Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.     Twice Removed Chapter 7 New Dawn By Amethyst

I was expecting to see hate, fear, and betrayal on the faces of the colonists but except for two of Jared’s supporters the colonists didn’t seem to care, in fact a lot were smiling and exchanging knowing looks. I took a deep breath and announced, “We will decide on the fates of the mutineers at a later date, we have more important things to worry about right now. Until their fates are decided they will be imprisoned aboard the medical ship.” There was some muttering about that but I quickly continued to get their minds on what they needed to be on right now. “I understand how you all feel, but right now survival has to be our top priority.”

After a brief pause to let that sink in I began to outline what needed to be done. “I estimate that we have four hours of daylight left and we’ll need to use that time to get organized. So while I have Sarah, Tanna, Xawin, and Karran figuring out what supplies we have to work with I want everyone else to make yourselves comfortable here so that Krie and I can speak with each of you. We want to get a head count, make sure everyone is uninjured, and get an idea of what skills you have to contribute.” Once everyone had sat down to await their medical scan and short interview I turned to Dennis. “Captain white, please return the prisoners to one of the quarantine room until we can figure out something more permanent for them, then I’d like you and Matt to begin patrolling the area, there may be other creatures or useful plants that we haven’t seen yet.”

“We’ll get right on that Commander,” he responded, “Let’s get moving you four.”

Jared frowned and said nothing, I’m pretty sure that he knew he was getting off lightly. It was Jake who complained, glaring at me. “You’re locking us up again?! Why? Aren’t you going to need all the help you can get?”

I glared right back at him. “I am saving your lives, for the moment, though I'm not sure why I'm bothering. I would love nothing more than to put you all on a work detail right now and let you meet whatever fate the colonists think you deserve. There’s a bunch of understandably pissed off people who probably want blood for what you all caused. If I send you off to do work with the others how long do you think it would be before there was an ‘accident’ involving one or more of you? Let me make this clear, I don’t give a fuck whether you live very uncomfortably or die but I don’t want these people doing something they may regret later. Most of them are good people who don’t need your deaths on their conscience and I don’t want our time on this planet to begin with killing; there have been enough deaths already. We’ll decide your fates when everyone is thinking more clearly.”

Dennis and Matt started moving them back to the medical drop ship while I put on my goggles and Krie and I both took out medical scanners to begin our medical scans and interviews. We used tablets to store all the data so that we could come back to it later. It took over an hour but we got everyone scanned and checked for injuries and any devices like the one Eric had. To my great relief there were none of the latter and no injuries among the survivors other than minor scrapes and bruises. I did discover that one of the Haran youths had nanites like my own though. The Haran’s name was Bixx and they were close to my own age, still genderless, and likely wouldn’t ever have a gender with the nanites keeping them at that age.

Including myself and those in the medical ship there were a total of two hundred and nine survivors: Myself and the other five Saer’khi, a family of four Yazuik, twenty-three Haran, seven Nezans, seventeen Murqui, and one hundred and fifty two Humans. Since nine hundred and seventy three of us had started the journey on the Bounty that meant that we had lost seven hundred and sixty four colonists. I tried not to think about that as I looked over the skills we had available to us. Close to two dozen of the Humans had some sort of military history. There were also some construction workers, a physicist, a school teacher, a geologist, and a Murqui chemist.

By that time Sarah and the others had a list of the supplies aboard the personnel ship as well. We had available two nanite construction kits, which I figured we would hold in reserve for an emergency. We also had some other high tech goodies like one mag-transport, twenty-one particle beam cylinders, twenty subspace comm discs, two electromagnetic shield generators, six cases of ten data pads, two dozen photon lamps, and four solar generators. The five water purifiers, seventeen cases of ration bars, one case of honey, and twenty-six crates of kitchen supplies would be useful to Sarah. For construction and clothing we had two crates of shovels, one crate of axes, two crates of nails, five crates containing four tool kits each, nine plasma torches, twenty-three crates of thermal cloth jumpsuits, fourteen crates of cotton cloth, needles and thread, five environmental suits, and while the three cases of thermal wrap might be useful in the kitchen I could see us using it to create warm shelters as well.

