[Memory Transcription Subject]: Kikka, Venlil exchange Student, University of Colia Arts and Sciences.

  Date [Standardized Human Time]: January 19, 2132.

  I gazed around the large auditorium that I was in. It was sparsely packed. Seven seats were occupied in a lecture hall clearly designed with hundreds in mind. All sitting far away from me though I didn’t mind as I was the only one enrolled here for pleasure.

  The first day of Predator Morphology held introductions, they went about as well as I expected. The seven other students were here to learn what they could so they could use that knowledge to set which they misunderstood on fire.

  Junior Exterminators.

  I cared none that I didn’t have any friends at this university. Being a loner usually gets you flagged for predator disease but being the daughter of a high ranking politician has its perks. I knew I was lucky. I couldn’t be more grateful to have such a father! It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy being around people, it was that few, I knew, shared my passion. My passion being Predators! Not the big and scary, in your face, queens of drama found in the Nature of Predators franchise, my passion lay with the real ones.

  It was fortunate that The Nature of Predators series kept carnivores in the public opinion, as too did the second most popular show in federation history, The Exterminators. The fact that the two most popular, long standing, works of fiction in federation history had to do with predators told me that many more people were curious about them than they let on. They’d always be in our minds in some capacity. They were the others, our opposites. The ever nagging question, are we truly alone out here in the cosmos, would never dissipate.

  I wanted to study them in the wilds. I wanted to crawl through the dirt and see them in action. I wanted to see what was behind those eyes. Maybe somewhere out there, in a far away galaxy, a predator was sitting in a lecture hall much like this one and they were wondering the same about what went on between ours.

  The only ones close enough to this line of work were the exterminators, though you could hardly call what they did in the field a science. No questions, just burn it all and make wild speculations after.

  Maybe I could go on to become prominent enough to change the overall public opinion of them, like the renowned Ms. Kaperti with her works such as Through the Eyes of the Flesh Eaters. She was the first to actually study them and made monumental breakthroughs. She coined the controversial terms ‘carnivore’ and herbivore’. She created a classification system of which predators were most to least dangerous. She was the mastermind behind the list of tolerated predators throughout federation space. Now here I was, privileged enough to be sitting in her very lecture hall. I watched as she began gathering her papers at the front of the room, readying herself for today's lesson. Being famed for her decades of service in the exterminator guild was how she avoided being mocked and ridiculed for her advancements.

  Most would scoff at the idea of being curious of a feral carnivore, I didn’t care. I had one!

  The sweetest little fluff ball I’ve ever held was waiting for me back home, Siffy! He brought me companionship during lonely school years. Greeted me at home when no one wanted to do homework with me and dad was away on diplomatic business. He opened up a new world to me. To see a predator in action. This monstrosity, would snuggle up to me during cold nights. Comforted me during my anxiety spells. Nuzzled me when no one would hug me.

  My mind wandered off, bringing back memories of lonely nights cuddled up with Siffy.

  They are sweet, they are soft…

  …we can be friends…

  “No no no, there will be none of that!” Came Ms. Kaperti as she interrupted my thoughts. The ancient Fissan was tapping her cane on the desk of a snoozing student. “Today we have something exciting in store, I hope you’ll find today's lecture most fascinating!”

  I sat upright in my seat, her lectures were always exciting to me, earning the ire of my fellow classmates. Proper preyfolk weren't supposed to be excited about this subject but considering that this opinion originated from the junior exterminators in my company, I elected to ignore that position.

  Breath easy Kikka.

  Tail! Cease your swishing!

  “Today we will be looking at—,” Ms. Kaperti trailed off as she flickered the massive protector in front of us with her remote, “eyes!” She cried as a collage of various eyeballs lit up the screen.

  Tail, I said cease!

  “Now this lecture will be an introduction into this specific field of study, an overgeneralization. We will go into more depth as the week progresses.” She continued. “Evolution has produced a myriad of eyes as well as pupil variants, much too many to cover in one sitting, so today we will only cover the most important ones and what they mean.”

