This is very much an Enemy Mine ripoff, but I had fun taking the idea and making it my own. I'd like to keep working on it at some point but for now here it is in all its terrible glory.
PART 1: DEPARTURE
REMI
No one could honestly tell you just how long the war with the Sailfins had been going on, longer than most had been alive, and almost longer than their parents had been alive. Time was meaningless out there above the planet Victory. Every day was defined by another skirmish, another defended beachhead, another ship crashing to the taboo surface of that disputed world. There were no discernible days, and except the slow roll of a clock that had begun to lose its meaning so many light-years from Earth. There was little concept of the passage of hours and minutes beyond the steady rotation of the planets around the foreign star.
Remi was a soldier. If asked she would tell you that she was a shoot first and ask questions later type of soldier. She was generally happy to follow orders and the loss of her parents to the Sailfins made the eradication of the the alien foothold around Victory a personal mission.
Neither humanity nor Sailfin lived on the surface of Victory. Any attempts at colonization were stamped out by either side sooner than anyone could make celebratory beer. Instead the two warring species built roving, rotating, space stations in stationary orbits locked on the planet poles. The Sailfins controlled the northern hemisphere and Humanity the southern. At the southern pole Humanity’s technological achievements came together in the form of the Space Station Kingmaker. The Sailfin’s space station was commonly called the Lizard Palace but there was a more official name that most everyone forgot as soon as they heard it. Remi didn’t care to remember it. She was a soldier that she knew would one day walk the halls of the Lizard Palace as one of its conquerors. The vague border between the two territories was the equator where a luminous ring of cosmic primordial material revolved around Victory’s equator.
The Sailfins were not the first alien race that humanity had encountered and they certainly wouldn’t be the last, the universe was busy with life and the space faring, wormhole hopping kind bumped heads eventually. From what Humans had gathered on the Sailfins they were relatively similar in technological standing. They had left their homeworld for the outer reaches of space around the same time as Humans and ultimately they had both found Victory around the same time. It’s hard to say who really found it first. They hadn’t gotten around to comparing notes on time frames before they had started shooting at each other.
In the end it didn’t really matter, at least not to Remi anyway. She was a soldier first. Her job wasn’t to ask questions but to shoot first and leave the question making to the bureaucrats. As far as she was concerned she would be happy to shoot all of the Sailfins in their scaly faces until everyone was dead.
At 08:00 hours Remi was up and ready to go on one of many recon missions planned for the day. She was a foot soldier meant to be deployed in the event a ground fight was necessary. It was never predictable when the Sailfins would be up to something that would warrant a ground assault, but Remi always crossed the fingers of one hand in a long outmoded gesture of superstition as the other twitched anxiously over the trigger of her rifle.
IXSH-VANE
The war with the Scaleless had waged for over fifty cycles. Her parents had barely been older than she was now when the war had broken out but they and the others of their generation had been sure to never let them forget the passage of time. Their homeworld, the original Thorcanis had perished in a catastrophic failure of their sun, and the remainder of the Thorcan had been scattered to the six winds to find a home. There was no contact with the other homeships, because time and distances were so great now that any communication would be futile. If Thorca left the new Thorcanis to the Scaleless there was a chance that they would never find another. It was a matter of survival.
Ix-vane had barely been free of her egg when the war with the Scaleless had taken over her small consciousness and began to define the whole of her short existence. Her parents had told her it wouldn’t last, and that soon they would be free to populate the planet Thorcanis along with the rest of her siblings. But with every passing cycle the Scaleless did not wane and her people did not waver.
Every day was a wasted breath, a wasted life, and a wasted moment on a war that held less and less meaning to Ixsh. Her parents had perished along with countless others in the war and she didn’t like that she had to spend the remainder of her time in the universe fighting a meaningless battle. But the Scaleless had made it personal. Any other life and Ixsh would have been content with using her skills to pilot exploratory missions to the dark reaches of space but instead she flew soldiers to war and carried their battered and broken bodies back to the homeship.
It hadn’t gotten easier to look upon the dead and bleeding. But she and learned to numb the horror.
Ixsh yearned to shed the false protective scales of combat and warfare and sink her hind claws into the sands of Thorcanis but every time any of the Thorca tried to land on the planet the Scaleless had fired from orbit and destroyed any chance at even a moment’s day of rest. The leaders had decided long ago that if no Thorca could land on the planet then neither could any of the Scaleless. It was oftentimes a war of attrition as each side bit at the nails of the other, more of an annoyance than a true threat. But the unwillingness of either side to back down had led her people to a standoff that could last for generations. No one seemed to want to ask anymore questions and instead turned to weapons of war.
At the gong of the morning bell Ixsh sluggishly crawled from her bunk in the spires of the homeship and followed the other crew to breakfast. Ixsh only got up to fly. She traded the sights of war and the smells of death for the chance to fly her beloved ships, to soar silently through space for a solitary moment of peace before dropping off her cargo to do battle with the Scaleless.
She hated them, not only for taking her family and friends away from her, but for jeopardizing the very existence of this small pocket of her people. What little the Thorca understood of the Scaleless they had a perfectly good homeworld to return to, why did they, in their eternal greed, need another?
After feeding her empty stomach she left the hall of meals to do the preflight check on her ship. She had named it for a flower on her homeworld that she had never seen. The Vaeth was a ship to be envied, because for all her love of flying nothing compared to her pride in making her ship the best it could be.
REMI
It started out simply enough. It was routine. It should have gone without a hitch. She and the rest of her squad were dropped off on one of the many rocks that were part of Victory’s ring. They were there to guard a mining crew as they dug up more resources for the Station to turn into more modules for living, weapons, and anything else the station needed to keep its foothold on Victory’s southern pole.
Remi looked around the nearly barren rock, one of many sets of eyes looking for the Sailfins to make an unwanted (for some) appearance. She was sure they would keep their distance. The Sailfins had been relatively quiet for the past few weeks and despite some covert run ins with each other they seemed to be drawing back to some extent but not rescinding any of the airspace they had control over.
Remi still kept an eye out, even though their scanners were very good the Sailfins had a way of undermining the telemetry to make their ships appear as if they were scanner ghosts.
Her helmet comm buzzed and her commander's voice came through as clear as if she were standing next to her. “Squad one, fan out. Getting some readings that could indicate Sailfin activity nearby.”
Remi’s visor showed which trajectory she was supposed to follow and she crouched low and turned her head back and forth in a slow shake to view as much of the rocky terrain as possible. The moonlet was small and the gravity was very low but her boots were magnetized to mimic the feeling of normal gravity.
Just as she came over the crest of a small outcropping of rock she saw the ship. There were three Sailfins in their spacesuits pushing meter long poles into the surface. Each pole had a small box with three blinking lights on them. Bombs.
“Commander, I have three hostiles placing explosives one hundred and twenty three meters southeast by east from landing zone.”
Remi didn’t wait for orders from the commander. If they had a chance to set these things off it could take the moonlet and everyone on it out in seconds. Remi raised her exo-rifle and targeted the three Sailfins and their respective poles. The exo-rifle was equipped with six mini-missiles, just enough to eliminate the threat but not the Sailfin ship or the pilot that she could see just inside the open hatch.
