Memory transcription subject: Slanek, Venlil Space Corps

Date [standardized human time]: January 14, 2137

My paws were rooted to the floor, as I cast a blank stare at Navarus’ corpse. Bootsteps pounded behind me, and without turning around, I knew it was Marcel racing back after hearing gunshots. An audible gasp came from my human, who skidded to a halt. He could see me standing in close range of the dead Kolshian, firearm in paw. The predator froze in shock, before rushing up to me in a panic.

Marcel’s hands latched onto my shoulders. “What did you do? The fuck have you done?!”

The red-haired Terran had handed the first prisoner off to the team, but the discovery that he’d be unable to collect the second Kolshian left him in an aggravated state. My friend couldn’t restrain his emotions, baring his canines inches from my face. I could see his cheek muscles contorting it in grotesque ways, and his scars stretched in new patterns. I’d never seen such clear disgust in his pupils, not even during our predator disease saga.

Panic rose in my chest, as I feared that Marcel would disown me for this action. He leaned back, and shook his head in mute horror. My orders had been to watch the Kolshian prisoner for a few minutes; I knew I shouldn’t have pulled the trigger. Admitting that I wanted Navarus dead for his cruel taunts wasn’t an option, though I didn’t regret killing that monster.

Marcel can’t leave me. He’s my best friend…I can’t have him thinking I’m some predator-diseased killer.

Genuine tears rolled down my furry cheeks, which caused the human to pause in his reaction. I could see a twinge of sympathy cause his lips to curve downward; his natural response was to comfort me. The mental gears turned enough to realize that I could use this, and paint a story which justified my deeds. If part of him believed I was a weak, scared liability, then this decision could be played off as fear.

Marcel had to believe I didn’t mean to kill the prisoner.

“I’m s-sorry. He started t-trying to stand up, and I p-panicked!” I put on my most despairing expression, and recoiled from the corpse as though horrified. The stutter was easy to let slip through, since I was nervous about the human’s rejection. “My gun was on him, and then he m-moved toward me…it was reflex…”

“The Kolshian was tied up with tape! He’s still kneeling.”

“I k-know, but I wasn’t thinking. He moved his head s-suddenly, and I don’t know what h-happened. Forgive me, please! I need you…”

I chastised myself to drop the gun, and flung myself at the predator in desperation. My arms wrapped around his thick body, and I sobbed into his vest. The human felt warm and strong, even as I absorbed his shuddering inhales. Without seeing where his binocular gaze was pointed, I knew his eyes were on my body.

Marcel hesitated, before a gloved hand gently kneaded my scruff. “It’s okay. We’ll deal with it. We’ll figure this out and clean this up, huh? You made a mistake.”

“D-don’t hate me,” I pleaded. “I just want to help you…”

“I could never hate you, Slanek. Shooting an unarmed prisoner is a horrible thing to do, but I wasn’t here to protect you. We shouldn’t have trusted a Venlil to act as an independent soldier…it’s not your fault, but you’re clearly not past your instincts. Let me think.”

The outright accusation that I couldn’t carry myself on the battlefield stung. I suppose it was better for Marcel to believe that I was a panicky animal, rather than an enraged Venlil who played executioner. Listening to the way Navarus spoke about humans and goaded me on, the trigger pull was irresistible. My best friend would never understand, because he didn’t think killing should be enjoyable.

Once, or if, I talk my way out of this, the humans need to know about the cure work. Maybe that would make him just as angry, and then, I can confess the truth.

Marcel pulled away from our embrace, and offered a taut smile. His reddish eyebrows soared up into his forehead, as if an idea occurred to him. He unclipped his holopad from his war belt, before tapping away with his slim fingers. I looked at my friend with hopeful eyes, praying he could sweep this all under the rug.

“What are you doing?” I croaked.

The predator’s gaze jerked up from the pad. “I’m searching through the video archives. It all happened like you said, so in case this comes back up, we should retrieve the footage that exonerates you. I’m downloading a clip of the last ten minutes from your point of view.”

My heart sank into my chest. The helmet rested upon my head like a rock, as I recalled the tiny camera on its side. It had recorded the entirety of my interaction with the Kolshian, including how I gunned it down at point-blank range. Maybe there was a chance I could access the server, and delete the footage before Marcel finished downloading it? If it was for command review, I doubted I had permissions to do that regardless.

