6 Billion A.D./Leaving Love

Tentative Synopsis: Rigel finds himself on the planet of the immortals, falling in love, but also needing to leave after a short time.

Non-Plant Growth

We arrived at the planet but there was nothing there. The screen was black. Where is it? It’s hidden from view. We have to go through the field to get there. Let me send the signal for entry... we passed through the field and a small, green planet came into view. “There she is, home to the immortals.”

"That's what it looks like?!"

-

Vespa worked almost around the clock at her desk. She ransacked the data banks for any hint as to what different strains of virii could develop. From esoteric species that only survived in volcanic lava, to common species that may have evolved mutants. Anything was fair game.

-

The other workers in the data center were also quite dedicated, of course. One doesn't volunteer for, let alone get selected for, such a mission into pandemic space, without serious dedication. However, Vespa felt a sense of urgency even beyond what the others felt. For her, it was an intense drive that wouldn't let her sleep at night.

-

On her screen, Vespa watched the virus modeling software update itself. A new release had been pushed from back at the base. Only now was it arriving. With it, virus models would work faster and more accurately. While it installed, Vespa looked into her visor.

-

Watching an extrapolation video, she could see the virus model she had been working on as it spread out from the edges of the infected zone. The video started from before the present, and it didn't quite match what had happened. So that ruled out her model. Time to find another.

-

The Order's army of chemical technicians marched into the giant lab, where the chemical supplies had been delivered. There, in their white lab coat uniforms, they finished unpacking the cases, and set to work. Time to do what they did best: chemistry!

-

In equipment that sat on their lab benches, the chemists quickly and effortlessly set up a large number of small fusion reactors. Each one connected to the power grid, sending out enormous amounts of electricity. Some of this was sent by electromagnetic radiation out into space, to be picked up by receivers on other Order units, such as ships or settlements.

-

Rigel hurried through the hallways, through every last corridor he could find. He didn't know this part of the ship very well, but he rushed by instinct and a general sense of how ships are built. Around every corner her turned, and into every open doorway, he looked for her. No sign of Sophiy.

-

Sophiy stood in a quiet corner of the room.

-

"Woah," said an officer, as Rigel brushed by. "Slow down!"

Rigel kept going, not even looking back.

-

Back at the League base, they watched the track of the ship on which Rigel rode. On their visors, and on large open screens, the status report updated whenever new information arrived from the ship. The map also showed in bright red the regions where the pandemic had spread. Orange regions showed places in danger of being infected next. There was also a yellow region, for places that may later become at risk. The ship was well into the red region.

-

"Should we send in another ship?" asked a high-ranking military member.

"No," said a leader of the pandemic control team. "We can't afford to lose any more."

-

Vespa's hands hurt from controlling the model so long, she had a throbbing headache, and her body was on the verge of collapse from fatigue. But she kept at it anyways.

-

As electricity surged through the Order's units, fabrication kicked into action. Heavy equipment pumped out of numerous space factories. Thousands of battleships poured forth.

-

The Order was rebuilding itself into the largest fighting force in the region.

-

With the new input of fusion power, the Order now produced more electricity than the League or any other group. And this was just a start.

-

At a meeting of the secret core of the League, reports of large-scale Order deployments came to their attention.

"I thought they were just a pipsqueak?" said one representative.

"Not anymore."

Fights for Lives

... That’s when I saw her. The most beautiful thing I had ever seen. My eyes widened, jaw dropped, blood rushed to my face, strange energies circulated my body, every part of me tingled, my feet grew heavy. Then my heart started racing, so fast it was terrifying, as if it stopped beating. I wanted to run, dive, lunge, I don’t know whether towards her or away. I think I jumped in the air. Was I floating? Her face... Time stopped, for how long I’m not sure, as I tip-toed towards her, unaware that I was moving. I would have walked passed her if she had not stopped me. “A new face! How exciting.” “New. Face.” I regained my compusure, “yes, I recently arrived here.”

...

The weeks passed like seconds. I was alive. I was in love. We talked about everything. She knew so much. I could tell she was old, though it was hard to reckon with her youthful appearance. But she would never tell me how old she exactly was... ... We walked through the garden... ...

Where is She?

I woke up and she was gone. I searched everywhere... It was the worst day of my life.

I felt empty inside. Then, remembering that I still had a job, and a mission, I felt at least some relief.

It's so tough. I don't even know what to say, what to do, what to think, what to feel.

I checked the database. Sophiy had taken a shuttle and left in the middle of the night. Gone without a trace.

After I had invested so much time, effort, emotion into her. There she went. Not a word for me.

Was I an idiot? What was wrong with me? How could I not have seen this coming?

