The gardening process went about the same as before. They hadn't brought a modern hoe on the camping trip, so Scott was still limited to using his primitive model. However, Charlotte was just as attentive as ever as he worked. "Why do you raise the dirt around where you put the plants?"

Between heavy breaths, Scott answered. "Well, it largely comes down to the environment. In this area, we get plenty of rain, so the main concern is getting too much water and drowning the plant or having mold infect the roots. The mound of dirt absorbs as much water as possible, then the rest flows out and away from the plant. If we were in a more dry climate, we'd want to reverse it, placing the plants in an indent so the ground could slowly absorb more water and allow less of it to escape."

Stopping for a moment, Scott wiped his brow. "I get why you're so interested in most of what I do, but why the interest in gardening? Didn't you just grow your food in a tank?"

Surprisingly, Charlotte seemed almost hesitant to answer. "Not long before I found you, I was damaged, lost many of my resources, and was forced to relocate here. Unfortunately, this place is not as conducive to my food growth as my old home, so I have had to supplement my food while trying to rebuild my home."

Scott had been digging again but stopped and turned to Charlotte. "So wait, this isn't the way you usually live?"

Charlotte shook her head. "No. My home is usually...mobile, allowing me to explore and experiment. The primary goal of any She is to find new evolutions beneficial to our progress and survival. Whenever a discovery is deemed sufficiently beneficial and impactful, the knowledge is disseminated among the She for the benefit of the collective."

Scott blinked a bit before nodding. "So it's kind of like forced rapid evolution. You all try different tactics for survival, and whatever is most effective is adopted by everyone. That would be effective, but it also seems like it would take away from the individuality of anyone within the collective. What happens if you didn't want to adopt a characteristic the collective decided was beneficial?"

Charlotte tilted her head. "Why would I not want to adopt a beneficial characteristic?"

Scott shrugged. "Well, what if it conflicted with something you were passionate about? For instance, what would you do if the collective decided humans were their enemy? Would you simply kill Alice and me?"

Charlotte shook her head. "That would not be beneficial to our survival. In fact, if I am able to return to my people, I am considering presenting the possibility that humans could form a symbiotic bond with the She. That by working together, both our people might prosper."

Scott nodded. "Well, I appreciate that...so long as you don't take it too far, but that still raises the question, what if the opposite were presented and accepted. What would you do?"

This time, Charlotte was quiet for longer. It was long enough that Scott got back to work. After a minute of contemplation, she finally answered. "I do not know. Far too many variables could change between now and when I get back to the collective, and it is impossible for me to know how that would impact my decision."

Scott laughed a little and shook his head. "Now that's cheating! But I suppose it's also kind of fair. There are things in my life I would never have known how I would have reacted to until I was placed in the situation. It sure seems like I'm encountering more and more of those situations every day..."

-

When breakfast arrived, Lucy smiled and winked at the man delivering it. That seemed to confuse him since she'd only ever been cold to the guy, but she figured it couldn't hurt to be nice here at the end of their relationship. After a moment of hesitation, during which he was probably weighing the risks and rewards of trying to make a move, he turned around to pick up the tray from last night, then stopped. "Hey, where's the..."

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His words were interrupted by Lucy burying the knife in his neck. She covered his mouth to keep him from screaming, and as soon as the body went limp, she carefully lowered it to the ground. Now, this was a perfect example of the lax discipline on this ship. There should have been two guards delivering food, they should have been more attentive of the prisoner who was not handcuffed, and another guard should have been at the door to let them in and out. If they'd followed even one of those protocols, her odds of escape would be minimal. If they'd done all three, it would have been hopeless.

As it was, though, Lucy was able to take a moment to search through his pockets to find his authorization chit, a proper knife, and even a gun. The gun was small caliber and only had six bullets, but if things went sideways, it still gave her one hell of an advantage she hadn't had a moment ago.

For now, she pocketed the gun and used the chit to open her cell door. Poking her head out, there didn't even appear to be anyone close enough at hand to see her walk right out of the cell. What kind of ship was Cooper running here? He was making this too easy. Still, there was the guard room between her and the rest of the ship, and there were bound to be at least a couple people in there.

Walking past another four empty cells, she pressed her back against the wall next to the door to the guard room and pressed the intercom, then ran her jacket sleeve against the receiver to make it sound staticky while mumbling something incoherent in a low tone of voice at the same time.

A moment later, someone triggered the comm from inside. "Say that again."

Keeping herself out of the way so they couldn't see her through the small window, Lucy pressed the com key again and repeated her performance. After a moment, the door opened up. "Damn comm is on the..."

He didn't have a chance to finish because Lucy shoved the knife up through his jaw into his brain. Then, kicking him off the blade as he fell, She jumped toward the other guy sitting at the table with a bunch of cards laid out for three players. To his credit, he was already reaching for his gun, but Lucy kicked the leg off his chair and took advantage of his fall to plunge the knife into his eyesocket before he could recover.

She scanned the room for other threats, but it seemed like the third player was probably the guy she'd left back in the cell. Looking around, she quickly scavenged anything else she could find, including the last guy's gun, and got ready to move on.

Judging by the number of cells they had on board, this was at least a small cruiser and was probably more than she could take over by herself, despite her earlier claims to Cooper, so she had to think of a plan B.

-

Scott was watching Charlot give "horse rides" to Alice while he planted more of the garden. His sister was hooting and hollering as she rode the giant spider lady around the opening. It was still a little odd to hear how many "hoof beat" sounds the spider woman made as she ran, but he shook his head and shouted to Alice. "Make sure you hold on tight!"

All he got in response was a steady stream of giggles. However, as they rode past, Charlotte responded for the girl. "I'll make sure she's safe!"

It might just have been his imagination, but Scott could swear her voice had been affected by the Doppler effect as she ran past. But rather than worry about it, he got back to work planting the things he referred to in his mind as "Space potatoes." Not that he'd say that out loud. The last thing he needed to do was explain that mess to Charlotte when she eventually asked about it, though between Alice and the strange men, he suspected he wouldn't get away with that forever. But that brought to mind the same question he'd been asking himself for a while. How do you explain space travel and colonization to someone who lived in flesh caves? He was kind of working on an explanation in the back of his mind but still wasn't sure if Charlotte would believe him. Especially after he'd recently introduced her to the concept of lying.

A moment later, Charlotte stopped and lowered a protesting Alice to the ground, who shouted, "More! More!" But Charlotte only shook her head. "Not now, Alice, maybe later. I have something I need to discuss with Scott. Why don't you go set up a hopscotch course for us to use in a few minutes?"

The girl's eyes lit up as she ran to do just that, but Charlotte's words concerned Scott a bit. What was it she needed to discuss with him? As she approached him, Charlotte nodded away from their shared living area. "Scott, a couple objects are falling out of the sky a few miles in that direction, but they're not behaving right."

That made Scott furrow his brows. "Probably meteors...but what do you mean they're not behaving right?"

Charlotte was still looking in the direction of the meteors. "They seem to be slowing down faster than they should."