-no one-

  It took us four days to make a two day trip, owing mostly to a sandstorm that obscured our visibility so much we had to shelter. In that time, things between the crew and Mira have settled, mostly.

  It only took fifteen hundred Tran questions for him to stop asking about her people, the Drakaroth. Some of the stuff she said, I had seen first hand, other stuff Sage had told me during our long unbound discussion. Then there were some other things she said that I wasn’t quite sure if they were true or not.

  When I asked Mira about the things that Adaraic was teaching me, she said she knew little about it. She’s been pretty tight lipped about her whole life story and what it was like working for goddess Jaledi. I don’t blame her though, all of us are strangers. I get the distinct impression that she’s not used to trusting people.

  “There it is,” one of Greymore’s scouts says, pointing in the distance.

  They hadn’t done more then find it and do a brief recon of it before returning four days ago. Their estimate said roughly a thousand people live around the Oasis, and another two maybe three live in the wreckage of a massive circular ship that’s half buried in the center of the Oasis. Lush vegetation surrounds the enormous pool of water. Strange colors speckle throughout, blue and red stalks on large triangular flowers are the most prominent ones, there are some familiar greens mixed in, always a welcome sight on an alien world.

  Little scrap metal houses with bundles of dried plants line the edges, nearly every piece of real estate is taken up, except a small area with a stone pylon of some kind. The pylon is jutting out of the water. The top is carved to look like a bearlike creature. The statue itself is fairly large, making me wonder where they found the stone for it.

  We make our way toward the Oasis, slowly and cautiously. The people that inhabit the area look strange, humanoid, but not quite. Gives me the chills, like I’m staring down the uncanny valley. Large cheekbones, short foreheads, eyes that are four times the size of a human’s, and lips like a fish. Puffy and swollen, they smack with a lisp as they talk.

  It’s weird. The system translates their language, but it feels inefficient, for every ten lip smacks or pops, I only hear one word.

  After about twenty minutes one of them wearing more trinkets than the rest comes to greet us with a strange bow that we try to mimic politely.

  “I am Gottatakaruobijagaricakaka, we welcome your offerings to our humble sanctuary,” the one I think is their village leader says over the course of three grueling minutes.

  Offerings? And what a fucking mouthful of a name. It’s hard to stay focused on this guy for that long with how little he’s saying.

  They seem like a slow going people. Peaceful. They don’t appear to be hostile. If anything they seem overly friendly… especially with Tran, who’s laughing at one of them touching his face.

  “You are most welcome in the sanctuary.”

  “Thank you. Gotta… Gotta… uh yeah…” I reply, hoping they don’t care I shortened the name. For some reason it makes them perk up and do what I think is a smile.

  “The starships,” I begin pointing to them, “What are they?”

  It takes Gotta more than four minutes to reply, but his reply was worth the wait.

  “The ones whose eyes glow left them long ago, my people came many star cycles after in search of their wisdom. Or so our legends tell.”

  Ones whose eyes glow, wonder what that means. Sounds cryptic, or maybe he means it literally?

  “Okay, what kind of wisdom?”

  “The wise kind.”

  “Right,” I blink at him, focusing more on the objective, “Do you know what a Marorak is?”

  Gotta does a little gurgling in his throat, his eyes shaking then rolling back for a moment, sideways opaque eyelids brush his large eyes off before he starts clicking and smacking.

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  “The Marorak is sacred, the Marorak is god. We are the Marorak’s holy followers.”

  Clayton gives me an eyebrow raise as he mulls the handles of his ruby colored daggers.

  “Okay… well, do you think you could point me in the direction of it?”

  His head tilts unnaturally, and others around him look at me warily. “Why do you seek the holy one?”

  Fisban’s words fill my thoughts, when in doubt, lie your ass off, “I wish to pay my respects and kneel before your god.”

  Mira snorts, “Where have I heard that bullshit before.”

  Gotta looks at Mira then back at me.

  “Goddamnit, Mira,” I mutter.

  “Why are you beating around the bush,” Mira asks, stepping in front of me and looking down at Gotta, “You should make them tell you what you want, carve it from his foul little tongue.”

  Gotta begins gurgling again, his skin color shifts from a navy blue to a dark and sinister red.

  “Relax Mira, we don’t have to go around stomping on everything.”

  “I don’t get why you’re…”

  “Stop,” I warn.

  Her head tilts, a small smile draws on her lips, “Or what, darling?”

  “I’ll remove you from my party, permanently.”

