I watched on the screen as the blip moved closer. I drank my coffee, the bitter taste was starting to grow on me more. The blip moved closer still.

  “Olux, what's the radio chatter?” I asked the human man. He was sitting in the communications seat with headset on. He turned to me, grimacing.

  “They seem to be heading to the colony. Twenty on board, captured on Ungdarfeg.”

  “Ungdarfeg,” I was surprised to hear. “That's in the neighboring system to the pnet I’m from.” Olux yawned. “The anti-korveinian alliance is going on the offensive and it's gone off the rails.”

  “I think it's fine. They’ve only captured twenty that they’ve managed to get by the allied fleets.” Olux responded. “So what do you think, Avrankir? Shall we liberate those poor people from korveinian captivity?”

  I rolled my eyes. “When have I ever said we should not liberate someone, Olux?” He ughed and spped his knee. “We may not always be successful but we should do what we can to grow the fleet and harrie the korveinain supply lines as much as we can.”

  Fred came in with drinks. “Does anyone want something?” Olux grabbed a coffee, I took some water. Other people took some, most didn’t. Fred left.

  I looked at the panel again. “Seems about time to move in.” I said after I stretched.

  “Allons-y.” Olux gave his usual resigned battle cry. He had long ago given up on excited vehemence of battle, it had all become so routine. We went in to attack, a battle fleet would swoop in as fast as it could to try and take us on, we would retreat to our separate pces of hiding.

  “Ok, send out the signal. We are taking that transport ship and saving the people on board. Hard and fast, like when I’m with my boy toy Zakherin.”

  “Yo chill out man, we are working,” he said from the pilot's seat. I giggled gayly. He threw back his hot chocote. “Preparing to unch.” He flipped some buttons and looked at me expectantly.

  I looked at Olux. “Have the other ships been informed?” At his nod, I looked back to Zakherin. I smiled. “Launch and make for the prison ship. Fleet action stations. Prepare for battle.” The command repeated over the internal comms.

  Olux burst out ughing. “Fleet, such as it is. Although I suppose more than one ship can be a fleet.”

  “Yeah but we’ve managed ten ships.” Zakherin pointed out. “I never thought we would get this far when we first started. I’m proud of our achievements.”

  “Yeah too bad they are shitty prison transport ships though.” Olux countered.

  “Maybe so,” I interrupted. “That guy and his wife, the ones that said they were from the experimental shipwrights, said he was nearly finished making upgrades to the Urgzaler. Perhaps he has finished it by now.”

  “I can radio the Urgzaler to ask. One moment, Komedor Avrankir.” Olux said.

  “Good idea, we should know what we have before going into the battle.” I nodded at him. “What does Komedor mean?” I cocked my head.

  “It's an old earth naval rank, I wouldn’t worry about it too much.” Kay said from the weapons station.

  We made our way to rally point number seven according to the pre-distributed rally algorithm. I devised this to keep the enemy from knowing where we would gather in order to strike with surprise.

  Olux stood suddenly. “Report from the Urgzaler, Komedor!” He decred. “Weapons system upgrade complete. Canon focal length decreased by twenty-three percent, energy output increased by thirty-four percent. Overall kill efficiency increased ten percent.”

  “Ten percent?” Kay sounded disappointed. “That is barely an increase in kill efficiency. It took him two weeks to realign everything. Was it really worth it?”

  Olux guffawed loudly. “Miss, have you not gotten used to Komedor Avrankir’s motto yet?”

  “Every little advantage!” Several people said at the same time. I looked around at all of them quickly. Olux guffawed again at the unified chant.

  “See there Miss? Why do we use a rally algorithm? Every little advantage. Why do we increase things by ten percent? Every little advantage.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I should have seen that coming, yeah. Anyway, if it works well we should get the upgrade next since we are the fgship.” Olux broke out in a giggle fit.

  I looked around at them both. “Why are you two the way that you are?”

  “Ah let them have their fun.” Zakherin smiled at me. “I think their joking helps cut the tension of nearly dying all the time, life of a soldier, you know.” He struck a dramatic pose.

  “Sure whatever, who cares. Let's get ready to attack that ship. We are about to arrive at the rally point.” I said as we came up to two other ships that had already arrived. “You all can joke and have fun all you want, except when we are about to go into and actively in battle. Ok?”

  We waited for a few minutes. The rest of our meager fleet mustered together. Our boarding forces all transferred to one ship to assault the enemy vessel. Once all the preparations were finished, we headed out to our foe. I made note of the inefficiency and decided I would consider solutions ter.

  The Urgzaler went in first, they fired a burst that raked the engines of the transport ship immediately. They continued to move, they were near their safe top speed already. We pushed our ships a little harder.

  Other ships also opened up on them. After several more salvos their engine took critical damage and they drifted. Zakherin moved behind them and slowed them with the tow anchor.

  “Olux let me know when–”

  “They just called out about being attacked and said they are about to be boarded.” He interrupted. “The response from the fleet is they are two hours away.”

  “Inform our fleet.” I said. “Make sure that they also know the enemy fleet could be lying and might be here sooner than that though.”

  “You got it Komedor.” He went back to his communication work.

  I turned to Kay. “Well done shooting by the way. You got a few good hits on them.”

  She folded her arms and scoffed. “For all the good that it did in the fight.”

  “Every little bit.” I reminded her. She rolled her eyes. “No like really, mechanical things take damage and–”

  “Of course Komedor.” She interrupted in a mocking tone.

  I could see the Zinkha hooked up with the enemy ship. “Boarding in five, four, three, two, one. Breech!” Olux called out. “There is resistance at the door.” He waited a minute. “They have been overcome and are moving further into the ship.”

  I looked at the radar screen. “Clear for now.” I reassured myself. “Clear for now, clear for now.” I tapped on my chair arm with my fingers.

  “This is so suspenseful.” Kay said. “Much less dangerous than when we were the ones attacking into the ships though.” She observed.

  “Yeah.” I ughed. “I kind of preferred to be on the assault team though. This waiting is making me pucker my ass.”

  “I’ll help you with that ter.” Zakherin winked at me.

