Jack was carrying the solar panels through the tunnels with the help of the exosuit, Em'brel traveled alongside him as he walked, and S'haar had already left that morning to go hunting. Em'brel eyed the panels with thinly veiled disappointment. "Those don't look all that impressive. How can they possibly capture the power of lightning?"

Jack ambled along at a comfortable pace, for once not struggling to keep up with S'haar's ground eating stride. "Well, they'll capture the same amount of energy as a lightning bolt over a long enough length of time, but you're right, it won't be as impressive a spectacle. Combined, these will generate about one-fiftieth of that amount of energy over an entire day, depending on weather, which would be enough to power our ship for most of our day to day needs. With all the refining and replicating we're doing combined with charging the heat pockets, we'll still be at a noticeable deficit, but this will narrow the gap and give us more time to generate more solutions."

Em'brel nodded her understanding as she walked. Jack found it a little odd to have someone grasp his explanations so readily. Not that S'haar lacked intelligence, her cleverness caught Jack by surprise more often than not, but Em'brel had a level of 'book-smarts' that enabled her to grasp his explanations' scientific principles without having to continually go back and explain as many fundamental elements. Jack was quickly becoming more impressed at the effectiveness of Angela's instruction method as he spoke with the young argu'n.

Thinking of S'haar, Jack couldn't help but wonder what she was up to. She was hunting, obviously, but what was she doing at this particular moment. Wandering along the lazy river? Catching the scent of prey animals in the wind? Following the tracks of some doomed beast? Or maybe she was wondering what trouble Jack was getting up to without her there to watch his back?

As Jack mused, his thoughts started taking a darker turn. 'What if she slipped and broke an ankle out in the middle of nowhere? What if she got caught by a wolgen? What if she became trapped by one of the winter storms Fea'en had told her about? What if she realized she liked big strong argu'n males like Lon'thul after all? Why did that last one matter? She was free to like who she wished, and honestly, Lon'thul was a decent enough guy anyway.' Jack's face creased with worry as his mind started chasing itself in pointless circles.

Em'brel watched Jack's face with an odd little smile. Once his brow started expressing worry the way Angela had told her it eventually would, she decided to give him a little prodding and amuse herself at the same time. "You miss her, don't you?"

Jack jumped a little as her words startled him out of his thoughts. "What? No! I'm sorry, who do you mean?"

Em'brel's smile told him she wasn't the least bit fooled by his denial or attempted misdirection. "You know exactly who I mean! It's obvious you're worried about S'haar. Don't worry too much, though. She can take care of herself better than anyone I know."

Jack smiled a little to himself as he thought about what Em'brel had said. Images of S'haar flashed through his mind as she dealt with situations that would have broken some of the toughest men Jack had ever known. The (essentially) two on one fight with B'arthon's goons, the life or death battle with Dol'jin, and the brutal melee that followed. There probably wasn't anything a wild animal could throw at her worse than what S'haar had already overcome since Jack had known her. In fact, Jack was starting to wonder if there was anything she couldn't do.

Em'brel watched as Jack's face settled back into a contented smile. She let him get lost in some pleasant thoughts for a while longer before stabbing for her real target. Eagerly anticipating his likely reactions, she fired off with the most devastating question she could think of. "You like her, don't you?"

Jack was so startled he almost dropped the solar panels he was carrying. Em'brel was tittering with laughter as he worked to re-stabilize his load. Eventually, when he was able to resume walking, Em'brel was right at his side, both arms folded innocently behind her back and a small spring in her step.

Jack forced himself to act and talk as casually as he could. "Well, yes, of course, I like S'haar, just like I like you and Angela too." Jack was focusing on walking as 'naturally' as he could, However, the sheer act of attempting to walk 'normally' made his gait lose any semblance of its natural rhythm.

Em'brel had her prey cornered, and she pounced the way any good predator would. Her smile was all teeth. "You like Angela and myself, sure, but not the way you like S'haar. You LIKE her, don't you?" Em'brel looked at Jack with eyes that somehow resembled those of an innocent puppy while also piercing through his soul and leaving him vulnerable to her relentless assault.

