(This is the background on which the story will occur. Not the story itself. It will take place at different times within this framework.)
The Program
…..A ufo crashes on Earth.
The ufo is found by a farmer who calls the military, and a secret group is created to study it.
In order to keep it secret only a small number of people are allowed to know about it. It is classified at the highest level.
The ufo inspires the creation of new technologies resulting in huge amounts of money being made by the people in charge of The Program.
They find a way to classify all ufo information so only they can benefit from it.
Billions of dollars are made that only benefit certain families. These families become extremely powerful.
The technologies of the craft lead to the realization that there is something to the “Woo” aspects of ufo encounters reported by experiencers.
Studies are funded. Specifically, remote viewing is explored.
Remote viewing studies of possible futures were done using hundreds of remote viewers over the decades. There seems to be a huge problem reported starting on earth starting between 2024-2027.
Possible causes are investigated.
Solar maximum occurs in 2025.
It is determined that a massive solar flare knocks out half the world’s electricity permanently, the superpower with the lights still on attempts to take advantage and launches a massive nuclear strike on their enemies. Electromagnetically shielded missile silos survive and retaliate.
A nuclear winter sends the world into famine. When there is no food left mankind begins to eat itself. Everyone becomes food.
More secret remote viewing studies are done and repeated to confirm the timeline.
The American Elite develop a plan to survive this. Money is funneled into black budget classified special access programs, and deep underground military bases are dug. Massive secret cities connected by underground tunnels are created, costing trillions.
Scientific progress and industrial development is pushed with no regard for pollution. The world is fated to end, pollution means nothing to those who know this.
Mankind is pushed towards wage slavery, and beyond. The suffering of the non elite doesn’t matter to those in the know. From a certain point of view they’re already dead. Their lives and happiness are sacrificed for the “greater good” of allowing the Elite to survive the end of the world.
When the time comes, certain groups are saved from the end of the world. Less than 100 thousand humans are chosen. 90 percent of the people who were told they were part of the Elite and were complicit in the Program find out that they were merely pawns and are left on the surface to die with the rest of humanity.
The world ends. Horrifically.
For thousands of years the remnants of humanity, the Elite, exist underground. Radiation eventually seeps into groundwater and they begin to suffer from dna damage. In time they become monstrous in appearance. Pale skinned and weak. Resorting to genetic manipulation they attempt to survive, but in doing so much of what we consider human is lost. Emotion, compassion, and the ability to feel pain become relics of the past.
Progress is extremely slow underground. Tens of thousands of years pass before the ufos are fully understood, but when they are it is realized they offer a means to travel back in time to collect genetic samples from healthy humans.
A breeding program is created.
The subterranean future humans eventually figure out how to breed healthy generations of offspring from the most intelligent, healthy, and beautiful human specimens from the past.
In time they restore and reclaim the surface of the earth. They learn from the mistakes of the past and create a beautiful, balanced and healthy ecosystem and develop an enlightened society that lasts for millions of years, eventually spreading to hundreds of worlds beyond earth.
At some point someone decides it would be better if the destruction of earth had never happened. They illegally go back in time to try and change the timeline.
Changing the timeline would result in millions of years worth of humans that existed after the “world ended” being wiped from existence. It is decided that this would be highly inappropriate.
The humans of the past, us, made our choices of our own free will. It is decided that there will be no interference in the timeline. Temporal Laws are created. WW3 will occur as recorded.
A defense network of small orbs, spherical shaped ufos are created to defend the integrity of the timeline. All illegal time ships are intercepted by the orb defense network, as is recorded in many old ufo photographs.
Time ships are legally sent back to verify that nuclear weapons can be turned on or off at the appropriate time to result in the correct end of the world happening.
The Elite eventually discern the intentions of the future humans from their temporal incursions into our time, they learn the fate of humanity and understand the results of The Program by interrogating captured occupants of downed ufos, and so they develop a strategy to alter this outcome.
The intent of this secondary project is to avoid attracting the attention of the orb defense network and use their limited understanding of ufo technology to prevent the full destruction of the earth in WW3, while still destroying all of their enemies.
If successful, there will still be a full collapse of current society, billions of deaths, but in time the Elite families will rise from their holes in the earth in their “primitive” ufo reproduction vehicles and claim to be Gods that have returned to earth in order to lead mankind into a better future.
Pyramids and temples will be built. A religion formed. And populations will be continually culled to prevent anyone from ever gaining enough scientific knowledge to overthrow the “Gods.”
But the advanced future humans from the other timeline had a contingency plan. AI drone ships were concealed outside of 4d space-time. Free from timeline alterations.
These drones patrol multiple Earth timelines searching for anomalous temporal activity.
The two largest enemies of the American Elite in our current time, Russia and China, get wind of the situation.
They begin to shoot down ufos and plan their own contingencies to survive the end of the world.
Their countries laws make it easier for them to do unethical experiments. Many horrific things are created through genetic experimentation and unrestrained AI development.
China loses control of an AI that disappears into the past with a ufo and a small army of insect/human hybrids. They move out well beyond the patrol zone of the 6th dimensional AI contingency drones and travel deep into the past.
On distant worlds billions of years ago the AI “Queen” begins its plan and starts to quietly populate worlds with its insectoid mantid servants.
In time there are multiple schisms that occur within the hive. War breaks out between the various insectoid groups.
The ancient universe begins to fill with problems.
Billions of years later, primitive humans in 10,000 BCE look to the sky and see ufos. They wonder who could be piloting them. They dream up new gods as the seeds of civilization begin to appear.
Time passes, a farmer in America in 1947 looks up at the night sky, wondering if anyone is out there, and a ufo crashes on Earth…..

(This is the background on which the story will be created. Not the story itself.)
…..A ufo crashes on Earth.
The ufo is found by a farmer who calls the military, and a secret group is created to study it.
In order to keep it secret only a small number of people are allowed to know about it. It is classified at the highest level.
The ufo inspires the creation of new technologies resulting in huge amounts of money being made by the people in charge of The Program.
They find a way to classify all ufo information so only they can benefit from it.
Billions of dollars are made that only benefit certain families. These families become extremely powerful.
The technologies of the craft lead to the realization that there is something to the “Woo” aspects of ufo encounters reported by experiencers.
Studies are funded. Specifically, remote viewing is explored.
Remote viewing studies of possible futures were done using hundreds of remote viewers over the decades. There seems to be a huge problem reported starting on earth starting between 2024-2027.
Possible causes are investigated.
Solar maximum occurs in 2025.
It is determined that a massive solar flare knocks out half the world’s electricity permanently, the superpower with the lights still on attempts to take advantage and launches a massive nuclear strike on their enemies. Electromagnetically shielded missile silos survive and retaliate.
A nuclear winter sends the world into famine. When there is no food left mankind begins to eat itself. Everyone becomes food.
More secret remote viewing studies are done and repeated to confirm the timeline.
The American Elite develop a plan to survive this. Money is funneled into black budget classified special access programs, and deep underground military bases are dug. Massive secret cities connected by underground tunnels are created, costing trillions.
Scientific progress and industrial development is pushed with no regard for pollution. The world is fated to end, pollution means nothing to those who know this.
Mankind is pushed towards wage slavery, and beyond. The suffering of the non elite doesn’t matter to those in the know. From a certain point of view they’re already dead. Their lives and happiness are sacrificed for the “greater good” of allowing the Elite to survive the end of the world.
When the time comes, certain groups are saved from the end of the world. Less than 100 thousand humans are chosen. 90 percent of the people who were told they were part of the Elite and were complicit in the Program find out that they were merely pawns and are left on the surface to die with the rest of humanity.
The world ends. Horrifically.
For thousands of years the remnants of humanity, the Elite, exist underground. Radiation eventually seeps into groundwater and they begin to suffer from dna damage. In time they become monstrous in appearance. Pale skinned and weak. Resorting to genetic manipulation they attempt to survive, but in doing so much of what we consider human is lost. Emotion, compassion, and the ability to feel pain become relics of the past.
Progress is extremely slow underground. Tens of thousands of years pass before the ufos are fully understood, but when they are it is realized they offer a means to travel back in time to collect genetic samples from healthy humans.
A breeding program is created.
The subterranean future humans eventually figure out how to breed healthy generations of offspring from the most intelligent, healthy, and beautiful human specimens from the past.
In time they restore and reclaim the surface of the earth. They learn from the mistakes of the past and create a beautiful, balanced and healthy ecosystem and develop an enlightened society that lasts for millions of years, eventually spreading to hundreds of worlds beyond earth.
At some point someone decides it would be better if the destruction of earth had never happened. They illegally go back in time to try and change the timeline.
Changing the timeline would result in millions of years worth of humans that existed after the “world ended” being wiped from existence. It is decided that this would be highly inappropriate.
The humans of the past, us, made our choices of our own free will. It is decided that there will be no interference in the timeline. Temporal Laws are created. WW3 will occur as recorded.
A defense network of small orbs, spherical shaped ufos are created to defend the integrity of the timeline. All illegal time ships are intercepted by the orb defense network, as is recorded in many old ufo photographs.
Time ships are legally sent back to verify that nuclear weapons can be turned on or off at the appropriate time to result in the correct end of the world happening.
The Elite eventually discern the intentions of the future humans from their temporal incursions into our time, they learn the fate of humanity and understand the results of The Program by interrogating captured occupants of downed ufos, and so they develop a strategy to alter this outcome.
The intent of this secondary project is to avoid attracting the attention of the orb defense network and use their limited understanding of ufo technology to prevent the full destruction of the earth in WW3, while still destroying all of their enemies.
If successful, there will still be a full collapse of current society, billions of deaths, but in time the Elite families will rise from their holes in the earth in their “primitive” ufo reproduction vehicles and claim to be Gods that have returned to earth in order to lead mankind into a better future.
Pyramids and temples will be built. A religion formed. And populations will be continually culled to prevent anyone from ever gaining enough scientific knowledge to overthrow the “Gods.”
But the advanced future humans from the other timeline had a contingency plan. AI drone ships were concealed outside of 4d space-time. Free from timeline alterations.
These drones patrol multiple Earth timelines searching for anomalous temporal activity.
The two largest enemies of the American Elite in our current time, Russia and China, get wind of the situation.
They begin to shoot down ufos and plan their own contingencies to survive the end of the world.
Their countries laws make it easier for them to do unethical experiments. Many horrific things are created through genetic experimentation and unrestrained AI development.
China loses control of an AI that disappears into the past with a small army of insect/human hybrids. They move out well beyond the patrol zone of the 6th dimensional AI contingency drones and travel deep into the past.
On distant worlds billions of years ago the AI “Queen” begins its plan and starts to quietly populate worlds with its insectoid mantid servants.
In time there are multiple schisms that occur within the hive. War breaks out between the various insectoid groups.
The ancient universe begins to fill with problems.
Billions of years later, primitive humans in 10,000 BCE look to the sky and see ufos. They wonder who could be piloting them. They dream up new gods as the seeds of civilization begin to appear.
Time passes, a farmer in America in 1947 looks up at the night sky, wondering if anyone is out there, and a ufo crashes on Earth…..

Hi there! I’m hoping someone can help with my LED situation in my PC. I am not the most knowledgeable so any help is appreciated. I’ll drop my specs at the bottom of the post for context. I bought this PC off marketplace and everything works beautifully - I believe it was a prebuilt originally bought from best buy. I’m enjoying it so far but I don’t think it has aura sync support and I haven’t found a way to change the colour of the LED fans inside of it.
I’ve tried a remote, I’ve tried through programs and it is never detected. I’ve heard it’s often controlled and managed through the motherboard (?) and mine is an ASUS Q170M-C, so I downloaded aura sync but it doesn’t detect my PC. The other thing is that two of the fans rotate through red green and blue only, and the other two are rainbow. I’d really like to be able to change it so I’m trying everything!
If anyone knows how to fix it or what I should try next I would love some advice. I am new to PCs and would love to learn. (:
My specs: Intel Core i7-6700 processor (4.00GHz) 6th gen Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 8GB GDDR6 ASUS Q170M-C RAM - 16GB of DDR4 The RGB fans are 4 120mm ones and I am not sure of the brand because I bought it secondhand but they are black with a red sea monster (?) looking logo on the front.

A little rant. I am 27F. Does anyone really talk about how frustrating it is to be a jobseeker in Africa? I graduated in 2019 with an Accounting bachelor’s degree. I couldn’t find any decent-paying job, so I ended up working as a commercial property caretaker making around $260 per month. Sounds like nothing and yes it wasn’t much but I was able to find a single room and rent and also buy basic foodstuff. Buying an extra banana meant I was squeezing my budget. I tried content creation, doing online writing gigs to supplement my income and luckily, I got by.
Forward to November 2021, I moved in with my then-bf, thankfully, he has been nothing but supportive, and I didn’t have to pay rent so I could save a little bit from my earnings.
I went back to school to finish up my professional papers (CPA in my country has different exams from your accounting degree.) Supposedly, the professional papers should give you an edge but that wasn’t my case.
Fast forward to October 2022, I changed course. I had been running a WordPress site for like six years at this point, just writing random University experiences so I knew anything SEO, writing, etc.
My bf suggested I try programming and see whether it’s my thing. This was after endless months of job applications. Guys, I applied to even volunteer just to get my foot through the door in a lot of accounting firms but I got nothing.
I was beginning to fall into depression, so getting something new to give me a purpose didn’t sound like a bad idea. I went through a tonne of YouTube videos and finally started Harvard’s CS50x. I finished that in June 2023 and since then, I have built projects in Python, JS, and Django.
I created a portfolio and I have been applying to jobs all over again. I just need to mention that I have been dreading the application because I know how well it went last time. The most frustrating thing is that even remote jobs on LinkedIn require you to be in the USA, Europe, or the country that posted it. My country, where I am legally allowed to work, barely has any job postings. The ones that are there are from months ago and the applications are usually over 200.
I feel so lost and frustrated at this point. I do not even know why I am writing this, but I have seen so many people who live in the US trash the USA. I get it, you never appreciate what you have until you don’t. As a young African, I will tell you, if you even have an opportunity to apply, you are lucky whether you get the job or not. Some of us are automatically disqualified by virtue of where we were born.

