Aishia finished her meditation first. Hakann’s wife slowly untangled her hands from his, stretched, and looked lovingly at her still-meditating husband.
The years only seemed to make him more handsome, but they also seemed to weigh on him to such an extent that he was actually slowly aging. He needed uncommonly large amounts of meditation to recover, and was even sleeping sometimes.
That said, she couldn’t love him more deeply or be more proud of him. Hopefully the situation with Earth will be resolved soon -- for everyone’s sake.
She sensed that his stomach was empty and had an idea.
Hakann was hearing some strange noises and asked, “Aishia, are you okay?” Her voice, seductive and nearby, responded in English: “Yes. Come eat your breakfast.”
He opened his eyes: “why are you speaking an Earth language all of a sudden - whoah.” His wife was lying next to him, naked, with his breakfast on her body. “Why? Because the “eat breakfast / eat me out” pun doesn’t work in our language, my beloved.” He grinned and started kissing her.
After a blissful, timeless period, Hakann went to work and psychically split himself into six beings, going to several locations at once to get more accomplished.
Hakann 1
She sobbed against his chest and he hugged her.
“I am so sorry. I know that it’s not enough, but I promise you I will arrest the person responsible for Traysher’s murder.”
She sobbed a while longer, and then asked Hakann: “what do you mean? You just said there was a battle, and that some people got saved but that others including my son died. And you said that all the reptilians died in that battle. So you’ve already killed the reptilians responsible for Traysher’s murder, right? “
Hakann could feel her husband’s anger boiling, who asked the critical question: “yes. But how did the reptilians find Traysher and the others in the first place?”
Indeed -- that was the question Hakann had asked a few hours ago. “Hopefully I’ll be able to provide clarity soon. I promise you that I will visit you again tomorrow, in any case. If I’m welcome. As his commander, I am ultimately responsible for your son’s death: if you don’t want to see me again, I understand and can send someone else.”
Traysher’s father swallowed, tears welling in his eyes, then replied: “please come again tomorrow, if you’re able. I appreciate you taking the time to come see us. Thank you.”
Hakann 2
He stepped into the pool and submerged himself.
His mind registered “Welcome Commander Hakann, today...” and then his consciousness merged with the spaceship he was on, including its sentience and all the artificial intelligence on board, plus with the minds of some of his subordinates who were likewise linked up.
For the rest of the day the temporary human - ship - AI hybrid went through countless scenarios, and made several decisions. The ship delivered the data, the artificial intelligence did the calculation, and the human eventually decided and gave the order.
Not everyone was comfortable with doing the mind - machine - AI meld like this, but Hakann was relatively young by Pleiadian Commander standards, and he had already interacted with this technology as he was coming of age. Besides, he couldn’t afford not to do this.
Hakann 3
One of the Arcturian delegates said: “we know that the Ashtar intervention on Earth will still probably happen in Earth year 2026 or in January / February of 2027. But we also know that there’s a non-negligible possibility it gets delayed even more, despite what Ashtar said. We have concerns about that possibility.”
“Ah”, Hakann responded, “unfortunately Ashtar is incredibly busy, but if you specify those concerns then I can see if I can get an audience for you. If not, I would be happy to arrange meetings for you with other people who are close to Ashtar.”
“We have already talked to all the people you’re currently thinking of. In fact, we’re currently talking to the person we intend to talk to: you.”
“Why me? I don’t have a vote on whether the intervention on Earth happens or not.”
“It’s well-known that you’re more pro-intervention, more independent and somewhat more critical of Ashtar than most commanders. So. Of course we all hope that Earth humans sort their own things out soon. Failing that, we’re all hoping that Ashtar will intervene and that it will go well. But what will you personally do, Hakann, if Earth humans don’t sort out their own mess and Ashtar decides to delay again? Because us Arcturians don’t consider that to be an acceptable outcome, if it were to happen.”
“I... must advise you that I’ll report every notable diplomatic interaction I have to someone who reports to Ashtar.”
“We’re counting on it. Now, please answer the question.”
“I... don’t know yet.” Hakann sat down. “Let’s discuss it.”
Hakann 4
Hakann walked into the throne room, glanced at the clearly unmotivated guards, and noticed the king had a gun within reach.
Hakann bowed to the four feet tall person sitting on the throne: “Your majesty. I am happy to talk to you. Of course, I will honor our agreement that people from the galactic confederation will not read the mind of you or any of your people.”
King Aelrred seemed nervous. “Ah, yes. Thank you. I am grateful to have this opportunity to talk with a delegate from the galactic confederation. Now that you’re here -- as you know we’ve recently joined your Confederation. We’re also a small nation with little technology and little psychic ability, and we’re on the border with the reptilian empire. I simply must reiterate my request that we get more access to military technology and psychic warfare technology from the galactic confederation. In particular, the Traex’na technology would do wonders for our defense, and for our relationship. I’m willing to increase this year’s contribution to the galactic confederation in exchange for this technology. If there’s anything you want, name your price.”
“The rules prohibit us from giving you access to more military technology so soon after joining us -- as you knew when you signed the agreement. And Traex’na technology especially is completely off-limits because it’s new -- I don’t think even the reptilians have that technology yet. Still, you have my word that your people will remain protected by the Confederation. To the best of my knowledge, no one of your people has been harmed since you joined the Confederation, although please tell me if I’m misinformed.”
“That is a shame. I do appreciate your protection. Yes, my people have been fine ever since we joined. Now, there was also something you wanted to talk to me about?”
“Yes.” Hakann took two steps forward and his voice became sharper. “Do you even know what reptilians do to their prisoners?”
“What -- how -- what do you mean? Yes. Yes, I know what reptilians do to their prisoners.”
