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“The human is alluring, sir. She has significance. But not everything that has significance is safe.”
“I appreciate your concern, Brains, but she is not a danger to us. If anything, she is a danger to herself.”
“Sir, your time with the wild ones was greatly transformative, though it was short. But I fear you are not considering the many implications and possibilities…”
“Brains.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Go clean the toilets.”
“Yes, sir.”
He takes himself off to do my bidding, and I am left without his naysaying undermining the thrill of human possession. Penelope is not dangerous to us. She is barely capable of surviving on her own as far as I can discern. Her attempt at escape was absolutely laughable, to the extent the crew could be heard roaring with amusement from the galley to the brig. Brains worries too much. A stint cleaning the bathrooms will be good for him, focus his attention on something simple rather than formulating nonsense ideas about the human I have locked in my dungeon.
I check the camera feed to ensure that she is still where I left her. I am satisfied to see her curled up in her new containment, which boasts enough stable room for the ungulate she is so attached to. The creature is eating a fabricated version of dried grass with a stoic calm we all might wish to attain. Penelope is asleep under a woven fur blanket.
“Dangerous,” I chuckle to myself. “Ridiculous.”
* * *
“Captain, sir?”
“Yes?”
There are many Vulpari on the bridge because there are many tasks that need to be carried out in order to pilot this massive ship throughout the universe. Now that I have my human under a modicum of control I can return to the business of piloting a warship. It is astonishing how distracting one female can be. I feel as though it has been months since I was on this bridge issuing commands.
“I’ve been running long range scans on the wild planet, surveillance, as you requested.”
“Yes?” I wish that my subordinates would tell me the crux of the information first.
“I’m seeing some anomalies.”
“We have only been gone from the wild planet for three solars, maximum.”
“Actually we’ve been traveling using the temporal systems, sir. Sixty-three and a half solars have passed on the wild planet since we began our journey.”
“And?”
“There’s a parking lot on it.”
I stare at him. That cannot possibly be correct. He must have made a mistake. Scanned the wrong planet. Forgotten what a parking lot is, perhaps.
“What do you mean a parking lot?”
“For automobiles. Human land craft that travel on rubber wheels inflated with…”
“Yes. I understand. But how could such a thing be possible? We scanned no other human life signs in the immediate area.”
“I do not know, sir. They appear to be in the process of constructing roads through the ancient territories of the wild ones.”
“Let me see! Put the scans on screen!”
Sure enough, the deep scans reveal an expanse of gray tarmac covering the once pristine wilds of our ancestral home. Fury rises in me. How dare they? The insolent little wretches, always assuming that the universe is an entirely empty space just waiting for some of their tedious construction.
“Set a course for the wild planet, and prepare to deploy sixteen detachments of our most elite warriors. I want these humans wiped off the face of the planet. And then I want them wiped out of this solar system. And then, the galaxy!” I raise my fist and bring it down against the arm of the chair, breaking several sensitive electrical circuits in the process.
I spend several hours organizing the war footing. I will not leave a single human alive on the planet; that I swear. It was bad enough to find one. Now, of course, there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands. They’ve arrived in several large ships and have been deploying all manner of rubbish over the planet’s face.
“What is that?” I gesture toward a very large, very ugly hole in the ground.
“That’s a mine,” my surveyor reports. “They like to dig base materials out of the ground and then create vast amounts of pollution by manually refining them in the crudest ways possible. We are already detecting increased levels of methane and carbon in the atmosphere.”
I let out a snarling growling expression of fury. We should have stayed in orbit longer. We should have ensured that the planet was safe. I am filled with regret and anger, two emotions that encourage one another to ever greater heights.
Then I remember I have a human in my dungeon. How could I have forgotten her? The adoration and lust I was obsessed with just hours ago now seem perverse and wrong. Brains’ warning rings hollow in my memory.
* * *
“What have I done now?”
Interesting that guilt is so innate to her kind that my appearance makes her wonder what she is guilty of. I took some time to calm down before I came to her. I did not want my fury and rage to be unleashed upon her. If she has anything to do with this, it will take every bit of my self-control not to lash out.
