“WORK!! TRA-BA-JAR-!! TRA-BA-JAR!!” a small grayish creature on the floor screamed bumping into Martinez’ leg. “AR-BEI-TEN!! AR-BEI-TEN!!”

The chief looked down, “Not to me, fuckin’ stupid! I’m your boss! Do not shout at me!!” he grumbled and kicked out at the earthling.

The creature somersaulted three times, ended up on its six legs and rapidly crawled away. Red words in bold lit up on its surface: “REPETIR EN 20 MINS”.

I didn’t like the way the chief treated the poor creature. I mean if you’re the strongest specie on the planet it doesn’t mean you’re certified to bladdy well kick the weaker ones left and right. Maybe human brutality was the reason Smartoop said we were leaving Earth?

“This sort of despicable treatment would never happen on our planet.”

“Oh…” Fyodor grabbed my head with both my hands. I suppose I accidentally let my thoughts ooze into my proboscis.

“What did you say?” señor Martinez asked. “¡Habla cristiano, chaval! It’s better if you already start to speak Spanish, boy.”

“I just…” Fyodor nearly mumbled. “Nevermind. What was that? The crab?”

“Do you mean little Adolf?” Platon asked. “The robot-reminder? Don’t give a shit, we’re all used to him.”

“You heard Adolf! Less words, more deeds, guys! ¡Vámonos!” señor Martinez exclaimed. “Let’s check out what the hell we have… Marissa you better call El Corte Ingles ahora. Push them to buy our Sacapuntador-13-beta as soon as possible, until our testers smooth out all the tiny objetos we have. Platon, Federico…”

“I’m sorry,” Fyodor uttered. “Could you wait a bit for me? Don’t feel too good… ”

I did not feel good in the company of the humans either. I sympathized more with the dogs and robots, the inferior earthlings, that, as far as I could fathom, were definitely kicked and killed in large numbers on Earth. I imagined how hard it was for Smartoop and others to live here and I tried to justify their unpardonably caddish decision to abandon our mission.

“This guy kills me…” señor Martinez hit my shoulder again.

“Is there a toilet here?” Fyodor asked screwing up my face.

“Pues, por allí,” señor Martinez pointed out a rectangle in the wall.

“Need help?” Platon grinned and mimed thrusting two fingers down his throat.

Fyodor wanly shook my head. He trudged in the direction the chief had shown him. He was preoccupied with something I was not able to grasp yet.

“Too much, too much… I’m not crazy… I’m not drunk, whatever they say..,” this niggling line of thought throbbed in his mind.

Forced by Fyodor, I entered some dim, small part of the cave, then went into another sub-compartment with a white stump. There was a big suspicious hole in the stump. I checked out what was inside of it and found some water that could have monsters lurking in it.

While I was thinking of the dangers, Fyodor took me by surprise and set me down on the stump. Then he reached into his spacesuit and pulled the compass out of it. The arrow on the top was spinning violently. When it stopped, it pointed to us.

“That’s it. Something’s inside of me,” said Fyodor and squeezed the compass.

Did you know?..
        
— Earthlings are so fragile that almost every minute they are liable to experience unexpected failure of their organisms, or, so called, stresses. Strangely, stresses hurt not only earthling minds but also their bodies causing, for example head- or backaches, belly mass to accumulate, and even hair loss (no surprise they have bald bodies!).

— There are also healthy or eustresses that give positive vibes, like meeting or engaging in a challenge, jumping higher than others, and, of course, getting additional jobs to the ones they currently have.