Humans Are Encountered

Extinction

"Knycuz, what do you do when you aren't taking us out?" Wren asked. She was much better today xe noticed, seemingly well in such a short time frame.

"I work in external threats."

"Like weapons?"

Knycuz turned to look at her. Wren's mouth was upturned at the edges. "No. Not weapons." A quiet laugh escaped her mouth. "We all know what happens when we give you humans weapons."

"It wasn't that bad," Steve said, eyes focused on the sphere in front of him.

"It was. It was that bad."

Steve blew out a breath. "You're so dramatic sometimes."

"Your natural weapons are so destructive," Adam interrupted. "How do you manage to hunt and not destroy the animals at the same time?"

"Hunt?" Knycuz turned to look at him. "We do not hunt. It is not efficient. Crops are grown in the buildings surrounding the base, easy to control and obtain."

Lyle leaned forward. "But do you never just hunt because you like it."

"You don't hunt for sport, do you?" Wren raised an eyebrow.

Lyle shook her head. "I eat the meat, of course, but I go because I enjoy it. I don't necessarily have to kill my own meat, so it's out of enjoyment."

Wren pressed her mouth in a thin line. "I just hate people who hunt for sport."

"'For sport?'" Knycuz was not accustomed to this phrase.

"It's when people just kill to kill. Not to eat or anything. Just because it's fun. And then there's people that kill for things like ivory in elephant tusks or for rare materials like that. That's how we've lost so many species."

"Your species are lost through evolution."

"Some of them." She lifted her shoulders and dropped them again. "But some of them people hunted and killed, and we just, well, ran out. They couldn't reproduce faster than they were killed."

"Humans just enjoy killing other species?"

"Oh, yeah. People enjoy the 'thrill,'" she motioned with the ends of her upper extremities, "of waiting and watching and killing something. Not everyone, like Lyle. It's okay to kill an animal for meat as long as you kill it humanely. You know, fast."

"That's still better than blood sport," Steve said quietly.

"Is blood sport not the same as killing sport?" Knycuz was starting to understand the initial hesitation the Klyls had when Earth extended an invitation to a diplomatic meeting.

"Oh, it's much worse." Knycuz watched as Steve's muscles tended under the skin, his jaw clenching. "They'll pin animals, dogs and chickens, against each other. Train them to fight. Starve them and beat them and make them attack other things just to stay alive. And do you know why?"

"I do not." Knycuz noticed the aggression that Steve was beginning to show.

"Because they think it's fun to watch. Because they like to put money on which one they think will win, and if you're right, you get even more money back."

"A reward system?"

Steve turned to look at xem. "Exactly. A reward system for being a shitty human being." Steve slowed the carrier as they approached the collection site. "I moved into an old house once, and I found a dog. An older dog, 5 or 6, chained to the fence next door, the owners gone. It was starving and covered in scars, and pieces of its ears were missing, and," he took in a long breath, "she was so hurt. It was freezing outside, and they just left her like that."

"Did you take care of her?" Wren asked from the back.

"Yes. Her name was Bellona."

Adam's mouth turned up at the edges. "'Warrior Princess?'"

"She deserved it." He pulled in one last breath and finally lifted his head. "Alright, I didn't drive our asses out here for nothing. Let's go."

They all started climbing out of the carrier when Wren said, "Knycuz brought us out here."

"Uh," Steve turned to look at Knycuz, "who drove us all the way here."

And xe didn't know why, but xe said, "I escorted you all."

"That's bullshit!" Steve three his hands up in the air, and Wren let out a quiet noise. "No one ever appreciates me."

"Yes we do." Adam wrapped an upper extremity around Steve's shoulders. "You're just so dramatic."

"Am not." Adam just shook his head, keeping Steve close as they walked out into the site.