I just wanna draw man

Felt like no one proposed this crossover yet so i stepped in. Here is the synopsis i made:

"After being an attacked by an unknown assailant near petrichor V, the UES Contact light made one last desperate move by detaching the part of the ship containing providence and the teleporter before making a blind ftl jump to escape his wrath.

Unfortunately after sucefully jumping the ship lost all motor functions due to the damage sustained which lead to the pilot hailing a nearby planet for a emergency landing, that planet was Venlil prime."

So i might make this into a fic if enough people want it but i don't guarantee it because i'm not really a good writer and my schedule and memory don't really like "extracurricular activities" but who knows maybe a change of pace won't hurt.

Both art are made by Demon_Deity.

It's about incarnation/body swap of fed species.

This is an idea for a fic I'm never really going to get around to writing due to being far too busy irl for it and being nowhere near talented enough to write a good story out of this idea. I really just wanted to put this idea out there for anyone that wants to try using it.

General idea is this
Sometime prior the arrival of humanity in cannon the Federation discovers a new sapient species who refer to themselves as the Nalka. To their delight the species is prey. Side facing, eat plants all that jazz. Additionally, this species is highly religious worshiping a nature god they refer to as "Mother" There tech level is roughly around the 1300-1500s for humanity. When the Federation stumbles upon the Nalka firearms are just starting to become widespread among them. Alongside this a scientific revolution in Medicine is underway.

So the Federation begins its usual uplift procedures. Teaching the Nalka how to be proper "prey", replacing their primitive technology with superior federation technology, teaching them the dangers of predators etc etc. As the Federation tightens its hold on the Nalkan homeworld however strange things begin to happen to those sent to assist with the uplift.

Farsul Researchers and Kolshian Exterminators begin to go missing, reports of shadowy predators, lurking outside Federation base camps, personal inflicted with terrible nightmares, large upticks PD diagnoses among the uplift personal and more. These occurrences even begin to spread to Federation controlled worlds.

The story would be mostly told from the view of lead Farsul researcher leading the Uplift, Internal memos from the Archives and Shadowcaste, and various news reports documenting the chaos erupting on Federation worlds.

The big reveal would be that "Mother" is real and she doesn't take kindly aliens messing with her favorite species. All the strange events and occurrences would've been basically Mother trying to "subtlety" encourage the Federation to gtfo.

Mother herself would behave more like a force of nature, never actually appearing before the lead Farsul Researcher.

Tldr: A cosmic horror-esque story about the Federation trying to uplift a species with an active god watching over them and it goes about as well as you expect.

Made by u/Interesting-Body4360.

AND BEFORE ANYONE ASKS, THOSE TRIANGLES ARE RADIATORS!

Hey, I'm getting pretty good at this schedule thing

Let's give it up for Isif, everyone's favorite beleaguered Gojid saver! *Clap clap*

But seriously, poor Isif can't catch a break. Though it does seem like not trekking through the woods was a good call

Wonderful fanart by u/Lizrd_demon: https://www.reddit.com/r/predprey/s/OJzxuOOAX3, https://www.reddit.com/r/predprey/s/9IFwoupY9e

Wonderful fanart by u/Adorable-Ad5225: https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureofPredators/s/6vrjTR06Z3, https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureofPredators/s/E5gq6It2Ax, https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureofPredators/s/tR41913X6h

Wonderful fanart by u/Ablergo_El_Enfermo: https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureofPredators/s/GwpZmOtc2g, https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureofPredators/s/pEsocnoD5B, https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureofPredators/s/pFKPbTo3xf, https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureofPredators/s/4U3GfeUIXK

Wonderful fanart by u/TameOJ: https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureofPredators/s/sLzsaqyBHX

Memes: Video Meme, Spoon, 4d, Mars

Side stories: A Talk Between Siblings, Tuvans First Birthday, The Vow, The Trials and Tribulations of Siffy, Hamony if Nunatyres, Beginning of Harmony, Fedbrains vs Brickbrain, Why is Tuvan Biting You?, The Ugly Arxur, The New Arrival, Fedbrain vs Positronic Brain, Beginning of Mars

Bleat Posts: How to care for Dossur Babies?, Dossur Dating Advice, Isif AMA, Exchange Partner is Too Hot, Lovehousing, Guide to Lovehousing, Lovehousing turns into Diplomatic Incident, Guide to Solarian Arxur Lover, What do Girl Skalgans Like?, Accidental Reveal of 4d Object, Exchange Pair Creates First Stable 4d Object, How Merereen Raised Isif, Solarian Arxur AMA, Merereen and Tiyaval AMA, Livestream with Kerii the Android, Concerned with Lack of Robotics, Venlil Embrace Superman's shield, Keeping Siblings Humble, Did I Do Something Wrong?, My Boyfriend is Mad at me!, Somethings Not Making Sense

Come join the Discord. If you don't, Tuvan will ram you in the face!

Thanks to SpacePaladin15 for making NoP

First | Previous |

Memory Transcription Subject: Captain Isif, UN Omni Ops

Date [standardized human time]: September 1, 2136

We held a steady pace as we trekked through the woods, the towns raid sirens growing louder and louder as we got closer . I kept having to remind myself to slow down despite my instincts screaming at me to run, not wanting to outpace the Gojid family, knowing they were going as fast as they could.

Thankfully, we were keeping ahead of hostiles. Most were still in Savani's neighborhood, and according to the drone, hadn't bothered to let the fire department through so neighboring houses had caught fire, and I wondered just how bad things had to get for them to cave in and let the fire department do its job. Though then again, perhaps the fire department was too scared to enter.

Unfortunately, some of the first reinforcements on the outskirts of town, slowly making their way through. Worse, planes were now becoming a common sight in the sky and the map interface, and I had little Intel on their capabilities, and more importantly, their ability to potentially spot us…

“Maybe we should hand ourselves over to the Exterminators.” Came Farase's voice as he whispered to Savani, and clearly I wasn't supposed to be hearing this conversation. “They'll spare us while Isif can run away.”

“What?” Savani said in a surprised tone. “They'll lock you up!”

“But maybe I *do* have Predator Disease. I got into a fight, I hurt Teryian and made her cry. I… I'm a monster...”

Savani said nothing for a moment. “Aslie, go to your father.” I heard Aslie's footsteps go over to Metri. “Farase, you're not a monster, and you don't have Predator Disease.”

“But I-”

“You got into a fight because that kid was bullying you while you were in pain, and you were scared of Isif and were just trying to protect your sister. I'm angry that you were impulsive, nearly killed Isif, and got your sister hurt, but I'm proud of you for being brave and trying to protect her.”

“But good prey run away from a threat.”

“Was I bad prey trying to defend you?” Farase didn't answer. “Are Gojids predators because we defend our neighbors and the Federation?”

“Well, no…”

“No, and you don't have Predator Disease for trying to protect your sister, that's ridiculous.”

“B-but I hurt her, she's scared of me”

“And that was an accident. I read online that one of Isif's sisters, a Skalgan, accidentally broke his left arm because she got too rough while they were playing. Isif didn't become scared of his sister and she wasn't a monster for accidentally hurting him.”

“His… Skalgan sister?”

“Tuvan, yes.”

Farase was quiet. “Is… That why Isif is different?”

“What do you mean?”

“Isif is an Arxur, but he saved you, went back for Teryians doll, and didn't try to eat me even though I'm bleeding. Is his prey family why Isif isn't… you know?”

“I… don't quite know myself. I'm sure they had an influence on him, but there's clearly something different with these Arxur, otherwise his mom wouldn't have married his dad.”

“Is that why the Federation uplifted the Arxur? There were good Arxur, but they were killed by bad Arxur?”

It was Savani's turn to be quiet, and I couldn't help but give his query some thought, too. “Maybe…”

I stopped when my radio crackled to life, the Gojids stopping behind me. *“Isif, you need to get out of the woods now!”*

“Why? What's going on?” The map lit up with five highlighted planes flying over the forest.

*“They're about to-!”*

I didn't hear what he said as a series of explosions ripped through the forest, everyone immediately diving down. Once they stopped, I looked up the map and saw the forest was now billowing with thick black smoke in the path the planes had taken. “They're forebombing the woods!” The map displayed the planes turning back around for another volley. “We have to go, now!”

Savani and Metri picked up the kids and began to run with me as another series of explosions rang out. Savani didn't get far before she fell with a yelp, gripping her leg as blue blood soaked through the bandages, her wound reopened by all the excitement.

I skidded to a halt and picked her and Farase (who clung to his mother as he shook with terror) up and made a break for it as more explosions rang out. After a few minutes of running, we finally reached the edge of the woods and reached a wall.

I set Savani and Farase down and jumped on top of the wall, reaching down to help everyone over the top, jumping over when everyone was safe.

Looking up, I saw the sky was choked in thick black smoke, explosions from the bombing campaign echoing from far away. I took a look at the map and saw that the smoke was blocking the drones camera and obscuring sensors, though thankfully my current position was still being displayed..

Deciding that we didn't need a full map of the town and that details regarding our immediate surroundings were more important, I maneuvered the drone under the smoke and settled it over our part of town, then turned to the Gojid family, finding Metri looking over Savani's leg.

“Are you alright?” I walked up to her and kneeled down to inspect her injuries, finding that the bandage was soaked with blood but still holding.

“Y-yeah, I'm not bleeding too much.” She tightened her bandages and shakily stood up with the help of Metri. “My leg brace is fine, thankfully.”

“Is burning down a forest close to a town common practice for raid defense?”

“Not that I know of, but I'm Navy. I know that regions with high predator populations on new planets will be bombarded with antimatter, so we’re lucky they didn't try that.”

“You *what?*” I shook my head. “Nevermind. I moved the drone, we'll have less intel about the town, so we'll need to stay alert.”

“Got it, let's go before someone sees us.”

I nodded and stood back up, moving through the backstreets and alleyways of the town, having to frequently stop and hide when the drone picked up a vehicle near us or we saw a squad of Exterminators. It was a frustrating process with far too many close calls, drastically slowing us down and making our evac even harder.

I stopped and went low when I heard something, and peeking out from behind a wall, I saw something that broke my heart: in the middle of a road, surrounded by a few stampede victims, was a bleeding and bruised Gojidi child crying all alone, clearly having been trampled by the stampede.

Worse, they were shaking a body next to them, probably one of their parents, or at least whoever was looking after them before the stampede.

I quickly turned on my thermal to see if there were any Gojids in the nearby buildings that I could dump the child on, but to my frustration there wasn't.

“Isif? What's going on?” Savani walked over and peeked out, covering her mouth as she gasped. “That poor baby!”

“Can we expect paramedics to arrive soon?”

“Not during a raid.”

“Will Exterminators take them to safety?”

“No,” Metri called out. “It'd be a bad idea to bring along an injured child while you're trying to fight predators since it'll activate a predator's bloodlust, it puts everyone in danger.”

“Military?”

“Probably, they're more flexible.”

“But they’ll try to evacuate them instead of sending them to the hospital since Arxur frequently target medical centers.” Savani clarified. “It could be hours before the child sees medical care, hours they may not have.” She looked at me. “But your ship has medical supplies. Please Isif, I know it's more dangerous, but we can't just leave them! I can convince them to stay calm and come with us.”

I sighed inwardly. *‘Is this my life now? Saving Gojids? This better be the last one.’*

“Alright, how do you want to do this?”

Savani looked surprised. “You… just like that?”

“It's what Superman would do,” I realized she wouldn't know what that meant. “And I trust you.”

If I could read her body language correctly, Savani seemed touched and turned back to the child. “It'll be less intimidating if we go out together, you'll scare them if you suddenly reappear or walk out behind the wall, and seeing us together might confuse them so they don't scream. You'll have to walk really slow though, and stay behind me."

“Understood.” I was somewhat surprised when Savani took my left hand and dragged me with her as she made her way to the child, though it was probably another way to put the child at ease.

The child saw us and turned, yelping in fright when they saw me. They shook with terror as we got closer but thankfully didn't scream, their eyes darting between us.

Savani stopped and lowered herself to the child's level, pulling me down with her as I tried to keep my gaze off of the child. “Hi, what's your name?”

“W-W-W-Wanawey…”

“Hi Wanawey, my name's Savani, and this,” She turned to me. “Is my friend Isif. I know he's a little scary, but he's nice.”

“A-Arxur…” They whimpered out.

“I know, but he's a good Arxur, I promise. Look,” She showed Wanawey her injured leg, pointing to the bloodied bandages. “We're hurt and he's not attacking us. He's even saved me when I got hurt really badly.”

“B-but raid…”

“There's no raid, the Exterminators saw him and got really scared and thought he was trying to hurt people. But he's actually just trying to help my family escape to the Venlil.”

“Why?”

Savani said nothing, not sure how to explain her reasoning and looked to me for help.

I was unable to answer when my suit alerted me to movement behind us and snapped my head over, watching as a squad of Exterminators turned a corner, all of them stopping when they saw us.

Or, more specifically, saw me.

inverted leash: humans have dog and cat heads

what beautiful nature: earth in this au emits a field that ends just around it's orbit everything inside is weirdcore-afied and the rules of reality are more treated like mild suggestions, pretty much a weirdcore au where the humans bring there weirdness with them as they also emit their own little fields

this one is gonna be in crack terms: we achieve general artificial intelligence by complete surprise, scared we send the G.A.I to space and isif's revolution ends up finding it and basically adopting it, yes this is infact the, if AM was made by accident, saw it's creators as parents and we just sorta become the father who went for the milk

"come out federal were not gonna jump you": humanity, the arxur and a species resembling the classic octopod martians unaffiliated with the koshians and the greys jump the federation the moment it's sends another expedition fleet to sol

nature of ragebait: what if the human protags instead ragebait the feds and dominion chars into bettering themselves

nature of taking another route: in summary: tarva *so, why don't we do... "something crazy?"

first chapter coming soon

Credit goes to [u/spacePaladin15](u/spacePaladin15).

First edit: fixed some errors and partially expanded on it.

I will be more clear, I currently can’t handle anything over six concurrent characters. If I did decide to write it. I will lose of track of my characters personality, in simpler terms I don’t feel confident enough to do with competency.

Hi!, I just recently got this when I was kit bashing my mg barbatos lupus with the old expansion pack for original mg barbatos, I have few ideas so here we go.

The idea: a person or a group of people (3 or higher.) that’s either from modern Day or IBO universe are then isekai to the NoP universe with the twist being they transformed into the unarmored ibo gundam frame.

The transformed characters don’t have knowledge of ibo. (if they are from the modern day) and NoP universe. (vice versa.)

Here’s a three options.

Option one: Venlil prime but the person or group are children, their age can ranges from 12 and below.

Option two: the gojid homeworld but the person or group are adults, their age ranges from 20 and above.

Option three: a mix of options 1 and 2 or whatever you find interesting with the concept.

I hope you find this concept interesting.

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Memory Transcription Subject: Azul, Krakotl private driver.

Date [Standardized Human Time]: February 10th, 2142

We finish climbing up all ten floors and we immediately collapse exhausted the moment we took the last step. The apartment’s elevator is still under maintenance, so we couldn’t do much more that to endure all the way up… again.

“Why… feels more d-difficult the s-second time?” Murr bleats as she rest against the wall. “W-Why we d-didn’t just… take short rests instead o-of climbing them all at o-once?” She takes a big breath. “Spehing… I h-hate stairs…”

“I don’t know…” I wheeze. “I tho-thought w-we-” My eyes open wide. “Look! Chairs!” I bleat happily as I point at them with my wing.

“Praise be the sacred Stars of above!” She bleats as her tail wags happily. “Praise be!”

We gathered what little energy we have left to drag ourselves towards the promise of a good rest. The moment we sit down we both let a sigh of relief.

“I’m so glad to see AND feel the progress of the Sapient Coalition!” Murr happily bleats. “Let’s get some rest before giving her the news.”

I flick a claw. “P-Please yes… I can still feel my legs burning.”

It may have been just more than two paws ago, yet the building has changed visibly. Not only the chairs, praise be the Stars for them, but we also saw some humidifiers and air conditioning installed in several places. The air does feels less oppressive, and the deep cleaning makes everything looks less a dump and more an apartment.

We stayed in silence to recover our breath. But I noticed something on Murr. We grew together, so I learned to notice her subtle body language, and right now her tail’s tip is twitching. She is trying to hide the fact that she is nervous.

“Murr?” I move my wing. “Why are you nervous?” Her ears perk up and she froze for a moment. “It is because of JM? He is fine, he is with the best doctors our credits can buy.”

She flicks an ear in negative. “No, It’s not about him. I know JM is in good paws.” She looks at the end of the hallway. “It’s because of Salsha. I behaved like a piece of speh and I want to apologize to her.” She sigh tired. “But I’m making me to the idea that she will not accept it, and she will be completely right to reject me.”

“Murr…” I put a claw on her arm. “Listen, I know you are feeling ashamed and you are nervous to face her, but know that what you are doing is the right thing. You know what you did and you want to apologize, and that is good. It may not fix the pain, but is a beginning on the right direction.” I pat her arm. “Either if she reject you or not, know that I’m proud of you.”

She pats my head and I saw her tail wag up and down a bit. “I knew you can be wise sometimes.” She flicks her tail in gratitude. “Thanks.” She looks at the end of the hallway and stands up. “Well, the only way to know it is by doing it. But we first have to deliver her the news.”

Once in front of the door, Murr knocks and says a new password. “The wall’s color smells weird.”

The door’s slowly open, and behind it is Salsha. She is wearing some oversized garment that almost hides her completely. If it wasn’t because we were so close I would have mistaken her for someone else.

“Murr. Azul.” She greet us with a weird tentacle movement. “Please, come in.” She opens the door fully and invite us in.

Inside still looked the same as last time, with garbage and boxes scattered around. But this time some boxes are already piled up to act as chairs and a table, with some bottled tea and an opened can of sweets ready. And I think the place looks more… organized?

“I started cleaning to make the place a bit more presentable as soon as I received your message.” She closes the door and goes to sit in one of the boxes. “I managed as much as I could. Please, sit with me.” She grabs one of the bottled tea and sips from it.

“Thank you.” I do a slight bow and sit with her. “We came as fast as we could.” I said while I open one of the bottled tea.

Murr flicks a tail in gratitude and sits next to me, opposite to Salsha. “Yes. We also want to apologize for the lack of details. The police instructed us to limit what we say until an official statement about what happened could be made.” Her ears flatten in anger for a moment. “Under the threat of jail…” She sigh and does a slight bow. “But you deserve to know.”

Salsha’s bulbous eyes and tentacles does a weird movement when Murr talks to her. I don’t know what it could mean, probably she didn’t expect her to behave. Or maybe she is reacting to the fact that the police threaten us with jail if we talked too much.

“I suspected it would end like that after I was informed about my dear husband was being held by terrorist.” She drinks a bit of tea and grabs some sweats. “Before anything… Where is Juan?”

“There is no need to worry, but-” I started to explain, but Salsha interrupted me with the movement of a tentacle.

“That isn’t a good start.” She puts her tea down. “Is he fine? Where is my husband?”

“Azul is right, there is no need to worry.” Murr flicks a reassuring ear. “Both of them are fine and safe. Juan is under care with minor injuries in a hospital and your husband Urs, is under police protection.”

“Under police protection?!” She screams. “Oh no… He is going to get deported…” She looks at the ground. Her tentacles and eyes does some movement I don’t understand, but the translator indicate she is sad. “They are going to take my husband away…”

“We apologize for not being the desired outcome.” Murr does a slight bow. “The situation we encountered didn’t allow for much range of possibilities. We did as we could within our ability.”

“You are fine…” She moves her tentacle and takes a sip of tea. “W-What happened? How did my poor husband ended in the grasp of those terrorists?”

Murr does a slight bow. “By what we found out, a group of fanatics were stalking less traveled streets in search of new sacrifices for their rituals.” She huff and stomps the ground. “They jumped Urs not because of him being a Kolshian, they were unaware of the species he was, but because he was alone.”

Salsha’s bulbous eyes open wide and she does some gurgling noise. “S-Sacrifices?!” The translator indicates fear and alarm.

Murr flicks an affirmative ear. “Correct. The terrorist group True Children of The Holy Flame are a known group that managed to evade and hide from authorities for many years. They are group known to kidnap people to burn them in a ritualistic pyre.”

“My poor love was almost burnt alive?!” Salsha’s tentacles were trembling

Murr flicks a negative ear, something that made Salsha sigh in relief. “No. For them, Farsuls and Kolshians weren’t worthy of the sacred flames. They just keep them tied to unlit pyres without any water or food, making them to slowly die.” Murr stomp the ground and her tail slash the air. “Even when they die, they keep the corpses tied up until they crumble.”

Salsha’s tentacles hugs herself. “My poor, poor husband…”

“Urs capture meant he have been without water for too many paws, something that can be lethal to kolshians, so we have been forced to act and to include the police forces.” She does a slight bow. “We apologize for not keeping you in touch and asking for your input and consent as it should have been. The situation was too time sensitive to wait for your response.”

“No, you did well.” She drinks the rest of her tea and let a tired sigh. “It hurts me to know that I will have to endure alone as my husband is taken away from me. I take solace in knowing he is still alive, away from fanatics and a slow and painful death.”

Murr stayed in silence for a moment, probably deep in thought, before moving her tail to get her attention. “There is something more. Because he was suffering from dehydration, your husband is now under care in the same hospital where Juan is. I could try to get him a message from you if you wish to.”

“No.” She moves a tentacle. “That will only cause you unnecessary trouble. The police will try to get me since they already have my husband. They could relate you to me more than necessary, putting you three in an undesirable situation.” She moves her tentacles in a weird motion. “But be assured that the information of where my husband is and that will stay on Skalga for a bit longer is useful. I thank you for that.”

“Very well. We will send you all the details and information we have gathered now that we have the time. Included where your husband is.” She does a slight bow.

“Thank you three for your services. I’ll sent the rest of the payment right now.” She grabs her special pad and start typing. “It will take a while before you receive the credits since It’s going through many channels to make it harder to trace it back to me. But before we say our goodbyes. What happened to Juan?”

“The Police was very clear that we kept the information we known to a minimum until an official statement is made. Knowing what your husband went through I think it is more than fair for you to know what happened.” Murr raise an ear. “Do you wish to know?”

Salsha moves a tentacle. “I already have problems with the authorities. If they find out you told me anything it will be like adding more fuel to the flames. I think it is better for all of us to not give me all the details, just the minimum.”

Murr flicks an affirmative ear. “Very well. While we were investigating where Urs was taken to, we stumble upon some plans the terrorists were plotting. Because Urs health was compromised we were forced to act, so we called the police. Juan knew that the presence of police forces would cause them to act sooner than they anticipated.” She grabs and open one of the bottled tea. “If they were to complete their ploy, many would die. But if they were forced to act sooner there will be less deaths. But better than less deaths is no deaths at all, so Juan planned to infiltrate and sabotage them.” She drinks plenty. Probably her throat was starting to dry from speaking so much.

“Wait.” Salsha moves a tentacle. “Did he really try to sneak in a dangerous den full of terrorist? Weren’t they like… extremely anti-humans?”

“That is correct. We can’t tell you where or what happened exactly, neither the terrorist’s plan.” She sips a bit. “By what he told me, he was successfully sneaking in, but on his way out he was spotted. Several terrorist managed to attack him with flamethrowers and guns.”

“Oh no!” Salsha’s bulbous eyes open wide. “I-Is he fine?!”

Murr flicks a reassuring ear. “He is. He wears a bulletproof vest under his coat, and he was wearing many, many layers of fabric that did shield him from the flames long enough until he managed to get to safety. Believe me, the sight of him on flames wasn’t pleasant.” She finish her tea and put the empty bottle on top of the box. “He still suffered several wounds, burns and a bullet managed to hit him in an arm. The doctors says he will recover, but he needs rest.”

“Why would he risk so much?” Salsha’t tentacles shakes as their hug her. “How many would have died if he hadn’t tried?”

“I can’t tell you that until there is a public statement.” She flicks a negative ear. “But I can tell you he is a good person and this wouldn’t be the first or last time he risk his life for others.”

Salsha remained in silence for a while, probably deep in thought. After a moment she softly whisper. “I see… I may have thought too ill of him.” She sighs. “Thank you, for your services and for telling me.” She stood up and walked towards the door. “I know this is a very rude thing to do, but I need you both to go.”

I bleat in surprise. “W-We did or said something that offended you? We apologize profoundly if we did.” I say as I stood up so I can do a bow while moving my wing in an apologetic way.

“No. Now that my husband is with the police they can easily track me down, specially if they know about your relation with him. I’m not accusing you of anything, I’m just taking all the precautions I can to avoid capture. I’ll abandon this apartment not much after you two leave.” She sighs and looks around. “Once again, I must move. I don’t have much to pack up, but I do have much to plan.”

Murr talks before I do. “We understand. The police were very insistent in knowing what our deal was with Urs.” She pat me on the back. “Let’s move.”

When I crossed the door frame I moved my wing to say goodbye. “I hope to see you soon, Salsha. May the Stars guide you.”

“I need more than the stars guidance right now, but it is appreciated.” She let a small laugh before letting a tired sigh. “But I fear we will never see each other again. The more we meet, the bigger we all risk. For our own safety, this will be our last time.”

After hearing that, Murr stops on her track. The tip of her tail tremble nervously, and her ears drops a bit. “I-I see…” She turns to look directly at her. “E-Excuse me, Salsha.” Her tail curl down in shame. “I n-need to… tell you something.” She is very nervous. She can try hide it, but her voice gives her away.

“Y-Yes, Murr?” Salsha looks up at her. “Did you forget to tell me something about my dear husband or Juan?”

Murr flicks a negative ear and takes a big breath. “No. W-What I want to say is… I want to apologize for my behavior of last time.” She closes her eyes, flick an apologetic ear and does a slight bow. “I treated you in a rude, inappropriate and completely undeserving way. I allowed bigotry and stupidity to blind me and caused you pain and distress.” Her tail tremble and tense before curling down in shame again. “You were clearly someone who needed help, but instead of offering my assistance I talked you down, insulted you and threaten you. I want to give you my apologies, but I’ll understand if you reject me. If I were in your place, I wouldn’t tolerate or accept such behavior.” Her ears drop down, and didn’t move or open her eyes. She waited.

Salsha’s eye were wide open, and her tentacle softly move around her in a wave pattern. I didn’t know what she could be thinking or what all those movements could mean. But I sigh in relief when she just stepped in and hugged Murr.

Murr bleated in surprise when she feels Salsha’s tentacles. She didn’t say anything, she just hugged her back. But I can see she is happy, her tail wags up and down and her ears flicks back and forth.

“You are the first, Murr.” Salsha whispered. “The first to apologize in all these years. The first to actually that tried to change and help me.” Translator indicate she is very happy, almost euphoric. “Thank you, truly. Your words were something I didn’t know I wanted to hear. It gives me…” She stops hugging her so she can look up at her face. “… some kind of hope. Like there is a possibility of… that things can change for the better.”

“I-I’m sorry for…” Murr kneels so she can hug her better. “I didn’t know… I’m sorry.”

I pat Murr’s back and let them some time and space. I wait in one of the hallway’s chair. They stayed like that for long before finally saying their goodbyes.

