"Okay, everyone!" Jx stared out at the crowd, sitting and standing among the crates in the ship's hold. "I need all the wounded to gather here for treatment." He gestured to the front corner to his left. "To the rest, please be patient. We've set course for the colony on Regis, where they're preparing to receive us."

As people moved to allow the injured forward, Jx opened a cabinet set into the wall and withdrew two datapads, handing one to Amity. "Take note of all their injuries; we'll compare notes and set priorities."

Amity took it and glanced at him. "That's rather cold, don't you think? Picking and choosing who to help?"

"It's necessary," Jx replied, detaching the stylus from his pad. "Don't worry, we'll help them all. They managed to walk here so they can't be too badly off."

A short penguin stood behind Jx. "Your engines are crap."

Jx and Amity both turned. "Vincent!" Amity exclaimed.

"Hey, Amity." He waved a flipper, then turned to Jx. "My guess is they'll fail before we reach Regis."

"Can you fix them?" Jx inquired.

Vincent nodded. "Just needed your permission." He trod off toward the engine room.

Jx watched him leave, then glanced at Amity. "You know him?"

Amity smirked. "He's always like that."

"I see." Jx stared down at his datapad. "Well, better get started."

xXxXx

Amity knelt by the middle-age male falcon lying on the floor and lifted her datapad. "Can you describe your injuries for me?"

He shook his head. "I don't know." He grunted. "Pain in my ribs; think something's broken."

Amity nodded to herself and wrote it down. "Name, please?"

"Herb Fleeson."

Amity jotted it down, then touched his arm. "Don't worry, Mr. Fleeson. We'll send someone to help you soon."

He lowered his head to the floor. "Thank you."

Amity stood and walked over to Jx, showing him her datapad. "How are we going to help all these people?"

"Athena's a healer," he replied, looking over his own pad. "When we're ready, she'll set the ship on autopilot."

"Wouldn't it be better for her to be helping now?" Amity glanced skeptically toward the cockpit.

"Perhaps." Jx shrugged. "She prefers to take things methodically though, and I admit I can see the merit in it. Knowing what we're up against lets her go straight for the hardest cases, deal with them first, then move on to the less critical ones."

"True," Amity agreed. "Though we've spent, what, an hour collecting this data? Time that could've been spent healing."

"Not a perfect system, I know." He reached for her datapad. "All set on your end?"

She handed it over. "Yeah, got everyone I could see."

"Good." He nodded. "I'll get Athena."

xXxXx

The cockpit door slid open and Athena stepped out, sleeveless white dress and lavender cape flowing around her slim figure. "Who is Alexander Hobson?"

A brown wolf raised his hand and she walked over to him.

Jx stepped from the cockpit and leaned against the wall. Amity stood beside him and held a hand beside her muzzle, then whispered, "How does she speak without a mouth?"

Jx looked sideways at her. "She vibrates the skin on her face. Like a speakerphone."

"Aha." Amity nodded, lowering her hand to her side. As her fingers brushed Machina's hilt, she turned her head to Jx again. "I noticed you haven't asked about this sword I carry."

"Yeah."

"See a lot of swords like this, do you?"

"No," he laughed, then faced her. "No, you see, I sent it to you."

Amity opened her mouth to speak, then laughed and slapped her forehead. "Of course you did! You, the one who knows everything!" She touched the blade again. "I noticed it hasn't spoken much lately; take it that was you too?"

"Spoken to you?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah…" her smile faded. "So that wasn't you?"

He shook his head. "You're giving me too much credit here. True, I hacked into Emerson and shipped the sword to you, and I knew Nega was on his way and evacuation would be necessary… but you say it spoke to you?"

"Yeah." She drew it and held it in front of her. "It used to vibrate and… well, it gave me advice and stuff. Really vague though. Like you were at first." She smiled and lowered it to her side. "So why'd you send it?"

"My superiors," he replied.

"Superiors?"

He nodded. "The Ammehkuc. It means 'Immortal.' They… well…" He smirked. "They're hard to explain. Even I don't fully understand them. They guide us and tell us what to do; haven't steered us wrong yet."

"So let me get this straight: you mailed me a talking sword and organized a major escape effort because some mysterious superbeings told you to?"

He chuckled. "You talk about it like it's voices in my head. I can assure you it's not like that; if it were, it'd be a mass hallucination. Athena and I are only a couple of their many followers, and we all hear from them." He glanced down at her sword. "I'd be willing to bet that was them you heard from."

Amity ran a hand over the sword. "They normally talk through inanimate objects?"

Jx shook his head. "Not that I've known."

Amity sighed. "Ah well." She looked over at Athena, busy at work on a patient. "I have questions about her too. Think she'll be up for that?"

"Not while she's working," Jx replied. "I'll do what I can to answer them though."

Amity nodded. "Okay. What's she doing now?" She gestured to Athena, who appeared to be tapping a wound with her fingertips.

