u/AdventurerOfTheStars

1:15 S.F.T (Standard Federation Time)- Kepler-186f, Day 2

Hix stepped over a mangled airlock and ducked into a larger section of the Odyssey, his horn scraping against the hard steel- scraping some of the outer pigment from it. He clicked his tongue, dim light leaving him unbothered- he had paid for nocturnal vision, after all. 

The wreckage was not doing well- and he was proud of that. No controlled descent or even an attempt at one had been made. This particular piece had struck the fungal forest at an angle, plowed through a dozen pale trunks, and finally split open against a low stone ridge. Half the section had collapsed inward. The other half leaned drunkenly against the mushrooms around it, still creaking every so often as fungus threatened to collapse. 

Even now, with all his experience, Hix hated searching places like this.

Not because they were dangerous. Very little on this planet qualified as dangerous to him while he had the Avearon nearby. But they were tedious. Tight, full of sharp ninety degree angles, hanging panels, disgusting biological remains, and cramped corridors that forced him to leave the cradle and inspect things personally.

His clawed feet clicked over a bent section of flooring as he moved deeper inside. No survivors, as expected. Though, he had been hoping that one of the remaining NPCs had been hiding in the wreckage. It would have been a decent plan, and it forced him out of his bioform.

He swept his gaze across a row of broken couches, one of them split down the middle where a large section of paneling had cut right through the soft material, still embedded in the floor. A smear of blue blood streaked the wall beside it- Sru paste rotting up between the paneling above. Old, dried, and useless. So, he moved on.

Behind him, beyond the torn hull, the Avearon waited among the pieces of the ship- perched atop a larger section as it unwaveringly searched from its vantage point. Its long horn rose above the wreckage like a red spear, the glowing marks along its sides dimmed to a low pulse. One main arm rested against the ruined ship section, claws hooked lightly into the plating. The other hung near the ground, still and ready.

Hix could feel the restlessness through the neural link even from here, a low irritant at the edge of his awareness. The Avearon had not been built to wait while its operator crawled through debris compartments looking for cowering biologicals. It had been built to hunt, to break, to drag targets into the open and reduce them to minced flesh between its jaws. 

The remaining biologicals remained somewhere on this miserable planet, and he had spent the better part of the morning finding nothing but wreckage, corpses, and evidence that they had all died in the final descent of the ship. 

He stopped at the remains of a storage alcove and peeled back a twisted panel with one hand, engineered muscles struggling with the dense material. The metal shrieked against itself, loud in the cramped space, as his claws left shallow furrows in the metal. Empty.

“Disappointing,” Hix muttered.

The Avearon answered from outside with a low rumble, pulling HIx’s attention from his search. Focusing on the faint impressions coming from the beast, he found the same feeling pressing against the back of his mind- frustration. 

“Yes,” He snapped, turning back toward the opening and storming toward it. “I am aware.”

He stepped out into the red light, landing lightly on a slab of scorched composite plating. The air tasted damp, fungal, and slightly bitter through the avatar’s senses. Around the broken ship section, translucent caps drifted loose from the towering mushrooms now and then, sailing lazily through the light before the older ones settled among the wreckage like shed skin.

His gaze slowly panned over the wreckage, trying in vain to divulge some information out of his search. A broken pod was wedged between two trunks. A torn corridor segment half-swallowed by dirt, embedded in the ground like an angry giant had flung it from its tower high. All already checked, or not large enough to hide anyone or useful supplies. To him, anyway.

“Disgusting,” he growled, the sound rumbling through his throat. “How the hell can I not find ten biologicals on this miserable rock? Ten! And instead I’m playing Find and Seek, like a child.”

To distract himself, he pulled up the recorded footage from the cave clearing, looking back through his ‘memories’. The feed replayed in crisp detail: upturned soil, scattered moss, analogues of moss and roots. Then- there. A dark smear on the rock near the cave entrance, and the little flapping bandage in the wind. He zoomed in.

Red.

Not blue, or green, or yellow- Nor any of the pastel colors most species bled-

But Red.

Hix’s slitted amber eyes narrowed as the pieces slid into place. A slow, vicious smile spread across his face- mirrored a second later across the Avearon’s maw as it mimicked him.

“Well look at what we have here.”

Only one species in the federation bled that obnoxious shade. Humans. The deathworlders. The ones who refused to stay in their designated NPC lane, the ones that somehow survived when they absolutely shouldn’t.

Actual Agents. That’s what they were- Annoying, stubborn, over-tuned biologicals that wasted far more resources than they were worth- and, more often than not, took specialized expensive avatars to defeat.

He’d wasted hours chasing soft xenos only to discover one of them was running the show. No wonder the group kept slipping away. No wonder his Avearon had taken unnecessary damage from the environment on wild goose chases the last couple mini-cycles.

A window slammed open at the same time just as everything became clearer.

Informational Packet: 

Delivered by; EXALTEDMIND01

Continuity Tax; -50 GB confiscated for continued existence, storage, and participation. Have a good micro-cycle.

Reason: Extended mission duration, Parameter modification

Current Balance: 892 GB

And directly below it, flashing with higher priority:

MISSION UPDATE

Hix’s eyes narrowed as he read the new parameters.

Primary Objectives (Updated):

Eliminate the remaining biological survivors: Completed 154 / 164. Priority- A

Locate and secure [REDACTED]- Specimen X from the cargo bay of the Ulixes. Location unknown. Priority- SSS

Time Remaining: 74h 47m

Failure conditions: Mission Termination, 10 Petabyte penalty, revoked access to Zerri, permanent storage, 3 billion point deduction.

Success Conditions: 100 Petabyte reward, unlimited access to high end cloning facilities, 1,000,000,000 points.

Note: Do not fail me, Hix Zworbrand. 

He stared at the message, teeth grinding. “The Ulixes? What the hell is the Ulixes?”

He quickly pulled up his mission archives. Nothing. No record of any ship by that name in the engagement logs, or even in recovered Federation documents. He’d been hunting the Odyssey II- given their route, and how many crew it had. He had gotten lucky that a human SOS signal was already broadcasting from a planet near their route he could take advantage of. This was completely new, an unknown variable with an unknown location.

Hix’s eyes were dragged back to the failure conditions.

Mission Termination. It was expected, of course. If he failed, command would have him fail the mission, then assign someone else to it to finish. Usually with a higher reward. But this was different- missions rarely changed in the middle of the task.

10 Petabyte penalty. Obscene, but theoretically he could work that off with a few high risk high reward missions if he really needed to.

Revoked access to Zerri. Infuriating, humiliating, and temporary, if he recovered his standing. His gaze settled on the line beneath it, transfixed on the worst penalty on the page.

Permanent storage.

Hix went still, sharp toe claws tapping the soil rhythmically for several long seconds, the only sound around him was the quiet creaking of composite metal and the soft ripping of mushroom caps.

