“Xyrlek ship, what do we have on it?” Nubela asked as she stormed onto the bridge and sat in her chair.

  “It’s a Xyrlek supply vessel, Ma’am. They’ve hailed us, but I’ve waited until you arrived to respond.” Orvina replied.

  The captain waved her hand towards the window as one of the technicians made a screen appear on it. A group of frightened-looking insect creatures stared at Nubela from the other side.

  She cleared her throat.

  “Xyrlek scum, this is Captain Nubela Argrath of the-“

  She didn’t get a chance to finish before the Xyrlek vessel’s captain interrupted her.

  “We surrender!”

  “Pardon?” Nubela leaned closer in her chair to make sure she heard the insect right.

  “We. Surrender. We surrender.” The insect in uniform repeated, struggling a bit with the Flarian language.

  “I see. Tell me, are you travelling to or from the Umlaut front?” Nubela asked, leaning back in her chair.

  The Xyrlek simply stared at her, their antennae twitching at her words, but provided no reply. The Flarian captain sighed, rubbing her forehead in exasperation before repeating the question in one of the many intergalactic languages, one that she knew both Flarians and Xyrlek could speak.

  “Are you travelling to or from the Umlaut front?” She said slowly.

  “From the front, Captain. We were on our way to deliver supplies when a Flarian Raider class vessel broke through the defence line and began its assault. We barely escaped.” The Xyrlek captain answered.

  “You speak Flarian, Captain?” Vice Captain Orvina asked the Xyrlek.

  “No. I simply learned the words ‘We surrender’ in your language. It seems to have proven useful.” The insect answered truthfully.

  “What a joker,” Nubela mumbled with a sigh, before looking up at the screen again.

  “Alright, we will be sending a squad aboard a shuttle to commandeer your supplies. Consider it payment for sparing your lives. Should so much as one weapon fire upon the shuttle, we will eradicate you without so much as an afterthought.”

  “Understood. We welcome you with open arms and weapons discarded.” Answered the Xyrlek.

  The video feed cut off, and Nubela wasted no time getting out of her chair and heading off the bridge. Vice Captain Orvina watched her disappear as the doors closed, before turning toward Baland.

  “Baland, you will remain in command while the Captain and I are gone.” She said to the Chief Officer.

  The Flarian male was caught off guard by this sudden order, standing up from his seat.

  “Ma’am, wouldn’t it be unnecessary to have both Captain Nubela and you go aboard the Xyrlek ship?”

  Orvina just sighed deeply, giving him a worried but stern look. Baland knew not to press the matter further. With a simple nod, he sat back down.

  ***

  Five of them boarded the shuttle. Nubela, Orvina and three other crew members, hand-picked by the Vice Captain herself. They were the largest soldiers remaining from those who weren’t poisoned in the rotten supply incident, and Orvina selected them exactly for their size. While tall and broad in their own right, the captain and vice captain seemed rather small when standing next to the other three Flarians.

  Ever since the conversation with the Xyrleks ended, Nubela entered a state of tunnel vision, caring about nothing except the Xyrlek ship and its surviving crew, letting Orvina handle all the preparations. The Vice Captain often caught her staring absentmindedly into space, as if entranced by something only she could see. Her walk was deliberate, her posture tense, as if she was waiting any moment for something to jump out from one of the corners and lunge at her throat.

  “I don’t like this one bit.” Orvina thought to herself, turning to look at the three large Flarians she had picked for this task. If the worst happens, the three of them should be strong enough to restrain the captain without hurting her.

  The shuttle approached the Xyrlek ship without incident. The docking bay doors opened, allowing them inside. The inside of the ship was pitch dark, only illuminated by the lights from their vessel.

  “This is a bit unsettling. Hope it’s not an ambush.” Orvina said to the captain, forcing a smile.

  Nubela did not even acknowledge her, simply staring through the shuttle window into the darkness, her azure eyes darting left and right, as if tracking the movement of something no one by her saw.

  As the group exited their shuttle, a loud voice boomed from the docking bay intercom. The Flarians jumped, quickly getting into formation, making sure to leave no blind spots. Their rifles were raised, safeties off.

  “Welcome, Friends. We are located on the ship’s bridge, awaiting your arrival.” Came a voice through the speakers.

  “I apologise for the lack of proper lighting, we are running low on power, so unnecessary systems had to be turned off.”

  “You don’t expect us to stumble through the dark to get to you?” Orvina shouted, hoping the intercom system worked both ways like on most ships.

  “Of course, of course.” The Xyrlek captain responded, before yelling something to one of his crew off to the side, but the comms system still caught it.

  “Gereggag, how are you doing on those lights?”

  “A moment, Captain, I gotta redirect the power without blowing a fuse.” Another voice replied.

