The Oxygen Breathers
This is one of my favorite stories, edited (slightly) and reposted here for your enjoyment. I'll be going through my archives and posts across the internet and putting my favorites here.
It was always an event when the Humans visited.
They'd arrive in their sleek, smooth, thick ships, which were completely at odds with the other ships of the Coalition. Human ships always looked like they were grown rather than built. People would whisper how the Humans made their ships as tough as they were. How human ships could go atmospheric and land on the ground.
It was nonsense of course, no ship - human or otherwise - could do that. Kre'kk figured that the Humans spread the rumor themselves.
After they'd arrive, they would come out of the docking umbilical in their small, polished suits. They were a rare class of sapient indeed.
The oxygen breathers.
Most 'civilized' people in the Coalition came from worlds with much less... reactive atmospheres. The humans with their oxidizer for a breathing gas were seen as brash, reckless folks who make decisions without proper consideration. Given the caustic nature of their atmosphere, people assumed it was practically a given that they too were more caustic.
Kre'kk stood at attention at the end of the umbilical, ready to welcome the humans for their - hopefully - short visit. They came from a high gravity world with a single massive moon - fully a quarter of the size of their own planet itself - so their environmental defaults were... somewhat extreme compared to the rest of the Coalition.
As the humans approached, they stopped one half unit away from Kre'kk. He looked down at them - they were about half his height - and he made the universal gesture of welcome. The humans reciprocated and Kre'kk began.
"Welcome to Coalition Orbital 43559 - known to the Lemilar as 'Habilamen.' I am Administrator Kre'kk and I welcome you as equals for you visit." His voice was sing-song as he repeated the words he used for every greeting. It was all part of the process and nearly automatic for Kre'kk. His mind wandered. How small they seemed, how unassuming.
The human at the head of the group wore a slightly different suit. Still polished and almost mirror shined, but where the rest of the humans were wearing suits of a pitch black which was darker than interstellar space, this one's was a deep vermilion red. Kre'kk's wandering mind came back in sharp focus when he saw the color. It was so rich! It shined so much it looked wet.
When she began to speak, a simplified icon of a human face was projected onto the smooth polished surface of the helmet. It seemed that the humans had taken some care to make themselves look less anonymous and intimidating in their environmental suits. "Thank you for the greeting, Administrator Kre'kk. I am Captain Margaret Kellerman and this is my crew." She gestured behind her. "We plan on staying for only three cycles demi in order to take on a load of Ribanium and trade with any interested parties. I have a manifest of what we have available to trade." Her gloved digits gestured on her arm, and the file appeared on Kre'kk's pad.
Kre'kk was taken aback at her voice. It's so clear. She seemed to be speaking through a translator, but it was getting the nuance and overtones of the Lemilar trade language perfectly. She could have a career as an entertainer or storyteller easily... if she was a difference species. "Uh, thank you Captain, I have received your file and will distribute it. Please make use of our facilities during your stay."
Captain Kellerman's helmet flashed a icon of a face, smiling - without teeth - broadly. "Thank you Administrator Kre'kk, we shall."
For two cycles, Kre'kk held out hope that the human's visit would be without incident. They came in quietly, did some minor trading, loaded their Ribanium and spent a reasonable amount of money on entertainment and refreshments - suitable for their systems - while on board. Kre'kk felt they were trying very hard to be model visitors. Apparently they knew humans had a reputation in the Coalition for being... rowdy.
On the last demi cycle before the Humans were scheduled to depart a group of Felimen came over, angry. They had spent the entire two cycles previous loudly complaining to anyone that would listen that the humans shouldn't be there, and that they had captured Felimen colonies long ago and had begun the process of 'poisoning' the planets to be more suitable to them.
The Human authorities maintain - and have the receipts to prove - that they purchased the planets legally from the Felimen, and never attempted to hide their goals of terraforming and colonization. Regardless, a long, bloody war had followed and the humans had pushed the Felimen to capitulate and they were currently engaged in a Cold War with each other.
Kre'kk was alerted as soon as they started shouting. The Felimen seemed to come to the humans wanting to cause trouble. For their part, the humans tried their best to talk the Felimen down. Their helmet icons were looking sad and they gestured in ways to try and reduce tension. The Felimen were having none of it.
As Kre'kk undulated over to try and calm them, one of the Felimen in the back had produced a battle rifle. Kre'kk had no idea how they had snuck it in; weapons of war were completely banned on the orbital and was cause for immediate expulsion. Before he could sound the alarm and get the Orbital authorities to come, they fired at the group of humans.
