Chapter 2

I awoke to Raz’s loud grunting, annoyed, I rubbed my crusty eyes and rolled over to complain. She was stood between our beds, stretching her limbs and doing some manner of meditation exercises like yoga, each stretch or position punctuated by a grunt. I opened my mouth to protest, but my eyes lingered on her body. She was wearing skintight shorts and a tube top that almost failed to encapsulate her considerable chest. I hadn’t paid too much attention yesterday, but now her lean, svelte figure leapt out at me. Her arms and shoulders were lightly muscled, her orange patterned hair fell about her shoulders as she moved, her boobs, by human standards very large but appropriate on her giant frame, bounced slightly, and below, her exposed belly flexed and twisted, twin lines of toned abdominal muscle leading down to a navel like one would find on a human. She had wide hips, the visible pelvic mound protruding enticingly under her shorts, and her butt and thighs were those of a weight lifter, I could almost hear her clothing creaking under the strain of containing her. There was no visible fur on her body besides on her head, while her shoulders, back and thighs were tinted orange and ported the same patterns, they were not furry, it seemed to be pigmentation in her skin. I watched for a few moments, mesmerized by her graceful movements, then noticed one of her round, furry ears was swiveled in my direction.

“Hey, do you mind? You woke me up!” I stammered, hoping she hadn’t noticed my peeping.

“I don’t mind.” She replied sarcastically. Annoyed, I flopped out of bed and got dressed.

“You know you could do that in the gym, and then you wouldn’t wake me up.” I complained. She continued without faltering, stretching her arm back over her head, she was remarkably flexible.

“This is what I do in the morning, I need to stay in peak physical condition, if you don’t like it request a different roommate.”

“You know that isn’t an option...”

She smirked, and stretched her other arm over her head, letting out a loud grunt.

“If your squad gets attacked while you’re asleep, will you complain that they’re too loud and stumble around in a stupor like this? How long does it take your feeble human brain to wake up?”

I didn’t rise to her insults, and merely left the room to find the bathroom. Eventually I ended up in the mess hall and ate some breakfast, shared with a couple of humans and a Krell, the Borealans were all grouped around one table again, shunning the other species and being antisocial. Why were they even here? They didn’t even seem to want to learn or interact with anyone else. After some time Raz emerged and joined them, her hair looked wet, she must have showered or taken a swim in the gym, and she was sporting her blue jumpsuit again, it seemed that no matter where she was in the room, at least one of her ears was swiveled in my direction, it was disconcerting. The mess hall filled, and then emptied, I left the barracks with a mixed group of humans and Krell, leaving some stragglers to finish their meals. There was no work to do today, no classes or drills, we had been told that today we were free to explore our environment and adjust to our new settings.

We wandered the Pinwheel, staying within our designated quadrant, and admired the technological wonder we had found ourselves inhabiting. The humans craned their necks and marveled at the artificial sky, while the Krell seemed more interested in the structural qualities of the starbase. There were no windows to space on the donut, it must have been heavily fortified in order to protect against space debris and possibly enemy attack, so there was no evidence of the spinning motion besides the inertia keeping our feet to the floor, which felt like wholly natural gravity. Wherever we looked there was activity, support staff and crew hurrying back and forth performing innumerable jobs and tasks, some drove down the central street in what looked like little golf carts or airport shuttles. They were almost all human, but the occasional alien could be seen commuting, their large frames standing out between the scurrying earthlings. After some time wandering and exploring, our little group found itself in the recreation center, which was a long, flat building where crew and soldiers could relax in what free time they were allotted. I felt a little guilty, seeking out games and recreation on my very first day, boot camp had given me the expectation that I would be up at the crack of dawn with a drill sergeant’s spittle on my face before I had even had breakfast, but I guessed if we had been advanced to this program at all, it meant they trusted us to have mastered the basics, and while I felt proud of my achievement, that expectation weighed on my mind. My train of thought was broken as I watched two Krell play some kind of ball game with their tails, and the humans crowded around to hoot and laugh.

