The feel of warm earth between fingers and toes is oddly comforting after a life spent shipboard. Maddy twined her fingers through the weed’s roots and rocked backwards, using her body weight to tear the creeper free. She waved the corpse in triumph at Shen, working the field to her right, and he grinned at her impromptu victory dance.

She could weed with confidence now, after a month of doing battle she’d finally mastered the ability of telling local arboreal friends from foes. Botany taxonomy wasn’t anywhere near as easy as their classes had implied.

Even with the thirty year trip to prepare themselves, they’d be caught off-guard by life planetside. Their parents had stocked the ship with all the knowledge they’d need on how to survive, but it had been all intellect and no application ’till the day they landed.