#Zy'ko is whatever you want them to look like tbh

[ahungeringknife]

365: January 18

And this is why I can't be trusted to write original stuff without a prompt. I just get INTO THE WEEDS fuck

----

Zy’ko cocked their head to the side watching the lower marshal organize a bunch of strange materials be accumulated and assembled in the colony’s outer ring. On the surface no less. “Is there a reason for this?” Zy’ko asked the marshal who was directing laborers. They could also see an architect and foreman bent over a inscribing table at some building plans. Now and then their antenna changed color as they agreed or disagreed on something.

“Monarch sent for aid from the Federation,” the marshal said.

“That doesn’t explain this.” Zy’ko had also not heard of this. They’d expect to hear from their parent about this but Zy’ko was the twentieth child so maybe not. Twentieth child who’s responsibility was the outer ring. There were more unsavory duties to give the Monarch’s child. One of their older siblings ran the sewage system and waste collection. They loved it apparently? Zy’ko would rather eat their own hand than do that duty.

“The only species that responded in dealing with the native fauna were… homo sapian,” the marshal said slowly. “They are surface dwellers and the Monarch wants them comfortable.”

“Homo sapian? What’s that?” Zy’ko asked.

“Beats me. Looked them up on the web and they’re new space farers. But they can breathe this planet’s atmosphere so it will be easy to deal with the fauna.”

Zy’ko’s fluffy antenna turned yellow, “Do they know we’ve been attacked by them?”

“I suppose so. Homo sapian are good at killing. Heard their planet is death zoned. Homeworld and some ice ball moon are the only ones with life. On the web it says they purged their system of all other life they didn’t like. So they know how to deal with these jaigon,” the marshal shrugged with his lower arms.

“I see,” Zy’ko said slowly and worked their hands across each other in concern. “We’ll see when they arrive,” they allowed.

—

Zy’ko wasn’t expecting how small these homo sapians were when they arrived. Their ship appeared massive in the sky above the colony and so did their transport ships but the species that came out were so small. The size of children. The Monarch had adjusted Zy’ko’s responsibility of the outer ring to also include the surface. It meant these homo sapians were their problem to maintain. They were so small they probably didn’t eat very much.

They wanted to be a good host though. Their parent and teachers had instilled in them good manners and so while waiting for the homo sapian ship to arrive Zy’ko had taken it upon themselves to learn the dominant language of those aboard this ship. Zy’ko had no lips so some sounds were impossible but they did as well as they could. They’d also had some laborers dig up and prepare a large portion of farm land for them as Zy’ko had learned homo sapians were omnivores and needed plants to maintain a healthy diet. The houses were arranged in a pleasing manner Zy’ko approved of and were powered by the plants atop the roofs that turned photosynthesis into electricity. The same thing that powered the entire colony.

Zy’ko went out to meet them with members of their cabinet who helped them manage the outer ring and now the surface. “Greetings,” they said as they approached the group of homo sapians leaving the transport ship.

“Howdy,” one with hair on their face said. “You folk are bigger up close huh?”

“And you are smaller,” Zy’ko said. They’d done extensive research on how to hold a conversation with homo sapians.

The others humans laughed. The one with hair on their face held out a hand, “I’m Captain Gustavo Ranger. You’re the Monarch’s kid right? Zy’ko?” and Zy’ko was pleased by how easily Captain said their name. Zy’ko had interacted with other species before and they had difficulties saying Dhissu words and names.

“Yes. That is I. Zy’ko, twentieth child of Monarch Gei’fan’tay, Grand Marshal of the Outer Ring and the Surface.” They grabbed the Captain’s hand in a gesture they knew was accommodating to shake. “Welcome to the first Dhissu colony of Vinuruta.”

