Before anyone could answer, rising darkness forced the whole camp to reconvene over a roaring camp fire for warmth and light.

Danziger finished stoking the fire with a long stick into a healthy bonfire. Then he poked it into the gray sand next to him. "All right. Again, I'll ask the question, now that everybody's within ear shot as agreed. How are we going to handle what might be going on inside of Bennet's sleeper ship?" he shrugged for lack of better words.

Cameron was cranky, because the dinner Bess was preparing wasn't done cooking yet. "I'll go first. How about sending in that half way trained sorry excuse of a Koba of True's? That way, he , she... er... it can take out a ZED with a finger dart without risking human skins doing it."

"Cameron!" True protested.

"Shush, True-gril. He's kidding." said John, kissing the top of her head. Danziger's silent glare afterwards, shooting Cameron's way, was far hotter than the fire.

A soft throat clearing preceded a wordless grunt of disapproval from Devon and soon worked its magic.

The burly man instantly piped down and drew his remnant Bedouin hat's sun flaps around his face self consciously. "Sorry, ma'am." he apologized to the child. "I guess I'm getting a little hungry."

True wordlessly ripped up a few compliant edible alien eye stalk ferns, and threw them vehemently at his chest.

"Thanks." Cameron sighed blandly, cautiously pushing the writhing things away from himself with a boot. He didn't watch them squirm back into the ground so he wouldn't throw up.

Yale was intrigued, just the opposite. Before the last shredded stem disappeared, he snagged it with a few fingers. Then he ate the plant, eye stalk and all. "Tasty." he said, winking at True.

The crunching, squishing sound made was more than enough to tip Cameron's stomach over the edge. He began to heave and hastily excused himself to go vomit behind a rock.

True finally smiled. "Thanks, Yale. He was mean to Kitty."

The tutor was thoughtful. "True, do you think your pet would come if you called him to investigate the ship for us?"

"I.. don't know." she said with reservations. "He doesn't like anybody else. Just me."

"And me." protested Uly, sitting on a log next to his sleepy mother.

True ignored her counterpart. "Kitty might not understand me enough to go play a scout dog. He's a cat."

"He's a Koba." Uly corrected snottily.

Devon shoved another eye stalk snack into her son's mouth to quiet his hostility. "Enough bickering. All of you. Go ahead, John." she sighed, stoically ignoring her shaky coordination as she reached for one of the cups of restorative teas Julia was handing out to everyone. "We don't have to start this discussion over, that would just waste time. Mary? What are your thoughts on this whole matter?"

Mary angled her head sadly as if listening for signs of missing Mother-By-Choice moving underneath them. "The sky hunters must be stopped. Our Mother approves of using the small life in this way. That is its purpose, to serve the Terrians."

The group gasped. John's thoughts began to race at the implications. ::Hierarchy in the natives?::

Morgan opened his mouth to spout off about that new potential can of worms, but Bess cut him off. "Martin, stay on topic or I'm coming over there." she threatened, waving a spoon, dripping with a fantastically smelling flower stew gravy from the cooking pot.

"Oh. Ooo.." he sputtered. "Well..All right, okay.. Fine. I'll take first plate as payment for my continued silence." he bargained deftly, wiggling gimme fingers at the cooking pot.

"Bess, pay it." said Alonzo passionately. "We've still got this meeting to complete, a save butt mission to start, and two enemies to kill off." he complained.

"Alonzo, the healthy first? Julia, forgive me for making Devon, True and Mary eat last." Bess chided, dished out the food to her husband with a scowl.

"We'll starve him next meal to make up for it." Julia held up a hand. "Solace, let's back track a click. Two enemies? We know the ZEDs are hostile. But do we really have any evidence that Eve is, too?"

"Question of the hour." Yale said mysteriously. "She is still keeping us alive."

"She's the one who sickened us in the first place!" Cameron spat.

"She cured us after she realized we were dying." said Yale coolly.

"Only by someone else's command." Cameron argued.

"We don't know that the Council ordered that. Not for sure." John replied. "Eve or Reilly or whatever the h*ll it is, was just a machine malfunctioning on a crashed ship at that point."

"And maybe a machine on a satellite." grinned Uly.

"Smart boy." Devon whispered, ruffling his hair.

John blinked as he took a few mental steps back to consider the boy's intelligent input. "That's possible, too." he acknowledged, without skipping a beat. "She was seeking us out and seemed rather remote doing it, proximity wise and through her Reilly persona communications with us."

True stated the obvious. "Listen you guys. We're being stupid and as jumpy as..as...as kobas. Nothing's happened to us since we were healed up. Even when we were still using our gear. So why don't we just talk to Eve? Isn't she the best one to ask about what's happening with that ZED camping out in the ship?"

The whole camp fell silent. Then one by one, they began to grin.

"From the mouths of babes." chuckled Yale. "My goodness. Yes. It's so simple."

"No, it's not." Martin snivelled.

Bess banged her cooking spoon on the rim of the plate Morgan was emptying with a fork, and almost made him drop it into the sand. "Shh!"

He cringed and folded around his food protectively.

Mrs. Martin blew some bangs out of her face with satisfaction. "Let's go with True's suggestion. Best one I've heard all day." Bess breathed excitedly. "Besides, it never hurts to try anything new."

"On this planet, that's iffy." retorted Alonzo.

Bess glared at him. "A few words flying around are sure better than worm bullets." she said, arching a delicate eyebrow.

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Eden Project may have been pinned down, but they had learned their ZED lessons well. The smallest targets were shot last in a ZED's mind. True and Uly were guided via channel isolated gear to crawl on their stomachs to the front of the rise overlooking the ship's clearing so they wouldn't be scanned by either the soldier cyborg or Eve. True was dragging the knapsack she used to use to hide Kitty in. Now, it was just delivering their surprise living anti-ZED payload, a VR gear radio collared Koba.

