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Pet woke up to the sound of alarms. Though alarms were common on the ship, this one was new. She tilted her head and listened. The slight variations were difficult to hear because her ears were not designed for the sounds. But she realized that the alarms were warning about intruders.
Pet looked for Queen, but Queen wasn’t there. That was scary. Pet always felt better when Queen was around. She climbed out of the cocoon that she slept in and stumbled out of the room. A group of Them marched along the corridor. They ignored her as They followed Queen’s instructions.
Pet followed behind Them until They turned a corner and headed down a corridor. That was towards the feeding pens. Pet didn’t like the feeding pens. The Kine didn’t like Pet. They resented Pet for being Pet and not Kine. The only time Pet went down to the feeding pens was when Queen was hungry and took her with her.
Pet was going to head down the opposing corridor, to where Queen commands from, but strange sounds came from the feeding pens. The sounds were like small explosions. But there were so many. Hundreds of tiny explosions. Pet had never heard anything like that before.
They were firing stunners into the feeding pens. Pet believed she understood. The Kine must have gotten out of their cocoons. The explosions got louder and closer. Pet watched in Horror as They were hit by things moving too fast for Pet to see. One of Them fell backwards and Pet could see holes in Their chest, the dark black blood of Them oozed out.
They were dead, Pet realized. The Kine killed them. Pet knew about death. They killed Kine all the time, but she had never seen Kine kill Them.
Kine stepped out of the darkness of the feeding pens. One of them was an average sized male, but the other was an enormous male. Pet stepped backwards, afraid they would kill her. The giant one pointed a strange thing at her chest, but the other held up one hand. He also held a strange thing, but his was larger and was held by two hands.
“Are you okay?” The first one asked Pet.
The words didn’t make sense to Pet. The Kine killed Them in front of her, but then ask if she was okay? Pet turned to run, and saw that behind her, Blade Ironthorne and more of Them were coming from the other direction.
Pet didn’t like Blade Ironthorne. He was mean to Pet. If Queen didn’t keep Pet, Ironthorne would have fed on her. He often made a point to compare Pet to the Kine. Pet knew she used to be Kine, but that was a long time ago.
Still, with the Kine killing Them, Blade Ironthorne was a welcome sight. Pet knelt down and out of the way as Blade Ironthorne fired his stunner at the Kine. It hit the large Kine, but, to Pet’s surprise, it didn’t seem to work on him. The two Kine pointed the things at Blade Ironthorne and Them and then there was the sound of more explosions. Pet covered her ears and tried to block out the noise.
Blade Ironthorne stumbled backwards, but he didn’t fall to the ground to Pet’s relief. They were moving forward, covering the ground faster than the Kine could kill them.
Pet let out a scream as a hand gripped her arm and pull her. One of the Kine gripped her and was pulling her backwards. She tried to break free, but the grip was too strong. Pet was shoved back behind the Kine into a group of other confused Kine. Pet was afraid that they were going to hurt her, but all the Kine were confused. Except two more. A young woman was holding a thing like the first Kine. Her eyes were fierce. They reminded Pet of Queen’s eyes. The fourth was a Kine that reeked of fear. Despite that, he was holding a strange device to the side of the door.
“I need that door open McKay!” Screamed the first Kine.
“I need a moment!”
“We don’t have a moment!”
He didn’t respond to that, but worked on the door. A moment later it opened. Pet tried to push away from the herd, but was surrounded on all sides. With no other options, she followed the herd.
She followed to the ship bay. The Kine that was called McKay pressed a button that caused a ship to appear from nowhere. It wasn’t like any ship she had seen before. It was like a cuboid, long and gray. A door in the back was opened and the herd pushed inside at the fierce eyed Kine woman’s insistence.
Pet did her best to break away from the herd, but couldn’t. She was forced inside. There was confusion as the Kine panicked, but after a moment, she felt the ship move. She looked towards the front of the ship and realized they were taking her from her home. She looked out and saw the endless expanse of stars. It didn’t take long for the ship to come upon the Portal. It lit up as the ship activated it and moments later, Pet plunged through the Portal.
She was lost.