#humansinspace

Drerzii was confused. He had known that humans were incredibly resilient, he had seen it when they had brought one of the females in with light had trauma that she had quickly recovered from. Even the other humans with their various minor injuries seemed to pay the dripping blood no mind. Yet now, Taurus, the distinctive leader and most warrior class-esque of the humans stood before him, clutching his finger. Drerzii had been alerted to the fact that one of the humans had needed medical attention when he heard human profanity being shouted loudly. A few seconds later Taurus had appeared in the med bay searching for a "band aid." A primitive human form of bandage. When Drerzii asked to examine the injury that was clearly causing the human vast amounts of pain and was likely life-threatening given the humans nonchalance in the face of previous wounds, he was highly surprised to find that this "cut," as the humans called an incision of the skin, was incredibly tiny.

"So where, may I ask, did you obtain this 'paper cut?'" Drerzii asked.

"Well I was turning a page in a book that my dad gave me, and as I was turning page, it sliced my finger up. Hurt like a *itch."

"I can find no blood coming out of your circulatory system, which indicates that you need absolutely no medical attention."

Taurus leaned forward, his predatorial eyes boring into Drerzii. Drerzii shifted his colors with discomfort; the intense gaze of the human was highly unnerving. "But it hurts. Do you guys even have bandaids?"

"We do, Taurus. But I must inform you that the bandaid will not relieve the pain."

Taurus leaned back, a sigh escaping his lips. "I know it won't Drerzii, but it will make me feel better."

Drerzii dipped his hue with confusion. "I do not understand. If it does not stop the nerve impulses how does it help?" He paused, then though aloud, something he often did as a telepath, "Could it be psychological?"

"Yeah I guess. Sometimes little things like that help us. It'll also help me from absentmindedly tearing it open again once it's scabbed over."

Drerzii looked at the human in horror. He knew what a scab was, and to tear one open... Did humans enjoy causing themselves pain? Why would any creature reopen it's wounds for any non-medical reason. He was beyond baffled.

* * *

Thunderous crashing, a string of curses, a storm of human howling. “Laughing,” as they called it. Always curious and ready to examine the humans, Drerzii entered the room the humans were currently frolicking about in. One human was doubled over on the floor, she seemed to be shaking, and her breath was coming out in short bursts. Another human was lathered over a chair, his head back, and mouth open, revealing his rows of predatory teeth, also letting loose a similar, but deeper, sound. The rest of the humans were similarly emitting such noises, which he knew were supposed to be sounds of amusement, though he couldn’t help but feel unease at the noise. One human though, the one he recognized as Jason, had a somewhat confused grin and a hand upon his forehead. He chuckled and headed for the door, saying something about getting an ice pack. One of the other males, Uhris called out, “Wait come back Jason, but don’t run into anymore walls on the way back.” The humans had started to return to their normal selves, but at that comment they relapsed into their fits of noise making. “Seriously bro, come back, you’re not losing...horribly. Look we’ll start going easy on you. Just suck it up and keep playing, what’s a lil’ pain to fight through?”

The other humans echoed their agreement and Jason returned to the table, still having a hand to his head. Drerzii dared not approach the humans, as he didn’t want to change the setting, and he was thoroughly enjoying observing them from afar. He pulled out his holotablet and looked up the one phrase he didn’t understand. It turned out “suck it up,” was a call to be more manly, usually by ignoring pain...fascinating.

* * *

A few weeks later Drerzii walked into the human living quarters to examine the room to make sure it was not dangerous to live in. Whether that danger came from precariously placed objects or viruses and bacteria. As he was looking through the room he noticed a large amount of brightly decorated aluminum scraps on the floor. As he began to pick them up to examine what exactly these objects were, the human female Enara exited the bathroom, hair wet and clad only in a towel that wrapped around the entirety of her torso. She started at the sight of the little alien, but quickly recovered. Almost immediately she noticed the scraps in his appendage. “Oh, I’ll clean that up sir. Apologies for leaving the room such a mess.”

“Do not be distressed.” Drerzii responded, “I have read that a mildy chaotic living space tends to lessen anxiety and boost creativity in humans. I did not pick up this, object, to organize in any fashion;” he said, placing back on its original spot on the floor before continuing, “rather, I was curious as to what it was, for I must admit, I have not seen it’s like anywhere. It has such a peculiar shape, and it shows an impressive amount of flexibility.”

