Why Humans Make Bad Pets!

I'm a monster

The blood drained from Xkkrk's face, despite the pounding in her chest, at the sound of that name. Ztrkx. If you were to look up his file, he would be labeled as a simple merchant with a Crixa cargo vessel, just like Tnnxz. The only difference would be the [5 mile] long rap sheet detailing countless unconfirmed reports of criminal actions from petty theft, to larceny, all the way to grand murder. For those who truly knew him, Ztrkx was a pure-blooded pirate with the front of a cargo merchant, and a flimsy front at that. To make matters infinitely better, he bore a personal grudge against Tnnxz.

As hard as it was to believe, seeing the differences between them today, Ztrkx and Tnnxz had grown up together on the same moon, both children of miners. Mining was perhaps the lowest occupation, as the need for true miners had been replaced by automatons. But robots required maintenance and biological miners only required a bare minimum of food, which meant that in the worst conditions, sapient beings still slaved under masters too poor or too cheap to care about the working conditions or safety precautions. On a barren rock of a moon, Ztrkx and Tnnxz had spun tales to each other. Tales about how they would one day pool their resources and buy a Crixa. It didn't matter to the two boys that the Crixa was perhaps the slowest and most obsolete model of cargo ship still seen about the galaxy; to them, it was beautiful.

With a hope of a dream, which was more than most miners had, Tnnxz and Ztrkx pushed themselves harder than any of the other workers. They cared for each other, watched each other, and helped keep each other sane through the long hours of grinding toil. After [4 years] of hard work in the mine, which probably shortened their life-spans significantly, they were able to buy a Crixa off of a merchant who had made several bad choices and fallen into bankruptcy.

At first it was just them. Then, as Tnnxz's uncanny ability to feel subtle shifts in the markets began to increase their revenues, they began expanding their holdings and their crew. Xkkrk had been one of the first to join them. Ostensibly it had been so she would be able to escape the responsibility of inheriting a weapons manufacturing company from her father, but in reality it had been because she had been drawn to Tnnxz and Ztrkx, at the time attracted equally by both.

As she spent more time with Ztrkx though, she began to see the arrogance, jealousy, and utter contempt for the "weak", which Ztrkx harbored inside himself. His lust drove her closer to Tnnxz, which only exacerbated an already tense situation. Ztrkx had been in favor of looting cargo ships which had been set upon by Hunters. After all, the crew had been unable to repel them, and therefore were most likely dead, but the Hunters cared little for most commodities, so left those untouched.

Tnnxz resisted him at first, but then agreed it would have been a shame to let the goods go to waste. On the first derelict ship they boarded, it seemed Ztrkx had been right. Blood from various species had been evident in great quantities, but no living souls were to be found. Then Ztrkx happened upon a wounded child. It was most likely beyond saving, but Ztrkx was more worried about what Tnnxz would do if he discovered someone alive on that ship. So he shot it in the head. Tnnxz saw.

The majority of the crew were loyal to Tnnxz, though some few fanatically supported Ztrkx. A fight broke out between the two factions, but Ztrkx was overwhelmed three to one. Tnnxz didn't feel right in killing Ztrkx as he had killed the child, so left him, and his supporters, on the broken and dying ship where he had committed his first murder. Before the airlock had closed, Ztrkx had screamed that he would find Tnnxz again, and for the betrayal of his trust would take all that he loved. Ztrkx's final, bloody gaze before the airlock hid his face had been fixed upon Xkkrk.

He hadn't died as both Xkkrk and Tnnxz had hoped. Instead, reports of a group of pirates who masqueraded a cargo vessel began to surface. There was no way to be certain it was Ztrkx, and the pirates themselves seemed more myth than fact, yet Xkkrk had felt the reason behind the stories. Now, it seemed, Ztrkx was done biding his time.

Dear Journal,

I'm a monster.

I don't know which kind yet.

I was finishing up the last slice of purple xeno rat pig when Mama Giraffe had stumbled in. She barely even took one look at the room before she added to its olfactory experience. I sure hoped I wouldn't have to sleep in here. She lurched her way back out the door after glancing at the ceiling, stumbling into Severus right outside. Perfect. He was going to suffer from apoplexy the moment he saw this. My fears were soon confirmed as I heard rapid clicking from the blue-giraffe. Then I checked myself. There was a different tone to this clicking. A more frantic, panicked cast which had been absent during Severus' previous rants. I quickly took the last bite - it really did taste like chicken if you closed your eyes - and hurried over, although what I was going to do I had no idea.

Before I was half-way across the room, the entire cargo bay, and I'd surmise the entire ship, Lurched alarmingly as though it had struck an obstacle. Moments later the sound of shrieking metal being ripped apart came from the bow of the ship. It was pretty clear to me that we had hit something, but instead of running to where I'd seen the bridge so he could efficiently take care of the matter, Severus hit a button on his belt and then spoke with the faraway look of someone on the phone. He lifted his finger off the button then started gallop-flailing to the aft of the ship, which was towards the hydroponics bay and, I assumed, as I hadn't seen it yet, the engine room.

I doubted Severus was such a bad captain that he neglected his duties whenever he hit a piece of space debris, so I quickly revised my hypothesis as to what was happening to "pending". When I began hearing screams which sounded frighteningly like the screams of horses accompanied by noises which sounded remarkably like rapid pistol fire, except from a ray gun, I decided Severus must have the right idea in mind and high-tailed it out of my cargo bay and towards the hydroponics bay. I'd never been in a firefight before in my life, and didn't think the attackers would be willing to disarm themselves so I could fight them on the familiar ground of bar brawling, or even a friendly game of darts.

