Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 44088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
Another six months after finding our little slice of paradise, with Nemo learning to walk, the Colony finds us.
Their presence is heralded as a bright light in the sky, a star brighter than any other. It is so pretty I actually pause for a moment and enjoy it. In the few seconds I take to enjoy it, it grows multiple times larger. Enjoyment turns to dread.
“KAIL!”
I run to him. He already has his armaments ready. He has not been idle. He has prepared these lands for invaders, and he has run drills each and every day since our arrival to ensure his readiness. He plans to stand and fight. I do not like this plan, but now is not the time to argue about it.
Kail had been feeding the baby. At my appearance, he puts Nemo in my arms. “Go,” he says. “Get in the ship and go. I will deal with them.”
“I can’t leave you.”
“You have to. I will not lose another wife and child.”
We have never formalized any of our relationships. I do not think we dare, neither to risk the emotional vulnerability of staking claim of family, or to risk those bonds being known to the universe at large.
There is no time for goodbye. There is no time for anything.
“Kawkaw,” Nemo says as I belt him into his ship’s seat. He’s almost too big for it. We are going to have to upgrade this.
“That’s right, little buddy. We’re doing this for Kawkaw.”
I take the captain’s chair beside him. Nemo has his own little console controls. They don’t do anything, but he’s pretty good at mirroring my actions on his control pad. He’s going to be a very good pilot one day.
Today, I have to be a very good pilot.
We take off in less than sixty seconds after I initially spotted the Colony ship. I pass them on the way up as they head down. I hope, for a brief and stupid second, that they turn around and follow me. I really don’t want Kail to face them alone.
They are in a landing mode, and they can’t stop. We are now all caught in the motion of our own momentum. Decisions have been made. Consequences will be brutal.
Kail
I stand to face my enemy, the enemy who has cost me one family, and who now comes for another. It feels as though they will hunt me to the end of the galaxy to take away what I love most. There is a brief temptation to wonder what I did to deserve this, but the truth is I was just another object in their way. Now they come for me with vengeance in their hearts.
Memories come rushing back from when these animals first took everything away from me.
We knew the animals had landed, but we were not concerned about them. They seemed content building their shelters, and we were happy to share the lands, which were bountiful.
Then came the stories of animal raiding parties, of weapons that could not be countered by spears and stone-tipped arrows. The animals could kill at great distances, many at a time.
I did not believe the stories until I saw their destruction firsthand, visited on my family in my absence.
I returned from the hunt, a kill over my shoulder. I had been gone three days tracking the deer, and I was more than ready to see my home, my mate, my children. The entire tribe would feast on my efforts. I felt pride, anticipation and most of all, love.
Blood greeted me as I stepped through the clearing, the scent of it thick and grotesque mixed with the stench of rotting entrails. They had been dead for at least two days already, corpses swelling, becoming unrecognizable, partly consumed by rodents.
The animals left my family where they had fallen, as if the ones I loved most in all the world were nothing.
Instead of providing them a meal, I dug them graves. I buried my family, my friends, my tribe. And I went on the warpath.
The animals were soft. Their hides thin, their bones weak. Their weapons were fearsome, but they themselves were nothing to be afraid of. The answer was obvious. Do to them as they had done to me. Kill them in their homes and bases where they least expected it. Eradicate them from the world.
I had no idea then how many there were, how world upon world was covered in these creatures. Killing them all is not an option. Neither, it seems, is evading them.
The Colony ship lands nearby, and a small platoon of officers and soldiers disembarks, stepping on our land with their booted feet.
I have not met these humans before, but they speak as if they know me, arrogance dripping from their tongues. They have heard of me, but they do not believe what they have heard. I can tell, because they are far too close to me, and they believe their weapons will stop me.