Master of Violence
by AJ Marks
Part 6
Toncor looked on at the situation going on. It had been a few Earth days now since their arrival at Earth. Things appeared to be looking up, the portable communicators had been prepared which they could wear without the larger translator. It appeared as a small unit in their ears, the humans said it appeared as a hearing aide.
Hakkas walked up to him.
“How go the repairs?” Toncor asked.
“It will take some time, they have to develop the parts from scratch, but they seemed confident it can be done,” Hakkas said back to him.
“Good,” Toncor said lapsing back into silence. Once more his thoughts went back to the humans and their reactions in the first meeting. Since that first meeting there had been no discussion about the ‘Dark Race’, other than a few side talks which were out of the public eye. In fact, the officials of the human government seemed to want to keep any mention of such a race quiet to the point they asked Toncor and the others not to mention it in front of anyone else, including other workers.
“What are you thinking of?” Hakkas asked.
Toncor looked around to make sure no humans were nearby. “Its their suggestion not to talk about the ‘Dark Race’. It concerns me a bit,” he said.
“In what way, seems to me they are avoiding a panic, like we did,” Hakkas replied.
“Yes, but when we talk about them, they want more and more information we don’t have,” Toncor said. “Information about their ships, technology even tactics. Such questions make no sense.”
“What do you think it means?”
“I don’t know, but these humans, they are unlike any race I think we’ve ever encountered,” Toncor said.
“An, Toncor, here you are,” Aviella said walking up to him.
“Something happen?” Toncor asked wondering why she might be looking for him.
“You wanted to know when I got some translated files on the human history, or I should say we have some videos they sent up, we can watch them,” she said to him.
“Learning their history, why?” Hakkas asked.
“You can learn a lot about a race by their history,” Toncor replied back to him. “In this case, perhaps we can gain some information about who they are.”
“Seems like a waste of time to me.”
“If we didn’t learn who they were, then it would be a waste of time,” Aviella said.
Toncor could tell Hakkas seemed unconvinced by it all. Instead he moved with Aviella towards a small room where they could watch the video and learn about their benefactors. Depending on what they saw they might even show it to the rest of the group on board, to alleviate the boredom on the ship.
Sitting down he waited as Aviella messed with the computer a bit and then sat down as well. Now he would learn some things.
*****
Angie made her way to class, she had math next, which she hated. She never understood why they had to take it. Most of the stuff they never used anyways.
Of course the real news had been the aliens who had landed on Earth. She had been talking with her uncle who had given her some insight to the aliens, even some of their names which were not on the news. She also learned there were some things going on which had not been mentioned and he couldn’t mention. It made her wonder what else was going on.
“Hey Ang, you heading to the café?” Krys said walking up to her.
“Can’t, have Algebra,” Angie replied with a frown.
“Ugh. Who do you have?”
“Professor MacMagan,” Angie replied.
“He’s not too bad,” Krys said. “At least he’s not Gears.”
“Yeah,” Angie said, recalling him from last year. “A big pervert.”
“Heather swears he kept trying to look up her skirt if she wore one,” Krys said.
Angie nodded, it was a reason she didn’t sit in the front row, but more the middle of the class.
“You hear the latest rumors?” Krys said as they turned down the hallway towards the classroom.
“No, but you’ll probably tell me,” Angie replied.
“The rumor is there is some major war going on, this group is really looking for allies,” Krys said.
Angie rolled her eyes at that knowing it was probably false. But a small part of her wondered about what her uncle was talking about in the secret meetings he was a part of. It was hush-hush, but it didn’t seem like something which would be war.
“I think you read too many conspiracy sites,” Angie said. “My uncle says nothing about that.”
“He’s only a captain in the military,” Krys said.
“And has been involved in most of the meetings with the aliens, including the first meeting with them,” Angie replied back to her friend.
“Well, they are hiding something, can’t deny that. They are up to something, and its only a matter of time before the truth comes out and everyone knows what is going on.” Krys replied back.
Angie shook her head as she reached her class.
“You going to head to the Ship after class?” Krys asked, talking about the café everyone liked to hang out at.
“Can’t, have work after class,” Angie said.
“Ah, well, we’ll be there for a while, probably do our homework there,” Krys replied.
“All right, I have tomorrow off and only one class, probably go there to do some work, get out of the house,” Angie said.
“All right,” Krys said, as Angie walked into class ready to be overwhelmed by math she didn’t understand.
