“Cai!!!!” hisses Nyx playfully as Cai reaches the Donati first, “Goddum it!!!”

  Cai laughs, “It’s not my fault you kept getting distracted and running into stuff.”

  Nyx growls, “I was forgettin’ about all the…” she pauses, “Forgettin’ about the sparkin’ mummies.”

  She recalls turning corners only to run into a dead body or nearly running into them. Their desiccated skin, sunken and dried eyes, teeth exposed in a grin or grimace.

  “We really should cremate them, shouldn’t we? Or give them space burials…”

  Nyx frowns. So many people died here that day. “We should be givin’ the whole goddum station to the sun.”

  Cai pauses, “We could, but someday we could come back and restore the station to operation. If we had the parts, my drones could get it back up in a few years.”

  Nyx looks back down the airlock back to the station, “I’m never gonna be commin’ back to this goddum place.”

  “Yeah, I’m not planning on it. Once we finish our business with the ones that murdered your friends, I have something I need to take care of. You know, finding humanity a new home.”

  She scowls, “Yeah…”

  Cai motions for her to follow, “I’m going to teach you how to shoot a gun if you don’t know how. We can start in VR where it’s safe, then use the station for live fire.”

  Nyx growls, “Cap’n never was lettin’ me be usin’ a sparkin’ gun.”

  She would have used it on him, so it was smart of him.

  They leave the cargo deck and head back to Cai’s bedroom.

  “Donati, run the basic outdoor pistol training simulation.” He says after settling into his sling and Nyx into the chair.

  Nyx finds herself under Earth’s sky again. She’s used to the vast blue by now and doesn’t stare up. Much. Around her, she sees rolling hills and a flat area with sparse trees and long leaves growing from the ground that are colors of green, yellow, and brown. Next to them is an area with human-shaped panels on posts. There is a wall made of posts between them and the panels. To the side is a table with guns and spare magazines, with cleaning tools to the side. The pistols look different from the ones the pirates use. But she doesn’t know enough about guns to know how they’re different.

  Cai is wearing his normal shirt, some blue pants, and boots. Nyx notices she’s wearing the same thing. Probably just the generic clothes for the program as he didn’t say what to wear?

  Cai picks up a pistol, “Some rules to remember. Never put your finger on the trigger unless you’re ready to shoot. Never point a gun at a person unless you intend to kill them. Always be aware of what’s behind your target. And always treat your gun as if it’s loaded.”

  Nyx nods, “Mya. Got it!”

  She’s feeling excited as she’s seen the pirates use guns. Patched up the holes in the hull the bullets made. But then she darkens. She’s seen them use them to kill people. Would she kill someone someday?

  Nyx picks up a gun. Yes. If it’s those who killed her siblings, she’d gladly kill them.

  Cai pats her head, “Nyx, focus. We can’t get hurt in the simulation, but you won’t be able to learn properly if you’re not focusing.”

  “Sorry…” She almost purrs from the head pat. Why’d head pats make her so happy?

  Cai moves to the area with the posts, “Okay. We’re going to shoot at the targets.” He readies his firing posture, and Nyx notes his muscles under the casual shirt he’s wearing. “We would normally wear ear protection, but in the simulation or in our spacesuits we won’t need it.” He aims at a target, “Aim for the circles. We can track points, but go for the body over the head as it’s easier to hit. Shoot for the legs if you don’t want to kill but need to stop them.”

  Nyx notices the circles on the human-shaped target. Each has a different number, with higher numbers towards the center. The head has them too.

  Cai fires once, and Nyx flinches at the loud noise, but doesn’t let it distract her as she watches the target.

  He’s hit the body dead center.

  Nyx grins, “Mya! Cai! You’re sparkin’ shiny!”

  Cai toggles the safety on the gun, “Thanks. I have a lot of free time to practice.” He motions to stand by the post, “Do you know how to turn the safety off or what it is?”

  She looks at the gun, “Yeah.” She flicks the safety off, and somehow the gun’s weight seems to become heavier.

  Cai moves behind her, “Here, I’ll teach you the proper way to hold a gun so it doesn’t hurt you when you fire. If you’re not prepared for the recoil, it can snap back and get you in the face.”

