Darkness ebbed and flowed around her. Wounded, helpless, stripped of her armour and weapons, she floated on an endless tide that bore her onwards, towards a goal she could not really discern somewhere far, far ahead. It would be almost peaceful, were it not for the eyes that opened periodically the sky. Eyes that were searching for her, pleading for her help.

Alyona woke with a start. The bound Fallen, slumped against the Skiff's hull, chattered something at her. Jasker looked up from his improvised workbench, where he and the Ghost worked on a piece that started to look more and more like a compact, bullpup rifle.

"Bad dreams?" asked Jasker.

"Yeah. How far did we get?"

"Two-three hundred kilometers, I'd say. We'd make better time if we flew higher and faster, but, you know - safety first," said the Ghost.

"Do we need to skim the top of the trees, though?" asked Jas. "The autopilot refuses to consider the taller ones as an obstacle. Jarred my tools several times."

"I'd rather not tamper with it further. It's almost sentient, you know. And it was certainly confused when the commands came directly to its processor, and not through the controls."

"Oh, you're simply afraid," teased Jas. "Scaredy-Ghost."

"And I'm not ashamed to admit it," parried Glazok. "Anyway, we have maybe an hour more until we arrive. What do we do once we get there?"

"We search for the cave entrance," answered Jas and Alyona in unison. They then glanced at each other and sniggered.

"We remember the plan, Glazok," said Alyona. "We get down from this bucket of bolts, we spread out and shout really, really loud if we find it."

"You do remember that we have your helm and Jasker's communicator, right?"

"She's pulling your leg, Glazok. Oh, wait..."

Both humans burst into laughter, leaving the exasperated Ghost to hover to the chiming control panel and stab a few beams into it. The Skiff decelerated sharply, throwing them both to the floor, and started to descend.

"Glazok? What's the matter?" asked Jas.

"We might have company," answered the Ghost. "We should stop and wait for a bit. And... let me try this..."

With a gurgling hiss, the Skiff's cloaking field activated, transforming the tan-and-rust shark-like vessel into a glassy shadow suspended over a clearing. The Ghost pulsed some more beams, bringing up a holo-screen that transformed the enclosed space of the Skiff into a seemingly open cockpit, with full-circle view.

For a moment, there was nothing on the horizon. Then, with a thunderclap that shook their Skiff, the sky split to make space for the immense bulk of a Ketch, followed by a parasitic shoal of Skiffs. The captured Fallen got, as best he could, to his knees and pressed his forehead to the deck, obviously paying respect to the great ship passing over them.

Jasker felt humbled, too. Were they about to throw themselves against a race that built such machines? Had they already done so? Was it inevitable? Did the gunners of that ship know that they commandeered the Skiff, and were they training their weapons now on their clearing?

Then, he heard a familiar word in the Fallen's prayer-like chattering.

Kell.

The Kell of Devils came to Earth. And they have just witnessed his descent.

The Ketch flew past, oblivious to Jasker's fears, and disappeared over the horizon. They remained silent, awestruck, with only the Fallen praying in its hoarse language to the living god whose presence graced his existence for just a few dozen seconds.

Alyona shook herself from her reverie first.

"That... was about as big as my granny's meatball," she said. "Only with more metal."

Jasker smiled, politely, though he did not get the joke.

Glazok slid the Skiff over the treeline again, but did not remove the cloaking field. They flew on, in the same direction as before, only even slower.

The Fallen watched the Ghost manage the ship intently, almost the same way he did for the last three hours. He then turned his four-eyed gaze towards Jas and Alyona. Something was different this time, Jasker noticed. He looked at the humans as if he started to understand them, as if their reaction to the Ketch was something that he could relate to. Jas thought for a second about trying to speak to their prisoner, and almost dismissed the idea. Then, he knelt before the Eliksni and pressed his hand to his chest in what he hoped was an universal gesture.

"Jasker," he said. "I am Jasker."

The Eliksni shifted, redistributing his weight. His mouth twitched a few times, trying to wrap itself over unfamiliar sounds.

"Jas-ker," he repeated. He shook his head, then nodded at himself.

"Yaltrik."

"Well, Yaltrik, I'd shake hands, but I've no idea how you'd react and you're bound. Sorry, you're staying that way."

Jas sighed and sat down, facing Yaltrik. Alyona looked at him, curious.

"He doesn't speak any human language, you know."

"I figured," smiled back Jas. "But I have a hunch. He'll learn. He's just like us. A misfit."

Yaltrik looked squarely at the human sitting in front of him. No torture tools, no visible weapons. Was he going to just... talk?

***

//IMPERATOR NOCHI SCAN LOG 6549/765169//

//ATMOSPHERIC ENTRY: 1 XXXL signature, 15 M signatures//

//LIDAR SCAN: 1 new signatures in 25 km radius//

//KNOWN THREATS: 1, static since scan 6549/460039//

//UNKNOWN (POSSIBLE) THREATS: 1, mobile, approaching from the south//

//ACTION: target threat designated 02. release ground-air rocket. arm second ground-air rocket. wait for results.//