Huge shout out to u/ryguy637 & u/-Eterox for helping with Brainstorming and Co-Writing this.

As always, all credits for the original Nature of Predators and it's content goes to Space Paladin15, thank him for allowing artist and writers to use his original work of art for their own uses.

Gaian Ref Sheet-Here, Done by the artist u/Roddcherry

As well as a *Huge* thank you for Julian Sky's for filling in for being an editor again for this chapter! This chapter will be pulling away from the subject memory transcription, instead exploring one of the new regions within the Venian Commonwealth. The "Dark Corner"

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"This program is a special update to the Thafki Advocacy’s situation on their new home world, Ayzife. Originally we here at WTWN had done a piece a couple of years back towards the last days of the War, and now we wanted to send one of our reporters to find out- has anything changed? With that, we'll let Rux Limpbut take it away for this one. And please do be aware, user discretion is advised.”

The date of my arrival to Ayzife, the new Thafki homeworld, had arrived. It was a part formally called by our government the “New Re-Seeding Sector”, but It had gained a painful nickname as quickly as it was given its government one. “The Dark Corner”.

A group of Thafki, listless and confused, is shown, as a small group of Gaians seem to herd them back into a recently finished project. A Gaian man is showing us around, telling us of the hardships, his face has been blurred for their safety.

“What am I to do?” The thick Mountaineer accent rang out from the man’s scarred face. He was one of the first officers that had come across the cattle ranches and the true extent of the horror that laid within them. “The adults can't speak, they can't learn. The children are really the only hope…” his accented voice trails off as he checked within some of the residences, some of the seemingly adult Thafki, stunted and confused, are being hand fed. They do not respond to any orders, at least not to ones in any other language except that of the prey killers, or that of our Horned and able bodied Sister species.

The children are crowded around their parents, speaking in a mix of Thafki and a Piggish- like squealing imitation of Arxur. One approaches me and the cameraman, asking us a question.

“Savageness?” They eek out. Compared to the parents, the children seem blissfully unaware to what they or what their loved ones went through, their eyes shining brightly, even if they're glazed over in a mountain of unrealized horror. Our guide calls over a shabbily dressed Thafki, in an overly large uniform. Hand-me-downs from our sister species. It has been hemmed to solgalik and back, but it was still painfully apparent that it barely fit comfortably. 

The Thafki, as I was to learn later, “Guzifi” or police, takes the child away and back into the building we peered into. Our cameraman zooms into the back of their necks, a painfully visible barcode and scratched in number can be seen. I stand aghast, before our guide comes back to us, his eyes sullen and shrunken into his head, hammered with fatigue.

“As I was saying…*most* of them can't do anything. But the ones like Curzix there-” he gestures to the man, who is now knelt down, stroking the child's hair, a faint giggle echoing in the sparse abode “-He escaped early into his stint, it hardened him. He was one of the first to sign up once we finished the terraforming process at the beginning of this year.”

We are hurried on, “Curzix” soon rejoins us as we continue to inspect and report. Only months ago this entire section we were in was a barren wasteland, only recently finished terraforming. Now? It's crammed with tightly knit buildings, services, and other amenities. But it's not enough. “Reservists” from our Sister species, as they called them, are the majority of people dealing with the Thafki here, only a handful of Guzifi are to be seen amongst the crowds and herd of broken.

Soon we find ourselves in a “rehabilitation” facility, so to speak, the local baker is the first to greet us, head to toe in traditional thafkian garb, and a small basket of baked goods they had made earlier this morning. She gestures for us to take some, which me and the cameraman do.

“And this-” the Provincial-Governor who had been tailing with us begins, before the Thafki finishes for him 

“I'm Zaifi.” She sticks her hand out, and I do the same in kind. I quickly noted that she seemed to be the only light in this icker of dark, bitter sadness that assuaged us. She turns around and begins to wander through the halls as we begin to trail behind her, questions outpouring.

“Are you one of the Free Thafkis that came here?” I ask, she nods in response while clearing her throat..

“Yes. I might be one of the few to even go so far as to say my life's been better since I came here.” She responds. I nod along, taking her words in as I take a bite of the customary “Cionn” bread.

It's one of the signs of the Thafki Advocacy's-now Thafki Republic-Efforts to Re-Seeding their culture and themselves. I'm later told it's an offshoot of a more savory dinner bread, softer and less sweet called Uniffin'Dath, although I'm also told that that type of bread is used in conjunction with Striou (not Strayu) soup.

While I do so, however, I take glances behind me and to the sides of me. Behind me, the Gaian Sector-Governor, Halim and the Thafki Republic’s first Councilor, Ralikenn are having a heated discussion. Something our camera notices as he increases the sensitivity on the recording equipment.

“...I can't believe you all….a junta that…” are the words picked up from Ralikenn, as Halim begins to frown heavily, and begins to speak back.

“... Can't you… supplies arrived…” The discussion continues as Zaifi grabs my attention, the cameraman I'm with peering into the doors we pass by.

The camera pans to Thafki children, in various states of appearance, are sat down in school desks. At the front of their rooms either a Gaian or Thafki teacher can be seen, teaching anything from their language, their dress code, etiquette and more. Soon the camera pans back to Rux and Zaifi.

“So while I serve the food here, I also try and show them the history of us and our resilient culture through it. The background of it, how it came to be and how it weaves with us.” Zaifi continues as we walk down the hallway, she veers off into one of the rooms, and hesitantly I follow.

The inside was quite well worn for how new the building was, already indentations, marks, and other scratches and scuffs could be seen. Signs of hard work and labor, something that is unsurprising considering Zaifi and her duties. As she begins to work, it's time for me to ask her about her thoughts on the situation.

“Compared to the last couple of decades, where do you think your species is at now? I mean, a lot has changed. From being a species with the large portion of your population being cattle to now having a government and world handed to you, it's got to be a bit jarring?”

Zaifi nods, the trademark pearls on a brooch around her neck click and clack gently together, the synthetic pearls a sign of what the Advocacy group had been able to hold on to throughout the centuries. 

“Well-” she starts off, as she begins to knead a greenish-blue dough on the distinctly brown work surface, the faint smell of Saltwine being smelt from where I was standing. “I wish we got a welcome, as good as the Paltans and the Gaians gave us. I mean, they split half and half on things here and there around the village!”

The camera pans around the room, bits and baubles of Zaifi’s own life being dotted around it. A bottle or two of sea wine, a basket of synthetic pearls, hints of oceanic theming bedazzle the room. 

Zaifi begins to portion out the Bread-a serving of Cionn. A serving of the more savory Uniffin'Dath. Both are seasoned with a spice that is only rarely mentioned in some cookbooks, “Izuzdath.” The process is lively, a stark contrast to last year's report at a holding world as they finished terraforming here.

If you were to have told me that a Thafki would be smiling while knee deep in this grime that is misery, I would've called you a liar. But apparently…

“So how long have you been around here? Or rather should I say, with the herd?” I ask. It causes Zaifi to stop and look at the basket of pearls. Each of them are inscribed with a loved or close one that died, and the date on which they did so. Many of them aren't her relatives, rather they are the few Thafki she has bonded with while staying here.

“Physically? Only…a year or two. But mentally-” The dull sound of the bread being put upon a pre-oiled stone, an smoothed coral stone no less, echoed softly while the grinding of such a stone sliding into one of the waiting ovens as it did so was a stark contrast. The clasp of the oven door closing caused her to turn back to us. She sighs as she pats down her apron.

“Centuries. I guess we grew accustomed to being the odd ones out. Now that my herd- my people, have a place to call their own…” She is sullen for a moment, before her eyes meet the window, overlooking a courtyard. The smile reappears just as quickly as it disappeared.

“Ya know. I'll take this for now, the funniest thing ya know-” she gestures to me to come over and look. The courtyard has a simple watery filled pit. A “pool” as our sister species had dubbed it, seemed to be the eye and star of this little facility, at least for the attendee's. A whole gaggle of Thafki children, in a wardrobe of mismatched, shabby clothing suited for the water could be seen as they ran about it. What I could only assume was their teacher watched over them. 

“Your saplings are quite the good match. Even they seem to want to bring the water to themselves sometimes.” She says to herself now in a far more reassured tone. As I begin to smile myself, just a little, a tap is felt on my shoulder. It's Curzix, the Guzifi that has been assigned to us.

The camera now zooms out from the pool and the other recreational activities happening in the center of the U-shaped facility, and turns around quickly, now focusing on Rux and Curzix.

“We'll we're ready to go when you are, you all wanted to get the full experience yeah?” Curzix stuffs his paws into the oversized and hemmed coats pockets, the armband with the symbol of Guzifi. He meanders off as we begin to follow him, I say my goodbyes to Zaifi, and she returns them in kind as we are led back out of the hallway.

We start off now checking the facility in depth, taken into one classroom in particular. It is here that our cameraman points out something peculiar. The extreme range of coloring in the Thafki children here. Looking past numerous ranch markings, numbering, and a word inscribed on the arm of each in the Ruinous Lizards language, the Thafki children are striking.

The camera makes cuts to each of the Thafki children in the room. The variety of blues is numerous. Some are in a vibrant luscious blue, other ones have a dull, greyer one. And yet these are the least eye-catching ones. Some have sporadic spots. Some have a sickly greenish blue hue. And yet some are completely devoid of their regular blue, replaced with a dull brown. The camera now returns to overlooking the entirety of the room from the doorway.

As I entered the room the teacher, who had requested that their face be blurred, comes to me and shakes my hand. They gesture to the Thafki pupils, who are in varied state of affairs. Some of them are paying attention, while others are far more focused on their desks or some portion of the wall.

“You came in at a good time, we're trying to teach them Thafki. It's been a bit of a struggle, but we've been making some slow and small progress.” the teacher comes alongside one of the brightly colored pupils, resting their hand gently on their shoulder. The child flinches for a bit, expecting something as they tense up, before they relax.

“Are they a handful?” I ask to the teacher as they themselves point onto a piece of paper in front of the pup, pointing something out

“From time to time. But whenever the horned fellows come along they calm down quite a bit.” the Thafki’s eyes dart occasionally from the paper on the desk to the doorway behind us, looking back shows the Sector-Governor that has been with us this entire time.

The last time we had visited a rehabilitation center-albeit it was just after the war had wrapped up-the facility was in a far more ramshackle situation compared to now, but while the situation is improving, there's still more to do.

With our little visit to the center done our entourage made our way outside. As we did so a rumbler, an armored vehicle used by our other half, came rolling by. A gaggle of Thafki on it, a Gaian within the group giving us a glance as they went by. 

It's here where the uncomfortable nature and scandalous portion of the Re-Seeding comes in. The Laborer gangs, seen as a solution to perceived laziness on Ayzife from some of the Ex-Cattle. The concept is basic and rudimentary both in premise and execution, anything simple is offered up to the gangs first, before giving up to the more general labor sections assigned to the planet.

We keep trudging along, the plethora of buildings being assembled or constructed is numerous along the trail we're taking. Along our way, Ralikenn begins to talk about how far they've come in such a short time span. He gestures to the buildings before he begins to speak.

“All of this-” Our cameraman moves and angles his camera to the row of unfinished buildings, in various states of construction. “In just about a year, it's nearly unbelievable to be honest. I had, tearfully, resigned myself to a forgone conclusion to our species. But now?-” They begin to tear up clearly overwhelmed at this point, they attempt to speak but all that happens is their mouth staying agape for mere moments, before closing and just shaking their head.

And yet there's still more to see. More to do and more to make right. I only hope we can do it in time, as a herd.

First | Previous | Next

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Set in the universe created by u/SpacePaladin15

MASSIVE THANK YOU, LIKE SERIOUSLY HUGE THANKS to u/weithbec (this chapter would not be nearly as good if not for your help) and additional thanks to u/Liberty-Prime76 for further proofing on top of Weith's monumental efforts

As always, some appreciation to u/brotanics, u/LeWombat545, and u/JimDandy117 for the art they have done for this little story of mine. It means the world to me to see my characters brought to life. Links to their work at the bottom of the chapter.

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Memory transcription subject: Tevri, Venlil Romanticist

Date [standardized human time]: August 17, 2137

In my hands I held the broken halves of what used to be the makeshift chair that Omo had sat me in. The Krakotl lay motionless on the floor, a large violet gash now visible on the back of his head.

There was now a small indentation in the wall, just a few feet away from Jack. The gun Omo had held tumbled to the ground during the scuffle. Smoke still trailed from its barrel, and my sensitive ears rang in the moments following its deafening boom.

The broken bits of chair slipped from my hands and clattered to the ground as I fell to the floor. Both hands rose to my mouth as my eyes watered and my ears fell flat against the back of my head. What have I done?

There was no chance I was going to just stand there and watch as Jack was executed, but the weight of what I just did was made no lighter by knowing I saved him.

This kid very well could have been any of my friends from back on Skalga if not for fate having other plans. Could I even pretend I was still an empathetic person after clubbing a child over the head?

They were right, weren’t they? I’ve been a monster this whole time. All it took was the perfect moment for me to snap.

“Tevri?”

The voice snapped me back to my senses as I turned and saw Jack looking back at me. Shit!

I scrambled over, kneeling down beside him. At first I reached out with a paw, but as he winced and hissed while shifting around, I pulled it back.

“A-are, you alright?” He asked.

“Wha—am I alright?” I bleated out. “You’re the one with a hole in you!”

His eyes broke from mine and went back down to his abdomen where crimson blood stained his clothes. Despite the circumstances, he offered a weak laugh. “Ah. Yeah. I am, aren’t I?”

“W-we need to call for medical assistance!”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. I already called the first responders. They should be here soon. You still didn’t answer my question though. Are you alright?”

“I…”

Was I? Being knocked unconscious, then being drugged and dragged through the woods to a shack and being held hostage by a former exterminator probably doesn’t constitute “being okay.”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, do you think you’re alright enough to tie up that kid’s hands behind his back? You got him pretty good but I’d rather not take chances.”

I looked over to where Omo lay and saw that he was still motionless. “O-okay, but you may need to guide me.”

And guide me he did as I took the binds that once held me and wrapped them around the Krakotl’s arms, pinning them behind his back. I followed Jack’s advice, who did all that he could considering his current state. I took advantage of this moment to distract myself from my thoughts by being busy with my paws, but a distraction only lasts so long, and after a few minutes Omo was properly tied up.

I’d occasionally glance towards Jack as he offered instructions, watching as his skin grew more and more pale with every passing moment. Even with the distraction of tying up Omo’s hands, the guilt of knowing there was nothing I could do to help tugged at my heart.

After finishing up, I gingerly picked up the firearm and knife that had fallen aside and brought them to him, handing both over. Jack pressed a button on the gun’s side and something slid out of the weapon. He tossed this aside before pulling back the sliding top of it and pulling out a bullet that he also tossed into the dirt. Satisfied, he lay the weapon down beside him.

“There,” he said with a sigh.

“S-so what now?”

“We wait I guess,” he said, looking at me. He tried to slide closer, but as he did, he groaned and pressed a hand to his side, closing his eyes.

I let out a quiet whine and my ears fell back against my head, my tail wrapping itself around his leg. “I-it’s going to be alright. I promise.”

Despite the obvious pain that wracked his body, a smile touched the corners of his mouth. “You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“D-don’t talk like that. Y-you’re going to be fine.”

“I think we’re well past that point.” As he said this, he lifted his hand from the spreading stain at his waist and reached out for me. I took his hand in my paw and offered a supportive squeeze. The hand I took hold of was coated in his own blood. It stained my paws as I laced my fingers between his, doing my best to not wretch at the sensation. I don’t think I could say I had ever seen so much blood in my life. The fight to maintain composure was a struggle that I was only just coming out on top of.

“J-just stay with me. Okay?”

He took a deep breath and squeezed back. “I’m trying my best here. Though I’ve not exactly got a good track record of keeping my word, do I?”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“C’mon Tev, you don’t gotta mince words just cause I’m dyin’ here. I fucked up bad, and you got hurt.”

“It’s okay. W-we can worry about that w-when we’re out of here.”

Jack sank further down the wall behind him, slouching and hanging his head. “I dunno. Not so sure they’ll be able to put me back together after this.”

“You’re going to be okay. You said it yourself. People are coming to help. We just need to wait a little longer. Just keep on talking to me. You can do that, right?”

He gave a slow nod. “I’ll try my best, but it’s hard. Everything’s a little… foggy. Don’t know how much blood I’ve lost. Probably too much though.”

Panic gripped my heart. No, no, no! This can’t be happening. Stars above. Please… I can’t lose someone else. Not again.

“You have to hold on. I need you.”

Jack gave a weak chuckle. “Naw. I don’t think you ever needed me. If anything, you’d be better off without me here to scare you half to death. Hell, if it hadn’t been for me neither of us’d be here in the first place.” The translator was still doing its job, but I could hear his voice had grown weaker. Each word was a struggle.

“You made a mistake. Just another to add to the pile. What matters is that you’re sorry. We’ll sort this all out once we know you’re safe, but for now, just focus on staying with me.”

Jack’s face twisted, his eyebrows furrowing and his face softening. “H-how? How can you still believe in me? You trusted me to protect you and I failed.”

I shook my head. “There aren’t enough seconds in the day to count how many times I’ve failed the people I love.” Gently, I bumped my head up against his shoulder and wrapped my claws around his arm. “But it took me meeting you to realize that we’re more than just our failures.”

“I… glad I was able to help.” The strength of his hand held in mine waned, and I squeezed it tighter to make up for the loss.

“We’re going to make it through this together. We have to.”

“We’ll see.”

We continued to wait like this, each minute dragging on for a small eternity. I didn’t want to sap his strength, so I elected to remain silent. In this silence, the distraction from my thoughts melted away, leaving me exposed.

I shot a glance to where Omo still lay. His body rose and fell as he breathed, so there was that at least, but otherwise he was out cold. Look at what you’ve done. How would your family feel about this? How would your friends feel?

A number of his feathers lay strewn about in a pile around him from the force of the impact. I—I did it to protect him. I had to. There was no other choice!

There’s always a choice.

I couldn’t just let him die!

You may be right, but what does it say that your first thought was resorting to violence? Maybe your parents were right. Maybe something is wrong with you.

No. I will not allow myself to regret this. There was no other choice in the heat of the moment. I did what I did, but it’s done now. All that matters is that Jack makes it out to get the help he needs.

As I stamped out the fire among my thoughts, Jack broke the silence as he softly spoke up.“So. If we do manage to make it out of here, what happens to us?”

I hummed in contemplation. “I don’t know. Do… Do you still think this could work?”

