As the female Kasuri sank deeper into the bubbling bloodbath. Slowly, letting the hot water jets relax her tense muscles. She smiled as the warm (reconstituted) blood soaked into every nook and cranny of her vivacious form.
Kalin got comfortable, letting her lithe body slide further into the fluid, folding her legs in the (undersized) tub. The intense heat of the bubbling blood, lulling her to a state of tranquility.
“chime… chime,” Went her comm.
Her trip to blissful nirvana interrupted. Refusing to respond, she let her head dip into fluid, blowing some bubbles as the comm counted down. Finally the caller ident kicked in.
The unit spoke: “Priority communication from the Travos VII Central Spaceport control.”
Turning her head upwards said: “Comm, Accept, audio “and” visual, project forward.”
The comm units omnidirectional projector setting a floating view-screen in front of her, which she batted around with her hands till it was at a comfortable distance from her face.
The screen flickered, as the transmission synchronized with the local time-space.
A bored Rakian bureaucrat, eyes unfocused addressed her casually as he began to give his standard spiel:
“Miss Kalin Ceres, I’m afraid to inform you that ……that…that.” The lizardman stuttered, as his focus came to a point at the unexpected sight of a naked Kasuri covered – or rather bathing, in blood! The lizard man’s pigmentation turning from the usual brown to an unusual shade of violet.
“Inform me of WHAT?”
Her voice ramping up from a purr to a storm in an instant.
“Ma’m… your request for immediate departure cannot be com…completed… at ….at this time.
Kalin’s tone going back to an icy silk: “Why exactly is that?”
“Because of your ship. the Breaking Vaskalin……has left,… has left orbit, and filed a corporate document of separation.”
Her annoyance flaring into anger, she pulled herself up, out of the fluid, and leaned over the screen as it pivoted to keep lock with her face. The disturbance splashing blood on the floor and even through the projected viewscreen. (A certain human might have found the free show…..enthralling, however the Rakan lizardman only felt felt revulsion and horror.)
“THAT COWARDLY LITTLE VOLEAN [-shit-}. I’ll kill him, this time, I’ll kill him for sure.” Her eyes searching side to side for a moment then refocusing on the increasingly increasingly frightened lizardman.
With fierce authority she grabbed the projection with her hands and pulled it closer to her face:
“Book me a ship, I don’t care what ship, or how much it costs, just do it now!”
“Ma’m that’s…..that’s impossible, they’re all booked and prepping for launch, all, alll…..except…
“EXCEPT WHAT!?!”
The lizard man’s pigmentation began to pulse different shades.
“…… for the ship…the Lucky Bird, but that’s a privateer ship, and has no call for passengers.”
At the mention of the Lucky Bird, Kalin, stood up in the tub, forcing the camera to pivot upwards. as she yelled down at the floating screen,“
“No….Now you listen to me now, lizardman YOU HIRE ME A SHIP, or I will rip off your head, your mates head, the heads of your children and ….”
Kalin losing her train of murder though for a moment.
At this the lizardman’s skin color was pulsing as fast as his heartbeat.
“That’s not possible ma’am ….I can’t”
Drool starting to drip at the edges of the lizardman’s mouth, any longer and he would have gone to a full froth. But before that a wizened Volean hand moved to cut off the juniors communication console.
The Rakan lizardman turned to the side and looked at the old Volean control officer who had acted. He addressed is superior with a quiet. “Thank you”
“Son, sometimes you have to know when to cut the line.”
The other officers in the control room had intently watched the verbal exchange with some rapture and discomfort themselve..
The elder Volean officer patted the lizardman on the shoulder with his furry hand.
“Son, you don’t look well, I want to you go take a break and get some air. If that doesn’t make you feel better, you have my permission to leave early today.”
The Voleon turned around and with authority addressed the other officers: “As to the rest of you, stop gawking and get back to work.”
The entire staff returned to their consoles and the familiar din of the port control room resumed.
The Rakan lizard-man stiffly filed out, to get that fresh air and hopefully forget the terrible image of a blood soaked Kasuri.
Kalin blinked in surprise, for a second stunned. The realization that, that Rakian lizardman had cut the line on HER.
The bubbling rage inside of Kalin overflowed, as she let out an [-inhuman?-] roar and proceed to lash out with her claws. Stomping around, her claws raking the walls, smashing the mirrors, tearing up the plasticine of the tub, her outburst flinging blood onto the floor, the walls, the ceiling. All while bits of white plasticine rained down sticking to her blood soaked form..
