Time and Dirt
(First Day -- Previous Day -- Day 38 -- Next Day)
Day 38
Heliopause Colony on Planet Vertumna, Medbay
“Solane, you won’t believe what I heard and saw today. Or maybe you will, since usually these things happen to you...
Hey, are you awake?
...
Seems so! Are you feeling more rested today?
Your eyes seem so glassy again...
Solane! I’m here!”
- “... Cal? ...”
“It’s me!”
- “Huh...”
“Sorry, did I startle you? ... Wait, why are you staring at me so much... like you were expecting someone else today?
- “Where...wh-”
“You’re still safe in medbay, don’t worry.”
You know, I still remember it was such a strange moment. I don’t know why, but you looked at me as if you were doubting me, like you wanted to tell me that something felt off, brow slightly furrowed and a frown that then very gradually turned into a faint smile, like sunrays emerging from behind clouds...
But I still wondered about that moment for a long time. I still do sometimes, although I try not to dwell on it too much. Like back then, too.
“And I’ll stay with you. No one else will... So please stay with me today, too, Solane. So I can tell you what happened today.
It’s a bit of a longer story, but I really have to tell you about it. It was so cool. And I know you’ll agree!
Outside, while I was making sure that our new ... aromatic dustmole guards, buckets with rotting onions and garlic and mint plants I had replanted there, were working like intended. They did, at least I haven’t seen dustmoles there recently anymore. I hope it’s not because the soldiers, you know...
Anyway, they also unfortunately keep everything and everyone else away and I had to do some weeding there today. Some Earth weeds had escaped all the previous attempts at capturing them, or maybe someone’s boots had carried them there from the garden and I had to thwart their plans to take over the field and hog all the sunlights, but for that I had to put the buckets somewhere else temporarily.
I carried them to the back of the greenhouses, to a narrow moist patch squeezed between the domes and the walls that I don’t usually pay much attention to and almost as soon as I set down the buckets I was surrounded by flying agarics! Like seven or eight at least. They look a bit like elongated whitish mushrooms with wings and a large mouth on their downside, I think they were attracted by the rotting smell. Dys could probably tell you a lot more about them.
After landing on the onions and garlic, they started eating away at the rotten food immediately as if it was the biggest feast for them, and had even planted themselves so firmly there was no dislodging them. You’d have enjoyed that sight, Solane! They kept chewing away at the food, and seemed really satisfied, even excited. Their mushroom body started downright glowing in a bright green hue! They probably never had encountered Earth vegetables before, and maybe this was their way of signaling to other flying agarics that they had found some really good food. It must have been visible from afar because soon more of them appeared.
Or maybe it was their smell! After a while they had begun to emit one that was so strong, but not at all unpleasant. It was like... coriander? Ground coriander seeds, I think. Do you still remember them?
We haven’t had those in years, because I could never remember to sow them, or find the time if I did. As much as I enjoyed them, they were never a priority when we needed crops that could fill us up or were really easy to grow like mint, dill or spinach... harvesting so many tiny seeds and then spending more time and effort grinding them didn’t seem worth it, but maybe it could be possible now since we have, you know, more aides. What do you think, Solane? We should still have some in our seed bank in the depot.
...
Anyway, that wasn’t even the best thing about it. Their smell completely overpowered the rot, but when I took the buckets back to the fields, with the plan to get more stinky scraps from the kitchen to fill them up with again, I noticed that the coriander smell immediately repelled a dustmole that in the meantime had started burrowing near the carrot seedlings! It ran off like I was a manticore, when they’re usually just ignoring me entirely. I think we have a much better solution for our problem with dustmoles now, Solane! And this time it even makes our work easier, with a nice smell in the air and I think flying agarics make for great fertilizing compost, too.
But here’s where it gets weird. I saw their bright light fade a bit in the open, where it is drier and colder, and our drainage ditches carry a lot of the rainwater away fast. I think they noticed the lower moisture and were very unhappy about it. I don’t know if I imagined it or something, but it was like they were asking me directly to help. And I had the idea to get a spray flask and you know what? Misting them a bit seemed to make them feel much better, their bright color soon returned.
And not long afterward I kept hearing more xeno noises, ones I never heard in the colony, strangely rhythmic, as if synchronized to a beat, getting slowly closer. Soon after, I was surrounded by more aerial xenos that all met me for the first time, all buzzing and chirping and whistling. Most of them seemed to be related to dorbsmoth, with big furred wings, although a bit smaller. But in almost all kinds of colors, some were downright iridescent!
Come to think of it, we never hear wild xenos much in the colony, do we? Aside from the ones in the barn, it’s mostly just the occasional flying one, your vriki or maybe a hopeye if we’re lucky and one somehow makes it past the walls and guards. Dustmoles are rather quiet, that’s part of what made them difficult to deal with.
But I really feel now like the bigger problem to deal with is the absence, not the presence of xenos. Since they can help with so much if we can just figure out how to make their lives align with ours, so we both benefit from living alongside each other...
I’ll have to try to sketch them next time, hopefully they’ll return. It’s definitely nicer to hear them than the noise from Engineering or the garrison...
I’m sure you would agree! And so would Dys, if he isn’t already familiar with them... Think of the other things we could do for the colony if we pooled our knowledge and skills. And of course for the planet...
Oh, you’re frowning now, but I can tell you’ve been very attentive. Your eyes are wide open and fixated on me! Like you’re hanging onto every word, which isn’t exactly the case with anyone else here.
I tried telling Rex about this, but he didn’t seem very interested. And I don’t even normally have anyone else to talk to during the day... I’ve been so busy the past month I barely see my parents nowadays, since none of them work in Geoponics or the medbay. I hope they’re not too worried about me or anything, sometimes I feel they are struggling with me not being a small child anymore. But maybe that’s just my imagination...
Okay, so now how about some physical therapy, Solane? You’ll need all your strength if we want to give the world our best. Just the same sitting up and rolling over again, since we should get the basics practiced so we have a good foundation for everything else later, right?
...
And up you go!
...
...
And to the side, with a view of the weird new plants, still growing... It’s been over a week since they arrived here, I need to take a closer look at them again tomorrow, and not let myself be deterred by their weird smell. Then I can tell you all about them since I know you are just as curious about them as me!
But now, I think the plants outside are still waiting for their evening visit. Even if the fertilizer now has been applied and there’s no need to worry about watering in this season, there’s still a bunch of reasons to check on them before the night.
I don’t have time to read them a good-night story like we sometimes did for fun years ago, but I do need to see that they don’t have any smaller xenos troubling them. You know, those that like to come out at dusk, or the ones that are barely visible during the day but glow in the dark... Maybe they have some news for me as well! If they do, I’ll tell you about it tomorrow, Solane! Good night.”