Home Ship

Breathing underneath the water on Home Ship was something Kapp could still not wrap his head around. Swimming felt more like controlling his body in low-gravity than truly moving through water. This was lighter, had little resistance, and was breathable. As he continued to swim downward following Qualia’s trail he took in his surroundings.

The water was crystal clear but still shimmered slightly from the light above, which perfectly illuminated the landscape. Pure white cliffs sat at the bottom of the water, forming canyons and mountains. As he looked closer he saw different varieties of seaweed like plants being cultivated neatly in rows. They were bright orange, dark purple, deep red, and fluorescently glowing yellow varieties which were tended to by more aliens like Qualia, though lacking the ceremonial looking armor she wore. Interspersed between all of these fields were caves in the cliffs. All shining with the same yellow light of the fluorescent seaweed. They continued to swim to a central cave with a large opening sitting at the end of the main canyon.

“You do not swim well,” Qualia said, breaking Kapp’s wonderment.

“I do not do a lot of swimming, and your water is weird.” Kapp replied, in surprise that he was able to speak clearly under the water. Kapp was doing his best to keep up but he hadn’t even had time to remove his boots before Splunk had “helped” him into the water.

“What do they call yo-”

“Splunk!” Splunk interjected.

Qualia stopped swimming and stared intensely at Splunk perched on Kapp’s shoulder. Her wholly dark blue eyes focused on him in anger.

“I would not lower myself to speak to you Splunk. Keep quiet.”

Kapp began to grow weary of Qualia’s superior acting attitude. He disliked when even the best at something acted prideful. Splunk was irritating, but Kapp felt an odd sense of responsibility for him. Splunk seemed well intentioned, even when he was controlling Kapp’s actions.

“My full name is Xander Kapp. You can just call me Kapp. What’s your deal with Splunk?”

“I have no arrangement with Splunk. Lower life forms should be avoided,” With that she turned and continued forward. “Come Xanderkapp, we must hurry.”

That wasn’t exactly what Kapp had meant by “deal with Splunk” but he recognized a dead topic when he saw one.

“Just Kapp,” he said, somewhat begrudgingly, and followed.

Kapp had noticed an absence of life besides those few working in the fields, but as they got closer to the large cave he saw a flurry of activity inside. Not only were there light pastel beings just like Qualia, but he also saw light orange versions as well. The orange variety were shorter than Qualia but still tall for human standards, standing on average at 6’3”. Though Qualia and the other purple creatures were lean and covered in rope-like muscle, the orange ones were thick and heavily muscled. Kapp could imagine them putting bodybuilders back home to shame. They wore the same white armored kilts as Qualia, but instead of the large breast plate they were bare chested with their heavily muscled physiques on display. Kapp assumed that the purple versions were female like Qualia and that the orange ones were male.

Now inside the cave Kapp saw that all of the females had oversized spears like Qualia, though a few inches shorter than hers, strapped to their backs as they swam to and fro. The males however had a cruel looking bladed weapon sheathed on each side of their bodies. They reminded Kapp of brass knuckles, but with white spikes coming out of the front, and a 6 inch white blade extending from the side. Kapp imagined they would be used well in close quarters combat where the wielder could punch and stab with equal efficiency. No matter the gender, the aliens all seemed to ignore Kapp as they made their way through the cave. He could not help but to feel like a “lower life form that should be avoided” in Qualia’s words.

Continuing in Qualia's wake, Kapp had a familiar rotting seafood smell hit him as they swam. Looking around he saw a Nokken creature contained inside of a cell in a canyon wall, made of the same white material everything seemed to be. The Nokken stared at him with its helmet removed, its red eyes seeming to pierce through his soul. It stood solidly in the cell, not floating, with its claw grasping one of the white bars. Periodically its claw would flex as if trying to cut through the curious looking metal, but to no avail.

Kapp could not help to peer back at the frightening creature. Its kind had slain so many of his companions that he found himself filled with heat and anger at the site of it. Qualia turned to see Kapp had stopped swimming and was now floating with his fists clenched glaring at the monster. The monster cocked its head curiously at them and Kapp felt its voice assault him in the way he had first felt and heard the leader of these invaders on the Alpha.

“You should not be here,” the voice was loud but came across like a whisper. It hissed the words at Kapp accusingly. “You have a mission to complete, you should not be here.”

“I did not choose any of this, if it wasn’t for monsters like you I would be peacefully doing my job!” Kapp had fully lost his temper now. He swam closer to the bars to face the monster.

“You were to bring your armies, your weapons, your ships. We would take them all. Go. Leave this place. Go home and bring war for us.” Its voice got more urgent with every syllable.

“That’s enough!” Qualia shouted.

She touched the tip of her spear to the Nokken’s grasping claw which sent it flying through the water with a flash and a shock. It smacked the back wall of the cell hard with a loud “CLACK” and lay in a crumpled mass on the sandy floor.

“We will kill again. This will only slow us. There will be another messenger,” the Nokken gasped with the effort of speaking, now addressing Qualia. “This last resort will be destroyed, and we will parade you and your fathers corpses on our ships.”

“Until that day monster, you will remain in this cell rotting!” Qualia roared defiantly.