Jack was now about as healthy a shade of red as Em'brel had ever seen him be. He started and stopped his response a few times but never got very far past stuttering incoherently. He finally stopped and took a deep breath to steady himself. Somehow dealing with the childlike innocence of Em'brel's questions was almost more nervewracking as facing down the raiders had been.

Finally, Jack realized there was no point in lying to Em'brel or himself any longer. "Alright, yes, I 'LIKE' her. She's the most amazing woman I know. She's fearless, intelligent, proud, and unstoppable. She's also a seven-foot-tall goddess of death who can probably have any man she desires." Jack's voice took a bit of a self-pitying downturn at the end.

However, Em'brel's cheerfulness couldn't be dimmed. She sauntered ahead when Jack's pace slowed slightly. Once she was a few paces ahead of Jack, she looked back over her shoulder and smiled. "You know she 'likes' you too, right?"

Jack's feet quickened as he tried to catch up to the impish girl as she stayed just a pace or two ahead of him. "Why do you say that? Did she say something? Are you sure? You're not just saying that, are you?"

Em'brel kept just a step ahead of Jack, practically skipping her way down the cave tunnel laughing at his sudden eager energy. Jack followed after, struggling to keep up with her youthful energy.

-

S'haar was tearing after her prey. Every muscle was pushed to the limit as she slammed her limbs into the ground at incredible velocities to launch her body forward like a missile. The churlish was just staying out of reach with its great leaps and bounds, and nothing S'haar could do would change that, but catching the prey wasn't her objective.

As the churlish launched itself forward one last time, Lon'thul was there to meet it head-on. He latched on with feet, teeth, and one hand while the other shoved his blade between two vertebrae severing its brain from its body. The animal was dead before the two made contact with the ground.

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S'haar was on her knees, gasping for air and glaring at Lon'thul. "Next time, it's your turn to flush the prey, and I get to make the killing pounce!"

Lon'thul looked plenty pleased with himself as he wiped the blood from his muzzle. "To do that, you'd have to be silent. For all your martial prowess, you have all the subtlety of a rampaging kovaack buck in mating season!"

S'haar climbed a bit shakily to her feet, her breath slightly more under control than a moment ago. "I thought you said I was one of the best hunters you've ever worked with?"

Lon'thul's cheerfulness was as unabated as ever. He was wiping his blade on some scrap cloth while his face glowed with an impish smile. "You are! Almost everyone else is even worse. Not to mention, you make a great distraction while I slip in and finish the job!"

She threw her shovel at Lon'thul, which he barely managed to catch before getting hit in the face. "Fine, I'll be your distraction! But you dig the hole for the offal while I clean the animal this time. I'm worn out from the chase!"

S'haar was cutting the churlish up the midline while Lon'thul started his hole. As he dug, Lon'thul couldn't help but smile to himself as he worked. Working with S'haar on a hunt was like the good old days, better, really. They hadn't worked together long, and at the time, he'd had more than a slight crush on S'haar. If he was honest, he might still have a bit of a crush, but he couldn't be anything other than happy to see her doing so well. She was no longer known as 'the orphan,' but more than that, she seemed happy, like she finally found a place where she belonged.

S'haar turned and noticed Lon'thul digging with a faraway look in his eyes. "What's with that stupid grin on your face? Don't tell me you haven't gotten over that childish crush of yours."

Lon'thul was plenty used to S'haar's blunt way of putting things and didn't mind her mannerisms the way many others in the village seemed to. If anything, it was comforting to see that she was still the same S'haar he'd always known. "No, no, I'm mostly over that. I was just reminiscing about the past and noticing how much had changed in such a short time."

S'haar cocked an eye ridge at the younger argu'n before responding. "I'm going to ignore the 'mostly' part, but yeah, I suppose a lot has happened. Jack has a way of changing everything when you're not looking."

Lon'thul was getting winded, but his hole was almost ready. "He's introduced new ways of getting unprecedented amounts of metal, even if he keeps that secret to himself and a few trusted friends, and now he's teaching us a whole new way to build houses. How much more change will he bring to us by the end of winter?"

Thinking of the home she and Em'brel shared with Jack and Angela, not to mention Em'brel's private lessons in human knowledge, S'haar couldn't help but smile at what seemed to be an inside joke at the expense of Lon'thuls naivety regarding their new world. "Probably more than you can dream of."