“Sir, that’s just a chocolate wrapper.” Enara said with a somewhat amused expression.

“I am unfamiliar with it. Please, tell me it is.”

She shrugged. “It’s a protective wrapping for chocolate, which is a human delicacy, I guess. It’s not anything special though. I just really needed some cause my period is being a b*tch right now.”

The doctors’ colors changed as the topic changed to a subject he was familiar with, “Ahh yes. Correct me if I am in fact wrong, but that is the colloquial term for the female humans’ menstrual cycles, right?”

“Er...yeah. I’ll clean up the wrappers. I just wanted some chocolate to help with the cramps.”

“The cycle causes muscle contractions? Forgive me for my ignorance, I only saw the name in passing.”

“Sorry, can you stand on the other side of the division, I wanna change from my towel into actual clothes.” She continued as Drerzii complied, “No, it’s not muscle contractions it’s just, pain, a lot of pain. I mean I don’t have it as bad as other girls, it mostly just makes me irritable and hurts a lot, but my sister would vomit because the pain was so intense.”

Drerzii blinked rapidly. Human females had cyclical times of pain? What a horrible existence.

Slightly muffled as she put on a shirt, Enara said“You’d think that after thousands of years of evolution we wouldn’t have to deal with so much pain and just bleeding that much, but I guess not?”

Finished dressing Enara pulled back the curtain to look at the doctor, who at this point had turn a dark red with spots of yellow. He blinked multiple times before asking: “You bleed? Is that not dangerous? Is not your blood incredibly vital for your life? And where do you blood from? I see no wounds”

She shrugged, “From our, uhm, woman parts doc,” She was relieved that he seemed to understand, “but it’s not that much blood. It mostly can just be awkward in social situations. But man, cramps are the absolute worst. I mean sometimes it’s hard just to walk around cause the pain is so intense.”

Tygeria paused, she sensed that she was being followed. Whoever it was knew how to follow prey without being heard or seen; however she had taken various survival classes and now her senses were far more fine tuned than the rest of the species. Tingles rushed over her carapace. Here in the belly of the Narrtor there should be no hostiles. Even if a prisoner were on board, and she knew of none, and had managed to escape, the brig was floors away.

She quickly turned around, her spine covered forelimbs ready to attack or defend. To her surprise it was a quite unbelievably startled human. "Oh dear Lord! now that's a fright."

Tygerias' suspicions were raised, "Why were you stalking me?"

Taurus was taken aback by the question, "I wasn't stalking, I was just following. I'm not some creep." he paused, an odd expression on his face, "Sorry. I may not be a creep I do have a tendency to creep." He saw her puzzled position and explained, "For humans a creep is someone who gives unwanted attraction, usually it's some guy who likes a girl, but in a weird way and she doesn't appreciate it. And creeping is just some left over instinct from being prey mixed with predator. It's usually just a human accidentally moving in a way where they won't be detected."

Tigeria wondered at this. Could humans still be so close to their savage origins that they still unconsciously stalked prey. Again her carapace tingled with unease. She would have to be more wary of her surroundings lest the humans catch her off guard at an awkward moment. She returned her attention to Taurus once again as he began to speak, “I understand that we will be stopping at the WayCenter Station in the Fornax Cluster. I was wondering if we could add this particular item,” He gestured to his holotablet, “to the ships inventory when we dock there?” She took the holotablet from his hand and adjusted the settings so that the light was visible to her. The more she studied the item the more intrigued she was by it. It appeared to be a hollow device in the rough shape of an oval, though it had concave curves on either side. A long protrusion with several metallic strings came out from one end of the device. A circular portion of the hollow body was cut out and the strings ran above it.

Tygerias' interest was piqued. What possible function could such a device serve? Was it possible that it was some death world instrument of chaos? She had heard that some humans had asked to bring specific items or creatures aboard their ships and they had wreaked havoc. With this in mind she asked, “What purpose does it serve?”

 “Well it’s a guitar. It’s used for making music.” Music? Tygeria had heard of that before, both from the historical documents of her race, and from other species’ stories of humans. She clicked in curiosity. “What is, music?”

 She let out more clicks of curiosity in response to the humans face. His facial muscles had gone slack and his draw had dropped a few centimeters. “You mean...Are you saying you don’t know what music is?”

