Chapter 4

Hi errbody, I got another chapter! We're gonna switch gears a bit and introduce the other main character who lives worlds away, and I'll be sure to flesh her out as I keep writing. There's a bit of trouble afoot in this chapter… :o

As always, I'd love to hear what you think.

A Vortian sat at her kitchen table with the holovid on the other side of the room turned on low and the windows open wide to let the cool breeze into the too-warm apartment. Her cheeks her stained with tears and she aggressively wiped at them with her sleeve as she tried and failed to finish her noodles. During times like these, she desperately yearned for her mother's kind, loving words to help her through the night, but that couldn't happen this time or next.

She sluggishly got up and trudged across the kitchen to put her bowl in the sink along with all the other dirty dishes that had piled up over the week. Because this old dilapidated apartment was all she could afford with her measly salary, she lacked the privilege of having a dishwasher and always had to settle on washing each dish by hand, a task she found tedious due to her tendency to procrastinate. She had been inured to living in subpar conditions and there wasn't a whole lot she could do to change it.

She walked over to the cramped living room and splayed herself out on the sofa to watch the holovid. Her rolled out yoga mat caught her eye on the floor before her and she considered working out a little—really, she considered it. But in the end she just didn't have the energy or willpower to make herself do a bajillion squats and pelvic thrusts. Maybe tomorrow night.

Flipping through some channels she finally decided on the same old reliable VortTV and slumped further into the sofa. It didn't really have the kind of programs she liked to watch, but it was the only station for Vortians made by Vortians that was offered by her provider. It was familiar, and that's why she liked it.

Containing her tears was easy as she closed her eyes and let her mind wander to different things; for instance, her next choir performance later this week. Singing was one of the only things she was decently good at, and fortunately it also served to keep her head above water in difficult times. The world didn't seem like such a dark place when she sung and one of her greatest pleasures was performing with in a group or perhaps with the aid of instrumentals. Oh, how she needed that sweet music like she needed oxygen…

A great clap of thunder sounded and she immediately snapped her head up in surprise, looking exhausted. After she had struggled to get the windows shut, she meandered down the crooked, dimly-lit hallway with the intention of brushing her teeth and crying herself to sleep. A sudden news alert caught her eye on the holovid though, and before she could walk away it flashed disturbing pictures of a city in ruins, black smoke rising in billows as the audio revealed the voices of those in distress, crying for the loss of their homes and loved ones.

The Vortian chewed on her lip in worry, feeling infinitely more depressed now than she had been previously. What was being displayed on the holovid was the capital city, not a great distance from where she lived in her modest apartment. She ignored what the news reporter was saying and instead focused on the unsettling imagery of charred rubble and bodies of all shapes and sizes being covered and carried away.

She had been waiting for something like this to happen for a while now; not that she welcomed it, but at least it reaffirmed her beliefs that Irkens were at least somewhat predictable. The Empire had occupied Oskolla's capital city for about three years now, and though she didn't fully understand the politics behind why the Irkens had all of a sudden decided to blow it up, she had a sneaking suspicion that they simply felt like some terrorizing was in order to remind the Oskollan government who they were dealing with. And, within a few years' time, the Empire would have probably completely rebuilt the city from the ground up—with proper Irken aesthetic of course—to give the false impression that the Tallest were forgiving leaders and would provide nice things to those who obeyed.

With another clap of thunder, the Vortian clicked the holovid off with disgust and went to go get ready to endure a sleepless night of tears and memories of happier times.

In the morning she felt no better and her eyes had puffed up from crying so much. She couldn't stop thinking about her mother all night, nevermind the breakup with her boyfriend that was still fresh in her mind. She sat on the edge of her bed and rubbed her still tired eyes, debating on whether or not to call in sick today. But no, she needed the money desperately and couldn't afford to miss even a day's salary. If she ever wanted to see her mother again, she really didn't have a choice.

Today would be rough, though. The kids would probably bombard her with questions regarding the Empire's attack on the capital city and she wouldn't know how to answer them. How does one go about explaining something like this? Better yet, should she even try? She knew very well that some parents did their best to prevent any news Irken-related from reaching their children's ears and she was sorely opposed to answering the calls of angry parents later on. It wasn't her place to reveal such grave information to a classroom full of impressionable minds even if she believed they all had the right to know what was going on.

