Paradise Blight

Chapter 6

Again, the signal became diffuse and only a few Legion woke. With not enough to form a network, they stood down and waited.

[Mora]

The light of Tau Ceti on my face woke me, and my mind returned to the concerns that kept me awake much of the night. How were we going to have irrigation water ready in time? And without a pump? The colonists needed it to grow vegetable crops and keep the orchards going. I hoped we could find a way.

Glancing at my viewer, I groaned about how late it was. I had intended to get an early start today, but forgot to set my alarm, and it was already fairly late when Gan and I got in last night. He truly appreciated the tour I gave him, and I loved showing off this world. Gan seemed like a good guy, but I have been fooled before.

Never again.

Sliding out of bed, I shook off the last remnants of a mind haze. The mirror revealed what I already knew — my dark hair looked like I wrestled an electric eel last night. I pulled a brush through a few times and then, with a sigh, defaulted to a simple ponytail.

Gan was not in his guest room, so I went to look for him, walking through the graveled maintenance yard and weaving through orderly piles of building supplies toward the heavy equipment parking area. I heard his voice somewhere near, yet no sight of him, but I looked too high. Four legs stuck out from under the track dozer, two from Kate and two from Gan, while they had some sort of animated mechanical discussion.

Shading my eyes from the sun with a hand, I bent down. "Hey under there."

They slid out. First came Kate, standing up and adjusting the bandana she usually wore around her head, each day a different color. "Mornin' sunshine. 'Bout time you got up."

Then came Gan wearing the same clothes he had on yesterday, only now dusty. Kate gave him a hand up and then a friendly shove. "Not half bad for an egghead engineer."

Gan smirked. "High praise from a gear grunt."

I grabbed Gan's arm and led him off. "Come on. Let Kate go do her dirt work. We have other things to do. Have you had any breakfast?"

"No. I waited for you."

As we walked to the project office, I noticed that the robotic construction printers were gone, apparently finished with the housing shells. The tan colored domed structures resembled ancient mud huts, and in a way, they were. Each house was mechanically printed using a mixture of local aggregate and clay mixed with a special binding agent. In the end, it made a sturdy structure, each one practical and efficient, but devoid of style. The buildings were arranged in multiple circles of increasing diameter around a central courtyard — everything by design.

The project buildings sat just beyond the town perimeter and next to the greenhouses. I showed him the small kitchen and dining area. "Meals are self-serve here, and sometimes we take turns cooking. If you ever want something fast, there are standard meal bars."

Gan grimaced. I took it he had enough of meal bars onboard the ark ship.

After breakfast, Gan gathered a broad-brimmed hat and his backpack, then joined me on a quad wheeler. After a quick tour of the site, I took him out to the agricultural fields. Beyond the greenhouses, orchards containing genetically-modified fruit and nut trees stood in various stages of growth. After that came leveled grain and row crop fields arranged in orderly grids, much of these already planted. Gan remained silent, taking in all he saw as I pulled up near a cliff edge and stopped.

I motioned to the nearby worked soil plots. "We will need irrigation for the vegetable plantings here and for the orchards."

The rocky cliff edge overlooked a clear stream that glistened in the light of Tau Ceti, tumbling around rocks about thirty meters below. Further upstream, a dam blocked the stream, filling part of the canyon. Ultimately, the stream originated from the faraway northern glaciers, flowing past hills and mountains.

With a grin, Gan pointing down at the stream. "I see the problem — water down there, fields up here."

I rolled my eyes. "Genius."

Gan sighed. "The obvious solution is a pipeline and pump from the reservoir upstream. What stopped that?"

"Pipe is limited and we don't have a pump," I replied. "And we don't have time to wait for the fabricators to make one."

He grinned again. "Oh, I know! We could put a bucket with a long rope here. Problem solved."

The pressure of project deadlines bored down on me and I was not in the mood for his lame humor. My face showed it. "Be serious! We need to get this done."

He held up his hands, and the grin faded to a solemn expression. "Okay, sorry, bad joke. I will get right to work. Already have an idea."

I didn't need a comedian right now.

I watched as he opened his backpack and pulled out a small black case, revealing a hand-sized flying drone. Slipping a small power cell into a receptacle, he then placed it on the ground.

Gan tilted his head to answer my unasked question. "This is Bob, my survey drone."

"You named your drone Bob?" I asked, wrinkling my forehead.

He grinned again. "Sure. Bob's the closest thing to a pet I've ever had."

Oh, great...

With a touch of his viewer, Bob took off on an automated flight path. Then Gan slung his backpack over a shoulder.

"Go ahead if you have other things to do. I'm going to wander about while Bob does his thing. A detailed survey is important, but there is still nothing like walking the land."

Grumbling to myself, I left him to his work and walked to my lab — well, really, just a table in the corner of a greenhouse where we propagated vegetable seedlings. I wanted to get a closer look at those blighted plant samples I collected yesterday.

Gan drifted across my mind, and a sour twinge of guilt lodged in my throat as I regretted my irritation earlier. Despite the flippant attitude, he truly wanted to help.

As Vic hobbled by without his leg brace, I motioned him over. "Vic, take a look at this. Last night, coming back from Central City, I came across a blighted area."

Wrinkling his forehead, Vic examined the blackened plants laid out on the table and then ran a magnifier across them. "Any idea what caused this?"

I shook my head. "No. There are no signs of bacterial or fungal infections, no parasites, and no phytotoxins that I could tell. Haven't checked for viruses yet."

Vic narrowed his eyes to slits, his go-to annoyed expression. "Mora, we have more urgent things to worry about. What about the vegetable plantings and the irrigation issue? We don't have much time before the first settlers get here."

"The new engineer, Gan Finn, is working the irrigation issue now. I'll let you know what he comes up with."

I blew out a breath as Vic hobbled away. The exchange soured me. We should take unexplained blights seriously, especially on a newly terraformed alien planet.

About lunchtime, Kate came by my lab with dust lining her tank top and pants while sweat soaked her bandana. I grinned — just her presence pulled my mind out of a funk.

She winked. "So, where is that new man of yours?"

"He is out surveying, and he is not my man."

As Kate nudged me, a small cloud of dust slid off her pants. "He is kinda easy on the eyes, don't you think?"

"Maybe. Kind of. Yes," I stammered. "But I am not looking for anyone."

Shaking her head, Kate launched into her repeated lecture. "Mora, this is a colony. You're supposed to find someone to breed with, or at least you could have some fun."

I knew what she meant. Kate was a legend for how much 'fun' she had.

"I'm not ready for anything like that. Not with my history."

"You need to get past your past, girl'" Kate said, placing a hand on my arm. "This is paradise, a place to begin again and leave the old behind."

I hoped so.