#lostinspace2

"Hey, Mr. Scarecrow Sir?"

A child's soft, unsure voice drew his attention away from the dangerous land outside the camp. Scarecrow made certain to shift his face plate from the reds of threat analysis to the soothing blues of friendly greetings. "Samantha," he said.

Her eyes widened with surprise and her faint biolight flared with intense emotion. He worried for a moment he had frightened her, but her face broke into a grin. "You know my name?" She asked.

Of course he knew her name. Every colonist on the Resolute had been his responsibility. Even if that crazy woman had destroyed it he still felt the responsibility for the former passengers lives. All this was too much to explain to a child so he simply pulsed his display in acknowledgement. The child rewarded him with a brilliant smile.

"I just wanted to come and say...." her voice trailed off and she glanced first of the ground and then uneasily behind her.

Scarecrow follow her gaze and saw the girl's mother Molly, watching them with a kind smile from a rock outcropping not too far away. The mother made eye contact with her child and nodded encouragingly. The child took a deep breath and looked up into Scarecrow's display. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry." She finally burst out.

Whatever Scarecrow had been expecting, that wasn't it. Curious greens flashed across to display and he tilted his head to the side in a way that he knew most humans took as a question.

"On the ship," the child went on. "I called you a monster, and you weren't. I'm sorry I called you a monster. And," the child went on in a rush now, "and I was lonely and afraid. And I was scared of you and you kept following the sounds I made. And, if I'd been braver and talked to you we wouldn't have been alone. Because you were alone too weren't you? And if I'd been braver we could have been alone together. So, I'm sorry."

Scarecrow knelt and gently took her offered hand. Not for the first time he cursed his limited vocabulary. "Samantha," was all he could manage, and then, "friends."

Her biolight pulsed with delight and her smile grew even wider.