<<Prev | First | Next>>


Prax is taken to Marlow's house, and they have a chat...


"I'm not an enigma, just a contradiction."

---

Prax walked, his eyes on the ground. After an hour of walking, the three captives had learned to walk in step, but it still required concentration. He was so absorbed with watching his own feet he didn’t notice Marlow sneak up beside him and jam a rifle butt between his legs. Lemi tripped on it, and down they all went. “We’re here!”
Marlow was waiting expectantly for Prax to marvel upon his home, but instead Prax was helping his crewmen up. “Bregman, you’re bleeding.”
Bregman sat up and felt blood coming from his nose. “Nothing to worry about, sir…”
“Don’t ignore me! Look!”
Prax glanced up. The Humans had made use of the forest well. The artificial clearing was home to about two dozen houses and many more huts. The houses clashed with everything else, as they were made of metal and plastic, while the huts were fashioned from the trees. People swarmed about cutting wood, making food or practicing with their weapons. No one in the camp seemed to be idle. The three managed to stand. “Very impressive.”
“I’m not sure if that was sarcasm or not. I’ll assume it was. No, we didn’t build this city with our bare hands. We brought most of the thing we needed with us on the Sunbeam. I don’t mean to understate our achievement, however!”
He gestured. “Come to my house, we’ll have a little chat.”
“You’re going to tell us your evil plan or something?” Bregman muttered.
Marlow laughed as he had them marched into the town. “No, no! I’d just like to have a little conversation about history. For my own personal amusement.”
As they walked, people gathered and watched in awe as three aliens were walked directly through their home. Some of them threw rocks and shouted. Prax whispered to the other two. “That word is starting to lose its meaning.”
Lemi chuckled weakly. “I just imagine they’re simply describing our fur, and that it’s a compliment.”
They were shoved into a house that seemed too tame to be home to a maniac. There was a woman there, too. She stood from where she was cleaning the floor and embraced Marlow. “Hi, Marlow. I see you brought some guests. Shall I start dinner?”
“At once. I’ll leave it up to you to decide what to make.”
The woman gave Prax a disturbing look, then retreated to a kitchen. Marlow gestured, and Prax felt the ropes being cut. “Right through here. We’ll talk while we wait.”
Although free from the ropes, three soldiers still remained with guns. They waited by the doorway as Marlow led them to a dining room. “Sit down!”
They sat at the plain wooden table. Marlow took a deep breath. “Welcome to my home.”
He was met with three sets of bleary eyes, and no response. “Come on, be polite!”
Bregman scratched his head. “This table is nice. Pretty vintage.”
“Vintage? I made this myself last year.”
Lemi cut in. “We don’t use wood for furniture very often…”
“That is strange. What’s wrong with wood? Never mind that…”
At this point, Marlow had stopped translating what he was saying to the guards, who didn’t seem that interested anyway. Marlow folded his hands and took a deep breath. In the interior light, a few silver hairs showed themselves in his beard. “There isn’t much to do here, so one day I decided to read some history. Atriean history. You have a delightfully bloody past for a race that idolizes pacifists and not war heroes.”
He tapped his chin. “I read “In the Shadow of the Valley,” “A History of the Empire” and… “Words of the Past: A History of Early Modern Atriea.” All very enlightening reads. Is it true your people had your first world war in the 1300s? Those were some fascinating campaigns to read about.”
Prax himself had studied his people’s history, before he joined the military. Though he didn’t want to humor Marlow, he suspected he had no choice. “It’s true, mostly. Not all of Atriea was at war at the same time, but it swept across the whole planet eventually. The Northern Irrami Islands remained Isolated, though.”
“And, ironically, they were responsible for your planet’s second world war?”
“...Yes.”
“Why don’t you give me a rundown of that particular war?”
“Why are you asking me all these questions? Are you trying to make a point?”
