by M. Garnet
"Your individuals fight all of the time. That is what interests you?" I looked at him closely to see how he reacted to my question.
He was again looking at my hair as if he wanted to reach out and touch it. He spoke through my neckpiece so there was no emotion to read in the sound from that unit.
"Yes, we fight. That is the stuff of life. Our forefathers have always fought and they showed us the way to be strong and to survive and to conquer so that others could not conquer us."
I had an idea as I was getting information. I took some of my hair from behind my back and ran my fingers through it. Then I reached out and laid it over his closed fist. He froze, just looking at my hair over his dark skin. That was when I realized it was the first time I had seen his hands without gloves.
His skin was so smooth it almost looked like the rubber of the suit he wore. It had to do with his genes. This close I could look up at his face, the skin around the eyes and the nose and mouth. It was the same skin as I saw on the big sea animals within the oceans of GigasVnee.
"Where is your home world, Nim?"
At last, he turned away from me. "Who knows? We have traveled for generations, fighting and conquering. We do not stay on any world. We do not want a home world. We are warriors and fighters. It is what we do."
He was starting out of my cell through the small opening. "I have darkened the outside so others will not watch you."
I was getting used to the words coming from my neck as he spoke from a distance.
"Wait Nim. Have you never lived on a planet?"
He stopped then turned and before I could move he had his hand around the back of my neck and was pulling me forward. His long legs took us fast out of my cell and down the hallway.
I couldn't turn my head from the harsh grip he had at the back of my neck, but I look everywhere my eyes could move. We were going in a different direction than the one he had used to take me to my cell originally.
Everyone got out of his way, but I heard a few greetings that he did not return. All the voices sounded the same through my neck translator. We entered an elevator and he finally released his hold. I stepped back and looked around. There was nothing to see as the lift was enclosed.
We went up until I had to swallow to clear my ears and then the lift went sideways. This lift was able to travel in any direction on this large ship. I thought about this as we moved along. I guess if these beings had lived in space all their lives, their main ships might be as large as small asteroids.
At last, the movement stopped. I was surprised and pleased that Nim did not reach for me again. He did step out and with his back to me, he was staring straight ahead.
What I saw at first, as I left the elevator, was a pale blue rippling effect on a wall ahead of us. It took me a full breath to realize it was not a wall, but a clear enclosure looking into the water. I walked up past Nim and put my hands on the barrier.
I had no idea how large the container might be. From my angle, I could not see the top of the water and I wasn't sure I was seeing the bottom. Then some small fish-like animals moved by in a group. I was looking at an aquarium built into this ship. Looking downward, I saw the sway of sea grass, thin and long and within the strange blue it did look like my hair. Fate was a strange mistress.
Then in a blur that became clearer as the swimmer came closer, I saw one of the males of Nim's breed also swimming in the deep water. He must have seen us because he turned easily in the water and slid through the water with grace to approach our side of the tank.
He was elegant and strong and in complete control of his environment. As he approached, I noticed several things about this swimmer. He was using his gills. I could see them moving with the water going in and out. He was also naked. He had long toes with webs between them.
As for being a male, it was obvious. He had a double penis, a large one in front and a long thin one behind his testicles. I removed my eyes from his male organs but did see the dimple in his stomach that told me his mother had carried and given him live birth.
The swimmer raised a hand before kicking away with his amazing feet. It was at this moment that sirens began to scream. The light in the water in front of me darkened and the lights in the hallways turned a pale red.
Nim let out two of the deep sounds that bounced off everything and I think carried throughout the ship. He then sent out a shorter one.
The last noise brought two males running to us. Nim handed me over to them and he was gone. For me, I was pushed and dragged to the moving elevator and soon pushed into a small room. It wasn't a cell; it was a small serviceable cabin.
Still, it was a cell for me as the door was closed and I couldn't open it. I was locked inside as the distant sirens wailed and in this cabin the light was a soft red one blinking above the locked door.
Among the individuals and beings on all the different worlds of our sector of the universe, a bright red light seemed to warn of danger. I had to wonder what colors registered within the large black eyes of these beings who seemed to be from amphibians?
The flickering light was giving me a headache. I wondered if the red light would give me a spasm. I went over to the bunk that had neat covers and, after pulling one free, I sat back against the wall on the bunk. I pulled the cover over my head and put my head against my knees which I had drawn up.
I don't know how long I sat there in my blanket cocoon, but at last, I understood that the sirens’ noise had stopped. I lifted a corner of the blanket and the room was in a soft white light tinged with blue.
I stretched out my legs, wondering if the emergency was over. My stomach growled reminding me that I had not had anything to eat since the little monster with fingers had plucked me off my storm planet. I got up and soon found a small room that served to cleanse a body. The tap served water so I cupped my hands and drank. I knew a person could live a long time without food if they had water.
