Five long years after a brutal war for the planet Earth, two human recruits cross paths as they prepare to train and become charges in the United Treaty Organization's military.

This will be the first chapter of my story based on Hetzer's UTO-verse. Any and all feedback is welcome.

Read it on Furaffinity here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/60240666

Editing was done by Typo. Special thanks to my friend TurboCanuck for assisting with character writing.

Day 1, 2020 CE

Suspended in static orbit around a vibrant green planet was the Union Hub, its circular two-tiered form spinning eternally and gathering solar energy like an exotic metallic flower. A space elevator completed the look, springing from the planet's surface as it stretched beyond the exosphere and into the station. Ethan's face was practically glued to the window of the frigate as their destination drew tantalizingly closer, squinting to make out the subtle details of the erestal-recharging solar panels before anyone else on the ship could see the distant minutiae clearly. “Can you believe that an artificial structure that big even exists? It must have taken them centuries to build, and we're going to be living in it!" he exclaimed to the human still sitting next to his end seat without breaking away from the awe-inspiring view.

The blonde-haired man uncrossed and crossed his legs, barely acknowledging the view or the geeky diatribe from his fellow passenger as he stared into the distance. “Neat," he mumbled, curtly.

Ethan glanced behind him to gauge the reaction of the man, before immediately turning back to the space station and continuing. He barely even cared whether anyone wanted to listen; he was having the time of his life just seeing this artificial wonder in person. “I read online that just the surface area we can currently see of both sections would be slightly bigger than Florida."

“And hopefully it'll be slightly better than Florida too." The man hoarsely chuckled to himself at his own lame joke.

Ethan held in a slightly surprised laugh himself before continuing his enthusiastic ramblings. “It's like a whole-ass country in there, vivariums and artificial gravity and everything." Their frigate was finalizing its approach and sending a request to dock in one of the loading bays for the newly developed human residential zone. Ethan looked down to spot the solar collectors pointing parallel to their flight path and pointed one of them out. “Check that out! You can see what the solar collectors look like really clearly from here. Imagine how much power we could generate with that if our own sun could recharge erestal too."

The formerly reserved man sighed to himself, now fully resigned to the fact that this guy was going to be a chatterbox. He decided to make the most of it, having seen the line of ships piled in front of the docking station for the human residential sector and knowing that they still had a long wait ahead of them. “So why did you sign up for the guardian program?"  That was the purpose of every human on this flight, after all.

Ethan took a few moments to gather his thoughts and gave his reply, now in a more solemn tone. “I guess... to make a difference, like everyone else here, you know? And it's always been a dream of mine to see a space station like this in person, too, so the fact that they're implementing the mech training program here was just perfect!" His enthusiasm gradually seeped back into that sentence from the mere thought of his wildest sci-fi dreams about to manifest before his eyes over the next few weeks. “How about you... um... what's your name?"

“Nolan. Nolan Hayes. I joined because I want to fight the Rynar, and they aren't selling spaceships at the hardware store just yet." He smirked, folding his arms and leaning back. “What's your name?"

“My name is Ethan Morrow, but my friends call me Em. It's nice to meet you." Ethan walked back to the seats and held out his hand to shake.

Nolan leaned forward in his seat and shook the offered hand firmly before continuing his explanation. “Nebraska National Guard for most of my adult life. I've been hearing that they're starting to run out of charge recruits with experience in the army now that it's been a few years, so I finally took them up on their offer."  His voice was laced with snark, but Ethan understood the sentiment.

Ethan nodded gently, looking around the room and realizing that some of the humans here were probably even greener than himself. “Illinois, myself. Thankfully I wasn't anywhere near Chicago on the day the Rynar decided to come and fuck that place up. At least we'll both live to fight them properly someday, right?"

“Damn right we will, Ethan," came the immediate response. “Good luck finding a human that isn't as ready as us to hit those scaly fuckers back."

