"He's gone! He left us!" Ellik said.
"It's okay. He's still there. Just corrected the orbit a little, I guess."
"No, no, no," Ellik said. "He started to make another try. But he got afraid to try to go into hyperspace alone."
"He was just correcting for orbital decay."
"You don't understand, Johnny. He's a coward. That makes him dangerous. He's getting desperate. That desperation will burst the dam of his own weakness and wash away our hope, our lives."
His voice hushed. He stood staring starkly ahead, his palms outstretched at his sides.
"Maybe he isn't that cowardly," I said hopefully.
"Finished," Ellik announced. He meant he had finished editing the tape showing the operation on the alien and his recovery from his blue disease, from being an Indigo to better than an Azure.
"The transmitter is finished too," I said.