The Nature of Predators - Sovlin’s Transcript (13/13)

First | Prev

Memory transcription subject: Sovlin, Gojid Retiree

Date [standardized human time]: May 14, 2151

I could feel myself shaking, nausea bubbling just as much as the first time I saw Tyler with long surfer hair. My family was huddled alongside me at the diner table, while I waited with growing dread. It was a miracle I’d managed to croak out a burger order, even with Hunter patting my barren back for encouragement. The entire family was here, with Vysith’s presence very noticeable on the bright red upholstery of the booth. Samantha, Onso, and Cilany were all calling in for moral support; I noticed the Yotul’s fur looked a bit sunbleached.

“So, Onso,” I ventured. “Long time no see. Have your people invented the wheelbarrow yet?”

The Yotul curled his lip. “Around the same time as yours invented propaganda, Sovlin. I see your ancientness has made you ruder, somehow. You look not a day past one hundred!”

“Hmph. Your atavistic algebra couldn’t count past one hundred on your own. Engineer, my ass.”

“I knew you’ve missed me.”

“Gushing about machines? Never.”

Tyler gave a mocking clap. “Bravo. It’s wonderful to see you two getting along. Let the games begin!”

“Onso, bold of you to act like you’re a spring chicken yourself,” Sam chuckled. “None of us are anymore.”

“Exactly. It’s not too late for me to drop dead right now and get out of doing this,” I grumbled. “C’mon heart, give out.”

Vysith pointedly showed off her fangs and the throaty red of her gullet. “I can help with that. Want me to roar at you?”

“I hear enough of your roaring every time you try to use the dishwasher. It’s not rocket science, even for an atavist Arxur from hundreds of years ago.”

“Sometimes, I listen to you and wish I’d stayed in the cryopod. I see why my people started eating you.”

“Even with our spines?” That joke would not have flown with old-school Sovlin. Protector, I’ve come a long way. “I’d love to see that. You wouldn’t make it through one bite. You roll around on the ground just from stubbing your toe.”

Cilany shook her head. “You never explained how you became roommates with an Arxur, Sovlin, and at this point, the mystery is more interesting than the question.”

“I found her in the Everglades.”

“I can confirm that,” Tyler grinned. 

The waiter returned with a sizzling hot burger, placing the plated flesh cutlet before me without too much thought. Now that the charred tissue was before me, the idea of smushing it between the two bread slices and putting it in my mouth…felt impossible. I was going to know what a dead animal tasted like, just like a predator—just like every Arxur that ate Gojids and other sapients without a care in the world. I remembered what Cilany had told me about it being okay to be a predator, and Anton’s encouragement to take control of the thoughts that told me it would change me irreversibly. There was no going back if I did this.

I would be marked as a predator forever—the very thing I abhorred above all else, with all of the cruelty and violence that came with the territory.

Samantha narrowed her eyes through the screen. “Hey, Baldy, are you good? You look like you blew through twenty energy drinks. I know you’re like me. Grouchiness is your coping mechanism.”

“Guilty as charged. I…don’t know if I can do this,” I admitted.

Hunter wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “I adjusted to getting kidnapped by aliens and waking up to a weird porcupine two hundred years in the future. You guided me through all of that. I’m telling you, it’s not that bad. You just gotta get it over with.”

“You’re a xenoeconomist. What do you know about how Gojid neurology reacts to the introduction of meat?”

“Shut up and eat the burger, Dad.”

“But—”

“It’s not that bad. In fact, Rumi seemed quite happy with the flavor,” Tyler reminded me.

“Do you seriously still believe that humans have predator instincts?!” Onso hissed, bushy tail waving behind him with impatience. “Get on with it then. Ralchi, you’d think they were asking you to amputate your own head! You got the anti-cure. You’re not going to die.”

I picked up the burger, scowling at the Yotul. “Gee. Thanks for that.”

“No problem. Even Sam’s coddling and fussing over you now. Humans are too soft.”

“Hmph. I’ll agree on that last point. Never deserved their kindness.”

Hunter sighed. “If you don’t stick that burger in your mouth in the next ten seconds, I won’t shower for a month.”

My nose couldn’t bear the thought of that. I squeezed my eyes shut, unable to look as I brought the predator food toward my mouth. I’d know exactly what human cuisine was in its entirety. Would I be able to look at the binocular-eyed beasts like people, if it was reprehensible? Or would I become hungry and twitchy when I looked at animals, perhaps even other prey sapients?  It was all I could do to take a tiny nibble out of the burger, as I’d felt it against my lips. I just needed to do it and have my answers, regardless of how horrible they might be. 