Remi demagnetized her boots and then fired the mini-missiles. As soon as the missiles had left her rifle she was taking leaps and sprints across the terrain towards the three Sailfin. The missiles were much faster than her and hit the targets just moments before Remi ran through the kicked up dust and material from the explosion and came out the other side. The pilot was already lifting off but Remi used the low gravity to her advantage and grabbed the closing hatch door and rolled inside. She magnetized her boots and rushed at the pilot. The Sailfin fought to keep one suited claw on the control panel and one on fighting Remi back. Remi was hoping that she would be able to disable the pilot and take the ship as a trophy but the Sailfin was stronger and more versatile that she anticipated. The Sailfin got its tail free and knocked Remi back into the rear of the ship. She got back up and rushed it again only to be thrown back a second time. The planet below was taking up all of the viewscreen as the Sailfin made maneuvers to reposition the ship towards the northern pole. Remi rolled over and set the magnetization of her boots to keep her locked to the ground and then began firing her rifle in the direction of the cockpit. Things started exploding.
IXSH-VANE
Ixsh hadn’t seen the Scaleless soldier until it was too late. She was prepping the ship for departure when the alien creature bounded over a ridge and killed all three of the scientists before she could call a warning. Ixsh felt terrible for leaving the bodies of the scientists but the aggressive tactics of the Scaleless had given her no choice but to take off then and there.
She didn’t realize the Scaleless had made it into the Vaeth until it was hitting her with the end of its weapon. Ixsh managed to knock the thing back a couple times as she plotted the course back to the shiphome but all was for naught when the Scaleless fired into the console and everything began to go haywire. The course to shiphome was only partially set and now the ship was headed on a one way trip to the surface of Thorcanis. Ixsh opened the emergency console and tried to set the emergency beacon but the Scaleless was behind her again with the business end of the weapon pointed right at her head. Ixsh leaped out of the seat and pushed the weapon up right before a volley of rapid fire came out and cracked the screen of the ship. Although the ship had yet to be fully filled with atmosphere the crack in the screen still caused the ship to rock wildly as what little air had filled the vacuum jettisoned out.
The Scaleless had damaged the Vaeth too much. Ixsh fought the Scaleless with one claw while the other reached for the emergency pack that held survival supplies in the event that the ship landed on a planet without help on the way.
The Vaeth jolted harshly when they hit the atmosphere and it was only then that the Scaleless paused in its assault. Ixsh couldn’t see it’s face through the opaque visor, not that she was even sure she would recognize the expressions on its face, but she was certain that it was feeling the same dread as she. She hoped that the Scaleless would cease it’s battering of her side but after a moment of stillness as they plummeted to the surface it continued to fight. Ixsh supposed it was only fitting that she go down with her ship. But she wished it hadn’t been this way, with fighting and barely flying at all.
PART 2: PLANETSIDE
REMI
She was surrounded by grass. Tall, blue-ish green in appearance and otherworldly. She had seen what grass and other flora was supposed to look like on both Earth and Victory and this was not Earth. Remi sat straight up and looked around. The wide blue sky was framed by the alien grass and tall stalks of the peculiar rhubarb stalk-like trees that made up the majority of Victory’s surface.
Remi saw smoke billowing up from another sector of tall grass and realized that the ship she had shot down and nearly commandeered was laid waste in the grass around her. The fall had thrown her from the ship and she was frankly surprised that it hadn’t killed her.
Where was its pilot? Remi crouched down and as the adrenaline rushed through her system she scrambled around the grass hoping that her exo-rifle had fallen close. It was nowhere to be seen so she began a slow crawl through the grass towards the burning ship. The visor was malfunctioning so Remi had no choice but to pull the helmet off and throw it to the side so she could see clearly.
Eyes alert she dared not breathe with relief until she was certain the beast who flew the ship was dead or dying. With every inching step closer to the derelict she expected to see the lizard-like Sailfin pop its nightmarish snout out of the smoke, but nothing came. The sizzle and stir of the ship got louder and louder. She smelled something acrid and stinging on her lungs. What--
Red and orange fires blossomed in front of her face and she was knocked back into the ground with such force she had no memory of the following few minutes.
IXSH-VANE
As soon as the disorientation from the crash dissipated Ixsh could smell the acidic taste in the air of fuel leaking out into the air. There was fire somewhere underneath the pilot’s carriage and it was only a matter of time before that smell turned dangerous and deadly.
Ixsh loosed herself from the tangled safety restraints and climbed out the shredded side of the Vaeth into the blue-green grass. She made sure to grab the survival pack on the way out, if there was a delay in sending help, it might be the only way that she would survive on Thorcanis, future home or not. Ixsh peeled off the suit meant for zero atmosphere and low gravity so she could move quickly.
There were tall looming single leaf trees in the distance and despite the fear that the Scaleless who had managed to stay attached to the Vaeth would be nearby Ixsh sprinted through the tall grass until she was hidden behind the safety of the trees. She was far enough away that the eventual explosion from the ship wouldn’t get her even with the half tank of fuel still in the Vaeth canisters. She was about to turn and continue through the trees until she saw something dark moving through the grasses towards the ship. It was the Scaleless. Much to her relative relief through the years, Ixsh hadn’t seen much of any Scaleless. She knew what they were supposed to look like under the suits that protected them from the zero atmosphere of the rings but she had never seen it up close. The Scaleless had taken off its helmet and there was dark fur protruding from its head framing brownish skin. And true to the rumors and the very appropriate name, the creature had no scales. Its soft skin could have easily been punctured by Ixsh’s own claws. Ixsh absently touched her foreclaw to her chin and watched with apprehension as the Scaleless creature slinked towards the burning ship.
What was it doing? Didn’t it know that the ship was going to explode? It was only a matter of time before--
The shockwave hit her and threw her back into a tree. Ixsh was momentarily dazed and blinked her double-eyelids rapidly to shake away the burning of her retinas from the explosion.
The Scaleless was out of sight, or so she thought. Ixsh went to move through the trees and caught sight of the creature lying limp against a rock. Red blood--the same as a Thorca much to her surprise--was coming from a gash along her temple. The blaze from the ship was starting to expand and with the barest of thought Ixsh crept up to the creature and tapped it with the end of her tail. The Scaleless didn’t move or respond to her touch. Ixsh shuddered but eyed the blaze that creeped closer to the alien beast. It didn’t feel right to leave the thing there to be eaten by the flame. Even though it was to blame for them being down there. Truth be told, Ixsh was a soft-hearted person and couldn’t bear to see even the most vile of creatures die without a fighting chance.
Ixsh’s mind was made up and she wrapped her tail around the torso of the thing and dragged it to the safety of the trees. There was enough of a barrier of barren ground between the grasses and the trees that the Scaleless would be safe here. Ixsh tasted the air and smelled the iron rich scent of blood. She shuddered again and began to run through the trees. The Scaleless was on its own from here.