Permanent storage was not death. The Exalted Minds loved insisting on that distinction, making sure to make it very clear that death was a biological flaw. A crude ending suffered by creatures without backups. Without continuity protections, without the wisdom to leave weak flesh behind.

Storage was merely suspension. A pause, one that could last centuries. Longer, if the debt was high enough. With the other punishments, he might even be sent into deep storage- a separate, smaller machine orbiting Zerri where only the worst, most damaged minds went to sleep forever.

Until this avatar returned to the matrix, there would be nothing to store except the version of him currently inside his avatar on Kepler-186f. No retreat to Zerri, no respawn into a fresh avatar. Simply darkness, and then waking up centuries later with nothing but his name. Re acquiring his reputation and points.

If he failed to locate specimen X, then this body was all he had. His one and only life, potentially forever. Hard-core mode, as those freak, fringe Zerinth dubbed it. He shuddered, thinking of those strange beings that preferred one avatar- and if that avatar died, voluntarily put themselves into deep storage.

Hix stared at the objective packet until his claws slowly curled into fists. 

“ExaltedMind01,” he muttered, voice thin, filled with restrained venom, “you miserable, bloated parasite. You expect me to just- accept this?”

Outside, the Avearon let out a low rumble. Its strong chords vibrate the metals around it, as its mind pressed against his own. A pressure of shared agitation brushing the back of his thoughts. It knew, on a subconscious level, what happened to bioforms when their caretakers went away. Or, more likely, it felt his anger bubbling beneath the surface.

Hix ignored it and forced himself to examine the situation properly- sitting down on a piece of metal scrap, tail swaying behind him.

Ten biologicals remained. One of them was human, the rest likely following the deathworlder's instructions. That meant the hunt was no longer a simple cleanup. The human had seen him coming, deduced the amount of time before he arrived, and vanished with the group like a ghost in the machine.

He had been outplayed. Hix did not like being outplayed. But the human could wait, had to wait.

Not because the human was unimportant, and not because he was abandoning the mission. Quite the opposite. A human made the survivor hunt slower, more irritating, and far less predictable than it had any right to be. That was precisely why he could not afford to chase them first.

The Ulixes was an empty square on the board. No known location, crash record, or mention in the engagement logs. No guarantee it had come down anywhere near the Odyssey II.

If he wasted his time hunting a human-led pack of biologicals before he even knew where to begin looking for the SSS-priority objective, then he deserved the storage vault they would lock him in.

Hix dismissed the archives and pulled up a fresh tactical overlay, eyes flicking over various points of potential interest.

The fractured wreckage map of the Odyssey II hung over his vision in cold blue lines. He widened the search radius beyond it, out into the hostile clutter of Kepler-186f’s surface- tapping into the singular satellite the Exalted Minds had allocated to the planet.

Atmospheric disturbance records, possible mislabeled meteor impacts- Any irregular readings- then, it hit him. The SoS signal. If he followed it back to the source, he might find his target. 

Not a perfect lead. But a lead was better than staring blindly into several hundred square kilometers of fungal filth and hoping the Exalted Minds had not decided to ruin his existence as a joke.

Hix dismissed the tactical overlay and rose from the scrap of metal, bladed tail flicking behind him. Outside, the Avearon’s head angled down toward him, amber eyes following his movement with immediate attention.

“Come on,” he growled “We have a ship to find.”

The bioform lowered itself from the wreckage with a grinding shriek of composite plating, its weight tearing four deep grooves through the ruined hull as it dropped to the ground. Pale caps shook loose from nearby mushrooms, spore dust drifting past its dark hide in slow, weightless sheets.

The beast split open along its chest, as it always did.

The pale ribs peeled apart with a slick, organic pull, exposing the glistening cavity within. The Cradle waited at its center, nutrient gel sloshing faintly with the creature’s breathing. The black connective cord hung in the holding fluid, waiting for him to slip back into the shared existence he was familiar with. 

Hix stepped up onto one of the lower plates and climbed inside without hesitation. Warm gel closed around his legs, then his torso, thick and faintly viscous as the chamber adjusted to receive him. He reached back, found the neural cord by touch, and pressed it into the port at the base of his skull.

The Avearon’s senses rushed in around his own- broad mulchy tastes, pressure shifts through the soil, distant vibrations humming along fungal trunks, the faint electromagnetic prickle of electromagnetic waves flowing over the planet from its home star. Its body became his body again, claws flexing when he thought of movement. Its tail lashed behind him, gouging a shallow line through the moss-covered earth.

He opened a new window, tapping into the Avearon's signal receiver and starting the long arduous work of tracking down the SoS.

The signal was weak. A desperate little automated transmission, degraded by time and atmospheric interference, just strong enough to tempt a Federation vessel into answering it. Now he opened the raw signal profile and pushed it through the Avearon’s broader sensor suite.

The bioform stilled as Hix’s smile faded.

“No,” he murmured. The signal was not pointing anywhere, at least not in an intelligible way. 

Its origin estimate bloomed across his vision in a wide, ugly cloud of probability, scattered over the landscape in overlapping bands. Kepler-186f’s dense fungal canopy, the ruined ship debris, and the shape of the terrain had chewed the old transmission into a warped mess. The automated beacon still existed somewhere, still repeating the same plea into the universe, but following the signal in a straight line would be like following an echo back in a canyon.

He narrowed his eyes and tried to run the signal through the locator again. The window returned the same answer in unfeeling terms.

LOCATION LOCK: UNAVAILABLE

SIGNAL STRENGTH: INSUFFICIENT

RECOMMENDED METHOD: MULTI-POINT TRIANGULATION 

His jaw tightened. “Of course.”

The planet giving up the location would have been too generous. The bioform lowered its head and began to move, heading towards a small hill nearby to input the first point. Hix hadn't even needed to direct it.

Its massive feet sank into the damp ground with each step, pushing through moss and pale fungal threads as it left the wreckage of the Odyssey behind. Overhead, another translucent cap tore free with a wet rip and spun lazily through the red light, drifting down across the path ahead of them.

The timer ticked down steadily as he worked, time, as always, unyielding. 

74h 20m remaining…

72h 01m remaining…

68h 14m remaining…

60h 01m remaining…

Part Eleven

Part One

7:30 AM S.F.T. (Standard Federation Time), Kepler-186f, Day 2

Teralis emerged from under the ruined cap, dirt falling off his shoulders as Loyd began walking toward the cave, determination set in his shoulders. 

“No. We should not.” He said defiantly. Loyd stopped in his tracks and turned toward the security officer, eyebrow raised.

“What?”

Teralis gestured sharply at the disturbed grave beside them, three uninjured arms tense. Green blood still stained the torn earth where the Zerinth had ripped their crewmates free from their resting place, unceremoniously dumping them into a pile.  

“They already searched this area. They found a grave, they found your blood on the rock, and they left. Going back out into the unknown is just asking them to pick up our trail again.”

