Interlude-Study

“Tasser!”

Nemuleki stormed through the curtain dividing the greenhouse. She found him lounging in the corner next to the Warlock’s makeshift cot.

“Tasser, it’s your turn again. I can’t suffer another moment.” She said.

Her teammate blinked a few times, shaking himself more awake. A pang of annoyance went through her. Had he actually managed to get sleep? It was his turn to be off shift, but when it had been her turn, Nemuleki hadn’t been able to shut her eyes for more than a few minutes.

It should have been the Vorak keeping her restless. There was half a Void Fleet combing the colony for them. They had killed Osino, and would surely kill any of them if given the opportunity. She should have been worried about a sneaky Rak leaping at her and clawing out her throat.

But she was preoccupied with the alien.

She hadn’t believed her eyes when what seemed like a bald Rak had burst into their hiding place. She’d nearly shot it right there. But to everyone’s surprise, it hadn’t even noticed them. Instead of attacking them like every other five-digited creature on the asteroid had, it yanked the door shut behind it and hunkered down too!

Nemuleki didn’t even want to think about the rest of the events leading up to their flight from Korbanok station. Osino’s blood had hit her and even though she’d cleaned her cheeks, she could still feel where the splatter had struck her face. Recalling the moment sent shiver through her.

No small part of her wished this strange new alien had been hit instead of Osino. It burned her that their squadmate’s death was taking a lower priority than this new alien. But what else could they do?

It called itself a ‘Caylob’.

Tasser was confident that was its name rather than its kind, but how could he know that? If she were in its shoes, she would have called herself a ‘Casti’ before she shared her own name.

“…What did it do?” Tasser asked.

“It keeps talking, but it has to know we don’t understand it!”

“Did it do anything else besides talk?”

“It kept messing with a soft bottle, but what does that have to do with anything?”

Tasser gave Nemuleki a weary huff before hauling himself up to see what Caylob was up to. She gave him an annoyed hiss. Tasser didn’t react and only eyed her back. She let out a frustrated scream inside her mind and forced herself to ignore his dismissal.

He’d always been a weird Casti, often a frustratingly placid one.

I shouldn’t snap at him.

Tasser had lost a squadmate too, even if he was reacting coldly. He stood to lose another friend too. Everyone around the star had heard of the Warlock, Nai . But Tasser was the only one of their team that knew Nai personally. He’d been the only one to recognize she’d even been nearby on Korbanok. Tasser recognized just the sound of her creations. If they’d been even a second later in assisting her, the Warlock might have died right there. There hadn’t been that many Rak infantry, but the Adept had been on her last legs.

Every Congressional Void Fleet had a bounty on her so they would scour every area they even suspected her of hiding in, doubly so if they thought she was injured. If the Rak caught up to her in this condition, it might not even take an enemy Adept to kill her.

Nemuleki felt it would be wrong to be frustrated with Tasser. That only made her more frustrated with the whole situation. She wanted to scream at somebody. But she felt obligated to not make things worse. Her frustrations with everything around her made her frustrated with herself. It all wore her down.

They walked back through the curtain. The alien leaned against the partition’s window-wall, awaiting them.

“Caylav,” Tasser said.

“Caleb .” It corrected. The last sound in its name was not made for Casti lips.

Nemuleki saw that Tasser didn’t react to the correction either. He didn’t bite his gati , the inside of his cheek, he didn’t twitch in his face. He just didn’t display any of the Casti tics.

It made a certain kind of sense that Tasser would interact well with the alien; one of the only creatures around who wouldn’t notice what Tasser was missing.

That was awful of her! Aggravated, Nemuleki bit her own gati. She really was not at her best right now. She kept going in dark circles in her head.

“Cayla-b …” Tasser tried to pop his lips to make the sound, and to Nemuleki’s ear, he seemed to succeed. The alien seemed like it might correct him again, but must have decided against it.

“[Good enough]” Caylab muttered to itself.

“Just like that!” Nemuleki said. “It keeps talking for no reason, like I should somehow know what it’s saying.”

“Just ignore whatever it’s not actively trying to get you to understand.” Tasser said, “Have you gotten the mold cast yet?”

“No. I can’t get it to actually recognize what the foam does.”

They needed a cast of the alien’s face if they were going to take it with them. If it couldn’t breathe, it was a liability. And it was an even bigger liability if it wound back up with the Vorak. So leaving it behind was not an option.

