The plants inside would keep her in oxygen.Food would be her only concern.
Then again, there was her vegetable garden.
As long as she was careful, she could survive for quite a while on whatever she had on hand.
The smell of green, growing things and wet dirt grew steadily stronger as they neared one of Gus’s four green houses.This one was dominated by plants native to Tuann worlds.Gus had mixed a few species from Earth and other human held planets among them as well.All with varying degrees of toxicity.
If they’d gone left after reaching her main living space, they would have come across the greenhouse devoted to those plants that flourished in darkness.
Kind of like Gus.
As they entered the Tuann themed greenhouse, Gus noted the look of wonder on Anandra’s face.Belatedly, Gus realized that this might be Anandra’s first encounter with a Tuann forest.
The plant life from the Tuann home worlds, particularly trees, were known to be horrendously difficult to cultivate.So much so that they were hard to find even on the black market; that was in large part due to the unique properties of their native habitat.It was one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Tuann.All of their home worlds were inhabited by a being called the Mea’Ave.The Tuann referred to it as the planet’s soul.A mysterious creature that gave off a unique energy signature both the Tuann and the flora and fauna of their planets needed to survive.
Gus had never been able to establish whether the Mea’Ave employed a type of terraforming or if the Tuann tampered with the biomes of the planets they ended up claiming.How else could you explaining finding some of the same plants and animals on planets located light years from each other?
Unlike those trees found on Tuann ships which were transplanted after a certain age and given a piece of their planet’s Mea’Ave for safe keeping, the ones here had been nurtured by Gus from seedlings she’d obtained directly from their home planets.
At first, she’d just wanted to see what would happen.To do what others thought impossible.
Those same trees were probably what had drawn Caius to her doorstep.The Tuann were kind of like energy vampires, able to sustain themselves for a short time on the plants native to their planets.
Gus thought she’d accounted for that possibility by incorporating a special metal into the walls of this container meant to block the trees’ energy, but it must not have been strong enough to block everything.
To her relief, Anandra didn’t voice any of the questions she could see brewing.Someone must have taught him the danger of knowing things you shouldn’t.
Together, they dragged Caius further into the forest.To the base of the first Tuann tree Gus ever cultivated.
She wasn’t happy about the marks they left in their wake or the way Caius’s hand caught on awiliabush, yanking it out of the ground.
Breathe, just breathe.Focus on why you’re doing this, Gus chanted to herself.
Keeping Caius alive was a necessary evil to prevent the calamity that was known as Kira.The structural integrity of Titan depended on this man making it home.
Alive,Pityrodia Augustensis.
Goodness, and there she went full naming herself.That was a hint as to how bad things were.
Pityrodia Augustensis.Otherwise known as Mt.Augustus Foxglove.
Gus for short.
A humble plant from the old Earth continent of Australia.Considered more of a bushy shrub, its flowers were a deep purple and covered in woolly hairs.It was long since thought to have gone extinct due to human destruction of its habitat, but when it was still in existence it had clung to life on rocky hillsides with a tenacity that Gus admired.
She’d chosen it as her namesake for its hardiness and the unique beauty that was all its own.
Sometimes Gus wished she’d chosen something simpler.Maybe a little more common.
Oleander or Belladonna maybe.
No, she was a Pityrodia Augustensis through and through.
There was a slight gasp from her side as the energy from the Tuann plants reached out to embrace them.Anandra’s eyelids fluttered shut and something that looked a lot like yearning filled his features.
“Come on,” Gus ordered, uncomfortable with what she saw.He was much too young for such an expression, making her wonder what his story was.Not that she would ever ask.That would indicate interest.Of which she had none.She was just a little curious, is all.
They dragged Caius to the massive choko tree in the far corner.As soon as they reached it, Gus dropped his arms, eager to put distance between herself and Roake’s military commander.
