“A pirate attack just outside the IDC governntal station? You’ve gotta be shitting .” Rhidi said with a wry smile, looking at Yiwa as if she had walked up to her and started speaking in tongues. “Why the fuck would pirates attack a ship that close to a major installation?”
“How am I supposed to know?” Yiwa asked with a huff. “I’m just telling you what the communications guys told ! Pirates attacked a skiff that was docked to one of our ships, then the ship undocked and lubed up!”
Rhidi snorted. “Blew up, Yiwa.”
“Right, yes, blew up.” Yiwa muttered with a wave of her hand. “The explosion was big enough that none of the bodies were in one piece, and the Elder Councils are claiming it was ‘rogue white fur pirates’ or sothing. What a load of baloney, right? Are you telling that there are enough white furs left to have their own pirate faction in space? Give a break!”
Rhidi glanced towards Imridit on her left, the group of them sitting and playing a trading card ga within The Dark Wood cafe.
“I’m going toooo… tap my elder forest, and play Wunder Wabbit.” Imridit said, slapping down two cards from her hand. “As for that many white furs in one place? Being that close to that station? I doubt it.”
Oin shrugged a shoulder, her turn now due to their clockwise rotation, then drew a card from her deck and placed it down onto the table. “I’m going to tap my gore swamps and summon a Creeping Craven. As for this whole white fur problem, I’ve personally only t a handful and they were real assholes. Not like, how yellows would be, but they just get picked on by everybody, and live out in the slums. This is visiting multiple planets, mind. I think of the ten planets I’ve traveled to for work, I’ve t seven white furs.”
“You’ve t more than then.” Uppil mused, taking a long drink from her ale before throwing down her own cards. “I’ve only t two, and they were a sorry lot, lived in an old rundown shuttle on the outskirts of town with their parents. It always struck as odd, you know, how white furs can just pop out of parents of any color. It’s like a genetic blind draw.”
Anfilid wrinkled her nose at Uppil’s cards, as she hated people who played control decks. “Blind draws usually end with prizes and a nice rush when your na cos up, the white furs just get kicked down the totem pole and are left places to die. I used to find their buried bodies all the ti when I would provide security for construction crews, they’d be down there digging support columns and find the corpses bundled up in blankets.”
“Makes you wonder why though.” Inthur said quietly, taking a drink from her own mug before drawing a card from her stack. “Like, why them? Pinks are the offspring of whites and reds, but you never see a pink getting left outside the city slums. Hell, I’ve seen sky furs get treated better, and they’re part white as well!”
Oin raised a brow. “You an the super light blue furs? You call them sky furs?”
“Sky blue is a lovely color if you ask .” Marides chirped, the Pwah playing her cards and doing damage to Inthur. The blue fur let out an aggravated yell as her health points ticked down to eighteen. “But you would think being part white would be a detrint. As far as I have seen, they get treated about the sa as all the other lower class colors.”
Acici chuckled, drawing out a card and playing a few. “All this warring over colors makes happy my kind just ca in one state. I an honessstly, why do Kafya still stick to sssuch antiquated societal structures?”
“It’s just the way it is.” Rhidi murmured, annoyed now that she was likely going to lack the mana to cast the spell she wanted. “And everyone here didn’t want it anyway, why we all joined with the UAA.”
Yiwa nodded. “Getting away from the rigid social structures has been a breath of fresh air as far as I am concerned. I may have been middle class, but life was not so easy being green!”
Yiwa let out a growl as Inthur and Oin did their best rendition of Kermit the frog, both repeating “not easy being green” while making hand puppet motions with their hands.
Rhidi giggled; Movie nights had gotten rather interesting with the inclusion of the Muppet adventures.
“It just seems so odd that the Kafya held onto such an old way of life, is all.” Marides said, ignoring the angry sounds of Yiwa as Inthur and Oin leaned across the table and started pestering her with their mouthing hands. “All the other races in the IDC shook that stuff thousands of years ago, not even the Kojynn practice it anymore. Space is just too big for such close-minded thinking.”
“How much longer are we going to be in ssspace, anyway?” Acici asked, reaching up and stretching her arms. Yiwa caught a stray bap to the side of the face from the Lilgaran’s breasts, and she spluttered as Acici lowered her arms. “I an, we’ve been out here ever sssince that fight on the station! I don’t want to spend another day in space if I don’t have to!”
Yiwa pulled Acici’s arm down, blinking her eyes angrily at the rogue breast-bop. “We will be out here for another few weeks. Our battle group has to rendezvous with a sanctioned rogue station and make sure it passes muster. Well, not us but so inspector stationed on the Moose.”
