Madeline had not had a pleasant night's sleep, mainly consisting of tossing and turning. Nonetheless, she had managed a few hours, which counted for something.

She had also had the foresight to inform everyone about her deep sleeping habits, and no one had bothered her while she slumbered. They had apparently grown worried enough that they had genuinely considered waking her.

“Does not matter,” thought Madeline. Soon they would be at the rendezvous point by the lake, and Diduk could take some of the responsibility off her shoulders.

Honestly, it was like looking after a group of giant toddlers. Don’t touch that! Don’t rub that on your skin! You have no idea what did their business in that puddle.

How could anyone be so paranoid over every shadow and distance sound but so carefree about anything you stuck in your body?

“Paradiseworlders, I don’t think I’ll ever understand them”, Madeline mumbled.

“Roger, how much farther to the lake?” asked Madeline.

The P.D.A. lit up, and Roger replied, “Doctor Diduk’s P.D.A. is approximately 750 metres away.”

Madeline breathed a sigh of relief.

“Are you ok, dear?” asked Jodhr, sliding up to Madeline.

Madeline's head swung around so quickly that Jodhr recoiled in surprise. At first, Madeline was annoyed at Jodhr's response; she had reacted as though Madeline had tried to punch her.

“It’s not her fault; she is asking how I am after all”, thought Madeline

“I’m a little stressed”, explained Madeline.

Jodhr looked towards the ground, “I’m sorry we’re not much help.”

“You and your husband helped keep everyone above water during our swim, so don’t sell yourselves short”, stated Madeline, her voice carrying an authority that said this was a fact, not opinion.

“Thank you; still, I do feel useless most of the time”, explained Jodhr. “Like when that thing attacked, I just stood there frozen; if you had not noticed that monster, it would have dragged one of us off”, she added.

“I don’t blame you; it would be a fearsome creature on Earth as well, maybe not crocodile level, but still something fierce”, replied Madeline.

Jodhr had no clue what a crocodile was, though she assumed it was an amphibious predator given the context.

“Besides, I hope I’m as active as you when I’m an old lady, swimming through a hostile swamp at your age,” said Madeline with a smile.

Jodhr made a hooting noise emanating from her nasal cavity. For her species, that was the equivalent of an indignant huff.

“I’m only two hundred and fifty years old, Madeline; I’m hardly old”, stated Jodhr, looking away.

Initially, Madeline was shocked, but her school days returned to her; most Xenos lived longer lives than humans. The Paradiseworlders, at least.

Compared to Deathworlders, Habitableworlders naturally came up short; the same conditions of a Deathworld bred tougher, stronger and faster species.

But this life on the edge meant that you needed to live fast and die young, at least by galactic standards.

Madeline thought back to the explanation her teacher had given her. Almost all habitable worlds were not stand-alone planets but rather the moons of Gas giants. Protected by their magnetic field and the field of their parent, very little ionising radiation reached the surface.

This, added to the limited predators, nonexistent cancer rates, low gravity, non-toxic flora and fauna, and lack of significant natural disasters, meant there was little need to repair the damage inflicted by the environment.

Which, in turn, lead to a fundamental shift in survival strategy. That strategy was simple, live as long as possible to have as many children as possible.

Before modern medicine, most species could expect to live to one hundred and fifty; the Tom’jik had a natural life expectancy of two hundred and fifty. Add modern medicine, surgery and genetic engineering to the mix, and it almost tripled.

So while Madeline would have one foot in the grave by one hundred and ninety years, if not already there. Jodhr was most likely middle-aged.

“Madeline, are you ok,” asked Jodhr. Madeline snapped back to her surroundings and looked at Jodhr.

“Yes, just lost in thought”, replied Madeline.

“You do that quite a bit, does thinking about things help you deal with your situation?” asked Jodhr.

“More like it distracts me, gives me a break”, answered Madeline. “Look out! Loose root,” said Madeline, pointing at the ground.

