As if on-cue, with a light fluttering of her coat, Qil descended low enough and then suddenly dropped, landing right in front of Syn and Zerst.

Syn jumped slightly, crying out in surprise at Qil's sudden entrance.

Also at that exact moment, something large appeared almost right next to the party. It seemed to be metallic, but wrapped around it was a large white creature, whose eyes widened as he immediately noticed the group of other aliens. "We mean no harm," Navon quickly broadcast telepathically.

Of course, despite his insistence the entire group of pirates had weapons trained in on the big metal thing. Qil brushed herself off and spoke nto what was apparently some kind of communications device.

"Four has encountered unexpected presence. Hostility is undetermined. One, Five, converge on Four's location."

Zerstorung had flipped his shotgun out of his jacket, and aimed it at the ship. "Then how about you untangle yourself from the ship?"

Maxwell had his weapon trained on the ship, but his attnetion was directd towards Qil.

Navon did not move. To those inside the ship, he quickly said, "Listen, there are others out here, who may or may not be hostile. Wait in there until I tell you to come out, understand?" Then, figuring that Qil was in charge, he addressed her, while staring apprehensively down the barrels of the numerous guns pointed at him. "Uh, my apologies for the sudden intrusion, ma'am. My, my name is Navon. Could you, uh, maybe tell me where this is, ma'am?" He shuffled his wings nervously.

"A backwater rock in the middle of intergalactic nowhere." Qil replied. "I think I'll be asking the questions from now on. Got it?"

-----

"WHAT?! HOSTILE?! LEMME AT 'EM, I'LL TEAR THEIR-" Sam ranted, before Rachael, in an uncommon act of boldness, clamped her hands over Sam's snout, holding her mouth shut.

"Stop shouting, please..."

That didn't exactly answer Navon's question, but they were the ones with the guns, after all. "Y-yes, of course."

~.~

"Uh, he did say that they 'may' be hostile, miss," Rai reminded Sam, albeit somewhat anxiously. "There is no need for violence, not yet, at any rate..."

"Anyone else in there preparing a nasty surprise for us?" Qil demanded.

-----

Sam growled but gave a short nod. Rachael released her.

"If you grab me like that again...." Sam growled.

(( BTW, posted on Earth. ))

Navon hesitated, but soon gave a mental nod and answered, "Yes, there are four other life forms inside. Two from Earth, two from... Garil, I believe."

~.~

"Quit bickering, you two," Iar ordered. "There's no reason for it, and we might have to fight someone else soon enough."

Qil raised an eyebrow. "Earth? As in the 'We're the supreme race in the universe, despite having no effective method of so much as interplanetary travel' Earth?"

-----

"Fair enough..." Rachael replied. Sam looked less agreeable, but huffed irately and sat by the door all the same.

Navon blinked. "...I suppose so, yes... Though that could describe almost every other race without interplanetary travel."

"True, but humans are particularly full of themselves, at least in general. I've had dealings with a few decent ones, but for the most part they're just annoying..." Qil replied.

"Ah, well... At any rate, only one of these is a human. The other is... I'm not quite sure what she is, actually, but she's very sweet. As for the other two, one is an Onaran, and one is a Kalakan. The Onaran are a fairly common spacefaring race, perhaps you've encountered them as well?"

Qil shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. I encounter a lot of species."

"Then I... trust you have no reason for hostility toward any of our species?"

"As a species? Not at all." Qil replied.

"Ah, good. So, then, could you perhaps lower your weapons...?"

(Isn't she gonna notice he hasn't told her his own species or planet of origin?)

(( .... Yes? DXD ))

Qil grinned at him, lowered it for a second, then brought it right back up. "Nice try, but you left out one member of your group." She said.

Navon paused, a little distressed by this. "...Why do you say that? They're inside the ship, you can't see them..."

"I'm looking at YOU, feathers." Qil replied.

He blinked, face flushing slightly. "Oh, of course. Er, my name is Navon, as I said... I am a Lonian, from a planet called Lathil. I doubt that will mean anything to you, though, since I am the only Lonian still alive, and have been for a very long time."

"Doesn't mean a thing." Qil agreed.

Zerstorung spun his shotgun on one hand, while Maxwell played target practice with his smoldering bogie.

"Not all humans are arrogant and insignifigant, by the way."

"I swear we have no hostile intent," Navon said. "Actually, I'm not even quite sure what we're doing here, or where this is..."

(Ahem.)

"I already told you." Qil replied. "It's a run-down, backwater rock in the middle of intergalactic nowhere."

"Right, well... In that case, why are you here, ma'am?" Navon asked politely.

(Somewhere in orbit...)

"Look, we're on a space ship! We have the highest vantage point possible, yet we are still having problems tracking them!"

"We can only use passive sensors for now, or else they'd find us almost faster than we'd find them. This mist also has some odd properties, not to mention their ship's power source."

"Well, whatever I felt wasn't any sort of power source. It had concealed its own presence only moments after it arrived. I want to find out if little lizard b-tch has anything to do with that."

"Calling her names won't make this any easier. Plus, I didn't think it was something you did."

"Of course not. I was just... angry."

"Like back in the city?"

"That's it, our contract is void, I'm finding someone else for shuttle services."

"I am here because of reasons that I don't feel like sharing." Qil replied, turning to look at the other three. "That goes for you three as well. Say one word against my orders and I'll have you shot."

Navon blinked. "...Not all of you are part of the same faction?" He hesitated, thinking. "If... there is a conflict of some kind here, it may be that we were sent to intervene..."

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