Halfkinds Volume 1: Contact (7 page)

“He didn’t deserve it,” I say.

“I know, sis.”

“What if… what if we’re next?”

“Hey, don’t say that kind of
stuff,” he says reassuringly.

“I mean it.  If they were able to
take out Leonard so easily, so quickly, what chances do we have?  None of us
know how to fight and we don’t have any weapons or anything.”

“Hey, we have each other.”

“I’m being serious.”

“So am I!  Look at me,” I tilt my
head up and look at his eyes.  His arms are at his side, paws clenched
together.  His tail lies perfectly still.

“Nothing is going to happen to you
or me,” he says.  “I promise.”

“Thanks, brother.”

His words comfort me, but that
comfort fades away the more I think about the next day.  The future scares me.

November 16, 3040
7:00 PM

I got the call last night from the
Brotherhood of Wolves about a special assignment they wanted me to undertake. 
They said that a mission had come up in Las Vegas and a tracker was needed. 
Wolves are natural trailers, and amongst them, I am the best.  The Brotherhood
can vouch for that.

Naturally, I accepted their
mission, no questions asked.  I come from a long line of loyal soldiers.  The
Snows have militaristic prestige written all over their names.  I would do
anything my fellow wolves ask me, especially the high council in the
Brotherhood.  I’m battle tested due to my service.  Unlike humans or pigs or
any other animal, I am not greedy.  I do it simply because my kind asks me to.

This mission is organized by the
humans, which initially caused some hesitation.  I’m not fond of their kind,
but the Brotherhood needed someone who can speak human.  I don’t need to rely
on those stupid translation boxes.  A computer doesn’t do my speaking for me, I
do.

They allowed me to rest for the
night before I journeyed off, but I couldn’t get any sleep.  I hate Las Vegas, it is human territory.  Most of North America is, only the coldest of North America is our territory, the Wolf’s Den as the humans call it.  They gave us that
wasteland when the negotiations happened hundreds of years ago.

Just the mere thought of being
around so many of them makes me nervous.  I have never trusted them and I know
of their history with wolves.  Before the Event, wolves were their sport.  We,
the natural hunters of the wilderness, were reduced to dodging their weapons. 
Many of us were pushed out of our homes, brought to near extinction.  And for
what?  To make them pretty coats?  To be targets in their games?  I would
hardly consider the slaughter of my brothers a game.  They could do what they
wanted because they had weapons we couldn’t compete with.  First, it was bow
and arrow and then it was guns.  We never stood a chance against them.

I still don’t understand why after
the Event, when the playing field became even, we remain underneath them.  We
had formed our society, formed our civilization, all within a few hundred
years.  Their technological development hit a brick wall.  Despite all these
handicaps, humans still dominate society, even today.  We have our own guns
now, but we still do not dare to strike back at the real alpha in this world. 
It’s a numbers game.  There are far too many humans for us to fight.  Even if
all the intelligent animals banded together, we still wouldn’t be able to take
them on.

They spent century after century
killing and reducing the numbers while multiplying.  And then, by their own
foolishness, they gave us the gift of intelligence.  But even then, our numbers
had dwindled so much that we still cannot fight back.  There are only millions
of us, while there are billions of them.  I guess that was their back up plan. 
As long as they didn’t kill each other off, they would still rule the land.

It’s not right.  We are superior
to them in so many ways.  We’re faster than them, stronger than them, more
durable than them.  They cannot fly on their own, they can’t swim without their
precious machines.  They can barely out run the slowest of winds.  The only
thing they had to their advantage was their brain, but even that isn’t much of
an edge anymore.  No, it’s because of their numbers.  It’s the only advantage
they have.

We should be the rulers of this
world, not them.

But I didn’t come to Las Vegas to spew my anti-human ideology.  I came here for a mission and I intend to serve
as best as I can.