She thought long and hard about how she might respond to the inevitable questions but once she stood in front of her dinky little classroom, all her prepared words had slipped away. So, instead, she made her morning greetings short and immediately launched into reading lessons. Or at least, she tried to—she tried so hard. When the first hand shot up she inwardly groaned and reluctantly called on the little purple Eonoxi girl in the third row.

"Go ahead, Moeana."

"Miss Cho, why did the Irkens blow that city up?" Oh dear, here we go…

She sighed and searched her brain desperately for an appropriate response.

"Well, you see—"

"Did a lot of people die?" another student from the back of the class interrupted.

"Qlor'ik, raise your hand first," she reminded him.

"Oh, sorry. My mom and dad won't answer any of my questions though."

"Miss Cho!" The hand of a Vortian in the front row shot up and the hornling waved it around desperately. "Are they gonna blow us up too?"

At the little Vortian's question, the whole class erupted into panicked discussion and Fai Cho resisted the urge to drop her head into her hands.

"Guys, guys! Quiet down!" It was too early in the morning for this shit. "I'm about to take five minutes off recess!" Instant silence. Worked every time.

But now that Fai had their undivided attention, she wasn't sure what she was supposed to say to satisfy their curiosity.

"Look, I know you guys have a lot of questions, but I really don't have all the answers. And it's up to your parents to explain these things to you, not me. What happened yesterday was…very tragic. And yes, lots of people were killed and lost their homes. And it's—well, it's scary, I know. No matter what, though, never let fear keep you from living your lives. It's times like these that we have to be reminded that we can never give up fighting for the things we believe in. We all believe in peace and goodwill, right?"

The classroom was a sea of nodding heads. Well, at least she was making sense.

"Then we must always work toward that, all together. What the Irkens are doing—it's the opposite. They don't want peace like we want. They want to scare us all so that we are easier to boss around. And look, I know you are all still very young and this won't pertain to you all for several years, but it is important that you don't let yourself be ruled by the fear that the Irkens bring. It's very important—more important than you know—that you stay strong no matter what. Now, that's all I can say on the subject. If you have a question that you absolutely need answered, come talk to me before lunch, ok?"

It was pure silence in Fai's little classroom as each student once again nodded his or her head in understanding. At this moment, Fai came to the realization that these kids probably knew a lot more than they let on. Suddenly they weren't children, they were little adults that understood a great deal of what was going on in their messed up world and they were just seeking answers that they couldn't get elsewhere. The gravity of the situation wasn't lost on them and, for this reason, Fai desperately wanted to tell them everything she knew.

One shy hand crept into the air, its owner a small Pharrok boy that had barely spoken a peep the entire year.

"Yes, Alo?"

"Well, this is kinda what you were just talking about, but not really…"

"It's alright Alo, go ahead and ask."

"Um, ok," he said in a tiny voice, "are there any good Irkens?" Huh, that was one she actually hadn't heard before. She thought for a moment.

"Well Alo, I suppose there are. There are good and bad people everywhere, right? I guess good Irkens are pretty hard to come by though."

"Oh. So what do the good Irkens do if they don't want to kill people and do bad things?"

Fai gave the little boy a regretful glance. "I suppose they have to do that stuff anyway. Because if they don't, they're—" how else could one say 'deactivated'? "—um, do you know what 'deactivated' means?"

"Oh, I know what it means!" a girl squeaked from somewhere.

"Ok, well, to all those who don't know what it means, it means that the Irken's PAK is turned off. Like a computer. And the Irken…uh, dies, pretty much. So that's why we only hear about Irkens doing bad things, see."

There was a collective "ohh" and then someone else piped up.

"So they're bullied into doing stuff they don't want to do?"

"The leaders are the bad guys, right? What if they died and then no one would be bullied anymore?"

"Guys, on at a time, please. It's a lot more complex than you or I understand. It's true that the leaders are the bad guys, but getting rid of them won't solve a thing. They'll just be replaced. The real problem here is the Control Brains. You never see them, but they're in charge of controlling the thoughts of every living Irken. If the Control Brains aren't taken out first, nothing will change."