Plant Advances

Rigel felt his body changing further. As the plant cells merged with his own, they imbued his body with more plant traits.

-

"This plant kills rogs and related species."

-

"Plants are in many ways greater than us," said Rigel. "There are plants so small that you can't see them with the naked eye. There are plants so big that one specimen covers an entire continent. There are plants that grow in space, without any of this silly protection. The plants were around long before we were, and they'll be here long after we're gone."

-

Rigel felt breast tissues growing. Later, he developed female reproductive organs. "It's like how plants can have both sexes," explained his nurse.

-

"Isn't that sort of, you know, weird?" asked Vespa.

"It is," said Rigel. "But it's part of the process. I'm willing to accept it for a chance at finding a cure. Also, I'm getting to like it."

"You are?"

"Yeah. I feel more full. Like I'm complete in some sense. Before I was only half a person. You should try it."

-

"You want to take the medicine, but you're not even infected?"

"Yes," said Vespa. She had taken an interest in the ambisexual side effects.

-

Rigel was somewhat flattered, yet also confused. While he liked Vespa, and was happy that they now had another activity to share, he also felt that she was becoming too close for him. Too close for her own good, as well as his.

-

The plant contained genetic coding that had survived for billions of years. It, the genetic code, had passed into a fertilizing insect. The insect, unknowingly, carried the genes in its eggs. Some of those eggs landed in a mineral deposit that coated the package of genes, toughening it against the compressive effects of the collapse. Then, after the collapse, the eggs gave birth to more insects. Over the years, the plant genes made their way back out into other soil-digging bodies. Rigel handled some leaves.

-

High on some Tuberus gratium, Rigel and Vespa floated about in zero-g. After making love, they hovered for a while. The effects of the plant enhanced the experiences, of their sensuous activities and of just hanging out in mid-air.

-

Rigel took to experimenting on himself. Looking up entries in the Botanist's Book, he would then take a clipping of a plant, or roll up some of its leaves, and try the remedy. He had become desperate for a cure. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

-

As many of the plant concoctions as he tried, Rigel continued to test positive. His body grew weaker. His mind lost strength.

-

The plant chambers contained hyper--efficient lighting, to reproduce the light conditions on the various plants and asteroids where they came from. Some asteroids flew very near to stars. Their populations, including people and plants, had adapted to the bright conditions.

-

Plants growing near a star didn't need to use all the incoming light, as there was so much of it. They had adapted to defend their turf, against encroaching plants of the same or other species. Each plant that could maintain a place so close to a star managed to generate immense stores of energy.

-

It was difficult to maintain any chemistry, let alone biochemistry, so close to a star. This set a minimum distance at which plants could grow. Within this was a "dead zone," where not much survived.

-

Some of the plants in Rigel's chamber were climbers. These spread over the walls of the chamber, making a humorous contrast between the millions-of-years-old plants and the very recent vintage of the ship.

-

"Every few million years there's a collapse. Gradually the worlds rebuild. Stars, planets, plants, animals. Then it doesn't take long for warfare to produce another collapse."

"So that explains why things seem so recent. I mean, after billions of years, you'd expect something different. But I guess if there's recently been a collapse, then people haven't yet developed up to some of the previous levels that civilizations have reached."

Plants and Virii

Vespa glanced over the data. It didn't look promising. The different virii she had been playing with in silico had mostly died. Not able to survive even outside the body, these were unlikely to be the culprits.

-

She let the generator produce its own virii. After specifying a few settings, such as the complexity of the virii, she let the computers determine their structure. Up until now, she had been providing far more detail, down to individual molecular bonds.

The computer processed for a while. It started kicking out some of the simpler virus models almost immediately. The larger, more complicated ones would take several local days to finish. As her computer worked, Vespa paused to have a snack.

-

One of the auto-generated virii incorporated some vanadium into its DNA. A strange choice, though Vespa, who didn't even know that the computers could add vanadium into models.

-

Rigel had never even seen the data center before. Of course he had some idea of what went on within its walls, but it felt different to actually be here.

The spartan chairs, the screens that let workers overlay data from their visors, and not much else. Rigel had thought that there would be more. More decorations, more plants, more anything. But it was just that: a data center.

-

"So, these are some of the models we're working with," said Vespa. She sent a few models to Rigel's visor. "This is one of mine, which I've personally been working on for the last few weeks," she added.

Rigel rotated the virus model in three dimensions. He had a decent understanding of virus biology, from his studies of plant virii. Still, he was unsure of many facts about these virii that infected people, and the finer points of virus biology.

"Is it supposed to fold over like that?" asked Rigel? "I thought virii formed mats or meshes of their colonies."

"Most do," said Vespa. "That's one of the interesting features of this strain. It's actually why I took an interest in this strain in the first place."

