The navigation console went ping and Dola'z took a moment to read the display, reminding himself what that sound meant. He hated this job, he hated the machines and struggled to remember what all the sounds and beeping noises meant. After he'd checked what the computer was telling him he pressed a button and turned on the communicator.
“Dropping out of hyper-space my Lord captain,” the pale yellow scaled creature reported, “We will be in orbit of the Bunny Farm in forty-five minutes.”
There was a moment of quiet then a growling voice responded “Finally, what took so fucking long?”
“We had to slow down in the middle, Engineering had to fix something and…” Dola'z started but the communication circuit clicked shut. He growled in frustration and sat back in his chair, waiting.
A few minutes later Lord Captain Hz'kar wandered onto the bridge grumbling. His aides were fussing around them, adjusting his cloak and carrying a tray laden with drinks. The green scaled Horker slumped in the raised captain’s chair at the back of the bridge and waved a hand.
“Let’s get this over with, once we are in orbit we will release the drones and then I have a special treat for us all.”
Dola'z twisted around in his seat to look at the Lord Captain, the rest of the crew were paying attention too. Hz'kar sat up straight and smiled, showing off his fangs, “His Majesty has authorised a harvest, a sampling of the bunny stock as it were, we are ordered to bring ten to fifteen home with us… the King craves a proper meal.”
The Lord Captain grinned around at his crew, his teeth bared in wicked delight, “I am authorising us to harvest about thirty bunnies. Fifteen for the King, the rest for us to enjoy on our way home.”
The crew hissed in delight and Dola'z grinned, “This makes the trip worth it Captain! I can’t wait to make a bunny scream.”
Solaz the navigator laughed, “I heard their screams are the best, but I want a fresh cut! I’ve heard tales of how sweet their meat is…. It’s been a hundred years since we had proper bunny meat.”
“You’ll get it boys,” Hz'kar growled in delight, “We’ll all be feasting on bunny before the day is out. But remember, you have to be kind to them first, offer them worthless shiny shit and they’ll come right up to you, curious as anything and then you grab them.”
“I heard that their little ones are the best, there is an old Royal recipe my father taught me” Tor'az, one of the Lord Captain’s attendants said, “You’re supposed to toss them alive into a pot of boiling oil with salt and rishun spice. They screech like the finest symphony and then are the sweetest dish you’ll ever enjoy, the screaming as they boil and the spice is said to lock in the flavour.”
Hz'kar wiped the drool off his chin and growled, “I want that, Tor'az, make sure the harvesting team knows we need a full selection of tiny bunnies.”
“Yes Lord Captain,” Tor'az grinned, clearly already planning to make one for himself and their Captain.
“This is a larger sample than last time,” one of the security team said. "Did something change?”
Hz'kar growled, “Yes stupid,” he hit the guard upside their helmet, “We have been letting them multiply again and start believing it is safe enough to come out to the open again and its working," he smirked in satisfaction, "His Majesty’s previous Bunny Farmer let too many of them get harvested, nearly destroying the whole stock. So his majesty left the place alone to let them breed again and come back out into the open where they’re easy to grab. Numbers are up so for this sampling we can grab more but we have to keep it secret from the other members of the space coalition.”
“Don’t see why,” the guard grumbled, “We rule.”
“Not yet,” Hz'kar huffed, “Some of them are… powerful enough they could stop us. But soon, oh yes soon we’ll crush them all and add them to the menu or make them our slaves,” he laughed, “Or like the… what was their name? Lou… Law… Loom…Mule… Mullows! Yes, that was it. Like the Mullous or the… Wo… Wor… Work… Workais, yeah that, the Workais, we’ll wipe them all out.”
He cackled, “I was there, you should have seen them run when we melted their cities, that was a good day,” he rubbed his claws together. “Once we rule the galaxy we’ll have crushed the To… tom… tan… Tanbari, yeah, the Tanbari. We’ll have their genetic science at our disposal and can grow bunnies in tanks so we’ll never run out again.”
“My grandmother always told me that the best way to eat a bunny was to start with the eyes,” the chief engineer said, “Pluck them out and listen to them screech.”
