To Be Human

Nahuel had brought the Human over but their great plans to have Aeryn help them died a quick death when they realized that there was still no way to communicate with their alien friend. They had enough difficulties expressing the fact that their ship wasn't working, let alone try and explain as complex a topic as a recording and viewer. If they were going to get this Human's help, Tokala realized they'd have to teach him their language completely.

"So your ship is...dead?" Aeryn asked, watching Nahuel try and charade it out. They were currently sitting in said ship, and the Human could tell that all was not well. It wasn't a large ship, nothing intended for extended space travel, but it would have more than enough space for the two Humans as well as the Pantharni.

Tokala shook his head while Nahuel used the human word. "No." Head tilted to one side, Aeryn waited for a clearer explanation.

Tokala was getting frustrated, trying to make this Human understand. It would be so much easier if Aeryn had a translator too. Nahuel wasn't close to giving up yet. He was convinced that their new friend would have the answers if they could only make him understand. Nahuel gestured for Aeryn to sit in one of the navigation chairs. After a brief pause, the Human slid into the chair and quickly jerked back out of it when the chair started moulding around the human's figure.

"What the hell was that?" Aeryn demanded, voice sounding startled. The Human was watching the seat resettle itself, metamorphosis clearly evident. Neither Pantharni could reply, instead they waited while their Human ally investigated the seat. Aeryn pressed a hand against the chair and watched as the seat settled around it, cushioning it in and supporting it. "Wow." the voice was now astonished as Aeryn resettled into the chair and let  it take the Human's shape. Once settled in properly, the console system realized that the navigator only had one set of arms and restructured the control system to allow for all control with only two hands. "Wow." Aeryn breathed, amazed.

"Goodnight." Nahuel said in the Human's language and patted the console. Again Aeryn's head tilted to one side, the Human's obvious confusion indicator. Nahuel patted the console again. "Goodnight." he repeated. He couldn't remember the Human's term for sleep and was trying to lead Aeryn into understanding.

"Goodnight?" Aeryn repeated, trying to figure out if he was telling the ship to go to sleep or.. "Oh! You're ship is already asleep!" Aeryn burst out, excited to understand. Nahuel clapped his hands in happiness, glad to have made the Human understand.

"Alright. So your ship is asleep. Ummm...I'm guessing this isn't supposed to happen?" Aeryn asked, shifting position in the chair and feeling it sluggishly respond.

Tokala was beginning to be impressed by their Human ally. As Nahuel and Aeryn were working towards making the Human understand the situation, it occured to the elder Pantharni that this Human had a keenly intelligent mind, though he seemed unaware of his advanced understanding. Tokala left the two children on the bridge as went towards the utilities closet, making up his mind to trust Nahuel's instincts. Sometimes a little risk taking is necessary.

He pulled down a piece of Pantharni technology, the small item a heavy weight only in his mind. Giving this to the Human would be a major violation of his Tribe's code to never interfere unless absolutely necessary. Unlike the armour the two Pantharni wore, this technology served no other purpose than to translate languages for the user. But Tokala wasn't sure that the Human would be able to use it, and if able to use it, would be able to understand the cost of wearing it. Once the Listener was attatched, the Pantharni had found no way to take it off, it would change the Human permanently.

Tokala returned to the command center to see Nahuel leaning over listening to the Human as Aeryn had his head buried under a maintenance panel, following the nerves of the ship. "Okay, so the seats are still awake and working, but the rest of your ship is basically in a coma. Though your air systems and basic environmentals are all running..." Aeryn was used to working alone and had long ago developed a habit of talking outloud to make it seem like there was company. The Human scrabbled out of the panel and sat looking up at the two Pantharni. Aeryn had taken the horned gas mask off, not wanting to damage it or the ship in their investigations. Now Aeryn's darkest brown eyes burned with intelligence as the Human started to try and understand the inner workings of this alien ship.