He shrugged as the woman returned with a bottle of wine. “You caught me! I’ve just never met a real Atriean before. Not one that lived this long, anyway… haha! I’m not going to let the opportunity go to waste. Oh, I forgot to introduce you to my wife! Carol, this is Prax.”
She didn’t even look at him. “How long are they going to be here? They’re shedding on the floor.”
Bregman banged the table. “I don’t shed!”
One of the soldiers slammed Bregman’s face into the table. Blood splattered. Marlow stood, switching to English. “Ugh! Johannes, what the hell is wrong with you?! You got blood all over my table!”
“Sorry, sir. The furry was being impudent.”
“I don’t care! Clean that up.”
“R-right…”
Prax peeled Bregman off the blood-spattered tabletop. “It’s broken now…”
“If it was bad, you’d be screaming. Here.” Prax handed him a piece of bandage from a pouch on his uniform.
Marlow poured the wine. “Sometimes they get a little overexcited. Whatever. You didn’t answer my question.”
“You want to know about the Irrami War? Watch a movie.”
“Alright, I’ll summarize if you’ve forgotten. The Northern Irrami Islands. Cold, bitter and devoid of spring. Also the birthplace of one Dr. Frize, the first Atriean to construct a nuclear device. On the other side of the planet, there is a small but powerful country: The United Provinces of the Ardenland. They are ideologically opposed to nuclear theory, and wage war against the Irrami people. They destroy the Irrami nuclear secrets, kill Dr. Frize and declare themselves heroes.”
“You left out the part where the Irrami held the world hostage with their nuclear weapons.”
“That’s part of my point, Captain. But before I bring things together, I have one more incident to bring up.”
He paused for dramatic effect. “Eleven years ago, a small colony declared independence from the Atriean Empire. A ship was sent to deal with the rebels after a week of embargoes and talks, and after a short battle the leader of that free world was overturned.”
Prax remained silent, so Bregman spoke for him. “That planet was seized by a crazy man, it didn’t declare independence.”
“No? The civil unrest continued there for another six months! I’m just glad the Government decided to appease the people and not send in riot police.”
Prax’s voice was very low. “The people on that planet were starving because of that man. Just another fundamentalist Laroja follower with power fantasies and no competency to back them up.”
Marlow looked Prax in the eye, and they had a lengthy staring contest. Prax saw nothing in the man’s eyes he recognized. Sometimes he forgot Humans were aliens, after everything was done. Marlow was completely unreadable, and this disturbed Prax. He startled everyone by laughing. “Okay! I can’t hold it anymore! Captain Prax, I know who you are. I know you were the captain responsible for crushing that rebellion and I know you’re a fascist, just like the rest of your kind.”
Prax snapped his jaw, composure finally leaving him. “So what?! It was my damn job, and I did it remarkably well! Besides, I’m Atriean, right? You don’t seem to need any reason beyond that to hate me. Why drag me into your home and monologue to me about my people’s history?!”
“I’ll tell you why. What do you think I hope to achieve with this colony? Go ahead! Talk among yourselves.”
The grinning Marlow leaned back, and Prax was ready to yell again. He felt a paw around his arm and glanced at Lemi. “Sir, calm down.” he whispered.
“I was wondering the same thing. About his end goal. Maybe he’s the type to spill all his plans for the sake of his own ego.” Bregman whispered as well.
They all switched the hushed tones. “Why do I care? Genocide maybe? Maybe he wants to overthrow his government? He’s not going to achieve any of that on this backwater planet.”
“He seems the type to go for revolution, sir.” Bregman added.
Lemi shook his head. “Sir, I have to tell you something. I’m actually pretty good at speaking English, and I’ve been listening… Um, he’s lying to his people when he translates what we say.”
Prax raised an eyebrow. “Really? What does he lie about?”
“Well, he only lied once… When you told him about the signal we picked up from the Sunbeam, he told his men that we actually tracked down his ship by using old Solar Federation logs. Why would he lie about something so specific?”
Marlow interrupted their conference. “Do hurry it up. Dinner will be here soon.”
