Moving their ship across the surface of the planet was far less dramatic than the original arrival. After securing what needed to be secured and performing some basic general maintenance, the ship rose from its spot on the island city of Okoia, and headed towards Thalassa.

 

“I’ll miss Okoia.” DH said, their ears low as they watched the city fade into the horizon on their screen. “I’m surprised that Ark-1 didn’t order us to stay there until after the switch.” Their ears flicked as they spoke, their hands clenched into fists.

They tried not to talk about it. Thinking about being separated made them both feel sick and there was nothing to be done, so there was no point in bringing it up. TO hoped that if they didn’t talk about it, then maybe they’d have a few minutes where they forgot all about it. 

 

“We can’t let the civilians know that anything is wrong.” TO said. They figured the insurgency would find out, eventually; Kei’s unscarred face would give it away.

 

Of course, maybe they knew even before that. Maybe Pearla already told them. They had been stupid to talk about it in front of Pearla, k knowing she had links to the insurgency. The only solace that TO could give themself on that is that they weren’t really thinking right then. Even now, they felt like they were in a fog half the time; like the looming certainty of DH being taken away just took too much of their focus. 

 

“Right…” DH said. Their voice cracked, and they took several careful breaths to keep themself from crying again.

There had been too much of that as of late, but TO now understood what DH had been talking about earlier; about knowing that they would be separated, and trying to make the best of it. All they wanted to do between now and the time that DH left was make their mate happy. So long as they were attentive and did their duty as synths, then they could make DH as happy as possible for the short time they had left. They just had to do well enough to prevent further punishment. They didn’t even care about retiring anymore; what was the point?

TO came up behind DH and draped their arms and wings over their shoulders, “It’ll be a few more days yet.” TO said, their voice careful and quiet, “We’ll get to go to the art show-”

“As synths though-”

TO held DH closely. They still weren’t entirely sure that it wasn’t a trap; why did Pearla want them to go there?

 

Well, they’d be there, anyway; that wasn’t the question. The question was if they’d make an appearance as civilians, as Tio and DH. That might be dangerous. 

 

Of course, it was Thalassa, not Okoia. Okoia was large and open. It was the place where everyone on Arkane started. It was the center of commerce on the planet, where the rich and poor lived separated only by districts. Thalassa was entirely different. Thalassa was more like a carefully cultivated garden where the extremely wealthy of Arkane purchased the carefully cultivated and bubbled underwater land. From what TO understood, they carefully vetted and carefully monitored even the indebted who worked there. 

 

Maybe it would be safe. Maybe it wouldn’t be, but it would make DH happy. 

 

“... I’d like to see your dress.” TO said. “So… we’ll have to be civilians for a little while.” 

 

DH shook their head, “It’s risky.” They said, “If we get caught-”

“Then we get caught.” TO said. “We’re going to be careful and we’re going to do our job, but I will see you in your dress.” They leaned forward, their snout resting against the back of DH's ear. The words that DH had spoken on the night of their date rang back in their head, as it had happened so many times since they had gotten caught. 

 

 I’d rather have a life with you, even if it’s only here, and only for a short time

 

“... I don’t want you to get hurt.” TO said, “And now… now I know that no matter what -” They stopped, their voice cracking. No matter what they did, they couldn’t stop this from happening. They couldn’t stay together. They took a moment to collect themself before they continued. “I said once that I’d rather be corrected than live without you.” TO said. “And you’d rather have a life together, even a short one.. Right?” 

 

DH nodded. 

 

“... Then as long as we’re together, I want to have that life.” They had been juggling that thought in their head, wondering what punishments awaited them if they messed up the rest of their assignment. Would their superiors correct them, or repurpose them?

They had already laid the worst punishment. Nothing else mattered. 

 

“If you’re ok with that,” TO whispered, “then I want to enjoy these last few days with you as much as I can.”

DH was silent for a long time, and all TO could do was wrap their own wings around them tightly and hold them. “I’d do anything for you.” TO said. 

 

Even as they said that, though, they felt a pang of guilt. They’d do anything… But they would let DH be taken from them. They said once they would defy King Decon to protect DH… Would they do that to stay with them?  

 

The thought scared them; of course, any thought of defying King Decon scared them, and they pondered more than once if they should have taken Pearla's offer. Of course, as soon as they remembered that, they remembered Pearla worked with insurgents, and likely wasn’t actually interested in helping them, and who had likely hurt GiDi.

