The message had come in whilst the band was practising, it wasn't marked as urgent or anything, and usually Sher would have left it until later. But his curiosity was piqued as it was a message from Sawi (his pack leader) and marked as classified, something which was very unusual. Rowi occasionally got secure, classified messages about his job as a roving Avali geologist. Or had to send secure reports on planets or asteroids he’d discovered that had rare materials. But they’d never just got a message like this marked for the whole pack. Their ship's AI flagged it as a security level 1 classified message, this meant it was a message straight from the Illuminate. Or almost; Sawi as the pack-leader had received it and she was now passing it to the band.
After they finished practising one of their new songs they moved to the ship's control room and Rowi had to retrieve a data-chit from a safe as well as input a whole series of codes for them to unlock the message. A string of avali letters and numbers scrolled across the white screen, ending with an identifier.
Classified message incoming...
From: AEV Odyssey
To: Ouakkia Pack
Plase insert ship security code: **********************************************
Security acknowledged.
Security: Illuminate Level 1.
Verifying key... OK
Message approved for delivery.
By: Pack-Leader Sawi Ouakkia
Message source: Diplomat Seinu Trail
Video decryption in progress, please wait... 95% complete.
The message began and Seinu appeared on the screen, he was sitting at a rather official looking Avali style desk. Behind him was a hexagonal window framed with orange aerogel. The view was of Sher’s homeworld, the ice-white, cloud covered globe of the Land just gently hanging in the void of space behind the silver Avali. It was a nice view but Sher was curious over the fact Seinu was still a vampire bunny, he’d been at his homeworld for seven months now and in every message he was always a bunny. The tight security on the message made Sher worry too, this clearly wasn’t a normal message. At the same time, the ship indicated that another file, even more highly encrypted, was being downloaded.
"Hello Sher, after this segment the video will auto-pause, please do not watch it alone, get all your friends with you and watch it together.”
The image then froze, "I'll get them," D said standing back up, "Be right back." Sher looked at Rowi worriedly as he felt his fur fluffing back up in alarm. Rowi however seemed curious more than alarmed so the orange and white vampire bunny tried to relax. He shivered as Rowi pressed his hand to his head, smoothing down his ruffled fur and Sher chirped softly, leaning into his beloved’s warm embrace as he just quietly, lovingly held Sher.
It didn't take long to get everyone; it was getting a bit cramped in the control room with everyone crammed inside. It was worse in a way as Roi had of course brought Mekari and he was huge. The big purple slime settled down cross legged on the floor and Rowi and Sher moved to sit on his lap.
Roi couldn’t perch on top of his head as she usually did, so she just sat down on his leg. D claimed the control chair. "This would be easier in the lounge," Roi chirped, "Meky barely fits in here."
"I know," Rowi replied, "But unfortunately this is a classified message; this will only play on the security console,"
“I am fine,” Mekari said with his not-voice, “It isn’t like I have bones; I am quite ok squished in like this.”
“Okay,” Rowi said, “Everyone ready?” he looked around and as no one said no raised his head and chirped at the AI, "Restart playback."
The screen flickered, orange text flowed across the screen then it cut back to Seinu at his desk, "Hello everyone," the silver vampire bunny said, "Sorry for all the security, but some of the content of this message is classified, Selenu had to get special permission from Director Ck’akk at the Foreign Office for me to share this," he shook his head, "I say we should dump it in the public sphere but she disagrees, she wants to use it when it'll have the most effect and do the most good.”
He drummed his hands on the desk, “I’ll admit I am a bit emotionally involved in what happened so I am hardly objective. This incident happened about five months ago. You wouldn’t believe how many hoops I’ve had to jump through to get it to you."
He shrugged sheepishly, “So sorry for going so quiet on my messages about things that have been going on here. I have lots of updates and news to send you after you’ve seen this message. Anyways, before I say any more, I want you to know that no-one was hurt, but a Horker ship came to Babupekkakerok."
The video paused automatically, Sher sat bolt upright at that news saying loudly “what”, and Roi emitted a squeak of distress, hugging Sher for comfort. He held his older sister, just that name caused them distress, his nose stung with the powerful stench of fear wafting off Roi. It took a few seconds to breathe slowly and calm down, but everyone was ready now for any bad news accompanying this revelation. It helped that Rowi had them both in his arms and then Mekari’s giant purple arms enfolded the three of them as the big slime just hugged them all. D was there too, the deer reaching out to hold their hands.
Sher was glad Seinu had added a caveat about not watching this alone, but now he was imagining the worst possible scenarios. The silver bunny had said no one was hurt but that could mean so much more had happened instead.
“Re… resume playback,” Sher said and the video restarted, Seinu looked angry and distressed. Now Sher was paying attention. The fur at the bottom of his ears was ragged, his headfur was a jaggled mess of poofy fluff, sure signs of emotional upset in a vampire bunny. He took a deep breath and sat back in his floating chair, staring into the camera and took a moment.
“The Horker ship was a tiny cargo vessel, it was here we think to deploy more drones to replace those destroyed by the dangers of this planet,” he glanced at his hands, closing and opening them slowly, “The ship never landed, it turned and around and ran away after spotting the Odyssey in orbit and before any of us could respond to their hails.”
He folded his paws together, “We were all on the planet at the time, so it took a while for our A.I. to get ahold of us. By the time they reached one of us, the Horker’s were gone,” he closed his eyes, took a deep breath then looked down at a piece of paper on his desk, “However, when the ship dropped out of warp they were alerted to their presence due to an open communication channel broadcasting live footage of their bridge to anyone with a working transceiver. They were able to record their bridge crew's conversation from the moment they arrived until they went back to warp.”
Seinu looked up and pushed the paper aside and Sher stirred, “Pause,” he said and turned to look at Rowi, “I suspect that what’s coming is going to be big, considering how secretive everyone is being. But he’s also reading part of what he’s saying from that paper… Am I being too paranoid to believe something is up?”
“I don’t think so”, Rowi said. “Being a diplomat, very likely he has had to check carefully what he’s saying and how. The fact this message is secret and for us only likely means that he is forbidden to say some things. If what I've heard about Ck'akk (the Director of the Illuminate) is right, then I'm sure she was the one pushing for this, and if she is doing it there must be a reason. Whatever is in this recording is very important.”
