'There's not a damn thing wrong with the peanuts,' Farah said. 'If anything they're stronger than most if they've survived this stuff at all.
'So it’s a fungus problem?'
'It's more complicated than that. The spike thing? That had me stumped, I looked through every database I knew before finally giving up and having the computer run a scan.'
'Unsuccessful?
'Far from it. Multiple results, took barely a second.'
'And?'
'It's the proboscis from an insect, left there somehow, my working theory is that when the pesticides they sprayed were some new variety not sanctioned by the Institute.'
'So the pesticides killed the insect and the fungus moved in? So if she stops spraying won't the mushroom by locked out?'
'Maybe. I found this proboscis without anything attached to it. Its very resilient, made of a carbon network actually, the computers think it’s a diamond. I’m worried that whatever pesticide she used is making the beetles mouth fall off. There could be thousands of the barbs already in the soil, and I have no idea how long they’ll last. Really sir, it’s not a problem I can solve, its far more complex than I had anticipated,’ Farah looked crestfallen.
Catalina nodded, immediately understanding. Yet this was what she knew she was going to have to do when they first lost Patrick Mercurian, this was why she tore up Roman's letter and didn't believe his new-formed man performance for a second. She opened her comm to Roman, but he didn’t answer. Catalina sighed inwardly then contacted Fin back up on the Artemis. 'Fin, get Ensign Jupiter to Farah's lab. We got a lot to go over. And prep Dr. Winston, looks like she has some explaining to do.'
'Err… Captain? I uh, that won't be possible sir.'
'Why not?'
'Jupiter and Dr. Winston left on Ultra-Reaper almost as soon as you got back. He said he had questions for her about true bugs or something. I'm sorry captain, I didn't know I was standing on orders to hold him here.'
‘It’s fine pilot. You wouldn’t have been able to stop him from up there anyway,’ Catalina said, hoping her comm unit didn’t pick up Farah’s rage.
'That barbarian! Just think what he's going to do to that poor girl. He was already going on about her glasses. She doesn't stand a chance. By the juice of a peach, if Ken so much as glances at him when he gets back I swear I'm going to-'
'Enough Officer. I'm sure we'll see Roman in the morning, one way or another. Until then I want you to keep developing your theory. If a pesticide killed these bugs a few years ago, why are they still having problems now, and what pesticide would kill a bug and leave its mouth?'
'Captain I think it might be best if we go after them,' Farah said through gritted teeth.
'We are not here to babysit our science officer. She asked to see an entomologist, she's going to see an entomologist.'
'Yeah, a lot of one.'
Catalina had never been so relieved to hear one of Ikamon’s poorly timed jokes. She nodded at the marine biologist and excused herself from the lab, hoping he could at least redirect some of Farah's outrage.
Chapter 16
Doctor La'Shay Winston found the entomologist Roman Jupiter a tad unorthodox, but then she'd never met an entomologist from an O-Class ship before. When she'd asked him for a briefing about what the insects were doing to her peanuts, he'd only grinned wolfishly and raised an eyebrow at her Ultra-Reaper. Hans Burbur, the resident entomologist, beekeeper, mead brewer and drunkard had never looked at another human the way Roman looked at La'Shay. She offered him a ride out to where the beetles had last been seen ravaging the crops, but Jupiter had told her to keep driving.
'But this where they're worst right now. I think it must have something to do with the nitrogen being fixed in the peanuts nodes, but unfortunately am not too familiar with uh, insects.'
Jupiter had smiled so wide when she'd stuttered that she'd blushed, not an easy thing to do with her dark caramel skin.
'I'm sure there is no one better suited to appraise and care for the poor arachis hypogea of Wholhom than your own marvelously magnified eyes. I would be honored to lend my humble expertise to your little operation here and thus leave this planet in a better state of balance than before I arrived, but first I fear I must get to know what grows upon this world. I have not seen creatures besides honeybees, humans and these dreaded black beetles you've spoken of, and seen no plants besides endless rows of arachis hypogea and the fruit and vegetable cultivars you had back in your city,' Roman set.
