Ktheg!lik's ears were spread wide and their tips were flicking madly.

  It can't be. It can't be. He's dead. I saw his body. He...wait...oh, no.

  Did I never actually ask Petra directly if Nik!eh was dead!? she wondered in mounting horror.

  “Petra, is Nik!eh alive?”

  “No.”

  What under the sun...? “Petra, is Nik!eh dead?”

  “No.”

  Ktheg!lik wanted to tug on her ears.

  “Petra, what is Nik!eh, if not alive and not dead?”

  “Nik!eh is not.”

  “Not what?”

  “Nik!eh is not,” Petra repeated.

  “Rephrase, please?”

  “Nik!eh stop.”

  “Rephrase.”

  “Nik!eh is stopped.”

  Nik!eh is frozen in time? Ktheg!lik wondered. It can't be. Even Petra can't... She thought better of finishing that sentence. Petra probably had limits—besides poor grasp of Kthufu and a strange way of making decisions, of course—but they hadn't found them yet. She forced herself to consider the possibility.

  If Petra could heal Nik!eh, she would have. If Petra couldn't heal him, but was able to put him in some kind of...I don't know what to call it. Stasis? Otherland? Frozen state? If she could hold him outside of time, then she might do that to buy time for...what, exactly? Petra thinks that she could save Nik!eh at some point in the future? Does she need resources? Time to build something?

  Why didn't you SAY something, you stupid golem!? Ktheg!lik carefully did not give voice to that thought, but in her mind she was screaming it.

  She took a breath. Never mind, Ktheg. The bird has flown away. Focus on now.

  Before she could do that, though, another stray thought caught at her, and she pulled on it. When I asked Petra if she would be okay with us taking all but one of her energy wells, she hesitated. I forget exactly how I worded it, but...she hesitated. I worried about that, and left behind a spare energy well just in case.

  Is the reason that she hesitated...that she knew it would kill Nik!eh, but not her, and couldn't tell me because I didn't ask the right question? If I hadn't left behind a spare...would Nik!eh have died?

  Ktheg!lik felt a chill. The weight of responsibility for giving Petra orders felt as if it had just doubled. I almost killed him because I didn't think to ask the right questions. I have to do better. She took a breath.

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  “Petra, show me Nik!eh.” The display in front of her changed to a view of the arboretum. Nik!eh had been placed on a wide shelf. The eerie black fog/liquid still flowed up and down his body. Keeping him frozen in time, but needing power to keep doing it. She remembered the wrecked shape the flying carriage was in when it returned, and how it was crying out for power. He almost died just getting back here. And then I nearly killed him, again.

  “Petra, from now on, always keep two energy wells, even if I ask you to give me too many.” That took a few rounds of rephrasing, but after that was done, Ktheg!lik was confident that Petra understood.

  “Petra, show me what you need to heal Nik!eh.” In response, a very complex diagram appeared. “What is that?” Petra's response consisted entirely of words in Galactic that Ktheg!lik didn't know.

  I guess it doesn't matter. “Petra, what do you need in order to build this?” A list of ingredients and four other devices appeared. Ktheg!lik winced. “Petra, what do you need to build those?” More devices, more elements. She sighed. “Petra, show me the total amounts of elements you need to build the things to heal Nik!eh.”

  A simple list appeared. The numbers...were large. Oof. Well, I promise, we'll get to you eventually, Nik!eh, but we have to live through the season first. She paused as another thought hit. That may not be fast enough. There could be a time limit Petra isn't bothering to tell me about. I'll have to interrogate her at length.

  I'm just glad that there is actually a chance to save him. I wasn't expecting that.

  * *

  Ktheg!lik then had to work with a seemingly endless series of numbers, figuring out how long it would take to make food, to make a food maker, to stock up on medicine, and so forth. The tradeoffs seemed endless. For the time being, she kept one maker producing food, and one making medicine.

  For the third maker, there were a lot of things vying for immediate attention. So many, in fact, that Ktheg!lik decided to postpone all of them and start making another maker. We'll be on short rations for a little longer, but this is the only way we will really get ahead of the problem. We have to get more makers. I have to devote some resources to getting Nik!eh back.

  For the future, she made a tentative ordering:

  three suncatchers

  two energy wells

  four bolts of fabric

  two diggers

  two gatherers

  parts to repair the omnibus, to be determined.

  She was interrupted in her musings by Geh!kin, who came to check on her. She laid out the entire situation for him and asked his advice. The older fuak!a sighed.

  “Ktheg!lik, there's one thing you're doing wrong.”

  “What is it?” she asked in trepidation.

  “You're pushing yourself too hard.”

  “What?” Ktheg!lik was flabbergasted. “We're in a struggle for survival!”

  “Which we are winning,” the man stressed. “Ktheg!lik, it's going to be rough, and complicated, and a lot of work, but you're losing the most important thing in all the details.

  “We made it. We're here, in this cave of wonders. You have control over the most powerful being I've ever seen. You're even going to rescue the hoonan.

  “You did a lot to make this happen. You were the one who volunteered to try the hoonan food. You were the one to throw him the can of beans, when he looked so spooked he might never have returned. You braved going into an alien environment and showing us that we could survive alongside a hoonan. You reasoned with the golem. You got Nik!eh to give you control over it.

  “Ktheg!lik, take a zeg to appreciate what you've accomplished! We're going to live! We're all going to live! Do you remember how impossible that looked even four dozen days ago?”

  Ktheg!lik forced herself to consider Geh!kin's words. Slowly, it felt as if less of a mountain were on her shoulders. She sighed. “You're right, Geh!kin. Thank you.”

  Geh!kin patted her back a moment. “You're welcome. Now, are all the makers making things for the time being?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then take a break. Come out and talk to people. Take a swim. Clear your head. You're doing a good job, Ktheg!lik. Take care of yourself so that you can keep doing a good job.”

  She hesitated another moment, then nodded and stood. “All right.”

  As she followed the older fuak!a out of the room, she reflected, what a strange world. What strange worlds...”More wonders than can be wondered,” as the poet said.

  Our future will be full of wonders.