"Ankuar." M'kar grabbed her by the upper arm and dragged her along. "Picking on the kids." She had the awful feeling that the longer they delayed getting to the prize shop, the more trouble Genys was going to be in.
The scenario was easy enough to untangle in the twenty or so steps it took to get to the doorway of the prize shop. The Ankuar, for some totally indecipherable reason, had decided to amuse themselves in a venue made for children. They saw a cluster of pre-teens in the semi-uniforms all ship's children had to wear when off the ship, no adults around, and decided to have some fun bullying them.
Treinna let out a string of indecipherable words in four different languages as she and M'kar stormed into the room. The children were right where M'kar expected them to be, huddled together, under a display table, watching with awe and glee on their faces as the entire ship's complement of dracs flew in a hurricane around three cursing, dodging, clearly panic-stricken Ankuar. Blood-streaked Ankuar, with shreds where their sleeves used to be. Had those idiots actually tried to swat away a drac?
"What do we do?" Treinna said.
M'kar knew she was going to get written up for it, but she wasn't about to strain her brain right away to put a stop to the drac attack. This was too much fun. Someone needed to teach those galactic bullies a lesson. She pulled her recorder wand from her belt pouch and turned it on. She made a mental note to access the security feed from the prize shop, and maybe the entire library of security images from Castle Zooks, to trace the Ankuar’s path into the venue, when they had spotted and targeted the children. When were the dummies going to realize they were outnumbered, and make a run for it?
"Get the kids."
They hurried around the back of the table and reached under to help the children crawl out from cover. M'kar was pleased to note the boys were trying to put themselves between the girls and the Ankuar, and the older girls were sheltering the youngest. The Ankuar shouted, straightened up, and all three focused furious gazes on M'kar. One of them drew a low-grade blaster, more heat than energy bolts. Just low enough in power that it wouldn't set off the security sensors when they disembarked their ship.
Barroo shrieked fury as understanding of what the weapon was, what it could do, slipped from M'kar's mind into his. For five eternal seconds, all the adult dracs vanished. The Ankuar sneered and leaped across the open space to where Treinna and M'kar had the children out from under the table, firm grasps on as many as they could manage, ready to flee.
Then the adult dracs popped back in, chewing on the green and silver and purple leaves clutched in their paws.
Treinna let out a stream of more foreign words. M'kar didn't need a translation right this moment to know they were entirely appropriate to the situation. What were the chances those leaves were from the fire-breathing drac-nip plants?
Considering her luck? Pretty good.
"No! No! Don't!" M'kar shouted, leaping forward, reaching for the nearest grown-up drac, and reinforcing her words with the loudest mental shout she could manage.
She was going to pay for it in about an hour, when things calmed down.
The biggest, darkest Ankuar cursed her and swung a fist the size of her head at her head. Then the fireworks started.
~~~~~~
The story made the rounds of the Fleet faster than any known technology could have spread it, and came to be known as the "Fried Ankuar Incident." Someone -- the best tracing technology couldn't identify who – accessed the security recordings of Castle Zooks before they could be classified and made off-limits. The unidentified perpetrators spliced together selected bits from the entire encounter, showing the Ankuar leering at six very small, vulnerable-looking children, visibly frightening them until Tress Lore stepped forward. A little ivory drac popped in and landed on her shoulder, and they both glared up at the big man. A dozen more dracs popped into existence and put the Ankuar into panic. Then M'kar visibly tried to stop the bigger dracs and the Ankuar suckerpunched her. When she was down, he pulled his leg back to kick her in the ribs, then the three bullies were wreathed in fire.
Just as inexplicable was the ship's log clip attached at the end of the video, showing the exchange between Captain Genys Arroyan and the burned, bleeding, bandaged captain of the Ankuar ship.
"The Fleet is so weak now, they have to resort to lizards to intimidate innocent tourists?"
It sounded so much nastier in Ankuaran, with the translation strip underneath the captain's image. A crooked strip of static going right through his face was added later, by whoever put together the video.
"Those aren't bodyguards, if that's what you're referring to," Genys said. The little black drac on her shoulder raised her head and glared at the Ankuar. The flames trickling from her mouth, curling around in what looked suspiciously like Nisandrian curse glyphs, had been inserted into the video by someone very skilled at computer graphics. "Those are pets. And for your information, these are just babies. Believe me, you don't want to run into their mean, grumpy big brothers. Arroyan, out."
Not until much later did anyone discover that the AFV Defender was no longer referred to as the Nanny Ship. The epithets for it varied from culture to culture, but even if they weren't translated, they were always spoken with a touch of fear and respect.
END
About the Author
On the road to publication, Michelle fell into fandom in college and has 40+ stories in various SF and fantasy universes. She has a bunch of useless degrees in theater, English, film/communication, and writing. Even worse, she has over 100 books and novellas with multiple small presses, in science fiction and fantasy, YA, suspense, women's fiction, and sub-genres of romance.
Her official launch into publishing came with winning first place in the Writers of the Future contest in 1990. She was a finalist in the EPIC Awards competition multiple times, winning with Lorien in 2006 and The Meruk Episodes, I-V, in 2010, and was a finalist in the Realm Award competition, in conjunction with the Realm Makers convention.
Her training includes the Institute for Children’s Literature; proofreading at an advertising agency; and working at a community newspaper. She is a tea snob and freelance edits for a living ([email protected] for info/rates), but only enough to give her time to write. Her newest crime against the literary world is to be co-managing editor at Mt. Zion Ridge Press and launching the publishing co-op, Ye Olde Dragon Books. Be afraid … be very afraid.
www.Mlevigne.com
www.MichelleLevigne.blogspot.com
@MichelleLevigne
Also by Michelle L. Levigne
Guardians of the Time Stream: 4-book Steampunk series
The Match Girls: Humorous inspirational romance series starting with A Match (Not) Made in Heaven
Sarai's Journey: A 2-book biblical fiction series
Tabor Heights: 20-book inspirational small town romance series.
Quarry Hall: 11-book women’s fiction/suspense series
For Sale: Wedding Dress. Never Used: inspirational romance
Crooked Creek: Fun Fables About Critters and Kids: Children’s short stories.
Do Yourself a Favor: Tips and Quips on the Writing Life. A book of writing advice.
Killing His Alter-Ego: contemporary romance/suspense, taking place in fandom.
The Commonwealth Universe: SF series, 25 books and growing
The Hunt: 5-book YA fantasy series
Faxinor: Fantasy series, 4 books and growing
Wildvine: Fantasy series, 14 books when all released
Neighborlee: Humorous fantasy series
Zygradon: 5-book Arthurian fantasy series
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