Human Pet Pound - Loki Renard Page 0,25

time I get closer. Close enough to see that he doesn’t just look sad. He looks broken.

A rush of anger sweeps over me. How dare someone make this big, strong man feel this way? No. Not a man. An alien. I just thought of him as a man. Maybe there is some inner man-ness about him. Maybe there is some connection between our species, like he says. All I truly know is that I feel protective toward him. I want to make him feel better. I don’t know how to make a violent alien feel better, so I put my hand on his shoulder and think.

“We could hunt them down and kill them,” I suggest.

“What could I kill that my entire brood could not?”

“Maybe they were caught by surprise. Maybe you won’t be.”

“You are thinking they were attacked by an honorable enemy who announced their presence and engaged in open war,” he says. “They were not. This is what I was trying to avoid when we left the station. Remember how I checked this ship from stem to stern before we boarded? It seems my kin were not so careful. They were attacked by the Q’Ren. They must have neglected to check the ship for explosives before they left port.”

That seems careless, but I know better than to say that out loud. Speaking ill of the dead is not encouraged in any culture or society of any species that I’ve ever met, besides perhaps the bastardi. They are a species of aliens who invert almost every common convention. I was briefly owned by a bastardi a few years ago. He perished, and I was made to attend his funeral as chattel of his estate. I listened to his friends and family give speeches about him. There was not a single one who did not call his character, life choices, and personal scent into question. At the end of the proceedings, everybody agreed that he would have been pleased with the funeral, and also that they were glad he was dead.

That will not help in this situation, as John is very clearly not happy that everybody he has ever cared for has been turned into space glitter by the Q’Ren, whoever they may be.

“So, it was sabotage?”

He nods. “A Q’Ren spy must have gained access and planted explosive charges.”

“How is that possible?” I can barely imagine how anybody would sneak onto a scythkin ship full of scythkin who didn’t want them there. These aliens are perceptive and more dangerous than almost anything.

“Never underestimate the Q’Ren. They operate completely independently of one another. They are united by a shared ideology, but there is no Q’Ren home world. No center of operations. Every Q’Ren operates on her own.”

“Her?”

“They are all female. They come together across species to wage war on those they wish to destroy.”

“And who are those they wish to destroy?”

“The scythkin, mostly.”

“Is there a reason they want to destroy the scythkin specifically?”

“They are in competition with our matriarchs for breeding locations, but unlike our matriarchs, they are not warriors. They are cowards.”

“So, they are females who wanted to breed, but their breeding areas were…”

“They lost them in battle.”

“I’m sorry,” I say softly. I can tell he is absolutely miserable, deeply grieving the loss of his family. I am told families are important. I have never had one myself, but I’ve seen previous owners with theirs and they seemed very invested in them.

I also know that the scythkin have more or less brought this on themselves. Decimating the universe one planet at a time was always going to lead to a backlash. At some point, someone was going to object. Apparently, they’re objecting with explosives.

John

She puts her hand on my shoulder, and I sense that she is truly sad for me. I did not expect empathy from the little human who has been working so hard to distance herself from me since I rescued her.

“If I can help you get those bitches back, I will,” she swears. “I’ll chop and dice them for you just like you did for me.”

“That will not be necessary,” I say. “You are hardly equipped for that manner of attack.”

“I might not be made of knives, but I can hold a couple and that’s all it takes really. It’s slower, but it still works.”

“That will not be necessary,” I repeat, though I am touched by her offer. “We will proceed to the planet and do what my brood would have done. We will prepare it for the