Lorel was on his way back, hopefully arriving before daybreak, and would be bringing with him air accumulator masks swiped from the main lab building. Whatever this alien was, it was likely from a higher oxygen native environment. Like the Vorak were. But unlike the fur-fish, this alien didn’t seem to adjust well to depleted air environments.

Nemuleki had set the atmospheric settings inside Caylob’s quarantine herself. Under standard Vorak air mixture, like they maintained on Korbanok Station, the alien’s condition had quickly stabilized. But having it in there was only a temporary fix.

She’d watched how the mixture in the room had changed over the course of a few hours with Caylob breathing the contents. And in that time, she’d remembered a lecture about lungs. No species lungs were perfect. Some animals were more efficient than others, but even though all of them inhaled for the purpose of acquiring oxygen, none of them actually utilized all the oxygen in each breath. Some of it got exhaled too.

This Caylob was no exception. Which meant an air accumulator mask would work as well for it as it would for Nai.

Nemuleki didn’t know how the physics worked, but the mask could filter molecules. Air mixture goes in, but an adjustable percentage of the oxygen isn’t allowed out. Fine tuning the concentrations would be tricky, but the alien should be able to breathe by exploiting the fact that it could intake more oxygen than it actually could use.

But the accumulator was useless if the oxygen could escape through any gaps, so the mask needed to fit on its face well enough to prevent those gaps. Which meant Nemuleki was stuck with the agonizing task of procuring a mold of the creature’s mouth and nose.

She’d barely gotten it to pick up the canister of foam she’d delivered it.

“Maybe we can demonstrate it?”

Nemuleki groaned—a thready clicking sound in her people. She was not rested enough for this. When she’d first withdrawn from school to join the war effort, her professors had tried to warn her the military would be unrelenting, but what could have prepared her for this?

She had to laugh a little at the realization that, even if she had stayed in school, she might have ended up embroiled in this mess anyway.

“Your face or—” Tasser began.

“Yours.” She said.

·····

Tasser looked ridiculous with the foam hardening around his mouth.

Caylob was paying attention though. Nemuleki had struggled to even keep its attention the first time she’d tried to go over this. But it hadn’t taken its eyes off them.

“Breathing alright?” Nemuleki asked.

Tasser gave a muffled grunt.

Dark red foam was setting around his jaw and up his face’s ridgeline. It would be solidified in a minute. The question was if Caylob would understand enough of what they were doing to make a similar mold of its own face.

It didn’t.

“Air.” Nemuleki said, trying to point to the seal the foam made on Tasser’s face.

“Air.” Caylob repeated. It was just blithely staring at her.

Tasser butchered another garbled sentence. He was barely audible through the tubes sticking through the foam letting him breathe, much less intelligible.

Nemuleki held up their canister of foam and gestured the alien to do the same. “Mask.” She said, pressing the dispenser button in pantomime.

Caylob pressed the button and air hissed out the nozzle. Startled, he dropped the canister.

Never in her life had Nemuleki wished she were a Vorak. But right now? She would love to have fangs and claws to rip something to shreds. That had to be therapeutic.

“This is hopeless.” She said.

Tasser didn’t respond behind his foam face mask, just giving her a shrug.

She gave the foam on his face a tap and found it solid. It was easy to pry the solidified foam off his face. It came away in a single clean piece with a perfect indentation in the shape of his jawline and mouth.

He didn’t give any special remark when his face was finally free. He just stayed fixated on the problem in front of him.

“You’re welcome.” Nemuleki said.

“You two need to quiet down.” A new voice said.

Both of the Casti turned to find Nai on her feet, parting the plastic curtain dividing the greenhouse.

“Nai,” Tasser said, showing the first real expression Nemuleki had seen on him since landing on the planet. “should you be up and about?”

“Probably not.” Nai said, “But we probably can’t stay here long. So I’ll mend best I can and work from there.” She tried to walk toward the stool Tasser had patiently received his foam mask upon, but stumbled halfway there. She settled and deposited herself in one of the folding chairs Viranam had supplied them.

“ Ooow. ” Nai slouched, “I’m still pretty light-headed. What are we actually doing here?”

“Trying to fit a mask for the alien so it doesn’t slow us down.”

Nai’s eyes narrowed, and she glanced toward Caylob behind the window. Caylob froze. “We’re taking it with us? It tried to shoot me, you know.”

“You probably responded in kind.” Tasser pointed out.

Nai held up her hand wrapped thickly in bandages. “I didn’t get a chance to shoot back. The gun I stole exploded on me. What are the odds?”

