:Could we - explode it, or something? ...I think Leareth might be able to figure out a Gate routing to get the people here without it needing to catch up to us all the way - is he awake?: 

(Leareth is very much not awake.) 

"We could explode your ship, yes."

"I could also disguise its drive signature, if I get over there, though it won't stand up to a close inspection and Mars is as previously mentioned on high alert right now - and they'll change those codes -"

:All right. I think the first priority is making contact with them - I am going to tell the Proto to Mindtouch you, Alex, and also one of Leareth's people back on the ship, and to relay messages for you: 

And she reaches out for the Proto's mind-presence, mostly in Leareth and Julie's vicinity but not quite localized-feeling in the way human minds are. She tries to give it this instruction very clearly and specifically; she thinks she's slightly getting the hang of it, though Leareth would probably do this way better. 

"Is that going to get me infected."

:I cannot think how it would! I have been talking to it and I am not infected - the med bay technology confirmed that as well as our Healers. It is exactly the same thing I am doing right now to talk to you, and you are not infected with me: 

He looks extremely suspicious but doesn't object further.

?????????

"Ooookay. We're hailing the Anubis 1A. They need to go to comms, should look like this, and put me on speaker..."

It seems like maybe the Proto is confused about what she wants it to do, so Nayoki pulls it into a group-link with her and Alex, like she would with a human Mindspeaker; it's very hard to pull this off when one of the parties isn't Gifted at all, but Nayoki is a highly trained Mindhealer. 

And then she reaches to pull in other mage back on Julie's ship, just like she would if he were in range, he's not but the Proto is - 

It works!

Leareth's remaining staff on the other ship have been so stressed! They don't really know how to use the ship's various screens and controls to figure out where the new ship is let alone follow it but the definitely noticed when it slipped out of their range for Gates or anything else! 

They can get on the comms and follow Alex's instructions with only some additional stupid-questions-type prompting. 

Then he will walk them through how to do some manuevers and get back on course to stick near the Roci. "How close do you need to be for, uh, 'Gate' range?"

(They wait for Nayoki to translate this into Rethwellani and repeat it over the comm, which seems easier than keeping Alex in the group-link with the Proto.) 

"Nayoki should be able to get us once we're within a thousand miles," one of the mages offers. 

Nayoki translates this back to Alex in Mindspeech. Makes a mental note that they really need to figure out learning the local language. Not all of Leareth's people here have Mindspeech, and it's conspicuous. 

:Leareth could do further: she adds. :If he were not sick. I - may try to speak to him in a little while, see if he can explain the technique he would use to me and then I can cast it. How long will it take for the ship to catch up to within a thousand miles of us?: 

"Oooof. Okay, the sensors are going to all be pissed about getting that up close and cozy, you're going to want to disable some navigational safeguards - and also slow down - should be a couple of hours."

Nayoki is staring at him in confusion. A thousand miles is 'up close and cozy?' 

:All right. If it is just a couple of hours, we should do it that way, and I will get everyone across and -: Oh. Damn it. :Most of the Proto is there. I understand why you would prefer not to have it on your ship, but I think it cannot yet follow us independently... Could we, er, navigate to the nearest decently sized rock and drop it off there? If it eats more then I think it will be able to Gate itself and catch up once Leareth has instructions for it. And then you could explode Julie's ship so our enemies cannot track its drive signature: 

"I am not at all on board with the plan where we make the alien goo smarter and more powerful."

"Are you sure it can do that? Where the Anubis was parked it seemed to be pretty dormant, until we turned the reactor on."

:I am not sure. Back in Velgarth, it very happily ate our moon. But that was after it was already quite big, and - it seems much more limited, now, I think it lost most of itself on the way across the Gate...:  

She frowns. She's pretty sure Leareth has a compelling argument for why, in fact, the best plan here involves feeding the Proto until it's big and smart enough to understand what's happening. But, honestly, it's not an argument she feels especially like making, right now. Not when the Proto is currently busy eating him and he's probably going to die - 

- and, given that they're light-years away from home, she doesn't know if they would ever get him back. Aside from the shard of him that, supposedly, is part of the Proto now - but if they defeat the Proto here on Earth then what... 

:I need to talk to Leareth. I will send someone else to translate comms instructions for the other ship: To Naomi: :- You probably do not need to come into the med bay, but I might need your help to figure out how to tell it that I need it to stop sedating him so we can talk: 

"Sure."

Technically Nayoki herself doesn't need to be in the med bay either, she could delegate the equipment-poking to one of the Healers and then conduct the conversation in Mindspeech, but she WANTS to be. She's so worried about Leareth. 

She puts on the protective equipment again, which takes a while, and then heads in and stands next to Leareth's reclining-chair and directly pushes across what she's seeing on the screens to Naomi. 

:All right, what do I do to it?: 

Uh, there should be an emergency override to get him conscious - yeah, okay, upper right corner -

:Right, thank you: She hesitates for a moment and then presses this.