Iq'her

by Elin Wyn

  “You need to keep up your strength,” he insisted.

  “It doesn’t feel right to eat while others go hungry.”

  “Skrell the others. It’s protecting you that I care about the most.”

  “Still,” I insisted.

  Of course, there were a lot more things that didn’t feel right in this situation either, and one of them was the alien walking in front of me. Even though his true appearance was masked by his holobelt, it was now obvious to me that he had been playing a role all along. His speech was too stilted, and he didn’t understand some of the jargon the guys used; more than that, his behavior contrasted with that of the others. Iq'her was too solemn, and he had something the others were sorely lacking: common sense.

  My thoughts were circling. Hunger, fear, and the situation itself boxed me in at every turn.

  And no matter which angle I came at the problem, I only found one solution. It was hard, but I had to trust Iq'her.

  I had no other choice, really, but I still didn’t feel comfortable with the fact I was betraying my brother. Or that it seemed easier because something about Iq'her made me want to trust him.

  But I was conspiring against my brother with one of the aliens he despised so much. He’d have a stroke if he found out.

  “We’re close now,” Iq'her announced as we entered a small trail, one that I knew snaked through the trees toward the clearing. I followed after him in silence, but my thoughts compensated that by being too damn loud.

  “Why are you doing this?” I desperately needed some more answers, or else I’d go crazy. “My brother attacked the general, and he was causing mayhem in the city. You should be hunting him down and yet… here you are, trying to make sure no one dies.”

  He didn’t say anything for a moment, but I could tell he was trying to think of a reply. Iq'her stopped in his tracks and I almost bumped into him.

  “I know your brother believes that we’re the root of all evil. He thinks we’re using the humans, and that we don’t care about them. But that’s not the truth. We care about you, Stasia, and most of us see it as our duty to protect everyone on this planet.”

  “You’ve been doing a great job,” I said, my words dripping with sarcasm. My life had been a normal one, but things changed the moment their starship fell from the sky. War, hunger, death...things I never thought I’d have to face suddenly became the reality for almost everyone on the planet.

  But something about the way Iq'her said that made think that not only did the aliens care for people, but this particular alien cared about one person -- me.

  “You might not believe it, but it was never our intention to cause your people strife,” Iq'her continued and, for the first time, I saw an inkling of emotion in his expression. And this time I knew exactly what that emotion was: sorrow. “I spent most of my adult life fighting against the Xathi. I saw how they ravaged the galaxy mercilessly, and it pains me to no end to know we were the ones that brought them here. We accept our responsibility in what happened, Stasia, but we can’t change the past.”

  “I know that,” I whispered, my heart beating slightly faster. To hear him speak of war and the Xathi… that was enough to bring back the memories I tried to keep buried. “It’s just...it’s so damn hard. We lost so much, Iq'her.” But hearing his emotion, seeing it? Closer. Deeper. Trusting him was possible. Probable. Even almost comfortable.

  “I know,” he said. “Your family…?”

  “Gone,” I replied, looking away from him. I held my breath, wondering if I should continue, but the words were already leaving my lips before I could filter them. “We had left the city for a day trip to Duvest the day of the first attack on Nyheim. We rushed back when we heard the sirens, but the city was swarming with those things. We tried to hide in a deserted building, but one of the Xathi… it found us.”

  “I’m sorry, Stasia. I truly am.” His hand stroked the small of my back, and I closed my eyes. Memories washed away from me, and the way he touched me made me feel understood, safe.

  “My brother would’ve died if it weren’t for my parents,” I continued, now completely unable to stop the words from coming. I had kept those memories bottled up inside me for too long, and now I had to continue my story to the end… or else the memories would just keep on eating away at my sanity. “They sacrificed themselves so that my brother and I could escape. We saw some Valorni soldiers nearby, and we tried to cry for help… but they just ignored us.”

  “They did?” he asked, shock clear in his voice. His hand pressed tighter against my back and I couldn’t help but lean into the comforting touch.

  “Yeah, they did,” I repeated. “But I’m not sure if they even heard us. They were fighting, shooting… most likely, they didn’t even see us at all. But my brother… he took that as proof that the Vengeance crew didn’t really care about the humans. He used to be different, you know? He was nice, helpful, and kind… but after that day, the only thing in his heart seems to be hate.”

  “I understand.” Reaching across the space between us, Iq’her pulled me against his chest. “It’ll be alright, Stasia, I promise.” In his embrace, I felt close to the breaking point. Tears stung my eyes, but I gritted my teeth and stopped them from coming.

  I wouldn’t be weak.

  I couldn’t be weak.

  “I’m fine,” I said, taking a step back.

  Pushing a lock of hair away from my face, I cleared my throat and tried not to let the whole situation become even more awkward. “Let’s get moving. It’s going to get dark soon.”

  And so we continued, not a word more between us.

  Iq’her

  What little bit of food that Stasia and I had found was gone. Everyone got a small bit, but not enough to satisfy anyone’s hunger. I, despite my own training, was feeling the effects of little to no food, as well. However, I was confident that I was much more able to survive no rations longer than any of these humans.

