Nick was woken by his phone alarm. Am I late for work? Nick yawned hugely, and as his brain came back online, he remembered where he was, and realized that it was not actually his phone, but rather Petra waking him up.

  “Petra? What's up?”

  “You have a message.”

  Nick squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. “What?”

  “You have a message.”

  Abruptly Nick was wide awake. “Right now? Record it! And let me hear!”

  “Recording. Not understood.”

  “Play the message. Open message.”

  There was a crackling sound and a hiss of static. Nick watched the nearest display but apparently the signal was audio only. Then he heard a voice.

  Nick choked up. It was the first living, intelligent voice he had heard since arriving on BigBall. He couldn't understand a word of what they were saying, but it was a short message, repeated several times.

  "Petra, can you translate any of the message into English?"

  "No."

  “Can you tell where the message is coming from?”

  “Yes.”

  Nick waited a beat, then sighed. “Where is the message coming from?”

  Petra responded in alienese.

  Nick had to go over facts like 'there are 360o in a circle' and 'start at north and go east' before he could ask the question again. “Where is the message coming from?”

  “114 degrees.”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “How far away is the source?”

  “Unknown.”

  The signal cut out.

  “Petra, did they stop transmitting?”

  “Yes.”

  “Shit.”

  “Bathroom is available.”

  Nick shook his head. Sometimes it seemed as if Petra forgot things he had taught her, and then recalled them again later. He had no idea why it happened, but it did, often enough to be annoying.

  There was another week of work before Rockhunter would be ready. Nick told Petra to shift priority to finishing the parts for Rockhunter before building any more defenses. I want to get out there and see if I can find them. I hope they weren't just visiting briefly, and don't take off before I get there.

  Do I want to respond? Nick thought about it. No. If they call back, I should respond, maybe, but not after they stopped transmitting. They might have turned their radio off. Besides, I'm not sure I want to give away Petra's location yet.

  “Petra, now that we have a transmission, can we improve reception in case they call again?”

  “Not understood.”

  Nick drummed his fingers on his thigh, thinking. “Petra, build another short-range communicator. Do it now.” Maybe he could teach Petra about triangulating. Well, the idea anyway. He'd want Petra to do the actual math.

  While that was cooking, he went back to Rockhunter and took another look at a tricky bit of the assembly. What kind of crazy space warp am I supposed to use to get that in there, again? Maybe that's what that “oozlay” tool is for...

  The apple seedling was continuing to grow, and Petra reported that two more seedlings had sprouted. Nick sat and stared at the video for a long time. Watching grass grow is actually kind of exciting when it is the first bit of green life on the entire planet. He continued to be paranoid and avoided going in there. When they're big and sturdy, and won't die if I breathe on them wrong.

  Nick wondered why he hadn't gotten sick with any space bugs. Was BigBall always lifeless? But, where did the oxygen come from? Or was this a living world, and the Death Star has sterilized everything?

  Then again, maybe I did get sick with a space bug, only I fought it off.

  The next day, the second communicator was ready. Will waited for nightfall, then carried it slightly west of south, which ended up being downhill, unsurprisingly. He traveled for a couple of hours, then set it up on a boulder and turned it on. Then he checked the network on Petra's display he'd brought along. The new entry was listed as Communicator #3.

  “Petra, can you control Communicator #3 from home base...from your dungeon?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Set it to listen for more transmissions like the one we already received.”

  After that, he hurried back home. It took longer going uphill, and he didn't want to be caught outside when the Death Star rose. Once he was safely underground, he cleaned up, had a meal and relaxed.

  Not a bad day.