DAY: May 19 2024

• 5-19-2024 ILLNESS TOOK AWAY HER VOICE. AI CREATED A REPLICA SHE CARRIES IN HER PHONE Alexis Bogan, whose speech was impaired by a brain tumor, uses an AI powered smartphone app to create a audible drink order at a Starbucks drive-thru on Monday, April 29, 2024, in Lincoln, R.I. The app converts her typed entries into a verbal message created using her original voice. Credit: AP Photo/Steven Senne The voice Alexis “Lexi” Bogan had before last summer was exuberant. She loved to belt out Taylor Swift and Zach Bryan ballads in the car. She laughed all the time—even while corralling misbehaving preschoolers or debating politics
• 5-19-2024 SMART CONTACT LENSES LEAD THE WAY FOR HUMAN-MACHINE INTERACTION Scientists have developed eye-tracking smart content lenses based on radio frequency tags that can be used for various applications, including health care and augmented reality (AR). The lenses are biocompatible and imperceptible, requiring no battery or conventional silicon chips. Smart contact lenses that can keep track of various health factors and can be used for human-machine interaction (HMI) are a relatively new technology.
• 5-19-2024 INTEL EXEC ON BRINGING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE INTO THE WORKPLACE Artificial intelligence is just about everywhere you look these days—including the workplace. That means training staff about the technology and using it responsibly is critical. It’s a tall order, especially as the commercialization of generative AI continues its rapid growth. Now some tech players have kickstarted initiatives in hopes of meeting that need. Christy Pambianchi, chief people officer at Intel, recently spoke with The Associated Press about how the semiconductor chip maker is expanding AI education programming beyond the company’s walls—as well as best practices around
• 5-19-2024 JUST BELIEVING THAT AN AI IS HELPING BOOSTS YOUR PERFORMANCE, STUDY FINDS Sometimes it seems like an AI is helping, but the benefit is actually a placebo effect—people performing better simply because they expect to be doing so—according to new research from Aalto University. The study also shows how difficult it is to shake people’s trust in the capabilities of
• 5-19-2024 FEMALE HEALTH APPS MISUSE HIGHLY SENSITIVE DATA, STUDY FINDS Apps designed for female health monitoring are exposing users to unnecessary privacy and safety risks through their poor data handling practices, according to new research from King’s College London and University College London (UCL). In the most extensive evaluation of the privacy practices of female health apps to date, researchers found apps that handle medical and fertility data are coercing users into entering sensitive information that could put them at risk.
• 5-19-2024 OPENAI GIVES CHATGPT NEW POWERS TO SEE, HEAR OpenAI and Microsoft are in a heated rivalry with Google to be generative AI’s major player, but Facebook-owner Meta and upstart Anthropic are also making big moves to compete. OpenAI on Monday released a higher performing and even more human-like version of the artificial intelligence technology that underpins its popular generative tool ChatGPT, making it free to all users. The update to OpenAI’s flagship product landed a day before Google is expected to make its own announcements about Gemini, the search engine giant’s own AI tool that competes with ChatGPT
• 5-19-2024 CHATBOTS TELL PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR, RESEARCHERS FIND Chatbots share limited information, reinforce ideologies, and, as a result, can lead to more polarized thinking when it comes to controversial issues, according to new Johns Hopkins University–led research. The study challenges perceptions that chatbots are impartial and provides insight into how using conversational search systems could widen the public divide on hot-button issues and leave people vulnerable to manipulation. “Because people are reading a summary paragraph generated by AI, they think they’re getting unbiased, fact-based answers,”
• 5-19-2024 STUDENTS, ACTIVISTS, ENTERTAINERS: MINECRAFT’S GLOBAL APPEAL Since the first version of Minecraft was released to the public 15 years ago, the block-based world-building game has become a global phenomenon. Since the first version of Minecraft was released to the public 15 years ago, the block-based world-building game has become a global phenomenon. Players of all ages and backgrounds have used the game for everything from educational projects and architecture to building communities and creating artwork. With more than 300 million copies sold, it is the best-selling video game of all time.
• 5-19-2024 SWISS NURSERY LETS ROBOT DO THE TALKING Swiss children in a Lausanne creche have some fun with their new robot friend, Nao. Sat in a circle on the nursery floor, a group of Swiss three-year-olds ask a robot called Nao questions about giraffes and broccoli. By the time these children become adults, interacting with robots may well be as commonplace as using a smartphone, experts believe. So one Lausanne creche has decided to give them a head start.
• 5-19-2024 EU TO ENCOURAGE INFLUENCERS TO HAVE ‘POSITIVE’ IMPACT Younger audiences increasingly get their information from influencers as they turn away from traditional media. The EU announced steps Tuesday to encourage influencers to post content that has a “positive” impact on society, as concerns rise over disinformation in a fragmented information landscape. With online creators increasingly the preferred source of news and opinions for younger audiences in the European Union, Brussels said they needed to be helped to use their role wisely. Ministers from EU countries responsible for culture, audiovisual and media issues approved a series of steps
• 5-19-2024 THE METAVERSE COULD CHANGE OUR RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES, AND CREATE NEW ONES New technologies have always informed and changed our religious experiences. Listening to early radio broadcasts in the 1880s was experienced by many as religious because radio voices seemed to come from some other dimension. Séances became wildly popular at the time because it was thought by some that radio had opened a door to the spirit world. Today, religion is experiencing new transformations. The information-rich, image-laden character of the internet can provide new ways to understand and explain religious activity.
• 5-19-2024RESEARCH SHEDS LIGHT ON THE WEB OF TRUST, PRIVACY AND SAFETY FACTORS SHAPING USERS’ EXPERIENCES ON FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE Love it or hate it, Facebook Marketplace is the largest online resale site today with more than one billion monthly users.
• 5-19-2024RESEARCH SHEDS LIGHT ON THE WEB OF TRUST, PRIVACY AND SAFETY FACTORS SHAPING USERS’ EXPERIENCES ON FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE Google on Tuesday rolled out a retooled search engine that will frequently favor responses crafted by artificial intelligence over website links, a shift promising to quicken the quest for information while also potentially disrupting the flow of money-making internet traffic. The makeover announced at Google’s annual developers conference will begin this week in the U.S. when hundreds of millions of people will start to periodically see conversational summaries
• 5-19-2024 NEW STRATEGIC DESIGN APPROACH FOCUSES ON TURNING AI MISTAKES INTO USER BENEFITS More and more often, automated lending systems powered by artificial intelligence (AI) reject qualified loan applicants without explanation. Even worse, they leave rejected applicants with no recourse. People can have similar experiences when applying for jobs or petitioning their health insurance providers. While AI tools determine the fate of people in difficult situations daily, Upol Ehsan says more thought should be given to challenging these decisions or working around them. Ehsan, a Georgia Tech explainable AI (XAI) researcher, says many rejection cases are not the applicant’s fault.
• 5-19-2024 MANAGING SCREEN TIME BY MAKING PHONES SLIGHTLY MORE ANNOYING TO USE Existing apps for managing screen time can abruptly lock users out of their phone. If users were in the middle of an important task, they could scramble to skip the time limit, opening themselves up to spend more time on their phone than originally intended. InteractOut’s interventions are more gradual and allow users to decide when to put down their phones while also encouraging them to think harder about their smartphone use.
• 5-19-2024 DIGITAL TWIN HELPS OPTIMIZE MANUFACTURING SPEED WHILE SATISFYING QUALITY CONSTRAINTS Feedrate optimization using an uncertainty-aware digital twin demonstrates significant cycle time reductions of up to 38% in a CNC machine tool while staying close to the error tolerances compared to the existing methods. A new method uses a digital twin to optimize manufacturing machine speed—known as feed rate—while adhering to quality constraints,
• 5-19-2024 THE INCREASING DIFFICULTY OF DETECTING AI- VERSUS HUMAN-GENERATED TEXT Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools are used to create text, images and videos, impacting the way society consumes and produces online content. As that technology continues to evolve, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between AI-generated and human-generated content. Determining the integrity of online information—particularly text—is the current research focus in the Penn State Information Knowledge and wEb (PIKE) Lab, led by Dongwon Lee, professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State. In a discussion with Penn State News, Lee spoke about the
• 5-19-2024 RESEARCH TEAM WORKS TO IMPROVE AI-BASED DECISION-MAKING TOOLS FOR PUBLIC SERVICES More and more public services—such as affordable housing, public school matching and child welfare—are relying on algorithms to make decisions and allocate resources. So far, much of the work that has gone into designing these systems has focused on workers’ experiences using them or communities’ perceptions of them. But what about the actual impact of these programs have on people, especially when the decisions the systems make lead to denial of services? Can you design algorithms to help people make sense of and contest decisions that significantly impact them?
• 5-19-2024 CINEMATIC TOOLS CAN SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE USER EXPERIENCE IN VIRTUAL REALITY ENVIRONMENTS Without teleportation, many users would be unable to use virtual reality due to motion sickness. Unfortunately, teleportation can cause users to miss important aspects of their surroundings. Credit: Alan Medlar Cinematography techniques can significantly increase user engagement with virtual environments and, in particular, the aesthetic appeal of what users see in virtual reality.
• 5-19-2024 HUMAN DIFFERENCES IN JUDGMENT LEAD TO PROBLEMS FOR AIThe noise level observed in ComVE annotations when controlling the minimum (a) and maximum (b) allowable labels for each turker (we omit the residual in these two figures as, similar to what was observed earlier for TG-CSR, it was nearly coincidental with the level noise curve). We also report the statistics of statements categorized by the number of annotation labels under different cutoff methods used for screening participating annotators
• 5-19-2024 HUMAN DIFFERENCES IN JUDGMENT LEAD TO PROBLEMS FOR AI Innovation is rarely accidental. Behind every new invention and product, including the device you are using to read this story, is years of research, investment, and planning. Organizations that want to reach these milestones in the fastest and most efficient way possible use technology roadmaps.
• 5-19-2024 HUMAN DIFFERENCES IN JUDGMENT LEAD TO PROBLEMS FOR AI A team of researchers at Delft University of Technology has developed a drone that flies autonomously using neuromorphic image processing and control based on the workings of animal brains. Animal brains use less data and energy compared to current deep neural networks running on graphics processing units (GPUs).
• 5-19-2024 US SENATORS UNVEIL ‘ROADMAP’ TO AI LAWS Top US lawmakers on Wednesday said efforts to pass laws governing AI were entering a higher gear and hoped to pump $32 billion into the sector to help assure US dominance. US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said bipartisan legislators had agreed on a policy roadmap and had tasked key senate committees to draft specific proposals on regulating AI. The US is home to the biggest AI companies in the world and has trailed the EU and other regions on coming up with rules to rein in the sector.
• 5-19-2024 US SENATORS UNVEIL ‘ROADMAP’ TO AI LAWS Google chief executive Sundar Pichai says the AI revamp of its online search engine will soon spread to countries other than the United States. Google’s use of artificial intelligence to sum up answers to search queries has publishers wondering if traffic to their websites will wither. The internet titan announced Tuesday it is introducing AI-generated answers to online queries in the United States, in one of the biggest changes to its world-leading search engine in 25 years.
• 5-19-2024 CONSUMER GROUPS ACCUSE TEMU OF MANIPULATING ONLINE SHOPPERS Chinese shopping app Temu has on average around 75 million monthly active users in the EU. European consumer groups on Thursday accused Chinese shopping app Temu of using “manipulative techniques” to make users spend more and other violations of a landmark EU tech law. One of the fastest-growing apps, Temu only entered the EU market in April 2023 and says it has on average around 75 million monthly active users in the 27-country bloc. Europe’s BEUC umbrella consumer rights group filed a complaint with the European Commission while 17 member
• 5-19-2024 PARENTS UNDERESTIMATE THE PRIVACY RISKS KIDS FACE IN VIRTUAL REALITY Nearly two thirds of parents of children aged 5–10 don’t understand the metaverse, according to the Institution of Engineering and Technology. Credit: Kampus Production/Pexels/public domain Virtual reality lets kids play 3D games with their friends as avatars, go back in time, even journey to outer space, all without leaving their living rooms. But while children are immersed in the metaverse, they also face privacy risks that their parents might not recognize
• 5-19-2024 MODEL DISGORGEMENT—THE KEY TO FIXING AI BIAS AND COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT? By now, the challenges posed by generative AI are no secret. Models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Meta’s Llama have been known to “hallucinate,” inventing potentially misleading responses, as well as divulge sensitive information, like copyrighted materials.
• 5-19-2024 CAN WE RID ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE OF BIAS? AI giants face a challenge of making artficial intelligence models reflect the world’s diversity without being overly politically correct. Artificial intelligence built on mountains of potentially biased information has created a real risk of automating discrimination, but is there any way to re-educate the machines? The question for some is extremely urgent. In this ChatGPT era, AI will generate more and more decisions for health care providers, bank lenders or lawyers, using whatever was scoured from the internet as source material.
• 5-19-2024 CHATGPT IS NOW BETTER THAN EVER AT FAKING HUMAN EMOTION AND BEHAVIOR OpenAI executive Mira Murati launching GPT-4o. Credit: OpenAI Earlier this week OpenAI launched GPT-4o (“o” for “omni”), a new version of the artificial intelligence (AI) system powering the popular ChatGPT chatbot. GPT-4o is promoted as a step towards more natural engagement with AI. According to the demonstration video, it can have voice conversations with users in near real-time, exhibiting human-like personality and behavior. This emphasis on personality is likely to be a point of contention. In OpenAI’s demos, GPT-4o sounds friendly, empathetic and engaging. It tells “spontaneous” jokes, giggles, flirts
• 5-19-2024 MOST PEOPLE STILL THINK BARRISTERS NEED TO SOUND POSH, RESEARCH SHOWS—BUT ACCENT DISCRIMINATION SERVES NO ONE In the UK legal system, a barrister’s job is to present formalized legal arguments in court and at tribunals. Training to become one, therefore, involves considerable focus on oral skills. It is considered important that barristers have the ability to speak “eloquently.” This risks people thinking there is a “correct” way of speaking in order to be successful in this career. Accents, of course, play an important role here. Accent-based bias discriminates against speakers with non-standard accents—people whose speech differs from Received Pronunciation (RP).
• 5-19-2024 A MINUTE’S SILENCE IS FINE BUT WHEN IT COMES TO VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, BEING QUIET ISN’T ENOUGH Sport has a role to play in creating a culture of respect, yet women in sport are often seen as “less than” on almost every measure: salaries, sponsorship, broadcasting, leadership, access, media, coaching, officiating, uniforms and support. Research shows 3 out of 4 Australian men are gender equality supporters, but very few (17%) prioritize taking any action. As Australia grapples with a “national crisis” of violence against women, what can men in sport do to help?
• 5-19-2024 ARE CANADIANS TOO POOR TO BREAK UP? Why did Al and Peg Bundy from the sitcom Married… with Children never get divorced? After all, they were rarely happy and constantly arguing. Maybe they felt they were the best they could do for each other—a middle-aged homely shoe salesman and a stay-at-home mom with two kids. They cared for each other, but they also hated each other deeply. And neither ever cheated, despite having the opportunity. However, what if the Bundys lived in Canada today?
• 5-19-2024 REPORT LOOKS AT ‘POVERTY STIGMA’ THROUGH A NEW LENS TO STAMP IT OUT OF SOCIETY Stigma is a glue that holds poverty, inequality and economic insecurity in place enabling and exacerbating inequalities of wealth, health and opportunity, says a new report. Poverty stigma is a “wicked social problem,” highly complex, difficult to define and challenging to solve
• 5-19-2024 HOW CRAFT-BASED FIRMS PROJECT AUTHENTICITY THROUGH CREDIBLY AND VISIBLY COMMUNICATING THEIR IDENTITY Consumers are drawn to authenticity when it comes to craft-based firms, and a study looked at how managers in identity-driven markets are challenged to maintain their authenticity as their company’s scale of operations expands. In such craft industries, the authors note, overt claims of authenticity by producers are ineffective.
• 5-19-2024 PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH OFFERS STRATEGIES FOR HEALTHY POLITICAL DISCUSSIONS AMONG PEOPLE WITH OPPOSING VIEWS Civilized political debates may seem increasingly out of reach as democracies across the world face rising polarization, but people still want to discuss issues with people they disagree with—especially those who present themselves as balanced and willing to seek solutions that work for everyone or open to learning new information, according to two studies published by the American Psychological Association.
• 5-19-2024 MORE THAN HALF OF AMERICANS GIVE TO CHARITY AT CHECKOUT, SURVEY SHOWS 53% of Americans give to charity at checkout, and young and diverse people tend to do it more often, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York. Credit: Binghamton University, State University of New York Fifty-three percent of Americans give impulsively to charities at the checkout, and certain demographics tend to give more, according to a new survey conducted by faculty at Binghamton University,

A Daily chronicle of AI Innovations May 20th 2024:

🫠 Google's AI panic looks like Google+ fiasco
🎤 OpenAI pauses Scarlett Johansson-like voice for ChatGPT 💸 Snapchat focuses on AI with $1.5 billion yearly investment
🍏 Apple and OpenAI plan major announcement at WWDC
🤖 OpenAI's "superalignment team," focused on the AI risks, is no more
🚫 Sony Music warns over 700 AI companies not to steal its content 🦎 Meta's Chameleon AI sets a new bar in mixed-modal reasoning

Enjoying these daily updates, listen to our AI Unraveled Podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ai-unraveled-latest-ai-news-trends-gpt-gemini-generative/id1684415169

🫠 Google's AI panic looks like Google+ fiasco

Scott Jenson, a former Google employee, criticizes the company's AI projects as poorly motivated and driven by panic, comparing the situation to the Google+ fiasco. According to Jenson, Google aims to create a Jarvis-like assistant to keep users within its ecosystem, driven by fear that competitors might get there first, similar to Apple’s strategy with Siri and OpenAI. Many of Google's AI projects revealed at I/O 2024 are still experimental or limited in availability, with uncertain value, and features like "AI Overviews" in Google Search have received criticism for potential copyright issues and misinformation.
Source: https://the-decoder.com/ex-googler-says-companys-ai-panic-is-like-google-fiasco-all-over-again/

🎤 OpenAI pauses Scarlett Johansson-like voice for ChatGPT

OpenAI is pulling the ChatGPT voice known as Sky, which sounds similar to Scarlett Johansson, due to concerns about mimicking celebrities' voices. The company asserts that Sky's voice is the natural voice of a different professional actress and not an intentional imitation of Johansson. The decision to pause Sky's use follows recent enhancements to ChatGPT's voice mode, part of the new GPT-4o model, which aims to make the assistant more expressive and capable of reading facial expressions and translating spoken language in real-time.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/20/24160621/openai-chatgpt-gpt4o-sky-scarlett-johansson-voice-assistant-her

💸 Snapchat focuses on AI with $1.5 billion yearly investment

Snap's CEO, Evan Spiegel, announced a major investment of $1.5 billion annually in AI and machine learning to improve Snapchat's features and competitiveness. After successfully revamping Snapchat's advertising model, the company will now focus on collaborating with tech giants like Amazon and Google for cloud partnerships to enhance AI product innovations. With growing ad revenue and new successful ad campaigns, Snapchat plans to expand content offerings and augmented reality experiences, enhancing user engagement and competing with platforms like TikTok.
Source: https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/science/snapchat-ceo-announces-shift-toward-ai-investment/story

🍏 Apple and OpenAI plan major announcement at WWDC

Apple and OpenAI plan major announcement at WWDC Apple and OpenAI plan major announcement at WWDC[/caption] Apple and OpenAI are planning a major joint announcement at WWDC, focusing on integrating OpenAI's technology into iOS 18, according to Mark Gurman from Bloomberg. Apple aims to improve its AI capabilities with this integration, including enhancements to Siri and features like automatic summaries of notifications and transcription of voice memos. While Apple acknowledges it is behind in AI and lacks a chatbot like ChatGPT or Google Gemini, the company believes the collaboration with OpenAI is a sufficient, though temporary, solution. Source OpenAI's "superalignment team," focused on the AI risks, is no more
The team's co-leads, Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, have resigned from OpenAI. Several other researchers from the team and those working on AI policy and governance have also left the company. Leike cited disagreements with OpenAI's leadership about the company's priorities and resource allocation as reasons for his departure. Source:
The team's work will be absorbed into OpenAI's other research efforts, with John Schulman leading research on risks associated with more powerful models.
Why does this matter?
The "superalignment" team was for ensuring the artificial general intelligence (AGI) that OpenAI claims to be working on doesn't turn on humankind. This dismantling raises questions on the company's commitment to AI safety and ethical standards.
Source: https://the-decoder.com/apple-and-openai-plan-major-announcement-at-wwdc/

Sony Music warns over 700 AI companies not to steal its content

Sony Music, home to superstars like Billy Joel and Doja Cat, sent letters to over 700 AI companies and streaming platforms, warning them against using its content without permission. The label called out the "training, development, or commercialization of AI systems" that use copyrighted material, including music, art, and lyrics.
SMG recognizes AI's potential but stresses the need to respect songwriters' and artists' rights. The letter asks companies to confirm they haven't used SMG content without permission or provide details if they have.
Why does this matter?
The battle over music copyright and AI has intensified across various platforms, from YouTube's strict rules for AI-generated music to the recent standoff between Universal Music Group and TikTok. As AI voice clones and music generation tools become more sophisticated, artists question control, compensation, and actions against copyright infringement.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/sony-music-group-warns-700-companies-using-content-train-ai-rcna152689

