After dusk on the seventh day, they returned. Roh was walking, a taller Mane following him. I made sure to note that I needed to find out if the Mane had genders or not. There was so much that we didn’t know.

We three sat waiting for them to arrive. We formed a semi-circle as they approached. Roh walked over to the three of us and handed each of us a little electronic node, then sat down. The nodes looked like tiny flat circles.

“These are our universal translators. Please use them to speak Mane with us. Connect them to your skin and you should be able to think Mane to speak the language.”

His old English was starting to make more sense to me the more I heard him speak.

Stevie was the first to test it. Kiernan and I watched as she connected the translator to her arm. She said something that we couldn’t understand, but then she nodded. We followed suit.

Mane, I thought. A rush of learning overcame me. I was being injected with a rush of emotions and then… normal. I hoped that this would stick.

“I am Hama. I’ve worked with Roh for a long time.” The newcomer said.

“I’m Stevie, this is Eric and Kiernan.” Stevie said. “We’re not from around here, but somehow Roh knew our language?”

“I am not familiar with it. Roh indicated that he spent some time there years ago. Does your species have a relationship with the Volk?” Hama said.

“We’ve never encountered them.” Stevie briefly explained that we were from a nearby star system, not really getting too far into the weeds.

“Why are you here?” Hama said. His ridge appeared to lower and rise as he breathed.

“Hama, I thought I told you…” Roh said, raising an arm.

“Yes, yes that’s what they told you. I wanted to see if they would change their answer, old friend.” Hama gave him a look that seemed to be searching for something. I began to think that Roh was the trusting sort.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I hadn’t thought to ask Roh how long the Ucit lived. I didn’t know if knowing that would help. It must be long.

“I’ve known Hama since Mane arrived here, so long ago. Before he came, I lived a simple life. I used to work in his laboratory, but now we’re not doing much.”

“Now I am one of the leaders of the remaining Mane on this Rimaz,” he said, dryly.

Roh had told us that the Mane called this planet Rimaz after a Mane folk hero from the pre-industrial era. He also told us that the Volk had a different name for it as well but didn’t go further into that.

“Hama, we’re here and we would like to see if we could help, without attracting the attention of the Volk. We also want to learn about your culture.” I said. We didn’t need to mention our off-planet assets, but they must have known that we had come from somewhere.

“Do you have a ship?” Hama said.

“We don’t have one big enough to take enough of the Mane off Rimaz, I’m sorry. We’re going to have to help you here. I don’t know if we can get all of you away from the Volk that are here anyway.” Stevie said. “It would take a lot of coordination.”

“What would you ask us to do if we could not get you off planet?” I said.

It was a remote possibility of us getting these Mane away, but we would need to do something about the Volk.

“It is a remote possibility, but we would need more access to technology that the Volk uses. We don’t understand how your races cross between the stars.”

Roh straightened up. He was leaning forward intently. His eyes bulged as we talked.

“To tell the truth, I understand very little of how we got here. I was here studying the geology of this damn rock, or at least I was until the Volk massacred my people.”

The skin around Hamas' eyes seemed darker than Rohs. How old were they?

“Now every day is a fight against duty. I would avenge my people, but it would be returned tenfold to the rest of my family.”

An uneasy silence drifted over our circle.

“Hama, can you sneak us into the camp and figure a way for us to blend in with the rest of the Mane here? We need to learn more before we can give you a firm answer. “ I said. Part of the training exercises that Stevie ran included a portion about promising too much. We didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves.

Roh and Hama looked at each other. It was the oddest thing and it seemed like they were communicating through another method, but nothing was said aloud. After a brief pause, Roh spoke.

“I will be able to outfit you with some of the clothing Mane would wear. I will be able to ‘sneak you in’ as you say. I will teach you how to hide your shape before we do first, and you will be able to take a very forgettable Mane presence.”

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We spent a day learning how to blend in with Roh. Hama retrieved some of the clothing that would allow us to keep up the pretense.

We were then smuggled into the center of the large camp and hidden in Hamas laboratory. Hama gave us book after book to study. Roh kept a constant guard day and night around the tent.