Free Drednanth: A Tale of the Final Fall of Man by Andrew Hindle Page A

what they can because they’ve got no choice.”
    Until the others come back , Z-Lin couldn’t help but think, with enough ships to evacuate the Chalice and rip the whole lot of you to pieces . Living and operating alongside Fergunak was always a dicey business, and just when you started to expect the worst from them every time, they surprised you again.
    “…and helping with some repairs,” Bendis was continuing, “they’re good with the tech. ‘ Any way we can help, little flesh ,’ they say. Creepy bastards. People are wondering why they didn’t turn coat if this was…” the Acting Controller paused, then went on defiantly, as if finally daring to say it aloud, “…Damorakind. But they seem to be in this with us, so we’re not asking questions right now. Too many other questions to get to first.”
    “Damorakind would destroy Six Species Fergunak just as quickly as they’d destroy Molren,” Z-Lin said, thinking of the Fergunak of the Larger Dark Moving Below school, and what they’d said to Waffa. At least here, there seemed to be a more even survivor demographic mix, and – as Bendis had said – nowhere for the sharks to go. At least currently.
    It was a different set of starting conditions too, of course. The Warm was a dry-land settlement with aquatic habitats, rather than the opposite.
    “That’s what I keep telling people,” Bendis agreed. “Anyway, they’ve been helping, creepy or not. They’ve also been towing some wounded in pods to the only Molran cruiser to survive,” the Acting Controller added, “the Maka Lomgrem , in the outer system. She’s not relative-capable but she has sleeper berths, which seems to be the best bet for some of the wounded right now.”
    “Wounded Molranoids,” Decay said quietly from his station.
    Bendis seemed to hear this. “There aren’t that many human wounded left,” he said fatalistically. “They all either died already, or are on the mend by now, or haven’t been found yet so are probably in one of those two categories. Sleeping them up wouldn’t help, since humans aren’t compatible. Molren and Blaren and Bonshooni can take a lot more damage and be okay as long as the sleeper berths are there to keep them stable. And our fabrication plants are … well, if you guys can help us out with ables or organs or basically anything, it will be more than we have.”
    “We can print off some spare parts,” Clue hedged, “but our own fabrication plant is damaged.”
    “Shit, I’m sorry Commander,” Bendis said. “I didn’t even ask. Did you guys get hit? Is there a blockade? How did you get through?”
    “We’re just coming from the site of what looks like a similar disaster,” Clue said, “ocean planet a couple of weeks out.”
    “Bayn Balro?” the Acting Controller said. “All the way out there? Shit. Shit . They got a serve of this too?”
    “Yes,” Clue said carefully. “We pulled out twenty-seven Bonshoon survivors, otherwise casualties – non-Fergunakil casualties – were total. I’ll pass on our full report, the Fergunak in the Chalice will probably want to know that there’s another bunch of schools out there waiting for relief. They’d turned hostile and violated Corps regulations and the charter, but we couldn’t have brought them all with us in a modular anyway. It’s all in my official statement.”
    Bendis whistled. “Understood,” he said, subdued. “And that’s all that was left? All you brought with you? The twenty-seven Bonshooni?”
    “Along with minimal equipment,” Clue replied, “and … zero product.”
    Acting Controller Bendis was silent for a moment, then he chuckled. “Copy that, Commander. And don’t worry. We’re all just as happy to be pulling air and doing our jobs without getting hopped up on smoke right now. That junk was mainly an issue for the Molren to worry about and it was a big deal in the Chalice dry-land environments and their ‘ponics systems. Not my department,” he paused.