Chapter 10: Epilogue

“But I don’t want to drill with the Krell,” the Borealan recruit protested, her brow furrowing as she glanced over at one of the massive reptiles. She clutched her long, bayoneted XMR against her chest, her fuzzy tail flicking back and forth in irritation. “They’re so big and slow, they won’t be able to keep up!”

“You’ll do as the Instructor tells you,” Raz chided, a sting in her voice. “Or you’ll have to answer to me.” The younger Borealan recoiled, hunching her shoulders in a display of submission. “I told you to treat the Instructor as your Alpha, obey his orders. Human packs work a little differently to ours, but their command structure is basically the same. Remember what I’ve been teaching you about ranks?”

I looked on with my arms crossed as Raz corralled the newest Borealan pack that had been sent to the station for integration training, a dozen of them milling around her, even the smallest among them still skirting seven or eight feet. Many of them had only recently come of age, the sooner we got to them, the better the training seemed to take. The aliens looked out of place in their new UNN uniforms, their curious eyes darting about the range, their round ears swiveling to track every unusual sound.

They had just finished building their first XMRs under my instruction, most of them favoring the semi-auto, bayoneted design that Raz had come up with all those months ago. Since the platform had become more widely adopted on their home planet, the new recruits that passed through were a lot more familiar with the weapons than Raz and her pack had been when they had first arrived on the station.

Raz was the biggest and the meanest, and she managed to keep them in line, a stern dressing-down or a scuff around the ears usually set the more rowdy recruits straight. God, had we looked that young and fresh-faced when we had joined the program?

“You should respect the Krell,” Raz continued, ushering the Borealan recruit along with a nudge from her tail. “They are formidable warriors and steadfast allies. Did I ever tell you about the time that I saw one break a Borealan’s spine in a brawl?”

“No!” the recruit exclaimed, her eyes wide and her ears pricked up attentively. “The Krell can do that?”

“Sure they can. You think all of that muscle is just for show? Get your tail moving, and I’ll tell you about it on the way to drill.”

Raz turned to wave to me as she led the procession of Borealans out onto the torus, the aliens following behind her like a line of ducklings. When they were all gone, I noted on my tablet computer that the range was free. One of the human recruits had been having difficulties with his XMR, and he had requested some one-on-one tutoring, so it might be a little while longer before I could clock out.