Sher frowned and glanced at Roi, his sister just smiled bravely at him so the orange bunny turned back to the screen, “Resume playback.”
Seinu came back to life, “This… this next segment is very disturbing, It’s awful in fact. Or beyond awful. I’ve only shown it to five bunnies from the village and they didn’t take it well. Heck I had a bad reaction to it and I’m just a fake bunny.”
He drummed his paws on the desk again, “I wanted you to see it, I thought you should know about the ship that came to your planet. We had a debate over whether I should send this recording or just tell you a ship came and ran away but you need to know, it is your world. So please do not watch this alone”.
The screen went orange and after a moment, the ship accessed the encrypted file that had finished downloading a couple minutes ago. After a few more seconds the process of decrypting the message completed and the image cut to the inside of a space-ship. Sher’s fur fluffed up at the sight of those hated, scaled faces with their stupid horns and witless, brutish expressions, but after a second he stopped himself. Then they started talking, and a few minutes later the Horker conversation moved on to what they were going to do to the bunnies they were going to harvest. Everyone was horrified, with Roi and Sher obviously taking it the worst.
Sher sat seething in hatred, he wanted to scream or shriek or do something to express his anger, but he knew he had to contain himself. For now he just sat and seethed glad to be with his Avali boyfriend who was holding him tightly. Rowi was growling at the back of his throat, soft, angry sounds that were typically only heard when an Avali pack was hunting. His feathers had puffed out in every direction as well, the longer quill-like feathers along the back of his head and neck stretching out wide whilst his wings and the skirt of feathers around the base of his tail and the tops of his legs were spread wide in anger.
Roi had staggered off to one side, she’d gone from scared to horrified, leaning against the wall and taking slow, deep breaths. Sher knew his sister was trying not to puke from disgust; that was how he’d fallen apart after the time they escaped the Horker’s a few years ago, and he knew how it felt. He wanted to go to her, comfort her, but Rowi was holding onto him a bit too tightly and, besides, Mekari was there for her. The slime boy hadn’t moved from his sitting position so as not to dislodge the Avali from his lap but he had twisted his upper body around so he could lean over Roi, one large paw rubbing her back as he let Roi know he was there. He had one eye on the screen, however, whilst he was clearly worried about Sher’s sister, his other arm was hugging Sher and Rowi. There was a tightness to his grip as if he was holding the anger Sher was feeling inside.
D was stoically kneeling next to Roi as well, one hand on her head as he held her hair back as she shuddered and retched; she had so far managed to hold it in and not puke. She took one final gulp of air and started shaking as her body continued to react to the intense hatred and fear filling her. The deer was watching the screen while keeping her company, their calm, quiet demeanour never wavering. Actually, if you didn’t know D you could have thought they were mostly disinterested. But not only could Sher smell D’s anger, but also he and Rowi, who knew them well, knew D was seething on the inside just by looking at their eyes; D’s eyes were frowning a little, but they had an almost imperceptible shine that revealed how much of a tranquil fury the deer was trying to conceal.
Eventually the recording came to an end and switched back to Seinu at his desk and paused. Sher took a deep breath and wriggled free from Rowi, leaning up to nuzzle his snout before walking over to comfort his sister. He had a terrible stomach ache. He was more angry than scared; in fact, he wasn’t sure there was any fear at all. It wasn’t even fear for others; he was just full of a deep seated rage; his body was reacting to an amount of hatred he almost never felt with such intensity.
“Are you ok?” he asked Roi and she nodded. The bunny girl was starting to display anger now
“That was horrible”, she said. Sher enfolded her in his arms, leaning into Mekari’s big paw patting both their heads comfortingly.
“I know… it’s ok, I reacted worse the first time we met them … they are awful.”
“That was a very nasty recording,” Mekari rumbled, “I haven’t been directly harmed by them and I’m still feeling hatred for them. What a horrible bunch of waste.”
“And this was a great video”, said D. They looked around the room with everyone staring at them, “We now have more proof that the direction we took with the band of talking about the horrors caused by these pieces of shit is the right one. ” He gestured at the screen, “This could’ve been buried, your friend just letting it die... yet he went through hoops to show it because he wanted us to see it.”
“Yeah that’s true,” Sher said, “And while right now we can’t do it, I’m sure in the future we will be able to use it to show the universe how awful they are,” he hugged his sister tightly, “I just hope the Avali don’t wait forever to let us use it.”
“Hmmm... guys,” Rowi said. “There is more message: is everyone ready to see what else he has for us?”
“Ok…” Sher said and sat down on the floor, letting Roi rest her head in his lap, she was still trembling in anger but her eyes were on the screen. D settled back into their chair and Rowi leant against Mekari who was now using his paws to smooth Rowi’s feather’s back down. Sher hadn’t really noticed it when he first joined them as a roadie but Mekari was always there for them when they needed him, while trying to never take the spotlight (something very difficult to do for a 22 foot tall creature). He was very glad their slime friend was a part of their family now.
The video started up again and Seinu was slumped behind his desk, “So that’s it, I don’t blame you if you never want to speak to me again after sending that,” he took a deep breath and sat up, “But you deserved to know. Also don’t worry about the cargo ships taking bunnies to the Horkers homeworld, We have replaced them all, we fed them to our ship’s metal processing machines and replaced them with Avali passenger shuttles. But most importantly I didn’t want to end this and leave it so the last thing I sent you was that awful, awful recording.”
He took a shuddering breath, composing himself, “So this is the end of my message but I have something special for you, sort yourselves out, move someplace comfortable, get some drinks and snacks and settle in this final file is for all of you, speak to you soon. The incoming file is not classified so you’ll be able to watch it anywhere you want”.
Seinu’s message came to an end, the screen faded back to white with an orange holding logo and the ship’s AI showed them a relatively large video file downloading. Sher was very curious but did as Seinu suggested and headed out of the control room and took a few minutes to settle his stomach and calm down. Using his claws to smooth his fur down he checked on Roi, gave Rowi a hug then went to the kitchen to prepare something; the file would take around an hour to download.