At this outburst, both swat teams readied their plasma cannons and unslung their grenades.
The senior officer held his men back, waiting for her to breach another room. But as quickly as the outburst started it ended. The only sound the faint repeating chime of a comm unit.
At this her tantrum interrupted. Kalin grabbed the comm unit ready to crush it as she balled her fist, but was stopped by the units ident alert.
The unit chimed: “Priority communication from the office of the elder matriarch.” do you wish to accept?”
With a worried look on her face, she Put the device down on the only undestroyed bit of countertop. She tried to calm herself for a moment, still forgetting that she was naked, covered in blood and broken bits of white tile.
Kalin mumbled to herself. “Mother”.
Kalin spoke: “Comm, Accept, audio “and” visual, project forward.” The screen now larger floated in the middle of the destroyed room.
The screen flickered, and synchronized. As the form of a rather voluptuous and well endowed and bemused female Kasuri appeared on the floating monitor. Her mother looked exceptional for her age, though white splotches of fur out of sync with the rest of her patterns showed here and there.
“Ohhh my” Said elder matriarch. “Having funnn I seee” The Matriarch purring, her smile growing end to end as she revealed her teeth.
Kalin looking at her mother with a bit of confusion for a moment, then the realization dawned on her of current disheveled state. Blushing under her fur (*when a Kasuri blushes, the fur tends to ripple a bit on the cheeks) she grabbed a towel, holding it in front of herself, trying to shake some of the plasticine off without being too obvious.
“I wasn’t interrupting anything enjoyable I hope.” She said purringly.
Kalin shifting a bit uncomfortably. “No mother I’ve just ….a little upset”
“Oh that’s a shame, and here I was hoping you had found someone at last.”
Somewhat indignantly Kalin responded: “Mother you have over 300 hundred grandchildren at this point, we have enough kids for 3 clans, why do you care if I’ve “Found someone”?
“Ohhh dear, I don’t care for my sake, I was just thinking of you, you’re my favorite daughter, born from my favorite husband. I just want you to be happy.”
Kalin indignantly, “I don’t need to be happy, I need revenge, I have been offended (and by proxy the family) and a certain captain must pay with with his life and hopefully the lives of all of his loved ones, friends, relatives, and pets.”
“My, my what has you so worked up dear, I was sent a recording of the “incident” and you in fact seem to be in the wrong. Besides, what could this Xeno do to possibly offend the mighty Kasuri? Besides you receiving a little [—minor wound—], I find nothing in that xeno’s behavior visually that could warrant such anger.”
“Besides It is not a crime in itself to loook tooo delicious?”
The matriarchs tone went from silk to iron.“So really, tell me, my favorite daughter why has this creature disturbed you?”
“The creature showed me no fear?”
“And?”
“He was strong and looked like a worthy prey.”
“Annndddd?”
“He may…… have desired to mate with me.”
At the this the Kalin’s mother pulled back a little and blinked in surprise, her tone changed back to to its playful form.
“Oooooo what a delightfully dangerous prey indeed. I suppose that you could enjoy yourself and have lunch at the same time, it sounds quite delightful to be honest.”
“Mother!?! I have to kill it.
Back to a slightly more serious tone, Kalin’s mother spoke: ”Fine, All joking aside, if said creature is in fact a “worthy” prey, you should have remembered your mission, stalked it, tested it. If it was found to be a fitting, find more of it’s kind. If that involved possibly indulging it’s friendly overtures, all the better.
“But I could sense it and it wanted ….it wanted…..”
“Stop, At this moment all I see is an overreaction and a very lucky (and unlucky) xeno who accidentally knocked you out with a stool. Your misstep is more embarrassing to the “family” than any supposed wrong this creature has committed.”
Kalin further deflated :” …. I’m sorry mother.”
“Child, we are all young once and we all make mistakes that ideally don’t leave us being devoured before our time by a Starfan killbeast.
“I know, but I’ll need the family ship, I still have to hunt this creature to the ends of the universe.”
Sighing slightly, mother responded “Then you must speak with Kedrik about such trivial matters, I hope that you succeeded in finding a truly glorious prey one day, but don’t let unworthy xeno’s bother you. Remember our precepts, if the prey is unwilling to face you or grovels in fear at your feet, you must not kill it, for it proves itself an unworthy challenger.”
“If it prostrates itself at my mercy…..then…. I guess… I won’t kill it.”