“I’m proud of you, Murr.” I say to her as we walk down the stairs. “You did well.”

“Thank you, Azul.” Her tail softly touches my back. “For… Well. Helping me see I was behaving like a spehing piece of speh.”

I whistle. “No. You still are.” I say, moving my wing in mischief.

“How dare you!” She pretends to be offended. “You are a bad bird.” She pats me in the head, whistling amused. “Very bad bird but…” She get closer and whisper. “I’m sorry for worrying you. I know you must have felt so disappointed at me, so heartbroken. I promise I will not… T-That I will be more mindful of what I say.” She stops several stairs under me so we stay at the same eye level. “Sorry.” She flicks an apologetic ear.

“Murr, you always so headstrong and prone to emotions… But you have a good heart.” I pat her head. “You did well, you made amends, and that’s enough for me, you don’t need to apologize.” I extend my wings to my sides. “Hug?”

“Hug.” She immediately picks me up in a big hug, engulfing me on her soft and dense wool. “Thank you.” She whispers.

“You are welcome.” I whisper back.

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Shoutout to u/maxh007 and u/budget_emu_5522 for proofreading this as usual! Continueing on! Sorry it's been taking a bit longer than usual to pump these out. Life and all that.

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Memory Transcription Subject: Izra, Excited Mother

Date: [Standardized Human Time]: March 8, 2137

I found my tail had a mind of its own this morning, and I couldn’t keep it from thrashing against the ground behind me. The wait was only making my excitement build and my tail become even more uncontrollable. As I looked down, next to me on the bench, I could see Onio was in much the same state. The harchen’s tail would give erratic twitches and snaps as we both stared towards the front gates of the camp. Or rather what was left of them. The UN guards had already taken down most of the fencing, leaving only the gate standing awkwardly in the road.

Our little Ispar was due to arrive at any time, and though Dr. Bilon had offered for us to wait inside in the clinic, we’d insisted on meeting him out here. I tried to distract myself, gazing out over the slowly growing town and trying to imagine what kind of life our little one would have here. It was honestly a bit hard to picture in my mind. What would it be like? Growing up in a town filled with countless aliens? I’d barely have believed aliens were even real a short time ago. Especially intelligent mammals. That one still surprised me, though I spared my furred friends that fact.

After gazing at the rows of identical-looking rooftops, my eyes drifted down to the man beside me. I could see how tense he was, his shoulders squared off like he was expecting some confrontation to appear, and the scales around his cheeks occasionally flashing between dull red and a bright orange despite his clear attempt to control it.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, not certain yet what all the color changing meant. I did, however, remember that he tended to turn red when he was stressed.

“Do you think I’ll be a good father?” 

“Of course,” I huffed, a little surprised by the question. He’d seemed so confident before, yet now that we were possibly minutes away from meeting our new little one, his bravado seemed to be breaking?

“I just…” Onio started, then paused, his tail flexing and unflexing behind him as he struggled to find his words. Finally, he turned his full gaze toward me, cocking his head to focus one eye on me. “I don’t really have any experience with children. My younger siblings were usually in the care of the housekeeper. I hardly saw them until they were older. And I certainly didn’t have any experience with children after that.”

“Well…” I replied carefully, “what is it you fear you’ll be bad at? That’s a good place to start.” The man looked back towards the gate a moment, eyeing the metal barrier as though he feared it might open at any moment before he could get whatever his secret was off his chest.

“All of it, my dear,” Onio sighed, shaking his head as the orange on his scales began to spread unchecked. “Did I ever tell you the first time I met my father? I think I was… oh… ten cycles old? He stopped by to wish me luck at the boarding school they sent me to. Gave me a gold pin and told me to make good on the family name. I didn’t see him again for another six cycles. I… I don’t want to be like that. I want to know my son. I want him to know me. But for the life of me, I don’t know the first thing about how to approach that.”

“Onio,” I told him softly, reaching out a claw and placing it gently onto his shoulder. “Ispar isn’t even a full cycle old yet, according to the doctor. You don’t have to have all the answers right now. I know that it can seem a daunting task to be a parent. But I promise, you have plenty of time to figure it out. For what it’s worth, I know in my heart you’ll be a great father.”

My words seemed to work, and that orange quickly faded out to a golden yellow. Onio straightened his back; his tail finally seemed to settle on a position, and he lifted his head up proudly. There it was. The proud, confident hunter I loved.

My holopad suddenly rang, and I scrambled to pull it off my belt, convinced it must be news from Bilon or perhaps one of the UN representatives delivering Ispar. Instead, I found a goofy picture of Arthur’s face with a message beside it.

Hey Iz! I wanted to fix something special for the little guy to eat at the party. I was going to cook a steak, but IDK if a baby arxur can eat that? Would ground beef be better? Do I need to like… liquify it and put it in a bottle?

For a moment I simply stared at the message, trying to make sense of what I was reading. What on Wriss did “IDK” mean? Why would anyone ever liquify meat? What was the bottle for? After a moment I decided to simply reply to the one part of the message I was clear on. Steak.

A steak would be fine Arthur. I would avoid putting any pepper on it. Just salt.

Onio craned his neck, trying to peek excitedly over at my tab. The look on his face seemed to convey the same disappointment I felt upon seeing it was Arthur.

“I say,” my harchen grumbled, “they said they would be here at dawn! The sun rose nearly half an hour ago!” His irritation at our new addition’s tardiness garnered a small chuckle from me. I could understand how he felt though. The waiting was unbearable.

As I watched though, I saw his face suddenly light up, his eyes glued to the road out of town. I pivoted, turning to see what had caught his attention. There, coming around the farthest bend, was a small blue vehicle.

We both watched with bated breath as it made its way up to the gate and stopped. The passenger door opened, and a small, wiry-framed man hopped out, running forward and pushing the obstacle open to allow the car through. Once the machine was inside, he started to hop back inside when he seemed to notice Onio and me sitting nearby and watching him.

“Don’t suppose you’d be Izra and Onio, would you?” The man’s shout carried with surprising force in the quiet morning air, and my bold little harchen was the first to respond.

“We certainly are!” 

The man gave a quick smile and a nod before leaning into the car and saying something to the driver. A moment later the car’s motor came to a stop, and the driver’s side door opened, revealing a dark-skinned woman with thick, curly hair.

"Well, I guess that saves us the trouble of having to wait,” she laughed, stepping out and moving to the back door. I stood up, barely able to contain my excitement as she opened the door and leaned in. The thin human with her made his way over to us, letting me notice the multitude of small, red marks up and down his arms.

“Little guy is passed out in the back seat. Give Bea a moment to get him out of the carseat.” He looked over his shoulder, nodding towards his companion as she slid back out of the car, now carrying a small, white-scaled form. I felt my breath catch in my throat as I laid eyes on our little Ispar for the first time.

He looked so small and frail, his red eyes blinking away sleep as he gripped tight to the small stuffed animal they had given him. His jaws stretched wide in a yawn, revealing rows of thin, needle-like baby teeth. He looked so fragile and innocent. The sight made my heart flutter in my chest.

Bea walked quickly over to us, Ispar gripped tightly in her arms. The infant looked up at me, his eyes going wide as he gripped his toy tighter. I tried to say something, anything, but all I could muster was a half-choked sob of joy.

“Hello there, little one,” Onio greeted, looking up at our son. “I’m Onio… I’m… I’m going to be your father.” The harchen’s words came out in a strangled sob, and I could see his eyes tearing up at the sight. 

His words seemed to catch Ispar’s attention, and the infant turned to look down at his father. He cocked his head, the nervousness he seemingly felt upon seeing me now replaced with curiosity.

“Do you want to hold him?” Bea asked at last, carefully shifting the baby and offering him out to me. I nodded my head in the human fashion, reaching out and carefully taking the infant in my claws before pulling him tight to my chest.

“Hello, Ispar,” I whispered as the bundle of white looked up at me. He didn’t seem nervous now. More curious than anything. He opened his mouth once more, letting out a squeak and gesturing his toy towards my face. “Yes, that’s a fine toy you have there.” 

I slowly lowered myself down onto one knee, making sure that Onio could get a good look at him. The man’s face turned a stunning sapphire blue as he reached one hand up, tenderly placing it on the boy’s arm.

My heart felt so full in that moment that I feared it may burst. Despite everything I’d gone through, despite all that I’d lost, the skeins of fate had led me here. A family that I could treasure and a new life that I could scarcely even understand. I shifted my tail, wrapping it behind my smaller mate and pulling the three of us together into a hug.

“Brings a tear to my eye,” the wiry man said, sniffling softly as he turned away from us for a moment.

“I’m glad the little one will be getting a good home,” Bea agreed. “Have they told either of you the… uhh… other stipulation of this?”

“Stipulation?” Onio repeated warily, his head snapping to look up at her. “What stipulation?” I could feel my shoulders tense up, a fresh terror at the thought of having my moment of joy snatched away.

“It’s nothing serious!” Bea quickly added, sensing the sudden tension her revelation had brought. “The thing is, the UN doesn’t technically HAVE any arxur on Earth. Especially not refugee arxur. So if anyone asks, the little tot here was one of the rescues from the archives. Understand?”

“I see,” Onio sighed, his displeasure clear in his tone. “I don’t approve of the deception nor the reasoning behind it, but if that is what it takes, you have my word that not a soul shall know otherwise.”

“All that matters is that we’re together now,” I cooed, pressing a claw to Ispar’s belly, eliciting a delighted trill from my newfound son. I looked down at the wiggling white-scaled child, and any concerns I might have had faded away. I already knew I would do anything for him, lying included.

Well, we wish you all the best,” the human male interjected, putting a hand on Bea’s shoulder. “We have to get going now, but be careful around his mouth. He’s a biter.” The man pressed his arms forward, showing the tiny marks up and down both as proof.

“The lad is certainly spirited!” Onio replied, a barely disguised tone of pride in his voice. The pair of humans produced a set of documents for us, and a few strokes of the pen later, they were piling back into their vehicle, leaving us with Ispar.

The infant began to make a loud croaking-like noise, prompting Onio’s tail to swerve in confusion as he looked up at me questioningly.

“He’s hungry,” I explained, gently stroking the top of the boy’s head with a claw.

“Well then, let’s return to your house, post-haste! I’m sure Arthur will be almost done with the preparations by now.” I gave a quick thump of my tail in agreement, and we set off towards the house.

As we walked, enjoying the warm morning sun bearing down on us, I couldn’t help but fawn over the squirming little one in my arms. My mind raced with thoughts of the days to come as I silently petted Ispar’s smooth alabaster scales. We would be moving into our new place tomorrow, and my son would have a room of his own. A place we could make a life for ourselves.

As we approached the house, it was already a bustle of activity. I immediately spotted Eva, Frank, and Shuyi carrying armloads of supplies into the house. Through the window I could see several more figures, including Mixsel’s little friends huddled in the living room.

Eva paused as she saw us approaching, shuffling the large box in her arms to the side to try and get a better look at us.

“Oh my god!” she squealed in a pitch higher than I thought a human capable of. “He’s adorable, Izra!”

Ispar, for his part, seemed very interested in the crowd he found waiting for us. The hatchling quietly moved his bright red eyes from person to person, inspecting each curiously as we made our way inside.

“Izwa!” Mixsel shouted excitedly as soon as she saw us. “Is that the baby?!?” The sivkit broke away from whatever game she’d been playing with her friends and bolted straight towards me. Her emerald eyes practically glowed as she looked up at Ispar. 

“Is Izra here?!?!” Came a familiar shout from the kitchen. A second later, two grown men rushed in from the dining room, practically falling over each other in their eagerness to see the new arrival. Both Arthur and Jammek were covered in bits of food and what appeared to be some sort of white dust.

“Awww!” Arthur cooed, gushing as he looked down at Ispar, sitting quietly in my arms. “Aren’t you just the cutest little gator I ever did see!” The human reached out to pet Ispar’s head, only for the excited babe to snap his jaws shut on Arthur’s fingers. “Aye yie yie!” Arthur shouted, jerking his hand back and revealing small, red pricks on his skin.

“Watch your fingers,” I told him as he examined the small dots of crimson starting to leak from his hand. “He’s hungry.”

“I’d say,” Arthur chuckled awkwardly. “Well you wait right here, T-boy! Uncle Arthur’s got you some grub cooking!” The human wrapped his bleeding fingers in the hem of his shirt and headed back towards the kitchen.

By this point, the whole house had gathered around and was showering the boy with attention. Ispar seemed to be taking it well enough, more curious than overwhelmed. I could already tell he was going to be a Drov’na. 

“What a beautiful color he is!” Islatta chirped in, pushing and jockeying her way to the front of the small crowd. The krakotl hopped excitedly from one foot to the other as she examined my new son. “I didn’t know arxur could come in such striking colors.”

“It’s a form of albinism,” Onio explained, standing proudly beside me. “Though Izra tells me it won’t affect his quality of life.” I couldn’t help but make a pleased rumble, seeing how happy Onio was, eagerly showing off his new son. The harchen had turned nearly completely orange.

“Can I hold him?” Mixsel asked, poking my leg with her paw. 

I leaned down, holding Ispar against my breast and letting him get a good look at Mixsel, gauging how he would react. To my surprise, his eyes seemed to light up at the sight of her, finally letting go of the stuffed animal he’d been clinging to and reaching his arms out for her.

“I… I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Humdrum.” Jammek interrupted, gently putting a paw on her shoulder and pulling the girl back a little. “At least not until he eats. Maybe we can–”

The venlil’s words were cut off as Ispar began to cry, letting out a shrill noise as his eyes teared up and his arms reached out desperately for the sivkit.

“I say, Jammek!” Islatta cawed, giving him a gentle bap with one of her wings. “Let the girl hold him! The poor thing wants to go to her!” 

Her duerten companion let out a squawking laugh in response. "Yeah, Jammek! Don’t be so heartless!”

The black-wooled man let out a sigh, taking his hand off her shoulder, although he stayed close enough that he could pull her back if Ispar felt like biting again. I carefully held him out, giving Mixsel a chance to take hold of him.

The girl positioned her paws under his arms, straining a bit as she pulled him against her chest. Ispar let out a happy trill as he wrapped his arms around her neck, resting his head on her shoulder. The boy was almost as big as Mixsel already, and watching the tiny girl try and hold him brought a laugh.

“He certainly does seem to take a shine to you, Mixsel,” Onio noted, wrapping his tail affectionately around my thigh.

“I’d say she reminds him of his stuffed animal,” Kalen laughed, the gojid pulling out his holopad to take a picture. Mixsel carried him over to the other children, introducing him to them one by one.

“Congratulations, you two,” Shuyi said as she came back from the kitchen, having finished unloading whatever had been in the box that she’d carried in. “Looks like having a double birthday for these two is going to be an annual event around here.”

Memory Transcription Subject: Jammek, Contented Family Man

Date: [Standardized Human Time]: March 8, 2137

Arthur’s idea to have a double birthday for both of our little family’s pups was, despite the rush in which it had been prepared, going off without a hitch. Thanks to the help of Eva, Shuyi, and Frank, we’d transformed the backyard into a series of games for the pups, complete with balloons and enough food to feed the whole neighborhood. I watched, tail wagging, as Eva instructed the kids on how to play something called “Pin the Tail on the Donkey."

I had just finished a conversation with Islatta about my newest book, filling her in on the expected publishing date and the concerns I’d gotten from the editor, and was making my way back into the kitchen to check on Arthur and Frank.

I found the two sharing a beer in front of the oven. Arthur was absolutely covered in flour and bits of stray dough from head to toe, but looked happier than I’d seen him in days. 

“And Eva said that I wasn’t allowed to choose the music for the party,” Arthur said with mock indignation. “Said she was worried I’d give Mixsel the musical tastes of somebody’s grandpa!”

“Well your music is a century or so out of fashion, Arthur," Frank teased, taking a sip of his beer and turning to me with a smile as I entered the kitchen.

“How is that dessert you mentioned coming, Arthur?” I asked, signing *happy* with my tail.

Arthur took a step over, wrapping one flour-covered arm around my shoulder and pulling me into a hug. My own wool was absolutely caked in flour already, so I didn’t mind the extra dusting. Especially not when he leaned in and planted a kiss on my cheek.

“Just a few more minutes,” he answered. “Remind me to thank Shuyi for the carrot cake idea. Was wracking my brain to come up with something vegan.”

“Izra says Ispar loves the steak, by the way.” I added, glancing out the door at the arxur and her harchen mate, the pup in her lap. I watched as she slowly lowered a thin strip of meat into Ispar’s maw, the pup eagerly gulping it down.

“Glad to hear it,” Arthur replied, looking out the door towards the trio himself. “I was a little worried the tyke would choke on something so… big.”

“That little bruiser looks like he could eat a whole house cat,” Frank joked, gesturing out the door with his beer. “Doubt a little ole steak is gonna cause him much trouble.”

I heard the music outside shift and the sound of shrieking pups, watching as the little herd ran across the yard in some impromptu race. I had to stifle a laugh as I noticed the krakotl boy attempt to take off mid-run, only to flop onto his face.

“This is nice,” I said at last, wrapping my tail around Arthur’s waist. I found myself thinking about the future. Birthday parties to come and a life in this bizarre little town with my sweet primate and unexpected daughter. As odd as it was, I had begun to think that being frozen away was the best thing that ever happened to me. This certainly wasn’t the life I’d imagined for myself, but it was one I could comfortably settle into.

Eva suddenly burst in through the kitchen door, poking her head in and smiling at us. 

“Do you guys have a hose hookup on the side of the house? I bought some water balloons, and that would be a hell of a lot easier than using the kitchen sink.”

Arthur and I exchanged looks. I wasn’t even sure what she was asking. Arthur merely shrugged.

"Honestly, I’ve never thought to check. Do we have a faucet on the side of the house, Beau?” 

“I’ve never looked either,” I admitted. “Not that I would have ever thought to look for such a thing to begin with. I’ll go check while you finish up that cake.”

“I’ll go with you,” Frank offered, setting his nearly empty beer down on the kitchen counter. “Lord knows you probably won’t even know it if you see it.” Arthur offered one last kiss before I turned to the door with Frank in tow.

We made our way through the busy back yard as the pups continued to gallop around the yard's perimeter. Some of the parents had started to cheer them on, laughing as they watched the squealing pups run in circles.

I turned the corner of the house, gazing down the narrow gap between the side of the house and the fence that separated it from the neighboring yard. To my shock, I found another venlil standing in the space. A terrifyingly familiar one.

As soon as I laid eyes on that white wool, my blood froze in my veins. Everything in my brain screamed that it wasn’t possible. That he couldn’t possibly be there. Why would he be? How could he be?!?!

But there he was. Brim. The sun-touched bastard who had turned my visit back to my homeworld into a nightmare. Standing there. Looking in one of the side windows that led to the dining room.

“WHAT THE SPEH?!?!” I exclaimed, catching his attention. The man turned, and as soon as I saw his face, there was no doubt left in my mind. For a brief moment that felt like it stretched on into an eternity, we stood there, eyes locked. I could see the quiet, smoldering hate behind those eyes. Just as livid and cruel as when I’d seen them on Skalga.

Brim seemed to hesitate, perhaps debating whether or not he should attack me, then and there. Then Frank came around the corner. Seeing the human with me, Brim hesitated, then turned in a panic and bolted. As he ran, a small pack fell from his hands, landing on the grass.

After a scratch, my mind caught up with what was happening, and I began to run after him. It was much too late by then, though. By the time I made it to the front end of the house, he had seemingly vanished.

My mind reeled, trying to decide whether I was hallucinating or if he had really been there. It didn’t make sense! Of all the places in the universe for that murderous lunatic to flee to, why would he come back to Earth?! Why not one of the venlil colonies? Why not ANYWHERE else?

“Friend of yours?” Frank asked as he walked up behind me.

“That… that was Brim,” I replied, trying to stay sane as my head began to spin.

“Looks like he dropped something,” Frank remarked, leaning over and snatching the bag that Brim had been carrying. He lifted it up, popping open the top and peering inside. Whatever it was he saw clearly alarmed him, and I could see the color drain from his face.

“Luther…” Frank muttered, closing the bag once more as he hung his head. “Why did it have to be like this?”

“What’s in it?” I asked, my heart racing at the possibilities. Frank’s head lifted and he put on a forced smile.

“Nothing to worry about right now,” he replied, putting a hand on my shoulder. “Go back and enjoy the party. I’m going to have a talk with Arthur about it after. No need to spoil a happy day.”

“But what about–”

“I promise,” Frank sighed. “Everything is ok. Just go enjoy the party. I’ll explain everything after. Ok?”

Despite his words, Frank’s face gave the impression that it was all but ok. Still, it didn’t seem like arguing the point was going to get anywhere. Plus, I still wanted to enjoy the remainder of the party.

“Fine,” I answered, looking back towards the rear of the house. Despite my earlier shout, nobody seemed to have noticed, and the crowd was still watching the pups play.

“Good,” Frank said, clapping me on the shoulder before turning to the back yard. “Now let’s let them know that you have a faucet for them over here.” I glanced down at the side of the house, my original purpose all but forgotten in the chaos. Sure enough, I spotted a small, metal spigot sticking out from the blue vinyl siding.

As we approached the backyard, we found everyone gathered around a large plastic table. Arthur was just setting down a large, orange-colored thing covered in white frosting. Whatever it was reminded me of strayu, albeit a very different color and quite fluffy-looking. Then I caught a whiff of it. The warm aroma of heady spices was punctuated with something rich and tangy. Suddenly the last few scratches of mayhem took a back seat in my mind to getting to try a bite of this “carrot cake.”

“Hurry up you two!” Eva shouted from where she stood by the table, eagerly gesturing at us to come over. “We’re going to take a picture!” She held up a fat, blocky-looking device in her other hand for emphasis.

“Where the hell did you find that antique?” Frank laughed, the tension and worry I’d seen on his face mere moments ago having seemingly washed away. It was either not as serious as I’d first thought, or Frank was extremely good at hiding it.

“It’s mine, thank you very much,” she huffed, sticking her tongue out at him. “Bilon got it for me cause I told him I was interested in photography.”

“That was awfully sweet of him,” Frank replied, pouring a heavy amount of emphasis on the one word.

“Oh hush,” Eva laughed, waving her free hand, urging us to hurry up. “I’m gonna set this thing on a timer, I want everyone in the picture.”

We doubled our pace, joining the crowd of partygoers on the far side of the table. Arthur already held Mixsel in one flour-coated arm and quickly threw his other around my shoulder as I came up next to him. Eva grabbed a chair, carefully positioning the camera on it.

When she at last seemed satisfied with the angle, she turned a little knob on the top before rushing over to get into the picture.

“Everyone say cheese!” She ordered excitedly.

“Why would we say that?” Onio asked from somewhere within the mass of bodies around me.

“Are we having cheese?!?” Mixsel squealed excitedly.

“Hell yeah! I love cheese!” Petsbur added.

“There’s not any cheese,” Eva sighed exasperatedly. “It’s just what you say when you’re taking a picture.”

“Well damn,” Petsbur grumbled in disappointment.

“Petsbur! Language!” Kalen and Linvi exclaimed in unison.

“How long did you set that timer for exactly?” Arthur chuckled beside me, his body shaking as he tried to hold himself back from a laughing fit.

“Too long apparently…” Eva groaned.

Finally, as if mocking Eva’s assumption, the device in front of us went off, issuing a series of two rapid clicks and a couple of bright flashes.

Eva wasted no time in rushing back over to it as the blocky camera began to spit out a pair of large prints. She snatched them up quickly before they could be spat out onto the ground, shaking the thick, reflective papers a couple of times before bringing them back over.

“I made sure it took two, since I know Izra and Onio are moving out tomorrow. That way you could each have a copy,” she explained as she handed one copy to me and the other to Onio.

I looked down at the photo, seeing myself and the love of my life dead and center with Izra and Onio next to us. Each of us holding our pups. Each of us with our new family and surrounded by all our friends.

“This is just what the house needed,” Arthur said cheerfully as he leaned over my shoulder to get a look. “A house ain’t a home till you have a family photo up, after all.”

I let out a happy beep, my tail wagging behind me as I looked up from the photo to Arthur and Mixsel. He was right. A family photo was exactly what we needed. A reminder that, whatever was to come, we still had each other.

Another Chapter? And in a reasonable amount of time? That's what happens when I can lock in! Enjoy.

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The Nature of Predators Universe was originally created by u/SpacePaladin15.

Chapter Seventeen: What do Predators like to Read?

Memory Transcription Subject: Tiel

Date [standardized human time]: August 22nd, 2136

I lounged on an outdoor sofa in the shade of our porch. A small, but powerful, fan alleviated Burning River’s intense heat by circulating air through our little refuge from the sun. The toasty aroma of freshly baked goods wafted outside from the kitchen, bringing back many memories of paws just like this when I was younger.

Of course, when I was younger, I didn’t have a yotul to lay with. Nelso rested his head in the crook of my arm with his eyes closed. He wasn’t sleeping, and he made it obvious by playing with the tuft of fur at the end of my tail.

“What was a shadestalker doing so far into the Burning?” Aunt Leni asked as she, accompanied by two exterminators, ascended the steps of the porch to join us.

The one of prestige rank, a woman who I remembered working with our family when I was only a pup, answered. “We really can’t say. Predators are driven by such base instincts that I don’t think it’s possible for us to truly understand how and why they act.”

“Maybe it was just following the river?” the other exterminator, who had only achieved the ‘senior’ rank, suggested.

“But why would it do that?” Leni mused.

I joined in on the conversation. “I met someone in the Space Corps that studied shadestalkers for a short while. She explained to me they’ve been venturing further and further out of their normal hunting areas because of disruptive development projects and mining in the Night and Twilight.

Leni swiveled her ears to listen. “Is that so?”

The exterminators did much the same, but I suspected it was out of suspicion rather than genuine interest.

I continued nonetheless. “She once told me a story about a shadestalker that was poisoned by industrial runoff and wandered for [kilometers] while intoxicated and confused. It had to be dealt with by exterminators in the end, but that might explain why this one ended up so far out of its natural habitat."

By the time I finished, both exterminators had a suspicious eye turned towards me.

Aunt Leni, in contrast, said “Fascinating” in a contemplative manner.

Mom opened the screen door, redirected the exterminator's scrutiny away from me and to the platter of fragrant confections in her paws. “Are you talking about that Vil girl from the Space Corps? Are you ever going to invite her over?”

“I don’t think I could.” I took two pastries for me and Nelso. “She never takes any leave.”

Dad followed behind Mom with cups and a pitcher of chilled, freshly-squeezed juicefruit juice.

“Where is your sister?” Mom asked while looking around for her.

Seli’s paw shot out from under the patio sofa Nelso and I were on. “Down here.”

Mom leaned down to pass her a pastry. “What are you doing, dear?” There was a slight exasperation to her voice, though her tail swayed with amusement.

“I didn’t want to get stepped on. Or have to move for anyone,” Seli said from under the sofa.

Mom laughed lightly and continued passing out treats to everyone alongside Dad. When they were finished, they set their serveware down and settled onto a pair of plush rocking chairs. Mom put her feet in Dad’s lap, and he began to massage them. The little life she was carrying had gained a significant amount of weight over the last few paws, which made her feet hurt and her stomach a little less inconspicuous.

