Corbin believed that places had moods just as surely as individuals did. The Hollow Tower for instance – the feeling in the atrium that morning was that of being stood on a beach and noticing the tide pulling back to the horizon. Corbin himself sat in Vash’s chair, behind Vash’s desk, feeling vaguely like a kid alone in his father’s office – not that there was really any time to relish in that particular illicit sensation.

Printouts strewn across the desk described the Dyn ships in orbit, manoeuvring like agitated wasps as they tried to keep the Earth’s surface in sight. Of Vash and the bathyscaphe there was no news.

They were alive. They had dived beneath the ocean to recover something and the Dyn had worked themselves into a frenzy over it. He was certain. It didn’t take a genius to realise that Vash had sought and perhaps found something in that abyss that threatened the Dyn’s grip on humanity. It would be stupid to blame Vash for not trusting him with such a secret. Vash had left Corbin knowing he would figure out his role on his own. That had to be the truth.

Restlessly, he stood, turning to the window. Heavy clouds occluded the sky, hiding the frantic manoeuvres of those above from the oblivious city below. Out towards the horizon transient rays of sunlight dappled the sea. The rumours of what had occurred were spreading beyond the Arco leadership; Corbin had seen to that himself, and with those rumours came fear and hope. The suggestion of a revolution that might change everything, or bring down the firmament’s wrath.

He would soon make a public announcement, something that presented him as the acceptable face of resistance and defiance, someone working within the system in order to overthrow it. This reputation would be necessary in the world to come. Timing was crucial.

Idly he picked up a printout from the desk, one describing Dynic movements in the last twenty-four hours. The layered ellipses of the main constellations rising and falling, describing a cage around the Earth. He knew their exhausts were ionized hydrogen and oxygen, the disintegrated wrecks of water molecules broken down by the radiance of fission. It was simultaneously a technology of great power and something barely beyond a primitive steam rocket.

In a pinch, that technology could just about propel a manned ship from Earth to the outer planets. It was fantastical that the Dyn had reached Earth from an unthinkably farther distance, but here they were. The future had made fools of Vash and his ilk. If he wasn’t clever and careful it would make a fool of him too.

Next on the pile was a sealed message from Koslov, a demand for a follow-up meeting about the Broadcast. Waste of time, Corbin thought as he dropped it unceremoniously into the incinerator. The man was so caught up in byzantine Arco intrigues that he couldn’t see the wood for the trees. Him and all the others, so blinded by their terrestrial perspective that they had sat on the key to understanding the Dyn for decades and not understood!

He couldn’t avoid thinking about it.

Corbin closed his eyes and saw Dynic bodies piled so high that his mind made them into low hills. The bodies were swept aside and burnt away, caught in the blast of a rocket escaping that charnel house. Others followed, thousands of ships spreading across the unknown depths of space like dandelion seeds. And everywhere they settled the damnation of the Dyn spread. The Broadcast was all he could think about, because it was still happening. Right now. It was no less real for being separated from this city by time and space.

What was the first thing he needed to do, in order to save them?

Whatever came next, Corbin would be ready. Loyal Enforcers had drawn up lists of those he might trust, those that he needed to watch. It would not be easy to cement his power, yet he was almost tempted to see it as a fait accompli. He and Vash would work together as they always had; they could not communicate, but they would cooperate.

Unless he fails, said a quiet voice in his head. Perhaps it was faith to expect Vash’s secret plan to save them. What hard evidence would he have, if someone else asked, that Vash really was searching for something at the bottom of that ocean?

The phone rang. The phone that wasn’t for ordinary calls. It was in Corbin’s hand before he had time to fully process the fact.

K’txl, Liar to Animals, spoke.

‘Congratulations on your accession. Word of your mastery of humanity precedes you – I understand you formerly worked for InSec? I only wish this change had come at a more opportune time.’

Vash had been right to describe the experience as disconcerting. The voice was feminine but the affect was jarring, alien in a way Corbin couldn’t quite determine. He gathered himself.

‘As do I. I’m honoured that you chose me for this role,’ he said through gritted teeth. Of all the roles he had to play, submission came least naturally.

‘I did not choose you. Vash designated you as his successor. I merely accepted his decision. He showed unusually sound judgement for a human before his… recent error. I regret his death. He offered guidance and knowledge. His was the first step in my becoming closer to your… people.’

Species, Corbin thought. She meant to say species, but said people instead – as if she genuinely meant the sentiments she expressed. It was a strange thought.

‘Vash embraced my vision; he could see that it was necessary that humanity and Dyn understand one another. I hope that you will continue your predecessors greatest work, Ambassador. I hope that his faith in you was not just another error.’

His faith in you was. It had always been Vash’s weakness, his compassion spilling beyond every prudent moral horizon.