Tasser ignored the comment. “Leaving it is a liability.”

Nai looked like she might object, but she refrained. She seemed to be lost in thought for a moment and Nemuleki imagined the Warlock was weighing how Caylob’s presence might affect what she did in battle. An Adept like her didn’t earn a name like ‘Warlock’ without being smart in combat.

It occurred to Nemuleki that this was her first real exposure to Nai—the Farnata had been unconscious for most of the time since escaping Korbanok Station. Everyone had heard stories about certain Adepts, and the Warlock’s were some of the most unbelievable. It should have been an exciting moment. But under the circumstances? It felt inconsequential.

As if reading her mind, Nai suddenly seemed to realize she hadn’t introduced herself yet.

“I’m Nai, by the way.” She said, turning her attention to Nemuleki.

“Diar Nemuleki.”

Nai nodded, “A friend of Tasser’s is a friend of mine.”

Tasser didn’t correct Nai about their friendship so Nemuleki felt worse about being so uncharitable with Tasser earlier.

“Tasser said he knew the Warlock, but I didn’t really believe him before now.”

“I did my counter-Adept training with Nai.” Tasser said, nodding her way. “Vorak Adepts aren’t as scary when you’ve fought with her a few dozen times.”

“Where’s the commander?” Nai asked noticing Lorel’s absence.

Nemuleki’s tongue gave a click and the words caught in her throat.

“…He’s out with our local contact right now. Getting supplies and hiding one of our dead.” Tasser said.

Nai grimaced sympathetically.

“I’m sorry.” Nai paused and shut her eyes for a few moments, as if to collect herself. “But we’re not out of danger yet. Tasser, if we really are taking this thing with us, we can’t afford to be waiting around. What else is there to do?”

“We were bottlenecked until you woke up. One of us needed to watch you, and the other needed to watch the alien.” Tasser said.

“Why can’t it come out right now?”

“Quarantine .” Tasser and Nemuleki said simultaneously.

Tasser continued, “It struggled to breathe once we reached the surface. We think there isn’t enough oxygen in the air for it.”

“I remember a little of that.” Nai said, “Legging it from where we landed is about the last thing I remember clearly.”

“Commander Lorel is getting accumulator masks, one for you too, if you want it.”

“I will, thanks. I can breathe okay for now, but as soon as we’re doing anything worse than a jog, I’m going to be heaving.”

“We want to have the mold ready before he gets back, any ideas?”

“A mold so the mask fits its face better?”

“We’ve given it quick foam; we’re just trying to get it to understand what to do now.”

Nai gave Nemuleki a blank stare. “Just by giving instructions from the outside.”

Nemuleki nodded.

“But why aren’t you just going inside and getting the cast?”

“Because of the quarantine.” Nemuleki said like it was obvious.

“But the whole reason you want the cast—and thereby the mask—is so it can move and come with us.” Nai said, “You’re not keeping it in the box to quarantine it, it’s just in there to breathe. There’s no reason to do charades. Just go inside and make the mold yourself.”

“…Oh.”

Nemuleki didn’t miss a similar expression on Tasser’s face. They’d both been too focused on ‘quarantining’ the creature.

It had been a mistake to even think of this as an actual quarantine. It was how First Contact should go—to avoid the one-in-several-trillion chance that some eco-disaster might occur. But their quarantine had been broken before they’d even created it. Hampering themselves to maintain it was not only unnecessary; it was counterproductive. Ideally, they’d keep in quarantined anyway to reduce further risk.

But ‘ideal’ was not a luxury they were afforded right now.

“It should probably be me then.” Tasser said ruefully, “I’m the one who communicated most with it so far.”

Tasser grabbed a tube for the alien to breathe through while the mask set.

Watching him try to negotiate with the alien was bizarre, and more than once the alien said a few words Nemuleki recognized.

Germs. No. Bad. Safe. Good.

Tasser had managed to impart more than she’d expected. Caylob had already picked up some basic words. It was butchering the pronunciation though.

Nemuleki glanced at Nai when Tasser finally managed to convince the creature to sit still while he applied the foam. The Farnata was hiding her fatigue well, but Tasser had shared at least some of his knowledge about Adepts with the rest of the squad in case they needed it.

Her limbs were shaking almost imperceptibly, and her eyes were having trouble staying focused on the antics Tasser and Caylob were inflicting on each other.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” she began, “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re showing pretty bad signs of accretion.”

