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[quote=@FrozenEcstasy]

"[color=630460]I can hear, detect, and transmit thoughts. I'm trying to be amicable in warning you so that you can learn how to block me from doing so. Do not betray this trust, cause I will kill you if you pose a threat to this settlement, and I won't care if I die doing it.[/color]" she relayed to each of them in the area, and the others that hadn't heard it already.
[/quote]

[color=red] "Good," [/color] I thought to her, [color=red] "Now you get to hear my internal ramblings." [/color]I followed the others out of the room, trying to play this off as some sort of comic book convention. The fact that I knew that someone could talk to me mentally made that a tall task. The cowboy, Marston, also claimed to have come back from the dead. His mention of his family made me think of my own loved ones. I might have to talk to him later. If nothing else, being family men might be points of bonding. 

As the others searched the room, I finally had a moment to look at what I'd grabbed. Mostly small empty boxes, labels indicating that they used to hold spare parts for machines; vacuum tubes, nuts, and other hardware. However in one of them I found a foul smelling skin. I couldn't tell if the smell was natural to the skin, but at the very least the coarse wiry fur made it clear it wasn't human. It was wrapped around something much more interesting. A large, almost golf-ball sized red gem rolled into my hand. Part of me instantly thought it was a ruby, but I quickly realized that it was more likely colored glass. If it was a real ruby, it was easily the largest one I have ever seen. 

Wrapping the gem in the skin again, I put them both in an inside pocket. Out of habit I double checked that my sidearm was in the holster, and waited patiently for the others to finish. A few minutes later, the rest of the group was waiting outside, ready to head out. I couldn't help but smirk, realizing that this would be the first time in years that I've gone into a dangerous situation with backup, such as it was.