"This isn't a zoo to come gawk."

A'luet ignored the antagonistic statement as he entered Noni's home with K'iera in tow. K'iera wasn't so lenient.

"No?" She asked. "Shit… I thought this was a perfect research opportunity."

Dahl'K's jaw cracked but he said nothing as P'sy growled a warning.

It was everything in A'luet's power to keep his face neutral. P'sy had taken on the role of K'iera's uncle when his longtime friend, Kainde died and he took it seriously. Everyone knew better than to push buttons around K'iera.

Across the room, four humans stood.

Jessie's attention stuck on the young female yautja by A'luet's side. Like their hostess, Noni, A'luet's mate had vibrant scales. In an exotic way, the yautja was beautiful.

"How do you think they'll get it out?" Ricky rubbed his neck self-conscious. "Do you think they've mastered like head transplants?"

"What?" Jessie was pulled from her thoughts.

"You know-" Ricky shrugged. "Head transplants, like-"

"I know what head transplants are." Jessie interrupted, then she paused as if the gravity of the question was dawning on her. "Well, they are technologically advanced…"

Kelly rolled her eyes.

"Ricky. You're not going to lose your head, alright?"

"What did you tell them?" Dahl'K posed his question to P'sy.

"Our evolutionary cousins have the means to get it out of the human boy safely."

J'agannath became intensely aware of stares his way.

"And is that possible?" Dahl'K prompted.

J'agannath shrugged. "It is. The needle is about as big as the human's leg though. Don't know how he'd feel about that going into his spine."

"He'll be asleep."

Amusement flickered across the Hish's face.

"That's not how it works."

"That's not how what works?" Noni asked.

"The bug worm is grafted to his neck, he needs to be somewhat aware incase the needle misses."

Silence.

"Then, how about the needle doesn't miss and we knock his ass out."

J'agannath smirked.

"Tell me, did you happen to swipe some anesthetics on your way out of that military base?"

P'sy made a face.

"No?"

"Nothing we have won't stop his heart because of how weak the oomans are compared to us." J'agannath looked away. "Almost not worth trying to remove. Just leave it."

"We leave it, they might as well stay here." P'sy said.

"Why?" Dahl'K's question hissing. "Send them back. In fact, you can fly them back on your own purchase of fuel. I'll be generous and let you borrow a plane."

"And when I drop them off in their town?" P'sy asked. "Oh wait, it doesn't exist anymore."

"That's not our problem, P'sy." Dahl'K growled. "Since when do you give a shit?"

"I don't." P'sy's answer was too quick. "But it's not fair to kick them to the curb when their government is out to get them."

Dahl'K stood.

"Well, I'd say that's their own fault for suction cupping their asses to yours."

"They were stuck in the middle of a shitshow involving the Kainde amedha." A'luet couldn't stay quiet any longer. "They were going to gravitate towards the ones fighting back against the lesser looking humanoid."

"How philosophical." Dahl'K sneered. "You produce them at noon."

"Produce?" Noni echoed. "What for?"

"It's going to be voted upon." Dahl'K slid nose-to-nose to P'sy, staring into the elder's eyes. "And when it is decided they go back to their flea-bitten planet, they will go back."

"What if they stay?"

"Excuse me?"

Noni didn't repeat herself, preferring her stare to answer for her.

"You heard me, Dahl'K."

The predator scoffed. "And do what? Adam and Eve their population here?"

Noni rolled her eyes. "Lose the crudeness."

"It's only crude because you know I'm right."

"P'sy is right. Their government is going to hunt them down. And we can't take the risk one of them cracks under interrogation."

"What's there to interrogate?" Dahl'K snapped. "P'sy's biomask cleared some shit up. Those humans have had a stock pile of our technology for years. We already knew that. We have the idiots who didn't self-destruct to thank for that."

"They could always live among the Hish."

"Stay out of this!" Dahl'K growled. "Live among the Hish, are you kidding me? What makes you think that would even be an option?"

J'agannath shrugged. "You did agree to that quadrant being ours, legally. So, I would imagine, legally, if they stayed there, you couldn't do shit."

Kelly noticed the dead silence.

The predators were staring at each other.

"Are you threatening me?"

"He's stating a fact, Dahl'K, there's a difference." Noni said.

"We have hunted those insects, for millennia's, and now you want to forget all that?"

"Times have changed." Noni said. "The oomans aren't even number 10 on the list of worthy adversaries and you know it. The Yautja with zero couth are the ones with no impulse control."

"Noon, Noni." Dahl'K turned to leave. "No exceptions."

"They'd really have a bed in Hishtown?" P'sy barely waited for the Elder to be gone.

Noni's eyes rolled at the unofficial name of the Hish settlement. "Stop calling it that."

