New Stock
	©Cristl

	“I must say, in all fairness” muttered Bernie Overby, the only bridge officer who had survived the landing, “the inhabitants of this planet seems to have treated us fairly well since our crash.”
	 It did not seem odd to Overby that not one of the castaways could give a coherent description of any of the “natives.”
	There had been twenty-six travelers when they  landed. Now there were ten women, four men. The missing twelve had wandered in the heavily fogged, jet-black night and simply disappeared, none knew how. 
	The “natives” appeared to have done a great deal more for the remaining humans than just rescue the battered survivors of the crash..most of whom had been in serious condition with severe cuts, abrasions and broken limbs.
	They were now, and had been for as long as they could now remember, on an apparently illimitable prairie, under the eternally overcast sky. The weather was mild, dry, occasionally gentle breezes wafted by them, they neither sweated nor shivered. They were generally comfortable, but... 
	What presently remained of their rations and water, by Mate Bernie Overby’s count, would last them only one more day — maybe two if they ate only once tomorrow and the next day. The meeting was were so that all surviving travelers might consider the options they had, the thirteen of them gathered in a somewhat self-conscious circle around Bernie Overby..
	“Aye, but they have odd ways of making us heal, don’t you think? Why should we be almost naked, not that it bothers...” asked Ramona daSouza, she of the long, black hair and imperious ways. She stopped before she said more than she should. 
	“Of course, dah–ling, it wouldn’t bother you, would it?” replied Nelustra Mulkar, who detested her, mostly because of Ramona’s pursuit of Lars Noutern, a handsome Otrilian, in the undeclared race to see who could take more men to bed  in one voyage.
	Ramona’s manners had improved somewhat in the days since their landing — she halted her reply before it was uttered She had no idea how long they had been wherever they were — her memory told her that at first she had suffered severe wounds, but had recovered, and was now suffering from noting more fatal than ennui. She vaguely remembered a deep bath, her head supported by a sling, as were her torso and limbs, the multiple fractures mending while she floated in a thick liquid.. She had awakened this morning to find herself lying on the ground, dry and whole — and very hungry. Her memory of the craft’s crash on the planet and her cure were already fading.. She was beginning to wonder if she had imagined the entire thing.
	Several of the other females (as Ramona now thought of them, rather than as girls, or women) lay on  the soft moss which covered the ground just here,  recovered from less serious, but painful, injuries.  The others had noted and forgotten that Ramona had suddenly appeared, as each morning another person had been cured. The bath . . .  if there had indeed been a bath.
	“Has anyone spoken with a ‘native,’ so far?” asked the only other surviving crew member, Amanda Quendi, sometime second engineer and perhaps the oldest of those standing or lying around the meadow, at 26. She was an Otrilian, like Lars. 
	“Who has really seen them?” asked Paurlu Qom, from Justofar.	 
	“I think I’ve seen one or two...they look human...oid, I think. They must speak an entirely different language, but I’ve been having odd thoughts...I dreamed about . . . certain things, last night,” said Lauria Gens, blushing faintly.
	“You too? So have I,” added Lars Noutarn, the object of Ramona’s desires. He had been an object of amused speculation among the young male passengers for his eccentric ways and extraordinarily well-muscled build.
	“Like what?” asked Maury Desmaines, another of Ramona’s ilk, also freshly healed and ambulant, but not reverting to her former haughty  mannerisms. She had been quietly trying to get Lars into her bunk for the entire trip. For some reason she no longer looked at Ramona or the other females with dislike.
	“We-ell. In my dreams,” said Lars, “there is a red-skinned female — looks like a very well-tanned  human woman, anyway — who becomes our guide...I think it’s ‘guide’ I mean. ‘Teacher’ might be better. She shows us what to do, and...”