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"Soooo...you gonna tell me what happened?" Nar said behind him.

Ryziel swallowed hard. He didn't look at Nar as he said, "It's complicated."

"Complicated how?"

Ryziel searched the images before him until he found the girl from the bridge. He stared at her picture.

"Uh, hello? Ryz, are you hearing me or what?"

Ryziel's eyes didn't leave the image. His Drega didn't come back, thank Nihl, but he felt the stirrings of curiosity. His eyes finally shot over to the other faces, wondering.

"Who or what are those?" Nar asked beside him.

"Humans," Ryziel said.

Nar let out a little grunt. "They are an odd-looking sort. Always something new around here." Nar went silent for a moment when Ryziel didn't respond. "Why are you looking them up? They a threat or something?"

Ryziel let out a hiss of breath, a near laugh. "Honestly, I'm not sure."

He could almost feel Nar's wide eyes on him. "Seriously?" Nar said with unhidden surprise. "They look pretty unthreatening if you ask me," he muttered.

Ryziel's eyes narrowed back on the girl from the bridge. It was true. There was nothing about them that seemed threatening, nothing that should have set him off. Though, again, he reminded himself that the feeling hadn't been normal.

He tapped on the image of the girl, bringing her picture to the forefront. Beside her headshot, a short description and set of information was displayed.

Aly Smith

Human

Age: 24

Physical: gold-red hair along head, blue-green eyes, pale, soft-skinned, small

Home planet: Earth

Job Skill: Mechanic

Background: Found by Xolis enforcers, led by Captain Marzin, on tradeship, being transported to [undisclosed]. Brought to Yilsand for rehabilitation and integration into Xolis system.

Threat: low

All Vaccines given. No known illnesses.

Testing still underway

Nothing seemed unusual. It was known that all outsiders went through the integration program. Only that they were still testing might have seemed strange, given that the humans were off the program for the most part, but he knew nothing of the silion scientists' tests and what they entailed, so it could mean nothing. There was nothing that really gave anything away. All this information seemed to do was make Ryziel more curious. He wanted to know more.

Ryziel looked back at the ship and frowned. This wasn't the time to be curious about some other race just because one encounter had sparked the beast in him. He needed to focus on the ship. He needed to focus on getting home.

'Always so impatient to get the job done,' a ghost of his brother's voice laughed in his ear.

'You'll get it done, Ryziel. You have time,' he said to himself. 'One more visit up to the surface won't hurt. Just sate your curiosity now and be done with it. Xilya will be back soon with the information you need, and you can put this strange encounter behind you and focus on what matters.'

With that, Ryziel tapped the image of the girl away and swiped the group off the console.

A message came through and popped up before him. Xilya was on her way back.

"I'm going to the upper levels again tomorrow," Ryziel said.