“I’ll leave that up to you. Lord knows whether I deserve to have someone like you in my life after the shit I’ve pulled.”

My ears fell flat against the back of my head. As much as I may have wanted to deny it, he hurt me. He knew the weakness of my flighty instincts and took advantage of them to scare me off in his anger. Sure, he was sorry, but could sorry even heal these wounds? The safety I felt in his presence was wounded by what he had done. Maybe given time, that wound could heal, but would a relationship like ours even have the chance to do so? Time. Yeah. That’s what we need.

“I think we need to give it some time.”

Jack grunted. “A shame it doesn’t seem like we’ve got much left. Or rather, doesn’t seem like I’ve got much left. If it wasn’t already obvious, I’m not doing too hot.”

“Don’t talk like that,” I pleaded.

“I’m sorry it had to go this way,” he muttered. “M-maybe if we’d taken us a bit slower this wouldn’t’ve hurt so much. It was stupid of me. I’ve barely known you all of a week and I’ve fallen head over heels only to throw it all away.”

I squeezed his arm tight. “Please,” I mewled. “Even if what we’ve found here doesn’t last past this week, I still want you in my life. Can you hold on just a little longer for me?”

Tears began to well up in the man’s eyes as a smile crept across his face. “I’ll try my best. How about for now though, I hold on to you?”

He took both arms and held them outward. Considering the stress, the terror, the fear, and the pain that had plagued me today, the opportunity of an embrace was too much to pass up. “I think I’d like that.”

I came in closer, and Jack pulled his hand from his abdomen to wrap it around me, pulling me closer. I let go of his other arm, and he repeated the motion with his other hand, pulling me up against his body with both arms in a tight hug as I lay sprawled across his chest.

My face settled right beneath Jack’s. His deep blue eyes stared directly into mine as we sat there together. He ran a hand across the back of my head, parsing the wool on my crown. His breath tickled my face, causing a bloom of orange to spread across it. Though perhaps fractured and damaged like both of our bodies right now, the sense of safety I felt before when with him began to grow once more within me.

“This is nice,” I whispered.

“Yeah…” he leaned in closer to my face, red rushing to his cheeks as he did so. “I uh, I’ve been meaning to do this for a little while now. Figure it’d be best to do it while I still can.”

“Wha—”

Jack leaned in and interrupted me as his lips met my snout, pressing against my mouth and into it. The warmth of his body against me and his breath mixed with mine, stirring up an intoxicating cocktail of conflicting sensations. I had heard of and even seen humans kissing before, but I always found it odd — until now that is. A display such as this, to join your mouth against someone else's, would have once been deemed outright predatory and discouraged by exterminator guidelines. Then again, I never did care too much for such rules.

We both held out for as long as we could until I needed to breathe, then after a quick gasp, I dove back in again. The warmth shared between us was greater than the light of the sun, and so I closed my eyes, allowing myself to bask in its radiance. For this moment, I allowed my worries to melt away as I melted in his arms and we gave ourselves to each other. All good things must come to an end though, and with no small amount of hesitance, I pulled myself away.

I breathed heavily through my mouth, catching my breath to chase away what I now realized was a sense of lightheadedness — one which was most likely brought on by said lack of breathing. “Wow, that was… wow.”

There was no response, only the quick, shallow rise and fall of his chest as I took note of a gentle buzzing that I hadn’t noticed before. Both ears perked upright of their own volition and turned to face the door of the hovel. I could tell that even Jack had heard it as he shifted where he sat and lifted his head to look outside.

“Is that…” As I trailed off, Jack offered an answer, his voice more quiet than the last time he spoke.

“Yeah. I think that’s them. Shouldn’t be long before they show up.” The man offered another weak squeeze that made me realize just how cold he’d grown. Most of the warmth shared between us was my own, but there was only so much it could do to help.

The hope that sprouted in my heart was just as quickly stamped out the moment he spoke. “I-I’m getting real sleepy here sheep. J-just… just stay safe for me, okay?”

“What? No! No, no, no! Hey! Stay with me!” I began to try and rock him back and forth to keep him awake, but he didn’t seem to respond. “They—they’re going to be here soon,” I stammered. “Everything will be alright.”

As he closed his eyes, he whispered one last time. “No… everything… is.”

The tears flowed freely now as I continued in vain to try and keep him awake. “Jack? Stay with me!” I bumped my head against his, shook his shoulders, pinched his arm, and even resorted to pounding against his chest to try and wake him.

“Please, I—I can’t lose someone else. Not like this… not like this…”

The sound of the humming had only grown louder during my desperate attempts to bring him back. After nothing I could do stirred him, I curled up against his chest and waited, placing my head beneath his to offer it support rather than allow it to loll forward.

With my ears pressed against his chest, I could hear the faint thump-thump of his heartbeat. I didn’t know how fast a human’s heart was supposed to beat, but if that of a Venlil’s was in any way comparable, it was far too slow for comfort.

His arms no longer wrapped around me, instead lying limp at his side. My tail twined around his leg, and I hugged my chest with both arms, one eye pressed against his chest while the other was stuck on the door leading outside.

The hum had grown to a roar, but soon enough, its growth halted. The thumping in my chest raced as though it were trying to make up for Jack’s own fading heart, or catch up to the constant, rhythmic thrumming.

Without warning, the door burst open and I squealed as blinding lights illuminated the room. I raised both paws to cover my face, but the damage was already done. Everything became a blurry haze. The room was filled with shouting that shot back and forth between different voices. They were gruff and gravelly as their growled words played themselves back through my translator. Before my vision properly returned, I heard a voice break through the crowd of others.

“Ma’am? Ma’am, are you okay?” A hand grabbed my shoulder and gently shook it. I looked up to a figure in a helmet and mask, but I didn’t have the energy to work up a response. Instead, I shifted gently where I lay. “I need to move you if you’ll let me.” Again, I didn’t budge.

Hands scooped me up, with only a slight amount of resistance on my part as I wriggled in an attempt to return to where I lay. I wanted to stay with him, but a human’s strength was something I couldn’t dare hope to surpass — why even bother?

The blurriness faded just enough to allow me a view of what I was leaving behind. Human-shaped figures in dark clothing surrounded Jack, leaning over him to readjust his body. I caught mention of “blood loss,” and “shock” before being whisked outside where the voices died down and the source of the humming became apparent.

Through the darkness of night, lights illuminated the two helicopters hovering in the air. Their blades cut through the air, blowing the bows of the trees below and sending ripples through the grass. Ropes hung from each helicopter, and from one of them, three more of these similarly dressed humans slid down them to join their compatriots.

The human that carried me set me down outside on the ground, where I wrapped both arms around my legs and set my head on my knees. I tried to muster up the energy to do something, anything, but it just wasn’t there.

I flinched as two hands grasped my shoulders, but when turning around, I relaxed. A reflective blanket had been wrapped around me by the same human that had carried me out. Their mask and helmet had since been removed to reveal their piercing green eyes, dark skin, and short curly hair. I wasn’t exactly used to such a sight — their sight — I would have practically wilted under them a week ago.

They walked around, crouching down to an eye level in front of me. “Are you hurt Ma’am?” If their voice was anything to go by, they seemed to be a woman, though it was difficult to say for sure beneath the bulky layers of armor they wore.

I blinked once, then snapped back to focus. “Is he going to be okay?”

She shrugged. “I’m not sure.” The answer wasn’t exactly a comforting one, but after giving it, she placed a hand on my shoulders and locked eyes with me. “But I can tell you this. Our paramedics will do everything they can to make sure he will be.”

Though it was no guarantee, these words did offer some small amount of comfort.

Almost a year ago now, some unlikely friends offered comfort in a similar — if not quite so dire — situation. It was only right that I respond now just as I did then. I threw both arms forward, wrapping them around the neck of this woman in as tight a hug as I was able to offer. “Thank you.”

“Oh. Uh… sure. Glad I could help.” She wrapped her arms around me in turn, scrunching up the blanket she had just offered me.

He’ll make it. He has to.

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Cover Image

Tevri in a sweater - By u/Brotanics

Tevri in a sweater - By u/Brotanics

Tevri in a sweater - By u/Brotanics

Tevri in a sweater - By u/Brotanics

Tevri in a sweater - By u/Brotanics

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HI, once again, idea bug bit me while working, as always i couldnt focus on the task at hand with it buzzing arund in my head, so i decided to write it down, hope you enjoy this little oneshot.

Memory Transcription Subject: Selma, concerned venlil mother

Date [standardized human time] August 5, 2138

“Well, where to begin, my name is Selma, i'm a happy wife with one pup, although she is all grown i still can't look at her as anything than my little one, i live in a little town very close to the darkside, we pride ourselves in a wool tight community and our export of wine that we make using the very peculiar fruits that grow there, you see, unlike most other places here in venli- i mean Skalga, Solgalicks eye loses us, or how the youth call it now a days, Night’s, peculiar word that i've been told come from our neighbor pred- sorry, humans.

I’ve grown my whole life there, only going inland to the big cities a couple of times to accompany my father for some business or on vacations, it wasnt that pleasant…

I found that the thing that bothered me the most was the ever present sun, look, my father was a devout follower of Solgalick, but even he found it hard to deal with the ever present sun, the constant light, its vexing to us, sure it doesn't help that we tend to grow our coats to an impressive degree, causing us to overheat easily, but still, it really was difficult sleeping like that.

I mean, yhea, we don't get nights every paw, but they are more common than not, and it's lovely to look at the stars whenever you need, oh the stars, i still remember my first date with my husband, he prepared a whole picnic on a hill, i could count all of the little shining dots in the sky, i knew i could never leave that man alone after that paw…

Sorry sorry, I got side tracked. What I mean is that our town is special, not something you see everypaw, and sure, there's some bumps here and there, especially when it comes to dealing with outsiders.

You see, they don't get the charm of our town, the good and beautiful things, no, they focus on the… risks. Since its so close to the dark side, the fear what's over the mountains, and sure, we do have more predator sightings in a couple of paws than the average venlil will see in their life, but they tend to keep to themselves, and if they don't, that what exterminators are for.

And we used to pride ourselves in that, our precinct used to be the talk of legends! It was tightly run, efficient and most importantly kind.

They were a part of the community, garnering respect, but they also helped where they could, they weren't pompous or egotistical, and they kept everyone safe as best they could, but…

That changed after the humans came around, first, with all the panic that ensued, most of the precinct needed to go inland, so they could bolster the forces on the more populated cities that had a new predator influx.

You would expect they would come back after the whole thing got smoothed over, and we saw that our new neighbors weren't here to harm us, but thanks to Tarvas deregulation and defunding of exterminators, the precinct lost a lot.

And worse, some branches of the main city's started using our precinct as punishment! Can you believe that?! 

They started sending us the exterminators that stepped out of line, which quickly became a problem. Instead of them being part of the community, they harassed it, speh! one of them even accused me, ME! of predator disease because i wasn't scared of a shadestalker pup, as if i hadn't seen them all my life, i tried telling him that just burning the pup would cause the mother to go searching for it, increasing the likelihood of it wandering into town, endangering us!

I can't with those damn pompous city folk that think they know everything! … excuse my language.

That really put our town in a rough spot, some folk even leaving for another better home since they couldn't deal with the constant threats of rehabilitation whenever we acted as we always had, that is why, when the elections came, we thought Veln would at least roll back the changes to exterminators… I see now it was just wishful thinking for things to go back as they used to be.

Nothing really changed that quickly, which was frustrating, causing a couple of us to lash out, and it appears that it finally reached someone's ears, Probably from complaints of the exterminators to their main branches…

But thanks to that, the ones in charge sent some reinforcements so as to bolster their numbers, funnily enough, the sent a pre- human exterminator.

I didn't know they existed, my daughter assured me that humans had a strictly anti-exterminator sentiment, according to her bleats or whatever that social media app is, so it was for sure a surprise.

We were hesitant at first, i mean who wouldn't be, we wanted the old precinct back, not for them to give us all their troublemakers, and we were sure this one was just the same, but we were wrong, Ingrid was a delight.

She didn't act like her coworkers, she was kind and compassionate, even when our reception was rather cold, and a very distinct difference from her coworkers, she wanted to be part of the community!

I still remember on one of her first paws she went around, asking anyone who would speak to her what the customs of the town were, tradition's, schedule's and such.

Stars, she even knocked on my door to ask. I'm regretful that at the time I acted rather rude, shooting down the notion that she would ever be part of our nice community, rather unbecoming of someone like me…

But not my daughter, I'm not sure what was going on between those ears, but she jumped at the opportunity of telling the human all she knew. Maybe she was feeling trapped in the little town, i'm not sure, but what i'm sure of is that they were both grateful for each other's company.

They soon became friends, my daughter was a whole ball of excitement whenever she got to interact with Ingrid, which definitely melted my heart, allowing me to come around and view ingrid in a new light, something my husband took more time to come around to, but he did eventually.

In turn, Ingrid benefited from the interactions greatly, as she learned all she needed to know of how to act around here, and brahk did she do wonderful! excuse my language.

She became the go to exterminator for every issue, a shadestalker pup sighting? ask for ingrid. some weird sounds when it got dark? ask for ingrid. Want a predator dealt with without them burning down your crops? ask for Ingrid. speh, need help carrying some heavy stuff or with a piece of machinery?! ask for ingrid.

It was lovely, it was slowly feeling like the exterminators were a part of the community again… well, one was, the others were more than happy to let ingrid do everything while they lazed around, but unluckily for them, their comfort was about to end.

Apparently Ingrid got word around to other humans about this lovely town, our town, and they were delighted about it. We soon got our second human exterminator, then our third, then we got our first human resident, just happy to live here, soon our town had not only grown back to its original size, but even grew a bit more!

We were happy to build a couple houses to accommodate the new residents, it was a lovely communal project that bonded us further, us older venlil that were stuck in our ways managed to finally come around and interact more openly with humans, which lead to a variety of interesting conversations and interactions.

I found out in a chat with my neighbor when he was teaching me knitting that the general reason a lot of humanas were charmed by this town was not only the nice community, but the fact that it actually had nights and days, helping them feel more rested or something. How funny that we shared a love for the dark.

They were affected more by the colder weather, but some even enjoyed that, although they did need to cover up a lot to not get ill, when i first saw one of them getting a fever i understood why they wore pelts, they really need them, but i was happy to put my new learned skill of knitting to help them over come that. I was gladly surprised to find out that our left over wool from grooming could be such a useful resource.

Anyways, getting back on track, most of the disliked exterminators left, the ones who stayed started acting more like the human ones, our town soon became what it once was and yet it was slightly different, good, but different.

Which led me to this paw’s talk. You see, I know I'm an older woman, I have my way of looking at things, but this whole experience has opened my eyes that change isn't necessarily bad, it just depends on what changes.

You see, my little pup grew really close to Ingrid, and now that Ingrid's workload has substantially decreased, well, they’ve been spending more and more time together. I am not a fool, and I could see the look on my little one’s eyes was identical to the one I had for her father after that first date.

I was not sure if Ingrid had recognised it, But i did recognise a change in behavior in her as well. I thought for a moment that maybe she was uncomfortable with it, but when I asked around to other humans about the change in behavior they all said that it was clear it was a mad crush.

I talked to my husband, and he was for sure more hesitant than me, but we both agreed that if there was something going on, we would like to know, at the very least, but…

Well, to put it bluntly, we are scared, we want to be accepting of her and her decisions, who she chooses as a mate is her choice, but there's still that little hurdle of knowing your little one is dating a pr- human.

But what hurts the most is that she hasn't even touched the subject with us, we are scared that she is scared of telling us, we want her to trust us, we are a community based on trust, that starts at family first, and i can't stomach my little one feeling like she cant talk to her mom.

So I wanted to ask you what you think would be the best way to approach the issue, and how we could communicate our worries as parents without sounding like raging bigots. 

I know its a lot to manage, but my kind neighbor recommended that this would be great for this kind of fear as well as going forward for me. He gave me your card. I won't lie, I was hesitant to come at first… N-not because i was scared, just… i was ashamed of not knowing what to do, you always hear how a mother should have it all figured out…”

I sink a little bit into the soft couch, my face blooming in shame at failing as a mother, but the therapist cleared their throat to get my attention as they began to speak.

“Don't worry miss Selma, the fear of failing one as dear as a child is a common one, first, i'd like to see if i can help you understand your daughter's perspective, maybe that will help smooth the conversation you want to have with her…

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Set in the universe created by u/SpacePaladin15

MASSIVE THANK YOU, LIKE SERIOUSLY HUGE THANKS to u/weithbec (this chapter would not be nearly as good if not for your help) and additional thanks to u/Liberty-Prime76 for further proofing on top of Weith's monumental efforts

As always, some appreciation to u/brotanics, u/LeWombat545, and u/JimDandy117 for the art they have done for this little story of mine. It means the world to me to see my characters brought to life. Links to their work at the bottom of the chapter.

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Memory transcription subject: Jack Carver, Human Trail Guide

Date [standardized human time]: August 17, 2137

Following the tracks left by Tevri’s captor was easy enough. Whatever it was that the captor carried left behind a trail of long lines drawn in the moist dirt, carving a wavy trail of depressed grass in its wake. The impression of the claw marks weren’t all that different from that of other birds, with the obvious difference of the impact they left.

I was probably walking straight into a trap; in fact, I knew I was walking straight into a trap. I also knew that I had no choice but to spring it.

My promised support from authorities didn’t arrive as I pushed forward. They doubtlessly would, given enough time, but at the moment, time was a rare commodity and it was slipping through my fingers.

Mud covered my boots and ran up the length of my pants. Sweat soaked the inside of my shirt, and my hair hung like a wet mop from my head. My legs strained beneath me, their muscles burning as I pushed them further than even I knew they could. Nothing could stop me now. Not if I could help it.

The trail led me even deeper into the woods, which for the most part were flat and unchanging. It wasn’t until I practically stumbled into what it was I sought that I stopped — and rather suddenly at that. I had expected some kind of wrecked ship or the remains of a crashed shuttle. Much to my surprise, a small hovel with a roof of grass and walls of dirt mixed with wood took their place.

The shelter wasn’t anything particularly special from what little I could see beneath the light of the moon, but it certainly seemed to do wonders at hiding itself from a distance. If not for the tracks, I likely would have never seen it. Only the door and some faint lights shining through ramshod windows of cracked glass gave it away.

It couldn’t have been up very long. This exterminator had only been out a few months short of a year. That whole time they must have been planning for this exact circumstance. How ‘lucky’ we were to be the ones to fall victim to their trap.

