In a semi-large messy hall, sat three creatures, two of which were green and tall, with two arms and legs each, large black eyes and thin long heads. They both wore identical outfits, black trousers and pants, and a grey long-sleeve shirt; only their six fingered hands were revealed. The last one was a warthog-man around 140cm tall, stout and sturdy, with a thin layer of grey fur, he wore combat boots, and baggy pants with multiple pockets and a t-shirt, with a vest on that had multiple pockets as well, he had four fingers, one large thumb, a thin finger next to it, and two larger fingers next to that one.
They were all watching a projection of the prison-quarters from a small couch-like structure in the corner of the common area.
They saw how the light was lit in the prison-cell, and how the five Terrans reacted to it, as well as how they approached the hallway. One of the tall green creatures shook his head with an amused smile "Look at them, so pitiful, classic Terrans!" he chuckled as he saw their despair played out in front of him.
The other green creature nodded lightly his arms crossed while he leaned back, a thin stick in his mouth that released thin green gass "It is always like that with the Terrans, every time we nab a bunch of scientists there is always one or more who starts trying to get into our systems" his tone increasing as the sentence ran on, he couldn't help but start laughing hard as he was slapping his knee eagerly "why do they always think that they can?! Their technology is so far behind, stupid! STUPID! So stupid!" he laughed uncontrollably.
The warthog-like man, had a neutral expression, but still commented off handedly "Well at least they try something, no? Unfortunately they just don't realise…"
"…that we are the equivalent of an ancient Greek mathematician trying to break into a quantum computer with an abacus" Idris spoke calmly, as he looked at the defeated scientists who were all sitting dispiritedly on their respective bunks. When they had seen, and confirmed their biggest fears, their gumption had punctured like a balloon, and it hadn't taken long for them to get into a desperate and unnecessary argument, eventually they had calmed down, and so Idris had butted in "Maybe if we understood their systems, but we don't, and we have no way of knowing, it isn't about you guys lacking intelligence, but lacking the correct knowledge." He sighed gently "this isn't a movie where we can send a computer virus into an alien mainframe, or where the autistic kid is able to crack the alien technology and thereby becomes the target for a transplant, this is not it…" Idris looked weary as he looked towards a specific angle in the ceiling "…this is not it at all" he mumbled quietly.
The words seemed to have hit home with the four scientists, but where the others seemed to accept it, Caspar refused and his eyes turned slightly crazed as he spat out "What do you know you oaf! You're no scientist, this entire time you have done nothing to help or assist us! What a bodyguard huh!?" he shakily stood up and approached Idris "and what did you do when they appeared, nothing, you just stared at the prisoner, I didn't see you trying to get their attention" he yelled, while pointing towards the other cell, where a prisoner was lying in a shallow pool of tar-like black blood covered in a thin linen blanket.
Idris' brow creased slightly, as Caspar continued berating him, he couldn't blame the man, this was an impossible situation, especially so for civilians, he realized there wasn't much to say, so he simply turned his back to Caspar and walked towards the other wall, which he noticed was still transparent. His mind wandered back to what had just happened. There had been two prison guards, and one person in charge who appeared female, she about 2.2m tall with smooth dark green skin, thick large arms and a very round face with large black eyes, no hair to be seen, but she appeared to have female curves underneath her grey long sleeve t-shirt and black pants. There was one small antenna in the middle of her head, and simply two small holes where her ears would've been had she been human. She had what appeared to be a type of large gun slung over her back, and she walked with a steady stride and a straight spine. Two men were following her, they looked human except that they had large ears with three pointy ends, and a red fin on top of their heads, when they blinked it Idris had noticed that they had an adipose eyelid, they too wore similar clothes as the woman, except they both wore a type of gel like blue gloves. They were dragging along a prisoner, who seemed to have been tortured, a thin trail of steaming black blood that looked thick as tar was dragged along by them. From what little Idris could see she had the shapes of a human, but she was a deep dark red in colour, and she had two jet-black cragged horns curved like that of the addax antelope's, they were about 10-15cm long, and wide at the base, getting thinner and sharper towards the top. In-between the crags a redness could be seen. Her long and wavy ash-grey hair covered her face and ears, nothing but a pointy red tip could be seen. The clothes she wore looked like a prisoner's uniform beige long pants, no shoes, and a beige long t-shirt. Her hand and feet looked humanoid, five toes, five fingers, her nails a light grey. Splotches of black blood coloured the uniforms, and dripped from within the blanket of hair. The two guards had thrown her into the cell, and then thrown a blanket on top of her. The green large alien seemed to have been in charge and had spoken something, before she had turned around, and then the transparent wall had reactivated. When they left they hadn't even bothered looking at the Idris and the four scientists. From the lack of sound, it was clear that the wall had a muting effect.
