Vex somehow carries me an impossibly long distance. I don't know how he does it. It's something more than his cyborg strength. That alone doesn't give him the will to continue. He must be human, since as far as I know only the human will, the power that we all possess, when pressed, is strong enough to accomplish what seems to be the impossible.

“What are you doing?” I say, from where Vex carries me over his shoulder. I'm watching everything from a rear view, looking behind us.

He's stopped at an intersection of two different white tube hallways.

I spin my head around to see what he's doing. He walks towards a blank section in the wall, and it opens up for us.

“How did you do that?” I say, amazed that he apparently has control of the doorway system just like the aliens themselves do.

He briefly explains that he ate a strange little speck that he found in his room.

“That's so weird,” I say. “How did you know that it would do that?”

“I guess I didn't.”

“You must be more human than you realize,” I say. “I've never heard of anything called cyborg intuition, but I have heard of human intuition.”

“We can talk about it later at length,” says Vex. “I have a lot of questions about it myself.”

He walks us through the open doorway that yawns like a chasm in the wall.

“How did you know to stop here? Intuition? How did you know there was a room?”

“Just a lucky guess,” says Vex, as our jaws both drop in amazement at what the room contains.

“I've seen plenty of these rooms,” says Vex. “After I escaped I was searching for you and I stopped in at least a hundred of them, but they were all empty. I think they were prison cells without prisoners. But this… this is different.”

It sure is different.

This appears to be some kind of utility storage room.

It's completely stocked with all sorts of tools, metrics readers, scanners, and a whole slew of servo drivers in all shapes, sizes, and configurations.

“This is perfect,” says Vex, setting me down gently on the ground. “How's your leg? I saw you were limping.”

“It's fine,” I say, testing it out by extending it and bending it back. “I just hurt it a little when I fell on the ground.”

“Sorry about that,” says Vex. “I didn't mean to knock you down too.”

“No, you saved me,” I say. “There's no telling what that alien was going to do to me.”

I shudder at the thought of those incredibly creepy extra hands coming out from under his robe.

“Who knew they had a whole extra set of arms?” I say.

“I think they've been hiding a whole lot more than that from us,” says Vex. “Maybe everything they told us was a lie.”

“I don't know…” I say. “I have a feeling that what he was telling me about the general was true.”

“You know,” says Vex, bending over a strange machine, the likes of which I've never seen before. “We might just be able to find out.”

“What do you mean? How?”

“I think this is some kind of recording device, or play back system. Remember they were talking about monitoring all of Earth's communications? Somehow I don't think they were lying about that. They seem like they're a bunch of sneaky bastards, whoever they really are.”

“Can you get it to work?”

“Let me see.”

I watch as Vex fiddles with the strange machine. It doesn't look like any type of machine that I've ever seen before. There's nothing like it on Earth, that's for sure. It has tubes coming out of it from all angles. The tubes remind me of the velvety feeling of the antennae and I shudder, chills running up my spine.

I look behind us and see that that the door we entered has closed back up again, leaving yet another sleek blank white wall.

“Do you think they know we're here?” I say.

“Maybe,” says Vex. “But for all their technological sophistication, they don't seem to have a way to track us. Or they're letting us do what we want. I was running for a long time looking for you, and no one came for me.”

Vex pulls out something from a compartment that opens out of his calf. It's very strange looking, but it doesn't make me shudder like thinking about the alien antennae does.

He's got a couple servo drivers that he uses on the machine, examining it and pressing buttons here and there on it. He reconnects a couple tubes, moving them around into different configurations.

“Hey,” I say, suddenly thinking of something. “What happened when you punched the alien?”

“It was as hard as Acero Steel. I was worried I wouldn't be able to hurt it. It was like punching one of the stones on Mina Dos. Why?”

“Something’s weird about it…” I say, pausing as I try to collect my thoughts. “Because I escaped by kneeing one in the stomach and it was soft and squishy. But I remember looking back as you hit it, and I heard a sound like a rock hitting a rock or something.”

“Weird,” says Vex, shaking his head in disbelief. “There could be a lot more to these aliens than I'd thought. It could be that there are some individual biological differences between them, or…”

“What?”

