Relkor

by C. R Corbin

  "What do you think is going to be there Rel? Do you think we're going to find another reactor that we can pawn off? How many prisoners?" Xuhar called out as he slid his desks down on the wooden table. His hands dashed along the edge of it and I sighed while watching the men run their fingers on those carefully bound bundles of vines that composed the table.

  "I don't know ...Don't really care. I really would have rather attacked another outpost or town instead of doing this. We have no idea what humans are capable of, whereas when we're dealing with ourselves, we have a good idea." I muttered while taking another sip of my drink. I slide a hand over my eye in a tired manner while my morose expression only deepens, I had a bad feeling about the raid and I knew how...rowdy men could get.

  Traditionally I just stayed out of their way but there was a reason that we were known as "Barbarians" and not mere bandits.

  The ship roared to life around me as the dull hum of the engine continued to drone on. I could picture our ship now while we ran by a red sun, the red light would bounce off the incredibly angular shape of our hull and seep through the metal. The air already felt a bit hotter from our proximity to the star and it was only due to our magnetic fields that we weren't all cooked to death. Imagine if we made a wrong turn and just crashed.

  Bah! What was I even talking about? Why was I questioning all of this now? It was time to chit chat with my crewmates, not ponder the nature of space travel!

  "Big bad Rel, the survivor of almost 50 missions in the highest order of the Rialian military is afraid of a bunch of humans. Really?" asked Xuhar with a laugh as he passed his disks around.

  "Am not." I said with a playful smile.

  "Seriously though ...this is like the third human raid we've done all year. Wonder what happened? Did these things just decide to start popping away from their solar system on a whim? Why don't we just conquer the place already?" asked another one of my crewmates, Teran, as he spun the disk under his hand while it rested on the table.

  "Interstellar laws. Set up by the Perosians." I responded quietly while mixing my own drink "They might have diseases we've never even heard of and we could probably kill them just based on contact, we don't want any information to be lost now do we?"

  "What can a bunch of primitives that haven't even ventured outside of their star system know that we don't?" asked Teran with a scowl, he gnawed on his jerky and turned to me with his teeth gnashing the meat in a vicious fashion.

  "Some things." I remarked in a quiet voice while continued to sip the drink.

  "Yeah like how to throw their feces at one another."

  "No, you already know how to do that." I replied sharply to Teran with a glare while he sprung to his feet and cocked his fist back.

  "What the hand if you say to me runt?" he asks.

  "I outrank you and i'm pretty sure i'm way stronger. Don't test me." I snarled at him and he frowned before turning away. His hands hung at his side and the men around him tried to drag him back.

  "Can't you go one day without fighting?" the captain asks as he stepped in, he was marked by his dark orange cloak with a variety of stars and stripes on it. He gazed at the two of us with a tired expression while his posture conveyed all of the pride and authority that he needed. He stands tall with his back straight and he has his eyes glued on me as I shake my head and gazed down at my feet.

  "Sorry sir." I muttered, my blue skin was almost grey in this tone of light.

  "Well I'm pleased that you two didn't actually annihilate the lounge this time." the captain's response was short and curt, "Why don't we call it a night and get to bed? Before an incident like the one a couple of moments ago?" the captain said in an even tone as the men began to file out, grumbling while tucking away the drinks and snacks that had been set out on the counter. I helped with the cleanup and paused as I felt Teran bump against my shoulder. Bastard didn't know that I could slam his head through the wall right here and now.

  "I want a word with you Rel." said the captain as he turned on his heel and walked off. I scowled and follow him, dragging my feet along the way. My blue cloak dashes and clings to me while I run a hand through the tussle of black hair atop my head. My two small horns pricked my fingers as I run them across my forehead and I frowned, I knew that this had something to do with the mission.

  Truth be told, at this moment I just wanted to return to my quarters and listen to some stupid Rialian talk show before falling asleep. Staying up this late to discuss tactics wasn't what I had in mind for myself after our little game. The captain had been pestering me to take on a squad of my own to make his life a bit easier and I couldn't even believe I had agreed. Sure I liked the status that it gave me but part of me would miss being just a grunt.

  "In here." he states as we marched through the metal halls which were triangular in shape. We meander down cold sterile metal floors and through a litany of stairs before we finally arrive at his office on the upper deck. I jog upwards and nearly bump my head on the doorframe as the two metal plates slide to the side to allow me to pass through. I stepped in and stood across from his stone desk. He plopped himself down on that flying bowl that he called a chair and gazed at me, flicking his finger and clicking his tongue in annoyance while he does so.

  "Are you ready? Because we sure as gercek don't look like it. They've been telling me you've been having second thoughts about the raid." he states evenly while his glare remained fixated on me. His hands run along his counter space as the holograms of his computer continues to flash around him.

  "I'm not nervous." I responded. "Just a bit tired."

  "I somehow doubt that." he snorted. "You've been serving with me for how long? And you still think you can get something by me? I want to know if my crew has any issues or not, that's all that I want to know."

