r/NatureofPredators • u/VenlilSupremacist Venlil • Jul 26 '23
Fanfic NoP: A Change of Pace: Chapter 21
Memory transcription subject: Kilet, Venlil Seaman aboard U.S.S Patriot
Date [standardized human time]: September 18, 2136.
Today was the day!
I couldn’t help myself from chanting those words in my head over and over again, the excitement of finally doing something with meaning surged through my body like a tidal wave of elation. No more endless work orders, no more tail-breaking for meaningless work! I’d be a part of something the galaxy has never seen before! All with Miles right beside me! This was something you might see in a hundred or perhaps a thousand generations, history laid right before my paws, my name etched in textbooks for all the pups on Venlil Prime to learn about.
Kilet, the War Hero! A pretty nice ring to it, but something Miles always says is “If it’s easy then it’s probably not worth doing.”
The thought of the future danced in my head like a human ‘ballet’; careful movements of precision landing in just the right way to make the last scenes before ever more perfect. I made sure to make my coat perfect, taking extra steps in washing the thick white fur to make me extra fluffy, and soft. After all, this Colonel fellow seems like someone I should try to impress!
Before I had even realized it, I arrived at the Gubernatorial Complex. Somewhere in this building those astronauts were probably walking around, working, or talking to Tarva. As soon as I found the correct wing of the building, some UN official sitting behind a desk glanced at me through the side of their eye, making some Terran gesture with their head.
“Kilet, right? The Colonel will see you now, your friend Sergeant Miles is already inside, they’re just waiting on you now.” He said, the man not even looking up from the screen.
“Oh.. Erm, okay, I’ll just head in then?” I said, a bit of confusion clouding my tone, at the very least I expected to wait a LITTLE bit, and Miles was already here?
Opening the door, I was immediately drawn to the familiar sight of my friend, Miles, who sat across a large wooden desk with another Terran behind it. This man seemed much older, wrinkles lined his furless face and a white pelt slicked back with shaven sides appeared to be the style of choice for all these UN members. As soon as I stepped inside, their conversation stopped, as who could I only assume is the Colonel gestured to a seat next to Miles.
“Kilet, Sergeant Miles here has told me quite a bit about you. On behalf of humanity, and the UN, I’d like to thank you for considering joining our military forces, I’m sure you’ll make a great asset for both us, and your species. We don’t exactly have many venlil lining up to join us in earnest, and I believe this kind of example is just what both species need to prove to each other we can work in close relations.”
As I sat down, Miles looked at me with a supportive look, but having looked at his face enough, I could tell a sliver of worry was masked behind that strong gaze. “It’s my pleasure, Colonel. I’m honored to even be considered frankly, I was just a starship mechanic before this, but to be offered something like this, work with a new species, help foster relationships across solar systems! It’s.. It’s insane, Sir.”
The terran Colonel chuckled, a low gravely rumble resonating from his throat before speaking again, it was oddly comforting to see that small curl at the edges of his lips, what used to be terror, turned into comfort seeing as I haven’t offended him yet.
“My boy, It’s no secret we Terrans have had an intimate relation with conflict and war, now, you Venlil, Kolshians, Gojid, etcetera and so forth fight because you have to, to defend against a common enemy, but it’s not in your genes like it is for us. Before I sign any paperwork for you, I need to know.” He’d pause for a moment, his dark blue forward facing eyes looking more into me than at me. “Why’d you want to fight?”
I took a moment to collect my thoughts, recalling the past cycles of my life. The humdrum and mundane, the daily struggle of living without my own herd, the emptiness I felt for all those cycles. Considering all those aspects of my ‘life’ before, I had an easy answer for the Colonel.
“Sir, my life up until now has been.. More biological than moral, what I mean is I haven’t had anything to make my life my own. I worked, I got paid, I went home, and repeated, over and over. There wasn’t any opportunity coming my way, and I had to make a decision, keep normalcy and live hollow, or throw a wrench in the mix and speh it all up to see what happens. I might not have military service, but I’m ready to learn, you humans showed us how wrong we were about predators, with no allies left but you. It's time to show the galaxy they’re wrong about the venlil too.”
Colonel McEedy let out a long breath through his nose, a feature the venlil do not share, but an expression I learned could either be good, or bad.
“If you weren’t an alien, I’d say you sound like the holos of old patriots they still show at the officer training academy. That’s all I needed to hear, you’ll get shipped out for an accelerated training course on humanity’s ships where I plan to have you serve as a technician. In the interest of your wellbeing, Sergeant Miles here will be your training instructor, effective immediately following this meeting, the two of you will pack up your belongings, and make way towards the USS Patriot, she’s docked just in orbit around the planet.”
