Broken World: Liars (Chapter 1)

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Historical Account of Ilfeq, Crewman of the Xlnfrag in charge of integrating the human soldiers into the ship and crew

I was brought on that vessel as a problem solver. When members of the crew had a disagreement, I would be called upon to calm them down. It was that simple. I was good at it. In eight cycles, there have only been seventeen fights that escalated before I could calm them down. Considering our crew consisted of some eight thousand individuals, I would call that a job well done. I am, of course, not saying that to impress anyone. Rather I tell you about my success so you understand how sure of my abilities I was. Perhaps, that will explain my failures.

It was a decade after we had made contact with the humans. Their world was primitive, but you will have learned that in school. They had a feudal system in place: There was a central administration, but it was weak, with little to no control over the different countries. Membership wasn't even mandatory, and armed conflicts between members were frequent. In spite of their political underdevelopment, the humans had evidently managed to send several of their own to space (to be precise: to their moon), so they had legally reached contact level.

The diplomats that reached out to them were shocked. The human race was, evolutionary speaking, in its early phases. Out of the eight sapient species, they were the only one that had a set lifespan. They hadn't even made the effort to know the depths of their own oceans before they had shot their first vessels into space.

I'm sorry. It is unnecessary for me to tell you all of this. What I really want to talk about is how the downfall of the Xlnfrag came to pass.

As a joint mission of the militaries of three of their countries, some two thousand humans had been granted access to our ship. We, ourselves, welcomed the opportunity. Obviously, the human race was young and foolish compared to ours, so we would gladly teach them and welcome them into the confederacy once they had proven themselves worthy. For this, admittedly experimental, mission to work, the command over the humans was given to a Captain Darling. The translators tell me his name is something they call a spouse, so the humans would make jokes occasionally. The Item'qar, on the other hand, were under the command of General Huylrq. The ship, however, was commanded by Captain Ishiim, and obviously everyone had to obey his orders. You see, the situation was weird. Really weird. And I was given the task of negotiating in conflicts on the ship as I had always been, only now that included conflicts between humans and conflicts between humans and Item'qar.

You will have noticed two ways in which the Terrans are different from us: They have mates, and they mock their superiors. For me, too, these things caused some confusion, but the humans seem to get by rather formidably in spite of them.

Enough of this nonsense. Let me tell you about how this great ship, the Xlnfrag, came to be doomed:

We were all really excited. No one aboard had ever seen a human, at least not in person. Sure, there were pictures and visuals, but the real thing is completely different, I assure you. So it came to pass that everyone who didn't absolutely have to be on post was assembled in the ships inner doc, where the ferry would release its cargo of humans.

The ramp lowered down. And then we heard them. They marched in near perfect rhythm, creating a sound so haunting, we ended up recording it later in order to use it to destabilize enemy morale. There were three groups, one large one with about half the humans, and two smaller ones with some six hundred and four hundred respectively. I assumed that they were marching according to their nationality, and later I was told that I assumed correctly. One of them yelled something, the translator interpreted it as "Careful [65%]", and they all raised their right hands to their heads in perfect unison. Then, after another command, one of the humans left rank. He walked towards us and spoke, and by the prophets in the sky, I tell you, he spoke Qar! He had a rather strong accent, of course, but it was very much comprehensible.

"Which of you are Captain Ishiim and General Huylrq?", he asked. The two of them, caught by surprise, took a moment to react, but then stepped forward. The human, I say "he", by the way, as I was later informed that this one was male, raised his hand to his head in a swift motion once more and said: "Superior warriors," (he even knew how to address them) "I bring you greetings from the leaders of the United States of America and the Francaise Republic, as well as the leader and the high scribe of the Federal Republic of Deutschland." He said the countries' names in Terran dialects, apparently. "All four of them apologise for not being able to attend this event in person, but they hope that you will take comfort knowing that Captain Darling is a warrior carrying many signs of honour, and that he is a most suitable representative for this purpose."

