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The Nature of Predators 132
🕑 Added 2023-07-06 11:00:04 +0000 UTCMemory transcription subject: Chief Hunter Isif, Arxur Rebellion Command
Date [standardized human time]: February 2, 2137
The insurgency landed some major gains against Betterment, after successful plots with infiltrators on Wriss. Improvised explosives targeted shipyards, government buildings, and military barracks, with human intelligence disseminating ways to homebrew such munitions. It took several detonations for Arxur officials to catch onto the package bomb tactics, which flattened a few offices; one took out a wing of Prophet-Descendant Giznel’s palace, though unfortunately, the government’s head wasn’t around.
My job was selecting which ships to assign to liberate cattle from various sectors. Of course, the last thing I wanted was for the Arxur populace to starve; however, if Betterment failed to fill the citizenry’s stomach anymore, and the rebellion was teeming with food, it pushed more recruits into our arms. Risking our lives to rescue prey was not something I would’ve dreamt up of my volition, but I was trying to entice the UN to see us as honorable allies. Blowing thousands of herbivores out of the sky to “liberate” them would earn a disapproving nod from Zhao’s people, so we turned to piracy tactics instead.
Successful missions led to my people returning cattle, with no demands made, to a Terran subsidiary. The rescued herbivores must’ve been confused to see Arxur in a gunfight amongst themselves, and then handing them off to a free society. We received a warm reception as we docked at the human worlds; I didn’t know that the primates had the manpower to attend to rescues, but they would find some place for the livestock. After those positive deeds, we talked the Earthlings into providing air support, when we offered to raid a cattle world in the Mazic’s sector.
Zhao is still leery of taking on the Dominion, especially since Giznel is targeting my faction rather than Earth. Supposedly, the Battle of Mileau had mixed results…a stalemate in the kindest interpretation. I don’t know how humanity can hope to take Aafa, let alone Wriss.
Our task was to survive and create chaos, for as long as was necessary. The downfall of the Dominion wasn’t going to happen overnight. Still, it was rejuvenating not to have to perform cruel actions to retain my title, and to see other defectives living open lives. The clips the United Nations forwarded from the Archives validated that empathetic dispositions were once common. Before Betterment began culling “weak” individuals, Wriss touted a number of creative talents and ethical camps!
Selecting for violence and aggression weeded out the vibrant emotions that we once possessed; while we were a solitary species, we aspired to higher ideals. Wriss had been excited to learn from alien cultures, and the Farsul narrators seemed confused about whether our peace offer was ever genuine. Immense sorrow crashed down on me, realizing what our race once was. Perhaps we could be sophisticated sapients, devoted to reason and honor, once more.
Zhao vaguely mentioned an additional Archives discovery pertaining to Wriss’ past, but claimed that he hadn’t decided what to do with it yet. I wasn’t sure what to make of that statement. The Secretary-General promised to explain the missing tidbit down the line, so in the interest of placating humanity, I opted not to push for answers. If it was vital to the war efforts, the information would’ve been passed along with the initial package.
“Good morning! Lisa, Isif, please provide your daily, ‘You were right about everything, Olek’ statement!” The conspiracy theorist human bore a sickly-sweet grin, and I wished I could smack the smug expression off his face with my tail. “I guess the Federation abducting humans wasn’t that crazy, now was it?”
Lisa huffed in irritation. “It’s been weeks since the Archives raid. Are you going to bring this up every day? How many times do you need us to stroke your ego?”
“You told me every day that I’m crazy, and detached from reality, so I expect an equal number of acknowledgments of how wrong you were. Even after I was spot on about the Feds doing gene probing on their own lot, nobody thought, ‘Hey, maybe Olek’s onto something, they’d do it to us too!’”
“A broken clock is right twice a day. So you’ve been right twice, and you’re still a broken clock. I’m still waiting for the death ray predictions to pan out.”
“Well, that’s different. Human institutions are better at covering up conspiracies, so you gotta look at the facts. Follow the money!”
“You’re insufferable,” I jumped in. “What do you get out of all this baseless speculation, leaf-licker?”