‘If I can help you further that goal, then I will,’ Corbin lied. There would be no understanding. How could there be after what he had seen? Had Vash seen the Broadcast?

‘You can, and in return I will protect your people from those that would end them. I’m sure that Vash warned you. I will reiterate, in order to impress upon you the gravity of the situation. The loss of my favoured heir. The growing chaos on Earth. My position is threatened. Vash’s actions, whether intentional or – I hope – not, have further undermined me. You face imminent extermination if I cannot get this situation under control. It is for mutual benefit that you help me. Tell me Corbin, what is it that Vash concealed from me? What drove him to such madness?’

Corbin hesitated, the silent line hissing softly in his ear. There were too many things to say and too little time to say them with anything like the required level of careful calculation: it would have to be the truth.

‘If you want honesty, I’ll ask that you return the favour,’ said Corbin sharply, dropping diplomatic tact. ‘You have no reason to believe that Vash is dead with any certainty. Indeed, you believe, as I do, that he made it off that beach, and that is what really concerns you. What if he wasn’t mistaken? What drove Vash, a man you almost thought you could trust, to betray you?’

‘Well?’ she demanded. The word was like thunder.

‘I don’t know,’ said Corbin simply. ‘Beyond the odd cryptic remark, he told me very little.’

‘The understanding we’ve reached… he risks everything. For what?’

‘I understand you well enough already. I’ve seen the Broadcast, K’txl. I know what you really are. You’re monsters, every single one of you.’

It was K’txl’s turn to fall silent. Or at least, the marionette K’txl spoke through did – her voice momentarily replaced by a soft, guttural clicking. The sounds of the alien behind the mask.

‘Why couldn’t you have just left us in peace?’ the voice sounded plaintive – a stern teacher telling him he’d brought this all on himself. It was maddening. His grip tightened.

‘Left you in peace? So we’re doing this, all out in the open? Fine. As far as I’m aware it was you that chose this path. That you chose to destroy us rather than face the judgement of your peers says it all. We could have redeemed you. It would have been easy for the people we once were.’

K’txl made a startled and surprisingly human sound; disbelief, or shocked laughter.

‘You do not know what you once were – Vash had the benefit of perspective at least. Your directness is refreshing. Your myopia is not. Delusional: you wish to abuse our bodies and our minds, rip our whole culture and existence apart and turn it to something other than what it is, unmake our whole species, then you have the temerity to call us by your word of evil when we refuse to lie down and surrender to your kind ministrations. Did we seek to wipe out humanity because of what it is, what it cannot help but be? Or did we find a compromise? Already our two species are more alike than they were at contact. Think of what we might achieve after another millennia of peaceful coexistence.’

‘This is not a peaceful coexistence. Until you change we can’t ever live in peace, and I’m very glad of that fact – because I don’t want to. To turn a blind eye to your crimes would make me complicit in them.’

There was a soft, girlish laugh. Corbin’s brow was slick with sweat, and he felt a yawing in the pit of his stomach. For all he knew a rock could be on its way already; but would it be so bad to die whilst speaking the truth?

‘Perhaps I should have expected you to say that. The Broadcast was a mistake – you were not ready for it. So be it. But if I cannot have your amity, maybe I can still offer you something you want. Maybe then I can earn your trust.’

Corbin laughed emptily. There was nothing.

‘That we met is impossible, and an impossibility implies the falsity of all current beliefs. You know of our history, yes? Seeker and her coalition first flew into space hundreds of thousands of years ago. And yet the universe is billions of years old. Draw two random stones from a beach, weigh them, and ask yourself how likely it is that they should weigh the same to almost within the finest tolerances of your instruments. Only if they were made that way. Our origins are too similar in time for it to be sheer coincidence.’

Corbin had heard that insane story before. K’txl had clearly spent too much time listening to Vash.

‘I’ve wondered something similar myself. What does it matter?’

‘It matters because whether there is a thinking enemy or an unthinking catastrophe awaiting us, we cannot face it alone. You are clever, creative and capable but you are all fantasists. You live at a greater remove from reality. We don’t want to change you, and we never intended to hurt you but still we must learn to live in peace. I admit that we need you. You will come to realize that you need us too.’

‘So, what do you want me to do?’ He couldn’t quite hide his disdain. How had Vash managed it?

‘I want you to recall Vash from the ocean and surrender him to me. If what I have just said was not enough to sway you then please tell me how many more deaths I must supply to assuage your pride. I beg you to be reasonable.’

The signal cut off. Corbin slumped back into his chair, bile rising in his throat. What had he just done?

Well that went well, he thought, darkly. I’m sure we’ll have a productive relationship. And if not, one way or another, at least it’ll be mercifully brief.

It was a simple enough tactic – carrot and stick. Let’s all work together for the greater good, and if you don’t we’ll kill you all.