  “What happened to ‘we are working’ you horny bird!” I scolded him.

  “I always go for the funny joke though, babe.” He giggled then smiled at me sweetly. He really was a pretty man with his jet bck plumage.

  I looked back at the scanner. “Clear for now.” I whispered again.

  “They’ve made it to the cell block, Komedor. They are working on clearing the room and opening the cells.” Olux reported. “We are doing quite well, I feel.”

  I nodded. “Do you wish you were still on the assault team Oxy?” Kay asked.

  He ughed. “Hell no. I want to live. I like working at this nice retively safe comms console. Let the people who care to die attack the ship, I say.”

  “Oh come on Oxy! It was fun though, wasn’t it. It made me feel alive and slutty.” His head shot to her right away. She giggled. “I thought that would get your attention.”

  “Komedor Avrankir, can you assign her to the assault team for strategic cock bouncing reasons?” The entire bridge burst into ughter.

  “No but really, I’m good. I don’t want to be on an assault team anymore.” She crified.

  “Cells are open. They are funneling the prisoners back to our ship. What of the bridge Komedor?”

  I looked at the radar. A new cluster of blips appeared. I shook my head. “They are too near. This ship is one we cannot have, unfortunately. Have the fleet break once they are decoupled and head back to their own hideouts. In a–”

  “Circuitous way?” Olux said.

  I sighed. “If I am that predictable, why are we still making mistakes?”

  Once he had finished reying the orders, Olux looked at me. “The rest of them are not around you as much as this crew is, Komedor.”

  The ships broke apart. I looked at the scanner, the Korveinian fleet was still too far away to catch us before we got to our hiding spots. The fleet one by one jumped away. We were the st and we jumped too.

  Instead of going to our usual hideout, we headed for the Stralzta system where some of our ships made their berth. It was a system on the edge of korveinian occupied space. There was nothing there, some trade routes were a few lightyears away but worlds were dead. One world had the barest atmosphere. Just enough to take a few ragged breaths before suffocating, it did allow for protection from cosmic rays though.

  We nded near where the other two ships had put down. I put on an oxypack, Olux decided to come with me since the people were human, he put the human adapter on his. We locked the inner door and opened the outer.

  The nd was rocky and barren, a wispy breeze brought the heated gas to our face. It was a kind of air but nothing that our bodies could process in an effective way.

  We made our way across the short span to the prison transport Zinkha.

  “Zohash and Olux! My friends.” Klegu’ozha said, a korveinian gornazut and captain of the ship. He had been leading a revolt on the ship as we swooped in to attack at the same time. The crew never had a chance and were overwhelmed easily.

  “Klegu’ozha!” I smiled at him. “Well done leading the assault on the enemy ship.”

  He burst out ughing. “Leading? No no no, I just sent some people over. Gaile led the assault, stabbed an imperial in the neck and bled him to death.”

  “That’s pretty hardcore.” Olux balked.

  “Oh its fine, Olux. These parts are lousy with shitty Korvys.” Klegu’ozha said with a dismissive swipe. “And if there is one thing I love to do, its killing shitty people. Too long have we oppressed others. I was lucky enough to be born at a time where I can be an agent of change and shape the future of trillions for the better. And if the price is half the korveinians alive today, I will pay it.”

  “That is pretty fucking dark.” Olux said. “I’m gd to know you are committed to the point you would kill half the popution of your people.” He looked at his page device. “One hundred trillion korveinians.”

  “The imperial core needs to change. Its not working for all people so it needs to change and I am an idealogue. I don’t mind admitting I’m pying for a team, unlike those cowards who cim they are ‘just following orders’.”

  “Yeah, that defense doesn’t really fly with humans. We had a whole world war about it.” Olux responded.

  “Listen.” I interrupted. “I understand, but we do have work to get to, here. Please let's get to the now liberated prisoners, my friend.”

  “Of course, this way.” We entered the ship and went to cells where the new arrivals were huddled. They were a ragged lot. It seems they had been beaten and tortured before they were shipped out. Some seemed to cower and shrink away at the sight of me.

  Olux stood in front of me. “Hello fellow humans! I am Oluxander.” He moved to the side and presented me. “This is Komedor Zohash Avrankir. He is the leader of our little raiding fleet.”

  “You are working with the enemy?” One of the men stood. “How could you?”

  “You are?” Olux asked. “Silvanius Zimbara, Captain of the joint liberation army.”

  “The korveinians we are fighting are imperials. We are not with them.” Olux said.

  “In fact the prison camp that you were headed to would have been the same one all the korveinians with us would have been at too.” I put in. “We want the fall of the current order just as you do. Korveinians like me don’t want to continue to be oppressed by the imperials.”

  “Oppressed? You are a korveinian.” Zimbara said. “Why would a korveinian oppress another korveinian?”

  “I am a gornazut. A faggy little boy who likes to suck dick. That viotes their stupid imperial ws. I just want to live my life and be free to love whom I love. Because of that I am seen as less than by more imperial minded korveinians.”

  “The war has barely started and you’ve thrown your lot in with the three subject peoples?” He questioned.

  “Every little advantage helps.” I insisted. “The faster we can get in there and help the better of a chance we will have together.”

  The man narrowed his eyes on me. After a long several moments he spoke. “I suppose such a thing could be possible. I don’t think we would be alive and here if this was all some eborate ruse.”

  “I assure you, sir, this is not a ruse.” I said. “We are here, we are fighting against the imperials. Just like the rebellion is.”

  “There was a dy that stabbed that korvy in the neck sir.” One of the other soldiers said. “That was crazy but still badass.”

  “Yeah that is true.” He sat in thought for a moment. “We were captured during the invasion of the pnet Ungdarfeg. They hurried us out of there when it was reported that the city of Zuildza was about to fall. I’m not sure how since the rest of our division wasn’t even close to the front just yet. So I don’t know what that was about but we were shipped out. Not all of us got out. Will you be able to catch the rest of them?”

  I thought about it. “We do try to keep as many out of those colonies as we can. I can’t guarantee we will get them.” I tapped my feathers together. “We can have a look! We can see if any more prison transports are on the way. I can offer you monitoring for it too.”