Some surprise showed on Nai’s face at the term. Nemuleki was a little surprised she remembered it too. Adepts couldn’t just create matter as they liked. Do too much, push themselves too far, and mass started being created in places it shouldn’t be. Like inside the Adept’s body. Depending on how the accretion built up, where in the body it was concentrated, and how quickly or slowly the body could remove the foreign matter, the Adept could suffer devastating, often permanent, side effects.

“Honestly? No, I’m not.” Nai said, “I’m basically blind in my right eye, and even if I could see, I probably shouldn’t be shooting anything right now.”

Nemuleki was more than a little surprised how candid the Warlock was being. Vulnerability wasn’t something often expected from the Farnata.

But then again, they were deep into Vorak occupied territory. Nai might not consider it ‘vulnerability’ at the moment, at least not the personal kind. With so many enemies around, a seasoned Adept operative like her might consider the disclosure more like taking inventory—making sure the whole team was aware of its assets and liabilities.

“How bad is it? How long would you need to get back to healthy?”

“At least a month or two, probably closer to three or four. Under ideal conditions? I wouldn’t materialize another gram for at least a few weeks. But I don’t really have a choice. If we have to fight; I’ll fight.”

“You could wreck your body if you keep overdoing it.”

“Beats dying.” Nai said simply.

Nemuleki realized that, even despite Nai’s hampered eyesight, she hadn’t taken her gaze off Tasser and the Caylob.

“What do you think about it?” Nemuleki asked.

Nai didn’t respond immediately. She took her time looking at the creature while Tasser tried to keep it sitting still with a wad of foam covering the lower half of its face.

“…I think it already tried to kill me once. If it tries again, any of us?”

Nai made a sharp sound with her teeth and flicked her hand in the alien’s direction.

Nemuleki was glad she’d gotten to meet Nai. She was glad they were on the same side.

Tasser started shouting at Caylob when it tried to pull at the foam on its face before it was totally solid. Nemuleki just gaped at the two of them making gibberish noise at each other. Nai didn’t seem to have the energy to react strongly, but she still intently watched the chaos unfold.

Pieces of foam spattered against the partition window. They were shouting far too much for a team trying to stay unnoticed.

If Lorel walked in right now, they would look like idiots.

Which, of course, they were. Most non-idiots didn’t become military operatives. As a matter of fact, most idiots didn’t either. Their idiocy must be a superior variety. At least, that was the thought going through Nemuleki’s head when the door to the blacked-out greenhouse slid open.

Professor Viranam walked in.

Four heads, belonging to three different variety of alien, froze and stared at her.

“Professor.” Nemuleki gulped.

“Pupil.” Viranam returned politely, “So this is it?” She walked to stand before the partition window and looked at Caylob and Tasser.

“I thought you were going to try to keep your distance. Plausible deniability and all."

The professor gave Nemuleki a chiding tilt of the head. “I was. But then I thought about it for more than a few minutes and I figured out why you were being so cagey. No one in their right mind would pass up a glimpse at First Contact.”

Caylob said something, muffled behind the mold still clinging to its face, “[Shut up, this one’s friendly. It’s the one that let us in here.]”

Maybe it was talking to Viranam, maybe to Tasser. Not even Tasser seemed sure. The alien didn’t seem to mind talking even when no one understood it. Nemuleki knew the odd behavior wouldn’t escape her Hahi ’s notice.

“It’s clearly speaking. It’s intelligent.” Viranam observed.

“I’ve exchanged some basic words with it, but we only met it twelve hours ago.” Tasser said, finally prying the mold off Caylob’s face. “So everything is still early days.”

“I see you’re not quite operating under a proper quarantine.” Viranam observed.

Tasser glanced at Nai for support.

“We need it mobile. So it has to breathe.” The Adept supplied, “Besides, hasn’t that particular worm already slipped the net? An actual quarantine is redundant.”

“That was actually one of the reasons I decided to drop in.” the Professor said, “Once I figured it out, I thought I’d make sure you knew.”

“We were preoccupied with the biohazard risk, and I didn’t really realize why it was pointless until the Warlock here pointed it out.” Nemuleki admitted.

Nai’s epithet was not missed by Professor Viranam. She gave the Farnata a reverent nod.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself, pupil. You had quite the rough day, falling from Korbanok. I’m not surprised you’re rattled.” Viranam said.

“How’d you know that?” Nemuleki said. They’d all been careful not to give any information about their mission up to this point.

