***Tirnanog, Moonbase***

***Magnus***

We arrived at home, all in one piece and to my great surprise, with our goal achieved.

“Huh…” I stepped off the arrival platform and turned around. Then I looked up at the orb and at Vanya, who was studying the strange gem. We got it after I was done teaching the Trakken scientists the basics. Tianna had returned with a translated version of Wormhole Physics for Dummies, and after the scientists confirmed they had everything they needed, they just handed us the gem.

It was the same gem I remembered the alien having on its forehead, but back then, I thought it was simply a part of the creature’s anatomy.

Realising that I was staring, Vanya turned her attention to me. “Is something wrong?”

“No.” I shrugged. “I guess I just expected something to go wrong on this mission. For them to betray us or to mess with us by giving us a fake.” Which was still a possibility, though I doubted it.

There would be no meaning to such a trick beyond pissing off an opponent with unknown capabilities. At least I assumed it to be so from the Trakken’s point of view.

“I didn’t expect them just to hand us the gem and send us off.” I shrugged.

The matriarch tilted her head. “But wasn’t diplomacy the goal of our mission?”

“Yes, I guess I was just waiting for the backstabbing part once I noticed the similarities between Earth’s and Trakken’s government.” I had been burned one time too often by state officials, so I wasn’t the trusting type when it came to dealing with governments.

Vanya hummed. “Well, they reportedly managed to colonise their entire star system while Earth has trouble getting off their cradle world. So there has to be something different about the way they handle things.”

She tilted her head. “Though you are not entirely wrong. That is why we will not return unless there is a dire need. Trakken is off limits as far as I am concerned. No need to bring their troubles to Tirnanog.”

“We won’t?” Tianna asked, sounding surprised. “You sounded very approving of the Trakken’s wish to keep up relations when they sent us off.”

“A necessary lie.” Vanya shook her head, her voice taking on a sombre tone. “Their government is without doubt heavily focused on votes and officials with complex inner power struggles. The longest one of their officials can keep his office is five years. And that’s only if they are selected a second time. Ituun was exactly the type of personality I would expect to get to power with such a system. Without doubt, he believed in everything he told us about the Trakken’s way of doing things. And while it may be that such a system allows its people to feel morally superior, more sophisticated and free, it is anything but.”

She looked up at the transportation orb. “It is not the government’s job to provide freedom to the people. To pretend it does would be a deception. It is the government’s job to keep society and culture together. Even if some of the people might not want that. It is a leader’s job to keep society going. If the government fails to do that, people will begin to reject their government sooner or later. It is just a question of time until society crumbles.”

Vanya returned her gaze to us. “A short-term voting system includes everyone, or at least it claims it does. It is a well-intentioned attempt at preventing any individual or group from gathering too much power. An ideal that appeals to many, to the point of them forsaking logic. The downside of any such system is that it encourages those who reach for power to take their eyes off the future. It rewards those who are willing to grab what they can, as quickly as possible, and for as long as they are in power. Why, you may ask. Because they know exactly that they will not have any stake in society once the next person gets the power. It is an encouragement to use up and waste the resources they are given control of as quickly as possible. Just to say that they are doing their job. Either in a vain attempt to make themselves look good for the next election, or to shuffle as much into their own pockets as possible. No matter the reason, the result is the same.”

She raised an eyebrow. “On the same account, it gives incentive to hold onto that power for as long as possible, even if the system itself is designed to take it away after a time. And if those in power see the writing on the wall, it may even encourage a party to leave the greatest possible mess for their predecessors. So their opponents may look bad during the next term and make the after next elections easier.”

She drew in a deep breath. “It is a societal trap on several levels. And while it may work, even in the long term, it assures that nobody will ever be happy. A political system has to ensure that the political leaders can profit only if the people around them prosper along with their descendants. Their thinking has to be aimed at the decades and centuries ahead, at making the best choices for their people. Not how to win the elections a few months or years down the road.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Vanya raised the gem for us to look at. “And so, I was not surprised that when Ituun was offered the opportunity to step in front of his people and present them with a solution to the biggest problem eating away at the edges of their society, he jumped at it like a drowning man. He didn’t even consider that having wormhole tech would not erase their problem in the long term. I didn’t have to influence him. Because at that moment, giving us the gem was a little price to pay to ensure his position.”

I thought about it and nodded, then shrugged. “Well, that was a nice explanation, but I am now going to look after my experiment. It has been a few days, and if I understood the instructions correctly, they should be done by now. Thankfully, Gaia was so nice to promise to look after the project while I was gone.”

I turned and left the room with a skip in my step.

“What experiment?” Vanya asked.

