“I think it’s relevant,” Dr. Walker said. “Lira and I had a very unfriendly interaction with the Vorthari and if that thing up there is after them, then that’s a good thing.”
Dr. Walker wasn’t wrong, but he also wasn’t entirely correct. Riina sighed. The people of Arroxan Prime could end up as collateral damage if it came to a fight between the Vorthari and the entity.
They needed to find a way to make contact with it. She had known this since their first sighting, but she hadn’t wanted to risk their rescue of Dr. Walker. Now that he was relatively safe, it seemed like a good idea to try to make contact.
Of course, a lot of things had seemed like a good idea during past missions and turned out to be not so good, so she wasn’t in a hurry.
“Your flyer is still working.” A man pointed at it. “How is that possible if you’re not working with what attacked us?”
“We weren’t in your atmosphere when they deployed the EM pulse,” Tim said.
There was another murmur.
“You are from away?” This was a woman’s voice and fear threaded through it.
Riina felt the disconnect between the woman’s tone and her showing up to meet and greet actual aliens. Had she not really believed it was going to happen?
“Yes,” Riina confirmed the obvious. “We are from away, but not the same away as the entity. We’ve never encountered anything like it before.” Or anything like the Vorthari, for that matter.
Tim glanced at her, as if he felt he should speak to her first, but then he turned back to Drun Marik.
“It is a long walk to the nearest habitation. We will give you a lift. And you will release the restraints on Dr. Walker.”
Riina glanced around, wondering if they’d tried to restrain Harold, too. But the robot suddenly eased between the small group.
“It is a good plan,” Harold said.
Riina saw that he had strapped supplies onto his back. She wanted to ask or say something about the fact that they appeared to trust the alien robot, but not the alien man. But it was also not truly relevant.
It was clear that they didn’t want to accept the lift. And also clear that they knew they’d have to.
“We will stand surety for Dr. Walker’s behavior,” Riina said. “And you, Drun Marik, may examine the interior before your people board, if that would help. If it simply what we call a shuttle—a craft designed to shuttle people from one place to another.”
Drun stared at her for a long moment, then looked up. “You have a ship up there somewhere.”
It wasn’t a question, but Riina nodded.
“We have a ship up there,” she agreed.
Now the murmur that ran through the small group sounded different, as if they all wished they could see it. At least, that is what she sensed.
Who were these people? How had they ended up at Dr. Walker’s rendezvous point?
“Come,” Tim said, gesturing to Drun.
But as the man moved forward, so did the little group.
“We want to see, as well,” a woman said.
They rounded the rear of the shuttle in an odd clump, with Harold and Dr. Walker hanging back a little. Well, they’d both seen a shuttle before.
The group made sounds, but nothing that could be interpreted meaningfully.
“You can board, if you’d like,” Riina said. “Take a seat on either side and we’ll show you how to strap in.”
“Strap in?” A different woman sounded alarmed.
“There is much…turbulence in the atmosphere,” Tim said. “It is better not to fly around the shuttle bay. You could be injured”