I saw Mama a few cargo bays behind me, herding a multitude of the children as fast as the slowest could run. f*****g Jiggles. I made sure they passed me, looking down the long corridor which allowed passage from the ship proper to the long line of cargo bays. I couldn't see anything, but the screams had also stopped. I think I had almost preferred them to the silence. Jiggles finally got his last vestiges of flab though a door just beyond the one which led to the Hydroponics bay, and I followed suit, covering a distance in 2 seconds what had taken the child herd 20. Adrenaline's a hell of a drug. Good thing too, because they had been closing the door the moment Jiggles had gotten inside. I slammed into the half-closed door and flew into the room.

I guess I slammed into the door a little too hard, since it snapped off the its hinges and was flung out of Severus' hand to strike the wall to his right. Both of us looked at the door which we had been counting on as a shield as it slowly peeled itself off the wall to fall with a clang to the floor. "Do you make your hinges out of purple xeno rat pig bones?" I shouted, as I lifted the door and fit it back in place, using the door frame and my shoulder to keep it set. Then it started taking hits.

I was impressed with the solidity of the door, especially given the fragility of its connections. From this side of the door it sounded as though someone was merely slapping the other side. Granted, they were hard slaps, the kind you get after having a threesome with both your girlfriends sister's - dating identical triplets is hard - but they were slaps nonetheless. The slaps began getting faster and slightly harder, and the door began to vibrate alarmingly. Silence suddenly fell as the shots stopped completely, and then I heard clicking from the other side of the door. I looked to Severus, hoping for some kind of recognizable signal as to what to do.

He was pretty clear when he started trying to pull me away. I hoped for all our sakes that he was being gentle on purpose, or else any fighting we'd have to do would be even more one-sided, but I eased up on the door and set it beside the door frame. Another blue-giraffe strode into the room. This one had seen some fights before. One of his arms and two or his legs were prosthetic; his stripes were marred by countless small frosty scars. He had the bearing of one used to command and very harsh in discipline, but I couldn't decide if it was of the just or cruel variety.

I had been preparing myself to fight for all I was worth, but there was one thing I hadn't expected. This new blue-giraffe wore a uniform. As did his shipmates, I saw, as three of them filed in behind him. Now I had a dilemma. Were these the police? Was this a lawful boarding? For all I knew, my newest family could be a family of thieves and smugglers. I wouldn't have minded too much, but the law's the law, and I wouldn't want to attack these intruders if they turned out to just be men doing their jobs. I observed, trying to catch every detail which would tell me what was going on.

"I'm gone for [10 years], and the only modification you make to our old ship is another 5 cargo bays? Also, what happened in 9? It looks like someone took an anti-tank pulse-gun to a box of Dizi rats," clicked Ztrkx, striding confidently into the engine room. He looked to his left, and saw the ugliest little creature watching him with bright eyes. "What have you got here, my old friend? Another weakling? You do love them so. Why even now you hide among them while the rest of your crew lies bleeding and dying about your ship, having protected what they thought was a worthy life. Shame. I could have given them so much more. I could have given them pride." He motioned towards the uniforms, a recent acquisition from a cloth trader made specially for this occasion.

"Neither am I your friend, nor is he weak," stated Tnnxz, attempting to sound calm, but ruining the illusion by allowing his back leg to shake. It had always shook when they had been friends, and it galled Ztrkx to no end that it was only through his motivation and his determination that Tnnxz now stood here, proud among the stars instead of rotting in a crater on the moon they'd left so long ago.

"You're right," Ztrkx retorted. "You aren't my friend. If you were, I would be standing before you as an equal, rather than a conqueror. I'm glad you tore everything away from me and sent me tumbling through the stars. If you hadn't, I might still be stuck here with you, refusing opportunity after opportunity because of your cowardice when we could have been living like Kings!" He finished in an angry rush, panting as the fury he had kept under control for so long threatened to overflow.

"Why are you here, Ztrkx?" Tnnxz asked. Fool. "Is it to gloat?" Not so much a fool then, but still a sizable one.

"Partially." Replied Ztrkx. "But not entirely. I'm here to keep my word, because I, unlike you, assume my promises to be binding."

"I'm not going with you, Ztrkx," spat Xkkrk, beautiful Xkkrk. "I will throw myself out of the first airlock before I willingly spend a [picosecond] in your presence." A shame, that was. If she had been willing to come with him he would have gladly accepted her. As it was, he would not let her dampen his moment of triumph by making him show his disappointment. He laughed, hoping none had noticed the momentary pause, and clicked, "I don't want you, anymore. Look at you, a mere shadow of what you once were, and a poor one at that. Stay with Tnnxz, I don't care. I came for what will hurt him the most."

His eyes searched among the children and alighted upon the shortest, the one with the stripes so thin they seemed to nearly disappear when they reached his face; just like his father. Tnnxz saw Ztrkx's eyes light up, and understood his purposes. A growl was the only warning his men had before he flew at Ztrkx, Xkkrk on his heels, having attacked a moment later. These were the best of his men, though, and they had quick reflexes. One grabbed Tnnxz while he was still in the air, bearing him to the ground, while the other managed to catch Xkkrk before she could tackle Ztrkx. He smiled without amusement, then heard a much lower growl resonate from the small ugly creature to his left. My, he had quite forgotten it was there.

Ignoring it, Ztrkx motioned for his final man who wasn't holding someone to grab the smallest child, while the other two kept his parents in check. The man grabbed the smallest one's arm. Then the world exploded.