Space

It was round and very blue, with enormous cutouts of brown and green. Almost mesmerizing with its suspended body in the middle of vast space.

"Hey." Kelly appeared at Jessie's shoulder as the teen stared down at her home planet. "You okay?"

Jessie nodded. "You think we'll go back?"

Kelly glanced over at the two predators.

Their biomasks were off, no longer self-conscious in the presence of their human charges.

They were speaking, the phonetics as alien as the speakers, but the clicking was oddly comforting. Like white noise to Kelly, though she knew she'd be called crazy for even thinking as the two together.

"I have nothing to go back to."

Kelly looked back to Jessie; finally a sign of the turmoil within the girl letting loose in the form of a tear.

Kelly had been wondering when the trauma would catch up to the girl, and as Jessie stared down at Earth, it was finally hitting her.

"You have us. I wouldn't dump you. Besides the last week and half I think has cemented our relationship forever. You're stuck with me. And Molly."

"What are you going to do?"

Kelly knew what Jessie was asking, guilt slithering in.

She sighed. "This is going to sound awful…but I was away for a long while. And that time away taught Molly to gravitate towards her dad more than me. And its understandable. Tim made sure to spend time with my brother too. She's not alone if I don't return."

"But you'll miss her?"

Kelly took too long to answer and she knew it. Regret flickered. "I will but not as much as a mother should." She reached out to Jessie's shoulder. "She doesn't need me as much as you do."

The emotion Jessie had been trying to hold back flooded.

With permeating understanding, Kelly pulled her into an embrace.

…

"What are we going to do with them?"

Silence.

"P'sy?"

The Elder hit the autopilot and sat back in the seat.

"Honestly, I have no idea." P'sy scoffed. "Can you believe that? Five-hundred plus years and I have no fucking clue right now."

"We could land them somewhere away from Colorado. Give them a chance to blend in elsewhere."

"We could." P'sy agreed absently.

A'luet tilted his head, waiting. "And we can't because…?"

P'sy's orange gaze landed on him, still silent. Then he took a breath. "I'm guessing you didn't see that slit in the kid's neck?"

"I took it as a scrape."

P'sy gave a humorless laugh. "That's what they were hoping you'd think." He stood up. "The oomans are not as unobservant as we'd like to think, A'luet. Their governments have stockpiles of our shit from idiots who let themselves get caught or the unfortunates not knowing they were walking into a trap." He turned to A'luet. "They stuck a bug-worm in him."

"What's that?"

"Hish technology. Guess those high and mighty bastards aren't so high and mighty if ooman governments have their technology as well. It traces you."

The revelation unnerved A'luet, he jerkily felt his neck.

"They didn't get you."

A'luet didn't know if his relief made him an asshole.

"Anywhere he goes, the four of them go, they're going to be found. And, just by spending what time I have around them, I know them separating is not an option."

"So, we'll take it out of him."

"It's not something we can do on this ship, run the risk of paralyzing him since its grafted to bone. His spine."

"Can it be done on Prime?"

A'luet's question startled P'sy.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"I would be hit with so many sanctions and violations, it wouldn't even be funny. I've already racked up serious offenses because of the town-"

"That wasn't your fault."

"They're not going to see it that way."

"I'll tell them it wasn't."

P'sy leaned his forearms over the back of the copilot seat. "A student vouching for his mentor. Nice try."

"You're not going to take the fall for that, P'sy. The oomans nuked the town, not us."

"No." P'sy agreed. "But I did detonate that missile battery on the base."

A'luet jerked his hand in frustration. "Are the humans going to find any trace of it when they go digging through the rubble?"

"No, it's supposed to self-destruct, nothing left to find."

"Then how can anyone prove you did anything outside of what you were expected to do?"

P'sy slanted him a glance. "Already looking to bend rules, Roan'keh -T'Jierk? Careful, Dahl'K will happily label you a budding Bad Blood or at the very least, a second P'sy in the making."

"He can kiss my ass." A'luet grumbled. "And yours."

P'sy stretched his mandibles in amusement. "Shit, he's fucked. I've rubbed off on you."

"Hey."

Dallas stood in the short hall outside the cockpit, hands deep in his pockets as P'sy reached for his biomask so the translator was in range.

