“Yes.”
“I think we’re going to need at least one of us on watch and alert at all times during the night in case anyone else approaches us,” I said.
“‘Anyone else’?” Loquacious repeated.
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll tell you about what happened in the morning. Besides, we should be safe with Winston protecting us.”
“‘Winston protecting us’? I guess I’ll take your word for it.”
∆∆∆
3.2 Onward (and Upward)
3:18, Day 16, Fourth Tetrad, 206 D.P.
When I awoke from hibernation (the second time), I found that I once again was the last one to wake up, and Lazuli-rise was fast approaching. I shared with the unaware Loquacious what happened the previous night. After finishing, we turned our attention toward our journey to the Wild Crystal Grange.
As we prepared to leave, Loquacious asked, “So why is the Wild Crystal Grange our first destination? Do you know anyone at the grange?”
“I haven’t been there, nor do I know anyone there. There’s nothing particularly noteworthy about Wild Crystal Grange, no specific reason for us to be traveling there. But in talking with the Programmer, we chose this to be our next stop for a couple of reasons. First, the overall population there is very low; we’re estimating that there are fewer than 20 Autoclons present and likely just one Facilitator.”
“I like those numbers,” Loquacious said. “Take it from a story-teller: an intimate audience is always the best.”
“And also free of Peace-Keepers,” I added. “Second, with us traveling a lot from outpost to outpost in the coming days, we can acquire an extra reserve of power crystals.”
“So does that mean we’re on a power trip?” Loquacious let out a small chuckle. I chose not to respond.
For most of the previous day, we were able to travel in relatively low ground. However, this day’s route would involve climbing three ridges. The crystal lining of the situation is that this leg of the trip would cover a shorter distance than the first.
We started west along the northern edge of the dale we had crossed the evening before. Soon, we encountered the first of three ridges in our path. This one was rather small, at least compared with the dune we climbed at the end of the previous day. As we reached the top, we noticed that the second ridge, just a couple of kilometers in the distance, was much steeper and taller than we expected.
“Are you sure we need to climb it?” Loquacious asked.
“I’m afraid so. This one is the largest one between here and the grange, and it spans a length of well over 30 kilometers, so going around it is not really an option.”
“Does the ridge we’re on ever meet up with that taller ridge? Can we simply stay on top of this one and follow it until it tees into that other ridge?”
Maybe it was a mistake to bring along Loquacious. We had only been traveling for just over a day with Loquacious, but it had become quite evident that Loquacious was not interested in climbing. I didn’t mind the climbing myself, but my construction was better suited for it than Loquacious.
To assuage Loquacious’s feelings, I entertained this request by checking out the topography of the area again. “Well, let’s check... If we follow our ridge to the northeast for 5.6 kilometers, it will intersect the taller ridge. It will make our trip longer and may prevent us from reaching the Wild Crystal Grange until after Lazuli-fall tonight, but it will make today’s trip easier.”
“Let’s do it,” Loquacious responded.
“Winston, do you have a preference in which way we should go?”
“Let’s fol-low the sum-mit of this ridge,” Winston replied.
“Alright, let’s go.” We turned 90 degrees to the starboard direction and motored across the top of the ridge. Eventually, we reached the end of our ridge as its apex was engulfed by the broad southern side of this larger second ridge. It may have taken us over an hour out of the way, but now we were over two-thirds of the way up the second ridge without any additional climbing.
By the time we reached the top of the second ridge, Lazuli was nearly overhead. We could feel its heat, and our motors felt like they were about to melt from overexertion. We paused for several minutes to cool down. We took this opportunity to take a look around from our new vantage point.
“According to my new calculations, the Wild Crystal Grange should be about 14 kilometers to the west-northwest of here. We might be able to see it from this height.”
“Why, yes, there it is,” Loquacious said. As Loquacious pointed out the grange, we also noticed the third ridge in our day’s journey in the foreground.
“I’d say you’re putting your new ocular array to good use for us,” I added. “We’ll still need to cross that third ridge in another four kilometers, but the rest of the trip should be flat. We need to press forward to get there by Lazuli-fall.”
We descended the backside of the ridge rather quickly. Within an hour, we completed the climb up the third ridge, where we could get a closer view of the grange.
Before us laid a plateau that rose to nearly the same elevation as our current position on top of the third ridge. At a distance, I could see that the soil on this plateau had a reddish-orange hue, much different from the general sandscape of Zarikum. We could see the grange itself nestled at the far end of the plateau, but we were still too far away to make out any details of the outpost.
After a quick trip down the northern slope of the third dune, we reached the slight incline of this plateau. The soil composition here was compact and powdery, sprinkled with various orange rocks. This type of rock was more brittle that much of the stone found on Zarikum and would crumble at high pressure. In addition to the rocks dotting the landscape, we started to see a small but notable number of free-growing crystals. All of these crystals were a slightly translucent, orange variety, growing more in height than in width.
We traversed the plateau easily enough as the day drew to a close. We approached the outer edge of the Wild Crystal Grange as Lazuli disappeared into the western horizon.
