Ktheg!lik had learned from experience. First, she dragged herself to the carriage house or stable, and tried to get the outer door open. Unfortunately, it was much too large and needed the golem's control.

  So, she dragged herself, her oxygen tanks, and the radio up the three flights of stairs—one exhausting step at a time. She had to stop and rest on Level 2, with the simpler, disused living quarters. The heat from outside was penetrating down this far, and she drank as much water as she could before pressing on.

  She reached the top half a kozeg after sunset, and it was a sweet relief to step outside. The air was already temperate, and chilling rapidly. Her sweat disappeared in the breeze as if it had never been. The heat fog dissipated, and she was glad that she had planned her steps before starting the climb. With her mind working, she was able to confirm that she hadn't forgotten anything down below.

  I'm not making that climb again.

  It was a relief that she had reached the exit before the carriage arrived. She sat down on the ground to wait, positioning the radio camera with a good view to the east. She stared up at the stars.

  I wish the golem were still answering questions. Not just ones for our emergency, questions about the universe, about the wonders out there. I could ask the golem about each of the stars in the sky, and it might tell me who lives there, what language they speak—what miracles and vistas they have seen, perhaps.

  I want to take the time off from survival to feel awe.

  Awe turned to sorrow, and Ktheg!lik clicked for a while, for all that was lost with her world. Nearly a billion people. Countless animals, plants...pets, gardens, wildflowers, all of it. Perhaps a few small shreds of her beautiful blue world remained in shadowed corners, like her group, slowly watching their means of survival dwindling, and then going extinct.

  Eventually, she brought herself back to the present, and imagined scenario after scenario, ways they might try to wake the golem up if it remained unresponsive. She was willing to try anything, no matter how silly or painful.

  She checked the time by gesturing to the others through the alien radio. After two kozegs, she started watching the horizon more avidly. She started feeling uncomfortably cold, but didn't go inside. As two kozegs turned into three, she began to worry more. If the carriage broke down along the way, no one would ever know what happened.

  Three and a half kozegs after it left the silver mine, the carriage finally appeared in a cloud of dust. It made an audible whine that hadn't occurred on her last trip, one which sounded ragged, as if a wagon with a cracked axle were squeaking along. It got unnervingly close while still moving relatively quickly, actually hitting the ground and skidding the last few paces before coming to a halt in arm's reach of her.

  The door of the carriage swung open. Ktheg!lik waited a few moments, wheezing faintly. She couldn't call out. When nothing happened, she picked up her oxygen tank and shuffled over to the open door, holding up her light and shining it inside.

  Odaual was scrambling to climb out as quickly as possible—clearly he was afraid of the door closing again and trapping him inside for another involuntary journey. He retreated several paces before turning and squinting. Then his eyes widened. “Ktheg!lik...?” She gave a hand nod. “Is this...Nik!eh's home?” She nodded again.

  “Are you...all right?”

  Ktheg!lik gave him a flat stare. You really do wake up slowly, don't you?

  “Right, sorry, of course you're not. But...you're alive. I'm glad. I guess...I've been exposed to those same germs for hours now.”

  Nod.

  Ktheg!lik shuffled forward.

  “What is that, an air tank?”

  Nod.

  “Has the golem done anything new here?”

  Hand wave no.

  Ktheg!lik was more focused on getting a look inside the carriage. She waved the magic torch around, focusing on Nik!eh's body. Then she squinted, trying to understand what she was seeing.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Something was rippling across the surface of Nik!eh's body. It almost looked like a black liquid, except it seemed to turn into fog and then back again. It was in constant motion, up and down the corpse. Is that normal for hoonans? Or is it something the golem did to the body? Ktheg!lik would bet on the latter. It was hard to imagine a natural process that looked like this...thing.

  Preserving it for burial, or whatever it is hoonans do with their dead?

  There was a beep from somewhere inside. Ktheg!lik climbed in—over Odaual's objections—and sat in the seat, facing the glowing board, which was heavily decorated in blue. Blue is for harm or damage, apparently. The board's glow faded, and she started to panic. No, wait! Don't shut down!

  It didn't go completely dark, though. One line of script remained. The first part is a galactic word I recognize. What was it? Power?

