"You don't think they'll eat us or anything…do you?"

"Shhhhhh."

"Well, I'm just asking. He doesn't exactly look like her, A'luet and P'sy."

Jessie looked over at the male yautja Ricky was referring to.

Clearly older than P'sy and the female, Noni, he was definitely different. Bigger, taller, more muscular and red symbols in a linear tattoo formation extended from his shoulder to fingers.

Then she noticed A'luet in the shadows and kicked Ricky.

"He's Hish." A'luet murmured. "Slightly different than us."

The female returned, setting cups of water down.

"Thank you." Kelly gave the yautja woman a smile, a friendly expression Noni didn't return. A awkwardness ensued.

The female elder's hand strayed to her biomask, she shot A'luet a look before putting it on. One delicate finger over her gauntlet, her sudden address of the four oomans startled them.

"So, how does one of you wind up with a bug-worm in their neck?"

A'luet felt unease thread through the humans.

Kelly looked to Dallas for help, but he was staring at her, waiting.

"Um, well…."

Her brown eyes turned to A'luet's covered face, silently asking him for help.

A'luet took a breath, resigning himself to rescuing them from the uncomfortable question. "P'sy and I-"

Noni held up a hand, silencing him. "I want to hear it from them."

"We were caught by government agents for knowing about them…"

"Agents," Noni echoed. "How did you meet each other?"

"…I-In a store." Kelly faltered at the tilt of the Elder's head. "-There was a group of us, we were attacked by the…kainde amedha. P'sy and A'luet showed up. We sort of clung to them like barnacles and then things kept happening, and we didn't separate."

For a long moment, no one spoke.

"and you reek of radiation, why?"

Shock gripped Kelly. "What?"

"Radiation." The female Elder's translator was agender in tone, but the repeat of the word sounded like it could have been wrapped in annoyance. Kelly's suspicion was confirmed at the uncomfortable shift of A'luet and the Hish's focus on Noni. "You know the Tribunal is going to ask for your biomask, A'luet. They're going to review the footage… if there's anything I need know before that happens, I suggest you tell me now."

She turned to him.

"Why do the oomans smell of radiation?"

…..…

Yautja Prime

Tribunal hut

A'nnu was first to see P'sy as he came through the doors, standing with him, was J'mper.

"P'sy." The predator's gaze immediately went over P'sy shoulder. "Where's A'luet?"

"He's fine. He's with Noni."

"What the hell are you hiding, that you landed that craft in the forest?" Dalh'K appeared, with other Elders behind him.

"Where's T'sey-s or Zeke, I want to speak to them."

"Answer to me, P'sy."

"You can fuck yourself into next week-!"

"Hey!" A'nnu blocked Dalh'K from P'sy. "Enough Dalh'K. It doesn't matter where he landed the plane, as long as it's not damaged."

"P'sy." J'mper pulled him back, away from the aggressive yautja. "Don't."

Dalh'K shot the coal-colored yautja a glare. "The both of you stay out of this!"

"Answer my question, asshole." P'sy snapped. "Where's T'sey-s and Zeke?"

"Off-planet." A'nnu answered when Dahl'K didn't.

"Fucking figures. Both of them?"

"-Which means you answer to me."

P'sy wished he could wipe Dahl'K's smugness's off his face.

"No, I don't." P'sy turned to leave.

"Where are you going?"

"To my home."

Dahl'K growled loudly, in response two yautja blocked the entrance. P'sy slowed, clucking, he could tell the two in his way were uncertain of what he might do.

Then he heard a loud sucking of air by his dreads. Shit.

"Why. Do. You smell. Of Oomans?"

"He answered the distress call-"

"Shut it A'nnu!" Dalh'K snarled. He turned to P'sy's back. "That disgusting stench is too fucking fresh to be from that stupid distress call."

P'sy turned, pulling his biomask off. "Knock yourself out."

Dahl'K didn't move, then he swiped the biomask. "Stay here." To the other elders, he barked to come with him.

"Wonder if I should self-destruct now, save you all from the execution."

A'nnu's face pinched. "What the hell happened?"

