The Looking Glass and the Gunmetal Gyre coasted through the dense tangle of the Rhyzomic Expanse, staying as close together as possible while finding spaces between the green-brown limbs. Progress was slow, but neither pilot minded the pace.
“Pretty, ain’t it?” growled Tren Krellos over the comm. “Dunno what I expected from a big space tree… but this is somethin’ else.” Stroth once again found herself thinking uncharitably of her companion’s conversational skills.
“Indeed,” she responded calmly. “It’s truly remarkable. I can’t help but wonder how it grew so big in a hard vacuum. For such a thing to occur naturally is vastly unlikely, don’t you think?”
“Sure,” Krellos bluntly agreed, “but it’s a big universe. Could be all kindsa stuff out there.”
“Exactly,” said Stroth, smiling despite herself. “That’s exactly it.”
The two ships continued on in silence broken only by the abrupt flaring of their directional thrusters. The two travellers peered at passing branches, spotting occasional scurrying creatures or convoys of sentients.
“I… I think I’m startin’ to get it,” Krellos interjected, more uncertainly than Stroth had ever heard him speak before. “Why you do what you do. The projects, the preservation an’ that.” Stroth said nothing, listening intently.
“I’ve seen stranger s*** followin’ you than I ever saw back home,” the former bounty hunter continued. “It’s weird out there. Think I’d wanna save a piece of it too, if I could.” Though Krellos couldn’t see it, Stroth’s smile widened. Maybe they were finding common ground after all.
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