Seamlessly, Chester continued.

“As Skippy mentioned before, this is a capital-intensive process. Our primary ship is in orbit, and our crew will begin to work on identifying areas worth further exploration and extraction. They will also be confirming initial estimates on the timeline until your planet’s core is no longer stable. This will take several days. By that time, my hope is that we can establish a better picture of how many survivors we have, and secure cooperation from local leaders. From there, I will begin coordinating with headquarters and personnel transports will be sent this way to begin loading up your people. With luck, we’ll get the majority off-world.”

Kyle was a little taken aback by the cold, analytical approach. Earth was experiencing an extinction event unlike anything before, and Chester was talking as though he was giving directions to get to a grocery store. Kyle’s surprise at the tone turned to suspicion. As a doctor, he had broken bad news more than once. Bedside manner was important, trained from the early days of medical school and hammered home during residency. In his career, he had only met two types of doctors who struggled: the ones who didn’t care and the ones who were too burned out by what they’d seen. To deliver the message the way he did, Kyle felt confident that Chester was one of the two. So, against his better judgment, he asked the man.

“Mr. Drake, you’re awfully calm about the destruction of everything I know. Is it because you can’t be bothered to care, or because you’ve seen it too many times?”

There was a little more heat in his voice than he intended, but he resolved himself as he met the other man’s grey eyes, refusing to be the first to look away.

Chester sighed.

“Truthfully, I don’t care. I would have much rather stayed home, or taken on a more interesting project, and this type of frontier work is well below my pay grade. However, we had some… unique circumstances with this expedition, and I was asked to lead it personally to ensure the greatest possibility for success. And I have no intention of disappointing on that front. Now, if you’re done questioning my motivations, can we continue?”

The man’s tone didn’t change, his expression didn’t shift. There was no hint of subterfuge, at least not that Kyle could pick up. Still not quite satisfied, Kyle played a card he’d been holding.

“Hey Duroc, what do you think about Chester? Do you trust him?” The porcine alien had been incredibly direct thus far, and Kyle had the feeling that while Chester may technically be in charge, Duroc and Skippy fell outside his authority.

Without hesitating, Duroc squealed his answer.

“He’s not bad. One of the best foremen Corthian Mining has. Benjamin said –“ Duroc was cut off by Skippy punching him in the arm, making a sound like a thunderclap.

The strike would have sent most people flying, though it just made the large creature’s arm wiggle a bit. Duroc seemed to get the hint.

“Oh that’s right, I’m not supposed to talk about Benja –“ SMACK! Another punch to the arm, and Duroc kept his mouth shut.

An awkward silence followed, before Chester let out a sigh as he rubbed his forehead with his left hand. “I’d prefer if we pretended that didn’t happen.” Kyle was more curious than ever, though he had no intentions of prying while sitting in the heart of their own ship.

“Consider the matter dropped. As far as your objective is concerned, if you’re telling the truth I don’t think there’s much point in me arguing with you. Folks aren’t exactly lining up to save us, and you all seem like a decent bunch. Prove to me you’re telling the truth and you’ll have my full support.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

For whatever little it’s worth he thought, keeping that last bit to himself.

“We can certainly do that. If you’ll all excuse me, I’ll go get the scans of the planet. The results are conclusive.”

“It’s called Earth, Chester. Our planet is called Earth.”

Looking a little surprised, Chester nodded.

“Then I’ll get the scans of Earth.”

With that, Chester stood and left the three of them sitting at the out-of-place wooden table. As soon as the man was out of sight, Skippy stood up with a big grin and crossed arms.

“Your shield was pretty good. What is it? How does it work? Was it an upgraded skill or a new offering? What is your class, by the way?”

Kyle was a little taken aback by the directness of the small grey alien, though being badgered to share information with people who didn’t need to know was a situation he’d dealt with every day in the clinic.

“Those are a lot of personal questions, Skippy. I’m afraid I’m not going to share any of that with you until I get to know you better.”

In his experience, handling these situations with professional bluntness was the best way to go. It worked on nervous parents, upset spouses, concerned children. It did not, however, work on curious grey fighters.

“Fine. My name is Skierepallix. I was born in an impoverished mining world. Now I’m here.”

His grin slowly faded as the silence wore on, with both he and Kyle staring at one another. His foot began to tap on the ground, faster and faster until he uncrossed his arms with an exasperated noise.

“You know me better now! So get talking! I want to know how your shield works. If you don’t tell me I’m just gonna punch you and make you use it until I figure it out.”

That startled Kyle, and he immediately jumped to his feet and took his stance. Skippy’s smile returned as he gathered mana into his fist, before he was unceremoniously slammed to the ground by a massive unseen force. The metal flooring below Skippy began to creak and moan as Duroc casually walked over and grabbed the smaller alien. Somehow, the squealing voice conveyed incredible severity.

“If you break his table he’s going to take it out of our pay. Worse, we might not get to eat dinner here anymore. Cut it out. Now.”

It was only when he focused his Auric Perception on Duroc that Kyle realized what was happening, and it sent a chill of fear down his spine. The pig-like creature had used mana to greatly magnify gravity in the area around Skippy, showcasing not only an impressive amount of mana, but incredibly precise control. And seeing how Duroc took Skippy’s hits earlier… yeah, there’s no way I could win. Kyle had the distinct impression that the porcine alien was likely the single most powerful individual that he’d ever met, and that was without having a great understanding of most of Duroc’s abilities.

Their antics over the last few hours had nearly made him forget the stark reality that these two were likely even stronger than his grandfather had been before he died. Still, that gave Kyle an idea. He was mulling through it while he watched Duroc and Skippy argue, when Chester returned. He carried with him a small metallic disk the size of his hand, inlaid with a variety of different runes. He looked at Skippy, still being held aloft by the casually standing Duroc, and Kyle recognized the look of exhaustion and resignation in the other human’s expression. Been there, Kyle thought. Without even addressing the aliens, Chester placed the disk on the table.

The runes began to whir, and a moment later an image of Earth was projected in three dimensions over the table. Chester fiddled with some of the runes, and the image shifted to show energy that was quite familiar to Kyle pulsing across the planet.

“This is a scan of the mana of your planet that we ran after approaching. We are here.”

He gestured to a spot on the map that Kyle recognized as Duilleag, and saw a faint haze of red-tinged mana swirling over the area. Chester turned the globe around, and Kyle’s breath caught as he saw the intensity of the chaotic energy grow in magnitude as it approached the epicenter of the blast, an area deep in the Indian Ocean.

Deep crimson mana swirled around the area, and as he watched the image, he saw the problem. Without thinking, he spoke.

“The planet is leaking mana from its core.”

“Quite right. The Riftwyrm managed to pierce to the center of your world in its attack, and the energies are now leaking out. Furthermore, the effect is amplifying. It’s slow for now, but within five years your planet will destabilize to the point that it simply crumbles apart. That leaves you all with fairly limited time to organize for an evacuation, as it will take at least a year for our transports to begin arriving. Are you satisfied with the urgency of the task?”

“I am.”

Kyle replied, the rest of his idea snapping into place.

“I can help get a meeting with the right people to organize all of this.”

He stopped, looking at Duroc and Skippy.

“Though I’ll need your help.”