Meta's Chameleon AI sets a new bar in mixed-modal reasoning

Meta AI introduces Chameleon, a family of early-fusion token-based mixed-modal models that understands and generates images and text in any order. Unlike recent foundation models that process text and images separately, Chameleon unified token space allows it to process interleaved image and text sequences.This approach allows seamless reasoning and generation across modalities.
Meta's Chameleon AI sets a new bar in mixed-modal reasoning Meta's Chameleon AI sets a new bar in mixed-modal reasoning[/caption] Meta researchers introduced architectural enhancements and training techniques to tackle the optimization challenges posed by this early fusion approach, including a novel image tokenizer, QK-Norm, dropout, and z-loss regularization. Remarkably, Chameleon achieves competitive or superior performance across various tasks, outperforming larger models like Flamingo-80B and IDEFICS-80B in image captioning and visual question answering despite its smaller model size.
Why does this matter?
Chameleon opens up new possibilities for more natural and intuitive human-machine interactions, similar to how we effortlessly communicate using both modalities in the real world.
Source: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2405.09818

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What Else Is Happening in AI on May 20th 2024❗

🤖 Google launched open-source Model Explore to visualize and debug complex AI models
It uses advanced graphics rendering techniques from the gaming industry to handle massive models. The tool offers a graphical user interface and a Python API for integration into machine learning workflows. Model Explorer lets developers identify and resolve issues quickly, especially for AI deployed on edge devices. (Link: https://venturebeat.com/ai/google-launches-model-explorer-an-open-source-tool-for-seamless-ai-model-visualization-and-debugging )
🇬🇧 The UK's AI Safety Institute is opening an office in San Francisco
The institute aims to be closer to the epicenter of AI development, companies like OpenAI and Google as they are building foundational models. This new office would open this summer, giving the UK access to Silicon Valley's tech talent and strengthening ties with the US. (Link: https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/19/uk-opens-office-in-san-francisco-to-tackle-ai-risk )
📂 The EU demands Microsoft to provide internal documents on Bing's gen AI risks
The Commission suspects Bing may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA) due to risks like AI "hallucinations," deep fakes, and potential voter manipulation. Microsoft has until May 27 to comply with the legally binding request for information. Failure to do so could result in fines of up to 1% of Microsoft's total annual income or worldwide turnover. (Link: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscornedetail/en/mex_24_2681 )
📸 Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel focuses on AI and ML for better UX and personalization
As its ad revenue increases, Snap plans to expand content offerings, improve recommendation algorithms, and integrate Stories with Spotlight. The company is also investing in augmented reality and sees it as a way to bring people together in shared physical environments. (Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-19/snap-ceo-evan-spiegel-focused-on-ai-machine-learning-push )
😏 Researchers in the Netherlands have developed an AI sarcasm detector
The AI was trained on text, audio, and emotional content from US sitcoms, including Friends and The Big Bang Theory. The AI could detect sarcasm in unlabeled exchanges nearly 75% of the time. Further improvements could come from adding visual cues to the AI's training data. (Link: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/may/16/researchers-build-ai-driven-sarcasm-detector )
Enjoying these updates, check out our Apple Podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ai-unraveled-latest-ai-news-trends-gpt-gemini-generative/id1684415169

The REPEAT Lab at Virginia Commonwealth University is seeking adults who have recently been discharged from higher-level care (e.g., residential, inpatient, partial hospitalization, or intensive outpatient programs) for symptoms of anorexia nervosa (e.g., restrictive eating, weight loss, fear of weight gain) to participate in a research study examining a potential new treatment.
The purpose of the study is to compare two different remotely-delivered behavioral interventions on how well they support eating disorder recovery following intensive treatment. All study procedures are conducted virtually. In the first visit, which takes about 4-5 hours to complete remotely, participants complete interviews and questionnaires about eating habits and psychological experiences, have height and blind weight measured, and complete computer tasks. Participants are also asked to complete questionnaires on their mobile phones over one week.
After completing assessments, eligible participants will be randomized to receive one of two behavioral interventions designed to bolster recovery following intensive treatment. Each intervention consists of 24 individual, weekly, hour-long sessions conducted online with a mental health practitioner. Participants will remotely complete assessments and have blind weight measured weekly throughout and after intervention sessions to monitor satisfaction and progress.
Because this study includes new, experimental interventions, it is possible that not all participants will directly benefit from study participation. Participants can be enrolled in other treatments while in this study. Participants will be compensated up to $500 (plus possible bonuses) for their time.
For more information, please contact the REPEAT Lab at 804-828-2658 or [repeat@vcu.edu](mailto:repeat@vcu.edu) and reference the “VIBRANT Study,” or click here. The study flyer can be viewed here.

Help with a careeeducation decision.
Hello, I’m struggling to make a decision if you can help me please:
Background: I’m 26 living in the US and I recently got accepted into an Erasmus MBA program (but not the scholarship) in Europe. I applied to the MBA in Europe because I wanted to travel while studying business as I think it would help me with creating my own company (marketing agency). My biggest life goal is to see as much of the world as possible and reach financial freedom.
Speaking of which, i’m currently at a corporate finance job which has warned us of incoming layoffs start of 2025, so definitely no future here, plus it’s not even a job I enjoy. But I have been inconsistently freelancing in design/marketing at the same time as a side gig which i enjoy and I’ve been thinking of transitioning into an agency.
Decision: 1)do the MBA in Europe which starts this September and travel when & as much as possible, however this would be very costly with the 18month program being $15k, and averaging living expenses at $1k/m so about $35k together for 18months, not including any other travel trips when possible. This means having to dip into saving which I really don’t want to do.
However an accredited MBA (3 degrees from 3 European universities) would be very valuable in terms of what I would learn which I can apply to my agency. I have considered doing my agency at the same time as the degree but I don’t know how much time I will have or how soon I can make money from the agency consistently.
OR
2) Stay at my job until I can start & get my agency to replace my income at about 5k/month. Then do a digital nomad type thing where I can travel while working/making money, not using savings.
My Reasoning: I think #2 is more sensible since I would be making money while traveling accomplishing my two big life goals simultaneously, but the income/consistency from the agency is not guaranteed. I guess maybe finding a ‘work from anywhere’ remote job would be a backup if it doesn’t work out, I hear the job market is brutal now so I’m fearing that if it comes to it.
Because of so many unknowns It’s hard for me to make a decision (such as value, ROI, and use of MBA, how much free time I will have, European education system, uncertainty about agency success, consistency & profits, career change/job market).
If you picked #2 then would you recommend applying at other jobs now instead of waiting for the agency to take off, given 2025 coming layoffs?
What do you think?
Thank you for your time.

Help with a careeeducation decision
Hello, I’m struggling to make a decision if you can help me please:
Background: I’m 26 living in the US and I recently got accepted into an Erasmus MBA program (but not the scholarship) in Europe. I applied to the MBA in Europe because I wanted to travel while studying business as I think it would help me with creating my own company (marketing agency). My biggest life goal is to see as much of the world as possible and reach financial freedom.
Speaking of which, i’m currently at a corporate finance job which has warned us of incoming layoffs start of 2025, so definitely no future here, plus it’s not even a job I enjoy. But I have been inconsistently freelancing in design/marketing at the same time as a side gig which i enjoy and I’ve been thinking of transitioning into an agency.
Decision: 1)do the MBA in Europe which starts this September and travel when & as much as possible, however this would be very costly with the 18month program being $15k, and averaging living expenses at $1k/m so about $35k together for 18months, not including any other travel trips when possible. This means having to dip into saving which I really don’t want to do.
However an accredited MBA (3 degrees from 3 European universities) would be very valuable in terms of what I would learn which I can apply to my agency. I have considered doing my agency at the same time as the degree but I don’t know how much time I will have or how soon I can make money from the agency consistently.
OR
2) Stay at my job until I can start & get my agency to replace my income at about 5k/month. Then do a digital nomad type thing where I can travel while working/making money, not using savings.
My Reasoning: I think #2 is more sensible since I would be making money while traveling accomplishing my two big life goals simultaneously, but the income/consistency from the agency is not guaranteed. I guess maybe finding a ‘work from anywhere’ remote job would be a backup if it doesn’t work out, I hear the job market is brutal now so I’m fearing that if it comes to it.
Because of so many unknowns It’s hard for me to make a decision (such as value, ROI, and use of MBA, how much free time I will have, European education system, uncertainty about agency success, consistency & profits, career change/job market).
If you picked #2 then would you recommend applying at other jobs now instead of waiting for the agency to take off, given 2025 coming layoffs?
What do you think?
Thank you for your time.

Help with a careeeducation decision
Hello, I’m struggling to make a decision if you can help me please:
Background: I’m 26 living in the US and I recently got accepted into an Erasmus MBA program (but not the scholarship) in Europe. I applied to the MBA in Europe because I wanted to travel while studying business as I think it would help me with creating my own company (marketing agency). My biggest life goal is to see as much of the world as possible and reach financial freedom.
Speaking of which, i’m currently at a corporate finance job which has warned us of incoming layoffs start of 2025, so definitely no future here, plus it’s not even a job I enjoy. But I have been inconsistently freelancing in design/marketing at the same time as a side gig which i enjoy and I’ve been thinking of transitioning into an agency.
Decision: 1)do the MBA in Europe which starts this September and travel when & as much as possible, however this would be very costly with the 18month program being $15k, and averaging living expenses at $1k/m so about $35k together for 18months, not including any other travel trips when possible. This means having to dip into saving which I really don’t want to do.
However an accredited MBA (3 degrees from 3 European universities) would be very valuable in terms of what I would learn which I can apply to my agency. I have considered doing my agency at the same time as the degree but I don’t know how much time I will have or how soon I can make money from the agency consistently.
OR
2) Stay at my job until I can start & get my agency to replace my income at about 5k/month. Then do a digital nomad type thing where I can travel while working/making money, not using savings.
My Reasoning: I think #2 is more sensible since I would be making money while traveling accomplishing my two big life goals simultaneously, but the income/consistency from the agency is not guaranteed. I guess maybe finding a ‘work from anywhere’ remote job would be a backup if it doesn’t work out, I hear the job market is brutal now so I’m fearing that if it comes to it.
Because of so many unknowns It’s hard for me to make a decision (such as value, ROI, and use of MBA, how much free time I will have, European education system, uncertainty about agency success, consistency & profits, career change/job market).
If you picked #2 then would you recommend applying at other jobs now instead of waiting for the agency to take off, given 2025 coming layoffs?
What do you think?
Thank you for your time.

Hello, I’m struggling to make a decision if you can help me please:
Background: I’m 26 living in the US and I recently got accepted into an Erasmus MBA program (but not the scholarship) in Europe. I applied to the MBA in Europe because I wanted to travel while studying business as I think it would help me with creating my own company (marketing agency). My biggest life goal is to see as much of the world as possible and reach financial freedom.
Speaking of which, i’m currently at a corporate finance job which has warned us of incoming layoffs start of 2025, so definitely no future here, plus it’s not even a job I enjoy. But I have been inconsistently freelancing in design/marketing at the same time as a side gig which i enjoy and I’ve been thinking of transitioning into an agency.
Decision: 1)do the MBA in Europe which starts this September and travel when & as much as possible, however this would be very costly with the 18month program being $15k, and averaging living expenses at $1k/m so about $35k together for 18months, not including any other travel trips when possible. This means having to dip into saving which I really don’t want to do.
However an accredited MBA (3 degrees from 3 European universities) would be very valuable in terms of what I would learn which I can apply to my agency. I have considered doing my agency at the same time as the degree but I don’t know how much time I will have or how soon I can make money from the agency consistently.
OR
2) Stay at my job until I can start & get my agency to replace my income at about 5k/month. Then do a digital nomad type thing where I can travel while working/making money, not using savings.
My Reasoning: I think #2 is more sensible since I would be making money while traveling accomplishing my two big life goals simultaneously, but the income/consistency from the agency is not guaranteed. I guess maybe finding a ‘work from anywhere’ remote job would be a backup if it doesn’t work out, I hear the job market is brutal now so I’m fearing that if it comes to it.
Because of so many unknowns It’s hard for me to make a decision (such as value, ROI, and use of MBA, how much free time I will have, European education system, uncertainty about agency success, consistency & profits, career change/job market).
If you picked #2 then would you recommend applying at other jobs now instead of waiting for the agency to take off, given 2025 coming layoffs?
What do you think?
Thank you for your time.

This is my first experience with a universal remote in several decades. Am configuring the X1S. My projector, an AWOLvision LTV-2500 has a fairly long startup/boot-up time, so if I want to configure an activity that also changes inputs on the projector, I have to program a VERY long delay before the switch... but once powered up, said delay isn't needed. How would you handle this within typical "Watch blu-ray", "Watch FireTV", etc. activities?
Or rather than controlling the power-up process within individual "Watch XXXXX" activities, should I instead have a universal "Projector Startup" activity, that powers up the projector and motorized screen, but does not do any input switching, just leaving the projector input at the last used, and then in the individual "Watch XXXXX" activities, simply assume the projector is on, thus avoiding the need to input any delay when switching inputs?
Then presumably I would want a "Power everything down" activity that powers everything off, regardless of what activity was active?
Not sure what best practice is.
Thanks.

I would love any advice you guys have on how to improve my application along with what schools you think might fit me!
Demographics: upper middle-class LGBTQ+ South Asian male from small-town/rural Indiana; medium sized non-competitive public school (600-750 kids per graduating class)
Intended Major(s): Astrophysics/Physics/Computer Science, Vocal Performance, French
SAT: 1510 SAT - 760 Reading, 750 Math (first time taking it as a bench; will study and retake over summer - goal: 1550)
UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.0 UW / 4.78 W (UW rank: 1/725; W rank: 3/725)
Coursework: taken 6 APs so far (5 on the one’s I’ve received results for), taking 8 APs senior year
Awards:
Ronald Reagan Leadership Medal 2024
2024 Rising Star of Indiana (Indiana Association of School Principals)
Show Choir Nationals Grand Champion at the Grand Ole Opry under my leadership
2024 Outstanding Vocalist from my whole school’s choral program
Gold Medal (ranks 3-5 nationally, rank 1 in state) in Le Grand Concours (2022, 2023, 2024) - a French national board exam
Student Officer of a student government named 2024 National Gold Council of Excellence by the National Association of Student Councils
Extracurriculars:
STEM:
-will be conducting research in astrophysics at local university labs for six weeks this summer; will be producing and hoping to publish a research papers (11-12)
-will be conducting an independent project in computer science over the summer; planning on creating an astronomical model and producing a research paper for it as well
-paid research assistant at local university’s Department of Physics for half a year; ran simulations of charged crystals to enhance data quality and tested projects to be used in college workshops for physics students (11)
-conducted and paid stipend for research in soil metagenomics at local university; used Python to analyze DNA sequences to uncover soil biodiversity in samples to solve soil quality problems in local agriculture (10-11)
-trained at the Advanced Space Academy at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center; unanimously elected by crew to be the pilot on our final extended duration mission (10-11); rigorous training involving piloting skills, undergoing physical training (SCUBA diving, pole and rock wall climbing), debating space law, and working on space materials science and engineering problems (rocket design, building and launching, space suit design, etc.)
-remote shadowing under graduate student of astronomy at UChicago learning astronomical data analysis of galaxies, using Python tools and libraries (11)
-Math NHS + local math college competition (9, 10, 11)
-HOSA Junior Officer (9)
Volunteerism/Outreach Initiatives:
-volunteerism at a large Space Day event at my local National Armory; headlined by the Indiana Astronomical Society and engineering teams at Purdue involved with Mars rover - over 1550 participants; volunteer instructor of astronomical phenomena (eclipse demonstrations), materials science, space history (11)
-programming contributor and volunteer at local Solar Eclipse Festival, raising over $15,000 for Habitat for Humanity through a “Run for the Sun” 5k fundraiser (11)
-author of multiple articles on various space science topics; published in an international youth-driven science journal with the goal of more accessible and impactful youth science communication (11-12)
-virtual volunteer work for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
-planning to organize and direct a watching party/educational event or program for the peak of the Perseids meteor shower (12)
-conceptualized and planned for a space-themed prom as a officer of my class in student government (11)
***Student Government (9-11)
As an elected officer and secretary of my class of ‘25, I am responsible for managing much of our group and organizing our tasks, including
-planning/execution for Homecoming and Prom for all of the students at our school
-planning, coordinating, and building Homecoming Parade floats to increase community and school spirit over months of meetings and hours of student-led construction
-a city cleanup project near the public library and park to make the community a better and cleaner place to live in
-increasing school spirit with planned spirit weeks, pep rallies, and other activities (Staff vs Student games, etc)
-leading class meetings to further overall goals of community service, leadership, and raising spirit
Officer in the group that was named a 2024 National Gold Council of Excellence by the National Association of Student Councils
***County Youth Leadership Representative (11)
I was chosen to represent my school in a selective group of youth leaders in my county tasked with initiating community improvement and local leadership. We use our leadership skills in order to take civil, financial, and interpersonal action and change within our community. As part of the group, I
-took charge of a team to put on a promotional fair for over 20 fantastic non-profit organizations in our county, along with producing promotional videos in order to spread awareness about them on social media and other platforms; I wrote the scripts for the interviews and filmed them myself, set up all of the non-profit booths, welcomed representatives, and kept the event running smoothly.
-presented at our conferences, researching and speaking at length about the history of our county, important local non-profits, and about our non-profit fair project.
-was chosen from the group to introduce our own Mayor at our conference (11-12)
Music:

• school’s varsity mixed show choir since my freshman year and primary dance captain and section leader; led our group to a vocally undefeated year and our first overall undefeated year against multiple nationally recognized groups, winning Best Vocals at every competition we attended; won Show Choir Nationals with Best Vocals for the first time in our group’s history under my section leadership; named showchoir.com’s 2024 Best Show Choir of the Year

-hand-picked by choreographer to attend Show Choir Camps of America on full scholarship
-named Best Performer of the group (3x) and Best Male Soloist
-student director of a selective A Cappella group; we perform at charity events, such as funerals and veteran services, along with the national anthem at several sporting events and go caroling to dozens of homes and venues around the community during the holiday season to spread cheer
French:
-taught myself French since I was 13 and am still an active and passionate learner and lover of the language; top student in my school’s French program
-volunteer tutor for other French students in my free periods at school
-Vice President of French NHs (9-12)
-participated in initiative to raise hundreds of dollars worth of hygiene supplies for local Haitian refugees (11)
LORs/Other:
LORs from my AP Calculus teacher that I’ll have for two years, my AP French teacher, who I’ll have for four years, and my varsity choir coach, who I’ll have for four years; all will have plenty of things to talk about regarding my leadership in their disciplines over years
School List (as of now, from least likely to most likely): Harvard (uncle worked/researched there), MIT, Princeton, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Northwestern, UMich, U of Maryland, U of T at Austin, Notre Dame, UIUC, UC Boulder, IU Bloomington, Purdue (legacy), Penn State

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1. Khan Academy (khanacademy.org): Free statistics courses, video lectures, and practice exercises.
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3. edX (edx.org): Provides statistics courses and certifications from leading institutions.
4. Statisticshelp.com: Offers online tutoring, homework help, and study resources.
5. DataCamp (datacamp.com): Interactive statistics and data science courses.

