Fireflies and Cosmos: Interstellar Spring Book 1

by J. Darris Mitchell

  La'Shay felt her skin grow hot, 'I don't have to explain myself to you! The Institute was failing us. This has been going on for years and they haven't responded.'

  'Just tell me what was in it and we can work together to fix what's been done.'

  'I don't know what it was, just that it worked, that it had been working for years, and didn't contaminate the peanuts at all. Ms. Relkor couldn't even find anything wrong with them. The Institute is not supposed to be some regulatory body. It's too big and has too many missions. You can't expect them to keep up to date on every synthetic pesticide discovered out here. It's survival, that’s it. We can't be bothered with biomass, we have lives on the line.'

  'Don't think for a moment I don't care about you Shay Winston, but my heart goes out for the organisms struggling to survive here as well. I believe they'll be able to protect you better than I can,' Roman said and sighed. 'You tried to end part of the problem and you made it worse. Your big heart got in the way of your brilliant mind. The beetles were protecting your plants.'

  'What are you talking about?'

  Roman walked down the scrubby hill towards the peanut fields. He turned and held out a hand for her to hold, 'Come along Darling.'

  La'Shay hated him in that moment, but she followed, her fists clenched.

  'I don't give a shit about your damn beetles. I sprayed them with it and watched their little bodies melt into nothing. A DNA decombiner, that's what he called it. Said it'd break up the genome of the things and it did. Too bad I forgot the genome's in every cell.'

  Roman plucked a beetle off of a peanut plant. 'These beetles mean the peanuts no more harm than I do you.' Roman tenderly brought the bug up to her face, as if it was a flower instead of a disgusting beetle. 'Look at its mouth, it has mandibles. This little guy is a predator. No doubt some iteration of the ladybug. And you know what ladybugs eat? Aphids, a type of true bug with a long tube like mouth that sucks juices from healthy plants.’

  La'Shay's mind spun. 'Why would the Institute send aphids on the Seedpods?'

  'They didn't, not any more than they sent black ladybugs, which, just like you, are a beauty unique to Wholhom and don't exist on Earth-1 or any other planet. What they sent were true bugs, creatures with tubes for mouths, like cicadas. These evolved on your world, perfectly suited to it just like you, probably because you planted so many peanuts and took away whatever weeds they were eating to survive, but worry not, we will solve this.'

  'But why would the Institute send an insect that eats plants at all?'

  'In case you had weeds, or some virus came through, or maybe just because they're on every continent of Earth and provide a food source and source of biomass. It wasn't intentional peanut-sabotage, I’m sure the tiny things evolved here, and besides, it looks like you did a spectacular job of eradicating them. It is curious though, I’d have hoped to see a living specimen of the aphid. The Institute sent exclusively the larger variety of true bugs to use as a possible food source. Cicadas are especially delicious. Yet the aphids here are so tiny you never noticed them. Do you know when they first appeared?'

  'I didn't know they existed. I thought it was the beetles that were destroying the peanuts,’ La’Shay said.

  'No, they were just responding to a food source helpless to their hunger, as was I when I first saw your beautiful dark eyes. However, I fear our problems are much worse now.'

  'What are you talking about?'

  'If you've been spraying a genome decombiner on both the aphids and their predators, and letting that drip into the soil, where you say no trace of it has been found, I wonder where it went. Have you tested everything? What did First Officer Relkor say about the fungus?'

  'That she'd never seen any so strong.'

  'I think you unintentionally gave the fungus its strength. I don't know if we'll be able to fix this. We should tell the others, unless…' he grinned wolfishly.

  'Get in the Ultra-Reaper, let's move.’

  Chapter 18

  'And you have no idea who this person was?' Captain Mondragon’s tone of voice was clinical.

  'No sir. Just that his products worked.'

  'Goddamn genetech smugglers. You know what you did is an interstellar offense? You could have killed this whole planet,' Farah Relkor said.

  'Could have?' La’Shay ventured a weak smile.

  Colonists were always the same. Didn't think rules had a purpose until they broke them and wanted someone to blame. 'First Officer what's our plan?'