“Oh please,” Viranam said, “Thirty pods landed in the crater fields yesterday evening. It’s not that easy to hide an evacuation from something in orbit. They were either coming from one of the moon colonies or Korbanok, and why would you bother coming here from the moon?”

“Lorel’s not going to like that you know so much.” Tasser said.

“Where is he, anyway?” Nai asked.

“The commander and I parted ways once we hid your friend’s body in the campus morgue. I believe he intended to make a radio transmission before acquiring some air accumulator filters. I lent him my keys, so he shouldn’t be too long behind me.”

“What exactly are you hoping to learn from the alien in the meantime?” Nai asked.

“I want to take a blood sample if it will let me.”

“Not likely.” Tasser said, exiting the partition with the mold of Caylob’s face. “It does not like close contact.”

“I’m aware of the risks.” Viranam said.

Nai leaned forward in her seat. “It tried to kill me when it first saw me, Professor. It’s dangerous.”

“I understand.” She said simply. “I intend to proceed.”

Nemuleki saw Nai’s hand reach for a gun that was no longer strapped to her leg. She didn’t think the Adept would shoot anyone right now, but she shared the instinct. If Caylob attacked her Hahi , Nemuleki wouldn’t respond kindly either.

She entered the partition after Tasser left and carried with her a small medical transport case.

Unlike Nemuleki and Tasser’s approach, Viranam didn’t say a word. She only used gestures. From within, she withdrew a syringe and vial. She sprayed the fresh needle with a disinfectant and affixed it with a tube that connected it to the vial.

Caylob jumped back with a shout upon seeing it.

“[No way!]” it shouted, “Alala. [No. No!]”

It had picked up on a few words.

“Interesting.” Viranam said, addressing everyone except Caylob. “It recognized the tool.”

“It reacted similarly when we first put it in there.” Tasser remarked. “It only calmed down a bit when I taught it the word for germs.”

Caylob gave Tasser a glance, recognizing the word ‘germs’, but quickly returned its attention to Viranam.

“If it was on Korbanok, and is willing to flee with you from the Vorak… I wonder if they had it confined. The Vorak might have taken samples by force.” The professor marveled at the alien before her. Even with everything that had happened and how worn down she was, it gave Nemuleki a little happiness to see one of her teachers take such joy at an opportunity.

“I see… In that case, some reciprocity will be required.” Viranam said.

Nemuleki’s Hahi took a step back from Caylob and rolled up her sleeve. It was a tricky angle for her to see, but as carefully as she could, Viranam slid the needle into the outside edge of her forearm toward the wrist—a textbook Casti blood draw. A second later, orange blood filled the tube and trickled into the glass vial it was attached to.

It wasn’t a large vial, 20cc about, and in a few seconds it was full. Viranam withdrew the needle and wiped a smear of dermal paste over the pinprick it left. She disconnected the vial from the bloody tube and wordless held it out for Caylob.

Caylob hesitantly reached out and took the vial, inspecting it.

“[Well I didn’t expect that. I’m flummoxed. Any ideas?]” It muttered.

The alien turned the vial over in its hands a few times before cautiously offering it back to Viranam. She held up her hand, refusing to take it back.

“You’re trying to buy some of its blood with yours?” Nemuleki asked.

“Even if it still declines, I could see if it recognizes any concept of exchange.” Viranam said. She gestured to Caylob with her rolled up sleeve again, indicating for him to do something similar.

Caylob didn’t reciprocate the action until Viranam set down the case with her vials and syringes and moved away from it. Viranam looked at the alien’s arm’s with enraptured interest. It was no wonder to Nemuleki that a biosciences professor would be so interested to inspect a new alien.

“Look.” Viranam said, pointing, but being careful not to touch Caylob directly. On the inside of its arm, up the flat near the elbow bend.”

Nemuleki crowded close to the window to see what she was talking about. Tiny red pinpricks were clustered in a hexagonal pattern on the creature’s skin. Something had stuck it with needles.

“That hex needle pattern is a widely manufactured one. I think the Vorak definitely poked this particular animal.” Viranam said.

“No wonder it doesn’t like them.” Tasser mused.

“Maybe… maybe see if it’s willing to do the draw itself.” Nemuleki said. “It’s intelligent enough to know what germs are. Shouldn’t it be able to wrap its head around a blood draw too?”

“It might not be a question of intelligence, pupil.” Viranam said, “It takes very steady hands and very sharp eyes to tap a vein. It’s very easy to go too deep.”

