On a planet far from home, a solitary merman carved up corpses to sell to unsuspecting Humans in the morning.

The entrails were already in the bins out the back, waiting for the waste personnel to dispose of the evidence of tonight's carnage, because Sven was nothing if not efficient. He did like to take his time with the flesh, though, slicing it up to make it as attractive as possible to a potential buyer.

He shook his head. He didn't understand Humans. Not at all. What could be attractive about a piece of dead flesh, usually hours or even days old, sometimes even frozen for who knew how long, instead of a live body that writhed beneath you in its death throes as you decided it was the one that would have to die for your dinner?

Gah, it was enough to make him hungry just thinking about it. He should finish up and head home, like the others had. He'd done plenty for today, and he could always do more tomorrow.

A bang and a splash sounded from the front of the shop.

"Hello?" Sven called, lifting his knife so that blood ran down the blade onto his fingers, where it blended in with the rest.

A splash, then the squeak of flesh hitting the side of a glass tank and being scraped along it.

"Stop fighting." Bloody teenagers. Didn't matter what species, the males always seemed to want to fight. Even his kind, though it'd been centuries since any of them had. Except for Halcyon, of course, but she was special. All kinds of special.

And the reason he was in the back of the shop, late at night, hacking bits up instead of at home with his own people. He should be there, paying attention to one of the lovely girls who thought the leader of the Mer community in the Colony was important enough to spend time with. Instead of ignoring him for some Human who could scarcely swim.

With one savage blow, Sven severed another head and focussed on slicing the finest fillets on New Hope. Perhaps in the whole Altan system. Humans just didn't deserve them.