“Oooh,” I hadn’t heard that one…” Dola'z stopped talking, his attention was drawn to his console as it started to make an incessant pinging noise he didn’t recognize, “Fucking thing… shut up…”
Growling in frustration at having to do work instead of getting to plan how to eat bunnies he pushed buttons and scrolled through the manual until he found the picture that explained what the noise meant.
“Lord Captain,” Dola'z raised his voice in alarm, staring at the figures on his screen, his cry cutting through the raucous recipe suggestions, “There is something else in orbit.”
“Oh it is probably one of the old cargo ships,” the Lord Captain chuckled, “I have orders from the King by the way, he heard from one of our Coalition allies that some bunnies use them to hitchhike rides to the old supply stations and then slink off to visit other races. This is a bit of a loss. He wants them redirected back to homeworld so if that happens, those bunnies will come to us.”
He smirked around the bridge, “We’ll give them a warm welcome to the stars… all cute and eager to see the wonders of space,” he patted his stomach and laughed, without needing to add anything else.
“No my lord,” Dola'z said, the alarm in his voice creeping up, “It’s… It’s huge! According to this it is a kilometre long and in a stable orbit.”
“Nonsense,” Hz'kar growled and walked up behind Dola'z, smacking him on the back of the head, “You are probably reading it wrong… idiot,” he stabbed a button, ordering the console to put it on the view-screen. The black rectangle flickered and hissed for a second and then the image cleared to show the object in question.
The bridge fell quiet as the vessel wavered into view, it was big, a white, black and orange shape that was drifting quietly and sedately in orbit around the Bunny Farm. It was long, and had multiple decks and emblazoned on the front was the circle and feather symbol of the Illuminate in glowing orange. The Horker ship was less than an eighth of its size and as they drifted closer the sun seemed to go out, a shadow falling over their vessel. This left the Avali ship as the only source of light, the orange highlights gleaming like a vision from the dark depths of nightmare. A couple of the bridge crew went “Oooooh” at the sight but they quickly turned to gasps of alarm as Dola’z reacted.
“A-A-Aaaa-Avali!” Dola'z screamed and fell back out of his chair as he scrambled backwards, “What the fuck are Avali doing here!?”
“Stay calm you cretins,” Hz'kar growled and kicked Dola'z, rounding back to glare at the screen, “This is our planet, they have no right to be here! We’ll tell them to fucking leave and carry on.”
“No! My Lord we can’t!” Tor'az wailed, “You know what they’re like! They’ll blow us out of the sky or send one of their Hunter-Killer packs over here to kill us all!”
“You know what they say!” one of the other bridge crew wailed, “The Avali hunters eat everyone they catch! Please my Lord, we need to leave!”
“Cowards!” Hz'kar kicked Dola'z again for good measure. He then turned back around and stared at the controls for a moment, his brutish face screwing up as he tried to remember which button it was. Before he could remember the console went beep and a voice came in.
“Hello unidentified Horker vessel, this is the Avali Exploration Vessel Odyssey. I can see you are moving into orbit of Babupekkakerok, please be advised your current orbital track will bring you inside of our defence perimeter, please adjust your orbital inclination by 2 degrees southwest.”
“The Odyssey!” Dola'z whimpered and covered his face with his hands, “No no no!”
Hz'kar ignored him and stabbed the reply button, “Odyssey! Explain yourself, this planet is part of the Great Horker Imperium, leave orbit immediately!”
“Oh…” the voice paused, “I am sorry I see no entry in the local coalition catalogue that this is Horker space. Please hold. I shall attempt to contact Captain Selenu or First Officer Firi to speak to you!”
The voice went silent and a deep rumbling tone started to play out of the speakers, it sounded awful and the bridge crew all groaned and clutched their heads. Hz'kar growled, he thought avali like jingly crystals but this was a dark, throbbing tune that rumbled deep into his head, like someone had picked every deep bass woodwind instrument and blended them into a rhythm. It was awful and painful so Hz'kar slapped the console and the music stopped and he nodded in satisfaction at having found the right button. He then turned around and kicked Dola'z who was rolling back and forth on the ground whimpering and hugging himself.
“What the fuck is wrong with you!”
