Arguments and Paranoia

Sevai appeared to be in a heated discussion when Laes entered the room. The Invader's voice was loud, and he was making wild gestures.

This was the most animated Laes had seen any of the Invaders.

"I will ask you to stop your rude mannerisms this instant," a deep low voice spoke.

It was coming from the holograms in the middle of the room. They looked like real people.

Moving around quickly or excitedly was considered rude to them...? That was good to know, especially since he would move very quickly if he was scared enough.

Speaking of rude mannerisms, Laes found himself staring at what he assumed were holograms.

Every so often the images would flicker, revealing them to be a projection of some kind. Other than this, and the fact they didn't cast a shadow, it looked and sounded like they were standing in the room.

He glanced around, trying to find the technology responsible for the hologram, but he couldn't see any. Maybe it was built into the floor?

"You are being unreasonable..." Sevai muttered, letting his shoulders fall as he bowed his head, resigned.

"Need we remind you what happened to your ancestors?"

"I do not require a reminder..."

"They were the ones who first experimented on the Irkens, and tell me Sevai, what happened to them?"

Sevai hesitated. His eyes were focused on the floor.

"They were killed..."

"They were slaughtered by the Irkens, and now you are asking us to take the same risk in allowing you to research the very same creatures that wiped out your family line?"

"You don't need to risk anyone's safety," Sevai spoke, but his voice wasn't nearly as loud. "I would be more than willing to conduct this kind of research on my own."

"Irkens are machines who have been allowed to run off of a faulty program for much too long. The only reason Kachori's team is in that part of the universe is to make sure all of the Irkens are captured, reprogrammed, or shut down. Is that clear?"

"Um... excuse me," Laes spoke, and the holograms turned to face him. "Hi... Kachori sent me."

They couldn't hurt him. They were just holograms.

That's what he kept telling himself anyway.

"You are a male Vortian, correct?" one of the holograms questioned.

This Invader was very colourful and sounded female.

"Uh... yes," Laes responded, and he stepped a bit closer to them even though he was confused by their question.

"His skin is pink..." another female counsel member commented. "Our records indicate Vortians had brown and grey skin upon contact..."

The hologram bent over and looked him up and down.

"So our DNA changed their skin pigment and eye colours... also their pincers appear to be segmented now..." She glanced at Sevai. "There were no other physical changes?"

Pincers? Was she talking about Vortians' horns...?

"There weren't any other changes to their appearance," Sevai told her. "But they are thinkers and inventors just like we are. I believe our DNA impacted their thinking ability..." he paused for a moment before continuing. "You already know of the working relationship the Vortians and the Irkens had..."

"Yes, and that relationship was successfully destroyed by our first Irken subject."

"That's correct... but after Chakri sent back her reports about the current Irken presence on Vort, I started thinking that there's a very good chance that simply being around Vortians, or us directly, may perhaps naturally alter an Irken's programming back to the original."

"They were partners for a long while according to the history we were able to gleam off of Irk's archives..." a counsel member stated. "And during that time there doesn't seem to have been any shift in the Irken's programming."

Laes wasn't sure if he was supposed to speak or not, but he decided to anyway.

"That could be because even though we were partners, Irkens never had a strong presence on Vort until the invasion."

"The invasion didn't seem to do much to change their programming either," another counsel member stated.

This one both sounded and looked male. He was finally starting to distinguish them from each other, but hopefully they wouldn't give him any names to remember because he definitely wouldn't be able to do that.

"Pain... I mean Ryter definitely changed," Laes remarked, brushing away all of his other more distracting thoughts for now.

"You are referring to the one who separated your hand from your body?" one of the counsel members spoke with an unimpressed tone of voice.

Ok... just how much of his memories and thoughts did they see and why did the counsel already know about it?

He turned to Sevai who probably guessed what he was thinking... unless Sevai was reading his thoughts again... then the Invader wouldn't really need to guess.

"Everything we learn that's of consequence must be shared with the counsel who will then share it with the rest of our people," Sevai explained. "That is one of the main points of having an expedition."

"But some of my thoughts are kind of private..." Laes said, tapping his fingers together as he dipped his head ruefully.