"Why does this strain twist around like that?"

"We're still not sure. It seems like some sort of adaptation. These guys don't die easily."

"But what could they adapt to? Didn't you design the virus in your computers?" Rigel said, pointing to the data banks.

"They're adapting to the virtual environments I'm making for them. Which come from laboratory libraries. So they should be very much comparable to the biological environments in which they have to survive."

"In which they would have to survive," corrected Rigel.

"No, in which they do have to survive," said Vespa. "I've already sent these to production. We have living examples. Out there."

"Wait, you've instantiated these virii in DNA? And you don't even understand their basic structure? Isn't that dangerous?"

"Being on this ship in the first place is dangerous," said Vespa.

-

"These plants reproduce by seed," said Rigel to the young student, who unbeknownst to both of them at the time would later become in charge of the ship's plant chambers.

"What do the seeds look like?" asked the student.

"Let me see if there are any now. Ah, here." Rigel handed the younger botanist a large, round seed. "Remarkable, isn't it?"

"Yes," said the student. "It's much brighter than I would have thought."

"Even after all my years as a professional botanist, I still like to think about how this one seed could reproduce an enormous tree, and even more than that, could sow billions of descendants."

"Like one of our sex cells," said the student.

"Good thinking!"

-

"This one is used for food production," said Rigel, handing the apprentice another plant. "You probably had some in your meal last night?"

"How do they make it into food?" the rough plant had a hard skin, and seemed inedible.

"It requires processing. First they soak it for a number of hours. That removes some of the toxins. What? Yes, it's toxic raw. They remove the skin, boil the flesh, then grind it into a paste. It's that stuff that they put in the appetizer pies."

"Oh," said the student, with an air of recognition.

-

"Yes, plants have remarkable properties," said Rigel. "Much of society wouldn't be feasible without plants. Our species wouldn't even be here without plants. You should familiarize yourself with this," he said, sending a copy of the Botanist's Book of Craft and Lore to the student's visor.

-

Late into the night, and early in the morning, Rigel went into the plant chambers. For him, it wasn't just a job, but an overriding passion, a mission. Rigel was a botanist's botanist.

-

Where other botanists would have left work to partake in other activities, Rigel's other activities were also botanical. He often read about plants in his time off.

-

Vespa came by the plant chambers more frequently. She liked learning from Rigel. The different plants, their uses. She found the ten-g plants funny.

-

"Why are these plants so thick?" asked Vespa.

"Because they need to be strong enough to survive the gravitational field. They come from large planets, which we mimic here with our rotating plant chamber. The gravity would destroy most structures. So they have a dense matrix of fibers. It interconnects the plant organs, enabling it to survive. Without these ridiculous suits," he added, pointing to their ten-g suits.

"Why can't it just be spread out more?"

"Then it would get torn apart by the gravity. It's like how birds have hollow bodies to fly in lighter air. Or zorboxes have those vacuum sacs, to float around in zero-g. These plants have adapted to ten-g."

"I wonder what it's like on their planet," said Vespa dreamily.

-

"This section," said Rigel, as they entered a region of the plant chamber cordoned off with solid glass, "is for genetically engineered plants."

"What are those, exactly?" asked Vespa. She knew the term from her reading in the data center. But for her it still conjured up dark, mysterious images. Now she wanted to hear Rigel's side of the story.

"They're plants in which we've inserted genes from other organisms. Or in some cases, genes which we've made ourselves."

"Oh!" let out Vespa, with a shock of recognition. "Sort of like the viruses that we design and then print."

"Exactly!" said Rigel.

"So what kinds of plants have you engineered?"

"Well, we have this one. It contains about 35% monkey genes, which allows it to produce blood for testing mammal virii. Also, around 10% zertox genes."

-

The ship had brought with them a large number of plant specimens. Far larger, still, was the collection of plant seeds, cuttings, and other reproductive snippets. These enable the ship to store virtually the entire gamut of plant DNA from its starting sector.

Along its journey, the ship collected plant samples from many of the planets, asteroid, and floating space settlements that they encountered. Rigel often descended from the ship, along with the medical personnel, security forces, and others. There, he would scour any plant materials he could find, for later analysis onboard.

-

On one asteroid, HT518934, which was sparsely populated, Rigel found a rare flower. It later turned out not have any medical effects. But Rigel like the way the pink flower looked, and its aroma which reminded him of arid environments where he'd spent some of his youth. So Rigel added some of these to his personal collection.

-

In the data center, Vespa started adding a few plant genes into her virus models. It wasn't part of her job, but it also wasn't forbidden. In these desperate circumstances, staff had been granted a wide margin for experimentation. Anything that could yield a cure.