  Nyx blushes as Cai wraps his arms around her, “Mya… Yer too dum close… But I’m gonna be allowin’ it.”

  He blushes, “Sorry, I’ll ask next time. Uh… Right! Now, hold the gun like this and place your feet like this…”

  Nyx follows his instructions, and feels her heart beating faster as he holds her, “Like this?”

  Cai brings his face near hers and he looks, “Yeah, now aim at the spot you want to hit. The gun has sights, so line those up with the target. When you’re ready to shoot, hold your breath and fire between heartbeats.”

  Nyx notices her hands are shaking wildly as Cai stays close to her and her heartbeat increases. She takes a deep breath and tries to ignore Cai.

  Just when she is about to pull the trigger, she feels Cai blow into her ear.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “Gyaa!” Nyx screams and shoots wildly off to the side, her tail floofing from fright.

  Cai laughs and runs away, “Remember! You can’t hurt me in here!”

  Nyx hisses as her ears flatten and her tail floofs in anger, “Caaaaaaiiiiii!” In her mind, he’s given her permission to shoot him.

  She turns and sees him running to a nearby cove of trees and raises the gun at him and doesn’t even hesitate.

  Her shots go wild, “Goddumi it, Cai! I’m gonna be shootin’ your az full o’ holes fer that!”

  She runs after him, shooting more, but realizes she’s emptied her clip and has to go back for spares. By the time she’s stuffed every clip in her pockets and even waistband, she’s lost sight of him.

  “Caaaiii!” She hisses. “Where ya bein’?”

  She enters the grove of trees and hears a rustling noise.

  She turns and shoots wildly, but only sees one of those critters with the fluffy tail climbing the tree, terrified.

  She growls in frustration, but keeps moving, using her instincts and training to move quickly and quietly.

  There’s a rustle, and Cai leaps from a bush, tackling her.

  The gun goes flying, and Nyx is soon laughing uncontrollably as Cai tickles her mercilessly, “Cai! Mya! S… stop!” She tries to fight back, but he’s bigger and stronger, “Dum it, Cai!”

  Cai steps back, “Okay. Sorry. I just remembered something from long ago and couldn’t help it.”

  Nyx hisses, her ears flattening and tail swishing angrily, “Ya better not be doin’ that more!”

  Deep down, she actually enjoyed the intimacy of the moment. She hadn’t played like that since…

  Her ears drop as she recalls an old memory, “We were havin’ tickle fights with my siblins. Oyx would be laughin’ so hard an’ Tyx would be gettin’ me on the sides ta save Oyx.”

  Cai pats her head.

  Nyx grabs his arm and bites hard for revenge, growling.

  Cai stands and lifts her with one arm, his muscles bulging as he laughs, “You know it doesn’t hurt, right?”

  He then spins in a circle briefly, and Nyx has to hold and bite as hard as she can to not go flying.

  Nyx lets go when he stops, huffing, “Cai…”

  Cai looks at her with a look of guilt, “Sorry. It’s just been so long since I’ve played around like this, I forgot you’re not a simulated person. I’ll try to be careful.”

  “What the spark ya doin’ with simu… simuwhat’cha be callin’ it people?”

  “Oh, nothing… inappropriate. I actually put in locks and had Command password protect it before the Donati left Earth on our first mission. No temptation. Besides, they’re not real people, so I think it would feel hollow as you can just make people that worship you without any effort. And yes, people did that all the time. I’m sure some still do. It’s very easy to get lost in simulations and neglect your body. Too easy…”

  Nyx isn’t too sure of everything he’s talking about, but as she looks at the world in the computer, she could see how she’d want to stay in here and never come out, “Let’s get goin’ back to shootin’.” She doesn’t even want to think about something as complicated as what he told her.

  They return, and this time Cai stands a respectful distance away, and she’s only mildly disappointed as she remembers how close she was to him

  Her shot goes wide as she gets distracted, “Dum it!”

  Nyx, focus on your breathing and heartbeat. Focus…

  And her heart is pounding again.

  She growls to herself and just unloads the clip at the target to vent her stress. The shots are wild, but some hit.

