Deskyl goes back to the bed, and gestures for the robot to sit next to her on it; thusly settled, she signs to her, and then settles her elbows on her knees rather than continue to make the effort of sitting up.

    "Hello?" the robot tries.

"Hello robot."

"Hello," she repeats, more confidently. "Robot?" she taps her chest.

She continues in that vein for a while - soliciting Peka's name, first, and then requesting more vocabulary with mime and gesture; after several minutes the other woman starts signing, and the robot asks her to just talk, rather than asking for specific words.

She talks.

Eventually she sings, out of things to say.

"That's very nice," the robot says when she's done.

"I think I can talk enough now. We aren't going to hurt you. If we need to be a secret for you to be safe, we will be, if we can be safe that way."

"...why?"

"Deskyl doesn't like... the kind of thing that's happening to you, and the kind of thing you think would happen."

"...is she a mindreading alien?"

"Yes. It's not easy, but she can do it."

"Oh. I guess it makes sense to be telepathic if you can't talk."

"Well, yes. But that's not why - she stopped being able to talk because someone hurt her; she already knew how to read minds. If she rests long enough she'll be able to learn how again."

"Oh. - are other aliens going to come here -"

They sign back and forth for a moment. "She doesn't think so. It wasn't something she'd usually be able to do."

More signing - "She needs to sleep, now, but she can answer one or two more questions first if you need her to."

"Was she doing the spooky thing -"

"Yes, she was trying to scare you away."

"She shouldn't do that more, I can tell the greys I found a body in this house and they won't camp out in it and only go in the other houses."

"Okay." Signing. "She might forget; that's from being hurt, too. But she probably won't even if she does forget, if they leave the house alone."

"They might let me camp out in it but they might not. And if we lose the war people will move back here."

Deskyl makes a face at the mention of the war, but then winces again and stretches out on the bed, not bothering to get under the covers and apparently asleep as soon as she's stopped moving.

"We'll have to figure out what to do, then. How long do we have until the - greys? - come?"

"Maybe a couple hours."

"Okay. Will it be a problem if I bring the rest of the food here? Deskyl can go without eating but she'll heal slower that way."

"That shouldn't be a problem. Greys won't know how much was left behind. - the food's not clean, that's why it's marked red." She touches her hair.

"I don't understand."

"Red's've touched it. Without plastic in the way, I mean." She tugs at a glove.