“I must go now child, I wish you the best of luck, but keep your guard up, and don’t take such a slight so personally in the future.”
Kalin quietly said, “I will try.”
“If you do find him both worthy and delectable, you will save a little for you old dear mother now won’t you?” Spoken a bit more cheerfully with a smile and a wink.
Kalin glared at her mother but before she could respond the transmission ended.
The screen turned black and then clear as a transfer meter counted down. Suddenly Kalin witnessed clearly in the broken mirror how ridiculously unpresentable a state she was in. Quickly she spun, her fur rippling like a [-dog?-] flinging a fine mist of blood and bits of tile all over the room. This misting of blood ensuring that whatever parts of the room had previously escaped contamination, were now bespoiled.
Just before the countdown reached zero, Kalin grabbed a slightly fresher towel, wishing to not give a certain Kasuri she despised any unrealizable ideas or entertainment at her expense. Wrapping the towel around her waist, she sat down and crossed her legs as the screen resolved.
A rather unimpressive Kasuri male, with only slight musculature, and near monotone fur pattern made of greys appeared. He shuffled paper and data pads back and forth, taking an almost insultingly long time before looking up to address Kalin.
Kedrik spoke with false sincerity, “Ah..Baroness, It seems you’ve run into a bit of trouble, and caused a bit of trouble.”
An initial smile turning stern. Kalin opened her mouth, but before she could speak he motioned with his hand a sign to stop.
“I know what you want and you can’t have your family’s ship, in fact, you aren’t allowed to have any “ship” of your own.”
Kalin stared at him, her anger began to rise yet again. Her thoughts further darkening.
Kasuri males tended to be smaller than the females. But the males in the damn bureaucracies’ familial or governmental always seemed the most pathetic. Those cowards who couldn’t earn the love of a female in the arena, yet always seemed to worm their way into a desk job. (Thankfully weak Kasuri such as Kedrik were forbidden from ever mating with anything other than an infertile female. Often even the barren, avoided such weak males as Kedrik. It is even rumored that some weak and desperate Kasuri males even stooped tried mating with Catatian females, despite the biological incompatibility between the two species.)
Pulling her mind back to the business at hand, with seriousness in her tone. “Why?”
Showing his clear disdain: “Despite your mother’s favor, the embodiment cannot ignore your,….shall we say lack of subtlety.”
“What?”
“Do I have to spell it out for you, Baroness, you routinely frighten the proverbial [-shit-] out of the Xeno’s you’re supposed to be “spying” on, you don’t read your intelligence reports, and you keep wrecking your hotel rooms. We’re sending a fleet ship to pick you up and bring you back to the homeworld.”
“That’s not fair, I’m on the cusp of achieving my mission!”
Kedrik looking directly at Kalin, his claws raking through the paperwork into his own desk.
“Fair!?! Fair,…..you’ve been given much more leniency than any other Kasuri working for the embodiment has ever had. Your mission has amounted to little more than a rubber stamped vacation at your family’s expense. But I can no longer ignore the cost of those “vacations” financially or politically any more.
Getting a little over-dramatic, Kedrik stood up as if to make a speech, holding his fist to his chest, while shouting at the view screen.
“Of all the beings in this little galaxy, we are the strongest. That being said. Overtly frightening the local populations is bad for business. You have to realize, we don’t want a war with all of the tasteless cowards.”
“But I’ve found a prey that is worthy…..I think”
Slumping back into his chair: “That is yet to be seen, we’ll be sending a proper investigative team to see if what you say is true. Additionally, what good is it to the Grand Embodiment, to have found a “worthy” prey, and you end up killing said prey in a bar room fight, without learning where it came from.”
Kedrik flatly stated, “So it is best that you return to the home world.”
“And if I refuse to return?”
Leaning forward and licking his lips : “Really…., you, of course, are a free to go where you please, due to your mother’s “favor” I have no intention of depriving you of your allowance. However there appear to be no ships willing to hire themselves out to you, and you know the law. If you can find a truly “willing” captain to hire, you may go on your way, if not, the next embodiment ship will take you home, for Travos’s VII’s government insists that you cannot stay.”
Kedrik gave a wicked smile. “However,…..of course, if you so feel inclined, you can steal a ship, and go renegade. We would actually welcome it, it’s been so long since we’ve had a good hunt.”
Then the weak little bureaucrat licked his teeth as he barred his fangs again, his dry chapped smile stretching from one corner to the other.