P'sy's eyes slowly met his. "There are four oomans with Noni, right now."

….

Outskirts of the village

Footsteps were rapidly coming, across the clearing, and then up the stairs. P'sy appeared, behind him, A'nnu and J'mper.

The unease in the humans by the mere presence of Noni and J'agannath heightened at the arrival of two more predators.

"Holy shi-"

Dallas kicked Ricky.

"Osh'da." A'luet drew closer.

His father stepped towards him, his biomask off, like P'sy's. In fact, A'luet didn't see P'sy's mask at all.

"They took it?"

"Told me to wait around for them to finish reviewing it. They can kiss my ass."

Nearby, Jessie had been hoping A'luet wouldn't remove his own helmet, as he was the only translator in the room, his biomask still converting his language into theirs.

Her eyes wandered to the two new yautja. One a dusty coal-black and the other a lighter greenish-yellow.

Then came the word.

"Osh'da, father."

Her eyes immediately retracted to the new predator. A'luet's father.

Kelly stood, a hand on Dallas's forearm as he straightened from his lean.

Slowly, she walked towards the yautja, becoming very aware of how small she was compared to some of them.

She glanced at A'luet.

"How bad is this?"

A'luet's mask twitched slightly. She could tell he was weighing what to say and how to say it.

"Some people need time to simmer down."

"Simmer? In my world that means screwed." Kelly looked at P'sy. "If this is going to go south for both of you, more so for P'sy, we don't want that."

"It won't."

The voice came from behind. The female, Noni.

P'sy murmured.

"It's nothing to worry about." A'luet translated.

"You know, I may be human and everything down to our molecular cells might be different, but don't try to snow me."

"Child."

Noni stepped forward, extremely close to Kelly, golden irises glowing.

"As long as you remain in my house, no one will touch you. You are not prisoners, you are simply guests." Her eyes travelled to P'sy. "You don't leave either. You try and I'll stun your ass."

"That a threat?"

"No one can barge into an Elder's home. Even another Elder. It's a gross breach of boundaries." J'mper added.

"I am an Elder."

"You're looking at infractions, how severe who knows. That changes the rules. You stay here, Dahl'K, none of them, can come in here without my say so." Noni sighed. "J'agannath." The Hish looked up. "Can you do something for me?"

…..

Night fall

The air had turned cool, Jessie stepped out on the porch, hoping it was also a safe base. She couldn't see anyone in the dusk light, but as she had learned in the past two weeks, you couldn't see a Predator coming at you unless they wanted you to.

Her apprehension quickly faded.

"Wow. Ricky…Ricky. Come here."

He came up alongside her.

The sky was a light blue near the horizon to her right, barely seen through the trees, fading to an amethyst the higher she looked.

With the stars came large planets, hanging above their heads, each different sizes, some large and so close it was like she could reach out touch it, others were small.

"It's beautiful."

"Yeah." Ricky agreed. "It is."

"And you know what else?"

Ricky waited.

A smile spread across her face. "No mosquitos."

Ricky laughed. "True."

Jessie leaned against the railing. "You know Gunnison was fairly quiet but here, for people who are so technologically advanced, it's really quiet. Almost peaceful. If we weren't the only ones of our species here, and if they weren't pissed at our presence, I might request not to go back."

She could see Ricky staring at her from the corner of her eye.

"Not go back to Earth?"

Jessie shook her head. "I have nothing to go back to. Barely associated with the in-laws, family's gone, town is gone…"

"You have us."

"I know, but even you guys have family. You have your brother and Kelly has Molly. I'm literally it."

"You have me."

The smile returned, it melted away soon enough, although every time she looked up, the sadness would be replaced by wonder.

…..

"I'm surprised no one was waiting at my door." P'sy plugged the last cable in, his monitor flashing on.

"They were." J'agannath sat. "Guess it's your luck the Elders haven't moved very fast in making Hish technology easily assessable to the average yautja yet. They didn't pick up my cloaking."

"Lucky me." P'sy hit the touchscreen.

A rapid sequence of red symbols ran up and down the length of the screen.

"And the two Elders you're trying to contact will do what?"

