\|/ Turn 61, midlight

  Lishla should finally be able to help Mik.

  I woke up first.

  After taking a few spans to stretch, I checked the tablet for the time. It was about four marks before midlight. I sat back down next to Mik, who was still snoring.

  Despite everything, I felt really good. I was well-rested, I didn’t feel weak from a lack of food and I wasn’t cold or cramped from the ground. I was fine, which meant that something would go horribly wrong this turn.

  Still feeling sleepy, my mind drifted a bit. I noticed I didn’t hear rain tapping against the ship, so I picked up the tablet and whispered to MCAM “Is it still raining? -” before quickly adding “answer with text.”

  A terminal window opened, with just “No.”

  I put the tablet down, tasting the air; it was neutral.

  They’ll probably want to go outside…

  I rubbed my head, dreading how they’d absolutely try to take me with them. I was the one that ‘survived’ on this planet, after all.

  …

  Suns, the scavenger!

  I had completely forgotten about it with everything going on, and the last time I had thrown it our scraps was some three turns ago.

  But it should still know how to find food…? It hasn’t been with us for that long…

  …

  What if the shadow-

  I stopped that thought.

  “Damn it.” I groaned silently.

  I have to go see it.

  But that felt nigh impossible with Vas and Lishla now. They would insist on going with me, and I couldn’t leave Mik alone in the ship with them. Suns knew if I could even remember the trip back to our camp, since I could barely see anything.

  Maybe Mik knows…

  It was the one that lead us most of the way, since it could see even when the clouds had covered the red dwarf.

  Next turn. We’ll have to go next turn. Lishla will figure out some painkillers for Mik.

  I sighed deeply, rubbing my head.

  Why did I have to forget to throw it food when we were leaving?

  I sat there for another span before I got too agitated to stay in one place. If I wanted to go to the scavenger, I needed to figure out how to help Mik, and Lishla, direct contact or not, was the only way.

  As I was flipping to the page where I had written I’d go talk with Vas and Lishla in Mik’s journal, I accidentally went to where it had been drawing last turn. It felt really wrong to intrude, but the drawing had immediately caught my eye.

  It looked like a lizard. Unlike the one Mik had drawn that represented ‘me’, this one had thick legs and a thick body, along with a massive tail proportional to its size and two wings that went outside of the page’s boundaries.

  It looked gargantuan. Mik drew a line version of itself at one of the legs of the creature, and it was the size of one of the creature’s claws. It was absolutely lethal.

  What even…?

  I stared at the drawing in disbelief. Something that horrible shouldn’t be biologically possible, and if it was, I understood why Mik had gone to Tau. Then again, the living shadow exists.

  I shook my head, refocusing on what I needed to do. I put the journal down on the page I was looking for and stood up, going towards the inner airlock door. As I went to open it, I had an idea.

  “MCAM, notify me if the word ‘Maya’ is hissed in the airlock.” I whispered into the console.

  “Confirmed.” MCAM responded loudly, making me flinch.

  When I looked back at Mik, it was still sleeping. At least it felt as safe as I did in here.

  I quickly went over to the journal again and wrote “If need, say Maya”

  I left it on the ground again and went towards the rest of the ship.

  When I was in the hallway, I heard that Vas and Lishla were talking in the lab. I didn’t want to eavesdrop, so I went to them.

  “Heya” I hissed.

  They were both to my right, sitting turned towards the central table, which had a whole mess of items on it between the two machines there. They both turned towards me in slight surprise.

  Lishla, since I could see both of their tales from my angle, gave me a tail hi, and Vas responded with “Hello.”

  “What’s all that?” I asked.

  They both started and stopped hissing at the same time. Vas gestured for her to say it.

  “We need to clean the ship’s sensors off. They’re waterlogged from the rain, and we need to collect all the data we can.”

  “How will-” I started.

  “I know Mik’s in the airlock,” she said over me, sighing, “we’ll have to switch around to get through. Don’t worry, Mik won’t be near me.”

  “Lishla…” Vas mumbled.

  She looked at him for a moment before looking back at me.

  “I didn’t mean that in a bad way.” she added.