"What's the plan? Ricky has this cut on the side of his neck. It won't stop bleeding. I want to get him to a hospital."

A shadow shifted as Kelly appeared at Dallas's shoulder.

"Maybe you could drop us off outside a city or something."

"I can cauterize the wound."

"Okay. Great. And then drop us off somewhere. I don't know, my brother lives in Miami-"

A'luet watched P'sy,.

Kelly was the perceptive one.

"What's the matter?"

"We'll drop you off." P'sy jerked his head to the controls. "Set the coordinates to 25.7617° N, 80.1918° W. The computer will do the rest."

"You know the coordinates?"

P'sy made a face. "Comes with being so old."

A'luet reached out, his fingers hovering above the numerical touchscreen. He could see P'sy, waiting, out of the corner of his eye.

He shook his head once, his hand coming away from the screen.

Silently, he took P'sy's biomask turning it over, the weight of his hand making a mock seal, stopping the translator from picking up his words.

"I can't. And you shouldn't either. They became our responsibility, whether we liked it or not, in that store, when you agreed to them coming with us. Ricky is impacted because of us. He'd still be in his town, un-bugged."

P'sy didn't speak.

"What's wrong?" Kelly asked again.

"It's your decision." A'luet murmured. "It's how I feel, but whatever you choose… I'll honor it."

P'sy hissed a sigh. "I should have said no to taking you. Not really, but, really." He stood. "I can't let you go. Yet."

Dallas cocked his head in disbelief. "You can't-? What does that even mean? You're abducting us?"

P'sy passed him to a small shelf, picking up a pen-like device. "Don't flatter yourself, you're not that important."

The lone bunk bed, in the only other room, had Ricky in it; his skin ashen as he laid.

"He keeps saying his neck hurts." Jessie said.

"Yeah, he's lucky that's all he's feeling." P'sy twisted the pen, the end of it lighting red as it heated up. "This is going to hurt."

"What is it?" Ricky's voice was raspy, his eyes slits.

"I'm cauterizing the cut."

"Is it that deep?" Kelly asked.

P'sy didn't answer as he turned the teenager over, the solder grazing his skin.

Ricky bucked with a cry, but the Elder's grip clamped down and held the human immobile with little strain.

Dallas started forward but Kelly grabbed his arm, holding him back.

P'sy twisted the solder pen off. "It's not a regular cut. There's a tracer in there. Where ever I drop you. Doesn't matter the country, mountain, the middle of the fucking ocean, they'll find you."

"A tra-well, why the fuck are you cauterizing the wound? Get it the hell out of him!"

"I can't."

Fury came hard and fast. "Can't or won't? Is this how this is going to fucking end? You abducting us and taking us as novel specimen back to where ever the hell you came from?!"

P'sy snarled, his hand closing around Dallas's throat and slamming him into the wall.

"P'sy!"

The predator was vaguely aware of Kelly's hands on his arm, trying to dislodge his rock hard grip around the offending male's neck.

He shook her off, though far more gently than he wanted to.

Ignoring Jessie's look of fear and Kelly's attempts to pacify him, P'sy drew Dallas in close.

"Don't you ever imply I enjoy taking the likes of you as a pet. I'm doing you the biggest fucking favor by not booting your sniveling ass out the back of this ship. I'm not human. I'm not even on the same family tree as a Homo sapien. Had I been anyone else from my species, you'd be on that traitorous planet of yours, and I'd be sailing the fuck out of your solar system without a second thought."

P'sy let him go roughly.

Dallas stumbled, anger gone, only the holy-shit look he quickly adopted after P'sy grabbed him, remained.

The Elder left without another word.

He passed A'luet in the doorway. "Set coordinates for home."

A'luet was left with the four humans.

"Home?"

Jessie was staring at him.

A'luet debated whether to answer.

"Prime. Our home planet."

….

Later

P'sy didn't turn when quiet footsteps stopped outside the cockpit. He kept his unblinking stare out at the black, star studded space beyond the glass.

"Mind?" Kelly gestured to the copilot chair.

He shifted to allow room for her to sit.

"A'luet showed me how to use that machine…the spaceman water cooler thing."

