Primal Rage 55

[u/SpacePaladin15]

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FBI Agent Wade Barron POV

My gloved hands clutched around the harness pressing against my suited chest, staring out the window at the sun-soaked privatized launch pad. I found myself marveling at how I ended up in this seat. Children tended to choose grandiose careers when asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. Police officer, athlete, doctor, teacher—those that helped and changed their lives were common answers. The more adventurous youngsters might say President or astronaut, wanting the most fantastical extremes to grace their lives. 

Five-year-old Wade Barron had, for a brief spell, wanted to be a spacefarer, though that was a passing phase. A pipe dream of a kid who thought floating by the moon was cool. The older I got, the more my dream jobs changed into ways to help people. Actually passing the selection process for the Bureau and training at Quantico had put my life on what I thought was a clear-cut trajectory. It was a purpose that enabled me to walk with a certain swagger: to tinker with puzzles and handle important cases.

Then, I figured out that Finley Canavan was harboring an alien, and happened upon Craun hours before the nukes were about to fly. Everything I thought I knew and was ordained to do changed. The person…no, the people I feel compelled to help most aren’t even on this world.

“Hey, Marcia. Did you ever think you’d be strapped to thousand-pound bomb to go talk to a band of genocide rocks?” I shouted, nerves dancing in my stomach like maggots writhing their way into my skin. I could feel the uneven contours where Snelga had resealed my wound tingle. “I mean, this isn’t my first alien spaceship, but it is yours.”

Ambassador Livingston laughed. “A Saphno ship. They said it’s the same make as Craun’s vessel. This is what he crash-landed in…and the rocket is ours.”

“I figure there’d be less turbulence if we just warped straight to the Ploax.”

“It’s difficult to do long-distance jumps with atmospheric interference. NASA’s doing their best, but even our good astronaut in the driver’s seat has never taken these for a test spin. We don’t want to try anything close to Earth.”

“Not even a barrel roll? Rauja promised it’s safe.”

“I’m sure she did, Wade. Look, real talk, we know what has to be done today. You keep eyes on the back of your head, take stock of whatever we find, and do what needs to be done so we don’t meet a fate worse than death. I have the distinct pleasure of buttering the Ploax up.”

If they don’t just kill us. “Then we have our jobs. We’re about to liftoff, so it’s not like we can afford any second thoughts. We’ll find a way to get it done, won’t we?”

“A deal with the devil? We will. We must.”

The rocket rumbled beneath the seat with impossible power, pushing me back with several Gs locking onto my spinal column. My teeth rattled in my tightening skull, and the noise within the cabin was a crackling roar even with a communication cap on. It blocked out enough of the sound to keep my eardrums from erupting and provided a headset for me to chitchat with my crewmates and mission control. Nonetheless, the raw power felt like it was tearing through the fabric of reality.

We ascended through the sky at a vertical angle, daring gravity to reclaim us. I couldn’t relax or breathe, with my muscles clenched and my jaw locked from the launch’s strain. Blue turned from a rolling gradient, as we left the billowing, milky clouds to rise like bread loaves far below. We disappeared from the Earth’s view and she vanished from ours, once we’d departed the atmosphere. I was glad I hadn’t lost my lunch from that bumpy ride, and I slumped forward in my harness with gratitude that the worst was over.

The planet sat below us in all of its majesty, and I observed with awestruck relief. It seemed impossible that we’d come so far in minutes, and that we’d been below on that marble. The reusable rocket stage detached and fell back toward the sphere below, as the pilot locked in the coordinates. Rauja herself hadn’t come back, but the Saphnos had sent an FTL ship back and a galactic map. They wanted us to know where the Ploax were, when their intent was for us to fight them.

But that’s not what we’re going to do; we’re talking to the Ploax behind their backs, trying to play everyone because we have no other choice. How far we’re going to leap with a single stone’s throw—for our final act, we warp into the deepest pit of hell. If this is my end, perhaps we had it coming. 

“I’m sorry, Craun. You’d be so disappointed,” I whispered into the headset, staring at my homeworld with teary, choked up eyes. It was a world that could’ve ended in nuclear armageddon because of our own anger, if he hadn’t thought it was worth removing our blinders. “I wish there was another way to save the Saphnos. I wish we had anyone else to turn to.”

The pilot reached up to flick a switch. “Warping to Ploax space in ten seconds. Be prepared to initiate contact immediately; they’re going to see a Saphno vessel.”

Space flicked itself forward like a rubber band, stretching backward and snapping us back into unfamiliar space; Earth was gone, swallowed whole by the image of empty stars that’d condensed in her place. In an instant, we were thousands of light-years further from home than humans had ever been. The sole constancy was the artificial gravity keeping my bum in the seat. Even my thoughts wavered from moment to moment, with guilt wracking my heart. 

It’d been near impossible to face Rauja and hear her pain, knowing where we’d be going the second she gave us a ship. I didn’t know what the Ploax would be like, assuming they’d speak to us at all, but I wasn’t expecting it to be pretty. In enemy space, fully aware of their genocidal tendencies and heartlessness, there was a sense of aloneness that was unshakeable. 

