It took me a few hours to calm down after my fight with the ferrets, I had no idea what to call them so that would just have to work. Once I was calmer, I moved the bodies away from the coffin clearing we had fought in which was way grosser than it needed to be. Seriously, I could feel the slick nature of the Scourge's skin through my gloves and I could feel how its muscles deformed in my grip while I dragged each one away. I could have gone my entire life without touching a Scourge, but someone on high had very different plans.

"Cai, am I good to try to take a nap?" I asked my cybernetic voice.

"I will make an effort to monitor Scourge lifeforms that enter my range of detection," Cai assured me.

"I hope I have a peaceful night then," I said before turning over and trying to sleep. I know, what I just said is usually the point when something interrupts the night and tries to eat my face. That's probably why when I woke up to the bright, blue sun shining in my face, I was really surprised. Apparently I was way more tired than I had thought I was.

"Are you awake now Rickshaw?" Cai greeted me. What ever happened to "good morning?"

"Yea, I'm up Cai," I answered him, groaning as I rubbed at my eyes; don't ever try sleeping in a helmet unless you're upright, first thing I learned on the hostile alien planet I'd been sent to.

"Excellent," he said. "I believe it will please you to note that I detected the presence of several Scourge in the night but they were all far enough away that they did not notice you or the bodies of their slain kin."

"Great," I groaned, reaching for my helmet. "How long till I can go back to the shelter?"

"You can go today, but I recommend that you take a circuitous route rather than a direct one."

"Let's head out then," I said rising to my feet and pointing myself southeast for a bit before turning east long enough to cut back north.

As I walked Cai actually floated a question that caught me off-guard.

"What do you intend to name the Scourge type you faced yesterday evening?" he asked.

"I hadn't thought of anything," I admitted. "They looked like ferrets a little to me. The pointed snout and the little ears that laid close to their head were the biggest part of it for me. I just don't know of any stories that used ferrets. There's the one about the mongoose and the cobras from India but I don't think ferrets and mongooses are related enought to call them that."

"I see," Cai said. "You cannot simply choose a name that does not resonate with your image of the creatures you faced then?"

Stolen novel; please report.

"Yeah sure," I said. "I picked Hellhound because hellhounds actually exist. Sorta. They're supposed to be dogs that guard Hell or hunt down sinners or something. People made them up to say they knew what things were like there and they just became something horrible."

"And you require your chosen name for the Sourge lifeforms to be something that evokes horror and fear or terror?" Cai asked.

"Not neccessarily, but if I don't choose a name that makes people think twice about messing with them, then I'm just inviting them all to make mistakes with them because they might think the Scourge aren't dangerous," I told him. "I just don't want people looking back at their names and saying 'Patty McPattisons aren't born evil, they're just misunderstood.' If they do that then anything that happens then is kind of my fault."

"Interesting logic," Cai said. "Am I to understand then, that if I were to suggest a name that may be appropriate then you might accept it?"

"Sure Cai, what do you have for me?" I asked.

"You liken these Scourge to the creature you refer to as a 'ferret?'" he began. "A general search of the piece of your world's 'internet' which I have access to reveals a creature known as a 'kamaitachi.' The animal in reference is a weasel rather than a ferret, but it is stated that they are of the same biological family taxon. This creature is known amongst the island nation Japan for having extremely sharp claws or sickles in place of them, much like the Scourge lifeform you have recently slain. Is this acceptable?"

"I mean it works for me," I agreed, no need to try to come up with something else when other people already had. "By the way, you said you had access to a piece of the Internet? What piece do you have that lets you look for something like this?"

"Your people have named it 'Wikipedia' and I must admit that I find much of it fascinating," Cai answered. "Your species' obssesion with people that are moderately well-known in certain circles as well as those known by their wealth or lineage is fascinating without even mentioning the number of myths that can be accessed and found simply by browsing around for a small measure of time."

"Good to hear," I said as I pushed aside a bit of the grass I was walking through and saw a coffin. Weird, the only coffin I was supposed to encounter on this route was the home coffin and this wasn't it.

Like all other coffins this one was only vaguely recognizable with parts of it strewn throughout the crash site and the coffin itself in maybe three pieces big enough to know what it was.

"Cai is this a new coffin?" I asked him.

"If you mean to ask that this coffin is one that you have encountered before today then no it is not," he answered me. "If you mean to ask me about the actual age of the coffin then I must confess that I am entirely unsure. I do not have the means to detect such a thing."

"It was the first thing," I sighed. "What about the battery? We just need one more and then we can start working to get off this planet."

"I am detecting an intact battery housing," Cai said. "I recommend that you retrieve it."

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," I muttered while moving closer to the area of the coffin that the battery would rest in.

Once I had found the right spot to cut open with my laser torch, I was happy to see that the battery inside was completely fine, no holes punched through it from debris and shrapnel gouging into it on landing. Now I really needed to get back home and set this up with the others to send my message and build a bomb for the Scourge Queen. Once I did that I'd be home free and set to go back home. Maybe.