The heat of the midday sun gently began to fry the lush new undergrowth thriving on the floor of the ravine. Knelling under the cool shade of a huge tree with its splendid light purple foliage abounding, a figure swatted at annoying flying mites from his face, continuing to examine the document illustrated on the single message communicator. Thoroughly engrossed in reading the document, as the forefingers of each of his three-fingered hands tap the screen, exercising options to ease reading of the script, the male retrieves more data to read. He barely notices the men in his command, tossing food to the indigenous two foot high, dark brown and tan stripped colored ape-like creatures gathering the bounty, down near the fast running creek shoreline, many yards away from his location. More of the brave creatures tarry away from their troupe in the trees, grabbing the precious morsels tossed about here and there.

“Throw some to that one, “says one male encouraging the other male, as he expounds more comments. ” That one acts like he’s real hungry,” nodding in affirmation to his friend, his buddy complies, flipping more food to the ground in the direction of the favored one. More and more animals creep forward eagerly accepting the nourishment in the dirt before them. A warming breeze flows about all creatures in the area, like syrup over a hot stack of pancakes; it flows through the highly vegetated ancient valley floor, as both men are now joined by another man watching the scene with strange interest.

The commander of this trio sees the smooth rocks near the shore which are ideal for sitting on, after centuries of erosion. The leader prepares to select a seat. Continuing to contemplate the information he is reading while keeping an eye on his men, he walks a few paces from under the shade of the tree, swatting at the insects again, but a couple of sentences in the document stop him dead in his tracks. He smiles widely, emits a small reassuring chuckle, shakes his head and resumes reading, standing there in the brightness of the day. Shading his eyes, the commander looks up from his reading to assess the surroundings and select a sitting place. The luminous spears of light from the ancient white-blue sun above flashes in his face, as more streaks of reflected light strike the bow of his space craft, towering high up on the crest of the ravine, several hundred yards away from his location. Meanwhile, on the campfire heating equipment, small pans heat up more grub to be eaten, as the three philanthropic men feed endearing little animals, sharing their food with the cute creatures.

Without warning, there are two tremendous flashes of momentary blinding light, followed by two angry, terrifying explosions noxiously, erupt the tranquil setting. Before the debris clears the site, the next sounds smacking through the surrounding dusty air are - splat, schunk and plop, as pieces of the tree ape creatures, surrender to the forces of gravity and smear their bright yellow blood on the rocks, small trees and bushes everywhere. The head of one unfortunate creature rolls into the creek, tainting the clear water with its yellowish tincture.

Bellow upon bellow of hideous laughter rip through the once serene scene just moments earlier. Disgusted, their commander raises up from his hiding place behind a good size boulder, avoiding what he perceived as certain death, while the trio continued to laugh at their morose sense of levity.

His name is Heas. Heas is their commander and he is very pissed off. Heas stands up roaring in defiance “Shut up over there!” Snarling to the point that spittle flies from his mouth. Heas calls out to his lead man, “Sehcta! Sehcta! I am tired of you luring those rock apes over to you for…” pausing to get control, as he whips spit from his chin, Heas screams ” food! ” “Wasting our food. Then you blow them up wasting our grenades. You are just a dumb ass aren’t you? Just a wasteful dumb ass.” With one hand, he swipes dirt and debris from his person, continuing to cuss out the Sehcta, while grasping the communication device tightly in his other hand.

Heas, the leader is noticeable bigger than any of the other males he commands. He is Rebmecian, very intelligent species, highly cautious, heavily muscled (his home planet possessed heavy gravity), with three fingers and thumb on each smooth hand, boasting a head of glossy black thick hair. Dressed less flamboyantly than his men, preferring to be more inconspicuous, in dress and his verbal tone, he continues to cuss out his men in more low controlling tones. Unfortunately, Heas chose to seek the criminal life for whatever reason, utilizing uncompromising bravery. He quickly ascended a big boss status in the pirate way of life sporting a strong nasty rep throughout three or more over-populated star systems. Heas specialized in extortion, prostitution, drug running and slavery. His array of weapons adorning his person now, was as lethal as they were numerous.

Placing the communicator on the boulder, Heas used both his power arms to remove the soils from his clothing. “Sehcta! Sehcta answer me. Answer me now!” Then Heas heard a strangely disarming familiar sound, but he could not place it. From Heas’ standing position, he grabbed the message device once again, seeing Sehcta standing motionless. Sehcta did not move. But Heas could see another thing. There smoldering on the small flames of the camp fire cooking appliances, lay one of his men. The life-less body lay marionette-like in the fire on its back, with the corpses eyes bulging out of the sockets and soiled clothing hissing loudly in the fire, where his bowels haplessly released its waste products.

From the high growing brush on the opposite side of the creek, a cool clean, crisp voice spoke firmly, “If you give up now. None of the rest of you will have to die.” Silence commanded everyone’s attention for several ungodly long seconds. More directions rang out, “The only reason I sanctioned him was he tried to kill me. I let him go five weeks ago in a shitter at the pirate trading post on Suraeth. I bet he did not tell you we met. Did he Heas? I trailed him here to you. Got warrants for you and your men. Some start to a vacation, uh?”

“Anna, is that you?”

Read Chapter Two