Alpha, or rather the [Wasp], sat across the table from a wrinkly old man, a cup of tea in front of each. The old man sipped his tea and sighed, then yelled louder than necessary in such a small building.

“How much longer, woman?! I’m hungry!”

A more feminine, if no less wizened, yelled back from around the corner, the voice not losing in volume.

“Oh, be quiet, you old coot! Have some patience. You’re lucky we have a guest, or you’ll eat at ol’Rods all week!”

The old man’s eyes widened, and he sat a little straighter.

“Yes, Dear.”

An old woman walked around the corner, carrying a tray full of steaming plates. She was just as hunched and wrinkled as the old man, but Alpha had seen enough old humans to know she moved with an eerie grace and strength that belied her apparent advanced age. The meal she laid out for her and her husband was simple: some porridge, rice, steamed vegetables, and a cup of tea. Despite that, the old man dug into the meal with gusto.

The old woman smiled at Alpha and placed a small sauce dish before him. Her smile was gentle and sweet, like an old grandma looking at her favorite grandchild.

“I’m sorry about the limited spread, deary; I wasn’t expecting company.”

Alpha stared down into the small sauce dish, unsure of what he saw. Instead of the porridge the couple enjoyed, a pitch-black liquid filled the dish. It swirled around, seemingly of its own accord, as tiny glowing sparks of… something appeared and disappeared. Alpha turned the [Wasp] to look up at the old woman, only to see her beaming down at him. She flicked her hand and spoke.

“Go on, go on! Tell me what you think! It’s not often I get to cook for your kind. Not anymore, at least.”

Alpha shrugged and moved the [Wasp] toward the dish. He couldn’t actually “eat,” but [Wasps] had storage takes built into their design to deliver injections and take samples as necessary. He wasn’t sure what kind of “food” this was, but Alpha’s instincts told him it would be worth analyzing. The old woman’s grin grew wider as the [Wasp] slowly emptied the small dish.

Alpha spoke through the drone, using directed sound waves generated by its wings.

“Thank you for the meal.”

Technically, that wasn’t part of their design, but a certain AI nearly a century ago had developed the technique to silently pass on instructions in a sensitive environment. Alpha had liked the idea so much he’d spent a week mastering it. Only an AI could accurately replicate it, but it was useful in many ways.

The old man, who had been happily munching away at his meal, spewed a mouth full of rice to the side, coughing as he pounded his chest. The old woman’s brow rose, but her smile never dropped.

“Oh! You’re welcome, deary. You can call me Maliit, by the way, and this — .”

She smacked the back of the old man beside her.

“ — old fool is my husband, Malaki. Who might you be?”

Alpha paused before speaking.

“… The people of the village have been referring to me as the ‘Lord Protector.’”

The old woman who called herself Maliit threw back her head and laughed.

“Now, I asked for your name, little one, not what the children call you.”

Alpha considered for a moment. Interesting…

He corrected himself.

“You can call me Alpha.”

Maliit smiled down at the [Wasp] brightly.

“Very nice to meet you, young Alpha! Welcome to our humble home!”

She lifted the small cup beside her plate and took a drink, a motion mimicked by her still-coughing husband. The two then dug back into their food. The next few moments were filled with near-constant banter between the pair, and though the words might have seemed scalding on the surface, their tone told that there was no true venom behind them.

Alpha took it all in calmly. At first, He wasn’t sure why he played along with the old man. He could have easily broken down the [Wasp] into its constituent nanites and recalled them, but the strange energy lines carved into the house had fascinated him. It tickled some base part of his programming he couldn’t pinpoint in a way few things had. A quick survey of the village showed that most buildings had similar lines engraved on them, especially on their axle systems. Yet no building, even the important-looking ones,… glowed… quite as bright as this humble little shack on wheels.

In fact, now that he paid attention, Alpha could detect similar lines running throughout the house. Some of them were clumped together, on or around various objects. Others ran in long, branching pathways that connected the various clumps together or twisted into patchworks that reminded Alpha of the veins in an animal… or the circuits on a board. Even if most of them looked more like artwork than anything meaningful.

Even the dinnerware the couple ate from glowed with faint lines… if you had the eyes to see. Curious, Alpha moved the [Wasp] to get a better look at the small sauce dish. Unsurprisingly, he found the inside etched with a complex swirling design.

