"EVERYONE STAND DOWN, AND STAND THE FUCK BY!"

Everyone froze where they were, Val included. Since returning to civilian life, I'd made a conscious effort not to use Army voice around civilians, since it tended to shock people, but I'd sort of had it, "I finally get one God-Damned hour t'myself in this whole run, and y'all start some schoolyard shit while I'm out?!"

Marila started to speak, and I cut her off, "Shut the fuck up! DUCKIE! What happened?"

Duckie looked legitimately afraid just then as she hopped forward, which I felt bad about, but not much I could do at the moment as she started in, "Well, it was okay at first. I mean, we were all curious about what the conversation was about. Then we got the stuff from Hearth, and Marila got mad. Val tried to calm her down, and then Marila said something about her daughter, and Val punched her. Azoccu got to her first, but not before she hit her, and then, well, Azzocu called for Rognar and Greltha. The Screns hid, and Hoda and Trayg started making bets on how long the fight would go."

"Thank you, Duckie."

I turned and marched toward Marila. Her guard stood up to block me and fuck, I can't remember his name right now. I punched him in the throat, and stepped past him as he fell, calling over to Trayg to have him restrained, "You wanna explain t'me when you thought that takin' a swing at her kid was relevant?"

"I-it's your fault-", she stayed on the ground as she spoke.

"ANSWER MY FUCKING QUESTION!," I was 110% done with shit like this. I was starting to shake from the anger, and I could feel the pain in my ribs from it.

Marila took a moment and composed herself, "... There wasn't. I- I lost my temper, and I just... I'm sorry, Keith."

"I am not the one you owe the apology to. Stand up, and hold.", and I offered her my hand to help her up. Marila on her feet, I turned, "Val! Come 'ere."

Val came up, not afraid, but still a bit pissed, "Val, I was a dad. I get it, and if it was just some daft bitch in a bar, it wouldn't even be a thing, but we're fighting for all our lives here, and we can't be getting into fights like this. What did she say, exactly?"

Val took a steadying breath, "Well, when she wasn't getting anywhere with calling me an unfit mother, she decided to call me a 'slattern', called Cassie a bastard, and she didn't get to whatever it was she was about to say after that."

I gave it a moment, nodding, "Alright. Here it is, both of you: We are all on edge here. We've been pushed to the brink for a week, physically, mentally, and emotionally, and it's impossible to believe that we're all just gonna get along, and be friends. All of us are in this to save our people, and that's its own weight on top of everything else.

"I don't need us to be friends, but we have to have respect for each other, or this whole thing goes up in flames. So from now on, and this is for everyone, if you've got an issue with each other, bring it to me. If- You guys probably all have issues with me, bring those to me, too. I'm in charge, that's the job. Now, both of you, apologize for your parts in it, and then hug, brofist, high five, whatever you wanna do to signify that this fight ends here and now."

I called Duckie back over and knelt down to speak to her, "I'm sorry for scarin' you, hon. I was mad, but not at you, okay? Can you get Shin, and have him let the Screns know the situation's resolved?"

She nodded, "Thank you, Keith... and... I'm sorry we ruined your alone time."

"It's fine, Bit. Mistakes happen, and I'm sorry for yellin' at you. You didn't do anythin' wrong," I hugged her before she bound off after Shin.

I turned back to see Val explaining what a 'Brofist' was to not only Marila but Azoccu and the Ghol, who wanted to know what it was now that the fight was stopped. I helped with the demonstration, then went over to where Marila's guard was, "I'm sorry for hittin' you. That wasn't about you, so much as getting a point across, not just between them, but the rest of the group, the Ghols especially."

He nodded, but one of the side points of getting throat-punched is, well, you're really not in a talking mood afterward. He did, however, hold up a fist for the brofist, and I obliged. I dispersed everyone and stopped by the Inod tent, where I heard a baby crying. Xera was there, trying to soothe her, but nothing seemed to be working, "Hey, ma'am, sorry about the ruckus out there, and my part in it. Anything I can do t'help?"

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She a long, slow hiss of breath, "It's fine, Keith. It's not just the noise, she's cold. Our species doesn't retain body heat well, and I'm doing my best."

God damn it, I hadn't asked. I mean, cats on Earth essentially had the same problem, which is why they would tend to sleep on each other and take naps in sunny places where it was warmer, "Hang on, we can help with her. First, do you trust me to hold onto her? My species is endothermic, we generate our own heat."

She made a motion with her hand and held up the child. Thinking about it, Nogrex hadn't run into an issue, since we'd done nothing but pump him full of warm water and hot broth since he'd woken up from his fainting episode. I turned to walk out of the shelter, but signaled her to come out with me, walking over to the fire with her, as her daughter began to settle from the warmth, "Okay, now, I gotta go grab some things, and I'll be right back, okay?"