“A rogue station? For real?” Marides asked in alarm. “Aren’t those normally controlled by smugglers and pirates and shit? Why the hell did soone sanction them?”
“Because they are in between a trading station and the UAA’s new planets.” Uppil said, as if it was the most common sense answer out there. “You saw the announcent, and if Yiwa is right, it went out only a few hours after the supposed pirate attack.”
Marides tapped one of her fingers along the top edge of her cards, pursing her lips in thought before turning to look at Oin. “That’s a pretty big deal, isn’t it? Handing over three planets like that?”
“Quite a deal indeed.” Acici answered before slurping noisily on her mug, setting it back down as everyone looked at her, annoyed. “Planetsss being used to settle damages has been reserved for deep slightsss, and I have never known the Kafya to give up sssuch resource rich planets, let alone so many.”
Oin nodded, her ears perked. “It is… rather suspect, indeed. It makes wonder what was said in that eting room.”
“Above our paygrade, so we’ll likely never know.” Rhidi said, slapping down the land she had been searching for. Her ti for victory had finally co-
“Corporal Rhidi.”
Rhidi looked up and around, a card nad “The Humming Man” pinched between her fingers, and spotted the Void Navyman who called out her na.
“They want to speak to you again, both our commands want it done now.” He said, slapping the side of a nearby faux tree twice and then walking away. “Counseling Room 7-A!”
“But!” Rhidi whined, looking down at her hand and then the card play area. “B-But!”
“Ti now, Corporal Rhidi!” The Void Navyman called out over his shoulder, and Rhidi let out a long, frustrated exhale of breath past her teeth.
Marides leaned backwards, looking at Rhidi’s cards, and let out a laugh. “Hah! Looks like I get to win again ladies! Rhidi is out of the ga and I just drew my Subli Sli!”
“Mother fucker!” Inthur growled sharply, slapping her cards to the table top with a jiggle of her tank top. “I fucking hate this ga!”
—
Deciding to keep on her soft joggers and sweater, Rhidi walked steadily down the gangways to Counseling Room 7-A, located towards the brig area and furthest away from the armory.
Rhidi humd to herself, her yellow tail swishing back and forth behind her as the correct hallway lood into view after turning a corner, outside of which were dozens of Void Marines.
“Good morning Rhidi!” A Marine called out, watching her as she strode by. “Any luck in your ga? You got that Humming Man card in there this ti yeah?”
“Got pulled out before I could enact my grand plan and play it. It was right in my fingers when a Squid showed up.” Rhidi replied after turning on her heel, walking backwards a few steps and then turning around with a shrug. “Hopefully next ti I can finally play that damn thing and win!”
“Always next ti I guess! Everyone fears a humming man!” The Marine replied, smiling to himself as he watched the light bounce of her butt and the galy jiggle of her thighs. “Morris… you lucky bastard…”
Rhidi heard that, her ears becoming rather stiff and warm as she grinned to herself. She had been getting quite a large amount of teasing and guff from Alias for now outranking Morris, and was having to eat a mountain of crow after chiding at the Pwah for dating their Pod Section Leader.
Now she was a Corporal who was having a Private pin her to the bed and push her ankles past her ears, which made their interactions during work a real headtrip. Other lower enlisted hated Morris with a passion out of jealousy, the Human telling her daily that other Humans kept remarking on him “living the dream”.
It always made Rhidi giggle, as did other things.
What didn’t make her giggle was that the prisoners had elected three representatives to speak for them, and said representatives only wanted to talk to her when they needed sothing. The entire battle group was waiting on any one of the captured Lup’Hora to flip, but they had held out resolutely so far.
The three in question were precisely the first three she had spotted, two of the beastial ones like her, and a yellow-faced little woman that had rockets in her boots.
According to the Humans, the taller Lup’Hora looked like “Arican opossums with hyena ears”, while the smaller ones were just “goblin coded.”
Having no idea what a goblin even was, Rhidi and the rest of the non-Earthlings had spent a few nights going over the little mythical creatures, which on Earth appeared to be horrible little beings. Humans drew and painted them more or less as demons, with pointed fangs, big noses, and a feral attitude that was wrapped around a core of blood and debauchery.
While it was true that the little yellow folk did look a lot like goblins in stature and build, they were far more refined in bone that spoke of their advanced developnt.
Rhidi hoped that the three had learned more English since their last visit, as she had little desire to learn their odd language and was growing tired of pantomis.