  'Working on it Captain. I've never seen anything like this. Some kind of chemical killed the aphids. Whatever it was melted them down to their genomes. I didn't even think that was possible, to split apart the cells of a creature and leave its DNA to be scooped up, but it looks like it is. Here's the weird part though, the chemical left the proboscises. So what we have now is a fungus with an aphid’s hunger for peanuts. How that even works is going would take me months to figure out, but we have more pressing concerns. The mouths of the aphids are made of incredibly durable chains of carbon. They’re hard as hell to break down and they're everywhere. I put their numbers in the millions. It's like someone took the knives from the bugs and gave them to the fungus, but only after teaching it how to expertly wield them.'

  'True bugs,' Roman interjected.

  Farah rolled her eyes and continued, ‘The pesticide you showed us was this toxic chemical that for some reason was mixed with a virus that then took the aphids’ genome and inserted it into the mycelium when they made contact, giving the fungus an appetite, so to speak. The fungus then spread this very successful mutation through itself, and essentially transformed itself from a transport network of minerals and nitrogen into a parasite.'

  'Why would anyone do this? It sounds horrible,' La'Shay said lamely.

  'Probably because whatever chemical they were dumping doesn't work on every planet. Insects adapt quickly, but the genes that hold them together, well that's another matter entirely, dearest Shay' Roman said.

  'Either that or it was deliberate corporate sabotage disguised as a smuggler,' Kensei said.

  All eyes turned to him. He shrugged.

  'It was standard practice back on Earth. Introduce a problem, in this case the aphids that Ensign Jupiter cannot seem to explain, then offer a patented solution, this virus and chemical pesticidal slurry. I say corporate because if it destroys the mycelium here, then all the better to build a burbdome. The Institute would have failed the Charter and the colonists’ claims would be lost. I think the carbon mouthparts of the aphids are the smoking gun. There's no way anything like that could have gotten out here unless someone made it and brought it, probably whoever sold you the genetech to wipe it out.’

  ‘I think that’s a little farfetched Ken, even for you,’ Farah said.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Roman said. ‘They have the means and the motive.'

  ‘How would the companies that build burbdomes and rocket ships know how to make a virus that can break apart cells?’ La’Shay asked.

  ‘Ah, your time on bountiful Wholhom has made you forget what life is like for those in the burbdomes. I, however, was just recently freed from one. They don’t compost their waste and grow their own food like you do here. It’s simply not possible with the densities of those things and how the labor is primarily geared to building more burbdomes. Some of their food is made hydroponically, leafy greens are tough to print, but the vast majority of the calories I had to eat to survive in that place come from printed white breads, potato paste and nutritionally optimized meat from their protein caves. All of that is simple enough to create from human feces after its been broken down into its constituent proteins by a bacteria with the proper digestive system. But worry not, we won't have to eat that slime.’

  ‘What does that have to do with my aphids and fungus?’ La'Shay said.

  ‘Well, the Corps are familiar with breaking apart organics, sweetheart,’ Roman said.

  Farah shot up, excited. ‘An effective method of creating geneticall
y modified organisms is to insert a desirable gene into a virus and then infect an organism- be it a plant, bacteria, or fungus- with that virus. The virus then inserts itself into the DNA of the host and begins to replicate, spreading the artificial genome throughout the organism as it grows. Really what we’re seeing here on Wholhom has happened on a dozen colonized worlds, in thousands of labs, millions of times. Every bacteria in the bowels of the burbdomes is a genetically modified organism designed to turn feces back into nutritious slop as efficiently as possible.’

  ‘That’s disgusting,’ La’Shay said.

  It was Farah’s turn to shrug. ‘I mean we use GMOs in the fuel cells of the Artemis too. And the Corps, much as I hate them, probably just used modified bacteria from the human intestine to achieve their results.’

  ‘I still don’t understand how this effects the fungus.’

  ‘I’d imagine that whatever virus did this to Wholhom doesn’t normally exist outside of a corporate laboratory. It’s probably too unstable, and that’s probably why we can’t find any trace of it except for the effects on the fungus. I bet if I had time and a control to compare it to I could untangle the virus from the fungus. You took a sample before starting all this?’ Farah asked expectantly.

  La’Shay shook her head no.