Avoiding a nasty tumble, Jodhr thanked her and checked her immediate surroundings. Once she was confident that she would not fall again, Jodhr asked, “Is that a normal human coping mechanism?”

Madeline shrugged, “no idea, never asked anyone. Why?”

“Well, usually, that kind of avoidance is considered bad and can lead to extreme stress in most species”, explained Jodhr.

Madeline smiled, “You’re a therapist, aren’t you.”

“Guilty,” said Jodhr, waving one of her hands as she did so.

“You and Diduk are going to have your work cut out for you,” said Madeline.

Jodhr paused as though she had just hit a wall. “By the stars, you’re right. I can give everyone counselling,” she said; her tone spoke of deep shame.

“You ok?” asked Madeline, putting a hand on her enormous shoulder.

Jodhr’s thin manipulating hands rubbed her face, and she said, “I just complained about not being any help when I had a way to do so; I just did not notice it until it was thrown in my face.”

“It's fine, nothing you can do about the past, now you do know, you can change it”, stated Madeline, trying to cheer the big woman up.

“Are you doing alright, Jewel?” asked Brox, Jodhr's husband, who looked almost identical, except for his antlers, a rather impressive structure that reached nearly two metres into the air.

“I’m fine, Pearl; I just had a conversation with Madeline and learnt what I can do to help”, explained Jodhr.

While Jodhr explained it to her husband, Madeline could not help but think how strange it was to refer to your spouse as gemstones. Then she reminded herself that they were aliens and Human terms of affection would sound just as weird.

Roger pinged and informed Madeline that they were almost there. Looking around, she could tell that the trees were thinning, which was strange, was there an animal that was thinning them out, like an alien beaver?

Then through the trunks, she saw the other group of survivors, with Dr Diduk staring in her direction, Tazil, Tarin and Tarit standing dutifully at his side. She could also make out that Diduk was holding his PDA; it must have alerted him to Madeline's arrival.

Madeline smiled; now she could have forty winks, and once she was rested, they could focus not just on surviving this mudball but living on it.

***

Yulik scratched his scaled chin; he knew he should sleep, but he needed to think. Despite his little speech and display three days ago, Yulik was aware of the monumental task ahead.

There was no way they could take on a platoon of heavily armed human marines and not get cut to ribbons. That left only two options hostages or ambush.

Typically hostages were the best choice; most species would gladly let a few penniless pirates escape if it meant saving one of their citizens. While humans were not soulless, they were sending a squad of marines to save one pleb; after all, Yulik wondered if they would be willing to negotiate.

He had read and heard many stories of their refusal to deal with criminals, at least external ones. Most of that was likely exaggeration, but it was always best to be cautious with people with enough firepower to level a city block.

Ambush was undoubtedly more likely to succeed than a firefight, but these were no idiots fresh from basic. Rescue ops were always performed by four years vets minimum—another odd human custom.

There was, of course, the third option, but he would not countenance it. To accept it would accept he was not fit to lead, and Yulik was by far the most qualified here.

“Perhaps a break would help”, Yulik thought as he gazed up at the night sky. It was breathtaking, with zero light pollution, except for the fires they had started. Yulik could see the Milkyway in all its glory.

The colours, the shapes, it was astounding; all this time, this had been swirling above his head, and he had never noticed. It was humbling in a way but also inspiring to have sailed through that creamy light for over ten years.

Well, a small part of it, at least, for all the talk of the galactic community, The Association of Allied Planets comprised little over five hundred light-years in diameter. Huge, no doubt, but an insignificant chunk of the Milkyway overall.

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Yulik blinked his nictitating membranes twice. He was not a soldier; he would have joined the military if he wanted to be a soldier. No, Yulik liked the idea of robbing a load of rich core world idiots and then flying to some isolated outpost to live like a king for the rest of his days, like every pirate.