  Her smile flickers and fades as she steps back to the rest of the group with an audible groan.

  “Sorry, Gotta, I come with peaceful intentions, I just want to pay respect to your god.”

  His skin shimmers back to blue and he nods.

  “We will show you the way. But it will take much time.”

  “How long, exactly?”

  “Much time.”

  Great.

  He turns and looks at Mira, “We do not think she should come.”

  Mira’s eyes flare, “She will be coming, or she will…”

  “She will also behave,” I interrupt, shooting a glance at Mira, then looking back at Gotta, “You have my word.”

  ***

  After getting what I could from Gotta, we settled on a makeshift plan to leave some of our people here to integrate and explore the surrounding areas. The technology that Gotta described these glowing eyed people had seemed promising enough to look for. I decided that Tenny was best suited for that operation, she’s been given Fisban’s right hand man Jericho to assist, and a few of Greymore’s people to provide security.

  A few hours later, I’m talking to Tenny privately after she pulled me aside. She seems worried about something.

  “I don’t think we should be drinking the water directly,” Tenny begins, pushing up her glasses, beckoning me to look at one of her compound microscopes in her makeshift workroom.

  Gotta was kind enough to give us some shelter in the form of empty houses. When I asked what happened to the previous occupants he just smiled. Looking at her microscope, it’s the old school kind without electronics.

  “Look at this slide, do you see them?” she asks, folding her arms and pacing.

  I peer down the lens, it appears to be a bunch of bacteria or something wiggling around on the slide. Each one is uniform, and similar.

  “What’s the problem?” I ask, admittedly I’m not the best with biology.

  “Well, almost all natural water sources have bacteria, many kinds in fact, for example…”

  I hold up a hand, “Ma’am, what’s the problem?”

  She scrunches her face, she doesn’t like being interrupted before a lesson, but I’m pretty tired, “There should be more types of bacteria, considering I combined it with a sample from a pond on our world.”

  “You brought a sample of water from a pond on our world?” I ask, squinting at her.

  “Of course, how else would I test if the local bacteria would be compatible with our bodies? From what you told me about your previous Respec quests, there was no gate travel, which means that they may be ungated worlds we are travelling to, which means that our standard test kits might not work, which means…”

  I hold up a hand again, “In layman’s terms, what’s the issue?”

  She sighs, but nods.

  “The only form of bacteria I have found on this world is a parasitic one. It envelopes other bacteria and within an hour that bacteria becomes similar to this world’s singular type. It could mean nothing, except some abdominal cramping and diarrhea, but it could also mean that the water is in fact dangerous for consumption.”

  “What’s your recommendation?”

  “Well, as a Glacial Warden, I could strip just the water molecules and form it in our canteens, then let it melt.”

  “Let’s do that.”

  ***

  Tran didn’t get the memo in time, or more accurately, he didn’t listen to it. It only took him shitting himself for the others to realize the importance of Tenny’s study. Glad we brought her. Most worlds are similar enough to Earth, pairing that with the fact that most hunters have a decent constitution and stomach issues rarely affect us.

  “Why did no one tell me?” Tran asks, holding his stomach.

  “They said to wait,” Barlow groans.

  “I very clearly told you that you should not drink any of the water,” Tenny explains, her brow is furrowed, “I’ll be needing a sample of your stool to see how the bacteria is interacting.”

  “My what?” Tran yells, then he points a finger at the water, “I didn’t drink any of that shit, I had some of that flower stuff, the locals offered it.”

  “And you just ate it?” Tenny asks, blinking at him, “Are you stupid?”

  “No…” Tran groans, “Just adventurous.”

  “Give her whatever she wants,” I say shaking my head, “He’s not going to be able to come with us in this condition.”

  “He can stay with the research team,” Greymore suggests.

  “Yeah, once Tenny fills us up on water we should get moving.”

  “One of my guys has an ice spell too, if we need it.”

  “Good enough.”

  Greymore spits and nods, putting his fingers to his mouth and whistling loudly before he starts barking orders. Hopefully, this place Gotta mentioned isn’t too far away. I don’t like leaving Tran, but we don’t have the luxury of waiting to find out how long the sickness lasts. I’m sure he’ll be fine with Verantha staying with him. She surprisingly volunteered to stay behind.

  Maybe she thinks it’s a safer bet, maybe it is.

  “You ready?” Cortez asks, giving me a smile that I didn’t know that I needed.

  “Yeah, let’s do this.”

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