Drok'ti heard the beep and looked at his wrist computer. He pushed a button and heard a crackling noise.
"What the?"
"Drok'ti? Can you hear me?"
"Strife? Tell me that isn't you."
"It is."
He heard Strife laugh.
"What is going on?"
"I managed to get the words in the notepad to appear in English. I read through them and I really think you need to know this."
"All right."
"Ok, so the space colony sent out some guys to meet with some other guys."
"Strife!"
"Sorry! Ok, the mercenaries were armed with Yautja weaponry and sent to meet with a special team then go to Lau'thalus. They are going to blast the cities with the plasma cannons they have on their ships and then capture the survivors so they can study them."
"When is this happening?"
"They are supposed to meet in two days."
"Strife, I'm coming back to get you."
"Whay?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, what? Why?"
"I feel that you could be of use. We have to stop those mercenaries before they meet with the other team."
"Um, ok. I'll get ready."
"Meet me in that place you were the night the men from theFBI captured you."
"Roger, over and out."
Drok'ti heard a click as communication was lost. He turned the ship around and headed back to earth as fast as the ship would go. He landed and opened the door. Strife walked onto the ship. She had a strange sack on her back.
"What is that?"
"It's my backpack. I decided that I should be more prepared this time so I brought some more clothes and some beef jerky. Mmm, beef jerky."
Drok'ti watched as a strange animal walked into the ship behind Strife. It started weaving in and out between Strife's ankles.
"What's that?"
"That's Zaz. I decided I didn't want to leave him again so I brought him."
Drok'ti snorted at the idea, but realized he didn't have time to argue. It wouldn't hurt to have it onboard as long as it didn't mess with anything. Strife opened her 'backpack' and took out Drok'ti's knife. She handed it to him.
"Here. You'll need this."
"If you say so."
Drok'ti tucked the knife into it's sheath and looked down at the strange creature that was rubbing against his ankle.
"What is it doing?"
"It, is a he, and his name is Zaz. He wants you to pet him."
"What?"
"Like this."
Drok'ti watched as Strife knelt down and started rubbing under the 'cat's' chin. Drok'ti snorted.
"Now you try."
"What?"
"Come on. He wont bite you, he only bites me and that's only when we get into a fight."
Drok'ti put his hand down and started rubbing Zaz under his chin. He stopped a moment later and looked at Strife. She was smiling very warmly.
"He likes you! That's great!"
She clapped her hands together and bowed her head.
"You've been officially accepted into my club."
"Club?"
Drok'ti got a picture of a wooden battle club with a door and Strife standing in the doorway waving him in. He shook that out of his head when and looked at Strife.
"What's a club?"
"It's a group."
"And what does a club do?"
"Um. . .well. . .I don't know. I've never had anyone else in the club before. Mostly it's just me and Zaz sitting in the window and watching people walk by."
Drok'ti furrowed his brow ridges. That was pointless. He didn't want to sit around.
"I suppose since now there's someone else in the club we could do other things that aren't so . . .monotonous."
"That would be nice."
"Great!"
Strife pulled a strange bottle out of her backpack and took a cap off it. She put it to her lips and started to drink.
"What is that?"
"It's Nesquick."
"What's nesquick."
"Chocolate milk."
Drok'ti was very lost now. He decided not to ask anymore questions because his brain was already buzzing with confusion. Zaz jumped up onto his lap and stared at him. Drok'ti stared right back. It blinked once and kept staring at him. He was getting uneasy. This thing seemed to be plotting, as he had seen many hard meats do. He looked at Strife. She was repacking her backpack. She turned to look at him.
"So what are we going to do when we find those ships?"
"I don't know yet."
"Will there be killing involved?"
Drok'ti turned away from Strife and looked off. What has he done to her? She's so bloodthirsty, she's becoming so much like him. It pained him to realize that he had changed her and her life all because he decided to pass out in her garage. That seemed like forever ago, but it wasn't. He had managed to turn her life inside out within a matter of months. Strife was suddenly next to him. He slowly turned his head to look at her.
"Something wrong?"
"No. Just thinking."
"About what?"
"Things."
"Be more specific, come on, it's me! You can always talk to me!"
Strife put her hand on top of his head and smiled.
"I'm just thinking about what I've done to you."
"What do you mean?"
"I've ruined your life."
Strife started laughing very hard. Drok'ti frowned.
"What's so funny? I turned you life upside down."
