Geh!kin swallowed hard and tried to watch everything at once on the cameras. He was sweating profusely and all his instincts were screaming for him to find a pool to dive in to hide. The hatch was about to open, and their chances looked very poor. Gofa!lu dropped the little antenna Petra needed again. His mind raced, and his ears flared with inspiration. He stuck his head out.

"Geh!aoa, grab it and hold it! You're a prisoner, got it? Gofa!lu, Geh!aoa is your prisoner. March her out in front of you with your gun on her. Push her over to the wall outlet, and Geh!aoa will plug it in."

"Got it!" Geh!aoa said at once, taking her position.

"Then what?" Gofa!lu demanded.

"I'm improvising! Follow the current!" he snapped, wishing that anyone else but Gofa!lu had fit inside the third set of kazz armor. He ducked back out of view of the hatch, cursing inwardly. He had hoped that Geh!aoa could take some of the load of tracking everything and making up lines. Now it was all up to him.

The hatch creaked loudly, then lowered with a whine, stopping with a clang. He could tell exactly what it was doing from the noises. He tapped the drawing of a button on his tablet—that still felt very weird, as if he were manipulating ghosts. This one talks to Zaa!nu, this one is me speaking as Zaa!nu, this one is Nik!eh, this one is me speaking as Nik!eh...He would have no way to talk to Geh!aoa, but trusted the smart young lady to figure something out more than he would any of the other survivors. He started to feel a pang and suppressed it. There was no time.

Zaa!nu walked quickly down the ramp, and Geh!kin hoped desperately that she didn't fall over. His wish was granted. As she swayed in place, holding the container they had found, he tapped the ghostly button. "Captain, I am aboard, and I have the maker."

The Captain responded at once in his language, and Geh!kin waited for the translation. "What are you waiting for? Move it to my room now!"

"Yes, Captain." Tap. "Zaa!nu, start walking."

"Um...?"

Geh!kin switched cameras, and there was another alien, not in armor, getting in Zaa!nu's way and showing a lot of teeth. Now what? Tap. "Zaa!nu, turn and look at the shuttle, ignore him for the moment." Tap. "Nik!eh, go." Tap. He watched Nik!eh walk stiffly down the ramp, limping a bit.

Tap. "Infirmary. Now." Tap. "Yes, sir." Tap. "Go, Gofa!lu. Poke her with the rifle."

They started down the ramp.

The alien bothering Zaa!nu demanded something. "What the (expletive) is that doing here?" Petra translated.

Tap. "Insurance," "Killish" replied. Geh!kin raised his voice. "Keep it alive, and keep it here until I say." Tap. "Look at the shuttle, Zaa." Tap. Geh!kin made his voice even louder. "Close that ramp! Keep that ship closed up until I talk to the Captain!" Tap. "Petra, close the ramp."

"What are you doing, Killish?"

Geh!kin almost froze, but tapped and answered, "Obeying orders." Tap. "Zaa!nu, ignore the man and get going. Follow your map."

The other warrior did not seem to like being ignored. He started yelling at Zaa!nu, and Petra couldn't keep up with the translation. Then the warrior grabbed Zaa!nu's arm.

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For a moment, it looked as if she were going to topple over, but she righted herself quickly, in the process giving the horned alien a shove. Since Zaa!nu was in the armor and the other one wasn't, Zaa!nu won that exchange handily. Clutching the container, she marched forward.

Another alien called out something to her. Tap. "Later. Captain is waiting." Tap. "Just ignore them all and keep going, Zaa!nu, you're doing great."

The next thing that grabbed his attention was Geh!aoa running towards the bulkhead and feeling along it as if desperately searching for an escape route. Tap. "Gofa!lu, just stand there menacing her so she can't go anywhere, but if you can block the view of others, she can plug in the antenna." A few moments later, Geh!aoa turned around and pressed herself back against the bulkhead, covering the plug with her body. She showed empty hands. One down.

He switched to watching Nik!eh, who was listing to favor his injured side a bit, but was following the map with no problems. No one he passed stopped to help him get there, which was fortunate in this case but reflected badly on the Goldaskians' ability to care even about their own people. Satisfied for the moment, Geh!kin switched to watch Zaa!nu's progress.

She was having more interactions with passing crew members, but fortunately, they were mostly just salutes. Zaa!nu wasn't returning the salutes, just nodding, and that appeared to be the right approach. No one was yelling at her to stop, at least.

He switched back to Nik!eh, who was just entering the infirmary. Someone wearing white got up from a seat, and asked something. Petra translated, "Hello, Tankal. What gives you here?" Nik!eh's view panned back and forth as he searched for a plug. Geh!kin froze, his mind suddenly drawing a blank.

"Tankal? Tankal Hawakso, answer me. What is the problem?"

Nik!eh turned to face the doctor. A moment later, her eyes widened. "What are you—?" The hoonan's weapon came into view, pointing at her face. "Wait! What are—?" She cut off at some gesture Geh!kin couldn't see, then continued much more quietly, "what are you doing?"

Oh, dear. Geh!kin tried to come up with something, but Nik!eh was ahead of him. The doctor stared for a moment, then looked to her right and back at the hoonan. The gun twitched in that direction as well. Geh!kin finally said, "go in there," and the invader in white turned slowly and walked into a back room. Nik!eh got directly behind her as she moved.

The hoonan pushed her forward until she was up against the far wall. "Can I get a ask?" Petra translated the doctor's quiet voice. Nik!eh took a step back, then started gesturing while the doctor couldn't see. Geh!kin wished that Nik!eh could talk back to him. He got the impression that Nik!eh wanted her face down on the floor, so he tried to tell the medic to do so.

"You're not Tankal Hawakso, are you? Who are you?" The doctor slowly got down on her knees, still facing the wall. "What do you want me?"

The camera panned to the doorway they had just come through. Geh!kin didn't spot what Nik!eh did, but the door started closing. The view whipped back to the doctor, who hadn't moved much.

"I am waiting call Captain a minute," she claimed. That's probably a lie.

"No talk. Wait."

The doctor's head turned. "Expletive, you are not Goldaskian," she whispered. "What are you, Nagathi?" A pause. "No, a Nagathi could speak Galactic at least. Expletive, you're a kolna, aren't you? You are from the world below."

Nik!eh's appeared to ignore her—his helmet bent down to see a few different plugs on the wall. His hand wavered, but then he stuck Petra's antenna into a plug.

There was a visible spark and a puff of smoke.

Oh, no. Oh, kazz. Nik!eh yanked the antenna out of the wall and stuck it in a different part.

"Petra, is your antenna in the infirmary working?"

"No, Geh!kin."

Kazz, kazz, kazz! He started to panic. Nik!eh held up something in front of the camera.

Petra.

Gehkin blinked. "Petra, make another antenna now for Nik!eh."

"Making. I will finish in less than one zeg."

Nik!eh's camera was dizzying to watch as he looked all around frantically. He tapped rapidly on a plug in the wall with one finger. "Petra, is Nick pointing at the right kind of plug for the antenna?"

"Yes."

Tap. "That's the right plug, Nik!eh," he reassured the hoonan. Then he switched away. Watching Nik!eh's camera was going to make him vomit, both from dizziness and stress.

Things seemed stable outside in the landing bay. He switched to Zaa!nu, who was about to step onto the bridge. She's going to need every bit of help I can give and a lot of luck besides, he fretted.

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