Felra twitched her whiskers. “Olek doesn’t trust people. Can I tell Siffy why?”
“I guess,” the human grumbled.
“His parents were pronounced as dead in a car crash, but he never got to see the bodies. They were reporters. He thinks the government, his or otherwise, made them disappear.”
“I…kinda thought they were abducted by aliens, but it doesn’t seem the Feddies visited Earth recently. So that leaves human players. You see, the elites just want to keep power, and they do that by ensuring that we mindlessly consume and follow their narratives. The game is rigged from the start, but they want us to keep playing!”
Lisa pursed her lips. “Olek…I don’t know how to say this, but did you ever think their bodies weren’t fit for burial? That…they didn’t recover them intact? Your relatives might’ve kept that knowledge from you.”
“The relatives who wouldn’t take me in, and sent me to a group home? Ah, yes, those people definitely had my best interests at heart.”
“Maybe the bodies were burned,” Felra offered. “I had a classmate who got killed in a predator attack, on school property. The exterminators torched the defiled body, and the entire building.”
The humans and I stared at the Dossur with the same amount of bewilderment, processing her story. What predator managed to sneak into an urbanized children’s facility? Why did the prey creatures insist on burning anything that so much as looked at a predator? It wasn’t clear what happened to Olek’s parents, but I could guarantee that the leaf-licking primates wouldn’t do something so moronic. Granted, corpses could be vectors for disease transmission, but this hardly sounded like an issue of public health.
I thought empathetic creatures mourned their loved ones in ritualistic fashion? That Dossur’s parents would accept the exterminators burning the remains of their child?
“We don’t do that.” Lisa was blinking in rapid succession, as though something occurred to her. “We perform autopsies on violent deaths. Why would the exterminators burn the bodies?”
Felra twitched her whiskers. “The predator’s saliva and DNA is on the body.”
“You didn’t answer her question, rodent,” I growled.
“What if those…chemicals, got into the water supply, or were absorbed into the soil and then to plants? It could cause a dangerous strain of predator disease. It was clearly from a savage monster, after all.”
“This is the most unscientific, sniveling nonsense I’ve heard from a leaf-licker! So you’re saying because I picked you up with my claws, you contracted predator disease and need to be burned? I am…a contaminant to you?”
“It’s plenty verifiable. Being around predators made me want to try carcass food, so it does prove their point. It’s worth it to me; besides, you’re a good predator. I told you I thought there were harmless predator disease strains, and you’re harmless!”
“I am NOT harmless! That is insulting to say, Felra. I am a fearsome hunter—murderers and marauders cower at my name.”
Lisa feigned a yawn. “You’re melty on the inside. And for the record, that’s not an insult. It’s a good thing to have a heart. Have you noticed humans don’t like cruel monsters? My sister had me convinced you were people-eating menaces, until I met you.”
“You showed us both that Arxur can be different,” Felra said. “I thought you were gonna eat me, but then I saw you really cared! More than anyone else I’ve known. I’m sure now more than ever that nobody deserves to be alone.”
“Felra and you are just adorable together! Now, I’ve led some teams for the UN, some sensitive missions, but a rebellion like this…you have a cause, an important one. That means something. I like you because you stand for an ideal.”
My eyes narrowed to slits. “That’s easy for you to say. The Arxur following me would love to hear we’re chasing some illusory concept, yes? And I’m sure they’d be thrilled that leaf-lickers like their leader for being defective. I’m harmless, is that not so?”
“It’s okay to care and to have feelings! I know you’re strong, but I don’t think you’d hurt people for no reason…that’s all,” Felra chittered. “Speaking of people you did hurt, where is Kaisal?”
Lisa tilted her head. “Yeah. He should be here by now. He’s usually punctual, so I wonder if something’s wrong with him.”
“Kaisal has been nothing but a negative presence on this bridge, so I’ve asked him to work alone.” I flared my nostrils, simmering at the memories of the runt. “As long he files his reports, I don’t think it’ll be necessary to break his tail again.”
“You sent him away, Siffy? I get that you did it for me, but I don’t want that,” the Dossur squeaked. “Kaisal isn’t the last gray that hates prey that you’ll have to handle. If I’m gonna stick around as your friend, you have to do better.”