It proved to be a fatal error in judgement.
Faster than Kre'kk could follow and only confirmed by viewing the security footage after the fact, three of the humans brought massive slug throwers to bear. The Coalition sapient races find chemical powered metal slug throwers to be too heavy to be hand weapons. In the rare cases when they are used, they're tripod or vehicle mounted. The humans could pick them up and swing them around like they weighed nothing.
The noise of the slug throwers in the hall was deafening, more a physical sensation than a sound. Kre'kk wondered how the humans could take the noise without being injured, but he assumed they must have some kind of noise cancelling built into their environmental suits.
They fired for only one millicycle but it was more than enough. The Felimen who had fired upon the humans had simply been... erased. Nothing of them remained barring a disturbing stain on the deck. None of the others had been struck - a rather impressive feat of marksmanship. The remaining Felimen turned and ran in panic.
The silence in the hall after they finished firing was deafening. The hall felt overpressured and stifiling. It felt like an eternity before the station alarms sounded, their wailing warble snapping Kre'kk back to reality. He rushed over to the humans who were methodically checking either others' suits and cleaning up the small gold colored pieces of metal that had come flying out of their throwers when they fired. Oddly, Kre'kk's mind reminded him that "brass" was what they called it. Carefully, but firmly he gestured an apology. "I'm sorry, but you're going to have to leave now."
Captain Kellerman's icon showed pure fury. Her gauntleted hand pointed at him accusingly. "You're going to take their side, Administrator? You were here, you saw them. They shot first!"
Kre'kk slid back one half unit unconsciously. "Be that as it may, you responded with disproportional force to their attack. It was uncalled for."
Captain Kellerman sputtered, her melodic voice taking on frightening undertones as the translator worked overtime to relay her fury to Kre'kk. "Disproportional? Uncalled for!? Administrator Kre'kk with all due respect, you are out of line. "We only hit the one who fired upon us." She crossed her arms in front of her, and once again Kre'll was amazed at how flexible their suits were. "You know about the war I assume, but do you know what they did to our colonies? They dropped nanobombs on our legally purchased colonies. They weren't trying to take back land, they were trying to obliterate us. I was there, I saw it with my own eyes."
Kre'kk was taken aback. This was not part of the standard narrative about the war. "I did not know that no, the Felimen-"
"The Felimen tell their own version of the war in order to garner support and sympathy against 'the aggressor human' I'm sure." Captain Kellerman's translated voice sounded bitter. "Kre'kk. Your people border the Felimen opposite us do you not?"
"Yes, our territory borders theirs but-" Kre'kk said, trying to follow the conversation.
"And have you by any chance heard of some border worlds coming under some kind of unknown trouble? Maybe a strange illness, or unusually strong weather?"
Kre'kk's frill rippled worriedly; he said nothing. He had heard about things like that.
Captain Kellerman cleared her helmet. Suddenly, Kre'kk saw her clearly. Small, with bilateral symmetry, close set binocular eyes and a small mouth, this was the first time Kre'kk saw a human as they were, not as their icons show them. They were predators. They were hunters.
They were terrifying.
Kre'kk unconsciously made a gesture of fear and slid back another half unit. Captain Kellerman's face contorted into a snarl. "Know this Kre'kk. It's only a matter of time before they do to you what they attempted - and failed - to do to us. Think hard about who your friends are and who in the Coalition you can come to for help when they start dropping nanobombs on your worlds." Just as suddenly as it had cleared, her helmet darkened again, and the cartoon icon of her face returned. It felt like a mockery to Kre'kk now.
The humans picked up the rest of their debris and freed their weapons. Faster than Kre'kk could ripple, they were all carrying slug throwers. "We're leaving Administrator Kre'kk. If any Felimen even come within 5 units of us-" The people behind her cycled a round into their rifles for emphasis "-we will take it as a provocation and will respond with 'disproportionate' force."
"Y-yes Captain. I will relay this information."
"You and yours would do well to reconsider your stance vis a vis the Felimen."
Without another word, the group of humans turned and marched towards their ship. Shaking, Kre'kk signaled that they were not to be interrupted and made sure their warning about Felimen was relayed.
After they left and the mess was cleaned up, Kre'kk sat in his quarters and stared out the window at the planet below a long time. One of his creche mates was living on a newly founded colony bordering Felimen space. He began composing a message to beam to her asking if she had any plans about moving back.