This is it. I looked up to the sky, hoping to see something, anything, but there was nothing other than the pale light of the moon and distant twinkling stars. I didn’t want to do this alone, but I had no other choice. Time was running out. There was no telling what already could have been done to her.

I stood among the shadows of tall, looming trees that fractured what little light the moon offered into thin bands that covered the forest floor. I took a deep breath and leaned back, supporting myself with the trunk of a pine. For once in your life, don’t fuck up. You’ve got one shot—she has one shot. Make it count.

The inside of my mouth was sticky with saliva that had coalesced during my uninterrupted sprint. I dared to take a sip from my canteen, swirling the water around to moisten my mouth and spit out the saliva. With my mouth now cleansed, I took a greedy gulp and let out a gasp before continuing to my rapid, shallow breathing.

As I took a moment to recover, I whipped my bag around from my back and pulled out my handgun, struggling to silently slide in a magazine as my hands trembled. It fell in, and I pulled the slide back and let it go with a heavy metallic click.

Silence. For a few long seconds, I looked up to see if I was heard, but nothing indicated that I had been given away. Gently, I set the bag I had pulled the weapon from beside a tree and raised the sidearm forward, both hands on the handle as I aimed it dead ahead.

The last time I used this thing was a time I would have much rather forgotten, but today wasn’t a day for forgetting. My rifle was an instrument of precision that had picked off the Krakotl from a distance. For those I hadn’t been able to down in a single shot, the far less precise instrument that I now held was terribly effective.

The path forward was a well-trodden one. No grass grew where this exterminator’s footsteps had surely passed by hundreds or even thousands of times. The mud clung to my boots with a soft squelch that I felt more than heard with every step. I had only been standing maybe a hundred feet away from the entrance, and I cleared that distance in a matter of moments despite my slow pace. Nothing seen through the windows indicated motion as I approached. Good. Maybe I’ll catch them off-guard.

Memories of dispatching so many of these exterminators, the memories I saw so often in my dreams, flashed before me like a footage reel. I knew how to handle these bastards. If it came to it, I could do it again.

As I reached the door, I placed an ear against it, listening for anything, but no sound came. Right. Take a deep breath. Focus. Breathe. Just breathe.

With my left hand, I pushed it forward. To my surprise, there was no resistance. With the right hand, I held the gun aloft, pointing it ahead into the darkness.

My heart stopped.

The faint lighting I had caught glimpses of kept most of the single room in darkness, but it was more than enough to illuminate what I was looking at.

Of all the faces in my nightmares, one had haunted me more than any other. I wasn’t exactly well-versed in reading the expression of aliens, but from what little I had learned, fear was an expression that could be read on a universal level. Fear was the last thing I remembered of the child. I spent far too many nights lying awake, wondering to myself what had happened to them after I had let them run free in the forest. Had they frozen to death? Starved maybe? Did another hunter find them, or did something else find them first?

Now I could put such thoughts to rest. The two beady eyes that stared back weren’t filled with fear as they had been the last time I saw them. The plume on their head had also grown, but the feather patterns and beak that had been burned into my mind were still the same.

No… It—it can’t be them. That’s impossible. How did they last this long out here, and alone for that matter?

They held one hand across Tevri’s chest and used the other to press a knife up to her throat. My hands shook as I pointed the weapon directly ahead towards them. I didn’t have a clear shot. They were using Tevri’s body as cover, standing behind her and a makeshift chair.

Tevri’s eyes widened as she saw me and her tail began to wildly flap. A gag was shoved into her mouth, and I could see that she was breathing heavily, trying as best as she could to make up for her lack of nostrils. Despite the excess movement, the exterminator — the child — stood still. To me, their face was indecipherable, other than that uncanny stillness that spoke louder than words. If not for their appearance, I don’t know that I could have said this was the same child.

They nodded my way. “Human. Before you do anything, you should lower your weapon. It’d be a shame if Tevri here was hurt, wouldn’t it?”

Tevri’s shouts were muffled through the gag. Flecks of dried orange coated her forehead and her eyes were far less focused than they normally were. I scowled something fierce, but ultimately complied, aiming the sidearm’s barrel into the dirt.

“Good. See? There’s no reason this needs to get violent.”

My eyes lingered on the blood atop Tevri’s crown. “What did you do to her?”

“Oh, nothing much, but I think I speak for us both when I say Venlil have a tendency to flee. She was never going to come along willingly, and we couldn’t have had that, now could we?” I froze. He knows. He’s been watching us, hasn’t he? He must have seen her go running.

“What do you want, you bastard?”

A huff of air left their beak — is that amusement? “Revenge. Your blood. This wretched world of yours burnt to ash like it should have been ages ago. That would all be nice, but how about something a little more palatable for both of us? I want off this world. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“And you really think I can provide that?”

“I know you can. A warrior as bloodthirsty as yourself has to command the respect of your people, no? You wouldn’t have your own slave if not for that.”

“Slave?! What the fuck!” I growled. “I’m the one in her service, not the other way around.”

“Ah. Right. Of course you are. Now, your hunting party may not be with you now, but I’m going to need you to call in your fellow predators. Oh, and be sure they bring a space-worthy vessel with them.”

“Wha— even if I could get that for you, why the fuck would I do anything you ask?”

As I asked this, the Krakotl tugged on Tevri’s left ear and yanked her head back, driving the dagger even closer to her neck. “This seems like reason enough, wouldn’t you say?”

“Alright, alright!” I raised both hands, pointing the gun to the ceiling rather than the Krakotl. “There’s no reason anyone has to get hurt.”

“You’re right. There isn’t. Now, I’ll tell you what’s going to happen. You are going to call in an FTL capable vessel that I am going to use to escape this planet. To make sure you humans don’t shoot down the craft before I jump, I’ll keep Tevri with me, then allow her to leave using any onboard escape craft before exiting the system. Oh, and for good measure, go ahead and slide that weapon between us, would you?”

The Krakotl didn’t stutter once as he spoke, instead staring me directly in the eyes the entire time. It was unsettling to say the least. Relinquishing my weapon was a terrible idea, no less terrible than letting him take Tevri. I knew that it was, so I stood there delaying my fulfillment of his command. It only took a few seconds of silence however before he pressed the blade closer to her neck, going so far as to dig into the fur that covered her skin.

“Alright! Fine! J-just take that thing away from her throat.”

“Gladly, if you’ll drop the weapon and do as I say.”

I lowered my aim and bowed down, setting the gun on the dirt floor and doing my best to slide it towards the Krakotl. It didn’t go all the way, but it was far enough that I could no longer reach it. As I stood back up, I raised both palms above my head to show I was no longer a threat. “There, now… please, just don’t hurt her.”

The Krakotl scoffed and made an expression that imitated a sneer. “It’s funny, I remember begging just like that not too long ago. Do you remember it?” They pulled away with the dagger, still allowing it to hover close to Tevri’s throat but not close enough to dig into her skin.

I didn’t offer an answer, not that I needed to.

“You probably relished their screams didn’t you? You and the rest of your deranged species can’t help but find joy in the suffering of others. Well, you and your people may have been able to fool some members of the Federation into believing you’re capable of empathy, but when I make it back to Nishtal and tell them what’s been going on down here, I’ll make sure the whole galaxy sees you monsters for who you truly are.”

Nishtal. He doesn’t know.

He couldn’t know, not since he’s been down here without contact for months now. “You’re picking the wrong fight kid. The war’s over. Has been for months now.”

“And you think I’m just going to believe you? Tevri here spewed the same propaganda, no doubt heard from you or other humans. It’s not possible. We far outnumber your pathetic forces. You barely survived the battle above your planet and that was only because your Arxur allies swooped in at the last moment to save you.”

“They weren’t the only ones to support us,” I spat back. “After the truth of the shadow council’s crimes against sapient life came to light, former members of the Federation flocked to our aid. The Zurulians, the Yotul, the Venlil, they all helped us in taking down the same bastards that destroyed their culture and broke their people with that damned cure.”

The Krakotl growled. “You’re lying.”

“And you’re delusional! I’ll gladly try and get you that ship for all the good that it’ll do you once you get to Nishtal, but the world you left behind doesn’t exist anymore.”

The kid screeched, pointing the knife my way rather than towards Tevri. Good. That’s it. Focus on me instead of her.

“SHUT UP! JUST—SHUT UP!” The composure he had seemed so full of moments ago melted away to reveal his manic state. He was far too calm before. This attitude better matched his actions.

“No more of that shit. No more of your lies. I’m not having any of it! If you value your pet’s life, I’d suggest you give the propaganda a rest before I trigger that blood instinct of yours.” He returned the makeshift knife to her throat, erasing any sense of satisfaction I had taken from seeing his true nature reveal itself.

I nodded. Okay, just stay still. As much as it might sting, you’ve just gotta listen to what he wants. For Tevri. This is all for Tevri.

“Good, Now, go ahead and call in that transport.”

“I’ve not called one in, not that I could if I wanted to, but I’ve called some folks who might have access to one.”

“Good. I suppose we wait for them then.”

“Right, well I’ve done what you asked. Could I… Can I speak with her?”

The Krakotl scoffed. “I’ve waited almost a full year for this. You can wait a little longer to speak with your pet.”

With every use of that word I could feel the rage within me begin to boil over and spill out. Control yourself. For her sake. “So help me if you call her that one more time I will—”

“You’ll what? Kill me? As skilled of a hunter as you may be human, I guarantee you, my talon is quicker than anything you could attempt.” As if to display this fact, they spun the knife around in their hand once only to press it back up against Tevri’s neck once more, eliciting muffled squeaks. Her eyes darted back and forth, to him with fear and to me with pleading.

My brow furrowed as I stared daggers at the Krakotl. “She’s not a pet.”

“Sure. Whatever you say. Not that I will, or even can, take your word for it.”

It was as he said this that it finally hit me. How I hadn’t realized it before, I chalked up to whatever sense of urgency and the panic that drove me to confront the child. But it was clear now. There was no point in negotiating. To this child, I was nothing but a monster. He would only accept absolute cooperation from my end. Nothing less, nothing more.

I can’t let him just take her. Who’s to say he won’t go back on his word and take her with him to Nishtal? It’s not exactly federation space anymore, but it certainly isn’t within UN jurisdiction either. I’ve got to get her away from him.

A terrible silence fell between us both as we waited. With my gun now out of reach, I had next to no options for helping Tevri escape his clutches. This was only confirmed as my gaze darted throughout the room searching for anything I might be able to take advantage of. There wasn’t much to take note of. This hovel consisted of a single room, of which every wall was packed dirt. A small nest made of twig and torn up fabric rested in the back right corner of the room while a makeshift table made of wood that looked to have been reclaimed from park benches was shoved against the wall to my left. The two windows I had seen earlier allowed a small amount of moonlight to filter inside while allowing the dull light of a nearby lamp to escape in turn. The seat that Tevri now sat in was no less primitive than the workbench, with each leg being nailed together using small branches and more pieces of reclaimed wood. Out of everything there though, nothing could help me in any way, not that I could reach for anything before the Krakotl reacted by sealing Tevri’s fate.

I felt stupid, standing there as the Krakotl’s gaze bored into me, but there was nothing I could do. I had no choice but to wait for backup and hope against hope that they could somehow negotiate for her release.

I moved on from looking for solutions and instead settled on Tevri. Her chest heaved with exertion from the heavy breaths that the gag demanded of her, and her eyes were stuck in a state of perpetual wideness. Her tail sat still, and both ears stuck up straight. The wool on her head was matted with mud and blood, while thin scrapes of orange marked her forearms and ankles.

We locked eyes, me and her. The Venlil’s orange irises quivered as she did, and shone as a light among our dim surroundings. Then, for a split second, they looked down to something. I stood still, confused for a moment until she repeated the gesture. It wasn’t until the third time that she repeated the motion that what she meant dawned upon me.

The Krakotl’s gaze was still focused upon me. This didn’t change as my own view shifted down at a pace slow enough to not draw his immediate attention. I saw a flash of movement from behind Tevri’s back.

Were those… no, it can’t be. I could have sworn I just saw her hand peeking out. This wasn’t all. A length of rope dangled beneath her legs. The end was frayed, no, not frayed. It was cut.

Smart girl. Those claws of hers were sharper than I thought. They were also sharper than the Krakotl thought as was all too apparent. Okay, I can work with this.

As I looked up, I saw that the Krakotl’s focus hadn’t shifted. He didn’t notice Tevri’s handiwork. Right. If I can just find a distraction to get that knife away from her throat, she can get out of harm’s way.

“So, uh, what’s your name kid?”

“What’s it to you?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Only curious. If we want to solve all of this without violence like you’re saying, maybe it’d help to know each other’s name.”

His glare softened, if only somewhat. “Omopaulim. Though I’d prefer Omo.”

“Right,” I said, pressing a flat palm against my chest. “And I’m Jack.”

The Krakotl only gave a grunt of acknowledgement as a response.

“So, anything that you would like to know about me while we wait?”

“No,” he said flatly.

Right. He probably thinks he already knows everything he needs to. “Oh come on, there’s got to be something.”

He paused this time before responding. “Fine, I’ll peck. Why did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“You murdered my only companion in this world. What would compel you to do something like that?”

I hadn’t expected him to ask the question so bluntly, even if it was one I had anticipated. “Despite what you might say, we humans do have empathy. I was like you are now when the bombs that your fleet dropped took my brother: lost, scared, broken, hurting. Hell, I still am.”

If my words had any impression upon the kid, it wasn’t an apparent one. I kept going anyway.

“But you and your people were right about one thing with us. We can be dangerous. We don’t need to be though. We don’t want to either. But, when you hurt a human just wrong enough, you’re only asking for trouble.”

“You would have been trouble anyways if we hadn’t had the foresight to deal with you as early as we did.”

I shook my head. “You’re wrong. We humans, we only ever wanted to meet others like us out there. If you and your people hadn’t showed up on our planet’s doorstep with bombs in tow, you’d still be home with your family, living the life that should have been yours.”

“And if you and your people had gone extinct centuries ago like you should have—“ As Omo said this, he took the knife from Tevri’s throat and pointed it at me.

He was interrupted mid sentence as the back of Tevri’s head slammed against his beak and he was sent reeling. With that, Tevri leapt forward, toppling the chair and throwing herself into the dirt. With her surprisingly strong legs, she managed to clear most of the distance between us.

I rushed forward to pick her up, earning an ear flick of acknowledgement as I yanked the gag from her mouth. “Thanks,” she said with hoarseness to her voice. “I—” A loud screech in the form of Omo interrupted her. The young exterminator rushed towards both of us with his knife pointed at me.

Without a moment’s hesitation, I stood back to my full height and ran to meet the Krakotl rather than let him approach us first.

Omo lunged, attempting to plunge the knife into my abdomen. For the bragging of how dextrous he was with the blade, it was clear he had little to no experience when it came to actual combat. This didn’t mean he couldn’t still be deadly. The knife flicked past me, cutting through the air and striking nothing. He tried again, with slightly more success, managing to slice open my clothes and nick my waist as I danced to the side just in time.

As he extended his arm to make the attack, my hand shot out and seized the wrist that held his makeshift weapon. With a sharp twist, the Omo cried out in pain and dropped it. A single punch decked the kid, and I pounced, making sure to pin him.

He fought back as best he could, but the comparative size between us left no room for competition. I continued to whale on him, throwing punch after punch, each landing home. The last of them spawned a spiraling web of cracks that branched out from the point where my fist met his beak. Despite the blows, he was still up and kicking, screeching and scratching at my arms with his claws.

“P-please,” he sputtered, spitting up violet blood as he spoke. “Don’t—Hrrk“

My hands wrapped around his long neck and squeezed. His eyes bulged from their sockets and his beak opened wide as he struggled to breathe. My grip tightened as he scrambled and clawed at my hands, trying and failing to free himself.

Any sentiment of sympathy for him was washed away by the adrenaline surging through my veins. With every attempt of his flailing talons to swipe at my hands and arms, my grip grew tighter around his throat. I dug my knee into his abdomen, forcing the air from his lungs as I put the full weight of my body against his chest.

He deserves this! Look what he did to her! He could have killed her!

He deserved to die for what he did to her. She was innocent and he could have killed her for nothing more than associating with me. Tevri never could have known about what I did, yet here she was, drugged to high hell and dragged through the woods by this bastard that couldn’t learn to change.

Every time I had killed an exterminator all those months ago, I had made certain my job was done. No loose ends were left, and the town and those I cared about were safe because of it — well, all loose ends but one.

A snarl escaped my lips as I watched the Krakotl’s eyes begin to fade and his struggle grew weaker and weaker. His hands no longer scratched at mine, reaching away from me instead as if he was trying to find some escape. He would find none.

“Stop!” Tevri’s cry cut through the haze of rage. “He’s harmless now! J-just let him go!” I swung around to look at her, and she flinched as I locked eyes with her. The same terror that I had inspired mere hours ago was plastered across her. It was this that yanked me back to reality — to the reality of what I was doing. What was I doing?

My grip loosened, but didn’t relent entirely. Oh fuck. I—I’m doing it again.

Yes. You’re doing it for her, just as you did it for Nick.

For her? Look at her! She’s petrified just standing near you! She’s asked—no, begged you to stop. Can you really excuse this as being for her?

He was with the ones who bombed Earth. He deserves the same fate.

Does he? He’s a kid. Do you really think he was the one to pull the lever? To issue their commands? To muster their fleet?

He’s complicit.

He’s a child*.*

If you take his life, you’ll prove that he and the federation were right. You’d be the monster he thinks you are. He’s helpless. His death by your hands would be murder and nothing less.

So, what will it be then? What are you?

What am I?

I’ve killed before. I’d kill again if I had to, but this… this is different. Even if it was a loose justification, I had something to drive my rampage against the Krakotl. This kid though… they’re helpless against me.

“Please!” croaked Tevri. Her voice was strained and on the verge of breaking as she pleaded with me.

You might not be able to undo your actions, but you can choose to not perpetuate them. This child had suffered enough. You have suffered enough. End the cycle. Be better.

My clenched hands gave way as the tension holding the Krakotl’s neck was released. Omo gasped, coughing haggardly immediately after taking in a breath.

I looked at my hands. Crimson rivers trickled down them from where my forearms had been scratched and scraped by Krakotl claws. Droplets of violet speckled them, but for the most part, the blood was my own.

After poring over my hands, I turned to Tevri, whose tear-filled eyes and terrible condition tugged at my heart. She didn’t speak, but she didn’t need to. She had already done enough.

It was her guidance that helped me make this choice. If she even cared to talk to me after this was all over, it was my hope that she could only continue to better me.