  So far, nearly the entire group had gone out one time or another to look for food. Some people had brought back things they claimed were edible, then immediately spat out the food or retched after eating it.

  Soon enough the people of the cities would also be hungry. The farmers were already complaining about their crops failing.

  I thought back to my meeting with Rouhr before any of this happened. We had talked about how we were going to need to rely on the food synthesizers before too long, and how they were going to be woefully inadequate for the population of the planet.

  I thought about the synthesizers we had already installed and used within Glymna, Duvest, Einhiv, and Nyheim. They provided food for at least half of each city’s population, but they relied on the minerals and scraps that were put into them to create the food we ate. If there was no natural food to put into the synthesizers, we would soon be eating food pellets.

  They would keep people alive, if only barely, but they had absolutely no flavor and no satisfaction to them. Not to mention that the food pellets would run out eventually. I hoped my estimates were still on the mark. We had less than a year of food left for the entire planet.

  The only hope we had when it came to using the synthesizers would be to finish dismantling the Aurora and use every available piece to create as many synthesizers as possible. That would give us another six months to a year if we remained on strict rationing.

  A lot of people would end up very thin before this was all done.

  “We need to come up with a plan,” Roddik said, surprisingly calm. “We have no food, can’t find any, and we need to figure out what we’re going to do before we start starving to death.”

  There was silence for a few minutes. “Come on!” Roddik yelled, his usual anger returning in force.

  I nearly chuckled as the prospect of Roddik being calm lasted a grand total of three minutes. Must have been a record for him while conscious.

  Some ideas began flowing, and they were all terrible.

  I just wanted that monster away from Stasia. She�
��d been under his tyranny for far too long, and I wished to see her carefree and happy.

  “We could go back to Nyheim and steal a truck,” one suggestion came out. The returning to Nyheim part was a good idea, not the stealing part.

  “There’s a couple of farms nearby,” another one started. “We’ll take their food.”

  Roddik seemed to like that one a bit. “Not bad, but what if they don’t have enough?”

  “Better than what we have now,” that person responded.

  “What if we go join one of the smaller settlements?”

  Everyone turned to stare at me… and I turned to stare at Stasia. It had been she that had suggested it.

  She looked at the group, then turned her attention to her brother. “There’s a few new little settlements thanks to the Xathi attack, and I doubt they have a close connection to Nyheim. They most likely don’t have any information about what we’ve done, so we can probably join up with them.”

  “That’s not bad,” Roddik said. “You’re not completely useless, then.” I wanted to punch him so badly. He turned to the group. “So, what do you all think about that idea? Go join one of the newer places?”

  “What if they don’t like us?” a woman asked.

  “Yeah!” one of the bigger men said. “What if they don’t want us there?”

  Chaos erupted immediately.

  “How do we get food?”

  “Where would we stay?”

  “What if they call those aliens?”

  “Yeah, what if they call the aliens and they come for us? What do we do?”

  For nearly an hour, the conversation degenerated into more alien bashing and questions about what to do.

  Before long, the idea came up that, instead of joining one of the new settlements, they would take over one of the settlements.

  “No!” Stasia yelled out. “What is wrong with you people?”

  She had the patience of a saint, but this insanity could try it.

  The crowd turned on her quickly. “Wrong with us?” Roddik asked, mimicking his sister’s tone. “What the hell do you mean?”

  “How could you think about taking over one of the settlements?” Stasia pointed at him. “You’re thinking about attacking a group of innocent people for no other reason than they might disagree with you.”

  Roddik waved her off as if what she was saying made no sense. “Whatever. Look, if they don’t agree with us, then they’re obviously against us and will be a problem. So, instead of letting that problem be a problem, we solve the problem from the start so they won’t be a problem at all.”

  I shook my head to clear it, thanks to his reasoning. He was justifying an attack, and his group was believing in the idea.

  “Hey! New guy. What do you think?” Roddik asked me.

  I looked around. Everyone was staring at me, even Stasia.

  “Well, I agree with your sister,” I said, then quickly held up my hands when Roddik glared and dropped his hand to his gun. “Look, I’m just saying that if we attack innocent people, then we end up becoming the bad guys. We’ll eventually have to deal with how people will think about us, even the non-alien people.”

  He considered my words for a moment, giving me a tiny spark of hope that he would change his mind. Unfortunately, he unzipped and pissed all over that spark. He shook his head and laughed at me. “Figures you would be weak like her.” He jutted his chin out at Stasia.

  There was nothing weak in integrity or morals, but this was not the place for having that argument. I clenched my fists before I could stop myself, but quickly unclenched them.

  He turned to the crowd. “Let’s do this democratically, shall we? Who votes for being weak-ass cowards and asking politely for people to take us in?”

  Stasia and I were the only ones to raise our hands.

  “Okay,” he laughed. “Now, who votes for taking what we deserve and creating a humans-only place to live?” Everyone else raised their hands. “See?” he said smugly, looking at us and giving us a painfully sadistic smile. “No one but you two thinks it’s a good idea to be little pussies.”

  I opened my mouth to say something, but closed it.