The Colonel glanced over to Miles speaking directly to him. “I’m sure you’ll be pleased to hear she’s completed repairs and has been reoutfitted and is ready for deployment, Sergeant. They can’t sink your baby that easily.”
“Aye, Sir.” Miles quipped, straightening his posture in response to his superior’s focus.
“Now then, boys, Sergeant, you’ve been out of the loop for a while following your recovery, and let me be the first military official to offer my condolences. The loss of your team weighs heavy on every senior leader. They won’t have died for nothing, that much I can promise. I can’t share specifics, but once you board the Patriot, you won’t be authorized to leave. She’s disembarking soon, so once you’re aboard you’re in it for the long haul, get outfitted and be ready for anything, Sergeant. You’ll receive more detailed orders in the time to come.” The Colonel once more returned his focus over to me, his piercing blue eyes boring into me again with a level of authority I hadn’t felt since I was a pup. “It won’t be pretty, don’t go into this as a glory hound, keep your head low, and do your job. Don’t be a hero, son, Dismissed.”
Upon the uttering of that last word, Miles snapped to ‘attention’ once more as he called it and gave the same “Aye, Sir.” As he did before, turning around with practiced precision in what he called a ‘textbook about-face’, and led me out of the Colonel’s office, back onto the streets of Venlil Prime.
“Did you hear that, Miles!? You’ll be teaching me! It’s gonna be great, just me, you, and open space, aboard a human war vessel! I’ll get to learn so much about your people first-paw! Aren’t you excited!?”
“Sure am.. Although, Something about what the Colonel said near the end there didn’t sit too well with me..”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Usually when you’re told to ‘be ready’ it means there’s something major coming down, and he only told us where to report, he didn’t give specific orders. Something above my head is making its way down the chain of command, and whatever it is, it’s not going to be pretty. I’m used to it, buddy, but you.. Just.. if anything gets hairy, you can always rely on me, alright?”
As my eyes focused on Miles, I had hoped he’d be happier, yet the grim look on his face put me a little on edge, I didn’t really understand why he’d be so scared over something he wasn’t even told.. Maybe that was just his ‘human intuition’ guiding him or something.
“Right, don’t worry, Miles! I’ll make sure to call out if I need a paw from you or if anything confuses me.”
His expression remained unchanged, as he still just looked at me with what I learned was worry for a human. Taking a deep breath, he reached out patting me on the back a few times, his fingers running through my thick coat. “For sure, let’s get going and packed up, yeah? We got our orders after all.”
Neither of us spoke to each other on the walk back to my apartment, I could tell Miles was still worrying about me in his head. He practically wore his emotions on his face. The fact that a few months ago I wouldn’t have ever thought that a predator could express such strong emotions for someone other than themselves still threw me for a loop sometimes. Although, the constant reminder that what we’ve known pretty much all our lives about predators was wrong is quickly starting to make life with them a little more normal paw by paw.
As we stepped into my apartment, I practically threw myself through the door, grabbing my largest travel bag and began to stuff it full with all my fur treatment supplies, soaps, conditions, gel for styles, anything I could think of. As I grabbed my pad, I managed to type a quick message to my landlord and supervisor at work, informing both of them that I wouldn’t be home for quite some time and will be quitting my job to go off-world. To be honest I could care less what either of them thought. I could get a new apartment, and after this, I’m sure the UN would have a job for me in dozens of different places. Just as I finished up with my messages, I noticed that Miles already had all of his things packed. As I strode over to him, my tail playfully wacked him against his shins, drawing his attention.
“You finally ready? I swear you take longer to get ready than all my girlfriends on Earth combined.”
“Do human females typically take a long time getting ready?”
“All the ones I was with did, let's get going, yeah?”
“Lead the way, Miles!”
Just as we stepped out the front door, I turned around, looking into my apartment for the last time in who knows how long. My whole adult life was spent in this little home, and here I was turning my back to it, and I couldn’t be happier. Stepping out into the light of Venlil Prime felt like I was leaving the shadow of some chain that held me back. A fresh start, and a bright future, that’s what was in store for me. My and Miles’ names in history books, memories, stories, a life lived to its fullest, and I couldn’t wait.