And one hour later everyone was in the main living room, Roi was sitting on Mekari’s lap, Sher and Rowi had claimed a bean-bag and D was fiddling with the settings on their mutli-media set-up. Apparently the file came with a series of suggestions and settings which the deer was best suited to arrange. The table between them and the screen was now loaded with snacks, drinks and comfort food. After the horrible experience of hearing the Horkers plotting how best to make bunnies scream, Sher and the others needed something nice to eat to take their minds off the horrors they had heard.
D finished setting things up and moved to the sofa, settling down as the lights in the lounge settled to a low glow. The portal on the wall shimmered for a moment then flickered to show a still shot of an underground cavern. Sher sat up, with a “Burden House sandwich” (A sandwich containing a sweet kind of Avalian fungus inside) in his paw as he recognized what he was seeing. This wasn’t what he had been expecting, the scene was a typical bunny village and the shore of the glowing lake was crowded with bunnies sitting in a large semi-circle around a big screen that had been set up. Words drifted up to fill the screen in Avali Core spelling out:
“Tri’s Village, Babupekkakerok; Bunnies being introduced to video recordings. Movie Night 1: Live at the Ultra Music Festival with Moumantai MotherFuckers.”
“No way,” Roi breathed, “They showed them your show!”
Sher stared as the video started, this wasn’t what he had been expecting at all. Going from a video of Horker’s being evil to the voices of bunnies chattering. The sound filled the room as the speaker’s began to play and the drone recording the scene started to move.
Seinu was leaning against Cal, letting his friend run their claws through the thick fur of his neck ruff, arranging it so it hung clean and clear down his back and front.
“I can groom myself,” Seinu grumbled as he spread his arms and let his friend ruffle their claws through his fur.
“Not very well,” Cal chuckled, “You still try to treat it like feathers and today is important.”
“It is more important for you and Cri,” Seinu said softly, “Are you both sure about this?”
“Yes,” Cal looked up and then reached up hand to tease Seinu’s mohawk with his claws, running them through the strands of thick fur, “We aren’t changing our minds, we are both coming with you.”
Seinu nodded and smiled, “Ok, I am glad… it’s going to be weird not living down here…” he looked back at the rock that covered the entrance into his personal cave/room, “I am going to miss this place, it’s hard to think we only have one day left before we leave.”
“It’ll be here for you,” Cal said, “No one is going to move in, this is your room now,” he smiled, “You will always have a home here in the village.”
Seinu nodded, fingered the beaded bracelets wrapped about his tail and snapped around some of his neck fluff like a scrunchie to check if it was straight, “Do I pass muster?”
“You do now, yes,” Cal chuckled, “You really have to pay attention to your grooming skills, but yes you look good now.”
“Ok let’s get going.” Seinu turned to head down the tunnel and resume his journey to the main cavern; he'd been ambushed by Cal as he left his room. He was pulled up short as Cal caught his arm.
“Wait, Cri is coming,” Seinu looked curiously at his friend but a moment later he smelt the familiar scent of Cri approaching, he came around the corner of the tunnel wearing a long purple and yellow scarf that matched his hat and held out an identical one to his brother.
“What are these?” Seinu asked curiously, “I’ve never seen a bunny wearing a scarf before.”
“We don’t wear them often,” Cal said as he wrapped his around his neck, “Too dangerous, they just present something for the predators to grab or an extra thing to get caught on a plant and then that’s it, you’re dead.”
“Today is special though,” Cri said as he started up the corridor, “Come on, grandmother is waiting, it is nearly time.”
Seinu headed up the winding path away from their rooms and emerged into the central cavern the village was built around. His nose led him to turn left and meet Ki, the black and white avali with red highlights was hurrying toward him. He had several small recording drones circling over his head and they buzzed around the three bunnies, filming them.
“There you are,” Ki grabbed Seinu’s hand and started to head toward the pond, “Everyone is here and it's amazing, they’ve been keeping this a surprise you have to see.”
Seinu laughed and hurried up the slope that hid the stage by the pond from sight, they’d kept it in place since they built it, using it to show the bunnies other shows, movies and worlds at least once a week as well as making use of it for training purposes. As they crossed over the ridge he stumbled to a stop and stared down at the crowd. He’d not seen this many bunnies in one place since that night five months ago when they’d played an MMF concert. It was an impressive sight and every adult bunny he could see was wearing a scarf! They were beautifully made and matched the designs of the family hat perched atop their head.
The crowd flowed back and forth with bunnies moving from one group to another, each group gathering around one of the Odyssey crew. Seinu smiled at the sight and started down the hill and wove his way slowly through the crowd toward the steps that led up onto the stage. He could see a group of bunnies around Firi chattering excitedly, many of them were expert guards and spear throwers now. Their eyesight built for spotting the smallest movement that may have been a predator was extremely well adapted for aiming; it was very rare for a bunny to miss. Many of them broke off to scamper over to Chantelle who was sitting on the stage, the conversation around his feathered sister seemed to focus on planting, harvesting and soil care. The first crops had been harvested and the foraging parties were working together with the farmers to work out how much the village needed. The only thing they were still resisting was the breeding of bugs but Seinu was sure in time their current practices around bug husbandry would change.
Taran was surrounded by bunnies asking questions and saying goodbyes though the conversation here centred around the visiting bunnies from other villages. Seinu was still surprised at the complete lack of territorial behaviour displayed by bunnies. The group of black bunnies from Qel's village had been welcomed with open arms, given empty rooms and had been eagerly learning things they could take home. Every bunny village Seinu had been to over the last few months was open, welcoming and eager to learn after the initial wariness about the alien Avali had worn off. If anything they'd been fascinated by Seinu and that he was a bunny from space.
As he passed the group Seinu saw a group of drones teleporting in carrying boxes full of spare power crystals. They'd been preparing the village to not need refills for several decades. But Seinu was pretty sure even if they took away all their new tech he'd stirred up enough determination and wonder in the bunnies they'd never go back to how they had been before. Passing through the last section of the crowd, Seinu could finally see Selenu, his pack-mate and twin sister was on the stage with her music students, helping them all to check their instruments were in tune. The musically inclined bunnies were all very good at the harp and singing, they could pick up most tunes very quickly. It made Seinu feel glad to know they had made such a difference. Looking back at how the society was when he had just arrived, the difference was almost impossible to measure without falling into grandiose words.