P'sy glanced at Dallas and straightened, his gaze turning to A'luet.

"Hopefully keep this situation from really spinning out of control."

Dallas itched his head.

"There isn't an expiration on that thing in my brother is there?"

"No." J'agannath answered. To P'sy. "How'd you stop the bleeding?"

"Cauterized it with a skin solder."

"The missile deck is missing." Noni had her arms folded. "The humans don't have it, do they?"

"Not anymore."

She stiffened. "Not anymore? What the hell does that mean?"

"I detonated it on our way into the stratosphere."

"You bombed a military building?"

"Well, technically, a military building that doesn't exist." Kelly spoke up. "And military personnel, who also don't exist."

"It was figuratively and now, it's literally." Dallas shrugged.

"Better to leave nothing, then something." A'nnu murmured.

Noni scoffed. "We sent someone to get rid of the evidence of a crashed scout ship. In process, a ooman town is gone, because of a fucking ridiculously large outbreak of Kainde Amedha…"

"Don't forget that hybrid thing."

The female Elder's featureless mask turned to Dallas. "Oh, yeah, not that you could control that, but a goddamn U'darahje.on top of everything."

"Then make it a priority from now on to scan every body we go retrieve, regardless of how they died." P'sy snapped. "By the time we landed, the bitch already impregnated an ooman male and his offspring."

There was a beeping. P'sy's eyes returned to the screen. "Good, they aren't much further than the Glaive Belt."

"Twenty-four hours out," A'nnu said. "At warp speed."

Noni finally moved. "Well, no use in stay up late."

A'nnu jerked his head. "I'm sure you want to see an actual bed."

Exhaustion was finally catching up to the young predator. "Sounds really good about now."

"We'll see you tomorrow and where the day takes us."

On the porch, Jessie and Ricky stood up upon seeing three predators leaving.

"Young ones."

The female Elder was at her door, watching them. Jessie couldn't help but look to A'luet's retreating back. The Elder was smart.

"You will see him tomorrow. You need to come in."

They followed her into the house and watched as Noni punched in a sequence into a computer. Metal shields came down, covering the door and open windows.

"Are you expecting heavy artillery?"

Noni regarded Ricky in a peculiar manner. "Can never be too careful." She padded away to where P'sy was unplugging his monitor. "We were invaded a little more than a year ago by evolutionary cousins. Since then we've all taken better precautions, more so the Elders than civilians… Come." She led them to a spare room. "There are two cots unfortunately. I can find bedding-"

"No, we're good. Thank you. I don't want to trouble you more than we already have." Kelly was quick to say. "We'll be fine."

Noni nodded once. "In the morning, then."

The humans murmured their thanks, though no distance would have been far enough away to avoid hearing Dallas's next words.

"Keep your teenage hormones in check, both of you."

"Do you mind?" The young male snipped back. "They can probably fucking hear you Dal."

"Good. And I'm sure they agree with me."

"Alright, you two. Cool it." Kelly.

Noni removed her biomask. "I'm impressed you took them as extra baggage, Psy."

The male yautja shrugged, arms folded. "The kid's rubbed off on me."

Noni rolled her eyes, pulling on a cargo net-like hammock from the ceiling. "Help yourself. Are they carnivores?"

P'sy settled. "Carnivores?"

"Do I need to go hoe some roots out of the back yard in the morning?"

"I think they can handle it."

The room fell quiet, quiet snores sneaking in from the other room.

…

Morning

Orange sunlight streamed through the metal sheet partially opened. For a second, Jessie was surprised none of them were awoken by the sound of it retracting. The urge for a morning pee got her to disentangle herself from Ricky's arms. The house was quiet, the Elder's door still closed.

"Shit." She realized she didn't know where the bathroom was or if it even looked remotely like a human's toilet. Quietly, she treaded down the hall, to a backdoor, its metal shield also partially raised, just enough for her to squeeze under.

She was quick, paranoia at every snap of a twig. Quickly, she scaled the back porch steps and crawled back under the shield and into the house, the fear disappearing as soon as she stood up.

Light padding of feet startled her, too light to be yautja not that they walked heavily. She turned, seeing nothing until she spotted a shadow coming around a table. She froze.