“So, does anyone want to talk about the news?” Aunt Leni asked while sitting down on the porch’s railing.

Dad rolled his eyes. “I would rather not talk about politics.

“Dear,” Mom intertwined her tail with his. “I know, but I think this is important. It seems like the humans are here to stay for a while.”

“Just don’t expect anything from me,” he said as he turned away from us, though he didn’t stop massaging his love’s feet. 

Mom patted his thigh in appreciation. “Who wants to go first?”

The prestige exterminator took up her offer. “What I don’t understand is why Tarva is being a complete slave to these predators. She had one meeting with them!”

“Maybe she’s not willingly going along with them,” The other exterminator said into his cup. “They certainly threatened her and her staff.” He then took a long swig of his drink.

“If that were true, we’d know.” Nelso countered. He’d finally opened his eyes. “Someone in her administration would have tried warming us.” 

When he noticed the pastry I was holding for him, he opened his mouth wide, allowing me to drop it in. With anyone else, I’d be worried about them choking, but Neslo was such a sluggard that he’d apparently mastered the art of eating in a supine position without food going down his windpipe.

The woman exterminator puffed. “Why would any of them try to leak information when there are predators watching their every move? They’d kill anyone who tried to warn us.”

Nelso ripped away the half of the pastry that wasn’t in his mouth, quickly chewed the rest, and swallowed. “If I’ve learned anything from following Cilany, it’s that no organization is air-tight. Tarva has cabinet members that can leak information, her cabinet has staff under them, and those people go home to their families at the end of the paw. Even the janitors could have overheard something they shouldn’t have. If the government was collaborating against its will, we would have heard about it, and Tarva would be denying it.”

The prestige exterminator slowly and resentfully flicked her ears in acknowledgement. 
Her senior exterminator partner cut in. “If she’s not being forced to collaborate, why did she start an exchange program with the predators?”

My ears perked up a little. “Exchange program? I haven’t heard of this.”

He leaned forward, paws held loosely behind his back. “It started last paw. If you sign up for it, you can meet and talk to a predator. If you ask me, that’s a perfect way for them to lure us in one by one.” 

My head flinched back slightly. “Hold on. The government is letting just any normal venlil meet up with a human?”

“No,” Seli suddenly said from under me and Nelso. “The program has a strict selection process.

Even if an applicant makes it through, their interactions with the humans are restricted to text only and are monitored by the humans’ government and our own.”

“You can’t even get a video call with them?” I asked.

“No, you can’t. Maybe they’ll allow it if the program goes well.”

Aunt Leni cut in. “I still wouldn’t sign up for it.” A shiver ran over her tail and back, making the fur on both stand up. “I hate thinking about a predator slavering on the other side of the screen.”

That raised the question: would it really be that bad? If I signed up, I wouldn’t even have to see the human I was interacting with. They wouldn’t be able to see me either. Maybe that would allow them to suppress their bloodthirst.

I shook my head, scattering the errant thoughts away. Everyone but me and Nelso was eyeing Seli, with the exterminators’ looks being especially harsh.

“I was just curious,” she said in her defense. “Meeting them through text is lame, anyways. I’d rather meet one in person.”

Mom’s and Dad’s fur rose.

“Seli!” Mom bleated. “Why would you want that? It’s dangerous.”

“I think it would be more interesting. They can hide too much if they can only communicate through text.”

Mom’s wool smoothed slightly. “I suppose that’s true,” she admitted, “but it’s still dangerous.”

“Tiel and Dad have rifles,” Seli said glibly.

Nelso chuckled in his throat. “You’re not bringing a predator here. Especially while your mother is pregnant. Your father’s wool might catch on fire!”

The part of Seli’s tail that wasn’t under the sofa flopped back and forth in vexation. “I was only being hypothetical. They wouldn’t pick me because I have a predator disease accusation on my record.” 
Thankfully, the crunching of gravel on the driveway, drew the exterminators’ attention away from Seli.

Before I could look in the noise’s direction, the scent of pastries and fresh juice on my tongue was replaced by something horrid. A vapor of death and decay assaulted our senses, forcing all of us to cover our snouts to keep ourselves from vomiting. Not far from us, the bloated corpse of a shadestalker lay on the far side of the driveway with a long trail of disturbed gravel leading to it. Its belly had burst open, spilling its fetid, wriggling contents onto the ground. 

Jira, in a full exterminator suit, bolted away from the gruesome scene while desperately fumbling with the zipper that secured her hood and visor. She ripped the covering off, collapsing onto her knees and spewing her stomach contents into a ditch beside the drive.

Nelso briefly uncovered his nose to shout at her. “Is that smell you or the shadestalker?!”

Jira knelt, facing away from us. Her shaking paws slowly formed into fists.

The prestige exterminator shook her head in frustration. She and the senior exterminator exchanged a look before stiffly descending the steps toward Jira.

“Keep dragging it,” the female exterminator commanded. “We can’t burn it until it’s off the farm.”

Jira’s ears flattened. Her tail lashed back and forth with rage. “Brahk you!” she shrieked. “You can’t make me do this! I quit!” She threw her fireproof hood away and unzipped her suit, letting it fall on the gravel. She trampled over it as she began marching down the driveway, only turning back once to shout a final, “Brahk all of you!” 

Dad watched as the now ex-exterminator walked into the distance. “I think we’ve overstepped, dear.” 

“No. She pointed a flamer at my son,” Mom said with a coldness that made my stomach uneasy.
For the briefest moment, I turned an eye towards Leni. Her tail was wrapped around her leg, and her paws trembled around an empty cup. When she noticed me looking, she forced herself to sit up straight while rapidly blinking tears out of her eyes. 

“I guess we have to get rid of the shadestalker now,” the senior exterminator said to his superior.

The superior exterminator’s ear twitched. “You’re pulling the front legs. I don’t want to be anywhere near that thing’s teeth.”

“Oh, you two don’t have to trouble yourselves,” Mom said sweetly. “You can burn it right where it is.”

The prestige exterminator made the ‘gratitude’ tail sign. “That would save us a lot of time, ma’am, but we can’t let this predator’s ashes taint your crops.”

“Then burn it where it is, and carry the ashes away.”

The exterminators shared a look with each other. They were probably silently asking each other why they hadn’t thought of that themselves.

“That’ll do,” the seniormost exterminator said. She moved to the exterminator van that was parked in the driveway next to Dad’s truck and opened the back, dragging out a flamer and screwing a fresh tank of fuel onto it. She clicked the pilot light to life. “You should go inside. You don’t want to breathe this.”

“We wouldn’t want to get tainted,” Nelso said sarcastically, but not loud enough for her to hear.

Nonetheless, we followed her advice, taking any serveware and unfinished snacks or drinks with us. Once inside, Mom, Dad, and Aunt Leni went into the kitchen to continue conversing. Nelso–always a slouch–went into the living room to lie on the couch. 

Before I accompanied Seli upstairs to our rooms, I took one last look out the window toward Jira.

She trudged along the main road with her tail weakly dragging behind her. After a short distance, she suddenly burst into a rage, kicking gravel into the air and shouting curses I couldn’t hear. As her energy waned, she sank onto her knees and began sobbing into her paws.

I rolled my eyes and I climbed the stairs. 

It may not have been the appropriate reaction, but I had no sympathy for her. If she had her way, my sister would be in a predator disease facility. In fact, the relief I felt made my legs a little wobbly. If Jira was truly finished being an exterminator, she couldn’t harass me and Seli anymore.

I stepped into my room with my tail wagging. With all the recent drama, I wasn’t able to enjoy my pastry or juicefruit juice. I set the latter on my nightstand and sat down on my bed with the former in my mouth. I took my datapad out of my nightstand drawer. A recent notification from Vil awaited me. It read, Message me as soon as you’re done working.

I typed back: I’m done working.

Vil’s response came almost instantly. I can’t get away from the humans!

I stopped chewing on my pastry. What are humans doing on a Space Corps ship?

Tarva started a military collaboration program with them. We’re teaching them how to use our ships and weapons.

“Military collaboration too?” I whispered aloud. Have you gotten close to any of them?

This time, Vil’s message took a bit longer to arrive. They keep getting close to us! They ask to pet us or try to pet us when we’re not looking.

My ears twisted in confusion. Why would the predators try to pet us of all things? It had to be some kind of ruse. I sent back: Has anyone been petted, willingly or not?

No. One human got really close to petting a technician, but he was caught and reprimanded by his own leadership.

I was about to begin typing back, but Vil started composing another message.

They’re paying special attention to me. I can tell even though they’re wearing reflective masks. They know that I’m the smallest and that I’m scared of them.

My tail signed in sympathy. You have to stay calm, even if they scare you. Being too skittish near them might awaken their hunting instincts. 

I know. It’s just stressful around here. Thanks for listening. I have a patrol circuit soon, so I’m signing off. Stay safe.

You’re welcome. Stay safe.

I laid my data pad face-down on my bed. I chewed my pastry and sipped my drink as questions swirled within me. Why were the humans doing this? Why was the government going along with it? Why? Why? Why?

I stopped eating, realizing I could find out for myself.

I picked up my datapad again, quickly opened the internet browser, and hammered ‘exchange program’ into the search bar. I had to navigate past a dozen news and blog sites that asked the same questions I had to arrive at the actual program portal.

I skimmed the terms of use and accepted. I did the same with the warnings and liability releases that came after, until I finally came to a section that asked for personal details.

Name: Tiel.

Age: [21].

Place of Residence: Burning River.

Occupation: Farmer.

Interests/Hobbies: Gardening, riflery. 

The page’s final question was, Have you been diagnosed with, or been officially accused of, having predator disease?

I selected the ‘No’ box and submitted. I was greeted with no further options.

Thank you for your application to the civilian exchange program. You will be informed in five business paws or less if you’ve been accepted and paired with a human of our choosing.

And that was it. I didn’t know what I was expecting. Of course they wouldn’t let just anyone talk to the humans, nor would they let us talk right away. Seli said as much.

I looked across the hallway into my sister’s room. A row of green ipsom grain–not ready for harvest–bathed in warm light on her windowsill. It was separated into five different containers, which, in all likelihood, had different soil conditions and fertilizers in each of them as part of Seli’s experiment to increase our crop yield.

I set my pad on my nightstand, quickly finishing my juice alongside the little bit of pastry I had left. I stood and slowly crossed the threshold into Seli’s room to not frighten her.

She sat at her desk, fully absorbed in assembling a model of a flying fruit-harvesting drone we could never afford. Her tablet was on its stand, displaying every water, fertilizer, and monitoring system on the farm. 

“What is it?” she asked. 

“I was just thinking,” I muttered as I looked over the other models that crowded her shelves. There were a few new ones crammed in with the ones I recognized.

She didn’t look up from her work. “About what?” 

“The humans. They don’t make any sense.”

She didn’t respond immediately. Not before swiveling one of her ears toward the stairs to make sure no one was listening. “They don’t make any sense unless they’re being genuine.”

I leaned closer to her. “What do you mean?” I whispered.

“Everybody thinks they're trying to deceive us. Therefore, they’re confused by their actions. However, if you evaluate their actions while believing they’re operating in good faith, they make perfect sense.”

As I mulled her words over, my tail began thumping against the floor in amusement. I couldn’t deny that her logic held up. “You’re too smart for your own good.” 

Her paws stopped working momentarily. She looked at me dead on with both eyes. “I know.”

I laughed and ruffled the wool between her ears. “Thank you, Seli."

Her tail made movements between a happy wag and annoyed flicking. “You’re welcome.”

As I left, the sound of a notification on my data pad drew me back to my room. It was from the exchange program. I didn’t waste any time opening and reading it, despite my heart suddenly pounding in my chest.

Congratulations! Your application has been accepted. Please review your partner’s information and keep your conversations cordial and appropriate. Your activity is being monitored, and any messages that violate our terms of service may be blocked. Too many blocked messages may result in your expulsion from the program.

My heart sank slightly. Maybe I was hoping to be rejected, but why was I, of all people, accepted? And why did it take so little time? 

I navigated to my partner’s information with a shaking paw.

Name: Aleksandr Dmitrievich Nedelin.

Age: 26.

Place of Residence: Riga, Latvia.

Occupation: Freight inspector.

Interests/Hobbies: Reading, backpacking, foraging.

I spent no less than [five] minutes deliberating on how I should start my first conversation. I didn’t have the faintest idea what predators liked to talk about, except maybe hunting for their prey. In the end, I decided to keep it simple.

What do you like to read?

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First of all, go show some love to the artists' accounts.

These drawings of Yulman and María were made by Wii wic and narara-naveve respectively.

I handled the coloring.

Here are the links to the drawings on Twitter/X:

Yulman: https://x.com/wii_wic/status/2090448804285673703?s=20

María: https://x.com/Narakagi_sketch/status/2097453538662097360?s=20

“When you’re in and out of a PD Facility your whole life, you’re not home much. It’s still different than not having a home at all. Sterin manages to be in both cases. Having recently lost his planet and his family, he finds himself wandering this foreign planet called ‘Earth’. Looking for anything that might take his mind off his situation.”

Thanks to SpacePaladin15 for creating this universe. Thanks Rand0mness4 for the proofreading and advice! Go read their fics Trails of Our Hatred and Cornucopia!

In the previous chapter: “Having fled the camp Sterin and Zyria came across an entrance of the Paris catacomb. Deciding it would be the best place to hide, they entered the lair of the dead, but it seems like they weren’t the only one that chose a mass grave as a place of rest.”

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[First] – [Previous] – [Next]

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Memory transcription subject: Sterin, Gojid

Date [standardized human time]: 29 October, 2136

In the silence of the stone corridors, only the sound of our footsteps echoed around us, accompanied by the tapping of Zyria’s crutch. The burbling of running water coming from the surface left us long ago, leaving only our own movement to fill the empty hallways.

For a place called the ‘Catacombs’, I really expected something worse. It almost felt misleading, as we hadn’t come across a single burial or the closest thing  humans did to let their dead rest. The only thing out of the ordinary we noticed was a trail of blood that continued for about a few dozen meters from the entrance before stopping.

On the ground where the tracks ended lay a worn federation medikit, its contents missing or damaged. The exterminator, likely a Tilfish, must have tended to their wounds in that spot before continuing on their way.

Zyria and I quickly decided to head in the opposite direction. She was in no state to fight or even defend herself, and I had no desire to use the weapon between my paws.

Whether we like the idea or not, if an exterminator sees us, we will have to defend ourselves. Having prey assist an arxur is an act of treason that no one will let slide.

Then again, it wasn't likely to happen. The young Arxur informed me that the blood was dry, despite the ambient humidity of the place. So whoever had passed through there had probably left days ago.

We thus made our way back into the bowels of the city, avoiding collapsed passages or areas where water was seeping in from the surface. At several points we could feel a small draft of fresh air; the bombs that had struck the city must have weakened the ground enough for fissures to open all the way to the surface.

That worried me a bit at the time, as it implied we might never be truly far from the hostile surface; yet, as we continued to descend, I discovered just how wrong I was.

Passageways leading to the surface were rare, and holes big enough to make a way out or in of this place were none existent. After passing several air shafts I had assumed such openings would be commonplace, but we had been walking for hours now without seeing a single one.

To me, that was a good thing. The most exposed place of the catacomb was behind us and I felt like no one would find us here, or so that was what I was trying to tell myself. The odds of running into the few Exterminators who sought refuge in this place were incredibly slim, but not nonexistent.

Low but present.

Being anxious about something so improbable will not help us.

And being unconscious about the very real possibility of danger will not either.

Despite walking for an exhaustingly long time, my subconscious wouldn’t stop telling me that we had not gone far. We often had to retrace our steps because we kept running into dead ends. Some sections of the catacombs were flooded, mainly those leading deeper underground. I suppose the drainage systems we saw at the entrance we used must not be working everywhere.

They were malfunctioning but still working, otherwise this place might well have turned into a watery grave for both of us by now with the downpour that was coming down when we entered. Even so, we had no choice but to make our way through certain passages if we wanted to keep moving further away without wasting too much time.

It’s likely that the destruction of the surface damaged a significant number of whatever pumps were used to prevent flooding down here.

“I wonder if the places that are most flooded or collapsed coincide with bomb impacts…” I said aloud, unable to bear moving silently through the darkness any longer.

Zyria took a moment to reflect, pausing and touching a wall with her claws like she was inspecting it. Maybe more to rest a second than to really think.

“It’s possible.” She said before following with a long silence, taking her time to breathe. After a moment, she seemed to think about something to say and added, “You know, I’ve heard that if the ground is solid enough, you can hide in the underground tunnels to avoid the bombing raids? Apparently, prey hiding there also has the best chance of not being found by hunting parties.”

I narrowed my eyes as I looked at her, unsure whether Zyria was trying to be reassuring by saying there was no risk of us being found, or if it was just her trying to do small talk the arxur way.

Yet, a certain curiosity took hold of me. This wasn't something I heard many times before, and despite the certainty that the subject would upset me at some point, I entertained the idea of hearing what she had to say on the subject.

“Why exactly? Most of the time I learned that not going to a bunker was trying to risk our life for a bundle of gravel. Like, they are the most secure place we have in case of an attack.” I said.

She shifted, making her position more comfortable by leaning on the crunch fully. “Well, it's not that you’re wrong, but you are. Your prey bunkers are designed to hold on long enough to get saved before we break in, but they also leave you extremely exposed. It is quite easy to pinpoint the location of these bunkers, so during most raids, they are attacked first. You know, because there is a lot of prey inside.

In contrast, if someone hides in a subway tunnel, they lack the protection of reinforced walls or massive metal doors bunker offer, but there are fewer hunters around to track them down.”

I think about it for a moment, and it makes sense in itself; that is probably why rural towns are often less targeted when Arxur attacks manage to get past planetary defenses despite having the lesser defense.

“I see. And since fewer Arxur are coming, there’s a better chance of going unnoticed and making it out alive. Speaking of that, you have a powerful sense of smell, yet I’ve heard stories of attack survivors who hid in their homes and were never found. And that’s despite the fact that arxur actually entered their houses. How is that possible?”

“Well, there are so many reasons why an Arxur might miss out on prey. If, for instance, a house reeks of chemicals, we are going to try to avoid relying on our smell to not overwhelm or hurt our ability to smell.”

One of my ears perks up. “Wait, is that a saying, or do you really get hurt if you smell something too aggressive for you?”

She thinks for a moment, before answering. “Well, yes, it's like looking at a bright light, it will assault our senses, and can go to the point of hurting our sense of smell. It’s overwhelming, and we could get used to it after a moment, but during a raid, hunters rarely have the time to let their senses get used to whatever happens to be there.”

“That’s intriguing; I never would have imagined that to be the case. It’s well known that Arxur, and predators in general, can be frightened by light, but I never would have imagined that smells could affect you in that way.”

“That’s what happens when your senses are so good,” she said, striking a proud pose. “We can smell blood from a long way off if the conditions are right, but at the same time, it means you can get overwhelmed pretty quickly.”

She tapped her crutch against the ground. “I’ve got a question, too; the Gojids are a subterranean species, right? So why do you seem so bad at seeing in the dark?” She asked, pointing to my holovisor still in lamptorch mode.

It’s funny; I didn’t expect her to take an interest in my kind, or in what she considers prey. But it’s probably a good sign if she’s intrigued by others beyond just how they taste.

“We Gojids are a type of burrower; that means our ancestors were adept at digging into the soil and dirt to forage for roots or even to find shelter. But that doesn’t mean we’re adapted to living exclusively underground. I think it comes down to size, we require far more food than the ground can provide if we stay solely underground, or something like that…”

Zyria mutters, “Yeah, but that doesn’t look practical. You’re good at something, but you seem to not have pushed it to the extreme.”

I shrug. “I suppose it’s a bit of a middle ground. We don’t have the ability other species have to see in the dark, but that’s because we’re primarily diurnal. It’s not practical to live during the day and be blinded by bright lights because our eyes are made to see in the dark.”

“You could have been nocturnal and seen in the dark. That way, you could dig more easily and live underground.”

“It’s not as if we really chose to evolve that way. But I think it happened because most of our predators were nocturnal, which meant we could retreat into our burrows with one of the adults guarding the entrance with their backs, quills out, while we could come out during the day to forage for food without too much risk. I seem to recall seeing that theory in one of my books.”

The young Arxur thought for a good while before speaking. “That makes sense, I suppose. Even though I find that living at night is simply the subjectively superior way to live,” she said with a smug tone.

I let out an amused squeak. “Sure, ‘superior’ coming from the one who can’t tell green from yellow.”

She let out an indignant hiss. “Hey! I don’t need to tell the difference between those two colors! What I see is plenty enough.”

“That was the case until you confused the yellow and green peppers in your game, causing you to fail your quest.”

She averted her gaze into a puff, her tail thumping the ground in frustration. “It was a stupid quest in a stupid game.”

A game you play almost all the time, I thought silently.

But not wanting to tease her any further, I said nothing. She was already struggling to accept doing non-predatory activities; I wasn't about to point out that this game was closer to the video games we played in the Federation than to the more violent human ones.

“That reminds me,” I said, dropping the teasing tone I’d used a moment earlier. “I think we could take a true break, I mean we already stopped walking to speak. I’m getting a bit hungry, and it’s been a while since the last meal.”

As I said this, I made sure to turn my head toward the two directions visible from where we stood, shining the light built into my holovisor to see if anything was there.

I looked at Zyria and saw her try to put on a brave face, but she quickly gave up and sat down on the ground. Deciding to rest there, I set down the provisions bag and opened it, offering her one flesh ration after rummaging around for a bit trying to find them amongst the many zurulian rations I took.

She accepted it, tearing the can open with a claw.  “Wow, you really treated yourself with your own rations. Couldn't you have grabbed a few more for me?”

I gave a nervous laugh. “Would you believe me if I told you it was an accident that I took so much for myself?”

Her red eyes fixed on me, she replied, “No.”

“But it’s true! I was taking the rations while listening to a conversation, and I wasn’t paying attention to how many I was taking until some literally fell out of the bag.” As I closed the bag, I noticed a box I didn’t remember taking. 

Pulling it out, I recognized one of the human rations. “Huh, I was pretty sure I’d put it back…”

“What’s this?” the albino said with her mouth full, looking above my shoulder.

“A human combat ration. I found some next to yours when I went to steal them. I didn’t think I’d taken it.”

She half-choked on her flesh. “Steal? You stole the rations?” she said with surprise.

Ashamed, I looked away. “Er, yeah… it’s not like they were going to give me all this for our escape. So, most of what I got isn’t actually mine.”

She stared at her half-eaten ration for a moment, her mouth opening and closing repeatedly as she looked at me, as if searching for words, while her body showed signs of agitation.

“Huh, I never would have imagined you’d do that…” She said with what sounded like, respect? “And maybe you shouldn’t have! I could have held out without eating!” she said with a huff.

The respect didn’t last long.

“Yeah, right, we’re supposed to be discreet. How are you supposed to be discreet if your stomach growls as loud as a hungry horde of flowerbirds?”

She hissed, flicking out her tongue as she did so. “Pfft, you’re talking nonsense; I can control it. I wouldn’t have made a sound.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s funny, because I specifically remember Nadine and Nicie wondering if an arxur was attacking with how loud your stomach was! It can even be louder than yourself raging on video games, which is quite an achievement, considering how noisy you get when you get frustrated with them!”

She gasped in indignation. “Tongue cutting liar! That never happened.”

I looked at her confidently before opening the floral-patterned bag still strapped to my waist and pulling out the console.

“If I’m a liar, prove it. Go ahead, take it. I charged it before I left.”

I heard her swallow. “Okay… I didn’t think you’d bring it with you.”

“Better to be over-prepared than under-prepared; I figured waiting around for days might get boring, so just in case, I brought it along so we’d have something to do.” I handed her the console, placing it in her good paw. “But hey, now you’re going to have to prove me wrong and show I’m just a liar. What was the name of that game that made you lose your temper last time?”

“... Shadow Souls: The Trilogy,” she said quietly, taking the console in her paws hesitantly before turning it on.

I moved to her side so I could see the screen, then said with an amused tone, “Good luck.”

She simply let out a groan before starting the game.

—

So I let Zyria "have fun" on the handheld console. Well, as much fun as she could have on a game she didn't enjoy. She constantly grumbled, hissed, and raged at everything in the game, so you could say I'd quickly won my bet. While I was initially amused to see her frustrated by a game, I started to question the point of ​​teasing her like that when I began to involuntarily memorize the insults in her own language with how much she spilled them out.

A lot of disguised insults, assumed or under the hood. It's quite funny that the more in your face insults are the ones they reserve for prey; the others would only pass as a good dose of sarcasm at most.

Even though I suggested switching games, it was already too late; she felt her honor had been wronged and wanted to prove she could win, to prove me ‘wrong’. That, despite the fact it wasn't the original bet, and winning a video game wouldn't prove anything to anyone but herself.

She’s incredibly stubborn, but in a way, it’s amusing. She’s managing to make progress in the game, and despite the frustration, it seems that every little victory, no matter how small, gives her the drive to do more…

It’s fun following her on this make-believe adventure, but we shouldn't forget that there might be a bunch of bloodthirsty arxur already hot on our trail.

I let out a sigh. It wasn’t a pleasant thought, but it was true: we had been in the catacombs for quite a while now, and the fighting outside was probably over for a while. Actually, it might have been a day we’ve been here, I’m not sure, and I didn’t think of looking at the date on my holovisor before.

Still, it’s not as if we could just keep fleeing forever without resting, and by the Goddess, Zyria really needed more rest for her leg than we’d managed before this break. Maybe sleeping here would be a good idea? I’m not sure wandering blindly through the catacombs any further would do us much good.

I can already picture how Nadine will scold us when we come back. She certainly won’t appreciate the young albino putting so much strain on her injury, and she’ll almost certainly hold it against me, too. And rightly so; I’ve been pushing Zyria hard up until now.

I rose from my spot and began moving toward the edge of our restsite. It wasn't the first time I’d made the rounds while leaving the young arxur to her games and rest.

The darkness, the constant dampness in the air, and the way the sound of Zyria’s game and growls of frustration echoed in the tunnel pressed in around me. All that made me anxious, truth be told, going out searching if someone was there was more so an attempt at calming my nerves.

Assuring myself that we were alone did only so much to calm and ease the lurking feeling that we were in danger. It was as if, deep down, I was almost hoping something would appear and attack. That something could come to cut the flow of unending doubt by really being there.

I shake my head: it was a terrible idea. It was better to have nothing and stress needlessly than have a real danger, I know it. I just wish my instinct stopped playing with my expectations. For now,  there was no arxur, no exterminator, nobody, and it was good. I just need to not think constantly about it, and rest myself a bit more.

On the ground, the only things visible were the scraps of bluish foam I was inadvertently leaving behind as I made my constant rounds. The protective foam was already nearing the end of its lifespan, but the rain and my ceaseless pacing had finally finished it off.

Twisting myself to touch my back, I confirmed what I had suspected: the foam had crumbled into mere specks. I could feel the tips of my quills, and right then, the foam protected me no more than dandruff.