This was an excitable crowd and they mostly ignored Seinu as he walked over to Tri, Tel and Thiln. The three bunnies turned to face him and Tri walked forward to grab his hands, which seemed to signal the crowd and older bunnies started shushing their neighbours. Tri was also wearing a thick purple scarf that wrapped around her shoulders, both ends trailing down her arms so the thick yellow pom-poms on either end rested against the back of her hands. It was an impressive garment and clearly well loved. The elder smiled happily as she looked over the cavern. The bunnies slowly fell silent and when she spoke the microphones built into the stage picked up her voice and carried it for all to hear.
“Today is a day for history,” she said softly, “Our visitors from space are leaving us soon and today we are all gathered to thank them,” there was a chorus of “Awwws” and a couple of bunnies clung to members of the crew, not quite in tears but close, especially around Firi and Chantelle.
“But we also need to rejoice,” Tri said, “Our friends have shown us that space need not be scary, that there are others out there who do not come to kill and murder but to teach and help.”
“Remember however,” Firi said, “Whilst it is fine to be friendly and open be wary of people you do not know, not everyone who visits from space will have good intentions, so be friendly but cautious.”
“Don’t worry we will,” Thiln called out, “We’ll never be taken for fools again.”
Firi nodded and laid a hand on his head and then gathered him up in a big hug as Tri spoke again, “In other news, as most of you know my grandsons Cri and Cal are departing on their own special mission tomorrow.”
Cri and Cal stepped forwards, stopping near Thiln, Rayen and Fi and all three of them grabbed their paws in theirs, “We know us leaving leaves our foraging party down two members,” Cri said, “But we have to do this, for once though a foraging party isn’t losing members because someone died.”
“We are off to join a new party in space,” Cal called out, “Foraging for adventure, knowledge, new experiences and doing what Sher told us to do, looking after Seinu,”
“Hey,” Seinu protested but the cheer from the crowd drowned him out as the trio who were staying behind piled in to hug the twins tightly, “We’re going to miss you all though,” Cri said, “And we’ll be back, we promise with many stories to tell you all.”
“I very much do not need looking after,” Seinu said with a slight shake of his head, “I can take care of myself.”
“Of course little brother,” Cri teased, “That’s why we have to help you groom your fur,” this received a chuckle from the crowd and Selenu called out.
“He very much needs looking after, besides I checked by bunny rules you’re not an adult yet Seinu, so do what your bunny brothers say.”
“Wait what?” Seinu exclaimed, turning to face the twins, “What does that mean?”
Ki burst out laughing, “How do you not know, bunnies don’t become adults until they officially get accepted by a foraging party.”
“Oh… well yes but,” Seinu started but Chantelle cut him off as she grabbed him around the shoulders.
“Last time I checked you’re the only one of us who has never joined a foraging party, so baby brother, you’re still a youngling.”
“She right,” Tri murmured, her eyes afire with mischief, “I mean why do you think we assigned the twins to look after you, they’ve always wanted a little brother to care for, they’re very good, give you your bath, feeding you, seeing to it that you don’t wander off outside on your own again.”
“I… you,” Seinu was fluffing up in embarrassment then his eyes went wide, “Hey wait! You mean all those children’s classes you sent me too… and the time you gave me a literal bath you were treating me like a youngling!”
The crowd burst out laughing and Seinu chirped softly as the twins thumped into him on either side and hugged him, “You are so easy to tease,” Cri chuckled, “But yes, we were training you like a youngling, it was the easiest way to teach you how to live like one of us, though not because you where a baby, just because that’s the only way we know how to teach a bunny.”
Tri chuckled and hugged both of her grandsons and Seinu, “Besides, as the boys just said they are joining your foraging party, a foraging party that is going to voyage across the stars, so after today you are no-longer a youngling Seinu, but a fully fledged bunny, just no more going outside in the Screaming Snow.”
Seinu nodded, still sandwiched in the hug, blushing a bit in embarrassment but smiling softly at Tri’s words. After all, if today was his “coming of age” celebration as a Vampire Bunny then it was an awesome time to happen. Tri chuckled quietly and turned back to face the crowd, holding up her hands for silence and once she had it she spoke again, “And we have a lot to thank our Space friends for, no longer do we cower in the ground in terror, we have, listened, we have learnt, we have embraced all our Space Friends have to teach us,” she took a deep breath and turned to Seinu, “And even if your leaders do not send us more Friends to help teach us… we are changing as people, never again will we surrender naively to those who mean us harm.”
“We will miss you all,” Seinu said, “But we will be back I promise. I hope the Illuminate will send visitors to continue helping but even if they don’t, remember the lessons we have taught you and keep growing.”
He glanced around the cavern, “Remember the words in the song Sher sang, Stand up and face the enemy.”
“We will,” Tri promised and took her hands back and motioned to Seinu, “Now all of you, come up here I have something to give you all.”
It took a minute or two for the Avali down in the crowds to make it up onto the stage. Once everyone was gathered however Tri handed out a hat to each of them. Woven from a red and black tartan with red pom-poms and earflaps, each one was ever so subtly different when it came to detailing and patterns. Seinu’s had a purple gem on the front, Firi’s two fragments of Aerogel blade fashioned into stars over the temples. Someone had spooled an old magnetic tape and used it as thread for Taran’s hats. Selenu had a harp string woven around the top of the crown to form a sort of wire-net about the pom-pom. Chantelle’s hats had seeds from several different fruits threaded around the rim. Despite these personal touches each and every hat followed the same red and black tartan pattern with accompanying ear-flaps.
“You are a family,” Tri said flawlessly in their pack dialect, each word was perfect and Seinu could see his pack reacting in surprise. He just smiled happily, the bunny's ability to learn languages was amazing and he'd been teaching the elder for months “Now we don’t expect you to wear them every day or adopt our traditions. But do wear them sometimes and remember all of us.”
