Chapter 6: Learn Thy Enemy

“I ... trying ... fight...” Javier grumbled in his words. “Fuck...”

It was once again black for Javier’s vision. It felt like a pattern to him. Being aware of but not being aware of everything. He felt pain everywhere. His stomach was the first to experience it. He could feel some distant activity that was going on between his legs, but once again, it was very brief. It was like feeling pleasure, pain, and horror. It was quickly gone, though.

“I have him sustained...” said a voice from the far distance. Javier could recognize the voice again. It was the doctor as it had to be her. He could hear nothing more from it.

Other voices seemed to be around him. It was undecipherable and too far away to understand it.

“He is alive ... he seems to be waking up,” the same voice explained.

“Let him sleep more,” another deep voice came through. The rest of the words could not be understood. It sounded like gibberish.

“I won’t!” Javier screamed out loud. “I won’t give! Get out!”

“Broken nose ... ribs ... I can fix...” the rest of the words that might have come from the doctor slipped away.

“Ensure that he is fixed. His information is crucial. How are the tests proceeding?” the deep voice asked.

Once again, Javier felt a sense of smoke around him. Even though he couldn’t see, the smell was distant and faint.

“I am still working on it Lesser Adjunct...” the doctor’s voice echoed in and out.

“Good. Continue with your work. Notify me when he is awake and stable. Keep him here. I...”

Javier felt his conscious mind slip out again. All the sounds were muted, and he felt himself being drawn to the void.

“Where... , where am I?” Javier replied.

Time seemed infinite as Javier opened up his eyes to see nothing but stars all around him.

“Ah ... I am ... I am dreaming, aren’t I?”

There was no response in the void of wherever he was at. All around him, he felt weightless. The coldness of space hit his body, but it did nothing more to him. He could hear his voice, and it was there that he knew it must have been a hallucination. No human could survive in space without anything.

“Got ... got to wake up ... got...”

He was breathing regularly as he felt like he was floating in space. He could move around and turn in place. The sight was amazingly beautiful. While it was a lonely place of nothingness, he could hear and feel the environment. Stars twinkled in the vast ranges. Up, down, left, right, and all-around was nothing but stars and distant galaxies.

“I am trying,” Javier said. He folded his hands around his body and knew that he was still in his underwear. “I am trying to resist. I am trying to let go of the battle ... I am trying to put it all away.”

In the distance in front of him, he noticed something was happening. Vortexes were all around him. Starting off small, they were in the early form of creation. There must have been hundreds, then thousands of these swirling clouds of blue energy. Javier simply watched in amazement of the beauty of the scene.

They were the signs of space being folded. Wormholes that consisted of thousands were all being made around him. It was happening so much faster than he usually saw them. The process of creating gate arrays and folding space often took five to forty minutes, depending on how the process was being done. In this case, it was happening in at least ten seconds. The technology could not exist. It must have been another illusion and figment of the dream.

“Incredible... , “ he said. “So many gates ... it’s like a forest of wormholes.”

The vortexes got bigger and bigger. Eventually, the eddies got to the point that they emitted a form of blue lightning from each of the swirling rings.

“If only the great Gabatrix could see such things...” Javier said. “But ... it is just a dream ... it is just a dream.”

He continued to watch as objects were coming out of the gates. One by one, numerous ships were coming out of the wormholes. There were ten, then there were hundreds, and then it was over thousands. A myriad of warships were all arriving. Were they there to greet him?

“An entire fleet... , “ he remarked. “Thousands of warships ... not even the UHN could ever rival against such a creation as this.”

Javier was examining each of the ships. Each of the warships looked unique. Some had the same design as the Itrean warships. The spinning centripetal rings were the biggest giveaway. Some had looks that were similar to the old Ikra class Battleships that the UHN were using. Others were specialized. Warships had massive turrets on the dorsal and ventral sides, but they didn’t look like railguns. Some ships had massive forward bow-mounted cannons. There was something else that he noticed as well. The warships came in at least three different colors.

