“Couple of days at most,” Hasa continued. “Even if they wanted to, educated and enterprising village Sakuntala couldn’t fake the kind of electronic identification I’m carrying on me. Administration will send someone.” He favored his companions with a knowing smirk. “They don’t have any choice. I’m a Commonwealth citizen.”
A fact that does not speak well for the Commonwealth, Jemunu-jah thought to himself. Fortunately, the existence of appalling individuals like Shadrach Hasselemoga was offset by the genuineness of persons such as the administrator Lauren Matthias. Jemunu-jah found that he was looking forward to filing an official report of their misfortune and subsequent survival, if only so that she might read it.
Gazing out through the rain from the porch of their host’s home, Hasa regarded the unassuming ramshackle houses of the villagers with disdain. “Could’ve hoped for rescue from a village with something more going for it than this dump.”
The fact that Jemunu-jah agreed with Hasa’s assessment did not lessen the force of the associated insult. He would have objected, but the human was still talking.
“Okay; we’re alive and likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future. As soon as the twits up in Taulau can manage to extricate their brains from their pants, they’ll send a rescue skimmer down here to pick us up.”
A perfectly horrible thought sprang unbidden into Masurathoo’s ever-wary Deyzara mind. “What if it is sabotaged by the same individual or individuals who incapacitated our craft?”