 “Our species developed music when we were young, but we eventually realized that it serves no true purpose and thus we abandon it. I myself have never heard this ‘music.’ But you are correct and - are you all right Taurus?”

 “I just...wow...that’s...honestly ma’am that’s really kinda sad. Music, it’s...well it’s music. It moves you man, and the fact that you guys just abandon it...that’s, wow, that’s pretty...pretty crazy.”

 “This music must be dangerous if it’s able to physically displace a person.”

 “No not physically move you. It moves you, in your heart and soul. I dunno man, it’s hard to explain. It’s not dangerous at all, and it would probably help the crew in some ways. At the very least it would help us humans and any more that we might meet.” He shook his head and muttered something under his breath, but Tygeria ignored it and made her decision. “Very well, I shall put this ‘guitar’ on the ships manifest for incoming items. Is there anything else you would like to request?”

 Taurus shook his head, both in response to Tygerias’ question and in disbelief. How anyone could simply live without music was beyond him.

* * *

 A couple of adzs later Tygeria was returning to her quarters when she heard the unmistakeable sound of Drerzii the medical officer rapidly approaching from behind. She turned and had nearly faced him when he began to speak. “Tygeria, you must tell me if this is true. I have heard from the humans, both through their voices and their minds, that we shall be acquiring one of the humans ‘musical instruments.’ Tygeria, I beg of you, answer me quickly, is this in fact so?”

 She clicked a few times. She had never seen the little telepath so excited. “Yes. Taurus asked for me to get it when we dock at the WayCenter Station. If you will excuse my asking, why is this of interest to you?”

 Drerzii closed his eyes and all his tentacles shuddered with excitement. “Ahh this is joyous news indeed. Tygeria, it has come to my knowledge, both through my studies and anecdotes I’ve heard, that the humans can behave very peculiarly to this ‘music.’ Humans are interesting enough to study in and of themselves, but with this added factor...” He paused, his excitement causing him to stop for a moment. “Tygeria, this ‘music’ has both bonded and torn apart human clans. And there has been very little study in the aspect of human behavior with music. In short, it will be a pleasure to examine them. Now, I must depart and prepare my instruments.” With that the little tripodic creature scurried away. Tygeria let off a storm of clicks. It seemed that the more she asked questions, the more confused she was. 

* * *

 Another few adz later the Narrtor had arrived at the WayCenter Station, resupplied, and taken off, and just a few dadz past she had delivered the guitar to the humans bunking room. She entered the lounge and saw Uhris sitting on a box, the two females lounged on one of the couches, Taurus was on a chair and Jason sat crossed-legged on the floor. All of the humans were positioned generall around Taurus who had placed the instument on his legs. His right hand was poised above the strings near the hole, and the fingers on his left hand were spread over the elongated part of the instrument, which, she now noticed, had raised bumps at regular intervals. Anne passed him her holotablet and said something to him, but it was to far away for Tygeria to hear. Taurus laughed and nodded, glanced at his left hand, back to the holotablet, and then it began.

 Taurus started stroking the strings with his right hand. Every few times he did this he would switch the position of his fingers on his left hand. Tygeria stood, transfixed. The humming coming from the instrument was incredibly steady and had an unquantifiable feeling of comfort. She closed her eyes and let the sounds wash over her, then reopened them seconds later when the humans began to talk. But, she realized, they were not in fact talking. Their words flowed with the music like two streams of water smoothly combining. She chirped in surprise. The humans were making music with their vocal chords! Singing, she believed the word was. And, she realized, the words that they were singing seemed to verbally convey the feeling the instrument was trying to communicate. Then one of the humans split the pattern of their voices, no longer singing in unison, but rather branching her voice into an alternative but complimentary pattern. They all stopped singing in unison while Taurus kept playing, bobbing his head to the rhythm. Uhris playfully cuffed Enara on the shoulder, “Okay girl, I heard that harmony. Going all fancy on us. Ay Imma give us a little rhythm on the next verse a’ight.” Taurus nodded his acknowledgement. A few seconds later Uhris began striking the box he sat on, constantly switching between his palm and fist. Another few seconds and the humans began to sing again. 