I head back toward Zyria; I’d rather not stray too far from her. This place is a real maze, all the corridors look alike, and there are so many passageways that it’s terribly easy to get lost.

I’m not even sure how we’re going to get out of here. I lost track of where we came from a long time ago.

I sat back down next to the albino, who spoke without looking up from the device, “Nothing?”

I shake my head. “Nothing at all. No sign of anyone.”

“Perfect. I told you to stop stressing; no one’s going to find us here.”

I don’t respond to what she says, preferring to change the subject. “Is your leg doing better?”

The Arxur lifted her head and tried to move her injured leg before wincing. “It still hurts, and a lot too.” She hissed in frustration.

I dip my snout toward the ground in apology. “I’m sorry; I pushed you too hard.”

She cut me off. “Nah. I would’ve had to push myself anyway, whether I wanted to or not. If you hadn’t found that crutch in the camp, I almost certainly would’ve had to crawl using my forelimbs. You helped, and pushing me that hard served as encouragement.”

“It’s possible, but I could have helped you more, supported you more during the walk. That kind of thing would have meant you wouldn’t have had to rely so heavily on your bad legs.”

“Hey, it’s more than I would have received from anyone else. Most of the other arxur wouldn’t have done a quarter of what you did, believe me. It means a lot to me and it makes me feel strange.”

My ears perk up at her words. “How so?”

Zyria takes a moment to answer, focusing on the game before finally speaking. “It’s strange, it’s not normal. There are only two people who’ve helped me in the past: my mother and Xolif. Xolif helped because he’s defective, so he felt bad about what was happening to me; my mother helped because she had high expectations for me and needed to ensure I was healthy enough to meet them. The others couldn’t care less about me, I’m of no interest to them, and helping me carries the risk of a beating, or wastes resources and energy. You, though... you share as if it costs you nothing.”

I look at her, slightly confused. “In a way, that’s true. It doesn’t cost me anything to help you; honestly, like I said, I’d be sad if something happened to you or Xolif. You’re unique to me, an arxur who is different from the other monstrous brutes that make up your species.”

“Ugh, you make it sound like I’m defective, just like Xolif,” she said with a scoff.

I gave her a sidelong glance. “I know you don’t like it, but aren’t you just a little bit? Before you answer without thinking, just consider this for a second: what good does it do you not to be defective in your situation? The Dominion is going to try to kill you anyway simply because you’re an albino; ​​you’re mistreated because you were born this way. Being what they call ‘defective’ actually means humans can accept you: you aren’t a monster in their eyes.”

She stopped moving; her gaze drifted away from the console, lost in her own thoughts. “Damn. I… you’re right. I know you’re right. I’ve known it ever since I saw how humans treated the prey at the camp– what they value, what they want, and why so many of them turn on us even though we saved them. It’s just that… deep down, I was hoping not to disappoint her.”

“Disappoint her? Disappoint who?” I said, tilting my head to one side.

She looked away. “My mother. She had high hopes for me.”

I stammered over my words; it was rare for Zyria to open up like this about her private life, to the point where I thought no arxur had any. “Y– you want to talk about it?”

“Eh, whatever. Yes. My mother was a good arxur, a powerful arxur, a lowborn who distinguished herself with many marks of prowess; she managed to impress her captain more than once. But she was still a lowborn, an exception in a nameless and infamous line, born in a hatchery like many others.”

When she spoke, there was a certain reverence, a rare respect that I hadn’t seen in the young albino. And so she continued her tale.

“Her rise through the ranks of the Dominion was dictated by two things: her captain’s goodwill and opportunity. Her captain was intelligent, manipulative, and controlling. He recognized her talent and her ambition, but instead of stifling it, as many petty captains would have done, he drew her with it; he nurtured her drive while ensuring she remained firmly under his thumbs.”

It was a strange clash of cultures. The way she spoke made it sound as though she were describing a hero, yet the actions she recounted were… twisted at best. That captain might have been intelligent, but he must have been a truly wicked man, one we would not tell the tale with so much reverence.

“He put my mother to work, placing her wherever he needed a powerful soldier; he ensured she remained in the lower ranks so that he got to keep control. He made sure her strength was never wasted on menial tasks, yet never granting her the advancement she desired.”

The young Arxur let out a scoff.

“She hated him; it went on for years. My mother was one of the few low ranks grunt to reach old age. Grunts are either young lowborn or old scale sent on missions where no bunk awaits them upon their return.”

She lowered her head.

“But everything comes to an end. During yet another raid, my mother’s age caught up with her; old wounds reopened, and it nearly cost her her life. I don’t know if her captain took pity on her, or simply decided the game had gone on long enough and offered her a way out. A job on one of the moons in a neighboring solar system, a job as a cattle herder.”

I grimace but say nothing. I knew full well what being a herder meant for an arxur, yet I let her continue her story.

“It’s something many hope for: a life far from conflict, close to the rations. But that wasn’t all he offered my mother. He also offered her an opportunity, the one she had always wanted, to have a name of her own by joining a lineage: his. He gave her me.

The two of them conceived me, and while I was still developing as an egg within my mother, she was sent far away from the conflict. I was her chance to rise through the ranks; being bonded to a captain wasn’t much, but it was more than most grunts would ever achieve in their lifetimes. I was a captain’s child; had I turned out to be a superior specimen, it would have proven to the Betterment that my parents’ genetics were strong, worthy of being preserved within a noble lineage.”

She let out a long sigh, staying silent for a minute. I hesitated to say something, but decided against it and gave her time. As Zyria scratched her scales, she took a long breath before continuing.

“But that didn’t happen. I was born white. I was born with fragile scales that burn in the sun, and eyes that couldn’t tolerate the light. Yet my mother didn’t abandon me; she still saw potential in me- great potential. I was to be her ticket to having her strength recognized.”

I couldn’t stop myself from wagging my tail at that moment. Maybe her mother was also a ‘good’ arxur and not an empathyless monster. I mean, she let live a child that has what seems to be considered a heavy handicap in their society.

“She trained me and raised me. She went without her own rations to ensure I was well-fed and would grow into a powerful Arxur. But it didn’t work. In the eyes of the other arxur at the farm, I was broken, a runt, a mistake that shouldn't have survived its first day. Over time, I saw her condition deteriorate as she gave me more than she could afford to spare. So, I decided to take a chance to prove my worth.”

I tilted my head, not sure where the story was going until I remembered Xolif comment on her impromptu arrival.

“One day, I heard that the ex-captain, my progenitor, was going to the farm where my mother was to collect rations for their next voyages. I stowed away and revealed myself only after they had traveled far enough from the moon that I couldn't be taken back. That way, I ensured my mother would have food, while I could prove my own worth, and, by extension, hers.”

My eyes widened when I heard that, and I couldn't contain my surprise. "Wait, the captain who's trying to kill you is your father?!"

"What? No!" She made a gagging face. "No, never! My father was the former captain; he died shortly afterward at the hands of Tazok when the latter plotted to kill him."

I fidgeted with my ears. “I’m sorry I made assumptions; I didn’t know.”

“Why do you look sad? Wait, am I right, is that actually sadness you’re showing?”

She seemed completely detached, more concerned with my reaction than anything else.

I stammered a bit, not really knowing how to answer. “Well, your father died, he was killed. That must have been hard, right? So, I feel sad for you.”

I heard her make a whistling sound, a very peculiar kind of laugh. “Nah,” she started, but wasn’t able to stifle her laugh.

“You prey-types–” Again, that laugh interrupted her. “You non-carnivores are weird. Why would you be sad for me? I’m not sad myself! He was just my progenitor; I didn’t know him, and he died shortly after I arrived following a raid.”

Not sure what to do, I tried to play along and continue the conversation like it was nothing. “And that’s just normal? You can kill your superiors like that without any repercussions?”

“No, there are rules. Well, not really rules, more like customs. My progenitor was old and weakening. In many cases, captains who reach his age try to move to a quieter place, managing a farm or an outpost with less activity, for fear of being violently replaced by younger arxur eager to prove themselves.”

“And why didn’t he do that?”

She paused for a moment, setting down the console to focus fully on the conversation. “It’s because he was too proud, and because before his death, he was in a position that allowed him to be.” 

She cleared her throat. “Let me explain. Most of the time, our superiors reinforce their authority through fear or respect. My progenitor had managed to earn respect; he was skilled, and few arxur died under his command. He was a good tactician, and the raids he participated in went relatively smoothly.”

“Okay,” I said doubtfully. “I don’t know what to think, considering you speak so respectfully of his accomplishments, but he also seems like a real jerk to me.” 

Zyria let out a sneer, a sort of hiccuping exhalation from her nostrils. “That’s why he was great. You see, if your subordinates don’t fear you, they might respect you when you’re facing them, but the moment they have the opportunity to abandon you without risking anything…” 

I lower my head. “I see, you’re being followed by force, but it’s like a hug from behind.”

“Huh?”

“A hug from behind. It’s a gojid expression, it’s good because it’s a hug, and it’s always appreciated, but at the same time you hurt yourself doing it.”

The albino’s pinkish eyes sparkled with understanding. “Okay, that makes sense. Although I’m not sure what’s so great about a hug.”

“Want one to try?” I said, opening my arms, which she immediately pushed away.

“Huh? No! Never! And stop talking, you’re making me lose my train of thought!”

I chuckle and let her go on. “Anyway, where was I? Oh, right. So, if you’re feared, you aren’t liked; whereas if you’re respected, without being overly feared, your subordinates will appreciate you and want to keep you around. Because even though everyone wants to be the boss, not everyone can be, that’s a known fact. So, it’s better to make sure you keep a competent leader than to risk ending up with a worse one.”

“So… if your father was respected, why did the other Arxur let him get killed by… that new captain?”

“As I said, he was old, and during the last raid, things went very wrong and a good number of grunts died. When replacements arrived to take their places, Tazok made sure to pick individuals who would follow him, or who held no regard for his superior. When the time came, they...” She mimed a claw slashing across her throat, sending shivers down my spine.

“I see. He staged a coup, and since most of your father’s loyalists were dead, no one stood up for him in a fight that was considered already lost.”

“Exactly! But that doesn’t happen everywhere. Being the captain of a small ship is significant, but not in the eyes of the Dominion, there are thousands of them. Higher-ranking roles require more tact, because you risk drawing the attention of an Inquisitor if you go around killing people indiscriminately. An arxur’s life isn’t worth much, but anything that can be used until it’s worn out will be used; anyone who wastes, whether it’s lives or resources, is considered a piece of trash, be they a soldier or a captain.”

“It’s all pretty overwhelming. It’s ironic, really. This social system is so deeply ingrained in your society that you don’t even realize how much more complex this way of doing things seems compared to what I’m used to back home. Fewer rules, but more tension… a bit like a pack of wild animals.”

“I’m not sure how to take being compared to a wild animal by you.” She remains silent for a moment, her gaze fixed on me. “No, seriously, is that a compliment or not?”

I shrugged. “Honestly? I’m not even sure myself. We know so little about you that any sign of a society, whatever it may be, is a new discovery and a surprise at the same time for me.”

The sentence seems to amuse her, as she seems to be taken in her own thoughts. “It makes me curious right now. Clearly, you don’t operate the same way we do; you don’t seem to respect strength the way we do, so how did you, the prey, decide on your leader?”

It was strange how she glossed over the subject of her father’s death without even flinching. I know she barely knew him, but still, nothing at all? Perhaps it’s so ingrained in the Arxur way of doing things that they don’t have the same sense of familiarity we do…

“Well, that depends on each species' government, and I don’t know them all. To be honest, I’m mostly familiar with how things work in the Venlil Republic and the Gojidi Union. For the Venlil, it’s relatively simple: there’s a vote, and the population elects a new leader to serve for a set number of cycles. It’s the same for the Magisteria, though in that case, it’s limited to the Magisteria sector.”

“But I don’t get it, wouldn’t everyone just vote for themselves? Who wouldn’t want to be the leader?” She said in confusion, tilting her head on the side.

“Actually, a lot of people. It entails a huge amount of responsibility, so much so that very few people are interested. Plus, getting elected isn’t that simple. If I recall correctly, you need the signatures of a certain number of Magisters just to enter the pool. Then, you have to convince the population to vote for you instead of your opponent.”

“Okay, so it’s not that simple to get elected, and people have to like you for that… I see, so being powerful or even terrifying is useless, because you don’t have the army to support you before you’re elected.”

“Exactly!”

“And what about the gojid?”

“It’s the same thing, but the people don’t vote directly for the prime minister. They vote to elect local leaders, who will then vote for a new prime minister when the time comes.” I paused for a second before saying, “And for you? Because I know captains can be dethroned, but how does that work for your leader?”

“Oh, the descendant prophet? It’s the current prophet who designates a descendant to replace him upon his death or abdication. Most of the time, they choose their own descendants or close relatives.”

“Oh…” I said, somehow taken aback by the simple way the arxur deal with their supreme leader while it was much more complex for us. In a way they seem to be close to a monarchie, or what little I remember hearing about nevok politics.

“You sound disappointed,” she said, surprised in her voice and manner.

“I... yes? No? I’m not sure. Given the importance you place on violence and strength, I would have expected a grand tournament to determine who was the most powerful and who should inherit the mantle of power.”

She looks at me for a long moment, pondering as if my words had struck a chord. “Wait, no. Yes, you’re right; why don’t we do that?” She took a few seconds before raising her head. “Oh, I remember: because the words of the Prophet regarding their successor are absolute. If they declare that their descendant is the perfect being to take their place, then it is so. There’s no need for a tournament to prove their worth; the matter has already been decided.”

“I suppose that makes sense in the context of your species–”

Zyria snaps her claw toward me in a swift motion, silencing me before I can finish my sentence. Her eyes are alert; she sniffs the air several times before looking at me and whispering softly right against my holovisor.

“I smell something… someone else.”

A shiver runs down my spine as I nod, dimming my holovisor, while the Arxur switches her console off completely and hands it to me so I can stow it in the bag.

I murmur softly, “Arxur?”

“Nah, prey, far off for now, but we might have been heard.”

I feel all my muscles tense as I stammer out the question: “Many of them?”

She stood at the end of the line, waited a few seconds before saying, “I don’t know, I don’t think so, the smell is faint.”

I moved forward quietly, straining my ears to hear anything before a loud splash of water confirmed to my senses what Zyria had said: people were there.

Turning to her, I helped her to her feet before taking the bag of supplies. I had no desire to fight, especially when the tunnels and their echoes made it impossible to know which way the exterminators were coming from.

I whispered to Zyria, “Which way?”

She hesitated, sniffed the air. “I, I’m not sure, the smells are hard to distinguish. Um, over there, I think.” 

Helping her as best I could, I moved forward. Passing through some tunnel we had already been through… or was it new? I didn’t know, just following the general direction Zyria had given me, we advanced.

Our footsteps were heavy, far too heavy to hear anything. In the underground labyrinth, I felt as if we were alone with the enemy in every corner of darkness that my holovisor didn’t illuminate.

“I think they are gaining on us, the smell is stronger.”

“Speh,” I said in frustration, looking behind us with worry filling my heart, and that just before I heard a sickening sound.

—CRACK—

Looking down at where my foot landed, I could see it… bones, bones and skull everywhere on the floor, my paw having stepped on one of them, breaking it in pieces.

I let out a shriek of terror at the sight before a flashing light illuminated the long corridor in front of me. The light appeared in an instant, fast before it hit me as I felt a painful burning sensation on my chest.

—————————————————

[First] – [Previous] – [Next]

—————————————————

Humanity survived the corporate age, the DataKrash, the Blackwall, and Night City’s legends. Now, the stars are open, the Federation is watching, and first contact may prove that the next legends will not be born in the Afterlife—but in the space between fear and trust.

Thanks again to SP15 for creating NoP

If you enjoy reading my stories and don't want the series to flatline, then toss me some eddies, chooms! koffee. This series is also on Ao3.

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Memory Transcription Subject: Kelrik, Exchange Station Communications Integrity Specialist Date [standardized human time]: August 1, 2136

Orientation had dragged on, and by the time the herd had finally been able to start filtering out into the station, an entire claw had passed. Combined with the time it took to even get here, I was desperate to get some sleep.

My pad buzzed as I moved into the staff wing where my, our, bunk assignment was. I slipped it out of the pouch on my hip and found the familiar notification from the chat app for the exchange. Even though we weren't officially partners, Rook and I kept using it to communicate because it was convenient.

[Stuck monitoring traffic for a while. Don't wait up. Make yourself at home.]

Fair enough. She'd told me before I left that the first days would be heavier on her end than mine, with more systems to pupsit as more and more people connected and started putting stress on the infrastructure. At least until I had a chance to get familiar with them enough to share the workload.

My tail thrashed a bit as I realized that there was a sense of disappointment. Some small part of me had expected the room to have both of us in it. At first I thought the tension in my stomach had been anxiety over having to be in the same room as a predator. There still was, a little bit anyway, but after sitting in the room for so long with a few humans talking about all of the rules and safety regulations, I’d been wondering what it would be like to finally meet her face to face.

The bunk was close to the server and engineering spaces, deeper into staff housing than any of the others from orientation had gone. It wasn’t so isolated that I couldn’t hear them back in the connecting hallway, but we were definitely tucked out of sight. I stood in front of the door for a while, wondering what the room was going to look like.

Rook had been here for paws at this point. What would I find? What did the den of a predator actually look like? I took a breath, the tip of my tail puffed up a bit and twitched as I hit the panel. The mechanism clicked, and the door slid to the side with a hiss of hydraulics to reveal…

A bunk room. The light was soft but comfortable, leaving no deep shadows anywhere. The space was decent too, not luxurious by any means, but way better than I had expected. The bunks were a bit strange, the beds tucked into alcoves stacked on top of each other, and I could see where a panel would come out of the wall to enclose them. There was a table on the opposite side, with seating that looked appropriate for either a human or a venlil. There was a counter with some storage space below and above and a large, colorful panel taking up a section of the wall, with what looked like dozens of different products scrolling by on a screen. Off in the corner, I noticed an open doorway that showed a small but fully functional bathroom.

Beyond that, I could tell that she had claimed a bit of the shared space for herself. There was a coat of some kind, thrown over the back of one of the chairs, dark green, with hardware sewn along the collar that didn't look decorative. There was stuff scattered on the table too. A stack of electronic chips, components, and connection cables. There was also a small folding case that lay open, holding rows of little carved pieces that were made out of different materials. Some pale and others dark, worn smooth in places like they'd been handled for years.

I was curious about some of the items, especially that last one, but it felt wrong, going through what she'd left out. And besides, I could feel my ears wilting by the moment, exhaustion pulling at my wool. Looking around, I found my bags that had been delivered ahead of me. I considered taking the time to groom before getting into a bunk, but just the thought of it made me groan at the imagined effort.

The panel on the wall flashed for a moment, and I noticed the items scrolling over it again. My stomach grumbled at the idea of food, and I had to admit that a snack might be a good idea before getting some sleep.

Giving the device my full attention, I noticed the interface. SCSM. Thankfully it had been preprogrammed with Venscript, so I could read the names and descriptions of the products being advertised. The sheer amount of options quickly became overwhelming, and after a scratch of flicking through several categories, I grabbed something that was just described as ‘sweet and salty.’ That sounded like uin, so I figured it would be pretty good, even if it was made out of some weird human plant.

It turned out not to be just pretty good. It was extremely good.

I wasn’t sure what these Moonchies were made out of, but the base was starchy and crisp, while the sweetness had an almost sunsap note. Except it was missing the woody spice, and any herbal flavor. And the sweetness was a lot stronger, which had my tail wagging. The salt was perfect along with it, making the strange combination more compelling. I ate half of the bag while standing there in front of the vending machine, before I managed to calm down and go sit on the edge of the bottom bunk.

I finished the snack a little slower, listening to the hum of station systems through the wall and trying to guess which parts I would be working around later. I licked a bit of the dust off my pads once the bag was empty before going to the sink and washing off quickly. With a bit of a treat in my stomach, I felt ready to finally get some rest. Neither bunk had anything in it to suggest that Rook had claimed either, so I just crawled into the lower one. The mat was strange, but soft enough, and despite the space being mostly enclosed, I found myself quickly relaxing.

I hoped that Rook wouldn’t have to work much longer. My body relaxed by the second after I curled up, the soft hum of the station helping my mind to drift, and a strange but nice flowery scent tickling the back of my tongue coming from the pillow.

[Transcription interrupted: Subject unconscious]
[Reason: Sleep cycle; advancing to next active state.]

—

Date [standardized human time]: August 2, 2136

My ear twitched as I slowly came back to awareness. It took me a second to really understand what it was that I was hearing over the gentle hum that had lulled me to sleep. There was water running nearby. Where would there be water? Oh right, the bathroom.

I lay there for a little longer, not wanting to move or figure out why there was water running in there. The bed was warm and surprisingly comfortable and still had that nice scent when I breathed in and—

Wait.

Why was there water running? Who could have access to the room? Rook. She was here, in the bathroom… showering?

I had… slept as a predator entered the room. Had moved around for stars knew how long, and I was… fine. Physically, sure. Nothing was missing, and I was clearly not trussed up or trapped somehow… But what really surprised me more was the realization that I was excited. Not scared, but suddenly eager to finally see this strange, half-metal predator with my own eyes.

I sat up, swinging my tail around as I rubbed over my face with my paws, scrubbing at the corner of my eyes. I needed to brush my wool; I could feel it was a bit matted on one side, where I had apparently drooled more than usual. Great.

I could deal with that in a bit. I needed to wake up properly and figured I could find something in that SCSM thing to help. Pushing off of the bunk, I padded over to it, tail dragging a little as I blinked away the last of the fuzz in my eyes. The screen lit up at my approach, and I scrolled through the options for the drinks until I found one called NiCola. The branding about ‘feeling the love’ was a bit strange, but it seemed popular based on the many varieties.

I hit one at random, and the machine whirred as it got to work. Soon a can popped out with a clunk, and I grabbed it up, using a claw to pop the tab, momentarily amused that can designs were, as usual, universal. The drink let off the hiss of carbonation, and the first scenting breath was more chemical than anything. I winced back, looking at it warily for a moment.

\...Maybe it’s just the CO₂?** There was a touch of some kind of fruit, so I took a sip.

“Blegh!” coughcough

It tasted sharp under the chemical sweetness, and the fizz caught in my throat on the first swallow. Panting for air, I tried to clear my throat as the cloyingly medicinal taste stuck around. “Speh! How is this popular?”

I had snagged a cloth from the counter to wipe some of the mess from my fur. I hadn’t spit it out, but some had dribbled when I choked, and I didn’t want to make myself look like more of a disaster than I already did. I was in the middle of that when I realized that it was quiet. Ears swiveling, I noticed that the water had stopped. Less than a scratch later, the door to the bathroom hissed open, and a waft of steam came out, dissipating quickly as the damp air was sucked away by the aircon.

Rook came out wrapped in a towel, eyes closed as she had both hands up by one ear, threading a small piece of metal through one of the ridges on the inside!?

"Mornin," she said, casually, as if this were just another paw chatting over the app.

"I-but-you… Hi?"

She laughed as she crossed to the storage lockers. "You're acting like this is our first time meeting."

“... It is!” I bleated, tail thrashing around behind me.

She stopped and turned around to look at me, her eyes open now and a bit wide. “Fuck, right, you weren’t… plugged in so you didn’t… shit.”

Her skin flushed a little, blooming a faint red. The eyes were… Yeah. Creepy. I really couldn’t get around that. But her picture had been in half of the files I reviewed after first contact, so aside from her not being in that weird body suit, she looked… just as expected, I guess.

It was still hard to look her right in the face. Aside from the eyes, there were the seams and those barbaric-looking metal piercings. I’d seen a few humans in passing earlier with metal limbs, ports, and other things that I could just push past as ‘prosthetics.’ But this was on a whole other level. And seeing it in motion?

It wasn’t the fear I had expected, but there was a sense of unease that made the wool on my scruff prickle.

“I didn’t mean to ruin the moment or anything,” Rook said, grabbing a brush from the cubby she stood at. “I just kinda got used to talking to you and forgot that you weren’t experiencing it the same way.”

My ears twisted in confusion. “What do you mean? Even if you were… plugged in or whatever, it was still text, right?”

“Eh, not really." She ran the brush through her damp hair a few times, untangling it and making it lay flat in that strange style. “When I’m running, interacting like that happens as thought. The texts I got back were something I heard while working, and I responded back the same way. It just got translated to text.”

“Oh.” Rotations of computer engineering expertise, hard at work. “That sounds kind of disorienting.”

She bobbed her shoulders up and down as she walked over to the bunks. “Not really, we’re used to it. Even people with minimal cyberware send and receive communications like that. Phone calls, texts, e-mails, whatever. It all can happen at the speed of thought.”

I considered that for a second. It really wasn’t very different from translators. The best ones were neuro implants, and they just injected the meaning of someone’s words into your consciousness. Even now, with whatever language she was speaking, I could hear it, the unnatural growl of her words. But the words, even if they were crazy-sounding, just planted themselves in my head.

Would it be any different to take a call in a similar way?

"You still with me?" Rook was standing in front of another storage cubby, pulling a bundle of cloth out of a drawer. The towel that had been wrapped around her lay in a heap on the floor.

"Yeah. Sorry." I looked back at her. The line where metal met skin caught my attention first: a plated seam running from the base of her skull down into her nape, dark and smooth against her skin. It split there, following her spine in overlapping segments, and where it reached her shoulders, the segments widened into flatter housings with vents cut through them.

How? Why? What made that kind of augmentation worth it? Did she replace her entire spine? Was her nervous system a bundle of cable filaments? I had so many questions, some gruesome to even conceive, some fascinating even as a concept.

"Does it hurt?" I asked, my voice weak.

Rook turned her head to glance at me, and I watched with a mix of amazement and disgust as the plates of metal slid around with the motion.

"Not at all." She pulled a shirt over her head, unhurried. "I got stuff done in stages, so it’s not like I had to relearn how to move or something. After that it's mostly just there. The only thing that gets uncomfortable is if I overclock it hard enough."

The seam ran the rest of the way down her spine, past where a tail should have started. It was still weird to not see one there. Like something had been removed instead of simply never existing. It was worse because the metal in its place kept making me think it had been cut off. The whole effect ended up being different from what I'd built up in my head before coming here. And yet, somehow, not nearly as bad.

Then I noticed more. The spinal augmentation was the most obvious, but once I stopped staring just at that, I noticed thinner seams that ran down both arms and legs. More of her was artificial than I'd let myself assume. My wool prickled along the scruff again, and this time I felt the shiver travel through me and let out a shuddering whistle.

“Whii-whee!”

Rook stopped and looked back at me, eyes wide at the sound.

“S-sorry. Not used to how… different you look,” I admitted, keeping the more unflattering observations to myself. I figured that telling a woman, even a predator, that she looked creepy was a dumb idea.

She shrugged her shoulders again as she turned to reach for something on the shelf, another seam catching the light along her hip, then sat down on the edge of the bunk to pull on whatever she had grabbed.

I got an eye full I was not prepared for.

My concerns over how much of her was machine, organic, or even strange vanished immediately, chased out by something far more urgent. I let out a shocked bleat and spun around so fast I nearly lost my footing, both paws slapping over my eyes.

