Went to the Khitomer Talks in an effort to help the Romulan Republic claim Dewa III as a new homeworld. I got new eye gear, but I decided after getting some odd looks from the first Klingons I talked to that I should not wear them here. At least he seemed receptive to Romulans. Others I overheard also had some positive things to say, while others held outright disdain for us. At first I was a little upset, angry really, but then I realized that perhaps they had personal stories of Romulans causing them harm. I heard in their voices things I have said about the Tal Shiar. We just have to show that we and the Tal Shiar are not the same.

Speaking of the Tal Shiar, there were some of Empress Sela’s forces at the talks. Diplomacy prevented me from giving them more than a dirty look. They had some choice words to reply to me with, and I resisted speaking too much of my mind. I didn’t want to start a fight. At least, I decided it wasn’t the right place for it, even if I wanted to turn each of them into feed for a Belgravian Snoot Pig.

The Klingon ambassadors were not the most receptive, but at least they seemed to like me personally after some banter.

Some of the Starfleet members were receptive to us, hopeful that peace could happen. Others were rather talkative. Many words and not a lot of useful things to say, that I can recall.

Another of them, Admiral T’Nae, held no goodwill towards the Romulans. Perhaps she too was wounded too by the Tal Shiar. I attempted to find out as much, but she would have none of it.

After an appearance from Empress Sela, of which there is little to say, it was the expected drivel she spoke, Tovan and I took back to Space to investigate some odd readings. Turn out these Elachi were hiding Romulan ships, Including Hakeev. We ran him off but not before he put a plot of his into play.

Hakeev beamed down bombs to the conference. I was able to disable all but one of them. Temer stopped that one. I found out later from Ja’Rod of the Kang, who assisted us against Hakeev, that one ship had managed to remain hidden and beam a bomb down later than the rest. Perhaps had we warned someone instead of taking care of it quietly, it could have been prevented. For unlike the other bombs, that one was not disarmed.

However, it’s intended target, Wolden, was saved by Temer, who used his personal shield to contain the blast.

This left quiet an impression on the people at the conference. Self-Sacrifice isn’t known to be a Romulan way to be deceptive. I still heard some suggest it was a trick, but even they didn’t sound too sure. I’m sorry to see him go, even though I didn’t know him well yet.

After returning to the flotilla, I talked with representatives of both the Federation and the Klingon Defense Force. I had to take some time to decide who I would put my allegiance to assist them so they would in turn provide support.

I have no desire to get mixed up in the war between the Klingons and the Federation, but that is we risk I have to take. On one hand, the Federation would provide good technology and resources for me to create farms and food. The Klingons offer a direct approach of battle against the Tal Shiar. I suspect the Federation might get in the way of that. Yes, I want peace, but by the way of the gun. The Tal Shiar must be destroyed.

I will aid the Klingons and accept their help. Perhaps once the Tal Shiar are gone, we can negotiate with the Federation for the things we need for agriculture, but I fear progress in that direction will be destroyed if first we do not stamp out the Tal Shiar.

And perhaps some day we can be independent from both sides and hold our own in the galaxy.

Traveled to Dewa III, the first viable solution for a new homeworld for the Romulan Republic. Tried several other systems with either no results at all, or some pirates itching for a fight. They got one. Now they are itching to not be dead.

Dewa III has some ambient radiation from an ancient orbital bombardment long before the Vulcan outcasts came and went from the system. Hopefully nothing happened to my viability while scanning an area of the radiation.

One of the amphibious animals of the planet was a tentacled creature that appears to actually thrive on the radiation, as well and keeping the parasite levels lower while providing food for fish and the flora on the edges of the rivers. Perhaps they were always here, or perhaps they adapted to the environment over time.

Took many water samples. Not a lot to say, at this point, as the samples are still being processed, but the ecology appears to be vibrant and alive.

Now the plant life is very interesting. Many of the properties appear to indicate the ability to grow a lot of food for the colony we could place here. Already I have found things that I want to try to grow here in an organized way, as well as certain crops to grow. We’ll have to take care not to introduce anything that would imbalance the ecosystem. We should try to keep imported flora to a minimum and utilize what is already here as much as we can.

I could do a lot of good here. Hopefully we can do so without too much trouble from outside forces. I’d love the chance to stay here a long time and cultivate farming and food supply for the colony.