  “We are soldiers. We can also take part in the boarding actions.” Zimbara said.

  “Welcome to the raider fleet.” I said with a smile.

  Klegu’ozha ughed heartily. “Yes! More foes for the anti imperial cause! Down with the empire!”

  “Down with the empires.” Some others meekly echoed.

  “Come with me.” I said. “We will get you set up within the fleet structure. Since you are soldiers and have had some combat training I do feel like your skills would be best used in boarding actions like you’ve already volunteered for.” We walked and talked and Olux found space on one of the ships for them. He had to shuffle some people around to keep them on the newly designated assault ship.

  After getting assault teams organized, I had them practice on the ships they inhabited. All the prison transport ships were pretty simir so they would be able to practice well enough. Other matters always needed attending to though.

  I had my ship fly to the Urgzaler so I could talk to Linda about upgrading other ships in the fleet. It was about a half days flight away, so I decided to take a rest. I got out of the captain seat and stretched.

  “Hey, do you want some company tonight?” Zakherin asked. He was smiling, such a pretty face.

  I smiled back. I walked to him and kissed him on the lips, he used his tongue. “Sorry babe. It's been a while since I had time with her. I made a promise, I let her go too long without it. Next time though, my cute boy.”

  His face fell immediately. “Oh, right, her. I guess she deserves some time. Or something.” He turned away from me. I tried to pce my hand on his shoulder. He flinched away from me. “Don’t touch me please.”

  I retracted my hand. “Hey there's no need to be like that, dude. I still want–”

  “Go do your thing. I’m not discussing this.” I hovered around him for a moment. “Seriously, leave me alone. Go do what you are going to do dude. I’m not into it and I don’t want to talk about this. Go.”

  I left and shook my head. His protests were getting worse whenever I said I’d be with her. I probably would just politely refuse and say that I needed rest whenever I’d be with her in the future. I couldn’t stop with her, I made a promise and I don’t feel it is proper to renege on that.

  I made my way to the clinic. When I id eyes on Khajra, I clenched my jaw. She looked at me and her brow furrowed instantly. “Hey, what's wrong? What is with that look, Zhohash?”

  “I think I’m pissing off Zakherin by still being with you. I don’t think he likes the idea of a bisexual boyfriend. Maybe he just doesn’t like you? I’m not sure, I don’t know what it is.” I fpped for a few moments.

  “What can I do to help?” She asked. Her voice was filled with concern. She came over to give me a hug. I accepted it and started to cry a little.

  “I will not renege on my promise to you. That would be a super shitty thing to do. If he just wants to toss what we have away, that will make me sad but I will have to accept it.”

  She shook her head. “You don’t need to worry about me.”

  “The problem is I really like you both and want to continue to see you both but he is just causing problems with his attitude.” I just wanted to scream.

  “Come on then, let's go to your room and just rex for a while. Does that sound good?” We turned to see Zakherin in the doorway.

  “You know what the problem is? People are not attracted to people like this. You cannot like both men and women. You are either a gornazut or not. This isn’t a me problem, Zhohash. This is you lying to me, her and yourself problem. So quit fucking around and just stop.”

  I stood gobsmacked for a moment. Then twisted out of Khajra’s arms. “I don’t know what to say besides that is not true. I am attracted to you both.” I looked between them. “I want to be with you both. I enjoy sucking your dick and I enjoy licking her clit. I like both. I like both. Please stop trying to insist on your way of thinking because it is just not the case and not what is happening.”

  He shook his head as I talked. “I can’t continue to uphold your delusion. There are only two ways, this fake third way is bullshit and you need to get your head out of your ass. I’m not going to feed this anymore. Have fun with your hetero retionhip, you fucking liar.”

  “Zakherin–” Khajra started.

  “I don’t talk to you lowly bitches. Fuck off you soft woman whore.”

  “Zakherin!” I was shocked by this sudden vitriol.

  “Goodbye Zhohash. I’m moving to a different ship and I won’t be avaible for anything sexual in the future. Take your delusions and have them for yourself, clit licker.” He spped poison on the st two words. He walked away without another word and I didn’t try to stop him.

  After several long minutes I turned to Khajra. “I need some medical support.”

  She looked confused but concerned. “What is it Zhohash? What’s wrong?”

  “I have a knife in my back and I would like you to remove it. Can you help me?”

  She gave me a hug and I cried. We walked to my room. She tucked me in and cuddled me. My mind swam with disparate thoughts of sexuality, retionships, and ship upgrades.

  In time we arrived at the hideout of the Urgzaler. I had enjoyed my small nap cuddled with Khajar. We connected with the Urgzarler so I could meet with the captain and the two weaponers of the experimental shipwright.

  I psyched myself up for the talk. I was still feeling a little broken and empty from the break up I’d just experienced. I tried to focus on my immediate needs and goals.

  “Captain Megrolia, I would like to talk to the weapons people. As well, I want to exchange our pilots. The one on our ship is in conflict with some others on the ship and we really do not need all that at the moment you know?”

  “That sounds like a fantastic idea, mine is a bit too reserved for going in and attaching since we are now the assault ship. What kind of problems is your pilot having? I want to be able to mitigate whatever problems could come up.” She asked.

  “I doubt it will come up but he was having sex with someone and they had an intense break up.” I tried to dance around my involvement. “I think things should be fine with him once he is away from his former partner.”

  Megrolia grabbed a wall communicator. “Pilot Grendy gather your things, you are being transferred to the Nenvia.” She offered me the communicator.

  I punched in the intra communication code. “Pilot Zakherin, you are being transferred to the Urgzaler. Please take all your things with you.” I could hear my voice echoing from the Nenvia since the connection point was next to where we were standing. I pced the communicator on the wall.

  She picked it back up. “Tuvas and Linda meet us at the intraship connection point. Our commander would like a word with you about ship upgrades.”

  A khaveni woman walked up with a bunch of things in her hands. “Captain, captain. Thank you for getting me the transfer. I really think its the best thing for my nerves. I’m sorry I couldn’t be the pilot you wanted.” She sighed.

