The Nature of Predators - Nova’s Children (2/?) (Patreon)

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There’s boundless playfulness within youngsters from any sapient species, but humans and Venlil are particularly high-energy. Endless afternoons in the woods were a rite of passage. With just the tiniest sliver of imagination, anything could become a fortress or moment from the past; a pillow fort against the base of a tree became the Archives, where the mischievous children would take turns storming in to find out about Skalga’s conquest. A young Ari had a replica of the UNS Odyssey, Noah’s ship, and would play “First Contact” anywhere, as Elia pretended to be terrified of him. The historical accuracy of those re-enactments left something to be desired.

The physicality of their spur-of-the-moment games sometimes shocked Tarva, while Noah saw it as kids being kids. The former governor often had to remind herself that Terrans had a much higher tolerance for violence, and that, being raised alongside a human, Elia might take on some predatory traits. As long as she wasn’t attacking anyone at school without provocation, the sparring was harmless. However, the Venlil ambassador was concerned that Ari would hurt Elia. She always was ready to jump in when the predator was playing too roughly, believing her daughter to be the more vulnerable one.

However, Tarva came to realize who was pushing the boundaries of what was physical play—and later, who was initiating the altercations—on one specific day at the park. Ari was pretending to be a Federation invader, while Elia was an ancient Skalgan trying to terrorize the human. The two had brandished sticks as swords—again, historically inaccurate to either party’s tech levels—and charged each other. However, the human child didn’t anticipate when Elia lunged at him, propelling herself forward with a powerful leap and driving her skull straight into his abdomen. At once, tears rolled down his rich, acorn-colored cheeks, dampening the skin.

Ari Williams lay writhing and screaming on the ground, and Tarva came running. Elia’s behavior was…reckless! Dangerous! Needlessly aggressive. She’d seen it with her own eyes, and she still couldn’t believe it, even as Noah came in to comfort the human child. Tarva wanted to help her youngster not to be in pain; she remembered the last time she’d seen a kid of hers wounded. Once, she would’ve been afraid of an injured predator lashing out, but that was before Elias Meier died in her arms. The duo’s mother was already thinking about how to rush Ari to the hospital, and get his wounds looked at. Doctors would later confirm what both parents had already inferred—Elia’s skull attack had broken his ribs.

“Ari? Get up, Ari!” Elia pleaded, before turning wobbly eyes at her parents. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt him!”

Tarva’s hackle fur stood upright with rage. “What were you thinking?”

“I was just playing. It felt like a normal thing to do! Is…is he going to be ok?”

Noah placed a hand on his wife’s shoulder, leveling her with a look that tried to calm her down. “Ari will be fine. He’s just in a lot of pain, and I wager I know what’s wrong with him. These things happen; it’s not your fault. I broke lots of bones when I was your age. Fell out of a tree at a friend’s birthday party, and—”

“How can you be so calm, and act like she did nothing wrong?” Tarva hissed.

“She didn’t. She doesn’t realize how strong she is, and how much more fragile humans are by comparison. I don’t think you do either, my dear. Now, Elia knows that if she kicks…or tackles…or headbutts someone with too much force, she can really hurt them. We’re taking Ari to a doctor, and we’ll all learn from this.”

“That’s all you have to say?”

“They were playing Skalgans vs the Federation. I’d say that’s pretty life accurate.”

“You and I need to have a conversation, and get on the same page, about how we stop her from being violent!”

“We want her to be her true self—not a meek Venlil. Just be more careful playing with your brother, Elia. You can do that, right?”

The little Venlil stared at Noah with earnest eyes. “Yes. I understand.”

Memory Transcription Subject: Elia Williams, Venlil Athlete

Date [standardized human time]: September 29, 2152

Ari and I hadn’t participated in any physical activities against each other in a long time, but video games were an arena where we could square off against each other without concerns. That was usually where we dashed off to when we finished our responsibilities. Tarva had reservations back when Noah imported our first game console from Earth, but my father had stood up for me—saying it wouldn’t be fair to only let Ari play it, and that simulated violence wouldn’t turn me into a monster. I loved my mother, but sometimes, she got stuck in the old Venlil ways of thinking. Hearing how racist against humans some elderly people…and even classmates were, I guess she was radically progressive for her time.

Ari’s reflexes were sharp as ever, with his binocular vision enabling him to focus on the screen with ease. I disliked how most of the Terran adventure games still used a binocular vision camera, rather than a wider point of view, even as many added SC races as character options—the Venlil and the Yotul, as the friendly races who’d fit with biped character models, being the most common inclusions. One of the few that had gotten FOV right was The Gentling: set on prehistoric Skalga, following a Venlil schoolteacher fighting a hopeless fight against the exterminators. In the final quest, the player character was doomed—the Kolshian enemy waves, though skittish and simplistic, kept coming. A battle that couldn’t be won; it’d been nicknamed the Kobayashi Maru by its cult-like fan base.

A fitting name, since there’s all sorts of crazy mods where the fight is made winnable, and even fan cutscenes.