Some of the animals here are aggressive. However, we were able to lower out weapons settings to scare them away. No sense in killing them without cause. I don’t think the more aggressive animals are too abundant to cause too much of a problem, but fauna is not my area of expertise.

Apparently these small creatures are prey to the larger animals we had cleared out, for they appeared soon as the larger animals left. They seem to be friendly. I imagine if tamable, that some people will enjoy having such animals around. They appear to not like electronic devices. As soon as I scanned them, they scuttled back into the underbrush.

Found an ancient bridge. I pushed my video capture drone nearly past its limits to get this picture. It nearly fell into the chasm when it reached the edge of its transmitter/receiver range. Viril grabbed the pad from me and did something that got it back to me. Not sure what she did, but a low battery icon appeared on the pad, and considering that I’ve never even seen the icon before, I wonder if my pad is damaged. Not that I mind, since losing the drone would have been a great loss to me. Soon as we got the drone back, however, we noticed something had walked onto the bridge.

A Tholian!

The Tholians scared away the animals. Not sure what they are up to, but we mean to find out. It would be quite the trouble to find a hive of Tholians (Hoard? Cluster? What is a group of Tholians called?) on the planet.

We found a group of them. Not sure what they are up to. They weren’t up for discussion, so we had to fight. The battle was tough, but surprise and superior tactics led us to victory.

This is what the Tholians were after. I’m not ready to say what we suspect it to be. I’m not even sure if the Tholians even knew what it was. Perhaps it was merely an anomaly to them, but it is an item of great interest to us.

I’m sure building a colony here is possible, and that it will be a challenge. But it well happen, by word and by gun, whatever needs to happen.

Went to Gasko Station to look for Romulans interested in joining together with the Romulan Republic. I met Tobol who said he would be our guide. His visor made me wonder what eye augmentation I could find. Nothing to replace my own eyes, as is probably the case with him, but some sort of optics I could wear would be great.

No one on the station seemed interested in anything other than laying low and taking no action. It’s like they think they can stay put and everything will just turn out fine. Perhaps if peaceful colonies weren’t being wiped off the face of planets, that could be true.

A pleasant surprise was the horticulture lab! I spend some time discussing farming and plant experimentation with the scientists there. They gave me a few tips I can take back to the flotilla Growing plants on a station and a ship are similar. They even gave me some seeds for some rare plants used in dishes that are harder to make now that the planets they are from are destroyed. I’m glad they saved them, and that I garnered enough respect to be given some. It’s something, even if not manpower itself.

On the way to see the station commander I met one Lhaes whose brother was imprisoned for causing trouble. I’d heard people talking around the station about it. Seems strange. Tobol said the accusations made against Lhaes’ brother were false, impossible, but both men in question were in holding. I don’t know if there’s anything I can, or should, do to help.

Hakeev! He has control of the station. They tried to get the jump on us, but I am not to be trifled with. They went down like the gutter rats they are.

In the chaos, I killed the station commander. He was unarmed, but I turned and fired out of instinct, expecting hidden danger. Maybe there was, or perhaps not. I can rest though, knowing he isn’t alive to seek vengeance against me.

We found Lhaes’ brother. There was no other prisoner in custody, evidence he is innocent. I see no reason not to trust him at this point.

Death. More destruction the tal shier will reap as they sow it upon themselves. We found Lhaes dead. I considered not posting these pictures of violence and death. They may be too graphic for some, but the fact is, we are fighting to survive, and aside from our strength and will, facts are a powerful weapon to use against the Tal Shiar. If only their words are spoken, they will sound right, but when another voice speaks up, people will take time to consider.

Once the truth of the station was revealed, and the refugees were rescued from danger of capture, they decided to join the cause of freedom. I only hope it doesn’t always take such drastic events to convince people to join … another reason I am putting these facts out there for all to see.

_note_ I’m going to try and keep these posts to a narrative, chronological story style, for consistency.

I was enjoying the cool darkness of the planet, but moments after landing I noticed something wrong. More of the mysterious allies of the Tal Shiar. Their touch is tainting everywhere around me. I was hoping to meet see about some friends who had come to Crateris, but unless great fortune was at the ready, I wouldn’t have any time for personal matters.

Not that this wasn’t all personal to begin with.

After a few firefights with Elachi and some Tal Shiar condor snakes, we rescued Zdek, and soon were joined by his daughter Veril. I explained how the Tal Shiar had destroyed Virinat, and they were coming to Crateris to crush it too.

