Because he drew the shortest straw, it was now up to him to clear the debris field surrounding the ship.
Looking at his monitor he saw how a living ship, attracted by The Tree, folded itself around the 'tree trunk' of the ship he had called home since his early childhood. Slowly the top and bottom 'hat' of his mushroom shaped ship sneaked up upon the unsuspecting, now almost liquid ship, gently squeezing the life out of her. It succumbed. Its wires and plates withering as if they were dying parts of a once beautiful plant.
A window formed a dew drop and in it, he detected a shape. A small, human shape. The drop burst open and out fell a baby. Which he caught in his arms. Although he didn't have to as the ground of the planet he was standing on, was mostly covered in a soft, dark green kind of moss.
They raised the baby if she were their own. Which of course she was. Knowing she would live a full live in just and exactly 311 days, they decided to skip basic survival training and only teach her the basics: how to read of course. Not only letters but also emotions. From humans and animals alike. Music and poetry, dance and archery were part of the daily curriculum.
Her brother-in-law acted as her partner in a make-believe Prom they set up for her. Although schools were a thing of the past and there were only a dozen or so of them left. Although scattered around the planet and throughout the universe more groups of people were likely to exist. Resting on her mother's lap with her father next to them, stroking her hair, she realised she was fortunate, as she gently died. Smiling as she had just seen her brothers and sisters run off to play some game involving a wooden or metal stick that looked like it was an amalgamation of a hockey stick and a baseball bat.
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