Zey’s mask hung round her neck while she had a rare drink of the cloying morning air. Goosebumps prickled all up the back of her neck and down her arms. She ran one hand through her buzz cut. It made a rough rustling sound, like wire wool.

A faint smell of charred wood wafted into her nostrils. Zey looked at the small piles of ash in one corner of the clearing where they’d burned their dead. Her jaw tightened, and she tried not to think about Kiran joking with her at his crew interview.

Mallory opened up a comms channel, so Zey shoved an earpiece in and knelt down in the dirt.

“Comms will be patchy, but we have a good team going each way. We need to show these people we mean business, or someone is going to try their luck.”

“Sir, I've reviewed the comms mast three times.” Anselm entered the chat, from her position down the hill picking through bits of wreckage. 

“We should be able to make a connection for three to four hundred miles. The weather is so-so, which means there may be black spots. But a close range network should have no problems.” 

“Exactly. We may not be able to talk to each other but I trust you’ll get what we need and make a good impression. It’ll be just like a Space Academy dinner, Commander.”

Zey smiled. While she gave Mallory a lot of shit, she liked him and was trying to put him at ease.

She looked up upon hearing a squelching sound of claws in the mud. The one her computer identified as Kerchak/Kolva was approaching.

“Good morning. Feeling better? Sure.” Zey grinned humourlessly.

She nodded graciously when Kolvar apologised.

“I accept your apology. And you know what? I apologise too. This place, it’s… all new to us. We’re still trying to make sense of you all. What you did and said yesterday was…rash.” Zey chuckled drily as she reminisced.

“But you remind me of New Young Turks like my parents. They were persecuted and ridiculed by the new republic, forced to hide. They got drunk and passionate too. They just wanted to help.”

The Captain stared up at Kolvar from her seated position.

“Which is why I asked our doctor to bring out the wounded for you to examine.”
Arancini approached and gave her an update.

“Nice. How does it go with fabricating replacement parts for the VTOL?”

Zey flicked her comms back on.

“Doctor. How are we doing?”

“Coming down the ramp now, Captain.”

The ship’s doctor and his two assistants descended to the clearing, attending to three wounded humans. One had his leg in a cast, one had a bandage wrapped around most of their head, the other one had bandages around a gunshot wound through their shoulder.

“Kolvar. Remember our deal.” Zey’s eyes bored into the Kriliteran.

“If you transform without my permission, I’ll kill you. Heal my people, and I’ll be in your debt.”

The patients and their escorts arrived at Jotunheim’s telescopic docking ramp. Feng approached Zey and Kolvar. The Captain extended her arm and the doctor hauled her to her feet.

“Doctor, this Tekeri is going to examine our wounded now. I’m going to get ready.”

She turned her translator off.

“Watch him.”

Zey then turned on crew wide comms.

“This is your Captain. Giddy up, we leave in 20.”

She stalked back up the ramp into the ship.