  With a flick of her wrist the projector lit up again, this time displaying only six images of eyes, the latter two caught my attention.

  “Now, there may be a multitude of variants out there but to consolidate this overview these are the six types you should make yourselves most familiar with.” She pointed her cane skyward toward the furthest image. “First is the compound eye, then you have the pseudo pupil, horizontal pupil, crescent pupil, here is the vertical slit pupil and lastly, the round pupil. For today, this is all you need to know.”

  I watched the juniors writhe in their seats as she sounded off the latter two.

  Ametures!

  “Firstly, I’ll start off with the familiar.” She turned around and the screen flickered again to a new image. “Horizontal pupils!” She commenced with a grin.

  Ugh!…

  Her lecture continued, enthusiastic as always yet I found myself out of focus. Not only was I aware that nothing she was saying would be on any exams as this was a predatorology course, I also knew that she was starting the lecture this way to ease any nervous students into the topic.

  “Now up next won’t be so much about pupils as it will be the eyes themselves. Here are two eyes that you may or may not recognize. They are primarily found in insectoid species.” She continued though my ears lay droop in boredom. I began doodling away in my notepad.

  “Pseudo pupil eyes are found in species such as the Rolo and the Grunn.” She lectured on. “If you’ve never heard of these two peoples I can hardly blame you.” Her voice grew fainter as my attention drifted back toward my notepad which had began to rapidly fill up with sketches.

  “Next are compound eyes.” She began again. “You should be more familiar with them if you’ve ever encountered the Tilfish.”

  As she continued this day's lesson my thoughts stayed behind, wondering how Siffy was faring without me around. Dad promised to keep an eye on him while I was away. I didn’t doubt his babysitting skills though the thought of the little slinky fuzzball being alone or scared, wondering where I was, still gnawed away at me.

  The projector flashed again, pulling me out of my musings, this time displaying a very familiar pair of eyes. A pair of eyes that brought me comfort. A pair of eyes that made me long to return home and snuggle my Zairigut more than I dared to admit.

  “Now we move onto the core area of this lesson. Pay attention!” She snapped at the juniors who had begun quietly chatting amongst themselves. “What you see from here on out is subject to be on exams.” She said while facing a stern glare toward them before calmly turning her gaze back toward the projector. “Starting off with vertical slit pupils.”

  This is where the fun begins!

  “I’m sure most everyone here is familiar with The Nature of Predators series.” She said dryly. There were a few snickers from the gaggle of soon to be exterminators. “I’ll take that as a yes. That series would have you believe that the most dangerous predator would have vertical slits for pupils. The show The Exterminators continues to carry this misconception as well. For many people, those slit pupils are the icon of evil, the symbolism of death itself. But those eyes are not the ones you should fear, oh no!” She finished with a gentle yet foreboding hum.

  “These eyes are often found on the smaller and weaker predators. These are the eyes of nocturnal predators. Ambush predators. These are the beasts that stalk those that lag behind. The ones that can and do sit still for days until their quarry practically walks into their mouth. The ones who sit just below the murky waterline to snatch up any looking for a drink. Creatures associated with these eyes are often solitary, which in turn usually means they’re lacking in intelligence. More often than not they’re instinctual rather than cunning.”

  Well that doesn’t align with Siffy at all. Zariguts must be an outlier.

  “The ones you should really be worried about, the true apex,” she trailed off as she pointed her remote back to the projector, “are these!”

  Before us a ghostly manifestation appeared. On screen was an upclose photo of a single eye with a sharp round pupil surrounded by an icy sclera, staring directly at us.

  “Round pupils! These are the eyes that belong to diurnal predators who run their prey down out in the open. They don’t have the best night vision but they don’t have to as they have no reason to hide. They don’t have the best periphery but again, they do not have to as they’ve nothing to fear. These are the big ones, the loud ones, the proud ones. If you see these eyes you’re seeing the top of the food chain. They’re highly intelligent and often of the social variety. They frequently coordinate in troops, prides and packs. On a few occasions they’ve even been observed cooperating with other species on their hunts! Someone tell me, what is that called?”