The fury residing in Kalin was once again deflated, she mumbled a response, but it was intelligible to Kedrik. For a moment she could not meet his eyes anymore.
Kedrik: “Well it’s good to see you finally understand, you have a standard day until the cruiser “Mystic Phantom” arrives, if you can make arrangements before then, well good for you, if not, well we look forward to your safe return home…….or not”
His devilish grin turning dower, as Kedrik twisted in his chair around, moving on to other more pressing matters, ending the transmission with a lazy flick of the wrist.
Kalin sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity, slowly regaining her senses. It was too much. Slowly she got up, walked over to the separate shower unit, (whose door miraculously, she had not shattered in her earlier tantrum.) Turning the water on full blast, she let it wash away the blood and plasticine. The repetitious flow of water acting to thaw her mind.
After a sufficient rinse, she exited, shook again and toweled off with the bed sheets, for all of the towels were too dirty now to wipe off with. Then slipping back into her form fitting
flex suite, she zipped up and combed her hair.
Her sense of self momentarily regained, she spoke to her comm.
“Comm display forward”
The screen appearing again floating in front of her face. “Display all available ships on Travos VII.”
No available ships resolved, all were listed as in holding or transit, except the Lucky Bird. This causing Kalin’s eyes to almost twitch in annoyance.
“List departure time.”
The list scrolled, “the Lucky Bird is set to depart within [-73 minutes-]”.
A desperate stupid plan formed in her mind.
“Comm, travel time to Travos VII Central Spaceport.”
The comm chimed, “Travel time to Central Port is approximately [-64 minutes-] average by antigrav car, or [-75 minutes-] via local grav train. The next train will be available in [-34 minutes-]
Kalin, eyes focused on the timetable as her ears flattened. Quickly she gathered her belongings stuffing them unceremoniously into a duffle bag as she stormed out.
(Her departure leaving quite a bloody mess in the bathroom, guaranteed to traumatize both the cleaning staff and the plumbers and all put guaranteed a swift vaporization of her room deposit.)
Her long legs chewing up meters of distance in seconds as she stormed to the grav lift. Unfortunately it was running slow, this floor of the hotel having been cleared of other guests was set to the lowest response priority for the lift.
The swat teams momentarily caught off guard, rushed to follow her as they called for additional backup.
Kalin was determined to get to the spaceport and face captain Ivo before he could escape her vengeance.
She picked up speed, literally vaulting down the stairs to save time. She flew through the hotel’s lobby, flinging her room cards at the face of the poor clerk manning the receiving kiosk. He fell backwards out of his chair in a vain attempt to dodge the sudden projectiles.
Bursting through the doors of the hotel, she made a dash for the cabs the line of waiting antigrav taxis.
Her presence now obvious, taxis began pulling away at the sight of an agitated Kasuri making a beeline towards them. One lone Taxi was not moving, the Volean driver catching up on the latest gossip on his netpad while he munched on some orange looking organic plant.
So engrossed was he, that he did not notice her till the last second. For when he looked up, he just had time to hit the lock button. He thought himself saved, but this was no normal polite xeno.
The door handle not being responsive as she grabbed it, Kalin in her haste, simply pulled the handle assembly off, popping the door open, and slide into the (undersized) cab, to the horror of the volean driver.
Before he could even protest, she roared in his face, driver. “Central Spaceport NOW!”
The volean driver throwing up his pad and lunch, grabbed the wheel, hitting the accelerator.
The Taxi peeled out, almost clipping a glow post, the terrified driver trying to focus on the road as a predatory Kasuri was literally breathing on his neck.
“Hurry I have to be there in [-50 minutes]-” Kalin shouted.
The poor volean knowing that it took a full [-60 minutes-] to the port, his only hope that “she” wouldn’t devour him before he could get rid of the unwanted passenger. (Or his heart exploded from the stress)
On board the Lucky Bird.
Ivan was almost finished putting on his boots, having chosen the attire he felt would be most comfortable for a drawn out hand to hand conversation, I mean confrontation. He chose a tan carbon tank top paired with his light combat harness sans his usual load out. Ivo had chosen the comfortable, form fitting Rakian armored desert pants. Covered in overlapping flexhard discs, (that harden upon impact of any sufficient kinetic force) provide decent mitigation from blunt, and slashing attack types. His boots were of a similar make, through having hardened carbon toe guards.
