Page 51 of Experimental Voyage
“She finds new and interesting ways to kill traffickers, pretending all the while she is doing so ‘out of mercy’ rather than wanting to steal kills from the Veloc.”
“She is a notorious thief of kills,” Fogali muttered.
Then, after a few more shakes and mutters, the pair of predators relaxed.
I wondered about that, but rather than prod, I asked, “How long does it take for your system to run the atmospheric tests?”
“It’ll be about five more minutes. If it wasn’t for that damned coating, it would be done by now, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
“I like being safe rather than sorry. That’s smart. Being sorry is not an enjoyable time.”
“As you would know better than most.” Viva engaged one of the displays in a staring contest, and after a moment, several pictures of the surrounding area appeared on the screens. She pointed at a clearing. “Assuming the coating hasn’t contaminated the air itself, I’ll park there. We can evaluate the landscape from there.”
I examined the clearing, nodding at the mossy ground, which would make an excellent staging ground—and spot for fungus to grow. “That’s a good way to get fungus exposure.”
Viva shrugged. “Oh, we’ll get plenty of that. The spores are in the air. There’s no way to avoid infection. What nobody understands is where the fungus is proliferating from, especially considering the limited size of the landmass.”
Ah. “The water. Fungus can be found in water, too. Fish can get fungal infections, and aquatic plants can carry them as well. Aquatic fungus doesn’t show up asmushrooms, but there are spore producing fungi of other types that can live in watery environments. If the ocean has the fungus, and it can transfer into the air, there’s your contagion point. Chytrid fungi can live in both land and water environments, and those are your top suspect. We didn’t go into much depth on chytrid fungi, if a variant of it has become airborne, it’s certainly capable of having lethal strains. In school, we studied a strain that likes to kill frogs. Our job was to evaluate current medications to determine what would help the frog populations. We found two treatments that gave frogs resilience against the fungus, but all frogs had to be treated, and only seventy-five percent of treated frogssurvived. This was better than guaranteed death, but it wasn’t ideal.”
I hadn’t liked those experiments, as it ultimately resulted in all of the test frogs being sacrificed to science. However, we’d spent the following year writing up the required proposal to protect the frog populations from chytrid fungi.
Several planets had accepted and deployed our proposed treatment plans, sparing several delicate species from extinction.
That had been the work that had fully convinced me I’d wanted to work in biology and botany. The stars themselves held full responsibility for my need to explore.
“Interesting. Can these chytrid fungi be airborne?”
“If you have the microscope and gear, and we can figure out a way to capture an air sample with the fungi, that can be checked.” I thought about how we could get the samples, and after some consideration, I said, “If we can purify some equipment and water, we can spray water through the air, catch it, and evaluate the water. As long as the water only comes in contact with the fungi in the air, it can be examined in a dish. We can also use sterilized containers to capture air, insert a sterile strip, and evaluate for fungi. I’ve done both experiment types. It would be good to see if we can identify the differences between the fungi in all survivable environments.”
“We have a bunch of science stuff on board, but I have no idea what it does or how it works. I just confirmed it’s compatible with the ship and that you should be able to use it. Have yourself a ball, just don’t knock yourself out, please.” Viva glared at Delta.
He sighed. “I knocked myself out once, it was an accident, and I was fine.”
“After a week whining in bed,” she grumbled. “You delayed us going to space for a week.”
“Whining in bed got me the attention of you and your foxes. I regret the headache, but I do not regret the week well spent.”
Of the two Veloc, Yulgali was most likely to give me a sensible answer. “Is this my fate should I decide to pursue Waldren seriously?”
“Very possibly.”
“Well, I guess there are worse fates. Just try to prevent me from knocking myself out, please.”
“I will,” the Veloc promised. “Unless Waldren is present to coddle you for a week, in which case, I will allow nature to run its course.”
“As long as you’re not the reason I’m getting knocked out, that’s fair. I mean, you’re a feathered murder machine. It’s important to accept reality.”
Fogali eyed me before considering Viva with narrowed eyes. “Are yousurewe can’t keep her?”
“I’m sure. Let the other clans compete for her. It’ll be good for her and for him. And it’s extra good for me, who won’t have to deal with that drama for a while.”
“They’re still going to fight over me until I am safely adopted, Viva. Just accept it,” Delta advised. “How are the atmospheric tests looking?”
Viva heaved a sigh. “In good news, the coating is not being detected in the air. In bad news, there is a storm brewing. I don’t know when it’ll hit, but we’ll need to be ready to bail at a moment’s warning. If my sensors are right, it’s going to be a doozy.”
SEVENTEEN
“I haven’t seen the Veloc move that quickly since the last time I summoned them for their dinner. What did you do?”
