2234 work in progress

Yukrino

Yukrino swam through a forest of kelp like plants in crystal clear water. He felt the touch of the plants on his skin, for once he had decided not to wear his suit. It felt liberating and yet so unnatural. This must've been what his ancestors enjoyed doing 700 years ago on Ovrian, before the spaceships of the Nozas descended from the skies to upift their species.

He would've lied if he said he wouldn't want to live like his ancestors, after all they had a peaceful live, unaware of the dangers of the 5 galaxies.

Slowly the moment began to phase away, Yukrino must be waking up, he realised that all had just been his imagination, a dream.

The first thing he saw once his eyes were open was confusing.

This wasn't his room on the Nihaly, neither was this any room of Ovrianic building style. He tried to move around but to his surprise his tail was chained to the bottom of the anti gravity tank he seemed to be in. Yukrino's first thought was to try to bite it in two, but his snout had been bandaged shut, angrily he attempted to get rid of it, shaking his head while attempting to hit the glass of the tank.

His moment of rage didn't last long, he was exhausted almost immeadiatly, whoever locked him in here took extra precautions. 

Slowly it came to him, these damned dolphins managed to knock him out and took him prisoner. Oh if he would get the chance he'd end them all, especially that small turquoise one! That annoying low life creature killed 2 of his comrades in front of him and dared to attempt to hide from his teeth by clinging to the most vulnerable part of his body.

Yukrino was about to go into a rage again, but forced himself not to, he hated the feeling of exhaustion.

He was surprised though, that these dolphins also seemed to have tended to all his injuries. His suit was gone, but the area he was stabbed into had been properly taken care of.

What was that? Did something just move in the corner of his eye?

A dolphin armed with a lasgun warily approached the tank he was in, muttering something Yukrino couldn't understand in Terranic. 

The dolphin was nothing like what Yukrino had ever seen, it's skin was speckled and it was quite thin, this must be one of the many different dolphin species. What was the name again, Stenella? 

He gave what he assumed to be a female dolphin an angry stare, who shyly retreated to the darker part of the room. Not like that was gonna help her anyways, Ovrians could see in the dark. If he could, he'd chase her until she ran out of breath. But Yukrino's presence alone seemed to cause her great discomfort, for now that was good enough for him. 

Slowly the bandage on his snout was starting to irritate him, opening his mouth was impossible and his fins weren't of any help against it. 

But what was that? Something just felt wrong in his mouth. His tongue searched along the upper row of teeth, and indeed, there was a hole. He was missing a tooth.

Great.

At least now he knew why his snout was bandaged shut, there was a sewn up wound in the place where his tooth once was. Yukrino couldn't recall when he had lost it, probably when that other dolphin rammed its snout directly into his head. That spot was probably pulsing blue by now, and whatever kind of painkillers they gave him, they worked. Unfortunately the same medicine, that was protecting him from that immense pain, seemed to be what robbed him off his strength. 

He let out a sound which was the equivalent of a frustrated sigh. 

If there was anything more boring than supervising a spaceships maintenace, it was being a wounded prisoner of war. The most entertaining thing he could do in this cylindrical 'fish' tank was to sleep. 

The automatic door to the end of the room slid open, for a moment, Yukrino catched a glimpse of what was behind that door. He definitely was in some sort of medical station, but he wouldn't have needed to see it to know it. That information wasn't of any use either way, the internal structure of this type of terranic destroyers was yet unknown.

The newcomers consisted of a female Tursiops dolphin assisting an almost completely bandaged up male dolphin. Something about him was familiar, his skin was turquoise. 

Wait, it was him, wasn't it? 

He observed the 2 newcomers, yes, it was definitely him. The smirk on the dolphin's face gave it away the moment their eyes met. Yukrino turned away, the female speckled dolphin in the corner of the room seemed to be relieved that she wasn't alone anymore. But one stare from him seemed to be enough to make her feel unsettled again.

The Ovrian looked back to see what the other 2 dolphins where up to. Much to his dismay, the bandaged up dolphin had been placed directly next to him. The water in the tank was currently being replaced by wet air, the dolphin was already floating in Zero Gravity, he was chattering about something. The female one waited outside the tank, she looked amused. By the look he was getting from her, Yukrino didn't need to think twice to know he was the subject of their conversation. Much worse, they were making fun of him.

Could this day get any better? He had enough humiliation for now.

At least he had his fun with the guard dolphin, so far she seemed to be the only one who was intimidated by his presence. It was amusing him that someone would be afraid of something that was locked inside a glass cylinder completely unable to do anything.

The other female dolphin approached his tank and looked at the device in front of his tank. Yukrino assumed she was checking his vitals, he had to admit, the fact that dolphins seemed to possess the ability to control machines with their mind was impressive. The Ovrians had to make use of machines capable of detecting and interpreting brain activity that had to be connected via wires to other machines to function.

Some kind of liquid was injected into him via a tube that lead into a small bandaged area directly under his second pair of fins. Whatever it was, he didn't like it, and he made sure the assumed nurse knew that with the help of an angry look as she swam out of the room.

"It was just nutrients, look, I got it too."

Yukrino froze.

Was that just Galactic 16? 

"Hey, I'm talking with you!"

He slowly turned his head at the turquoise dolphin in the tank next to him.

"Surprised?", the dolphin seemed to giggle a little.

'He can speak my language?!', he thought to himself in utter disbelief. 

Now he knew why the dolphin chose to be directly next to him.

"Oh, sorry I didn't introduce myself, my name is Dart. Remember me from the wreck?"

Of course he remembered him, how could he ever forget? This was his first encounter with dolphins and it immeadiatly went as badly as it possibly could. Yukrino would love to show him how mad he was, but he was lacking the energy to do so. His angry face seemed to amuse Dart a little.

"So you do, great! By the way, in case you're missing a tooth, it was stuck in my back."

So that's where his tooth went.

"Well, once you're rid of that bandage on your snout, tell me something about yourself, I want to know some things about the first Ovrian to ever be captured."

And to rub salt into the wound, the dolphin gave him the most sincere smile he had ever seen. Yukrino could swear that he was just barely supressing a laughter.

'Oh, first I'll do when I get rid of this bandage is to bite your tail off!', he thought as he looked away.

If there was one thing he couldn't understand about dolphins, it was how they apparently found something fun in almost anything.