  “Lishla, Mik’s really sorry.” I said, leaning on the wall, “It’s just… a lot. Imagine if you were standing in front of-”

  “Yeah, I know. I’m not mad at it. It’s just...” she trailed off, her tail twitching.

  …

  “I-if it helps, I’m terrified too, and I haven’t been that close…” Vas half-joked. Neither of us laughed.

  …

  “Uhhhh…” Lishla looked up at the celling, trying to remember something.

  “Oh, right, your blood’s done. You’re fine.”

  “I-I am?” I pushed myself off the wall.

  She gave a tail yes, turning around and going towards the storage and taking something out from the bottom left part of the wall.

  “Yeah, nothing unusual. Just low on some vitamins. Catch.”

  She threw me a bottle of unbranded vitamin pills, which I barely caught.

  “…that’s it?” I whispered.

  “Yup, no alien fungus. I’d like you to eat a bit more as well, just remember take one with every meal.”

  …

  There’s nothing wrong with me.

  I’m just mad.

  I had been half-hoping that she’d find something in my blood. Something to explain why I was the way I was aside from being insane. Something to fix.

  But there was nothing.

  “that’s… good.” I mumbled, staring at the bottle.

  “I’ll still have to take a look at your arm, though. Vas-“

  “It’s fine.” I hissed over her, “I need you to help Mik, not me.”

  “And how exactly should I do that?” she asked loudly, her tone sharp. Vas’s tail lashed once as he looked at her. She mumbled “sorry.”

  …

  “I could try taking its blood?” I asked.

  Lishla considered it for a few moments, before giving a tail no.

  “I’m not qualified to take Mik’s blood, so I really wouldn’t have you two doing it.” she explained, walking slowly around the opposite side of the central table, “I don’t want to puncture a vein, and I wouldn’t want to hurt its flesh, either, since I’m not sure whether too much disinfectant will melt it or something.”

  Vas shuddered when she said that.

  “It won’t, Mik’s waterproof.” I hissed, stuffing the pills in a pocket, “I disinfected the wound when it went out into the rain last turn.”

  Lishla turned quickly towards me, “It’s waterproof?” she hissed loudly over the table, “How??”

  “No idea, but it’s more waterproof than me. Mik likes to swim.”

  “Really?” Vas perked up in disbelief.

  I chuckled slightly, remembering Mik’s performance, “We were at a lake. I was sunbathing on some sand and Mik swam around. It was so, so slow.”

  “Ooh, I haven’t swum in a while.” Lishla lit up, “Maybe the big scary snake could teach it how to swim properly? From a distance?” she hmmed.

  “Definitely not,” I chuckled harder, “you can’t help Mik swim any faster without a tail.”

  “Ah, right.” she drooped slightly.

  Vas, despite himself, chuffed as well.

  …

  “S-so, you were at a lake?” he asked, “Did it… freeze?”

  And that moment of happiness immediately disappeared. I was recounting a nice memory, and Vas had to ask me for one of the worst.

  “…I… don’t know. I couldn’t leave the tent without dying.” I hissed, looking away.

  “Tent?” Lishla asked, “You had a tent?”

  “Mik and I made one.”

  …

  Vas stood up and walked up to me. He crouched next to me.

  “You really need to tell us what happened, Maya.” he hesitated, “I-I know it’s hard, but… for all of Varanth… we need to know.”

  “Yeah,” Lishla hissed, “how about an interview or something like that after we’re done?”

  I was expecting for them to ask me something like that at some point, but the dread was the same. I would be a monster to deny it.

  Really had to say ‘for all of Varanth’…

  I breathed in deeply, “Alright.”

  …

  We were all silent for a few more moments. I didn’t want to continue the conversation after that.

  “What’s your plan?”

  “To get out of the ship?” Lishla asked.

  I nodded.

  They both stared at me in confusion. I realized what I had done, so I gave a tail yes instead. They both looked at each other for a moment before Vas started.

  “We will go to the upper level of the ship. You and Mik come here-”

  “And no one’s terrified!” Lishla added. I was getting sick of her snake joke.

  “Ok.” I said, “I’ll go wake Mik up. How do we know when to go to the lab?”