Tokala held the Listener out to the Human, having no words to express his intentions and the consequences of them to the Human. Nahuel saw was the item was and froze. Part of him was excited that his new friend would finally be able to understand them, but another part was horrified at what he knew this item would likely do to the Human.

Aeryn picked up on the tension this innocuous little item was causing. Eyes that were nearly black flicked from the tiny item that resembled an earring, to the larger Pantharni holding it and finally settled on Nahuel. "Safe?" Aeryn asked, hesitating in reaching out for it.

Reluctantly Nahuel nodded. It was safe, but there was no way he could explain to Aeryn that once he put this thing on, it would never come off. And it was likely to hurt more than he was expecting. Aeryn grabbed the tiny cuff and looked at it, trying to determine what it was and why they were giving it to the Human. Tokala took the Listener back and demonstrated putting it on his ear, then handed it back to Aeryn.

To clip it to an ear, the Human had to pull their face covering aside and for the first time the Pantharni got to see their ally's face. Aeryn was pale as only those whom never exposed their skin to the sun could be. The basically black in colour eyes sat under pale reddish eyelashes and eybrows that were more white blonde than any other colour. Freckles dusted the skin of Aeryn's face, giving a hint of colour and saving the Human from looking anemically pale. Aeryn had a plethora of freckles dusting the crooked nose, obviously having been broken in the past and the lips of the mouth were fuller than one would expect. Aeryn's hair was an auburn, dark in contrast to the hairs on the Human's face, and tied back in a thick braid. All of the Humans kept their hair long, often using a hank of it as a source of kindling.

Aeryn stared down at the simple cuff, then shrugged and clipped it to an ear. As soon as the cuff closed around flesh, miniscule tendrils extended out under the flesh, connecting into the Human's body. Aeryn jerked, moving as if to tear the cuff off when both Pantharni grabbed at their Human friend. Nahuel ended up holding Aeryn's head still as the Human screamed and Tokala held Aeryn's arms, pinning them out of the way. It only lasted a moment, the excrutiating pain fading away quickly to a throbbing headache. Aeryn panted, letting the pain settle and then sat up, staring at the aliens as if only just realizing that maybe they weren't as safe as originally anticipated.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't prepare you for that but it was necessary. Now you can understand us in return." Tokala apologized, seeing the startlement in the Human's eyes as the words were directly translated. The metal Listener curled around the outside rim of Aeryn's left ear, looking decorative and suiting the Human's nature.

"I...I can understand you." Aeryn's voice was hesitant and full of wonder. "This, thing is a translator?" the Human asked, impressed at their technology.

"Yes. Now I am very sorry but you won't be able to take that off. Ever. It's a biomechanoid system and now that it's imbedded into you, it's becoming a part of you. That's how it works, using the body's own energy to fuel it's translation technology." Tokala explained, sitting down with the children.

Aeryn felt at the cuff, realizing that the alien was right. There was no edge to grab and pull it off, the metal now sank under the skin itself. There was a moment of possible panic, but Aeryn shrugged, just accepting it as over now. "Well...thank you for this. I know it was probably not easy, giving up something so valuble. And even though it hurt like a son of a bitch, I am grateful to understand you both. I want to help." the Human offered.

"And we are grateful for your assistance." Nahuel smoothly slid himself into the conversation. Tokala stayed silent while Nahuel started to explain their situation to the Human, the young Pantharni keeping no details of their encounter with the astroid belt hidden. Aeryn stayed silent, pulling the face covering and gas mask back on. After explaining how they came to be here, Nahuel explained a little bit about their technology so the Human could try and help them come up with a solution.

"I...need time to think about all this. And we definitly need to be getting back to Uncle Tavir. It's not safe on the surface at night time. It becomes pitch black and the creatures we encountered are VERY attracted to lights." Aeryn explained and led the two aliens back outside. The Pantharni could see small creatures tearing into the corpse of the Aeyeay, the growing darkness around them concealing the details of the scavengers. "Dammit. I was hoping they'd scent me and leave it alone. We must have been in there longer than I thought." Aeryn cursed, the Durang critters were non violent but their blood and saliva were toxic to the Humans, rendering the meat of the Aeyeay no longer fit for harvesting. Thankfully Aeryn had already gathered a pack full, and when the Human had disappeared earlier, it'd been to grab a surprise for Uncle Tavir.