Prax straightened his back. “Perhaps you want to overthrow your old government and free everyone? Or maybe you want to do the same with my government.”
“Well! That does sound tempting, but no.”
“What, then?”
The room fell into silence as Marlow slowly lifted his arms in a gesture resembling someone going in for a hug. “Nothing.”
That was the last answer Prax expected Marlow to give, and yet the man seemed totally serious. “You’ve gotta be in it for something.” Bregman said.
“Oh, I’m in it for something, alright. I want to create a life here for me, my people and my children. A life free of interference from The Solar Federation and meddlesome aliens.”
He let his arms dropped. “You’re making that difficult. You’ll all be gone soon, though, and I can have peace again.”
He sipped his wine and muttered, almost inaudibly. “I’m just lucky it was Atrieans that found us and not Humans.”
The three were left dumbfounded. The food was brought out as they tried to process this. “Ahhh! Turkey! The only animals we had on board were turkeys, actually. It’s our best source of meat. Dig in!”
Bregman licked his lips unconsciously. “Sir, this actually smells pretty good…”
Prax caught Bregman’s arm before he could dig in. “Lieutenant! Turkey is a type of bird, its poisonous to Atrieans.”
“Ah… right.”
“Indeed it is! Looks like you’ve eared yourselves some more time alive…”
Another guard entered the room, skirting the edge to avoid coming near the three Atrieans. Prax slammed his paw onto the table. “That was a dirty trick.”
“Shut up.” he switched to English and addressed the guard. The guard whispered, but Marlow opted to yell. “What?! Son of a bitch! Bring the Commander- He’s dead?! Bring me someone else, then!”
Marlow stood and wiped his face, even though he hadn’t eaten anything. “It seems your soldiers deserve more credit than I gave them. We’ll continue this talk later.”
He shoved the guard aside. “Throw them in a cage or something.”

~~~

Viks, Ozzy and Jolan stood, jaws agape, at the absolute chaos that was the Sunbeam’s cockpit. As Zia grew more and more frustrated with her task, she had taken more and more desperate measures to complete it. This included tearing up half the cockpit. Viks crouched by the open weapon’s control panel and whimpered. “What did you do to the ship?!”
Now that things were relatively calm, Zia was bashful. “I-I had to get a bit creative… it was the only way to save you guys, okay?”
Ozzy stepped over an overturned console. “Wow… I’m impressed. Say, how bad is it, Viks?”
“I wouldn’t really know…Terran ship construction isn’t my strong suit.”
“I was only going after the weapon systems…”
“Why? Explain how any of this worked!”
“Oh, well that’s simple! I used uplink dongles to bypass the weapons lockout. The computer needed to believe the ship was heavily damaged before it would activate them, though.”
Jolan chuckled. “Pretty clever.”
“Thanks.”
Viks shook his head. “I can’t make sense of this… Ozzy, I’m going to see if I can get control back from engineering. Come on.”
“Yes, sir.”
They left. Zia slumped in the Captain’s chair, though she didn’t know it. Jolan leaned against a nearby undestroyed console. “Sir…”
“Oh, you don’t need to call me that. I don’t care.”
“So I’ve noticed. I wonder why you’re here. Aboard the Exile, that is.”
“I was transferred here. Against my will, I’ll have you know. I was the star of the lab back on Atriea. Now I’m puttering around the Empire with… Bregman… getting yelled at by meatheads. Uh, no offence.”
“Hm… Some taken. Maybe you should quit?”
“Quit? Maybe I will.”
Jolan nodded. “Smart.”
Zia stood and walked around the bridge until she was looking out over the field. Jolan was beginning to annoy her. “Smart, eh? Why don’t you quit, then? I heard you were a Deck Commander during the war, and now you’re just a pilot. If they demoted me that far, I’d quit too.”
Jolan looked away. “Well… I’ve been in the military all my life. If I left, I fear I wouldn’t have many employable skills. That, and I need to keep an eye on Carril.”