Seinu pulled his hat on and watched as the rest of his family put theirs on, the bunnies let out a cheer and Tel called out, “That’s better, you all look much better in hats.”
“Now then,” Chantelle spoke up, once the cheering died down, “We have been preparing a couple of treats for you all,” her voice carried across the cave, “As you know we are holding a feast, we have prepared Avali food for you all to try but Seinu I believe has a special gift for everyone?”
“Indeed I do,” Seinu smiled and pulled an Avali data-chit off the ring of beads buried in his neck fluff, he held up the small white and orange device, “But this isn’t a gift from me, this is a gift from Sher and his band, Chantelle, Firi, Selenu, Ki why don’t you all hand out food whilst I get this set up with Taran?”
The four members of the pack he’d named hopped off the stage and were soon organising the crowd with the help of Tel and his daughters. The covers were removed from the warming trays that had been set up and soon they were serving up strips of roasted fungus, a bean and nut salad and just about every vegetable dish they knew how to make. It had been less of a challenge to find or adapt recipes to serve without meat and more of a challenge to cook enough for a large group. Most Avali packs either only ever prepared enough food for their pack or ate at a refectory where a Chef pack would lay on enough food for the whole colony or tribe. Chantelle however had risen to the challenge, she’d looked up how Chef packs prepared large meals and then set about teaching her friends; Joa and the young mothers how to do it. They had all laid their eggs and were waiting for them to hatch but they’d formed a friendship with Chantelle and become the village experts in operating the hydroponics bay.
Whilst the food was being served and Seinu was uploading the video message from Sher to the stage systems Selenu’s harp bunnies started to play an energetic song. It was something Taran said had been popular on Earth back in the 60s, something in that Earth language that sounded like “Surfing you essay”. While Seinu didn’t know its name, he did recognize it as one of the songs on the tapes Taran had fixed for them. The bunnies had clearly spent quite a bit of time listening and replicating the sound on their harps.
It was a lovely tune, and then the bunnies started playing a different jam they had created themselves with the help of Selenu. As they finished up playing Selenu led the applause then shepherded them off the stage to go and get some food. They were the last group to be served so Seinu switched his mic on and called for silence,
“Thank you everyone, honestly,” the silver bunny placed one of his paws over his chest, “These last few months have been the most wonderful time,” he gestured at the crowd, “You have all been the most welcoming, friendly and awesome bunnies ever! But now I have a special message for you all from Sher, all the way from space!”
Everyone cheered as the screen flickered to life revealing the orange and white bunny. He was wearing his visor and a red and cream coloured hat with no ear-flaps, he also had his guitar strapped across his chest though currently it was hanging down his back. Standing next to him wearing a green hat with a large jewelled star over each ear instead of a pom-pom was his sister Roi.
“Hello everyone,” Sher said warmly, “Seinu showed me a video of you all watching our show! We were blown away to see how much you liked our music so me and the band are going to play something just for you,”
The camera pulled back to show Rowi sitting behind his drums wearing a round black beanie hat with a white brim and a snowflake pattern and D in a long black jumper with a picture of a vampire bunny on it. As the camera showed the band various bunnies in the crowd chirped and cheered in approval then they fell silent as Roi spoke.
“We’d be there in person but we are on the other side of the universe right now attending to other matters. However, I wanted to just say we think you are all great and are glad our Avali friends are there to help, it sounds like you have all been having a great time, keep at it and remember you can do anything you want, look at me, I live in space with my best friend and family and it's my job to keep them all safe, if you want something you can do it.”
Roi raised one hand in a wave, “You are all brilliant,” and with that she walked off stage and Sher shrugged his shoulders, swinging his guitar around front so he could grasp it in his paws.
“These songs are all ours, no covers from Earth songs, we hope you like them and I promise as soon as we can we’ll be home to play for you! Now then let’s make some fucking noise, one, two, one two three four!”
As Sher started to count Rowi clicked his drumsticks together and a beat after Sher shouted four he brought his arms down and rolled out a rumbling beat that led into the first song, “Days”, A song talking about everyday’s Balance, describing how the world and ecosystem worked in harmony to build a balance even if sometimes it appeared to be cruel.
Once that was done Sher just said “This one is named I choose you”. The bunny sat down on the frame that enclosed the front of the drum-kit, and pressed a button of his guitar, changing its sound to be similar to the one of an acoustic guitar. He sang about being together with your friends, falling in love and making a life for yourself with those you chose. The song that came after was a beautiful rock ballad from their album Graveyard, Passing Away which Seinu was very familiar with, it was the second to last song on the album and one that held a lot of meaning for him, it was one of the songs that helped him decide to cross the line and help the bunnies rather then stick to the rules.
The final song was “The Coldest Winter”, another song about family that compared difficulties to blizzards.
“Get up and sing. I'm here. They don't know you like we fucking do!”
It was about twenty minutes long and ended with Sher and the band standing together, the bunny in the middle with his band-mates on either side, “We couldn’t deliver a longer message due to the distance, but we will be there and play a longer set for you all! We’ll see you, Babupekkakerok! Stay safe, take care of each other and be brilliant until next time! Good fucking night!””
After the show the crowd started to break apart, some moved back to the food to get a second helping of the various vegetable dishes Chantelle and her friends had prepared. Ki moved away from the crowd, he still wasn’t entirely comfortable with that many people all in one place so he found a rock and sat on it, watching.
After a couple of minutes he turned to wave at Tel as he walked over, his bunny friend had a plate full of Avalonian vegetables and clambered up onto the rock to sit beside him, “Hi, I saw you sneaking off, you ok?”
“Yeah,” Ki helped himself to a strip of dark purple root vegetable and nibbled on it, “Just too many people for me.”
“Ah,” Tel nodded in understanding, “It still feels unnatural for me to see so many of us in one place, even down here in the village, I am glad the music's over.”
“Oh?” Ki perked up, “Why? I thought you liked it?”
“Oh I do, it is good, you can really bounce to it but it, I don’t even mind how loud it is but everyone else, especially the younger bunnies get REALLY loud dancing to it.”
