Caligula

It was still dark when Red’s alarm went off.

The jackal-like alien’s long, velvety ear twitched at the sound as she raised her head from the soft and comforting pillow, her fur matted to her face. Baring her teeth she quickly slammed a fist down on her alarm. It wheezed out one last beep before Red threw the covers back and got to her feet, still in the one nightgown she owned.

Grumbling, she stretched and yawned before plodding her way to the bathroom for a shower.  After she was clean and dry she dressed in her favored attire: Shorts, a tanktop, boots, a khaki safari style coat with the sleeves rolled up.

Through the door to her kitchen she poured and drained a mug of a vile caffeinated brew and scarfed down some toast, such was her breakfast these days. Once not so long ago, but what felt like a long time ago she would have taken her time with breakfast and listened to the Ortalan songbirds as she ate at her leisure. Those days were long gone. Now she had to be grateful for what she had. 

Red strapped a knife - fashioned from the tooth of a sandlamprey - to her red-furred thigh. 

It was a reliable weapon: and one of last resort. She next hung her Daedalian blade - a short chopping blade - on her hip. A piece of home and heritage she had brought all these lightyears away. 

Once, her species had been a proud people... now they were scattered among the stars as refugees or fighting the hated Sh’ra among the stars and across planets. 

Her packs of provisions and gear came next before she added the piece de resistance: Her trusted rifle. A quick check on the scope and the energy readings told Red it was in working order. Down the stairs she strode into the office of her business. 

She lived above it for the cost and convenience. 

Out the door her boots crunched against the sands as she turned a jade eye to the skies. Dark clouds overhead, a rumble of distant thunder. She hoped the meteorologists were actually correct in their predictions this time around, she didn’t want to have to take shelter from a storm.

Fishing the keys from her coat pocket the early riser scrambled into her buggy and started the engine. Hardly a soul was stirring at that hour of the morning asher buggy rolled down desolate dusty streets, past the walls and into the badlands beyond the city. 

Red tuned the radio and growled. All her favorite stations were only playing advertisements or boring talk shows. She shut the radio off and listened to the wind whistle by her vehicle. The sun was just beginning to touch the sky as Red stopped her buggy. 

Nothing but sand and rocks and the distant rumble of the planet’s ever present electrical storms - the world was insane and nearly uninhabitable. The settlers had named the planet ‘Caligula’ after some crazed ruler of their past. 

Red found it fitting. 

Up in the distance was what she had been hired to take care of: A monolith of steel jutting from the sands, with red and white lights blinking at the top of the structure. 

Red took a moment to marvel at the structure before driving closer to it. When she was a certain distance, the jackal-like alien put her buggy into park and examined the structure from afar with her rifle’s scope. 

“So far so good,” Red muttered, swiveling an ear back. “No razorglider nests, no obvious tampering...” 

She sighed, an inspection from a distance could only do so much: Best to do the job properly. The structure was essential to the city of Chohe’s protection after all. The edifice was one of many along the outskirts of the town, each emitting a high frequency into the ground that kept the vicioius sandlampreys far away from the settlement. 

Red moved closer to the tower and ensured the maintenance door at the base was secure. There appeared to be no sign of damage or tampering and no vagrants squatting. She could hear the buzz the tower gave off: perceptual to her but not the many humans. Thankfully it was only annoying to Red: the lampreys would feel a painful vibration if they got too close. 

“Alright,” she said marking down the site’s location on a little electronic pad. “One down, five more on my route.” 

It wasn’t the highest paying job but it was consistent, and it kept her adoptive city safe. Red was happy to do it when she wasn’t tracking or leading a hunting expedition into the badlands. 

The second, third, and fourth towers went by without incident and Red was nodding and tapping her feet to ‘Love Galaxy’ on the radio, thinking about what she wanted for lunch by the time she got to the fifth and final tower. 

When her buggy approached, she noticed something: A skimmer parked by the structure.

It was one of the repulsor craft - not a wheeled vehicle like her own buggy. She approached and inspected: there were no markings of any official capacity upon the craft, and Red was the only one scheduled on the security sweep for her route. 