“Green, the T’rintar clan color...” he remarked. “Red, the Aksren clan ... and violet for the Shal’rein, these are the Itreans. Why am I seeing this?”

As Javier looked at them, they noticed as one by one. The gates were beginning to close. The warships were using their vectoring thrusters to turn.

The sight was terrific. The clan warships seemed even to look more true for the clan races they belonged to. The Aksren vessels had bow like heads. The dorsal bow alone had a large hump to them, similar to the distinguishing features of the Aksren people themselves. The red warships seemed to carry guns and tubes that dotted their frames. The T’rintar ships lacked the bulging nose but had missile pods all through the framework of the vessel. They also had small green-painted ships that had massive arrays to them.

“Cloaking battleships ... those look like cloaking arrays. Why? What is going on?”

The last of the warships that the Shal’rein used looked amazingly aquatic. Fins protruded from the hulls as they looked like sharks moving through water. Their massive cannons made them look like siege dreadnoughts. It was a genuine Itrean fleet, a united fleet all working together.

They were united in one cause. All the ships were turning in the direction that Javier was located. It was slow, but all were happening at once. A sea of black and warships dominated the entire cosmic landscape. They were all heading towards one particular point.

“Why are they heading towards me?” Javier asked.

The vectoring thrusters were active. Almost like a single entity, the fleet was all directing their views in the direction of Javier. He was nothing but a speck of dirt in the entire scene, yet he seemed important.

Suddenly, he saw flashes from the fleets. Small particle trails were emitting from the various warships. Like a storm, the guns consisted of everything from primary weapons to railguns. Missile pods began to unleash swarms of missiles and torpedoes. They were all going towards one direction. At first, Javier thought the ships were firing at him, but in reality, the shots were missing him by a long shot. The mighty UHN would be decimated in moments by such an onslaught of weapon’s fire. Even the invasion of Cipra was only an Aksren fleet of two hundred warships. This consisted of thousands.

He could see the ships were still traveling towards his direction, but as he turned his head, he noticed the lead ships were by his side. Again, they were not shooting at him. They were shooting at something else.

“What are you shooting at?” Javier asked.

Suddenly, he could see what looked like a missile that slammed into one of the lead vessels. The missile pierced the side of the warship, but it didn’t detonate. There were other missiles that came from behind him. All of them had a similar shape and color. The entire space had turned into a massive warzone as the Itrean fleet was pressing its advance. Their rear engines were propelling them to higher speeds. A massive railgun slug slammed into another Itrean warship. The missiles were getting destroyed, but more were still coming. It almost seemed to be a tidal wave of silver-colored guided projectiles.

Javier turned his head to look at the lone Itrean warship that was struck by the guided missile. He noticed something horrifying that was happening. The missle that never detonated began to spread along the hull. It was like a sickening silver sludge that was coating the vessel. The red-painted warship was almost turning into something else. Finally, there was a massive surge in the vessel. It exploded outright, producing a flash of light that nearly blinded Javier’s vision. The missile was not the cause of the explosion, but something else did.

“They destroyed themselves ... instead of ... oh god. I know what this is...”

Javier’s body began to turn in space. It did a full 180-degree turn from where he was, and it was here that he knew that this was a nightmare. The true horror of his research had unveiled. He did not see the current events of the Itreans. The clans are not united anymore, but there was a time that they did. Javier’s mind began to feel a cold chill that radiated from his back and body. Even though he was in the vast coldness of space, he began to feel truly cold.

It was the darkness of the Itreans. He had been warning the chain of command, but it was considered to be nothing more than a joke. Others were worried about the Itreans but not their past.

In front of Javier were hundreds of warships. They were massive in size. It was the direction of where the Itreans were shooting at. These warships were painted in gray and near shades of black. Most of them looked like large rectangles with thrusters strapped to them. Guns, missiles, and other pieces of weapons were strapped to these supposed warships.

They were nothing more but buildings ... entire buildings taken by the devouring creatures. These were buildings made from something else. Perhaps they were taken by whatever the creatures devoured. Maybe they were taken from conquered Itrean worlds. They were the true terror of the galaxy, not just one or two races, but a plague that was devoted to eating everything. If they were not stopped, humanity would have been next, and yet it only happened seventy years ago.

One of the building-like warships was nearing Javier’s position as he watched as a railgun round slammed into the hull. The buildings were nothing more than big targets. They were dangerous, but the sheer number of Itrean ships was the deciding factor. Another warship of the creatures’ continued to move forward in advance. It had a series of similar missiles that began to detach from the hull as they began to fly forward. Their destination was the Itreans in general.

“I am watching the past,” Javier commented. “The War with the Emphra ... if only humanity truly knew what was out there. Even Gabatrix would be scared of this. No human would be truly the same after seeing such an abomination.”

The rectangular vessel was still getting hit by railgun rounds. The hypervelocity rounds were doing considerable damage to the vessel. Buildings were tonnage of vessels, but they were not truly warships. Guns and missiles would continue to slam the ship, but it still kept coming. Even the UHN would have a hard time taking down a few of these ships if they showed up. The Emphra knew that they might win if they simply kept going. It was their entire goal in spreading throughout the galaxy ... eating everything that was in the way.

The building vessel began to fly by Javier. The hull was so close to Javier that he was practically skimming the surface of it. It was here that he could see the true horrors of the warship. He could see a moving mercury-like substance. Even in space, they lived and operated without hindrance. He could see other things, as well as the metal substance, moved on the surface. He could see the bodily remains of ... people. They were bones that littered the sides of the ship. Javier even noted the skulls that looked like Yutilians.

Suddenly, there was a great flash. It was a nuclear explosion of high intensity. The warship he was looking at, was ripped in half and vaporized from the inside. Debris flew everywhere as radiation was spilled out into the cosmos. When Javier was finally able to open his eyes, he could see that the lead vessel was finally destroyed.

“As I said,” Javier commented. “They were big targets ... easily destroyed from the inside. You just couldn’t let them touch you.”

Suddenly, everything went away. The warships one by one vanished. Like an echo, they all began to disappear. The shooting, the munitions, everything ... all of it was going away. It was like watching an oil painting that was running. Within less than ten seconds, the Emphra were gone.

“This is just a dream of the past,” Javier said. “I am just dreaming ... I am just.”

He could hear a roar come from behind him. Again, the laws of physics in the dream were broken. The roaring sounds were deep. It sent more chills down Javier’s spine. He turned his head and body in space to see what was causing it.

What was behind him was no longer the Itrean fleet. It, too, had disappeared, and the great battle in space was seemingly long gone. Instead, it was something that had Javier shaking in space.

It was a black hole. Monstrous in size, the event horizon was nothing but black. It was a place that not even light could escape. The eyes that can track light will instead see a ball of blackness. Taking a three-dimensional plane, the black holes are the eventual end of a massive star. Becoming either a pulsar or a black hole, the collapsed matter begins to consume everything around it. All matter flies into its core to never return again. It is crushed over and over again as it is pulled to its center.

A large sign of the black hole, besides the event horizon, was that of the light bending around it. It almost seemed that all black holes tore the fabric of space. Any direction you look at it, it all looks the same ... the light is being bent into it like a blurry, unfocused lens.

As Javier saw it, he felt like he was slowly being pulled into it. There was once again, another roar that came from it.

“No black holes make those sounds...” Javier said. “There is no sound in space ... there is.”

Suddenly, near the top epicenter of the event horizon, he saw what looked like three eyes open up. It was startling for Javier. The eyes were not directly focused on him. They looked like red serpent eyes with a black pupil to them. The roaring sound intensified as it echoed through his body and mind.

He could see the outlines of particles that were swirling into the event horizon. He, too, could feel being drawn into it. There was nothing he could do. If a black hole had a hold of you and you were too close, it would merely devour you. It was a death that no one could describe. Time itself was even affected by the gravity of the black hole.

His body began to fall deeper and deeper into the event horizon. He could see the red eyes get closer and closer. Javier could now tell that the eyes were focused on him. Like a giant maw, it was going to consume him.

“No ... no ... this is just a dream,” he protested. “I am in control of this...”

Faster and faster, he went. The massive three-eyed creature was going to eat him. Eventually, the eyes grew wider and more prominent. There was almost satisfaction in those eyes. It was as if this black hole was unique. It wasn’t just a cosmic phenomenon. It was alive, and it had found its prey.

“No ... no!” Javier screamed.

“Ahhh!” Javier screamed at the top of his lungs.

His eyes were wide open. He shook in his spot as the waves of the pool moved in proportion to his body. The side of the pool splashed about as he tried to regain his bearings.

He looked at the room. He was once again in the pool of the water in the same room. He was panting heavily. His heart was beating fast as he was trying to shake off the images in his mind. His body was still neck-deep in the water as he tried to figure out what was going on.

“It was just a dream...” he told himself. “Try to regain control of yourself. It was ... wait...”

He turned his head as he looked at the entire room. The surrounding environment was still the same as before. He noticed one thing that stuck out, though. The doctor was present. She was busy cleaning up the blood on the deck. She was using some sort of tool that was absorbing it from the ground. He realized it was his blood.

“Doctor,” Javier called out. “What is going on? Why am I here?”

Her right fin near her head and ear seemed tuned to his direction, but she was ignoring him. It seemed she was almost finished with her work. The last of the stains were swept away as she put the tool into her pocket. She then looked at him. There was a look of sadness in her face.

“At least tell me what happened. I was ... attacked. It was Girsha’lar.”

She gave the nod to him to help confirm it. Her silence seemed to be a message in itself to him. It was nothing like the conversation he had with her last time. Her personality seemed to reflect a deeper, more professional tone, but Javier could sense it was something different too. He decided to try to keep it professional as well, while still trying to figure out the events that had transpired.

Javier closed his eyes a little bit. He could different things had happened to his body. He felt a little bit drowsy, but each second that went by, he was waking up more and more. He tried to get out of the pool to confront the doctor.

“Doctor ... I need to know my condition, at least,” Javier politely asked her.

As he started to get out of the pool, she held her hand out to tell him to stop. Her face showed an intensity that even caused Javier to relax and not move. Finally, she replied to him.

“Your condition is stable. You were attacked and rendered unconscious. Girsha’lar was responsible for the actions. She cracked a rib and broke your nose. She then ... I don’t know the human word for it ... she tried to have sex with you while you were unconscious.”

Javier looked away. He remembered the assault but not the rest of the act. Girsha’lar had raped him even though he had no memory of it. At least being unconscious had served as a defense for it. The Shal’rein had enacted her form of vengeance on him. Rape was not an act of passion but to physically and mentally hurt him. It was an act of power and an attempt to dominate him. The words stung him hard, but he knew the situation he was in. He was a prisoner on board an enemy ship.

“I have repaired the damage to your body. I did minor surgery to get access to your ribs. The bone has been fully fixed. I have also restored the broken bone in your nose. The skin on your genitals was torn a little bit, but I have also restored it as well.”

It was quite an incredible list of accomplishments from her. He could tell that he wasn’t even moved or perhaps he was and was simply brought back after she had completed the task. Once again, he had no idea how much time had transpired.

“How long was I unconscious after the attack?” he asked.

“One of your days.”

The doctor seemed to be short with her answers. She wouldn’t go into detail unless it seemed necessary.

“I see,” Javier said. He could feel minor pain sting his body. Even his crotch gave minor little stings here and there.

“At least I don’t remember some of the events...” Javier commented to her.

Folar’sha seemed to give a small nod as she then looked down. He could see sympathy from her eyes.

“I guess they don’t have much justice for this situation, or you’re not telling me what they did to Girsha’lar.”

She chooses not to answer him. He could see that something was holding her back now. It almost seemed like she was forced not to engage in conversation with him. He at least tried to compliment her.

“Doctor ... thank you for healing me.”

“The pain will go away,” she replied to him. “Expect there to be light pain throughout your body for the next several hours.”

With that, she turned and began to walk away from Javier. She walked the opposite side of the room, waited for the door to open, and exited without looking back at him.

Javier took a deep breath as he looked at his body. He could see what looked like a minor laser incision scar on the right side of his chest. It was very tiny and hard to see. It was all that remained from the assault. Whatever was happening, there was great strive to keep him healthy despite the recent events.

“I am trying to figure out if the Shal’rein are misguided or if they are insane,” Javier commented. “They want me for something. Too much is happening. They are trying to play games with me. They want to see me crack. They attack me, heal me, assault me, and then heal me again to repeat it over and over again. I wish the UHN would come and rescue me.”

He felt a slight pain hit him again, but it was focused on the nose. He put his hand and tried to feel the damage. He didn’t feel any scars, but he didn’t have access to a mirror. He could feel his beard. It had grown slightly but not much. If it had developed far longer than he realized, then he could at least formulate how long he was taken prisoner. He tried to look into the water to see his reflection, but the water was moving too much to see from it accurately.

Javier sighed as he lay back against the side of the warm pool.

“I feel like I had a fight with the school bully...” Javier remarked. He reached down and put his hand between his underwear. He felt his genitals and felt no damage or injury before pulling his hand out. “Some people might feel happy to have some fun times with a woman. I am glad I don’t remember it. She wasn’t doing that to have a good time. These Shal’rein obviously don’t have rules in place in how they treat prisoners of war.”

He turned his head and looked at the skull that was still on the table. “Then again ... I wonder how much longer before I have my skull on display...” Javier paused as he put his hand to his head. He closed his eyes as he took a deep breath. “I will be rescued... , “ he tried to assure himself. “Help will be coming. There will be light at the end of the tunnel.”

It was an internal struggle with his mind. Fear lingered as hope fought head to head. For Javier, he felt the memories of battle, assault, and the Adjunct that attacked him. He also reminded himself of the doctor. It seemed that not all the Shal’rein behaved the same exact way. If it weren’t for whatever that happened to Folar’sha, she would actually talk and engage in conversation. The other Shal’rein seemed psychotic or viscous.

“I need to remember the stories I read about the Itreans,” Javier commented to himself. “The other clans had various thoughts and feelings about each other. Much like humans, no two Itrean are alike. They are bred to hate one another. Some, however, like the T’rintar clan, are more open to the other clan races. The Yutilians allowed Aksren and Shal’rein to live on their worlds. Still, the Aksren and some Yutilians viewed the Shal’rein as savages. Others disagreed and felt the Shal’rein...”

His words were stopped as the door opened. Javier’s heart began to race at the impending thoughts. Another Shal’rein had entered into the room, but it didn’t appear to be Gishra’lar. In fact, she looked far from it.

The Shal’rein that Javier was looking at was seven feet in height. She was the typical height, of course, but her stance and walk were slightly different. She still walked on digitigrade legs, but her tail was a little bit shorter. She had a smaller fin at the end, but she had slightly more muscle tone to her arms. The fins on her arms were somewhat longer, and her fin-like ears were also a little bit smaller. She wore a black and purple uniform that was similar to Gishra’lar, but the rank insignia was different. It had a trident and shield identical to the Adjunct of the ship, but the shield was smaller. Javier could even recognize that the trident had two points to it compared to the three trident mark on the Adjunct. She also had a similar sidearm mounted to her right hip. Her bust also seemed to be slightly more significant than the other Shal’rein as well, but not too much that it dominated her frame.

Her walk gave an impression of control, but it seemed more than that. Javier was still trying to figure her out as quickly as possible. She had a similar gray like soft scale skin like the other Shal’rein, but her snout was slightly more pronounced. She had dark purple hair, and it was arranged so that it completely covered one side of her face. This made it so that she could only see from one of her yellow shark-like eyes.

She was not looking directly into Javier’s field of view. She proceeded in slowly as the door slid closed behind her while she was carrying a few items in her hand. One of the things that Javier recognized was that she was carrying a tilon. Another item that she was carrying was a small box around the size of Javier’s hand.

She was absolutely quiet at first. She gave no inflection to her face and still did not look at Javier’s eyes. Instead, she simply approached the pool and was closing in towards him.

Javier’s emotions were everywhere. The memories of Gishra’lar’s assault hung over him like a noose. He was preparing for the inevitable. This Shal’rein could just as quickly rush him and attack him. Once again, he could be facing an attack. Perhaps the Shal’rein wanted to take him prisoner just to rape and abuse him.

Yet it didn’t seem to be happening as she kept getting close to him. Finally, she was about ten feet from him as she stopped. Again, her view was not directed towards him as she simply kept her focus forward. Javier’s eyes were glued to her as he tried to keep his emotions in control. He couldn’t show any signs of fear.

Yet a part of him was unsettled as he continued to watch her. Her emotions were absolutely neutral. They were even more neutral than the doctor was ever displaying several minutes ago. Finally, Javier felt like saying something. The silence she was giving off was getting too disturbing for his mind.

“Whatever it is, I won’t talk,” Javier told her. He realized that in his emotional words and as cliché as the sentence could be, that it might not have been the best words to use on her. She came in with items in hand, and she looked like she was purposely there for him.

She found a spot that had an incline to sit down. It wouldn’t be that far from him. She decided to lean down and place the items she had by the edge of the pool. Once she did, she stood upright again and began to undo her uniform.

“What is she doing?” Javier whispered to himself.

The Shal’rein woman took off her holster and placed it near Javier by the edge of the pool. Javier was surprised by the action. She deliberately placed her weapon next to him. Was she insane? A part of his mind felt like grabbing the gun and aiming it at her ... yet he simply watched at what she was doing.

Her hands reached and undid what looked like Velcro of some kind. The uniform that she wore was designed so that it could be removed from the top and work her way down. Like a UHN jumpsuit, it began to slide off of her. She was stripping in front of him but not in a seductive way. It was like she was simply trying to get naked like he wasn’t there.

A part of Javier was still nervous that she was trying to get naked to possibly rape and attack him. The other part of him was curious. By getting naked, it seemed to feel like she was putting herself at the same level as him. He couldn’t figure out what was going on and instead simply watched.

The Shal’rein pulled her uniform down. Her breasts, which were not covered in a bra, slipped free of its confines. It was here that Javier could see her bust. If she were human, she would be the equivalent of a double d or e in size alone. Her nipples were very similar to a human, having dark gray areolas. She again never looked at Javier and continued to disrobe. Her center and stomach had a lighter gray than the rest of her body. Was this what all Shal’rein looked like when naked? His mind remembered the propaganda porn, but he still hadn’t seen a Shal’rein nude yet.

Her stomach had the equivalency of a six-pack. She was strong-looking, at least by physical appearance. The muscle tone for her legs was thick like she could kick a wall down in one hit. She completely took off her uniform, leaving just small panties like cover for her lower extremities.

Javier’s eyes had widened as he scanned her body. In another time, this might have been erotic even if she didn’t seem to be doing it for that cause. She still had not said a single word to him. Her uniform was then placed by the edge on the other side, not far from this alien woman.

With ease and grace, she put her feet into the pool and lowered herself in it. Her size made it perfect for her to sit not far from Javier. Her height would place her breasts to touching the surface of the water. She moved her tail on the other side so that it wouldn’t touch Javier at all.

He was again tempted to say something. The gaze that he had on her could burn down a building alone. He didn’t feel aroused. This was the enemy, but one that hadn’t committed to any form of violence on him.