The crewmembers held an emergency meeting in their cabin.

Mouths are clamped shut to keep out blowies, with a slit at the corner prised open in case speech - preferably laconic - is necessary; miseries are borne with a stoical shrug.

Determining what was unique about living beings, he postulated the ‘corporeity’ of a soul […] , common to beast and man alike.

[…] reaches out her earthen hand and manipulates a rainbow of pulsators : the fingers meander through the polyhued tumescent tubers, bringing succor to aching machinations as they explode, erupting with fury and programmed responses, […]