Tygeria stood transfixed for several minutes before she noticed Drerzii standing beside her. He was constantly looking back and forth between the humans and a holotablet with which he was taking notes. His colors were constantly changing with excitement: red, lime, yellow. Once he realized that Tygeria was also observing the humans he quickly scrambled up her forelimb and sat on her shoulder. "Is it not simply fascinating my dear Tygeria. Almost no species reacts to this 'music' the way humans do. They're mental activity has increased and their endocrine systems are all letting of large amounts of serotonin, oxytocin, and dopamine. Apparently other ratios in the vibrational frequencies can cause the complete opposite effect. Is it not bizarre Tygeria, that 'wiggly air,' as they call it, can cause such emotional changes in humans? I find it truly fascinating." Although she stayed quiet, Tygeria completely agreed.

After a few more songs, Enara noticed the two standing off to the side and motioned them over. "I know your species' don't really do music, but would you guys want to join us instead of being awkward over there?"

Tygeria paused, unsure if she should join, after all, she didn't actually have vocal chords with which she could sing and her translator would most definitely be inadequate for this type of activity. Before she could respond, however, Drerzii answered, "Oh we would indeed find the utmost pleasure in accompanying you."

Jason scooted over to make space for the two, "Tygeria you could help Uhris with the percussion, er, beat rhythm thing of the song, and Drerzii you just do what you do man. Make those snorkel noises." Drerzii made a little trumpet noise in response.

Uhris showed Tygeria how she could click, snap, and chirp to the beat while Anne and Taurus demonstrated to Drerzii how to match the pitch and follow a melody. After a few minutes of instruction the group started a new song. Even though she wasn't singing, and that was, as she had heard, the most soulful part of music, Tygeria still felt something move inside her. Something that connected her to the sway of the notes and the pulse of the rhythm. She knew not what it was, but she knew that whatever it may be, she was falling in love with it.

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 Tygeria had been highly surprised. The stories she had heard of the humans led her to believe they were creatures of extraordinary strength and an alarming attraction to danger. All she had seen so far though, was far from that. She had discovered on the first day that human females, as well as some of the males, had in irrational fear of a small, octopodic creature named “spider.” The pitiful thing was barely more than a few hundredths of a vad, and yet the human female Enara had screamed as though it were a terrifying monster. In fact, the most pain-testing thing she had seen was when Taurus was loosing a war cry while lifting some heavy objects called “barbells” after he had been participating in some endurance training.  When she had inquired as to why he put himself through such a rigourus and painful experienced he merely shrugged and said, “Muscle looks good, the ladies love it.” Which had not at all explained his actions. This was not at all the kind of ferosity she had been expecting from an apex predator from a class 7 death world.

 That is until the Aldirex incident occured. 

 The VIV Narrtor had received a distress call from a nearby ship in the Aldirex system and immediately went to investigate. Captain Sker’ro reasoned it would be a good idea to send the new recruits onto the ship, so Tygeria accompanied them as the officer in charge. 

 The pod manuevered into the docking bay of the dormant vessel. The six crew members floated into the air lock and then past the heavy doors into a corridor. The red lights and lack of gravity signaled to them that the ships main systems were offline. Tygeria glanced at Anne, the magician of the group, with what she hoped was a look that would convey the right meaning. The message got across and a quiet muttering could be heard from the small blonde. As soon as she finished the group dropped to the floor. They looked on with concern as Anne took a heavy knee to the floor. She waved them away, “It’s nothing, just maintaining gravity for each of you is a bit taxing, that’s all. My suit should kick in in a - there we go.” Her suit quietly hummed as it began to feed her energy. 

 As they continued exploring, they noticed what seemed like gunfire in the distance. After a few minutes the sounds were quite close and the group moved into the standard assault positions. Less than half a minute later they came across a door that spilled light from the single circular window. The group took up their positions around the door while Tygeria knocked on it, “This is Lieutenant Azzaz Tygeria of the VIV Narrtor. Open up.”

 At that the sound of locks being frantically undone was accompanied by, “Oh bless the ancients.” The door flew open and before them stood a hexapod about a half vad tall. About a dozen more clustered around a small pile of boxes, holding small weapons. Loud echoing and flashes of light came from the airlocked door at the far end of the room. He gestured them inside. “I see you received our distress signal, thank the immortals.”

 “What’s going on here?”