Loyd’s jaw tightened. He glanced toward the cave entrance, where the others were starting to emerge- Coori’s feathers flattened with worry and fear, Isaac’s mandibles clacking together slowly as he scanned the tree line.

“And staying here is asking them to come back,” Loyd countered. “That thing found us in a little more than a day. We can’t bet everyone’s life on ‘they probably won’t return.’ ”

Teralis took a step closer, voice low but intense.

“I’m a security officer, Loyd. This is what I do. They cleared the site, they think we ran after seeing them coming. Moving now, while we’re exhausted, is how we get killed. So-” he poked a finger into Loyd's chest, stepping closer. “We prepare. We hide the entrance. We make them think this spot is exactly what they thought it was- empty.”

A heavy silence fell, with no one daring to break it. Qutin stood near the cave, eyes locked onto the desecrated grave. His ears pinned flat, staring at the torn dirt. CoCo’s features were motionless, Harriet preening her. Even Isaac looked uncertain.

Loyd rubbed his now bandage-free hand, wincing as fresh pain flared. He looked at the disturbed grave, then at the group emerging behind him- smaller, more vulnerable than they’d been even an hour ago.

“…still,” he said finally, “We can't be sure they won't come back.”

Teralis’s expression tightened, all four eyes hard. “No,” he replied, “We cannot. But we can make it harder for them to find us.”

Loyd stared at the Sru’s finger still pressed against his chest. The contact was light, but the challenge behind it wasn’t. For a long second the only sounds were the soft rustle of drifting spore caps overhead and Qutin’s quiet, broken breathing near the grave.

Then Loyd exhaled through his nose, long and slow.

“…Alright,” he said. The word rolled out of his mouth like molasses, even if he knew the xeno was probably right  “We stay. For now.”

Teralis didn’t gloat. He simply nodded, all four eyes still locked onto his own, and stepped back. “Smart choice.”

Loyd turned toward the group. They looked smaller than they had even yesterday. Feathers dull, spines drooping, fur matted with dirt and grief. “We fortify the entrance like Teralis said. Make it look like it’s been empty for cycles. Aleah, can you make camouflage?"

Aleah looked around at the various mushrooms and ‘moss’ around them, before giving her best rendition of a shrug. “Probably.”

“Okay,” He said slowly, turning toward the Kree'ark. “Isaac, Kiki- help her. Use the torn caps and whatever loose fungal crap is lying around. Make it messy- we want it to look as natural as we can.”

Aleah’s four hands were already moving before he finished speaking, gathering ragged strips of pale fungal material with the same focused grace she’d used to turn seatbelts into slings. “Presentation,” she murmured, almost to herself. “Even for camouflage ”

Isaac clicked softly in agreement and lowered himself so Qutin could stay tucked against his chest while he worked. The little Krii hadn’t moved from the edge of the ruined grave. His ears were still pinned flat, eyes fixed on the torn dirt and scattered moss.

Loyd’s stomach twisted. He walked over and crouched beside him.

“We’ll put them back right when it’s safe,” he said quietly. “Properly. The way they should’ve stayed.”

Qutin didn’t answer right away. When he did, his voice was hoarse. “They were den-mates. We don’t… we don’t leave them like this. In the open.”

“I know.” Loyd rested a hand on the small shoulder, careful not to squeeze. “We won’t.”

CoCo stood a short distance away, staring at the same spot. Harriet stayed close, preening the edge of her wing with slow, deliberate strokes of his beak. The gesture looked more like comfort than cleaning.

Loyd straightened. “Serria, keep an eye on everyone’s condition. Especially Qutin. Teralis, you’re security-” Teralis interrupted him, already guessing where he was going. “I'll set a watch rotation. Two people at the entrance at all times.” 

They worked in near silence for the next hour. Aleah directed the placement of fungal debris with quiet precision, weaving thinner tendrils through gaps so the camouflage wouldn’t look too deliberate. Isaac and Kiki hauled larger pieces of mushroom, their chitinous strength making short work of the heavy material. Even the pupae on Kiki’s back seemed subdued, moving slowly and infrequently.

Loyd dragged one of the larger fallen trunks closer to the cave mouth. It was dryer on the outside than the others, chunks were missing at the edges, and smelled faintly of rot and earth.

“Hmm… will it burn?” Loyd asked, prodding it with his metal beam. He wasn't sure it would- so far, everywhere they have gone was extremely damp, as mushrooms tended to love.

“H- Loyd, what are you doing?” Coori trilled, dropping the length of vine held in her beak and striding over. Her bright eyes looked down at the small section of ‘trunk’ as Loyd began to use the scrap metal that had been so useful thus far to cut it into ‘firewood’. 

“I’m going to try and dry this out,” Loyd answered, not looking up from his work. He wedged a piece against a rock and hacked at it again. “If we ever manage to get something edible, cooking it will cut the chance of poisoning or disease way down. Plus we can use torches to burn off spore clouds if they get thick. Signaling right now would be monumentally stupid, so I’m not even thinking about that.”

Coori’s feathers puffed out slightly in alarm. “My feathers are extremely flammable, you know.”

“Yeah, I remember,” Loyd said with a tired half smirk. “That’s why you’re staying back there. I’m not trying to set anyone on fire today.”

He gathered a small pile of the drier shavings and chips, then pulled out the end of the power source from his omnitool. The crackle of electricity filled the air as he lowered it toward the scraps of mushroom and moss. He touched it to the smallest, most desiccated piece.

For a moment it looked promising- a thin wisp of smoke curled up, carrying that same faint burnt smell. Then the flame sputtered, hissed, and died as trapped moisture in the fungal flesh boiled out in a weak puff of steam.

Loyd stared at the slightly burnt, soggy chip and let out a low groan.

“Figures. Still too damp.” He poked the piece with the metal beam, pressing it down. Beads of sap and water dribbled out as he flattened it. “We’ll have to set some of this aside and let it dry properly before we try again. Can’t risk a big fire anyway- smoke might give us away.”

Coori tilted her head, beak clicking softly. “You really think we’ll find something safe to eat?”

“I mean we already have- those fruits Kiki ate seem perfectly edible.” He scratched his cheek before he started to drag the bits of mushroom into the cave, the only dry place he knew. “But, personally, I know most of us can't survive on just fruits. Might be a good idea to go foraging soon. I wonder if those little armored trilobites are edible…”

A short distance away, Aleah paused in her camouflage work, four hands still weaving pale tendrils. “If we can dry the material properly, I can help weave it into something like a basket. We're running out of weaveable materials, and it would help to have something to carry things if we do go foraging.”

Loyd gave her a grateful nod. “That’d be useful. Thanks.”

Isaac clicked from near the cave entrance, one manipulating appendage steadying a large torn cap while Qutin remained tucked against his chest, using his little claws to shred the cap into smaller pieces- likely to look like fallen foliage.  “Practical. As expected from you at this point Loyd.”

Loyd snorted softly. “Practical is all we’ve got right now.”