'Well there's not much else. We tend honeybees so we don't need a native pollinator population,' La'Shay said.
'Ah, apis meliflera, did you know that your humble work would make you, to your cousins, seem a jerk?'
La’Shay cocked her head. Had that rhyme been intentional? If it had it was an awful attempt at a limerick. 'It's not like we had any butterflies or anything. We're lucky Hans has been so successful with the honeybees.'
'I doubt that even the bright colors of an emperor swallowtail can compare to your beauty, yet I feel it is my responsibility to the Institute to see what has happened to the organisms that have made Wholhom fertile for peanut butter and honey.'
La'Shay felt herself bat her eyelashes. She had not been complimented by a man about anything besides jumpstarting an Ultra-Reaper in a long time. She wasn't particularly a fan of butterflies, but to hear this man compare her to something he found so beautiful was refreshing and attractive.
'Mr. Jupiter, our crops,' she began, trying not to let her mind wander to how alone they were out here.
'Please, call me Roman, and the particular creature I'm looking for has little agricultural purpose at all. Tell me, do you have fireflies upon this world?'
La'Shay was taken back. 'Fireflies? There might have been some in the reports, but I can't be certain.'
Roman's eyes gleamed.
'What significance can they possibly have to the peanuts?' La'Shay said.
'Probably little and less, but ecology has a way of doing things, and I'd like to see how it did them here before you so efficiently stream-lined it.'
La'Shay rolled her eyes at that and tried not to smile. Maybe Roman was burly and knew about bugs, but he also talked kind of flowery and didn't seem to know how to give a girl a straight compliment. They flew on, past the endless rows of peanuts until they reached Wholhom's mountain range. These mountains that were but bumps compared to the titans of Earth-5 were what produced rain from the evaporated water from the briny sea kilometers to the west. The foothills of these small mountains still contained all the various species that had once lived in what was now firmly the domain of the peanut. The corporate representative who had traded La’Shay a promise of peanuts for Ultra-Reapers had said that it wasn't worth it to plow the slopes, so here they were.
'Here we are,' La'Shay said, lowering the gravs on the Ultra-Reaper until it came to a rest on the craggy dirt.
Roman hopped off and immediately began to flit from flower to flower like a butterfly.
'Amazing, simply amazing,' he'd mumble now and then, capturing something in a tube or shaking a few seeds into a plastic envelope. La'Shay didn't see what was so impressive. Down below, a carpet of green was bringing commerce to this world, marred only here and there by the sickly yellow caused by the beetles. Up here, life was struggling to survive. Wispy grass clung to the reddish dirt, barely concealing it. Lanky flowers pressed up towards the sun and bland shrubs offered some texture to the otherwise drab scene. A few dandelions offered the largest dose of vitality. None of the plants made berries, for there was no way to spread them. There were no nuts, for they wouldn't travel well in the pods with the technology the Institute had possessed when they launched them. That the plants had gotten up the mountain this far was impressive in a way, considering only wind had carried them as no birds had been introduced by the colonists, and yet, Roman was totally enraptured.
'Ha! You have spreading cosmos. An unusual adaptation, a treat! I wonder… do you have green flies? Those ten
d to do well. Pollinators you know. Not showy like your butterflies but useful none the less. And ah yes… a few spiders, interesting you hadn't mentioned those.'
'I didn't realize they were significant to our problem,' La'Shay said.
'A spider’s web made of silk, proves many flies live and their ilk.’
‘What?’
Roman at least looked embarrassed when La’Shay didn’t respond enthusiastically to his rhymes.
‘I doubt spiders are significant to this particular problem, yet they are significant all the same. At the very least their abundance proves you have a healthy population of insects here, or you did.'
La'Shay was getting frustrated. It seemed Roman insulted and complimented her with every other sentence. 'Have you got your samples? I have a planet to tend.'
