We Hire Humans, Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Starlight was saying my name. “Jhudit.” Well, something like my name, anyways.

I turned on the lights.

Starlight’s lipfingers were trembling. He gestured to his head, and out the windows. “Dhere is…”

“Slow,” I said, blinking the sleep out of my eyes.

He said some words in his language, none of which I recognized. “Ship. Ship. Ship.” He gestured in several directions.

“Ships?” I asked. He hadn’t quite gotten the concept of how an S on the end of a word made it plural.

“Ships! Dhere is ships. In my...” he tapped his head.

My jaw dropped. “Your implants have made contact with ships out there?”

“Yes.”

That meant that a greenship had arrived—and it had brought military force with it.

“Can you control them?”

His lipfingers twitched some more. “I need khalo!” He got up and opened the hatch.

Jessica was out in the control area, leaning back reading from a tablet. “Khalo!”

“What?”

Blearily, I came in behind him. “He wants his halo back.”

She set her tablet aside and stood up, holding up a forbidding hand. “That’s not possible.”

Gesticulating, Starlight tried to express himself but in his excitement the words weren’t coming.

“We need to get our halos back,” I said. “There’s something going on. He has detected armed ships that belong to the Organization.”

“I can’t. I don’t have one. The shuttle you arrived on left yesterday, taking your halos with it.”

I grunted in frustration. “Alright, well, get the generals and directors...