“I tried discipline! I tried feeding him well, and giving him power! What do you want me to do, pet him?”
“Silly Arxur, I have to be the first sapient you pet! I’ll be jealous if not. Now, we’re gonna go find Kaisy, and we’re gonna be nice to him.”
The two humans shared a glance, before gesturing for Felra and I to go on without them. Judging by that wordless exchange, it was possible they agreed with my exclusion of Kaisal from the group; the scrawny Arxur hadn’t become the open-minded successor that I hoped for, nor had he been helpful as a second. The Dossur truly was deranged, if she thought showing defectiveness to the condescending runt would change his stance. Why did my best friend care about the treatment of someone who viewed her as food?
This is what happens when empathy runs haywire; it is weakness when it’s not contained.
I checked that the Dossur was balanced enough for me to walk, and strolled out of the conference room. Kaisal’s quarters were on the opposite side of our cordoned-off area from my lodgings, which was intended to keep him distanced from Felra during leisure time. Gasping noises reached my sensitive hearing long before we arrived at our destination; I narrowed my eyes with suspicion. Had the scrawny Arxur managed to re-injure himself through incompetence?
I quickened my pace, flinging open the door with slight worry. It seemed wasteful if anything were to happen to Kaisal, after the effort I’d put into training him. Felra chittered as she noticed the Arxur sniffling, and cocooning himself in a blanket. He appeared to have been sleeping, though he jolted awake after our noisy entry. The runt struggled to collect himself, but mucus still dripped from his nostrils. Before I realized what happened, Felra leapt down onto the bed.
“What’s wrong, Kaisal?” I asked, scooping the Dossur back onto my shoulder before she could get eaten. “I have felt sadness and loss before, yes? My understanding will surpass the average Arxur’s.”
“You’re just the latest person to bully or trick me into doing what you want…you’re forcing me to tolerate that prey animal even now! Everyone laughs at my weakness. I didn’t want to join the war. I tried to defect to Earth, twice, and they shipped me back to the Dominion. I’m used and discarded at every turn, and my life is nothing but suffering.”
“How can you possibly be suffering? You are well-fed, and elevated to a powerful role, are you not?”
“Being able to feel something other than hunger, it’s just as awful as starving. I think about things…I revisit things and it hurts…”
The Dossur attempted to wriggle off my shoulder. “It’s called guilt, Kaisal. You can’t see me as anything more than a thoughtless animal without feeling it. You blame me for what happened to the Arxur, when you know it was the Farsul and the Kolshians. We could be civil with each other.”
“I…HATE YOU! You were involved. You helped them make us live like this!”
I lashed my tail. “Don’t roar at—”
“Stop, Siffy! I can speak for myself,” Felra hissed. “Have you not seen that Betterment were knowingly helping the Kolshians, a lot more than any of us? The reason you’re starving, and you live like this, is your own government slaughtered your actual animals. They didn’t care what happened!”
“I hate them too! Why do you think I defected? But you just squeak and babble on about soft nonsense, every day. You know nothing, and you contribute nothing; you weaken us with your squeaking gibberish!”
The scrawny Arxur kept his head pointed away from us, and his sides heaved with uneven breaths. I was tempted to explode at him for those comments, but Felra shot me a scathing look as I opened my maw. With flaring nostrils, I let her leap off my shoulder. Kaisal hissed with disgust, as the rodent crawled up his arm. Her ginger fur looked bright, compared to the shadowy interior and his gray scales.
“If you don’t want to be in a war, we need to make peace. We don’t have to like each other,” Felra said. “It’s time for prey to see predators as people…and predators to see prey as people, not food. Nobody should live like we do now; can’t you agree to that?”
Kaisal fixed his eyes, which were narrowed to slits, on her. “I hate this war as much as I hate you. Get away from me!”
“So we agree on ending the war? That’s a good start. Hey, I know you don’t want to be alone. Siffy and I are friends, so you don’t have to hate me.”
