Not long after the discovery of the first seed, the climate on Moon Delta starts to....change.
"Hey, wait up!" Charlene calls from a distance behind, panting, "You aliens are way too freakin' fast."
Tulip ignores Charlene and holds out her hand to catch a snowflake, admiring the winter clothes Blanca brought back from the "requisition centre". Whatever that is.
It's been...a long time....since she's seen snow. She's sure of it. But when...and where.... has she seen it before?
As hard as she tries, nothing comes to mind.
"You should tell Blanca to requisition you some running shoes," Tulip calls out snarkily.
"We don't have enough credits!" Charlene gasps, "The computer said so!"
"Did the computer also tell you to run like an old lady?"
Charlene's comical overreaction of stopping to stomp and whine at Tulip for being "mean" make the stupid joke worth it.
Blanca has her own mysteries to solve. The trashcan is knocked over almost every single night, and she will find out who's doing this.
It takes a few hours of waiting in the cold, but the villain reveals itself.
"A...a raccoon!?"
The offender knocks over the trashcan with a practiced hand as Blanca gapes at it, then sits and stares at her. Patiently. Scrutinising.
"How are you even here!? We live in a closed dome- a sealed biosphere!"
It hisses at her, tiring of this delay.
Blanca tells Tulip about the encounter, anxiety etched on her features.
"If the dome isn't sealed, we could all die," she frets, "There's no atmosphere beyond the dome."
Tulip frowns. "Well it can't be totally sealed, right? We had to arrive here somehow."
Blanca pauses, "Oh. Well. There is the Rocket and Shuttle Zone. It has a completely separate system above it to let in spacecraft. But it's way too early for it to be breaking down. Is someone sabotaging is? Did they really send us here to die?" Blanca's voice rises as worry takes over, "What if the dome cracks and it-,"
Tulip puts her hands on Blanca's shoulders. "Commander. Please. One step at a time," it feels wrong that she has to be doing this, as someone who can't even remember volunteering for this adventure to the alleged leader. "The raccoon. How could it get here?"
Blanca shakes her head. "The terraforming of this place does mean it can develop an ecosystem. Eventually. But we don't have any flora or fauna samples with us. I really don't see how it got here."
Tulip ponders this. "How about the people who built this place? Couldn't they have left some animals behind before they cleared out?"
Blanca taps her foot, the movement erratic and agitated. "That was centuries ago. The raccoons wouldn't have had anything to eat all this time. It just doesn't make sense."
Blanca sighs. "If the problem is at the Zone, then we need to fix it. If something's broken down...we need someone who can lift collapsed walls without hurting themselves, or tear open metal bulkheads without tools."
Tulip's hands ball into fists. "Am I getting voluntold?"
Blanca can only smile apologetically.
"Do we have enough credits to requistion an astronaut suit or something?"
The mysterious "requistion center" Blanca says synthesised their house and furniture is a few hours away on foot, leaving Tulip with some down time before they go over the plan to explore the Zone in detail.
She has a small garden now from the strange seeds that appear out of thin air. She can't remember why, but she seems well versed in the gardening basics. Weeding, pruning, watering, and making fertiliser feel familiar somehow. Tulip must have been a cop of many talents.
"Well, look at you little guy," Tulip murmurs with a smile.
The first harvest on Moon Delta.
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