Alexander departed the holding area feeling relieved that Shall wasn’t some spy or traitor, he was just some paranoid old man.

Having to deal with this situation was annoying, but it was only a matter of time until his alien origins came out. With Krieger and Fletcher both likely having deduced where he came from, there was no way he was keeping this quiet for much longer. He was honestly surprised Fletcher hadn’t tried capturing him for experimentation.

Then again, Alexander’s origins may have played a role in the deal that Fletcher made with him. Getting on friendly terms with an unknown alien race did seem like something that might be important to a Vice Admiral. Then again, maybe finding a new engine manufacturer was more important to the man than turning him into a science project, or it could be a combination of the two, he really wasn’t sure.

While it was a relief to have this secret semi-out in the open now, Alexander knew it would change things. He didn’t know how, but he knew it would. When he spoke to Damien and the others, he would ask them to keep it to themselves for now, but that probably wouldn’t last. Secrets spread faster than diseases on Eden’s End.

While he had said he was only going to go over the story once, there were a few people he would tell in person. Nova Lund and Eva Wu were a few, but he would probably tell Mingyu as well. There were a few others like Branston and Captain Matthews, but he would likely fill them in at a later time.

There was one person he wanted to tell personally before she heard it from someone else though. She was in class right now, but he headed over there anyway.

Once he arrived, it didn’t take long to get Nancy’s attention, and Yulia’s. His daughter studiously ignored him though.

“What’s up, Alex?” Nancy asked as she wiped some paint off of her hands with a dirty towel.

It seemed it was art day in class. “I need to take Yulia out of class.”

“Oh… um,” she turned to look at the girl who seemed to be the only one in her class not occasionally glancing over at him. “She hasn’t really forgiven you for leaving like I thought she might. Taking her away from art class isn’t going to win you any affections.”

“I’m aware,” he said with a sigh. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important.”

She nodded. “Alright, I’ll go have a word with her.”

It took ten minutes of coaxing by Nancy to get Yulia up from the table and even then the girl just stared at the ground as she shuffled out of the room.

This went on for a few minutes before Alexander got annoyed. Normally he would just let her vent her frustrations until she got over it, but he needed to speak to her before Damien and the others came to have a chat.

He scooped Yulia up, earning a surprised squawk from the girl. He tucked her under his arm like a package as he hurried back to their home. His actions finally got her to speak with him, although, it was mostly just angry screaming and demands to be put down. Alexander ignored them. She quickly grew bored of throwing a temper tantrum and resorted to pouting as she crossed her arms and kicked her feet and him during the rest of the trip.

“That’s enough!” he said, finally growing annoyed with her attitude. “You can’t act like a toddler simply because you didn’t get your way.”

While her mood didn’t seem to improve, she did at least stop kicking him. He wasn’t worried about being damaged, but he was worried about her hurting herself by continuing. Honestly, he wasn’t sure what had gotten into her. She had never acted like this before, not even back on Petrov.

Alexander had read about kids acting similarly to this when a new baby came into the picture, but it wasn’t like he was adopting another kid. He supposed Yulia’s goal could be to get more attention but he somehow doubted that. She was a rather independent child. Which was a good thing since he was a rather poor parent at most times. He was trying to do better though.

With him carrying the petulant girl, it didn’t take long to arrive home. Once inside, he set her down on the sofa and sat cross-legged on the floor in front of her.

She ignored him and still had her arms crossed. Dog came to the rescue though as he bounded out of the bedroom and started barking happily as he ran around Alexander.

Yulia might be mad at him, but she couldn’t be mad at Dog. Eventually, she reached out and pulled the robotic companion into a hug.

“Are you ready to listen now?” Alexander asked. “I have something important to tell you, and it doesn’t involve me leaving again,” he added, realizing what his last sentence might have sounded like.

The girl sat there for a minute but slowly she nodded her head.

“You know how I’m different, right?”

Yulia nodded again.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Do you remember what I told you on the station?”

She seemed reluctant to speak to him, but she did eventually reply. “That you were sick.”

“I lied, sort of. I’m not sick and I’m not someone trapped in a stasis pod, piloting this body. I am this body or inside it.”

“I know,” she said quietly.

“You know?”

“Markus said I shouldn’t believe everything I hear and that I should learn to tell truths from lies. I don’t know how to do that. I just knew you were you the first time I saw you.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Alexander asked, flabbergasted by the girl's admission.

She shrugged. “I trusted you, I don’t trust other adults.”

Alexander wanted to hug her and kick himself. This explained why she was so deadset against him leaving. He was her safety blanket, and every time he left, she was forced to confront those emotions that he thought she had gotten over, but she hadn’t.

“I- I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.”

Yulia broke down in tears and set aside Dog before she ran over to hug him. “I’m sorry for acting the way I did.”

He held her until she stopped crying a few minutes later. “It’s ok, I understand. I still need to tell you something though.”

Alexander set her back on the couch and she wiped her eyes. Then she clenched her chin and gave one firm nod for him to continue.

