Deathworlders Should Not Be Allowed To Date! 27 (Patreon)

Luna VI query: Set the source to the leaked files of the first reconnaissance operation of Irisa.

Certainly!

Luna VI query: What was Nathan’s biggest achievement as a scientist?

***

Two days had passed since the group left their previous position, or rather, approximately two days. After his emotional truce with Amara along with some resting, Nathan slowly recovered his curiosity for studying Irisa. Which culminated in his current unawareness of the precise timing as he paced back and forth, constantly checking the progress of the three research sites.

One of them, an ecosystem of its own, was located amid the maze of branches and leaves several meters above him. On the previous day, Nathan had investigated this strange biome where no high-energy light from the blue star was capable of going through. It took him no more than a few drone probings to confirm the unusually high radiation levels above this forest, which was several times more intense than anything he had measured anywhere else.

From there, he had asked a few questions to the friendly-looking Irisians among Amara's guards, and—after some tedious talking about the conversion of radiation measuring units—he was able to extract the details of what allowed the living beings of this strange dark biome to not only survive but thrive.

He was fascinated by what he learned. It turned out that there was historical evidence that the Ebon Range had been named as such because of the widespread existence of such dark forests, which encircled the many valleys that sat among the gap of the huge mountains. This allowed the existence of patches of life even above the protective layer of the atmosphere that the Irisians called the Lifeline.

Those huge trees were the reason why this dark biome existed. Their endless layers of leaves—which regularly were burned by the radiation and promptly replaced by the new layer below—were the reason why such a strange biome thrived above the Lifeline.

Under normal circumstances and with normal enough people, this would have been a great finding, worth becoming to the focal point of all further research, taking priority over any other uncertain pursuit.

But this was Nathan that we were talking about.

So, instead of being happy with finding this little piece of the puzzle that was Irisa, he simply looked at all those bioluminescent lifeforms that instead of being rare took nearly every inch of space around and asked himself another question.

How were those shining lifeforms connected to the existence of the dark forests?

On the previous day, he had been tempted to just accept that it could be a simple case of evolution and adaptation and call it a day. Nothing made more sense than a shining lifeform adapting to a dark environment. Yet, upon examining closely the fascinating interplay between the now numerous bioluminescent lifeforms on the ground and its surroundings, Nathan began to suspect that he was still missing something big.

To begin with, by mapping its DNA, he had discovered that this bioluminescent lifeform—which was neither plant, animal, nor fungus—was very distantly related to any other lifeform he had studied so far. His calculations indicated that there were billions of years separating the last common ancestors of this bioluminescent species from the more typical plants and animals found on the surface of Irisa.

This finding was a humongous problem, given that it didn't fit the hypothesis he was previously working with—that Irisa's complex life had only developed after the planet had been ejected from its original star and then it was captured by the strong gravity of this short-lived giant blue star.

This divergence could only mean one thing—that either his equipment, calculations, or methodology were wrong, or that the previous assumption that Irisa's complex life was quite new was false.

This single puzzle was the reason why Nathan found a reasonable motive to empty the contents of his backpack on the ground and set up three research sites, one close to the other. He had done that on the previous day, and, the last time he checked, fifteen hours had already passed.

Which was bad considering that several more hours had passed since then.

Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to speed things up. Despite it being possible to accelerate the work on his mobile research station if he gave it his full attention, there was very little he could do the improve the speed of the second research site, a point of interest high above the ground in the canopies where his drones were constantly coming and going to collect data.

As for the third research site, a deep hole he was digging in the ground, it was even worse. Much worse.

The reason for that was a simple fact that hadn't changed much during the past millennium, digging the ground always took its sweet time to complete. While the heavy drill bits and the prone-to-failure motors and gears had been completely replaced by large groups of very small machines, the process of digging remained fundamentally unchanged—it relied on breaking the surface into small pieces and removing them from the hole.

Nathan sighed at the ever-growing pile of dirt slowly piling up to the side of the artificial entrance to the depths of the planet, or rather, to the depths of the mountain. This was how deep his equipment was able to dig with the constraints of his weak power supply and the limited number of individual digging units he had.

