Dedicated to voodooqueen126, Flames and Chaos, and estrid2006.

Chapter 14

"Memo to Taxxons: you have a rival for "most disturbing mouth in the galaxy"."

It was hard to disagree with Marco's analysis. Luckily for us, the mouths were partly hidden underneath what looked like a unicorn's horn sticking out of the creatures' bodies. Red juts I hoped were teeth covered the entire undersides.

And the rest of them wasn't all that attractive, either. Yellow wings like pterodactyls, beat slowly but strongly, kept them floating near the roof of the cave like oversized bats. They were probably four feet across.

The robots immediately beeped at them. They responded in what we were now assuming was Galard. A long conversation ensued: Jake put his finger to his mouth, letting them do whatever they were doing. Finally, they stopped. And one of the robots fired at me again. ((Stop!))

They did.

One of the bat-things flapped to our level and spoke.

"Rruyshah, could you translate?" Jake asked.

"It wanted to know whether we…were…Yeerks."

"Tell them "no"."

"Make Matt translate for once," Marco seemed slighted for Rruyshah.

"I'm not from the tourism wing," he objected.

Rruyshah got their reply. "They want to try and speak in your language."

"That's fine," Jake smiled. "Hello," he addressed them.

One of them opened its grotesque mouth and replied. "Blah blah blah."

"Do you know English?"

"No! No!"

Marco looked up quizzically. "What do you call this language?"

"We call that softball."

Jake and Marco tried to stifle their laughs, and Matt made odd noises.

"Maybe it would be better if we communicated in Galard."

"Maybe."

"Ask them why they tried to attack Tobias."

Rruyshah did. They hesitated and came up with lots of responses before agreeing on one, which she relayed back. "They were told to kill something with his DNA, and their robots detected similar DNA patterns."

"Ask if they programmed the robots."

Same process. At least we didn't have to use a computer like with the Anati. "They designed the robots based on the creatures they evolved from."

"All right, and, if the Blade ship's been here? If they don't know, have them ask the robots."

They did wind up having to do that, thus returning the extra step to the grueling translation cycle. Finally, "No, it hasn't."

"All right." Jake smiled wearily. "So, last shot on our next planet. Um, goodbye, or, whatever the polite thing is to say?"

"The polite thing?" Kelbrid attitude was perhaps more alien than we thought.

"Just, goodbye."

They concluded their formalities. As we were heading out, I hung back for a moment. ((Why are your robots so easy to manipulate?)) Then I remembered, ((Rruyshah! Come back here a minute.))

She got back just in time to hear their answer. "We…we were like that earlier. We preserved that instinct in our robots as we evolved to be more independent."

((Oh. Okay.)) I flew out uneasily: I guess I had hoped for more "closure". But then, I heard them call back to me.

"Don't be offended, okay?"

I paused, but gave the only reply I could. ((I'll try.))

Maybe their English was erratic. And maybe their evolution was haywire. But their intentions were true. And I couldn't ask for more.

I joined the others on the path up. ((Does anybody know how it's so warm down here?))

"We should have asked," Marco shrugged.

Actually, I'd found a better question to ask.

I'd fallen behind the others, but didn't have to morph to get to the top of the ridge, so I wound up there at around the same time as Jake, Marco, and Matt. Rruyshah, who I'd needed to translate for me, fell behind but we waited for her. Finally, we set off as Kelbrid towards the ship.

((Jake,)) Marco expressed a quite possible reality, ((what if they're not there?))

((I'm not expecting them to be there: I'm expecting them to have come and left.))

((Fine. Fine. But how will you prove this? How can you trace them?))

((We'll ask whoever was there.))

((We've had this argument before.))

"Actually, he had it with Matrex last time," Rruyshah said, not knowing the meaning of "irrelevance". "I find it strange that for two that fight so much, they are similar."

((Who-me and Matt?)) Marco would have preferred to be considered similar to almost anyone under the sun.

Or suns.

Or galaxies.

The universe is a big place.

"Yes."

"Well," Matt resumed the conversation, "he's-you're right. Our odds of finding them are as slim as-hey, who am I to complain?"

The hike back to the ship seemed longer than the hike there.

After demorphing, I flew aboard and tried to relax in some secluded area, but that didn't happen. Instead, I was "treated" to another one of Marco and Rruyshah's arguments over how to fly the Visser. Somehow, each got less intelligent than the one before.

So instead, I flew over to Jake, who was sprawled on a bed in his oversize spacesuit. "Hey," he said without looking up.

((It's me.))

"I know."

((What's with the spacesuit?))

"If we find them, I want to be ready. To fight. Wherever."

((If?))

He sat up a little. "I'm scared."

((So am I.))

"I've never let myself think about…what happens, if there's no path."

((I don't think about what happens if there is.))

"Jake?" Rruyshah hollered.

He was clearly not interested in getting up. "What?"

"Should we go through Z-space or not?"

"Um, why should or shouldn't we?"

"We should because of the effects that happened to you and Marco earlier."

"But we've been through it since then ok," Marco countered.

"Marco, why do you want to go to Z-space?" Jake was making a huge effort not to roll over and press his face into his pillow like a kid on the first day of school.

"'Cause it's faster."

"Same solar system," Rruyshah alliteratively argued. "It won't be worth it."

"This ship is advanced."

"Not advanced enough."

"Stick to real space," Jake flopped back on the bed.

A few minutes later, Marco pounded in. "You went with her over me?"

"It's not her versus you, it's Z-space versus not. I prefer not. Who says I have to be in charge?"

"M-" he began, but then decided that would hurt his cause more than help it, and exited with the same tactfulness he had entered with.

The travel routine continued, but this time there was a definite "edginess" among us. We knew the end was getting close, just not what would end. All of us were toned down a bit: Marco and the Kelbrid more sober, Jake and I more relaxed. Or so we appeared.

I didn't ask what prompted Jake's decision to go with Rruyshah on the Z-space issue, but several days into the final leg of the flight, she was vindicated.

Because we never made it to our destination.

Instead, Marco spotted the enemy ship.

"A little more even this time." He paused. "Not that I'm being hopeful or anything."