If anything, she found that since learning English, a lot of the other languages had beco quite laborious to use. Kafya-hi was her mother language, and she used it when she had to, but English just had so many more words to describe things.
That went doubly so for the ones that could only be used when not in polite company.
When she ca before the door that was assigned to be a bother in her day, she entered in her military designation code and it slid open to expose the three inside.
They all brightened into smiles when they saw her, and waved happily.
The two taller Lup’Hora, the “opossum” ones, were wearing whatever the hell the Void Navyn were giving them to wear. Today it appeared to be sweat pants resting just below the base of their tails, and two of the oddest shirts she had ever seen.
The female, which to Rhidi’s ever growing annoyance, was barely fitting in her shirt due to her breasts, and appeared to have been given a bra on loan as well. Her shirt read sothing to the effect of “won fear , fish want , n avert their eyes”, which was more than likely so ancient dredged up from the annals of history.
The male was wearing so magical girl shirt, which all appeared to be sailors of so kind and wearing skirts that would certainly allow for freedom of movent on board a ship.
The littler, goblinoid Lup’Hora was wearing her own pair of better-fitting sweatpants and a shirt that Rhidi had frankly never seen before, sothing that apparently involved a sentient box of fries with a beard, a milkshake with eyes, and the oddest little ball of at she had ever seen.
“Goot’ mornink’!” The smaller one cried out, waving both of her hands. “We learn’ded!”
Rhidi put on a polite smile; She still had a deep well of disgust for these three, a kind of ill contempt that she was surprised she harbored for an enemy that gave up in front of her.
At least the Doch had the balls to fight to the death.
“Well done.” Rhidi replied, pulling out her chair and sitting down in it with a swish of her tail. “Do you rember the rules?”
“Remain’ded po’lite.” The male said, bowing his head forward.
“Or else turrets make… us dead’ded!” The female said, bowing forward as well.
Rhidi glowered at her.
Or a part of her, anyway.
She looked up into the corners of the small room, the barrels of the blister turrets pointing straight at the seats of the prisoners. These rooms were barely big enough for five people, fitted with an observation room along one wall with one-way glass on one of the two short walls, two long walls, and the last short wall with the door.
The deck was raw, steel plating, and Rhidi was glad she was wearing her warm station socks.
“You learned English quite quickly.” Rhidi said, lacing her fingers together as she rested her hands on the bare steel tabletop. As always, there would be Humans sitting on the other side of the window, taking notes, and this was her sign for them to begin. “That is quite clever of you.”
“Language isn’t not’ded hard to learn’ded.” The shorter Lup’Hora said with a wave of her hand. “Give’ded two more wehks’, and I will have’ded master’ded it more.”
The two opossum Lup’Hora shared a glance, then the male nodded his head. “We are’have find’ded the words’n… hard, to get’ded use’ded to.”
Rhidi smiled to herself; Any race with an elongated mouth had a hard ti getting used to forming the words of Human English, but that was always overco with practice.
“Well, I’m sure you’ll have it down in no ti.” Rhidi said politely, then rembered back to what they had first spoken about via drawings and pantomiming. “Are you able to tell where you are from? Or what you are?”
“Yes!” The shorter one said with a bright smile, her yellow skin flush with happiness. “We are’ded Lup’Hora!”
“You are both, Lup’Hora?” Rhidi asked, confused.
She nodded again. “Yes! I am’ded… ah… Lup’Hora Delga.”
She gestured to her yellow skin, her ears, and then her face before pointing a finger to the two people beside her. “They’ded Lup’Hora Moludo, bigger and’ded fluffy Lup’Hora.”
Rhidi glanced up at a spot on the wall behind the two where a small hidden screen was, reading the question that those behind the glass wanted to know.
“And you two share the sa planet?” Rhidi asked.
“Yes!” The taller female Moludo Lup’Hora said, who was frankly having a terribly hard ti trying to figure out why Rhidi kept scowling at her after her eyes would flick to her chest. “We share’ded sa planet, sa lands’uh.”
“Split’ded… ehm… domination’aded peoples.” The male Moludo said, holding up two fingers side by side. “One for’ded high grass’ded place, one for’ded low.”
Rhidi glanced up, then down. “What are your nas?”
“Ti'week!” The Delga Lup’Hora chirped, placing the tips of her fingers to her ears and her blue lips never stopping their smile. “I ‘yam Ti'week, mastur’ engineerum’!”
The male nodded his head slightly again. “Horpin.”
“Pintrist.” The female said, smiling past her very long canines.
“I am Rhidi.” Rhidi said, bowing her own head forward with raised ears. “Nice to et you.”
