My mind latched onto two things upon hearing that. One, there were elves? And two, they all spoke English? No, not everyone in human space spoke English. Our AI was able to translate everything for us, but you could easily tell it was doing so when you compared what you heard to what their mouth was doing.
The room exploded into yelling at that point. It went on like this for a couple of minutes. Only dying down when a window popped up in front of me, and probably everyone else.
‘User John is not part of the Elf race. User Nina brought User John aboard five hours ago.’ Some of the group must have been fast readers because they started to yell again. This time shouting questions at this Nina and at me.
A green haired woman’s tall ears twitched as she yelled out that she was only doing what the quest had told her. She also said that they should point their questions at me and the local AI for giving her such a quest. That seemed to quiet a few down as they looked off into the distance. A look that told me that they were talking with some sort of computer system.
Others glared at me, one shouted at me “What are you and why are you on this ship?”
I held my hands up in a sign of surrender. The entire group flinched, and a couple flicked their hands out. Sparks of light flew around their hands as their tails spread out. “I don’t know why I am on this ship. I tried to tell the damn AI that I didn’t want to come.”
“What species are you?” one of the ones in the back called out.
“Human. You?”
Multiple of them exchanged glances, asking each other if they had ever heard of such a species. Given that I had never heard of them, I doubted they had heard of me. Finally, one said, “This ship is a Kitsune fleet battleship. All aboard are Kitsune.”
The person next to the speaker spoke up, interrupting what they were about to ask next. “Everyone, scan the human.”
“That won’t provide any useful information. The system only provides such information if the species is registered.” Scoffed one of the three men. He looked over at me before throwing up his hands. “Well damn. Why didn’t the system simply tell us that was what was going on. Would someone get the human to the medical bay.”
One of the women at a table near me started toward me but stopped when I started to back up. Waving behind her in seemingly random directions, were four tails. Her red hair and tails were complimented by her bronze tan. “What is going on? Why do I need to go to a medical bay?”
The women spoke softly as the rest of the room returned to what they were doing. Pointedly ignoring me and her. “I can explain everything but first I need to have the ship run a few scans.”
My stomach took that moment to let out a roar to protest the thought of leaving the room. Her ears twitched and the corners of her lips lifted slightly. Moving a hand to the back of my neck, I asked, “Is there any way I can get some food first? I am starving.”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
She nodded and said, “I would imagine so,” as she gestured me to follow her to the far side of the room. There was no food to be seen, not even a hole in the wall for the ship to form food from. All that I could see was a simple ledge. “Allow me.” She said as she made simple gesture in the air.
The ledge grew the food up and out of it. Or at least I thought it was food. There was something that looked similar to a thick, pink colored smoothy in a cup and that was it. Looking at it, at her and then back, I asked, “What is it?”
“A simple smoothy with everything your body will need for a day. I didn’t feel comfortable feeding you something that your body might not be able to handle. Not until we get you checked out that is. Oh, let me know if the flavor is not something you like.” Frowning, I picked up the cup. The cup was a smooth plastic material. The walls of which were thin enough that the cold liquid was starting to cool my hand.
Mouth twitching, I lifted the cup to my mouth and took a quick sip. It was smooth and as thick as warm syrup. The taste was a surprise though. It tasted of peaches with a hint of citrus. Before I knew it, the cup was empty.
She laughed at my expression. “Don’t worry, you can get some more later.” Looking around, I tried to figure out where to put the cup. Gesturing to the ledge she said, “I take it you didn’t have such systems on your ships?”
I put the cup onto the ledge, and it vanished into it. As if it had never existed. “We had similar systems, they just looked different. Though I will say this ship is not what I expected for a battleship. All the ones I had been on were cramped as hell.”
Waving a hand to follow her, she said, “We sometimes have to host some other species on this ship. While most are nearly our size, there are a number that require a bit more room. For those of a larger species, this ship is so cramped that they tend to stay in one of the cargo bays.”
“What other species are there?”
“Quite a few actually. Most have something they specialize in.”
“And what do Kitsune specialize in?”
“We are more of a jack-of-all-trades species. Elves are better than us at magic. Dwarves are better at technology. Goblins are great at filling a battlefield and overwhelming their enemies. Then there are the ogres. They typically make the best mobile tanks and battering rams. There are other species, but they are all in other areas of the galaxy. What about humans?”
“Honestly?” I asked as she gestured for me to walk through a door on the left. “We are all about technology and growth. Even if it leads to the destruction of everything around us.” The room we entered was a light grey, almost white, color. Each wall had hundreds of different things carved into them. All but one was dark. The one that was lit up was only pulsing slightly.
“Does anyone use magic or technology to repair the damage you cause?” She touched a symbol next to the door and a single bed rose out of the ground. Taking the obvious cue, I laid down on it. It was one of the most comfortable beds I had ever laid in.
“There are groups that go around and fix the damage that they can with what technology they have. Until today, I had never even heard of magic.” Something occurred to me, “Wait, is that what the four people attacking us used?”
She frowned down at me as she started to tap on the bed. “What four people?”
“We were in the system to deal with a group of terrorists when a group of four creatures started to attack both sides. We killed them all, though not without taking quite a bit of damage. From what I hear, there was a ship in orbit that attacked our fleet.”
Her ears twitched but otherwise she showed no emotion. “Did you get a good look at any of the creatures?”
“The only one that I saw looked like one of you. A Kitsune.”