To'brel and Em'brel sat down for their evening classes with Angela. After a long day's march, this was almost the last thing anyone wanted to do, but Angela insisted on at least a little light work to "keep your minds sharp!" Even if Em'brel was a little distracted by the pup she now brought with her everywhere.

Right now, Kunes was lightly batting at her feet in an attempt to get the argu'n to play a more exciting game than "sit and wait." Em'brel reached down and gave the wolgen some scratches behind its ears while also trying to listen to Angela's lecture on "infinity."

To'brel seemed more than a little lost. "Okay, so infinity is basically all the numbers, from zero with no end. Seems simple enough."

Angela was floating over her body which was recharging as she lectured. "Well, yes and no. It's easy to grasp the basic concept of the idea, but the actual scope of the idea is often hard to contemplate. For example, let's look at a standard deck of playing cards."

Now it was Em'brel's turn to look confused. "You mean those cards you printed back in the outpost for playing card games? They're still popular with many workers and guards because they're easy to transport, and you can play tons of games with them, but what's that got to do with infinity?"

Angela's grin widened. "Well, say you shuffled the deck thoroughly. Which of the cards would you say is on top?"

Em'brel looked confused. "It's impossible to know. You have a one in fifty-two chance of guessing right."

The AI nodded. "Exactly right. So you draw it and see, now there's a one in a fifty-one chance of guessing the next card, and the next will be a one in fifty chance, and so on."

To'brel looked excited. "Oh, that's the 'factorial' thing you taught us about in math!"

Angela looked pleased as she nodded in acknowledgment. "Yes, exactly! Specifically, fifty-two factorial. In other words, fifty-two, times fifty-one, times fifty, and so on."

Angela tilted her head to the side. "Now, let's take fifty-two factorial and say we wanted to measure that number in seconds. How long do you think that would be?"

To'brel's ridges scrunched up in thought. "That would be an incredibly long time... I don't know, maybe a thousand years?"

Em'brel shook her head. "No, it would have to be a lot longer than that. Maybe a million years? Or ten million?"

Angela shook her head. "Not quite, though you're close. Based on some very rough estimations, your people's entire history stretches back less than ten million years, though the argu'n of that age would hardly be recognizable to you today." She flashed a number behind her, fifteen digits long. "That would be this many seconds. Incidentally, the history of the entire known universe, from the moment energy and matter first came into existence as we understand them, was this long ago!" The number behind her extended by four digits. "But, even that isn't how long fifty-two factorial is. Fifty-two factorial looks more like this." The number floating in the air behind her extended, first slowly, then more and more quickly as lines started wrapping around beneath the original number forming a literal wall of a single number sixty-eight digits long. "For the record, everything in existence will have ceased to exist before that many seconds pass. Every planet, star, and blackhole will have faded into nothing more than their sub-atomic particles spread evenly over a nigh-infinite plane perfectly at rest before that number of seconds pass by."

Em'brel scrunched her face in more confusion than before. "I thought you said our guesses were close? Or were you just being sarcastic?"

Angela's expression became that of a predator about to pounce on her prey. "No, you were actually very close! At least when compared with the concept of infinity! When you take your guess," The fifteen digit number extracted itself from the sixty-eight digit number so they could be compared side by side again. "and compare it to the correct answer, then stretch out the plane of measurement to infinity," As the plane expanded both numbers became smaller and smaller until they were both a single point barely registerable to the eye. "the difference between the two is so small as to be mathematically identical for all intents and purposes! That's how immense infinity is!"

Em'brel sat there momentarily, trying to comprehend the immensity of the concept Angela was trying to explain to them, when To'brel spoke up. "Okay, this is surprisingly interesting, but what's the point? What use is such an impossible number?"

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That's when Angela's expression turned into something truly frightening, as if she was the villain in one of the old movies Jack had shown Em'brel back on the ship. "I'm glad you asked my very young and very innocent student! It's time for me to introduce you to the joys of calculous!"

-

Sare'en was seeing to the arlack when Jack hobbled over Grim in tow, the older wolgen eyeing Kunshee as if appraising her. The younger wolgen yipped playfully at Grim, stomping her paws into the ground as if wanting to pounce, who started to pounce back though Jack slowed him down a bit with a command of "Be gentle!"