  ‘All botanists should take a control before attempting to re-engineer a planet.’ Farah rolled her eyes. ‘As it stands I haven’t found a non-aggressive specimen of the infected species, so there’s no way to prove any of this interstellar court, but Jupiter’s right. The Corps are certainly capable of this kind of thing. They’ve engineered hundreds of bacteria, not to mention their meatcaves. The genetic transfer of the eating habits of an aphid to a fungus is less obviously useful than the transfer of the genome that makes a cow taste good to the artificial organism in their meatcaves for example, but it’s still possible.’

  ‘And if Ikamon’s hypothesis is correct, then it seems the Corps have found a way to profit off of destroying the ecosystems that have been evolving on the Seeded Worlds,’ Roman said.

  Ikamon nodded sagely. ‘Before the Institute was always called in if there were problems, but by putting your planet in debt first, then convincing you to do something illegal and thereby sacrificing your claim to this place, they sat to gain first a parcel of land and then another for the price of a few Ultra-reapers.’

  ‘And if they get a foot in on a planet like this, it’ll be all theirs,’ Farah said, shaking her head.

  ‘Surely it’s not that bad. We promised them land beyond the mountains. How will a burbdome over there bother us? I’ve heard Bulletar has whole jungles that the Corps don’t touch.’ La’Shay said.

  ‘Bulletar is a hot, wet planet. By the time people settled there, trees had almost evolved from shrubs. There is plenty of water, and the plant growth is so fecund in places it regrows before a crew can finish surveying an area big enough for even a 100k burbdome. Wholhom, beautiful as it is, is a bit more fragile. A 500K dome would drain your water quick as anything. Which would mean no more peanuts, not more hobby farms. We'd probably have to buy their filtered water,’ Roman said and grimaced.

  ‘It’s fluoridated, you know? But try claiming you have rights to fresh muddy water under the Charter in an interstellar court. The Corps that run the burbdomes have interplanetary lawyers and five hundred thousand clients per dome. While you try to fight through the appeals process the water cycle you’re trying to establish is being sucked up for their showers and whatnot,’ Ikamon said.

  La’Shay’s eyes were growing wider. ‘So you really think that this is corporate sabotage?’

  ‘The paranoia has gone on long enough. I will not be including any of this conversation in my captain’s log, understand Ikamon?' Captain Mondragon said, hoping that her tone sounded as if she believed her words. He shrugged, understanding that she wanted him to write down his theories so she could see them when they weren’t with a groundworm. Catalina was always thankful for his easy-going attitude, but sometimes wished he had the tact not to speak that way in front of groundworms. They already tended to be suspicious of spacers, better to not make them doubt the ability of Institute to uphold the Charter. Catalina had to redirect the conversation to what was at hand. There would plenty of time for conspiracy theories on the ride out of the Wholhom's gravity well and to Epsilon-V. ‘You broke the Charter and messed with some highly unorthodox GMO, but let's look at the big picture, what's the status of the planet?'

  'Sir, the seas look to be in good shape. No fish, but a few varieties of clams, snails and shrimp have taken hold in the briny sea. The clams especially are quite delicious sir.' Ikamon saluted.

  'Sir, plant life is tenacious. There is a strong stock of wildflowers past the mountains and the peanuts are doing great despite being attacked by the predatory fungus. If this problem was diminished or in some way solved, I would deem this planet to not only have good air but also healthy soil, sir,' Relkor saluted.

  'Sir… there are some great looking fireflies out there as well as a hungry and cannibalistic ladybug. I've never seen it before but have successfully gotten to eat a mushroom. I can't be certain if it’s all black or just one big black spot, but I have taken samples. The bee colonies they tend are doing very well. No mites. No colony collapse. Oh I also saw some spiders.'

  'Ensign Jupiter, your point?' Catalina said.

  'Sir, yes, sir! I thought I had already mentioned it, sir, and was trying to show how healthy life here on Wholhom seems to be. I think La'Shay made a mistake but now that it is fixed will not make it again. I would like the record to show she is a passionate beautiful woman with spectacular eyes.'

  'Ensign, what is the damn solution?'

