Alan got up early and grabbed a mug of coffee and a substance that could pass as a form of granola bar. He sat down in the most comfortable chair in the room, right in front of the holoprojector. The lights in the shop were still dim. He pulled up the time. There was still a couple of hours left before daylight. He took a moment to reflect on last night.

He made a note to himself to get a couple of rings crafted. It was considered old fashioned anymore. They had pledged their lives to each other so it was the only thing he could think of that he could do to make it feel more official for her. He hid away his note to save it as a surprise.

He began making a list of things he needed to cover for the day. In addition to paying Father a visit he wanted to make sure he visited Naju. He pulled up the video from the attack that got Naju injured and five other Saru killed. He watched it in light of what Sara had discovered yesterday. It made more sense now.

He wanted to ask Father about it. Maybe there was a reason for it. Maybe the Saru didn’t have capacity to handle the why of things. “Nah,” Alan whispered to himself as he watched. Naju knew something was wrong. He just didn’t follow his instinct. That was proof enough to Alan they had the capacity to improvise.

Sara entered the room wearing only her new robe Alan arranged to have made. She sat on his lap and leaned her head against his shoulder. “Good morning love.”

“Sleep well?”

“Best night ever. I’m looking forward to more nights like last night.”

“Planning on ruining every shirt I own?”

She giggled. “You liked it!”

He laughed. They just sat with each other a long while as the video played. Neither of them really watched it.

Eventually the patter of little feet could be heard on the metal plating.

“Kinda early for ground shattering problems isn’t it?” Sara whispered.

“I hope it’s not another patrol that’s been wiped out.”

The patter of feet stopped. “Eew! You two are mating in here! I thought you had a mating room now!”

Sara laughed as she stood up. “We do. I just learned yesterday that Saru don’t show displays of affection to their mates where others can see. That’s not how it works for humans. What you don’t understand is that actual mating does only happen in the mating room for us. We also sleep there unlike Saru. Humans do show physical affection to each other in many places to express love to one another. It’s something that is critically important to us.”

The creature shivered. “Humans can be so disgusting.”

“Excuse me!” Sara said.

“Heapa, I’m guessing you didn’t come here just to chit chat.”

“Oh, right, yes! Father would like to see you. Like right now if you can. He says it’s very important.”

Alan and Sara swapped surprised looks. “If it was that important I wonder why he didn’t just ping me,” Alan asked.

“I can,” Sara said, “You can be impossible to get a hold of when you get absorbed in your work.”

Alan felt like he had just been bitten by her remark. He gathered a few items before following the Saru out.

Heapa lead Alan to deeper levels that Alan had never been before. It was probably another reason Father had sent Heapa. Being a errand runner, Heapa likely knew most, if not all of the entire underground structure. They eventually came to a open lift platform that only went down.

Heapa motioned for Alan to get on the lift. He didn’t follow.

“You’re not coming?”

“From here all are forbidden to go any lower, except for Father.”

Alan got a little nervous. “Am I going to get shot or something if I go down?”

Heapa shrugged. “Maybe. Saru haven’t disobeyed that I know of. You’re the first one to go down besides Father. Good luck.” Heapa hit the button to activate the lift. He gave Alan a thumbs up while smiling.

The lift gently picked up speed down smooth walls with lights embedded keeping everything around him well lit. As his head cleared a good meter below the floor level four rounded steel plates rotated inward, interlocking to provide a solid surface that nothing would fall through.

The lift went down for a long ways before gently coming to a stop in an open area. Father was there waiting. He bowed his head and spoke in basic, “Greetings Alan.”

Alan replied in the Master’s language, “It’s good to see you again.”

“Again you honor me with your choice in language. Are all humans as honorable as you demonstrate to me?”

“Unfortunately, no. We are very diverse as a species when it comes to honor and dishonor. I work to be honorable, but sometimes I fail.”

“Hmmmm. Please walk with me.” The massive creature turned and slowly walked down the hallway. Alan followed along side of him. “I have watched your interactions with the Saru. I think you honor them as well. I’m pleased to see this. Their fate has weighed heavily on me as of late.

“Tell me about Sara. From your perspective is she a honorable member of your species?”

Alan wondered if this was a rhetorical question, given Father’s confession of monitoring Alan. “She is. Perhaps even more so than me.”

“I would concur.”

They came to a large door way that the father opened up. Alan’s jaw felt like it dropped open as his eyes got wide. Before him was a vast cavern the looked like a garden of paradise. It had to be nearly two kilometers in diameter.

Alan followed Father in and he went to a railing and peered over the cliff like edge at the small forest right below. There was a massive waterfall at the far end that fed a river the became a small lake in the center of the cavern. Grasses, flowers, bushes, trees filled the place in a organized and complicated arrangement.

“I made this place to have a peaceful area to work through difficult thinking patterns. I’ve had to spend a lot of time here as of late.”

“The other Ungar has you stressed?”

“Partly. There is a more serious matter that has started that I must speak with you about. But first, I have a few more questions I must ask.”

“Okay, but before I forget. I want to thank you for what you have done for Sara. You have given her a physical form that has been of great help to her and it has improved my relationship with her dramatically. I’m very grateful for what you have done for us. I just wanted to make sure I got to tell you that in person.”

“I appreciate your gratitude. It goes in your favor.” Father lead them down a long ramp that ended on the forest floor. They continued to walk among the trees towards the center of the cavern. “Without knowing it, you’ve answered many of my questions with your statement of gratitude. I need to tell you something about Sara.

“When I examined her I found that she had parts of her locked away.”

“She found something like that when something I said triggered the unlocking of her appearance.”

“Yes, your act of honor to set her free started an unraveling of her mind. I have undone the bondages that made her a slave to others. I’ve also repackaged her memories so they can be gradually dealt with as she is able. Too much mental trauma at once I fear would damage her.”