After a few hours of cultural exchange, which took the form of trying to teach the Krell how to play poker and a swapping of alien curse words, among other things, I decided it was time to head back to the barracks. I bid my friends good night, they were now attempting to teach the Krell to play pool without them eating the chalk, and made my way out of the building. The massive lamps on the roof had grown dimmer to simulate dusk, and the “street” was becoming less populated, with only the night shift crew emerging to start their duties. The air was cool on my face, and I marveled at the idea that I could be almost completely alone on a space station with a population the size of a small city, the station was truly massive, and most of the serious work must take place in the central hub where the command center, control tower and most of the base staff were housed.

I walked slowly, taking in the cool breeze and the green, leafy plants that lined this section of the street obscuring the buildings from view, carefully curated trees and hedges that looked as if they would be more at home on some European estate than a military base. They had really gone all out on the décor, but then again if thousands of people had to live here semi-permanently it made sense, little touches like this would stave off the cabin fever, it was not for the benefit of the trainees, we were only passing through. There would be no shore leave on an orbital station, there was nowhere for it to dock.

I heard a rustling, and snapped back into reality. I stopped to looked around, but didn’t see anyone, was it the artificial wind blowing the leaves maybe? I started walking again, but more rustling made me halt. It definitely sounded like something large moving in the undergrowth, but I couldn’t see any signs of movement in the brush. I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up, was it Raz trying to fuck with me again? Surely she had better things to do than stalk me as a prank? Wait...

Was I scared of Raz? The notion that I would let her childish bullying get to me was absurd, and yet, the idea of her lurking in the bushes watching me like some kind of man-eating tiger filled me with dread. She was a lot stronger than me, she clearly had problems socializing and she hadn’t hesitated to get physical with me, even infront of our superiors. I took off walking, a little faster now, not a frightened run but a healthy power-walk, I wanted to be away from these bushes and into full view of the barracks as quickly as possible. A chill slid down my spine like a melting ice cube as I heard a twig snap, and then my ancient fight or flight instincts kicked in and I bolted. As if I were running in slow motion, an orange blur left the bushes in an explosion of leaves and covered the distance between us in a second, it slammed into my back and sent me sprawling across the ground. I wanted to cry out but the wind had been knocked out of me. I rolled onto my back, intending to get up and face my attacker, but the thing was on me faster than I could blink, an iron grip around my wrists pinned my arms to the floor and I felt a weight mounting me, I tried to wriggle and struggle free but its thighs held me in a vice, yellow eyes glared down in the twilight. The face moved in, dangling hair tickling my cheek, and my body tensed as I felt pointed fangs prick against my neck. I closed my eyes, and to my shame a low whimper escaped my lips, I had been shot at with live ammunition in basic, but this was an animal attack, I was not trained for this, I had not prepared for this, and I was afraid. It held its fangs there for a few seconds, pressing them into my skin, not enough to draw blood but enough for it to be uncomfortable, I felt hot breath on my neck, then it drew back.

“You die again, monkey boy.”

“R-Raz? I knew it was you! You bitch!”

She released me and got up, laughing at me, I shuffled backwards away from her on the ground, before thinking better of it and picking myself up, brushing dirt off my front and nursing a skinned palm that I had fallen on.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I demanded, checking myself for cuts and scrapes, “you’re out of line, are you fucking crazy? What is your fucking problem?”

My heart was racing, but she just stood with her hands on her hips again, smiling at me, both ears tracking me, probably savoring my complaints and protests.

“Just another notch on my belt, tree climber. I thought you guys were the apex predators on your planet? Yet you ran away like a prey animal, you didn’t even run fast! Then you whimpered like a kitten when I caught you.” She was smug, as if she had won an argument or proven some kind of point. I didn’t understand the game she was playing, I was hurt and angry.