The final two items on the list were various fruit and vegetable seeds and two freezers containing genetic material from various species. Those would be very useful if we could use two or three of the four cloning chambers on the medical ship to clone birds or insects that could help pollinate the plants. Long term we could even clone some domestic farm animals. The cloning chambers were designed to clone both organs for medical use and living organisms during food shortages and would be useful in our current situation.

Even having the medical drop ship itself was a huge boon to us as it had a fully equipped sickbay, living quarters for up to four medical staff, and all of the spare medical supplies we had managed to salvage. Besides that and the twenty private cubicles for patients the medical ship also had two operating rooms contained in electromagnetic shields to keep them sterile, three medical tubes and neuro-suppressors in addition to the ones being used on Eric, a sterilization room that uses sonics and anti-bacterial bath, a full sized enclosed medical scanner and body mapper, the four cloning chambers, an emergency weapons locker, and a nanite medical programming console to construct artificial limbs, and other pre-programmed items in conjunction with the body mapper.

If we still had all the colonists we would be spreading all the supplies we had pretty thin but with so few of us still alive we stood a much better chance at survival with what we had available. I made sure to mention this when I addressed everyone to help brighten their spirits. “Okay everyone, I know things look grim but we have ration bars, tools for construction, some clothing, and even a possible way to increase our food supply in the long term. We need to split into groups and get things done during the two or so hours of daylight we have left.”

There was relief of many of the colonists faces as I continued on to outline what needed to be done. “I will be staying here with Krie to coordinate things, issue supplies, provide medical attention if needed and catalog what seeds and genetic material we have available. If you’re willing to help with hunting and gathering please report to Lirra and Tanna. I’ll need the folks from the kitchen and other volunteers to gather kindling and to help Sarah get some cooking fires started up for tonight, and I’ll need people to help Karran with gathering firewood and supplies to make shelters. Xawin’s crew will start digging holes for latrines and set up the photon lamps. I would like our school teacher Rebecca Landry to keep the younger children occupied with a few volunteers as well. Each team will be issued a subspace comm disc and a weapon and I urge you all to please be careful. We haven’t had time to do a full survey of the planet yet and there may be dangers out there. If you find anything useful please let your team leader know right away.”

Once the necessary tools had been doled out to each of the teams Krie and I began to look through the genetic material available to us. Saer bees would be far too dangerous to have around without taking precautions but we were both pleased to see honey bee DNA had been included, as had hummingbirds. Both would be good for pollination and the latter wouldn’t eat the bee population, while the former would produce honey. Cows and chickens were on our list too, for their milk and eggs and to have poultry and beef available. The final animal that we were thinking of introducing in the long term was the Durla. They were large sheep-like animals even bigger than cows with thick white wool and a good temperament that could feed on just about any type of grass. The females produced sweet tasting milk in fairly large quantities as well.

For vegetation we were hoping to cultivate a large number of fruits and vegetables as well as wheat and rice. There were various herbs and spices from Earth and other worlds and Sarah felt they would help add flavor to the meals if we could grow those as well. We were discussing how to best develop the land for farming when a call came in for medical attention from Karran’s team that was gathering firewood. I grabbed my kit, ran outside and took to the skies. It was nice to be able to fly again without worry and I would be able to find them easier from the air, at least that’s what I told myself. The fresh air rushing past me as I flew toward the sound of trees being chopped down was refreshing and helped to wake me up a bit. I was approaching two days with no sleep and it was beginning to take its toll. I promised myself that once sleeping arrangements were taken care of for the other colonists later that evening I would try to get some sleep of my own.

I landed at the edge of the forest where the colonists were hard at work and walked over to where Karran was waiting for me with a young man. *Kyle here got some resin from one of these black conifers on his arm and he says it burns a bit,* the engineer informed me.

*Thanks Karran, I’ll take it from here,* I assured him before turning to smile at the young man. He wasn’t an adult yet, probably twelve or thirteen, with light blond hair and blue eyes. He probably could have stayed with Rebecca with the younger children but he appeared to be the type who wanted to prove he was a grown up and could do his share. “Hi Kyle,” I said casually as I knelt beside him, “So you told Karran that the resin from those trees burns a bit?”