Idris was staring at the prisoner, not a movement could be seen from within the huddle of blanket. Several thoughts raced through his head as he began contemplating his situation. He had to try and help Youjung for one, he owed her grandpa a large favour from fifty years ago, however right now he couldn't even help himself… his hand tightened slightly as he grew angry, but he quickly calmed himself, this was not the time. Secondly, the creatures; they were definitely aliens, for he had seen and heard of all manners of creatures on earth and none came close, nor did the technology which they employed. He began rubbing his beard, however just because they were not from earth, did that mean that they were not on earth? The thought made his heart thump heavily. No, they were definitely not on earth, in fact, he knew that they were a long way from earth, although the significance of the moon was scientific to him, he could still feel the radiation it released, and he could feel none of that now. Instinctual biology kicked in at the thought, his hand curled up, and hammered the transparent wall in a thunderous punch! The muffled thump from earlier when he had knocked on it was turned into a clear pling sound, which echoed throughout the cell, it was as if the wall had turned taut in reaction to the strong punch.
. . . .
"You thickskulled Ki'rilian pirate! You think I'll speak just because of a little torture, hah! I would say that you're even dumber than you look, but…" a thin smile appeared on her swollen and bloodied light grey lip, the sentence hung for a moment "…you look pretty darn dumb!" A thick green fist hammered down on Azreth just as she finished her insult.
The next thing she remembered was that she woke up at the sound of a clear bell. A blanket covered her, so she struggled to pull it off of her, when she got it out from under it, she saw a Terran standing in the other prison cell, his fist on the wall, his eyes unfocused in rage, his mouth curled up revealing his teeth, his large thick fangs and animal-like teeth? Her pupils dilated as she spat out black steaming thick blood, and passed out.
. . . .
Idris, huffed for several seconds, his mind turning stable, his thoughts collecting themselves. How long had it been since he had lost control like that? What was he? An amateur? His teeth retracted and turned normal, he remembered the bloodied and swollen face of the woman as she had looked at him, aside from the swelling, she seemed to have very human features. He needed her to wake up, even if they couldn't talk, they might still be able to get some information from her, any knowledge at this point was valuable. He couldn't help but remember another time long ago, where he had been captured and tortured, he had survived that, determination filled his eyes, he would survive this too.
. . . .
"Mana'a, sister, you are still bothered by that Devishian?" One of the tall thin Ki'rilians that had been watching the prison cell earlier, was now standing at the bridge his hand on his sister's shoulder, he smiled gently "We don't need her loot, whatever she stole from that merchant ship is not worth the time we're spending on her, I say we sell her back to the Devishian government, or perhaps the Lark brothers from whom she robbed?" his voice soothing as it carried a hint of worry for his sister.
Mana'a half-glanced at her brother, the Ki'rilians were not a particularly loyal species, and they were pirates at that as well, as much as she loved her brother, she also couldn't trust him one bit! "You might be right brother, the loot isn't that important" she lied without a trace of guilt. The Lark brothers didn't know, and her crew didn't know, but she knew and the Devishian knew, in that loot there was an object of immeasurable value! Her big black eyes stared into the emptiness of space as her six fingers rapped against the armrest of the captain's chair. She needed her to speak; before someone else who knew about the object found out that their crew had caught her!
. . . .
After the two Ki'rilian brothers had left, Brulok stayed behind, half watching the projection, ready to turn it off, and turn the transparent walls white again, but then he heard it! When the human's hand struck the wall a clear bell-like sound had reverberated for just a moment. His pupils dilated, as the ship's engineer he knew exactly what that meant, and in order to make that sound, one needed a lot of raw strength. He continued observing, but the human made no more movements. Brulok accessed the memory, and re-watched the scene, he had not been wrong. This human was special somehow; he quickly sped through the full intervals since the day the humans had been abducted, and he noticed it, the man had been unbothered to say the least about the abduction, calm and collected, perhaps, perhaps this was the opportunity he had been waiting for?
He pulled out a small short piece of what looked like licorice root, he then swished it against the iron table, whereas it instantly ignited, he waved it slightly, and the fire went out, but the embers remained. He put it in his mouth as he began walking to his quarters, a plan formulating in his mind.
[SMOKE AND FIRE DETECTED] it rang out near him, in the artificial voice of the ship.
[PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR FLAMABLE OBJECTS] Brulok looked up at the area where the tiny speaker was embedded, these localized smoke alarms were excellent on old ships that couldn't exactly receive maintenance regularly, but it was way too sensitive! He shook his head, as he ignored the noise.