“It’s the Odyssey! They are going for Firi! They will kill us all!”
“Who!”
Dola'z sat up, “Didn’t you hear!? The Odyssey is the Avali’s newest ship! They went to a peaceful station out on the rim and one of their security people tried to stop their first officer and she went on a rampage! Blood and terror, she murdered half the crew and held a whole bunch of musicians hostage to play, killing any artist who displeased her!”
Hz'kar hesitated. He was quite sure that there had been some propaganda the King sent out when the Odyssey launched. The Trail pack was building a name for themselves in interplanetary circles as one of the Illuminate Director’s pet projects and personal representatives. It had been meant as a piece of anti-avali news to keep the Horker general population stoked against the foul space turkeys. Clearly the idiots had all taken it the wrong way! He shook his head and turned to face the rest of the bridge crew.
“Now you listen here you lot,” he started, “These fucking ammonia chickens are on OUR Bunny Farm! We are going to kick them out of orbit and go bunny hunting now…”
Dola'z groaned, rolling back and forth, “Gonna kill us all! Didn’t you hear about the Moon of Trason! The Avali wanted to mine it but the locals said no so Firi blew the mine in half with just one drone in retaliation!”
“Look,” Hz'kar growled, “You are…”
He was drowned out as one of the other bridge crew jumped forward, “Did you hear about her armour!? Apparently it’s called skull crusher and she uses it to murder anyone who disrespects her pack! Apparently someone slighted Diplomat Seinu at an event and two days later they all turned up with their spines ripped out and their guts spread all over the place!”
“She… what…?” Hz'kar hesitated, frowning… maybe… he glanced at the screen as the big ship loomed closer. No… no it was all propaganda from the King surely… they didn’t really.
“Haven’t you heard about how they train Avali kits? They’re taught to hunt and eat others as soon as they are old enough to walk!”
“No that is just…” Hz'kar stopped, he wasn’t sure any more what had been stories the King had made up to discredit Avali and make other governments distrust them and what was real. He stared up at the Odyssey as it got closer and frowned.
“We… need to…”
“My Lord!” one of his guards shouted, leaping forward, showing a rare moment of initiative and capitalising on Hz'kar’s hesitation, “We must get you to safety! Dola'z plot a course away from here right now!”
“Wait, wait, wait. Just a…” Hz'kar tried to dampen down his own doubts and resume command but his crew were too busy panicking.
“Yes sir,” Dola'z scrambled past Hz'kar and slapped his hand down on a button. The pre-programmed flight path initiated with a roar and everyone swayed as the ship violently shifted path.
“Dumping drones, they’ll cover us!” the engineer shouted as the view through the screen started to change, the Odyssey falling behind as they adjusted course. The screen switched to a rear-view showing the bunny-counting drones they had brought tumbling out into space; they were not meant to operate in the vacuum of space (they were the same model as the drones hovering about down on the surface) so just started drifting away in a cloud of metal.
“Hello Unidentified ship,” the voice came over the speakers, Hz'kar jumped he thought he’d ended the call, “You seem to be in some distress over there, I’m still waiting for First Officer Firi, I think she is changing into her armour right now, but should be with us soon. Do you need me to tow you into one of our docking bays and render assistance?”
“O… Okay, get us out of here!” Hz'kar screamed, stumbling back to his chair, letting panic get a hold of himself too but still trying to look strong and powerful.
“They’ve launched something,” Dola'z screamed, “It’s coming straight for us!”
“Go! Go! Go!” Hz'kar cried to the bridge crew and his guard’s panic reached a top level. The engineer finished dumping the last of the drones leaving them as a shield of chaff between the ship and the approaching object. The Horker ship burnt its engines as hard as possible, powering away from the Bunny Farm at maximum speed and as soon as the warp system unlocked they leapt away.
“Afternoon everyone,” Chantelle said into the recording device, “Chantelle Trail here, we’re down in Tri’s village today and I’m on my way to check in with one of my bunny friends," she smiled at the camera, "Joa is the gravid bunny I helped the other day, I'm hoping to meet her friends and talk to them about some basic health tips that will help before their eggs are ready to lay as well as just hang out with them."
