Patrick and Nat pulled up and Nat scooted over to give me room. “Let’s do this,” Patrick said with his usual grin, and he stomped on the gas to do a donut on the dirt as he brought the car around to point to the road.

“Jeebus, Patrick, everyone’s still in bed,” I squawked. “Take it easy.”

“Sorry, not sorry,” he said, but eased up.

Patrick seemed to be trying for a new record every time he drove to the site, and I was gripping the passenger window frame with more than casual force. Natalie appeared to have a death grip on the edge of the bench seat as well, judging from her hunched shoulders and rigid arms.

We left the car in the usual spot and made a beeline through the meadow toward the landing site. I pulled out the fob but stopped for a moment to examine the foliage in the immediate area. Other than the thoroughly dead patch that I’d zapped, the vegetation did look a little more mangy or something. I wondered if the invisibility field was hard on living things. Another question for Sheldon.

Sighing at how the list of questions was growing even when we were just walking around, I held up the fob and pressed the V button. The door opened with the expected double-chirp, and we entered the ship.

“Do we want to explore?” Natalie asked. “See what’s on the other floors, that kind of thing?”

“Naw, we can just ask Sheldon. I bet he can put a map on the view screen.” Patrick pointed up. “I want to go for a ride.”

The bridge was unchanged from the day before, although I couldn’t put my finger on what I might have expected to be different. Of note though was the complete lack of any greeting. I smiled to the room in general and said, “Good morning, Sheldon.”

Nothing.

“Are you there?”

Sheldon’s voice came out of midair. “Are you standing in the field? If I were not here, wouldn’t things look a little different? Maybe more bucolic?”

“Wow, chill bro. It raises the question, though. Are you different from the ship?”

“Are you different from your nose?”

I suppressed the desire to roll my eyes, trying for a more diplomatic response. “Fine, Sheldon. We’ll consider the ship to be part of your being.”

“I feel so privileged.”

Patrick frowned and looked up, as we all seemed to do when talking to the Ship Intelligence. “What the hell is biting your behind today, Sheldon? You weren’t the friendliest yesterday, but now you’re being an out-and-out asshole.”

There was a sound that could almost be a sigh before Sheldon replied. “I suppose apologies are in order. I don’t like any of you—well, maybe Jack, a little bit—but I acknowledge that basic courtesy is still appropriate. I’ve been … thinking.”