“I AM ATTEMPTING TO COMMUNICATE. I DON’T BELIEVE HE IS RECEIVING THEM. THOSE SYSTEMS ARE SHUT DOWN.”

Nikola spoke lightly in Pequod-phonemic out of the holes in the sides of his neck, what Kaveh assumed to be “softly,” placing his fingertips on the place where the back of Ampersand’s neck met his head, looking into it like one might look under the hood of a car.

“HIS HIGHER SYSTEMS ARE SHUT DOWN AS A MEANS OF SELF-PRESERVATION. I BELIEVE HE HAS SHUT DOWN TOO MANY SYSTEMS TO FUNCTION.”

Then he positioned his body at the front so he was directly facing Ampersand. Moving in carefully like he was a herpetologist trying to capture a viper, Nikola slid his head next to Ampersand’s until they were cheek to cheek, as it were, and held it there for some time, speaking in that strange staccato language. For the first time, Kaveh saw some beauty in it, soft and pattering like rain. Nikola moved forward until the back of his head met the back of Ampersand’s. The crest on the back of his head stiffened, then relaxed, the black fronds closing over the white ones.

The blow from the energy blast hit him before Kaveh knew what was happening, sending him careening into the plastic curtain behind him, breaking his fall. If that same force had affected Nikola, it wasn’t by much, as he hardly budged.

Kaveh didn’t get up, still leaning against that plastic curtain and breathing heavily, watching to see what Nikola would do. After a few seconds, some flaccid alarm started blaring. Bweeeee. Bweeeee. Kaveh could hear Kaplan barking orders over the intercom, but couldn’t really understand him over the alarm. Bweeeee. Ampersand righted himself onto his stomach, pulling his arms and legs under him, his head flat on the table, eyes open and staring forward but focused on nothing.

“What’s going on?” Ghasabian’s voice over the intercom.

“Is he saying anything?” asked Kaveh, keeping his eyes on the alien in the center of the table.

Nikola stayed still as he looked at the statue in the middle of the room, and stayed like that for almost two minutes before he finally regarded Kaveh. “We must depart.”

“What do you mean?”

“WE WERE SCHEDULED TO DEPART TWENTY MINUTES AGO. WE ARE NOW DELAYED. WE MUST DEPART.”

Kaveh finally tore his eyes from Ampersand to look at Nikola, incredulous. “What, you still want to go into the woods?”

“YES,” he said, passing him by. The escorts were already standing on the other side of the door. “OUR TIME ALONE IS VALUABLE, IS IT NOT, DEAR CLEVER CREATURE?”

He followed Nikola outside, and only then did that useless bweeeee alarm finally shut off. “He, uh . . . wants us to keep to the schedule. He wants to go out to the woods.”

“You’re kidding,” said Kaplan.

He looked into the observation room, and saw Ghasabian still inside looking at a screen.