Yulth frowned, and for a moment, Savoy was worried that the interpreter had messed up the translation.

Finally, the immense man spoke. “There are civilians. Many. Too many to evacuate. It will take time.”

Savoy sighed. “We don’t have much of that, so you’d better get to work.”

Yulth turned with an almost alarming speed and started shouting orders to his men. Savoy and his team watched them break up and rush off, impressed with their speed, if nothing else.

Whether they will be as effective as they were fast, Savoy thought, is another matter.

“Get those circuits degaussed!”

“Yes, sir!” the tachyon specialist on the Odyssey said, not looking up as the chief engineer cursed under his breath while they all but dismantled his babies.

The transition drive was first, but it was also the most painful.

Captain Weston’s orders had come down, and at first, no one really wanted to believe it. It was insane, for one, but the orders were quickly confirmed, and the Engineering team had gotten to work in short order.

All the ship’s tachyon generation systems were being discharged, degaussed, and taken offline. Since that list included the FTL sensor systems, as well as the transition drive, the net effect was to make the Odyssey blind as well as lame.

Yet, those were the captain’s orders, so the teams got to work and sailored on.

“Admiral Tanner, we have the orbiters prepared.”

“Ah, excellent, thank you,” Rael said, turning to Milla. “Pardon me, Ithan, could you contact Captain Weston?”

“One moment,” she said, her eyes refocusing.

Tanner saw the young woman’s eyes flicker around, looking at something he couldn’t see. He wasn’t sure if she knew how to use the system effectively, but from the outside, it looked very odd and impressive as well.

His reverie was cut short when he heard a distinctly non-female voice address him.

“Yes, Admiral?”

“Ah, Captain Weston, we have prepared four orbiters, if you wish to unload your passengers.”

“Thank you, Admiral. That will be fine,” Weston’s voice said. “What is the size of these…orbiters?”

Tanner waved a hand at one of his subordinates.

The answer came back in a few seconds in the form of a plate dropped into his hands, so he rattled off the numbers from the display.

There was a long pause.

“Uh…”

Tanner blinked. The sound made no sense whatsoever.

“Perhaps you should send one up and we’ll just scan it,” Weston continued after a moment. “I’m afraid that the translator is missing a few important modules.”

“I see,” Tanner replied, not entirely certain that he did. “Very well, I’ll authorize their departure immediately.”

“Thank you, Admiral. I’ll be in touch.”

The signal went dead, leaving Tanner blinking owlishly at Milla as she looked back, just as confused.

“How will he be ‘in touch’ from orbit?” Tanner asked after a moment.

“I do not know, Admiral. I said that they were human, not that they were normal.”