"Humans have poor color vision at night. Just go as dark as you can. Do not fight them. Just hide. Stay out of their lights and you should be fine." He grabbed her arm. "You can do this, Ix. I'll find a sample. I just need you to get everyone safe."
She closed her eyes and nodded, her colors deepening as her bioluminescence faded, then she held out an earbud. "Every day at dawn, you contact me. We should have enough power for twelve Earth days, easily. More if we're sparing."
Slowly, he moved before her, waiting for her to open her eyes. When she did, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. "Be safe."
She laughed and pushed him gently toward the open hatch. "I am not the one bleeding, and you still have to mingle with these humans. Go on. Let's make the most of this. Time to get a close-up view, huh?"
Together, they joined the stream of bodies slowly making their way toward the nearest hatch, feeling the waft of frigid air. Heavy boots clanked on the hollow floors between decks. Voices were subdued with fear. It was visible in the way their colors blanched and their markings pulsed. Tsij said nothing until just before the door, then he realized he lacked one vital piece of information.
"Where are we?"
Ix chuckled. "Earth, you idiot."
He grunted, unamused at her joke. "I meant what country."
"Pretty sure we're on a coast, from the high saline content in the atmosphere, but that's about as much as I can tell you. We lost everything when the asteroid hit. You're going to have to figure it out."
He looked at her once, nodded, then forced his skin to change. Ixala, like the perfect partner she was, pushed close to his back, hiding the gap in the line, then ignored him as they passed onto the ground of the strange planet. Tsij broke from the group as soon as he could, the flickering flames a potential threat to his camouflage. With one last look at the friends he'd known for a decade, he headed for the city lights in the distance, taking the long way through the damp marshes.
It was a long, cold, and rather wet trek. Every step took him further from the heat of the flames, making the temperature around him feel even more frigid. And each time he felt safe, another light would shine his way, almost as if they knew - but that was impossible. It was just the cameras, he told himself. Cameras and other surveillance trying to share the activity around the world. This would be the first time that Earth had proof of life in the universe.
He chuckled to himself at the thought. Humans had evolved millions of years before so many other species, yet they took their time about racing to the stars. The Gahnek hadn't. As soon as they could look up, they'd tried to get off Chajek, the rock they called home. Unfortunately, they hadn't been prepared at all for what existed outside their solar system. Probably no young race ever was.
Somewhere between the flames of their ship and the lights of the human city, Tsij stopped long enough to peel out of his clothes. He carefully placed the biosensitive suit at the bottom of his pack, checked the wound in his side, then pulled on his human apparel. Luckily, he hadn't been hurt too badly, only a minor laceration. If he could find someplace safe, he'd suture it. If not, it should heal fine. He'd probably slammed into the table when they hit the ground - regardless of the motion dampeners - which meant that his ribs might be damaged as well. There was definitely some bruising, but nothing fatal.
That didn't mean it wouldn't hurt. When he flipped the fleece hood over his head, his body made sure he knew that much. A flash of pain up his left side was all, but it was one sign of his limitations. Tsij took a long, slow breath and concentrated on the strange color of human skin. Pink, almost sandy, yet neither. Nothing else was quite the same color. He envisioned the coppery skin of a man from one of the television programs they'd intercepted years ago, trying desperately to remember all of the details. The white part of the eyes and the black center with the colored ring around it. He chose brown, then altered the shade of his hair to match his eyes. There was nothing he could do about his form, but Gahnek were close enough to humans that most would never notice.
Staggering forward while his mind whirled, he desperately tried to think of all the details. Lost in his thoughts, he slipped through the dark woods near the edge of town. That was why he didn't notice the lone human female until he almost crashed into her. He was too preoccupied with not standing out.
"Uh," he muttered, holding his hands out in what he hoped was an apologetic manner.
"Shit," she gasped, then chuckled. "You scared the crap out of me!"
English. She spoke English, and that was a language he knew. Unfortunately, it didn't narrow down his location that much, since he wasn't an expert on dialects, but it did give him a few cultural clues. Wherever they'd landed was a western nation, most likely with a higher level of technology for the planet. That, sadly, would only make things harder.
"Didn't see you," he mumbled, hoping she wouldn't notice his inability to pronounce all the words properly.
"Nah, it's ok. I mean, we're all a bit shaken up after that, right?" Her eyes tried to peer into the shadow of his hood.
He couldn't help it; he looked her over. She was slight, typical for human women, but her face was angular like a Gahnek's. Her coloration was muted. Caucasian, medium brown hair, a few freckles across the bridge of her nose, but she didn't look as alien as he'd expected. She was also waiting for a reply.
"Yeah. That was crazy," he agreed.
She let her eyes roam across his body, then sucked in a breath and stepped closer. "Are you ok?" she asked, looking at his ribs.
Tsij forced himself to laugh, ignoring his racing heart. "This?" He wiped his hand across his injury, feeling dampness on his fingers. Then he smiled and held it up, exposing the dark blue stain. "Just spilled my drink when the ground shook. Anyway, I'm sorry to have frightened you."
He pulled his cheeks up in a weak smile, then hurried back the way he'd been going, hoping she wouldn't follow. He made it over the next rise, then paused to breathe a sigh of relief. She hadn't. Nope, the girl was still following the path, and she was completely alone.
Locking his color pattern into his mind, he trailed her, moving silently and keeping out of her line of sight. Unknowingly, she led him right through the streets of whatever town this was and to a quaint residential area. Homes were packed together like boxes in the cargo bay. Exterior stairs led from the ground to those on the upper levels making access easy. Transportation was stored in functional rows, all on a hard-packed surface that he couldn't remember the name of. It didn't matter.
What did was that he'd just found a place to call "home." Waiting until no one was around, he made his way to the highest floor of the girl's housing complex, checked again, then found a maintenance hatch to the space he thought was called an attic. If humans were living in these dwellings, then his noises wouldn't be noticed. It also meant that the chances of security detecting his heat signature or movements were greatly reduced - if they even had that capability.
Sliding between the vents and wires above the apartment complex, Tsij found a quiet nook between a pair of large ventilation shafts. The heat radiating off of them was welcome after the long, cold trip. The silence wasn't. As he settled in for a long night, he tried to remember the last time he hadn't been able to hear at least one other voice. Tonight, the only sounds that would lull him to sleep were the creaking of the building and the clanking of outdated technology.