“Ah,” Ki laughed, “Yes I understand that, I really do, I don’t like their kind of music, too noisy or me,” he sighed softly, “A few months ago I’d have run off to my room to escape all of this, visiting your world, helping your people has been so good for me, that and my new family.”
He glanced across the cavern to where he could just make out Firi, she was surrounded by her small inner core of bunnies, laughing and joking together, “I honestly thought I was going to drink and drink and drink until I worked up the courage to go join my old family,” he wiped his eyes, “But these Avali, total strangers, saw I was in need and just picked me up and never gave up on me even when it was really, really bad and I was hallucinating or screaming at them whilst blind drunk.”
Tel laid a hand on Ki’s arm and smiled, “Yes, look at you now, you are a hero Ki, to all of us, your predator hunting machines are going to save so many lives, we are never going to forget you.”
Ki blushed, his ears folding back and just reached out a hand to hold Tel’s and watched the crowd quietly, silently thanking everyone for staying by his side and giving him this new chance to find a family and make a difference to these lovely people and their lives.
Leading Thiln, Fi and Rayen down a side passage away from the main cavern, Firi stopped just beyond the first curve and peeked back around. Cal waved at her and gave her a paws-up that no one was following her and she grinned at him and ducked back around the corner.
“Ok, we got away with it,” she said to her three bunny friends, “I have one final gift for you all, come on.”
“What is it, Firi?” Rayen asked, “I thought you had given us everything we needed?”
“Everything Seinu and Selenu agreed to,” Firi grinned as she led the way down to the deepest level of the tunnel, winding and forth until they ran out of passage then she moved over to a rock and pushed it, trying to roll it out of the way, “Come move you… oh thanks…”
She stepped back as Fi just rolled it aside with one paw, peering curiously past it, “This is an empty room,” the trinket collecting bunny said, “But I can smell people have been in here recently.”
“Cri and Cal yes,” Firi clambered down the ladder, she stopped and looked back as the three bunnies hesitated and she sighed, “Come in, please, this isn’t a private room, this is… storage now,” Thiln looked at the girls and shrugged and followed Firi down the ladder, “Roll the stone back in place once you are all in,” Firi called back as she moved around the cave turning on light crystals.
The room itself was very much like every other bunny room, though there was no nest, just the white boxes that contained the chain-guns, the machine that produced bullets, two racks of spears and the spear making machine. Thiln looked around curiously at all of it, then frowned as Firi pressed her hand to a small pillar that rose out of a strange black hexagon that covered part of the floor at the back of the room. The large boxy objects that seemed to grow out of the floor plate with orange light and she motioned to her friends.
“Fi, you first, stand in the middle, put your hand on this,” she pointed at the small pillar, “Then stand very still and let it do its thing.”
Fi grinned and walked onto the glowing square in the middle, placed her paw on the pillar then yelped as the weird boxes slid open and several arms deployed. They moved around the small bunny, building and attaching and assembling a set of Avali armour all around the startled bunny until she was clad from the neck down in a smooth set of powered vampire bunny shaped armour.
Firi clapped her paws together and grinned, “I was, ah, making armour for Cri and Cal as they are joining us in space and I accidentally made a set for all three of you,” her grin widened, “Rayen you next,” she helped Fi step down, “Now these really are for emergencies, you should not wear them outside of this room unless things have gone really bad but they will protect you and let you protect the village.”
Thiln moved closer, watching as the machine wrapped Rayen in a set of white and black armour identical to Fi’s, “This is very not allowed isn’t it?”
“Oh yes,” Firi grinned, “Super not allowed but fuck the rules, this is the best protection I can give to the three of you, I will sleep better knowing you three are here and ready to defend the village and bunnies everywhere if something very bad happens, especially sine now your foraging party is down two members with the twins joining us in space.”
She motioned to a smooth machine built against one wall, “I already showed you how to use the emergency beacon, this will send a message straight to the Odyssey but it won’t summon us instantly, we could be weeks or even months away. If we get an emergency message we’d call Avalon and try to get you help, but you three in these suits with your spears and guns I reckon you can hold off most anything until help arrives,” she held up one paw, “As long as you remember everything I taught you, be sneaky, be quiet, be quick, in and out.”
“We remember,” Thiln said as he stepped onto the armoury platform, “We won’t let you down Firi, we promist.”
She smiled and nodded, “I know you won’t guys, now once Thiln is dressed I’ll teach you how to deploy your armour and activate the training program. But for now we need to go back to the cave and join in before we are missed.”
Taran was sitting down eating something. He saw Firi scuttling off down a side passage with her three little co-conspirator bunnies and frowned. “Should we be worried about that?” he asked Selenu, who was sitting down at the other side of the table.
His sister smiled and took a swig of Cinati juice, “No, it’s fine, she thinks she’s being super sneaky but Ifelse showed me what she’s up too, I’ve one hundred percent not noticed anything and had them delete the logs.”
“I get the feeling I should be worried,” Taran laughed, “So when are we telling Seinu?”
“Once we’ve left,” Selenu smiled, “I can keep it a secret for that long at least, Cri and Cal have been keeping him distracted and transporting all the legitimate weapon material down to the new store-cave with Firi’s little extra kit hidden in it, it was quite clever really she nearly got away with it.”
“What gave her away?” Taran asked curiously, “I didn’t notice anything.”
Selenu smiled and leant forward to kiss Taran between the eyes and hugged her brother, “You both tend to forget I am the Captain, not just your sister, I have my ways,” she finished her juice and stood up, “Have you delivered your gift yet?”
“Not yet,” Taran stood up and pointed to a drone carrying a crate, “I am about to go give this to Nyt, did you want to help?”
“No you go ahead,” Selenu smiled, “I am going to go speak to my music group and have one last jam session,” she patted a box next to her, “I have some last minute gifts for them too, see you later.”
Taran smiled, “Finally giving them some guitars?” he guessed and Selenu laughed and lifted her glasses to give him a look, “No, no guitars, I refuse to budge on that, I can’t teach Earth guitar, but it is a lathe for making harp strings and some recording equipment, see you soon.”
Taran waved and set his empty plate down and ordered the drone to follow him to Nyt and his friends. They were gathered around the watercoolers trying out the Avali kiri juice but his bunny friend looked around as Taran’s drone settled to the ground nearby.