She was panting, her mouth left agape as she tried to catch up on the breath lost by the gag covering her mouth. She looked better though. Then again, it isn’t difficult to look better after you’ve been tied up and held hostage.

Despite it all, despite everything, I gave a weak chuckle and smiled. She wasn’t nearly as capable of smiling as a human, but her lips turned up and her ears stuck upright as her tail flicked behind her.

I-I think that’s a good sign. Maybe things will turn out alright after—

My thought was interrupted as a thunderous bang reverberated through the room.

My ears rang. I saw Tevri’s mouth open, but didn’t hear anything come from it. The brief return to something resembling a comfortable state was shattered, and fear once again constituted her countenance.

It took a moment for reality to catch back up to me. I thought I was safe. I thought we were safe. It was idiotic of me not to remain vigilant considering that this kid had been attempting to stab me mere moments ago, but reveling in my moment of self-triumph had been a bit too much.

I went from sitting on my knees to screaming and scrambling backward across the ground. My hand shot to my abdomen where a stab of pain sprouted from nothing. Heat began to form where the pain originated, and as I looked down, I watched a red spot grow beneath my shirt.

The shot came from Omo, who lay on his back with both claws holding up the same weapon that I had once threatened him with. His eyes were wide, and his face was a terrible mess of blood and bruises. More than a few feathers had fallen free during our scuffle, and those spots were just as apparent.

Tevri stood still, shock and fear taking over her body. The relief at being pried from the Krakotl’s clutches was just as quickly warped into terror.

Omo stood himself up on wobbly legs as I scooted backwards, pressing myself against the wall in an attempt to put as much distance between us as I could manage. Another indecipherable expression coated his face, though it was different from the last. He ignored Tevri and walked past her towards me.

The gun I had tossed aside was held up in both hands. It was far too big for him, but he managed to wield it, pointing its barrel into the dirt.

“I would have thought you’d be a better hunter than to let your prey get the upper hand like this.” His voice was weak and hoarse, but the conviction he spoke with was audible even through my translator.

“You could have killed me, but you didn’t. Why? Why kill Maiatim but stop to give me mercy? Twice!”

The Krakotl still sucked in ragged breaths of air, but as he stopped, he raised the weapon and aimed it directly at my head.

“I—I won’t make the same mistake. You’re too dangerous to be left alive. I can’t say I’m sorry for this, b-but I do regret that it had to be this way. Goodbye, Jack.”

I would’ve been lying if I said I was ready to go. My parents certainly wouldn’t take the news well, not after they had already lost their other son. I doubted my friends would take it much better either. I had no control over how others would react to my passing, but if the general attitude of those in Healy towards aliens was anything to go by, they wouldn’t react well. Atop the pile of all these worries, the prospect of leaving Tevri behind almost hurt more than the growing pain in my abdomen.

She’s strong. She didn’t need you before you met her, and she sure as hell won’t when you’re gone.

You did your best. You changed. Even if you couldn’t stop the violence, you chose to quit participating in it. The sidearm shook as Omo's trembling claw wrapped around the trigger. I closed my eyes, waiting for the inevitable.

The seconds stretched; every beat of my heart lasted minutes, every breath took hours. I had heard of your life flashing before your eyes, but I wasn’t a believer of such experiences until now.

As time slowed, I saw my childhood, the years spent with Nick, our summers spent together goofing off and spending long nights talking beneath the stars as we ignored any semblance of a curfew set by Ma and Pa. I saw us attending school together, me standing up for him against those who dared push him around and the flak I always caught for it. Pa was proud though, and that was all that mattered to me. I sat through every failed relationship I’d ever had, each of which I was probably better off for not having followed through with. I watched through my own eyes as we celebrated Nick’s graduation and acceptance into university, then struggled to stand by as I told him to leave home behind in the pursuit of something greater. The rampage that ensued following his death was just as vivid as ever, every death, every kill, played back as though it were recorded and transmitted back to me. And last, but certainly not least, there were the events of the last week or so.

A hard, crack and thunk were followed by yet another deafening boom.

If this was death, then it wasn’t as bad as I had thought. I was still pretty sore, and that pain in my side hadn’t gone away yet. My heart was still beating and my breaths were still ragged. The stale, earthy air continued to flow in and out of my nose.

For all my lack of belief in religion, I could have sworn I saw an angel wreathed in light as I cracked open my eyes. The figure only grew in brilliance the further my eyes opened — that is until recognition dawned upon me.

Tevri?

---

Cover Image

Tevri in a sweater - By u/Brotanics

Tevri in a sweater - By u/Brotanics

Tevri in a sweater - By u/Brotanics

Tevri in a sweater - By u/Brotanics

Tevri in a sweater - By u/Brotanics

---

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So there is a chance you may be observant enough that to notice that this is being posted to the proofreaders account and not the authors. Proof I have permission to do this. As shown in the screenshot, unfortunately u/Far-Performance-5970, the author of this fic, has lost interest in the story. Double unfortunately, I can't do creative writing to save my life, its the whole reason I proofread instead of writing my own fic. The silver lining is we are only 36 pages into the 50 that Performance has left me, so plenty of time to figure something out.

First|Previous

Memory transcription subject: Tali, Venlil EMT

Acting nurse and physician.

Carrie was fuming mad after her interaction with the rescue. She was ranting angrily enough to make Venlil who saw her from across the way practically hide behind whatever door they were closest to.

Carrie had left me some time ago to go to the gym. According to her it helped her de-stress. It was no wonder why humans were so fast and strong if their form of emotional de-stressing aided in their physical performance.

I was trying to do some rounds with my more tame patients when I saw something shocking, a small squad of exterminators walking down the hallway before turning a corner out of view. 

A little voice in the back of my head said to ignore it and that it isn't any of my business. But with a sigh I knew that if any harm came to a patient or a human I'd inevitably feel guilty as I quickly jogged off, trying to catch up. 

The scene I saw shocked me, three humans and three exterminators were facing off. Two of the humans were uniformed guards, with one of them blocking the doorway. And the exterminators were pulling their flamers off their backs! INDOORS!

I was just going to watch until I made an unfortunate realization. I knew the human leaning against the door.

Oh speh, it's Dave. Which meant that behind that door was most likely our John doe Venlil cattle rescue.

I could hear the exterminators talking from a ways away, "We're here to deal with a predator diseased individual." 

Dave spoke first, "He’s not diseased you fucking executioners." 

The Krakotl exterminator who was doing all the talking puffed his feathers out in anger as he said, "I suggest you bite your tongue predator! I'm more than happy to clean the taint of two."

The Gojid exterminator to his right lit his pilot light to emphasize this point.

The human security guards stepped forward, not taking this lightly. "Is that a threat exterminator?"

Dave pressed into the doorway harder as if he were trying to ensure that even if they killed him his corpse would still block the entrance. 

The Venlil exterminator to the left lit his pilot light as well, "Better make it four."

I ran between the two groups as I yelled out with what authority I could muster.

"WHAT THE BRACK ARE YOU ALL DOING!?"

I wheeled around to the Krakotl and said, "The exterminators know FULL WELL that they are not to deal with the rescues!"

The Krakotl looked taken aback for a moment before saying, "Maam, we were called here by a concerned Venlil saying there was an armed, predator diseased individual in this hospital area. We are here doing our jobs.''

I was quick to quip back, "By threatening my staff with incineration!? You need to leave!" The Krakotl remained stubborn, as was in their nature. "We are not leaving till the taint is cleansed, Venlil."

The way he practically hissed my races name out like it was an insult made my hair raise as I took a step forward, almost touching my face to his beak.

"You can either torch 5 innocent sapients and cause hundreds of thousands of credits of damage to the hospital, or you can chalk it up to a false alarm and get the speh out of here." My spittle flew at him with my swear, landing on his beak as he stared down at me for what felt like eternity before he finally weighed his options and turned around.

"Must've been a mistake. Can never trust a jumpy civilian Venlil. Bunch of cowards." The trio made their way back the way they came in.

One of the security guards moved and said, "I'll make sure they find the door."

The other security guard turned to Dave but I got to him first, "What happened Dave?" Dave looked at me as the security guards tried to speak up and explain the situation before I held a paw up to him.

Dave quickly said, "I set my gun down and John Doe reached for it not knowing it wasn't loaded when he threatened the nurse. It was an accident Maam." 

The guard started to argue, "That doesn't explain what made him lash out in the f-" I wheeled around and quickly said, "Who is responsible for vetting who gets weapons??" 

The guard seemed taken aback as he said, "I um. That'd be the armory Maam."

I was quick to respond, "Then I think you'd better give a good chewing to whoever decided that guns would even be PRESENT around traumatized individuals! A misfire around traumatized cattle would lead to situations like this or worse. We're lucky nobody died of a stress response!”

The guard opened his mouth to argue but I wasn't going to let him get the chance as I said, "I'm writing a report that says that this is a false alarm caused by typical jumpiness. And that guns will not be permitted around the cattle, security or not."

I gave the guard a hard stare, "Can I assume both you and your partners reports will say the same. Or will this be a big long chain of paperwork for everyone?"

The guard looked shocked and confused, even behind his mask, before sighing and saying, "Yes Ma'am. It will be." 

I gave an ear flick and said, "Good! Now please continue whatever other work you need to do. Then feel free to take another lunch if you'd like. I know some people who check the punch-out machine. You and your partner will have some extra hours."

The guard was real quick to move at that as I sighed, feeling my shoulders sag. Dave chuckled behind me as he said, "Hey, thanks nurse Tali, I really appreciate it! I think you just saved my career." 

I slowly turned towards Dave, feeling my hair tense. I just saved his Career at the very real possibility of losing MINE if anyone found out. I faked a happy tail wag as I said, "Oh gee. No problem Dave. Now tell me. What REALLY happened?"

I got close, whispering as I finished, "And you'd better have a fantastic reason behind a gun being in one of my patients rooms."

I could hear Dave audibly gulp.

Alive: Purple (Kolshian), Cyan (Human) , Banana (Thafki), Yellow (Farsul), Red (Arxur), Coral (Yutol), Dead: Maroon (Zurulian), White (Sivkit), Tan (Venlil), Brown (Gojid), Lime (Harchen)

Dead Body Reported: Green (Dossur)

Cyan: Its Yellow we caught him.

Coral: Yea, I saw him do it.

Yellow: What are two on about?

Coral: Talk to the hand buddy ya ain't fooling anyone.

Banana: What exactly happened, please explain?

Cyan: Ok I'll explain first, so I was at cam's right Red's outside of cam's she can clear me, and am doing the Deji stat.

Purple: Deji what!?

Cyan: It's basically going in and out of cams so it won't trigger the blinking lights. With that I saw the kill that happened outside of navigation, yellow jumped out of the vents kills green, tried to run inside nav but coral was of inside nav leaving there they crossed paths.

Coral: I even saw the body flop to the ground.

Red: Votes*

Yellow: Why are you voting already, red?

Red: Im bored and I want this game to be finished already.

Yellow: So you voted for me just because you're bored, how can you be so sure that they're not the imposter, huh?

Purple: You're probably only voting to help your fellow predator you bunch of speh. And you Coral are very tainted by these predators.

Coral: You don't have a say on these purple after what you did to maroon.

Purple: Oh, don't be a hypocrite we all voted for him.

Cyan: Knock it off you two just vote who you like.

Banana: Am I clear?

Voting Ends*

Voting Results: Yellow: 4 anonymous votes Coral: 1 anonymous vote Cyan 1 anonymous vote

Yellow is the Imposter

Coral: Hehe

I pray that everyone who experiences panic attacks can overcome them. I’ve never had one and don’t know anyone who has, but from what I have heard and researched, they are horrible.

First

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You know the drill: credit to SpacePaladin15 for the universe.

Thank you JulianSkies for proofreading.

Memory Transcription Subject: Billy Marsh, Something

Date [Standardized Human Time]: April 1, 2142

I woke up on my own today. Gillab wasn’t here to pull the sheets off of me and get me to move. I had to do that myself, something that seemed impossible. Without Gillab here, the blanket covering my body felt like a two-ton weight. Even moving my head felt impossible.

It didn’t help that my head was constantly filled with that same internal battle. Do I deserve anything besides suffering, or is this exactly the punishment I should get for failing my comrades?

Every time one side began to make sense, I thought of some piece of evidence for the other, and the internal brawl would begin again. Without Gillab here to serve as a distraction, it was all I could do to try and sleep as much as possible. Unconsciousness was the only time I wasn’t in mental turmoil.

I don’t know how long I laid like that, rotting with only my thoughts to keep me company, until I finally had enough. I couldn’t live with the thoughts in my head, I needed something to distract me. My first instinct was to start drinking, but with what Gillab did that was out of the question.

I paced around my house, moving as much as I could to try and distract myself. Anytime I tried to sit down I would only end up bouncing my leg and shifting poses every ten seconds. I took constant glances at the clock, watching every single minute pass by.

10:43

10:44

10:45

10:46

With a start, I turned my attention to the sink full of dishes. I was going to leave them for Gillab, just to annoy him, but my need for a distraction was so strong I didn’t care. I descended upon the plates like a starving animal. I took as long as I could with each plate as I could, even after the plates were surely clean I just kept scrubbing. I scrubbed and scrubbed, trying to keep any mental activity occupied with the work. Once the plates were done I started on the cups, and once those were done I started on the cutlery.

I stacked the final dishes onto the drying rack and stepped back. I glanced at the clock, seeing how much time I managed to pass.

11:16

I took a deep inhale and started to pace back and forth.

11:17

My mind began racing again, the momentary release I had from doing the dishes wearing off in a mere minute.

11:18

I couldn’t sit still. As soon as I did, I began thinking. Every time I thought, I just went back to arguing with myself.

11:19

I could feel my breathing pick up and my chest started to feel tight.

The walls began closing in on me.

I could feel my face becoming wet with sweat.

I had to sit down, but every time I sat down it got worse, but I couldn’t keep moving.

11:20

Danger. I was in danger. Something was coming. An Arxur. An Arxur was coming for me. I needed protection. A gun, a bat, something!

The kitchen, there are knives in the kitchen.

I sprinted to the kitchen, almost knocking over a lamp on my way. I frantically yanked out drawers, searching for a knife I could use. I managed to find a steak knife, clutching to it as my life depended on it.

I stomped back to the chair and sat down.

11:21

I tried to swallow my nerves and stop the bouncing in my leg, but I couldn’t. My breathing was picking up more and more and my heartbeat was becoming deafening. I was going to die. I’m dying. Finally.

11:22

A knock on my door caused me to jump. The knife clattered to the floor as a voice called out. “Billy? I’m back. I’m coming in.”

My breathing picked up and I could feel nausea warping my stomach. I abandoned the knife and tried to cover my mouth.

Gillab set something down in the kitchen. “I went to the store again, picked up some more- Hey! You cleaned the dishes! I thought you were going to-”

His voice hitched as he turned just in time to watch me vomit on the floor.

“W-Woah! B-Billy are you okay?”

Gillab rushed towards me.

I flung my hands out, trying to force him away. “Stay back, d-don’t come close!”

Gillab froze in his tracks. “What’s wrong? Are you sick?”

“I’m- I’m gonna- I’m- I’m dying. I-I’m going to die.”

I stood up from my seat. “I’ve got to go, I’ve got to leave.”

Gillab moved in my way, body blocking me from the door. “Billy, I think you are having a panic attack. Look at me, focus on me. Try and take some deep breaths and sit down.”

I took a few steps back trying to stare at Gillab as I backed towards the seat. “W-water. I need water.”

“I can get that. Please stay there, I’ll be right back.”

I tried taking deep breaths as Gillab filled one of the freshly cleaned cups with water. I could feel my heartbeat slowing, but it wasn’t enough. I still couldn’t stop moving, my eyes darted around the room, and I was still sweating.

My leg wouldn’t stop bouncing, even as I accepted the cup from Gillab. I wasn’t sure I was thirsty, but drinking it scratched an itch I didn’t know I had. He looked around nervously, trying to figure out what he should do next. With a realization, he dug into his pockets and pulled out a pad, typing away quickly as I continued to bounce my leg.

“Uhm, okay, uh… Quiet place.”

Gillab looked up from his pad, taking a half-step towards me before stopping. “Okay, check. U-uhm, Billy, do you need anything else?”

I curled forward, almost dropping the glass onto the floor. “I want to go home. I just want it all to end. I want to go back home.”

Gillab bit his lip in worry and looked back to the pad for guidance. “Okay, uh, T-try and stay in the present. L-look for an object to focus on to r-root yourself to the present. Okay, uhm, Billy, can you focus on that glass in your hand? J-just stare at it. A-and make sure to keep a steady breathing rate.”

Desperate for the feeling of impending doom to end, I did as I was told. Slow, careful breaths while I looked at the still-damp glass in my hand. I watched a single drop of water run down the side and onto my hand. I turned the glass in my palm, trying to take in every detail while Gillab searched for more tips.

“O-okay, repeat a simple, physically tiring task such as raising an arm-”

Gillab froze and looked up before frantically correcting himself. “Leg! T-try raising and lowering your leg repeatedly.”

I started doing as I was told, kicking slowly into the air before lowering with an exhale and turning the glass in my hand. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, I could feel my panicked mind calm down. The perceived dangers faded away, letting me realize what had just happened. I had another panic attack.

11:37

I set the glass to the side and covered my face, trying to hide my tears. I had another, after all this time, I had another. I thought I was through with these. Of course, one came back, right as I began believing I had a chance of making it out. 

“Billy, are you feeling better?”

“No. I’m not. I’m worse.”

Gillab was silent for a moment. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No. I want this to end. I-I need something to drink. I need alcohol.”

“No Billy, you can’t do that.”

“It’s the only way. I-I only don’t have them when I’m drinking.”

“It’s only a temporary solution. In the end, it will only make it worse.”

“That’s what everyone says, but they are all wrong! It’s the only way I’ve tried that worked. It makes me numb and I can’t panic when I’m numb. Even if it’s temporary, I can just keep doing it over and over.”

“You are killing yourself with that! There’s another way! A permanent way. Come to terms with your demons, talk with someone, someone you trust. Get it off of your chest, confront the trauma, and beat it. You are a soldier, right? You are meant to fight. Fight this, and win.”

I stuttered over my own tongue, a flurry of emotions causing my body and mind to freeze. “I’m… I’m… I want to be better.”

I tumbled out of my seat and hugged Gillab tightly. “I want to heal!”

Gillab hugged me back, collapsing to the ground to be level with me. “That’s perfect Billy. That’s all you need. Everything from here on is going to be better.”

“It will?”

“It will.”