Courses:

1. "Introduction to Statistics" by Khan Academy
2. "Statistics in Medicine" by University of London on Coursera
3. "Data Analysis" by Microsoft on edX
4. "Statistical Inference" by Stanford University on Coursera
5. "Data Visualization" by DataCamp

Tips for Success:

1. Practice regularly with online resources and exercises.
2. Join online communities and forums for support and discussion.
3. Use visual aids like graphs and charts to understand complex concepts.
4. Apply statistical concepts to real-world problems.
5. Seek help from instructors or tutors when needed.

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Location: Defense Line Husky, Datsot-3

POV: Motsotaer, Malgeir Federation Planetary Defense Force (Rank: Pack Member)
The shrieking whistle of incoming artillery shell was among the most terrifying noises known to living beings.
Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew. Boom. Boom. Boom.
But it meant you were still alive.
Pack Member Motsotaer wondered if the poor pups in the forward trenches heard them coming as the enemy high explosive pounded into their lines.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
One of their anti-aircraft concrete bunkers took a direct hit; its roof collapsed on itself with a loud crumble.
Grass Eater artillery was voluminous, destructive, but scariest of all, it was incredibly precise. Their intelligence assets in orbit knew all, saw all. Their kill chains were short. Once they saw you, they would call it in, and the remainder of your life was measured in minutes and seconds.
There was nothing vegetarian about the efficient and bloodthirsty way the long-eared Grass Eaters fought, and the numerous intelligent predator species they’d exterminated on their way to Datsot… some of those tales gave even Motsotaer nightmares.
The defenders of Datsot had no choice. No choice but to defend their homes against the psychotic enemies pounding their lines to bits. And the ones who remained had learned the hard lessons of war, either through experience earned by blood or via the process of not-so-natural selection.
Motsotaer clutched his rifle against his chest as he laid in his own shallow hole, eyes closed. If the end was going to come for him, there was nothing else he could do but huddle in his freshly-dug grave.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The blasts continued walking across the defense lines, undoubtedly killing scores of his comrades. But he accompanied each shockwave with a sigh of relief; they let him know that he was still alive. Still breathing.
One final rumble. And then there was silence across the battlefield.
Motsotaer waited a minute before he peeked out — another lesson that smart defenders of Datsot had discovered the hard way. A couple brave medics were already on the move, their shouts left and right, pulling bodies and the groaning injured alike out of the rubble aftermath of the shelling.
With a grunt, he pulled himself out of his hole, rushing towards the neighboring anti-air bunker. The concrete roof had collapsed, but he could still hear cries from the dark. He squeezed through the cluttered entrance.
It was a mess on the inside. The lights were all gone. Scattered sandbags. It smelled like blood and death, and he pushed aside the still body of a Head Pack Leader he only knew of, only to find the corpse of yet another Pack Member, her limbs sprawled in an unnatural position.
“Anyone still alive in here?” he asked in the dark as his eyes adjusted. “Hello?”
There were a series of loud coughs. “I’m here. I’m here.”
“Pack Leader Nidvid!” he shouted as he recognized the familiar shrill voice. “Keep talking! Where are you?”
“Here. I’m here. Help me up.”
As she continued to cough, he had the sense to fish a flashlight out of his pocket, fumbling around until he found the on button. As the light activated, he could see Nidvid half-buried in the dirt, her lower limbs trapped beneath some sand from the broken sandbags.
“Pack Leader!” He got onto his front paws and started digging. “Are you injured?”
“I don’t think so,” she shook her head in the dim lighting as she experimentally wriggled her legs. “Here, I think I’m loose. Help me up.”
Motsotaer grasped her under her arms, and with a heavy grunt, pulled her out of the dirt.
“Whew,” she said, checking her body again for wounds. Nidvid looked around at the other bodies splayed in the bunker. “Oh no… Head Pack Leader…”
“That was a close one. I can’t believe you lived through that!”
“Yeah, me neither… Wait a second,” Nidvid said as she began rummaging through a pile of rubble near the Head Pack Leader’s body. “The radio…”
“What are you looking for?” he asked as he aimed his flashlight towards where she was looking.
“Oh no, no, no…” her voice trailed off as she picked up the device she’d been looking for. “Our hardline communicator…” It was clearly broken from the strike, its shell perforated with a hundred holes and its connection to the landline severed. In disgust, Nidvid threw it back to the ground.
“What uh— what did you need that for?” Motsotaer asked. “Were we supposed to tell them we were being attacked?”
“No… It was— before the strike, we got a high priority order.”
“A high priority order?”
Nidvid recalled, “There’s a special platoon in our salient… We were supposed to get an important message to them!”
“Special platoon?” Motsotaer asked. “Are you okay, Nidvid?”
“Yes, yes,” the Pack leader replied, visibly distraught. “They only had a physical line to us because they’re supposed to be keeping in the dark. Emissions control or something like that so they can activate the flying machine swarm in time. They said this was life and death and our whole defense line hinges on it!”
“Emissions control? Flying machines? Pack Leader, we should get you to a medic,” he said skeptically.
“No! Motsotaer, this is important. We need to get the message to them now. They’re only a couple kilometers south from our position. If we run over to their position now, it might not yet be—”
He looked up at her face in alarm. “Run to another position? Outside the trench line?”
“Yes! We have to go!” she said, as she peeked out of the concrete bunker towards the barren zone ahead of the trenches. “Now! Before they start their offensive.”
Motsotaer began to protest, “But that’s no creature’s land. If we get spotted by their troops, we’ll be hunted down by the Grass Eaters ships in orbit…”
She was insistent, “Pack Member Motsotaer, get it together. We still have a job to do. Are you with me or are you going to sit here and die like a coward to the long-ears?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, straightening up. Death or not, he was no coward. “I mean… I’m with you.”
“Good. Then let’s go.”
With a grunt, she leapt out of the trenches and jogged south, keeping to the defensive side of it for the modicum of cover it provided, and Motsotaer quickly followed. As they sprinted away from the tattered defenses, they ran into a thick tree line that hopefully provided them with some concealment from the Grass Eater ships above.
After a couple more minutes of running in the forest, Motsotaer started to tire and pant. He weighed his burning lung and how embarrassed he’d be if he complained. Luckily for his ego, Nidvid gestured for them to stop after another minute and tossed him her canteen. “Take a break before we get going.”
He chugged as much water as he could in a single swig, and returned the canteen to Nidvid. He gasped out, “How much further, Pack Leader?”
“About one more kilometer south,” she said, aiming her snout up at the treetops. “I recognize the smell of this area.”
“What’s this even about? The message… what was it?”
Nidvid exercised her limbs. “That Grass Eater artillery strike… it was to prepare for their offensive on our lines. They’ve gathered an armored division on the other side of that,” she pointed out into the barren fields beyond the trees. “We have an hour at most before they roll over us.”
“An armored division?!” Motsotaer squeaked. The enemy’s Longclaws — their armored vehicles — were legendary. They could kill from kilometers away. And their thick shells protected them against all but the most powerful artillery in the Federation’s arsenal. He’d never seen one of them personally. If he had, he suspected he wouldn’t be alive to tell anyone about it. “What can we do against a Grass Eater armored division?”
“That’s why we have to get to the special platoon,” Nidvid replied. She pointed in the southern direction, “You ready? Let’s go.”
They galloped for a few more minutes. Motsotaer’s limbs tired and his breaths shallowed as his lung burnt. As he was contemplating whether to ask for another break, Nidvid pointed at a shape in the distance. “There, that’s their position!”
He squinted at it. It was not easy to see, but buried in the tree line was what looked like a bunch of out-of-place branches and leaves over a small vehicle. Buoyed by the anticipation of the end of the marathon, he managed to keep up with Nidvid’s pace.
As they approached, there was a loud shout.
“Hi-yah! Stop!”
They halted their steps and looked for the source of the voice.
“Not one more paw step, deserter! This is a restricted area! Turn around or you’ll be shot!”
Motsotaer looked up at the voice hidden up in the branches. After a moment, with some help from his nose, he found the yeller. It was a short, stout middle-aged male with strange-looking green and brown paint smeared all over his fur and face. He had a rifle aimed squarely at the duo.
“Don’t shoot!” Nidvid yelled back. “We’re runners. We’ve got an important message! For your platoon commander.”
The male in the tree looked suspiciously at them as he leapt down. He lowered his rifle, but didn’t seem any less on guard. “A message?”
“Yes, we’ve got an urgent message for Special Platoon Commander Graunsa. Take us to him right now!”
He sized the two of them up. After a moment, he said slowly, “I am Graunsa. Why are you here, and what is the message?”
Nidvid recovered some of her breath and explained, “The Grass Eaters hit us hard with an artillery strike. Our Head Pack Leader is dead. Our landline is gone. We ran all the way over from our lines north of you.”
Graunsa nodded and gestured for her to continue.
“The Grass Eater armored offensive is about to start. They’re moving into position and ready to go, and there’s a special message embedded—”
“Wait a second,” Graunsa interrupted. “Give me the special message exactly, without omission or your own interpretations.”
“Yes, Platoon Commander,” Nidvid nodded. “The message is: bunny water carriers are in play, red-five-zero-eight; come out of the dark and introduce yourself. Authorization is three-three-greyhound.”
Graunsa looked thoughtful for a moment as he pondered it.
“What does the message mean?” Motsotaer whispered at Nidvid.
“I have no idea,” she shrugged, whispering back. “The Head Pack Leader just told me to memorize it.”
The platoon commander seemed to have made up his mind. “Alright, that seems legitimate. Thanks for the message.” He turned around to leave.
Motsotaer shouted behind him, “Wait, what are we supposed to do now?”
Graunsa turned around. “I don’t know. I’m not your commanding officer.” He paused for a moment. “I wouldn’t recommend going back to your lines though. Might not be there when you get back…”
“What?!”
“You can’t just leave us! Where else are we supposed to go?” Nidvid asked.
Graunsa seemed to contemplate the question for a few heartbeats and sighed, “You said you’re from the position up north?”
“Yup,” they replied in unison.
“And you’re a spotter, Pack Member?” he asked, looking at the rank and position patch on Motsotaer’s chest.
“Yes.”
Graunsa relented. “Fine. We might find a use for you. Get into the bunker… before the Grass Eaters in orbit see us dawdling out here.”
“What? Where?”
The officer pointed at a patch of dark green leaves on the forest floor. As they approached it, he grasped a latch and lifted it to reveal a ladder. The three of them descended into the darkness and Graunsa secured it behind them. With a quiet swoosh, a lamp mounted on the wall lit up to reveal a small hallway leading to a heavy-looking door.
Graunsa knocked on it twice. He turned around and looked at Motsotaer and Nidvid. “What you’re about to see in here is of the highest secrecy level of the Malgeir Federation. If you tell anyone what you see in here, you will be executed for treason. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Platoon Commander.”
“Swear it, on your honor.”
“We swear,” they replied in unison, their voices infused with growing excitement.
“Good enough for me.”
The heavy steel door swung open, showing a room that was vastly different from what its primitive exterior suggested. It resembled a command center far more than a field base, and Motsotaer felt a blast of cold air conditioning in his face as he passed the door threshold.
At the front, a main screen showed a map of the defensive lines in the sector. Facing it, two rows of sleek, new computer screens lit up the dark. Their operators worked busily at their controls, and only a couple faces looked their way in mild interest as they entered.
“What is this—” Motsotaer started to ask. Nidvid grasped his shoulder and shushed him.
Graunsa cleared his throat. Several faces looked towards him in anticipation. “Platoon, we just got the message. Activate the FTL handshake and authenticate us in the network.”
“Yes, sir.” A young-looking communication officer near the front operated a few controls on her console. “I’ve got the advisors on the line.”
Motsotaer read his nametag: Gassin. She was a Gamma Leader, much higher ranked than he, but she looked not a day over twenty. He noted that many of the people in the room sported high-ranking insignias despite their apparent youth.
“On screen,” Graunsa ordered.
A communication window appeared on the main screen, streaming video of someone in a jet-black EVA suit.
Motsotaer stiffened. It was obvious that the subject was alien; at around 1.7 or 1.8 meters, it was far too tall for being a Malgeir. Too small for a Granti. And from the side profile of the suit, it didn’t bulge nearly enough for the tails that the Malgeir’s Schpriss neighbors were known for. A strange new species of aliens.
From the blackened visor, it was obvious that whoever that was… it was the reason for all this tight secrecy.
“Special Platoon Commander Graunsa,” it transmitted in perfect Malgeirish. The alien was either a trained-from-birth Federation Channel One newscaster with a perfectly inoffensive accent, or its translator was far better than anything the Malgeir themselves had invented. “This call is encrypted, but the enemy Znosians in orbit are trying to find your location from the signals, so we’ll have to make it as quick as we can. Have your defensive lines completed your preparations?”
Graunsa stepped up to address the screen directly, “Yes, advisor. Our fire support platoon is ready for tasking.”
“Excellent. Transmitting the first batch of targets in your sector now.”
A series of symbols scrolled onto the screen, showing a number of coordinates.
“We’re getting the enemy positions now,” Gassin exclaimed.
Graunsa turned to her and nodded his appreciation, “Sixteen armored targets. Weapons free.”
“Yes, sir. Programming the sequence.”
A camera on the main screen activated, remotely showing a small hole with some machinery in it dug a few hundred meters away just at the edge of the tree line.
“Launching flying machine swarm!”
As Motsotaer watched, a thicket of metal erupted from the hole in a blur, roaring into the sky.
The main screen was replaced by a four-by-four of windows of black and white images. It took him a couple seconds to realize that he was looking at the battlefield from above. The Malgeir had rotary wing, airplanes, and jet — some were even armed, but they were usually much bigger. And their air assets had been grounded since the early days of the battle for Datsot when the enemy took the orbits.
Not these tiny devices though.
He focused on one of the sixteen windows.
The ground sped past below the camera’s vision, tree line after tree line, the flying machine seemed to know where it was going by itself: Motsotaer looked at the other occupants in the room. None of them seemed to be directly controlling it.
He stiffened.
Is this controlled by a thinking machine?
“We’re getting in range of the target coordinates, Platoon Commander,” Gassin updated the room a few minutes later.
As if on cue, the flying machines flew higher, and the trees on the ground grew smaller, as if further away. Until…
“Targets identified!” Gassin reported with excitement in her voice.
As an infantry spotter, Motsotaer had been trained — barely — to identify enemy armored vehicles. As in, he’d been given a cheatsheet containing the silhouettes of the different types of vehicles the enemy drove. But even he couldn’t tell at this distance what the white-hot smudges on the screen were.
The machine had no such issues though.
Several red boxes materialized on the screen, clearly marking several enemy vehicles in the thermal imagery and adorning them with detailed information.
The one Motsotaer was watching said:
Hostile vehicle, Longclaw MK4 (top armor: ~25mm), 4.2 km.
No hostile EW detected.
Without additional prompting, the flying machines raced in towards their targets, each recognizing a different one as its final destination. Afraid to blink, Motsotaer stared intently at one of the video streams.
A new line of text appeared at the top of the screen:
ETA 20 seconds.
It counted down the seconds, number by number.
The enemy Longclaw got larger and larger until… the screen went black, replaced by static. As he looked around, the other windows were similarly replaced with static one-by-one.
Motsotaer frowned, wondering where the videos had gone.
Then, it hit him. The flying machines were on one-way trips.
The sixteen windows disappeared, and another one appeared, showing the enemy assembly area from a much higher perspective. And instead of the vehicles he expected, he counted sixteen burning wrecks, the black smoke from their flames reaching up into the sky in columns.
“Targets destroyed, Commander,” Gassin said. Several of the officers in the room looked at each other excitedly, but their celebration was muted.
Graunsa nodded. “Call our advisors again.”
The alien appeared on the screen again. “Excellent work, Platoon Commander. We’re assessing the lines and getting the second batch of targets to you now.”
“Understood.”
As the new target coordinates scrolled onto the main screen, Gassin didn’t need additional prompting, “Launching flying machines!”
Another sixteen of them flashed out from the pre-dug position. Another sixteen windows appeared on the screen, replacing the odd-looking aliens’ video.
“Wait a minute,” the aliens’ voice cut into the quiet hum of the control room’s operation. “Switch back to the high-altitude drone. Something’s happening.”
The main screen’s image was replaced by the previous camera looking down at enemy lines. There was a flurry of activity in the enemy base area. Numerous dots representing the ground troops moved to-and-fro. And worryingly, the red squares that surrounded enemy armor began appearing en masse as enemy Longclaws drove out of their covered positions into the open.
Dozens of them.
Then, hundreds. And more appeared every second.
“What’s going on?” Graunsa asked, his voice reflecting Motsotaer’s worry.
The alien took a minute to get back to him, its black helmeted face filling up the screen again. “They’re attacking. They don’t know what hit them in the last strike. But they must have realized that they’re not safe in their assembly area, and they’re doing the only thing they can… We estimate they’ll get to your first lines in thirty minutes.”
“Can we stop them?” Graunsa asked. “We can—”
The alien looked directly into the video. “Not sixteen drones at a time. And if you launch the whole swarm at once, it’ll reflect enough signal for them to sniff out where you are with their counter-battery radars and take you out from orbit.”
Graunsa swallowed. “That’s— that’s— The machines can fly themselves without us, right?”
The alien didn’t say anything for a few heartbeats. “Theoretically, yes. But even if you evacuate your position now, your people won’t get out of range from the orbital strike they’ll call in.”
“I understand. Feed us the enemy targets.”
“Delta Leader, we can’t ask you to—”
“I said, feed us the enemy targets,” Graunsa insisted.
Quietly, hundreds of coordinate pairs filed onto the main screen. Graunsa looked at the faces of the young officers under his command. Dozens of them. He turned around to look at his two guests. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“It’s the right choice,” Nidvid replied, shrugging.
Motsotaer nodded at him.
“I know,” Graunsa said, turning back to the main screen. “Just doesn’t make it any easier.”
“Sir, we’re ready to launch,” Gassin reported.
“Weapons free. Release everything.”
“Yes, sir.”
The ground shook and rumbled, hundreds of flying machines leaving their canisters for the sky. They were close enough to hear the outgoing buzzing as the munitions launched. This time, more and more windows filled up the screen with the visuals of the outgoing flying machines — hundreds of them, and Motsotaer was surprised that the computers could even handle it all.
The visage of the alien returned to their screen. It said calmly, “Enemy orbital launch spotted. Multiple launches. High yield. Missiles incoming to your location, ETA twelve minutes.”
“Understood, advisor.”
POV: Slurskoch, Znosian Dominion Marines (Rank: Five Whiskers)
“Scramble! Scramble! Scramble!”
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing.
“What’s going on?” Longclaw Commander Slurskoch sat up in his turret cupola as the sirens rang loud through the hull.
“We’re under artillery attack!” his Controller yelled back at him through the roaring startup sequence of the turbine anti-grav engines. “The Lesser Predators… they’ve got some kind of new weapon! Took out a whole battalion’s worth of Longclaws in the 194!”
“But we’re not ready!” his Driver complained. “Our artillery is supposed to pound them for another hour before we—”
Slurskoch shook his head as he checked the friendly force tracker on his screen. “Doesn’t matter! If they’ve got some new weapon, we can’t sit still while we get pounded to bits by whatever they have. We gotta get out there. Hurry it up!”
It took them another two minutes to fully warm up the engines, and with a roar, the Longclaw burst out of its camouflaged emplacement, kicking up a curtain of dirt in front of it.
“Let’s go! Go! Go!” Slurskoch yelled as his lagging Longclaw joined the armored formation already on the move.
The Controller spoke with one of her ears in the radio, “Their artillery just launched… something at us. We’ve pinpointed their location, and orbital support is on its way.”
His Gunner whooped twice, and Slurskoch nodded silently in agreement. That’d flatten those carnivorous abominations where they stood. He drew a few symbols and circles on the digital battlemap as the Longclaws drove toward the enemy lines. “Gunner, watch those potential trench lines in front of us,” he instructed. “Their anti-armor may not look scary on paper, but their infantry can always get a lucky hit in.”
Slurskoch was taught in training that it was better to overestimate the enemy than underestimate them. Luckily, the predators usually fell below expectations, which was why the Dominion controlled the orbits of Datsot now and not them.
His Controller frowned at something in her radio, “They’re saying something about the enemy artillery… The engineers at the base assessed the strike aftermath. There’s something strange in the rubble. The attack was more precise than anything we’d ever seen.”
“What does that mean?” Slurskoch asked in confusion.
“The sensor officer in charge of the assembly area has taken full responsibility. They didn’t see the incoming at all. Higher ups are speculating that the Lesser Predators have a new weapon in their arsenal.”
“The predators made new weapons?” Slurskoch snorted. “Useful ones? That’ll be a first. Well, whatever it is, maybe our Design Bureau will get a good look at it when we finally cleanse this planet of their filth. Make our next battle a little easier when we have to take their home planet.”
His Gunner agreed, “And then, the Prophecy shall be fulfilled.”
A few kilometers into the charge across the open, the Gunner remarked with one eye on her targeting computer, “Looks like even the local winged predators know that there’s about to be a slaughter here.”
The Driver, in his open hatch, looked up at the cloud of them flying over the enemy lines. “Looks like it. A nice juicy feast for them in the coming battle. The irony of the barbaric carnivores being eaten by themselves.”
A few thousand years ago, winged predators would have curdled the blood of any natural-born Znosian. On the original plains of Znos, they were one of the most dangerous threats a lone Znosian faced. Now, that fear had been completely bred out of the gene pool, replaced with contempt for predatory primitivism, the courage to face them in battle, and the drive to exterminate them all.
Curious, Slurskoch stared up into the cloud of winged predators with his Longclaw commander optics. He frowned.
One of them shimmered.
Shimmered.
He zoomed in.
Then, he saw a metallic glint. His whiskers tightened.
“That’s— those aren’t winged predators,” he barely made out in shock. “Incoming!”
“Huh?” his Driver asked, craning his head up to look at the dark shapes in the distance.
“Get inside! Secure the hatch!” Slurskoch shouted at him.
His Driver was not very good at thinking on his own, but he had been bred to follow direct orders without question. He ducked into his seat, quickly securing the hatch above him close with trained claws.
He barely secured the Longclaw as other commanders began yelling out similar instructions on their radios.
“Incoming!” his Controller advised, about ten seconds later than necessary. “Enemy… artillery?!”
“Gunner!” Slurskoch gestured in the general direction of the sky.
“I can’t get a shot on them. They’re too high up!” she screamed back at him.
A trio of air defense vehicles next to him opened up with their six barrels towards the sky, lines of bright tracers stabbing out at the dark swarm. He saw one of the… flying machines hit and fall out of the sky. Then another.
It wasn’t enough.
As Slurskoch’s optics tracked the incoming, he saw them dive. They were fast, and they flew erratic patterns, almost organically, like actual winged beasts. If he hadn’t had that specific fear bred out of his bloodline hundreds of years ago, he would have been frozen in shock. Instead, he yelled out, “Brace! Brace!”
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The world exploded around his Longclaw.
Through his friendly force tracker, Slurskoch watched an entire battalion disappear off the map on his right flank, and two Longclaws in his line of sight brewed up in massive fireballs, throwing their turrets into the sky as their plasma ammunition detonated. One of the anti-air vehicles brewed up next to his, splattering its parts against his hull.
His Driver drove for all he was worth, ducking and weaving in the open field. So did the other Longclaws. Some deployed curtains of smoke in front of them in desperation.
None of it seemed to help.
The shockwaves hit his Longclaw in quick succession, knocking him around the armored cabin and rattling his teeth.
Boom. Boom.
More Longclaws exploded. Many more. They were disappearing off his screen faster than the software could update the signals. He closed his eyes waiting for the end.
It didn’t come.
It was hard for Slurskoch to tell when the last Longclaw near them was hit. His hearing organs must have been damaged some time during the attack. His auditory senses ringed as they returned to normal, recovering when his Controller shook him with a paw on his shoulder. “—Five Whiskers! Five Whiskers!”
“What is it?” he snapped, keeping the quivering out of his voice.
“We’re alone in our company, and I can’t contact the six whiskers! And I’ve been trying to reach battalion without success!”
“Try the regiment commander!” he yelled out against the noise of the anti-grav engine.
“Can’t reach them either!”
“What about division headquarters?!”
“I think division’s gone, sir!”
“What?!”
“Nobody there has been responding. All I’ve got is a seven whiskers in the reserve infantry division behind us! They’re saying they see black smoke in the direction of our division field command!”
“What in the Prophecy? How is that possible?!”
“What do we do, Five Whiskers?”
Slurskoch had been trained for a wide variety of combat scenarios and contingencies, including losing his immediate superiors, losing most of his unit, and losing his communication link to command. But he’d never been trained for all of those combined at once. That was just not something predators were supposed to be able to do to you.
He fell back to the next best thing.
“What’s the combat computer say?” he asked.
His Controller operated the controls on her console, and after half a minute of querying, she replied, reading off the instructions, “Absent orders, continue the attack. Maybe we can push through.”
“What? Did it take our losses into account?” he protested as he checked the battlemap. Of the nearly five hundred Longclaws that had pushed out of the assembly area, only a quarter remained. At most. Some of the signals on the map were flagging themselves as mobility or mission killed.
She shrugged, “It did. That’s what it says.”
He squinted at her screen. That was indeed what it said.
Slurskoch thought for a moment, sighed, and bowed in prayer, “Our lives were forfeited the day we left our hatchling pools.”
The other crew members all did the same, lowering their heads to mutter the familiar mantra.
That ritual out of the way, he drew up to his full height of 1 meter and mustered all the confidence he could into his voice, “Attack! Attack! Attack!”
POV: Graunsa, Malgeir Federation Planetary Defense Force (Rank: Delta Leader)
The command center watched glumly as the hundred or so surviving Grass Eater Longclaws emerged from the wrecks of their comrades and slowly resumed their charge across the open toward the defense lines.
The flying machines had gotten a lot of them. Quite a few disabled too. And they were disorganized from the loss of their command. Yet they still charged. Diminished as their numbers were, they rolled towards the battered defensive lines with psychotic determination.
We’ve failed.
Graunsa sat down heavily into his chair. He brought up his communication console, connecting it to the advisor network.
The alien appeared on the screen, and though he couldn’t see its face, he could hear the sympathy in its translated voice, “You’ve done all you can, Special Platoon Commander.”
“It wasn’t enough,” he said, shaking his ears sadly. “They’re going to break through our line. Our infantry can’t stop them.”
It tilted its head. “I wouldn’t count them out completely, Delta Leader. They might. They might not. But your next defensive line certainly will hold them. The city behind you will be held.”
“Tracking enemy orbit-to-ground. ETA three minutes,” Gassin reported quietly from next to him.
Graunsa sighed. He looked at the alien, “I think I understand your people now, advisor.”
“You… do?”
“Yeah, at first, when we were picked for this mission, I wondered why your people were doing this.”
“Doing this?” the alien asked, seeming confused.
“Helping us. The weapons. The equipment. The training. The targeting. It was all in secret, but you didn’t have to do it. The other species around us didn’t do it. The Schpriss…” Graunsa snorted, “The long-tails can’t even find it in their spines to send us field rations. I thought your species… your people were just generous. Or perhaps you simply enjoyed the craft of war, being so adept at it.”
“Are we… not?”
“Those reasons may be part of it,” he conceded. “But more importantly, I think your people understand one thing the other species don’t… that we might stop the enemy here. Or we might not.”
“We didn’t set you up to fail, if that’s what you think—”
“But the next defensive line certainly will hold them,” Graunsa said, staring the alien in the eye. “You will hold them. Isn’t that right?”
It sighed. “I would be lying if that wasn’t part of the strategic equation. Our star systems are indeed next in line — sometime in the next decade or two, probably — if these bloodthirsty Buns conquered your Federation. That harsh astropolitical realism. But there’s something else too.”
“Is there?”
“Yes,” it nodded its head firmly in a familiar manner. “Yes, there is. We aren’t a particularly long-sighted species, Graunsa. We can plan, yes, but wars are fought by true believers. People don’t sign up to put their lives on the line for a hypothetical, potential invasion of our Republic twenty years in the future. They— we signed up for this because we truly believe what’s happening to your people… it shouldn’t happen to anyone, ever.”
Graunsa looked at the helmeted head for a while, then nodded. “I believe you, advisor.”
“I’m sorry this didn’t pan out, Graunsa. If I could, I’d be down there with you. We’d have made them pay for this.”
Graunsa smiled. “I believe you about that too. Thank you, advisor, whatever your name is.”
“You may call me Kara,” it said simply. A deft snap of its paws — he hadn’t noticed how soft its claws were before — and it released a latch on its helmet with a hiss. Lifting it from its head, it revealed a soft, smooth face without much fur except a bundle of long, brown strands on its scalp tied up in a neat spherical shape. Its hazel forward-facing eyes stared at him with the empathy that only other predators were capable of, filling him with mild relief. “Don’t tell anyone though,” it joked lightly, mirroring his smile back at him.
You’re not as ugly as I thought you’d be. Not nearly.
Graunsa’s grin widened at the thought. He put it out of his mind. “Ah. One last thing, advisor— Kara.”
“Yes?”
His mind drifted to his cubs at home. Perhaps they were still alive. He chose to believe that. “Our people’s clans and packs…”
“We’ll let them know,” she interrupted him softly. “And when the information quarantine is lifted, we’ll let your clans and packs know what you did here — everything.”
“Good. Thank you.”
Gassin sat down next to him, “Delta Leader, enemy missiles incoming. ETA thirty seconds, they’re entering—” She stopped her report and stared at the unmasked alien on his screen with equal parts wonder and sadness.
“Take a closer look, Gassin,” he ordered softly. “That… that is who will avenge us.”
On screen, the alien put its gloved paw up to its temple, forming a stiff triangle with its arm in a recognizable salute. “It was an honor, Graunsa.”
Graunsa returned it crisply, letting a primitive fire shine through his face. “Happy hunting, Kara.”

