“We are going to have to haul one of those plants here,” Grandmother observed. She was in the library in the association hall pulling sorted books out of bags. She made some real progress. She still hadn’t found any book that was written in the clear, but that didn’t stop her.

  “It was obvious Unkell thought it was a real find,” Todd observed. “Next time we go to Londontown we should take Muriel with us. Maybe she will have an idea on how to propagate it.”

  “We may want to take Asher. If that dust is an ingredient in chemistry, there’s a chance he knows what it is,” Grandmother commented. “I wish I could have talked Unkell into coming out to the ship. Since she understands us, I think it would be easy to program a translator for her. I’ll have to ask Valin if he has an extra structure one he will sell me.”

  “What is your plan with all these books?” Todd asked, as he picked one up off the black and white fake writing pile and paged through it.

  “I’m going to have everyone in the team cast restore on them, in case it is magic color specific, or if all six colors are required,” Grandmother explained.

  “On all of them?” Todd asked.

  “I’m going to do it like an experiment and set up stacks. One stack for each of us and a seventh stack we all restore,” Grandmother explained. “After that I’m going to try six people of the same color.”

  “Where are you going to find that many casters?” Todd asked.

  “It’s a school,” Grandmother said to Todd with a wink. “We can teach the whole set of students restore. It isn’t a bad deal for the students either.”

  “After that?” Todd asked.

  “Six species?” Grandmother said with a slight questioning tone. “Or maybe six tiers. I wonder if Valin can cast restore. It does have a five in it.”

  “He probably has an amulet,” Todd observed. “Although that may not count as a cast by him.”

  “Since I don’t know of six species, I’ll have to try the tiers first,” Grandmother decided. Todd was amused at how much effort Grandmother was putting into the books. She confided in him that she thought Unkell might be the source of the coloring book in the orphanage in Chicago. That meant there was really no evidence that these books were anything other than Staging.

  “Help me put the books on the shelves, so we can head back,” Grandmother said as she returned her empty bags to her pack.

  The nuisance was eating the food Grandmother set out when they went through the main hall. She paused to stroke its tail.

  “You can come with us on the next trip to Londontown, girl. Maybe you can convince Unkell to come for a visit,” Grandmother said to the earthen squirrel. The squirrel looked up at Grandmother, picked up a piece of food and ran up the roots in the collapse.

  “I’m being dumb again,” Grandmother said suddenly, as they walked up the path. They left the cart at the pillars on the way in, in order to reduce the wear on it. Todd went on high alert, searching the shadows on either side of the road. The last stupid thing that they did on this path almost cost him his life when a jaguar attacked him. “I can just show the plant video to Muriel and Asher. We don’t have to take them all the way into Londontown.” Todd was relieved, but kept his vigilance up.

  “You should show everyone the images of Unkell too. Betty might not be the only one who has caught a glimpse of her,” Todd commented. Grandmother nodded her head in agreement. She set up a search for Unkell in all the existing video footage, but still needed to review the results.

  They arrived back at the Speedwell early enough that the students were still enjoying their free day. There were less than two hundred people in a vessel designed to carry ten to fifty thousand. Many of the decks were sealed, since the housing and facilities were unneeded and Grandmother didn’t want anyone to be injured on the equipment or cause damage to it. Grandmother could feel an echo of her childhood in the voices on the decks of the Speedwell. The colonization plan called for the continued disassembly of the Speedwell and the reuse of its materials for new structures. If it had been followed the ship would be completely recycled by now, with only the stout landing pad housing the manufactory left.

  The villagers preference for natural materials and a mostly pre-industrial life saved the ship from that fate. There was no need for the steel of its frame. The automated mines produced more than enough iron for the villages’ requirements. The new buildings for the school were all built from mined iron which sat in stockpiles for at least ten years.

  Todd headed off to the cafeteria. It was a couple hours until the evening meal. Grandmother was certain Todd would put together something special for it.

  Engineer Whitman went up to the engineering center. The entire deck was set to limited entry, while the center itself was restricted to only engineering employees. Engineer Whitman settled down at Agatha’s desk and pulled the video from her and Todd’s camera amulets.

