"Every historian on site in near-hysterics, practically gibbering," Lohn said. "But at least there were plenty of drones recording the projection and we could distract them with the logs."
Mara snorted. "And then trying to get them to make some sort of decision of whether they were staying or going, since anyone who was going had to come straight away since while you weren’t in a critical state, this kind of exhaustion weakens the system far too much for us not to take you somewhere warm and keep you there. We ended up having to station a second ship there to deal with the accommodation. Second, Third and Fourth are still on-site."
"And you are not going anywhere near Kalasa until you’re in full health," Maze added. "Even then, given how energy-greedy that projection was, those who want another glimpse into the past are due to be severely disappointed."
"Think it was really true then?" I asked.
"That or you have a remarkable imagination," Zee said, wrinkling her nose. "Did you have any awareness of what was going on beyond the visual?"
I hadn’t, other than thinking it beautiful, but enjoyed hearing what First Squad thought about it. Maze and Zee have gone to bed and I’m sitting on the couch in the babysitter’s room, snugged between Lohn and Mara while I write this. My legs feel much better and I’m allowed to walk to the bathroom by myself and everything.
Saturday, June 21
Botany
Spent the afternoon talking to Islen Dola, one of the senior greysuits trying to categorise a whole world’s worth of plants. He took me (and Zan and Lenton) on a tour of the greenhouse (conservatory?), where they’re growing samples of plants – mainly things that they think might be edible, but also other potentially useful sorts of plants. Between Tare and Kolar and Channa (which is a very rocky planet) and Dyess (even more ocean than Tare, with a mass of tropical islands), the greysuits know an awful lot about different sorts of plants and environments, but only Earth is tilted like Muina and experiences the same sort of seasonal shift.
Muina is really an incredibly fertile and inviting planet. Even its oceans are freshwater, with a couple of saltier lakes, and only a few places desert-dry and lacking lush plant life. All the planets the Muinans fled to seem horribly harsh and hostile by comparison. Even with their overpopulation issues, the Tarens didn’t leap to try and repopulate Dyess, or take Channa from the people living there because they’re far from ideal.
Although Islen Dola was partly just showing the conservatory off to me, he also wanted to pick my brains. As well as identifying any plants which even vaguely resembled Earth plants and saying what little I could about them, anything I could think of about seasons and plants could be useful. I told him about how Mum puts tulip bulbs in the refrigerator so they’ll flower properly, and about certain seeds in Australia needing a bushfire to trigger their germination. He found Australian bushfires thoroughly distracting.
Zan levitated me about, which always makes me feel idiotic, but even though I can walk for short distances they prefer me not to stay on my feet for long periods.
Sunday, June 22
Decorative
I’ve been getting to know Twelfth Squad better. The main surprise is Lenton, who though I’ve seen him being super-temperamental and who obviously felt he should be Twelfth Squad’s captain instead of Zan, turns out to be a pretty okay guy. Full of suppressed energy, but he focuses it on training and doesn’t go around being pointlessly nasty or confrontational – except when he loses his temper, which I expect is exactly why he’s not captain.
They’re rotating through the morning and afternoon babysitting shift, and Zan had her whole squad come down for practice this afternoon, even Kiste, who can’t do much more than sit with me and watch. Kiste told me a little about the fight which landed Twelfth on medical leave, and I got a good vibe from him about how Twelfth is feeling about Zan now. There’s a kind of confidence squads seem to develop in their captains. Even though these are people who were all raised together, they’ve decided to trust Zan’s judgment, to accept her orders in bad situations. I could never be a captain. I’d loathe having to prove myself to people, and I’d stress out completely with the responsibility of making decisions for other people. Not to mention the whole not being able to fight my way out of a wet paper bag issue.
I’ve taken to wearing ordinary clothes instead of my uniform, but the temperature dropped enough outside today that I compromised and wore my uniform and my new jacket over the top. It’s a parchment-shade fake leather thing with black strips around the edges and I’ve been working on drawing a pattern of flowers similar to Celtic knot work but looser which I’d seen on the main doors to Kalasa. It took me ages to map it out right using pencils, and my big nikko pen was running dry toward the end of me inking just the main part in, but I think it looks pretty good. Maze says it’s a big improvement over pictures of experimental animals.
I was glad to realise today that I don’t really have two whole squads (or a squad and a half) devoted purely to babysitting me. In between watching me sleep, First and now Twelfth have been assisting the exploration teams out harvesting specimens, and even with preparing areas for construction. They’re really serious about this being the current capital of Muina. Pandora will eventually bracket the old town completely, although it’s a long way from that right now.
No near-future plans to expand down to the stream with the otters, I’m glad to say.
Monday, June 23
Sleet
Ista Temen took my bandages off this morning so my legs could air. The main difference is that nothing is oozing any more, but my skin is crinkled and seamed and the burned bits are silvery and feel extremely weird when I poke at them. Kiste, who was on morning shift with Dess Charn, said he’s going to have to stop complaining about his elbow. That’s exaggeration – his bones were crushed and before Twelfth came to Pandora he’d spent days having surgery on it and even with Taren nanotechnology it will be weeks before it’s close to useable and probably months before he’s fully recovered. I’m allowed to walk somewhat longer distances, and don’t feel quite so much of a cripple any more. Not that I’m happy to have amazingly ugly legs. The cosmetic work will take a couple of months, because they’re more interested in getting me healthy than making sure I look good in a dress.
Ista Temen has scaled back my pain meds all the way. She says she’ll give me something if I need help sleeping, but that if I want to walk about I need to know when I’ve pushed it too far. I also have these mild stretching exercises I have to do – moving my feet and lower legs about while sitting down.
My babysitter shifts always have at least one girl (Dess Charn this morning, Zan this afternoon, Alay and Ketzaren this evening) and at least one person with Combat Sight. Now that I’m not so sleepy half the day, I feel less tolerant of having two people in constant attendance, but they at least are willing to chat and to not be in Ena-mode. Not that Zan’s not incredibly proper still, just not at full alert.