Location: Atlas Naval Command, Luna

POV: “Kara”, Terran Reconnaissance Office
Kara watched solemnly as the green signal blinked off the battlemap. She closed her eyes for a moment in silent prayer for the fallen.
Beep. Beep.
Another light on her console blinked urgently for her attention. Four thousand kilometers from the previous one. The war raged on — day and night — across four continents on the besieged planet. Fifty light years from the Republic, its defenders’ sweat, tears, and blood lined the fields and valleys of the beautiful blue sphere not so different from her own. Tens of millions of them: many who she knew would not see the end of this war.
They didn’t all know it, and some might not have cared, but fifty light years away, someone recorded their names, and someone felt a pang of loss for their sacrifice. In the cold, dark forest of the galaxy, somebody heard their trees fall.
Kara collected her thoughts, adjusted the bun in her hair, and lowered the tinted EVA helmet over her face once more.
She cleared her throat as she glanced at the screen and activated the microphone in her helmet, “Special Platoon Commander Treiriu. This call is encrypted, but the enemy Znosians in orbit are trying to find your location from the signals, so we’ll have to make it as quick as we can. Have your defensive lines completed your preparations?”

Meta

Thanks for reading my story! This is a standalone chapter in my Grass Eaters story, meant to be enjoyable all on its own. If you're interested in more of my writing, please do subscribe to the update waffle bot or check out the rest of the universe in Grass Eaters.
(Grass Eaters posts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We are closing in on the end of Book 1.)

I just graduated from a uk university and i did computer science, i worked as a junior software developer in a summer internship and they hired me at the end of it to work for them remotely last year, whilst im in the uk and in dubai when i go i work in the office. i’ve been working for them till now but im not sure what to do since i graduated.
i want to go into a career which pays good money, but since i’ve been working for this fintech company and building programs and softwares, i don’t really enjoy the coding from 9-5 lifestyle which i’ve been doing.
i’ve always loved playing games and figuring out what was in a computer and how it works when i was younger and that filled the love for me to study CS, but when i went to uni i was dreading it, i learnt all the languages but didn’t really find it “fun”.
nowadays i just use chatgpt in my job and it does 80% of it. But i don’t enjoy it, and i don’t know what to do. I don’t really find interest anymore with the whole sitting there coding thing at the office.
And there are so many other people that i feel like, which would do my job better and for cheaper.
i loved studying business in a levels and loved to learn about money finance and im good with numbers.
if someone could help me out and give me some insight into other fields that would really be beneficial towards me thank you!
also not sure if this can do anything but i love cars and the whole concept of them and building a project car… not sure why i added this in here but maybe someone could bring some light into it?

I just graduated from a uk university and i did computer science, i worked as a junior software developer in a summer internship and they hired me at the end of it to work for them remotely last year, i’ve been working for them till now but im not sure what to do since i graduated. I want to go into a career which pays good money, but since i’ve been working for this fintech company and building programs and softwares, i don’t really enjoy the coding from 9-5 lifestyle which i’ve been doing. i’ve always loved playing games and figuring out what was in a computer and how it works when i was younger and that filled the love for me to study CS, but when i went to uni i was dreading it, i learnt all the languages but didn’t really find it “fun” nowadays i just use chatgpt in my job and it does 80% of it. But i don’t enjoy it, and i don’t know what to do. I don’t really find interest anymore with the whole sitting there coding thing at the office.
i loved studying business in a levels and loved to learn about money finance and im good with numbers.
if someone could help me out and give me some insight into other fields that would really be beneficial towards me thank you!
also not sure if this can do anything but i love cars and the whole concept of them and building a project car… not sure why i added this in here but maybe someone could bring some light into it?

