Echo

18. Science

The sky is so bright on Cru N.

Rye and Malax are walking in the supply room that has the suppra's in it. That boy still doesn't have a shirt on. I do like him like that. The door shuts behind them and I remember where I am.

I rub my face and go to the supply room too.

Malax, Rye, and Eriska are on a stage in the front of the supply room. Malax's paint is glowing again here. Makes sense. There are no windows. The suppra's are standing in front of them. Nobody knows who is who for them. They are random.

Malax glances at me. Then stares.

Rye hits him with a shirt. He puts it on without looking away from me.

I get on the stage and stand by them. He takes off the shirt and hands it to me. "Thank you, sir." I'm only wearing a half dry white tank top that's pulled up to under my boobs and this little skirt.

He smiles.

"BOY."

Rye hits him on the head with the next shirt.

Eriska loses it. "We can't get through anything without someone yelling, 'boy'."

I put the shirt over my clothes.

"SANYA."

"OVER HERE CASDY." A random girl tackles another.

I smile. "Girls made it. Momma..."

"Here, baby."

The humans that are still alive start piling in. We get through everyone and daddy takes over. He explains the suppra's and what they are capable of. Then Malax and Rye talk about what happened and what we need to do. Which is apparently moving the dead and fixing the buildings. They also talk about what to do in case those things come back.

I smile at everyone. "Thank you for helping. I want to stress, you can always link into a different suppra, and continue on. The humans here can't do that. Please do your best to protect them. Don't be afraid to sacrifice a suppra to save someone."

We finally go outside.

I help some humans pick up part of a building. Turns out, I can pick up any piece of it and line it up for them. Then they can put it together with their tools. We get quick at it. Most of the buildings that were damaged only lost parts of them. Only 1 building was completely knocked down.

Eriska guides some people to help with the greenhouse. Thankfully, the plants weren't destroyed. Only part of the building was knocked down.

Once we get the buildings back together, it's not that bad.

I sit on the stage. The boys got the bodies moved out of the area. I think they lit what was left of them on fire somewhere. Now they are doing a head count and getting everyone's names.

Rye comes over to me soaking wet with different clothes on. "We need to figure out a way to wash the blood away. I don't know if it'll attract more or not. You have any ideas?"

"Salt water, towels, and disinfectant should do it. Why are you wet?"

"Had to get the blood off me. I don't care if I'm a suppra, it was gross."

"Yea, I bet. I'll start a cleaning crew. Can you get us one of the water tanks full of salt water?"

"Yea, I can find an empty tank. Why salt water?"

"Salt will help pull the blood. Fresh water would work, but I don't want to waste it. I think it's a better idea."

"No problem. What else?"

"Towels for cleaning and soaking up blood. They'll have to be destroyed. Maybe another tank that we can throw the dirty stuff in and the sand that blood soaked into."

"Sounds good. I'll tell Ax the plan."

Malax makes another speech and soon after, we're working to clean. It doesn't take long with us working together. They light our dirty towels on fire and one of the girls run by. "SHE THREW POOP ON ME."

"I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS POOP, DADDY."

"RAAARRRR" We run for it. Every single person runs. That thing is close. I get into a building and slam the door behind me. Nobody else came in this one.

"AAAAHHHHHH!"

I peek out the door, and she is still standing there covered in something brown. She keeps screaming. I glance around, and a huge lizard is watching her. He gets closer and smells her. Then he runs away.

I put an eyebrow up and go over to my sister. "Good thinking. Wear the poop of something bigger. Makes the little ones run away."

She nods. "I knew that."

Malax cracks up laughing. "You need a trip to the ocean. I don't even want you in the shower room."

The other people come out. "That was a little one?"

Malax nods. "Yep. And she's wearing the poop of a big one. We need more of that. Where did you find it?"

Eriska pushes me to him. "Take her. She likes to study shit."

"It's dirt. Not shit."

"No. That's s**t. Dirt has s**t in it. Go study s**t for a bit. I'll figure out how to clean this one up."

2 hours of studying s**t later, I figure out which poop is from the biggest lizards.

Malax stands beside me on the stage.

"Turns out the biggest piles of s**t are from the biggest lizards. If you find a large pile, check it for small bones. That is what you need to see. That will be from a lizard that other lizards are afraid of. Make sure it is placed outside the camp."

Malax nods. "We're also putting up a wall. It will be 30 feet tall and made of trees. Metal will be cooled over them. The s**t should be 50 feet outside that wall. It will help keep everything out."

My sisters suppra smiles at me and Malax. "Let's all take a few minutes to be thankful that we can't smell them."

I laugh so hard. "I'm happy about that too."

Rye smiles. "I ran water lines behind the shower building. Stand out there and get mostly clean. Then you can shower inside the building. Please don't drag s**t into the building. I'm going to lead people back. We're losing light and the humans here are tired."

Malax puts his arm around me and leads me off the stage. "Good thinking."

The pipes are coming off the roof. Push a button and they drop water on you. It's a very simple system. We stand under the pipes and Malax pushes the button.

I take the extra shirt off, and he takes his off. His back glows in the dark. The water removes it but slowly. It's fading off. I get some soap on a cloth while he's washing his hair. Then I wash his back.

He see his muscles relax.

"It's for science, sir. The soap is taking off the bioluminescence. Water seems to only make it fade."

"I am not complaining, woman."

I laugh and get it off his back and his arms. I wash the back of his neck and he shivers.

Then he spins me around and washes me like I did him. "You have some in your hair." He puts the soap in my hair and washes it.

"YOU DO NOT HAVE TO... JUST TAKE SEPARATE SHOWERS. NOW I STEPPED IN s**t. GO." Eriska shoves us in opposite directions. "GIRLS SHOWER OVER THERE. I'M COMING TO WASH MY FOOT."

I strip and get in the shower. By the time I get out, Eriska has some clean clothes for me. It's a tank top and tight pants. I'm going to have to send some clothes over for us.

I leave the shower building and Malax is standing there. "Sorry, I took 4 showers. I didn't know you were waiting."

"Same. I haven't been waiting long. Everyone else went back. Figured I would wait for you. I didn't know if you know where your box is."

"Not really." We walk to the supply room. "I'm going to have to figure out clothes. My clothes keep getting smaller and tighter. In not long, I'm going to be wearing underwear while I do experiments."

He laughs and opens his mouth. Then he shakes his head. "Figure out what you need, and I'll put them on the next voyager over."

"When is that?"

"6 days. I'm evacuating humans off this planet tomorrow. The ship is almost ready to go back. Thankfully, it didn't take any damage. They'll be leaving in the morning. 3 days, they'll be home. 3 days after that, the ship will come back with everything we have packed on it. Hopefully the first class of suppra pilots will be training by then. We do need help here soon. I didn't want to send the humans back, but I have to at this point."

"Yea, you do. It's not safe. The suppra's can put up the wall. Move the s**t. Reinforce some stuff. They won't be killed. It'll be safer this way. Hopefully, soon, you can bring the humans back."

"As long as the wall works. We'll have them back in a week." He opens my box for me.

I step in and close my eyes. Then I climb off the table. "What time is it? I'm tired."

"1 in the morning. Luckily, we didn't fall asleep and sleep here."

"There's a guest room you can stay in. It's too late to be driving around."

Momma about runs us over in the doorway. "Oh good. I was coming back to kick your asses. Malax, the servants are going to show you where to sleep. Echo, go to bed."

"Don't have to tell me twice, momma. Good night."

Malax smiles. "Good night."

Momma smacks him. "That way. Nobody tell Braxtin there's a boy in the house."

"Yes, ma'am."

I laugh and go to my room.