  Using the video data and Speedwell’s reconstruction software, Irene was able to produce a three dimensional model of Unkell and the unknown plant. On impulse she started a search for the plant in all the stored video, before reviewing the results of her earlier scan for Unkell.

  There were no matches for the player in the early videos recorded before Agatha’s death. There were a few glimpses of her on different visits to Londontown. There was a brief image of her in Chicago during their visit there to buy spells. This exercise illustrated one of the problems with recording so much video. Irene was depending on Speedwell's computers to review the footage and find the more interesting sections for personal review. Speedwell didn’t always know what was worthy of human attention. Agatha began the process of training the computer by coding it to pick out inscriptions and spell ribbons. Over the years additional items were coded in by Irene and the rest of the team. There was no way to say, find all species sixteen players, before Irene knew what species sixteen looked like.

  Irene thought about it. She needed to code the computers to look for an animal it could not identify. There was already a function to find animals, it was part of the original survey code from the colony. That was lucky, because coding the computer to recognize anything that might be an animal would take Irene years. Starting with that existing code, it wasn’t too hard to start the computer working on identifying every unique animal species and building a model of a typical individual. It would take time to process the existing footage. Irene left it running.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Irene used the ship’s security system to locate Muriel. The young woman wasn’t in view of any of the ship’s cameras. Irene tried again searching for Asher. The computer located him in one of the chemistry labs. The lab was located on the same deck as the teaching machine labs. The lab was intended for use by students taking courses on those machines. Curious Irene looked up what Asher was working on.

  Asher was making his way steadily through the introductory chemistry module. It looked like he started completing the lessons within a few days of his arrival at the ship. He was also working on the math modules. He managed to test out of the basic modules and was well into the intermediate ones.

  Engineer Whitman headed down to the chemistry lab. She found Asher in full gear underneath one of the student ventilation hoods. He was enthralled. Not wanting to surprise him and cause an accident, Irene waited until he stepped back from the chemistry bench to speak to him.

  “Asher,” Irene said in greeting. “Do you have a minute?”

  “Engineer Whitman,” Asher replied. His start of surprise, told her she was right to wait for him to step away from his chemicals.

  “Todd and I found a plant in wildspace. I have reason to believe it is useful in structure chemistry. I wondered if you could identify it for me,” Irene asked.

  “Sure, is it in the association hall?” Asher asked.

  “Unfortunately no. We haven’t found a way to transport it. I have pictures,” Engineer Whitman replied. She walked over to a student desk with its built-in terminal. This wasn’t the one Asher was using, Irene didn’t want to interfere with his independent study. She was very happy to find one of her instructors investing time in his own education. She quickly overrode the default lesson interface and pulled up the image of the plant.

  “This is it,” she said, stepping out of the way so that Asher could get a good look at it. Irene rotated the image with one finger so that Asher saw how to do it. He looked over the model carefully.

  “It looks like a vanishing fern,” Asher reported. “They are very rare. My aunt called them that because their leaves and spores are ingredients in several products that cause cloaking effects.”

  “Like what?” Irene asked.

  “There is a paste that will cause an item to… well fade I guess would be the best description. I know of a potion that will cause you to look like someone else, but I never mastered that one,” Asher reported.

  “That makes sense,” Irene commented. She pulled up the image of Unkell. “This is Unkell. Have you met her before?” she asked. Asher studied the image.

  “No,” he replied. “A selkie was the first non-human I ever heard of. I suppose that was Companion, now that I think of it.”

  “Probably,” Grandmother agreed. “Companion has become an ambassador for his people.” Engineer Whitman returned the terminal to the educational interface.

  “How is your study of chemistry going?” she asked Asher.

  “I like it,” Asher said. “It is much more complex than what is in the structure. The products are very specific. Creating explosive compounds is the most similar, although some of what I learned about organic chemistry producing medications might be close to the wake up and energy elixirs. I haven’t found anything that would reproduce the cloaking potions.”

  “No,” Irene said. “I don’t think you will. The closest we have for making you look like someone else is costumes and cosmetics. There is chemistry in cosmetics, you could read about them if you're interested.”

  “I’ll look it up,” Asher said.

