“Already on it!”

Goggles is headed for the reactor. Best to check on that before leaving the ship, in case there’s any imminent problems. 

If it seems like something bad is about to happen, the emergency fail-safes activate and make the reactor calmly stop reactoring. It’s VERY IMPORTANT that the reactor does not keep reactoring while upset. 

“Everything’s shut down. Nice work, engine, you’re handling this really well.” 

Bellerophon flaps his hand vertically for yes and follows it up with his gesture for wait. He glances backwards at the mechanic heading to the engine, and the captain rummaging through some debris for intact equipment and supplies.

To make conversation, and figure out how worries to be, he tries his best to pronounce ‘Haşar’ in an inquisitive tone, to ask what exactly it is.

:Oh! Yeah, that's almost right. It's more like: "Hasyar" :than: "Hasar", :but people in the South sometimes say: "Hashar" :or: "Hashyar". :'Ş' is the soft version of 'Ç',: she explains.

:Do they not have them wherever you're from? They're, uh, pretty recognizable. I guess I should probably give you the safety spiel, just in case. Sorry if you already know this.:

Her mindvoice takes on the cadence of something memorized.

:First of all, don't go into the Haşarlands. (But since we're already there, that's not much help). If you do, keep careful watch for Haşar and remember your shortest route out at all times. Don't make yourself visible by cresting hills. Stick to the valleys. You can spot them by their gently glowing red eyes, and by their reflective red not-eyes. They are normally low to the ground, 3 feet at most, but can rear up much higher than that if they want to. What one Haşar sees, they all know. So if one spots you, you now need to evade all of them, not just that one. They always travel in packs. (I'm not sure why it looks like there's just one of them on the other hill; that's new behavior). They are very fast, but usually in bursts. If you spot one, your best bet is to immediately start running at a sustainable pace for the border. They fear fire, but not irrationally. If you have a torch or flaming sword,: she says, patting the sword at her side. :then wave it at them if they get too close. They will stop for a moment to re-group, although they won't stop pursuing you. We don't actually know what they do with anyone they catch, because we've never spotted their mouths, but that's actually more terrifying if you think about it.:

She pauses to think for a moment. :Does that answer your question, or should I say more?:

Bellerophon smiles slightly at his attempted pronunciation, and shakes his head to indicate that he does not have Haşar where he comes from. The closest thing to a large predator on his homeworld is a particularly unpleasant rat or dog, and planets that still have animals that could eat people make him uneasy. 

He listens attentively to the safety information, leaning forward slightly and nodding occasionally at key points. Idly he wonders if communication with the Haşar is possible; if they can somehow share everything they see there's probably some way they communicate. Maybe even a similar version of the telepathy he's experiencing?

He nods to indicate that his questions have been answered- at least, the ones he thinks he can ask through the one-way language barrier. Discovering a new language is very interesting, but not having any common language is very inconvenient. Usually that only happens when a society wants to stay isolated from the wider galaxy, and so only teaches a non-Basic language. If that's the case, Bellerophon does know how to negotiate with isolationist world, but if the society is isolationist why is this local being friendly to outsiders? She certainly doesn't seem like she's acting friendly to lure him into a trap. If that was the case, she could have waited for the Haşar to eat whatever-they-do-with-prey-if-they-don't-eat-them him and the crew.

Captain Monzor and the rest of the crew emerge from another break in the hull of the ship. Monzor is wearing a thick jacket, a backpack full of any survival gear that looked intact-enough-to-use. He also carries one side of a stretcher. He makes eye contact with Zeterse and then looks down, to draw her attention to the unconscious and injured person he's carrying. 

He knows about the lack of common language, but still says "We've done basic first aid but we need to get to a trained healer if your town has one, before things get worse." The words might not mean anything to her but hopefully the tone of voice does. 

Goggles is carrying the other side of the stretcher. She is avoiding any eye contact with the brain wizard, and is pretty sure they're about to be taken to some kind of lair, not a town. Captain thinks it's a better idea than staying and trying their luck with the centipede-thing, though, and he usually makes good decisions, but she's can still be worried. 

:Oh! Yikes,: she says on seeing Brother Astralis. :You're in luck. Our circuit healer arrived in town yesterday. If they're in too delicate condition to move much we can leave them at Çet's farm and summon him.:

Zeterse leads the way back behind the hill, keeping a careful watch on the skyline. Once they're out of sight of the Haşar, Wozet crawls backwards and then jogs down the hill to join them.

"Zumarut. Nat Wozet zheçihegy," he says.

:I can translate -- he says hi, he's Wozet,: Zeterse offers.

"Nat moreng do çatugy," (:I was more polite than that:) he complains.

:I ... huh. Uh, anyways, the way out is just around that hill there and then it's a straight shot to the farm,: Zeterse offers.

She leads the way, occasionally looking back to see if they need any help with the stretcher and otherwise keeping a watch ahead. Wozet walks last, scanning the hills behind him every few paces. The grassy hills pass on either side, occasionally sporting a patch of wildflowers. Overhead, birds wheel through the clear morning air and Çenti is visible low in the sky, made pale by the atmosphere.

Çet isn't waiting impatiently for them at the border, because running a farm is actually quite busy. But this is the most interesting thing to happen in the last few months, so they're prioritizing their outdoor chores while they wait to see if they can spot Zeterse and Wozet returning.

