24-hour Short Story Contest | Eater of Autumn
Planet 1315, Arthur Gurin | Source
CPNSS Forseti – Main Log | Luyten b, 12.2 LY from Earth
From: Chief Botanist, Harvey Quinlan
To: Major Ricardo Lopez, Military Aide of High Navy’s Command
Transmitting…
Day One – Ground Zero
Good morning, Major Lopez.
I hope this q-doc finds you in good shape. I have finally landed on Luyten b’s surface. Although our journey was uneventful, the effects of prolonged stasis have taken their toll on the crew. Therefore, I was the only scientist of the expedition able to make landfall, with most of my colleagues staying on the Forseti and having routine medical check-ups as we speak.
Nevertheless, the expedition is up to a very promising start.
Contrary to what we previously believed, life in Luyten b is mostly composed of plants and lichen-like organisms. The biodiversity in this place is paramount to none; the search probes and I have discovered about two hundred species of fungi and cyanobacteria just in an area of roughly seventeen square kilometers area around our landing zone. Such lifeforms seem to have evolved from the same genetic code.
I will be running several tests during the next days to confirm this, with my team supporting me remotely in the labs aboard the Forseti. We will be studying the way plants in this planet feed and survive as well; if we find any species capable of photosynthesis in Earth-like amounts, I could suggest a terraforming process to the High Navy’s Command in the required amount of time, based on our findings.
Until then, I wish you well in the days to come. Quinlan out.
Day Sixteen
Success, Major!
After two long, very productive weeks, I can assure you that, with the necessary precautions, Luyten b could be habitable. However, we would have to outline certain restrictions in our way of life, right out of the bat.
Our tests show that the soil in Luyten b is really poor in nitrogen, both in its mineral and organic forms. That means we will run into several problems to plant crops in areas large enough to feed a sizable population unless we fertilize the soil heavily. Nevertheless, we could try a lichen-based diet, using certain species that I have determined to be edible.
Regrettably, that leaves us with an important question: How are we going to plant traditional trees that can enrich the atmosphere with enough oxygen to make it breathable? The only organisms I have proven to be able to photosynthesize their limited supply of chlorophyll are a subset of indigenous plants that, oddly enough, are entering a state that resembles the way our plants behave on Earth during autumn. Alive, yes, but entering a dormancy that I have not yet determined how much it will last.
For the time being, I hope that my colleagues aboard the Forseti are in better shape, as I am starting to feel really lonely and intellectually unstimulated even with our regular communication across the quantic network. Quinlan out.
Day Twenty-Nine
Good afternoon, Major Lopez. I hope you to be in good health.
After two long standard galactic weeks, I finally got some company. Three of my finest colleagues made landfall today. We will proceed to install a surface lab on an area we have called Elysium, located at 42’ N 29’ W. One of said specialists, Dr. Amanda Lopez, sends you her sisterly regards, promising to send you photographs of Luyten b in a further q-doc as soon as we have set up shop.
Captain Ross has been kind enough to send one of his most trusted men, Sgt. Drake, to help us adjust the search probes’ functioning, as I have lost contact with as many as five of the twelve that were in my care. Apart from atmospheric conditions – which, until now, have been fairly amicable – I can’t seem to understand how those drones lost their orientation.
Sgt. Drake will embark himself on a recon mission with Dr. Ezekiel Rustinov, given his combat and outdoor experience as a former CPN-Syberia associate, in order to find the missing probes.
I’ll give Dr. Lopez your heartfelt salute. Quinlan out.
Day Thirty-Two
Good morning, Major Lopez.
I hope that our recent findings have been warmly received in the High Navy’s Command. Our surface lab has made an astonishing success regarding Luyten b’s biosphere. If our calculations are correct, the indigenous plants I talked to you about two weeks ago are responding quite well to a blood meal preparation we made on the lab, using the rests of a lab rat that died on us last week.
That means we could synthesize a compatible fertilizer for the plants in Luyten b, given we had enough carbon-based material, to begin with. I have sent word to Captain Ross regarding this, as we might need to install a cloning lab on the surface in order to test certain combinations of organic material.
Dr. Lopez, Dr. Brandt and I are currently awaiting the arrival of Sgt. Drake and Dr. Rustinov, who seemed quite excited by their findings of our lost drones. I’ll write as soon as I can.
Quinlan out.
Day Thirty-Three
Good evening, Major Lopez. Sorry to wake you up at this hour, but the circumstances warrant it.
Suffice to say, Dr. Rustinov’s findings have left us speechless here at Elysium Base. The drones I lost didn’t lose their orientation; in fact, there is enough evidence to believe that said drones were attacked. The consequences of this, I cannot foretell.
Until yesterday, we firmly believed that Luyten b, save for the vast number of botanic species we have found, was devoid of any kind of sentient life. Now, we have evidence to think that is not the case.
Drone 07 was attacked right on the air as he made a low flight through a crater-like mountain formation at 45’ N, 26’ W, that we are naming Luyten’s Maw due to the thorny and irregular borders at its extremes. According to Sgt. Drake, it seemed like a creature pounced right towards the drone as it passed; Dr. Rustinov was kind enough to bring us its remains in a safe box. Concretely, he brought us its head, as it was the only part that could fit inside said box. Sgt. Drake brought the malfunctioning drone as well.
After a thorough autopsy, we have made a disturbing discovery.
The creature is a carbon-based lifeform that, by Dr. Rustinov’s account, has the size of a small dog. Given its skull configuration, the creature seems to be positively blind, as it doesn’t have any orbits. Its brain, which is small for a creature of its size, was covered in a species of lichen that we recently cataloged. The amount of invasion that the lichen had made inside the creature’s anatomy was large enough to be classified as an infection.
We will be running several drills and tests inside Elysium Base to determine the presence of said lichen in our surroundings. For the time being, I have sent word to Captain Ross regarding Luyten b as a quarantined planet, at least until we have clarified the nature of this situation.
Quinlan out.
Day Thirty-Nine
Good morning, Major Lopez. Even though, to be sincere, I’m finding it harder and harder to say words like that in our current state of affairs.
I have solicited a full suspension of Luyten b’s colonization efforts, as well as a rescue party.
Why have I done this, you might be asking yourself.
We have discovered that Species AR24-1R, named Jormund lichen, has infected the entire planet. The scope of said infestation is currently incommensurable, as well as the reason behind it. You see... Not intending to fall into long dissertations about the nature of mutualism and parasitism, the plants of Luyten b have evolved this organism as something akin to their last resort.
We never discovered any kind of animal life on Luyten b because, essentially, the plants ate all of it. Any kind of physical contact with Jormund lichen, even though it is not toxic at first glance, will harbor a lethal result nonetheless, as the organism slowly infects a creature’s nervous system with either of two options; to force said creature’s premature death, or to enslave it in order to spread the Jormund lichen to other hosts.
How we discovered it, you might be asking yourself.
We had to kill Dr. Rustinov yesterday.
Sgt. Drake has set up a defense perimeter near Elysium lab, frying any kind of enslaved lifeform as we speak. In an even more disturbing discovery, we found the Jormund lichen is a byproduct of the indigenous plants I thought would be the salvation of this planet; its abscision process, not motivated by a change of season or any kind of slumber, but by hunger.
Dr. Lopez is in good health, if slightly frightened by our findings. She has made me sworn we will not put a single foot on this planet again.
I’m positively inclined to follow that oath.
Quinlan out.
This short story is participating in the 24-Hour Story Contest Short Story by @mctiller featured here!
Thank you for reading my post!
I try to answer as many comments as possible, so, feel free to leave yours in the comment section! 👇
100% original content made by yours truly...
