Chapter 6: Chapter 6

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….

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