Since Lepochim agreed to cooperate (even if only under threat of torture), Bath began to relay as closely as possible the sounds from the control room to him.

"It's not translating correctly since you aren't copying what they're saying perfectly," Lepochim complained.

Bath looked on serenely, completely unamused.

"...But they're generally talking about whether or not to just give you what you want. They seem to be agreeing that that's the best thing to do, and then that they'll track you down afterward with greater forces and try to destroy you, probably with bombs or something."

Bath continued to relay the conversation, which by now had been going on for over five minutes. Lepochim continued to vaguely summarize what was happening.

"Okay, they've agreed to give you what you want, but the map they're going to give you isn't going to be correct."

The visage in front of Lepochim darkened. "But I want a working map."

"Well, I'm just telling you what they're saying," Lepochim replied with a defiant air.

.

Bath's titan form then boomed out loud, "If any information given to me is false, and I have a few planetary maps with me to compare against--"complete bullshit--"then I'm going to respond with full force to the breach of agreement."

"They're freaking out again," Lepo sighed. "Now they're saying just screw it, give the nasty invader what he wants."

"Really?"

"Yes, really," Lepochim sniffed. "I can even take a look for you to verify the maps and whatnot."

Bath was genuinely confused. Did Lepochim think he was...stupid? Maybe, years ago, he would've just naively trusted what Lepochim said. Now?

Fuck no. The little worm was worse than humans, and Bath had an incredibly low opinion of human honesty that seemed to deteriorate all the time.

"Lepochim, you've secured yourself a spot squarely on the torture train," Bath said sweetly. "Maybe one day, after I break you, I'll let you free. Now that you've shit on my good will? Just know you're only alive because you're a source of information I can squeeze dry."

He could tell that Lepochim tried to hide his reaction. However, Bath was literally all around Lepochim; his very flesh was Lepochim's prison. Bath could feel his heartbeat, his entire body, his everything. The alien was absolutely terrified.

Good.

"We have the materials and are sending one of our own to deliver them to you. A question: do you have the equipment necessary to use the maps and encyclopedic data chips?"

"No."

"We'll bring those as well, our compliments to you."

"Very well. I'll await their delivery."

Bath tracked the movements of one very shaky delivery-slug as it made its way from the command center to two different storage rooms and then finally to the holding room around the gate.

"Traveler, here are the items as specified in the agreement. Are they to your satisfaction?"

Bath's visage appeared once more before Lepochim, who quickly nodded his head. "The chip readers are real, as well as the translating chip. It'll install itself on you."

Bath paused.

"Actually, can I request a second translation chip?" Bath actually felt a bit bad now that he was changing the agreement, but he realized that Lisa needed her own translator. "As compensation, I will provide more information about Earth."

The slug-man nodded his head quickly. "Don't trouble yourself; translators like these are barely an expense worth mentioning!" To Bath's eye, the slug-man looked like he simply wanted to leave Bath's presence as quickly as possible.

"No no, I insist on repaying your good will. While you fetch another translator, I'll speak."

The slug-man clearly heard something blast in from his helmet that caused him to shriek. Then, he sped off in the direction of one of the storage rooms.

"Well, then. I am from Earth. Earth has a dominant, intelligent species called humans. They are bipedal and rather intelligent. They have only developed within the past few thousand years, though have rapidly colonized their planet. I believe they rank as an eight, with regards to kursi affinity." Nowhere in this did Bath actually say he was human, but that was an omission rather than a lie.

"An eight!?" the voice sounded shocked. As he explained, Bath picked up the little translation chip on the ground and affixed it to his neck. Soon, he absorbed the little chip so that it rest right outside of his Center. He didn't want it to be destroyed as he shifted forms, after all. The chip appeared to need a connection to his brain, so Bath created a host of nerve fiber extensions on the fly to connect with the chip. He was fairly certain that any brain connection would work, considering the fact that a species such as the slug-men and himself didn't really have many natural analogous structures. If this translation chip were to function cross-species and cross-planet, it would have to be extraordinary.

And extraordinary it was. After making contact with a few nerve fibers, Bath felt the chip begin to heat up. Soon, it had made a strong attachment to the nerve fibers. Bath wondered idly what would happen if he shrank to any size smaller than the chip itself, and figured he would just have to keep the chip suspended outside of his body.

Immediately, his mind began to swim.The sensation made him particularly uneasy. Had they given him a weaponized chip designed to fry his brain (like that would work) rather than an actual translator?

Even as these thoughts rushed through his mind, Bath continued to explain the situation on Earth to the slug-men. "Earth has only one gate. It's a one-way gate, so Travelers can come to Earth through the gate, and can leave Earth through the gate, but one the gate is exited, nobody can return to Earth from the gate." What a mouthful.

"This gate is effectively under my domain. If all that you have given me is good and functional, aside from the fact that I'll leave you in peace, if you come to Earth, I will treat you as guests." Bath really, really hoped by now that if they had given him anything intentionally defective, they would now make an excuse to take it back and swap it out.

No such actions occurred.

"Thank you for your generosity, Waymaster."

"Waymaster? Wait, that's actually kinda cool sounding," Lisa piped up. Bath knew that Lisa had been carefully watching the exchange with the slug-men from within his chest, and was eager to hear her thoughts after they exited the current precarious situation.

"It doesn't sound half-bad," Bath agreed. He suspected people in charge of gates normally had some kind of insignia that allowed them a kind of status as they traveled, but clearly backwater Earth wasn't in the know about that kind of thing. Waymaster, hmm?

