The Reans once again transformed into humans as
they felt comfortable in that form than anything
else!Re saw Richard walking down and he caught up
with him, ‘Richard, are you going alone? I will come
with you’
Richard thought for a while and he knew it was
unnecessary! He had taken his big cleaver and gun
and he was not expecting any trouble from the plants.
‘Re, you carry on with your work! You need to think
about husbandry and setting up your lab to produce
cattle. Let us wait before we start out city project. I
am going just near the ocean to have a look’
Re was happy that he was not planning to move
further and left him. As Richard said they had to do
lot of things. Ro and Zo met him.
Re looked at them and realised that they are waiting
for him to speak!
He looked at Ro, ‘Ro, find a suitable place for
cultivation and it is our number one priority... We
need to feed Richard too and whatever we had
brought would not last for few months or so! The
gifts of the plants may come for few days and we are
not sure if we can get from them in regular basis! So
you take the volunteers for farming…’
Ro replied, ‘yes… many have volunteered for
farming so, I will take few with me to locate a
suitable area!’Re cautioned him,
‘Ro, it is better if you find some sandy area here in
this mountain range...remember this is only a
temporary place!’
Zo reminded him, ‘Re carry your link... These are
uncharted land and we don’t know what other
enemies are lurking! So be careful!’
Ro, ‘yes I will be going around the hill only... But in
case I need any assistance I will let you know’
He walked to the other Reans who were waiting for
them to come to a decision…
‘All the farm volunteers come forward’
When Re announced, to his amusement all of them
came forward.
Zo said, ‘if all of you go for farming who would
come to help me to set up a lab? I need few for
assisting in manufacturing automobiles, bio-lab for
producing farm animals, to set up a communication
centre and to take care of the base camp’
He added, ‘we are not going to dismantle any of our
groups that we had on Earth so let us have the same
folks doing the same things’
‘Ro call your farm hands’ Re sounded very firm...
Ro asked softly, could I change one member?’
The whole group laughed as they all knew the feud
between Ge and Ro…
Ge came forward, ‘Ro you may not... If you are
trying to change me then no way! I love farming and
I will be there. Re could we change the leader?’
Again all had a good laugh and Re said,
‘No one is given permission to change your work, so
go and work as usual,’
Ro, ‘Team, go and get your tools and march’ he
turned and left.
Ro had eight of them in his team including Ge, four
females and four male. They were ready with their
tools.
‘
Let us fly and survey the valley behind the hill… If
possible carry the tools if not we will plan something
else. Come let us go’
They transformed into birds and flew to the summit.
The valley was a narrow gorge between the hill and
the mountain range and not very deep.
They flew down to the gorge and to their delight
there was a small stream running longitudinally
parallel to the mountain and disappeared. Ro could
see the stream disappeared into a cave and most
probably falling into an underground duct that fed the
lake in the other side of the hill..,
The area between the stream and the hill was perfect
for cultivation. It was almost two or three sq km
spread.
Ro flew down and again changed into human forms
and the others also followed him. Ge had her hoe and
few others had pickaxe and spades.
Ge walked for some distance and dug. The soil was
fertile with the accumulated sediments of years. Ge
knew Earth never had such fertile soil as it has been
used for years whereas, in Proxima the virgin soil
was rich. She was quite excited as farming was her
passion and she had brought with her the best quality
seeds and tissue culture.
She turned to see others to digging here and there
randomly to check the quality of the soil!
She could see Ro walking up and down near the
banks of the stream and she walked up to him. Ro
saw her coming, ‘Ge, now what kind of a problem?’
Ge sounded very enthusiastic, ‘Ro, it is a fantastic
site for farming. The soil is rich and suitable for
cereals or banana and even for pulses. Now we have
to prepare the land for sowing…need the plumbers
here to bring water to the land from the stream…’
Ro gestured her to stop, ‘As usual you see what you
want to see! See the line of flood water on the hill
side... it almost reaches four feet high! So the first
thing to do is to raise the stream bank....’
Ge felt ashamed…she must have checked that first,
‘my work is to check the soil and cultivate plants.
You must see the farm is protected… So do
something’ and she walked off… Ro couldn’t help
but laugh at her…
He called others and asked them to start raising the
stream banks.
There were many fallen rocks of all sizes and he
asked them to carry and place it along the banks.
‘
Leave the bigger one ...we can ask Richard to move
the bigger one!’
One of the Reans, Bo said, ‘we have few machines
that we made and it would plough the land in no time
.
.. I hope we brought them’
Ro replied, ‘we brought everything, except the rock
house. Bo, check how the water can be brought to the
land…’
They started discussing about all the pending work
before starting the work. All of them worked hard to
remove all the fallen rocks and stacked the along the
stream bank.
Ro was puzzled that there were no living thing...
Nothing in the soil, or in the stream... He was
wondering how trees had evolved without other
smaller organisms and decided to check with the
flowering plants!
He heard a scream and ran to see towards the noise
and he saw Ge struggling on the ground. They
couldn’t see at first why she had fallen but when Ce
tried to lift her, they could see her leg was caught by
some roots like structures… Ce tried to pull her and
behind them the whole land erupted with root
rhizomes and they moved fast on land like a
caterpillar. Few ran and climbed on some big rocks
and others were caught by the roots. Ro used a
pickaxe to cut the roots that were pulling him down
and they fell down limp. He told them to use the tools
to cut them but only two of them could escape on to
the rock. Ro called for help in his link and Re came
to line immediately and he explained to him as best
as he could!
Re discussed with Zo and he wished Richard was
there with them. Zo ran to get the ploughing
machines and he was wondering how to take them
down.
The flowering plants that were listening to their
conversation from the slopes came up. They saw their
dilemma and tried to lift the machine. It was light
weight and they could easily carry in their branch.
One of the plants said, ‘you take as much as you can
and we will come with the rest…’
Re said, ‘It is ok ... we have some chemicals that
would kill them instantly but we need the machine to
bring them out… Come let us go!’
So Re and Zo carried the chemical tablets and few
others carried the machines and even the plants lifted
the machines and hopped as fast as they could. The
Reans flew to the summit and heard the combat
below in the gorge.
They came down in no time and started ploughing
the land and threw the tablets at the rhizomes and
they wilted immediately.
When the plants came down the combat was already
over and all the Reans were free. It was really
amazing to see these tiny beings dominating anything
and everything so effortlessly. No one would have
thought that the Reans would escape the clutches of
the underground rhizomes….
Ge was hurt and the life gel was oozing fast through
the wound on her legs where she was pulled hard by
the roots … Ro carried her and few more came to
help him. They transformed into bird form and lifted
her to the base camp….
*
*****