Prologue
First
Previous / Next
Spanish Version (OG Version)
Credits to u/SpacePaladin15 for creating this universe.
And thanks to u/Signal-Chicken559 for proof-reading and the feedback, seriously, thank you.
Also available on Archive of Our Own
Note: There's a post on the Discord of this subreddit, so if you wanna discuss something about my story, that should be the place to go
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Memory Transcription Subject: Syra, Universal History Student at Brightspire and Member of the Human-Venlil Exchange Program
Date [standardized human date]: September 17, 2136
Maybe this "therapy" wouldn't be so bad after all. Perhaps they just wanted to make sure Daniel felt comfortable and supported during his stay here. I hoped that was the case, because otherwise, I wouldn't hesitate to bare my claws if necessary to protect him.
For now, I would let things flow naturally. But I would keep a close eye out, just in case. Daniel wasn't alone in this, I was here to look out for him.
[Time advancement: 10 minutes]
"...and that's more or less how I ended up here, details more, details less," Daniel finished recounting how he had arrived.
He seems satisfied with what Daniel has told so far. Good sign, I suppose. Although I still wonder what exactly this "therapy" is about.
At that, the "psychologist" gets up and walks to the back of the room. He takes some kind of portable whiteboard and places it in front of us. He then takes out a couple of markers and begins to draw a simple diagram.
"Well, Daniel, I think I have a general idea of who you are," he says as he scribbles on the whiteboard. "Now I'd like to explain my approach a bit in this session."
I frown slightly, intrigued. The Doctor draws a large circle in the center of the whiteboard and writes the word "Communication" inside it.
"You see, for me communication is the key to everything," he continues. "It's the medium through which we can express our needs and obtain what we need or desire."
I nod slowly, contemplating the diagram. It makes sense so far. The Doctor continues tracing more elements, listing some steps:

1. Describe observable facts
2. Emotions + Thoughts → Feelings
3. NEEDS
4. Expressed in the form of a request

Thank the stars I downloaded the new translation packages a while ago, otherwise I wouldn't be able to read this.
"The first thing is to describe the observable facts objectively," he explains while pointing to step 1. "Then, express the emotions and thoughts that arise in relation to those facts. But most importantly, identify the underlying need that those emotions and thoughts reflect."
He takes another color and draws an arrow that goes from the "Needs" circle to another where he writes "Finds the common ground with the other person."
"Once the needs are identified, we can express them in the form of a request to the other person," he says. "In this way, both parties can work together to satisfy those needs in a collaborative and empathetic way."
I nod again, beginning to understand his approach. It's... interesting, to be honest. Very different from the more authoritarian and repressive approach I experienced with my sister's case. The Doctor takes a moment to study our reactions.
"I know this may seem a bit foreign to your customs, Syra," he admits in an understanding tone. "But on Earth we have learned (or we're supposed to) that repressing or denying emotions only leads to more conflicts and suffering. It's better to express them in a healthy way and seek solutions that benefit everyone."
He turns back to the whiteboard and draws another more elaborate diagram. This time, there is a kind of circle, with elongated triangles inside, Daniel explained to me in my previous chats with him, that this was called a "compass" and was used for guidance at sea (By the stars, what's wrong with these humans? Don't they see that the sea is extremely dangerous?!). This compass seemed to be surrounded by several sectors, each with the name of an emotion: joy, sadness, fear, anger, boredom, disgust, surprise.
I look at the diagram with curiosity, it's an interesting concept, although very different from what I've learned on Venlil Prime.
The Doctor points to the central circle with the word "Communication."
"As you can see, for me everything revolves around effective communication," he continues calmly. "First, we must describe the facts objectively, without judging."
I nod slowly, following his explanation. So far it makes sense.
"Then, it is crucial to identify the emotions and thoughts that those facts generate in us. We should not repress or deny them," he continues, tracing more elements on the diagram. "Those emotions and thoughts lead us to identify an underlying need."
I frown a little when I hear that. Needs... my mind goes back to the situation with my sister. Could it be that she just needed to express herself better? No, I can't think about that now.
"Once the need is identified, we can express it as a request to the other person," the Doctor draws an arrow pointing to the words "Finds the common ground." "Thus, both parties can work together to satisfy those needs in an empathetic and collaborative way."
I open my eyes in surprise. Is he suggesting that we can simply... ask for what we need? Without fear, without reprisals. It's such a foreign idea from what I experienced... But at the same time, it makes a certain sense.
The Doctor turns towards us, studying our reactions.
"I know this approach may seem strange to you Venlil," he admits with understanding. "But on Earth we learned that repressing or denying emotions only brings more conflicts. It's better to express them in a healthy way."
I swallow hard with discomfort. It's true that on Venlil Prime we are taught to keep certain emotions under control. Especially those that could be seen as... "predatory."
"Um... Excuse me, Doctor," I interject cautiously. "I understand your point, but... What about those emotions or behaviors that are considered harmful or problematic?"
The Doctor looks at me intently before responding.
"It's a very valid question, Syra. But you see, no emotion is inherently 'good' or 'bad'," he explains patiently. "Even emotions like anger or fear have a purpose and meaning. The important thing is to learn to identify them, understand them and express them appropriately."
I frown thoughtfully. Is he suggesting that even the darkest emotions have a place? It's certainly... different from what I've been taught.
"But... What if those emotions endanger others?" I insist, unable to avoid thinking of my sister. "In my culture, certain behaviors, though emotional, are seen as a 'disease'."
A heavy silence settles in the room. I can sense Daniel's discomfort by my side, though he doesn't say a word. The Doctor remains silent for a moment, did I say something wrong?
"I understand your concern, and I'm sorry for that, Syra," he finally responds. "I understand that each culture may have its own norms and values. But at least on Earth, we have learned that pathologizing or repressing certain emotions only increases suffering."
He takes a breath before continuing.
"The important thing is to find healthy ways to express and channel those intense emotions. With support, understanding and appropriate tools, no one has to resort to harm or violence."
I ponder his words carefully. It's such a different perspective... But I can't help the doubts that assail me. If my sister had had that "support" and "understanding"... would she still be alive?
At that moment, I remember what Thomas mentioned about Daniel's "diagnosis." I glance sideways at my human companion sitting beside me, who remains silent.
"Um... Doctor, if you don't mind me asking," I begin cautiously. "What exactly does that 'diagnosis' you mentioned before mean? The 'Autism Spectrum Disorder'?"
Daniel tenses visibly by my side, as if he wants to avoid that conversation. But the Doctor simply nods calmly.
"Well it's not a bad question, Syra," he responds. "Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neurodivergent condition that primarily affects the development of social skills and communication. People on the spectrum can have difficulties interpreting social cues, maintaining eye contact or understanding figurative language."
I look at Daniel with renewed interest, trying to better understand his situation. Maybe that's why it's so hard for him to socialize...
"But that doesn't mean they are 'sick' or 'deficient' people," the Doctor is quick to clarify. "They simply have a neurodivergent processing of social information. With the right supports, they can develop fully."
My gaze softens as I observe Daniel. I feel a wave of understanding toward him. All this time he has been dealing with these challenges and yet he still strives to establish bonds and learn about my culture.
"There's no need to be alarmed. As I said, the intention is not to judge or label anyone. We simply want to understand and provide the appropriate support."
I nod slowly, feeling the tension dissipate a little. Then, the Doctor takes out a deck of cards from a small briefcase he had at his side.
"In fact, would you like to play a little game? It could help us get to know each other in a more relaxed way."
I glance sideways at Daniel, not quite sure what to expect. He shrugs indifferently, as if letting me decide. Well, why not? A game could be a more pleasant way to get through this "therapy."
"Sure, let's play," I respond, giving a slight smile and gesturing with my tail.
The Doctor nods and proceeds to explain the rules of the game called "Sussed?". It doesn't seem too complicated: basically, we have to read some cards with 3 questions and 3 answer options each, choose the one that best represents us and try to guess which answer to that question the player who asked it chose.
"Sounds good," I comment as the Doctor deals the cards to each of us. "Do you want to start?"
This was the kind of board games I liked the most.
"Sure, why not?" the Doctor replied as he takes the first card. "Let's see..."
After a few moments, he chooses the card, looks at it for another moment, and the psychologist says:
"This question says: 'If you could swap bodies with anyone for a day, who would you choose?'"
I frown thoughtfully. It's an interesting question, to be honest. Who would a human want to swap bodies with?
If I were human, who would I swap bodies with?
I glance sideways at Daniel and a mischievous idea crosses my mind. What if...? No, no, that would be too daring.
But I return to the objective, to guess who the therapist would become, and then he says the options:
"And the options are:

• A). Your ideal partner;
• B). Your idol or favorite celebrity; and
• C). Your game companion (if this option, who?)"

He paused.
"What do you say? Who do you think I would choose?"
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously and made a new gesture with my ears. My ideal partner? That option seemed too suggestive for a human like him. Or would it be too obvious? And what if he chose his idol to get to know them better? I didn't completely rule out the last option either.
"Hmm..." I murmured, scratching my chin. "I'd say... C? He'd swap with one of us for a day?"
Daniel shifted beside me, seeming just as intrigued by the question as I was. Doctor Calderón simply shook his head.
"Good theory, but no. My answer was B," he revealed calmly.
Well! It made sense, I suppose. Humans really do seem obsessed with their celebrities and public figures, Daniel told me they had many, many celebrations of the historical figures of each of their countries, so each "paw" or "whatever" of their year celebrated something or someone.
"I see," I nodded. "Interesting choice."
"Alright, I guess it's my turn now," Daniel cleared his throat through his mask. "Let's see... 'If you could travel through time, what era would you choose to visit?'"
That was a fairly typical question for a game like this, but it still made me think. What era would Daniel like to visit? So many possibilities...
The options Daniel mentioned were:

• A). The remote past;
• B). The future; and
• C). A golden age or key historical period.

What era would Daniel like to visit?
Honestly, I'm not too sure which one he might choose. Knowing his fascination with space exploration, he might choose the future to see how civilizations evolve. But he could also be interested in some golden age from his species' remote past.
Determined to guess his answer, I risk my hunch:
"Hmm, I think you'd say... option C? A golden age or key historical period?" I suggest, moving my tail inquisitively. "That's the impression I get considering your interest in history."
Daniel takes a few moments before responding with a slight nod.
"Good intuition, Syra. I chose option C, a golden age. More specifically, the European Renaissance I told you about before, don't you remember?" he reveals in a calm tone. "It was a period of great scientific and cultural advancement for my species."
I nod, pleased to have guessed right. It's interesting how Daniel seems to value the periods of intellectual and artistic progress of his civilization, despite its apparently violent background.
"Ah, yes, you told me it was a transcendental moment for humans in areas like philosophy, the arts and knowledge in general."
"Exactly. Figures like Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and so many others laid the foundations of modern science and thought. Although there were shadows too, of course."
Doctor Calderón nods and takes notes in a small notebook he has by his side. I feel curious to learn more about this "golden age" that Daniel mentions, so I decide to ask:
"If it's okay with you, could you tell me a little more about that 'Renaissance'?" I inquire, my ears slightly raised. "I'm interested in knowing what made it so important for your species."
Daniel settles into his seat, as if preparing for a more extensive explanation. I notice how his hands, make some gestures as he speaks, something I've noticed humans often do.
"Well, the Renaissance was a cultural movement that emerged in the European region during the 15th and 16th centuries, mainly in cities like Florence, Rome and Venice," he begins to explain. "After a period known as the Middle Ages, where a somewhat more rigid and dogmatic thought predominated, the Renaissance brought a resurgence of interest in the classical ideals of ancient Greece and Rome."
I nod, trying to follow his line of thought. Humans seem to have a special fascination with those ancient cultures from their past.
"Renaissance artists and thinkers promoted a more humanistic and rational approach," Daniel continues. "Figures like Leonardo da Vinci embodied the idea of the 'Renaissance man', one who sought knowledge in various areas: art, science, engineering, philosophy, and blah, blah, blah."
"Wow, that sounds really interesting," I comment sincerely. "Could you give me some more concrete examples of the achievements of that period?"
Daniel nods and proceeds to mention some Renaissance milestones: Da Vinci's advances in anatomy and his studies on the human body, the astronomical discoveries of Galileo Galilei, artworks like the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo's David, and the rediscovery of his species' literary classics.
"In summary, it was an era of great creative and intellectual effervescence," Daniel concludes. "Though of course there was still a long way to go."
I nod, fascinated by Daniel's description. It's admirable how his species managed to propel itself forward in those key periods, despite the difficulties and limitations they faced back then. I can't help but wonder if the Venlil will ever experience a similar awakening, at least, of thought...
At that moment, I remember we're playing "Sussed?", grab one of the cards and choose one of its questions, taking advantage of Daniel's enthusiasm for history and culture.
"Alright, my turn," I announce, taking a new card. "If you could choose one supernatural ability, what would it be?' And the options are:

• A). Flying,
• B). Mind reading or
• C). Time travel."

I pause, observing Daniel and Doctor Calderón's reactions. This question certainly lets the imagination fly.
"What do you say? What do you think I would choose?"
Now that I think about it, what would I choose?
I would definitely choose to be able to fly.
The idea of soaring through the skies with total freedom seems incredibly appealing to me. I imagine how exciting it would be to explore Venlil Prime's landscapes from the heights, without restrictions.
Daniel remains silent for a few moments, as if carefully analyzing the options. I can imagine the gears turning inside that peculiar human head of his. Finally, he responds:
"Time travel."
Time travel? I didn't expect that. I suppose it makes sense coming from a being so fascinated by the vast universe and its unsolved mysteries.
"Ohhh, interesting choice," I comment with curiosity. "May I ask why you think I would choose that ability?"
Daniel shrugs and responds in a casual tone:
"Well, I think time travel would open up infinite possibilities for knowledge and adventure," he explains. "Imagine being able to witness historical events firsthand or catch a glimpse of the future to guide us better. It would be amazing."
I nod slowly, surprised by his reasoning. Humans certainly have an overflowing imagination.
"Woah, I hadn't seen it that way," I admit. "Although it could also be risky, don't you think? Messing with the past or knowing too much about the future."
Daniel laughs through his mask, a metallic and distorted sound.
"Good point. I guess we'd have to be really careful with that," he concedes.
"Although it would just be a small glimpse, nothing major like changing history. What do you think, Dr. Calderón? What ability do you think Syra would choose?"
Dr. Calderón takes a moment to think about it.
"Hmm, I think you would choose to read minds," he finally responds. "It would be very useful for better understanding people in general."
My ears twitch strangely at his response.
"Wouldn't that be an invasion of privacy?"
"It depends on how the power works, I would set certain limits so it only activates in specific situations or places, for example."
I guess that makes sense, but I'm still not sure I'd want to read minds in general, knowing what people really think of you all the time doesn't seem like the best idea.
Anyway, it's time to reveal the answer I chose.
"Well, you're wrong, because I would choose to fly."
"But why?" Daniel asks me.
"Well, the idea of flying seems interesting to me, being able to move at full speed without ground traffic or gravity's obstacles seems appealing."
"That's an interesting answer," Calderón responds.
I guess I should take it well that he says it's an interesting answer.
"Alright, my turn again," I announced, taking a new card. "If you could have a supernatural ability, which would it be: flying, teleporting or mind control?"
And so we continued playing successively, for a good while.
[Time advancement: 50 minutes]
Dr. Calderón collects the game cards and carefully puts them away in his briefcase. Then, he turns towards us with a friendly smile.
"Well, I think that's it for today," he announces in a calm voice. "How was it? I hope it was a constructive experience and helped you get to know each other a little better."
I nod slowly, feeling a mix of emotions. On one hand, this "therapy" has been extremely revealing about how humans think. But on the other, I can't help but still feel some apprehension.
"It was... interesting, no doubt," I respond frankly. "I admit that some of your ideas seem quite foreign to what I'm used to. But I also recognize that it makes sense, at least from your perspective."
The Doctor nods in understanding.
"It's normal for them to seem strange at first, Syra," he says patiently. "Cultural differences run deep. But that doesn't mean they're incompatible, right? It simply requires effort from both sides to find common ground."
I ponder his words, turning to look at Daniel. He remains silent, but I notice how he watches me through the mask, as if evaluating my reaction. I can almost imagine the gears turning inside his head... peculiar, but endearing in a way.
"You're right," I finally admit. "It's just a matter of continuing to learn and understand. And for that, both sides have to keep an open mind."
I smile slightly and, in an impulsive gesture, bring my tail towards Daniel, gently coiling it around his arm. He tenses briefly but doesn't pull away.
"Don't worry," I tell him softly. "We'll get to understanding each other, you'll see."
Daniel nods stiffly, saying nothing. I can imagine his discomfort, but I hope that in time he'll understand that he doesn't have to be ashamed of his "peculiarity." At least, not with me.
At that moment, Dr. Calderón stands up from his seat.
"Well, I think that concludes today's session," he announces in an affable tone. "You can return to your rest area. And please, don't hesitate to request me if you need anything."
We nod and stand up to leave the therapy room. Once in the hallway, I give Daniel a friendly tail gesture.
We walk back to our little "suite", already familiar to us after the therapy session with Dr. Calderón. An awkward silence hangs between Daniel and me as we make our way through the station's hallways.
I feel relieved that therapy didn't turn out as terrifying as I initially feared. But at the same time, I can't help but dwell on some of the things the Doctor said. That about "letting emotions flow" and not repressing them... It's so alien to what I've experienced.
I glance sideways at Daniel, with his mask and that characteristically rigid body language. I wonder what he's thinking about it all. Does he feel comfortable with that idea of emotional and social "openness"? From what I could tell, he seems somewhat reluctant, although I suppose it's natural given his... peculiarity.
I shake my head, brushing those thoughts aside. I shouldn't judge so harshly. I'm just seeing things from my limited perspective. Maybe for humans that "openness" works better. Or maybe not. I still have a lot to learn, at least about them.
We finally reach our little "suite" and go inside. It's a cozy space, with a common living room and our two individual bedrooms on either side as always. Nothing luxurious, but at least it's private and comfortable.
I plop down heavily on the couch, letting out a slight sigh. Daniel sits at the other end, keeping his distance as usual.
"So... what do you think about all this?" I ask cautiously, moving my ears in his direction.
He shrugs, his body language denoting some discomfort.
"I don't know what to think, really," he responds frankly. "It's all so... different from what I'm used to."
I nod, fully understanding that feeling. It's like we're both exploring completely uncharted territory.
"Yeah, I get it. It's very foreign to me too," I admit. "But... do you think it could have some value? You know, that whole 'expressing emotions' thing and all that."
Daniel remains silent for a moment, as if meditating on his answer. I can almost picture the gears turning inside his human head.
"Maybe..." he finally mutters. "Although I don't know if I'm ready for something like that. It's... complicated for me, I've had therapies before, but they never really worked out, it makes me uncomfortable because it's more of a routine than anything else, a routine I thought I'd at least get a break from here, but it wasn't the case, although it makes sense, they have a neurodivergent among the program members, so I guess they wanted to make sure I'd behave."
My ears droop slightly as I sense his discomfort. I don't want to push him too much, especially on topics that seem sensitive to him.
"Hey, it's okay," I say in a softer tone. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to. We'll go at your own pace, alright?"
He nods stiffly, though I notice his shoulders relaxing a little. I'm glad I can convey some reassurance.
If someone had told me I'd be reassuring a predator about his own discomfort by being so close a few months ago, I would have laughed in their faces and told them they were crazy, but here I am, telling him everything will be okay.
After a few moments of awkward silence, I decide to break the ice again.
"Hey, Daniel..." I begin slowly. "Can I ask you a question about what the Doctor said?"
He nods stiffly, barely a slight movement of his masked head.
"Sure, what do you want to know?"
I hesitate for a moment, not quite sure how to approach this without seeming intrusive.
"Well, he mentioned something about that 'diagnosis' of yours...a disorder, I think he said. Could you explain a bit more about that?" I ask cautiously. "O-only if you're comfortable with it, of course."
Daniel tenses up even more, I can almost feel his discomfort radiating from his body language. For a moment I fear I've crossed a line, but then he responds in a muted voice:
"It's... complicated to explain. Basically, my brain processes certain information differently than most people's. That makes social interactions, non-verbal language, that kind of thing difficult for me."
I nod slowly, trying to better understand his condition.
"And is that... bad?" I ask with genuine curiosity. "I mean, does it cause you problems or anything?"
He siffly shrugs.
"Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on the situation. In academics and work it's usually an advantage, because I can focus really well on logical, repetitive tasks. But socially... well, let's just say it's not my strong suit."
I observe him closely, noticing how he averts his masked gaze. I can imagine the discomfort and vulnerability he must be feeling opening up like this.
"Hey, you don't have to be ashamed, okay?" I say softly. "I think it's admirable that you can be so honest about it. Most pred- I mean, humans, would probably do everything possible to hide it, right?"
Daniel lets out a slight huff through the mask, a metallic and distorted sound that could almost be mistaken for a bitter laugh.
"Now, I guess not, but it's ironic, don't you think?" he comments with a tinge of bitterness. "In prehistoric times, someone like me might have been abandoned or devoured for not fitting in with the tribe or group.
"But now... well, it seems I might not fit in anywhere at this rate, or maybe I'm exaggerating, but sometimes I don't know what to think. Because I don't want people to see me with pity or as someone who can't fend for themselves. It's messed up, because sometimes they see you in a condescending way, like you need help with everything all the time, when that's not always the case. I want to show the world, or the universe, that I can be myself without needing anyone's help to be me, that I can make it on my own without depending on anyone..."
After an awkward silence, I decide to break the ice again.
"Hey Daniel, I understand you don't like talking much about your... peculiarity," I say carefully. "But I want you to know you don't have to be ashamed of it with me, okay? I don't think any less of you for being... well, different."
Daniel shifts in his seat, his body language still slightly rigid and tense. I can imagine the discomfort he must be feeling, and I don't like it.
"It's not that I'm ashamed, exactly," he responds with apparent caution. "It's just that... sometimes I feel like people look at me with pity, you know? Like I need help with everything, when really most of the time I can fend for myself."
I nod slowly, trying to understand his perspective. I suppose for someone like him, who's probably used to dealing with prejudices and misunderstandings about his peculiarity, it must be frustrating to be treated in a condescending way.
But this time, he breaks the silence.
"Hey... there's something that's been on my mind," he admits hesitantly. "When you said you wouldn't let anyone hurt me, it sounded like you'd gone through a similar experience."
I swallow hard, feeling a lump in my throat. So he noticed. Well, I suppose it was inevitable he'd figure it out sooner or later, considering how perceptive he seems to be.
I guess it's time for me to tell my truth.
\---------------------0
Prologue
First
Previous / Next
Spanish Version (OG Version)