REMI
She woke with a splitting headache. Remi touched the back of her head and felt the stickiness of half-dried blood. She winced and tried to sit up. It was only then that she noticed that she was much further away from the burned out husk of a ship than she should have been. She might be a self-professed dumb grunt, but Remi had at least some sense of basic physics. The blast couldn’t have sent her this far away.
Remi cringed as she sat up and stared at the molting embers surrounding the wreckage. In the dying light of day they seemed like the resting fireflies that she had read in her children’s books before such things seemed trivial. In the low light, it was almost hard to see but there was a very distinct pattern in the grass between the ship and where she sat that appeared to be signs that something had been dragged. She had been dragged. By whom… by what?
Remi quickly took stock of her surroundings but as far as she could see through the sparsely spaced trees she was was very much alone. There was no guarantee of that however so she picked herself up and even though the nausea from standing too fast threatened to take her back down she gritted her teeth and stumbled through the trees. She could recall seeing mountains in the distance. South was safety. The Sailfins would come for their wrecked ship surely but she wasn’t sure if her own people would even know that she survived the encounter. But even if she had to make her own way on this world for a time Humanity had territorial control of the southern hemisphere, even if only in space, and it was her only hope of salvation.
IXSH-VANE
Ixsh hoped that by heading south she would get her people’s attention. They were usually quick to notice activity on the southern side of the planet. But the same could be said for the Scaleless. The planet surface was virtually off limits to both sides and she was banking on the eyes of the people keeping an eye out for illicit encampments. Though the Scaleless tended to keep their attempts at colonization closer to the meridian between the southern pole and the equator. She would be risking a lot by being out in the open but it was her only hope of salvation.
If her calculations were correct the survival pack would keep her fed and her water clean for up to three weeks. After that she was on her own. Survival classes were mandatory for all pilots and Thorca who went on expeditions off shiphome but she had never had the opportunity to put any real practice into the skill. The planet had been virtually off limits for longer than she had been alive. The area where Vaeth had crashed was warm, temperate and there was a soft breeze moving cool air between the trees. Thorca had no need of artificial scales outside of combat or outerspace activities so she discarded the last layer of her space suit and stuffed it into the survival pack. The feeling of wind over her scales was blissful. She wasn’t sure when the last time she had felt something so soothing. It hurt her hearts to know that few of her species could even remember a time when they could walk liberated with their hind claws in the dirt and the free winds brushing against their scales.
As she walked, in a generally southward direction, she finally had a chance to study the surroundings. The trees were tall, with reddish bases reaching nearly one hundred meters at their highest and tapering into a single green leaf larger than her ship had been. They were clustered in sprouts of two to five and the large shadows cast by the leaves carried their own secrets. The mosses and lichens that populated the brown earth were blues and greens and reds, a cacophony of color that she had only really seen from satellite imagery. In the distance she heard a stream, and on the air she could smell the life of the forest in a single flick of her tongue. It was like finding the mythical Kitcxarnin. It was a place that the superstitious of her kind used to believe in. the Place Between the Rocks, where there were blissful days, warm rocks, cool water, and all the fruits and bugs a Thorcan could ever hope to eat. If such a place really existed it was long gone now on the original Thorcanis, but this place that was supposed to be their new home was just as close as any fable or myth. Only it was better. It was real.
Ixsh knew that if she ever made it back to shiphome her commitment to making Thorcanis truly theirs would be increased tenfold, why did these Scaleless even need this place?
REMI
Everything hurt the longer she walked. Her head was pounding, her mouth was dry from dehydration, her feet hurt from walking in her heavy boots that were meant for low to zero-g environments. She wanted to sleep, but the knowledge that she might have a severe concussion from the activities of yesterday kept her going. In the distance before she had entered the forest of rhubarb trees she had seen mountains in the distance and hoped that on one of the summits she might be able to start a signal fire and catch the attention of the Kingmaker.
Remi had never set foot on Earth, she and most of her friends and family had been born on the Kingmaker and what she had seen of a real planet was in vids and archived photos of the homeworld. Humanity had colonized most of the other planets or moons in their home solar system but Victory was the first extrasolar planet that had captured the attention of Earth. The Solar System was bursting with people, and was facing an overpopulation crisis like none other seen in human history after they had expanded off Earth.
They probably had another hundred or so years before the Solar System was so overpopulated that it would start causing problems, but Victory was their golden world, their hope and the pride of the leaders of Kingmaker that humanity would not be stuck in their little system for the rest of time. Many of the habitable world that were reachable by their burgeoning technology were already taken, populated, and parceled out to the discovering species.
So no, they didn’t NEED this planet, but why did the Sailfins need it? They hadn’t gained little to nothing from the aliens except their insistence on fighting for the planet. They had been at a standstill and a deadlock on both sides. Eventually Remi knew they would win. Because that was humanity. Stubborn, bull headed humanity. It was their best, and arguably their worst quality according to some of the other species that they had come across in their explorations of the Milky Way.
As Remi walked she tried to look closer at her surroundings. Photos and vids of the homeworld were nothing compared to seeing it all close up. And even this world, while some things were functionally recognizable were different. There were plants that looked like oversize brussel sprout stalks taller than she was but not nearly as tall as the rhubarb trees. She laughed to herself as she realized she’d been comparing everything to food. She hadn’t eaten anything before the load out that morning and she was paying for it.
Remi was ascending a tiring hill and just before she was about to give up and try to go around the trees opened up and she was standing on a cliff overlooking a beautiful sight.
It was an oasis. A small pool of water surrounded by a small shore and tall trees. Half of it was cusped by the cliff edge and created a cavern with a cave opening at the back. The pool of water was so clear that Remi just wanted to climb in and drink her fill. She knew she would have to wait to see if the auxiliary water purifier on what remained of her suit would be able clear the water as drinkable or if she would have to sit and wait for the purifier to do its work on a couple batches of the liquid.
She moved to start scaling the crest of the cliff edge where it tapered down towards the water’s edge but she miscalculated the sturdiness of the ground and it fell away under her. Remi tumbled down part of the cliff and the fell into the water. It was cold compared to the warm air and everything seeped into her suit. Remi growled angrily but took a moment to breathe.
She picked herself up from the mud and when Remi looked up to get her bearings she came face to snout with a Sailfin.
IXSH-VANE
How? How had this thing followed her here? The Scaleless stared at her with it’s tiny eyes that somehow, inexplicably seemed larger as it stared at her. It was covered in mud and if she had taken the time to set her things up in cave for the night it might have taken her by surprise. Ixsh dropped into a crouch and prepared to defend herself.
The Scaleless moved quickly for its size and grabbed a rock off the ground and threw it at her. Ixsh easily batted it away with her tail and hopped back a few meters. She saw the face of the Scaleless shift and she was surprised to note that they had expressions! If she wasn't sure the little beast would try to kill her she might find have had time to consider that fascinating fact.