"No." J'agannath answered. "They walk in there to stay it's going to be an issue. But he doesn't need to know that."

Movement caught the predators' eyes.

The humans were edging closer.

"What did he say?"

P'sy glanced at his monitor sitting on Noni's table, actively translating Kelly's words; an easier solution to wearing the biomask all the time.

"They're going to vote on it later."

"On whether we stay."

The human's tone was undeniable. She was resigned to the idea they might return to Earth sooner than later.

"What happens if that bugworm doesn't come out?"

"What do you mean if it doesn't come out?" Ricky's voice went up an octave. "It is coming out. P'sy said so."

P'sy had to give the human woman credit, she was incredibly smart and could easily adapt to any environment, he could tell as she was correctly deducing the situation.

She was a soldier by trade.

"Maybe it doesn't come out, Ricky."

Dallas was quiet with an odd expression as he watched Kelly.

"You'd have to be awake for the surgery."

Ricky scoffed. "I was coherent for my wisdom teeth. So what?"

"You were not coherent."

"Yes, I was!"

"Ricky." Dallas said. "You were professing your love to a nurse who was older than mom."

Jessie struggled to keep a straight face.

"I don't remember it like that…."

"I do. You were not coherent. Spine is a lot different than teeth."

"You should get ready." Noni said. "He wants you before the tribunal at noon."

"Tribunal? For what?" Dallas demanded.

P'sy was actively avoiding gazes.

"To vote on the next step." Noni answered when P'sy didn't.

…..

Prime Tribunal Hut

An unpleasant memory of feeling small hit Jessie as she and the others were led into a large metal building. The first time she had ever felt such a way, a third grade teacher decided humiliation was the best course of action when she forgot her textbook at home. Her classmates, wise to the teacher's often uncalled for behavior, distanced themselves from her as the berating continued. Even her best friend sitting next to her shied away as if she had an incurable disease.

Funny, eight years later, Jessie felt small again, this time by the sheer number of aliens crammed into the Tribunal hut, the air dead silent. So many predators watching the four oomans following the female elder, Noni.

Ahead a dais, seven yautja clearly a lot older than most of the onlookers watched the four come forward. What little safety Jessie felt was stripped away when Noni and P'sy suddenly left them for their seats at the table.

The yautja in the middle, dreads grey and a regal air about him, studied the humans.

"Who speaks for you?"

The low clicking and purrs ceased in the room immediately as the agender question boomed out.

Silence.

"Want me to?" Dallas whispered. "No offense, since I'm a guy?"

Kelly found herself speechless in the face of a predator who was clearly the head of the room. His demeanor surprisingly more powerful than P'sy's.

Dallas took her silence as an affirmative.

"I do."

"And what are you called?"

"Um, Dallas. Dallas Howard."

The predator's head tilted, yellow eyes flicking downward towards a screen.

"Recently released from a human prison."

Dallas's face flushed red hot.

How in the hell did a creature millions of lightyears away from Earth know that?

Dallas coughed awkwardly.

"Uh, yeah. I mean, yes sir."

The elder's attention was already on the other three. "And the young ones are?"

"My brother and his friend."

The predator's gaze landed on Kelly.

"And you?"

"Kelly O'Brien."

"Human warrior."

"Yes."

Silence.

Then-

"I am T'sey-s. Prime leader of this Tribunal." The predator paused for the briefest of seconds. "We are here to figure out what to do with you. I was away when P'sy answered the distress call on your planet. What do you understand of that?"

"One of your ships crashed outside of our town…" Dallas said slowly. "Um, a-a one of your… people was infected or uh, impregnated with a lifeform that then was born and essentially caused the annihilation of our town."

"You're smarter than we give your species credit for." T'sey-s said. "What you don't know and we didn't find out until right before this meeting, our vessel was shot down."

A few seats down, P'sy couldn't quite hide his surprise, and neither could Dahl'K.

"Shot down?" Kelly asked, her own astonishment outweighing her initial discomfort.

"Yes, before the abomination was born." T'sey-s said. "Had it not been shot down, there would have been time for it to be dealt with and the ship would never have landed in Gunnison, Colorado."

Dallas felt an urge to break up the stillness of the room.

"I see."

T'sey-s glanced at Dallas for a fleeting moment before his gaze settled on Kelly.

"You have a mate, Kelly O'Brien."

Memories of Tim's last moments came back in a flood. Kelly hadn't let herself feel much of anything in the wake of his death.

"I did, yes."

"Did?"

"He was killed during the infestation."

"What trade does he have?"

Kelly hesitated.

Why was an alien asking her what her husband's occupation was?

"He was a contractor. For the government."