While puffing and chewing on the strange root, he made up his mind, he had joined Mana'a's crew not too long ago, but she was always completely surrounded, either by her idiot brothers or her idiot crew. She was careful and always prepared for a mutiny, Brulok could respect this, he really could, he thought while nodding his head, a thoughtful look in his tiny black eyes. However, he still wanted to kill her dead. When she had gone off on the mission this time, it had been half-cocked, there was only five people aboard, normally she would never leave on a mission without at least 20-50 crewmates, obviously there was something secretive to the mission, and it definitely related to the Devishian, but no-one knew what exactly, except that the woman had robbed a merchant vessel from the Lark brothers, what exactly it had contained was uncertain. Burlok, was sure that Mana'a knew, and whatever it was, it was too precious, so she took a manageable amount of crew with her, including the only engineer she had left, Brulok chuckled; he had caused the accident of the two. Originally he had wanted to get the help of the Devishian, but she had quickly undergone some light torture, so she wouldn't be of much help, and he wasn't about to go on a murder-suicide just to get his revenge on the Ki'rilian. He opened the door to his quarters, it was a tiny 5 square meter room with a bed and a few drawers embedded in the wall. It was messy, with all sorts of machines, objects and oils stocked in every possible nook and cranny. He quickly sorted through the different machines and filled up his various pockets, he then stuffed the rest of the root, embers and all, into his mouth and chewed it eagerly.
Having found what he was looking for he quickly rushed back through the various corridors, with his small legs. Despite how the prison quarters looked, the rest of the ship was in disarray, wires were exposed, and so was several metallic walls that had been breached and never repaired, it was a pirate's ship after all. Upon reaching the engine room, he pulled out a small white ball with a long black thread attached. He gave a glance to the large engine that had obviously been repaired with both a bit of this and that; it hardly resembled the original Ki'rilian class 12S cargo-ship engine that it had been once upon a time. He went over to a large worktable, stationed in front of a large screen, Holo-screens were useful for many things, but in general they could quickly slow down simple processes. He casually wiped his short stout arm over the table, knocking anything down that was on it, he then placed the white ball on a small green square embedded in the table; whereas he tabbed a small black dot next to it.
[COMMENCING SOFTWARE DOWNLOAD / UPLOAD] an artificial voice that sounded like Brulok's rang out.
"Download" Brulok exclaimed curtly "Terran language profiles, and learning guides" he huffed, releasing a small grunt as he was getting excited.
[REGISTERING HARDWARD............MIGRI C5 TRANSLATER AND LEARNER REGISTERED. INITIATING TRANSFER OF TERRAN LANGUAGE PROFILES..... DONE. INITIATING TRANSFER OF TERRAN LEARNER... NONE FOUND]
Brulok didn't necessarily need it, but he couldn't help but ask anyhow "Are there any substitute learners that allow for unknown languages?"
[INITIATING SEARCH...… FOUND ONE. THE NOVICE ANTHROPOLOGIST'S BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO NEW SPECIES. THE SPEED OF LEARNING WILL BE IMPACTED AND BE THAT OF FIVE TIMES THAT OF REGULAR LEARNERS. PLEASE APPROVE.]
"Approve, approve" Brulok spoke, wafting his hand as he was getting annoyed with his own voice, he really should change it, if he lived that long! He couldn't help but chuckle at the thought, maybe waiting would be better, but this was an opportune chance; but it really all came down to the Terran.
[DONE]
Brulok quickly swiped the object and rushed out of the engine room.
"Listen here PIG-MAN!" the humanoid guard with a fin on his head spoke casually whilst leaning up against the wall next to the door leading to the prison quarters "I don't care if you're the chief engineer, you're nothing but a pig-man to me" he finished laughing as he half lifted the large weapon in his hands.
Brulok's brow creased heavily, but he soon calmed down a bit, and pretended to back off, it would appear that now at this moment the plan had to be set into motion, maybe this would just be a suicide mission after all! He turned around slowly, much to the satisfaction of the Klaxion, however he kept turning, and just as he was about to face the guard again, he released a small object. Nothing seemed to happen, but all of a sudden the Klaxion grabbed his ears, his expression that of anger, but before he could regain his senses and grab his weapon, he was stabbed in the groin by a hard-light knife, it was a small knife that was completely black, and when activated a thin line of hard compressed light covered the edge, every engineer had one. The Klaxion spat blood, and tumbled backwards, the moment he had fallen the knife had continued up, gutting him like a fish.
"Bottoms up asshole!" He spat a black piece of chewed up root and phlegm on the dead Klaxion "It's warthog, not pig, you imbecile" He casually picked up the weapon and continued to open the door.
. . . .
Idris was sitting down, leaning against the transparent wall, observing the scientists lying in their bunks, except Caspar who was still trying to work something out in the bathroom. It was then that he saw a stout warthog-like man walk through the prison-hallway, carrying a gun that was far too big for him. He glanced at them as he passed by, a blue liquid covering parts of him, this did not go unnoticed. When he reached the prison cell at the end of the hallway, he pulled out a small triangular metal object, he placed it on the transparent wall, whereas it lit up, sending out two blue lines downwards, the space in-between opening up. Idris lifted an eyebrow; earlier the female creature had activated and deactivated the entire transparent wall. The liquid splatter, that could be blood, the gun that was too big, and now the opening of the cell in what appeared to be an unorthodox manner?
