"Speaking of truly terrible things, that's why I have come here to talk to you."
He let out a slightly belated sigh, given the previous conversation, but nodded regardless.
"Well that technology has predicted that the Klantar system is next in their campaign, and we are humbly requesting your assistance in this attempt to stop it."
"What's the likelihood of this happening."
She tilted her head again.
"What?"
He rubbed his face, animating his growing weariness of the conversation.
"I'm assuming this technology also displays the percentages in relation to the futures, telling us the chance of this predicted event coming to happen, and so I once again ask, what's the likelihood of this happening."
She looked out the window.
"Does that matter?"
They watched as the streets began to grow sparse with activity, the sun set allowing the streetlights to lightly illuminate their surroundings, painting what little of the world they could reach with their dim white. The tiny beginnings of snow began to float down to their undetermined homes on the ground. With that he thought of home, of Alara and Gary waiting for him to return from what he believed to be a brief conversation.
"No, it doesn't."
She turned back to him, and manually pressed a button, returning the hologram to its previous image of the systems.
"As you probably know, the Klantar system is three Secs away from the nearest from the nearest CC military staging site, we have deep-space surveillance images of these once abandoned sites growing in both size and activity. As in, it would take three Secs for them to appear on our doorstep and unleash hellfire upon this relatively unprotected system."
Arthur took a long sip of his coffee silently thanking the woman for her foresight.
"So why doesn't the Front send troops."
She sighed, and zoomed in on the system.
"There are two reasons for this, one being we don't want them to know we have a way to combat their seemingly random advances, it would truly devastate our hard work if they somehow found out we had the technology to predict their movements."
He looked up from his coffee.
"Two being?"
She didn't match his gaze, instead staring at her hands that were now placed around her now chilly coffee.
"In reality, the first reason was more likely a lie given to me by my commanding officer, as I asked the exact same question you did once I learned the news. The Klantar system just isn't worth defending, it has no notable natural resources or businesses worth defending that would offset the cost of replying to their looming attack. Even with you here, your unwillingness to voluntarily return to duty has made up their minds. They think if the things you've begun to care about-"
She shot him a knowing glance and continued:
"-were to disappear, you would be more likely to rejoin their resistance against the growing fight with the CC."
He rolled the information in his mind for a few moments, his eyes lingered on her face.
"Thanks for telling me that, although that doesn't change the fact they are not wrong."
She nodded slowly, reached across the table and turned the hologram off. Her hand hesitated for a moment before pulling it back into the pocket against her breast.
"Of course, I won't pretend we are friends, but we are at least acquaintances given your... 'plan'. I figured if the roles were reversed I'd appreciate knowing everything you knew before making up my mind. I'll also tell you this, from the information we have stolen, we know what they intend to do."
He put his hands on his lap, not once breaking away from her gaze.
"That is?"
Her lip trembled at whatever sat towards the back of her throat, almost as if she didn't want to say it.
"They intend to turn the three billion people of the Klantar system into human batteries."
Arthur looked at her, vitriol almost spilled from his lips before he stopped himself. He knew what happened in those damnable monoliths, he'd seen the living conditions they poor people there had been put through, what they were forced to do to survive. He understood now why she asked him for help, he couldn't imagine putting three billion people through a new form of torturous servitude, not even to mention the prior slaves of this planet. He once had momentarily been a human battery, the only reason the CC had failed at this is due to his strange body. It remained unwavering before their attempts at surgically removing what made people, well people, their free will. Human batteries essentially had the lifetimes drained from them, being left as wandering, mindless husks before dying.
"What do I need to do?"
She paused for a moment and looked out the window.
"From the reports we have, we know they won't begin their siege of Klantar for another year, we will be in touch before the end of this month."
She reached forward and placed her hand on his, mouthing the words, 'I'm sorry', to him before standing up, signaling to her bodyguard to open the door so they could leave.
For a few minutes, Arthur sat in silence and watched them walk back up the street from which they had come. Silence poured into the restaurant as he fell into his thoughts, of Alara, of Gary. He stood up and silently nodded to the mouse who had stepped out of the kitchen when he heard the bell ring. He placed one foot in front of the other a began walking up the street, feeling little pellets of the cold snow drift into his hair. He never lifted his eyes from the street, it was a lovely sight and in those solemn moments, he knew he'd do anything to protect this planet.
After half an hour of walking, he stepped onto the porch of Alara's home and sat down on the swinging bench, watching as the lights in the homes around them began to go out. The town was falling asleep around him but he knew he wouldn't be able to tonight. After a few moments Alara popped her head out the window.
"You coming in."
He sat silent for a few moments, taking in her voice before he stood up and planted a kiss on her head. She looked at him for a second with a confused look on her face before she let loose a smile. Her eyes as warm as the summer, her skin as soft as spring, her teeth as white as winter, in that moment he knew he'd do anything to make sure she was safe.