  “There is nothing wrong with you as a pilot. You will still be a pilot on the Nenvia.” Megrolia had a questioning look on her face. I nodded quickly.

  “Yes, yes you will be on the Nenvia as a pilot. We won't be going on attachment duties but will be in battle still, you good with that, Grendy?”

  She smmed her head up and down emphatically. “Yes sir! Say, aren’t you the one who started this little raiding force? Am I about to be on the fgship of the raiding fleet?” She ughed nervously. “That sounds like a lot of responsibility. I don’t know if I can take that much responsibility.”

  “Ok, calm down, friend.” I tried to reassure her. “We will fly a few missions together and if you still feel too nervous at the helm of the fg ship we can see about transfers. I think you'll do just fine.”

  “Ok, ok, ok.” She ughed nervously again. “No pressure. None at all. I’ve got this.”

  “That's that spirit. Now get over there.” She ran off to the connection point. A soft bump stopped her. Zakherin walked around her and toward us.

  “I’m Zakherin. I’ll be your pilot.” He started walking away, not waiting for a response.

  “Seems like a really friendly guy. I’m starting to understand your transfer request.” Megrolia said.

  “You don’t know the half of it.” I said, mostly to myself. Tuvas arrived as I finished the thought. “Tuvas! Good to see you again.”

  He chuckled. “Do you need the experimental wright’s help once more?” He asked. “I’ve got the weapons done, they did well in the battle. Did you see, builder?”

  “Let's not get into that again.” I attempted to forestall his quest for friction. “Show me you are better than me by doing the thing that I need you to do.”

  “Fine, fine! I’ll mog you right up your asshole! Haha! You silly gornazut.”

  I smiled. “Why are you helping us again? You so clearly hate me and ‘openly practicing’ gornazut?”

  “To show you I’m better! Also my love is working to make these machines better.” He was caressing the ship and even kissed it. He turned and looked at me, a wild look in his eyes. “It even makes me hard.”

  Linda rounded the corner, saw him and rushed to his side. She pulled him off the ship. “Honny, we don’t hump the ships. Please behave yourself.”

  “My second love has come!” He kissed her deeply and squeezed her breast. She spped his hand.

  “Listen to Zhohash.”

  He sighed, his feathers plumed. “Go on then, gornazut. What do you have for me now?”

  I rolled my eyes to his face. “I need you to upgrade the weapons on the Nenvia. I also want you to look into upgrading our radio range. With the potential capture of Tidara and several other pnets near by, I want to be able to talk to the allied resistance. Got that?”

  “I hope those assholes lose the war. Korveinian Empire forever!” He ughed maniacally.

  “He is always like this around the ship.” Megro said. “I am legitimately surprised he agreed to upgrade the weapons and actually did it.”

  “We got lucky he tried to defend Linda when the korvys came to take her away.” I whispered to her.

  “I would never abandon my wife!” He protested. “I love her the most.”

  “What happened to her being your second love?” Megro asked. “You just said that.”

  His eyes locked on her, he chuckled. “I don’t love any ship in particur. I love making them better, more efficient.” He shook his head. “I’d never never never never never never never never never never never never never never abandon Linda. I’m a slut for her. I like to lick her puss–”

  “Babe!” She knocked him. “We would be happy to take a look at the radio and we will get to work on the weapons right away, Mr. Zhohash.” She started dragging him away. “Come on, I want to grab my brush and clothes.”

  “The Empire will win! You gornazut will be shown the error of your ways in time! You will see! You will see, faggot!” She started dragging him faster.

  “We have a strange eclectic cast of weirdos in this fleet.” Megro observed. “Did you know there is a guy on the Hashafon that cites bible verses as he fires the weapons?”

  “The bible, what is that?”

  “Some human religion book. Some dude gets nailed to a piece of wood by their powerful ancient empire then that empire becomes a follower of the person they murdered on wood.”

  I was taken aback for a moment. “Linda’s people sure have ideas.” I rubbed my feathers. “Well anyway, thanks for the meeting. I’m going to leave someone here to detach us at the right time. We will see you ter, Megro.”

  “Have fun with that imperial weirdo.” She pumped her fist. “Bye Zhohash.”

  I showed Grendy, Linda, and Tuvas to their rooms and left them to get settled in. Before Grendy got settled, I brought her to the bridge with me.

  “Tuvas is quite the person. I’m surprised he agreed to come here.” She said as we walked. “He is always saying pro korveinian empire things.”

  “Yeah, I can see that. He is not such a huge fan of mine. Always calling me the gornazut and faggot.” I sighed. “Unfortunately he is a useful person and can help us do a lot by upgrading our ships.”

  “How can you trust him though? He makes no secret about allegiance. It makes me really nervous being around him. Honestly, that was a little part of the reason I wanted to get away from that ship.”

  “As long as Linda is with him he is harmless. If she asks anything of him he will usually do it with little questioning.” I reassured her.

  We arrived at the bridge. Olux sat at the comms table, the other officers in their pces.

  “Who is this?” Olux said as we walked in.

  “Our new pilot. Zakherin decided he needed a change in who he is around. So we have Grendy now.”

  “What kind of experience does she have?” Olux asked.

  I looked at her. She looked at me. I plumed my feathers. “Are you gonna…” we both said at the same time. I cut in. “You need to speak for yourself.” I told you. “You need to answer his question.”

  “Oh, ok sure.” She sounded nervous. “I was a transportation pilot for years. I made a lot of runs across Korveinian space. Especially between the areas around where the khaveni and human zones are. As for combat experience I was in the st five fights and I docked with the enemy ship in a previous battle. I know it's not a whole lot but I’m happy to continue to push my skills forward.”

  Olux ughed heartily. “That is a great answer! Welcome to the team, Grendy.” She smiled sheepishly.

  “Ok we need to start heading back to our hideout.” I said. “Let's head out. The icy one, near zhros.”

  She plinked at the controls for a moment. “Ah ok, this one here?” I nodded at the area of the map she pointed to. “Ok, we are on our way now!”

