NEW VOY: I'll Never Understand Humans (1/1) PG [Hirogen, P]

Title: I'll Never Understand Humans
Author: Dave Rogers
Email Address: daverogers@geocities.com
Series: VOY
Rating: PG
Codes: Hirogen, P
Part: 1/1
Date Posted: 6th September 1999
                     
Summary: How did the events in "The Killing Game" affect Hirogen 
culture? Ten years later, a Hirogen explains.

Disclaimer: Paramount own the real Hirogen. This is just my 
simulation of them.




I'll Never Understand Humans.




I'll never understand humans. I've studied them, lived with them, 
worked with them, fought with them and against them, stalked them, 
cornered them and hunted them down, I've stabbed them, shot them, 
beaten them, phasered them and bat'lethed them, and they still manage 
to surprise me. Maybe that's good; I've changed for the better - we've 
all changed for the better - and humans are mostly responsible.

I was One of the First, and that's one of the three things I've done 
that I'm really proud of. I stood behind Stenj when he took the 
optronic datacore from Janeway, about three feet behind and to his 
right. Every time we run a sim of the Voyager encounter, I get to 
stand in the same place, a privilege only the First get. A few of us 
have fallen in the chase, and they get replaced by holo-characters. 
Maybe when we're all gone, the sims will stop too, but it'd be nice to 
keep the tradition. As long as it doesn't take us over, of course. If 
there's one lesson we've really learned, that's it.

Stenj really wasn't sure what to do with the thing at first, of 
course. He'd always despised Turanj, so it was easier for him to deal 
with the human who Hunted him. He hadn't thought that much of Idrin's 
plans either, though, as he explained to Janeway at the meeting. 
While he was thinking about it, I took my ship out on another Hunt. 
We all felt very low after the Voyager incident, so it was the best 
way of raising my spirits. It turned out to be the second thing in my 
life that I'm proud of.

The ship I Hunted was fast, manoeuvrable and powerfully armed, a 
worthy Prey in every sense. For seventeen days it evaded my every move 
as I studied its Captain's mind from his responses. When at last I ran 
it to earth, a large and determined crew fought doggedly through every 
corridor, fighting on though their wounds were mortal, ambushing and 
evading and tricking me in ways I'd never seen before. In the end, 
there was only the Captain left, and he fought to the last like his 
crew. I took care in killing him, and was rewarded with a complete 
skeleton. As I stripped the bones, though, something new and unusual 
happened. Another ship, commanded by the same species, approached and 
requested my attention. I saw an opportunity to learn more about 
a new type of Prey, so I answered their hail - and our culture's 
never been the same since.

We'd come across the idea of criminals before, especially in some of 
the Voyager simulations. It struck me at the time that there must be 
something deeply wrong with a way of life so unsatisfying, so out of 
touch with the instincts of its people, that some find themselves 
turning against their whole society. This Prey I'd killed, Tau by 
name, was evidently so dissatisfied with his society that he'd set 
up one of his own, and this, in the eyes of his people, made him a 
criminal. That, or the fact that he stole from them; I was never quite 
sure which. Anyway, the officer who hailed me was more than certain of
his definitions, as was clear from his first words:

"Alien ship, we understand you have apprehended and terminated the 
traitor Tau. Can you provide us with evidence of his death?"

I was confused at first. "Evidence? I've got trophies of the Hunt. 
Would they serve as your evidence?" This game was amusing, trying to 
find out why he wanted my trophies. "I could let you take a look at 
them."

"We would like something we can take back to the homeworld, if 
possible." I wasn't too sure how his facial expressions worked, but I 
think he was assuming a friendly one. "I am authorised to pay the 
bounty on the spot, but I would be happier not to have to try too hard 
to justify my decisions back home."

I searched my database for the meaning of the word "bounty". Several 
items from the humans' data suggested that it was a reward payable to 
a successful hunter; an odd idea for us, as we'd always held the 
hunt to be reward in itself, but not one so alien that I couldn't see 
possibilities in it. "I've got the traitor's skeleton," I replied. 
"I want to keep the spine as a trophy, but I could let you have the 
skull as your evidence."