 

No, they had nowhere to go. Running would only mean a short period of fear and hunger before they got sick from starvation, or got caught by local authorities and killed, or got captured by the insurgents. The insurgents who had really ruined everything, right? If it weren’t for them, then Ark-1 never would have discovered anything. The attack never would have happened.

 

“TO?” DH said, their ears flushing blue, “Can you… kiss the back of my ear?” 

 

That request pulled TO from their thoughts, from the slowly rising anger inside them. Kissing DH’s ears was something that they did rarely; when they were being very intimate, and when DH was feeling more daring than normal. It was something TO loved, but something DH still seemed shy about.

That they were asking now drained all the anger from TO. They nuzzled their snout to the back of DH’s head and gently kissed them. For now, they’d try to just have this. For now, they had DH, their mate. Maybe it was only for another few days, but they’d enjoy their time together. 

 

They couldn’t save this anymore, so they’d enjoy it while they could. 

 

======

 

It took a full Arkanian day to get from Okoia to Thalassa. Of course, at its regular speed, their ship could easily circle the entire planet in less than an hour, but within the atmosphere, they had to travel at a much slower pace. Still, that didn’t matter to TO and DH. It just meant that they had more time to themselves before they had to act again; before they had to be synths again. 

 

They arrived at Thalassa far too early for TO’s liking. 

 

Much like on Okoia, a large, electric fence surrounded the landing station, but this time the landing pad took up nearly the entirety of one small island that sat in the middle of the blue-green ocean. There were other modest buildings outside the fence, some drones in the air and ships in the water, but there was no sign of normal life; no other civilian buildings, no distant cityscapes, just water all around, with small islands in the distance. 

 

“Most everything is underwater.” TO explained. “There're some stations on islands for generating solar power, but that's about it.” 

 

“Isn’t that dangerous?” DH asked, “You would think living in an underwater dome would be unwise”

 

TO just shrugged, “They probably think the same about living in space.” TO said. They had done a lot of research on how safe Thalassa was, mostly to calm their own anxieties about going there. 

 

They didn’t need to prepare for landing like they did when they entered the atmosphere. The ship merely drifted over the landing pad and settled in gently, the long tendrils gaining purchase on the mechanisms below before retracting to lower the ship to ground level. Before long, their ship was just as secure there as it had been on Okoia. They donned their armor and left to meet the welcome party outside.  

 

TO expected guards, of course; military personnel, much like they had seen on Okoia, along with only the essential political leaders. This was not the case; there were guards, but these guards were wearing armor that looked more decorative than functional; white, iridescent metal with shells worked into the breastplates. While they had weapons, they had spears instead of actual multi guns, and helmets with coral horns arching backwards, giving them the appearance of strange aquatic animals. Standing just behind the soldiers was a collection of civilians, all dressed in fancy, formal wear. They wore their hair in lavish and impractical styles, with shells woven into braids. Most of them had what looked like fish scales applied carefully to the sides of their faces. 

 

“They seem to have a theme.” DH said through their communicator.

“Don’t they though.” TO said back as they looked over everyone. There were so many types of civilians there, but TO noticed several things in common; they all had at least one set of legs; no legless people in attendance. They all had hair; or at least they wore wigs. Everyone wore artificial wings which were all designed to look like armored synth wings.

 

Expensive, and pandering; from their short time on Arkane, they could notice that at least. 

 

The only other government officials that were there were Minister Sally and Noss. Noss dressed as he always was, but they swapped their wig for a larger one with curls that poofed up all over; it was still that same shade of green though and lacked any seashells. Aside from that, he looked mostly the same; still dabbing his face with his handkerchief, his eyes still darting around. 

 

“I’m surprised he’s here.” DH said. 

 

“He’s basically our liaison.” TO said, “It makes sense.”  

 

Though Noss didn’t look that different from the last time TO had seen him, Sally did. Back on Okoia, she had worn relatively simple clothing, and no wig or accessories. Today, she had a large, intricately braided wig, with seashells woven in around where her minister's laurel sat on her head. Her dress was made of fine, draping silk in shimmering blues, with shells embroidered all over in glittering metallic threads.

 

“Honored Synths.” She said, with a bow of her head, “Welcome to Thalassa.”