The mood in the room started to shift as more of the recruits started chattering amongst themselves, and the queue started to move inch by inch forward towards the bay, with the odd ship passing by in the other direction. Now that the view of the towering, reflective face of the station had overtaken his entire field of vision, Ethan sat back in his seat, watching the line of ships in front of them. Despite their differing shapes and colors and sizes, they were all matching the rotation of the ship with occasional dips in acceleration and deceleration, making it look like they were rocking back and forth, almost as if they were holding in the same excitement he felt.

“There's a ton of humans who live there now too, I've heard good things about those towns online too. Free housing and free food! Who can argue with that in this economy?" Ethan smiled and nudged Nolan with his elbow. “You could go visit and ask them yourself when we're on leave."

“What, ask how badly they want to be mech pilots too? There can't possibly be enough guardians signing up for the program to account for all the pissed off humans," came the retort.

Ethan sighed and craned his neck backward, looking up at the scattered lit-up windows in the megastructure that brought up now-distant memories of skyscrapers at night. Of course he was angry at the Rynar too, especially since he and most other humans were never given a chance to fight back on Earth. His mind wandered to more positive thoughts. “Speaking of guardians, I can't stop wondering what species our assigned guardians will be. What do you think, Nolan?"

The man scoffed lightly at that. “If I really need one, I guess something normal, like one of those hugeass fox or cat aliens. Don't know why they can't just assign us a squad leader like a real fucking army."

Ethan took a moment to process that. He never even considered that Nolan might have felt that way, but it explained his outlook. He wasn't sure what to say in response at first, and decided to voice his recent hopes and thoughts directly. “Well, we can't exactly be given a mech on day one, and someone should be around to help us adjust to being in a brand-new alien world, right? It's nice knowing there'll be a meso who's going to do all that for me..."

Nolan placed his hand on Ethan's shoulder and looked him in the eye with a concerned expression on his face. “We humans need to stick together too. You know that a meso is genuinely powerful enough to accidentally snap your bones with one hand, right? Even if you get a guardian that really does care about you, what if you run into a shitty meso when you're out on your own?" Ethan stared back in dazed silence from the uncomfortable tone shift, barely opening his lips and almost wanting to form a response. Nolan started over before he could speak, this time with a calmer tone.  “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go there.  I just wanted to say... I'll be your friend too, Em. I don't know anyone else here and you seem like you could use one. How about it?"

Ethan took a second to process what he'd heard. He heard plenty of horror stories about the Rynar invaders from across the world, about the nightmarish things they did to the human soldiers who fought back. He could only imagine what Nolan was thinking, or possibly directly recalling right now, that'd elicit a response such as that. Maybe he was right, at least partially. In any case, Ethan knew deep down that they could both use a friend right now. And if he of all people wasn't going to accept the offer, who else even would? “Alright... thank you. That sounds like a good idea. I'll try to watch your back too, Nolan." He pulled out his newly assigned personal Yutri device from his pocket. “How about we add each other on these things?"

Nolan reached down into his carry-on bag to fish out his respective Yutri. “Sure, that'd work. Still haven't had a chance to figure out how to use one of these.  I guess it's like using a smartphone but, you know. Way more alien."

Ethan felt his smile coming back as he mentally recalled the technical details he read online. He couldn't wait to put this powerful new alien device through the wringer and see what it's capable of. “Good luck finding a smartphone that you don't need to plug in for weeks on end, though. And we'll be able to charge the erestal inside them properly now that we're here." He smirked as he showed his new acquaintance how to add someone nearby as a friend, and with two synchronized chimes they were set.

          The rest of the docking process was mostly spent in apprehensive silence, the view outside of their window becoming engulfed in shadow before the natural light of the star's blinding rays were fully replaced by the artificial glow of the lights overhead. The prompt to buckle their seatbelts flashed above the cascading rows of humans as they heard the telltale rumblings of footfalls behind them. The group turned their heads to see the light-furred Lupari officer that had welcomed them aboard. He loomed over the translucent holding container for the human recruits, the ceiling of it coming short of the bipedal wolf's waistline. He pointed to his earpiece, prompting everyone to quickly retrieve their assigned Yutri headsets and put theirs in if they hadn't already done so.