-

Jack was cursing all technology as he set up the solar panels. He'd slammed and pinched his fingers far too many times trying to get everything up and running, and now one of the pannels seemed to not be producing any power. He had an access hatch open on the bottom as he searched for the source of the problem. Sometimes Jack wondered if life wouldn't be simpler if he walked away from everything and lived a simple life like S'haar and her people. The problem with that idea was that Angela didn't have that option, and there was no way he would abandon his family.

Fiddling around, Jack finally found the offending loose wire. With the final component secured, the readouts jumped to life, indicating everything was working correctly. Jack slammed the access panel shut with a satisfied sigh, and stood up, brushing his greasy hands on his pants.

Em'brel was looking at the mess his pants and shirt had become while he worked. "You know Angela's not going to be happy you ruined another set of clothing."

Jack waved away her concerns as he started back to the tunnel. "She can use a fraction of the new power I just gave her to clean them or replace them as she likes. Besides, I wouldn't be such a mess if everything had been ready to go to begin with!"

Em'brel had learned a few new exciting adjectives and adverbs while Jack had been working. From the context, she understood some of the words but still wondered what the bag for a feminine hygiene product had to do with solar panels. Jack had been unusually vague in his explanations.

As they started back to the ship, Em'brel stuck close to Jack. "So now that we have the solar panels up, what's the next step?"

Jack had just been contemplating that himself, so it was easy enough to verbally list off. "Well, now that we have more power, we should get the transceiver up and running. That'll give Angela eyes and ears outside the cave, and if we wear headsets, she will even be able to speak with us while we're out and about. Once the workers finish the first building, we'll need to get started on a second for smelting and forging. Before winter ends, we'll need even more housing and workshops for other support personnel and, more importantly, a wall with some guard towers set up along the perimeter.

Em'brel looked a bit surprised at his list of goals. "Huh, I never took you for the ambitious type."

Jack looked more worn out after going through the list. Despite their progress, it was all still a bit overwhelming. "It's not a question of ambition as much as a matter of necessity. Even if I hadn't made enemies of the raiders, once word gets out what this outpost can produce, it will have a target painted on it. If earth history taught me anything, there will be powerful people of the opinion that if they can't possess something this game-changing, no one will. Before we get to that point, I want this outpost to be defensible and self-sufficient."

Thinking of her uncle and many of the people her father had regularly dealt with, Em'brel couldn't disagree with his assessment. Even before her encounter with the raiders, she'd known this world was filled with cruel and uncaring people.

Those thoughts made Em'brel all the more grateful for the life she now had. The young argu'n grabbed Jack's power suited arm and hugged it to herself much the same as she'd done to S'haar's the first time they'd walked these caves together. "Well, whatever needs to be done, you won't have to do it alone. S'haar and I won't leave your side, and I think you are even starting to win over some of the workers."

Jack smiled down at the girl. It wasn't often he had such a height advantage over an argu'n, even a teenager. "I think it was your bacon that won them over more than anything I've done."

Em'brel nodded, acknowledging his point even while she drove her own point home. "My father used to say that all most people want is shelter, food, and safety. If you provide those, people will flock to you. You've done an excellent job on a couple of those fronts, and you've got plans in place for the rest. Keep that up, and your 'family' will continue to grow, regardless of your intentions."

Jack walked on in silence for a moment, contemplating Em'brel's words. "You know, all I set out to do was secure a future for a few friends and myself. I never intended to get involved in anything this big."

Em'brel hugged Jack's arm even tighter. If he hadn't been wearing his suit, she was sure she'd have bruised him a little. At least the metal separating her from Jack had some advantages. "I don't think anyone ends up where they intend from the beginning. We just have to deal with the bad, enjoy the good, and do our best to shape our lives to have more of the latter than the former."

Jack looked down at the girl on his arm. It tore at his heart to realize what she'd had to experience to gain such wisdom at such a young age. In many ways, Em'brel was much older and more world-weary than the young girl who'd bounded beside him just that morning. Jack silently vowed to himself he'd do his best to ensure she had more time and opportunities to be young and carefree in the future.