“Hmmmm.” Zey’s eyes narrowed, and she looked up into the many eyes of Kerchak, the bird creature standing before her. She hadn’t figured out any of the body language cues that made communicating with fellow Humans much easier.

“Ok, how about this. If you can find someone to vouch for you, I’ll allow you to heal all of the wounded crew and passengers without pay. You can learn more about our anatomy, but I [i]never[/i] want to see you turn into one of us without my permission. We’ll have a big problem, and we don’t like big problems, do we Ezra?”

Zey looked at the armoured mercenary stood with his big gun next to her.

“Can’t stand them, ma’am.”

Zey looked back at Kerchak.

“I’ll have some of the wounded brought out today so you can get started.”

Zey’s earpiece pinged, and Anselm came through comms.

“Department heads to the conference room to finalise supervisor allocations.”

That would mean Mallory (who was head of the command crew when she wasn’t needed for executive decisions), Zhao Jiayin (engineering), Eva Edwards (Survey), Edward Fortin (Science) and Duncan Feng (Medical).

[hr]
The Department heads hustled into the conference room - they were all busy but equally keen to secure more resources for their teams.

“I don’t need stupid people in my team. Give me sensible ones who’re good with their hands.” Zhao kicked off the meeting on a cordial note.
“Hold on, you’re not the only one who needs people who’re good with their hands, Zhao.” Feng replied in a calm, even tone.

“Though at this stage i’ll take anyone who won’t faint at the sight of blood.”

“We all need sensible people who’re good with their hands. But I wager that in the science team  [i]curiosity[/i] is the trait we’re in most need of. The equipment is all fairly self explanatory! The pieces that still work, anyway.” Edward Fortin chuckled.
[hr]

Zey stalked over to the commotion surrounding what appeared to be some large fish.

“Dr Lambert, we have some more alien food here - can you bring the testing kit please?”

She then addressed Shirik and Dr Ibarra.

“Nice catch. Where did you find this?”