A day on Solis-D lasts just under a day on Gaia, so in the early hours of the

  morning, Steve was waiting to see movement. The door of the Vampire base

  opened, and Rhain came out. Steve informed everyone to gather and flew the drone

  in front of him. He was followed by one more of his kind, who just stood there

  observing the drone.

  Aldon and Rhain began talking. Their conversation took a while, since there

  was a delay in the signal due to the distance between the planets. After a few hours,

  Steve interrupted. “Batteries are running low. It will need to fly up to the top of a

  building and recharge.”

  Alex stood up and said, “Eldon, inform Rhain that your conversation has to be

  cut short. The drone is running out of battery. Let’s discuss, and we’ll speak with

  them again tomorrow.”

  “Actually,” said Steve, “we really drained it this time, and it’s already late

  there. We will need most of tomorrow morning to charge. It’s better if we have the

  next talk in two of their days.”

  Eldon informed Rhain that they would talk again the morning of the second

  day, and they left to return to their base.

  Jain turned to Konoya and whispered in her ear, “Did we manage to get that?”

  “All of it,” Konoya whispered back.

  Alex turned to Eldon. “So, what is the deal there? Are they in need of

  anything?”

  They all had noticed that during their conversations, Rhain was becoming

  increasingly direct with his tone, while Eldon was looking confused.

  “It is strange. And I don’t know what to say about my conversation. Can you

  please give me some time to think?” asked Eldon.

  “Of course,” said Alex without giving it much thought. “But you need to

  understand that we also have the right to know what is going on.”

  “You do,” said Eldon. “I will sort myself out and talk to you in a few hours, if

  that is acceptable”

  His tone was different than other days. Something was clearly troubling him.

  After Eldon left the room, the team gathered to speak.

  “Are we sure that what we will hear is the right translation?” Jain asked

  Konoya.

  “They spoke for so long that together with the words we had picked up during

  his stay here, we could even make out a quantum physics conversation,” said

  Konoya “So yeah, it is clear. He had given us more of his ancient language than he

  thought in his stay here, and I had recorded all of it.”

  “What are you two talking about?” asked Alex.

  “You have to forgive us, but this might be one of those moments when you

  are too trusting. We recorded his entire conversation, and after the translator got the

  language, we translated everything, including his conversation from yesterday.”

  “I thought we agreed that we will not eavesdrop on their conversation without

  him knowing,” said Juuda with clear dissatisfaction.

  “We did not. We just recorded it, and now we have the language. We still

  don’t know what they spoke about,” said Jain. “Alex, this is your decision.”

  “This is unfair,” Alex replied. “Curiosity alone dictates me to hear.”

  “But do we really want to be the people who did not show trust? We are not

  doing this for him. We should not be hearing this, for us!” said Juuda.

  “From that point of view,” said Konoya, “Juuda is right. We should not think of

  this as something that has anything to do with him. We need to think whether we

  trust him or not.”

  Alex looked up and took a deep breath. “Deep down I don’t want to listen to it,

  but since we came here, we were greeted with hostility from every direction. Do we

  really want bet the continuation of our species to a trust roll? If we risk, we might risk

  it all. If we don’t, we might become more morally comfortable. The losses outweigh

  the gains for now. We will look at our moral code, Juuda, when the risk is not so

  great.”

  “I would rather not stay here then.” Juuda stood up and left the room.

  “I understand,” said Alex. “One day, I hope to be more like you.”

  “Konoya, let’s hear it,” said Jain.

  The conversation began with greetings and general environmental

  information. Living conditions and psychological strengths. Rhain seemed to be

  asking questions to understand Eldon’s mental situation and the impacts of the years

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  in isolation. When Eldon had difficulty answering, Rhain reminded him continuously

  that he should be strong. He is a soldier, and he needs to keep it together. He

  repeated it even in moments when it was not necessary to do so. Konoya

  immediately identified the pattern. Rhain was his superior in hierarchy and was trying

  to make Eldon understand this in a very smart and slow way. At some point, quite

  casually, Rhain asked Eldon, “Can they hear you now?”

  “Yes,” said Eldon, “but they don’t understand anything. I never taught them

  our language.”

  “Right, then. Listen closely. You are a soldier, and you will now receive new

  orders. Stay with them there and observe them. Learn of their defenses and their

  technology. Act as their friend and gain their trust. You will be informed of what

  comes next in the future.”

  “But why?” asked Eldon with discomfort. “They are my friends. They

  welcomed me here without knowing me, and for the first time in thousands of years, I

  am not bored or alone.”

  Rain replied seriously, “Eldon, this is not a matter to be taken lightly. There is

  a good chance they are the Thropi.”

  “What are you talking about? How can this be?”

  Rhain looked like he was searching for the right words. “It can. I can’t be sure,

  though. We have to see them and talk to them to confirm it.”

