spears of Uu'kata (CLEAN(ish) Version)

Chapter 46 - Perspective

Ahnekk sat at the table, the atmosphere somber and silent, despite all the people in the room. Leaning forward, his heavy dreads fell over his shoulder as he put his elbows on the tabletop and looked intently at those gathered.

"We need to think. All of us. I want us to try to come up with a way to disable the human farm without killing the people," Ahnekk said.

"Ah, so your human got to you," Tlornden said, folding his arms and raising his chin. The antenna hidden in his hair glimmering in irritation.

"She has made it difficult, I will admit. But we are raised to protect our females. Knowing that there are females, children, and families... knowing those people are only protected by machines in the sky that we will be bypassing... it doesn't sit right with me. I'm not saying I'm not willing to go through with our plan, but if we can come up with a better one, one that doesn't leave the blood of children on my hands, I would prefer that."

The room was quiet again for a long time.

"I think... I think anything we do to preserve human lives, will cost us lives. So, I suppose you have to ask yourself if you are willing to sacrifice more of your own people for the humans who, I must say, have been instrumental in the decline of your species," Tlornden said. "My people were there when Teiling was found. We knew it wouldn't help us but knowing it would help you gave us hope for our own. Then the humans came and just took it. We now know that humans aren't facing extinction like we are. There are billions of them if I understand correctly. So, why are we concerned about a few thousand?"

"You saw what the ennelath did to Charlotte," Helkta Dohrekka said thoughtfully. "That happened to her because she chose to protect a child of the Nine Vipers. She laid down her life for one of our children. One she had no connection with whatsoever. I cannot, in good conscience, support any action that will cost the lives of human children after what she did." He took a breath and continued. "That being said, I have no idea what to do here. We don't have the technology the Tilith or Koli do, so how are we to know how to get around the technology of the humans?"

"I was actually hoping the Tillith and Koli could help us out with that," Ahnekk said.

"We don't know the layout of the facility well enough to help. But, you do have a human. Do you think she'd be willing to help come up with a plan?" Tlornden asked.

"You mean, do I think a warrior loyal to her people will be willing to give us intel that will help us orchestrate an attack on her people? I'm sure the answer to that will be, no."

"She was willing to die for one of our kind, we are looking for alternatives to killing hers. Maybe she will want to be a part of that," Jakoba said.

Ahnekk sighed and shook his head, then shrugged. "It couldn't hurt to try," he said, then turned to Echnar and gave him a nod.

Echnar nodded back and left the war room.

***

Jalapéno was trying to give Charlotte a bath with his scratchy tongue, and she loved it. He purred loudly and she laughed as her hair stuck to his tongue and he made smacking sounds as he fought to dislodge her hair from his mouth.

"That's what you get," she giggled.

She was laying on her bed with her celder across her stomach, plucking lazily at the strings. It sounded a little like Sandman by Metallica, and also like Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden with a few notes from the song Stone Blizzard by the Meteor Dogs, a band who had just started to become popular on Eros before she was taken prisoner.

Jalapéno had grown significantly in the past couple weeks. He had gone from a baby-sized cub to something dog-sized. At least, she thought he was dog-sized. She'd never seen a dog, but he stood almost to her knees and when they walked together, he liked to hold onto her leg with his stinger.