*****
Toncor finished watching the video slightly stunned by what he had seen. He watched a race full of warfare and violence unlike anything he had thought possible.
“Um, are we sure we want to accept their help?” Aviella finally asked.
Toncor gave it some consideration before giving an answer. “I think we may not have much of a choice in asking for help. If we don’t get help here then we will probably be floating around in space somewhere.”
“Yeah, but this race, I’m not sure they are stable,” Aviella said.
Toncor gave the idea some consideration. They appeared quite violent, at least their history was full of war, and they celebrated war heroes, something he couldn’t understand much. Yet they also had a history of other things, like music and arts which rivaled his own race. An odd mix he thought when looking at it all.
“Maybe, but they have been at peace now for a while,” Toncor said.
“I wonder how much more violent the Dark Race’s history must be if this is any indication,” Aviella stated.
Toncor couldn’t even imagine that. The Dark Race must be full of such things, even more than the humans to head to enslave any race they come across in the universe.
A chime interrupted their thoughts as Toncor went over to the communicator.
“Yes?”
“Sorry to interrupt, but the Senator from Earth is here to speak with you,” Hakkas stated.
“Right,” Toncor said recalling that Senator Jeff Cerial was coming up to meet with him. “Tell him I’ll be right there.”
He looked over at Aviella for a second who seemed to be waiting.
“I guess I shouldn’t keep him waiting too long, it would be a poor manners on my part,” Toncor said.
“And what of this new information?” she asked him.
“I think it’s best to not tell anyone, nor show that to anyone on board just yet. I don’t want to cause a panic,” Toncor said.
“Very well,” she said.
Toncor made his way out of the office and towards the meeting area. He walked through the door and entered the room to see Jeff had already sat down, a bit awkwardly considering the chairs were a bit smaller for him.
“Welcome senator,” Toncor said moving into the room. Jeff stood and extended his hand, which Toncor took. It was a greeting by humans and something his race lacked.
“Thank you for inviting me on board,” Jeff replied. “You’re ship is rather interesting.”
He said that while looking around the room.
“And your technology, very impressive.”
“Not quite what we had back home, but it’s a slice of what we are capable of,” Toncor said.
They sat back down and Toncor’s curiosity got the better of him.
“Shaking hands, what significance does that have in your society when greeting?” Toncor asked. “We have nothing like it in our society.”
“Ah, the myth is that it’s a way to greet someone and show the person you’re greeting you do not have a weapon. Back when swords were the weapon it showed your weapon hand was empty,” Jeff replied back to him. “Whether or not that is true I don’t know, as I said, that’s the myth.”
“I see,” Toncor said, realizing that even their greeting had to do with weapons and fighting. “I must admit, I saw some of your history on a video and was shocked.”
“Oh?” Jeff replied.
“The amount of violence was disturbing,” Toncor said.
The statement seemed to take Jeff by surprise as he seemed to fumble for an answer or reply as Toncor continued.
“Our race has been at peace among ourselves for over a thousand of your years. When the last war we had ended it was decided there had been too much bloodshed to ever happen again,” Toncor said. “The idea of war is a very foreign concept to us now.”
“I see,” Jeff said. “Well, I don’t know, only that we as a species will stand up for what we think is right. We have others who want power and will do anything to obtain such power. As a result both sides are willing to fight and die for what they believe.”
“Its something which is disturbing to us, as a result I have not shown it to my people, they might panic over it,” Toncor said honestly.
“I see,” Jeff replied. “I honestly can say such a society is unknown to me. I can’t even imagine such a thing.”
“So you would destroy it?”
“No, you misinterpret my meaning,” Jeff said. “I mean your society can appease two opposite ideals at the same time? When that happens in our society it causes stresses which slowly builds up, like a pot of water until it finally boils over.”
“An interesting metaphor,” Toncor replied thinking about it. They always were able to talk about such things and violence between groups was frowned upon to the point if one did resort to such tactics they were shunned by all of society, including their own supporters. “We don’t have such things, violence to solve a problem is intensely frowned upon by my society.”
“Makes me wish we had that mentality,” Jeff replied. “Even now we have stresses upon our society working against the peace we’ve tried to establish.”
“Is this happening about this Dark Race, or our appearance?” Toncor asked.
“No, nothing about either as the public doesn’t know about the Dark Race yet. When that happens we’ll have at least two groups screaming about what is best for the population. One group will be like you, and want to leave. Another group will want to fight,” Jeff said.
“And you?” Toncor asked, waiting to see what he might say.
“Fight.”
End part 6