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“Alright. Thank you.”
“Oh, one last thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Stay safe, you stupid asshole.”
“Thanks, Tyank.”
“Alright…” I hear him cover the mic and whisper back to Seven. “Stay cool, butt wipe.”
Stupid human simulation phrases. Tyank is talking like he’s right out of the human prison. I don’t know why I’m smiling as I sign off. He’s ridiculous. But he’s also family. And they’re coming for me. Even though, in his words, I fucked up big time.
I decide to head up to the volcanic plain. It is active and I would imagine humans rarely travel there. My anatomy allows me to breathe the acrid atmosphere without becoming ill. Once up there, I discover a cave system which runs through the mountains, old vents pushed out by previous explosions. They make the perfect place to set up a small base.
With any luck, the clouds which often cloak the peaks will provide enough cover for Krave to pick me up in. We do not want these humans to see us. It could be a total disaster if they became used to us, or even worse, were exposed to our technology. It is important this species develops in the natural, primitive, terrible way it did the first time.
I try to forget about the beautiful singer, though her song floats to me again and again, playing through my mind. I have never heard anything inside my head besides the echoes of the screams of my enemies. I find it peaceful to remember her face, her eyes, the little expressions she made when she saw me. She was afraid, but she was also curious. Not as curious as I suddenly found myself.
The humans inside the simulation Tyank now presides over never interested me. They seemed like little more than ants, animals scurrying back and forth according to their environment. They were under total, complete control at all times and they acted like it. I rarely saw them be in any way creative. The most they managed was the occasional rebellion, but that was rare. Krave’s girl knew how to buck the system so hard it broke. She was an outlier. But the simulation was never real, and the people inside it weren’t real either. DNA doesn’t make a human real. Living on Earth does. Struggling for survival, turning dirt and rock into clay and iron, and then into a phone that puts a dog nose on your face. The people below me are yet to move past the shaping of stones, but they will get there. It already happened in the past-past, so it must happen again.
I wonder what will become of my beautiful mate. Surely she will attract a powerful male, but possibly he will be subject to one of the frequent conquests which mark this period. There are no laws. There are no city states. There is nothing besides what a man can do and what a man cannot do to govern what happens.
Scythkin have come to Earth many times. Taken many Earth lovers. Nobody cared about polluting the timeline then, but that is because it was the original timeline. You cannot break what hasn’t happened yet. But this fluke of re-existence I am sitting on, this, according to Tyank, is the same planet, doing everything for a second time. And if something is changed now, then the future we are familiar with - the very future which allows me to sit here now, might never come to pass. That is why all time travel scythkin undertake follows one simple rule: Always forward. Never back.
It’s not going to be easy for Krave to get to me. I have to face the possibility that I will never be rescued from this place, that I will live and die alone. I am grateful for the volcano. It gives me an easy and effective way to remove all trace of my existence on this planet if it turns out that I cannot be saved. It is a morose thought, but scythkin are experts in morose thought.
BEEP BOOP
The cylinder chimes, heralding a transmission. I find my spirits rising. If I do have to throw myself into a volcano, I won’t be alone.
“Hello?”
“Vulcan.”
I’d recognize that staccato snap anywhere. It’s Krave.
I feel a rush of elation, relief, and guilt at hearing the rough tones of the first hatched of our clutch. I remember the first time I saw Krave. He was a towering beast even as a freshly hatched scythkin broodkin. He was fierce and he was brave and he led us into many battles. I used to think that if I had just broken through the shell a little earlier I might have his place, but now I understand that I was never made to lead. It was the trappings of respect I wanted, not the crushing responsibility.
“Krave,” I say, imparting none of that emotion. Unlike Tyank, Krave has no interest in rubbing my predicament in. He is too solid a leader for that. Also unlike Tyank, he is not at all comforting.
