“I don’t see what difference it makes which of these things we grabbed.”

  “The young third lieutenant seemed to think it did. Apparently he knows these two.”

  Fost curled her lip at the idea, as an exo-armoured soldier tossed the two unconscious green giants into a holding cell.

  “What even are these? They stink.”

  The scientist held up a data pad, and quickly perused it before replying.

  “Truthfully, we don’t know sir.”

  “Give me your best guess.”

  “Ah well, we think these might be an extant population of orcus, although they seem to have diverged significantly evolutionarily since the fall of the planet.”

  “I’m not familiar. I didn’t spend much time dirtside.”

  “A sort of hunter-killer chimeric organism. They were designed to put down worker revolts in the mines during the upheaval of ‘48. A one-off model, based on the common pig/human base they use for medical transplantation on worlds like this.”

  Fost leaned closer to the electrified bars of the cage, getting a better look at her prisoners.

  “Who makes a green pig?” She said, almost to herself.

  “Ah that. We haven’t had time to run a DNA analysis but based on the biopsy we took on the shuttle, it seems to be some sort of lichen growing in its skin. Likely a symbiotic organism or a generational disease. Notice how that one has more of it than the other. It’s possible that these creatures are able to photosynthesize nutrients in the sunlight.”

  “Right. Well, see if you can establish communication. And get Tirid down here, maybe his presence will make them more pliable. I want a full report by this time tomorrow.”

  “Yes Admiral.”

  Koruk stared at the box in front of him. His stomach churned. Somehow it didn’t feel like up was up, and down was down, as though there was something wrong with the ground below him. He rubbed his bare feet on the smooth, white surface of the floor, and saw his reflection in the tiles when he looked down.

  “LOOK AT BOX. PUT THING IN BOX.” A voice called out in badly formulated orcish. It seemed to be coming from some sort of hole in the wall. Koruk figured there must be someone hiding behind it. If only he wasn’t chained to this damned chair...

  Sighing, he turned his attention back to the box. It had a number of shapes cut into the top. A circle. A square. A triangle. On the table beside the box were arranged some small blocks. A circle, a square, and a triangle.

  Above him an eye stuck out of the wall. He got the impression it was watching him.

  Koruk stuck the circle into the circle hole, and the square into the square hole. He hesitated before inserting the triangle, rotating it between his thick fingers for a moment, before hurling it at the eye. It hit dead on, and the eye shattered into shards of glass, which pleased him. He noticed that not all the shards found their way back down to the floor again, but seemed to just float around weirdly.

  He was forced to endure several more pointless and humiliating tests. In one, he had to move boxes into holes in the ground. In another, he had guess which door a piece of meat would come out of, based on a pattern.

  “What is the point of this?” He asked aloud. “Did you capture me and kill my people to play games with me, Oben?”

  The hole in the wall stayed silent.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  The door opened, and a black armoured giant strode in to unlock him and take him back to his cell.

  Koruk laid down on the hard floor after he was tossed roughly back in. It had been a full week now, or near to it. It was hard to judge time in this place. He wondered where he was, and where Semthak was. He hoped Moktark was alright too, and Kiwai too for that matter.

  “I told you, they’re intelligent! You have to believe me now.”

  Fost barely glanced up from her pad to look at Oben, but made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a snort.

  “Of course they are. We wouldn’t be rounding them up alive if they weren’t.”

  “What? But then…”

  “You. Bowen was it?”

  “Yes sir. Warrant Officer Bowen, Xenobiology.”

  “Can we use them?”

  “Yes sir I believe we can. The subjects have demonstrated superior physical stamina in the adverse conditions of Grars Nel8y. I think they’d prove to be fine labourers, if we managed to subdue their latent aggression.”

  “I assume you have a way to do that?”

  “I believe a large dose of tranquilizers would suffice. They should also be fitted with a neural lockdown, for emergencies.”

  Oben looked at the faces seated in the conference room, talking calmly about the enslavement of an entire race of people as though they were deciding what flavour of nut spread they’d like on their protein bar. Much of the senior staff of the fleet had been assembled, as well as the science teams studying the orcs and other fauna from Nelby.

  “What about these alleged red skinned hominids?”

  “We’ve found no trace of them. Admittedly most of our air assets are held up in the northeastern peninsula, but the patrols we sent over the deserts found no trace of anyone, beyond a few abandoned settlements. Who knows how long those have sat empty.” A gravelly voice answered via speaker. Commander Vissald had joined the conference via vid-link, his scarred face looking bored in the monitor above the table. “All the same, with your permission I’d like to increase patrols. I don’t want to be caught be surprise if there really is an army of them hiding out there somewhere.”

  “You needn’t concern yourself with them, Commander. There’s nothing they can do against us. How goes the occupation?” Fost asked. Vissald’s eyes brightened, and he grinned at the camera.

  “We’ve encountered more resistance than expected at one of the larger settlements. They’re holding one of my teams hostage, and so far their walls are holding out against our artillery. Only a matter of time though. This seems to be the strongest group, and I figure the rest will surrender once we set an appropriate example.”

  Fost nodded, and looked at Oben with a raised eyebrow.

  “You look like you have something you want to say Third? Out with it.”

  “I just…” Oben began. A bead of sweat formed on his neck as he looked around the room at his compatriots, and it wouldn’t seem to go away. “This is in violation of the Imperial Charter of Rights, isn’t it?”

  A long silence pervaded the table, unbroken by so much as a sniffle or a cough.

  “Those laws deal with humans and imperial subjects, not aliens.” Fost said definitely, and broke eye contact. “Now then, how is the settlement construction progressing?”

  Koruk’s ears twitched as he became aware of a presence nearby. It wasn’t that he heard anything, it was more that he felt it. Like a change in the air, or a static charge like if you pet a scruffcat too much.

  He stayed very still. Something about it seemed familiar. The harsh light overhead began to annoy him, but he dared not even blink for fear of spooking whatever it was. Then he saw it. A little flash of blue at the edge of his vision.

  He couldn’t help but smile a little. The wisp darted around the periphery of his vision, bouncing off the cold metal walls.

  “How did you get in here?” Koruk whispered. “I don’t even know where here is.”

  The orc sat up, and the wisp hid somewhere.

  “Come on, don’t be like that.”

  Koruk cupped his hands, and sat still for a time, trying to lure it in. Sure enough it soon appeared, darting out from a tiny air vent in the ceiling, and slowly settled in between his palms.

  “I don’t suppose you can get me out of here can you?” He asked. The sprite seemed to respond to his words, and flickered slightly. “I don’t know, open the door or something.”

  As he said it the wisp lept out of his hands and disappeared. Koruk sighed.

  “Was worth a shot I guess.”

  There was a pop and a crackle, and suddenly the hum from the door ceased. Koruk hesitantly poked at the bars with his finger, and touched the bars without getting singed.

  “Well I’ll be damned.”

  He grabbed the bars, and pushed. The cell door slid easily out of the way.