PASSING TIME

Wilson and Byron have seen the younger children having a lot of fun playing in the little Lunar Lander Simulator Nërp built for them, and have requested something similar – but larger – for themselves.

Nërp has happily agreed, gratified to be bringing Science, Engineering and Astrophysics into their lives.

While Nërp is working on the Simulator, the boys are trying to pass the time by playing a version of Who Is It? which they've adapted to use pictures of various species of ants in place of the cartoon portraits usually used.

They call this game What Ant Is It? and I can hear them asking each other questions.

Questions like:

'Does this ant have bifurcated tarsi?',
'Does this ant have a peppery taste?',
'Do you think Nërp will be much longer building our Simulator?'

and so on.

Occasionally one or other of them will call out, 'Nërp! How's the Simulator going – is it nearly finished yet?' to which Nërp will reply (with the patience apparently available only to non-humans) 'It's coming along very well, thank you for asking – I've just installed the Thruster Servo Controllers, then I'm going adjust the Flux Capacitors, for which I will need absolute silence, if you'd be so kind…'