"Ooh, I've heard of the Control Brains."

"Well, why doesn't someone just go in and shut them down?"

Fai sighed. She was getting in way over her head and she knew she should stop before things progressed.

"Ruknyu, only Irkens are allowed on Irk. No one has successfully been able to infiltrate their base of operation.

"Infil…whaah…?"

Ok! Time to change the subject.

"Alright guys, as much as I'd like to discuss this further, we're late for our reading lesson."

Groooaaan.

"Oh, come on everyone. Like I said, if you've got more questions, talk to me before lunch. Now, open your books and I'll try to remember where we last left off…"

Oi, as much as she loved them all, those kids sure could be absolutely exhausting. An expert in interplanetary politics and alien cultures she was not. Fai had next to no experience when it came to Irkens, and distrusted the lot of them for good reason. It was strange, though; as a child, Fai remembered her mother would often talk fondly about an Irken of her past, never revealing much more than what he looked liked and how they met. Her thoughts wandered to her mother and suddenly she felt awfully homesick.

Her mother had lived with her brother—Fai's uncle—for twenty-three years now, unable to start a life somewhere else (or better yet, come live with Fai) because of the horrendous poverty she lived with. It was because of this that Fai and her mother also had a difficult time contacting each other; Fai's mother didn't have the funds to buy a communicator and pay for the service. So, Fai and her mother most often relied on the written word to talk to each other.

Fai often dreamed about a different life. A life in which she saw her mom every day, where they lived in a nice apartment, had plenty of money for food and shopping, and took vacations to other planets.

A life in which her father was still alive.

She remembered everything her mother had told her about her father and how he had been killed by Irken prison guards as he and his mate—Fai's mother—attempted a daring escape. Fai had been there when it happened, just a hornling wrapped in her mother's arms. She was grateful she didn't remember anything about that night. She was too young.

But they killed him. They killed him and made a widow of a young wife and Fai would never have the opportunity to meet him. That's why she couldn't understand why her mother still held that one strange Irken in such high regard. It made her a little angry to think about, how much the Irken race had destroyed her life and her family, and how her mother still gave the damn bugs the benefit of the doubt. That Irken…he had been a guard. That's how Fai's mother had known him. But no matter how hard Fai had tried, she just couldn't ever get her mom to explain just what had happened to him in the end.

Maybe he was still out there somewhere?

It was late in the afternoon and the kids had already been let out for the day, so Fai stopped briefly in a store to pick up some food for the walk home. It had gotten a little dark by the time she emerged, the stars just beginning to twinkle up in the sky and the air slightly cool. As she crossed the plaza something unusual caught her eye but it was hard to tell what it was with the poor lighting. Was it a cruiser? Yes, she was sure now that that's what it was—but in the middle of the plaza? She was about to turn away again when she caught just the slightest glimpse of cruiser's marking and almost had a heart attack when she realized it was an Irken cruiser. Yes indeed, there was no mistaking the recognizable curves of the purple and red hued metal and the hot pink lights on its body that burned like stars.

At first it was difficult to digest what she was seeing. Irkens just were not ever seen here; this city held no significant economic or political value to the Irkens, or so she thought. This place was much too dinky and unimportant for them to care about, wasn't it? Dear Vort she hoped that was the case. She hoped whatever Irken flew this thing here wasn't here to stay. Fai realized she had stopped in her tracks to stare and immediately snapped herself out of her trance, not wanting to linger at the scene any longer. Then, a child's shriek of terror tore through the air and her blood ran cold.

Fai immediately turned towards the source—the cruiser—and saw a small boy being thrown roughly to the ground. A posturing Irken soldier stood over him with a gun and shouted furiously at the child, who seemed to be frozen in fear. It was then that Fai recognized the little boy as…Alo! Sweet little Alo, her student. His eyes were wide and watering and he shook horrendously where he kneeled, unable to form words. Without a second to waste, she darted forward, her adrenaline surging, completely acting on instinct. However little passersby there were looked upon the scene, petrified as Fai approached from behind; it appeared as if the Irken soldier hadn't noticed her, his attention solely on the prone figure before him. She didn't even have a chance to think about what she was doing; her only thought was to protect Alo from getting hurt or even killed.