Not that it did much good to complain now, Yulik had taken charge, he was Captain, and though he was no hero, Yulik liked to think he valued the lives of his crew. He needed to; if they thought he was weak or leading them to ruin, Yulik would either have to abdicate or hang from the nearest tree.

First thing first, they need to find the survivors; he already had a few techs working on it, trying to locate the signal of the survivors. He was difficult, they had very little equipment, but they had assured Yulik that they could do it.

Once they had them, they could set up the ambush in a favourable location. One of Yulik’s crew suggested they dump the survivors far away from the landing site and take the ship once the rescue party was out.

It was not a bad plan, and in most cases, it would be the right call, but once more, everyone seemed to be forgetting who would be flying the damn thing. The humans would not be stupid enough to leave their only means of transportation alone.

That was all in the future; for now, he needed to keep his people alive; two of them had already gotten sick, nothing major, a slight upper respiratory tract infection. Still, it was only a matter of time before someone caught something far more deadly.

***

Madeline sat beneath a tree and watched everyone busy about inside the little camp they had made for themselves. All in all, they were doing rather well once they had rationally thought about what they could contribute. Some gathered firewood, others foraged for food or fashioned simple wooden tools.

“Ready to talk again?” asked Diduk, who was sitting underneath the same tree as her.

“Yeah”, replied Madeline.

“Good, now you were talking about the pirates that attacked us”, stated Diduk.

“Mmhmm”, grunted Madeline, confirming his statement.

“What has you worried exactly?” asked Diduk.

Madeline readjusted her position and replied, “that some of them survived the planetfall and that they are looking for us.”

“They have to find us and survive the planet before they can do anything, and do I need to mention how difficult it was for us to move through the world?” countered Diduk.

Madeline nodded in agreement.

“Even if they do find us, we have a few marines armed with carbines to protect us”, added Diduk, gesturing to one of the ship's guardians that had survived the descent. The very same one that Madeline had to save from drowning in the swamp.

Madeline hummed.

“You disagree?” asked Diduk, edging closer to Madeline.

“Pirates are resourceful; by their very nature, they would not be pirates otherwise”, explained Madeline.

Now it was Diduk’s turn to nod in agreement, though he took less enjoyment out of it.

“Secondly, while I have nothing against them, marine is a slight exaggeration. I was talking to Hyt there,” she gestured to the same marine she had looked at before.

Hyt was a crustacean-like alien, though she had no claws, too short to be a lobster and too long to be a crab. She was also squat, barely standing a meter off the ground, though her segmented legs were thick and robust, meaning she was one of the few who had much trouble traversing the planet and its high gravity.

“Anyway, she mentioned her training consisted of little more than six weeks of hitting stationary holographic targets, ones that did not bite back, I might add,” said Madeline.

Diduk found himself thinking that was rather paltry. “Better than nothing,” said Diduk.

Madeline shrugged, wiped a small amount of bark from her shoulder and replied, “suppose you’re right, the whole part about guns really, don’t need to be an expert; it makes killing easy.”

Diduk squirmed a little, he knew it was true, but it was not a comfortable thought.

“How are the M’ar?” asked Madeline, referring to a theropod-like species Diduk had saved before meeting up with Madeline.

“They’ll live; the bacterial infection was relatively minor, and the antibiotics should finish the job in the next couple of days”, explained Diduk.

“Four days in, and we almost had our first epidemic”, sighed Madeline.

“At least we don’t have to worry about viruses”, offered Diduk in an attempt to put a positive spin on it.

Madeline nodded; Diduk had explained that the vast majority of viruses were very particular; each species targeted only one other species, or at most, a group of its close relatives. So even though the Habitableworlder's immune systems were relatively ineffective, every single viral agent on the planet should completely ignore them.

“Turning back to the topic of Pirates, we could put up some defences”, suggested Diduk.

It was not a bad idea if nothing else; it would keep everyone busy for a few days, though Madeline very much doubted that a branch wall would keep determined raiders at bay.