'There's just one more thing I…. there,' Roman grinned and La'Shay saw them.
Fireflies.
Just one illuminated the craggy foothills at first, but after a moment another replied back with an identical yellowish green blip. A few others began to illuminate their abdomens in the fading light and soon there were dozens of the insects lighting up the foothills. Roman carefully followed one with a sample jar in hand and caught it, then followed some invisible path until he spotted another insect, this one not lighting up at all, and scooped it up into the jar. The two fireflies began to copulate, and once that was under way Roman turned to La'Shay, his smile wide, his eyes moist with tears.
'My dearest Shay, never have I stepped foot on a planet where these darling creatures don't exist, and here they are on your humble world. Miraculous is it not?'
La'Shay shrugged. 'I guess, they were included in the Seedpods, weren't they? Makes sense that they're out here.'
'They were not on the Seedpods, or if they were they're not in the records, nor has anyone taken credit for releasing their beauty upon the Seeded worlds, yet I find a different variety on each and every world I visit, a trick of evolution under a dozen different suns to be sure, but that is not truly the most intriguing aspect of the mystery,' Roman waited a moment for La'Shay to say something, but she did not rise to the bait. Roman was undeterred, 'This is the only plant or animal that is on every world. Not even the mighty cockroach can claim that feat, nor can any single variety of plant, well, except for algae and cyanobacteria but those are everywhere, even Officer Relkor’s not impressed with that. This creature, the humble firefly, is the only animal, save humans, to find a place on every world it has touched and currently I believe it is outpacing even our colonial efforts. I do not know why or how, only that it is a miracle, and each world is more beautiful because of them.'
'So what purpose do they serve?'
'Little and less. They do not pollinate, nor serve as a protein source for people nor a particularly rich soil additive. They are, in my opinion, one of the few aesthetic choices that went into making these alien ecosystem, and because of that choice I feel I owe someone in the Institute my life's work to go and find if they truly can survive on every world.'
'I doubt someone chose them because they were pretty.'
'But dear Shay, look at what they do to your glasses. Where before, all I could see were your beautiful brown eyes reflecting the setting sun so magnificently, now I can see the fireflies reflected back and they make you practically sparkle, like stars lost in the darkness of your skin.'
'All you talk about is my glasses,' La'Shay said, removing them and polishing them on her coat, wondering when Roman had given her a pet name and why she hadn’t noticed.
‘I had not fully appreciated you without them. Before, in the light of your sun, I found you beautiful, but now, under the stars, you are positively resplendent. Tell me, were you born here?'
'No. No one has been except a few dozen kids.'
'Then how lucky it was you found a planet that so perfectly matches your complexion,' Roman said knelt down and picked a few flowers, the spreading cosmos. Once in hand he gently approached her and put them in her hair, 'There, see? What better color for your dark hair than the white and faintest touch of purple that the cosmos have? You are a creature of this world, as much its protector as any other, and I am sure you were meant to be here, as sure as I am you were meant to steal my heart in these dusty foothills.'
'Stop talking?' La'Shay managed.
Oh? Roman looked as if he wanted to say, but La'Shay was on him, her lips found his and they embraced, kissing passionately as the fireflies danced around them.
Roman started on her mouth, but soon as she let him he was kissing her neck, then caressing her shoulders as he slowly undressed her, whispering how beautiful her skin was underneath the light of the stars. He lay her lab coat on the ground perhaps a bit too smoothly, clearly an experienced hand, but then La'Shay forget everything as his tongue found her breasts, her nipples, her clitoris. She trembled with pleasure as Roman alternated between pleasing her with his mouth and reciting his heavy-handed naturalist poetry to her. Eventually she told him to stop talking and he obliged, focusing more on kissing and caressing every inch of her naked body. Her skin tingled in the cold where the heat of his body wasn't pressed against her. Her skin tingled with anticipation.
