Of Men and Spiders

Scott had no idea what crimes he'd committed in a previous life to deserve his current predicament, but they must have been extreme. Taking a gaggle of extremely curious giant spiders and/or bugs on a field trip was certainly...an experience.

With everyone "secured" in place aboard the shuttle, he looked back only to see Dotty looking like she was about to fiddle with the door controls again. "No, Dotty, stop that! I already told you that if you open that up at the wrong time, you could kill us all! I know that's not as important for you all, but this is the only body I have! Now, please, keep your claws to yourself until we get to the ship. No, you know what? Even then, don't touch anything unless I say you can!"

Dotty looked suitably contrite, but Fizz didn't seem impressed. "How fragile is your 'human technology' that even a little fiddling can cause it to kill its inhabitants?"

Scott took a deep breath and reminded himself that killing one of the representatives probably wouldn't be a good way to begin diplomatic relationships with Charlotte's people. "Well, humans usually know better than to just randomly punch buttons. And you can't tell me you don't have any creations that can't be dangerous if mishandled. I've seen some of the weapons you all employ to defend your home hives!"

Then, looking over, he saw Goldie poking at another sealed shipping crate. Finally, in frustration, he turned to Charlotte. "Can you please get them to behave long enough for us to get to the ship alive?"

Charlotte nodded, then turned to the rest. "Please assume a secure position and prepare for rapid acceleration." Immediately, all of their guests split up and took positions from which they could secure themselves by grasping hold of something sturdy.

Scott looked at Charlotte in disbelief. "How?"

Charlotte did her version of a shrug. "I may have mentally added some additional input in the manner of a rough representation of them flying all about the storage hold unsecured."

Scott shook his head. "Well, whatever, so long as it worked. Now, let's get out of here before their attention starts to wander again!"

Walking to the cabin and strapping himself in, Scott ran through a quick flight check before turning to the Smaller Charlotte beside him. "Are they still secure?"

The smaller Charlotte in the copilot seat bobbed up and down. "Yes, for the most part."

Scott wasn't sure what "For the most part" meant, but he didn't really care anymore. "Alright, good enough, I suppose. Let's go!"

As Scott accelerated out of the meeting place toward their ship, he felt some slight g-forces pushing him into his seat. Of course, most of the forces involved were significantly reduced relative to their acceleration speed, but there was always enough effect on a small shuttle like this that walking around wasn't usually recommended. So, of course, when he heard a loud "Thud" come from back in the storage hold, he suspected he knew what had happened.

Hoping it was Fizz but fearing Dotty was more likely, Scott turned to Charlotte. "Are they still alive?"

Charlotte bobbed again. "Yes, and a little more knowledgeable now than they were before."

Scott made a mental note to not let Charlotte babysit children in any room with electrical outlets and adjusted course toward their ship.

-

While they didn't all admit it, most of the She had been quite impressed by the shuttle. The purified then carefully melded minerals used in its construction, the fact that it was airtight yet capable of purifying the air without needing an organism to turn the carbon dioxide back into oxygen. The sturdiness of the material despite how thin and lightweight it was. Taken in its entirety, it was an impressive feat and somewhat foretelling of some of what humanity was capable of.

Of course, they'd been more than a little doubtful of Scott's claims that it used the separation of atoms to power its flight. True, they had some understanding of the concept, but primarily as something to be avoided, not harnessed. Yet, after a slightly rocky start in which Dotty learned that perhaps Charlotte and Scott knew what they were talking about, they made it to the ship in a surprisingly short amount of time.

After landing, when Scott walked back into the hold, Hopper seemed most interested in the physics involved. "How were you able to accelerate and decelerate so rapidly with minimal impact on the passengers? We usually have to develop special appendages to compensate for those effects in our short range of transports!"

Scott stopped and thought. "Well, it's tied to the inertia dampeners. Honestly, I'm not entirely certain how they work. I just know how to utilize them once they're installed."

Goldie seemed interested in that. "Then can we talk with the human who designed them?"

That one stumped Scott a little. "Well, the original designer is long dead, but they've received many upgrades through the years, and the people upgrading them probably have a pretty solid understanding of the mechanics of it. So, hypothetically, if we are all on good terms, a meeting could eventually be arranged."

Then, Dotty walked up, holding a fire extinguisher. "Excuse me, Scotty, what is this device?"

Scott rolled his eyes. "I already told you, Scott is fine. Not even my mom calls me Scotty anymore! Also, that's for putting out fires." Dotty started to say something else, but Scott cut her off. "Listen, we could spend all day in here with me explaining every little thing, or we could go see some examples of human tools in action rather than having me tell you about hypotheticals. But to do that, you all have to focus long enough for us to walk over to the designated area! So just put down any 'tools' you've found and are curious about, and we'll continue, alright?"

