The cleaning bot unloaded its bin into a room filled with waste. Mostly Yumen trash, it also contained a soggy bottom filled with more of the awful cleaning chemicals.

Arachna unfurled her legs, stretching out. She didn't so much mind the Yumen garbage as much as the chemicals. Those were nauseating.

Beaky moaned softly. He was still badly pained. The dactyl needed food. That was how Krath healed themselves. With enough food, a Krath could regenerate missing limbs, heal wounds, and even survive an otherwise critical injury. Xitherium would be ideal if she could source some. If she could find her way back to the engine room, she'd have more than enough.

Maybe there was food in here? The room was square, not particularly large, and filled with mountains of tossed-out items. Horde, these Yumens put so many things into their wastebins that it was atrocious. There were broken tools, clothes, even datapads littered throughout the room. There were old metal devices, some broken some not. The room held hordes of what she guessed were packaging material - smooth plastic wrappers, crates, and more.

By the Cause, these Yumens threw everything away. By contrast, for a Krath, everything was well-used. Everything and every being were reused and recycled. A creature that was killed was either completely consumed or its bodily remains given up for decomposition, to provide life to other organisms in some form or another.

The Krath had little use for artificial contraptions made of metal or plastic. That was the Yumen way, and it felt so wrong. To make a lifeless thing when a living, biological creature could do the work just as well. Better even. Arachna saw that there may be a benefit to non-living tools but even those just felt so cold and lifeless.

The Krath had the ultimate respect for all life, especially the lives of those they consumed. She knew instinctively that even Yumens had souls, which could ascend into the Xither. To honor a fallen creature, a Krath must consume it respectfully, putting its mortal flesh to good use so that its immortal soul could be freed. When consuming a body was impossible due to battle, decomposition did the work for them.

To her, it felt like a grievous sin to waste so many things in a place like this. She shook her head. These Yumens were very backward creatures. That was why they needed to be eaten, their bodies given up to serve the Krath Cause.

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The smells of a thousand Yumen lives filled her olfactory nerves as she rummaged through the trash. This place contained the scents from so many different Yumens, each one having a distinct impression, a unique life.

But that wasn't quite what she was looking for. There it was.

Lifting up a metal plate, she uncovered a large plastic bag. It bulged around its sides. Tearing into it with her beak, she found what she was looking for.

Pies.

More of the delicious Yumen pies from the holiday party, mixed with all sorts of other foods from the kitchen. Horde, had these Yumens thrown all of this amazing food away? It only reinforced her view of Yumens. Not only did they throw away things that they had no use for, they threw away plenty of good food that they could have eaten—on a starship no less, in the black of space.

If Arachna was stunned when she arrived in this trash heap, she was simply flabbergasted now. How in the universe could Yumens throw away so much? It made no sense.

Dragging the bag of half-eaten, discarded food, she dropped it next to Beaky. The dactyl was injured, barely holding onto life.

"Eat," Arachna said, swallowing a bite of pie herself. "Good."

Beaky turned his head and stared at the food. "That Yumen food," he clicked weakly. "Yuck."

"Try," Arachna clicked. "Better than expected."

Lifting his head off the ground, Beaky plunged his beak into the bag of food. His eyes widened as he swallowed a mouthful of pie.

"Pie," Arachna clicked. "Scrumptious."

Beaky was soon taking large mouthfuls of food into his beak, slurping hungrily with each bite. There were leftover bits of pie, roasted animal meat, boiled vegetables, and more.

Arachna watched contentedly as Beaky worked his way through the bag of thrown-out food. There was something satisfying about helping another member of her race survive. This food would help his recovery significantly.

She caught a flickering light coming from something on the ground—a datapad. The device looked like a flat rectangular panel of glass. It flashed red. Horde, was this thing still working?

There was a small crack in the corner of the device, that cut off a portion of the image but it appeared to be in otherwise good condition. A Yumen must've thrown it away just because of the small bit of damage. What a waste.

An image flitted across the screen. It was a red flashing box with an image of Beaky. Letters flooded across the device.

High Alert: Escaped Krath dactyl loose on the Eschaton

Marines deployed to all quarters.