They're in the middle of weeding their squash bed when they see a distant figure emerge from between the hills. And then another. And then two more carrying something slung between them.

Çet stands and squints. Despite Zeterse's taunts, there's a reason that they're called Watcher. They realize that it's a stretcher. The only question is, wounded or casualty?

They jog just to the border with the Haşarlands, stopping just short of the poles. "Hamtunguqu nat genit?" they call when Zeterse's close enough to hear.

Zeterse flaps her hand yes, and Çet takes off running towards town for the second time today.

:They've gone to fetch the healer,: Zeterse explains. :We can put him down right after the poles if he should stop moving, or we can put him in Çet's bed in their house. They won't mind.:

They reach the border with no more problems. The wind rustles the oceans of grass around them, and the sun beats down.

Even after doing all that walking while carrying another person, he doesn’t seem that tired. He watches the scenery as they travel, mostly keeping an eye out for any ambushes or any creatures following them. 

When they arrive on the farm, he moves Astralis from the stretcher to the bed. He stays in that room, watching to make sure Astralis doesn’t get any worse and waiting for the healer to arrive. 

When the locals start talking to each other, he holds out his translator device to see if it can start picking up the language. When it does, he gives it a very surprised look. 

The translator isn’t picking up any connections to any known language. Which means it could take weeks, or even months, for the translation expert system to start learning. In fact, he needs to start learning it himself, and feeding the words and phrases he learns into the translator. 

When they get back from to Constellation Republic space—which might be a while, if the whole planet is as low-tech as this farm—he needs to apologize to his languages instructor. He kept arguing about how modern translation devices made the class obsolete, but here he is in the ‘what if you get stranded on one of those planets settled by mad linguists where everyone speaks an incomprehensible conlang’ scenario.

So, what’s this farm like? Dirt and plants and stuff, sure, but do they have electricity? Net, or at least radio? Farming machines?

Goggles starts looking around the outside, but will start poking around in the house if no one stops her. 

There are no farming machines in immediate evidence, although it's possible that they could be concealed in one of the two large barns a bit away from the house. It's the growing season, so there would be no reason to have a harvester out yet.

There is a large stone slab with wooden handles floating with no visible means of support next to a patch of what she might tentatively identify as squash if she has an eye for vegetables. It sits about six inches above the ground, apparently serving as a handcart based on the pile of tools, fertilizer, and general gardening detritus piled on top of it.

If she gets down on the ground and looks, it's quite clear that there are no wheels. Also absent is the ultrasonic whine which low-tech or badly tuned contragravity devices often generate. If she checks for RF emissions, she'll find the entire spectrum silent. Not even the noise you'd expect from an unshielded cable.

In fact, the only radio across the whole spectrum is the extreme-low-frequency pulse of the gas giant's magnetic field ponderously turning, the high-frequency hiss and crackle of a warm summer day, and the familiar pulses of The Initiative's still active emergency distress beacon.

When she tires of the outdoors and moves her focus to the small cabin in which Brother Astralis is resting nobody stops her, and there's not much poking to be done. The house is divided into two rooms. The bedroom contains nothing technological other than a small glowing rod hanging from the ceiling to provide light. There is no wiring leading to it. It's glowing in roughly the same hue as the sun.

The other room has a table and chairs, storage cupboards, and a handloom. More rods are suspended from the ceiling by handspun twine. A large square block of stone sits in the middle of one wall on a slightly raised dias of bricks. It's giving off a faint heat and has concentric circles and swirling lines cut into the top.

Zeterse lets Arthur take the sole chair in the bedroom, and leans awkwardly against Çet's table in the other room.

:It's not far to the village. Çet should be back with the healer soon,: she reassures everyone. :Perhaps in the meantime, Wozet and I can teach you a few words?: she offers Bellerophon. :I'm sort of the worst person for teaching languages, but we can cover the basics.:

Wozet watches Goggles investigate the cart for a few moments, and then turns his attention back when he hears his name. "Turut," (:We can teach you:) he agrees.

Bellerophon leans against the wall opposite Zeterse, so he can watch her and Wozet speak. He goes with the 'friendly and relaxed' lean, and gives the two of them a thankful wave. 

At the same time he is also noticing that Wozet noticed the mechanic poking around, and keeping an eye on that situation in case he needs to defuse any conflicts that start there. 

Goggles does not notice Wozet watching her because she's too busy being very confused. This place has gravity tech but no radio. They have gravtech that's cheap enough to use for a little cart? But they still do their food making with hand tools?!!?!?!?!

Maybe this is the house of one a fancy rich people, someone who can afford to buy a floating cart and who thinks growing food from dirt is fancier than just buying premade food cubes? 

Looking inside the house, they have lights and a heater. No cables, so either they're battery powered or there's some kind of wireless thing, like one of those energy fields some fancy houses have. But there's no generator anywhere on this farm, and no connection to a power grid. So where is the power coming from? Goggles examines the slab for a way to open it up and change the batteries.

There's also that... string thing? Like the ones people use to make cloth on those planets that forgot how to use technology. But this can't be one of those because they still have gravity manipulation. There's no way people forget how to use radio and industrial food and cloth production but still remember how to maintain gravtech. Unless... they don't have gravtech at all.

Goggles steps back outside and pokes a stick between the cart and the ground, to see if it's actual gravity manipulation or just some transparent material holding the cart up.

The stick passes right through, unhindered.