Chapter 18: Downloading…

Vraev'ox snorted in disdain. "Females tend to have a lot of demands," he said as he looked at the male who had been his friend for over 300 years. They had been taught by the same huntsman, in the same troop, and thus formed a tight bond. "Will you comply?"

Tha'juen let out a bitter chuckle. "As you said, females tend to have a lot of demands. If I give in on this one, they will expect me to continue giving in until I am nothing more than a pet at their heels."

Cruz'uts grunted in understanding. For some males, especially the younger ones, it was a matter of pride to have been chosen to be able to service a female. It was not until they gain the wisdom that came with age that they finally understood what they have become. Mind you, not all males were upset with those arrangements even if they never serviced the same female more than twice.

"Where are we starting this hunt?" asked Tha'juen as he looked out the monitor on the bridge. The vastness of space called to him like nothing else. Not even a good hunt could compare, a rarity for someone of his species. "How long can we draw it out?"

Vraev'ox checked his wrist unit for a fourth time, but there was still no new information. "This can go on until the end of time if we want," he said as he went over to the standing podium in the center of the room. Unlike the ships designed by other species in this galaxy, the Saalistaja didn't have chairs or stations set up on the bridge. Instead, there was a single pedestal that was connected to the wrist unit of the captain and the second in command.

Essentially, the ship would only respond to the commands of those two males. It was created this way so that no species could steal their technology and use it for themselves. Until now, until the Sisalik. "The weapons were reportedly taken from the planet H4092 in sector B0092016."

There was silence for a moment while Cruz'uts and Tha'juen tried to remember that particular planet. "Hot, wet climate," said Cruz'uts as he started to type away quickly at his wrist unit. "Ah, right, that one. The one with the prey that turned invisible on command or it senses danger. They were also highly venomous with four long fangs in the front of their single mouth. They managed to take out a couple of our warriors if I remember correctly."

Tha'juen grunted as he too went through the information provided. "Says here that the planet was occupied by an intelligent species as well. However, they made bad prey as they were too easy to kill. Now I remember them. Some of them had armor that was decent."

Vraev'ox snorted at that idea. "Their armor is nothing more than a can holding in the meat. Completely useless if you have a can opener." Flicking his wrist, two long blades sprung from his forearm. Each blade was approximately two feet long, their edges finely honed to a point.

"So we start our search in sector B0092016 and fan out from there. It will be like looking for a knife in the ocean. Does this mean that all Sisalik ships are fair game?" asked Cruz'uts looking at their leader.

"It does. But we must be careful. There is no honor in killing them, they offer us no challenge. Instead, we will make sure to stay out of sight as we search their ships. Tell Ye'tab and Au'dtair the plan. I will take first watch." Vraev'ox turned his attention back to his wrist unit to input the new coordinates. "Oh, and warriors?" he added causing Cruz'uts and Tha'juen to turn around and look at him. "We are now officially outside of all attempts of communication, understand?"

"Yes," they hissed. Now even if the bearers wanted to get in contact with them, they couldn't. It was the best of all worlds.

----

Running my fingers across the left side of my choker, I waited the second it took for my armor to appear. "Jun Li," I said in a normal voice. "Can you hear me?"

"I can hear you through the earpiece, but not in the room's microphones," replied Jun Li and I wrote down his response onto my tablet. So the armor did prevent people outside from hearing me. "Can you talk to me on the room speaker?"

There was silence for a moment. "I will assume that you didn't hear me," said Jun Li in my ear.

"Nope," I replied as I also wrote that fact down. I would have to figure out why this was happening, but my best theory was that the instructions I needed to properly use the armor to its full advantage were written on the screen in front of me in a language that I couldn't understand. If I could only read the writing that kept showing up inside the helmet, I would have all the answers I needed.

"Is there any way I can hook you up to my armor?" I asked as I tapped my stylus onto the table beside my tablet. "I have no idea what the words on my screen mean." If I could somehow download a part of Jun Li into the Nanos connected to my armor, I wouldn't need to learn the new language, I could have him translate everything to English and be done with it.

"Unfortunately, that is not possible. The armor is designed to only react favorably to one person, the owner. If I were to try to adjust or even download myself into your nanos, it would take me as a hostile invader and attempt to kill me." Well, that didn't seem worth it just to get English onto my screen. It looked like I was going to have to go with option two.

"Do you have the written language of the species for this armor?" I asked. If I could learn at least the written language, I should be able to better understand the functions of the Nanos.

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