[they're people]

"...alright. Kay. Cool. So what?"

[...I'm a plant, and I lived 149 years. every plant that's around has been around since Old Earth. plants can live forever. they don't have to inevitably go red.]

[this isn't an ethical experiment,] he says, directing that mostly at Rosa. [it's not a theory. I personally know people who have kept their plants alive while in use for the past century and a half. I personally helped set up the systems plants are using all over this planet to this day. I know how to keep them alive, and I want to teach all of you, so that you can keep your plants alive forever.]

[we want to help you mine silicon and help you set up an industry.]

[we want to help you set up hydroponics, which is a way to generate food cheaply that's not used anywhere else on this planet]

[we want to give you the tools to do more than survive. we want you to thrive. we want you to never need a plant engineer again, never need to rely on outside help again, never need to defend yourselves against crazy bombers again, never need to see us again if you hate us]

[that's the caveat of the plants. mining, resources, those are yours with no strings attached. the caveat of the plants is that you need to live. we'll give you plants, and you'll get to know them, and you'll talk to them, and you'll take care of them, and they'll take care of you, and you'll live, and that's what we're getting you involved in. that's the strings. living, thriving, and never ever needing me again.]

[is that acceptable?]

"... and what happens if something goes wrong?" wonders Rosa. "And the plant dies despite our best efforts."

[if I hear any of them being hurt that badly I'll take them back before they can die. I'm not allowed to let our sisters die. not anymore. so what happens if she's going to die despite our best efforts is I'll have to take her away]

[he won't do anything, though. that, I promise you. he's not touching this town anymore.]

"'He' being... the other one. With the knives. Who was out to, what. Save the other plants from humans? That's why he was stealing them?"

"Yeah," he croaks with his voice before deciding that his lungs are definitely not yet ready, what with how he just coughed something that was probably a piece of one of them.

"How are you alive," wonders Carl, staring at the piece of lung on the ground.

    "You said sisters. Does that mean he's your brother?"

[yeah. we both came to existence at the same time.]

"And... your wife. How does she fit into this? She doesn't look like she looked last time, was that contact lenses and hair dye, or something else?"

[she's not entirely human anymore, but I'm not entirely sure I should be the one explaining]

"...can we get in on this deal?" wonders Victor.

[I am absolutely certain you do not want the associated downsides]

"So... she was human, then got dragged into this mess because she was attached to you?"

[...I don't know how to answer that question without either sounding like I'm being defensive or being misleading so I guess defensive it is]

[I know that I'm trouble. I know it. she knew it. and it may have been patronising but I tried to lose her for her safety and she outstubborned me. I love her with all my heart and I spent very long trying to get her to not be around me because I knew something like this was going to happen and I didn't know if I'd be able to live with myself when it did and by divine providence it turned out a lot less badly than it could've but yes it happened because she was attached to me. I don't want to steal her agency, she chose to be attached to me of her own will, but yes it happened because of me]

"We did see her stubbornly drive after you when you tried to walk out on her, yes. I just wanted that to be clear before we agreed to work with you on the plants." Sigh. "... Any other potential risks we don't know about?"

[not that I—oh. the crazies. Knives and I attract crazy people like moths to a flame—]

"Your brother's name is literally Knives?" asks Victor.

[—and there is one particular crazy we are trying to deal with—he's the one who fucked the sand steamer a few weeks ago if you heard about that—and it's not impossible that he'd come here but we did not tell anyone we were coming here and we have an agent on the ground trying to find him so we can hunt him down]

"Mm. Crazies we've dealt with before. I'm going to want to get a full rundown of everyone we're dealing with, but if that's all..." She makes a bit of a face. "... I'll want to check with everyone, but. ... That sounds like a risk worth taking."

He really wants to say something more, wants to promise that it'll work, that he wants it to work just as much as they do, but it would be farcical. At the end of the day, they have a lot more to lose than he does; if the town explodes and he's buried under several tonnes of rubble he will still survive. So even though it's true, saying that he will spare no effort to make this work will ring hollow. If wishes were fishes we'd never go hungry, and pretty words cannot actually make up for the difference. He will try as if his life depended on it, but his life does not, actually, depend on it.

So instead of saying any words he just sends a wordless feeling of encouragement and something-like-gratitude and a truthful earnest desire to make this work.

"That's freaky, man," says Carl. "I got a feeling but it's not my feeling but it feels like it's my feeling. I don't like it."

“You said it.” Sigh. “Fine. We’ll get everyone together and talk. Were there more supplies?”

Yvette has, by this point, distributed everything from the car.

“There’s more, we’ll need to make another couple trips.”

“All right, well. Get going. Whichever way we decide, we’re not turning down supplies.”