The reaction T'sey-s had, or lack of, was unnerving. A blank wall, which Kelly found strange since really, the predators were very expressive. In the short time she'd known P'sy she felt she could read him easily even though the elder was extremely guarded.

"He works for Continental United."

Works?

"He worked for them, yes."

Again, the elder paused, clearly gauging her in some way she had yet to figure out.

"You are not a widow, Kelly O'Brien."

"Excuse me?"

Several of the elders were looking down at their table screens. P'sy looked up, eyes flickering from T'sey-s's to Kelly's.

What was going on?

"Continental United is a front for a top secret organization that has been aware of our existence for a very long time. Their executives gave the order for our vessel to be shot down. It's their immense misfortune they shot down a plane with a dead warrior harboring a kainde amedha in it."

"But Tim's dead. I watched him die."

T'sey-s tapped a code into his computer.

A holographic picture opened up, a picture of a man on a phone coming out of a government building.

The US Capital in the background.

"This was taken yesterday."

Dallas glanced at Kelly to see how she was taking this shit-chain of information. She was far more composed than he thought she should be.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"You need to know the danger you're facing returning to your planet, and the danger you pose to us, if we send you back."

"I think we've more than proven our loyalty at this point to you. P'sy saved us. There were plenty of chances for him to cut us loose and he didn't."

"And you aided him when he was injured."

"It was the right thing to do." Kelly gestured to the hologram. "But I don't know what that is-"

"Denial and stupidity is not a strong suit of yours, Kelly O'Brien. I can see that just from speaking with you for the last ten minutes." T'sey-s shut off the hologram.

Kelly wasn't sure as to the emotion she felt as Tim's face winked out.

"We're still hundreds of years away from any sort of technology that would rival yours. We got your vessel back here. There's nothing for them to study and replicate. It would be thousands of years, if the human race doesn't kill itself first, before we ever have an equal ground for war." Kelly threw up a hand. "And even still,you are and will be, always smarter than us. We can't pose a threat to you…." She paused. "We're too stupid and arrogant to."

"Maybe."

"And the bugworm, in the child?" Noni asked.

T'sey-s studied Ricky.

"It's Hish technology. It would be for them to take it out." The elder sighed. "We can have one of their medics evaluate him. For now, you will reside with my niece, Noni. I will keep updated on everything."

"Wait."

The elders paused.

"Can I have a copy of everything to do with Continental United?" Kelly asked.

"It would have to be translated."

"So I can?"

T'sey-s nodded once. "If you wish. Meeting adjourned."

"You okay?" Dallas asked as there was a flurry of movement, yautja leaving and moving around.

There was a coldness in Kelly's eyes as she saw nothing.

"He put my daughter in danger, Dallas. And for what?" Kelly could feel her grip on reality fracturing. A numbing realization coming over her. "He faked his own death and I had to learn this millions of lightyears away from our home and be told this by an alien?"

"Why would he do that?" Jessie asked.

"I don't-" Kelly trailed off. "I don't… know. That's awfully diabolical and extreme, if he was simply mad at my absence. It's his fault Gunnison is an irradiated wasteland right now. He did this."

"Well, can't do anything about it now." Ricky said. "Hate to put it that way. But sounds like our asses are here to stay. They're not letting us go."

"If they ever do…" Kelly slowly inhaled. "He's going to be my first surprise visit."

…

Same time

"Why the hell didn't you inform me of that first?" P'sy snapped.

"What difference would it have made?" T'sey-s asked.

"It would have softened the fucking blow."

T'sey-s's eyes narrowed.

"Careful P'sy, they are oomans out of water so to speak. Completely out of their element even being here amongst us. Don't tell me you're going to adopt them next."

"They're not pets!"

"No." T'sey-s agreed. "And you'll do well, remembering that."

"Is it true?"

"Yes."

"We can't keep them here, Uncle." Noni appeared by P'sy shoulder. "It's not right."

"It's no different than them taking something out of its home and sticking it where it doesn't belong, on their terms. They stay for now, until I can figure out how the future is going to play out." T'sey-s leaned in. "And you, P'sy, limit your interactions with them."

"Why?" P'sy snapped.

"Because I'm not liking what I'm seeing between you and the female."

T'sey-s didn't wait for a response, disappearing down a hall.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

"You do have a fondness for her, P'sy." Noni murmured.

"It's called respect."

"It can masqueraded as respect."

P'sy whorled. "I'm not lusting after her and the next idiot to insinuate that is going to be unconscious and I'd hate to lump you in with that possibility, Noni."

The female elder was undeterred.

"You're not lusting. But you do like her more than someone of your composition should and she looks to you for far more guidance than she should."

"See you at the house." P'sy muttered, heading for the exit.

Noni watched him go.