There was a flash of light and a crack of thunder, both blinding and deafening in intensity, and so close together that it was impossible to tell which happened before the other.

Alister Azimuth rolled into where he remembered the nearest cover would be, then shook his head and rubbed his ears as he tried to recover his sight and hearing as quickly as he could. That lightning strike had come out of a clear blue sky, and had struck down far too close to him for it to have been any sort of coincidence.

As his vision and hearing cleared, Azimuth swore he could still hear the faint crackle of electricity, accompanied by pained whimpers from a way too young voice. Taking a risk and poking his head out from behind the rocks, bushes, and partial wall he had ducked behind, he looked towards where the sounds were coming from and almost gasped in horror.

There on the ground, right where the lightning had struck, lay a young, orangish-red Lombax kit, barely older than a toddler, with electricity still arcing across her body and a carbonized outline with negative space matching her silhouette underneath her.

This wasn't an attack, this was an emergency teleport gone very very wrong! There must have been a receiver located here at some point in the past. One that this child's parents or guardian knew the address of and still expected to be here, even if that had proved not to be the case after all.

Azimuth quickly rushed forward and gathered the child as quickly and carefully as he could before retreating behind cover again and arming himself. Everything about the situation screamed emergency to him. For one thing, an adult should have come through first to ensure that the receiving area was safe. The fact that the child had come through, naked and alone, spoke of very bad things happening at the origin point. And the more time that passed without an adult, or indeed any, Lombax following the child through the teleport spoke of even worse possibilities.

After an hour, Azimuth carried the child further back and took shelter in what turned out to be what was left of an old foundation. Solid enough to provide better cover without restricting any avenues of escape. The child, for her part, stayed mostly quiet, barring the occasional spark of discharging electricity followed by a pained whimper. Something would have to be done about that soon…

-o-

Azimuth kept vigil over the area where the child had appeared for several more hours before giving up on any other Lombax (or anyone else) showing up, friendly, hostile, or otherwise. The girl showed signs of recovering from what he assumed to be severe teleportation strain, brought on by both extreme distance and lack of a proper receiver at this end. Fortunately, the ruins they were holed up in were what remained of an old Lombax settlement that had been abandoned hastily just prior to being attacked. No bodies, thankfully enough, but not much left to search through on the surface.

Several of the crumbling foundations did turn out to have concealed entrances to underground bunkers, workshops, or just plain old storage cellars, and it was among these hidden rooms that he found clothing, tools, and other supplies to help him take care of the girl. Azimuth even thought he had a solid clue to who the girl's father had been. Or at least an uncle or older brother.

Vector Sine had once had a laboratory/workshop/garage relatively close to where the child had appeared, and there were definite signs that there had once been a fully intact teleport receiving pad present before the attack had destroyed it. Not much was left in the way of readable notes, unfortunately, just some barely legible scribbles, a photo ID badge for the Center of Advanced Lombax Research that looked enough like the girl to be a relative, and fifteen cases of those damnable Tasty Lombax Snax!

Really, if Azimuth ever met whoever this Frumpus Croid was who had somehow mislabeled Lombaxes as a highly advanced species of domesticated pets, he was likely to do something violent.

And, of course, Tachyon continued to allow Tasty Lombax Snax to be made even though there were supposedly no Lombaxes around anymore to feed them to. Damn brat probably thought it was funny.

Not being an idiot, Azimuth made sure that every package in all fifteen cases was thoroughly scanned for contaminants, degradation, or poison. Then he added them all to the sledge that he would be dragging back to his ship. Rations were rations after all, and Tasty Lombax Snax would keep damn near forever as long as the packaging remained sealed.

And the girl seemed to love them, which was another sign that she was probably related to Vector. He couldn't stand the things himself, but they did supposedly have everything a Lombax needed to stay healthy…

Assuming, of course, that she didn't eat herself sick by shoving an entire bag's contents into her mouth all at once!

"Stop that! You'll choke if you eat like that! And not so much! We have to make those last until I can find someone trustworthy to get supplies from!"

The girl, with great reluctance, stopped stuffing her face and carefully closed the bag, pressing it to drive as much air out as she could before rolling the open end shut.

"That's right, little one, save the rest for later. Here, I'll tie some string around it to keep it shut for you so that you don't have to hold it constantly…"

"T'nk 'oo," the words obviously came with difficulty, and the girl still showed signs of disorientation and discomfort, but at least the random sparking had stopped.

"Ah, she speaks!" Azimuth declared in false cheer, hoping to raise the child's spirits after her traumatic experience. The slight, brief giggle he heard turned his fake smile more genuine. "Anyway, I'm General Alister Azimuth, Four-Bolt Magistrate of the Lombax Praetorian Guard. You'll be safe with me until I can get you back to your family. Now, do you have a name, little one?"

There was a pause, and then the girl mumbled quietly. "Tang'nt…"

A math pun.

That solidified it in Azimuth's mind. Tangent had to be either the daughter, niece, or other close relative of Vector Sine. He'd make a point of searching the ruins carefully for any sign of the Sine residence so he could gather as much of her heritage as they could reasonably haul back to his ship. An exile and a failure he might be, but he was the only one around who could care for the girl… for Tangent…

The thought was daunting, but he would not turn away from his newly self-appointed task.

Alister would not fail again!

-o-

The two spend another week or so in and around the ruins, making numerous trips back to Alister's ship to drop off supplies as well as things for Tangent. Not a lot, just some clothes, learning aids, a few games and toys, and a starter tool set. The last of which she got into more than the toys, but that wasn't unexpected for a young Lombax.

They had also, much to Alister's disgust and Tangent's apparent delight, hauled back every single case, box, or package of Tasty Lombax Snax they could find, just so long as it was unopened and thoroughly scanned for health hazards. Sadly, every single bag registered as clean to Alister's scanner, and he was too much of a pragmatist to lie about it just so that he wouldn't have to pack the obnoxious things into his ship.

On the other hand, they had found some Omnitools of various types and designs that had been left behind by the previous residents, and Tangent seemed to have taken particular interest in a long handled Omniwrench that was practically a glaive. It was far too early in her physical development to do any serious conditioning, but light play fighting should be harmless enough for now. It also gave her a way to help out against the occasional horny toad or other small but aggressive animals that he would otherwise clear out himself, but were minor enough nuisances for her to safely deal with given her new advantage in reach and leverage.

"Take 'at! An' 'at! An' 'at! An' 'at!" The underaged Lombax swung wildly at each horny toad around her with reckless abandon, barely hitting any of them at all.

"If you keep flailing around like that, you're going to lose control of your… and there it goes." Azimuth stood up as Tangent's Omniwrench left her hands and went sailing into a fortunately shallow ravine.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" the little red Lombax ran screaming from the horny toads now chasing her. Not that they'd have a hope of actually catching up to her as fast as she was going.

"As amusing as this is, I can't let you lot actually hurt my charge," Azimuth commented as he spun his double ended Omniwrench around and swiftly launched each toad a fair distance away in mostly random directions. There wasn't any real need to kill them, as a single hit was usually enough to dissuade small creatures like this from sticking around.

"Iz't safe?"

"Yes, I dealt with all of… How did you get up there!?"

"I'unno…" Tangent called down from the top of a tall spire of stone.

"Can you get down on your own?"

Tangent looked carefully around herself, shuddered, and gripped the top of the spire tighter. "No…"

"Hold on, I'll see what I can do to help you down…"