Then he waited, his hand at his head, staring at nothing. A mindless drone, I thought, awaiting a reaction. The captain and the general were a bit confused. After all, our species had done away with such procedures centuries ago. But then again, we hadn't encountered a new species in centuries either. The general, taking charge of the situation, spoke first. "We thank your leaders and scribes for their greetings and ask you to send them our expression of friendship", he repeated an ancient line that used to be said on occasions like this. The Captain joined in: "As commander of this vessel, I welcome you and yours aboard." The human nodded, turned around on the spot and yelled something in a language the translators couldn't interpret. And all of a sudden, other humans started yelling. I saw many Item'qar move their hands towards their guns. Feudal people could attack at any moment, after all. The human walked away, and three other humans took his place. One of them was different than the others. His flesh was much darker. One was a female, apparently, as you could tell from the concealed mammaries she had under her clothes. The third one spoke, and the translators played it back to us in Qar. Greetings were exchanged, but nothing interesting came out of this conversation. They all expressed their mutual respect and hope for good cooperation. He asked about the quarters. And that, basically, was it. After another order, the humans just walked away, no longer in unison but casually, as if they had been exchanged for people with independent minds.

Even back then, something about that bugged me. There was this slight feeling that something was deeply, deeply wrong. Those people, especially the one that spoke Qar (though probably just because I saw him up close), they had been like machines when they marched in. It wasn't anything that would have required to suppress any emotions, just an exchange of greetings. Yet they had stood there like statues, with their eyes completely cold. I didn't know, and I still don't, if they were all like this or if it was just their warriors, but I remember thinking that they must be capable of enormous cruelties in their duty.

But I banished those thoughts from my mind. I had my orders. It wasn't my place or duty to worry about such things. That's what the Thinkers are for. Were for. Now, of course, there are no more Thinkers.

So the next day, I went to do my job. The humans had slept, apparently the flight had been long and not offered the comfort they require for proper rest, so now they were perfectly relaxed and, it seemed, eager to work with us.

I will say: for all the negative experiences I, and so many others, have made with humans, I cannot and will not deny that they have the greatest work moral amongst the Eight Sapients, excluding us of course. But for a species of mammals to be this willing to labour, that was just unheard of. We all know how... laid back the Sherim and Tarifel are. But the humans, they jumped at any opportunity to help us out. The precise duties they would have to fulfil on a regular basis were still being worked out (the schedules had to be adapted to their longer day cycle, and we were not fully aware of how capable they would be in critical positions), and it was my task for the day to talk to their leading warriors in order to establish what special abilities they could bring to the table, but also to listen to any complaints they might have had concerning the ship or crew. Preventive de-escalation, if you will. I couldn't find the warrior Darling at his cabin, so I asked one of the drones - sorry, I mean human soldiers - for his whereabouts. This one was female, too. I could see her mammaries. She didn't wear the full uniform, I think she was on break, so I was very obvious. The human pointed me in a direction, saying "no idea if he's actually there, but Captain Grenouille is in that direction, seventh door to the right. If he doesn't know where Darling is, you can probably just talk to him, he's his second-in-command on this mission." I thanked her, but just as I wanted to leave, she bared her teeth at me! I jumped backwards, almost hitting a wall, and reached for my gun. Of course I did. Everyone knows that this is how mammals signal that they are about to eat you!

Let me be clear, I still think that it was a reasonable reaction. I wasn't going to shoot her, of course, I simply meant to signal that I am capable of killing her and that she should find something else to eat. Nonetheless, I am a bit embarrassed that the first conflict between our two species on board the ship was almost caused by me waving a gun in a human's face. She was, to say the least, shocked at my reaction, but after some yelling from both sides, it became apparent that she meant no harm. It seems humans bare their teeth in order to show happiness or friendly intentions. How any species could ever think Look at my instruments of murder which are used to tear flesh apart could be a friendly gesture is honestly beyond me. I took it as a sign that the human race took joy in warfare and killing. Not a bad trait for warriors to have, of course, but I couldn't stop wondering how this would affect discipline. Perhaps that was why they had seemed so mindless, drone-like the day before. If they don't suppress all emotions, they turn into killing machines.