“Ah, your son. That’s understandable.”
The conversation reached an awkward impasse. Jolan hopped from the computer and left the cockpit without another word. Zia didn’t mind. She wanted to be alone anyway.

In the hall, Jolan found a nice out-of-the-way room and sat down. He clutched his paws, trying desperately to get them to be still. His experience told him there would be more soldiers on the way, and soon…

Viks knew he was on the clock, and wasted no time getting to the engine room. He went to the console. “Alright, we have enough power to fly.”
Ozzy hovered over his shoulder. “Yeah? So, can we lift off?”
“Well, it isn’t that simple. Turning the engine on and taking off are two completely different things. First, we need to rout helm control to engineering… for that, we’ll probably need an emergency code.”
“Which the Solar Federation forgot to give us.”
“Well, I could take a page from Zia’s book. If we damage the helm enough, we could use an uplink dongle.”
Viks’ paws tapped away steadily at the touch screen, still having trouble with it. Even Atriean touch screens were fickle like this, back when they were still used. “Well, it looks like the helm is already damaged, but the backup is intact. I want you to go to the bridge and destroy the backup helm controls.”
“U-uh, okay…”
Viks grinned. “If you have trouble, just ask Zia to help.”
“Aye, sir. I’ll call down when I’m done.”
“I’ll start hooking up the dongles. Oh, Ozzy… don’t be too reckless. just destroy the controls, nothing else.”
“I understand, sir.”
As the Lieutenant hurried off back to the cockpit, Viks studied the control panel. After finding an access hatch, he yanked it off and stared at the mess of electronics he barely understood. “Come on Viks. They used to call you a miracle worker, earn the title!”
He got to work.

Marlow wasn’t kidding. When the guards dragged them out of his house, Prax assumed there was some sort of pen or empty house they’d be thrown into. But no, the Humans had apparently constructed an actual cage for people. It was filthy, smelled horrible, but at least a nice breeze was allowed to blow through the tightly fitted bars. Prax sat looking out at the settlement as Lemi and Bregman argued about something. What the Humans had accomplished here was indeed impressive, but suspiciously frugal. The buildings were not designed to be buildings, but appeared to be made of ship parts. Marlow had served them turkeys, apparently the only animals they brought. These large flightless birds were in a pen next to the cage, which didn’t help the smell. Marlow seemed like an intelligent man, (despite his views) not one to plan a great independent colony and not bring more than one type of animal, and no modular housing units. Something clicked in Prax’s head. He stood. “Be quiet, you two. Come here.”
The two stopped squabbling and joined Prax by the bars. “Captain?”
“This… colony. It seems wrong. Like nothing was well thought out. And yet, Marlow doesn’t strike me as a man who would be stupid enough not to prepare for colonization properly.”
Bregman shrugged. “He seemed pretty crazy to me. All these Humans do.”
“People can be ideologically radical and still have practical skills. The fact that these Humans survived despite the odds proves that. No, I have a different idea. Lemi, you said the only thing he lied about was how we found the Sunbeam?”
“Yeah… technically.”
Prax raised an eyebrow, turning his eyes to the much shorter man. “Technically?”
“Well, you were there… While we were talking to Marlow in his house, he stopped translating everything to his men.”
“And he was shockingly honest to us.” Prax added.
Bregman kicked the bars. He wanted to express how pointless this talk was, but he held his tongue. Prax continued explaining. “I don’t think his people know any of the things he told us. I think, in order to get enough people together for his colony, he had to fake a crash on this planet. Then, after, he faked a broken emergency transmitter. The people think they’re stranded here. Marlow thinks he’s a pioneer.”
This came as a shock to Bregman, but not Lemi, who nodded slowly. “I see, sir. Marlow couldn’t tell his men about the transmitter, because they think it was destroyed.”
Bregman grabbed the bars and shook. “Well, let’s tell someone! We’ll tell them about the transmitter and that we really are here to rescue them!”