  "There's no issues we'll be fine. I'll follow everything exactly as you ordered it, I take the lower deck and you take the higher deck, that's how it's going to be." I responded in a quiet and professional tone. My lips barely parted as my red eyes locked with his golden ones, we seemed to be in a duel of wills at that very moment.

  "We are attacking in two days. Right at the boundary of the solar system. I assume you already know the details. Standard sized cruiser, about as big as one of our small ones actually. Little to no security, that sort of thing." he goes through the details with a wave of his hand and a tired expression and I nodded as each detail went in one ear and out the other.

  "Is there another reason why we're here?" I finally asked, testing my authority. He blinked in a shocked manner before quickly nodding, his grey skin shines with the rays of the fluorescent light above him while I tensed my fists near my waist.

  "I just wanted to convey the details just to make sure you got them." he stares in a tone that doesn't betray his anger. Sometimes I wonder if I sounded more like a captain than he did but I quickly quashed those thoughts, I didn't want to start conflict unnecessarily.

  "What are you hoping to find there? We've been attacking human cruisers for what else other than scrap metal? That's basically all we got out of the deal." I questioned with a raised eyebrow, my red eyes flicker from wall to wall as I waited for his inevitable explosion of anger to emerge but it never does.

  I had always eyed these raids with suspicion long after we had begun doing them. Humans held little value to us beyond breeding stock and scrap metal and that was a reward that frankly, wasn't really worth the trouble. The captain seems to know more about it than he had let on but I still wasn't sure what he had wanted either. Was it just a show of force? Was that it? Did he just want to earn enough money to get back to Rial? What was it?

  "I see you don't understand it quite yet and I'm afraid that I was going to wait to tell you what I wanted but...you're going to be one of the first commanders soon enough so I suppose I should tell you. I've secured a deal with one of the princes on the outlying Rialan colonies. They said that he's been desperately searching for a mate for 5 years and
in that desperation he's turned to us. Initially I think that he was entirely focused on finding one amongst the Rialian colonies that he had but that died down and well...he came to us." began the captain, he glanced at me to see if I was going to interrupt but I merely stayed in place. "In exchange for our help, since we're his best bet at capturing one of these ships alive, he's going to let us go back home, alive."

  "So we're doing this based on him alone?" I asked with a bit of skepticism leaking through my voice.

  "Yes." said the captain and I sighed.

  "Couldn't we just raid more Rialian encampments?"

  "The idea of raiding a bunch of humans doesn't sound appealing to you? Should be easy. Besides the prince has...an appreciation for humans, if you will."

  "What the is this guy's name anyways? Is he related to King Jera?" I asked with my arms tossed in the air, my eyes glimmered with this sense of unease that I couldn't quite place. Why was I being so hesitant all of a sudden? Why don't I want to go through with this?

  "Prince Herak, he's one of the middle children and has been neglected. The man is unlikely to find a mate at this point so he's come to us, like I said I don't know that much about him other than the fact that he really has the power to bring us back home if we go through with this." begun the captain with a cool tone before he leaned back into his chair and rested his head on the rim of the seat. "Why are you so afraid of this again?" he asked in exasperation.

  "The idea of attacking a species that we barely have any history with is going to have consequences. It just doesn't seem right to...do this." I muttered while glancing down at my boss.

  "Oh for the sake of the stars! We're bandits! This is what we do! You can't get caught up in the morality of this!" he hollered.

  "I can't help but feel that we're underestimating them is all." I muttered while folding my arms, "It's almost like the humans have more to hide than we do. Why haven't they attacked us yet if we've been raiding their ships? They have to know that we're coming after them."

  "They don't. We've left no trace and whatever humans that do attack us i'm sure we'll be able to handle it...Just don't worry too much and do your job, otherwise I'm taking you off of the team and you really won't have anywhere to go Rel." the captain snarled while drumming his fingers on the desk. "Now get some sleep, we're going to need you down at the practice hall tomorrow to go through some things." he states as I turned on my heel and walked to the door. My fingers stretched out and I walked down the endless metal corridors before arriving at the quarters in the lower deck of the ship.

  It was late and most of the crew was asleep, I had no idea why I needed to start an argument with the captain like that but it cost me sleep and for that I would regret it.

  I laid my fatigues down on the desk before I reached my bathroom. The water flicks on as I walked past the metal spine against the wall and I stand underneath the sprinkler as warm water collects on my blue skin. My fingers run along the creases of scars that are momentos of battles that have ended years ago. I tense as I run the cleaning fluid over my body before I let the water wash it off. Soon after, I stepped out and was blessed with a wave of hot air before standing in front of the mirror to appraise myself, same old same old.

  Red eyes, black hair, blue skin, impressive musculature for my profession at least. Fangs that jut out of my lips ever so slightly and a tussle of black hair on top of my head with two tiny horns peeking through. I had seen the humans before and noticed how similar they looked to Rialans. I wondered how that came to be? Common ancestor maybe?

  Whatever, I am already tired enough, I didn't need more of my waking moments to be consumed by pointless scientific pondering.

