Page 31 of Stranded with the Alien

They should have been ejected with him but they’d gone missing. A malfunction must have blown them out of the cockpit separately.

“I was trying to locate them when I found you,” he explained. “About to be eaten by thatgaraneshcreature.”

She had discovered not every word could be translated by the microbes.Garaneshthrew up an image of a slavering beast with long antenna and hairy legs; scary, but not at all like the spider-thing that had attacked her in the trees. Maybe it was the closest thing they had to it on Vraxos.

“Can you get the ship’s radio working?”

“That was my hope. But it is beyond repair.”

“So what now?”

“Let me look atyourbeacon.”

She retrieved the transmitter from where she’d dropped it. He turned it over in his hands.

“Only the power source is damaged?”

“Not sure. There’s no way of telling.”

“I may have something that will activate it.”

“Unlikely. Our technologies are completely different.”

“Are you always so defeatist?”

She bristled.

“I’m a realist. There’s a difference.”

He didn’t bother answering.

He returned to the cockpit and used his laser-blade to remove some of the paneling on the dashboard. Most of it was a crushed, burned-out mess but some of the fuses looked intact. He carefully removed one from its slot, severing the wires connected to it.

He took it outside and showed it to Kara.

“You see that small transparent crystal seated in the fuse mechanism? That functions as a power source.”

She raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“Thattiny crystal can produce wattage?”

“Maybe enough to activate your transmitter.”

She watched doubtfully as he coupled the fuse to the bottom of the transmitter, deftly jerry-rigging the wiring until the two were joined. He pushed the ‘on’ button.

The crystal glowed but there was no sound from the beacon. Not even white noise.

“Is it working?” Kara asked.

“It isyourdevice. Is the signal meant to be silent?”

“I don’t know. I mean, maybe. It would make sense to transmit silently if you had to use it in enemy territory.”

It was his turn to raise an eyebrow.

“You do not know how your own technology works?”

She flushed.

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