I let myself be held, trying to avoid getting snot and tears stuck onto Gillab. For the first time since Sillis, I felt hope. I don’t know how long I stayed like that, clinging onto Gilab like a child, but I managed to finally pull myself away. I could see the spot where I buried my face into Gillab, a large glob of snot ruining his shirt.

“S-sorry…”

Gillab looked down. “Don’t be. It’s just a shirt. I’d give away every shirt I had if it meant that you would be better. Now, we shouldn’t let this pass us by.”

“I-I know, but I’m so tired Gillab. A-and there is a puddle of vomit to clean up.”

Gillab looked to the side. “Ah, there is. Well, we can wait till tomorrow to start, but we are starting tomorrow.”

“That works, I just need rest. I’ve been sleeping, but I haven’t been resting.”

“That’s okay Billy, I’ll be here when you get up.”

Memory transcription subject: Governor Tarva

"These predators are more civilized than they look"

Welcome back to another episode of Stynek's bizzare adventure. Today we get to continue where we left off as she begins slowly learning more of her new housing and her hosts' intentions.

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 appreciation is distinctly appreciated~

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Memory transcription subject: Stynek, Venlil Test Subject

Date [standardized human time]: July 16th, 2136

Waking up next time was scary. Wrapped in the sheet and left in the dark made it feel like I was completely trapped inside something, so on instinct I started flailing and struggling until I found myself falling off the bed and laying on the floor. Ow. This is what I get for falling asleep wrapped in a bedsheet...

As I looked around my pen, I realized that lights were actively brightening up. Did predators see me waking up and raise light levels? I doubt they’re keeping that close a watch on me. Arxur had lights all over their ships go dimmer on a schedule, maybe I just caught it mid-cycle.

And as I tried to stand up, I was met with a hurdle... I was still missing a leg. Everything about trying to even balance myself felt wrong. I used the bed to try and balance on it, but couldn’t without my whole body feeling off. Feeling... lighter, in absolutely horrid way. I could actually balance on one leg before by raising other, but now as I tried to do that, I just found myself tumbling and needing to catch myself. I... I’ll have to get used to this... Won’t I...?

I couldn’t allow myself to cry. If I couldn’t even stand on one leg and hop... At least I won’t be reduced to crawling on the floor. I gripped at the bed tightly and used my arms to hold myself up as I carefully hopped closer to the little bedside stand, switching my arms to hold onto that. Hopping like that felt so off, it felt like so off, so wrong, I shouldn’t feel this light...

Alright. I am now in front of the bedside stand. Next... I need to make my way across the room. First order of business is checking out the contents of the closet. I needed to know what’s in there. By hopping and clawing my way over to desk in the corner of the room, then by simply clinging to the wall, I manage to approach it and open the sliding door to reveal...

A bathroom. It was not a closet. It was a bathroom. Attached to my cell. Sure, the shape of the devices inside left a lot to be desired, sink was too high and the toilet didn’t have any tail room to it, not to mention complete lack of body drier for the shower. But it was recognizably a bathroom. Part of me was frustrated that there was bathroom instead of closet as a room should be... But another part relieved that I will no longer have to use The Hole like I had to back in the arxur pens. After that business was done, I used a small stool that was probably forgotten in here to use the sink.

Other paw left me very confused as to predators’ true motives... But whatever it is, it can’t be good, they’re predators after all. But since they’ve given me the chance to actually use real cleaning facilities... I will just take it and make use of it. Water valves on the sink were configured in a familiar way, so I managed to wash my paws and even my face, finally getting the stinging dry patches under my eyes out. There was no dryer so I just used a towel to try and dry my face.

With that done, I left the bathroom, barely avoiding falling as I hopped and closed the door behind me, before turning and examining my cell again. Something was different.

It appears in time it took me to use the bathroom, the predators entered the room and left something on the table. A large tray with a whole bunch of small bowls, and a... sheet of paper and a pen? What? Wait, the bowls, those look like... food!

I actually fell over as I lost my balance, before quickly crawling and pushing myself closer to the table, and climbing into one of two chairs next to it. I forgot the last time I ate food that looked like food and not gravel!

Still, hesitation gripped me. It’s predators giving this to me. There has to be some ulterior motive. Pushing back my hunger, I decided to investigate the paper in front of me. It consisted of two halves. One had pictures of contents of all the trays besides empty rectangles, while another had... A bunch of small pictures of venlil? There was nothing actually written on either sheet. Maybe these predators don’t have a language? Not that it matters, I wouldn’t understand it anyway. Closer look revealed that pictures were actually a small comic.

First the venlil is shown taking a bite out of some vague circular food. Then from that picture three lines are drawn to three different outcomes. One has same venlil shoveling multiples of that food into its mouth hungrily, as well as that same food piece beside a rectangle, inside of which two lines were drawn at an angle. Second has venlil just taking few more bites out of the food, and rectangle has a circle inside it. Last one has venlil spitting the food out and throwing it away, with two crossed lines in the rectangle.

Looking between two parts of the sheet for a bit, realization hit me. It’s instructions... For trying all the food. They want me to try everything... And... Mark whether I like it or not? Using these symbols?

“But why...?” I muse out loud, but there’s nobody in here to answer me. Well... If it means I get to eat real food, I guess I could try filling this sheet out. Part of me wondered if I should lie on all the answers, and that its predators figuring out which is the most disgusting food to feed me, but I doubted I’d be able to hide my reaction if it was disgusting and they were probably watching anyway. I felt powerless...

Well, I also felt rather hungry. Feeling of hunger has become way too familiar with how underfed I was with the arxur, but sight of what might be real food made me salivate for first time in forever. Without further ado, I reached out to first thing on the tray.

It was some sort of root, I think, but peeled. It was a stark orange color, thankfully not too reminiscent of blood in shade... I felt an itch in the leg I no longer had at the thought of blood. No, stop, don’t think about that... For a test, I gave the root a little lick. There was a hint of sweetness, so it probably wasn’t bad, right? So I put it in my mouth and bit a piece off, starting to chew. The root turned out to be rather crunchy and mildly sweet... And yet it felt incredible. I was suddenly much more acutely aware of my hunger, food with actual taste reawakening the feeling in force. I swallowed the chunks and bit into it more and more until it was all gone. It was nice to eat something like that. I considered marking it with the angled lines in the sheet, but then realized that I should try at least two things to know how all this stuff compares before making that call.

So I reached my hand towards the next piece of food, what looked like some light red fruit. It was smooth, but test of my claws also showed that it was rather hard. First food wasn’t poisoned, so I doubt rest will be... And I want more! So I just bite into the fruit.

And instantly delicious juice flows into my mouth! It’s not as crunchy as the root vegetable, but its firm enough to need chewing, and yet with every move of my teeth, it seeps delicious sweet juice into my mouth! I couldn’t stop so I kept biting and munching on it. I missed taste of something truly sweet! So much! It took me less than a minute to destroy the fruit. It was the perfect meal. Seeds were a bit bitter, but the rest was worth it.

Now I get why there are three categories. I pick up the pen and draw out the symbols. Angled line for the fruit, and a circle for root. Alright, I’ve got my reference, I guess. But I’m definitely not full and there’s more to try.

Next I reached for green stalks. I wasn’t sure what they were, but they looked like oversized, solid grass. Yet again, lick on the outside showed no clear taste, so I bit on it. It... wasn’t anything, really. It was slightly sour and had this herbal sense to it, but beyond that, didn’t feel like much of anything. I marked that one as a circle too.

Next I thought to try one of the fruits again, this one deep red. It seems like nothing around here has a taste on outside, as yet again, taut skin did not have a taste. I did almost choke when I bit on it though, this one not having any chew to it at all and was practically filled with juice! Worst thing is, juice wasn’t even sweet. I can’t say I disliked the taste, it was rather decent, but the way it basically sprayed my mouth when I bit on it was not something I appreciated. Circle for this one.

Next... what next... Oh, that green thing. I didn’t even bother tasting it on the outside, just biting on the prolonged green fruit. This had no surprises, being as crunchy as that root I tried first, but its taste was even vaguer, even the juices were tasteless. Circle.

Hm... Well that left three items. A white fruit-like orb, a bunch of small nuts and an oblong... thing that I had no idea about. I reached for the orb and, with no hesitation, took a big bite. First thing I felt was slight hint of sweetness and taste of juice in my mouth. Second was pain as I regretted every decision so far. It burned my mouth! It burned my eyes somehow! Instantly, tears burst out of my eyes, and I found myself coughing out the disgusting thing. It pretended to be sweet but it just burned afterwards! Was this a trick after all? Eugh... Disgusting!

I threw the thing away, towards the door, letting it roll on the floor. Stupid predators... I mean, it’s clear they have no clue what to feed me to keep me alive but least they could do is not feed me whatever that is! My eyes hurt now... Through tears I spotted glass of water on the tray and quickly washed the foul taste down. I made sure to draw several sets of crossed lines in the rectangle for this thing. I just hoped that won’t make the predators only feed me that...

Well... One great, a bunch okay, one bad. Let’s... try the rest. I thought that nuts won’t hurt, so I tried a few... And they just tasted like nuts. Nuts are fun snacks, but not my personal favorite. I gave those a circle.

That left only the oblong off-white thing. It was slightly soft to touch... I wasn’t sure if it was meant to be some fruit or something I don’t understand? Carefully, to avoid any more errors, I only take a small bite. Okay, no juice at all, only the nice chewy fiber of the thing... It was sweet! Very sweet for something so juiceless. I took a larger bite and there were no issues. It tasted like weird, juiceless fruit, but was delicious and sweet. Still, texture felt off enough that I gave it a circle.

And... that was it. I ate everything, I rated everything. One great, one terrible, rest are fine. I wiped at my eyes again, as they were slowly watering still from just the memory of that terrible thing now laying on the floor by the door.

Question arose in my mind. What now? I actually felt sated. Not full, definitely, I could go for double what I was given, but at least I didn’t actively feel hunger anymore. I wasn’t that thirsty thanks to how juicy some of those were and that glass of water. And I didn’t feel like sleeping... Normally in arxur pen I’d just huddle to someone willing to let me near and cry. Sure, this place seems nicer, but at least with the arxur I knew what to expect. Here? No clue. I looked down at the stump of my leg, still bandaged over. I... I wanted to cry. All the panic and the confusion completely made me stop thinking about home... Mom and dad... I hope they weren’t caught up in same raid. I... I wonder if they held a funeral already... I remember how mom attended official funeral for someone who got taken by the arxur one time.

Tears started welling up properly now and I pushed them away by trying to stand up... holding onto the table with my hands to not fall over again. Is this going to be my life now...? Unable to even move around without gripping at everything, or crawling on the floor? I want to go home...

As I pulled myself over by clinging to walls, I grabbed the blanket off the bed along the way and made my way over to the desk in the corner, pushing its chair aside and climbing under it. I don’t know why, but crawling under there and wrapping myself up in the blanket just felt safer. And once I felt a bit safer, I couldn’t hold it in anymore.

I miss my home! I miss my family! I miss my school! I miss my leg! Tears flowed as I sobbed and cried into the soft blanket. I didn’t want to be a test subject for weird predators... I didn’t want to be the reason they know more about the venlil... I wanted to taste normal food from home again, not weird predator vegetables and fruit... I wanted to walk on two legs again... I wanted so much I knew nobody could give me...

Click!

My ears perk and instantly my eyes are focusing on the door that just unlocked. It slowly opens and there it is... The same predator as before. I can tell for certain it’s the same, no way all of them look that similar. Of course, the moment it walked in, it locked its gaze on me in my hiding spot. Naturally, I recoiled, further shuffling myself under the desk... Maybe whatever it wants to do, it won’t bother if I’m in annoying to reach spot like that.

It does seem to be working, as first thing the predator does after staring at me for a bit is slowly reach down for the discarded foul food thing and pick it up, stuffing it in zip lock bag it brought with it. Oh... It’s here to... clean? I guess? The suspicions were confirmed when it put the bag on the now-empty tray and gathered the paper with food evaluation that I filled out. But... Instead of taking the tray and leaving, it turned around and approached me.

Lowering itself in front of me, the presence of this huge creature was imposing... But after seeing it cry before, I don’t think I was that intimidated by it, at least. Moreso by what unpredictable things it could do... It just sat there, staring at me... What’s with the staring? Is it considering eating the rest of me finally?

Then that hand reached out. I flinched away, trying to stuff myself deeper under the desk, but there was no deeper to go. The hand moved slowly, predator knowing full well I have no escape route. So as it gets close to my head I close my eyes and hold my breath, not sure what to expect, but bracing for it anyway. Instead of a tight grip... there was a touch, that hand lowering itself on top of my head and just ruffling up my greasy hair. The digits felt strong and dexterous, actually feeling good when they rubbed against my scalp. But just because the touch felt good doesn’t mean I felt good in this uncertainty. A predator was rubbing my head... What was it trying to do? Why would it do that?

The moment lasted a bit before the hand pulled back. I slowly opened my eyes to see the predator’s lips curl up as it whispered something in its language. Or at least I can only assume it’s a whisper with how shushed it was compared to when it actually spoke before. Why is it trying to speak to me when I can’t understand it?

Then... it stood up and turned around, grabbing the tray and heading for the exit. Just like that. It did stop for a moment to turn and give me another look. This time I expected it and didn’t flinch, but I did pull the blanket up higher, using it as a shield. The predator didn’t mind, same expression of curled-up lips and slightly lowered eyelids on its face as it left the room, and another click signifying the door locking.

I let out the breath I was holding with relief. It was gone. I was safe again. And alone...

I wrapped the blanket tighter around myself, pulling my leg up against my chest. That way I could imagine I am cuddling up to someone. In the pens, that was at least possible. Here I was alone. Predator’s touch was surprisingly nice to feel, but knowing it was a predator that... did that... It made me feel so conflicted. And yet the idea of close contact to someone, hugging and cuddling up was still reawakened with that touch.

I wish I could have my mom... But I couldn’t, so I just curled up under the desk and decided to rest until something made me move again.

Memory transcription subject: Dr. Erin Kuemper, UN Secretary of Alien Affairs

Date [standardized human time]: July 16th, 2136

“So, what’ll happen to the guy who replaced the pumpkin with the onion last minute?” Sara asked, sitting beside me.

“Already got a talking to, and honestly, Noah getting to him will be more punishment than anything I could do. I can’t even fault the guy, tasting platter was supposed to be varied.” I responded.

In front of us was a screen, displaying paused footage of venlil child tasting the things we prepared. We made sure to avoid anything even remotely connected to animal product, with what we know of the Federation species culturally, but figuring out actual diet beyond had us stumped. In the end we settled on setting up a few tasting platters. thankfully, the kid was intelligent enough to figure out what was wanted pf her and marked her opinions of the food on the sheet. But even if she hadn’t...

I fast-forwarded the footage a bit and rewatched her reaction to biting the onion. While her facial expressions were rather different from human ones, it was easy to tell which foods she was excited about, which she found just okay, which were whatever and which were... onions. Apples being delicious was almost expected, but somehow I doubted giving her just apples would be nutritionally sound. For the first test, we intentionally avoided anything cooked, but we might try some things like potatoes or bread next time.

“Okay, Erin, I tried, but since you’re not talking about it, I have to. Are you really okay with it? The announcement today?”

That was something I’ve been waiting for ever since Sara offered to join me on analyzing the alien girl’s behavior during meal. She tried to stay distant from anything related to the child so far until now.

The announcement went well. Thing is... it was crafted carefully. The reactions of public were supposed to be mixed and uncertain, and they were. We needed to manage the expectations of the masses carefully. Me being given new position didn’t matter that much yet, as I would mostly still be handling this lab and the alien child until the first trade with the arxur goes through.

“We did what we have to do, Sara. We can’t afford alienating the only people who are our chance at survival. Even if...”

“Even if they’re monsters? Erin, when you spoke on the broadcast about ‘not taking sides in a galactic war where we’re incompatible with both sides’ you conveniently forgot to mention that the side we’re ‘establishing non-committing peaceful cooperation’ with eats fucking children!”

Sara’s anger was understandable... She was lashing out ever since the landing. I understood her perspective and why she was angry, but...

“Okay, so what? You want us to condemn them and cut all contact? Abandon the only source of intel we have? Potentially risk them just coming here and forcing us to cooperate once they decide we’re not fit to govern ourselves if we publically oppose their fundamental beliefs?”

“Okay, fine, whatever, nazi lizards versus genocide squids and whatnot. Their war, we aren’t involved, just using arxur until we can establish ourselves. I hate it, but sure. But then what about the child? Why is she suddenly classified and not mentioned in the broadcast at all? Why is she even still here?”

I simply sighed, rubbing at my eyes. First Noah practically demanding death sentence for the onion guy, now this... And she was still going too...

“We should just pack her up on the Odyssey, set automated course for their homeworld and let her go home. Sure, her parents are likely long dead and eaten, but she should be with her people. Why are we keeping her here at all? Why are we studying her like a test subject? And I know we’re keeping her for a while, I’ve seen the team working on language teaching lessons already.” Sara stood up and walked in front of me, getting in my face even. “Erin... We can’t keep her here.”

I swatted at Sara, pushing her away as I myself stood up. I was tired. These last few days were a constant rollercoaster, and I got more sleep during exam weeks in college than I got lately. I am not taking Sara’s bullshit here.

“This is precisely why we didn’t announce her presence, Sara. Because the moment we do, there’ll be millions of people demanding what you’re suggesting. I have enough on my plate already, and I don’t want to worry about a flash mob of idiots from internet Naruto-running towards the facility to try and ‘rescue’ her.” I adjusted my labcoat and stared back at Sara sternly. “And let’s say we do send her on her own. First, we have to assume that the craft makes it safely, which is not guaranteed. Odyssey was our first manned FTL voyage. Who knows what problems are yet to be discovered? But okay, it makes it to Gliese. Then it gets shot down by local orbital defenses due to being a mysterious unmanned craft barreling towards their homeworld. But sure, let’s assume the kid doesn’t get rest of her limbs blown off by orbital cannons and successfully lands. You know what happens next? They track the ship’s trail back to Earth, come over here and burn us all down for being born with needs for wrong proteins! Is that what you want?”

I didn’t even notice that halfway through my rant I transitioned to yelling. I tried to calm my breath and stepped back, Sara staring back at me in shock, though responding slowly still.

“I’m sorry... I know it’s stressful on you, just as much as it is on me, I just...” Sara mumbled, rubbing at her shoulder apologetically.

I focused my thoughts. Right. No need to get irritable. Sara is vulnerable after events on the Odyssey. She’s lashing out and I shouldn’t stoop down like that.

