text: “Captain, Captain” Cadet Yany yelled as he ran to the control deck. Captain Kayin swiveled around in his chair to face the youth. Behind him was a giant screen, displaying the lush alien planet they had discovered as it floated through space. “What is it, son? You looked like you’ve seen a ghost” the captain said. “Worse” Yany said as he gasped for breath. “Much worse,” he said before standing up straight. “I’m part of the research division who was scouting the surface of the planet, and, and oh God we have to get out of here before they notice us,” he said, shaking in fear” “Calm down calm down,” Kayin said, stepping out of his chair and walking over to the youth. He put his hand on his shoulders and smiled softly. Everything about this kid, from his terrified eyes, to his bright red cadet uniform, screamed young. This was probably his first mission so the captain couldn’t blame him for his fear, but it was undoubtedly an overreaction. Yany closed his eyes, and his breathing slowed. “Thank you, sir,” he said. The captain nodded understandingly. “Now, what was all the fuss about?” he asked. “The planet's natives sir,” Yany said. “Well, surely they can’t be that dangerous. We’ve detected no signs of intelligent life” Kayin said, looking a little surprised. Surprises were nothing new in his line of work though and letting them upset you usually was more dangerous than the surprise itself. “No sir, there are no advanced civilizations, just primitive ones. Very primitive ones. But sir, they’re...they’re savages. They’re violent and cruel, and their entire culture is centered around violence. They revel in the pain and death of other creatures, and even each other sir” he said, starting to jumble his words at the end. An amused and empathetic smile crept across Kayin's face. He himself at first was shocked after he left the prestigious city he called home and found how terrifying the cosmos could really be. “Cadet, umm cadet,” he said. “Yany” Yany answered. “Yes, Cadet Yany. I know pre synthetic food worlds can seem scary at first. Yes, to us eating things that were once alive seems deeply wrong, but our civilization has advanced far past theirs. Concepts such as pain and death that we have all but whipped out, more than likely seem commonplace to them. They have to eat do they not? And they must kill to eat, so killing just becomes a fact of life to them” he said, sounding like a father teaching sympathy. “But sir, they are different. They don’t just kill; they love to kill. It’s a game to them” Yany said. “Oh, come now, it can’t be that bad,” the captain said. “We have some footage we want you to see,” Yany said, sliding a computer chip, smaller than the nail on his pinky from his pocket, and handing it to Kayin. The captain eyed the chip for a moment before taking it from the cadet’s hand and slipping it into the open slot on his control watch. He tapped a few buttons on its touch screen, and suddenly the video feed of the planet was caught off and replaced by a recording of these “humans". A mature human walked over to a juvenile and laid a frozen corpse of some avian creature in her arms. He pointed towards a poll with some kind of basket with a hole in the netting at the top. The girl flung the dead bird and the corpse fell perfectly through the basket, resulting in the crowd of humans cheering “And this year’s prize-winning turkey goes to little May Sue” the mature human from before declared. Screams filled the control deck, and a computer technician even puked all over the floor, but Captain Kayin just stared at the screen in horror.