“You’ll have a hard time finding a sympathetic ear here, Bregman. Marlow might have tricked these people into coming here, but they’ve been living here since the war without news. You saw the reception we got when Marlow paraded us through town. These people have had plenty of time to hate our kind.”
Prax sat down to think, but Bregman wasn’t done. “You’re right, Captain. None of the adults will help us…”
“Adults…?”
Prax and Lemi spotted what Bregman was looking at. Christopher, looking rather down, was pacing around some distance away. Bregman held up his paw. “You two might want to step back.”
Prax sighed, standing. “I agree. Bregman, I don’t want you to put that child in danger, but if you can learn something, please do.”
“Aye, count on me.”
The other two walked casually to the other side of the cage. Bregman crouched slightly, then coughed very loudly. This was ineffective, so he picked up a pebble and knocked it against the bars. “Hey! Christopher!”
This time, the boy looked up, and began wandering over. Bregman flashed a smile at Prax, then crouched by the bars. When the boy arrived, he did not look happy. “Hi Christopher. Something the matter?”
“My dad yelled at me.”
“Oh, I know what that’s like. Why’d he yell at you?”
“Because I was in the ship. We’re not supposed to go there.”
“Why not? It’s pretty safe…”
He shrugged. “I dunno.”
Bregman glanced back at Prax. He mouthed something. “Uh… Say, Christopher, did your parents crash on this planet?”
“Yeah, that’s what they always say. But it’s okay because we were… we were… detstined to live here. That’s what my mom says.”
“Aha! Prax, Lemi!”
The two were nodding to one another, pleased that they were correct. Bregman sighed. “Well, thanks for that tip, Chris!”
“My name’s not Chris, its Christopher. Are we gonna eat you?”
“E-eat us?! No! Unless… that isn’t something you guys do… right?”
“I never eated a furry, but you’re here with the turkeys.”
“Well, we don’t want to be with the turkeys. We wanna go home, actually.”
Christopher perked up instantly. “I can help!”
“Uhhh… Yes, please! Prax?”
Prax approached. This caused Christopher to back up a bit. “Bregman, I told you to only get information…”
“He offered!”
Night was apparently falling, as the sky darkened quickly, becoming deep purple. Prax crouched also. “If you get us out, you have to promise never to speak about it. Understand?”
Christopher nodded slowly, then promptly reached up and opened the cage. Apparently, it wasn’t even locked. Prax reacted quickly, pulling it shut again, gently. “Wait, not yet. Come back here in a few minutes when its darker.”
“Okay.”
He wandered off. There was a long silence, until Prax patted Bregman on the back. “Good work.”
“Thanks, sir.”

About a hundred meters north of the town, Marlow had ordered his followers build an armory. There, all the ordinance the Sunbeam had that the Humans could carry was brought. Before departure on the day of the Sunbeam’s fated journey, Marlow had ordered extra crates full of small arms, explosives and body armor to be stocked in the holds. As such Marlow and his men had no shortage of weapons and ammo. He sat at a table in this armory, a Solar Federation pistol in front of him, watching his men gear up for another assault—one three times the size of the first. He endlessly twirled a bullet between his fingers, fuming at his defeat. Someone burst suddenly into the room. “Marlow! The prisoners have escaped!”
He grabbed the gun and stood up so fast he launched the chair into the wall. “What?! How?!”
“I don’t know, but when I went to feed them, they were gone!”
Marlow vaulted over the table and dashed for the door, not saying anything. His soldiers were left confused, until someone shouted. “Come on, let’s get ‘em back!”
Everyone scrambled for their guns.

Marlow tore into the dark forest, heading straight for the Sunbeam. As branches tore at his arms, he growled low in his chest, suppressing some primal urge to scream at this development.

Their pace brisk, Prax, Bregman and Lemi dashed through the trees, trying their best to re-trace their steps. No longer tied together, the four were making much better time than on the way to the village. As they ran, a yell rent the air. It was unmistakably a mob of Humans. Prax cursed. “I thought it would take them longer to notice… come on men, don’t stop now!”