“Hi Nyt, Bo, Wel,” Taran smiled at them, they were the bunnies who had shown Taran how to forage, how to move through the dangerous lands of the surface so he could build a real-time understanding of a day in the life of a foraging bunny. It had been both a useful anthropological study for Seinu’s videos for the nexus and allowed the programmer Avali to enhance the operating system of the anti-predator drone. If they knew the how, when and where of bunny foraging they could understand the direction predators would come from and this in turn all fed back onto the heuristic algorithms that guided the anti-predator system.
The teal Avali had his drone set down the box and slid the lid of, revealing foam packaging, “These are for you and to share with the others,” he lifted out a visor, white ear-pieces with dark green crystal lenses, “These are set up for infrared and night-vision for when you go foraging at night,” he handed them out and showed his friends how to turn them on, “They will help you all see better in the dark, if you all have time I can show you how to adjust the settings and then you can teach the others after we’ve gone.”
Nyt lifted his visor and then thumped against Taran, hugging him tightly, “Thank you,” he whispered, “Thank you all, you’ve all made such a difference.”
Taran hesitated then folded his arms around Nyt, hugging him back as the rest of his bunny friends crowded around them.
“I only wish we’d been able to make a difference before we lost Mri.”
Nyt sighed and leant back to look up at Taran, “She is at home in the land, and her, our egg is safe and I will keep it safe and with these,” he touched the visor on his head, “Make sure more of us come home, we don’t fear the Balance Taran you know that, but thank you for caring.”
Taran nodded, trying to hold back his sadness and focussed on showing them how to use the night vision visors. He couldn’t bring back who they had lost but he could do his bit to help make sure more bunnies came home. “One last thing, there are way more visors than bunnies who forage during night time. They are to replace any visors that could break. Unfortunately I cannot leave machines that make more of these, unlike my sisters, but the next time we come we’ll bring more. Because we will return”. The bunnies chirped in approval, and after an enthusiastic group hug, they went back to where the other bunnies were.
Sitting with Yi and Dis watching the crowd of bunnies Ki wasn’t sure how to process all the emotions he was feeling, he was idly picking at the remnants of his dinner with his claws but not really focussing on eating. He watched as Weld and Gli walked along the line of food on offer holding hands and talking together.
“It’s good to see Weld has found someone,” Dis murmured, “I never thought he’d work up the courage to ask Gli to be his mate.”
“He didn’t” Yi laughed, “Gli asked him, he was way too shy about asking her.”
“Oh that’s nice,” Ki said, “How is Hol?”
“Hol is fine,” Dis said and pointed, “He’s over there with his kids, Rin had his coming of age ceremony the other day so Hol and his daughter Xar are showing him around the cavern, it’s the first real time Rin has been allowed out of his room.”
Ki turned to look at the little bunny quietly, staring around in wonder as he sat in Hol’s arms. Hol was standing with a younger female bunny, both of them talking quietly as they waited in line for more food. Ki shook his head in wonder, “I didn’t even know Hol had another child,” Ki said, “I am sorry I missed his ceremony.”
“You’ve been busy,” Yi said, “Getting everything ready for leaving,” she laid a hand on his arm, “We know you have to go Ki, I can smell how upset you are, I saw you talking to Tel earlier too you’ve stank of upset ever since.”
“I don’t want to leave you all,” Ki cried out, gripping Yi’s hands and pulling Dis in for a hug too, “But I can’t leave my space family, they need me and I need them but I am going to miss all of you.”
“Hey we understand,” Dis hugged the black and white Avali back tightly, “We are going to miss you too but we always knew when you joined our foraging party you would have to leave eventually.”
But you will always have a place with us,” Gli chirped as she walked over with Weld, the two of them joining the hug, “Whenever you come back to visit we’ll be here, and…” she laughed, “I can actually say that with some certainty now, Ki you’ve made the surface so much safer than ever before.”
“It’s not perfect,” Ki said worriedly, “I wish I could make it fool-proof but you still have to be vigilant, my drones just add an extra layer of protection but you have to be careful still.”
“We will be,” Hol said as he walked over and handed Rin over to Ki, the Avali was utterly distracted by the tiny little bundle of fluff now sitting in his arms. Hol smiled and hugged Ki too, “We will miss you but Xar,” he nodded to his daughter, “She is joining our foraging party as you are leaving us so we’ll be at full strength still, so come on, less sad and lets enjoy tonight.”
“Yes,” Yi smiled and hugged Ki’s arm, “Tonight is for celebrating all you’ve done for us, so no being sad, let’s enjoy it together.”
Ki looked up, tears filling his eyes as he smiled, “Yes, let’s just enjoy tonight together.”
Reaching the exit to the surface, Tri paused to let her eyes adjust to the bright light of the surface, settling down on her stomach to look outside as the fields of deep snow and green plants slowly swam into focus as the glare faded. A short way outside of the cave, standing up to his waist in the snow was Seinu, the silver bunny was accompanied by a small drone and had taken his visor off, holding it in one hand as he looked out across the countryside. Tri had been curious when she saw the space bunny leaving the feast and followed him, now here he was, just standing in the snow and talking to himself.
“So this is it everyone,” his voice carried softly, “Our last night on Babupekkakerok, tomorrow I return to space, resume the mantle of Avali Diplomat and we fly off into the void to return to Illuminate space.”
Seinu moved through the snow, half climbing, half wading through the fresh powder to climb onto a rock, the drone floating after him, “We’ve been through a lot together; if you’ve been watching this Nexus series from the beginning you have seen everything, from first contact, to the predators of this world to my disastrous venture into a storm.”
He leant forward, “But those are all adventures, things, the real majesty of this world of harsh realities are its people. The Friends, our friends,” he turned his head sideways and looked straight at Tri, “The people of Babupekkakerok can be our friends, you’ve seen what they’re capable of with the very basic skills we have been teaching them, a whole society brought to the brink waking up,” he held out a paw toward the cave, “Do you have any final words for the Avali people Tri?”