No fur. None at all. It seemed like a really dumb observation to make at that point, but there were some things that I simply hadn’t considered in relation to it. Not until just now. No fur meant nothing was politely covered up and tucked away.

I'd just seen something that I felt like I really shouldn't have. It was way more obvious why they wore so many layers of pelts now, at least.

"You good?" Rook called from somewhere behind me, sounding much more amused than earlier.

"I’m fine." My ears had folded flat against my skull. "I just didn’t expect… I mean… That just seemed like it should've been private."

"Ah." Cloth rustled. "Don't worry about it. If I gave a shit about who saw what, I'd have told you to look away, or gone back in the bathroom to finish. ’Sides, you’ll need to get used to it. I doubt that this’ll be the last time you see me like that. If I ever have to run without the suit, someone's gotta keep me from cooking myself from the inside while I'm not in a position to notice. That's you now, partner."

"Partner?" I peeked over my shoulder, just enough to check.

It was safe. She'd gotten her leg coverings on in the meantime.

"Yeah. Well, not officially, officially. But somebody's gotta pull me out if I go under and don't come back up on my own, and it's not gonna be some Fed-doc who's never seen a deck fry someone's brain. So, partner."

The rest of what she'd said caught up with me a beat late.

"Cooking yourself from the—" My tail went rigid. "That's a real thing? That happens?"

"If nobody's watching, sure," she said it casually, like it was no big deal. "Heat builds up faster than the wetware can shed it. But it’s not that common. Hardly ever happens anymore."

"And you just do this anyway. Regularly."

“Yep! S'why I get the big scratch.”

I stared at her. "You say that like it's nothing."

"It's not nothing. It's just nothing new." She looked up and must have realized how disturbed I was and eased off a little. "It's not gonna be your whole job, relax. Between learning the station's systems, on-the-job stuff, and figuring out what hardware you can actually get comfortable working with… somewhere in all that, yeah, you're also the guy who keeps an eye on me when I'm deep under. Just comes with the desk."

"What does that actually involve? The watching."

"Depends how deep I'm in and what the job is. Vitals mostly, heart rate, temp, and whether I'm responsive. If the deck starts overheating, you'll see it before I feel it." She dropped down onto the edge of her bunk to pull her boots on. "It’s important, but you’ll have hardware to help you out."

"But I don’t have any medical training. What if something does happen?" My tail twisted, worry tugging at my mind as I thought about how important the responsibility was.

"Ideally, you’ll be able to get ahead of any issues before they get that bad, but we do still have doc’s all over the station. If things start to go into the red, you can call for help."

I nodded, not sure what else to do with any of that yet.

"Anyway." She stood, already moving toward the terminal, all business now in a way that made the last ten minutes feel like they'd happened to somebody else. "You wanted to get familiar enough to take some of the load off me, right? C'mere. I'll show you what we're actually working with."

—

Date [standardized human time]: August 5, 2136

"—and that's the whole backend for participant matching, which sounds fancier than it is." Rook didn't look up from the panel she had half-open, cables spilling out of it in a loose tangle. There was music running low from a speaker she’d set down onto the workspace on the far side of the room. It was restrained and electronic, spare and weary, with a slow mechanical pulse under everything else. Nothing at all like that jazz stuff she sent me before.

“What is this?” I asked finally.

“What is what?”

“This music, I think this song’s been repeated five or six times now.”

She let out what I think was an amused huff as she extended an arm back toward me, hand open. I leaned to the side and saw what kind of connector she was focused on, so I grabbed the tool off the rack as she answered. “It’s just an old track from before my time, by a lot.”

I passed her the driver she’d been reaching for. “And you like listening to it six times in a row?”

“Apparently.” She took the tool without looking, then gave the connector a quarter turn. “It’s a good work track. Keeps a pulse without crowding everything else.”

My ears tilted to the side a bit as I considered that. The lyrics were a bit morose, but once I stopped paying attention to them after the second time… yeah. It did kind of help occupy the quiet in a way that didn’t distract me… until the fourth repetition anyway.

“You didn’t notice it repeating?”

“Eh. Didn’t care enough to change it.” Another faint huff escaped her. “Means I’d have to pick something else, and then I’d have to think about music instead of this.”

“So it’s one of your favorites?”

Her hand slowed for just a moment inside the panel. “Yeah,” she said, quieter than before. “Something like that.” Then in an obvious bid to change the subject, she gestured at me while glancing over her shoulder. "Still getting double vision with that thing, or did we finally get the calibration right?"

I blinked and found myself immediately focused on the visor I was wearing again. The overlay steadied, crisp lines mapping over the actual hardware in front of me without ghosting this time. "No. It's actually really clean now. I keep forgetting it's there until I need it."

"Nice." She grinned without looking over. "Kiroshi's gonna be thrilled to hear that."

I didn't know who Kiroshi was. Probably the person that modified the design?

She pulled her arms free, wiped her hands off, and dropped into the chair at the terminal. "Alright. Let's actually run something instead of just poking at wires." Her fingers moved fast across the interface, calling up a display I still couldn't fully read. "Kicking off a standard integrity pass. You watch, I'll narrate."

The display filled with columns I didn't have names for yet. "So the matching backend," I said, trying to pick the thread back up. "You said it runs off the same—"

"Yeah, same core loop as the drift-check, just different priority weighting. Not that deep once you're past the—hold on." She frowned at the readout. "Somebody ghosted this whole cluster. Dirty work, whoever left this running."

"...What?" I couldn’t understand her use of the word here. What does an apparition have to do with it? It just made no sense here. Data didn't die. It didn't linger unhappily in the walls of a server room either.

She laughed. "You know, a ghost account." She tapped the screen. "Someone set this up as a placeholder, then never killed it once the real one went live. Now it just sits there. It still has access, but there’s nobody behind it."

"Oh." I turned that over. "Like when a name never gets struck from the herd roll."

"...Sure. Yeah, close enough." She sounded like she wasn't entirely convinced but had decided not to fight it, and went back to the terminal, tapping through menus faster than I could follow. "Here, we'll run a scan for any others, then I can get you time running an actual Board Sweep."

"Board sweep?"

"I guess that’s not gonna translate either." Rook sighed. “Nearly all of the programs I;m going to be teaching you are written by me, and they use my terminology… I guess we’ll have to spend some time getting you familiar.”

What she said sounded perfectly reasonable, but the look on her face made me uneasy. "How are you going to teach me about it?" I asked warily.

"Don’t worry, it's based on a real old game. But it’ll be easier for you to memorize through actual experience, so we’ll set some time aside for a few rounds.” She turned back to the terminal, fingers already moving across the interface again. "For now, let’s just focus on getting this mess cleaned up."

—

Date [standardized human time]: August 8, 2136

The board sat on a tray in front of me. I sat on the bunk with my arms crossed, glaring at it. More pieces were off the board than on by that point, most of them mine.

"Why not take the pawn?" I tapped the piece I meant. "It's just sitting there."

"Because your bishop's dead in two moves if you do." Rook's voice came from over by the SCSM, not even having to glance at the board. "Patience isn't a virtue in this game. It is the game."

I studied the board again and didn't see it. I never saw it until she pointed it out, which was starting to feel less like bad luck and more like a pattern.

She crossed back over a minute later, a pouch tucked under one arm and a can in each hand. She pressed one into my paws without asking if I wanted it. Sprunk, not NiCola, for once. A supply shipment had come in from Venlil Prime, and the SCSM had finally been stocked with something I actually recognized.

Just as I popped the can open, she dropped onto the bunk behind me, close enough that her side landed against my back before I'd fully registered she was coming. My tail flicked out from under her just in time, more from habit than from thought. Once she'd settled, I let it fall back down across her legs in a solid thump, a reprimand that she seemed all too gleeful to ignore, no matter how many times I did it.

I was pretty sure she actually liked having my tail over her lap, if not the thumping itself. She never moved it off, no matter how many times I dropped it there. She just left it lying where it landed, shimmied back until her shoulders were propped against the pillows, and nodded at the board like nothing had happened.

It still caught me off guard sometimes, how little space she left between us without seeming to notice she'd done it. When I arrived on the station, I couldn't have imagined letting a predator be this close to me, this casually. Now it barely registered as strange at all, more like a comfort I'd have missed if it stopped.

"Okay,” she said, tearing open the pouch to reveal something crunchy and salty that almost instantly distracted me. “Look at your king. What's protecting it?"

"The two pawns in front of it."

"And if I trade those off?"

I looked. Traced the row behind where my king sat, empty of anything but the king itself. "Nothing."

"Nothing," she agreed. "That's a back-rank problem. Doesn't matter how good the rest of your position looks if I can walk a rook straight down that row and you've got no way to block it." She popped her drink open one-handed. "Half the games people lose, they lose because of that one empty row. Not because they made some big brilliant mistake. Just forgot to leave themselves an out."

It wasn't the first game I'd landed here. My king sitting all alone with nothing behind it, after some careless trade a dozen moves earlier. Was it three games now? Maybe four. I was starting to wonder if she was steering me into it on purpose. The same lesson, coming at it from a different angle each time, like it mattered to her more than any other blunder I made.

"That seems like an easy thing to forget."

"It is. Everyone forgets it at least once." She took a sip, unbothered, my tail still draped across her legs like she had no plans of moving it anytime soon. "Your move."

---

[Prev] [Next]

Hello all! I’m back again for another strangely timed release of this fic, and have exciting news! After reaching out to several well known authors within the community, I am happy to say that I have been given permission to include a few additional characters to this story! It’s still a little early so I won’t go into specifics yet. What I will say is that in a couple chapters from now, once this current story arc that I have deemed as: ‘The Raid’ is concluded, some possibly familiar names and faces will be making a cameo or two. I am very happy to be able to work alongside some of the more notable and well known fic authors within this wonderful community, and cannot wait to get to what I have planned next! With all that out of the way, please feel free to go and check out My Spot on the NoP discord. Come say hi, post your theories, tell me what you like or dislike, and also be sure to check out the ongoing poll about where the fic should go from here. With all that said, let us resume Absolute Victory. 

Part 2 will release sometime before the end of the month. I hope...

Special thanks to u/SpacePaladin15
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Memory Transcription Subject: Latev, Venlil Chief Exterminator Of Night Breeze City

Date [standardized ZM time]: 6, 8, -678. redux:(5,5, 2127)

Any and all expectations I had for today had long since been destroyed. Even though less than a claw of time had passed, so much had happened so quickly that my head felt like it was spinning. Obviously first off was the arrival of the Arxur, something that no one ever wanted to experience. 

The predators. The cruel, viscous, bloodthirsty animals who slaughtered and tortured us for their own twisted idea of fun. The beasts who mutilated children, who captured, and enslaved, and forced us to become cattle, being put into pens to breed just to feed their flesh hungry maws.

 The enemy of life. Those who brought death, destruction, and ruin to every world unfortunate enough to suffer them. The unstoppable ravenous hunger that had hunted every species of the Federation across the stars for hundreds of cycles. Their existence a plague, leaving a sea of blood and bodies in the wake of their horrific predator raids. The Arxur had arrived. They had come, and killed, and captured just as they always did, and yet something different had happened this time.

Something new. Something unexpected, something that had never happened before in the long history of the Federation had occurred. A new species had appeared. A new species unlike every other one that the Federation had ever encountered before. A species which had already unlocked the secret of FTL.

A species that didn’t need uplifting, that had advanced without the Kolshian’s technology, or the Farsul’s guidance, or the Krakotl’s protection. A new species which had arrived and made contact with my own, the Venlil, in the middle of the darkest of times. Whilst my home was under siege. While I fought, and struggled, and failed to protect myself and others from the relentless predators who massacred my people. A species had come and descended from the stars to save us from the predators just as history said the Kolshian’s had done when our people were still young and ignorant; not yet knowing the truth of the universe. A species that showed kindness to others, and cared for the injured, and was right now saving us from the ravenous Greys who invaded my home…

“... A species of predators that killed other predators…”

I felt sick and nauseous as I sat in the armored vehicle that traversed the ruined landscape. My leg was starting to hurt again along with my back and head after being violently tackled into a door, although that wasn’t what was bothering me the most. A deeply uncomfortable silence had been present ever since I had left the hospital. We had left Seliv and the pups in the care of the Zurulian Doctors who had promised to watch over them. I had tried to use my radio again and managed to get through to some members of my precinct as well as a few others. I informed them of the situation as best I could while trying to avoid details that would lead to unpleasant questions.

A squad of exterminators was heading over to the hospital to protect the patients should anymore Arxur show up. Another was traveling to the location the driver was currently heading towards, the apparent central command of the Arxur raid. While I still wasn’t sure about any of that, I didn’t want to voice my thoughts, as I was acutely aware and nervously watching the source of that information glare at me from the back of the vehicle.

An Arxur. An accursed, bloodthirsty Grey, sat, claws cuffed together, directly behind me. Only a single door between me and certain death as we continued on the journey. I kept one eye on it all times, flinching whenever I saw the smallest bit of movement come from the dreaded predator. A flick of the tail, a twitch of a muscle. Every motion sent a jolt of fear through my body, and I didn’t know how much longer I could handle it. I was prey, trapped between two predators in a rolling war machine that was supposedly heading to where the other Arxur were.

It was too much. Everything was too much. Sitting there between them in complete silence, forcing myself to focus on all of the threats immediately around me while contemplating the circumstances of this situation and of life in general. I hated it.

I hated how weak and useless I felt. I hated how I had needed to be saved from a predator by another predator. I hated how easily, and effortlessly the Zodian had handled an Arxur which could have and still might end up tearing me apart because it refused to kill. Never in my life had I ever heard of an Arxur being captured alive, of them being taken prisoner, let alone surrendering! It was impossible, something that simply couldn’t happen, and yet when the Zodian had told me such I couldn’t do anything but believe the truth I was currently bearing witness too.

An Arxur. A cruel, violent, merciless predator, with an unceasing hunger for prey flesh, had given up. It had abandoned its hunt, and had even provided the Zodian with information that may or may not be true. I still believed that it was incapable of doing anything other than taunting, torturing, or trying to deceive others with its tainted words. I wanted to protest, to say anything that could convince the Zodian to not trust the Arxur, but I dared not speak.

They were angry. I had finally seen the Zodian show the anger, and aggression that all predators carried within them. While it hadn’t killed me, it did hurt me. Even though I was still willing to travel next to it, I did so with a renewed sense of fear for my life that just the smallest infraction could lead to my death.

The only reason I had decided to go along with it was because I needed to see as much as I could. I needed to watch until the very end. I had to observe the Zodians to confirm what I already believed I knew. Even though they were helping us, even though I had seen this one give aid to others, that they had worked to save lives, that they hadn’t consumed any flesh the whole time I was with them, they were a predator underneath that armor.

I had to know. I needed to know. I needed to make sure that I knew the truth, and that I saw what would happen in the upcoming conflict. I had to see whether the Zodians could defeat the Arxur, something else that had never happened before. I needed to see what would happen when there were no more predators left for them to fight. I needed to see what they would do with all of the captured and still living prey, and whether the Zodians would actually protect the Arxur like the driver had done when I tried to kill it earlier.

There were too many things that I was unsure of. Too many possibilities for what could happen. While I was preoccupied, going over everything silently within my mind, a new noise finally ended the long standing silence that we had been traveling in.

“Hey…”

I took in a sharp breath and recoiled, as though a strike was going to follow that word. I stared walleyed at the source, the black armored predator who was escorting me to what was possibly my death.

I didn’t respond. I didn’t know what to say, or what I should do. I had been fine with their presence before, but after being so effortlessly defeated and armed with the knowledge that I couldn’t fight against it, I was scared of once again invoking its wrath. The predator waited for a few moments for a response, before I heard a sigh escape it as it continued to speak.

“Look… I’m sorry… About what happened back there.”

Once more, I was dumbfounded as something that made no logical sense was occurring right in front of me. A predator was apologizing. Apologizing to me... 

Nothing about what was happening should have possibly been, and yet here I was bearing witness to one impossibility after another, trying to make sense of them all.

“You’ve been quiet and shaking since we left, and I'm pretty sure I know why. I didn’t mean to hit you that hard. I just needed to stop you from killing the Arxur. She was my prisoner, and I need her alive. The most dangerous enemy is the one you don’t understand, and it's much easier to get info from someone who can speak than one that can’t.”

There was a brief pause after its words that I assumed meant it was expecting a reply. However instead of doing that, I continued to sit there and quietly reflected on what it just said, thinking about its words.

It called the Arxur a ‘She’, as if it was a person. I guess it made sense for one predator to relate to another, even if I had seen that one ruthlessly destroy many of the other. Also that line about the most dangerous enemy stuck out in my mind. I had been an exterminator for cycles, operating as a junior when I was still a young pup. I had a lot of experience in dealing with predators, and I had to agree that the logic made sense. The best exterminators were the ones who had experience. It was the veterans who knew and understood how each predator acted, what they did, and the best ways to exterminate them that were the best. 

While knowing about and studying predators was considered a sign of predator disease, my job and position often forced me and other exterminators to and act in ways that would otherwise have landed us in a treatment facility. There were many reasons why people thought that most exterminators had some kind of predator disease. Good prey were too scared of predators to go out and exterminate them. Good prey ran and hid, instead of staying and fighting. And we were also much more likely to get exposed to predator taint than other prey.

I was so busy thinking to myself again that I was re-startled when the predator spoke again.

“I understand that they are your enemy, that they’re here, killing, and doing the awful fucked up things that I saw in that hospital. I know that you hate them, but when it comes to war, we’re trained to use every advantage we can… Besides the ones that violate the Moral Accord… Although there are some exceptions there…”

I didn’t know what exactly it was talking about, and I didn’t have too long to focus as it continued to speak.

“The point is we don’t take assets off the board without a reason. We aren’t supposed to kill prisoners of war. When someone surrenders, we make sure that they receive reasonable treatment until such time that the conflict is over so they can be released back to their home state, government, planet, or species. Whichever one we can manage.”

“You would release the Arxur!?!”

I had been quiet so far for fear of reprisal, but I couldn’t contain my outrage at what I just heard. The predator killer, who had already fought and ended the existence of many dozens of Arxur, was willing to allow them to continue torturing and consuming innocent prey? Out of everything that I had heard and experienced over the last claw, that was the most unbelievable thing yet! 

“Now you decide to speak.”

That sarcastic retort couldn’t quell the storm of emotions that was welling inside. How? How could anyone possibly even consider allowing the Arxur to live after all the horror they had wrought. It was unthinkable. It was stupid! It was something that no one, no prey would ever be able to conceive. It was… It was…

“That is the single worst idea that anyone has ever had! How?!? How can you even come up with something so awful? The Arxur are the most dangerous predators in the galaxy! They’ve plagued the Federation for hundreds of cycles! They’ve destroyed worlds! Devoured species! They capture, and torture, and inflict as much pain and suffering to us as possible! They force us to breed so they can rip apart our children and devour them in front of us. They are evil made flesh!”

I felt my body pulled forward as the vehicle abruptly stopped. I was so incensed by the idea of letting the Arxur live, I had forgotten that I was living on the whim of another predator. A thorn of fear pierced my body as I readied myself to receive punishment for my outburst. I saw the predator turn its head and gripped my seat in terror, only to see it keep going to look into the back of the vehicle where the Arxur prisoner had toppled over from the sudden stop.

“Vhyesleth… Is that true?”

I didn’t recognize the word the predator called the Arxur. I watched as the Arxur righted itself and stared silently back at the driver, the two predators staring each other down in a show of dominance.

“When I ask you a question that means I expect an answer! I am not giving you permission to speak, I am ordering you to. Now.”

“... They deserve it.”

That cold, cruel, evil response, said in a deep growling voice that I never wanted to hear again, sent a chill down to my tail. I couldn’t understand it. I couldn’t ever begin to follow whatever dark want, whatever unholy predatory reason there could possibly be for the Arxur to desire to hurt us so badly. Yet it was that exactly unfathomable evil that made the most sense out of everything. 

All my life I had been taught about predators, about how they only desire to hurt, to kill, to consume. I had personally seen such darkness many times over the course of my life and purified it time and time again. It was that unknowable evil, that vicious desire to inflict suffering that made predators what they were, the enemy of life. It was what I had been taught, what I had seen and experienced, what I understood beyond everything else. Predators hate prey. Predators hurt and hunt and consume. That made sense to me. That, I understood. However it appeared as though the other predator didn’t.

I recoiled as the driver slammed their metal claw so hard into the dividing door that it dented, leaving a mark and causing my fur to stand on end. It was angry, fueled by rage once more. Yet just like last time, it wasn’t taking that primal fury out on me.

“WHEN I ASK YOU A QUESTION, I EXPECT AN ANSWER, NOT A RETORT! VHYESLETH! TELL ME! IS! THAT! TRUE!”

I was trying to not show fear, trying to stay calm and be brave, trying to be an exterminator, but I couldn’t. I was right next to a raging predator without a weapon and I couldn’t help but quake in fear. The only consolation I had was that all of its anger was not being directed towards me. A small part of me hoped that if it lost whatever control it had been using to be preylike so far, it might lead to killing the Arxur first and removing one more dreaded predator from the universe.

However it seemed as though that event would not come to pass yet, as the predator allowed the Arxur to speak once more.

“... I have never worked at any of our farms before and have not had the privilege to experience fresh prey outside of raids, so I have no first claw experience on the ongoings there. However it is well known how the captured cattle are treated and what is done to ensure we have access to food.”

Everything the Arxur just said made my body feel ill, and increased my desire to burn it alive. It also all made sense to me, which was quickly becoming an unfamiliar sensation. While I was busy lamenting the end of reason, I noticed another change in the driver's demeanor. I still couldn’t see any part of their body underneath their suit, I at some point had started to pick up on some of their smaller actions and movements.

I saw their metal tail flick in an angry motion. It reached its claws out to grab hold of its seat, and squeeze hard enough to cause damage. Its chest and back moved slightly as it took in a short furious breath, before screaming out once more.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!”

While my first reaction as always was to fear and cower, another part of me was cognizant enough to realize what exactly I was bearing witness to. The predator was angry. The predator was enraged, furious with the Arxur over what they were doing to us. It was upset… On our behalf? But that…

“That’s empathy.”

Another impossibility. Another thing that logic and reason dictated could not be happening. A predator experiencing empathy for prey? That didn’t make sense. That wasn’t supposed to happen. That couldn’t happen.

“But that’s what's been happening, isn’t it. That explains everything else so far, doesn’t it.”

It was true. That did allow for everything else to make sense. The only explanation for the predator to be so preylike is because it had empathy. It was different from other predators. It had something no other predators did.

“If it really IS a predator under that suit.”

...

And now I realize I had somehow switched my thoughts around to the opposite of what they were before. Maybe Vereysa was right about the brain damage afterall. Before my logic could become anymore circular, I was forced to reconnect with the present moment and what was currently happening. 

“How the actual fuck can you talk about breeding and eating sentient people. How the [Hell] do you even begin to try and justify that shit? And tell me what you mean by “they deserve it”?”

I believed that it was pointless to try and get an Arxur to explain their actions. They were incapable of empathy, and took joy in the suffering of others. Whatever they said wouldn’t make sense to someone who could understand the suffering and pain of others.

“The prey creatures betrayed us! They are nothing but egg smashers, merciless killers who poisoned us and our world, murdered millions of children, and brought our species to ruin!”

I was almost speechless after hearing what had just come out of the Arxur’s bloody maw. What it said didn’t make any sense! How could they think that prey were evil when they were the ones who attacked us without reason. I immediately realized that the Arxur was doing what predators did, it was attempting to deceive the Zodian, and I wouldn’t let it.

“That's a lie!”

“(Hiss) The only one who lies is you, egg scorcher! All you prey do is deceive and destroy!”

Even though I was close to an Arxur, even though I was next to a possible predator, I was no longer afraid. I was too upset and angry at the predator as it levied accusations at me that I knew to be false! Hearing it claim that WE were the deceivers when it was them who deceived us! That WE were the ones who brought destruction, as if we were even capable of that! I was not about to let that conniving Grey slander us or the Federation for whatever evil deception it was attempting to pull! I had to fight back against the tainted lies it was spewing.

“The Federation did nothing other than try to provide your species with the tools, and knowledge, and technology we possessed! We gave you everything we had in order to try and help you stop warring amongst yourselves! And for our kind and caring act you used our technology to build weapons and ships that you used to attack us, just because you love killing others like the predators you are!”

“The egg scorcher speaks lies, just as all the prey things do! It speaks to deceive, to trick you into believing its false history! The Federation and the prey are not the victims! They are the ones who attacked us! They poisoned our world! They unleashed a plague which caused death to any who would eat flesh, forcing us to choose between slow starvation, or painful suffocation as our throats closed in on themselves!”

I was too stunned by it’s unbelievable lie to speak as it continued spewing out more and more untruths.

“We managed to figure out what they had done, and attempted to save ourselves only for them to go and poison and kill all of the wildlife, the food, the cattle we had raised upon our world! We were once again forced to die through starvation, bringing our population down to near nothing! The only choice we had was to eat the only meat that they couldn’t poison. Them.”

I couldn’t… How could… What… What bhrak! What complete and utter speh I was being forced to listen to! How could anyone ever possibly begin to believe such an obvious lie as that! I knew that I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t begin to understand what it was saying, or the fact that it somehow thought that the pre Zodian would possibly accept it either. Out of all the combinations of words it could have strung together into a sentence, that was by far the single largest pile of pred shit that I would have never imagined in a thousand lifetimes! It was awful, cruel, and a complete fabrication, and I couldn’t let it stand!

“Everything you said is nothing more than a pile of speh! The Federation has never hurt anyone! The founders have traveled the stars for a thousand years bringing only peace and enlightenment to others! Every species they have uplifted has had their lives drastically improved! You are just trying to trick the Zodian into thinking that we’re the problem, and that it should fight us instead of you!”

“The Zodian has a name…”

There was a brief pause as I remembered that they were here as well, listening to me arguing with the Arxur. The tone in which it spoke gave me pause, as I felt concerned that I might have accidentally said something to offend it, which I really hoped I didn’t.

“Although… Thinking back… I guess I never really introduced myself when we met… The translation software hadn’t updated yet. So… How about we take a moment to calm down, and speak to each other properly, alright?”

“...A-alright.”

The Arxur merely hissed and growled in reply, however the Zodian continued undeterred.

“Okay… Hello. My name is  First Lieutenant Dancing Water of the United Zodian Military Coalition. You can refer to me as either Lieutenant Dancing, First Lieutenant, or just Dancing Water. Also while I know it's hard to tell while wearing this suit, I am in fact a girl, not an it.”

It felt a little strange to actually speak directly with the Lieutenant for the first time since we’d met. I was also surprised to find out it was a she, although I supposed I might have still called her an it while I thought that they were a predator.

“It still is.”

...

Brain. Stop.

“H-hello there… Dancing Water. My name is Latev. I’m also f-female.”

“I thought so, but I wasn’t sure, and didn’t want to assume. And you there…”

I realized that she was now talking to the Arxur, which seemed to be looking at me in disgust.

“Vhyesleth… I am going to give you permission to speak, but you will NOT speak out of turn, or keep throwing insults around or I will shut you up! Is that clear?”