I rolled the bite onto my tongue and surveyed the flavor. The meat itself was surprisingly tender, not chewy like I expected it to be; it broke apart with the slightest push. It was packed with a salty, savory flavor, with the juiciness completing a satisfying force on my tastebuds. I wasn’t sure what I’d expected a carcass to taste like, but it was…good. Normal and rich, yet not mind-blowing or overwhelming to my senses. The acid of the tomato slice mellowed out the powerful flavor, along with the starchy grains. It was as if the protein-rich cutlet completed it all, making it all sing out in harmony.

So that’s why the humans are so enamored with this stuff. I don’t know why they express that they can’t live without it, but it’s pretty unique. I thought it’d taste like rot.

“Wow.” I blinked my eyes open, having a hard time believing the pink flesh where the bite mark was—which looked so sickening to my eyes—had yielded so much flavor. I didn’t feel different, not at all like a silent bloodlusting killer had been awakened. “We tried to kill humanity over that?”

Samantha looked unamused. “Yes. Our burger joints were all a scheme to get Venlil toddlers onto a plate.”

“What do you think?” Tyler asked with excitement.

“It’s shockingly good,” I admitted. “And it seems…blown out of proportion. It wasn’t this big thing like I thought; I’m still me. I never dreamed I would ever want to try something like this. I let predators serve me a carcass sandwich and I…liked it.”

“Woohoo! Now we can introduce you to all the good stuff. Fried chicken—”

“Jerky,” Vysith said, picking at a marbled, uncooked steak that looked much more like flesh than mine.

Cilany chuckled. “Fish. Lars’ favorite.”

“I don’t need to eat every animal on this fornication haven of a planet!” I spat. “Besides, I’m not like those primitive, fish-eating Bissems. Lars can be if he wants to.”

Onso pinned his ears back. “The Sapient Coalition doesn’t need to be going near species they find primitive. The last thing they need is to be brought up into a galaxy and treated like idiots, the way we were.”

“Treated like? But you are idiots.”

“My favorite part of knowing you was when Tyler threw you into a cabinet.”

“And I liked when you took in his stupid Great Dane, because I thought it would eat you. We could’ve been saved the misery of seeing you join the unfeeling Yotul bureaucracy.”

Hunter wagged a finger at the camera. “Dad has a point. We have to hate you for being a politician. Nobody likes politicians.”

“Except for Tarva,” Samantha commented. “And Elias Meier, the martyr. A shame he didn’t live to see the day that even puritanical Sovlin himself embraced predation.”

“Well, I was already contaminated from the soaps. What difference does this make?” I grumbled.

Staring down the rest of the burger, I could feel something click in my brain; it had tasted delicious enough that I wanted more. I tore into the rest of the greasy dish, devouring the nutrition that I’d been denied my entire life. This was an excellent birthday gift to myself, to be free of the Federation’s teachings after seventy mediocre-at-best years of existence. The part of Earth that I hadn’t been willing to embrace as my own was now just another human aspect that I’d learned wasn’t that bad. It was a piece of Gojid culture that I’d been missing for a long time, and a sliver of self-hatred that my family had been there to help me shed.

I sighed in satisfaction as I gobbled down the last bite. The binocular-eyed, furless beasts were cracking up at how ravenously I’d devoured the rest of the burger, after my hesitancy with that initial taste. Between laughs, Hunter’s fingers crept over to steal my fries, and I smacked his hand away with a warning look; the real thing Terrans should feel guilty about was stealing food. Thieves. After finishing my first (and definitely not the last) carcass meal, I accepted Cilany’s words in my heart: that it was okay to be a predator. 

I could look back at the dark moments of my long ago transcripts with closure, and know beyond all doubt that I had done what the captain who tortured Marcel would’ve never dreamed of.

A/N - Sovlin’s series ends! We see our cranky old Gojid eat a burger at long last, with us finally getting an Onso cameo as the Yotul and Gojid go at each other with no holds barred; the entire crew is there to support Sovlin. Our narrator doesn’t find himself changed at all by predator food, but is surprised by how pleasant the flavor is and devours it. Hunter steals some fries, revealing humanity’s true evil intentions with food, and Sovlin finally lets go of the feeling that Gojids were depraved for eating meat.

What do you think of finally seeing this moment, and the send-off for Sovlin? Do you agree that he’s changed so much from the captain we once knew in those early transcripts?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting! The next bonus update day is a rest day, then I was thinking to finally give the Krev DND campaign a chance and see if I can write fantasy—nice change of pace, and seeing some familiar characters RP!