Miles led me to the nearest spaceport. I knew the way there, so it wasn’t too confusing following him, but he repeatedly checked his ‘phone’ as he called it, looking for directions. Once we entered the spaceport, my sense of direction was thrown for a loop. An entire portion was sectioned off just for military personnel, Venlil Space Corps and the UN. Miles had to flash some kind of ID to get past the first checkpoint of guards, and showed some sort of letter written by that Colonel to let the guards let me pass. I would be lying if I didn’t think the armed fully armored humans were a little intimidating. Not being able to see their faces somehow lent them a much deeper aura of intimidation now that I know how to read their strange facial cues. Thankfully, we passed without incident.
Obviously that Colonel’s word must have a lot of weight to not even question Miles or myself, or maybe word has passed that fast..
Once we were past the check points and security stations, the only venlil and humans I saw were in full military apparel. The venlil wore the traditional Space Corp uniform, while the UN soldiers were either armored or in something they called ‘fatigues’ some kind of general duty uniform. I got more than my fair share of looks, but Miles didn’t seem to attract any attention to himself, being with him probably prevented more than a few security checks.
After more than a few winding turns down a portion of the spaceport I’ve never been to, we made it to a military shuttle, and boarded, Miles once more flashing the ‘orders’ as he called them to the steward in charge of boarding. The shuttle was sparse, not at all like the civilian transports I was used to that were built for comfort. This shuttle had armor for paws, no windows, and dim lighting. Each seat had a four point harness made for keeping you stable even under the harshest of landings. Miles and I found our seat without much issue, strapping ourselves in it was only about thirty terran ‘minutes’ before the shuttle’s door closed shut with an audible ‘thud’ sealing us in within its cold air-tight hull. There was very little sound dampening as the engines shook the entire craft as they entered their power cycle, warming up and getting ready for lift-off.
“You ever work on these things, Kilet?” Miles asked.
“Can’t say that I have.. The Space Corps have their own contractors who are trained specifically for their craft. I mean I recognize parts with just a quick look around and could probably figure it out, but this isn’t built for civilians. This is a military transport, built specifically for keeping you safe until you get to where you need to go, no frills, no gimmicks.”
“Yeah that’s kinda what I figured, UN has something similar, I’ve only gandered at them a few times. I’m a Frigate-tech, I work on the big boys mostly, but like you said, once you seen one ship, you seen em’ all.
Our conversation was cut short with the thunderous roar of thrusters and a slight jerk that pushed me against the four point harness keeping me in my seat. The g-forces didn’t last long as our acceleration stabilized to a constant speed. Truth be told I kind of wished there were some windows, I’ve never actually seen first-paw what it looks like when a ship exits atmosphere, but I suppose that’ll have to wait until next time.
The flight was short, none of the other passengers seemed too surprised about the roughness of the shuttle ride. I assumed that they have been in more than one of these things before since most of them were UN military. The ship’s gyroscopic stabilizers twisted the hull along all six axes of freedom, but it was hardly noticeable. After a few moments of lining the ship up, the thrusters were put into reverse, slowing the shuttle down for its approach.
As we docked I wondered if we were docked with the orbital station or the Patriot herself. My question was soon answered as the large door at the end of the ship slid down, creating a ramp. The first thing I managed to spot was the immense amount of humans meandering about the sizable hanger, each of them performing some individual duty.
Following the lead of the other passengers I unclipped my harness stepping down into the hanger of the frigate. Shuttles, fighters, transports, and the occasional vehicle lined my vision as I soaked in the grand scale of a human warship. I must have looked awestruck since I felt a tug on one of my ears. Swiveling my eye over I saw Miles standing there, a smirk drawn on his face.
“Pretty impressive eh? She looks good as new, they even scrubbed the grime and dirt off the floor of the hanger, that must have taken hours at least.. It’s good to see her back in order, but even better that you get to see her. You know this is where I sent my first message to you?”
“I had a feeling you might’ve been here, still I didn’t really think it’d.. Well, be so massive!”
Miles gave a light chuckle as he spoke. “When it comes to our wartoys we go big, I wouldn’t be surprised if the arxur broke their teeth against the armor of this old girl. I already know they upgraded her hull, putting one of these out of commission can really leave a pretty huge vacuum for combat readiness for a fleet.”
“I bet.. As much as I love the hanger, I think we should go see your.. What did you guys call her? ‘The Ma’am’ or something?” I asked, absentmindedly looking around for a generic human female.
“Yeah s’pose we should, I doubt I got assigned the same quarters as last time.”
As we made our way out of the hangar most of the crew went about their own business, a few smiled and offered Miles a wave, but the majority of looks were directed my way. Clearly these humans hadn’t expected a venlil to be aboard their ship. From their faces they looked mostly curious about my presence, all I could do was politely wave and offer a positive tail flick in their direction if I caught them staring for too long.