  “Have you considered teaching structure chemistry?” Grandmother asked. “I know I am interested in learning about it. I’ve never been much of a crafter, but I’d like to learn the rules so I could add it to my magic in its many forms class.”

  “I haven’t done any myself since I was injured. I don't want anyone else to be harmed,” Asher replied. Irene could tell that although Asher was frightened, he also loved chemistry, both the Earth and structure versions.

  “You wouldn’t actually have to do it to walk me through it. Although I admit, Ellen will want to try it. Maybe you could walk her through how to do it. We can use shields to contain the reactions. We can set up a team of healers standing by in a nearby room so they don’t get caught in any blast. What you need is a laboratory like this one, to reduce the risk. I wonder if we can get one to spawn. We got the first crafting workshop to spawn by adding in enough crafting tools. If you give me a list of the equipment needed for chemistry, I can check the requirements for rooms in the association hall and see if any match,” Engineer Whitman explained.

  “It would be really nice to have work benches like these,” Asher commented. Irene looked at the chemistry benches with fresh eyes. She realized they looked remarkably like the ceramic topped workbenches both her and Alex were selling in their furniture stores. “After that it is close to a cooking set. You need a heat source, a set of measuring and mixing bowls. I used an iron vent fork to mix everything. My aunt suspected the materials that the equipment was made out of might be a factor in the strength of the final product.”

  “So you measure everything by volume?” Irene asked. “Nothing by weight?”

  “I’ve never seen a scale in the structure,” Asher replied.

  “Me neither,” Irene responded, “but it would be easy enough to put together a balance to get equal amounts by weight. Do you need a knife to shred your ingredients or a mortar and pestle to grind them?”

  “A knife, yes,” Asher said with thought. “I think a method to grind things would be useful for the powders. I smashed things up with a blacksmith’s hammer on the floor. I am not certain what a mortar and pest all is.”

  “Pestle,” Irene said, correcting Asher’s mispronunciation. “It’s a stone cup with a stone stick. The selkie make them. Todd has one he uses for his spices, that’s why I thought of it.”

  “You also need something to hold the finished products. The powders can be put in a folded piece of vellum. The creams can be stored in any cup with the top covered with vellum tied in place with a piece of string. It’s the liquids, including the explosive ones that get tricky. The explosive ones have to go into a container you can seal. That is the hardest thing to find,” Asher explained. “When you throw the container it explodes on impact, so the container is lost. It is a great weapon of last resort, since not only does it do damage to a beast, it frightens them off.”

  “Sealed…” Irene thought about it. She saw a lot of junk in her thirty odd years in the ruins. What immediately came to mind was the little ceramic containers the potter in Seagrass sold. They were wildly expensive for a single use. Of course if a thrown explosion saved your life, it would be worth any cost.

  “What did you use?” Irene asked.

  “There are these little containers that have styluses or pins in them in ruined supply closets. If you find the right sizes they fit together to form a little sealed box,” Asher responded.

  “Really?” Irene said, fascinated. She’d seen tons of those little boxes. She knew they converted to items, but she never found a use for them, except for holding styluses and pins. She never tried fitting them together. There were probably stacks of them in her inventory from different sweeps when she tried putting the entire contents of rooms into inventory. It amazed her how even after all these years she kept learning new things about the structure.

  About half the landing generation ended up settling in the structure. That was twenty thousand people. Irene calculated that number from the count of people who remained in the colony villages, farms, lumber and hunting camps. Nearly everyone who entered the structure died young, compared to the standards of Earth, but that didn’t mean many of them didn’t have full lives. They paired and raised children and grandchildren to follow after them. Each of them explored the structure and learned about it. Irene was convinced every individual learned something unique. The school would not only spread the knowledge Irene, her team and Home Square had gathered, it would collect more. All those little tidbits of information together were powerful. They were the key to building a longer, happier, more fulfilling life for everyone.

  “I wish I had all this glassware,” Asher observed. “A reagent bottle, or even a corked test tube, would have worked beautifully.”

  “Everything brought in falls apart quickly,” Irene observed. “You have to keep it close to your body and touch it daily to give it any lifespan. Although there is a crafter in Home Square who can work with glass. Maybe he could make something.”