  “Zhohash, the cook is on the comm for you.” Olux reported. “He has a concern, I think?”

  I inserted the speaker into my ear and pressed the button. “Veryana, you have some concerns you wanted to talk to me about? I’m here to hear.”

  “Yes, captain. I needed to talk to you about our current stocks. We are running a bit low. We need to get more food and other supplies in order to keep the ship alive.” The man said.

  “How low on supplies are we?” I questioned. This was another bit of discretion that was not needed at the moment. If we were too low there would be nothing for it but to go to an enemy held pnet to stock up.

  “We are at the minimum capacity that you asked to be warned at.” He responded. “Maybe three days of food. We shouldn’t wait too much longer.”

  I bared my teeth. “Yeah ok, I get it. Thank you.” I released the talk button and removed the ear speaker. I waited a moment and stood up. “Ok Olux who did we raid st time for food? Do you remember?”

  “Yeah, we raided Kaligiarti.”

  “Ok somewhere other than there. We need to go in and steal a bunch of food.” I said. “We are running low and I want something tasty, where do you think has the tastiest food?”

  “Oh, umm, sir.” Grendy said. I looked at her. “I know that we are near a supply route. This ship here, the Gichra, was one I remember seeing many times before they took me into custody. It's a grain hauler. We could hit that and have food for a while.” She started to trail off.

  “Better than nding and raiding a few farms.” I said. “Come on, we need to move against that ship while we are still in range. Let's get moving. Change course, pilot Grendy.”

  We went toward the transport ship. I left to check on Tuvas and Linda. The sterile ship felt concerning. I missed my decor in my home. Things felt abnormal and empty. I continued to make my way to the quarters.

  I knocked on the door. It slid to the side as it opened. “Ah the fag d returns.” I scowled at Tuvas as I pushed my way inside the room.

  “Honny.” Linda scolded him. “Hello, Mr. Avrankir. What can we do for you?”

  She came forward to give me a hug. “Oh gross, babe, what if hugging that thing makes you catch the gay? We wont be together then, you’ll be licking some woman cunt instead of servicing a man like you should.”

  “Don’t be fucking gross.” She said. “I’m so sorry about him, Mr. Avrankir. He was never like this before the war started. I think the radical shift in power has broken him a little. I am hoping things get better after everything is done.” She confided in me in a lower voice.

  “I hope you will have the strength to do what is best for you if he doesn’t.” I countered. I turned to Tuvas. “So it’s been an hour, how are you both settling in?”

  “Even the gornazut knows the proper way of things is man to man.”

  “And yet the proper way of things is not to fuck man on man?” I questioned. “I only do so because I know you are that kind of patriarchal. I knew that and used it to get the information from you that I wanted.”

  He ughed. “Well it worked! We are doing ok, we’ve just put away what little we have been able to gather.” He narrowed his eyes on me. “Why do you do this? Why do you fight against the inevitable might of korveinia? We are by far the most populous race and it is our destiny to dominate all others. Our culture is superior to the lesser races and must be enforced upon them.” His arm shot out toward me, his feathers plumming at the motion. “You are upsetting the natural order with your faggarty, depravity, and resistance to the proper order. This degeneracy will not stand.”

  “Wow. That’s a lot. So your shitty ideas are not the only ideas on how things should be run. They aren’t even the best. The old empire needs a revamp, what is maybe working for most doesn’t work for all. I think we have become a rotten people and need to move beyond how we have done things until now. I think we could make a better universe and I want that. It just so happens the way forward means smashing the older and however many evil korveinians need to be culled. Most of all the central parliament. My dream is to personally cleanse that entire body, with their deaths the rest of the koreveinians and the gaxy will be liberated from their tyranny.”

  “You mean to mess me up to then?” He asked while side eyeing me.

  “You are too unimportant, I mean to wipe out the parliament and oligarchs. We will remake korveinia into something greater than she ever was before.”

  “Korveinia is already great. Things are working just fine for the majority and we will not accept unnatural freaks, such as yourself, gornazut.”

  I spped him on the face. “Fix my ship.” I commanded him.

  He looked at me in disbelief. “You struck me.” I hit him again. “Stop hitting me. I never did anything bad to you or anyone. Stop hitting me.”

  I spped him again. “Act better. Get your goddamned head out of your fucking ass. Fix my ship now, fucker.”

  “How could you be so violent? Linda, do you see how the gornazut acts when presented with peaceful argument? Violence! Violence is what we get.”

  She sighed and with no emotion or hint of sincerity she said. “Oh no, Mr. Avrankir. Don’t hit my husband. I definitely don’t think you should punch someone with nazi opinions. How could you be so violent to him?”

  He ughed and stood confidently once more. “You see, gornazut? My wife is on my side!”

  I was taken aback, how could someone so smart at one thing be so inept at another? “Of course she is.” I said sarcastically. “I will say it one more time. Fix my ship.”

  “That was always going to happen, gorn–” I raised my hand. He flinched and hesitated to finish the word. He finally started again after a few moments. “Zhohash. That was always going to happen, Zhohash.”

  “Good. Get to it. I’m heading back to the bridge.” I hugged Linda. “It was good to see you again, Linda.”

  “Linda, the ga–” I looked him in the eye, his gaze fell to the floor immediately. “Never mind.”

  She followed me out of the room. “I was reminded of a time on earth long ago. There was a group of people who wanted to have empathy and a group who just weaponized it against their enemies. Their enemies beat the shit out of them and reduced their movement to tears and cry bullying. No one took them seriously hence. The world grew into a better pce that accepted people no matter their difference. I want you to punch every nazi piece of shit you find, Zhohash.”

  I smiled at her. “You have my word. It felt good to do so.”

  She smiled back. “Now that we have some procedure figured out, we should be able to fix up this ship’s weapons more quicklier, I suspect.”

  I left them to their work. I started walking to the mess to grab a bite to eat. My stomach growled. The intership communication chirped on. Olux’s voice splooped forth. “Zhohash come to the bridge, this is really important and is bordering on emergency. Zhohash to the bridge now please.”