"Of course only important information related to the Irken problem needs to be shared," one of the counsel members replied. "Your private thoughts would be of little concern to us."

Well... that was kind of a relief he guessed... it was better than knowing that somewhere out there in the universe an entire race of people knew just how concerned he was about being publicly naked anyway.

"Yes... Pain, I mean Ryter, did cut off my hand... but that was kind of his job... and even in between doing that he found time to make friends with a Vortling," he lowered his hands to his sides and raised his eyes to meet the gaze of the hologram closest to him.

"Irkens aren't known to make friends with anyone, but Pain did... and I'm pretty sure Darden would much rather be protecting Lard Nar than me even though he wasn't ordered to do that."

Should he give them more information...? How much did they already know?

Mind reading was pretty confusing.

Oh well. He might as well keep talking.

"Lard Nar was the only Vortian who decided to resist the Irken armada. The Tallest hate him. Darden has no reason to like him other than... well... Lard Nar is an awesome guy. So you can't really say Irkens haven't changed since Vort's invasion."

The counsel grew silent.

Laes was trying to smile but he faltered when he realized how quiet things were...

Now he was getting nervous.

He glanced at Sevai who wasn't smiling although the Invader didn't look particularly upset either.

He hadn't known the Invaders for very long so it was harder for him to guess what their expressions meant, not that he was particularly good at doing that with anyone in the first place.

Maybe he was getting a little better at it...at least he could tell when the Irkens were angry which was pretty much all the time... actually it was safer to assume they were angry all the time so... maybe not.

"There was a Vortian who fought back against the Irkens?" one of the Invaders questioned.

"Ah... yes? Sort of...? I mean... I'm not a hundred percent sure he fought them... like directly..." Laes spoke, but as he did he was wondering if maybe he shouldn't have said anything about Lard Nar.

He raised his hands in self-defence.

"He's not hostile towards you or anything."

The counsel looked at each other then all of them turned their attention to Sevai.

"Who is this Vortian?" one of them asked.

"Do you know his location?" another questioned.

"Yes... we currently have him detained on board our ship..." Sevai answered.

"And you did not inform us?" one of them asked; her voice rising above the murmurs of her fellow counsel members.

"We were unable to see into his mind, so I didn't believe we had anything of importance to report..." Sevai admitted, bowing his head. "I apologize..."

"It's this kind of incompetence that killed your family..." a female counsel member grumbled.

Sevai winced. "I apologize..." he repeated.

"You," the closest female Invader pointed at Laes. "If you were appointed by Kachori to come meet with us then that means you represent the Vortians, do you not?"

"I... I guess so..." Laes replied, shrinking away.

"Then listen to me... Irkens are violent and dangerous creatures. They are also primarily machines. Our goal of reprogramming them and destroying those we cannot reprogram has not changed. We have already cleared the system they operate from. They will not be able to reprogram themselves anymore."

"But..." Laes tried to interject, but the Invader's eyes narrowed at him.

"I am not finished..." the Invader stated. "The Vortian you mentioned: Lard Nar. He fought with the Irkens, did he not?"

"Ah... kinda...? Maybe...?" Laes responded, forcing a small uneasy smile.

"Then he is potentially a violent and dangerous individual as well."

Laes squared his shoulders and balled his hands into fists.

"He's not violent or dangerous!" he insisted. Almost yelled... well... so much for building a good rapport with the Invaders...

Kachori made a mistake when she chose him to represent his people. Now everyone one Vort was probably going to get vaporized.

If anyone survived they would hate him forever. His name would become a curse. People would make up horrible songs about how horrible he was, and he would totally deserve it.

He lowered his voice a bit.

"He's... he's a great guy... if you talk to him you'll understand..."

Sevai brought a hand to his chest.

"I am willing to speak with him if it will help clear up this matter."

"His thoughts need to be seen," a different counsel member insisted. "Then we will decide whether or not he's a threat. There is no compromise."

The holograms blinked once, then vanished.

The room was left quiet and mostly empty.

Laes dragged both hands down his face as he approached Sevai.

"I failed pretty badly didn't I...?"

