Adam's ship. A few days later.

The silence was broken by a harsh metallic voice, which felt to Adam and Eve like a gigantic wave engulfing their bodies.

'Do you realise you're making me talk on a pre-war encryption code? That's almost as bad as broadcasting our intent to the enemy. Now, cut the crap and blow yourself up nicely and fully, so I don't have to engage combat with you, on top of the vanguard of their invasion troops. That was bird catcher number 2. Over.'

They were under the impression that they were rolling and rolling under water, at a loss for some time but still trying to guess the way up. Recovering, they looked at each other wondering whether the other had indeed understood the same thing. Then they thought about breathing.

The ship confirmed, 'That was the message I received just ten minutes ago. I preferred to announce the bad news to all of you physically in the control room.'

Eve was instinctively holding her little baby tight in her arms. Adam had his jaws tensed and protuberant as much as his eyes were closed. He looked aside at the one year old Jonas unaware and smiling in his wrapped cloth. The atmosphere was tensed and no one dared to talk for quite a while.

'We have not much time to live anyway. We might as well give birth to some more children,' he finally suggested. 'What do you think?'

'Can't we just concentrate on surviving here? I don't care about your projections of doom.'

'All right. All right,' conceded Adam.

'I want to be able to think I have a plan to save Jonas,' she said resolutely with a stare he wouldn't dare to contradict.

But with those simple words, she didn't realised she had just sentenced Jeremy to death.

In the background, the quiet sobs of Jeremy, leaning on the wall, were heard by neither of them. I cannot deny it any longer. The confirmation that his mother only cared for her natural son was an expected but still unbearable knowledge for Jeremy. He clenched his fists and started banging his head regularly on the wall.

He might have accepted the fact that the youngest son was the preferred one of both his parents. But, he sensed it was more than that. And that fuelled up a burning rage for a while until it turned into despair and then into resignation. They see my brother as beautiful, whereas I am only useful to their eyes.

With resolution, he set himself the simple goal of gaining his parents approval... or dying in the attempt. After all, my life is worthless without it. He stood up and took the direction of the gun room.

Still in the control room, Adam asked Eve to put the baby in his bed and help him out with designing a distress signal that could be understood by the aliens.

***

Aboard the admiral ship, the Centaurian captain listened patiently to the various technical reports on the massive explosion, or rather the double explosion that occurred on the verge on the solar system they were aiming at.

'It can only mean one thing,' he said and then paused theatrically.

'It's a warning,' attempted Igor. 'They'll destroy us if we approach'

'It's war,' emphasized Grishka, which displayed a rare deep and resolute frown.

'No! It's intelligence' cut the captain. 'The explosion was not directed at us. It's not even close to any route we may take. No, what we are seeing here is a piece of intelligence proving that they are at war indeed, but with themselves most likely.'

'It is still war,' mentioned Grishka.

The captain sighed and stared at him for a long and discomforting moment.

'Our initial assumption is also still valid: they might have not yet noticed us. Or, at least, not all the factions involved in their internal battles.'

'Your task is clear, Grishka, you must understand their language, so that we know precisely what we are facing and which course of action we should take'

'Captain, I must remind you, and all of us in this room, that the messages, once understood, may be deceptive. They should not be the only driver behind any of the decision you may take in the name of our great people.'

And this time the meaningful stare went the other way.

***

After a couple of tries in the microphone of the escape pod, Jeremy finally settled for a sober announcement and focus on his pronunciation.

'My dear parents,

Now has come the times when my own mission is achieved. I was born to allow you training into parenthood and testing yourself as proper human beings. It is clear I have little else to bring you, now that you have taken up the higher challenge of raising a child of your own blood.

The only wish and final advice I can provide you with is to give you all the love you can to the ones who will follow me. I wish I could have heard you say 'I love you'; I would have loved to answer, 'I love you too'.

I guess the only adequate sentence now is 'I love you anyway.' For this reason, I wanted to act usefully one last time; So I decided to attack the ship tracking us.

I probably have no real chance of surviving and coming back, but I hope it might increase your chances of succeeding in your own mission.

Therefore, Farewell.

Your Jeremy.'

He turned off the communication and lay back in his chair, thinking deeply and making a face.

'I am doing the right thing, am I not?' he asked aloud, while turning his seat so as to face Jonas.

'What do you think?' he asked again, bending over his brother.

The baby instinctively smiled widely at his brother and gurgled in the cradle that would be soon his coffin.

'Yeah. That's what I thought,' acknowledged Jeremy. 'I can't do anything anymore. So, I'll leave at that, and we'll see what happen. Funny to say now, but I only feel pity, for all of us. Initially, as revenge, only to show our parents how unworthy they were, I kidnapped you and smuggled this escape pod from the ship, anticipating that will get us both killed. But now, I am done with this consideration, and I somehow forgive them. I am focusing on the task that was originally an alibi. That is kind of weird. And the question is, am I a weird human or am I just as weird as any other human?'

Jeremy looked out through the reinforced glass window at his mother ship. Without the augmented eyesight usually provided by the ship, he soon lost track of his parents in the dark background.