“I resemble that remark.”
“Yes, Gerty, I know.”The woman step-dragged herself as she did her job.
“Why are you doing that?”
“They are tracking the weight.If I don’t look like I am assessing your ship to start, they will cut a hole in the hull.Plants can’t patch that.”
“Right.Coming with you.Who are you?”
“Chloe.Seed of Terra.You are Skylar, Dyturan of Terra.”
Skylar pulled her headgear off.“What the hell is going on?”
Chloe grinned and went to a storage locker, got a filter out, opened a hidden cabinet, and replaced the soggy filter.“I was activated the moment of the strike and managed to keep myself awake for a few months.I met your friend Zoey and Will and her grandfather, and then I fell into a coma and stopped moving when the Earth came to a slow grind of survival.I was lucky that no one ate me.”She chuckled and kept moving, replacing filters and dragging that limb.“When I felt you die, I called for help, and help came.They got me and collected you.”
“Who did?”
“Collectors, I guess.They don’t talk much.I was settled with Gertrude and told that I was here to encourage Terran survival where colonies were being established.”
“What does that mean?”
“You are death and grieving and hope.I am lust and rage and reproduction.”
“The green ship.”
“Yup.It takes my extra energy when I can’t hand it off.Anyway, I knew you, I felt your interaction with the people and felt that you needed to be with people more than any of your kind ever had.We were scattered, are scattered.We each have different people we want to contact.Well, I don’t.I was in the area on a solo vacation, have no relatives, and my friends are my plants.I was doing greenhouse tours when the hit happened.”
Skylar stared.“So you wanted me to be able to talk to the people I had missed?”
“Yeah.In general, Dyturans are pretty stationary.They sit around and focus on their different species and offer the memories of the dead to those who can reach them.Spoiler alert...no one can reach them from a newly acquired species.”
Skylar sighed.“Right.Is that why they are following me?”
Chloe smiled innocently.“They are following you?How unusual.”
There was an outrage that swept through her, followed by amusement.“Youknewthey would come after me.”
“Yeah, but they won’t do anything to you.They are chasing the ship.Gertrude’s a babe.”
“Funny, Captain.They are after your potential.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Skylar watched the plants as Chloe moved through the ship.Everything was blooming.
“Wait.So, the Dyturans want you...”
“To see if we can cancel out and have a little baby dragon person.”She smiled.“I wanted to see more of the worlds than their home world.Now that I am awake again, I want to live.I was asleep for nearly two years until the collectors warmed me up and gave me a snack.”
“Wait.I thought you were dead.”
“No.I was just motionless.No food, no water, not hot, not cold, just dormant.That’s apparently the difference between us on paper.I keep a heartbeat.Slow but steady.”
“Right.Well, hell.You used me as bait!”Skylar was laughing.
“Yes.Yes, I did.I wasn’t counting on my bond ship getting hijacked and locking me to this station, but it is what it is.”
“You brought us here?”
