"Well, now you know where we come from" Vanna said. "Would you mind telling us your story now?"

Vera nodded slowly. "But as I said, it's a long story..." And she started to tell it. She told about the academy, her first mission, her flight in the shuttle and the crash. She told how she had to leave wounded Tammy behind to get help, and how she had strolled through the wilderness until Butter had stumbled across her. How she had continued on her own after he had ran away, and how she had come across the three criminals. How they had held her captive until Taylor had freed her. She also told about the conversation she had listened to and about the plan that had led those criminals here. Breathless the children listened to her until the end.

"Shouldn't your people be already looking for you then?" Taylor gave food for thought. "I mean, since your shuttle has crashed..."

Vera shook her head. "We left our actual mission objective and headed further north. And we were shot down right when Tammy was signaling her report. They wouldn't know where to start looking."

"I can't imagine they have no means of locating their own shuttle, even when it gets shot down" Vanna said. "Maybe you would have been better off if you just had waited there."

"Maybe" Vera admitted with a shrug. "But I couldn't take that risk. Not as long as I don't know who shot us."

"You said it could well be those criminals" Taylor reminded her, brushing his chin in thoughts. "But how can that be? They would know from the start that you had been in that shuttle, wouldn't they?"

"The crash was pretty far away from here" Vera explained with another shake of her head. "It looks like these people have been here for a while now, looking for these stones. I believe that we triggered some sort of automatic defense system when we scanned, and that shot us down. Maybe they have no clue what actually happened."

For a while the children pondered, until Vanna sighed. "It's no use anyway to keep thinking about it. We have to take extra care the next few days for not to come across these criminals. They will be on the lookout for Vera for sure, since she got away from them." Eventually she turned to Vera. "We have to get you back home. That's your best chance."

Amazed Vera looked back at her. Those children had enough problems of their own. Vanna thinking so selflessly of a solution for Vera's dilemma came unexpected. "Thanks" she just said. "But I'm not sure whether you can do a lot about it."

"We'll think of something" Taylor agreed encouragingly. Jenny next to him nodded eagerly, and even Butter waggled his tail in an adventurous manner. "But now you should rest. Take my sleeping bag over there! I'm not tired anyway." He pointed to a sleep nest at the edge of the cave.

At first Vera wanted to reject it, but she felt how tired she actually was. And her headache pulsed continuously which she had ignored up to this point. Perhaps it wasn't such a bad idea to lie down and get some sleep for real. So she nodded and got up from her seat. Somehow she managed to walk over to the sleep nest and pull the sleeping bag over herself before completely falling asleep. What other issues ever waited for them here, and whatever solutions they would come up for them, they would have to wait until tomorrow.