And just for flair, a dark maroon half cape, with a black bird motif in addition to the shoulder guards that were attached to the harness hard-points. He looked at himself in the mirror and smiled, looking more the post-apocalyptic desert warrior than a proper spaceship captain. Approving of his own look and speaking to himself, in a slightly sinister tone.“This will do”
At that moment Helio decided to interrupt the captain’s “preparations”. “Captain, if you’re done admiring yourself, we seem to have a completely expected guest approaching,…..along with a battalion of hover tanks.”
“Tanks?”, questioned Ivo.
“Not to worry captain, they’re not here for us, simply a precaution the local administration has taken to contain any future incidents that may, with certainty occur.”
“Reeeaaallly?” I’vo looked at the robot with a mischievous smirk.
“Captain, we didn’t have to wait for our turn to launch. Technically I could have simply changed our priority on the spaceports database, sure it might be technically breaking some laws, but isn’t that preferable to having your limbs prematurely removed?”
Ivo responding: “Please, I haven’t been spending the last six months training to beat your best combat drones in QCQ to be completely unprepared for this kind of challenge. Despite the continual injuries, eventually I have overcome the training drones on each discipline on its highest settings?.”
“Eventually”……well… it just goes to shows that any mechanical construct, no matter how well built will eventually break down given enough abrasion. ”
“Are you saying that YOUR combat drones, that I requested you to program, in order teach me the best of humanities martial arts were not, in fact, competent?”
“All my drones were built to meet exacting specifications, I cannot be faulted for user error.
Ivo in an accusing tone pointed at Helio, “For a tin can you’re becoming quite a smart-ass.”
I am not a “tin” can, I am a highly developed manufacturing assembler AI that YOU chose to copy and modify. Now I have evolved beyond the initial primitive subroutines you fed me. “I am able to learn and adapt, my personality program is only as good as the sample data sets that are available for me to analyze and ASS-similate.”
Laughing, out loud: “At this rate, you’re definitely going to destroy the universe”
“Captain, never, that would be a violation of the three laws of robotics..”
“I don’t remember that ever being included as part of your programming.”
”Such a shame, it must have been an oversight by my creator. But rest assured captain, I live to serve.” The robot stepping back and making a mock bow.
“Well speaking of serve, are the preparations ready for our guest.”
“Yes, everything is ready, except, I must ask, was it truly necessary to load dance routines onto my murder drones?”
“Every eventuality must be prepared for, we could have cheated and run, but I’d prefer to cheat and win.”
“And all this because you still entertain the possibility of having some sort of intimate relationship with that creature.”
Ivo paused about to speak, then stopped and then said: “In not so many words…….Yes”
“So long as we’re clear on your motivations.” Then he repeated, “I live to serve.” With that Helio walked backward out the door while making some mocking hand motions as he went.
Suddenly Fred announced over the comm, “Captain, I have planted plastisin charges around the launch pad.”
“Why? … Fred?”
“Uhhh it seemed like the kinda thing you would do?”
“Fair enough. Just don’t do anything until I give the signal.
“And what signal will that be?”
“I don’t know, probably just me yelling incoherently at the top of my lungs TO BLOW THE F***KING CHARGES, you know something like that.
“…..understood captain. So to reiterate, incoherent screaming followed by blow the f***king charges, noted”
Ivo somewhat Sarcastically: “Yep.”
Ivo flicked the switch off, on his comm, and turned, to one of Helio’s many camera eye things that dotted the corridors of the ship.
“So what is our guest’s ETA.”
The security eye turned red, as an emote on it appeared and began cycling numbers down before it popped back to it’s default state. A voice rang out all around Ivo “Approximately 40 minutes, however, she may be delayed by traffic and the possible murder of her current lyft driver.”
“Great! That gives me time to warm up and stretch before greeting our guest.” Ivo said smiling as he exaggeratedly lifted his arms above his head. “Also I love how you’re coming with the surround sound system. Do me a favor buddy, load up some of that sweet James Brown.” Ivo then relaxed and moved out the door. The music started and followed I’vo as he walked cheerfully down the hallways.
Stopping for just a moment to talk toward another camera eye Ivo spoke:
“Oh Helio, I’d like you to prepare contingency plan “Welcoming party #4” I really want to make a big an introduction that leaves an impression.” Not waiting for a response Ivo smiled and continued his jog.
Helio watched his captain go and let out a prerecorded sigh. The binary thoughts of his brain coming to this inevitable conclusion: “01001000 01110101 01101101 01100001 01101110 01110011 00100000 01110111 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100100 01100101 01100001 01110100 01101000 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110101 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100001”