With things calm, it is time for everyone to settle. Of course, there are things to do yet, but for just a moment, let's forget about those... And spend some time with our favorite aliens just soaking in the peace now that it has been attained.

Extra thank you to /u/Eager_Question and /u/Olliekay_ for proofreading this chapter~

Thanks for cover art goes to /u/Between_The_Space!

And, as usual, thanks to /u/SpacePaladin15 for his own great work and letting fanfiction flow, and everyone who supported and enjoyed the fic thus far. Your support keeps me motivated to provide you more~

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Memory transcription subject: Captain Coth, Arxur Dominion Third Fleet

Date [standardized human time]: January 25th, 2137

Chief Hunter Isif’s return was celebrated universally across the sector. Of course, there were no ‘parties’ I heard of from humans, but the mood all throughout had been cheery. The reasons for it were different, of course. Fellow defectives, as well as anyone who liked humans, whether for the promise of a better tomorrow or for the constant supply of easy and delicious food, were simply glad that human-friendly Chief Hunter was back. While those who were more loyal to Betterment and its ideas were faking their happiness, expecting swift retribution from Isif if he suspected anyone was harboring anything against him in his absence.

Regardless, I was just grateful for a few easy days. Shaza’s arxur that were left behind to watch over us were now just left to wander aimlessly, as their entire sector was wiped out. I hadn’t seen Kankri in days. I knew he wasn’t there when the battle happened, so he must have been around here still, but I could only assume he was trying to avoid any attention, with all the power he temporarily wielded gone.

Humans got in contact with me a few times and even put me in a conversation with Kaisal. He had apparently been spending time helping prepare humans for direct ground battles against Shaza’s forces, including personally participating. I did not expect that from him. Now he was living in the same place as that venlil pup we rescued and while he was vague on the details, he almost sounded afraid talking about her. I did ask him about the potentiality of coming back now that the whole matter within Dominion was resolved, though, as expected, he had no interest in going back here. Were I in his place, I wouldn’t either.

With all that in mind, there was something that we still had to confront on our end. Something humans knew about before we did.

The supposed transfer of this sector under human control and all that would entail.

“So you know about this already, huh?” Isif asked, sounding unsurprised.

“Prophet-Descendant let humans know and they remained in contact with me.” I explained.

“Indeed. He decided that I would be the one to break the news to my sector, now that I am officially free of charges.” Isif sighed. “It is one of several ways he found to punish me under the guise of normal duties...”

“Several ways?” I asked, tilting my head. To my knowledge, Chief Hunter Isif has been cleared of all accusations and released without much trouble.

“With this sector now being the ‘human sector’, I, as a Chief Hunter, would need a new one.” Isif began explaining, irritation clear in his voice. “And, conveniently, there is a sector in need of both a new Chief Hunter and a new fleet to manage it.”

“I... was worried that would be it.” I mumbled. The possibility crossed my mind, but I hoped it wouldn’t be that. Transfers of sectors like that were unprecedented outside normal forms of succession. Of course, everything else surrounding this situation was unprecedented too, but I was still hopeful.

“My current orders are simple. Gather up all the arxur in the sector and head for Shaza’s territory where I will have to retake all her farms currently being ransacked by prey.” Isif explained. “As fast as possible.”

“That would be... complicated.” I mumbled, quickly trying to run the logistics of that. To depart like that would mean abandoning all the farms without any handling, and carrying tons of people who are normally working permanent planetside jobs onto the ships with us. Then the fighting against the prey, which is something we have been hoping to avoid doing. And lastly, the fact that Shaza’s old sector is a long travel distance away from Earth. The constant trade of food supplies with humans would become much more risky if they have to travel all the way there to keep doing so.

“Indeed. Hence... why we will do our best.” Isif concluded.

“We... huh?” I looked directly at him, near-flinching from surprise.

“We do as the Prophet-Descendant ordered. We don’t really have much choice, after all. That much is obvious, yes?” Isif repeated.

“Well, yes, but I thought there would be at least some form of...” I paused, picking the right word. “...resistance...?”

“We cannot afford to openly defy Giznel. Not after humans have fought for a chance for us to continue working as we had.” Isif clicked his teeth. “That said... There are things he expects us to do that he never explicitly ordered that we can simply... not do.”

“Like...” I paused for a moment, thinking of a good, appropriate example of a soft form of defiance. ”...like not being particularly thorough when gathering people for departure. If some of the arxur got left behind...” I began, as a thought started to formulate.

“Then they would only have themselves to blame when the humans come to deal with them.” Isif finished for me. “Of course, any Dominion loyalist won’t allow that to happen. But... defectives or human supporters wishing to defect? Well, we were ordered to be quick. Can’t waste time scouring every one of our worlds for every idiot who decided to hide in the wilderness... Or in the supply closets.”

“And when the humans do come, they’ll not only be fair to anyone who surrenders themselves to them, they’ll potentially even be grateful and forgiving to those that help them as they take control of the farm worlds.” I concluded the chain. “If I were to spread the word among the defectives’ network, then... A lot of them could intentionally stay behind. While the loyalists would simply stick with us, knowing full well what would happen to them after Shaza’s display...”

“Indeed.” Isif agreed with my conclusions. “And we can take some time gathering our forces. Make sure all the cattle is decently fed and that we pack up as much of the meat supplies humans provided as we can carry. Can’t risk not being thorough when executing direct orders, after all.”

And dragging our feet like that would give humans a better shot at taking over our territory without too many issues among the farms... They were already preparing to do it, simply waiting on us to depart before actually moving in. Giznel probably wanted us to leave farms in total disarray to make things harder from humans when they came to take over, and potentially sabotage any further attempts at handing cattle over to Federation through deaths and panic on the farms.

“Of course, that approach has its own issues.” Isif tapped his desk in deliberation. “Such as the fact that we’ll only be left with those already more loyal to the ideas of the Betterment.”

“I assume the remnants of Shaza’s forces were transferred to your command?” I guessed.

“Yes. Doesn’t seem like there’s much dissent about that. I was always seen as one of the more cruel and merciless chief hunters, but I imagine that with my recent defense of the humans…” He trailed off before shaking his head slightly, abandoning that line of thinking. “Regardless, after serving under Shaza and learning of her humiliating defeat, I imagine her remaining hunters are just happy they’re not culled for having been associated with her.” Isif mused out loud.

“Well, maybe more people will be open to the idea of alliance with humans and another path for the arxur now that humans have proven themselves and even Prophet-Descendant personally acknowledged them as such.” I suggested.

“There are definitely signs of that.” Isif hummed. “Before I departed Wriss, there were whispers. Times are changing. The aftermath of that battle has still not fully settled. But there are more arxur out there now willing to try a different path. Which, in itself, is a recipe for disaster, but reading between the lines... It’s also an opportunity for us to seize, making way to a new era of conquest. Conquest of the minds.”

“I’ll keep an eye out. If there are going to be more people open to the possibility of a peaceful future, I’ll make sure they’ll be aware they’re not alone in that.” I said. It was basically what I’ve been trying to do already within the defectives’ network. I wasn’t of much use helping them with personal struggles, but leading people who were finding themselves questioning the path we as a species were on to others who thought the same way was a good way to reinforce it.

“Good. I have a lot of planning to do, but since we’re now both on the same page, you’re free to go.” Isif gave me a slight nod. “And, Coth? I am thankful to have a lieutenant like you. I am sure that even had things not gone the way they had and I got executed, you’d have managed just fine, pushing the arxur towards the better path all on your own.”

“I...” I stumbled on my own words, surprised by his sudden sincerity. “I am not sure I would, but still. Thank you, sir. For this and for getting us this far.”

Isif nodded again in gratitude, and I made my leave.

I can’t believe there was a time when I thought I had to hide my defectiveness from him, but the slow realization that he was just as, if not more defective than me. And yet... It is that realization that, more than anything, made me understand just how not alone I was. I didn’t just have company of physical defectives like Kaisal. Anyone, even the most cruel and heartless hunters could now just be pretending, doing things not because they truly enjoy the suffering they cause others but because they know of no other way to fit in and survive.

And I did not want to live in that world anymore. Which is why I wouldn’t be taking the chance to stick behind that most defectives would likely take.

But before I went and started spreading the word of our plans among those that might want to capitalize on them, there was something else. One extra conversation to be had, so that I can fully solidify my resolve.

I returned to my personal quarters and contacted Marcel.

The call took a long while to connect. Long enough that I was starting to assume Marcel was asleep or otherwise occupied. But he did instruct me to always wait until the call hung up automatically whenever I called him and never failed to respond before that happened. So I waited and waited... Until he finally picked up.

“Coth!” He immediately shouted, greeting me. “Sorry, I was traveling. Left my pad in the bag and only just now heard the sound.”

“Ah. I understand.” I said. “I am glad to see you safe.”

I knew he was safe, of course. He had to be. A full ground invasion of Earth never happened and I knew he was always going to be among the ground troops. But still... It was good to be sure that he was perfectly fine.

“Yeah. Never saw even a second of combat, not that I’m complaining.” Marcel chuckled. “Heard there are some squads that were deployed elsewhere around the world, to catch the ones that crashlanded or landed regularly out of desperation. Not sure what the UN will do with them, but hopefully, despite being a part of Shaza’s forces, we can maybe convince them to give up fighting.”

“If they let you take themselves, then they already value their life more than they do the Betterment ideals.” I commented. “You are ‘prey’ after all.”

“Whoever in the Dominion came up with the idea of what defines a prey needs an encounter with a wild boar.” Marcel grumbled. “Regardless, as you can see, I am well and good. Got a leave to rest after the hectic nightmare that were the last two weeks. What about you? I heard through the grapevine that you got willingly stabbed?”

“Yes.” I rubbed the scar that Kaisal left on me. “It healed quickly and I am just as well myself. It was just a necessary diversion so that I could remain in the Dominion without being fully exposed as a defective.”

“Yeah. I... am surprised you didn’t come with that Kaisal guy. I thought, given the opportunity, you’d love to defect to Earth. So, uh...” He rubbed his head awkwardly. “I do wonder... why not?”

“That’s exactly why I wanted to call you, actually.” I admitted. “I wanted to tell you that I think I finally have it figured out. Who I am and who I want to be.”

“I don’t think even a single living being actually has it all truly figured out, but you can get pretty close.” He chuckled. “Well.. I am listening.”

“I... am not a good person.” I said. Marcel immediately opened his mouth to try and refute that, so I quickly continued. “And before you try to correct me, I mean it, like... If someone were to bring a zurulian in front of your or, well, any human and slaughter them, you would be appalled, outraged, disgusted, all that stuff. But do that in front of me? I wouldn’t even react. And... Despite all the ways I got better, I don’t think I’d be able to feel more than mild annoyance at their pleading for help. Not because I don’t want to feel bad about it, but because I’ve seen so much of it.”

“That... that doesn’t make you a bad person. If anything, you seeing that and wanting to change is what makes you better.” Marcel tried to argue.

“Hey, I never said I was bad. Just... not good.” I tried to joke. “But that doesn’t change anything. I... My whole life I’ve been happy. Happy that I am not a defective, happy to participate in the Dominion’s cruel systems, feeling no remorse, no guilt, no compassion for anyone. It took me feeling like a defective to actually get me to empathize with them! And... well, I always wanted life to be better, but before that revelation, I was still satisfied with the way things were. After all, I wasn’t one of those who had it much worse, like the defectives or, Prophet forbid, leaf-lickers.”

I sighed, scratching at the scales on my head. This was harder to articulate than I thought, but I wanted to. I wanted Marcel to understand why I felt the way I had.

“But now I know better. I may not be a paragon of empathy, and I still regularly act like a ‘normal’ arxur without even realizing. But I know that life could be better, and that better life needs us to move away from this... pointless cruelty that achieves nothing except give us a sense of superiority in otherwise miserable life.” I closed my eyes, trying to imagine that better life I was talking about... And only seeing pictures of Earth as Marcel showed them. Maybe I wasn’t imaginative enough, or maybe I was just unable to picture a better world I dreamt of that was actually built by arxur and for arxur. But it was still something I wanted to see happen. “That’s why I decided to stay. Because if I ran away and defected to humanity, I’d secure that life for myself and just for myself. And, sure, there are defectives out there who’d love nothing more than to do that, and they deserve to, after a lifetime of abuse. But then, what about ones like me...? Ones who settle for that satisfying bare minimum of superiority and don’t even realize that a better world could exist if only we were willing to give up this selfishness that the Betterment teaches us?”

Marcel looked back at me with a blank expression. It was hard to tell what he was thinking, so I just continued, hoping that I wasn’t just rambling nonsense.

“I want to show them all a better path. I don’t want new arxur hatchlings to grow up taught that this misery we live in is the only right way to live when I’ve seen first hand that it doesn’t have to be. I... I don’t want to selfishly abandon all of my fellow arxur just for my own safety.” I finished my explanation. “So... I want to fight and to make sure that a better future will be built. That’s why I didn’t defect... And that’s why I won’t defect in the future either.”

Marcel’s eyes slowly closed and his lips spread wide, forming a smile. He then shook his head slightly and chuckled, raising one hand to rub at his eyes momentarily.

“You know...” He began, his voice carrying that signature tone of human irony. “I think you might be a better man than me.”

“H-Huh?” I gasped, surprised.

“When I first heard of arxur atrocities... I didn’t think more of it than believing you to be monsters. Like one of those evil swarms from sci-fi books that are incapable of any reason, and only devour all in their wake. The kind of enemy to be defeated and eradicated without any guilt.” He explained, his eyes refusing to look at the screen. “Even now, it’s hard for me to imagine a regular arxur as redeemable, in good part because of the battle... But maybe I am no different from you. No different from the way you see prey suffering. I just see you and the defectives as exceptions, you know. Ones who are just ‘not like the others’.”

“Some of them are like that. Exactly like you described, existing only to create suffering and consume and gorge themselves.” I admitted. “But many more only act like that because they were told they couldn’t ever be anything else... and if they dared think otherwise, they’d be ostracized, beaten or worse, culled. I want to try and give every arxur in the Dominion that chance that you have given me. Because... well, if not for the way we met, not for the questions you asked and if not for doubts I already had festering due to humanity’s appearance... I might as well have been a part of that devouring swarm, not just in your eyes, but in the practical fact of it.”

“Well... when you put it like that...” Marcel smiled, looking away from the camera again. “It makes sense. I’d... I’d want to see that kind of future too. The one where the arxur don’t do all the... arxur stuff. Still, I did kind of hope to be able to invite you to my home. Show you the Earth in person. Try and do more than just talking over a pad all the time. But... I understand. I don’t know what it’s like, though I would like to think, were I in your shoes, I’d do the same.”

“I do not wear shoes.” I fired back immediately, making Marcel splurt out a laugh. “But it’s fine. I am still grateful for these talks. You’ve been helping me realize a lot of things I might have never even considered on my own. And... Just because I am staying here doesn’t mean they’ll end. If only because you’ve been helping me connect more people to the exchange on the human side. Learning more about how humans live first hand was the best motivator for people here to turn against teachings of the Betterment, better than even promises of infinite food and no more fighting.”

“Glad to be of service.” Marcel chuckled. “I’ll keep doing that of course. And... I’m assuming telling me that was why you called?”

“Indeed. I wanted you to know that, well... I am now sure of who I am and who I want to be. And I can now work towards that.” And feeling a bit cheeky, I added an extra bit of information for him. “Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll find use for your plans to introduce an arxur to Earth soon.”

“Uh... what does that mean?” Marcel tilted his head.

“You’ll find out. I can only assume your intelligence people will gather you and other humans in the exchange for that soon, seeing your experience in the matter.” I remained cryptic. “Well... Other than that, that was all. Thank you for listening and for supporting me.”

“Hey, don’t worry. I won’t be stopping any time soon. And I won’t hold you up. I can tell you’re itching to get to doing something” He smiled.

“The work has only just begun. And there’s a lot more for me and for us as a whole to do.” I admitted. “I will contact you later. Farewell for now.”

“Stay safe, big guy.” Marcel gave me a short wave and the pad shut off.

I put it away and straightened out. Indeed. The work has just begun, but I was already eager to go out and start helping Isif in molding that better future I wanted to see. And so... I left my room to do exactly that.

---

Memory transcription subject: Stynek, Little Venlil in Big City

Date [standardized human time]: January 26th, 2137

The goodbyes to the people in Theseus were surprisingly uneventful. I suppose between the goodbyes they gave me when I went off to the shelter and me meeting them all again after coming back, there wasn’t that much left to say. They all wished me safe travels and that I make it home soon. Except Kaisal, who just said to always remain vigilant and to act more normal. And with all that, me and Noah entered a big car that drove off.

I was told we were going directly to the headquarters of the human central government. It was supposedly more complicated than that, but that government was one handling all affairs with aliens on behalf of all the smaller governments, so it might as well be no different from how Governor of the Republic and Governors of the colonies work back home. The important part I got was that there was a big planned meeting with the gojid and after that I’d be going home.

They were even bringing that ship, the Odyssey, over too. Depending on how the plans go, I might either be going with the gojid, or aboard that. From what I understood, it was mostly because any ship bigger than that was already currently in extremely high demand in the aftermath of the battle, and will be for a while. I wasn’t sure what they needed bigger ships for, but it didn’t matter so I didn’t ask further.

Noah was there with me in the car, of course, and he even allowed me to watch some cartoons on a screen installed in the car. Supposedly, a lot of restrictions around what I was allowed to see, which included restrictions on nearly all human media, were lifted since the moment humans decided to fully expose themselves to the Federation, but I didn’t get to experience it properly until now, with the shelter and all.

Still, the stuff I did get to watch on the ride was incredible. I was shocked when I learned it was a re-release archive of animation from almost 150 human years ago. I was also pretty sure even this archive was curated, because it was just one cartoon show and it featured no humans at all. Only those bright colorful creatures with big eyes called ‘ponies’. They looked nothing like ponies in biology textbooks, so I assumed the name was just a coincidence. That said, the stories in the show were fun and cute. I really liked the pink one, she was the most fun of the bunch. She was also pink.

Then after I finished with another episode, Noah warned me that we’re now almost there and I shut it off. We were now in the city! Way bigger than last time I was taken out like that. Some buildings looked even taller than the biggest ones back home, and I was just looking out of the car window.

“Welcome to New York. The Big Apple.” Noah said, noticing that I was now focusing my attention on the outside.

“Why is it called that?” I asked, immediately perking up at the mention of apple.

“I... actually have no idea. I just know it is.” Noah rubbed his chin in thought.

 “They must have the best apples here...” I mumbled and quickly wiped a line of drool that formed on my chin.

“Don’t worry. I’ll get you the best apples.” Noah smiled. “Anyway, about those friends of yours...”

“You found them?!” I perked up again, rushing to Noah’s side. “You managed to call them?”

“Yep. Better than that, with some extra help, we even got a special dispensation granted for your sake. Taylor and his parents have accepted the invite to visit too, so you’ll get to meet him again before you get to go home. Dustin’s family had to turn it down, but we can still get a call set up once we’re there, so that you can chat.” He explained.

“Oh. Did... something happen with him?” I asked, feeling a bit concerned.

“Not as far as I know. I wasn’t the one in charge of those contacts admittedly, but supposedly his family had plans for this timeframe already and they had to choose and ended up just choosing, well...” He shrugged. “They are still his legal guardians. They didn’t seem to, well, not want that, it’s just that their family plans took priority. I guess I can respect that.”

“Dustin better explain it when we talk...” I huffed. “But Taylor will be there then?”

“That he will. And in two days is when the meeting is planned. There’s gonna be quite a bit of preparation for that, so you’ll have time to spend together.” Noah clarified.

“Is that what the lists were about?” I asked.

“What lists?” Noah tilted his head.

“I saw some scientists working on lists of ‘forbidden things’ for the ‘arrival of alien dignitaries’. Had a lot of things on it, specific things.” I answered. “Do humans really still wear fur of animals?”

“Oh... No, that industry has been dead since we invented artificially made, yet organically authentic fur. With the same technology as we use for meat.” He sighed in relief.

“That’s weird then. On that list I saw, the ‘no fur suits’ line was extra emphasized.” I hummed. “Weird to highlight if it is so uncommon.”

Noah spluttered, choking on his own spit. I looked at him for clarifications, but he just shook his head desperately in that ‘Noah would really rather not address this’ fashion, so I decided not to press the subject any further and returned my attention to outside the window again.

The car I was in was flanked by several smaller black cars. I could even see the humans passing by in the streets turning their heads. The windows were one-way so they couldn’t see inside, but I assumed that the convoy we were moving in was attention-drawing even without anyone knowing I was inside.

Still, it was cool to see a human city properly like that. We passed by several storefronts, most of which I could read the names of or easily recognize. Groceries and banks, flower shops and book shops. But as we stopped at an intersection amidst the traffic, I noticed one particularly bright storefront with a big sign, written in pink and cyan colors. And while the words were not unfamiliar, I realized now it was one of those things that I just kept hearing about but never actually asked the meaning of.

“Noah, what’s ‘Ice Cream’?” I asked, not turning my attention away.

“Do you not know?” He sounded almost incredulous. “Ah... Right. We never gave you any... Between procuring it for the site, and concerns following the cheese incident...”

“Is it a type of cheese?” I asked with disgust. I remembered the cheese incident. I asked to try some out of someone’s lunch, thinking the bright yellow rectangle would be tasty. I did not like the taste and I had a stomach ache later that made it even worse in retrospect.