  Lishla took a tablet and brought it up, “We can coordinate over MCAM.”

  “Alright. I’ll message you when Mik’s ready.” I mumbled, turning around.

  “Waitwaitwait” Lishla quickly picked something up from the clutter on table and ran up to me, “Here’s a new cold-pad for Mik. You said it needed one last turn.”

  I took it from her, “Thanks... What about the old one?”

  “Uhh I’ll leave you a bag in the lab. I’ll put it in the freezer when we come back.”

  I nodded, again, and went towards the airlock.

  But when I tried to open the door with the console, MCAM said “Error, both doors cannot be simultaneously open.”

  Huh?

  “Is the outer airlock door open?”

  “Yes.”

  “How?”

  “Command issued on console IA.”

  Mik??

  “Close the outer one and open the inner one!”

  In a few moments, the door slid open. The airlock was empty.

  I ran inside, telling MCAM to close the door behind me. I was about to tell it to open the outer one when I tasted the air.

  It was Mik’s fear again.

  What’s happening??

  I had thought that Mik had figured out how to open the door and went outside to go to the restroom, but in that moment, a panic gripped me.

  What if it had run from Lishla?!

  “MCAM, why didn’t you tell me anything?! Open the outer door!”

  The outer door slid open at the same time as MCAM deadpanned “Parameters for notification not met.”

  The light from the outside blinded me for a moment. I dropped the cold-pad and jumped out of the ship.

  “Mik!!” I hissed loudly, looking around. I tasted the air, and figured Mik’s taste went somewhere to my left, so I quickly ran there, hissing at the top of my lungs.

  As I was about to run into the forest, I heard “Maya!” to my right.

  Mik came out of the trees, hissing “Maya” again. I had missed where it had gone by a few lengths.

  “Oh thank the Suns” I breathed out, going towards it.

  As soon as I got close enough, I hugged it lightly. It didn’t taste of fear nearly as much as the air did in the airlock.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Mik inhaled sharpy from the pain but carefully hugged me back. It went to take out its journal, but didn’t find it in its pocket.

  I took out mine, writing “Mik good? What happen?”

  Mik wrote “Mik good. Sleep not good”

  So it was a nightmare…

  I gestured towards the ship with my tail, before sighing and doing it with my arm.

  Mik nodded, and we went back to the airlock.

  It was surprisingly warm outside, at least in the light. The ground was damp and the air was still moist, but it hadn’t gotten as cold as I feared, at least not at that moment.

  When we got to the ship, I jumped up first, before helping Mik up as much as I could, though it still groaned loudly from the pain. I have no idea how Mik had managed to get me up there when I was half-conscious, while it itself was really hurt, all without shredding itself on me.

  The taste in the airlock had mostly gone away when we were inside. Mik went over and sat down on the blankets, groaning from pain. I told MCAM to keep the outer door open for fresh air.

  I went around Mik and picked up the new cold-pad. As I did, I realized the absolute disarray the airlock was in. The old cold-pad was in the corner of the room, where I had thrown it when I was panicking about Mik’s injury being purple, and there were ration bar wrappers strewn around.

  “Alright, Mik, here’s the new one.” I hissed, ignoring the mess for the time being and cracking it to start the reaction.

  Mik got slightly surprised but smiled when it saw the new cold-pad. It took it from me and put it under the shirt without letting me look at the injury. I didn’t force it.

  I sat down next to Mik, taking its journal from the ground and giving it back. I took out mine and wrote “How Mik go?”, gesturing to the outside.

  Mik gestured to the console, writing “1 go, Maya do”. It then wrote “Mik do 2”

  I wrote “3?”

  Mik brought its shoulders up and down once. I chuckled slightly, though the thought that Mik was tapping buttons without being sure what they did made me feel uneasy.

  We rested for a few spans in silence, until I remembered Lishla’s and Vas’s plan to go outside.

  I huffed slightly, tapping Mik to get its attention. When it looked at me, I wrote “Maya Mik have to go inside, no see Lishla or Vas.” and gestured to the door to the rest of the ship.

  Mik looked at me oddly, writing “?”