“Oh, no. Magnus, wait for me! Can we talk about this just one more time?” Astra quickly followed me.

“Nope! It is too late to stop it anyway,” I replied while I went to the teleporter. Having it outside the moonbase had been an additional security feature, but our engineers had since uncovered a second device and managed to activate it, which made travelling between Thich City and the moonbase a lot smoother.

Personally, I was happy that there was no need to endure the vacuum. And some people like Vanya wouldn’t be able to get to the moonbase with the teleporter on the surface.

The others followed us, and a few minutes later, I was looking over the biotank’s control panel. After calling up the project’s status, I was pleased to find out that the subjects were ready to be “birthed”. They wouldn’t be in their adult forms, but that was fine.

According to my theory, the main problem the Thich had with the tanks was that they always waited for the adult forms. After intense consultation with Gaia, we found that there was no intentional feature to turn the tank’s creations into human-hating killing machines. Being hostile towards prey or at least wary of other species was something wild animals did perfectly fine on their own. If not, they wouldn’t be long for this world. Therefore, domestication was a lot harder for adult versions than it would be with my designer pets, which had been intentionally kept at the baby stage.

Finding no reason to wait, I activated the process. It would take some time to wake the subject anyway and to wean them off the amniotic fluid inside the tank.

Of course, Vanya shouldered her way to the front so she could take a look at what I had been cooking up with this marvellous technology. It was so easy! Just select a base form and add genetic traits as you please.

Her eyes widened upon seeing my creation. “Magnus! What did you do!?”

“Aren’t they purrrfect?” I smiled while watching the figures which were floating inside the tank.

Vanya stabbed an accusing finger at the control panel. “Birman cat combined with Pallas cat as a base-type with a Gutter-fur mutation and treemonae improvements for the tail? Starfish regeneration? And, a zipper muscle enhancement on top with mindflayer claw enhancements? And nightstalker vision!?”

“You are forgetting the Drake mutations for their mental abilities!” I pointed out. “Those are very important. They have to be smart, for their prey will be numerous and vile.”

“That was the main point I was getting to!” Vanya called out. “You can’t create sentient beings! Did you forget about the dogma the clans have against it? What drove you to put all those mutations into one creature?”

“You accepted the Drakes perfectly fine once you got to know them. Aren’t you wondering more why this machine would have access to gene samples from Earth?” I asked.

“No! The Thich had it in their grimy hands for who knows how long, and they used it to make their flying monster bats!” Vanya complained, clearly not seeing the genius of my plan.

I slowly shook my head. “Vanya, Vanya, you are so smart. Can’t you see that this is the perfect zipper hunter! Using the creature which was responsible for wiping out so many of Earth’s small critters to fight one of my greatest enemies is just poetry! We will no longer be bound to steal their eggs! By sending out my new hunting minions, we will be able to feast on their flesh directly!”

“There is a horrifying shred of logic to that plan. Although there is something wrong in your head,” Astra muttered from the side and crossed her arms. “And wouldn’t a dog be the much more sensible thing to go for if you want a hunting partner?”

“Let me have my five minutes of being crazy, woman!” I argued.

“You already pulled enough shenanigans at the negotiation table!” My wife scolded me. “My heart almost stopped when you started scratching that glass. I thought the Trakken would decide to kill us then and there.”

“Hogwash!” I waved a hand dismissively. “Besides, a dog is no good! They have to be trained. A cat brings you their prey on its own if you are part of the family.”

I nodded to myself, fondly remembering my own Birman cat bringing dead mice into the living room and my mother having a mental meltdown each and every time she found them. Ah, the days of childhood.

Vanya shook her head. “We have to stop this.”

‘I take no responsibility: even though I had a hand in their inception,’ Gaia added unhelpfully via UI-chat once the tank’s birthing sequence finished. She was normally the silent type, but now she had to go and reject having a hand in this project?

In that moment, the tank opened and flushed out seven furry figures: and the world was doomed. Doomed, by cuteness!

One of the little ones landed right in front of Vanya’s feet. The small, wet furball didn’t look like much, but when it opened its blue eyes and looked up at Vanya with a pitiful meow, the girl was lost.

“Aw, are you really going to tell me that you can hurt it?” I asked.

Vanya pressed her lips together and glared at me, so I took one of the towels I had prepared beforehand and wrapped the kitten in it. It immediately began to purr, and I put it in Vanya’s arms. “That one is for you. Children need pets, and I made enough spares.”

Astra scooped up the others with her filaments and shining eyes. “They are so cute!”

“Wait till they don’t look like wet otters,” I commented and handed her the towels. “And don’t worry, Gaia said they won’t grow too big.” - Hopefully.