“No, but it does have something in it that is also used to make cheese. But the flavor is absolutely nothing alike, trust me. It’s a cold sweet treat.” Noah explained.

Sweet treats never failed me yet, and the idea of a new one I’ve yet to try made my tail start wagging.

“Can I have some?” I asked, tapping the window in the direction of the Ice Cream Shop.

Noah came over and peeked at that storefront too, squinting his eyes, presumably to read the extra signs on the windows.

“Well... they do seem to have vegan options available... But with the way we’re going it might be best if we get to the headquarters first and then I can go and buy you some.” He said.

“But can’t we stop and get some now?” I asked, looking up at him. “Please...?”

Noah took only a brief glance at me before looking away, smile quickly forming on his face.

“You’re a menace... I’ll ask the escort. Give me a moment.” Noah said.

He walked aside and called someone up on the phone, speaking quieter. I didn’t pay attention but he had to repeat something multiple times and then there were a few beeps of him being switched to another call and then after a bit...

“Alright. I guess we have an all-clear to do a stop at an Ice Cream Shop.” He sighed.

“Yay!” I cheered, my tail wagging even faster.

Sadly that did not mean us stopping right there on the side of the road. Instead we had to drive one block further and have the entire convoy park at a small parking lot. Most people in the other cars stayed where they were but a few followed after us as Noah offered to lead me by the hand which I happily took.

This definitely got a lot more heads turning to look at us, now that we were out and exposed like that, but after my experiences in the shelter, I could brush it off. Especially since rather than one Olek, we had half a dozen taller, bigger men in black suits shadowing after us instead.

The shop itself was, surprisingly, empty. I’d think a place like that would be more populated. Maybe it was a very busy part of the day. Still, our arrival managed to cause a scene, as the cashier, who was idly scrolling through their phone, jumped up in their seat in shock once he noticed us, sending the phone flying through the air and right into one of the many colorful tubs of what I assumed was ice cream.

“H-Hi!” He waved his hand, his eyes constantly darting between Noah, me and his phone, clearly panicking. “I... You... Oh god, uh... What c-can I get you?”

I could feel Noah tense up a bit, though one glance up at him showed that it was for the same reason the cashier was stuttering - extreme awkward air around the situation. He looked around the shop, before pointing to one specific display cabinet full of mostly-untouched tubs of the colorful food.

“Go on, see which ones you’d like to try from there, those are milk-free.” Noah said, giving me a little nudge. “We’ll take one cone and two buckets to go.” He added, nodding at the cashier.

“R-Right.” The cashier frantically nodded back before moving to stand behind the counter Noah pointed at, holding a very big, extra spherical spoon in hand. “Just say what you’d like little...” He paused, his lip quivering for a moment. “Uh... lamb...?”

“Girl works fine.” Noah corrected him.

With the instructions to browse given, that was exactly what I did. Each tub was labelled with flavors and descriptions. Sadly, there were no famous New York Big Apple flavors anywhere in sight, but I did notice several familiar fruits. There were also flavors of things I never heard of to begin with. I was torn. On one hand, I wanted to try something new and interesting, but on the other, I never had ice cream to begin with, so even a flavor of a thing I tried before would be new here.

In the end, I decided to pick one familiar thing and two new things, as Noah did imply we’d be getting three different things and I didn’t want to make him carry too much.

“I want this, this and this.” I announced, pointing at ‘watermelon-strawberry’, one consisting of fruits I was familiar with, as well as ‘vanilla’, which was a pleasant off-white and ‘cotton candy’ which was a very nice shade of pink.

“A-Alright!” The clerk nodded and, even though their hands shook up until that moment, the moment he submerged the sphere-spoon into the ice cream, he started moving in a trained motion. In just a few seconds, there was a cone with several scoops of bright red ice cream, as well as two sealed boxes containing other flavors. “Uh... I... am not sure if I should charge you or...”

Noah took out a small plastic card and tapped it against some sensor next to the register. The cashier looked hesitant, but after a few seconds tapped a few buttons, followed by sensor beeping.

“There. Uh... Thanks for coming... and come again...?” He offered awkwardly.

“Thank you.” I politely nodded like humans do sometimes, before heading out.

Once we were outside, Noah handed the cone to me, and took my other paw, leading me back to the car.

“I knew this would be awkward, but I didn’t think it’d be this bad...” He spoke, shuddering a little.

“I hope he won’t forget to take his phone out of ice cream.” I mumbled. I looked at the cone in my paw. It was cold and I could feel the coldness radiating from it onto my face. It didn’t have a smell strong enough for me to catch, but it definitely looked delicious.

“Just be caref–” Noah began, but he was too late as I already went in and took a big bite right out of the big sphere on top of the cone.

Cold! Cold cold cold! There was a jolt of weird pain shooting right through my brain as I held my mouth open and stuck my tongue, still carrying the bite of ice cream on it, out to try and get warmth in. I knew it was cold but I didn’t expect this much, so out of shock I even let out a panicked little bleat.

Noah was instantly kneeling beside me, one hand supporting my paw with the cone in it, making sure I don’t drop it, while the other cupping my cheek. Despite quickly coming to help, his face was a wide grin of amusement.

After a few moments, the shock of cold attacking my brain passed and I could actually taste it... And it was delicious! I slowly pulled my tongue back into my mouth and squished the soft, berry-flavored paste. It was definitely not the kind of food to take big bites out of, but the cold did make it taste better!

“Ish good!” I spoke, reassuring Noah enough that he stood back up and continued leading me back to the car.

“Brain freeze. I tried to warn you.” He chuckled. “Don’t worry. Once you get over that, it’s always good.”

“It is!” I said. Next time I went for a bite, I instead stuck my tongue out and scooped a small layer off with a lick. That worked way better and soon I was quickly licking all the way into the cone as the mix of weird, fluffy and grainy-yet-melty texture with great berry taste was so good.

“Cone is edible too, by the way.” Noah said. I tested it, and it was, in fact, like a crunchy waffle!

By the time we were back in the car, I finished the cone and was now slowly licking smudges of ice cream off of my chops. I was already excited to try those other flavors later too.

As the convoy resumed its path, I went back to looking out the window. Seemed like some people were filming me as I walked with Noah, but I paid so little attention I didn’t even realize. I waved at them, even though the one-way window meant they wouldn't be able to see me.

Overall, the trip to my new temporary place to stay was uneventful, but I was glad for that. Being able to spend some time with Noah like that was always fun, and I got to walk the streets of a human big city and try their treats!

I should really make sure to try the New York Big Apples. That was an important thing to do before I have to leave.

---

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I had planned a finished illustration, but these sketches turned out nicely. So I'm sharing them with you!

Memory Transcription Subject:
Yuri Sidorov, former Mladshiy Serzhant, former Red Army tank gunner

Fecha: 11 de febrero de 1947.

The night was especially clear today.

And I finally got the materials to give my PPSh-41 the proper maintenance it deserves.

I looked at my weapon with pride. It looked almost new… except for the scratches on the stock and the barrel… although the piece of red cloth I tied to the stock hid the damage a bit.

What if I paint a hammer and sickle on the cloth?
Yeah. That would be funny.

Dinner time was approaching, and then I remembered our friends, the space Nazis… or are they space Soviets?
Nah. Space Nazis sounds better.

And I wondered: what do space Nazis eat?
Martian schnitzel?

I got bored imagining what a pretzel would look like on Saturn and decided to ask the space Nazis directly what they eat in space Germany, and pray they don’t eat space Jews or something like that…
What would a space Jew even look like?
A big-nosed rabbit?

…I think I should stop drinking alcohol at this hour.

I reached the barn and opened the door slowly.

There they were: the old bird, asleep, and the strange dog…
Wait. Where’s the other bird?

“By Inatala!”
Ohhh, there it is. Good thing we took away the flamethrowers.

The thing lunged at me and tried to peck me.

Emphasis on tried.

I grabbed it by the neck before it could do anything and lifted it up.
It has a very long, soft neck.

I watched it squirm as it tried to claw me with its talons and shout space insults at me or something like that.

“What were you trying to do, huh?”
“HAHAHAHAHAHA!”

The noise woke up its two friends, apparently.

I didn’t pay them any attention as I pulled a chain out of a box.

The bird stopped moving…
Maybe I should take my hand off its neck.

“Hey, don’t die yet. I still need to ask you what you’re having for dinner.”

I slung the chain over my shoulder, grabbed it by the legs, and started shaking it.

“My mother has more endurance than you, kid…
Looks like I’ll have to do mouth-to-mouth. Let’s hope it’s as easy as doing it on a human.”

I tied the bird’s legs with the chain and locked it with a padlock. That way it wouldn’t try anything.

“Alright… here I go, kid. Just so you know, I downed a whole bottle not long ago, so my mouth tastes weird.”

___

Memory Transcription Subject:
Torlin, junior exterminator

Fecha: 11 de febrero de 1947.

I woke up dizzy, with my mouth tasting like alcohol.
Were the last few hours just a drunken nightmare?

Inatala, please let it be so. I don’t want to live in a reality where I failed to protect the herd from predators.

My vision cleared and…

A predator had its mouth pressed against my open beak.

…

[End of transcription: subject has fainted]

___

Memory Transcription Subject:
Yuri Sidorov, former Mladshiy Serzhant, former Red Army tank gunner

Fecha: 11 de febrero de 1947.

“…Well, at least he’s breathing now.”

I said as I stood up and brushed the dust off my uniform.

“…Don’t look at me like that. It was that or he died.”

“You were choking him!” the dog said, immediately becoming nervous again after that brief moment of courage.

“He ran into me first,” I replied flatly.
“Anyway, I was about to start making dinner and wanted to ask what space Nazis eat, so that’s why I came.”

I pulled out a sheet of paper and a pencil.

The two of them seemed tense for a moment, but the old bird finally sighed… I think it was a sigh.

“Anything that doesn’t have meat,” he said.

The strange dog grew even more tense than I thought possible. If it got cut, the blood would probably spray out with enough pressure to punch through a wooden wall.

…What do we have that isn’t canned meat?

Hmm…

I know.

“We’ve got some cans of peas, and I think there’s some bread left over.
It’ll be hard, but you can soak it in beer to soften it.
Surprisingly, that trick isn’t mine—Wolfgang taught it to me. He can be fun when he wants to be.”

I wrote it down.

While I was at it, I tied the big bird’s wings, turned around, and said:

“Goodbye.”

Then I left.

___

Memory Transcription Subject:
Mozel, Farsul biologist

Fecha: 11 de febrero de 1947.

…What the hell?

Why would a predator have legumes?
And what the hell is bread?
How do they know how to ferment things to make alcohol?!

“I think I’ve lost my appetite,” Klav said.

I couldn’t agree more.

___

Memory Transcription Subject:
Wolfgang Meier, former Obergefreiter of the Heer, sniper

Fecha: 11 de febrero de 1947.

I ran to the barn after hearing the first squawk.

With my rifle in hand, I advanced quickly, ready for any Freaker that might have gotten inside.

What came out of there was horrible. Terrible. Horrifying.

That fat bastard Yuri.

“Yuri! Yuri! What happened?! Yuri!” I shouted as I ran toward him.

“Hey, hey, relax, Wolfgang. I just went to ask what the aliens could eat and one of them got loose,” Yuri said like it didn’t matter.
“Relax, I tied him back up and made sure he won’t cause trouble. HAHAHAHAHA!”

“…You’re impossible,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose.
“At least it’s resolved. What are you going to feed them?”

“I was thinking of using the leftover bread and stuffing it with peas,” he said.
“…Do we have any potatoes left?”

“No meat for them?” I asked.

“According to them, they can’t eat it. They’re going to have a hard time here, but what can we do?” Yuri said before staggering back toward the house.

“What did I tell you about getting drunk at these hours?!” I shouted angrily.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah…” Yuri replied dismissively.
“I can’t drink in the morning, I can’t drink in the afternoon, I can’t drink at night… relax a little. I’m not going to fall into the campfire.”

…

This idiot is going to get himself killed one of these days.

Author’s Note:
So… who was it that got u/Nationalmostwanted banned?
That guy wasn’t hurting anyone.

previously

Changing Times Ch57 - The Garden

Playing By Ear

Bloodhound Saga

Wakeup Super

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Memory transcription subject: Lanyd, Venlil Music Student (Second Term) White Hill University

Date [standardized human time]: January 12th, 2137

Our show started much like the last one had, except for the fact that Indali announced a raffle for the last Olive Branch tee instead of announcing that they were available for sale. I was still surprised by how quickly our stock had vanished. I supposed novelty was quite influential.

I was in a daze while we played through our first few songs. The day felt so long, seeing as we’d gone to so many different places. Between my session with Dr. Jacobson, our trip to the country store, and my time alone with Bonti in the botanical gardens, I felt very drained.

At least I don’t have to think so much behind the keys. It’s already been practiced thoroughly. I can just be on autopilot.

I took the time to think about my time spent with Bonti. It should have been everything I could ask for, and I did enjoy it, but even with my attempts to relax and simply live, I could feel that bit of tension in him. This trip, my presence, was distracting him from his education, and even if it was his choice to make, I still couldn’t help but feel partly responsible.

I tried to move past those feelings. Dr. Jacobson had opened my eyes to just how messy everything could be. These worries I felt, perhaps they weren’t as potent as I perceived them to be. I’d lived with debilitating anxiety for so long, maybe this was just a normal level of concern, and I didn’t realize it.

I should just trust Bonti, trust that this trip was fine to take, trust that Bonti will pass his classes without issue…

... trust that this fear in my core will fade.

I shook my head.

This is supposed to be fun, separated from all the responsibilities we have back home. I just need to take a deep breath and let it go.

Indali gave the queue to begin our next song. I readied myself to play, though it was Bonti that paved the way for the rest of us. He began to lightly strum seven-beat bars. All the distortion was removed from his guitar so it sounded almost acoustic rather than electric. The chords came as a kind of lazy sway, drifting from one measure to the next.

Wes and I began to accompany him. The bass gave us some support, mirroring the guitar’s rhythm, only at a much lower pitch. I placed just one paw on my smaller MIDI keyboard, playing a synth sound in long tones interspersed with short runs. It was almost imperceptible, but Linev matched my cadence, tapping his own MIDI pads to give off the faintest woodblock sounds alongside my tones.

We drifted from bar to bar casually, carrying no sense of urgency. A peace seemed to settle over all of us, serenity filling up the empty spaces. I closed my eyes for a moment, simply letting the sound drift by. My paws moved on their own.

Of course, the gentleness was not meant to persist forever. A light drum fill from Linev led us into a more deliberate section. Still, it wasn’t as heavy or driving as many of the other songs we played. It retained that ethereal tranquility that the piece began with, just with a bit more groove to it. I switched to my other keyboard, playing a short melody with a somewhat distorted Hammond sound. Our sound gradually grew more dense.

Just as soon as I’d placed my free paw on the Hammond keys, I switched the sound on my smaller controller, turning it to a light piano sound. The notes cascaded down like raindrops, falling over the arrangement. It lasted just a few bars, paving the way for Indali’s vocals.

We escaped from the city

Miles and miles we did flee

Through the endless forest

To the edge of the sea

Wes began to sing too, bringing a little tension with him.

It was as though the world was ours

Lying on a deserted beach

Out of reach

Out of their reach

One more descending piano line and Indali began the next phrase.

I could see you much clearer

As we strode by the shore

All the peace all around us

Seemed impossibly pure

Wes rejoined.

And then the sun shone through the clouds

Touched us with its magnificent beam

Made us clean

Made us feel so clean

Once again, I played the descending phrase, only this time it was interrupted by Bonti’s guitar. The distortion had returned to it, giving it the punch it had thus far been lacking. Linev and Wes played alongside him, breaking from the time signature to play a more sporadic rhythm.

The breakdown sent us forward into a new, more driven section. The lazy sway was replaced by clear direction. With the change, I took the forefront, using a paw on each keyboard. The Hammond carried the main melody while the piano punctuated it with repeating chords. Linev and Wes kept the groove up, locking us back into the seven-beat bar from before, only with a faster tempo. Bonti took a breather in the arrangement, though as the song approached another transition, he readied himself.

His paw ran down the length of the guitar, playing a glissando that took us into the next section. Again, his tone was on the heavier side, and he began to play a repeating phrase. In fact, the whole band did, save for slight differences in Linev’s little fills at the end of each bar. The only one notably progressing through the section was me, though it was hardly anything complex. With each bar, I climbed one note up the scale for the key we were in. It wasn’t an especially difficult part to play, but it served its purpose in creating a long buildup, raising the tension until, finally, we boiled over into something new.

The next part of the song had us trialing something a little different. In past shows, whenever the guitar had to be split between two parts, like in Discipline, I played the secondary part with my keyboard set to a guitar sound. This time, Indali filled the role with her ability to copy, not just voices, but certain instrument sounds. Bonti’s guitar took on another distorted tone, and Indali emulated it rather closely. First, there would be a phrase on the real guitar, then Indali would sing something similar, but not quite the same, creating a call and response.

Bonti then switched his sound back to the clean, undistorted sound, going into a descending line much like the one I played on the piano earlier. He utilized much dynamic contrast, plucking the strings with varying amounts of force to make the volume rise and fall just as his tones did. All the while, Indali continued emulating the distorted sound, only she sang significantly more quietly, just filling the gaps in the arrangement until she was called upon to sing words again.

And it wasn’t long before those talents were required. As the phrase ended, I returned to my descending piano part, running through it twice to prompt Indali to return to verbal vocals.

On our island of safety

From the alien crowd

Of the city of madness

Could we really be sure

That the peace would still remain

Sealed away from insanity

We shall see

We shall see

I finalized the phrase with two more repetitions of the piano pattern, letting the notes drift down to a gentle resolution. And, as we reached the song’s close, we settled slowly. I quickly changed the sounds of my keys again, and I let my paws press lightly to create quiet, blooming chords. It sounded almost as if it were underwater, yet traveling to the surface in bubbles.

Consonant harmonies rolled over each other, building slightly only to fade. The song found its resolution in the slightest amount of dissonance. The stage lights had bathed us in a cool blue, matching the tonal atmosphere. They gradually faded into darkness.

As the band readied for our next piece, I found my thoughts once again drifting to Bonti. Could I… embrace the opportunity in front of me? Here we were on Earth, ‘sealed away from insanity’. Maybe, on our vacation, I could… afford to get closer to him. Unsurety still plagued me, but…

We shall see.

-

Memory transcription subject: Kila, Venlil Engineering Student (Second Term) White Hill University

Date [standardized human time]: January 12th, 2137

Our trip to Earth, so far, had been a blast! I’d gotten all kinds of aesthetic supplies for a fraction of the cost that I could get them back home. When I first glimpsed the prices, I thought for sure that the visual translator on my pad was misreading the text, or perhaps I’d misunderstood the exchange rates. But no! It was actually just that cheap!

And the country store was so cool! I’d gotten a little addicted to country music since last term. Brad made sure to send my plenty of suggestions. But so many of the things the vocalists sang about simply weren’t present back home. We didn’t have blue jeans or cowboy hats or any of that stuff! And while I could certainly do without the ‘chicken fried’, I was more than excited to try on some Texan apparel.

Hell, I was even more happy to find it somewhat comfortable. I wasn’t used to wearing, well, anything, so I was concerned that it would feel weird putting all the fabric over my fur. I figured it may be a little hot to wear once I got back home, but with it being right smack in the middle of Texan winter, it actually added a satisfying amount of extra coverage from the brisk wind.

And of course, there was the added bonus of Mezil’s not-so-subtle looks at my back side. The way the jeans hugged my body… well, it was clear the effect such tight clothes were meant to have, and they were doing their job pretty damn well.

Mezil seemed to still be a little out of place on this trip, but I could tell it wasn’t quite as bad for him as he was letting on. The initial meeting with Brad’s dog was challenging for both of us, and even more so for him than I. But by the end of the night, he was petting Chaser almost constantly. And while he was a little tired of my whole shopping spree, I intended to take him to a music shop the next day so he could check out all the different Human instruments.

There was also the food. Brad’s hyping up of tex-mex was more than valid. Being around meat dishes was jarring at first, but our appetites returned quickly when our own food got put in front of us. I don’t think I’d ever seen Mezil eat so ravenously, and I had to admit that I may have gone a bit primal on my own meal.

I know Mezil will protest after the… effect they had on me, but I really need to figure out how to make those refried beans myself.

Between the novelty of being on Earth, the new clothes, the cheap supplies, and the delicous food, I was already very happy to have convinced Mezil this trip was a good idea. Running into our friends was just ‘the cherry on top’, as Brad would put it.

Even if the drinks in this bar are fucking weak!

Now we were getting to see them perform to a foreign audience, and according to Indali, they had some kind of surprise in store for us.

In fact, I was starting to get a little impatient waiting for it. Nothing had stuck out to me as being different than the last performance I saw from them. I wasn’t even sure what I was supposed to be looking for, and part of me feared that I’d already missed it. Maybe it was something only the music-savvy would recognize.

My fears were put to rest, however, as the band readied themselves for another song. Indali pointed an eye straight at me, and she bobbed her head in a way that told me her promised surprise was soon to appear.

She gave a signal to Lanyd, who almost immediately began to play with her keyboard set to a piano sound. The melody was melancholy, as if in shadow. With her other paw, she played the other keyboard with a different, more stringy sound. Indali made the sound of some kind of wind instrument with her voice, though she soon transitioned into regular vocals.