Alpha stared at the design, pondering. Hmmm, strange. As an AI, Alpha could observe the world far more accurately than most biologicals. His kind wasn’t particularly susceptible to “optical illusions,” at least not the same kind. So why was it that the more he stared at the design, the more he felt a distinct sense of… motion… for lack of a better term? It was almost as if the longer he looked, the more the design seemed to swirl —

“Interested, are you? That [$#@$%] is one of my favorites. So versatile if you know how to use it correctly.”

Maliit grinned from ear to ear as she spoke.

Malaki, her husband, put down his bowl and spoke for the first time since the meal had started.

“Bah! It’s nothing more than a parlor trick! It can’t do half the things a proper [*%#$#] could!”

Maliit’s eyes narrowed, and she frowned. She turned and spoke to the old man, her voice flat.

“You have just never appreciated the simple things. It’s all flash and show for you.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Malaki turned to his wife, pointing his spoon at her as he spoke.

“Exactly! Why put in so much work if you can’t show it off?! If you had your way, no one would even know you put it there in the first place!”

Maliit sighed, placing her face in her free hand. Her voice sounded tired when she spoke, like this wasn’t the first time they’d had this discussion… and it likely wouldn’t be the last.

“That’s the point of a trap, you senile codger! Why do you think I had to clean up your mess during the — ”

The next 20 minutes were filled with a lengthy argument (debate?) peppered with enough unknown words that Alpha’s lexicon nearly doubled in size. Great, more work.

It went on for so long that Alpha seriously contemplated just taking the dish and making a break for it. After some time, the couple remembered they had a guest and turned back to Alpha. Maliit switched back to kindly old grandma mode and apologized.

“Sorry about that, deary. He gets like that sometimes.”

“Tsk… you’re one to talk…YOWL! ”

The pouting Malaki mumbled under his breath, only to jump at some unseen assault. Maliit never stopped smiling or staring down at Alpha as she spoke.

“Are you curious? We don’t take students…typically. At least not without an extensive understanding of who we’re dealing with. But… we’re always up for a trade. How about it?”

Alpha considered for a moment and asked.

“A trade? What kind of trade?”

The old woman leaned back in her chair, her hands folded. Gone was the kindly old grandma, and in her place was a presence Alpha knew all too well.

“Why, information, of course? You seem quite interested in our -arrays- — ”

Again, there was that word. Alpha wasn’t sure what a proper translation would be, but he at least understood she meant the lines he was observing. Maliit continued.

“ — While I’m quite curious about ‘that.’”

She pointed to some undesirable place above the [Wasp].

Alpha turned the drone to see what she was pointing at, but seeing nothing, he asked.

“And what is ‘that’ you speak of?”

Malaki turned around, frowning, and spoke.

“She’s talking about this, boy!”

The old man leaned over and “plucked” the air above the drone.

Instantly, Alpha’s connection to the [Wasp] wobbled in a way that if he had been physically capable, Alpha might have thrown up.

The moment he regained control of the drone, the [Wasp] shot backward, off the table to land on the far wall.

What the hell had that just been?!

Back at the table, Maliit was smacking the old man with her spoon.

“See! I keep telling you that you can’t be so rough!”

She then turned back to Alpha, the kindly old grandma returning.

“I’m sorry about that, deary! Come, come, he won’t do it again. I’m sorry, my husband has a bad habit of touching things he really shouldn’t.”

The last was said as she turned and gave the old man beside her a hard look. Malaki only humphed and turned away. Maliit turned back around and continued.

“Now, as I was saying, I’m quite curious about what you’re doing, young Alpha. I’ve never quite seen such a… complex puppet be controlled without a speck of [%**%@#%#]. I’m not even sure I have the right word for whatever that is. “

Alpha’s guard instantly shot up several degrees. Not only could they detect and even disrupt his connection to the drone, but they could also tell it was something being controlled rather than his actual body.

That was… worrying. Alpha wasn’t delusional enough to think this was just some random, kindly old couple at this point. But from what Alpha had observed so far, he’d assumed the locals were more… primitive.

Was this just more magical bullcrap? Or was there something he wasn’t seeing?

Alpha wasn’t sure explaining how he controlled his drone was such a good idea. This was just a basic signal, and he could always change it, but once that information was out there, who knew when it might come back to bite him in the butt? He answered with as much as well.

“I’m not sure that’s in my best interest, Mrs. Maliit.”

Maliit raised her hands and shook her head.

“No, please, Maliit is fine, and maybe I miscommunicated. I’m not asking for your secrets or how you are doing it. Only what it is. I’ve seen nothing like this, and it had me curious. What do you say? You explain what that is, and we’ll give you a short primer in -arrays-, -quid pro quo-? Everyone wins.”

