A HFY (Humans, Fuck Yeah!) universe story.
Foreword
This was originally a vanilla sci-fi short that I figured needed a few 'kinks' ironed out so to speak, so here it is in the land of Lit. It's a quick read and a wee bit more expositional than I like, but that's HFY for you.
If you're in the mood for a by-the-numbers happy ending, this probably won't hit the spot for you, sorry. It's more about engaging the imagination around what doesn't happen, rather than writing about what does.
.
Chapter One
It was dark in Ciara's cell. She'd been isolated, prodded, poked and examined, intimidated and erratically interrogated for days. She could only assume the same fate had befallen her team.
Her directive had been a simple one; to discuss the terms of surrender. The Jilkarans had recently breached Federation space and made their presence known. First contact should have heralded the dawn of enlightenment and mutual celebration, but instead it seemed like the last days of civilisation.
The incomprehensible scale of the Jilkaran dreadnought was a thousand years beyond anything humanity could presently muster. It was so vast that the engineers had conjectured an entire solar system must have been strip mined to build it.
It had become clear from the outset that her hosts were of the cruel and ruthless kind that would neither give quarter nor concession. There were a lot of reasons for hopelessness, and the seemingly inevitable demise of the 2nd Federation, and humanity's subjugation.
Despite the situation, Ciara wasn't fully convinced the wheel of fate was about to dump them into the fire. If humanity's brief but 'stellar' spacefaring history was anything to go by, literally anything was possible.
The cell lights flickered on in advance of another interrogation. She smiled to herself; the more observation sessions they inadvertently provided her with, the greater her knowledge of them became.
The cell itself was bare, with nothing but padded white walls, a toilet and a raised bed unit that happened to be a pretty good fit for humans. A Jilkaran entered through the door, having to angle itself to comfortably fit through. She spied several more waiting outside.
Ciara had long-since figured out the dreadnought wasn't theirs. Not only were the doorways and passageways too tall, they generally weren't wide enough either. Their crude line of questioning and obsessive probing revealed they knew nothing about mankind, contrary to their aggressive despatch that had culminated in her mission. They clearly weren't too bright either, and didn't behave like the military, or anything close. It was why she had hope.
"Hoomun get up," it said gruffly though the translator unit.
She stood and remained impassive as she eyed the creature. She hadn't seen this one before, although at first glance they all looked the same. It was greener that the others for a start, and the multitude of horn spurs covering its head were wilder and ill maintained. Horn-care was definitely a 'thing' with these reptilian-like creatures, and this one was clearly making a statement. Not only that, it smelled different. Something... something more sexual.
Ah,
she wondered, still in the dark about their gender,
maybe these things go into season? Is this one female?
The creature squinted its ruby-red eyes, clearly not enjoying the room's brightness. It presented her with a hand shackle, which was like a long bar. Ciara obliged, and felt it size and then seal around her wrists with a slight hiss.
"Come," it ordered, turned, and exited.
The moment of truth,
she thought, and followed it outside.
Two more Jilkarans waited to escort her. They prodded her forwards, and she recognised both of them from the various haphazard interactions over the last week. In a fair fight, she figured a Jilkaran would beat most guys pretty handily.
But,
as she reminded herself,
this clearly isn't a fair fight.
Although relatively short, her time in captivity had enabled her to form a working baseline regarding their body language and tells. Her one regret was that she hadn't been interred for longer, especially since meeting this new alien.
She looked down the length of the corridor and was relieved to see the rest of her team being pulled from their cells.
"Forwards!" barked the creature.
She walked. The ship's lack of integral conveyance systems were conspicuous by their absence, a fact that had set her mind running when she'd been originally detained. Given the vastness of the ship, something was clearly amiss.
She walked some more. Then there was the fact the Jilkaran's hadn't improvised any solutions, which was also very telling, and gave her more confidence than the situation otherwise merited.
Twenty silent minutes later they reached an elevator chute, having failed to encounter a single crewmember on the way. The only moment of interest was when they passed a highly sophisticated cleaning droid, which had been quite content to hum to itself and ignore them.
They stepped onto the platform and a guard punched at the wall buttons with its stubby fingers. It got it wrong, and tried again, but this time tapped with its heavy nails. The platform lifted with a 'whoosh' and accelerated to several uncomfortable G's. The Jilkaran's, being squatter, didn't seem to notice much.
Ciara dropped to her knees as safely as she could, and then sat back on her haunches, tensing her muscles to aid circulation. She carefully observed the first Jilkaran as it looked at her with alien contempt.
"Weak," it said, wriggling its body in the way she'd previously assumed to be Jilkaran laughter.
The others looked at her dismissively. One said, "Prey," but looked pained after it did so. The others turned and they shared silent glances. It spoke again, and corrected itself to, "Weak," but there was no longer any humour.
Ciara didn't know what to make of it, but clearly something deeper was going on with them.
Being at waist height finally gave her an opportunity to covertly discern gender. The greener one seemed more likely to be male despite her earlier conjecture. Its skirt, or perhaps kilt? bulged differently for starters. It was hard to say, but then she remembered Earth's reptiles were doubly blessed. She took another look, and realised it dressed to the left and right at the same time. More tellingly, it had absently brushed its hands against its crotch on several ocassions. All things pointed to it being male, but as for the others, she simply couldn't tell.
She shuddered at the thought of whatever the hell was under the fabric.
After a seeming eternity, the platform slowed to a halt. The ship was indeed vast beyond standard measure. Ciara required a few moments to gather herself, but her guards were on a different clock and dragged her to her feet, then kicked her forwards. The sudden wallop really hurt, and unbidden tears fell from her eyes.
The journey was far from over and required several additional hours of walking and chuting. Her captors didn't stop to rest or drink at any point and just kept going regardless. At no point did they encounter anyone else.
The end arrived suddenly. They'd turned into a short corridor that led to a large domed chamber. It was filled with a horde of muttering Jilkaran's and a huge central table. Relieved, Ciara didn't resist when forced into a waiting chair. The lighting was much warmer than in the rest of the ship, and she wondered if this was why they'd chosen the room.
It was the first time she'd seen more than a handful of them together. After a quick scan, she recognised several faces from earlier interactions.
