“Yes, Captain.”
“We have incoming,” Trac said over comms.
Tim stiffened, his gaze going upwards. At first, even his cybernetics couldn’t see anything but the murk that seemed to be a feature of this dismal place. He just had time to wonder if the flyer had registered the incoming, when a line of bright line stabbed down and took out the flyer, leaving only bits of falling debris where it had been.
“That was handy,” Riina said.
“I hope so,” Tim said. The enemy of one’s enemy wasn’t necessarily one’s friend. At least in his experience.
If the non-humans and humans had been concerned by the flyer, they hadn’t had time to show it. Now they looked up, the expressions in their haggard faces turning eager.
Tim glanced around, looking for a place for them to retreat to, but they had the crater at their back and the rescued prisoners between them and any good cover.
Now he could see the flare of ships entering the atmosphere. It didn’t take long. Whatever this place was, it wasn’t a planet, he didn’t think. A sort of way station? It was possible.
The rounded bottoms of multiple discs emerged from the flares. They varied in size, but not in shape. The larger of them moved toward their location and then slowly settled above them.
No, mostly above the others. All of them looked up now, waving as well as they could in their weakened conditions. Some of them hugged.
“I guess they know who it is,” Riina said. She glanced back, but must have realized, as he had, that they had no where to go.
The large avian and the female human began to speak to the others. They shuffled toward her and some of them helped to boost her up onto the avian’s back. Then half of them scrambled up there, too. The avian lifted off and the other one landed, so that the rest of the humans could climb on.
“What about the canines?” Riina wondered.
They watched as the two avians flew up to the belly of the ship, saw it open to receive them.
“Well, that solves part of the transportation problem,” Riina muttered.
Tim wanted to step closer to, slide his arm around her waist, but he needed to keep his hands free, just in case.
“Why don’t you stand behind me?” he murmured.
“I don’t think either of us should move,” Riina murmured back.
He couldn’t argue with that, though he would have liked to.
The bottom of the large disc closed, and it lifted away to be replaced by a much smaller disc. This one pressed in closer. The side opened and a ramp slid down. The canines all trotted up this ramp. When Tim and Riina were alone, the ramp pulled in, and the hatch closed once more.
“Now what?” Tim muttered, as this ship lifted away from them.
“They could have said hello,” Riina said. “Or thank you.”
Tim thought about the haggard, purple female. She will tell them, he thought. But yes, it would have been nice if they could have gotten star charts from them. But that would have told these unknown aliens how vulnerable they were. It was clear that the aliens in the ships had trust issues. Well, so did they.
The ships were rising, interacting with the thin atmosphere again. So many flares. So many ships. Would they ever know the story of this place?
“They are leaving,” Trac said, unnecessarily over the comms.
“They are jumping away,” came Kellen’s voice, his relieved voice, over their comms.
“Captain?” Tim was surprised he could get the word out. His was the last voice he’d expected to hear over the comms.
“How did you find us?” Riina said.
“It is a long story. Let’s get you all back on board and then we can talk.”
“Do you know the way home?” Tim had to ask it.