  “Symbiosis!” I shouted out of my excitement before placing my paw before my mouth.

  “Correct Ms. Kikka!” She answered as the junior exterminators began snickering at my enthusiasm.

  “Symbiosis.” She said low and menacingly as she slowly paced over to the juniors. She rested her chin on her cane as she leaned in close to them. I took pleasure watching a few of them squirm as their fit of giggles stopped. “Or to be specific, mutualism.” She spoke, continuing her glare at them. “These predators do not care if they get spotted, they don’t hide,” she trailed off as she leaned back and pointed her cane at what was once the loudest of the bunch, “because you won’t be able to run!”

  She slowly retreated back to her podium, taking in a deep breath while doing so. “It is theorized that should we find intelligent predatory life, it will be of this variety. And let me tell you, these eyes will see you, long before you see them.”

  A knot grew in my stomach, knowing this may be my only chance to ask the one and only Ms. Kaperti a question that had nagged me for many years.

  “Do you actually think that one day we may encounter a race of sapient predator?” I asked with my paw raised.

  She looked at me with a pondering expression as an enthusiastic grin slowly spread itself across her face.

  “To answer your question as honestly as I can Ms. Kikka, I don’t know.” My excitement was officially quelled as I slumped back down in my seat. “But I will say this, as you all may know, in order for a species to achieve sapience, said species must pass a series of ‘hard steps’. Is everyone here familiar with the hard steps model?” After a nod from me and the group of junior exterminators, she cleared her throat. “Well then, from all my years of experience, it seems that predatory species’ have far more of these hard steps to overcome than prey ones, thus if they don’t already exist, one day they will.” She stated matter of factly. “They just haven’t had enough time to evolve yet. Soon, and I mean soon on an evolutionary time scale, we may witness a renaissance of new species’ entering onto the galactic stage, and I do believe that they may very well be of the predatory variety. If my theory is correct, I do hope we’ll be ready by then, because we are not ready now.”

  “Ms. Kaperti, I’m not sure I follow.” Announced one of the juniors. “Are you saying that one day there could be hundreds of predatory sapient species out there? What you’re saying sounds very reminiscent of a particular dissident talking poin—“

  “I’m not saying anything!” She loudly interrupted as she firmly stamped her cane upon the ground. “I’m merely rehearsing my theory.” She allowed a brief yet uncomfortable silence to linger. “Predatory species may simply need more time than we do to evolve self awareness. If this is true then yes, one day we may see predatory species’ popping up everywhere across the galaxy.” She looked behind her shoulder at the projection of predatory eyes on screen. “Our kin was simply the first. One day we may find that we aren’t alone out here. What are you going to do when those eyes are staring at you and you realize that there is a higher intelligence behind them?”

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Her answer was met with a series of uncomfortable shuffling from the juniors that put a merry wag in my tail. “M-Ms. Kaperti,” began another of them sheepishly, “erm, I t-think it’s a-about time to…” he trailed off before she interrupted.

  “Oh my, of course! I’ve lost track of the time. You all are dismissed. See you all tomorrow and don’t forget—“ she stopped herself once she noticed that all of the juniors had already hurried themselves out of her lecture hall. “And don’t forget about pseudo pupils, those are going to be on the exam too you bunch of useless pricks.” She finished with a bitter huff.

  Quietly, I packed my belongings in the now quiet auditorium and made my way down the ramp. Not at all eager to sit through my upcoming botany course but I didn’t want to disturb an already disturbed Ms. Kaperti.

  “Ms. Kikka, in a hurry for your next course?”

  The Ms. Kaperti is speaking to me! Stay calm!

  “No! Not At All!!” I bleated.

  I said stay calm!

  “Excellent, do you have a moment?” She asked.

  “Y-yes ma’am!”

