Revelations

Kapp awoke from his restless sleep with a start. Sleeping in the barren dimly lit cave was odd. He was accustomed of course to a bed, or even the floor. But here he slept just floating in the water. The Aqualin had a straightforward lifestyle, eschewing decoration, they seemed to prefer simplicity. Kapp’s “room” was this small simple cave with a curved narrow opening. It lacked any sort of comfort other than privacy, and the glow of the yellow sea-weed. Kapp had found himself in and out of dreams, all containing bits and pieces of memory of the massacre on Alpha. He lay there trying to fall back asleep after a particularly upsetting dream replaying Captain Krell’s death, when he heard whispers outside of his cave.

“Go away, Xanderkapp sleeps,” Splunk’s voice, it sounded like it was trying to speak with a level of authority it certainly did not possess.

“Splunk can’t tell us what to do, we just want to see him!” a young male voice replied.

“Yeah, he’s been sleeping forever! We want to see him!” another young voice chided, this one female.

“You can’t make us do anything Splunk, we are going in!” the male voice said decidedly.

Kapp closed his eyes and pretended to sleep, wanting to see the intentions of the voices before letting them know he could hear them. Peeking out between closed eyelids he could just make out two figures moving in through the cave opening.

“He’s so gross looking,” the male said.

“He’s not gross! I think he’s interesting,” argued the female.

Kapp could tell they were moving closer and inspecting him.

“He looks so soft, I can’t believe he was able to hurt Uncle Caltuth.”

“I dare you to poke him,” the female said.

“I don’t want to poke him! You poke him!”

“How about no one pokes this gross soft guy alright?” Kapp said, opening his eyes.

The two small Aqualin swam quickly back from him towards this cave entrance, looking mortified that he had heard them.

Their purple and orange coloring was brighter than the full grown members of their species. Their head fins and back scales were much less predominant and rose only slightly away from them. The female was only a few inches shorter than Kapp, and he was a head taller than the male.

“And what do they call you little monsters?”

“We are not monsters! I am Tovin!” replied the male, he pushed out his chest and stretched out, trying to appear larger than he was, though his young muscles already rivaled Kapp’s.

“And I am Nixie!” the female said, grinning at him.

“I see, and you are here to… poke me?”

“No silly! Mother sent us to check on you!” Nixie said, moving closer.

“Right, Caltuth is your uncle, so you must be Qualia’s children?”

Tovin swam closer and lifted Kapp's arm, inspecting his bicep.

“That’s us! Your arms are so skinny. Woah! Are those your fins?” Tovin said, pointing to Kapp’s armpit hair.

“I don’t have fins, little pests. Where is your mother?”

Kapp shook his arm out of Tovin’s grip somewhat embarrassed. The children ignored Kapp’s question and continued to swim around him, poking and prodding. Splunk entered the cave and climbed to his place on Kapp’s shoulder.

“Splunk, next time just wake me up and I’ll swim away before they come in, do you know where Qualia is?”

“NIXiE! TOVIN! Get out of here now!” Qualia’s voice shouted as she entered the cave.

“Qualia in cave,” Splunk said happily.

Both children swam behind Kapp, using him as a shield from their mother’s wrath.

“We were just–” they began.

“OUT!” she demanded pointing to the cave entrance. They both shot out of the cave like arrows.

“Bye Kapp! Let’s play soon!” Nixie yelled back to him as she swam away as quickly as she was able.

“Cute kids,” Kapp said to Qualia, who’s bad mood seemed to fade as her children left.

“They are trouble, but someday they will be formidable warriors. Come Kapp, the shoal is waiting.”

“The last time this shoal was waiting I woke up paralyzed.”

“This time you have a voice, and they wish to hear it.”

“Oh, well great then.” Kapp said, rolling his eyes.

They swam to the raised platform where Azule, Caltuth, and two females stood. There was a much smaller audience present than when Kapp had been here to battle Caltuth, though many were still gathered, interested to hear from the outsider.

Qualia bowed to Azule, and Kapp again followed suit.

“Rise Kapp,” Azule said, smiling and gesturing for him to stand. “I was quite surprised with your performance at the Dha’aerda.”

Kapp could see Caltuth looming behind Azule, his face hard with anger.

“Thank you Lord Azule, Caltuth, you are stronger and faster than I could have ever imagined!” Kapp spoke flatteringly.

Kapp did not want Caltuth as an enemy. Heir to the throne or not he obviously wielded great power here. Growing up Kapp couldn’t help but get into fights often. He wasn’t very good at filtering his thoughts, and as a result his mouth got him into trouble. After a fight, he always tried to make friends with his previous opponent. He was often successful and some of his best childhood friendships had started with the swing of a fist. He hoped he could mimic that situation here.

“You are slipperier than I would have thought, Xanderkapp. I would not let you surprise me like that again,” Caltuth said with a growl in his voice.

“You will never have need to, Kapp has proven himself,” Azule waved his hand at Caltuth dismissively. “Tell us Kapp, how did you end up on that small ship?”