“I think it’s worth trying. There are veins visible near the surface of its skin, it shouldn’t be too hard.”

Viranam nodded. “I concur.”

She withdrew a fresh syringe, sterilized it, and handed it to a further unsure Caylob. The alien held the needle and stared at the professor.

“[I don’t know whether to be angry or not that it wants me to draw the blood myself.]” It said. Nemuleki could only guess what its expressions meant. The words were even more incomprehensible. Caylob looked between the Professor and the rest of them looking in.

“[Easy for you to say. It’s not your blood.]” It muttered, looking at the needle.

Caylob’s jaw tightened, and it held the needle carefully at the inside of its wrist.

“[I know, I know. Quit distracting me, or I’m not going to do it.]”

Caylob gave a hiss when the metal slid through its skin. No blood flowed through the tube, and a few seconds later they slid the needle out. It had missed the vein. It struggled again, holding the needle over its skin but not inserting it again.

A minute passed of it trying to stick itself again, but it didn’t seem to be able to.

Eventually it gave up and passed the needle back to the Professor, and offered her its wrist.

“[Not a word from you].” It said, not quite looking at anyone present.

Viranam was visibly surprised when it offered the arm, but she didn’t hesitate to take over. She shone a light on the alien’s arm to better see the vein she was aiming for, and she looked at it from several angles, gauging the depth below Caylob’s skin. She slid the needle in with no resistance, and a few moments later rich red blood flowed through the tube and filled the vial in just a few seconds.

Caylob wasn’t happy about it, but it did let the professor take the vial. Nemuleki saw that it did, in fact, keep the vial of her blood, slipping it into the pocket of the pack it carried.

“Thank you.” Viranam gave a short nod to the creature before she exited the partition with the tiny vial of red blood. She looked at Caylob in the enclosure and considered the vial she held.

“I have very little evidence for this…” she began, “but the alien was very reticent to part with this. I think it would be to your benefit if I didn’t take this somewhere else. Pupil, please hold onto this for a minute. I’m going to fetch some equipment so I can analyze it with the creature present.”

Viranam handed Nemuleki the vial, and exited the greenhouse without another word.

“Your Hahi is reckless.” Nai observed.

“You can’t pretend that wasn’t inspiring though.” Nemuleki said. “It took her less than a minute to get more cooperation from this thing than we got all night.”

“Speak for yourself.” Tasser said, “I’m still proud of getting it to learn the word for germs.”

“Germs.” Caylob repeated from within the partition, pointing to Tasser. It was looking at them like it was trying to follow the conversation. It had chimed in on the one word it knew in the conversation.

No more than five minutes later, Viranam returned with Lorel pushing a small cart of equipment.

“A biosciences professor bringing equipment into one of the hot lab greenhouses first thing in the morning? Nothing could be more ordinary, Commander. You’re concerns are appreciated but misplaced.” She said.

“Professor, I’m not worried if there’s an explanation or not. I’m worried about being seen at all.” Lorel said.

Viranam shrugged and walked over to Nemuleki who handed her back the vial of blood. The professor quickly ducked out of the way with her cart and set about doing whatever tests she wanted with the blood.

Tasser stood up to greet their Commander.

“Sir.” Tasser said, “We’ve made some progress with the alien. It’s intelligent enough to understand germs. It—”

“Tasser, sorry, but shut up. I appreciate the mission report, but it’s too formal right now.” Lorel said. The exhaustion was heavy in his voice. “The Professor filled me in on your progress, but we’re all too worn down to pretend this is ‘situation normal’.”

Tasser gave a nod, but no other visible reaction to Lorel’s candor.

“You’re awake.” Lorel said, finding Nai still seated. “First thing’s first, I guess. Who’s in command?”

Nai technically outranked him. But Lorel already held field command of the existing squad, or at least what remained of it.

“You are.” Nai said firmly. “I’m in no condition to be giving orders. Just point me at whatever you need gone .”

Lorel gave a groan.

“I was really hoping you might take this mess out of my hands.” He admitted.

Nai snorted.

The four soldiers all gathered around one of the tables that had recently held peculiar plant samples for study. They laid out the results of their work and made plans.

Caylob sat quietly behind the window, still isolated for now. It glanced occasionally toward Nemuleki’s Hahi who was busy at work with her new medical sample.

It was a quiet morning, all told. Just a few people talking, another just lounging around, one more getting a bright and early start on the day’s work.