Chapter 135: Can I Help You?
I knew that Midnight was probably skeptical about my plan. Hell, if the situation were reversed, I would be skeptical too. However, one thing that I have learned in the admittedly brief research that I have done up to this point was that every species that had ever tried to take down The Alliance did it by themselves.
In contrast, The Galactic Alliance of Sentient Beings was comprised of many different species united under one cause... their best interests.
It was no wonder that a single civilization was unable to achieve its aim if they were facing that amount of opposition. However, my plan was simple: find the civilizations that tried and failed to take out The Alliance and bring them in under a single banner... Mine.
The Alliance has managed to piss off a lot more species than it had accepted under its banner. So, if we were just going by numbers, then I should easily be able to outnumber them. However, no war was fought and won on numbers alone. There were always other factors to deal with—like spies.
"What about your species?" I asked, turning to Midnight, where he sat beside me.
"What about them?" he asked, cocking his head to the side and looking at me. "I am not really on speaking terms with them if that is what you are asking."
"Hardly," I scoffed. "I guess I was trying to ask where you stood on the whole tearing down The Alliance plan."
"Then I will be honest," he said, gingerly leaning against the back of his chair. "I think the sooner it can be destroyed, the better."
I grunted in agreement. Truthfully, I just didn’t want to have someone on my ship that was moving contrary to what my goals were. However, knowing that the two of us were on the same page made things a lot simpler.
I turned my attention back to the tablet in front of me and continued to go through the published history of The Alliance. As a student and professor of the social sciences, I knew that any history published was always written to fit a particular narrative.
Like this one: "The Galactic Alliance of Sentient Beings understood that the species known as The Hive single-handedly possessed the greatest danger to any and all beings on their planet and the surrounding ones. As such, the hard decision was made to eradicate all Hive beings on their planet as well as on any other planets within Alliance-controlled space."
Clearly, The Hive represented enough of a threat to The Alliance that they needed to be eradicated. On Earth, that meant that either The Alliance wanted the land The Hive had or that The Hive was not willing to submit to The Alliance.
The only thing that would make my life easier would be if it were a matter of both.
Putting aside The Alliance’s history, I turned my attention to the history of The Hive.
I was so focused on my research that I didn’t notice Midnight standing up and leaving the library.
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Midnight slipped out of the information room and started down the corridor, not knowing which way he needed to know.
"Can I help you?" came a voice behind him. Spinning around, he looked down at the 6-foot male in front of him. He was muscular with black hair and brown eyes and had tribal markings on his forearms and shoulders. However, what was driving Midnight the most insane was the fact that the male didn’t have a scent of any kind. Even the pants and short-sleeved shirt he was wearing didn’t carry a scent.
"I need to get in contact with Jun Li," growled Midnight, trying to understand the mystery in front of him. He had removed the device blocking scents from his nose, so why was he not picking up anything other than the regular scents of the ship?
"For what purpose?" questioned the male, causing Midnight’s hackles to rise in challenge. Was this another one of Mei Xing’s males? He understood that there were going to be multiple, but he could not trust someone without a scent.
"That is between me and the AI," snarled Midnight, turning around and stalking away from the male. He didn’t need him to be able to contact the ship; he would figure out things on his own.
"I am Jun Li," called the male behind him. Surprised, Midnight turned around and looked at the male.
"I was under the impression that Jun Li is the ship," replied Midnight as he approached the other male again.
"I am the ship. But Mei Xing also got me two bodies," shrugged the male. "So far, this one is my favorite."
"You are the AI?" asked Midnight again.
"I am. Humans don’t have the same prejudice against AIs as the rest of the universe does, to the point where they make android bodies for AIs to be able to fit in to human society," explained the male, crossing his arms across his chest. "So, I will ask again: can I help you?"
"I am hoping to upgrade my translation implants to include Mei Xing’s language, both oral and written," said Midnight. "I would return to my ship to complete the process, but we don’t have records of the language."
"Do you know which one or ones you would like downloaded?" asked Jun Li.
"Excuse me?" replied Midnight, confused. "I would like Mei Xing’s language."
"The planet that Mei Xing is from has 7,117 known languages, with the top five being Mandarin Chinese, with 939 million people speaking it as their first language, Spanish is second with 485 million people, third is English with 380 million people speaking it as their mother tongue, followed by Hindi with 345 million people and Portuguese at 236 million people. She can communicate in eight of those languages, including English, French, Spanish, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, German, and Japanese," said Jun Li, not looking too impressed.
Midnight just stood there, staring at him for a moment. "Let’s go with only the eight she can speak," he said with a nod.
"Of course, I will add the chosen languages to your translators. Would you like to view the changes to your language implants before downloading the updates?"
"Please," growled Midnight through clenched teeth.
