Thrissko

"We've docked, Captain," Igwe said to Svolun.

"Give the order to proceed," Svolun said to Igwe. I had agreed to make it seem like he still had authority when he was in front of his crew, but he and I both knew the miasmids now favored me over him.

"Board and oversee that everything is proceeding according to plan," Svolun said to me.

I nodded and left the bridge. Sally by my side and the Brist that I had taken with us when we first boarded the Armstar. He had started following the two of us around. I was fine with it. Sally seemed to like him. I had no idea what he was trying to say unless the miasmids helped me figure it out. Usually they didn't. He said the word skisrams a lot so I started calling him skis as if that was his name. He didn't protest. Or if he did, I didn't understand so it didn't matter anyway.

We exited the elevator and made our way to the docking bay. Groups were already boarding the Tuth'kiran - one of two K'thaktran war ships we would capture this day. Of course we had help from the inside disabling the ships, but most of the K'thaktra on board did not have the blessed miasmids yet.

I led Sally and Skis on board. Many of my fellow K'thaktra already writhed on the orange floor of the ship. Transportation crystals were set on the floor. There was a pink haze all along the lower corridors. The K'thaktra that were standing greeted me with pink in their eyes.

There was fighting by the elevators. I led Sally and Skis passed them. We went up to the next level. The pink haze of miasmids had not reached this level. Fighting rang out all around us - K'thaktra against K'thaktra, K'thaktra against Bundu-Jo, Starwatchers, Humans and Brist.

A group of K'thaktra without the pink in their eyes tried to rush passed us onto the elevators. Skis kicked one behind the knee. The red K'thaktra fell forward and before he could stand, Skis was on him punching the back of his head with all his might.

Sally stabbed the nearest K'thaktra in the leg between the plates of his exoskeleton just as I had showed her. A strange pride welled up inside me at the sight and the miasmids filled me with pleasure.

A third K'thaktra tried to yank Sally away from the other one, but I grabbed the back of his head and pushed him down slamming his head into the hard floor with a loud crunch. I didn't think he was dead, but he didn't move so I wasn't sure. The two remaining K'thaktra attacked me at once while Skis punched his unmoving K'thaktra and Sally continued to stab her K'thaktra in various breaks in the exoskeleton. He tried to grab her, but she skittered out of the way and then moved back in.

"Why are you doing this?" One of the K'thaktra in front of me asked. I smiled. The pink smoke drifted onto this level from below.

The two K'thaktra on the floor began to scream. I punched one of the K'thaktra in front of me. I made sure the barbs on the back of my hand caught the soft part of his eyelid. He cried out in pain and stepped away from me. His hands covered his eye, but red blood began to drip from his hands and face.

The last K'thaktra tried to grab onto me - tried to hook onto me with his barbs. It was a fighting technique common with my species and I was familiar with it. What wasn't common with my species was boxing. I brought my fist up in an uppercut to his face. I made sure the barbs on the back of my hand cut through all the soft parts on a K'thaktra's face - the lips, parts of the nose, the area around the eyes.

The K'thaktra with the bloody eye recovered his wits enough to try and attack me from behind, but Sally and Skis attacked him together.

I scooped up handfuls of the pink miasmids and pushed them into the K'thaktra in front of me. I targeted his cut mouth and nose.

"Breathe them all in," I said. I pressed in another handful. "They will give you such pleasure you've never known."

The K'thaktra behind me started to scream with the pleasant sound that the miasmids were inside him.

Sally and Skis stood by my side and watched as I scooped up another handful. "Don't fight them. They are our future."

The K'thaktra in front of me began to scream.