  “What? Nothing to say?” he asked me in a mocking tone. “You two better decide where your loyalties lie. We’ve got plans to make.” As Roddik and his group of five trusted cronies began to plan out their next movements, I looked for Stasia.

  She took herself a little ways away and began pacing. I took that opportunity to make my own way away from the group. I walked near one of the small structures, snuck in, and stole a small human comm radio I’d had my eye on.

  Taking myself several hundred yards away from the campsite, I climbed up a tree. I manipulated the comm, playing with the channels until I managed to find one that was connected to a Vengeance broadcast frequency.

  “This is Vengeance, Rogue, can anyone hear me?” I called through the little human comm.

  “Come in Rogue, you are broadcasting,” was the answer.

  “Acknowledged. Have you received my transmissions? Awaiting orders.”

  A click, and Rouhr was patched through. “I’ve been leaving them alone on their camping trip, to lure other like-minded individuals out. But we can’t let them continue with this plan. What are your suggestions, Rogue?”

  I took a breath, and spent half a second thinking. “When the group shows up, put up minimal resistance, then evacuate. Let them settle back down, but keep them bottled up.”

  “Understood, Rogue. Be careful. Good luck.”

  I turned off the radio, and climbed back down the tree. There was too much at stake here, and too many variables. Roddik was out of his mind and only getting more violent and angry. I would have to find just the right moment to get Stasia out of the group and away from her brother. This group was beginning to get too far out of control.

  Something needed to happen. This group needed to be stopped. I had no qualms over their hatred and dislike for my kind and the others, everyone was entitled to their opinions.

  There were races and species that I didn’t like.

  Skrell, the Xathi were simply hated by us all, so I could feel some empathy towards someone hating another simply because of what species they were.

  However, the idea of them attacking people simply because they had a different opinion about how they should live, that was wrong.

  I had to get back to the campsite before anyone noticed I was gone.

  I took a deep breath, shook my head in wonder, and made my way back.

  I currently hated Roddik and these humans for being so stupid and giving in to that most idiotic of things, the mob mentality.

  For putting my mate, even if she hadn’t acknowledged it yet, in danger.

  If any harm came to her, then they would have every reason to fear this alien.

  Stasia

  “Fuck you, Roddik!” I cried out in frustration, kicking the tree in front of me as hard as I could.

  Roddik was out of earshot, so he didn’t hear what I had just said. That was for the best, of course, even though I was aching to say it to his face. Oh, and not just that… I had a lot of things I wanted to say to his face. “Screw all this shit!” I continued, kicking the tree as hard as I could, over and over again.

  I only stopped when pain shot up my foot and, for a moment, I thought I had broken one of my toes. I sat on the ground, cursing my luck, and gritted my teeth so damn hard I could’ve broken them. My brother was completely out of control, and it seemed that anything I did to help only made matters worse.

  How the hell had we gone from building a peaceful settlement to planning an invasion? Who the hell did Roddik think he was? A brigand? A new generation of highwayman? He had always liked his space pirates holomovies when he was younger, but I guess he never realized the pirates were the bad guys.

  Sitting up, I leaned back against a tree and tried to calm myself. As pissed off as I was, kicking a tree while shouting curses at my brother wouldn’t help my situation. No�
�now, more than ever, I needed to keep my cool.

  Looking up, I saw that the group was still debating Roddik’s plan, but they were only concerned with the details. No one but me or Iq'her seemed to bother with ethics, it seemed. If they had to resort to pillaging the countryside to get some food in their bellies, then that was exactly what they were going to do.

  For a moment, I almost wished Iq'her had just called one of the strike teams and told them to show up here. At least this nightmare would come to an end. Of course, if Iq'her did that, it was almost a certainty that people would die. I didn’t see anyone here surrendering peacefully, after all.

  “Hold on,” I muttered, still glancing at the group.

  Only now that I was thinking of Iq'her did I realize he was missing. I scanned the entire clearing with a glance, and my heart sunk when I didn’t see him anywhere. His bags remained next to his lean-to shelter, sure, but that didn’t mean a thing.

  Scared, I jumped up to my feet.

  Could it be possible that Iq'her had decided to leave?

  Leave me?

  I wouldn’t be too surprised if he was already on his way back to Nyheim, ready to rejoin his team. If that was the case, then I was pretty sure that he’d show up here before the day was over, except this time he’d be bringing a team of armed aliens with him. And all because Roddik had decided he wanted to be a conqueror.

  I had no choice: Roddik had to be stopped before it was too late.

  Pushing myself up to my feet, I swallowed whatever hesitancy I was feeling and made my way back toward the group. A few heads turned in my direction, but no one really stopped me as I closed the distance between me and Roddik. He only noticed me when I was a couple of feet away from him.

  “What the hell do you want now?” he asked, stopping whatever he was saying to face me. “Don’t tell me you want to pitch the coward’s way again, Stasia.”

  “It’s not the coward’s way.” I clenched my fists. “You’re not a murderer, Roddik, so let’s put a stop to this. What do you think is going to happen if you take over a settlement? If the capital hears about it, you’re going to have the aliens after you. You’ve heard about their strike teams, haven’t you? How long do you think any of us will survive if they decide to come after us?”