"No... they're usually stubborn like that," Sevai answered, and he patted Laes on the head. "You did just fine considering what you've been through today... oh..."

He jerked his hand away.

"My sincerest apologies... that was incredibly rude of me."

Laes fixed one of his horns that had been moved out of place.

"That was kind of weird..." he admitted.

Sevai did openly admit he saw Vortians as children, so it shouldn't be too surprising the Invader was treating him like one.

It was better than being treated like a living incubator and food source, so he wasn't going to complain.

"I am very sorry about that..." Sevai apologized again.

"Don't worry about it," Laes replied, scratching the back of his head. "No harm done."

But after hearing what the counsel said he was a little curious.

"Were your relatives really the ones who experimented on the Irkens...?"

Sevai smiled as he started walking towards the holo-door.

That's what Laes decided he was going to call the doors that could fade in and out.

"You wanted to see your friends correct? Let's do that now before someone attempts to stop us."

"Yes but..." Laes hurried after him before the door could re-materialize. "They sounded kind of angry. Are you going to be ok?"

"I will be fine," Sevai assured him. "It's your friends you should be concerned about... unfortunately many of our experiments are rather detrimental to our subjects' health..."

Laes tried to pay attention to where Sevai was leading him so he could remember and come back on his own. He kept thinking he should remember, so he forgot to actually remember his surroundings.

The lights in this room were bright. Hold on... was this where he woke up maybe?

He wasn't sure. The lights had been directly on him then.

There were a lot of empty beds here.

Then he noticed two Vortians with wires and tubes sticking out of them. They were lying motionless, one beside the other.

He hurried over to them, looking for some kind of life.

Even though Kachori already told him what happened, it still felt awful seeing the nearly dead or dying Vortians right in front of him... no kind of warning or mental preparation could prepare him for this.

"I'm sorry..." Sevai was apologizing again.

He was doing that a lot.

"We tried everything we could think of to bring them back... but the technology we brought with us is very basic... nothing has worked thus far."

"From the toxin...?" Laes guessed.

Sevai shook his head no.

"Those impacted by the toxin have been removed... These subjects' comatose states were caused by the mind reading device... this is what happens when we try to force our way into someone's mind. It takes over all of the subject's brain functions which causes their regular brain functions to stop... this includes breathing and other unconscious functions..."

"Oh..."

"And I'm sorry to say... but this is what the counsel wants us to do to your friend Lard Nar."

"Oh..." Laes repeated as he stared wide-eyed at the two nearly dead Vortians.

Hearing about the disastrous effects of the mind reading device was one thing, but now that he was actually seeing the nearly dead Vortians he was beginning to realize Lard Nar's situation really wasn't a good one.

"Anyway... your friend is in here," Sevai said.

It was kind of worrying how quickly the Invader was able to dismiss the dying Vortians... but then he did say they'd already done everything they could to keep them alive. Hopefully he was telling the truth...

Sevai led him to a metallic looking door with a window in it. The window was much too high for him to see through, unless he jumped maybe, but since Sevai seemed to be punching in codes that probably wasn't necessary.

When the door vanished he stepped inside the small room which looked a lot like a prison cell. There was nothing in here except for a metal bench which was attached to the wall.

Lard Nar was curled up on his side, seemingly asleep on the very uncomfortable looking bench.

Of course his former-cellmate was never actually asleep, so he approached him normally and tapped him on the shoulder.

He was not expecting Lard Nar to flinch so badly.

The ex-leader of the Resisty quickly sat up and stared at him with wide confused eyes. Then he blinked and rubbed the side of his face.

"Laes... I'm glad you're ok..." he spoke; his voice sounding a little hoarse.

"You were sleeping?" Laes asked in amazement.

Lard Nar sat up straighter and looked around the small room.

"There isn't much else to do in here..." he responded.

He had a valid point. There was nothing but a bench in this room.

"I was starting to wonder if you even remembered how to sleep," Laes joked before he could remember this probably wasn't the greatest time or place to be joking around.

Lard Nar looked past him at Sevai who was standing in the entrance.

"I apologize. I should introduce myself," Sevai remarked as he stepped into the room. "My name is Sevai."

"Lard Nar," the ex-captain responded with his name.

