Children No More, Chapter 6

[Chapter 5](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/s/nfl3Dod8Bx)

Children No More, Chapter 6

After several minutes of silence, Tungos turned back around. He began speaking as though nothing had happened.

“So. There are 5 peoples on planet Earth. 3 of you have come all the way beyond Uranus, beyond Pluto, beyond Nibiru, all the way to us.”

He looked at them expectantly, as though he wanted them to answer a question he hadn’t asked. 

“Will there be more? Will we be visited by herds of Pachy Sapiens? Packs of Canid Sapiens? Or will we spend another two millennia drifting out here alone?”

He tilted his head in a way that was both playful, and deadly serious.

Unnerved by the sudden change in tone, the spacers glanced at each other before answering cautiously. 

“The big ones have trouble with confined spaces, and the fast ones like to stay closer to home. They’re not as solitary as we are.”

Tungos looked at Tikichikee, but directed his question to Kraweerk.

“Is that so?”

The crowman nodded, then suddenly blurted out the questions chasing each other through his mind -

“What ARE you doing out here? You’ve been hiding in the shadow of Nibiru, orbiting the sun for….” he paused.

“2347 earth years. Give or take a month.” Tungos supplied helpfully.

“.... 2347 years. Why?” His voice filled with unexpected anger. “Why would you leave us?!?! Leave us to starve, and to war, and to die, and to….” his voice trailed off, his anger spent as suddenly as it had been birthed.

Stunned at the sudden rush of emotion and the accompanying awareness of just how far from home and everything they knew and understood, both crewmen froze and stared at the avatar before them. 

In another lightning shift of tone, Tungos answered the question gently, with none of the anger they expected after an attack.

“That is an excellent question, but it’s not one we can answer. What we can say is this - you have not been abandoned. Or, at least, that was not their intention.”

Without another word Tungos turned and took the few steps necessary to remount the pedestal. 

He reached out and activated a control panel - a panel the spacers had not noticed against the eye-catching panorama of space that made up the entire forward wall of the room. 

A few quick taps and Tungos stepped back. 

Kraweerk took a deep breath but, with his back still turned towards them, Tungos spoke first. 

“One moment, please.”

The tone was polite, but both crewmen knew a command when they heard one.  

They stood there, uncertainly, waiting for…. something.

The wait was only a few seconds. 

The ship - the TFN Xiaoxi Zaiti - began to hum. 

It wasn’t exactly an audible noise, but it wasn’t exactly not, either. 

After a few seconds of humming the ship suddenly “thrummed” - a bone-deep vibration that felt as though the massive ship was a guitar string that had been plucked.

Kraweerk clacked his beak rapidly and Tikichikee let out an involuntary hiss. 

Tungos turned around, smiled softly, and spoke in the soft tone they had come to both fear and love.

“Although we cannot answer your questions, those who can are on their way.”

Behind him, on the inconspicuous control panel, a single green light slowly blinked- on and off, on and off.