The Gravediggers of Orpheus [7]

Sci-Fi flash fiction

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The beginning… [1]

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[7]

The tall green giant stomped through the hallways of the Gravedigger ship Vulture05 with his heavy steps clinking on the metal floor.

Captain Derek met him on the Bridge. He had seen these creatures before - judging by his size and the long black hair, this Murblard was an adult male.

The Murblard gave a short nod of greeting. Derek nodded back.

“Greetings! I’m Captain Derek O’Connel. What brings a Murblard to my vessel? I had the impression you don’t usually like being around my race,” Derek said, observing every move the giant made. Though unarmed, he could still break a human’s spine without much effort. Derek and his crew around him held their guns at ready.

“Death makes a proud Murblard humble,” the green giant growled in a low voice. “Your Government Ghouls attacked my village two days ago. For no reason. We are not with the rebels.” Derek could hear the bitterness in Murblard’s voice.

“I’m very sorry to hear that, but how can we help you?”

“You are Gravediggers. The soil is frozen. We can’t bury our dead. Too many. We need help.” Begging humans for help was obviously not something the Murblard would do willingly, he lowered his sight in shame.

Derek stood thinking. Strange business - the dispatch should’ve informed them of a large number of dead civilians around, but the dispatch’ had gone awfully quiet since they crashed, and barely gave them any information.

“Alright, but you know our priority is dead humans. We are instructed to cremate the corpses of other races,” Derek said.

“No, please! No burning! Bury with dignity! Please!” The Murblard’s low voice hummed with quiet despair.

Captain Derek looked around at his crew. He thought intensely. If he wanted to help Sophie, he couldn’t waste his time burying dead Murblards. He sighed.

“We’ll see what we can do. How many dead units are we talking about?”

“Fifty-five,” the Murblard grunted.

Joe from the crew gave a long whistle.

“Alright. Give us the coordinates. We’ll get the excavation bots ready and head out.”

“Thank you,” the giant grunted, staring down at the metal floor.

“What’s your name?” Derek asked just before the Murblard had turned to leave.

“Ake,” he pronounced with a guttural sound Derek did not risk to repeat.

“Did you lose somebody in the attack?” Derek tried to be kind. The Murblard’ s every move was slow and heavy, as if an invisible burden was pressing on him.

“My mate and my youngling,” the Murblard hummed, but then a strange sound broke from his mouth, although he tried hard to suppress it. Though it was an eerie noise to human ears, Derek understood perfectly well it was the sound of pain and grief.

“We’ll do what we can to bury them with dignity,” Derek said.

The Murblard gave a nod and followed Joe to exit the ship.

***

Derek went straight to the survivor’s cabin. Though his hand shook nervously as he knocked on the door, he was determined to enter.

“Come in!” Sophie said.

Derek hurried to Annouk’s cradle, took the baby in his arms, and held her in silence for a couple of minutes.

“Is everything alright, Captain?” Sophie stared at him nervously.

“Yes… I just…” Derek stuttered; he couldn’t stand looking into her warm, brown eyes. He didn’t know how to tell her about the delay. She came closer, cupped his face, and made him look at her.

“I don’t believe you’ll get the Government’s microchip removed from my head before the Ghouls find me. I don’t want to waste time. I like you, Captain…” now she was the one lowering her sight, “…more than I should.” Sophie leaned closer and gave him a kiss on the cheek.