He supplies us with some weapons and we headed to help repair a broken transmitter, supposedly being repaired by one Slamek.

On the way there was more Tal Shiar forces which soon lay dead at my feet.

Unfortunately, one of the Elachi drones was sabotaging a shuttle. I destroyed it, but not before it had destroyed the shuttle.

We met up with Slamek. I had an immediate dislike of the man. He was very pessimistic and not very helpful. Seemed a bit suspicious too. If he had actually managed to help, perhaps I would have changed my mind.

However, all he did was say what couldn’t be done, and when he did eventually help, the results were unsatisfactory.

In the process of protecting the comm array, we were attacked and I had some trouble with some kind of anti-personnel drone.

The comm array managed to become more damaged in the process. Either it was damaged in the fight, or Slamek is incompetent. I didn’t notice any marks that looked like they were from the Elachi.

Despite the destruction
of the array, it was the least of our problems.

As we headed back to Zden, an Elachi attack ship replayed the destruction of Virinat.

We got Zden and Slamek to a shuttle, but Viril insisted on coming with us, and her engineering experience is very welcome aboard the ship.

I just wish I could say things got better off planet, but during Zden went missing during the battle.

My crew is growing, as are the forces for the Romulan Republic. I hope it is enough.

<note> Some have asked how I get the photographs. I took a floating camera from Lady Hedon on the way out. It’s programmed to record and I take stills from the video. The programming it came with does a good job of getting dramatic shots, as it did in the arena.

First, make a deck. Do this first because it is the most tedious part. Below are image files, one for a white stone, and another for a black stone. A third for a card back. Daniel Solis provided me the stones, I clipped the card back from the book and erased the words. You could use any other images you want, however.

First, upload the desired files to your art library.

Then create a deck.

Add the card back art from library, then, here’s the fun part, make 20 cards named White Stone and 20 named Black Stone. Drag the appropriate art from library to the cards. Don’t drag it from a folder for each, it will make new uploads to library each time and take forever. I tagged my images with Pilgrim so I could show all at once.

It says to make back and front art the same size, but since flipping the cards over isn’t anything you’ll need to do, I didn’t worry about it.

When a player needs stones, they draw 3 to the table by dragging the cards to the table. Once they decide which to keep, they place those in their hand, and the GM recalls and shuffles all the cards left on the table, replacing the stones and shuffling. The chosen stones stay in the players hands.

For the letter, I recommend making an image outside of Roll20 and importing that to the table.

For the word list, make a handout that is editable by all players and available in each player’s journal. In the notes section, put the word list. Players can strike out the ones they use. Alternately, if you include the list on the letter, you could make tokens to place next to the used words.

For the story, make another handout with the same options as previous, and players can add their section to the notes each time.

Also, each player will need a token for their trouble icon. You could also use cards which could be on the table or in the players hand, or just flipped over, etc.

I haven’t tested this, but if anyone does, let me know how it goes and if I made any horrible errors!

Image Files in a .zip.

I got a new uniform today. The one I had on before had stains on it, the blood of friends, and of enemies. My old clothes are a part of my past now. Once again I can’t just have a peaceful life like I had wanted. I have to fight for freedom and to just survive. Fight to protect. We must all fight until all those who would destroy are either themselves destroyed or perhaps some may decide to change their ways.

I talked with D’Tan. His vision is that of peace, reunification. But not peace without war. Recent events have made it clear that our enemies cannot easily be turn to reason. They want to take and take, not create and share. However D’tan desires that we find a new home, somewhere we can defend and live and grow. I will be taking a part in this.

Met a new friend on the flotilla. Good to see a face similar to me. Something a little more like the home I once knew.

Note: Aehallh means “Monster” in the Romulan tongue. Yeah, my guy is a Reman, but it’s not like you can pronounce it anyways.

Virinat Festival Days

Had a bit of a rest at the cafe. I enjoyed an experimental brew of some kind of beans S’anra, the cafe owner, started growing. Apparently it is based on a human drink called “coffee”. It’s not the same, she told me. I can only hope whatever coffee is tastes better than this. It’s far too sweet, and far too sour. And I don’t understand how a brown bean makes a pink drink.

Tovan is waving at me. I will see what’s going on.

Lots of excitement with the khellids and the vineyard, and whatever that was I found if the cave. Can’t wait for the festival tonight. That’s what I had a drink in the market, but I was promised something special later. It’s nice to finally be doing what I have wanted to do for such a long time. Farming, and researching farming techniques.

