After the second ship arrived, Nick was starting to need notes just to keep the aliens straight:

Race Home Language

Humans Earth English

Fuak!a Ooafa Kthufu

Yirahyah Arrurra Niranar

Goldaskia Empire Goldaskian

Yssnila Ganassho Silithi

Geddid Galaxy Galactic

Torchshk Galaxy Galactic

Captain Molgilk was a Geddid, and Captain Cheshoo of the Fruitful Wanderer was a Torchshk. Nick was starting to feel like he was wandering into a certain space cantina. Well, I guess I won't be working with them closely enough to need to learn their language and culture and all that, thank God.

Four days later, two more ships arrived. A week later, another three. Nick's list got longer. The surviving fuak!a population climbed to just over 6,000 with the more thorough search and rescue possible. Over a thousand fuak!a had moved to the colony on Grrasa, which was being expanded rapidly.

They were also taking fuak!a along on searches. They had to, just to make contact with their fellows who had never seen aliens or spacecraft before. But they were also helping to find, identify, transport and care for any plants or animals surviving in the ruins of Ooafa's biosphere.

Little creatures called angeh were popular pets, for example. Nick couldn't tell whether they were like dogs, cats, or something else entirely, but he was impressed with the pet owners who managed to keep their pets alive. But they were also rescuing samples of crops and seeds, and anything else that they thought might help the survivors. They hoped that with the advanced technology of their allies, they would be able to recreate more from the dying world.

Nick asked for help from his friends when it came time to negotiate with the contractors. It turned out that it would take quite a while to produce enough Medical Swarm to buy a starship outright, even a small junker of one. Easier was coming up with enough to hire a ship for half a year: 90 grams. The benefit of doing that was the experienced crew that came with.

It would take about seventy-eight days to reach Earth. From there, worlds connected to the greater galaxy were much closer, but Nick wanted to budget plenty of time for a return to Ooafa and Arrurra if needed. He finally presented his request to Geh!kin and Geh!aoa.

"I want to take the New Hope along with the Guranaki Melor to Earth. Petra needs to be defended. Now, Earth might decide to keep Petra, but I am hoping that they will be willing to trade it to you or Arrurra or someone else, in exchange for a lot of help getting Earth ready to defend itself from the galaxy at large."

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Geh!kin sighed. "That is a reasonable request. Unfortunately, Ooafa does not have great wealth to offer Earth—your people are more advanced than ours, and you have a healthy world. We understand that it would be charity for you to give us Petra, and to be blunt, if you did, we would be in an even more precarious situation than you are."

"We do, however, want to keep the New Hope," Captain Geh!aoa added.

"Yeah, I agree with you on that," Nick answered, and even he could read the relief in their expressions. "I thought about trading Petra to you in exchange for the warship, but you're right—you'd be in even more trouble, and without this ship to help your defense you wouldn't stand a chance. My ideal would be to get Earth lots of support in development, and a starship or two of our own to keep, in exchange for giving up Petra." He sighed. "I don't think my leaders are going to be reasonable, though."

"Then why not decide for yourself, Nik!eh?" Geh!kin asked. "If you think they are going to choose poorly, why put it in their hands in the first place?"

"Because I'm nobody special!" Nick shouted in exasperation. "I'm not smart, I'm not rich, I'm not a scientist or a military expert or a trained negotiator. If I choose on behalf of Earth, I'll be the most hated human being ever, because absolutely everyone will be convinced they could have gotten a better deal, and a lot of them will probably be right!"

"How is that different from anyone else?" Geh!kin asked calmly.

Nick threw his hands in the air helplessly. "I in so far over my head it isn't even funny."

"That...didn't translate, Nik!eh."

"This is much too hard for me."

"Well, Nick, I have a suggestion," Geh!kin continued.

"What?"

"Don't tell your people. Don't explain. If you gave them nothing but the educational books for advancing centuries in a short period, you would be hailed as a hero of your people, and you already have those. Just tell your people that you have a strong position, and ask them what you should ask for in addition. Tell them your strength is enough to borrow a small spacecraft but not enough to buy this one. That way, you can get suggestions from your experts."

"He's right, you don't have to tell them everything."

"Once I give up Petra, they'll torture the whole...they will hurt me until I talk," he explained.

"Well, once you give up Petra, you can just tell them the rest. They won't be able to do anything about it at that point. You should be seen as a hero. You can use that to protect yourself."

"You think so?" Nick asked dubiously.

Geh!kin leaned closer and nodded. "Do not forget, you have friends here. We will help you negotiate, and we will help you find a way to protect yourself once we are gone."

"If necessary, the weapons of the New Hope will support you, until we leave," Captain Geh!aoa told him. "That should be long enough a time to give you safety."

Nick took a deep breath. "Wow. Thank you, Captain. That...helps."

The Captain nodded. "Good. Nik!eh, as a human, you are all alone, far from your homeworld. But, as a person, you are not alone. You have friends. You have saved what is left of our people, you have been beep...When you choose what will happen to people, you have not...always hurt them as much as you could."

"You're saying I am 'merciful', I think. Thank you."

"You are not a bad man, Nik!eh. This much is clear even to aliens," Geh!kin said with a little shake of humor.

"We need to arrange payments for the ships while we are gone, but after that is set, we should be able to leave for Earth very soon, Nik!eh. You have been away from your people long enough," the Captain declared.

Nick took a deep breath.

Home. I'm going home.

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