Red flattened her ears as she parked her vehicle and examined the tower. A human in a bright orange vest and hardhat stood at the front of the opened maintenance door, simply looking around. No doubt he’d probably seen the dust from her vehicle. 

Something about the whole situation just seemed off to Red, but she couldn’t say with certainty that it was anything just yet. 

Keeping her rifle slung, Red approached the tower. the man at the door turned his head slightly as if speaking to someone within before turning his attention back on Red. As Red drew closer she spoke firmly. 

“Good morning.”

“Morning,” the man replied stiffly. Red watched his body language carefully, studying every muscle twitch. 

He seemed quite tense. 

“What are you doing here?” Red asked, a little louder than she intended.

“Just, uh, scheduled maintenance,” he replied all too quickly. “Best you move on Daedalian, we got a lot to do today.” 

Red tilted her head, odd that he was questioning why she was there to begin with. “Really now? What are you working on?”

A twitch again. “You know just inspecting things, swapping out old components.”

“Oh, I see,” Red replied in an eager tone. 

The man’s eyes were roaming over her, as if taking in every detail, there was a glint to his gaze Red did not care for. She heard something in the tower: a slight muffled movement.  

“Would you like to see in here?” The man said, a little nervous. “Not many get to see what these towers actually look like on the inside.” 

That set off alarm klaxons in Red’s mind, there was definitely something going on. This man had ill intent. Red knew it was best to not let him know that she was on to him.  

“Sure, I’d love to,” Red replied.

The man motioned her in. Red took a few steps in before she drove her elbow backwards and caught the man in the jaw. He grunted and dropped the item he was fishing out of his pockets. From within the darkness of the control room Red saw the crackle of electricity as another assailant activated a stun baton. 

The dim glow alerted Red that there was a third person on the floor, a terrified looking woman. 

Red leapt back as the stun baton missed her with the smell of ozone. Red freed her tooth dagger as the two men faced her, one armed with a stun baton and the other with fists. Red cracked her neck, she had no idea what she’d happened upon but she had come across something shady, they probably thought the tower was secluded enough to do whatever it was they intended. 

The baton man struck first, swinging high for Red’s head, the canine ducked as she heard the crackle and stepped in with an upward slash for her foes weapon arm. The knife cut deep and the man released his hold on the weapon as Red drove her booted foot into his shin. The man was on the ground howling in pain. Red turned her attention to his companion who visibly paled. 

“Nope,” the man shook his head and sprinted for his vehicle leaving his companion behind.

Red stayed back for a moment and listened to see if there were any more trespassers. Hearing none she looked back and saw that the repulsor had gotten too far over the dunes for her buggy. 

Red growled, knowing she’d have to call it in. She then turned her attention to the bound woman in the control room, quickly cutting through the ropes and ungagging the woman. 

“You alright?” Red asked softly.

The woman nodded. “Th-thank you. I don’t know what they had planned for me… nothing good I’m sure.” 

 “Probably thought they had a nice isolated area.” The Daedalian squeezed her shoulder, as her tone softened. “It’s alright. You’re safe now, promise.” 

Red gave a toothy grin. It would have seemed menacing to an observer - her maw full of sharp teeth - but her green eyes glowed with warmth and kindness. “Do you know what they were trying to do?” Red asked, looking around the dull gray interior full of blipping lights. She had to be thorough.

“They grabbed me outside a bar,” the woman shook her head. 

Red nodded solemnly. “This wasn’t about the station at all then. I’m glad I was here then.”

The woman choked back a sob as she hugged Red’s neck. “I’m so glad you were here too! I’d probably be dead right now, or worse.” 

Red held her back, even though they were complete strangers. 

“Don’t worry, I’m on good terms with the sheriff. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

Red thought back to the name of the planet as she watched a storm develop over the horizon: Caligula.

Very fitting. 

It was often a harsh existence on the frontier. But it didn’t always have to be a harsh place. Every now and then, a bit of kindness and courage could make all the difference.