Zeb, Hera, Sabine, and even Kanan in his weakened state all push hover carts loaded down two barrels each, making pushing them threw rough paths in the forest difficult.
"Okay, we're here," Kanan wheezes even with the mask on.
"You know how many pairs of clean underwear I could have traded for with just one barrel?" says Sabine.
Zeb comments, "Going commando; I tell ya, nothing like it."
"Hera, you and Zeb go find Ezra and put the extra oxygen mask on him. Sabine and I can take care of ourselves."
"We'll be back," Hera says with some concern before walking away with Zeb, trying alternative scan settings.
The long and thick tendril moves around, detecting their presence. Kanan struggles some to uncap a barrel. Once off he and Sabine push the barrel over and allow some of the oil to spill on the ground. As the tendril jerks over to the oil, Kanan re-caps the barrel. He and Sabine stand it up upon the forest as the tendril absorbs the oil.
"Ready?" he asks Sabine.
She shakes her head "Yes" and Kanan then sits down and lightly taps the tendril; it then proceeds to snake up to his head and suction itself to Kanan's forehead. The thin dark green ones worm their way back into his head.
The re-created world phases back into reality and un-blurs. Kanan looks around.
"Ere?"
"You returned."
He turns to see Ere, "I promised."
"Forgive me, I expected not to see you willingly come back."
"I brought someone with me. Can you read her mind without entering her brain? She prefers not to do it that way."
"Yes."
"She's next to me."
"One moment…"
A second, although thinner, tendril emerges from the berry plant nearby. It rises up and sucks onto her head.
Sabine phases into the re-created world.
"Hello," says Ere.
"Ah, hi," Sabine waves a tad, nervously.
"This is Sabine, she's out all-purpose smarty pants. She has some ideas. Sabine?"
"Well, we brought eight barrels but kept two. If we set high-yield concussive implosions to each barrel and drop them into the dust layer at different points and detonate, the oil will be blown into a fine mist that will glob onto the dirt in the air as it slowly rains down. That'll clear the air up some and allow direct sunlight to get threw some, which will evaporate surface water, which will in turn rain back down on the planet, allowing buried seedlings to rejuvenate and grow, which in turn will help purify the air and increase the speed your planet recovers."
"All this, for me?" Ere says, shocked.
Kanan then speaks, "But that's not all. It occurred to me that with no birds or insects, your flowering can't be pollinated and you'll also run out of food once the barrels are depleted. We're going to deposit the birds on my ship here, if in exchange we can take some of your fruit."
"Yes, yes – of course!"
"Each barrel will be stood up and the caps unscrewed, which is a circular item smaller than the palm of my hand. We'll place the caps on to keep sand and the beetles out, so all you have to do is knock the cap off when you need a new barrel."
"Thank you," Ere says with genuine honestly.
"That just leaves one final matter – where is Ezra?"
"I don't know," Ere replies.
"I thought we had a deal."
"I know not where he is. I had him take care of other business, but I lost track of him hours ago. He's somewhere about the forest, alive, unharmed."
"Now I am taking your word. Ere, it's been … unusual, but we have to go."
"Wait – why have you done all of those for me?" she asks, finally confused herself.
"I told you: we help people. Even if they're intelligent plants."
Ere nods, "Farewell."
The world begins to blur and get wavy.
"Bye," Sabine says, waving good-bye.
It fades to black.
Kanan and Sabine open their eyes as the tendrils retract back into the berry bushes and their deceptively alluring bait smell. Kanan sees Ezra.
Hera says to Kanan, "Found him a few minutes away passed out and covered in pollen. I scanned it and it's a hallucinogenic."
"Hey," Ezra says, very weak and from behind the oxygen mask.
"Did everything go okay?" Hera asks Kanan.
"It did. Sabine, you and Zeb go back to the ship; Sabine, ready the concussives, Zeb, bring back your bird friends – they're staying here."
"Oh, yes!" Zeb yells.
"Hera, Ezra and I will collect berries."
Zeb and Sabine take off for the skiff.
.
Several minutes later. The three are already into picking berries.
Kanan comments, "It's a good thing you guys came back to the rendezvous coordinates early."
"Early? Kanan – it's been two days," Hera replies.
Kanan stops, "I was in there for two days?" shocked.
"All things considered, I think I got the better end of the deal. Got covered in pollen, but hey – I got some exercise," Ezra says, dropping some berries into his opened backpack.
Hera says to him, "Ezra, do you understand why you're covered in pollen, don't you?"
"Not really."
"In order to get that much pollen over you, you had to stick your fingers and hand into dozens and dozens of flowers."
"Ah, so, does that mean I was-"
"Pollinating," Kanan cracks a smile.
Hera jumps in quickly, "Don't worry, I'm sure she'll name them all after you."
"Ewww…" Ezra says in his weak voice, dropping more berries in.
Zeb comes walking toward them at an even pace as the little birds sit on his head, pecking at it. He lowers his head down to the flowers. After a couple of seconds the birds tilt their heads around and take off from his head and immediately swarm the flowers and berries.
"Freedom!" Zeb exclaims in triumph, raising his arms up.
Kanan says to him, "Well, Zeb, I hope that's taught you a lesson about leaving the skiff gate open."
"The gate?" he slaps his face with both hands and rubs them downward, "Aaaggghhh!"
Ezra looks at Zeb, "Zeb, buddy, it may be time to invest in a hat."
.
The skiff takes off and stops just short of the Ghost, already in air. The gate opens.
Zeb's voice booms over the engines, "Get out! Get out! GET OUT!"
A dozen or so of the orange beetles go flying off the gate and fall into the sand below. The gate then closes and the skiff docks with the Ghost and the Ghost takes off.
.
Above the forest can be heard a distant but loud boom. A minute later a second so loud and over the forest, tree leaves shake from the shock wave. The tendril points up to the sky to feel sunlight breaking threw the forest canopy. Then a fine mist of dirty oil gently rains down.
"When we hit the dust layer, gun it; let's see if we can take some of it out with us into space," says Kanan.
"Sure," Hera replies.
"Hera, do we have a hazardous health warning beacon?"
"We got one."
"Drop it just outside the planet's gravitational well."
"Got it," she replies.
"It'll be lonely, but it's just her and her kids now. Make sure you also-"
"Kanan," Hera cuts him off.
"What?"
"I don't need a backseat co-pilot."
"Sorry."
"Now," she says, "make like a tree and leave."
Kanan closes his mouth and backs off.
He points to his mouth, "You see this? I'm scowling at you."
Hera smiles.
.
The Ghost shoots out of the last layer of atmosphere, creating a large and long plum of dirt that continues on out into space, eventually to freeze over and rain more water back down upon the planet.