"Not that I'm not a fan of dogs but why would your first order of business on landing on a new planet be seeing a local apex predator and going 'I want a puppy.'"

"They reminded us of our creators."

"...Thaaaaat is a tone of voice that sounds relevant to my plans to resurrect Literally Everyone." 

"Yes."

"Well, I have plans to resurrect Literally Everyone. Did your creators die on Earth, other planets...? I suppose even if they died out on earth their would be a bunch of dead ones on your homeworld, do you still have the coordinates? I'd have to figure out how to translate whatever coordinate system you use to something that makes more sense in superluminal crab terms but I bet that's doable." 

"Some made it to Earth before succumbing to their illness, most died on other planets. I remember where it was but I don't know that the planet is still there."

"Why would the planet not still be there?"

"It was attacked. I have no specific reason to believe they wanted the planet destroyed and not just the occupants, but it's not implausible."

"Great. Okay, who attacked them." 

"Howlers."

"What are Howlers?"

"What is it you need for this purpose? I'd rather not adjust my hologram to look like one if it's all the same to you. We don't know where they came from or what they wanted. It seemed like all they were there for was to destroy everything."

"Sorry. What I wanted was--these Howlers sound like a problem, I wanted whatever information was available with which to solve the problem. Maybe there'll be something about them in the library." 

"In a place like this perhaps there is."

"There will probably also be a solution to the problem of resurrecting beings who don't have souls and whose bodies one doesn't have. Not that I'm assuming your universe doesn't have souls, I've been informed that there are other things which serve the same purpose in universes where stars aren't people, but I'm not assuming it does, either." 

"What would serve the same purpose as a soul?"

"The relevant purpose of a soul is being a metaphysical construct which preserves the mind after the death of the body. Souls in my universe have other purposes but this is the purpose which has the word 'soul' attached to it." 

"Huh. Soul and mind are separate aspects in my elemental system."

"What does your kind of soul do?"

"That's a great question. As far as I know the only soul-oriented powers Sarelle has are basically - tracking, more or less, and telling what element people are better than everyone else can, though that part doesn't even tend to apply to foreigners on my own planet, let alone people here."

"I wonder if this person would display interesting properties in my universe. --Which is completely off track. Communicators are a great idea. Idarai, you said something about counterspelling the thing that Erek was under, could you do a more general version of that?" 

"In theory, probably, but the less specific a spell is, the more power it draws." 

"Do you think maybe you could draw power from me? I have lots." 

"Maybe, but if it didn't work immediately it would take a lot of research to figure out, if it could be done at all." 

"Is there a quick test?"