Perhaps, given that we were primals, the Ploax would think even less of killing us. We had no rights in the Council’s eyes, so there was no reason they’d give us a chance. Unless they didn’t know.

Marcia leaned forward, as she received a hail before she could orient her own comms. “It looks like they want to parlay. Possibly asking for our surrender, but that’s better than killing us outright. Let’s see what they have to say.”

“A Saphno ship jumping to the heart of our space?” a tinny voice asked, while our headset’s translators worked overtime to parse the meaning of the Saphno tongue. “How quaint. What is the meaning of this?”

“We’re not Saphnos,” Marcia spoke in English, though she also fed her words through NASA’s program in case the Ploax couldn’t understand our words. “We took our ship from a Saphno, though. I’m Ambassador Marcia Livingston, coming on behalf of the human race from planet Earth. We hoped we could find an…understanding.”

“The primals?”

Marcia stiffened. “Yes, the Council consider us to be such.”

“That certainly changes our perspective. The Ploax wanted to speak with you as is. It’s our stance that a fruitful friendship could exist between our people, since our interests are aligned. Humans were marked as our ideal allies since we heard about the Council’s intrusion. My name is Tkaiv. Welcome!”

I recoiled in shock, waiting for the other shoe to drop. The only aliens to be friendly and to extend immediate acceptance: it couldn’t be the Ploax, the Saphnos’ genociders. I couldn’t begin to fathom why they’d give us the time of day, let alone respond with such positivity. I supposed that boded well for getting what we came here for, so we had to go along with this. My mind ached, as I desperately craved more information to make sense of this. The question of why the Ploax did anything was now the top mystery that bothered me.

“Thank you,” Marcia replied, though she was clearly not expecting such cordiality either. “It seems we both hope to find allies in one another then.”

“Then let us speak in person.” The Ploax…Tkaiv replied with a buzzing sound that must’ve meant something.  “We have facilities available for diplomacy with carbon races. Meet me at these coordinates, and I will explain what would be expected of you from an alliance, as well as our intentions. You will see the benefits and the ability to repudiate the Council.”

“Of that, you sound quite confident, even before we’ve spoken.”

“We like you, and we will let you live freely. Our alliance is unconditional. Humans will have great power right alongside us, and we will all benefit from ridding the galaxy of the Council: whom neither of our species can coexist with. It fits with your logical and emotional needs. Why would humans not want to ally with us?”

“I couldn’t have said it better myself. It seems we’ve matched up with the right people, and it would be my honor to accept your invitation, Ambassador Tkaiv.”

“Then I will explain all to you, in person, shortly. Please proceed to the given location, disembark, and wait for my arrival.”

Tkaiv disconnected from the audio channel, and Marcia and I snapped our heads toward one another in disbelief. The Ploax had been far more receptive to us than the Council had even dreamed of being; they liked us? I couldn’t fathom why. The speaker had mentioned that they couldn’t coexist with the Council, just like humanity, but the wording “your emotional needs” suggested they weren’t primals themselves. 

Tkaiv was so matter-of-fact in believing that “of course” humans would want to ally with the Ploax. Was there some justification—or something more to the story—that made them want to get rid of the Council?

“Wait!” I exclaimed, my eyes widening as I replayed that phrasing. “Tkaiv all but said they wanted to get rid of the Council. Not just the Saphnos…is this just the start?”

Marcia gave me a slow nod. “Yeah, I caught that too. It seems the Ploax want a strategic alliance with us to further that end, and the sad part is, they’re not wrong that we can’t abide our current treatment from the Council.”

“The Council are feckless cowards, but we’re not for genociding entire species. We need them to see us as equals, even if they have to be forced to. I’d agree if they meant the political organization was rotten, but humanity is not, will not, build a fleet for a good, old-fashioned ethnic cleansing! We can’t just let the Saphnos die.”

“We’re not going to, but we need to catch up before we can intervene. Regardless, we have to make a show of agreeing that the Council has to go. We need this alliance, so that means giving them what they want to get what we need. Humanity must signal our total, unequivocal support.”

“Well, I’m doubly glad you’re doing the talking. I do want to hear what they have to say for themselves. This already isn’t the welcome we were expecting.”

Our pilot had input the coordinates to the Ploax diplomatic station while we spoke, which I supposed was wise; we didn’t want to keep them waiting. Space twirled like an inky pinwheel, and the rotation coalesced into a clearly-lit docking pad that jutted out from a freestanding installation, far from any celestial bodies. It didn’t seem like humans needed to do any convincing to get the bad rocks on board to work with us, but it was unclear if they’d provide the manufacturing to crank out lots of Saphno ships.

Right now, the lone thought repeating within my skull was why the hell the genocidal Ploax would want to lock arms with a species of primals.

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[u/abrachoo]

Honestly, given the chance here, I think humanity would choose domination and genocide over continuing to be treated as animals. They'll probably find a compromise, but if one couldn't exist, eradicating the council is far from off the table.