Of Men and Spiders

As she followed Scott and the creepy spider monsters through the night, Lacy was more than a little impressed by her son's ingenuity and determination. She'd always known he was smart, but she was pretty sure that if their roles had been reversed, she'd be lucky to have found a cave and would definitely be struggling not to starve. Yet here he was, picking up various plants on their way back to the camp that he was apparently saving for a garden he'd started. "But how do you know which ones are safe to eat?"

Scott stored the plants he'd just picked as he answered. "Well, there's a relatively dependable test you can do, but it's kind of a pain as it takes the better part of a day to test each plant. Thankfully, Charlotte helped me narrow it down. She presented a variety of plants that were high in nutrition and safe to eat, and all I did was test to confirm. It saved me a lot of time I could have wasted on poisonous or otherwise inedible plants."

That only raised the question of how "Charlotte" knew what was safe for humans to eat. Of course, "She" probably didn't and just picked out things that it watched local wildlife safely eat and presented those. Most likely, humans simply had a broader dietary range. Then, of course, there was a question of having enough variety. "But what about meat? You can't just live off herbs and spices."

Scott shook his head. "Well, there's also plenty of roots and fruit to offer more vitamins and carbohydrates, but you're right, meat is an important part of our diet. Luckily, I have a few traps nearby, so we can check those and see if I've caught anything yet."

Lacy couldn't help but imagine pit traps filled with spikes, but around here, there wasn't anything large enough to trigger a trap like that. However, what Scott led them to was a simple snare trap. Sure enough, a lizard had been caught, and she watched how delicate and intricate the setup was as he re-set the trap. One thing still confused her, though. "Where's you get the string?"

Her son smiled proudly. "Well, originally, I got it from the remnants of our tent, but now I'm using a chord I made out of the fibers of some of the local plants."

He made his own string out of plants? Is this the kind of thing he was learning in his survival classes for being a scout? Lacy shook her head. "Well, that's definitely more useful than half the things I learned as a kid..."

Scott looked up at her with an upraised eyebrow. "Oh, did they have pirating classes back then?"

Well, apparently, that little secret was out of the bag. Looking at Scott's face, it was hard to tell what he thought or felt at the moment. Still, while she'd long ago decided not to tell him about her life as a pirate, she suspected lying to him now would be a serious mistake that would only drive a wedge further between them. "Ah, no, not exactly. Nothing official anyway. But as you've probably guessed, I didn't go to an official school..."

Scott's expression became a little colder. "So why'd you do it? Why be a pirate at all?"

Lacy sighed. "The universe isn't always as black and white as you might wish it was. Piracy has been the family business for, well, a long time. Your grandfather taught me how to bypass a helm's security system before I learned how to braid my hair, and I pulled my first solo job before I got my first kiss. At the time, the life of a pirate seemed so glamorous, probably because of the tales I'd been told growing up, but as time passed, I noticed more and more of my friends and family getting captured, killed, or just disappearing altogether. So when you came along, I decided it was time to retire from the family business and raise you respectably." She glowered a bit. "I just didn't realize not everyone would be happy to just let me walk away..."

Scott got quiet for a moment. "So then my dad..."

There wasn't a good way to explain this, but Lacy had to try. "When I was young, his roguish charm made me fall in love with him. It even made him a decent father or at least a good storyteller. The problem is he never grew up after that. Neither of us ever had to work because we had more than enough money stashed away, but he said he wanted to anyway, just to keep himself from getting too lazy. If I'm honest, I always suspected he never got a legitimate job like he claimed, but it came to a head when he got caught pulling a job and came home and told me we had to pack up and leave." Lacy folded her arms, telling herself it was because of the cold, even though she knew that was a lie. "I gave your father an ultimatum. I told him we'd move, but only under one condition. He needed to choose between piracy and us once and for all...and well, he made his choice."

After that, they walked on in silence as Scott processed what he'd been told, and Lacy lost herself in her memories. It was the weird, creepy spider that finally broke the silence. "Did you like being a pirate?"