I’m currently sitting in a large
conference room in the local United Species Alliance headquarters in Las Vegas.  The escort picked me up from the teleportation station and brought me straight
here.  He is a rookie human agent for the United Species Alliance, probably
some gopher that gets stuck with all the remedial tasks.  He tried to make
small chatter with me, but I pretended that I didn’t speak human, so he quickly
shut up.

I learned how to speak human
during basic training in the Brotherhood’s Academy.  It’s a tricky language for
wolves to pick up, as our physiology prevents us from making certain sounds,
but I try to cover my wolf accent as best as I can.  The Brotherhood tells me
that it is barely noticeable, yet sometimes I tend to stumble on ‘b’ sounds
here and there.  Other animals say I sound like I’m growling, but that is not
my intention.

I’m glad that humans only speak
one language.  I heard long before the Event, humans used to have hundreds of
languages among them.  Then, they started to unify it into one universal
language to make communication easier.  Thank goodness.

I was briefed earlier about the
mission from my own wolf superior, so I didn’t have to be briefed by the human
superior agent.  It’s a case of some renegade human group deciding to play
around with genetics, again.  But now I and a group of other animals are stuck
cleaning up their mess.  Typical.  Just like a careless human, they never learn
their lesson the first time.  Though I should be grateful to the first time, I
wouldn’t be standing where I am today if they hadn’t.

These things are half human, half
something else.  I will probably be the primary tracker on this team, meaning I
will be the one responsible for catching their scent and hunting them down. 
There is a dog on this team as well, but their skills are weak compared to us
wolves.  They have to rely on their toys.  They’re only here because they’re
good at sucking up to humans.  Dogs have spent their existence being pets.  The
funny thing is even after the Event, when they were free to do as they pleased,
they still play second fiddle to humans in their society.  They support the
humans any way they can.  They are their waiters, their cleaners, their
butlers, their servants.  They do have their own government, the High Dog Council,
but they always vote with the Human Council in the United Species Alliance. 
It’s pathetic.  They may not be on a leash physically anymore, but humans hold
a metaphorical one over them.

The room is filled with my other
team members.  First is the aforementioned dog.  I do not know my dog breeds
that well, but judging from his large size and golden yellow coat, he is a Labrador.  Like many other Labs I’ve seen, he looks big, friendly, and dumb.  He sits on
the floor with a pleasant demeanor.  He has a black Dog Alliance uniform on,
which is the High Dog Council’s police force.  It covers his body and legs, but
leaves his paws exposed.  It’s made out of a strilium high fiber polyester
synthetic.  I’ve been told that it is light and can nullify most small energy
projectiles.  It’s human technology, so I know it’s top notch stuff.  Humans
were always good with their tech, and they share it with their closest animal
allies.

I, on the other hand, am wearing
my standard issue reflector uniform, black in color.  It’s not as high quality
stuff as the strilium, and it doesn’t nullify energy projectiles, it just
deflects them.  But it’s wolf technology and I’m fine with that.  There isn’t
much human tech outfitted for wolves anyways.  The humans don’t think there’s a
market for their goods in the Wolf’s Den.  I’d say that’s a true statement, we
don’t want their overpriced wares.

The uniform is also extremely
light.  My fur had already been reinforced with wolfspray, a high aerosol alloy
that strengthens my fur’s durability.  It’s standard for any member of the wolf
military to go through this procedure.  We already have a natural coat, so why
not reinforce it with something resilient?

Sitting across from me is a
gorilla.  His kind I can respect.  They share roots with the humans, but unlike
the dog, they have carved out their own niche instead of being servants and
second tier citizens.  Together, them and animals like them such as chimps,
along with the lions, were able to claim the southern parts of Africa as their own.  The humans gave them some land down there as part of the negotiation,
but it wasn’t enough.  Thus, the rebellion against the humans in Africa
started, and the gorillas were highly adaptable.  They already had the
physiology similar to humans, so retrofitting human weapons and equipment for
their own needs was a piece of cake.  Within twenty years, their alliance with
the lions helped them push most humans out of South Africa.  Naturally, once
the struggle was over, their agreement was broken and the great war between the
gorillas and lions still rages on today.

