The reptilia captain entered the fenced-in enclosure, taking the time to admire his collection of solemn-faced humans, all standing before him stark naked. Around them were at least 40 different armed hoplites ready to shoot any person who attempted to run. Behind the lizards was a large gate to the much larger enclosure with eager pilnorks, occasionally pounding the overly strong-looking wire fence hard hoping to break through reach the buffet of flesh before them.
They were pretty ugly creatures, with a round and featureless newt-like face, four short, gator-like legs, and a row of quills going all the way down their backs and a long, fearsome barbs on the end of their long tails.
"Human specimens!" he shouted with a loud, booming voice. "Take a good look around you. You like to consider yourselves not only a pinnacle of life and kings of the animal kingdom, but entirely transcendent and separate from the goddess' intricate balance of life." The captain took a few more steps before speaking again.
"But today, standing here without your clothes that can cause digestive tract blockage of these creatures, the thin and superficial veneer is gone and all you see all around you are your fellow beasts of the galaxy's ecosystems." The captain reached one end of the mass of humans and turned to walk the other way.
"Allow me to formally introduce our clique. We are the Jade Fish Clan, warriors of the great goddess Gaia. Our clan is named for a remarkable species in the tropical waters of Zenithala. They belong to a subclass of living things with remarkable brain architecture that is the most efficient of any creature in the universe. In about fifty or perhaps a hundred million years, they will be the caretakers of the ecosystems of space, effectively making hominid and reptilia alike obsolete. By your species callous disregard for the well-being of the goddess' masterpiece, Zenithala, you have removed any doubt you are a species in great need of humbling."
"The creatures before you are known as pilnorks in case you did not know. You and your kind have hunted this creature's primary source of food to near-extinction to harvest a protein to slow age-related atrophy of your muscles. A protein that can be made artificially in a lab. Today, they are going to get a little justice and some food at the same time. There might very well be more of you than they want to eat, but in what may be your final moments, take the time to ponder the point that these are juveniles that are still growing so that in a way, you will become a part of them."
"Look!" shouted one of the men in the crowd of humans. To the east of them was what looked like a big black cloud that was getting closer and closer. In less than a minute, the Zalzok bugs had completely enveloped the crowd. The humans frantically swatted themselves as many of the bugs landed on their bodies. The reptilia instinctively fired their guns into the air a few times but of course there was no use. The hoplits all ran out of the small enclosure and back to their ship, some dropping and rolling attempting to get the bugs off of them. About a dozen or so humans made a run for the gate, while the rest ran over to where the ship was landing.
"Kayla" Loy said glibly looking at the crowd from inside the ship, we don't have enough capacity to take all of them back."
"We'll pack them in here like sardines if we have to!" she said. "We can't just leave some of them here!"
"No, listen to me…this ship is rated for 30 elven passengers averaging 140 pounds, you've got at least 50 humans averaging 180 pounds. The ship's scrubber won't be able to remove the carbon dioxide quickly enough." Kayla heaved a big sigh.
"Do what you have to do! I'm going to find Clyde!" she said opening the door right as the ship landed. She opened up the hatch and starting running against the tide of people running towards the ship. Milo followed her.
"Clyde!" she shouted at the top of her lungs but fearing it wouldn't be loud enough for anyone to hear over the buzzing of the zalzok and all the shouting. As if there weren't enough noise, the sound of the ship's Vulcan cannon and large polyphoton cannon started going off. Several of the pilnorks got filled up with holes and immediately fell down motionless, while others were hit by a cannon and knocked backwards at least eight feet. Milo and Kayla both kept shouting Clyde's name against hope that he could hear them over the guns and the shouting and the buzzing of Zalzok.
Then they spotted him. He was standing by another person who was laying on the ground next to him. Loud booms sounded from near him and both of them jumped. Loy had fired the photon rockets and completely blown up the ship that the reptilia had run into.
"Clyde!" Kayla shouted at him. "What are you doing!? We've got to get out of here!"
"She got shot and trampled! I've got to help her!" Clyde shouted.
"Clyde, we're short on time and we don't have enough room to rescue everyone! You'll just have to leave her!"
"No! I love her!"
"Get her legs!" Milo said picking up the arms cutting off any argument. He and Clyde lifted her up and carried her back to the ship. When they got back, Loy had a gun pointed at the last 15 or 20 people standing around the door.
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"Back away!" he shouted. "I have contacted elven forces and they'll make sure nothing happens to you!"
"More of those monsters are still out there" the man said. "We're completely defenseless! Please let us in!" he said holding back tears.
"We'll drop you some weapons as we leave!" Loy shouted back. After Milo and Kayla got in Loy shut the door.
"You guys took entirely too long he said going hurriedly through the crowd of people in the passenger area up into the cockpit." Milo and Clyde carried the young woman into the cockpit area and laid her down in one of the seats.
Milo pulled out the medical kit. "She needs some analgesic and disinfectant for the wound, first" Milo said digging through the kit to find the right drug.
"You guys are lucky I didn't just leave you behind!" Loy scolded. "We're probably not going to be able to surrender to any war ships waiting for us!"