Bregman puffed as he leaped over a rock. “It’s hard to stop in this low gravity! Whee!”
Though all the fur on Bregman’s back was raised in fear of being shot, he had to admit that bounding through a forest in low gravity was fun. Then, he caught more air than he was anticipating, and went flying into a tree. “Arrg!”
He tumbled to the ground with a soft thud. Prax skidded to a stop. “Dammit, Bregman! We’re in low G, don’t jump so high!”
He tried to help Bregman up, but he gasped. “Ah! Sir, wait! My leg!”
A stick had embedded itself in Bregman’s leg, snapped off too close to pull out. “AAAH! Get it out!”
“Be quiet! Lemi, get Bregman back to the ship.”
“B-but sir! What about you!?”
Prax pulled Bregman up, who balanced on one leg. “Ow ow ow ow…”
“I don’t intend to be left behind, now go! Wait for me as long as possible!”
“Aye, sir!”
Lemi got under Bregman’s arm and, using the skills they learned while tied together, hobbled off. Prax turned and cast about, finding the largest nearby tree. He crouched behind it and listened carefully. If he could get the mob’s attention, he might be able to lead them on a longer path back to the ship, giving Lemi and Bregman enough time. The low thumping of many feet was still far off, but as Prax concentrated, swiveling his ears around a little, he could detect a single set of footsteps. It was a lot closer. “Damn…”
Prax would have to take care of this one, though he was without weapons. He sighed, then flinched as he slowly extended his claws to their full length. It had been a while. When the Human had caught up, Prax jumped from the tree and grabbed for his arm. The man was a lot stronger than Prax, though, and in the low gravity he easily wrenched him free and tossed him, at the cost of a nasty gash that ran up to the shoulder. “AARG! FURRY BASTARD!”
Shots rang out, and Prax dove for cover. “Prax! I can’t let you leave! Not after everything I’ve done! If the Solar Federation knew we were here, they’d come and blow up this fucking planet and my legacy with it!”
It was Marlow. Prax tried to peek at his position, but two more shots thudded into the tree. “Get out here and fight me, coward!”
With a start Prax realized that Marlow was getting closer. He tensed up. “You think you’re a visionary, Marlow?! You’re a victim of a dead war, and that’s all you’ll ever be!”
“Don’t you talk to me like you know anything, Prax! I know you from your actions, your words don’t-”
Prax rounded the tree as Marlow came within a few steps of it. He dashed in low, grabbing Marlow’s gun arm and pushing it up. It fired, and in the same instant, Prax swept up with his claws, hitting flesh. Blood spattered on Prax’s uniform, a gurgling scream splitting his ears. Marlow fell back, trying to get his balance as he dropped his gun. He fell with a soft thud. The night was quiet again, but Prax knew he couldn’t tarry. He drew ragged breaths as he stumbled away from the scene. He was shocked to hear faint laughter. “Prax… hack… I’ll never forgive you… for this… I’ll never… forgive… your people…”
Marlow died.

Jolan had been busy setting up a better defence perimeter, but even with everything he was doing to keep the crew’s mind occupied, the tension was thick as butter. He jumped as his communicator blared. “Sir, I see them! Its… Bregman and Lemi! Oh, no, Bregman’s hurt!”
Viks’ voice replied. “And the Captain?!”
“Negative, sir. I don’t see him…”
“Jolan, take two men and go see if they’re alright. Find out where Prax is.”
“Aye, sir.” He said.
He motioned to the two nearest officers and gripped his rifle. “Double time!”
It didn’t take them very long to reach the two. Bregman was bleeding badly, and Lemi could barely keep him up. Jolan motioned to the two officers. “Carry him back, treat his wound the best you can.”
The two officers relieved Lemi of his burden. Bregman nodded to Jolan. “Thanks, Pilot.”
He nodded, then turned to Lemi. “Where’s the Captain?”