The Captain introduced the rest of his own cabinet and said they had a bunch of colonists ready to put their teeth into the task of the jaigon. Zy’ko certainly hoped so. They’d been dealing with jaigon deaths in increasing rates lately. But first everyone had to be brought to the surface once the Captain and the others were sure everything was ‘above board’, whatever that meant. The Dhissu didn’t build with wood if they couldn’t help it so there were no boards or things to be above them. Zy’ko hoped that wouldn’t be a problem.

After looking through the new, empty, colony the Captain decided everything seemed good and they boarded their transport ship and went back up to their ship in low orbit to bring the rest of their people down. Zy’ko’s fluffy antenna were positively red with delight by the time they were leaving. They couldn’t wait to see how these dead zone system people dealt with those horrible jaigon.

—

It took a few months before Zy’ko saw any progress from the homo sapians. They left them mostly to themselves as the homo sapians were self governing and didn’t need to be monitored. That and Captain Gustavo said homo sapians didn’t like being managed ‘to hell and back’ a term Zy’ko had learned meant ‘to an overbearing amount’. So they left them alone, checking on them periodically. Captain Gustavo always had good reports about the jaigon despite the rising death rates amid the worker Dhissu. They’d found nests. They’d captured. They were studying the creatures. All good things to Zy’ko. Hopefully they’d rid Vinuruta of these horrible creatures soon.

So they were shocked when they left the outer ring for the surface and found the homo sapians had tamed the jaigon! And they knew that because as they were leaving the colony one went by them riding them.

Zy’ko went right to Captain Gustavo to demand answers.

Captain Gustavo came out of his office when Zy’ko arrived, the building too small for them. “Zy’ko, my friend, what can I do for you?” Captain Gustavo asked.

“What is the meaning of this?” Zy’ko demanded.

“What?”

“That!” and they pointed at one of the women of the colony walking a herd of baby jaigon on leads.

“Oh. Part of the plan, Grand Marshal, nothing to worry about.”

“I am deeply worried, Captain,” Zy’ko said. “We brought you here to deal with the jaigon problem, not make them into pets!”

“And that’s exactly what we’re doing,” Captain Gustavo said.

“I fail to see how this accomplishes what your charter dictates,” Zy’ko said, irritated beyond belief, their antenna a furious purple color.

“Just cool your fluffy self down, Zy’ko,” Captain Gustavo said. “Lemme tell you about what humans did on Earth. We have a creature on Earth called a wolf. Wolves are pack hunters who often killed humans’ livestock and sometimes even people. So a long long time ago humans captured wolf babies and started raising them around people. The wolves became obedient and learned to live with humans. Over wolf generations we bred them into all sorts of shapes for all sorts of jobs and call them dogs. One being to guard against wild wolves. There are several breeds of dogs who’s only job is to protect livestock and kill wolves. Now these jaigon are a lot like wolves,” he motioned to a field across the way where some homo sapians were teaching jaigon tricks, like how to sit. It was comical because of how large the jaigon were. “Just big.”

“And killers,” Zy’ko said. “They’re killing our workers.”

“Yeah. And give us a year or two with these jaigon we raised from babies and you’ll find no better jaigon killers than a tamed jaigon,” Captain Gustavo said.

“We don’t-

“Zy’ko, I’ve already discussed this with the Monarch. Everything’s fine. This is the plan. This has always been the plan. Now calm those purple bits of yours. Everything’s proceeding on schedule. Who knows, in a few years you might have your own pet jaigon.”

“Doubtful,” Zy’ko said. “Fine. I will trust the process,” and with that they left, still angry but not entirely sure about what. About the jaigon for sure but more that their parent or Captain Gustavo didn’t tell them about the plan. But homo sapians were self reliant. They didn’t need to tell Zy’ko everything, or anything really. They still felt hurt by it all the same.