I found the human called Grenouille. I immediately liked him more than the female. He lacked mammaries. Most of the humans on board did, actually. But that wasn't the reason. He had dark flesh, and I soon learned that he was the same man that had been there the day before, one of the three commanding officers that took the place of the one who spoke Qar. The complexion of his skin was much closer to the pitch black of our exoskeleton, so I suppose I just naturally felt closer to him. He, too, bared his teeth at me. This time, I remained calm.

"I heard you and Private Jenkins shout at each other. The translator didn't catch everything you said, but something about an attack?"

"A misunderstanding on my part. That thing you do, smile, it looked threatening."

His teeth parted, and he made some sort of a barking sound. This, I had expected. I had been informed that their laughter was of a less sophisticated nature, especially amongst the warriors.

"You will have to forgive, Crewman Ilfeq. Your entire species looks threatening to us, and I'm sure you don't think that way about yourselves."

"Naturally. As I said, it was my fault. But tell me, Captain: If you heard us shout, why did you not come to intervene?", I asked.

"Eh" he made a motion with his right appendage, as if he lazily smacked a swamp fly. "I was sure you'd sort it out amongst yourselves."

This came as a bit of a surprise, but I didn't bother asking. The curious change between lax and strict discipline would be something I would need to get used to.

"I wanted to talk to Captain Darling. It is for the assessment of the humans, in order to distribute them to the stations were they would be most efficient."

"Ah yes. I'm sorry. The captain is currently unavailable. There was a fight between some German and American soldiers over some sports event. He and Captain Graupe had to calm it down. Graupe is the one responsible for the Germans, by the way. Me, I deal with the French folks around. Until the Captain's back, I could give you an assessment of my men and women, if you want."

I thanked him, and we began our planning. After a short time, Captain Darling came into the room and apologized for being late. Once he realized we were already talking about the assessment of the French, he simply put a data device on the table and told his deputy to take care of the Americans and Germans, too.

I liked Grenouille, even then. He was the only human I ever felt connected to, though that friendship only developed later and is not supposed to be subject of this recording. I named my youngest hatchling after him, actually. I was told that's what humans do when a friend dies.


Elizabeth Birch, American Soldier

The Item'qar were scary. She had to admit it, they just were. They were smaller than the average human, even than the average human woman, but even so, they were still five feet of chitin and claws and whatever these weird things around their mouths were called. They had antennae, too. Long, like wires, and moving as if they were separate beings entirely, seemingly independent from the creatures whose heads they sat on.

And they were naked, aside from belts for weaponry or tools. She couldn't see any genitals (not that she had been trying to find any, rather it was nearly impossible not to look), so maybe they just never had developed a feeling of shame, but it made her really uncomfortable. She didn't say anything though. She had heard from Susan Jenkins that one of the bugs had completely freaked out the day before because she had smiled at him and he had thought she was baring her teeth. Actually, had that alien been male? Were there any female aliens on board?

Until I can figure it out, I suppose I'll have to use "they", she thought. Maybe I'll ask one of them. That would be so rude though. Oh god, she hoped it would be easier than that. Just, please, someone ask in her stead.

She cleared her head. The schedules were still being worked on, but they were expected to be distributed in about an hour. She left her cabin, walking aimlessly through the human quarters. She really just wanted to get rid of her unease, that slight, annoying itch at the back of her mind like there was some kind of imminent danger. She'd had it ever since they came on board. Well, not immediately. Only after the first night of sleep. Maybe it was the artificial gravity. Or something to do with Hyperspace. Apparently, they had transferred there while the humans had slept. There had been humans in Hyperspace before, diplomats mostly, and they had reported that Item'qar and the other sapient species felt an inexplicable fear that started very lightly but grew stronger the longer they stayed in there. The humans seemed to have been immune though. Maybe she was an exception? Or maybe it was just-

"Hey. Are you lost? Or looking for someone?"