To be fair, the bap to the side of the head the grim delivered to the younger pup was positively gentle by wolgen standards, but Kunshee sill fell onto her side before shaking her head as though wondering why the world wouldn't stop spinning. Jack sighed and lightly flicked Grim's nose. "More gentle next time. We don't need you giving your new sisters bad habits like that! I know you wanna rough house, but we gotta train them to be better behaved first!"

Grim just watched Jack as if patiently waiting for him to stop speaking. Finally, the human sighed before patting the wolgen on the side of his thick neck. "I know you mean well, but you're just the biggest and strongest thing in the camp! Well, aside from Angela... Still, you gotta be gentle with those of us smaller than you!"

Realizing the human's rant was finally over, Grim returned his attention to the pup. For her part, Kunshee didn't seem any the worse for wear, though she was a little more reserved when sniffing the larger wolgen this time. This time Grim simply sniffed back and laid down, letting the younger pup crawl all over him while Jack gave him a treat for his good behavior.

Sare'en smiled as she watched while rubbing down one of the arlack. "You're very good with the animals. Are you certain you weren't a trainer of some kind in your previous life among the stars?"

Jack smiled and shook his head. "No, though humans are notorious for pack bonding with anything, pulse or not, it's not unheard of for people to become emotionally attached to cool-looking rocks. That empathy makes us better able to read and understand the manners and motives of animals. But, admittedly, we can easily fall prey to attributing human motives to animal behaviors, so it's a bit of a double-edged sword."

Sare'en nodded before noticing Jack rubbing his back leg as if trying to restore some feeling. Then, frowning, she spoke cautiously, not wanting to offend the human. "But what are you doing out here? After a full day of riding, you should rest, not push yourself further!"

Jack smiled and shook his head. "Soon enough, I promise! But after a day of riding, I need to stretch my legs first, or they'll cramp up and really leave me in pain tonight! And I know from experience that once I sit down, I won't be getting up again for a while, so I figured I'd come to say hi, and see how things are going."

Having been asked about herself, Sare'en looked slightly distracted. "Oh, I'm mostly good..."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Mostly?"

Sare'en simply shrugged. "Yeah, I mean, there's plenty for me to do, and I've got these pups to keep me company!" She patted Grim and Kunshee, who both turned and started licking or nuzzling her as she did so. "It's just that everyone else is always so busy I don't see as much of you all as I did back in the outpost..."

Jack grinned. "You mean you don't see as much of Em'brel as you did back in the outpost?"

Sare'en looked like she was about to protest but just shrugged and nodded. "Well, yeah, maybe her a little more than the rest of you. We used to spend so much time together, and now it seems like the only time I see her is during break meals."

Suddenly looking as if she realized she was saying too much, the herder girl started back peddling. "Not that I don't enjoy spending time with the rest of you! It's just that around Em'brel, I feel less anxious, is all! Of course, I didn't mean to imply a noble such as herself owes me anything like her time..."

Jack laughed and waved the poor girl down, trying to calm her before she had a full-blown anxiety attack. "No, no, it's alright! I know you weren't saying anything of the sort! And for the record, I think you have the same effect on her that she has on you. So why don't you meet with her once her class is done? Bring her some dinner too. Besides, I think Kunshee and Kunes could use more time together. They're far too young to be separated this much anyway!"

Sare'en looked thoughtful. "I suppose that would work... That is if you think... I mean..."

That was when the arlack she was tending to decided he'd had enough of being ignored with his harness only half off, and he impatiently nudged the poor herding girl, knocking her out of her reverie, forcing Sare'en to laugh. "Oh, getting impatient, are we?"

She then turned back to Jack. With the fear and anxiety knocked out of her by the matter-of-fact needs of the animal under her care, she smiled. "Well, I suppose I should see to these poor beasts' needs first. All this marching is as rough on them as anyone. They need to rest and recover just like the rest of us!"

Jack smiled and called to Grim. "That's a good idea. Besides, I think I've stretched my poor leg enough. Time to get a little rest myself. Just remember, if you do need anything, don't hesitate to ask. As our only arlack and wolgen expert, you're far too important to lose to burnout. And as a friend to myself and my adoptive daughter, you're far too valued to be neglected!"

Sare'en nodded her thanks as Jack turned to leave, but he was interrupted by Lon'thul's voice coming in over the headset. "I hate to be the one who keeps bringing up the bad news... but I think someone might be following us..."