  “But we were told that the Thropi were monsters. That they want nothing but

  destruction and that they never made it here.”

  “There is more to the truth than what you know,” answered Rhain. “Trust me

  for now. Soon you will have more information.”

  “I would like to know now.”

  Rhain began to look angry at Eldon’s persistence. “Eldon, now is not the time.

  All was done to protect us. To protect you.”

  “Protect us from what?” Eldon was very confused.

  “It is a long story, and now is not the time,” Rhain said with a strict voice

  “Whatever you do, do not trust them. We might be wrong, but it’s the safest way.

  Learn everything you can, and we will think of something in the meantime.”

  At that point, Steve was informing them that the batteries were running low,

  and the conversation ended.

  “This complicates things. What do you think?” asked Alex.

  “I think we should wait for him to tell us his story. Let’s see if he will say the

  truth,” answered Jain. “After, we will discuss the right direction.”

  Konoya nodded. “I agree. I think he will try to come clean. I spent far too

  much time with him, and he seems like someone who will not have an easy time

  doing spy work.”

  “It is important that we observe him for a while. We will need Bara in the loop.

  One of his drones will have to be observing Eldon at all times from a distance. If he

  enters the main bunker, we will need to know exactly what he will be seeing,” said

  Alex.

  “The good news is that we will soon know if he is a true friend and ally or not,”

  said Jain.

  With an uneasy feeling, the team left the room. Eldon was seen walking

  around the perimeter of the city. Near the trees, at his favorite spot, he stopped and

  lay down, looking at the sky. A couple of hours later, he returned to talk with Alex.

  “Alex,” he said with his head facing down, “I need to tell you something.”

  “Personally to me or to everyone?” asked Alex.

  “I’d rather speak with you alone.”

  “Do you want to walk?” he asked.

  “That would be nice.”

  Alex turned off his communicator, and they began walking. After they walked

  past the gate, Eldon got straight to the point. “Rhain asked me to do something I

  don’t want to do.”

  “What did he ask you to do?”

  “I am not sure if I should say right now. I am not sure of what to do,”

  answered Eldon with discomfort.

  Alex felt bad about how things have gone and decided to trust Eldon with the

  truth. “I can make this a little bit easier for you.”

  “How?” asked Eldon with disbelief.

  “Before I explain how, I want you to understand that this world is alien for us.

  So far, we have only faced hostility from everyone we met.”

  Eldon looked at Alex curiously, as if he started to understand what was

  happening. Alex continued, “We trust you to be among us, and we trust you as a

  friend. We do not trust Rhain or his orders toward you. We know how hierarchy

  works, and we know that you will probably obey his orders. That meant we could take

  no chances.”

  “What exactly did you do?” Eldon looked scared. His mind was traveling

  between bad scenarios.

  “We translated your conversation. We know he asked you to spy on us.”

  Eldon looked relieved. He was worried of far worse, so this news did not

  strike him as something too bad. “I completely understand. Yes, you made it easier.

  So, what do I do now?” he said.

  “It has been a long time since you had contact with your people, but you

  should remember. There is a strict chain of command in most societies. Breaking this

  chain might have catastrophic results for you.”

  “I know that. But my society failed a long time ago. Perhaps it’s time to give a

  chance to a new one. That’s what I am thinking. They think you are the reason our

  world collapsed, but this can’t be the truth.”

  “Yes,” said Alex, “we heard. We could not have been the ones you call

  Thropi. We were still in preindustrial societies when your war was raging.”

  “Should we let them know that you know everything?”

  “This, my friend,” said Alex compassionately, “is your moral dilemma. I had to

  take mine when I heard your conversation without your approval. I am happy with the

  way it ended, but it does not change the fact that it’s not correct. You will have to

  make your own decision and face the consequences.”

  “So officially, you are not my leader?” asked Eldon.

  “I am not,” said Alex, “but I am officially your friend. I would give the same talk

  to any of my friends. You have a leader and are talking to Rhain. If you want,

  however, to become an actual member of this society, you will have to first explain

  this to your superiors.”

  “You make it sound easy.”

  Eldon decided to keep it a secret for the time being. As if Rhain understood,

  he began limiting his talks with Eldon and began asking for Alex to visit the base on

  Spi and talk with the leader of the Vampires in person, a leader who did not accept

  talking over the drone. He insisted on a face-to-face meeting.

  The Arrow, which had been turned into a research facility, required far too

  much work and modification to make a trip between the planets, so for the time

  being, it remained a plan for the future.

  The Vampires agreed on a check-in once every fifteen days with Eldon, who

  was to remain with the humans. They thought that his spy work would go on while

  the information he was delivering was real but not sensitive. He had blurred the line

  between spying for his superiors and disobeying their orders.