Ari wanted to be a game developer when he grew up, and this was one of the games he always circled back to for couch co-op. I wondered why it spoke to my brother so deeply, when it was about what was done to my people—what had only been reversed just before my birth. If I had been conceived a few months earlier, I would have crooked legs, and would lack one of my fundamental senses. There would’ve been no running, the very passion that my life revolved around now; my human sibling would’ve had greater strength than me. The Federation had been afraid of us, for how we could challenge them, just like they had with the Terrans.

As my brother and I played through the final mission, which I’d seen a hundred times and gone through every path—to recognize that they all turned out the same, that none of the allies you saved along the way mattered or survived—I thought about the life we had now. The scent of the vegetable skillet Noah was cooking in the kitchen wafted to the living room; heated foods and complex dishes were the norm on Skalga these days. Predator food or not, it was undeniable humans had a way with culinary aspects. I loved the restaurants we visited on Earth, and how vibrant their culture was. With the Federation marching down on them, the Terrans won their Kobayashi Maru. Because they weren’t alone.

“So here’s something I never understood. Why does this game speak to you so much?” I asked.

“I guess I relate to how easy it is to have one life taken away from you, and be cast into something else altogether.” Ari’s eyes narrowed, before he jabbed his thumb on the pause button—wanting to fully concentrate on that impossible, meaningless fight. “Am I fully human, in the way that…others are? I visit Earth like some Yotul tourist. I know tail language, and I’m more exposed to ear flicks than Terran gestures.”

“You’re not the only human who understands that. It’s a useful diplomatic skill! Besides, how many refugees are there on Skalga?”

“Those refugees live around other humans. I don’t feel human; I never did, and that’s the problem. I didn’t see how I was different from you, but I’ve had that mirror held up in my face for years. Maybe to me, fighting to reclaim Skalga is like you, the player, fighting for something you never knew. That’s why it sticks around in my head.”

I pinned my ears back in pity. “They knew it was hopeless, and they fought anyway. Just like humanity did back at Earth, when all projections foretold certain death. Venlil stood alongside you too, because I guess we like hopeless fights.”

“Certain death…everyone thought so. You ever wonder about those ark ships? I wonder if maybe, just maybe, they feel a little less human too. They might get it. Some of them might not even remember where they come from. You know, I heard there was a speculative game coming out, where you play as an ark ship survivor.”

“Those humans truly are the Skalgans from The Gentling, except they believe Earth was killed in their impossible battle, not crippled and stolen. Let’s not get melodramatic now, pretending that’s your position.”

“Fair, fair. I can’t imagine living that, Elia. It’s hard to believe sometimes that Mom and Dad were in the middle of all that. I’m just glad we were born after the treaty.”

“And imagine if you were born before that stuff went down. Even taking out all the predator shit, we wouldn’t know about each other. You’d live on Earth and you wouldn’t know aliens exist!” I exclaimed.

“Wouldn’t that be weird? Believing that humans were the only intelligent life in all of those stars.”

Noah leaned over the top of the couch, scratching his silver hair. “I get that you guys think I’m old as dirt. But the part of my life where I didn’t know aliens existed is twice as long as the part where I have. This was my dream—humans intermingling with aliens freely, and readily—connection with the galactic community. Finding aliens changed the way we view ourselves and our place in the universe.”

Ari’s gaze shifted to his father. “In what way? Did it change what it means to be…human?”

“I don’t think so, because Ari, there’s no one definition of being human. What it did was make us decide which values and parts of humanity were most important to preserve. It puts it all in perspective when you don’t know if your entire species will survive to see the next morning. When the decisions you make can cost billions of lives. From your mother’s point of view, the Venlil were in the same boat.”

“Because you were going to eat all of them, all by yourself,” I snickered.

“Don’t laugh about that, Elia! It is funny in hindsight that Tarva wanted to surrender Skalga to an exploration ship, but what’s not funny is the number of sapients that were eaten and lived with that genuine fear. Be thankful you don’t. If you had seen the condition the cattle rescues were in, you would take it seriously. It was real for many people, for centuries.”

“I know. It’s just…hard to imagine being afraid of you.”

“Then maybe your mother’s right that I don’t discipline you enough. I came here to tell you dinner’s ready. Let’s eat.”

Tarva was serving the food quietly, with that detached expression she always had when plating meat cutlets for Ari and Noah. My mother could turn a blind eye to the humans eating it in front of her, but she couldn’t bring herself to cook it herself unless it was an absolute necessity; handling “raw flesh” and torching it to precision was better left to our father. She was usually gone at least once every few weeks, to meet with Sapient Coalition dignitaries, so we were used to being under Dad’s care for a short time. At the last meeting, it sounded like it was a continued discussion of an uncontacted species whose probes had been noticed by humans mapping the system. The Yotul Technocracy kept raising reasons why these “Bissems” shouldn’t be approached at all.

My mother joked to us about sending Noah in to give them a hug, but I hope that wasn’t the official Venlil stance to the Sapient Coalition. As long as the Terrans don’t suddenly decide to reenact The Gentling with these newbies, it should work out fine.

“I hope your practice went well today! We’re both excited to watch the big race,” Tarva said. “I have it on the calendar, just in case anything comes up with the SC—already accounted for. We’re so proud, seeing how hard you worked!”