The three gave a happy waggle of their shoulders, as if they were shimmying, then laughed to each other.
Another question appeared on the wall, and Rhidi glanced at it.
“What did you just do?” Rhidi asked.
Ti'week raised her brown eyebrows up with pursed, blue lips, but as Rhidi pointed to her shoulders, she laughed again. “Oh! We do’ded shoulder movent when ah… happy? Or uh… celebrat’ded!”
Must be like how Humans clap their hands together, or how Pwah wiggle their fingers at each other. Rhidi thought to herself, then returned to the now. “What were you celebrating?”
“We made’ded first Human greet!” Pintrist giggled out with another shimmy of her shoulders. “We work’ded on it!”
Rhidi felt like sinking her knuckles into the Moludo’s fat, pink nose, and it must have read across her eyes as Pintrist’s ears trembled for a mont, and she stopped moving.
“I have questions from my command.” Rhidi said, having glanced at the wall again before putting her eyes on the preferred target of Ti'week. “They want to know why you attacked the station.”
This content has been misappropriated from ; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Ti’week’s smile faltered for the first ti, with Horpin and Pintrist both looking down at the smaller Lup’Hora Delga. Ti’week’s amber eyes looked down at her hands, the finger tips fidgeting against each other as she sought the words she wanted in her known vocabulary.
“It is’ded… compli’cated.” Ti’week murmured, shifting back and forth on her seat with little scoots.
Rhidi blinked at her, her face impassive as she lightly tapped her padded thumbs together.
Ti’week quickly understood that nothing else was coming from Rhidi, and that she was waiting for an actual answer, so her ears gave a twitch as she changed gears.
“We were… run’ded.” Ti’week finally said, leaning forward a few inches at the waist. “Took’ded sothink’ so we could’ded get away.”
Rhidi’s eyes flicked up, then down as her tail swayed behind her. “What did you steal, and who were you running away from?”
“We took’ded… uh… punch de’vice.” Ti’week said, lightly punching a closed fist into her other open hand. “Allow’ded us to move place to place. We place’ded it on a… small ship, allow’ded us to punch from place to place. We find’ded station and… we des’perate.”
Rhidi furrowed her brows.
Normally, refugees were not so highly ard or technologically advanced, especially if running from soone.
“And who were you running from?” Rhidi asked, her ears perked.
Ti’week swallowed, the thoughts behind her amber eyes seeming to go sowhere else for a few monts before they ca back into the focus of the now.
“Doch.” Ti’week said quietly. “Doch take’ded planet, start’ded stealink’ Moludo and Delga. Many of us stole’ded puncher, run.”
If Rhidi had not caught herself, she would have let out the most world weary sigh in the stars.
It explained why they had given up as early as they could, and why they were being so polite now that they had been taken prisoner on an even keel.
They were refugees.
Refugees that were ard to the teeth, but refugees none the less.
Rhidi had been wondering why a fleet research ship had shown up, the hull so hot from rapidly skipping that the tal looked like it was made of water, but it must have been for their little “punch” device.
Rhidi sat back in her chair with an exhale, looked at the words that ca across the hidden screen, then back down at the three in front of her. “You are refugees.”
Horpin nodded. “Ref’yewgees.”
“We didn’ded want to get… stole’ded like the others.” Pintrist murmured, hanging her head a little. “We run’ded fast as we coul’ded, take’ded our armor, our weap’uns… our people.”
“There are’ded… maybe two and’ded’a mill’yun of us.” Ti’week said, standing up and gesturing to the wall that she knew a map could be projected on. “I’ken show!”
Without Rhidi’s prompting, the previously marked map ca up onto a portion of the long wall behind the three, the shorter Ti’week standing up and pointing up at multiple planets.
“We fan’ded out, big spray.” Ti’week said, gesturing with her splayed hands. “We smallest of them, others’n bigger. I can tell’ded them to stop, to go certain’ded places.”
Rhidi looked at the glass, and words appeared there as well.
“You can send out a mass signal to tell your people to congregate in a singular place?” Rhidi asked, now a little annoyed that she couldn’t be as mad at these people anymore. She could, as they had killed a few of her fellow Droppers, but people will do things like that when they are trying to avoid being pinned into a corner.
Ti’week looked back at Rhidi, her eyebrows raised since she did not understand the big word she had spoken.
“Gather.” Rhidi corrected herself, making such movents with her arms as if herding the air towards herself. “Gather them sowhere.”
Ti’week smiled happily and nodded, waving her hands to the map. “Yes! Yes I can’ded gather, just’ded say where!”