“On Mina Dos we've heard about species that can… adapt themselves. Their bodies actually learn and change.”

“That's creepy,” I say.

“I suppose it's pretty useful for them,” says Vex. “OK, I think I got it.”

“It's going to work?”

“I hope so,” says Vex.

He connects the last tube and presses a big, squishy red button.

“Here goes nothing,” he says.

A strange sort of holo display jumps out of the machine and into the air.

“Wow,” I say, coming closer to the display to get a better look.

“Wow is right,” says Vex, putting his arm around me.

We stare into the display together.

There are many levels to it, layers upon layers of images. Somehow, I'm able to see many of the layers all at once. It's like no human holo display I've ever seen.

“Hey,” I say. “There's my dad!”

“Where?”

I point to where there's a little 3D image of my dad's face.

“Can you select it?”

Vex uses one of the loose tube ends to point at the picture of my dad, which gets sucked into the tube.

The holo display disappears for a moment, flickering, until it’s replaced by a new image.

“That's him!” I say, getting excited at seeing a familiar place in such a strange land.

I can see my dad in his office at home. It looks so familiar. I must have been in there a thousand times, or more. I've been going into that office since I was a little kid, bothering him when he was trying to work. But I don't see myself in the holo video.

“Shh,” says Vex. “He's speaking to someone.”

Sure enough, the holo video shows my dad talking to someone on a video com that sits on his desk. When I hear the voice, my whole body reacts in fear—it's the general who wants to kill me. His voice is unmistakable.

“As you can see,” the general is saying in the holo video, “there's no other option.”

“Are you sure?” says my dad.

As soon as I hear him speaking a complete sentence, and see his body gestures, I know it's him. This isn't a lie cooked up with the aliens. I simply know the way he talks and moves too well. There's no way they could fake that. This is really a recording of him, but who knows when it's from.

“Yes, the cyborg had her. He's very crafty. Now the Eluzians have them both captive. I'll be there within one star hour. I'll take care of them both. Don't worry, it will be painless.”

So this must be a very recent recording. Apparently these aliens are called the Eluzians? It's strange that the general and my dad both know about them, but I've never heard anything about them on Earth, and my dad has never mentioned them. Not once. He's been hiding the knowledge from me.

What else is he hiding?

“I just…” says my dad. I can tell that the words are hard for him to say. “I can't believe it's come to this. It would’ve been better if you could have destroyed them both while they were in the space craft.”

“We did our best,” says the general, his voice crackling a little bit through static.

Wait, what did I just hear? My dad is talking about me, right? He's saying that it would have been better if the general had killed me then?

Holy fucking shit.

My chest feels like its seizing up. I don't know what emotions I'm feeling, but it's something powerful and intense, something I've never felt before.

Betrayal.

Absolute betrayal. That's what this is.

My own father.

My own fucking father wants me dead?

Vex's arm tightens around me, comforting me slightly. But he doesn't speak. I can tell he knows he needs to hear the rest of the recording.

“It’s terrible having to make a decision like this,” says my dad. “As a father, you never want to see your children die before you, and you certainly don’t want to be the one to pull the trigger, metaphorically speaking, of course. But I know her well… if she finds out that the cyborgs are more like us than just mere machines… she has a good conscience and she’ll tell everyone she can. She has quite a bit of influence as a senator’s daughter…”

“Don’t worry,” says the general. “It’ll be painless. I’ll execute her myself, with a servo needle loaded down with Xathu. She won’t feel a thing, and she won’t know it’s you doing it.”

“It’s best that way,” says my dad.

“I think that’s enough,” says Vex. He unplugs the tube and the holo display shuts off completely. I find myself back in reality.

But what a horrible reality.

My own father gave the orders to have me executed?

“I know this is hard,” says Vex, his arm tightening around me. His body is somewhat comforting, but I’m beyond despairing right now. I can’t even cry. My eyes feel like they should, but the tears won’t come. I’m more in shock than anything else, and my body feels like it’s suddenly going freezing cold. “It’s horrible to hear your dad say those things…”

I nod my head vaguely. I feel disoriented, disconnected from reality.

