"That-

That's theologically important."

She rests her head in her hands, holding it off the table by the horns.

"I would like to know more about this. Why you think it, what- What a star is -"

"...I'm a botanist, but I can give you what I know."

She explains about stars insofar as she learned.

"My theology is - an important part of it is that some things are stable and permanent. Like the Well of Souls and the sun. Billions of years is not forever and I want to know more, the supporting studies. But you're a botanist."

"Yes. I don't think there's an astronomer here right now but I could maybe get one on subspace from Amenta?"

"I want that. However, not grab-a-spear-and-run urgently. The facts won't change if I take a bit longer to learn them. We can talk about botany."

"Okay." The botanist can show her the samples she's already taken and what she has been learning about them!

How fascinating!

Any patch of bare enough skin works for connecting to a Well, if your fingers are too burned you can taste it and that works for example. The neurons in that part of the skin become depressed and less sensitive for a while, exhausted. She thinks the metal nodules are what actually holds the memories, or possibly one of several systems that do so. The insects she caught examples of have them, too, and can be seen flying from tree to tree sometimes. She also has a lot of observations about the special metal-rich fertilizers they require.

Are the memories stored redundantly, so if one tree has a problem nobody's memories are lost?

Yes! It would be horrible if someone's memories were lost. Just how redundantly is an ongoing question, so they do their best to prevent losses, especially the loss of every tree in an area.

Okay, but redundantly enough that it would be okay for Pon to take some samples and get a much much closer look at the metal nodules?

"Assuredly. Wells lose twigs and even limbs all the time. The only problem with taking samples is if you harm the tree in the taking."

"And taking a branch off wouldn't harm the tree?"

"No more than clipping a finger with a knife. I'd want to pick the branch."

"That's fine by me! I want to put bits of it under a microscope - we were given a twig, but ideally there'd be more to work with -"

"Mrr, very well. I want to participate with the microscope, it's very new to me."

"Sure, you can see mine! I'm set up in a closet right now, I'm going to have a lab upstairs but they're not done yet..." She leads Stoneheart to the closet where she's got her microscope and some of her samples.

It's kind of amazing, seeing things in such a new light. She had an idea that cells existed and were different, but seeing things in such detail... She puts a drop of her own blood on a slide, digging into a fingertip with the edge of her horn, and looks at it. It looks pretty much the same as most blood.

"Let's go get that branch... Come to think of it, they may be annoyed by me taking a branch." She makes an annoyed yip. "Or just try to tally it as an informal minor favor, politics."

"They sent the twig all the way back to Amenta, they're trying to get it to grow as a cutting."

She shifts uncomfortably. "...Unlikely."

"- I mean, I agree, but why do you think so?"

"Lack of expertise and of - signals. The subtle ones all in the soil and air and water, from other life. And now I'm thinking about what two separate Wells on two separate planets would mean, really. I should have expected that aliens would challenge my old thoughts."

"We've certainly had some surprises here!"

"What is most surprising?"

"The Well working at all is very weird, but I think it might actually be less surprising than the fertility crash you guys have in dense areas, and probably the weirdest thing is all the animals getting hostile if you do certain things. There's nothing like that on Amenta and we can't quite suss out how it would work."

"It is one thing to say 'it's the gods' design' and another to actually understand it, yes. My suspicion is that some plants and animals are... Like neurons. Individually, they do little. Together..."