Page 27 of Koha'vek
“Then I’ll be the one to take them down.”
That shut him up.
Lin-Har nodded once. “Very well. The Council will deliberate. A decision will be rendered within seven days. Until then, the Mesaarkan colony will remain under surveillance. No arrests. Nointerference.”
“I understand.”
“And General,” she added as I began to end transmission, “if the Council approves this… expect a new division to be formed under your name.”
My projection gave the ghost of a smirk. “After ninety years of war, I think I’ve earned a stranger job.”
The connection cut, leaving me alone with the pulse of my own thoughts.
I’d stood before the Federation for hundreds of reasons in my life.
Today, for the first time, I’ve done it to protect the enemy. No. Not the enemy.Refugees.
And maybe, something more.
After the chamber faded, the holographic link severed with a low-pitched chime, and I stood alone at Cyborg Command in New Chicago. The artificial lighting is a poor match for the storm building behind my eyes.
Ninety years I fought them. That’s how long I bled beside my brothers. How long I told myself it wasus or them—no middle ground, no compromise, no forgiveness. We killed them, or they killed us.
And now I’d just told the Federation Council to make room for them. To give refugeamong us.
The cyborg warrior in me hated it.
But the man I’ve become—after everything—weighed the facts, the scars, the silence of that hidden colony, and made a different call. These Mesaarkans were not in the war that I fought. They were conscripted to invade Earth after the war ended.
So, this isn’t about the war anymore. My logical side could not justify sending these dissidents to their deaths because of their species. That would hardly be different than sending in a company of cyborgs to wipe them out. That would be no different than what started the war in the first place—a massacre of innocent colonists over land.
This is no longer about war, but about what comesafter.
I’ve seen their children. Small, partially scaled, and wide-eyed. Human softness wrapped in alien skin. I've seen the way those Mesaarkan deserters look at their mates—like they’ve found something worth surviving for.
I recall when I stopped fighting and returned to Earth to rebuild civilization. It was the first time I’d seen the devastation firsthand. I had shippedout within hours of my awakening over a century ago. Until I saw that colony, I never really thought about Mesaarkans having mates and families, and building communities.
They didn’t look like us, but they weren’t all that different. War is so counterproductive to building families and civilizations. I knew it had to end, and making this happen was the right thing to do.
Letting go of hate in the face of old wounds is what peace costs.
I hoped the Council would listen. I wouldn't blame them if they didn't.
But if they do—
Then maybe the next generation won’t grow up preparing for war.
Maybe they’ll grow up learning how to share worlds instead of carving up territories.
And maybe, just maybe.
That’ll be the fight that finally ends.
Chapter Seventeen
Koha’vek
The rain had lasted for only a couple of hours, and the sky was clear again.
