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"Thank you." He took back the tube and handed me another one.
"How many of these do you have?" I asked.
"Eight." He started to attach a second mechanism to the tube.
"And how long have you been trying to do this by yourself?" I eyed him over the tube.
"An hour," he said.
"Wow, I thought humans hated to ask for help." I handed him back the tube and reached for another.
"Parvorans are proud people." He sat back and exhaled through his nose.
"I've noticed that," I said without any condemnation. There was nothing wrong with being proud, even if you did waste an hour trying to do a difficult task. "Five to go."
He nodded. "Brinley also said humans often state the obvious."
I grinned. "Did you just tease me?"
"Of course not," he said. "I was just…"
"Stating the obvious?" I suggested. "It's okay to tease a little bit. It means you care." As long it wasn't nasty or intentionally hurtful. It was a fine line between teasing and bullying and some people could never tell the difference.
He looked confused at that, but got to work on the last few devices.
"What are these anyway?" I asked. "More anti-bot devices?"
"In a manner of speaking," he said. "They're to isolate the nanobots from the whole…hive. Technically they aren't a hive, because they're not alive."
I waved a hand. "I understand. It's as good a word as any. What happens then?"
"I don't know. The nanobots might leave the host. They may operate on their own. My goal is to find options, because we may need them." He looked troubled by that.
"Slek would have… would do the same thing," I said. At least, I thought he would. He always seemed to have a knack for producing useful devices, or messing with existing ones to make them do cool things.
"Yes." E'rel placed each of the finished mechanisms in a line with a gap between them. In the middle of each, he placed the anti-bot devices J'avet and he used on the last pod. Eight of each. "Two devices per person."
"Do you want me to hand them out?" I asked.
Before he could answer, Brinley said, "We're approaching Tarathu. There are several ships in orbit."
"Yes, do that now." E'rel took two and left me to divide the rest between the members of our team.
More than one looked doubtful that the new device would be helpful, but they added them to their holsters along with their blasters.
I just pushed one into each pocket.
"Gamma is increasing speed," Brinley said. "At this rate, she'll overtake us in approximately twenty minutes."
"Let her," J'avet said. "She'll make it easier for us to hide. Set a course for the far side of Tarathu. We are a pod of Iritauri, exactly where we are supposed to be, doing what we were told. The vidscreen was damaged. If they give us orders, we follow them. "
"Unless they try to get them directly into our brains," I said.
"That can't be helped. We'll have to pretend." J'avet sat back and tried to look calm, but by now I knew him too well for that. He was as anxious as the rest of us.
"Gamma is two minutes out," Brinley said. "One of the Iri ships is moving to intercept."
"Us or Gamma?" I asked.
