By the time Rxt’rrq’kklt Zvvtl’xxrk reached the shuttle he’d used to travel to the pompous Cuuvloo’s mansion, he was running. The front of cool, calm, collectedness he’d displayed during the interrogation . . . ehm, discussion . . . gone like mist. Flinging himself into the shuttle he opened the accursed channel. “Do you have them?” came the detached, almost mechanical voice from the other side. “Yes, yes I have them here. You don’t get them until I hear my children’s voices, and if I don’t so help me I will-” “Daddy!” sounded an excited, bubbly shout, bringing immediate tears of joy and relief to his Rxt’rrq’kklt’s eyes. He even felt laughter for the first time in [days]. She was a hostage, and she sounded just as stoked as the time he’d taken her to see the harmonic crystals on the pl

