Nick spent part of the flight south going through Petra's mining equipment designs. I should have built some of these ahead of time, he chastised himself. There were devices meant for rapid sifting of large amounts of material, to collect substances in very low concentrations. Hopefully the scans will show places that are more concentrated, and I can focus there.

  He read the transcripts of the conversations the fuakalas were having with Petra. He knew he wasn't understanding all of it, but he noticed that Kathy had shared permissions with Jenkins, which was smart. He hadn't heard from Kathy in a while, she was resting in his bed and wasn't asking any more questions.

  He was worried about her. We knew this could kill her, and still she came. I should have told her no. We could have gotten things done eventually at a remove, and it would have been safer.

  He kept an eye on her status sheet, and watched her health percentage slowly dropping. I have no idea how Petra is calculating that. It's from a game, so maybe she's guessing how combat-effective Kathy is, or something.

  “Nick.”

  Nick furrowed his brow. That's all Petra said, just his name. Like she wanted to get his attention. He couldn't remember her ever doing that before, except when he set alarms. He checked, and he didn't have any alerts set that would have a reason to go off right then.

  “Yes, Petra?”

  “Kathy's health is less than fifty percent.”

  “I see it.”

  “Kathy is asleep.”

  “Yes?”

  “Petra cast Heal?”

  Nick blinked. “Can you heal Kathy now?”

  “No.”

  “But...” Nick squeezed his eyes shut, trying to think. “Why cast Heal if it doesn't work?”

  “I don't understand.”

  “Me either. Petra, patch me in.” He'd taught her that expression earlier.

  “Ready, Nick.”

  “Jenkins, this is Nick. Petra is saying something that I don't understand.”

  “Nik!eh, this is Geh!kin. I don't understand.”

  “Petra say Petra is not able to heal Kathy now. But...Petra is asking me permission to heal Kathy. Um...Petra ask, I say heal Kathy. I want say yes. But I do not understand.”

  There was some conversation at the far end in Kthufu that Petra didn't translate. Then Jenkins came back. “Nick, can Petra heal Ktheg!lik...some?”

  Nick smacked his forehead. “That's it! Thank you. Um...I should ask you. Can I say Petra heal Kathy?”

  “Yes, yes, yes.” Jenkins actually said three different words, but Petra translated all of them as “yes.”

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  “Thank you. Petra: heal Kathy.”

  “Insufficient resources.”

  Nick made fists while he struggled to get the phrasing right. “Petra, cast Heal on Kathy.”

  “Yes, Nick. Petra print tool. Petra pause oxygen tank print?”

  “How many oxygen tanks are there now?”

  “Eight.”

  “How long will it take to print the tool?”

  “Five minutes.”

  “Then yes. You can pause prints up to an hour to print health tools.”

  “Yes, Nick. Printing tool. Thank you.”

  Nick blinked. Is she getting smarter? Or...more decisive, or something? “Petra, how many cameras are in your dungeon now?”

  “Fifteen.”

  That's more than I thought, but whatever. “Point one camera at Kathy, please.”

  “Yes, Nick.”

  A minute later, he could see Kathy through Camera 12. She was lying on her back. Her big ears were actually folded forward, hiding her face. Like a sleeping blindfold. Huh. As he watched, Kathy turned her head, and her upper ear unfolded, revealing one closed eye. Listening for attackers, or something? She straightened her head, and the ear folded up over her face again. Nick was vaguely reminded of a flower that opened and closed day and night.

  Nick looked away as the forward view caught his attention. The land had been gently sloping downward for a while, but the ground became more colorful ahead, with steeper cliffs all facing the same way. This is where the edge of the ocean used to be. I'm in the shallows, and ahead is where deep water used to be...

  His eyes widened and he grabbed for the controls, bringing Rockhunter to a halt only feet away from a steep drop. He felt the seat belt dig into his gut and was grateful that a lifetime of habit hadn't let up; he'd put a seat belt on the chair in Rockhunter, and it might have just saved him from serious injury. He didn't have much in the way of safety padding aside from it.

  He took a moment to get his breath back, then started looking for a gentler path down. “Petra, scan for element 23.”

  “Element 23 found.”

  “Show me.”

  The map lit up with a faint haze that got slightly thicker ahead. “Petra, how many units of element 23 are you detecting near Rockhunter now?”

  “Very small.”

  “Much less than one unit?”

  “Yes.”

  Damn, this might take a while.

  Rather than search for a gentle path down, Nick let Petra do it, after a dozen rounds of making sure she wasn't going to drop them off a cliff that they couldn't get back up again after, or anything like that. It was still two hours to sunset, and there weren't many shadows to hide in ahead. Nick tried to figure out how he was going to collect enough element 23 in a reasonable amount of time.

  He heard some shouting in Kthufu. Jenkins was yelling at Petra, demanding an explanation of something. Nick looked at the video of Kathy and blinked, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

  Kathy was thrashing in place, or trying to. She seemed unable to move far. Her ears were trying to keep her face covered. Meanwhile, something Nick didn't recognize was sort of crawling over her, and prying her ears away from her face smoothly but firmly. What the hell?

  “Petra! What is on Kathy?”

  “Monster 279.”

  Well at least it isn't a weird alien manta ray that crawled into the dungeon to smother her, but... “Petra, what is Monster 279 doing?”

  “Petra cast Heal.”

  “Nik!eh! Nik!eh! What Petra do Ktheg!lik?” Geh!kin shouted. He had been arguing with Petra in Kthufu and apparently hadn't gotten a clear answer yet. Nick squinted, then found the controls to work the camera and zoomed in. He had just enough to time realize what was happening, and then it was done.

  Kathy stopped thrashing. She was awake, her ears out to the sides in a way that reminded Nick of the threat display of a cobra. There was something covering her mouth now, with a tube running to an oxygen tank. She rocked rhythmically, the way a human would while catching their breath. Slowly, she raised one arm, and waved slightly, then made some gesture with her fingers that Nick couldn't interpret.

  Jenkins stopped shouting. He made an odd noise, then explained in a lower tone, “Kathy say Kathy is good.” Nick sighed in relief. I guess intubation isn't quite as traumatic for a fuakala as it is for a human. Either that, or Kathy is one tough lady.

  He checked Kathy's status, and watched the number on her “air input” debuff climb from 49 percent up past ninety percent, when the debuff disappeared. Her temperature had gone up another degree, however.

  “Thank you, Petra. Good job.”

  “You're welcome, Nick. Thank you.”

  Nick took a moment to catch his own breath; that had been nerve-wracking to watch. Time to do my part. Let's go get some element 23.