Cherry Berry smirked as Mark spent half the time in the cave staring at and examining the alfalfa shoots that rose from the cultivated soil like shaggy fur. She wasn’t a farmer by talent, but apparently she’d done well enough to make a plant scientist like Mark speechless.

She liked being in the cave. It was still chilly, but no more so than an early spring or late fall morning. The crystals lit up the inside of the cave as bright as the barren world outside, if not more so, thanks to Starlight’s ingenious enchantment. And with the alfalfa sprouting, Cherry felt a little more… alive… than she did in the Hab. And definitely more so than when she poked around Amicitas.

Poor Amicitas. Most of the pretty outer hull had been ripped away in the salvage operation. The hole in the engine bay had stopped growing, but mainly because the weight of the cargo air lock had lightened the load on the airframe there. Two of the three main engines were permanently out of commission. And yet… and yet…

Cherry Berry still spent a fair bit of time sitting on the commander’s crash couch, bent as it was from the crash, thinking and wishing. If only there were some way…

“If bad thing happens to Hab,” Mark was saying, “don’t try to fix it. Come here. Bring food. I can fix Hab when I come back.”

“Yes,” Cherry said, followed by a relatively new phrase, “I understand.”

“Dragonfly asked that I leave the TV… television… with her,” Mark continued. “I’ll set up a computer for that. Keep up on language lessons!”

“Electric Company. Ah, ah, ah, hand, an, apple,” Cherry chanted.

“Right,” Mark said, chuckling. “What else… right, keep Dragonfly away from don’t-touch places. Trim back potato plants so they don’t overlap.” He made a gesture with his hands. “Don’t handle potato plants with mouth. Poison.”

“I know potato plants,” Cherry Berry insisted. “We have potatoes home.”

“Make sure the tents get water. And… er…” Mark threw his hands in the air. “I guess that’s it.”

“Okay, I understand,” Cherry nodded.

“I won’t be back before twenty sols,” Mark said. “Should be back by twenty-four sols.”

“I understand.” Cherry tapped the neck of her space suit; her helmet was set neatly beside the others near the airlock. “I talk Starlight any time. Be good to her.”

“I will.” Mark raised an eyebrow. “What’s the range… um… how far can you talk on your suits?”

Cherry shrugged. “Suits only, three kilometers. But can use ship. With ship, anywhere… well… anywhere back home,” she said. “Here, not know. Never been… er… here everyone same place usually.”

“Never been apart,” Mark said, holding his hands parallel to each other and moving them away from each other.

“A part of… oh, I understand. Apart.” Cherry nodded her comprehension. “We use ship all sundown.”

“Every sundown.”

“Every sundown,” Cherry repeated. “Short message, save power.”

“Good. I understand.” Mark knelt down and ran a hand across a couple of short stalks of alfalfa. “On Earth this would be right,” he said. “If warmer and brighter. How you do it?”

Cherry couldn’t help giggling. “Magic!”

Mark mumbled some nonsense that sounded like, “Tasket sealeak western, gitta seal lianser.”

“Sorry?” Cherry asked.

“Nothing,” Mark replied.

“You’re out of your mind,” Fireball said.

“No, hear me out,” Dragonfly said. “It’s only until Mark gets back. Then we’ll have the radio from that old probe, and it won’t be important anymore.”

“I’m not going to lie to her,” Spitfire insisted. “And she’s our commander, not some cadet I can assign busy-work to.”

“Look, it’s not lying,” Dragonfly said. “It won’t hurt us to at least go through Mark’s lander and the fuel plant and see what can be salvaged. We already know his lander controls were wrecked when the storm sent it tumbling, but we could salvage the rockets, right? Buck, we could salvage the bolts and rivets!”

“Anything we tried to build, if it got off the ground, would shake itself to pieces before we made orbit,” Fireball insisted flatly. “And if you haven’t noticed, none of us are minotaurs or alicorn princesses.”

“Though Mark does look a bit like a skinny albino minotaur,” Spitfire reflected.

“Guys,” Dragonfly said, “would it hurt you any to try? It’d cheer Cherry up. And besides, what else are we doing with our time? Two hours of watering plants each day, alternating between Hab and cave? This gives us something to do. We need something to do, especially Cherry. I thought Starlight was nuts when she suggested it, but the more I think about it the more I think she’s right. We can at least try it.”

The dragon and the pegasus took a long look at Dragonfly, then a long look at Cherry Berry, who stood at the other end of the cave field talking to Mark.

“All right,” Fireball said at last. “We can begin by double-checking the seats in the lander. Ours are in bad shape, and Mark needs one shaped for him anyway.”

“What kind of fuel does the lander use?” Spitfire asked. “Is there any left?”

“You should probably be the one to ask,” Dragonfly said. “I… er… I may have played the ‘cute but crazy alien’ card one too many times with him.”

Fireball and Spitfire looked at each other, then at Dragonfly. “I know exactly how to break this to you, bug,” the dragon said.

“Cute is a matter of opinion,” Spitfire finished. “But crazy is a cold hard fact.”

“Written in stone by Faust Herself,” Fireball agreed.

Dragonfly’s ear-fins drooped. “Really feeling the love, guys,” she mumbled.

AMICITAS: Amicitas calling Baltimare, use suit SG for responses, over.

ESA: Baltimare calling Amicitas, who is this, over?

AMICITAS: SG – Upgraded telepresence array ready for repeat of Comms Alpha. ….. Over.

ESA: Confirm Comms Alpha test? Signal not clear, over.

AMICITAS: Affirm Comms Alpha. Still learning code. Over.

ESA: Stand by. Recommend postponing test until tomorrow, over.

AMICITAS: SG – will not be here tomorrow, over.

ESA: Good. Test postponed for twenty hours mission time, over.

AMICITAS: SG – negative. SG will NOT BE HERE. Over.

ESA: QC – your hoof is terrible. Also, Princess Smart isn’t here today. Friendship or princess things. Over.

AMICITAS: SG – Tell her am going with alien on trip to salvage radio. Estimated duration 23 to 24 mission days, over.

ESA: QC – Please confirm trip with alien, confirm number of passengers, method of travel, over.

AMICITAS: SG – Confirm trip, alien plus SG, alien autocart, over.

ESA: QC – No DF? Over.

AMICITAS: SG – DF remaining at base, reason low love reserves. Urgent perform Comms Alpha today while SG is here to boost power, over.

ESA: QC: Stand by, over.

AMICITAS: SG – Standing by, over.

AMICITAS: SG – Standing by, over.

AMICITAS: SG – Standing by, over.

ESA: QC – Moondancer is here and will operate test on this end. Stand by, over.

AMICITAS: SG – Standing by, over.

ESA: MD – Begin Comms Alpha when ready, over.

AMICITAS: Comms Alpha in progress. No connection. Boosting signal using backup battery, over.

ESA: Confirm no signal. No result on boost, over.

AMICITAS: Boost discontinued, over.

ESA: Discontinue Comms Alpha. Our best assessment further attempts Comms Alpha futile. Dimensional interface either absorbs or blocks connection of telepresence. Over.

AMICITAS: Understood.

ESA: QC – Tell DF scheme harder, over.

AMICITAS: Repeat, please? Over.

ESA: QC says DF needs to scheme harder, over.

AMICITAS: SG – DF is already scheming as hard as she can, over.

ESA: QC – That’s not hard enough. Out.

AMICITAS: SG – back in 24 days, out.

Author's Notes:

Preparing for departures.

No time for a proper note- barely time for editing, and don't know if I'll have time tonight for writing.