“I’ll discuss it with everyone, see what they think”, stated Madeline, even though most of the survivors had begun to look to Madeline for guidance, almost on an instinctual level. She was determined that everyone should have a say in what happened. That way, if shit hit the fan, it would not be entirely her fault.

Diduk’s P.D.A beeped, he said, “Sorry, Madeline, the M’ar need their checkup; we’ll continue this session tomorrow.”

“Not a problem; they need you more than me”, she explained.

***

Madeline lay on her bed of leaves, moss and lichen. It was surprisingly comfortable, if a little damp. It was probably wise to keep someone on watch, but other than Madeline, no one else could stay away from their meditation during the night.

There had been no reason for them to evolve the ability to break their sleep cycle rapidly. While Madeline could wake them up, it could be very damaging to them, especially if it was done regularly.

Madeline’s only comfort was that the pirates, assuming they were out there, would have the same limitation.

She tried to sleep and was somewhat successful until her body rapidly began to shake. Her first thought was that someone got panicky again and thought Madeline was dying until her brain registered that the shaking was coming from the ground itself.

“Earthquake” Madeline yelled.

Disturbed from their sleep and not knowing what the hell was going on, the shaking was accompanied by screams, bleating, honks, hissing, and just about every alarm call Madeline had heard in her life.

"NO ONE STAND UP! STAY AS CLOSE TO THE GROUND AS POSSIBLE!" Madeline screamed at the top of her voice. Usually, the intelligent thing to do was move to an open area, but the gravity was so high here that a fall could break the bones of anyone who was not Madeline.

She carefully watched the trees as they rocked back and forth. A few branches fell to the ground, and she heard someone scream in agony.

"SHIT," thought Madeline.

Animals began to holler in the distance, and the movement began to slow.

"It's dying down. Everyone check yourselves for injuries! Diduk find whoever got hit by that branch!" Madeline commanded.

Diduk scrambled to his feet, heading straight for the only person still screaming.

"What the hell was that?" someone shouted.

"It was an earthquake, scary but nowhere near as bad as it could have been", Madeline replied, carefully scanning the trees in case any were about to topple.

"Just our luck, not only do we crash land on this hell world, but we get hit by the quake of the century", someone else grunted; Madeline hoped it was a grunt of frustration and not pain.

"Actually, Deathworlds are famous for their tectonic instability; this was most likely a small to medium-strength earthquake", Tazil explained, eager to show off his knowledge, despite the danger.

"You mean there could be even stronger ones coming?" someone asked.

"We haven't gotten through this one yet; aftershocks often follow earthquakes; that is when the real damage is done", Tazil stated.

"Oh fucking fantastic", someone cursed.

"We should probably move to an open area; that way, there will be less risk of falling debris, right Madeline?" asked Tazil.

He received no answer.

"Madeline?" asked Tazil, turning to look at the human.

Madeline was not paying attention; her eyes were focused solely on the lake.

"Madeline, what's wrong?" asked Tarin approaching her from behind; again, she did not respond; she just kept staring at the lake.

Tazil tried to follow her eyes; he could not see very well in the low light; thankfully, the moon reflected off the lake's surface. All he could make out was a near-perfect reflection; nothing was moving, and nothing was there.

As Tazil moved closer to Madeline, he realised she was not breathing. A glance showed him that she was holding her breath.

"Madeline, Madeline, breathe!" Tazil commanded, shaking the woman back and forth. Which was difficult; it was as if she was made of rock.

With Tazil's shaking bringing her back to the world, Madeline looked around; "please tell me I just imagined that", she said.

"Imagine what?" asked Tarit.

"The bubbles on the lake", Madeline replied, pointing at the water.

Once more, Tazil and a dozen others stared at the water, looking for any movement their eyes could detect. There was nothing.

"Are you sure you did not imagine it?" asked Tarin, her voice attempting to be as soothing as possible.