—
“My, they just let anyone on this battleship now, don’t they?” Miss La teased, bringing her coffee to her lips. She felt quite at ho in the little cafe, and was happily warm thanks to her insulated leggings and the long sleeve, wool sweater that Bloodmourne had gotten her.
Radishow grumped out a laugh, already on his third coffee and sitting as far away as Miss La would allow so he didn’t have to sll her cheesecake. He had brought his usual clothes with him, darker shades of pants, boots, and shirts that allowed him to blend in anywhere despite his pink hair.
“They nearly tore that ship apart getting here, didn’t stop skipping until all the warning lights were on and the klaxons screaming. I don’t think we Pwah can get gray hairs, but those Humans did their best to make them appear…” Radishow muttered, still rembering how hard he had been white knuckling his jumpseat.
“Are you sure you don’t want a slice of cheesecake?” Miss La asked, placing a cutting of it into her mouth and cleaning off the spoon with a pop of her lips. “The Moose is actually rather well known for their little bakery on here! I think they have cows hidden sowhere…”
Radishow grimaced, only barely handling the sll of the stuff, let alone imagining the taste of it. “No, I will stick with my coffee and sugar, thank you. Have you heard about what Rhidi found out from her little friends onboard the Wild Hunt?”
“I would hardly call prisoners-turned-refugees ‘friends’, Rhidi butchered a fair number of them.” Miss La said with a sigh, having watched all of the recordings that were getting spread around the internet like wildfire. “No one could have known, really. They fired first without knowing just who or what they were firing on.”
Radishow raised his eyebrows up in a shrug as he sipped from his mug of steaming coffee.
That was always an issue when soone ca in from outside the IDC; So children of the stars see the planets as theirs for the taking, and only the strongest survives. This way of life did not last long with the Pwah, Lilgara, Kojynn, or the Kafya, but least of all with the Humans.
It had only been a few months since a small, fledging pirate faction had attacked a Drafritti planet, and the Human Void Navy was still collecting the scrap of the pirate’s ruined fleets for recycling.
A small race, sared from the stars in the matter of a single afternoon.
“They did the smart thing by surrendering, if you ask .” Radishow murmured, looking back towards the kitchen and wondering where his pasta was. “The Humans would have clear cut them like brushwood if they had continued fighting. They’ll catch so flack for surrendering as quickly as they did, but they were refugees more than invaders.”
Miss La nodded in agreent as she took another bite of her cheesecake. It still struck her as funny how her chair was nearly three tis the size of Radishow’s in width and construction, as the Pwah could use the normal chairs while she could not.
Technically it was more of a bench than a chair, but needs must.
“You knew you were going to have to wait longer than the others.” Miss La chided at the Pwah, as he kept looking over his shoulder towards the kitchen’s swing doors. “A Pwah ordering pasta and not wanting cheese anywhere near their food is going to be an absolute headache.”
“I still don’t understand how you people eat that polfrotta.” Radishow said with a grimace, the very thought of it turning his stomach. “Rotten milk, that’s all it is. How can a race that created such a divine treat as ice cream also manage to craft the most horrible substance known to Pwah kind…”
“The Pwah soldiers in the UAA don’t seem to mind it much.” Miss La said with a teasing tone.
Radishow actually bared his teeth with how hard he snarled at the thought. “Yes, we know. I don’t know what kind of brainwashing the Humans are using to get that effect out of them, but I would reckon the Kafya would pay top dollar for it. Probably that miasmir your lot keep going on about.”
Miss La laughed so hard that she covered her draconic nose and mouth, which also caused Radishow to start chuckling as well.
Both of them knew full well that the Kafya were no strangers to brainwashing, going as far as to chemically douse their own citizenry with inhibitors in their food, and to also keep in policy an extrely strict social ranking system based on color of all things.
A Human waitress ca towards the table, holding both Radishow’s vanilla milkshake and his pasta bolognese.
Without any cheese.
“Mr. Radishow.” She said politely, all gleaming white teeth and freckles as she placed the bowl in front of the Pwah, then his shake. “No cheese, as requested. We even changed out the knives to make sure.”
Radishow let out a happy sigh as he breathed in the comforting aroma of slow cooked marinara and Italian sausage, as well as the coil of noodles that lay in the bowl.
“Thank you, Rebecca.” Radishow said, then smiled as the Human wiggled her fingers at him. He wiggled them back at her with a chuckle as he watched her walk away, then picked up his fork. “Amazing creatures, Humans.”