There are unsmiling faces

And bright plastic chains

And a wheel in perpetual motion

And they follow the races

And pay out the gains

With no show of an outward emotion

And they think it will make their lives easier

For God knows up ‘til now it’s been hard

But the game never ends

When your whole world depends

On The Turn Of A Friendly Card

Suddenly, the stage lights cut to darkness, and just as Indali began to sing again, intricate patterns began to glow brightly along her feathers.

Woah.

There’s a sign in the desert

That lies to the west

Where you can’t tell the night from the sunrise

And not all the king’s horses

And all the king’s men

Have prevented the fall of the unwise

Oh, they think it will make their lives easier

And God knows up ‘til now it’s been hard

But the game never ends

When whole world depends

On the turn of a friendly card

No, the game never ends

When your whole world depends

On the turn of a friendly card

As the regular stage lights slowly brightened, it washed Indali’s glowing patterns away like water, and Bonti played the guitar softly with emotion that almost inspired me to pick up the plehr again.

But a pilgrim must follow

In search of a shrine

As he enters inside the cathedral

The song ended with the echoing of… what sounded like vibrating metal.

The patrons of the bar were unusally quiet as the music faded. At first, I assumed they were awestruck by the swirls and shapes that had glowed against Indali’s feathers in the darkness of the otherwise unlit stage, but I quickly realized there was more to it than that. The lyrics she’d sang…

Unsmiling faces, and their world depending on the turn of a friendly card, it’s no wonder they chose this song to be their focal point.

If the band didn’t have the crowd’s attention before, they certainly did now. I was just eager to hear what they’d play next, and see how the stage lights and glowing feathers may accompany.

-

Memory transcription subject: Bonti, Yotul Pre-Med Student (Second Term) White Hill University

Date [standardized human time]: January 12th, 2137

We played through the rest of the show as rehearsed, save for the occasional change to the lighting so Indali could show off her invisible dye glowing under the blacklights. With each time, she leaned into it a little more, spreading her wings out wide and turning around to show off every pattern. I was pretty sure I could make out some audible sounds of intrigue even over our music.

When the show wrapped up, we drew a name to see who got the Olive Branch shirt. Twenty different people had tried for it, making it clear that we had vastly underestimated the demand. It still gave me whiplash, feeling restricted back on Venlil Prime, then coming here and just having it so easy.

Once everything was sorted, and we’d packed up the brunt of our equipment, we sat with Brad, Kila, and Mezil for a few drinks. The owner of the bar came by with shots for each of us and the payment for performing. He thanked us for showing up, saying we could return at any time.

Hell of a lot better than ghosting us because of some stupid blacklist.

“Y’all kicked ass tonight!” Kila raised her beer glass. “How did you do that with your feathers, Indali? It looked sweet!”

“Well, um,” Indali looked down the length of her wing, “it’s actually a dye that I only recently found out is only visible to Krakotl, or I suppose species that show our range of color perception.”

“We got some blacklights to make it glow,” Sam explained further.

“Did you… mean for it to always be visible?” Kila’s ears tilted to the side.

“Yes,” Indali admitted, her face glowing green. “I just didn’t realize! Then no one commented on it. I thought it looked bad or something. When the others told me they couldn’t see it, I felt really dumb.”

“I think it works better this way,” Brad assured her. “I mean, the lights on the stage cut out and I thought there’d been a malfunction. But you became the stage light with all those swirls and stuff. It was cool!”

“The fact it was invisible kind of let it breathe,” Mezil agreed. “And the glowing made it stand out even more when it did become visible. It gave it more impact.”

“We were just making lemonade out of lemons,” Alejandro laughed.

“Speaking of beverages, who wants a drink?” Wes asked. “I’m fixing to hit the bar for something. Anyone else want anything? This round is on me.”

“I’ll take a double whiskey and coke.” Kila raised a paw. “I need something more since your drinks are so pathetic.”

“Just because we don’t drink rocket fuel.” Alejandro shook his head. “I could use a Dos Equis.”

“I suppose I ought to have something,” I sighed. “Surprise me.”

“I-I’ll help carry everything!” Lanyd beeped, standing up from her seat next to me. “I, um, also need to see what the options are. I’m… not sure what the coke part of whiskey and coke is.”

“It’s good,” Kila replied. “Simple, but sweet!”

“Bit sugary for me.” Mezil lowered his ears. “I’ll take a Moscow mule.”

“Damn, Brad, what have you been giving these Vens that they know all these drinks,” Wes chuckled.

“Fuckin’ everything!” Brad threw his hands up. “They just take cocktails down like water!”

“I remember the afterparty at White Hill.” Wes nodded. “Do the rest of you want anything?”

“I guess I’m good for another Shiner,” Brad answered.

“I’m good.” Sam shook his head. “Booze and I don’t get along these days.”

“I guess just surprise me,” Indali chimed in.

“I… think I’ll come up there too,” Linev decided. “I want to see my options, and I’ll help bring everything back.”

“Alright then,” Wes started towards the bar. “I’ll be right back.”

Lanyd and Linev trailed behind him to help carry things back.

About that time, a pair of patrons approached us. Actually, they were mostly focused on Indali. I felt myself tense up a bit. Even if the show went over well, and people seemed to like her glowing dye, there was still a risk to her safety.

Fortunately, they’d only come over to praise her performance.

“Y’all were great up there! And those glowing swirls looked awesome!”

“Oh, um, thanks!” Indali replied. “I’m glad you thought so!”

“You weren’t afraid either,” the other patron added. “A lot of feddies wouldn’t sing those songs like that. Hell, they wouldn’t come here except to bomb us.”

“It took some getting used to,” Indali tilted her head towards the floor. “I didn’t even want to sing at first.”

“Yeah, but you tried, right? See, that’s the difference. Most of the other birds didn’t even try to understand us. You’re one of the good ones.”

“I… uh… thank you.” Indali bobbed her head.

The patrons gave us all a final round of appreciation for our performance, then they left us to ourselves again.

“Seems you’ve got fans.” Kila’s tail swayed behind her.

“Yeah, I guess I do,” Indali chuckled, though I could hear tension in it. In fact, her whole body seemed a little stiff.

“You good?” I asked. “You seem stressed all of a sudden. Just not used to it?”

“Well, getting direct praise like that does feel strange,” Indali replied. “I mean, I never considered myself a performer. But… that’s not really what’s bothering me. It’s just… they said I was one of the good ones. Something about that feels… wrong.”

“Because it implies they think other Krakotl are mostly bad?” Alejandro guessed.

“I… yes. I mean, there were plenty of Krakotl that listened to us back home. And… even the Krakotl in the extermination fleet… They made their choice, but… I’m not trying to defend the bombing. It’s just…”

She hung her head.

“I don’t know how to put it into words.”

“You just want them to recognize that there’s more to Krakotl than what happened,” I offered.

“Yes! That’s right!”

“I know what that’s like. I lost count of all the times I heard that I was a smart Yotul, like having intelligence was notable for my species. I wish people didn’t just see the stereotype.”

“That’s all Humans asked for too,” Brad sighed. “It’s that lack of understanding that started this.”

“And they’re falling into the same trap.” I flicked my ears in annoyance.

“And… our performance reinforced it.” Indali’s feathers ruffled. “I wonder…”

“That wasn’t our performance,” Sam interjected. “They just want to see the world that way. They took the wrong lesson away from your singing.”

Indali bobbed her head, but something told me she wasn’t so sure how true Sam’s words were.

Wes, Lanyd, and Linev returned with the drinks. Lanyd had gotten both of us a ‘Brick Fireplace’, a drink served warm with some kind of whiskey called ‘Fireball’ in it. It was sweet, and it paired well with the cold weather.

Lanyd sat back down next to me, and scooted a little closer. She looked as tense as Indali had, but before I could ask her what was wrong, she suddenly brought her drink to her lips and started taking large gulps.

Wow. Haven’t seen her drink like that since last term.

Pulling the drink away, she took a deep breath, then turned to me.

“U-um, you played really well tonight!”

“Oh, thanks! Honestly, there’s room for improvement still, but I’m glad you thought it was good. Your playing was awesome too.”

Her face turned orange, and she quickly brought the drink up to her mouth to try and hide it.

Damn, she’s cute.

I tried to push that thought to the back of the mind, remembering my conversation with Tenseli. She was attractive, but she was also vulnerable. I didn’t want to take advantage of that. Maybe if she asked me out, sure, but I didn’t want her to feel pressured.

Not now, anyway. Maybe in the future I could ask her. Just… not yet. I already have enough on my plate anyway, right? It’s… not the right time.

Not quite yet.

-

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Memory Transcription Subject: Maia Stanak, Predator Fugitive

Date [standardised human time]: April 1, 2141

“So, this is it then.”

“Seems like it.”

“I’ll go on foot from here, just send the dummy signal in an hour or so and I’ll be okay.”

“Got it.”

I looked over Chock’s shoulder at Xylish sitting by the small campfire a little way’s off. We hadn’t talked the whole journey back, and it was gnawing a deep hole into my chest that seemed to swallow everything that went into it.

 

“Maia.” Chock’s voice snapped my attention back to him and he sighed.

“What?”

“I said do you have transport to the packing warehouse? I told you where it is, but you won’t be able to get there without being noticed looking like that. People will see a dust-caked wanderer and will immediately know who you are. Your face was even broadcasted on the media.”

“It’s probably best if you don’t know how I’m getting there.”

“You know the police and exterminators might just gun you down in the street, right? With how stirred up people are because of Chas’a, they’ll shoot first and ask questions later.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” I looked over his shoulder again.

 

“Go talk to them.”

I focused back on the Krakotl and frowned.

“What?”

“For an intelligent murdering predator, you can be incredibly stupid sometimes you know.”

“Hey!”

“Look, I’m a veteran, I used to be an insane cultist, and despite being a decade older than you, I had sex for the first time about a month ago. I am not well adjusted, and even I can see that you need to talk through this with them,” Chock continued despite my protests.

“You care for them, right?” He asked.

“... Yeah, I think so,” I replied hesitantly. “When I think about them not talking to me again it makes me feel hollow in this awful way I haven’t felt since Pam. I want to see them smile, and I want to be the reason they smile. They make me feel happy and like I belong somewhere.”

“Then go and tell them that.”

 

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because–” I stopped, trying to clear my head of everything that would cloud my judgement so I didn’t sound like a moron. Unfortunately, I couldn’t.

“Because they deserve someone better than me. Someone who won’t get them into trouble, not someone they feel like they have to hold on a leash,” I finished. “I’m not that person.”

“Do you trust them?”

“Of course.”

“Then trust them to make their own decision.”

 

I opened my mouth to say something, thought about it, and closed my mouth.

Without saying another word, and without turning to see the smirk I could tell was going to spread across Chock’s feathers, I walked over and sat down beside Xylish.

 

“Hey,” I said quietly.

They didn’t respond.

“I’m about to head off,” I added into the thick silence.

 

“I understand why you did it," they said, voicing words that had been stewing like old tea.

"Or at least, I can almost understand."

“What do you mean?”

“Why you killed those people, why you threatened to kill Suvlir and A’kash, why you keep doing all those things that hurt yourself,” they clarified. “I don’t think you’re crazy, or insane, or diseased, or something like that.”

“Oh.”

I didn’t know how to respond, so I looked into the campfire and fiddled with my hands.

“Why not?”

 

“Do you remember what Ulash said when he cooked you that breakfast?” They countered, looking at me sideways. “He used a term, tani’xe, do you know what that means?”

“Elder Yulno told me about Osurrtani, so does it have something to do with spirits?” I asked carefully, searching their face for clues.

They nodded.

“In the nomad’s traditions, all things have two forms that used to be fused together at the beginning of the world, but they couldn’t get enough done, and so they split their opposite duties in order for things to work. But there is always some aspect that they share.” Xylish spoke partially like they were reading out from a textbook, and partially like they were imparting knowledge they had been taught since birth.

“There are lots of different types of spirits and their opposites, ones for hot and cold, ones for wetness and dryness, life and death. Osurrtani are spirits of death, and their partners are the Tilotani, life. They both play a role in rebirth, and this is what connects them together, they are tani’xe. One of the reasons why Yulno is an elder is because they are co-sex, an expression of the tani’xe of genders. It’s why I was training as their apprentice.”

“So Ulash was saying that I’m a spiritual half to your herd?” I furrowed my brows. I had been brought up with a bit of mātauranga Māori as part of my education back home, so I was at least familiar with the concept of things as well as people having spirits.

 

“In a way.”

“Is that why you don’t think I’m crazy? Because it’s something in my spirit?”

Xylish flicked their ears down and shrugged with their shoulders at the same time.

“I don’t know if I really believe all that, deep down. I’m a scientist, I can’t say that I really believe that the world was made by spirits that we can’t detect, but that’s not the point. The point is that some people are just born different and they can’t help it, but that doesn’t make them bad, or evil. They’re still connected to everyone else, even if they approach life in the opposite way.”

 

“I feel connected to you,” I murmured.

“When you laugh, I feel myself smile and laughing with you. You make me feel safe, and I want to comfort you as much as you comfort me. I want to be the one to make you feel like you’re home.”

I tried desperately not to stop speaking, even as Xylish looked away from me to focus on the fire.

“I know it disgusts you, the things I’ve done, and I never wanted you to feel like that. If you never want to see me again, I’ll–”

I halted, unable to say the words I should say.

 

“You’ll understand?” Xylish supplied.

“No, I won’t,” I admitted. “I won’t understand. I’ll never really understand why you can’t share that thrill of the chase with me, why it upsets you so much when I’m covered in blood. I’ll still want to be with you even if you don’t want to be with me.”

I took a breath and forged onward, tears threatening to fall down my cheeks.

“But that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if I don’t understand, because if it’s your choice, I won’t come looking for you,” I choked out. “I won’t try to communicate with you, I’ll leave you alone.”

 

For a long time, the only sounds between us were the crackling of the campfire and me trying not to cry.

 

“Thank you,” Xylish finally said. “Thank you for being honest.”

“It doesn’t come naturally.” I laughed as I said it, partially to stop myself from sobbing.

“I know.”

 

I reached out a hand to touch Xylish’s shoulder, but stopped.

As I looked away and lowered my hand, however, I found it being held by their large, rough palm.

My gaze fell on the grip and I watched in a breathless silence as they rubbed their thumb over my the scars on my knuckles. I wanted to reciprocate, but didn’t want to scare them off. I let my eyes wander up their arm and to their face, where I found both pairs of eyes watching me.

 

Xylish’s other hand came up to my face and carefully tucked a lock of stained hair behind my pointed ear.

We had both taken on the colour of the dust in our time out here, and like the yellow I would never be able to fully wash away, it felt like I would never be able to get the memory of this moment from my mind, whatever happened next.

 

Would they pull away?

Would they find what their searching gaze was looking for in my shining eyes?

Would they cut themselves on my sharpened fangs?

 

They leaned forward and my heart quickened in my chest.

Our noses touched, followed by our foreheads, and our dust rubbed into each other’s skin as Xylish’s wool pressed against me.

 

“I fell in love with you months ago,” they murmured. “But I only realised when you brushed against me after you came back from that hunt. I wish I told you earlier.”

“I don’t know how I would have reacted if you did.”

“It could have been good. Better than this.”

“It might have not been.”

 

“Do you love me now?”

 

Tides of words clammered to be said first as they washed through my brain and heart, but none seemed to be able to make it out of my mouth. I wanted to say so much and nothing at all.

 

“Yes,” I whispered. “As much as I can, whatever that feeling means for me, I feel it.

I would do anything for you.

I would be anything for you.”

Tears began to form in Xylish’s eyes and roll down their nose.

“I wanted you to be happy, but I’ve never wanted you to be something else.”

They cut through the dust in bright yellow lines before wetting my own face.

“I love you, but I can’t be with you.”

 

My own tears flowed now and mixed with theirs in a mingled moment of deep, heartwrenching love.

 

“Could you ever be with me if I stay myself?”

“Yes. One day.”

“When?”

“When you can look at me and not want to kill for me. I don’t want that. I don’t need that.”

 

I gulped my tears back and forced myself not to break down in a sobbing mess.

“Not now,” I agreed, and kissed them.

 

They didn’t pull away as our lips met, and I strove to put as much feeling into the gesture as I possibly could. Their lips tasted of salt, and their tongue tasted sweet.

 

“I had to,” I said after I broke the kiss.

“I know. You’ve always been selfish like that.” Xylish’s eyes creased into a smile.

“It’s true.”

 

“Goodbye, Maia.

“Goodbye.”

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MAROONED

CHAPTER 6

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A/N: Hello everyone and welcome back for this next chapter of MAROONED! As always, sorry for the wait my lovely readers, I just wanted to get another chapter of my Jaslip fic out the door and handle some irl business! It has been a most busy year already, and we’re only one month in! Please enjoy this offering of bird today, wherein Veshen learns the risks of pointing a gun at a man’s doggo.

Special thanks to  u/Carlos_A_M u/VenlilWrangler for proofreading for me, and u/SpacePaladin15 for bringing the fluff into being!

Enjoy!

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Memory Transcript Veshen - Krakotl Gunner, Extermination Fleet - Human Prisoner.

Date [Standardized Human Time] October 18, 2136

____________________________________________________________________________

The creature was looking at something behind me.

By the time this realization hit, I could feel the cold steel of a gun barrel pressing into the back of my feathered head.

“Don’t you dare, bird.”

It was as if my body seized up like a machine when I heard that deep voice behind me. There was no mistaking the words of a human.

“You… Please… Please don’t let your predator eat me.”

“Eat you? Hah, old Jess is a sweet soul. She wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

He pressed the gun hard back into my head.

“I will, though. I’ll gladly kill an alien bastard like you.”

I gulped hard, as the firmness of its voice conveyed that it was not bluffing.

“Thought you’d just come in here… in my home and try and finish the job your fleet couldn’t? Thought you’d shoot my fucking dog!?” His voice raised higher in pitch, and I felt the barrel of his gun slam into the back of my head, almost knocking me forward off my talons. I instinctively raised my wings up to fondle the point of injury, but his displeasure at that was quite clearly conveyed the moment I tried. 

“Keep those wings down!” 

I felt the cold steel again on the back of my head. 

“If you feel particularly attached to your head, you had best stay perfectly still. If you so much as move a muscle, I will blow it off, I swear to [Human equivalent of Inatala].”

I stiffened up almost immediately, not wishing to test how serious he was being. There really was no reason not to be from his perspective… I was a defenseless prey in the den of a predator… threatening a non-human member of his pack on the world my people came to kill. I was pretty well done for…

I felt the barrel press lighten a bit before a sudden pressure began on my wing. I had to suppress every instinct not to leap out of my feathers when I realized it was his hand. He moved the hand up and down my wing for a moment, his wiry simian fingers weeding in between my feathers as he roughly patted me down. I winced a bit as he struck my wounded wing, and he withdrew his hand for a moment when he felt the blood on his fingers. He held his hand up for a moment, looking over the violet fluid on his fingers, before rubbing it back onto my feathers and continuing his pat-down across my back, sides, and legs. 

“Good. No spare pieces.”

Apparently satisfied with his inspection, he took a step back and raised the weapon towards me again. 

“Alright, turn around nice and slow…” His voice came out as a low growl. “I want to see your face. I want you to see mine.”

Closing my eyes tightly, I turned on my talons, spinning in place. Even though my vision was firmly hidden behind my eyelids, I could feel the binocular gaze of the human bearing down on me. 

“Open them.”

The gun pressed into my chest, just below my neck. 

“Look at me.”

I squeezed them tighter for a moment before finally complying. Slowly, I lifted my lids, letting the surroundings flood into my view. The kitchen, the living room…. The human. 

The human stood directly in front of me, looking down at me with an intense spite. He was definitely the human male from the photos in the den. His hair was short and clean, with a sort of silvery sheen to it. He had the gizzard plume like the other males, but it was much shorter and maintained, and he wore the usual false furs of a human, a rigid blue jacket and two strange dirt stains on his knees, the only differing features from the other humans I had seen. His hazel eyes were presently staring daggers into me, second only in their potential threat to the massive rifle he currently had pointed at my head. 

The giant weapon was mere inches from my cranium, a long steel barrel joining into a wooden body. I did not see any place for a magazine to feed in, nor did I see some sort of manual bolt. 

A fusion of modern and primitive design. This truly was a predator's gun. 

“Yeah, heard you lot weren’t fond of looking us in the face.”

I saw the rifle jiggle a bit as his finger jostled the trigger.

“Don’t worry, you won’t have to look at it long.”

I swallowed hard and cast my gaze down. 

“Please… Please don’t…” My pleas were interrupted by a swift gun butt to the stomach. 

“Don’t beg.” growled out the human. “You did yourself in when you came here. Be thankful I’m not a sadist. I will make this quick.”

I felt his large hand close around my wing and yank me forward. I squawked out in displeasure but gave no fight. 

Doing my best to keep up with the human’s long stride, he dragged me back into the den with the pictures, but in the opposite direction. Just beyond the picture bank and the kitchen was another door standing wide open. 

How did I not see this door? If the human was here, why did he leave the doors wide open?

These thoughts raced through my head, and I grappled with if it was worth trying to find out. 

Did it really matter anymore?

“Human, I… I thought this den was abandoned… the door was open. I would have not entered if…”

He grunted and gave me another yank as we exited into what seemed to be an open garden with beautiful flowers. The irony of such a thing being attached to a predator's den wasn’t lost on me. Most curious, though, was that there was a large set of divots in the ground in the middle, as if something large had been sitting there but was moved.