After patiently waiting a few moments, the Lupari proceeded to speak with them for the first time since they left Sol. “Welcome to the Union Hub, recruits," came the translation from within their earpieces following the deeper, almost growling alien speech from above them. “We'll be taking a direct route to the barracks, where you'll be given the rest of the evening to acclimate before we begin the guardian pairing tomorrow." The Yutri translation also gave the last sentence a very collected and measured tone, giving them the impression that this whole routine was a well-practiced tradition for him. He then motioned to two mesos in military uniforms on the other side of the room, one having the appearance of a dark brown squirrel, and the other being a gray-feathered gryphon. He proceeded to grab a handle on the end of a metal pole connected to the rear of the translucent enclosure and carefully began rolling the entire thing away from the frigate's window and towards the doors leading to the loading bay as his two subordinates followed closely behind.

The arrivals gate was packed at this time of day, with even a sparse convoy as theirs struggling to find space to freely move. The tinted material of the covered platform packed with humans was mercifully difficult to see through from the outside, leading to relatively few curious glances and stares from the accumulated crowds. The humans within, however, had a much clearer view of the downright intimidating sight of the ebbing multitudes of giant alien creatures. Murmurs amongst the humans started to pick back up again as the Lupari and his entourage cleaved through the masses and made a beeline for the tram a few kilometers away.

                  Ethan was overwhelmed by the noise and visual slurry, but utterly fascinated at the same time. He could recognize most of the meso species he expected to see, but also was surprised to spot rare cases of multiple species that weren't members of the UTO at all. He saw a few that appeared like bears, several more that almost reminded him of deer, one that was blatantly a red panda in his eyes, and even an odd, green-furred raptor looking thing with four ears. The one thing they all had in common though was their immense size; every nonhuman sapient being on this country-sized spaceship were comparably tall as an office building. The rare exceptions were the civilian mechs, piloted by humans, that stood out from the crowd with their stark designs and metallic painted exteriors.

                  Nolan turned to Ethan, a smug grin on his face. “Hey Em, bet you never expected to be in a bizarro fucking zoo where you get to look at the giant animals from inside an enclosure!" he said loudly, attempting to be heard over the cacophony of humans all attempting to make small talk with each other over the storm of footfalls and the constant rumbling of the wheels beneath the floor.

                  Ethan was lost in thought and having trouble filtering the noise from all sides, giving Nolan a gentle nod while continuing to take in the sights.

                  Nolan spoke a little louder this time, taking in a deep breath and tapping his fingers on the armrest. “We'd be absolutely fucked if we tried to walk around out here, and this is our only exit if we ever wanted to leave. Just some food for thought." His grin was now gone as he watched the rhythmic steps of the guards following behind in the foreground of his vision, completely unaware of the Lupari officer glancing down for a split second.

                  Ethan snapped out of his trance as he finally registered what Nolan was saying, turning to face him. “But think of it this way, once we leave, we'll be inside real mechs. Like that one, but even bigger and better." He pointed out a civilian mech as it passed by them.

                  “We can only hope so, Em." He looked down and crossed his arms yet again. The convoy stepped onto the tram, the suspension above the wheels absorbing the shock, a minute before the air filled with the distinct whirring sound of the tram coming to life and accelerating to breakneck speeds. “Just remember not to take anything at face value. Remember to message me if you see anything that looks out of place."

                  Ethan mulled over those words for a moment before speaking up again. “I understand why you're worried and all that, but why to this degree? Did something happen to you back on Earth, or—"

                  “No, nothing happened,"  Nolan interjected hastily.