He nodded rapidly before answering. “Yes… umm… Commander Phar. It’s not hurting really bad, it’s more like a little sunburn and the stuff is… uhh… really sticky.”

I tried not to smile at his nervousness. “Let me have a look Kyle and I’ll see what can be done.” He raised his arm for me to look at and I took out my medical scanner set it to scan biological agents and ran it over the blue substance. When the scanner beeped I looked over the results. “Hmmm it’s mildly acidic but not dangerously so. I’m going to spray it with a cooling agent. It should be less sticky when it’s cold and come off fairly easily. So I need you to just stay still for a moment while I do that, okay?”

“O-okay,” he answered as I took out a bottle of coolant spray and spritzed the resin which quickly began to harden. Once hardened I began to peel it off carefully, though it actually came off pretty easily once it was hardened. Once it was removed his arm was a little pink where it had been but there was no real damage, it couldn’t even really be classified as a burn it was so mild. The area did seem to be missing the light sprinkling of hair that was evidenced on his other arm but I was pretty sure he could live with that. It could have been far worse after all.

I placed my goggles back over my eyes and zoomed in on the affected area. “I’m guessing the redness will fade within the hour. This stuff isn’t really harmful just annoying. It pretty much burned out your hair follicles though and I can’t be sure if the hair will grow back. You’re lucky you didn’t get it on your head,” I told him with a smile. “So it looks like you’ll live. If you notice any other reaction to the area later let me know immediately but otherwise you’re safe to get back to work.” I looked around and whispered conspiratorially, “I might have a special job for you too if you’re interested in doing it.”

His eyes lit up and he nodded, “What kind of job?”

“I need someone responsible to make sure that everyone chopping wood knows what this resin does and to be careful not to get any on them. And if anyone does get some on them I need that person to remove the stuff like I did for you,” I told him as I took out an extra bottle of the coolant spray. “Just spritz this on the resin, wait for a minute, and then pull it off carefully. Then at dinner tonight you can bring the bottle back to me. This is a really important job and it will keep me from having to fly back and forth a lot, so do you think that you can do that for me?”

He nodded so fast that I thought his head might come off. “I can do that Commander!”

I grinned at him, handed him the bottle, and stood up. “Okay Kyle, you keep up the good work and remember to report to me at dinner.”

“Yes ma’am!” he said as he dashed off to do his newly assigned duty.

*Okay Karran, if anyone else gets that resin on them let Kyle take care of it. Call me if you need anything else though,* I sent to my large Saer’khi friend. It was then that movement in trees caught my eye and I quickly added, *I think I saw something. I’m going to go check it out.*

*Alright Commander, please be careful and call me if you need me,* he sent back.

I flew off toward the movement keeping just above the ground since I wanted speed and relative quiet and not altitude. I was heading toward one of the wingnut trees that Krie had described when I saw movement toward it. I sent a zoom command to my goggles and saw some sort of small light brown rodent, roughly the size of a mouse with small ears and a fan-like tail running up the tree with all the speed it could muster. In pursuit of it was a lavender and black creature roughly three feet long from its nose to the tip of its tail.

The treemouse, or whatever it was ran along a branch of the wingnut tree and leaped for the next tree over, using its tail as a sort of hang glider. Once it reached a branch on the next tree it made haste for a hole in the trunk. The larger creature, seeing that its prey had gotten away after climbing halfway up the trunk gave up its chase and returned to the base of the tree where it started licking the sap that was dripping from a small hole in the trunk. Curious, I took a ration bar from my pocket and unwrapped it, taking a bite myself before landing near the creature and making what I hoped were friendly sounds as I held out a piece of ration bar and tried to project calming feelings like I did with the Saer bees back home.

The creature looked at me curiously, sniffed the air and after a moment’s consideration began to slowly approach me. A closer inspection showed the animal to be vaguely weasel-like with its long skinny body. It had thick fur that looked very soft and was primarily lavender in color but with black paws and a black streak running along its back from the tip of its nose to the tip of its long bushy tail. Its large triangular ears were over-sized for its head like a Fennec fox with black at the tips. It also boasted large golden eyes, a pointed muzzle with pronounced canines, and cat-like whiskers. It seemed to consider me for a moment and I carefully removed my goggles so that amber eyes met amber eyes.