 “About ten dzads ago pirates boarded our ship. We managed to get about half of the airlocks closed before they hacked the ship and shut down all systems. We’ve been trying to hold them off for as long as we can but,” he raised his four upper appendages in a defeated posture, “we are merchants. None of us bred for war.” He eyed the humans with the last comment.

 “How many pirates are there, and what species?”

 “We have counted twenty at least but we believe there to be about thirty total. They are kentaurens.” The humans murmured. It was a species they had studied but never met before. The little hexapod opened his mandibles to say something else but just at that moment the door at the end of the room broke down. Several aliens about three-fourths of a vad poured it. The humans instinctively let loose with their firearms. A few of the kentaurens stumbled and a couple more fell as the bullets pierced their fur. Tygeria yelled at the little hexapods to get out, run out the door the humans had come through. 

She turned back to the fight and saw the humans engaging the kentaurens. Even though the smallest of the pirates stood at least four inches taller than the tallest human, and even though there were almost twice as many pirates as there were humans, they seemed to be holding their own, filling the air with gunshots. Tygeria added her plasma rounds to their barrage. Then one of the males, Uhris, loosed a war cry and threw his weapon aside. He jumped at the closest kentauren and used his upper appendages to grab the creatures neck. Within seconds he was on the creatures back and had managed to wrap his arms around kentaurens head. Then with a vicious movement a crack resounded and the boy jumped off the creature as it fell to the ground, dead. The rest of the humans had also engaged in close quarters combat, using various items from around the room as weapons. Though they were much smaller and lighter than their opponents they moved with such speed and agility that they managed to avoid most blows. 

 Then one of the kentaurans, one who was bigger than the rest grabbed one of the females and proceeded to slam her on the floor. The rest of the humans loosed war cries and ran over to protect their comrade. Although it seemed impossible, they managed to fight with even more viciousness and ferocity than they had been previously. Tygeria lobbed off more shots then made her decision. “Back, run back now. Those little merchants should be far enough now. Run!” Two of the humans grabbed the female, who seemed to have trouble getting to her feet while the other two continued to hold off the kentaurens while slowly retreating. Tygeria was surprised when she fired and the last kentauren fell. 

They kept running until they found the original merchant, who quickly typed something into a quick-acces computer on the wall. Behind them an airlock clamped shut. The pod released itself from the docking bay and flew back to the Narrtor. While on the way Tygeria asked of the females health. One of the males, Jason, responded. “It’s nothing much, she just got hit a bit hard. She probably has abit of a concussion. She’ll be alright in a few minutes, but we should probably take her to the med bay.” Tygeria then pointed out their own injuries: bloody scratches and discolored spots on their appendages that worried her. He just laughed, “Those? That’s nothing, I got more than that on the first day of training. Don’t worry about us, we’ll be fine.”

The team returned to the ship and the humans were sent to the med bay. The medical officer confirmed Jason, all the humans, including the female Enera, would okay. The captain did not send them back to retake the ship with the other teams, despite the humans asking to return to the fight.

Tygeria now believed the stories. Five humans had, with her aid, fended off nearly twice as many opponents, all of whom were taller and by all rights should have been stronger. But the thing that stuck with her was the look in their eyes: the bloodthirsty, primal look of the apex predator of the most dangerous death planet.

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more definitions if anyone wants

dzads - unit of time, approximately 72 minutes

hexapod species - the species is a six legged, four armed species known throughout the nearby galaxies as merchants, approximately 4.2 feet (1.3 meters) tall

 Jason sighed. The VIV Narrtor was just a few lightyears away from the Crab Nebula, and he believed that all the photos he had seen on earth were like mud compared to the divine sight before him. The turquoise center surrounded by the beautiful yellow and red clouds held him captivated. After a few minutes of staring he noticed Enara standing beside him. She too was lost in the glorious colors before her. Her chocolate eyes sparkled as though there were stars in them and he couldn’t decide which view was better. He blushed as he caught himself and quickly looked back to the sight outside the window before she noticed him staring. Still, he was accutely aware of her presence. He panicked inwardly when he felt her head on his shoulder. After a moment he relaxed, then allowed himself a slight smile and put his arm around her shoulder.

