Greater Than paused too long before responding to Equal’s unstated challenge, making it clear to everybody that he had no idea of how to cope with our situation. We suddenly saw him not as Force, but as Stasis, a creature of garrisons and rigid confines. Too late–and too weakly–he snarled, “Keep those cursed kits quiet, for one thing.”

He illustrated his instruction by grabbing a kit from the arms of a nearby female, slapping one big hand across its little face, and smothering it to sleep. He tossed the limp kit back but immediately Tilde, who I suppose I can call an “Earth Mother” since we were at that point unwitting residents of Earth, stood up and said, “They’re crying because they’re hungry. And because you’re scaring them.”

Greater Than moved towards her but she stood her ground, a kit clinging to the chocolate brown fur of each hip, as usual. “Do you have food for them?”

Greater Than paused as though that thought had first crossed his mind.

“Terrify them all you want,” Tilde continued in her best scolding mode. “But sooner or later they have to eat or die. We all do.”

Before the Trinchan could react to that Strikeout piped up again. “Do your plans include having something for us to eat?”

That’s when Point stood up, his slim erect carriage marking him as “Navy” just as much as his shining, close-cropped, purplish-black pelt and silvery tuft tips. He spoke with the same calm, understated authority we’d heard him use on the ship, even when he was locked to the controls trying to keep us from crashing into this planet in the first place. He just said, “I have a few ideas on that, actually.”

“This is not an idea society!” Greater Than raged. “This is not a discussion group. All of you sit down, shut up, and await my order! Now!”

Point gave a small, sad laugh and walked out of the formation, the squatting pilgrims respectfully parting as he passed. He came up to me and gave me a resigned shrug, then turned to stare at the smoldering ruins of the ship that had been under his command. He had a detached air that worried me: he was exactly the sort of input we needed in a situation like this.

Greater Than almost ran through the formation, pounding up to us as we stood out in front of the pack. “I told you to sit down!” he yelled, and I didn’t like hearing the subtle edge of desperation far in the back of his tone. “Your ideas? You crashed us and burned us in the first place, you screwup HighSider.”

Which is when Star sprung up and strode out of the formation, burning a path up to where Greater Than hung over Point and myself like a thundercloud threatening stormwrack and harm. She bristled up within reach of the hulking Trinchan Overfour, stared up at him with her big gold eyes blazing, and snapped, “How do you dare talk to him like that?”

Nobody had broached or accosted Greater Than before. Most went to lengths to avoid even his glance. Apart from his larger size, greater strength, and callous ferocity, we had been very strongly given to understand even before boarding the ship that he was our Warder, we were his assigned responsibility, and his word was life and death over us. Few males would cross Greater even without his authority or his obvious warlike ways as a Trinchan. He was just too big, ugly and menacing. Like all Trinchans.

And now a female! looked up into Greater Than’s rough, flattened face and spat out, “He’s the only reason we’re even alive!”

The big Trinchan, genetically unaccustomed to backtalk, especially from a doe. was too taken aback to do more than say, “Two of you aren’t alive.”

Point didn’t move or look away from the blackened husk of his ship, just said, “Plus the three lives you don’t care about because they were only my responsibility.”

Tilde had come up behind Star, and Semi as well, though rather timidly. Tilde still clutched the two kits, and looked sternly supportive. Semi, singed and scuffed, was game enough to back Star up, though she would never have taken such an assertive move herself. She blurted, “Oh, that’s right. Your crew! Oh, no, you mean they’re… I’m sorry, Point.”

He turned his head towards that unexpected kindness, gave a gracious nod to Semi and inhaled through his nose in respect. And said, in an odd diction that seemed to address not only everyone present, but some sort of record for posterity, “Thank you. I knew those youngers very well and there is no doubt in my mind that all three died bravely and conscientiously, trying to save us all until their last breaths.”

Then he turned to Greater Than and calmly said, “So don’t piss on my pelt, Groundbound.”

Greater Than had probably taken more backtalk and disrespect from outsiders in those few minutes than in his entire adult life. His hand shot out too fast for me to follow, grabbing Star’s proud crest and wrenching her head to one side, then throwing her to the ground. He did it without taking his eyes off Point’s, and immediately stepped close to him and bellowed in that guttural command voice of a Trinchan Overfour, “This is an emergency situation and I am in authorized command by dictum of The Stand itself. All of you get back to that formation and await my order.”

Point didn’t flinch away from him in the slightest, just stated flatly, “I don’t know why you assume you have any authority over me whatsoever. My rating is FourOverFourFour, and I’m not even part of your general command radius anyway.”

Continuing truculent, the big warrior growled, “Your ship is destroyed. Our feet are on a planet. It’s an emergency.”

“Actually, I don’t see why you should be in command of anybody. We’re on unclaimed soil and these are civilians, not criminals. The ship still exists, even though damaged. I could easily make the claim that this is a shore expedition and you are under my direction as attached ground support. Which is what your orders called you, as you might remember.”

Star was staring up, her insult and painful scalp forgotten as she watched the confrontation. She was getting a vital education regarding her status.

But Point just turned away and took a few steps toward the smoking wreck. “But I just don’t care, really. I plan on surviving and doing what I can to rejoin contact and make the most of this planetfall. You can take whatever attitude you want, just don’t bring it to me.”

Semi reached to help Star up, but she came to her feet in one smooth movement of her lithe legs. She sneered at Greater Than and moved towards Point. “How stupid are you?” she tossed back. “Look what he did. We should have all died today, but he did his job better than anybody could ever expect. You’re doing your job like a brain-damaged kit who soiled his own butt fur.”

Greater Than snarled and took a step towards her but Tilde spoke up the way I learned to appreciate and admire, a tone so quiet it rings the air with attention. “Things are different here,” she said. “And now. You need a different perspective.”

She turned and moved away towards the rest. Star stood belligerently beside Point, glaring back with her arms crossed behind her in irritation. Greater Than came to them, faced Point. “You shouldn’t undermine authority. This is a threatening situation.”

Point gestured at the wreck. “You want to be useful, repair my ship. Otherwise just inhale my anus.” Star giggled, a light pleasant sound there in leafy creekside bower.

Greater Than fumed for a long moment, his muscles visibly working under his gray fur. But the situation was much closer to Point’s version than his and he knew it. He turned and stomped back to the rest, who had started to spread out, sniffing at the plants in the area and looking around the underbrush. He bellowed and they came together. Except for Star, who laughed at him. The sun had barely moved in the sky since our Arrival and already the social fabric we had brought here with us was starting to unravel.