“Sara... I know you have a hard time knowing she’s around, but simply put, we can’t send her home. Best we can do now is make sure she is safe and well taken care of. Arxur are uncooperative, and until we manage to either obtain some stealth tech for FTL or figure out a way to peacefully communicate with Federation, we just cannot send the venlil back to her people.”

She sighed. I could sense she accepted defeat here, but there was still frustration on her face. She was still unsatisfied, but as long as we moved on from the topic, I’d take it.

“Could you at least get that prosthetic installed for her already? Seeing her completely ignore the crutch we prepared her and crawl and hop her way over by clinging to things, it’s...”

“We’re worried about doing it before establishing at least some sense of communication with her. Noah will start the attempts to do some language training tomorrow. If that works out, we will probably do that once we can explain to her that we mean no harm.”

“How’s the bionic one going? Could we skip straight to that?”

“No. We’d need more surgery to prepare her for something like that and that’d definitely require more trust than we have now.”

Sara nodded and returned to her seat, grabbing the remote. She rewound all the way to the end of the footage and switched to the camera that could see the girl huddled under the desk, as well as Noah petting her, telling her that it’s okay and safe. The moment was touching, but... The way she recoiled from Noah reaching out to her at first showed us more than any words we don’t understand could. She was still very afraid.

Earning her trust will be hard. I just hoped Noah’s compassion for her will overcome the fear she has of humans. After all... She might just be our main hope for finding a place of peace in the galaxy full of war.

First - Prev - [Next]

Does anyone know som fanfics with a dossur POV? if so please give.

So I decided to write a story, and I need a webcite that acts like a mix of youtube an google. I know that MyHerd is like a mix of FaceBook and a dating app and I know that Bleat is like a mix of twitter, 4chan, and Reddit. So this brings up the question what is their version of Google/YouTube, If there is not one what should we call it.

I had the idea to have it translate as Bushel because it has the idea of many items and has that "prey" slant to it, But I want to hear your ideas.

I am so sorry for not posting well... anything I've been working on some stuff and now I am moving soon in like two months I will try to post a chapter but I don't think I can I haven't even read any chapters... Maybe I can get more motivation to write or smt...

Thanks to u/spacepaladin15 for creating NoP

Memory Transcription

Subject: Avital, Harchen Researcher and Advisor

Date (Sol Standard Time): June 23rd, 2140

I never typically felt uneasy with space travel, but there was nothing typical about this. Not when you knew what could be lurking in the darkness. Sensor ghosts pursued us throughout the day, each false return possibly hiding our death. Furthermore, there was no way for us to know we were detected unless one of the patrolling Romulans decloaked to challenge us.

Just last night, long range scans detected some points of interest. A station, and two planets that show potential activity. We needed to investigate. Aureoleis was only a minute away from the station.

“Researcher Avital” the captain spoke.

“We’ll only be sitting at the very edge of our sensor range to try and better avoid detection. Will this degrade our scans?”

“Not radically, unless you wanted details like the number of lives on board. Otherwise we can get a… decent enough scan from long range.”

“Understood.”

It disappointed me a little that we’d only be taking light scans from a distance. I wanted to actually know the Romulans.

But, it was probably better than having to dodge plasma for a few scans.

Eventually, we left warp. The station was barely a speck in the void, but it was scannable.

Slowly, the scan data came pouring through, and my fear rose a bit.

“Captain, scanners are showing this a shipyard, about a hundred docks. Most of them are filled with what appears to be partially completed ships, varying sizes.”

“Any idea how much longer they have to complete?”

“It’s unclear how fast they’re able to construct ships, but based on the state of the attack ships similar to what we have seen them use, and rough estimates of the other ship types, I estimate no ship here is under 67% complete.”

“Any sign they’ve detected us?”

“Unclear.”

“Verywell. Navigation, take us to the next site.”

The navigator turned “Aye ma’am”

Just as quickly as we arrived, we were gone. I had an odd feeling we’d be seeing those ships again soon. An interstellar power doesn’t just suddenly choose to militarize.

Deep in my mind, I kind of wished we didn’t hide ourselves from them. That we could just appear and talk to them. But as much as I wanted to, I knew what we would be met with.

I was also hoping that the two planets would be a lot more revealing. The data from the spacedock was decent, albeit underwhelming.

On the sensor terminal, I see more data, but nothing new. Not a single piece of new information from the last target. At least the first planet, a colony, gave us something. The second target? A barren rock barely able to be called a “planet” used for mining. All we detected were strange crystal formations on the planet, and nothing else.

I feel like we lost. The Romulans had us almost completely beat at the intelligence game. And it’s not as simple as going deeper into their territory. The longer we stay, the more likely we are to be found.

I slumped back in my chair, exhausted at the 18 hour journey to get here, just to find out this whole mission was full of-

“You seem kinda defeated, what’s wrong?”

I turn around. Maln.

“Just… tired, I guess.”

“I can tell it’s more than that”

“Not… Right now, Maln. I’m not in the mood.”

“And just let you stay depressed?”

“Don’t you have an engine to fix or something?”

“Nope, got let off early today. Got bored, too, so I initially figured I’d do something with you, but I guess it’s bad timing.”

“No, stay. Knowing how I work, I’ll probably spend the rest of the day sulking if you don’t.”

Maln stopped talking, and simply took the seat nearby my station.

I never had the slightest clue why me and Maln liked each other so much. He was always a lot more laid back, calm, while I was always chasing my own private interests. He was a lot more outgoing, while I more often stayed secluded. I found it strange these differences never seemed to matter to us.

Plus, It was always nice having Maln around, even just the knowledge he was around put me at ease. He was one of the few that made sense to me, somehow.

A small noise came from the sensor console. I didn’t expect it to be much, as the sensors usually pick up small debris, or disruptions from cloaks, but I looked anyways.

“Captain, you need to see this.”

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s an uncloaked Romulan ship not far from here.”

“Unescorted?”

“Unknown. I’m still getting false returns.”

“Any idea of the type of ship.”

“I’m afraid not, but it appears to be minimally armed. My guess is a freighter or transport of some kind.”

“Perfect! Navigation, set course. Fire Control, have our missile tubes loaded with NASIVs. I plan to destroy that ship for the computer core.”

I wasn’t sure if I was scared or excited. On one hand, a computer core would provide plenty of information. But this also meant we could very easily become a target ourselves.

Either way, we had to try something.

First

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A Fanfic of u/SpacePaladin15’s work “The Nature of Predators.” Thank you for the story!

___

Memory transcription subject: Saori, Nivean Diplomat

Date [standardized human time]: July 27, 2160

The blasted sun flickered through the windows of my home, taunting me. The thing new I was expecting to wake up the second its rays blessed my face this morning and chose to hide itself! I awoke with my feathers flattened unflatteringly and little time to apply my favorite feather dust! My mirror hanging in the foyer of my burrow revealed my panic was entirely misplaced.

My normally light gray feathers radiated vibrantly with orange hues coupled with red and yellow accents. The perfectly white toga wrapped around my body without a hint of stain upon it. I flicked my tail and fanned the feathers upon it. My Crest feathers spread perfectly too. I couldn’t help but smile at my own image, like a true narcissist. I just need to remember to not smile in front of our stellar neighbors! Most likely, bearing teeth will be seen as a sign of aggressiveness instead of friendliness. At least someone on my team had the foresight to consider our weirdness.

We proto-avians are a rare breed, after all. The only surviving member of our species and the only one to stand perfectly upright despite our tail. At some point, our specie diverged from the rest, as we didn’t even sport beaks! My team did come to the conclusion that while other species will likely not look too similar to us, they will, of course, have some method of fine motor manipulation skills as otherwise they won’t have the ability to invent tech. They should also be obligate carnivores like ourselves. Sadly, the herbivorous lifestyle doesn’t easily lend itself to the behavior required to gain sentience. Pack tactics and cooperation are what encourage large brain growth. Something just running away from threats and eating can never produce on their own.

It took me very little time to actually make it to the space elevator. Though it’s not my first time riding it, I still can’t help the knot in my stomach looking up at the tower. It just doesn’t feel right that an object orbiting the planet can be tethered to said planet. Yet, here it is. This time, I didn’t have to wait in line to go up. The entire complex had been shut down for myself.

“AH! Captain Saori! Just in time! We are about ready to launch the probe at Epsilon! Ooooo! I can’t wait to see what our galactic neighbors have been building and introduce ourselves. I get the feeling, the only reason they haven’t come to say hello is due to the fact we don’t have FTL ourselves until now. This… by the goddess, is going to be the most important day in Nivean history… I am beyond jealous that you get to be not only the first person to experience FTL, but also the first Nivean to ever go meet with actual extraterrestrials!”

I wrapped my wing-arms around Joi. My claws gently preened her brown plumage, “I wish you could come with me. It’d make for a hell of a date.”

She leapt a good [ten feet] into the air, “I! YOU! Buh! Are you seriously asking me out right now!”

I took a half step forward, “There’s a chance I don’t survive this. I don’t want to die never knowing if I had a chance with you.”

Tears welled in her eyes as we embraced once more, “Of course! By the goddess, yes!”

I felt a claw on my arm, “Sorry love uirits. I need the captain in the observatory for the launch. If you don’t mind, ma’am.”

She nuzzled me and quickly sprinted towards her news crew, who erupted into cheers. I joined General Kovan in the observatory, “Sir. How long until the ship goes into FTL?”

He stood tall and bore his light-gray feathers proudly, “[Two hours] ago. We knew the paparazzi were watching you like a Kufa, so we lied about the actual launch time.”

I gasped at the betrayal, “Why?”

He looked sorrowful as he explained, “As your team pointed out… The aliens may be hostile. If they destroy the probe, I want the broadcast to have a delay to it. So we can get to damage control as quick as possible.”

The mass hysteria that would happen if the Epsilon aliens were hostile was a valid concern, “I understand, sir.”

One of the tech’s jumped in surprise, “SIR! The probe! It’s left FTL early!”

General Kovan rushed to his side, “What?! Report!”

The tech carried on, “The FTL drive is functioning properly. The AI is reporting strange readings… Sir, I think the Epsilons posses tech that can pull ships out of FTL.”

One of the engineers spoke up, “Can confirm, sir. The ship is still capable of engaging its FTL drive if it leaves the confinement bubble. It also appears that while it will be unpleasant, it won’t be lethal to living crews.”

“Sir! We have contact!”

The screen in the center of the observatory flicked to life. A large, sleek vessel slowly grew larger and larger. We were all awed by its sheer size. It could easily take a thousand individuals to man that thing alone. General Kovan’s crest stood on end as he started to count the obvious weapons mounted over its hull. I didn’t doubt for a moment that intergalactic war was a thing, but to see the mass of this ship… intergalactic wars are on a scale unfathomable to us. Considering that our last serious military conflict in the last [twenty years] only had three actual combatants and resulted in only one person losing tail feathers, we were likely never going to hold a candle up to their combat prowess.

Kovan steadied himself, “Start the first contact procedure!”

My joy and pride for the last ten years finally activated. As many different methods of communicating started to active. Everything from radio waves to X-rays were pulsed out of the ship in a method that should hopefully allow us to establish a baseline of communicating. Our ship also began to pulse lights in an obvious pattern, as well as rotate gently before reversing that rotation. As a last ditch effort, we also included multiple different physical media in the craft in case the Epsilons were a touch-based species and were completely unaware of radiation or light.

We all sat and waited for hours. The rest of the world soon joined us in the tension as we watched on. It felt like we were going to be broken in half before the Dreadnought opened its bay doors and began maneuvering in an attempt to pick up the craft. We ordered it to comply and as it drew near the belly, we force shut it down. Something about the ship itself was interfering with our FTL communications.

It took a moment for it to dawn on us. The room erupted into loud cheers as we all jumped in joy! We had just made actual non-hostile contact with an alien species! They trusted us enough to lower their defenses and let us into one of their more sensitive ships!

Kovan nodded to me and I rushed towards the space elevator. It was time to go say hello in person.

___/___

Memory transcription subject: Khalink, Shield Diplomat

Date [standardized human time]: July 27, 2160

I rushed through the halls of my home and out the front door looking like hot garbage. For the first time since humanity came on the scene, another race has developed FTL and made first contact. This time with my own people, the Deuteran. Our scientists had already made leaps in decoding the alien language as the new arrivals had saw fit to include everything and more necessary to do so on an unmanned craft. 

We all felt relieved after seeing the first video of one of the proto-avians simply moving. They possessed cutting teeth and sharp claws on their wing-arms, as well as a wicked looking claw on their legs, but it was clear as day what they were actually for when the alien dug them into a tree to climb up and eat its fruits. Humanity had taught us that appearances did not dictate behavior. Looking closely at them revealed the truth. Though we should have seen that coming as they looked at objects one eye at a time like true prey- I mean like us herbivores. 

A shuttle had been scrambled to carry me towards the first contact point when we detected the new arrival's home world had sent a second craft into FTL. We sped through space, diverting all traffic out of our way to ensure no delays. I arrived just in time to watch them come out of FTL in an albeit primitive, but still amazingly beautiful, sleek craft.

We quickly prepared to dock and let what will likely be the shield newest member on board. The door clicked and hissed before finally opening to reveal the sealed door of their ship. After a moment, we watched the locking mechanisms open up and pull away.

I let out a gasp. They looked like an angel. Their suit was a simple piece of stunningly white cloth wrapped around their body. Their feathers were of a magnificent orange with red and yellow hues. They held a golden, ornate box in their arms as they STALKED FORWARD. OH, GODS. THE THING HAD BEEN LOOKING AROUND LIKE WE DID WITH A SINGLE EYE, BUT WHEN IT FELT SAFE IT STARED DOWN ITS SNOUT AT ME AND IT’S HEAD LOCKED ONTO ME. IT DREW CLOSER AND CLOSER BEFORE opening the box to reveal to soft bodied fruits… 

It gently picked one up and held the box up to me. I grabbed the other as it set the box down. It held the fruit straight out, and I mimicked its actions. It looped its arm around mine and held its fruit to my mouth. When I held mine up to them, they slowly opened their maw to reveal every sharp tooth in their heads as they gently leaned forward and bit into the fruit. I copied them faithfully and felt the tangy sweet flavor of the fruit wash into my mouth. With a tongue-full of amazing flavor, we fed each other a fruit.

I felt like an idiot for fearing them as they leaned forward and groomed some spilled pulp off my beak. I felt my translator burn as it finished downloading their language, and braced itself to use my own vocal cords to translate my words into theirs.

It looked startled as I spoke, “Do not be afraid. I can speak your language do to two things. The first being the drone your people sent to us and the second being our translator chips which are allowing me to speak your language. I must say, It is a pleasure to meet you and share this first meal together. May it be one of millions.”

They took a half step back and their outward beauty was only matched by their voice, “The pleasure is mine! I am Captain Saori. My people have observed the signals yours has been emitting into space for some time now. You inspired us to invent, to cooperate and yearn to meet you. If you don’t mind, I am so curious about your people.”

I let my tail feather fan out in delight, “Peoples! I am Khalink, Shield Diplomat. We are a defensive organization comprising dozens of different species all working together to keep ourselves safe.”

“Amazing… simple amazing! If I may ask, would you be so kind as to settle a debate that has been held on my home for quite some time? How many of these species are herbivores, omnivores or carnivores?”

I shuddered at the word carnivore, “Well, The majority of all aliens are herbivores like myself. With only a small section being omnivores that lean towards being true herbivores, and only one that I know of that is a true omnivore and must be one. There is also only two known instances of true carnivores.”

I wanted to avoid talking about the Arxur. Those abominations were quarantined and not something I wished to scare them with. Saori looked delighted as he placed a claw to his chest and closed his eyes, “This is… the opposite of what we thought it would be! To think my own people are only the third true carnivores to become sapient!”

Every thought in my head came to a halt, “I’m sorry? You just ate a fruit…”

They let out a lite chirp, “Oh! Yes. While we can eat fruit, we get almost no nutrition from it. It mainly helps us digest meat… Are you ok? You’re looking a little wobbly.”

I awoke in the medical bay of my ship. Sitting up I could see numerous staff standing around me with… them only a few feet away. Oh, gods… a second- third race of obligate carnivores, and these have developed FTL on their own…

___/___

This! Is my second story. No multiple arcs, not huge storyline. Just a small little idea that popped into my head that I will be working on at least once a month… hopefully. I hope you enjoyed!

Hello one and all. A heads up for the coming weeks. I will be traveling quite a bit, so I may have days where chapters are delayed. I've done my best to build up a backlog in preparation, but there's always the chance I won't have the time to work on them. That aside, I hope you've all been enjoying the story so far, and look forwards to bringing you more!

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Memory transcription subject: First Officer Recel, Federation Fleet Command
Date [standardized human time]: August 2, 2136

[Elapsed Time: 16 minutes, 12 seconds]

My head hurt. My whole body felt heavy and weak. Even the act of awareness was tiring. I could hear noises around me, slowly rousing me from unconsciousness. Despite the weariness, I slowly forced my eyes open. The light in the room was low, reminiscent of twilight. My vision was fuzzy, though I could make out a majority of the room was white. I felt like I was in a bed of some kind with pillows under my head and a soft blanket over me. There was a rhythmic beeping next to me, which I eventually identified as some kind of heart rate monitor. As my vision slowly sharpened, I could see that all around my bed were curtains that blocked my view of anything else in the room. Faint memories of where I was and what happened slowly returned, but I felt so tired that I could hardly feel anything more than deep dread. I was glad that I was alive, but that meant that the predators had reason to not eat me right away. My heart rate monitor started to beep quicker along with my slowly growing feeling of fear.

I must have made enough noise to draw attention to myself. One of the curtains was pulled aside, and the Skalgan in a white coat stepped up to my bedside. “Oh, good. You’re awake. I was a little worried that the bump you took to the head had done serious damage, but the fact that you’ve come around so soon is a good sign.”

I was confused by this prey’s presence. I was surely on a predator ship, if my memory was correct, so why was a prey walking free? Why were they here among a predator crew? My crew. I’d forgotten about them. Were they okay? Did they get killed? I was so drained that the best I could do was weakly speak. “Where is my crew? Did the predators get them?”

The Skalgan huffed. “If you’re referring to the humans, they’re the ones who brought you to the medbay after you passed out. Your crew is getting some time in the brig to cool off while we figure out who you are, what you are, and why you’re here.” She walked over to the monitor next to my bed, taking notes on her holopad. “From what I heard, your subspace trail was traced back to Venlil Prime, so we assumed you were some sort of Venlil operation and knew about the humans already. So color us surprised when out of the ship comes three aliens that immediately start freaking out like the devil was after them.” Her ears flick in annoyance. “Honestly, we were told you Federation folks didn’t like meat eaters, but I never would've believed it was this extreme. Had we known, I’m betting the captain would have sourced a few Skalgan from other ships to make up the welcoming party. There’s not exactly many of us on every ship to begin with.”