"Stick close behind me, we need to be quick. There's very little time until pure dark." Aeryn said softly, and started moving quickly. The Pantharni had no trouble keeping pace as the Human backtracked, moving quickly and silently towards the tunnel only Aeryn knew about. Everytime a runner like Aeryn returned to base through the front enterance, they had to report in to Daniel, which meant bringing a tithe with them. And by now Aeryn was sure Daniel had heard about the incident with teh little girl and would like to have a few 'words' with Aeryn. Punishment for interfering with Daniel's orders was dependant on their Leader's mood at time of infliction. The last time Aeryn had interfered, the younger Human had been thrown in solitary confinement for two weeks, food restricted to water and jerky once a day. By the end of the two weeks, Aeryn had lost a fearful amount of weight and had taken a while to recover. If the Human could avoid being taken in front of Daniel until his anger wore off, then the punishment would be less extreme.

They were almost at the tunnel enterance when pure dark hit. Aeryn had experienced it before, but it held dread for the Human as much as it did for the Pantharni. One moment it was gloomy out, but there was still visibility to see the environment around them. Now though, there was no light; it was inky darkness and the Pantharni were grateful their armour offered a sight enhancer for even dark this deep. Ahead of them Aeryn stopped still, unable to see the way forward the Human wanted to listen to the area around them.

Ears alert for any sounds of the hunt, Aeryn carefully edged forward, using the strange shoes to feel the terrain before setteling full body weight on it. Nahuel watched the Human's careful progression forward and wanted to help the weaker alien. He laid a hand on Aeryn's shoulder, making the Human jump at the unexpected contact. Before he could apologize though, Tokala hissed. The elder Pantharni's sensitive ears had picked up on the sounds of something smelling their trail. Listening for whatever it was that set the multi-armed alien off, Aeryn eventually heard sounds of pursuit as well.

"Hunters." The Human breathed and grabbed hands with Nahuel once more, trusting him to grab his mentor. Somehow running the route purely by memory, Aeryn led them towards the tunnel wall. Behind them was a disquieting barking sound, a strange mix of dog and the cough of a great cat. Fear thrilled through both Pantharni as against all expectation they recognized the sound. They had a creature on their own world that made that chuff and it was a feared and respected opponent.

The three of them stumbled up the scree leading to the uneven tunnel they'd exited hours ago. Aeryn thrust the bag of jerky into Tokala's arms and urged him to go in, as the largest of them, he was the hardest to fit in and the slowest. Nahuel and Aeryn had to wait for his larger frame to clear the tunnel enterance and by then their pursuers were upon them.

Aeryn couldn't see them in the dark, but didn't have to. Experience and memory supplied the nightmarish countenance of the Hunters. They physically resembled a jaguar combined with a reptile and a wolf. The Face was a flat snarling maw of fangs and a spiked tongue that ripped flesh and poisoned the blood. There were between four and eight eyes on the skull, depending on the size of the creature and each one flashed like a cat's eye at night. There was no fur, instead they were all coated in a strange grayed looking scale that made a hissing noise as they wove amongst each other, the scales rubbing and adding to the aural confusion of the human.

