Mark's head was spinning. His mouth was dry as sand. His whole body ached, and his stomach still felt like it was on fire. He opened his eyes slowly, taking several seconds to hold them closed before his vision finally focused, and he let his eyes wander. He was in the escape pod. The monster was nowhere to be found. He was safe.

He tried to sit up, but a groan quickly escaped his lips. His whole thorax throbbed with agony, and his shoulder blades quickly slid back down against the cold metal floor.

"Yer awake." Mark turned his head and squinted. Jack was perched on the dashboard up front, doing something with a water bottle that the engineer couldn't quite see from his angle. "How ya feelin'?" The small alien asked. Mark's arm twitched. He ached to get up, but he knew he shouldn't. He couldn't anyway.

"Th... thirsty..." He mumbled hoarsely. He let out a weak cough and closed his eyes, exhausted.

"Gimme a sec." He heard something like a zipline, and then the small clank of something landing. A few seconds later and he felt something cold press against his lips. They were pushed apart, and the delicious taste of water trickled over his dry tongue. Mark drank gratefully the refreshing liquid, and when it stopped and was pulled away he licked his cracked lips, feeling a little bit better.

"The... the monster..." He tried to ask.

"It's gone. It's far away now. Yer safe."

He opened his eyes again, and this time his vision focused a little faster. Jack was going over to a medkit that was splayed open on the floor, a wad of cloth in his hand, and a loop of string in the other. Mark tried to sit up again, but to no avail. He groaned and finally gave up, laying still with a tired sigh.

"Don't get up yet." Jack pushed an empty syringe out of the kit and rummaged through some bandaids. "I managed to get that metal thing out, but ye bled pretty badly. It's gonna take a while before yer back to full health." Mark remembered the bullet wound with a flash. He pulled his shirt up and felt around before his fingers brushed against carefully placed gauze wrappings. He felt his bad side; also wrapped, coarsely yet effectively.

"You... y-you... f-fixed...?" Jack turned toward him. His eyes glowed brightly in the dim shadows of the pod; they were unreadable, but not cold.

"I just tied the skin back together." He kicked a rather empty bottle of antiseptic aside and uprighted a roll of remaining gauze. "Yer gonna have to keep still if ya want it to heal, though." Mark mumbled wordlessly in agreement.

"Thank you." Jack paused for a few heartbeats.

"... Yer welcome." Mark watched as the alien set back to work; he was moving to and fro across the pod floor now, looping string around a hook in the base of the wall that hadn't been there before. The engineer let his eyes wander, and after focusing for a few more heartbeats he noticed that a good deal of the whole ship had been deliberately strung up like a system of zip lines. They were probably how Jack was moving larger things around, like that water bottle- it was more than twice the extraterrestrial's size, after all.

After Mark's gaze landed dazedly on the front window of the pod, he suddenly thought of something and tilted his head to look for Jack once more. "Is the pod still moving?"

"Yeah." Mark blinked and found his eyes landing on a different location; how had Jack gotten up to one of the panels at the ceiling? "It's a little low on juice by now, but we're drifting to preserve the energy for landing," the alien added as he fidgeted with one of the wires.

"Landing?"

"Yeah?" Jack looked back down at Mark, his head tilted despite currently being upside down. "Unless yer species can somehow survive in the void of space. I'd assume not though, considering yer space station had an artificial atmosphere and dedicated food rooms."

"But-" Mark closed his eyes for a moment, too drained to try and figure out Jack's current activity. "But where are we gonna land? There's no viable planets nearby for even a safe emergency landing, nevermind breathable air or edible food and water."

"Not unless ya know what yer lookin' for." Jack put the wires back in their place and unspooled the line around his hip, safely descending back down onto the cold metallic floor. "We're going to my home planet."

Mark's eyes snapped open, and he felt his sluggish heart skip a beat. "We're- to your planet?"

"Yeah. Don't worry, you'll fit- I think- most of the architecture's big enough. Although some of the doorways might be a problem..."

"But...!" The engineer faltered, struggling for words. "Why would you even trust me enough to bring me to your homeworld? I- why did you save me?"

"Is yer kind always this suspicious of others?" Stunned, Mark opened and closed his mouth.

"... I-is your kind always this snarky?" Jack gave the engineer a long look, and then he finally cracked a grin.

"Gotta survive somehow," was his cheeky response before he reconnected to one of the lines, pushing something on his belt to zip back up onto the dashboard at the front of the pod.

"Same answer then," Mark murmured, watching Jack with dazed exhaust. "Some humans can be... Less considerate of others, or not make the best of choices- as you saw."

"Yeah... Still can't believe he tried to kill you."

"Well, he was scared. We all were. I don't think he meant to actually shoot anyway." The alien looked over his shoulder, giving Mark a quizzical glance.

"But-" Then he thought better of debating and just shook his head, turning to resume scanning the dashboard's various buttons. "Well, he did anyway. But you survived, so that's all that matters I guess."

