Broken Boundaries

02 - Vostch!

The repair and activation of the sensors was successful and Alain looked proudly at the output and directional chart of the last couple of days. Only a few minor objects and they weren't coming anywhere near the ships. He folded the printout and slid it into his suit's external pocket and prepared for another easy day of work.

He guessed the Silth used a similar pattern for removing sensitive equipment, headed to the last location he'd seen them, and went around the area to see if he could pick up any sign of them on his pocket detector.

It displayed a target soon and a detour through a corridor that wasn't squeezed tight later, he saw lights from behind a couple of narrow breaches in another compartment. He waved his light and noticed the Silth turning towards him, then pulled out the printout and held it out through one gash in the twisted wall.

'What's this?' said Asitha when the human stuck his hand through the gap.

'What's what?' asked Tiness over the radio.

'The human wants to give me something.'

'Really?'

Asitha pushed herself gently towards the gap and looked at the folded paper in the human's glove. Carefully, because she still didn't trust him, she took the paper and he pulled back his hand. With a little effort she separated two sides and unfolded the paper. 'It's a map.'

Tiness's curiosity rose. 'A map of what?'

Asitha examined the ellipses on one side and the lines with circles and arrows on the other side. 'This solar system. Our position is marked by a tilted rectangle and,' She examined the objects marked with crosses, an obvious symbol shaped like a feline head, and one shaped like a human head, all with directional arrows and human numbers. 'I think the objects crossing this system and the cargo probes sent by both our sides.' She estimated the distance and time and nodded. 'Yes, I'm pretty sure these are the probes arriving soon.'

Tiness smiled at the extra sense of security. 'Then he succeeded in activating an early warning system for our protection.'

'He did, yes.' Asitha said. 'From now on we're not to underestimate his abilities.'

'You think we can trust him now? Even just a little bit?'

Asitha considered it for a moment. 'I still can't let go of my suspicions, but maybe we can trust him to protect himself and us being lucky if we happen to reap any benefit from it.'

The Silth folded the printout again and held it out to Alain. He took it and this time it was the Silth that lit its helmet light and bowed it's rusty red-brown head. He thought its eyes were green and they were a good match to its fur colour. The Silth turned off its helmet light and Alain lit his to return a friendly smile.

He put up his hand and left the compartment to get on with work, satisfied he'd achieved a friendly exchange with both Silth. On his way he decided to call them Snowhite and Red Riding Hood until he could learn their names. He just hoped he wasn't wrong in guessing they were both female, judging from the generic differences in Silth appearances between the males and females as stated in the information the humans had collected on them. If they were male they'd most likely have a thicker muzzle inherited from their animal ancestors, and longer fur around their chin, like a beard with human males. It did make him wonder why the Silth had sent two females for this project, and speculated they might handle being out here better than the more aggressive males. He'd just have to wait until he got a chance to find that out along with the other things he was curious about.

***

Alain watched the squarish supply probe land on its spindly legs and clamp to the hull with its magnetic feet from inside the crew pod, and headed out to unload the supplies it brought and load it with the containers full of the components he had recovered during the first period. He was glad to be in space for once so he wouldn't have to haul the heavy containers bogged down by gravity.