 Tygeria watched the two humans. They puzzled her. She knew that they saw differently than her, and so the nebula before them must be "beautiful," she believed the word was, but because she could only detect varying amounts of heat, it held no allure for her. What held her there though, was the humans. The male had been interesting enough by himself, but it all changed when the female approached. His body temperature had gone up by nearly a half degree and she could more sense than hear or see the slight increase of his breathing and heart rate. Even more than that was the small, fleeting glances he threw towards her. Then Tygeria noticed Enaras’ body temperature lift by a barely perceptible amount, a few seconds later she put her head on Jasons shoulder. She was transfixed. These were apex predators, at the top of the food chain of one of the worst death planets to exist. Yet here they were, barely touching each other, and clearly it was affecting them. She was not sure it was good, afterall, she had heard that increased heart and breathing rates along with an increase of body temperature could mean stress in humans.

 As she was about to start forward, she felt a gentle presence on her forearm. She looked down to see a small tentacle on her arm. Drerzii the medical officer had stopped her. “Tygeria, fear not.There is no trouble with the humans’ systems. As far as my research has indicated, this is a normal process for humans. Leave them be.” She paused, then hummed her acknowledgement. She trusted the telepathic doctor. She turned and went to find the other humans.

***

 A few dzads later after the crew had finished the last meal of the day and were relaxing in their free tame, Tygeria approached two of the humans: Taurus and Uhris. The two looked up at the Lieutenant. “I have a question for you two.”

 The bigger of the two, Uhris, responded, “Shoot, er, what is it?”

 “Earlier, as we were passing the nebula, I was walking through one of the hallways when I saw Jason looking out the window. His vital signs seemed normal until the human Enara appeared next to him. After he noticed her presence, he seemed to be under slight amounts of stress or anxiety,” a pause, “and so did she. I was worried for their health, but Dreyzii told me this is a normal occurance for humans. I was curious, what was happening to their bodies.”

 Tygeria was puzzled by the expressions on the boys faces. Uhris began to laugh while the Taurus looked on with confusion. After his laughing subsided, Uhris responded, “Ah Lieutentant, it seems you have answered a question I’ve been pondering for a while. Yes, they are perfectly fine. And yes, they were under a bit of stress or anxiety. You see, I was pretty sure that Jason liked Enara, but I didn’t know if she liked him too, but you’ve just confirmed that for me, thank you.”

 If Tygeria was puzzled by the looks on their faces, she was even more puzzled by what Uhris had just said, as it appeared Taurus was as well. “Wait, you’re telling me they like each other?”

 “Taurus, you have to pay attention. Jason is not subtle. At all.”

 “I am confused. You said that Jason and Enara like each other. The word like means to enjoy or to please, correct?” Uhris nodded slowly, “Does this mean that they do not enjoy or find you pleasing?”

 “No. They do. It’s just, well, hmm. I guess what it means in this case is that they see each other in a special way. Erm, I’m not sure that’s exactly it. Hold on. Hey Anne!” He shouted across the lounge to the short blonde. “I need your help.”

She finished her conversation quickly and walked over. “Don’t you ever. What’s up?”

“So Jason and Enara like each other, obviously. And the lieutenant asked me what was happening to them and I don’t know how to explain what it means to like someone.”

 Anne grinned, “I see. Well Lieutenant, the word ‘like’ usually is used to mean similar. One might say your carapace is like the ones on some creatures on Earth. Most of the time when people use it though, they use it just to fill in gaps in conversations when they are unsure of what to say or to show that they find something pleasing or attractive. However, in this case, ‘like’ means that you have particular feelings of attraction to that person beyond just finding them attractive in some way, or seeing them as a suitable mate.”

 Taurus looked at her like she had just laughed some drink up through her nose. “That’s what you think it means to like someone. That’s cold. Whenever I see the person I like I actually almost feel sick ‘cause I’m so nervous.”

 He looked up from his folded hands to hear Tygeria making a clicking noise which signaled confusion. “I do not understand, if you ‘like’ this person, why should that make you nervous?”

 Taurus laughed, “We humans are known to be incredibly strong, almost invincible, and we usually are, but when it comes to the matters of the heart...” He trailed off, then continued, “Not our actual hearts. Sometimes that means the things we hold dear or make up our personality. And the girl or boy or whoever you’re into makes you nervous because a lot of who you are has to do with how you feel about that person. And if you don’t know if they like you back, well, it can be really painful for humans if the person they love doesn’t feel the same way.” he shrugged, “Some people have killed themselves over ‘unrequited love,’ as they say, and others just move on. Most of the time it hurts, but honestly we’re used to it, for the most part anyway. And some humans, they just don’t feel anything at all. It kinda just depends on the person.”