“H-he should be right behind us, but we have to get the ship ready for launch! There’s a mob after us!”
“A mob?! You’d better start explaining.”
The two officers ran off with Bregman, Lemi and Jolan following after. “Well, we were captured by the crash survivors… er, well, I should say ‘landing survivors.’”
“What do you mean?”
Lemi explained as quickly as he could as they jogged towards the Sunbeam. Jolan nodded along, his face growing grimmer with each detail. “…Prax ordered us to go on without him, but he said to wait as long as possible for him. I think we should go back, he might-”
“No, we can’t. We need to get this ship ready to fly as soon as possible… and with Bregman injured, I’ll have to fly it. Come on, we need to report to Viks.”

Prax had caught the attention of the mob, and as he dodged beam fire between trees, he started to think his plan was flawed. He was leading the mob in circles, but it seemed they still gained on him. A beam sliced through a tree to his right, and he cursed. If he didn’t pick up the pace, he’d get shot.

With the facts laid out, Viks took no time in making a decision. “Jolan, get down to the cargo bay and start loading the fighters. If the bay doors won’t open, call me and I’ll see what I can do . I’m almost done, but we might be in for a fight if that mob gets here!”
Zia’s voice came over the com. “Sir, I still have weapons up here.”
“We’ll need that power for the engine startup, we can’t afford more than one or two shots. Understood?”
“Y-yes, sir.”
He flipped a switch on his communicator, calling everyone. “This is Viks! Everyone board the Sunbeam, on the double!”
Jolan gulped. “It might take time to load the fighters… I’ll see if Bregman can help.”
“If he can fly, let him. Now, I need to concentrate!”

Prax burst from the forest and dashed over the low hills. He could see a fighter being flown into the Sunbeam, and grinned. “Yes… huff…”
The mob was at his heels, no longer firing their guns, but yelling, brandishing knives and firing their M2s into the air. They had apparently found Marlow, and wanted proper revenge… unfortunately for them, a massive plasma charge flew in over Prax’s head and detonated a few feet in front of the Humans’ fastest runner. Prax covered the remaining distance in two minutes, tumbling against the Sunbeam’s ladder. Someone above grabbed his uniform and hauled him inside. “Ahh!”
He and Ozzy tumbled in a heap inside the ship. Ozzy yelled: “He’s inside! Go go!”
“One more minute!”
There was thumping from outside, but the hatch was locked. Ozzy helped Prax into a sitting position. “Sir, are you alright?”
“Yes, I’m fine! But we need to take off before they have a chance to blow us up!”
He stood, stumbling slightly. “Where’s Viks?”
“You’re bleeding…”
“No, that’s Marlow’s blood. Come on!”
Prax started down the hall as gunfire could be heard from outside. “N-no, sir, your claw…”
“What do you mean, my claws are- oh.”
He stopped briefly as he realized one of his claws was missing. He clenched his fist and sped up. “It’ll grow back.”
As they entered the engine room the ship rocked violently. Zia’s shrill voice came from Viks’ communicator. “S-sir! They’re firing missiles at us! I-I think there’s a hull breach on deck two. I’ll seal it off…”
“Viks I want to be off the ground in ten seconds!”
“How about two? Haha!”
He ripped something from the engineering console, then slammed his paw on the screen. “Jolan, take us up!”
“Aye, with pleasure!”
Viks grinned and held up the item. It was a wrench. “It seems someone tried to sabotage the startup sequence! It’s all fixed now, plus the uplink dongles should be working fine.”
“Good. Keep things running, I’ll be on the bridge.”
Viks stopped him. “Sir… I think you should go down to the cargo bay and let someone look at that claw.”
He did seem to be dripping blood quite fast. “Yes… You’re right. Ozzy, stay here.”
“Aye…”
Prax wandered off back down the hall. Ozzy gulped. “Is he alright? He seems… listless? I-If I was him, I’d be too wired to think straight.”