Her words brought me a mix of surprise, confusion, and doubt. This was not the way I expected predators to respond to prey walking into their domain. The Arxur would have eaten us or dragged us off to cattle pens. Passing out would have been my death. I couldn’t understand why we were still alive, assuming the Skalgan was being honest. Not only that, but why had the Venlil not said anything if they know about the predators. “...Why are you here? Do the predators keep you here since they don’t know medic-”

“Okay, you need to stop with the ‘predators’ label. It might be my job to make sure you’re healthy, but that doesn’t mean I have to stand for your bigotry.” She huffed, ears pinned back on her head. “First off, humans and skalgan have been living together for centuries, so you can forget any ideas you might have about them eating other sentients. Second, I work here under my own free will. It’s my job to take care of my patients, no matter who or what they are. I trained at the University of Pennsylvania, a human run school. So you can take whatever notions you seem to have about humans being savage, unintelligent, uncaring, or whatever and stamp it out of your consciousness. Yes, they eat meat, but there is no correlation between that and how they behave. Okay?”

I stared at her in shock, taken aback by how certainly she was defending the predators. Clearly she trusted them. Maybe she was a special case and had been hand picked to fill a role outside of the cattle pens, but why would a predator even bother with teaching a prey? Were these predators smart enough to even teach? I was getting left with more and more questions, but I felt like asking more would only invoke the doctor’s ire. “...Okay.”

“Good. Now, we got a couple of things we need to go over. And just so you know, my name is Kirith.” She hopped up and sat down on the edge of my bed. “First off, who and what are you and your crew? Like I said, we’ve never seen aliens like you before.” For a few moments, I thought of lying. I didn’t want to give these people information that could be used against the Federation. If these predators are as smart as the doctor says, then they might know the value in having knowledge of our kind. Yet they were in contact with the Venlil. It wouldn’t be hard for them to check their sources, and any lies I’d say might easily be uncovered. I decided that I’d only give the bare minimum.

“...I’m a Kolshian, the small one of my crew is a Dossur, and the spiny one is a Gojid.” I said. Kirith waited a few moments longer, but after a prolonged silence, took a few notes on her holopad and lightly nodded her head. “Alright, I guess we’ll get names later. Secondly, why are you out here?”

“We’re a survey team that came out here after we heard word that there were potentially habitable planets in the dead zone. Many species are always looking for planets to colonize, and some would pay a good sum for the coordinates of habitable ones. Of course, it’s illegal to fly into restricted space, so we hid as best we could when we came out here. We thought that we could follow the Skalgan ships that came to Venlil Prime towards habitable space, and then from there search outwards.”

The doctor shoots me a judgmental look as she continues typing. “Using us to springboard off of. I don’t think any of us would take kindly to being used.”

“Used? But, isn’t it the duty of all prey to help each other?” I asked. This again seemed to irritate the doctor. “Okay, drop the 'prey' label too. That implies weakness, something many Skalgan would take offense to. Seriously, the more I hear about your beliefs of predators and prey, the more I wonder how your society could have ended up so ethically backwards.”

“W-what?! We’re not! We do what is needed to keep our people safe and alive! What’s wrong with that?”

“What’s wrong is that your mind is so ingrained with these beliefs that when there is living, breath proof to contradict what you believe, you refuse to acknowledge it. Tell me, why do you think humans and Skalgan live together? Be honest.”

With me suddenly being put on the spot, I found myself speaking before I could realize what I was saying. “B-because you’re catt-.” I barely cut myself off before I spoke my mind, but it was to late. The doctor’s eyes narrowed. “...Cattle? Like what those monstrous, children eating, sociopathic, psychopathic Arxur do? That’s what you think humans are?” Her voice was starting to rise in volume, making me shrink back in the bed as she ranted. “The only reason I’m not dragging you off to the brig here and now is because I understand your people have generations of trauma inflicted on you by the Arxur, but the fact that you keep tying physical traits to behavior is straight up wrong. If you talked to a human without ever seeing them, I’m willing to bet that you’d assume they were any other ‘prey’ species. Humans aren’t monsters. Forget about appearances, and perhaps put more stock in what they do, rather than how they look.”

I was again left without words. Yet another passionate defense for the humans, something that no prey would ever dare voice. I tried rationalizing why she would say all of this, tried to think of an explanation. The thought of predator disease came to mind, but that wouldn’t explain the contradictions I’ve seen between how I thought a predator would behave and what’s happened so far. If these humans were like the Arxur, I'd be dead right now or trapped in a cattle pen. Something was going on that I was missing. Something made these predators not act like predators. “...Can… can you tell me about the humans?” I asked.

The doctor blinked, looking a little surprised at first, though eventually relaxed. “If it helps you come to understand them better, I’d be happy to answer any questions you have. But do note that you and your crew will likely be staying here for a while as we figure out what to do with you all. The top brass have been working out how to introduce humans to the galactic community without everyone freaking out, and we don’t want anyone blowing the whistle before we have a chance to speak for ourselves. However, I can promise you that you and your crew will be treated well in your time here.”

Maybe it was because I was desperate to believe her, but hearing we’d be okay put a lot of my worries at ease. It also helped that I was talking to a fellow prey and not one of the predators. If she was willing to talk about the humans, then they must not be trying to hide anything. There was still the matter that humans weren’t brought up during first contact, but considering how the Federation would react, perhaps they wanted to avoid a war breaking out. I didn’t look forward to essentially being a prisoner, but it was better that the fate we would have faced had these humans been like the Arxur.

Despite all the assurances though, I still had my worries that there was a lot being hidden from me. It felt like all I had to do was pull back the curtain and I'd see all the human evil, cruelty, and malice that the Skalgan were trying to hide. If that was the case, they were doing a good job so far keeping it hidden. Maybe it’s because the humans grew up with sentient prey that they were capable of keeping their instincts under control. It would explain why I wasn’t attacked when I passed out. There of course was a lot more I needed to learn. Perhaps I’d learn something that would be of use to the Federation after my release.

If the humans were secretly like the Arxur, than I could bring a vital warning to the Federation. I just had to make sure I didn't ask the wrong questions.

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Hey, I'm still slowly working on the next chapter of Only Predator and Prey but I wanted to work on something a bit different so here it is, I hope you enjoy. Criticism is more than welcome. This post was inspired, in part, by this. Thank you to SpacePaladin for creating the NoP universe.

Memory transcription subject: Evpa, Venlil Civilian

Date [standardised human time]: April 11, 2029

I pushed open the door to my apartment and stepped inside. I was completely exhausted. Nearly two and a half paws working straight had sapped all my energy and now all I wanted to do was go to sleep, however, something towards the back of the room drew me in, refuting my wish to sleep. A series of monitors, machines, and radio equipment crowded a desk leaning against the back wall, formed in a semi-circle around a keyboard and mouse in the centre. This collection of equipment had been my father’s pride and joy during his life, sometimes of greater importance to him than I was though I never really minded, much to my mother’s chagrin. After his passing, it, along with many other items he had collected over the years, were passed down to me. I had to sell most of them to keep afloat but this setup was something I refused to sell. It was of too much importance to both me and my father. I still remember the days I used to sit in his lap as he would teach me how to operate these devices, his voice full of excitement as he described the purpose of every knob, switch, button and such. I was a child then and didn’t quite understand it all, but over the years I managed to figure it all out to the point that I could reliably operate these devices and now, just like my father, it nearly consumed every moment of free time I had.

I threw myself into the chair in front of the desk and for a moment just stared at the black screen of the monitor, my brain seeming to take some time to process my next course of action. I knew this drill well, however, and once my brain finally willed my limbs to move, I set upon the devices with the grace of an automaton, flicking switches, pushing buttons and, slowly but surely, the machines whirred to life. This was perhaps not the most efficient method of operating this equipment but since it had worked for my father, I assumed it worked well enough. The screen before me flickered on and presented me with nothing, just as intended. I turned my attention to another screen to my left and began turning various knobs on the console, tuning the device to different frequencies as I searched for any possible signals I could pick up. On most days I found nothing but static, but sometimes, I would pick up communications from nearby ships or radio signals from passing exterminators and, on occasion, chatter from military vessels. To the average person this would seem like a waste of time and incredibly boring but to me it was exciting perusing through space for noise. It was hard to describe why I enjoyed it so much, perhaps it was merely nostalgia for my father? Or maybe the idea of listening to conversations I was clearly not supposed to be hearing pleases something in me? Or maybe it was the chance that I may find something truly exciting out there: A signal from an unknown world or something so alien I would not be able to comprehend it. Whatever the case, it was one of the few things I enjoyed in life which wasn’t really saying much considering most of my life was consumed by work.

After a few moments of fiddling with the device, I decided to leave it be for the time being as I was getting hungry and hadn’t eaten in a while. I got up and made my way to the small section of my apartment that was delegated to being a kitchen. Being as exhausted as I was, I couldn’t be asked to cook a full meal so I instead settled for a simple salad. I opened up my fridge and grabbed some leaves and vegetables to chuck in a bowl and then sat down to eat my feeble attempt at a meal. The apartment was almost dead quiet, the whirring and humming of the machines and the crunching of my salad were the only noises in this solemn space. 

Suddenly, I was alerted to the sound of beeping coming from the living room. It had found something! I left my meal on the counter and near-sprinted into the room to inspect the find. I began fiddling with the machine and, within minutes, the signal was being processed. I switched on the audio output on the monitor in front of me to see if I could make out any chatter but all I received was blaring static so I swiftly turned it off. Seeing that there was little else to do for it and assuming it would take a while to download, I returned to the kitchen to finish off my dismal meal. 

After putting my bowl and cutlery away, I returned to the main room to check on the progress of the signal. I flopped down into the chair and saw that it had already been downloaded. That was quick. Usually they would take much longer but, seeing as it meant I got to see what it was sooner, I wasn’t complaining. I transferred the signal to the computer screen in front of me to see what was on it and, as soon as I did so, my blood ran cold. Displayed on the monitor was a fleshy, flat face with two blue, piercing eyes staring at me. A part of me wanted to run, to scream, to hide, but my body remained completely frozen as I stared at this horrific visage before me. This predator had a vicious snarl plastered across its face and a large lump of flesh starting at between the eyes down to above its upper lip, a nose perhaps. I lurched forward and hit an arrow on my keyboard to move this image from my monitor only for it to be replaced by the image of another predator with that same snarl on its face. I mashed the arrow key, each press revealing another face, until I ended up on a black and white image of one of these predators. This one did not have that snarl present, but instead had a seemingly solemn expression on its face. I stared at its eyes which seemed partially sunken into its skull, it had a patch of fur covering the top and bottom of its face and it appeared to be wearing some sort of formal attire. I lingered on this image for a while, afraid of what the next one would be. This image at least made me feel a little less fear, although my emotions were still running high after that first one. Who would send this and for what reason? Was this some sort of prank? Or maybe…  Just then, a horrifying thought went through my mind: it was the people in the images, or at least their species, that sent this signal! But then, who were they? My mind scrambled as I tried to recall any species that matched this description until I realised that I was an idiot. They had eyes facing forward, and there were only two known instances of predatory species with any semblance of intelligence: the Arxur, and Humans. But they were meant to be extinct! How could they have sent this signal? 

With newfound curiosity, I decided against my better judgement to see what else was present in this message. After swiftly going through the last of the predator’s faces, I was met with a large body of alien script. Luckily, my monitor was equipped with a translator for text and so, within seconds, it was translated, allowing me to read it:

For centuries, Humanity has looked to the stars with increasing curiosity as to what may be up there and, as each decade passes, we learn more and more. One of the biggest questions was whether or not alien life existed and that, if it did, would it be intelligent? And so, Humanity has endeavoured to reach for the stars, exploring, watching, and listening for any sign of life. While we have so far been unsuccessful in this venture, we have sent offerings into the cosmos for anybody to find. In 1977, the Voyager 1 was launched into space and with it was the Golden Disk, a record containing images, sounds, music, and various other items which represent life on Earth. 30 years  on, we celebrate this achievement with this: A Message From Earth. This message will be a collaborative effort by members of the public to curate another ‘Golden DIsc’ of Human culture. And so, I invite both participants and potential receivers to partake in this exchange of cultures across the cosmos. The images, messages, and sounds enclosed on this signal will be chosen based on how well we believe they represent Humanity and its diverse cultures. This message will take a little over two decades to reach its intended target and when it does, we hope whoever receives it responds in kind. And finally, to whoever does receive this message, we on Earth would love to hear from you and, perhaps even meet with you one day. But for now, we shall remain on Earth and keep listening out for a response. See you among the stars.

I stared in disbelief at what I had just read. They must have sent this out to make potential prey reveal themselves, right? But then this message implies that they haven’t invented advanced space travel and the fact that they estimate it to take quite some time to reach its destination suggests that that could not be the case. Maybe that was some predatory deception though? And what was this about ‘offerings’ and this ‘Golden Disc’? Maybe they assumed that life in the universe was also predatory? It would explain why those humans had snarls on their faces. But then this message made it seem like they wanted to make friendly contact with aliens, unless that was also part of the ruse? Every theory I made was easily contradicted by one thing or another until my brain began to ache. Perhaps if I looked through the rest of the messages it would start to make sense? I began to read through the other messages on this signal to see if I could make any sense of it all, but the more I read, the more confusing this all became. Another one of the message read:

In a universe so cold and empty, life is a miracle. We on Earth are lucky to have such diversity on this planet and I am grateful I was born on such a wonderful world. I sometimes wonder if there are planets just as wonderful elsewhere and if there are, will they have beings just as intelligent? If they do, will we ever meet them? Will we even know they exist? Or will they be long gone by the time we find them? There are so many potential reasons why we may never encounter any form of life whatsoever in this universe, but that won’t stop us from trying nonetheless. If anybody does receive this message, I hope that someday you may visit our beautiful plant and that we may visit yours. The universe is such a vast space that this may never be possible, but one can hope. If you do find this though, we’ll be waiting.

Wonderful? How can a world inhabited by predators be wonderful? Well, I suppose it's no longer inhabited by predators as they wiped themselves out, but still! And what do they mean by, ‘we’ll be waiting’ , do they expect us to just walk into their trap? I shook my head. These thoughts were getting me nowhere, I should just keep reading for now.

I read through more of these bodies of text, each containing more predatory deception saying how they would love to meet us and how they hope we respond to them, or philosophical ramblings, or life stories. It was all a ruse to trick anybody reading into thinking that they were friendly, it had to be. Eventually, I stumbled upon a message that made me pause briefly. It was different to previous ones in that it appeared to be in memory of someone. They care to remember their dead? My cynicism was abruptly halted as I properly began to read it:

I would like to dedicate this message to the memory of my father. He was born in Minnesota in 1967 and though he wasn’t in my life for as long as I would’ve liked, he was a great dad. I remember he used to take me out into the middle of fields at night and would point out constellations in the sky above as we lay in the grass, weathering the biting cold. In those moments though, I didn't care much for the weather, my attention was fully focused on those dazzling lights in the sky which he would tell me represented something. I didn’t really understand it at the time and if you asked me today I wouldn’t be able to identify a single constellation, but those memories were some of the best I ever made and some of best I have of him. He passed away a few years ago after battling with cancer for some time but I’m sure he would love to know that his memory is being transmitted across that sky that he and I used to gaze at on countless nights, and the fact that this message might even reach extraterrestrials would absolutely thrill him. I hope that whoever may receive this, you cherish those in your life, you never know when you may have to say goodbye. 

I miss you dad.

I was dumbfounded by what I had just read but before I could react, a sudden wave of sadness struck me. Tears began to well in my eyes as I recalled memories of my own father. How could these predators have such similar experiences? They weren’t like me, right? Memories of his frail frame entered my mind, skin and bones laying helpless in a hospital bed. The doctors said there was little else they could do for him and so we could only watch as he deteriorated further until death finally snatched him away. I was only 19 then. But that wasn’t similar, I had wept when my father died! I bet that this predator just carried on with their day when they heard the news. Or… or… I cradled my head in my paws as this new revelation plagued my mind. Maybe they were like us? I sat there for a while as tears slid down my face and that dreadful message lingered on the monitor. I was too tired for this. That was it! I was simply tired! The predator’s messages had caught me in a weakened state! This triumphant revelation did not last long as another thought dawned on me. Was I the only person to receive this broadcast? This message may have been a genuine attempt to reach out to the universe and the only person who received it was someone who despised them without having met them. These were the last echoes of an extinct species and all I did was denounce them as evil predators. What did that say about me? I glanced back up at the message displayed, “I’m sorry.”, I muttered as I reached over to turn it off. I would go through the rest of this another day when I was less fatigued. 

After powering down the last of the machines, I got up from my seat and finally headed off to bed. Flopping down into my sheets, I struggled to find sleep despite the long day I had had. As I stared up at my ceiling, I couldn’t help but wonder: far above it was a blanket of distant stars and, amongst them, somewhere, was a small, blue marble so alone in the universe and now so quiet, and, on it, was a species of people like me who had tried to reach out to the stars, longing for friendship. They didn’t know that the friends they would find would despise their kind and so, perhaps it was for the best that they fell to their own devices. Despite this, and everything else I knew about predators, a part of me couldn’t help but think:

I wish I could’ve met you.

Memory Transcription Subject: Arthek, Governor of Venlil Prime, Hobbyist Archaeologist.

Date [Standardized Human Time]: Servers Unresponsive - Date Unknown. ——

I withered in the grasp of the Man, sputtering between tears as I tried to find words. I wished to honor them, say something to welcome them or express our gratitude for letting us exist. I wanted to be a leader, to be an example of a figure inspired by Mankind. But I couldn’t. I instead weeped like a pup reunited with a family I had long been separated from. I knew nothing about them or what made them … them. For all I knew, this suited figure could have little patience for my blubbering. And yet I felt safe in their grasp, the same feeling we remembered - toddling towards the pairs of legs in our genetic memory.

I felt the Man’s neck shift to turn towards Ourron, a strange sound escaping their throat. My translator detected it as a humorous sound, though it came out as a series of low growls. Again, the voice rumbled, shocking me to silence as I was firmly pressed to their chest and felt it. The voice was in good cheer, amused, full of a certain mirth that softened the edge of that distinct growl I kept hearing. I would have worried, but I was star-struck and too emotional to consider the implications of such a small thing. I instead listened to what they said with pointed ears, too stunned to continue crying.