  After a light series of chuckles, she resumed. “Calm down kid,” she grinned, “it’s just so nice to meet others who—“ she trailed off, bobbing her head as she selected her next choice of words carefully, “—it’s so nice to meet people who… get it”. She finished with emphasis.

  I couldn’t formulate any cohesive words and not wanting my excitement to consume me further, I made my way toward her desk. Placing my bag down on her table, I pulled out a copy of a book that I wouldn’t dare leave behind. I put it in front of her.

  “Ah, The Tolerated Predators of Federation Space, that old work of mine.” She continued as she picked it up for closer inspection. “If you’d like, I can get you a better version. The original, before the censorship office got it. Those Kolshians squirted their filthy ink all over it, redacted nearly half of it.”

  “You’d do that for me?” I could barely contain my pooling energy!

  “Of course, I’ll also get you the original copy of Through the Eyes of the Flesh Eaters. You know that title wasn’t my making? Half of that book had to be rewritten, censors said I spent too much time painting predators in a positive light, to their credit, that was the point.” She finished with an exhausted huff.

  “Care to have a seat?” She asked as she fetched a foldable chair from beneath her desk and sat it across from her.

  My mouth became dry and my paws began to tremble as I made my way to the seat, now thankful as my legs were beginning to wobble.

  Calm down.—

  “Ms. Kikka?” She hummed. “Don’t forget to breathe.” She said as I suddenly became aware that I wasn’t.

  I let in a sharp inhale as my lightheadedness immediately began to subside.

  One two— one two— one two—

  “Feeling better?” She laughed as I fell into my seat across from her.

  “Yes! Thank you!”

  “Don’t worry, I’m not reporting you.” She began with an amused smirk. She placed her paw on mine. “Some of us just have certain ticks. Certain quirks. Some of us respond differently to specific stimuli. If you were a fedbrain, like I was, you’d dub it predator disease.” She stared at the floor for a moment as if lost in her thoughts before she visibly shook them from her head. “But that is neither here nor there. It made me who I am now.” She continued with much more cheer.

  “So tell me,” she began anew, “what is Velinek’s daughter doing in my class room? You don’t look or act like you’re wanting to join the exterminators.”

  “Quite the opposite actually. I read all of your works.” I said as I gestured to the book in front of her. “It inspired me, it inspired others. I-it–” I stopped myself as I decided an explanation wouldn’t do justice when a picture would work better. Quickly, I reached for my holopad, presenting her a picture of me, dad, and Siffy.

  “Ah a Zairigut! The speedy thieves!” She chuckled. “Took a lot of time to get them added to the list of tolerated predators. You know in order for that to be achieved I have to prove that they’re not even a threat to a Dossur. You’ve any idea of how awkward an experiment that is?”

  “Without you we wouldn’t even have a list at all. The concept of tolerated predators was all your work!” I said excitedly.

  “That wasn’t easy girl.” She said sounding exhausted as if her eighty-six years of age suddenly caught up to her. “I had to disguise it as a means to ‘save the guild money’. Just over forty years in the exterminator guild gets people to overlook a lot of things for you. You know I started when I was twelve?”

  “I guess that’s the big question I’d like to ask.” I began. “Why did you quit the guild and become what you became?”

  “You know,” she said as her gaze wandered off, “most exterminators stop all field work once they get promoted to City Overseer? I didn’t. I didn’t stop going out into the field, with the grunts, when I was promoted to Regional Overseer. Nor when I was promoted to Planarary Overseer. Nor when I was promoted to System Overseer. Nor when I was promoted to Sector Overseer.”

  A lengthy silence enveloped us both and she held her head down as if in atonement. I decided to break the silence.

  “What made you retire and become the first household name to want to study them instead of eradicate them?”

  She lifted her head to look at me, taking in a deep breath while doing so. “One day I had simply decided that I had seen enough. I had seen more than any other exterminator. I retired with full honors, televised ceremony and all, they even got me one of those giant fancy cakes, yet I wasn’t happy during any of it.”

