“This door stays closed all the time, OK? That’s the first rule.”

And Evelyn didn’t need to ask why. As her eyes grew accustomed to the light, she realized she was surrounded by rows upon rows of fruits and vegetables of all sorts, sitting in hydroponic solutions beneath special lamps.

“This is insane…” Sander said, as he ducked under a braided grape vine and walked towards a pair of short tomato plants, bent in half from the weight of their fruits.

“Yeah, like I was saying… I started growing the bamboo right there here, chopping dozens of feet per day, blending it up into paste…” Quentin reminisced, while casting a loving glance to the trey of fresh shoots before them. “You wouldn´t believe how fast these bastards can grow!”

“Why does everything look so weird?”

Indeed, almost all the plants in view had sprouted the largest, most delicious-looking fruit Lori had ever seen… but upon closer inspection, she realized they also were somehow warped: The melons had turned oval, the cabbage looked like humungous tulips and even the apples, despite their gorgeous shade of red, had started to take on a distinctly triangular shape...

“GMO’s, right?” inquired Evelyn, adding to her daughter’s question.

“Kind of…” Quentin answered, while checking each shelf of a vertical potato garden, in the corner. “I did some slight editing to keep the plant body small and to hypertrophy the edible parts, nothing drastic… Plant-eugenics, basically,” he smirked, as he put a few drops of a pink liquid into the soil. “And they each got their own special nutrients… But yeah. I never expected this.”

Leaning closer to the triangular apples, Quentin inspected one delicately, without breaking the stem.

“Is it safe though? Like, to eat?

“I hope so... I’ve been eating this stuff since I left!” Quentin shrugged and smiled at Lori, who stared back, unconvinced… “My personal theory is that mother nature, it turns out, loves low gravity! It’s like they don’t have to fight against external pressure... so everything swells! Can you hand me the pliers?”

Slowly rotating on the spot, Sander finally found Quentin’s tool and handed it over.

“Man… You really should have seen things before the Hyundai clipped us, I´m telling you: We had rows- we weren´t even using them all, yet! Just, ten times bigger, way more variety… Anyways, let’s just hope there´s enough grub for-” he quickly counted how many people had come aboard in his head “ -all nine of us now!”

“We’ll find a way. We’ll make it work, I promise.” Evelyn offered, feeling guilty to be exacting such a burden on his supplies. “I can’t tell you how grateful we are. Right guys?”

She turned to the twins, who dutifully echoed their mother’s sentiments.

And despite her misgivings about the man, Lori had to admit that the room gave off a pleasant vibe… It was warm and quiet (besides the gentle hum of a fan) and maybe it was just the pleasure of being surrounded by nature again, but she could already tell this would be her favorite spot on the ship.

“No worries, guys. We´ve seen worse,” Quentin answered confidently, “and we’ll figure out chores and stuff… Actually, with all this extra man power, I think things are about to get a lot easier,” he beamed.

Sander gave an excited nod while Lori smiled back, finally letting her guard down a bit and allowing herself to enjoy the surrounding greenery. And apparently, she wasn’t alone in her appreciation of the garden: Evelyn had become transfixed by what her daughter had initially mistaken for an aquarium.

“Is that what I think it is?” she asked, as Sander came to join his mother and peer through the glass at the half-submerged log.

“Ah… I see you’ve discovered Pavel’s little hobby.”

“Can I touch it?” Sander chimed-in, as he reached down to poke it.

But just before his finger made contact, a trapdoor near the asparagus racks slid open with a clatter, and a spacesuit-clad Pavel reappeared.

“Niet! No touch!”

Jumping back in shock, Sander quickly retracted his hand as the frost-encrusted man hurried closer and removed his helmet.

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“I didn’t, I was just-”

But Pavel didn’t have time for his excuses and just pushed Sander out of the way, to inspect his creation for any damage.

“Do you know how sensitive this is? Quentin, why you bring them here?” Pavel barked at his host angrily.

“Don’t worry. I was watching…”

“I told you, any outside bacteria will contaminate the culture!” he scolded.

“Is this because I asked you to clean up?”

“I knew it! You’re growing truffles, right?” Evelyn interjected, proud of her deduction.

But all that seemed to do was aggravate Pavel even more.

“Yes, it is truffle! So please stop your son. Yes?” the man snapped back, leaning into the container to check the PH levels with a cotton swab.

Taken aback by the man’s temper, the Schwab trio looked to Quentin who just shrugged it off.

“Alright guys, let’s go... don’t take it personally, he’s a dick to everyone.”

“You are dick,” spat Pavel, as they left the man to tend to his mushrooms.