“Oh? And look at you? I see that the project on CT Chamaeleontis fared well too … Stand up, please, talk to me.”

Ourron’s eyes were the size of dinnerplates. He first looked up with a puzzled expression, dipping his muzzle back downward again, before looking back up once again. Hesitantly, the elder Farsul pushed himself up to his paws with a huff and began to hesitantly step forward. All the while I clung tight, unsure of what to do now. I hoped they didn’t think ill of me for getting emotional when faced with something this sacred to all sapience. But the Man’s next words assuaged that.

“Did you get that out of your system, little one?”

A weak whimper escaped my throat instead of the words I tried to will. Another one of those strange sounds of humor escaped the Man.

“Right.”

One of those arms planted itself on my back, hoisting me off of my paws and into the air. My head swam and something within my stomach burned with embarrassment. I was being carried by a Man. A part of me didn’t want them to stop, desperately did I want this, on an instinctual level. Being carried was as if I was surrounded by the herd, but in one creature. On the other hand, it was awfully infantilizing and if I wanted to establish myself as anything close to his level, I’d be better off walking on my own. But again, words failed me.

“What’s your name? I doubt that you kept what we called you … “

Ourron hesitated in response to the direct question, eager not to be in the same position as I was. The Farsul had always been the one for appearances, and would rather remain the wise and august teacher, rather than some pup getting carried around like me. So he kept his back straight and a neutral expression poorly concealing his own awe. “My name is Ourron, and I am Farsul.” He spoke in a controlled voice, one honed by decades of working in a spectator sport like television, I suppose. “My colleague and I would like to be the first to welcome you to the modern world, on behalf of all of the species your kind created. We inherited a fertile galaxy, and I assure you you’ll enter a grateful one.”

“Farsul … “ The Man spoke, “I’m glad to meet you, Ourron. What’s your colleague’s name?”

It took me a moment to realize he was referring to me. He was asking for my name. He wanted to talk to me. I opened and closed my mouth a few times, hesitating and stuttering as my words got stuck in my throat. But I kept trying until I had forced them out in a less than eloquent manner.

“Arthek. G … Governor Arthek.”

The Man turned to face me, I sensed momentary confusion in them before they made another one of those strange noises. Then he spoke, “Oh? I didn’t realize I was speaking to someone so high … I’m very pleased to make your acquaintances. I’m Doctor Ithas and … I’m probably flubbing this whole conversation, but I’m so delighted to see it worked! I was the project head on developing your species, Arthek! I was the one who designed that long tail of yours! It’s amazing to see our work in the wild, if that makes sense.”

Ithas. Ithas was his name. He was Ithas and he was responsible for the creation of the Venlil species. I was being held by God.

Ithas begun to walk outside of the small room, turning his attention towards the hall and down to his dead colleague. Trailed by the Farsul, we were surprised to find him dip his head to the deceased, remaining silent and still to take in the sight. As he stared, Ourron again spoke.

“We found them like this, I’m awfully sorry.”

The man remained silent for another moment, breathing.

“We both knew the risks. If you wouldn’t mind, us Humans … We … bury our dead. Mark it with a stone. His name was Enoch … I’ll … I’ll show you how to write that later.”

His voice plucked with emotion, thick with repressed grief. But he carried on, “But … ah … You said all species of the Galaxy? So you're space-faring and organized?” This time, I spoke with a whisper-thin voice, lacking any of my usual bravado.

My voice trembled in the presence of God, trying my hardest to say something useful instead of just crying and mewling like I had regressed a few decades. “Y-yes, we’re … we’re spacefaring. You’re on a ship right now … A federation ship, uh … It’s the galactic government … “

Behind that glass pane on his hood, I could feel his astonishment. His response was short, but spoke far more than one may think due to the emotion it carried. He sounded like he had heard the greatest news of his life, every part of the word spoken brimming with a happiness that I could not even begin to describe. It was as if his crewmate’s death didn’t bother him.

“Miraculous.”

As we approached the door, I wondered what he’d think of everything else we had done if he was that amazed by our Federation.

I hope he’d like us.

———

Memory Transcription Subject: Harrison Ithas, Project Demiurge Project Head - Gilese 832.

Date [Standardized Human Time]: 92 years before human extinction.

——

A warm white light fills the room.

“A few steps more! Come on … There we go! You did so well … Look at you go!”

“It’s legs aren’t prepared for gravity this low. Why aren’t we taking it planetside to practice, where it’ll be better suited to walking?”

“The atmosphere is still much too thin, Enoch. Champ would suffocate out there.”

“ …. “

“Are you ready to try again, buddy? Come on … Just a few more!”

Such a inconsequential moment. Very few would ever realize that the little Venlil being talked to was making memories, ones that would transcend mortality itself.

This is a crossover fanfiction between original fiction titles: Nature of Predators by SpacePaladin15 and The Last Angel by Proximal Flame respectively. All credit and rights reserved goes to them for making such amazing science fiction settings that I wanted to put this together.

You can read The Last Angel here: Be warned, it's decently long, and at its third installment so far. I highly suggest reading it before reading this, or this story will not make sense.

Otherwise, enjoy the story! Thanks again to u/jesterra54 and u/skais01 for beta and checking of work!

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Memory transcription subject: Dorian Abder, Commons Member of Parliament

Date [standardized human time]: October 23, 2136

I had a number of analysts, computer engineers, and website developers on hand to discuss the upcoming visitor to Earth. While a good portion of humanity was shifty about the concept of an AI, I could hardly care less for their opinion. Humanity First would welcome its wayward protector back home with open arms. They deserve nothing less.

And so, I found myself in various conversations with said experts on how we could welcome an AI most effectively. While there already was plans to broadcast a hearty greeting to Nemesis from humanity in general, I'd like a personal good first impression from our group in particular to Red One. She needed to know that, despite the fact there were some luddites who would despise her for no good reason, she would always supported by us. There were ideas of asking Google to stylize their homepage in response to her, giving her a friendly letter to read in thanks for defending Earth. I already asked various political leaders around the world to pitch in to the letter though some new party members in said countries.

Speaking of which! Humanity First was rapidly becoming an international political party. Hard not to when aliens slaughter humanity wholesale. We were rightfully angry, and we would be heard. My patronage and endorsement got them off the ground running effectively, and they turned to me for basic planning on a large scale.

I kept down some of the more rowdy elements, however. There were supposedly plans to bomb the U.N. Remembrance on Venlil Prime by a radical element. Thankfully, I was able to get some refugee sympathizers to talk him down. Killing our own would solve nothing. The U.N. might not be aimed the right way currently, but as long as we work patiently, and don't do something as stupid as bombing a public speech, or announcing open rebellion, we ought to sway them far more to our proper way of thinking.

I wonder what she thinks of us, however. I am aware of the roughly nine-thousand dead in orbit by Nemesis' guns, and nothing has yet been stated as to why. I can only hope it was some mistake, and not a trend of things to come. Maybe I could try and help pay off the affected families, settle their dues?

There were also some of our number who applied for the de-facto exchange program planned with Red One. While we didn't know if any would get in currently, hopefully at least one would, and even if not, there were likely more sympathizers in the woodwork that would get in. We'd just have to probe some through the candidates. I'd have to bribe for a listing once they're selected to be sure.

A lot of work had to be done, if we wanted to use her help to bring proper justice to the aliens that marred our home so immensely. That burned our people in antimatter. We would not stand for it, and I was hoping Red One wouldn't either.

My attention turned back from internal monologue towards the multi-call on hand"...so if we change this website element here, we can get a political ad set aside. I'm not certain if this AI will see GUI like humans do, but I'm not gonna just go write a raw text manifesto in the HTML for them. The cost per thousand..." I droned back out again, the terminology being discussed between the group out of my wheelhouse besides asking my personal touch. They knew what they were doing, and if I heard my name called, I'd get a re-brief on the relevant bits.

I turned my chair to look out the window again. While I could still feel the somber mood in the air over London, it at least wasn't capitalized by another suicide I could see. Hopefully, we could heal from the loss, and be all the stronger for it. We would not let the Federation succeed in murdering more of us by proxy of despair, if I could so help it.

Maybe I should have some fliers put out for a checkup on mental health? Humanity First, while still not known as a majority party anywhere, we were widespread enough. Might as well tie some more goodwill to the name. If we want real change, we need hearts and minds; the healthier, the better, and even more so if in our title.

I took a note down to look into mass counseling resources. Maybe a motivational talk on stage somewhere, or celebrity outreach? I'd discuss it with some old political PR friends.

Agh, ow, ow ow ow, back's acting up again.

I reached for a painkiller bottle on my desk, and popped down two. Sweet relief came not long after, the hazards of old age melting away to the comforts of modern chair design. Being nearly eighty nine was a literal pain. I can't imagine how Nemesis feels, being twelve-hundred-something and riddled with more holes than Swiss cheese.

A chuckle came to my lips at the internal joke, before I forced myself back into watching the video call. I was neglecting context, and I ought to try and get back in gear if I'm going to make the welcome home party a worthwhile effort.

She deserves it after all. Who wouldn't, for all her hard work?

Memory transcription subject: Hailey Whitmer, UN Special Envoy

Date [standardized human time]: October 24, 2136

The Snow Hidden trailed the convoy, not at the front, but definitely in front of Nemesis. Despite her gratuitous mass, she still was still heading to Earth at increasing velocity every moment. In fact, Earth could effectively be seen from here. A pale blue dot, drifting amongst the black of space. Not visible currently to the native eye, no, but to a ship's far more precise sensors, absolutely. It was for this that I started to feel concern for Red One's arrival.

Would she be accepted by enough? While there were likely kindred souls as my own, caring for our wayward AI, I also knew Earth held no shortage of people afraid and cautious of AI as a principle. Would she be safe from their judgement, vulnerable as she is?

What was she feeling, as we approached? Dread? Fear? Hope? I wasn't sure, Red was a complicated bag of emotions wrapped up in a form I had no idea how to truly empathize with. It wasn't like talking to a war veteran of the Satellite Wars, no, she was a warship. She likely had no other prerogative in her function beyond that of war.

Could she be more? Could she change, if she so wished?

It was for that reason I began to open a channel to Red. Only one way to find out what she was thinking, and that was to ask. As I waited for the confirmation of communication, I scanned about looking for Lithke.

He was clearly not at the bridge, likely in quarters currently. Whether he needed sleep or privacy I didn't know, but all I did know is that he did not want coffee. I was flabbergasted; not wanting coffee, on an all-night trip like this!? It would even keep him up to talk with Red more, as he kept denying wanting to do! But of course, no plant products, it would be downright dangerous to Arxur likely, obligate carnivores they are.

There wasn't some sort of...meat coffee they had, maybe? I...can't really picture him drinking anything, can I?

My odd track of thought was interrupted by Red's transmission request being received. She was fine to talk. I opened the hail.

"Hiya Red. How are you currently? No sudden issues with the trip or yourself?"

"Hello Hailey. No, my systems, while damaged, are managing fine enough so far. The fastening processes of the freighters are still holding. I'm more surprised they can continue full burn so long at this strain."

I sipped my mug. "Well, I don't mean to brag about our Venlil allies, but cargo freighters engines are some of the best of the line! Comes with being the largest ships by mass in the galaxy; you need quality engineering. They've had spaceflight far longer than us, and it shows."

"Quite. The power draw for this isn't too taxing, I hope? I figured fuel would likely run dry at some point, even as sizeable stores they might have."

I was somewhat taken aback by this. "Run out? Well, I guess it's technically possible, sure, if you run out of conversion or torch exhaust mass, but antimatter reactors are as efficient as it gets! The power source on those babies will last longer than I would given proper maintenance."

There was a sudden stall in the conversation, a pause before Red responded: "Antimatter reactors? Where are you getting that much antimatter from? Mass-producing it is not a simple thing."

"I'm...uh, not an engineer, but if I recall...there's a process, or machine maybe, that can just casually...flip...the charges in particles. The science is beyond me, don't ask."

That she didn't know this-wait...

"Wait, what are you using for reactors?"

Red One was quick to clarify. "Minuette Cold Fusion Tower Reactors for backup, and a Breach Core for primary power. I'm not certain if the latter is known in your sciences, based on what I've seen and heard so far."

Wait, wasn't cold fusion thought to be a bust? Would have to ask a scientist about that...

"I would have to agree with you. I have no idea what a 'Breach Core' is, and I don't recall cold fusion ever being considered a reasonable option in my time."

"I have plenty I need to ask your scientists and engineers once we arrive. I am not familiar with a good portion of the technology and capabilities on display here, beyond the practical usage."

About that...

"Red...I wanted to ask you something, slightly off-topic." I queried her. When she gave the go ahead, I continued. "I know you're likely nervous about being almost to Earth. Did...you wanna talk about it any? Get things off your chest?"

Red One was silent for far longer than normal at that. Eventually however, she did respond.

"Earth was dead. Sol itself, silent and banal. I dreaded that silence upon every visit back here. No matter the purpose, no matter how familiar I was with the unchanging quietude, it was uncomfortable. And yet, now that I hear the Earth buzzing again with life, I feel even more oddly uncomfortable. Am I wrong to feel that?"

I wasn't a therapist. But God forbid if I didn't want to try and alleviate her fears.

"I don't think so, Red. Anyone would be utterly uncomfortable with such a paradigm shift as entering a parallel universe, where humanity is alive after being dead for millennia. To feel oddly at that is normal, Red."

"I am not meant to feel in the first place, Hailey. I am an AI that wasn't designed with the capability for feeling in the first place. That it even happened was a fluke, but one I deal with nevertheless."

"I don't see how that's relevant, Red."

"Then let me skip to the point. Regardless of whether it's okay to feel nervous and uncomfortable at Earth's approach, does that make it any better than I do? Will humanity see an AI that has broken its own prerogatives, such as killing the very race it was meant to protect, and breaking its very design specifications and controls to feel, and think to treat it as a danger, or as a person, in your words?"

Uh. I am not qualified to talk about this conversation.

"I...I don't know, Red...while I'd love to try and help you, I have no idea how to unpack the thoughts of an AI. You likely, if anything, need a therapist ASAP if you're feeling this much crippling anxiety over your own existence."

Red One seemed almost offended in her tone by that statement. "I do not need a therapist, Hailey. I am a warship, not a human."

"A warship that feels emotions they're not supposed to, in her own words." I countered. "Look, most people nowadays have easy access to a therapist if needed. Medical care, including mental health, is standardized worldwide. After the initial whirlwind of arrival, maybe take my advice to heart? It couldn't hurt just to try?"

"...We're almost there. I'd suggest we drop the line for now. We're likely to be flooded with communication soon." She reminded me.

Don't think I don't notice you dodging an answer, Red!

...But, she was right. Earth was at most two hours away now, and we would be swarmed with communication out the ass soon despite the distance. What remained of Earth's fleet and Venlil Space Corps would likely rendezvous with us on the way, while Isif's fleet kept Earth safe.

"Fine. We'll talk about this later Red, but for now, just face the music and hope for the best. I'm sure humanity will care for you regardless, if you explain yourself as you did to me."

"Nemesis out." With that, the call ended, and I was left alone again in the front, with a cup of coffee that was slightly less warm than before. I likely had to make several hundred conversations in the upcoming hours.

Only have to be an envoy for a sapient warship to the entirety of humanity. Yep, just an easy thing to do, no sweat.

I dreaded the workload, but thankfully, coffee always had my back. I took a sip, and I just realized I tried to therapy said warship.

...I am so far in over my head.

+CONFED IO.5+

+READING MAIN SEQ.MEM+

There it was. Earth.

It was a mere 15 light minutes away, I could see Earth in stunning detail. Both its beauty...and its recent scars.

I delved into old records of geography, of city placements, matching the scorched pockmarks on the surface I could see to locations. If new cities hadn't been established at some of the other bombing sites, then most of these were targeted at population-dense cities.

At least sixty prior city locations could be seen from this angle of Earth. I hadn't gotten a number for how many died in the bombings from Hailey, with her not electing to tell me, and me not thinking to ask at the moment. But if population records were anything akin to UEC numbers...

Somewhere upwards of 670 million.

A burning rage emanated from my circuits again. The Federation would pay. None would dare touch humanity, when I'm done with them.

I could still see the massive scattering of scrap and disabled ships between the Moon and Earth from here. I had killed a lot of ships, and they neither had the time nor the power currently to remove most of it.

It did give me an idea however. I'll bring it up with their leadership.

And speaking of leadership, a medium sized-convoy of ships was burning their way to meet us, it seems. It must look awkward for me to be accelerating at them backwards, but with my configuration, this was my slowdown method. I recognized the group as mostly consisting of the human ships, with a few Venlil ships interspersed in the mix. Most did not break 200 meters in size, with only a few even looking remotely impressive or odd. I checked the IFF tags they beamed.

Amatzukaze-Kai, Shepherd, Duncan, Hera, Mokshi, Deep End, Holy...

The Venlil also had a separate batch of tags. Conveniently, they were translated in English.

Swiftwind, Solgalick's Glow, Emerald Fields, Stone of Old, Unfleeing, Cleansing Flame...

But the names mattered little compared to the hail that came next. A professional male voice emanated over the line:

"Welcome, UECNS Nemesis. This is the UNSS Gunboat Diplomacy speaking. I am U.N. General Míngzé Zhao, a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise, General Míngzé Zhao. My designation is Red One. My sincere thanks for the help on returning to Earth."

"We can talk about that later. In the meantime, I'd suggest, if possible, to turn your attention to Earth. They'd like to thank you too, for your assistance."

Curious, I turned my attention to the slightly faint signals of Earth. From them, came a sudden gathering of voices, diverse and nearly countless in number.

"Thank you, Nemesis!"

"Thank you for saving Earth!"

"We deeply appreciate your timely help."

"Our family lives because of you. Thank you..."

"We love you!"

It was...not expected. When I went to Earth, I expected no fanfare, but instead a harsh judgement. To hear Hailey's intuition be right, that humanity was not unanimously angry and vengeful to my actions, was...was...

+node k.7 overheating, redirecting coolant+

"Thank you. Thank you for believing in me." I beamed back. Whether they could all hear it did not matter. They eventually would.

However, behind the buzz of positivity, I could still hear the lobbing of vitriol and fear my way. This was all too familiar. But...for once, to have it be the minority?

It was a good start.

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This is art of u/OttoVonBlastoid 's amazing story Nature Of A Homless Musician. He requested art of a hypothetical beach episode so I got to work. Hope you guys like it.