I scrambled over to his side, throwing my paws around his elbow. “What?! D-don’t…why w-would you look at that? I feel awful. I don’t want to look at it again!”

“You don’t have to review it, buddy. I can handle it…it won’t take me that long.” Marcel squinted at the download progress bar, which was counting down my impending doom. “I doubt the UN or the Venlil Republic would have you prosecuted for an instinctual accident, knowing your stampede policy. Just in case, we should have something for a legal defense.”

The holopad chimed, indicating that the download was finished. The human tapped the video, and I screeched with blind panic. My outstretched paws dove toward the holopad, which the predator snapped above his head on reflex. I jumped as high as my crooked legs would allow, trying to grab the object. However, Marcel was holding it well out of my reach, and my paws swatted empty air.

The Terran officer’s jawline tightened, and suspicion flashed in his hazel eyes. He used his back to shield the holopad from me, huddling over it with singular focus. The audio must be going straight to his implant, but the Kolshian’s dialogue didn’t affect his feelings. He swiveled around, with an unmistakable look of concentrated loathing.

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“You lied to me. You tried to make me feel sorry for you!” he roared.

“M-Marc…”

“NO! Save it. I’ve heard enough of your spineless deflections.”

The human cleared the ground to the body with a handful of strides, anger charging his motions. Marcel stooped down, picking up the gun I’d discarded. His binocular eyes bore into mine, as he stared straight at my horizontal pupils. He flung the firearm at my chest, and curled his lip in disdain. I’d never seen him this callous and resentful, not even on Sillis.

“Carry your murder weapon like a badge of honor. When we get out of it, I’m making sure you never touch one again,” the predator hissed.

I flicked my ears. “Listen! The Kolshians are c-curing humans.”

“We’ll handle it. You don’t need to worry about it anymore.”

“I can h-help! I…just made a mistake!”

“That was no mistake; it was a calculated execution. You knew it was wrong, or you wouldn’t have covered it up. God, I can’t believe I fucking trusted you. I thought we were brothers…I let you live in my house with my fiancé and my daughter! I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but you’re unhinged.”

“You’re being an ass…”

“I’m being an ass?! Shut the fuck up, and move out. You’re going to help escort some civilians back to the shuttle, and then you’re going to stay there ‘til we return. If you don’t like that, I’ll be delighted to throw you in the brig myself.”

Marcel barely seemed to be corralling his temper, and he stomped off down the hallway. I trudged after the human with a defeated posture, tucking my tail between my legs. The dead Kolshian’s eyes gave the appearance of watching me, as they were stuck open for all eternity. The hurt that I felt was crushing, after the way my best friend just treated me.

Did I just ruin our friendship? No, he’s not being fair! Navarus fucking deserved to die, and I shouldn’t have to dance around Marcel’s precious morals.

“I knew you would act this way!” I sprinted up to the human’s side, and he quickened his pace to stay ahead of me. “You let everyone have mercy, from Sovlin to…fuck, you probably think that getting life in prison was enough for Kalsim. You made me apologize to the same man that tormented us. What kind of shitty friend does that?”

Marcel said nothing, but his fingers tightened around the gun. His anger was so heavy that I could feel the tension infecting the air.

“ANSWER ME! Every time we go off to war, you have to rescue someone from the species that fucking harmed us,” I continued. “Nulia, Virnt and Birla, and now these Kolshian assholes. You don’t have the spine to stand up for yourself, or enforce any kind of punishment on anyone. It’s your fault that I felt like I had to lie!”

The human’s skin was turning red from fury. “You execute a prisoner, and it’s my fault?! You’re trying to spin this on me now?”

“The Kolshian tortured your civilians, and called it science. They drugged them so much that they puked, genetically modded them. I don’t fucking regret it, I’d do it again. Navarus deserved to die; shit, he got off easy.”

“Maybe he did deserve to die, but that’s not your decision to make! We can’t question a dead guy. Either everyone gets rights, or nobody does. His testimony could have swung more allies to our side. What you did is unacceptable, and I don’t even know who the fuck you are anymore.”

“Neither do I. You humans flipped on my predator switch, and I can’t undo that. You did this. All I think about anymore is war and death.”

