Mr. Erin’s eyes opened, Sasha immediately throwing her arms around him. Mr. Xan yanked her away, the panda setting her aside while the robots cut his bandages free.

The minute they were back on the ship, the machines all rushed them to the infirmary. For electronic contraptions, they showed a surprising amount of delicacy in how they handled the liaison. Though he was fine to heal on his own, the robots never left his side, one always coming by to scan him before returning to its ship maintenance duties. It was one of them that alerted Sasha and Mr. Xan of the awakening.

"I take it this isn't the afterlife?" Mr. Erin asked.

"Like you'd be that lucky, twig," Mr. Xan said. He nudged Sasha. "Welp, he's up again. Happy now, Panther?"

She smirked. Mr. Xan had been pacing the ship, taking every chance he could get to sneak a pass by the infirmary. She'd noticed as much since she'd made a habit of doing the same.

“W-what happened?”

“You scared us half to death, stupid!” Sasha said, shaking a fist. “Jerk.”

“You've been out for about four days,” Mr. Xan explained. “Oh yeah. We saved Torpha, by the way. No thanks to you.”

Mr. Erin rubbed the back of his head.

“Ah. So my sacrifice wasn’t in vain, then?”

"Sacrifice?" Sasha recalled the ambush at the cave. How she'd been pushed aside with Mr. Erin taking the brunt of the giant's attack. "You did that on purpose? You pushed me out of the way?"

"I have a duty to protect you, Ms. Panther. And I assumed if either of our lives held more value, it was yours."

Sasha frowned at that. As did Mr. Xan.

There might have been hundreds of liasons out there just like Mr. Erin and Mr. Xan. There might have been thousands of legionnaire portals which needed to be sealed away by the graduates. There might have been very few people in the cosmos who had the power to wield a God Tool.

But there was only one Mr. Erin. She hugged him again, though she wasn't pulled off this time around.

"Don't ever say that," she said. "I like having you around."

She pulled away, Mr. Erin's gaze softening. She might not have known him for long, but the thought of losing her favorite alien squirrel made her sick. If anything happened to him...

“What about the Captain?” Mr. Erin asked.

"Took off for command. His last words were, 'Don't let that kitten run amuck, will ya?'."

Mr. Erin chuckled, but Sasha growled at the memory. It had been the final straw for her to decide she preferred Captain Mercury cremated. Preferably alive. She'd already informed Mr. Xan what she'd do to him if he showed his face on their ship again.

But that was beside the point.

Sasha pushed thoughts of Captain Mercury away as she remembered the other reason why she wanted Mr. Erin awake so badly. She looked to Mr. Xan, who seemed to understand with a silent nod. He and the robots filed out of the room one after the other until it was only her and the squirrel.

Mr. Erin looked at her confused.

"Sorry," she said. "I asked them to let me talk to you one-on-one. For...privacy."

His confusion morphed into fear.

"Sasha, what did you do?"

"Huh? I-" Her tail lashed behind her. "Wait, what makes you so sure I did something?"

"Did you?"

"No. I mean...I don't- Look, I wanted to ask you about the humans."

"Humans?" Mr, Erin relaxed. "Ah. Captain Mercury was your first real encounter wasn't it?"

"Not exactly, no. I-" A thought suddenly dawned on her.

She'd never asked Mr. Erin directly what the outside world knew about Shiny. Sure everyone on the island heard that comet man speak. And if her memory was right, they all saw him up close moments before he sent them through the portals. But did anyone besides Shiny's graduates know about the alien that showed up on their planet? Did anyone besides Sasha and her friends know about that human's declaration?

Mr. Erin had only given her basic knowledge of her world during his lecture. He hadn't said a thing about it being targeted by humans. All the same...

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Let your gods hear you. This world will be fuel for the legionnaires.

Those were the words she'd heard seconds before a horde of monsters descended on her friends. Before she'd tried to take on a legionnaire with nothing but a wooden table.

"Mr. Erin," Sasha said. "Are humans...bad?"

The squirrel scratched his head. "That's a bit of a loaded question, Sasha. No one is truly bad. It's all a matter of perspective."

"From your perspective?"

He met her gaze, the words almost apprehensive as he spoke.

"It's...complicated. We owe a great deal to the humans. They gave us warp travel and opened the doors to galactic expansion. And they've also contributed to the extinction of many sapient races." He shifted. "It's not a simple question to answer, Ms. Panther. Every creature, no matter what species, holds the potential for great ill."

She nodded. It didn't answer her question directly, but she could see his point.

She'd met plenty of canines at Olive Branch who seemed to revel in misfortune. She'd also met a few who were total cinnamon buns. And she'd met just as many that fell somewhere in the center. Cici and Iris were prime examples.

It could have been the case that not all humans were bad. It could have been that the human in Shiny and the human in Torpha were outliers. Still. Out of all the creatures in the universe, why was it a human that came to her world? Why would the supposed expansion savants come down to somewhere so quaint most of the populace had no idea what a commpad was, much less a spaceship?

