A couple of weeks later, Nick attended yet another meeting. It was the same people, although one of the engineers was present by video as well this time, and the meeting was being broadcast throughout the ship. Geh!kin ran the session as usual.

"All right, thanks for coming, everyone. Let's look at the current status of the rescue efforts." They all read the information displayed on their tablets.

Reported survivors: 4,138 fuak!a, 130 Goldaskians, 1 human

Ship population: 89 fuak!a, 10 Goldaskians, 1 human

Stable refuges: 8

Capacity of stable refuges: 1,156 fuak!a, 130 Goldaskians

Population of stable refuges: 413 fuak!a, 130 Goldaskians

Food supply if entire population fed: 28 days

Food production deficit: 4%

The food supply didn't count what fuakalas had stored on the ground in their hideaways, Nick knew, but the numbers were still scary. Those had looked even worse a week earlier, but they had diverted four of Petra's printers to printing more food printers, and they now had one at each of the eight refuges, along with at least a couple of diggers per to supply them. It wasn't enough, but it was an improvement.

"Why aren't the nearby worlds sending help?" Nick asked.

"There could be several reasons," Doctor Vickall answered. "I do not know all the politics of these worlds, but none of them have more than two systems. They may not have the ships. They may not be aware of the crisis. They may not want to help." She gave a half-shrug. "They may not have discovered star travel yet."

"And Petra does not have information about these worlds. She can do many things, but she does not teach politics," Geh!aoa put in. "She has learned everything the Kalash-Quovo knows, but the Goldaskians do not have good maps of this area."

"How long will it take to go see?" Foh!una asked. Nick looked at her in surprise, as did some of the others. "This ship is very, very fast, yes?"

"Yes. The ship can go to the closest stars here in...under an hour." Petra was learning to translate time approximately.

Nick couldn't help giving out a low whistle, surprising two different species. "I am...surprised and impressed," he explained himself. "At that speed, we could spend a day or two and visit all the nearby stars." A moment later he saw the flaw in that plan. "Oh, but if they see us, one of those worlds will report to the Goldaskians that we have their ship."

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The engineer, Godo Tuzil, spoke up from the wall display. "We can stop for a short time. We can look at their light, and leave before they see our light. If we are far enough out, they cannot see who we are. We can send a planetary distress signal before we go—tell them you are here and need help," the engineer simplified for translation.

"That...sounds reasonable. What do you think, Nick?" Geh!kin asked.

Nick frowned. "I don't like taking the risk, but we do need help here. I say yes." The Goldaskians landed on Earth before and didn't bother taking over. Here's hoping they do the same if they decide to send another ship or three. I really hope that engineer is right about them not identifying the ship during a quick in-and-out.

Is this dumb? Yeah, this is probably epically dumb, Nick. But you can't doom a couple of thousand fuakalas to die because of a really low risk.

To all of Earth.

I am a total fucking dumbass.

Still gotta do it.

Fuck.

"We could leave the shuttles, and let them continue their work moving survivors into the shelters," Geh!kin was saying. "How soon could the ship leave?"

"The ship is ready now," Engineer Tuzil answered, "It is the crew that is not ready. We cannot fly the ship reliably with the few Goldaskian hands we have."

"We have Petra," Geh!aoa pointed out. Then her ears flared and she turned to Nick. "Will we have Petra? Or will you stay on Ooafa while we go?"

"I'm going, and Petra goes where I go."

"What about the printers on the ground?" Foh!una asked.

"I've already told Petra to leave the food printers on automatic." He could see by their expressions that that didn't translate. "The food printers will work without Petra." He hesitated, then checked, "That is right, isn't it, Petra? Um, if Petra and ship go to other star, will food printers on Ooafa keep printing food?"

"Yes, Nick. Your standing instructions are that printers related to life-support are to continue working even if I lose contact with them."

"Your English is improving, Petra."

"Thank you, Nick. My mastery of English I estimate at 88%. It will probably reach 90% if you are not a dumbass."

There was a brief moment of silence, then Nick burst out laughing, and Sana Vickall bared her fangs. The fuakalas were all doing different things with their ears so Nick still couldn't tell which motion was laughter or which ones were laughing. He got himself under control quickly when he felt a lingering twinge of pain from his side, and he hid his discomfort because he didn't want another lecture from the Goldaskian doctor.

"Getting back to work," Geh!kin pressed, "Tuzil, with Petra helping, can you sail the ship?"

"That will help, but we will still need more hands at times, at least for simple tasks. These ships are designed specifically to stop hostile machines from doing this, you know."

"All right, let's do this as quickly as possible, because we could use the help. It will probably take a while to shuttle down people who don't want to go on this trip. Once that is done, I will ask for an update on how soon our people will be able to help you sail the ship."

Nick could almost hear the howls of disagreement coming from the politically-minded fuakalas already. It's going to be an interesting trip.

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