Of Men and Spiders

Watching as a steady stream of spiders carried food and supplies from one place to another, Scott decided having friends made moving much more manageable. It made him wish Charlotte had been there to help him move the first time around. Then again, if a bunch of dog-sized spiders and a seven-foot-tall talking spider mantis had shown up back then, he probably would have been reducing to incoherent babbling while stabbing at anything that came within reach, so maybe it was best they hadn't.

The spiders were clean-sweeping the area, taking the plants out of the ground, and even most of the roofing tiles since those were mostly reusable. The only things left were the walls and the kiln. Using a thick stick, it was simple enough, if somewhat exhausting, to put holes in the walls and eventually knock them over. Then Scott threw a bunch of vines and foliage on top to either make it harder to spot or, if it was spotted, to make it look like everything had collapsed a long time ago. It was somewhat gutwrenching to undo so much of his work from not very long ago, but it had gone from offering protection to his sister and him to potentially revealing their presence to those men, which he did not want.

Once they were at their new location, Scott and Charlotte agreed that while he and Alice could stay in the tunnels, it was probably better to build a new structure alongside them. That way, Charlotte didn't have to worry about dealing with smoke and fire in her structure, and Scott felt more comfortable having his own space. They did compromise somewhat, and Charlotte dug a new entrance for Scott to connect to his new hut. However, Scott decided to put a door there just for peace of mind. All these spiders might be directly under Charolott's control, but waking up in the middle of the night and seeing a giant spider crawling around in the dark still didn't sound like fun.

Additionally, Scott decided to cover most of the hut with vines. Any annoyance they caused was offset by the security their cover allowed. It probably wouldn't cover the hutt completely, but he figured when someone was looking at a cave out of which hundreds of giant spiders were coming and going at all hours of the day, one vine-covered hut off to the side was less likely to attract attention.

Of course, the other problem they had to deal with was fire. During the day, the smoke could be seen rising above the trees, and at night, the glow was a dead giveaway. The simple solution was to keep the fire completely enclosed within the hut this time and use it only at night. That meant he'd have to design a larger hut and a chimney system within it, but luckily, none of the materials he was using were flammable, and it would be a simple matter for Charlotte to keep the vines from overgrowing the chimney through the use of her hands.

Also, despite the grander ambition of the new hut, construction would likely go faster due to Charlotte's involvement from the get-go. However, Scott and Alice would still have to stay in the cave for several nights. That wasn't entirely a bad thing, as Scott had intended to use the caves for a different reason anyway. There was something he'd been very excited about but had been all but forgotten in the last couple of days' excitement: the computer.

Something in the caves had blocked the searchers' ability to track his mom's computer. It might just be all the stone and mud, and it's possible his hut would work similarly, but he didn't want to push his luck and find out the hard way that he was wrong. So, instead, he decided to only use the computer inside the cave tunnels. After a day of moving and planning, he stalked through the tunnels, guided through the maze by one of Charlotte's spiders, to do just that.

He'd left Alice playing with the version of Charlotte they were both most familiar with. His sister had said something about teaching Charlotte to hula hoop. Scott didn't know how that was possible for multiple reasons, not the least of which is they didn't have one, and he'd been seriously tempted to stay and watch to find out, but this was more important.

Eventually, he reached the large chamber with the other larger version of Charlotte. Just off to the side of the chamber was another smaller room where all their stuff had been temporarily stored. It was too cluttered to sit down in, so he returned to the main chamber and spoke with large Charlotte. "Is it alright if I use this room to sit and work in?"

After barely a moment, the mouth spider appeared, once again crawling up to large Charlotte's shoulder. "That is acceptable."

Scott nodded and sat down, opening the computer to the password screen trying to think of what the password could be. He tried Alice and Scott, but neither seemed to work. Meanwhile, large Charlotte crawled closer, apparently to peer at what he was working on. Not long ago, that would have terrified Scott, but this time, he nodded in acknowledgment before returning his attention to the screen.