I’m guessing eradicating these
halfkinds was so important that the Gorilla Government decided to send one of
their own to help out.

Most of the intelligent species
have already claimed certain areas of the world to call their home.  We wolves
occupy Northern Canada, dogs are spread out across the world, sharing whatever
territory they live in with humans, the pigs have Australia, and countless
other animals claim other parts of planet Earth.  It’s all chump change
compared to how much the humans still have.

The weird thing I find in all of
this is that despite all these new territories, we still call them by their
human names.  Our territory is called the Wolf’s Den, but it’s an unofficial
name.  The official name is still Northern Canada.  The pig’s territory doesn’t
even have an unofficial name, it’s still referred to the human name Australia.  The city names haven’t even changed.  I hear stories that long ago, when humans
ruled the world, when settlers came to the United States, they used names given
by the natives there.  I suppose the same thing has happened, but out of
convenience.  We already know Canada as Canada, so why change it?

I see it as a subtle reminder that
humans are still the principal species, that we have to speak their language,
use the names given by them.  Even though they don’t own the lands as they used
to, they still have that level of control.

The battles on Earth may have died
down, but the real battle has only begun with the terraformed Moon still in its
current state.  Politically, it’s a mess.  There have already been some
colonies set up by different animals, but colonies aren’t a big deal. 
Territories will cause conflict, large designations of land assigned to
different species.  We’ve only started to flesh out what that might look like. 
When animals start stepping over their boundaries there, claim this territory
over that one, a new war is going to be at hand.

I continue to observe my peers. 
There’s an elephant standing in the corner of the room.  I’m actually surprised
he is here.  I’ve never met an elephant before, as their territory is mostly in
parts of Asia.  From what I hear, elephants are quite peaceful.  But I also
hear in battle, they are durable, that their tech makes use of their large size
and powerful frame.  The elephant I see is quite gargantuan and he already has
some armor on, a standard heavy padded plasma absorber that all members of the
Elephant Force get issued.  It’s made to take heavy fire, especially heat.  I
suppose he’ll be useful in his physical durability alone.  Still, given their
soft reputation, the United Species Alliance could have sent a better tank,
such as a rhino.  But perhaps I’m stereotyping.

Last but not least, I see the
pig.  If there’s any other species I distrust more than humans, the pig would
be it.  Even before the Event, their reputation among humans was that of greed
and it is still well deserved today.  Their kind has been known to be hard
negotiators and gluttons for resources.  They take whatever they can from
whomever they can and refuse to broker alliances for what they collect.  The
whole government they have set up in Australia is based on the principal of
greed, an every pig for themselves mentality.  It is the opposite of what I was
raised to believe.  I was taught to stick to the pack, to fight not only for
yourself, but for each other.

I am jumping to conclusions.  I
haven’t talked to this pig yet.  Perhaps my prejudice is getting the better of
me.

Through their trading with the
humans, pigs have gotten decent at gaining and developing new tech.  It shows
through this one’s uniform.  He’s wearing a suit made of the same strilium the
dog is wearing.

This is the team that I’ve been
assigned to work with, handpicked by the United Species Alliance, a group
consisting of the leaders of all intelligent species.  They could’ve sent
others, a different combination of species and personalities, but they picked
us.  And now we wait for our human commander.  He’s the leader not because of
his leadership skills, but because this is a mission spearheaded by the Human
Council.  I will never consider a human my leader.

Suddenly, two humans walk in.  One
is a tall, portly man with a mustache, Agent Leons.  I had heard about him for
the first time when I was briefed earlier and I already don’t like him.  He
seems like a jerk.  The other is a leaner, more well-toned man that I have
never met nor seen.  He has a shaved head and strong profile.  His jaw is
square but his head is appropriate for his average height.  He looks young. 
Judging by his appearance, he is probably in his fifties.