The Zruthy Admiral was moving slowly and stiffly as it walked towards Rostov and Sakaki, as if it was carrying a great weight on its shoulders. It looked up at them briefly, then stopped.

“I am to be informing you that the Zruthy are to be leaving this sector of space,” it said in a dull voice. “We have analyzed the situation, and determined that we will require all our ships in order to defeat the Deathspawn strike force heading towards our homeworld.”

Rostov gulped audibly. “Listen,” he said, “you may be able to defeat the initial strike force, but they will send another, and another, until they break through. You know as well as I do that they have too many ships!”

Sentori brought all three of its hands together in a massive metal fist. “I am to know this,” it said in a dull voice. “But there is nothing else to be done.”

“That is not true!” the Captain exclaimed. “Look, we have come up with a plan that could wipe out the Deathspawn once and for all! It’s complicated, but…”

The Zruthy admiral waved one of his arms in a dismissive manner. “This plan, I am to suppose that your toy intelligence devised it for you? We Zruthy will never listen to its deathly non-voice, I can assure you!”

“But I still don’t understand how you can…” Sakaki began, but Rostov cut him off with a heavy hand on his arm.

“We understand how you feel about the AI,” the Captain said quickly. “Quite frankly, I agree with you. I don’t trust it and never will. But, perhaps by sheer luck, it has come up with a good idea. However, we may never know if the idea will work if you don’t help us. If you send all your ships back to the homeworld now, the Deathspawn will see through our planned deception, and both our races will be destroyed. Please, just listen to the plan, before you say you won’t help us.”

The Zruthy stood perfectly still for a few moments. “There is… another problem,” it said laconically. “Even if I were to want to help you, even if I was to be convinced of the usefulness of this plan… we would still have to remove all of our ships.”

“Why?” Admiral Sakaki asked.

“I am not to be allowed to say,” Sentori replied distantly. “It is… a personal matter for the Zruthy. Not to be discussed with outsiders. I am to be saying goodbye now, and good luck.” The gleaming metal machine turned and started to roll out of the room.

“Wait!” Rostov and Sakaki yelled simultaneously, rushing towards the giant robot.

“Is it the rebel Zruthy?” the Captain asked. “Is it the Chor-Atha?”

Sentori stopped, motionless. “It is not to be any point in not telling you,” it said sadly. “The remaining rebels, they are to have convinced themselves that the Deathspawn attacks are nothing more than… how would you humans describe it… something like divine retribution for our enslavement of the Chor-Atha. They are to believe that only through destruction will they be saved. This is why we must return to the homeworld now. If we were to not have this problem, we would have enough reserve ships in our Home Defense fleet to handle the Deathspawn strike force. But with our colony worlds destroyed, and with more and more of our troops believing in this… this curse…” Sentori’s voice trailed off.

“What would it take to convince your defecting troops to come back on our side?” Sakaki asked.

“More than the word of your AI,” the Zruthy replied bitterly.

“In that case, I think we have someone on board who might be of some help to you,” Rostov said.