Bath really, really wanted to stick some more needles into Lepochim for his innumerable information omissions, but knew the despicable worm was still shivering all over from the capsaicin in his skin. The alien really did heal fast, but that only worked to his detriment now that the spicy substance was stuck in his flesh. He felt that further direct needling was a bit overboard.

At this time, the courier slug-man returned with the second translator, which Bath picked up as quickly as possible. Then, he leapt free of the facility, actually carving himself a hole out of one of its thick walls after returning to his wolf-lizard form. He didn't trust the slug-men to give him a safe exit.

Bath covered a hundred miles or so in a few minutes. Then, confident he lost whatever slug-men had tried to track him, Bath found a cave of light-gray rock nestled into the side of one of this planet's infinitely-many mountains (Bath realized, to size quadruped dismay, the planet was practically one giant spike-ball). There, he let Lisa and Lepochim free. Lepochim fell to the ground, unable to properly stand for all his spice-induced agony. Lisa huffed and took in a deep breath as she adjusted herself to the planet's atmosphere.

"Lepochim, I'll remove the heat if you agree to help use the chip reader and insert Lisa's translator."

Lepochim's eyes constricted, as though he wanted to glare but caught himself before he actually did the action. "I'll do it!"

Bath smiled. He sent his essence into Lepochim and quickly removed the capsaicin. He made sure the invasive move was felt by making his essence enter Lepochim in thicker strands than necessary. Just thin enough not to hurt, but thick enough to be perceived.

"You..." Lepochim panted as he began to regain control over his extremities. "Ugh! Give me the translator."

"Thanks Lepo," Lisa beamed, clearly bemused. Bath was happy Lisa didn't know the extent to which he had actually hurt Lepochim. He paused a moment, actually confused as to why he was happy she didn't know. Human morality?

He pushed the thought out of his mind and began to stew over the many organisms he had devoured on his way over to the cave. This planet, like Magnet Planet, also had a very interesting and diverse evolutionary history. Surprise, surprise.

"Lisa, unlike with the last planet, I kept the holes in my chest open so you could see the planet's surface. What do you think we should call this place?" They weren't actually holes, since Bath covered them with thick, transparent membranes, but whatever.

"Uhhh, that's kind of a big decision." Despite her words, Lisa barely waited a second before providing a suggestion. "How about Lime World?"

Bath snorted, then chuckled. "Why not." The planet had lots of lime-green, slimy acid pools all over, a rather unique feature given that the rest of the planet was mostly gray rock and giant, bright-green mosses. Actually, Lime could also apply to the mosses. Now that Bath thought about it, lime effectively described the only color on the entire planet.

"It's actually called--" Lepochim began to say, as though he somehow knew the name of this random planet who knows how far away from his home world, before Bath silenced him with a glare.

"Enough from you," he said, his voice leaving no room for discussion.

Bath was actually rather curious about the lack of color on this planet. The organisms were all either clear, some shade of gray, or some variety of green. Many of them seemed to have some kind of photosynthetic properties, even those that Bath identified as predatory. Likely, the photosynthesis was insufficient to support the whole organism, leading to herbivores and carnivores.

Considering how inefficient Earth photosynthesis was, Bath thought this made perfect sense. He was rather eager to see how photosynthesis worked in these plant-animals since he didn't have experience combining plant and animals characteristics together.

After a few minutes of Lisa moaning about her head flying away while having the translator implanted, Lepochim turned to Bath and stated: "The translator's done."

"Good." Bath then promptly tossed him the data chips and reader, a small, circular device that Bath had no idea how to operate.

Lepochim audibly sighed before getting to work.

"Lepochim, may I test my translator on you?"

Lepochim paused, then turned around to face Bath. "Fine," he said, as though the word was painful. "Hello, Bath."

Bath cocked his head. Lepochim's voice...it sounded completely different. Every part of it sounded...Bath didn't even know how to describe it. His voice definitely didn't sound human, nor did Bath feel like Lepochim was speaking a human language, and all the same his brain interpreted the message as English.

The experience was quite uncanny.

"That is soooo weird," Lisa frowned. "You sound like a chain-smoking Legolas. Do we sound the same to you?"

Lepochim snorted. "Legolas?"

Lisa tsked. "An elf from Lord of the Rings. Orlando Bloom..."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Lepochim snapped. "But obviously you sound the same to me."

"Watch your mouth," Bath hissed. The way Lepochim said 'obviously' felt as though he were saying a terrible insult. Perhaps in his language, such a statement was an insult.

Bath took Lisa outside to inspect the surroundings while Lepochim continued to work on the chips. Bath kept a disembodied head floating next to Lepochim's shoulder while he worked as a reminder to stay on track.

"I'm done," Lepochim eventually announced after half an hour or so. "To use the chip reader, all you need to do is press the central indent here, with anything organic, i.e. any fleshy surface."

He demonstrated by placing a finger on the indent. "Then, you tell it to turn on. On," he said clearly. "In general, the AI behind the computer is good at knowing when you're talking to it as opposed to other people. It's also able to understand you whether you mumble or speak clearly like I just did. In general, clear speech is good protocol to follow since not all systems you'll use are high quality. For a planet like this, so far from Ildr, this chip reader is quite advanced."

"Good to know," Bath noted. "Lisa, I'm putting you in charge of the chip reader."

"Cool," she cheered. She had been feeling a bit useless since the planet-hopping began and was happy to have something to do.

Bath told them that he was going to explore the immediately surrounding area while Lisa used the chip reader. He made a bony cage around Lepochim before he left, just in case.

"Time to test some things out..."