The Astralaceaes

Chapter 7: Thunder Before the Lightning

Haledon could feel his heart racing as he looked into Sparrow's eyes.

"Sparrow, is it the Mecharrion?" He asked hesitantly, nervous about her response.

He crossed the room and tucked the piece of metal into a small vine loop on his hip. Placing his hand against the soft moss covering the nutrient lines, he paused and waited for Sparrow.

"Could be," She responded, placing a hand on the ground.

A small pedestal of roots formed a jar before it erupted spores into space above it. The orange glow danced in the air as it displayed the Astralaceae. The ship's orange-red image was spiderwebbed with green veins that seemed to pulsate weakly and dilute the orange to yellow.

"Graviton particles are emitted by approaching Mecharrion fleets. They also occur in Nature when two black holes collide. So, let's hope for the second—"

The image spun as she pulled the ship apart and looked at three pods. Haledon, looking over his shoulder, could see her scrutinizing the seeds. With a chop of her hand, she inspected a cross-section and hummed. Her eyes locked with his as she scowled.

Haledon nervously nodded and returned to his work, thinking about the threat of Mecharrion. His heart raced with anticipation as thoughts of confrontation plagued his mind.

He rested his hand on the wall and breathed. He connected with the coolness of the moss against the palm of his hand. With a slow breath, he extended his fingers and slipped them through the thick mat as Sparrow's had before. The warmth of the Astralaceae flowed through his body as he grabbed hold of one of the Lateral Dendron Rods.

He pulled it from the wall with a gentle twist and wiped it down to remove excess nutrient fluids. Examining it, he stared at the prominent bands that represented the growth stages of the pod.

"Primeval Druid Sparrow..." Haledon muttered.

"Seral Druid Haledon." She replied sarcastically from across the room.

"Something happened a long time ago to this pod."

"We knew that—"

"No, I mean the pod we're in. Something happened to the Hypogeal Pod."

Walking the rod across the room, Haledon presented it to Sparrow. He pointed towards the bottom, where a thick, brown line stood out from the other yellow-green bands.

Sparrow eyed it curiously and nodded in agreement.

"What do you speculate?" Sparrow inquired.

"A few generations after forming this pod, an exceptionally metal-rich piece of space debris struck the front of the ship. It became lodged in and began to poison future growth."

"Hmm, sounds familiar," Sparrow smirked and examined the rod further. "How did this debris differ from other metal-rich interstellar objects to cause such an adverse reaction?"

Haledon stared blankly for a moment, the question washing over him. He felt a sense of panic as he realized he had no idea.

Sparrow caught this and followed up her question with its answer.

"It damaged an accumulator nodule. That then began to feed an unregulated supply of metals into the nutrient stream."

Haledon quietly nodded as he eyed the rod as well. Having performed this procedure on his Astralaceae, he could tell the nutrient balance was off. Unlike his ship's dark green parallel bands, this one had a sickly hue. There were also clues that mast generations, where the Astralaceae produced excess food and space after seeding, were near nonexistent. The thick bands, beginning with the dark brown, became thinner and thinner before ceasing entirely.