The fruits of the vineyard and the tapping tonight is what everyone is talking about today, but later this week some of my new melons will me ready, and I hope they are as good as expected. I’ve got several of the fruit vendors already wanting to make deals with me to sell them.

This is not how everything was supposed to happen. Our home is being destroyed. In a moment, once again, everything we know and love have been destroyed.

By our own people, just with selfish ideals based on greed and power-thirsty killers.

I will kill each and every one I find who has taken part in this.

Made it to D’Tan’s flotilla. I met someone named Hakeev. I want to finish what we started next time we meet.

Perhaps I cannot be a farmer as I wanted, but I can still protect my people. Some may see me as set apart because I am not a Romulan like those I live with, and yes there are other Remans with us here, but on Verinat we treated everyone as equals. I see every Romulan and Reman refugee as my people. Even though who’s roots have no blood ties to Romulus yet whose lives were there and had it shattered when they escaped with us. These are my people.

I also want to write from his viewpoint a post based on each mission he goes through in the game (the story ones).

All feedback accepted.

—–

Cur peered through the slit in the door at the combat ring. Gray blood from the last fight cooled in the garish colored lights shining from above the few hundred spectators seated and standing around the ring. The crowd thumped and roared as the adrenaline-soaked heartbeat of music pounder out into the arena.

“Welcome to my palace!” cooed a feminine voice over the music. “Show us what your toys can do!”

The crowd clapped as Lady Hedon entered and sat alone in a sky box back lit with pink and blood-red lights that contrasted her sparkling blue skin.

Cur punched his palm and cringed when the annoyingly full of himself announcer’s voice came out of the speakers.

“Our first Entertainer is the man from the Darkest Space, Th’look!”

Another sky box lit up with dim greens and blues, revealing a masked figure with shadowy figures around him. The Entertainer Tips screen a little up bove the sky box lit up and started at zero, then counted up to 250.

“He is providing for us today Daurt, a Nausicaan who is an up and coming fighter who has won a few fierce battles so far!”

The number above Th’look went to 425 as Daurt stepped from a shadowy doorway into the combat ring, raising his spiked fists and growling.

“You are in for a treat today, for our other entertainer is none other than Edak!”

Another sky box lit up with strobing bright colors that morphed into a spotlight on a thin worm of a man with spiked hair and shining clothing. He waved with flourish and sat, his thick guards flanking him. The Entertainer Tips screen above Edak flashed on and instantly made its way to 5475.

“That isn’t all, for today the arena will be graced by the scion of the shadows , the Reman with a broken world… Cur! ”

The crowd shouted and the tips screen above Edak grew to 13,955. Cur spit out the bad taste in his mouth as the door in front of him opened and he stepped into the combat right. The Nausicaan glared at him, then Edak’s tip screen, then back at Cur, and took up a defensive stance.

The music in the arena got louder and the announcer shouted something to get the match started. Cur took a few steps to the right. Daurt’s most vital points and weak spots were covered with armor, but a lesser vulnerabilities were not covered by the slap-dash armor he was wearing. Cur jabbed a few times at the Nausicaan who somewhat sluggishly reacted, swiping away the weak attacks. Cur slipped a kick towards an exposed area of the leg and scored in a small hit. Daurt skipped back a pace. As Cur moved in, Daurt took a swing which was easily ducked. Cur landed a few more small blows, putting the Nausicaan further off balance.

Cur glanced up a Edak’s tip screen. 14,235. Daurt swung again. Cur grabbed the arm and used Daurt’s momentum to throw him spinning to the ground.

The crowd shouted. 17,235.

The Nausicaan jumped up quickly, growling curses. Cur dodged more blows, and landed many more light punches and kicks, moving carefully over the floor, the Nausicaan following him, throwing increasingly slower blows which Cur dodged with greater ease.

19,550 showed on the tip board.

Cur stepped in close and let loose a flurry of light blows to the few exposed weak points, bruising muscles and striking some nerves. The Nausicaan howled in pain, stumbling backwards. Cur moved away in a curve, eyes on his opponent, then he stood straight up and waited. The Nausicaan shook himself and spit, then glared at Cur. Cur yawned then started to turn away. The crowed chuckled. The Nausicaan screamed and rushed him. Cur stepped out of the way and shoved the Nausicaan, who slipped on the slick puddle of blood, and fell flat on his back. The crowd roared with laughter.