Chantelle was crossing the cavern, walking over the soft moss as she made her way toward a group of bunnies nearby, “I have to admit the way down here is a bit more narrow then I’d like, we’d show you the entrance tunnel but out of respect for the bunnies security precautions we aren’t recording it”
The blue and white Avali paused and let her drone drift around her slowly as she came up to the group of seven bunnies. They were all female with a variety of sandstone and grey coloured fur, all of them looked to be in their late twenties sporting slightly rounder tummies than usual. They sat in a loose circle using their claws to pull apart long strands of fibre, a wool-like plant that one of the shrubs on the surface produced that was the primary ingredient in the hats every bunny family wore.
“Hi everyone,” Chantelle said, “How are you all doing today?”
They smiled up at her and her friend Joa chirped happily, standing up slowly to walk over and take the Avali’s paw, “We are good, we went out this morning and gathered these pods so we can start gathering fabric for the Hat Maker to make hats for our babies.”
“You went outside yourselves?” Chantelle asked in surprise as she sat down and picked up one of the tangled tufts of white woolly material and tried her hand at pulling the fibres apart, “Isn’t that a bit dangerous in your condition?”
Joa placed a paw on her stomach and smiled, “We were fine, Miss Firi came with us, she was very insistent, she is a very strange Alien.”
Chantelle chuckled, “We must all be strange to you and… ugh..” she held up the tangled mess of plant matter, “How do you?”
Joa giggled and reached out to take the bundle of wool, “You have to pull it apart gently,” she turned it around in her hands, “Find the direction it wants to go in and…” she pulled her claws through it and dragged the fibres into a long string all going in the same direction, “See.”
Chantelle shook her head and smiled, “I clearly need more practice.”
“That’s ok,” Joa set down the fabric and picked up a long bundle of bark, “Here you can separate out the bark into strips for the new baskets the hat makers are planning for the foraging parties.”
“That I can do,” Chantelle said, settling down and starting to pull the strips of bark apart with her claws, “But how are you feeling? Any more pain?”
“No!” Joa beamed up at the blue Avali, “No pain and everything feels normal again!” she placed a paw on her stomach and blushed sheepishly, “It is my first egg, my mother was worried I was going to lose it, she said that sort of pain is bad.”
“Well,” Chantelle rubbed the back of her head, “It is bad,” she lowered her hand and gently placed a paw on Joa's stomach, “When I scanned you with my machine I could see what the problem was and I fixed it. I have discovered a way for you to fix it even when we aren’t here.”
Joa froze and looked at her friends then up at Chantelle, eyes wide both hands reaching down to hold the Avali's hand in place atop her belly, “You mean… you mean mother was right!”
Chantelle nodded seriously, using her other arm to gently hug the trembling bunny, “It is ok, your egg is safe now, I promise… But I want you all to pay attention,” she untangled herself from Joan and opened a small bag she had brought with her and pulled out a wad of dark green leaves, “You know what these are?”
The girls gathered around and nodded, “Yes, those are Ko’ikail,” one of the others said, “They grow near snapping death, we rarely get to eat them.”
“Well,” Chantelle said with a smile, “We can’t have that, these plants are very good,” she nodded at Joa, “If any other bunny has… What did you call it? Egg-pain? they need to eat more of these.
“But…” Joa shivered and hugged herself, “Those are so dangerous to get; the snapping death will grow back after you leave and then… then…”
“Hey now,” Chantelle smiled, doing her best to keep her muzzle closed to make it a friendly smile, not a mouth full of fangs smile, “It is fine, I am going to teach you all how to grow these down here.”
“Grow them?” one of the other girls asked confused, “What do you mean by that? They grow on the surface, Ko'ikail doesn't grow in the caves.”
Chantelle laughed warmly, “I mean we can use some of our trinkets from space and make them grow here and then I want you girls to make sure everyone knows and take the news to other villages ok?”
“Ok,” they sounded doubtful and Joa nibbled on the leaf, “How does… how does eating the leaf make the egg-pain stop?”
