JESSIE

The next few days went by with me occasionally helping out in the sickbay but mostly working with Jargia and Luke. Ola supervised sometimes, but I preferred my interactions with Luke. Ola seemed to have the same interest in linguistics and culture that Josephine had, but she was a Zoologist by training, and it was obvious from the way she interacted with the Avian child — she saw her as more of a specimen than a person, and I was trying my best to come to terms with that. Most people didn't think of Avians as people — slightly intelligent alien chimpanzees, maybe, but not people. My interactions with Luc showed me that Avians thought and felt more deeply than we could ever conceive.

The child was also more comfortable with Luke and was now saying his name as well. We'd convinced Ola to let Jargia roam free within the lab with supervision to help with her mood and make her less afraid. Petrova and John did pester me about what she could say or tell us, but I had to keep reminding them Jargia was a child, and wouldn't know much even though she knew how to talk. I placated them by reminding them Luc would speak to her eventually, and they let things go. My interactions with the child were going well, and I hoped having Luc try to communicate with her wouldn't undo the process. She was timid, and almost unreasonably fearful of everything and anything — Well, I supposed I would be the same way if I had been locked in a closet for months.

On the day I asked Luc to return, Ola was out with me saying she wanted to get the writing samples as soon as possible, while Petrova and John wanted to see the Avian for themselves if they were going to allow it into the settlement to communicate with Jargia. Darin was there as security, even though I had told him multiple times that Luc wouldn't hurt anybody.

"Is that what I think it is?" Petrova asked, shielding her eyes with a hand as she looked up at the sky. It was late in the morning now, and we'd been standing outside for over two hours. I squinted up ahead, seeing the Avian forms heading towards us.

Avians — Plural.

It wasn't just Luc. There was another Avian beside him, and they were both cradling human beings in their arms.

"Care to explain?" Petrova asked, looking over at me, and then at John, before fixing her attention to the sky.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I told him to be here today. I didn't know about this..." I trailed, frowning as I looked at the others. John's hand moved to the gun in the holster strapped to his thigh, and Darin did the same with the weapon on his waist. Petrova widened her stance while Ola moved behind me, looking up ahead with a worried look on her face.

Luc dropped to the ground first, landing with the front of his claws. The Avian with him landed beside him, cradling the human being it had in its hands close. Now that they were down on the surface, I noticed the person in Luc's arms was a man — dark-skinned and tall. The human in the other Avian's arms was a woman, judging by the wavy blond hair and small frame. I couldn't see her face since the Avian had a face buried in her chest. I looked at the Avian with Luc, guessing it was female because of the leaner frame and raised breastplate. She looked nervous, making that churring noise I'd come accustomed to Luc making when he was worried about something.

The human man Luc was carrying started to trash in his arms, and Luc let him go. The man fell to the ground, scrabbling up before running in the direction of Petrova, John, and Darin on his bare feet.

"Oh, my God! Thank God! You have to help us!" The man rambled, holding his knees and bending forward when he reached the three. "We were just outside on the farm doing work, and they just picked us off the ground... there were five of them, and they took five of us. I don't know the exact details... things are blurry... we were passing out every few hours. I know they flew us south for a bit, but that's all I can remember. I just woke up one day, and it was just the two of them, with me and Stacey," he said, looking over at the Avians and the woman still in the female's grip. He shivered, stepping back a bit like he was afraid Luc would rush over and pick him up.

"Where are you two from?" Petrova asked, taking hold of the panicked man's shoulder before turning him to face her.

He blinked. "Outpost three."

I scratched the back of my brain for the little knowledge I had about defector outposts. Outposts one to five were agricultural settlements that had been built quickly after the crash. Together, they housed less than a thousand people. It was more like a group of self-sufficient homesteads, comprising mostly of people from the agricultural crew and their families. They were so far removed from the Prime-1 settlement that they eventually cut ties, refusing to send the little food they produced back to the primary colony because of the lack of resources sent to them in return.

"Where did they take you?" Petrova asked, and the man shook his head.

"I don't know. We were passed out for most of it. We got taken over two weeks ago. I know the shorter bird is new. I didn't see him until a few days ago. The others... I have no clue where they are. You have to help them. My wife..." the man trailed, bursting into tears. Petrova reached out to console him as my eyes moved to the woman still in the female Avian's hands. Her lips pulled over her canines anytime someone stared at her too long, and that was exactly what Darin was doing. He walked past the crying man and Petrova, heading over to the Avians.

Ola, who was standing beside me, gave me a worried look, and I nodded, knowing what was making her anxious. I followed Darin, taking hold of his shoulder.

"Let me speak to them," I said.

