Flit paled as Pholi spoke, their ears flicking down and twitching with worry as they hurried over

“What is it.” They said as they leaned over to  see what Pholi was working on. Synths were larger than most civilians, and Pholi was so much smaller, so the contrast between Flit’s large, solid form and Pholi’s short and rounded one was distracting. The minister pushed them back with his tail. Given the many long lashes cut into the fabric of the chair, TO was certain that Pholi made a specific effort to keep from hurting Flit. 

“We both know you can’t pick this stuff apart, so you might as well give me space to keep doing it.” he said, “But, to put it very very bluntly, the planet is on lockdown.”

A muttered curse in a language that TO didn’t know slipped from Flit’s mouth. 

“How will we get off the planet then?” DH asked, their hand tightening around TO’s, “Is there another way off or-”

“You don’t get off the planet.” Tham snapped, “It’s a lockdown. At best we could get you in the air, but the orbital defense network would shoot you down.” They glowered at the screen, “You’re stuck here for now.”

TO gripped DH’s hand as their wings tightened around their arms. They didn’t want to be around these insurgents any longer than necessary. The only thing good about any of this was the promise of being able to live with DH, hidden on a far off planet. 

If the planet was in lockdown, they were stuck here. 

 “Do they give a reason why?” Flit asked. 

“Oh, several.” Pholi said as they flipped through the information. “I’m working through the different translations now.” He looked up at TO and DH, “And I don’t suppose either of you know the base language code, do you?” 

TO’s ears flicked out, “Base language?” They repeated, “What do you mean?” 

“Oh, is it like a programming language?” DH asked as they rushed forward before TO could even stop them. “A lot of our stuff is done in Lua, with a mix of-” 

“No no. the base language.” Pholi said as they shifted to let DH look, “Though, if you think it’s a programming language, I don’t think you can help. Flit and Snout couldn’t.”

DH looked over Pholi’s shoulder, frowning as they looked at what was on screen. They looked up, and gestured for TO to look.

“Do you recognize this?” They asked.

With a sigh, TO made their way over to look at whatever they were picking at. Even if they did know, they weren’t sure that they’d say anything but they were still curious as to what the insurgents were looking at.

Seeing the screen answered no questions. TO didn’t recognize any of the symbols on display. 

“I should have figured that if Flit and Snout didn’t know, then you wouldn’t.” Pholi said. “They didn’t even know it existed.”

“If this is coding, shouldn’t Vik be helping?” DH asked, looking around for the smaller programmer, “He’s good at this too-”

“I’m over here!” Vik called out from his work area, “And no; I know programming languages, not that mess. Though I do think that it might be more similar to a programming language than a spoken language, but I don’t know enough about linguistics to make that call.” 

“It’s the language that goes into the Anchor.” Pholi said, “It translates this-”

“He means the Galactic Broadcast Anchor.” Flit said, “They just call it the Anchor here.”

“Yes, that.” Pholi muttered, “This language gets sent out, and translated for all the different languages that might be required, and for all the different conditions that need to be met-”

“Conditions?” TO asked, “What do you mean?”

“Right. Well. Look-” He pulled up two transcripts in a language that TO didn’t recognize at first, but they pulled up their chip and set the translator to see what they were looking at. 

“Don’t bother with that.” Pholi said, “I’ll show you the same thing on both transcripts.”

“So, it’s the same.”

“In this-'' He pointed back to the original language that was still on display, the so-called basic language. “It is the same. But once it goes through the anchor, this translates into Arkanian- '' He pointed to the transcripts, “But the translations are different here. This one-” He pointed to the first, “Is going to native Arkanian speakers in the residential district. While the other is going to people without an established residential address and low wage workers.” He shrugged, “I like to look over both, to get as much information as I can.”

“Let me guess.” Tham muttered as he came forward, “The one for us says that we’ll have to ‘make adjustments’ to survive ‘this trying time.”

Pholi gave a joyless smirk, “Something like that.” he said, “Both translations said that the insurgency is to blame for the lockdown, obviously. The one for us says the normal stuff, that the effect of the lockdown will affect everyone, and that we all have to suffer together to get through this.” he pointed to the first one, “This one on the other hand, says that the issue is mostly going to affect the upper classes who export goods in more than us plebs. Oh, and apparently we’ll actually do better in this than the upper classes will, because we’re used to living off local goods-”

“Wait… they’re blocking off supply lines?” Pearla said as she came up next to GiDi, “They’re cutting us off entirely?”