  I wrote “Lishla and Vas have to go out”, tapping ‘out’ and gesturing towards the outside.

  I added “Mik no see Lishla or Vas, and Vas no see Mik. Just go and go. Mik good with that?

  Mik nodded, writing “Mik see Lishla say sorry”

  Mik…

  I sighed, writing “Later, Lishla do, then later.”

  Mik’s mouth scrunched up slightly, but it wrote “Mik good”

  I nodded once and picked up the tablet.

  “MCAM, open a chat with whatever other tablet is active.”

  After a span, a terminal-like window filled the screen. It wasn’t a specially built program for it, rather, MCAM was probably using some kind of intracon utility, but it would do.

  < We’re ready.

  I waited a span to get an answer.

  < Took you long enough. Who am I talking to? (I know it’s you, Vas’s asking)

  Of course he is.

  < Maya. Mik doesn’t know how to write that well.

  < Got it. We’re on the upper level, so feel free to go to the lab. P l e a s e don’t let Mik mess anything up.

  I shook my head and wrote to Mik “Mik Maya go”

  Mik nodded. I stood up and helped it up. I placed my hand on its shirt on the cold-pad for a moment and felt that it was working.

  Mik had, I guess instinctively, picked up its hatchet. I gently took it and put it on the ground. It didn’t protest.

  I picked up the old cold-pad and tablet, and I gave Mik its water bottle.

  “MCAM, close the outer door and open the inner one.”

  The ship was silent as we went towards the lab.

  I led Mik to the right side so it wouldn’t be visible from the hallway. I wondered how much of the lab equipment Mik could recognize as it looked around.

  I don’t even know your profession…

  I shook my head and focused back on what we were doing. I held the used cold-pad between my legs and brought the tablet up to send a message.

  < We’re in the lab.

  < Received. Please stay there, we are going out. Lisha says don’t let Mik touch anything. -Vas

  I breathed out, deciding to not send a response. Instead, I dragged a chair over to Mik and tapped it. Mik sat down after a moment.

  A span later, there was a bit of shuffling in the hallway and some hurried steps down the ladder and into the airlock.

  I heard it close, and the ship was silent again.

  …

  Mik kept taking in the lab from its seat.

  I wish I understood this stuff to explain it to you. We’d at least have something to do.

  I put the tablet down and looked around for the bag Lishla mentioned. I found a sealable biohazard bag on the central table that was empty, aside from the machines.

  Dramatic.

  I put it inside and left it there.

  I walked back to Mik and stood next to it. It looked at me, as if waiting for me to tell it something.

  It felt so stupid that I couldn’t help it in any way. There was all this equipment around us, and all I could do was stand next to it.

  …

  I wrote “Mik hungry?”

  It nodded.

  I wrote “wait here”

  I started going towards the upper level but quickly stopped. I took out my journal and wrote “Maya go up, Mik no touch anything in lab”

  Mik wrote “?” under ‘touch’ and ‘lab’

  I tapped it, then slowly touched the table a few times, tapping the word repeatedly. As for the lab, I just gestured to the room around us. Mik realized what I meant and nodded.

  You’re definitely going to touch something.

  I added “Lishla hurt if Mik touch, Mik get?”

  Mik nodded, breathing in deeply out of exasperation. At least the cold-pad was helping.

  “Alright…” I hissed and went towards the upper level.

  I quickly went over to the screen Lishla had used to give me the ration bars last turn, but I struggled to reach it. I pulled over one of the chairs and climbed on top of it.

  The screen turned on when I tapped it, revealing a familiar list of flavours and a “Pseudorandom” option.

  “Coders.” I sighed.

  Though none of the options looked appetizing in the slightest, and I couldn’t bother with eating at that moment, so I decided to just take one ‘random’ bar for Mik.

  It dropped into the shutter, and I put it in my pocket.

  As I was getting down from the chair, I realized how stupid what I had done was.

  I could’ve just told MCAM to do it…

  Then, I remembered something else bothering me. Lishla had said that they were ‘fine’ with food without telling me anything else. I couldn’t believe her on the account that the same ship was feeding twice the expected crew, extra reserves or not.

