Chapter 5 Co-Creators Meet
Nansella met Geodon at the town's terminal pylon and they rode up the elevator together. She had brought along a picnic basket with lunch for them; he had brought along two buckets of black sand and a small carton of farmland "soil" containing a fresh batch of balanced microbes, and a legume to hopefully provide some nitrogen fixation to the little beachside part of the ecosystem. "Those buckets look heavy" she broke the silence, "How many buckets of sand have you carried up for your project so far?" she asked. He replied that he did not remember but he input the question to his data collector, and it provided the answer of 470 buckets counting the current two. "Not all the sand has gone into the beach and land part of the little ecosystem" he pointed out. "Some of the sand has gone into making the pathway to there easier to traverse."
She was silent for awhile, looking out the window as their transport pod rhythmically did its swing down and up, down and up, the craggy terrain below equally closer and further away during each of the elevation changes from 170 meters down to 10 meters during each swing, at 170 meters for the handoff to the next pylon's arm. "I would not like to have to climb over that terrain below here to get very far." she mused to him, "It would take a long time to get anywhere and it would be easy to get lost without a position locator."
"Our town is like an island where life can exist, from where we cannot stray, except for this isolated link to our water source" he added. "This trip is a little like a mini-vacation for me, off to my miniature world, before going back to our home town."
"How did you get permission to do this project?" she asked. He replied "Turns out that any project that will spread life on this planet is very welcome; and besides, all the land is for free, for use by anybody unless already being utilized by some other entity, such as the expanding perimeter of our town. The town owns the rights to expand; yet the sand that lies just beyond where the expansion is actively going on, is free for the taking, and is where I have been getting the sand for my project, such as the sand in these two buckets. And the quantity of sand is limited by how much I can carry."
She asked if she could carry additional buckets of sand, would that make the project grow faster, and he agreed it would; although her buckets would not have as much sand in them as his, they would at least be equivalent to a third bucket for him, a significant improvement. Best of all, to his thinking, it showed a possibility for a longer term relationship with her, and it had been a long time since he had had a woman in his life, so it was a very welcome idea. Besides, the extra sand would be helpful to his project.
As they got close to the vast lake's view, she was fascinated by the sight of it. "So this is where all our water comes from, that waters our crops and flows into our plumbing in our homes." she commented more to herself than to him. "What a huge amount of water!" The vast lake extended out beyond the horizon; it appeared to be a long term supply of the precious life giving fluid. Then they were deposited at the lake terminal pylon; and rode down the elevator. Leaving their supplies there, they made a side trip over to the lake's edge, went down the steps hewn into the basalt and reached the dock where the three small boats were moored. She said that some day she would like to go out in one of the boats with him; but for now it was just an amazing sight to her. Then they headed back to get their buckets and picnic basket, and he led her along his pathway, still fairly rough going; and at one point he emptied one of his buckets as part of filling in for a flat part of the path, then equalized the bucket contents for easier carrying, and resumed the walk.
Then they were at the shore of his little lake ecosystem. She stopped, looked slowly and carefully across from the filled-in land area, to the small beach, then to the lake itself. "Amazing!" she exclaimed. "A little paradise, out here in this rugged lifeless land!" He too looked at with fresh vision then, having watched it grow so very slowly as he had brought sand and living creatures here, bit by bit. And yes, now it did seem to be in stark contrast to the terrain over which they had crossed for a couple of hours along the pylons.
He led her over to an area as far as possible from the cave was, saying that in a few moments there would be another bit of the cave structure to be expanded, inviting her to look in that direction. Then the orbiting satellite's five-second-long concentrated solar energy blast exploded out another inch of the cave's interior with a loud bang; a cloud of fragments spurted out of its opening, and it was over. "We can go look at how the little housing structure is doing, but first lets figure out where to put this bucket of sand, and where to place this cup of soil with its micro-organisms. Where would you put them?" he inquired of her. She stopped, realizing that just about anyplace would be as good as another, as all would need to be repeated later in the building up of this place; but now was her time to decide the next step. She said, "Let's put the bucket of sand out at the edge of the land area, and put the cup of soil containing the micro-organism collection in the fresh sand. That way they can reproduce and expand awhile with their own mix of species, before reaching the border with the existing organism mix, so they will have a stronger say in this mix of critter populations." He approved and they planted their little addition of sandy flat surface with its own pocket of living beings, all too small to see.
Then they walked around the lake to where the cave mouth had exploded out a fresh part of its internal space; the first swept the litter of shards that had been blasted out of the back of the cave, shards that were creating a different kind of small flat area being expanded off to that side of the cave, filling in between two frozen roils of molten lava. "I am not sure what to use that flat area for" he commented, "but flat area is always welcome in this terrain." Then they went into the cave's gaping opening; he had chiseled out the front areas so the walls and floor were smoother, but the back parts, more recently blasted out by the thermal shock from the solar blast from the satellites, remained quite ragged around the edge. The cave's depth was about 12 meters now, "This looks like a big enough space for now, so I will reprogram the solar blasting to start working on the rocky face next to here, and that one I plan to let blast away until it goes clear through the lava fold, about 40 meters to get through, so there will be two entrances. At the rate it has been going, it will take a year to do that. Meantime, this first cave can have it made into a habitable place, a refuge from the storms that happen each winter here; and I plan on bringing in some food so that one could live here in emergency for a few days if necessary," he explained. The stormy season is soon to start, and I have not been through one of them; but the water buckets continue all through the stormy season, so it ought to be possible to come here then too, with adequate clothing for the weather, I would think." "I could bring some bedding and storage containers, if you would like." she added. It looked like she was interested in being part of this project and part of his life.
They left the cave and sat down outside it along the shore of the small lake. She opened up her picnic basket and they enjoyed some of the best food he had eaten in awhile, his bachelor's food preparation skills mere at best survival level quality. Appreciatively munching her culinary product, he commented that the flavors were making the experience of being here much more interesting. When finished, she asked him if she could leave the basket and its dishes here in the cave, if the cave was now done being bored by the satellite's beam blasts; the place needed a buildup of materials and the basket and dishes could become quite handy later as part of making a dwelling.
Before heading back, they walked together as far around the edge of the lake as he had been able to make accessible so far. Then again retreating to as far away as easily moved, from the face of the lava where the next cave would be bored, they waited until the bang and sudden spurt of rock fragments appeared along the face of the lava fold adjacent to their existing cave, the start of a new dwelling place or for some other structural purpose.
He had to lead the way back through the maze of ripples of frozen lava rock, with patches of sandy area marking the path, and other areas one still had to climb over. "I think I will be able to find my way with only a little bit of your help next time," she commented as they neared the pylon. "You seem to have picked the easiest path to your little lake paradise." Up the pylon's elevator they went, got into the transportation pod, activated its sequence control to be picked up by the next passing swing of the pylon's arm; then suddenly the pod was whisked off the pylon and swooped down and up again, handed off to the next pylon's arm, and they were on their way back home.
"This had been one of the most fun times of my life," she said "and I hope you will invite me along with you again soon." she commented. He replied that her presence along during this trip had made it the most fun trip here he had ever had. "I think we will have even more fun on future trips here," she commented in return.
He said, "I have been making a trip here almost every day, so when would you like to come along next time?" he asked. "I can bring another picnic basket and a few other things along tomorrow, if that is OK with you," she replied.