  'Sir! The ladybugs sir! They are cannibalistic, which means they are hungry. If we can show them the fungus is a better source of food than the aphid population that caused their population to boom, they can probably handle any outbreaks of the predatory mushroom. If they outstrip their usefulness, they'll just eat each other, the population will crash until the mushroom blooms again, and the ladybugs will come to dine. I believe it will take a few crops, but so long as there is the native stock of insects for them to forage on between mushroom blooms, they should do a very good job of limiting the death of the peanuts.'

  'God damn it, Jupiter,' Farah said. 'That's fucking brilliant.'

  Roman Jupiter smiled so wide even Farah found it charming.

  Chapter 19

  'This is fantastic! So that means we can just release more ladybugs!' La'Shay said.

  Catalina looked from the groundworm scientist to her crew. Ikamon had an amused smile, Farah rolled her eyes and Roman laughed.

  'What's so funny?' La'Shay asked.

  'We don't have any ladybugs,' Catalina said.

  'And even if we did, they probably wouldn't do well on here. But that's not a problem, we have all the ladybugs you need here on Wholhom,' Roman said.

  'So what, we just go gather ladybugs?'

  'The problem I think is twofold. One, most of the ladybugs, besides my friends here,’ Roman held up a flask of the black ladybugs, ‘don't know how to eat the mushrooms, but I think that's a problem solved easily enough. If I could teach these ones, I'm sure I could teach more. The larger problem is that ladybugs cannot nest on peanuts. The texture is all wrong of course, not to mention the smell,' Roman waived his hand in front of his nose distastefully.

  'What are you suggestingr?' Catalina said.

  'Simple. When we came in by shuttle craft I took a photospectral reading of the landmass on the other side of the mountain. It has roughly the same chromatograph reading as the foothills where La'Shay and I rediscovered the beauty of life.'

  La'Shay blushed, 'that is to say, Ensign Jupiter showed me the bounties of Wholhom's natural splendor.'

  'More specifically I showed you things you could do with yours,' Jupiter said.

  La'Shay blushed even more furiously.

  'Anyways,’ Farah rolled her eyes, ‘so what are you
thinking, standard D and S?'

  Jupiter nodded, 'Pretty much, I noticed you brought down some red gramma seeds, can you afford that?'

  Farah nodded, 'Yes, and some buffalo grass as well.'

  'Are you serious?' Ikamon muttered in Japanese.

  La'Shay looked confused, 'I don't understand, you want to plant grass? Why? We have grass. What's a D and S?'

  'A dig and swap. O-Class ship talk for saying we're about to do a whole lot of work. Doctor I believe you mentioned that you have idle hands on this planet. Summon them. All of them. What numbers are we talking here?' Catalina said.

  'I would think, assuming we want to keep production at its current levels so as to honor the botanist’s debts to the Corps and avoid collection, they'd have to start with twenty-five percent? There abouts?' Farah said.

  'Darwin,' Ikamon cursed.

  'I still don't understand,' La'shay said, 'we have to dig?'

  'Doctor, due to your actions you have severely depleted the abilities of this planet to regulate itself. The toxin you introduced has caused the fungus that is supplying your peanuts with the nutrients they need to evolve into an aggressive predatory species. My crew believe that the only viable option to save something of this planet's current ability to support life and an economy is to transplant twenty-five percent of your peanuts- over the mountains?' Catalina eyed Roman, who nodded, 'Over the mountains and replace them with transplanted wildflowers of some variety- possibly the cosmos in your hair.' Roman nodded again.

  'But, we have over a hundred thousand hectares of peanuts! We don't have the machines to process that much land. Transplanting all that would take the entire population of the planet, can't we just kill the fungus?'

  'Impossible,' Farah said. 'At least not without destroying whatever non-aggressive species of fungi you still have. We might've been able to try a virus, but considering that you're already being ravaged by a trangenetic virus, I don't think that would be wise. If we were to spray some sort of all-purpose fungicide, I have no idea what it would do regarding that virus. It might mutate the bacteria in the nodes of the peanuts, or kill them off completely. I can promise you it'd kill both populations of fungus, the new predatory variety and the one that is supplying your peanuts with minerals they need. You could try to plant all of your peanuts in native flora from now on, that might insulate it, but that amounts to the same thing really, and might further spread out your footprint, increasing a need for transportation it sounds like you don't have. It would be impossible to kill the fungus that is growing within your peanuts without killing them.'