I did. A minute later, the main door opened, and a Ruhar looked in to check on me. Three of them escorted me down the hallway to use a bathroom, then they gave me another bottle of water, and a covered bowl of some sort of beige mush. "What is this?" I sniffed at it warily. There wasn't much scent, what it smelled like most was oatmeal with a faintly chemical, artificial trace.

"Nutritional supplement for humans. We manufactured it for you," the translator announced, "it contains all the elements needed for human nutrition, including vitamins and amino acids."

I sniffed again. They'd left out the flavor for sure. Still, if the hamsters could make enough of it, UNEF could survive until our first crops were ready. That thought brought a surge of hope in my chest that surprised me. Picking up the spoon, I put some in my mouth, and swallowed. It was better than some MREs I'd eaten. "Thank you." I stood up and made a short bow.

To my surprise, the lead Ruhar gave me a quick salute, then they left me and locked the door again. A minute later, while I was eating mush, the other door unlocked.

"Damn, that took forever." Skippy complained.

Talking through a mouthful of mush, I said "What's your hurry? You waited a long time already, what's another ten minutes?"

“I was stuck there, alone, for a long time, which to an AI like me is like a bazillion years.”

“Wow! Really, a bazillion?”

“Maybe even a bazillion gajillion. To explain it in caveman terms, if you kicked your shoes off and counted all your fingers and toes, it’s even more than that. Blows your mind, huh?”

“Beer can says what?”

“Don’t give me attitude, meatsack.”

“Meatsack? Can we go back to the part where you asked me for help? Hey, I can drop you down this chute the Ruhar have helpfully labelled ‘Trash’. And yeah, I can read a few words of Ruhar. Maybe a couple bazillion gajillion years sitting at the bottom of a garbage heap will improve your attitude.”

"Go ahead, monkey boy, try getting out of here without me."

Quickly, I scooped the last spoonfuls of mush into my mouth. "Can we leave now?"

"No, big stupidhead, you waited too long asking me idiot questions. A Ruhar Dodo just landed, bringing in fresh troops. We have to wait until they rotate out, it won't be long."

"All right, what then? I escape, and carry you with me? We'll need supplies; food, weapons, ammo."

“And I need fuel. I am powered partly by a micro fusion reactor, and I require a supply of helium 3, in metallic form.”

“Sure, I’ll pop down to the local Ruhar Quickie Mart, they probably have metallic helium 3 on the shelf between the microwave burritos and the Slim Jims. You want a lotto ticket, too?”

“I’m trying to be serious, Joe.”