Kurg: A SciFi Romance

Chapter 1

Kurg

The first pink inklings of dawn have barely painted the horizon when the ultrasonic alarm awakens me from slumber. Eyes snapping open, instantly alert, the covers flung aside by one efficient swipe of my arm, I rise to a sitting, then a standing position.

Not just quickly, mind you, but quietly as well, because I am not alone. Unfortunately. All about me in the rectangular, quite frankly boring environs of the barracks are bunks, most filled with the sleeping form of a sapient life form. My fellow cadets in class Six, Division Nine here at Barakus Academy on the typical S class world Felora VI.

Or should I say, they appear to be sleeping. I am a recent insert into Class Six, DivisionNine, and thus the others in the group have been testing me. The Terrans call it hazing, the Odex call it culling, and the Alzhon call it the Rookie’s Gauntlet.

For some reason they see fit to torment me because I apparently haven’t ‘paid my dues’ as of yet. Though cadets, Class Six, Division Nine has been involved in several active fire missions, all of them resounding successes.

Maru and our boss Vyker have both faced and defeated Reapers in combat, though Maru doesn’t reside on campus due to his mated status. He lives in the city with his Companion Reina. A beautiful if somewhat egotistical human woman.

The others of my unit lie still, either snoring softly or lolling about. I place my feet on the floor and stare about.

“There had better not be a tripwire leading to the lavatory,” I say loudly. No one laughs, or stirs. Maybe they really are all asleep?

When I’m most of the way through the gauntlet of bunks, I remember something else. I begin to scan the way ahead of me carefully for arachnid webs stretched between the bunk posts. Feloran sting tails lost their venom but gained the ability to weave webs, and if you walk into their web they shriek at top volume for up to a minute. I learned that lesson two nights ago when I had to pee after lights out.

No webs today, and if there’s a tripwire, I leap nimbly over it. Finally, I have successfully navigated the gauntlet of pranks and can now safely use the lavatory. But when I settle onto the seat, something pops under the lid and I feel wetness on my legs.

“What is this, now?” When I reach down and touch the sticky fluid on the back of my calves, I discover it’s chutney sauce from a Cosmo Burger chain. Lifting the seat, cursing as I get the sauce on my work out gear, I find that there are two smashed, evacuated packets placed just right so that the lid popped them open as soon as my weight settled atop of it. Diabolical genius, but to what end? To slow me down enough for them to possibly take the rank of top cadet?

Not a chance. I may have entered the program later than the rest of my fellows, but I won’t let this minor inconvenience keep me from my training and slide behind. I’m going to be Top Cadet. That trophy is as good as mine.

As a Kilgari, I have a reputation to uphold. I intend to be the best at everything, no matter the challenge. I’ve always been this way, even as a child. It often grated on my father and stepfather’s nerves, because as a rule Kilgari men are more laid back and easy going.

Not me. I set one challenge after another and triumphed over them all. Sometimes I would hit a wall, where I could not defeat the challenge, and I would continue to try until I succeeded. At the moment, I’m trying to beat the Barakus Academy record of press lifting, currently held by Zuvok the Terror. To be honest, his two ton bench press might be insurmountable, but I intend to keep trying until I succeed or I graduate, whichever comes first.

Even then, I’ll probably continue to train on my own with beating that record as the prize. Accolades mean nothing, it is only personal satisfaction I seek.

I move back between the bunks. They’re still trying to pretend to be asleep, but I know at least half of them are awake. All the sniggering, shaking humps of blankets, and out and out laughter give them away.

“Mock on, mock on, you immature cretins. I’ll see you in two hours for PT.” 

Then I head out into the pre dawn light, waving at one of the civilian workers, an older Alzhon woman, as she vaporizes a load of garbage into the fusion canister outside the mess hall. I’m ‘lucky’ enough to have my barracks located across the avenue from the mess hall, which means that at all hours of the day and  night there are noisy louts rushing past the windows speaking at top volume.

I take my morning run around the campus, leaving the barracks behind to give the obstacle course a go. Really it’s almost too easy, which is why I’m wearing weighted wrist and ankle bands. The other cadets may mock me for running this course, that they dread so much, every single morning BEFORE physical training, but it’s part of the test to graduate to the next level of training.