"Good. We barely use it most times."

Silence enveloped them.

"You know, I'm not making excuses for him, but Dallas is worried about his brother… that's all. It wasn't right what he said, but I know he didn't mean how it came out."

"That's one of many things that separate us from each other." P'sy glanced at her. "Yautja don't give a shit about each other most times, except what they can accomplish together and reap together."

"No family units?"

"Not like oomans." P'sy returned his gaze out the windshield. "I killed a brother once."

More silence.

He looked back at her, her eyes widening slightly.

"-Three hundred years ago."

"Why?"

"Because if I hadn't, he would have killed me. And he murdered my partner. Wanted me to join his outlaw ideology." P'sy stretched his mandibles. "Severed his head from his shoulders. After this is." He vaguely gestured to an oblong scar on his chest. "-Got me with an amputated Kainde Amedha tail. I would have died from the amount of acid that collected in my heart if a friend hadn't found me."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm not. He's was an asshole and a murderer." He sighed. "I can let you go if you really want, but just know, they aren't go to kill you right away in some bullshit campaign to shut you up."

"I know." Kelly played with her cup. "That's why I'm not horribly broken up by leaving Molly. She's safer away from me because of what I know. I don't suppose we can ever go back?"

"We'll see what the other Elders say. After I'm punished."

"Punished?"

"You're going to be the first live humans to set foot on my world. Usually you come through the docks skinned and dead. Fair warning, it's not going to be a warm welcome for any of you."

"Oh." Kelly didn't have a reaction. "That's gruesome." She changed the subject. "How far out are we?"

"36 hours."

"Is there anything we should know?"

"Like what?"

"Cultural customs, do's and don'ts, collective irritations at the lack of knowledge from interstellar visitors."

She amused him.

He snorted. "Don't hold long stares with anyone, it's a challenge. You'll get your ass kicked, male or female."

"Don't stare, got it. Anything else?"

"Don't speak unless spoken to. Humans are pretty low on the food chain. Nothing I can do about that. People know not to cross me and they expect me to tell them to go fuck themselves, but even I'm not going to be able to lessen the blow to you."

"Understood." She sat up straighter, looking at the dash controls. "Were you planning on sleeping?"

"When A'luet wakes up."

"This doesn't look too terribly hard. I can keep watch if that's okay."

He watched her.

"How do you move the ship out of the way of a sudden meteor?"

She faltered.

"Yell fuck and take my lumps?"

He choked a laugh and stood, bending down near her ear. "You don't do anything. The ship moves itself."

The trepidation disappeared as she realized he was teasing her.

"Of course it does."

A shadow paused P'sy in the dark threshold.

It was Dallas.

The man gave an apologetic half smile. "I'm sorry about earlier. I was out of line." He looked away, clearly remorseful. "I'm grateful for everything you've done when you didn't have to."

P'sy passed him. "It's in the past. Sorry I manhandled you."

Some of the awkwardness evaporated.

"I deserved it."

"If you were me, maybe."

P'sy left the two. Before rounding the corner, he saw Dallas enter the cockpit, sitting in his abandoned chair.

…

The thin woman smiled again like they were having a conversation about the weather as Ricky and Jessie struggled against their captors.

"You've spent some time in the company of this creature…it's hard for humans to not gravitate towards such power, such-" Yutani glanced at A'luet. "-exotic beauty." Then she stepped into Jessie's face. "But-has he gravitated to you I wonder?"

She snapped something in a foreign language.

In response, Jessie was shoved towards the wall where a soldier pulled back a hidden panel.

"No!" Ricky tried to yank away.

"What-?" Jessie tried to fight to no avail and planted her feet on either side of the hole in the wall.

Her struggles didn't last long as she disappeared inside with a scream-

"Ah!"

Ricky jerked upright, the room dark.

"Shh, its okay." Jessie had sat up from her place on the floor.

"Jessie." He stared at her like he couldn't believe she was there. "You went into the hole… I heard you-"

"It's okay. We're safe now. You've been out of it for a while."

Ricky glanced around, the room darkened except for a reddish glow coming from a computer screen with red symbols. The same type of symbols on P'sy and A'luet's wrist computers. Wrist gauntlets, Ricky remembered A'luet calling them.

