; it could be longer than a week on Earth, and it would therefore be very difficult for us to stay a whole day on the planet.

  "Yeah, but it felt like ages, what with all the walking", Matt complained. "And fine, we'll hopefully stay a bit longer this time. Assuming, of course, that Slugenis hasn't been invaded or anything."

  "Unlikely", I told him. He simply looked at me and smiled while slightly shaking his head.

  As the scout ship began to rumble, due to the vibrations of its engines beginning to power up, Boy said loud enough for everyone to hear, "And so we end another one of our excursions."

  "With the hope that there'll be not much more", Ethan added. I thought that this may oppose the Slugs' desire of Honour, since they should want many 'excursions' in order to increase their probability of death, but no one contradicted him. Could it be that every Slug with us was now sufficiently like Matthew that they valued their lives above their Honour? I hoped so for their sake; from my experiences, although it could be quite unpleasant, the net effect of life was generally a good thing.

  "There will likely be many more", I said. "Given enough time."

  "And enough good luck!" shouted Matthew as he strangely punched the air directly above him just before the ship lifted off and its noise superseded any form of verbal communication.

  Although we could no longer talk without shouting, Ethan and I appeared to be thinking something similar when we both looked at each other and smiled.

  Yes. Life was a good thing indeed.