Mere minutes before they fell out of Jump, Saedah staggered from the pod. His eyes were bloodshot and every muscle in his body was trembling with spasms, the strain of keeping him vertical too great. Nyx stood from an unfolded Murphy bed when she heard his uneven steps from the pod room. She moved quickly to drape a heated blanket around his shoulders and place a warm drink, a tea prepared under Kitty's instructions, in his hands. She wedged herself under his arm and nearly groaned as he allowed her to carry a portion of his weight.

Saedah looked sidelong at her before downing the entire mug in three gulps. He grimaced, and seemed not to notice how he leaned on her just a bit more. She maneuvered him to the cot and helped him move his legs onto the mattress.

Kitty had told her what to expect and what to do once he left the pod. She was to wrap him in a warm blanket, give him the medicated drink, and allow him to lay down for a few minutes before replacing the warm blanket with a cold blanket. His muscles would be in spasm, and would relax with the heat. But the injured nerves would need cool to heal properly. The medicated drink should force him to sleep before too long, where she could apply an ointment to the incisions.

However, before she could do more than get him on the bed, they Fell out of Jump. Saedah immediately rolled to his side and retched the drink onto the floor. With a white knuckled grip on the mattress and blanket, he dry heaved for another long minute. Nyx sat and rubbed at his back, in the narrow strip just above his spine where no incisions had been made. When he made to lay back on the bed he closed his eyes and tried to regain his faculties. Nyx stood slowly and silently, not wanting to disturb him. She returned with another cup of the drink and a mop.

"Kitty, dock it and let me go home first." Saedah's voice echoed down the short passageway to the tiny kitchenette.

"You need to rest immediately. You can wait for an hour before moving. Nyx knows what to do." Kitty responded from the sensor above the bunk.

"I want to see my home. I want to see the cats." Saedah paused. "Please tell me they are still there."

"They are. Your maid has remained employed." she continued in a motherly tone, "But you are in no condition to leave that bed, and you know it. You can drink your medicine and do what you need to do before going in."

"Try and stop me." Saedah growled.

"I am the ship!" She responded indignantly. "I can lock you in here!"

"And I can't say that I would help you, Saedah." Nyx chimed in, startling him. "Drink."

"I will drink when I get into my own bed." he growled. When the shudder of docking rippled through the hull he stood, albeit shakily, and made his way to the hatch. "You can either let me do this or watch me injure myself trying."

"Men!" both Nyx and Kitty huffed at the same time.

"You may as well help him, Nyx. It goes against my programming to allow this idiot to come to harm, and he knows that." Kitty grumbled. "The latch is secure. Pressure maintained."

"Where are we?" Nyx wondered as she siddled alongside Saedah and draped one of his arms around her shoulder. He leaned on her far more than he had just minutes ago, and it sent a thrill of concern through her. Saedah was unwell.

"It's a very small dwarf mesoplanet called Brymston. It's in the same system as Neofel. Its warm enough to be a gaean-like planet, but it's atmosphere is toxic to most hydrogen-based organisms."

She looked at him deadpan for a moment.

"You are a hydrogen-based organism." Understanding lit her eyes as he grumbled something about 'captain, my ass.' and continued. "It's about 1,500 miles in diameter, mostly covered in a highly acidic ocean and quite a few magma rivers on the other side of the planet. The atmosphere is almost the same as Gaea, excusing the high content of carbon dioxide, but instead of water or water vapor, it's all sulfuric acid." He tapped the button for the latch then added, "Don't get caught in the rain."

The latchway had one solid wall, and one with windows dotting the length, leading to a dull metallic vacuum-quality door. A small smile twitched the corner of Saedah's mouth as he paused to look over the yellow-tinted countryside. Nyx took in a breathtaking landscape of short red and yellow trees and patches of red and blue ground-cover dotting a multicolored series of plateaus and rivers with a waterfall in the distance. Pillars of smoke rose from the patches of bare yellow earth circled in rings of red, brown, and black. The rivers and lone waterfall were a striking shade of turquoise, with beaches running from red to bright yellow to white. The sky was pale, but the setting sun cast the clouds in brilliant colors, vibrant red chief among them.

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"Beautiful." She whispered. The walls of the house were stained yellow and orange in odd patterns. The single visible window, however, was clear. This narrow-scoped view did not provide her with any indication of how large or small the house was, as the view of the house disappeared around the corner to her right. There may have been around 10 feet in total visibility. Below them, the house stood on stilts for twice that.

"Sunset really is the best time. Night isn't bad either, though. Just wait for it." He winked at her then froze. He'd just realized he was talking to her as a friend, as he had spoken with Vector the first time the boy had visited. "Come on." He growled, removing his weight from her and walking forward without her.