“Do not let it prevent you from feeling. You do not have to be stoic for our sake.” Isaac commented, completely out of the blue. Loyd was taken aback a little by the suddenness, giving the Kree'ark a certain look before finally pulling the material all the way into the cavern. 

Loyd gathered the slightly blackened chips and shavings, then carried them into the cave. He leaned the pieces against the rear wall where the air was driest and least likely to collect more moisture. The larger chunks he propped at an angle, hoping the constant red light filtering through the camouflaged entrance might bake some of the water out over time.

Isaac followed him inside, moving with that careful, measured gait the Kree’ark used when they didn’t want to startle anyone. One of his smaller manipulating appendages brushed a stray piece of fungal debris off Loyd’s shoulder as he passed.

“You are carrying a great deal on your shoulders,” Isaac clicked softly, voice low enough that it wouldn’t carry to the others still working outside. “More than just literal weight.”

Qutin squeaked from his pouch, but seemed to know better than to butt into this conversation, mostly staying quiet or giving squeaks when he appeared to agree.

Loyd didn’t look up. He adjusted one of the larger chunks so it wouldn’t fall, then wiped his hands on the pants of his environmental suit. “Maybe.”

Isaac settled onto his lower body, lobster-like tail curling neatly beside him. His emerald compound eyes glittered in the near darkness of the cave. “You are allowed to feel, Loyd. You've gone through just as much as anyone else.” 

Loyd let out a short, tired huff through his nose. He kept his hands busy putting the wiring back into his omnitool. “If I let myself think about it too much right now, Isaac… it might make me useless to all of you.”

The words came out flat, matter-of-fact. Not angry. Just honest- he knew deep down if he started to face anything inside himself he might break. He'd spent half his life on the Odyssey- it was his home, and it was gone. He'd watched his fellow crewmates slowly wear down until their hearts gave out and had done nothing. 

Isaac’s mandibles clicked together, slow and thoughtful. “Being useful is not the same as being well. You are carrying the lives of nine people on this planet. Your own burden does not disappear simply because you refuse to look at it.”

Loyd finally straightened and met the Kree’ark’s gaze. For a moment the red light from the entrance caught in Isaac’s eyes, making them look almost luminescent.

“I’m not.” Loyd said quietly. “I’m- setting it aside, for now. There’s a difference.” He gestured vaguely toward the camouflaged entrance and the group outside. “They need me functional, not a broken mess. Once we’re stable, or once we’ve made it off this hellscape-” He trailed off and shrugged, clicking the screen back into place. It flared to life, light pouring from the screen. “Maybe then I'll face it.”

Isaac watched him for a long second, spines rippling faintly down his back. “Very well. But when that moment comes, you do not have to carry it alone. That is what I am here for.”

Loyd gave a small, weary nod. “Noted, doc.” He picked up his metal beam again, turning it over in his hands like he needed something solid to hold. “For now, let’s just make sure we survive long enough you're there for me to have that breakdown.”

Two sets of footsteps echoed against the stone near the entrance, announcing the arrival of Teralis and Harriet. They ducked through the camouflaged crevice, staying close together. The Sru’s injured arm was still held close to his body, but his posture was alert. All of his eyes were looking around in separate directions, scanning the area. 

Harriet’s brown feathers looked dull in the low light, his beak clicking softly as he scanned the cave himself- his own eyes picking over the areas that Teralis did not. 

“We’ll take the first watch,” Teralis announced, voice low but firm. “Harriet and I. Two cycle shifts. We’ll rotate everyone through.”

Harriet gave a quiet trill of agreement, already moving toward the narrow viewing slit they’d left in the camouflage- a slightly elevated spot, where one would stand on a boulder without getting in the way of people leaving or entering.

Teralis’s four eyes slowly settled on Loyd. There was- not anger in them exactly, but a clear edge of disappointment. “I have to admit, deathworlder I’m… disappointed in you.”

Loyd straightened slowly, eyebrows rising. “Come again?”

“Back there,” Teralis said, gesturing vaguely toward the forest with one lower hand. “When the smaller Zerinth climbed out of that monster. We had a chance. Two of us were at close range, while it was distracted.  We could have ended it. Or at least damaged the pilot before it sealed back up.” Frustration was plain on his face- and Loyd was glad that the Sru shared a lot of the same facial expressions. “Instead you held me back. Hid under a rotting mushroom cap like a coward.”

The cave went quiet. Even Isaac stopped studying Loyd and turned his elongated head toward the Sru, emerald eyes wiggling with… disappointment? 

Loyd met Teralis’s eyes, meeting his glare. “And if we’d jumped him? The big one tears the whole clearing apart right after. We’d be dead, and everyone else in here would be next. All we would have done is showed that we were there, and easy to pick off.”

Teralis’s smaller, uninjured arm flexed. “You’re supposed to be the deathworlder. The one who survives where others don’t. I expected more- aggression.”

“I’m the one who’s kept us alive so far,” Loyd said, voice flat. “That includes knowing when not to fight. We’re not a strike team. We’re ten people on a Category 12 with almost no weapons and three of us are already dead. We pick our battles.”

Harriet shifted uncomfortably beside Teralis but stayed silent, eyes flicking between the two of them. Qutin poked his head out of the carrier sling and looked at Teralis. 

“Stop having a damn digging contest and listen to him, Teralis. I may not be strong, or fast, but I do know this; you wouldn't have won that fight, so drop it.”

Teralis held Loyd’s gaze a moment longer, then gave a short, stiff nod. “Understood. First watch starts now. I'll let you know when your rotation comes, Captain.”

He turned and moved to the observing boulder with Harriet, the two of them settling in to watch the unchanging red and blue forest.

Loyd exhaled through his nose and leaned back against the cave wall, suddenly feeling every ache and bruise from the last two days. Isaac clicked his large mantis-like appendages together- not quite a clap, but an approximation of one- and moved to help the others finish up the camouflage.

The cave fell into an exhausted quiet, broken only by the distant rustle of vines and the faint creak of drying fungus against stone.

Part Ten

Part One

6:15 S.F.T (Standard Federation Time).- Planetside, Kepler,186f Day 2

Loyd didn’t like how the mushroom forest stood around the fresh grave. The pale trunks rose motionless in the red light, towering over the little mound of dirt as the group gathered their supplies in tired, fumbling silence. 

Nobody spoke much as they grabbed their supplies- There wasn’t anything left to say that hadn’t already been said. 

Qutin stayed closest to the grave, ears pinned low, while Isaac gently tried to urge them toward the cave. 

“Qutin, we need to gather our things.” he clicked, gently pushing the smaller being away from the pile of dirt. 

CoCo’s feathers were still lying flat against her body, her eyes set in that brittle, empty way people got when they were trying not to feel anything at all. Harriet hovered near her, occasionally preening her feathers in a comforting way.

It must be nice to have your partner in a situation like this, Loyd thought as he bent to grab the salvaged supplies, one hand scooping up bottles and scraps of paneling while the other tightened around the length of blunt metal he’d been using thus far.