Viks chuckled. “Aye, well, you’ve also never killed a man, I’m assuming.”
“What? Prax didn’t say anything about that…”
“If he’s missing a claw and covered in Human blood, you’d be a fool to draw a different conclusion. Come here, I need you to hold this…”

Down on the planet, the mob was recovering from the exhaust blast from the Sunbeam’s thrusters. Most had been knocked off their feet, and now an eerie silence fell over them. As they began helping one another up, a scream tore out across the field. Marlow’s wife, clutching a rifle, began firing into the sky wildly. “Come back here, you furry freaks! Face me like warriors! Get- get off me! No!”
It took a considerable time for the crowd to subdue the woman. However, each of them knew the pain she felt, and none would forget.

~~~

Two days and a few million kilometers later, the Sunbeam, Exile and Amber rendezvoused outside the nebula. The Sunbeam’s wormhole generator was dead from age, so it and the Exile had to plod along until the Amber could arrive. Now all that was left to do was to wait for the Solar Federation to show up.
Prax and Bregman were ushered into the surgical bay by Dr. Piper and Katel. As he sat waiting for tissue regeneration treatments, Prax watched Dr. Piper work. He ran a medical scanner over the wound. “It was a good thing no one tried to remove this! Are you in much pain?”
“Not anymore, sir, they gave me something. I can feel it when I touch it or put weight on it, though.”
“Good, good. Nurse, we need to prep for surgery, this will take a little finesse.”
He turned and grinned at Bregman before he could groan. “But don’t worry, Pilot! I’ll have you in recovery in an hour, and you’ll be walking again by tomorrow!”
“Thanks, sir…”
“Oh, you don’t need to call me that, just doctor is fine. I’ll be right back, I need to set up the deep tissue probe.”
Bregman sat looking down at his wound, which was now out of bandages. “Of all the luck.”
“Hm?”
“I get a branch through my leg, Cini gets shot and you lose a claw in combat against a crazy man with a gun. This won’t make for a very impressive story for me.”
“You survived, be thankful for that.”
“Yeah, I know.”
They sat silently, listening to Dr. Piper humming. Bregman turned his head to look at Prax. “I just can’t stop thinking about the things Marlow said. He was so sure of everything, like he had some secret knowledge the rest of us didn’t I… kinda felt drawn to the things he said, even if I knew they were wrong.”
“Do you like Terrans, Bregman?”
“What? I-I guess… I mean, some of them piss me off but I don’t hate their race.”
“I used to hate them. Deeply. Then, during the war, I started doing the same things I hated the Humans for doing.”
“Is that why you veterans don’t like talking about the war?”
“For some of us. Bregman, there’s a very fine line between the person Marlow is and the person I am. Don’t ever forget that.”
“I don’t understand…”
Prax turned his head, fixing Bregman with a stern glare. “Trust me, that’s an order.”
“Yes, sir.”
Dr Piper sauntered into the room, breaking the serious mood. “Alright, Bregman! Let’s get that stick outta you…”

~~~

Late that night, Jolan was pacing the Pilot’s ready room, unable to sleep. Every time he replayed the skirmish in his head, he’d see a different face on the man he should have killed, the same one each time. It was driving him crazy. “Dad…?”
“Ah! Oh, Carril… what are you doing up?”
“What are you doing up?”
“I’m… I can’t sleep.”
Carril blinked a few times, obviously lacking sleep. “Me neither. I, uh… read the reports.”
“Yeah…”
“Jolan-”
“No, Carril, I don’t need a lecture from my own son, okay?”
Carril shook his head. “I was just going to say that I’ll take the next one. You don’t have to put yourself in these situations anymore, you’re a Pilot now.”
“I didn’t know, okay?”
“I know.”
Jolan sat down on the couch and groaned. “I’m sorry. I’ll be fine tomorrow, don’t worry.”
“Alright. Well… I’m gonna get some Shashi and go back to bed. You want some?”
“Maybe just one glass.”