by Kylie Gold
My eyes followed him as he sat on the edge of his large plush bed. New mining site? It had to be the small mine I had overheard some crew members talking about when I took the tour of the big site. Even though it was a small mine being opened on the side, there would be a lot of crew members there because there always were the first few days of any expedition to get things going. A lot of crew members meant a lot of lives that could be lost. “It’s just a small mine, couldn’t you just leave them alone?” I asked, trying to think of anything to get him to not attack the mine. If I could protect human lives, I was going to. It was just hard to do much of anything when you were chained inside a hut.
“It doesn’t matter the size. A mine is a mine, and they are polluting the air by using explosives. Above all, it’s to make a statement that my tribe will not be tolerating anymore destruction,” he told me, glaring over at me.
“They are innocent lives,” I pressed, “The miners are just doing their job, trying to provide for their families.”
“And?” Nova snapped. “I’m trying to protect my people. Don’t try to act like you know what is happening on Shaviro. You clearly do not know and you speak with great ignorance.”
I glared at him. I may not know what was going on exactly, but I had seen plenty first hand—like being taken prisoner when I am not in their war. These Navani people were far from innocent little creatures, and from what I had seen and heard, the Navani were the ones causing the violence. How in the hell did he expect me to believe any different? I couldn’t just give up though, those miners were my employees. “They aren’t hurting anyone though. Why not spare them?”
“They are hurting my tribe’s future generations by drilling away our planet. They are a part of a colony that attacks and kills our innocent civilians. This isn’t just a feud, this is a war; which means revenge and retaliation. Nothing you can say will change my mind because you do not know the hardships my people have faced with the human colonists. You cannot begin to speak intelligently on the subject since you do not know.”
“Have you never heard the phrase ‘an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind’?” I questioned. “If you hurt over something others are doing, you don’t just go back and do the same thing. It makes you just as bad as them.”
“Enough!” he snapped once again. “I’ve had it with your talking. Be quiet and keep your thoughts to yourself. I don’t want to hear another word on it; you’re pissing me off.” Nova then rose from his spot on his bed and walked through the door and slammed it behind him. My heart sank. Those poor miners…
6
Nova
I left the hut in a huff, completely enraged by the sheer ignorance of that human. She dared to speak to me like that? Who the hell did she think she was? Julia certainly wasn’t in a position to be speaking to me like that, I could kill her any moment I wanted to. A dead body shipped to Harp would make the same impact as any other plans we had for her. I tried to ease my anger though as I approached the men, not wanting to go into battle with a distracted mind. Julia had seriously plucked a nerve within me, truly getting under my skin.
The men had rallied at the center of the village, each of them having their weapons and a war-hammer. I looked to Dran, “Are they ready?” I asked.
He gave a sharp nod, “Yes sir.”
I drew my sword and raised it in the air, “FOR THE TRIBE!” I yelled.
The men all raised their weapons of choice as well, responding with, “FOR THE NAVANI!”
With that, the men formed into rows as Dran, the archers, and I led the group through the tribe and into the jungle. The walk certainly wasn’t but a few minutes outside of the jungle. As we walked through the trees, the archers began to climb the trees to get to higher ground. We had adapted untraditional methods of fighting to be on equal grounds with our enemy. Before the humans, there wasn’t much fighting on Shaviro, just the occasional squabble between clans. Back then, our weapons had been carried primarily for hunting purposes—but now they were essential for every adult with humans being able to ambush us at any time.
We stopped just at the brim of the jungle, staying in the shadows as we observed what we were up against. There were far more men there than I had anticipated, but that didn’t matter. We were going to attack no matter what, our presence had to be known. We stood watching the workers for several minutes, trying to find out the best way to attack. The humans had blown a massive hole in the clearing, their machines positioned all around and inside the hole as they worked to get deeper into the earth. They buzzed about, crowding around the machines as others were inside with pick axes, chipping away at the areas that the drills weren’t getting. It didn’t seem like there was any sort of better way to attack other than just ambushing them. I motioned up to the archers to begin striking. Within moments, several metal arrows flew from the trees and struck several of the miners. The humans looked up in a panic as their comrades fell to the ground.
The lower ranked warriors then broke from the tree line, running at the men with weapons drawn. Once they made impact, I and the stronger warriors charged out as well. Luckily we had a slight advantage at first since we surprised them and the humans hadn’t been armed. My blade drawn, I swung out with fierceness as the humans lunged in my direction. Many men fell to the ground by the blade of my sword, bleeding their rich red blood into the soil. Some managed to get cheap shots, nicking my arms and sides with stray bullets. My men pushed hard through the men, though some of them unfortunately met a grim fate and fell to the ground among the dead humans. Each of them would be avenged though, I would make sure of it myself. None of my warriors would ever die in vain.