It was fascinating that it even could move a pile of excavated material that was as tall as himself, creating a hole that was just a few centimeters in diameter but three hundred meters deep in less than a day. Well, Nathan believed that less than a day had passed at least.

But his expectations to complete each little experiment using the endless supply of samples available was so high that it had crossed a certain threshold. It had reached the point that even sparing the single thought required to trigger a pop-up window with the current time would be too much to ask of him.

The current focal point of his attention was a group of digging units that were about the return from the deepest end of the hole. His excitement for this particular set of extracted material was due to its nature—a fleshly extracted and uncontaminated sample of a seemingly dense and strong layer of Irisa's crust.

Still, as Nathan watched the progress of the digging units on their way to the surface, a sudden touch on his shoulder sent a shiver down his spine. His head turned abruptly and his hand closed into a fist. "What the-"

"It's me." Yelara’s tail was what had touched his shoulder. "Amara had reassured me that you humans don't get scared easily, but it seems she was wrong."

She had taken a step back at his reaction, but there was no purple in her skin.

"It's just... I was distracted." He was ashamed of how much he had lost touch with reality. "What's this you are holding?" Without realizing he was doing it, he stirred the conversation away from his careless focus.

"Amara asked me to bring you this." Yelara was holding a tray containing many slices of what looked like fruits. And there was more. On the right corner of the tray, there was something incredibly similar to meet jerky, but it looked like it had been seasoned with a blue-colored powder.

At the sight of the neatly organized selection of exotic treats, Nathan realized he was truly hungry, his belly immediately joining the anticipation and growling. "Wow! So much food! Is this all for me?"

"Who else do you think Amara would waste her time preparing this for?" Yelara pulled the tray toward him, offering for him to take it.

"Did she prepare it?" He accepted the food.

"She asked me to do it initially, but she didn't like how I sliced the fruits, so she redid it herself. Then, she wasn't satisfied with her own attempt and did it again a third time." Yelara leaned to inspect the slices, before whispering. "Between us, not much has changed."

"I... don't think you should be telling me that." Nathan's attention was split between Yelara and his attempt to find somewhere to sit; somehow the thought of consuming Amara's carefully prepared treat by the side of a pile of dirt irked him.

Yelara, noticing he was looking around, waited a bit. When Nathan finally found a close rock to sit on and began to walk toward it, she followed him and spoke on as they moved. "It's my duty as your friend to tell you such things."

It took him less than twenty steps to arrive, and Nathan inspected his surroundings carefully before sitting down, but before he could even get comfortable she added, "And besides, this is fair since I'm also telling your secrets to her."

Nathan raised an eyebrow as he inspected the faint yellow on her skin, "I don't remember telling you any secret."

"It might not look like it because of how things went down between me and Ryo, but without the queen interfering with my actions, I'm quite good at reading your species." Yelara pointed at his face with her tail. "The expression you made now is one of doubt and confusion, you didn't believe my words. See?"

Nathan's jaw dropped; he hadn't realized his doubt was showing. "Okay, I believe you now. But what have you told Amara about me?"

"That's between me and her. I refuse to tell you everything." Yelara’s skin was full of yellow, which led him to believe she was not being too serious.

Still, the irony of her selective secret-telling didn't escape his notice. He was about to point it out when a pop-up window alerted him that the digging units had finally arrived at the surface with his samples.

He forgot about Yelara for a second and considered what to do. No matter how excited he was about running experiments on the rock samples, abandoning Yelara and the food to continue his work now would be very rude. More than that, he wanted to take a break to try something Amara made for him.

Yet, rather than choosing between eating or working, he used the brain IO interface to instruct the drones, causing them to halt their current activities and switch to transporting the rock samples from the entrance of the hole to his mobile research station, where he had prepared a set of tests to run on them.

Yelara—who witnessed the swarm of drones descending from above to work on such a complex task—exhibited some light purple and dropped the previous topic. "The way you control all those machines at once is scary. I can't begin to comprehend how it's possible to command so many of them at once."