  I grabbed a quick worm squeeze tube, trademarked by the Food in Tubes Corp, and rushed off to the bridge. I stepped onto the bridge. “Hey, I heard the announcement, what is happening?” I asked.

  “Problems!” Olux was at the radar station. “There are a few destroyers coming to protect the transport ship. We cannot fight them, we will be ripped apart immediately.”

  I walked to the screen to see what he was seeing. Three ships three times the size of our ships were pulling closer to the transport ship. I gritted my beak. “Stop the ship, Grendy. Stop now.” We were converging too quickly. We needed to break off the pursuit now and hit up pn B again.

  “All stop, sir?” she asked.

  “What? Yes, all stop, now. Break the pursuit and head to the hideout for now.”

  “Ok, I’ll head there then.” She poked at the controls for a moment. “Route set, and we’re off.”

  “What are we going to do now? We needed that food right, Zhohash?” Olux asked. “Please tell me you have a pn.” A look of concern spread across his face.

  “Pn B.” I said. “I just wanted us to break away from that. We need to raid an unprotected pnet. What are our options?” I pulled up the gactic map of occupied pnets. “Hezhava and Korglenin are two big grain baskets beside the one we have previously hit.”

  “Which one is closest?” Olux asked. “Oh better yet, which has less gravity? I want to take a long stride, those are so fun to do.”

  “Morale is important and part of my victory calcutions. Ok, we are heading to Hezhava. We can run around and jump and have a little fun.” I decided. “Grendy, make a path to Hezhava. We raid and py!”

  “You got it boss.” Grendy said and fiddled with the controls again. The ship lurched around. “We’re off. We have about seven hours before we arrive at the destination. A nice short haul, really. Haul?” She ughed. “I guess we aren’t hauling are we? Well whatever.”

  “Ok, call me if anything else is about to go wrong. I’m hungry and had a small bit from the Foods in Tubes corp. I really could use a proper meal though.” I started to leave.

  “Can I grab some food with you? Grendy asked.” I waved her to follow me.

  She padded after me as I walked out of the bridge. We walked in silence.

  “I’m sorry I disappointed you, sir.” She said softly after some time.

  I stopped walking and looked at her. “Excuse me? What did you just say? Why do you think you have disappointed me?” I felt as if I was just being whipped around emotionally.

  “You had me change the direction we were heading so much. I just assumed I was making mistakes. I don’t know. I’m sorry, I’ll do better, sir.”

  I sighed and put my hand on her shoulder. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I was just trying to get us into a better position. None of what happened was your fault. In the future when I ask to change headings it also won't be your fault. Sometimes we just need to change directions.”

  “If you say so.” She didn’t seem convinced but I also didn’t really care about her particur hangups at the moment. She started to move forward again.

  Tuvas and Linda were walking toward us. “Gorn—I mean Zhohash.” Tuvas said with a shitty smile on his face.

  “Dude, chill out. Get your head out of your ass.” I started to walk by.

  “Pfft faggots.” I rounded on him and tried to smash my hands against his beak. “Honey!” Linda and Grendy pulled me off of him. I kicked him as they dragged me off of him.

  “Do not attack me or anyone else while in my fleet. I am not having this shit any more! Your attitude is ass and I am not standing for it. Every time I see you, you say some shit that pisses me off, something that attacks me and people like me. I’m not allowing this, I will not tolerate it. I’m saying this for the st fucking time. Get. Your. Head. Out. Of. Your. Ass.” I pushed the two women off of me. I grabbed Grendy by the hand and started walking to get food. I breathed deeply to slow my heart rate. “Let’s go enjoy our meal, Grendy.”

  We left him on the floor behind us. I didn’t look back but heard Grendy’s foot falls behind me.

  “Should I be worried about what just happened, sir? You might have hurt that guy really bad.”

  “I am pretty done with him. He has been giving me shit since we liberated him from the prison ships. I’m done with patience, I’m beyond understanding. Everytime he tries to pop off at me, I will hit him until he gets the idea.”

  “What if he never gets the idea?” She asked.

  “My fists will stand ready to punch punch punch punch, until he finally gets the idea. If I have to punch him until I’m one hundred thirty years old, I will.”

  We nded on Hezhava. I took the Korveinian people with me only so we would be less suspicious. The empire was consolidating its position by jailing potential enemies of the state. Khajra was pushing the lev-cart, I gently scooted her aside and shoved Tuvas into the pusher position.

  “We have a thousand leaders, we should be able to get some of the more guarded items at the store but for less guarded we are going to hit the collective farm just outside town.” I reminded them.

  “I’m surprised you are taking me along with you, Avrankir.” Tuvas said.

  “Because we will look less suspicious with three than with two.” Khajra said. “I know all about you. Keep your beak shut, toss out a few hail the empires every so often but otherwise, you keep your beak closed.”

  “If you mention the word gornazut I will have your asshole.” I threatened. “Now, I also want you to remember something, your wife will starve if we don’t get this food and get back. Do you want to starve your wife, Tuvas?”

  “Of course I don’t.” He said. “I will be on my best behavior, like Linda asked me to. Please, just don’t hit me again. I am but a frail man of science.”

  “Ok, let’s move out then.” We marched from the ship, as the others filed out and started jumping a quarter of the height of the surrounding trees. Their enjoyment was pin to see.

  We walked the forest path. “Bit of a backwater pce, isn’t it?”

  “It had to be a backwater.” I said. “Other pnets would have had those ship registry bots. If we were pinged without clearance–”

  “I get it.” He said. “Khradzir’s team was too smart with that tech. It works too well. I suppose that was the point of it though, the empire got exactly what they wanted.”

  We finally broke from the trees after about an hour. The green rolling hills and idyllic ke with the town situated on its northern shore. This was a paradise. I felt at ease but remembered the mission quickly and guarded myself again.

  “Aww, this pce is so cute and pretty.” Khajra said. “I want to find a girlfriend and live in this cute valley when we’ve won the war.”

  “String that talk.” I said. “We have to be careful about what we say.”

  “Of course, Zhohash. I’ll be more careful.” She said.