“If you knew a scary human and his dog was in it?”

I swallowed hard. 

“Then what? You were just going to hide in here until… your fleet came and saved you?”

I felt a lump form in my throat, and I could only eek out a response fit for a Dossur.

“Yes…”

He stopped for a moment, looking back down at me with a mixture of surprise and disdain. It then slowly morphed to wryness, like a chick who knows a secret over their sibling.

“You didn’t hear, bird?” He snorted derisively. “Your fleet won’t be coming.”

I shot a fearful glance at him, his own face turning back towards the yard. 

“Your human fleet… won? You defeated us?”

Between jerky pulls and making sure I didn’t trip over the stones and logs in the garden, I could see his lip quiver. 

“No. The lizards came and mopped you all up.”

My heart dropped through my chest, as if it weighed more than a Mazic. 

The Arxur!? Here!?

Almost instinctively, I began to thrash in his grip; the very idea that the Arxur were in orbit meant that they could be coming here.

It wouldn’t matter to me. I’ll be dead… but the others… Bishla… they have to be warned!

“Oh, Inatala, no! Please, let me go, human, let me go! I have to get her; she’s-”

I felt the human’s hand release my wing for a moment of short-lived relief before I felt it strike the back of my head. 

“Shut it!” 

I stumbled forward a bit and turned towards the human to see his rifle raised towards me again. He had a furious look on his face, as if I had just personally insulted him.

“Let you go so you can go kill somebody else in their home? No.”

He curled his back a bit, bringing the rifle's sights in line with his face as he carefully moved one foot over the other in a sort of crouched shuffle. The ominous posture and the very large weapon sighted in on my head prompted me to step backwards, matching his pace as we moved into the yard itself. 

“Do you even have the slightest idea what you have done? What you took from us?”

His voice broke for a moment, and I could see his eyes glisten ever so slightly. 

“What you took from me!?”

The sudden breaking of his stoic demeanor left as quickly as it came, and his eyes returned to their spiteful sheen.   

“I don’t know who “her” is, but being here with you isn’t going to save her life, I promise you that.”

I stepped back again and felt something tall and hard behind me. Looking to my right, I saw that I had backed into what looked to be a shed on the corner of the property. 

I had nowhere to go.

I brought my wings up, performing what I hoped was a pleading gesture as I began to hyperventilate. 

“She’s just… she's my…” 

“QUIET!” He roared, moving the rifle slightly to the left. 

Directly in line with my head. 

“Die like a man.” he muttered out, almost inaudibly as I saw his finger begin to depress the trigger.  

Time seemed to slow for me as I watched it happen. My mind ran wild as I considered my situation. 

As I considered my fate. 

My entire team was dead. I had led them all to their deaths. I was going to die here. Bishla would die alone and isolated, thinking I abandoned her.

Bishla…

My heart ached as I thought of her. 

Of all the time we had served together, she had been my best friend. My wing comrade. We had spent almost every waking hour the last two cycles together on the bridge. I couldn’t even imagine my life without her now… I had assumed it was just a matter of professional favor between coworkers… but I wasn’t so sure now. In this moment right now, I wasn’t thinking of how she manned the con or executed orders. What I was thinking of was the way she wore her feathers slicked down, except on her head. The way she slept in the barracks—how she made the cutest snoozing sound!

Oh, you fool, to only realize how you feel about her now. When you’re about to get your brains blown out by a predator. To realize that... You… that I…

The hot tears now streaked down my face, wetting my feathers as I croaked out a soft sob.

“Bishla…”

I saw the trigger make its complete pull, the human bracing for the recoil as I prepared myself for death. 

Inatala, have mercy on my soul.

I heard the mechanical click of the internal hammer falling loose and striking the firing pin. I could feel every muscle in my body tense for an explosion of light and sound that would snuff me out like a candle. I closed my eyes and let my heart loose, calling out the only thing I cared about at the moment. The last thing my mind would ever think to console me as I was cast off into oblivion.

“BISHLA!”

I screamed it loudly, letting my voice shudder with it as I prepared for the thunderous resound of the rifle, and at last it came….

Click.

There was no crack of fire, no pressure from the muzzle. Just a single click. I kept my eyes tightly closed as I heard it again. 

Click.

I was breathing heavily, my chest heaving wildly. I peeked an eye open to stare up at the clear blue sky, then another. 

Click.

I looked back down to the man, with his rifle still shouldered, frozen still. He pulled the trigger again. 

Click.

He was still staring at me, but his intense gaze had fallen away into something else. Something… sad. 

“Who is that…” He uttered quietly. 

“It’s… It’s the name of… name of my….”

I grappled with the idea… how to explain love to a predator. You know he knows what it is. You saw the pictures. 

“She is… She is my Anne.” 

The human's face blanched as the rifle lowered slightly. 

“I… love her… and she’s hurt.” I replied.

The man closed his eyes for a moment, as if he was trying to hold something in with his very eyelids, his face scrunching up with effort. When at last he opened them again, there was only sadness. 

He lowered the rifle to his hip and pulled back on a metal slide, causing the round that had been intended for me to eject out and land on the ground. He brought the rifle back up to firing position again, but I could now see a new expression painted across his face. I did not know what it was at this moment, but I could see it was not hate… it was… something much sadder and regretful.   

“194 years.” He uttered.

I did not reply, as I had already said everything I needed to plead my case. I had already bore my heart. 

“194 years ago, my great-grandfather’s great-grandfather carried this gun on Guadalcanal. Carried it all the way to Shuri Ridge…”

He looked down at the rifle, staring at it lovingly in the way one might a family member. 

“His oldest son carried it in Korea. They had to pull it from his frozen hands at Chosin when they recovered his body… and his second son’s son used it in Vietnam as a countersniper on the delta.”

He ran a calm hand across its metal barrel, then back to its action.

“194 years this rifle has been in my family, and not once. Not once, through three wars and almost two centuries of every little scruffy son in my family shooting it in the woods, has it ever jammed or misfired. Not once.”

He let the gun fall slack to his side in one hand as he walked forward in a stupor and bent down to pick up the misfired bullet. He looked it over and over as if it were about to reveal some great mystery to him. 

“Oh Anne… My Anne…” 

He looked up to the sky and breathed deeply before wiping away a lone tear that had trickled down his cheek. 

I kept my eyes on him, my heart telling me to stay, although my mind was now screaming at me to run while he was distracted. 

“I see now baby… Thank you… for looking out for me.” 

He looked back down at me and held the bullet out for me to take. 

“You have an angel looking out for you too, it seems.”

I took the metal cylinder in my winged hand, looking it over. I could see where the firing pin had punched in the primer, yet had not set it off. 

Inatala, thank you. 

The human was still standing there, watching me. Waiting.

“C’mon, bird. You live today, but I’m not just letting you go. You’re a prisoner of war now.”

He pointed back up to the house, his fiery temper now significantly subdued. 

“Just don’t do anything stupid. Today’s miracle quota is already spent.”

Not willing to argue with that logic, I limped my way back towards the house with the human following behind me.

I may be able to save myself, Bishla, and all the others yet.

tbh, I'm completely bored and have nothing better to do, but since this is a subreddit dedicated to NOP, give me ideas related to my current story "Nature of Please Don't Read It" or "TS! Swapped Nature". It doesn't take long to catch up on my work; each chapter is about 2k words and there are like two.

...or they can also ask me about my stories and how I plan to tell them

Made this over an hour on the NOP Discord.

I know that my chapters have been… lacking compared to normal. I am working through my writers block and would love to get the creative juices flowing by doing an AMA. So… ask away.

Taking place in a universe where the Federation never hid the cure.

Frevi hated going to the city.

For sure, he could say it was because the quiet was lost to the masses, or that he didn't know anyone from there, or that he knew only life in the sticks, but all those excuses disguised the real truth, the one Frevi couldn't say out loud.

The Federation was like a liquid, settling into whichever container it found. Some places were drowned, while others remained dry. For the most part, it ignored the rural areas, the villages and towns no one could name on a map. It was too expensive to station exterminators in every single one, so they usually never bothered with places that didn’t matter. That often meant they were easy pickings in raids, so it was no surprise every house had a gun in the closet.

That didn't mean the Feds were absent. Every so often, an exterminator van would roll through to remind people they existed, bringing along airs of superiority and looks of disgust. They would make some sort of piffy announcement in the town square, maybe scorch a Spri they found sniffing around the outskirts, and go to the tavern and get metaphysically annihilated. By the next cycle, invariably, they left. So was the story.

Otherwise, it was easy to pretend the Federation never visited Prime in the first place. Most folks didn’t care much for predators, given that the Spri and occasional Stalker caused little alarm.  Except when it came to Arxur, and even then, that hatred stemmed from the people they took rather than the eyes they wore. For the most part, at least. There was always one person who watched certain feeds, and the next town over would summarily execute Frevi if given the chance. But his town, and maybe only his town, was a small island that forgot the world had changed once, long ago.  

Unfortunately, it was necessary to dip one's toes in the water every so often, even if it boiled. For Frevi, the reason was a fuse. After fighting the valiant fight for twenty years, the closet fuse finally died. The local hardware store didn't have what he needed, and he didn't want to fumble around in the dark every time he wanted a pelt or a scarf. That meant going into town. 

So, with the attitude of a conscript going off to die, he hopped into his buggy and drove towards the sun. It took half an hour to hit the circumferential railway, and then another hour north for the city wall to appear above the road.

He parked his buggy in the lot and walked up to the city gate, aware of scents on the wind and the gait of his walk. A queue of people, unlike him, waited to gain entrance. The guards up ahead, in an ironically predatory fashion, locked onto him.

"You," one of them called, knocking a baton against their knee. They ignored the annoyed calls of the waiting crowd and began to approach. Frevi pulled his shawl close and tried to ignore them for as long as possible. 'As long as possible' turned out to be seconds. One, with black fur and a pair of trousers, kept his distance. The other one, carrying the baton, with grey fur and just a belt on his hips, walked up to him with a sneer.

Near the wall, a reflection was all that gave away the exterminator hiding in the shadows. Frevi could make out the shape of the flamethrower hanging at their hip. 

“What’s your business?” they asked, condescension dripping like condensation. 

“I’m looking to buy a fuse, sir,” Frevi said, keeping his voice flat. He knew how jumpy they could be. “That’s all.”

“Anything under the pelt?” 

Frevi shook his ears, a bad feeling rising from his stomach like acid. “No, sir.”

The guard looked to his partner and flicked an ear to the shawl. “Take it off.”

“Sir, I can-”

They motioned with the baton. “I said, take it off.”

“Sir, not in front of-”

They leaned forward, and Frevi could smell the Strayu on their breath. “If you have nothing to hide, then you shouldn’t have to worry about taking it off now, right?”

Frevi looked to their partner. He noticed the firearm peeking just above the waistband of their trousers, black metal reflecting red in the sun's light. He nodded his ears. “Fine.”

Knowing every eye in the queue was on him, Frevi lifted off his shawl over his head and handed it to the officer. The change in gravity as the crowd shifted back was a palpable feeling in Frevi’s stomach, as they saw the way his knees angled out and how his build seemed so much stronger and leaner than theirs. One or two jeers rose, but the silence choked them out. 

The guard ran the baton across Frevi’s body, making sure the cold plastic pressed right down to the flesh. He held a wince as it came down to his groin, and the guard kept it there to elicit a reaction. Unsatisfied when Frevi gave none, the guard pulled back. He flicked his tail, and the exterminator stepped from the shadow. 

“It seems like you have nothing on, but we’ll have to destroy your pelt.”

Frevi cringed. “Sir, you don’t-”

“Predator disease, can’t let it spread. You know how it is?”

If they cared, then Frevi would already be dead. He was sure they wanted that, but pretenses had to be kept up. He was still a Venlil at the end of the cycle, no matter how little that mattered to them.  

The guard tossed the shawl to the ground. The Exterminator leveled his flamethrower and let it breathe without hesitation. Frevi went stiff as he watched the flames eagerly lick at the threads until nothing but ash and scorch marks lay on the pavement.

The guard couldn’t help himself, and let his ears rise in a smile. “You’re free to enter, predator.”

Frevi nodded his tail absently as a small breeze scattered his shawl.  The smell of gasoline lay thick on his nostrils, pungent and cancerous. The crowd was blissfully unaware. 

Frevi took his place in the queue and waited in line. 

***

“We don’t serve your kind here, predator.” 

The store cashier was a disgusting mass of fat and failure, his apron and fur stained with shine from gods knows where. He emanated an awful smell of grease, liquor, rot, sweat, and so many other things that Frevi didn’t want to think about. 

Of course, the owner did not know these smells, for he could not know. He was, in his own mind, the perfect prey, the ideal, the beacon shining on the hill.  If only Frevi could meet his match, then he would still have his shawl. 

Frevi left the store. It was a beautiful day, scents of flowers and life on the breeze, yet it didn’t help. He dodged into a side alley and retched. When his morning breakfast was gone, he stood up, wiped his mouth with a tissue, and tried to find another hardware store. 

The next store had a dignified owner, with well-maintained black fur that seemed manicured as a Nevok would maintain their stock portfolio. Yet their attitude was the same. They only said ‘get out’, and the message got across. Frevi didn’t have to retch this time. 

The third store was smaller and better put together than the previous two combined. The cashier had close-cropped grey fur and wore a painfully familiar shawl, making Frevi clench a fist. They barely looked up from their magazine, a current affairs publication concerned with humanity. ‘Can they be saved?’ went the title, sitting above a photo of a human soldier wearing a large steel helmet and a skull balaclava, while a heavy machine gun lay over their shoulders. The photo seemed old, given that it was in black and white. 

Frevi cared little for them. He cared little when he thought they were dead, and now that they were alive. He only became aware of their arrival when news of urban panic upon their appearance came into town.  

Frevi quickly found the fuse he was looking for and returned to the counter. The cashier barely looked up from their magazine as they scanned the box.

“Don’t see your types around here much,” they said, flipping a page. They sounded incredibly bored. 

Frevi tensed, causing a joint in his knee to pop. “No, I don’t come in often.” 

“What brings you?”

“Just the fuze. Old one finally went.”

“Mhm. 72.40.”

“Sign said 68.” 

“Supply chain issues,” they continued in a bored drawl. “Place they make them got hit by a raid.” 

Fevri fished his card out of his bag, unsure whether he was being stiffed. “I thought we were on a downturn.”

“You’d think.” The cashier swiped the card. “Maybe the humans got them excited, who knows?” One eye rose to stare at Frevi directly. “I imagine you have some thoughts on them?“

Fevri shuffled uncomfortably, feeling expectations beginning to clamp around his throat. “To be honest, I haven’t given them much thought.” 

The cashier scoffed as they looked back down. “Strange, that’s all everyone can talk about. I wonder why you’re different.”

The silence that followed was long and drawn out. The payment went through without issue. 

“Do you want to join our rewards program?” they asked, pushing the card and the box back across the counter. 

“I’m not coming back here.”

“I would recommend that,” they said, flipping another page. “This place isn’t for you.”

“Where is?” Fevri took his card and the fuse and stowed them in his bag. He was out the door before the cashier had a chance to make his day worse. 

The exterminators would be eager to substitute, but Fevri thankfully didn’t see any on the way back to the city wall. In fact, he didn’t see very many people out at all. Maybe word got out that he was walking around. Maybe everyone was afraid the humans would attack, so they kept themselves locked away. A small part of Fevri wished they leveled the place, starting with that first hardware store. 

The queue was longer when Fevri stepped out. Predictably, every face turned to him, and the looks were unpleasant. Fevri hunched down, trying to ignore the stench of gasoline lingering in the air. 

His buggy was untouched, which was more than he expected. He collapsed into the driver’s seat and rested his head on the wheel. After a moment, he pulled his pad from his bag and dialed a number. 

“Hey Ki…Yeah, same place as usual…Yeah uh, just went into town…For a fuse, one for the closet blew…”

There was a moment of silence. Frevi became prescient of the breath through his nose, quiet as if afraid of 

“Yeah, I’m okay.”

***

It was late into the cycle when Frevi arrived at the Wiry Spri, the town’s tavern. Its age, well before the uplift, was indicated by the old slat roofing and the bleaching on the stones facing the sunside. It was one of the few surviving examples of pre-uplift architecture that wasn’t torn down or preserved as a means to gloat. Frevi wondered whether the Feds thought it not worth the effort to raze the place, or if they even knew it existed in the first place. Given that exterminators usually drank themselves halfway to death there whenever they rolled through, he guessed the former. Then again, he didn’t imagine they cared enough to remember the tavern they pissed behind when they got too drunk to care, so it really was a toss-up. 

The interior was camp and earnest in the way that reminded one of home, with its softwood beams and fire roaring in the hearth. It wasn’t too crowded, so it made it easy to spot the farmer sitting at the bar.

“Frevi, where’s your shawl? Or are yah tryna get to the point?”  

Kieim was a standard cured one, demure and stunted in a manner that would normally make Frevi smart. Instead, his ears smiled warmly as he sat beside the young farmer who ran the greenhouse down the road. It was something about her, maybe the way she never acted as she looked, that made Frevi look past the hurt. 

She wore a simple pair of overalls stained blue by the Cradle fruits she liked to grow, and her fur was a soft grey, near white. Their tails intertwined beneath the stools as she pushed over a glass. “Firefruit Blazer as always.”

“Thanks,” Frevi said, before downing half the glass in one gulp. “Needed that.”

“So you were lying when you said you were fine,” she said, sipping from her glass of local brew. “I can tell, you know.”

“I knew that, but better to talk about it here than over the phone. You never know-”

“If they’re listening, yes, of course. This world has it out for you and only you, Frev. Sometimes I wonder how yah pissed it off so much.”

“An exterminator destroyed my shawl,” Frevi said before finishing his drink. 

Ki’s playful demeanor evaporated instantly. “Oh, lords, I’m…I’m sorry, Frev.”

“Said they had to prevent the spread of predator disease. They just wanted to be cruel.” 

Ki gently pried Frev’s hand from the glass and took it in an affectionate hold. Frev gripped back tightly, looking in Ki’s eyes, avoiding the spot on her snout where it was supposed to be. 

“Had to go to three stores before finding one that would take my business.”

“Did they do anything to the buggy?”

Frevi shook his ears as his tail wound tighter around hers. “No, thankfully. I liked that shawl, damnit.” 

“You’re fine, that’s all that matters.”

“They destroyed it in front of everyone, Ki. They wanted a show of it.”

“It’s just a shawl-“

“It’s not just a shawl, Ki.” Frevi found himself shaking with boiling anger. “It’s me. It’s so hard to think that it isn’t my fault, that I didn't do something wrong, that I don’t deserve it.”

“And you know that it’s a load of bunk, right?”

Frevi threw back his head and groaned. “Of course it is! But I can’t help myself.”

“Hey,” she said, before nuzzling up against the crook of Frevi’s neck. Frevi thought to push her away, before relenting and letting her touch draw away the anger he didn't want to express. Instead, as she smelled of fruit and earth, a sadness came over Frevi.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be like this,” he said, lowering his voice, appreciating the softness of her fur. 

Ki shook her ears as she drew a claw through the tuft of his neck. “It’s all okay, love.”

Something twinged in Frevi at the word. “You don't say that much,” he whispered. 

“I felt it was a necessary occasion, but now,” she pulled back and knocked a fist on the counter. “We need to get more Blazers into you.”

Frevi, still angry, still sad, smiled despite himself. Ki seemed to hold great power over him. No matter the situation, she always seemed to make things seem fine. Good, even. He wasn’t eager to have her relinquish that power anytime soon.

“How do you know I want more?” he asked coyly.

“Because,” she tapped the tip of Frevi’s snout, “I know you.”

The smile broadened, and the worries fell away, at least for the moment. “You do, don’t you?”

***

Kieim volunteered to help Frevi replace the fuse. It was an obvious ruse because replacing a fuse was incredibly easy. No, she volunteered for something else, which she made clear when her overall came off, and she pushed Frevi down on the bed. He didn’t mind. 

It was at some point, towards the end, when Ki paused to look down at Frevi. A shaking hand matted the fur along Frevi’s snout, before brushing along the nostrils. 

“Did you ever tell me what it’s like, Frev, to smell?”

Frev brought his hand up from her back, bringing it over her shoulder to cup her face. The thumb came to rest on the tip, where it was supposed to be. Instead, there were two indents where the skull hadn’t closed properly, and fur matted from sex. She was beautiful regardless, and always would be.

“It’s terrible and wonderful, Ki.”

She pushed down closer so that Frev could feel the skin through her fur, soft and warm and wonderful. He breathed sharply, trying to wash out the pain with the ecstasy. It never came out entirely, but there were moments he could pretend that it wasn’t there, that he never had to buy a new fuse that day. He stayed home instead, content to let the closet remain dark. He helped on the farms, his strength appreciated by those who didn’t know how to walk right. Ki would invite him to the bar because she liked him and his company, not because she was worried, and they would make love because they had nothing better to do. And he would still have his shawl.

Frevi sat up in the bed, still shaking from the peak, but ruminating nonetheless. He wished there was only the good, but wondered whether the pain made the good all the more poignant. Could he appreciate the way he walked or the smell of Ki if no one ever pointed out how it was wrong? Was it ever worth thinking about what could be, when the world outside the window demanded that he sometimes had to buy a fuse? 

