I mean, yeah, but… “How long have you been standing there?”

Atte looks down the hall as though he’d much rather return to whatever else he was doing. Kind of like he doesn’t even want to talk to me at all. It stabs a little into my heart, but it’s not an unusual way of acting, especially not for the troopers. Sure, I’ve been holed up researching (still not sure if breeding soldiers through cloning is quite ethical) for a few hours now, but any time I go into the hall or anything the troopers just look at me with mild fright. I guess I can understand it, but it still hurts a little.

Pointing down the hallway, Atte tries his best to sound nonchalant as he says, “Look, I kinda ditched my squad a minute or so ago, so if I don’t catch up I’m pretty sure they’ll report me to HR.”

“No, wait! Don’t go!” I plead, hopping to my feet and wrapping my hands around one of his arms and my tail around his left angle. A gleam of desperation must be shining through my eyes since Atte freezes in place.

I don’t mean to sound so intent on keeping him, but somehow a little part of my loneliness slipped through.

Atte stares at me, though it’s a little hard to tell with his eyes hidden by the helmet.

I press down my desolation, hiding it with a little smile. “Please? I just… We can talk, right? I’m sure the Lieutenant would understand.”

“Well…” Atte touches his gloved hand to my slick one. “Sure, dude. As long as you don’t tell the other trooper guys.” I stare at him mutely, big eyes prompting him to explain. It’s worked so far. Considering the way Atte scratches at his neck, it has worked yet again. Octopus-eyes for the win. “They… they’re a bit scared, I guess. Do you fault them? One moment we’ve got a strange creature on deck and the next it might as well be a living planet.”

Mm, I guess I can understand. “You’re not scared though, right?”

He kinda stares at me for a few seconds like a man weighing the pros and cons of lying to a child. “...Sure. Sure I’m not.” A gloved and armoured hand falls to pat me on the head.

I know that is a lie. Still, I choose to believe him. Not because I doubt my own ability to sense emotion, but rather because I know a confrontation would do neither of us good. I want to be friends with him, and sometimes, that means swallowing a white lie like a bitter pill.

I smile brightly at him. “Gee, that’s good! Cuz I’m really not any danger, yanno? I’m fighting for the Empire! So everyone’s okay!” And maybe, just maybe, if I keep working with them, they might have enough spare resources to save a few slaves. Maybe.

Atte looks at me like I’m the most naïve thing he’s ever seen. “As long as you keep thinking for yourself, I guess it’ll be fine, kid.”

Hmm, now that I think about it, maybe Atte could give me some better insight into the subtleties of the world? Like why the Republic was so bad (apart from their usage of evil space wizards as space cops) or why the Empire isn’t doing much to fight slavery. Those are all very good questions, but I was actually heading somewhere. I’m not sure for how long Typhin will stay awake, so I’d better head there as soon as possible. But I don’t want to leave Atte behind after we just got talking.

So, I grab his hand and begin pulling him down the hallway. He tries to fight it for a second, but upon realizing that I’m surprisingly strong, he lets me drag him.

I turn back to look at him. Thoughts swirl in my head. “What was so terrible about the Republic?”

Atte blanches.

“I know the Empire is much better and all, but what exactly was it that the Republic did so badly? You’re older than seven, so you should have lived through a bit of the Republic, right? Sorry if I sound ignorant, the archives were a little… incomplete? I dunno, uncertain, I guess.”

For a few seconds, Atte seems to be trying to collect his thoughts, his eyes running over the interior of the hallway.

“...You really don’t know anything, do you?” Atte asks a little rhetorically. Then, he sighs. “I should’ve guessed so. Well, I mean… I was just a teenager so I didn’t think too critically about anything, but in the end, it was the politics. I remember it taking several years for the senate to reach even the slightest decision. In situations where war was breaking out, by the time they decided to intervene, the fighting had already ended in a slaughter. I grew up in the middle rim so I wasn’t very aware of it all, but once the fighting and the warring got into the core, you could really feel the galaxy cracking.”

In my research, I had discovered a fair bit about the various ways the immense galaxy was segregated. The main three were the outer rim, the middle rim and the inner core, with the inner core being the wealthiest and the outer core being the poorest. Outside the outer rim was only wild space and uncharted areas filled with questions.

Ah, interestingly enough, we are currently outside of wild space, travelling back to the outer rim from the unknown regions.

“Putting all of that power with too many people in the middle of a war just wasn’t working. We needed decisive action and the senate just wasn’t giving us that.” For some reason, the words that trailed out of Atte’s helmet began to feel slightly muted, almost scripted. “The galaxy needed a man of action to end the warring and unite the people. That became the Emperor. May the Empire be preserved for a thousand years under his benevolent rule.” There at the end, it felt as stale as a dried cheese.

I hummed softly.

“What do you think would have happened if the Republic found me instead of the Empire?” A purely hypothetical question, one I hoped he might answer without subduing his true opinions.

“That’s…” Atte looked at me almost pitifully. “There is no doubt in my mind that you would have been killed. First, they would have tried to kill you with ships and ion torpedoes, then they’d send in their personal watchdogs. You may be massive, but when faced with a hundred of those so-called peacekeepers, I doubt even you could survive.”

I couldn’t tell if what he said was honest or false. Maybe a little bit of both? He seemed conflicted, at least.

...By the way things are looking, it seems it’s not quite okay for soldiers to discuss bad things about the Empire. Logically, that makes sense. If your soldiers don’t discuss why your nation sucks, they can’t dislike it, and their morale when fighting will be stronger. But, going by Atte’s attitude, it feels a bit more fearful than that. A good nation would discourage their soldiers from talking shit (usually through a praise-centred culture or something) while a more evil one might go so far as to actually punish soldiers who talked smack.

All things considered, not a very good sign. Though, I guess it should be expected since this is a dictatorship?

Hrmm, the more I think about this the weirder it seems. Atte doesn’t seem too intent on telling me the full truth (likely out of fear of retribution), so I guess I’ll hope for Typhin to fill those gaps. Of everyone here, he’s been the bluntest. I think. Fern has been pretty blunt too, but not in the this-is-how-the-galaxy-works kind of way.

Speaking of Typhin, it seems we’re finally outside his door! I hover for a second, my hand still holding Atte’s. The trooper doesn’t seem too excited to meet a superior out of the blue.

“Uh, listen, kid… Isn’t this the Commander’s room?” I nod deeply. “The room he’s in right now?” I nod again. “...Well, see, I kind of have guard duty to get to. You don’t mind, do you?”

I frown at him. Do you really have to? He nods silently. Well, okay then…

I let go of his hand. He rubs it for a second before waving and saying bye. However, the moment he turns around he’s stopped dead in his tracks. He turns back to look at me. My tail is unconsciously wrapped around his ankle again. I release him. He says bye again and leaves. I let my eyes linger on his back for a few seconds before turning back to the door.

I knock.