The fires put out, Laurel returns to Vorn and waits for him to finish chiding a few of the grunts. He is very upset that these men would venture so far as to harm another of their people by placing bets on how many peppers one could eat. She giggles and shakes her head just as Vorn turns to look at her.

"This is serious." He tells her.

"Yes, but isn't it a male thing to try and outdo one another? To push the boundaries of all limits and then brag because you accomplished more than others?"

"Yes, but not when it could potentially kill one of us."

"We do this stupid stuff all of the time." She shakes her head, "Trust me, they will do this one too many times, like he just did," She points to the grunt who had thrown up, "And they will grow up and stop all of this nonsense."

"You would think that, wouldn't you." He exclaims, "But these men are pushing thirty!"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"They are old enough to know better! Many are nearing pair bonding time, and should NOT be sacrificing themselves for such stupidity."

"Thirty. That is still young enough to cause mischief, but your thirty is not that same as our thirty."

"We age differently, your thirty would be."

"Let me, if they are acting juvenile, at thirty." She deliberates, "Then they are nothing short of little boys? Wait? Do you all age the same? Or?"

"What do you mean?"

"Yuri was involved at nineteen and seemed mature, these men are thirty and act like kids."

"We all age differently," Vorn begins, "Especially the ones who have been in stasis since they were small."

"Cryostasis?"

"Yes, many of our people opted to be placed asleep until an answer was found," Winston had added as he walked up, "Others have merely allowed age and death to come as it should be. We have lost many elders who gave up, gave up long before their time."

"So, they have normal bodies, but their minds are playing catch up?" She asks.

"Some," Winston starts.

Vorn continues, "Some of our people, while in stasis it affects them mentally being under for so long, these men may never be fully who they are meant to be until it is too late."

"Everyone that volunteered," Winston begins, "knew the dangers of cryostasis. Some, yes, were children when they were placed in sleep, others were older. What it does to the mind to be 'on hold' as some would call it, is still being examined."

"They were small when they were put in stasis, and their bodies developed, but their minds are trying to put pieces together." She ponders. "How many will make it? How many fail?"

"It is unknown." Vorn and Winston say in unison.

"So, that is why you are watching over them, why you move as if a small army. It is not to assert dominance, but to ensure that nothing happens to them."

"Quite observant." Vorn rubs his chin, he was wondering if he should broach the subject of him helping her with...

"Vorn, would you like me to show you my other hobby?" She walks towards the yard, "Yuri knows about it, but he never goes back to my secret laboratory." She stifles a laugh, "He says that it is too far back there, but I like the quiet."

"Secret laboratory?" 

"Trust me, I think you will like it," She turns and looks back in his direction, only to find Winston and others following, "It is a, how do I put it? A girly thing."

"Girly thing?" Winston chuckles, "What is a girly thing?"

"When we grow up, girls like dolls and boys like Hot Wheels." She shakes her head, "But not me, I hated dolls, I tore their heads off. I would rather play with Ken dolls and drive sports cars or trucks." She moved a branch out of her face and continues, "Then one day I saw a picture, it was the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen, and I knew that I would love to have one. However, the reality is, they are very expensive."

"A horse," Vorn says flatly, "That is why you were so happy to see our version, because you have always wanted a horse."

"Guilty, I must admit that finding out the cost of buying one and keeping it was rather shocking." She continues down a dirt path and before them is a beat up wooden shack. "But this," She spins around to look at all who followed, then slowly slides the great door across to let in the fading light, "This is my possible salvation." 

There, in the middle of the room was a giant table, and on it was the metal bobs and gadgets of a clockwork carousel horse. Everywhere you looked there were pieces and parts, and on shelves in the corner; little clockwork horses sat with a light dust covering them. Most of them between eight to ten inches and the largest was perhaps three feet. 

It was the horse in the center of the room that took the stage,the giant was nearly nine feet in height, it was silver in color, like the materials that she had used to create it. The joints appeared stiff and almost unmovable, but they moved slightly with a stiffness only reserved for corpses. It was magnificent in it's detail, the face sculpted from the image found in the magazine.

"You have some of these in the house." says Yuri as he picks up a small horse. "This is why you always have paper cuts."

"More like metal, and yeah, I get a lot of them." She explains, "When I am waiting on parts for the cars, I come in here and tinker, sometimes it is good day." She points to one of the hooves, "Like the day I finally figured out how to make a proper hoof! That was so exciting."

"What is it that you need from me?" Vorn asks.

"I have seen your tech, I know what it can do." She tells him excitedly, "Can your tech help me complete this horse and make him move?"

"Move like a real horse?" Winston asks.

"Yes, like a real horse. I do not care if he runs, but if he walks. I have been working on the brains of it, which at times is even beyond me, but I have friends who do programming." She shrugs, "They may be able to help me with movement to some degree and just make it more lifelike than it is now."

"What is the end game?" He stares at her, "Laurel, you have more than this in mind, don't you?"

"A mech suit."

"Hold on," Vorn starts.

"I can ride it and when things go south, I can wear it." She points to the size, "That is why it is so large, I want it to go from transportation to."

"To protection," Winston adds, "You're a smart girl."

"I am also full of shit." She laughs. "No one can make a mech suit, it is all a pipe dream. I just want a horse."

Winston and Vorn glance at each other and half heartedly chuckle, they knew that anything is possible and to never rule anything out. The walked slowly around the giant as if to take measurements and clarify what they would be doing. It was well made, she must have been working on it for a very long time, because there were many pieces covered in an inch of dust.

"If someone literally has a mech, the US government and military would be breathing down their necks." Laurel adds, "They would want that kind of technology for themselves and anyone who has it, in their book would be a liability."

"Why?"

"Think of it," she waves her hand in the air, "if there is one suit, then others could be created and in doing so, you can create an unbeatable army."

"Unbeatable..."

"Yes, we are still a warring planet, and people die here every day." 

"Wait, how many die?" Vorn inquires. 

"It varies widely, some say that since the beginning of our history more than one billion have died, and that does not include all of the other ways to die."

"Other ways?"

"I told you about them, murderers, human sacrifice, etc. You really need to pick up a book, and you cannot tell me that your planet never had wars, there is always a skirmish of some kind, isn't there?"

"For as long as I can remember, there has never been war." Winston tells them slightly angry, "Life is far too precious to waste on our world."

"You know," Laurel begins as she picks up a piece of the giant and tinkers a bit with a screwdriver, "I have always wondered how you got your names."

"Our names?"

"My understanding, is that we could never pronounce your names, and that somehow you acquired human names."

Alexi laughs,"We play the name game, and that is how we get our names."

"Huh? Name game? What is that?"

"It is like grabbing a book and pointing at a page, what you land on is your name."

"Okay, and how did no one end up being called Octopus or Raven?"

Winston takes her arm, "Actually we have a few that ended up with some interesting names. That grunt over there with the red hair," He points to one of his men, "His name is Owl."

"Wait!" She giggles, "You are serious! He got his name from a book and it is Owl?"

"When we first came here, it was easier to look in a book, but then after awhile and men getting named things like tank, turtle and turd, the officials asked for a book of names. That was easier and the books given to us were divided between males and females and it made picking names better for everyone."

"Someone is really named Turd."

"Yes, there was, but that man has since returned home," Winston had a sad look on his face while explaining, "and now uses the name given to him by our people."

"Turd." Laurel laughs and shakes her head, "I cannot imagine being named that."