  “MCAM, how much food do we have on ship?” I asked as I was going down the ladder.

  After a moment, MCAM replied, “Approximately twenty turns for current crew members on pod.”

  “How many crew members do we have?”

  “Three.”

  I dropped down the ladder, “Add one. Its name is Mik.”

  “Processing…”

  As I entered the lab, MCAM piped up, “Error, ‘Mik’ not found in voice registry.”

  I was about to tell MCAM something when I saw Mik standing over the microscope.

  “Hey!!” I hissed, running towards it.

  Mik took a step back, bringing both arms up.

  “I told you not to touch anything!” I yelled, taking my journal out and writing “Mik touch!! Why?!”

  Mik wrote “No touch, Mik look”, went back to the chair and sat down with a slight smile.

  “I- Mi- Sunsdamn it.” I sighed.

  But when I looked at the microscope, I saw that Mik had turned the illuminator on.

  I stared at Mik and, slowly, I flipped the switch off. Mik’s mouth scrunched up a bit.

  “You’re impossible.” I breathed out, though I was smiling.

  At least you chose the least volatile thing here. Would’ve guessed you have microscopes too.

  I went over to Mik and handed it the ration bar, after which I brought a chair and sat next to it.

  Mik unwrapped it and started eating, but quickly noticed I wasn’t. It wrote “Maya no eat?”, offering me the ration bar.

  I shook my head.

  Mik brought its shoulders up and down once and continued.

  …

  What was I doing…

  “Ah, right.” I hissed to myself, “MCAM, add crew member Mik.”

  “Error, ‘Mik’ not found in voice registry.”

  Right.

  I waited for Mik to finish eating for about a span, after which I took the wrapper from it. I put it in my pocket for the time being, since Lishla hadn’t told me what they did with them.

  I took my journal out and wrote “Maya”, though I stopped mid-sentence. I wanted to write “add Mik to ship”, but I knew Mik didn’t know ‘add’ and I couldn’t think of a better alternative. I hadn’t even talked about basic math with Mik yet, aside from counting.

  You understood counting immediately… That should mean your numbers are additive, right?

  Mik was already waiting for me to finish writing, so I just flipped a page and wrote “1 _ 1 is 2?”

  Mik drew two lines crossed. This symbol; ‘+’

  Simple enough.

  I wrote “Ship have Maya Lishla Vas, 3, Mik + to ship. Good?”

  Mik took a moment to understand, but it nodded.

  I continued writing “For + Mik, Maya need Mik say when Maya say. Good?”

  It nodded again.

  “Alright.” I hissed, “MCAM, add a new voice, for the new crew member Mik.”

  “Detecting.” it immediately responded.

  I wrote “Mik say lot”

  Mik talked in its language for a span, until MCAM said “Profile for ‘Mik’, added. Warning; unknown language.”

  “Dismiss the warning.” I told MCAM, writing “Good, thank.”

  …

  Mik and I sat there for a few spans in silence after that. I really couldn’t think of anything to do.

  I wondered about the lizard… thing it had drawn, but I didn’t want to ask about it since I wasn’t supposed to see it in the first place.

  Mik tapped me when I mentally dozed off to get my attention.

  It wrote “What Lishla Vas do?”

  I wrote “Clean ship”, tapping ‘clean’ and wiping the desk to my right with my hand.

  Mik nodded.

  …

  A few more spans passed in silence. Mik started drawing something in its journal.

  The longer I sat there, the more guilty I felt, and my gaze lingered towards the storage behind Mik.

  You’re still sick…

  And Lishla can’t take your blood…

  I know she told me not to, but I couldn’t not do anything when I knew that Mik could finally get help. She hadn’t given an alternative, either. It was just ‘don’t.’

  I hesitated for a few more moments, but in the end, I decided to go through with it.

  “Mik?” I hissed, taking my journal.

  It looked up at me.

  I wrote “Mik good Maya take blood?”

  It tilted its head slightly, writing “Maya know?”

  I brought my shoulders up and down once, writing “Mik help?”

  Mik laughed nervously, though I wasn’t joking. When it realized, it nodded once slightly.