Miss La raised a brow. “For their cooking, or from you watching her walk away?”
“Can it not be both?” Radishow responded aloofly, twirling his pasta around on his fork. “And I am still mad at you, by the way.”
Miss La rolled her eyes, then smiled at Rebecca as she ca by with a fresh pot of tea for the blue scaled Skalathir. When the Human had walked away, she poured herself a new cup while leveling her eyes at the Pwah in front of her. “I will not apologize for finding a match to the space my heart required, even if that ans you not getting to go to Italy.”
“A few days in Benning, and then zoom, off to taste the finest dishes in the Human Boot.” Radishow said airily, then took a bite of his pasta with a good amount of slurping and throat noises. He chewed happily for a mont, then closed his eyes with a sigh.
Miss La smiled at the man, tossing a few sugar cubes into her rather large cup.
Radishow was like most Pwah, though he had a far stronger spine for the change he wanted to see. Having languished under the rule of his planet’s royal family as a scribe, he broke loose of the shackles and smuggled himself on board a Human trading vessel, working in their accounting office for passage to Earth.
He was odd for a scribe, his bright pink hair and equally pink eyes usually denoting him of higher birth status, but he seed to find no love for the kin like him. His ti on board the trading vessel had given his pale skin a few nicks and dings, and he kept them covered with long sleeves most of the ti.
Like every other Pwah Miss La had t, they had a love of Human food and fashion, though the horror of cheese, yogurt, and other “old” dairy products were still nose-assaulting boogyn.
If anything Radishow was on the more extre side of the scale, and had always made a point to ask how fresh dairy products were before buying or eating them.
“Are you sure you could have made it in the land of parsan cheese? I once read the Italians had a special kind of cheese with maggots in it…” Miss La mused, watching the Pwah closely.
Radishow’s eyes flicked open with hatred, and he pointed his sauced fork at her. “Don’t you dare, not while I am eating Lathway!”
“Oh my, first nas? I must have touched a nerve…” Miss La snickered while Radishow rolled his eyes, taking a sip of his milkshake. “Did you know that the Kojynn are now the biggest importers of bananas? The Humans gave up on the shipping costs and are building a station around one of their planets purpose-bound to purely grow the things.”
“No different than the Drafritti with tofu, or the Lilgara and their obsession with silk moth larvae.” Radishow said, twirling a new helping of pasta around his fork. “What I find more interesting is how Humans need to have food of their own Earth to stay healthy. You read that report right?”
Miss La nodded. “The ‘grub trials’, as they were called. Humans lost both bone density and muscle mass after trying to subsist on food of other cultures, with only the Skalathir diet giving them so source of actual sustenance. Bit of an odd one that…”
“You an because they were drinking Skalathir breast milk in order to keep their calcium up, or because the Skalathir were shocked that there was an actual market for it?” Radishow said absentmindedly before cleaning his fork of pasta.
Miss La let out a nervous titter of laughter, more so that she hoped Radishow would never find out that Bloodmourne had also read the report without her knowing and it had raised a few interesting questions in their relationship. “Well, you know, Humans were surprised that, despite we Skalathir and the Lilgara being one of scale and tail, we nurse our young.”
“It’s one of the founding principles of an advanced society, or a theory on it anyway.” Radishow chid in, too enthralled in his pasta to notice that Miss La was fighting to get the blush out of her cheeks. “Those who nourish their young on their own life forces are destined to rule, with the only exception being the insectoid races we co across from ti to ti.”
Miss La, happy for a change in subject, snapped her draconic fingers. “Right! Have you read about the changes in the Ichiti and the Morloli? They advanced again!”
“I heard, they’re cocooning again and this ti taking the Morloli with them for their next ‘evolution’. I have never heard of a species undergoing such a radical change twice, and it is rather fascinating that they can do it at will.” Radishow said, humming to himself as he took a sip of his shake. “According to their little… leaders? Priests? What are they?”
“I believe they are a theocracy, so priests may be the best title.” Miss La replied.
“Whatever they are, they foresaw a ‘needed change for the conflict ahead’, and have had their entire surviving race form into a grand cocooning under the watch of Human, Pwah and Kojynn soldiers.” Radishow said, though his face darkened. “This is not the first ti we have run across a race of people that have been able to read the stars, and the Ur took them out first for a reason.”
Miss La’s own face was one of mixed emotions, rembering the butchering of Thomun’s Children. “Yes, the Ur’s doing…”
“You still believe it was the Kafyan Elder Councils that lead to their demise?” Radishow asked, looking up from his pasta.