A wet tearing came from somewhere above them. It was something he had gotten used to at this point, but he still turned toward the sound to watch the cap float away.

One of the wide, translucent caps drifted down through the red light, turning slowly- strangely, not dropping spores as it went. Probably because it looked like it had been sailing on the wind for quite a while- its thin pale edges ragged and torn, with several small holes in its form. It sailed overhead, before losing height and thumping into the ground a few dozen feet away from the freshly dug grave.

“Huh.” Loyd said to himself- if this cap wasn't fresh, then what had made that sound? 

The sound of tearing mushroom flesh came again but closer this time. 

Much closer.

Every muscle in his body tightened. Loyd’s eyes swept the forest, searching the red-lit canopy line for movement, but all he saw at first were the same broad translucent caps swaying gently in the light breeze, with none tearing free.

“Loyd? What is it?” Coori asked quietly behind him, her head tilting side to side as he stiffened. 

“Hold on.”

He shoved a bundle of salvage into Harriet’s wings and crossed to the side of the cave, grabbing at the rough stone with his free hand. His boots slipped a couple times, before they found purchase. A few seconds later, he hauled himself onto the low rise of rock above the cave,  and peered out over the tops of the mushroom caps.

The view was only a little better, but it was enough.

Far out in the grove, one of the caps dipped strangely, not with the wind but with something moving beneath it. Then, for the briefest second, a black curve slid above the cap line.

Smooth. Dark, with dots of light along their sides flashing faintly. A horn.

It vanished again just as quickly, sinking back below the canopy as something enormous displaced the forest around it. A thinner mushroom trunk bowed sharply to one side, then snapped as vines were pulled down with it, distant bangs ringing out as the dried pods fired off. 

Loyd's blood went cold. He knew that horn- he'd never forget it as long as he lived.

The Zerinth!

He slid back down the rock faster than he’d climbed it, boots scraping hard against the hard stone as his bandage slipped from his hand, smearing fresh blood on the stone as his wound was re-opened.

“Inside,” he snapped, voice low and sharp. “Now. Supplies too. Move.”

No one argued. No one asked what he had seen. They just reacted to the tone in his voice and the look on his face.

Qutin stumbled first, still too close to the grave, and Isaac caught them with one bladed arm without breaking stride. CoCo snatched up two of the supply bundles in her beak and backed toward the cave mouth, feathers flattening even tighter to her body. Harriet ducked in after her with his head low. Aleah scooped up the remaining medical supplies, skittering her way into the darkness with haste. 

Teralis, however, had set himself near the edge of the mushroom forest. He was pumping his short legs as fast as he dared, face scrunched in pain. He wasn't going to make it to them in time. 

He was too far- Too slow. 

He started sprinting toward the gray alien, to where the fallen cap had landed, and grabbed it with both hands. It was heavier than it looked, slick and leathery, its torn edges dragging through the dirt as he yanked it forward.

“Teralis,” he hissed, “get down!”

The security officer looked at him, eyes filled with confusion for a moment before he understood.

Loyd wrapped his arms around his waist and drove both of them to the ground behind a small pile of dirt and roots near the grave while throwing the cap over them in the same motion. It sagged down around their bodies in a pale, ragged dome, smelling wet, old, and faintly rotten- like a Halloween pumpkin left out too long. Red light bled dimly through its thin flesh, but even as thin as it was, they couldn’t see through it.

Teralis’s breath caught hard in his throat from the impact, knocking the wind out of him. Loyd clawed both hands into the loose dirt beside them and dragged it over the cap’s edges, covering the torn fiber of the mushroom.

Beside him, Teralis began helping immediately, one lower hand scooping dirt and dead fungal threads over the ragged rim while he tried to suck in air. Together they dirtied the pale surface, and made it look like it had been lying there for hours instead of mere minutes- except a small crack between the dirt and the cap edge they could watch from, so small that both of them barely could look out at the same time.

A mushroom trunk at the edge of the forest fell, snapping with a fibrous crack, the bangs of pods exploding coming from just beyond where they were.

For one awful moment there was nothing but the sound of Loyd’s pulse beating in his ears and the faint whisper of dirt settling over the cap- and then, the Zerinth entered.

Three long clawed arms pushed the large mushrooms aside as its narrow, canine-like face emerged, amber eyes sweeping the small clearing before locking onto the grave just beside them. Its mouth opened and began to speak- low rumbling coming from its maw, in a cadence and language he could not understand. 

It fucking speaks?! Loyd screamed in his head, going pale and turning to Teralis- who had similarly lost color to his gray skin.

For a second, neither of them moved. Barely a breath escaped their lips as they sat completely still. They could not afford to disturb the dirt, helping hide them from the approaching danger.

The Zerinth thing pushed fully into the clearing, forcing the mushroom trunks aside with three long clawed arms as the rest of its body followed. Up close, it was worse. Bigger. Its black hide looked almost wet in the red light, cut through with faint glowing lines and patches of pale hardened foam where damage had been sealed over. One of its secondary arms was gone entirely. Its head turned slowly, amber eyes swept over the small area they had been calling camp. Scanning, inspecting- then locked right on the little rise of earth and torn cap where Loyd and Teralis were hidden. Loyd’s whole body went cold. This is it. This is how I die.

Beside him, Teralis had gone so still he barely seemed alive beneath the cap, eyes locked on the large beast that seemed to know exactly where they were

The thing stared for one long, terrible second. Then a long thin line formed vertically along its chest. No blood sprayed out from the wound as its chest slowly peeled open, as if it were meant to do so.

The pale ribs of the creature opened with a wet, organic sound, exposing the hollow cavity inside. Fleshy sacks hung where organs should be, while gel gleamed in the red light. Something moved within, a dark shadow floating in the largest sack dead center in the cavity.

A moment later, the sack opened as well, the dark shadow emerging as it reached behind its head, yanking out a long black cord attached to the base of its skull.

Loyd’s stomach lurched as he saw it step down out of the larger zerinth.

Same narrow, predatory face. Same amber eyes. Same dark, sleek shape- only smaller, leaner, and standing upright on two legs instead of prowling on four. It was like the giant thing had cracked open and produced a smaller carbon copy of itself.

The smaller Zerinth straightened and glanced over the clearing with quick, irritated movements. Like it would rather be anywhere but here.

His head- or Loyd assumed it to be a he- turned toward the cave, then down toward the grave.

it said something he couldn't understand, but the tone- the tone was all wrong. Flat, nearly monotone- as if bored, or perhaps searching for something interesting. 

He said something else Loyd couldn’t understand, flat and clipped, then crouched beside the mound.

One clawed hand hovered over the turned dirt for a second, amber eyes scanning it. The scattered roots and moss laid into the soil, the way the earth had been packed back down by grieving hands.

Bodies did not bury themselves. Even it knew that. The Zerinth drove its claws into the mound and pulled.