And so it was agreed. What was possessing me, to make deals with Prey, 
I can hardly imagine; but it had been a time of changes for us all, 
and new ideas were needed. Gradually I began to realise that we'd 
all, unwittingly, embarked on a new type of Hunt: a Hunt for a way of 
life that was Hirogen, yet sustainable in the face of Prey that was 
our equal in cunning and resolve. Because, make no mistake, Prey like 
that existed. The humans might be a long way away, but there were 
many of them. We'd heard of Klingons too, warriors even the humans 
respected, and Romulans, whose cunning everyone feared. Sooner or 
later we'd meet these species, as adversary or ally, and live or die 
based on our choice.

Returning with my trophy and my bounty - enough dilithium to power the 
Federation's datacore for a millennium - I tracked down Stenj and spoke 
with him. He had, like all of us, been unsure and undecided about our 
future, feeling that Idrin's ideas were not enough, that we'd fail as 
a race without a genuine Hunt. It seemed that I'd supplied the 
solution, the second part of our destiny: that our best Hunters 
would Hunt for those who wanted it, and so we could Hunt yet live in 
peace. After a long discussion, I became Stenj's Second, and together 
we set out to Hunt our destiny. The third thing I'm proud of was the 
way we found it.

The Borg had always interested us. Clearly the humans feared them, but 
had survived their attacks - just. They seemed worthy Prey. When word 
reached us that a Borg cube had fought its way past the Krenim and was 
threatening to assimilate Mari Prime, our immediate response was to 
muster every Hunter whose ship could haul vacuum, and converge there. 
It was Stenj, confident in his course now, who decided to offer our 
help to the Mari. It was amusing, of course, to watch their leader's 
face as she listened to our offer, not sure whether to trust us, 
suspect us, accept or refuse, and not knowing that it made no 
difference what she said. Seventy Hirogen ships on a Hunt can hardly 
be called back by any First. It made a difference to her, though, I 
suppose, that she said yes. It made her our first ally, and so her 
planet survived.

The Borg were powerful and adaptable, but somehow they weren't as 
downright tough as the humans. We could defeat the humans over and 
over again and they'd still come back for more. Once we'd found a way 
to out-adapt the Borg defences, they crumbled fast, and we hunted 
their drones down through the cube in relative safety. It took a few 
weeks, but in the end we came away with a really impressive trophy. 
There aren't many species with a Borg cube of their own. It looks good 
to this day, in orbit round the planet we eventually decided to settle 
on. Looks can be deceptive, though, because in this case the bounty 
turned out far more valuable than the trophy.

The Mari should have been pleased, really, but when Stenj and I went 
down to their planet to visit them, they seemed very upset about 
something. We'd barely been there an hour before they were offering us 
anything we liked if only we'd leave, fast. In the end we decided to 
deal with them from orbit, which everyone seemed a lot happier with. 
It was, so it turned out, the third and last of the three turning 
points in our history - or, at least, I hope so. It's early days yet.

"Now, the question of our reward." I was stood behind Stenj again, 
almost the same relative position as when he'd made the truce with 
Janeway, as he addressed the Mari leader over the commlink. 

"Your reward, yes. As you know, we are not a rich planet, but we owe 
you our existence." I could tell she felt easier not to have us 
standing next to her. "I am at a loss, however, to know what to 
offer. What do we have that you might want?"

Here, I felt, was where Stenj really became the great leader that 
Idrin had tried to be. He replied, "We are interested in acquiring 
cultural and historical information on other peoples. Have you 
anything of interest in your databases?"

The Mari's expressions are as difficult to read as those of most Prey, 
but I believe she looked almost flattered. "We have four hundred 
gigaquads of cultural and historical information, that covers all the 
major civilisations in this sector. We would be glad to upload it to 
you."

"Then that will suffice as a bounty," concluded Stenj.

It took me days to understand his decision. We could have had weapons, 
energy stores, military bases - they would have given us anything. 
Instead, all we had was data. But then Stenj set me to work entering 
the data into the Federation datacore, and I began to understand. But 
there was a little more to his cunning, as he explained to me as I 
worked.

"You are disappointed in my bargaining skills, Eren." It was not a  
question.

"I was, First," I replied. "But this data's important, I suppose. We 
can Hunt this sector without depleting the Prey now."