Hakann took another step forward. “Then why did you sell the location of six of my soldiers to the reptilians? And what did you get in return -- Wealth? Technology? DNA? A promise of protection?”
Aelrred drew his gun in a surprisingly swift motion -- but the bullet glanced off Hakann’s personal shield. A heartbeat later and Aelrred’s limbs went limp and the weapon clattered on the floor.
“Aelrred, you are under arrest. I’ll send you to a judge who’ll discuss the charges with you, but even just your attempted murder of a Confederation delegate -- myself -- is easily enough to convict you. You will spend the rest of your life in a Pleiadian labor camp. If you ever want to see your homeworld again, that will be a difficult and long road, but you’ll be given the opportunity to reform yourself and possibly earn your freedom. One of those steps will be personally apologizing to the families you’ve destroyed.”
Hakann gave a command and Aelrred was teleported out.
One of the guards stuttered and finally asked: “uh... what do we do now? Because we’re used to following the king, and even though we didn’t like him very much and didn’t think he was very wise -- well you just arrested him, and he has no living children.”
Hakann turned to him: “you’re welcome to stay in the galactic confederation -- our problem was with Aelrred’s actions, not with you as a people. I guess the next decision your people will have to make is: are you sure you want to remain a kingdom? I can send some people over to advise you, if you wish -- it’s up to your people to decide your future.”
Another guard hesitantly said: “but... well, part of Aelrred’s concern was that the evil empires are just more powerful than the galactic confederation. Are -- are we allowed to reconsider which side we want to be on? Obviously the reptilians are monstrous and horrible, but we also don’t want to become their victims.”
Hakann turned to him: “If you side with the reptilians, and the galactic confederation stands, then you’ll have chosen the more monstrous and less generous side for no reason. And if you side with the reptilians and the galactic confederation falls, then all you’ve accomplished is that you’re enslaved last. I’ll ask those Pleiadian advisors to also discuss this with your people. But yes, you are allowed to leave our confederation if you wish. We hope you don’t, but we won’t stop you.”
“What exactly is your plan to deal with the reptilians and others?”
“Their number of ships doesn’t say everything. Yes, in total the negative races have a larger fleet, but they’re all out for themselves -- which is why they haven’t launched a coordinated, all-out attack in a very long time. They simply can’t. Their empires are inherently unstable and divided. Meanwhile, we’re able to deploy literally every Confederation ship we have, if necessary, with one unified vision. Plus, if all goes well, we’re about to have powerful new allies: Earth humans.”
The guard raised his eyebrows: “what use are they? They’re as primitive as we are, and you just demonstrated that our weapons can’t hurt you while you can psychically paralyze us in a second.”
“Our shields don’t have an infinite capacity. Well, Earth humans have an absurdly high psychic potential, plius an integrated mastery of the light and dark. They’ll need a lot of help and development and mentorship, but they’re going to surprise you in the upcoming years.”
Hakann 5
“Congratulations on having completed your training.” Hakann looked with pride at the military graduates gathered before him.
“Now it’s time for you to choose the group you want to be a part of. As you know, if an Earth intervention is ordered, then I am one of the commanders who will take part in that. If you join me or one of the other commanders assigned to Earth, then there is a chance that a few Earth months from now you will be ordered to help physically liberate Earth. It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and we can use all the hands we can get, but it is also risky. We’ll assign the most dangerous missions to veterans, but still, it would be substantially safer for you to not join my group, and just join a garrison or a patrol fleet somewhere.”
As Hakann continued, he looked across the crowd, and one face twisted his stomach a little bit.
After the speech, he visited Tunia. She greeted him: “Ah, great to see you again Hakann. How have you been?”
“Hello, Tunia. I was giving my usual speech to the military graduates and your son was in the crowd, listening to my speech.”
“Ah, indeed. He looks up to you, and he wants to help the people of Earth. It won’t surprise me if he’ll apply to join your group.”
“I... are you okay with that?”
“Yes, I am. No mother wants to see her son risk his life, but it’s his choice to go into the military -- he wants to protect and help people -- and I couldn’t dream of a better commander for him to join than you.”
Hakann swallowed.
Tunia continued: “However, would you be okay with him joining you? Given that we’re friends, and that you know my son pretty well already?”
Hakann slowly shook his head. “No. I would not be okay with that. I know that every soldier has loved ones, but I can’t be swayed in my decision-making by my personal emotions, when decisions have to be made in a second and lives are on the line. If he insists on helping liberate Earth, he can join one of the other commanders involved in that.”
Tunia nodded. “I understand. I’ll go tell him when he gets home that he can’t join your group.”
“No, I’ll tell him myself. Well, let’s tell him together.”
Hakann 6
“Can we skip this meeting? You have no idea how much work still needs to be done.”
Hakann’s spiritual mentor smiled serenely at him. “You know as well as I do that these sessions are helpful and important, even though they take time. But fine -- face that thing that I can see sitting on your heart, that you really don’t want to face, and we can end this meeting early.”
“There is nothing that I haven’t faced.”
She looked at him.
“Okay, okay. I’m concerned for the people of Earth.”
She looked at him.
“Fine. You got me. I made a mistake, and some people I’m responsible for have died because of that. And arguably I’m spending too much time on individual soldiers and I should just delegate their cases and not personally concern myself with individual dead soldiers.”
She looked at him.
He paced around the room, started telepathically sending something, stopped, paced some more. Then he looked at her. “I... am I doing enough? Is it enough? I know people are dying and suffering horribly everywhere, all around me, and I -- am I doing enough?”
She rose and embraced him.
Evening
The six Hakanns merged into one again, and at home he saw that his now-adult children had come to visit him. One of them brought Hakann’s granddaughter with her. Hakann’s heart filled with love, and he spent a peaceful evening with his family.