"Well maybe if you hadn't blown the reptilian ship to pieces we could have surrendered and explained what we were doing!" Kayla answered.
"What do you want me to do? We leave them behind and the lizards will probably still kill them!" Kayla shook her head but said nothing more. When they left the atmosphere sure enough, a pair of reptilia-class destroyers were waiting for them.
"Here come the missiles!" Loy shouted. The missiles came very fast, but the flare countermeasures went off and caused them to blow up a safe distance from the ship.
"How many flares have we got?" Milo asked.
"Not many" Loy answered. "We need to exploit our superior maneuverability here. They're over-pursuing us."
"I got you" Milo said. Milo opened the cockpit door and went into the passenger area.
"Hang on!" he said. Many of the people had covered themselves up with robes, towels, and even space ships or other things they could find. Milo quickly got back into the seat in the cockpit and strapped himself in. Loy made a very rapid, stomach-churning turn that Milo did not even think was possible on a ship the size they were in. When they straightened up again they were right under one of the destroyers.
"Hang on again!" Loy said. He steered he space craft into a zig-zag pattern. Plasma and polyphoton cannons flew around them. Soon afterward, they were only in range of the missiles again. One missile exploded near the hull and completely rocked the entire craft.
"We're not in the safe zone for SPG, but I'm going to activate the emergency override" Loy said finally sounding a little more relieved. "Pray we don't crash into some meteor or something." Loy rapidly typed in commands on the keypad.
"Here we go!" Loy said. "Spacetime phonon amplitude at 2.8 picoGriths… I'll raise it when we get closer to the edge of the system." In several moments, they were in full SPG flight.
"All right, heart" said Loy wiping the sweat off of his bald head. "You can restart again. By the way, I'm Loy" he said extending his head for Clyde to shake it. "You must be really close friends with these two" he said.
"We go way back" Clyde said. "And this is my fiance, Lexi" Clyde said looking over at the woman. Kayla had given the young woman her thermal blanket to cover up with.
"Congratulations!" Kayla said with Milo saying "Great!" soon after. The young woman said nothing.
"Lexi" Milo said looking at her, "do you know where you are?"
"Flying in…space…away from …c-c-crescent region" she said.
"I think she's got shock" Milo remarked. "I was trained to spot the signs in soldiers. I'll see if we have some magnesium triketamine to treat her." Milo went through all the different vials in the kit until he found the one marked "MTK". He sucked the fluid up into the syringe, moved the blanket to expose her arm, and found the vein to stick it in her.
"She going to be all right, Milo?" Clyde asked.
"I think so" Milo said. "Seems like a fairly mild case, thankfully."
"We'll drop all the passengers off at Devinar's Fermi spaceport" Loy said. "They'll be safe there and then we can replenish our oxygen tank and then get back to HQ."
"I agree" Kayla said. "I'll go tell the passengers." As Kayla left the cockput and Loy and Clyde were locked in conversation, Milo took the chance. He took the headband Kayla was wearing from her bag and took the vial he got from the elven pilot. With both his hands on his side opposite the two men, he squeezed the band as hard as he could on each part of the headband. A small amount of clear fluid entered the vial, not a great amount. Milo put the band bag in the bag as discretely as he could before Kayla came back in.
Most of the rest of the trip went smoothly. When they got to Devinar Spaceport it was dark and there wasn't a lot of activity. As Milo got out to help Loy refill the oxygen tank in the craft, there were cheers from around fifteen people in the proximity of the ship. Milo didn't feel all that heroic. The faces of the people that he had left behind wouldn't be easy to forget. It was hard to feel heroic even if there was a sizeable chance those people might still die.
"I guess people know what we did" Loy said. "Dover might not be too happy that the Network made headlines here" as he turned on the hose. Milo walked back into the ship and back into the cockpit area where Clyde and Kayla were talking, and Lexi seemed to be more alert as well. The young brunette who appeared to only be about 18 or 19 walked over to Milo and kissed his cheek.
"Thank you so much" she said. Clyde then walked over and gave him a hug.
"So what's next for you two?" Milo asked.
"We were just talking about that" Clyde said. "With the crescent getting burned there's not many more places I can go. Between being involved in the smuggling and with Gaia's cult there's no telling who might make me disappear in the night for any reason."
"Clyde" Milo said. "The Network is doing a joint op with some of Zorthia's forces to evacuate the people on the other side and take them to safety on one of the planets on Nateedra's map. You could go there and get a new start and could still return for anything you want since we'll also move the warp gate over there as well."
"We might take you up on that one" Clyde said. "Lexi here did cartography and scouting work for mining and farming guilds in the crescent. She's probably going to have to get the literal chip on the shoulder to be able to stay in outworld."
"I guess you found a free spirit who likes adventure as much as you do" Kayla said with a smile.
"Sure did" Clyde said giving her a kiss on the side of her head. Milo could hardly believe what it was he was witnessing. He had never seen this type of sunny disposition from Clyde when talking about a young woman, even when he was with Kayla. It gave him both a happy and wistful feeling at the same.
After Loy finished refilling the tanks, they all left, and Clyde and Lexi went with them.