  I got off the chair and went over to the storage. I vaguely remembered where Lishla had taken the syringes from, so it only took me a few moments to find what I needed.

  I took rubber gloves, a syringe, a packet of gauze and disinfectant, making sure that it was the same one I had used from the aid kit.

  I started getting extremely nervous as I walked back to Mik. Mik wasn’t afraid, at least not by taste, but it wasn’t calm, either.

  I put the syringe down, added some disinfectant to the gauze and moved Mik’s sleeve on its left arm, just before the shoulder. I started rubbing the flesh there when Mik stopped my hand.

  I looked up at its face. It shook its head.

  “No?” I hissed, thinking it suddenly decided that it didn’t want to do it.

  Mik moved my hand down to the inside of its elbow.

  “Huh?”

  Mik pulled out its journal and wrote “Here”, tapping the spot. Specifically, tapping bluish-green lines under its flesh.

  …are those actually… nerves…?

  I had thought that Mik’s flesh had a slightly different colour in some areas, like stripes on scales. What I had actually been looking at the entire time was under its flesh. It was partially translucent.

  But Mik just confused me more by showing what I guessed were its nerves. I hadn’t properly taught it the word ‘blood’, since I had only made a stabbing gesture when saying Lishla would take it, so I thought that maybe Mik’s species had some purpose as to getting nerve fluid and it thought I needed that.

  I put the gauze on a table, took off the gloves and wrote “Maya need take Mik blood.”

  Mik tilted its head. I needed to explain, and I only had one idea on how to.

  I breathed in deeply and tapped ‘blood’. Then, I mimicked Mik scratching its arm, and gestured blood flowing down.

  It felt like I was mocking Mik, but it was the only time I saw so much of it.

  Mik didn’t like the gesture, either. It looked down for a moment, before writing “Is Mik blood”

  Those are your veins…? Why isn’t it like your injury then?

  I wrote “How purple? Why not red or like ow?”, knowing that purple wasn’t the exact colour, but the only one Mik knew. I hoped that it would gauge ‘red’ from context.

  Mik wrote “Purple in Mik, red out.”

  …

  “Your blood changes colour?” I hissed quietly. I thought I had known almost everything about Mik at that point, and I was wrong.

  “Alright then.” I sighed, writing “Mik good Maya take still?”

  It nodded, partially resting its left arm on the table next to us.

  I left the journal down on the central table, moved the water bottle Mik had left there a bit further away and put the gloves back on. Then, I got another piece of gauze and disinfected the spot Mik had tapped. It stared at my hands as I did.

  I got the syringe, testing that it would work, and brought it over that part of flesh. I hesitated, trying to keep my hands from shaking.

  Mik brought its other arm there and tapped the vein again.

  “I know.” I hissed sharper than I intended. Mik pulled its hand back.

  I breathed in, and, holding my breath, I put the syringe in.

  Suns, Suns it was horrible.

  The flesh bent around the needle, and there was so little resistance that it made me feel sick. Mik groaned internally but didn’t flinch or move.

  I tried to go for the vein, literally looking at the sunsdamned needle through its flesh, but I missed it completely.

  Damn it

  I pulled it back a bit and went for the vein again. The needle grazed it, but it rolled out of the way.

  I gagged, pulling the syringe entirely out and taking a step back.

  “Maya?” Mik hissed.

  I stopped breathing, trying not to vomit. I was so glad I hadn’t eaten anything.

  I didn’t know, nor did I ever to know that veins did that. Mik gently pat the thorns on the back of my head as I desperately tried to control myself. I was panting, bent over and looking at the ground.

  “I…”

  A bit of bile went up my throat and immediately went back down.

  I need to do… this…

  I stood back up, with my hands shaking, and gestured for Mik to go back.

  Mik nodded, though it was slightly pale at that point, and got back into position. Its flesh was starting to get red in the spot.

  I went up to it and lined up the needle again, pushing down. I missed and overshot.

  Mik yelped, flinching violently.

  “Sorry” I breathed out.

  Mik strained “Maya” through its teeth and held its arm down.