Tri smiled and shuffled out of the cave, pausing for a moment, hands on her scarf then she slowly unwound it from about her neck and set it aside. Even with the supposed safety of the surface she wasn’t about to discard a century of caution and wear it outside.
“Using your nose on me I see young one,” she teased lightly as she walked over to stand with him, “Saying your goodbyes before tomorrow?”
He nodded at the small drone, “Recording my final thoughts for back home, would you like to tell my people anything else?”
“Ah, yes your reco… recording drones,” she said the word hesitantly then nodded, satisfied with herself, “Well if all you Avali out there are anything like Seinu’s family then you are all amazing, skilled, talented creatures from a strong society.”
She sat on the edge of the rock and removed her hat, staring down at the pom-poms stitched into the top, playing with it, “My society died,” she said quietly, “I was young when it happened, after a century of struggling to survive I don’t remember much from before the massacre that killed my family and my village. We didn’t bring any old knowledge with us; we lost everything and had to start over.”
She raised her head to look at Seinu then beyond him to the setting sun as the sky started to turn red and orange, “Chantelle tells me there are hints to our history hidden beneath the snow, old villages, signs of tool use, maybe even hints of language, of sophisticated hunting weapons that would have kept the predators at bay. I don’t remember any of that, and nobody I was with did. The few friends who survived with me back then were of my age too. I was old enough I must have learnt some things, but small enough my mother could hide me under a bush and the Not Friends didn’t find me.”
Tri turned back to the camera drone, “I stumbled away from that place, I was found by a slightly older bunny, he was called Fel, we left, shocked, distraught, orphaned, we found a few others and left. I couldn’t really tell you how long, some of us fell to predators, Fel included, some of us survived, eventually we found a cave that went deep and was safe,” she pointed back at the hole in the ground, “This cave, we moved in though you couldn’t really call it living, we snuck out to forage for food and to try and process what had happened to us. The shock and trauma was too great, we survived, but beyond making hats and baskets, that were the only things we could do to pass the time, all that we had was gone. And from what I learned from other villages, this happened with all of us. There were no elders left, we had to figure out what to do, how to do it, everything was a new challenge. We had to try restarting civilization again, from nothing.”
She looked back at the setting sun, “Our world was already harsh, a deadly place and with our people mostly dead it became even deadlier. If there is one thing you take away from Seinu’s videos it is, please take a moment and appreciate your families, reach out with both hands and make sure to seize your future,” She sighed wistfully and pulled her hat back on, “Life is glorious, we never appreciate what we have until it is gone, it could be taken away from you at a moments notice, our future was destroyed, but thanks to Seinu and your people we know hope again, so as Sher would say,” she dropped into Avali and smiled at the camera, fangs gleaming under the last rays of the sun, “Thank you all very fucking much for sending them to visit us.”
Seinu smiled and held her hand in his, both Vampire bunnies sitting for a moment, watching the sun slipping behind the mountains and the glorious display of colours that heralded the onset of dusk.
“Thank you,” Seinu touched his hat, “Thank you for having us and welcoming us, you have touched all of us just as much as we have touched you, shall we go back inside and join the dancing?”
“Yes,” Tri stood up, “They’ll notice we are missing soon and have a worry, let's go and dance and celebrate Hope.”
The morning after the feast, after a few final goodbyes the Trail pack made their way to the beacon. The whole village had turned up to say goodbye, everyone wrapped in their scarves once again but it was a slow process. There was no rush and the Avai circulated throughout the village for a good couple of hours making their goodbyes to all their bunny friends. There were so many friends to say farewell to even Suz who had given up on her relentless campaign to win Seinu as her mate settled on lucky Taz who had a constant look of surprise on his face these days. As they passed through the crowd she pounced him though and nuzzled his neck and held on tightly, inhaling his scent deeply before scampering back to Taz’s side who looked bemused but shook Seinu’s paw. Then they were all back at the beacon and Tri took a few steps back.
“See you all soon, look after my grand-children, fare-well Trail Pack.”
Everyone bowed and then waved their paws. Several of the bunnies were in tears. Then there was just a flash of orange light and they were all back onboard the Odyssey. Ifelse chimed softly, “The Beacon is now offline, so no one else can just teleport in there.”
“Thank you,” Selenu said as she led the way to the bridge, “Is everything ready for our departure?” The whole crew followed the captain and Seinu onto the bridge and gathered around as the lime avali took her seat and checked the ship systems.
“Everything is ready Captain,” Ifelse replied, “A course to the shipyards above Protion has been laid in, journey time is three weeks.”
“Places everyone,” Selenu said and Seinu moved over to his chair as everyone else set out across the bridge and assumed their posts, Cri and Cal came to stand next to Seinu, both of them smelling nervous as the big moment, their departure from home had arrived.
“Take us out of orbit please Ifelse,” Selenu ordered and the AI started to feed power back into the mighty ships engines after several months of quiet station keeping in orbit.
Seinu looked around the bridge at his family and smiled and pressed a switch on the console in front of him as the view on the main screen showed Babupekkakerok starting to recede as the Odyssey left orbit. A piece of music started to play and Seinu saw ears going up, heads turning toward the nearest speaker. It was a soft, quiet Earth song from David Glen Eisley that Sher had shared with him months ago, and with his chirpy, bunny voice Seinu rested a paw on Cri and Cal’s shoulders and joined in the chorus as behind them the planet continued to grow small.
And it's sweet, sweet, sweet victory, yeah
It's ours for the taking
It's ours for the fight
Sweet, sweet, sweet victory, yeah
And the one who's last to fall
The winner takes all
They had come here with one mission and were leaving after completing another. Looking over toward his sister, Seinu met Selenu’s eyes and his twin nodded and smiled, mouthing the words, “Good song,” before she sat forward.
“Ifelse… take us back to Protion.”
Purple and blue light erupted ahead of the ship as it pried open the fabric of space time and launched itself into warp-space. The Odyssey’s mission to the ice shrouded, deadly planet Babupekkakerok was over. They had come to a dying society that had no hopes to survive on its own, and left behind a world and a culture that had woken up after a century of mourning, ready to face many more adventures ahead of them.
Arc 1: Babupekkakerok
The End
The story of the Odyssey will return in Arc 2.