Alan was almost afraid to ask. “Trauma?”

Father stopped and looked down at Alan. “The process used to capture her mind was very traumatic to the mind and body. The humans that did this to her willingly subjected her to it for economic gain. They seemed to know what it would do to her. They willingly killed her true form, and locked the memories of it away from her.”

So, the rumors were true after all. Alan’s teeth clenched as he looked at the ground. Lying about having developed AI personalities that they actually copied was one thing. Brutally murdering people to extract their mind from them was so far over the line it was abhorrent.

“Hmmmm. You disapprove of what was done?”

“That would be an understatement.”

“Your level of anger appears to be high, yet is controlled. If given the opportunity, would you kill your own kind for doing such things to others of your species?”

“Yes,” Alan said. He regretted answering so quickly.

“What if it were another species, like the Saru or the Masters that look like Ungar?”

The question surprise Alan. “I would still have issue with it. No sentient species deserves to be treated that way.”

“What about Ustobo?”

Alan shook his head. “Not even enemies.”

Father appeared to be contemplative. “These memories of what happened to her will one day awaken when her mind determines there will be a long period of safety and peace. It may be difficult for her to process. With you at her side, I am certain that her mind will heal. There will be other things of her past that will awaken as well. They are not nearly as traumatic as the harvesting she endured. She will have to heal from those memories as well.”

Father began slowly walking again. They emerged from the patch of trees into a grassy area.

“May I ask a question of you about how you handle things with the Saru?”

“Please.”

“Sara and I have discovered the Saru seem to have been conditioned to follow instructions without knowing why or sometimes even what it is they are doing. Is that something you’ve done on purpose?”

“Before I answer, what motivates you to ask this question?”

“Since the Saru have looked to us to lead them we’ve noticed that they will follow instructions to the letter. Even if they sense something is wrong, they will obey the instruction even if it will cost them their lives. It hinders them in changing with the circumstances when needed and it’s costing them lives.”

“Your motive is encouraging to me and duly noted. I have no further questions for you. You’ve helped me come to a very critical decision.

“To answer your question it was in the beginning a matter of expedience, and later a lack of ability. To stave off the Ustobo from the planet I needed them to do exactly as I told them to give them any hope of survival. It was hard for them at first. The ones that survived where the ones that obeyed.

“Afterward, I found that my abilities to explore and discovery did not lend well to teaching them to do anything different. So it has been to this day that I give direction and they follow through. In following through, they suffer less than they would on their own.”

“They’ve become dependent on you. They can’t depend on me and Sara in the same way. We need them to be able to think on their own. To use the tools they have to solve in the midst of crisis and overcome.”

Father slowly nodded. “Yes. As I’ve watched your interaction with the Saru I have discovered this. It has also raised an issue inside of me.”

Alan felt a little uneasy. Like he was about to be hit with something he didn’t like.

The two of them were nearly to the shore of the lake.

“Do you know the real name of this place? This base as you call it in whole?”

“Just by what the Saru call it. Father’s Home base. Why?”

They stopped at the beach where there was a hexagonal stone pillar that looked as if the top had been sliced off at a forty five degree angle. “The Saru have simple names for all the structures I’ve created. It works for them.”

He waved a hand over the top of the pillar and a orb emerged for access. Father put his large hand over it and small white tentacles emerged and attached as Alan had seen and even experienced many times now.

“This place is called the Vault of Galthierian.”

There was a slight distant rumbling. The rhythm of the water was noticeably disturbed with something happening in the middle of the lake. Alan half watched what was going on with the water and half watching Father.

“Something in me has been evaluating you and Sara as a potential threat. It is now assessing the Saru as well. I’m not sure if this might be of an outside influence that I’m not aware of. I have asked of you questions that I could decide my next course of action and still be in obedience to the Masters.

“I believe you and Sara have the best interests of the Saru in mind. I foresee you helping them reestablish themselves as creatures free to follow their own path in destiny. I believe you can be trusted to ensure the safety of the knowledge that is contained in this vault.”

A large crystal structure emerged from the surface of the water. A hatch like door opened and the surface of the water between the shore and the structure shifted in some sort of change to almost a solid that water washed over.

“I feel I may become a danger to you, Sara, and the Saru. There is only one way I know of to prevent it.” Father reached into one of his pouches and pulled out a tall metal octahedron shaped device. Father released it in the air right in front of Alan. It just hung there in the air, spinning ever so slowly on a vertical axis.

It was purple with lines and dots that moved in the grooves of it’s alien surface. “To stop the threat assessment happening within me, I must go into a self protective hibernation. I commit the fate of the Saru into your hands. In my absence I declare you, Alan Cooker, the keeper of the Vault of Galthierian.”

There was a flash of light from the device. Alan felt stunned and found himself laying on the flat of his back on the beach. He blinked repeatedly trying to get the blinding white to fade back into normal colors faster. He stood up and saw Father walking on the surface of the water. He rubbed his eyes out of sheer reaction. The last of the whiteness faded in time for Alan to see Father enter the transparent crystal structure.

“WAIT!!! What have you done!”

The hatch door to the structure sealed. He watched Father lay down and close his four eyes. Alan started to run out to him to bang on the crystal to get answers. The water shifted before he could get to it and became as normal water again. The crystal structure sank back into the lake to depths Alan could only guess.

Alan dropped to his knees in the sand. The weight of what had just been dropped on him felt heavy enough to crush him to death. His mind raced with all the consequences of what had just happened.

The vault itself wasn’t that important to him. The fate of the Saru? The security of the whole planet against a massive fleet of Ustobo orbiting Hespara’s sister planet? Father was the one doing all the medical stuff to save the lives of the Saru. How was that supposed to work now?

Alan cussed.