The following is going to be a rated T companion piece to Far Away From Home. You don't have to read that one to enjoy this one, or vice versa. The intent is to enrich FAFH, without detracting from the style I've been working on over there.

So what's the big challenge? I suck at writing short pieces. Even in college, I'd be given a two page assignment and I'd come back with a ten pager. So, I'm going to attempt drabbling. (Is that a valid useage of the term?) Since I've got too many ideas to only do one chapter, I'm not going to attempt setting a limit on that. But I am going to try to keep each chapter as close to five-hundred words as possible. Can I do it? I haven't a clue. Might have to increase my self-imposed limit. But that would be defeating the purpose, wouldn't it?

Anyway, I don't want to delve too far in the a/n (that's cheating!) but suffice it to say, the bloke we're following here, while not a current character in FAFH, will show himself in his own good time.


Stold keyed the release. The latch on the evac shuttle hissed with equalizing atmosphere. Hundreds of beings ran to and fro in the massive hangar bay.

Humans. Screaming, crying, clutching one another. Colorful threads of chaos, interspersed with orderly groups of dark haired, dark robed individuals disembarking from a variety of vessels. Evenly spaced lines, forming logical groups. Small, broken, family units. Colleagues. Quiet, among the commotion.

"Stold." T'Rel, a girl several years his junior, approached. "Is it safe?"

He contemplated for a long moment. She queried the immediate area just outside the shuttle, but his mind wandered past, into the infinite possibilities before them.

He'd never stepped off of his homeworld. Had no idea what this world, or any other, had in store.

"I see no immediate threats," he compromised. His eyes flicked to the youth sitting in their seats. "Disembark in an orderly fashion. Remain at the foot of the stairs until you have been directed elsewhere by myself or one of the rescue teams."

He stood at the airlock, mentally ticking off each member of his group as they stepped out onto a new world. The pilot climbed back last, once he finished the engine cut-off sequence.

"Everyone accounted for?"

Stold offered a single nod.

Sufi turned back to look at the seats, most likely counting the empty places, and let out a long sigh.

"You preformed adequately," Stold said. "Considering the circumstances."

Sufi turned to his classmate. His eyebrows raised, mouth trembling.

"Adequately?" He closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the bulkhead. "Adequately."

"I would not have been able to rewire the shuttle in time to escape."

"It was fortunate that my father wished for me to become an engineer. If he hadn't been tutoring me in the basics of the ignition sequence before the trip..." A moment of silence passed between them, as each spared a moment to examine the loss of their familial bonds. "I am grateful that I did not face our instructor."

Stold turned away. He couldn't meet his classmate in the eye.

"We should go supervise our charges."

"Yes."

Twenty-eight younger students from their academy.

Twenty-eight rescued, out of the thousands of individuals visiting the museum that day.

Twenty-eight saved, out of the hundreds in their educational grade.

And two individuals from three grades above; on academic probation and serving volunteer hours assisting in supervising and tutoring this handful of the best-and-brightest.

"How much do we tell?" Sufi asked at the top of the stairs.

"The confrontation did not happen in front of her students. Only you and I witnessed... what happened."

"I believe it might be advantageous to minimize the situation."

Stold frowned. Stopped to eye his counterpart halfway down the stairs. "You are suggesting we imply an untruth."

"I propose that there are items of greater importance to consider, rather than the final moments of an instructor already dead."

Twenty-eight pairs of eyes looked up at them. Seeking guidance he had no right to give.