                  The two sat in silence as the other humans continued their various conversations amongst themselves. Ethan looked up past the towering mesos surrounding them to spot a partially obscured map of the tram line, taking them deeper into the colossal megastructure to the outskirts of the relatively new human residential zone. He leaned to the side to get a better look, noting several notable points of interest listed on the map as they appeared nearby such as the interplanetary marketplace and Earth-themed vivarium. He took a mental note to ask someone about hotspots like those later. He pulled out his Yutri device and tried to make sense of the complicated interactive map of the Union Hub for the remaining journey. Nolan was sitting back and watching the mesos standing around them on the tram, while occasionally sneaking a glance at the progress Ethan was making. There were many civilian mechs that joined them on the ride as well, human workers commuting back to their homes now that it was late in the day, and the planet far below them was rotating to shroud the megastructure in darkness.

                  During one of their many stops, a military mech boarded the tram and looked down at the humans while giving a subtle nod, before taking their position side by side with the Lupari, its mechanical hand softly stroking his back. This was the first time either Ethan or Nolan had seen a military mech the entire trip, it was also impossible to ignore the fact that said mech stood a full head above the Lupari when directly comparing their height.

              
                 At long last, the convoy got off at their stop, followed by a small handful of mesos in matching uniforms, as well as the military grade mech that had boarded earlier. Each of them walked single file through a security gate while holding out their Yutris for authentication, the exception being the convoy which entered via a separate gate as a meso guardsman waved them through. They stopped in front of a large metal interlocking door, something Ethan swore looked exactly like one from a sci-fi movie he had seen in the past. The mechanism in the center rotated and the door slid open. The Lupari officer allowed the others to pass by first. The military mech was the last one in line, pausing to look down and salute them. “Welcome to the Union Hub, soldiers," came a commanding female voice from the speakers far above them, before she went to join the others.

The Lupari waved her off and then pointed at what appeared to be a much smaller replica of the large interlocking door in the wall next to it. Ethan held in a chuckle as he imagined the similarity it had to a cartoon mouse hole. The voice in his headset interrupted his thoughts. “Your Yutri devices have all been given clearance to freely come and go as needed through that gate. Your mechs will have the same credentials as you, should you earn the right to use one."

                  They entered the enclosed space as the door locked behind them. On their right was one of the UTO's famed Hives, a grid of translucent orange pods built into the wall and a trademark of the UTO's long-standing advancements in fully immersive virtual reality. Their final stop was on the opposite side of the cavernous room, next to a set of double doors was what appeared to be a massive modular metal building, with a landing pad placed strategically on the rooftop facing the walkway. The Lupari unlatched a panel on the side of the enclosure, unfolding from the wall and becoming stairs for the humans to disembark onto the floor at will.

                  As they began to pile out and gawk at their surroundings, the officer stood behind them and spoke. “My name is Ulvhakar Thuun, and I will be the overseer for this group of guardians and charges during your training." He pointed a clawed finger to the building in front of them first. “This is the human barracks; your room numbers will be listed on the front door alongside your names." He then pointed to a human-sized door next to it. “That leads to the human mess hall. Dinner has been prepared ahead of your arrival. Breakfast will be served early tomorrow morning as well, but it will remain closed for a time after that as you get acclimated to your guardians' presence. The virtual meet and greet will begin at 0900 tomorrow morning. You are recommended to walk through there for your safety." He pointed out a recess in the wall connecting both sides of the room, approximately three meters tall and apparently designed for the humans to walk under. “Any further questions?"

                  “What's for dinner?" asked one of the recruits standing closer to the door, taking in a vague whiff of the smell drifting into their living space.

                  “I bet it's ground up meat made from recruits who ask stupid questions to their commanding officer," interjected Nolan with a short chortle, followed by scattered laughs and groans from a few of the others.

                  The Lupari's ears and snout twitched for a moment before he spoke. “Just ask the staff inside what they made today. We have both a human as well as one of our guardian volunteers piloting a proxy in the kitchen today; they can help get your concerns about where we source our meat off your muzzle." Ethan swore he could almost spot a hint of a smirk on Ulvhakar's snout. “If there are no more questions, then you may take your leave for the evening." Aside from the occasional hushed mumbles from one human to another, it was silent now. “Very well then. We will rendezvous at 0900. Dismissed." The officer turned tail and walked through the double doors after first making sure no foolhardy recruit had wandered into his path.