“That is a more complicated answer,” Chantelle said slowly, “Let’s just say for now, the leaf has stuff in it, food that your bodies need when you are starting to make an egg, so you need to eat more of these leaves to be extra safe.” She looked around, "Now, not everyone will need them, your normal diet contains the special food too, but your diet is so varied depending on what you can forage you don't always have enough. So we'll grow Ko’ikail and then you will always be able to eat some."
Joa peered up at Chantelle then thumped into the Avali to hug her, “Thank you, thank you, you saved my baby! I am going to call them Chantelle after you!”
“Awrf,” the blue Avali blushed, that really isn’t necessary, I… I just, well you see,” she didn’t get much further as the whole group were suddenly hugging her, small tongues licked her arm and snouts nuzzled against her fuzz and she shifted, gently hugging them back. After a moment Joa lifted her head and smiled, “Can… Can we nibble you? Chantelle, we… we want to know you!”
The Avali blushed and nodded, “Sure… sure thing then I will show you how to grow these leaves ok?” she held out her arm, “So what do I have to do exactly I am oh…”
She was cut off as small dextrous teeth pricked her arm, it was so quick she didn’t even feel it, small tongues licked up the drops of blood and then the cuddle pile resumed and for a long moment Chantelle was content to just lay and hug the small bunny friends. Then her communicator went off with a “Ba-Bleep” so she ignored it and then it Bleeped again and again so she sighed and wiggled an arm free of the bunny pile to touch her ear.
“Yes…”
“Chantelle! Hurrah,” Ifelse’s voice said, “No one else is answering, can you find Firi or Selenu for me?”
“Oh bother,” Chantelle wiggled upright and Joa and her friends let her up so the Avali could look around, “Ok I can see Firi she is… what is she doing?”
“Something fun no doubt,” Ifelse said, “But this is urgent, can you get her please.”
Chantelle walked over to her yellow feathered sister who was wearing knee high waders and stomping around in the mud that covered the shore of the glowing bioluminescent pond, digging up spadefuls and depositing it in a machine of some kind, “What are you doing?”
“Oh heya,” Firi stuck the spade into the soft soil and leant on the handle, “Just getting those samples you wanted, what’s up?”
“Oh right, for the mineral survey, thanks, sorry I got distracted solving basic pregnancy nutrition, anyways, Ifelse is trying to get hold of you or Selenu.”
“Oh, Selenu is with Seinu in the caves, they are being shown something by the twins,” she touched the bracelet around her wrist turning on her communicator, “Sorry Ifelse, I was working, what’s up?”
“There was a Horker ship approaching orbit, I was trying to get a member of the crew to talk to them.”
“What!?” Firi and Chantelle exclaimed at the same time, “Ifelse, if this is a joke, it’s not funny”
“It isn’t a joke. They came here and dumped 449 drones like the ones recording bunny numbers down there on the planet's surface.”
“What is a… Horker?”, one of the bunnies asked. Without even thinking Chantelle replied “One of the horrible not friends that caused so much harm…” the Avali stopped talking but it was too late.
“THE NOT-FRIENDS!”, Joa and her friends wailed, clinging to each other, fur fluffing up in terror. More bunnies nearby came running and soon a cacophony of terrified chirping filled the air as the crowd started to panic.
“They’re coming for us again!”
“This is the end!”
“The Not-Friends are coming!”
“Our babies! We mustn’t let them find our babies!”
“Get the foraging parties back inside!”
“The Not-Friends are coming!”
“We have to flee!”
“We need to collapse the tunnels, hide down here!”
“Not-Friends are coming!”
“The Not-Friends are here!”
BLAM
The gun-shot from Firi’s rail pistol silenced everyone, the crowd of panicking bunnies froze and stared at the avali and her gun in silent horror. The only sound for a moment was the gentle “splish, splish, sploosh” of the bullet skipping across the surface of the pond before sinking out of sight beneath the glowing water.
“Ok that’s enough,” she said firmly, “I swear that we aren’t going to let them take any of you. Now Thiln,” she pointed, “Get your friends, you’ll need your spears,” she pointed her other hand at the pond, fingers moving as she manipulated a holographic display and a large white and black box trundled up on large tracked feet up out of the pond, “Someone else find Cri and Cal, I brought something for them to use.”
