Dr Uru’Nav Xant had always considered himself a very fortunate person.

His benefactor commissioned him and his siblings from the finest Zenthi genes credits could buy. He was grown and supervised in the most esteemed of progenitor companies available in the Galactic council. He had separated his mindlink from his siblings early, allowing him to commence training before many of the competition. He was allowed to explore his options and participate in more advanced classes in both research and Freq use, training under esteemed Zenthi One priests.

Xant had excelled in research, specifically in flora, an area of study sorely lacking in the Reclamation efforts. His early training and strong presence ensured he had more than one conglomerate willing to contract him.

He had nothing but opportunity and was rewarded for his efforts, Xant was even responsible for discovering a mutated strain of plant-matter that paid of his benefactor's debt and his own twice over.

He could have retired to elite citizen status after only 5 years in the field.

But Xant wouldn't accept that.

His curiosity was far too great.

His love for learning was a part of him.

He was fortunate enough to be chosen as head of research on a field team on Jothram, working alongside the acclaimed Galactic Council Rangers.

It was Xant’s skills that got him the job and it was those same skills that saved his life, his team ambushed by a lone Rajavan Vassal.

Without that training received earlier in his life, he surely would have perished; without the credit he accumulated he would not have been able to afford the medical care after the attack.

He was fortunate enough to still be able to function, fortunate enough that he could still perform his tasks.

If it weren't for that tragedy, he would not have been hired by Esaander.

And he would not have been there to witness the scene playing out before him.

Xant sat upon the Director’s office floor, encased in military-grade armour, clapping his four fingers hands as instructed. He nodded his long-snouted nose along to the beat, black, graceful ears twitched from side to side, caught up in the infectious melody.

“Boom boom, shacka lacka lacka boom!”

Beside him, the 10ft tall Captain Rynard was happily stomping his foot and tail, shaking the furniture and floor with his sheer size and bulk. The reptilian soldier roared with delight, proving his years of experience in his own set of armour bouncing from one taloned foot to the other with relative ease.

“Boom boom, shacka lacka lacka boom!”

Between the pair weaved two furry four-legged companions, the golden-haired Sieglinde wagged her tail barking loudly, the normally stalwart Spades moved with such vigour the metal plates tied to his neck clanged and scraped together. But they, more than anyone were caught up with their Namegiver’s projection,

For that moment in time, she was the star at the centre of their universe.

Jasmine, the lone human, was singing her lungs out. Dressed in only a blue cloak hastily wrapped around her body and intoxicated by cleaning ethanol, the Namegiver poured her emotions into her words, sweeping her companions up in the fever of her joy and celebration of life.

“Open the door get on the floor! Everybody walk the dinosaur!” she shouted, feet stomping on the floor with every word. The hope born from the horrors she had survived against all odds was something Xant was truly blessed to have witnessed.

“boom boom, shacka lacka lacka BOOM!”

With one final shout the human flopped her arms around and collapsed in a fit of laughter and exhaustion.

“Another! Another!” Rynard begged her, but Jasmine waved him off.

“Jebus Rynard! Give a girl a rest will ya? I’ll lose my voice if I keep going much longer…” she reached for a knocked over canister of water, struggling to unscrew the lid only to find it empty.

“Ughh! Haa haa, no more booze left heh heh,” she laughed and tossed it aside, “Spades fetch!”

Spades ignored the order however and instead launched himself at the human, Sieglinde too, dived for their companion, nuzzling and snuggling up to the girl on the white polished floor.

“Hey hey! get off get off!” she laughed.

Xant approached the gathering slowly, still getting used to the steel armour that had been given to him only hours before. As wonderful as the moment was, the Zenthi doctor was in charge of her well being, and regrettably, informing the powerful individual of her fate.

“Jasmine?” he asked for her attention as the human pushed away her furry friends.

“Yeah?” she responded, her bright blue eyes swollen with past tears and shimmering with her smile.

“I know this may not be the appropriate time but...” he sat down beside her, preparing to tell the human about the Galactic Rangers arrival and her departure from Esaander.

“But what?” she asked when he did not continue his sentence.