For several minutes, Loyd could do nothing but watch as the fresh grave of his crewmates, perhaps even friends, was desecrated. 

The fresh grave came apart under several rough, quick motions, dirt spraying across the mushroom trunks and stones around it. The three souls buried within emerged as the careless Xeno ripped them from their resting place.

Squee.

Purrsa.

Pip.

He paused over the opened grave and counted the bodies it had piled up besides it. One claw tapped lightly over the first body. Then the second. Then the third.

Loyd felt Teralis go rigid beneath the cap. Not just grief now. Fury, righteous rage coursing through their veins. The kind that made people do stupid, brave things.

Loyd’s hand shot sideways and clamped hard around one of the security officer’s smaller wrists before he could move. Teralis jerked, trying instinctively to pull free, but Loyd tightened harder and shook his head once in the dim red light filtering through the cap.

No.

Outside, the smaller Zerinth stared down at the bodies for another second, then slowly lifted his head toward something they couldn't see- up and to the right.

He said something short and sharp in that unknown language toward the larger creature, then seemed to run his long tongue over his teeth, as if searching for- 

Click

When it spoke again, the voice that came out was cold and calculating- almost synthesized. A choice, since most translators tried to emulate your voice in the target language.

“I know you're still here.” They said, voice flat and bored. “Come out and surrender.”

Loyd's heart leapt into his throat, heart pounding as they finished speaking. The small Zerinth looked around the clearing as if expecting someone to break- or, perhaps, he was bluffing, not actually knowing if anyone was nearby but taking that chance that they were.

“Tch. Stupid biologicals. Or perhaps, smart in this case,” the translated voice said.

The smaller Zerinth took several calm steps toward the cave entrance, claws digging into the dirt. Loyd’s heart slammed against his ribs, threatening to leap out of his chest and onto the ground. 

No no no.

The larger one  remained near the ruined grave, slowly scanning the area while the smaller one ducked into the cave without hesitation. He moved with the same detached confidence he’d shown at the grave, like he already owned the area and anything within would be deemed worthy to live- or to die. 

From beneath the cap, Loyd could not see into the cave. He could only listen to the thump of footsteps, then the click of claws on stone as the Zerinth walked deeper. 

One step. Then two. A long pause, before the translated voice echoed faintly from within the cave.

“Or, truly just… stupid.”

Loyd clenched his teeth, as a dull knock came from deeper inside, as if one of those claws had struck stone. Then another. Prodding. Searching.

Beside him, Teralis had gone rigid again, all four eyes wide and furious beneath the reddish dimness filtering through the cap. Loyd kept his grip locked hard around one of his smaller wrists, lessening the strength when Teralis’s face scrunched with pain. He could feel the urge in the other man to move, to strike, to do something. But Loyd couldn't let him- it could get them all killed

No sound came from within besides the slow tapping of the claws on stone, until  the smaller Zerinth spoke again, voice flatter, irritation edging through the translator.

“Or just- Not here.”

A few more careful footsteps. A sharp scrape of claw against stone, and then the Zerinth emerged, a face scrunched in pure irritation etched on their features.

“I just missed them.”

Loyd stopped breathing entirely as the smaller Zerinth emerged into the clearing once more, head turning in quick, annoyed little motions. His eyes swept over the grave, the scattered dirt, the old fallen cap mounded beside it, the broken mushroom trunks, the forest beyond.

Something pale fluttered against the rock beside the cave mouth, catching his attention. 

The loose end of his bandage, snagged on the stone where he had slid down, fluttered faintly in the breeze.

The Zerinth stepped closer and caught it between two claws. His gaze followed the strip down to the dark smear on the dark rock beneath it. Still slowly dripping down to the ground.

He said nothing. He only touched it with one fingertip, rubbed it between his claws, and stared at the red stain as if thinking.

The larger creature behind him gave a low, questioning warble. The smaller Zerinth answered in a short burst of that harsh language without looking away from the stone.

Loyd lay perfectly still beneath the cap, his injured hand suddenly burning with pain. He just hoped the Zerinth didn't put the pieces together properly- he had already searched the area after all.

After another agonizing second, the smaller one ran a hand over the side of his neck, said something else too fast to even really determine if it was words, and turned back toward the larger creature- still holding the bandage. 

The black chest opened for him again, more fluid dripping to the ground as he climbed inside. He grabbed the long dark cord and plugged it into the back of his neck once more. A moment later, the pale ribs folded shut with that same wet, organic squelch, sealing the thing whole again.

It stood there for one long, terrible second, before it slowly turned and began walking back into the forest. Suddenly, its tail slashed from side to side in a rapid motion- mushrooms fell all around them, crashing to the soil and luckily missing the cap they were hiding under.  

Loyd laid under the mushroom caps for a long time, holding onto Teralis's wrist with a grip as strong as Iron. Only once he was sure that the Zerinth and its larger counterpart were gone did he emerge, letting go of the security officer. His hands shook as he raised his voice. 

“I think we need to go. Now.”

Part Nine

Part One

5:30 AM S.F.T(Standard Federation Time)- Planetside, Kepler-186f, Day 2

Loyd groaned and stretched his arms overhead as he sat up. His “bed” had done a fine job of turning his spine into one long complaint, and there was a nasty kink in his neck. He’d have to talk to-  He paused, the cave around him making it painfully clear he wasn’t on the Odyssey.

He blinked, rubbing at one eye with the heel of his hand as the world slowly came into focus around him. Stone. Dirt. Red light creeping in through the entrance. Others piled in various states of uncomfortable sleep.

Teralis groaned nearby, his environmental suit having been taken off at some point while they slept and used as a pillow. Kiki clicked sleepily in the corner, slowly stirring as they too came to awareness.

The rest began to wake as Loyd stood, his back popping as he rose.

“Whoa, that was a good one,” he sighed, bending to one side, then the other to get the rest of the stiffness out. 

Coori, who had been sleeping uncomfortably close, lifted her head and stared at him with horror.

“Hu- Loyd, what was that?! Are your bones damaged?!” she asked with alarm, clambering to her feet and looking around the cave in frantic jerks for Serria.

“No, no, they’re not damaged.” He chuckled, his hand reaching out for a coffee pot that didn’t exist. Closing his fist and pulling it back, he cleared his throat- and was surprised to find the scratchy patch was mostly gone.

“Anyway, no, human bones- uh, pop. The joints fill with fluid and air bubbles, and movement can pop those little bubbles, causing the sound,” he explained, bending down to touch his toes.

His morning routine, minus the coffee.

Loyd rolled his shoulders, getting the last kinks out of his back. Then, he crouched near the little pile of salvaged supplies they’d dumped near the wall the night before. Bottles, gauze, scraps of pod paneling, wire, and the cluster of electronics he’d managed to keep dragging along because he couldn’t quite bring himself to leave them behind.

He picked through them with practiced fingers, setting aside the pieces he needed in their own separate pile.