Nathan noticed that most Irisians keep their curiosity to themselves about what they couldn't understand, even avoiding it from showing through their colors. But now he and Yelara were friends, she was less afraid of sharing what was on her mind.

"It's easier than you think." His full attention was back on her. "Just an abstract command like 'take this thing and put it there' is usually enough. The IA figures out by itself the best way to perform the action I want."

"Amara was right then." She commented absentmindedly but immediately clarified. "We talked a lot about your work, she seemed certain that it was easy for you to do all those things. I said you looked tired and she had the idea of bringing you some food."

"I-" Nathan didn't have a chance to explain more about the tech.

"She is giving you all the time you asked." Yelara was not like Amara, whose conversations would get very intense very fast, but today she seemed a little more decisive than what he remembered of her. "But, with how much work you've been doing, did you even have time to think about her?"

It seemed Amara had told Yelara about their last conversation. Had Yelara and Amara's friendship improved over the past three days? Now that Nathan thought about it, Yelara hadn't said 'Princess Amara' even once during their conversation. Could it be that...

"Did you tell Amara about us being friends now?" It had been a while since he had a chance to talk with those two at the same time

"I noticed that Amara was in a strangely good mood after her exchange with Zaenvalor." She looked him in the eyes. "I took the opportunity to confess everything. As I predicted, she got angry that I hadn't disclosed it to her sooner. But then she told me something interesting. Did you let her press her claws against your neck?"

"It's not such a big deal," Nathan remembered what happened that day. "I knew she wouldn't hurt me."

"Oh." Yelara’s skin turned light purple again. "You are aware that letting another put their close anywhere close to your neck is... an important event in relationships for our species, right?"

He scratched his chin. "Hum... no?"

"That's bad! Amara might have read the mood wrong then, and she is happy for nothing." Yelara panicked, and he could see a hint of red in her. "What did you think she meant when she touched your neck with her claw?"

"Well," Nathan said the first thing on his mind. "I thought she meant to give me something like a hickey."

"A word you said didn't translate. Ah, there's the description." Nathan realized he screwed up when he saw some unusual combinations of colors on her skin. "Oh..." The more she read the more intense her colors turned. "Whoa! Amara thought she got a proof of trust, but this makes it even better. She has to know this!"

Seeing that Yelara was about to leave, he said. "Wait a minute, I haven't even tried the food yet. Don't you want to share it while we chat more?"

He wanted to dissuade her from sharing this with Amara, he hadn't even figured out what to do with his feelings after all.

She didn't listen, however.

"Amara prepared that for you, not me." She said while leaving. "If you like it, you should let her know it. And please don’t take too long. I don't know what you humans think, but after how much she revealed about herself, she deserves to know what's in your mind."

She was gone before he was able to ask anything more, leaving him with a lot to eat and a lot to think of. Yelara was not wrong that after his last conversation with Amara, he had drowned himself in work, getting too comfortable with all the space Amara was giving him and even abusing a bit of how partial toward him she was.

The reason why the whole group had stopped in this place to 'rest' was because he had asked Amara for a few hours to do his research. This had been yesterday, and today Nathan was sure she had extended their stay again just so that he could finish what he was doing.

Just thinking about it made him appreciate more the numerous new flavors as he started eating, and playfully smirked to himself at how evenly Amara had cut those slices. He couldn't help but feel guilty about how spoiled he was being by Amara while he had done barely anything for her sake.

At this point, whether he liked her or not was not even a question worthy of being asked.

The true conundrum was whether he would bury those feelings before they could flourish or do something so very stupid that it could end up ruining more than just the mission.

Unfortunately for Amara, however, before her gift had given him enough time to ponder over the tough choices ahead of him, a pop-up window appeared, alerting him that some of his experiments had concluded.

Unconsciously, he took a peek at the report, only to lose himself in the details until he had read it from start to finish.

The samples from deep into the ground were strong evidence that Irisa was an old planet. A planet that had a lot of radioactive elements in its soil and a very hot interior, likely due to the continued decay of all those heavy atoms.