  It's nearly out of fuel. Well, that's all right, we won't be trusting this thing to make long trips for a while. She was tempted to ignore it, but that blinking warning made her nervous. What if it isn't the carriage that is out of fuel? Or...wait. Does everything consume from the same fuel source? That may be saying that the golem itself is on the verge of shutting down.

  Ktheg!lik thought back to Nik!eh's story of his beginning on Ooafa. He hadn't gone into much detail, but it was pretty clear that the golem had some sort of beginning state and was very small initially. Nik!eh had carried it around with him.

  He kept it with him, which is why his home went dark when his carriage got wrecked. It's somewhere in here. Ktheg!lik wheezed, feeling very drained as she attempted to search the carriage. I should be in the pool. At this point, I'd climb into it to warm up.

  This was too important, though, and she had not the time nor the patience nor the chalk to make Odaual understand what she wanted. So she searched it herself. There were only a few things that it could be, after all.

  There wasn't much inside besides a pile of silver ore. She gestured for Odaual to help toss the ore out, at least. Ktheg!lik found a magic torch, two glowing boards, a few silver mirrors, a small digging automaton, and a rock wrapped in a silver mesh. Ktheg!lik shone the light on that last and squinted, examining it from all sides.

  This isn't just a rock. I'd bet almost anything that this is the heart of the golem. This is the being Nik!eh called “Petra.” From this core, everything else followed. Ktheg!lik glanced at the blinking words on the board again.

  And she's almost out of power. I need to take her inside...but where, exactly? Where would the heart of this structure go?

  Impatiently, she held out her oxygen tank to Odaual and beckoned for him to follow. Once she knew he was going along with it, she slowly walked inside and started inspecting Level 1, panning the magic torch over every surface.

  “What are you doing?”

  Ktheg!lik fanned her ears and rotated them in a listening search pattern without bothering to turn around.

  “What are you searching for?”

  Ktheg!lik shrugged, then held both hands up. One held the core, the other hand she cupped like a receptacle. She mimed putting the core into the socket, then shook her cupped hand to emphasize that that was what she was looking for.

  “Uh, there isn't much in here,” Odaual observed. Ktheg!lik paused.

  He's right. Would Nik!eh leave the core up here when he rarely comes up here any more? No. He takes it with him whenever he leaves. Presumably, he can make a new socket for the core wherever he goes. The current one should be somewhere in his living quarters, on Level 4. Perhaps in his nest.

  She nodded to her companion, then started down the stairs. She went slowly and carefully; a fall now likely would be catastrophic, and she was still a bit foggy with fever. She made a quick search of Level 2, and found a small alcove carved into his old nest that looked like it would hold the core comfortably. She set it down in there, but nothing appeared to happen.

  Was there one like that in his nest on Level 4? Ktheg!lik couldn't remember. She made her way down slowly. At Level 4 she had to sit on the last step and rest a minute. I want to get back in the pool, but I can't until this is done. Almost there. Keep going, Ktheg.

  In Nik!eh's nest, there was a similar alcove, and she set the core down on it hopefully. When nothing happened, she shifted its position this way and that, feeling for any grooves or plugs in the shelf. Shit. Where do I wire this thing in? Where does it plug?

  She stood in the central area and considered. Toilet, no. Kitchen, probably not. Pool, definitely no. Not in the nest. Likely not the alien arboretum.

  The workroom. It has to be.

  Summoning her flagging energy, Ktheg!lik trudged onward to the workroom that connected to the carriage house. Within was a variety of interesting, complex objects. There were several pieces of what she suspected was the searching automaton Nik!eh had promised to send to search for more survivors. She looked over the tables, then up at the walls.

  In pride of place was a tidy alcove, which already held a sort of brick about the same size as the core. She frowned, not sure why it was already occupied. She pulled out the brick with one hand, and put the core in its place with the other. Nothing seemed to happen. Again, she tried every way she could think of to position it, still with no results.

  It's got to be here. There's nowhere better. It wouldn't be in the garage, would it? She would have to check. She put the brick back on the shelf and reached for the core, brushing it against the brick for a moment as she did so.

  The lights came on, shocking them both. A whisper of currents started flowing in the formerly still air. The printers sprang noisily back into action. And a familiar voice spoke:

  “Hello, Ktheg!lik. Welcome home.”