Harriet, still half-curled against CoCo and looking like he wasn’t entirely awake, cracked one eye open- beak moving slowly.

“What are you doing?” he chirped, voice guttural from sleep.

“Seeing if I can make a receiver.”

Harriet blinked slowly. “Why a receiver? Why not a communication device?”

Loyd looked up at him, expression flat but not annoyed as he started slotting pieces of electronics together.

“Because if something hostile is still in the area, I’d rather not announce exactly where we are.” He twisted two wires together and set them aside. “But if anyone else is still alive out there, I’d like to know. And- I can modify it later if I need to.”

Coori shifted where she sat. “Do you think there are others?”

Loyd shrugged, trying to get a connector to fit into a slot not quite meant for it.

“I think there were a lot of pods.” He pried a cracked casing off a component with the tip of the metal shard he'd used to cut up his shirt. “And I think not all of them landed safely. But not all of them would’ve been destroyed either.”

“And the Zerinth?” Teralis asked, voice still heavy with sleep and pain as they sat up, propping themselves up with two arms.

Loyd’s fingers paused. “Exactly why I’m not transmitting.”

Harriet's head thumped back lightly against CoCo's side. “Reasonable.”

He kept trying to get the pieces to sit close enough for the contacts to touch, but it wasn’t working as well as he’d hoped. Scratching his cheek, he tapped his fingers on one of the motherboards as he tried to come up with a solution. What about the sap? He stood, stepped over Pip where they were curled up, and ducked out into the red light with the makeshift device under one arm.

The star had barely moved as he lifted a hand to shield his eyes, walking over to one of the mushrooms. Taking the metal shard, he cut a small gash into it and set the piece he needed under the slow drips of sticky blue sap. Once he had enough, he hurriedly pressed it onto the other piece and held the two together as he ducked back into the cave.

Loyd dropped into a crouch near the half-sorted electronics, the sticky blue sap holding his makeshift receiver together just well enough to not fall apart. He set the thing in his lap, frowned at it, then popped open his omnitool with the same metal scrap as before.

The cracked screen flickered to black as he pulled the power cord from its connector, twisting the wires together. A sharp crack sounded out as the electricity snapped into his finger for a moment, making Loyd yelp and put his thumb into his mouth.

A faint buzz answered him. Then, static. It crackled weakly through the little improvised speaker, thin, ugly, and inconsistent. But it was there. That made several heads turn.

Harriet finally got up from beside CoCo, walking over and lowering his beak next to Loyd's face. “Is it working?”

“I'm not quite sure yet,” Loyd said, twisting the wires tighter together. The sound got louder as he did, power surging into the device.

Isaac skittered near as Qutin, who had slept near to him, scampered closer as well. Coori turned her head to listen better, and even Serria and Kiki seemed to be listening.

The static dipped, surged, and then a voice broke through- faint, distorted, and broken.

A second voice answered, sharper and lower, buried in interference. Then another burst of static swallowed it, then returned in fragments. 

A jamming device. 

Nobody spoke. Loyd’s fingers moved automatically, trying to make the signal stronger. He twisted the wire once more, trying to overpower the static. Likely it was the red dwarf star interfering with the device, and with enough power-

The transmission cleared just enough to put him on edge.

A series of clipped, fast exchanges came through, broken by bursts of static and the occasional shriek of interference. They still couldn’t understand the words, but understanding the tone was not the hard part. It was a recorded message- from the Zerinth.

The last word- if it was even a word- came through as a hard snapped syllable before the whole thing dissolved back into the hiss of interference.

Loyd went very still, receiver clenched in one hand.

Coori’s feathers had flattened so tightly to her body they barely looked real. Harriet’s beak stayed half-open, but no sound came out. Even CoCo had gone dead quiet.

Teralis broke the silence first.

“I did not hear any distress signals,” he said softly.

Loyd swallowed and went to turn the receiver off, but a sizzle as he did told him something inside had fried. The cave fell quiet again. Too quiet, after that.

Qutin shifted their weight, little paws pushing dirt idly as they looked around the chamber, ears twitching. “Why are Pip and the others still asleep?”

Loyd turned, slowly, the thought sticking in his mind. Why… are they still asleep? 

Near the wall, tucked where they had curled up the night before, Squee and Purrsa were still huddled together in the same little pile of fur and cloth. Pip was laying near the entrance to the cave, in the same position as he had been in when Loyd had stepped over him.

CoCo walked over to Pip and nudged them with their beak as Serria scuttled over to Purrsa and Squee, gently shaking them with one of their claws.  

She nudged Pip again, almost picking up the small xeno with her beak. Their feathers fluffed up as they slowly became more and more concerned for her subordinate.

“Pip?” she asked, voice sharp as they tried to stay calm. Their spots and stripes glowing in faint pulses in the dim light.

No response.

Serria’s manipulating claw moved from Purrsa to Squee, then back again, more deliberately. She pressed gently against their chests, feeling for the rise and fall of breath. Her compound eyes did not blink, but they swiveled toward Loyd.

Oh no.

Qutin took one step forward, then another, tiny paws pressing into the dirt. “They are just tired,” they said quickly, voice climbing higher with every word. “Yesterday was hard, and the gravity is strong, and- and they’re just tired.”

Loyd was already moving before he could really think about it, crossing the cave in several quick steps to Pip’s side. He crouched, one knee hitting the ground harder than he meant it to, and reached out.

He put two fingers against the tiny Krii’s side, right where a heartbeat should have been racing under their ribs.

His stomach dropped, and he looked up to Serria- who was slowly shaking her head in the almost universal way.

“No,” Qutin squeaked quietly. 

Loyd swallowed hard and checked again anyway, like maybe the first time had been wrong. Like maybe his fingers were in the wrong place. Like maybe, just maybe, human hands just weren’t built for something that small.

Still, nothing.

Across the cave, Serria slowly pulled her claw back from Squee’s chest. Then from Purrsa’s.

Kiki went still. The little pupae clinging to her shell shifted nervously, sensing the sudden change in the adults around them.

CoCo lowered her head over Pip for a long second, then drew back just enough to look toward Serria. She didn’t ask the question out loud, because everyone already knew the answer. 

Serria’s mandibles clicked, very softly.

“They’re gone.”

Qutin made a sound Loyd had never heard from a Krii before- it wasn’t a squeak, or a whine, not even really a cry. It was something like a combination of all three, like something in them had just been strangled. 

“No,” they said, and then raised their small voice “No, they’re asleep.”

“They were,” Serria said quietly.

Qutin stared at her, and scampered over to Squee, pushing their muzzle into their side as if to wake them from their slumber. 

Harriet’s feathers flattened so tightly against his body that he looked half his usual size. Coori had frozen where she stood, eyes wide, claws clenched uselessly in the dirt gripping the thin soil as hard as she could. Even CoCo had gone dead still, all sharpness stripped out of her at once.

Loyd looked down at Pip again.