It stood up on its hind legs using its tail to balance itself as it regarded me revealing that its chest and belly were white. Finally it sniffed the air again and closed the remaining distance to nibble at the bit of ration bar in my outstretched hand. It had grasping forepaws with claws that looked like they were meant for burrowing and climbing and it took the piece of ration bar from me, nibbling at it as it stared into my eyes. I slowly reached out to scratch behind those big ears and found that the fur was as soft as I had imagined. It made a buzzing sound as I scratched and petted it; I wouldn’t call it purring it almost sounded like my wings when they really get going.

“Aren’t you a pretty little slip of a thing,” I said as I stopped petting it to gather some wing nuts and have a closer look at the sap that it had been licking. I cautiously touched some with a fingertip and gave it a lick of my own. It was sweet, kind of like maple syrup but with a kind of smoky taste to it. I took out my sample case and managed to half fill a jar with the free running sap before placing both the jar and the dozen or so wingnuts I had gathered into the case. Finished with my collection I said goodbye to my little friend and finished the ration bar as I started to walk out of the trees.

*I found two small creatures,* I sent to Krie and the other Saer’khi as I passed the colonists chopping wood. *Both seemed suited to live in either underground burrows or holes in trees and one was licking the sap from the wingnut trees. I’m bringing back a sample for Sarah*

*Was one of the creatures light purple and black?* Karran asked with a hint of amusement in his mind voice.

*Yeah, have you seen one before?* I replied.

*Only the one that is following you,* he responded with a mental chuckle.

I turned around and sure enough the creature was following right along behind me. I started moving my wings to get into a hover and move a little faster but the silly thing just started running to keep up. *Okay, maybe feeding the local wildlife wasn’t such a great idea,* I mentally muttered as I landed and turned around to try and shoo the critter off. It didn’t seem to feel like being shooed though as it started to nuzzle me, making that buzzing sound and mewling noises. The critter was adorable and I couldn’t help but feel some affection for it but this was getting ridiculous.

Finally I gave in and gave it a good petting and a scratch behind the ears and this feeling of affection and possessiveness washed over me. *I… I think I’ve just been claimed.*

*What do you mean?* Tanna’s mental voice asked.

*I think these creatures might be empathic and fairly intelligent. I just had this really possessive and affectionate feeling hit me and I know it wasn’t from me. It’s either claimed me as its pet or the other way around,* I replied, feeling a little odd about the whole thing.

*Intelligent? How intelligent?* Krie asked hopefully. *Like sentient?*

*I don’t think so,* I responded as I thought about it. *It’s kind of like a cat I think, really smart for a non-sentient animal and really possessive of people and things they see as theirs.* I sighed and picked up my new owner and petted it absently as I flew back to the medical ship. *We can have a better look at it when I get to the ship Krie.*

I landed in the area where Sarah and her staff were setting up the cooking fires for the evening. “Sarah, I have a sample that I’d like you to look at.”

Sarah turned around and smiled, “Sure Xia, what do you…” she stopped speaking as she stared at the cuddly critter in my arms. “Oh that is so adorable. I hope you don’t want me to cook it.”

I shook my head and laughed, “No, it followed me home, can I keep it?” I joked. “Seriously though, it thinks I belong to it. I’m thinking of calling these little critters slips, I’ll need a name for this particular slip eventually though I guess.” I put the slip down on the ground and rooted through my sample bag. “This sap is from those wingnut trees and my new friend here was licking it. It has a smoky sweet taste and I was wondering if you could use it for anything.” I passed her the sample jar and the wingnuts.

She put the wingnuts in her apron pocket and removed the cap from the sample jar. After giving it a good sniff she dipped her finger in the sap and tasted it. “Hmmm, that’s pretty good. Its tree sap you say? I suppose we could probably harvest it like maple sap to make syrup and a form of sugar. This is a pretty good find if we can make it work, especially for you Saer’khi, I know that you all need to have sweet things once in a while to keep your energy up.”

