Gardener

The Elder tree was immense. The largest single standing tree behind the main shelf of Noble. The Royals lived among it's branches. All their generations shared and walked among the gardens there. And Trevor, with his white beard and rough hands was the lead gardener for the central garden of the main estates. You couldn't get higher without becoming a royal.

Trevor didn't want to go any higher though. He hadn't aspired to his current position. He was just exceptional at what he did. And what he did, was gardening. He had taken advantage of the centuries of previous gardeners who had shaped the Elder tree branches back in on themselves until eventually there were three distinct levels for the tree. Each level had the main trunk of course, but were also flat and wide and formed a perfect canvas for him. He had been the first to dredge the silt around the shelf and have it hauled to the upper layer, a monumental task. He was young and had a vision at the time that defied anything that had come before him. Machines and massive pulleys were created specifically to address the problems surrounding pulling up that much silt. There was doubt that the Elder tree could handle the weight, but each time that was brought up, Trevor would pat her trunk and say, "She can handle it."

And she did. He only focused on the garden area, a section of the main branch that spread in a wide oval between the main houses. And there he planted the small trees that had survived the trip from Earth in the Arc, the ones not ravaged by space radiation. They were pygmy trees compared to Nobles mammoth trees, but they looked like a different and long forgotten micro world in this place.

Trevor had brought in trees that produced their own nitrogen in the soil and Mushrooms. He planted grasses and hauled in decorative sandstone from the salt mines. He carved out a circular path that he filled with water and initially tried to use solar panels to create a mini flow. When that failed, he took advantage of the Lost cluster's innovation of the 'creek' turbines, underwater spinning motors that could be powered by even the slowest moving waters. That, combined with the solar panels had given him enough energy to run the pumps that both filtered and directed the stream in a steady consistent and relaxing flow.

It had taken him 40 years to bring it to the point where he finally felt like he could hand it off to his apprentices and let them maintain it and improve it on their own.

He moved a few pebbles from the side of bordered area back within the border. He turned to admire his work that day, happy with even the smallest of accomplishments, knowing that those few changes he had made impacted the whole immensely.

He slowly walked back to the main bridge back to his home.