"He's breaking her out…" He mumbled audibly, the other scientists who were lying listlessly on their bunkbeds slowly began lifting their heads, now also observing the warthog. Youjung quickly rushed to the bathroom where Caspar was working.
The warthog walked towards the woman carefully, he put the weapon down, and pulled out a knife in his left hand, and then he pulled out a small glass canister with some sort of liquid moss-green fluid inside. He carefully approached the woman, whilst the human prisoners had lined up against the wall observing his every step.
They weren't sure if he was freeing her or murdering her. When he was just a couple of steps away from her, he began speaking, whatever he said was not heard by the five prisoners, not that they would've understood anyhow. Her lifeless body moved shakily at the end of the sentence into a sitting position. The stout warthog-man moved over and placed the canister of green fluid on her neck, his thumb pressed the top metal part of the canister, and then the fluid began disappearing. The veins on the woman's neck enlarging and turning green as the fluid entered her blood circulation. Her white teeth were gritted as she endured what appeared to be tremendous pain. When the canister was empty, the warthog threw it away and exited the cell, the woman half limping behind him; she had picked up the large two-handed gun on the way.
The four scientists began clamoring as they saw the rescue, and started banging their hands on the transparent wall. Meanwhile the warthog picked up the triangular object, and closed the cell, leaving it now empty. Idris noticed that the woman's swellings were dropping rapidly; it appeared that the fluid was some sort of regenerative medicine. Her face still had dried patches of blood, but it now looked much fresher, her fierce eyes glowing strongly, her sclera pitch black, the iris a dark purple and the pupil dark golden almost black. A scar ran from the top of one eye down just below the same eye. She appeared to have human features, but the swelling and blood still obscured them in a large degree.
The two extraterrestrials stopped in front of their cell, which instantly made the four scientists scramble back, neither one of the two were a pretty sight, the warthog was covered in a strange liquid, and looked fierce, the woman had horns and looked akin to a devil that had been worked over by the Irish mob, either way, the two were strange and intimidating. Idris hadn't been knocking on the wall, nor had he moved particularly close to it, and neither did he move when the two stopped in front of them. His deep sky-blue eyes calmly observed the two, as the warthog-like man pushed the triangular object onto the transparent wall creating an opening in it. The four scientists uniformly moved hesitantly forward again. However the red woman quickly pointed the large weapon at them, no words were needed the gesture was more than enough. Caspar looked nervous, and instead turned to Idris.
"Ca..can't you unarm them or something?!" He spat out somewhat nervously, his one eye twitching from the lack of sleep. The other three scientists quickly followed up with similar cries.
Idris shook his head as he spoke "they must've opened our cell for a purpose, before I charge at them recklessly, how about we try to find out what they want?" as the only one who had been able to rest properly for the many days they had been aboard, he was the only one with a clear head, what would have been obvious for all four of them under normal circumstances; they had now failed to realise.
The warthog pointed at Idris, and gestured with his stubby finger for him to move closer. Idris moved forward slowly, not failing to notice that the woman had the weapon trained on him the entire time. When he was just a step away, he could see all of the details of the man in front of him, he truly resembled a warthog, and luckily it wasn't the first strange creature he had seen, so he was hardly fazed. The warthog pulled out a small white ball, with a string attached to it, on the end of the string there was a black object the size of a fingertip. The warthog gestured that the white ball went into the ear, and that the black thing went on the back of the neck. He then handed it to Idris.
Idris could feel his heart thumping, he had dealt with magic and the technology in-between, but science from outer space, now that was a new one, fear certainly had a foothold in his heart, not that he cared much. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, he smiled as he carefully picked up the object, and stuffed the ball into his ear, and put the black plate on the back of his neck, but nothing happened, he was just about the lift his arms in a "nothing is happening" motion, when the small warthog-man pulled out a small object that looked like a pen with buttons, he pushed one.
Stabbing pain exploded from his ear, as he felt hundreds of small spikes escaping from the ball, drilling into his ear-canal, this were soon followed by a nauseating pain from his neck as a five feelings of electric needles stabbed into his spinal-cord from the black plate. A low wolfish growl escaped him at the sudden pain, and then he heard it.
"Right right, it is all very exciting, but we gotta go now boyo, that second guard should be here anytime now" A hoarse and dark voice rang out, like someone who had drunk whiskey and smoked cigars for a lifetime had just spoken. Idris' eyes narrowed in on the speaker, it was the warthog-like man, the translation had happened almost instantaneously as he had spoken, overlapping with the unknown language that the warthog-man had spoken.