Scott froze as he processed what Charlotte had just said. Objects falling out of the sky that are slowing faster than they should be could only be one thing, dropships. Worse yet, they were falling in almost the opposite direction of the original group of men relative to their position.

He briefly debated whether he should explain all this to Charlotte or pretend to not know what was going on, as it could have heavy connotations on their relationship, but at this point, it would be too dangerous for her not to know more. He'd been hoping to ease her into the understanding that they weren't from this planet, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen. The odds of those ships being uninvolved with the first group weren't zero, but they were slim. It was far more likely these were more of the group looking for Scott and Alice or someone looking to pick a fight with said group. Either way, Charlotte should do her best to avoid being caught in the crossfire.

Taking a deep breath, Scott's mind blurred as he tried to come up with a way to explain his situation, and he eventually started talking, hoping to come up with an explanation as he went. "So, Charlotte, remember how I explained we were from really far away? Those falling objects you detected are how we travel... Those are probably more humans, and more likely than not, they're going to be trouble..."

-

Charlotte watched as the two objects falling out of the sky decelerated. To her knowledge, no natural phenomenon explained this movement, meaning it was probably by design. The only people she was aware of that could manage such a thing was the She, but these didn't fit any evolutionary traits She was aware of. Of course, that didn't mean it couldn't be a new experimental method of planetfall. Most likely, they would respect Charlott's territorial claim, but there was no guarantee, and right now, She didn't have the resources to win an actual conflict against another She.

Then Scott spoke. "So, Charlotte, remember how I explained we were from really far away? Those falling objects you detected are how we travel... Those are probably more humans, and more likely than not, they're going to be trouble..."

Charlotte turned her head to examine the diminutive human. Did Scott realize the implications of what he was saying? There weren't any other habitable planets in this system, meaning the only reason to have space travel would be... "Scott, are you saying your people have developed star travel?"

Scott looked up, surprised. "Wait, you know about space travel..? Are the She a space-faring species, too?"

For the briefest moments, Charlotte wondered why Scott had hidden this information from her, but of course, the answer was obvious...

On the other hand, if humans were already capable of interstellar travel, they were much more advanced than Charlotte had anticipated. Suddenly, the numbers of Humans Scott reported actually made sense. The many degrees of specialization and cooperation it would take for a species with such limited capacity to achieve space flight at all, let alone interstellar travel, was mind-boggling. There would have to be a dozen degrees of specialization, resulting in literally hundreds of specialized people for every aspect of travel. How could they even control their vessels without a neural connection? Was it through "thinking tools" like Scott's computer? If so, they could link them together to act similar to neural nodes for a She home...

But how would so many chaotic minds come up with something so intricate? Scott seemed equally confused. "Wait, why didn't you tell me sooner?"

Charlotte turned to the human and bowed slightly, acknowledging his point while addressing it. "Likely for the same reason you didn't tell me about humans being able to star travel. We were both trying not to overwhelm the other new 'primitive' species we'd discovered."

Scott held up a hand and opened and closed his mouth a few times in a manner Charlotte had come to realize meant his mind was working faster than he could communicate, causing his mind to move on from a point before he could vocalize it. Eventually, he finally lowered his hand and laughed nervously. "Yeah...I suppose that about sums it up..."

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Scott stared off in the direction Charlotte had indicated the falling objects were. "Still, that doesn't change the fact that this could be dangerous for us, one way or another..."

Charlotte nodded and was about to reply when Alice tugged at her hands. "Charlotte, the hopscotch is set up and ready. Do you want to play now?"

Realising it was probably best to keep the smaller human occupied rather than listening to their current deliberations, Charlotte nodded in agreement. "Yes, now is a good time."

Alice cheered while Scott looked troubled. "But Charlotte, we need to..."

Charlotte held up a hand to forestall him as she'd seen him do on many occasions. "Both are important. Wait just a moment, and I'll be right with you, too."

Scott blinked a few times and looked like he was about to argue, but Charlotte took Alice's hand and led her to the hopscotch area while also approaching Scott with her speaking appendage. When he didn't seem to notice, she spoke to him. "Now, we can talk without disturbing Alice."

Scott jumped back in a way that indicated startlement, one of those instinctive reactions his people still had. If the smaller appendage had been something dangerous, the move might have increased his chances of survival. It was interesting to see both his 'conscious and subconscious' minds working against each other for a moment before he relaxed again and responded. "Okay, that's just freaky..." He looked at Alice, laughing with Charlotte, then back at the much smaller Charlotte at his feet. "How can you do that? Have two conversations at the same time and keep it all straight?"

Charlotte didn't have a way to emulate mannerisms in this body, so she answered simply. "I am not limited to a few sets of input or output like humans. I have thousands of sources of information and control thousands of bodies at the same time. Having two separate conversations is no more confusing than having one. If I were back to my old capacity, I could manage hundreds of thousands of conversations without any confusion or delay."

Scott looked blank momentarily, as if he was trying to process the information, then shook his head. "Yeah, okay, that's even weirder, but it's also not important right now." Looking toward the falling objects, he continued. "More likely than not, the new ships are part of the same group as the other men, or they are looking for a fight with them. Either way, we don't want to get involved, but we want to know what's happening. Can you send some eyes and ears to keep track of them?"

If humans were capable of interstellar travel, she wondered if Scott's earlier claims about human weapons were also not as exaggerated as She'd first assumed. "We are of like minds on that. I will watch and listen to whatever I can at both locations." Luckily, after the earlier complications of leaving her listening appendage behind, Charlotte had already produced several more listening appendages in case more were needed, like now.

-

Lucy was keenly aware of her pursuit as the ship flew lower into the atmosphere. She'd disabled all the other landing craft in her bay, but evidently, there had been some on the other side of the ship. Her plan had been going so smoothly until that one pirate got off a shout before she could finish him. The whole ordeal had devolved into a firefight as she fled to the launch bay.

Thankfully, she'd gotten close enough that her surprise assault overwhelmed what resistance they were able to set up in the hangar, and she got off the ship. But now she was down to one handgun with eleven shots remaining and had an assault craft on her tail that probably had over a dozen pirates in it. To top things off, Lucy's ship didn't appear to have functional weaponry. That's probably why they weren't shooting at her yet. It's better to take the craft intact once she landed. It was probably worth more than a few pirate's lives, at least to Cooper.

Still, that meant she had to do something to even the odds, something they wouldn't expect...something a little crazy. She threw full power into the reverse thrusters. Full power at this speed was likely to cause significant damage to the ship's frame, but what did she have to lose?

The change in momentum was enough to press her against the crash webbing, and she fought to stay conscious, angling her ship just so... A half moment later, she was shoved back into her seat as her ship launched forward again, propelled by a mid-air collision with her pursuit. Disengaging the reverse thrusters, she took back control of the ship, struggling to do whatever she could to increase her odds of survival, or at least she tried to as she and her pursuit both tumbled through the air.

Once she slowed her spin, she re-engaged the thrusters and even extended the landing gear to provide just a bit more friction to slow her descent. She hoped the inertial dampeners would function well enough in a crash to keep her from being squeezed through the webbing like meat through a grinder, but the ground was getting closer awfully quickly...