The trunk slid open revealing a pair of chain-guns nestled in foam along with several belts of ammunition. Chantelle whistled and shook her head, “How did you get that down here?”
“That… is between me, the teleporter and science! Now Ifelse, give me an update: is the ship in orbit?”
“Er… no, they left,” the AI said, sounding bemused, “I caught the whole discussion on their bridge, they had a panic attack when they heard the name of the ship and for some reason your name made it worse, I'm quite sure you've not done the things they were panicking about but you apparently have a reputation."
"I'm not surprised," Firi grumbled, "I read that their king has been slandering the Avali, especially us diplomatic packs any chance he can, trying to build opposition to the Illuminate and our race, what did you do to make them leave?"
"Nothing," Ifelse sounded bemused, "I launched a recovery drone and offered to tow them as they seemed in trouble. Wobbling all over the place and dumping their cargo, they had a bit of a partial mutiny then their Captain joined in and they fled.”
“Oh…” Firi stared at her communicator, “Well..” she raised her voice, “You hear that everyone, the Not-Friends have fled! They are not coming, we are safe everyone, you are safe.”
“Safe from the Not-Friends, yes,” Seinu said quietly as he walked out of the crowd. Firi jumped and turned to look at her brother with a guilty look.
“Oh… Seinu hi er… I thought you were in the caves?”
“I was, then everyone started screaming about Horkers…” Seinu looked at the chainguns with an expression of silent constrained anger, and continued. “I think it is time we talked.”
Firi stared into her brother’s eyes, leaning down so they were snout to snout, “Yes… let’s talk… pack meeting, now.”
“Ifelse,” Seinu said, “You heard her… call the pack, everyone is to return to the Odyssey now.”
“Very well Seinu, I am over-riding everyone's communication settings now, a general re-call to the Odyssey is being issued, please return to base-camp.”
Seinu turned away and started for the cave entrance, bunnies shifting out of his way as he went. Firi put her rail pistol away and ordered the box to close its lid and started after him. Chantelle caught her arm as she went and she paused to look at her sister.
“Firi… this seems serious.”
“Oh it is,” Firi said, “I get it, I do… but he’s… following the rules and not listening to his heart. But his heart is in there and I am going to shake it out of him one way or the other. Are you with me sister?”
Chantelle nodded, looking very determined, "All the way, let me just tell the bunnies why we are leaving, if we all up and vanish right after the Horkers they'll panic."
"OK," Firi said, "Don't be long I think this will need all of us," the yellow Avali started off after Seinu whilst Chantelle hurried back over to Joa and her friends.
“Is everything ok?" The pregnant bunny asked worriedly, "Why is Seinu Friend so angry? I can see how upset he is, his fur is all shaggy. And Firi too, she smells angry.”
“Well Joa,” Chantelle said, “The Not-Friends have scared everyone, and we’re angry because they even dared coming. Our friends are just going to make sure they are truly gone. Now I have to go with Firi, just to help check that they are really gone, then I'll be back to show you all how we can grow a plant?”
Joa frowned for a moment, rubbing a paw over her tummy, clearly thinking about the future her baby might have. She then nodded, perking up, “Ok! I am glad the Not-Friends are gone, and I want to see how to grow a plant, hey everyone listen to this!”
She bounded off toward the crowd, gathering bunnies around her as she waved the remnants of the leaf she had been chewing on around and started to talk. Chantelle smiled at the kind, caring, trusting nature of the bunnies, she never wanted to see them taken advantage of again, more so than the others, considering something she had learned and that hadn’t disclosed to anyone but her captain and pack-leader. This was going to require changing Seinu's mind and making sure the pack was all acting as one. She hurried off toward the entrance, it was time to return to the Odyssey and have this out with the others.
“I’ll be back”, she said very seriously. “We all will be back soon, friends. You have my word. Also, make sure to cover the entrance with boulders, both up on the surface and down here at the underground end of the tunnel. It will conceal it, and we will move it when we return in a couple hours”. The bunnies nodded, smelling resolve in her along with anger but that at the same time didn’t have any hostility within. Every bunny there knew that these stinky but powerful friends were out to help them somehow. They meant business, in a way they hadn’t seen before. And they were going to roll with it.