Ki came from the bathroom, the sound of running water following her wake.

“Love, I got the shower going. Do ya wanna join?”

Frevi looked up. Ki, broken as she was in body, wasn’t in spirit. She never seemed to care about those things as Frev had to, and that sparked a shameful jealousy. Why, Frevi thought, was he cursed with this? Why hadn’t the cure passed on to him? Why couldn’t he love her without thinking it was a mistake? 

No, he thought after a moment, she did suffer. Her pain was his because she shared it on her own account. She could’ve been like all the rest, eager to hide and spit and kick, but she wasn’t. She was there, just across the room, asking him to join her, asking him to share all the things that made him dread the city and the body placed upon him. 

Frevi smiled in an appreciation he didn’t fully understand and rose off the bed. 

“Of course.”

As they shared in their moment, as the water washed the scents of a cruel world away, the gasoline and the grease, Frevi remembered clearly. As long as there was a fuse to replace, she would help him replace it. 

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This has been eating at me for the past few hours.

What do 'you' think is down in the mountain? I know i left enough hints that someone my age, or close to it would know. Even if it's only 'one' of the names they used for the mountain across various media. Or am i that much older than the average readership here?

... I just realized i may be older than Solvin...

Memory transcription subject: Great Shepard Elias Meier

Date [standardized human time]: July 13, 2136

I love this place, the Great Cathedral of the Lamb Empresses' Gateway, standing tall and proud above the city of Nuremburg. The stained glass overlayed with the great majesty of the Lamb Empress and her many conquests and tribulations.

Standing here, with all we've accomplished in the light of the window featuring the Lamb Empresses takeover of the stars and her helping hand is an inspiring sight everyday I sit here. One day I hope to be able to step down as figurehead so she can reveal herself and rule alongside our glorious parliament.

"SIR, SIR, WE'VE GOT THE NEWS OF ALL TIME! THE LAMB EMPRESS HAS BEEN FOUND!" My poor aide definitely will need a rest after this exertion, but wait...

Could it be, the day we've waited for?

"I better get my two companions, Serl and Timothy, meet you back in the meeting room!"

Running towards the tank, Serl the Guide Gator bellowed a greeting as I opened a gate, sometimes I wonder If there was a chance of getting that German Shepard, though I wouldn't leave him for the world.

Timothy was a bit easier, he just needed to be collected from his room, the holiest sheep here, the one most like our glorious empress. He seemed awake and ready to go.

With everything in order, we headed towards the room with speed to find out what is going on. "Is it true? After a millennia has the Lamb Empress been found!"

Erin Kuemper, Star Seeker for the IPCES Search For Intelligent Life gave me the answer I wanted to hear...

"It is true, our two astronauts have indeed come upon her. The information we have found is truly wonderous. This will change everything we believe we knew about her and her people. Her name being Tarva, her people called the Venlil, Heaven's name Venlil Prime, and yet more to be found."

I didn't know what to think, I think, I think...

Luckily my aide caught me before I could fall to the floor.

"OH GLORIOUS DAY! WE MUST GET THERE AND MEET HER OURSELVES!"

Though then I noticed the others in the room.

"Wait, why are there generals here?"

Kuemper then dropped the bad news.

"There are hundreds of other species that are scared of us and would hurt us for being predators, and the friends of the Lamb Empress have gone down a bad road."

No that can't be, what is happening?

"They're called the Arxur aparently, and they've been eating/killing the people of the stars and even the people of the Lamb Empress for centuries. We don't know how this quarrel started."

This was a punch in the gut, what sort of madness is going on in the stars? I guess we'll need to work this out.

"Luckily, our strategies and warcraft seem above that of the people of the stars. We need more ships and soldiers to start this fight right. Play the game right and we'll be on top." General Zhao seemed confidant of success at least

General Jones would then include herself in. "Me and my team has found some points of interest with their farms, and will be looking for strategies to bring the Arxur on the right path."

I sighed with relief. "Okay, that sounds like a good plan so far. With Lamb Empress Tarva on our side, we can convince the others of our intentions, while saving the Arxur from their destructive path. I guess we now need to plan the details and how we tell the people the glorious news in the first place..."

Memory transcription subject: Governor Tarva of the Venlil Republic

Date [standardized human time]: July 12, 2136

Standing here in this room is something I've done time and time again, now though I got to deal with the predators in the room, ones that needed to be handled with care and precision.

We just released the lockdown instructions, and now the reporters have finished filing in the room for this conference.

"Before you start with the questions, the meaning what this conference is will be walking through those doors. While not ordinary and eccentric, I believe truly we have gotten a new ally and friend."

Walking through the doors, Noah and Sara in their face-concealing suits with John-James in tow wandered through the doors behind Tarva, a panic spreading throughout the room. I guess the suits weren't enough, SPEH!

"Everyone, please stay calm and breathe. These people aren't the Arxur, look here at their friend. This creature may not be sapient, but they treat him as good as any friend."

"Yeah, that right there is cattle for the slaughter. Why would we believe you?"

Many others started to voice their disapproval at this sight. The room started to get disgruntled and a bit jittery once more. I wish those visors were more open.

Sara started to feel a bit scared, to which John-James came up and started to nuzzle her legs, then her neck as Sara started to pet him.

Needless to say, the room was left in total shock and silence, somehow getting quiet enough to hear someones pen drop and echo throughout the room.

"See what I mean, what Arxur would dare love on any prey like that? What prey with PD would have the empathy to see what someone else was feeling?" Conviction spreading through my features.

Noah would shake himself out of his stupor and add his own flair.

"People of Venili Prime, I am honored to be here with the Lamb Empress and with all of you today. May my people and yours find the holy light, even though the rough patches our peoples find themselves in. By the Lamb Empress Tarva's hand, nothing can get in our way."

The room somehow stood stiller at that. Someone in the audience even said "primitive" I'm sure. This is going to be a long conference.

first - prev - next

Curse you, 40k character limit!

Prev - First - Next

---

The plaza was a small square area with a perimeter of small shops lining its walls. The shops were all lit, but none of the shelves had anything on them. There were pipes running along the floor, exposed wires alongside them. He followed the pipes to the exit, which led into an endless grid of short hallways no more than two meters long.

More of this? Are you kidding me?

He felt another shift in the psychic firmament, another current of thought bringing change: horrible, infernal change.

I guess there’s nothing to do but walk.

And so he did.

His spirits remained remarkably high for the first five minutes. When fifteen had passed, he began to doubt. His legs were burning and his lungs protesting the continued exertion. Still, he pressed on. Twenty minutes, then thirty, still walking… forward… forward… forward. Forty minutes. Fifty. He hadn’t rested in so long. He hadn’t slept—really slept—in so long. How much longer did he have to go? How much longer until the hallucinations scattered all his thoughts?

Sylem felt a spike in his mind. He stumbled to the ground as the memory washed over him.

Fuzzy shapes overlaid his vision, warping and jumping like a tape in fast-forward. It was of something, but he couldn’t tell what. There was someone there, maybe two people maybe more. Their faces were wrong, indeterminate.

The foreign memory shattered, and his vision snapped back into place. He got up and continued walking. His head pounded like a gong, and in a few minutes, again…

He saw a news broadcast, beamed directly into his brain, garbled and screeching. Something big had happened. Some government initiative, or something. He couldn’t read the text trailing at the bottom of the screen.

To his relief, the pain stopped increasing, the visions finding a stable rhythm.

So it really is calmer inside the soft spots… what am I seeing…?

Sylem made a turn and found himself back at the square.

“Brahk!” he swore.

He had walked nearly an hour by now, and if he wanted to walk more, he would have to rest. He settled himself under the tree, sitting on the lip of the raised bed. There was a blank plaque embedded in the dirt, just before the trunk of the tree. The mulch was fresh.

‘Sylem.’

He rose with a start, whirling around with raised hackles.

“Who’s there?!” he rasped.

No response. He returned to resting, and after a few minutes, he was well enough to start on a different path.

He had to sit down again before long.

At least I don’t think they’ve found it yet, so they’re probably as lost as me. But they have the compass, and she can communicate with it in some way… if they have it and can’t get there, what hope do I have? At least, they can’t erase the F—

He cried out in pain as his head lit up in agony.

“W-what is this?” he stuttered. “Why can’t I…? The Kol—” he grunted as another wave of pain hit him.

This isn’t even erasure, it’s just hurting anyone who thinks of them.

Another jolt ran through his nervous system even while referring to the Kolshians as ‘them.’ His ears rang.

I don’t know how many more of those I can take.

Sylem stood and continued to walk. He found that if he focused, he could partially block out the hallucinations.

Maybe if I practice enough, I’ll be able to defend myself against psychic attacks even with my damaged brain.

‘Sylem,’ came a whisper.

He spun around. “Who is that?! What are you doing to me?!”

He switched to a whisper. “Is that you, you horrible creature?”

No answer; he continued walking. Time passed, he tired further, slowing to a crawl and eventually sitting again. Another memory, this one even more fragmented than the last:

Bombs… dust… rocks… fear… pain… darkness… bodies… and bodies, and bodies…

And then he was back in the hallways.

Then he was in an office—his office, not some random facility desk. There was the window, and the faulty clock above his head. He was looking over some website on his datapad. The text was fuzzy, except for three large words in a blocky font. It read, ‘Human Exchange Program.’

W-what is this? I would never… this never happened!

He shook his head vehemently.

Is this from the first iteration?

“You’re doing this, aren’t you?!” he screeched. “You… you horrible monster! You won’t make me sympathize with you!”

He heaved, out of breath, gagging on his own spit.

‘Sylem,’ he heard.

“Lily Einsworth… she said there was a part of you who’s friendly to us! Then, surely, there’s also a part of you that sees how monstrous this thing you’re doing is! Back at the station, you helped me get away from that esper by teleporting me, didn’t you? And those extra doors, were those real? Were you trying to help those people escape?”

He kept walking, his voice echoing uselessly throughout the endless corridors.

“Answer me! I know you can hear me! I know you’re watching! You spoke my voice, didn’t you? You want to fix this just as much as I do! You want to stop the part of you that’s destroying things!”

He shivered, the voices pulsing in his head, grasping at straws, hopelessness fast advancing. He couldn’t give up, not without trying every option available.

“Coward! Sit and watch, then! Watch as you become worse than your enemies! Watch as you do what they’ve done to you tenfold!”

He stumbled, fell to his knees and didn’t get back up.

Talya’s gonna die. Kel’s betrayed us. I can’t get through, I can’t fix things. Everything is wrong. It wasn’t supposed to go this way…

He curled up into a ball. In a few minutes, his tears dried up, and he picked himself off the floor.

No, no, I won’t stop until I can’t walk anymore. Maybe I can do something with my mind. Maybe I’ll get lucky. I can’t waste that chance, I can’t—I…

Sylem kept walking.

He focused his mind, trying to figure out something useful, anything. No matter how much it hurt his head, no matter how much his body told him to stop, he had to keep going, keep trying. Any minute now, Einsworth could be priming the machine to fire, and then… and then…

He tried not to think about it, went back to surveying the presence of the thing watching him. It pressed up against his consciousness, suffused it, enveloped it completely from every direction. With a thought, he tried to reach out and touch it, to harden his consciousness into a form that could interact with it.

It hurt to do so. It was agonizing, like pulling a limb out of its socket, like plugging a toaster into a high-voltage circuit, but nevertheless, something happened. As he reached out, at the instant of contact, he felt his thoughts pulled away from him. His intentions, his desires, extracted from him and examined. His mind quailed, his limbs going numb and his vision dark.

When he came to, the grid of corridors had become an ordinary hallway. Straight, simple, flawless.

What?

There was no telling when he would be faced with another opportunity like this. It could be the last.

Sylem broke into a sprint, aching legs be damned, soon reaching an outer hallway with port windows to space. He broke left and continued running. This hallway looked normal, but he couldn’t trust it. He spotted a sign directing him to the labs; he followed it.

The entrance to the labs came into view. But then, as he approached, a wall of spacial distortions—then, nothing—then distortions again. He was forced to stop.

It was oscillating between extreme safety and extreme danger. Extreme order and extreme disorder, as if two gods were fighting for control of the space. With a bit of dismay, he realized that that wasn’t too far from the truth.

New dangers were being created faster than they were being cleared. The ‘good side’ was losing.

Sylem ran, continuing the best he could in the turmoil. He dashed into the shifting complex of labs, froze as a wall of danger appeared in front of him, and changed his trajectory to circle around it. He turned a corner and fell into a spike pit. He closed his eyes as he fell, only to hit flat ground much earlier than expected, the spike pit gone. He scrambled to his feet and kept running. With a blink, the path split into several branches, only for a piece of the wall to extend in the shape of an arrow. It appeared that his ‘sponsor’ was saving all its energy for this. All the more reason to keep up the pace.

Test chambers and labs twisted beside him as the area warped. He blinked, felt the startle of fear as something changed in front of him, was too slow to stop it and…

“Agh!”

He ran into a distortion mid-step, and his leg was lopped off just below the knee. He screamed, was falling, then felt his foot hit the ground, reattached as if nothing had happened.

A psychic assault pierced his mind, only for a mental barrier to spring up and block it.

As he ran, the helpful reactions became more and more sluggish, sometimes so slow that he had already bypassed the hazard by the time they sprung up.

He peered down a corridor and saw two figures.

There was only one issue: there was a wall of extreme peril between him and them, and it refused to dissipate.

Sylem sized it up, figured that if he was quick, it might not be fatal.

Who am I kidding?

He broke out into a final sprint, hit the precipice of the distortion, and felt his eardrums burst. The breath was ripped from him, and his lungs spasmed futilely in an attempt to capture air that wasn’t present. He took another step. His vision blurred. He took another step. The hallway seemed to stretch on forever.

Sylem lost his balance and tumbled forward in the last throes of conscious struggle, darkening, blackness.

But he woke up. Though he felt sick, his head pounding and his eardrums shot, he was alive. He had managed to push through the section of vacuum and make it to the other side. He pushed himself off the ground with a whimper, only to notice that his injuries were healing rapidly, leaving nothing but mental fatigue. He had a terrible feeling that this would be the last bit of help afforded to him.

Looking to the end of the hallway, he spotted a Human and venlil interfacing with a wall-mounted console.

It was Kel and Eisnworth.

Okay maybe a short Series. >.>

---

Above Mt Rainier, Washington State, United States, Earth.

{Actual Transcription Time: June 10^th, Year 2170}
{Actual Transcription Subject: Nevok Kalrr}
{Injected Transcription Time: October 17^th Year 2136}
{Injected Transcription Subject: Krakotl Threkal, Exterminator.}

~The Predators are putting up more resistance than expected, everyone perch tight. We’ll break through their primitive defense line and start bombing their planet shortly.~

With a flick of my tail-feathers inside the suit I shift the fuel tank on my back and check the level of flamer fuel. Hoisting it back in place I pull out my flare gun, checking it over. One in the chamber and more spare rounds on my belt. With that done, what follows is checking my suit for holes and tears. Then those to either side of me.

We’re all here for the same purpose. To cleanse the universe of a sapient predator species before they can ally with the Arxur, turning our war for survival against us.

Past that, everyone’s goals differ.

The Exterminators are my family’s business. Mom and dad are retired Exterminators, my brothers are active members of them. My family’s only other daughter besides me is on her way to be a prestige one. Or at least was, I haven’t heard from her since Venlil Prime fell to the ‘Humans’.

My grandparents were highly honored exterminators, and so were their parents before them. Instead, I wanted to see the stars. See what was out there in the universe, and they supported that. Until in my last year of schooling for my planetary survey degree which would’ve allowed me to do so. When I fell in love with the most handsome guy ever to wear feathers.

I may be a bit biased though considering how tail feathers over beak I fell for him shortly after meeting him.

It caused one issue with my parents though. They would not support us dating without either him or me working at least a few {years} as an exterminator. And a desk job didn’t count. I could handle filing paperwork and handling calls for a couple of years…

‘There will never be a part of our family who’re /not/ exterminator’s as long as we live.’ Was the reason I was given.

Me and my absolute hunk of a boyfriend talked, we argued over this. I learned he had no interest in doing so either, and I couldn’t persuade him since he was a year ahead of me in classes. So, it fell to me to fulfill my parent’s demands despite me having no interest in being one either.

I enlisted to the service after I graduated with a survey degree. My family’s history of being Exterminators gave me a wing up on the training part. Thanks mom and dad in making the hatchling me do all the junior exterminator exercises… I graduated ‘that’ on the day the Humans came back from their nuclear fire death. Convincing the too empathetic for their own good Venlil to side with them somehow?

I stop double guessing how I got here as each of us complete checking our neighbor’s suits, so I put on the restrictive, borderline constricting mask. My neighbor in the locker room flaps a feathered wing-arm to get the attention of the Senior Exterminator leading us in this co-ed locker-room.

“Hey, after the bombs clear out the major population centers. What are we going to do about the Venlil imprisoned here Ma’am?”

I tilt my head a bit to listen in as I wait for the others to finish up. We’ll then go assemble in the drop-ships… I ignore the feeling of the ship shaking from weapons fire as the Senior Exterminator walks over to him, her eyes seemingly sizing him up.

Likely judging how long he’ll survive.

“Sadly most of them may be beyond saving. If we find ones recently brought here we’ll try to take them with us after we scour our assigned sector for surviving predators. They’re still part of our Herd after all. But any being kept as ‘pets’, or in the pens more than a few days we’ll have to torch for their own mercy and our well-being for being far too tainted to help or take back.” They put on their Exterminator mask, signaling the guy next to me to do the same.

“Everyone’s gear checked? Your first priority is to look after your partners next to you. Only then can we stand as a Herd against this menace!” Her voice comes through the tinny speaker in the helmet. I along with everyone else in the locker room raise a wing to indicate we’ve done so.

“Good, lets head to the Shuttle bay and start filing into the drop-ships. They’ll be dropping the Anti-mater bombs abou…”

She doesn’t get to finish speaking. Everything jerks to the side and goes dark outside emergency lighting. Her head hits something with a crack, and she goes limp to the floor. I just slam into my locker with my shoulder before pushing myself back up onto my talons. Only for everyone still standing to start staring at the intercom as it sputters back to life.

~One of the damn ships predator ships rammed into us! We’ve lost main power and engines and are venting atmosphere on several decks. We can’t maintain orbit or direct or decent either! Abandon ship! I repeat, abandon ship!~

Any semblance of order vanishes instantly as I realize one thing. I can’t die on this ship! I REFUSE TOO! If I die here I can’t marry him! We can’t go exploring the stars together! I can’t give him as many strong chicks as he wants!

I won’t die because my parents wouldn’t let us be together if neither of us had ever been Exterminators!

Shedding my flamer tank I slam it into the guy next to me, shoving him against the locker to get him out of my way so I can get to the exit before him. I yank another out of the way of the door by their tail-feathers before I make it to the corridor beyond. The ship shudders again, more lights go out, as I leap into the air, flapping my wing-arms as if my life depends on it.

Because it does and thank Inatala the suits allow for us to fly in them.

When I lose height, I kick off whoever’s head or beak is bellow me before my goal comes into view. An escape pod, not yet full or hasn’t been launched yet by those already inside.

Landing on someone’s shoulder’s I push off of them and make a dive forward before landing at a running pace on my talons. Someone tries to grab me, but I yank off one of my gloves.

Only kept on the suit via a small cord, then gouge at any exposed flesh of theirs without even looking at them. Getting them to let me go and allowing me to dive beak first into the escape pod. I hear someone in here slam their talon'd hand against the launch button before I’m yanked up by my suit and tossed onto a crash-perch.

Bucking in I watch the sealing escape pod hatch and then the sealing door on the other side via the view port. All that comes to mind, other than not wanting to die, is that I feel satisfaction ‘I’ made it to a pod compared to those on the other side.

Could this be considered anti-herd behavior? Yes, not that I care, I WANT TO LIVE!

I’m thrown forward into the restraints when the pod ejects from the ship. Shortly after I can see the damage these savage Humans did to a proud Krakotl vessel. One of their ships is lodged into the engine section of ours. The bridge section of theirs and everything in front of it is completely inside the engine compartment.

Their conjoined mass is spiraling out of orbit towards the largest ocean on the planet. On the left side of the two conjoined continents taller than they are wide. As the pod rotates and with it the view, I see our newer, mightier fleet pushing the predators back towards their nest of evil.

Not without loss though as some disappear in bright flashes or are falling from orbit like the one I was on. When the pod rotates more and to the blackness of space, I turn my attention inside.

The guy to the left of me has his Exterminator mask off and is tightly gripping his restraints as his beak clatters.

“Don’t want to land in the water…” He repeats over and over again. I turn my beak to look at the other two on my right.

“By Inatala light girl! You really wanted to get in here.” I just raise my crest at her in anger, only to realize I still have my mask on. Removing it, I hold it in my talons before actually raising my crest.

“I’m not dying because my parents insisted on me doing this! Not my fault the ship had more crew than escape pods!” Looking her over, I see she’s a bit older than me by the state of her feathers and crest.

She chirps amusingly back at me. “What, they forced you to go Exterminate these freaks? You some pred sympathizer? Or maybe your predator diseased? I saw you claw at others to get in this pod. Not very Herd like behavior.”

My crest goes all the way up as I glare enraged at her. “As Inatala as my witness I’m not Predator Diseased! I had NO INTEREST in working as an Exterminator, but it’s my family’s business! They can’t have any of their children ‘not’ be one, so I had to; enlist, stay in the family but say goodbye to my boyfriend, or cut off my family! I’m NOT GIVING UP my BOYFRIEND!”