I went back to sit and wait. I decided someone would come for me eventually. I doubted that they would just lose a prisoner on this ship, no matter how big it might extend into space.
I was right, as the door clicked and then slid open with two males entering.
"We go now." I was grabbed and we were out of the room with my feet hardly touching the floor. The two tall males had me between them as we moved down the hallway with their long strides. At their speed we were soon at one of the moving lifts and they didn't let go of me.
They didn't even speak to each other as the elevator mover went down and down and then sideways until finally there was a firm stop. Now the males let me loose enough to walk between them along a railing that overlooked the original landing area that I had seen than I was first on board.
Chapter Twenty-Six
I had the perfect viewpoint for exactly what I didn't want to see. This was what I had first thought was my plan, but now I didn't want to see it work.
Below were hordes of the dark clad troops from the breed that traveled on this ship. They were all armed and created a circle of anger around a floating green bubble that held my husband, the King of GigasVnee.
Suspended in his green glow, Quilliam was talking to Nim in their own language, a sonar screech that shuddered through my body. Nim was almost opposite me on a distant balcony, overlooking the same scene and giving orders to his troops.
My interpreter on my neck was throwing words into my ears that didn't make any sense as they overlapped and mixed with all the individuals speaking at once. At last, Nim shut all of his people down and amazingly, he literally jumped from balcony to balcony until he was on the main floor.
Now I could hear Nim speaking.
"We don't give back hostages; we take them with us as we move forward."
The green bubble shifted toward Nim. The multitude of armed troops on the landing field moved to keep the green apparition always surrounded.
I heard the King speak, sounding no different from Nim in my neckpiece.
"Perhaps it is time to move in a differ
ent direction."
"You know nothing in your green bubble. We are the fighters."
There was silence for a moment then an answer. "No, you are not fighters, you are destroyers. You seek the ultimate fight where you will be destroyed."
Nim roared his strange sound and I felt the floor under my balcony quiver.
"Green blister, we will always win. It is the way it has always been and it is the way it will always be."
There was a larger tremble as the crowd joined Nim in his sonar roar. I wondered what this ship was held together with, maybe flexible bolts.
I could see Quilliam raise a hand, "And when you conquer the last world and there are no others? Will you commit suicide?"
I watched Nim look around at his troops. "Are you crazy green male? There are always new worlds to conquer. There have always been worlds and there will always be new ones. It is the way of the universe."
Now Quilliam drifted closer to Nim and it was like watching sand flow, as all the troops shifted to keep a circle around the green floating cloud with the King in the middle. There were hundreds of armed personnel on that floor pointing their weapons and moving with Quilliam and Nim. The movement coordinated with Nim moving back a step or two as Quilliam levitated across the floor.
I watched this strange action between my two guardians as all three of us hung onto the railing of our high viewpoint. Something was bothering me about all of this action. Why was Nim, the Leader of the fighters, backing up? I looked around beyond the large group of fighters and just saw more arriving with weapons pointing.
I looked over at every railing that was showing in this wide area and saw only a few persons looking down as we were, hands on the railings. I looked at the many chains and hooks hanging down, but none was close enough to be any danger. At last, my eyes looked up at the distant ceiling.
That was the area that we had come from. What was up there? I had my answer, as my eyes were still moving. A solid wall of water came down and didn't seem to have any end. Nim meant to drown Quilliam as Nim and all his troops just swam away. I would guess that they had some way to reclaim the water. It was something they had and they used it now.
Being water individuals, even in the emptiness of space, water was a tool and a weapon as well as a relaxing dwelling place. I screamed even knowing no one was going to hear me over the roar of thousands of tons of water dumping down from above. It hit the metal floor causing the whole landing area to vibrate. Anything that was not strapped or bolted down was pushed. It was like watching a large flood pour over the landing area, picking and driving machinery, tools, and beings.
Immediately in front of us was just the fall of blue water, endlessly pouring down where Nim and the King had been, hidden under the torrent. I had to breathe and the air tasted like water as the moisture from the dumping of the holding tanks was wafting throughout the enormous landing terminus.
As my scream was muffled, I knew that if anyone else cried out, it was also covered by the noise of that waterfall filling the area where two fighters from different worlds were lost from sight.
At last, the doors in the ceiling began to slide together, choking off the water, making it a smaller and smaller surge. Evidently there was still water being trapped above as those giant metal doors slowly drew together until there were only the heavy drops of whatever was caught on the metal bars of the grids.
I became aware that I was boxed in with a great many others that had drawn to the edge to see the unusual display. Looking around it was easy to see the dumping of that much water was something that drew everyone's attention. All the rows of railings, above and below were full of beings, many leaning over the railings.