                  Ethan could hardly believe his ears; he'd naturally read the scarce information he could find on proxies in the past, but he was more than eager to see one in person, especially with how rare they must be right now. As the group around him began shuffling through the doors to the mess hall, he attempted to quickly walk to the front of the line before it solidified but was barely able to make it to the front half. The doors led into what looked like a standard human-sized cafeteria, with the smell of broiled meat growing stronger now. He leaned to the side to get a better look at the two individuals behind the counter piling food onto trays, he could spot what appeared to be a middle-aged woman and a humanoid with no face. As he kept drawing closer, he could make out more details, barely able to focus on any of the other sights or chatter around him. It was a human-sized robot, with limbs and features vaguely crafted to almost resemble a bipedal rabbit, complete with two floppy cloth ears hanging down from the back. He couldn't even think about the food anymore, even though it was right in front of him; he was now on a quest for answers.

                  “Is that a real proxy you're piloting?" Ethan prodded enthusiastically, not even looking down at the tray of food in front of him. “I've heard about them, but I never assumed I'd see one already, I know they're basically in prototy—"

                  “Take your food and save the questions for after the line is empty, honey..."  came the mildly annoyed grunting from the human cook. Ethan embarrassedly snatched his tray and sped to the nearest empty table, sighing with defeat while looking down at his dinner. Seared steak, mashed potatoes, and mixed vegetables, with what looked like a variety of seasoning applied to all three. A long shot better than his average DFAC meal back on Earth, especially judging by the smell now that he was refocused on the food again. He took his utensils and dug in, occasionally turning his head to glance at the slowly shrinking line.

                  Nolan wasn't too far behind Ethan and joined him on the opposite side of the table. “So that robot bunny thing is called a proxy?" he asked, Ethan's enthusiasm on that topic was impossible to ignore.

                  Ethan nodded, putting his fork down for a moment to finish his mouthful before he started talking again. “They're basically like mechs but in reverse. A meso is piloting that thing right now I assume. It's not exactly battle ready or anything, but they can interact with us humans on our level. Pretty cool stuff, right?"

                  Nolan's eyebrows raised. “So, it's not just a robot...? Interesting." He diverted his focus down to his food, seemingly lost in thought as he started making progress on his own meal.

           Ethan got back up again, ignoring the rest of his tray of food as he went to the back of the nearly depleted line. The human and proxy seemed to be more invested in a conversation between themselves now that their work was nearly done. “But he shouldn't have immediately left just because the three of us were done cooking! He needed to meet the new batch in person!" That was the first thing he could clearly hear from the pair; the human lady seemed disgruntled for obvious reasons.

“Well, maybe he had some important personal business he wasn't telling us about." This time the voice came from what were clearly artificial speakers from the proxy, with no additional translation needed from his Yutri. This one sounded much younger too.

“Well, shit. In that case he better have mentioned it to Ulv. I should ask him," came the final reply from the human lady. The line was finally empty by now and Ethan stood in front of the two of them. She spoke up before Ethan could take advantage of the lull in conversation. “Sorry for scaring you off earlier. Sometimes the recruits ask a shitton of questions out of the blue and just hold up the line for everyone else. I'll leave you both to chat now," she said, before leaving to wash her hands.

Ethan wasted no time to start asking his questions. He began with his first thought. “You're piloting a proxy?  What are you doing here in the kitchen anyways?" 

“Oh, you know. Just seeing how to cook some traditional Earth food and all that. Human culture is kind of a huge interest of mine. Eve here was helping me learn." Her blank slate of a face didn't show any change in emotions, but he could hear her smiling from the intonation of her voice.