  She allowed the silence to drift on, just enough time for her words to weigh on me.

  “I don’t get many like you in here.” She began again. “Not that people aren’t interested, it’s just those that I do, quickly get bullied away by the exterminators. Threats of predator disease and all. So I’ll ask you again, what is Velinek’s daughter doing in my lecture hall?”

  “I want to study them too. I want to bring awareness of them to the public. I—“ I began to say but a burning lump in my throat caused me to hesitate. “I want us to stop hurting them!” I nearly shouted.

  “So,” Ms. Kaperti started to say as she leaned in close with a soothing gentleness about her. “You do get it.”

  She leaned back in her chair, opening her desk. She retrieved a small wooden box, placing a key into it to open. “I had hoped you would.” She told me. “I don’t give this to just anyone.” She pulled out a small card from the wooden box and placed it into my paw before taking a gentle yet firm hold of me.

  “Don’t you tell a soul, not even your father.” She said. “If you must get rid of it, burn it, do not throw it away or the both of us are going to disappear.”

  “What is this?” I asked.

  “A secret society… of sorts.” Was her answer.

  I held the card up to read.

  Hmm, a date, a time, and an address.

  There was another word written at the bottom, though I had no idea what it meant.

  —Skalga—.

  “What does Skalga mean?” I asked.

  “The password. Now, if I’m not mistaken, you’re almost late for your botany class!” She said with sarcastic cheer.

  “Yay, botany.” I replied with an equal amount of dry sarcasm.

  “Take care Kikka, I hope to see you there!”

  “I won’t miss it!” I replied as I turned to head out of her hall. I took one final look at the card before tucking it away, noticing a curious symbol on the back. A series of chains linking together.

  —————————————————————

  [Memory Transcription Subject]: Governor Velinek of the Venlil Republic.

  Date [Standardised Human Time]: July 12, 2136

  “I am still alive you damned Skuggle brained fools! I know you’re watching! Don’t just leave me out here!”

  The three of us watched the television in horror as my computer technician Jisu, was being verbally mauled to death by a horde of journalists.

  “Well,” Anna began, I could hear the nervousness in her voice and I grew concerned over the well-being of my newest friend, “it looks like we’ve brought quite the crowd. We didn’t mean to cause such a disturbance! I-if it helps, we could leave! Set up communications some other way maybe?”

  “What? No!” I said with alarm. “You’ve been nothing but the most gracious of guests, it should be me apologizing to you for my people’s behavior!”

  As I finished, Kikka lunged herself at the Human engineer. “Please don’t go!” She begged, “I’ve always dreamed of meeting you!” She pressed her face further into Anna’s garments as she returned the gesture with a hug.

  Their nurturing nature is undeniable. Their concern for others is nothing like I could have imagined.

  “Alright you adorable charcoal fuzzball!” Anna said as she began petting my daughter's wool. “I’m not going anywhere.” She continued as I notice her demeanor calm considerably. “Regardless, I do hope Ezra and Vekiah return soon with that speech, that crowd is only going to grow.”

  “Yes,” I agreed, “it’s looking like the Sivkit Grand Horde out there!”

  “Something else our people should be concerned about?” She asked, still in an embrace with my daughter.

  “What? Sivkits?” I queried. “No.”

  “Ooh, yes! Tell her about the Sivkits dad!”

  “Yeah, tell us about the Sivkits dad!” Anna copied with a gentle laugh.

  “Well alright, I suppose we have enough time for one more story.” I said as the three of us took our seats once more.

  “Allegedly”, I began with emphasis in the hopes that she would understand that everything I was about to say was nothing more than ancient myth and legend. “The Sivkits were the first race that the Kolshians and Farsul uplifted. They gave them medicine, technology, democracy, and eventually the keys to the rest of the galaxy.”

  “I still have some strong opinions about this whole uplift system,” Anna said, “but I’ll save them for another day.”

  “Well I’d love to hear your thoughts!” I said enthusiastically.

