Re: Chapter 3 Edith Goddard - Seeking Less Boring Life Forms.
"Good news!" Edith announced as she walked into their rental, carrying a bag of gear.
"You're not going," Paracelsus guessed hopefully from his spot in the sunlight on the window sill.
"Better! We all are." She pulled out a small force field unit and showed it to the cat and Donovan, who was sitting on his bed reading.
"You've got a regular suit," she said to the young man. "But you," she turned to Paracelsus, "have a force field. Come over and let me set it up for you."
Paracelsus stretched reluctantly, then made her way over to the bed where Edith was unpacking. She sniffed at it hesitantly, "Will it stop the monsters from eating me?"
"It'll help," Edith admitted.
The cat wasn't thrilled at the situation, but it was better than letting Edith go out into the dangerous forest all by herself so she stood still while Edith adjusted it to accommodate Paracelsus' size.
"There you go," Edith said, satisfied at last. "Try walking around in it."
Paracelsus took a few tentative steps, then jumped down from the bed to see what it could really do. She ran from one side of the room to the other, tried jumping back on the bed, and took a tentative swipe at a metal spring that was peeking out of Edith's bag.
"How does it feel?" Edith asked, pausing to make a few more alterations.
"Strange." Paracelsus replied. She tested it a bit, then wanted it removed.
Taking that as a positive response, Edith unpacked her bag and sat down to do some work. She had a schematic of the type of ship they were going after. She studied it looking for places where the most valuable items and metal would be, figuring out ways and supplies needed to stabilize it depending on how it had crashed and where it was, and familiarizing herself with the main workings. It wasn't likely, but maybe she could skip-fly it back. That would save time, money, and be safer.
After a few hours of working, she packed up her gear and got ready to head to work. "I need to show everyone how to use the new machinery," she said to Donovan. "I'll be back soon. What are you going to do?"
"Since I'm going too, I've got some things to get ready. I want to bring back some soil samples and see how they affect my experiment," Donovan replied.
Since landing on the planet where plants ate cats, Paracelsus had been traveling via Edith's shoulder. He took up his position and the pair headed to work.