“Hopefully next time you'll learn to sear the meat without burning one side to a crisp, too." The distant retort from Eve was louder than usual, to rise above the white noise of the sink.

The proxy turned her head. “I know, I just wanted to look at the mashed potatoes for a minute! The way the mixer was grinding them to a creamy paste looked so cool..." She sighed, or at least made the sound of a sigh through the speakers. “But yeah, this is my proxy. Bought it with my own Credits and I've been using it any time I get the chance to. What's your name, by the way?"

Ethan didn't skip a beat. “I'm Ethan, Ethan Morrow. My friends call me Em though. You know, because of the initials." He politely held out his hand, and the proxy immediately gave it a nice firm shake.

“And my name is Zhylara Thae'Mirr. It's nice to meet you! And yes, I know it's a mouthful. Most humans I talk to around here prefer to call me Lara." She nodded eagerly, evidently aware that none of the facial expressions she'd unconsciously made had come across.

“So, this is your own personal proxy? And you're using it to… work here as a cook?" Ethan prodded, slightly confused by the overly mundane use of such a new and presumably expensive device.

Lara belted out a quick chortle before stopping herself. “No, silly, I'm one of the guardian volunteers. I'm piloting this thing from my room right now, in fact." She pointed in the vague direction of where the meso barracks likely were. “I just also wanted to help here and learn how to cook human meals like I mentioned earlier, you know? No point in laying around when I could be getting a head start meeting all the lovely charges!" She stood up straighter, undoubtedly wanting to look as proud of herself as she sounded.

Ethan was slightly surprised but nodded along. “That makes more sense. Well, I'm glad to meet you down here and I'd be happy to ask more questions about your proxy later, once I think of more stuff to ask. I was mostly just worried that I wouldn't get a chance to see you later, since we won't be dining here after tomorrow according to the officer."

“Right. I won't be getting many opportunities to learn how to cook here either, considering I'll have my paws full with training and socializing and all that,"  she replied, still sounding as enthusiastic as ever. “Well, I hope I'll talk to you tomorrow! Make sure not to be late, Em!"

“Goodnight, Lara. Hope to see you too." He waved her proxy off as it bounded off to the exit doors. Satisfied with his first attempt at socializing with a would-be guardian, he made his way back to his table and sat down to finish his meal. Nolan was still sitting there, his tray nearly empty but his hands folded under his chin. “She seemed pretty nice, huh?" Ethan said to break the unexpected tension.

“Hm. She did." Nolan nodded and muttered, not looking up to meet Ethan's gaze. The two of them sat in awkward silence, attempting to finish their rapidly cooling meals.

Ethan took the first step to break the silence this time. “You know... you don't need to be afraid here. It's literally their whole job to keep us safe out there."

Nolan cleared his throat and nodded. “I get it, they're fucking nice and all that. Doesn't stop the part of me that flinches whenever I see one of those giants moving too fast." His voice was shakier, but still confident.

Ethan looked down, unsure of what to say to that for a minute. He gathered his thoughts and his energy and started talking. “...I still think integrating into the UTO is going to be the best thing that ever happened to us, and I mean us both as individuals as well as us as an entire species. Just a few years ago, we'd never dreamed of leaving our solar system, and here we are about to train side by side with actual aliens. And these aliens don't see us as some kind of experiment or second-class citizen; they want us to be here as much as any other species. Even more so in some cases! They want to know about us, and our history, too. What would we even be doing right now if they hadn't taken us in like this? Just laying around in some boring Earth barracks?" He felt his arms trembling. He hadn't even realized how much he wanted to say until he let loose.

Nolan pursed his lips and put his utensils down. “We don't know if they see us as experiments or not. Maybe the guardians don't, but that won't matter." With that, he got up and left the mess hall.

Ethan closed his eyes, ran both of his hands through his hair, and sighed deeply. Seeing eye to eye with Nolan's perspective on things was difficult, but a part of him simply couldn't let those ideas go without mulling them over. The only thing he knew for sure is that he couldn't wait for tomorrow to arrive.  

