At the start, it looks like Todd has made a mistake. Aliens with weapons approach threateningly.

  But soon cooler heads prevail. Two women and an old man run out in front of the young warriors, holding their arms wide. They gesticulate agitatedly.

  There’s confusion that blooms over the younger Ishiate’s faces. Or at least, it looks like confusion. It’s hard to tell.

  The older man points towards Todd with a crooked finger and lets out a long, glottal sentence.

  Todd shifts on his feet and gives a little low wave.

  A woman blinks at him. She hesitates and then awkwardly returns the gesture. The old man more confidently and eagerly produces a wave.

  Taking one tentative step after another, Todd closes the distance.

  “Hi,” he greets them.

  “???” says the old man.

  “?” scoffs one of the warriors.

  “??” barks one of the women. “???”

  Defour glowers. “What are you doing here, human?” she hisses.

  Todd ignores her and watches the Ishiate uncertainly. He offers his palms up. “I just wanted to check in and see how you guys were doing.”

  “???????” the old man demands.

  “We’ve been surviving,” Todd sighs, “but we’ve lost a lot of people. I don’t know about you all, but where we come from, you don’t have to fight for your life anymore. We weren’t ready for this.”

  The aliens look at each other. “??? ? ?? ????” says one of them.

  “He’s come here to deceive you,” Defour spurs.

  “Have you been doing the missions too?” Todd asks. He searches the floor until he finds a set of seven difficulty plates. He points and wags his finger. “The missions?”

  They follow his indication and stick out a hand the same direction. “?????? ? ???? ? ?????”

  “Don’t trust the monkey, they are vile, honorless creatures,” Defour counsels.

  Todd places his hand on his chest with spread fingers and taps it. He sidesteps over, squeezes through between strangers and makes his way to the steel plate. He points down and then points at himself again. Then he shuffles over to the bronze plate and performs the same motions.

  “That’s what I did. What about you?” Todd asks. He shrinks a bit under all the attention, but pushes on.

  The old man wobbles his hand. “???”

  “What does it matter what he’s saying?” Defour challenges.

  Todd waves over the plates and then points at the old man. The Ishiate takes a moment to think and then walks his way to the plates. He points at the iron plate.

  Figures gather around Todd and he is quickly surrounded. He starts to sweat.

  “Okay,” Todd says. “Normal? Just normal? I guess you must be pretty tough,” he lets out a nervous laugh.

  “??????” whispers one of the younger aliens.

  “His bag is full of nexus crystals,” Defour promises.

  “??” one of the women reprimands the young alien.

  “I honestly don’t know what to say,” Todd worries. “Do you guys need anything?”

  He fishes through his satchel and removes a ration token. He raises it over his head.

  “Do you have enough of these?” he asks.

  “???” the old man rubs one of his short horns and then reaches out for the token.

  Todd holds it out and the old alien takes it. He looks it over. He puts it in his own [greed satchel].

  Todd extends his hand and is left hanging. “Are you going to give that back? No?”

  He goes through his satchel and produces another one. The old man reaches out again.

  Todd jerks his hand back and shakes his head. “Not for free, man. You gotta give me something.”

  “??” says a warrior with a bow and arrows.

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  “That’s right,” Defour says with glee.

  The group closes in on Todd.

  “Ah! No. No,” he barks. Spinning about he wards them back. He holds the token over his head.

  The old alien holds his fellows back. He turns his head and calls behind him. “??????”

  There’s shuffling off in the crowd. The old man waits patiently and so Todd tries to relax. His nerves are on edge and his hand is on his bag.

  After thirty seconds or so, a frail looking deer person comes forward carrying an armful of scraped raw animal hide. He passes it respectfully to the older alien and the old alien nudges it towards Todd.

  Although Todd isn’t sure what he can do with a skin, he feels like he’s making forward progress. He presses the token forward.

  The old alien takes out his hand and wavers it again. He raises three fingers.

  Todd grumbles, but he takes out a second ration token and offers it as well.

  After briefly trying to exhort Todd for a third, the old Ishiate gives up. Almost ceremonially, he makes the exchange.

  Defour lets out an anguished groan and tears at her chlorine tendrils.

  Todd smiles broadly. The expression is not matched by the aliens. They mutter at him in suspicion and alarm. Kicking himself for showing teeth, he schools his face into a neutral expression.

  Thinking of something else, Todd rummages around and finds an empty pill bottle. He takes it out and shows it to all of the gathered Ishiate. He shakes it, points to them and then points to himself. “I’ll buy them from you,” he says. “If you have extras, I’ll buy them.”

  They don’t seem to get what he’s trying to say.

  Todd uncaps the vial, shakes the empty bottle into his hand, and mimes swallowing a pill. He then makes a fist, pops out his fingers, and wiggles them in a confetti motion. He points at the bottle again.

  “??? ???” says one of the women.

  “!??” replies another.

  “???? ? ??????” the old alien tells Todd. He makes a strange waving gesture with his hand as he does so.

  Todd repeats his mimed gesture. He gets the same waving hand back as before, but this time more forcefully.

  The two of them stand uncomfortably. There’s a cough.

  Then one of the young men strides through the crowd. This alien is covered in bandages with dark clotted brown. A second alien, this one a woman, steps beside the first one. She is similarly recovering from wounds that peek out from under her armor.