“Good, tomorrow we can show you what those trees look like and you can discuss what you’ll need to harvest the sap with Xawin and Karran.” I could hear buzzing again and I saw that my slip was preening under the attention of several of Sarah’s kitchen staff while they gushed about how cute it was. I had a feeling that these creatures were going to become very popular as pets if people could manage to coax them like I did. “I’ll see you at dinner, Krie wants to take a look at this cute little specimen and I want to check on my patients.”

“Sure thing Xia,” she replied. “Depending on how much meat and fish the gathering party gets I’m estimating an hour or two before dinner is ready. We’ll have wingnuts, and those lemonberries Krie told me about to go with it but that’s probably all we can offer for variety tonight.”

I left the sample with Sarah and hit the subspace comm disc to broadcast to all the team leaders and others with comm units. “Attention everyone, it’s going to be getting dark soon and since we have no idea what’s out there I want you all to finish your tasks and return to camp. Also any volunteers to take shifts for a night watch would be appreciated and should report to Captain White. Please make sure that all members of your teams are present and accounted for when you return.”

*My team is all done with digging latrines Commander,* Xawin reported. *Would you like us to start setting up the photon lamps in a perimeter around the camp?*

*That would be great Xawin. Finish that up and you and your crew can get some rest, you’ve earned it,* I replied as I stepped back into the medical ship

Krie thought that the slip was the cutest thing she had ever seen and immediately wanted one of her own as I placed it on a table and we examined it. *I only did it by accident sis,* I told her. *I tried soothing it like we do with the Saer bees and offered it some of my ration bar then scratched and petted it a bit. Somehow she got it into her head that I belong to her. Feel free to try and repeat the process if you can find one.*

*I will,* she assured me as she ran a scanner over the lavender hued attention whore. She was definitely a female, possibly about a year old, and near full maturity from the look of the data. We had no idea how she produced that buzzing sound but a scan of her brain showed development consistent with low level psychic abilities like the Saer bees had. It wasn’t near developed enough for telekinetic or telepathic abilities but empathy was indeed within the realm of possibility. Finally she put down the med scanner and sighed, *I wonder if the humanoids you discovered used to keep these as pets?*

*Who knows,* I answered with a shrug as I picked up the slip and placed her back on the floor. *We have some time before dinner will be ready, do you think you can prep Eric for surgery? I’ll check on our other patients and join you in the operating room. I want to get that device extracted and have our boys take a look at it as soon as they get a chance.*

*Sure Xia, I’ll get him ready. Lieutenant Sanchez should be ready to walk again anyway and she’s been getting a bit fidgety staying still all this time. I’ll let you deliver the good news.*

Tanna’s ping broke in as I was about to leave the room. *We’ve got the mag-transport loaded up. We used the empty crates the tools came in to store water and hopefully we have enough molehogs and seussfish to feed everyone for tonight.*

*Seussfish?* I inquired.

*One of the humans named them that,* she replied a bit confused by the name herself. *He says they look a lot like salmon but we noticed that they give off a glow in the deeper water, probably natural phosphorescence. The females are red and the males are blue. I asked him to explain why it was so funny but all he said was ‘One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.’*

I couldn’t help it, I broke out laughing. *Tell that man I am buying him a drink, as soon as we manage to get something alcoholic on this planet.*

A few moments later she sent, *He says he looks forward to it Commander. I’m sending them back with Lirra now before it gets dark, something has the Murqui and the one Yazuik with us spooked. I’ll wait in the mag-transport and head back when I know they’re all on their way.*

*Something has the Murqui spooked?* I didn’t like the sounds of that at all.

*Lirra followed some molehog tracks to where the river and ocean meet but they disappeared there. She said it looked like something big came out of the water and snatched it. She thinks whatever it was is nocturnal and more comfortable in the water than on land. She doubts it will stray as far as the camp but we thought that you should know,* she cautioned me.

*Okay thanks Tanna, as soon as you know everyone is on their way, head back yourself. We’ll have to make sure people know to avoid the water at night until further notice. And we’ll definitely be having patrols keeping watch tonight.* I sent back with a frown.

