Colonies of U'u'kata

Thenta trudged against the cold current that tugged at his legs, unsure of what to make of what he'd just learned.

He'd been away from Kothos Plateau for almost two years. How much had changed?

He stopped and glanced back. The little being in his cave who claimed to be Human was proof that things had changed a lot, if she was telling the truth about where she'd come from.

Unless...

Was she an escaped prisoner of Kothos? How could they allow such a valuable prisoner to escape? If she was an escaped prisoner of Kothos, he needed to make sure she got back there. But he couldn't leave the Outlands. Not yet.

Shaking his head, he continued upriver.

The mission had to come first. But... he needed to be able to talk to her. It was clear she had some kind of translation device but their devices weren't communicating since he'd been off all grids for so long.

A few weeks back a Tilith ship had flown too low and the Tovans shot it down. If he could figure out where it crashed he could access their mainframe to see if they had any new languages in their database. That is, if their ship's core memory banks weren't destroyed.

Once he was far enough upriver that the steep banks gave way to low, rocky shores, he exited the water and started east, climbing higher into the mountains where he should be able to find a tasselfoot to track and, if luck were with him, a crashed ship. Hopefully, the Tovans hadn't completely stripped it.

***

Ezra shielded his eyes with his hand as the ship banked in over the water and hovered, a hatch on the side sliding open with a reverberating buzz he could feel through the air.

He glanced at the bedraggled survivors who shared the raft with him. Relief shone on their faces as they gazed up at their rescuers. Some of them wept with relief. Other's thanked God.

He wished he could share their sentiment.

Looking out over the water, his heart sank. There had been twelve people on that boat. Twelve explorers and scientists. Only five of them had made it onto the raft after the massive creature pulverized the boat into splinters.

The others were in the water, screaming as it ate them.

He'd looked for Cali but she was nowhere.

Still, he refused to believe she was gone. Not Cali.

Ezra looked back up as three colorful Tilith tipped out of the ship, massive butterfly wings flapping gracefully. They descended and grabbed people right out of the raft, their four arms gripping them before flying up and depositing them in the ship one at a time.

Ezra was in no hurry. He kept thinking if he stayed just another minute, Cali would swim up to the boat.

Just one more minute.

He couldn't meet the eyes of the alien who came for him. The big Tilith just scooped him up like a child and flew to the ship.

Once he was onboard, the hatch closed up, and he and the other survivors were wrapped in blankets and given clean water. Still, he couldn't look up. His eyes burned with sorrow and grief hollowed him out.

"Cali," he whispered. Her name an ache in his soul and a prayer on his lips.

She was the closest to family he ever had. And he'd lost her. Lost her to a monster and the sea on an alien planet.

"You need to drink your water," an inhuman voice said from just above him.

He looked at the cup in his hands.