Wednesday Prompt: Day 3 – An Eye For An Eye

When I had first met a human, it had been on an ally’s ship, and I hadn’t thought much of them. The male of the species acted tough, and the females acted even tougher. Still, they didn’t stack up to most intergalactic races with intelligence and technology that would easily wipe humans from existence.

It wasn’t until I fought alongside them in a battle that I understood their strength and compassion behind that strength. Their willingness to place themselves second to defend others in need and challenge what they called “systemic oppression” shook the Galatic Federation in more than one way.

It was their mentality toward life that set humans so far apart from other races.

I sit down slowly and take a deep breath to calm my nerves. My crew has just crossed a hard-line, and what’s more, they have taken the life of the human’s mate.

“Male or female?” my second-in-command asks.

“Why’s it matter?” the youngling spits.

“If it’s male, we have a chance at surviving,” my second states.

“We didn’t see it, sir,” another youngling answer with a quivering voice.

I turn to the diplomat who lays tied up in front of the captain’s chair, “Answer,” I demand.

The diplomat shrugs its shoulders and clicks at me, “I never pay attention to the help.”

“Bring up the crew manifest,” I order. Suddenly the power cuts out, leaving just the backup systems on.

“Sir,” my second begins, “I suggest we split in two. One hunt, one secure.”

An older soldier growls, “the hunt is a suicide!”

“You’ll do as I say,” I stand tall, looking down at the soldier. Daring him to challenge me.

We broke into two teams of six. My second bravely taking the hunting team. My squad waits for a few bits before leaving the helm and making our way back to our ship. Since the power was cut, we had no way of knowing that our small scout ship had been disconnected from the much larger diplomat ship.

I only realize it by chance when I glance out a bay window down one of the many hallways. Our ship drifting off into the distance. I froze.

“Did you know there was this human army once made of all the same gender lovers? They fought alongside their mates, believing it would make them stronger,” the diplomate clicks, “I learned about it during a trip to Earth.”

I turn toward my squad and order them back towards the helm. I send another message to my second, who states that he’d yet to find the human.

We turn down one hallway after another until a high-pitch whistle pierces the air. The diplomat drops to his four knees and covers his head. I follow just as quickly, but two of my men are not as astute. They collapse with steaming holes in their heads.

I grab the diplomate by his robe’s collar and drag him back around the corner. The thumping of heavy boots follows us as my remaining squad returns fire. I shove the diplomate into the first room I can and command my crew to lead the human away.

The fight’s sounds slowly fade, leaving just me and my target squatting in a residential quarter. My weapon presses under the diplomate’s short chin as a clear warning.

“They’re female,” he clicks.

“What?”

“Your question. They’re both females.”

My response is cut short by the door sliding open and a small metal ball bouncing into the room.

The light is blinding. My ears fill with a sound I’ve never heard before. Trying my best to keep hold of my target, I roll behind a desk, but he breaks free. By the time my senses orient themselves, he’s gone.

I call on my radio, and only four voices answer, one of them being my second. He reports on their fight with the female and how she destroyed part of the ship to launch them out into space. I tell him about our ship being set adrift and the loss of the diplomat.

I say, “they still have to be on board.”

“Sir,” one of the surviving younglings answers, “one of the escape pods is gone, and the others have all been broken.”

Shock rocks my body as I wonder how close this room is to the escape pods. “Someone get a suite and retrieve our ship. They couldn’t have gotten–” my orders die on my tongue. Our ship was turning away. I could see its blasters turning on, and next to it floats the missing escape pod.

Our radio crackles with a soft and sad voice. “The dead got off easy,” she says.

It feels as if my tongue is swollen in my mouth. My throat is dry, and I can’t seem to get words to form.

“You can’t leave us here!” a youngling cries.

We have crossed the hard-line, I remind myself, stumbling backward until my back hits a wall. I sink to the floor and stare out the window into the vastness of space. “An eye for an eye,” I say, repeating the words I had heard a human once say.