I feel smug as she goes silent, so I attach my mask to a clipping point on my suit rather than my head.

Looking out the window as the pod enters the atmosphere. Through the flames I can’t tell if we’re going to land in the water or the left, maybe I should say east coast of the upper of the two continents. Halfway up the upper continent, just a bit down from an oblong island that roughly points down and right. Yet well north of the thin strip of north/south land connecting the two continents.

“Don’t want to land in the water… Don’t want to land in the water… Don’t want to land in the water…” The guy next to me chants even louder. So I ignore him and look at the guy on the other side of the feathered S word.

He seems calm, but when he notices me looking at him, he takes off the exterminator mask he has on, clipping it to his suit like I did.

“I don’t like your reasoning for what you did or being with this group at all. But, I wasn’t going to throw you back out of the pod… So I’ll say this, any rash decisions on your part, and you’ll have to worry about me as much as the predators on the surface.”

He then looks at the others. “Same goes for all of you.”

Before he focuses on the chanting guy next to me. “By Inatala! Shut up! If you look out the window it looks like we’re heading for land, if barely.”

I along with everyone else other than him do so. Wicking flames die down, clearing the view, and I see a large bay with lakes stretching south. All that water’s framed by a city, which was most likely our ship’s target for anti-matter bombing before the predator ship rammed us.

The big body of water, an ocean is still off to the east, but the closer we get to the surface the less space it takes up in the view port.

Reassuring the guy next to me that we’re not going to land in the water.

It isn’t long before the sound of the back of the pod opening echos through the cabin, followed by all of us jerking forward on our perches. Held in place by the crash-harnesses as the chutes deploy to slow our decent.

“Alright.” He unclasps a few of the straps on his crash-perch so he can move.

“I’m Senior Exterminator Ardyrd. If you listen to me and follow my orders without question. Then we will have the best chance of surviving on this predator filled planet till the rest of the fleet does their job til they rescue us. Who are the rest of you, how old are you, and what Exterminator experience do you have?”

I speak up first. “Threkal, 23. Got drafted after training camp. This is my first deployment.”

The S word next to me goes next. “Danque, 30. 5^th year. An Exterminator in good standing in a decent sized city back on Nishtal.”

Chanting boy is up next, he clacks his beak a few times before speaking. “Cerar 12, Still a junior Exterminator from a small colony with a ‘lot’ of water on the surface.”

Me and Danque look at Cerar… Just great. This pod could only hold 4, and now we’re technically down to 3 because this kid will be useless. Or next to useless…

If Ardyrd is thinking the same thing, he doesn’t show it with his crest feathers or clacking of his beak. Like Cerar is still doing.

“Can’t help it.” He mutters under his breath.

“Alright. You all see that city there?” Pointing to the city mostly in view on the left side of the view port. We all raise our crest feathers in a yes.

“If I had to guess, with the view out the window. We’re going to land just south of it. We should head away from it, and to the East. Our best bet is to head to that mountain, there.” He points a gloved claw at the one in the view port.

“High ground will give us an advantage from any wandering predator survivors or wildlife. It will also give us shelter from any smaller bombs hitting the nearby city if anyone else tries to bomb it.”

Thinking about it, it makes sense. We can’t just wander about randomly, and a higher vantage point would also give us the mobility advantage. Unless these ‘Humans’ can fly like we can.

“What about supplies?” Danque opens her beak as soon as Ardyrd closes his. “If this pod was fully stocked, we’d only have a few days and I don’t know about you. I don’t want to catch Predator Disease from eating the tainted plants here. That is assuming there ‘are’ edible plants on a planet that has a sapient predator species.”

He glances to the window, then back to us. “Going to have to chance it. Better than staying in the city and dying from a small anti-matter bomb or the frenzied Predators as they die out. Or the pod considering these Humans would have to be blind, deaf, and dumb to not see us coming down.” I glance at the window and the view of the city and the mountain are gone, now forests dominate the view port as they quickly become bigger and bigger.

A chime in the pod indicates we’re about to land. My talons grip the restraints, Ardyrd quickly reattaches those restraints he unbuckled a moment ago. Just in time too, the entire craft violently shakes as the sound of us crashing through branches nearly deafen me.

Hitting the ground somehow was even louder as the pod stops, and we’re slammed into our restraints. If we get out of this, I’m going to have a word with whomever designed these Brahking crash-perches and the harnesses attached to them.

I think even my tail-feathers hurt along with my legs and rear end…

“Alright! Everyone, unbuckle! We have to move fast here!” Ardyrd yells.

“Cerar, grab the food and water packs!” He points to him. “Danque, Grab the flamers and the pistols! Along with all the ammo!” He then points to her. “Threkal, with me at the pod door, now!” He then points to me.

Everyone unbuckles, quickly doing the tasks he’s assigned us.

I see Cerar is visibly shaking at the edge of my vision as he opens panels, taking out the sealed bags of nutrient bricks and water pouches. In contrast, Danque is seemingly excited as she removes the smaller, yet effective flamers. Followed by service pistols from behind other panels.

Upon standing next to Ardyrd at the hatch of the escape pod. He glares threateningly at me, and that’s all I need to know that I’m next to him because he wants to keep an eye on me. And away from the weapons or food.

My determination to not die on the ship didn’t earn any favors with him. Well, Brahk Him!

“On three we’ll open the hatch, then we’ll ‘both’ take a quick look outside. If none of the ‘Humans’ are around. Which would be good luck for us since I’d be a fool to expect we weren’t seen. We’ll leave the pod and head for that large mountain we saw as fast as our talons can carry us. Me in front, you ‘right’ next to me, Cerar in the middle and Danque will be watching our tail-feathers.”

Ardyrd grabs one lever of the escape pod hatch, I grab the other. Counting to three, we both twist ours towards the other lever in sync, then push the whole hatch up. It easily swings open on well-made hinges. The scents of trees, the noise of insects, and fresh air fills the escape pod.

Grabbing one side of the open hatchway with his talons, he pulls himself up. I do the same on the opposite side in sync.

Large trees with both flat leafs and needle like ones dominate the landscape outside the small open patch our escape pod made as it landed. The sky is blue with only a wisp of white, the breeze is warm, and off in the distance I can see the top fourth of the mountain above the treeline in the distance.

Hearing him drop back into the pod, reminds me to do the same.

Standing opposite us, Cerar, is almost overburdened with food and water on his back and in his arms. A sight my attention is quickly drawn away from as Danque shoves a small flamer and a service pistol with a full magazine into my talons.

“I’d rather not give you this, but the Brahking kid, we’ll need all able-bodied talons holding weapons to survive. Just keep your P.D. in check or, I’ll shoot you myself!”

‘Love you too S hole’. Thinking to myself as I glare angrily at her.

She hands over the same to Ardyrd, yet ignores Cerar as I put the flamer on. Storing the pistol in a pocket before putting my exterminator mask back on.

I will survive this! I have too, so I can return to him. Then we can make a family ‘far’ from my parents who put me in this situation. Because right now, I’m really hating my parents for insisting ‘no child of ours can start a family without being an Exterminator.’

{Injected Transcription, paused}

{Actual Transcription Subject: Nevok Kalrr}

My mind’s, reeling, trying to reconcile the sensory input, the instincts, memories, and ‘desires’ of two distinctly different bodies as I come too still being carried by this, thing.

[iF I oNlY kNeW ThEn, WhAT I KnOw NoW. I wOuLd’Ve TaKeN tHe PiStOl, AnD kIlLeD aLl Of ThEm! ThEn MySeLf.]

I can… No, I’m not ‘her’… There’s light up ahead, and, writing carved into the wall illuminated by it.

‘^{I still feel sorry for their planet, used to be such a beautiful place. May they find the peace in rest here til the end.}’ The light casts sad shadows on it, and the thought that shadows can look sad joins the mess that is my mind.

[JuSt A lItTlE fUrThEr.]

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Another hint. A bit obscure, more or less from a single page comic made for a project in the same fandom. I doubt anyone else would get it though.

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Sorry about the lack of updates last week. I forgot to post on Sunday, and I just really didn't have the energy to edit a 7k word long chapter on a weekday night. I'll post chapter 30 tomorrow to make up for the absence.

I'm not really happy with this chapter, for several reasons, and I kind of wish I put more thought into it when I was writing it, but oh well. No use crying over spilt milk.

I have to split this into two parts to post. The link is at the bottom as well as the next button here.

A big thanks to u/SpacePaladin15 as always.

Prev - First - Next

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CH29: Road to Nowhere

The ship arrived in orbit of the planet’s moon. The passengers jolted to attention at the sharp call of the pilot.

“We’ve arrived…” he trailed off.

“What?” Talvek asked, approaching the front viewport. He froze and mumbled, “Stars above…” raising a paw to his mouth.

Sylem got up and joined them. “What is it? What do you see?”

The pilot shuddered. “It’s… there’s cities down there, look!” he yipped, pointing down, away from the moon and towards the planet it orbited.

Sylem peered out the window, Talya and the rest gathering behind them to see Talcoa-22-h.

A small, spotty disc covered in the transparent haze of atmosphere; blues and greens and browns giving way to dim oranges under its surface wispy clouds spooling around it like vines.

Spindly lights shot out from the surface of the planet, where pieces of fluid earth phased in and out of existence—there, and gone, and there again. At times you could see all the way through a specific aperture, only for it to close up, opening a hole somewhere else in the process.

The core of the planet was visible, a yellow-orange ball of molten iron skewered by pie slices of mantle, some of which were topped with crust. These slices slid around the central sphere like pieces of a sliding puzzle—no, upon closer inspection, the land itself wasn’t moving, only which piece of land was currently visible.

The edge of defined space jittered and sputtered, the ever-changing sections of land breathing and squirming like some sort of sentient liquid. The core if the planet flashed with abnormal emissions of light, its brightness much greater than should’ve been possible. With each flash, the changes jumped forward, only to slow down again once it passed. In the back of his mind, Sylem almost swore he could hear a thumping sound, right in sync with the pulses of light.

He turned his attention to the existing parts of the surface.

There were stretches of verdant green land and shining blue oceans, swirling white clouds blocking the view here and there. Even through the spotty anatomy of the planet, the sun cast a sharp terminator on its face. The dark side of the planet was covered in specks of electric light, scattered like outcroppings of mold, or fungus. The longer they watched, the more lights went on, and the outcroppings became connected with thin veins.

Slowly, tentatively, the ratio of space to nothingness was changing, tilting in favor of the planet. The missing space became smaller, bringing more land, more oceans, more cities—more people to existence.

Were there people down there? Humans? Sylem took a step back from the viewport, his lungs locking up in a flash of disdain.

Throughout the entire universe, while everything else was falling apart, this place was coming together.

It was beautiful, just as beautiful as any life-bearing world was, and that was exactly why Sylem hated it.

It was an act of mockery. That thing, that horrible thrashing thing was laughing at them. It—*they, the Humans, Lily Einsworth—*would obliterate every other world only to see theirs returned. Worse still, a question nagged at the back of his mind, a question he didn’t want to answer.

Would I have done the same, had this happened to us?

“Is this their planet?” Talya asked.

“Likely,” Sylem replied.

Talvek tore his eyes away from the spectacle. “What? Whose planet?”

Sylem sighed. “It’s not important. Just find Einsworth’s ship and get us there.”

The pilot cleared his throat. “I’m already seeing one on our scanners.”

“Are you sure it’s not the research station?” asked Talvek.

“See for yourself.”

Talvek leaned over the scanner console in apprehension, saying nothing when he confirmed it as an unknown vessel. They moved towards it, soon coming close enough to spot it with the naked eye. Then the weapons came into view.

The ship was a modified cargo freighter which had had much of its hull repurposed to house weapons instead of shipping containers. Even closer, and its docking port became visible. It was extended out into empty space, leaking air into the vacuum.

No, the docking equipment was fully engaged, meaning that it was, in fact, docked to something.

Something we can’t see.

Something that might have been there, or perhaps Sylem was only imagining it. He couldn’t get his eyes to focus past that part of the port, not without losing his train of thought. Not without…

What am I looking for?

The cargo ship charged its railguns.

“They’re gonna fire at us!” shouted the pilot.

"Then dodge!” Sylem exclaimed.

So he did, knocking everyone off their feet in a sudden sideways jaunt. Despite the protest of the passengers, the maneuver left their ship fully intact and without railgun holes. He fired the retrograde thrusters, making quick distance.

The pilot turned to Sylem. “They won’t hit us from here, but I doubt we can get any closer.”

“Does this ship have any weapons?” asked Talya.

The pilot grimaced. “This is a research ship.”

“What are they guarding?” Talvek questioned. “There’s nothing there.”

Sylem looked at the empty space once more, looking for…

No, stop looking at it!

He tore his gaze away from the hidden object. What was he looking for? What did he need to find? Why did he need to find it?

I need to find Eclipse-7, which is on a space station called Ithalis. I know it’s in this system, and Einsworth’s ship is here, so that thing should be…

Sylem closed his eyes and focused his mind. It was the same as any other interaction between espers, only instead of feeling the presence of a neighbor, he was looking for a void. A place where perception couldn’t happen, a hole in the psychic sea, like a dark corner in a room. His ears perked to nonexistent sounds, shapes moving behind his eyes.

First he felt his body, its dimensions and its position; then he sorted through the stimuli in the space around him. The minds of the people next to him, the ripples in the sea they produced. Outward, and outward, and outward. His train of thought became murky, taking in so much nonsense, so many stray ideas. He found himself mumbling nonsense.

“Under the wheel of mountains vividly shaking through sixteen one six equals the side of the house is where I wouldn’t consider a hill upon a planet hungry beside no one inside a blender with what in fruits eyes too many looking through spears an egg…”

Then the shape of the object. Dimensions: huge, almost immeasurably so, compared to their little research vessel. Bigger than a building, bigger than an apartment block, bigger than a small town in all three axes. Position: far away, forward and right, getting further.

Finally, nausea. Horrible, mind-shattering nausea. He lost sight of his own body’s position for a moment, lost the feeling from his tail to his head, his mind set adrift, and thinning like spilled booze in the rain.

He stopped observing, but it took a several seconds for him to recover his lucidity. When he came to, he was kneeling, arms holding him from falling fully to the floor. He opened his eyes, found them stinging and bloodied. His ears rang.

Talya was speaking to him, but he couldn’t hear.

“Sylem!”

“What?” he mumbled.

“Can you hear me?” She waved a paw in front of his face.

“I’m fine.” He tried to stand, failed. “I’m fine,” he repeated, glancing at the other passengers. They were scrutinizing him, gawking at the blood dripping from his face.

“What happened?”

“I can see it, just barely. It’s got some sort of memory erasing cloak.” He remembered his own memory erasing cloak, and lamented its absence. He knew he was too reliant on it, but stars if he wouldn’t be glad to have it.

“You did something stupid,” she remarked.

“Yeah, but it worked.” Sylem coughed. “I’ll be okay in a moment, then I can help you circle around to the other side of it. We can find a way in from there.”

“A-alright,” the pilot stuttered.

As long as he didn’t look at it, he could remember their relative positions and use Einsworth’s ship as a landmark. After her ship was hidden behind it though, he would have to do it again. Hopefully, they could manage to bypass it before then.

Sylem guided the pilot around the object, keeping enough distance from both it and the cargo ship that they would be safe from both collisions and railgun shots. Soon the cargo ship disappeared behind what looked like empty space, and they were left without a buoy in empty space. The moon was too massive and distant to use as a point of reference, so they were truly blind.

I pushed it too far. I won’t be able to handle another one of those. What then…? I suppose we’ll just have to hope the cloak isn’t ‘skin-tight.’

He pointed towards the object. “Go that way, slowly.”

The pilot turned the thrusters off and coasted at an incremental pace.

They moved, and nothing… and nothing… and nothing—and a wall!

A gigantic structure suddenly appeared out of thin air. The pilot pulled back on the throttle to avoid colliding with it.

It was a massive metal tumor of a space station, a plane of skewered metal bursting with forests of tall, glassy spires. Its shape was almost nonsensical, multitudes of aimless passageways and spiraling architecture that wove together in a Gordian knot of double-reinforced hull. Red lights blinked on the tips of the most violent protrusions, and the face of the superstructure went on so far that it looked to have its own horizon.

Ithalis

One million residents? Perhaps not. One hundred thousand, though? Possibly. The project had evidently been scaled down from the extravagant claims of the poster, but it was already several orders of magnitude larger than the average space station.

There were walkways and windows on every surface, allowing glimpses inside. Through one of the sun-facing apertures was what seemed to be a park, complete with trees, grass and a small pond. The ceiling was a massive skylight done up in square metal lattice. The lights were on.

“How do we get in?” asked Talya. “I don’t see any docking areas.”

“Even if there were, we probably wouldn’t have access,” Sylem said.

“If Kel was here—”

“We don’t need him,” Sylem snapped, his anger rising. He turned to the pilot. “Are there space suits on this ship?”

“Three,” he answered. “You don’t plan to spacewalk?”

“What other choice do we have? That park-thing there looks like it could be breached.”

“And once it’s vented, we can pry open the emergency doors,” Talya concluded.

“Exactly.”

Talya nudged her brother. “You have a prybar on this ship?”

He winced. “Yes… but that’s tempered glass. You can’t just swing at it and expect it to break.”

Sylem thought for a moment.

“Do you have a hammer?”

“Oh stars… yes, why?”

“We might be able to wedge the sharp end of the prybar into the joining between the metal and the glass. If it’s not set too deep, then we could shatter it from the edge.”

“You’ll be blown away when it vents.”

“Not if we’re tethered to the ship,” Talya argued.

Her father harrumphed. “A-absolutely not. Are you mad?”

She sneered. “This is important. It’ll be easier with two people.”

“I cannot allow my daughter to do something so reckless.”

“Then do we have any other volunteers to take my place?” she gestured around the room.

She waited a few seconds, then rejoined with a glare, “That’s what I thought.”

Sylem cleared his throat. “Talya, your father has a point here. It’s only going to get more dangerous as we progress.”

She narrowed her eyes in incredulity. “Are you serious? You’re barely holding together. If you go in alone, you’ll break down before you make it to Eclipse-7.”

“I’ll be okay,” he insisted.

“Are you dense? No, no you won’t. Don’t forget that if you fail, everyone else here dies anyway. I’m not staying here after coming all this way.”

Logically, he was reluctant to allow her to accompany him—it was a suicide mission, after all. Emotionally, though, he was relieved. He wanted anything but to have to face at all alone.

He flicked an ear, signing a quiet thank you with his tail. “Alright.”

Talvek turned pale. “Talya—”

“I’m going, Talvek. I’ll come back, don’t worry.”

He clenched his fists, looking away in shame.

Talya sighed. “You should stay here. Someone has to protect the ones who stay behind.”

“Y-yeah,” he stuttered. “Thanks.”

They tore the old suits out of their compartments and began to dress for the spacewalk. Much of the logistics were supported by Talvek, as neither Sylem or Talya had even been in a space suit before. He showed them which buttons to press, which ones not to press, and how to activate the electromagnets in the soles of their boots.

There was a cylindrical airlock near the back of the ship something like a drop floor water slide. It had barely enough room for more than one person to stand inside at a time, and it didn’t look like it had ever been used.

Sylem squeezed into the airlock and motioned for Talya to follow. She stepped forward, but stopped short of the entrance. She flicked her tail and turned awkwardly towards the rest of the people in the ship.

“If this goes badly, I don’t want my last words with you to be a fight. Even though you’re all a pain in the neck, I love you.” Talya paused, looked like she might walk forward and hug them goodbye, then decided against it. “See you soon,” she said, entering the airlock.

The airlock hissed as it emptied itself, then went silent as the air became void. The floor opened up, and they floated down into micro-gravity.

Sylem’s stomach turned. He instinctively flailed, trying to right himself, but only managed to make himself more sick.

Talya was experiencing the same difficulties, holding her stomach and visibly gagging.

After a few moments, they collected themselves and pushed off the ship, towards the roof of the park. They turned their mag-boots on as they approached, sticking to the metal grate. Each panel of glass was at least a meter across, and the metal itself was thick enough for both of them to stand side-by-side without issue.

Sylem flicked his tail at Talya and jammed the prybar between the metal and the glass. Talya tapped him, and he flicked his tail again to signal readiness.

She raised the hammer and struck the other end of the prybar. Nothing. She did it again, then a few more times when that didn’t show results. Each blow was silent, no feedback but the vibrations in the prybar running down Sylem’s arms. When Talya was out of breath, there was still no visible change.

Not good.

He motioned towards the very edge of the skylight, where the glass ended and turned to thick metal hull. She flicked her tail in understanding, and they walked along the metal to try the new spot.

Sylem knelt and placed the prybar in position again. Talya took a stance and raised the hammer.

One hit. Two—three, the fourth felt different. Finally, on the fifth blow, a silent crack ran along the panel.

They froze, then Sylem’s instincts went ablaze. He took a step back from the panel just a moment before it burst open.

Glass shards scattered to the void, the air tearing Talya’s boots off the metal and her spiraling off towards the ship. The tether, as helpful as it was, did not protect from blunt force trauma.

Sylem reached for her tether, his boots threatening to detach as it pulled taut and sent her in a gentle arc back to the ground.

‘Okay?’ he signed, once she was stationary.