He was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts when the lights around him dimmed. He looked around and realized he was the only one still here. He quickly got up and ran out the door, before stopping and taking a minute to get a better look at the room around him on the way back. The ceiling was terribly tall, clearly more than tall enough to be the equivalent of two stories tall for the mesos. Their living space was practically a broom closet without a door, presumably to keep their common area out of the way of the traffic that would likely occur before and after VR sims. He looked across to the other wall and realized they had fabricated an entire human-sized obstacle course on that side of the area, with rope walls and metal bars and everything. Perfect for keeping in shape, he thought to himself. The sim training would hardly be taxing on their real bodies, after all. He turned and walked until he found himself face to face with the front door of the apartment complex that was their barracks. The walls were painted, but had clearly been forged from metal, with seams that were difficult to spot with even his human eyes. It felt more like the building had risen out of the similarly metal floor, rather than being built on top of it.

He stood in front of the entrance and quickly skimmed over the list of names, finding his room number and spotting the notice written in English mentioning that the Yutri would be their room key as well. He scoffed to himself, imagining one of his fellow soldiers attempting everything except the most obvious solution to try and open their own room door.  At least everyone got their own personal room here; it was the least they could do, considering the entire building would probably fit neatly in a single meso's bedroom. He went inside and made his way through the narrow dividing hall to his assigned room, where his luggage had conveniently been placed for him earlier. Looking inside, he saw a minimalistic room that almost appeared to have been freshly printed rather than built traditionally, judging by the shapes of the minute flaws in the metallic walls. Despite this, it was reasonable and well-furnished by his standards, as he'd been used to sharing barren living spaces for most of his service. He curled up on the untouched bedspread and started fiddling with his Yutri. Ethan knew he had time before it got late in the evening, and he had nothing but burning questions floating through his mind that he wanted answers for.

1203 UE, UST Day 1

Within a dimly lit office three figures sat across from one another. Ulvhakar was in the midst of a conversation with a fellow Lupari as well as a hologram of an Arkatian. “I just need you to understand why I have genuine concerns for this one. I know he managed to pass the basic psyche evaluation on Earth, but he simply seems unwell. It's not uncommon at all for humans to have existential angst upon first arriving, and for good reason. But all I could smell off him was a powerful fear as well as something else that almost smelled like bitterness, even as he attempted to crack a joke. I do not wish to imply that we should send him back to Sol immediately with so little information for us to go off, but I have heard enough from him to assume the worst."

The hologram butted in. “I will try to update his file with what information we can gather on him tomorrow. I know you've overseen a fair number of charges, but with all due respect, sir, you haven't seen a fraction of what I've been able to observe of human behavior. I don't believe this one is beyond our reach whatsoever. Especially not when we have one of the best counselors we could have asked for right here!  Isn't that right, Vaelrin?" He enthusiastically motioned towards the female Lupari, who nodded gently.

“Thank you, Tavrin. I'll do what I can to live up to your lofty standards." She turned to face Ulvhakar again. “You must remember that these recruits have been raised in an entirely different environment from us, alongside the trauma of such a one-sided invasion wrecking the only planet they've ever known. It's common for many issues my patients face to be symptoms of deeper issues that we can't begin to understand firsthand because of that, and the best I've been able to do is research human history itself to form a working theory from my outside perspective."

Ulvhakar got up from his seat, pacing back and forth slowly. “I can only hope your methods won't fail us. My worst fear is that he already spread his doubt to the other recruits, which will make our jobs that much harder. This whole process of human integration has been built on the assumption of mutual trust, after all."

Tavrin seemed to be deep in thought for a moment, before formulating a response. “Vaelrin is completely right as well about all of this. And might I add that from their limited individual perspectives it must appear to them that we are being unduly charitable, which tends to raise human suspicion according to my observations."

Ulvhakar nodded back. “Then my charge and I will keep your advice in mind for tomorrow."