There were several clunks and thuds as a few of the She did as instructed and followed Scott out of the shuttle into one of the larger ship's hold. Of course, this again led to a series of amazed comments, questions, and distractions.

-

Scott handed Dotty a one-inch thick piece of plate steel. "Now, this is a standard tool used to protect our warriors in a fight. We have large suits of armor that fully encase our humans and enable them to fight while protected by this material. How would you go about bypassing its resistance?"

Dotty picked up the piece of metal and scrutinized it. "Well, it is particularly dense, and it's hard enough to resist most impacts yet pliable enough to not fracture too easily. It is impressive, but no more so than some appendages I've designed. I have several bladed appendages that could cut through this without too much effort."

Scott nodded. "Yeah, so does Charlotte, as I've seen first hand. However, what if I told you we humans have tools that can be used to puncture this plate easily at ranges of a thousand yards or more, the projectiles of which travel at speeds more than two to three times the speed of sound?"

Dotty seemed curious. "I would very much like to see this tool."

Scott nodded and walked over to a rifle he'd had prepared for the display. He handed the rifle to Charlotte and put on some protective headgear, figuring it would be more impressive for them to see one of their own using a human tool anyway.

Charlotte took aim and neatly put three rounds into a piece of plate steel Scott had set up three hundred yards away. Of course, as he took off the headgear, Fizz was already disparaging the display. "Yes, yes, very well done, but those three little holes would likely not be enough to stop one of our appendages. It would barely slow us down, assuming you can even hit your target! There's a significant difference between hitting a stationary piece of refined minerals and a charging appendage!"

Scott took another deep breath. "Well, yes, I've seen how fast and durable your warrior appendages can be. This is just a simple display of the tool itself and its potential. Also, Charlotte is only somewhat trained in its use. Obviously, in the hands of a fully trained professional, it is capable of much more than we're..."

Fizz cut him off. "No! We clearly need a better display than this! I will send this appendage down to where your display mineral is and charge Charlotte. We will see if she can stop this appendage before it reaches her! This appendage was not designed for physical conflicts, so her lack of training should not hinder her!"

Scott didn't like the sound of that at all. "Listen, we don't fire these weapons at anything living unless we want to utterly destroy it. What you are proposing goes against everything we teach and believe."

However, the antagonistic Fizz didn't seem dissuaded. "Well, this appendage isn't alive in the sense that you mean the word, so that's not a problem!"

This time, it was Dotty who responded before Scott could reply. "Fizz is correct. The loss of one appendage is a small price to see the full capability of your human tools."

Scott looked to Charlotte for support, but she only hit a switch on the rifle, changing the firing mode. Something that only Scott would recognize the implications of with this particular rifle. He gave her a look that basically screamed, "Are you sure?"

Meanwhile, Fizz had taken up position next to the plate steel plate Scott had set up. After another moment's hesitation, Scott sighed and gave in, reminding himself these were functionally immortal aliens. However, Scott put on some more protective gear before he authorized the test. "All right. But I want to make this very clear. Under normal circumstances, firing a gun like this with anyone on the firing range is considered a major crime, even if you're not aiming for the person, let alone what Charlotte is about to do. This is a one-time thing. I'm only willing to allow this because I know the body is essentially an empty shell. However, it will never be repeated. Understand?"

Several of the visiting aliens nodded in acknowledgment, and Scott sighed heavily before adding, "Oh, one more thing you should know, Charlotte only got the chance to display one of this rifle's firing modes. Now, she's going to use the other mode. This projectile is slower but should be considerably more...impactful." Then, to Fizz, he shouted. "Whenever you're ready!"

Fizz immediately launched into motion, and Charlotte took aim. Her handhold looked a little awkward since she didn't often use this firing mode, but Charlotte waited until the shot she was waiting for lined up, then pulled the trigger.

Rather than the loud explosive sounds that came from the much faster bullets, this particular projectile only made a soft "poomph" sound as it exited the larger lower barrel, and a moment later, Fizz's upper torso was splattered all across the gun range as the grenade did its thing. Scott fought down the bile that was threatening to enter his mouth, reminding himself that the body hadn't really been Fizz anymore than his fingernails were himself, all while the onlooking visitors all expressed how impressed they were with the results. Scott turned back to Charlotte. "You're in charge of cleaning this up."

Then, as he turned to lead the rest of their guests to another room to show off the functionality of a fire extinguisher like the one Dotty had picked up earlier, he reflected on his earlier thoughts, realizing that "killing" one of the representatives actually turned out to be a good if somewhat messed up way to begin diplomatic relationships with Charlotte's people.