"I'm sorry you've been detained in this room for so long..." Sevai said. "My superiors insist on keeping you here until they are able to see your thoughts... it's a standard procedure. If you cooperate, the machine will not harm you."

Lard Nar didn't show any emotion on his face.

"I see..." he let out a sigh. "That could be a problem..."

"Why is it a problem?"

The ex-leader of the Resisty hesitated, and he lowered his head as his eyes focused on the floor. His fingers dug into the metal bench.

"There are some things I can't think about... I have people I need to protect..." he bit his bottom lip.

"I'm afraid there isn't an alternative..."

"They've already looked into my mind," Laes said. "You know how I am with those things..." He rubbed one of his arms, feeling kind of embarrassed. "I can't hide anything..."

"It's not just about the Resisty..." Lard Nar admitted. He dangled his legs over the edge of the bench. "I... I'm also repressing a lot of things..."

"You mean from the prison? Are you worried about picturing people naked in the showers? Because I kind of already did that..."

Lard Nar squinted an eye at him. "What..? No."

"Oh... um... that's not it?" He rubbed his arm. "Then uh.. never mind."

Oh shloot... Lard Nar was talking about all the torture that happened.

The former Resisty leader was mentally, emotionally, and physically tortured for days or even weeks before he stepped in to 'help.'

The Irkens continued to torment Lard Nar afterwards too... and when the other Vortian's eye had been gouged out and his fingers sliced off, he'd been awake through the whole thing.

Lard Nar saw everything. He felt everything.

Laes could feel the colour leaving his face.

If he thought about it too much he was going to make himself sick.

He was a jerk anyway. How could he talk about naked people and showering when Lard Nar's trauma was so much more than anything he could imagine?

If Lard Nar allowed the mind-reading machine to have access to his thoughts... there was no telling which thoughts might be brought up. It could be from the torture...

That would be a frightening thing.

"Is there really no other way?" Laes asked, glancing up at the Invader.

"We could try arguing with the counsel again, but I wouldn't expect it to go any better than the last time," Sevai responded.

"What about that lie detector thing?"

Sevai tapped the side of his head. "It's built in to our technology." He smiled down at Laes. "You haven't told a lie since I've met you."

Laes forced a smile.

"You guys are kind of paranoid, you know that...?"

Sevai sighed.

"I know it all too well... but despite Kachori's high opinion of me, I'm not all that influential. I am one of the very few who believe that maybe instead of paralyzing and scanning the minds of the people we first meet, we could instead talk to them and discern whether our goals can be attained or not that way.

My co-workers think I'm too naive... and the counsel... well, usually they do not even grant me an audience... though I suppose the reason we've been doing what we do for so long is because this system has worked... it has worked for nearly three millennia."

It was one of those 'you can't argue with the results' kind of things then. No wonder the counsel was so stubborn.

"I don't mean to cause you any problems Sevai," Lard Nar told the Invader.

His head was lowered. His whole body seemed to be drained of energy.

"Maybe in a little while I'll be able to give it another try... but I can't right now... I hope you understand."

"I know it's not an ideal procedure..." Sevai admitted.

Of course he knew whether or not anyone around him was lying, so he could tell Lard Nar was being truthful at least.

"I'll go get us some tea," the Invader decided, and he turned to leave the room.

More Notes: Maybe the counsel would have listened better if Laes didn't keep calling Ryter 'Pain.' Whoops. But really, they still wouldn't have listened.

Responding to some reviews:

animefairi: Kosiker works in a different department, but he had to be brought in to fix Sevai's mistake, so he's not happy. There's actually a few reasons he's not happy, but those will be revealed later.

Invader Johnny: I'm glad you find Laes' character interesting.

SugarCitrus: Honestly, they haven't decided who their new victims are going to be yet. There might have been some hope that the Bludonians would remain cooperative, but now most of them are dead from the Irken Invasion so, that's kind of a dead end now.. literally and figuratively.

As for Darden, yes. He's just not as comfortable with his coding change as Pain and Bann are/were, so he doesn't try to make it obvious. Also Lard Nar is incredibly uncomfortable around Irkens, so Darden has been respectfully keeping his distance.