“Looks that way.” Pholi said, “People are being told to ration goods, and there’s no travel on or off the planet.” He frowned as he continued reading. “... And when it’s lifted, it’s going to be either because the insurgency has been dealt with, or because they’ve brought more synths here. Though…” He looked at the cluster of screens in the corner, “Vik! Did you get that information I wanted from their chips?”

“I did. I sent it to you. Or rather, it's in the shared drive.”

“I don’t see it there.” He frowned as he started flicking through different screens, “Where is it!?” 

“If I may?” DH said, stepping forward, “If he just sent it, it might be in your recent files.” 

Pholi flicked around, and a moment later a file showing synth writing popped up. “Thank you.” He muttered, distracted as he ran some program. DH gave a quick grin, then faltered as he caught TO’s disbelieving stare.

“What?” they said, “Vik would have come over to find it, and it’s painful to watch someone fiddle with something so easy to do!”

They had been speaking synth-speak, but Pholi chuckled anyway. “You’re not wrong.” He said, “Vik tells me that it’s painful to watch me try to use a computer for anything other than reading daily news.” He sighed as he looked from one set of lettering to the next, “Shame; I had hoped that your translation system would have had more information for me. Maybe even the meanings behind the basic code.”

“Our system?” TO said, “you mean-”

“The translation system that works with your helmet.” They said, “I was interested in how it translated things,” They glanced up, “You know the translations here are entirely limited, yes?” 

TO felt their ears pin back, “We suspected, but it wasn’t a big concern for us. If needed, we could speak with one another through internal communication.”

“Yes, well, you should have tested it.” Pholi said, “Your network changes everything you say, and even blocks some translations.'' He scoffed, “No wonder people think you’re all robots; your translation network blocks out any comments that denote feeling, from what I can see… Here-” He took out a microphone and held it up to TO and DH, “Say something. Say you’re feeling sad, or happy, or-”

“... Or uh..” DH’s ears flushed lightly blue as they spoke in synth speak, “Or, ‘I love my mate, TO?’”

It was so odd to hear DH say it so easily around so many, especially so many who knew who they were, that they were synths. It was unnerving to have them say that in front of Flit and Snout… but most people didn’t understand what was said, and those who did just gave faint smiles.

“See… it’s not translating anything there.” he said, “Try something else?”

“...I am fond of Arkanian food?” DH said. This time, a distorted voice spoke from Pholi’s speakers in Galactic Common.

“Arkanian Food suffices.” the voice snapped in a cold tone.

It dulls anything that denotes any emotion.” Pholi said, “And some things, it’ll just block out entirely.”

Perhaps that was why the suit hadn’t translated TO’s comment about having issues with the sight of blood back when the insurgents first escaped. Well, they had suspected that. They hadn’t expected the voice that came out to sound so sharp though.

“That’s why people keep flinching from us when we talk.” DH said, “Because we sound angry all the time.”

“Yes, you do.” Pearla said, “You all sound like heartless assholes.”

“And that’s not all it does.” Pholi said, It also filters out things from outside. It won't translate anything bad about the Decon regime, or about other synths.”

“And it does different things depending on who's talking and the audience.” Vik said from where he was working, “The commercial communicators all use the same program, so if a higher class person is talking to a lower class one, they’ll hear more disdain about the Royal Dick than the lower class person is actually using.”

“Yes, and most people just keep their communicators in, since it helps with accents and dialect as well, so even people speaking the same language might hear different things.” Pholi said, “it’s a very refined system-”

“Extremely refined.” Vik muttered, “I was hoping those two would know more about it. It’s either the most complex program anyone has ever made, dealing with more variables than I can even fathom, or, it’s an AI guiding the program to alter the translations to a specific directive.”

“An AI that complex wouldn’t be allowed.” DH said simply, “The Galactic- sorry, the Anchor is complex, but it can’t be that complex, or it would go against-” They paused, their ears twitching as they considered for a moment, “At least twenty AI control laws.” 

“I’m well aware.” Vik muttered. “Honestly, I’m leaning towards it being an AI. such a developed and complex AI could only really be compromised by another such AI. If Decon uses such advanced technology, then it’s obvious why he’d want to ban others from using them as well.” He huffed as he continued working, his fingers slamming against the keys, “Damn hypocrite.”

“Vik became a felon because of his work with AIs.” GiDi said to TO and DH, “Ignored some of the basic AI laws in their research.”