'Are you sure?' Roman asked gently, and she nodded, and then he was inside of her and the fireflies blended with the stars and for a moment everything was perfect.
She came to minutes or hours later, wrapped in her labcoat and covered in Roman's uniform. He slept naked on the dirt, a big grin on his face, bigger even than his erection. La'Shay considered him for a moment, how quickly he'd disarmed her, but she quickly concluded she did not really care. He was kind, intelligent enough, certainly handsome, in a roguish bear-like sort of way, and he had something about him, a refreshing blend of no-nonsense masculinity and tended femininity that made him seem perhaps too nonthreatening. She wondered how many women he'd been with before, and decided that while she didn't really mind, she also didn't really want to go again. She threw his coat at his penis and he woke up with a start, his wolfish grin growing sheepish.
'Nice moves loverboy, now we got a planet to save.'
Chapter 17
La'Shay tried to argue with Roman but eventually conceded. Dawn was spectacular on Wholhom. The sunrise itself wasn't particularly beautiful. What little precipitation fell on Wholhom primarily fell on the tops of the mountains whose foothills they now resided upon in the form of snow. Cold mountain brooks were diverted to irrigate the peanut fields before joining together to form the river that ran through Hearth and into the briny sea, thus completing the planet's lackluster water cycle. Not many clouds floated through the air, so sunrise was lacking the garish purples and reds Roman assured La'Shay the other planets had. What Roman found so beautiful, and La'Shay came to admit was beautiful as well, was watching Nature wake up.
First the crickets awakened. Finally warm after their long night, they began to sing. Then the dirt itself seemed to come to life as tiny gnats and beetles scurried about, racing for a meal. After them came the predators, a scant few spiders, vigilant after a night spent constructing their webs. A few wasps and flies flew about, looking for less alert individuals to predate upon. La'Shay had only the faintest memories of bird songs from Earth-2, and Wholhom wouldn’t have the biomass to support them for years yet. She hadn’t ever realized that without them, the insects could still make so much noise. What was most impressive though, what La'Shay-as a botanist-was ashamed she'd never witnessed before, was the rising of the flowers. The creeping cosmos especially were a treat to watch. Roman insisted La'Shay watch the flowers instead of him dressing. He said to see man clothed or naked was to see him at his best, but between states he was vulnerable. La'Shay could understand what he meant as he roughly tugged on his green uniform, first hopping from leg to leg, then struggling to get the top half of the coverall zipped up and over his hairy torso. She understood why he preferred the cosmos. They did the opposite. While Roman dressed, the cosmos undressed. Each blossom started as a tiny ball that w
ithin a few moments unfurled into countless delicate white petals, touched with the faintest hint of purple, and a yellow center nearly invisible to La'Shay. She felt ashamed that she'd never watched this sensual display of brazen sexuality before, but then, she knew why. She was a licensed terraformer, trained at the finest school on Earth-2. An entire planet, and nearly fifty thousand people depended on her skills and knowledge of botany to survive. Her mission was to produce as many calories as possible to feed the masses, power their internal combustion engines to put a little good old carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to jump start global warming, and perhaps produce enough peanuts to start interplanetary commerce with Bulletar or Tanagra. Doctor La'Shay Winston didn't have time to look at flowers unfurl, nor did she have time to chase fireflies or marvel at the color of a fly. She had a world to establish, beekeepers to keep happy, peanuts to grow and an economy to start.
'Roman, it's time we talked about what's happening to my peanuts.'
'I agree. I'm glad we had last night together. You have a passion in you I find intoxicating, a sense of duty and responsibility that I'm sure this world will need to survive. I'm sure you'd stop at nothing to save this planet.'
'What is that supposed to mean?'
'I looked at your peanut plants while you were out there with the captain and first officer Relkor. I didn't know what to think, but now it's so clear. I forgive you Shay! With an open heart we can get through this.'
Fireflies and Cosmos: Interstellar Spring Book 1 Page 7