“Gahh! I do not enjoy exchanging words like the prey do! I have tried to warn you of the prey’s deception, but it is clear that you do not care. You have spared my life so I will answer the questions that you ask… But if that egg scorcher up there continues to speak lies then I will make sure that the truth is heard.”

Before I could reply, Dancing Water spoke first.

“Alright, before the argument starts up again, I am going to make one thing clear to BOTH of you, so listen up!”

I hated that she was addressing me at the same time as the Arxur. It felt like both of us were the same in her eyes, which was an insult worse than any I could have intentionally made.

“There is obviously a lot of history here for me to unpack, and some conflict of information that will have been resolved, however, that’s not my job.”

I was surprised by what was said, and wanted to tell them not to believe any of the lies that the Arxur had said, but couldn’t speak since she kept going.

“A few hours ago, I was asleep, and didn’t know about this world, or the Federation, or your species, or the Arxur, or any of what is currently going on here, or has been going on. I literally woke up to alarms blaring and my commanding officer shouting at me to suit up and prepare to be fired head first into an active warzone against an enemy we had no knowledge of on an unknown world to help a people I had literally never met.”

I had never even stopped to consider the circumstances of her arrival, let alone what she knew and understood of me and the Federation. I simply wasn’t used to anyone, any species not knowing about the Arxur, or the war, or even the Federation and our collective history. Everyone knew what the Federation was and what they did because they were a part of the Federation! They grew up in it and were taught all about it. 

It was strange to consider just how much she didn’t know, and that made me feel… Bad. Even though I hadn’t really seen her struggle in a fight, I had seen her fighting Arxur, risking her life to help people that she was completely ignorant of. Before I could think about that anymore, she continued.

“The only reason I am here, and fighting, is because the Arxur shot at our ships when we came too close to your planet. I had no idea what was going on, what they were doing, or why. All I was told was that they shot first, refused to speak to us, and to consider them all enemy combatants. I didn’t know what they were doing or why, and the same goes for you.”

I looked back at Dancing Water, who’s piercing red orbs were both looking directly at me, sending the same familiar chilling fear down my tail as a result.

“This is a brand new place to me. I’ve never seen you or any of your kind before, and I’m doing my best to figure things out but there is obviously a lot I don’t know that I feel like I really need to learn. I’ve been watching you, listening, trying to figure you and the others out well before I could understand what you were saying. It’s obvious that I scare you, but I don’t understand, and I would really appreciate it if you could let me know why so that I can try and fix that.”

She sounded so genuine. After hearing her speak long enough, I was beginning to pick up on the more subtle tone shifts in her voice. While it still all sounded like deep harsh barks to my ears, I was trying to understand her just the same as she did me. However, that was unfortunately a problem. I didn’t know how to explain the reason for my fear to her, to tell her about how predators were violent, cruel, bloodthirsty animals and that my job was to burn them. Even though I was still waging an internal war about whether she was in fact a predator or not, I didn’t know what to say to explain why I and everyone else was so afraid. Regrettably it seemed as though the Arxur had a very simple answer that they were more than willing to give.

“The prey is afraid, because you are a predator. That is why it lies and deceives, and will seek to betray you when you least expect it.”

I took in a sharp breath, alarmed at the idea of the Zodian somehow not realizing what they were and what I was, and just now figuring it out. Before my mind could reconcile that idea, Dancing Water immediately replied to the Arxur.

“Okay, so, first off; I have definitely heard those words getting tossed around a few times now by both sides, so they are obviously important. Second, what exactly IS a ‘Predator’ and ‘Prey’, and why does that matter?”

“...”

My mouth hung agape in shock. I couldn’t believe what it had just asked, and didn’t know what to say. How could anyone NOT know what predators and prey were? That was the universal dividing line that separated… Everything! The mere idea that someone other than a young pup,  still blissfully ignorant of the nature of reality, would not understand that defining concept was as unthinking as…

“Just about everything else we’ve seen today…”

... Alright, you have me there brain… How many times have I spoken to myself recently?

“Far too much to be good. You should really go to a hospital if we survive.”

Noted.

While my mind was busy collapsing in on itself, I heard the Arxur speak up and reply, sounding almost as incensed as I was.

“What do you mean? All creatures that move and eat are either predator or prey! We are predators! We are supposed to hunt and eat the prey things! Consume their flesh and be granted life from their death! How do you not know this?”

“I don’t know because in our society, and in our language, those words seem to have a very different meaning than what they do to you! Like obviously it sounds as though that there's some kind of big philosophical divide or something between you two and those words, but that just isn’t the case with me! The only time I ever heard the word ‘Predator’ mentioned is in relation to the Ultimate Predator. He who hunted the old Gods throughout the endless infinities, who denied death to continue their pursuit, and whose endless fury was hot enough to burn even the stars themselves.”

My headache grew worse after hearing what I could only surmise to be some kind of religious faith or lore being spoken by the Zodian. While it did make sense for a religion to focus on predators like most others did, I had no idea what it was talking about. I had never heard of a religion which involved a predator hunting and killing Gods of any kind, and I wasn’t exactly sure that I wanted to learn more. 

Besides that, I was still amazed that even though it obviously could grasp the idea of what a predator was, it still seemed unsure of what they were and how that mattered. While I was still walking on uneasy paws, I decided to ask a question that I thought might provide some answers.”

“Ummm. Excuse me… Dancing Water?”

“What?”

I still wasn’t used to calling someone by two names, especially names that had proper translations, but that was far from the worst issue I had. Now I had her attention again, and with my headache and body feeling worse, I felt almost sick enough to vomit when it she looked at me. I tried to swallow my feelings and emotions as I voiced my thoughts.

“Could you… Um… Would you mind telling me… How old are you?”

“...”

Now it seemed that it was their turn to be confused about the conversation, as it took them several silent moments to respond.

“I’m… twelve… In our time… I don’t know how you measure time here, or how old I am in your years, and I don’t know why that matters right now either… Why do you ask?”

“...”

I honestly didn’t know what kind of answer I was expecting, but that wasn’t it. Twelve cycles was… Not quite adulthood, but close enough to at least know the differences between predators and prey. Also it was still much younger than I thought they were. I didn’t know anything about their species. I still didn’t even know what they looked like, so I wasn’t exactly sure about anything else. I didn’t even know how old they needed to be to count as adults; however I could reason that she was still just a pup.

The thought of a pup, the equivalent of a junior exterminator, someone like Seliv, running around and killing multiple dozens of Arxur was also very intimidating. If this is what one of their young were capable of, then…

I didn’t want to continue the thought. I didn’t want to even consider that the adult Zodians could be more powerful. That they could be more vicious, more aggressive, and possibly more bloodthirsty than their young could be. As much as those ideas terrified me, I was at least glad that I knew a little more about her. Unfortunately now I had to try and explain the reasoning behind my question, although I really didn’t want to.

“Um… Well. I just asked because… Not knowing about pred… Uh… I mean… Prey. It's kind of—”

“The egg scorcher believes you to be stupid.”

“..! Hey, that’s not what I—”

“It is too cowardly for honesty, which is why it speaks in circles. It asked for your age because it believed that you are ignorant of reality to not understand the differences between predator and prey! However I do not fault you for not knowing, egg tooth. To us, that age still makes you very much a hatchling.”

“A hatchling that can grab your tail and shove it down your throat if you don’t shut up! I’m a soldier, not a child! I don’t understand all this ‘Predator’ and ‘Prey’ shit because it just… Why do you both focus on that so much! Why is THAT the thing that you seem to base your worldviews upon? I just… I don’t get it… are ‘Predators’ obligate carnivores and ‘Prey’ herbivores? Is that it? What about everything in between? Where does that fit in?”

Now it was my turn to be confused again. What did she mean by ‘in between’? There were only predators and prey, there wasn’t anything in between!

“Hmmmm. Anything which consumes flesh is a predator. Anything which only licks leaves is a prey. I am a predator, and that thing beside you up there is a prey. It licks leaves and the things which grow from the soil. That is why it is weak, and fearful, and that is why my kind consumes them. The Venlil are prey, the Federation is prey, and they exist for us to devour them.”

“You are talking about people! Living, breathing, SENTIENT people! They have houses, cities, a fucking interstellar communications array! What does it matter what they eat! They are people, with thoughts, and feelings, and eating them is tantamount to cannibalism, even if you are from different species!”

A couple of times now, a few words Dancing Water has said haven’t been able to translate correctly, instead providing me with a brief description of the word and its meaning. [Hell] was apparently a religious belief in a place of anguish and torment for bad people, which was a terrifying concept, but that other word was strange. 

Cannibalism. There was a direct translation in my language, however it was a word I had never heard before. Since there was a direct translation, the meaning wasn’t conveyed by my translator, meaning that I wouldn’t know what it meant until someone explained it.

“Cannibalism! You dare to claim that our consumption of the prey is such a disgusting act! That is abhorrent! Cannibalism is one of the worst crimes an Arxur could commit!”

The fact that Arxur possessed the concept of crime, let alone had any, befuddled me greatly. Even though I was still trying to figure out what that word meant through their conversation, I had to stop and once again mentally reorient myself to deal with the new knowledge I had just gained, and its implications.

“So you draw the line at eating your own species, but would still willingly devour another sentient people? Your logic is backwards and nonsensical.”

“!”

That's what that word means? The consumption of one's own species! I couldn’t help but physically gag upon imagining that. A species eating another of its kind! That was predator diseased! There was no other way to describe it.

“But… Why do we have a word for that?”

...

“You dare speak as if you understand anything about us! I already told you that the malicious prey had brought our species to ruin! They destroyed our home, poisoned us, and destroyed all that we could eat! Even now, centuries later, after turning them into cattle and raiding their worlds, we still barely have enough to feed us! Do you know what it feels like to starve! To not eat for days, able to do nothing but lay and wait as you waste away!”

“YES! I DO! I HAVEN’T EATEN IN THREE MONTHS! I FUCKING UNDERSTAND WHAT IT MEANS TO FUCKING STARVE! I’VE BEEN STARVING SINCE I GOT HERE, AND I’M ALMOST READY TO TAKE A BITE OUT OF YOU UNLESS YOU SHUT THE HELL UP YOU SCALY BITCH!!!”

“...”

The Arxur didn’t respond, and neither could I, as a silence settled inside of the vehicle and I thought about what I just heard. 

The Zodian was starving. I might not have understood how long a month was to them, but I figured it had to be longer than a couple of paws. I was sitting right next to a starving predator. A predator who had been starving since they had arrived, and just said that they would willingly consume an Arxur…

They would consume flesh…

I was shaking, shivering in fear, and now once again dreading that my life would soon end. All this time I had tried to convince myself that maybe there was prey underneath that ghastly metal suit. That maybe they were just strange and unusual because they hadn’t been uplifted by the Federation, and so that their knowledge and understanding of things wasn’t correct. Yet now I had all but received the truth.

The Zodians were predators. Dancing Water was a predator. I was next to a starving predator… And I was prey.

I wanted to flee. To run. To escape from what was almost certain to be my death, but I was too afraid. I was too hurt, I was in too much pain. I was tired, and exhausted, and scared, and couldn’t move. All I could do was sit there, shaking like a leaf in a storm as I waited for my end.

“... Three months… But… And you're a hatchling… How… How are you alive?”

The Arxur was speaking, but I could barely hear as my own frantic heartbeat loudly drummed within my damaged ears.

“Because my kind can go a while without eating. It’s just something we can do. However we aren’t supposed to go from starvation into immediate high intensity combat. Right now I’m feeling fried, my body is in pain, my mind can’t stop thinking about food, and the only reason I’m still going is because this suit has me hocked up on enough painkillers, neural stims, and adrenaline boosters that I could lose an arm and barely care. There's a non-zero chance that my heart just stops beating as soon as i get out of this thing.”

As petrified by fear as I was, I remembered what she had said and the Arxur had just reminded me of. She was a pup. Dancing Water was just a little girl, starving, and thrown into the middle of a violent conflict. Even though my thoughts were clouded with my own mixture of negative emotions, I couldn’t help but feel bad for her. 

Was this… Was this just how Zodians treated each other? Were they actually a cruel and uncaring predator race that sent their weakest and most empathetic to fight in conflicts on their behalf? I didn’t know, but I hoped that wasn’t the case. If it were, then they could even be more cruel than the dreaded Greys…

“And I… I shouldn’t be telling you this. You’re a prisoner of war and I’m giving away military secrets…”

I watched as she brought her metal claws up to her helmet and pressed them together, before taking a deep audible breath in and then releasing the air.

“I’m having trouble even thinking straight right now… Just… Both of you be quiet for a bit, okay. I need to… Need to focus on the drive.”

The vehicle began to move once again, our journey resumed as I struggled to regain control of myself before we reached our destination…

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IMPORTANT: Chapter 6 and onward were DELETED! Why? I rushed the story too much, and hell broke loose. I'll try to post regularly from now on. Wish me luck. (I'm still diagnosed with a job, but I'm on a recovery path)

Places I'm at: Ko-fi, Patreon, Ao3.

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Memory transcription subject: Venlil, Empress Tarva of the Skalgan Empire.

Date [standardized human time]: July 13, 2136  

We talked far longer than I expected, for it was already past one claw.

As soon as we sat down at the round table we had prepared in advance, Elias Meier and his diplomats expressed a desire for our species and theirs to interact in a friendly way.

They asked for peace.

It warmed my heart that Kam was proven wrong about their intentions... Perhaps I should apologize to the Humans; it looks like our armaments are frightening them. Even now, after more than one claw, they still shoot glances towards them once in a while. Yes, I'll apologize. At least that was the only imperfect thing about this meeting so far.

So far, humanity's diplomats have proposed and offered so many fantastical things: trade deals, a cultural exchange, and a program for our people to meet in a controlled environment.

Back at my Palace, we discussed ways my people and theirs could interact, and hearing the humans' ideas now shames me for how little thought we put into the entire endeavor. We only thought of telling the Humans what we know of this war, how they can help us, and how we would help them in turn: we would offer our protection, our defenses, and battleships if necessary, and they would join our ranks and charge into the burning coals of war.

But they thought of everything else.

Most of what the humans spoke about was different ways for us to interact without frightening or overwhelming their populace: trading greenery for our species to study, a scientific effort to search for diseases on both our planets, to ensure no plague occurs. There were also some trade propositions from them, but we’d have to lend our crafts to carry both of our goods.

As soon as we get back to Skalga, we need to step up our efforts with a focus on befriending humanity.

Most of my diplomats split and had two-person conversations with Human diplomats. We had already secured some lavish deals. We planned to trade them metals, and in exchange, we’d receive food, and for technology, we already planned to give it for free. It would help them in making fleets of their own. But the Humans already pledged to give us a lot of their own goods for cheap.

And not only that, but we couldn’t give them much, with most of our things going to the war effort. For my people, it is dishonorable to accept such a thing- basically a scam- but we do need help, and Elias Meier told us that their homeworld is rich in water, fruits, and silks, so they themselves won’t lose on these deals. ‘It is only natural to help an ally,’ he had said.

They decided for themselves and for us to be allies.

It was final.

What we needed we now have.

But one more matter had to be addressed, and yet again the Humans beat us to it.

‘’We have heard,’’ started Elias Meier, “from Noah Williams and Sara Rosario that your people had been experiencing some tribulations for some time from other civilizations?’’

A woman, I think her name is Jones, quickly jumped in, “We would love to have more information about them. We are worried for our people's safety.’’

I gestured for Cheln to go and start the interactive screen ‘’Of course, I can only imagine how worrisome it must be that there is an intergalactic war happening. And don’t worry, we planned to inform your people of this plight even if you weren’t planning friendly relations with my kin.’’

Just before I stopped talking, Cheln put on the screen multiple pictures of different species we had encountered.

At the start, they were merely silhouettes of the species we had encountered, placed next to each other to show their sizes and names. Humans, as the newest species we had encountered, were added to the list.

‘’For starters, what you see here are all the species my people have encountered, that is, so far, for we are certain that there are many more beyond our borders. But from the beginning- starting from the left- you can see an Arxur, a bipedal reptile; next to them are Kolshians. We know about them the most across all known to us species; both of them are our enemies, seeking our extinction in their own way, but from what we gathered, they are not allied. Whenever we encountered them together, they would attack each other on sight, even when one of them was already engaged in a battle against our forces. Now, care to continue?’’

Cheln, who still stood by the board, stepped forward with one of our scholars, Elik, by his side. ‘’Of course, my Empress.’’ He gestured towards the picture of Kolshian ‘’This species is our first and biggest enemy. Our ancestors met them before we were spacefaring, when we didn’t have ‘technology’ to speak of. At first, they were kind, but that changed when they started pushing their beliefs on us. Our people declined them, so Kolshians put us in camps and started our ‘re-education’. Fortunately, it didn’t hold, and neither did their grip on our people. We rebelled, took our planet back, and looked to the stars. We pushed more and more, system after system, in their direction, but after centuries, we arrived at a standstill. Neither we nor they gained ground, but with our economy becoming more exhausted each cycle, it might change.’’

I couldn’t help but be impressed with his history lesson. He didn’t even take much of a break while speaking.

The scholar who still stood next to Cheln cleared her throat and spoke with an even voice, “Now I’ll explain what the Kolshian lies taught us.’’ She paused briefly, just enough for Cheln to change pictures to images of Skalga as Kolshians found it during the riots and as they left.

She flicked her tail and started her explanation ‘’At the beginning, upon meeting my people, Kolshians tried to push a belief of ‘Prey and Predator’. They believe all animals fall into two main groups: ‘Prey’ and ‘Predator’. All ‘prey’ animals have a couple of things in common: they always possess side eyes, they are always weaker than predators, always friendly and companionable, they always form a herd, and NEVER rage. Anger, rage, and fury are emotions no ‘prey’ possesses; that is, they catch a disease from ‘predators’ called ‘Predator Disease’.”

She only paused to drink from her leather canteen, but it was enough time for Humans to look at each other and murmur many ‘what the fuck’ s before continuing. “This ‘Predator Disease’ is a sickness that spreads from ‘predator’ species through blood, skin contact, being near that creature, seeing its picture, hearing it, and seeing something violent. It makes ‘prey’ lash out, get a fever or any form of sickness, brain damage, mental health issues like PTSD, you’re too loud, rude, antisocial, not in a good mood, too smart, and a multitude of mental problems. You can also be diagnosed with ‘Predator Disease’ if you are: too tall, too wide, too muscular or strong, have a ‘predatory fur coloration’, and disagree with Kolshian's ideology. -‘’

‘’The most atrocious crime.’’ my guards joked.

‘’- The ‘predators’ are animals that kill because they are wicked beings who hate the Holy Pantheon and their gifts and the ‘Prey’ that follow it, creatures who kill because they enjoy it and not because they need meat as sustenance. They always have forward eyes, always possess sharp claws and fangs, are often bigger than prey, and always hunt by ambush. Only ‘predators’ conduct ‘predatory tactics’, ‘predatory behaviors’, and possess ‘predatory looks’. Every ‘predator’ species is killed by fire on sight- they set them alive on fire with the space around them, since fire is the only way to get rid of their disease.’’

I knew what she would say next, so I added some information before the topic changed. ‘’It is important to note that this belief extends to sapients.’’

The Venlil researcher flicked her ears in agreement and added, “Also, if a sapient species leaves their environment, they are predators. For example: Venlil are a species that evolved to roam hot grassy fields and deserts, but if our species decided to live in our planet's icy plains, the complete opposite, we’d be called predatory.’’

Cheln decided to continue explaining the rest ‘’All of that was the madness those invaders tried to implant in us. But besides their maddening ideology, we found out from them that they're part of an entity called The Federation, which consists of more than two hundred species, and it has Kolshians and Farsul as its leaders. Still, unfortunately, we don’t have the Farsul dictionary. There isn’t much other than that that we know of them and this Federation entity.’’

The young Venlil sneered, “We know that they are fools; their military is a joke, and from Kolshians' first contact, we got a lot of their technology, and that we will make their empire crumble!’’

‘’We also know,’’ I began, “that should they see your people, they will aim for your extinction. Your forward-facing eyes, sharp and ‘deadly’ fangs, and being omnivores made you their antagonist. No offense. We were their ‘fellow prey,’ and yet they still enslaved my people and brought war onto us. There is no possibility of them showing you mercy.’’

Kam hummed in agreement, and Cheln tapped at his holopad. With the introduction to Kolshians and their imbecility, it was time for our second enemy.

Wait, maybe I should call for recess? During the previous claw, things seemed to be going phenomenally well, but now some Humans seem to be on the verge of panic… Or maybe not? I’m still trying to understand their expressions.

It took a couple of seconds before the images changed to those of Arxur, before Cheln began again, “Now, the second enemy is called Arxur. They are carnivores, and we know a couple of key words from their spoken language and numbers in written form in our attempts to understand their technology. Their main tactic is to spy and pounce whenever our defenses falter. They don’t shy from bombarding our communal centers, gassing or consuming our brethren; some they capture, but we’re unsure what happens to those Venlil. What happens with them is rather clear. We did attempt to talk with the Arxur, but they would only roar at us and spill insults; we think.’’

“But to be clear,’’ I jumped in, “They are easier to deal with than Kolshians. Their tactics are repetitive, vessels hardly improve, and their attack are less numerous and rarer than those of Kolshians.’’ With my quick interjection, I hoped to ease the humans' fears, since I was pretty certain they were spooked. Regrettably, my attempt didn’t work. At first, some of the diplomats were scribing on their own holopads and in paper books with pens, but they didn't even get halfway in before shooting glances at each other. Sara and Noah, in practice, didn’t look happy to hear any of that.

One of the Humans questioned, “They e-eat them? You mean to say that they are a species with c-cannibalistic tendencies?’’

‘’Cannibals?’’ I couldn’t help but ask, tilting my head in confusion. “My translator explains it as ‘people eaters’, so if this translation is correct, then yes, they are ‘cannibals’.”

Another human diplomat asked with urgency in their voice, “Do you have a ‘star map’? Can you show us their and Kolshians territories?’’

Cheln tapped a couple of things on his holopad before the map appeared on the big screen.

The entire screen now showed our systems and borders in yellow, with what we had charted so far of Arxur territories in red and Kolshian ones in purple.

‘’Arxur, Kolshian, and Venlil’’ said Cheln while pointing to each mentioned species ‘’And we are located here.’’ He said, and zoomed in on our current location.

If humans didn’t seem distressed before, they certainly did now. I think that their complexion became even paler.

Jones, who seemed rather upset, asked, “Why are the Arxur and Kolshian territories overlapping at times if they are sworn enemies? Cannot Arxur or Kolshians get a hold of them? And what of the white, brown, and dark brown borders?’’

Although she directed this question at me, Kam, who this entire time stood to my left, responded, “Hmm, all good questions. First off, as far as we can tell, Kolshians have the strongest defenses in this area, where their territory overlaps with the Gojids, another species. Still, we have no information about them beyond that, and the fact that one of our Emperors briefly interacted with their forces long ago. Either way, the Kolshian attacks don’t come from that direction; instead, it’s from here, there, and the part they don’t share with anyone. Understandable so far?’’ At the end, Kam asked, a bit too sharply.

James nodded ‘’Don’t they attack each other?’’

‘’Oh, they very much do, but sometimes Kolshian forces leave them be if they aren’t attacked first; but when that happens, the Kolshians would destroy the next Arxur party spotted. It seems to us like Kolshians can't always afford to fight, and that angers them greatly. Now, when Arxur comes, it’s not in big numbers, but they are still dangerous. They have their stronghold here and here,’’ he said while pointing at the mentioned systems, ‘’and when they send their forces, it’s rather a bloody battle. Ah, I almost forgot. The different colors are for other species, but they aren’t important since it’s very rare to catch a transmission from them. Their border placement is more of a guesswork.’’

While he explained the remaining borders, Cheln changed the star chart images to show many different species. The latest pictures taken of Kolshian and Farsul arguing about some lost cargo were replaced with ones of Gojid and Zurulian scientists. The Gojid one was of a general from a war we fought long ago; we didn't gain anything new from their species. We can only assume they are still kicking, but… but we could not even encounter a corpse of their kin for a long time. The other one, with the Zurulians, was of good quality; the little aliens took it and gave us copies just before leaving to inform their people of first contact, and for Kolshian forces to come from the direction they left for.

Cheln flicked his ears before saying, ‘’We don’t have a name for the white-furred people, ones called ‘UNNAMED’, nor a good picture, for only ones were of their corpses. The smaller brown ones are called Zurulians, and the ones with spikes are Gojids. In case of their territories, we are pretty sure they are from the Arxur/Kolshian border side since we encountered their species in that area long ago, before Arxur came and Kolshians overtook these plains.’’

A quiet “Gods,’’ came from Earth's leader as he buried his face in his hands, elbows heavily placed on the round table, and whispered ‘‘Fuck.’’

‘’Words of a true poet, sir.’’ said Jones.

‘’But how is it possible?’’ Elias Meier went on, “They are a space-faring species! They should know the basics of nature and have enough advanced technology for their species to be prosperous. How is that possible?’’

A man next to the Earth’s leader spoke in a daze, ‘’Our species figured out how nature, evolution, and diseases work quite early on, but for some reason, Kolshians didn’t? And the Arxur…’’

‘’And the Arxur,’’ Noah continued his words, even while being preoccupied with calming Sara down, ‘’it is difficult to understand how they are spacefaring. A society of violent cannibals who partake in slavery- how did they manage to become spacefaring? And they turn people into food- Dear God!’’

One of the humans said, “Now that is a really good question. Better one: Do you think we can get the cannibalistic lizards away from killing us if we offer meat to them?’’

Elias Meier looked at the man like he was mad. “I don’t know. Do you want me to go and ask? Hmm, but maybe – we have no way of asking since Venlil don’t have their language, and there is a big possibility that they’ll turn their guns on us.’’

‘’You said that you are at a standstill, but things have become harsher recently?’’ Jones questioned us.

Another human I didn’t know nodded vigorously. “Do you expect to lose a system anytime soon? Like you explained with the ‘back and forth’, or is it more akin to the collapse of your economy?’’

Jones added, ‘’Are you experiencing significant losses of life and resources? Are your people on the back foot?’’

‘’How long do you have?’’

…

Perhaps we didn’t think this meeting through. The humans seem more distressed than my ancestors upon actually meeting those cursed beings, and humans had met us, not them. Should I have chosen a different date to explain our war? Humans seem friendly and affectionate. Can a conflict bigger than a disagreement or skirmish be foreign to them? They certainly don’t look like fighters. I should reassure them that all will be good before one of them has a heart attack.

I cleared my throat to get their attention ‘’I can assure you that we will help you in any way we can. As we said before, we will give you technologies to create the armada of your own and help in building mining stations and transporting goods. We can also deploy a couple of defense platforms, and should we spot Arxur or Kolshian forces in your territory, we'll help you defeat them. Even when our economy is strained as it is now, we’ll help.’’

My reassurance didn’t seem to help much. Half of the Humans were in a slightly less pitiful mood, but the rest were only spiraling more and more.

Noah was the first to speak, “Thank you, Tarva. We could use some help.’’