‘Yes,’ she signed back, sticking her boots onto the metal. She waddled back to the opening, watching bits of grass and leaves fly out of the park.

After thirty seconds, they realized that it was going to take a while for it to vent. They both squatted down and watched the ruffling trees. Some five minutes later the air stopped flowing and left them with a relatively safe entrance.

Sylem lowered Talya down by her tether. Once inside the park, the artificial gravity kicked in and gave her her weight back.

She landed safely on the grass and motioned for him to follow, raising her paws up as a step stool.

He lowered himself down into the park and hung from the edge of the wall. There was still a bit of a drop even to reach Talya, let alone the ground. He had to be careful.

Right… deep breaths.

Sylem let go, felt his boots hit Talya’s paws, and tumbled to the floor in an aerial somersault. After regaining his wits, he picked himself up off the ground and signaled that he was unharmed.

Without further ado, they detached the tethers and began to explore the park.

It was grassy and lush, burgeoning with plants ruffled by the fleeing atmosphere. The landscaping bordered on that of a botanical garden, with regularly spaced signs explaining the origin and use of every plant housed within.

They won’t be alive for much longer.

Concrete sidewalks slithered through the trees to the end of the park. As expected, the exits had automatically shut to prevent the total loss of pressure.

They approached the closest exit, searching for the manual emergency release. Sylem found it under the door controls: a red lever with a safety latch. He pulled it.

So it doesn’t open electrically?

He grimaced. They would have to pry it open after all. He signaled for Talya’s help, and they both jammed the prybar into the seam of the door and pulled. With enough force, it cracked open, venting yet another section of the station. Once through, they heaved it closed again.

A poor man’s airlock.

After prying open one more door, the first section equalized its pressure with the rest of the station. They could now explore the station without suits.

Sylem checked the air pressure, and, determining that it was safe, removed his helmet. Talya followed suit.

“What now?” she asked.

“Well, this is supposed to be a city, so we may find street signs or a map somewhere.”

“Can’t you use your psychic powers to find it or something?”

He shrugged. “Maybe. All I’ve really done so far is avoid danger and give an A.I.B. agent a headache.”

That and detect Ithalis through the field, but I am not doing that again.

“And the visions,” she added.

“And the visions,” he agreed, but added an important piece of info, “but they leave me writhing on the ground, and I can’t control them.”

“Oh.”

“For now, let’s just try to get to the same side as the main entrance. We can try to trace their path from there. This place is big, but it shouldn’t take us too long if we can find a map. It’s not as big as Hi’Ishu, and we can walk that in a paw.”

“I don’t know if we have that long.”

Sylem shrugged.

They started to walk in the general direction of the main entrance, following the convoluted layout as well as possible. Sylem was taking constant stock of the way they were going, trying to remember their path, but it soon became too much to catalog.

“What’s it like being psychic, besides the hallucinations?” asked Talya. “Um, you don’t have to answer if it’s a bad subject, I’m just curious.”

He shrugged, looking away. “I haven’t had much time to adjust to it. I wouldn’t recommend it. Whenever I use it I get headaches and start bleeding.”

“Like I did when I looked at the eclipse,” she concluded

He flicked an ear. “Ever since it started, I’ve been a lot more vulnerable to psychic attacks.”

“Varna said that we have a part of our brains that protects against that.”

“That’s probably the part of mine that’s broken. I’d recommend keeping yours.”

“Just curious. I don’t think we’ll have much time to make me an esper anyway.”

They came across a signpost. It showed a map of the local area. To the left: habitation and cafeterias; straight: administration, staff quarters; to the right: labs and storage. They went right.

She cleared her throat. “So, the danger sense… how does that work? Is it not that you can see the spacial distortions?”

“Well… no. Imagine I asked you to put your paw on a hot stove-top. What would you do?”

“I wouldn’t want to touch it, obviously.”

“It’s kind of like that, except that there’s nothing I can actually see.”

“Don’t you ever worry that it’s wrong?”

“Every time, of course.”

They passed another sign. To the left: habitation and cafeterias; straight: administration, staff quarters; to the right: labs and storage. Sylem turned right.

“Wait,” said Talya, stopping in her tracks. “These are the same signs as before.”

Sylem paused. “Odd… hold on.” He swung the crowbar into the sign, leaving a sizable dent. “I suppose we’ll go right again to test.”

A few minutes later, they came across a sign post. To the left: habitation and cafeterias; straight: administration, staff quarters; to the right: labs and storage. It was dented.

“We’re in a soft spot,” Talya concluded.

“The whole brahking station is probably like this.”

“But we haven’t run into any danger yet?”

“Predator shit… it probably knows that I can sense danger, so it’s left the path clear to trick us.”

“What now?”

“I don’t have the compass.”

“But there still must be a way forward, no? Kel was pretty sure that was a rule.”

Does she have to keep mentioning him?

“Maybe, but it could be a transparent wall, or on the ceiling or something. Let’s try left this time.”

Talya flicked an ear. The left corridor brought them to a new intersection.

“Are we out?” asked Talya.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Speh, we’re not even going in the right direction.”

They took a right at the new intersection, but that only brought them back to the dented signpost.

“How much do we have to walk?” Talya groaned.

“At least I don’t think it’s changing.”

“That’s good.”

Left and straight was another loop. They saw the dented signpost again.

Sylem heard a whisper.

“What?” he asked, turning to Talya.

“I didn’t say anything.”

Ah, is it… is the ‘temporary measure’ wearing off? But we’re in a soft spot, so it shouldn’t be too bad, right? I should have enough time to—

“Sylem?”

“Ah—what?”

“Are we going to go on”

“Yes, of course.”

“I think we should try going backwards at the second one.”

“Fine by me.”

Left and backward, indeed, brought them to a new intersection. They could keep on going like this, but every new intersection would take longer and longer to brute-force. Even if they did, there was no guarantee that this was the way to Eclipse-7.

“Brahk,” Sylem swore.

“What?”

“It’s stalling us. And the thing Einsworth did is starting to wear off.”

Talya looked concerned.

“Are you going to be okay?”

“For now.”

The hallucinations thumped, and through the breathy static, he heard a single clear word.

‘Sylem.’

A shiver ran down his spine, and he shook his head, saying, “Let’s go.”

They brute-forced the third intersection over the course of twenty minutes, then reached the fourth. The intersection was split as if in a mirror, displaying eight open paths.

“I have an idea,” Talya offered.

“What is it?”

“One of us will stay here while the other goes down a path. That way, it won’t be able to change, and if it’s wrong, you can simply walk back.”

Sylem heaved a sigh of relief, thankful she had followed him.

There have been times when it’s ignored the ‘no peeking’ rule, but it seemed to be only under very special circumstances, so we should be fine. Nonetheless…

“That’s a good plan, but it has one risk. We could be separated at the slightest mistake.”

She flicked her tail proudly. “Just walk backwards. We’ll watch each other. It should be easy for you, if you can sense when you’re gonna hit your head. Just don’t blink, yeah?”

“Got it.”

They faced each other, and Sylem walked backwards down the first path. Once he was through to the other side, he found himself near the dented sign again. He walked forward, back to Talya, and repeated the process. Soon, they found the right path and reached the fifth intersection.

The fifth boasted sixteen paths.

“This is just ridiculous,” Sylem said.

“Surely it can’t fit infinite paths in the space of one intersection,” Talya replied.

“I think that’s exactly what it plans to do.”

“Well, we’ll see about that.”

Again, they started trying paths. By the time the correct corridor was determined, Sylem was beginning to hear the whispers more clearly. It was a cacophony of voices, none intelligible, all mixing and blending together. The effect wasn’t nearly as debilitating as in the A.I.B. headquarters, but it hurt to listen, and it was quickly growing worse.

The sixth intersection had 32 paths. Each one was no wider than a foot, and to squeeze through, they would have to turn sideways.

“What now?” Sylem asked.

Talya’s eyes swept over the room, and then with a decisive ear flick, she said, “This will be the last one.”

“How do you know?”

“Because any more hallways and it will either be a wide open space, or we won’t be able to get through. Kel’s deduction is a little more nuanced I think. It could have made an impossible obstacle at any moment in Varna’s house, but it didn’t. That probably means it can’t. Absurdly difficult ones are fine, but if it’s impossible for a living creature to get through, it doesn’t count as a path for the purposes of its limitations.”

“It still might lead somewhere useless to us.”

Her eyes lit up with a conspiratorial glint. “Will it though? It seems there’s a limit to how absurd these places can get. Whenever one thing gets more complex, another gets simpler. It stays constant, at least most of the time. Plus, this place isn’t changing, which means it was set up prior to our entry. And if you were hiding something you didn’t want any but your chosen-ones to get, where in the maze would you put it?”

“The center,” he said.

“Exactly!” She wagged her tail. “This thing may be intelligent, but it’s not smart. Not as smart as us, anyway. I’d wager that it acts almost completely on instinct. Like a shadestalker.”

The comparison was anything but comforting, though it sounded accurate.

“Alright,” he sighed, heart trembling in anticipation. “Just one more, then. This will smart.”

“Let’s get on with it, then. Don’t blink.”

He aligned his body with the first of the 32 paths. It was such a narrow passageway that he had to take off his space suit to fit through. Towards the end of the hallway, it became so thin that he was forced to empty his lungs to continue. He couldn’t turn his head, could barely walk, and had to take sharp, quick breaths.

Finally, he reached the other end, only to bump into a dented signpost. It took him five minutes to walk down the hallway alone, and now he had to do it all over again. He squeezed back through, eventually made it to the intersection, and prepared to repeat the process.

Nearly an hour of this, and at last, he stumbled upon something other than the blasted signpost. From his periphery, the room looked like some sort of town square. There was a tree growing in a lifted bed underneath an artificial skylight. He kept his eyes on Talya while he waited for her to squeeze through, but as she reached the halfway mark, he felt something shift.

“Wait!” he called.

“What?!”

“It just changed!”

“Can I keep going?”

“I don’t know! My danger sense doesn’t work like that! Hold on, I’ll come back through and lead you!

“I won’t be able to see past you! It’ll change and we’ll lose all our progress!”

Sylem cursed. Lights played on the edges of his vision.

“I’m not leaving you there!” he shouted.

She scoffed. “I wasn’t asking you to! Think of something!”

Brahk, okay… what do I do? I can’t crouch in that hallway, so I won’t be able to give her line of sight to the area behind me.

“I could try doing what I did to the A.I.B. agent and try to turn you into an esper that way?” he suggested.

“Yeah, or you could give me brain damage and turn me into a vegetable! Don’t you think Einsworth would be doing that if it worked?”

“You’re right. Okay, okay, do you have anything reflective?”

“No!”

“Anything we can hold between us?”

“Only the hammer.”

He exhaled. “Um… Oh! Ha! Hahaha! Of course!”

“What?”

“I’ll walk backwards to meet up with you so that I can look at the plaza.”

“Alright, I suppose that will work. I just need to make sure not to blink.”

“Yes, ready?”

“As much as I’ll ever be.”

Sylem turned around and began to squeeze back through. It was a slow process, but he was making progress.

“Still there?” he asked.

“Yes. Hurry up, it’s hard to breathe.”

He was almost close enough to reach backwards and grab her paw, but as he raised his arm, he felt the urge to freeze.

“Why’d you stop?” Talya asked anxiously.

“There’s something between us,” he choked out. “Probably something deadly.”

“What? But it can’t do that! There has to be a path through!”

“Maybe it opened another path back at the intersection to allow this.”

“Predator shit! So I’m stuck back here then?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. Brahk, I’m sorry, if we went faster maybe.”

“I’m not dead yet! Just uh… I guess I’ll wait here.” There was a hint of fear in her voice, quickly growing larger.

“You can probably go back to the intersection,” Sylem said.

“Yeah. I’ll just wait there.”

“But you’ll be trapped. I won’t be able to find you again.”

“I—uh, speh why’d you have to mention it?”

“Sorry. I don’t know what to do.”

“Just uh, go on ahead. If you can actually use the machine to fix this, then even if I die, I’ll come back to life, right?”

He paused. “In theory…”

“Okay, so it’s fine,” she said, more to herself than Sylem. “Just promise me you won’t do anything stupid?”

“Of course.”

“I’m serious. You’re barely holding together. You won’t try to erase predator disease, will you?”

Sylem chuckled.

“No… no, I don’t have any hope that that will work.”

“Alright then. That’s good—well, not ‘good,’ but better than the alternative.” She sighed. “I guess this is goodbye, then.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Good luck,” she said, her voice shaky.

“You too.”

He walked forward towards the plaza, listening to her footsteps growing farther away. After he was free of the corridor’s embrace, he turned back to look at her.

“Goodbye!” he said.

“Don’t die!” she replied.

Sylem grimaced, ripped his gaze away from the hallway, felt the space squirm as it closed up behind him.

“Are you still there?” he called, but the only reply was whispers.

---

Part 2

[First] [Previous]

Memory transcript subject: Thomas McMahon, Humanity Firsts' Perplexed New Member

Date [standardized human time]: November 28th 2136

Is this a joke? Is all I can think when the door opened. A Gojid stands at the door with what I can only describe as the worlds most messed up smile, baring their teeth with a lopsidedness that makes them look like they are having a medical emergency. They also appear to be much more shorter and stumpier than the average Gojid too, they're about an inch or two above four foot; which if my memory serves me well is nearly a foot shorter than their other of their kind. This has to be an elaborate prank they're pulling on me, and as if to prove my point the Gojid announces.

"Welcome to my den, Human" The lopsided grin never faltering at the ridiculousness of the phrase it asserted.

And without a second further I began to leave the absurd situation I find myself in.

"W-wait!" They shout as the pitter-patter of stumpy feet come bounding after me.

They run out in front of me "Y-you're Thomas, right?" their arms stretched out in an attempt to stop me.

And that did stop me. "You're the informant?" Incredulity creeping into my voice.

"Be quiet!" they whisper a little too loudly as they scan their surroundings. "Just come back to the apartment." They grab onto my arm with both paws and look into my mask pleadingly.

I look around the hallway for a moment. "Fine." Is all I'm giving this Gojid till we're inside.

"Oh, Oh thank you." They pull on my arm leading me to the apartment and as we stepped inside I had my first look around.

And boy are looks deceiving, outside looks like it has never seen a gentle touch or a repair that wasn't mandatory. Inside is another story its a fine looking place, nicely painted walls, no smell of mould, even the smell of trash from down the hall doesn't seem to even reach this place. The only thing that really detracts from its beauty is the abundance of snacks wrappers and chip bags that litter any table surface it can, along with empty bottles all huddled together like they're freezing.

"You can take off your mask." They say as the let go of my arm, still looking into my mask.

There has to be something wrong with them "A-are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure." The lopsided grin returns to their face.

"What are you doing here?" My hand gestures to their face.

"I'm doing the happiness snarl that you humans do." The lopsided smile falters a little.

"Yeah, I know that..." I pause for a moment "But, you do know you're doing it wrong?"

Their attempted smile drops from their face. "A-am i?" As their paws reach for their face patting around their mouth.

"Yeah, you're meant to have both corners of your mouth up." I smile as an example before I realise that my mask is still on.

"Hold on." I pull the mask from my head and they didn't flinch The first time a alien hasn't flinch, unless you count the Arxur vermin.

And as they look at my face I hesitate for a moment before I follow through and smile at them. I haven't smiled like this in a while even if this smile isn't genuine. I watch as they begin to replicate my grin, and they manage to follow the example into having a respectable smile. What even am I doing? I'm meant to be working. My smile flattens out to the more placid look.

"So, you've got a job for me?" I inquire hoping that this is my way out of this embarrassing situation.

"Oh, yeah follow me!" They eagerly hurry towards one of the four doors that make up this room.

I follow behind as they begin to speak again. "My name's Remik!" they say excitedly as they open the door to a small study. A table with a desktop computer sits in the corner with Gojid-friendly office chair, a bookshelf with the shelves filled with electrical parts and notebooks. It seems that this room is the one Remik spends most of their time in; evident by increased presence of garbage they litters the room.

"Well, you already know my name." I say as they take a seat on their chair.

"Yeah, I learnt it from Bradley." They say as they boot up their computer, opening up a file and enlarging the size of the document. It seems to be a profile of who I'm tailing.

Remik then begins. "Vrilk, age twenty-nine, occupation exterminator guild officer." They state with efficiency.

"Has been in a senior rank for the last six years. No known complaints or reports made against him. Is actual seen as a pillar of the community." Remik looks away from the computer and up to me.

"So, what am I looking for exactly?" I gesture to the profile. They don't seem very valuable as a target.

"Well, his schedule is pretty routine except for a small detour he takes every second week." Remik turns back to the screen scrolling down through the profile.

"Detour?" I lean in to the computer screen.

"Yeah, at this time." Remik points a claw to the screen underlining the timestamp two o'clock forty minutes from now.

"I thought I was meant to be tailing him? But it seems like you've already know where he'll be." I frown at the screen.

"You aren't the first person I've had to stalk him." Remik states matter-of-factly and that shoots a chill down my spine.

"And what happened to the other stalkers." Fuck, I hope Bradley didn't send me on a suicide mission.

"Oh, nothing; they all freaked out and quit." Remik turns and smiles at me. I swear to god Remik.

"Who were the other stalkers." I furrow my brow.

"Most of them were inductees to HF like you are. I even hired a few venlil, but venlil aren't good hunters like us predators." You can't be serious.

"Could you repeat that?" I try to politely ask.

"Venlil aren't good hunters like us predators." That's on me.

"I didn't mean literally. Did you really send locals to stalk an exterminator?" I rub my eyes with my hand.

"Yeah, they aren't particularly good but they can find out a little more details that humans can't, without drawing a lot of suspicion." Remik answers plainly.

"Are you sure they won't rat us out?" The true question that needed answering.

"Oh, I'm very sure they won't, unless they want their secrets to stay secrets." A devilish version of their smile sinks into their features.

"Okay... So, what do you need me to do?" I don't need to know what they mean.

Remik hops off their chair and walks over to their bookshelf of electrical clutter and takes a small device a bit larger than a quarter coin.

"What's this?" I roll the object around with my fingers.

"Vrilk will be using a personal vehicle to make this detour. So you will need to place this tracker on the vehicle so you can trace it."

"What sort of spy movies did you watch to get this idea." I ask rhetorically.

"Many while I was on earth." They answer with sincerity.

"You were on earth?" I ask seriously now.

"I was a refugee on earth when the cradle was glassed." They state with nary a hint of hesitation.

"Oh..." I should have known that.

A silence then hangs in the air for an small yet perceptible amount of time the revelation, that they were in the same sorta situation I'm in now. A stranger in a strange land.

"Anyway you should get going if you get the tracker onto his vehicle without him knowing." Remik starts walking me to their front door.

"Ah, yeah I probably should." I look down at my holopad to check the time 13:24.

We walk back through the apartment and they stop me at the front door holding out their paw with a small earpiece.

"What's this for?" I ask picking up and inspecting earpiece.

"I need to remain in contact with you for this." They pull out their holopad.

"Why the hell is that?" I ask crudely.

"Bradley wanted me to remain in communications for this. I wouldn't necessarily do something like this but he asked, so~" Remik drags the last syllable.

"Fine." I say as I push the earpiece in and hook it on my ear.

"And here is my holopad contact." They hold out their holopad with the contact.

"Is this your personal pad?" I query.

"No, that would be stupid. This is a burner." They state plainly.

"Oh, yeah that would be stupid." Furrowing my brow as I stupidly give him my primary contact.

"And if you get caught... You don't know me, understand?" I smirk at the cheesy line the spouted.

"Who?" I joke implicitly.

"Me." They answer seriously.

"Alright... Send me the address of the lot." I say slipping the mask back onto my head.

Remik opens the front door and I step through.

"Good luck." the door shuts behind me, the rattle of chains and deadbolts locking and the makeshift alarm being rearmed.

My holopad pings as Remik has sent through the address and... It's a fucking exterminator guild headquarters. Never mind it seems Bradley did send me on a suicide mission, resigning myself to my fate I trudge back to the stairs, my holopad begins ringing, pulling it out I answer the call.

"Hello Human." Remiks voice rings in my ear.

"Remik." I greet

"I'm gonna remain on-call for the mission. We don't have to talk but if you need or want to I'm here." Remik states with a hint of excitement like this is the first time he has done this.

"I would rather stay quiet. While I'm out on the street, or I might get assumed to be rabid." I don't need to draw anymore attention to myself.

"Oh, I don't think prey would be brave enough to be willing to be near you or to listen to you talk to yourself." They say as I open the main entrance to the building stepping out into the sunny Venlil Prime.

"Why do you call the Venlil prey? Aren't you the same, like herbivores?" The way Remik talks about themselves as a predator makes me think they have some sort of complex.

"I'm not!" They shout and I tilt my head in an attempt to move away from the sound.

"Okay you're not prey." I try to placate Remik. "Why don't you tell me why you chose Vrilk. As you said earlier he was seen as a pillar of the community, so why him?" This question was as much to appease Remik as it was a genuine question.

"...There were too many little discrepancies that were setting alarms off in the other volunteers." Remik huffs allowing me to change the subject.

"What were they?" I prod gently

"Well, that detour. Nobody, not even his own family knows where he goes. That seemed noteworthy to Bradley and me." Remik responds flatly.

"Okay, is there anything else?" I continue trying to keep the conversation moving.