Kapp explained what the purpose of the Alpha had been, and about the attack of the Nokken. When he got to the part where the Nokken leader had issued him instructions, all movement in the large cave seemed to slow as any who could hear listened with concern.

"He said ‘This is a challenge. Bring your weapons and ships. Attempt to destroy us. War is coming. We are the Nokken.’ I wasn’t sure what any of that meant, but I think I understand now," Kapp said, he had struggled to contain his emotions as he relived the details of the slaughter.

“I am sorry for your hardships Kapp. We have also lost many companions to these creatures.” Azule said, sighing deeply. “What is it you have come to understand?”

“First answer me this, do you have projectile weapons of any kind?”

“What is it you mean by projectile weapons?” Azule asked, with a look of confusion.

Kapp paused at that. It was difficult for him to explain the kinds of deadly weapons humans had at their disposal.

“Where I come from we have weapons you can use from a distance. From different places on a planet, in the air, in space.”

Looking all around Kapp could see a look of disgust on the faces of all of the Aqualin.

“You fight from a distance?” Qualia exclaimed, disgust in her voice. “How is that fair to your opponent? This doesn’t sound like combat, but more like murder. Who is it that you fight?”

“Well, each other I suppose, not all humans are good.”

“So you believe that the Nokken are trying to get these projectile weapons of yours?” Azule said, realization dawning. “If they were to do that and could engage us from a distan-”

“They would kill us all! It’s better that we just kill this human as he calls himself now! That way we keep these projectile weapons away!” Caltuth interjected.

“Woah woah buddy, I have no intention of bringing weapons. I understand that would be bad. What is it that the Nokken even want from you?”

“Our most precious resource, our water,” spoke up one of the females on the platform as she moved closer, she had a serene voice that echoed with comfort in Kapp’s mind. “The Nokken are a plague. They move from system to system depleting them of water. They pollute it when they use it. Filtering through their dastardly bodies causes it to become so sick that they can’t even use it again.”

This female was the spitting image of Qualia, though her skin color was far more faded.

“When they attacked us they weren’t in the water. Qualia also came onto the beach when I landed. Do you have to be in water?” Kapp asked, not understanding.

“Our physiology is similar to the Nokken. We cannot be out of water for a full wakefulness cycle. Regular atmosphere is not dense enough to support us forever.”

“Lady Cerule, do you really think it’s wise to tell this outsider ways to hurt us?” Caltuth said accusingly.

“Just mother will do son, don’t be so formal. I believe this outsider as you call him to have good intentions. The only beings that seem to be openly hostile are you, and the Nokken. Do not let your pridefulness blind you,” Cerule spoke the words reproachfully, as if speaking to an unruly child.

“Your faith in someone we do not know is making you blind!” spat Caltuth.

“That is enough! Caltuth, leave us. Now!” Azule shouted gruffly, the authority in his voice almost made Kapp cower.

Caltuth spun and swam quickly away.

“I must apologize. You have given us no reason to fear or doubt you. Caltuth means well, he just can’t see past his own ego at times,” Cerule continued. “The Nokken arrived on our planet a quarter of a lifetime ago. They had large machines with which they stole our water. We fought them for as long as we could but soon we saw that the damage they had done was irreversible. Not only were they stealing our water, but their presence was polluting the rest. We had to evacuate on Home Ship.”

“How many of you survived?” Kapp said in awe and sadness from the story.

“1/16th of the population. Many more have died in the clashes since. Our population dwindles. I fear greatly for our fut–”

A horrid whistling alarm pierced the water. The small control panel on the platform flashed red. All of the Aqualin swam with purpose in response to the sound.

“What’s going on?” Kapp asked Qualia as she began to swim away.

“The Nokken are attacking something. We must take to our ships and intervene. Come with me Kapp.”

Kapp did his best to keep up as Qualia darted away at full speed. She swam out of the Large main cave, down the canyon and into a side shoot that many other Aqualin were swimming towards. As Kapp turned the corner he saw hundreds of small ships parked on the canyon floor. They looked like deep sea submarines, but each had large wing like white blades extending from them on each side. Qualia had entered one and was piloting it quickly towards Kapp, top hatch still open.

“Climb in, you fly with me,” she said.

Kapp entered through the top hatch of the ship. In Aqualin fashion there was not much inside the ship, just two chairs that appeared to be carved from the white cave walls that faced forward. The entire top half of the ship was transparent so Kapp could see other Aqualin boarding ships all around him. Qualia reached up and sealed the hatch after him, then gestured for him to sit on one of the chairs. Each chair had a small wheel in front of it with two levers on each side that Kapp assumed would be used to control the ship.

“Let’s fight some Nokken,” she said, pulling a lever and using the wheel.

They accelerated out of the offshoot and up towards the surface of the water. Breaching the surface they continued upward through the air towards the top of the dome of the ship.

Kapp closed his eyes as it appeared they were about to crash into the dome.

What have I got myself into, he thought to himself as he braced for impact.

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This is the fifth chapter in the book I am writing please consider reading the other chapters!

Chapter 1 "Massacre on Alpha"

Chapter 2 "Splunk"

Chapter 3 "Home Ship"

Chapter 4 "Fight (Dha’aerda)"

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