  The man brutishly jabs a finger down at the bronze plate, then the steel plate. Then he points to himself and the woman. His back straightens with pride.

  Todd glances down at the plates and realizes what they’re implying. We’re strong too.

  “That’s cool,” he nods. He slowly gives them a thumbs up. “It was rough for us. Was it rough for you?”

  The young man makes an irritated noise and a complicated swooping hand gesture before falling back. The young woman grabs his arm and pulls him away. He slaps himself on the chest three times as he withdraws.

  “Don’t think this was harmless,” Defour forewarns. “The humans outnumber you now, and they will outnumber you in the new world too. They will choke you out of your homes, out of resources, out of your future. The sooner you learn to fight back, the better off you will be. Mark my words!”

  The old man scoffs. “??” he says. He turns to Todd and points over the line. “????????”

  He points more insistently.

  Todd takes a second to understand. “Oh. Yea. Right. Of course.”

  He starts backing up.

  “It was nice to meet you for real this time,” he says. “I hope you’re making it through okay.”

  The old Ishiate nods at some of the younger aliens. At his behest, they push forward and start ushering Todd faster across the line.

  “Okay, okay,” Todd mutters. He turns and crosses the boundary at a brisk pace.

  With an untreated skin rolled up underneath his arm, Todd heads back over to the human mass.

  First, he hands off the hide to one of the crafters. The woman takes the skin with some confusion, but accepts it all the same. Todd shrugs her and tells her that it’s useless to him, and that she might as well try to do something with it.

  She replies under her breath that it’s just as useless to her.

  Todd moves on and finally finds Nayira. She has woken up and is crouched at the side of a prone cultivator. She checks the man’s pulse.

  “Nayira!” Todd calls out.

  “Oh. Todd. I’m a little busy right now. What can I do for you?”

  “Actually, I was wondering if I can help,” Todd says. He takes out his new dipper and continues on to explain how it functions to her.

  “And it just works?” Nayira questions.

  “Each person can only drink to a limit. It’s bad for you if you overdose. But yea,” Todd grins.

  “Well damn. Let’s try it then. Geoff here took a nasty gut puncture and the healing pill didn’t quite patch him up. He could use some magic.”

  “Okay, yea sure,” Todd mumbles. “I can do that. It shouldn’t be hard.”

  He reaches for a canteen and uncorks the cap. He grabs the rod of the dipper and holds it out. It’s long and leaves him at an uncomfortable angle. He tries to pour water into the cup and ends up spilling some. He tries to cap his canteen and the rod shifts, spilling a little more.

  “Darn it,” Todd grumbles. “Okay. Let’s see. I just do this…”

  He holds the rod out level and exposes as much skin as he can to the handle. Sending his cosmic energy out through his hand, he pushes it clumsily into the wood.

  Faint lines appear, embellishing the carvings as they sweep over the dipper and down into the surface of the cup. A barely perceptible glow makes a fractal on the bottom side of the cup, then the water inside grows slightly cloudy and a little brighter.

  The drain in his body is noticeable. Using the tool is worth several [water spear]s by comparison.

  Todd tries to peer into the surface of the liquid at his bad angle.

  “Is it working? What are you waiting for?” Nayira asks.

  “Sorry. I think it’s done. He just has to drink this.”

  Cupping one hand below the end of the dipper, Todd moves over to Geoff’s face. Nayira holds the man’s head up as he lifts it and purses his lips.

  Todd slowly, carefully pours. The man sputters. Some of the water spills. Todd starts again, this time with even more shallow sips.

  Geoff drinks the cup dry and lowers his head. He releases a sigh.

  Nayira leans over the man intently. She stares at him, waiting.

  “How long does this take to work?” she asks.

  “I’m not sure?” Todd replies. “It doesn’t work right away?”

  “How do you feel, Geoff?” Nayira inquires.

  “A little better,” the man drones. “Not much, but a little.”

  “Oh hey, I’ll take a little better,” Nayira cheerfully punches the air. “Todd, I’ve got about twenty people who could use this. Do you want to come with me?”

  Todd checks his cosmic energy reserves. He could do three or four more and then replenish with nexus crystals.

  “I probably can’t do all of them, but yea. Of course,” he says.

  Todd spends the next two hours treating injured cultivators, starting at the worst off. It shakes him. Some of the injuries are simply gruesome. There’s more than one person that Todd wonders how they’re holding on. He can’t begin to imagine how they’ll manage to survive another expedition. They drink deeply from his cup. They find a small measure of relief.

  It’s not enough. Befor wasn’t lying when she said it wasn’t as good as a proper healing pill. A sense of helplessness comes over Todd as he administers to yet another wounded person. Nayira isn’t flustered at all. She deals with each person with determination and brusque compassion. She holds hands. She makes a few jokes. She knows their names.

  The emotional strain bears down on Todd and he finds himself swiping away tears.

  “Take a second,” the EMT tells him. “You can’t let them see it gets to you. It’ll only worry them.”

  Todd holds his head back and blinks repeatedly. “How do you do this?”

  “You either get used to it or you don’t,” Nayira shrugs. “You gonna be alright?”

  “Yea, yea. I’ve got to take a break to absorb a crystal and then we can keep going.”

  Todd shakes off and wipes at his nose. He runs his other hand through his hair. He’s resolved. As long as it takes. He’ll do as many as he can.