  The Flarians stood in the dark for a few moments longer before the lights in the docking bay flickered to life. Doors leading into the ship’s main hallway opened with a hiss, followed by the sound of more doors opening in the distance.

  “Friends, we’ve opened the doors for you. The hallway is illuminated, so just follow the light and you will get to us in a flash. Hah.” The Xyrlek said, chuckling a bit at his pun.

  It didn’t take them long to reach the bridge. As the Xyrlek captain said, the main hallway remained lit and every door that led them to their goal was opened wide. This gesture put Orvina’s mind at ease. Maybe doing things differently here would somewhat ease the guilt of what they have committed on Kalibash.

  As the final door opened with a hiss, the Flarians were greeted by the sight of five tall, lanky insects in dishevelled uniforms. They were bipedal, wingless and with large, green eyes stood out from their dark blue heads. The bridge looked as if an entire grenade satchel had gone off inside. Most of their panels were either half-melted or broken.

  “Ah, greetings. We apologise that we had to welcome you in such a sorry state.” The Xyrlek, missing one of his antennae, approached the group while rubbing his palms together. A symbol common amongst the insect species when something goes without issues.

  “Truly, this ship has seen better days. But we are just lucky to be alive.” Another one added, not even turning around to look at the Flarians, busying himself with trying to fix one of the panels.

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  “Where is the rest of the crew?” Orvina asked the Xyrlek captain, looking around the bridge.

  “Dead, I’m afraid.” He replied, clicking his mandibles quickly while bending his head down. The other four did the same, paying respects to the fallen with the gesture.

  As promised, none of the surviving Xyrlek were armed. A foolish thing to do when facing an enemy such as the Flarians, but considering their situation, they had no choice but to seem as non-threatening as possible in hopes that the Flarians could find, in their underdeveloped empathy, the mercy to spare them.

  “So, why have you invited us here?” Captain Nubela asked, looking down at the insect despite being of equal height.

  “We have surrendered. As the captain of this vessel, I would like to invoke the Intergalactic Prisoners Treaty, section 78, subsection 4, clause 11.” The bug cleared his throat.

  “The enemy is no longer an enemy after they have laid down their arms and surrendered. Prisoners are not permitted to be killed or harmed aboard the vessel that captured them and must be taken to the first available outpost for processing.”

  Orvina covered her mouth with her larger hand to hide a small smile that snuck its way past her cold demeanour. She found the way the insect captain was reciting the Intergalactic War rulebook pretty funny. Nubela, on the other hand, did not share Orvina’s opinion on the matter. The Flarian Captain stared at the Xyrlek, jaw clenched tight and eyes wide as if she was ready to swing.

  “I am sorry to inform you, Captain.” She spoke slowly, each breath a low rumble in her throat.

  “But we are dreadfully low on supplies. Taking prisoners is simply not an option for us.”

  The Xyrlek took a step back, the other four insects now turning around towards the Flarians, no longer busying themselves with trying to maintain the ship’s systems.

  “I… uhm… I’m sure we could work something out. We have supplies. It’s not much, but they are universal food rations, so they are edible by your kind as well.” The insect captain nervously fumbled his words, feeling the overwhelming aggression oozing off of Nubela.

  “We, uh, we don’t even eat that much. It’s just five of us, too, so we won’t mind going a bit hungry until we reach the nearest outpost.”

  “Eat… Hungry… I’m so, so hungry.” The Flarian captain now rumbled louder, her breathing more akin to growling as she barely heard what the Xyrlek was saying. Her head felt light, and her throat felt like it was closing. A burning erupted in her stomach, as if her intestines were tying themselves in a knot from hunger.

  “We could…” She finally spoke, locking all four eyes with the tall insect.

  “We could simply take the supplies and leave you here. Or would you prefer we shorten your misery?”

  The Xyrlek took a step back, leaning against the broken control panel, his mandibles clicking slowly as if he were in shock from what he heard.

  “You… Yes, we are at war with one another. Things happen, but still, I beg you to see that there is no need for such cruelty.”

  “Yes. You are right. We are at war. There is no reason we should even be having this conversation. It is just us here. Who will know that you hailed us? Who will know that we agreed to meet you? Who will know you invoked the treaty? I see no witnesses here, no one to say we didn’t simply blast this pitiful vessel to smithereens the second we detected it. Nothing would remain of it. Not even your black box, if it’s even still operational.” Nubela grinned, her eyes wide and teeth bared.

  Orvina would’ve been equally as shocked as the Xyrlek were if she wasn’t already familiar with Nubela’s strange and erratic behaviour.

  The Flarian captain stepped forward, her smaller hands clutching the rifle, her thumb clicking the safety off of her rifle. The insect captain had nowhere left to retreat and was forced to stand his ground against her.

