Over the next few weeks Jason spent every day working as a timberwright, each week earning 70 credits a week, not counting the amount that went towards his lodgings at the inn. The days were long and wearing on his body, but he knew that he was securing his future. As the days passed he saw new faces as those that were not T’kata seemed to only work about half the week while the T’kata, so far as Jason could tell, worked every day. This earned him their favor as a hardworking individual. He took the compliment, but informed them that his species tended to work on average of 40 to 60 hours a week and any would, over time, be unhealthy. Especially if they worked non-stop, every day, for extended lengths of time. The T’kata took this into consideration. They still were of the mind that humans made for great workers in that case.

With the passing days, his body hardened, but he also learned more about this new world he was on. Among the things he learned was the name of the ape-like aliens; they were called Eaugr’n. They were brought here some 600 years prior and their civilization was at about the same level as the one they now lived in. The main difference was that their world was almost all one continuous dense forest and they lived primarily up in the trees. This was known by the T’kata, because their queens could live for centuries and passed on memories associated with their environment that took several generations to fade from the minds of their descendants. So the queens had either personally been around when the Eaugr’n were added to Debris or were one generation removed in most cases and it was clear in their memories. More over, it had been the queens that took the message of conquest or sacrifice to the Eaugr’n. When the Euagr’n refused to sacrifice, the T’kata queens laid millions of eggs on their world and waged a war against them that ended with the population of the the Euagr’n on the planet devastated while a significant portion of it had been brought back to Debris.

He also learned the Sil`phane were not the rulers of this world. Rather, they were one of 3 species originating from the world of J`nk. Much beyond that was not known by the timberwrights. The other species from J`nk were the Tok`phane and the Nith`phane. He had seen Tok`phane before; the armor clad dog-like aliens. Jason was informed that the majority of the police forces were always Tok`phane in all the places that any of the timberwrights knew or heard about. The Nith`phane on the other hand he didn’t think that he had come across yet. They were supposed to be about half the height of the Sil`phane, had light brown or white fur, large ears, bucked toothed, and with a tail that was longer than they were tall. This sounded very much like a humanoid mouse to Jason. None of the timberwrights knew much about what the Nith`phane did generally to make a living, but all was agreed they weren’t very pleasant creatures to deal with.

More important than the information he learned about these few species Jason was warned about the Ka’ashmir. at first he was confused at what the big deal was when he came across a snake-like creature. It looked harmless enough and he was told that it didn’t have venomous bites, so he didn’t really understand why the timberwrights all acted anxious about it. They had gone on high alert when he told them and only relaxed when one of the Sil`phane reported that it had caught and killed it. It wasn’t until later that he found out that these snakes burrowed into their victims and took control of their body, suppressing the host’s mind. Ka’ashmir that took control of a host were almost always hostile towards others. Even if they could fool the people around the host the Ka’ashmir would end up becoming cruel and tyrannical towards those around anyone that they could dominate. There were some, however, that would not act in this way, choosing instead to live in harmony with their host and the people around it. It was rare, but it did happen, sometimes even the violent ones eventually turned to this line of thinking. Some cults that sprung up even theorized that all Ka’ashmir would eventually seek harmonious unions as the Ka’ashmir were long lived in hosts, able to live indefinitely, rejuvenating with each new host, and extending the life of their host by almost twice their natural theoretical maximums. Of course, to prove the theory it required the sacrifice of many lives to cruel torture and not many sane people were going to allow that to go on.

Jason woke every day before dawn and returned at dusk. He spent little time awake at the inn and much of the time he spent at the inn was sleeping, reading, and learning what he could of the world around him. This left little time to pay attention to Rina, but this wasn’t much of a problem. She was busy with her daily chores and learning from Sú and Awlrek the needed skills to run an inn. It hadn’t been long, but the innkeepers were treating her like their own daughter it seemed to Jason. Rina seemed to be happy. The tensions between Awlrek and Jason had all but completely faded. Their new lives were good. Hard and rough, but good. Of course, that was only from a technologically advanced civilization perspective. In his readings, Jason had discovered that this level of technology was pretty advanced among the known civilizations so what they called a rough life, most in the universe would call an easy life. The technological level of Human civilization was considered a rarity and the more advanced civilizations were even more rare. So far as he could find out the theory of self-annihilation filters were accurate. Whether the Sil`phane found them or not, Human Civilization would have likely come to an end soon. They were lucky in a way.