I picked the Dossur up, returning her to my shoulder again. “I…am just trying to make things better, Kaisal, in the only way I know how. If you work with me, and make an effort with Felra, I can enable your success. I do not wish to discard you, but I must protect her. Come back to the briefing, if that is your desire.”
“I’ll be there in a few moments,” the runt grumbled.
I ambled out of his quarters, and moved my pupils toward Felra. The Dossur looked quite pleased with herself; she’d handled herself with more fortitude and discretion than I could’ve anticipated, given Kaisal’s hostility. It was true that other Arxur would share those feelings toward prey, so it would behoove me to discover how to change their opinions now. If Betterment was overthrown, I did wish for the needless war and carnage to cease.
Too many sapients have died and lived wretched lives. With the hatred between our peoples, how could we ever achieve lasting peace?
“I do not think the Federation wants peace, Felra. Convincing the Arxur is easier, and as you can see, that’s not easy in the slightest,” I remarked.
The Dossur tilted her head. “I’ve told you multiple times to reach out to the Federation, and make amends for the awful things that have happened. You could get some herbivore allies.”
“They do not want to talk to us, yes? I know that is your hope, but it is a fantasy. It is not within the realm of possibility.”
“You don’t know that. You haven’t even tried! Trying worked for the humans.”
“The humans haven’t done what we’ve done, and their ‘allies’ are lukewarm at best…ten percent of the Federation was willing to consider not slaughtering them.”
“You could reach out to that ten percent. Send a message to their diplomatic summit. Maybe Zhao would help plead your case!”
“The reason the humans won’t associate with us is twofold—it’s partly because it would kill their reputation with said allies. I wasn’t invited, and I doubt they’d show me to the main location if I turned up at the hand-off. I won’t interfere with their get-together, so get that idea out of your head.”
“Then figure out where they’re having the meeting on your own! You could follow them and try to deliver a message, or at least ask Zhao instead of assuming he—”
“It’s not happening, rodent!”
The Dossur ducked her head, drooping her whiskers in a way that made me feel guilt. The simple fact was that there was no fixing the rift between the Arxur and the rest of the galaxy; the bad blood stemmed from generational trauma and heinous atrocities. No rebellion could depict us as anything other than monsters, except to the humans. Even the primates hadn’t always been sympathetic, due to their open disgust toward our cattle practices.
I could never tolerate the derision the humans had subjected themselves to, regardless. The goal of my rebellion was to undermine the Dominion, not to sing in the streets with leaf-lickers. The best that the Arxur could hope for was the overthrow of Betterment, and a brighter future centuries down the line. If Felra couldn’t get that through her head, she was more delusional than Olek.
A/N - The last chapter before the Summit! Isif reacts to the discoveries at the Archives, and we also see Olek having a field day over the human abductions (it seems there's also something Zhao was omitting). Meanwhile, Felra prompts a crying Kaisal to warm up to her, and tries to encourage Siffy to make amends with the Federation yet again. Do you think the rebellion should try to engage with herbivores? Will Kaisal come around?
As always, thank you for reading and supporting! Next three chapters are a major political event, so stay tuned!
Comments
492
I think a video chat would be the best for the meeting
Unknown
Great comment! Empathy for those like yourself is the lowest form of empathy. Even thieves love their own. What's hard is to care for those who are not like you.
sticksnstones
I'm sure Felra's "I have predator disease" belief is ruffling feathers, but I personally think she's closer than anyone else to really 'getting it'. The real predator disease isn't neurodivergency or dissidence, it's prey getting closer to predators, because when they interact, when they genuinely understand the 'predators' they stop being prey. People thinking differently or speaking out against oppression made them harder to control so they had to be locked away and all evidence that might have opened their eyes needed to be burned... It's very heartening to see that Felra being thrown into the deep end of all this information has made her push through these concerns rapidly! Though at the same time, she's a bit too optimistic that more people will take to the truth the same way she did. I do agree that Isif needs to at least reach out to the herbivores, if only to state his intentions. If the Rebellion reaches out and is rejected, then so be it, nothing much changed except the human-allied species have an idea where they stand with the Rebellion. As things are, the UN's allies likely just think the Rebellion is some power-grab and if Isif is in control, the Dominion will come for them in full force once more.
