Caterpillars, despite a lack of religion, believed in an afterlife, but an afterlife on their own terms. The caterpillars knew enough biology to know that a person's body bio-degrades after death and is absorbed into the soil, and therefore into the plants. The caterpillars also believed that this was what happened with the mind. When the body died, and was re-absorbed by the plants, the consciousness was re-absorbed by The Tree, where it would mingle with the minds of other caterpillars and aphids. The worst fate imaginable for a caterpillar in these terms would be for the body not to be able to bio-degrade, and return to the soil, as this meant that the mind could not return to the Tree. This partly explained the caterpillars' love of vegetation, and their fear of what they referred to as "Cold Places, those occasional areas of the station without vegetation or soil. Their deaths here would prevent their return to The Tree.
Copyright 1999 Ian Rennie, for Remiel Productions.