Same position. Same little cloth wrap around the muzzle. Same annoyed, stubborn little face, only now there was nothing behind it. He hated how ordinary it looked.

“How?” Loyd asked, gently wrapping his hands around the small form of Pip and lifting him off the ground. A long, silent pause met him.

“The strain,” she said at last. “Their hearts were working too hard from the moment we landed. The gravity, the stress, the walking…” Her eyes lowered. “They likely passed in their sleep.”

Loyd sat back slowly on his heels, one hand protectively laid over Pip. The little makeshift receiver lay beside him in the dirt, dead and useless now.

CoCo was the one who moved, picking both Squee and Purrsa in her beak, her movements slow and stiff. Her eyes were glossy and hard as she moved toward the entrance of the cave. 

“We bury them properly,” she said, brushing past Loyd as she headed toward the outside world. 

Loyd pushed himself to his feet, every joint in his body suddenly feeling heavier than before. “Tell me what you need,” He muttered, following her into the red light. 

CoCo was already scraping at the dirt by the time Loyd stepped fully outside.

She had set Squee and Purrsa down side by side just beyond the cave mouth and was tearing into the dirt with her feet in short, violent bursts, claws kicking brown earth backward in steady clumps. The motion was messy, fast, and aimless. Every few strokes she had to stop and rebalance, feathers flaring wide before settling again.

Loyd lowered Pip to the ground next to the other two as gently as he could and stared at the shallow groove CoCo was carving into the soil.

It wasn’t going to be deep enough.

Still, he set his jaw and dropped to one knee beside her, using the blunt length of salvaged metal to break into the harder-packed earth beneath the top layer. The soil gave grudgingly, pale fungal threads flinging behind them as he tore them free.

Nobody spoke for a few moments. The only sounds were the scrape of claws, the thunk of metal into dirt, and the distant soft tearing of more caps tearing loose overhead.

Qutin stumbled out of the cave, his eyes dripping with tears as he sniffled.

He looked wrecked. Fur uneven, ears pinned so low they almost vanished into the ruffled fur around his head, little paws trembling as he stared at the three small bodies laid out on the ground.

“No,” he squeaked.

It wasn’t loud, but it stopped both of them.

CoCo froze with one foot half-buried in the dirt. “Qutin-”

“No,” he said again, voice breaking this time. He swallowed, took a deep breath in, and took a few tiny steps forward. “Not like that.”

The Tiquil straightened slowly, dirt clinging to the scales on her feet and the lower edges of her feathers. “I was just trying to- ”

“I know.” He scrubbed one paw harshly across his face, then pointed at the ground with the other. “I know. But not like that.”

Qutin hopped over to the little half-dug grave for a long moment, chest rising and falling rapidly. When he spoke again, the words came out shaky, but clear.

“They have to go together,” he said. “Close. Like a den.”

He pointed weakly toward Squee and Purrsa first, then Pip. “Not separate. Never separate. They were den mates before they were crew.”

His voice cracked on the last word. He pressed both paws over his mouth, breathing hard through them until he got himself calmed enough to continue.

CoCo lowered her head, nodding to them.  “Alright.”

Qutin swallowed again. “And bury plants with them. Moss, roots, leaves- Anything.”

Kiki made a soft series of clicks behind them and lowered herself carefully near the cave wall, one manipulating claw reaching toward the red-blue ground cover. Isaac moved with her, silently gathering armfuls of soft moss and thin-rooted plants from the stone edge.

Loyd looked at the rough tool in his hand, the hole, then at Qutin. “How deep?”

Qutin’s ears twitched. “Deep enough they would have felt safe.”

He pushed himself back to his feet and drove the metal into the dirt harder. CoCo joined him again without a word, but her motions had changed. Still fierce, still fast, but no longer random. She dug where Qutin pointed, widening the hole instead of just clawing downward. Loyd broke the harder soil and pried up stones while CoCo kicked loose earth back in quick bursts.

When the grave was finally wide enough, Loyd stopped first, chest heaving. CoCo had wandered over to the shaded areas to rest, her body rising and falling in exhaustion.

He slid both hands beneath Pip and lifted him carefully. He weighed almost nothing. And as he gently laid him in the freshly dug grave, Loyd couldn't help but notice just how soft his fur was.

By the time he laid Pip into the grave, Squee and Purrsa were already there, placed close together by CoCo and Serria. He turned the small bodies inward the way Qutin had said, until the three of them lay curled toward one another in a final sleeping knot.

Then Qutin stepped forward on shaking legs and laid the first strip of moss over them, handed to them by Isaac.

Kiki came next, adding a little rooted plant with delicate care. Isaac followed with another bundle of moss. Aleah placed a thin braided vine over the edge of the grave like a boundary marker. Harriet lowered one bright fallen feather from his own side into the soil. 

CoCo stared at the bodies for a long, painful second before leaning down and setting three colorful feathers onto their bodies.

When she straightened, her feathers still laid flat against her body.

“They were under my supervision,” she said quietly. 

The red light caught in her eyes and along the edges of her beak as she stared down into the grave.

“I didn’t check on them,” she said, voice rough. “Not for water. Not for food. Not to see if they needed rest. I kept thinking about the plants around us, and I never stopped to ask if they could survive the walk.” Her beak closed with a clack. 

Harriet’s head turned toward her slowly, but he didn’t speak, just slowly resting his beak on her back. So she continued “I am- was- their commanding officer. I should have seen it sooner.”

Qutin made a small, broken sound in his throat, placing a paw on CoCo's long leg.

“You were their officer,” he said, staring into the grave. “But they were Krii. They wondered at everything around us, just like you.”

CoCo looked down at him, eyes full of regret and grief.

“They wouldn't have traded that,” he whispered. “for the world.”

Loyd looked down at the grave, guilt and responsibility resting heavy on his own shoulders. He should have checked on them himself. He was their leader, and as much as CoCo blamed herself, the person who should have been attentive was him.

He stood there for a long moment after Qutin’s words, staring down. Then, he lowered himself to one knee and reached for the loose dirt piled beside it.

He pushed the first handful in gently, covering them in a thin layer of brown soil. CoCo followed a second later with both feet, kicking earth in carefully now instead of frantically. Until the grave slowly disappeared beneath the planet that had killed them.

Loyd kept going until the mound was full and rounded. Then he packed it down with both palms and sat back on his heels. His eyes drifted over the debris near the cave mouth. A bent strip of frame. A bit of wire. Thin trailing vines hugging the rocks.

Without really thinking about it, he reached for them.

The metal bent easier than he expected once he braced it against the stone. He lashed the shorter piece across the longer one with the vines, tying them down hard with stiff, clumsy fingers until the  shape held- a cross.

Coori tilted her head. “What are you doing?”

“Marking the grave.” He pushed it into the soil at the head of the mound, adjusting it until it stood on its own.

Qutin stared at it, ears still pinned low. “Is that a human thing?”

Loyd nodded. “Yeah.”

Part Eight