"Where are we?"

Jessie hesitated. "Um. P'sy's ship."

It didn't seem her words computed at first, as Ricky caught sight of a small porthole. He stumbled off the bed, his movements may have been entertaining if the circumstances were different.

Outside, there was a red planet.

"Am I looking at fucking Mars?"

"No, Mars a long ways away from us now." Jessie was still seated. "I'm not sure what planet that is."

"We're in space?"

"Yeah."

"How did I miss that?"

"Like I said, you were pretty out of it."

Ricky grimaced, his hand coming to his neck, fingers rubbing the burnt cut.

"We've been abducted?"

"I wouldn't call it that. Those people stuck some kind of tracer in you. We have to get it out and the only way to do that, is to go to their world."

"A tracer? What tracer…." Ricky's hand skimmed the cut again. He froze. "It's in my neck?"

Jessie nodded with great reluctance.

Ricky looked around wildly for some reflective surface. There were none.

Jessie pushed a small bar his way. "You should eat. It's a protein bar. They actually don't taste bad."

Ricky drew towards the food jerkily. "There aren't ground up people in it, are there?"

Jessie tsked. "Really? Just eat it."

He sat slowly, reaching for the bar as if an afterthought. Jessie handed over a cup of water.

"How did we get away?"

"Those soldiers helped…We found the ship first and Kelly and Dallas happened to find you. Worked out in the end."

"Someday. I'm going to find that skinny bitch-"

"That'll be difficult, she was vaporized."

Ricky twisted to look at her. "Vaporized?"

"Yeah, the ship is intact, but the researchers pulled off the ship's self-destruct deck, so P'sy detonated it on our way out."

Ricky sat rigid, then he relaxed. "Good. Bitch deserved it."

"Hey, you're awake." Kelly came in, followed by Dallas.

"Tired though."

"There's more CO2 than what we're used to in the air circulation system. That's what P'sy said."

"You're going to need to strap yourselves in." A'luet was in the doorway. He nodded to indentation in the wall, curved like booster seats.

"Can we fit? They're huge." Dallas reached out to the massive carve-outs, clearly made for bigger creatures than humans.

"It'll keep you from flying around. It's going to be a rocky reentry into the atmosphere."

Kelly poked Dallas. "You and Ricky take that one. Jessie and I will take this one."

The ship rocked hard, a steady crescendo of tremors rattled the floor just as A'luet made sure the restraints were tight enough.

"Breathe slow and deep. The oxygen is going to fluctuate."

The humans nodded, varying degrees of apprehension flickering across their faces as the young predator left to return to the cockpit.

"They're strapped in." A'luet sat, pulling on his own restraints.

"Good." P'sy let out the deep breath he didn't know he was holding. "Let me handle Dahl'K and or any other questions they throw at us, okay?"

A'luet shot him a sideways look. "He starts accusing you, I'm not going to be able to keep quiet."

"Fair enough. Just don't land yourself in H'chak M-di."

Yautja Prime was quickly enlarging, the sky beyond the glass lightening as the ship descended. P'sy tapped his screen, the ship slowing, the roar of reentry quieting, as he steered the ship towards the forest.

"Where are we going?"

P'sy sighed. "Noni. She's the only one whose probably going to save my ass."

Trees bent and waved under the twin engines as the ship dipped into the forest and gently settled onto the ground.

In the sleeping quarters, the humans were unbuckling themselves.

"That was a better landing than most Airmen I knew."

Dallas smirked. "They're that good." He turned to Ricky. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah." Ricky bobbed his head.

The predators met them outside the room. A demeanor Kelly wasn't used to associating with P'sy thick in the air.

She chewed her bottom lip. What was going to happen to him? He said they were the first humans to come to their planet, alive. She knew he was an Elder, but how far did that title go in protecting him? She didn't know and was afraid to ask, in case she irritated him.

Their relations with each other were definitely better than when they first met in the gun store, but this was his territory. It was only fair to assume his attitude was going to change with them in the face of his own people.

P'sy hit the ramp toggle, there was a blast of hot, humid air as the early dawn sun filled the ship, the ramp lowering.