50,325.

The Nausicaan struggled to get up. Lady Hedon stood. The music’s tone changed to something darker. Cur stepped up to the Nausicaan and with one heavy blow, shattered the bones in Daurt’s right leg. The arena resounded with cheers. The tip screen ticked up to 100,345. Th’look’s tip jar flashed red and the red symbol of Lady Hedon’s medical team flashed.

The announcer came back on the speaker. “Oh, sorry Th’look, your tips didn’t even cover the medical team’s flat fee to fix up your wounded fighter!”

Edak’s screen flashed green and ticked to 101,345.

“And of course, Edak gets a bonus for not even needing those same services!”

Lady Hedon clapped from her sky box and Edak bowed. Lady Hedon winked, and blew him a kiss. The crowd gasped. Cur cringed and stared at Edak, the knuckles on his fists turning white.

Cur slipped back into the darkened corridors as Daurt was carried off on a stretcher.

—

In the dank living area, Cur sat, sipping tepid soup from a rough wooden bowl, bit of sour bread sticking to the side. A young Romulan woman, around his age he guessed, came up to him out of the mingling groups of other Romulans and a few Remans.

“Excuse me …”

He looked up and Cur saw her face, illuminated by light from the small window above him. Her cheeks reddened.

“Can I help you?”

“I, I wanted to thank you. I have heard you talking, I know you hate fighting for Edak, but we appreciate the extra food your … performances bring us.”

Cur nodded. The girl just stood there. He looked at her expectantly. “Uh, I, uhm …”

“What is your name?”

“Charva.”

“Well Charva, if I knew my real name anymore, I’d tell you, but I don’t. They took that from me. What did you want to ask?”

“How did you learn to fight?”

Cur sat down his bowl and sighed.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have …”

“No, it’s OK. I was trained from a young age to be a bodyguard by the Tal Shiar. I was assigned to a scientist who studied agriculture, how to make things grow, and how to make growing things die with biological weapons. But he decided he didn’t want to work for the Tal Shiar anymore and …”

Charva gasped. “He turned against the Romulan Empire?”

Cur shook his head. “No, not from his perspective. He wanted to help his people, not use his knowledge to destroy other people’s lives. He escaped and went into seclusion. We had started a small colony on a moon and after some years, the Scientist, D’Luune was his name, learned of Spock’s warning about the Hobus star and we boarded the few ships we had and fled into space with no home. We had been far enough away to escape, but everything we knew burned up behind us.”

“I know what that feels like.”

Cur nodded. “We all do.”

“So, you were on one of the smaller ships that joined our fleet, before we were attacked and captured?”

Cur nodded. “Yes, I …”

Something fell down from the window and landed near Cur. He picked it up. It was a small cube with a holoemmiter on one end, and a button on the other.

“Some kind of message?” He pressed the button.

A green hued display appeared showing a date and time, the words “Be ready”, and was signed TK.

Cur turned off the device. “That is when Edak is going to put us on display and sell the ones he doesn’t want anymore. Looks like this TK has other ideas.

—

Cur stood in the display booth, feet set apart so he wouldn’t lean and touch the agony field that shimmered with a red hue. Even still he felt the slight touch of the energy field. Several shoppers looked over him, but as he was not for sale, they didn’t linger. They did however linger over many of the others, mostly Romulans. but a few other species as well. Many of the shoppers had dark gleams in their eyes. Gleams that come from watching the sport of other people dying, gleams farm dark appetites. Cur analyzed each deciding the fastest way he knew how to kill them. If they were a species he used his vivid imagination.

A new group of hooded figures came in, perusing the wares. Cur noted the guards taking notice, tensing up. One figure came up to Cur and held out a hand. There was a cube in it. It activated and for a brief moment words flashed above it. “Hello, my name is Tovan Khev. When the red light blinks, close your eyes -TK”. Then the hand retreated into the cloak, but the figure’s boot tapped against the base of the display booth. Then this Tovan Khev turned off to examine elsewhere, taking interest in many of the display booths. Cur noted some of the figures acting in distracting ways, while others more subtly tapped their boots against many of the display booths. A small device that blended in was left behind. After a several minutes, Tovan spit. “Rubbish goods. Let’s go!”

They left.

The remaining shoppers shrugged, whispered to each other, and eventually forgot about it.

The guards relaxed.

Edak came in and started personally describing the finer details of some of his merchandise.