Alpha considered the offer more. On the one hand, it was a risk. He wasn’t in a position to flaunt much of what he could do openly right now. Experience told him that the longer he could play “the mysterious being” card, the more he could manipulate things to his advantage.

His options would shrink once that mystery and intrigue began to peel away. Natives of new worlds were, technically and legally, Federation civilians from the moment Alpha touched the surface. Whether or not they knew it yet. He couldn’t go around burning down cities for their resources, without a good reason, for example.

Now if the guard, or any other military force, decided they stand against him, he could use his military rank to suppress them as rebels. But that was an entirely different matter.

If some random civilian acted against him, though, there was little he could do until they physically attacked him. That’s why people skills, and eww, diplomacy, was needed when dealing with civs. If that diplomacy involved the natives believing Alpha was a monstrous being of unknown power capable of destroying them and everything they loved if they didn’t do as he said?

Well, Alpha wasn’t responsible for their own misunderstanding.

So, the question would be, was the risk of explaining some minor details about his technology worth saving vast amounts of time trying to research something he might not even have the proper context for?

Maliit stared down at the [Wasp], her brow furrowing; the drone hadn’t moved for some time as Alpha contemplated his best action.

She smacked her husband and whispered,

“Look what you did! You broke it!”

The old man looked at her, a hand on his chest.

“I did no such thing, woman! You — ”

“Fine. But under some conditions.”

Alpha spoke at last, causing both old humans to turn their eyes on him.

Malaki narrowed his eyes and asked.

“What conditions?”

“I was never here. We never spoke, and anything you learn, you figured out yourself.”

Both humans leaned back in their chairs and shared a long look. It was Maliit who broke the silence.

“That’s fine. Though we’ll ask the same in return. You’re not the only one who enjoys their privacy.”

Alpha nodded.

“Deal.”

The next two hours were a back-and-forth discussion about the nature of light and how different wavelengths and frequencies have unique properties. When the talk was over, Malaki looked severally disappointed while Maliit was working on filling her third small notebook.

Malaki frowned and crossed his arms.

“You expect me to believe you’re controlling a puppet like that, using nothing more than what amounts to a signal fire? Bullcrap.”

Maliit smacked him across the chest with a notebook.

“Fool, were you not paying attention at all? It’s the same principle as [$&*$@] only the [&$&@] and the [$@#%] are physical, instead [*$ (@#].”

Malaki threw his arms into the air.

“Sure! Then how do you explain the [$*#@%] principle?! Or how [*^$#@] works?! How does it even work when there’s no [%* (*$#]?! This thing’s signal is cutting through twenty layers of jamming -arrays-!”

Maliit squealed and clutched her notebook to her chest, her eyes shining.

“I know, right?! I haven’t had a puzzle like this since that time we got lost in the [$*#%@]!!”

She turned back to her notebook, writing notes with a speed and dexterity of a woman half her age. She waved the old man away, not even bothering to look up.

“Now, shoo, shoo, I’ve got experiments to plan. You can give the young Alpha his lessons instead of me.”

Malaki’s eyes bulged, and he yelled,

“Wait, why me?! You know I hate teaching the brats! Do it yourself!”

But Maliit only gave the old man a flat look before returning to her work.

Malaki grumbled, frowning. His frown suddenly turned into a grin, though, as he looked at Alpha and shrugged.

“Sorry, kid. I’ve got… things that need doing. I mean, it’s not like we got the agreement in writing. Better luck next time. Take this as a learning experience. That will be my real lesson to you. Aren’t I the kindest?”

The old man looked down at Alpha with a grin, smiling smugly.

Alpha only stared back in silence.

A flash of light appeared from the drone, and a miniature copy of the old man sat at the miniature table, parroting back word for word the terms of their agreement.

Malaki stared down at the tiny copy of himself, his eyes wide and mouth agape, while Maliit pointed and laughed at him until she turned blue from breathlessness.

Malaki’s smile turned rigged, and a vein pulsed on the side of his head.

He looked down at Alpha and spoke.

“Fine, fine! I’ll do it! Both of you are bastards, by the way!”

The smile spread from ear to ear, though instead of being friendly, Alpha was sure it could have scared away a rabid dog. When the man spoke, his voice was eerily cheery.

“You don’t seem the type to enjoy a classroom lecture, though. So let’s do this a little… different.”

Before even Alpha’s enhanced reflexes could react, the man reached across the table and “plucked” his connection to the drone again.

Instead of simply wobbling, however, this time, the connection snapped, and the drone’s connection broke entirely.