—  

Zy’ko didn’t put much stock in Captain Gustavo’s promises to tame the jaigon and turn them into jaigon killers. Every month the number of worker deaths fluctuated around the same amount. Maybe one or two extra or one or two less but nothing of significance. They even went to their parent about it. They weren’t the only Grand Marshal to do so either. Once Zy’ko had had to stand in line with three of their siblings to speak with their parent and they all had similar issues with the homo sapians. Their people were still being picked off and workers didn’t want to go and do their duties. One of their siblings told them birth rates were down because so many workers had died. Even ones who hadn’t lost a partner were less likely to have children who might die to a jaigon.

They needed to do something extreme about these jaigon or this colony wouldn’t last.

The Monarch just dismissed them and said they were unconcerned with these problems as they knew the homo sapians would deal with the problem. Homo sapians coming from a dead zone system was brought up but the Monarch would hear nothing about it. And no one else in the Federation was interested in helping a single colony of Dhissu on a new world. They trusted the homo sapians. There was nothing anything of the Grand Marshals could do to change the Monarch’s mind either. The colony’s expansion would slow until the threat was dealt with if it had to.

It took a full year on Vinuruta before Zy’ko was going over reports on workers in the outer ring and found… no deaths from jaigon for the month. Not a single one.  They checked other parts of the colony and found only a few deaths in the entire colony related to the jaigon.

They hadn’t gone up to the surface in almost a year. Captain Gustavo and the Monarch’s dismissal of their concern had spurned them. Now they went up to the surface where the homo sapian colony was and was surprised by what they saw.

It was bigger for starters but that wasn’t what made Zy’ko stare. It was the jaigon. Both living and dead. The homo sapians used the jaigon as beasts of burden but also as quick mounts and they saw a not insignificant pile of dead jaigon outside of town a ways. Homo sapians were using tools to drag the bodies around and gutting and skinning them to put the hides up on drying racks under the sun. The tanning process smelled awful but at the distance it wasn’t too bad. The homo sapians also used two wheeled vehicles to get around but it seemed most of them preferred jaigon.

Zy’ko walked slowly through the colony. Some humans waved at them if they recognized them. A few even called their name and they stopped to say hello briefly. It was surreal seeing the homo sapians and jaigon so casually mixed. And their clothes. They saw some natural fibers but new clothes looked like it was made from jaigon hide. It made their otherwise dull and thin peach or brown skin shiny more like a Dhissu.

Finally Zy’ko arrived at Captain Gustavo’s office, the Captain was waiting for them. “Zy’ko! So great to see you again. How are things? How’s your mother?”

“My parent is well,” they said, feeling so confused. “I got a report there have been only three deaths all months to jaigon.”

The Captain grimaced. “Yeah. We didn’t get them all. Happened during a shift change. We’re more on top of it now,” he assured Zy’ko.

“But… how?”

“I told you didn’t I? We made the jaigon hunt jaigon. It’s not a natural thing they do but these guys will do anything for some belly rubs,” and he laughed when all of Zy’kon’s antenna turned yellow or orange in concern.

“My siblings and I thought you’d kill them like you did all the native species in your system,” Zy’ko said.

The Captain just sighed. “Yeah we didn’t do that. That silly rumor got a bit out of hand. We’d rather work with the natural fauna. Also try and tell Arnold he’s not allowed to pet a jaigon? Guy nearly lost a hand the first time we saw one!” the Captain laughed. Zy’ko didn’t know what was so funny. Arnold’s first instinct on seeing a jaigon was to pet it? This species was insane. “I’ll be some generations yet before they’re fully domesticated but we got tame jaigon now and that should fix your worker problem.”

“Yes. It has. Quickly. I don’t even see you on these thing.”

“Jaigon only hunt at night and you folk are pretty studious about sleeping when its dark,” the Captain said. “Now did you want to see our training course so you can go back and tell your siblings and Monarch all about it and to stop sending me vaguely threatening emails?” he sighed.

“Ah- yes. That sounds wonderful,” Zy’ko said and the Captain went to grab his jaigon skin jacket and led Zy’ko to another part of their small colony to witness jaigon training.