Marcel clammed up once more, plodding along with brooding bootsteps. His eyes darted toward me for a brief moment, and I could see that our quarrel was distracting him. We reached a central area of the medbay, where UN soldiers were gathering. My posture was stiff, as I worried that my friend would declare my actions to the first commander he saw. However, the vegetarian seemed intent on getting out of here before reporting me.

Sickly humans with glassy eyes were being tended to by medics; their gaunt frames suggested they’d been underfed for the duration of their stay. The Kolshians either didn’t know or didn’t care about the predators’ caloric needs. Dossur rescues observed the dazed predators with concern, and Terran soldiers were determining how to move the rodents. Speed was key to safety, and the galaxy’s most diminutive race wasn’t covering ground quickly.

It seems like it was very easy to get through to the medical lab. I expected more resistance in this area, but all the Kolshians here are unarmed…

Perhaps that realization jinxed us; the med-bay compartment doors slammed shut, as they would in a depressurization. I could hear an air conditioning unit kick on, as a hearty gust of ventilation poured down the shaft. Human soldiers rushed to the compartment doors, trying to pry them open. Were the Kolshians going to poison us? The enemy had waited until multiple units made it to the civilians before locking us in here.

The gasses that were filtering in felt noxious, but the predators made quick work of busting out. They bypassed the locking mechanism through brute force, using charges to blast down the door. I grabbed Marcel’s wrist, and guided the coughing redhead out to the hallway. He dropped to his knees, gasping in the fresh air.

“What…was that?” my friend choked.

“Fucking hell.” Our unit commander staggered out of the medbay, and exchanged a few words with our medics. “Listen up! Those of you with masks, get back and look for anybody left in the gas—our smaller friends won’t survive long. Get going! The rest of you, post security; they might try to hit us while we’re reeling. I want a team to find where that gas came from ASAP! Break!”

I helped my red-haired predator up, and he pushed himself away from me. The young officer volunteered his boarding party for the search without hesitation. A disoriented Marcel followed the rest of his team, still shaking off the unknown substance he’d inhaled. The soldiers had located a map of the ship’s layout, and got a rescued Dossur read it out to them. We navigated through the ship tunnels; I kept myself alert for more traps.

The Terrans busted down the door to a supply closet, not even checking if it was locked or not. There was evidence that Kolshians had been present recently, but they cleared out in a hurry after their stunt. We checked the supply air ductwork, which had a canister plugged into it. The predators’ senior leader ran a visual translator over items left on the duct, and the complexion diminished from his face.

“Chief? Is everything alright?” I asked.

The human senior’s eyes turned toward me. “It seems the Kolshians fed us a sleeping gas, but we weren’t exposed long enough for it to do anything other than make us woozy. However, son, they laced it with something else too. Everyone remain calm; I’m going to inform command that we need a quarantine for all humans on this station.”

Marcel’s eyes widened. “Why, Chief? Are we in danger?”

“Sir, these empty vials here say, ‘The Cure.’ There’s only one thing that can mean in my eyes. I believe we just got dosed on their anti-carnivore dust, by air transmission. We have to assume the worst. Sir: we’re all vegetarians, now, by threat of death. Let’s drum up diet plans by the end of the day. Need green rations shipped to us pronto; you’re our expert.”

Even among seasoned Terran soldiers, that admission was enough to spark some panicked chattering, while the senior leader phoned it in to command. I studied Marcel with worried eyes. No matter what he thought about me, I wanted only the best for him. My human didn’t deserve to have genetic modifications forced upon him. Though he was vegetarian, that should be a choice for him to make of his own volition. There could also be additional consequences, and I wasn’t sure if it was transmissible to others of his kind.

Does this mean that the Kolshian Commonwealth has decided to try to “cure” the primates, rather than eradicate them?

It wasn’t clear if whatever was tailored to the humans during these experiments worked on me, but I’d gotten the pathogen into my lungs as well. The Battle of Mileau was raging on outside these walls, and the Kolshians had sprung a dastardly trap on the Terrans here, who wandered in to rescue innocents. We needed to relay a warning to any other UN forces retaking ground encampments, to beware of potential biohazards.

Containing the exposure to just us was crucial; I wished that I could’ve saved Marcel from breathing that in. All I could hope now was that the cure wouldn’t have any unexpected effects on the humans exposed to it here; unfortunately, one possible avenue for reversal was reduced to brain matter in my fur.