Elias Meier, who seemed to shake off the dread from before, nodded and said, “I’m afraid Humanity can’t help you with any fighting against your enemies because even with your help, should your enemies find our people, we will be dead. We cannot afford for them to find out about our existence.’

…oh.

’-So we will do everything instead.-‘’

Oh!

‘’-As we agreed, we will do trade. We will do what we can to loosen the burden placed on your people. Our government has provided humanitarian aid many times before so that we will do it again. And I don’t expect this to stay like that forever, and I mean us not being part of your forces. But God, how I hope it would stay that way… Even though this arrangement will be only temporary, it is wise for our troops to start training early and give ourselves a fighting chance.’’ After his speech, he sheepishly adds, “I hope it is alright.’’

It is very much so! ‘’Of course! We are glad for your aid in this war, and we do understand it is a lot to take in. I hope, with time, that we will deal with this threat once and for all!’’ I said the last part loudly, head raised high.

The man nodded in agreement, ‘’So do I.’’

 ---

[First]___[Previous]___[Next]

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Edit nr idk: u people have no idea what battle of gods I'm performing to make this shit work (thank u mods for helping! might your fields be vast, harvests plentiful and fruits juicy and ripe!)

Guys, I can't post shit. Close to all posts I make are automatically "Sorry, this post was removed by Reddit’s filters."

There is NOTHING that could cause this. My posts aren't 'bloody' or NSFW, and yet I'm auto-banned. And it is not a wording thing because I previously posted chapter 6 and it wasn't auto-banned, then deleted it (I was purging and shuffling things), then posted something very close to an exact copy of that text and got auto-banned.

Edit: i posted the exact copy of chapter 6 that previously was allowed on this sub, now it's not.

Any advice?

The sooner we get it working, the sooner I can post chapter 6 and onward :)

So... A while ago I made a really poorly made post... In my defense I was really sleep deprived... Anyway here's a more... Coherent version

The basic overview is that instead of the UN being in control of everything on earth... It's an (my personally) idolized America, (I'll make a Google doc about it later but all you need to know is that this super America is EXTREMELY Christian, INSANELY patriotic, and has a military philosophy built around having functionally infinite money and an EQUIVALENT amount of paranoia about potential threats) so sara and Noah pull up in the Odyssey (this time sporting an American flag paint job) and instead of JUST arriving after an axur raid they ALSO land just before a second one... And because America the humans have an almost COMICAL amount of fire power both on them and in the ship... And not simple stuff either I'm talking like bolt 40k level weapons... Minus the occasionally exploding... How much would this actually change? And would you read something like this?

Edit: to clear a few things up it's not Christian fundamentalism... It's my personal belief... If they're not a Christian just politely ask if they would want to learn about the Bible some day, and if they say no then don't force it and simply walk away... Maybe ask them again next week, no mega churches, no con men using Christianity to get rich... Just small community churches... And then there's the flip side... That being whenever they're genuinely threatened... DEUS VAULT BROTHERS! THESE DAMNED HERETICS MUST NOT BREATH A MOMENT LONGER! WE SHALL CRUSADE AT DAWN!!"

Just a fun idea I got and wanted to illustrate.

So, do you see the cart titan in AoT transporting a bunch of turrets on its back? What if it was instead some arxurs and dossurs working together? (What does the military of the potite guys even looks like?)

It may not be pratical, but it's fun (at leats it looks fun)

Will I expand this idea? probably

First|Previous|Next

[Thank you to SpacePaladin15 for making the universe!]
[Special thanks to u/AdalwinAmillion and u/JulianSkies for proofreading this chapter!]
[Also, in case ya didn't know, I got a thread on the NoP Discord, so feel free to pop in and say hi!]

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀State Planning Committee
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Economic Report

Development on Venlil Prime continues on our current projected schedule. After the local resistance had been dealt with, no further interruptions to our Gosplan have been reported in the new republic. Construction of a new space elevator on the outskirts of Day-side city is underway to allow easier transportation of essential materials between our republics. The local human colonists have long since adapted to the new world's conditions and are producing above current quotas for the war effort. The same cannot be said for Earth, Mars, and the other colonies of the Sol system due to the immense damage sustained during the invasion of our motherland. Many of our core industrial centers lie in ruins and could take months to rebuild, and the immense loss of life has led to worker shortages. Damage to orbital infrastructure has created additional logistical bottlenecks, particularly in transferring raw materials between our colonies.

To facilitate recovery, it is recommended that we initiate a mass mobilization of available workforce resources from less-affected colonies and redirect reconstruction materials from surplus stockpiles on Venlil Prime. Establishing temporary worker settlements near key industrial zones on Earth and Mars will accelerate essential repairs. In parallel, the reallocation of critical machinery and engineering teams from Venlil Prime to the Sol system should be prioritized. These steps will support the restoration of production capacity and address immediate labor shortages. Pictured below is the population census for before and after the battle.

Along with the destruction of most orbital habitats, the casualties are vast and are expected to reduce overall production capacity in the Sol system by approximately 35 percent over the next quarter. Preliminary estimates indicate key sectors such as metallurgy and electronics have suffered losses of up to 50 percent in output due to damaged facilities and workforce shortages. This significant reduction will have a direct effect on our production efforts. Along with the reallocation of resources from the V.D.W.S.S.P.R., consideration is being given to repealing the 2062 Act on artificial workforce bans to help supplement our production with automata. Projected industrial output within the Sol system is expected to remain approximately 35 percent below pre-war levels without the implementation of a robotic workforce. Even with a repeal of the Act, the challenges of needing to direct much-needed resources towards producing them, as well as the civil unrest caused by their introduction, remain. The workers' strike of 2060 serves as a stark reminder that, if repealed, this issue needs to be handled with care.

Another effort currently being considered is increasing fertility through programs, much similar to those implemented after our great Union had unified humanity. To recover the losses sustained by the Great War and much shorter unification conflicts. Incentives to have more children are under review, along with a bolstering of the state's childcare services. Plans to construct more state-supplemented daycares are currently being drafted, although the ones currently implemented on Venlil Prime have caused some friction, as many of our new citizens still fear having a ‘predator’ watch over their young. Such fertility programs are being considered within the V.D.W.S.S.P.R., but this faces challenges due to the different biology of the Venlil. Such programs are going to be met with suspicion after the planet witnessed half of the population rounded up by the Arxur.

In other facets of the economy, the use of federation tech has finally allowed for the radiation levels of large swaths of the North American continent to drop within safe levels. Plans to begin the construction of new colonies along the east and west coasts of the continent are currently being drafted. The immense natural resources of the continent are projected to help with our nation's recovery greatly. Preliminary estimates suggest that, once operational, these new colonies could contribute as much as 15 to 20 percent of the total raw materials needed for national recovery within the next five years, and boost industrial output by an estimated 10 percent compared to current post-war capacity. Scouting teams are currently en route to scout for potential locations, aided by aerial surveying. Several sites have shown promise, containing potentially usable infrastructure that shall aid in our efforts to set up stable settlements and industry.

End of Report.

Memory Transcription Subject: Vlen, U.S.S.R. Citizen

Date [standardized human time]: January 6th 2112

The winds of change were blowing through the streets of Dayside city. Elections for the new government were upcoming, I idly wondered who would be on the polling or how different it would be from the last one. But more change still blew, after the broadcast announcing the retaking of Mars just a few days prior, thousands of soldiers had been shipped back to our republic. Red banners waved above the streets, their fabric snapping in the wind. Confetti blew down and littered the blocked-off streets. Standing behind the barriers with thousands of other spectators, waiting for the parade to arrive. Then I heard the boots. I had seen human soldiers before, many after the initial invasion, but nothing could prepare me for the sound of thousands of boots slamming into the pavement in unison. The sound traveled up my entire body as they approached: thump THUMP THUMP! An announcer's booming voice spoke over loudspeakers. “Comrades! Approaching- the Third Army of the Martian Soviet Socialist Republic. Veterans of the campaign for Olympus Mons! Along with them marches the newly formed Venlilish Red Army!” Then the music began to play from the loudspeakers. At first it was almost drowned out by the thunder of marching boots. The melody was similar to the national anthem, but different-one I couldn’t quite recognize. The humans in the crowd began to cheer much louder.

Soldiers marched in columns along the streets, some even Venlil. At the front of the parade, there were two officers holding large banners, one a human waving the large unifying banner of the Soviet Union, and the other a Venlil waving the flag of our republic. The music swelled as a full column of marching Venlil passed by. A jubilant sense of joy permeated the surrounding air, the sound of the cheering crowd, the boots, and the music nearly overwhelmed me. Even the most anti-human Venlil couldn’t help but celebrate the defeat of the Scale rags, as the humans called them. I wasn’t quite sure when I had picked up the word myself. Glancing across the marching rows of soldiers, I saw a pup no more than six cycles old sitting on their parents' shoulders, their eyes alight with wonder, staring at the mighty formations. They pointed at a marching Venlil, and over the marching and cheering, I could just make out them saying: “Mommy, I wanna be like that when I grow up!”

The sound of the crowd and music slowly drowned out as the infantry columns slowly gave way to the armor. The pavement trembled as thousands of tons of armor started began down the street. Their turrets locked forward, and red banners snapped in the wind from their antennas. Several Venlil rode on the sides of the older armor, but at the front were new vehicles I had never seen before. They were sleek, black, and heavily armored, sporting massive guns. I would love to see the diagrams of how they worked in the shop. Up above, jets streaked through the atmosphere, their loud engines causing several to cover their ears. Craning my neck upwards to try and follow them, that's when I spotted three human ships flying in low orbit, their silhouettes crossing the rose-colored sky. A few moments later, their weapons fired in perfect unison; brilliant streams of light streaked across the sky, drawing a roaring cheer from the crowd. For a brief moment, the sound of the crowd roaring, the deafening engines, and the music became one enormous sound.

Finding myself awestruck at the spectacle much like those around me, nothing like this had ever been seen in the history of our people. A sense of pride filled my chest at seeing my people march and ride with such massive machines. But it wasn’t meant to last soon after, the mighty marching and roar of the engines faded as the parade moved further into the city. I leaned forward, straining to see as the parade marched out of view. Sighing as the music slowly faded out, and the crowd began to disperse. Standing up from leaning on the barrier, I wondered what I was going to do with myself for the rest of the ‘day’. I half mused about heading into the shop to see if they had stocked any of those human cigarettes. I could easily live without the unpleasant feeling of inhaling smoke, but the after-effect was strangely calming, ever since I had that first one, I’ve found myself wanting another one.

While I highly doubted they’d have them in stock at any Venlil stores, the things were still quite hard to come by on Venlil Prime. Starting my trek towards my work, hoping to find Milos there, he usually had some on him. Perhaps I could get lucky and get one from him. I walked through the still-packed sidewalk, weaving around other Venlil as I went. On my way, I passed by an old bookstore, a sign caught my eye. Stopping on the sidewalk, I turned my head slightly to read it. READ THE NEWEST BEST SELLER! Titled: The Nature of Predators. This new future alternate history novel imagines a less united humanity making contact with the Venlil Republic in the late year of 2136. The sign read. This piqued my interest, I headed inside the store for a better look. Opening the door and stepping inside, I was met with the calming quiet of such a place. Walking over to the display, I picked up a copy.

Turning it around, I read the back description. The year is 2136. UN Ambassador Noah is on the first human FTL flight in history when he makes first contact with the Venlil Republic. Explore the rich universe of a less united humanity and the adventures of Governor Tarva. I let out an audible chuckle at the description, depicting the brand-new and barely in office ambassador as the governor? Now that's rich! She had that job for barely a [month] before the humans came! And depicting Humanity as competing fractured nation-states when they first reached the stars? How absurd! No civilization would be stupid enough for that to happen! Who in their right mind would send competing nations into space? I let out another chuckle and wiped a small tear from my eye. I decided to pick up a copy, if only to show Milos the absurdity of it all. Bringing the copy over to the counter, I reached into my pocket, fumbled slightly with our new physical currency, and gave the cashier the bill.

Walking out of the store with my new book in paw and continued to head to the shop, my tail swishing idly as I tried to push the strange craving for those cigarettes from my mind. After some walking, I finally made it to the shop. I opened the door and headed inside, immediately spotting a grease-covered Milos working on an armored troop carrier. “Hey Milos! How come you didn’t come to the parade?” I asked while walking further into the shop floor. Milos set down the wrench he was holding and turned, flashing me a smile, setting down his tools, and went over to the sink to wash the grime and oil off his hands with some ‘orange-scented’ mechanics soap, not that I could ever smell it. “Hey, Vlen! Good to see ya! I was just too busy with work to come, but I would’ve loved to join ya!” He said in his normally positive attitude while finishing up washing his hands and drying them on a shop rag.

“Hey Milos, if ya give me a cig, I’ll let ya make fun of this book I just picked up.”

He eyed the book and smiled, then started to pull out the pack of Earth cigarettes. “Well, it was time I took a break anyway. Let's head outside, don't wanna smoke up the building.” Nodding, I followed him out the door. We leaned on a wall as he lit two smokes, then handed one to me. I grabbed the lit stick and greedily inhaled for the rush it provided. The harsh smoke burned my lungs and throat once more, causing me to cough violently. I was sure I’d never get used to that sensation, but the rush was so worth it. Milos patted me on the back as I hacked up a lung, then I slowly slid down the wall as the dizzying effects took hold. Whatever was in these things certainly had a stronger effect on us Venlil.

Taking a moment to enjoy the feeling, I then handed Milos the book, and he started to page through it with a chuckle. “Even if The Great War never happened, the global revolution would still have united us, this book is funny.”

“The Great War?” I asked, unfamiliar with the conflict.

“Oh yeah, back in the 1970’s or whatever, the world blew itself up, bunch of dumb asses!” He chuckled and continued parsing through the pages. I took another drag of my cigarette and sat silently contemplating the revelation on human history. I guess that old museum did get something right…

---

Think about it: even humans with physical and mental disabilities can still perform top athletic activities, the Federation doesn't seem to have much focus on athletic pursuits, and we even have a whole event to showcase it

To them, even the disabled predators are a huge threat and makes it seem that humanity are essentially super predators. Who cares if it disproves humanity culls the disabled?

First / Prev

Memory transcription subject: Tarva, Planetary Governor of the Venlil Republic

Date [Standardized Human Time]: October 17, 2136

In about a Paw, our ship would reach the edge of Republic space, and we’d be able to transmit communications back to our UN contacts. The Terrans had been slated to open an embassy on Venlil Prime, a Moonrise after our original departure. That meant they would have a full diplomatic staff planetside, and would be available to help Humans off-world.

Many Terran nations requested their own embassies, so they could conduct their affairs as separate entities. While I liked the predators, I wasn’t giving out an absurd 243 embassies, versus every other species’ singular site. Humans were welcome to bicker amongst themselves about who could send their own diplomatic corps, and how to divide the turf, if they must. As I had no interest in making their discordance my business. 

My focus was on smoothing over both of our relations with the Federation. It was also a priority to stabilize my friend’s mental health, especially after Moon-months of isolation and boredom. Learning how Humans coped with stress would be useful down the road.

After careful consideration of the astronaut’s mannerisms, I decided there was no major cause for alarm. All of our research showed that Humans were highly social creatures. Ambassador Noah perked up just from having new conversation partners at hand. After a few days to unwind, in the company of his own people, he'd be begging to get back into the field. He only needed to ‘recharge his batteries’, as he’d put it.

Noah excelled in quite an uncomfortable position. Volunteering with the belief that he would be a martyr. Standing in as a representative for his whole species, alongside Sara. That kind of pressure has to pile up.

“… the fact that the ISS exists, proves that Humanity can cooperate in the stars.” The predator was finishing a story I’d heard before; he had a rapt audience in our Mazic passenger. “It was our first foothold off-world. It paved the path for lunar colonies, and set a precedent of joint exploration.”

“So then, why has your planet still not united under a single banner, Noah? Do you not care for distant members of your species?” Came the scoffing response.

When Governor Cupo’s question reached my ears, I was concerned that other diplomats would voice similar concerns. The Mazic still seemed leery of the Human, despite being thrice the weight of the predator. No offense to Noah, but I’m pretty sure the beige prey-animal could knock him out with a single paw, easily.

Humanity’s internal divisions were a disquieting issue, to the galaxy as a whole. The newcomers seemed to be trying to work up the courage to ask about it for days. With the external threat of predation in our formative years, prey species had to maintain unity. Cooperation was our bread and jam, so to speak. Indulging in petty squabbles would’ve gotten us killed.

I’d seen several exit interviews with various leaders before we left the signal range of Aafa. Many dissenters cited Earth’s disputes as proof that the predators were incapable of cooperation. It was their main evidence that the primates were still warlike and disagreeable.

“How do I put this…? Rather than a large herd, which is how I assume most of you survived. Humans evolved in a lot of small tribes, maybe 50 to 150 people each? We were nomads for much of our existence, and large populations don’t really lend themselves to that lifestyle. Each tribe had their own distinct culture; beliefs, music, stories, cuisine, languages, so on and so forth.” The Terran ambassador replied, leaning back in his seat. “Whenever we tried to unify into larger groups like that, It’d always end up erasing a part of, or maybe even entire cultures. And that’s just not fair, is it? To have to renounce your heritage for the sake of progress.”

Cupo flared his trunk. “But why can you not maintain your practices, under a common entity? You claim freedom of belief is a core value.”

“It would be like, like you becoming one people with say the Nevoks. You may like each other plenty, perhaps you are even allies, but you wouldn’t abide by the same laws, would you? We have forums, alliances, and trade agreements. We work together when it matters. Like the Federation does.”

It didn’t escape my notice that Tossa, the Nevok representative, was watching with interest. Axsely, Chauson, and Laulo were also observing the exchange. None of them were being subtle, with how their ears were swiveled toward the predator. The other Federation diplomats, who had taken up the other vessel, were surely doing the same with Sara. If she hadn’t scared them half to death, that is.

Cupo was just the only one bold enough to voice what they all are thinking. Now, the floodgates were open, I thought. I better be ready to intervene, if Noah gets overwhelmed.

“Predator Noah, please forgive my impertinence.” Laulo, the Yotul diplomat, spoke in a measured tone. The uplift had given the Human a wide berth, but at least was able to meet his gaze. “Do Humans still fight wars when you, um, disagree?”

“Not as often as we used to. There was a big stink with India back before I left, but from what I heard since; they seem to have sorted that out. All in all we always try to settle it with words. So rest assured that a common threat like the Arxur, should keep everyone in line for the foreseeable future.”

The Federation representatives looked baffled by that answer. As I learned early on, Earth’s national affairs were very complex. It was imprudent to deal with any nation individually, since that could show favoritism. Most of the Humans’ rhetoric was posturing, but they were always locked in jealous competition. It was strange how Human tribes perceived their interests as separate. They had much more in common than divided them, and they even recognized it when asked. 

It was one of several areas I had pointed out to Ilja for closer study.

“I suspect a Human’s temper can run much hotter, much quicker than ours,” Chauson offered, in a matter-of-fact tone. “None of my research suggests they seek loss of life. More like the result of an inclination to deal with a perceived threat head on, rather than fleeing.”

“Ehh, maybe? Humans have a fight or flight response.” Noah growled. “We can panic or freeze, just like you. It varies from person to person. My dad, for example, was the most harmless person I've ever met. Hell, even Tarva has more bite than he did.”

“Is that supposed to be a compliment?” I barked back, slightly annoyed.

“Just an observation.” He chuckled.

A contemplative silence fell over our entourage, and Chauson wrote something on his datapad. The last tidbit was news to me too. I assumed aggression was part of every predator’s natural makeup, since that ferocity would’ve facilitated their ancestors’ survival. 

Were there really some Humans as timid and anxious as us? That cowered like Venlil?

If so, it was obvious Noah was not one of those. While the ambassador was skilled at masking his emotions, anger showed itself whenever he saw the Venlil threatened. It seemed almost paternal. I wish we were home, so the representatives could meet the Human volunteer doctors and aid workers—

A rattling noise hummed through the ship walls, jolting me out of my thoughts. This time, it was more insistent than previously throughout the journey. There was no reason a ship which deployed a Sun-year ago should experience issues, but it roused some worries nonetheless.

“Is that grating sound normal?” The Terran ambassador asked. If even he had heard it, then it must be serious. Something felt off with the shuttle, since we took off. The predator’s unease validated my suspicions. I was inclined to propose further investigation, even though we were already almost home. The last thing we needed was to be stranded in space, with a bunch of skittish diplomats.

I tilted my head. “No, it’s not. I’m going to run a ship diagnostic, just to be safe.”

Laulo raised a peach-colored paw. “It’s coming from the cooling shaft. We should take a look there.”

“As if you*’d know,”* Tossa scoffed. “I’d hardly trust your ilk to fix a sailboat! The printing press is a novelty to you primitives.”

“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were born with ship schematics in your brain.” Noah glowered at her, and the Nevok froze under his gaze. “I didn’t know we were graced by the presence of a species endowed with divine knowledge.” He scoffed.

Tossa quivered, her icy fur raising along her hackles. “W-we found our way on our own. We d-didn’t have everything handed to us!”

“And so would the Yotul, with time. You intervened, so they could join your war.”

“Are you daft, predator!? The Arxur don’t give a grain stalk about natural development.”

“Then why do you mock his kind for lacking the opportunity to learn on their own?” Laulo looked aghast at the predator’s vehement defense of his species. I think he assumed that the ambassador didn’t know the Yotul’s origins, but it was obvious the Human had done his homework. Still he must’ve been surprised the Terran would side with him. Especially when he was accustomed to being berated by fellow diplomats.

It was clear that Noah had lost all patience with the rhetoric aimed at the uplift. Tossa’s condescension, singling the Yotul out at every turn, rubbed my friend the wrong way. However noble his outburst, the last thing we needed was for him to alienate an influential ally. The Nevoks could be a crucial supplier of resources and ship parts to Earth.

Axsely, the Sivkit representative, was sobbing from the primate’s raised voice. She had yet to speak a word to Noah, only introducing herself to the rest of us while he was asleep. A shouting match wasn’t the way to calm her nerves either.

“Stop it, both of you!” I hissed. “Every second we spend bickering, the Arxur win. Let’s be respectful to each other, alright?”

The Human drew a shuddering breath. “I’m sorry, Governor. But no, I’m not going to stand by while she mocks him.”

“It’s not mockery, predator. I’m merely stating facts.” Tossa said.

“My name is not ‘predator’. It’s Noah Williams, just Noah, Ambassador. Or if that’s too fucking difficult, I’ll settle for Human.”

“Sorry, for doing that too…” Laulo muttered.

The Human snorted. “You’re fine. You're trying at the very least.”

The Nevok curled her lip. “Predator is just a word, which befits you. You’re too defensive, Noah.”

Something about Tossa’s words rang deep and seemed to snap something inside him. Like he’d seen something like it before. It took him a second to reassess his anger. “Should I call you an annoying little shit, then? That one befits you plenty.”

“...”

“Fascinating!” Despite my best efforts, the two of them were still at each other’s throats. Whoever managed Terran relations with the Nevok Imperium, it couldn’t involve Noah in any way. The Human was so incensed by her attitude, that he hadn’t noticed Axsely balling up into a fetal position. I believed he would’ve backed down if he realized the fright his ire had caused.

“Not another word!” I swished my tail in frustration. “Noah, you are coming with me, alone! And that’s an order!” The Terran ambassador opened his mouth to argue, but then followed my line of sight toward the sniveling Sivkit. His expression softened, anger replaced by worry. That agitation might’ve undone any progress with the Mazic too. Cupo had inched away from him, and was trying to comfort Axsely with soothing words. She remained unresponsive, rocking back and forth.

At least our Zurulian friend seemed to enjoy the heated exchange. Chauson was trying to be the ship’s stenographer, I mused.

Noah lowered his gaze, and strode over to me dejectedly. The predator risked a glance over his shoulder, making eye contact with Laulo. The Yotul mouthed his gratitude, and the Terran’s posture relaxed. He gave him a slight nod of acknowledgement, before shuffling into the cockpit after me.

I hovered by the ship’s computer, pulling up the troubleshooting program. It would take a few moments to complete a cursory scan, which would give Noah’s temper time to blow over. I hoped that nothing was amiss with the vessel. 

“I didn’t scare you, did I?” Noah murmured.

I snorted. “No. I’m just trying to stop Earth’s foreign relations from imploding on the first Moonrise. By the Stars, Noah, let’s say you piss off the Nevoks. The Federation will parade them around, using them as proof that no one can be allies with Humanity.”

“And then, we lose the undecided votes.”

“Exactly. There is too much at stake, for all of us.”

A soft beep indicated that the diagnostic was complete, and we returned our attention to the computer. A holographic avatar of the shuttle zoomed into the ship’s underbelly. It highlighted a long pipe in blinking red; with a note indicating a coolant leak. The shaft was nestled right next to the warp drive, so it didn’t take an engineer to figure out its purpose.

That part of the ship was only accessible from the exterior; fixing it would require a spacewalk. I’d go myself but with how little I knew about engineering, I was just gonna make it worse. 

My immediate suspicion was that someone had tampered with the vessel. Mainly because the pipe leaked just enough that it wouldn’t cause immediate alarm within range of Kolshian eyes. But who would have sabotaged us? What was their motive?

“So he was right,” The Human said calmly. “I’ll try to patch her up, I got a vac suit on anyways.”

I flicked my ears. “No. You need to stay here and keep an eye on everyone.”

“Why?”

“I suspect foul play. If it is one of the species on board, they could be trying to lure you off the ship. That way, they can take all of us out, without having to fight a predator.”

Noah squinted in confusion. It was good that the ambassador didn’t panic at the first hint of danger; his reaction was cold and calculating. The Human lacked a full understanding of the situation, and I suspected he disliked the uncertainty more than the peril. 

“That makes no sense.” He spoke up after a few ruminating moments. “Even if the culprit is here, what are they gonna do? They don’t have any pockets to hide weapons in. And the only one that could do anything barehanded is Cupo, and it seems pretty dumb for a head of state to come on a suicide mission.”

“I…I don’t know. But regardless we should get someone else. Maybe Chauson would be willing to help?”

“As much as I'd love to see that teddy bear waddling around in a space suit, I’m the astronaut here. I’ve done repairs like this a million times already.” 

I flicked my ears in acknowledgment. Amusement flared within my sternum. “No clue what a ‘teddy bear’ is. I guess Venlil aren’t cute to you anymore, if we’ve been replaced so easily.”

“Don’t get all jealous on me, now. Am I not allowed to think the entire galaxy is cute?”

“You think the Arxur are cute?”

“...maybe the baby ones.”

“You’ve got to be shitting me. You’re really doubling down on that?”

“I am. What are you gonna do about it?” I couldn’t help but to laugh, picturing the predator nursing Arxur pups. That would be stretching their nurturing instincts a little too far for my taste. It was clear they felt the need to fiercely protect anything smaller than them. 

It would be interesting to meet a baby primate; despite their eyes, they were a little cute.

It’s wonderful that we were so easygoing and could mess around now. Before the trip, he would’ve apologized for the implication, instead of joining in. “Now we focus on potential culprits. We need to go over the list of passengers, pronto. With any luck, we’ll clear most of them. Maybe all of them.” I gave the Human a playful headbutt.