  “I’m so sorry”

  I brought the needle back up slowly, with the area underneath turning purple. I wouldn’t see the vein soon.

  Finally, I managed to slowly bring it to the vein and get it in.

  The vial started filling up with red blood quickly, with some pooling around the needle’s entrance. Mik closed and opened its left hand a few times.

  The vial was full in a few moments, after which I pulled the needle out. Mik quickly tore a piece of gauze and pressed it there, holding its arm up, its face contorting from pain.

  I took a step back, heaving from stress. But I had done it.

  “Thank… the Suns…”

  It was horrible, it was messy, but it was done. I was so happy it was done.

  Until I noticed the end of the syringe dripping Mik’s blood onto the floor.

  “Ah!” I hissed, quickly pointing it up.

  I reached around Mik and tore a big chunk of gauze, wrapping the needle in it and putting it down on a table. I tore another piece and quickly wiped the floor. It was only a few drops, but it compromised the entire lab. Immediately after, I disinfected it with another piece of gauze and wiped that dry as well.

  I stood up and leaned on the table, feeling dizzy.

  “Maya” Mik hissed to me. I looked up at it, exhausted.

  Mik was still holding the arm up with the other pressing the gauze, its face was slightly scrunched up, but it was otherwise fine.

  “We did it!” I hissed, going in and hugging it.

  Mik groaned from pain.

  “Sorry sorry” I hissed, hugging it less tightly.

  I took the journal and wrote “Be back moment”, after which I went over to the storage.

  I rummaged around, trying to find another bag, like the one Lishla had left me. Only then did I see that a lot of the lower compartments were empty, with almost all of them sized to perfectly fit the machines. Though, I struggled to reach them, and I really didn’t want to climb the ladder to check the upper ones.

  In the end, I managed to find biohazard bags in the bottom left with the rest of the medical equipment, though it was tucked behind some items. I put the syringe in one, and the gloves and used gauze in another.

  Mik nudged me with its leg as I was putting everything in.

  When I looked at it, it brought its arm down and made a wrapping motion around it with its right hand. Even though the gauze was still there, I saw the purpleness had spread slightly.

  “Oh, right.”

  I went over to the cabinets, took a bandage and rolled it around the gauze. Mik didn’t react in pain that time.

  I put the rest down on the table and sat down in front of Mik.

  Lishla could actually help it now. I knew she’d be mad when she found out what happened, but it needed to be done.

  “MCAM?” I hissed, closing my eyes and tilting my head backwards.

  “Yes?”

  “Where should I keep blood?”

  “Preferably keep it inside yourself.” MCAM responded in its voice.

  “Huh?” I opened my eyes.

  “There is a lower compartment in the freezer meant for storing items at a temperature of 5 warmth. It is designated as ‘compartment 5’.”

  “MCAM, did you say something else?”

  “No.”

  Of course not.

  And it really hadn’t. Writing this with the logs, MCAM just repeated itself.

  …

  I sighed and stood up, bringing the biohazard bag to the freezer in the back of the room, next to the storage.

  A cold wave of air hit me as I opened it.

  I stood there, looking at the snow.

  And a beep got me to snap out of it; the freezer had been open for too long.

  I shook my head and put the biohazard bag in the lower compartment.

  I went and pulled my chair to be next to Mik, and I sat down. It was pressing the bandage in its left arm around a bit.

  I took my journal from the central table and wrote “Mik good?”

  Mik nodded, writing “Hurt not lot”

  I wrote “So sorry”, leaning against it. Suns, how could it be so warm.

  It wrote “Mik see hurt more, is good.”

  We sat there for a bit in silence. I couldn’t fall asleep while leaning on it, and Mik started fidgeting, so, at some point, I offered “Play game?”, and it agreed.

  We played the same game, though Mik had gotten as good as I was at that point. I think I still managed to win more than Mik, though I wasn’t counting.

  Maybe a mark later, between games, Mik took the bandage off. It was purple-bluish, just like its chest injury, but only in the spot where I had… repeatedly stabbed it.

  I wrote “Hurt?”

  Mik pressed the wound slightly and moved its arm around. It wrote “No, good”

  We played a bit more after that, still just waiting for Vas and Lishla to come back. It was taking them a while.

