Enki grimaced. His face twitched, revealing a jagged, yellowed fang. “Did you come all the way from the war front to admire the architecture of father’s pet monkeys? Or are you a deserter? Did you get a real taste of combat and tuck tail? I suppose we’ll never know, because I am sure father shall make certain none survive to blemish your entirely fabricated reputation. I wonder what would happen to you if suddenly you lost his favor.” 

Enki heard his brother’s teeth clench through the small orifices on both sides of his head that served as a cochlea and auditory nerve. Because Enki could interpret vibration as sound directly through his psychic aura, it was at best vestigial, but he still enjoyed the physicality of it.

“Well, actually, I was simply passing through. I know news doesn’t really make it out to the more irrelevant corners of the galaxy, but even you must have heard that our military campaign in the Pleiades has been a marked success. I am returning home at father’s request. Apparently, there is to be a ceremony and celebration of my Confederate conquest. I am to receive the Iron Fist accommodation for the capture of Tartarus,” Enlil said with all the self-satisfaction of one born into a royal ruling line.

“Well, I guess they give those out to anyone these days, because from what I’ve gathered, you squandered octillions in resources bombarding the planet from orbit until there was nothing left to capture but an unstable, arid hellscape with no useful resources or infrastructure.”

Enlil only smiled, his self-assuredness was intolerable. “Ah, so you have heard.”

“If you are coming from Tartarus, you went pretty far out of your way to pop in for a visit. Did you miss me, dear brother?” That comment seemed to agitate Enlil. He was getting worse at shielding his emotions Enki noticed.

“If you must know, I was actually ordered by father to check up on you. Apparently you haven’t been responding to any communication attempts from Draco Federation high command. Do you have any idea how foolish that makes us look, seeing as though you are, you know, the son of the emperor?”

Enki scoffed. “Father should make up his mind, am I his son, or not?”

“If you don’t attend this ceremony, he will consider it a great affront. You already are out of his favor, why test him further? He is not known for his patience.”

There was a dull crunch and a sudden roar that erupted from the crowd as a man’s face was caved in by a club. Enki laughed. “You should observe brother. Few sources of entertainment better than this in the galaxy.”

This time Enlil scoffed. “I do not understand your affinity for these beasts. They are entirely useless. Anything they can do, a machine can do better.”

Enki shook his head. “You are wrong. A machine is always a result of preset parameters. No machine mind can adapt with the proficiency of an organic one.”

“Oh please. You act as if organic minds don’t act in a certain set of programmed parameters as well. The difference is, a machine can do it faster, and with more precision.”

Enki examined his brother for a moment. He had no clothing; just his bare, scaled body, as was convention of his kind. That described Enlil’s personality completely. He was a traditionalist that always colored inside the lines. Or as Enki saw it, he lacked imagination, and the ability to produce independent thought.

“The only reason an android would best a human in combat is that human bodies were purposefully engineered to be weak. If you had a synthetic mind in the body of a human and they fought, the human would triumph every time.” Enki insisted.

Enlil thought on this for a moment. “Now there is an interesting premise. What say you to this? I set the hardness level of my imperial android guard’s exoskeleton to human equivalency, and my guard spars against let’s say… ten of your fighting pit slaves. I am certain my guard can dispatch them all without so much as a single scratch.”

Enki considered this while stroking his chiseled jaw. “One of my slaves would be more than enough. Shall we make it interesting?”

“How so?”

“If my ape man wins, then I don’t have to come to your ceremony.”

“And if I win?”

“Then I will pledge my allegiance to your reign in front of the entire procession at the ceremony.”

Enlil’s eyes glinted greedily. Enki remained stoic. There was a moment of silence.

“Consider it done.”

“All I ask is that your android run a human glamour protocol. The people will be displeased with me if they see any unfairness in the fighting pits. This is the only place they are promised a level playing field.”

Enlil laughed. “Certainly. You know brother, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’ve developed a fondness for these smelly primates.”

Enki shrugged. “They have kept me comfortable when my own kind all but abandoned me. They have earned their place in the cosmos through suffering and toil. They have my respect.” 

“Well… monkey see, monkey do, I suppose.” Enlil cackled.

“See you in the arena…” Enki mumbled as his brother’s visage dissipated.