“I can’t tell, looks like there’s an entrance on the side, the main area is a total bottleneck, they’ve got perfect visibility and cover.”

“Any visible OPFOR?”

“Uhh… I can see a couple, hard to tell, they’re fucking pitch black, Sergeant. They blend in perfectly.”

“Switch to thermal.”

“Copy. Looks like a skeleton crew. All armed. Some sort of AFV parked to the right of the gate? Scanning the ridge above the gate now.”

“Any emplacements?”

“None that I can see so far, but they seem to understand camouflage, some sort of black and grey tarps are covering the storage boxes.”

“Protection from the weather?”

“I don’t think so, the tarps only cover the top, as if to hide it from satellite imaging. One possible emplacement above the gate, and something else… wait. Oh shit.”

I shot up in bed and pushed myself against the wall, clutching the cloth against me. Nothing I had seen was particularly frightening, but my heart was pounding and I was uncontrollably shaking. It was a dream… It was a dream. It didn’t feel like a dream. Deep breaths, calm down. It felt more like a distant memory than anything else, a distant memory that filled me with an incredibly strong and distinct feeling of dread. My head hurts.

I stood up, everything was sore and the bed was a mess. I must have been moving around in my sleep. I looked down at my hands, my claws were extended. I can’t remember the last time they did that instinctively, nor the last time I did it on purpose. I brought them back in, didn’t want to accidentally rip the human clothes or my uniform.

I’d have to ask if they had some form of weak painkillers, my head was pounding, and I’d have to put pins in my hair that would create a constant pulling effect. Today is going to be irritating. If I only had any sort of foresight, I could have brought some of my own possessions to make the quality of life aboard this ship a tad bit better.

While I was getting dressed a small screen adjacent to the door turned on. White text appeared on the panel, with the time displayed in the top right-hand corner. It read: “Ozis, please report to Hangar A. Docking with Light Carrier soon. -Sgt. Gerrick.”

We must have jumped to the Sol system while I slept. Perhaps I was wrong about today. I’d get to see more American ships, or perhaps even ships from other Earth powers. I’d maybe even get to see Earth. A planet that produces humans must look like a nightmare. Although if this trip has taught me anything it’s that I shouldn’t be making assumptions like that. I’d better start making my way. The panel had a prompt that said “Understood” and I pressed it before making my way out into the hallway.

I was halfway to the Hangar hallway when I promptly fell over. As much as humans seem to love warning announcements, docking with another ship seems like a strange event to not warn the crew about. The whole ship lurched and I got a face full of metal floor, brilliant. Now I really need the pain killers.

I rounded the corner to Hangar A, and I was right. We had docked with another ship. I had no idea how large the other ship was, but it was clear the hangar door sizes were standardized to allow the connection. I could see Sergeant Gerrick, he was standing with a small group, not soldiers. A group of humans were entering from the other ship, they looked like leadership or diplomats, flanked by specialist troops like I had seen when this cruiser was boarded.

I made my way over to Gerrick, a familiar feeling. Something looked a little off about him, the skin under his eyes was slightly sagged and greyish. He waved me over, and we wound up standing next to one of the aircraft I had observed earlier.

“Thanks for coming, Ozis. As the only one knowledgeable on government affairs outside of our system, we’d like you to speak with some of our diplomats if that’s alright with you.”

His voice was slightly slower and quieter than normal. He sounded tired.

“Well, I’m no expert but I’ll try to help wherever I can.”

“Are you okay? Is that blood coming out of your mouth?”

I brushed my hand against my mouth, and it came back with a bit of pink liquid on it. Apparently, that fall had done at least a little damage.

“Ah, yes. Well, I may have been attacked by the floor on the way over here. You might consider lining the floor with something a bit softer than met-”

My vision went black as something impacted me and I was thrown against the side of the aircraft. I was still conscious but my vision was blurry and spotted, and all the sound was a mixture of ringing and muffled noise. Gerrick was yelling something, I could briefly make out a human in combat gear being tackled and restrained by Gerrick and two others.

A female human ran over to me and lifted me up by the arm and steadied me on my knees, she was trying to speak to me but I was too focused on trying to look at my attacker. He had hit me in the back of my head while I was turned toward the sergeant, and was currently being dragged away struggling and screaming, his voice shaky and very loud.

“It’s one of them! You fuckers will see, it’ll turn on you just like the others! Why do you think it’s here? You brought that fucking thing to Earth, you idiots! You’ll see-”

He was pulled out of the hangar and out of sight. I could finally make out what the female was saying: “Come on, we should get you away from here. This isn’t good for anybody.” She motioned to the hangar door, where I could see the crowd from the light carrier, all standing, and watching. Two soldiers had made their way to us, weapons drawn. They started taking me toward the medbay again.

“Wait, stop. I’m okay, just let me sit please.”

They sat me down on a bench on one of the walls of the hangar. Things were getting clearer, I didn’t need to be put into a bed and gown again. A medic ran over to us, she was from the new ship, her uniform was slightly different. When she got close she started hesitating and looked to the two soldiers by me, Gerrick had left with the group pulling my attacker away.

“Does it speak English?” She was addressing the men flanking me, but I answered before either of them did.

“I do.”

I startled her, she’d obviously never seen an alien before. It was a look that many humans had shared upon first contact with me. She moved closer.

“O-Okay, you were hit in the back of the head, correct?”

I reached behind my head and pulled my hand away, a fair bit of blood came with it. “I believe so.”

A mixture of concern and fascination flashed on her face when she saw the blood. “Okay, I’m going to try and stop the bleeding, can I touch you?”

“Yes, please, go ahead.”

I leaned to the side so she could gain access. From what I could tell, my hair was obscuring whatever wound was causing the blood, and she was trying to push it out of the way, rather unsuccessfully.

“Can I remove these pins? They’re keeping all the hair in the way.”

“Do you have to?”

“If they’re gone I can just push all your hair to the front.”

I was silent for a moment. “If you must, can we go somewhere more private?”

“Absolutely. Can you two help me?”

One of the soldiers helped stabilize me again as we walked. If stuff like this keeps happening I might as well just start living in the medbay.