Chapter 13 Hilda Muller Interrogates a Xeno Prisoner.
1340 Words
Hilda Muller and Markus White were back in the ruins of Rashidium, observing the bluish light of the inter-dimensional portal over the gilded Cheops Pyramid. Returning to Rashidium was terrifying. What had once been the seat of House Rashid, and one of the glowing jewel cities of the Terran Council was now a destroyed wasteland, and the smell of death and decay still lay thick over the city.
Hilda walked along the abandoned streets of Rashidium when she suddenly was overwhelmed by a foul stench and could hear a faint growl. She turned to her bodyguard Captain Emma Schindler and spoke:
- You said that the city is secured. So why can I smell the stench of the Xenos and hear that faint growl from the building over there?
Emma Schindler:
- I am terribly sorry Mistress Hilda; I will lead you back to safety at once!
Hilda Muller:
- No need, Captain Schindler. I might be the chairwoman of House Muller, but unlike my predecessors, I am not an armchair general. I want to investigate this sound myself.
Emma Schindler:
- But that’s incredibly dangerous. Your life is too important to be put at risk.
Hilda Muller:
- Don’t worry about me. The Muller troops that fought and died here to save humanity didn’t back down, and neither shall I. I shouldn’t allow myself cowardice just because I am a high-ranking official.
Markus White stared at Hilda in disbelief and spoke:
- Hilda, come on, don’t be stupid. You’re not just a high-ranking official. You are the leader of the Terran Council, the single most powerful woman on the planet. Just let your soldiers do their jobs.
Hilda shrugged it off. She was a soldier at heart, and besides, she had managed to single-handedly kill several of these beasts when Rashidium was overrun six months earlier. Besides if they found one Xeno warrior injured and incapacitated, that would prove to be an excellent opportunity to study and communicate with the beasts.
Hilda Muller:
- Markus, you stay here with a few guards. Emma and the rest of you soldiers, come with me. I want to personally interrogate the wounded Xeno warrior. Soldiers arm your shields and plasma swords. We are entering that building!
Cautiously, they entered the building until they reached the source of the stench and sound, on the third level bathroom, where a severely injured Xeno was lying in a pool of his own blood, missing both legs and arms. But it had been weeks since the last battle, so how could the beast still be alive with the injuries it had sustained? Hilda decided that she had to find a way to communicate with the incapacitated Xeno warrior before it perished.
Hilda spoke to the Xeno:
- Who are you? Why do you come to Earth and fight us? What do you want?
The Xeno warrior:
- Sharaz rambu Ramun. Growl, rubut Rangda. Raman rantiz gudu dugu, gandin dinetion.
After saying this, the Xeno warrior started drooling and shaking uncontrollably. Emma Schindler raised her plasma sword to try and kill the beast, but Hilda told her off:
- What are you doing Emma? This is our first chance to communicate with our enemy and learn about them. You wouldn’t waste that opportunity, would you?
Emma Schindler:
- There is nothing to learn about these beasts. They are blood-thirsty mindless monsters, and we already found the way to repel them. Lasers, orbital bombardment and land mines!
Hilda Muller:
- Lucky that I arrived here today seeing that all my military staff are as small-minded as you are! This beast understood what I said, or at least it realised that I was communicating to it, and it tried to respond.
- We have quantum computers capable of decrypting any code, deciphering the Xeno language should be a piece of cake.
Emma Schindler:
- You are right, Chairwoman Muller. I will connect us to the quantum computer at once.
A few minutes later, the quantum computer had analysed the Xeno language and not only deciphered what the Xeno warrior said but also created a likely vocabulary for the entire Xeno language. Hilda Muller uploaded the Xeno vocabulary to the universal translator chip in her brain and started speaking to the Xeno in the Xeno language:
- So, Ramun the Xeno Warrior. You can stop following Rangda now because she is nowhere to be seen. Instead speak to me, Hilda Muller of Earth and tell me what you know and what you want.
Ramun was baffled from hearing a human speak her own language, but eventually, she replied:
- How can you speak my language human? What kind of sorcery is this?!
Hilda Muller:
- It is not sorcery, it is technology. Travelling through dimensional portals, you should be aware of advanced technology.
Ramun:
- We, Xenos, don’t use technology. We rely on the sorcery and the great powers that our God-Queen Rangda grants us.
Hilda Muller:
- Oh, you are technologically advanced alright. We scavenged your fallen brethren of the technology you were using. Ground-breaking stuff. Unfortunately for you, once we realised how your technology worked, we found a way to counter it. Something you’ll never seem to comprehend!
Ramun:
- Yes, I heard from my brethren that we have had problems with the guile and smarts of you humans before. Back when you were fighting for the Zetans, against us Xenos in the multi-millennial interstellar war.
Hilda Muller:
- What are you talking about? There is no mention of a multi-millennial interstellar war in human history.
Ramun:
- You, humans, followed the vile Zetans like they were your gods. Refusing the one true god Rangda in her holy quest to free the galaxy of Zetans’ falsehood and deceit!
- Check your religious scriptures, and you’ll find plenty of references to the war, or as you see it, the heavenly fight between “good” and “evil.”
Hilda Muller:
- Interesting, but not very relevant. Tell me about your “god-queen” Rangda. Who is she, and how do I kill her?
Ramun:
- You already know who she is. You saw her during our first attack when we extracted our prisoner Keila. You fought me back then, you fought me valiantly, and that’s why I am talking to you.
Hilda Muller:
- That rings a bell. Although I haven’t seen enough of you to recognise individual Xenos. Did I do this to you?
Ramun:
- Yes, and now you must finish the job: Kill me and eat me, as is our custom!
Hilda Muller:
- Sure. If you tell me how you survived for six months in this wounded physical state?
Ramun:
- I crawled and wriggled using my torso to get here. We, Xenos, are very resilient and recover from almost any wound. We can’t, however, regrow dismembered limbs.
Hilda Muller:
- But that’s six months ago. How can you still be alive if I dismembered you back then?
Ramun:
- Our home planet Xenora is incredibly harsh, and only the fiercest beast can survive there. Besides, “six months” as you call it is only two days on our home planet.
Hilda Muller:
- That’s enough for now. You are my prisoner and will be fed and continuously interrogated.
Ramun:
- But you promised to kill me if I spoke!
Hilda Muller:
- I will kill you. But not now. That’s not how humans treat valuable prisoners. And that is why we are going to come after your queen Rangda for what she did to us!
Ramun growled and roared, but it mattered little, Hilda had her prisoner, and she wouldn’t let a promise she made towards a murderous beast stop this once in a lifetime opportunity to get a better understanding of humanity’s new enemy!
- Writer