The day was like most others Jason had experienced on Debris. He woke up at dawn, met the other timberwrights at the gate, and trekked to a new grove of trees to cut down with them. New houses had begun growing up along the outside of the walls of the town they passed by, mostly put up by humans. Some of the material that they used must have come from their efforts. Jason knew now that those houses were mostly safe despite being built outside the walls of the town. There was a chance of being attacked by some animal, but the efforts of their group and a number of other groups made that unlikely and in time their homes would be as safe as if they in the walls of the town.

Work progressed as normal for the group that day. Jason’s new axe sharply cut into the tree he was cutting down and felt good in his hands. It felt good to not have to borrow an axe to do his work. Before he realized it, it reached midday and Konma called for break. They ate and all cheerfully conversed amongst themselves. None of the timberwrights paid much attention to the rustling of shrubs near by nor the roar in the distance. These things were not unusual for them. Debris had plenty of domesticated and wild animals so it wasn’t unexpected to hear such things in a forest.

The rustling in the nearby bushes grew greater as one of the Sil`phane crawled out of the forest. He was clearly injured. His blood was seeping out of a wound on his chest and his leg was broke. The others weren’t startled by this. It happened from time to time. According to the others it didn’t happen too often, but it wasn’t uncommon that one of the defenders would get injured taking on an animal they couldn’t handle. It usually happened more often during times when a new species was brought onto Debris. The Eaugr’n went over to the injured Sil`phane, picked it up, and brought them over to the break area that they had made, laying them out so that they could be treated. The T’kata, for their part, went to work looking in the the kits they brought with them for medical supplies and treating their fallen comrade.

The group stood around the injured Sil`phane unphased by their injuries. Once they were done treating them Konma signaled to get back to work. Everyone went back to work. Jason hesitated a moment, but seeing that everyone else was unconcerned he joined them in resuming their tree-felling. Minutes had passed after they got back to work when the ground started shaking and another roar came in the same direction that the injured Sil`phane came from, but closer and the ground shaking footsteps told them that whatever it was it was getting closer. Everyone turned to face it. Their hands tightened around their axe handles, preparing for the worst.

In their wildest dreams, what they considered “the worst” could not compare to what happened next. A giant insect, standing as tall as a male Eaugr’n charged out of the forest. It had tusk-like mandibles and a horn extending back over its head over a carapace skin. It had 6 thick legs and a nasty carnivorous looking maw. The party relaxed except for jason.

“A farmer must have left it’s gates open. We can handle it. Try not to…” Konma said, but her voice was suddenly cut off. Everyone turned to find out what had happened to her. Her head dropped to the ground with a thud, shortly followed by her body.

Behind her fallen form was a 4 foot tall insectoid alien. It’s carapace was black and yellow striped with red markings. Its wings were nearly transparent and arms skinny by any measure of other species Jason had seen. This was contrasted against the fierce black blade covered in a clear viscous fluid the insect carried. The weapon wasn’t needed for this creature to be armed however. It had a stinger which resemble a 6 inch blade. Behind the rampaging animal, 2 more insectoid aliens emerged.

Jason thought they looked very much like wasps. It occurred to him that they would all die here and there wasn’t much that they could do about it. Jason reached in his hoodie’s pocket, grabbed his dagger, and activated it in its reverse cross-draw position, preparing to fight for his life. His eyes moved from the wasp alien to his backpack and back. He heard the T’kata begin to make a noise like the chittering of insects in the late night. Was it fear? Or was it some sort of call for help? He hadn’t ever seen a T’kata afraid of anything. He didn’t know if it was, but he couldn’t wait to find out.

Jason shouted one word, “Fight!” as he threw his axe has hard and accurate as he could at the wasp alien and ran his bag. The others were startled at first, but then quickly moved to support whatever he was doing. The Eaugr’n that were in the group charged at the 2 wasp aliens together, raising their axes preparing to strike them as soon as they were within range. Some of the T’kata moved to intercept the giant bug, try to calm it, and usher to safety without being injured. Several more T’kata ran towards the wasp alien that Jason through his axe towards. The wasp had easily knocked it away and took a stance in preparation of receiving the T’kata.

The T’kata, one by one, all fell quickly. Their sacrifice gave enough time for Jason to get to his backpack. The wasp alien slowly hovered towards him. He frantically searched through the contents of his backpack. He was looking for something he had bought with the money from this job. It wasn’t much and it wouldn’t guarantee his survival, but he thought it might give him a chance. The alien approached. It was over him, raising its blade over his head. Jason felt what he was looking for. The aliens blade came down towards his neck.