I leaned out to stare down. The water was turgid at the bottom, swirling and still responding back to itself at the center. At last, as it spread out smooth, letting the waves and damage move from the nucleus, a couple of amphibian type of bodies raised up, waving their arms over their heads. One of them was Nim.
A loud cheer of the sonar sound came from the many who leaned on the railings. It didn't translate in my neckpiece, but it did race through my body, making every muscle tighten. Then there was a silence that stretched throughout the entire area of the landing sight except for some rattling of machinery settling.
Coming up out of the water, with the green protective layer distributed differently, like a suit, rose Quilliam. The King rose slowly until he was above the waves and small teardrops left the bottom of his form to hit the pool below.
"You live." It was Nim and the words were a sound my ears could not hear but my translator told me what he said.
Enclosed in the form-fitting green glow, Quilliam raised a hand again. "Your breed is not the only one born of a water world."
The silence was as loud as the waterfall had been earlier. I began to understand what all these many hundreds around me couldn't. In all the generations of traveling and fighting and conquering, this amphibian breed had never met another race that had all the water they wanted.
Water was rare, but in this sector of the universe, it was in some trace on any planet that produced intelligent beings. There were even a very few systems that had an abundance of water. Every scientist proposed that the mammal crawled from the water on a planet to eventually stand and be inventive, at least in our sector of the universe.
But I thought about the history of these fighters. I didn't think they crawled far from the water. I couldn't think of a single animal in our different worlds that held water for their homes that fought each other. There were dangerous water animals, but they were only dangerous to others, not to their own breed.
I could not imagine how this breed of fighters developed on a water world somewhere in the vast unknown universe. I think I will never understand who or what creates all of this and what they leave to just luck.
At last, Nim waded through waist-high water to approach the green glowing figure. "What are you?"
There was a sound like thunder and I felt the entire ship shake or move. I knew this happened because the individuals around me began to grab onto something: the railing, the walls, and even each other. A flash of white light that almost hurt the eyes bloomed across the landing area, reflected off the water.
"We can answer that question." Two voices spoke as one. There were two flares, almost like seeing two tiny stars that had fallen into the ship without damaging anything or anyone. The two voices continued to talk in synchronize sounds. I heard the voices in my ears, but I also heard the strange sonar sounds in my translator on my neck. I had a feeling that no matter what language anyone on this ship spoke, they would understand what these two bright celestial bodies were speaking.
"This green glowing beautiful male child is our son."
By this time, I realized that a portion of the individuals in this area was down on their knees.
"We wish to tell you a story before we decide rather we are going to destroy you. Life invents itself due to the creator allowing it. There seems to be a major pot that is there for life to evolve and from there it can go many ways. The pot is water, a little or a lot. Life will crawl out of it. Then life has a choice. It can remain on land and become mammals. It can crawl back into the water and become aquatic. There is always a cross over as intelligence grows and land mammals develop ways to travel the water. Paraphyletic groups with gills find ways to travel the land as their intelligence develops."
There was silence as the two heavenly lights spoke, the sounds resonating around the walls. The lights pulsed and suddenly all the water was just gone. More than that, the floor and walls were dry, no little puddles or drips to be seen anywhere.
There was a large wail to be heard throughout the floor and the railings, as the amphibians saw their life source disappear.
The two-star points settled down and began to talk again, in their duplex speech.
"Most of the intelligent mammals can live with very little moisture, but intelligent aquatics will always require a lot of liquid. As a
result, the intelligent mammal can travel further and spread his seed on many planets. He can grow and develop and profit and expand through the universe." There were a pulse and the water all appeared again.
The strange godlike speaking continued. "The intelligent aquatic can't grow and develop and profit and expand. He will always be limited to the size of what he can build to carry his liquid with him and refill from conquered planets, as there is always the loss from all the normal evaporation. Even these great walls you have built are still made of atoms and even smaller particles that allow air and water to slowly leak."
There was the same pulse and the water was gone again.
"So if we remove your prisoners that you misleadingly call hostages, and then send your ship out into the deepness of space beyond the end of the existing spirals of the known universe where there is nothing, what happens? You kill each other and run out of the water. We wonder which happens first."
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I regret the fact that the two fathers left me with no memory of what happened after Nim and his people made a choice.
To make a choice, the two small shining stars kept removing and returning the water to the landing area. The double voice spoke throughout the giant ship.
"We will leave you alone and just take your hostages and release them no matter what you choose. We then will place you beyond any solid objects into deep dark space so that you can fight among yourselves until your water disappears. It will take about two hundred of your lifetimes.
Or we will take you all the way back to your beginning, a planet you destroyed. We will rebuild it for you and place you on it to rebuild your civilization. We will take away all of your modern conveniences, including space travel. You can start over again.
These are your two choices."
The bright points pulsed and the water would disappear and return. It happened over a couple of more times and I realized that the Twinned Dissnue was making a point.