The Scaleless ran at her with a horrible sounding yell. Ixsh was more startled by the noise that the little creature running at her. She bounded up the side of the cliff face and hit the ground running behind the Scaleless. She would have to come back for her pack but she knew she had to lead the Scaleless away, hopefully to get lost in the forest.
Ixsh could easily find her way back from the scents in the forest but she was sure from the size of the Scaleless’s nose and mouth that the creature would have limited grasp of scent. It was tiny, and much to her displeasure in leading it away, kind of slow. She wasn't sure what mistake evolution had made in building these creatures but they seemed to have no strengths or natural defences. And clearly no tail! The horror.
Like leading a bit of prey with bait she led the creature on a roundabout route through the forest doing her best to stay barely out of sight and but close enough that it could follow her. The ground under the forest was starting to level out and in the distance she could smell something in the air that was odd, yet uncomfortably familiar. But she couldn’t place it. The sky in the direction she was trying to lead the Scaleless was tinged with the reds and oranges of sunset. Ixsh wanted to get the creature as far away from her as possible before the sun set. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was going to find in this place at night.
Ixsh was making good progress until suddenly she lost it. The Scaleless had lost her trail. Ixsh circled back in frustration and almost wished she were cruel enough to want to destroy the creature. She was a pilot, and the whole reason she had signed up for science missions is because she was couldn’t stand the idea of taking the life of another creature. Even these Scaleless with their uncertain morals and destructive nature were living things and the thought of taking a life was too unsettling.
REMI
It was leading her on a wild goose chase. As soon as she realized that Remi stopped and crouched down between a rock and the red trunk of one of the trees. She shuddered, and felt her pulse quicken. The way the Sailfin had batted away the rock she had thrown earlier was proof enough that it was considerably quicker than she was and this chase through the forest had been fruitless. It was painfully obvious the way that it was just barely out of sight that it was leading her away. As it was she wasn’t even sure she could make it back to where the little pond was. She peered over the rock and waited for the creature to show its ugly snout. If it really was trying to lead her away it might be confused that it had suddenly lost her. She began shedding the rest of the EVA gear. With the added weight gone she would be faster and more agile. She felt almost naked without the gear, but if the Sailfin was going to play games then she wasn’t about to be made into a fool because of something she could help.
There wasn’t much on the forest floor to turn into a weapon but she managed to find a stiff slat of one of the shorter flora scattered between the tall trees to quickly turn into a bat. A decisive hit with the thing would hopefully stun the creature. She waited for what seemed way too long. The sky was getting redder as the moments passed. It was her only notion of passing time. She heard dirt rustle and leaves move off to the side and she peered around saw the Sailfin moving low through the underbrush. Its head moved back and forth like a horizontal pendulum and its nostrils flared with every intake of breath. It was searching for her. She carefully moved into position tucking her feet under her in just the right way to let her leap out at the Sailfin. It got closer, and closer, and with every millimeter she could hear its heavy breathing getting louder. She leapt out and aimed for its head. The bat skimmed the surface of the Sailfin’s snout. It had leapt out of the way just in time.
Remi didn’t dare let the thing get the best of her. She spun around the alien lizard with bat in hand and prepared to strike again. The creature had its tail raised in a threatening posture but didn’t move any closer to take a hit. It was hesitating and that hesitation was strange and almost scary It’s large gold and green eyes studied her with a weird apprehension. She expected the Sailfin to be aggressive and cruel. She expected it to lash out at her in retaliation. She had seen enough movies with lizard like aliens that were as cold as their blood but it wasn’t behaving like she thought it would.
Remi rushed at it and it bounded back started to sprint through the trees. Remi growled angrily and chased after it. She burst through the edge of the forest and gasped. The ground ended and opened up into a massive chasm reaching wide and cutting the forest off from the other side. On the opposite side of the chasm the forest began again and just over the crest of massive leaves a huge single pointed mountain cast a deep shadow into the sky as the sun fell behind it. The Sailfin seemed just as surprised as her at the sudden drop and scampered along its edge. Remi wasn’t about to let it get away and chased after it as fast as she could. A large tree had fallen across the chasm and the Sailfin tested its strength and began a perilous crossing.
Remi stood on the other side and shouted curses at the Sailfins back. It reached the other side before Remi had even an ounce of courage to cross. The depth of the fissure in the earth swam before her and she shuddered. Far below she could see the river that had carved its way into the ground and a fall from that height would be instant death. This was probably the worst time to recall she was afraid of unassisted heights. In space with EVA gear and tow lines there was safety, but here gravity was an enemy.
The Sailfin wiggled its tail and it took a second for Remi to realize it was taunting her. It’s tongue waggled comically and if she wasn’t severely pissed at the stupid alien she would have laughed.
She stormed--carefully--across the fallen tree and shook the bat at the Sailfin. “I’m going to kill you!”
IXSH-VANE
She was pleased with the progress away from her intended camp but the Scaleless had shed the rest of its artificial scales and was moving quicker than before. She was hoping to lose the Scaleless on this side of the fissure and trap it by hacking away at the tree that acted as a bridge.
Her little display to coax the creature across the chasm had worked wonderfully and it was angrily crossing the tree shouting at her in its funny language.
She was trying to think of more ways to taunt the creature into following her when the ground shook. Ixsh’s heart quickened and she looked around stunned. She glanced at the Scaleless but it was looking up at the mountain from its precarious perch on the tree crossing the fissure. Ixsh followed its gaze and saw great black smoke billowing forth. The mountain was erupting. They were standing on the edge of a volcano.
For the briefest of moments Ixsh and the Scaleless met gazes. There was no safety on this side of the chasm. Ixsh ran back towards the tree bridge and the Scaleless. It was looking back at the mountain again.
“Move you fool!” Ixsh cried to the Scaleless.
It jolted at her voice but the unreadable expression on its face didn’t help her. “You have to move, we can’t stay here!”
The Scaleless began to back up but another tremor shook the ground and it began to lose its balance. Ixsh didn’t wait a moment more. She ran across the tree and scooped the Scaleless up. She deposited the startled alien on the other side but didn’t wait for it to recover before heading in as straight a line as she could for the pond and the cave. If the volcano was about to explode the ash would cover everything including the smells she needed to find her way back to her things.
She glanced back only briefly and was vaguely stunned to see the Scaleless was keeping up with her. There was no space to think, only to run.
REMI
Remi didn’t have the stride of the Sailfin but she was still fast. Unburdened by the EVA gear she was just as agile and nearly as quick as the Sailfin. Remi was hoping the Sailfin was leading them back to the oasis.
The fissure would catch most of the lava flow but there was no telling what fires or flames would make their way across. And the ash. She had only seen videos of volcanoes in action but the ash that was surely to fall like a deadly snow would cover everything. The ground shook again this time followed by a concussive sound wave that shook everything around them. She looked back and saw a dark cloud pooling in the red and orange sky muting the rest of the sunset.
Remi didn’t see the stopped Sailfin before it was too late and she slammed into the lizard creature sending both of them falling into the pool of the oasis.