“I believe many things were the doing of the Elder Councils.” Miss La said darkly, her mood swinging into raw hatred as she sipped her tea. “The sa reason why I think we are starting to zero in on why they have been attempting to eradicate certain white furs.”
Radishow took a long drink of his milkshake, then set the glass down with a frustrated sigh. “I never would have imagined they would have gone for her on Earthen soil, let alone on a military installation. You said our little friends tracked the ship all the way to Kafya Mintulcurr? Truly?”
“Skooma went through every cara he could get his hands on, and we have a direct flight path. He even managed to get ahold of a picture of the ship on the ground getting loaded.” Miss La replied, setting down her tea cup. “The Humans tend to not send delegates to negotiations with soone whom they perceive is an active threat…”
“They send Liaisons, yes, I heard.” Radishow said, resting his chin on the backs of his hands as he propped his elbows onto the table. “Nasty bit that, ans they were expecting a fight. My insider let know what happened.”
Miss La blinked in surprise. “Soone leaked what happened during the eting? That is extrely dangerous…”
Radishow chuckled. “Yes, well, she does enjoy the drama of it all. The Humans were about to expose the Kafya directly when they imdiately agreed to all requests for compensation, including those three planets. I assu Lirya is already getting things ready for her parents?”
“As soon as they can legally leave, yes. She’s already found a ho for them in Georgia, but I suspect the UAA Army will want them on base in case they are attacked again.” Miss La said, rembering how excited the AIs were at sharing that news only last night. “It is going to be more than a few weeks, but that little planet is going to beco a rather busy place.”
“Being on the fringe of Kafya space allows it to be an extrely important trading hub.” Radishow said matter of factly. “Humans are going to be quite busy this star-year, it seems.”
Miss La nodded in agreent. “Between the Ichiti, their acquisition of these new planets, the refugees, the threat of a looming conflict, and now the fact they know a mber of the IDC attempted to commit a genocide linked cri and a revenge killing on their planet… very busy indeed.”
Radishow huffed out a laugh, polished off the rest of his pasta, then leaned back in his chair. “So, what should we discuss first?”
Miss La looked around the room; Rebecca had been more than happy to give them a quiet, secluded part of the cafe, and Sparkle Otter had confird that the cafe itself was a dead area as far as surveillance went.
“What do you think is going to happen with the Kafya?” Miss La asked, that old, cold spark of hatred glowing to life in her heart.
Radishow wrinkled his nose as he leaned forward on his elbows again. “They are going to be very quiet, if I had to wager. They nearly got ousted from the IDC with their little shadow war against themselves, and it would be catastrophic if the Humans turned their eye of war against them. The Kafya are the most nurous, but they would collapse under an open war with only them on their side.”
“I heard the Blackmoons are leaving in mass to land on Endrohoya, as are a lot of other Kuwai who want to be amongst their people again. You know that is going to piss off the Elder Councils.”
“It will, but they aren’t stupid enough to try and do anything about it. If they try and attack that planet, the Humans would declare open war to protect their assets. The Kojynn and Pwah would join the war just to stab their finger into the eyes of the Elder Councils for once.”
Miss La thought on this, as she hoped that if such a war ever happened, that the Skalathir would once again don their war armor and stride onto the battlefield for their revenge.
“What do you think is going to happen to Lirya?” Radishow asked, snapping the Skalatir from her inner thoughts.
Miss La blinked to herself, trying to rember what Sparkle Otter and Oballin had told her, then raised a clawed finger. “I believe she has been… incensed? If that is the right word for it. Rhidi’s little sister is headlining her social dia campaign and Tyllia is studying what we could recover of the ancient Kafya religion from that data-cache.”
“The one that the Kojynn smuggled out?” Radishow asked.
“Yes, the very one.” Miss La answered, taking a quick sip of her tea before going on. “I believe that if we can use her, as well as these three planets being given to the Humans, to rally so of the fringe-world Kafya, we could start a proper movent within the Kafya themselves.”
Radishow breathed in deeply as he thought, looking sideways as he began exhaling air slowly from his nose. He then looked at Miss La, his eyes bright with mischief. “You believe that Lirya can do what the data-cache says that her people can? Read minds? Influence the other castes of the Kafya?”
“I believe she is already doing it without she herself knowing she is.” Miss La said, then took a mont to go over if the sentence was grammatically correct in her head. Deciding to not ponder it too long, she continued on while setting down her cup. “Tyllia, Rhidi’s sister you see, I don’t think she would have ever rubbed elbows with a white fur, let alone a brown fur from a clan that has been ‘othered’. But now she is basically good friends with Lirya and appears to want to stay by her side by ans that I personally cannot fathom. Sparkle Otter says that she has seen Tyllia playing card gas with Lirya, doing laundry together, even allowing the white fur to stick a spoon in her mouth!”