  Then, mid-game during Mik’s turn, I heard the inner airlock door open. Mik was distracted at that moment.

  I paused the game, which made Mik look at me, its face annoyed.

  I wrote “Friends here maybe, Maya go see, Mik no go.”

  Mik nodded.

  I stood up, feeling sore from sitting for so long, and started going towards the airlock.

  As I rounded the corner into the hallway, I almost walked into Vas, who had one hand on the ladder.

  “Whoa!” I stumbled backwards, “Hey, what’re you doing here?”

  Vas opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out. He became utterly still.

  Mik was behind me.

  I spun around, hissing “Mik?!”

  Mik stared at Vas.

  Oh Suns

  I stood between them, panically looking left and right and trying to think of what to do. Neither was moving, and I knew neither would dare move.

  I turned towards Vas, “Vas, Vas it’s ok, Mik’s not going to hurt you!”, but he only looked at me for a moment before staring intensely at Mik again.

  Seeing that that wasn’t working, I turned towards Mik.

  “Mik!” I hissed, bringing a hand in front of its face.

  Mik actually looked down at me. It was tense, but I realized the air didn’t taste like fear.

  I took out my journal and wrote “Vas no snake! No hurt Mik!!”

  Mik, very, very slowly, extended its hand and took the journal from me, writing “Know”

  …

  What

  It turned the journal back to itself, wrote “Hey”, and slowly showed it to Vas.

  …

  “…hello” Vas barely rasped, his eyes darting across Mik.

  …

  Everyone stood still in complete silence, with both of them just looking at each other.

  That’s enough.

  Both flinched when I moved. I went over to Mik and grabbed it by the waist, bringing it into the lab. Mik didn’t fight me, though it walked backwards until we rounded the corner. Vas frantically climbed the ladder a moment later.

  I snatched the journal from Mik and wrote “What that?! Why?!”

  Mik wrote “Go say Lishla sorry. Friend Vas?”

  “Oh my Suns” I groaned, writing “Yes, Vas! Maya say no go!”

  It immediately wrote “Mik say no say snake.”. It had that sunsdamned argument ready for exactly this.

  I scoffed and nudged Mik towards the chair. It sat down on its own.

  I started pacing around. After a few spans, the tablet chimed. I went over and opened the messages.

  < Lishla is coming up. Please, please keep Mik there.

  < Why did you come through without telling me??

  It took him a few moments to respond.

  < We forgot the tablet… I wanted to quickly get up here and send you a message for Lishla…

  Right.

  I breathed out, putting the tablet back on the table.

  …

  A span later, I heard the inner airlock door opening. This time, I stood in front of Mik and stared at it.

  Its face contorted slightly as it looked back at me. It wasn’t happy, but there wasn’t a chance I was going to let it do that again.

  Footsteps went up the ladder, and the tablet chimed again.

  < We’re both here. The lab better be in one piece.

  I took the tablet and grabbed Mik’s hand, taking it toward the airlock.

  When we got inside, I sat Mik down on the blanket and brought the tablet up.

  < Sorry Vas. I told Mik to stay.

  Neither of them responded for a bit. I think Vas was telling Lishla what had happened. In the end, the message I got was;

  < It’s alright. We’ll talk.

  That’s Lishla.

  < I managed to get Mik’s blood. It’s in a bag in the freezer, lower level.

  I put the tablet down and the barrage of messages came. I didn’t look at them, and I don’t plan on doing that.

  Mik and I are in the airlock now. It’s been maybe half a mark since all of that happened.

  I haven’t talked with it anymore. Suns, Mik really knows how to get under my scales.

  It just had to have a sassy argument ready. All Mik planned on doing was accidentally reinforcing what I had told her by getting scared again.

  I’m glad it wasn’t as scared of Vas as it was of Lishla, though Vas's probably terrified now. I had a whole plan for making them meet outside and slowly getting used to each other, and that fell apart. Look's like no one is listening to anyone this turn.

  Writing this just made me incredibly annoyed again. I have to go talk with Lishla before she barges into the airlock.