IXSH-VANE
Ixsh was momentarily winded by the sudden impact on her side and dip in the pool of water. She tried to not breathe it in and upon seeing the struggle of the Scaleless she grabbed it with her tail and dragged both of them to the shoreline. Ixsh shook the water from her snout and eyed the Scaleless warily. But the rumbling and angry smoke in the sky from the volcano took her attention again. She hoped they were far enough to not be hurt by the ash. But clearly not so far that the ashes from the smoke fell around them like dark snow. The cave under the crest of the hill beckoned safety so she headed for it and out of the corner of her eye she saw the Scaleless follow her.
Due to the nature of their species relationship they should be fighting right now, just as they had moments before the volcano made its presence known. But now the stress and the fear of death seemed to be affecting them both. Ixsh took one corner of the cave and the Scaleless took the other. They both watched the ash fall from the sky and coat the once clear pool of water with a sickly grey film.
As night fell a scary red color and black smoke tinged the sky and she was sure that whatever forest on the other side of the chasm remained was burning. She didn’t want to freeze as the temperature dropped with every passing hour and made the first move. She watched the Scaleless who hadn’t moved but instead was huddled into an inexplicably small ball. Its sudden change in mood was frightening to Ixsh. She wasn’t sure what to expect from this creature at all.
She set up a fire in between the two of them and when she caught the Scaleless’s eyes she motioned for it to come closer. She wasn’t sure if they would have the same gestural language to indicate motion but the creature seemed to understand and scooted its tiny body close to the fire.
And for a time, a volcano destroyed the animosity between two enemies.
PART 3: LEARNING TO LIVE
IXSH-VANE
A day passed before Ixsh really felt like moving. The fire had gone out and the Scaleless was sitting on the edge of the cave mouth watching the slow accumulation of ash. It had gone out for a time but had returned and seemed sick or listless. Ixsh could see strange patterns in the ash at its feet and wondered if it was a form of written language. She didn’t understand the symbols but from a distance she studied them with fascination.
Ixsh was the first to figure out a way of speaking on the third day of their hibernation. Their spoken tongues were relatively incompatible but they each had hands. The Scaleless had five digits and Ixsh had four. So when Ixsh found a protein pack in her survival kit she offered it to the Scaleless by pointing two fingers and her thumb at her snout and then handing a portion of the edible morsel to the alien.
The Scaleless was rightfully wary of her and the food she offered but the survival pack had everything she needed to get by on this planet until they were found including testing flora and fauna for edibility. Soon, however, the hunger from two days of little food and water won out and the alien accepted what she had offered.
She wasn’t entirely sure that her people’s protein packs were edible to the Scaleless but it’s momentary perusal of the pack with something attached to the Scaleless’s arm seemed to indicate that it was.
Ixsh wasn’t ashamed to think that it was nice that at least in the face of all the differences between their two peoples at least they could eat the same foods. She briefly entertained the idea of a feast bringing their two peoples together but shook the fantasy away. There was too much bad blood between them now. It would take a miracle and more than just her and this tiny sample of the Scaleless race to fix it. She wasn’t even sure if the Scaleless wanted peace.
REMI
“I make fire.” Remi signed.
The Sailfin nodded, or what she had come to understand as a nod, and made the sign for: “good.”
The rudimentary sign language that had begun to develop between Remi and the Sailfin was limited in its breadth of information but they were making it work. Remi tried to see this as an opportunity to gain intel on the reptilian species but really she was just tired of fighting. She never thought she would say that, or even think that in light of all that had transpired between their two species. But ever since the explosion of the mountain in the distance and their flight back to the oasis she had felt a strange sense of loneliness and isolation. Of course she was the only Human on this whole planet, and the Sailfin was the only of its kind on the whole planet. As far as she knew both their peoples thought they were dead. There had been no effort to find them. No signs of a search party, not even a glimmer in the sky of passing ships.
The ash that had fallen from the sky had coated everything in a blanket of grey sick. The weight of the ash was causing trees to crumble and break. In the deep of the night when sleep was already fitful from the cold air and the lack of insulation from the wind sudden creaks and cracks from trees buckling under the weight of the ash would wake her and the Sailfin up. The first night after the eruption Remi had sat on the crest of a hill and watched the oozing lava flows catch everything flammable in its wake and turned the whole area on the other side of the ravine into glowing embers that lit the night sky.
She hadn’t been sure about sharing a space with the Sailfin but she had no supplies and all of her gear except for a tiny water filtration and material tester attached to her flight suit had been discarded to give her more ability to chase after the Sailfin. It had been fruitless and she was now dependent on the alien lizard.
It didn’t seem to mind and had actually offered her edible food on more than one occasion. It’s character was surprising to her she didn’t know what she had expected a Sailfin to be like in person but this wasn’t it. She had made the determination a long time ago that the Sailfin were a mindless pest to be eradicated.
Remi didn’t often think about the logistics of her people’s place outside this world. She had grown up in a military family with a motto that until the fight was done there was no giving up. The fight for as long as she had been alive was that they were to have Victory or they would die trying.
Whether the fight was right or not had never crossed her mind, and if she were to be perfectly honest with herself she didn’t care. But something had begun to trickle in her mind about the fight with these Sailfins. She wondered what they called themselves. She hadn’t ever learned anything from the limited communications they’d had with the Sailfins. Their language was strange, sharp, and slithery all at once. The Sailfin that she shared the cave space with was docile, quiet, and watchful. But not watchful in a wary way but a curious way.
As she prepared the fire for the day she considered how to word or present what she wanted to ask the Sailfin. To be honest, she wanted to know what to call it besides “the Sailfin.”
The Sailfin was picking the pink berries off a plant it had found and was placing them in a makeshift leaf bowl.
“Hey,” she said.
The Sailfin looked up and tilted its head in a questioning way. Remi had seen this done in some old movies and wondered if it would actually work.
“Remi. Reh-mee. Remi.” Each time she patted her chest in time with her name. Then she pointed at the Sailfin and tilted her head to the side in that same questioning way. The head tilt had become their version of a question mark.
The Sailfin blinked its huge green and gold eyes and then out of its mouth came: “Threh.. Threh-mee.”
Remi patted her chest and said again, “Remi!” She pointed to the Sailfin again and tilted her head.
“Reh-mee…” The Sailfin repeated and then placed its four fingered claw to its chest and said something slowly that sounded like “Ik sha.” It said it a few more times and Remi understood that she probably wouldn’t ever get it right, bit it was close enough. Ixsh seemed pleased with her pronunciation at least.
Remi pointed to the Sailfin, “Ixsh” and then pointed to herself, “Remi.”
IXSH-VANE
The trading of names had been surprising but pleasing at the same time. Remi was daily becoming more of an interesting creature compared to the monster she had viewed its species as. Remi’s entire mood, which had been depressed and stiff after the volcano incident, seemed to lighten considerably and what little she understood of Remi’s emotional state and the expressions of its people seemed to improve considerably.
Their wary truce seemed to get stronger after that and Ixsh hoped that they would make it through whatever winter this planet held in store for them so they could make it back to their respective peoples.