He shrugged my hand off. "I want to check on the woman."

He walked up to the female Avian, and when he was within touching distance, she snarled, now barring all her teeth as her grip on the human woman tightened. I cursed under my breath, walking up to them. I looked at Luc, begging him with my eyes to do something.

He turned to the female, speaking to her in their language. Her expression softened, and her grip on the woman in her arms loosened as she put her down on the floor. The woman wobbled as her bare feet hit the surface, and I reached to steady her, noticing she was still not fully conscious. Darin rushed to help me with her other side, steading the woman who was taking long hard breaths.

"What's wrong?" Ola asked as she walked up to us from behind.

"I think she's sick," I said, as my eyes looked over the woman's face. She was white as a sheet. "We should take her to the sick bay."

Ola reached out a hand to touch the woman's neck as she observed her breathing. "This isn't good. It looks like she might have some breathing issues. It might be a viral cold turning into something nasty, like pneumonia or bronchitis. It's been raining a lot too..." she trailed, pulling her hand away.

"They might have taken them up too high," I said, remembering how lethargic and light-headed I'd felt due to the air pressure up above until Luc had fed me.

Ola nodded. "Darin and I will take her," she said, replacing as she wrapped the woman's hand around her shoulders. "Can you leave the notebook on my desk? Also, it might be a good idea to postpone Luc talking to Jargia... This will take up most of Petrova's time today. Maybe we can try tomorrow?"

I nodded, looking over at the two Avians. The female had started churring, staring at the woman whose weight was now distributed between Ola and Darin. "Should I tell Luc to leave?" I asked, feeling my chest tighten up. I hadn't spoken to him in days, and I wasn't looking forward to it.

Ola shook her head. "No, we still need his help. I don't think anyone would mind him saying in your quarters while we sort things out for the night."

"I mind—"

"Darin, we talked about this," Ola said, shooting him a stern look. "We need their help."

"Jessie's help," Darin clarified. "None of us trust that thing, and we don't hide it," he said, looking over at Luke. "They show up with captives and we're just going to let them stay because we want information?"

"Didn't you listen to him?" Ola said, gesturing at the dark-skinned man who was now being scanned by John as Petrova kept asking him questions. "They were captured over two weeks ago. Jessie was with Luc for most of that. If anything, I think he might have saved them," she said, furrowing her brows a bit like she didn't quite trust the content of her words. "Plus, why would they bring them to us?"

Darin let out a sigh. "Make sure you confirm with Petrova," he said, as he and Ola turned away with the woman in their arms and started walking away.

The female Avian lunged forward, but Luc gripped her hand, saying something in their language as she trashed and snarled. She eventually calmed down, settling into making anxious churring sounds as her eyelids flickered. Luc let go of her hand, and I looked over at him, stepping forward before touching his arm. He looked tense and a little tired. I wanted to comfort him, but I needed to know what was going on first.

"What happened?" I asked, knowing he didn't quite get those words, but I hoped that maybe my expressions and tone would communicate what I was asking.

Luc blinked at me before looking down at the pouch around his waist. I watched him open it before he handed the notebook in it to me. I opened it, looking through the pages to find more drawings with words scribbled beside them. I kept flipping and then I hit pages filled only with writing done in the alien script — paragraphs on paragraphs of words that Luc was trying to communicate to us humans — to me. I blinked, feeling my chest warm up with excitement. For the first time since I got here, I started to really hope Josephine and Ola would be able to decipher the Avian writing system. Luc had a lot to say, and I wanted to know what his words were, and what he was trying to tell me. The good and the bad.

I closed the book, tucking it into my backpack before looking up at him.

"Thank you," I muttered, smiling, before running my hand up his arm. He purred, making me shiver as the vibrations ran through me. It had been a while since I felt that. I missed it.

I forced myself to look over at the female avian before I could get overwhelmed by Luc's presence. "Name?" I asked, looking back at Luc, hoping he understood I was asking him to translate. He turned to the Avian woman, saying something to her in their language before she looked at me and blurted out a word. I blinked, trying to connect the syllables laced between the intonations and high pitches.

"Tali...?" I managed, looking to Luc for help, and he nodded.

"Jessie..." he said, pulling me close as he looked over at the avian woman. I smiled at her, hoping that she understood I was friendly. She'd seemed highly protective of that human woman. I stepped away from Luc's hold before taking his hand and pulling him forward, gesturing towards the cave entrance with my free hand. He seemed to understand, turning to Tali and saying something to her. The female looked over in the direction Ola and Darin had diapered into and started chirping, the cloud of gloom around her evaporating.

I smiled a little, knowing what that meant. All she cared about was seeing that woman.