Nick hissed in pain. I am getting real fucking tired of being crushed, stabbed, and shot. He had expected lots of blood, but it looked like the alien rifle had burned him, sealing his blood vessels shut. Nick felt queasy and looked away from his wound. I think I'll just lie right here for a minute. He was on the deck directly behind both the pilot and copilot chairs.

"Nik!eh! Are you good?" Jenkins—Geh!kin—asked via the tablet.

"Did you get the bad guy?"

"Yes."

"Good."

"Nik!eh, please open the door."

"Petra, open this door. Hatch."

The hatch slid open, and Geh!kin burst in. The fuakala took in his appearance for a couple of seconds, ears moving slowly. Then he spoke. "Nik!eh? Are you dying?"

Nick sucked in a painful breath. "No."

"Good. Nik!eh, we have a problem."

Tell me about it.

When he didn't reply right away, Geh!kin continued, "the reactor on Level 12 go boom."

"Oh, shit. Get everybody out of there. Every fuakala out now." He hated that he couldn't shout.

"Yes. But. Nik!eh, the sun is rising."

God damn, can't we catch a break here? Nick inhaled, and hissed again. This hissing was going to be a regular thing, he could tell. "Everyone in ship, now."

"Thank you, Nik!eh." Geh!kin dashed out. Oh, he was asking permission. Right. I'm basically the king of these people whether I want to be or not. Nick was not offended by the fuakala ignoring his non-fatal wound in the middle of this crisis. He knew that they were only in a brief pause in the fighting. He wondered whether Geh!kin realized it yet.

"Petra, how many fuakalas survived?"

"Nineteen, Nick."

Out of forty-four. Shit.

"Petra, how many of those suits of armor are on board the shuttle now?"

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Four."

Shit. It's better than nothing, but...

Through the open hatches, Nick could hear the fuakalas moving around. They killed the guard whose suit Nick had frozen in the loading bay. He checked the scan, and there was only one living Goldaskian left on the surface, the one immobilized in the garage. Since Petra was stopping them from calling the mother ship, Nick ignored the bastard.

Things were chaotic for the next couple of minutes. While he was lying there, Nick read through the transcripts of Petra's fake message conversations. The English wasn't great, so he couldn't really tell how obvious it was. Well, the mother ship hasn't blown us up yet, so there's hope.

He tried to yell for Jenkins, and that was a mistake.

Once he could breathe again, he used Petra. "Geh kin, I need you."

A moment later, Petra translated his reply. "Is it excited?"

Well, I screwed that word up somewhere. "Now."

To his credit, the fuakala arrived in seconds. "Yes, Nik!eh?"

"We go, now now. Get all on ship."

"Where we go?"

Nick pointed upward. "Ship."

"What...?" Nick saw that Geh!kin was thinking. He let him work it through; the guy wasn't dumb. He stirred as if to yell at him, but stopped, flicked his ears, and thought some more. Finally, the alien sighed.

"Some fuakalas no want go," Geh!kin warned.

"I'm not sure we have time to drop them off at my place." That didn't translate. "No time. We go up, we go up now. Petra say bad." Nick held up his tablet with his good arm. When he hissed in pain, Geh!kin grabbed it in a hurry. "Petra, translate this for him."

Geh!kin took a minute to scroll through the messages. Then he ran out of the cockpit. That was my tablet, Nick lamented. He heard "We go in one zeg! The bad guys (something something something.)" A zeg was basically a minute, or just under, if he remembered right.

Geh!kin rushed back in. "Nik!eh! Tell Petra tell ship, 'Leader, we have Petra. We return.'"

"Do it, Petra. Fake bad guy leader here say that to ship. Use Jenkins' words to translate."

"Yes, Nick."

"Jenkins, you say you are..." What was the name? "Killish. You talk to ship. Petra give you are like Killish. Petra, use Jenkins to help you fake talking to the ship." He hoped Petra knew all of those words and would get what he meant. We're all dead if she doesn't.

Nick was tired, but he tried to pass on permissions to him. I have to trust him. I have to trust someone, at least a little. "Petra, one hour, start now, do all Jenkins asks. Answer all Jenkins questions. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Nick. Kaorbathic change Ktheg!lik to Geh!kin, stop in one hour."

I think she got it.

A speaker turned on. "Killian! Why you no move?" Petra translated quietly in Nick's ear.

Geh!kin's ears flapped wildly for a few seconds. Then he straightened up and closed his fist at his side. "Leader, we did find gold. We get gold. Then we return." At least, that was Petra's English translation of what Jenkins said.

"Dumbass! Leave the gold! Bring me the Petra now!"

"Yes, Leader." Geh!kin opened his fist, then slumped a bit a moment later. He took a deep breath, then marched out and started shouting at everyone. After a bit he started shouting words one at a time. Nick figured it out when he got to "Koog! Zozo! Flarghk! Petra close hatch!"

There was a little bit of screaming back there, and Geh!kin called, "Petra, stop hatch!" and counted down again from five. "Petra, close hatch!"

Better him than me, Nick thought, closing his eyes for a moment. He's one of them. I'm just the weird pink guy with the magic rock.

Don't...go to sleep...dumbass...

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