“I’m not surprised.” DH said, “Their work on the one that we captured was-” 

“Anyway.” Pholi said, “The point is that the system - however it works- clearly works towards some kind of goal, and while it’s interesting it’s not what I’m interested in now. What I’m actually interested in now is… Ah, right here.” A screen came up, and Pholi read over it as quickly as he could. “Yes… here we go.” he looked to Tham, “This has more information. Of course, I don’t know how true the information is, but it’s more information. Specifically, it’s information intended for synths.”

“What is it?” Tham demanded, “What are they saying about us?” 

Pholi grinned, “They really don’t paint us in the best of lights.” Pholi said. They cleared their voice, “Due to the malicious and short-sighted acts of the Despair Insurgency, the complacency of the civilians of Arkane, and the disappearance and presumed… destruction? Of four synths, King Decon must sorrowfully invoke Martial Law upon the planet. Galactic Defense Minister Gyrini has arrived on the planet, and has chosen to lockdown the planet until the support of a liberation squad has arrived.” He frowned as he looked to Snout, “It is ‘destruction’ there, not death, correct?”

“Right. We don’t say that synths ‘die’ or get ‘killed’. We say they were destroyed or repurposed-”

“But I’ve still not come across one for natural death.” Pholi said, “There has to be one-”

“There’s not. We don’t have natural deaths.”

TO almost spoke up then, to comment about the older synth they had met who was sent off to be repurposed just because they were old, and slowing down. The Officer had been irritated that they had waited so long to submit to examination, as after a certain point a synth's individual parts were more important than the synth themself.”

They almost spoke up. They didn’t. The insurgents didn’t need to know that. 

“When they say ‘liberation squad’, they mean an army.” Flit said. “A big one. I’ve been in them before.”

“Right…” Pholi muttered, “They don’t say how big it’ll be. They’ll need a lot of synths if they plan to cover the entire planet-”

“They’ll have the numbers, don’t worry about that.” Flit said, “And if they can’t get the insurgency under control, or they feel that it’s taking too much time…” they pursed his lips, their ears twitching as they considered. “... I am unsure. This is a residential civilian planet. They could send a fleet of ships over the surface of the planet, and level every building in the span of a day with thermonuclear bombs.”

Silence fell among all of them as the civilians, and even the younger synths looked to Flit in horror.

“.. They wouldn’t really do that, would they?” Another civilian said, this one a younger, bug-like woman with broken wings on her back, “I mean.. Decon is awful, but he’s not that awful. I’ve never heard-”

“You’ve never heard about it, because it gets blamed on the planet itself.” Flit said, “I’m assuming you read about the Gaian-X Planetary Defense System Meltdown?”

“I’m not that young. I saw that on the news-”

“They said that the insurgency attacked the network, and turned the weapons on the planet itself.” They shrugged, “Of course, that’s not what happened. The commander of that mission was likely given a timeline, and when they approached that timeline without resolution, they gave the order to level the planet. Meteors. Super-volcanoes. Extreme global warming events. These things happen naturally enough all over the galaxy, so if one of two planets must be dealt with, it’s an easy enough way to fix the problem.”

“King Decon wouldn’t do that.” DH said, stepping forward, “I mean…” they faltered as the eyes of everyone there landed on them, staring. They looked at TO, their ears flicking in desperation, “Things aren’t… I know things aren't that good here, but King Decon wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t allow an attack on his own civilians.”

“He would.” Flit said, “And he’s in fact encouraged it. The longer a struggle goes on, the harder it is to cover it up. At a certain point, Decon will make the order that this is the last chance for the planet. Martial law, and then failing that…” He shrugged.

“That can’t be. He wouldn’t allow that.” TO said. They couldn’t even fathom that level of death and destruction. They had seen such disasters occur, but never considered that it might be done on purpose. Who would destroy a whole planet, and kill off all its people? The civilians, and the insurgency, might be self-centered and short-sighted, but even they wouldn’t do something so awful. At least, they hadn’t yet. 

King Decon lived to protect the civilians. That’s why the synths were there; to serve him and let the civilians live their small lives. It would make no sense for him to simply decide to blow up planets. 

Unless it was for the greater good. A small voice inside said, Small sacrifice for the benefit of the rest of the galaxy.

 That thought threw them; it fell in line with what Ark-1 had said to them when they first arrived. However, what shook them more was Flit’s expression; the low ears, the pursed lips, the way their wings tightened around their arms. 

“He would.” Flit said, “I know…. I had to give that order once.”