The Nokken rose and moved with frightening speed towards the bars of the cage. It extended the helmet from its armor and began to head-butt the cage, while reaching through the cage and clamping its claw at them. The cave filled with the clangs of the Nokken’s carapace careening against the bars, and its roars of anger.

“Come Xanderkapp, we are almost there,” Qualia said as she turned to leave.

Kapp found himself rooted to the spot as he watched the monstrous frenzy of the creature in the cell.

“Nokken angry. We must leave,” Splunk whispered in his ear.

“You are right Splunk, but someday… I will hurt them.”

“Splunk will help!” it chittered happily.

“I’ve had quite enough of your help today little friend. You can be an observer,” Kapp said, turning uneasily away from the cell to follow Qualia.

They were approaching a natural looking raised platform in the cave that a crowd of aliens were congregating around floating in rows looking upward at.

Towards the front of the platform stood four aliens interacting with the only piece of technology Kapp had seen since leaving his escape pod behind. It reminded him of a ship's wheel that he had seen pictures of when in the naval academy, surrounding it were holographic displays of space. A male stood at the helm, he had a piece of white jewelry pierced through his top head-fin from which a foot long red flag floated upward.

Kapp and Qualia swam to the middle of the platform and floated just above it. Qualia bowed to the turned backs of the four creatures. Kapp was unsure what to do, but with a nod from Qualia he also bowed.

“Lord Azule, I have retrieved the outsider and brought him before you,” her tone was formal and spoken loudly enough for those gathered around the platform to hear.

“What could have possibly taken such a long time daughter?” The orange male with the jewelry in his fin asked, as they all turned to face her.

Azule seemed even broader than the other males that Kapp had observed, and taller than the females. He carried different weapons than all others. They were two double bladed knives about a foot and a half in length. The blades extending from either side looked keen enough to shear through rock.

“He swims like an infant, Lord,” Qualia replied with an edge of defensiveness. “We came as quickly as we could.”

“Well then you should have tied him up and carried him,” interjected a male standing next to Azule.

He had a high pitched whiny voice that set Kapp’s teeth on edge. He was not only shorter than all others, but also didn’t bear the same hulking muscles, though he still made Kapp feel inferior. He carried no weapons, which made him stick out compared to all others in the cave.

Azule raised his hand to silence him.

“Caltuth, I will handle my own daughter. Your wisdom is valued but not necessary at this time,” his voice had a political edge to it that covered his clear anger at the interruption.

“I am sorry lord, I overstep my place,” Caltuth apologized quickly, but with an edge of contempt in his voice.

“Tell me daughter, is this a lesser being? Has he proved himself worthy of communication?” Azule said, gesturing towards Kapp.

“I thought well… given the circumstan-” Qualia began hesitantly, for the first time Kapp sensed insecurity in her tone before she was cut off.

“Your daughter has brought this outsider amongst us to speak, with no proof he is worthy to do so? Surely lord Azule, this is too much,” Caltuth spoke the words while looking around at all those gathered, as if speaking to them not Azule.

Kapp really did not like this guy.

“To be clear, I don't even know where I am. What do I have to do to prove I can speak?” Kapp asked.

“Fight!” proclaimed Lord Azule with a grin.

All those gathered, even those who had been rushing back and forth stopped to repeat the word loudly three times.

“FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!”

Kapp was shocked, but didn’t feel like he had any other option.

“All right, that doesn’t seem super fair, but who am I supposed to fight anyway?”

“The choice is yours, all amongst the Aqualin have proven themselves. If one cannot fight, he is a lesser life form.” Qualia said, finally snapping out of her frustration from being cut off by Caltuth.

Kapp didn’t like where this was going, and was concerned with his future here amongst such a harsh culture.

“Splunk will help Kapp fight?” he whispered to the little creature on his shoulder, trying to find a way out of this without too much harm. All of the “Aqualin” as Qualia had called them, were much larger than Kapp. Plus he was in their element.

“Splunk can’t, scales hurt Splunk’s teeth,” it actually seemed embarrassed having to admit this.

Kapp realized that right where Splunk had bit him on his neck was where the Aqualin’s raised black scales started.

“Fight or be cast aside, who do you challenge?” Caltuth demanded.

“Well I guess I’ll take you, short stuff.”

Caltuth was shocked at the insult.

“I am above fighting, I do not even carry a weapon, I am the Star-Reader,” Caltuth said, shaking his hand at Kapp and smiling at the crowd as if Kapp was a complete fool.

“All amongst the Aqualin have proven themselves. Fight or be cast aside, that all sounds pretty binding my friend. You and me! No weapons necessary.”

Kapp was sure the best way forward was to fight Caltuth, who seemed the runt of all. Caltuth was still taller than him, and was much more muscular. This may have been his environment, but Kapp was top of his class at the naval academy in low-gravity combat, which was exactly what this water reminded him of.

Caltuth studied the faces of the gathered crowd. Seeing that they were all staring intently he made intense eye contact with Kapp.

“Fine, I will accept this challenge, even though I believe it to be beneath my station.”

“Fight!” Azule yelled again, this time with an even bigger grin than before.

“FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!” echoed the crowd.

====================================================

This is the third chapter in the book I am writing please consider reading the other chapters!

Chapter 1 "Massacre on Alpha"

Chapter 2 "Splunk"

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