“Hey! You’re using my spores, in my greenhouse. Watch your mouth, asshole!” Quentin growled back.

“You want truffle, you shut your face!”

Despite almost being outside of the room, Pavel’s last little retort stopped Quentin in his tracks. Turning to answer something nasty, he remembered his guests and decided against it, at the last second. Running his eyes over the curly-haired Russian, Quentin let the automatic door close between them and instead, just laughed to himself while reaching into his pocket for another pill.

“A useful rule of thumb that I’ve discovered for living in here, is that it’s best to limit yourself to one big argument a day,” he coughed, clearing his throat after the difficult swallow. “And rule number two is that it’s always a bad idea to piss off the cook!” he added, invisibly giving Pavel the finger through the wall.

Quentin then continued towards the front of the ship... And, perhaps due to the garden being such an unexpected breath of fresh air, the rest of the tour kind of paled in comparison: There was a little gym to retain muscle mass, a spacesuit rack… They saw the cockpit (which also served as Quentin’s bedroom) and its blizzard of blinking lights, and then the engine room... But besides a few technical questions from Evelyn here and there, nobody had much to say.

Swinging open another trapdoor in the pantry with a grunt, Quentin explained that it was one of his two maintenance shafts, similar to the one Pavel had crawled out from.

“You came through the dock, after the crash” he said, referencing the retractable floor in the common area behind them. “But these babies here, take you from tread to tread.”

Freezing air rushed out of the aperture at their feet and, as Quentin squatted down to hit the lights, Evelyn saw the cramped little tunnel snake away beneath her.

“You got filter access, coils, heating...” he pointed first in one direction and then the other, “and this guy here, takes you down to the osmosis tanks, pumps, circuitry valves... all that fun stuff.”

“Could we maybe...” Evelyn started hesitantly, “go down there sometime? Like, when Barney is better? Just look around, see the reactor and stuff?”

“Of course!” Quentin grinned, more than glad to show off his prized creation. “Just make sure you suit up… it’s cold.”

“Wow, yeah... he’s going to love that.”

“Do you want to go down now? We can get you a suit…” Quentin proposed.

Letting her mind wander for a second, Evelyn’s thoughts went right back to those final, hectic days in the cul-de-sac...

“You know, I kind of want to share that moment with him,” she said, snapping back to the present, and looking to see where the twins had disappeared to.

Spotting them near the airlock, Evelyn saw her kids near the hammocks and realized they were just waiting for the tour to finish, still awestruck before their new habitat.

“Plus, I think they’re a little toured out,” she concluded, nodding to her kids.

Conceding her point, Quentin laughed and they both stood back up.

“I did actually have one last question.”

“Shoot.”

“What was that about treads?”

“Treads? Oh… yeah, I built this thing with rover capabilities, needed the maneuverability to build the base.” Quentin slammed the hatch back shut and they returned to the Firmament’s common area. “But now- I mean, since the accident, we mostly just stay on the dark side… unless we´re scavenging-”

“What? Scavenging?” Sander interrupted, once again fully invested in the discussion. “Are we gonna do moon walks?”

Catching a worried glimpse in his mother’s eye, Quentin realized he might have jumped the gun by sharing that information so soon... but after seeing the teenager’s ecstatic grin, didn’t want to lower his spirits and steered into the skid.

“Uh, yeah... Obviously man! What did you think, we just hung out in here all day?” he asked playfully, cocking his eyebrow.

The news was like music to Sander’s ears. His Mom on the the hand, was less than enthused…

“It’s mostly trash burial, we’ll tether him to the ship,” Quentin quickly reassured her under his breath, while Sander obliviously fist-pumped in front of his bemused sister.

That night, after thanking Matvey for having helped them fit an extra mattress on the floor, the Schwabs piled into Barney’s room and Quentin popped by to say goodnight.

“You know, we probably have a free hammock if anybody wants to sleep in the middle…” he offered, seeing how cramped the little room had become, at the foot of Barney’s bed.

“I think Matvey took it, ‘cuz this is his,” Sander said, tapping the mattress as Lori jockeyed for position next to him. “Stop pushing me!” he elbowed back.

“Then move!”

“You’re on my side!”

“OK, well I printed the plan for tomorrow,” Quentin called out over them, as Evelyn intervened to separate the twins. “Try to take a peek when you have some time.”

Being apparently the only one who listened, Barney gave him a thumbs up and Quentin just nodded, putting the paper on the countertop near the door.

“Thank you, we will!” Evelyn smiled, but he had already left. “Seriously, it’s like you’re five again…” she scolded, before grabbing Quentin´s list, clearing her voice and reading aloud. “OK, so there’s breakfast at 8… meeting at 9…”