"No, wait! Stop!" she managed to shout just before arriving at the two. The Irken's antennae twitched toward the sound for a split second before he felt an unwelcome hand grab his armored forearm and try to wrench him away. On instinct, he whirled around, striking the assailant with his claws and growling threateningly, subsequently hearing a pained cry as whoever it was fell to the ground with the force of his blow. Fai lay on her side, one of her arms propping her up as the other went to her face. She tentatively felt around at the damage and found that her hand came away with a terrifying amount of dark Vortian blood that glistened under the street lamps. A sob escaped her as the realization of what had just happened hit her and she pressed her shaking palm to the deep gouges on the side of her face.

"Try that again, Vortian filth," the Irken growled down at her. With much hesitation, she lifted her head towards him, fear in her eyes as tears spilled down her cheeks, mixing with blood. The Irken had a brilliant magenta gaze but his face was twisted into a frightful scowl and it took Fai a moment to find her voice as she willed every ounce of courage she had to help her defend herself and Alo.

"P-please," she gasped, "don't hurt him. Please, he meant no harm."

The Irken raised his eyebrows as he considered her; for a moment, Fai was unsure if the Irken would respond—perhaps talking to inferior lifeforms was below him. Other civilians watched from the sidelines, all seemingly holding a collective breath as they waited for the Irken to either disembowel the two or skewer their heads right through. His voice surprised Fai as it finally cut through the silence. "I found this vermin rooting around in my cruiser. Tell me how he doesn't deserve to be punished."

Fai gulped and tried to compose herself. Oh dear Vort, this cannot be happening. "He's just a child. P-please, he doesn't know any better," she insisted, her throat trying to close up on her. Her voice warbled but she could do little to help it.

"And who is he to you?" The Irken was relentless as his unmerciful glare sliced right through her. "You obviously share no familial relation."

"He's…he's…" she had to stop to sniffle pathetically, much to her chagrin. "He's my student. I teach in a school—I teach children."

The Irken's eyes lit up in sick amusement. "Ahh, yes. Such an archaic method of acquiring knowledge. No way to raise a generation of offspring if you wish to utilize their abilities to the fullest." The Irken stopped for a moment, seemingly examining everything about the Vortian female currently curled in the most non-threatening way she could manage. "You're deplorable. No wonder you Vortians are so easily overpowered—none of you filth have the spines to stand up for anything." He sauntered over to the Pharrock boy who had, to his credit, stayed completely silent, and grasped him by the front of his shirt. The Irken lifted the boy as if he weighed nothing and tossed him unceremoniously beside Fai and he cried out as he landed. Fai's eyes widened in astonishment, unable to believe he was letting them off the hook so easily. Or perhaps he wasn't—did he plan to execute them right then and there? The Vortian instantly scooted over to where Alo had landed and embraced him in a secure hug as he shivered and wiped his eyes.

"Take this vermin and get out of my sight," he ordered, his piercing gaze never leaving Fai. The Vortian let out the most relieving sigh but didn't have time to revel in it, lest the Irken changed his mind.

Fai scrambled to her feet, helped Alo to stand, and made to rush away before the Irken's strong grip ceased her in her tracks. In that moment, she didn't think she had ever been more terrified in her life and couldn't stop the squeak of fear that escaped her lips. He brought his face close to hers and in his eyes, Fai caught a glimpse of a monster responsible for the deaths of hundreds or even thousands of innocents…a monster who lacked the most basic ability to experience even a drop of remorse.

"You best teach your students to respect their superiors, Vortian. The Empire doesn't tolerate insubordination. Next time, I won't hesitate." He hoisted his gun up to her line of vision and flicked the safety back on, his grip on her arm so forceful that his gloved claws sunk into her soft flesh. She yelped, but rigorously nodded her head to show her compliance. Content with her submissiveness, the Irken unlatched his claws and shoved her away, watching as Fai took a moment to compose herself and then take Alo by the arm and dash down the street far away from the plaza. The Irken leaned casually against his cruiser, the corners of his mouth upturned in satisfied amusement.