[B]He very much did not like the implications.

  It had been too easy.

  Flying up to the new ship that the map had picked up? Too easy.

  He barely had to do anything, the controls were essentially a point and click. He targeted what he assumed was an air lock and marked the area for docking. Or rather he pressed the docking button and targeted the area when the screen changed. There weren’t even speed controls or maneuvering changes he had to do. Something he had been practicing with the asteroids for this very reason. At least a reason simir to this. He figured that interacting with other ships and stations would be the hardest part of flying, but no, everything had been automated.

  He could get behind that he supposed. Automated vehicles had almost been a thing when he got frozen, how hard could a spaceship be?

  Interacting with aliens who didn’t speak his nguage? Too easy.

  He had no idea what all the noise had been about, but he had told Kitty to ask if they needed help. It was a pretty safe bet, seeing as how the ship seemed to be stranded and he could see red boxes on the scan. He had no idea what those boxes said, but red was usually bad right? He had figured that they could dock up and ask if there was any help they could provide. It had taken a bit for someone to get to the air lock and open it, but they seemed nice enough.

  Not that he really saw anything. The door had been so small he was afraid even Kitty wouldn’t really fit. The docking tunnel itself was almost too small for him to walk upright. According to Kitty, it seemed they had brought out someone that needed help, though she got the word for casualty wrong. Or victim, he guessed it depended on what had happened. When he had bent over to pick the alien up, he had seen the ones still on their feet. There must be multi-species crews since the standing ones seemed to be reptilian in nature, scales and no hair, while the one on the floor had fur on the arms and legs. A tail and dog ears as well.

  He had left Kitty to see if they needed more help while he took the first one to an examination room. Though he guessed Kitty hadn’t really understood that, as she came up behind him soon after. It didn’t matter though, once he had done first aid for the one in his arms they could return and make sure. The examination room itself seemed to be for dissections or hostile biopsies. It definitely wasn’t for cooperative patients, but he hadn’t found anything else yet and this one was close to the docking area. He could just not use the restraints and such built into the room. He hoped it wouldn’t scare the patient though.

  Though how much of a patient was hard to say. There was a wet spot he thought might be blood, but he couldn’t smell any iron or see any color in the jumpsuit. A quick check for a pulse and search for rips in the suit left him puzzled. He left Kitty to watch over the patient and went to get some water. They could either use it for treatment or just drink it, depending on what was wrong.

  The strange reaction the alien had when he returned to the room made him doubt he could give more than superficial first aid. He examined their back and stomach for any internal soft spots or oddities, though he was just guessing for the most part. When he got to the neck, he could see something, but the colr got in the way. As he went to move it around and check underneath it, he must have terribly underestimated the strength of whatever it was made of, as he squeezed a bit to hard and shattered the thing between his thumb and fingers.

  He felt terrible, he really did. The colr zapped him as well, so it was clearly electronic in some manner. It probably cost a lot. He handed it back to the poor owner with a short apology before resuming his work. It tugged at his heart strings when the poor thing started crying while looking at it. He hoped it wasn’t like a family heirloom or something. He would need to see about repairing it or getting another one. If he had cost them all their contacts he had no idea how he could undo that.

  Not that he had any money to begin with.

  His rough examination done with nothing to show for it, he scritched behind the dog ears as he worried about what was next. He really didn’t have any way to indicate that he was going to take their clothes off.

  Kitty hadn’t learned anything about clothing, seeing as how he hadn’t found anything that fit her and had just turned the temperature up a little rather than run around in bedsheets. Not that he would have allowed that. Fppy things like that around some of the machinery was a death sentence, better to just go without. They weren’t exactly working in a chemistry b, and the sheets wouldn’t protect them from anything else around here. It was kind of awkward now though.

  Even if Kitty didn’t seem to care.

  When he got over his momentary introspection, he noticed that his patient had frozen.

  ‘No patting the dog aliens. Noted.’

  He hated saying the same thing over and over again, but nothing to it. He would just have to jump in headfirst. Still, once he had undone the back of the jumpsuit thing his patient was wearing and saw what he was working with, he basically stopped and went to find a disinfectant and some cloth. He made sure to tell Kitty to give help.

  They had clearly been in some shit over there.

  When he got back with a ripped-up pillowcase and what smelled and tasted like b grade alcohol, it seemed Kitty had gotten the wrong idea.

  The girl, as it was clearly a girl now that she didn’t have a shapeless jumpsuit on, was hugging her tail and mostly curled up on the bed. He would need to teach his overeager companion about bedside manner, but that could wait until the first aid was finished. The poor girl must have been traumatized as well, considering the ck of response to his dabbing and wiping the bruises and scars. Some of them seemed to be old to his eyes, but he had no idea how aliens healed or how long the other ship had been in trouble.

  “Find. Bnket.”

  As he worked, he had Kitty go and fetch a bnket so the girl could rest. He didn’t know how long the other ship would need to get back on their feet, but he could just carry the girl if she fell asleep. When he finished and made sure the girl was tucked in and comfortable, or at least he thought that’s what they were doing, who knew what the poor girl thought, he returned to the docking tunnel.