 “If these feelings can be painful, why keep them around? Why not just abondon them all together?” Tygeria asked. To her it seemed the most logical thing to do.

 Taurus shrugged. “Well, there’s a human saying: ‘nothing good comes easy.’ I guess it means that everything comes at a cost, sometimes it’s just time, sometimes it’s a lot of pain. But we don’t suffer for something we don’t love, something we don’t find beautiful. In the end those things we love are worth so much more than the pain that we’re willing to suffer a little for something greater. Emotions are what make us human, and I don’t know if we’d be able to function without them.” The other humans nodded in agreement.

I’ve really been getting into this “humans are space orcs” thing, but i was thinking, what if they’re these little immortals, but they also got magic. i thought that’d be pretty dope so i might start writing some stuff that has to do with some stories about that kind of story. 

Tygeria had heard of the death planet and of its inhabitants before, but she had never before seen one, and now they stood before her. The tall vatuan towered over the humans, small as they were. All five of them seemed rather frail, what with their lack of scales or fur or any kind of protective outer layers. She double checked to make sure her universal translator was on and greeted them. “Welcome aboard the VIV Narrtor, I am Lieutenant Azzaz Tygeria. I understand that this is your first off-Earth assignment, so do not be timid to ask questions about the various species acting aboard the ship.”

The middle human stepped forward. “Well met Lieutenant. I  am Jason, this” he began pointing to his companions, “is Enara. He is Taurus; he Uhris; and she Anne. We thank you for your understanding; however we took courses to educated ourselves in the various practices and habits of the races we shall be serving with, so we should be okay for the most part, but thank you nonetheless.”

Tygeria hummed her acknowdgement. She had expecting nothing less, but she still had to keep up with the formalities. “Very good then. Follow me and I’ll take you to your bunks.” The humans shouldered their packs and picked up their bags. Inwardly she was a bit disappointed, all the stories she had heard made the humans out to be these invincible, insane monstrosities capable of leveling armies single-handedly, but all she could see was the plushiness of their outer layers.

They arrived at the room with the three two person bunks and turned to the humans. “You all may choose whatever bunk you wish.” The humans immediately claimed their own bunks. After storing their gear in their footlockers and lockers they stood in a somewhat uncomfortable silence. Then the blonde female motioned the male Jason over and whispered something in his ear. His lips lifted a slight amount and he addressed Tygeria. “Ma’am we would like to request an extra blanket and some cord.”

Tygeria contracted her pupils. “For what reason?”

“For, uh, privacy.” He explained at her silence, “Humans sometimes consider it inappropriate for the sexes to see each other at specific times, mostly when changing garments or bathing.”

Tygeria hummed in response, “Granted. I had forgotten that the human species divides its sexes. Very well, I shall send someone over with the requested items.” Jason expressed his thanks as she turned to leave. When she had walked no more than a few vads she heard a scream and and a lower more throaty repeating rhythm. She quickly reentered the room. “What happened?”

Taurus barred his teeth, then quickly removed the aggresive sign, which was contrary to the mirth she detected in his voice. “It was just a spider that ran out of Enara’s backpack. Nothing to worry about.”

Tygeria huffed in curiousity, then once again left the room. It’s going to be a long journey. She thought, hoping none of the telepaths had heard her.

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Just a few definitions if anyone cares

VIV - Vartuan Imperial Vessel (comparable to something like USS)

vartuan - a bipedal exoskeletal alien, roughly 8.5 feet (2.6 meters) tall 

NASA’s 60th Anniversary: Humans in Space

It is part of the human spirit to explore. During 60 years, we have selected 350 people as astronauts to lead the way. For nearly two decades, humans have been living and working aboard the International Space Station in low-Earth orbit to enable future missions forward to the Moon and on to Mars while also leading discoveries that improve life on Earth. Since we opened for business on Oct. 1, 1958, our history tells a story of exploration, innovation and discoveries. The next 60 years, that story continues. Learn more: https://www.nasa.gov/60