Archivists note to the reader: It seems you are viewing this item in the human language English. For this reason names have been transliterated, units have been converted, and the content has been ontologically translated. Apologies for any inconsistencies.
Ziet rounded the corner of the shuttle carefully, the human and the second deathworlder following close behind. The shuttle was only to be docked for a little under sixty minutes, left empty for less than fifteen, and unguarded for a mere seven.
There! The cockpit hatch! She reached a tendril toward the handle, but before she could open it the door opened by itself, revealing a short, but defiantly menacing individual holding a nasty looking weapon. Ziet froze in horror, before speaking frantically, the normal perfection of her grammar lost to the urgency of the moment.
“Kakia! Please just let us go, you’ll never need to see me again.”
The individuals mouth stretched into a wide, unnatural imitation of a human’s grin.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t my old,’ she spat out the word, “friend. Ziet, the highly esteemed logistics technician, how are you? And what are you doing with the recently escaped, and even more recently declared dead prisoners?”
She focused her weapon at Ziet. On a human’s face a grin can be cheery. In the rest of the universe that grin is taunting, threatening, menacing.
“Please just let us go, please. Please?”
“With the price on their head? With the human ambassador to the GA right here? Why, that would be treason.”
She leaned in close, close enough that the puff of breath that accompanied each word ruffed the fur on Ziet’s face.
“And you, my wonderful, treasonous colleague, here, at my mercy?”
The grin stretched wider, more teeth appearing, ivory white. The words came exaggerated, theatrical.
“It was self defense. She attacked me with the deathworlders. She committed treason.”
Ziet recognized the weapon, specifically the three white dots on the side, and her blood ran cold.
“You’re right about one thing Ziet.”
Her grip tightened on the trigger.
“I’ll never have to see you again.”
The human lunged for the weapon, but no race in the universe was that fast. Ziet felt an impact against her chest, and then a horrible anticipation, like the moment between an injury, and the inevitable agony it would cause. No! Please no! Then malice, pure hatred, flooded through her from the point of impact, coursing through her veins, attacking every nerve and cell in her body. She felt the thaumutic energy in her system recoil, and than start to fight the attacker, but the attacker was sly, and as each pulse of power attacked it was converted, joining the ever-growing tide of hatred and pain. Her body decided that it wasn’t going to win this fight, and instead chose to jettison the power through whatever route necessary.
The human watched in horror as his friend was shot by the attacker, this Kakia person. Ziet’s eyes went out for a moment as the latent entropic energy was called inwards for the battle, and than shone with the power of a spotlight as pure energy was dumped en mass. This wasn’t fast enough however, and more and more energy poured out. It started to leak from her mouth, then nostrils, and then it started to leak through her skin as thousands of joules of power were discharged. The entire volatus was shining with the brilliance of the sun, and nobody in the entire shuttle could see anything but white.
Just as quickly as the light had started it stopped, and the volatus fell to the floor like a spent battery. Kakia uncovered her eyes, and grinned at the human, raising the weapon for a second shot, but the human was already charging. She fired and fired, but had only time to learn one thing before the human’s vengeful body slammed into her own.
Humans don’t use magic.
Ziet felt the weight of several jumpsuits rapped around her. She knew they were jumpsuits because of the wafting smell of Squalus detergent, the brand used to wash clothing inside the personnel wing of the spaceport. There was a gentle tap on her cloak, over her left shoulder. She felt another. Tap. Tap. Tap. Then hand shook her, and she obligingly opened her eyes. There was the human, crouched before her, eyes locked on her face. The eyes were leaking, clear fluid running over the human’s flat face, and dripping off his nose and chin. Behind the human lay the crumpled form of Kakia, a rivulet of dark fluid leaking from the corner of one eye. The human had bound her with another jumpsuit, so presumably she had survived her first encounter with a deathworlder.
“Ziet? Can you hear me?”
The human was still looking at her, and she noticed now that his breathing was erratic, and saw proper fear in those alien eyes.
“I can”
The human’s mouth turned into a grin, a grin that spoke to intense relief, as well as to the effort the human was putting into not showing teeth.
“You ok?”
The Volatus pondered this question. She felt gutted. Every ounce of strength had left her body. She couldn’t even feel the slightest scrap of power in her system. Her head hurt, terribly, and nothing came to relieve the pain. But she was ‘ok’.
“I’m ok”
She winced at the grammar.
“Sorry, I am going to be fine.”
“I’m glad. You scared us. I was so worried”
“Where are we?”
“Flying. He says he can.” The human pointed a limb toward the second deathworlder sitting in the cockpit across the room. “We leave the air five minutes. In five minutes, sorry”
The volatus felt a wry happiness settle over her, despite the fatigue that overwhelmed her. The human’s grammar was improving. The human reached beside him and produced the weapon Kakia had shot them with.
“What’s this?”
Ziet didn’t need to study the weapon to answer the question.
“It’s a malice gun, made by Simplicity. It’s like a computer virus.”
The human gestured to himself.
“I’m ok”
“It works by converting the thaumutic energy in your system, and I don’t think humans have any.”
“Oh”
They waited in silence for a moment.
The other deathworlder, the one piloting the shuttle, grunted a single word, the only word it had learnt of galactic common so far.
“Hey!”
The bio-luminescence on its arms lit up, and the human watched the flickering pattern closely, before saying a single word.
“Space!’
The volatus glanced towards the cabin window, and saw the blue curve of her home shrinking. Soon it would be a full circle against a black canvas, painted with thousands of stars. Then it would faded away into the distance completely.
She was free.