He smiled. "I don't know. It's the nth cellular descendant of some plant that once grew on Earth."
She touched a dial she had adjusted. "And on this one you reduced the fluid flow into it, and switched the output to another unit I've never seen it connected to."
"Same thing. The input corresponds to the difference between the dry and rainy seasons."
"But things grow faster with more water."
"They do, unless it happens to be a cactus."
She shook her head. "I give up. Cactus yet."
"I didn't say it was cactus. It might be, and, if so, could be very efficient in preparing water and soil minerals for use by the leaves. There aren't any leaves, of course, but that doesn't change the principle."
"Don't think I'll ever understand it," she said. "Enough to get by, but not the way you do."
She stood at his side. It was pleasant to have her there. Other things were pleasant to imagine too, but he refrained. There were married couples on the ship, just as there were unattached men and women. But when the men outnumbered the women three to one, certain conclusions were inevitable, and he had made them the first few days aboard. Unlike many of the others, he didn't expect to stay on the ship forever. In a year and a half he would either prove his point or fail.
Then he would leave. Would Larienne come with him? Maybe, but it wasn't a good bet. A liaison, no matter how easy it was to enter into, was not always easy to break. There would be time to decide about that later.