  I wonder what they think of such a noble cause!

  “Anyway,” I began again, “the Sivkits spread themselves amongst the stars and began multiplying… and multiplying and multiplying and multiplying.”

  I paused to allow her time to grasp what I was conveying. Judging by the look of concern on her face, she was understanding.

  “Eventually, they grew tired of taking unclaimed worlds and they set themselves upon the worlds of the other first uplifts.”

  “It was madness!” My daughter interjected.

  “Lo, it was chaos!” I said, now feeling in quite the dramatic spirit. I stood up to add excitement to the story.

  “Taking entire populations and slaughtering them, turning their corpses into their compost! Saturating their newly conquered soil with the blood of their enemies to fertilize the lands! Enslaving entire planets to till their crops until the day they perished!”

  “It was barbaric!” My daughter interjected again. I noticed a look of enthusiasm on her face.

  “It were savagery made manifest!” I replied.

  “It was diabolical!” She said.

  “It was,” I trailed off, “just a story.”

  After a lengthy pause as me and my daughter caught our breath, Anna spoke up. “Well don’t leave us hanging, what happened next?”

  “Well that’s where the stories officially end.” I answered to her disappointment.

  “Just stories eh?” Questioned Anna. “Well, what do *you* make of them? Did they even exist?”

  “It is far more likely that they do indeed exist however anything you hear about them, I’d take with a hearty helping of doubt.” I replied but I noticed this didn’t satiate Anna’s curiosity.

  “My theory,” I began, “is that they were indeed one of the first uplifts. They likely started over stepping their bounds and became a problem for the Kolshians and the rest of the tiny, fledgling federation. My guess is that they were kicked out and barred entry into federation territory.”

  “Dad,” Kikka began with annoyance, “you skipped the part about where they destroyed their own homeworld!”

  Suddenly, the three of us were interrupted by a very loud, unignorable commotion echoing from down the hall.

  Ugh…

  My cabinet…

  “Okay,” Anna began softly, “I’m sorry if this sounds rude but I have to ask, what’s the matter with your, erm, staff?”

  I took a long inhale as I started rubbing the space between my eyes. “Unfortunately, my approval rating was absolutely abysmal with the predator diseased of my population so, for better prospects next election cycle, I decided to put a good many of them in my cabinet. A little too many.”

  “Right, predator disease.” Anna stated as the three of us stood up and made our way down the hall in the direction of the commotion. “That’s another thing I have some opinions about but I’ll leave that for another erm— paw?”

  “You’re learning!” I chuckled.

  “I thought it was, at the least, looked down upon?” Anna questioned.

  “Ehh, it’s not so cut and dry in this region.” I answered.

  “Cut and dry?” She questioned, her voice oozing with sarcasm. “That’s rather predatory of you Vel!”

  “Guess I’ve already been around you for too long.” I finished with a bap of my tail on her back.

  —?BANG!—

  Our trio jumped at the sudden sound of an explosive. Quickly, we raced down the hallway until we reached the chambers of its source. Inside I could hear a plethora of curses and fits of coughing. Brushing the doors aside we made our way in to find a room filled with smoke and soot.

  In the far corner of the room, I identified a pillow fort furnished with my lavish, and rather expensive, Duerten upholstery. In the opposite, I noticed an unrecognizable individual who was bound and gagged with duct tape, and another who was taped to the wall.

  The sprinkler system of the room had started to spray as more familiar figures started to emerge from underneath couch cushions upon the floor, some of which were brandishing table legs and pottery as impromptu weaponry.

  I heard a series of muffled shouts coming from above me only to find my trade minister hanging from the chandelier and—

  —my military advisor holding the pin of a grenade in his paws.

  “It was just a flash-bang you big babies!” He shouted.

  I felt myself become lightheaded from fury as I strode my way to the center of the room, wiping my face in lieu of the fire systems down poor. I pointed at the ground before my feet.

  “Everyone! School circle! Now!”