Noah strolled over, helping her collect the plates. “It’s almost Elia’s fifteenth birthday! How does time fly by, where you’ve both almost reached adulthood? I’m certainly glad that we follow the human traditions, not the Venlil ones. I wouldn’t want to be prepping a bleach bath for such a special occasion.”

“And Elia chooses to bleach her fur on her own. Not just lightening fur a little, but dying both ears to blond last birthday. She looked ridiculous,” Ari chimed in.

“It’s not different than Yotul tail dyeing, or human dip dyeing. I liked it!”

Tarva settled down at the table, giving her vegetable plate a moment to cool off. “No, you didn’t. You just didn’t want to give me the satisfaction of saying I was right. Your father said I had to let you do it, so you could learn from your mistakes on your own.”

“Teenage years are about…experimenting. Finding yourself up. You have to fail…to try new things…discover what you like. It was harmless. I still remember not wanting anyone to tell me what to do. They said yes, I said no,” Noah countered.

“When I was a kid, Venlil who acted out would’ve been screened for predator disease. I saw classmates disappear. I wouldn’t have dared to be so contrarian. That was before I knew just how terrible the punishments truly were, and that was learned because you showed me.”

“It’s a shame you couldn’t express yourself, love. We should be glad Elia doesn’t have to live in fear, and be meek. You wanted her to be 45-G, right?”

“Of course I do. I just think we could do a little more to steer her toward good decisions. There are so many lovely things about her; I think she gets ideas from watching human recklessness.”

“And I think she gets the ideas all on her own.”

“It doesn’t matter! She endangers Ari, and she doesn’t think. Now that she’s reaching adulthood, we really won’t be able to have a say!”

I rolled my eyes the way humans did, annoyed by this latest personal attack at the dinner table—one that had devolved from genuine encouragement. I knew Mom still wanted to control me, even once I reached adulthood, and that my potential independence infuriated her. Tarva always blamed me for my rambunctiousness, acting as though I violated sacred laws for diverging from the old Venlil norms! Things were changing on Skalga, whether she liked it or not. What happened to the Governor that brought sweeping reforms and overhauls, disavowing Federation culture? Why didn’t she just birth an unmodified Venlil, gentled and rendered submissive by the Federation, if that was what she wanted?

I scowled at my mother. “Why do you care so much for humans, and make ‘exceptions’ for them, but if I’m not prim and proper—”

“Excuse me? I’d…like to say something,” Ari chimed in. “When you comment about differences in how you view humans and Venlil, it makes me feel like an outsider, an alien, in my own home. It makes me feel even more like I don’t belong. I hear enough about how we’re ‘predators’ at school.”

Tarva’s features contorted in horror, and she slapped a paw to her mouth. “I’m…I’m so sorry, Ari. I truly don’t know what comes over me sometimes, but I only want what’s best for both of you. To protect you. You are two different species, and that’s what I love about our family. You know I want to give you the life that sets you up for success, right?”

“I know I’m different. That’s why I sent in an ancestry test, to find out where I come from. My biological parents.”

Noah’s eyes widened, showing the veins in the white portion. “You did…I mean, that’s great. You should’ve told us sooner, sweetheart. You have every right to find out about your past, especially if you’re trying to fit in. That’s hard for any teenager, and our circumstances are unique.”

“I didn’t want you guys to be hurt by my decision, or to have to explain myself, especially if it didn’t bring useful results. Is…is Mom okay with this?”

“I’ll support whatever makes you happy, Ari, but I’m worried that you’re not feeling like a part of this family. You are such a…wonderful, compassionate, empathic young man,” Tarva replied. “I know it might take a little longer for you to be an adult than your sister, but we’ll be just as proud of you. I’m…grateful for a little extra time. It’s not easy to let go, and accept how you both are moving past us. You’re my life.”

The human child pushed food around with his fork, sniffling. “Yeah…I know that. I know that we have a good, privileged life because of your status. I just want to know why—if my parents didn’t want me. What my life would’ve been like otherwise…”

“There’ll always be the question of the road not taken, kiddo. We, for one, wouldn’t want any other child, not if there were a quadrillion possibilities to choose from,” Noah said. “I’ll help you track them down as best as I can. Just know nothing changes who you are, and how much we love you.”

“Yeah. I’m not hungry anymore. I’m going to my room.”

My parents and I watched with concerned eyes, as Ari sulked on his departure from the table. I hurried through my food with oversized bites, concerned that bickering with my mother had reignited my brother’s sense of isolation. It was a positive thing that Tarva and Noah knew the truth behind his strange behavior, and could chip in alongside me to help with locating his parents. I hoped that the results of the test came back with expediency, because it was clear Ari needed that information as soon as possible.

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A/N - Part 2! We glimpse the first time it became clear young Skalgans were stronger than humans, and how Elia and Ari have a gaming habit together. Tarva’s compliment devolves into chastising her daughter’s recklessness, and this causes Ari to come clean about feeling different and seeking an ancestry test. What do you think of the siblings’ dynamic, as well as their interactions with their parents? Are Noah and Tarva going to be able to help Ari find his way?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting!