Yearning

Lieutenant Davic Sphinx, callsign ‘Riddler’, trudged through the sliding door to his sparse ship quarters still wearing his flightsuit. The soft lights of his quarters flicked on as the young starfighter pilot flopped down in the chair at his desk.

After removing his helmet, he ran a hand through his short brown hair and sighed.

It had been a long day flying escort for the supply convoys. While it was important, escort duty was often tedious: hours dragging on, flying circles around the freighters and watching for signs of Sh’ra raiders or a very unlucky pirate. On occasion the tediousness would be interrupted by short bouts of danger and violence. More than once they had tangled with Sh’ra starfighters and bombers.

The Sh’ra - an empire of expansionist reptiles. How long had it been since the war began?

Months? Years?

Riddler looked at his haggard expression. Was he really just in his early twenties?

He shook his head to clear it, his hands absent-mindedly pulling open a drawer and rifling through the contents. His fingers found something thin and flat. Frowning he lifted the foreign object from the drawer and gazed upon it.

The ghost of a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

Shmirdra.

The white-furred Patheurian girl had the most lovely yellow eyes. She was dressed in a blue dress for their prom, her tail curled around her legs and ears forward as she wore a fangy smile. How he missed her, they had spent their childhood into their early adult lives together. She was the sort of friend that was irreplaceable, the type of friend one trusted with their secrets and truths that family were ignorant of.

“What would you say now, Shmirdra?” Riddler asked the silent picture. “Would you fight alongside me? You always had quick reflexes.”

A sigh. “...Shame that couldn’t save you from an orbital bombardment. Bastards.”

Someday he’d pay the Sh’ra back, he swore to himself: He’d have a tally equal to all the casualties of Tasi IV or die trying. He figured it would be the latter when the smoke cleared.

He pulled the old comm device from his pocket and scrutinized it. He still had Shmirdra’s frequency... why hadn’t he deleted it?

The more he thought about deleting it, the more he realized he didn’t want to. It was comforting - like she was still there, somehow. He couldn’t delete the number, just like he still had his parents’ numbers... Even though they were all reduced to ash.

He leaned back in his seat and let his eyes close, perhaps he would have actual pleasant dreams for once. As he felt his mind and body separating, he even began to hear himself snore.

But then a sound shocked him from his sleep. The alarm klaxon followed by an announcement.

“General Quarters! General Quarters! General Quarters! All hands, man your action stations.”

“Awww, thrache, what the hell happened this time?” Sphinx blurted as he roused himself from his sleep and belted on a blaster pistol before running out the door to the hangar. Crew were running all throughout the ship, faces set in grim determination.

One of Riddler’s fellow pilots - a human female, callsign ‘Vixen’ - was already halfway down the hall. They said nothing to one another as they passed, merely an exchange of nods before they were soon on the flight deck with the rest of the squadron. Ground crew was busy prepping their fighters.

The clear signals were given and the pilots quickly scrambled into the cockpits and started up the engines.

“Incoming bombers, you are clear for takeoff.” the control tower radioed. “Good hunting.”

“You heard him, Starfire!” Riddler ordered. “Protect the fleet!”

One the fighters launched, leaving the safety of the ship for the unforgiving emptiness of space.

Lightyears away in a room deep within a barren rocky moon, a white-furred patheurian stretched and yawned as she climbed from her bed absent-mindedly. Sleepily, her paw-hand went to her ear where a notch had been cut during a fateful raid years ago.

Shmirdra's tail twitched.

How long had it been since she narrowly avoided the destruction of Tasia IV? Since the passenger carrier she was on was hit by pirates?

Shmirdra had fought with just her claws and a pair of stun bolas. It was enough to get her a job offer.

A job offer to her, a pirate.

Wasn't like there was a lot of other options at the time.

Her merchant parents would be so disappointed if they still lived.

So would he.

She pulled on her boots. They were scuffed but sturdy, and held up well.: They would do.

She pulled on her coat and belted on the dagger and pistol she had grown used to carrying.

Davic.

He was due back the day the Sh'ra launched the opening salvos of the war: Back from his apprenticeship on a merchant ship. She hoped he hadn't suffered.

She'd seen a lot of suffering,. tThere wasn't a lot she couldn't imagine anymore.

Her employer was interesting, to be sure. She knew next to nothing about him - Not even his species. He was vaguely feline-like, similar to her, but his tail was a short stub. He towered over her at eight feet, and large curved fangs jutted from his upper jaw.

One of the human pirates said he looked like a “Smilodon,” whatever that was,. sSome ancient predator from Earth.

Shmirdra hadn't had a clue.

She never thought to ask him what he was.

She knew only his name:

Kosh.

She never cared enough to learn about him.

He was an enigma, like so many of her fellow pirates.

She tried to avoid him. He had a presence about him that set her fur on end.

Kosh had a way of looking at someone that was beyond unnerving. Shmirdra swore she felt her soul being dissected. The way he spoke had a way of seeping into her very being. She'd watched so many of her fellow pirates fall under his spell that she sometimes wondered if this was a cult and not a pirate crew.

Still, Kosh's voice made her skin crawl and ears lay flat. She hated the way it dripped both honey and venom at the same time.

She longed for the carefree days of Tasia IV, before the Sh'ra drove her from her home, when her worries were trivial. How she longed for such simplicity now... but the war had been declared. Tasia IV had been attacked, and she couldn't go back even if she wanted to.

A knock sounded at her door.

"It is time for the raid, little one."

Shmirdra twitched her tail before checking to make sure her most treasured possession was still hidden. The photo of her and Davic. "I'm sorry Davic,” she whispered. “If you were still alive I'd do all I could to find you. But you're not. ...Perhaps it's best this way. You would hate what I've become."

"Yes!” She answered to the door. “I'm on my way."

She headed for the door. As she exited, she closed her eyes and let her thoughts wander. She imagined herself flying a ship of her own - One of her own. Where she could go and be free of Kosh's influence. She would be her own master, do what she wished to do and not what he told her to do.

"It's only a daydream now,” the cat-like alien said to herself. “But maybe one day it can become reality."