What I was after was our stunning trade in jackalope pelts. They were softly furred animals, so I wouldn't need to worry it would irritate the baby's skin. For a while, I just sat at the fire with Xera, offering her some leftover popcorn and snacks, while I grabbed some sticks and reeds that had been gathered for making baskets. I used them to make a basic framework, then added stitched-together jackalope pelts to make a backwoods bassinet, complete with some pieces that could be closed over top to hold in the heat a bit better, while also making sure the kid would get air. It took a bit, but Xera was positively beaming when I presented it to her. I even pointed out that she could put warm stones from near the fire in the gap at the bottom to provide a heat source, and promised to work on some more solutions for them all, so they could be comfortable.

After Mom and baby went off to bed, I was back to my own devices again for a bit. Val was in the shelter, though I doubted she was asleep. Likely, she was trying to come down still from the night's events. I decided to let her have her space for the moment since I needed a minute myself. Once everything quieted down, I banked the fires the Rothani wouldn't need, dropped off an extra warming stone for the Inod, and came into my own shelter... Val was lying in my hammock, and unless I was very much incorrect, rather unclothed beneath the afghan and sleeping bag. She had, however, fallen asleep. I'm an idiot.

Now, my will said 'Oh yes, we've got this', while my ribs were more like, 'The fuck you do!'. However, I was also at least smart enough to know that if I went to her hammock, it would look like I spurned her. So, a middle ground: I stripped down myself, and gingerly, climbed into the hammock with her. She did stir a little bit but rolled into position, and I kissed her forehead, feeling her body lying against my own. I meant to stay up for a bit and just sort of luxuriate in the moment, but I lost that fight fast. I was fully out inside of ten minutes.

It was the first honest night's sleep I'd fully gotten since before this event started. No dreams of another life came to me, no fear when the dreams ended. I even slept late for once, and by the time I came to, Val was looking down at me, her curly red hair fully unbound by braids or straps, and my ribs fully lost the fight, and it was all I could do to think to hit Privacy Mode and think to Hearth that we weren't to be disturbed before I lost control of things.

When we did eventually exit the tent, it was very clear that everyone knew what had happened. Two telepaths, Asu hearing, and Duckie having no ability not to air every thought she ever had, had seen to that. Even a bruised Marila was smirking as we came over for breakfast, where Azoccu offered up a brofist for me as I took a seat on the rock next to him. As we ate, however, all of our wristbands beeped an alert.

We put up the holo, and it was Ravazh'Tik, in full Game Master, "Good morning viewers and survivors, and welcome to another amazing day of Pre-Warp Survival. As our regular viewers well know, we have come to the point in the competition where we will face our first survival event!"

Oh, Christ. I hadn't accounted for that, but he'd mentioned off-handedly that there would be 'other rules' later. This was one of them, apparently. Ravazh'Tik made a big show of things, clearly taking some joy in whatever responses he was getting, "And what is our first event? Well, my viewers, my survivors, it is The Gathering Storm.

"Our advanced weather satellites are tracking a major storm that will make landfall in just forty-eight hours. With winds as high as fifty miles per hour, hailstones, and pouring rain, this storm stands as one of the strongest storms on an inhabited world ever recorded in the history of the Kathrall, may the Emperor reign eternal!"

I looked at Val, and mouthed: strongest? To which she shrugged, and I looked around the rest of the table, as they heard the news. Their reactions were very different than ours, they were terrified. I did a short whistle, signaled Hearth, and sent along my thoughts, Guys, it's fine. Both me and Val have been in worse storms than this. We designed the yurts expecting Earth weather.

Unintentionally, this had the effect of showing everyone Earth's storms, and what started as incredulous looks turned to sheer shock as they saw the times I'd watch storms roll in back home, and even the times I'd witnessed tornadoes touch down. Ravazh'Tik was still talking as we did this, "Now, of course, with such peril at hand, we here at Pre-Warp Survival also have prizes for those who weather the storm's fury. Prizes will be given out to all competitors who are not eliminated due to the storm, or by side effects of the storm, such as starvation, injury, hypothermia, or other medical issues. For each survivor, complete the event to get an item to help you in the events to come, and one item from home. Best of luck to all of our competitors, may the Emperor reign eternal!"

The transmission cut off, and we sat quietly for a moment, before I started in, "Okay, twenty-four-hour working party! We need those shelters finished as quickly as we can. We also to need raid all our old campsites for everything left there, and see if we can wrangle up the others. We've got two days to batten down the hatches, and we can do this!"