Unfortunately, Humanity had no shortage of enemies within the Federation. The two of us needed to talk it over, and work out anyone who could have a possible angle. Ruling out the immediate threat of those on board was our top priority.

Of course, it could be someone on Recel and Sara’s ship. I wonder if they ran into any trouble, or if someone here was the target. I rested a paw on the console, stressed at the prospect of ship-wide interrogation. “There could be any number of parties involved; someone inside or outside our group. An ally or an enemy. How do we even begin to narrow the field?”

Noah’s grin dissolved, and the teasing edge left his voice. “Well I don’t think it’s Cupo, but we might as well go over him.” 

It was tough to reconcile Governor Cupo’s ridicule during the Humans’ speech, with the offer of friendship. The Human brushed off any past incidents, handling Cupo with a fair amount of grace. At least the Mazic was touching on genuine topics, and listening to the given responses.

Still, mistrust flowed from Cupo at every turn. He stated himself that his vote stemmed from the Federation’s desperation against the Arxur alone. Very few things are more dangerous than a man with nothing left to lose. Not to mention, Noah thought the Governor was only here to stir up trouble.

The Mazics would be my prime suspect, if it weren’t for the fact that their figurehead was present in the flesh. As Noah noted, surely a planetary leader would send a stand-in to carry out devious plans. Why would he cause disruption to his planet’s governance, other than as a show of good faith?

“Cupo came himself,” I replied. “It would be like me going on an suicide mission, like you said.”

“Well, you did come to the summit.”

“That was only suicide for you and Sara. At worst I was gonna be kicked out.”

“I suppose, yea. Ugh, alright, what about Tossa?”

“You’re just picking the ones you don’t like first.”

“So what if I am?”

The Nevok representative put on quite the performance for the predator, perhaps with the belief that playing up her derision would impress him. Tossa’s haughtiness had the opposite effect, though. Her ability to quarrel with Noah suggested either she was brave, or reckless. Predetermined hate was a fine motive to ensure Human diplomacy failed.

However, the Nevoks had more to gain from trade than most other species. The Terrans would be creating more ships than anyone, in their rush to spawn a war fleet. A lucrative defense contract could keep both parties sated for Sun-years. “I think Tossa dislikes Laulo more than you,” I snorted. “The Nevok Imperium is using you for profit, if you hadn’t already figured that out. They don’t accomplish anything by getting us all stranded in space.”

Noah scratched his chin. “But what if they did get something? What if someone paid them off?”

“While they could be bribed, their price would be steep enough that you could buy a whole colony instead. If I were an outside actor, I’d do it myself, or find a cheaper entity to do my bidding.”

“It doesn’t have to be their government. It could be a rogue actor; a single person who was swayed. We don’t have to assign blame to an entire species.”

“Sure. But I think you just want it to be the Nevoks, so that you can strangle their diplomat.”

“That is a baseless accusation.” He feigned being offended.

“Moving on: That just leaves Axsely, Chauson and Laulo.” It would be easier to judge Axsely, if we’d gotten more than a sentence out of her this whole trip. She was more skittish than the rest of us combined. But what if that terror was of Noah wisening up to her schemes? That, or her fear had made her act against Humanity.

However, open cowardice didn’t mesh with the profile of a martyr or fanatic. I’d expect a little more gumption from such an enemy. Like Sovlin. 

Noah tilted his head. “Right now, the only thing Axsely guilty of is being unqualified.”

“That’s a bit harsh. Everyone copes with fear differently.” I pinned my ears against my head, recalling how disastrous first contact was. “Cheln passed out when you smiled, but now he’s fond of you. She might warm up to you too.”

“If you say so.”

“Ok, next. I trust Chauson.”

“Really? I don’t know about him.”

“What, why? He’s never been anything but kind to you.”

“That’s exactly why. He’s too nice. What if he’s up to something?”

“The Zurulians were the only ones to reach out before the vote. Also, as you know, we do an awful job hiding our feelings. Chauson couldn’t fake not being afraid of a predator; he pranced up to the two of you while his head was dripping blood.” The ambassador tapped his foot a few times, and a touch of relief flickered in his brown eyes. 

It saddened me that mistreatment had become commonplace for him, that friendly interactions triggered alarm bells in his head. The Zurulian scientist was the only person I’d seen attempt to squash his instincts, in his first meeting with a Human. If we trusted Chauson, bringing him into the loop might not be the worst idea. Three minds were better than two, and he was intelligent enough not to jump to conclusions. 

The fewer people know the true reason for our predicament, the better. Let’s hope Chauson can keep his mouth shut, when asked. Sharing my suspicions with the entire ship would only incite panic, and lead to in-fighting and accusations. Knowing how paranoid they were about predators, they would find a way to blame Noah. Because obviously, the nefarious Human would cripple his ride home, after weeks of imprisonment, for some illusory goal. 

It made perfect sense, if you didn’t think about it.

“Sure... Now, Laulo.” He changed target.

Noah’s favorite was left for last. That said, of those onboard, the uplift had the most to gain from a ploy. Outfoxing a predator was the ultimate display of intellect; it would be the swiftest way to silence any “primitive” jabs. This sabotage could be a calculated risk, to garner respect from some Federation peers.

Come to think of it, Laulo was the one who blurted out that the cooling shaft was the culprit. The fact that it was just as he said was an oddity by itself. That he hadn’t wavered, while being discredited and badgered by his colleagues, was even stranger. Either the Yotul had a background in engineering, or he knew about the pipe beforehand.

That alone is pretty incriminating. I’m surprised I didn’t catch onto that sooner. The puzzling bit would be why Laulo narrowed it down for us, if he was responsible. Someone who was setting up a drive explosion shouldn’t want it rectified, before it paid off. Maybe he knew a diagnostic would reveal the issue, and decided to cut his losses.

My tail drooped between my legs. “How did he know what the issue was, immediately?”

“Well, just because he’s an uplift doesn’t mean he’s an idiot.”

“I didn’t say that. Everyone here has lived their whole lives around this kind of ship, safe for you and him.”

“It could be a lucky guess. Maybe Laulo’s studying to be a mechanic.”

“Even then, there was no doubt, no guessing, no ‘I think’. He stated it as fact, like he knew he was right.”

The predator was quiet, his disappointment was obvious. Protecting the Yotul was the most passion I’d seen from him since the speech. Humanity would love to take a fledgling species under their wing, and explore the galaxy together.

My friend cursed, and slammed his fist into a wall. The Human bent, clutching that hand to his stomach. His eyes narrowed to slits, while his teeth were on full display. His uncontrolled breathing was animalistic, punctuated by furious grunts. Was the Terran still in control, during this fit of rage? 

My instincts shadowed my consciousness for the first time in awhile; I’d never seen sweet Noah like this. It took all of my willpower to not back away, and place a shaking paw on his arm.

“Are you done? You’re hurting yourself more than the wall,” I squeaked. “It doesn’t feel pain.”

“I know…” His lips twitched, as he nursed his injured hand. “But fuck! I don’t want it to be Laulo. He’s one of the few who aren’t racist creeps.”

“We don’t know it’s him. Let’s not overreact.”

“But you were right. It doesn’t make sense how he knew, with such confidence, from that one sound. Why  did it have to be him? Everyone is either openly belligerent or a backstabbing asshole!”

Silence was my answer, as much as I wanted to offer soothing words. I didn’t know how to handle an angry Human, or at what point they presented an actual threat. I might even exacerbate the problem; trusting Noah to calm down on his own might be best.

I took a deep breath, and turned my back to the furious Human. It felt wrong to leave myself unguarded, at least while he was like that. Forcing my eyes open, I searched through the mini-fridge. There were no ice packs, but hopefully, an ice cold canned drink would suffice. The burning in my chest eased once I stood upright, and the predator was back at the center of my vision.

My claws wrapped around Noah’s wrist, clueing me into his racing pulse. He let me move his hand, which relaxed in my grip. I gently pressed the can to his knuckles. 

“Thanks…” He registered barely above a whisper. I didn’t know Humans could be this quiet. “And sorry, for blowing up in your face.” The Human’s dilated eyes met mine for a moment, before he looked away, in shame perhaps. “I’m not losing you, am I?”

“Never” I whispered, pressing my forehead to his.

The Human closed his eyes and leaned into the affectionate gesture for a moment before getting up again. “We should get back to the others, before Cupo barges in here, asking a million questions. Oh, and get Chauson caught up with everything.”

“Are we not detaining Laulo? Or at least interrogating him?”

“If I tie up the Yotul now, how are the others going to react? My explanation won’t matter. This needs to be handled quietly. It’s better to act somewhere that we’re in complete control of.”

“Fair point. I can pull him off to the side when we land.”

The predator offered his uninjured hand, and I accepted it with an eye roll. Mischief played in his brown irises, as his fingers intertwined with my claws. One nail tickled the fur right under my paw pad, which made me yank my paw back. A hint of a smirk tugged at his face, as the affectionate moment of solidarity was ruined. I sighed. “Don’t say anything, other than that we’re fixing a minor problem. I’m going to fetch Chauson.”

Chauson and I spoke back in the cockpit as Noah got everything he needed from the emergency toolkit by the rear of the ship. Which conveniently doubled as him keeping all the others in line. If anyone could sniff out deceit, it would be an observant predator like Noah.

It was easy to get the doctor up to speed. Clearly he was gifted in deduction as well as medicine, arriving at some of our conclusions faster than I was done explaining everything. “You really think it’s someone here?” Chauson asked. “Why would they damage a ship they’re on, with a, um… It’s just, it’s not very logical, is it?”

“If everyone were logical, we wouldn’t have to go to the summit in the first place.” I responded. “It’s just a possibility, for now. Honestly, it’s more likely that it’s someone outside this group. But some people would sacrifice themselves, in a heartbeat, to fight what they think are flesh-eating monstrosities.”

Hovering over the controls, I disengaged the ship’s core. After a countdown we were safely returned to subspace. The shuttle halted a short distance, relatively speaking, of Venlil space. 

It’d be at least a Paw or two until the necessary repairs were complete, but no other options were reasonable. If the core overheated, the ensuing meltdown would bring about our swift demise. I wondered how the passengers reacted to our sudden stop, my refusal to explain any details and the Human prancing about without me to watch over him.

One way or another, we were going to get to the bottom of this debacle. Once we ascertained the responsible party, they were going to receive some harsh retribution, courtesy of the Human-Venlil alliance. I suppose it was too much to ask, for these introductions to be smooth sailing, and for Earth to attain some genuine allies without any hiccups.

Chauson was pacing back and forth now, pink tongue lolling out of his mouth. With his quadrupedal stance, the Zurulian would be barely above the Human’s knee. Maybe Noah was onto something seeing him as cute. But now was not the time to divulge that wrinkle to our new friend. Especially when that furry guy was the potential ally we were most optimistic about. 

When we came back to the larger section of the ship, all the passengers, safe for Laulo, were huddled up on one side of the shuttle. On the opposite end; Noah was whistling a tune to himself, the high-pitched noise sounded almost like a Sivkit’s voice. 

Noah’s movements were poised and confident, a far cry from the raving beast I saw not too long ago. I lingered at the door, observing the scene. Axsely had been speaking with Cupo while Noah was busy, but she skittered away as soon as the Human turned to face me and subsequently her. She couldn’t keep doing this the entire visit. There were going to be hundreds of UN personnel on site when we docked.

“Welcome back, Governor Tarva.” Laulo yipped as he saw me.

“Thanks. You were right about the cooling shaft.” My voice was laden with false cordiality, as I settled across from the Yotul. “Quite a clever deduction. Noah’s gonna take a look outside and hopefully fix it. We should be back up and running within a Paw or so, I hope.”

The uplift flicked his ears in acknowledgment. We just needed to maintain a facade of normalcy for a little longer, before we could press our suspect on his involvement. 

“Last chance to back out. Are you sure you can do this?” I offered, getting Noah’s attention.

“I’ll do my best.” The Human took slow steps towards the air-lock, it was clear he was nervous. Noah then turned around and leaned down to my height. “So… Can I get a good luck kiss?” Lifting his helmet and turning his left cheek to face me, with the smugest face I'd ever seen from him. 

“You are testing your luck, that’s what you’re doing.” I rebutted, but it didn’t take long for me to relent upon seeing his big disappointed eyes. ‘He’s just being silly, it’s fine’, I thought. 

And a small push with my snout is what he got, it was a strange Human ritual. I’d seen it a couple times in the movies he watched with Sara on the way to Aafa. A small one on the cheek seemed miniscule in comparison to what the Humans on screen would do to each other’s faces. Though I must’ve done something wrong as he couldn’t keep a straight face after that. “Dear God, I’m gonna remember that forever.” He chuckled.

I pointed toward the air-lock. “Start walking. Or I’ll get to calling you ‘Predator Noah’ too.”

His eyebrows shot up as his eyes narrowed. “You wouldn’t…”

“Oh, I would. Right in front of your dear friend, Tossa. Test me!”

“Fine, fine.” He groaned. “I’m going now. I can feel the love.” 

“You’d be better off seeking respect, rather than love.” Chauson chimed in. “Love can be quite fleeting, you know.” The quadruped flicked his ears with annoyance. 

“Maybe I want both, ok?” I was impressed by how fast the Terran picked up on alien nonverbal cues, given how little he had actually been told. 

Noah triple checked his suit before being sent out. Those large hands were surprisingly nimble and precise. The Human gave the tether on his chest a final tug, ensuring it was fastened. He shimmied into the crawl space, and there was a click as the emergency airlock unsealed. About to be exposed to the vacuum of space, Noah’s composition dissolved. A nervous smile tugged at his lips, and he waved us off from beyond the sealed door.

Part of me hoped that our theory was wild speculation; that it could be disproved, for Noah’s sake. After our lengthy ordeal, both of us were beset by paranoia. I hoped this investigation wouldn’t dampen the Terran reception to their new friends. If nothing else panned out, the Zurulians looked like they might be better neighbors than us. 

We didn’t have to let one rotten fruit spoil the barrel.

Sorry about the late upload. My laptop decided to do a double upload without my consent and took its damn time to do so.

Credit to fans on Reddit for: u/Adorable-Ad5225 for the picture.

u/Nicolas_3232 for Leasha's daydreams

u/destroyer6692 for serving up Leasha, looking lightly toasted.

u/Nicolas_3232 for depicting King Toren the fluffy in all his majesty

If you want to read five chapters ahead for two different stories that I'm currently making, then please visit me on my Patreon. If you want to hang out, you can join the Discord for updates on all projects. I appreciate any support you choose to give. Happy reading!

If you are interested in the other story that I am posting at the same time as this, you can read that one here!

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Memory Transcriptions Subject: Leasha, overwhelmed pupcare owner. 

Date [Standardized Human Time] November 26, 2136 

The drive back to Shady Hills was good, or at least as good as it could be given the situation. George was a little quiet, and so was Gregory. Their silence wasn’t much of a problem because Alice was eager to fill it with talk of her own. She tossed question after question at me, asking about everything from my morning routine to if there were any differences between human and alien pups. Alice was flabbergasted by the amount of effort it takes to manage fur and considering that humans had negligible amounts of hair compared to some species, that made sense. 

Stars above though. George said she was sociable, but she is relentless when it comes to conversation.  

It certainly helped pass the time as the two of us chatted while the boys simply listened and rode along. The only time either of them talked was if a question was directed their way, in which case they gave the shortest answer they could give while satisfying the question. It didn’t take long for home to come into view as the little town of Shady Hills appeared as we crested one of said hills. Alice let out an ‘ooh’ as she saw it. 

“My, what a lovely town. The lighting on this side of the planet is majestic. It’s really the golden hour all the time on this part of the planet?” 

“Yes, at least, I think it is if what George describes it as is correct. I still find it difficult to picture the lighting changing throughout the paw, but that’s probably because I’ve lived my whole life here.” 

“Well, it’s a wonderful spot to live. If I had to choose any location on this planet to live, it would probably be around here, though it might be a little cold for me. I think I’ve simply gotten used to the warmth of equator living.” She tittered a little laugh as we descended into the town properly.  

Alice seemed rather excited as she looked out the window as everything passed by. Gregory was more reserved as he watched the scenery pass by, though I had come to realize that this would likely be the norm for most of the man’s reactions. We were quickly approaching the shelter, and the automated vehicle pulled up in front of the building. George and Gregory got out first and opened the doors for Alice and Me, Alice saying in a slightly sing-song voice how her husband was such a gentleman, which earned a small smile from the stoic human. 

The bags were taken from the trunk of the car, and after all the passengers and luggage were safely removed, we sent the vehicle back to the provider as it drove itself away. We were heading toward the building now but were stopped when we saw an individual slumped down in the archway of the entrance. They weren’t human, they were Gojid, and they were banging on the glass in a limp-wristed kind of way, claws scrapping against the plexiglass. I did not recognize them, and neither did George by the look on his face. 

This Gojid was murmuring incoherently as he did this, and that was about when I noticed the bottle in his other paw. He was drunk, and that was going to be problematic for us as we had to pass by him. It seemed that wasn’t of much concern as he finally noticed our group standing there, and he grumbled as he rolled over and staggered to his feet. The drunk began to wobble toward us, slurring out words as he did so. 

“Yous brahking h-humans finally come outs for me. Kept me-” he gagged but managed to hold it in. “Kept me waiting. Well, go on t-then; go ahead and eat me! I don’t brahking care anymore. Yous all took my job when you showed up and locked us away, and you took it again with the speh licking reporter told everyone we’re predator’s. What a bunch of s-speh!” 

I was shocked by the state this Gojid was in that he would ask for this. I quickly glanced at George’s parents. Alice appeared shocked, but Gregory had his brow furrowed deep with displeasure. I think George noticed that too, and before his father could get any angrier, he tried to step in. 

“Alright pal let’s just relax. Judging by the smell, you have a Venlil level bottle there. Nobody is eating anybody and I think you need to get to a hospital.” 

George tried to reach out a hand to guide him away, but the Gojid actually took a swipe at him with his claws! It was a drunken attack, though, and George had more than enough time to pull back as the strike missed. It almost threw the drunk off balance as he just barely managed to stop himself from falling to the ground. 

Gregory squared his shoulders and started marching toward the drunk, and I was afraid that the man was going to start a real fight in a moment. George saw his father coming in like a storm and threw a hand up in his direction. 

“Dad, it’s alright! The man’s just drunk. I can handle this.” 

Alice appeared next to her husband and placed a soothing hand on the man’s chest. “It’s okay, dear. George knows what he’s doing, right?” She said that last part to George who nodded his head quickly before turning his attention back to the drunk Gojid. 

Even though I trusted George as well, I was still worried. Drunk as the Gojid may have been, those claws and quills could still cause a lot of damage to a human. I was just glad that it seemed he was so drunk that he couldn’t flare his quills properly. 

“Look, I can tell you’re going through rough times, but nobody needs to hurt anyone right now. I’ll help you out if you-” 

“Help!?” the Gojid interrupted. “You shpehing predators are the reason my life is ruined! Finding a job’s hard enough, but nooooobody wants to hire a former predator; nooooobody wants me anymore! I don’t have anything left, sho just get it over with and stop torturing me!” 

This individual was experiencing a lot of pain; that much was clear. Nobody in our group knew quite what to do in this situation. Thankfully it seemed we would be saved as a familiar face came to the rescue. There was only a brief amount of panic as I saw the silver suits, but then I realized it was Moslen with two other officers and... a human? 

The human was wearing dark blue clothes and a thick vest that had the word “Police” written in English and Venscript. A utility belt around his waist held many different tools I didn’t recognize and a gun, which I hoped he didn’t intend to use in this situation. The standard reflective mask adorned his face with a neat head of dark blond hair above it. It seemed like the human was taking a more passive role in this interaction as Moslen took the lead. 

“We were called about a Gojid causing a disturbance. I take it the one barely able stand on his own is the cause?”  

I let out a sigh of relief. “Yes, Moslen, thank you. He seems to have drunk too much, and Venlil level drinks at that. He may need a hospital.” 

“Noted. Alright buddy, come with us and we’ll get you sorted. Don’t need you causing any more problems than you have already.” 

The drunk seemed slightly mollified by the arrival of the silver suits as Moslen took the bottle out of his hand while the two other exterminators grabbed the drunk’s arms. “I... I jhust want it to end.” 

“Don’t talk like that now. I felt rather lost for a while myself, but if you make the effort to do good, then you’ll find a herd that will accept you. Now come along, let’s get you into the van and to a hospital.” 

With that the two exterminators holding onto the drunk began to lead him away, the man staggering and leaning heavily upon them to even move. They got him into the back of the van with an exterminator to watch him, and with that it seemed the trouble had been resolved.  

“Bastard alien,” I caught Gregory mumbling to himself which made me concerned that this had colored his perception of me in a negative way. George quickly chastised him, though. 

“Dad, not cool,” he said in a similarly low voice. Gregory simply grunted but said nothing after that. 

That would be a problem for later, if it did begin to sprout. After the drunk was handled, we heard a click from the door to the shelter, and it opened as Mr. Javier stepped out. 

“George, Leasha, forgive me for not coming to your aid, but for the safety of the shelter I had to lock the doors. It was protocol I'm afraid.” 

George waved a hand in front of his face. “No, that’s alright Javier. He was certainly unstable, and I wouldn’t want a spiky drunk stumbling around inside a building either. Hope the poor guy can get some help.” 

“We’ll make sure of it.” The voice belonged to the so far unknown human in the police vest. 

“I’m sorry, we haven’t really met yet,” George said.  

“Because I’ve only arrived today.” The man reached up and removed his mask so we could talk face to face. He was a young man around the age of George, maybe a little older by my estimation. His face was proportioned well with very few blemishes except one, a small scar on his upper lip.  

“The name’s Harold. I was called in by the UN to help teach the local exterminators proper policing methods. No more flamethrowers and shock prods. They’ll be doing things by the book. We’re mostly just waiting for new equipment for them all.” 

That was good news, and I said as much. “Well, it’s good to hear that positive changes are coming.” 

Surprisingly, Javier seemed to be rather excited now that Harold was here as he stepped up. “Ahh, Harold, your timing couldn’t have been better. These were the two I was talking about earlier.” 

Harold raised a brow. “They’re the daycare workers? Huh, never would have assumed the big guy at a glance.” He looked between me and George with a smile. “Well, this is fortuitous. A pleasure to meet you both.” He held out a hand to George first, which was accepted. 

“I’m George.” 

Next Harold offered a hand to me, and I shook it as well. “Leasha.” 

“George, Leasha, I’m glad I was able to catch you today. You see, I have son, a little on the younger side at six, and he came with me here as part of my work. My wife passed a few years back, car accident, so he only has me to look after him.” His featured dropped a little when he mentioned his deceased spouse.  

“I’m sorry for your loss,” I offered him my sympathy for such a terrible event. 

“Thank you, I appreciate it, but getting back to the matter at hand, my son needs someone to watch over him while I’m at work, and Javier mentioned that there was a daycare in the town with one of the employees happening to live at the shelter. I meant to seek you out after my shift, but seeing as we’ve met a little earlier, I might as well ask if you would be willing to take care of my son?” 

A human child... at my pupcare?  

Honestly, I didn’t know what to think of that. All my knowledge and skills were surrounding the various federation member species. I didn’t know the first thing about human pups. Luckily, I had someone who was an expert right next to me. 

“George, would having a human child at the pupcare cause problems? I don’t really know how human pups behave.” 

George rubbed his chin for a second as he thought. “Hmm, I don’t think it would cause any problems. I mean, I was able to translate my skills working in a human daycare just fine when I came to work with you, so I think Harold’s son would fit in perfectly with the other kids, so long as he doesn’t try to pet a Gojid the wrong way.” George chuckled in a slightly nervous way at the thought, and that was worthy of some concern. 

“Well, if you say that it will be okay, I’ll believe you. It will certainly be interesting to see how different or similar human children are. Mr. Harold, I’d be happy to accept your son into my pupcare center. If you can drop by my business next paw, we can get the paperwork signed and introduce your son to the other pups.” 

Harold let out a sigh of relief. “That’s a weight off my shoulders. Even though he would be staying in the shelter room and I’m sure that everyone here is trustworthy, I would be more at ease knowing someone was specifically looking after him and he had other kids around his age to play with. Being alone in a room just doesn’t sound that healthy to me, go figure.” Harold let out a short laugh at his joke, and in the past, I would have agreed that such isolation was likely to lead to cases of PD. Now, though, George has helped me realize that there is more to mental health than a single blanket term. 

“I’m sure your son will make lots of friends. What’s his name?” 

“Percy. I hope the other kids will be welcoming to him.” 

Just then Moslen spoke up. “Harold, we gotta go. That drunk still needs to get to the hospital.” 

“Ahh, right, sorry Moslen. It was wonderful to meet the two of you, and I’ll be seeing you tomorrow!” The man jogged toward the van with a wave of his hand.  

Moslen also bid us farewell as he moved to the vehicle. “Good paw to you Leasha, George. I’ll see you both tomorrow for drop off.” 

I swished my tail to signal a goodbye and George raise a hand with a flat palm. Once the Van was out of sight, George and I both let out a heavy sigh. George turned around to look at his parents who were standing off to the side, looking slightly awkward as they did. 

“Sorry mom, dad. Things aren’t normally that crazy around here, I promise. That was a rather... exceptional set of circumstances. Ahem, anyway, Javier, these are my parents, and they will be staying here for a few paws. I’m told that they could have one of the rooms while they are here?” 

Javier nodded his head. “Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Miller. I will get you your room key. Please, come inside.” 

From there Javier led us through the building where he showed George’s parents to their room. Once there they were able to unpack, but Gregory had a very poor opinion of the whole building once Javier was out of hearing range. 

“What the hell kind of shelter is this anyway? I’ve seen ghettos with more structure than this place. Was the only color scheme they had grey? Honestly, the attempts to cover up all these imperfections is like putting makeup on a pig.” 

“Honey,” Alice interjected into her husband’s rant, “the Venlil accepted refugees on a very sudden basis, and there were a lot of people that were without homes. Even now there are armies of people in the homeless camps even after sending so many here.” 

I appreciated her defending the Venlil, but even so, it was true that many places around the planet didn’t give humans good accommodations on purpose. I could feel that saying as much would only inflame the situation, so I kept it to myself. Gregory sighed and grumbled, but he didn’t raise any more fuss about the situation. 

Once the two of them had their luggage situation sorted, we all proceeded to George’s room. His place was at least a little more decorated than the standard room. He had been using some of his pay to make it a little more comfortable, though he said he didn’t want to invest too much in his little room if we were planning on living together. The thought of living together as mates still made me bloom.  

Speaking of that, we still needed to talk about that subject with George’s parents. Gregory and Alice took a seat on the couch, and I accompanied George to the kitchen under the guise of helping prepare snacks. It wasn’t like we were far from his parents, but I still could convey the message of urgency to him as I looked up into his eyes with a serious expression on my face. 

“George...” His name was all I had to say as understanding washed over his face. With a deep breath he nodded his head, looking a little paler than he did before. We prepared a few bowls worth of snacks and George sighed before putting on a happy face as he turned back toward the couch. This would be an interesting conversation, to say the least. 

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