Memory Transcription Subject: Taylor Trench, Human Colonist
Date [standardized human time]: February 14, 2161
The Krev Consortium was still a point of contention to much of the Sapient Coalition, after the attacks in Orion space had clobbered three worlds and assailed their fleets. If there was any link between the KC and the ghost Farsul, it was going to blow up the peace I’d pivoted and begged for, as soon as I learned it was humanity on the other side. I’d seen how much the Krev loved primates, and I couldn’t imagine a world where they’d knowingly have fought Earth. Just what had happened on Tellus, while we lived there—right beneath our noses? To think how horrified I’d been by the Sivkits, who I now knew were victims, invading our system.
The same Farsul archivist from the introductory video, which had explained how they learned about the Krev, appeared on screen. “The Krev Consortium’s military didn’t take much time in noticing our presence in Tinsas’ system; we’d noticed from sensors that it did appear to have a few thousand inhabitants. It was immediately apparent that they knew of the Federation and the Farsul. We surrendered at their command, and were remanded to the custody of a secretive force called the Underscales. They had a lot of questions. Chiefly…who the ‘humans’ were.”
“They asked about us?” I gasped. I couldn’t reckon with the possibility that…they might’ve known who we were—and that Earth was alive all along—after years toiling in the mines, being squeezed for minerals, and forced to hide our faces. The Krev had thought we were Federation, not known we were terrified predator refugees, right? “No. They can’t have known. I could’ve been at home, with my parents, as a child; I could’ve had my childhood when it still fucking mattered. It isn’t for nothing, Gress. Tell me I’m hearing this wrong.”
The Krev squeezed my hand, a jaded look in his eyes. “It was all for nothing, just like the kits. That’s who they are, and I’m fucking horrified to have been used as a pawn again! They knew you were primates all along and let us torment you. I don’t know why, because you made the best propaganda for them: the poor, cute victims. I’m sorry, Taylor. I’m…so sorry.”
“The Farsul didn’t tell them. They mustn’t have. I mean, why would they? They hate predators…they hate humans! We undid all their glorious work. They told some lie to fuck us over.”
“The Krev are a different breed of liars to the Farsul. A different class. Brace yourself when you hear the confirmation. Your…heart already knows. I don’t know why they had to let me bear the guilt for hurting you, your people, and those damned miners too, when they knowingly killed you! It’s always me. Just listen!”
The Farsul continued to speak on screen, and I listened in a numb stupor. “The irony when we learned why they were asking! There were humans infesting barren Tinsas. It was unclear what those binocular-eyed freaks got by hiding their faces, though at first, we thought they might be onto us. They might’ve found Tinsas first, or been keeping an eye on our attempts to restart operations outside the old Federation’s space. We only found the truth later, by surveilling the Terrans and reporting back about the ark ships.”
“Reporting back?” I echoed.
“Refugees that thought Earth dead; if that was true, we’d be all too ecstatic to finish off the last of them! Again, this was not known to us at the time, so the Consortium received limited answers. We were all too happy to explain who those violent predators were to the Krev, and they weren’t taking our words well. They seemed to want to aid the ‘Tellus’ settlers even, and to grow angry on their behalf: not amenable in the slightest to our ideals. When we showed a picture, the reaction to the ugly primates was adoration.”
“Then why the fuck didn’t they help us?! They…knew who we were!”
“Hearing how Earth was set out for termination by the civilized galaxy didn’t please them. They clearly hated the Farsul, considering us an enemy and with zero intent of helping our cause; destroying Tinsas seemed a failed mission. The human settlers would get to the data, and that would be that. However, when we explained that humanity had assembled a coalition and defeated the Federation in warfare, unraveling the painstaking work of millennia…the Krev’s behavior changed.”
Secretary-General Osmani was shaking his head. “This changes the entire context of our peace treaty, made under the assumption that it was all a misunderstanding! The Krev knew the Federation was nonexistent when they sent those drone fleets to strike us at our hearts. They knew exactly who was in charge, and chose to attack us.”
I couldn’t muster much of a response to this confirmation, only feeling the sinking feeling in my gut twist deeper—like a screwdriver was being torqued into my spleen. All I could think about was hearing General Radai describe the attack vectors on “Federation” space, all the while, the Consortium had been well aware that this was a false threat. Gress was right on that account. I had to think the Resket military leader hadn’t known; he was a pawn in this entire mess too! Perhaps that was what he’d discovered that caused him to aid the Jaslips in the civil war, and to realize there was more at play with who was commanding the KC.
We murdered innocent people, and they let us slaughter them! They let us become vengeance-driven monsters who believed the galaxy hated us, suffering in a fashion somehow more pointless than if we’d just been hiding our faces for nothing. The Krev refused to talk to mainstream humanity, even after hearing everything we went through, until invading SC forces made that an issue.
“I don’t understand why! Is it really just about the truth not giving the Krev a reason to stay in power?” I shouted at Gress.