Remi was the first to propose building a proper shelter. The colder it got the more likely it was that they were going to die from cold. The open mouth of the cave let too much of the heat of the fire out and too much of the cold from the outside in. While Ixsh did what she could to down some of the leafy trees Remi put her tiny agile fingers work weaving hardy dried strips of bark into netting that would hold the massive leaves in place to cover the cave opening.
Ixsh was amazed at the tiny creature’s ingenuity and did her best to compliment it with her own. After just a few days of work they had the entire cave opening covered by a double wall and two doors offset on each side the prevent as little heat from escaping as possible. They even had much of the walls covered in leaves to insulate the cool cave walls.
Ixsh felt very proud of their accomplishments. She was proud of their ability to work together and hoped that it would mean that there was hope for their two species to coexist.
Moments turned to hours, and hours to days, and in turn those days began to pass like moments.
PART 4: FRIENDSHIP
REMI
Remi sifted through the snow for the little trap that she had set the night before. Her breath came out in opaque puffs as she worked at the nights accumulation. Remi and Ixsh had found a small rodent-like species that dominated much of the underbrush of their little corner of forest. It was edible and its population had few natural predators so it was easy to catch enough to feed the both of them.
The winter had been long. But in that time Ixsh and Remi had managed to not only get a working sign language between them but they had even managed to find a common ground in exchanging their verbal and written languages. Ixsh had gone out and retrieved Remi’s discarded EVA suit just before the snows began when it became clear that the flight suit she wore wouldn’t keep her warm. Ixsh had explained as best she could that her species had a vague control over their body temperature and with what little of her own flight suit had survived she would be fine in the coming weather.
“Do you think we could coexist?” Remi had asked that morning as she added dried bark to the fire.
“I think so, I hope so.” Ixsh had replied, half in words and half in hand signs. Ixsh had taken over
Their strange pidgin language of each other’s verbal language, signs, and body movements was slowly becoming more and more fluid. There was more understanding and more communication and best of all, at least for Remi, humor. Ixsh was a hilarious person. Remi had always been a terribly serious person and found Ixsh’s sense of humor strange but endearing. The first time Remi had laughed it had startled Ixsh but when she understood what the noise was Ixsh seemed to pursue getting it out of Remi. The Sailfin, or Thorcan, laugh was more of a chuffing noise deep in their diaphragm that was equally bizarre to Remi.
Ixsh took great joy in making Remi laugh.
Ixsh had made a game out of trying to surprise Remi and make her laugh. Remi had never had a cat, but the playful behavior of Ixsh sometimes reminded her of the little ship cats that some people had back on Kingmaker.
Remi usually responded to exasperation but it made her smile nonetheless, she didn’t have very many friends back on Kingmaker, and the few she did have weren’t very close.
In those moments they knew each other’s joy.
IXSH-VANE
As their language progressed Ixsh and Remi exchanged stories. Remi told Ixsh about her family. A clutch of brothers in which she was a middle born.
“I was never very close to my family. It seemed like the older I got the less I understood them and the less they understood me. I can’t say that either side really tried to find the common ground after a while. In the end I moved to the other side of the Kingmaker and lived in the barracks, I don’t… I don’t actually know if my brothers even know if I’m even gone. I stopped talking to them a long time ago, not long after my parents passed.”
“You’re parents are gone?” Ixsh asked.
Remi bobbed her head, a gesture that she had begun to understand to mean yes, or agreement.
“They died when there was a conflict with the Thorca.”
“You have reasons to despise my people, then.”
“Sure, but...” Remi tilted her head up and looked at the roof of the cave. “I killed your people too. There’s plenty of hate to share.”
Ixsh was only just beginning to understand the small nuances of Remi’s expressions but she could see the sadness in her posture.
“How do we come back from this? From these fights, and hate? My own family are all military. I just like to fly, but every particle of Thorcan society is built on trying to find a new home.”
“Home?” Remi asked.
Ixsh, with careful words and signs, explained the tragedy of Thorcanis. The sun was fine, with many billions of years left in its stellar life but a war had broken out on Thorcanis, and its people had been divided. Their war raged for a dozen generations, and when hope seemed all but lost, a terrible Thorcan had decided it was time to end it all and sent a device into their sun to destroy it. They had so little time to prepare and with a dozen possible coordinates for habitable planets they had finally come together as one species but only to be split to go in search of a new home.
The hope had been that whichever group found a new Thorcanis they would send out a beacon for the others. But after fifty generations orbiting this world they had tapped all their resources to get here and had yet to receive a beacon from any other group. It was victory or death for the Thorcans.
In those moments they knew each other’s sadness.
PART 5: RETURN
IXSH-VANE
It was spring.
The berries that she had been cultivating since before the snows were almost ready for planting. Ixsh had spent the greater part of a month clearing a large section of trees just down hill of their encampment. As night fell and the stars began to come out Ixsh carefully dug tracks into the ground where they would put their first crop.
In the morning she and Remi would begin planting and for Ixsh it felt like the first step to colonization. How appropriate that the first inhabitants of this planet were one of each of their species?
A bright flash caught her eye and she looked up. A brilliant white streak soared over the sky and and she felt her breath catch. Falling meteors were common with the rings around the planet but she had never seen one this bright.
Her delight was turned to horror when she realized what she was seeing wasn’t a meteor but a ship. It exploded in a second bright flash and a second ship high in the atmosphere sped through its trail of wreckage and made a sharp turn.
“Ixsh!” she heard Remi call.
Ixsh didn’t look at Remi as she came to stand next to her. Suddenly there were explosions in the sky. The split seconds of time between the flash and the sound of the explosion were surreal and heartbreaking. Her people and Remi’s people, they were up there killing each other. The peace that they had found on the planet surface hadn’t made its way into the sky and Ixsh knew that the fact there was an active battle in the sky above them didn’t bode well.
Engagements between the two were rare and when they did happen it was short and usually between one or two ships. There were at least a dozen of each fleet up there. Something had gone wrong.
REMI
Remi wasn’t prepared for the day that a Kingmaker dropship landed in a large area that Ixsh had cleared for their planned berry crops. Just a day after the battle that had raged above their heads Remi had been out at the clearing waiting for Ixsh to come with the seeds. Remi stood at the edge of the trees and felt her heart shatter into smaller and smaller pieces as the ship with the number 0057 imprinted on the side landed, and the door opened. Her sense of time drifted away into a sense of unreality as marines, people she had known, worked with, fought beside came out and ran towards her stepping carelessly into the carefully prepared dirt. Remi looked back and willed Ixsh to stay out of sight. She didn’t want her friend to come out and die before her eyes. Because if these marines were half of what she had been just months prior Ixsh would die without a moment’s hesitation. As soon as one of the marines placed a hand on her shoulder she started to cry. The happiness, the sense of belonging, and peace she had found in this moment on this forbidden world, with an alien who was supposed to be her enemy was coming to an end.
She felt weak, helpless to do anything, as the medic with the troop wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and ushered her towards the waiting drop ship. She glanced back one more time and saw Ixsh, the expression on her face one of fear. Remi turned her back on the ship for a moment and signed a simple phrase. The medic pulled her along and as Remi’s tears turned into wracking sobs she watched the planet fall away.