  I laid down on the furs and foams that made up my bed and flicked my wrist to read the book that I had stolen from that encampment that was on some moon a couple of setras ago. My eyes slowly droop, however, and I decided that it would be better to welcome unconsciousness than to fight it. With one last flick of the wrist to turn everything off, I laid back down on my back and promptly fell asleep.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Kelly

  "What the hell is going on with the systems today?" I said to myself as I sat in the main dining hall with the tablet in front of me. Lines of code were getting spewed out and they all told me the exact same thing. That something was going wrong with the bug fix that I had initiated last night.

  "What's going on?" asked Penny in a quiet voice as she leaned in and slipped a hand over her cheek to brush some of the blond spindles of hair way. They fall behind her ear and I frowned while combing through what I've seen.

  "I don't know...That's the problem." I muttered under my breath. "How was your night? Spent reading that new novel?" I asked her and she nodded in affirmation.

  "Yep, kept me up for way longer than I thought it would...You look like you haven't slept a wink though." she remarked in a quiet tone "Want to talk about it?"

  "Not really no, god Hasan is really going to get on my ass about this..." I muttered to myself. "Jesus I knew I shouldn't' have done this while I was tired. Whatever, we'll deal with it later, for now I just want to dig in." I grunted while hoisting up layers and layers of the pancakes that were sitting beneath my mouth. They were practically doused in fruits and coated in maple syrup, just the way I liked it. I slipped the buttery, sugary layers of it into my mouth as the fruit juices and the syrup trickle down my lips. I smile and let out a satisfied moan while Penny rolled her eyes. "Jorge really outdid himself." I muttered while rushing my finger along my lip to get some of the crumbs off.

  "Kind of feel like eating something else though. We've been having the standard fare for so long. Par offered to make us some curry the other day but...she's not the best cook." Penny whispered and I smiled in an amused manner while continuing to push my meal around. "Personally I would go for some baked beans."

  "Oh you English girls." I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Always with the baked beans you guys!"

  "We've been eating American food thus far."

  "Yeah...wonder why Hasan hasn't requested Egyptian food."

  "Why do they eat?"

  "I have no idea ...Bread?"

  Our conversations tears into the mundane as we go over the latest gossip on the ship and the details of what we're going to be doing once we touched down on our destination. The planet has tentatively been named Yagaratsu, it was a Japanese led team that discovered water there so the name was only fitting. It was also the third planet from the sun like Earth which matched up with the three-legged crow that was its namesake.

  "For a data geek you know a lot about mythology." remarked Penny while she sipped her orange juice. "Not even I drew that connection. Good job."

  "It's elementary my dear Penny." I said in a posh British accent and she shook her head with an amused smile and muttered "Please stop."

  "Why ladies! Penny..." muttered Jeremy, he was likely tired from his late-night excursions. He had been missing the entire morning and had just appeared after what I presumed was a long while of snoring in his bed while the rest of us were out and about.

  "Jeremy..." I muttered with a roll of the eyes.

  "Aren't you glad to see your savior?" He asked.

  "Oh my god not this again." I groaned with a smile while Jeremy waggles eyebrows. "What did you do now?"

  "Nothing, nothing...just thought that you might want to know what I found on Hasan's desk last night." he whispered and my eyes widened.

  "This I have to hear." I remarked and Penny giggle dwell rolling her eyes. Jeremy leaned in with a tablet tucked under his arm, his eyes shone with mischief and I listened intently to every word.

  "Hasan was watching...romantic comedies. I can't believe it either but he was! I can't believe that he was even into that sort of thing but they were all over his desk, actual DVD's! I mean he collects it! What kind of-" began Jeremy as he waved his arms around enthusiastically.

  I knew that DVDs were rare and were basically a c
ollector's item. To tell you the truth it wasn't even DVDs, it was more or less the last disk format that humanity had been using, that's what Hasan had on his desk. The content was the thing that surprised me, he could have just been a collector of DVDs but he actually had all romantic comedies. I always took the guy for some crime drama nut but apparently not. That serious exterior really did have something underneath it then huh?

  "Why is he watching DVDs? We have a whole database field with movies and he could have just picked a file." remarked Penny while she set the spoon down on the empty bowl of oatmeal.

  "It's a collectors thing. Hasan probably just thinks the quality looks better or some bollocks like that." Jeremy whispered, I had to giggle at his use of English terminology.

  "Way to take the piss guys..." remarked Penny.

  And then a new voice cut in that made me nearly fell off my chair.

  "I see you've been acquainting yourself with my office Jeremy." rumbled a deep, croaking voice from behind Jeremy who was currently leaned over or table. I looked up and saw Hasan, standing there with his black hair slicked back and his clean shaved, tan face shining in the light of the dining hall.

  "Oh hey boss! I uhhh.." Jeremy started but despite all of his wit he didn't know how to save himself.

  "Save it ...I have to discuss something with Kelly here if you don't mind..." Hassan said as he took a seat. Penny excused herself and took her empty bowl over to the sink, Jeremy quickly scurried off when I wasn't even looking.

  Hasan takes a seat across from me and stroked his cheek while gazing at me with his stern eyes. Those brown orbs survey the dining room table as I cleared the food off my plate and watched him. He pauses for a moment to clear his throat before beginning.