Once we managed to break through their crowds, I along with many of the others drew our war-hammers. Turning mine on, I ran up to a drill and swung the hammer far above my head before smashing it down. The metal of the drill crumpled under the force of the hammer. I swung again and again, trying my damnedest to destroy the machinery. I only turned away from smashing the horrid machinery to defend myself against the miners who approached me. I glanced around to see groups of my men crushing the other machines, pride soaring through me. But as I continued to look around, I saw more Navani men lying dead on the ground than I had anticipated. Panic surged through my body. We needed to get out of there before they killed anymore of us. I raised my hammer and called out in Navanian, “Retreat! Head back to the village!” I slammed the hammer down against the drill one last time, an eruption of fire and smoke coming from the contraption. I then turned and dodged through the humans, drawing my sword to fight off any other human who tried to get in my way. I helped any struggling Navani I passed in combat, nudging them to go to the jungle.
Finally, all the men left the scene, taking to the forest. My feet carried me swiftly through the trees, not stopping until I reached the village. I spotted one of the commanding officers, Kuro, and called to him, “Tell the men to rest. We will meet in a few hours to go over it all.” The man gave a brisk nod and walked away to inform the others. I rubbed my face and walked back to my hut, the loss of the Navani men heavy on my heart. Typically, we didn’t lose that many men and would carry the fallen warriors back to the village to give them a proper warrior burial. But with them being so many and being at a mining site, there was no way to gather them without losing more lives from the humans attacking us. With a heavy sigh, I walked into the hut, yearning for a shower to wash the blood, dirt, and oil from that drill from my skin. However, when I walked into my living quarters, Julia was glaring hard at me. Her eyes widened a bit as she glanced me over, taking note of the blood that was splattered all over me.
“You’re a monster!” she snapped at me. “You really took your men to slaughter innocent miners?! How can you even try to say the humans are in the wrong when they weren’t even provoking you and yet you went and killed them?. They have families and friends that will mourn their loss because you had to senselessly kill them!” Her voice dripped with venom and hatred, her eyes intense from her f
ury.
“What did I tell you before? I don’t want to hear your pathetic, ignorant remarks. You have no idea what is going on,” I retorted, not at all in the mood for her mouth. I had just lost over a dozen men, right then was not the time for her to give me attitude over politics she had no knowledge of.
“I have no idea what’s going on?!” she laughed bitterly. “I know you ambushed my convoy, killing my best friend along with the guards who were sworn to protect us; and took me as your prisoner. And then you and your savage men made it a mission to go murder as many miners as you could. You’re drenched in their blood! You sicken me,” she growled, tears stinging her eyes at the mention of her friend.
“BE SILENT!” I bellowed in her direction, my eyes growing hard and vicious. “You act as though the Navani invaded your planet and that we are just going around slaughtering your hard workers. The humans invaded our home and have yet to treat us or our home with any respect. They are destroying our planet; how can you not understand that? How do you work for a mining company and not understand that mining kills the ecosystem? Air pollution, deforestation, blowing massive holes in the ground and taking materials that do not belong to them. Tell me, how are any of you innocent in the eyes of the Navani?” he growled, growing close to her then.
My words seemed to fluster her, but I could tell she wasn’t backing down. “Your people don’t even use Dremalite! So why does it matter if they mine it!?”
I got in her face then, my eyes locked onto hers, “Because it’s not fucking theirs to take,” I nearly spat. “Now not another word, understand?” I then turned and walked to my dresser, reaching through the shield and grabbing a piece of cloth and another snake lock; the snake lock was much shorter than most.
Julia glared at the back of my head, “You are not my leader. I don’t have to listen to you. Just because you took me hostage doesn’t mean that you—!” Her words were cut off by me shoving the cloth into her open mouth. I then quickly wrapped the lock around her mouth, locking it together on the back of her head. It kept secure across her mouth, making it to where she couldn’t spit out the cloth. She glared up at me, trying to speak but wasn’t able to even make more than a muffled noise.
“You’ll learn to keep quiet if you want your stay in my village to be even remotely pleasant. Right now, you’re getting royal treatment. Test me and things will get very, very uncomfortable for you,” I warned her. I basked in her silence for a minute before finally leaving to go shower like I had wanted to. I needed to get that incessant woman’s words out of my head. Luckily my hatred for her was burning so immensely that it had tamed the attraction I felt for her.
7
Julia
I sat in an angry, forced silence as Nova walked from the bathroom out of the hut, not even taking a glance in my direction. I couldn’t believe he gagged me because he didn’t like me arguing back with him. What had he expected to happen when he forced a human, the Navani’s enemy, into his home? Was I supposed to just beg for mercy and sanctuary? That wasn’t my style. I wasn’t about to appear weaker in the situation than I already was. And I truly was infuriated by their actions that afternoon. Nova had been completely soaked in blood when he walked through that door, looking like he just got off the set of a horror movie. I was positive the scene he had left was much worse than anything that could be seen in a movie. All I could picture were those poor miners left dead on the ground, lacerations and wounds covering their bloody bodies. It caused my train of thought to round back to Ryan, tears building in my eyes at the thought. His poor wife and daughter… how would they even find out if I didn’t get out of there? They deserved closure. Ryan hadn’t deserved to be killed like that, and I would never forgive the Navani for killing him.