“But,” says Vex, gripping me tightly, bringing me back to reality a little. “We need to try to deal with that all later. Right now, we’re in extreme danger, and we need to get out of here as fast as possible. OK? Are you with me, Felia?”

“Yeah,” I say, taking a couple deep breaths. “I’m with you. I’m just going to do my best to bottle it all up for now.” I laugh awkwardly.

“That’s the spirit,” says Vex. I’m not sure he got the “joke.” He is a cyborg, after all.

But I really do have a lot of experience bottling things up.

There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do it now too, right?

After all, when my mom died, my father and I simply pretended that nothing had ever happened. We never spoke about her death, not once, not that our current culture is particularly emotionally connected… but that was… unusual, to say the least.

Vex is looking at me, concern on his face.

Despite the intensity of the situation, of what I’ve just learned, I do notice that… well, cyborgs don’t usually have emotions written across their faces like this. Not that I’ve met cyborgs, but I’ve studied them, and everything I’ve ever learned is that they’re just machines.

Vex certainly isn't just a machine.

I’m not sure he’s a machine at all.

I’m starting to doubt everything I’ve ever known… learning this sort of thing about your father is bound to do that.

“I’m fine,” I say, answering Vex’s unasked question.

“OK,” says Vex, still looking concerned. “I think I have a plan.”

“Yeah?”

“The general’s coming here, right?”

I nod my head, not sure where he’s going with this.

“And he’s coming in here in his ship, right?”

“I don’t see how else he could come here,” I say.

“And we need a ship…” says Vex.

“Are you talking like this because you think I’m completely out of it?” I say, snapping at him a little. “Just because I’m shocked doesn’t mean I don’t understand a simple plan. You’re suggesting that we steal the general’s ship, right?”

“Um… yeah,” says Vex. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him almost lost for words.

“I’m fine,” I say again, stressing the point. “I understand your plan,” I say, my words sounding much more biting than I mean them to. “But I don’t see how you could have come up with a worse plan.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s idiotic,” I say. I’m conscious of the fact that I’m starting to take out my anger on Vex, and that he doesn’t deserve it, but I still do it anyway. It feels like I don’t have a choice. “How are we going to steal his ship? Just how do you suggest we do that?”

To my surprise, Vex just grins at me.

“Don’t worry about that,” he says. “I can take care of his commandos. It won’t be a problem.”

I cross my arms and stomp my foot almost involuntarily.

“Here,” says Vex. “You need to take your mind off everything. Help me with this. We’re going to need a lot of gear to pull this off.”

“What can I help with?”

“I’m going to need a bunch of servo drivers. Get me a #9 and a #4.5. Now the #4.5 is a little rarer, but they’ve got everything here. I’m sure they have it somewhere.”

It just takes me a second to find them.

“Anything else?” I say, handing him the drivers.

“Yeah, are you good with holo maps?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” I say. “I used to study them with my…” I’m about to say with my dad, because we would spend long hours at night when I was a kid hunched over the holo maps. He would show me different points around the galaxy, telling where humans had explored and where they hadn’t. But I choke up on the word and don’t manage to say it.

“OK,” says Vex. “That’s good. So you can help me with the plan.”

“And that is?”

“These aliens have this whole planet wired up with transportation devices. All those white tubes, they must be everywhere. I know they have them down here underground too. It’s just a matter of figuring out how to get there.”

“You mean we can use their own technology? But how?”

“Well, check this out,” says Vex, showing me a little tablet like device that he’s pulled from somewhere. “This looks like a map of all of those white transportation tubes.”

“Hmmm,” I say, taking the tablet from him and studying it. “Yeah, it looks like it… But there are just so many problems with this plan, Vex. Do you really think it could work?”

“I don’t see what other options we have, unfortunately,” says Vex.

Hours go by, as we set to work planning and mapping out our routes. I have to consciously suppress the idea that my father wants me dead. Surprisingly, it’s not quite as hard to do as I thought it would be, especially with Vex here. His presence calms me and soothes me. Despite the craziness of the plan, I feel safe and secure with him. Occasionally, he stops and looks at me, a comforting look filled with… could it be love? It’s something, some powerful emotion that I can feel in my body, right down to my core, to my soul.

No one has ever looked at me like that before. No one.