And why did the legionnaires respond to them?

"Can humans speak legionnaire?" Sasha asked.

"Speak legionairre? Now that's an odd one, Ms. Panther."

She thought up a quick excuse. "Well, I figured since they've got so much tech knowledge, they could probably make something to speak to the monsters, couldn't they?'

Mr. Erin stroked his chin. "Hmm. That would imply the legionnaires actually 'speak'."

"I mean, they have to speak to each other, don't they?"

"Not necessarily. Many species can communicate without using words."

"You mean like body language?"

"Or pheromones. Though you'd be just as likely to drag out a horde of legionnaires with that strategy."

He gave a nervous chuckle at that, but Sasha's expression never changed. She listened to what he was saying more intently than she'd ever paid attention to any academy instructor.

Pheromones? Then it is possible. That's how they're getting called, isn't it?

She remembered Captain Mercury's debrief. How he mentioned the pattern of fallen worlds the AIC had noticed. Though he claimed the pattern only went as far as a shared time frame, the pheromone idea seemed too good a theory to be just speculation.

She nodded.

"Alright," she said. "Last question, Mr. Erin."

Sasha made sure to choose her words carefully. If her hunch was wrong, she knew it would only make things between them more complicated. And she hated things being complicated.

"Do the legionnaires hunt humans?" she asked.

"Hunt?"

"Or attack? Look, you know what I mean, Mr. Erin."

He smiled. "I do. And yes. All sapient races in the cosmos, without exception, are targets for the legionnaires."

"Including bugs," Sasha said, remembering her insect kids. She nodded to herself. "Alright. I think I understand a little better now."

She hopped out of her seat, Mr. Erin getting up as well. With his injuries recovered he was fine to return to active duty. And though there was more Sasha wanted to ask him, she figured it better not to bombard the man all at once. He'd just woken up, after all. Besides. Her brain could only handle so much information at once.

"I take it your impressions of humans aren't too kind, Ms. Panther?" Mr. Erin asked.

"Honestly, they look weird," Sasha said. "But I guess that's pretty much true for all aliens, huh? No offense."

"None taken. But I would refrain from referring to any sapient race as 'alien'. Most circles tend to frown upon such language."

As they spoke, they were both making their way to their rooms, a few robots stopping to give Mr. Erin a quick scan as they passed. Did they miss him that much?

Wandering through the ship's corridors, they finally came to the intersection marking their living quarters. Mr. Erin gave a parting wave before disappearing into his room. When Sasha got to hers, she quickly jumped on the bed, summoning GT into her lap. The staff voice chimed in her head.

"So?" it asked.

"It's not a human thing," she said. "Apparently, they're being hunted as well."

"Ah. I believe that's an 'I told you so', Ms. Sasha."

She groaned.

The idea had seemed the simplest explanation. Why were there humans appearing on pre legionnaire-infested worlds like Shiny and Torpha? It was a human thing. Simple. GT had dismissed that idea. And now Mr. Erin too. That made things complicated.

If it wasn't a group thing, then people like the comet man were acting on their own. Setting the White Legion loose on small worlds for...what? Some sick joke? Profit? A dare? No matter how she thought about it, she couldn't think of a single rational explanation. And that might of been worse. Just imagining some maniacal freaks targeting worlds like hers at random made her blood boil. She wanted to find the psycho that attacked Shiny and shove her claws through his eye sockets. Him and all of his friends.

"GT."

"Yeah."

"You think more worlds will be hit?"

"If the pattern continues? Yes."

"Crap." She felt sick. Finding Iris and Cici was her top priority. That wasn't going to change anytime soon. But the thought of legionnaire allies wasn't something she could ignore.

While she waited for Mr. Erin to recover, the questions had been nagging in the back of her mind. Why Shiny? Why Torpha? What did the humans have to do with the legionnaire attacks? She knew it wasn't her problem to solve, but it was her job to kill monsters. And some psychos drawing the monsters to random planets made that job a lot harder.

The AIC was looking into it. Captain Mercury had his intel to deliver. That would speed things up. They'd handle it. That should have made her feel better. It should have.

"I've registered the signals of both the comet man and the Torpha visitor," GT said. "If I sense them near, we'll know. But we shouldn't lose focus, Ms. Sasha. Don't forget why we're on this ship to begin with."

She nodded, claws sheathing and unsheathing in front of her. Wherever her friends were, it would take time to pinpoint their exact location. They'd been following the same signal since Tuptree, which Sasha only recently realized belonged to Cici. But if Cici had the misfortune to run into the comet man or his friends...She growled.

Dangit. We're supposed to be hunting monsters. Why the heck are people helping them? What the heck is going on?

She stared out the window, the void of warp space offering no answers.

Cici. Wherever you are, you better be okay. You too, Iris. You both stay alive.

The image of the comet man standing over her hideout burned in her mind. Just remembering his face made her want to claw something.