His ears folded down on his head, Xant knew that as soon as he told her, the positive, happy atmosphere she was producing would vanish. He didn’t want to lose that feeling, not just yet.

“I wanted to ask about a concept you spoke of before you started singing.” He proposed.

The human chuckled throwing her head back in an alarmingly fluid fashion.

“I mean, I don't mean to be rude or nothing but I’m pretty sloshed (drunk) I’m not sure how well on the…” her eyes focused on nothing, waving her hand as she let the sentence hang in the air “Talking, information, thing…” The gaze turned to Xant and he felt compelled to speak up.

“Explanation?” he offered.

“Yes! That thing!” Her hand waving at him “I’m not sure I’ll be good at it since I’m pretty sloshed” she repeated, the blinding smile returned “but go ahead! I’ll do my best to be compbrhenstable, comprestable...”

“Comprehensive?” Xant offered again, feeling the subtle tingle down his spine.

Her waving hand pointed at him, her head bobbing up and down.

“Yeah, that.”

Xant wondered if he shouldn’t try later, the human was extremely intoxicated, but the effects were far too fascinating not to probe. It wasn’t just her loss of physical precision, but her cognitive control was appalling, he had noted that the secondary frequency her brain produced had been unusually quiet, suppressed by the ethanol?

There was still so much that they didn’t know about humanity, Xant could only lament that they would not have enough time to complete the research needed.

“During your speech, you were speaking of your friend and opening a business on a moon.”

“Uh-huh?”

“You used a word to describe it, a word, I’m afraid I’m unfamiliar with, could you elaborate further upon it?”

She looked glassy eyed into the empty air.

“What did I say?”

“You said, ‘it was always your ***** to open a business’,” Xant explained as best he could. “What does ***** mean?”

She stared at him again, struggling to understand and convey her knowledge.

“Well, it’s like, an aspiration or a perfect plan I suppose, like what you want to happen and what should happen if everything goes according to plan and god gifts you with an extraordinary amount of luck and stuff…”

“A perfect plan?” Xant repeated unsure if the nuances had translated correctly between her intoxication and explanation.

“See it’s not that hard! We know all those things!” Rynard interrupted. Xant turned towards Rynard.

“But.. I’m sure we’re missing something, I understand aspiration and the satisfaction of a perfectly executed plan-”

“Maybe she’s got a song about it then?!” Rynard suggested hopefully, his body still bouncing from the last tune.

“A song?” Xant looked at the aging soldier incredulously. “I hardly think such a concept would be translatable in song-”

“Song about ******?” Jasmine processed, before her wide grin returned. She jumped to her feet and swayed as she walked, but with more purpose and rhythm, “I know a few!” she walked right up to Rynard and without any hesitation whatsoever grabbed one of his steel coated claws in each hand and began to sway with them from side to side, creating a new rhythm as she began to sing again.

“I know you, I’ve walked with you once upon a *****,” the human then without warning spun herself within the soldiers claws before instinctively returning to her original position, body jumping from foot to foot as she sang the next line.

“I know you, that gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleaaaaam” she twirled right out of Rynard’s arms and into that of the stunned Xant, who’s ears shot up as she took his own hands instead.

“But I know it’s trueeeeee, that visions are seldom what they seeeem.” She lifted Xants hand above her head twirled on the spot, but stopped her swaying to look directly into Xants eyes.

“But if I know youu, I’ll know what you doooo” Her warm fingers tapped the bridge of his skull gently, freezing him on the spot as she twirled, pressed her back into his embrace and crossed his arms over her, continuing the sway that was integral to the song.

“You’ll love me at once, the way you did once-upon-a *************”

Then just as quickly as they were together, the human broke the stance, twirling out of his grasp and onto the office floor continuing the song and spinning in free form, the blue cape, fluttering and billowing with her movements.

Xant’s ears felt as though they would pull themselves off his head.

His arms lingered in the air unsure of what to do.

In the end, he could only watch as the human repeated the dance with her furry compatriots.

“Did she just?...” Rynard asked ominously.

