Jeremhia raised his head, he spoke full of the pride of a Rafkin mariner. "We have no hostile ships on our sensors"

The light from the body of the heereen was off, he kept lit just the three globes on his head. They were all on me. "They're coming nearer and nearer, we can't calculate how much time we have left. We can see them, but you don't"

"A vast area of space is under control of our ship. How far are they?" Jeremhia was upset for the arrogance of the creature in the fish tank. Rafkins are prickly about anything regarding space navigation. They live in space since the day they were born, they can't accept someone is better than them.

I tried to calm him putting myself between him and the fish tank. Heereen's eyes moved, standing on me, as I did. "Who are they?" That question was more important to me.

"Enemies"

"Enemies of you? Are you at war with someone? Is this people hostile to us too?"

"No more time"

The howl of the alarm surprised us while the red lights turned on in the bay.

"Three vessels in the system." stated the voice of commander Bathor, from the bridge, brought us by the intercom. "Unknown. Destroyer's dimensions. We're hailing them but they're not responding. Battlestations on"

"Let the rain falls on the ground" said Dau-Natara-Comu, then he swam in the fish tank away from us and we heard him crawling through the pipe to his ship.

In the same moment the unknown vessels shot at us.

"Torpedos intercepted" said Bathor " They aimed the heereen ship. Wait! The heereen ship is disengaging from us!"

The heereen ship was just on the other side of the airlock of the docking bay where we were. We felt a vibration when they unhook the pipe of the fish tank and started their engines.

"Do we have to protect them?" I asked Jeremhia.

The eyes of the little creature were burning of rage. "It's not important what kind of war this is. They attacked us. Bathor will retaliate"

As I said, the Rafkin colony ships were the only home of the Rafkin people. They were huge, bigger than any other kind of spaceship, but considering their purpose they're too risky to be used in war, making the Rafkins a very peaceful race.

On the other side, who tries to attack a Rafkin colony ship has to face the fury of an entire race that see all his world endangered. A race that knows very well how to defend itself.

"Turrets from 4 to 7, ready to irradiate. Fire!"

A long moment of silence.

"The unknown vessels disappeared! No hit confirmed. Repeat! No hit confirmed! They just.. vanished"

"Their technology is beyond us, as the squid said" Jeremhia was angry and worried at the same time. Jeremhia is not a warrior, he is a section leader and a diplomat, his experience with battles is little, that's the reason Bathor is responsible in situations like that. Despite this, I saw my friend eager to take the command and fight on the front line. Rafkins literally transform when they're forced to fight.

"The vessels are back! We can't understand where they came out from. One of them seems to be damaged! Concentrate fire on it! Turrets from 1 to 5. Fire!"

We didn't need the report from the bridge, the intercom trasmitted us a loud hooray from Bathor and probably other men of the crew. When the Rafkins in the docking bay understood that the second shot hit the target they raised their hands, jubilating.

"No sign of the other two ships. No sign of the heereen ship. It seems they all fleed away. We'll keep alert on for a while"

"We need the ship's wreckage, I hope your cannons left enough of it" I ordered. I was speaking with the authority of the human senate. In my mind I was foreseeing all the troubles ready to come over me after what happened.

"We'll send a corvette to collect it" said Jeremhia, leaving the room, probably with the intention to lead the corvette by himself.

Alone, the peace restored, I turned my eyes to the fish tank. The black liquid was still in it, but thinking about the heereen ship wasn't at the end of the pipe anymore gave me a very bad feeling.