"Guess so..." Mark let his cheek rest down on the cold metal as he let out a weak yawn, still feeling drained from the near-lethal experience. Just before he could fall asleep, however, he heard his extraterrestrial acquaintance pipe up once more- but the words being spoken weren't directed toward him.

"- I repeat, this is Jack, Scout#1031, does anybody hear me?" The radio responded with fuzzy static. Jack waited for a moment longer, but then just as he opened his mouth to repeat himself, the static hissed and made way for a new voice.

"This is Tyler. I hear you, but I don't recognize your broadcast signal; what's your status?" The relief in Jack's body language was visible even from Mark's limited perspective, watching as his head slung back with a huge exhale before responding.

"Tyler! I'm alright, I'm onboard one of the escape pods from that space station in our designated quadrant. Have you heard from any of the others yet?"

"Negative, you're the first. What happened?"

"Another species invaded their quarters. It was running rampant and killing every one of them. Well-" Jack glanced over at Mark. "Almost all of them. I haven't seen any of the other scouts from my group since communications were cut off, and the emergency systems kicked in. I don't know if the station is still intact, o-or..." He swallowed, licking his dry lips before proceeding. "But I got out in time."

"Thank the cosmos you did. I'll alert headquarters of your arrival and make sure they brace for your landing."

"Um, just one more thing..." The alien now seemed nervous, fingers drumming against the nearest surface they could find. "I'm not exactly... alone?"

"... Are you being held hostage? Were you discovered?"

"No! Well, yes, but only to that last question. I made it to the escape pod with the help of, um.... One of them."

The voice on the other end was quiet for a moment, and then groaned. "Council's not gonna like this."

"I know, I know. But if it wasn't for him, I... I wouldn't have made it. He saved my life, Tyler, I couldn't just leave him to die!"

"Alright... What's his status?"

"He's in critical condition still. I managed to get him stable, but he's gonna need the healers' expertise to fully recover."

"Okay. And you're sure you aren't injured?" Jack scowled and pinched his brow.

"I'm fine, thanks to Mark."

"And Mark is... The name of the human that's on-board with you?"

"Yes."

"Okay. I'll see what I can do, just try to make it back home as soon as you can."

"Will do, not for a lack of trying on my part." The radio then went silent, and Jack sat back with a heavy sigh, running his hand through his hair.

"... You saved me, because I saved you...? I can't even remember if I told you my name." The alien directed his attention back to Mark, raising one brow.

"That's what you picked up, out of that entire conversation?" Mark weakly shrugged his shoulders, only to grimace and fall still once more.

"I just... You could have left me strung up in those wires, or saved another human entirely. So why...?" Jack closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"When my scouting group first infiltrated yer space station, we had to figure out a way to navigate the place in a surreptitious, sensical manner. Like- learning yer language was easy enough, but traversing the air ducts? Awful. There were so many twists and turns, and we had to watch out for the main functions of the air system, especially since anything big enough to us could... Y'know.

"But when we were still learning our way around, I ended up slipping, getting sucked up by the air current turning on, and I got lost- got spat out into some room; I think your kind called it a break room? It was empty at the time, but I was locked in, so I was stuck in there for so long I got really hungry.

"But then you and a few other humans came in to get something to eat from one of those machine dispensers, and I had to just hide in the shadows and hope for the best." Jack paused to shiver before continuing with a slightly shaky voice. "But one of the other humans saw me, thought I was a 'mouse' and was gonna try to catch me- or maybe he wanted to kill me, I-I don't know. But you stopped him. You talked them into leaving me be, and you even dropped a piece of food for me before ye all left."

"That was you?" Mark softly exclaimed. "Under the vending machine?" Jack nodded, folding his arms over his chest and partially hugging himself.

"Yeah. Gave me the time and energy I needed for the rest of my group to find me and help me get outta there, but... I couldn't shake the idea that-that maybe you were a friendly. But then that other alien showed up wreaking havoc; I saw those other humans turn on you in the chaos and tie ye up as bait, and... I couldn't just leave ya there. Even if I didn't know how you'd actually react to seeing me yerself."

"Well... I certainly didn't expect it," Mark admitted. But then he gave a small smile. "But I'm glad to have met you properly then." The alien blinked, and then he smiled back.

"Well let's just hope the rest of my kind sees that too." He ziplined back down to the floor, and then walked up to Mark to study the human's fatigued countenance. "We've still got a bit of a trip ahead of us," Jack added, "So why don't ya get some more rest? I'll keep us on course, make sure we get there in time."

"Mn..." A yawn escaped Mark before he gave a small nod. "As long as you don't need me for anything," he conceded with a mumble.

"Nah, I got everything from here, you just preserve your energy." After a small pause, Jack tilted his head with another smile. "Let me know if ya need more water though, okay?"

"Thanks." With another yawn, Mark finally let his eyes slip closed once more, and with a weary exhale he slowly relaxed back into the darkness of sleep.