  We went into the town over the hills. As we passed people in the town chirped hellos at us as we passed. We arrived at the town store.

  “Hello there you three.” The cashier smiled at us. “What can we do for yall?”

  “Hail the empire! May she reign for another four thousand years!” Tuvas said.

  “Yes, of course. Hail the empire.” She said awkwardly. “What can I get for you folks?”

  “We are looking to get butter, cheese, and milk. In quantity.” I told her.

  “Of course. In quantity? How much are you looking to get?” She asked. “I have several kilos of all that stuff.”

  “We need at least forty kilos of each.”

  She groaned in thought for a long moment and plinked at her calcutor. “That much is going to cost you eight hundred leaders.”

  “Eight hundred leaders?” I asked, as I pulled out my bank. “Little pricey but if that is what we need to pay, we will pay it.”

  “The Empire,” she stared daggers at Tuvas, “they were here a month ago and appropriated much of our stock. I’m already down several thousand leaders because of that. I can’t give you any sort of discount, even in bulk.”

  I nodded. “The empire does seem to be taking some liberties against us regur korveinians, isn’t it.” I whispered to her. “They came and ‘appropriated’ our wood too. It was a shake down! An absolute travesty.”

  She looked pensive. “I really would like to help. Seven hundred leaders. That is the lowest I could go. We need to be more kind to each other in these hard times.”

  I smiled sweetly at her. “I’ll see about getting some more wood for you when we get back to our camp.”

  “One good turn.” She said and held out her bank, we connected them together and she punched in her price. I hit the accept transfer button and had only three hundred leaders left. “Thank you kindly for your business.” She raised her voice. “Igris! Get down here. I need you to move some heavy stuff!”

  Light foot falls descended the stairs. A young man stood at the bottom of the stairs. “Yes, aunt. What do you need moved?”

  “Forty kilos of butter, cheese, and milk.” She said, he saluted and moved toward what I assumed was the stock room. He brought out a ten kilo bag.

  “I could help moving the bags, if that is ok with you ma’am.” I said. She nodded and I followed him back and grabbed from the same pile the boy did.

  “What’s your name? What do you do?” He asked as we walked back to the lev-kart. “Something interesting?”

  “I am Zhohash. My friends and I are wood cutters. We’ve come from the forest down the road.” I said as I pced the bag on the kart.

  “Can I come cut wood with you?” He asked.

  “I need you here.” She said without missing a beat.

  “But aunt! All my friends went off to join the war against the enemies of the empire! I want to go too. I want to have adventures!”

  She was looking at Tuvas when we returned from grabbing another bag. “No, you are too young and I need you to help me around the store.”

  “Yes, aunt Linartza.”

  “Two years and you can join if you like. Until then, you will stay here and do what you are told, young man.”

  “The war is gonna be over by then.” He pouted.

  “We would be so lucky.” She retorted.

  We pced the st jug of milk on the kart. “Thank you for your help.” I said to the boy. “Thank you for the food stuff.” I said to the woman. “I’ll get that wood to you as soon as I can.” She smiled and nodded at me. We left and headed back out of the town.

  “Should I call now?” Khajra asked as we came over one of the rolling hills. I nodded my accent. She pushed her communicator. “Forager to base, forager to base. Commence trans of food from levlev.” Moments ter there was a bright white light and our load disappeared from the levkart.

  “Woah your stuff disappeared! And what was with all that cloak and dagger code talk stuff?” Igris came fully up from behind the hill. “This all seems really strange.”

  “Boy, you are a loyal and proud member of the Korveinian Star Empire.” Tuvas said. “We are also, we have our woodworking to do. You should focus on your tasks and be diligent. That is the best way you can help the empire.”

  “I want to do something bigger to help though!” He begged. “Even if it's chopping wood with you all.”

  “Go home and help your aunt with her shop, kid.” I said. “You can see about joining us when you are older and stronger. You couldn’t operate the equipment as you are now, not even the humble axe.”

  The boy looked dejected. He turned and walked back to the town. I rolled my eyes. “Poor kid.” Khajra said. “Zhohash, we should make sure he doesn’t dog our feet anymore.”

  “Agreed. Let’s go grab the grain from the farm and head back to the camp.”

  We snuck onto the farm with our face coverings on to obscure who we are. A man started to walk toward us when he noticed. “Hey who are you all? This is private property.”

  “We require your grain.” I said.

  “We don’t sell to individuals. You’ll have to buy from the store in town.”

  I pulled out a pistol. “I’m not asking to buy. I’m telling you we are taking what we want. Give us sixty kilos, now.”

  “I don’t want any trouble.” He said with his hands in the air, this feathers danced in the wind. “Please, don’t shoot.”

  “The grain. Now.” I insisted.

  “Come on now, the empire–” I fired at his feet. Hot psma bounced off the ground and sprayed against his legs. Holes formed in his pants. “Yes, yes, grain, got you.”

  We loaded up and left the farm. Khajra pulled out her communicator. “Forager to base, forager to base. We have package two and are prepared for total trans.” A white light started to envelope us. Igris dashed out of a bush and grabbed my leg. We wooshed and ended up back on the ship.

  He looked around. “Where are we?”

  I kicked him off my leg and grabbed the wall communicator. “Olux, get to the transport room now. Bring a pistol.” I pulled mine out and leveled it at the kid. “You just made a huge mistake, Igris.”

  Shortly Olux came in. “Why do I need a pis–oh who is this tiny bird?”

  “What do we do about this?” Khajra asked. “We can’t kill him, I refuse to accept that outcome.”

  “Take him to the brig. We can’t leave him here. He has seen too much.” I said.

  “May the dear leader forgive us.” Tuvas said. “Boy, I warned you.”

  “Come on,” Olux pointed his weapon at the kid. He hid behind Khajra.

  She grabbed his arm. “Just do what we say and everything will be ok, alright, Igris? Come with us.”

  After Igris was safely tucked away in a cell, we left the pnet. Loathed to keep the kid, but unwilling to suffer the potential consequences of dropping him off, I took what I perceived to be the least worst option.

