The Great Galactic Score!

25

25

As both Briyun and Lap disappeared into the thick fog below, Demi began to wonder whether Friss had anticipated this or not. For certain, Lap could defend themself, but Briyun, the cheery, odd-speaking stoat-like creature didn't seem the type to be a fighter. A party-goer? Yes. A surfer? Almost certainly. A fighter? Not so much. Her fingers tapped upon the frame of the cargo bay doors and she considered stealing the ship and flying away to some isolated planet where she could worry about little things, like which sarong to wear to the beach.

"Friss. They both jumped. Bri and Lap. They didn't even use the rope and ..." She paused as she communicated with the bridge as several more, enormous rabbit heads emerged above the surface of the fog. One seemed bad enough. "You're gonna need a bigger stoat."

The communications rattled and crackled as Demi waited for Friss' reply and she continued to stare down at the fog and the monstrous rabbit heads, that dipped beneath the surface and rose again, teeth bared, terrifying roars escaping wicked-fanged teeth. She didn't want to think what those teeth could do to Bri and Lap. Probably something horrible, like ripping them apart until there was little left to identify the two crew mates.

Then, something odd happened. Something more odd than thirty-foot tall rabbits living in a bank of fog that blanketed an entire planet. The roars turned to howls. Howls that sounded very much like screams of pain and, when one monster rabbit head emerged from the fog, Demi saw something remarkable.

Briyun, clinging to a rabbit ear with one hand, waving her other hand in the air, like a rodeo rider controlling their balance, and whooping before she leaned down and bit into the rabbit's neck. Another roar of pain and blood began to stream from the rabbit's neck before it dipped down under the cover of the fog once more.

"WHERE IS THE PARMESAN!" The voice of Bognrd broke into the silence as Demi stared, open-mouthed, below. "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CREATE CULINARY PERFECTION WITHOUT PARMESAN!"

"We're a little busy here, Bognrd!" Friss answered Bognrd when he hadn't even bothered to reassure Demi. That felt more than a little insulting. "Have you tried the third refrigerator on the second floor of the kitchen? Bottom shelf. Behind the crate of tabasco sauce?"

"I AM LOOKING AT THE THIRD REFRIGERATOR, YOU IMBECILIC SPAWN OF A MOTHERLESS GNAT! IT'S ..." A pause followed and, through the crackling and interference caused by the fog, Demi heard a tinkling as Bognrd moved things aside. "WELL, WHO PUTS PARMESAN ON THE SAME SHELF AS TABASCO SAUCE? NEVER MIND. I'LL REARRANGE EVERYTHING MYSELF, BECAUSE WHY WOULD PITIFUL CREATURES SUCH AS YOURSELVES KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE CORRECT PLACES FOR INGREDIENTS?"

Demi shook her head. The muscular, demonic-looking Bognrd should be here, helping Briyun and Lap find the entrance to the facility, not messing around in a kitchen that Demi still had serious doubts about. At least Lodka couldn't create parmesan from her own flesh. At least, Demi hoped so. After another second of thought, she decided Gal-Navy rations on Zapasnoy weren't so bad after all.

She couldn't see anything happening below, now. Not that it looked calm. By the way the fog swirled and shifted, she could tell something was happening down there. What, she couldn't imagine, but it probably involved blood and biting and whatever it was Lap did that caused such horrible, sickening injuries to everyone they fought.

A involuntary shudder travelled up and down her spine as she tried not to remember the events of the arena on Banks Station. She had tucked all those visions away, hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of her mind. The kind of places usually reserved for those embarrassing moments where she had become too drunk to control herself and had become a nightmare for her best friends. Or those times when she had confessed her absolute adoration for rock stars as a teen who, when she looked back on those times, were all dicks.