Arcaida

-: Chapter 2 :-

Proverbs 16:18 

"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall"

Adam pulled at his thinning hair, that didn't go as well as he had hoped. For some reason last nights epiphany hadn't translated well to the colonists, they had to see that the planet already provided everything they needed. The dry-apple trees seemed to have an unlimited supply and there where tens of thousands of them across the northern glades. The spongy moss was more than abundant and tasted actually quite nice if you spent the time adding the right seasoning. There was absolutely no need to cultivate the land for their own crops. It was frustrating, they had been given the chance to go about colonisation in a different way and yet here they were... sowing the land with hardy grains and changing the mineral content in the soil.

Adam had left his multimillion-pound penthouse on New Scotland to leave all the greed of his family behind, he wanted to make a difference. Yet even here people seemed to brush off his ideas as fanciful or not practical, it was disheartening. A pair of arms wrapped their way around his waist, Beth's warmth pressing against his back.

"Don't worry sweet, I'm sure they will listen after time."

"I hope you're right, but with men like John Hunt I don't see how..."

Beth said nothing, instead she just squeezed him tighter, she was better than he deserved.

********

"He is bloody insane" Joshua muttered over his third coffee of the day while reclining into his office chair.

David didn't reply, the lad always went quiet when people argued or talked down about someone else.

Feeling awkward Joshua turned the conversation onto other things, "How have you been getting on with the Humming-birds"? The lad's eyes lit up at the mention of them. David had shown intense interest in Joshua's line of work and insisted that he help.

"Josh they're so weird! I think... I'm not sure." The boy was obviously perturbed "I was watching one, it looked fit and fine one moment it landed on a dry-apple tree and just, Josh it just died!"

"Huh, you don't say," Joshua said distractedly as his PDG lit up. An alert, his analysis of the moss-cows feeding pattern had been completed "Maybe it was just its time lad, I've run analytics on the trees and their fruit, they always come out clean."

The boy nodded slowly.

"The real mystery here is how do we have a contained system, with no natural predators not burn itself out with rampant growth" Joshua eyed the young lad "We are pioneers in an alien land, the creatures here aren't the same as on NewScotland and their life cycles reflect that, our definition of old may not hold true here."

His faced creased in deep thought, David asked: "Maybe they just know when they should stop breeding?"

"Perhaps lad, we won't know without further observation..." pausing Joshua took note of the time, 13:05 the planets day cycle was shorter than the earth standard at 22 hours. "You should be getting back to your mother lad, she will be wondering where you have gotten to"

Groaning with disagreement David reluctantly fetched his coat from the shoulder of Joshua's sofa.

"Come back tomorrow David, we can go through some of your notes in detail then, ok?" before he reached the front door.

A broad smile split his face "I would like that, cya tomorrow".

Turning back to his PDA's display, Joshua launched the feeding pattern analysis "Let's see what we have then".