The scaly mammal nodded in Terran fashion. “Yes. That has always been what they cared about. Authoritarians will do anything to maintain their stranglehold, and that’s…easier when the people are pacified. When they believe it’s for their own good.”
“The Underscales seemed horrified to learn that the Federation had been destroyed.” The archivist was still speaking, though I’d heard more than enough. I didn’t want to hear her fucking reasoning for my life being a cosmic joke—a waste! It was all lies, all the way down; was this the anger and betrayal the SC members felt decades ago? It burned like motor oil! “As I understand now, we were the ‘threat’ that gave their organization purpose. They decided it couldn’t get back to the public since they’d taken such drastic measures. We realized we could help each other.”
A Bissem general named Zalk was incandescent on their balcony, all but frothing at the beak. “How dare those Consortium bastards help the planners of our extermination? The ones who attacked Ivrana, laid waste to my homeland, with Gojid recruits to end the carnivore scourge? I side with the Jaslips more than ever: carnivores living under such monsters! How are we not helping them? Peace—peace hopped out of the fishing boat. The Tseia declare war!”
“Please, do not put the cart before the horse. I understand your anger, but rest assured that humanity will take action with this knowledge. Let us gather all of the details so we know what we’re heading into—and what the nature of that action should be,” Osmani responded. “There’s still a KC drone fleet in our space to supposedly aid against the Fed remnants and ghost Farsul. The Sapient Coalition must remain vigilant and act together.”
“After all the Sivkits did to spare the Krev the Federation’s gyves, it was they who lent rede to our conquerors and raised the tocsin to fire upon our expedition!” Loxsel howled.
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My eyes were narrowed in the most primal, inexorable rage. “We will not forgive what they put Tellus through. That’s our fucking world, Loxsel. We take it back. We burn their ground just like the fucking exterminators turned Tinsas to a desert—they made my people their slaves, and attacked humanity with full knowledge of what they were doing. If we don’t go to war, neither of our species’ suffering…our losses…matter!”
“Let’s hear why they did it,” Cala placated. “I know you don’t want to be the person that loses your head again, Taylor, full of anger.”
“Fuck that new leaf! What they did—”
“I know what it is to go to war for a false cause, one that you would’ve never fought in with knowledge that you couldn’t have had. I know the guilt you feel, and the hatred you carry for the liars. I am sorry. All I can tell you is their reasoning does matter, because every person in the Krev Consortium needs to hear it. They need that cold liberation that kind of truth brings.”
Gress hugged me closer, uncaring about the vitriolic looks representatives were giving him. “It’s time the Consortium stopped telling their lies. The people need the real story. And after everything they put us through, the least I could hear is why. Any semblance of closure would give me some sleep at night.”
As the chamber settled down, the United Nations resumed the Farsul’s video detailing the collusion. “Cooperation was necessary to avoid both our organizations’ destruction. We agreed to leave their people alone, and they, in turn, would provide us with a fleet. It was a matter of time before humanity’s survival became known, especially with the predators squatting on Tinsas. We were their contingency plan, since they could point to our fleet as a real threat.”
“The fleet at Grenelka was made by them,” Yotul representative Onso spat, tail lashing with disgust. “That’s how they got three hundred thousand ships, as opposed to a few scouts that attacked Ivrana. The Krev had the manufacturing power; who else would?”
“Us, obviously,” Bissem General Naltor quipped in a sarcastic voice. “We’d give them that many ships so they can get all of Ivrana in one go. No, really—how could the Krev let them have such a fleet to terrorize anyone that ever touched meat?!”
Krakotl ambassador Kelsel shuddered. “I don’t know, but that includes several of us in this chamber. Knowing the ghost Farsul’s goals, every former omnivore must be on guard. The Remnants will go for us first. The Krev must’ve known that!”
“The Consortium wasn’t trustworthy, of course,” the archivist continued. “There was a real possibility that they wanted us to attack humanity, and swoop in to save the primates then; their people would lap up that heroism. We picked over the ships to remove any…opportunities for them to seize remote control, and only then used them. We went to lead the Remnants back to glory, as a true rival to humanity, and they welcomed us. It was our chance to keep the Federation alive and untainted! We could save some species, and destroy more predators.”
Gress tapped his claws on his chin. “I’m surprised the Consortium didn’t decide to let them destroy the Jaslips. Esquo was always going to be a problem for them.”
“Maybe they were trying to with the kits,” I answered in a growling voice, joining him in the land of dark interpretations. “That did happen afterward.”
The Farsul launched into the last of her words, which I could glean from the video’s timestamps. “We helped each other with various problems. The Underscales excavated the bunkers on Tinsas, taking control of the information—away from the blasted humans. Those Terran colonists were useful to the Consortium to prolong the conflict. While masked, they could be pointed at as the Federation on their doorsteps. And once they told their story, they were the primate victims that proved exactly what the Krev saw as the worst of us. It all suited them, and we tried to make their coddling of predators suit our long-term goals.”
