When the silence on both sides had ticked on a handful of seconds more, she started to recast them. For one thing, they were so much smaller than human. And while that didn’t necessarily make them less fearsome or hideous, it would skew the odds in her favour if it came down to fisticuffs. For another, there was enough commonality of body language between the hominid and the rodent that she could tell they were terrified. And why not? This was their world; they were the poor natives confronted by gigantic alien monsters.

“Hi,” she said. “I’m Lee, this is Mal. We’re here on a mission to get our scientist back.”

The leading rodent drew itself up and spoke, or at least made a lot of chittering and squeaking sounds, many of which were on the very edge of Lee’s hearing. The calm false voice came from the other, or specifically from its implant.

“Your surmise is accurate,” it repeated. “Communiques have been received detailing your requirements and a plan of action has been draw up to be effected. Details of the reciprocal arrangement must now vary—and progress may not be attained without your verification.”

“Repeat, please,” Mal prompted. “What do you mean, ‘reciprocal arrangement’?”

“I now require the accelerated extraction of myself and precious accoutrements owing to worsening conditions and increased security threat,” the implant, or its owner, translated. Lee was beginning to get a sense of urgent agitation in the lead rodent that the translation was not conveying.

“Perhaps escape was its price for helping…I don’t suppose the Nissa said anything about this, when you were briefed?” she murmured to Mal, who shook her head.

“What is your job here?” Lee asked.

The creature listened to its end of the translation and then adopted a grandiose posture—and it was such a pose that Lee virtually crammed her fist into her mouth to stop herself laughing. To human eyes the only descriptor for it would be “fabulous.” The ratty head went up, muzzle angled towards the ceiling, and the creature stood tall so that all the spiky tiers of its peculiar outfit splayed out. They prodded the interpreter in the side, making it shift over irritably. The calm translation relayed its chittering as, “I am the great scientist Dr. Rat.”

The name was the last straw, and the best Lee could do was turn the laugh into a bleating sound which, fortunately, the translator didn’t do anything with. Possibly it sounded like an awed exclamation if you were a rat-weasel.

“Matey here is their Dr. Khan, maybe?” Mal murmured. She’d meant it for Lee, but the translator chittered its own version; of course those rodent ears were more sensitive than humans’. “The Nissa wanted different viewpoints, and the weas…welcoming party here obviously have the science to understand what’s going on. But we were here for the doc…”