Terrans were weird but they had some very adorable traditions. Actually almost distressingly naive ones.

Pylo found this idea of ‘camping’ equal parts adorable and distressing in principle.

Apparently Terrans had a very different threshold they used to define ‘wilderness’ and enjoyed actively going out ‘into the wilds’ in order to enjoy ‘nature’.

It took a lot of mental gymnastics and serious self reflection to just decide that the Terrans didin’t really mean anything even remotely like wilderness.

But to be fair they effectively had spent the existence of all of their recorded history living in Terra’s tooth scum.

Even quarti who was at least sensibly aware that all things were not so safe as Aleph and Omega seemed inclined to believe did not know of any time that Flatlanders were explicitly not on Terra.

Although she had heard stories that perhaps they had come from somewhere else.

But still camping was a friendly and comforting activity for Terrans apparently. And it seemed that at least for them simply settling into the outer reaches of Tunie’s Drive waste refineries qualified as ‘wilderness’.

It had actually come up by accident during one of the last few tours.

“Why does the ship have a FOREST?!”

Alephs wonder had Pylo pause in trying to explain what was around them and tried to peer at the insides of her charge’s heads a bit more carefully.

“Huh? This looks like a what?”

“It’s a forest! Like it even has trees and leaves and everything facing down... or I guess up...”

Aleph, Omega and Quarti turned themselves to line up with their aft limbs all pointed out to Tunie’s skin and their faces turned inward towards where her drive core was.

They all seemed. A lot brighter, more at ease and happy.

Pylo tried to wrap her head around it at the time.

She supposed a lot of the sessile support trunks and the baffles for absorbing the many many lengths of light from shortest to longest did look like something the Terrans recognized.

Which was why they were now ‘camping’ with her in the mid range baffling of the drive reclamation sponge of Tunie’s hull.

She had checked thrice to make sure that nothing in the waste light should injure them. But it was well within tolerance. As long as none of them went any closer to the drive.

Normally Apparently Camping involved digesting food outside their bodies in a manner that Pylo realized was part of what had given cakes their delicious properties. However in a rare bit of sensibility no one had insisted on trying to ignite exposed plasma in the middle of the orb.

It was confusing, and every once in a while the way they thought about it kept giving Pylo tremors of panic relating to being left alone and exposed in the horror of the reef itself.

But it also was nice and seemed to be calming and relaxing them.

They were more talkative with her and each other than she’d ever seen before.

“So wait. You eat whole cakes? For snack food?! Wait... you have an entire hold full of dessert cakes preserved! We’ve been stuck eating freeze dried rations and vegetables since we left and you have a hold full of CAKE?! and you’ve been eating them? You’ve got to show us the boxes! I need to know whether they gave you good stuff or just some generic no wait you have to SHARE-”

Omega gently put a hand on Aleph’s shoulder and pushed her back ‘down’ into sitting on the cushion of the orb’s control cradle.

“If you don’t mind sharing some that is, There is a lot from terra we don’t have anymore... it would be nice to be reminded of home”

Pylo nodded, understanding completely, she still sought out the caches her family left for her all over the reef. Even if it was incredibly old and long past that she got a hold of them to enjoy reminders of her youth.

“Oh that would be fine... in fact maybe you can help me figure out one of my favorites... I only ordered one of each you see and none of them have tasted as good as this one... And I can’t figure out what it was”

Aleph started coughing. Pylo craned her head a little to try and spot any danger or a bad air mix. But no it was just...

Wait really?!

“You can accidentally block your breathing tubes with your digestive tube secretions?!”

Quarti however spoke up quick to reassure Pylo.

“Don’t worry, we are well practiced in clearing them. We’ve been doing it since each of us were infants... Something Me and Omega have done several times actually”

Weird creepy Terrans.

Aleph finally managed to clear the gob of oozing digestives out of her breathing space (seriously how were terrans not already extinct?!) and finally managed to focus enough to speak.

“You have a hold as big as the one the Terran Alliance rented full of cake and each one is individual and unique? I didn't even know there were that many KINDS of cake! You have got to show us some of them!”

Pylo laughed.

“Oh no of course not, That would be a huge waste of space”

Aleph sighed in disappointment and was muttering and thinking something about it being too good to be true.

“I only filled a dɛshk of tunie’s smaller food holds with cake”

Omega frowned and rubbed at her brow.

“What was that? It uh... felt like a number... cut into pieces?”

Pylo peered more closely at Omega’s brain and tried again.

“Dɛshk... it’s uh... huh... where do you keep your numbers... oh like THAT? Wat?!”

Omega tilted her head the other way and frowned.

Aleph was blinking kind of blankly and looking a little concerned.

The good mood evaporated, everyone remembered last time Pylo had gotten frustrated with being misunderstood.

She curled in on herself little.

And shivered, which just made the awkwardness worse, this was SUPPOSED to be a nice ‘camping trip’ to help the passengers recover from their ‘ordeal’.

“I’m sorry... but um... you are um... ‘thinking’ numbers all wrong, like your wasting so much space with them? I mean really? You lose track if it’s more than that?!”

She shook her head.

Aleph was the first to put something together to say.

“You think about... NUMBERS differently then we do?”

Pylo spun in a spiral, laughing almost exactly like how Tunie would when she was feeling free and playful.

“Um... I guess? But it’s kind of uh? The only way that makes sense? Like... Wow... okay if I even TRIED to think like that I’d lose track of everything... how do you three even manage? I mean... Quarti even you too?”

They were all warming up to bemusement, confusion and a hint of wonder.

The slight frisson of fear starting to fade away. Pylo was the best at Passengering!

When she wasn't completely messing it up.

“Wait... so how do you think about numbers?”

Pylo stared at them for a while. Then look around and twiddled her phalanges together a bit before huffing.

“I don’t know how to explain”

Omega started laughing.

Pylo pouted.

“That’s mean Omega”

Omega waved helplessly at the air like she was trying to maneuver and ended up lilting over until she was gently resting against the surface of the pod.

“I...I’m sorry! It’s just! The alien that can literally read our brains and insert words in them... Doesn't- She doesn't know how to explain how she COUNTS?”

Aleph was smiling a little weakly and trying to get Omega to calm down.

Pylo just turned away and huffed again.

“I’m sorry okay, you don’t hold the numbers right in your heads and I don’t want to mess anything up”

Quarti nodded and smiled reassuringly.

“That’s fine pylo, we can talk about something else”

Omega nodded a bit gasping for air before she managed to get control of herself.

“Y-yeah... I’m really actually sorry that was kinda mean... eh... just that completely surprised me... Wooh... uh so since we’re camping maybe we should just tell stories?”

Pylo turned back around to face them.

“What kind of stories?”

“Campfire stories of course!”

Omega’s smile was very bright and toothy.

Pylo thought that was a good sign.