"Let me go first."

He exited the plane, A'luet herding their passengers after him and keeping them close to the ramp in case he needed to shove them back into the ship for safety.

He was tense, Jessie could feel it, it made her heart beat faster.

Ricky's knees buckled as he went down.

"Ricky!"

'I'm okay." The teen muttered automatically.

A'luet had disappeared while the oomans rallied around Ricky, he came back with a mug of water.

"Make him drink it."

He stiffened.

Kelly noticed and turned, the home was more human-like than she expected, a large bungalow type. A cozy inspiration for when they returned to Earth, if they ever did.

Her admiring attention didn't last long as she saw a new predator.

Kelly slowly stood.

It was a female, her stance also stiff as she stared at the ship and then P'sy walking towards her. Despite their situation, Kelly couldn't help but take a moment to appreciate the Yautja woman's beauty and she was beautiful. Her markings more vibrant than P'sy's.

"Who is that?"

"Noni." A'luet shifted. "An Elder and a sort of step-sister to P'sy. They grew up together, raised in the same home."

"Is she friendly?"

A'luet snorted. "You're safe."

…..

Moments earlier

Noni stretched, her ligaments popping as early dawn sun. She didn't want to move and was almost asleep again when there was a low BOOM. Her eyes snapped open, thoughts instantly returning to the Hish invasion a year or so ago.

She sat up. "J'agannath…"

Next to her, the Hish was still asleep. "Mmm?"

She didn't get to say her piece before the sound of a incoming ship rattled her front yard. That woke him up.

They were out of bed in an instant, J'agannath extending his combi-stick. In his cage outside her door, Aud was chattering in distress.

She quickly pulled the four-legged creature out, letting him cling around the back of her neck, his large eyes peeking from out of her dreads.

A ship had landed. The same ship P'sy took on his mission to the ooman planet.

"It's P'sy."

J'agannath collapsed the spear, leaving it against the door. He stayed back as Noni went out onto the porch.

The ramp lowered and P'sy was out, coming towards her. Something was wrong, she could see it in the way he carried himself. Alarm raced through her. Did something happen to A'luet? For a week plus she and the other Elders had to listen to Dahl'K bitch about the Blooded tagging along with an Elder, on an Elder's mission. Went as far as calling the young predator entitled before her uncle, T'sey-s, the Tribunal leader, told him to shut up upon his arrival to the meeting.

She wasn't sure how A'nnu would take the news if A'luet was gone. A special bond had formed between father and son, that normally never happened. It was a example of how the Yautja should be, not what they had evolved into.

P'sy was in front of her.

She cleared her throat. "Was the dock full?"

She had meant the question as a half-joke but he didn't share the amusement. Her eyes strayed to the ramp. There was A'luet.

Thank god, she thought. Then she became very still. The young predator wasn't alone.

Her eyes shot back to him, an Elder, P'sy, once a lover, for all intent purposes, her brother.

"Why are there four oomans in my front yard?"

P'sy sighed, obviously sleep-deprived. Maybe he could use that as his defense when the Tribunal heard the news.

"Had to improvise."

"Improvise?" She echoed, incredulously. "P'sy, you flew oomans across millions of noks, and they're here, alive?"

"The boy has a bug-worm in his neck. We're the only ones who can remove it." P'sy gestured to J'agannath, who drew closer, silent.

"Why does that even matter? Leave him on Earth."

"Listen," P'sy's tone grew irritated for the first time with her, he never expressed agitation with her even in his darkest rages. "A'luet and I have had a shit show of a week and half. I'm tired. He's tired. I'll tell you everything when I'm not hazy from lack of sleep. Can you house them for now? Couple hours?"

She scoffed. "Do I have a choice?"

P'sy stared at her for a long time. "You always have a choice, Noni. Tell me right now, and I'll bring them to my place but I figured they'd be more comfortable mentally if they stayed here. The two ooman skulls on my wall might freak them out."

Something passed in Noni's face.

She looked to J'agannath, who waited for her answer.

She groaned. "The shit I do for you. Hurry up, it's hot out here. Don't want them passing out."

"Noni."

She paused in the doorway.

"Thanks," P'sy said simply.

She nodded.