The first part of the course involves throwing yourself on your belly and crawling beneath a series of low stone partitions, with little clearance. For a man built like myself, well over seven feet tall and nearly five hundred pounds with two percent body fat, it’s a pretty tight squeeze.

Also my least favorite part of the course, which is why I’m glad that it comes first. As I approach the barriers, my eyes narrow in confused anger. There had been no sound of rain last night, nor none on the report. Yet the ground beneath the barriers is sodden and muddy, basically one gigantic puddle.

Even the leaves on the surrounding trees seem dry. What is going on? Some sort of localized weather phenomenon? Well, I’m not going to let it stop me, or even slow me down.

I throw myself to my belly and slither under the barriers, closing  my mouth tightly to avoid swallowing any of the muddy water. Ironically, the  mud speeds my way through, because it forms a kind of lubricant.

When I pop out on the other side, I’m covered in the sticky mud. Nonplussed, I continue on to the next obstacle, a rope ladder that leads up to a high platform. Hand over fist, I climb swiftly, not even bothering to hook  my legs in. Something else they mock me for, but this is much faster, and makes the ladder less tricky to—

A sharp crack, and the rung my weight has been placed upon snaps like a twig. I plunge back to the ground, slamming hard on my back. Someone needs to see about inspecting this obstacle course, as it’s a pure safety hazard.

Never mind. I climb back up, skipping the broken rung and make it to the platform. There’s a zip line that you are supposed to slide down, sometimes with one hand while you fire  your weapon with the other. I double check the hanger before trusting my weight to it. Damn shoddy upkeep, if you ask me. And this is supposed to be an elite academy?

No matter. I land at the bottom of the zip line in a dead run. The next obstacle is child’s play, running across a rounded log thirty feet long and four feet wide. As I said, simple.

I’m halfway across the log when I realize something’s wrong. My feet seem to be sticking to its surface. I stagger on a couple more steps, and then can move no further. What is this, some kind of sap?

“Well, look what we have here, boys?” An Alzhon peeks out from behind a tree, a bit on the skinny side. It’s Listol, one of my fellow cadets. I should have noticed that his bunk was empty. “Golden boy is all stuck.”

“Listol, you immature buffoon. Is this prank your doing?”

Listol shrugs.

“I can’t take all the credit. Dylbek stole the industrial adhesive, and Maru financed the whole thing.” 

The two sapients in question step out into view, grinning ear to ear. Dylbek is a Vakutan, more solidly built than Listol but with about a third the brains. And Listol isn’t smart. Maru could be going places but he’s more interested in skipping class to spend time with his Companion. I look down upon all of them with contempt.

“Hey, Maru, where’s the feathers?” Dylbek frowns and looks about.

“Feathers?” I ask, suddenly alarmed.

“Skeeve! Make with the feathers, already.” Maru says.

“Right away sir.” I look up into the trees just in time to see an elderly Alzhon man upend a sack of fluffy down, which cascades through the air and then engulfs and sticks to my muddy form.

“Soldier, you’re out of uniform.” Maru says. They all laugh, and snap holo photos with their tablets.

“I’m going to wring your neck,  Maru,” I sputter, spitting out white feathers.

“Yeah, but you’re stuck to that log. I don’t think you’re going to do any such thing.” Maru snickers, and crosses his arms over his chest.

Calmly, I bend at the knees, careful not to touch the sticky log, and unlace my boots. Maru doesn’t catch on to what I’m doing until it’s almost too late.

Slipping out of my boots, I leap barefoot off of the log and reach for Maru. But they’re all running full bore, and I have to pick my way carefully because I don’t have footgear. 

We make quite the strange sight, I’m certain, as three cadets run across the grounds of Barakus Academy chased by a feathered, horned monster bent on their destruction.

I cannot stay here on campus any longer. The time has come to take extreme measures. If Maru can contract a Companion just to live off campus, then so can I.

That will put an end to these puerile pranks. Besides, it might be nice to have a domestic to cook and clean up after me. Yes, this plan is foolproof and in no way will come back to  haunt me.