He was noting the fine figure of Charva when on every display a boot had touched a red light blinked. Cur shut his eyes. Even through his closed eyes a bright light shone. He felt the absence of the agony field and he opened his eyes leaped off the booth. The nearby guard was scrambling for his weapon while blinking. Cur dropped him with a sharp chop to his cranium and then shoving his knee into his lower abdomen that housed the lungs. The cloaked figures were rushing in, cloaks removed. They were Romulans. Guards shouted and fell. Edak slipped out through the commotion. Cur followed.

Edak snaked away down corridors. Cur slipped out of sight into shadows when Edak turned to look for pursuit, then continued following. Edak turned a corner and Cur went faster to catch up. He stopped short at the corner when he heard voices.

“Lady Hedon! What a pleasure to see …” “What is going on Edak. I heard yours slaves are escaping, and you are running away?” “Oh, no, I was going to get help!” “I will help. Lead the way.” “Yes … as you say … this way.”

Cur leaped out, grabbing Edak around the neck.

“Please, no, what are you …”

Cur tightened his grip, choking off the words. He pulled Edak, putting him between himself and Lady Hedon.

The woman shook her head. “You’ve lost control of your little toys, Edak.”

Cur felt the man wriggling, trying to get free. “Please, it has never happened before!” Cur kept him close and secure, but let him speak. The pleading was music, and might even turn into groveling, which would be melodious. “Lady Hedon, please, I’ve worked so hard for your favor, so hard to …”

“Quiet! You mean nothing to me anymore. You aren’t even half the … man … I thought you were. You will be stripped of all status for this.”

A Romulan walked up beside Cur, rifle pointed forward. “This is her, huh? Not well protected for figure of such high status.” Lady Hedon smirked. “If I die, this whole rock goes with me. You with it.” Tovan raised the rifle. “That so?” Edak struggled again. “It’s true! Don’t!” Then he slumped. “Just kill me, please.”

Cur lifted Edak higher, tightening his grip. “You enslaved my people, and used their hunger against me as they starved, forcing me to fi …”

Lady Hedon sighed “Spare me, please. It’s embarrassing. Put him down.”

Cur shook with anger. “I will have me vengeance!”

Lady Hedon shook her head. “No, you will not.” With a flick of her wrist, a long thin blade was at Tovan’s neck. “Leave him to me, and you can go so long as you do as little damage to my house as possible. Otherwise I will have you both killed and everyone with you will sit below in cells until they die.”

Cur dropped Edak. He landed sideways on one leg, which crunched. Edak screamed “You monster!” A dark stain began to form on Edak’s pant leg.

Lady Hedon flicked her wrist and a slice of pain cut across the side of Cur’s face. She scowled. “I said not to break my things!” Sne knelt and caressed Edak. “That is my job.” She looked up at Cur. “Now leave.”

Tovan searched a few pouches on his belt, then shrugged. “Thought I had a dermal regenerator. Anyways, I guess we had better go.”

Cur stood for a long moment, staring into the eyes of Lady Edak, then he turned and walked away, images of both her’s a Edak’s death playing in his mind.

—

Aboard the Ship Tovan and the other Romulan’s came in on, the sensor officer looked up, worried. “There are a whole bunch of warships that weren’t here a moment ago.”

The Romulan at communications spoke up. “They said he needed to leave. Now.”

The Captain looked up to Tovan and Cur. “I guess she meant it, and we can leave. Let’s go.”

Tovan clapped Cur on the shoulder. “Let’s go get something to eat.”

They walked off the bridge and Charva was waiting. “Oh, Cur, hello.”

Cur nodded. Tovan smiled. “Hello! New here?”

She nodded. “Yes, I was down there with Cur. I wanted to make sure he was OK,”

Cur nodded. “I’m fine.”

Tovan pointed down the hallway. “Food is down that way, how about we all get something to eat? I’m Tovan, by the way.”

“Charva”

They started down the hall.

“Speaking of names, Cur? What sort of name is that. I saw you fighting before we broke you out. That Edak guy, just doesn’t know how to name people. First it was Cur, then he called you Monster …”

“Monster.” He smiled. The cut on his face stung with pain. “I like that name. I’m free now. I’m a free monster.”

“Monster?” Tovan scratched his head. “I don’t get it. How does that fit?”

“Because if anyone tries to abuse any of us every again, that is what they will discover me to be.”