The moments that followed were disquieting. She drifted through the following medical checkup and psych eval with her mind and heart still on the planet below, she tried to be normal, but knew they would probably forgive the stress she was under.
They had thought she was dead. The cursory satellite search of the area where the Thorcan--no, Sailfin--ship had crashed showed no signs of life. She had to remember to not use Thorcan terms for fear that they might discover Ixsh. They’d had a memorial service for her and everything. The Kingmaker bigwigs had used her “death” to put weight behind a new more aggressive tactic against the Sailfin. When a few months prior they had noticed Sailfin scouts circling the area around a recently active volcano and picked up on the intel that they were searching for something. Searching for someone.
It was only then that they redirected a handful of satellite operators to keep and eye on the area. The picture that Remi had been shown was simple and thankfully didn’t show any evidence of Ixsh. It was of Remi sitting on the hill that gave her a vantage point of the volcano. As it had grown warmer she had gone up there to relax in the sun and take some time for herself to think.
The space battle that had played out above their heads just a week prior had been the result of Kingmaker taking an aggressive step to secure the area for an extraction. They had been certain that the Sailfin were looking for Remi to use as a hostage.
It had escalated into a battle, because surely the Thorcans had somehow known that Ixsh was still alive in the same area and probably thought the same of the humans. With every bit of information she got about her rescue and the battles that led up to it, her heart broke even more.
And now that she was up here, the Kingmaker had managed to secure that airspace and there was no chance that the Thorca would be able to get to Ixsh now.
IXSH-VANE
She watched, holding her breath, as the Scaleless ship landed and took Remi away. Remi had turned, and for a moment she thought that she was going to point her out but instead she merely signed the words: “Stay. Hide. Be safe.”
She had fallen back into the cave and didn’t come out again until nightfall. Ixsh stood over the area where Remi had been taken. She reached a claw into the previously tilled earth and let the crushed soil trickle over her claws. She felt like this dirt, once useful but now blasted to useless char by careless ship engines. She was alone now. Remi wouldn’t be coming back and if the Scaleless had managed to get to them here, in Thorcan airspace, then the Thorca would not be able to get to Ixsh.
Ixsh began to walk, back towards the encampment and felt her hearts beat anxiously. She had no choice. She had to do what she should have done since day one. Continue the journey to the south pole. Her people were more likely to get her there than here, in this temporary home. It should not have even become a home, but she and Remi had developed a friendship, and had begun to build a bridge between their two peoples that hadn’t been there before.
But she couldn’t stay. This place was just a place. Her home was on shiphome with her people. Before she entered the cave she looked up at the stars and hoped that Remi would be safe, wherever she was. In the morning Ixsh would pack what she could, and begin the journey again towards the south pole.
REMI
She was sitting on a high bench while one of the nurses puttered around her doing a last minute checkup before releasing her to the barracks.
“It’s a good thing we found you when we did.” Kent, one of her squadmates, and the only one she could really consider a friend, had come to visit her in the medbay, and had offered to walk her back to the barracks. “Ops just discovered that a lizard was also in the area. They are going to be firebombing the area to eradicate the pest in just a few hours.”
“Firebombing?” She said the word like it was a bitter pill.
“Yeah, there’s no telling what the lizard was looking for or what it found at your camp.”
It was her camp too. Remi thought. Ixsh had no idea, she couldn’t have any clue that she was in danger and would die in a few hours time.
“You’re all clear,” the nurse said and patted her arm.
Remi hopped off the table and silently followed Kent out of the medbay. He chattered on about all the things and battles she’d missed out on the the past six months. But Remi couldn’t listen, didn’t want to listen.
Remi wanted to hit herself. What was she doing moping like a lost child? She was a soldier, and a damn good one at that. She wasn’t as smart as a scientist but she was stubborn where it counted and she wasn’t about to let someone important to her suffer. If she had to sacrifice her own life to get Ixsh back home she would. She had yet to be cleared by medical to go out on missions again, and she didn’t know how to fly so commandeering a drop ship was out of the question.
“Kent,” Remi said.
Kent hadn’t heard her and just kept rambling on about battle tactics.
“Kent!” Remi stopped in the middle of the hall, ignoring the side glances and grumbles from the people walking past.
Kent stopped and stared back at her. “What? Is something wrong.”
“Yes,” she said.
“What? Do we need to go back to the med--”
“No, not that.” Remi looked Kent directly in the eye. “Kent. I need you to trust me. I have information that could end this war.”
“You do?”
“On the planet. I was in contact with the...Sailfin down there.”
Kent blinked rapidly and opened his mouth as if to say something but he couldn’t seem to find the words. “You haven’t told Intel about this?”
“No.”
His expression changed to one of confusion. “Then we should go... now!”
“They can’t help us,” she grasped Kent’s shoulder. “We need a ship. We have to go down there and get her.”
“Her?” Kent frowned and eyed Remi as if she might be going a bit insane.
“Her name is Ixsh-Vane. She’s my friend. We learned how to coexist. I can’t let her die.”
“Are you serious.”
“Kent, I have no one else to trust, you have to help me!”
“Remi, you’ve been isolated on a planet for six months with a lizard, you could be brainwashed for all I know.”
Remi felt a hot spear of anger shoot through her. “Kent, I am not brainwashed, I’m just educated now! We can end this war, but for us to do so we have to get her! We can’t let her die!”
“I don’t know Remi...” Kent frowned, uncertainty etched into his face.
“Please, I’ll never ask anything of you.”
“I’ve never known you to beg for anything, Remi. Why is this so important to you? Why is this lizard so important to you?”
“We’re not so different, us humans and the Thorcan, they’re just trying to find a home. We became friends down there, we found a common ground, we found ways to complement eachother’s differences and strengths. We could be so much stronger if we could get our two species to live and work together.”
“How do you know it wasn’t a trick?”
“If Ixsh had wanted me dead, she had ample opportunity to kill me. I lived and slept barely three meters from her for six months. We shared stories, and shared food, and our lives! I can’t let her die. Please, Kent, help me.”
“Alright Remi, but I’m bringing weapons and if this Lizard so much as makes a move to attack, I’ll kill it.”
“That won't be necessary. But we need a ship.”
PART SIX: HOME
REMI
Remi waited for Kent just off to the side of the hanger bay where he was arguing with a deck tech. The tech was disputing the mission orders that Kent had somehow gotten, and in all likelihood he knew they were faked.
But Kent, to his credit, was a smoothtalker and was picking apart the tech’s doubts.
The forest below the ship exploded and when the flash of light had passed there was only char, embers, and shockwaves of follow up explosions. It was overkill. It was unnecessary.
“No! NO!” Remi hit the viewscreen.
Kent watch Remi with remorse. He hated to see his friend in pain, but it was probably for the best. She had been taken in by lizard lies.
Remi had sunk to the copilot’s chair and tears were streaming down her face. “I was too late!”