A four legged mammal trotted into view, carrying a large fruit in its mouth happily. Jessie stayed where she was, one too many horror movies teaching her to not jump to the cliché, stupid mistakes all people in horror movies made.

Instead, she quietly sank to the floor and waited.

The creature paused at seeing her and copied her, sitting, and taking a mouthful of fruit with razor sharp teeth, chewing comically. Then it stuffed the fruit into its mouth to carry it, coming towards Jessie.

As the creature drew closer, there was a flicker of doubt. What if the animal attacked her? Those teeth looked pretty damn sharp.

One delicate hand pressed on her knee as the mammal reached her, large orbed eyes studying her with far more cunningness than she expected. Then the creature sat again, munching on the rest of his juicy prize.

Jessie's stomach rumbled, as she realized it had been close to 24 hrs since she last ate. She glanced back at her new friend, seeing its head cocked, eyes laser focused on her stomach.

"He's becoming a better escape artist every day."

The sudden voice scared her to her feet, prompting the creature to chatter and launch up onto his mistress's arm, settling on her shoulder.

Noni grumbled. "He's so dramatic. Are you hungry?"

"Kind of… I can wait-"

Noni snorted. "You wait too long and Aud will eat all the fruit. Help yourself."

"Thanks." Jessie whispered, reaching for something that looked like a pear. "He's a lemur, isn't he?"

"Yes." Noni tapped a code into her gauntlet, the metal sheets silently rising up, filling the front rooms with sunlight. "I rescued him as a baby from an illegal Earth trade smuggler. He was the only one of his kind so I couldn't release him, but I've done minimal domestication with him. He's allowed to do what lemurs should do."

"That was nice of you."

Noni jerked a nod and paused. "Well, he didn't waste time, did he?"

"Who?"

"Go to your room." Noni moved to the front door, she paused. "Aud. Go."

The lemur jumped off her shoulder, landing lithely before leap up onto Jessie's shoulder, the extra weight almost toppled her but the wall stopped her from falling. She heeded the order.

Noni pulled her biomask off. "And what the fuck are you doing here, so goddamn early, Dahl'K?"

The tribunal leader was glaring at the landed aircraft in her front yard.

"P'sy that chicken shit, he couldn't park that thing over at the docks, after I told him to wait for us to review his biomask's records?"

"Well, maybe if you weren't gathering a lynch mob, I wouldn't have felt the need to tell him to not leave my house."

"Where are they?"

"Who." She didn't even phrase it as a question.

"I'm not playing Noni!"

"Neither am I!" She shot back. "You are going to wait for T'sey-s and Zeke before we deal with this."

Dahl'K stared back at her coolly. "Perhaps, two veterans should of went to the flea-bitten planet, instead of one veteran and a Blooded."

"And why would you have ever thought that was needed. P'sy is perfectly capable-" Noni paused. "Unless you knew this would be a bigger shitshow than first thought."

"I didn't know anything." Dahl'K snapped. "But now, because P'sys piss-poor judgment, we have four oomans on this planet, alive. Those things come through our docks skinned and dead."

"Am I supposed to have some response to that?"

Dahl'K growled lowly.

"Do I have your word?"

"For what?" Dahl'K snarled.

"Not punishing P'sy for one and two, leaving the oomans alone. We aren't savages and I'd like to keep their impressions of us decent. Besides, it'll make it easier if they trust us, for when we have to cut the boy's neck open."

"To remove that fucking bug-worm."

"Yes." Her reply came out hissing. "-To remove the fucking bug-worm."

Dahl'K's eyes focused over her head.

"Didn't wait much past the rising of the twin suns, did you? Come to drag me out?" P'sy drifted closer.

"Don't tempt me." Dahl'K snapped. "Raise your shields Noni, I'm not going to drag him out, though for two noks, I would."

Noni typed in a code, the shields rolling the rest of the way.

Decidedly calmer, Dahl'K shifted. "Can I?"

Noni waited a beat. "Keep it G-rated with the oomans. They've been through a lot in the last two weeks."

Dahl'K jerked his head, entering the house.