"As Idrin said we should." He bowed his head in respect to our former 
First; he'd been doing that a lot lately. "But there is more to it 
than that."

"How's that, First?"

"The Mari have a great many friends, and none of them have heard of 
us. We have plenty of Prey for now, but eventually the Hunt must move 
on. What the Mari have to say of us to their neighbours will be most 
important to us then."

"So by just taking data, which doesn't cost them anything..."

"Exactly. We gain a reputation for generosity. Others will be happier 
to deal with us if they see us as scientists, perhaps, than hunters."

"But if they ever found out, what then?"

"They had better not."

Hence my pride in three great moments, the three moments that defined 
modern-day Hirogen culture. The holo-arrays, for the virtual Hunt; 
the bounty hunting - we're now the policemen of the Delta Quadrant; 
and our reputation as keen but harmless anthropologists and 
historians. We've lived in peace now, since calling all the Hunters 
home to rebuild our civilisation, for ten years. There was only one 
great danger, so long as we kept our secret; some day, we might meet 
humans again, and our true nature might be revealed.

And so to the events of the last few weeks. In the end, you see, it 
was Voyager that came back, the ones who knew us best and feared us 
least. They came, this time, not as a ragtag crew of lost travellers 
trying to find home, but as a powerful ship of explorers and 
ambassadors, seeking to broaden the influence of their Federation. 
Janeway was still Captain, but no longer in supreme command; one of 
their greatest warriors, an old man they called Admiral Paris, came 
with them to speak for the Federation. Many of the junior members of 
his crew had tales to tell us of his courage, his cunning and his 
fortitude in battle. And so I decided to kill him.

I had all the information I needed to approach him by stealth. We'd 
retained the technical specifications of Voyager, we knew her crew 
and could anticipate their behaviour, and an appropriate choice of 
weapon was fairly simple. While most of their crew slept, I beamed 
aboard in an empty corridor, and began my Hunt. I was happy to see 
guards in my path, because killing an old man without any defences 
didn't seem much of a challenge. They were sharp, too, those guards; 
I was bleeding from half a dozen superficial wounds before I got to 
his door. Then, when I was about to burst in on him, I heard a voice 
from behind me saying - 

"Computer, freeze program."

I spun round - or tried to, and nearly fell over. When you try and 
move in a frozen hologram, and your weapon's part of the hologram - 
I'd rather not talk about it, it's one of the first things our kids 
learn. The human certainly thought it was funny.

"What are you doing here?" Hardly an original line, but it was the 
best I could do in the circumstances.

"We figured out you'd be playing the same old games." I recognised 
him now; he'd been a junior officer, both on the real ship and in the 
last simulation, the one based on their Second World War. He seemed 
to be a junior officer still. "The Captain said I could come and join 
in."

"Then I must kill you all," I replied. "This is too great a secret. 
Nobody must know."

He stared at me with those human eyes that seem to see into your 
mind; his had blue outer centres, and they seemed to drill into me as 
he said, "You tried that once, remember?" 

He was right. I was in a cleft stick; let him go, and let the secret 
out - then nobody would give us information on their cultures, and 
the Hunt and the Hirogen would die; or take on the humans again, in 
which case it would be them or us - and from my experience, that 
probably meant us. I tried to reason with him. "Then keep the secret! 
Can you imagine how the Prey - I mean the other species - round here 
would react if they knew how we're using our information? They'd never 
trust us again!"

He thought about it for a minute. "I'll talk to the Captain." Why not 
Admiral Paris, I wondered? "I'm sure she'll be amused to hear what 
you're up to here."

I hoped against hope that he wouldn't ask the next question. But he 
did; these humans are so damned curious. "By the way, who exactly are 
you hunting here?"

I thought about trying to lie, or evade the question, but there didn't 
seem to be much point. "Admiral Paris," I replied, and waited for him 
to get angry.

But he didn't. I've learned a bit about reading the expressions on 
the face of Prey, and we've got quite a lot to go on with humans. I 
think the expression on his face was a smile; the eyes didn't quite 
look right, but the rest of it was definitely a smile. And then he 
spoke.

"Mind if I join in?"

Humans. I'll never understand them.

THE END