“I don’t think so…” the doctor replied as the human’s voice got louder into the song. “I wouldn’t recommend taking anything Jasmine does seriously while in this state.”

“But if I know youuuuu!” she sang to Sieglinde, her twirling becoming unstable “I know what you’ll du. Duhhh... Dooooo.” Jasmine stopped spinning immediately and her body resisted the sudden loss of momentum, she willed her body, suddenly and swiftly to the corner of Laandi’s office, zig zagging involuntarily as she collapsed to her knees and proceeded to empty her stomach into the vicinity of Laandi’s washroom.

It was the most unpleasant of sights.

And sounds…

… and smells.

Rynard’s bellowing laughter drowned out any sort of wonder the song had, and Xant decided to help his poor charge. The doctor had to flinch with every convulse of Jasmine’s stomach, three more putrid pulses ebbed out of the human before she finished, and leant her body up against the archway.

“Are you alright Jasmine?”

Jasmine coughed and sputtered, spitting the last dregs into the automatic washroom.

“No…” she confessed “Been a long time since I threw up like that.”

“Is that a common side effect to ethanol intoxication?”

“When I drink too much, yeah…” she gulped for air. “Xant?”

“Yes, Jasmine?”

“Could I have some water?” the shine from her eyes and smile had gone, a very pitiful expression crossed her face. Xant didn’t like it at all.

“Of course Jasmine.” he nodded and turned to go fetch her some water.

Rynard was still howling with laughter, his rumbling voice now overpowered the positive vibes Jasmine emotional Freq had been giving out. Spades and Sieglinde had retired and were now sitting quietly in the small pillow nest the human had made.

Xant’s incredulous look turned into a downright scowl towards the old soldier.

“Isn’t the laughter a bit much?”

The hulking soldier lowered his voice towards the citizen sized doctor, a beaming grin still on his armoured face.

“Takes me back to basic,” The soldier reminisced “Dosed up on Glass and breaking pirate bones, watching a Captain stumble like he lost his own tail. Almost makes me miss the GCR.”

“Intoxication is not a trivial matter for Citizens.” Xant warned fetching a water canister from the food dispenser and walked it over to Jasmine.

“But she did it to herself!” Rynard protested. Xant knelt down to hand the canister to Jasmine, but she didn’t reach for it.

The human had fallen unconscious, mild pleasant waves ebbed from her translator but Jasmine remained still. Xant became worried, without his dataslate he couldn’t directly check her vitals, they would need to move her to a more secure location.

“Captain! We need to move Jasmine, she needs medical care.”

Rynard snapped to attention, and tapped his comms device.

“Captain Rynard reporting. Subject is incapacitated and secured, transferring to security for quarantine.” Rynard scooped up the unconscious human in one hand. “Escorting User Specimens to security for quarantine.” The old soldier motioned to the doctor, disconnecting the comms. “Are we gonna need her armour?”

Xant looked over to the simple, carapace grown citizen armour, one of the few body coverings Jasmine possessed.

“We will need it,” he answered. “The FreqBand is attached to the armour, we will need its data.”

Rynard grunted in compliance and scooped up the light armour in his free claw. He took one last look around the Directors office and snickered.

“It’s going to take forever to clean this up…”

-*-

The Soldier and Doctor made their way down through the empty station complex, the other Esaander staff members kept in secure locations, away from the formidable human.

Xant coaxed the dogs to follow, an easy enough task since the creatures practically refused to be separated from their Namegiver.

Private Arc and Suk, insectoid Arvas guards stood waiting in the security wing for their captain.

“Captain!” Suk stood at attention, saluting with both right arms across his chest.

“Capt’n!” Arc saluted in kind.

Both guards wings nearly popped out of their armour when they caught sight of the limp human in their captains arms.

“Dont worry,” Rynard smirked. “Her grace will be fine.” the captain walked right past his subordinates and began the unlocking sequence for the Freq-proof training room.

Xant followed in shortly after, the dogs by his side, Sieglinde slightly confused, Spades single mindedly followed after Jasmine.

“Private Suk?” Xant quired.

“Yes Doctor?”