  The one that had retracted.

  The one that didn’t have another ship on the other end.

  ‘Crap... I hope they didn’t try to message us. They must be worse off than I thought.’

  [A]She had been so excited to show the creature to its new home in the garden.

  It took a long time to realize that Moose had other pns.

  When Moose had been looking over the creature she had been watching closely. If she was going to be a moose one day she may need to know this. Though to her it seemed like Moose was just prodding the creature all over, so she had no idea what was happening.

  It did become clear that Moose didn’t like the covering that the creature was in. She didn’t know if it was because some of it was wet or if it was because it smelled bad, but she actually agreed with Moose. Normally she wouldn’t take notice, but the smell was stinging her nose. The creature would need to visit the rain room just to remove the smell of its covering at this point. She could just help get rid of the covering for now.

  She had learned how good the rain room was at removing smells when she had found a pce with very bad smells in it. Moose had taken her to the rain room after that and used the slow water, which he named soap, and the smells had disappeared. She had thought the rain just felt good, now she understood there was a lot of magic there as well.

  She would still follow Moose for now though, she didn’t know everything she needed in order to bring in a new creature.

  Once she had tossed the covering back into the long tunnel and returned, she found the creature wrapped around its tail. Moose came back with more smelly stuff and rubbed it all over the creature.

  ‘If he wanted the smell to change, why take the covering?’

  She was very confused now.

  It didn’t matter. There were many things she didn’t understand yet. She assured herself she would in time, but for now it was best to just watch and copy. She could learn the why after she was strong enough to not care.

  “Find. Bnket.”

  Hmm, did Moose want to carry the creature in a bnket? Why not just let the creature walk?

  Though as she went to fetch the bnket, she reasoned that the creature had fallen over after a few steps, perhaps carrying would be the smarter choice. It would take less time. When she handed the bnket to Moose and watched the creature be covered in it, she thought they would go to the garden then.

  But Moose didn’t.

  He left the room. She lingered a bit, trying to puzzle out the use of this new creature, but gave up and padded after Moose. It seemed he didn’t need any more creatures though, as he had closed the wall to the long tunnel. Curious. She wondered how Moose knew the other creatures weren’t in danger and wouldn’t come.

  ‘It has to be some kind of magic.’

  She felt she had learned a lot of words, but Moose always seemed to have more.

  Moose seemed to stare and contempte the wall for a bit, but it didn’t take very long for her belly to compin. She didn’t know why. She should feel the pull on her eyes instead, they had been up much longer than she preferred. She doubted that Moose would notice the extra time though, he never did sleep as much. Still, she would not face the wrath of her belly.

  “Moose. Food.”

  He turned and looked at her for a bit.

  “Yes.”

  Moose had never answered that with words before. Strange.

  Even stranger, Moose returned to the room with the creature instead of heading towards the food pce. They weren’t going to eat the creature, right? She wasn’t sure she was moose enough for that.

  “Kitty. Follow.”

  She tilted her head at him. She was following, why would he tell her to follow more?

  It took a couple more repeats and a lot of hand motion for her to understand Moose wanted her to tell the creature to follow.

  ‘So the creature can walk?’

  “You. Follow.”

  She pointed as well, to make sure the creature understood. The creature pushed back the bnket, which made her feel conflicted. She was gd she was understood, but then why did she get that bnket? Her belly grumbled again and she sniffed. Food was more important anyways. Once she was sure the creature could stand on its own, she looked back at Moose. He seemed to be deciding something, his head tilting back and forth. She hoped whatever it was was quick. She just wanted some disks.

  He sighed and started his lumbering pace out of the room and hopefully to the food pce. She happily padded after him. A quick gnce showed that the creature was keeping up, but it didn’t look like it was easy. With how small it was that made sense.

  After an agonizingly slow walk back to the food pce, Moose satisfied her with some disks and even made one for the creature. It seemed that Moose was also tired of all the smells, because he went to the rain room next. A little confusion and a lot of gestures ter and she figured out it was her turn to teach about the rubbing. She made sure to point at everything just in case.

  “Rain. Slow water. Rub. Lots”

  Alongside her words she gave a demonstration, using Moose as much as possible. Mostly for his hands. Though the creature seemed to instinctively know what to do.

  Was she weird?

  Why hadn’t she known how to use the rain room until she was taught by Moose?

  Difficult questions with Moose’s fingers working magic.

  After the storm dried them off, she got tired of waiting for Moose and went ahead to the ir. She doubted she needed to be involved in anything else for now. It seemed she had been understood too well though, as the creature continued to follow her. It seemed out of breath as well. An effect of the magic Moose used maybe?

  She could figure it out after she woke up.

  “Moose ir. Dark good, sleep. Quiet pce.”

  It was best to make sure the creature knew not to make a lot of noise here. She didn’t want Moose, or even herself, to get woken up. When she got into the nest and smothered herself in bnkets, she felt the nest move slightly. Looking out she saw the creature curled up at the edge.

  ‘I should tell it to not follow when I get up. That could get annoying.’