"What life did I have Drok'ti? I was a faceless being amongst other faceless beings. I was just a number, like a barcode. I was a defective one at that. I couldn't be like those other people so they marked me as defective and set me aside. At least out here, with you, I know I'm not faceless, I matter. I'm a person, not just a number."
Drok'ti snorted as Strife hit him on top of the head with the side of her fist.
"So stop being all mopey and realize that even if you did turn my life upside down it's a great improvement from the one that I had before. I'm happy now, there's always something exciting to do, places to go, people to meet and if they fuck with us, people to kill. Out here those laws of earth don't matter and if someone does something unforgivable to me or to you, both of us, I can get revenge."
Drok'ti looked at Strife again. She smiled at him and held her hand in front of her face.
"Now I wont be hearing anymore of this 'I've ruined your life' shizzle. It's not true. Ok?"
"All right."
There was a beep from his wrist computer and he hit a button and heard that crackling again.
"Yes?"
"Where are you?"
It was Drok'ti's brother.
"I'm on my way to take care of something."
"And what would that be?"
"I'm not sure I should tell you. You might tell our sire and he would get angry."
"He wouldn't get angry. . .well, ok, he would. He is worried about you."
"Tell him I'm fine."
Strife suddenly sneezed.
"What was that?"
"It was nothing."
"You are really hiding something aren't you? You need to fess up before our sire gets too worried and sends the arbitrators to bring you back in."
"There is a slight problem, but I'm getting it taken care of."
"What is the problem?"
Drok'ti sighed. He might as well warn them if something went wrong and he didn't make it.
"There are mercenaries on their way to meet with a team that's destination is Lau'thalus and their mission is to destroy the planet and take captives to study."
"How are they going to kill us?"
"With our own technology."
Drok'ti's brother's voice turned very cold then.
"How did they get our technology, brother?"
"I was captured for a short time, but I managed to escape and now I'm going to go get this taken care of. So tell our sire that if I don't succeed he should be on alert and tell the other clans to do the same."
"I hope that you do succeed or you know that your death wont keep our sire from ripping you to shreds over this."
"I know."
"I'll go tell him now. Good luck."
Drok'ti snorted and the connection was closed. Drok'ti looked at Strife. She was staring at him strangely.
"What?"
"Your language is really cool. Why don't you talk like that more?"
"Because you wouldn't understand."
"Hah, good point. So who was that?"
"That was my brother."
"Oh, what did he want?"
"He wanted to know what was going on."
"Did you tell him?"
"Yes."
"Then what did he say?"
Drok'ti sighed. This ooman and her many questions.
"He said he would tell our sire what was going on."
"Who's your sire?"
"Strife, what is with all these questions?"
"I just want to know what's going on."
She shlunked down onto the cot and put her head down.
"It's fine Strife. I just don't know how to answer some of your questions."
"Oh. . .ok. Your sire is the clan leader, isn't he?"
Drok'ti was startled by her revelation. How did she know that?
"Yes."
"Right on, so are you going to be the clan leader next or is your brother?"
"I would be. I am 3 rotations older."
Strife cocked her head to the side.
"Rotations? Is that like years?"
"Could be."
"Cool. So. . .your own sire would have you killed for taking me back to your planet?"
"I don't know. He can sometimes be very strict and doesn't understand much."
"Oh. Oh well. Hey, I think we're here."
"What?"
Drok'ti looked out the window and saw 3 ships ahead of them. They were stopped.
"This must be the rendezvous point."
"Yeah."
Drok'ti looked at Strife.
"Do you have any ideas of what we should do?"
"Yeah. Get me onto one of those ships, I'll crash it into the other one and they'll blow up and oh damn, that wont work. I'll blow up to and that wouldn't be a very happy ending."
Drok'ti snorted.
"What if I went onboard one of the ships and killed everyone and then blasted the other two?"
"How would you work the controls?"
"In the same way I always work controls."
Drok'ti didn't like the plan, but Strife had been right in the past. He owed his life to her, twice now. Drok'ti nodded.
"All right. Now it's just a matter of getting you onto one of the ships."
Strife smiled.
"I think I have an idea. Is there anywhere to hide in here?"
Drok'ti thought about that.
"Yes."
"Where?"
Drok'ti opened up the closet and Strife looked in it.
"Good, All right, get in there."
"What?"
"I'm going to send a distress signal and get them to come get me."
"I. . ."
Strife pushed Drok'ti into the closet grabbed his wrist computer and closed the door.
"No discussion!"
He could faintly see Strife's heat signature through the door.