“Would you go to my office and retrieve some items for me? I need both a medical Dataslate and the Freq-Recorder slate,”

Private Suk looked to his captain, who gave a nod as the Freq-proof door opened.

“Yes, Doctor,”

Xant gave further directions as to find the equipment he needed, Suk Saluted and followed through with his orders.

“Arc!” Rynard barked an order “You’re to stand guard outside you hear?!”

“Yessir!” the second guard saluted and ran quickly out to guard the security office door. Rynard

rolled his shoulders and let out a sigh.

“The Director will be wanting a report no doubt, I’ll try and get it over and done with quickly. You gonna stay here with Jasi?”

Xant nodded, ears lifting from his head.

“Yes, I’ll need to ensure she doesn’t suffer any ill effects from the intoxication and record everything from our encounter.” The doctor looked toward the citizen issue armour, around its wrist was the Freq-band recorder. “And, I’ll take the time to analyse the Freq-bomb recording.”

Rynard gave a grave nod.

“Maybe hold off on that until you can get to the medical-wing,” he suggested. “I’ll be back, quickly hopefully,” he lamented and walked into his hab quarters to peel off the steel suit.

Xant wasn’t quite ready to do the same.

He wanted to learn from the experience, hopefully, it may persuade his future employers to consider him for more military operations.

The golden-haired Sieglinde had shaken off the timidness and was enjoying her reunion with Kimiko. Spades, the larger of the trio had taken to laying down beside Jasmine.

Xant inspected the human, without his dataslate there was not much he could do except ensure she was still breathing and blood flow continued.

Xant looked towards the older dog, without the influence of his Namegiver’s freq the beast seemed to fall into a solemn stance. He lay down beside the sleeping human, his ears drooped and rested his head between his paws. A defeated expression.

A lingering symptom of the freq bomb? Without his dataslate, there was little he could do for Jasmine, but, every conversation he had had with the quadruped User species had given him some insight into the Humans behaviour.

‘Hello friend…’ Xant began gently, speaking to the User on the natural telepathic frequency both their species shared. Spades did not reply. ‘Friend, are you sad from the howl?’

‘Yes.’ Came the simple yet powerful answer.

‘Why?’

‘Namegiver, she howled for Beau…’ The dog answered the doctor, ‘Beau is gone, Namegivers only howl when someone is gone.’

‘Was Beau your Namegiver?’

‘Yes. my partner, my pack, we fought together, we hunted together in the Bad Sands.’

Besides ‘The Howl’, the dogs had only ever spoken positively of humans and their lives together. Together as ‘family’ packs, protective and caring of one another, but fighting together? hunting together? Jasmine had certainly shown combat potential, but she never spoke of a life with it. She had insisted she was a citizen, what was a military grade human like?

‘What were The Bad Sands like?’ Xant asked.

‘The Bad Sands, no home, no bed, fire and smoke, pain and fear.’ Spades looked up at Xant with tired, sad brown eyes. ‘Heat, metal, loud shouts, angry shouts.’ The dogs voice growled as he remembered. ‘Sour smells, salty smells, hot sand. Blood…’ Spades whimpered and shuffled his head down. ‘We were home, no Bad Sands, no more fear. No more Beau.’

An emptying silence overcame Xant.

He had felt such fear before, forcing anyone to relive such memories was abhorrent.

‘I’m sorry.’ Xant apologized.

They sat in silence a moment before Spades looked up from the floor.

‘Friend, Have you lost your Namegiver too?’

Xant had to chuckle. By calling himself ‘Friend’ the dog thought Xant was one like him, a ‘Friend’ and ‘Friends’ always had a ‘Namegiver’

‘No Friend Spades, I am my own Namegiver.’ The doctor explained.

Spades sniffed then shuddered.

‘Not Namegiver, not Friend?’ The dog tilted his head not understanding

‘I am Friend, Namegiver Xant.’ The doctor expressed as simply as he could.

‘Friend Xant.. Not Namegiver Xant. Only one Namegiver now…’

Xant couldn't fault the Creature, there only was one Namegiver, he stroked the creatures head and agreed with him.

‘I understand Friend Spades,’