"Notice how her fingers change to red or white?" He tilted his head as he spoke.

"Yeah." Amity rubbed her chin.

"She's regulating her internal temperature. That's how she heals: by using hot and cold to repair wounds." He gazed at her. "Not many of her species can. It takes centuries of training to achieve that level of control."

"Centuries?" Amity's eyes widened.

"Yeah," Jx chuckled. "The way her species grows, they end up living a very long time."

"I see…" Amity watched her work. "So she's a female Ethereal, and Nega's a male?"

"Well, no…" Jx shifted uncomfortably. "They don't have genders."

Amity glanced at her again. "…But she has breasts?"

"Yeah…" Jx scratched behind his head. "Way she explained it to me, she chose to take the form of a female because it makes her patients more comfortable around her."

"Chose?" Amity stared at him. "She just chooses what she wants to be?"

Jx nodded. "Strange, I know. Though her skin's stuck in the basic shape of a humanoid, internally she's all goo: no bones, no muscles. Some sort of electrical current lets her shape herself as she wants."

"So no males or females…" Amity scratched her head. "How do they reproduce?"

"They don't." Jx shook his head. "Really, I should let her explain some of this."

Amity smiled. "I don't think she'll mind. Go on."

Jx nodded. "Well, their home planet, which they call 'The Source', is a vast ocean of that goo, where over thousands of years pockets of goo swirl together and form a shell. Similar to how stars form in nebulae."

Amity nodded. "Makes sense… I think."

Jx chuckled. "Yeah, I know, it's strange. Anyway, they form one at a time like this, and when they die, that is, when their skin breaks, the goo forms a new shell and takes a new identity."

"So no reproduction means… no families?" Amity asked.

"None." Jx shook his head.

Amity stared at Athena again. "I couldn't live like that."

Jx shrugged. "She never has. Can't miss what you never had."

"Still…" Amity wrapped her arms around herself, then looked at Athena's progress. "She certainly works quickly."

"She does." Jx nodded.

Amity watched her for a moment, then turned to Jx. "Tell me about yourself."

"Me?" He put a hand to his chest. "Not much to say, really."

"Where are you from?" She gestured with a hand for him to keep talking.

"Halcyon," he replied. I studied at the Academy of Kalxuxo. History major."

"History?" Amity prodded.

Jx smiled and shrugged.

"Fine, don't talk about it!" Amity laughed.

She felt a tap at her leg and Jx glanced down. "Think you have a visitor."

Kate stared up at her. "Amity? Is my dad gonna be okay?"

Amity searched for him in the crowd. "Has Athena gotten to him yet?"

"The lady with no face?" Kate glanced at her as she moved among the crowd. "She's kinda scary."

"She's fine," Amity replied warmly. She knelt and patted her on the shoulder. "Now let's go find your dad."

"He's over there!" Kate took Amity's hand and pointed to the thick blue canister that he was leaning against. Stepping carefully around the others on the floor, Amity and Kate made their way to him. As they approached, they saw Athena walking toward them. Kate stared at her, eyes wide with frightened curiosity.

Athena looked down at the father, then at her datapad. "Rib pain?"

He nodded.

"Lean back, please." She knelt beside him and stretched her fingers. "This will only take a moment." The tip of her finger glowed bright red and she touched it to the wound. It hissed and he flinched.

"You're hurting him!" Kate exclaimed, but Amity held her back.

"This is a very delicate process," Athena stated calmly. "Using temperature, I can coax the body into healing itself." Her finger shifted to white and she held it in place, then lifted it. "I've started the process. Avoid movement and it should be healed in twenty four hours." She stood up and brushed down her dress.

She turned to Amity and Kate. "I have others to attend to, so if you'll excuse me…"

As she proceeded to the next patient, Amity noticed Jx signaling to her and turned to Kate. "I'm going to leave you with your dad for now, okay? Make sure he doesn't move, like Athena said."

Kate nodded. "Okay."

xXxXx

"Yes? What is it?" Amity asked as she followed Jx into the cockpit.

"We're approaching Regis, but they're far from ready for us," Jx replied, taking his seat. "Nega's been attacking colonies throughout the sector. Aid is spreading thin."

Amity shook her head. "That's bad… Why does he do it, anyway?"

"Nega?"

"Yeah," Amity sat sideways on her chair and faced him. "Why all these attacks?"

Jx frowned. "We're not sure exactly. Rarely does he completely destroy them, but he doesn't seem to loot them either, or come back later."

"So what does he do?" Amity's brow tightened. "Show up, kill a few, and leave?"

"That's the sum of it…" Jx nodded solemnly.

Amity frowned. "How do we stop him?"

Jx shrugged. "The Ammehkuc must have a plan." He looked over at the transit display. "Closing in on orbit. I'll call ahead; see what we should do."