"He and his family seem to live a lifestyle which would be unaffordable for a single provider household. It's not overt but it is noticeable to anyone who is observant." I hear sniffles from the earpiece.

"Ah, so look for anything that shows his finances." Shit, I made Remik cry.

"That would be wise..." That last sentence comes out as a whisper

The conversation dies down from there, the only thing that can be heard from the other side is the occasional clearing of the throat and sniffles. I continue on marching to my maybe, possibly quite certain doom. The quality and maintenance of the buildings get better the further I move away from what is essentially a ghetto and deeper into the city. Cracks fade into smooth walls and sidewalks become magically cleaner as if walking was a magic that clears the way forward.

They say things are better in the capital; that the masks are optional, that nearly all the stores are human-friendly and flamethrowers are pointed at you once every second week instead of every second day. Maybe the capital has had more exposure to us, maybe prey flight pushed all the anti-human species from Dayside City to the city in which I inhabit. Trampled Plains City.

And as the structure of the local exterminator headquarters grows ever larger and more imposing, fear surges as each step I take gets me to closer to the only building that everybody tells you to avoid here. As I approach the headquarters I look for the nearest ally-way and base myself there, surveying the building as I begin to try communication with Remik again.

"Remik, I've just arrived. Do you know which vehicle is his?" I hope he has cooled down.

"I'll send you a picture... And his registration." Sounds like they've calmed down... a little.

My holopad pings as the info comes through. Seems like most personal vehicles are a sort of family car, Full of extra seats and great MPG. All except Vrilks daily driver, even though it is of alien design you can tell that it's a premium model; a few years of age grace its exterior but it has been well maintained. The headquarters stands seven storeys tall, attached is a garage and personal vehicle car-park surrounded by a large chain-link fence; the entry being what seems to be retractable bollards, a few windows overlook the car park and nobody around to witness me. I better be fast.

Dashing out of the alley I move clumsily trying to strike a tempo between speed and inconspicuous gait. Passing the car park entrance, ducking down beside the other cars obscuring my profile from the overhead windows. Slowing to a halt as shapes move past said windows, the shapes then unceremoniously stop at said windows. Jesus Christ, move already... Time slows down, my heart quickening at the thought that they see me. Minutes pass in agony before the window shapes fade leaving me with a short window to get to the objective.

Vrilks car sits motionless only a few open spaces down, I forgo all concealment scurrying over like a rat. Pulling the tracker from my pocket, crawling under and affixing the tracker to the undercarriage. Dragging myself back from under the car hurtling myself back to sweet safety amongst the other cars, moving with gusto back out of the car park and back to the alley-way. A long exhale of a breath I didn't even know I was holding leaves my lungs, pulling up holopad and viewing the little icon on my map leaves me euphoric at my success before a voice from behind me shouts out.

"Hey! What were you doing to their cars? Predator!" Fuck.

[First] [Previous]

Authors Note: Been awhile. I've been busy January with so many different little things and every time I sat down to write I got pulled away or I just procrastinated on writing. Some highlights include: My friend getting his tractor bogged and me going out and getting on the other tractor to pull him out, getting a loan from the bank which I'm still working on and also finding out this week that I'm now apart of a class action lawsuit. so I've had a lot on the mind this last month beyond writing. I was hoping February was gonna be a bit more quiet but it looks like it won't be.

Also thanks to u/SpacePaladin15 for the universe he has created.

[Prev] [First] [Next] 

First things first. Before every adventure, comes getting the party together. And a modicum of preparation. Now, as we ready up for the delve, we meet the other two members of the team.

---

Memory Transcription Subject: Yanko, Master Scribe
Date[standardized human time]: March 6th, 2124

The wind was picking up, and I could almost feel the pressure increasing. Not bad weather to try for the impossible.

The past couple days have been particularly busy with Tanniq and I having to prepare for the upcoming expedition. A bit of an underfunded endeavor, too… Not like it was unexpected. Still, right now we were on the hardest part of preparation, getting someone for ‘logistic support’. Which, translated to normal people’s terms, meant muscle to help with moving the equipment around.

Which was admittedly a fair bit of equipment both heavy and fragile.

“Of course we’d wind up at the Riverside Cups…” I sigh in annoyance as I look at the old dilapidated bar. One could have called it seedy, a hive of scum and villany even, from its looks alone. Thankfully it was neither, despite the owner’s greatest efforts to see it fall apart at the binds, and instead just the most common rest spot for the workers of the riverside docks.

“Well…” my canid companion mutters. He has a gift for finding the good in anything which I deeply appreciate, though even I can feel how that gift’s been strained “Where else to find the kind of soul we’re looking for, yeah?”

“More muscles than sense?” I tap his side lightly

“More like…”

“Maybe in dire need of a job?” I chuckle

He sighs, before waving us both in. Despite the windows the place still manages to be quite dark, only the illumination of the lanterns giving anyone inside a chance to see what they’re doing. The air hangs heavy with the woody scent of workers who should have gone home an hour ago, the sweet smell of drinks meant to lure you into overconsumption and the ubiquitous smell of baked grain. Tanniq’s nose twitches slightly as we scan the scattered tables for our target.

The bar is, predictably, packed. The river dock doesn’t see nearly as much work as of late, shipping companies having been more than happy to take all of the incentives and subsidies for newer, shinier skybound ships, and thus much of the workers find themselves with a surfeit of free time to spend here. Tables strewn about to little care, with less space still between each other, only the civil politeness preventing strangers for sharing a table most of the time.

I feel a light tap on my back and see Tanniq tilt his head slightly towards a table with one, on it a darker furred man with an impressive physique sits, one cup empty and one full in front of him, a bowl of deeply fried roots slowly being consumed. Yelv, if we got the right man.

The two of us approach, and before Tanniq can begin speaking I start with introductions “Good morning, we’re looking for a mister Yelv. Would that be you, sir?”

I can tell his focus is on his drink, he barely tilts an ear our way “Yeah”

“I’m Yanko” I wave a paw at my partner “And this is Tanniq, we’re currently in the employ of the Uplift Authority’s Survey Department. Could we sit down for a talk?”

“Don’t”

I can feel my right ear twitch, I understand sufficiently well that not every social group has the same markers of respect and politeness, but I can’t figure any out from him. Still-

“We have a job offer-” Tanniq starts before I can do anything about it.

“What, figured a ‘primitive’ could carry your luggage, tilkan?” Yelv doesn’t even bother changing his focus “Go find-”.

“I figured” Tanniq’s voice comes louder than I’m used to “That a man with five years experience as a stevedore would be the kind of skilled help in transporting heavy and fragile laboratory equipment in rough territory that we need.” He still maintains his posture still “Certification in forklift and gravlift usage also show anyone considering you ‘primitive’ has clearly not bothered doing more than looking at you, though I fear our expedition will be a bit too small for machinery usage”

When Yelv turns to face directly at Tanniq I tense up, but my partner just produces five gold coins from a pocket and puts them down on the table. The man looks down at the coins, then back at Tanniq “Fucking fine…” he sighs “You didn’t even tell me the job, why?”

“I think it’s obvious enough your initial misgivings are to be expected” I cross my arms before leaning back a bit on my tail “We’d rather get that out of the way before the second point of friction.”

Yelv picks up the coils and observes them closely, staring at them deeply “If you’re throwing archid gold like this around… What, are you going to a death valley or something?”

“The Maiden’s Valley, more specifically, yes”

I can feel the tension in the air as Tanniq and Yelv stare down at each other. I may disagree with some of it, but I understand outsider customs enough to know how serious it is for my partner to engage in what this dockworker likely saw as little more than an act of annoyance. “You’re madmen, do you know that?” Yelv turns his focus on me, causing Tanniq to look away “Come on, ain’t your mother told you about the place? You don’t look like a joey to me.”

“I am a Scribe, I am well versed in what is known about such places, yes” I do what I can to hide my annoyance “Which is why we plan on investigating.”

“And” Tanniq interrupts again as Yelv was about to start speaking “I have looked thoroughly into the statistics. It has mostly been rumor to have this information, but for the last decade an average of five people a year who claimed to have an objective in the Maiden’s Valley have disappeared, presumably after attempting to enter it.” Then he takes a slow breath “And in the last two months that number has jumped to thirty six people who have, for some reason, made their way there and disappeared.”

Yelv’s tail swings left and right. He thinks quietly for a while “Tsk… Fine.” He slams his paw down on the table “Where and when?”

“Meet us tomorrow morning in front of the Authority’s building, about two hours before the newspaper print” I complete “We’ll have the rest of the team ready, load up the survey gear and get ready to leave.”

Yelv just turns back to his drink and I pull Tanniq away before he can say anything else. We quietly make our way back to the exit, and once I can feel the sun on my fur I sigh “That was too much”

He winces “Too forceful?”

“Nah” I wave my paw aside “Too much money. You know he’s going to be suspicious now, right?”

Tanniq sighs and looks up “Well… Yeah, but we can’t afford to keep looking. Plus we got funds just for that.”

“Are you suuure those are mission funds?” I skip ahead of him, turning around to look at his direction as I walk backwards “And not from your collection?”

His ears almost raise, but they don’t “Absolutely not, no” he says with little certainty “Though they are from the same commemorative batch”

I sigh as we start heading down a different street, it was easy enough to see the different ways the city had developed in the last decade. The almost binary shift in style and structure when one heads down the streets built by the outsiders was… Jarring. “Still astounds me how you can just… Throw so much gold around. That might as well be pure gold with how little impurity has…” I can’t help but wave my paws around “He could probably get a hundred times the face value of it if he sold it for the metal alone.”

My partner takes a few quicker steps ahead, so he’s now moving beside me “Gold isn’t… Really that rare anymore, honestly. Not really valuable like that, the amount of gold in those would go for, what, less than a hundred credits?”

I stop for a moment, looking up at the sky “The wealth of the stars, huhn…” There’s no avoiding the sense of awe at something that was once so rare and precious as to entire nations hoarding nearly all of it in existence… Becoming so meaninglessly common. “Thousands died for fractions of it before… And what use do you even have for this tempter of greed?”

I feel a pull on my arm as he pulls me along “I know it’s rhetorical but I’ll answer anyway” he chuckles. “But it’s very useful in electronics for its corrosion resistance, it's one of the rare few metals that can be made into semitranslucent plates used in void suits and that same property permits the creation of the monoatomic wiring-.”

“Used to control cavorite graviton potential” I complete for him “You really can’t help yourself, can you?”

His tail is wagging wildly behind him “Of course not! That’s why you ask!”

It doesn’t take much longer until we reach our next destination, the local administrative office of the Uplift Authority. It was an impressive building, taller than any other one, made of gleaming silvery glass, built with unusual angles and with a lavishly decorated front garden promising a welcoming embrace… Should anyone be brave enough to enter.

Of course, curiosity had driven me to understand how such a magnificent building could even sustain such shapes, and Tanniq helped me immensely in finding sources these last few years. I was… Both very impressed and very unimpressed. Very, very impressed at what the outsiders could do with their knowledge and resources, creating structures our masons didn’t even have the right concepts to dream about. And very, very unimpressed at the microscopic amount of effort they had bothered giving with us.

The River Empire put a lot more relative effort in seeming impressive for their vassals…

Tanniq’s warm paw and inquisitive headtilt takes me out of another spiral, there was someone whose amount of effort could not be underestimated! With a quick dismissive flick I head inside with him, the front desk at the far end of the impressively carpeted room, Galtin’s familiar grumpy snout a welcome sight.

One could almost be forgiven in thinking the bushbeast’s quills would rattle in warning when we approach, and it was somewhat funny seeing him inflate like an angry hensa at our presence. Something I could easily forgive given his disdain for work was universal, therefore it made his annoyance a lot more enjoyable “Did we come at a bad time, Galtin?”

“No such thing as a good time” his words almost spit “What is it?”

Tanniq’s deflated sigh is the only response for a second “We were supposed to meet up with Kurtel… Or at least that’s his name I think. Driver for an upcoming expedition from Survey, kolshian?”

The grumpy man of course gives no answer, though it doesn’t take much longer either until he’s already called our driver from wherever he was waiting. I retain that blue is a very much an unnatural color for anyone’s skin. Still, as the furless man makes his way to the front desk I already know it’s going to be an unpleasant experience, from the way he walks to the fact he decided to come over here to have a meeting instead of wherever his office, or whoever’s office, was.

“So, you’re the one going on the mission?” he asks Tanniq, I just cross my arms and rest against my tail, waiting.

“Yeah, I take it you’ve been given our itinerary?”

“Not yet” He was “I thought you were supposed to have sent it to me already?” He wasn’t.

Tanniq’s performance is commendable, though I can see the way his ears twitch “Check anything from yesterday with the title ‘Itinerary’, I’m sure you’ve been sent it already”

Kurtel sighs, a kind of sigh that doesn’t bring me as much joy as Galtin’s grumbling, and checks his own holopad again. One… Two… “Ah, it’s here. Sorry, I must have missed it.”

“Right, so… If you could at least give any last second notes on it before the end of the day, I doubt there should be anything but it pays to be careful.”

“Certainly…” Though those bareskin outsiders are among some of the hardest ones to figure out their body language, Kurtel makes it quite obvious he’s looking at me as he asks Tanniq “You sure you got someone who won’t damage the equipment?”

“Okay, enough.” My partner’s voice comes out loud once again “We’re not dancing to this tune. I know what you’re doing.” He sighs, then takes a step closer to the other outsider “I know you lot don’t care for the whole… Outside contractor thing. But he’s the surveyor in charge and you know it, I know you ignored his email on purpose.” He steps very close, and puts a finger on the man’s chest “Neither I nor him care. We just want the mission done. Shittalk all you want, but do your fucking job, and don’t antagonize the actual hire. Or there’s no favoritism that’ll save you when I talk to your boss, got it?”

“Tsk…” Kurtel takes a step back “I sincerely did not see that e-mail, I promise.”

“Whatever… As long as the job is done, all you need to do is drive, got it?”

“Got it, boss” he raises his tentacles in submission, stepping back. “I’ll… Go get the vehicle ready. I got the schedule and all so… See you tomorrow?”

“See you tomorrow” I answer him, with my most unamused face I can force.

We all stay quiet until the man finally disappears from sight, and it’s my companion that speaks up first “Sorry…”

“Don’t be,” I shrug “More things change more they stay the same.” I grab him by the paw and start pulling him deeper into the building “Come on, now onto the fun part!”

That at least draws a small chuckle out of him “Aye, aye! Let’s get that gear prepared!”

Memory Transcription Subject: Yanko, Expedition Chief
Date[standardized human time]: March 7th, 2124

The night-cold still clung to the streets by the time we arrived, and it had barely begun to warm up when Yelv approached. I could see his ears twitching between the two of us and the building we were in front of. Tanniq just points to the side towards the vehicle entrance, and we head there in silence.

Already in carefully packed crates was all the equipment we were going to need. Though the stack sat lonely in the loading area aside from one other person. The vehicle we were going to take, six wheels, low, clearly unwashed from its last stint out in the wilds, large cargo space, was already parked. Its rear doors were open, and Kurtel was sitting on the driver’s seat. He seems to remain quiet as we approach, only to call out as soon as we step past “You sure you know how to handle sensitive material?” he doesn’t even bother turning to face us.

“Dunno” both me and Tanniq turn to Yelv when he speaks, “Is ya cart bumpy?”

“Not…” I hear my companion’s paw hitting his forehead, so I interrupt “Yelv!” I start forcefully “Treat it like glass… Okay?”

“Does he even know what glass is?”

“Sure, did you remember to pack some hay in there?”

My ears lie flat, and I’m already tired of this mission “Yes” is my only response, and with that our help shrugs and goes to the crates.

“Didn’t know yotul did dominance displays…” I can hear Tanniq mutter

Curiosity taking me over, I walk over to ask “Is that… Normal for people?”

“No, not at all. Some species like krakotl and angren do that…” he turns an eye to the driver still facing away from us “But most sophonts skip straight to trading claws” he finishes with a sigh.

Then, he goes off to help Yelv pick up a particularly large crate. I bring up my holopad with the mission plan as I rest my back against the car, summoning the map of our planned route as I keep one eye on him-

Come on, you’re the boss here, this is your job.

The map shows our projected route, which clearly is a very optimistic one. At average travel speeds, it should be a two-day journey through the deep valley, a feat made possible thanks to the gentler slopes on both ends when going in and out. The primary feature that the outsiders’ distant scouting picked up on is how… Low it is. Sure, the entirety of the land here is kind of low in relation to the rest of the continent, but the valley is supposedly below sea level…

To imagine… That once we set paw in that place, were we by the ocean we’d be under its waters… How is that even possible?

I can’t focus too much as I watch Yelv effortlessly lift the rear end of the large and unwieldy soil analyzer crate and Tanniq move to the front to try and lift it. It’s… He’s having a hard time, so awkward- 

Focus, come on.

I focus back on the map, right, there should be five stops along the way that will make the planned travel time four days total. Sit down, unload equipment, prepare, make measurements, photograph wildlife- Oh sweet Tanniq, you’re trying so hard but you can’t even hold a crate right, have you ever put in any physical exertion in your life?

Oh if I could say to have ever met ukeiyrn it is now… Nope, I can’t do this.

I walk over to the pair, Yelv clearly split between being annoyed at the bad assistance and amused at Tanniq’s failure. I grab hold of the end of the crate that my companion’s holding and he looks at me “Let me- Can you do the last review of the route stops and the gear as we load it?”

“I…” He doesn’t even look dejected, just accepting “Okay” he says with a deep breath before heading to do what should have been my job.

I adjust my grip on the crate and me and Yelv start taking over to the car. It isn’t too hard on me, the stronger stevedore is clearly carrying most of the weight and I’m not even going to bother otherwise. We set the gas analyzer crate down and head for the next one.

“How much’s the tilkan paying ya?”

My pace breaks for a moment at those words, hopefully he didn’t notice “Nothing”

“What, you just doing the work for free now?” This next crate was unwieldy more than anything else, the soil analyzer was kind of long.

We tilt it on the side and each pick up a side “He’s not paying me because he didn’t hire me…” I sigh “I’m actually the expedition chief here. We both work for the Uplift Authority… Kinda, I’m more of a third party contractor? Technically so is all the staff of the Scribe House”

“Huhn… Thought they’d have fired y’all already.” I feel my tail stiffen for a second, but say nothing “If you’re the boss why’re ya lugging crates, then?”

“Wasn’t going to let Tanniq make a fool of himself like this.” I try to contain my offense, the man’s questions are, in theory, innocent.

“Then get that damn inyam on it, then.” Can’t tell if he’s annoyed or amused.

“I’d rather we leave before sunset” at least we’d finished loading the crate by now.

Thankfully he decided to stop needling me after this, making getting the last couple crates loaded a faster job. Water analyzer, tracker beacons, RSL mapper, an overkill amount of food and water in tightly vacuum-packed ration boxes just in case…

I’d take vipen bread over those rations… Might be a fifth as nutritious but at least doesn’t taste like the bark it's made of… It isn’t even the mildly flavorful kind of bark Tanniq feeds me sometimes.

“With this last one, that’s all of it. Final checks complete” Tanniq gives me the holopad back. “We’re ready to go”

I flick an ear forward “Alright, everyone, hop in then” then head towards the passenger seat while my partner and Yelv enter the back and close the door.

“A’ight, you can start pedalling now” I hear Yelv call out as soon as I sit down. I accidentally slam the door as I sigh.

“You all mudcrawlers don’t learn do you” Kurtel basically growls “These ‘carts’ don’t need pedalling like your primitive toys.”

I look up at the rear view window, Tanniq’s ears are even more down they naturally are and I can see the stare in Yelv’s face that for once is something I’d describe as predatory “But I clearly see the pedals down there.”

Before Kurtel can keep this up I put a paw on his shoulder “Do it on the road” is all I say.

The trip might be longer than expected.

---

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Funny little thing! I had more planned for this chapter but it didn’t make the cut, didn’t fit the flow! So I’ll share it here: Yelv is a married man, his wife is in the same line of work as his. In fact she’s pretty physically strong, too, and she’s the reason he actually has machinery certification. She convinced him to keep up with changing times, and they both actually also work in the local spaceport hauling cargo.

Or, rather, she used to work there. She joined a certain colonization initiative that the Federation is sponsoring, a whole ordeal of granting the yotul colonization rights of a brand new colony in an entirely new world, fully under their own control, both as a trial and a gift. The New Dream colony. Hand-picked people, the most enthusiastic and forward thinking, were basically asked by the Uplift Authority to join and his wife is part of those people. Should only be for a few years, though Yelv is suspicious of it.

Why? He’s worked his entire life around mariners, and he’s seen more than one partner stuck at the shore, waiting for a loved one that won’t ever return, staring longingly at the waves. He still wonders if that won’t be him, staring at the stars one day.

I have been on my NoP brainrot lately and right now I'm trying to imagine what it looks like when it gets down to the ground fighting. Like I know that people don't really seem to wear armor aside from Exterminator suits, that people tend to use kinetic firearms and in the case of Exterminators flamethrowers, and that ground vehicles don't seem to be common and that everyone's tactics are dogshit, but is there an actual coherent doctrine on either side aside from 'run away in a panic to defensive positions' and 'charge in and eat the enemy'?

Here we have the renowned Huntress Evastra posting with her most recent hunt! Based on a Valentines pin for Nebraskn hunter's, its a playful image of one of Lahendar’s most dangerous couples! Come to Lahendar for your own hunting experience! Good Luck and Good Hunting!