From what we could see in the twilight, the Wild Crystal Grange was a sprawling farmland of crystals with just one central building and other satellite facilities scattered across a three or four square-kilometer area. Most of the crystals we saw here were of the same variety that was growing naturally on the plain. Here, they grew in regular intervals every 40 cm or so within parallel rows spaced a meter apart and were no taller than 10 cm.
We located the main road that connected the Wild Crystal Grange with other, larger settlements to the northeast. We met up with the road and motored along it for the last several hundred meters until we entered the outer-most fields of the grange. By now it was getting rather dark, so we looked for the closest building we could find. We didn’t have to look far, as we found a structure just a couple hundred meters from the outskirts of the settlement. This building was quite small, no more than 1.5 meters tall and three meters in length and width. It appeared to be occupied as we saw a window on its southern side betraying a lighted interior. We approached the small building and pushed the Entry Request button. Within a few seconds, the entryway opened.
“Hello, um...” the Autoclon paused and wheeled back from the door. It was definitely a Farmer, an Autoclon with four sizeable wheels with good tread to maneuver through the crystal fields. It was short and compact, barely taller than the diminutive Loquacious. It had rather long arms, allowing it to touch the ground with its graspers and harvest crystals from a standing position. This particular Farmer’s wheels, graspers, and lower portions of its casing were still dirty from the day’s work. After a significant pause, it continued with its introduction. “My... My name is Systematicus. I do not think I have met you before. Are you lost?”
“No, we’re just new to this settlement,” I answered. “Can the three of us come in? It’s getting dark outside.”
Systematicus paused. It seemed to be processing all of this information and doing so at a slower r
ate than I would have expected. “I suppose.”
We entered the small structure. It was bare, with a simple power station in the far right corner and little else, save some junk parts strewn across the floor. Once the three of us joined Systematicus inside, this small structure felt even smaller.
“Thanks, Systematicus. We appreciate you helping us out. Now that we’re here, I’d like to introduce ourselves. My name is Fastidious, and these are my friends, Loquacious and Winston, at your service.” The three of us bowed slightly.
Systematicus took a few seconds before responding. “I do not believe I require your service at this time.”
“That’s just a saying from where we come from. We are showing gratitude to you for welcoming us into your living space.”
“Um… OK.” I shot a quick glance toward Loquacious, who seemed as puzzled as me. After another awkward silence, Systematicus started again: “May I ask why you are here? You do not appear to be Farmers, and yet you do not appear to be Facilitators either. I do not think you came to work here, did you?”
“No, no. We would be poorly suited to do your job. We were looking to have an audience with everyone from this settlement to discuss something.”
“Now would be a bad time to gather all of us together. We have all gone home for the night.”
“Yes, I understand that. We weren’t planning on doing this tonight, considering how late it is already. When would be a good opportunity for us to talk to everyone all at once?”
“Well... we all work tomorrow. You should talk to us tomorrow when we are all at work.”
“Yes, but when? Do you all meet first thing in the morning, or perhaps when you’ve finished for the day?” Systematicus seemed nice enough, but having a conversation with our host was rather maddening.
“Ah... Yes, we all come into the central storeroom when we finish to return our tools and check out for the day. That would work.”
“Excellent. We’ll hang around the grange until late day tomorrow. Do you mind if we spend the night here? We don’t have any other place to go.”
“Well…” another pause, “I suppose. It is getting rather late. I will be hibernating for the night very soon.”
“That’s fine by us. We’ll—” I was interrupted as Systematicus started its shut-down cycle for the night. “We’ll be quiet.”
“What an odd fellow,” said Loquacious.
“Indeed. I guess we should be hibernating for the night very soon, too.”
∆∆∆
3.3 Farming 101
3:07, Day 17, Fourth Tetrad, 206 D.P.
When I came out of hibernation, I found that our host had left us. It was still before Lazuli-rise, and by the looks of it outside, we still had almost 30 minutes before we would see the first rays of Lazuli. Loquacious was still in hibernation, but as always, Winston was awake.
“Winston, where did Systematicus go?”
“Sys-tem-at-i-cus left for work fif-teen min-utes a-go,” Winston answered.
“Hmm, left without a goodbye. Systematicus is short on words, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“I guess you would know about that, wouldn’t you?” I chuckled quietly.
A few minutes later, Loquacious finished rebooting, and we updated Loquacious on Systematicus’s departure earlier that morning.
“Well, now what? What do you suggest we do for the next several hours? I’d rather not stay cooped up in here for the day,” Loquacious said.
“You took the words right out of my radio transmitter. Perhaps we can help out Systematicus for the day?”
“I’m not sure how much we can help.”
“Maybe we can at least learn more about farming and crystals,” I responded. “We could also use the time to get to know Systematicus better. And, just maybe, we’ll make a new friend.”
“We are short on friends, that’s for sure.”
“OK, let’s track down Systematicus and see if we can help.”