I was still frowning as I made my way into the cubicle where Luiza was still lying on a bed with her leg splinted. I tried to put on a smile for her though as I said, “Krie tells me you’re going stir crazy in here. Let me have a look at that leg and we’ll see if I have some good news for you.” Luiza’s leg was looking fine. The bone repair nanites had done their job and she was as good as new. “Well the good news is you can get out of here now.”

“And the bad news?” she asked.

“The bad news is I have work for you. I’m going to need you and Matt to lead one night watch tonight and wake Captain White and Lirra for another. I don’t like asking you to do it, but I need experienced people I can trust to do it. I should probably take one of those watches along with you as well.” I said with a sigh.

“How long has it been since you’ve slept Xia?” she asked in concern.

“I had planned to sleep after we checked to make sure it was safe to jump out of subspace but then the mutiny happened. I’d say it’s been about two days,” I admitted. “I’ll try to sleep for a few hours after we get all the other people settled in for the night.”

“You’re damn well getting more than a few hours then. We all had a chance to get at least a little rest while you were piloting the drop ship and running scans, but you’ve been going non-stop. I’ll tell your sister to drug you if I have to, so don’t even think about taking a watch tonight. We need you at your best,” she admonished me. That was when she noticed my small companion at the door, “What is that?”

“I call it a slip, we met in the woods and she hasn’t let me out of her sight since. I’m not going to argue with you about needing rest, I’m too damn tired. Let’s get you out of that splint so you can exercise that leg a bit.” I removed the splint and allowed her to get up and walk around the room a bit to ensure she was okay before I set her free.

Luiza was very happy to get that splint off and be able to move again. She immediately headed off to join Matt and Dennis on patrol and I was free to see Tarek and Amy. Tarek was also concerned to see me so tired but he seemed satisfied when I promised him mind-to-mind to get some sleep at the end of the day. He seemed to be doing well and didn’t mind keeping Amy company, for which I was greatly relieved. If I weren’t so busy I’d be spending more time with her myself since she really needed the distraction.

Amy fell in love with the slip at first sight and I resolved to help her get one of her own as soon as possible. I also needed to get some metals for the nanites to construct her bionic legs from. I would have to talk to the geologist; I thought her name was Mandy Williams, about looking at those mineral and ore samples I had collected to see if there was anything durable that we could use for bionics. First things first though, I had surgery to perform before dinner and the slip could not be in the operating room with me. I placed it on the bed in Amy’s lap and while petting it I tried to send a telepathic/empathic request. *Stay here, protect her.*

The slip cocked her head at me, gave me a curious look, and made that buzzing noise and I wasn’t sure if she had gotten the message or not. She made no move to get off the bed though as I headed to the door, and I told Amy that I would leave my new pet in her care until I completed the surgery. With my new companion off my heels I headed into the sterilization room to clean up. I used the antibacterial bath first and followed up with a sonic wash. Then I put on a surgical mask, gloves, and a personal EM field that would keep me sterile and went to join Krie in the operating room.

With both of us wearing goggles we looked for the chip at the base of his skull and carefully marked the incision point. He already had a scar there, faded so much that it was only visible to the trained eye. Krie prepared the area with a local anesthetic and after waiting a few moments for it to take effect I took a laser scalpel and made the incision. The chip was not easy to get at. They had it behind the cervical vertebrae and attached to the spinal cord at the base of the cerebellum. Obviously they didn’t want this little piece of tech being discovered.

As tired as I was, I didn’t trust myself to remove it at that point so I had Krie take over while I assisted and kept tabs on his vitals. Suddenly Eric began to spasm and his vitals were going crazy at the very same moment I heard Krie curse *Shit!*

I was monitoring on my medical scanner and saw immediately what the problem was. When Krie tried to remove the device it had released a powerful nerve toxin into his central nervous system via the spinal cord. I tried to give him something to counteract it and stabilize his vitals but whatever the stuff was it was potent, and not something that I was familiar with. That wasn’t surprising though since such things were considered unthinkable amongst the Saer’khi, who valued life. Eric was dead within seconds.