  After we left the atmos Olux turned to me. “By the way, we have had confirmation of another prison transport. It’s even unescorted.”

  “Unescorted?” I was incredulous. “Seems a bit suspect, but I would be remiss if we didn’t at least try to liberate those condemned by the empire. If it turns out to be too dangerous we can just jump away. Inform the fleet to muster at the next rally point, Olux.”

  “You’ve got it Zhohash!” He saluted me and stuck his ear piece back in.

  “Zhohash.” I felt a twinge of annoyance. Who needs me now??? I turned to the entrance to the bridge, Kay was walking in. “Hey, I just saw we had a prisoner. I thought you all went to get food, not people.”

  “He ambushed us on our transport out. It was unfortunate but I didn’t want to risk dropping him back off. He will be our guest for the next little while.”

  “Well, however it happened, what's done is done, I suppose.” She said. “He asked to speak to you. He seemed really scared. I gave him some food to try and calm him.”

  I stood and walked to Kay. I pced my forehead against hers. “I’ll talk to him but I am not feeling particurly generous toward him at the moment.”

  I walked toward the cell block. I stood in front of his cell then sat on the ground in front of him. I stared at him and didn’t speak.

  “What’s your real name?” He asked after a few minutes. He chewed on his bread.

  “I am Zhohash.” I said.

  “Is that really your name? Are you lying to cover your real identity?”

  “Kid, this isn’t a movie, or story or whatever. This is real life. You have gotten yourself into a dangerous situation, Igris.”

  “You people don’t seem very dangerous.” He said with an incredulous tone.

  I ughed humorlessly. “No, no. It isn’t us you have to worry about.”

  He folded his arms. “Well what then? What should I be so afraid of?”

  I sighed. “Clearly, you are aware there is a war happening at the moment. We were all once prisoners of the empire and now we are fighting against our former captures.”

  He had a look of awe on his face. “You aligned yourselves with the three subject people’s council of liberation?”

  I sat up. “The subject peoples have all banded together?” My mind swam. “Of course! Of course! That’s why they’ve done… oh it all makes sense now. Thank you Igris, you have gotten me to a pce of understanding for what is happening.”

  “My aunt is actually staunchly against the empire.” He said haltingly, as if he was not sure that he should be sharing this revetion. “She hates how they take all her things but she will not stand against them.”

  “What about you? You were asking her to join the empire’s forces.”

  “I just wanted to go on an adventure, Krugel-vros-Shushul is such a boring pce. Nothing ever happens there.”

  I sat staring at him for a long while. I sighed deeply. “Ok. You want adventure? I can set you on that path, I suppose. You can work in the kitchen as our cook’s assistant.” He groaned, disappointment palpable. “And if you do a good job there, I will personally move you to a more action oriented role. I need to see your dedication first though.”

  He straightened. “So, so, so. You are all pirates and I get to be part of your pirate crew?”

  The smile fell from my face. I shook my head. “Fine, sure. Pirates, we’re pirates and you are our test swabby. Do well and we will reward you.”

  “Yes, sir! Pirate Captain Zhohash, sir!” His eyes were twinkling. I went to the panel and unlocked his cell. “Free!” He ran out and hugged me. “Thank you so much Mr. Pirate. I promise I will do my best.”

  “Follow me to the mess hall.” I dropped him off there and went to the bridge. I sank into the captain’s seat.

  “We will be arriving at the rally point soon.” Kay said. “What did the kid want?”

  “To be a pirate.” I said simply, she looked confused. “So I made him the assistant cook.”

  She cocked her head to the side. “And he was… happy with that outcome?”

  “Strangely, yes.” I replied.

  “We are coming up to the rally point.” Olux announced. “Better that kid do something than just sit in a cell the entire time. I approve of your decision.”

  “Thanks, big guy.” I said and wiped my feathers clean. One fell out. “When the fleet is assembled, I want us to just head to the target, ok?” Olux gave me a thumbs up. Within a few more minutes we were gathered and headed out. The screen was clear of ships save for the one prison transport and we were heading for it.

  “We got a message from Megrolia. She said the soldiers we picked up are ready for boarding duties.” Olux reported.

  “Understood.” I said. I sighed deeply, hoping Zakherin would be ok. “Tell them I said good luck. Also get me an update on the weapons upgrade, now.”

  Olux went to work. Kay said, “Linda was able to finish the upgrade while you were out getting the food.”

  We fell out of uberlight and our enemy was before us. We went in for the attack and were able to disable their engines quickly. Megrolia’s ship went in and hooked up. We stood in a holding pattern.

  One of our ships disappeared from the screen. “Olux, call the Dendalia, see where they are.” Another disappeared. “Grendy, pull around. I want to see the fleet now.” A ship came into view, it was firing on another one of our ships. I smashed my hand on the armrest. “Grendy, move in against that ship. Olux, forget about the Dendalia, get the fleet firing on that ship now. Kay, I want that ship dead, make it happen!”

  “We don’t have the firepower to beat that thing. It's armor is too powerful.” She said.

  “Fire on it, I will not lose another ship without a fight. Fire as soon as we’re in range!”

  “Zhohash, we are five by five on the fleet knowing what is happening.” Olux said.

  “What is the status on the Urgzaler?” I asked.

  “Heavy resistance.” Was all he said.

  “Trap. We are in a trap. Pull the borders back. We need to get out of here now!” Another ship was sundered apart after taking fire.

  “They are falling back already. It was too much for them.” Olux admitted.

  Kay fired back. We were hit with a gncing blow. Another ship blew up in front of us. My veins were running cold, so many lost already.

  “Urgzaler has disconnected.” Olux said.

  “Jump out now! Fleet wide! Go! Go! Go!” I screamed desperately. We entered uberlight. I sank into my seat and began to cry. Kay came to give me a hug.

  “None of what happened there was your fault, Zhohash.” She tried to comfort me.

  “I led them into that disaster. It was all my fault.” I insisted between breaths. “How many did we lose?”

  “You don’t want to know.” Olux said.

  “Tell me.”

  “Five. We lost half the fleet.” I pushed Kay off of me and ran from the bridge.