  “Please. If that is how it must be, then please spare what remains of my crew. They are not soldiers; they are just engineers and ship operators.”

  “What difference does one less mouth to feed make?” Nubela asked, almost whispering.

  “Besides, I don’t want to have to deal with witnesses. Once I execute you all, who will be there to say what happened?”

  “I will be there,” Orvina spoke up, aiming her weapon at the back of Nubela’s head.

  “Stand down, Captain.”

  Nubela spun around, facing her vice captain with an expression that caught Orvina and the three Flarians next to her off guard. Her pupils were dilated, her mouth salivating to the point that drool dripped across her clenched teeth and down her chin. She looked utterly insane. She threw her rifle aside, her smaller pair of hands trembling so wildly that Orvina wasn’t sure if the captain could even hold a gun in such a state, let alone aim and fire it.

  “Whaat? Mutiny? From you, of all people, Orvina? Don’t make me laugh!” Nubela growled, stomping towards Orvina until she felt the barrel of the gun press against her forehead.

  “Who are you to tell me what to do?”

  Nubela suddenly moved with unsettling speed, grabbing the barrel of the rifle with her larger, left hand and felt little resistance as she wrung it from Orvina’s grip. The vice captain let go of the rifle without hesitation, cocking back her larger right fist and hitting Nubela square across the face without holding back.

  Blood gushed from the captain’s nose as she fell backwards and landed on her ass. She got up almost immediately, as if the hit barely had any effect, but before she could lunge at Orvina, Nubela was faced with three more rifle barrels aimed at her.

  “I am sorry, Captain,” Orvina said.

  “I should have spoken out sooner.”

  “Spoke out against what?” Nubela hissed, licking the blood that dripped across her lips.

  “You aim a gun at me and then have the balls to blame me for something?!”

  “Who else am I to blame?!” Orvina roared, now staring at Nubela directly in her bulging eyes, her anger clashing with the captain’s insanity.

  “When we won the battle in the Gilmar sector, we were ordered to resupply and head to Umlaut to join the battle there immediately!”

  The vice captain inhaled deeply, jaw clenching as she suppressed the urge to jump on Nubela and try to beat some sense into her.

  “But you would not accept that some of the Xyrlek ships managed to escape. You wanted absolute victory. So, you ordered the crew to chase after them. To hunt them all down. If I had spoken up then, we would’ve had a chance to restock our supplies before moving to Umlaut. We would not be running on reserves; we wouldn't be forced to stop at Kalibash, to condemn the innocent, who were allied with neither side, to starve to death! All in the name of the Empire’s glory. All in the name of your goddamn bloodlust and feeling of superiority!”

  Orvina unclenched her fists, her eyes never leaving Nubela’s. She raised her hand, giving an order to the three Flarians that stood behind her.

  “On my authority, with you three as witnesses, I am relieving Captain Nubela Argrath of her command, under the charges of endangering the crew, breaking the Intergalactic Treaty and being no longer fit to command. Cuff her and take her to the shuttle. Do NOT let her out of your sight for even a second.”

  “Yes, Vice Captain.” One of the men replied, moving carefully to cuff Nubela’s hands with magnetic restraints. The captain snapped her teeth at him, making the Flarian almost drop the cuffs.

  As the Flarians ushered Nubela out the door and back towards the docking bay, Orvina turned to the shell-shocked Xyrlek.

  “How much food do you have?”

  “Not a lot. But enough to last you to the front.” The insect captain replied.

  “How operable is this vessel?”

  “Barely. We had our fuel cell storage shot. Blew half the hull to kingdom come. We have no more fuel; hence, we are just drifting. The backup fuel reserves are keeping the systems alive, but they aren’t enough to get us anywhere.”

  “We will provide you with fuel cells. That we have plenty of. In return, you provide us with supplies. Things that do not require the use of a fabricator to be consumable.”

  “We have plenty of nutrient blocks. Hardly a feast, but they get the job done. You can have them all.”

  Orvina sighed, finally calming down from the entire ordeal.

  “No need. We will take half.”

  “But that will not be enough to last you to the Umlaut front.” The Xyrlek retorted, trying his best to appease the Flarian, who was now in charge.

  “Screw the front. Once we part ways, we will be heading straight to the first allied outpost. I suggest you do the same.” She said coldly.

  “Yes, yes, of course. You need not worry about seeing us again. Thank you.” The bug captain chittered and rubbed his hands together.

  Orvina nodded and picked up the rifle Nubela had discarded. Some of the Xyrlek flinched, unsure of what her next action might be after seeing Nubela lose her mind and try to kill them.

  The Flarian Vice Captain headed for the door.

  “I will arrange the transfer as soon as I return to our ship and deal with the captain. Stand by for our hail.”

  Without another word, she left, the doors slowly closing behind her.