Request, part 2: Doug and Rock have a plan to help Celica. Thanks again to GhostintheWorld701 for the prompt.

cw inaccurate enemies, complete disinterest in editing

All the good things belong to MonolithSoft.

Doug and Rock returned in time to watch the rise of the repaired sleep tent. Phog and Celica pulled on equal but opposite wires, and the tent popped up like a rectangular mushroom. Rock cheered and Celica clapped. Phog looked impatient. "Can we get back to the mineral seam?" he asked. "It isn't blocked by boulders anymore."

Doug scratched an ear. "Do you need Rock's help to do your work?"

"NO." Phog hadn't raised his voice, but it was sharp all the same.

Doug laughed when Rock ducked his giant head in embarrassment. "You go do your thing," Doug told Phog. He didn't need to say it twice, because Phog was off in a puff of blond smoke.

"How can I help now?" asked Celica.

"Two questions. Are you allergic to anything?"

Celica shook her head. "No, I haven't tried anything in NLA that I can't eat."

Doug smiled with relief. "Now for the easy question. You feel up to guarding the camp from adsecula attacks while Rock and I take a stroll?"

Celica went pale, but her chin was determined. "I can do it, Doug. You can count on me."

Rock and Doug left Celica pacing a tight arc around an oblivious Phog, her dual guns ready in her fists. (Doug had made sure her safeties were on before they said goodbye.) He and Rock retraced the winding path down to the level of the lava pools. The cave they were exploring was rich with necessary minerals that the Prospectors wanted to extract. Doug was intent on another resource of the cave: a small herd of forfex that danced across the lava on the tips of their hard-shelled legs. They belonged on a beach, darting in the waves, but somehow a tribe of these giant crab-enemies had found a home at the bottom of this cavern.

Doug knew the trick wasn't killing them; it was getting their bodies onto solid ground before the lava claimed them. That's was Rock's job. Doug did his own version of a crab sideways-dance, shooing away the smaller creatures (still taller than he was), until the largest of the batch approached. He waited until a claw breezed over his head by less than his own buzzcut, then took it out with one shot of his raygun. Rock had waited in the background until then, but when the creature started to fall back, he plucked it away from the lava.

"Let's get cracking. Literally," Doug said.

They were back within an hour, to Celica's relief and Phog's disinterest. Doug whistled as he mixed and stirred in the cooking area. Lucky for them a few staples were packed with the cook stove. He added garlic and plenty of spices to the bowl, then reconsidered and made a second, less flavorful batch. It was a bit past the scheduled dinner break when he called to the others. Round patties, crusty and dark brown with black scorches, were the main dish, along with some peppermint tea (but alas no coffee).

"What's this?" Celica asked. Phog was nibbling his serving (the less spicy version) and swigging water.

"Blackened crab cakes," Doug explained. "Learned to make them during the time I was stationed near Maryland. The local version was mild. Great, mind you, but I was missing the heat from home, you know? So I spiced them up." He watched as Celica tried hers.

"It's hot," she said in surprise, before taking another bite, "but delightful! It tastes so fresh!"

"I'm glad you like them, because we may be eating them three times a day unless I can remember another way to cook crab."

a/n: I made up these enemies, sorry. I remember fighting things in lava caves, but research suggests they are scirpos, and I will only go so far in what I am willing to cook and/or write about cooking. Clearly, I need to replay X.

I didn't do much with aspects of remembering Earth and sharing it with Celica; years from now I'll do something better with that.

Next up: Clown.