This information by itself meant very little to Nathan, just another scattered piece that carried a clue to a bigger whole. But that was not the only experiment that he had done.

All the drones probing from the canopies and above had not found a single lifeform capable of flying. This further confirmed Nathan's observations from all his days on Irisa—a planet that lacked any naturally evolving flying species it seemed.

The presence of radioactive elements in the soil and the lack of birds might seem like something impossible to correlate, but Nathan's hands began to shake as he did just that, his imagination entertaining a scary and bold hypothesis—one that would turn the heads of the scientific community upside down if it was proven true.

Still, this hypothesis was too foggy in his mind. He needed it to have more substance before any serious researcher would take him seriously.

Luckily though, he had everything he needed to make it more solid at his disposal.

With a quick series of mental commands, Nathan used the AI to create a projection of how old Irsia was based on the evolutionary paths of all living beings he had studied so far, including the elusive shining lifeform that seemed older than anything else. He plugged in some conservative numbers, but the result was staggering.

According to this extrapolation, Irisa had to be at least five billion Earth years old.

But this was not enough. So Nathan used the sample of the soil to calculate how old Irisa was based on the decay of the radioactive elements trapped in the minerals, the result was similar.

About five billion Earth years old.

The matching results fueled his curiosity, and the confirmation that he was on to something turned it into an obsession, which inspired him to run the most important projection so far—the estimated age of the most recent common ancestor of all plants he had studied from the beginning of the mission.

The estimated age of the projection this time was much smaller, just eight million years.

Nathan's eyes widened as he stood up and dropped the now empty tray from his lap; he had eaten all the exotic food without even realizing it. This number, eight million years, was exactly was he needed to prove his hypothesis.

The veil of fog had lifted from his mind and only certainty remained, as a clear picture of Irisa's ancient past took form in his imagination.

It all starts with a young planet, full of potential to host life, being ejected from its original star into the darkness of the void. Due to a cosmic mishap, all hope for a thriving future was lost, and only darkness awaited its glacial fate, away from the warmth of its mother star.

And yet it refused to succumb to its doom and life still found a way to emerge from the depths of its frozen oceans, fueled by the heat provided by the heavy elements splitting while shielded against the void by a layer of ice.

Billions of years passed and slowly its lifeforms grew in size and complexity. They did it as they competed in this fierce environment with limited space and ever-diminishing warmth.

Irisa's fate would been sealed to a slow death if this persisted for much longer, and its lifeforms would go without ever achieving sapience, condemned to an ice confirm where there was no path of escape to the solid land above.

But against all odds, the rogue planet was captured by a giant blue star in a favorable orbit. The ice layer had melted, and the path to the surface had been unlocked through a cataclysmic event that killed nearly every single life form it ever had.

This event, however, had been both a curse and a blessing. The few lifeforms that survived now had a lot of energy at their disposal, which coupled with the unforgiving radiation from the star, was more than just an incentive to adapt to the new environment and conquer the land fast.

This was when diversity exploded and the race to sapience began, culminating in the origin of the Irisians millions of years later.

This was also the reason why there were no birds or flying beings on the planet. Life on the land was just too young. On a planetary scale, it had merely recently left the water, and it would need more time for it to conquer the sky.

The shining lifeform that had triggered Nathan's interest in beginning his research must have been an old species that had only recently found a suitable environment for it to live on land. And that only happened after the other species had already conquered the planet and created a biome it could survive on.

When Nathan left his inner world after this powerful moment of epiphany, he found himself on his knees, holding some soil with both hands straight from the huge pile his digging units had excavated.

Somewhere inside, he knew this very moment would be the highlight of his life as a scientist.

He had just single-handedly solved the puzzle of Irisa and now only one question persisted.

Were the Irisians already aware of this or not?

***

This was an account based on Nathan’s biggest achievement as a scientist. The previous narrative is based on the events of the nineteenth day of the exploratory mission of Irisa. According to your current settings, no queries will be suggested.