The lizard’s eyes shifted to him.

“Good,” said Amber. “If it’s the last time, maybe now you’ll shut up about it.”

The lizard’s eyes came back to her.

“Miss Bierce—”

Back to Scott.

“—that thing is carrying a dozen weapons. It’s dangerous.”

“Wow,” drawled Amber. “Good eye, Commander. I can only count five myself. Where are the rest?”

The lizard’s eyes stayed on Scott. That was weird enough that she glanced around, too.

Scott was glaring at her. She was getting that look out of him a lot these days.

“You may not care what happens to these people, Miss Bierce—”

The lizard reached back and pulled that long, shiny sword out of his back-sheath. He didn’t do it fast, but he did it so smoothly and silently that it still looked like magic (and at the same time, he managed to make it clear that he could have done it fast if he’d wanted to).

“Here’s a thought,” said Amber. “If you’re really all that concerned about how dangerous the lizardman is, why don’t you stop antagonizing him?”

Scott walked away.

The lizard’s eyes tracked him. The sword stayed in his hand.

Scott came back.

“I want you both out of this camp right now,” he announced.

Amber’s eyes went automatically to her sister, seeking support or at least surprise, but Nicci didn’t protest. She didn’t even stand up. Nicci just looked back at her with that same lost and unhappy vagueness she’d pretty much worn since the crash.

And for the first time since that day, Amber had to fight—really fight—the urge to slap that vacant stare right off her.

Instead, she made herself turn back to Scott, and with all the disgust she could not unleash on her baby sister, she said, “I have a reality check for you, Everly. You are not Commander-in-Chief of the entire planet or even this miserable little piece of it. You don’t get to say who stays and who goes.”

He muttered something, flushed and glaring.

“What did you just say?” she demanded, knowing damn well she’d heard him. “Oh no. No no. If you’re so goddamned sure of yourself, you say it right out loud!”

She didn’t think he would, and for a moment or two, she could see him waver, wanting to back down, find his supporters, regroup. Then, without warning, he changed his mind and stepped up.

“I said, things have changed. And whether you like it or not, I am in charge. And while I’m in charge, you better watch your fat fucking mouth or else.”

“Hey.” Eric stood up, his hands open and raised. “Everybody calm down.”

Scott took a step forward.

Amber hopped up to meet him and bumped into the lizard’s back. He really could be fast when he wanted to be; he’d been behind her just a second ago. She had to move around him to see why everyone else had suddenly gone so quiet.

For the moment, Scott’s head was still firmly attached to his neck. For the moment. The edge of the lizardman’s sword hovered motionless in the air just beyond the throbbing vein in Scott’s neck and the lizardman seemed content to leave it there. All day.

“Call him off,” Eric said.

Amber looked around, thunderstruck, and sure enough, he was talking to her. More astounding, everyone else was looking at her. “Hey, this is not my trained alligator!” she said crossly. “If he wants the sword out of his face, he needs to stop acting so fucking hostile!”

The alien punctuated this with a low, menacing hiss.

“You’re not helping,” Amber snapped. She started to take his wrist, but thought better of it and snapped her fingers a few times instead. “Hey! Meoraq!”

He looked at her. The sword stayed where it was.

“You’re not helping,” she said again, and just said it this time. “Ease up on him. We’re all friends here. Sit down. But while I have your attention,” she went on as the lizard grudgingly lowered his arm and hunkered down again, “I would like to point out that this is the only guy in camp who knows where the next nearest waterhole is. He might also know which plants are poisonous and which ones aren’t. Judging from his outfit, there’s even a good chance he knows how to take down some of those stupid deer-things and he maybe even could help us turn a few of them into clothes of our own. This is a godsend and you’d know that if you weren’t so worried about who’s in charge!”

“She’s right,” said Dag, looking at Scott. “If nothing else, we’re going to need to know what we’re up against, right? I mean…if there’s one, there must be more.”

“And I don’t believe for a second they’re all going to be happy to see us,” declared Scott. “Miss Bierce can believe what she wants—as loudly as she wants—but that doesn’t change the fact that, historically speaking, natives don’t take it too well when strangers show up.”

“Particularly when the strangers start acting like dicks!” Amber interjected.

“No,” said Eric, also moving around to Scott’s side. “I’m sorry, Bierce, but you are dead wrong on this one. Unfortunately,” he added, looking at a smirking Scott, “that’s the best reason I’ve heard yet to let the lizard stay. I’d rather have him where I can see him than let him go who knows where and say God knows what to who, you know?”

“Well,” said Scott after a moment, “I guess we could kill him.”

“Oh my God, seriously?” Amber stepped aside and flung both her hands at the lizard’s battle-scarred chest. “I want to see you try it,” she said as the lizard cocked his head at her. “Right now. Whip out your little knife, Space-Scout, and see what he does with his.”

The three of them stood close together and eyed the lizard with caution until the lizard glanced their way. Then Dag and Eric backed away and Scott turned pink and angrily said, “Have you even thought about the germs that thing could be carrying?”

“We all got the Vaccine,” she argued, but she didn’t like the way it came out, almost as a question.

“The Vaccine isn’t magic, Miss Bierce. We are all very much vulnerable to bacterial infection and other forms of contamination which I’m sure never occurred to you. No,” Scott said, frowning very seriously at the lizard, who stared expressionlessly right back at him. “Bringing that thing into our camp without consulting anyone was a stupid and reckless thing to do and we are all at risk because of it. He may turn out to be friendly, I don’t know, but his intentions aren’t the only things potentially endangering us. You’re on probation, Miss Bierce.”

“Oh for Christ’s sake.”

Scott stared her down with unbelievably effective dignity. “You may not think this a colony. But it is a community and that community cannot afford to have members who don’t care about the consequences of their actions.”

She was not going to win this one, not with an alien sitting in their camp, dripping with swords, scars and bacteria. Amber turned her back on Scott and stared at Meoraq instead. After a few minutes, he noticed and shifted his red eyes from Scott to her. He frowned; the corners of his mouth were the only flexible parts of his whole face, but they were turning down.

“How can he possibly help us?” Scott demanded, coming up behind her. “He can’t even talk.”

“Yes, he can. He just doesn’t know English yet.” Amber hesitated, and then eased a little closer to the lizardman and sat down, facing him. His spines came all the way forward. Otherwise, he was perfectly still. “But we can teach him.”

“Sure you can. This I’ve got to see.”

“Meoraq,” said Amber, reaching a hand toward the lizardman’s chest.

His hand snapped out and caught her wrist. He held her for only a second or two, which was plenty long enough for her to feel how easily he could be breaking her bones, and then slowly opened his fist.

“You’re going to get hurt,” said Scott. “Or you’re going to be responsible for hurting other people who don’t deserve it. And sad to say, that will probably be the only way you will ever admit you were wrong to bring him here in the first place.”