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> It is a well-known fact that humans, especially human young, are excellent mimics. However, in addition to mimicking sounds, young humans also mimic words and phrases. While the ship's adult humans set about repelling an invasion, the crew had to hide with their offspring, a human too young to do battle, but still old enough to repeat back everything their parents said when they were scared...
> "It's OK, I'm here" and "they can't get past my 'rents!" and "you take deep breaths, and I'll give you a hug" and other such things, repeated tirelessly to comfort the crew until the crisis ended. -- Anon Guest

They saw it coming, which was a good thing. It was also a cruise ship, which was a bad thing. There was a lot of territory for the adult Humans on board to defend. A lot of vulnerable cogniscents to defend as well. Those who were too squishy to face the incoming foes were sequestered into a safe, soft arena with easy access to the life pods. In the unlikely event that it all went to crap, they would all be able to bail out in less than minutes. Some of the Human neonates were hopping in and out of the waiting pods like it was a game.

As a Havenworlder, Frinn was with the smallest and most vulnerable of the Humans. Most of them were pre-verbal and many of them were still navigating the finer points of the bathroom. Their hygiene needs kept the few Human guardians in the room busy. Anxiety was the overall atmosphere among the Havenworlders waiting for the inevitable. The mood was something the young Humans picked up on, but not how anyone might rationally expect.

Any normal Galactic Citizen might expect young to echo the mood of the adult majority, spreading hysteria amongst all present. That was not what happened. The children all imitated what their caregivers did when _they_ were upset. It was quite a thing to witness. Frinn's first comforter was a toddler who pressed their soft toy into her arms. They then spent some time wrestling a soft blanket around Frinn's shoulders. A soft blanket that potentially weighed more than the child. Frinn was more than a little late in helping the toddler, since stress made her foggy at best and barely present at worst. However, other similarly small children pitched in.

They were pre-verbal, for the most part. They didn't have much to say that was their own. However, they had a repertoire of phrases they had heard in their lives. Phrases they repeated as appropriate like trained parrots. This gave rise to one of the children extracting the thumb from their mouth to say, "Iss okay t' be scared."

Another one said, "People know how to deal with this."

The one who started moving the blanket asked, "You wanna hug?"

A Deathworlder giving assured reassurance was a comfort for any Havenworlder. Even a soft and squishy Deathworlder who was on the same level as the aforementioned Havenworlder. "You be gentle," Frinn cautioned.

"Good birdie," said a child, patting Frinn's feathers. "Nice chicken."

Alarmingly, the thumb-sucker said, "Chicken nugget, num num num." Cued responses were not always what was needed to be heard.

"Buffet," said an older child, pointing. "Chicken nugget inna buffet."

"Num num num," said the thumb-sucker, waddling towards the food.

Ultimately, falling asleep in a nest of Deathworlders should have been impossible, yet Frinn was reassured enough by the overall calm demeanor of them that rest came naturally.

When she woke up, the crisis was over, but the more concerning "cleanup" was still underway.

[Image <a href="https://www.canstockphoto.com">(c) Can Stock Photo / gunnar3000</a>]

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