Daybreak approached as we exited the cramped building. In the low light levels, we could detect a few Autoclons out and about in the fields, but we couldn’t see much else in the distance. We made our way back to the main road and wheeled toward the central storeroom facility of the Wild Crystal Grange. Before we reached the building, Loquacious looked to its port side and spotted our host. Systematicus was a few hundred meters away in what appeared to be an empty field. Systematicus had a small two-wheeled cart attached to its rear auxiliary port. At this distance, we couldn’t quite tell what Systematicus was doing. We veered off the main road and joined up with Systematicus.
As we neared Systematicus, I was able to get a better look at the field being tended by Systematicus. The field did not contain any crystals, but it was not entirely flat. The field was comprised of many parallel rows of small ridges of soil. Each row was perhaps 8-10 cm tall and spaced about 80-90 cm apart. At the peak of the ridges, the soil was slightly indented, forming a small trough.
When we caught up with Systematicus, I opened up the conversation: “Systematicus, we didn’t have a chance to chat before you left for work. Do you mind if we join you today?”
“I suppose.”
“What are you up to this morning?”
“I am sowing new seed crystals into the soil. The crystals in this field were recently harvested, so it is now my responsibility to re-seed this field.”
“So, how does this crystal seeding work then?” Loquacious chimed in.
Systematicus reached around into the attached cart and carefully grabbed a small piece of crystal, no more than a few millimeters in diameter. “This is a seed crystal. We take a much larger crystal, one that is large enough for energy usage, and clip the tips off of the crystal. We have found that these two portions of the crystal are the most conducive to crystal growth. We then go over to our row and place the seed crystal inside this trough.” Systematicus demonstrated the placement of the seed crystal by setting it into the small groove at the top of the ridge. “Once the seed crystal is placed in the trough, we will then take a small laser and very briefly energize the seed crystal.”
“Why do you shoot it with the laser?” Loquacious asked.
“We have found that this will help jump-start the growth process of the crystal.” Systematicus then displayed the small laser attached to its port arm, aimed it at the recently sown crystal seed, and fired a sub-second pulse at the seed crystal. The opaque orange crystal was illuminated and started radiating a faint orange glow as it sat in the trough. Once Systematicus completed this process, it moved forward about half a meter and repeated these steps.
“Now that the seed crystal has been sown, how does it grow?” I asked.
“All crystals here on Zarikum are made up of two types of elements: those found in the soil and those present in the atmosphere. As Lazuli shines on the soil here, the solar radiation initiates a reaction between the atmosphere and the soil, enlarging the crystal. The growth is slow, as this seed crystal will not reach the desired height of 14 cm for at least half of a solar-cycle.”
“Do you ever come across a seed crystal that fails to grow?”
“On occasion, we will find a seed crystal that fails to show any growth within five or six days of sowing, due to the soil at that location being bare of the essential elements for crystallization. When we do find a seed crystal that is not growing, we will move it down the trough a few centimeters and shoot it again with a laser. We are usually successful the second time.”
“This is all quite fascinating. I can tell you enjoy your work.”
“How so?”
“Last night, you seemed… abrupt with us. Now, you’re speaking with so much detail about your work. It seems to me like you have a real passion for farming.”
“I suppose you could say that.”
“Would you mind if we help you sow these seeds?”
“Well… this is my task for the day.”
“That’s OK. With our assistance, I’m sure we can help you complete
this assignment more quickly.”
“Are you trying to replace me?”
“No, no. I think you are mistaking our intentions. We don’t plan on staying here for more than a day or two. We thought that since you were kind enough to share your living space with us last night that we could help you out today.”
“Are you expecting to be paid? This work does not pay well.”
“No, we would work with you for free.”
Systematicus, who had been sowing seed crystals during our conversation, finally stopped its work for a few seconds. “So… you want to help me complete my task today, you do not want to be paid, and you are not looking to work full time here at the Wild Crystal Grange. Did the Facilitator instruct you to do this?”
What is with Systematicus? Why was Systematicus finding it so hard to believe that we would voluntarily help it out? “No, we want to freely help you out today. No cords attached.”
Systematicus hesitated before giving a response: “I suppose you could help me.”
Systematicus gave us a few more instructions, and we began helping our newfound friend. Loquacious would take a few seed crystals at a time from Systematicus’s cart and then place them one at a time on a separate row right beside Systematicus. I would follow behind Loquacious, using my Cobalt laser to give the sowed crystals a quick charge of energy. This task proved to be tricky at the start, as I obliterated some seed crystals by shooting them for too long with my laser. Through trial and error, I eventually attained a much higher proficiency in my task. Winston, lacking the grasping capabilities that the rest of us possessed, was content to follow me around, making sure that I followed Systematicus’s instructions.
While we worked throughout the day, we had other brief discussions with Systematicus. We took the initiative and began the conversations ourselves. We found out that the overall efficiency of the grange had been decreasing over the last few tetrads. This resulted in the Facilitator for the grange forcing the Farmers to work longer hours to make up for the loss in productivity. Systematicus felt that part of the reduction in efficiency was its own fault, due to the fact it was slowing down after recently completing its 27th solar-cycle.
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