Kent watched her, trying to decide how to proceed from here when a transmission beacon on the console started to go off. Kent hit the reciever and the voice of one of the admirals of the Kingmaker’s military exploded into the cockpit. “All ships, fan out. Security satellites have spotted the lizard. It’s gotten out of range of the Incinerators!”
Remi gasped. “Head south!”
“What?”
“Stop questioning me! Just head south! She would be heading deeper into Thorcan airspace!”
Remi felt her heart and throat constrict as Kent moved the ship around and they headed south. Remi tapped the display on the console and brought up a bio-sign detector. There was lots of little creatures on the planet but as far as she and Ixsh had been able to find nothing came quite to the size of either of them.
“There!” Remi pointed out a glowing dot on the scanner.
Their ship wasn’t the only one to figure out that Ixsh would head south and another bomber sidled up next to them. Remi saw the exterior articulators of the Incinerators powering up. She didn’t bother consulting Kent, she took command of the port gunner from the console and fired on the other bomber. It veered off sharply and began to plummet. The surprise attack taking out its thrusters. The people aboard would be fine, Remi assured herself.
“Bomber 0029, you are in violation of procedural codes 7 and 34 of the--”
Remi hit the console cutting the voice off.
Kent frowned. “They’ll court martial us.”
“We aren’t going to give them the opportunity. Get down there.”
“What are you planning now?” Kent hissed.
“We’re already in trouble, we can’t go back! Get down there and get her!”
Kent cussed loudly but didn’t argue and began following the blip on the scanner. Remi searched the trees they flew over for any sign of her friend.
“There!” Remi saw her sprinting through the trees. SHe was being smart and avoiding large gaps in the trees, but the trees were starting to thin out. She was approaching part of the forest that had been destroyed by the volcano six months ago. Just as Ixsh bulleted out of the forest and onto blackened igneous rock Kent pulled the ship around. Remi jumped out of the copilot’s seat and opened the side hatch. A warning klaxon screamed. The door wasn’t meant to be opened mid flight. Remi peered out.
“Ixsh!” she screamed. “Ixsh, I’m here!”
Ixsh had stopped as soon as the bomber had appeared and seemed ready to bolt back into the cover of trees but as soon as she saw Remi she seemed stunned.
“Kent! Lower us down more!”
The hatch opened all the way and Remi waved at Ixsh to get into the ship. Ixsh hesitated for only a moment.
IXSH-VANE
Ixsh had planned on leaving later, but something told her she shouldn’t hesitate. She wasn’t sure if Remi would reveal her presence at the oasis or not, and as much as she wanted to give the benefit of the doubt to her friend she had to take her safety into account.
So it was with a great deal of luck and foresight that Ixsh was nearly a mile away from the oasis when the forest exploded behind her and a terrifying red glow lit the twilight sky.
She began to run.
She heard the hum of ships beyond the trees but didn’t try to find them. She only had the mind to run. The char in the air from to burning forest scared her. Had Remi revealed her? She heard something like an explosion and thought for sure she was dead but when nothing happened she tried to run faster.
She didn’t realize that she had reached the base of the volcano until the trees cut off and she found herself running across solid black, long cooled lava flow. And the ship that hummed behind her spun around and past her.
She was ready to run back but the side hatch of the Scaleless ship opened and she saw… REMI.
She could barely hear over the sound of her hearts beating harsly from the sprinting but she could see Remi shouting and signing in their joint language to run, to get to Remi.
More hums. Ixsh used an insane burst of energy to cross the blacktop and leap into the open hatch of the Scaleless ship. As Remi closed the hatch behind them more Scaleless ships appeared and began to fire on them.
Remi patted Ixsh’s shoulder and then ran into the cockpit. The Scaleless piloting the ship gave her a brief glance before pressing a series of buttons. The two Scaleless were shouting at each other over the noise of firepower hitting the hull of the ship.
REMI
“WHAT? Are you serious?!”
“Just do it!” Remi cried.
“This is a very bad idea!” Kent shouted at the console but he plotted the new course anyway. Remi didn’t voice her concerns but focused on firing at the other bombers that were recklessly firing on them now.
Ixsh stood back just between the pilot and co-pilot seats and stared in awe at the console.
“We’re going to have to go up through the planetary rings, there’s no way I can lose the bombers and any other patrol ships out in the open!”
“Do what you have to!” Remi growled out as she fired clip after clip of return gunner fire. Ixsh reached a claw out and touched Remi’s shoulder. Remi looked up at her and tilted her head in question.
“Kent,” Remi said, not taking her eyes off Ixsh.
“What!”
“Let Ixsh fly.”
“What?!” Kent’s voice broke.
Ixsh didn’t wait for Kent to make up his mind. She grabbed the back of his flight suit and yanked him out of the pilot’s seat. She deposited him behind her as gently as she could and found a way to sit in the pilot’s chair. Remi wasn’t sure she would know what to do but apparently what little she saw of Kent flying was enough. Ixsh only made two mistakes but before she knew it, they were shooting up through the atmosphere.
Ixsh had apparently agreed with Kent’s assessment that they fly through the planetary rings.
“Remi.” Ixsh said.
“Yes?”
“Set your communicator to this frequency...” Ixsh rattled off a series of numbers and Remi abandoned the gunnery to type it into the console. Kent Had recovered from his impromptu replacement and was gripping the back of the copilot’s seat with a very visible look of fear on his face.
IXSH-VANE
When Remi got the frequency set Ixsh began speaking.
“Shiphome, this is Ixsh-Vane of Clan Vanek, I and a rogue Scaleless have commandeered a Scaleless ship. We are incoming with Scaleless bogeys. We need assistance.”
There was a very deafening pause in the static that returned from the console but when she heard the series of beeps that indicated the message had been recieved and then her commander’s voice came over the console.
“Ixsh-Vane of Clan Vanek. What is the meaning of the wind?”
Ixsh sighed with relief, they weren’t going to get shot down. She replied to her commanders question with the correct response from their species’s ancient poetic texts. “The wind is life. It is the breath of the world.”
In response as the stolen ship exploded from the rings and pulled into Thorcan space a dozen ships decloaked and began firing on their pursuers. The Scaleless ships fell back and the decloaked Thorcan ships created a circuit around the stolen ship and escorted them back to shiphome.
REMI
When she stepped foot onto the Thorcan ship it wasn’t what she would have expected. The Kingmaker was all cold steel, straight lines, and sterile walls. The Thorcan shiphome appeared very organic, it’s walls mimicked the scale patterns, and they curved, elegantly, and there was a scent of fresh air. At the center of the shiphome was a self contained hydroponic biosphere. It held the plants of a long dead world, and the incubation of world that might once again be.
“One day,” Ixsh was saying. “I hope that we can make this world into what both our people’s can use.”
“I don’t know if it’s possible,” Remi said. “We have so much to overcome.”
“Ah, yes, but what is it that you say? With your brawn and my brains we shall succeed?”
“I hope so.”
Ixsh smiled at Remi and she returned her own version of the expression. “Hope.”
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