Supreme Pack Leader - he wished the designation name was different, as it reminded him of the terms used by those his people called the Abductors - looked out through the ship's view-screen, towards a certain planet. Space was big, very big, and very dark. The ships had been traveling for a while to their destination - long enough for the Young Wanderers to travel between the packs on the different ships, meet up with the Stayers, perhaps mate with them, and decide to either Stay with that pack or Wander to another pack, where they would again mate with the Stayers, and either stay, or Wander again, until eventually, some of the first ship Wanderers had wandered back to their original ships, and had Wandered to all of the ten major packs, perhaps with a mate that had traveled with them, and had offspring with them as well. The Packs had tried to keep their Traditions alive, at least in the case of the Wanderers - it kept the packs from inbreeding at any rate, and it fostered friendship between the different packs. Of course, with the technology the ships had, this practice wasn't necessary, as the females could look through the genetic banks to pick the perfect male to father their offspring, but there was something about physical interaction that made things better.
Supreme Pack Leader looked at the information he had. The destination reminded him of home, a home that was no longer there. He missed the forests, the fields, the hunting, and more. He looked at the the information on the native lifeforms. The information indicated that most of the animals, as well as the plants, were edible. There was one animal that caught his attention: it was bipedal, nearly furless, had no claws to speak off, and yet seemed to be in almost every environment on the planet. This seemed to be due to the species' use of tools.
"They seem fairly primitive compared to us," his mate said.
Supreme Pack Leader looked at his mate. "I'm sure the Abductors thought the same about us. We hunted, foraged, fished, and farmed. Then they abducted us. We're still around, and they are dead, at least on these ships at any rate."
"What if there is more?" his mate asked.
"I hope not," Supreme Pack Leader said. "We've already lost one home to them. We're not going to lose our new home."
"I want our next litter to feel soil beneath their paws, and feel the wind in their noses," his mate said. "Not these metal floors and ventilation fans."
Supreme Pack Leader smiled, as he held his mate, feeling the life growing in her. "I wish to see them hunt in the tall grasses as I once did, swim in ponds, and streams, and lakes and rivers, as I once did. I wish for stories about traveling through space to be just that - stories."
"I wish that too," his mate said. She looked at the information again. "What do we do with the native species, specifically, this one that can use tools?"
"That one requires special consideration," said Supreme Pack Leader. "The others we can eat, although some management might be required as to not hunt them into extinction. This particular specie, as you can see, seems to be sentient. We might be able to negotiate with them, and thus we can settle in areas they do not yet inhabit. They might prove to be useful as allies. Thus, we will hope for our initial encounters to be peaceful, which might be possible, as there seems to be a number of packs, and most seem to get along with the others."
"What if they are not friendly towards us?" his mate asked. "What if they attack us?"
"We'll assume that any initial attacks done towards our First Contacters were due to miscommunication, and/or fear responses," said Supreme Pack Leader. "We'll try talking to them peacefully again, stating that we mean them no harm, but that we will fight if we have to. If they understand this, and do not harm us again, we might be able to work something out. If they keep trying to attack us, we'll do what's necessary. Hopefully we won't have to kill too many of them."
"I know I did my fair share of killing," his mate said. "We all did."
"The Abductors got what they deserved for what they did to us," said Supreme Pack Leader. "My regret is that I won't get another chance to taste another one: I liked feeling their leader squirm inside of me as he died."
His mate rubbed his belly. "A fitting fate, given that they gave us our new abilities, that being one of them."
Supreme Pack Leader chuckled. "Wouldn't mind feeling that sort of feeling again, although I think I'd let the prey out this time, depending on the situation of course."
His mate chuckled again. "Yes. Then I'd be able to try them."
"Yes," said Supreme Pack Leader. "Now for the probes to be sent out, and do some further investigations. I want to see just how advanced these creatures are."
The Time the Invasion was during
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