Angry tears poured down my face as I sat in silence, unable to believe that I was tied into all of this drama when I didn’t even belong to the Harp colony. My heart was heavy for the human lives lost in the attacks, unable to imagine their families’ pain. I realized then my own family would grow worried if I didn’t contact them within a few days. While I didn’t have much family, I had a father and a brother I was close to. I feared they would try to track me down and come to Shaviro themselves, and that was the last thing I wanted.
After a few hours, my tears subsided, leaving my eyes puffy and irritated. The fabric in my mouth was irritating the hell out of me, I wanted to spit it out so bad. Because I hadn’t drank anything that entire day, my mouth was so dry and the fabric was giving my mouth a cottonmouth sort of feeling. And the lock around my face was clutching tightly to my skin, almost pinching me. As I sat there, contemplating just sleeping, the door to the hut opened and Nova walked back in.
I watched him as he walked my way. Nova stood over me, looking down into my eyes, “Are you going to give me attitude about the war?” he asked.
My immediate thought was hell yeah I am, but I realized if I wanted the cloth out of my mouth, I would have to be at least a little obedient. I shook my head no. He then reached behind my head and unlocked the metal, taking it away from my face. He then gestured for me to open my mouth, and he plucked it from my mouth. I gave a dry cough before speaking quietly, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Start talking like that again and I’ll gag you again,” he warned. He then kneeled down and uncuffed my ankle from the lock. Nova pulled at my hands, having me stand and then guided me into the other room of the house. He pushed me to sit down in a chair before moving to a large box with a blue door on the front. He reached into the blue and pulled out a pitcher of water along with a container. Setting the things on the counter, he reached into a cupboard and pulled down two cups. Pouring water into the cup, he walked over to me and placed it in front of me. I didn’t even hesitate, reaching with both hands since they were bound together, I picked the water up and raised it to my lips. I drank the cool, refreshing liquid quickly to get rid of that horrid feeling in my mouth as well as quench my thirst.
Nova had moved back across the kitchen, beginning to place fish on a sheet of metal on something that resembled a stove. Blue lasers shot from the burners and heated the metal sheet to cook the fish. It cooked quickly, being much more efficient than the cooking methods humans had. He then placed the fish and some vegetables onto two plates, moving over to the table and placing one in front of me with a two pronged fork. I mumbled a thank you before awkwardly picking up the fork with one hand. As I managed to cut into the fish, my stomach growling from the hunger, I spoke to Nova, “I am actually surprised with how advanced you are. Your home resembles human homes in a way. With how you live in a jungle, I really hadn’t expected things like electricity.” I took a bite of the fish and almost moaned at how delicious it was. It was such a hearty fish with lots of natural flavor, and then something citrusy and spices pairing perfectly with it.
Nova didn’t seem offended by my words, taking his own seat and beginning to eat. “We have many advancements. Lasers, intricate metal inventions such as your binds, indoor plumbing, etcetera,” he answered simply. After how much tension had been between us two earlier, he seemed rather calm then. I wasn’t being heated because I didn’t want that cloth stuffed back in my mouth.
I was surprised to hear about the advancements the primitive people had made. “Then if you guys are advanced, why haven’t you extracted the ores yourselves and made a revenue?” I questioned. While it was fine and well that they had advancements in their daily lives, I had always been taught the key component of a first-world civilization was the use of exports. You couldn’t be a great nation without making trades of some kind. The human colonies were scattered all throughout the galaxy, living in peace with many of the aliens; the aliens exporting their own goods to the humans.
“Because that isn’t what our people are about. We don’t even have a currency system. We live in harmony with our planet, the technology we make doing nothing to harm the environment. We make our things to make some daily tasks easier or more effective, but never anything to beyo
nd that. We want to preserve our planet as long as we can, so that our future generations can have a chance at prospering as well. The Navani are content with our naturalistic ways, and our people have never gone without anything.”
My brow rose in surprise at his words. Well, that sounded nice, I supposed. It sounded like an ideal way to live with the planet if they were content with it; they didn’t have a dense population so I could see how it could work for them. “I can understand that, I suppose. I can see how it can work for your people. However, your population is much, much smaller than humans. There are hundreds of billions of humans spread out across the galaxy that we have to support. So mining things such as Dremalite here, is needed to keep our own species going. That way of living just would not work for humans. Perhaps that is why there is so much conflict,” I proposed as I finished my fish and started on the vegetables. There were some that resembled potatoes and carrots, but others I had no idea what they were.
“I don’t believe that,” Nova snorted. “Humans could in fact live in harmony with any planet they landed on. It is greed and the need for entertainment and war that fuels your species’ need for mining and other means of stripping planets of their resources.”