Lacy didn't feel like she owed an answer to this...thing, but Scott also seemed interested. "Well, yes, in a way, I suppose. It was kind of liberating and empowering. Always having to be one step ahead of everyone else pushed you past your limits, forcing you to be more creative and more intelligent than anyone else."

Scott seemed displeased. "And just who was it you were staying one step ahead of? Are you going to try and tell us you were a noble pirate, like Robin Hood, stealing from the rich to give to the poor?"

Lacy shook her head. "No, I won't claim we were altruistic, nor can I say there were never innocent casualties. We tried to keep violence to a minimum, but that was just good for business. If a freight captain knows he and all his people are likely to get out alive so long as they play nice, they are much more cooperative. Those pirates who develop a 'No one escapes alive!' approach quickly find each and every freighter willing to fight to the death. As for who we targeted, yeah, we aimed mostly for fat cats, but we didn't exactly go out and distribute what we took, well, not directly, anyway." She tried to keep from smiling at the memories of some of the ways they had "distributed" loot in the past. "But again, that was just good business. A lone owner-operator was more likely to be in debt to the point that a lost shipment could end their career, and thus, they were more likely to get violent. Big businesses had more security, sure, but so long as you had them outgunned, they usually preferred to play it safe and just file an insurance claim."

Looking at Scott, it was clear he was far from impressed. Lacy tilted her head in acknowledgment of his unspoken point. "But, none of that justifies what we did, and I won't claim it does. Despite everything, people got hurt and even killed. We were feared for a reason. Though I'd have a serious contention with any corporate executives who might try and claim a higher moral standing than us."

Scott did not laugh at that last point. "So what about me? Why didn't you raise me to take on the 'family business?'"

Lacy looked at her son, feeling more protective than she could act on right now. "Because I wanted better for you. I think back at all my close calls, lost friends, and regrets, and I wanted you to have a different life, a better life. I thought I was on the right track too, until, well, this." She shrugged and indicated everything around them. "I guess you can't outrun your past, and now you and Alice are caught up in it..." She was quiet for a moment. "I'm sorry about that...for what it's worth..."

Scott sighed. "I can't say it's worth a lot, but I suppose it's worth something..."

After a little more awkward silence, the spider spoke up again. "I guess you weren't a very good pirate then."

Lacy was so annoyed at the claim that it almost overcame her uneasiness as she looked at the spider monsters. "And what makes you say that?"

The spider's response was delivered as deadpan as always. "Scott told me that pirates are self-serving, acting only in their best interests at the expense of everyone else's. You said you enjoyed being a pirate but gave it up for Scott, putting his needs ahead of yours. That means you weren't a very good pirate."

Lacy wasn't sure if she wanted to thank the spider or strangle it, but when she looked at Scott, she noticed he looked contemplative rather than angry. Intentionally or not, the spider had just thrown Lacy a lifeline with her son that she couldn't have accomplished alone.

Looking back at the spiders, Lacy felt conflicted. She was still far from trusting them and kept her hand close to her pistol, but she felt slightly less animosity toward them than a moment ago.

-

Charlotte listened to Scott's mother's explanation of piracy with interest. Not everything made sense to her. For instance, She had no idea what insurance was, and even context didn't supply a reasonable alternative concept, but Lacy sounded considerably less violent than Scott had described pirates. Her activities were similar to two Shes competing for resources, though the loss of an individual would be more significant than that of several drones. Still, it was clear that even though he had begged Charlotte to save his mother and was eager to go out and track her down, he was now radiating some hostility toward his life-giver.

Regardless, it was fascinating watching an interaction between two adult humans. There was so much more complexity to their speech and mannerisms than between Scott and Alice or even Scott and Charlotte. It was clear the mother wished to reestablish her relationship with Scott, and Scott obviously cared for his mother, but despite all that, it seemed the two were having trouble communicating their respective desires.

However, humans are complex organisms. As restrictive as vibration-based communication was, She'd think humans would want to freely express all their thoughts and emotions, but there were always arbitrary rules about when and where some ideas could be shared. It seemed pointless, but then again, so did many of the things humans did that turned out to be important later. Maybe this would be the same.

However, it seemed likely the current conversation would soon be coming to an end. "We are nearing the campsite."