TO took off their armor as soon as they stepped into the entrance hall of their ship, their ears twitching with panic, their eyes wide.
“I swear! Pholi understood me!” TO insisted. They were certain that they hadn’t been able to express their worry properly though Universal Common, and needed DH to understand not only what had happened, but how bad it was. “Not even a day on this planet and I already messed up!”
DH took off their armor and followed TO to the elevator. “I don’t think you messed up.” DH said, though their ears were down as well. “I mean… You said Pholi understood you? But he didn’t speak Synth Speak.”
“When we were going into the washroom.” TO said, “Remember how we nearly ran right into Pholi?”
“He’s so tiny, and we’re taller than the average citizen as it is…”
“Well, I wasn’t thinking, and I apologized to him… in Synth Speak.”
“And he responded.” DH said. They entered the elevator, the door sliding shut behind them. TO leaned against the back wall, trying to calm down, trying to keep their heart from bursting from their chest.
“Yes, he responded! He responded properly!”
DH chewed at their lower lip, their ears flicking as they thought about the situation. “Alright… But what if he didn’t?” They said after a while.
“What do you mean? He responded properly-“
“Well, you spoke right after nearly tripping into him, right?” DH said, “And he can’t understand Synth Speak; Civilians just don’t. Where would he have learned it from?”
Where would he have learned it from? TO had been thinking about that. “He’s the minister of language and translations.” TO said, “We can assume he has decent language skills. We also know that several synths have gone missing here, and we suspect the insurgency took them for interrogation.” They got to their main living area, and as soon as the door swung open TO rushed to their desk, dropping themself into the chair. “What if he’s part of the insurgency and he’s used the captive synths to learn Synth Speak? What if he can even read our ears?! If he can, then he knows everything we said is a lie!” They activated their desk and started bringing up files. “Of course…” They laughed, “If he knew we were speaking in Synth Speak, then he would have known that we were lying from the start!” they shook their head, “Not even a day here, and I already messed up. The insurgency will know what we look like-”
“I just realized this, of course…” DH said, “But if the insurgency has synths captive, then they’d know what we look like, anyway.” DH said.
TO’s hands froze in midair, stopping their typing. That fact was so obvious, but TO had overlooked it. They had thought about all the other issues, all the other bits of information that the insurgents might get from synths… but hadn’t realized that they would, of course, know what they looked like out of armor.
Their civilian disguise was useless.
“I’m such an idiot.” TO muttered as they continued typing, “Of course they’d know what we look like. How did I not-” They stopped, their words cutting off as they felt DH’s hands on their ears. Despite their panic, TO couldn’t help the low chirps that escaped their throat as DH gently massaged their ears.
“You’re not an idiot.” DH whispered. “We didn’t think about that; that’s all. And even if we did, there’s not much we can do about it.”
They had to be more careful. TO knew that they had to watch out more when they were out without their armor on. Going undercover as just normal civilians would be far less effective now unless they came up with a different disguise.
“As for Pholi, maybe he understood, or maybe he wasn’t sure if he actually heard you, but assumed you apologized for tripping over him like any civilian would and responded to what he assumed you said.” They stopped rubbing TO’s ears and leaned forward, draping their arms over TO’s shoulders. “Doesn’t that make more sense?”
It did. TO didn’t know if they felt better because of the logic or because of the contact with DH; Ear rubs always calmed them and DH’s warmth against their back made them feel more steady. “… We still can’t rule that out.” TO said as they relaxed in DH’s embrace for a moment longer, then started typing again, still leaning back so that DH could hold them.
“What are you looking up?” DH asked.
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“First, I’m looking up information about Minister Pholi.” TO said, “I didn’t bother to look up all his information when we met him, but I’ll get it now. Then I’m going to see if I can find anything on Petra.”
“Why Petra?”
“Well, first I want to know her species, but then I want to see if there’s anything about her on file. I want to see if she has a history.”
“You think she’s part of the insurgency?”
“Doubtful.”
“She didn’t seem to like much about Arkane’s leadership though-“
“If she was, and if the insurgency knows what we look like, then I assume she’d have been a lot more frightened of us and she wouldn’t have asked us to lie for her. Also, why would the insurgency be stealing food from a party?”
“That… I suppose that makes sense.” DH said.
“But I am curious about her. Still; Minister Pholi first, since we know his actual name and position. He’ll be easier to find.”
DH watched for a moment, then sighed as they pulled their chair over and sat next to TO “Alright.” They said, “Let’s see what we can find.”
As TO guessed, it was easy to find Minister Pholi since he was a government official and they already knew his name and position.
“He’s not a native Arkanian.” DH noted as they glanced through his records.
“He’s not. His family moved here from Alke. Pangi species. It doesn’t say why or how his family moved here, but I suppose it’s not considered important.”
“Do you think it is?” DH asked.