  Cai laughs, “I should just get you a machine gun. Donati, spawn a Browning M2A1, three spare barrels, and ten thousand rounds of ammunition.”

  A large gun spawns in front of Cai. It’s on a tripod, has a long barrel, and a long rectangular body with a belt of ammo already fed into it.

  Nyx jumps a little when it appears, then looks at it, “Machine gun?”

  Cai moves behind the gun, “It’s loud and the barrel will get hot, so you’ll have to replace the barrel every so often.” He pauses, “Donati, reduce the noise produced by the Browning by half.”

  Nyx sniffs the machine gun. It smells of oil and metal. Cai smells delightful too.

  Cai looks at Nyx, “Ready?”

  “Mya! Spark yeah!”

  Cai aims and holds down the trigger.

  Nyx jumps despite knowing what’s going to happen. It’s like a constant assault on her ears, even though it’s half as loud as it should be.

  She watches in awe as the gun spits out hundreds of rounds, chewing up the targets and firing range.

  “Mya! Cai!” She pushes Cai out of the way, causing the gun to swing wildly to one side. She fires immediately and laughs as she shreds targets, posts, and even trees behind the range.

  Soon the gun stops, “Goddum it!”

  Cai puts on gloves, “The barrel overheated.” He grabs a new barrel after removing the one she sees is now glowing hot. When he does that, he then pats Nyx’s head, “There.” He thinks for a moment, “How about some fun? Dontati, remove heating from the Browning and give it unlimited ammunition. Remove the shooting range and replace it with a forest.”

  The scene changes, and they’re surrounded by trees.

  Nyx looks at Cai curiously, “Cai?”

  “Just a minute, I’m thinking…” He thinks longer, then smiles, “Okay. Nyx. I’m going to summon enemies called goblins. They’ll come in waves until they beat you, each wave harder.”

  “The spark is a goblin?”

  “Donati, spawn a goblin with no AI twenty meters in front of us.”

  An ugly, short green creature that reminds her of a pirate she saw once, appears in front of them. It just stands there, breathing.

  “That’s a goblin.They’ll start with knives, and some with bows and eventually magic. There will be bigger types too, such as hobgoblins, goblin paladins, and if you make it far enough, goblin lords and kings.”

  “It’s sparkin’ ugly.” Nyx can smell its putrid scent from here. “Can ya turn the dum smell off?”

  Cai shrugs, “Sure. Donati. Turn off the smell from all goblins summoned from now on. Also spawn a combat knife and a hand grenade.”

  Nyx’s nose twitches happily as the goblin’s smell vanishes and only the smell of Cai and spent ammo remains.

  Nyx picks up the knife, “A dum knife?” She looks at the goblin and imagines stabbing it in the neck if it gets too close. She puts it in her belt. The other thing is a weird green egg with bumps all over it and a pin with a ring and a metal handle, “The spark is this thing?” She pulls on the ring.

  Cai takes cover behind a tree as the handle flies off the grenade with a ‘ping’!

  Nyx hisses at the sudden noise.

  There’s a flash and a loud noise and her vision goes dark for a moment before it returns, “What the goddum sparks!?”

  She notices a number in her vision. Deaths:1.

  Cai steps out from the tree, “Did I forget to mention that it explodes?”

  His grin makes her hair bristle, “Cai!!! Goddum it to Earth!”

  “Hey! You didn’t give me time to explain what it does before you pulled the pin.” He then grins, “How did your first death feel?”

  Nyx growls, “Didn’t feel a sparkin’ thing…” She turns to the goblin after getting behind the machine gun, “Just start the dum simul… simyule… The goddum goblums!”

  Cai chuckles, “Donati, summon a reclining chair for myself and make me immune from attack and damage then start a goblin raid, starting from beginner and increase difficulty as Nyx clears the waves introducing more goblins and more powerful goblin races as the waves progress.”

  There’s a chime, and the previously unmoving goblin turns towards Nyx, screaming.

  Nyx screams back, “I’m gonna hole ya, ya sparkin’ piece o’ shunk smellin’ az!”

  Cai summons popcorn and watches as Nyx laughs maniacally over the sound of dying goblins and machine gun rounds.