"Here, Kitty." said True, holding out a morsel of spirulina cake. "I've got a treat for you."

The Koba bass mewled timidly, but sniffed, swallowed the morsel and soon tortoise walked out of the bag the children had placed facing the drop off.

Then Uly did his part. "Okay, mom." he whispered into his gear. "Open the door."

A remote command from the adults watching through distance viewers, rolled up the airlock hatch.

Uly drew out a surviving toy dating back to Earth, a well made sling shot.

True held out the rest of the food bar temptingly to Kitty and then passed it off to Uly. "Kitty, want some more?"she crooned.

Uly fitted the food onto the band's pad, drew it back, and fired. "Go fetch!" he hissed whispered. The cake landed neatly hundreds of feet down and inside the ship through the portal door.

The Koba's mouth opened wide in a distressed oh. And then it chittered unhappily at the humans as it raced down into the valley after his treat.

"Okay, he's left for it now." True reported on gear.

##Good going. Now, get back to camp.## John ordered.

Giggling like kids freed from tutor school, True and Uly slithered steathily away, back the way they had come.

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"So how long might this take?" Yale wondered.

John was surprised a bit by the question, but then he remembered that Yale was laid up with a bullet hole when the rest of the group learned how a ZED chose its interrogation targets. He smiled craftily. "Well, considering Kitty is the only new living thing on that ship. It won't take long for it to draw a bead. For he's the biggest target in range."

Soon a shot was fired and bounced around the ship as the worm bullet missed its fast running target. They could hear the Koba chitter loudly as he galloped around on the walls, behind chairs, on top of consoles, across the ceiling, trying to find a way to reach the food at the ZED's metallic feet.

They heard the ZED begin a strange litany, different from the usual captured prisoner dialog. ##Sending non-speaking decoys will not deter me from my mission. You will turn over the changed one to me immediately.##

Stunned, the group listening in over the transrover's radio receiver, was speechless.

The Koba harrassed ZED spoke again. ## I will neutralize your trained animal. Then you will--##

*Pfft!* came a sound. They all heard it. It was the sound of the koba lobbed nail thorn hitting its target.

##Arrghhh. *gasp*## went the ZED over the transmission. Then a huge thud of his body hitting the ground followed seconds later.  Last came the contented murmur of the Koba as he finally got to his pre-rewarded snack.

Devon clapped her hands together in triumph, celebrating. "Good going, True. Your koba bond worked, even through armor." she said happily.

Morgan swallowed drily. "I wouldn't wish that experience on anybody. Not even on a ZED." he bemoaned, feeling up his right hand at the memory of the time he had been Koba stung.

True laughed happily, then she whistled on the crystal Gaal had given her to recall Kitty to her side so she and Yale could return him back to his tree nest.

John caressed his daughter's head. "I'm proud of you, True girl. You were right. Once you understand something on this planet, you can definitely use it."

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They entered the ship cautiously, then rushed to roll the heavy ZED over so they could chain secure his limbs until the time he woke back up again. They left the Koba finger thorn in place to act like a sedative. Julia rigged a small electrode to its raw flesh muscled end so they could zap it via remote to deliver more venom if they had to control any surprise escape attempt. Once that was done, the jumpy Eden Project group turned around and swiftly faced the monitor they had disabled a few days ago to keep Eve from appearing before them on a screen while they had worked on Devon's cryo sleep chamber preparation.

John picked up a Mag-pro, and nodded for Zero to turn on that computer panel while they all hid out sight of Eve's sensors and visual pickups. He kept its muzzle aimed firmly at the center of the computer screen as it glowed back into life.

Eve's elegant Council Woman image avatar appeared instead of the Reilly program.

Danziger hushed the group into silence and then he waved at Zero to begin speaking.

The robot unit begain. "Exoplanet Vehicular Executable. This module's been directed to open communications between you and my scouting party. Are you receiving my audio feed?" Zero asked.

E.V.E. rotated her screen on its ceiling pivot. "Thank you for reactivating me. I was beginning to wonder whether or not this mission failed its objective. Where are Dr. Franklin Bennet and Elizabeth Anson?"

Zero angled its head module, waiting for Danziger's motion to reply to the computer program.

John nodded in affirmation.

"The bipeds associated with those biostat indentifications are deceased."

##How did they terminate?## asked Eve.

Zero replied. "According to Julia Heller records stored in my mission log, they ceased biological functioning because of Cryo Sleep Syndrome. The attempts to preserve their life signs failed despite following proper medical procedures." it said pleasantly.

Eve's expression did not change. ##I am reading a Zero active, but no longer one ZED. And I am reading thirteen biostat chip lifesigns present in close proximity. Why are they not active on visual feed? I am detecting multiple humanoid breath sounds on audio and their brain wave patterns indicate that they are all conscious.##

Zero replied. "I do not have the answer to your question."

Danziger nodded again, to prompt Zero to continue his assignment.

The saccharin sounding robot engaged Eve once more. "Are you in tandem link with all terrestrial ZED bipeds?"

Eve surprisingly ignored the query. "I have been reading a delay in the return of completely healthy vital functions in all members of Eden Project Group Two. I wish to expedite original state parameters. This aligns with my inviolate core command programming."

Zero tried again to invoke his interview directives. "Why are ZED units targetting bipedal indigenous life forms?"

"I do not have the answer to your question." And then Eve blinked for the first time ever. Just once.

"Liar..." hissed Devon under her breath.