2199 Extinction

Watch dogs

        I look around and find my bed, nearby. It isn't very big but its better than nothing. I get up and go lay down. I spend the night tossing and turning, dreaming over and over again of the Ravog leader killing Amlican and of the others eating him. At some point, I wake up screaming for Amlican to run.

         "You alright over there?" Jalqor asks.

         I get up and walk back over to the wall near his cell. "Yeah, just a nightmare."

           "I figured that. Who is Amlican?"

          "My best friend. The Ravog killed him before bringing me aboard their ship."

         "Oh. I'm sorry."

         "Jalqor?"

         "Yes?"

         "How are we still alive?"

         "What do you mean?" he asks.

          "I mean exactly what I said. When the Ravog thought my Talfarian friend and I were spying, they killed him in a heartbeat. I watched them eat one of their own when he started bleeding. Why didn't they kill us too? Why take us prisoner?"

          "I guess being raised on Talfar Prime means you don't know anything about the Ravog."

           "I know they are pirates, stealing technology and making it their own. I also know that they could see the time travel jacket even though no one else can."

           "Do you know the history of the Ravog?"

           "No, why would I? There are so many different species out there in the universe, I can't memorize all of their histories."

          "The Ravog are a newer species, only having been created within the last two centuries." He explains.

         "What do you mean created? Who made them and why?"

         "A group of Copaie scientists were experimenting, trying to create a 'watchdog' if you will. Something to protect our home planet from Talfarian invasion. They wanted intelligence, speed, and aggression. The plan was to create something loyal only to the Copaie. And thus, the Ravog were born. The Ravog were more intelligent and aggressive than they planned. Within a few months, the scientists were run off the planet they were conducting their experiments on, and that became the Ravog home world."

        "That doesn't explain why they kept us alive."

         "Sure, it does. The loyalty stuck with them. They do not obey us, but they won't kill us, not purposely." he says.

       "What are the gold rings for?" I ask after a few moments of silence.

          "The what?"

          "The gold rings. Some of the Ravog have them and some don't."

            "The gold rings are an interesting piece of technology. Now, your average Ravog smells blood, and they can't help themselves, they go primal. They are born with this bloodthirst that they can't control. It was programmed into them. The Ravog themselves, came up with the gold rings. The rings block the scent receptors, so that particular Ravog cannot smell the scent of blood. The ring makes it where they aren't purely instinctual."

             "Oh, well how come only some of the Ravog have the rings? When they captured me, there was a few without them." I say, thinking back to Amlican's death.

           "As far as I can tell, those would be the low-level grunts. The one's with below average intelligence. I'm not sure how they decide that but only the more intelligent ones get a gold ring."