“... Why did she stick a spoon in her mouth?” Radishow asked, confused.
Miss La waved her free hand. “Lirya was trying to make a stew and wanted Tyllia to try it, but you see that is magical in and of itself! I cannot think of a single yellow fur within the core planet system that would allow a white fur to do that to them.”
“Isn’t that more due to Kohan? The man may as well have been the spearhead of alternative Kafyan thinking.” Radishow asked, then took another long draw of his shake.
“No, no I don’t think so, not with Tyllia anyway.” Miss La said, taking a long sip of her tea before setting it back down onto the table top. “Rhidi was more open minded by far, but Tyllia was well into the grips of her mother. Watching Lirya slowly change Tyllia day by day gave hope that Lirya was a remnant of one of the ancient houses that the data-cache spoke of, but I think the reaction by the Elder Councils more or less clinches it.”
Radishow slowly slurped on the straw of his shake, then shrugged before setting the cup down. “I’ll swing back by Earth the next chance I get and see her myself, maybe I can see sothing first hand that will allow us to get more funding from our patron assembly. After I see her, and if my findings concur with yours, we can submit sothing to the heads.”
“That sounds like a plan.” Miss La agreed, resting her own draconic chin on the back of her hand, elbow propped on the table. “What do you think is going to happen after the Humans gather up all of these ‘Lup’Hora’ refugees?”
“How do you know that is going to happen?” Radishow asked, tilting his head forward at the Skalathir. “Rhidi just went into that room with them only an hour-... is Sparkle Otter in there?”
Miss La giggled. “No, no, unfortunately only Whirler could make it into the room and is currently spying on them via one of the blister turrets in the corner. They were running from the Doch, which tells us more than we need to know, and it seems that the Humans are using Rhidi to get information on the locations of the other refugee splinters.”
“Why do they only want to speak to Rhidi anyway?” Radishow asked, twirling the straw in his shake to break up the clumps of ice cream.
Miss La shrugged. “I still don’t know the answer to that one, but those three she’s in the room with seem to like her for whatever reason.”
“She tried to kill them. Hell, she nearly succeeded until the little yellow one sent them flying across the floor and into that floor duct. That recording is hovering at four hundred billion views… and Humans keep putting bowling pin noises in the background…”
“I never said it made sense, but maybe it has sothing to do with their culture.” Miss La said with a sniff, Whirler still chattering away in her inner-ear piece. “But it seems like the Humans are going to gather them up for whatever reason… you know Humans, they tend to collect races like pets and dote over the more stricken ones.”
Radishow humd over the thought, then held up a finger. “It may actually have sothing to do with the ring initiative that I have been trying to pin down.”
“What is this ‘ring initiative’ I keep hearing about?” Miss La asked, leaning forward at the waist.
“Ah, you are going to get a real kick out of this.” Radishow said with an air of excitent, leaning forward as well. “That’s why that ship was burning the lining off of their panels to get here as fast as they could! That little nugget of technology those refugees stole? It’s the key they were missing to the machine they ripped out of XJ-1!”
“So they did extract sothing from XJ-1?” Miss La asked, lowering her tone to a whisper. “No one has heard a peep of that, even the AIs that worked in the mission have sworn secrecy protocols. Is it what we all thought it was?”
Radishow nodded. “My spy network tracked it back to Earth and have been sighting it due to its heat signature, damn thing is so far underground that it looks like a red hot pinpoint due to the heat exchanger vents.”
“Where are they keeping it?” Miss La asked.
“It’s underneath a fake wheat field in Nebraska.” Radishow whispered, leaning forward a little more. “Sparkle Otter managed to get a peek at it, right?”
“Not much of one.” Miss La sighed out in frustration. “Only got her eyes on it for three seconds before she got pre-alerted and collapsed that rendition of herself to avoid getting trapped in their security systems. It’s running, as in the Drafritti got the damned thing working, but they can’t use it.”
Radishow held up a finger. “Not until now, that is. I think they got the key from the refugee’s little drone ship, and if they find more of the refugees, they are going to possibly have more keys to play with.”
“How the hell does that work? That many people can’t fit in a drone, Radishow.” Miss La said with furrowed brows, leaning forward more as Radishow gestured to her with a beckoning finger, his mouth parted with a devious, vanilla scented smile.
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