"Well, it was nice while it lasted." Nyx grumbled with a last look at her first view of Brymston then followed the grumpy-gus to the other end of the latchway. He already had the door open, but was crouched inside. Before she could say anything, he moved his left hand to the 'Hold' sign.

Immediately on guard, she assumed a fighting stance and pulled the extending rod from her boot.

"Don't. Move." He whispered. "They broke out of the back rooms." He made some odd clicking noises and something that sounded like a bull's hooves on tile assaulted her ears. Fear gripped her heart.

"Gotcha." He half-laughed. "Bansi, stop damnit. Bansi!" He backed out of the door holding two extremely large black and brown brindle cats by harnesses. "This is Bansi," He nodded to the darker of the pair, "and Hans."

"Holy shi-" A squeak cut her off as Hans lunged for her. She stumbled back and collided with the wall of the hatch. Saedah only laughed as the cat stood almost vertical, Saedah having braced for the lunge. The cat swat at her with a saucer-sized paw tipped with retracting claws.

"They usually aren't this 'in-your-face'. They must have a litter in there somewhere." Almost before he could finish the sentence, another blurry shape launched itself out the door and onto his left side. Both harnessed cats bounced away, free of Saedah's hold, as Saedah and a smaller brindle cat slammed to the hatch floor.

Nyx screamed, trying to climb the wall, as the two larger cats turned on Saedah.

The premonition that seized her was that of Saedah being torn to shreds by the cats. As it was, blood had already somehow splattered across the nearest window and a smudged handprint stood stark against the landscape. She extended the rod and stepped forward.

But Bansi tackled the offensive smaller cat. From a yowling, angry ball of flying fur and sharp claws, the two separated. The smaller cat launched itself back into the house, followed by Bansi.

Hans sat looking back and forth between Nyx and Saedah, who was applying pressure to a bloody mess in his right arm, near his shoulder.

"Sparks, Saedah…." She stepped forward and earned a low growl from the cat.

"He's not going to let you come to me with the stick." Saedah gasped. "smutching hells."

Nyx dropped the rod without a second thought and took a tentative step forward, showing her palms to the cat. The blasted beast didn't make any noise, but she wasn't placing much faith in its stability. It just watched her with bright golden eyes, not moving a muscle. Another step, and the cat seemed to remain both indifferent and as though he could rip her throat out in an instant. Another step closer.

Wearily, she reached a hand out to touch Saedah's shoulder. The cat still made no noise, but Nyx would have to turn her back on that thing to help him. She swallowed and steeled her nerves.

"If it kills me, I'm going to skin you alive." She hissed in his ear as she ripped her belt off to attempt a quick tourniquet. It was far from perfect, but it slowed the flow of blood enough that pressure might keep him alive long enough to get him medical attention. "Back to the ship."

"No. I want my home, dammit." He shoved against her, earning a growl from the cat. She backed off the foolish man, and followed from a distance as he staggered into the house.

It was enormous. The wide entry led to an intersection that branched in three directions; left, right, and down a set of wide, gilded stairs. The paths to the left and right were wide and protected from a fall with elegantly carved rails. The stairs descended into a great room with small bookshelf islands and couches piled with pillows. In the furthest corner was an open kitchen fit for a palace and an enormous round table with six chairs around it. Above, the high vaulted ceiling was fixed with many lights. Pale paint trimmed in beautifully carved, richly colored wood ran throughout the visible space, both upstairs and down, matched with dark hardwood floors. The paths to left and right circled the whole of the room.

There were three branches similar to the entry with both an upstairs and downstairs. The branches lead West, North, East, and South; back out from whence she came.

Perhaps it was a palace. Nyx surely had not seen a personal dwelling built so grand aside from the family Houses of her people.

She stood gaping until the hiss of the closing hatch cut her admiration short. She turned to see the door. It had been a strange metal-like material from the exterior but someone had been crafty enough to add a worked wood facade on the interior-side without interfering with it's integrity.

Then Saedah's steps faltered and Nyx lurched to catch him as he made to pitch headlong down the remaining half of the stairs.

"Oh, no you don't!" She hissed. "I'll be damned if you leave me with homicidal cats!"

"You are not a Homo sapien."

"And neither are you, asshole."

"No need for name calling." He weakly jested, looking sleepy. "And I am half." He whispered, letting his head loll and his eyes flutter closed.

"Keep your eyes open. Breath in through your nose-"

"I've done this a lot." He stated as he seemed to snap back to reality. "I can manage." It came out a lot harsher than Saedah had meant it, but he would not give her the satisfaction of an apology.

"Fine. You want to be an asshole? Go ahead and kill yourself on the stairs." They left the last step as she continued, "Or let yourself bleed out." She slapped him across the back of the head.