Charlotte found a spot nearby to settle and spoke. "What is that tool you're using?"

Scott looked at his host and back at the screen. "It's called a computer. They're kind of an information storage device, like the books I explained to you, but a lot more complex."

The large spider queen leaned over to glance at the screen. "There doesn't seem to be much written there. Only a single word."

Scott nodded but kept his attention on the screen, willing the password to appear. "Yeah, that's because I need to enter a password. This was our mom's computer, and she's got it locked. I have to type in the password before I can access the whole thing. I've already tried Alice and Scott... Maybe our birthdays?" He tried typing both their birthdays in every manner he could think to write them, but nothing worked.

Charlotte settled back and seemed to think a little. "I could just open the tool if you want. It shouldn't take too much effort to pry apart."

That made Scott chuckle, but he shook his head no. "Sadly, that won't work. Think of this device more like a brain than a book. If you pry the brain out of the animal it belongs to, it stops working, and all the information is lost. The same thing happens when you pry open a computer."

That made Charlotte think a little longer this time. "What kind of passwords do you use?"

Scott shrugged. "It can be anything, even a random string of letters and numbers, and if that's the case, I'm in trouble. However, more often, people use things that are important to them. Words, numbers, or names that mean something to them." Scott started typing in the name of every drug he could remember finding around the house, but none of those worked either.

Charlotte leaned in close again. "What about a place?"

Scott nodded thoughtfully. "That might work." And started typing in things like "home" or the name of any planet or station they'd lived on for a year or more. None of those worked. He was getting really close to giving up for the day.

-

Charlotte was fascinated by the tool Scott was using. Whenever Scott pushed a symbol on the device, that symbol appeared on the glowing portion comprised of an arrangement of tiny black dots against the glowing background. He'd tried several words that apparently were important to their mother but seemed at a loss on how to proceed.

Trying to think like a tool user, it seemed pretty clear to Charlotte that they were tightly bonded as they were with each other, and according to Scott, mothers often felt an even tighter bond with their children, so it seemed to Charlotte like this pass-word would still be related to Scott and Alice, but he said he'd already tried their names. However, Charlotte could only remember him typing in two names before she got close enough to see. "Which of your names did you already try?"

Scott made a half smile that wasn't really a smile and shook his head. "Well, Scott and Alice, of course, and I don't think it would be our last name..."

Charlotte tilted her head to shift her gaze from the tool to Scott. "What about your other names?"

Scott furrowed his eyebrows, indicating confusion, and looked up at Charlotte. "What other names? I don't think I've explained middle names yet, so what names are you talking about?"

They had other "middle" names that apparently fit between their first and last names? That was interesting but not quite what Charlotte was thinking. "No, your other names, Big Brother and Munchkin."

Scott shook his head. "No... big brother isn't a name, it's more like a title... Kinda like 'She' is for you. And I doubt..." But he typed in the symbols for munchkin anyway and hit that same symbol he hit after every word, but rather than pop up a red symbol like before, the glowing portion of the tool changed.

Now, there was an impressive two-dimensional representation of what looked like some landscape created through a complex arrangement of tens of thousands of tiny colored dots. But that wasn't the end of it. As Scott pushed more symbols and moved his fingers across other parts of the device, more and more two-dimensional images and symbols replaced or superimposed themselves over the old ones, creating a weave of complexity nearly a match for some of Charlotte's earlier genetic manipulations. If this was an example of the potential of human specialization, it was possible She'd underestimated the humans again. In a way, it was almost frightening what they were capable of.

-

As Scott looked through the computer, he noticed he couldn't find any networks to connect to, which was not surprising. One of the more important finds was when he saw his mom had downloaded all his course books, which would likely come in very handy for surviving out here. But then, he stumbled upon something interesting while trying to see if she had any writing programs. Their mom had apparently been keeping a journal...