"How many?" Aeryn asked, voice low. A loud sound would set them off into a frenzy, right now these had to be pups to still be building up the courage to attack. Hunters as adults would transition from the joys of the stalk and chase straight into the blood curdling fury of the kill without hesitation. If these had been adults, none of them would have made it back to the tunnel alive. But the pups were still unaccustomed to ending the hunt with a kill. They had spent their lives so far watching the adults do this, and then accompanying them on the chase, but always the full grown Hunters had been the ones to bring down the prey. A full Chase of Hunters was able to bring down even the Great White if they were sufficiently motivated to. Their bodies were long and bent with the awkward grace of the spine free serpent, looking strange with their little bobs of a tail flapping at the base of their spines. The front legs were all ball socket joints, able to bend in impossible directions and attack from anywhere, their claws dangerous, but not as volatile as the sucker in the center of their front palms. These little suckers, if latched on, would pump the victim full of a neurotoxin that caused the flesh to melt like acid had been applied and leave the bones exposed. The Hunters were calcivores, needing the calcium of the bones and exoskeletons to survive. They'd eat other substances too, but if deprived of a diet of calcium, the Hunters would starve and die even in an environment rich with food. Their hind legs were heavily muscled and equipped with long digits to aid in gripping and pouncing.

"Six" Nahuel replied as softly as Aeryn had. He eyed the Lampards in front of them and realized that Tokala had cleared the enterance behind them finally. "Go." he instructed the smaller alien, ready to guard their allies back even if it cost him his life. He had been on a hunt for the Lampards once before on his Tribe's world, and out of the group of thirty, seven had died painful, agonizing deaths. He did not relish the thought of what it would feel like to have these six tear into him. But honour directed him to stand behind because he had a better chance of holding them off while Aeryn escaped.

"Don't be a hero. It's stupid."Aeryn scoffed, fumbling for Nahuel's hand again. "Close your eyes, and when I say so, dive into the tunnel enterance. Do not hesitate, I'm right behind you." Aeryn instructed. Then without waiting for a response, a bright light flashed from a small object Aeryn held. Nahuel hadn't closed his eyes, but his armour had adjusted automatically, sheilding his sensitive pupils from the damaging flare. The Lampards were not so fortunate. They weren't photophobic, but the bright light to their hunt sensitive eyes was a painful stimulus and they whined their agony. "GO!" Aeryn roared and Nahuel dove for the enterance. He squirmed in and pulled Aeryn along behind him, never once letting the Human's hand go, afraid that if he did, the fragile Human would perish.

His blood nearly froze though, because just when he thought they had esacped unscathed, Aeryn let out a scream of agony. Confined as they were, he somehow found a way to twist and rolled so he pulled Aeryn in front of him and lashed out, his armour forming a short blade around on hand and claw around another. He sliced into the smallest Lampard, severing it's tongue from where it raked Aeryn and diving the claws into some of the flashign eyes. It screamed like an injured cat and vanished. Nahuel pulled Aeryn along, holding the small Human to his larger body and worming them both out of the confines of the tunnel. At the other end waited Tokala, anxious and worried.

Tokala saw the blood oozing from their now unconscious human friend and scooped the smaller alien from his protege without a word. Together they ran the hallways, armour melting away so they could scent the one called Sampson. She had helped their wounds and both hoped now would be able to help Aeryn. They ran past startled looking Humans, the scent of blood drowning out all the emotional scents the Humans leaked constantly. Tokala hated to attract attention to them, but thankfully they made it to Sampson's without an incident occuring.

Nahuel banged on the door, his natural respect for all elders conflicting with his need to help Aeryn. He wasn't sure when he'd become this protective, but the little alien had been injured ensuring their survival and he felt responsible to keep Aeryn alive.

They heard a shuffling and then a bolt was drawn back. Sampson opened the door and gasped when she saw them all. Without a word she ushered them inside and locked the door behind them. "What happened?" she demanded, even though she knew they couldn't speak. Nahuel held up the Lampard tongue he'd severed and Sampson went white. "No..." she breathed. Tokala set Aeryn down on the examination table and Sampson walked over, pulling the gas mask off the injured Human. With all the head coverings removed, Aeryn's face was ghastly pale, and the scent coming off the wound was making both Pantharni wrinkle their sensitive noses. "Aeryn's as good as dead." Sampson announced, voice a low whisper but it seemed to almost echo in the room.