“Potentially…” TO said as they glanced through the rest of his records, “He’s been Minister of Language and Translations for the last ten years. No living family in the area.”
“And his personal records?”
TO brought up the legal records list, and at first worried as there was a very long collection of cases that he seemed to be involved in but upon further inspection they were all criminal cases where he assisted with translations.
“That’s clean.” TO said. As far as they could see, there was nothing about him in their system that might show he was any issue. Even the personal notes from other synths and political figures noted him as useful, clever, and hardworking.
DH put their hand on TO’s leg, giving them a quick squeeze. “See.” They said, “No problems, no flags on his profile, no concerns from coworkers. He doesn’t even seem to have minor infractions.”
TO felt their ears warm as they considered maybe they had overreacted, and that maybe their worry over Minister Pholi ‘understanding’ their language was unnecessary. What DH said made more sense, and if Pholi was part of the insurgency, then there would have to be something on his file; even some minor things from his youth. There was nothing, though.
“Do you feel better?” DH asked.
“I do…” TO said, their ears flicking down. “I… I’m sorry I panicked-“
“You shouldn’t apologize.” DH said, “You were worried. I’m just glad you’re feeling better now.”
TO smiled, put their hand over DH’s, then turned back to their desk. They still had to look into Petra. Petra, of course, would be harder to find; they didn’t know any details about her, or even the name of her species. If they had taken a picture of her with their communicators, then they’d be able to identify her that way. With just a picture, their system would scan her, and if possible, even identify her.
Unfortunately, they’d have to do things the hard way.
They used their system to narrow down the species by traits; the scaly skin, the wings, the long tail and brighter coloration, and narrowed it down. Then they narrowed it down further by only species that had at least one member currently living on Arkane, which narrowed it down much further. The name Petra was rather common, but it still narrowed the results down, then they reduced it again to only those currently living in Oikia. In the end, it left them with only ten results. It was easy from there. DH was the one who picked her out; noting that her snout was narrower than most of the others,
There was an alert on Petra’s file; a yellow. Any confirmed members of the insurgency could have a red triangle attached to them, along with any major criminals. Anyone who had any crimes on their file more serious than traffic violations had a yellow tag on them.
“What did she do?” DH asked as they noted the yellow tag. TO opened up her file and scanned through everything.
“Civil disobedience, destruction of property, assault, petty theft…” They looked through the details of the various charges.
“How is she not in prison?”
“She spent some time in prison.” TO said, “A working prison on Arkane itself. She worked out her time and was released.”
“What did she do?”
There was a video link attached to the file, so TO opened it up. A screen projected above their desk, showing a crowd chanting before the government building that they had just left. Because they were accessing this video though Petra’s file, the video stayed focused on her, zoomed in to show what she was doing.
The crowd was chanting; apparently this was from a few years ago when there were major protests about the water quality around the islands of Arkane. Chants of ‘Seawater Not Sewage’ and ‘My home is not your dump’ rang out, translated so that TO and DH could understand it. Offscreen, there was a flash and all of a sudden, the people in the video fled. A planetary law enforcement officer grabbed Petra, who struggled against him, lashing him with her powerful tail and drawing blood before he pressed something to her back. She stiffened and fell limp.
“Assaulted law enforcement.” TO said, “Automatic prison sentence no matter the situation. The other charges seemed to me from the same situation, mostly. She got involved in a lot of protests-“
“But she’s not part of the insurgency.” DH finished.
“Not a confirmed part of the insurgency.” TO said. “A discontent, but not an insurgent.” They pressed their lips together, “Exactly the person who the ideals of the insurgency would appeal to, though.” They leaned forward, clasping their hands before them and resting their chin on their entwined fingers. “Potentially... The person we could use.”
DH’s ears twitched forward. “Use? What do you mean? She’s yellow-tagged, got a criminal history-“
“Is exactly the type of person the insurgency will target to join their cause.” TO said.
“Alright…” DH’s ears twitched in confusion, “And that’s good because…?”
“Because my plan involves outdoing the insurgency.” TO said, “If we find out why the civilians are supporting them, find out what the insurgency is promising that they feel they’re not getting from King Decon, and then we supply that, we’ll lessen the insurgency’s influence. With no civilian cause to pursue, we can expose the insurgency for what it is; a power-grab by displaced former rulers!”
“... You really think that’ll happen?” DH asked. TO nodded; any insurgency could end up being viewed as fighters of justice, or vicious criminals focused on violence, all depending on the narrative that was spun, and the unmet needs that they carelessly promised. All TO and DH had to do was show that there was nothing the Insurgency could offer the civilians that King Decon could not.
“I think so. I really do! Once that happens, it’ll be easier to take them down. It wouldn’t surprise me if their own people end up giving up the leaders.” They grinned, “We’re not only going to end the insurgency here; we’re going to end it to the cheering of Arkane’s entire population.”