Alacritous Regress

Installment 13: The Intern Dilemma

Since the beginning of sentience, there has been war and violence. It is consistent enough that xenologist have added it to the list of traits possessed by sentient races. Most of these wars and acts of violence are blamed on religion. From the wars of early Israel, to their latter persecution of Christians. The Crusades of the Catholic church, the Muslim terror strikes of the 21st century, and finally our modern Evangelist extremist. It's not just limited to Terran either; the Corins systematically killed atheist, the Avin sacrificed Pīērin to their war gods, there are still Blaits that will kill in the name of their Sun, and even the Shikes' relentless war against us is believed to be fueled by their religion. The ironic thing is, that most religions say that killing is wrong.

Religion is not a reason for war, it is an excuse for war. It's used to mask and justify the greed of people who deem themselves civilized. It's used to rationalize the death of the feared and hated. A truly skilled person though, will not just justify their hate with religion, but will also convince other to hate just the same.

These people, who at one time may have been accepting of all, could by convinced to kill without a second thought. They will have no remorse for their actions, always believing that they are in the right. They will all kill, some may rape, and the more isolated or devious will enslave.

On isolated planets throughout the ITA's territory are settlements in which laws of humanity no longer apply. Some simply exclude and forcibly remove all non-Humans. Others have created new Nears and Engeas to act as slaves. Most are relatively calm places with little actual violence towards non-Humans, turns out bioengineered slaves are not cheap. But there are other places were there's still violence. There are planets where there's still fighting between Humans and other races, such as Aker, and places that smuggle their slaves from off world, such as Saul.

The people that supply places like Saul are cruel and twisted people, not all are Human, but most are. They look to capture young Engeas, but aliens will always capture a higher price on the auction block, and of these, Blaits are the most dangerous and hard to break, making them the most valuable.

<<Kyle>>

"Kem-ika is two parsecs from the nearest Blait system and only a half parsec from the nearest ITA controlled star, which gives us jurisdiction," explains Shooting. "It was colonized by Blaits and Terrans half a Terra century ago and has maintained a roughly equal balance between the two groups." He scans the rest of the crew and stops at Tail's raised hand. "Yes, Tail," he groans.

"Can we just call the planet Kem?" she asks.

"Kem-ika is less use name of not most powerful god," Rivan explains. "Kem translates to body part specific of males."

"So were going to be calling it dick world," says Arron. "Count me in."

"Other guy part," Rivan corrects him. He stares at her with confused look.

Shooting rubs his forehead and groans. "Breast," Brian tells Arron. "Blait gender roles and dimorphism are reversed, remember."

"So we're calling is boob world. Even better!" Shooting audibly sighs before continuing with his explanation of the planet.

We're all in the ship's mess. Shooting's at the far end of the room pointing to things on the display screen. To one side of the room sits Tail and her Blait mate. Next to them, lounging on the ground, is Quick, and on the other side of the room is Blue and Arron. The two of them have been spending an odd amount of time together, but I'm not one to judge. Brian and I hover here at the back of the room.

"These six people have disappeared." Shooting points to a collection of photographs of Blaits. "All from the same area."

"Sounds like a job for the local authorities," Arron tells him.