Abruptly, her mind returned to the present moment. In front of her stood a young man, some twenty-five years old. He was about five feet nine tall, with hair of a dirty blonde. It was short, of course, since he was a soldier like everyone else on board. He gave her a friendly smile. "Everything okay?", he asked with a light German accent. She saw the black-red-and-gold on his uniform, confirming that she had wandered off into the German area.

"Yes, yes, sorry. I just wanted to stretch my legs."

He laughed and pointed behind himself with a thumb. "Yeah, some of the others do as well. Let me guess: You woke up this morning and felt haunted. You didn't know what it was, so you just walked and walked and mostly concentrated on walking?"

"Yeah". She smiled. He wasn't a handsome man, but his smile was so happy you could drown in it. She wondered what it would be like when he was really thrilled about something.

"You wanna visit the doc? She's around the corner. Could probably give you something."

"Thanks, but I think I have to visit the American medic. Protocol and stuff."

"She is the American medic. Ours had an accident shortly before the launch, so we couldn't replace him in time. Gimme a moment", he said turning around and yelled "JOAN! There's a colonist here, I think she has the same symptoms as the others."

"A colonist?", asked Elizabeth. Again, he laughed. It was an honest laughter, the kind you didn't hear a lot those days: He wasn't sucking up to a superior officer or trying to make her trust him or anything of the sort. He just really seemed to like to laugh, to be happy, no hidden motives, no strategy.

"Yeah, we like to call you people that. Makes us feel superior, I suppose. Like we're the motherland and you're the colonies and the likes. It doesn't really make a lot of sense, but you know how people are." he shrugged, still smiling.

"Especially doesn't make sense since America was a British colony", she reminded him.

"Ah, that's true, but do tell, who exactly is ruling England these days?"

Now it was her turn to laugh. "Fair enough", she said. "So you're gonna stop calling us that once the occupation is over?"

"We'll see."

A woman came around the corner. She was tall, pale, red-haired and didn't wear a uniform. The doctor, without a doubt. She looked tired, she had probably been kept up or at least someone had woken her up early. Nonetheless, she flashed a smile as she saw Elizabeth and the German and headed towards them.

"Hi", she said, reaching out a hand for Elizabeth to shake. "I'm Joan Blackwater. Daniel tells me you have the symptoms? Like something is following you wherever you go, an itch at the back of your mind, that sort of thing?" she looked at the man in a disapproving manner as Elizabeth shook her hand, "and for some reason he felt the need to inform the entire ship, too"

Daniel raised his hands defensively. "She was gonna leave, Joan. What did you want me to do? You said it was important that everyone with the symptoms got treated."

"Just tell me about it and I find them myself"

But I don't even- oh that reminds me." He, too, offered her a handshake. She took it. "I'm Daniel."

"Elizabeth Birch. It's a pleasure"

"Ah, I'm sure it is. I'm such a fun person to be around, after all. Right, Joan?" he said and poked the doctor in the side of her head.

"Fuck off."

He laughed, but stopped poking her. "I'm gonna check with Graupe if the schedules are ready, all right? See ya." He gave an exaggerated wave as he walked off.

For a few seconds, Elizabeth just stood there, letting the Doctor look at her pupils and feeling her temperature. Then she asked "so is he actually nice or an asshole pretending to be nice?"

"Oh, Daniel is alright. We met during the British war. He saved my life a few days after we first met, and we've been in contact ever since. He likes to make fun of people, but he knows the limits. Tell him to stop and he will. You don't want to fight him, though. Once you're his enemy, your done. Take these pills. There's three of them, the first now, the second after four hours, the third after another eight. If the symptoms don't disappear, come to see me. I'm on deck eight, cabin five-one-six."

"Thanks. I kinda feel like I saw him before

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