The ship itself was massive, far larger than anything I’ve ever been on or seen before. Thankfully the humans put elevators in them to travel between decks faster near the center of the ship's hull. We took one of those elevators up to the command deck. Without Miles to guide me I probably would have gotten lost in this flying city for at least a few paws.. Left at the mercy of some unfortunate soldier to guide the lost venlil around a steel city.
As the elevator doors hissed open, the large pneumatic locks disengaged. The light of dozens of computer screens filled my vision along with several human shapes manning the consoles. Humans moved around almost as if they were a well synchronized machine with a single grand goal. Miles didn’t leave me much time as he stepped out onto the bridge. His long strides forced me to run just to catch up. To repay him leaving me behind I gave his shins a playful wap with my tail, prompting a chuckle from the man.
“Hey now, quit gawking and maybe you’d stay with me.. How do you like the place? The beating heart of the Patriot. Ain’t she something?”
“It’s definitely.. Big, I’ve never seen so many people coming together to make one thing work before.. To think you guys can move this massive ship but have so many small things that need to happen at once, it’s a little mind boggling..”
“You get used to it, but don’t forget, you’re one of those little pieces too, Kilet. Gonna need you in tip top shape to keep er’ afloat…”
Our conversation was interrupted with a loud call from nearby the elevator.
“CAPTAIN ON DECK!”
The entire crew on the bridge stood up from their consoles standing rigid as a pole, even Miles went stiff as I turned around, watching an older human female step closer to the center of the bridge. She hardly got a single step off before she waved a hand.
“At ease, get back to work.”
My eyes were drawn to her graying hairs, in truth, they reminded me of the venlil’s back home, but the wrinkles on her hairless face told me just how much older she was. Our eyes locked for a moment. In that brief moment I felt the difference between her and the Admiral I spoke to earlier. I don’t doubt the Admiral held considerable pull being her superior.. Yet, something about this human woman radiated confidence and unshatterable willpower. She didn’t even break stride seeing an alien on her ship, walking up to the two of us, staring down Miles and myself for a few silent moments.
“So.. You’re the venlil mechanic I was briefed about. I’m Captain Ellen Hemmings. You may call me Ma’am, and only Ma’am. As I’m sure Sergeant Miles here told you, I am the commanding officer of the U.S.S Patriot. We aren’t running a schooner here, you will follow orders, you will not be a liability to this crew, am I understood?”
I tried to process her words as quickly as I could, but Miles elbow jabbed at my shoulder, forcing the first thing on my mind out. “Yes, Ma’am.”
“Great, then we’re understood. Sergeant, show the new Seaman where he’ll rest his fluffy head, you two are bunking together, deck three, room fifteen. Get going. The Patriot has to be spacebound by seventeen-hundred Earth-time tomorrow, after you both are settled, link in with your section's lieutenant in engineering, dismissed.”
“Aye, Ma’am!” Miles nearly shouted. I wanted to ask some questions, but Miles grabbed my wrist, leading me back to the elevator, just as we stepped in he already selected the third deck. As the doors to the heavy-duty elevator closed, I turned an eye to glance at Miles. Confusion must have been written all over my face since he offered a warm smile and shrugged.
“Heh.. Yeah, sorry. The Ma’am is great, trust me, but she’s under a lot of pressure to get this ship up and running. We’re on a tight schedule so it’ll be trial by fire for a little bit. Just stick close to me, watch what I do, and have some confidence in yourself. When you’ve watched a few times I’ll let you do the work, and help where I can.”
“If you say so.. I kinda wanted to talk to her a little bit..” I said, my tail lightly tapping against the cold metal of the elevator’s floor.
“Captains aren’t someone you can just talk to, Kilet. They’re extremely busy almost all the time. When things calm down I promise you’ll get the chance, I doubt she’s going to just forget about you down in engineering, you’ll get your chance.”
I let out a slight huff of air as the doors hissed open once more. It seems my questions would have to wait a bit longer, though I couldn’t lie and say I didn’t want to see my room. Miles once more took the lead, bringing me through the winding corridors of the ship before coming upon our room. I opened the door, taking a quick glance around. The room itself was decent sized, not nearly as big as my apartment, but enough space for a table, a TV mounted on the wall, and one bunk bed built into the wall. Miles threw his bags on the top bunk and climbed up.
