Shahim went to rise, but John fired another crushing wave into him, pounded him to the floor again, still shouting, “Well, Lord Mantil? What do you say?” John hit him with his lethal left eye again, “What do you have to say in your defense, Lord Mantil?” again the needle eye pounded Shahim to the floor, “What? Lord Mantil? What would your father say about this massacre?” Again the pulse drove into Shahim as John screamed at him, “WHAT WOULD HE SAY?”

Shahim broke, not stopping any of his emotion from showing on his face, or in the broken wail he let out, “He would have killed himself rather than do this. He would have killed anyone that brought such massacre to such innocents as these.” John stared at Shahim, resting his sonic fury a moment and allowing Shahim to carry on, spite and venom and shame filling the broken man’s voice, “For God’s sake, even the soldiers here are innocents. They do not even know they are at war. They cannot fight us because we cower in the shadows like thieves and petty bullies. We are nothing.” Lord Mantil’s final words ebbed from him quietly as he broke, “We are no better than assassins and grave robbers.”

Shahim went silent and John looked down at him, “You are wrong, at least about one of us, my lord. I am no coward. I am no bully. I fight for the innocents.” He looked at Shahim and his mind raced. Really, could he really trust this man? The risk was massive, but then, in truth, he could not explain the destruction of an Agent by a human anyway. They were already in more trouble than he could imagine. In the end it was all about the individuals who made up the resistance. The few people who risked everything to stand up for what they believed in. Shahim was no different. The only way this strayed from his own recruitment back on Mobilius was that John alone must decide whether to accept this man, where a committee of conspirators had decided John’s fate, with equal risk to themselves if they were wrong. Here he had his instincts, and only his, to rely on.

Cautiously, John Hunt said to the beaten and battered Shahim, “Together, you and I might help these humans defend themselves. Together we might stop our race from committing the greatest crime in history. Trust me when I say this, Lord Mantil, I do not do this just for the humans. I do this for us. I do this so that our generation does not have to answer to our descendents for committing this genocide on the first sentient species we ever meet. How will you explain it to your children, Lord Mantil? When this is all said and done, which side will you have stood with?”