He wanted to laugh at how serious she was acting now, but that would undermine her efforts, so he kept the feeling to himself.

“So, I’m in this robot body. What you probably don’t know is where it came from. This body is alien.”

Yulia looked at him in confusion. “Alien? Like the Shican?”

“Yes and no. I don’t think the Shican designed or built it, but some other species did.”

“Ok, but you’re still Alex?”

“I am.”

“Then it doesn’t matter,” she declared as if that was that.

Alexander wished it was that simple. “It doesn’t matter to you,” he corrected. “You’re probably going to start hearing rumors about me around Eden’s End. Some people simply won’t care, others, will.”

“They can get f-,” Alexander quickly cut her off.

“Whoa! Language, missy. Who taught you that word anyway?”

Yulia’s eyes went wide when she realized what she had just said. “I’m sorry! Please don’t make me do extra chores, or tell Headmaster Wong. He would be very unhappy to learn I said a naughty word.”

“I promise I won’t tell him as long as you promise not to curse like that again.”

She nodded and he continued. “People are allowed to have other opinions, Yulia, even if they are wrong. I just want you to be aware that you might hear unflattering things about me so you aren’t caught off-guard.”

“Ok, Alex.”

Alexander smiled. “So, tell me what you did while I was gone, I’m sure you had some fun adventures?”

***

Yulia told him everything she and her friends had been up to during his absence. And even though he knew he was probably making Damien, Lucas, and Gabriella wait, he didn’t really care. He let the girl go on until she ran out of steam.

Then they shared another hug, and he told her he had to have this conversation with some other people. She seemed to understand and headed off with Dog.

Alexander made his way to the workshop door and found the trio waiting for him outside. Damien looked annoyed, but Gabriella just bumped the grumpy man with her shoulder.

“I told him that you probably needed to spend some time with your daughter before you met with us,” the woman stated.

“Thank you, I did. Let’s head inside?” he gestured them toward the door and considering Lucas looked about ready to burst with questions, Alexander assumed Damien had at least told them something. “You might as well tell me what Damien already told you so I don’t waste time rehashing the same information.”

Gabriella actually cut off the excitable Lucas. “That you’re an alien. I mean I guess I can see it.”

Alexander rolled his eyes at that. “I am not an alien. My body is alien, but I’m human. At least I have memories of being human. Might as well find a seat, I think Lucas is about to pass out if he doesn’t get to ask a question.”

“Where did you come from?” Lucas asked before his butt even hit the chair.

“Earth.”

“…What?”

Alexander chuckled. The one-word reply had short-circuited the poor man. He explained how he had memories from around the year 2050, how he woke up on Petrov Station inside a damaged robot, and how he’s been trying to figure out how he got stuck in this mess since he first woke up.

“Wait? Is that why you built those super old computer chips? I thought you were just some huge retro nerd,” Lucas stated.

“Yes, I built what I knew, which wasn’t very much I might add. Most of my memories are spotty and fragmented from that time.”

“That’s awful,” Gabriella said. “Have you tried, I don’t know cutting yourself out of that body?”

“I… don’t think that’s possible. I doubt that I’m a physical presence in this form.”

“Ooh! You could be a memory implant,” Lucas offered. “Or an AI simulacrum.”

“Weren’t you the one who told me not to watch those old ‘AI takes over the world’ shows?” Alexander sighed.

“…That- that’s fair. But if your body is alien, who knows? Maybe they figured out true AI?”

“I somehow doubt that, but let's move on. Damien, you’ve been awfully quiet. Is there something you would like to ask?”

“No. I judge people, or robots by their actions. Not how they look. You keep protecting the people here, and that’s all I care about.”

That was very magnanimous of him.

“If you stop or turn on us, I will do everything in my power to put you down though.”

And there was the Damien Alexander expected. Honestly, he was fine with that. “Duly noted.”

Lucas bombarded him with more questions after that, most of which Alexander had no answer for, or didn’t feel comfortable discussing. Eventually, even those came to an end and Alexander asked Damien about Shall.

“Will your uncle be a problem while he fixes his ship?”

“No,” Damien replied with certainty. “After you left the cells, he tried to convince me that you were trouble waiting to happen. I explained to him that actions speak louder than words and that shut him up. We knew the old man was getting paranoid as he got older, but none of us expected it to have gone this far.”

“He kind of lost it after his sister, our mom was killed in an accident. He was convinced the STO was behind it and they somehow covered it up. There was no evidence to support that but he’s never been the same since,” Lucas offered, earning a glare from the older brother. “What? Alex would have figured it out eventually anyway. It’s not like our uncle’s past wasn’t something he couldn’t have learned by doing a quick net search.”

“Still,” Damien grumbled. “It’s not our place to be airing the man’s dirty laundry.”

Alexander waved his hands to prevent any further argument. “Look, as long as you don’t think he’ll be an issue until after he leaves, I don’t care about his history. Just keep an eye on him and keep him out of trouble. Even better, if he’ll accept, offer to help him patch his ship up faster to get him out of here sooner.”