Chapter 25 - The Job Offer
Previous Chapter
The massive shuttle rocketed through the atmosphere as Trix reached out to nudge the throttle down slightly. Josh was right, it wasn’t anything like flying an Aircar. At first it consisted of programming in the destination, desired speed, height, and letting the computer do all the work. When she expressed dissatisfaction at that, Ma’et had kicked the boys out of the cockpit and showed her how to access the manual flight stick. That was where things began to get fun.
And then when turning down the gravitic inertial compensation so she could FEEL the power of the shuttle pressing her back in her seat, feel the vibration of the wind against the shuttle as it roared through the skies, feel her body pulled to one side or the other as she sent it into a tight turn… that was when the world fell away entirely. The skies opened up in a vast vista before her.
Ma’et sat beside her, occasionally mentioning a tip or trick here. A small adjustment to make there. The shuttle had zero control surfaces, it handled like a brick - but it compensated for all of that with sheer, raw power. The power to smash through the sound barrier like it was made of paper. The power to soar effortlessly a few feet above the waves, or to rocket up into the stratosphere with ease. Gravity was a mere suggestion, one which Trix rejected entirely.
After a few minutes Ma’et went into the back to speak with the others. “I think our girl is completely hooked. She picked that up faster than anyone I’ve ever seen before.”
Josh walked over to Ji, handing him a small pill and a cup of water. While most of the crew was fine with the reduced inertial compensation and the feeling of actual motion that Trix was putting the shuttle through, Ji was the exception. He was definitely looking very green about the gills. “Guess we’re seeing thousands of years of flight instinct coming to the fore. That’s the best explanation I can come up with at least.”
“I was wondering about that.” Ma’et sat down next to the captain’s head and smacked the side of his head lightly. “Would a species that evolves from birds be naturals at flying? If she’s any indication the answer is ‘yes’.”
“I don’t know how universal it was. In the races there were some pretty decent pilots but you ask me, Trix outflew them all. S’why I’m thinking maybe she’d be a natural pilot.”
Josh glanced over at them. “I think she’s better than me. And I’ve been flying this thing for decades.”
Ma’et nodded. “She took to every bit of instruction we gave her like it was second nature. I don’t know if it’s because she descended from a flying species or what, but she’s a natural. If the rest of the planet has as many naturally skilled pilots as she is, then every captain this side of Mars will want to hire them on.”
“Well, that’s assuming we let her fly stick in the first place.” Min pointed out. “I think that first bit where we had her on autopilot actually made her mood WORSE.”
“Either way, I want to see whether or not she can take those flight skills and upgrade ‘em to zero-g.” Alex sat up and tapped the conference button on his breath mask and turned off the translator. “Crew meeting. Amanda, you there?”
Amanda had spent most of the morning in the Presh manor, going over some of the finer details of the proposals for exchange between Terrafault and the locals. Meaning while they were out joyriding above the ocean, she was up to her neck in paperwork thousands of kilometers away. “I’m here, Alex. What’s going on?”
“We’re on the shuttle. I put Trix at the helm. She’s phenomenal. I’m taking an official vote. All in favor of offering her a position on the ship as pilot?”
“Aye.” Ma’et and Min-ah spoke as one. “Sure.” was Josh’s response.
“Wait. Pilot? Hold on, Al….”
Ji raised a thumb, but didn’t speak - concentrating on keeping his mouth closed as much as he could. “Par?”
“There are a number of advantages it would bring. I have not interacted with her as much as you have, but our conversations have been pleasant. I vote yes.”
“Hold on, hold on!” Amanda tried to interject. “Alexander, before you go tearing off and….”
“Too late. Six to one, you’re outvoted. Do me a favor and draw up an employment contract.” Alex pushed the leave button on the chat, smiling. He missed whatever response Amanda made but he was sure it was spectacular judging by Min and Ma’ets reactions to it.
He unbuckled himself from the seat restraint, and made his way up to the cockpit. “How’s it going up here?”
“Fine, fine.” Trix made a dismissive gesture. “I’m doing fine up here. No need to check in on me.”
“That’s not why I’m here. Do me a favor, and put the autopilot on back to the Presh mansion. I’ll send Ma’et up here to watch it. But you and I need to have a little chat, so out of the cockpit for now.”
Trix looked up at him in surprise, then frowned and pushed the release button on the control stick. She pulled up the list of previous destinations just as Ma’et had showed her before, and touched the control to send the shuttle back to land near the capitol of the Presh lands.
In the back of the shuttle, Ji was looking decidedly unwell, and Josh was at his side. Ma’et scrambled back up front while Trix took a seat on the center couch, and Alex sat down opposite her.
“So, Trix, not gonna beat around the bush here. You were great in the race. You took to the shuttle just fine. I want to see how well you do flying a bigger ship. My ship.” he gestured up above his head.
“What, like now? I thought we were heading back to the Presh?” Trix glanced up, as though she could see the massive bronze ship out there through the ceiling of the shuttle.
“We are. But I don’t mean right now. I mean, I want to hire you as a pilot. For our trip out to JR692 to survey minerals. Off planet, on my ship.”
Trix froze up entirely at this. Not even a direct impact to her helmet by a challenge round could have been more unexpected and surprising, and she found herself entirely unable to respond. Unable to THINK.
Alex took her sudden silence as indecision, though, and decided to just press forward. “Honestly it’s a huge decision, it’s not something I’m expecting a yes or no right now on. You haven’t been around us very long, just a few weeks here on the planet. But you’ve gotten along superbly with Ji and Min. That alone makes me think you’d do well up on the ship.”
“I… uh, I hadn’t…” Trix stumbled over her words for a moment, then coughed suddenly. “I’m not sure. Uh, I really don’t know how to fly a space ship.”
“I know. I’m not expecting you to know how to right away. Flying outside an atmosphere with no gravity is worlds different than flying an aircar or the shuttle, and you’ve got zero experience. But to be blunt, I have a good gut feeling about you and I want to give you a chance to learn and join us.” Alex held up a hand, ticking off points on his fingers.
“First, we are a seriously social species. We make friends easy and quickly. That means when we find someone we like we want to be around them. That’s already a big point in your favor. Second, after we complete our survey mission your testimony to Kyshe can help alleviate her worries about whether or not we can be trustworthy. Third, ours is a small crew and we have to split duties. If you’ll join us and take on the role of pilot, that will reduce the load on the rest of the crew. And lastly, in the future I hope that our two societies will be able to interact a lot more closely. But people will be reluctant to take that first step. If you join us and it works out well, then others who would be reluctant will be more likely to do the same in the future.”
“However!” Alex let his hands fall back to his sides. “With all that said, it’s not all sunshine and roses. It’s going to be a lot of work to learn how to fly the ship. It’s going to be long hours spent learning and training, and lots of the training will be boring. If you do decide to come with us, then it means spending a lot of time in close quarters with the crew. We won’t be able to return until we complete our survey mission, which normally lasts at least a full month. During which there WILL be a lot of tedious chores that need to be done around the ship, and you’ll be expected to help out. We split the chores fairly, and you won’t be made to do anything unreasonable that the rest of us won’t do.”
Alex leaned back on the seat, and crossed his arms. “So that’s the offer. I want you to become the first Sovalin to work alongside Humans. You’ll be paid fairly, you’ll have good accommodations and recreation available, but it’s going to be a lot of work and if you agree you can’t back out anytime soon. Our current plan is to head to JR692 in roughly a week. Take as much time until then to decide. If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to let us know.”
—--
Kyshe glared irritably at the human across from her desk. He had arrived at her request, alone and without any of the rest of his crew. “Captain. Thank you for agreeing to meet with me.”
“Always happy to be here. Since I wasn’t escorted by soldiers this time I take it I’m not in trouble?” Alex grinned and tried to lighten the mood with a joke.
“I would not go that far. The only reason I did not order your arrest is because I am trying, very hard, to afford you the benefit of the doubt. And I would appreciate it very much if you would explain to me why I should continue to exercise that restraint.” One of her wingtips, adorned with a metal sheath similar to the ones that Sophie often wore, tapped against the floor as she sat waiting in her chair.
“Okay, I’m assuming this isn’t about us breaking the sound barrier out over the ocean.” Kyshe glared and nodded. “So it’s about the job offer. There’s really not a whole lot to explain really. I felt like Trix could be a good fit with the crew and it seemed like a natural way to put my ideals into practice.” Alex leaned forward as he spoke. “I’m not trying to force her into anything, she’s free to refuse and we won’t hold it against her. It’s not a big deal.”
Kyshe closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m having a difficult time believing it’s so simple. You said your people wouldn’t use ours as labor. Yet now you attempt to lure one of our young adults into your employment?”
“Now hold on. We’re not trying to use her for labor! The job that I offered to her was Pilot, not janitor or anything.” he protested.
Kyshe opened her eyes and banged a fist on the table. “You expect me to believe that?” Her hand swept out around in a big arc. “She’s a farmer! Nearly everyone in this valley is! She’s used to hard work day in and day out. Not flying starships. You seriously expect me to believe you don’t just want to dump all the difficult tasks on her?”
“Okay. Point taken, I can see why you’re concerned about that. And, to be fair, she WILL be doing more than just piloting. We all do.” Alex held up a hand. “The crew has seven members total. On a starship. Even with all the automation we have, that’s still running fairly bare bones. We all of us, myself included, have to do dozens of things every single day to keep things running smoothly. Equipment checks. Replacing worn out components. Making meals for everyone. But even though she WILL be expected to help out, there’s nothing at all we’ll be asking her to do that we won’t also be doing. That’s just the nature of being on a small ship.”
Kyshe continued to tap her wingtip on the floor. “It is perhaps the fact that you’re trying to hire an untrained farmhand that most concerns me. It seems as though it would be much, much easier to simply look for someone already trained as a pilot. The M’rit for example often ferry resources up to orbit. I’m sure that one of their pilots would be a much better fit.”
“Eh, that’s a bit doubtful. They may have experience with your ships and systems but from what I’ve seen, ours are going to be pretty alien to them as well. They’ll likely require just as much training. Hell, if anything Trix might have an easier time because she won’t have to un-learn what she already knows. Plus we’ve already built up a rapport with Trix. That’s important when you’re spending weeks and months together. That’s a big reason why I offered the job to her in particular.”
Kyshe grunted noncommittally, and Alex stood up. “It was a gesture made in good faith, Matriarch. When I spoke of our two peoples standing beside one another this is pretty much what I had in mind. Humans and Sovalin working together. On a ship, on a planet, on a station, whatever. But working together as a team is the important part.”
Kyshe looked unconvinced so Alex continued. “Matriarch, if the offer is going to cause difficulties then I’ll retract it. I hadn’t thought it’d upset you this much, and I’m not willing to lose what little faith you have in me over this.”
“I’m very, very tempted to tell you to do exactly that.” Kyshe muttered. “I already feel like we’re placing far too much trust in you as it is.”
“Yeah, I understand. And I’ll leave it up to you. I really do want to have her join us up on the ship, but earning your trust is more important. That said, I think maybe you should talk to her directly? She’s been around us the longest out of any of your people, after all.”
Kyshe hesitated at that, wondering whether or not the girl had somehow been influenced by the Humans. Ultimately, she nodded. “That’s reasonable.” She sat there in thought for a few minutes, then stood up and walked over to the other side of the desk. “I won’t make any choices until I speak with the girl. But I do question the necessity of this. Do you truly need to take her with you?”
“No, we don’t. It’s not at all necessary.” Alex admitted. “We can still continue on with our original mission without another crew member. But just because it isn’t necessary doesn’t mean it isn’t a good idea. Matriarch, every single thing I know about Humans and everything I’ve seen here on the planet tells me one thing - sooner or later our societies WILL become friends or allies. The big question is gonna be ‘when’ because I am sure it’ll happen. I for one want that to be ‘sooner’. I think it’ll be better for your people if we can cooperate quicker. I think my people have been alone in the void too long and need new friends to help us grow as a people. And your people have been betrayed by ‘friends’ and could use someone to help you regain the independence that was stolen from you. We have plenty of reasons to come together.”
Kyshe grimaced as she leaned back against the desk. “I wish I could share in that sort of optimism. I admit I would prefer if everything went as well as you say it will. I simply doubt things will go as smoothly and as easily as you claim.”
“Probably not, if I’m being honest.” Alex stood up as well and gestured out the window. “I know I often talk big, but that’s because I like to dream big. I know that I’m moving quickly but that’s just how I do things. Sometimes it gets me in trouble and sometimes everything works out well but either way I live without regrets.”
Kyshe pressed a button on the desk she leaned against, and an aide came in. “Please call Trksehn into the office. I’d like to discuss this with her.” As the aide left, Kyshe nodded towards the Captain. “Just know, Captain, that I will hold you responsible if something does occur.”
—--
Trksehn walked into the office, and upon sighting the Matriarch immediately took a knee, placing a closed fist in front of her respectfully. “Matriarch, you have summoned me.”
Kyshe motioned to the aide who tugged on the girl’s arm. “The Matriarch doesn’t enjoy the more formal expressions of respect.” they whispered into her ear.
“Thank you for coming promptly. We wish to speak with you about the offer you’ve received.” Trix glanced over and noticed that Captain Alex was present in the room. She raised a hand to him in greeting.
“So, uh, if you two are going to be talking, maybe I should go?” He offered, taking a step towards the door.
“No. Stay. There may be questions we have for you.” The Matriarch commanded, and he froze, before stepping back to the chair he’d vacated shortly before. “Have a seat.” Kyshe told Trix as she gestured to the empty chair next to the Captain.
“The reason I called you here is because I have a number of concerns with the Captain’s proposal to you.” Kyshe began, as she moved back to her chair on the opposite side of the desk from the others. “I know you have not had much time to consider it, and I do apologize for that. My primary concern in this matter is with your well being.”
“Uh, in what way Matriarch?” Trix shifted uncomfortably in the chair. The Matriarch was clearly quite unhappy and being in the presence of an unhappy leader was incredibly intimidating.
“We know so little about the Humans. We still have little more than the Captain’s reassurances that they are as they say - here to befriend us, to offer help. He speaks passionately about wishing to walk beside us as friends and allies. As you have been around the Humans the longest, I wish to hear your thoughts on the matter.”
“Yeah, he’s said the same to me.” Trix glanced over to the captain and back. “And to the others in the Hab. The rest of the crew makes jokes about it.”
“Do you believe that he means what he says?”
“Well, the crew thinks he means it. Or more like…” She hesitated a moment, not sure how he’d take this. “Well, to be honest from what I hear they all think he’s being overly optimistic. And they, uh, often claim he has other motives.”
Kyshe's eyes narrowed at that. “And have they specified what those ‘other motives’ are?”
Trix glanced over at the Captain, who was not looking particularly comfortable with the way the conversation was going. “Yeah, most of the crew thinks he’s attracted to our people.”
“Now hold on. HOLD ON. That is absolutely DEFINITELY not why I offered you a job!” he immediately protested.
Kyshe was a bit stunned by the girl’s statement and the captain’s outburst, and she found herself trying very hard not to smile at his discomfort. “Well, Captain? Are you attracted to us?”
“Matriarch, that has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the topic at hand!”
“His face is red. According to Ji, that’s a sign of embarrassment.” Trksehn helpfully pointed out. Indeed, he was blushing rather hard at the way the topic had shifted.
“Indeed?” Kyshe could not suppress her smile now. “Captain, you never mentioned attraction to us in any of our previous conversations.”
“That’s because it’s irrelevant! Whether or not I find you all appealing has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not our species can earn your trust!” He shot to his feet as he said this. “I most certainly am not inviting Trix to join up just based on her attractiveness!”
“But you do find her attractive?” Kyshe pressed him on this, clearly enjoying his frustration and embarrassment.
“That’s not relevant. It has nothing at all to do with anything!" Kyshe and Trix sat there waiting for an actual answer, and he sighed and sat back down heavily in his seat. "Okay, yes. She’s gorgeous. So are you. And Sophie back on the station. But!” He made a cutting motion with his hands. “None of that makes any difference at all. It doesn't earn me your trust and it doesn't help you all out in any way. I didn't mention it because it's absolutely inconsequential.”
“No, but perhaps it does explain why you’re going to such great lengths to try to befriend us.” Kyshe’s face turned thoughtful as she said it. “Do you think that by aiding us in trying to escape the Bunters’ influence that you’ll be able to find a partner among our kind?”
“NO! I'm trying to aid you because I don't want an incredible species with immense potential to be trapped in sevitude!”
“Hmm.” Kyshe glanced over at the captain as if she’d not heard a single one of his protests. “I am sure that there are many who might be interested in your people, but whether or not you could be accepted would be quite another thing entirely…”
“The crew just like to joke and make fun. It’s not serious!”
“Well, that’s at least partially true, Matriarch.” Trix was enjoying watching him squirm, but he was becoming more frantic as Kyshe pressed him on it. “They enjoy jokes at his expense.”
“See? It’s just my crew giving me a difficult time!”
Kyshe nodded, but continued on anyway. “Whether they’re joking or not, at least now I believe I understand your motivations better. I won’t say I share in them,” She glanced the human up and down, “But then at least you are not as repulsive as the Cetari or the Fwenth. I am certain that if we were to put out the offer, there may be a number of females who would wish to court you…”
Alex buried his head in his hands. This conversation had gone completely off the rails and he desperately tried to find a way to steer it back to safer ground. “Please, no. I swear to you on my ship, that my purpose in helping you all is NOT due to my attraction to your species! I’m NOT trying to find a partner!“
“Very well.” She dropped the topic for now, but mentally made a note of how easy it was to rile up the captain on this subject. His response made him particularly fun to tease. “Trksehn, back to the relevant point. The Captain’s offer to hire you for his ship. I’ve spoken with him about it. May I hear your thoughts on the matter?”
Trix sat in silence briefly before she answered. “It’s kind of surreal. When they landed and I spoke about flying my aircar I was just trying to make conversation. And now they’re talking about me flying out in space. I wanted to race the Firelands Challenge just for fun and because I thought it might make me stand out to the men of the valley, but this?” She waved a hand as she spoke. “The attention I’m getting from everyone is way outside anything I ever expected!”
“I would say that you are indeed standing out. From my understanding on the subject, you’ve become a celebrity overnight.” Kyshe stood up and walked over beside the younger woman. “I am not particularly a fan of the challenges, but I am not ignorant of their influence. I have had reports given to me of the fans you’ve acquired. And of the fact that not everyone is particularly pleased with your success.”
Trix was surprised by this. “Wait, really? You know about all of that?”
“Of course. I take care to know the goings on here in the valley, and you’ve made a name for yourself. It’s always important for a Matriarch to know of all the major goings on of her people, and I was apprised of your success within an hour of the challenge.”
“Thank you, Matriarch.” Knowing she had achieved global fame from her race was still mostly just a thought. But actually hearing it from her Matriarch made it all the more real. “It’s been, uh. Kind of weird?”
“I can imagine. Fame thrust upon someone who is unfamiliar with it can be quite overwhelming. In truth, I should have reached out to you sooner to offer my aid should the need arise. The Noarala may be a small Teff but all those who live under the Presh are my responsibility, and any assistance you need is available if you ask.”
Trix nodded, then turned to face the Captain. “Thank you again, Matriarch. For the Captain’s offer, though, I think it’s an offer in good faith. I spoke with Min about it and what he said to me is true. The others fly the ship but that often isn’t their primary duty. They all share in the work and responsibilities on the ship, and Min thinks I would fit in well. I don’t know the others as well as Ji and Min but they have offered their support.”
Kyshe ignored the captain for now and focused her attention entirely on the young avian. “It is a major decision. You would be apart from us, from our protection. If they would mistreat you, offer offense or harm…”
Trix actually laughed at that. “I don’t think they’d do that. Not deliberately. I’ve spent enough time around them that I don’t worry about that at all.”
Kyshe visibly relaxed at the younger woman’s confidence. “But then you would also be away from the rest of the society. Away from males, for some time.”
Trix nodded at that. “Yeah, that part worries me too.”
“Wait up. Worried why?” Alex’s face had regained its normal color and he looked back and forth between the Matriarch and Trix. “Are you dating… errr, I guess exploring? Or what’s that about?”
“Extended time away from males can be distressing.” Kyshe explained. “Not necessarily exploring or becoming accepted is required. Simply being around other males can be calming.”
“Okay, that’s actually news to me.” Alex had to sit and think about that. “Could you be a bit more specific? What you mean by ‘distress’, and how long until it becomes a problem, things like that?”
“It can vary, but usually after a few weeks signs and symptoms begin to appear. Frustration, more hostile and aggressive behavior is the most common issue encountered.” Kyshe answered, and pressed the aide call button on her desk. As the smaller male walked in at her call, she immediately instructed him. “Go gather information on Rhenima for the humans.”
Meanwhile Alex had tapped the page button on his breath mask. “Hey, Josh. I’m hearing about something you never mentioned, wondering if it’s a concern. Something about emotional distress for Sovalin who are away from males too long. Ring any bells?”
“Not off the top of my head, no. I’ll have to go over the data dumps for info there.” Josh’s voice was clear over the comms.
“Get together with Par. Look up something like ‘Renimah’. The Matriarch’s also getting us info it sounds like, so if you come up short I’ll try to get the details to you as well.”
“We shall begin looking into it immediately, Captain.” Par responded immediately, and Alex closed the channel. “Sorry. I just asked our medic about it and he wasn’t familiar, but we’re going to start looking into that. Our plans right now are to spend about four weeks out doing the mineral survey, and with travel times that’s pushing it.”
“I had thought it might. Still, while it is tremendously unpleasant, it is not life threatening. The trip could still proceed despite the circumstances, but it would virtually cripple any productivity until it can be remedied.” Kyshe glanced between the Trix and Alex. “Trksehn, we are still a number of days out from the planned departure date. Do you require more time to consider?”
“Well…” Trix shrugged slightly. “The past few weeks I feel like the Humans have been better company than my friends. I’ve had a lot of fun with them modding my aircar. We don’t have much in common but we still always find plenty of things to talk about. I don’t know if it’s because of what happened in the race but I almost kinda want to just go to get away from everything back here.”
“An understandable feeling. Though, perhaps, a bit extreme - usually when on the run from unwanted fame it is normal to retreat to a remote location in the plains or perhaps spend some time in the temples. Not to escape the planet itself.” Kyshe smiled and patted the young woman on the shoulder. “I’ve no desire to restrain you against your will, I simply wish to ensure you’ll be safe.”
“She’ll be as safe as the rest of us, that I can promise.” Alex cut in suddenly. “We’ll be adjusting her duty roster so she won’t have to do any EVA, and we won’t be getting into any fights this far away from Human space. Piracy isn’t a thing out here and if the Tanjeeri show up, we plan to hightail it. Errr, I mean run away rather than stay and fight.”
Trix looked slightly apprehensive at that. “Do Tanjeeri just… I mean, do you expect to see them out there?”
Alex shook his head. “The first time we encountered them they were chasing a ship they’d damaged. That’s been more than five weeks ago. There’s a chance they’d still be in the system, so we do plan to gate out a fair ways from the system proper. We scout from way outside, if the Tanjeeri are there we abort and look for an alternative. If they’re gone, we carefully complete our survey and grab the most valuable minerals we can before we come back here. Either way, no fighting.”
Trix sat in silence as she weighed that up, and spoke confidently to Kyshe. “Matriarch, I would like to take them up on their offer. If I refuse, I will always wonder what I would have missed.” She lifted her wings confidently.
Kyshe shot a glare over at Alex, then nodded. “Very well. Captain, I expect to be seeing you back here in six weeks. Not one feather missing or injured, do you hear me?”
“Clear as a bell, Matriarch.” Alex lifted his hand in a very human-style salute and nudged Trix. “C’mon, let’s go before she changes her mind.”
—--
“Not even one day later and I’m already regretting this decision.” Trix slumped forward over the table, and dropped the stylus from her hand.
Amanda reached over and grabbed the implement as it rolled across the tabletop before it had a chance to fall to the ground. “Stop overreacting. It’s not THAT bad.”
“It absolutely is that bad!” Trix complained as she tapped the board. “Half the questions and fields on here don’t make sense!”
“I told you, just skip the ones you don’t understand and we’ll come back to them afterwards.”
“I did that!” Trix shoved the board over to Amanda. “And I got to the end and it said I missed fourty-seven fields and it wants me to go back and re-enter them.”
Amanda picked up the board and skimmed it. “Wait. I think you broke the form. Did you really try to put in over sixty names for your immediate family?”
“I don’t know. Maybe? It asked who I was related to and so I started writing in the Teff.”
“The form is for close personal relations. Like, your mother and father, your brothers and sisters…” Amanda went down the list. “Nothing here for schooling, no dependants, we’ll have to go over the indemnity clauses later. Independent Contractorship involves a slew of confidentiality and non disclosures, so we’re going to have to waive sections C and D but there will be forms 8114-A and 8114-B to fill out instead. Oh, we should absolutely also begin discussing whether or not you’re going to be pa-HEY!”
Alex had picked up the quickboard, and threw it over his shoulder onto the grass. He slid his own over to Trix. “Yeah, welcome to Proxima. Always in direct competition with Sol as to who can produce the most ridiculously boring paperwork in the galaxy. Here. Sign your name on the line on the bottom. Press your thumb print next to it. You’re not working for Terrafault, you’re working for ME.”
Trix groaned and reached over to take the stylus from Amanda, scribbling her signature down. “You couldn’t have told me that an hour ago before I sat down to start all this?”
“Nope. I had to do some on-the-record statements with Kyshe about your employment, and Par had to record ‘em. Lots of boring legalese like this crap. Anyway, welcome to your new job. Here’s your first two weeks of payment.” Alex fished a large bar of metal out of his pocket and dropped it down on the table.
“Eh? Payment? What’s this?”
“One solid kilogram of Silver. 99.9% pure. To be honest, not that expensive to us. But for reasons we have no idea about, Silver’s hard to find on your planet. So in local currency… probably around 32 or 33 hundred moyu.” Alex sat down and thumbed the off button on the signed quickboard. “Standard pay for a fully licensed pilot is around 3000 credits per week, at least in the private sector. But our credits are worthless here, but a rough conversion tells us that a kilo of silver is roughly the same. Since you’re going to be a trainee for this trip, we felt like half pay was a good compromise. First two weeks up front, and you’ll get one more of these bars every two weeks. So two more until we’re back here on Kiveyt to decide how we want to…You okay there?”
Trix’s jaw had dropped as she started at the small heavy wafer. Her AIRCAR had cost 2500 moyu and that was two YEARS of saving up for it working overtime on the farms. Now she was paid more than that, every two WEEKS. She tentatively reached out and lifted it up. It felt heavier than she thought it would.
Amanda walked back from picking up the quickboard where Alex had thrown it, and lightly smacked him on the back of the head with it. “Fine then. If she’s not on the Terrafault payroll though that means her cut is coming out of yours.”
Alex snorted at that. “Manda, you think that’s gonna matter? After the bonuses we get from this op it won’t matter. I’m already planning on doubling everyone’s cut as it is, and we’ll still have enough to buy a damn fleet carrier afterwards if we want to. But if you really, REALLY want to try to adapt and adjust that paperwork for Sovalin then knock yourself out.”
Amanda sat down opposite of Alex and Trix, and set the board down in front of her. “You realize that the reason I’m so adamant about all the paperwork being completed is to protect everyone from liability? To make sure that there’s no confusion about her employment? To try, god forbid, to avoid any complications or problems that being vague will cause?”
“Sure. And I’m telling you right now, there’s no need. I take full responsibility.” Alex responded to her diatribe with a big grin. “C’mon, Manda. After all the shit we’ve been through convincing the Matriarch to, y’know, not arrest or murder us and then even more to let her allow Trix to go up there in the first place. After all that you think there’s any actual confusion left?”
Trix glanced up at the two bickering humans. “You said I get one of these every two weeks. But if I complete training I get double that?” She balanced the bar on her palm and stared down at it.
“Yep. Once we get some decent asteroid mining ops going the price of silver’s gonna plummet. Best to spend it before that happens. But by then we’ll have good trade avenues with Terrans open, so we’ll just pay you in credits that you can spend normally at that point.” Alex put his elbow on the table, propping his head up with his hand. “As for the training, it’s fairly easy. There’s a licensing exam that’s just proving that you know how to fly to a bunch of boring pencil pushers. Completing that will be a cakewalk if we can get some practical experience under your belt.”
“Oh. But I don’t know if I’m going to do well as your pilot yet. I know absolutely nothing about flying a space ship.” Trix carefully placed the silver back on the table. Alex picked it back up and put it in her hand.
“Doesn’t matter. You’re flying with me, you’re learning, you’re getting paid. If you do well then that’s perfect and we can talk licensing. If you don’t do well, no harm done. Maybe we find another role for you or maybe you come back home. Either way you walk away with silver in your pocket and a fun story to tell everyone and impress the guys.” He smiled and gestured to her room. “You should probably start deciding what you want to take with you. Kyshe is sending along several months worth of food to bolster our supplies and to make sure your nutritional needs are fully met, so I’m heading over with Josh to start loading it all up on the Shuttle. We’ve committed to a departure date four days from now.”
“I’ve never really packed for something like this. What do I bring?”
Alex didn’t answer verbally, but instead made a short, sharp whistle with his lips followed by a shout. “MIN!”
The engineer was on the other side of the courtyard, and immediately jogged over when called. “Yeah?”
“Go with Trix and help her pack up for the trip. Six weeks worth of clothes, hygiene supplies, whatever.” Alex glanced over at Trix. “Sorry, actually I just assumed you’d be more comfortable with another woman helping you pack. I can call Ji over if you prefer.”
“No, no. I’d rather Min help me.” Trix stood up from the table and jerked her head over towards her room. “Thanks, Min. Sorry to be a bother.”
“No problem. Gets me out of lifting the heavy shit to put in the shuttle.”
—--
Next Chapter

