Itxaro suppressed an urge to scream at Darnell, the Tamerlane parasite who'd latched onto the Jotunheim, and smothered some choice words for the commander as well. If she'd been among comrades, the engineer would have spun around in a heartbeat and given Darnell both barrels without a second thought, but she wasn't even sure all of the Jo's crew were on the same team. [i]Hell, this thing seems like my best friend in the room,[/i] Itxaro thought, glancing at Shirik. Instead she played it cool, having learned long ago to mask her feelings around foreigners. 

"They won't be able to find Earth from that," she stiffly reassured the two. [i]Of course they wouldn't,[/i] she thought bitterly, [i]that fucking lightshow was the equivalent of a fucking Treasure Island X-marks-the-spot map. I couldn't [/i]tell[i] them how to find Earth even if I wanted to.[/i] 

It didn't take an expert to see that some of the natives were shocked by her little lecture. Itxaro doubted they'd received intergalactic visitors before and likely didn't have the technology to do so themselves, let alone even consider it a possibility. She determined Earth was in no danger here, but the same couldn't be said for the Jotunheim's crew. 

"Commander, I'm worried about that one," Itxaro said as she nodded to the soldier Kerchak. Nellara had told the humans that Kerchak was going to leave, perhaps to find someone who could translate for them in a city called Lenkik, judging from Kareet's map. [i]Go. Stay. Speak. After[/i] Three new Kanth-Aremek words to weave into her growing lexicon. However, there was no telling Nellara's true intentions. Perhaps Kerchak would return with a legion of warriors like Kerchak and just kill them all. Itxaro thought it would be smart to send one human along with them who could warn them with a comms notification at the very least. [i]Better to lose one than lose them all[/i], she thought but Zey was in charge and Itxaro wasn't. The commander asked about the metal spheres, and Itxaro racked her brain for ways to communicate this. She noticed Kareet seemed confused. [i]Maybe my little lecture wasn't as clear as I thought,[/i] Itxaro considered, before setting to work on her data pad. 

Dr. Ibarra set the tech down on the floor and let the hologram begin again. First, came an image of a spear, the most simple of arms. "Weapon," Itxaro said confidently. A sword and bow then appeared next to the spear, conveniently omitting any human firearms in the display. "Weapon," she continued, pointing to each item. All the weapons faded, save for the sword, which grew in size. The broadsword suddenly splintered into several pieces. "Broken," Itxaro said. The sword was placed on an anvil, and a hammer appeared that smashed into the broken fragments several times. The anvil and hammer disappeared, sword now in one piece. "Repair," Itxaro finished with her second lecture as the holograms faded. "Jotunheim broken. Humans repair Jotunheim. Humans [i]go[/i] home [i]after[/i]," she said, weaving in the local language wherever possible.

The next lecture came as per the commander's request. First, Itxaro used the data pad to capture Shirik and Nellara's likeness for the program; the images would come out flat in the hologram without a full scan, but it would serve her purpose. Nellara's compressed image appeared, but it wasn't recognizable as her. Itxaro had rendered it a simple outline, a stand-in for all Tekeri; that, and she didn't want to break any cultural faux pas by presenting Nellara with her doppelganger. Several spheres rotated around the outline, electricity sporadically jumping from one to the other. "Sphere," Itxaro pointed to one of them. "Sphere weapon? [i]Speak,[/i]" Itxaro asked in the tone of a question, accompanied by shrug and an open-handed gesture to them, hoping it was enough to convey their confusion. Next, Nellara's image was replaced with a human, and the spheres continued to rotate around them. A large X was drawn through the entire scene to indicate humans did not have this technology. 

“And now for my next trick…” Itxaro muttered; she was least confident in this one, but orders were orders. The images disappeared, replaced with an outline of Shirik's head. Holographic flames lept around him. "Fire," Itxaro said. The flames took the various shapes Shirik had created. A human appeared in Shirik’s place, another giant X through the images. Humans don’t know this technology. [i]Or magic, as Darnell so thoughtfully put it.[/i] 

Next, came Shirik’s outline and a Tekeri’s, both acting out the mysterious skills they possessed in front of a group of seated holographic humans. Then, the humans stood up and joined the Tekeri and Iriad, drawing fiery symbols in the air and spinning metal spheres of their own. “Teach,” Itxaro said with a sweeping gesture to the scene before them. [i]Tell us how you do this.[/i] “Teach humans fire. Teach humans sphere. Shirik, Nellara, teach, [i]speak[/i],” she finished, gesturing to them. [i]Your turn now.[/i] She didn't necessarily want a lesson, just an explanation. At least, that's what the commander seemed to want.