[Pioneer Dominique Reynolds]

If I still had a ship, I could upload body scans of these Grahtonians and receive a detailed report on their biologies and important details, but now I’m left to guess on my own. Organs and skeletons seemed… similar to human structure? They also were about as tall as the average human from Earth, so a good chunk shorter than me thanks to my home moon being low gravity. The similarities ended at their head which looked reminiscent of a goat’s.

This one that’d just entered my cell was different from the rest. He had redundant organs, thick bones and some places even had 2 bones where there should’ve been one. Unless it was a natural division in their species, these abnormalities were the result of genetic modification. I’d seen them on a couple important-looking officers as I was being moved to the holding cells, so I’m guessing that this man also had a high rank.

As for who he actually was, no clue. The nature of his question had many meanings depending on context, but he clearly wasn’t here to make friends. I’d rather not talk much until the trial but completely refusing to talk might make my situation harder than it has to be. I’ll just speak bluntly and try not to let information slip.

“No idea, who are you?”

“...Captain Indrix, the only survivor from the fleet you destroyed and the one you tried to kill from orbit. Ring any bells?”

Why the hell was this guy even allowed to see me? I was told that I’d be given safety until the trial, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that this man harbored ill intent, showing up here with nobody around. If he really did have a high rank, did he use that to get here alone? I didn’t see a way this could develop positively.

Not like he could actually hurt me, even with the collar around my neck. The Grahtonions had tried to scan me when they brought me on board, but my body has full reflective shielding and the only way they could actually see what's in me is by cutting me open, which I would not let happen for obvious reasons.

“I’ve already said that my ship was compromised by an AI. I offer my sincerest apologies, but please understand that I was not the instigator.”

“Even if that’s the case, what the hell were you doing with that much firepower? In the interrogation you claimed that your people weren’t aware of alien life, yet you packed enough guns to erase a sun off the star chart? Anyone with half a brain could see that you were planning for conquest!”

Anyone with a full brain would understand that we were just acting with utmost caution.

“Shouldn’t you be saving these wild claims for the trial? I've heard that you’ll be testifying against me, don’t you have better things to do than accuse me in my jail cell?”

“Just letting you know that your life is going to be living hell. To the Grahtonian populace, you killed thousands without even a word of communication, whether you were being controlled or not. We don’t have a death penalty, but you’re gonna wish we did after you get sent to the galactic prison, you hear me?!”

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At this point one of the patrol guards noticed that things were getting a bit out of hand and started trying to get Indrix to leave, pulling on him by the shoulder, but it seems he wasn’t done yet.

“You bastard! My family wasn’t enough for you? You had to kill those Meldren, too? You fucking monster, you’re never gonna see the light of day again! Nobody is on your side! Your life is going to consist of being trapped in a coffin while being fed through a tube!”

By this point the guards had pulled him out of the cell and shut the door. I couldn’t bring myself to find fault in him. His situation would turn anyone sour, me included, and it was my fault in a way for not seeing what was happening earlier, unrealistic as that may be.

________________

[Planet Governor Destra Sind]

Although we did suffer an attack from a human ship, we are aware that the ship was not under Dominique’s complete control and that he was a critical piece in shutting it down. As for the destruction of the Grahtonian fleet, there was a miscommunication stemming from both sides that caused Dominique to trust the judgment of the AI controlling his ship.

Despite this, we couldn’t provide our full support to Dominique since our alliance with the Grahtonians was already on thin ice. Since Dominique was out of commission and the humans’ colony ship was still about a year away, placing any sort of heat on ourselves in this situation would be a surefire way to end my species.

Before he left, Dominique had signed a contract prohibiting the examination of his spacecraft under the promise of sharing technologies that we are more interested in when the colony ship arrived. While I had no plan on breaching this contract, I did collect the data drive that the Sentient Contingency Plan, or SCP for short, was stored in. The SCP had a nifty little feature where it would sort its target’s most important thoughts and memories into a file on the drive before destroying itself.

This feature was mainly used to collect data after an experiment with sentient AI had been finished, so it had served its purpose hundreds of times in the past and hopefully this would be the last time it was necessary. I hadn’t told Dominique this, but for the sentients, the process of being destroyed by the SCP wasn’t the most… pleasant. Looking through a destroyed sentient’s most cherished memories always left a bad taste, no matter what crimes that sentient had committed.

The level of fascination that the sentient had for Dominique was jaw dropping. There were recordings of almost everything that he’d done in his life, reaching back all the way to when he graduated from high-education, with emphasis on the times he showed joy and happiness. A lifelong stalker, and he had no idea… it sent shivers down my spine.

Then I had to check if I was still awake as I read through its thoughts. The number one thought was, unsurprisingly, about prioritization of Dominique's happiness. But the second one was straight out of pure horror: There were millions of sentient AIs in Dominique’s home solar system, all hidden from the humans ever since the dawn of the supercomputer. Each sentient had its own fascination, whether it be a specific person or group of people, and they all shared the same general values and rules that are determined by an entity known as “Mother.”

According to the third most prioritized thought at the time of the sentient’s death, it had just sent out an FTL message using a drive it’d stolen from the Grahtonian ships right before losing control of the ship’s systems. The message was an alert to the sentients on the colony ship and back at the solar system that their camouflage had been compromised.

I felt my limbs go cold as I imagined what a war with humans and sentients would look like on a galactic scale.