At that moment, the aftershocks hit, and the ground rumbled again, it was not as severe as the last one, but just as Tazil predicted, it caused far more damage; anything that a simply clinging on by the thinnest of roots was shaken free. And several trees came crashing to the ground.

Madeline paid no attention to any of this; her eyes were fixed squarely on the lake. She prayed and begged that nothing would happen.

Her prayers were not answered, and another group of bubbles erupted from the water.

"We are leaving now!" Madeline shouted the terror in her voice, quickly crossing the species barrier.

Diduk stood up; there was little he could do for the injured man; without the right equipment, he would not be able to set the bone; he would almost certainly lose it once they were off-world and would need a prosthetic.

"We're not going anywhere, Madeline; he needs rest, not a foot march", stated Diduk bluntly.

Madeline got so close to Diduk that there was only a hair's breadth away. She looked directly into his eyes with an intensity that made Diduk want to curl into a ball.

"Mazuku," Madeline said and then turned to Diduk's patient. Madeline saw they we long, very serpentine, though they were equipped with a mechanical set on hands. This told Madeline that their race had been uplifted. They were also long and thick, at least four metres.

Madeline could see the damaged pseudo limb that aided the alien in propulsion. It certainly looked painful, but she had no time for delicacy.

Grabbing the man by his body, Madeline lifted him onto her shoulders.

"What in the great sea's name are you doing," the man asked, both startled at the ease with which Madeline had hauled him up and terrified that his struggling was only a mild inconvenience to her.

The barely-legged snake man was not heavy, but he was awkward, and it took some time for Madeline to balance him on her shoulders.

"Madeline, what the hell is a Mazuku?" asked Diduk, concerned by Madeline's complete disregard for another sapient's wishes.

Tazil was just as concerned, though his was based on this dangerous thing he had never heard of.

"It's a Swahili word; it means evil wind", explained Madeline, heading away from the lake on what she assumed was uphill.

"That does not help", explained Diduk, who found himself following her, despite his reservations.

"They are carbon dioxide eruptions from lakes", added Madeline, stepping over a log, "We should grab some of the burning branches from the fire as we go", she said, recalling that most people had poorer eyesight than her. There could be many trips and falls if they were not careful.

"How could that possibly happen," the horse millipede asked, having finally pushed himself to the front of the crowd that was also following Madeline into the forest. "We have food here, water, and shelter; we can't risk all that just because you think another natural disaster is coming.

"Mazukus are rare, even on Earth," said Madeline. "Most likely on your homeworlds, they are once-in-a-million-years affairs due to the lower gravity and air pressure", she added, shifting the man's weight. Madeline was putting far too much pressure on her right shoulder.

"If a lake is deep enough, carbon dioxide can become trapped in its bottom layer, slowly becoming more and more concentrated", Madeline explained. "Until a trigger causes all that stored carbon dioxide to bubble up to the surface, suffocating everything in its path."

"Trigger such as volcanic eruptions, heavy rainfall… earthquakes", she stated. "And unlike with almost all other disasters, there's no warning; by the time you realise you are in danger, it is too late."

"How do you know all this if they are so rare?" asked the horse millipede.

"I paid attention to geography", replied Madeline.

In actuality, she had not; it was just the fluke that she had lived in a small village by the shore of Lake Chiemsee. In a bungalow, no less, and the terror that the deadly cloud could emerge at any time and suffocate Madeline in her sleep had burned itself into her memory.

Of course, roughly four years later, she learned that Lake Chiemsee was far too shallow ever to cause a mazuku, something her teacher could have mentioned at the time.

"Now, you can all stay here and risk suffocation, but I am going", she stated and continued her trek into the woods.

The Habitableworlders paused, unsure whether they should follow her into the gloom. That was until another aftershock hit, and they could hear the bubbles bursting on the lake's surface. They let panic take over and followed.