“Brad”, Dugllg asked, his monstrous form towering over the paling, sweating Terran engineer.
“Would you kindly care to explain to me how you came to the conclusion that it would be a great idea to go into my personal locker, take out my own damned personal blaster, and start TINKERING with it!?”
Brad was backpedalling, unconsciously trying to look smaller, backing up until he could go no further, stuck between a wall and a massive, growling, furious Korlag.
“Well,” Brad stammered, “I overheard you mention that-”
“IT WAS A GIFT FROM MY BROTHER!”
“.. it wasn’t performing as well as-”
“AND WE’RE ON AN ACTIVE MISSION!”
“.. you wanted, so I took it apart and-”
“ON A HOSTILE BLOODY PLANET!”
“.. made it better?”
Brad cautiously held out a heavily modified blaster, with his eyes closed and his head turned away, legs trembling, sweat dripping down his back.
An involuntary whimper escaped from Brad’s lips as Dugllg snatched the blaster from his hands and started inspecting Brad’s handiwork, turning the blaster over and over.
“This better still work, Terran!” Dugllg growled as he pointed his blaster out of the nearest barracks window, aimed at a rock formation a few dozen feet away, and fired.
What happened next can best be described as the inverted sound of an explosion, an intense heatwave that scorched the outside of the barracks, and a perfect sphere of a crater where the rock formation had previously been.
Dugllg, mildly singed from the blastwave, looked at the crater, then at his blaster, and finally at Brad.
He bent down slightly, leaning over the terrified engineer until they were face to face.
Dugllg grinned, slowly revealing numerous rows of translucent, needle-like teeth.
“You have just become my favourite Terran!”