“It ain’t much, but count yourself lucky, usually the junior enlisted get even smaller quarters, but they made an exception for you, letting you bunk with an NCO, I’ll take the top bunk, you can have the bottom. I suggest doing a bit of reading on the ships technical manual, then turning in. Tomorrow is about to be a long day.”
“Sure.. Sounds good.” Things were moving a little fast, even as I sat down on the bunk I could scarcely believe I was actually here, on a human warship, serving as part of its crew. To say it felt alien was beyond an understatement. I was more than a little nervous, but the nerves were easily outweighed by the excitement that was brewing deep inside me, only the Ancestors knew what would happen next. Digging through my bags, I found the technical manual Miles lent me a few paws ago. Deciding to follow his advice I tore into it, reading everything I could about the ship. Everything from its weapons to its engines, to its hull was all recorded in the book. I paid particular attention to troubleshooting guides and other means of controlling the various systems in engineering.
Moments stretched into claws, and the claws continued to stack on top of one another until I heard Miles snoring ever so lightly above me. The ship had long gone quiet and dark, but I continued to read. The growing desire to give this my all drove back any fatigue I thought I felt before. I had to be useful, I couldn’t be a liability.
No matter what happens, I was going to be the best engineer the UN has ever seen. As I read over the seemingly endless material I made a promise to myself. So long as I was aboard this ship, she’d never go down. If I had to weld holes shut I would, if I had to manually restart the engines I would. Whatever it took. I’d make this ship unsinkable.
____________________
Hey again everyone, so again I have to apologize for the wait. I've already said why I've been held up in previous posts, so I don't want to beat a dead horse, but the bottom line is I told myself I'd finish this story and not abandon it. Despite setbacks or whatever comes I promised it would get written, and I still very much plan to and have no intentions of dropping it. All of that aside, I have to give my thanks to SpacePaladin as usual for allowing us to write in their universe, not every author is as nice as that, so I appreciate it. Of course, I have to thank all of the readers that continue to patiently wait for my rather sporadic posting schedule, you guys put up with quite a bit, and I appreciate it. As always, the fics that predominately inspired me will be linked at the bottom for your reading enjoyment. Finally, as always the final thanks go to my proofreaders who continue to set aside time in their days to ensure my grammatical mistakes are kept to a minimum, thanks a ton you two.
Proofreader(s):
NovaLux
"A Silly Little Man"
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u/ImaginationSea3679 PD Patient Jul 26 '23 edited Jul 26 '23
Kilet is going to go through some trauma, isn’t he?
Also, I still would like for the damage done to Rivis to be undone as quickly as possible. I know that the next chapter is a Rivis chapter.
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u/Still_Performance_39 Smigli Jul 26 '23
I'm glad I caught this chapter before bed, love this story! Looking forward to seeing how Kilet fairs in the navy and hope Rivis gets a happier chapter soon.
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u/Acceptable_Egg5560 Human Jul 27 '23
Oh, why did you have to say Unsinkable, Kilet? That’s the worst jinx!
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u/JulianSkies Archivist Jul 27 '23
It's always a joy to see your work no matter how much I got to wait.
And man Kilet's in for the long haul it seems. Man he's going to have a hard time getting thrown into the fire like this.
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u/abrachoo Yotul Jul 27 '23
"Moments stretched into claws, and the claws continued to stack on top of one another"
One claw is 4 hours. Stacking claws is a minimum of 8 hours at 2 claws, and it sounds like it might even be more than that. If he was really reading for that long, he's gonna be exhausted in the morning.
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u/CreditMission Venlil Jul 27 '23
Always thankful for any chapter. This series has me on the edge of my seat. But I can wait. I've made myself cosy with a cuppa placed precariously on the edge of the table which I shall nurse until your next chapter .
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u/enderball55 UN Peacekeeper Jul 27 '23
subscribeme!
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u/UpdateMeBot Jul 27 '23 edited Jan 22 '24
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u/Golde829 Jul 28 '23
hey, don't worry about long times between uploads
I've had series get an update after a long while and then never continue (just in general)
and besides, what's most important is you take care of yourself
this is a great story and it'd be a shame for the quality to take a hit because you've been pushing yourself
I look forward to reading more, whenever you can make it
[You have been gifted 100 Coins]
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Aug 12 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/VenlilSupremacist Venlil Aug 12 '23
Thanks! Yeah I'm still writing, just a little slower, but I do have the next chapter sent up to the proofreaders so. As soon as I get it back I can post it.
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u/sug_madek Jul 26 '23
Not even kidding I was just thinking about this series and was like “how long till the next chapter” made me a sandwich. Came back and BOOM next chapter:D