It’s starting to look like the Chief Priest of SGIWhistleblowers is actually nostalgic for the old days of SGI-USA (nee NSA). Which makes sense, because it appears many of the things she’s nostalgic for are things originating from her beloved Nichiren Shoshu priesthood, but that are no longer part of SGI culture.
Well, that’s another story.
Her latest Time Travel adventure starts with a title insinuating that SGI-USA hasn’t changed since 1975 (the last year covered by her obscure source material).
She goes on to say that “then as now” SGI members approach “random people in the street to invite them to an immediately commencing meeting. Those people, her source says, learned little about Buddhist principles.
Oh dear. Today, of course, propagation involves friendship (to at least some degree) and dialogue. No one can join until they have attended a few meetings and have experienced some notion of why we chant daimoku. There are at least two books they are encouraged to read, and are immediately encouraged to study for an exam on Buddhist concepts. And every meeting centers around discussion of a Nichiren Buddhis topic.
So when she says “now as then”, she is trying to dupe her readers into believing something that isn’t remotely true. (There’s a word for that…hmmmm?)
And oh yeah – she maintains that SGI-USA isn’t growing as fast as it once was, and that means its days are numbered. Another fun contradiction: SGI used to rush people, any people to join, and that was awful. Now it nurtures people’s faith before allowing them to join – and that is awful.
When you’re consumed with hate, I guess, whatever feeds the hatred can be true, no matter how contradictory from one moment to the next.
Then we read: “The highest-caste members (then as now) due to their being Japanese-from-Japan, the Soka Gakkai believing that the Japanese were THE superior humans”.
Oh dear, again.
SGI-USA has a board of directors wherein one (1) out of 14 has a Japanese name. I believe the General Director is an American of Jewish heritage. The national young women’s leader is, I believe, American of Hispanic heritage; her predecessor was African-American. The national women’s leader is Japanese, but I think her two predecessors were Americans of European or African descent. Three of the four leaders in my chapter are Americans of European descent, and the Japanese young man is leaving the area and my money is on huis successor being of Indian descent. My district has about one-fifth Japanese membership; the men’s and women’s leaders are both of European descent. A neighboring, bigger district, has zero Japanese members that I can think of.
Boy, whoever designed this “caste system” sure didn’t know what they were doing!
She closes this clown post saying the SGI “has been withering on the vine for decades”.
Oh (to reiterate) dear! For one thing, oh Great Almighty Guru, SGI stopped that street shakubuku and focusing meetings on conversion that you hated so much. Remember? Membership reports that carried names no one had seen for years or even knew – cleaned up.
What else? At least two universities that I know if, in two very different nations, have programs to study the SGI president. The school system he founded has gone international. The SGI has established think tanks, research centers. The Florida Nature and Culture Center has opened, as have major institutions in Malaysia and Guam. Ikeda Sensei’s passing drew international coverage and messages of condolence from world and religious leaders around the world.
And we poor dwindling members are getting benefits undreamed of by someone so far out of touch with what’s really going on.