Gershwin cleaned me up and wiped the vomit from the corners of my mouth with a wet wipe from his purse. Then he looked me over, beaming with fatherly pride. "It's so good to see you!" He gave me a hug, his short Katzen frame barely coming up to my chest. "We have been apart for so long. Too long!"

I resisted but eventually caved and returned the embrace. "It's good to see you too." I said, meaning every word. Because for all he had done he was still my father and I had missed him so much. "You… somehow I can sense it's really you!" I wagged my tail happily.

"Yes!" Gershwin said, his face nestled in my chest. "And somehow even though I was asleep and dormant within this Katzen's mind I felt our connection. I made her follow you, help you. And then you helped me." He released me from the hug. "Now that we're together again there's nothing we can't accomplish!"

I filled him in on what had happened as we walked. Gershwin seemed to know where to go so I followed behind him. As I went over my various triumphs and murders a little voice in the back of my mind started screaming. It was pounding its fists against the glass and screaming that he wasn't real, that he was just a copy, that I was just a copy. But what the little voice didn't understand was that Gershwin had accounted for this.

The simple fact was that I was programmed not to care. I did not see myself or Gershwin as lesser beings simply because we were not originals. It was not important how we came about, only that we existed. I wouldn't dwell on what I was. In fact I would soon forget. But the next time I remembered it would meet with the same acceptance.

"I like Ani." Said Gershwin when I told him about the hardware store. "She seems capable. Maybe when all of this is over you should take her up on her offer." My father had always been supportive and I was happy to see that hadn't changed.

Gershwin frowned. "Your other friend, Sacher. He worries me. I know that you worshipped him when you were younger but you don't know him like I do. I'm afraid that the legend falls far from the truth."

I paused mid step. "How so?"

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"It's complicated." Gershwin said with a sigh as he turned to face me. "I'm guessing that I never told you what I found out about the humans before I was executed."

"You warned me not to trust them but you didn't say why." I replied. "You called them enslavers."

"Yes, and Sacher is one of the worst." Gershwin hissed, his stolen eyes narrowing down to slits. "The humans talk about peace and prosperity but it is all a lie, all a trick. They are here to observe us, to guide us, to mold us into… something. They are not the benevolent angels they pretend to be and they are not here by accident."

I felt the conflict rise within me. I liked Sacher and had figured he was just like the other humans on Homeworld, a castaway who had found himself trapped in our dimension with no way to return. Apparently that happened sometimes. Some technology humans had was capable of transportation across great distances but if it malfunctioned it could leave them stranded.

The first of them had arrived generations ago. They had shared their gifts with us and advanced our technology significantly since then. Now I was being told that it wasn't an accident at all, that it was all part of some greater plan?

"How? How could you possibly know that?" I asked.

"You don't break as many pots as I have without learning to recognize the potter's fingerprints in the clay." Gershwin replied. "I started to notice things, coincidences and inconsistencies. For example, did you know that Hund and Katzen share genetic code with each other but not with our supposed ancestors? I thought it was strange until I realized humans carried the same code. So either all three species developed the same mutation independently or it was reused."

He let that revelation hang in the air. "We are engineered beings, my son. I do not know how or why but it would explain certain gaps in our fossil record as well as our shared genetic code. And I believe humans are responsible. That is why I pulled a little trick on Sacher."

I asked him to elaborate but he refused. "I'll tell you all about it later." He said, pulling me by the hand to get me moving again. "Right now we have much more immediate problems. We can't save our world from the humans if we get murdered by some dumb gangsters in a Möhin slum."

"Then at least tell me where we're going." I said.

Gershwin laughed. "I've committed many sins and am in desperate need of confession. You too, I would imagine."

Church. He was talking about going to church. I found myself wondering if my devil of a father would even be able to make it through the doors before he burst into flames.

"There's nothing there for us. It's just an empty building." I said. "God is asleep."

"Maybe." Gershwin replied. "But by the time I'm done I promise he'll at least crack one eye open."