Changed Circle

by Warringer

Chapter Three

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Lieutenant (jg) Mohamed Ibn Abbaz was a good man. He was a religious Muslim, born in Dubai, had visited Mekka twice and was a good Marine with every option for his career in the Terran Union Armed Forces. And he was a Mutant.

Mutants had appeared in the human history in the first half of the 21th century, when new born children turned up with animalistic traits marking their bodies. Things like slitted pupils, tails, claws instead of fingernails, mostly that kind of thing. But there were also children that were a Furries dream come true, looking like anthropomorphic animals. It had been an uproar in the world when that happened and the scientists had blamed the much higher radiation levels of the environment during the second half of the 20th century. In truth this was a side effect of the virus Dr. Samuel Wilkins had released in 2008 in an attempt to make mankind smarter.

And Lieutenant (jg) Mohamed Ibn Abbaz was one of these Mutants, a Full Morph, as his kind of mutation was called, being an anthropomorphic version of a Siberian Tiger. Talk about irony.

Right now Mohamed was sharing a holding cell with a Japanese Full Morph Fox, Marine Gunnery Sergeant Hiro Jamamoto, aboard a Minbai ship. The rescue pod that had been full with Marines of Mohamed's platoon had been picked up by the Minbari during the battle of Delphi, only a week ago and the third attack of the Minbari on Terran space.

Mohamed and Hiro had tried to get out of the cell, but not even Mohamed's strength had been able to open the door to the holding cell. They also had tried to talk to the other prisoners of the Platoon, but again they hadn't much success.

So Hiro was sitting on one of the strange tilted beds, idly playing with the tip of his tail, while Mohamed was kneeling on the deck, mumbling passages of the Koran while reading them of a holographic display of a small electronic Koran that hung around his neck in form of a Muslim half moon.

"Do you ever grow tired of reading that, LT?" Hiro asked suddenly.

"Not really," Mohamed answered," It has been some time since I have read the Koran."

"Oh?"

Hiro raised an eyebrow. He knew the LT for a few years now and the only time he hadn't seen him pray towards Mekka, the stern of a space ship according to Muslim convention, was when they were on a mission. Heck, he even prayed here three times a day.

"Shouldn't we look for a way to get out of here?"

Mohamed looked at Hiro.

"We have been over this a few times, Gunny. The door is to strong for even me, the 'my friend is ill' trick didn't work and the air ducts are to small for either of us."

"There has to be a way."

"You always drag that you are a 'Kitsune', Gunny. Why don't you change shape to a Minbari and get us out of here."

"Har de Har Har," Hiro made and crossed his arms over his chest," Very funny, LT."

There was a silent between Mohamed and Hiro. Finally Mohamed shook his head.

"Sorry, Gunny."

Hiro sighed in response.

"No problem, LT."

Just shortly after that the door to the holding cell opened and a Minbari entered, a weapon pointed at the two Marines. He made a motion with his arm.

"Come," he simply said and glared at them.

"Well, that is new, LT," Hiro said," Wonder what they want."

"Shut up, Gunny, and come."

The stepped out of the cell and into a long corridor with other doors to holding cells and into the fire arcs of several other Minbari. The Minbari that had opened the cell motioned toards one end of the corridor and the two Marines could only follow the orders of the Minbari. Sure the two Mutants were able to take down some of the Minbari with ease, like they had done after their pod was 'rescued', but there were a few too many Minbari.

After a walk of maybe two minutes they were led into a larger room, with more armed guards and one Minbari that was different to the others. The guards that had brought them to the room mentioned them to stand in the middle and after some moments two other Marines were brought into the room, to normal human this time.

The now four Marines exchanged looks and a few hand signals, in thew end agreeing that it wasn't good to try and get free with now twenty Guards in the room. Obviously the Minbari had learned from their loss of their men against a Platoon of Marines.

The other clad Minbari glared at the four Marines and than proceeded to walk around them twice, looking over them again and again.

"Terrans," he spat out," integrate other races into their society and military."

The four Marines just stood there, looking forward and through the Minbari. Than he walked up to Mohamed who was about a foot taller.

"Who are you?" he asked with narrowed eyes.

"Ibn Abbaz, Mohamed, Lieutenant Junior Grade, Terran Union Marine Corps, ID-Number One-Zero-Two-Echo-Foxtrot-Niner-Zero-Zero-Whiskey-Nine-Two."

The eyes of the Minbari narrowed further.

"What are you?"

"Human."

The Minbari suddenly had a short stick in his hands, which suddenly got longer and slammed into one of Mohamed's knees. It took all his self-control not to flinch or even acknowledge the hit. Not getting the response the Minbari wanted the stick slammed into the knee again and again he hid any reaction. Only the third hit got a response out of Mohamed, even if it was only a flinch.

"You are not human," the Minbari spat out, his face had changed color and he looked like he was about to loose his temper," You can't be human."

"Being human is a state of mind," Mohamed just said," And test my DNA if you don't belive me."

"Silence," the Minbari snapped and again the stick found Mohamed's knee," You only talk if I order you to talk."

"Fuck yourself," one of the normal human Marines said and the response resulted in a shattered knee cap.

Mohamed had the feeling that this would be a long day.