“They call the mines coddling of predators? Holy fuck! We were just…our lives meant nothing to the Krev, nothing! This goes way beyond the need for a lowly strike; we deserve our vengeance!”
“So do the Jaslips,” Gress agreed.
Once again, as if she knew the topic we’d raised, the Farsul continued on about those arctic carnivores. “The Underscales needed to turn people against the Jaslips, since they were bound to revolt. Incidents were devised. We hoped they might finish what they started at Esquo later. Our real opportunity to shred tolerance for predators was when the Consortium attacked the SC—forced to back those primate ‘victims,’ once they told their tale. With humanity helping planetary attacks, their precious alliance would disintegrate. We could win back the herbivores, when they saw their ‘tame’ predators for the raiders they are! It would be our new chance to wipe Earth out, with the Remnant fleet in wait.”
Gasps echoed through the Sapient Coalition chamber, as my heart sank like a stone at the thought of the Feddies mounting another attempt to wipe my homeworld out. That was their master plan all along?! It had almost worked, since our allies were so fickle. However, the ghost Farsul hadn’t anticipated that the United Nations would mount such an all-out defense for the besieged worlds, especially the two that they had no obligations to. My people might’ve saved Aafa, had the Yulpa not sabotaged that defense. This was all intended to return the galaxy to thinking that we were just predatory monsters!
At this point, let these Farsul bastards see the monsters they have created! Nobody plots to destroy Earth and lives to tell about it. Two-front or not, it doesn’t matter; they’re already working together. It’s time we end this madness once and for all.
“It had nothing to do with the Tellus colonists standing with the Consortium. It was always the plan for the Yulpa to incite a war,” Osmani said. “Having heard the full story, this insidious plot against everything we worked so hard to build cannot go unanswered. That is an act of war, if I’ve ever seen one! I don’t need consideration. My stance is to sever all diplomatic ties with the Consortium side, and to aid General Radai in his efforts to topple their government. Who’s with me?”
I raised a hand, my shouts blending into a sea of furious voices. “I am! They can’t fucking get away with this!”
All of humanity’s most ardent allies have little hesitation, and even Loxsel was ready to send the Sivkits on the offensive, after learning that the Consortium withheld Tinsas with sinister intent. The Bissems had bloodlust in their eyes, while the omnivore species had their own helpings of self-concern. If the ghost Farsul had sought to divide the Sapient Coalition and drive a stake through the organization’s heart, then they had done the opposite. There was a common enemy to challenge, a refusal to accept the backslide they stood for. An attack on humanity was an attack on the herd, unlike when most had refused to come to Earth’s aid in 2136.
To think we’d believed they’d help look for the ghost Farsul, since their outpost was in KC space. The Consortium had signed their death warrant by making a pact with the Farsul extremists, just to preserve their own power. This news drove me mad, quite frankly. All they had to do was admit what they learned, and tell the Tellish what they’d found; there could’ve been peace! They could’ve apologized for Esquo or done things a host of different ways, but they chose to rebuild the Federation from ghosts. The threat was the story they told to justify their own actions, and they’d never admit their wrongdoings.
“The Shield doesn’t want the Federation back. Not under the Farsul’s control. Not like this,” Duerten Ambassador Korajan spoke up, after the bulk of the SC had died down. “This clandestine alliance launched the false attack, which would’ve kept going to Kalqua’s doorstep if not for humanity. The Federation would hurt us to discredit them. You have the support of us all.”
Elias Meier, the robot, ducked his head in support from the UN’s table. “Thank you, Korajan. That means a great deal. It seems my faith in you was well-placed. We can all back the Secretary-General in not letting them tear our fraught peace apart. We’ll destroy this festering evil, and put the galaxy back together once and for all.”
“Not my part of the galaxy,” Gress whispered, solely to me. “Taylor, I’m sorry to be selfish with all you’re feeling, but…if the UN is cutting off diplomacy and going to war at once, how will we get my daughter out first?”
I recoiled with concern. “Oh shit. Yeah, that’s not good at all. We’ll talk to the UN. The Krev don’t know we’re coming for them; the idiots think we still believe their fucking peace treaty. We’ll have to get them to send your daughter and ex-wife to us right away.”
“I can’t lose anyone else. Not you, not Lecca. After all of the lies they’ve told and spun me up in, I just want to keep the people I love away from this all. Please, tell me the UN will still help a foolish Krev. I have nothing else...”
“This isn’t your fault. You’re on our side, and I’ll swear it up and down to any of those gawkers. I promise, I’ll talk to whoever I have to, to keep your family safe. We’ll do this together.”
Much like the Sapient Coalition and its allies, the two of us stood united in our resolve to face this new revelation. Tellus needed to hear how we’d suffered knowing abuse, from a shady government who helped rebuild the Federation in secret when they learned of its destruction. Osmani spoke for both Earth and the planet where I’d lived for twenty-five years, when he said that humanity would not let these schemes go unanswered. The shadow of predator hatred could not hang over us forever.