X'eylakh
V'nudoth Collective Territory
Zeta Quadrant
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The V'nudoth Collective was a small group of planetary governments comprised of four star systems.
Everyone was welcome in Collective territory, no matter what race you were.
Every single intergalactic Empire and Federation respected their neutrality and considered Collective territory as one of the galaxy's true neutral zones.
K'aisinh and his sons lived on X'eylakh, an extremely hot, Vulcan-like planet in the V'nudoth Collective.
It was just the 3 of them, ever since his wife and daughters died 5 years earlier in a robbery when their youngest was 2 years old.
Their oldest, K'Sahr, was now 15, and their youngest son, T'Planh, was 13.
K'aisinh answered the door one day after work. He saw two human girls about 4 and 8 years of age. The oldest girl was wearing an infant sling with an infant of about 4 months of age inside. She was carrying a diaper bag as well.
Each girl also carried a backpack. The infant was crying. They were sunburned and obviously very dehydrated.
“Hello, Sir. I'm Haley. These are my sisters Kaytey and Becky. We were in a very bad crash. We and our mom are the only ones who lived. Our mom's hurt and can't walk. She sent us to find help. Can you help us please?”, Haley asked, on the verge of tears.
“Of course! Come on in girls and get cooled off!”, he said, ushering them inside.
K'aisinh immediately picked Becky out of the sling to soothe her. He gave them each a cherry flavored electrolyte drink and potato chips, telling them the salt in the chips would help them, as would the drink.
He had his oldest son give Becky a bottle of electrolyte drink, and had his youngest son make the older girls lunchmeat sandwiches while he got more information from the girls.
“Which direction is the crash site in, sweetheart?”, he asked Haley. She told him.
“What's your mom's name?”
“Momma.”, Kaytey, the four-year-old, replied.
“No silly goose. That's what we call her. Momma's friends call her Olivia...or Liv.”, Haley said, giggling. Her sister giggled as well.
“Ok. You girls stay here with my boys in conditioned air and drink plenty of fluids. I'll go find your momma and bring her back here. I promise you'll be perfectly safe with my boys.”, K'aisinh said, smiling to reassure them.
After gathering a few supplies, he got into the pod and flew in the direction of the crash. Eventually, about 15 minutes later, he found the crash site.
The shuttle had crashed into several very large, ancient trees and had broken apart.
As he flew nearer to the craft, circling around it, he saw their mother.
K'aisinh landed about 15 feet from the shuttle, making sure the pod door was facing it. He exited the pod and ran over to the crash.
Leaning against a tree was the girls' mother, clutching her purse and a bag. Next to her were four backpacks.
She was injured, sunburned and was suffering from heat exhaustion. She was in pretty bad shape.
”Olivia?“, K'aisinh asked.
”Yes, I'm Olivia....Liv for short.“, she said.
“I'm K'aisinh M'ashkah. Nice to meet you. Your girls are safe in my home with my sons. I'm here to help you.“, he told her.
He quickly opened a bottle of cold grape flavored electrolyte drink and handed it to her. He put a cool, damp washcloth on her forehead as well.
”Drink as much as you can. Permit me to pour some cool water over your face. The water and damp washcloth will help speed up the cooling process.
“At this moment, your very life depends on you drinking this and cooling down as quickly as possible. We X'eylakhs are used to this heat. You humans are not.”, K'aisinh said, smiling tenderly as he poured a bottle of cool water over her sunburned face.
”Thank you, K'aisinh.“, Liv replied very weakly as he did a quick assessment of her injuries.
”It's not a problem. I'm just glad you sent your daughters for help. I'm going to take you into my pod and get you cooled off.
“You're sunburned, dehydrated and injured. You won't make it through the night. You won't even make it another hour or two if I don't get you out of this intense heat and into conditioned air to get your body cooled down immediately!“, K'aisinh said.
“Thank you so much.”, she replied.
“We've got plenty of room at our house. I promise you Liv, you and your girls are safe with my sons and me. By now they're probably playing video games in the Gathering Room.”, he told her, putting her arm around his neck and picking her up in his arms.
She was very weak. The drink and damp washcloth had helped, but she needed to get in conditioned air immediately.
“Hold on tight to my neck. Let me get you out of this heat.”, K'aisinh said as he gently carried her into the pod.
After K'aisinh set her down in the front passenger seat, he handed her another grape flavored electrolyte drink, then closed the pod door.
“You're so kind! There were fires three weeks ago on Simto, our home planet. We were on a freighter being evacuated to Jorash when we were told the freighter got a call to come here to pick up some people.
”For some odd reason, the Commander decided to drop several of us off here instead of taking us on to Jorash. We were put on the shuttle and flew here.
”We crashed about 4, maybe 5 days ago. I couldn't walk due to my ankle. I tried to keep my girls cool and comfortable, but wasn't able to.
“We couldn't stay in the wreckage due to live power lines hanging down inside. I got our belongings out of the wreckage and we camped out under the tree.
“I gave what water and food we had to my girls. I nursed Becky since I'd been nursing her all along anyway. I stripped my top and bra off to keep comfortable. I did the same with the girls. I had sunscreen, so I put it on them.
”No-one else was alive, so I didn't mind stripping. I thought it'd cool off at night, but it didn't seem to.
“My mini and small-screen got trashed in the crash when my purse flew out of my hand and smashed into a tree, so I couldn't call for help. I haven't seen anyone, not even evac shuttles, come looking for us.
“A few nights ago it rained, and the girls sang and danced in it. They had so much fun! It did my heart good to...